'Summer of discontent' erupts in Turkey

By Ayla Jean Yackley

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon on Friday at demonstrators in central Istanbul, wounding scores of people and prompting rallies in other cities in the fiercest anti-government protests for years.

Thousands of demonstrators massed on streets surrounding Istanbul's central Taksim Square, long a venue for political unrest, while protests erupted in the capital Ankara and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

Broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street near Taksim. Primary school children ran crying from the clouds of tear gas while tourists caught by surprise scurried to get back to luxury hotels lining the square.

WARNING: Graphic content. Verified video shot by G?ven? ?zg?r shows injured protester, and a second clashing with police.

The unrest reflects growing disquiet at the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Riot police clashed with tens of thousands of May Day protesters in Istanbul this month. There have also been protests against the government's stance on the conflict in neighboring Syria, a tightening of restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection.

"We do not have a government, we have Tayyip Erdogan ... Even AK Party supporters are saying they have lost their mind, they are not listening to us," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Bosphorus University who attended the protest.

"This is the beginning of a summer of discontent."

The protest at Taksim's Gezi Park started late on Monday after trees were torn up under a government redevelopment plan but has widened into a broader demonstration against Erdogan's administration. Friday's violence erupted after a dawn police raid on demonstrators who had been camped out for days.

"This isn't just about trees anymore, it's about all of the pressure we're under from this government. We're fed up, we don't like the direction the country is headed in," said 18-year-old student Mert Burge, who came to support the protesters after reading on Twitter about the police use of tear gas.

In this verified video, also shot by G?ven? ?zg?r, police fire tear gas at protesters during a dawn raid.

"We will stay here tonight and sleep on the street if we have to," he said.

Thousands chanting for the government to resign gathered at a park in the center of Ankara, where police earlier fired tear gas to disperse several dozen opposition supporters trying to reach the AKP headquarters. Protesters also rallied at two locations in Izmir, according to pictures on social media.

EXCESSIVE FORCE

A Turkish woman of Palestinian origin was in a critical condition after being hit by a police gas canister, hospital sources said. The 34-year-old, who doctors had earlier identified as Egyptian, was undergoing an operation after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

This verified video, shot by Efe Baysal, shows police trying to clear the park by firing tear gas. The police activity occurs at about the 1:00 mark.

A total of 12 people, including a pro-Kurdish MP and a Reuters photographer, suffered trauma injuries and hundreds suffered respiratory problems due to tear gas, doctors said.

Some people were injured when a wall they were climbing collapsed as they tried to flee clouds of tear gas.

Amnesty International said it was concerned by "the use of excessive force" by the police against what had started out as a peaceful protest. Ria Oomen-Ruijten, the European parliament rapporteur on Turkey, also voiced concern.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler promised that claims that police had used disproportionate force would be investigated.

Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its economy from crisis-prone into Europe's fastest-growing. Per capita income has tripled in nominal terms since his party rose to power.

He remains by far Turkey's most popular politician, and is widely viewed as its most powerful leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the modern secular republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago.

DEFIANCE

But Erdogan brooks little dissent. Hundreds of military officers have been jailed for plotting a coup against him in recent years. Academics, journalists, politicians and others face trial on similar charges.

He has made no secret of his ambition to run for the presidency in elections next year when his term as prime minister ends, increasing opposition dismay.

"These people will not bow down to you" read one banner at the Gezi Park protest, alongside a cartoon of Erdogan wearing an Ottoman emperor's turban.

Postings on social media including Twitter, where "Occupy Gezi" - a reference to protests in New York and London last year - was a top-trending hashtag, and Facebook said similar demonstrations were planned for the next few days in other Turkish cities including Ankara, Izmir, Adana and Bursa.

"Kiss protests", in which demonstrators are urged to lock lips, had already been planned for Istanbul and Ankara this weekend after subway officials were reported to have admonished a couple for kissing in public a week ago.

Erdogan is pushing ahead with a slew of multi-billion-dollar projects which he sees as embodying Turkey's emergence as a major power. They include a shipping canal, a giant mosque and a third Istanbul airport billed to be one of the world's biggest.

Speaking a few miles from Gezi Park at the launch on Wednesday of construction of a third bridge linking Istanbul's European and Asian shores, Erdogan vowed to pursue plans to redevelop Taksim Square.

Architects, leftist parties, academics, city planners and others have long opposed the plans, saying they lacked consultation with civic groups and would remove one of central Istanbul's few green spaces.

