When I enter the cafe that serves as a makeshift command central for the revolutionaries of Taksim Square and Gezi Park, Esra Arslan is asleep on a sofa. In fact, the whole room is full of sleeping protesters who’ve done the night shift.

Arslan has been doing the nightshift as a TV producer. Yes, the Turkish revolutionaries have their own TV station. “We saw that the mainstream media was doing a poor job bringing news from here”, explains Arslan, a 20-something who has been in the camp since Day 2. “Facebook and Twitter weren’t enough either, because rumors spread so easily. We realized that we needed a TV channel that could present the facts.” On the day the protests erupted, a large Turkish TV channel opted instead to send a documentary about penguins.

Four days later, they had an internet TV channel, Capul TV, running. One of its symbols: a penguin. Six people aged 24-30 volunteer as producers, two as presenters. It’s a rudimentary set-up indeed: the team’s only professional equipment is the TV camera. When the police attacks, they can easily pack it up, along with their computer. “But a couple of days ago, when they threw gas bombs in here, we just put on gas masks and kept broadcasting”, Arslan reports.

The channel has, in fact, become the go-to source for professional broadcasters, too. On busy days it beams news from Gezi Park and Taksim Square around the clock; on other days only 15-16 hours. Even then, it’s much more than professional channels produce. “Everyone who wants to know what’s going on in the park is watching us” says Arslan. “We’ve interviewed lots of parliamentarians and celebrities. One day, the Mayor of Istanbul tweeted that there would be no attack on the park, and the very same moment the police came. We broadcast that, too.” Her producer colleague Kemal Okur, who keeps track of viewer statistics, tells me that to date over 700,000 unique visitors have watched the Gezi channel.

When I visit, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has issued a “final warning” to the protesters to vacate the park, while at the same time offering to put the future of the park to the voters in a referendum. “But there’s an ultimatum from the government every day”, notes Arslan. “Of course we worry about it, but this is a resistance for freedom.” Shortly thereafter, riot police cleared out the camp and protesters moved to occupy nearby streets. “We started broadcasting the clashes at 3am [on Sunday], Arslan tells me as a reach her. “And now we’ve moved to a different location and will resume broadcasting again.”

The post Metro exclusive report from Turkey: Taksim TV, revolutionary-style appeared first on Metro.us.

To say Margaret Thatcher was a divisive figure is perhaps the understatement of the year.

She transformed the fortunes and global standing of my native U.K. But the social damage caused, in some parts of the country, by her policies remains to this day.

In the late 1970s, when she became prime minister, Britain was sick. Unions dictated policy to government.

The pre-Thatcher government had to limit the working week to three days because of power cuts caused by nationwide strikes. Many of my teenage years were spent in darkness as electricity was cut off with Third World frequency.

We had a choice of two TV stations; if you wanted a telephone installed, you had to wait for weeks before the nationalized service would respond.

Britain had to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

Then Maggie arrived.

A bonfire of regulation ensued and, amid much violence, she smashed the unions. The economy boomed, we became a nation of shareholders and property owners.

We got national pride back when we kicked the Argentinians out of the Falkland Islands and for the first time in decades the world listened to Britain.

She terrified and inspired fellow heads of government in equal measure. Europe was no match for her. Ronald Reagan found a soulmate in her. Thanks to Maggie, Britain was back.

But there was a dark side. Heavy industries — nationalized and subsidized — were closed by the Thatcher government with ruthless determination.

The resulting unemployment was a national tragedy. Those working class areas suffer to this day.

Generational unemployment has resulted. Crime, drug use and poor standards of aspiration and education followed.

Britain needed Thatcher’s surgery, but the cure was almost as bad as the disease.

What is indisputable is that few modern politicians, anywhere in the world, will ever match her legacy. She was a woman of strength and conviction, for good or ill; and the gray men and women of today’s politics are pygmies by comparison.

The post Opinion: Margaret Thatcher reinvented Britain appeared first on Metro.us.

General Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan, a leading American ally in the war on terror, from 2001-2008. He then voluntarily resigned before what many observers saw as politically motivated impeachment proceedings could be started against him, and went into self-imposed exile. But he has now declared his intention to return to Pakistan on March 24 to contest forthcoming presidential elections.

He has been warned that if he returns to Pakistan he faces arrest warrants for allegedly failing to provide adequate security which led to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

But the General has told supporters of his All Pakistan Muslim League political party that he would improve Pakistan’s economy and strengthen foreign investment in the country.

Here, in this exclusive interview, he speaks to Metro as he finalizes preparations to return to his homeland.

What is ailing Pakistan at this time?
Terrorism, especially sectarian terrorism. Law and order has failed especially in places like Balochistan and Karachi. The economy has broken down and there is not enough economic stability and jobs. That is the backbone of a stable country and it has broken down. Also, tensions with India remain.

What do you want to accomplish by your return, and why go now?
Pakistan is a very large country and an important regional player. When I was president I wanted to achieve for Pakistan internal security and stability, regional peace, international acceptability and an improvement and amelioration within the Muslim world.
Internal stability would allow us to examine the welfare and well-being of the population. Why go back now? The elections are to be held in the next few months according the constitution and it is now or never for me. If I am not there to stand for election it will be another five years until I have a chance do so.

What are your chances of success?
If you listen to the commentators they will tell you that my party does not have the internal structure to fight an election. It is simply not true. We are established with organizations across the country and some major political players are just waiting for my return to offer their support. There are a number of people and organizations that I call floaters in Pakistan, and my return will bring hope to them and the chance to work together. Only I can do this. Many people are clamoring for me to return. I would say I have a 50/50 chance of success.

Why are you taking this risk, which must also be physical?
After 9/11 I was resigned to personal risk on a daily basis. It was something that became part of my routine. Because I am ex-president of Pakistan, the authorities must provide me with some security when I return — but of course I also have my own arrangements. I have faith that life and death is out of my hands and I have a duty to return to my country to deal with its problems.
There are legal charges against you in Pakistan, a residue of your presidency. How will you deal with this obstacle?
I will simply appeal to the judicial process. One has to have faith in the courts even though there is a history of judicial activism. I am 100 percent confident that these false, trumped-up and politically motivated charges against me will be thrown out.

With significant U.S. troop withdrawals scheduled, how do you see the strategic situation in Afghanistan playing out over the next, say, three years?
If the U.S. and coalition forces leave lock stock and barrel then after 2014 I can see one of several things happening: a return to how Afghanistan was from 1986-1997, which was vicious tribal warfare — the various ethnic groups fighting each other — or the return of the Pushtun Taliban versus the Northern Alliance of minorities in Afghanistan.
If, however, the U.S. leaves some forces, with air and special forces support which is made available to the Afghan National Army, I can foresee a situation remaining as it is now — not a win and not a loss with the Taliban held at bay.
Otherwise I can see a proxy war being fought in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. India is active in Afghanistan trying to create an active anti-Pakistan country. Pakistan is logically doing all it can to stop this.

With both U.S. and Israeli military strikes possible, Iran and its nuclear program have been frequently in the news. Pakistan shares a border with Iran. Why should Pakistan be allowed to keep the nuclear weapons it possesses, when Iran, its neighbor, should not?
You cannot compare the two. Pakistan developed nonconventional weapons as a deterrent, as purely a defensive measure. Pakistan faces an existential threat: India. We have fought three wars with India since independence in 1947.
We are the two giants in the region, and it is important that war between us should become unthinkable — which is why we justify our nuclear capability.
Iran has no such similar reason for having nuclear weapons. There is no similar existential threat to Iran as there is to Pakistan, so they cannot want a nuclear program for defensive reasons.

What are the causes of the deterioration in relations between Pakistan and the United States? What could you do to improve them?
I had good relations with George W. Bush to the extent that I could call him up at any time to discuss problems or make suggestions. I believe that trust has been lost somewhat. Pakistan and the U.S. need to restore that level of honesty and trust as Pakistan is such an influence in the region. There needs to be open dialogue, and we need to be honest and transparent with each other once again.

Previously, you were Pakistan’s chief executive. What would you do differently?
The question presumes that there are many things I would do differently. Not necessarily. When I was president, the internal security situation was far more stable than it is now. The economy was growing and there was jobs for the people. Prices were stable and we had consistent gas and electricity supplies and prices. We were able to focus on the welfare of the people, internally. So far as our relationships with India are concerned, I would seek to restart the process of rapprochement I had begun when I was president. We could have signed treaties on two of the major issues that divided us and were working towards a solution in Kashmir, but these opportunities arise, but do not always stay. If they are missed they can be gone. I would try again with India. We are the two biggest countries in the region. We could deliver a huge boost to regional security, stability and economy if we could settle our differences and that is what I would try to do.

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Cyprus was working on a last-minute proposal to soften the impact on smaller savers of a bank deposit levy after a parliamentary vote on the measure central to a bailout was postponed until Monday, a source said.

In a radical departure from previous aid packages, euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus savers to forfeit a portion of their deposits in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for the island, which has been financially crippled by its exposure to neighboring Greece.

