Anti-Morsi protesters surround presidential palace

Latest update: 04/12/2012 

Protesters demonstrating against Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi clashed with riot police as they surrounded Cairo's presidential palace on Tuesday. TV footage showed protesters breaking through lines of police, who responded by firing teargas.

By FRANCE 24 (text)

 

Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters as they surrounded President Mohammed Morsi’s palace in Cairo on Tuesday, demanding an end to his regime.
Police fired teargas at up to 10,000 demonstrators who descended on the palace in what they called “last warning” protests against Morsi, who angered opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers, placing him beyond the reach of the judiciary, and his support for a controversial draft constitution.
Some protesters broke through the police lines around his palace and took up posts near the perimeter wall.
“The people want the downfall of the regime,” the demonstrators chanted.
Presidential sources said Morsi left the building when the number of protesters gathered outside began to swell. “The president has left the palace,” one source, who declined to be named, told Reuters. A security source at the presidency also said the president had departed.
Riot police at the palace faced off against activists chanting “Leave, leave” and holding Egyptian flags with “No to the constitution” written on them. At one point, people clambered onto an armoured police vehicle and waved flags, while riot police huddled nearby.
“Our marches are against tyranny and the void constitutional decree, and we won’t retract our position until our demands are met,” said Hussein Abdel Ghany, a spokesman for an opposition coalition of liberal, leftist and other factions.
Eighteen people were injured in the clashes near the palace, state news agencies reported, citing the Health Ministry.
'Under siege'
The protesters are intent on letting the president feel their presence, said FRANCE 24’s Cairo correspondent, Alex Turnbull. “The demonstrators pulled away the barricades that the security forces had put in place and it looks like the presidential palace is under siege," Turnbull said.
“There are demonstrators all around the building and they are trying all they can to make sure Morsi notices them," he said. "They were banging stones against posts and street lamps, and dozens were aiming laser lights through the palace windows.”
Earlier, protesters had taken to the streets waving Egyptian flags, denouncing the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party, from which Morsi emerged, for having "sold the revolution" that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak last year.
Morsi has called a December 15 referendum on the draft constitution, which is rejected by liberals, leftists and Christians, and which has sparked strikes and deadly protests since it was unveiled last week.

EGYPT Morsi vs. judges: Egyptian crisis gets ‘bizarrely legal’

"I'm not going to vote. Morsi and the committee [drafting the constitution] are void," one protester told AFP.
The draft charter has become the focal point of a political and ideological battle in Egypt between the ruling Islamists and the largely secular-leaning opposition.
"Egypt is a country where all religions should live together. I love God's law and Sharia (Islamic law), but I will vote against the constitution because it has split the people," said Bassam Ali Mohammed, a professor of Islamic law, as he neared the presidential palace.
Morsi has not only placed his decisions beyond judicial oversight but also barred any judicial body from dissolving the Islamist-dominated panel that drafted and approved the new constitution, sparking a high-profile conflict with the country's judges.

EGYPT ‘New pharaoh’ Morsi confronts pyramid of woes

Media strike
Security measures were tightened around the capital on Tuesday, with some schools and businesses closed, and independent and opposition newspapers refusing to publish their Tuesday editions to protest against the lack of press freedoms in the draft constitution.
The strike was designed to "stand up to tyranny", independent daily Al-Tahrir said on its website.
"The Egyptian Independent objects to continued restrictions on media liberties, especially after hundreds of Egyptians gave their lives for freedom," read a message on the newspaper's website, its only viewable content on Tuesday.
As he faces his worst crisis since taking office in June, Morsi insists the measures are aimed at ending a tumultuous transition following the popular uprising that toppled Mubarak in early 2011.
But his opponents have accused him of choosing the same path of autocracy that finally cost Mubarak his presidency.
(FRANCE 24 with wires)

Pro-govt activists attack trade union demo in Tunis

04 December 2012 - 22H05  

Tunisian unionists shouts slogans as they rally outside the headquarters of the Union of Tunisian Workers in Tunis. Supporters of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party on Tuesday attacked the demonstration, in the latest unrest two years after the revolution, an AFP photographer reported.

Tunisian riot police seperate union protestors and Islamists as they face off outside the headquarters of the Union of Tunisian Workers in Tunis. Supporters of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party on Tuesday attacked a demonstration by the country's main labour union, in the latest unrest two years after the revolution, an AFP photographer reported.

