Lithuanians deal blow to austerity, nuclear plans

Viktor Uspaskich leader of the Lithuanian Labour Party speaks to the media after parliament elections in the Labour party office in Vilnius , Lithuania, Oct.14, 2012. Lithuanians balloted Sunday in a first round of parliamentary elections. (AP photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Dealing a blow to the conservative government's vision of becoming a regional energy powerhouse, Lithuanians voted instead for big-spending politicians and rejected plans for a new nuclear power plant.

The populist Labor Party, led by a Russian-born millionaire, won Sunday's election in this Baltic nation with 20 percent of the vote, while the center-left Social Democrats came in second with 18.5 percent. The two have agreed to form a new government to replace center-right coalition, which managed just over 23 percent of the vote.

The exact composition of the next 141-seat Parliament is still not clear pending some run-off votes on Oct. 28, but Labor and the Socialists are expected to gain a majority.

Still, analysts said Monday that the two parties, which campaigned on exorbitant promises, were unlikely to make any radical policy departures, although they would likely slow down harsh fiscal measures needed to introduce the euro in 2014, one of the conservative coalition's goals.

"Promises that the new government will stop saving and start spending big-time are unrealistic," said Nerijus Maciulis, analyst at Swedbank. "Otherwise Lithuania will soon find itself in a situation similar to Greece."

Analysts at Danske Bank agreed, writing in a Monday note that "leftist parties campaigned on a relatively populist and pro-interventionist plank ...however we expect the newcoalition government to tone down the rhetoric."

In 2009, Lithuania suffered a shocking double-whammy, as its economy entered a severe recession, plunging nearly 15 percent, and a Soviet-era atomic power plant was shut down, forcing the country to switch to Russian gas.

The nation of 3 million people now imports over 60 percent of its electricity needs — more than any other European Union member. Russia currently supplies 100 percent of Lithuania's natural gas at a hefty price.

Previous governments, including those led by the Social Democrats prior to the conservative administration, dreamed of building a new, ultra-modern nuclear plant that would allow Lithuania to maintain its traditional role as an energy exporter.

But voters seemed to dash those hopes, with nearly two-thirds rejecting the idea of a new nuclear facility Sunday due to concerns about cost and safety. Although the referendum was only consultative, politicians from the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia — who are participating in the $6 billion project along with Japan's Hitachi— could find it difficult to proceed after the Lithuanian vote.

"Russia's wish for the Baltics not to have an atomic power plant has won," Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks tweeted.

Analysts, however, said Lithuania could still find ways to decrease its energy dependence on Russia without having to build a €5 billion nuclear plant, perhaps by completing a terminal to import liquefied natural gas.

"In fact, a liquefied gas terminal creates much more serious competition for Moscow than a nuclear power plant," said Vidmantas Jankauskas, a professor at Gediminas Technical University in Vilnius, the capital.

He said the offshore gas terminal, which Lithuania hopes to complete by 2014, is expected to handle up to 4 billion cubic meters per year, more than enough to meet the country's annual gas needs.

Germans face hefty bill to end nuclear power

Associated Press/Ferdinand Ostrop - In this photo taken Oct. 12, 2012, the sun rises behind electricity poles and wind turbines in Nauen, near Berlin, Germany. Germany's tax on households' electricity bills to finance the expansion of renewable energies will rise almost 50 percent on the year as the country pushes ahead with phasing out nuclear power within a decade. The country's four main grid operators say Monday Oct. 15, 2012 that the tax will rise from 3.6 euro cents to 5.3 euro cents (US $6.7 cents) per kilowatt hour starting in January. (AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop)

BERLIN (AP) — There were cheers around Germany whenChancellor Angela Merkel announced last year, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan, a swift end to nuclear powerin favor of renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

But only 18 months into the plan, the cost of the switchover is beginning to sink in. Some politicians, fearful of losing popular support for the transition, are demanding an overhaul of the way it is financed.

The country's four main grid operators said Monday that households will from January see a nearly 50 percent rise in the tax they pay to finance the switchover — from €3.6 cents to €5.3 cents ($6.7 cents) per kilowatt hour. A typical family of four will pay about €250 ($324) per year under the tariff, including a sales tax.

"Electricity should not become a luxury item," warnedMichael Fuchs, a leading lawmaker from Merkel's center-right coalition. "The energy switchover will at the end only be successful when met with broad public support."

Nuclear power has been controversial in Germany for decades and opposition swelled after the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine sent a radioactive cloud over the country. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets after last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster urging the government to shut all reactors quickly.

Merkel's government decided to shut down the country's eight oldest reactors immediately and speed up the phase-out of the remaining reactors. Nuclear power's share of the German energy market has since declined from 23 percent to about 17 percent, with renewable energies shooting up from 20 percent to a quarter.

