U.N. calls for restraint on eve of Congo vote (Reuters)

KINSHASA (Reuters) ? International organizations appealed for calm on the eve of Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential election, after a run-up that has already been tainted by deadly street clashes and delayed poll preparations.

Concerns have been mounting about the central African country's readiness for its second post-war presidential contest, and what impact a troubled vote might have on efforts to stabilize the giant minerals-producing nation.

The European Union and the United Nations called for restraint after at least three people were killed on Saturday, the last day of campaigning, and the main opposition challenger said he would hold a rally later on Sunday despite a ban on political rallies the day before the vote.

"The security forces should refrain from any acts that could heighten tensions and create any difficulties on the eve of elections," Mounoubai Madnodje, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, said.

Election officials in Congo were scrambling to get remaining ballots to polling stations after delays at all stages of the process. But the head of the electoral body said he expected the election to go ahead as planned.

"We would like to assure you 99 percent of things are working perfectly, that's our commitment to you," electoral commission chief Daniel Ngoy Mulunda told reporters at a briefing in Kinshasa on Sunday.

The EU observer mission accused the police of denying President Joseph Kabila's main rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, his right to campaign in the capital after he was blocked by security forces at the airport on Saturday.

Police had earlier banned rallies after violence erupted in the sprawling capital Kinshasa. The confirmed death toll for Saturday's violence has risen to three, according to U.N. human rights sources.

Tshisekedi on Sunday accused international actors, including the head of the United Nations mission in Congo, of being against him, and said that, as his rally was blocked on Saturday, he would hold one later on Sunday.

"The international community has supported (in Congo) Africa's worst dictatorships for 51 years," he said, adding he wanted UN mission chief Roger Meece, a former U.S. ambassador to Congo during the last election, to step down.

SHOWDOWN

Congo's last war, in which millions died mainly of famine and disease, ended eight years ago. But the peace is fragile, with pockets of clashes across much of its east while ordinary Congolese complain of rampant corruption and slow development.

Resource firms like Freeport McMoRan and ENRC operate in Congo, a big copper and cobalt producer with ambitions of developing an oil industry, but the country is seen as one of the world's riskiest in which to do business.

U.N. peacekeepers failed to end a showdown on Saturday between veteran opposition leader Tshisekedi and the police, who blocked him at the airport and fired bullets to disperse his supporters.

Kinshasa is a Tshisekedi stronghold and Reuters reporters saw tens of thousands of his supporters on the streets of the capital after the 78 year-old called for them to try and reach the airport where he was blocked.

Tshisekedi was later driven home by the police, and Albert Moleka, one of his spokesmen, said at least 25 of his UDPS party supporters had been arrested.

Authorities had earlier canceled campaign rallies that were due to take place in close proximity of each other as violence flared in the teeming city of 10 million people.

The EU observer mission in Congo criticized the authorities for mishandling the end of the campaign period and called the police operation to prevent Tshisekedi from leaving the airport "a serious impediment" to his right to campaign.

Preparations for the poll have been marred by delays at all stages at the process, with ballot papers being delivered late and many voters unsure where they are meant to be voting.

There were reports of trouble elsewhere in Congo.

A security source said one soldier was killed when the Vangu military camp in the mining capital Lubumbashi was attacked overnight by unknown arsonists.

A government building was also attacked on Saturday in the southern town of Kananga by people suspecting local officials of hoarding ballot papers in preparation for rigging the poll, a U.N. official said.

(Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Richard Valdmanis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/ts_nm/us_congo_democratic_election

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Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The brilliant blue wings of the mountain swallowtail (Papilio ulysses) easily shed water because of the way ultra-tiny structures in the butterfly's wings trap air and create a cushion between water and wing.

Human engineers would like to create similarly water repellent surfaces, but past attempts at artificial air traps tended to lose their contents over time due to external perturbations. Now an international team of researchers from Sweden, the United States, and Korea has taken advantage of what might normally be considered defects in the nanomanufacturing process to create a multilayered silicon structure that traps air and holds it for longer than one year.

