Maldives military arrests top judge, spark protest (AP)

MALE, Maldives ? The Maldives' military has arrested the chief justice of the country's criminal court after he released an opposition leader who had been detained without a warrant for allegedly defaming the government.

Monday's arrest of Judge Abdulla Mohamed has prompted all courts in Maldives to boycott sessions Tuesday, in what could become a showdown between the country's first government chosen in free elections and the independent judiciary introduced by former pro-democracy political prisoner President Mohamed Nasheed after coming to power in 2008.

The arrest of a judge by the military is unprecedented in the Maldives, which became a multiparty democracy after 30 years of autocratic rule. It also sparked street protests in the capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

At least 200 protesters gathered near the police and military headquarters Tuesday demanding adherence to court orders and release of the arrested judge but police and soldiers used batons to disperse them. One policewoman was injured in the scuffle.

A government statement quoted Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem as saying Tuesday that Mohamed was arrested "for corruption, in particular for allowing his judicial decisions to be determined by political and personal affiliations and interests."

"The government of the Maldives fully supports and will always protect judicial independence," Naseem said. "However, judicial independence does not mean that judges are above the law and can behave as they see fit contrary to the laws of the land. A judge is a citizen of the Maldives no more or less important than any other citizen."

The country's supreme court, the prosecutor general's office and judicial services commission all issued statements calling the judge's arrest illegal and requesting his release.

The prosecutor general's office said that under the constitution a judge can be arrested only after a supreme court decision to do so.

With no positive response to their calls to release the judge, all other judges and court staff announced they are boycotting sessions and not extending detention orders on Tuesday.

Opposition activists said the arrest was in retaliation for the judge's ruling that opposition leader Mohamed Jameel Ahmed's detention a day earlier was illegal.

Police arrested Ahmed for allegedly defaming the government during a television interview in which he accused Nasheed's government of working against the state religion, Islam, with the support of Christians and Jews. Opposition activists say the government is trying to use an old criminal defamation law to persecute them while it is not part of the current democratic law.

Religious debates have gained prominence in this Sunni Muslim nation of 300,000 people where practicing any other faith is forbidden.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_as/as_maldives_politics

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US wants effective Alzheimer's treatment by 2025 (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The government is setting what it calls an ambitious goal for Alzheimer's disease: Development of effective ways to treat and prevent the mind-destroying illness by 2025.

The Obama administration is developing the first National Alzheimer's Plan to find better treatments for the disease and offer better day-to-day care for those afflicted.

A newly released draft of the overall goals sets the 2025 deadline, but doesn't provide details of how to fund the necessary research to meet that target date. Today's treatments only temporarily ease some dementia symptoms, and work to find better ones has been frustratingly slow.

A committee of Alzheimer's experts begins a two-day meeting Tuesday to help advise the government on how to finalize the plan.

An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's or similar dementias. It's the sixth-leading killer, and is steadily growing as the population rapidly ages. By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer's, costing $1 trillion in medical and nursing home expenditures.

The national plan is supposed to tackle both the medical and social aspects of dementia, and advocacy groups had urged that it set a deadline for progress.

Among the draft's other goals:

_Improve timely diagnosis. A recent report found as many as half of today's Alzheimer's sufferers haven't been formally diagnosed, in part because of stigma and the belief that nothing can be done. Symptomatic treatment aside, a diagnosis lets families plan, and catching the disease earlier would be crucial if scientists ever find ways to slow the disease's progress.

_Improve support and training for families so they know what resources are available for patients and what to expect as dementia worsens.

Alzheimer's sufferers gradually lose the ability to do the simplest activities of daily life and can survive that way for a decade or more. In meetings around the country last summer and fall, families urged federal health officials to make sure the national plan addresses how to help patients live their last years at home without ruining their caregivers' own health and finances.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_he_me/us_med_alzheimer_s_plan

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Video: Is Romney unstoppable?

