The first demonstration demands fair elections at the March 4 presidential polls, at which Putin is expected to secure a third term in the Kremlin. It also calls on Russians “not to give a single vote” to Putin.

The opposition rally is widely seen by analysts as a litmus test of protesters’ ability to maintain momentum after two earlier protests against alleged vote fraud in favor of Putin’s United Russia party at December’s parliamentary polls.

“We are prepared for a long tough struggle,” protest organizer and opposition figure Boris Nemtsov on the eve of the rally. “One peaceful march will not change the country.”

Around 30,000 have signed up on social networks to attend the demonstration. The protests are to include a march through downtown Moscow and a rally across the Moskva River from the Kremlin. The two previous rallies drew an estimated combined total of 100,000 people.

Protesters were set to gather by the downtown Oktyabrskaya station starting 12 p.m. local time, when temperature in Moscow stood at minus 22 degrees Celsius.

President Dmitry Medvedev, widely seen as Putin’s junior partner in Russia’s ruling tandem, proposed a host of political reforms after the initial vote protests, including the return of direct elections for regional governors and easier registration for political parties and presidential candidates. His proposals were dismissed by protest leaders on Friday as “imitation reforms.”

Putin has also ordered the installation of video cameras at polling stations and has encouraged independent monitors to oversee the presidential vote.

The organization of Saturday’s march has seen the involvement of the Voters League, a freshly-minted public group that claims no involvement in politics and is led by popular figures such as novelist Boris Akunin, TV journalist Leonid Parfyonov and rock musician Yury Shevchuk.

A separate rally, expected to draw some 15,000 people, will urge protesters to resist what organizers say are attempts to instigate an Orange Revolution in Russia. So-called Color uprisings took place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia in the early 2000s after contested presidential elections.

Putin thanked late on Friday those people who planned to attend the rally in his support.

“I share their views,” he said.

There have been numerous reports in the Russian media of state employees being coerced to attend the Anti-Orange rally, but the authorities have said these are untrue or the actions of over-zealous, low-level officials.

Both demonstrations have been authorized by City Hall. Moscow police say they will deploy 9,000 officers to maintain order at the rallies.

Rallies by both the opposition and Putin’s supporters took place in cities across Siberia and the Far East, most of them gathering several hundreds of protesters. An opposition rally in Novosibirsk was attended by an 1,500 to 2,000 people, according to police estimates, while a pro-Putin indoors rally in far eastern Birobidzhan had 600 participants, organizers said.

Police said some 11,000 gathered for the opposition rally at Moscow’s Kaluzhskaya Ploshchad as of 12:30 a.m. Saturday, though video feed from the site indicated the figure was considerably higher.

About 35,000 were in attendance for the rally in support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Poklonnaya Gora an hour before its scheduled start at 1 p.m., Moscow police said. No video feed from the site was available at the time.

“People keep on arriving, the situation is changing constantly,” police said in a statement.

Police estimates of attendance during two previous opposition rallies in December were considerably lower than those by organizers and independent observers.

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The former Massachusetts governor, who scored a major win in Florida on Tuesday, was back on track a day after stumbling with an ill-judged remark about poor Americans, as the new Nevada poll gave him a 20 point lead.

The survey of likely Republican voters put Romney on 45 percent and Gingrich on 25 percent in the western battleground state, which holds caucuses on Saturday as the GOP poll race spreads west.

But in a new development, Gingrich announced possible party appeal action over the results in Florida, where Romney won big, in theory claiming all its 50 delegates. Gingrich said the delegates should be award proportionately.

The developments came as Romney, who has an estimated $250 million fortune, won the endorsement of real estate mogul and celebrity TV star Trump, who briefly flirted with a presidential run last year.

“Mitt is tough, he’s smart, he’s sharp, he’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love,” Trump said. “Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em, you can do it.”

Romney, whose campaign has been plagued by a string of wealth-related gaffes and issues, betrayed no qualms about accepting the support of a super-rich benefactor at a glitzy Las Vegas press event.

“There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life. This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s hotel and having his endorsement is a delight,” he said, with wife Ann and Trump standing alongside.