The researchers used an etching process to carve out micro-scale pores and sculpt tiny cones from the silicon. The team found that features of the resulting structure that might usually be considered defects, such as undercuts beneath the etching mask and scalloped surfaces, actually improved the water repellent properties of the silicon by creating a multilayered hierarchy of air traps. The intricate structure of pores, cones, bumps, and grooves also succeeded in trapping light, almost perfectly absorbing wavelengths just above the visible range.

The biologically inspired surface, described in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters, could find uses in electro-optical devices, infrared imaging detectors, or chemical sensors.

###

"Multifunctional silicon inspired by wing of male Papilio ulysses" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.

American Institute of Physics: http://www.aip.org

Thanks to American Institute of Physics for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115367/Butterfly_wings_inspire_design_of_water_repellent_surface

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After new leak, climatologist takes case to public

FILE - This is a Dec. 10, 2009 file photo showing the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. East Anglia, where stolen emails caused a global climate science controversy in 2009 says those behind the breach have apparently released a second and potentially far larger batch of old messages. University of East Anglia spokesman Simon Dunford said that while academics didn't have the chance yet to examine the roughly 5,000 emails apparently dumped into the public domain Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 a small sample examined by the university "appears to be genuine." (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

FILE - This is a Dec. 10, 2009 file photo showing the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. East Anglia, where stolen emails caused a global climate science controversy in 2009 says those behind the breach have apparently released a second and potentially far larger batch of old messages. University of East Anglia spokesman Simon Dunford said that while academics didn't have the chance yet to examine the roughly 5,000 emails apparently dumped into the public domain Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 a small sample examined by the university "appears to be genuine." (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

LONDON (AP) ? The British climatologist ensnared in a major new email leak took his case to the public Wednesday, arguing that he and his colleagues' comments have again been taken out of context.

The University of East Anglia's Phil Jones was one of the major players in the controversy that erupted two years ago over the publication of emails which caught prominent scientists stonewalling critics and attacking them in sometimes vitriolic terms.

The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit is one of the world's leading centers for the study of how world temperatures have varied over time, and Jones came under particular scrutiny following the 2009 disclosures ? even receiving death threats over allegations that he was a leading a conspiracy to hype the dangers of climate change.

Jones and his colleagues have since been vindicated by a series of independent investigations, but the university's reputation has been dented by criticism that it refused to share data with skeptics.

Jones said that his "heart did sink a bit" when he heard about the most recent leak, which apparently consists of old messages held back the first time around.

The university and other climate scientists believe the leak was delayed until now "to cause maximum disruption" to the imminent U.N. climate talks next week in Durban, South Africa.

When quizzed about emails that captured him and other researchers disparaging each others' work or raising pointed questions about the accuracy of climate models, Jones framed it as part of "the cut-and-thrust of scientific debate."

Several excerpts also seemed to be aimed at how best to present scientific findings to the public, but Jones said it was "foolish to think that scientists don't think about the how their message is received."

Jones also was asked about a message he wrote suggesting that emails could be deleted to dodge freedom of information requests. Both he and his university have been criticized for obstructionist attitudes toward Britain's right-to-know law, and the university now says it's far more open about sharing its data.

In his response, Jones appeared to suggest that the public need not interest itself in the inner workings of groups such as the International Panel on Climate Change, which produces authoritative reports on the future of the world's weather.

"Why do people need to know who wrote what individual paragraph?" Jones said.

Other excerpts from the 5,000-odd emails being circulated seemed to cover some of the same ground as the 2009 release, which unleashed an international furor over allegations that scientists were working behind the scenes to manipulate the science behind climate change. Several inquiries have since refuted the charges.

University of East Anglia's Vice chancellor Edward Acton, who flanked Jones as he addressed journalists, predicted less of a storm this time around.

"There's is so much deja vu about it," Acton said.

___

Online:

University of East Anglia: http://www.uea.ac.uk/

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-23-EU-Climate-Leaked-Emails/id-42921e06630a4b48b9ec37e0ec2d4226

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Islanders live in fear a year after NKorean attack (AP)

YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea ? Pungent boxes of crabs piled at the dock for export confirm the revival of ancient daily routines a year after North Korean artillery turned this tiny island's downtown into an inferno. Under the surface, deep scars remain.