AFP - Supporters of Tunisia's ruling Islamist party on Tuesday attacked a demonstration by the country's main labour union, in the latest unrest two years after the revolution, an AFP photographer reported.
Several dozen assailants attacked members of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) who were gathered outside the union's headquarters in Tunis to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination of its founder, Farhat Hached.
The police intervened to separate the two sides, but 10 demonstrators were wounded in the attack, according to the trade union.
The interior ministry confirmed clashes had taken place between trade unionists and members of the League for the Protection of the Revolution, a group close to Ennahda that has developed a reputation for brutal violence.
In October, an opposition party accused the League, which claims as its mission to protect the aims of the revolution that toppled former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, of beating a party official to death.
The UGTT's secretary general, Houcine Abassi, blamed the "enemies of democracy" for Tuesday's violence, and denounced what he said was an unprecedented attack against his organisation.
"They want to assassinate the UGTT on the day that it commemorates the assassination of Hached, who sacrificed his life for his people and his country," Abassi told private radio station Shems FM.
He said such an attack had never been witnessed before, "neither during the time of (Tunisia's first president Habib) Bourguiba, nor of Ben Ali."
The League hit back, accusing the UGTT of provoking the clashes by attacking its members with batons when they tried to participate peacefully in the demonstration.
"Whenever there is a protest by the left, they insult us, they insult the government and Ennahda, even though no one has touched them. The reality is that they (leftist groups) are professional criminals," the group said on its Facebook page.
For its part, Ennahda, which heads Tunisia's ruling coalition after winning legislative elections in November last year, strongly criticised Tuesday's violence against the demonstrators, and called for restraint.
The latest unrest comes as clashes, strikes and attacks, including by hardline Islamists, have multiplied across Tunisia, plunging the country into a political impasse nearly two years after Ben Ali's ouster.
The UGTT organised a general strike and anti-government protests last week in the impoverished town of Siliana, southwest of the capital, over poor living conditions, which degenerated into five days of violence.
The union accused Ennahda supporters of instigating the unrest, in which youths erected barricades and hurled rocks and petrol bombs at the police, who responded by firing teargas and birdshot to disperse them.
More than 300 people were wounded.

Africa's vanishing savannahs threaten lions: study

05 December 2012 - 00H01  

A lion at the Entabeni Safari Conservancy in Limpopo, South Africa in July 2012. Africa's savannahs, and the lions that have found their home there, are disappearing at an alarming rate, plummeting two thirds over the past 50 years, a study found.

AFP - Africa's savannahs, and the lions that have found their home there, are disappearing at an alarming rate, plummeting two thirds over the past 50 years, a study found Tuesday.
Using new satellite data, Duke University researchers estimated that as few as 32,000 lions now live on the continent's savannahs, down from nearly 100,000 in 1960.
The declines were particularly dire in West Africa, where human populations have doubled over the past three decades, according to the study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. It said fewer than 500 lions remain in the region.
"Only 25 percent remains of an ecosystem that once was a third larger than the continental United States," said Stuart Pimm of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
He blamed the decline on massive land-use change and deforestation driven by rapid human population growth encroaching on the big cats' habitats.
Pimm and his colleagues mapped areas still favorable for lions' survival by using high-resolution satellite imagery from Google Earth, along with human population density data and estimates of lion populations.
They found only 67 isolated stretches of savannah, defined as areas that receive between approximately 11 to 59 inches (28 to 150 centimeters) of rain annually, across the continent that had low enough human impacts and densities.
And only 10 of those areas were considered "strongholds" where lions had an excellent chance of surviving, many of them located within national parks.
The National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative funded the study.

World's biggest aquamarine gem going on show in US

05 December 2012 - 00H22  

The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History is seen in Washington, DC, in 2011. The largest single piece of cut-gem aquamarine in the world is going on permanent exhibition in Washington alongside the Hope Diamond and Marie Antoinette's earrings.