Romney, 64, came second in the first Republican contest in Iowa, then swept the second contest in New Hampshire before Gingrich, 68, thumped him South Carolina in mid-January.

Gingrich’s support however sank fast in the larger and more diverse state of Florida, and Romney now has all the momentum.

But the former House speaker signaled in Las Vegas that his backers may challenge the Florida results.

“I’m told by the lawyers that it’s pretty clear, that it’s supposed to be proportional,” he told Fox News television.

“That means that Romney’s advantage, instead of being 50 delegates, will be about a net of 10, and that makes a huge difference. I suspect it’ll be a fight,” he said.

Romney pitches himself as a successful entrepreneur with the business acumen to create jobs and turn around a US economy he claims has been ruined by President Barack Obama’s policies.

Critics say he is a son of wealth and privilege who spent much of his business career in the cut-throat world of venture capital and had a questionable record as a job-creator when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Only last April, Trump painted Romney as a corporate vulture during his time at Bain Capital, the venture capital firm where he made his millions.

“He’d buy companies, he’d close companies, he’d get rid of jobs,” Trump said in a CNN interview.

Romney triggered immediate criticism for a comment on Wednesday about America’s poorest citizens, which threatened to slow his growing momentum.

“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it,” he told CNN.

Nevada Republicans hold caucuses on Saturday to pick 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in the first of the party’s nominating contests in the western United States.

Romney, who won handily in Nevada in the 2008 White House race, can expect a boost from fellow Mormons. Four years ago, 26 percent of Nevada Republican caucus voters were Mormon and 95 percent of them backed Romney.

The Nevada poll, carried out by the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper and 8NewsNow, showed former senator Rick Santorum trailing with 11 percent and Texas congressman Ron Paul with nine percent.

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The radio giant announced plans Friday to premiere the 53-year-old pop star’s new single “Give Me All Your Luvin’” and its music video across Clear Channel radio stations, electronic billboards and online venues. Clear Channel, which owns 850 stations nationwide, estimated the promotional campaign would reach more than 150 million people around the world.

Beginning on Friday morning, “Give Me All Your Luvin’” is scheduled to premiere simultaneously across 95 radio stations and on more than 1,600 digital billboards in the United States, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Belgium, Finland and the United Kingdom, as well as on demand at iHeartRadio.com, Clear Channel’s customized online radio service.

“This first-of-its-kind multimedia premiere with Madonna demonstrates the unequalled scope and strength of the entire Clear Channel platform — a range and depth that enables us to work with the most talented and creative artists in the world to develop truly groundbreaking promotional opportunities,” said Bob Pittman, CEO of Clear Channel, in a statement.

The Material Girl push is the latest multimedia endeavor from Clear Channel, which organized a two-day concert in Las Vegas last year that featured the likes of Jay-Z and Lady Gaga and announced last month that it was taking a minority stake in the production company of “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest, who produces E!’s “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

Madonna is expected to perform “Give Me All Your Luvin’” and three other tunes at her Super Bowl halftime performance Sunday in Indianapolis. Her new album “MDNA” is set to be released in March.

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Defence Minister Stephen Smith joined a string of cabinet ministers to offer support for Gillard despite media suggestions that she could face a leadership challenge this year from Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who she replaced in June 2010.

Some political analysts now believe Gillard is unlikely to lead the party to the next election, due in the second half of 2013, with a move against her most likely in the latter part of the year.

“MPs are starting to think the boat is going down, and they’re starting to panic,” Monash University political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters. “I don’t think she’ll lead the Labour Party to the next election.”

The first major opinion polls for 2012 found government support stalled near record lows, while online bookmakers Sportsbet Friday said odds on Rudd returning as leader by the end of the year have shortened to just $1.20 for a $1.00 bet.

“I’m a strong supporter of the Prime Minister. I think she’s doing a very good job in very tough circumstances,” Smith told Australian television from Brussels.

He joined Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, and Regional Affairs Minister Simon Crean, who have all called for an end to party dissent, with Crean saying Rudd was not a team player.

