UN chief hopes for Syria conference in early June

MOSCOW (AP) ? U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is holding out hope that an international conference to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Syrian civil war will be held in early June.

The U.S. and Russia have agreed to try to bring the Syrian regime and opposition to the negotiating table, but no date has been set.

Neither Syrian President Bashar Assad nor the main Western-backed opposition group has made a commitment to attend.

Ban Ki-moon is in Russia as part of efforts to convene the conference. The state RIA Novosti news agency quoted him saying Sunday that he is hopeful the conference can take place "very soon," possibly in early June.

In addition to the U.S. and Russia, he said he has spoken with Britain, France, China and "all other key parties."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-chief-hopes-syria-conference-early-june-103156885.html

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Researchers estimate a cost for universal access to energy

May 2, 2013 ? Universal access to modern energy could be achieved with an investment of between 65 and 86 billion US dollars a year up until 2030, new research has shown.

The proposed investments are higher than previous estimates but equate to just 3-4 per cent of current investments in the global energy system.

The findings, which have been presented today, 3 May, in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, also include, for the first time, the policy costs for worldwide access to clean-combusting cooking fuels and stoves by 2030.

Access to electricity and clean-combusting cooking fuels and stoves could combat the estimated four million deaths a year from household air pollution caused by traditional cooking practices.

In their study, the researchers calculate that improved access to modern cooking fuels could avert between 0.6 and 1.8 million premature deaths in 2030 and enhance wellbeing substantially.

The international group of researchers estimate that an additional generation capacity of between 21 and 28 gigawatts would be required to provide a modest amount of electricity to all rural households. This is less than the annual additions to generation capacity being made by China alone. They estimate this will cost around 180 to 250 billion dollars over the next 20 years with dedicated policies and measures also needed.

Added to this will be the policy costs to help ease the transition to clean cooking for more than 40 per cent of the world's population. The policies would include subsidies supporting the costs of new fuels, new stoves, and improved biomass stoves. The researchers estimate the costs to be in the region of 750 to 1000 billion dollars over the next 20 years.

Lead author of the paper, Dr Shonali Pachauri, a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, said: "Our analysis indicates that without new policies and efforts, universal access to modern energy will not be achieved by 2030. Actually, for cooking, the situation may even worsen.

"The scale of investment required is small from a global perspective, though it will require additional financing for nations that are least likely to have access to sources of finances. But the benefits could be enormous.

"Our work shows that achieving this goal will result in significant health benefits and is likely to have negligible impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, even in the case where all populations switch to fossil-based LPG cooking, which is unlikely to be the case in reality."

The researchers arrived at the estimated costs using two modelling frameworks to explore the effectiveness of alternate policy pathways.

To estimate the total investment needed for expanding grid electricity access to rural populations, they included the costs of grid extension, operation and maintenance of the power system and investments for additional electricity generation.

They state that without policies to accelerate electrification, between 480 and 810 million additional people are estimated to gain access to electricity by 2030, but 600 to 850 million people in rural South and Pacific Asia and sub-Saharan Africa -- the main regions of interest in this study -- could still remain without electricity.

The United Nations (UN) declared that 2012 was the "International Year of Sustainable Energy for All" with universal access to modern energy by 2030 as one of the stipulated objectives. This research provides new insights on how to achieve these objectives.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics (IOP), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Shonali Pachauri, Bas J van Ruijven, Yu Nagai, Keywan Riahi, Detlef P van Vuuren, Abeeku Brew-Hammond, Nebojsa Nakicenovic. Pathways to achieve universal household access to modern energy by 2030. Environmental Research Letters, 2013; 8 (2): 024015 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024015

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/electricity/~3/ieAG4yPoKJo/130502225855.htm

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Kerry Washington For Parade Magazine, Talks ?Scandal?, Presdient ...

Kerry Washington still can?t wrap the success ?Scandal? has become around her mind.

?I knew that in my lifetime I?d never seen it. But it didn?t compute to me that I?d be making history. I just fell in love with the character,? she says during a recent interview with Parade Magazine.

She sits down during an exclusive interview with the magazine to discuss movie roles in ? Django?, ?Peeples?, and the popular and very scandal ABC drama.

On whether, as a member of the President?s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, she is aware of President Obama?s view of the show:

?I haven?t wanted to ask the president his opinion of the show. But I have lots of friends in the administration who love it. We make D.C. look sexy and exciting.?

