For the first time, scientists detect the ghostly signal that reveals the engine of the universe

Tom Metcalfe
Wed, November 25, 2020



In research published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists reported that they’ve made the first detection of almost-ethereal particles called neutrinos that can be traced to carbon-nitrogen-oxygen fusion, known as the CNO cycle, inside the sun.

It’s a landmark finding that confirms theoretical predictions from the 1930s, and it’s being hailed as one of the greatest discoveries in physics of the new millenium.

“It’s really a breakthrough for solar and stellar physics,” said Gioacchino Ranucci of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), one of the researchers on the project since it began in 1990.

The scientists used the ultrasensitive Borexino detector at the INFN’s Gran Sasso particle physics laboratory in central Italy – the largest underground research center in the world, deep beneath the Apennine Mountains, about 65 miles northeast of Rome.

The detection caps off decades of study of the sun’s neutrinos by the Borexino project, and reveals for the first time the main nuclear reaction that most stars use to fuse hydrogen into helium.

Almost all stars, including our sun, give off huge amounts of energy by fusing hydrogen into helium – effectively a way of “burning” hydrogen, the simplest and most abundant element and the main fuel source in the universe.

In the case of the sun, 99 percent of its energy comes from proton-proton fusion, which can create beryllium, lithium and boron before breaking them down into helium.

But many stars in the universe are much larger than our sun: the red-giant Betelgeuse, for instance, is about 20 times more massive and about 700 times as wide.

The two nylon vessels in the core of Borexino filled with water during the initial operation of the detector. (Borexino Collaboration)

Large stars are also much hotter, which means they are overwhelmingly powered by CNO fusion, which fuses hydrogen into helium by means of atomic nuclei transformed in an endless loop between carbon, nitrogen and oxygen.

Scientists calculate that the CNO cycle is the primary type of fusion in the universe. But it’s hard to spot inside our relatively cool sun, where it accounts for only 1 percent of its energy.

The giant Borexino detector looks for neutrinos given off during nuclear fusion at the sun’s core.

Neutrinos barely interact with anything, and so they are ideal for studying distant nuclear reactions — but they are also extremely hard to detect.

Trillions of neutrinos from the sun pass through the Borexino detector every second, but it detects only dozens of them each day by looking for faint flashes of light as they decay in its dark 300-ton water tank.

Ranucci said the Borexino detector has spent decades measuring neutrinos from the sun's main proton-proton chain reaction, but detecting its CNO neutrinos has been very difficult – only about seven neutrinos with the tell-tale energy of the CNO cycle are spotted in a day.

The discovery required making the detector ever more sensitive over the last five years, he said, by shielding it from outside sources of radioactivity so that the inner chamber of the detector is the most radiation-free place on Earth.

The result is the only direct sign of CNO fusion ever seen anywhere: “This is the first evidence that the CNO cycle is at work in the sun and the stars,” Ranucci said.

Gabriel Orebi Gann, a particle physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, called the discovery "a major milestone."

“This discovery takes us a step closer to understanding the composition of the core of our sun, and the formation of heavy stars," she said.

Orebi Gann is the author of a scientific article in Nature about the new study, but she was not involved in the research.

Neutrinos are produced naturally in nuclear reactions and pass through most matter without effect, so they can be used to probe otherwise unreachable regions of the universe, she said.

Because of this, several neutrino detectors are watching in darkness for their fleeting presence around the world, including the IceCube observatory at the South Pole and the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan.

It’s theorized that neutrinos from the Big Bang could account for some of the universe’s mysterious “dark matter” – vast invisible halos around stars and galaxies that make up about a quarter of its mass.

Orebi Gann said an asymmetry between neutrinos and their antiparticles could also explain the apparent dearth of anti-matter in our universe and its dominance of normal matter – in other words, just why there is anything here at all, rather than absolutely nothing

'Betrayed' Black asylum seekers say Trump administration is ramping up deportations

by force and fraud


Molly O'Toole, Andrea Castillo
Fri, November 27, 2020, 

A Nov. 11 flight takes off from Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas carrying Cameroonian and other African deportees. (Angelica Andrade)

Owning a small business in Cameroon selling French products was enough to trap the young man between the English-speaking minority and French-speaking majority government in the warring West African nation.

In July 2019, he was kidnapped by armed rebels, who tortured him for months in the jungle, demanding $10,000 ransom from his family, he said. Then, shortly after they paid, government forces arrested and tortured him for another month — for “financing” the separatists.

But what shocked him most, he said, was that, after escaping through a dozen countries and claiming asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, American officials detained him for almost a year, then threatened and assaulted him and put him in solitary confinement before deporting him in late October back to Cameroon.


“At that point, it’s like the end of the world,” he said, requesting anonymity because he is in hiding. “It’s a death plane. Even if there was a means to make that plane crash that day, we would’ve done it.”

During President Trump’s last weeks in office, Black and African asylum seekers say, the administration is ramping up deportations using assault and coercion, forcing them back to countries where they face harm, according to interviews with the immigrants, lawyers, lawmakers, advocates and a review of legal complaints by The Times.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security headquarters did not respond to requests for comment.

The allegations have shed light on a group of immigrants who have been targeted both by the president's rhetoric and his policies to restrict asylum, but are often overlooked. Relative to Mexicans and Central Americans, asylum seekers from Africa and the Caribbean make up a small but fast-growing proportion of the more than 16,000 immigrants in detention today across the United States, particularly in the for-profit prison archipelago in the American South that has proliferated under Trump.

