Renamo says it laments Mozambique economic disruption, seeks talks

By Marina Lopes

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique opposition party Renamo, suspected of killing two civilians last week in a nascent guerrilla campaign, said on Friday it regretted disruption of the economy and called for more dialogue with the government.

Two decades after the end of a long civil war, Renamo is stepping up pressure on the Frelimo ruling party, sparking concern a return to violence could derail Mozambique's commodity-fuelled economic boom.

Global miner Rio Tinto this week suspended coal shipments from northwest Mozambique after the former guerrilla group threatened to disrupt the Sena railway used to move coal to the Indian Ocean.

"We want to see more investors coming into Mozambique, but the current moment of political tension does not permit this," spokesman Fernando Mazanga told Reuters, adding the party "lamented" the disruption to growth in the former Portuguese colony.

"That is why we want to accelerate the talks with the government."

Last week gunmen killed two people in ambushes on vehicles.

Eleven soldiers and policemen and five civilians have been killed since April in attacks blamed on Renamo, which was founded in the 1970s with the help of apartheid South Africa to counter the Marxist Frelimo.

Although Renamo is not large enough to manage a widespread guerrilla campaign, it is estimated to have 1,000 men under arms and analysts say it could cause enough trouble to upset the foreign mining investment boom.

Renamo also called for increased dialogue and condemned the movement of troops and weapons towards the centre of the country, which it said targeted its leader, Afonso Dhlakama, who has operated from his base in the remote Gorongosa Mountains since November.

Renamo has previously backed out of talks. In April it rejected the government's offer for talks, saying the proposed location - a luxury hotel in the capital - was "not dignified enough for the importance of the meeting".

The Ministry of Defence could not confirm an increase in troops or weapons in the central part of the country.

"The military is always in motion. There is no space that can be free from the authority of the government," Benjamin Marco, a spokesman for the ministry, told Reuters.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/renamo-says-laments-mozambique-economic-disruption-seeks-talks-143424504.html

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Watch the Muhammad Ali of BattleBots Destroy Everything in Its Path

There are "battle bots" and then there are "utter, one-sided destruction bots." The two-wheeled harbinger of destruction called Last Rites fits in that second category. Powered by an over-volted golf cart motor and wielding a spinning hammer-blade of doom, it's really a force to behold. And the folks over at Distort caught it up close and personal, in slow motion no less.

With a weapon bar that spins at 400 miles per hour, Last Rights is basically a lawn mower of utter devastation, no matter what you put it up against. And its papa?retired engineer Ray Billings?seems appropriately proud. With a monster like that at his disposal, he can be whatever he damn well pleases.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/watch-the-muhammad-ali-of-battlebots-destroy-everything-596716660

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L.A., Owens Valley settle dispute over dust control

By Louis Sahagun

June 26, 2013, 10:17 p.m.

Los Angeles and the Owens Valley have reached a settlement in their dispute over new measures to control dust storms that have blown across the eastern Sierra Nevada since L.A. opened an aqueduct a century ago that drained Owens Lake.

Under terms of the agreement, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will fast-track mitigation measures that do not use water, and the utility will be allowed to lay down a thinner layer of gravel to suppress dust. The recently discovered location of a Native American massacre at Owens Lake will be excluded from mitigation efforts because they would disturb the 328-acre site.

The utility has already spent $1.2 billion on dust mitigation measures that began 16 years ago on orders from the Owens Valley air pollution agency, the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District. In 2011, Great Basin ordered the DWP to do even more by taking steps to control dust on an additional 2.9 square miles of lake bed, including the area later found to include the massacre site.

The agreement pledges the DWP to provide Great Basin with a one-time contribution of $10 million to cover the costs of controlling dust at nearby Keeler Dunes, which lie just east of the dry lake.

Also, the utility will have the right to audit Great Basin's books on an annual basis to verify that the funds were used to quench dust rising off the dunes, according to the 14-page settlement that is subject to the approval of the DWP Board of Commissioners.

The settlement comes after three months of intense negotiations between the two agencies ? as well as state air pollution regulators and L.A. water officials. The agreement was hastened by the discovery of the spot where 35 Paiute Indians were shot to death by U.S. cavalry soldiers and local ranchers in 1863. Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation tribal leaders want the site left undisturbed.

DWP and Great Basin officials declined to comment, pending a mutual announcement expected to come Thursday.