Rudd is seen as a lone operator by his Labour colleagues and was toppled as prime minister in a party room coup after his government struggled to pass reforms, but polls show he remains popular with voters.

Adding to the government’s dilemma is the fact Gillard governs with support from two independents and the Greens, and any leadership change could force a change of government or an early election if a new leader can’t negotiate similar support.

That means a leadership spill could trigger a change of government, with the conservative opposition promising to scrap a new 30 percent mining tax and a carbon tax, both due to start on July 1 this year.

Gillard dismissed the latest rumblings Friday, saying she was focused on delivering good policy.

“I don’t worry about chatter in the media, I get on with the job,” she said.

DISASTROUS NEW YEAR

Gillard finished 2011 strengthened after a disaffected opposition lawmaker became parliamentary speaker, effectively bolstering her majority from one vote to three.

But she has had a poor start to 2012.

She lost the support of one independent in January after she reneged on a promise to change gambling laws, and then lost a staffer who quit over his role in promoting a rowdy protest against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that turned into a security scare.

That means the government is back to square one, commanding only a one seat majority in parliament and with one lawmaker under a cloud, due to an ongoing police investigation over the use of union money to pay for prostitutes.

At the same time, house prices are falling and manufacturers continue to cut jobs, although Gillard may get a reprieve if the central bank cuts interest rates next week as economists expect.

Australian Financial Review political editor Laura Tingle said the past week had seem a shift in support away from Gillard, although most Labour lawmakers were still deeply hostile about Rudd.

“The tide has turned with a sharp but silent menace against Julia Gillard,” Tingle wrote Friday.

Economou said any move against Gillard would be unlikely before July, when the carbon tax and mining tax both start. That would allow Labour to deliver its budget in May, and to campaign for the March 24 Queensland state election, where polls suggest Labour will be thrown from office.

“The dangerous time is after the carbon tax comes in,” Economou said. “If things don’t improve by then, she’ll have to go.”

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If the court rejects his case, the 40-year-old Australian will have exhausted all his options in Britain but he could still make a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, prosecutors have said.

The Supreme Court, England’s highest, granted Assange permission to appeal in December.

It said his case raised an issue of “great public importance”, namely whether Sweden’s state prosecutor had the right to sign the European arrest warrant under which he was held.

The case will be considered by seven judges, rather than the usual five.

The Supreme Court usually takes about 10 weeks to deliver a judgement but the parties have requested that this case be speeded up.

Wednesday marks 421 days since the arrest of the former computer hacker, who has been living under tight bail conditions at the country mansion of a wealthy supporter in Norfolk, eastern England.

Assange was arrested in Britain in December 2010 after two women made allegations of sexual molestation and an accusation of rape in Sweden, which he strongly denies.

He says the sex was consensual and claims the allegations are politically motivated, linked to WikiLeaks’ release of hundreds of thousands of classified US files about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables.

Assange’s extradition to Sweden was initially approved by a lower court in February. An appeal to the High Court was rejected in November, but it subsequently granted him permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

If this appeal fails, the WikiLeaks founder will have only one other option to stop his extradition — an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

“If the ECHR takes the case then his current bail conditions would remain in force and he would remain in the UK until the proceedings at the ECHR have concluded,” the Crown Prosecution Service said in a commentary on the case.

“If the ECHR declines to take the case then he will be extradited to Sweden as soon as arrangements can be made,” England’s state prosecutor said.

Concerning Assange’s case before the Supreme Court, Julian Knowles, an extradition law specialist with the Matrix Chambers law firm, said the question of whether a public prosecutor was a valid judicial authority had been comprehensively tested.

“The courts have always reached the clear answer that while it may look odd to English eyes … European systems don’t have the same structure,” he was quoted as saying Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper.

“The courts have always said that to make extradition work, you have to be flexible in your approach to what extradition is.”

Were Assange to win, the consequences would be “very profound”, he said.

“It would basically mean, until the law is rewritten, that extradition to Europe (would) become very difficult, if not impossible.

