CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP Laws change effecting Immigration to Canada

Despite an outcry from expatriates, an amendment to Canada's citizenship laws took effect Friday denying automatic citizenship to the grandchildren of Canadians born abroad. Canadian Parliament passed the Canadian Immigration bill last year in order to ensure that non-residents with little or no connection to Canada are not able to pass on Canadian citizenship infinitely, said immigration officials.

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"We're limiting citizenship to the first generation of Canadians born abroad to create an appreciation for the value of Canadian citizenship," immigration spokeswoman Danielle Norris told AFP.

The Canadian citizenship law was amended partly in response to a mass evacuation of thousands of Canadians living in Lebanon, after Israel attacked in 2006, she said. Many of the Lebanese-born Canadian nationals rescued had little or no real ties to Canada.

If a Canadian born in Canada but living abroad has a child in a foreign country, that child would still automatically be granted Canadian citizenship. But the child's offspring, if also born abroad, would not.

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An estimated hundreds of thousands Canadians currently living abroad could be affected by the Canadian citizenship amendment, the immigration department said.

Many Canadians considering having children while living in a foreign country decried the bill when it was proposed almost a year ago as yet another complication to working abroad and having a family.

"This law makes one more barrier for women trying to work in international development (and) international careers," Katherine Hay, a Canadian working and living in New Delhi, told the daily Globe and Mail.

"To get around this law or prevent negative ramifications, it would mean more costs to organizations to send women back, more lost time to working mothers, disruptions of work (and) family life," she said.

Another Canadian born in Britain to a Canadian mother, who lived part of her life in Canada, but eventually settled in Nigeria, lamented she would have to return to Canada to have babies.

And her Nigerian husband may not be able to attend the birth in Canada, she said.

If she stayed in Nigeria, her children would have to apply to immigrate to Canada uner the new Canadian citizenship laws.

Canada's first citizenship law was enacted in 1947.

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NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES NUCLEAR CAPABLE MISSILE

Confirmed NORTH KOREA MISSILE LAUNCH - Taepo Dong 2 released

The United States military is disputing North Korea's claim that it placed a satellite in orbit, saying whatever was atop last night's North Korean missile launch landed in the Pacific Ocean without making it into space. In the first detailed analysis of the North Korean launch, a statement from United States Northern Command (Northcom) acknowledged that North Korea had launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday.

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North Korea's Central News Agency has been reporting that it successfully launched a satellite into orbit containing "necessary measuring and communications facilities" that have been broadcasting songs praising North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. " Northcom's tracking of the launch indicated the missile passed over the Sea of Japan and Japan. Additional tracking of the three-stage missile showed the first stage of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan and "the remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean." Further analysis indicated "no object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan." According to the statement, the "space launch vehicle" was not seen as "a threat to North America or Hawaii" and the United States "took no action in response to this launch."

The military's assessment was the first analysis of North Korea's launch since the State Department's initial confirmation of the launch shortly after it took place. Traveling in Prague, President Obama condemned the launch as a "provocation" and said North Korea had "ignored ts international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint and further isolated itself from the community of nations." He continuted, "Now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to the security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons."

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The U.N. Security Council will meet in an emergency session Sunday afternoon to discuss what potential ramifications North Korea should face for the launch which the United States and Japan say is a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 that bans North Korean ballistic missile activity. In the run-up to the launch, Washington and its allies had expressed concern that North Korea would use a launch as cover for testing Pyongyang's long-range Taepodong 2 missile, potentially capable of hitting the western United States.

North Korea demonstrated its nuclear capability when it tested a crude nuclear weapon in October 2006, and U.S. officials fear a long-range missile could be developed as a delivery vehicle for such a weapon. For weeks, the United States had said a launch would be viewed as a provocative act and would carry consequences.

American diplomats conveyed the message directly to North Korean officials in recent weeks through their mission to the United Nations in New York, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted last Sunday there were little that could prevent the launch from going forward. "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," said Gates during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." The U.S. Navy deployed several ships to the region to track the launch, including one that was capable of shooting the rocket down if necessary.

In an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz last month, Adm. Timothy Keating, the head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, which covers North Korea, said the U.S. military would be ready to shoot down the North Korean rocket if ordered to do so. "We've got Aegis cruisers, we've got radars, we've got space-based systems, we've got ground-based interceptors. We will be fully prepared to respond as the president directs," Keating said.

Japan had deployed missile-defense systems to attempt to shoot down the North Korean missile if it threatend Japanese territory. U.S. diplomats met with key counterparts in recent weeks in a bid to coordinate a response to the launch. Washington has been trying to convince North Korea to return to the Six Party Talks, aimed at ridding Pyongyang of its nuclear capability. Negotiations stalled last year in a disagreement over how the other parties would verify the extent of North Korea's nuclear programs.

The United States is also trying to persuade North Korea to release two American journalists detained last month after they allegedly crossed into the totalitarian country from China, where they were interviewing North Korean refugees. The State Department has said it does not see the journalists' detainment as related to the missile launch and has called for their immediate release. North Korean official media reports say the two will be tried on espionage charges.