On her work on the controversial film Django Unchained:

?I feel like I barely survived Django emotionally. The violence. Hearing the N-word every day. It cost me a lot psychologically, but it was worth it to tell that story.?

Head over to Mrsgrapevine.com for more from Ms. Washington.

Also See:

Kerry Washington Dressed To Impress At The 2013 White House Correspondence Dinner

Source: http://www.cottenkandi.com/2013/05/03/kerry-washington-parade-magazine-cover-talks-scandal-president-obama-movie-roles/

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Chinese incursion leaves India on verge of crisis

NEW DELHI (AP) ? The platoon of Chinese soldiers slipped across the boundary into India in the middle of the night, according to Indian officials. They were ferried across the bitterly cold moonscape in Chinese army vehicles, then got out to traverse a dry creek bed with a helicopter hovering overhead for protection.

They finally reached their destination and pitched a tent in the barren Depsang Valley in the Ladakh region, a symbolic claim of sovereignty deep inside Indian-held territory. So stealthy was the operation that India did not discover the incursion until a day later, Indian officials said.

China denies any incursion, but Indian officials say that for two weeks, the soldiers have refused to move back over the so-called Line of Actual Control that divides Indian-ruled territory from Chinese-run land, leaving the government on the verge of a crisis with its powerful northeastern neighbor.

Indian officials fear that if they react with force, the face-off could escalate into a battle with the powerful People's Liberation Army. But doing nothing would leave a Chinese outpost deep in territory India has ruled since independence.

"If they have come 19 kilometers into India, it is not a minor LAC violation. It is a deliberate military operation. And even as India protests, more tents have come up," said Sujit Dutta, a China specialist at the Jamia Milia Islamia university in New Delhi.

"Clearly, the Chinese are testing India to see how far they can go," he said.

That is not China's stated view.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that Chinese troops had been carrying out normal patrols and had not crossed the boundary.

"China is firmly opposed to any acts that involve crossing the Line of Actual Control and sabotaging the status quo," she said at a daily briefing in Beijing as she was repeatedly questioned about the dispute.

Hua said talks to defuse the dispute were ongoing and that it should not affect relations. "As we pointed out many times, the China-India border issue is one which was left over from the past. The two sides reached important consensus that this issue should not affect the overall bilateral relations," Hua said.

Local army commanders from both sides have held three meetings over the crisis, according to Indian officials. India's foreign secretary called in the Chinese ambassador to register a strong protest. Yet the troops did not move, and even pitched a second tent, Indian officials said.

The timing of the crisis, weeks before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is to visit India, has surprised many here. The Chinese leader's decision to make India his first trip abroad since taking office two months ago had been seen as an important gesture toward strengthening ties between rival powers that have longstanding border disputes but also growing trade relations.

Manoj Joshi, a defense analyst at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, said the timing of the incursion raises questions about "whether there is infighting within the Chinese leadership, or whether someone is trying to upstage Li."

Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said Wednesday that while he had no plans to cancel a trip to Beijing next week to prepare for Li's visit, the government could reconsider in the coming week.

"A week is a long time in politics," he told reporters.

Indian politicians accused the scandal-plagued government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of floundering in fear before China.

"China realizes that India has a weak government, and a prime minister who is powerless," said Yashwant Sinha, a former foreign minister from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

He demanded a stronger response. "A bully will back off the moment it realizes that it's dealing with a country which will not submit to its will," Sinha said.

Former Defense Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav called the government "cowardly and incompetent." He warned that China was trying to annex more territory to add to the spoils it took following its victory over India in a brief 1962 border war.

Defense Minister A.K. Antony countered that India is "united in its commitment to take every possible step to safeguard our interests."

Supporters of the right-wing Shiv Sena party burned effigies of Singh, Antony and other top officials Wednesday, demanding India retaliate by barring Chinese imports.

China is India's biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade heavily skewed in China's favor, crossing $75 billion in 2011.

Analysts feel linking a troop withdrawal to continued trade could work.

"The Chinese have to learn that such aggression cannot be delinked from trade," Dutta said.

Though the two countries have held 15 rounds of talks, their border disputes remain unresolved. India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, while China claims around 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Analysts said they were baffled by Beijing's motives, since its actions could force India to move closer to Beijing's biggest rival, the United States.

"The Chinese for some reason don't seem able to see that," said Joshi.

China's aggressive posture could also force India to accelerate its own military modernization program, analysts said.