Despite Trump’s all-out assault on asylum, explicit bias against Black asylum seekers, and border closures under the pretext of the pandemic, some 20,000 Haitians and Africans have journeyed from South America, largely on foot, to claim protection at the U.S.-Mexico border during Trump’s time in office, according to Mexico’s migration statistics.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he would end the use of for-profit immigration detention, reverse many of Trump’s policies to restrict asylum, and reform the U.S. immigration system. But Trump has left his successor with decades-long private-prison contracts; more than 400 executive actions on immigration; a record immigration court backlog of more than 1.2 million cases; and record-high asylum denial rates, reaching around 70% last month.

Since last month, lawyers have filed multiple complaints with the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Inspector General’s Office documenting the cases of at least 14 Cameroonian asylum seekers at four detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi who were allegedly subjected to coercion and physical abuse by ICE to force their deportation. The complaints call for investigations and an immediate halt to the deportations, arguing that officials are violating U.S. and international law, including the Convention Against Torture and due process rights.

In that time, more than 100 asylum seekers also have reported ICE using or threatening force to put them on deportation flights, in particular to Haiti and West Africa, according to lawyers and calls received on a national immigration detention hotline run by nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants.

The Times has interviewed nine asylum seekers, most from Cameroon, as well as Haiti and Ethiopia, many of whom requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. Five have been deported in the last month, and three remain detained after ICE attempted to remove them in recent weeks. One Cameroonian was released Monday after roughly 20 months in immigration detention.

They include teachers, law students, mothers, fathers, a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, who have fled corrupt governments, political persecution, gang rape, torture by security forces, assassination attempts and arbitrary detention.

For many, deportation from the United States is a death sentence.

“I came to U.S. because I need to save my life because my life is in danger,” said A.K., a high school teacher who fled Ethiopia in 2017 after being jailed and beaten for supporting the political opposition party and student protests.

A.K. claimed asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the California-Mexico border in 2018. But last month, while being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility, after he refused to sign deportation papers, six ICE officers assaulted and forcibly fingerprinted him, he said, then sent him to the medical clinic.

His asylum case had been denied but was pending an appeal. Two days after the assault, he said, officers told him he’d be transferred. Instead, they took him to LAX and deported him to Ethiopia, where he was immediately rearrested and now awaits a court hearing.

“ICE is something like racist because they are doing excessive force,” A.K. said. “In freedom country I don’t expect these things.”

Asylum seekers like A.K. are well aware of Trump’s disparagement of Black immigrants. Many of them believe that ICE officials and detention guards share his prejudices.

As Trump leaves office, the “pattern and practice of physical and verbal coercion” by ICE officers and guards to try and force Black asylum seekers to sign deportation papers is worsening, according to the complaints filed to the Homeland Security's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Inspector General's offices.

Beyond threats, the tactics include shackling the immigrants, stripping them naked, holding them down and choking them, resulting in injuries, according to the complaints. Officials often committed the assaults out of sight of facility cameras, or, in several instances, filmed the assaults themselves, the complaints state.

Immigration detention is civil, not criminal, and ICE has the discretion to release detainees at any time. Most of the asylum seekers have family in the United States, and all have exercised their right to seek protection under U.S. law — meaning that many are being detained for years despite having U.S. sponsors and not committed any crime.

Of the deportation flights to West Africa in October and November, at least a dozen on board had pending cases, according to lawyers.

In interviews with The Times, the asylum seekers said they sought protection in the United States because they believed it was the only place where they could be safe and free.

“We believe in freedom and in this country as a country that provides protection for people who are running for their lives, and instead upon arrival, for us to be imprisoned and caged?” said a Haitian mother detained with her husband and 2-year-old son at a Pennsylvania ICE facility.

Police officers in Haiti targeted her and her husband for their involvement with the political opposition, beating and sexually assaulting her while she was pregnant, according to sworn legal statements. She lost the baby before she fled.

Despite many countries shutting their borders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ICE has recently increased the pace of deportations, including sending a flight to West Africa just days after the election. Last month, there were nearly 500 ICE Air Operations flights, a more than 10% increase since September, according to Witness at the Border. More than 1,300 Haitians were deported, said Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance in California.

In recent years, Cameroonians have increasingly accounted for one of the largest groups of what U.S. officials term “extracontinental” migrants, amid the widening conflict in Cameroon.

K.S., a 34-year-old from Cameroon, said he fled because government officials asked him to work with them to capture Anglophone people. He refused; his wife and three children are from the English-speaking side.

He had been detained at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility east of San Diego for more than two years when the final appeal on his asylum claim was denied. It made him so depressed that he spent a week under medical observation.

He said the ICE deportation officer assigned to his case advised him to sign paperwork agreeing to be deported. The officer said that if the Cameroonian government didn't accept ICE’s request to take him back, as was likely, after 90 days he would be released to his U.S. sponsor.

On Oct. 6, after 97 days had passed, six guards stood by as K.S. was ordered to pack up his things to leave.

“I didn’t think about deportation,” he said. “It was the last thought on my mind. They lied to me.”

ICE officers put him on a flight to Louisiana that picked up other Cameroonian deportees and then dropped the group off at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas. On Oct. 13, K.S. said, he was cuffed again and taken to the airport, where he boarded a flight with about 100 other African migrants.

He watched as ICE officers strapped in three men from their shoulders to their ankles to restrict their movement and covered their heads with bags. The officers then laid the men, immovable in the mats, across the plane rows.

Just as the flight was about to take off, K.S. and three other men were removed and taken back to Prairieland, without explanation.