“Because in the vast majority of European extradition requests, the arrest warrant is issued not by a court, as it would be in England, but by a prosecutor.”

Assange announced last week that he was launching his own television chat show and promised interviews with “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries”.

No guests have been unveiled, but a statement on the WikiLeaks website said the show would go on air in mid March in 10 weekly half-hour episodes.

Russian state television channel RT said it had the rights to show the episodes first.

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Speaking at the All Things D conference, Costolo repeated the company’s justification for the policy change it announced last week: By taking down tweets only in the country where Twitter believes they may have violated local laws, it is making sure the maximum 140-character-long messages are still available to the rest of the world.

Twitter’s reasoning has been mostly lost in a barrage of comments — many from Twitter users themselves — that the company is caving into attacks on free speech, especially in countries with repressive regimes.

“It’s a super complex issue,” Costolo said. “When the news came out, people tried to distill it down to, ‘What did they just say?’ It’s easy to distill it down to ‘Twitter is endorsing XYZ.’”

“It takes a while for the scholars and the people who study these matters to weigh in and start to say, ‘Wait, this is actually a thoughtful and honest approach to doing this and it’s in fact being done in a way that’s forward-looking.’ So we wait for that to happen,” he added.

The complaint about knee-jerk responses to complex issues is somewhat ironic given that the company’s meteoric growth has been fueled often by buzz-worthy but flippant comments.

Costolo also emphasized that if Twitter reacts to take-down requests, it will make public the reasons a tweet is being removed. The company already has 45 people who respond to such requests, including those from copyright holders of music or movies in the United States.

He said the policy wouldn’t affect its stance toward China or Iran, where the service is already blocked completely.

“I don’t think the current environment in China is one in which we think we could operate,” he said.

Costolo spoke just days before Facebook is expected to file the paperwork necessary for an initial public offering of stock, a move that is likely to make initial investors and employees in the company rich.

San Francisco-based Twitter also faces the same securities regulations that are forcing Facebook to go public — a rule that says companies with more than $10 million in assets and more than 500 shareholders of a certain class of stock must disclose their financial results and other details.

Twitter, which was founded in 2006, will bump up against the rule “at some point,” Costolo said. But he added he would rather spend time building value at the company than dealing with such issues.

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Thousands flocked to hear the Nobel Peace Prize winner speak in the coastal district of Dawei, as she made her first political trip outside Yangon since declaring she would stand for office in the April 1 polls.

“If we move in the right direction our country will have many opportunities. We are eager to seize them,” she told the jubilant crowd which filled the southern town.

Suu Kyi’s decision to stand for a seat in parliament is the latest sign of dramatic change sweeping through the country formerly known as Burma after the end of decades of outright military rule.

A new government dominated by former generals has surprised observers with a series of reforms since taking office last year, including dialogue with the opposition and the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party was recently welcomed back into the political mainstream, further raising hopes of an end to decades of isolation and poverty as Western nations consider easing sanctions.

The party is running for all 48 seats up for grabs in the by-elections and Suu Kyi is standing in a rural constituency near Yangon. Sunday’s one-day visit was in support of NLD candidate Aung Soe, who is standing in a local township.

“We have requested many times for Daw Suu to campaign for our region… She hasn’t been here for 23 years,” he told AFP. Daw is a term of respect in Myanmar.

Traffic clogged the roads in Dawei as local people thronged to get a glimpse of the NLD leader, who spent much of the past two decades in detention.

“You are our heart,” proclaimed banners held up in the crowds, with many people sporting NLD t-shirts and trying to give flowers and gifts to the opposition campaigner.

Suu Kyi’s outing will take her to the area where a huge and controversial industrial site, the Dawei Development Project, is set to transform a sleepy strip of southern coastline.

The Thai-led, multi-billion-dollar development has sparked fears of a potential influx of “dirty” industry and the displacement of thousands of people.

But in another sign of burgeoning reform, Myanmar’s government cancelled a proposed coal-fired power plant at the site this month citing “environmental problems”.

The April polls are to fill places vacated by those elected in 2010 who have since become ministers and deputy ministers in the government.

