Russian region begins recovery from meteor fall

In this frame grab made from dashboard camera video, a meteor streaks through the sky over Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, the meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky Friday and exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million. (AP Photo/AP Video)

CHELYABINSK, Russia (AP) — As a small army of people worked to replace acres of windows shattered by the enormous explosion from a meteor, many joked on Saturday about what had happened in this troubled pocket of Russia.

One of the most popular jests: Residents of the meteor were terrified to see Chelyabinsk approaching.

The fireball that streaked into the sky over this tough industrial city at about sunrise Friday was undeniably traumatic. Nearly 1,200 people were reported injured by the shock wave from the explosion, estimated to be as strong as 20 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

But it also brought a sense of cooperation in a troubled region. Large numbers of volunteers came forward to help fix the damage caused by the explosion and many residents came together on the Internet — first to find out what happened and soon to make jokes.

Chelyabinsk, nicknamed Tankograd because it produced the famed Soviet T-34 tanks, can be as grim as its backbone heavy industries. Long winters where temperatures routinely hit minus-30 Celsius (minus-22 Fahrenheit) add to a general dour mien, as do worries about dangerous facilities in the surrounding region.

In 1957, a waste tank at the Mayak nuclear weapons plant in the Chelyabinsk region exploded, contaminating 23,000 square kilometers (9,200 square miles) and prompting authorities to evacuate 10,000 nearby residents. It is now Russia's main nuclear waste disposal facility. A vast plant for disposing of chemical weapons lies 85 kilometers (50 miles) east of the city.

"The city is a place where people always seem bitter with each other," said music teacher Ilya Shibanov. But the meteor "was one of the rare times when people started to live together through one event."

"For most people, it's a good excuse for a joke," he said.

It also is why Shibanov quickly concocted a rap video that got wide Internet attention, including the lines: "''Pow, pow, pow — everything flew and factory windows crumbled. This Friday the bars are going to be full, so be ready for the aftermath."

But for many, it's provided a reason to roll up their sleeves and get to work repairing the more than 4,000 buildings in the city and region where windows were shattered, or to provide other services.

More than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food, and make other relief efforts, the regional governor's office said. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions were being flown in.

Gov. Mikhail Yurevich on Saturday said that damage from the high-altitude explosion —believed to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs — is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week.

But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk was minus-12 C (10 F), and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows.

Meanwhile, the search continued for major fragments of the meteor.

In the town of Chebarkul, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Chelyabinsk city, divers explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments believed to have fallen there, leaving a six-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news agencies the search hadn't found anything.

Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers.

Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they'd lived through.

Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the meteor streaked across the sky shortly after sunrise.

"I glanced up and saw a glowing dot in the west. And it got bigger and bigger, like a soccer ball, until it became blindingly white and I turned away," he said.

In a local church, clergyman Sexton Sergei sought to derive a larger lesson.

"Perhaps God was giving a kind of sign, so that people don't simply think about their own trifles on earth, but rather look to the heavens once in a while."

In Chelyabinsk, university student Ksenia Arslanova said she was pleased that people in the city of 1 million generally behaved well after the bewildering flash and explosions.

"People were kind of ironic about it. And that's a good thing, that people didn't run to the grocery store. Everyone was calm," the 19-year-old architecture student said. "I'm proud that our city didn't fall into depression."

As Chelyabinsk began its healing process, residents of San Francisco, on the other side of the planet, worried that they might be next. A science institute in Northern California says it has received numerous reports of a bright streak of light over the San Francisco Bay area on Friday night.

Cuba apparently experienced a phenomenon similar to the meteorite that detonated over Russia this week, island media reported, with startled residents describing a bright light in the sky and a loud explosion that shook windows and walls.

There were no reports of any injuries or damage such as those caused by the Russia meteorite, which sent out shockwaves that hurt some 1,200 people and shattered countless windows.

Cuba apparently experienced a phenomenon similar to the Chelyabinsk meteor several days earlier, island media reported, with startled residents describing a bright light in the sky and a loud explosion that shook windows and walls.

In a video from a state TV newscast posted on the website CubaSi late Friday, unidentified residents of the central city of Rodas, near Cienfuegos, said the explosion was impressive.

"On Tuesday we left home to fish around five in the afternoon, and around 8 p.m. we saw a light in the heavens and then a big ball of fire, bigger than the sun," one local man said in the video.

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Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Bright streak of light reported over Calif.