Three weeks later, on Nov. 11, K.S. was back on a deportation flight with 27 other men. One, who was known to have heart problems, began crying that his chest was burning, K.S. said, an account confirmed to The Times by another passenger.

ICE ultimately removed the man and put him in an ambulance.

In contrast to Central Americans largely fleeing a lethal combination of gang violence, corruption, poverty and climate change, many Haitians and Africans have more traditional asylum claims that, at least in theory, better fit the categories outlined by an outdated U.S. asylum system largely conceived in the post-World War II era: persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or being part of a particular social group.

Yet Black and African asylum seekers are less likely than other immigrants to be released on parole or bond, or win their asylum cases, a racial disparity that has worsened under Trump, according to lawyers and government data.

From last September to May, comparing hundreds of release requests from detained Cubans, Venezuelans, Cameroonians and Eritreans, the non-Africans had grant rates roughly twice as high, said Mich Gonzalez, senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Less than 4% of Cameroonian parole requests were granted.

ICE is also increasingly blanket-denying Black immigrants’ release for clearly bogus reasons, said Anne Rios, a supervising attorney in San Diego with the nonprofit Al Otro Lado.

For example, ICE rejected a request, saying an applicant’s identity hadn’t been established, when the agency had the applicant and his identification documents in its custody, according to parole applications and denials provided by Rios and reviewed by The Times.

U.S. officials have faced more impediments to deporting Haitian and African asylum seekers due to limited diplomatic relationships with their homelands and more complicated deportation logistics exacerbated by coronavirus closures abroad.

But that hasn’t stopped them. The Trump administration has at times put enforcement before its own stated foreign policy, contradicting the State Department and U.S. law barring officials from returning people to harm or death.

Take Cameroon. Last year, the U.S. pulled back some military assistance amid reports of atrocities committed by security forces trained and supplied by the U.S. military for counterterrorism. The State Department travel advisory for Cameroon warns of “crime," "kidnapping," "terrorism" and "armed conflict.”

Rather than obtaining a valid Cameroonian passport, ICE officials have issued Cameroonian deportees “laissez-passer” travel documents that are invalid, or even signed by individuals in the United States purporting to be Cameroonian officials, according to the October complaint.

The Cameroonian Embassy has told advocates they have not issued any such documents. But in September, ICE presented a “laissez-passer” to Pauline Binam, a Cameroonian woman whom the agency attempted to deport as she spoke out against a Georgia gynecologist who she said had removed her fallopian tube without her consent. Binam, the airlines, and ultimately the Cameroonian government rejected the document, issued by a minister in Houston claiming to be an honorary consul.

The U.S. State Department also recently put out a statement calling on the government of Haiti to bring “long overdue justice” to perpetrators of the worst massacre in more than a decade two years ago, when gangs with ties to powerful politicians tortured, raped and killed dozens.

In 2016, the police attack on the Haitian mother left her in a coma for eight days, according to an emergency motion to reopen her family’s case. She and her husband both had family in Haiti targeted and killed for their politics.

She later gave birth to her son in Chile in the street after hospitals turned the couple away because they are Black, lawyers say. Ultimately, the trio sought asylum in March near Tecate, east of San Diego. But U.S. immigration officials denied their claims based on a Trump administration policy that a federal judge ruled unlawful in June.

Bridget Cambria, one of the attorneys representing the Haitian mother and 63 others, including two dozen families at imminent risk of removal, said they appealed to the Circuit Court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, they got a temporary stay.

The Haitian woman said they had hoped to join family in Florida. Instead, her son is in detention, suffering from a virus that manifests in sores over his body and mouth.

“No child, no baby should be kept in a place like this,” she said.

Such a release is increasingly rare, but not impossible. Halley, the Cameroonian asylum seeker released Monday, had refused to sign deportation papers he called his “death warrant.” ICE pulled him off the November deportation flight, but then denied him parole a week ago. Now, he’s with family in Maryland.

"That day was another new birthday for me, I could not believe it," he said Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Cameroon, K.S. and many other U.S. deportees remain stuck, hopeless and effectively stateless.

“I’m ready to die now,” he said. “If they are going to take me, no problem. I am already dead.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Thai pro-democracy protesters warn of possible coup

TASSANEE VEJPONGSA
Fri, November 27, 2020, 

BANGKOK (AP) — Pro-democracy demonstrators in Thailand, undeterred by arrest warrants and the possibility of violent attacks, staged another rally on Friday, poking fun at their critics and warning of the possibility of a military coup.

The potential for violence was illustrated after their last rally on Wednesday, when in the hours after it ended, two men were reportedly shot and critically wounded. Although the incident remains murky and its connection to the rally unclear, it was a reminder that the student protesters are vulnerable, especially because of the passions they inspire among some of their opponents.

The protest movement’s core demands are for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government to step down, the constitution to be amended to be more democratic, and the monarchy to be reformed to make it more accountable.

Their demand concerning the monarchy is the most controversial and earns them the most enemies. The royal institution by law and tradition is virtually untouchable, and regarded by many as the bedrock of national identity. The military has declared defense of the monarchy to be among its foremost duties.

The protest leaders believe that King Maha Vajiralongkorn holds more power than is appropriate under a constitutional monarchy, and have made that the centerpiece of their campaigning in recent weeks. Although any criticism of the monarchy used to be taboo, speeches at the rallies — as well as signs and chants __ include caustic words about the king and the palace.

In response, Thai authorities this past week escalated their legal battle against protest leaders, charging 12 of them with violating a harsh law against defaming the monarchy. The lese majeste law carries a penalty of three to 15 years' imprisonment, but has not been used for the past three years.