Although the seats available are not enough to threaten the resounding majority held by the army-backed ruling party, Suu Kyi’s participation, if the polls are free and fair, will be a boost to the legislature’s credibility.

She has made few ventures outside her home city since her release. Her first political trip was last year to the Bago region north of Yangon, which passed off peacefully and saw her feted by thousands of supporters.

Security had been a concern as Suu Kyi’s convoy was attacked in 2003 during a political trip, in an ambush apparently organised by a junta frightened by her popularity.

The NLD won an election in 1990 by a landslide while Suu Kyi remained under house arrest, but the ruling generals ignored the result.

The party was stripped of its status as a legal political party after boycotting a national election in 2010, saying the rules were unfair. Suu Kyi was released from house arrest a few days after the poll.

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Lower Saxony public prosecutor Irene Silinger ruled on Friday that calling Wulff a liar could not be considered defamatory, but should be regarded as part of the debate over his involvement in what has become known as the “loan and media affair”.

Leader of the Greens in the Lower Saxony state parliament Stefan Wenzel called Wulff a liar and called for him to resign following a debate on his conduct while state premier there.

“Wulff is a liar and he should resign before he pulls law and order and decorum further into the dirt,” said Wenzel. Three official complaints that this was slander and defamation were dismissed by Silinger, who said the comments were part of Wenzel’s right to free expression.

Wulff’s conduct while he was state premier of Lower Saxony is being increasingly scrutinised, particularly since police raided the home of his former spokesman Olaf Glaeseker, the man regarded as Wulff’s closest advisor, searching for evidence of corruption.

The latest poll on Wulff’s popularity shows 50 percent of Germans want him to resign – up from 44 percent who said so at the start of January. Those who want him to stay in office accounted for 45 percent asked in the survey conducted by television network ZDF and the Tagesspiegel daily newspaper. A further five percent said they did not know what he should do.

Opposition Social Democrat leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Wulff and his refusal to resign was damaging Germany’s image.

“Germany is considered in many countries an example in terms of clean politics and the independence of its decision-makers,” he said in this week’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

“The debate over Wulff certainly takes something away from Germany’s nimbus.”

He said the president’s job was largely to give the country moral orientation, and Wulff must be happy that he can still do that. “It will be a long way for Christian Wulff to win back the moral authority that he needs for that,” said Steinmeier. “If he stays on the unsafe ground of his answers until now, then that way is too long.”

When asked in the same paper how much future Wulff had, Merkel said, “Our federal president will make many more important points for our country and our communal life.”

Further details of the Lower Saxony’s state involvement in the annual Nord-Süd-Dialog business lobby event emerged this week, showing the government was more heavily involved as previously thought. And the Die Zeit weekly paper said that the NordLB bank which was majority owned by the state had sponsored the even in 2007 and 2008.

Glaeseker, Wulff’s advisor and spokesman for the Lower Saxony government, was closely connected to Manfred Schmidt who organised the lobby meeting, and had accepted free holidays in Schmidt’s homes.

Wulff fired Glaeseker shortly before Christmas without publicly giving a reason, after years of working closely together.

Although no criminal allegations have been made against Wulff, investigations are continuing into Glaeseker’s activities.

It is now more than six weeks since the start of the row over €500,000 Wulff, then Lower Saxony state premier, borrowed from the wife of a businessman friend and failed to publish. The businessman Egon Geerkens then accompanied Wulff on three official trips, it has been reported.

Wulff subsequently transferred the loan to a bank with which he had dealings, and made angry phone calls to newspaper editors about the publish the story.

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No.2 seed Petra Kvitova has advanced to the semifinals of AO2012 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Italy’s Sara Errani at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.

Despite making numerous unforced errors Kvitova took the first set in 53 minutes as she looked too strong for the 48th-ranked Italian.

Errani bounced straight back in the second set, taking an early break and racing out to a 4-1 lead. With the underdog hitting fluent winners and pushing Kvitova around the court it looked certain to be heading for a decider.

However, the Czech player rallied and regained her stride from the opening set to take five straight games and close out the match.

