The Herald-News from Passaic, New Jersey • A9

WORLD HERALD NEWS A9 Saturday, June 1,2013 Assad feels confident of victory Divided Syrian rebels losing ground, spirit AROUND THE WORLD Libyan oil field shut down in pay protest TRIPOLI, Libya Guards at a southern Libyan oil field have shut down the facility in protest over back pay and are demanding better living conditions, an oil official said Friday. The official from the Mellitah Oil and Gas complex said 45 guards forced the closure Thursday of the Elephant field, about 620 miles southwest of Tripoli. The field produces 74,000 barrels a day; Libya produces 1.6 million barrels a day. The guards at Elephant gave authorities 10 days to meet their demands, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Turkish police crack down on sit-in ISTANBUL Turkish riot police used tear gas and water cannon Friday to end a peaceful sit-in by hundreds of people trying to prevent trees from being uprooted in an Istanbul park.

The dawn raid ignited a furious anti-government protest that took over the city's central square and spread to other cities. In a victory for the protesters, an Istanbul court later ordered the temporary suspension of the project to uproot the trees. But demonstrators around the country kept up protests denouncing what they called a heavy-handed crackdown and a government seen as displaying increasingly authoritarian tendencies. Aruba slay suspect to marry in prison LIMA, Peru Convicted Dutch murderer Joran van der Sloot is planning nuptials with a Peruvian woman in the prison where he is serving a 28-year sen Hezbolllah fighters from Lebanon helped Syrian forces shell ASSOCIATED PRESS rebel-held Qusair on Friday. Significantly, Syrian troops appear to have gained the edge in the country's central Horns region.

The regime considers Horns strategically important partly because it links Damascus with the coastal heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi-ite Islam. The rebels are mostly from the country's Sunni Muslim majority. The coast also is home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus. Syrian troops and Hezbollah forces have been clearing the town of Qusair in Horns province, where rebels have been entrenched for a year. State-run Syrian TV said troops on Friday captured Jawadiyeh outside Qusair, closing all entrances to the town and tightening the government's siege.

For the rebels, holding the town means protecting their supply line to Lebanon, just 6 miles away. Rebels have fought back against the government push into Qusair, and days ago called on opposition forces around the country to join them. Activists said that organized groups of rebels from the northern province of Aleppo managed on Friday to enter areas of the town still in opposition hands to help defend it. Dire need for guns In a television interview Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said he expected the fall of Qusair to the regime "within days." The commander of the main Western-backed umbrella group of Syrian rebel brigades, Gen. Salim Idris, said this week that unless rebels receive weapons quickly, they might not be able to hold By ZEINA KARAM and BARBARA SURK THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT As hopes for a Syrian peace conference fade and the opposition falls into growing disarray, President Bashar Assad has every reason to project confidence.

Government forces have moved steadily against rebels in key areas of the country over the past two months, making strategic advances and considerably lowering the threat to the capital, Damascus. With army soldiers no longer defecting and elite Hezbollah fighters actively helping, the regime now clearly has the upper hand in a two-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people. In back-to-back interviews with Lebanese TV stations this week, Assad and his foreign minister both projected an image of self-assuredness, boasting of achievements and suggesting that the military's offensive would continue regardless of whether a peace track is in place. "What is happening now is not a shift in tactic from defense to attack, but rather a shift in the balance of power in favor of the armed forces," Assad said of his troops' recent battleground successes. "There is no doubt that as events have unfolded, Syrians have been able to better understand the situation and what is really at stake," he told Al-Manar TV, owned by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

"This has helped the armed forces to better carry out their duties and achieve results." Military analysts and activists on the ground in Syria say Assad's forces have shown renewed determination since roughly the beginning of April, moving to recapture areas from the rebels. al community to enforce a possible no-flight zone to assist the Syrian rebels fighting Assad something it did in the 201 1 civil war in Libya. 'Slaves' of the West Syria's main political opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, faced stiff criticism from Syrian activists for spending weeklong meetings in Turkey bogged down in personal issues and quarrels about expanding its membership. On Thursday, the coalition announced that in light of "massacres" in Qusair, it would not attend peace talks. Assad, in the interview, projected forcefulness and repeatedly mocked the opposition, calling members of the coalition "tools" and "slaves" of the West and U.S.-allied Gulf Arab countries.