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46016886#46016886

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Twelve more killed in Syria despite Arab monitors (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Twelve people were killed on Monday in Syria, where a peace plan monitored by Arab observers has failed to douse a 10-month-old struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his foes.

Arab foreign ministers meet on Sunday to discuss the future of the mission sent last month to check if Syria was abiding by the accord it accepted on November 2. The mission ends on Thursday but the monitors may extend their stay to January 22.

The Arab plan required Syria to halt the bloodshed, withdraw the military from cities, free detainees and hold a dialogue.

Hundreds of people have been reported killed in Syria even since the monitors deployed on December 26 as pro-Assad forces try to crush peaceful protests and armed resistance to his rule.

Random gunfire by pro-Assad militiamen killed five people, including a woman, and wounded nine in the restive city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A sniper later shot dead a 16-year-old girl there, it added.

It said five soldiers were killed when they tried to change sides during a clash with rebels in the northwestern province of Idlib, adding that 15 soldiers had succeeded in defecting.

The state news agency SANA said an "armed terrorist group" had shot dead Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdul-Hamid al-Awad and wounded his driver in the countryside near Damascus.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated a call for Assad to "stop killing, and listen to his people."

During a visit to Abu Dhabi, he said: "I hope the U.N. Security Council handles Syria in a coherent manner and with a sense of gravity," but did not recommend any specific action.

"The casualties have reached such an unacceptable stage we cannot let the situation continue this way," Ban said.

The harsh response to the uprising by Assad's security forces has killed more than 5,000 people, by a U.N. count. The Syrian authorities say 2,000 members of the security forces have also been killed. The deaths of 32 civilians and soldiers were reported on Sunday.

The head of the Arab monitoring mission is due to report to an Arab League committee on Thursday before Arab foreign ministers gather on Sunday to consider their next step on Syria.

Adnan Khodeir, head of the monitoring mission's operations room, said the observers might stay in Syria until January 22 while waiting for the outcome of the foreign ministers' meeting. Their mission officially ends on Thursday.

Qatar, which heads the committee, has suggested Arab troops step in, an idea that is anathema to Damascus and which Arab nations such as Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria are likely to oppose.

The League could refer Syria to the Security Council if it concludes that its own peace effort has failed.

RUSSIA, CHINA OPPOSE ACTION

The council has been paralyzed so far because Russia and China oppose any resolution that could lead to U.N. sanctions or Western military action against Syria.

There is little Western appetite for any Libya-style intervention. The United States, the European Union, Turkey and the Arab League have announced economic sanctions against Syria.

On Sunday Assad proclaimed the latest of several amnesties for "crimes" committed during the uprising. Some prisoners were released the same day and more on Monday, activists said.

Mohamed Saleh, an activist in Homs, said about 185 people had been freed there, though some had been freed on bail and would still face trial. Many more were expected to be released.

Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory, also said some activists had only been freed on bail. Many more were still held because the authorities had brought new, more serious charges against them that were not covered by the amnesty.

Kinan al-Shami, of the Syrian Revolution Coordination Union, said hundreds of detainees appeared to have been released, but they represented only a fraction of at least 40,000 people he said had been jailed without charge since March, many of whom have been held in secret police buildings or makeshift prisons.

The movement to end more than four decades of Assad family rule began with largely peaceful demonstrations, but after months of violence by the security forces, army deserters and insurgents started to fight back, prompting fears of civil war.

Assad, who retains the support of core military units, is backed by his own Alawite minority as well as some minority Christians and some majority Sunni Muslims who fear chaos, civil war and the rise of Islamist militancy if he is toppled.

The northern commercial city of Aleppo, like central parts of the capital Damascus, has mostly escaped the turmoil, but security forces stormed Aleppo University campus overnight in pursuit of students who staged an anti-Assad protest on Friday.

Activists said dozens of students were beaten in the raid, in which students belonging to a pro-Assad militia took part.