U.S. President Barack Obama is urging countries around the world to come together to meet a common goal: the elimination of nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama made the appeal Sunday after North Korea defied the international community and launched a long range rocket. The North Korean action gave a new urgency to Mr. Obama's call for a nuclear free world in a speech in the Czech capital.


Obama is urging North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program. He says its rocket launch poses a global threat that warrants a United Nations Security Council response. "North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," said Obama. He further said the North Korean launch proves the need for nations to come together to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and to eliminate those that already exist. "This provocation underscores the need for action - not just this afternoon at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons. Rules must be binding," said Obama. "Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. The world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons."

Obama spoke in a packed square on a hill in a city that was caught in the middle of the Cold War. He talked about generations that have grown up in a world where the threat of nuclear weapons is part of life. He said that reality must change. "Today I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons!" said Obama.

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Obama laid out a process with three components: reduce current stockpiles, prevent further proliferation, and secure vulnerable nuclear materials to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. He talked about his desire to reach a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia, and to strengthen the current global non-proliferation pact. He also said he would seek U.S. Senate ratification of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and would convene a summit on nuclear security.

Obama made clear the task of creating a nuclear free world will be long and difficult and may not be completed in his lifetime. He detailed the challenges - including Iran. Obama said Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat not just to the United States but to Iran's neighbors and American allies in Europe. He said that is why the United States has proposed a missile defense system with components in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost effective and proven," he continued. "If the Iranian threat is eliminated we will have a stronger basis for security and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe will be removed." Obama said the United States - as the only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon - has a responsibility to act to reduce the global nuclear threat. He said America can lead the effort, but stressed the United States cannot do it alone.

Police Shooting in Athens Greece Sparks Country Wide Riots

ATHENS — Mobs of militant youth angered by the fatal shooting of a teenager took to a weekend of rampage, battling police in central Athens and destroying scores of shops, cars and businesses across the country. The riots, triggered late Saturday when a small group of youths attacked a police car in central Athens, sparked a spree of violence that ripped through the country, leaving many cities shattered like war zones.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said a senior police official who requested anonymity because of his involvement in the investigation. “The tension is so thick you can almost cut it with a knife.” The circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting remained unclear. Still, a police statement issued in the early hours of Sunday said the shooting took place while two officers were targeted by some 30 youths — many of them hurling stones — while patrolling the central district of Exarchia, an unruly haven of leftist extremists.

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Both officers left their car to confront the rioters, “firing three shots that resulted in the death of the minor,” according to the statement. Private Greek media and a website popular among leftist youths, www.indymedia.org, said the teenager had been shot in the chest and died while being transferred to a local hospital. Both officers — members of Greece’s elite police corps — have been suspended and senior officials vowed “exemplary punishment” for anyone found responsible. “It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person, let alone a minor, loses their life,” said Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos. “The loss of life,” he told an urgent news conference on Sunday, “is something that is inconceivable in a democracy.”

The deadly shooting sparked widespread riots, with hundreds of militant youth storming the streets of Athens within hours of the incident, hurling fire bombs, rocks and slabs of concrete at police who retaliated with tear gas. Private television networks broke into scheduled programming, broadcasting violent shows of street fights, the worse in recent years. Black-clad youth were seen smashing storefronts, targeting bank branches, torching dozens of refuse containers and cars lined along the meandering streets of Athens’ high-street commercial district.

Similar protests rattled the country’s second largest metropolis, Thessaloniki and a string of other Greek cities, including Chania on the island of Crete. No casualties were reported, but the overnight riots left Athens and other major cities strewn with shattered glass, burnt appliances and a stench of acrid smoke of tear gas. At least six people were arrested for looting goods from the debris of destroyed department stores and boutiques.

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Authorities in Athens braced for heated protests at a scheduled demonstration later Sunday. Mr. Pavlopoulos, who tendered a resignation early Sunday that was not accepted by the Greek Prime Minister, called for restraint during those rallies. “People have the right to protest and will do so, but while the pain and grief caused by the minor’s death is understandable, no outrage... can lead to the violence and destruction of private property that was witnessed [Sunday].”

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's interior minister called for restraint during demonstrations planned Sunday to protest the killing of a teenager by police, after extensive overnight rioting in several Greek cities. The circumstances surrounding the death of the 16-year-old boy were unclear. Police issued a statement saying that the two officers involved claimed their patrol car came under attack by a group of youths in the downtown Exarchia district of Athens.

The statement said the two officers left their car to confront the youths. "The two maintain that they were attacked again and responded, with one firing a stun grenade and the other, by shooting three times, resulting in the fatal wounding of the minor." The boy's death sparked widespread riots in Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and other Greek cities. Youths hurled firebombs, rocks and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas. Rioters set fires and smashed storefronts and bank branches. The fire department said an initial assessment showed more than 20 stores, several bank branches and many cars were burned in the capital.

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Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos submitted his resignation in the early hours of Sunday, but it was not accepted by the prime minister. The two officers involved have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, as has the police chief in the Exarchia precinct. Pavlopoulos promised there would be a thorough investigation into the teenager's death and pledged "exemplary punishment" for anyone found responsible.

"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," Pavlopoulos said during an emergency news conference Sunday morning. "The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy." A demonstration was planned for later Sunday in central Athens, and another was being planned for Monday.