The decision, announced on Saturday morning, stunned Cypriots and caused a run on cashpoints, most of which were depleted within hours. Electronic transfers were stopped.

The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for those exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that.

The Cypriot government was on Sunday discussing with lenders the possibility of changing the levy to 3.0 percent for deposits below 100,000 euros, and to 12.5 percent for above that sum, a source close to the consultations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The move to take a percentage of deposits, which could raise almost 6 billion euros, must be ratified by parliament, where no party has a majority. If it fails to do so, President Nicos Anastasiades has warned, Cyprus’s two largest banks will collapse.

One bank, the Cyprus Popular Bank, could have its emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) funding from the European Central Bank cut by March 21.

A default in Cyprus could unravel investor confidence in the euro zone, undoing the improvements fostered by the European Central Bank’s promise last year to do whatever it takes to shore up the currency bloc.

A meeting of parliament scheduled for 1400 GMT on Sunday was postponed for a day to give more time for consultations and broker a deal, political sources said. The levy was scheduled to come into force on Tuesday, after a bank holiday on Monday.

BREAKS A TABOO

Making bank depositors bear some of the costs of a bailout had been taboo in Europe, but euro zone officials said it was the only way to salvage Cyprus’s financial sector, which is around eight times the size of the economy.

European officials said it would not set a precedent.

In Spain, one of four other states getting euro zone help and seen as a possible candidate for a sovereign rescue, officials were quick to say Cyprus was a unique case. A Bank of Spain spokesman said there had been no sign of deposit flight.

But the chief of Greece’s main opposition, the anti-bailout Syriza party, Alexis Tsipras, blamed the move on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to Greek state news agency ANA.

“We must all together raise a shield to protect the peoples (of Europe) from Ms Merkel’s criminal strategy,” said Tsipras, who wants a pan-European debt conference to forgive debt.

The crisis is unprecedented in the history of the Mediterranean island, which suffered a war and ethnic split in 1974 in which a quarter of its population was internally displaced.

Anastasiades, elected only three weeks ago, said savers will be compensated by shares in banks guaranteed by future natural gas revenues.

Cyprus is expecting the results of an offshore appraisal drilling this year to confirm the island is sitting on vast amounts of natural gas worth billions.

In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, Anastasiades said he had to accept the tax in return for international aid, or else the island would have faced bankruptcy.

“The solution we concluded upon is not what we wanted, but is the least painful under the circumstances,” Anastasiades said.

With a gross domestic product of barely 0.2 percent of the bloc’s overall output, Cyprus applied for financial aid last June, but negotiations were stalled by the complexity of the deal and the reluctance of the island’s previous president to sign.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, who attended the meeting, said she backed the deal and would ask the IMF board in Washington to contribute to the bailout.

RUSSIANS, EUROPEANS

According to a draft copy of legislation, failing to pay up would be a criminal offence liable to three years in jail or a 50,000 euro fine.

Those affected will include rich Russians with deposits in Cyprus and Europeans who have retired to the island, as well as Cypriots themselves.

“I’m furious,” said Chris Drake, a former Middle East correspondent for the BBC who lives in Cyprus. “There were plenty of opportunities to take our money out; we didn’t because we were promised it was a red line which would not be crossed.”

“I’ve lost several thousand,” he told Reuters.

British finance minister George Osborne told the BBC on Sunday that Britain would compensate its 3,500 military personnel based in Cyprus.

Anastasiades’ right-wing Democratic Rally party, with 20 seats in the 56-member parliament, needs the support of other factions for the vote to pass. It was unclear whether even his coalition partners, the Democratic Party, would fully support the levy.

Cyprus’s Communist party AKEL, accused of stalling on a bailout during its tenure in power until the end of February, would vote against the measure. The socialist Edek party called EU demands “absurd”.

“This is unacceptably unfair and we are against it,” said Adonis Yiangou of the Greens Party, the smallest in parliament but a potential swing vote.

Many Cypriots, having contributed to bailouts for Ireland, Portugal and Greece – Greece’s second bailout contributed to a debt restructuring that blew the 4.5 billion euro hole in Cyprus’s banking sector – are aghast at their treatment by Europe.

Cyprus received a “stab in the back” from its EU partners, the daily Phileleftheros said.

But it and another newspapers highlighted the danger of plunging the banking system into further turmoil if lawmakers sat on the fence.

“Even if the final agreement is wrong, if this is not approved by parliament the damage will be even greater,” Politis economics editor Demetris Georgiades said in an editorial.

The post Cyprus works on last-minute deal to soften bank levy appeared first on Metro.us.

Police have arrested six men accused of the gang-rape of a Swiss tourist who was camping with her husband in an Indian forest in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

All the accused will go before a magistrate on Monday, Dilip Arya, deputy inspector general of police, told Reuters. Police have also recovered the couple’s valuables.

The assault on the 39-year-old Swiss woman on Friday night came three months after a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang-raped and beaten in a moving bus and thrown bleeding on to the street in a case that sparked outrage in the country. She died later in hospital in Singapore.

The latest incident has again turned the spotlight on the security of women in the world’s largest democracy.

One woman is raped every 20 minutes in India, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. But police estimate only four out of 10 rapes are reported, largely due to victims’ fear of being shamed by their families and communities.

The Swiss woman and her husband were touring the state by bicycle and were camping overnight in the forest. Arya told Reuters on Saturday that seven men attacked the couple in their tent and four of them raped the woman.

However, police investigation later found out that only six people were involved in the crime, he said.

Those arrested are identified as Baba, Bhuta, Rampro, Bishnu, Gaja and Nitin. They all aged between 20 and 25 years and belong to a local tribe known as the Kanjar, Arya said. They were also carrying a firearm.

No information was immediately available on the defendants’ account of events.

The woman and her husband have left the state and are now at the Swiss embassy in New Delhi.

“A decision regarding the next steps to be made in the interest of the two concerned Swiss citizens will be made with them in due course,” a spokesman for the Swiss Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

After the physiotherapy student was raped and beaten in Delhi last December, millions of Indians took to the streets demanding the death penalty for her attackers and official action to reduce the number of assaults on women.

Four men and a juvenile are on trial for that attack. A sixth defendant, who police say was the ringleader, was found dead in his cell on Monday.

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Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said on Saturday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor.

Francis, speaking mostly off-the-cuff and smiling often, made his comments in an audience for journalists where he explained why he chose to take the name Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, a symbol of peace, austerity and poverty.

He called Francis “the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man”, and added: “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor.”

Since his election on Wednesday as the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years, Francis has signaled a sharp change of style from his predecessor, Benedict, and has laid out a clear moral path for the 1.2-billion-member Church, which is beset by scandals, intrigue and strife.

He thanked the thousands of journalists who had covered his election but invited them to “always try to better understand the true nature of the Church, and even its journey in the world, with its virtues and with its sins”.

He urged journalists to seek “truth, goodness and beauty” in the world and in the Church.

Francis has set a forceful moral tone and given clear signs already that he will bring a new broom to the crisis-hit papacy, favoring humility and simplicity over pomp and grandeur.

He recalled how on Wednesday night, as he was receiving more and more votes in the conclave, the cardinal sitting next to him, Claudio Hummes of Brazil, comforted him “as the situation became dangerous”.

After the voting reached the two-thirds majority that elected him, applause broke out. Hummes, 78, then hugged and kissed him and told him “Don’t forget the poor”, the pope recounted, often gesturing with his hands.

“That word entered here,” he added, pointing to his head.

While the formal voting continued, the pope recalled: “I thought of wars …. and Francis (of Assisi) is the man of peace, and that is how the name entered my heart, Francis of Assisi, for me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects others.”

It was the latest indication that the pope wanted the worldwide Church to take on an austere style.

On the night he was elected he shunned the papal limousine and travelled on a bus with other cardinals. He went to the Church-run hotel where he had been staying before the conclave and insisted on paying the bill.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, has also urged Argentines not to make costly trips to Rome to see him but to give the money to the poor instead.

RESPECT NATURE

St. Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226, renounced his family’s fortune for a life of charity and poverty and is also revered by environmentalists because he loved nature and preached to animals.

“Right now, we don’t have a very good relation with creation,” the pope said.

He said that Catholics should remember that Jesus, not the pope, was the centre of the Church. At the end of his address, switching from Italian into Spanish, he also made a gesture to non-believers and members of other religions.

“I told you I would willingly give you a blessing. Since many of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and others are non-believers, from the bottom of my heart I give this silent blessing to each and every one of you, respecting the conscience of each one of you but knowing that each one of you is a child of God. May God bless all of you,” he said.

CONTRAST WITH BENEDICT

The Vatican has strongly denied accusations by some critics in Argentina that Francis stayed silent during systematic human rights abuses by the former military dictatorship in his home country.

Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters on Friday that the accusations “must be clearly and firmly denied”.

Critics of Bergoglio, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, allege he failed to protect priests who challenged the dictatorship earlier in his career, during the 1976-1983 “dirty war”, and that he has said too little about the complicity of the Church during military rule.

The new pope’s outgoing nature and sense of humor differs notably from the much more formal Benedict, who last month became the first pope in 600 years to resign.