The stand-off may eventually be resolved diplomatically, "but what it really shows is the PLA's contempt for our military capability," former Indian navy chief Sushil Kumar wrote in The Indian Express newspaper.

It could also push the government to agree to the army's longstanding demand to create its own strike corps on the border.

"By needling the Indians, they are helping us to accelerate our modernization," Joshi said.

___

Associated Press researcher Zhao Liang in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-incursion-leaves-india-verge-crisis-044158564.html

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Italy race problems seen with black gov't minister

FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge listens as Italian Premier Enrico Letta delivers his speech during a vote of confidence to confirm the government, in the lower house of Parliament, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - In this April 29, 2013 file photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge listens as Italian Premier Enrico Letta delivers his speech during a vote of confidence to confirm the government, in the lower house of Parliament, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

In this photo taken on April 28, 2013 photo Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge walks moments after taking oath during the swearing in ceremony at the Quirinale Presidential Palace, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

FILE - In this April 28, 2013 file photo Italian Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge arrives at Chigi palace Premier's office, in Rome. The appointment of Italy's first black cabinet minister was initially hailed as a giant step forward for a country that has long been ill at ease with its increasing immigrant classes. Cecile Kyenge's new job has instead exposed Italy's ugly race problem, an issue that flares regularly on the football pitch with racist taunts and in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties but has come to the fore anew as a shaky coalition government tries to bring Italy out of its economic doldrums. Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children and was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

ROME (AP) ? It was hailed as a giant step forward for racial integration in a country that has long been ill at ease with its growing immigrant classes. But Cecile Kyenge's appointment as Italy's first black Cabinet minister has instead exposed the nation's ugly race problem, a blight that flares regularly on the soccer pitch with racist taunts and in the diatribes of xenophobic politicians ? but has now raised its head at the center of political life.

One politician from a party that not long ago ruled in a coalition derided what he called Italy's new "bonga bonga government." On Wednesday, amid increasing revulsion over the reaction, the government authorized an investigation into neo-fascist websites whose members called Kyenge "Congolese monkey" and other epithets.

Kyenge, 48, was born in Congo and moved to Italy three decades ago to study medicine. An eye surgeon, she lives in Modena with her Italian husband and two children. She was active in local center-left politics before winning a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in February elections.

Premier Enrico Letta tapped Kyenge to be minister of integration in his hybrid center-left and center-right government that won its second vote of confidence Tuesday. In his introductory speech to Parliament, Letta touted Kyenge's appointment as a "new concept about the confines of barriers giving way to hope, of unsurpassable limits giving way to a bridge between diverse communities."

His praise and that of others has been almost drowned out by the racist slurs directed at Kyenge by politicians of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, an on-again, off-again ally of long-serving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi, and members of neo-fascist Internet groups.

In addition to his "bonga bonga" slur, Mario Borghezio, a European parliamentarian for the League, warned in an interview with Radio 24 that Kyenge would try to "impose tribal traditions" from her native Congo on Italy.

Kyenge on Tuesday responded to the insults, thanking those who had come to her defense and taking a veiled jab at the vulgarity of her critics. "I believe even criticism can inform if it's done with respect," she tweeted.

Unlike France, Germany or Britain, where second and third generations of immigrants have settled albeit uneasily, Italy is a relative newcomer to the phenomenon. France has several high-ranking government ministers with immigrant roots, and few French had a problem with the appointments: Former President Nicolas Sarkozy named a justice minister and urban policy minister, both born in France to North African parents, to his cabinet, while his minister for human rights was born in Senegal. Francois Hollande's government spokeswoman was born in Morocco and raised in France, and his interior minister was born in Spain. He also has two black ministers from French overseas territories ? one from Guyana and one from Guadeloupe.

Italy is another story. Once a country of emigration to North and South America at the turn of the last century, Italy saw the first waves of migrants from Eastern Europe and Africa coming to its shores only in the 1980s. In the last decade or two, their numbers have increased exponentially, and with them anti-immigrant sentiment: Surveys show Italians blame immigrants for crime and overtaxing the already burdened public health system. Foreigners made up about 2 percent of Italy's population in 1990; currently the figure stands at 7.5 percent, according to official statistics bureau Istat.

Some of the most blatant manifestations of racism occur in the realm of Italy's favorite sport, soccer ? which for Italians and others has shown itself to be a perfect venue for displays of pent-up emotions. In the case of a handful of Italian teams, soccer is a way for right-wing fan clubs to vent.