"We have absolute confidence in our victory," he said. While saying his government is ready "in principle" to attend peace talks in Geneva, he said any agreement reached there would have to be put to a referendum. He also said he would "not hesitate" to run for reelection in 2014 if the Syrian people so wished. The coalition's decision not to attend peace talks with representatives of the Assad regime torpedoes the only plan for trying to end Syria's civil war that the international community had been able to agree on. Syrian opposition.

On Friday, Russia's MiG aircraft maker announced plans to ship at least 10 fighter jets to Syria, a move that comes amid international criticism of earlier Russian weapons deals with Assad's regime. MiG's director general, Sergei Korotkov, said a Syrian delegation was in Moscow to discuss a new contract for MiG-29 MM2 fighters. Russian news agencies cited him as saying Syria wants to buy "more than 10" such fighters, but wouldn't give the exact number. Hours after the Russian announcement, the United States and Germany lashed out at Moscow's intentions to provide the Assad regime with an advanced air defense system, which they believe could prolong Syria's civil war. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia's transfer of the S-300 missiles would not be "helpful" as the United States and Russia jointly try to get the Syrian government and opposition into peace negotiations.

The peace talks were initially planned for Geneva next month but have been delayed until July at the earliest. After meeting Kerry, German Foreign Minister Guido Wester-welle said Russia must not "endanger" the peace talks, describing weapon deliveries to Assad as "totally wrong." An air defense system could also make it harder for the internation The army has also pushed back rebels in some areas around the capital. According to residents, that has led to a decline in mortar shells on the city center that only few weeks ago were a daily occurrence. "The army has broken the atmosphere of fear and terror inside Damascus that the rebels created by firing mortars," said Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. He said troops have cleared up to 80 percent of the areas around Damascus in the past two months.

Equally important, he said, is the offensive the army is conducting in the area south of Damascus that links the capital with the Jordanian border. Despite a surge in rebel advances near Jordan this year, the government now appears to control much of Daraa province, an opposition stronghold south of Damascus and the birthplace of the uprising. Experts say the defection rate from Assad's military has sharply dwindled, and he has more than made up for it with the help of paramilitary forces and Shiite fighters from Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Politically, Assad can still count on the support of his Russian and Iranian allies and the growing disarray of the Western-backed FBI quizzes family of Mich, woman killed in Syria lam and marrying an Arab immigrant several years ago, her aunt said, but her family had lost touch with her in recent years and had no idea she had gone to Syria. "We didn't know she was over there.

We didn't know she was gone, but Nicole, she was known to take off like that," Mansfield-Speelman said. "She was a traveler, I guess you could say. She didn't stay in one place." Family members said FBI agents visited them Thursday and informed them of Mansfield's death. Simon Shaykhet, an FBI spokesman in Detroit, said he could confirm agents spoke to Mansfield's family, but he declined further about the investigation. The official did not elaborate and no further details were immediately available.

Mansfield-Speelman, who lives with Mansfield's grandmother, said she doesn't know the whereabouts of Mansfield's ex-husband, but her niece has an 18-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Mansfield-Speelman and other family members had concerns about her niece's conversion and marriage, but the aunt said she tries to keep an open mind. "That was her belief I respect that, but I don't agree with that," she said of her niece, who had worked for various group homes and hospice facilities. By JEFF KAROUB THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BURTON, Mich. The FBI questioned relatives of a 33-year-old Michigan woman killed in the fighting in Syria after she took a previous trip to the Middle East a couple of years ago, family members said Friday.

Agents had asked why Nicole Lynn Mansfield traveled to Dubai for a few weeks, but family members said they did not know much about her trip, said Mansfield's aunt, Monica Mansfield-Speelman. Mansfield first became interested in the Middle East after converting to Is comment. Mansfield is the only American known to have been killed fighting in Syria, where 70,000 people have died in a two-year civil war. A pro-Syrian government news agency said Mansfield and two others were fighters for a group opposed to Syria's government and were killed in a confrontation in the northwestern city of Idlib. The report on the circumstances of the deaths could not immediately be confirmed.