Historically, defending the monarchy has been abused for political reasons. It has also triggered violence, most notably in 1976, when it led to the killings of dozens of students at a university protest against the return from exile of an ousted military dictator. That event was the trigger for a coup, and since then Thailand has had successful coups in 1977, 1991, 2006 and 2014.

There is concern that if the government feels it cannot control the protests, which show little sign of abating, it may impose martial law or be ousted by the army in a coup.

Some speakers on Friday evening urged the crowd to take measures to resist any coup that might be launched.

Resisting any coup attempt was the nominal theme of the rally, which began in a festival-like atmosphere that has marked many of the protest events. Oversized inflatable yellow rubber ducks that became icons of the movement after they were used as shields against police water cannons were joined by balloons in the image of silvery space aliens. The balloons are displayed to mock accusations that foreigners — “aliens” — fund and direct the protest movement.

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Thailand Protests
A protester holds a balloon shaped like an alien - to mock accusations that foreigners fund and direct their movement - during a rally Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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A crowd gathers during a rally Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

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Protesters flash three-finger protest gestures while holding balloons shaped like aliens - to mock accusations that foreigners fund and direct their movement - during a rally Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)



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Inflatable yellow ducks, which have become good-humored symbols of resistance during anti-government rallies, are lifted over a crowd of protesters Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME - A woman flashes a three-finger protest gesture while posing in front of mostly inflatable yellow ducks, which have become good-humored symbols of resistance during anti-government rallies, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

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Protesters flash LED lights from their mobile phones during a rally Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)



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CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME - A protester adorns his beard with a yellow duck, which has become a good-humored symbol of resistance during anti-government rallies, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/WasonWanichakorn)

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Two women flash three-finger protest gestures while wearing headbands adorned with yellow ducks, which have become a good-humored symbol of resistance during anti-government rallies, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

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CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER'S NAME - A man holds up bubble blowers and merchandise designed as yellow ducks, which have become good-humored symbols of resistance during anti-government rallies, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)



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Thailand Protests
A crowd of protesters flash three-finger protest gestures during a rally Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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Thailand Protests
Inflatable yellow ducks, which have become good-humored symbols of resistance during anti-government rallies, are lifted over a crowd of protesters Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

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Thailand Protests
Inflatable yellow ducks, which have become good-humored symbols of resistance during anti-government rallies, are lifted over a crowd of protesters Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Pro-democracy demonstrators are continuing their protests calling for the government to step down and reforms to the constitution and the monarchy, despite legal charges being filed against them and the possibility of violence from their opponents or a military crackdown. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Sri Lanka bans Tamil remembrance of war dead

Fri, November 27, 2020

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's government petitioned the courts to have Tamil Tiger commemorations banned

Commemorations for Tamil Tiger rebels killed in Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war were banned on Friday after court petitions by the government of strongman President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka's 37-year conflict began in 1972 when Tamil Tigers waged a bloody war against government troops in a campaign for a separate homeland for their ethnic minority group.

Rajapaksa was defence chief when the Tigers were finally defeated in 2009 while his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president, winning them the adoration of many in the Sinhala majority population.

For years, Tamils were not allowed to commemorate their war dead, but a ban on "Heroes' Day" ceremonies at cemeteries was lifted after Mahinda was voted out of office in 2015.

The Rajapaksa brothers returned to power last year however when Gotabaya was elected president.

His government petitioned courts in the Tamil-majority north of Sri Lanka this week and obtained prohibition orders against the commemorations, the attorney general's office said.

The main Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), protested against the ban on Friday.

"Even in the remembrance of the dead there is discrimination against the Tamils in Sri Lanka," TNA legislator Abraham Sumanthiran said on Twitter.

He said the majority Sinhalese governments had not barred the leftist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, from commemorating their mainly Sinhalese comrades killed in two failed insurrections in 1971 and in the late 1980s.

Police said they had already arrested four people "for posting Heroes' Day-related messages on social media".

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared in the late 1980s that November 27 would be their "Heroes' Day" in memory of self-styled Tiger Lieutenant Shankar, their first combatant killed by security forces in 1982.

Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist war cost the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.

The UN accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in its military campaign, an allegation denied by successive governments.

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Rights groups decry attacks on Pakistan's minority Ahmadis


MUNIR AHMED
Thu, November 26, 2020, 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Three international human rights groups on Thursday denounced recent attacks on Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community and asked Islamabad to “urgently and impartially investigate a surge" in violence.

The joint appeal from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists came days after a sixteen-year-old Muslim youth opened fire on a group of Ahmadis gathering for worship at a home. The attack killed a doctor, Tahir Mehmood, and wounded three other Ahmadi men, including the doctor’s father.

Mehmood’s family have since gone into hiding for security reasons. The suspected attacker was taken into in police custody.

In Sunday's statement, the three rights groups called on Pakistan to “take appropriate legal action against those responsible for threats and violence against Ahmadis.”

Since July, five members of the Ahmadi community have been killed in separate attacks.

“There are few communities in Pakistan who have suffered as much as the Ahmadis,” said Omar Waraich, head of South Asia at Amnesty International. “The recent wave of killings tragically underscores not just the seriousness of the threats they face, but also the callous indifference of the authorities, who have failed to protect the community or punish the perpetrators."

Ian Seiderman, legal and policy director at the International Commission of Jurists, reminded Prime Minister Imran Khan's government of commitments made in the United Nations General Assembly to actively protect minorities' human rights.

Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch, also called on Pakistan to take “immediate legal and policy measures to eliminate widespread and rampant discrimination and social exclusion" of Ahmadis.