On Friday, Francis hugged cardinals, slapped them on the back, broke into animated laughter and blessed religious objects one cardinal pulled out of a plastic shopping bag.

The Vatican said Francis would visit Benedict on March 23 at the papal summer residence south of Rome where the former pontiff will live until he moves into a convent in the Vatican which is undergoing renovations.

The post Pope Francis wants Church to be poor and to serve the poor appeared first on Metro.us.

The driver of the bus in which a young Indian woman was gang-raped and fatally injured in December hanged himself in his jail cell on Monday, prison authorities said, but his family and lawyer said they suspected “foul play”.

Ram Singh, the main accused in India’s most high-profile criminal case, killed himself just before dawn in a cell he shared with three inmates in New Delhi’s Tihar jail, prison spokesman Sunil Gupta said.

Singh fashioned a noose from threads torn from the mat he slept on and hanged himself from a grille in the ceiling before dawn. While there were closed circuit cameras throughout Tihar, India’s highest-security prison, there were none in individual cells, Gupta said.

Gupta could not say how long it would have taken Singh to make the noose or how he had managed to loop it through the grille, which was eight feet above the floor. He may have stood on a plastic bucket, Indian media reported.

Singh’s lawyer, V.K. Anand, said his client had been composed and calm when he spoke to him in court on Friday and “didn’t have any complaints”. Singh, who faced the death penalty if convicted of murder, had not been on suicide watch, Anand and Gupta said.

“I know he had a few complaints of jail authorities torturing him, but nothing that would make him take his own life. We can’t rule out foul play. Nothing is adding up,” Anand said.

Anand has previously always denied that his client was being maltreated in prison. He would not elaborate on the “torture”.

Federal Home (Interior) Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde called the incident a “major lapse” in security and said an inquiry had been launched.

Police have described Singh as the ringleader of five men and a juvenile on trial for the December 16 attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in the Indian capital. The assault triggered nationwide protests, a toughening of rape laws and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India.

All six accused have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder.

The remaining five accused could try to use Singh’s death to their advantage in the trial, said Supreme Court lawyer Ravi Kant.

“The others accused in this case will now take the opportunity to say that Ram Singh was the main conspirator and they were forced into it and as a result they can get lighter punishments,” he said.

Singh’s father cast doubt on the official version of events.

“He confessed about his mistake, then why would he commit suicide? He was prepared for any punishment the government would have given him,” Mange Lal Singh said.

“Ram Singh did not commit suicide, he was murdered. He was first murdered and then his clothes were torn off to hang his corpse in his cell,” he said.

Singh’s mother cried uncontrollably and beat her chest as her husband helped her into an auto rickshaw in the Delhi slum where they live. “He left me,” she said repeatedly. The parents were headed to a hospital to see their son’s body.

BLOOD-STAINED SCHOOL BUS

The trial of the five adult men started last month while the juvenile’s trial began last week. Ram Singh’s brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial.

Under Indian law, the juvenile cannot be named.

The attack generated headlines around the world, but the case has since largely disappeared from public view, in large part because authorities have barred reporting on the trial, which resumed in a fast-track court on Monday.

Police allege the six attacked the woman and a male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie. The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.

The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.

The police report used to charge the accused draws a picture of Ram Singh as the ringleader. On the night of December 16, the accused gathered at his house for dinner, where he came up with the plan of taking the bus out to look for a victim to rape, the report said.

The police say they found him sitting in the blood-stained school bus, wearing a bloodied tee-shirt, the morning after the crime. A DNA test revealed that the blood belonged to the rape victim, the report said.

The physiotherapist’s brother said he was “not very thrilled with the news that he killed himself because I wanted him to be hanged … publicly.”

“Him dying on his own terms seems unfair. But, oh well, one is down. Hopefully the rest will wait for their death sentence.”

The post Key suspect in India gang rape found dead in prison cell appeared first on Metro.us.

Egyptian protesters torched buildings in Cairo and tried unsuccessfully to disrupt international shipping on the Suez Canal, as a court ruling on a deadly soccer riot stoked rage in a country beset by worsening security.

The ruling enraged residents of Port Said, at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, by confirming the death sentences imposed on 21 local soccer fans for their role in the riot last year, when more than 70 people were killed.

But the court also angered rival fans in Cairo by acquitting a further 28 defendants whom they wanted punished, including seven members of the police force, reviled across society for its brutality under deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Security sources said two people, a man in his 30s and a young boy, had died in Cairo from the effects of tear gas and rubber bullets. A total of 65 people were injured.

Saturday’s protests and violence underlined how Islamist President Mohamed Mursi is struggling – two years after Mubarak’s overthrow – to maintain law and order at a time of economic and political crisis.

Islamist groups and parties backing Mursi warned against a looming security breakdown and called on their followers to form popular protection committees to guard the streets and public property should police fail to do so.

The presidency said in a statement that the protests had not been peaceful and condemned violence against property. The cabinet issued a similar statement and called on Egyptians to unite and respect court rulings.

On Thursday, Egypt’s election committee scrapped a timetable under which voting for the lower house of parliament should have begun next month, following a court ruling that threw the entire polling process into confusion.

The stadium riot took place last year at the end of a match in Port Said between the local side Al-Masry and Cairo’s Al-Ahly team. Spectators were crushed when panicked crowds tried to escape from the stadium after a pitch invasion by Al-Masry supporters. Others fell or were thrown from terraces.

DEATH BY HANGING

Judge Sobhy Abdel Maguid, listing the names of the 21 Al-Masry fans, said the Cairo court had confirmed “the death penalty by hanging”. He also sentenced five more people to life imprisonment while others out of a total of 73 defendants received shorter terms.

In Cairo, local Al-Ahly fans vented their rage at the acquittals, setting fire to a police social club, the nearby offices of the Egyptian soccer federation and a branch of a fast food chain, sending smoke rising over the capital.

A military helicopter scooped up water from the nearby Nile and dropped it on the burning buildings.

“Ultra” fans, the section of Al-Ahly supporters responsible for much of the violence, said they expected retribution for those who had planned the Port Said “massacre”.

“What is happening today in Cairo is the beginning of the anger. Wait for more if the remaining elements embroiled in this massacre are not revealed,” the Ultras said in a statement.

In Port Said, where the army took over security in the city center from the police on Friday, about 2,000 residents who want the local fans spared execution blockaded ferries crossing the Suez Canal. Witnesses said youths also untied moored speedboats used to supply shipping on the waterway, hoping the boats would drift into the path of passing vessels.

Military police recovered five speedboats and brought them back to shore, but two were still drifting, one witness said.

Authorities controlling the Canal, an artery for global trade and major income source for the Egyptian government, said through traffic had not been affected. “The canal … is safe and open to all ships passing through it,” Suez Canal Authority spokesman Tarek Hassanein told the MENA news agency.

ISLAMIST BACKUP

Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, a popular Salafi preacher, condemned attempts by the opposition and youth groups to “burn the country down” as a pretext to create a power vacuum and bring back military rule.

“We will face any attempts by the opposition … to bring back military rule. We have popular blocs to protect and guard,” Ismail said.

The Salafi Al-Nour Party and the Gama’a al-Islamiyya, blamed for a spate of violence in Egypt in the 1990s, made similar statements, calling on their followers to replace the police force should it pull off the streets.

General Ahmed Wasfy, who heads the army division in Port Said rejected calls for a return to military rule. The military is in charge of security in Port Said and other canal cities.

“The Egyptian armed forces is a combat institution not a security institution. No one can imagine the army replacing the interior ministry,” he was quoted on MENA as saying.

In a separate security threat, the Interior Ministry ordered police in the Sinai peninsula to raise their state of alert after receiving intelligence that jihadists might attack them, MENA reported.

Officials have expressed growing worries about security in the desert region, which borders Israel and is home to a number of tourist resorts.

Last Thursday, Bedouin gunmen briefly held the head of U.S. oil major ExxonMobil in Egypt and his wife. The Britons, who had been heading for a Sinai resort, were released unharmed.

General unrest is rife as Egypt’s poor suffer badly from the economic crisis. Foreign currency reserves have slid to critically low levels and are now little more than a third of what they were in the last days of Mubarak.

The Egyptian pound has lost 14 percent against the dollar since the 2011 revolution and the budget deficit is soaring to unmanageable levels due to the cost of fuel and food subsidies.

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Venezuela will likely hold a presidential election in mid-April, sources said on Saturday, as acting President Nicolas Maduro tries to benefit from an emotional outpouring for his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, and step into his shoes.

Multiple sources from the opposition and election board said April 14 was the probable date, though some in the government were pushing for the symbolic April 13 anniversary of Chavez’s return to power after a short-lived 2002 coup.

Maduro, a physically imposing former union leader who served as foreign minister and vice president under Chavez, has vowed to keep Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution alive.

He is expected to face opposition leader Henrique Capriles, 40, the centrist governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in a vote last October.

Opinion polls have shown Maduro as the likely winner, but Chavez’s opponents were impatient and said they wanted to be given a chance to end “Chavismo” at the voting booth.