(Additional reporting by Murad Sezer, Osman Orsal, Umit Bektas, Can Sezer, Ece Toksabay, Asli Kandemir, Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-tear-gas-against-turkish-anti-government-protesters-112451888.html

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kellogg bloggin': The Week of Dad's Death: May 30, 1996: Kellogg ...

The call from Mom came either in the very last days of April or right at the beginning of May.

Mom and Dad had just learned that Dad had inoperable liver cancer and the doctor said he had a month to live.

Dad's health had been lousy for the last year and a half, but none of us knew he would be dying this soon.

When I got off the phone, I sat with the fact that Dad was terminally ill and I knew that I had to drop everything in Eugene, get some help to take care of things, talk to my boss, and get to Kellogg as soon as I could.

My only option at Lane Community College was to take a leave without pay.? I would make that work, no matter what.? It so happened that I was teaching an overload in the spring of 1996.? I must have had four research writing courses and a course in Shakespeare.? It would take two or three instructors to cover my schedule, an unhappy prospect for my boss.

But, I didn't let the difficulty I was causing him deter me. On May 10th, I headed for Kellogg.? My classes got covered, the cats and my gardens would be tended to, I figured out my income, and if anything went wrong, it would be peanuts compared to what I needed to do for Mom and Dad and the rest of my family.

Walking in the front door of our family home early in the evening of May 10th unsettled me a bit.? I'd been told Dad has lost weight. Indeed.? He was gaunt.? His hair was a shock of white.? His ears stuck out funny from his head, thanks to his gaunt face, in a way I'd never seen before.

We hugged.? Neither of us said anything.? Dad broke the silence:? "Your Ducks did great this year, huh?"

Dad and I had watched the Ducks on television back in January get creamed in the Cotton Bowl.

"Yeah.? They had a good year."

At this point, Dad wasn't yet in the intense pain that would come soon.? He could get around and joke around.

He had one wish:? a trip as soon as possible to the Prichard Tavern for a cheeseburger and Heidelberg beer and good company.?

We made that trip early in the week.? Leo and his wife and Donnie and Rosie and Carol's family and Christy and Mom all went up.?

Dad had aged about ten years, looking far older than his sixty-five years, but he gave us all one last good look at what he loved most in life:? an honest bar, some cold beer, a good burger, and, most of all, being surrounded by friends and family.? Leo and Donnie and Dad all went to Kellogg High School together.? Their stories and memories went way back.? Dad had been off of beer for quite a while, but having been given such a short time to live, having a last cold one or two was perfect.

What made the deepest impression on me over the next nearly three weeks had to be the friends of our family, but most of all, friends of Dad's who filed in and out of the house to see him and comfort him and my mom.

I had fallen into a lousy trap when I was younger.? I had gone off to school in Spokane, taught college in Spokane, and had gone off to graduate school at the University of Oregon.

I lived in the world of ideas, in a college and a university,? and I had fallen into the misconception that I lived where truth could be found and I wondered, when I was younger, how those who didn't read great works of literature, especially Shakespeare, could really know about basic human experiences like love and friendship and death without being educated in them, the way I was being schooled, once again, especially by Shakespeare.

This naive perspective of mine began to be demolished, in a really good way, in the summer of 1992, when I came home for my 20th high school reunion.? Before that weekend, I don't remember ever feeling such immediate and deep love, the love I felt that reunion weekend,? for so many people all in one place -- and it wasn't the love I was learning from my studies.

It was the love that grew out of shared lives, shared stories, admiration for what good people we were; it was love that grew out of dancing, laughing, eating, telling more stories, flicking each other some shit.

During that weekend in August of 1992, I felt like I'd found my foundation again.? I'd recovered what was real in my life.

It not only happened with my friends.? It happened with my father.? While we played golf, while we sat our on the back deck reading the newspaper over coffee, when friends of mine came by the house to see me and my dad, old affection I hadn't felt since I was a teenager, welled up and I knew Kellogg was my true home.

As Dad died, these feelings intensified, especially as friend after friend after friend filed into the house to see Dad and to offer comfort to Mom.

I began to realize that all those days Dad worked at the Zinc Plant, all those afternoons and evenings he spent uptown or at the Sunshine Inn drinking and watching ball games, all those rounds of golf, trips out finding berries to bring home, all those visits to Rose Lake, through all of it, he had formed deep friendships and bonds of affection with countless people in and and around Kellogg.