Aleppo residents say that big Sunni merchants in the city still support Assad and that the authorities have recruited Sunni tribesmen from the countryside to patrol the streets.

The president, 46, who appeared in public twice in as many days last week, is eager to show that his people love him.

SANA, the state news agency, reported on Sunday that a 10 km (six mile) long letter, which it billed as the world's longest, was being written and signed by Syrians across the country as a "message of loyalty to the homeland and its leader."

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut; editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wl_nm/us_syria

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Great American Artists: 'Roots, Branches and Seeds' Opens At Charles H. Wright Museum

As activity swirls at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the institution's busiest day of the year, an exhibit in an unassuming room on the ground floor is demonstrating -- and creating -- a new legacy of contemporary art in Detroit.

"Roots, Branches and Seeds" opened last week and will run throughout 2012 in three stages, featuring the work of nine figurative painters in the Great American Artists collective.

"They don't think of themselves as African American artists per se," said Patrina Chatman, curator of the Wright Museum. "They want to think of themselves as great artists. In addition, they work together, they network together, they support one another and provide a great service to the community."

Chatman organizes exhibits for the Wright's contemporary arts program, which has shown the work of over 40 artists since its launch in 1999, often with an emphasis on local artists.

Three of Detroit's own, Gregory Johnson, Richard Lewis and Sabrina Nelson, form the "Roots," the first of the three parts of the exhibit, which will move into the present with "Branches" in May and "Seeds" in September.

Senghor Reid, one of the artists who will show his work in "Branches," explained the role of the "Roots" in the group, saying, "These three artists at one point or another have been like teachers or mentors for the other six artists, so they're like our foundation."

Reid took art classes in high school taught by Nelson and Lewis. "When I was taking Saturday classes with Sabrina, [her son Mario, who is exhibiting his work later in the series] was four or five years old, sitting there with his little sketchbook, drawing," he said. "So it's something that's been passed down from generation to generation."

Reid described the way the Great Contemporary Artists collective came to be, explaining, "About two or three years ago, myself and a couple of other artists felt like we needed to have some sort of group of figurative artists. We all knew each other, we all knew of each other's work, but we didn't all know each other."

They initially bonded with a group project, where each artist sat for a portrait with one of the others.

"We learned a great deal about each other's work. It was inspiring to go to another artist's studio and get a glimpse of their processes."

When the artists gathered for the opening event last week, they were congratulated by scores of friends, family and admirers in the community, including plenty of children.

Chatman intentionally organizes shows that appeal to a youthful audience. "I try to put photos of the artists [on the wall with their art] so the young people can see it's ok to become an artist," she explained.

The artists in the first part of the series focus on family and community, Reid explained, while he and his peers in the "Branches" show look farther outward, examining their environment and how they relate to it.

Nelson's multi-media works range from small, layered collages in shadow boxes to towering tapestries that weave together human figures, quotations, family keepsakes and patterns. "My work is about ... being still in the midst of chaos," she said.

Similarly, Lewis's richly colored portraits focus on his family. "I'm a collection of all of the people who made me," he explained.

Johnson got his MFA after going to Bowling Green on a football scholarship. He works in watercolor, painting lively scenes from photographs he and his family members have taken. "I paint the life I live," he said. "I paint those everyday scenes you walk by each and every day, because some of them are just so amazing and so beautiful."

Johnson said he wouldn't be working as an artist, which led him to make many sacrifices in his personal life, without the support of the artistic community.

"I've been a football player, I've been a teacher, I've been so many different things. [Art] is the only thing that's ever been constant in my life." he explained. "I want to document our history as objectively and as powerfully -- good and bad -- as it can be."