Authorities were bracing for potential trouble, and the fire department said it was on alert across Athens. Pavlopoulos said that while people have the right to demonstrate, such protests should not turn against business owners and the public. While authorities understood the pain the 16-year-old's death had caused, the minister said, "no outrage, no matter how ideologically established it is, can lead to such incidents as we witnessed last night."

Pavlopoulos said the police were obliged to ensure civil order, but stressed they would do so in a defensive role. "It is everyone's right to demonstrate and to advocate for their rights," he said. "But I stress, not by destroying the property of others, not turning against people who are not to blame for anything." The overnight riots left parts of central Athens littered with the debris of smashed and burned — but not looted — businesses, while the acrid smoke of tear gas still hung in the early morning air.

At least 20 people Arrested in Burmese Uprising

At least 20 people have been arrested in the Burmese town of Taunggok after staging a silent protest on the 20th anniversary of a major uprising.

They were detained after marching while wearing T-shirts which referred to the date of the uprising - "8/8/88".

Activists outside Burma are marking the anniversary with demonstrations.

The 1988 protests drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, but ended with a violent clampdown and the deaths of at least 3,000 civilians.

The date 8 August 1988 was significant for the numerologically minded Burmese, and marked the start of six weeks of rallies against military rule.

The anniversary prompted tightened security in the main city, Rangoon, with police and pro-government militias stationed at strategic points, including Buddhist monasteries.

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Secret ceremonies

The BBC is banned from Burma - also known as Myanmar - but reports from opposition sources inside the country say at least 20 people were arrested in Taunggok, and that the number could be as high as 50.

Those arrested are now being questioned, an opposition official told the Reuters news agency.

It was the single largest reported incident on a day in which several other isolated protests were reported.

Three activists staging separate protests are said to have been detained in the vicinity of Rangoon.

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In the city itself, opposition sources said they were concerned for the welfare of a young woman seen walking in the streets wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

There have been few such open signs of the significance of the date in Burma, with reports suggesting monks and laypeople met in private for secret ceremonies to remember those who died.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP news agency that the anniversary marked "an important historical turning point".

Until the 8/8/88 protests, Ms Suu Kyi was only known as the daughter of liberation hero Aung San, but her speech to the assembled protesters during the rallies propelled her to the centre of the pro-democracy movement.

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China top in world for executions

Setting the death penalty for convicted murderers aside, China seems to have a thing for executing citizens for decention. China will execute almost 400 people during the Olympics, Amnesty International says.

A new league table of executions puts China at the top, having admitted using capital punishment 470 times last year, the London-based group said, while adding that campaigners believe the true figure is 8000.

"As the world's biggest executioner, China gets the 'gold medal' for global executions,'' said Amnesty's British director Kate Allen. "According to reliable estimates, on average China secretly executes around 22 prisoners every day - that's 374 people during the Olympic Games,'' she said.

Amnesty urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as Olympic athletes themselves to press for greater openness about executions by China, which will host the Olympics in Beijing from August 8-24. Amnesty warned that China's human rights record was getting worse as Beijing bids to present a united front by cracking down on dissent.

Amnesty urged the IOC and the international community to maintain pressure on Beijing.

Inquest into Death of Princess Diana Nears end

London Flashing lights, swarming paparazzi, a mysterious second car at the crash site, and a multi-tentacled conspiracy allegedly directed by the husband of Queen Elizabeth II - jurors have much to sort through in reaching a judgment on the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed.

Nearly 11 years after the tragedy that shook the world, testimony has ranged far and wide in an extraordinary coroner's inquest, without shedding much light on claims that they were victims of a plot. The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, is expected to begin his summation Monday, which may take days before going to the jury.

The key question for the jurors is whether the car crash in a Paris road tunnel on Aug. 31, 1997 was an accident.
Mohamed Al Fayed has not budged from claiming that his son and the princess died at the hands of British security agents, acting at Prince Philip's behest.

French police concluded it was an accident, caused in part by speeding and by the high alcohol level in driver Henri Paul's blood. A British police investigation concurred.

More than 240 witnesses have testified since the inquest began on Oct. 2, including Diana's close friends and former butler, Philip's private secretary and a former head of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. Al Fayed's late bid to force the coroner to summon Philip to testify, and for written questions to be put to the queen, was summarily rejected by a higher court.

There has been evidence that Diana feared dying in a car crash, but that she also had speculated about death in a helicopter or airplane crash; there was testimony that she feared Philip.

The basic scene is familiar: the couple's car slammed into a concrete pillar in the Alma tunnel, after apparently having a glancing collision with a white Fiat Uno, as they were pursued from the Ritz Hotel by photographers. Some witnesses said they saw flashes of light in the instant before the crash; other witnesses didn't notice any. Al Fayed's claim is that flashing lights disoriented the driver and sent the couple's car into a fatal skid.

But there was precious little evidence to back up his claims that his son and Diana were engaged, that she was pregnant and that Philip was at the head of a murder plot.

Al Fayed believes the Establishment simply didn't want Diana to marry his son, a Muslim.

Al Fayed worked his way up from a humble birth in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1929 to become one of the richest men in Britain. He owns Harrods department store, a Scottish castle, the Fulham FC soccer team and the Ritz Hotel.