“We want new elections now. We want change. We are tired of the Chavez era. It’s been 14 years,” said Yesenia Herrera, 33, a cook at a Chinese restaurant in an affluent quarter of Caracas.

Maduro was sworn in as acting president in Congress on Friday and handed the red, yellow and blue presidential sash.

“I asked (the election authority) to comply with legal and constitutional obligations and immediately call elections,” Maduro, 50, told Congress as he cemented his position as heir-in-waiting.

Chavez was immensely popular among the poor and they have vowed to back Maduro. Several million people have filed past his casket to pay their last respects and were still visiting him on Saturday.

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that Maduro did not need to step down in order to campaign, but the move was denounced by opponents as a violation of the constitution and a “fraud.”

As Maduro spoke in Congress, residents of some wealthy neighborhoods of Caracas banged pots and pans in a traditional form of protest.

At one building in a wealthy corner of Caracas, people drank wine and whisky around a swimming pool, rejoicing at Chavez’s demise. They toasted each other, “Happy goodbye, Chavez, we will not miss you!”

HERO OR AUTOCRAT?

Chavez was a hero to millions of mostly humble supporters for using Venezuela’s oil wealth to finance heavy social spending during his rule, but he was seen as an autocrat by his opponents. He died on Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer.

“The excluded and invisible, the ‘losers’ of savage capitalism, were made visible and victorious with Chavez,” Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Twitter.

Like communist leaders Lenin, Stalin and Mao, Chavez’s remains are to be embalmed and put on display “for eternity.”

An eclectic cast of celebrities, leftist and center-right presidents, and rogue leaders attended Chavez’s state funeral on Friday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a close ally, broke with protocol to kiss the coffin, while Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was also in attendance.

It is likely to be a particularly bitter election campaign in the OPEC nation, which boasts the world’s largest oil reserves.

The opposition had accused the government of trampling on the constitution during its handling of Chavez’s battle with cancer, and is furious that Maduro was allowed to take on the job of caretaker president while he campaigns for the job.

“This transgression is unprecedented in the history of the republic,” opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado said on Twitter.

Capriles called it an abuse of power.

“To become president, the people have to elect you,” he said on Friday. “No one elected Nicolas president.”

The post Venezuelans mourn Chavez while election looms appeared first on Metro.us.

Vatican workers hoisted a chimney onto the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Saturday in readiness for the conclave of Roman Catholic cardinals that will elect a successor to Pope Benedict.

The conclave begins on Tuesday, with the sequestered cardinals using the chimney to tell the outside world whether or not they have chosen a new leader – black smoke signifying no decision and white smoke announcing a new pontiff.

The rust-colored pipe was attached above the terracotta tiles of the roof of the frescoed chapel clearly visible from the nearby St. Peter’s Square, where traditionally thousands of believers gather to see how the secret balloting is progressing.

Although no clear favorites have emerged to take the helm of the troubled 1.2-billion-member Church, the conclave is expected to be wrapped up within just a few days.

No conclave has lasted than more than five days in the past century, with many finishing within two or three days. Pope Benedict was elected within barely 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting.

Benedict triggered the election last month with his shock decision to abdicate because of his increasingly frail health – the first pontiff to step down in six centuries.

He leaves his successor a sea of troubles – including seemingly never-ending sex abuse scandals, rivalry and strife inside the Vatican bureaucracy, a shortage of priests and a rise of secularism in its European strongholds.

Inside the chapel, workmen were carrying out the final preparations to make the room, one of the most famous in the world, ready for the conclave.

Two stoves were installed and attached to a single flue leading up to the roof. One, made of cast iron and used in every conclave since 1939, will be used to burn ballots.

The second stove is an electronic one with a key, a red start button and seven tiny temperature indicator lights. Flares will be electronically ignited inside it to send out either white or black smoke.

Workmen on Saturday were also putting the finishing touches to specially built rows of tables where the cardinals will sit facing each under the gaze of Jesus in Michelangelo’s massive Last Judgment panel on the wall behind the altar.

POSSIBLE PONTIFFS

Nearly 150 red-hatted cardinals held a sixth day of preliminary meetings, known as “general congregations”, on Saturday to discuss the many challenges besieging their Church and to sketch the ideal profile of the next pope.

Some 115 of their number – all those aged under 80 – will enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday to start the formal voting process. One ballot will be held on the first day, with four votes a day thereafter until one of their number receives a two-thirds majority, or 77 votes.

The names of several possible front runners have been mentioned by church officials ever since Benedict’s resignation.

Amongst the most mentioned are Italy’s Angelo Scola, Brazil’s Odilo Pedro Scherer and Canada’s Marc Ouellet. U.S. cardinals such as Timothy Dolan or Sean O’Malley have also been cited as “papabile”.

With the vast majority of Catholics now living outside Europe, there is growing pressure for a pontiff from another part of the world.

Many Vatican observers believe a Latin American, Asian or African pope could bring attention to the poverty of the southern hemisphere in the same way the Polish-born John Paul put a spotlight on the East-West divide.

“I think it is important to have someone who comes from a place where the Church is dynamic and lively,” South Africa Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier told La Stampa newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.

“I believe the choice of candidates will be much longer than it was in 2005,” added Napier, who has himself been tipped in some quarters as a possible pontiff.

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“Yesterday the devil was here. It smells of sulfur still,” Hugo Chavez said to the United Nations in 2006. This statement is one that best exemplifies Chavez’s strained relationship with the U.S. government.

Chavez opened his speech with a direct attack on the then-U.S. President George W. Bush, who had been on that same stage the day before.

As recently as just yesterday, the Venezuelan authorities expelled two U.S. militaries that allegedly participated in acts of conspiracy against the government.

Last month, the new Secretary of State in the United States, John Kerry, mentioned as one of his objectives to improve relations with

Venezuela.

On multiple occasions, Chavez expressed being against the U.S. government.

He associated with countries hostile to the United States such as Cuba and Iran.

Chavez said, on more than one occasion, that he had evidence that the United States had developed a plan to invade Venezuela. He also accused the United States of collaborating with the failed coup of 2002 and even spoke of a plot to assassinate him.

The United States continually denied the accusations of Chavez and his government.

Despite these tensions, the Venezuelan government has never stopped selling oil to the United States.

Big names in Hollywood did not hesitate to show their support for Chavez.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone portrayed him in the 2009 documentary “South of the border.” Since then, the director worked closely with the Bolivarian leader and recently said on that Chavez was improving the lives of Venezuelans, the same way President Barack Obama is doing in the United States.

Another famous American who showed public support for Chavez was actor Sean Penn, who said Chavez “is a fascinating man and did great things for 80 percent of the people of Venezuela.”

The post Hugo Chavez: A history of tension with the US appeared first on Metro.us.

The Roman Catholic Church marked its first Sunday in nearly eight years without a papal blessing, as cardinals gathered to elect a new leader of the 1.2 billion-member faith in one of the most troubled periods of its history.

The windows of the papal apartments overlooking St. Peter’s Square were shut, which is normally the case only when a pope is outside Rome and delivers the Sunday blessing elsewhere.

There was no papal blessing of any kind, the first time the church has been in such a state of limbo since Sunday, April 3, 2005, the day after Pope John Paul died.

“It’s strange, very strange to come to Rome to St. Peter’s Square and not to hear the Angelus (Sunday blessing) of the pope, especially because the pope is still alive – it’s a unique situation that we are living through,” said Fabio Ferrara, who was one of the few people in the square at noon.

“We have been praying a lot, it’s sad, it is very, very sad, we feel like orphans,” said Sister Agnese Carreddu, an Italian nun in the square.

Catholics at Sunday masses throughout the world did not hear the customary prayer for “our pope, Benedict”. It will be omitted from every mass until there is a new pope.

On Monday cardinals will begin preliminary meetings, known as general congregations, to get to know each other, discuss church issues and decide the starting date of the closed-door conclave to choose Benedict’s successor.

The meetings are open to all cardinals, whereas only those under 80 can enter the Sistine Chapel and elect a new pope from their own ranks.

Currently 115 cardinal electors are due to take part in the conclave, which many believe will start around March 10.

The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead Holy Week services culminating in Easter the following Sunday.

No front-runner stands out and no campaigning is allowed for the election but leading candidates include Peter Turkson of Ghana, Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, Austrian Christoph Schoenborn, Brazil’s Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet and Angelo Scola, the leading candidate from Italy.

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While we here in the United States gawked at Michelle Obama’s well-sculpted biceps while she presented the award for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, news agencies in Iran were busy Photoshopping her.

Fars, a news agency in Iran, Photoshopped pictures of the First Lady by adding sleeves and a higher neckline to her dress, in order to confirm with Iranian restrictions on images of females in the media.

Michelle Obama presented the Oscar to “Argo” a film about American hostages in Iran.

In Iran, rules dictate that Iranian women shown on state television should wear a hijab that covers their hair, arms and legs. The rules vary for foreign women, allowing them to not wear a hijab, but still comply with conservative dress code.

This is not the first time a dignitary or celebrity has been censored. Many films are edited frame by frame in order to cover up actors or even delete certain scenes.