It was a courageous effort from the unseeded Italian, who hit 75 percent of her first serves to Kvitova’s 65%, and made only 25 unforced errors to the Czech’s 44. But it was the winners column where the No.2 seed accounted for those statistic, hitting 36 to Errani’s 17.

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Da Vinci began painting “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” in 1503 and when he died in France in 1519 the unfinished work, depicting Christ beside his mother and grandmother with a sacrificial lamb, was acquired by King Francis I.

Restoration carried out in the past century left the “Saint Anne” disfigured by stains, on the Virgin’s dress for instance, due to the ageing of a substance in the varnish and in 2010 the museum decided to restore the work once more.

The “Saint Anne” is to be unveiled to the public in March as the highlight of a major exhibition built around it.

But the project hit a rock last autumn as critics warned that cleaning could damage the masterpiece, and two experts have since resigned in protest from the advisory committee set up to oversee the work.

Both are art world heavyweights: Segolene Bergeon Langle, who left in December, is a French national heritage curator, while Jean-Pierre Cuzin who left in the autumn is former chief curator of the Louvre’s painting department.

A French arts journal first sounded the alarm in October with an article entitled “Leonardo in danger”.

At stake was the type of solvent used to dissolve the yellow-brown coat of varnish covering the painting, deemed too harsh by critics who fear it could remove the actual paint.

Experts especially feared damage to the faces of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary, and more broadly to the “sfumato” — layers of clear paint used by Da Vinci to produce smoky, softened contours, on this work as on the “Mona Lisa”.

Contacted by AFP last week, the curator Bergeon Langle said she left the advisory committee for several reasons.

“I deemed that the restoration was not being carried out in line with what I imagined was necessary for this Louvre painting. That is my firm belief.”

One critical point was the question of whether to remove a white patch on the body of the baby Jesus.

The museum’s chosen restorer Cinzia Pasquali, who worked on the paintings of the Chateau de Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, was convinced it was a patch of varnish, turned white by microscopic cracks, and wanted to remove it.

Bergeon Langle believed it may have been added by Da Vinci’s own hand — and was wary of any intervention.

Finally Vincent Pomarede, the head of the Louvre’s painting department, went ahead and green-lighted its removal after having it analysed.

“On that issue, we were in disagreement,” he told AFP this week. “But I have the laboratory results and they are conclusive. I was certain it was a cracked varnish, and you can see plainly from the final result that it is.”

“I have no regrets,” said Pomarede, who has insisted the Louvre is not putting the work at risk.

Last autumn the Louvre invited journalists to view the painting in the workshops of the French Museums’ Centre for Research and Restoration, the C2RMF, next to the Louvre, to defuse tensions.

In 1994, the Louvre had to abandon an earlier plan to restore the “Saint Anne”, over fears for its delicate “sfumato”.

At the time, explained Pomarede, the Louvre did not have the technical know-how to protect the work. Now, however, he said it was possible to measure the thickness of the varnish down to the last micron.

On the subjects’ fragile faces, for example, the restorer left an extra thickness of varnish: 16 to 17 microns, against 8 to 12 microns elsewhere — and down from 30 to 35 microns previously.

Early this month the scientific committee met and handed down a “positive verdict on the thinning of the varnish and the removal in places of additional layers of paint,” said Pomarede.

“Two or three experts even wanted to go further” including removing secondary tree trunks that are thought to have been added in the 19th century,” said Pomarede — who ruled to keep the trunks as they are.

Since then the Louvre says tensions have simmered down with the dissenting experts.

Pasquali is putting the finishing touches to the work but this phase of the work is all reversible unlike removing varnish, and “should be a more serene period,” Pomarede said.

But Bergeon Langle, who was received by the head of the Louvre Henri Loyrette early this month and has another meeting planned with Pomarede, told AFP she still had “doubts” over the progress of the work.

“As a general rule, I prefer old works to be cleaned only very lightly. You can never retrieve the original colours, what you get instead is the current state of the painting materials. Leaving a slight veil over the work makes it more harmonious,” she explained.

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