The Ahmadi faith was established on the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whose followers believe he was a prophet.

Pakistan’s parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Since then, Ahmadis have repeatedly been targeted by Islamic extremists in the Muslim-majority nation.

Earlier this month, gunmen shot and killed an 82-year-old Ahmadi man. In October, a Muslim professor shot and killed an Ahmadi professor a day after the two allegedly had a heated discussion over a religious matter.

Belarus' Lukashenko says he will leave his post after months of protests, state media reports

Saphora Smith and Tatyana Chistikova
Fri, November 27, 2020

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he would step down after a new constitution is adopted, the state-owned BelTA news agency cited him as saying on Friday.

"I am not going to shape the constitution to suit my needs," he is quoted as saying. "I am not going to be the president once the new constitution is in place."

Belarus has been rocked by months of anti-government protests ever since Lukashenko — often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator” — claimed victory in an Aug. 9 presidential election that his opponents say was rigged, a charge he denies.

It remained unclear whether Lukashenko's comments were sincere or whether he was just paying lip service to the prospect of him stepping aside. In any case, it is the first time he has publicly reflected on how the country will be governed when he is no longer president.

His comments on the constitution came as he was visiting a Minsk hospital on Friday. He appeared to suggest that the current constitution concentrates too much power in the hands of the president.

“We need to create a new constitution but it should benefit the country. I don't want the country to fall to ruin later on,” he said, according to the news agency.

Lukashenko has maintained his grasp on power in the former Soviet nation for the last 26 years and met the protests with a violent crackdown. Hundreds have been arrested and there have been allegations of torture from people held in custody.

This is his sixth term as president.

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The latest news comes after the European Union imposed sanctions earlier this month on Lukashenko and 14 other officials over their roles in the security crackdown launched during the protests.

Pictures from the streets of the Belarusian capital Minsk earlier this week showed people protesting against police violence, and brandishing the former white-red-white flag of Belarus that has become a symbol of protest in the country.

More than three months after an historic protest movement emerged across Belarus, people continue to take to the streets.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he would step down after a new constitution is adopted, the state-owned BelTA news agency cited him as saying on Friday.

"I am not going to shape the constitution to suit my needs," he is quoted as saying. "I am not going to be the president once the new constitution is in place."

Belarus has been rocked by months of anti-government protests ever since Lukashenko — often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator” — claimed victory in an Aug. 9 presidential election that his opponents say was rigged, a charge he denies.

It remained unclear whether Lukashenko's comments were sincere or whether he was just paying lip service to the prospect of him stepping aside. In any case, it is the first time he has publicly reflected on how the country will be governed when he is no longer president.

His comments on the constitution came as he was visiting a Minsk hospital on Friday. He appeared to suggest that the current constitution concentrates too much power in the hands of the president.

“We need to create a new constitution but it should benefit the country. I don't want the country to fall to ruin later on,” he said, according to the news agency.

Lukashenko has maintained his grasp on power in the former Soviet nation for the last 26 years and met the protests with a violent crackdown. Hundreds have been arrested and there have been allegations of torture from people held in custody.

This is his sixth term as president.

The latest news comes after the European Union imposed sanctions earlier this month on Lukashenko and 14 other officials over their roles in the security crackdown launched during the protests.

Pictures from the streets of the Belarusian capital Minsk earlier this week showed people protesting against police violence, and brandishing the former white-red-white flag of Belarus that has become a symbol of protest in the country.

More than three months after an historic protest movement emerged across Belarus, people continue to take to the streets.

This is a breaking story. Please check back for details.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BBC BACKGROUNDER
Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: Fears of a march into guerrilla warfare

Thu, November 26, 2020

The regional government in Tigray has a powerful force

After being ensconced in power in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region for nearly three decades, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) could be preparing to return to the mountains to launch a guerrilla war against the federal government.

But the Ethiopian military believes that it can prevent this from happening through the offensive it launched on 4 November to oust the TPLF and arrest more than 70 of its leaders and military officers.

They include veterans of the 17-year guerrilla war that led to the TPLF seizing power in the federal capital, Addis Ababa, in 1991 and who then controlled the country's military and intelligence services until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed purged them when he took office in 2018. He accused them of being repressive and corrupt - charges they deny.

Having retreated to their strongholds in Tigray while Mr Abiy established his control over the rest of Ethiopia, earlier this month they seized control of a key federal military base - which is part of the Northern Command - located near Tigray's capital, Mekelle, apparently without much resistance.

'Ready to die'

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-governmental organisation which focuses on conflict-prevention, described it as the federal military's largest regional military command.

Tigray's mountainous landscape makes it conducive for guerrilla warfare

The TPLF seized an array of weapons, including rockets and missiles, though the Ethiopian military still has considerable air power, including fighter jets and helicopter gunships.

Their operation came after Mr Abiy's government decided to redirect funding away from the Tigray leadership, accusing them of holding an "illegal" election for the regional legislature in September, rather than abiding by a federal decision to postpone all polls because of coronavirus.

"Because of the changed political dynamics over the last two years, there has been significant recruitment and training in Tigray"", Source: William Davison, Source description: Ethiopia analyst, Image: The Tigray region's special police forces

TPLF officials say they took the parts of the Northern Command because they believed that federal intervention was imminent. Mr Abiy responded by accusing the TPLF of crossing the "final red line", and ordered air strikes and the deployment of troops to Tigray.

Twenty-two days into the conflict, Mr Abiy says the army is now launching the "final phase" of its operation in Tigray to take control of Mekelle, which will be over in the "coming days".

But TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael has been defiant, telling AFP earlier in the week: "We are people of principle and ready to die in defence of our right to administer our region."
Which side has more fighters?

ICG Ethiopia analyst William Davison says the TPLF may be able to call on more than 200,000 fighters - from militias in villages to special forces in the regional government.

"Because of the changed political dynamics over the last two years, there has been significant recruitment and training in Tigray," he told the BBC.

Amhara militiamen have been fighting on the side of the Ethiopian army in Tigray

The ICG does not give an estimate of the strength of the Ethiopian military, but Reuters news agency quotes the Janes security data group as saying that it has around 140,000 active personnel, most of them in the army.

If these estimates are correct, the Ethiopian military may have fewer soldiers than the TPLF, but it can bolster its numbers by drawing on the special forces of other regional governments - Ethiopian law allows each of them to have these paramilitary units to provide security within their territory.

Significantly, special forces from the Amhara regional government - which has a long-running land dispute with Tigray - helped federal troops secure territory in western Tigray when the conflict started.

"In the west, joint federal and Amhara control may be more established because those forces outnumbered and overpowered local Tigray forces," said Mr Davison.

"There are also more flat areas in the west, giving a conventional army more advantage," he said, adding that this was unlike the terrain in the "core" of Tigray, around cities in the east, like Mekelle, where it was rugged and mountainous, making it more conducive for guerrilla warfare.
Tigray 'blockaded'

Arhe Hamednaca, who took part in guerrilla wars against previous Ethiopian governments and went on to become an MP in Sweden, said the offensive in the west had also been aimed at securing the border with Sudan.

He said this was vital - to prevent the TPLF from setting up bases there as it had done when it fought the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam 29 years ago.

"The only way for the TPLF to escape and to get fresh supplies is through Sudan," he said.

Map of Tigray region

Furthermore, there is also no outlet to the Red Sea through Eritrea, as there was in the 1980s, when Eritrea forces were allied with the TPLF against Mengistu.

Prime Minister Abiy has become a staunch ally of Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki, who fought a bitter border war with the Ethiopia, when it was under TPLF control.

"Times have changed. The TPLF's supply routes are not flowing, and to its north is President Isaias Afwerki's Eritrea, its principle enemy," BBC Tigrinya editor Samuel Ghebhrehiwet said.
More on the Tigray crisis:


Why Ethiopia is spiralling out of control


The man at the heart of Ethiopia's Tigray conflict


Marooned by conflict: 'My little brother needs medicine'


Crisis has engulfed Ethiopia. Here’s what it means

Several sources in Eritrea have told the BBC that Ethiopian troops have been crossing the border to regroup and to treat their wounded in military hospitals - though both governments deny Eritrean involvement in the Tigrayan conflict.

"Tigray is blockaded. The TPLF cannot sustain a conventional war," Mr Davison said.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that federal forces will have the quick victory they hope for.

Mr Arhe notes that there are numerous examples of guerrilla fighters taking on better armed opponents.

"The Americans had all sorts of drones and fighter jets in Afghanistan, but the Taliban survived," he said.

"The Houthi rebels in Yemen have survived UAE and Saudi weapon superiority."

Mr Davison said that while federal troops were advancing towards Mekelle, it was unclear how many towns and cities they had actually taken control of along the way and how many they had just passed through.
Who will Tigrayans back?

Either way, many Tigrayan fighters may eventually retreat to villages and surrounding mountains to prepare for a guerrilla war that could receive significant public support, he added.

"Though federal officials claim the opposite, many Tigrayans seem to oppose the intervention because they believe it is to remove a legitimately elected regional government," Mr Davison said.

There has been in a surge in Tigrayan nationalism in recent years

Moreover, they generally support the federal system that the TPLF helped introduced after it took power in Addis Ababa in 1991, as the best way to protect their political, linguistic and cultural rights, he added.

In contrast, the TPLF accuses Mr Abiy of trying to establish a more unitary type of government.

The BBC's Tigrinya editor says that while a surge in Tigrayan nationalism could work in the TPLF's favour, the possibility that many people may instead back the federal government cannot be ruled out.

"During the armed struggle [against Mengistu], the people of Tigray were fully behind the fighters. But in the nearly three decades that the TPLF has been in power, many Tigrayans objected to the leadership because of systemic corruption and oppression," Mr Samuel said.

He believes that the outcome of the battle for Mekelle will determine whether or not the TPLF can wage a guerrilla war, but even if the Ethiopian military gains the upper hand, he does not envisage the conflict ending without proper negotiations between the different sides.

Invasive wasp species forcing aeroplanes to abandon take-off in Australia


Giovanni Torre
Thu, November 26, 2020

Officials inspect an engine of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia X after it was diverted and forced to land because an engine was damaged during take-off - REUTERS

An imported wasp species is posing a “significant risk” to aircraft safety in Australia, new research has found.

Planes were forced to abandon take-off and, in some cases, return shortly after departure in a series of incidents at Brisbane Airport, prompting research behind a study published in the journal PLOS One on Thursday.

An experiment found that the invasive species Pachodynerus nasidens was building nests in aircraft speedometers, blocking the instruments within minutes of the wasps beginning construction. Certainty about speed is vital to safety particularly during take-off and landing.

The small black wasp with yellow bands on its pointed abdomen was first discovered in Australia during a quarantine check at the Port of Brisbane in 2010, and spotted at Brisbane Airport in 2012. The species is native to the Caribbean and South and Central America.

The wasp is nicknamed the keyhole wasp because of its tendency to take advantage of the apparent safety of artificial nooks and crannies for building nests.