Mario Balotelli, the AC Milan striker born in Palermo to Ghanaian immigrants and raised by an Italian adoptive family, knows all about it. Perhaps Italy's best player today, he has long been the subject of racist taunts on and off the field: Rival fans once hung a banner during a match saying "Black Italians don't exist" while the vice-president of his own club once called him the household's "little black boy."

Balotelli called Kyenge's nomination "another great step forward for an Italian society that is more civil, responsible and understanding of the need for better, definitive integration."

The race situation is almost schizophrenic in Italy. In the same week Kyenge was made a government minister and Balotelli was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, AC Milan's cross-town rival, Juventus, was fined 30,000 euro for fans' racist taunts during a game against Milan in which Balotelli wasn't even playing.

"There was no racism 40 years ago because there were no non-white Italians," said James Walston, a political science professor at American University of Rome. "You need the other in order to hate the other."

"It will take a long time ? probably there will never be a completely racism-free society ? but it will take a long time for Italy to reach the sort of acceptance, multi-cultural acceptance that the rest of Europe has and North America has," he said in an interview.

Kyenge got off to a rocky start with the Northern League when, on the day she was named minister, she said one of her top priorities would be to make it easier for children of immigrants born in Italy to obtain Italian citizenship. Currently, such children can only apply once they turn 18.

The issue has vexed Italy for years and previous center-left governments have failed to change the law even though most Italians ? 72 percent according to a 2012 Istat-aided study ? favor it. It's not just a matter of a passport but has real impact on the ability of an immigrant family to integrate into Italian society: Children of non-EU immigrants born in Italy, for example, can't take advantage of the EU citizen discounts at the Colosseum and other cultural treasures, having to pay full admission prices to get in to learn the heritage of the nation where they were born. If they were Italian citizens, they'd get in free until they were 18.

But raising an issue that so riles the Northern League ? during an already tense political transition ? was enough to set off Roberto Maroni, the interior minister in Berlusconi's last center-right government and a top League official. Maroni immediately demanded that his successor as interior minister make clear his position on the law.

Other members of Maroni's party were more blunt: Italian newspapers quoted the head of the League in Italy's northern Lombardy region Matteo Salvini as saying that Kyenge was a "symbol of a hypocritical and do-gooding left that wants to cancel out the crime of illegal immigration and thinks only about immigrants' rights and not their duties."

La Repubblica newspaper on Tuesday, meanwhile, cited the vile insults directed at her on fascist Internet groups such as www.ilduce.net . Repubblica said the antagonism was born from the League's basic opposition to a minister who tends to favor immigrant rights. "But the racist origins had to explode. And here they are. True, they're consigned to the stupid transience of the Web, but they're a sign of the widespread climate of hatred" in the country, the paper wrote.

Coming to Kyenge's defense was Laura Boldrini, the president of parliament's lower chamber, who for years was the chief spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. refugee agency. In that role she frequently defended the rights of immigrants ? and squared off with Northern League leaders after they pushed through a controversial 2009 policy to send back would-be Libyan migrants without screening them first for asylum.

"It is indecent that in a civil society there can be a series of insults ? on websites but not only there ? that are being hurled against the neo-minister Cecile Kyenge," Boldrini said. "Like many people, watching her take her oath of office I felt that Italy was taking an important step forward, and not just for 'new Italians.'"

Also defending Kyenge was the other foreign-born minister in Letta's government, Josefa Idem, a German-born Italian who won five Olympic kayaking medals before retiring after the London Games. Idem is Italy's new equal opportunities minister ? one of seven women in Letta's government ? and in that role authorized an investigation by Italy's national anti-discrimination office into the racist online slurs directed against Kyenge.

Italian news reports quoted Idem as saying she was doing so in her capacity as minister "but also as a woman."

Sociologist Michele Sorice at Rome's Luiss University said Italians have long harbored racist attitudes, stemming from the nation's colonial past in north Africa, but that they stayed hidden until the Northern League "legitimized" xenophobic political rhetoric after entering the government in the 1990s. The League denies it's xenophobic and says it is merely protecting the interests of Italians.

Italy has since become more sensitized to the issue, Sorice said, but it still lags behind its European and North American partners. Changing the law on citizenship, as Kyenge wants, "wouldn't do anything more than to bring Italy into line with the great European traditions," he said.

But he was doubtful that this particular government, made up of longtime political rivals, could pull it off when even previous center-left governments had failed to do so.

"It remains to be seen how this can be done on a practical level with a coalition government," he said.