She had been on the FBI's radar before she left for Syria, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't permitted to speak publicly Well-preserved mammoth carcass found tence. His attorney Maximo Altez, said they are awaiting permission from penal authorities for a wed ding within two Vander Sloot weeks in Piedras Gordas prison. Altez would not name the bride. Press reports say she is Leydi Figueroa Uceda, who has visited Van der Sloot often. Altez denied press reports that she bore Van der Sloot a son.

On Wednesday. Altez sought a sentence reduction for Van der Sloot, who pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of a young Lima woman. Van der Sloot remains the chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance in his native Aruba of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. U.S. filmmaker held in dangerous prison CARACAS, Venezuela A human rights group said Friday that Venezuelan authorities had transferred a U.S.

filmmaker accused of espionage to a notoriously unruly prison where more than 20 inmates were killed in a 2011 riot. Patricia Andrade of the Miami-based Venezuela Awareness Foundation said Timothy Tracy was moved Wednesday from the secret police lockup in Caracas to the El Rodeo II prison. She said her sources are relatives of other transferred prisoners she cannot name for security reasons. El Rodeo II was controlled by armed, drug-dealing gangs before the 2011 riot. Afterward, inmates held it for nearly a month.

Tracy was making a film about Venezuelan politics when arrested April 24. President Obama has called "ridiculous" Venezuela allegations Tracy was a spy. U.S. woman freed from Mexican jail NOGALES, Mexico An Arizona woman held in a Mexico jail for a week after police said they found 12 pounds of marijuana under her bus seat was freed and returned to the United States after a court reviewed her case, including key security footage, and dismissed the allegations. Yanira Maldonado, 42, walked out of the prison on the outskirts of Nogales, Mexico, and into her husband's arms Thursday.

She then crossed into Arizona. After spending the night in a hotel, she drove away with a police escort on Friday and was expected to return to her Phoenix-area home. From news service reports Blood samples collected, muscle in good condition excavation was 14 to 19 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers collected the samples of the animal's blood in tubes with a special preservative agent. They were sent to Yakutsk for bacterial examination in order to spot potentially dangerous infections.

The carcass' muscle tissue was also in perfect condition. "The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red color of fresh meat," Grigoryev said. Up to 13 feet in height and 20,000 pounds in weight, mammoths roamed across huge areas between Great Britain and North America and were driven to extinction by humans and the changing climate. 5 w. Thursday by the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, which sent the team.

Wooly mammoths are thought to have died out around 10,000 years ago, although scientists think small groups of them lived longer in Alaska and on islands off Siberia. Scientists have deciphered much of the woolly mammoth's genetic code from their hair, and some believe it's possible to clone them if living cells are found. Grigoryev said the find could provide the necessary material. The blood of mammoths appeared not to freeze in extreme temperatures, likely keeping mammoths warm, he said. The temperature at the time of need to wait landmark decision was likely next month on how Europe's new bank rescue mechanism will work.

Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of the 17-nation eurozone, met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW A perfectly preserved woolly mammoth carcass with liquid blood has been found on a remote Arctic island, fueling hopes of cloning the Ice Age animal, Russian scientists say. The carcass was in such good shape because its lower part was stuck in pure ice, said Semyon Grigoryev, the head of the Mammoth Museum, who led the expedition into the Lyakhovsky Islands off the Siberian coast. 'The blood is very dark. It was found in ice cavities bellow the belly, and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood came running out," he said in a statement released Greece will ATHENS, Greece Eurozone countries will not consider possible debt relief for Greece until April 2014, the euro currency bloc's head said Friday on a visit to Athens. Still, Jeroen Dijsselbloem said a ASSOCIATED PRESS In this image from Russian television, a mammoth carcass lay in snow on one of the Lyakhovsky Islands off the Siberian coast.

for debt relief, eurozone Samaras and Finance Minister economy," Dijsselbloem said, Yannis Stournaras to discuss the "There is optimism that growth will debt-ridden nation's efforts to re- pick up in the eurozone as well as form its economy. in Greece next year." "I am confident the Greek pro- Hammered by a prolonged fi- gram is on a sound footing. There nancial crisis, Greece has been re- are the first signals of a turn in the lying on funds from international leader says rescue loans since May 2010. But austerity measures it agreed to in return for the loans have pushed Greece deeper into recession, Poverty has surged and unemploy- ment is reaching 27 percent. The Associated Press.