Pitot probes, thin tubes that calculate airspeed by measuring the difference in pressure between air flowing into the tube through its central hole, and air entering holes drilled in the probe's side, have attracted the wasps. By blocking one or more on a plane, the wasps render data inconsistent and make pilots uncertain of their speed.

In 2013, an A330 made an emergency landing at Brisbane Airport shortly after take-off because of trouble determining speed. Subsequently the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found a wasp nest, constructed in less than two hours that had “almost totally obstructed” a pitot probe.

Brisbane Airport and consultancy firm Ecosure conducted a more than three-year study, led by Dr Alan house, involving replica pitot probes created with a 3D printer and placed around the airport. The researchers checked the probes regularly and found that time and again it was the keyhole wasp that was building nests.

Dr House said that while the keyhole wasp is not the only species that does it, they seem to be “particularly adept” at quickly building nests that block the probes.

In August 2015, an A320 flight from Brisbane to Newcastle was found to have a temperature probe blocked by a wasp nest after spending only 30 minutes on the ground in Brisbane.

While maintenance crews, and Dr House, have reported seeing a wasp fly around the nose of a plane within a minute of it arriving, they tend to wait for the aircraft to cool down before beginning to build their nests.

Then the wasp crawls inside and inspects it, flies off and finds food, paralyses it with her sting, then flies it back to the probe and stuffs it inside as a first meal for the egg she then lays, before sealing the top with mud.

While airport officials in Brisbane are taking action to combat the wasps, they fear the species will spread to other states and airports.

Thailand: Rare whale skeleton discovered

Andreas Illmer - BBC News
Fri, November 27, 2020, 

The bones still remain to be carbon-dated

An almost perfectly preserved whale skeleton thought to be between 3,000 and 5,000 years old has been discovered in Thailand.

The bones were found in early November some 12km (7.5 miles) off the coast just to the west of Bangkok.

The 12m (39ft) long skeleton is thought to be that of a Bryde's whale.


Experts hope the find might provide "a window into the past," especially for research on sea levels and biodiversity.

The partially fossilised bones are "a rare find," mammal researcher Marcus Chua of the National University of Singapore told the BBC.

"There are few whale subfossils in Asia," he said, and even fewer ones are "in such good condition".

Pictures shared by Thailand's environment minister Varawut Silpa-archa show the bones apparently almost entirely intact.

According to the politician, more than 80% of the skeleton has so far been recovered, including vertebrae, ribs, fins and one shoulder blade.

The skeleton's head alone is estimated to be about 3m in length.

Mr Chua says the discovery will allow researchers to find out more about the particular species in the past, whether there were any differences compared to today's Bryde's whales.

The skeleton will also provide information about the "paleobiological and geological conditions at that time, including sea level estimation, types of sediments, and the contemporary biological communities at that time".

"So this find provides a window into the past once the skeleton has been dated," Mr Chua says.

The bones are yet to be carbon-dated to determine their exact age, with the results expected in December.

Bryde's whales still exist around Thailand today

The gulf of Thailand has an interesting history in the last 10,000 years, the biologist points out, with sea levels possibly up to 4m higher than today and active tectonic activity.

The skeleton was found off the current coastline in Samut Sakhon.

Bryde's whales, which live worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, are still found in the waters around Thailand today.

Rare Cretaceous-Age Fossil Opens New Chapter in Story of Bird Evolution

A Cretaceous-age, crow-sized bird from Madagascar would have sliced its way through the air wielding a large, blade-like beak and offers important new insights on the evolution of face and beak shape in the Mesozoic forerunners of modern birds.

An international team of researchers led by Ohio University professor Dr. Patrick O’Connor and Stony Brook University professor Dr. Alan H. Turner announced the discovery today in the journal Nature.

Birds have played a pivotal role in shaping our understanding of biological evolution. As long ago as the mid-19th Century, Charles Darwin’s keen observations on the diversity of beak shape in Galapagos finches influenced his treatise on evolution through natural selection.

This fossil bird discovery adds a new twist on the evolution of skulls and beaks in birds and their close relatives, showing that evolution can work through different developmental pathways to achieve similar head shapes in very distantly related animals.

The bird is named Falcatakely, a combination of Latin and Malagasy words inspired by the small size and the sickle-shaped beak, the latter representing a completely novel face shape in Mesozoic birds.

The species is known from a single well-preserved, nearly complete skull, one that was buried in a muddy debris flow around 68 million years ago. Bird skeletons are rare in the fossil record because of their lightweight bones and small size. Bird skulls are an even rarer find. Falcatakely is the second Cretaceous bird species discovered in Madagascar by the National Science Foundation-funded team.

The delicate specimen remains partially embedded in rock due to the complex array of lightly built bones that make up the skull. Although quite small, with an estimated skull length of only 8.5 cm (~ 3 inches), the exquisite preservation reveals many important details. As one example, a complex series of grooves on the bones making up the side of the face indicate that the animal hosted an expansive keratinous covering, or beak, in life.

“As the face began to emerge from the rock, we knew that it was something very special, if not entirely unique,” notes Patrick O’Connor, professor of anatomy and neuroscience at Ohio University and lead author on the study. “Mesozoic birds with such high, long faces are completely unknown, with Falcatakely providing a great opportunity to reconsider ideas around head and beak evolution in the lineage leading to modern birds.”

Falcatakely belongs to an extinct group of birds called Enantiornithes, a group known exclusively from the Cretaceous Period and predominantly from fossils discovered in Asia. “Enantiornithines represent the first great diversification of early birds, occupying ecosystems alongside their non-avian relatives such as Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus,” says Turner, an associate professor of anatomical sciences at Stony Brook University and study co-author. “Unlike the first birds, such as Archaeopteryx, with long tails and primitive features in the skull, enantiornithines like Falcatakely would have looked relatively modern.”

