Sahar Biniaz rises above a school bullying past to win Miss Universe Canada

Richmond?s Sahar Biniaz is now Canadian pageant royalty. The 26-year-old won the crown at the Miss Universe Canada 2012 contest last Saturday in Toronto.

?It was absolutely amazing. The feeling of it is like winning a lottery: you buy a ticket hoping to win, but you?re never ever prepared enough mentally, emotionally and physically for all these things that will go with it.?

Biniaz is now planning a tour of South America to work with the charity SOS Children?s Villages. In B.C. she?ll be helping raise awareness for B.C. Transplant, an organization close to her heart ever since a 25-year-old cousin died in a car accident?but not before he saved someone?s life with a heart donation.

Born in India and raised in Iran, Biniaz came to Richmond at the age of 10. She studied performing arts at Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles and is working as an actress in film and television.

Biniaz graduated from R.C. Palmer, but school in Richmond wasn?t an easy road.

In Grade 8 at Richmond High, Biniaz said two girls beat her up in the school bathroom, sending her to hospital. She moved schools, but even in her graduating year, when she started modelling, bullying persisted.

?I never got to enjoy the real setting of a school,? she said.

In 2005, Biniaz was inspired to compete for the Miss Universe title. At the time she was in Thailand volunteering at an orphanage. She saw an advertisement for Miss Universe and decided to go. Canada won after going decades without a crown.

?That really inspired me. That?s why I decided to give it my all, give it my best.?

Sahar will now represent Canada at the 2012 Miss Universe competition, scheduled for mid-December. In the meantime she?ll split her time between Vancouver, Toronto and South America.

Two other Richmond residents, Carla Bradstock, 26, and Elana Wu, 22, were also among the 63 women from across Canada who competed for the title.

Sahar said she?s promised them she?ll visit all the contestants in their provinces.

Sahar also competed in the pageant in 2008, finishing as first runner-up. But with persistence, she found the stage again this year?this time winning the title. She wants to encourage young girls to have the same persistence?and don?t let a second-place finish drag you down.

Said Sahar: ?I think it?s the background that I come from, the bullying, that helped me to be able to keep going for what I want?not care about what people think or say.?

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Somali, AU troops close in on Islamist stronghold

African Union and Somali government troops have made "strong progress" in a push towards an Islamist Shebab stronghold, site of the world's largest displaced people's camp, officials said Wednesday.

Hundreds of civilians have fled as long columns of Somali and AU troops backed by tanks advanced for a second day, moving from the capital Mogadishu towards Afgoye, a strategic town and a key base of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab fighters.

"Our forces have captured several areas, we continue our advance, and we will be in Afgoye very soon," Mohamed Ibrahim, a Somali military commander with the advancing troops, said.

AU and Somali troops have pushed at least 13 kilometres (eight miles) northwest from the capital, about halfway to Afgoye town, moving slowly down the main road known as the Afgoye corridor, where hundreds of thousands live in basic shelters.

The Shebab are "on the run" said Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti, commander of the 11,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), claiming that the long-awaited "operation continues to make strong progress."

However, the extremist Shebab claimed to have repulsed the attack and boasted of killing several soldiers, including Western military advisors.

Witnesses reported several casualties, but the claims could not be independently verified. The Shebab also claimed to be sending reinforcements to the front line, but others suggested the insurgents were instead pulling back.

Heavy shooting and mortar fire was reported Wednesday, killing at least four civilians on the outskirts of Deynile, a suburb of Mogadishu on the road to Afgoye.

"We were preparing to leave the area because of the fighting when a mortar shell hit a house and killed four people," said Ali Yusuf, a resident.

More than 400,000 people, around one third of all the displaced people in Somalia, were living in the Afgoye corridor at the start of the year, fleeing war or drought, according to the UN, which warned that civilians must be protected.

Impoverished plastic shelters and rag and cloth huts are scattered across the arid plains where the troops are advancing.

Long lines of trucks and buses piled high with people and their belongings lined the road towards Mogadishu, defying AU calls for civilians to remain in their homes.

Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, urged all sides to "minimise the impact of conflict on civilians and allow full humanitarian access to all people."

"A prolonged operation could lead to displacement, further straining the capacity of settlements and host communities in Mogadishu, or driving people away from the life-saving help they require," Bowden said in a statement.

In recent months thousands of civilians have left the Afgoye area for the capital, ahead of the expected assault on the bases to which many Shebab retreated after pulling out of fixed positions in Mogadishu last year.

"Many people are fleeing from the Afgoye corridor towards Mogadishu," said Abdi Hashi, a resident of Deynile.

"Both sides are now reinforcing their positions, and the movement of vehicles on the main Afgoye road is very limited," he added.

However, the hardline Shebab dismissed claims they had abandoned their positions on the outskirts of Deynile.

"The mujahedeen fighters fought back fiercely... the fighters blocked their ambition for advancement," Shebab spokesman Sheikh Abdulaziz Abu Musab told reporters.

"Among the casualties were Western military commanders whose injured and dead bodies were picked by helicopters from the battle zone," he added. The claims could not be confirmed.

AU and Somali troops have made significant gains in recent months against Shebab militants, although the Islamists have switched to guerrilla tactics in Mogadishu, including a series of suicide and grenade attacks.

Somalia's weak and Western-backed transitional administration has until August to set up a permanent government, but the international community has expressed concern it is failing to meet key deadlines.

The mandate of the transitional government has already been extended several times, and Western nations say it cannot be extended again.

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Commercial space race gets crowded behind SpaceX

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 22, 2012 file photo, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The privately built space capsule that's zipping its way to the International Space Station has also launched something else: A new for-profit space race. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 22, 2012 file photo, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The privately built space capsule that's zipping its way to the International Space Station has also launched something else: A new for-profit space race. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A privately built space capsule that's zipping its way to the International Space Station has also launched something else: A new for-profit space race.

The capsule called Dragon was due to arrive near the space station for tests early Thursday and dock on Friday with its load of supplies. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ? run by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk ? was hired by NASA to deliver cargo and eventually astronauts to the orbital outpost.

And the space agency is hiring others, too.

Several firms think they can make money in space and are close enough to Musk's company to practically surf in his spaceship's rocket-fueled wake. There are now more companies looking to make money in orbit ? at least eight ? than major U.S. airlines still flying.

Private space companies have talked for years about ferrying goods and astronauts for NASA, but this is the first time one is actually in orbit and about to make a delivery for the space agency.

"Dragon is not the only entrant in commercial cargo," said Jeff Greason, president of XCOR Aerospace, which specializes in the also busy suborbital marketplace. "They have competitors nipping at their heels."

Still, Dragon's launch is "the spark that will ignite a flourishing commercial spaceflight marketplace," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and a former astronaut.

Hiring Musk's SpaceX and other private companies is a key part of NASA's plan to shift focus. Instead of routine flights to the space station with the now retired space shuttles, NASA is aiming further out to places like asteroids and Mars. After this test flight, SpaceX has a contract with NASA for a dozen delivery runs.

The idea is to "let private industry do what it does best and let NASA tackle the challenging task of pushing the boundary further," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said last week.

NASA has given seed money and contracts to several companies to push them on their way. But eventually, space missions could launch, dock to a private space station or hotel and return to Earth and not have anything to do with NASA or any other country's space agency.

Earlier this month, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX signed an agreement with Bigelow Aerospace of Nevada which is designing inflatable space stations for research and maybe even tourists. SpaceX and other companies will provide the transportation ? like airlines ? and Bigelow the place to stay. There are already eight different licensed spaceports in the U.S. where companies can launch from and most of them have no connection to NASA.

Another space launch-and-tourism company, Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is working separately from NASA and the space station.

If NASA isn't involved, there is one federal agency that is. The Federal Aviation Administration has a commercial space office that licenses private space missions and works with NASA to set safety standards.

