On Thursday (May 9), the six residents of the station noticed frozen flakes ofaffixed to one of the eight solar arrays responsible for supplying power to the station. The crew is in no danger, NASA officials say, but if the leak continues, it could cause a shutdown in the loop, possibly preventing the array from generating power.

Space station commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency announced the possibility of the emergency spacewalk via Twitter (where he posts as @Cmdr_Hadfield) early on Friday. []

"Good Morning, Earth! Big change in plans, spacewalk tomorrow, Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are getting suits and airlock ready," Hadfield wrote. "Cool!"

NASA has not yet made an official decision on whether to conduct the spacewalk, and is still investigating the problem.

"The crew is not in danger, and the station continues to operate normally otherwise," agency officials wrote today in a statement. "Work is underway to reroute power channels to maintain full operation of the systems normally controlled by the solar array that is cooled by the suspect loop."

If the spacewalk goes forward, Cassidy and Marshburn both NASA astronauts will float outside the station to inspect the leak and possibly attempt to fix it.

"Suddenly very busy! Ammonia leak on the outside of station means that Cassidy and I will be doing a spacewalk tomorrow to try and repair it," Marshburn posted on Twitter (@AstroMarshburn) Friday.

This is not the first time space station crewmembers have . Last year, NASA's Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshidu took a spacewalk to troubleshoot a leak in a coolant loop on the station's Port 6 truss (its scaffolding-like backbone). The 2012was in the same loop as the current leak, but engineers don't yet know if the two leaks are related.

On the ground, astronauts Terry Virts of NASA and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency are practicing the routine for tomorrow's potential spacewalk in the Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston. This lab is a giant swimming pool that holds a full-scale mock-up of the International Space Stationused for astronaut training.

"@AstroSamantha and I are doing a dry run in the NBL for tomorrow's planned Spacewalk, looking for the ammonia leak," Virts wrote on Twitter (@AstroTerry).

Hadfield, Marshburn and Cassidy are part of the station's Expedition 35 crew, along with Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.

Romanenko, Marshburn and Hadfield are scheduled to leave the space station on Monday (May 13) to return to Earth after close to five months aboard the $100 billion orbiting outpost. On May 28, three new crewmembers are expected to launch from Kazakhstan to join Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy on the station.

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - After years of headlines about Africa's poverty, its emerging middle class is now grabbing attention as a driver of growth and democracy and an expanding pool of consumers for market-hungry retailers.

Consumer demand is a motor of Africa's economic and investment surge, and analysts see middle class buyers with swelling disposable income as fuelling this boom from South Africa to Nigeria and Kenya.

In its Africa Pulse report last month, the World Bank said consumer spending accounted for more than 60 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa's buoyant economic growth, which it forecast would accelerate to more than 5 percent over the next three years, far outpacing the global average.

"It's probably the fastest growing consumer class in the world, as a region," said Michael Lalor, director of Ernst & Young's Africa Business Center in Johannesburg.

From mobile phones, cars, food, and clothes to financial services and entertainment, multinational companies are homing in on lucrative new markets as millions of Africans aspire to claw their way out of still widespread poverty.

"The poor don't drive demand in an economy, it's the middle class that drive demand in an economy," African Development Bank Chief Economist Mthuli Ncube told Reuters.

"Reducing poverty means creating a middle class. Sometimes people think pushing the middle class means forgetting about poverty, but it's the other side of the coin," he added.

Global demand for African commodities, driven by China, has also boosted economic growth along with strong investment in productive industries and infrastructure. The World Bank forecast foreign direct investment in Sub-Saharan Africa will reach $54 billion by 2015, up from $37.7 billion in 2012.

At the same time, a greater number of African countries are achieving relative stability in politics and economic policy, allowing the middle class to emerge.

Accurately quantifying this African middle class has become an obsession for institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank, as well as consultancies advising corporate clients seeking an edge in this booming continent.

But this is a challenging task in a very diverse region - still the least developed on the planet - where reliable data is patchy and whose more than 50 economies range from regional powerhouses South Africa and Nigeria to U.N. Development Index laggards such as Niger and Mozambique.

A CONSUMING CLASS

"There are elastic definitions ... The middle class is very different in Kenya, for example, where you need far less disposable income than you might need in the United States," said Ernst & Young's Lalor.