Now I really knew I was home and was overwhelmed by how the friendships between my dad and others that I'd once had the arrogance to underestimate, were deep, full of love and respect. They were friendships I didn't have to long for because I was beginning to understand that I had them with my Kellogg friends, too, even as we lived in different places.

By Thursday, May 30, 1996, it was hard to see Dad.? He was bed-ridden.? He couldn't talk.? He could hear what people said, when he was awake, and he could make slight gestures in response.

Even though it was hard, the visitors continued to come.

I experienced in an immediate way what I had learned through Shakespeare in a secondary way: dying reveals character, not only of the one facing death, but of the friends of the one who is dying.

Not Shakespeare or any other writer could have helped me experience the beauty of this truth more admirably or more vividly than my dad, my family, and my friends did in those few weeks leading to Dad's death.?

(I've written four other pieces about the week Dad died, here,? here,? here, here.)

Source: http://kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-week-of-dads-death-may-30-1996.html

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Four dead after planes collide and crash near Phoenix

PHOENIX (AP) ? Two small planes collided and then crashed in the desert on Friday, killing all four people aboard the two aircraft, officials said.

Phoenix and Daisy Mountain Fire Department officials said the collision and crash involved two single-engine planes with two people in each aircraft.

Officials said the crash occurred in extreme north Phoenix, about 15 miles northwest of Deer Valley Airport.

One of the planes was registered to Bird Acquisition LLC, which does business as TransPac Aviation Academy, a school for commercial pilots in north Phoenix.

The business said Friday that it was still gathering information about the crash and declined to immediately comment.

Several bystanders reported seeing the planes collide but the flight directions of the planes before the crash or other details weren't immediately available, officials said.

"Both of them collided. We don't know how or what," said Phoenix Fire Department Capt. Larry Nunez. "The skies are clear."

An initial report said three people were killed and two people were injured. Fire officials with the Phoenix and Peoria city fire departments and Daisy Mountain Fire Department later said four people had died and there were no survivors.

Television news footage showed only charred wreckage left from one of the planes, while the other was fairly intact.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA will investigate.

It could take months before the cause is determined, Gregor said.

Federal investigators were en route but it typically takes several months for the NTSB investigation to determine a probable cause for air accidents, Gregor said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-fire-officials-planes-collide-4-dead-185152407.html

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Heat head to Indy for Game 6, looking for clincher

MIAMI (AP) ? Standing on the cusp of the NBA Finals has tended to agree with the Miami Heat in each of the last two seasons. When the Heat have gotten a game away from the title round, they've finished the task as quickly as possible.

And here they are again.

A third straight Eastern Conference title is now just one win away for the reigning champions, though if the way this series has gone so far is an accurate indicator, that win will hardly come easily. The Heat ? without suspended forward Chris Andersen ? will visit the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, leading the best-of-seven East finals 3-2 and in position to close out their new rivals on their own floor for the second straight season.

"We're desperate, too," Heat forward and four-time NBA MVP LeBron James said Friday. "We're desperate to get back to the NBA Finals. So both teams are desperate in their own sense of they're trying to keep their season alive and we're trying to advance."

The teams have alternated wins and losses through the first five games, and if that trend holds, then it's the Pacers' turn to prevail on Saturday and send the series back to Miami for a winner-goes-to-the-finals Game 7 on Monday night.

If the Heat ? who have won each of their last six potential series-closeout games, including two in the 2011 and 2012 East finals ? win, then the championship round against the San Antonio Spurs will begin in Miami on Thursday.

"You can't start thinking about opening up the invitation," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's over there. You can't even think about that."

The Pacers saw their season end a year ago on their home floor, at Miami's hand, in Game 6 of a second-round series. So Indiana's biggest source of motivation on Saturday may be the desire to avoid the indignity of watching Miami advance in Indianapolis for a second straight season.

"Game 6 will really determine how much we've grown, because we've been in the same ditch, I guess, being in the same predicament," Pacers star Paul George said. "Going 2-2, losing in Miami, then coming back home and losing at home. So we'll see where we're at. We've done well all year, especially in the postseason, dealing with adversity and overcoming games where we didn't play as well as we wanted."

The shirts in Indiana say "Gold Swagger" for a reason. Even down 3-2 against a team that hasn't lost back-to-back games since early January, the Pacers still have plenty of confidence, and it starts with a coach who came into the series insisting his club had genuine belief that it could knock off the champions.

"It's not just false talk," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. "There's a reason I'm confident. I like to tell these guys that I'm not an optimist. That's what my image is. I'm a realist. And when I look around at what I see in the room when I'm talking to this team, and what I see on the court, and the level of execution that we're capable of ... it gives me real confidence in this basketball team. Our guys understand it's not just happy talk."