An update on some of the closest competitors to SpaceX:

? Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is in the cargo-only business, but it is closest to launch. It has a NASA contract for $1.9 billion for eight cargo flights to the space station once its rockets succeed. The early versions of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spaceship are already built, but the company is waiting for its launch pad to be finished at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. A stay-on-the-ground test is aimed for late July, a launch test in the fall and trial run to the space station around November, said spokesman Barron Beneski.

? Alliant Techsystems, headquartered in Arlington, Va., isn't funded by NASA's commercial space program, but has developed the Liberty rocket and passenger spacecraft system. Most of the rocketry and capsule systems have been tested. A key structural test of the rocket's second stage is scheduled for early July, with the first unmanned test flight in 2014. Tests with a private crew aboard would be in 2015 and it would be ready to ferry NASA material and astronauts in 2016, according to Kent Rominger, a former astronaut and Liberty's program manager.

? Boeing Co. of Chicago has nearly $113 million in NASA commercial crew funding and just finished its second parachute drop test in the Nevada desert. It has completed 46 of 52 milestones needed before flights, spokeswoman Susan Wells said. A landing airbag test is targeted for the fall. The Boeing space capsule, called a CST-100, will carry astronauts and cargo with three test launches aimed for 2015 and 2016, the last one with a crew on board.

? The Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., with nearly $106 million from NASA, is building a mini-shuttle crew vehicle called Dream Chaser with a first flight targeted for 2016 or possibly 2017. The company this year finished landing gear tests and has a full-scale ship for flight testing attached to a helicopter this fall in California.

? The most secretive of the companies, Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., is run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and has received $22 million from NASA. Its crew and cargo vehicle, called New Shepard, would also take tourists to suborbit. Its shell passed wind tunnel tests and its engines are now being test fired at NASA's Stennis Space Center.

___

Online:

NASA commercial program: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home/index.html

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

Associated Press

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Peac health and fitness - HEALTH, BEAUTY & FITNESS

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Secure Your Dog, Say Utility Workers - San Marino, CA Patch

As part of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, Southland utility companies Monday joined their counterparts statewide to urge customers to keep their dogs secure when utility employees enter residential and business properties.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dogs bite about 4.5 million people every year in the country, and about 20 percent of the injuries require medical attention. Although children are the most common victims, dozens of utility employees in California are moderately to severely injured by dogs each year.

The utilities circulated the following tips to provide a safe environment for both pets and utility employees:

• Securely confine or relocate your dog during scheduled customer service visits and when it's time for utility employees to read your meter.
• Contact your local utilities or check your monthly bills for the dates when utility workers are scheduled to conduct meter readings. On those days, leave gates unlocked and keep your dogs or other pets securely confined in another section of the property.
• If the employee is outside, keep your dog securely confined inside. If the employee is inside, keep your dog securely confined outside. Dogs may become more protective in the presence of their owners. Make sure your dog is securely confined where it cannot come into contact with the utility employee.
• Post a "Beware of Dog" sign on your fence or house to avoid any surprises.
• Leave a note on your meter explaining that you have a dog and how and where the animal is confined.
• Be sure all vaccinations and inoculations for rabies and parasites are up-to-date.
• Train your dog to obey simple commands like "sit," "stay," "no" and "come." Obedience training can teach dogs proper behavior and help owners control their canines in any situation.
• Collar your dog, so you have the means to quickly restrain the animal in any emergency.
• If you get a new dog, contact your local utilities to let them know.

The statewide public information campaign is being conducted by the Southern California Gas Co., Southern California Edison; San Diego Gas & Electric and Pacific Gas & Electric.

Have you had a problem with your dog being around utility workers or has someone you know had an issue? What precautions do you take? Tell us in the comments.

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Pet Adoption Tips: Naming Your Pet

Choosing a suitable name for your pet can be a difficult decision simply because there are so many names out there to choose from. People often choose human names or nicknames for their pets, while others may choose a character name from a film or a name that is connected to the appearance, behavior and color of the pet e.g. Patch or Stripes.

Keep in mind that you will be using the chosen name often, and in public too, so avoid using a name that will cause embarrassment or offense, or one which is difficult to say! Imagine yourself walking around the neighborhood, calling for a puppy that has gotten off his leash. Choosing an easy one or two-syllable name will also make it easier for your pet to learn.

