BANGKOK, MAY 08 – A grenade was thrown at the home of a judge on Thailand´s Constitutional Court that a day earlier had ousted the country´s prime minister for abuse of power, police said Thursday.

Police Col. Kamthorn Auicharoen said that there were no casualties and that the attackers were trying to instigate a situation to further deepen the political conflict. The headquarters of Thailand´s major commercial bank and a scientific research facility were also damaged by similar grenades overnight.

The court on Wednesday found Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra guilty of abusing her power by transferring the National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. It ruled that the transfer was carried out to benefit her politically powerful family and, therefore, violated the constitution — an accusation she has denied.

The ruling accomplished what anti-government demonstrators have sought to do for the past six months and further widening the country´s sharp political divide.

Supporters of deposed Yingluck have called for a huge rally Saturday to protest the ruling by the Constitutional Court, which exercised powers laid out in a constitution written by a military government after a coup in 2006.

The leader of the anti-government protesters, Suthep Thaugsuban, meanwhile, told his followers that they would stage a “final offensive” on Friday and would achieve their goal of fully ousting the government.

The court found Yingluck guilty of abusing her power by transferring the National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. It ruled that the transfer was carried out to benefit her politically powerful family and, therefore, violated the constitution – an accusation she has denied.

The ruling forced out nine Cabinet members but left nearly two dozen others in their posts, including Deputy Prime Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, who was appointed the new acting leader.

Yingluck appeared on television two hours after the verdict to thank her supporters, emphasize that she was an elected leader and assert her innocence.

“We held true to the principles of honesty in running the country, and never acted corruptly, as we were accused,” said Yingluck, 46, who swept to power nearly three years ago as the country´s first female prime minister.

During the past six months, Yingluck´s supporters, the Red Shirts, have generally steered clear of provoking her opponents, who have been blocking government ministries and conducting street protests in the capital. Still, more than 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured since November in sporadic gunbattles, drive-by shootings and grenade attacks.

Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan said Saturday´s rally will be a show of strength, but that further attempts to dislodge the government will be met with force.

“Our stance has been clear,” he said. “If an illegal prime minister steps in, we will fight. If there´s a coup, we will fight.”

Thailand´s long-running political crisis began in 2006 when Yingluck´s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by a military coup after protests that accused him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

A military government after the coup rewrote the constitution, giving extensive powers to the courts and to agencies outside the Cabinet´s authority in an attempt to reduce executive and legislative power.

Thailand´s courts, like its military, are seen as bastions of anti-Thaksin conservatism, and have a record of hostile rulings toward Thaksin´s political machine, which is fueled by billions of dollars that he made as a telecommunications tycoon.

Analysts said Wednesday´s ruling further sullied the courts´ reputation.

“The credibility of the justice system has vaporized,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Wisconsin. “The royalist conservatives may celebrate this judicial coup. But the world will mourn over the death of another democracy.”

Yingluck is despised by Bangkok´s elite and middle class as a puppet of her brother. But she and her Pheu Thai party remain highly popular among the country´s poor majority, particularly in the north and northeast.

Her opponents have been demanding that she step down to make way for an interim unelected government that would remove her family´s influence from politics.

Wednesday´s ruling casts doubts on whether new elections planned for July will be held, following polls in February that were disrupted by the protesters and then invalidated by the court.

In 2007, the Constitutional Court made a landmark ruling dissolving Thaksin´s original Thai Rak Thai party for fraud in a 2006 election, and banned its executives from politics for five years. Thaksin went into self-imposed exile in 2008 to escape a two-year jail sentence for conflict of interest while prime minister.

Thaksin´s allies in late 2007 handily won the first post-coup election, but the Constitutional Court in 2008 kicked out two successive pro-Thaksin prime ministers in rulings on controversial legal grounds.

“Earlier today, most Google users who use logged-in services like Gmail, Google+, Calendar and Documents found they were unable to access those services for approximately 25 minutes,” Google engineering vice president Ben Treynor said in a blog post.

“For about 10 percent of users, the problem persisted for as much as 30 minutes longer.”

Google did not disclose the full extent of the Gmail glitch but the brief outage was believed to have affected millions of people, including those using the service at work.

Complaints were posted online from Europe, Canada, the United States and elsewhere.

An online Google Apps tracking dashboard, which indicated that a dozen services — including Gmail and its social network Google+ — had experienced problems.