Iranians were also unhappy with “Argo” winning best picture. Many believe the movie exaggerated Iranian stereotypes and portrayed the country in a negative way, often times not showing a difference between ordinary citizens and revolutionaries in the hostage crisis.

Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant

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Pope Benedict spoke from his window for the last time on Sunday, telling the faithful packed into St. Peter’s Square that the first papal abdication in centuries was God’s will and insisting he was not “abandoning” the Church.

Four days before the 85-year-old’s often troubled eight-year rule ends, new talk of scandal hit the cardinals who will choose his successor; one of them, a Scottish archbishop, had to deny a media allegation of misconduct with young priests in the 1980s.

With an American cardinal urged not to go to the electoral conclave due to his role in handling sexual abuse cases in the United States, and the Vatican accusing media of running smears to influence the vote, the Church faces a stormy succession.

Benedict, however, defended his shock decision to resign as dictated by his failing health; his address to tens of thousands of well-wishers was met with calls of “Viva il Papa!”

“The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain, to dedicate myself even more to prayer and meditation,” the German-born pontiff said in Italian, his voice strong and carrying clearly.

“But this does not mean abandoning the Church. Actually, if God asks this of me, it is precisely because I can continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love I have shown so far,” he said, adding that he would be serving the Church “in a way more in keeping with my age and my strengths”.

As he spoke, two of the some 117 cardinals who are due to enter the conclave to choose his successor as leader of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics next month were mired in controversy.

Britain’s top Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Edinburgh, rejected allegations published in the Observer newspaper that he had been involved in unspecified inappropriate behavior with other priests in the past.

The paper said O’Brien, known for his outspoken views against homosexuality, had been reported to the Vatican by three priests and a former priest, who said they had come forward to demand O’Brien resign and not take part in the conclave.

“Cardinal O’Brien contests these claims and is taking legal advice,” a spokesman for the 74-year-old cardinal said.

He was the second cardinal to be caught up in controversy over his attendance ahead of the conclave, where 117 “princes of the Church” under 80 will elect a new pope from their ranks.

On Saturday, Catholic activists petitioned Cardinal Roger Mahony to recuse himself from the conclave so as not to insult survivors of sexual abuse by priests committed while he was archbishop of Los Angeles.

In that post from 1985 until 2011, Mahony worked to send priests known to be abusers out of state to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s, according to church files unsealed under a U.S. court order last month.

The post Pope, on last Sunday, says following God’s wishes appeared first on Metro.us.

Oscar Pistorius’s elder brother faces trial for killing a woman in a traffic incident five years ago, the family said on Sunday, confirming a report that dominated South African media two days after the “Blade Runner” athlete was bailed for murder.

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide in the death of a motorcyclist in 2008; the case is unrelated to the Valentine’s Day shooting of his younger brother’s girlfriend.

However, it was not widely known of until local television e-News Channel Africa reported it on Sunday. A family statement said Carl appeared before a judge on Thursday and would be in court again in late March. His younger brother was freed on bail on Friday after a week of hearings watched by the world’s media.

Carl Pistorius declined comment as he entered the home of an uncle in Pretoria on Sunday. The house is where Oscar, 26, has been staying since being granted bail on Friday until his trial for the premeditated murder of model Reeva Steenkamp on February 14.

The family statement quoted lawyer Kenny Oldwage as saying:

“There is no doubt that Carl is innocent and the charge will be challenged in court. Carl deeply regrets the accident.

“Blood tests conducted by the police at the time proved that he had not been under the influence of alcohol, confirming that it was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl’s car.”

Contacted by Reuters, Oldwage declined further comment. The family statement said charges had at one stage been withdrawn but then reinstated.

Athlete’s trial

Carl Pistorius attracted little publicity until the arrest of his younger brother propelled the family into the glare of a global media spotlight. He and their younger sister Aimee and father Henke, appeared in court to support Oscar, who denies the charge, saying he believed he was shooting at an intruder.

The younger Pistorius brother was born lacking bones in his lower legs, leading to amputation and carbon fibre blades. As the Paralympian “Blade Runner”, who competed with able-bodied athletes at last year’s London Olympics, reaching the semifinal of the 400 meters, he became a symbol of triumph over adversity.

In his native South Africa, he has also been seen as a rare hero for both blacks and whites, transcending racial divides that persist 19 years after the end of apartheid.

The trial has drawn attention to South Africa’s judicial system. Defence counsel criticized police witnesses during the bail hearings and, in a development that prompted further headlines, the lead detective was replaced after it emerged he himself was facing attempted murder charges.

On Saturday, Steenkamp’s father said that if Oscar Pistorius was telling the truth about mistakenly opening fire then “maybe I can forgive him one day”. But he added that if the track star were lying “he will have to live with his conscience”.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a surprise return from Cuba on Monday, more than two months after surgery for cancer that has jeopardized his 14-year rule of the South American OPEC nation.

The middle-of-the-night homecoming by Chavez, 58, implies some medical improvement – at least enough to handle a flight of several hours – and will again fire up supporters with hope he could return to active rule.

Yet there was no new information on the socialist leader’s condition, nor images of his arrival, and aides say his condition remains “complex.”

Chavez could be returning to govern behind the scenes or could be hoping to ease political tensions in Venezuela and smooth a transition to Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

Chavez has urged voters to back Maduro should he have to stand down and a new presidential election be held.

“We have returned to the Venezuelan fatherland. Thank you, my God! Thank you, my beloved people! We will continue the treatment here,” Chavez said via Twitter after flying in.

Maduro said Chavez flew in at about 2:30 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) from Havana and was taken to a military hospital in Caracas.

Until photos were published of him on Friday, Chavez had not been seen by the public since a six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11.

There had been speculation Chavez was not well enough to travel despite wanting to return for continued treatment for the disease, which was first diagnosed in mid-2011.

“I remain attached to Christ and trusting in my nurses and doctors,” the president also tweeted on Monday. “Onwards to victory forever! We will live and we will conquer!”

The tweets were his first direct communication with the outside world since he went to Cuba in December.

His return thrilled supporters in the country of 29 million people, where his common touch and heavy spending on welfare policies have made him an idol to many of the poor.

“It’s fabulous news, the best thing possible,” Chavez’s cousin, Guillermo Frias, told Reuters from the president’s rural birthplace in Barinas state. “Venezuela was waiting for him, everyone wants to see him. Welcome home! Thank God he’s back!”

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Ever since “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend was shot dead in his Pretoria home last week, South African papers have printed lurid details of the killing which, if true, pose major challenges to the Paralympic star’s defense team, experts say.

Initial reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius, 26, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, may have mistaken law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder.

A statement released by his family dismissed the charge of murder laid on Friday in “the strongest terms”. His bail hearing resumes in a Pretoria magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

Within hours of the shooting, police confirmed that Steenkamp had been killed by more than one gunshot, that Pistorius was the only suspect, that neighbors had heard earlier disturbances, that there were no signs of a break-in and that a 9mm pistol had been recovered from the two-storey home.

Since then, police have released no more details.

The same cannot be said of the South African media, part of a global publicity machine that built up Pistorius into the ultimate sporting tale of triumph over adversity – a man who rose to the pinnacle of world athletics, racing at the Olympics despite having no lower legs.

Some of the most widely reported local media allegations are that Steenkamp was in the bathroom when she was shot, was hit by four rounds – in the head, hand, hip and chest – and that shots were fired through the bathroom door.

In addition, leading Sunday newspaper City Press said investigators had found a blood-stained cricket bat in Pistorius’ bedroom. The paper said police had not yet worked out whose blood it was, but said Steenkamp’s head was “crushed”.

The newspaper also alleged that Steenkamp, who will be buried on Tuesday, had slept in the same bed as Pistorius that night – Valentine’s Day eve – and that her iPad was on the bedroom floor along with an overnight bag.

The ENCA television channel said CCTV footage from the gated community showed Steenkamp arriving at the complex shortly after 6 p.m. on the previous evening.

Police have declined to comment on any of the reports, saying official details will only emerge in court.

However, the allegations – if true – undermine the legal argument of self-defense, as well as the suggestion that Pistorius was taken by surprise by a would-be stranger in his house in the middle of the night.

“If what the media says is in fact the truth, I cannot see that any defense based on self-defense can, by any stretch of the imagination, succeed,” said Eddie Classen, a partner at BDK Attorneys, one of South Africa’s biggest criminal defense firms.

“ROID RAGE”?

Under the white-minority rule that ended in 1994, South Africa had relatively lax curbs on the use of lethal force, not only in self-defense but also in making arrests. Put bluntly, if the only way to stop a fleeing robber was to shoot him, you could.

However, the laws were tightened up after the end of apartheid when the “right to life” became enshrined in the new constitution of Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation”, making it permissible to use lethal force only when your life is directly threatened.

Furthermore, when the immediate threat is gone – a shot intruder, say, goes down with a bullet in the leg – the self-defense argument ends.

“The law says that you have to stop the moment that you have repelled an attack, so normally one shot will suffice,” said Steven Tuson, a professor of criminal law at Johannesburg’s Wits University.