Here are some great ideas for pet names. Be sure to post yours in the comments below:

1. Max
2. Tigger
3. Jake
4. Tiger
5. Buddy
6. Smokey
7. Maggy
   
8. Bear
9. Sam
10. Kitty
11. Molly
12. Bailey
13. Sassy
14. Shadow
15. Simba
16. Patch
17. Lady
18. Lucky
19. Sadie
20. Misty

If you have two pets, another creative idea is to choose a paired name. Here are some examples:

• Jack & Daniels
• Bonnie & Clyde
• Ben & Jerry
• Black & Decker
• Bilbo & Frodo

Other pets such as fish, hamsters, birds, horses would suit other names. Here a few choices:

Fish names: Alfie, Beta, Bubbles, Flipper, Shamu, and of course,? Wanda.

Hamster names: Basil, Bandit, Dixie, Gizmo, Nibbles, Roland.

Horse names: Apollo, Thunder Bolt, Trojan, Shy Boy, Silver Knight, Zeppelin, Zorro.

Snake names: Arnie, Bijou, Bruce, Cleo, Crusher, Diablo, Falcor, Hannibal, Hercules.

Bird names: Blue, Bonny, Cackle, Charlie, Goldie, Tweety, Pepe, Sonny.

A quick search of the internet can offer you other suggestions for all types of pets. Happy name hunting and remember to choose a name your pet would be proud of.

Pets & Pet Supplies for Sale

Pet Classifieds from Ocala, Florida's Internet Marketplace

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Vegetable and Fruit Diet | Diet & Nutrition

For those of you who are overweight and want to do a diet program then vegetable and fruit diet is one good way to lose weight healthily and naturally as fiber and water content contained in vegetables and fruits can increase the amount of food will be consumed by the number of calories in it that lower thus making the stomach feel fuller and eat a lot of desire is also to be reduced so that in the long run will help to lose weight.

Get the best Nutritious Diets at DietNutrition Advisor

Vegetable and fruit diet is a healthy diet program to lose weight because it generally has a low fat and low calorie content and also high in fiber and help the intestines work better making it easier for the body to defecate more smoothly.

Vegetable and fruit diet helps to lose weight by eating more vegetables and fruits during diet program then you only eat fewer calories than the calories that needed by the body, and also still have several nutrition for body and there are some tips that you can learn for you eat in main dishes when you do the vegetable and fruit diet program as below.

Breakfast

Do not miss to eat breakfast, because the body needs some amount of nutrients and energy to do activities throughout the day, and breakfast will help prevent excessive hunger during the day and prevent the desire to consume unhealthy snacks that will ruin the diet program. And it is recommend after eating fruits and vegetables contain high fiber and carbohydrate to energy needed by the body, you also drink low fat milk so the nutrients such as vitamins and minerals contained in the low-fat milk that the body needs are met.

Lunch

Choose the type of food is a combination of fruit and vegetables and other healthy foods that contain low carbohydrate and adequate protein such as eg tofu, tempeh, fish, beans, and so will not make the body more fat because the food taken into the body more easily digested because the high fiber content of the body?s metabolism so that the system also becomes more smoothly and help make the program vegetable and fruit diet can also run more optimally.

Dinner

Avoid eating foods high in fat due to the activities that do in the night is usually fewer than one made at the time in the morning and afternoon so that a high fat is more difficult to turn into energy, but stored as fat in the body if you eat high fat food in the night. Vegetables and fruits can be good healthy foods to be eaten at night by combining other types of healthy foods low in fat and contain sum nutrients that can meet the high needs of the body.

Vegetable and fruit diet program can get faster when combined with regular exercises because if it also helps the body to become healthier and help keep the fat in your body turns into energy faster so make faster as well to lose weight. And if the ideal body you want is already obtained after a program?s vegetable fruit diet then you should have to keep eating fruits, vegetables, other healthy food and also doing exercises on regular basis so you can maintain your ideal weight and stay healthy for a long time.