“Whether the effect was brief or lasted the better part of an hour, please accept our apologies—we strive to make all of Google’s services available and fast for you, all the time, and we missed the mark today,” Treynor said.

“The issue has been resolved, and we’re now focused on correcting the bug that caused the outage, as well as putting more checks and monitors in place to ensure that this kind of problem doesn’t happen again.”

Rival Yahoo, whose own Web-based email service experienced a massive outage in December, was quick to join a chorus on Twitter spreading word of the Gmail issue.

Yahoo even tweeted a screen capture of a Google message apologizing for the problem.

GENEVA: After a day’s delay and repeated bitter recriminations, the warring sides in Syria will hold their first joint meeting on Saturday to launch talks aimed at ending almost three years of conflict.

In a measure of the task ahead, diplomatic sources said the first two days of talks in Geneva would involve discussing a deal to allow aid into a single city, Homs, where people are starving.

The peace conference almost collapsed on Friday, the day face-to-face talks were meant to start, and was only put back on track after United Nations mediator Lakhdar Brahimi persuaded the two sides to focus on smaller issues on which there might be agreement.

“We do expect some bumps on the road,” Brahimi told a news conference after separate meetings with the two delegations.

With international divisions over how to end the conflict putting an overall political solution out of reach for now, the two sides will focus on small, confidence-building steps with no certainty negotiations will even last the week.

“Both parties will be here tomorrow…they will not leave on Saturday or Sunday,” Brahimi said.

Opposition delegate Anas al-Abdah said the process would begin with a brief meeting at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Saturday at which only Brahimi would speak, to be followed by another longer session in the afternoon.

Even that may not come off.

One diplomatic source, noting the fierce verbal attacks that marked the opening of the conference in the Swiss city of Montreux on Wednesday, said on Friday he had become cautious.

“Compared to 10 days ago, we’ve had Montreux with both delegations, this start in Geneva with an extra day’s delay, tomorrow 30 minutes with the two delegations and then maybe a subject they can agree on. Small steps, but small steps are better than no steps.”

“It’s clear there will be hysterical episodes each day.”

SAME ROOM

Humanitarian access for Homs, where rebels are surrounded in central districts by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, could be agreed fast.

“The practical aspects have been worked on. Things are ready and if the government doesn’t put a block on it then it could happen quickly,” a diplomatic source said.

But deep mutual mistrust and the absence from Geneva of powerful Islamist opposition groups and Assad’s ally Iran make any substantial progress very difficult.

The opposition said early on Friday it would not meet the government side unless it first agreed to publicly endorse a 2012 statement by world powers calling for a transitional government in Syria.

The government rejected the demand and said its negotiators would leave Geneva unless serious talks began within a day.

After talking to both sides, Brahimi indicated on Friday afternoon their argument, which centres on whether Assad would have to step down, had been put to one side.

“Tomorrow we have agreed that we shall meet in the same room,” Brahimi said. The negotiations would be based on the 2012 statement, known as Geneva 1, which he acknowledged was subject to differing interpretations.

“We wanted these delegations nominated months ago to prepare things better,” he said.

Diplomats are playing down any hopes of progress.

“Expectations are so low we’ll see how things develop day by day,” a Western diplomat said.

PRACTICAL STEPS

Brahimi had already indicated that his aim was to start by seeking practical steps, such as local ceasefires, prisoner releases and access for international aid deliveries, before embarking on the tougher political negotiations.

“I think an immediate political solution is unrealistic, unfortunately,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France 24 television.

Syria’s civil war has already killed at least 130,000 people, driven more than a third of the country’s 22 million people from their homes and made half dependent on aid, including hundreds of thousands cut off by fighting.

Among the hurdles to progress, the Islamist militants who control most rebel-held territory are boycotting the talks and say anyone attending negotiations that fail to bring down Assad would be traitors.

Assad’s main regional backer, Iran, is also not represented at the Geneva talks. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Tehran at the last minute, but then withdrew the invitation 24 hours later when it refused to endorse the Geneva 1 protocol.

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say a suicide car bombing by an al-Qaida-linked group has killed at least 20 rebels amid clashes in opposition-held areas in Syria.

Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the bombing took place the previous day near the northern city of Darkoush.