AFP - The largest single piece of cut-gem aquamarine in the world is going on permanent exhibition from Thursday in Washington alongside the Hope Diamond and Marie Antoinette's earrings.
Mined from a Brazilian pegmatite in the 1980s, and named for Brazil's first two emperors, the Dom Pedro Aquamarine will take pride of place at the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.
"The quality of the original crystal and its size, exquisite blue-green color and distinctive cut make it an exceptionally rare gem," the museum said in a statement.
The obelisk-shaped, blue-green gem -- designed by famed German gem cutter Bernd Munsteiner, known as the "father of the fantasy cut" -- stands 14 inches (35.5 centimeters) tall and weighs 10,363 carats or 4.6 pounds (two kilograms).
"The Dom Pedro Aquamarine represents a combination of an extraordinary crystal of rare clarity and rich color with the unique skills of a celebrated artist," said Jeffrey Post, curator of the museum's gem collection.
The Smithsonian Institution's collection of gems and minerals is one of the largest of its kind in the world, with the dark blue Hope Diamond -- donated in 1958 -- a big attraction at the National Museum of Natural History.

US faces fraught options on Syria's chemical arsenal

05 December 2012 - 00H47  

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaking during his interview with RT in Damascus in November 2012. The United States could try to secure Syria's chemical arsenal by sending in special forces and staging bombing raids but any military action would be high-risk with a chance that weapons might fall into the wrong hands, experts and former officials said.

A Syrian rebel fighter runs in a sniper alley in the Saif al-Dawla neighbourhood of Aleppo in September 2012. As opposition forces steadily gain ground in Syria, Washington and its allies worry that President Bashar al-Assad's regime may turn to chemical weapons in desperation or that extremists may get hold of artillery rounds filled with sarin or mustard gas.

US President Barack Obama speaks at the National Defense University in Washington on December 3. Western powers issued stern statements on Monday and Tuesday, with President Barack Obama warning Assad: "If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

AFP - The United States could try to secure Syria's chemical arsenal by sending in special forces and staging bombing raids but any military action would be high-risk with a chance that weapons might fall into the wrong hands, experts and former officials said Tuesday.
As opposition forces steadily gain ground in Syria, Washington and its allies worry that President Bashar al-Assad's regime may turn to chemical weapons in desperation or that extremists may get hold of artillery rounds filled with sarin or mustard gas.
Western powers issued stern statements on Monday and Tuesday, with President Barack Obama warning Assad: "If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."
But ex-intelligence officers and analysts say military intervention carries a host of dangers and difficulties.
Air strikes against chemical weapon production sites and storage depots would carry the risk that "some chemical agents would likely be released into the air, endangering nearby civilians," while still failing to destroy all the munitions, Michael Eisenstadt wrote in a report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Bombing, however, could block entrances to chemical arms bunkers carved into mountainsides and effectively entomb chemical agents, according to Eisenstadt.
"It's difficult to come up with a viable scenario where you do this without putting troops on the ground," said David Hartwell, an analyst with IHS Jane's, a defense and security consultancy.
"If your aim is to secure chemical weapons, you can't do that from the air," he told AFP.
But deploying ground troops still would require warplanes to knock out Syrian air defenses, allowing the special forces teams to be flown in, experts said.
Some media reports previously speculated that up to 75,000 troops would be needed to search for and safeguard chemical weapons. But it remains highly unlikely the Obama administration would be ready to back such a large military presence in another Arab country in the aftermath of the Iraq war, experts said.
A more plausible scenario could see small teams of US, British and French special forces advising a force from Turkey and other Islamic nations, including Jordan, Hartwell said.
"The US provides the advice, the logistics and the back-up, where as the boots on the ground would be provided from somewhere else," he said.
The Pentagon has already sent a contingent of about 150 special forces to Jordan to help with a range of contingencies, including a possible mission to secure the Assad regime's chemical stockpiles.
If US special forces were called on, they would probably swoop in to carry out pinpoint raids without remaining on Syrian territory, said Jeffrey White, a veteran of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Much would hinge on the accuracy of US and Western intelligence, said White, now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
During the first Gulf war in 1991, American forces -- fearing Saddam Hussein's regime would unleash a chemical attack -- struggled to track down Scud missile launchers in the western desert of Iraq.
But US spy agencies may have a better handle on Assad's stockpiles since the former head of the chemical weapons program, Major General Adnan Silou, defected in July, and the Pentagon expressed confidence that it did.
"The US government has good visibility into the chemical weapons program and we continue to monitor it," spokesman George Little said.
However, chemical agents kept at a storage site are one thing and artillery rounds or rockets armed with chemical agents are another.
"These chemical weapons are not big things. They can be put in the back of any truck. There are thousands of military trucks rolling all around Syria every day," White said.
"How are you going to know which trucks have these chemical weapons?"
He added: "One 152 millimeter artillery battery looks like any other."
Instead of attacking elusive, dispersed targets, the best option may be to take aim at the heart of the regime, hitting the army's command network if it tries to use chemical weapons, White suggested.