Tags: vegetables and fruits, fruit diet, fruits and vegetables, healthy food, diet program, fruit and vegetables, healthy foods
Please report any issues to admin[at]dietnutritionadvisor[dot]com

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Physical properties predict stem cell outcome

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2012) ? Tissue engineers can use mesenchymal stem cells derived from fat to make cartilage, bone, or more fat. The best cells to use are ones that are already likely to become the desired tissue. Brown University researchers have discovered that the mechanical properties of the stem cells can foretell what they will become, leading to a potential method of concentrating them for use in healing.

To become better healers, tissue engineers need a timely and reliable way to obtain enough raw materials: cells that either already are or can become the tissue they need to build. In a new study, Brown University biomedical engineers show that the stiffness, viscosity, and other mechanical properties of adult stem cells derived from fat, such as liposuction waste, can predict whether they will turn into bone, cartilage, or fat.

That insight could lead to a filter capable of extracting the needed cells from a larger and more diverse tissue sample, said Eric Darling, senior author of the paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Imagine a surgeon using such a filter to first extract fat from a patient with a bone injury and then to inject a high concentration of bone-making stem cells into the wound site during the same operation.

If mechanical properties of stem cells -- viscosity, stiffness, size -- predict what they will become, the next step is to develop a high-throughput testing and sorting device.In the paper, the researchers report that the stiffest adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells tended to become bone, the ones that were biggest and softest tended to become fat, and those that were particularly viscous were most likely to end up as cartilage.

"The results are exciting because not only do the mechanical properties indicate what lineage these cells could potentially go along but also the extent of their differentiation," said Darling, assistant professor of medical science in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology. and Biotechnology and the University's Center for Biomedical Engineering. "It tells us how good they are going to be if we differentiated them for a given tissue type."

So when tissue engineers go looking through extracted fat for cells to create bone, for instance, they can sort through the cells looking for ones with a certain level of stiffness or greater. Whether the cells are "undifferentiated" stem cells that have made no move toward becoming a specific cell type, or ones that are already bone cells, only the ones with the requisite stiffness would make the cut. That process would yield a higher population of cells for making new bone tissue.

"Can we enrich the cell populations for cells that we want to use, whether they are totally undifferentiated cell types, partially differentiated, or completely differentiated?" Darling said. "It doesn't matter as long as it's targeted for the specific tissue application."

Darling's study, led by research assistants Rafael Gonzaelz-Cruz and Vera Fonseca, involved cloning adipose-derived adult human stem cells into 32 stem cell populations. They then poked, prodded, and measured the cells with an atomic force microscope, gaining measurements of how big they were, how sturdy they were under pressure, and how the force between them and the scope's cantilevered probe changed over time. The team found the cells exhibited a wide range of stiffness, viscosity and size.

Once they had the measurements, the researchers chemically induced the cells to differentiate and analyzed the levels of key metabolites produced by the cells as they matured a few weeks later. For each population, the metabolites indicated the relative proportion that differentiated into one tissue or another. Population 28, for example, apparently responded productively to chemical cues for producing cartilage, only somewhat well for producing bone and poorly to cues for making fat.

The key moment was when the researchers correlated each cell population's mechanical measurements with its metabolite data. Did the mechanical properties predict which populations would be the most successful in turning into bone cells or cartilage cells or fat cells? Sure enough, they did. The stiffest cell populations produced more bone. The squishiest cells were the ones that produced the most fat. The ones with the highest viscosity were the ones seemingly headed toward becoming cartilage.

Darling and his team then conducted a sorting simulation to determine whether filtering a sample by different mechanical characteristics could result in extracting a higher concentration of useful cells from tissue. They found that while yields using current methods of looking for molecular biomarkers are less than 1 percent, yields based on mechanical properties could increase to 3 percent for bone-making cells, 6 percent for cartilage, and 9 percent for fat.

Encouraged by the results, which he acknowledges are basic, Darling's group is already working toward a more practical realization of the discovery. After all, surgeons aren't going to bring atomic force microscopes into the operating room; those devices work too slowly to identify enough cells in a reasonable time.