Abdurrahman says the attack was carried out by the al-Qaida fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who have been battling rebels from an array of Syrian rebel brigades, once their allies, since Friday.

The Local Coordination Committees also confirmed the bombing.

The rebel-on-rebel clashes across northern Syria are the deadliest infighting since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in 2011.

Abdurrahman says at least 300 people have been killed in the infighting.

British actors Helen McCrory, left, and Luke Evans pose for photographers ahead of the EE British Academy Film Awards Nominations announcement in London, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014. (Photo by Jonathan Short/Invision/AP).

LONDON (AP) — Space thriller “Gravity,” unflinching slavery saga “12 Years a Slave” and crime caper “American Hustle” gained awards-season momentum Wednesday with stacks of nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars.

“Gravity” received nominations in 11 categories, including best picture and lead actress, for Sandra Bullock.

“12 Years” had 10 nominations, including nods for star Chiwetel Ejiofor, supporting performers Lupita Nyong’o and Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen.

“I continue to be immensely proud of the recognition this film is getting around the world,” said British actor Ejiofor, who plays a free black man kidnapped into slavery in the 19th-century United States.

“There is, of course, something particularly special about receiving a BAFTA nomination from home,” he said.

“American Hustle” also was nominated in 10 categories, while Somali hijacking story “Captain Phillips” received nine nods.

Liberace biopic “Behind the Candelabra” and Mary Poppins story “Saving Mr. Banks” each got five nominations.

View galleryBritish actors Helen McCrory, left, and Luke Evans …
British actors Helen McCrory, left, and Luke Evans pose for photographers ahead of the EE British Ac …
The nominations give an awards boost to several films, especially “Gravity,” an astonishing 3-D technical achievement, and the wrenching “12 Years a Slave.”

The list also demonstrates the increasing globalization of the movie business. “12 Years a Slave” is an American story with a British director and star. “Gravity” teams Hollywood stars Bullock and George Clooney with Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and British special-effects teams.

The British-picture category includes motor-racing film “Rush,” which has an American director, Ron Howard, a British screenwriter in Peter Morgan and stars from Australia (Chris Hemsworth) and Germany (Daniel Bruhl, who has a supporting-actor nomination.)

The best-picture nominees are: “12 Years a Slave”; “Gravity”; American Hustle”; “Captain Phillips”; and “Philomena,” the story of an Irishwoman in search of the son she lost decades earlier.

The separate category of best British film pits “Gravity,” ”Philomena” and “Saving Mr. Banks” against “Rush,” biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” and gritty parable “The Selfish Giant.”

Best-actor nominees are Ejiofor; Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Wolf of Wall Street”; Bruce Dern for road movie “Nebraska”; Christian Bale for “American Hustle”; and Tom Hanks for “Captain Phillips.”

Bookies picked Ejiofor as the strong favorite to win.

“There is traditionally a slight British bias when it comes to the BAFTAs,” said Joe Crilly, spokesman for bookmaker William Hill. “However, Ejiofor’s performance in ’12 Years’ is so mesmeric that there needn’t be this year.”

In the best-actress category, Bullock is up against Judi Dench for “Philomena”; Amy Adams for “American Hustle”; Emma Thompson for “Saving Mr. Banks”; and Cate Blanchett for “Blue Jasmine.”

The British prizes, known as BAFTAs, will be awarded at London’s Royal Opera House on Feb. 16.

They are considered an indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s Academy Awards two weeks later. Last year, Iran hostage drama “Argo” took the BAFTA for best film, and went on to win the best-picture Oscar.

__

Online: http://www.bafta.org

The 140-kilogram (300-pound) “Jade Rabbit” rover separated from the much larger landing vehicle early Sunday, around seven hours after the unmanned Chang’e 3 space probe touched down on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon.

The rover and lander are expected to take photos of each other and start their own scientific explorations. The six-wheeled rover will survey the moon’s geological structure and surface and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will carry out scientific explorations at the landing site for one year.

The mission marks the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon. China’s space program is an enormous source of pride for the country, the third to carry out a lunar soft landing — which does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries — after the United States and the former Soviet Union. The last one was by the Soviet Union in 1976.

“It’s still a significant technological challenge to land on another world,” said Peter Bond, consultant editor for Jane’s Space Systems and Industry. “Especially somewhere like the moon, which doesn’t have an atmosphere so you can’t use parachutes or anything like that. You have to use rocket motors for the descent and you have to make sure you go down at the right angle and the right rate of descent and you don’t end up in a crater on top of a large rock.”