One of the most frequently quoted - and debated - studies is a 2011 report by the African Development Bank. This said that, based on a daily per capita consumption definition of $2-20, Africa's middle class had risen by 2010 to 34 percent of its population - or nearly 350 million people - from about 126 million or 27 percent in 1980.

Given that $2 a day or below is widely accepted globally as a poverty indicator, many economists see the AfDB's middle class range, as cited in its 2011 report, as too broad and optimistic.

Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle says other studies indicate a more "African-appropriate" measure of middle class level income of between $15 and $20 a day. "There, Africa's middle class would be closer to 120 million, out of a population of just over a billion, so roughly 10 percent," he said.

Citigroup's Africa Economist David Cowan preferred not to use the term "middle class" at all in relation to Africa. "I don't believe there's an African middle class," he said, when compared with Europe or Asia.

Cowan would rather speak of a rapidly expanding "huge consuming class", with ideally $5,000-7,000 of disposable income a year.

"That's a level at which people can really make consumer purchases ... middle class in my mind should able to afford a washing machine and go out and buy a motorbike," he said.

"DRIVERS OF DEMOCRACY"

Few doubted that the emerging middle class was an important group for defining Africa's economic and political course.

As keen users of mobile phones and the Internet, including social media networks, they were plugged into the digital world and international news and therefore had a role as opinion makers and agents of reform and change.

"The mobile phone in Africa is creating a politically conscious class," said Cowan, citing Kenya's election in March.

Many analysts believe digital media played a part there in keeping tribal tensions in check during the vote and allowing a generally peaceful poll which averted a repeat of post-election violence that killed more than 1,200 people in 2007/2008.

Middle class voters are seen more likely to vote according to policies and issues rather than automatic or traditional allegiances to any party or ethnic group.

AfDB's Ncube believes the better-educated are supporting a perceived and widening trend towards more democratic maturity and better governance on the continent.

"They are your enlightened voters, they will support policies, and not just an affiliation emotionally," he said. "They are drivers of democracy."

Reflecting change in post-apartheid South Africa, recent research by the University of Cape Town Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing shows the black middle class there has more than doubled in eight years to 4.2 million in 2012, and its annual spending has overtaken its white counterpart group.

"The growth in this country, both economically and certainly in terms of spending power, comes from the black middle class," Unilever Institute Director John Simpson told Reuters.

He said the ANC government, which had long focused on the poor masses as its core voting base, was now being forced to pay more attention to the black middle class - which it has also helped create through affirmative action policies.

But even if one accepts the AfDB's broadly inclusive figure of around 300 million in the African middle class, chief economist Ncube says at least half these people do not enjoy real economic security.

"That 150 million between $2-4 a day, it's very vulnerable, it could slip back any time into poverty," he said.

Political and economic shocks, such as conflict, unrest or upheaval, could also have a heavy impact on the livelihoods of lower-earning middle class members, Ncube added.

"Naturally, the closer you are to $4 (a day) ... even just a small lift in food prices, and that group immediately becomes vulnerable," said Freemantle.

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David Sejusa, one of only six generals in the Ugandan military and a member of its high command, said in a recent letter to the head of the internal security service that he wants an investigation into allegations that those opposed to Museveni's son as a future leader could be targeted for assassination.

The allegations by a military official believed to be near the center of power have shocked many in Uganda. The army's top commander ruled Sejusa "out of order" and accused him of subverting the country's military laws. Some analysts now believe the apparent division among the military's top brass suggests a power struggle amid uncertainty over when Museveni, in power for almost three decades, will retire and who might replace him.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the army's top commander, issued a statement Tuesday saying the military was offended by Sejusa's letter, in which Sejusa alleged that the idea of Museveni's son taking over as president when his father retires "is becoming divisive and creating fertile ground for causing intrigue" in the armed forces.

"The (Ugandan military) takes exception to the fact that the spirit of the general's letter simply champions the agenda of the radical and anarchic political opposition, hence rendering him partisan," Nyakairima's statement said. "I would like to take this opportunity to reassure the general public that the (Ugandan military) is a cohesive, effective, efficient and pro-people force ... loyal to the people, the commander-in-chief and the constitution of Uganda."

Museveni's son, a senior army officer named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted over the years, leading some to believe he's being groomed to succeed his father. Last year he was made an army brigadier in changes that also saw him become the top commander of the country's special forces, an elite unit widely seen as the most powerful in the military. The special forces guard the country's oil installations and are also in charge of the president's security. In this position Kainerugaba answers to his father.