If Pistorius’s lawyers choose to avoid the self-defense avenue, another option may be to argue temporary insanity based on chemical stimulants, a defense irreverently referred to in sports-mad South Africa as “roid rage”, short for ‘steroid’.

This is why Pistorius was taken for blood tests immediately after the shooting, Tuson said, “to exclude that defense”. Classen also said the “roid rage” defense could only succeed in “extraordinary circumstances”.

One other possible avenue is for Pistorius to argue “putative self-defense” – that he thought he was being attacked even if he wasn’t. Even then, Classen said the content of the media reports, if true, curtailed his chances of success.

“The facts of the matter – and I caution again because I am only reading them from the media – suggest something totally different,” he said.

The post Oscar Pistorius murder defense team faces few options appeared first on Metro.us.

IKEA knows what you’ll be doing tonight, readers.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, IKEA Australia will give away a free crib to any baby who is born nine months from today, on November 14, 2013.

For the babies born the week of Veterans Day, parents will have to present the IKEA advertisement as well as proof of birth. Or, you know, you can just pay the $99 it costs to buy a crib from IKEA.

If only nature worked so smoothly, right? Just because a baby is conceived on Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean he or she will be born exactly nine months after. Pregnancy is a little more complicated than that. Babies are born early. Some are born late. There are so many variables. So, really, it’s anyone’s game.

The post IKEA Australia offers free crib for babies born 9 months from today appeared first on Metro.us.

In 1485, King Richard III rode into the Battle of Bosworth and was killed by his Tudor enemies. Over 500 years later, researchers confirmed that a skeleton discovered in a Leicester car park close to the battle site was the notorious monarch.

“Beyond reasonable doubt it’s Richard”, announced Lead Archaeologist Richard Buckley from the University of Leicester, triggering wild applause from a packed news conference and emotional embraces between researchers.

The skeleton was discovered in September and subjected to a thorough identification process. Geneticists were able to recover a DNA sample that matched the King with a 17th-generation descendent – Canadian furniture seller Michael Ibsen. The skeleton also had the curved spine for which Richard III was well known – notably in William Shakespeare’s play.

“This provides a new body of evidence that will re-write the history of a very confused time period,” Professor Lynn Foxhall, head of the University Archaeology Department told Metro.

Further tests will be carried out on the bones before a planned re-burial in February 2013.

The King will be buried at Leicester Cathedral, it was announced, which has proved controversial.

“As he was from York, it’s very disappointing he will not be buried there,” said Sandra Wadley, head of the Society of Friends of King Richard III group.

The investigation also discovered that the King had suffered numerous injuries from bladed weapons after death, suggesting deliberate mutilation of his body as it was carried from the battlefield.

“It’s a great insight into his last moments and how he was treated,” said Buckley.

In Shakespeare’s play, Richard III was a “hunchback monster” that killed his two young nephews. With the discovery of his body, the King and his era will have a new story.

Key findings

• DNA from skeleton matches Richard III’s maternal line relatives.
• 10 wounds discovered on skeleton – Richard III killed by trauma to the back of the head.  Part of the skull sliced off. Corpse was subjected to ‘humiliation injuries’ –including a sword through the right buttock
• Radiocarbon dating reveals individual had a high protein diet – including significant amounts of seafood.
• Although around 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.72m), severe scoliosis meant King Richard III would have stood significantly shorter and his right shoulder may have been higher than the left.

The post Return of the King: Richard III unveiled from car park tomb appeared first on Metro.us.

Speaking to reporters, Guler said the attacker could have been a member of the militant Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) or another leftist group.

The U.S. consulate in Istanbul warned its citizens against visiting its missions in Turkey until further notice.

“The Department of State advises U.S. citizens traveling or residing in Turkey to be alert to the potential for violence, to avoid those areas where disturbances have occurred and to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings,” the consulate statement added.

Ankara Governor Alaaddin Yuksel said the attacker was inside U.S. property when the explosives were detonated. The blast sent masonry spewing out of the wall of the side entrance, but there did not appear to be any more significant structural damage.

The bomber was also killed.

U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone emerged through the main gate of the building, which is surrounded by high walls, shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.

“We are very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate,” Ricciardone he said, thanking the Turkish authorities for a prompt response.

A Reuters witness saw one wounded person being lifted into an ambulance as police armed with assault rifles cordoned off the area.

“It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground,” said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.

One witness said the blast was audible a mile away.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The British Consulate-General to Turkey said the blast a “suspected terrorist attack”.

Islamist radicals, far-left groups, far-right groups and Kurdish separatist militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

The main domestic security threat comes from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey, but the PKK has focused its campaign largely on domestic targets.

Turkey has led calls for international intervention in neighboring Syria and is hosting hundreds of NATO soldiers from the United States, Germany and the Netherlands who are operating a Patriot missile defense system along its border with Syria, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital.

The U.S. Patriots were expected to go active in the coming days.

The most serious attacks of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed a further 32 people a week later.

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“Euphoria has given way to despair and deep concern,” Executive Director Kenneth Roth told reporters at the report launch in London. The 664-page report gave its primary focus to abuse of minority rights in the post-revolution states.

Egypt, described as the most important country in the region, was severely criticized for a constitution “filled with loopholes…and a contradiction between majoritarian rules and basic rights that needs to be resolved.”

The report notes an increase in prosecutions for dissent since the revolution, closure of independent media and arrest of NGO workers.

On Libya, Roth said “the major problem is the government does not control a lot of the country.” Over 3,000 people are being illegally held by militia formed to fight former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The government is also criticized for enacting new laws cracking down on freedom of expression and religion.

Tunisia has fared better, and was praised for an “inclusive” approach to its new constitution. This is supported by a recent report from UK-based think tank Freedom House that found “Tunisia’s police force that is significantly more accountable” since the ousting of former Dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Roth went on to claim that troubles in Algeria and Mali were a direct consequence of the Arab revolution, but warned against interpreting the volatility as proving “democracy is too dangerous” in the Arab world.

Global notes: What’s wrong with the world

Aung San Suu Kyi criticized

Nobel Peace prize winner and pro-democracy activist has “disappointed” by failing to address violent persecution of Muslims in her native Burma.

Wanted: Alternatives to UN Security Council

With the permanent members consistently defending their allies, notably Russia supporting Syria, HRW called for countries to form and join new international bodies to exert influence.

Barack Obama protects torturers

US President criticized for failing to investigate Bush-era torture practices, and permanently abandoning plans to close Guantanamo.

Green lobby ‘forget about people’

Essay attacks convention in crisis response to “focus on nature neglecting the human rights impact”.

Russia back to the Stone Age

“This year has seen the biggest backsliding since the Soviet Union, with crackdowns on NGOs and protests designed to close the space for dissent,”  said Roth.

Fascism in Europe: Q+A with Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth

Metro: How concerned are you at the growth of extreme right-wing groups in Europe?

Roth: There is clearly a significant increase in xenophobic and racist violence in Greece, and it’s not surprising you get that right-wing extremism in this situation of austerity and misery. The Greek government is responding to some extent and has created a special hate crimes unit within the police force. But I think its important that the EU as a whole address the issue, as clearly this could spread and it’s important to contain it.

So austerity programs are fueling racist violence?

The Economic crisis is contributing but that doesn’t excuse it and government  have a duty when right wing violence arises to contain it vigorously. Some steps have been taken but its not solved. Immigrants have become very vulnerable and there is an urgent need to address that.

The post Arab Spring states more oppressive than ever appeared first on Metro.us.

Now Egyptian women are fighting back, through civil society groups determined to provide the protection that police have failed to deliver.

“We want to create safe space for women to protest,” Salma, a founding member the group ‘Tahrir Bodyguard,’ told Metro. “We have volunteers to patrol the square at the Friday demonstrations and if they see an attack they intervene and take the girl to safety.”

The uniformed volunteers try to avoid confrontation, says Salma, but wear protective clothing and “accept that they will face violence.” Volunteers have been beaten and stabbed in their efforts to disrupt attacks.

‘Tahrir Bodyguard’ was established spontaneously in December by a small group of female friends, in response to the growing number of women refusing to attend protests for fear of sexual assault. They established a Twitter account for people to report assaults, and were flooded with messages of support.

The group quickly expanded to 300 active volunteers, in alliance with similar groups such as Basma and Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH), and there are signs that such actions are having an impact, despite around 80 percent of Egyptians believing that assaults are the victim’s fault according to a recent survey. The group is planning to launch courses in self-defense.

“It is making a difference because they refer cases to us for psychological and medical help,” Dr Farah Shash, lead researcher into violence against women at Cairo’s El-Nadeem Center, told Metro. “Public and media attitudes are beginning to change as people realize how traumatic these incidents are.”

But Shash believes the government is resisting any progress.

“We see a pattern to assaults and we know that it is organized. The assaults are systematic, on the same streets, with the same people. We can’t say who exactly is behind them, but by refusing to take action, the Ministry of Interior is implicitly supporting them.”   

The Ministry could not be reached for comment, but in December pledged to launch extra patrols and airborne unit.