As the inquest unfolded, some distance opened between Al Fayed and his lawyers.

Michael Mansfield, his main advocate, steered away from accusing Philip or claiming MI6 assassinated the couple. He did suggest that rogue agents might have been involved.

"Mr. Al Fayed ... has certain beliefs which he has made clear. He is plainly not a member of MI6 or, certainly, the Establishment either," Mansfield told the coroner.

"I have never at any stage withdrawn any of his beliefs but you will see I have focused very carefully on elements of what he is suggesting that may be true; in other words, for which there is, forensically, evidence to support his beliefs."

Mansfield has suggested that Diana's campaign against land mines was the motive for the conspiracy - that she was assembling a dossier "capable of exposing historically British involvement in Angola because of who manufactured the weaponry, how it was got in there."

When he testified on Feb. 18, Al Fayed affirmed his belief that the conspirators included Prince Philip; Diana's ex-husband, Prince Charles; Tony Blair, who was prime minister when she died; Diana's sister, Sarah McCorquodale; her brother-in-law, Robert Fellowes; two former chiefs of London police; driver Paul; the CIA; Diana's attorney, the late Lord Mishcon; two French toxicologists; Britain's ambassador to France; members of the French medical service; and three bodyguards Al Fayed once employed.

Al Fayed has claimed Fellowes was in Paris on the night of the crash sending messages to agents back in Britain. But none of Al Fayed's lawyers put that to Fellowes when he testified.

Al Fayed was the only witness to claim Diana was engaged to his son. He was told of the engagement, Al Fayed said, in a telephone call hours before the crash.

He alone definitively asserted that Diana was pregnant. The pathologist who examined her body said he saw no evidence, and others testified she was conscientious about taking her birth control pills.

So where was the proof? Al Fayed was asked.

"How can you want me to get the proof?" he said. "I am facing a steel wall of the security service, Official Secrets Act."

The coroner asked Al Fayed if he could possibly be wrong.

"No way, 100 percent," Al Fayed said. "I am certain. I am the father who lost his son. And I know exactly the situations. I know exactly the facts."

Dozens of Monks Killed by Chinese Government in Tibet

Just another reason not to buy products made in China.

China locked down the Tibetan capital Saturday after the largest and most violent protests against its rule in the region in nearly two decades.

At least 10 people were killed when demonstrators rampaged through Lhasa, dashing Beijing's plans for a smooth run-up to August's Olympics.

Also Saturday, police broke up sympathy protests in China's western province of Gansu, as well as in Australia, India and Nepal.

Streets in Lhasa were mostly empty Saturday as a curfew remained in place. Eyewitnesses described baton-wielding police patrolling streets as fires from Friday's violence smoldered. Reports of deaths and arrests were varied and could not be independently confirmed.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said 10 people - including two hotel employees and two shop owners - were burned to death, but no foreigners were hurt. The report did not give any other details.

Tibet's main exile group claimed Saturday that it had confirmed reports that Chinese authorities killed 30 Tibetan demonstrators and injured many more, and unconfirmed reports of over 100 deaths.

The unrest comes two weeks before China's highly anticipated Olympic celebrations kick into high gear with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet.

Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, said the unrest would not have a negative impact on the Games or the torch relay.

Preparations to carry the Olympic torch across Mount Everest and across Tibet "have been proceeding very smoothly and according to schedule," Sun said.

"The hosting of the Beijing Games is the 100-year dream for Chinese people and I think the Chinese people, including our compatriots in Tibet, very much look forward to hosting the Games," Sun said.

The United States and other governments have urged China to show restraint on the protesters, though International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge deferred, saying he didn't have details.

"It is not our job," Rogge, the IOC president, told reporters while visiting Puerto Rico. "We are not an activist organization."

China's governor in Tibet vowed to punish the rioters, while law enforcement authorities urged protesters to turn themselves in by Tuesday or face unspecified punishment.

"We will deal harshly with these criminals in accordance with the law," Champa Phuntsok, chairman of the Tibetan government, told reporters in Beijing where he was attending a legislative meeting. "Beating, smashing, looting and burning - we absolutely condemn this sort of behavior. This plot is doomed to failure."

He blamed the protests on followers of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and is still Tibet's widely revered spiritual leader.

From Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama appealed to China not to use force, saying he was "deeply concerned," and urged Tibetans "not to resort to violence."

Over the centuries, Tibet was at times part of China's dynastic empires. Communist forces invaded the region in 1950, to reclaim the Himalayan region and seize the commanding heights overlooking rival India.

The latest unrest began Monday, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, when 300 monks from one monastery demanded the release of other monks detained last fall. But political demands soon came to the fore.

The violence erupted on the fifth day, after police tried to stop monks from protesting in central Lhasa, ordinary Tibetans vented pent-up anger on Chinese, hurling stones and torching shops and cars.

"The protesters yesterday went from attacking Chinese police to attacking innocent people very, very quickly," said a blog entry by a group of Westerners staying in a hotel in central Lhasa near the riot. "Many Tibetans were also caught in the crossfire."