Now, however, complaints are growing about the rise in costs of electricity, particularly for lower-income families.

Germans already pay some of Europe's highest electricity prices, averaging about 24 euro cents (31 US cents) per kilowatt hour compared with about 13 euro cents in France or 14 euro cents in Britain, according to EU figures.

Germans have long been paying a surcharge on power bills, which guarantees producers of alternative energies a return on their investment above market rate. That's widely credited with boosting renewable energies and making Germany a leader on so-called green technologies.

Under the current system, however, the amount of surcharge is automatically linked to the amount of energy produced by renewable sources. As the alternative energies' production rises, so does the amount Germans must pay.

"The surcharge has more than quadrupled since 2009. It has crossed the tolerable level of pain," said Economy Minister Philipp Roesler. He urged a quick reform of the subsidy system, saying it has spiraled "out of control."

The tax totaled €17 billion ($22 billion) in 2011 and analysts expect it to top €25 billion next year — or about 1 percent of the country's economic output.

That is set to keep increasing as government plans call for generating 40 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and up to 80 percent by 2050. Reaching those ambitious targets will likely require investments of up to €300 billion ($390) over the next decade, according to analysts' forecasts.

"The energy switchover won't lead to falling electricity prices. Here we should tell people the truth," said Felix Matthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology.

While polls consistently show that the majority of Germans is in favor of phasing out nuclear power, the increasing cost is likely to test their resolve.

In a poll released Sunday, two-thirds of people surveyed said they are not prepared to pay more than €50 to finance the switchover — far less than the increase coming next year.

About 79 percent of the 1,001 people surveyed last month by pollster Emnid — on behalf of pro-market lobby Initiative New Social Market Economy — said rising energy bills were an important issue for them in determining whom they vote for in next year's national election. The poll did not specify a margin of error.

Changing the system won't be easy.

Last week Environment Minister Peter Altmaier presented a complex roadmap aimed at holding costs in check. But cutting renewable energy costs has proven difficult in the past, in part because the overall goal is popular and because so many groups — from families who bought solar panels at subsidized prices to big companies that have invested in technology development — profit from the system.

Altmaier acknowledged that it is unlikely changes to the system could be enacted by parliament before next year's elections.

"The electricity price goes up, and the population's support for phasing out nuclear power is declining," Germany's center-left opposition leader Sigmar Gabriel warned on Sunday.

His Social Democrats argue that the government is unfairly burdening households for the transition, especially hurting the nation's poorest.

An average household spends less than 2.5 percent of its monthly income on electricity, but that share now tops 4 percent for low-income households, according to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

Some politicians, both on the left and right, have called for increasing welfare payments to the nation's poorest to offset rising electricity prices, which have shot up by about 44 percent since 2005.

"If we want to make sure that hundreds of thousands of families won't sit in the dark this winter, the government must act fast," said Ulrich Schneider, head of the Equal Welfare Association, an umbrella group of social organizations.

But Merkel's government also hopes that pushing through the energy switchover will give the country an upper hand when it comes to exporting green technologies as more nations seek to close down their nuclear power industries.

In Japan, the government has vowed to reduce and eventually phase out nuclear power, as has Switzerland. France this year also announced plans to promote renewable energies to reduce its dependence on nuclear power. In Lithuania on Sunday, voters rejected the idea of building a new nuclear power plant with a two-thirds majority.

Matthes of the Institute for Applied Ecology said that people are more likely to accept the increases when they realize that the energy sector's transformation is also a hedge against rising fossil fuel prices and a step toward energy independence.

"I think it's better to invest 1 percent of our GDP per year in expanding renewable energiesat home than transferring increasingly high sums to people in Russia or the Middle East who are making a lot of money on fossil fuel reserves," he said.

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Historic mosque in Syria's ancient city of Aleppo is burned; Assad orders repairs

BEIRUT - A landmark mosque in Aleppo was burned, scarred by bullets and trashed — the latest casualty of Syria's civil war — and President Bashar Assad on Monday ordered immediate repairs to try to stem Muslim outrage at the desecration of the 12th century site.

The Umayyad Mosque suffered extensive damage, as has the nearby medieval covered market, or souk, which was gutted by a fire that was sparked by fighting two weeks ago. The market and the mosque are centerpieces of Aleppo's walled Old City, which is listed as aUNESCO World Heritage site.

Government troops had been holed up in the mosque for months before rebels launched a push this week to drive them out. Activists and Syrian government officials blamed each other for the weekend fire at the mosque.