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Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged from the hospital earlier this month to spend time with her family after her initial treatment phase.

Her doctors said on Wednesday she would return to hospital within the next 10 days to undergo surgery known as titanium cranioplasty to repair a missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate.

The shooting of Yousufzai, in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

British doctors who treated Yousufzai say the bullet hit her left brow but instead of penetrating her skull, traveled underneath the skin along the side of her head and into her shoulder.

The shock wave shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and the soft tissues at the base of her jaw were damaged. The bullet and its fracture lines also destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing, rendering her deaf in her left ear.

She is being cared for in a specialist department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, which has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, said a procedure to insert a cochlear implant to restore her left side hearing and the complicated skull reconstruction surgery would be carried out by a team of 10 doctors and nurses.

The skull will be repaired with a 0.6 mm plate molded from a 3D model created using imaging data from Malala’s skull.

The cranioplasty, which is expected to take between one and two hours, will be carried out first, followed by the cochlear implant operation, which should take around 90 minutes, Rosser said in a statement.

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That’s how Dutch prime-minister Mark Rutte called queen Beatrix yesterday, just after the television speech in which her majesty announced her retirement. Beatrix will quit at April 30th of this year in favor of her son, Willem-Alexander.

“This is the best moment fort his step. I have been thinking about this for a few years, and decided to leave now. Until this day, I have enjoyed being your queen. It’s inspiring to feel with people in good times and in bad times,” Queen Beatrix said in her speech.

The queen has a lot of faith in her son, Willem-Alexander. He will be the king from April the 30th, which is Queens Day, traditional a day of celebration of the monarchy in the Netherlands. When Willem-Alexander will become king, the celebration will be called Kings Day, and will be on April 27th. Beatrix is sure that her son is ready for his job: “He and Maxima are really prepared fort heir future task.”

Queen Beatrix ended her speech with the words that her resignment is no goodbye.

“I hope I will meet many of you many times the next few years. I thank you deeply for the trust you gave me in the beautiful years I was you queen,” she said.

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“I recognize that the longer distances are becoming challenging and taking part in races adds pressure on me as I like to be seen to be enjoying myself and not struggling,” Singh told Metro from India. “I’m not sad and want to retire at the top. I have achieved all I wanted and there are no more records to be broken.”

The Indian-born Briton, who ran his first marathon at age 89 and seven more since, now has an eye on his legacy.

“I want the young to be inspired to take up physical activity and maintain it through their lives. Hopefully they will see the folly of taking drugs. I also want the elderly to embark on getting fitter – if I can run my first marathon so late in life, no one should use the excuse of old age as a barrier.”
 
Singh’s epic journey has seen him post records in eight distance categories, including his best time of 5 hours 40 minutes at the 2003 Toronto Marathon. His achievements have earned him a lunch date with Queen Elizabeth II, and a starring role in TV commercials alongside David Beckham.

Harmander Singh, his coach of 13 years, credits Fauja’s enthusiasm. “He was my best trainee, always keen to do more than I expected. I would suggest a 10-kilometer run and he would ask ‘why not 20?’”

Harmander describes his student as a “simple and humble man” – he has always been illiterate – who has stayed close to his faith.

The pair established the ‘Sikhs in the City’ running club in London, now participating in inter-faith marathons across the world. In retirement, faith and sporting charities will become his focus, along with “meeting people at a more leisurely pace.”

Fauja’s achievements have become a reference point for sports scientists.

“He has demonstrated the limit of human capacity,” Professor Jose Gonzalez-Alonso, Director of the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance in London, told Metro. “I’m sure it will motivate other elderly runners to beat his times.”

Fauja’s last official race will be a 10-kilometer event in Hong Kong on February 24.

Q+A with Fauja Singh

Metro: What has been the proudest moment of your running career?

Singh: Every moment has been topping the last but I was particularly pleased to have completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon at the age of 100 and finally my home London Marathon – I also value crossing the finish line of my first marathon as special.

Who is your sporting hero?

When I was young there were great Punjabi and Sikh wrestlers who were legends and everyone wished they could be like them. Later it was Ajit Singh from Huddersfield and Amrik Singh from Glasgow, friends who ran many marathons all over the world long before me, and persuaded me to try longer distances than the 100 and 200 metres I used to run.

Would you like your record as oldest marathon runner to be broken?

All records are meant to be broken, but it is great while they last. I wish the next record breaker well and hope they enjoy doing it.
 


Do you wish you had taken up running a bit earlier?

I never worry about things that I cannot control, I am grateful to God that I have lasted this long as it can be tiring to be ahead of the field for so long – 13 and a half years is I am told exceptional to be at the top. No British Prime Minister has lasted as long.

How you can still be running aged 100 – with Professor Jose Gonzalez-Alonso

• Balance your exercise of different muscle groups
• Use specialists such as chiropractors
• Train every day for at least half an hour
• As you get older, adjust your attitude to accept slowing down and still enjoy it
• Run in competition

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There was no independent confirmation of the report, which quoted a defense ministry statement. It said the launch coincided “with the days of” the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday last week but gave no date.

IRNA said the monkey was sent into space on a Kavoshgar rocket. The rocket reached a height of more than 120 km (75 miles) and “returned its shipment intact”, IRNA reported.

The Islamic Republic’s state-run, English-language Press TV said the monkey was retrieved alive.

Iran announced plans in 2011 to send a monkey into space, but that attempt was reported to have failed.

Western powers are concerned that the long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be used to launch nuclear warheads. Tehran denies such suggestions and says its nuclear activity is for peaceful energy only.

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No charges were filed against the four men, but prosecutors said they could be held for up to five days as police press them for clues as to how the fire early Sunday morning could have caused so many deaths.

Stunned residents in the southern city of Santa Maria attended a marathon of funerals beginning in the pre-dawn hours. As sunset approached, friends and family members readied for a candle-lit procession through the streets of the city.

The tragedy came as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and 2016 Olympics, putting its safety standards and emergency response capabilities in the international spotlight.

President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile to fly to the scene of the disaster on Sunday, called for a minute of silence before addressing a meeting of newly elected mayors in the capital, Brasilia.

“The pain I saw in Santa Maria was indescribable,” Rousseff said. “Faced with this tragedy, it is our duty to make sure it never happens again.”

Most of the dead were suffocated by toxic fumes that rapidly filled the Kiss nightclub after the band set off a flare at about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, authorities said.

The club’s operating license was under review for renewal after expiring last year.

Witnesses said bouncers initially blocked the only functioning exit because they believed fleeing customers were trying to skip out on their bar tabs.

Tarso Genro, governor of the prosperous southern state of Rio Grande do Sul where the disaster occurred, said authorities had shifted their focus from rescue and taking care of the wounded to investigating the scene.

“We’re going to find out who was responsible,” he vowed.

The death toll was revised down to 231 from 233 as officials said some names had been counted twice. Eighty-two people were hospitalized, 75 of them in serious condition, officials said.

Mourning throughout Brazil was mixed with frustration at a culture of lax regulation blamed for putting lives at risk.

“So many young ones with all of their lives ahead of them,” Brazilian soccer legend Pele wrote on Twitter. “The government has to make a priority of event security in this country!”

SAFETY ENFORCEMENT UNEVEN

Relatives and friends of the dead demanded accountability, signaling the start of a wave of police probes, lawsuits and recriminations that could drag on for months or even years.

Based on testimony from more than 20 witnesses, investigators are now certain that the band’s pyrotechnics show triggered the blaze, police official Sandro Meinerz said.

The band’s guitarist, Rodrigo Lemos Martins, 32, said he doubted the band was responsible for the blaze. “There were lots of wires (in the ceiling), maybe it was a short circuit,” he was quoted as saying in Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.

The band’s accordion player, Danilo Jaques, 30, was among those killed, but the other five members survived. The band’s vocalist and production engineer were detained by police investigating who was responsible for firing the flare, according to Brazilian media.

It seems certain others will share the blame for Brazil’s second-deadliest fire ever. The use of a flare inside the club was a clear breach of safety regulations, fire officials said.

Some details may never be known. Meinerz said the club owner told authorities that the club’s internal video surveillance system had stopped working three months ago.

Clubs and restaurants in Brazil are generally subject to a web of overlapping safety regulations, but enforcement is uneven and owners sometimes pay bribes to continue operating.

The investigation of the Kiss fire could drag on for years. After a similar fire at an Argentine nightclub in 2004 killed 194 people, more than six years passed before a court found members of a band criminally responsible for starting the blaze and causing the deaths.

That tragedy also provoked a massive backlash against politicians and led to the removal of the mayor of Buenos Aires.

Civil lawsuits stemming from the Brazil fire are likely to be directed at the government because the owners of the nightclub probably don’t have much money, said Claudio Castello de Campos, a Brazilian lawyer who has handled big cases including the crash of a TAM Airlines jet in Sao Paulo in 2007.

Castello de Campos disputed some statements by local officials that the Kiss nightclub could have continued operating legally while it was waiting for its license to be renewed. “If the license was expired, that’s an irregular situation,” he said.