On Saturday, Xinhua said Lhasa had "reverted to calm" and electricity and phone service, which had been cut for parts of Friday, was being restored.

A notice issued by Tibet's high court, prosecutors office and police department offered leniency for demonstrators who surrender before Tuesday. Otherwise, they will be "severely punished," according to a notice carried on official Web sites and confirmed by prosecutors.

Some shops in Lhasa were closed. Tourists were told to stay in their hotels and make plans to leave, but government staff were required to work.

"There's no conflict today. The streets look pretty quiet," said a woman who answered the telephone at the Lhasa Hotel.

Tourists reached by phone described soldiers standing in lines sealing off streets where the rioting occurred. Armored vehicles and trucks ferried soldiers.

"There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down," said a 23-year-old Western student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday. "All the restaurants are closed, all the hotels are closed."

Plooij Frans, a Dutch tourist who left the capital Saturday morning by plane and arrived in the Nepali capital of Katmandu, said he saw about 140 trucks of soldiers drive into the city within 24 hours.

"They came down on Tibetan people really hard," said Frans, who said his group could not return to their hotel Friday and had to stay near the airport. "Every corner there were tanks. It would have been impossible to hold any protest today."

Government workers said they have been prevented from leaving their buildings.

"We've been here since yesterday. No one has been allowed to leave or come in," said a woman who works for Lhasa's Work Safety Bureau, which is located near the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama.

"Armored vehicles have been driving past," she said. "Men wearing camouflage uniforms and holding batons are patrolling the streets.

It is extremely difficult to get independent verification of events in Tibet since China maintains rigid control over the area. Foreigners need special travel permits, and journalists are rarely granted access except under highly controlled circumstances.

The violence poses difficulties for a communist leadership that has looked to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics as a way to recast China as a friendly, modern power. Too rough a crackdown could put that at risk, while balking could embolden protesters, costing Beijing authority in often restive Tibet.

Phuntsok, the Tibetan government head, said no shots were fired.

In the western Chinese town of Xiahe, police fired tear gas to disperse Buddhist monks and others staging a second day of protests Saturday.

Several hundred monks marched out of historic Labrang monastery and into Xiahe in the morning, gathering other Tibetans with them as they went, residents said.

The crowd attacked government buildings, smashing windows in the county police headquarters, before police fired tear gas to put an end to the protest. A London-based Tibetan activist group, Free Tibet Campaign, said 20 people were arrested, citing unidentified sources in Xiahe.

"Many windows in shops and houses were smashed," said an employee at a hotel, who did not want either his or the hotel's name used for fear of retaliation. He said he did not see any Tibetans arrested or injured but said some police were hurt.

Pockets of dissent were also springing up outside China.

In Australia, media reported that police used batons and pepper spray to quell a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. The Australian Associated Press reported that dozens of demonstrators were at the scene and that five were arrested.

Dozens of protesters in India launched a new march just days after more than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested by authorities during a similar rally.

And in Nepal's capital of Katmandu, police broke up a protest by 200 Tibetans in the Nepalese capital, beating them with bamboo batons and arresting at least 20 of them.

The Tibetans holding banners reading "Free Tibet. Stop the killings in Tibet" were demonstrating Saturday in front of the United Nations' office in Katmandu.

A police official said they had orders to clear the streets in front of the United Nations.

A 49-year-old protester Tshering Ladum said she was only praying and demonstrating peacefully to seek support for the people in Tibet, and was attacked by the police without any reason.

Treasure hunters dig for Hitler's gold

Digging has resumed at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are almost 2 tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room, a prize taken from a Russian castle during World War II.

Heinz Peter Haustein, one of the two treasure hunters and a member of Germany's parliament, said: "We have already hit a hollow area under the surface, it's filled with water and we are not sure if it is the cave we are looking for."

Digging was stopped more than a week ago amid safety concerns, as authorities and the treasure hunters feared that the shaft might collapse and that the cave -- if it is there -- may be rigged with explosives or poisonous booby traps.

At a news conference Friday, Christian Hanisch, the other treasure hunter, said that geological surveying equipment had located a possible cave about 30 feet under the surface containing "precious metals that can only be either gold or silver. The instruments would not have reacted to any other metal like copper."

Hanisch pointed out that his father, who was a navigator in the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, was one of the troops said to have been involved in hiding art, gold and silver as the Nazis realized that they would lose the war.

He said that when his father died, he left coordinates leading to the spot in Deutschneudorf.

"It's not about getting the reward," Hanisch said at the site. "I just want to know if my father was right and if my instincts were right."

Haustein, who is paying for the expedition, said he hopes that finding the gold could lead to the Amber Room, whose interior is made completely of amber and gold. It was looted by the Nazis from a castle in St. Petersburg, Russia, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

The room looked so majestic, many called it "the eighth wonder of the world." It disappeared after the war, and today a replica stands in its place in St. Petersburg.

Although parts of the Amber Room have resurfaced, the vast majority remains missing.

Haustein has been looking for the room for more than 12 years.

"I am certain that large parts of the Amber Room are buried somewhere here," he said.

He said he has collected much circumstantial evidence suggesting that the Nazis hid the Amber Room in old copper mines around Deutschneudorf, but he has no proof.