On Saturday evening, state-run China Central Television showed a computer-generated image of the Chang’e 3 lander’s path as it approached the surface of the moon, saying that during the 12-minute landing period it needed to have no contact with Earth. As it was just hundreds of meters (yards) away, the lander’s camera broadcast images of the moon’s surface.

The Chang’e 3’s solar panels, which are used to absorb sunlight to generate power, opened soon after the landing.

The Chang’e mission blasted off from southwest China on Dec. 2 on a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

The Chang’e 3 mission is named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon and the “Yutu” rover, or “Jade Rabbit” in English, is the goddess’ pet.

China’s military-backed space program has made methodical progress in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in technology and experience.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon. China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that.

“They are taking their time with getting to know about how to fly humans into space, how to build space stations … how to explore the solar system, especially the moon and Mars,” Bond said. “They are making good strides, and I think over the next 10-20 years they’ll certainly be rivaling Russia and America in this area and maybe overtaking them in some areas.”

Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher | Reuters JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died peacefully at home at the age of 95 on Thursday after months fighting a lung infection, leaving his nation and the world in mourning for a man revered as a moral giant.
The former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been frail and ailing for nearly a year with a recurring lung illness that dated back to the 27 years he spent in apartheid jails, including the notorious Robben Island penal colony.
President Jacob Zuma’s announcement late on Thursday of the death of a man who was a symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation reverberated through South Africa and around the world. It triggered an avalanche of tributes.
“The legend is gone,” said Sindisa Makana, 21, an attendant at a 24-hour petrol station in Cape Town.
Mandela’s passing, while long expected, left Africa’s biggest economy still distant from being the “Rainbow Nation” ideal of social peace and shared prosperity that he had proclaimed on his triumphant release from prison in 1990.
“He’s in a better place, but I really hope South Africa realises what he wanted us to be … we are not even half-way to what he wanted us to be,” local resident Jack Van der Merwe said in the Johannesburg suburb of Melville.
When Zuma made his broadcast, the streets of the capital, Pretoria, and of Johannesburg were hushed, and in bars and nightclubs, music was turned off as people quietly listened.
A sombre Zuma told the nation that Mandela “passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20h50”.
Among the shower of tributes, U.S. President Barack Obama said the world had lost “one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Mandela “a hero of our time”. “A great light has gone out in the world,” he said.
Praise also came from African leaders. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the death “will create a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our continent”.
Ordinary South Africans were in shock. “It feels like it’s my father who has died. He was such a good man … He was a role model unlike our leaders of today,” said Annah Khokhozela, 37, a nanny, speaking in Johannesburg.
Outside Mandela’s old house in Vilakazi Street, Soweto, a crowd of people, some with South African flags draped around them, gathered to sing songs in praise of the revered statesman. “Mandela you brought us peace” was one of the songs.
National figures were quick to play down fears expressed by a minority that the passing of the great conciliator might lead again to a return of the racial and political tensions that racked South Africa during the apartheid era.
“To suggest that South Africa might go up in flames – as some have predicted – is to discredit South Africans and Madiba’s legacy,” another veteran anti-apartheid leader, former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, said. “Madiba” is Mandela’s clan name.
“The sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day and the next … It may not appear as bright as yesterday, but life will carry on,” Tutu said in a statement of tribute.
SOUTH AFRICA LOSES A PEACEMAKER
The loss of a figure famous as a peacemaker comes at a time when South Africa, which basked in global goodwill when apartheid ended, has been experiencing bloody labour unrest, growing protests against poor services, poverty, crime and unemployment and corruption scandals tainting Zuma’s rule.
Mark Rosenberg, Senior Africa Analyst at the Eurasia Group, said that while Mandela’s death might give Zuma’s ruling African National Congress a sympathy-driven boost for elections due next year, it would hurt the ANC in the long term.
He saw Mandela’s absence “sapping the party’s historical legitimacy and encouraging rejection by voters who believe the ANC has failed to deliver on its economic promises and become mired in corruption.”
Zuma ordered flags to be flown at half mast and said there would be a full state funeral for South Africa’s first black president, who emerged from prison to help guide the country through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.
The U.N. Security Council was in session when the ambassadors received the news of Mandela’s death. They stopped their meeting and stood for a minute’s silence.
“Nelson Mandela was a giant for justice,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters. “Nelson Mandela showed what is possible for our world and within each one of us if we believe, dream and work together for justice and humanity.”
Obama, the first black U.S. president, described Mandela as an inspiration: “Like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him,” he said at the White House.
Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government – a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its most respected and loved figures.
He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960 but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the country’s white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.
LEGACY OF PEACE
Former comrades and foes were united in their praise for Mandela, who was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 after helping to steer the race-divided country towards reconciliation and away from civil war.
“His greatest legacy is that we are basically at peace with each other,” F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner president who released Mandela in 1990, told the BBC in an interview.
Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honour he shared with de Klerk.
As president, Mandela faced the task of forging a new nation from the racial injustices left over from apartheid, making reconciliation the theme of his time in office.
The hallmark of Mandela’s mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid crimes on both sides of the struggle and tried to heal the country’s wounds. It provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.
In 1999, Mandela handed over power to younger leaders better equipped to manage a modern economy – a rare voluntary departure from power cited as an example to African leaders.
This made him an exception on a continent with a bloody history of long-serving autocrats and violent coups.
“Among Mandela’s many legacies is his successful transition from guerrilla commander to true president,” the U.S.-based risk consultancy Stratfor said in a note on the death.
In retirement, Mandela shifted his energies to battling South Africa’s AIDS crisis, a struggle that became personal when he lost his only surviving son to the disease in 2005.
Mandela’s last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he attended the championship match of the soccer World Cup hosted by South Africa, where he received a thunderous ovation.
Charged with capital offences in the infamous 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.”
(Additional reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng in Soweto, Guy Faulconbridge in London, Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick, Mark Felsenthal, and Jeff Mason in Washington, Michele Nichols in New York, Stella Mapenzauswa and Peroshni Govender in Johannesburg, Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Writing by Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Graff, Jim Loney and Paul Simao)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both condemned the widespread snooping by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Charges that the NSA accessed tens of thousands of French phone records and monitored Merkel’s mobile phone have caused outrage in Europe. Germany said on Friday it would send its top intelligence chiefs to Washington next week to seek answers from the White House.