Valdeci Oliveira, a legislator in Rio Grande do Sul state, said he and his colleagues would seek to ban pyrotechnics displays in closed spaces such as nightclubs.

“It won’t bring anybody back but we’re going to introduce the bill,” Oliveira said on his Twitter feed.

The Brazil fire is the worst to hit an entertainment venue since a fire on Christmas Day in 2000 engulfed a mall in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.

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Paris has launched a military campaign against Islamist fighters in Mali at the request of the Malian government, amid fears the vast desert country could become a launchpad for international attacks.

“We have started air lifting French army personnel and equipment to Bamako from Istres,” said Benjamin Benson, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

A Reuters camera crew on Tuesday saw a U.S.-flagged military transport aircraft taking off from the Istres air base in southern France.

Benson said the U.S. flights had started on Monday, but declined to give details on the number of planes being used.

“We did have two flights today so far. An early morning flight and a later one. We are going to continue the operations for the next couple of days as required to meet the needs of the French to get the material delivered,” he said.

French Armed Forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard said on Monday that Britain, Belgium, Canada and Denmark were already transporting French material.

Benson said the United States was also working with France on intelligence issues, but declined to say if surveillance drones were being used.

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Queen Elizabeth’s 28-year-old grandson, third in line to the British throne, will return home later this week after a 20-week posting with NATO forces at the Camp Bastion military base in the southern province of Helmand.

Asked before he left Afghanistan if he had killed insurgents during his tour, he said: “Yeah, so, lots of people have. … Yes, we fire when we have to, take a life to save a life, but essentially we’re more of a deterrent than anything else.

“If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game, I suppose,” the second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana said in one of several interviews released to the media.

The Taliban had said it would do its utmost to kidnap or kill Harry during his tour, and an Afghan insurgent warlord labeled him a drunken “jackal” out to kill innocent Afghans.

His base was attacked on his birthday last September, but it was never clear if he was the target or if the Taliban raid, in which two U.S. marines were killed, was in response to a film which was seen as insulting to the Prophet Mohammad.

Known in the military as Captain Harry Wales, he was deployed to Afghanistan four months ago, shortly after pictures of him frolicking naked with a nude woman at a hotel in Las Vegas were published around the world.

“I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down,” he said of the Vegas incident. “But it was probably a classic example of me being too much army, and not enough prince.”

NO SPECIAL TREATMENT

Harry’s job as an Apache co-pilot was to man its weapons system when his 662 Squadron unit flew sorties in support of ground troops fighting Taliban or accompanying other helicopters on missions to evacuate casualties.

However, he said killing the enemy was not what had inspired him to become a gunner on a helicopter carrying rockets, missiles and a machine gun.

“It’s not the reason I decided to do this job. The reason was to get back out here,” he said.

Harry served as a combat soldier on the front line in Helmand for 10 weeks between 2007 and 2008, calling in air strikes as a “Forward Air Controller” for NATO forces, becoming the first British royal to be engaged in combat since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during the 1982 Falklands War.

However, his first assignment was cut short after media leaked news of his presence. This time, the media were allowed to say he was on active duty in Afghanistan although giving exact details were forbidden.

In the now-released interviews, Harry said he thought his elder brother Prince William, a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot, would “love” to have been in Afghanistan too.

“To be honest, I don’t see why he couldn’t,” the royal said, adding he had received no special treatment while on deployment – eating, sleeping and relaxing with the other pilots.

“Yes, you get shot at. But if the guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us being shot at as well. People back home will have issues with that, but we’re not special.”

Harry’s military role has enhanced his status in Britain and helped shed a reputation of a royal wild child who admitted dabbling in marijuana and under-age drinking, and who made headlines when he donned a Nazi uniform to a costume party.

As one of the most world’s most eligible bachelors, his private life remains a source of huge media attention. However, he said his antics in Vegas, where he was letting off steam ahead of his Afghan tour, should have remained private.

Unsurprisingly, he said he was more comfortable in his “normal” life in the army than as a British prince.

“GO UGLY EARLY”

“My father’s always trying to remind me about who I am and stuff like that,” said Harry, who wore a “Go Ugly Early” badge attached to his helmet – Ugly being the Apache call sign – and joked that he honed his weapons’ pilot skills playing PlayStation and Xbox computer games.

He also repeated his dislike of intrusions by the British media, something close to his heart after his mother, who spent most of her adult life in the media spotlight, was killed in a Paris car crash while being chased by paparazzi when he was 12.

“I think it’s fairly obvious how far back (the mistrust of the press) goes. It’s when I was very small,” he said.

He always read what papers wrote about him, he said.

Britain has announced it will withdraw almost half its 9,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, with nearly all the rest due to pull out when the NATO mission finishes in late 2014, ending a war that has cost the lives of 440 British army personnel since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

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Sellal also said that 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended by storming the plant, and three had been captured alive.

Earlier an Algerian security source told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians, as special forces scoured the plant following Saturday’s bloody end to the siege.

“A Canadian was among the militants. He was coordinating the attack,” Sellal told a news conference, adding that the raiders had threatened to blow up the gas installation.

The Canadian’s name was given only as Chedad.

In Ottawa, Canada’s foreign affairs department said it was seeking information, but referred to the possible involvement of only one Canadian.

American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Filipino and Romanian workers are dead or missing after the attack, for which veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda.

The jihadists had planned the attack two months ago in neighboring Mali, where French forces began fighting Islamists this month, Sellal added.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference he had received information that seven Japanese had been killed and the fate of three more was still unknown.

Six Filipinos died and four were wounded, a government spokesman in Manila said.

Norwegian International Development Minister Heikki Holmaas said his stepfather, Tore Bech, was among the missing and presumed dead. Bech was a manager at the site for the Norwegian energy company Statoil.

Sellal said that initially the raiders in Algeria had tried to hijack a bus carrying foreign workers to a nearby airport and take them hostage. “They started firing at the bus and received a severe response from the soldiers guarding the bus,” he said. “They failed to achieve their objective, which was to kidnap foreign workers from the bus.”

He said special forces and army units were deployed against the militants, who had planted explosives in the gas plant with a view to blowing up the facility.

One group of militants had tried to escape in some vehicles, each of which also was carrying three or four foreign workers, some of whom had explosives attached to their bodies.

After what he called a “fierce response from the armed forces”, the raiders’ vehicles crashed or exploded and one of their leaders was among those killed.

LIBYAN NUMBER PLATES

Sellal said the jihadists who staged the attack last Wednesday had crossed into the country from neighboring Libya.

An Algerian newspaper said they had arrived in cars painted in the colors of state energy company Sonatrach but registered in Libya, a country awash with arms since Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011.

The raid has exposed the vulnerability of multinational-run oil and gas installations in an important producing region and pushed the growing threat from Islamist militant groups in the Sahara to a prominent position in the West’s security agenda.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack, the daily El Khabar said.

Algerian Tahar Ben Cheneb – leader of a group called the Movement of Islamic Youth in the South who was killed on the first day of the assault – had been based in Libya where he married a local woman two months ago, it said.

ONE-EYED JIHADIST

Belmokhtar – a one-eyed jihadist who fought in Afghanistan and Algeria’s civil war of the 1990s when the secular government fought Islamists – tied the desert attack to France’s intervention across the Sahara against Islamist rebels in Mali.

“We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation,” he said in a video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. About 40 attackers participated in the raid, he said, roughly matching the government’s figures for fighters killed and captured.

Belmokhtar demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamist fighters in neighboring Mali. These began five days before the fighters swooped before dawn and seized a plant that produces 10 percent of Algeria’s natural gas exports.

U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raid could have been organized quickly enough to have been conceived as a direct response to the French military intervention. However, the French action could have triggered an operation that had already been planned.

The group behind the raid, the Mulathameen Brigade, threatened to carry out more such attacks if Western powers did not end what it called an assault on Muslims in Mali, according to the SITE service, which monitors militant statements.

In a statement published by the Mauritania-based Nouakchott News Agency, the hostage takers said they had offered talks about freeing the captives, but the Algerian authorities had been determined to use military force. Sellal blamed the raiders for the collapse of negotiations.

BLOODY SIEGE

The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian army opened fire, saying fighters were trying to escape with their prisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucks in a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.

Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners escaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven from the residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in the industrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.

The bloodshed has strained Algeria’s relations with its Western allies, some of which have complained about being left in the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being taken.

Nevertheless, Britain and France both defended the military action by Algeria, the strongest military power in the Sahara and an ally the West needs in combating the militants.

Among other foreigners confirmed dead by their home countries were three Britons, one American and two Romanians. The missing include five Norwegians, three Britons and a British resident. An Algerian security source said at least one Frenchman was also among the dead.

The raid on the plant, which was home to expatriate workers from Britain’s BP, Norway’s Statoil, Japanese engineering firm BGC Corp and others, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara.

However, Algeria is determined to press on with its energy industry. Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi visited the site and said physical damage was minor, state news service APSE reported. The plant would start up again in two days, he said.

Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the start of the crisis there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism. France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush Islamist rebels in northern Mali.

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