People on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island say that even as rage over the North's attack dims, they still live in fear of another volley of shells from their unpredictable neighbor just 7 miles (11 kilometers) north across some of the Yellow Sea's richest crabbing waters.

"Whenever I hear something go 'boom!' I panic and assume somebody is attacking us again," said Jeong Soon-seon, a spry 79-year-old who has lived on Yeonpyeong since she fled fighting in her North Korean hometown during the Korean War six decades ago.

A year ago Wednesday, North Korea unexpectedly raised the stakes in the decades-long dispute over its maritime border with South Korea by launching the first attack on a civilian area since the war, and catapulting the neighbors to the brink of a new all-out conflict.

Jeong's house survived, but many of her neighbors' homes were reduced to rubble, scorched wood and twisted metal when North Korea fired 150 shells onto this front-line island shared by fishermen and South Korean military garrisons.

Even now, Jeong keeps a packed bag and flashlight near her bed in case she has to evacuate in the middle of the night.

"I have even asked myself why the shells didn't hit my house and kill me and sometimes regret that they didn't," she said.

North Korea's attack ? in response to what South Korea called routine firing drills near the disputed frontier ? killed two laborers and two marines and left destruction reminiscent of the earlier war. South Korea scrambled jets and evacuated residents to the mainland.

War seemed imminent at the time, but that is hard to believe now, especially when you see the island's coast at sunset. Rugged low mountains plunge into the water, their tops blanketed by green trees. A fishing boat carves a wake through calm, sun-sparkling sea.

The fish and crabs bobbing in the boiling red broth of the islanders' beloved and well-named "spicy soup" taste like they've been plucked from the Yellow Sea an hour earlier. In the evening, when fishermen bring home the crab haul, fellow islanders help out, squatting as they use knives to pry crabs from nets.

But reminders of the attack are everywhere: Newly painted walls are still pockmarked from shrapnel; a nationalist group's sun-faded banner at the port vows vengeance against the North; posters warn of unexploded shells.

Entire streets have turned into construction sites. Men in hardhats drink soju liquor during breaks from the incessant building, and hundreds of empty green bottles overflow from huge recycling bins. The attack completely destroyed nearly 50 houses and buildings, and damaged an estimated 250 others.

Families who lost everything live in tiny, temporary houses, sleeping together in a living room and sharing a bathroom with barely enough room for a toilet and shower nozzle.

Many speak of lingering shock from last year's attack, showing visitors the now-rusted shrapnel that nearly killed them or the mangled part of a home that burned to the ground.

Choi Eun-sook says her neighbors get scared by small amounts of smoke; they get upset more easily and raise their voices more often. Her 10-year-old granddaughter doesn't like to stay home by herself.

"Some people still struggle inside, even though they seem perfectly fine outside," said Choi, 65, who was born on Yeonpyeong. "I think they've become more sensitive because of the sudden loss and damage."

The island is dotted with camouflaged marine outposts. Lengths of coast are protected by submerged steel "dragon feet" staves to block invading ships. Since the attack, South Korea bolstered these defenses with sophisticated long-range artillery systems.

"We all know we now have new weapons here. We feel safe on one hand, but we're also afraid that they are preparing for another war," said Choi Ok-seon, who runs a homestay program on the island.

North Korea does not recognize the maritime line drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, technically leaving the peninsula in a state of war.

North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial Friday that deployments on Yeonpyeong Island are proof that "warlike South Korean forces are moving to mount a military provocation."

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said Friday that South Korea's "military has been gnashing its teeth with rage over the past year ... and we have to sternly punish an enemy provocation."

Despite the heated rhetoric, there are tentative moves toward diplomacy, with officials from the two Koreas, along with the United States, discussing ways to resume talks aimed a swapping aid for the North's nuclear disarmament.

People here grew up hearing North Korean claims to the waters around their island. They are used to violent sea battles between the rival navies. But last year's attack, targeting civilian areas as well as military installations, was a violent awakening.