Quake rattles Rome, no damage or injuries reported

ROME (Reuters) - An earthquake struck 90 km southeast of Rome on Saturday, Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The 4.8 magnitude quake struck at 10:16 p.m. and was felt from Rome to Naples and in the neighboring region of Abruzzo, according to Reuters witnesses.

The epicenter was near the towns of Sora and Isola del Liri.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Alison Williams)

Conclave's rituals, oaths and secrecy explained

In this photo taken on Feb. 12, 2013, the Vatican's master of liturgical celebrations Archbishop Piero Marini gestures as he talks during an interview with the Associated Press. Next month's conclave to elect the 266th leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics will have all the trappings of papal elections past, with the added twist that the this time around the current pope is still very much alive. Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, the first papal abdication in 600 years, has caused utter chaos in the Vatican, where no one knows for sure what he'll be called much less what he'll wear after Feb. 28. But one thing is clear: the rules and rituals to elect his successor will follow a carefully orchestrated program thanks in large part to Archbishop Piero Marini. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — It's a ritual as rich in tradition and symbolism as the Catholic Church can muster: secret oaths, hypnotic Gregorian chants, scarlet-decked cardinals filing through the Sistine Chapel — all while the public outside in St. Peter's Square watches for white smoke or black to learn if it has a new pope.

Much of the ritual's current incarnation is the work of Archbishop Piero Marini.

The Vatican's master of liturgical celebrations for two decades under Pope John Paul II, Marini organized the funeral rites for the late pontiff and the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. He was by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's side minutes after the election when the new pope uttered the words "I accept" — officially launching his papacy on April 19, 2005.

"I still remember, with some emotion, the silence that there was — the participation of the cardinals," Marini recalled in an interview in his Vatican offices. "It was an event that had been prepared with great care."

Next month's conclave to elect the 266th leader of the world's billion Catholics will have all the grand trappings of papal elections past — with the added twist that this time around the current pope is still alive.

Benedict's resignation, the first papal abdication in 600 years, has caused chaos in the Vatican: Nobody knows for sure what he'll be called much less what he'll wear after Feb. 28. But one thing is clear: The rules and rituals to elect his successor will follow Marini's "bible" of how to run a conclave — a dense tome of footnoted decrees, floor-plans, directions and photos. The book will serve as a guide when 117 cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to elect Benedict's successor.

The Vatican said Saturday that the Holy See in the coming days or weeks would publish an update to the main apostolic constitution that guides the papal transition with some ceremonial tweaks, perhaps taking into account the influence of Benedict's more tradition-minded master of liturgical ceremonies who replaced Marini in 2007. But the fundamentals will likely remain.

The conclave begins with the cardinals in their red cassocks filing into the Sistine Chapel, chanting the monophonic Litany of Saints followed by another sacred song, Veni, Creator Spiritus, imploring the intervention of the saints and Holy Spirit as they take their places before Michelangelo's "Last Judgment."

The cardinals place their hand on the Gospel and promise to observe absolute secrecy both during and after the conclave, and to "never lend support or favor to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention ... in the election of the Roman Pontiff."

While the Vatican is notoriously obsessed with secrecy, there are actually good historical reasons why conclave proceedings are kept quiet and why cardinals promise to vote independently, saidMonsignor Robert Wister, professor of church history at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Up until the early 20th century, papal elections could be vetoed by the kings of France, Spain or the Holy Roman Emperor, Wister noted. The power was rarely invoked but was used in the 1903 conclave to replace Pope Leo XII. Leo's No. 2, the Vatican's secretary of state, was in the lead when his election was blocked by Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph.

The eventual winner, Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, took the name Pius X — and promptly abolished the veto power. Still, the memory of outside intervention has continued to weigh over the College of Cardinals, leading them to be sequestered until they have a pope.

Now they have a Vatican hotel to stay in while not voting, but are forbidden from having any contact with the outside world: no phones, no newspapers, no tweeting.

"There is that fear," Wister said. "Going back previous centuries, kings did interfere, sometimes with an army."

Secrecy under penalty of excommunication also ensures that the winner doesn't know who among his cardinals voted against him — an important element going forward to keep the church's top leadership unified.

"It's not the Renaissance where he'd be poisoned, but it's a matter of human respect," Wister said.

Once the final oath is taken, the master of liturgical ceremonies gives the order "Extra omnes" (everyone out) and all those not taking part in the conclave leave the frescoed walls of the chapel.