In response to the disclosures about U.S. spying, many of which came from fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the German and Brazilian U.N. delegations have begun work on a draft resolution to submit to the 193-nation General Assembly, several U.N. diplomats told Reuters.

“This resolution will probably have enormous support in the GA (General Assembly), since no one likes the NSA spying on them,” a Western U.N. diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, unlike resolutions of the 15-nation Security Council. But assembly resolutions that enjoy broad international support can carry significant moral and political weight.

Merkel demanded on Thursday that Washington strike a “no-spying” agreement with Berlin and Paris by the end of the year, adding she wanted action from President Barack Obama, not just apologetic words.

Last month, Rousseff used her position as the opening speaker at the General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders to accuse the United States of violating human rights and international law through espionage that included spying on her email.

Rousseff also expressed her displeasure by calling off a high-profile state visit to the United States scheduled for this month over reports that the NSA had been spying on Brazil.

“There is no question that the disclosure of classified information has posed a moment of tensions with some of our allies,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

“We are having discussions with those allies,” she said referring to a visit next week by German intelligence chiefs to Washington to seek answers.

She said Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the accusations, based on allegations by fugitive ex-U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden, with officials in France and Italy during a recent visit to Europe.

Psaki said the leaks about U.S. intelligence activities had “created significant challenges in our relationships” with allied nations and a “public distraction.”

“He (Kerry) certainly recognizes that as we look to pursue a range of diplomatic priorities, whether that is working on global issues like Syria, or Iran, or (trade negotiations), it will really be a mistake to let these disclosures get in the way of that,” Psaki said.

Merkel has demanded that President Barack Obama address the issue following the accusations that the U.S. National Security Agency accessed tens of thousands of French phone records as well as monitoring her private phone.

Berlin plans to send officials from its intelligence agency BND to Washington, while members of the European Parliament have said they will fly to the United States on Monday to explore “possible legal remedies for EU citizens.

Washington is currently working closely with European allies on a host of pressing global issues, including negotiations to end a dispute with Iran over its nuclear program and bringing together warring parties for a peace conference in Syria.