Kim Sang-eun, a Vietnam War veteran, can't erase memories of the shelling that left an inn he owns a pile of rubble.

"I lost everything in one day, so I can't forget about it," the 66-year-old said. "Now I don't have confidence in anything."

___

AP writer Jiyoung Won contributed to this story. Follow Foster Klug on Twitter at http://twitter.com/apklug and Hyung-jin Kim at http://twitter.com/hyungjin1972.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_island_attacked

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Soyuz with three astronauts lands in Kazakhstan (AP)

MOSCOW ? A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts back from the International Space Station touched down safely in the snow-covered steppes of Kazakhstan early Tuesday morning.

NASA astronaut Michael Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency landed at the break of dawn some 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk at 8:26 a.m. (0226 GMT) after spending 165 days in space.

The landing was close to its target point.

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said in the NASA television broadcast that the recovery operation was swift despite the freezing weather and strong wind.

Video from the site showed the Soyuz capsule, blackened by the intense heat of re-entry, lying on its side as the astronauts were extracted.

The three men looked well and smiling, although Furukawa looked visibly exhausted. They were seated in chairs and wrapped in warm blankets to help them get adjusted to gravity after spending four months in space.

Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center, said all three astronauts are in good health.

NASA's Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin remain onboard the International Space Station and are due to return to Earth in March. They arrived at the station on Wednesday. A launch next month will take the station back to its normal six-person crew.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_sc/sci_space_station

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Galaxy Tab gets a taste of Kindle Fire, but things aren't all silky smooth

Did you jump on the bandwagon when the tablet craze hit by getting an original Galaxy Tab, but now you feel a tinge of jealousy seeing the more modern UIs on newer slates? Well, you can rid yourself of that envious feeling by loading the Kindle Fire's software onto that old Tab of yours. Giga OM did the deed, giving us an overview of the process -- it's mainly a matter of extracting the code from Amazon's slate and installing it on Sammy's -- along with its results. Turns out, the Tab doesn't have all of the Fire's functionality, though the basic bookshelf interface (which is akin to an app launcher), video app, books, and magazines are all available along with the Fire's custom Amazon Store. Unfortunately, the Silk browser has yet to be enabled, and the UI still crashes on the regular, but teaching an old dog new tricks isn't easy, okay? Head on down to the Source for the full rundown, and there's even more details at XDA-Developers for those daring enough to do this bit of software switcharoo themselves.

Galaxy Tab gets a taste of Kindle Fire, but things aren't all silky smooth originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/21/galaxy-tab-gets-a-taste-of-kindle-fire-but-things-arent-all-si/

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Gaddafi son held as Libyans wrangle on government (Reuters)

ZINTAN/TRIPOLI (Reuters) ? Saif al-Islam Gaddafi spent Sunday secreted in the militia stronghold of Zintan while in Tripoli the Libyan rebel leaders who overthrew his father tried to resolve their differences and form a government that can try the new captive.

With rival local militia commanders from across the country trying to parlay their guns into cabinet seats, officials in the capital gave mixed signals on how long the prime minister-designate, Abdurrahim El-Keib, may need to form his full team.

And though the Zintan mountain fighters who intercepted the 39-year-old heir to the four-decade Gaddafi dynasty deep in the Sahara said they would hand him over once some central authority was clear, few expect Saif al-Islam in Tripoli soon.

One senior member of the outgoing interim executive told Reuters he expected Keib to announce his line-up by Monday, ahead of a Tuesday deadline determined by a timetable that started with the killing of Muammar Gaddafi a month ago.

Members of the National Transitional Council (NTC), the self-appointed legislative panel of notables formed after February's uprising began, expect to vote on Keib's nominees, with keenest attention among the men who control the array of militias on the streets focused on the defense ministry.

One official working for the NTC said that the group from Zintan, a town of just 50,000 in the Western Mountains outside Tripoli that was a stronghold of resistance to Gaddafi, might even secure that ministry thanks to holding Saif al-Islam.