"To actually apply this, we need some sort of high-throughput mechanical testing device," he said. "That is where the next stage is. That's something that my lab is working on right now."

So the idea is taking shape, like a stem cell striving to become fat, bone, or cartilage.

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences funded the work.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Rafael D. Gonz?lez-Cruz, Vera C. Fonseca, and Eric M. Darling. Cellular mechanical properties reflect the differentiation potential of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 21, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1120349109

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Mob assaults Mali's president, calling peace deal into question

Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, has been taken to the hospital, unconscious, after pro-military junta protesters broke into the presidential palace. Will a ECOWAS peace deal hold?

By Scott Baldauf,?Staff Writer / May 21, 2012

Protesters occupy Mali's presidential palace in the capital Bamako, May 21. Mali?s interim president, Dioncounda Traore, has been taken to the hospital, unconscious, after mobs of protesters broke into the presidential palace Monday.

Adama Diarra/Reuters

Enlarge

Mali?s interim president, Dioncounda Traore, has been taken to the hospital, unconscious, after mobs of protesters broke into the presidential palace today.

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The protesters were supporters of the military junta that has ruled Mali since a March 22 coup. Protesters at the scene voiced support for the military junta, but not with the interim president chosen by the junta.

The injury of President Traore could complicate a deal worked out over the weekend between West African leaders and the head of the military junta, Capt. Amadou Sanogo, who named Mr. Traore interim president until elections can be held. The West African bloc, ECOWAS, which led the negotiations, has raised the possibility of military intervention, and has already approved 1,500 troops to restore order in Bamako and contain an ethnic rebellion in Mali?s north that has effectively carved out a Tuareg-majority independent country by force.

Military spokesman Bakary Mariko told Reuters that the protesters broke into the presidential palace and assaulted acting President Traore.

"They beat him seriously and tore his clothes,"?Mr. Mariko said. "This is a spontaneous crowd. There were three dead and some injured by gunshot amongst the demonstrators. Dioncounda's security shot at people.?

While it?s hard to gauge how broadly the March 22 coup was supported, today's attacks on Traore do show some measure of support for the military junta, and they cast doubt on West African-backed plans for a transition of power from the current interim government, following future elections. Protesters who broke into the palace were heard chanting "We don't want Dioncounda" and "Down with ECOWAS."

"The arrangements made by ECOWAS don't involve Malians. It is a betrayal," Agence France Presse news agency quoted Hamadoun Amion Guindo of the Committee of Malian Patriotic Organizations (COPAM), a pro-coup group.

If ECOWAS intends to bring its 1,500 peacekeepers, approved at an April summit meeting, into Mali, they may find a decidedly cold reception from Malian citizens, some of whom view the junta as a welcome respite from the regime of former President Amadou Toumani Toure. Mr. Toure was overthrown by Captain Sanogo?s men, after protests that Toure?s government failed to provide the food and equipment to fight a better armed Tuareg insurgency in the north.

Mali?s Tuareg population has fought several rebellions in the past two decades, but returning Tuareg fighters armed and trained by the toppled Libyan government of Muammar Qaddafi proved to be too much for Mali?s poorly armed and equipped armed forces. Tuareg rebels, together with an Al Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Dine, have taken effective control of northern Mali, including the historic city of Timbuktu, following the chaos of the March 22 coup.

Over the weekend, Mali?s future seemed to have been stabilized, as ECOWAS leaders reached an agreement with the military junta, accepting Traore?s interim government until elections were held in 12 months time.

"I can tell you that a deal has been reached in principle,"?Captain Sanogo told state television?late on Saturday,?Reuters?reports. "Of course we have a certain number of accompanying measures to put in place and we will remain in [the capital]?Bamako?the time it takes to ensure that, after these discussions, the institutions of state are stabilized.?

Following the beating of Traore by military supporters, Captain Sanogo has not issued statements to reporters in Bamako. But protesters at the scene told Reuters that they would not accept any deal that includes Traore, even if it enjoys the support of the military junta.

"There is no question of Dioncounda staying as president of Mali," says Daouda Diallo, a demonstrator who made it up to the presidential palace.

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