Haustein said the Nazis began bringing valuables including art, gold and silver to the region around Deutschneudorf as early as summer 1944.

Deutschneudorf is in Germany's Ore Mountains, and the mountain where the treasure hunters claim to have found the Nazi gold was a copper mine until the 19th century. Although the mine was shut down in 1882, geologists found evidence that soldiers from Hitler's Wehrmacht -- the German armed forces -- had been there. The machine guns, parts of uniforms and explosives are on display at the town's museum.

Though both treasure hunters say they are certain they will find cultural goods, both admit that they fear disappointment.

"Of course, if you embark on something like this, you ask yourself: 'What if we find nothing again? What if I was fooled?' " Haustein said. "But every man has to go his own way, for better or for worse."

If they do find the treasure, Haustein says, it would legally belong to Germany, although he would recommend that Germany give any Amber Room parts back to Russia.

Treasure hunters have typically received rewards of 10 percent of the value of the goods found, but Hanisch says there are no laws dictating the reward amount.

"Doomsday Vault" Seed bank in Norway Ready to open

A "doomsday" vault built to withstand an earthquake or nuclear strike is ready to open deep in the permafrost of an Arctic mountain where it will protect millions of seeds from manmade and natural disasters.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will officially be inaugurated on Tuesday, less than a year after crews started drilling in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 620 miles from the North Pole.

The vault, which Norway built at a cost of about $9.1 million, has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the globe, shielding them from climate change, wars, natural disasters and other threats.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg are expected to attend the opening ceremony 425 feet deep into the Plataaberget mountain.

The vault is designed to be a "fail-safe backup" for the other 1,400 seed banks in the world, in case they are hit by disasters, said Cary Fowler, executive director of project partner the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

For example, war wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006.

"So much of the value of Svalbard is that it is so far away from the dangers," Fowler told The Associated Press during a tour of the vault on Monday. The frigid archipelago is about 300 miles north of the Norwegian mainland.

Construction started in April last year. Norway owns the vault but countries sending seeds will own the material they deposit.

From the outside, only the entryway is visible. It resembles an elongated concrete tower capped by a glass artwork depicting frozen ice crystals.

Ahead of the opening, the entrance was decorated with igloo-like cubes of snow and an ice sculpture of a polar bear. Seed vault worker Jimmy Olsen was standing outside with a rifle slung from his shoulder.

"My job is to keep away people who aren't supposed to be here, and guard against polar bears," he said. There are an estimated 3,000 polar bears on the islands.

A long, steel-lined tunnel leads to three separate chambers for storing seeds, each reached through a frost-covered metal door. Each of the 32-by-88-foot vaults has blue and orange metal shelves that can hold 1.5 million sample packages — foil containers with 500 seeds each.

The frozen mountain has been chilled further by giant air conditioning units to bring the temperature down to minus 0.4 Fahrenheit. Many seeds could last 1,000 years at that temperature, Fowler said.

Reactions from around the world have been mostly positive, but the world spotlight brought by the seed bank has met a cool reception from some locals who treasure the isolation of the Arctic archipelago.

"We like to be here a little bit for ourselves," said Kai Tredal, 42, one of the roughly 2,000 residents of Svalbard's main town of Longyearbyen.

The crop trust, which is helping Norway manage the project, said it was seeking deposits from the world's biggest seed banks first.

The vault is designed to withstand earthquakes — successfully tested by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake at Svalbard last week — and even a direct nuclear strike, said construction leader Magnus Bredeli-Tveiten.

Fowler added that even if power systems failed, the permafrost around the vault would help keep the seeds "cold for 200 years even in the worst case climate scenario."

He expected the vault's life span to rival that of Egypt's ancient pyramids.

Fidel Castro Steps down

HAVANA (Reuters) - Raul Castro, Cuba's likely new leader after his ailing brother Fidel Castro bowed out on Tuesday, is a pragmatist more concerned with putting food on Cuban tables than spreading revolution abroad.

The outwardly dour Raul Castro, 76, lacks his elder brother's charisma and has lived in his shadow for decades.

But he is seen as a ray of hope by some Cubans fed up with political rhetoric and the daily grind of getting ahead in a battered state-run economy.

As acting president since his brother was sidelined by illness almost 19 months ago, Raul Castro has encouraged Cubans to openly debate the shortcomings of Cuba's communist system.

If confirmed as president on Sunday as expected, he will face a Herculean task of solving Cubans' economic hardships.

While he has so far made few changes, Raul Castro has raised expectations that Cubans will soon be allowed to freely buy and sell their homes, travel abroad and stay at hotels and beaches where only foreigners can step foot.

In December, the camera-shy army general said Cuba had "excessive prohibitions", a sentiment shared by most Cubans who need government permits for almost everything they do, from buying a car to working as a clown or a shoe-shine.

Raul has acknowledged that wages paid by Cuba's socialist state are too low. He has called for "structural changes" in agriculture to increase food output and reduce Cuba's reliance on imports, and said Cuba was open to new foreign investment.

Yet Raul Castro is not expected to follow China's example and free up a market economy, at least not while his brother is alive. And he has promised more socialism.