___

Tricia Thomas in Rome and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-01-EU-Italy's-Race-Problem/id-f5c50411a9bf44cea8a7d12a5c334497

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Tsarnaev homeland Chechnya: rebuilt from war, ruled by fear

By Maria Golovnina

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - When it was last in the international spotlight, Chechnya was in ruins, its capital Grozny reduced to dust by the deadliest artillery and air onslaught in Europe since World War Two.

Today, when the naming of two Chechens as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings has put it back on the world's front pages, Chechnya appears almost miraculously reborn.

The streets have been rebuilt. Walls riddled with bullet holes are long gone. New high rise buildings soar into the sky. Spotless playgrounds are packed with children. A giant marble mosque glimmers in the night.

Yet, scratch the surface and the miracle is less impressive than it seems. Behind closed doors, people speak of a warped and oppressive place, run by a Kremlin-imposed leader through fear.

The heavily guarded skyscrapers of the newly built Grozny City complex are windswept and empty. At night, the streets are deserted.

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev's ethnic homeland, a mainly Muslim province that saw centuries of war and repression, no longer threatens to secede from Russia. But it has become breeding ground for a form of militant Islam whose adherents have spread violence to other parts of Russia, and may have inspired the radicalization of the Boston bombers.

"It may look like it's stable and peaceful but it's really not the case," said a human rights campaigner, who, like others daring to express any criticism of the Moscow-backed Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, asked that her name not be used.

There are still fragmented groups of rebel fighters in the mountains, the activist added. "And there are young people in the villages who go out and join them, who take food to the mountains."

SUSHI, IPHONES AND ISLAM

Moscow has poured billions of roubles into Chechnya to rebuild it. It boasts that there is no longer any trace of the separatist insurgency that humiliated the Russian army in battles in the 1990s.

On top of what was once the rubble of Grozny's central Minutka Square - where an armored column of Russian forces was nearly wiped out in street fighting in January 1995 - there are now slick cafes where young men in leather jackets and women in headscarves eat sushi and tap on their iPhones.

Kadyrov, a 36-year-old former rebel, peers down from billboards and out from TV newscasts. A red neon slogan declares "Ramzan, thank you for Grozny!"

A stocky man with a neatly trimmed beard and intense grey eyes, he cultivates an image as a devout Muslim and family man, fond of posting snapshots on Internet photo service Instagram.

He loves a good party, especially when he is the guest of honor. In 2011 he hired singer Seal and Hollywood stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Hilary Swank to appear at his birthday jubilee. After human rights groups complained, Swank apologized, fired her manager and gave her six-figure fee to charity.

Kadyrov and his authorities deny they are involved in abuse, murders or disappearances. But his critics have a long history of dying in unsolved murders or disappearing without a trace.

Human rights groups have linked Kadyrov to the murders of Russian opposition-minded journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Chechen exiles in Austria and Turkey, and rival Chechen clan chiefs shot dead in Moscow and Dubai, all cases in which he denies involvement.

Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was abducted in Grozny in 2009 and later found dead. Rights groups list the names of up to 5,000 Chechens who are still missing.

Kadyrov's office said he was not available for interview.

His loyalty can be embarrassing even for the Kremlin. At the last elections, President Vladimir Putin and his ruling United Russia party won more than 99 percent of Chechnya's vote, with Soviet-style turnout over 99 percent.

Grozny's central thoroughfare is now named after Putin.

"What's happening here is absurd. It's George Orwell, 1984," said a dissident who asked that his identity not be revealed. "Nothing is going to change here any time soon. Chechen spring? Forget about it."

GOLDEN CHANDELIER

In Grozny, passersby freeze and stare with a mixture of fear and awe when Kadyrov's noisy motorcade glides through the city.

His closest allies drive luxury sedans with tinted windows and distinctive "KRA" number plates - his initials: "Kadyrov, Ramzan Akhmatovich".

Kadyrov's father Akhmad Kadyrov was a former rebel mufti who was put in charge of Chechnya by Putin and ruled it until he was assassinated in 2004. A museum to the elder Kadyrov sports Russia's biggest chandelier, weighing 1.5 metric tons (1.65 tons) and containing 22 kg (48 pounds) of gold. It was made in Iran.

Perhaps in an attempt to limit the influence of Islamist rebels by co-opting religion, Kadyrov has banned alcohol and gambling, and promoted polygamy and headscarves for women. A few years ago, his supporters were seen firing paintball guns at women whose clothes were deemed insufficiently modest.