Tokyo stocks open down 0.55%

05 December 2012 - 01H33  

A man passes before a share prices board in Tokyo in November 2012. Tokyo stocks opened 0.55 percent lower on Wednesday, with investors jittery over the lack of progress on US negotiations on a budget plan to avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff."

AFP - Tokyo stocks opened 0.55 percent lower on Wednesday, with investors jittery over the lack of progress on US negotiations on a budget plan to avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff."
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange was down 52.09 points at 9,380.37 at the start.
The benchmark Nikkei is likely to weaken Wednesday following a modest sell-off on Wall Street and on a stronger yen, analysts said.
"The weakening dollar is the key component today, as it continues to edge down against the yen as US fiscal cliff negotiations appear to be deadlocked without any clear signs of hope," said SMBC Nikko Securities general manager of equities Hiroichi Nishi.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.11 percent at 12,951.78 on Tuesday as Washington wrangled over a budget plan that would avoid a programme of tax hikes and spending cuts widely expected to tip the economy into recession if they take effect.
The euro bought $1.3096 and 107.17 yen in early Asian trade, little changed from New York late Tuesday.
The dollar eased to 81.81 yen from 81.88 yen in US trade.
-- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this article --

Fossil find could be oldest dino of all

05 December 2012 - 01H09  

This handout photo taken in July 2012 and released by The University of Queensland shows fossilised bones found in a vast network of tunnels near Cairns in Queensland. Fossilised bones unearthed by a British palaeontologist in colonial Tanzania in the 1930s may be those of the oldest dinosaur ever found, researchers reported.

AFP - Fossilised bones unearthed by a British palaeontologist in colonial Tanzania in the 1930s may be those of the oldest dinosaur ever found, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The bones are either those of the earliest dinosaur or of the closest relative of dinosaurs discovered to date, they said.
A denizen of the Middle Triassic around 243 million years ago, the creature predates all previous dinosaur finds by 10 to 15 million years, the scientists said.
The specimen also points to the possible birthplace of these enigmatic species in a mega-continent called Pangaea, they added.
Dubbed Nyasasaurus, the putative dino was about 80 centimetres (three feet) high, up to three metres (10 feet) in length and had a tail up to 1.5 metres (five feet) long, according to their study.
It probably weighed between 20 and 60 kilos (45-135 pounds).
"If the newly-named Nyasasaurus parringtoni is not the earliest dinosaur, then it is the closest relative found so far," said Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Washington.
Nyasasaurus' name derives from Lake Nyasa -- now called Lake Malawi -- and from a University of Cambridge palaeontologist, Rex Parrington.
His team excavated the six vertebrae and upper arm bone from sediment in the Ruhuhu Valley of southern Tanzania in the early 1930s.
That location, said the authors, backs theories that dinosaurs evolved in the southern portion of the supercontinent of Pangaea, where Earth's land masses were glommed together before the pieces drifted apart to form continents.
The southern part of Pangaea comprised Africa, Australia, South America and Antarctica.
For decades, the Nyasasaurus bones languished and were never formally documented.
Their true importance has only been made clear today, thanks in part to modern scanning technology which compared Parrington's specimens in London's Natural History Museum against two other Nyasasaurus bones at the South African Museum in Cape Town.
What makes the finds special is that they share many important features of dinosaur bones as well as imprinted traces of tissue showing that the creature grew rapidly, again a dino characteristic.
"For 150 years, people have been suggesting that there should be Middle Triassic dinosaurs, but all the evidence is ambiguous," Nesbitt said.
"Some scientists used fossilised footprints, but we now know that other animals from that time have a very similar foot.
"Other scientists pointed to a single dinosaur-like characteristic in a single bone, but that can be misleading because some characteristics evolved in a number of reptile groups and are not a result of shared ancestry."
The Triassic Period -- between 252 and 201 million years ago -- not only presided over the rise of the dinosaurs. It also saw the emergence of turtles, frogs, lizards and mammals.
If the new study is right, the reign of the dinosaurs was even more successful than thought.
The "giant lizards" spanned some 178 million years until their lineage was blotted out by an extinction event, presumed to be a giant space rock that whacked into the plant.
The paper appears in Biology Letters, a journal of Britain's Royal Society.