"Roots," the first installment of "Roots, Branches and Seeds," will be at the Charles H. Wright Museum through April 29. The museum is located at 15 East Warren Avenue in Detroit. It is open Tuesday - Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. In addition, it will be open for several events on Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/15/great-american-artists-roots-branches-seeds-charles-wright-museum_n_1203534.html

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Banned Bulgarian soccer referee uses false identity (Reuters)

SOFIA (Reuters) ? A banned Bulgarian referee took charge of this week's friendly between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar under a false identity, state television BNT reported on Friday.

BNT said Luchezar Yonov used the name of fellow countryman and eligible referee Raicho Raichev for Wednesday's game played in the Turkish resort of Belek.

"This story convinces us the decision we took last year was right," Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) refereeing commission chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told state television.

Yonov and his assistants Petar Tarulov and Emil Mitev were among the referees who were suspended in 2011 for officiating at international matches in South America without informing the BFU.

"I'll take all necessary measures to clear my name," Raichev told the Bulgarian football referees association's website (www.bgreferee.org). "What they did is so sneaky."

Bundesliga club Werder came back from a goal down to beat their Dutch opponents 2-1.

"I read some reports and they said there was 10 minutes of added time, a controversial penalty and a free kick in the ninth minute of added time," said Kostadinov.

The referees association has urged the BFU to inform European soccer's governing body UEFA about the incident.

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov, editing by Tony Jimenez)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120113/od_nm/us_soccer_europe_bulgaria_referee

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Iran ships approached U.S. vessels in Gulf (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Small Iranian military motorboats approached U.S. vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz twice last week but the Pentagon said the interactions were not seen as hostile, even at a moment of heightened tensions between the two countries.

Video released by the Pentagon showed the armed boats with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' navy approaching within several hundred yards (meters) of the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport ship, on January 6, a U.S. military official said.

The same day, a similar incident occurred with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Adak, with the Iranian boats seen riding in its wake, guns visible.

"This interaction between U.S. naval vessels and the Iranian vessels is commonplace," said Captain Jane Campbell, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "There is nothing in these that shows any kind of hostile intent."

U.S. officials say it is routine to take video of such incidents and the U.S. military decided to release imagery at the request of news organizations.

Nine American vessels have passed through the strait since the start of the year. It was not immediately clear whether any of the other seven had been approached in this manner by Iranian vessels.

The approaches come at a time of concern about the possibility of a clash between the United States and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping lane.

Tehran has threatened to close the strait if new U.S. and EU sanctions over its nuclear program cut off Iranian oil exports. Iran has also threatened action if another U.S. carrier moves into the Gulf.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that closure of the strategic waterway would be seen as a red line by the United States and would require a response.

The Pentagon also sought on Friday to discourage speculation

the U.S. military was quietly building up its forces in the region to counter any perceived threat.

The number of U.S. forces in Kuwait has grown to about 15,000 in recent weeks, including two combat brigades, as troops have withdrawn from Iraq following the end of the war there.

Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was not aware of any decision to permanently increase the number of troops based in Kuwait.

The U.S. force there has expanded temporarily because a brigade deployed to Iraq at the end of the war had been shifted to Kuwait to finish its deployment, he said.

Force numbers in any given location shift regularly depending on needs, Kirby said.

"I'm not aware of any plus-up that's been ordered into Kuwait. And I don't think the numbers would bear out that there is, in fact, a huge plus-up in Kuwait," he told reporters.

"Iran is certainly a factor in our discussions with our allies and in our thinking about the future of the Middle East - there's no question about it - thanks to their destabilizing behavior," Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

"But I want to disabuse everybody of the notion that there's some kind of quiet increase going on, specifically aimed at some sort of contingency planning for any one country in that part of the world," he said

Earlier this week, the military said a second aircraft carrier had arrived in the Arabian Sea and a third was on its way to the region. The Pentagon portrayed that as a normal rotation, with one ship en route to its home port. Kirby said it was not unusual to have two carriers in the region.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the United States would have about 40,000 troops in the region after the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq at the end of 2011. Kirby declined to specify where they would all be located.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120114/ts_nm/us_iran_usa_military

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