Adjustments will be made by both sides before Saturday, of course. But at this point, it's more than likely that the sides are out of ways to tactically surprise one another.

A play here, a play there, that might be the difference, and that sort of thinking is shared by both sides.

"It's about effort," Pacers center Roy Hibbert said. "It's about who wants it more, who wants to get that offensive rebound, who wants to get that blocked shot, who wants to get the loose ball. We just have to come out with more determination. It's not anything the coaches can tell us, it's about what's in here. It's lose or go home right now."

Sometimes, it's not even about what happens on the court.

The Heat were losing 44-40 at halftime on Thursday in Game 5, when veteran Juwan Howard ? who appeared in seven games for all of 51 minutes this season after being re-signed by Miami ? went on a shouting spree in the locker room. James followed that up with a fiery, slightly profane speech of his own, and Miami went on a 30-10 run not long afterward that served as a springboard to victory.

"His purity, respect level, the credibility that he has, it resonates with our guys and specifically it resonates with the guys in the locker room," Spoelstra said of Howard. "They hear what he says. It means something. And it was raw communication. We're at that point right now where it has to be real, has to be raw, has to be eye-to-eye. These are desperate times. There's no looking back. It's either us or them."

James said Friday that he couldn't even remember specifics of some things he had yelled the previous night.

"Absolutely not," James said. "You just let the game speak for itself, I guess."

Vogel said he expects that reserve forward Tyler Hansbrough, who sprained an ankle in the second half of Game 5, will be available on Saturday. Andersen, the backup big man who is 15 for 15 from the floor in the series and has made his last 18 shots overall, was suspended Friday night for shoving Hansbrough twice in the second quarter, then not backing away quickly enough for a referee who stepped in.

Dwyane Wade's aching right knee is still limiting him and Chris Bosh's numbers are nowhere near what the Heat would want right now, so the defending champions aren't exactly at their best, either. Still, the Pacers know that the challenge they're facing now ? needing to go 2-0 against Miami in a three-day span to get to the finals ? is enormous.

"One game at a time," George said. "We have to come home and play a good game. Everybody is going to have to step up and play a huge role. I know in the back of their mind they want to get the job done and be finished. So we're going to have to come out and bring it."

Or else, the Heat will be finals-bound, one more time.

"The close-out game," Heat forward Shane Battier said, "is always the toughest."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heat-head-indy-game-6-looking-clincher-205949285.html

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V3 Gaming Traverse

Balancing the potential performance of an elite gaming PC with the need to still afford things?like rent and car payments?the small form-factor V3 Gaming Traverse offers some impressive hardware in a small form-factor chassis. As mid-range gaming desktops go, the V3 Traverse does a great job of giving you plenty of bang for your buck.

Design and Features
Looking at the V3 Traverse's case, a Prodigy small form-factor chassis from Bit Fenix, I just don't know what to think about this design. We've seen it before (on the AVADirect Mini Gaming PC Core i5 Z77) but I still can't figure out why this design is even being used. Is there something about improving airflow by putting it up off of the desk or floor? Is it about providing handles? Regardless, I personally think the roll-cage design looks (and feels) bizarre. And the handles and risers flex considerably whenever you pick up the tower or set it down, which feels pretty insecure.

Despite the shaky handles and risers, the tower has a fairly compact design, measuring 15.5 by 9.6 by 13.9 inches (HWD). The white and black color scheme is a nice change of pace from the usual black boxes festooned with glowing LED accents, but the stormtrooper look is getting a little tired as well?we've seen it on the iBuypower Revolt R770, the Digital Storm Bolt, not to mention the same-chassis doppelganger AVADirect Mini Gaming PC Core i5 Z77.

On the front of the tower is a tray-loading optical drive?a combination Blu-ray reader and DVD-writer in this configuration?and a handful of ports on the right-hand side of the tower front, with two audio jacks (for headphone out and microphone input) and two USB 3.0 ports. On the back of the tower you'll find far more connectivity options, like another six USB ports (two 3.0, four 2.0), Gigabit Ethernet, two HDMI outputs, a DisplayPort, three DVI outputs, along with S/PDIF digital audio and a handful of audio outputs. An internal 802.11n Wi-Fi connection gives you connectivity as well, for those times you don't want to snake an Ethernet cable to the back of the tower.