Other groups include rival Islamist and secularist militias in the capital, those from Benghazi, Libya's second city and the original seat of revolt, and the fighters from the third city of Misrata, who took credit for capturing and killing the elder Gaddafi and haggled with the NTC over the fate of his rotting corpse for several days in October.

"FINAL ACT"

"The final act of the Libyan drama," as a spokesman for the former rebels put it, began in the blackness of the Sahara night, when a small unit of fighters from the town of Zintan, acting on a tip-off, intercepted Gaddafi and four armed companions driving in a pair of 4x4 vehicles on a desert track.

It ended, after a 300-mile flight north on a cargo plane, with the London-educated younger Gaddafi held in a safe house in Zintan and the townsfolk vowing to keep him safe until he can face a judge in the capital.

The familiar sound of celebratory gunfire broke the nighttime silence but the town nestled in the rugged Western Mountains was otherwise quiet.

His captors said he was "very scared" when they first recognized him, despite the heavy beard and enveloping Tuareg robes and turban he wore. But they reassured him and, by the time a Reuters correspondent spoke to him aboard the plane, he had been chatting amiably to his guards.

"He looked tired. He had been lost in the desert for many days," said Abdul al-Salaam al-Wahissi, a Zintan fighter involved in the operation. "I think he lost his guide."

Despite a tense couple of hours on the runway on Saturday, when excited crowds rushed the plane that flew him from Obari, the Zintani fighters holding him said they were determined he would not meet the fate the Misratis reserved for his father.

Western leaders, who backed February's uprising against Gaddafi but looked on squeamishly as rebel fighters filmed themselves taking vengeance on the fallen strongman a month ago, urged Keib to seek foreign help to ensure a fair trial.

Keib, who taught engineering at U.S. universities before returning to Libya to join the rebellion, drove on Saturday the two hours from Tripoli to Zintan to pay homage to its fighters. He promised justice would be done but Saif al-Islam would not be handed over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which had indicted him for crimes against humanity.

DEATH PENALTY

The justice minister from the outgoing executive said the younger Gaddafi was likely to face the death penalty, though the charge sheet, expected to include ordering killings as well as looting the public purse, would be drawn up by the state prosecutor after due investigation.

Word of the capture set off rejoicing in the streets of cities across the vast, oil-rich nation of just six million. Streets echoed with gunfire, from rifles but also the anti-aircraft cannon mounted on civilian pick-up trucks that became the abiding image of an eight-month civil war that ended with the ousted leader's death in his home town of Sirte.

"Finally we beat him, after all his pointing at us with his finger on television and threatening us," Waleed Fkainy, a militiaman on patrol in Tripoli, said of Saif al-Islam, whose image as a potential reformer of his father's eccentric one-man rule evaporated with his venomous response to the uprising.

"Thank God," Fkainy said. "We lived under his threats and now we have the upper hand after this victory."

Saif al-Islam's fate will be a test for Keib's incoming government as it tries to stamp its authority.

Western leaders urged Libya to work with the ICC which has also issued an arrest warrant for Saif al-Islam, on charges of crimes against humanity during the crackdown.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both called on Libya to hand him over to the ICC and guarantee his safety.

Keib said Libya would make sure Gaddafi's son faced a fair trial and called his capture the "crowning" of the uprising.

"We assure Libyans and the world that Saif al-Islam will receive a fair trial ... under fair legal processes which our own people had been deprived of for the last 40 years," Keib told a news conference in Zintan.

Saif al-Islam, who had vowed to die fighting, was taken without a struggle, possibly as he tried to flee to Niger, officials said.

"At the beginning he was very scared. He thought we would kill him," Ahmed Ammar, one of his captors, told Reuters.

Saif al-Islam told the Reuters reporter on his plane a bandaged hand had been wounded in a NATO air strike a month ago. Asked if he was feeling all right, he said simply: "Yes."

Libyans believe Saif al-Islam knows the location of billions of dollars of public money amassed by the Gaddafi family. There was no word of the other official wanted by the ICC, former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Alastair Macdonald, Omar Younis, Hisham El-Dani and Francois Murphy in Tripoli and Taha Zargoun in Zintan; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/wl_nm/us_libya_son

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