The dispute underscored acrimony that has simmered between the DWP and Owens Valley residents since the early 1900s, when city agents posed as farmers and ranchers to buy up land and water rights for the aqueduct needed to slake the thirst of the growing metropolis to the south. The city's 233-mile-long aqueduct reduced the lake to a dry expanse that is the largest single source of particulate matter air pollution in the country.

A federal court judge in May dismissed a lawsuit filed by the DWP that alleged that Great Basin was forcing the city to waste billions of gallons of High Sierra water on dust control measures.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/xKr75RPbQmE/la-me-dwp-pollution-20130627,0,3471191.story

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This Beautiful Map Is Made Up of Microscopic Cells

This map may look like a fairly reasonable representation of the world?but that's all the more impressive when you realise it's actually made up of microscopic cells from parts of the body that cause problems for people who live in each country.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2H3COl2j7fw/this-beautiful-map-is-made-up-of-microscopic-cells-595303592

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High Court Deals a Blow To Voting Act (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315104639?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Russia, China reject U.S. pressure over Snowden

By Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - China and Russia rejected U.S. accusations they helped a former U.S. spy agency contractor escape prosecution in the United States, deepening a rift between powers whose cooperation may be essential in settling global conflicts including the Syrian war.

Edward Snowden, charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, left Hong Kong for Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday. The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were holding discussions with Russia, suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return to face espionage charges.

An airport source said the 30-year-old American, who has asked for asylum in Ecuador, had flown in on Sunday and had been booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday but had not got on board.

Journalists camped out at the airport have not spotted him inside, or leaving, the transit area, and say a heavy security presence has been relaxed for the past 24 hours. He has not registered at a hotel in the transit zone, hotel sources say.

A receptionist at the Capsule Hotel "Air Express", a complex of 47 basic rooms decorated predominantly with grey carpets and grey walls, said Snowden had turned up on Sunday, looked at the price list but then left.

U.S. officials admonished Beijing and Moscow on Monday for allowing Snowden to escape their clutches but the United States' partners on the U.N. Security Council, already at odds with Washington over the conflict in Syria, hit back indignantly.

"The United States' criticism of China's central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing, also dismissing U.S. criticism of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, for letting Snowden leave.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied suggestions Moscow had helped Snowden in any way, including by allowing him to fly into Sheremetyevo.

"He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it ... from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border," he said. "We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating U.S. laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable."

Lavrov's insistence Snowden had not entered Russia implies he has not left the airport transit area, used by passengers flying from one non-Russian airport to another without going through passport control or requiring an entry visa.

The transit area is Russian sovereign territory, but it could be argued that in staying there Snowden had not formally entered the country - a move that could implicate President Vladimir Putin in helping a fugitive.

Interfax news agency quoted a source "in the Russian capital" as saying Snowden could be detained to check the validity of his passport if he crossed the Russian border.

Snowden is travelling on a refugee document of passage provided by Ecuador, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said.

Putin is not shy of celebrating people who challenge Washington, but has an interest in keeping relations with the United States on track as both sides try to improve security cooperation and arrange a peace conference on Syria.

U.S. DISCUSSES SNOWDEN WITH RUSSIA

Jay Carney, a spokesman for the White House, said it was Washington's assumption that Snowden was still in Russia.

Snowden, whose exposure of the surveillance raised questions about civil liberties in the United States, flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him.

Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday and eventually go on to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot.

There is no direct flight from Moscow to Quito, which has said it was considering Snowden's asylum request.

Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year.

The airport source confirmed Snowden was travelling with Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for WikiLeaks.

"She (Harrison) came together with Edward Snowden from Hong-Kong on June 23 around 5 p.m.," the source said. "He had a ticket to go to Havana on the 24th, but he did not use it. She also had one, but she didn't use it either."

DEFIANCE

With Snowden's whereabouts a mystery, U.S. President Barack Obama, may face prolonged embarrassment from a young man leading the world's lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek.

Obama told reporters his government was "following all the appropriate legal channels working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed".

But U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were concerned that they did not know how much sensitive material Snowden had in his possession and that he may have taken more documents than initially estimated.

He could publish more documents or they could get into the hands of foreign intelligence. The Kremlin denies knowledge of any contacts between Russian officials and Snowden, despite media speculation the security forces could be questioning him.

Carney said his escape would damage U.S.-China relations and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden's activities could threaten the security of China and the United States.

"People may die as a consequence to what this man did," he told CNN. But to his supporters, Snowden is a whistle blowing hero who exposed the extent of U.S. surveillance activities.