"The challenges we have ahead are enormous, but may no one doubt our people's firm conviction that only through socialism can we overcome the difficulties and preserve the social gains of half a century of revolution," he said late last year.

Raul Castro extended an olive branch to Cuba's arch-enemy, the U.S. government, saying in July that Havana was open to talks to end more than four decades of hostility, but only when President George W. Bush has left the White House.

The younger Castro was flung into the role of running one of the world's last communist states when his brother was forced to step aside on July 31, 2006, after emergency intestinal surgery.

Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since then and the 81-year-old revolutionary announced his retirement on Tuesday.

"BEANS, NOT CANNONS"

As defense minister since the brothers led a 1959 revolution, Raul Castro built the armed forces into a formidable fighting force that defeated South African troops in Angola.

Once considered an implacable Stalinist and the Kremlin's most reliable friend in Cuba, Raul is said to have become more pragmatic after the collapse of the Soviet Union pushed Cuba to the brink of economic chaos.

"Beans are more important than cannons," Raul said during the crisis that left the air force parking its MiG jet fighters with the help of horses for lack of fuel.

He cut the armed forces to one fifth of its peak of 300,000 troops, and backed reforms that allowed limited private initiative to flourish in the 1990s.

An admirer of China's economic prowess, Raul is believed to favor loosening up state controls of the Cuban economy while maintaining one-party communist rule.

Forced to become self-sufficient after the loss of billions of dollars in Soviet aid, the Cuban military under Raul's savvy management was the first to introduce capitalist business practices in Cuba and has a big stake in the economy today.

It has emerged as Cuba's most efficient institution and owns lucrative enterprises in agriculture, industry and tourism, including hotels at beach resorts, an airline, a bus fleet, car rentals and a retail shop chain.

Cuba experts say he is a good talent spotter who surrounds himself with capable officials and is good at delegating.

Born on June 3, 1931, Raul Castro was raised -- like Fidel Castro -- on their father's large farm in eastern Cuba.

Since their guerrilla war in the Sierra Maestra mountains and the triumph of their revolution on Jan 1, 1959, Raul Castro has always been his brother's most trusted right-hand man.

His late wife Vilma Espin, who fought as a guerrilla, founded the Cuban Federation of Women and served as Cuba's unofficial First Lady.

His daughter Mariela Castro is a sexologist who has defended the rights of transsexuals and is pushing legislation to allow gay marriage in Cuba.

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US Maintains hardline stance on Cuba
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Cuba and the United States have been feuding since Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution.

Following are some highlights of Cuba-U.S. relations since 1959:

* January 1, 1959 - Cuban Revolution. Castro and his rebel army take power after flight from island of former dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had been backed by the United States.

* June 29, 1960 - United States suspends Cuban sugar import quota after Castro nationalizes Texaco refinery that refuses to process oil from Soviet Union.

* October 19, 1960 - United States begins partial economic embargo of Cuba.

* January 3, 1961 - Washington breaks diplomatic ties with Cuba.

* April 19, 1961 - Castro's troops defeat CIA-backed Cuban exile invasion force at Bay of Pigs.

* February 7, 1962 - Full U.S. trade embargo imposed on Cuba.

* October 1962 - Missile crisis. The presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba provokes standoff between Moscow and Washington. Many fear World War Three, but Russia decides to appease the United States and withdraws missiles.

* April-September 1980 - Mariel Boatlift. Cuba allows mass exodus of about 125,000 citizens to the United States, mostly via Mariel port west of Havana.

* August 1994 - Rafter Crisis. More than 30,000 Cubans flee island on flimsy boats, many perishing in shark-filled waters between Cuba and Florida. Washington and Havana sign migration accord to stem exodus and agree to a minimum of 20,000 legal entry visas per year for Cubans.

* January 21-25, 1998 - Pope John Paul II visits Cuba, condemning U.S. embargo but also calling for greater freedoms on the island.

* July 13, 2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush orders his administration to more strictly enforce sanctions in place against Cuba, and pledges increased support for pro-democracy forces on the island.

* November 2001 - Cuba purchases U.S. agricultural products as the two countries begin their first direct food trade since 1962 under an exception to embargo passed by U.S. congress.

* May 6, 2002 - In a speech entitled "Beyond the Axis of Evil," U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton accuses Cuba, along with Libya and Syria, of working to develop biological weapons, a charge Castro denies.

* December 8, 2003 - Bush creates commission to hasten a transition to democracy and assist a "Free Cuba." In May 2004, the commission recommends spending $80 million over two years on pro-democracy initiatives and broadcasts to Cuba.

* February 22, 2005 - U.S. Treasury Department changes its interpretation of authorized food sales to Cuba to mean payment must be received before shipment. Cuba says measure will push up costs.

* June 30, 2005 - New U.S. curbs on travel come into force as Bush administration tightens enforcement of embargo.

* July 10, 2006 - U.S. government announces increased support for dissidents and more money for anti-Castro broadcasts.

Bush Backs plans for Kosovo Independence - Serbia States the Declaration is Illegal

US President George W. Bush said Sunday that he supports a UN envoy's plan for the independence of Kosovo, poised to become the world's newest state.