Rebel supporters also alleged that regime forces defaced the shrine with offensive graffiti and drank alcohol inside, charges bound to further raise religious tensions in Syria. Many of the rebels are Sunni Muslims, while the regime is dominated by Alawites, or followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

"It's all blackened now," activist Mohammad al-Hassan said of the site, also known as the Great Mosque. One of Syria's oldest and largest shrines, it was built around a vast courtyard and enclosed in a compound adjacent to the ancient citadel.

Al-Hassan said the army had been using the mosque as a base because of its strategic location in the Old City and he blamed Assad for the destruction.

"He burns down the country and its heritage, and then he says he will rebuild it. Why do you destroy it to begin with?" al-Hassan said in a telephone interview from Aleppo.

Fighting has destroyed large parts of Aleppo, Syria's largest city with 3 million residents and its former business capital. Activists say more than 33,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in March 2011 and has turned into a civil war.

Five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. Looters have broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra have been damaged.

Both rebels and regime forces have turned some of Syria's significant historic sites into bases, including citadels and Turkish bath houses, while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums.

Karim Hendili, a Paris-based UNESCO expert who oversees heritage sites in the Arab world, said Aleppo's Old City has been hardest hit. The fire that swept through the souk burned more than 500 shops in the narrow, vaulted passageways, destroying a testament to its flourishing commercial history.

"After the loss of the souk, there is now major damage of the mosque," Hendili said.

The "soul of the city" is really being damaged, he added, "and this is difficult to repair."

Video posted online by activists show a large fire and black smoke raging in the mosque Saturday, and there also are shots of its blackened, pockmarked walls. Debris is strewn on the floors where worshippers once prayed on green and gold carpets.

The videos are consistent with AP's reporting of the incident.

"Assad's thugs set the mosque on fire as a punishment for being defeated by the Free Syrian Army," the caption on one video read.

In another video, a rebel inside the mosque holds up a torn copy of the Muslim holy book, saying: "These are our Qurans. This is our religion, our history."

The rebel in the video also held up an empty bottle, saying it had contained alcohol.

The Syrian government said it pushed back rebels out of the mosque after the weekend fighting, although activists gave conflicting reports on who controls it.

Rami Martini, chief of Aleppo's Chamber of Tourism, blamed rebels for targeting the city's monuments and archaeological treasures. He said the losses were impossible to estimate because of the fighting in the area, but added it could be the most serious damage since an earthquake in 1830s struck the mosque.

Despite the fire, the structure of the mosque appeared to be intact, although a gate that leads to the ancient market was burned, said Martini, who is specialized in repairing archaeological sites and monuments.

The platform inside the mosque, or minbar, and the prayer niche also were damaged by the fire, Martini said. The wooden minbar is identical to the one burned in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, he said.

Valuables were stolen from the mosque's library, Martin said, including a transparent box purported to contain a strand of hair from the Prophet Muhammad, along with centuries-old handwritten copies of the Qur’an.

Assad issued a presidential decree to form a committee to repair the mosque by the end of 2013, although it's not clear what such a body could do amid a raging civil war. The mosque's last renovations began about 20 years ago and were completed in 2006.

In other developments Monday:

— The Syria military denied reports by a human rights group that it has been dropping cluster bombs — indiscriminate scattershot munitions — during fighting. The denial came in a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency.

Allegations that cluster bombs were used are "baseless and are part of media propaganda that aims to divert international public opinion from crimes committed by armed terrorist groups," the statement said.

The New-York based Human Rights Watch on Sunday cited amateur video and testimony from the front lines in making the allegation that Assad's government has been using the bombs that are banned by most nations in what the group said was a new sign of desperation and disregard for its own people.

— The European Union stepped up pressure on Assad's regime, banning Syrian Arab Airlines from EU airports.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers added 28 people to those whose assets are frozen and who are denied EU visas. They also froze the assets of two more companies, including the airline.

— The U.N. envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials on the neighbouring country's civil war. Brahimi is touring the region to try to resolve the Syrian crisis.

— Turkey forced a Syrian-bound plane from Armenia to land in order to search the cargo for weapons. The plane, which was carrying aid for Aleppo, was granted permission to fly in Syrian airspace on condition that it could be searched for military equipment, said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal.

After the search, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the cargo contained humanitarian aid and was allowed to continue to Syria.

Last week, Turkey forced a Syrian passenger plane travelling from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion it carried military gear. Russia, which has backed Assad, said the equipment was spare parts for radar systems.

Over the weekend, Syria and Turkey barred each other's commercial aircraft from flying over their respective territories. The bans came after a week of exchanging fire across their volatile border.

— The Turkish government said the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey surpassed the 100,000 mark and that about 7,000 more were waiting at the border to get in.

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