(Additional reporting Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Havana, Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage, editing by)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-presses-russia-mystery-over-snowden-deepens-015914306.html

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Prosecutor opens with Zimmerman's obscenity

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? A prosecutor told jurors in opening statements Monday that George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin "because he wanted to," not because he had to, while a defense attorney said the neighborhood watch volunteer shot the teen in self-defense to stop him from smashing Zimmerman's head into a concrete sidewalk.

The opposing attorneys squared off on the first day of testimony in a trial that has attracted international attention and prompted nationwide debates about racial profiling, vigilantism and the laws governing the use of deadly force.

Defense attorney Don West used a joke in his opening statements to illustrate the difficulty of picking a jury amid such widespread publicity.

"Knock. Knock," West said.

"Who is there?"

"George Zimmerman."

"George Zimmerman who?"

"Ah, good. You're on the jury."

Included among the millions likely to be following the case are civil rights leaders the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who joined national protests in the weeks before prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges against Zimmerman. The charges came 44 days after the shooting.

Zimmerman, 29, who identifies himself as Hispanic, has denied that his confrontation with Martin before the shooting had anything to do with race. His mother was born in Peru. His father is a white American. Martin was black.

But just before opening statements began, Martin's parents sent out an urgent plea to their supporters to pray with them for justice, while their family attorney, Benjamin Crump, described the case as clear cut.

"There are two important facts in this case: No. 1: George Zimmerman was a grown man with a gun, and No. 2: Trayvon Martin was a minor who had no blood on his hands. Literally no blood on his hands. ... We believe that the evidence is overwhelming to hold George Zimmerman accountable for killing Trayvon Martin."

Prosecutor John Guy's first words to jurors recounted what Zimmerman told a police dispatcher in a call shortly before the fatal confrontation with Martin: "F------ punks. These a-------. They always get away."

Zimmerman was profiling Martin as he followed him through the gated community where Zimmerman lived and Martin was visiting, Guy said. He said Zimmerman viewed the teen "as someone about to a commit a crime in his neighborhood."

"And he acted on it. That's why we're here," the prosecutor said.

Zimmerman didn't have to shoot Martin, Guy said.

"He shot him for the worst of all reasons: because he wanted to," he said.

West told jurors a different story: Zimmerman was being viciously attacked when he shot Martin, he said. He was sucker-punched by Martin, who then pounded Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk.

"He had just taken tremendous blows to his face, tremendous blows to his head," said West, after showing jurors photos taken by Zimmerman's neighbors of a bloodied and bruised neighborhood watch volunteer.

Later, West said it was not true that Martin was unarmed.

"Trayvon Martin armed himself with a concrete sidewalk and used it to smash George Zimmerman's head," West said.

West also played for jurors the call to a police dispatcher in which Zimmerman used the obscenities.

Martin had opportunities to go home after Zimmerman followed him and then lost track of him, but instead the teen confronted the neighborhood watch volunteer, West said.

Guy argued, however, that there is no evidence to back up other claims by Zimmerman, including that Martin had his hands over Zimmerman's mouth. Guy said none of Zimmerman's DNA was found on Martin's body. The prosecutor also said Zimmerman's claim that he had to fire because Martin was reaching for his firearm is false since none of Martin's DNA was on the gun or holster.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin, whom he did not recognize, walking in the gated townhome community where Zimmerman and the fiancee of Martin's father lived. There had been a rash of recent break-ins and Zimmerman was wary of strangers walking through the complex.

The two eventually got into a struggle and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest with his 9mm handgun. He was charged 44 days after the shooting, only after a special prosecutor was appointed to review the case and after protests. The delay in the arrest prompted protests nationwide.

Two police dispatch phone calls will be important evidence for both sides' cases.

The first is a call Zimmerman made to a nonemergency police dispatcher, who told him he didn't need to be following Martin.

The second 911 call captures screams from the confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin. Martin's parents said the screams are from their son while Zimmerman's father contends they belong to his son.

Nelson ruled last weekend that audio experts for the prosecution won't be able to testify that the screams belong to Martin, saying the methods the experts used were unreliable.

Both calls were played for jurors by the defense in opening statements. Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, left the courtroom before the second call was played.

Opening statements were made two weeks after jury selection began. Attorneys picked six jurors and four alternates after quizzing the jury pool questions about how much they knew about the case and their views on guns and self-defense.

The prosecution took a little more than a half-hour to make an opening statement. The defense took more than two-and-a-half hours.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-opens-zimmermans-obscenity-135419217.html

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