A life reconstruction of Falcatakely might leave one with the impression that this is a relatively unremarkable bird. But it is underneath the keratinous beak that the evolutionary intrigue lies. O’Connor and his colleagues couldn’t remove the individual bones of Falcatakely from the rock for study because they were much too fragile.

Instead, the research team employed high-resolution micro-computed tomography (μCT) and extensive digital modeling to virtually dissect individual bones from the rock, with enlarged 3D printing of the digital models being essential for reconstructing the skull and for comparisons with other species.

As the research progressed, it became apparent that bones making up the face in Falcatakely were organized quite unlike those of any dinosaur, avian or nonavian, despite having a face superficially similar to a number of modern bird groups alive today.

All living birds build the skeleton of their beaks in a very specific way. It’s mostly formed by a single enlarged bone called the premaxilla. In contrast, most birds from the Age of Dinosaurs, like the iconic Archaeopteryx, have relatively unspecialized snouts comprised of a small premaxilla and a large maxilla. Surprisingly, the researchers found this similar primitive arrangement of bones in Falcatakely but with an overall face shape reminiscent of certain modern birds with a high, long upper bill and completely unlike anything known in the Mesozoic.

“Falcatakely might generally resemble any number of modern birds with the skin and beak in place, however, it is the underlying skeletal structure of the face that turns what we know about bird evolutionary anatomy on its head” noted O’Connor. “There are clearly different developmental ways of organizing the facial skeleton that lead to generally similar end goals, or in this case, similar head and beak shape.”

To explore how this type of convergent anatomy evolved, O’Connor and Turner enlisted the help of their colleague Dr. Ryan Felice, an expert on skull anatomy in birds and other dinosaurs.

“We found that some modern birds like toucans and hornbills evolved very similar sickle-shaped beaks tens of millions of years after Falcatakely. What is so amazing is that these lineages converged on this same basic anatomy despite being very distantly related,” noted Felice, lecturer in human anatomy at University College London.

Falcatakely was recovered from latest Cretaceous-age (70-68 million years ago) rocks in what is now northwestern Madagascar, in what has been interpreted as a semi-arid, highly seasonal environment.

That very same environment also hosted a number of other truly bizarre animals, such as the pug-nosed, herbivorous crocodyliform Simosuchus and the recently described mammal Adalatherium. “To push the boundaries of our knowledge of Earth history and biological evolution, we have to look in unexplored or underexplored regions,” Turner noted.

“The discovery of Falcatekely underscores that much of the deep history of the Earth is still shrouded in mystery,” added O’Connor, “particularly from those parts of the planet that have been relatively less explored.” Madagascar has always pushed the boundaries of biological potential. Indeed, the unique biota of Madagascar has intrigued natural historians and scientists across many disciplines, often framed in the context of evolution in isolation on the large island continent.

“The more we learn about Cretaceous-age animals, plants, and ecosystems in what is now Madagascar, the more we see its unique biotic signature extends far back into the past and is not merely reflective of the island ecosystem in recent times.”

OHIO UNIVERSITY

Dinosaur-era bird with scythe-like beak sheds light on avian diversity

Will Dunham
Wed, November 25, 2020

Dinosaur-era bird with scythe-like beak sheds light on avian diversity

Artist's reconstruction of bird Falcatakely forsterae

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A delicate but exquisitely preserved skull of a crow-sized bird with a scythe-like beak that inhabited Madagascar 68 million years ago is showing scientists that they have a lot of learn about avian diversity during the age of dinosaurs.

Scientists on Wednesday said the bird, called Falcatakely forsterae, possessed a face unlike any other known bird from the age of dinosaurs - the Mesozoic Era - not only because of the beak shape but because of its underlying anatomy.

Its beak looked superficially like that of a small toucan though the two species are not closely related. While modern birds exhibit a great variety of beak shapes - from the sword-billed hummingbird to the rhinoceros hornbill - little such diversity had been discovered among Mesozoic birds.

Falcatakely's 3.5-inch (9-cm) skull remains partially embedded in rock because the scientists did not want to risk harming it. Instead they analyzed it using sophisticated scanning and digital reconstruction. Only its skull was found.

"Amazing, small, delicate, fragile, challenging to study - all at the same time," said Ohio University anatomy professor Patrick O'Connor, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature.

"Bird fossils are particularly rare in part because they have such delicate skeletons. Hollow bones aren't great at surviving the fossilization process," added paleontologist and study co-author Alan Turner of Stony Brook University in New York.

"Because of this, we need to be aware that we are probably under-sampling the Mesozoic diversity of birds. A newly discovered species like Falcatakely provides a taste of the tantalizing possibility of a greater diversity of form waiting to be discovered," Turner said.

Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs about 150 million years ago. Early birds retained many ancestral features including teeth. The Falcatakely fossil has a single conical tooth in the front part of the upper jaw. Falcatakely probably had a small number of teeth in life.

It belonged to an avian group, enantiornithines, that did not survive the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous Period.

"Unlike the earliest birds such as Archaeopteryx, which in many ways still looked dinosaurian with their long tails and unspecialized snouts, enantiornithines like Falcatakely would have looked relatively modern," Turner said.

It was in the underlying skeletal structure where its differences were more apparent, O'Connor added, with more similarities to dinosaurs like Velociraptor than modern birds.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; editing by Jonathan Oatis)