"On Kosovo, our position is that its status must be resolved in order for the Balkans to be stable. Secondly, we have strongly supported the Ahtisaari plan," Bush said, referring to a so-called "supervised independence" plan put forward by the former Finnish president and UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

"Thirdly, we are heartened by the fact that the Kosovo government has clearly proclaimed its willingness and its desire to support Serbian rights in Kosovo," Bush said during a visit to Africa.

"We also believe it's in Serbia's interests to be aligned with Europe. And the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America," said the US leader.

"Finally, the United States will continue to work with our allies to do the very best we can to make sure there's no violence," Bush told reporters. "Those are the principles going into the Kosovo issue."

Prodded on whether the United States would recognize Kosovo, Bush retorted: "I suggest you study the Ahtisaari plan."

Ahtisaari presented a plan in early 2007 calling for independence under international supervision for Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia which has a 90-percent ethnic Albanian population.

Kosovo has been under United Nations administration since 1999 when a US-led NATO air war against Milosevic's regime wrested the landlocked province of two million people from Belgrade's grip.

Kosovo's Albanian-dominated parliament is expected to declare independence later Sunday. It will be followed by a 120-day transition period, marked by the deployment of a 2,000-strong European Union police and judicial team intended to smoothen the transition and ensure democracy.

Serbia and its ally Russia have said Kosovo's planned unilateral declaration of independence is illegal.

Quarantine declared in Nij village of Gabala to prevent African swine fever

Novosti-Azerbaijan reports that the State Veterinary Service under Azerbaijan's Ministry of Agriculture undertakes due measures to prevent the spread of African swine fever virus in Nij village of Gabala.

The due information was provided by chief of the service Ismail Gasanov during a press conference.

"In order to prevent virus spread quarantine was declared in Nij village. It is prohibited to enter and leave the village. The both healthy and infected swines are terminated there as the said virus does not have a treatment. 115 pigs have been killed so far", Gasanov announced.

He also added that the African swine fever virus was revealed in Azerbaijan on January 28.

"Blood samples of pigs, bred in this country, were examined in the State Laboratory of the Veterinary Service. The results showed the presence of the African swine fever virus in blood", he noted.

According to Gasanov, the veterinary service carried out anti-epidemic and sanitary-enlightening works in this village.

The chief of the veterinary service also noted that the virus has possibly came from Georgia, where the African swine fever was revealed in May of 2007.

Cameroon joins UN battle against Female Circumcision - Warning Disturbing graphic image

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons is a barbaric act to womanhood.

The practice violates the basic rights of women and girls and seriously compromises their health, posing risks during childbirth, and leaving lasting physical and psychological scars. Estimated statistics from the United Nations reveal that 120 to 140 million women have been subjected to the practice and three million girls continue to be at risk each year. Approximately 6,000 new cases of FGM is experienced every day, five girls every minute.


International organisations have not folded their arms to the cruel act women undergo. That is why the United Nations designed yesterday as the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation to raise awareness amongst the general public about this cold-blooded act. The practice of FGM is still widespread in spite of a global commitment following the 2002 UN Special Session on Children to end FGM by 2010.

In Cameroon, experts from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and the Family, say it is difficult to have statistics on the practice of FGM in the country since those who practice it do so in hiding while victims of FGM are usually ashamed and afraid to testify in public due to traditional treats from kinsmen.
















However, a UN report estimates that about 20 per cent of women in Cameroon go through a form of FGM called infibulation which occurs in certain areas of the South West and Northern Provinces. This is why as Cameroon joined the international community to commemorate the first International Day against FGM, the Minister of Women's Empowerment and the Family, Suzanne Mbomback, used the occasion to condemn the practice.

She underscored government's commitment to respect and protect the rights of its citizens. As such, Minister Suzanne Mbomback urged all to join in the fight against FGM. In Yaounde, the day was characterised by debates and film projections against the practice of FGM.

30 reported dead (And growing) in devastating Rwanda Great lakes Earthquake

At least 30 people have been killed and more than 300 hurt in a series of quakes in Africa's Great Lakes region.
The two most powerful occurred hours apart in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Rwanda, with magnitudes of 6.0 and 5.0 respectively.

At least 10 people died as a church collapsed in western Rwanda, while the eastern DR Congo city of Bukavu suffered widespread damage.

Police say the death toll could rise, as there are many people trapped.

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the region in December 2005.

But while it is prone to seismic activity it has mostly escaped major quakes in recent years.
Panic

The first earthquake hit at about 0935 (0735 GMT), 20km (12 miles from Bukavu).

The second quake came just under three-and-a-half hours later, slightly closer to the town but in Rwandan territory. It was followed by two lesser tremors.

It was not clear how many casualties had been caused by each quake, but they combined to cause panic in both the Bukavu area and in Rwanda.

Rwandan radio said 10 people died when a church collapsed in Rusizi district.

Another 15 were killed in other parts of Rusizi and Nyamesheke district.

DR Congo officials said five people died in Bukavu.

An official from the country's UN peacekeeping mission said damage in the city was extensive.

"There is lots of damage. Many buildings have been hit. Lots of houses have completely collapsed," Jacqueline Chenard said.

The quakes were also felt in neighbouring Burundi, disrupting hydroelectric power and causing a half-hour electricity cut.