Ugandan opposition leader charged with treason over protests

May 14, 2016

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's main opposition leader has been charged with treason and jailed in a remote area in the country's northeast, a judiciary spokesman said Saturday. Kizza Besigye was handed charges late Friday stemming from his public attacks on the legitimacy of President Yoweri Museveni, who won a disputed election in February, said Solomon Muyita.

Besigye, a qualified physician, was Museveni's personal doctor during the guerrilla war that launched Museveni into power in 1986. He held various government positions and rose to become a colonel in the army, but then broke ranks with Museveni in 1999.

Besigye ran for president in 2001, promising a more democratic government, and has challenged Museveni in elections since then. He claims he won the February vote and has repeatedly urged his supporters to wage a defiance campaign against the authorities.

There is a video online purportedly showing Besigye being sworn in as Uganda's president. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the video, but Besigye's party, the Forum for Democratic Change, reported on Twitter that Besigye had been sworn in on the eve of Museveni's inauguration for a fifth term.

Muyita cited the alleged inauguration of Besigye as one of the reasons for the treason charge, which carries a maximum penalty of death on conviction. Besigye was charged in the district of Moroto, where he had been flown after being arrested on Wednesday in the capital Kampala.

His lawyer didn't answer calls seeking a comment Saturday.

U.N. hails Liberian elections

Oct. 12, 2011

MONROVIA, Liberia, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Liberian people deserved praise for heading to the polls "in a calm and peaceful manner."

Liberians voted in presidential and parliamentary elections Tuesday. It was the second vote since the country's lengthy civil war and first election overseen independently by Liberian election officials.

Lines to vote were reportedly long and the vote went off with few reports of violence.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message issued through his office, "commends the people of Liberia for exercising their right to vote in a calm and peaceful manner." The election, he added, "is an important milestone in the efforts to consolidate peace and democracy in the country."

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the co-recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, praised Liberians for their ability to demonstrate political maturity in their second post-civil war vote.

Observers note that in Liberia concerns about food trump any prestige Sirleaf may have gained from the Nobel Prize.

She squared off against former diplomat Winston Tubman, who shared the ticket with former soccer start George Weah, who lost to Sirleaf in 2005 elections.

There are roughly 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed across Liberia to secure the peace. Nearly 150,000 people died and another 850,000 fled to neighboring countries during the decade-long civil war in Liberia.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/10/12/UN-hails-Liberian-elections/UPI-34161318427543/.

More oil than thought in Kenya

By Daniel J. Graeber
May 10, 2016

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10 (UPI) -- A Canadian oil company with a focus on Africa said an independent survey of its holdings in Kenya led it to increase its reserve estimate by 24 percent.

Africa Oil Corp., which has its headquarters in Vancouver, said an independent review of its reserves in the South Lokichar basin in Kenya found an estimated gross of 766 million barrels of oil. That's a 24 percent increase from the previous estimate.

President and CEO Keith Hill said the results led him to believe the basins in the north of Kenya could hold as much as 1.6 billion barrels of oil.

"The level of these resources gives us confidence that we will exceed the threshold required for development and we continue to push forward for development sanction during 2017," he said in a statement.

In a deal with Africa Oil Corp., Danish company Maersk Oil last year agreed to cover upfront the costs of exploring frontier areas of northern Kenya and Ethiopia. The Canadian company has also teamed up with Tullow Oil in the discovery of more than 600 million barrels of oil in the region.

Last year, Tullow, which has headquarters in London, said it didn't find any hydrocarbons worth exploring further at a frontier, or wildcat, well in northern Kenya. In March, however, the company said it made its most significant find yet in the Kerio Valley basin in northern Kenya.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2016/05/10/More-oil-than-thought-in-Kenya/3411462880209/.

5 Boko Haram leaders arrested; dozens of captives freed

May 14, 2016

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The multinational forces fighting the Islamic extremists of Boko Haram have arrested five of the group's leaders and freed dozens of captive women and children, Cameroon's government announced Saturday.

The raids targeting Boko Haram bases in the northern Madawaya forest earlier this month freed 28 children and at least 18 women, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma said. Boko Haram had set up camp in the forest after fleeing another military operation in neighboring Nigeria and had been training captive young girls and women as suicide bombers, he said.