An elderly cardinal, over age 80 and thus ineligible to participate, remains and reads a meditation about the qualities a pope should have and the challenges facing the church, after which he and the master of ceremonies leave the cardinals to begin voting.

On Day 1, only one round of balloting is taken; after that cardinals cast two votes in the morning, two in the afternoon until they have a victor. A two-thirds majority is necessary.

Each cardinal writes his choice on a paper inscribed with the words "Eligo in summen pontificem," or "I elect as Supreme Pontiff." They approach the altar one by one and say: "I call as my witness, Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected."

The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and slid into an oval urn. After the votes are counted and the outcomes announced, the papers are bound together with a needle and thread, each ballot pierced through the word "Eligo." Then they are burned with a chemical to send black smoke (meaning no) or white (meaning yes) out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney.

On April 19, 2005, a stunned Ratzinger accepted the charge and was brought into a side room to change into the white vestments of the papacy. Off came the scarlet cassock; underneath was the simpler black clerical garb of a cardinal.

"Naturally the pope couldn't change completely at that moment, so he went out with those black sleeves — we could see his sweater!" Marini recalled. "But even that was a human gesture of how he was dressed as a cardinal."

Marini accompanied Ratzinger out onto the loggia of the basilica overlooking St. Peter's Square where a cardinal announced "Habemus Papam" (We have a pope) to the thousands of people below. The cardinal announced Ratzinger's name in Latin, and then Benedict uttered his first public words as pope, saying he was but a "simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord."

Marini noted that that first encounter of the new pope with his flock traces its history to the ancient tradition that the bishop of Rome is elected by the people.

"This appearance by the pope on the balcony, the applause and cheers of joy that erupt when he comes out," he said, "in some way represents the Roman people accepting their pope."

It's one of the potent symbols of a tradition-drenched conclave.

"A religion relies on its customs and practices," said Monsignor Kevin Irwin, former dean of theology at Catholic University of America and professor of liturgy. "This is not like putting up posters and getting a poll of who is winning. This is an act of God."

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Hezbollah says no comment on Bulgaria report

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Hezbollah said Saturday that he would not comment on a recent report from Bulgaria that said members of the Lebanese militant group carried out an attack that killed five Israeli tourists last summer, saying only that the "issue is being followed calmly and closely."

Speaking to hundreds of supporters via video link, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Israel had already accused his militant group of being behind the attack before the Bulgarian report.

Nasrallah also warned the Jewish state against attacking Lebanon, saying Hezbollah's response in such a scenario would be harsh.

The July 18 bombing at an airport in Bulgaria's Black Sea resort of Burgas killed five Israelis as well as a Bulgarian bus driver and the suspected bomber.

Three men are suspected in the attack, including the bomber.

The latter's identity has not been established. The names of the two other suspects, believed to still be alive, have not been made public.

The European Union, of which Bulgaria is a member, which regards Hezbollah as a legitimate political organization and has resisted calls to blacklist the group or declare it a terrorist organization.

Nasrallah's speech was given to mark the anniversary of the death of three Hezbollah leaders, including top military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2008. Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's death and vowed to avenge him.

Nasrallah warned that anyone who thinks Hezbollah is vulnerable because of Syria's civil war is mistaken. He also said that the group has all the weapons it needs in case war breaks out with Israel, and it would not need to import them from allies Syria and Iran.

His comments came two weeks after Israeli warplanes carried out an air raid near Damascus.

U.S. and regional officials said Israel struck a military research center and a convoy carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to Hezbollah. Israel has not officially confirmed it carried out the airstrike, though its defense minister this week strongly hinted at Israeli involvement.

The Syrian military denied that the target of the attack was a weapons convoy. It said a military research center was hit.

Israel and Hezbollah have a violent history. The two fought an inconclusive monthlong war in 2006, when Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel. Israel's heavy aerial bombardments caused much damage to Lebanese civilian infrastructure but ultimately were unable to stop Hezbollah from continuing to amass a large stockpile of rockets just beyond Israel's northern border.

"The resistance will not be silent regarding any aggression against Lebanon," Nasrallah said. Adding that Hezbollah had the capability to strike at Israel's "ports, airports and power stations."

"A few missiles would plunge Israel into darkness," Nasrallah said, referring to plans to attack power stations. "From Kiryat Shemona to Eilat," Nasrallah said, referring to a northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border, and a southern Red Sea resort.