Open up the case, and you'll find the Traverse outfitted with a Zotac Z77ITX A-E Mini ITX motherboard. Our configuration included an Intel Core i5-3570K (normally 3.4GHz, but overclocked up to 4.6GHz), an Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, which offers SLI-grade performance on a single card thanks to a dual-GPU design. A 600W Corsair power supply provides enough power for everything and even an upgrade or two, though there's not a lot of room for upgrades to be made?the PCI slots are filled, and the position of the motherboard in the compact tower makes it hard to access anything anyway. There are, however, two open drive bays, and an unused internal SATA port, so you can expand the storage in that way.

For storage you get both a 1TB, 7,200rpm hard drive and a 120GB Corsair Force GT solid-state drive (SSD). This combination provides both storage and speed, with plenty of capacity for games and media files, with zippy performance thanks to the SSD. The Windows 8 operating system is preinstalled, but there's no bloatware to speak of?there's nothing beyond GPU drivers included on the PC. V3 Gaming covers the Traverse with a generous three-year service warranty, with lifetime labor and tech support.

Performance
The V3 Traverse's quad-core CPU (a Core i5-3570K with 8GB of RAM) isn't the fastest processor out there, but it's definitely a top contender. With a Cinebench score of 7.88, it falls behind most of the Core i7-equipped systems?like the category leading Maingear Potenza Super Stock, which scored 9.57 points?but it still takes the lead in PCMark 7, scoring 6,572 points, topping both the Maingear Potenza (5,356) and the AVADirect Mini Gaming PC Core i5 Z77 (6,259). It fell slightly behind competitors in Handbrake and Photoshop, finishing the tests in 29 seconds (Handbrake) and 2 minutes 36 seconds (Photoshop CS6).

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 is actually a single-card SLI, the equivalent of two GTX 680s, with 4GB of dedicated memory. As such, it offered some of the best graphics performance we've seen in this price range. It cranked through our gaming tests with competition-crushing scores, leading in Alien vs. Predator with 308 frames per second at 1,366-by-768 and 98 fps at 1920-by-1080 and high detail settings. Similarly, it produced top results in Heaven (232 fps at 1366-by-768 and 107 at 1920-by-1080 and high detail settings).

While the chassis design might leave me scratching my head, there's no denying that V3 Gaming has built a solid gaming PC in this small form-factor case. With an overclocked Core i5 and Nvidia's single-card SLI graphics processing, the V3 Gaming Traverse offers a level of performance that belies the PC's mid-range price tag. If you want to experience elite gaming without the $5,000-$7,000 price tag, the V3 Gaming Traverse is a smart pick, provided you don't have your heart set on easy maintenance and upgrades.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/8D9qn_lyWYw/0,2817,2419674,00.asp

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Putin economy reshuffle to strengthen Kremlin: sources

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin will appoint Economy Minister Andrei Belousov as his chief economic adviser, in a reshuffle that will tighten the Kremlin's control over the management of Russia's $2 trillion economy, sources said on Friday.

Belousov will move to the coveted position as the Kremlin's "chief economist" in a reshuffle that follows the appointment of Elvira Nabiullina to run the central bank from next month.

The central bank's first deputy chairman, Alexei Ulyukayev, may leave his post to become economy minister and be replaced by Russia's Group of 20 summit coordinator Ksenia Yudayeva, sources close to the bank and the government told Reuters.

"He (Ulyukayev) is a very likely candidate," one of the sources said, confirming a report in the Kommersant daily.

Ulyukayev had been a leading candidate to take over from the outgoing central bank chairman, Sergei Ignatyev, but his hawkish views on inflation were out of tune with Putin's desire for the central bank to do more to boost flagging economic growth.

(Reporting by Daria Korsunskaya and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Douglas Busine)

(This story was corrected to say Andrei Belousov in lede, not Sergei Belousov)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-economy-reshuffle-strengthen-kremlin-sources-061648034.html

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Lack of unity threatens Syrian opposition

Officials in the Middle East say talks between the Syrian opposition and President Bashar al-Assad are likely to be pushed back to July. The opposition is struggling to bring together a diverse coalition. Even so, the group does agree Assad must leave power in order to resolve the conflict.

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis,?Reuters / May 29, 2013

A general view shows buildings that were damaged during clashes between with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Free Syrian Army fighters in Damascus May 27, 2013. The opposition coalition is struggling to elect new leadership ahead of anticipated peace talks.

REUTERS/ Alaa Al-Marjani

Enlarge

The Syrian opposition said on Wednesday it would only take part in planned international peace talks if a deadline was set for a settlement that forces President Bashar al-Assad?to leave power.