The news came as French President Francois Hollande joined several West African leaders at a summit in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, where they discussed progress in the fight against Boko Haram and how to resolve the humanitarian crisis it has created. The extremist group has forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes, some across borders.

"We have to make sure they can get back to their homes," Hollande said after meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari before the summit, noting the need for "the right development policies." Marginalization and corruption has allowed the Islamic extremists to flourish in northeast Nigeria.

Both leaders stressed the success of a multinational force of Nigeria and its neighbors — helped by training, intelligence and information-sharing by France, Britain and the United States — that has recaptured territory where Boko Haram had declared an Islamic caliphate. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was at the summit along with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Now our main problem is the rehabilitation of infrastructure destroyed — educational, health, bridges blown, etc," Buhari said. But many refugees say they will not return home until it is safe and there are doubts Nigeria's military can secure the vast rural areas where Boko Haram now roams. The extremists have turned to using suicide bombers, often women and girls, to hit soft targets like mosques and marketplaces.

The nearly 7-year insurgency, which has spread beyond Nigeria's borders, has killed at least 20,000 people, according to Amnesty International.

Hard-talking mayor favored to be next Philippine president

May 09, 2016

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Millions of Filipinos lined up Monday in blazing heat to vote for a president that opinion polls show will likely be a foul-mouthed mayor who gained huge popularity with his pledges to kill criminals and end corruption within six months.

Weary of poverty, corruption and insurgencies in the hinterlands, voters are looking for a radical change at the top, and hope the man to lead it is Rodrigo Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor of the southern Davao city.

An ex-prosecutor, Duterte has peppered his campaign speeches with boasts about his Viagra-fueled sexual prowess and jokes about rape. But Duterte has successfully tapped into discontent and voters appear willing to overlook his foul language.

"All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you," Duterte told a huge cheering crowd Saturday in his final campaign rally in Manila. "I have no patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots."

The brash Duterte, who has been compared to U.S. Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, has threatened to close down Congress and form a revolutionary government if legislators stonewall his government.

This has alarmed the political establishment, which fears that Duterte will squander the hard-won economic progress under outgoing President Benigno Aquino III. Aquino has called Duterte a threat to democracy, and likened him to Adolf Hitler.

Besides Duterte, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, backed by Aquino, and three other candidates are vying to lead one of Asia's liveliest democracies. More than 45,000 candidates are contesting 18,000 national, congressional and local positions in elections that have traditionally been tainted by violence and accusations of cheating, especially in far-flung rural areas. The results are not expected for at least 24 hours, perhaps longer.

At least 15 people have been killed in elections-related violence and more than 4,000 arrested for violating a gun ban, according to police. "Let us show the world that despite our deep passion and support for our candidates, we can hold elections that are peaceful and orderly and reflect the spirit of democracy," said Aquino, who cast his ballot after standing in line for more than an hour with other voters in a Manila constituency.

Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista said no major glitches were expected in the voting despite the massive logistical challenges. About 55 million Filipinos have registered to vote in 36,000 voting centers across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, including in a small fishing village in a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea.

In final campaigning Saturday, Aquino warned voters that Duterte could be a dictator in the making and urged them not to support him. He cited the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as an example of how a despotic leader can gain power and hold on to it without public resistance.

Filipinos have been hypersensitive to potential threats to democracy since they rose in a 1986 "people power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who faced allegations of plundering the poor country and condoning widespread human rights violations by state forces. In 2001, a similar uprising forced Joseph Estrada from the presidency over alleged large-scale corruption.

On the campaign trail, Duterte offered radical promises, including his bold anti-crime pledge and a plan to sail to China's new artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea and plant the Philippine flag there. The other candidates stuck to less audacious reforms.

Duterte's opponents — Roxas, Sen. Grace Poe, Vice President Jejomar Binay and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago — have all criticized him for remarks that threaten the rule of law and the Philippines' hard-won democracy.

"Duterte is completely out of the system, he's out of the box," said political science Prof. Richard Heydarian of De La Salle University in Manila, adding that in the mayor's portrayal of social problems, "there is a gap between the rhetoric and reality but it's working, it's creating panic among a lot of people and rallying them behind Duterte."