Yet Kadyrov's promotion of Islam has not dimmed the appeal of the radical version espoused by fighters led by Doku Umarov, a Chechen former pro-independence guerrilla commander who leads an Islamist revolt focused mainly on neighboring Dagestan.

"When they tell us that only this official form of Islam is allowed, obviously everyone is going to question it," said the rights campaigner. "People don't like to be lectured on how to be faithful."

DEVOTION AND RESENTMENT

As in Soviet times, it is impossible to say what Chechens truly think of their leader. When questioned in public, residents reply with stock phrases of devotion.

"I don't know what would have happened to us without our leader," said Fatima Magomedova, 44, a heavily veiled flower shop worker. "We are free now."

Many are no doubt sincere in their admiration for Kadyrov, who has brought peace and relative prosperity after a decade of war killed tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians.

"I don't think many people want to leave. In fact, a lot of Chechens say they want to come back. Those who are leaving are those who are after an easy life," said Khamza Khirakhmatov, a deputy to Chechnya's official spiritual leader.

"Those who want to achieve something, a certain success, are only coming back, getting jobs, getting involved in projects to promote morality and spirituality and help our republic."

But outside the glitzy city center lies an impoverished country where joblessness is close to 80 percent in some regions. Many flock to Grozny in search of work, but complain that jobs are reserved for those in Kadyrov's clan.

"It's very hard. There is almost no work. I've been out of work for years. All the main construction sites are operated by Ramzan's people and it's impossible to get a job there because everyone wants to work there," said Lyoma, a man from the town of Urus-Martan, waiting for work on the side of the road with other unemployed laborers from around Chechnya.

Outside Grozny, Chechens survive off small-scale agriculture in villages scattered across a fertile belt between the capital and the towering, snow-capped Caucasus mountains to the south.

"People live off farming. They eat what they grow," said Yusup, a local resident in the mountain village of Itum-Kale perched in a steep river valley near Chechnya's border with Georgia. "It's beautiful here but there is no work for young people."

Others dream of leaving.

Rukiyat Arsayeva went to Grozny to apply for a passport in the hope of travelling to Europe. She said she was seeking medical help for her two daughters.

One, now 14, was a toddler when she was wounded in the abdomen by a Russian air strike. The other, now 20, was made deaf as a child by a missile blast.

Their mother said she feared the Boston bombings would make it harder for Chechens to get visas to escape to the West.

"Chechens are now going to be seen as bad people. We are not terrorists. After what happened I don't know what kind of treatment to expect there," she said nervously, clutching her paperwork on a dusty street outside the passport office.

"What happened in Boston is very bad. I am a small person. All I want is to help my children."

(Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsarnaev-homeland-chechnya-rebuilt-war-ruled-fear-065446773.html

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Competing for milk can be a stressful thing for hyena twin siblings

Apr. 30, 2013 ? Researchers from the German Leibniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) demonstrate for the first time in a free-ranging mammal that hunger and conflict for access to resources can be "stressful" for subordinate siblings and socially challenged dominant siblings, and hence increase their cost of maintaining homeostasis.

These findings were published in the science journal Biology Letters.

The researchers measured the concentration of metabolites of the 'stress' hormone cortisol in the faeces of young sibling and singleton spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, which depended on their mothers for milk. "It was not known whether sibling conflict over access to milk increased concentrations of cortisol metabolites in twin littermates -- we were now able to demonstrate that it significantly does," states Dr Sarah Benhaiem from the IZW, lead author of the study.

Surprisingly, hunger had little effect on the cortisol metabolite concentration of singletons, whether male or female. The picture was different for twin siblings -- both littermates had an elevated level when hungry. Interestingly, an even more important factor than hunger was the rivalry between twin littermates. In general, the less assertive (subordinate) cubs had higher cortisol metabolite levels than the more assertive (dominant) cubs.

More interestingly still, when hungry, subordinates competing against a sister were more assertive than subordinates competing against a brother. As a result, in such situations dominant sisters had higher cortisol metabolite levels than dominant brothers.

For the first time in a free-ranging wild mammal, the study shows how rivalry between twin siblings affects the cost of maintaining internal stability.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB), via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. S. Benhaiem, H. Hofer, M. Dehnhard, J. Helms, M. L. East. Sibling competition and hunger increase allostatic load in spotted hyaenas. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130040 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0040

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Zl61sW6DNM0/130430110031.htm

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