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Weekly Digital Edition

In its first official reaction to the Geneva conference being prepared by the United States and Russia, the opposition coalition adopted a declaration calling for "binding international guarantees" for any resolution of Syria's two-year-old conflict.

The statement, issued after seven days of meetings riven by internal dispute, demanded "the removal of the head of the regime and the security and military command".

The talks have been marred by disagreement within the coalition over expanding its membership and appointing a new leadership. Lack of unity has threatened to rob the Islamist-dominated alliance of international support.

The 60-member coalition has so far failed to agree on the wider involvement of a liberal opposition bloc, to the dismay of Western and some Arab backers keen to reduce Islamist influence.

Further evidence of dissent among the rebels emerged on Wednesday when opposition groups in Syria accused their counterparts in exile of undermining the rebellion and lacking legitimacy.

Dismayed by the "ongoing discord", a statement by four leading opposition groups in Syria dismissed attempts to expand the coalition as having "no real impact on the revolution" and said at least half the coalition's leadership bodies should be made of "revolutionary forces".

The statement, issued in the name of the Revolutionary Movement in Syria, said it could not "bestow legitimacy upon any political body that subverts the revolution".

The coalition's failure to agree even the basic structure of its membership bodes ill for a unified stance on the peace talks, which aim to agree a transitional government and an end to a conflict that has killed 80,000 people.

'Daunting realization'

"There is a daunting realisation that the opposition has to get its act together before Geneva, otherwise the Assad?team will run rings around us," a senior opposition coalition source at the talks in Istanbul said.

Diplomats say the Geneva talks could be held in mid-June, but officials in the Middle East say they will be pushed back to July.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, said his country had no preconditions for attending although it had yet to decide who would represent it.

While the opposition coalition has bickered in Istanbul, Assad's forces have been pressing a fierce counter-offensive on the ground in Syria.

Backed by Hezbollah -- said by French intelligence to have provided up to 4,000 fighters -- Assad's army is fighting to dislodge rebels from a stronghold on the Lebanese border.

His troops have already pushed back rebels in the southern province of Deraa and retaken some outlying areas east of Damascus, consolidating their hold from the capital up to the coastal heartlands of his minority Alawite sect.

Syrian state television said government forces had seized an air base near the town of Qusair on Wednesday.

Russia, which has shielded Assad?diplomatically since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011, says it will deliver an advanced S-300 air defence system despite U.S. and French objections, saying it would deter "hotheads" intent on foreign intervention.

In Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to call on Syria to halt its unlawful attacks on civilians in rebel-held Qusair, but the resolution highlighted deep divisions among powers ahead of the planned peace talks.

The U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, earlier urged countries not to supply Syria with weapons and to seek a political end to the war.

Divided opposition?

Assad's opponents have suffered from deep-seated rifts since the start of the uprising. The opposition in exile has little influence over activists on the ground, while the only authority that Syrian army defectors in Turkey and Jordan have over the hundreds of rebel brigades scattered across Syria stems from their ability to channel weapons from abroad.

Ideological differences between Islamists and nationalists are exacerbated by conflicting ambitions of backers as diverse as the Gulf Arab monarchies, the United States and Europe.

At the heart of the stalemate in Istanbul is a rivalry between regional backers of the rebels centred around Qatar, which supports the Islamist coalition members, and Saudi Arabia, which is wary of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The addition of a liberal bloc of more than 20 seats, led by Christian opposition campaigner Michel Kilo, had been intended to ease the Islamist grip over the coalition. Kilo has so far been offered just five seats.

International envoys sought to break the impasse in Istanbul, with Saudi Prince Salman bin Sultan meeting Kilo to discuss his demands for representation.

If a deal is not struck, coalition insiders say the liberal wing will not participate in peace talks, further threatening the ability of the coalition to speak for the opposition.

The coalition had meant to discuss a new leadership in Istanbul, including the fate of provisional Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto, who has not been able to form a provisional government in exile since being appointed on March 19.

George Sabra, the acting head of the coalition, appeared intent on dropping the membership issue and proceeding to electing a new leadership. But other senior opposition officials said such a move would only deepen divisions.

"If they go ahead with choosing a new leadership, they are setting the stage for a war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and nobody wants this," one of the officials said.

(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker in Ankara; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Will Waterman and Giles Elgood)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nsn0o1f-ybE/Lack-of-unity-threatens-Syrian-opposition

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