Duterte built a political name with his iron-fist approach to fighting crime in Davao city, where he has served as mayor for 22 years. During the campaigning he joked about wanting to be the one to first rape an Australian missionary who was sexually abused and killed by inmates in a 1989 prison riot.

Despite his devil-may-care way with expletives, obscene remarks and allegations of corruption hurled against him, Duterte has led in election polls by more than 10 percentage points over Roxas and Poe. While it may be difficult for rivals to catch up, analysts say the race remains too close to call.

Aquino had a mixed record during his six-year term that ends in June. He presided over an accelerating economy, which had recorded one of the highest growth rates in Asia at an average of 6.2 percent between 2010 and 2015. He also introduced new taxes, more accountability and reforms, including in the judiciary, and cracked down on tax evaders.

But more than a quarter of the country's 100 million people remain mired in poverty, inequality is rampant and an immediate solution to decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies in the south remains elusive.

Annual debt payments, some dating back to the Marcos years, and limited funds stymie infrastructure improvements and public services, including law enforcement, fueling frequent complaints.

NASA, Space Station partners announce future mission crew members

Houston TX (SPX)
May 10, 2016

NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the crew members for missions to the orbiting laboratory in 2017. The selection includes first-time space flyer NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and veteran Randy Bresnik.

"There's so much going on aboard the space station at this point, so many science experiments and technology demonstrations," said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Scott and Randy have their work cut out for them, but I have no doubt they'll do excellent jobs."

Tingle is a member of NASA's 2009 astronaut class and will fly with cosmonauts Ivan Vagner, who is also a first-time flier, and veteran Alexander Skvortsov, both of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. They will launch in September 2017. The three will join the station's Expedition 53 crew of NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Roscosmos cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Tingle, a captain in the U.S. Navy, was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, but considers Randolph, Massachusetts, his home. He was commissioned as a naval officer in 1991 and earned the gold wings of a naval aviator in 1993. He has accumulated more than 4,000 hours in 48 types of aircraft, 700 carrier landings and 54 combat missions.

Tingle earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Southern Massachusetts University in Dartmouth in 1987, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering, with a specialty in fluid mechanics and propulsion, from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1988. He also is a 1998 graduate of the Navy Test Pilot School.

Bresnik's mission will begin in November 2017, when he and his crewmates Sergey Ryazansky of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will join Tingle, Skvortsov and Vagner on the station for Expedition 54.

Bresnik, who considers Santa Monica, California, to be his hometown, is a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. Bresnik received his commission in May 1989 and was designated a Marine Corps aviator in 1992. He flew the F/A-18 Hornet in support of Operation Southern Watch and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has accumulated more than 6,000 hours in 81 types of aircraft.

Bresnik was selected as an astronaut in May 2004. His first spaceflight was in November 2009 aboard space shuttle Atlantis for STS-129, which lasted 11 days. The flight was the 31st shuttle flight to the space station, during which Bresnik conducted two spacewalks totaling 11 hours and 50 minutes.

Bresnik graduated from The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and earned a master's degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2002. He is also a 2008 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College.

The crew comprising Expedition 53 will be:
+ Jack Fischer, NASA
+ Paolo Nespoli, ESA
+ Fyodor Yurchikin, Roscosmos
+ Scott Tingle, NASA
+ Alexander Skvortsov, Roscosmos
+ Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos

The crew comprising Expedition 54 will be:
+ Scott Tingle, NASA
+ Alexander Skvortsov, Roscosmos
+ Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos
+ Randy Bresnik, NASA
+ Sergey Ryazansky, Roscosmos
+ Norishige Kanai, JAXA

The space station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth.

It has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and, since then, has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next giant leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Space_Station_partners_announce_future_mission_crew_members_999.html.

On Victory Day, Putin calls for non-bloc security

May 09, 2016

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the annual elaborate Victory Day military parade in Red Square, says Russia wants to help build an international security system that transcends military blocs.

Putin's short speech on Monday also warned against "unacceptable double standards that shortsightedly indulge those who are nurturing new criminal plans." He made no specific accusations but both the accusation of double standards and the call for a "non-bloc system of international security" echo Russia's frequent criticism of the West and the NATO alliance.

The hour-long parade, in which military equipment including the advanced Armata tank and the Yars ICBM launcher lumbered across the square, concluded with a flyover by dozens of military aircraft from helicopters to long-range bombers.