Museveni, himself a serving army general, has never publicly said he wants his son to succeed him. But rumors to the contrary have persisted, fuelled in part by the son's strong position in a military institution that wields substantial power in this East African country.

Angelo Izama, a Ugandan analyst who runs a security think tank called Fanaka Kwawote, said there was likely a power struggle within the army ranks as the older generation of army officers gradually loses power to the new guard, of which Kainerugaba is the most prominent member. Sejusa is one of the original bush-war fighters at the side of Museveni when his rebels took Kampala in 1986.

"The younger officers are now effectively in charge," Izama said. "Some of these things reflect the older officers' disenchantment with this state of affairs. Succession has already begun in the military, and it has proceeded apace."

It remains unclear if Museveni will seek another term in office when his current one expires in 2016.

Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a prominent Ugandan lawyer and political analyst, said Sejusa had given voice to an issue that few in the military have the courage to speak of.

"It's a fact that he's not alone in thinking this way about Museveni's son," Rwakafuuzi said. "Many of the army officers haven't spoken their mind, but they know that Muhoozi's meteoric rise does not augur well for politics in this country."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will co-host the second hour (8 a.m.) of "Today" on May 24, when the show arrives at his home state, the network said on Tuesday.

"Today" is hitting the road for its "Great American Adventure" during television's sweeps. The cast and crew will travel from coast to coast, visiting five U.S. destinations in one week, starting in Hawaii and wrapping up at the Jersey Shore, which is still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

Other places on the tour: Yellowstone National Park, Chicago and Orlando.

Christie's hosting appearance is not a political first for the program - fellow Republican Sarah Palin also has hosted "Today" in April 2012.

In other Christie news Tuesday, the New York Post reported that the governor - perhaps as well known for the size of his pants as he is the size of his personality - underwent lap-band stomach surgery in February.

Some believe that the extreme weight-loss measure may have just as much to do with a possible presidential run, though Christie maintains that his familial reasons are the true motivation.

"I've struggled with this issue for 20 years," he told the Post. "For me, this is about turning 50 and looking at my children and wanting to be there for them."

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- The Dutch government has unveiled the draft of a law that would give police investigating online crimes the right to hack into computers in the Netherlands or abroad and install spyware or destroy files.

Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten said Thursday that such actions would carried out only after the approval of a judge. The bill would also make it a crime for a suspect to refuse to decipher encrypted files during a police investigation.

Spokesman Wiebe Alkema said the bill will undergo revisions and be put to parliament by the end of the year.

Simone Halink of the digital rights group Bits of Freedom says the law would set a bad precedent, giving a "green light" to oppressive governments to hack into civilian computers.

The development comes as officials said Monday that the death toll from the country's worst industrial disaster had reached 675.

Sheuli Akter, the wife of Jahangir Alam, filed the complaint with Dhaka magistrate Wasim Sheikh, saying her husband and other workers were "pushed toward death" by building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and two others.

Alam was employed in New Wave Styles Ltd., one of the five garment factories housed in the eight-story Rana Plaza that collapsed April 24 as workers started their morning shift even though cracks had developed in the building.

New Wave Styles owner Bazlul Adnan and local government engineer Imtemam Hossain were the two others accused in the case.

Magistrate Sheikh ordered police to investigate the complaints, and local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzman said Monday that they would now investigate possible murder charges.

A conviction for murder can result in a death sentence in Bangladesh.

Nine people, including Rana and Adanan, have already been arrested on other charges. Rana faces charges such as negligence and illegal construction, which are punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail.

By Monday evening, the death toll had reached 675, according to the police control room at the scene. It is not known how many people are still missing, as workers use heavy equipment to search through the rubble. There is a stench around the collapse site from decomposing bodies.

An architect whose firm designed the initial floors of the building said Sunday it had not been designed for heavy industrial work. Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said they designed the building in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for industrial purposes.

Officials say Rana illegally added three floors and allowed the garment factories to install generators. Vibrations from garment machines and from the generators were thought to have contributed to the collapse.

The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012.

Stronger results from the television and cable operations, however, helped the company squeeze out a 0.4 percent rise in total revenue to $959.1 million.

The first-quarter earnings indicated that its namesake newspaper can't shake the problems clinging to the sector, mainly a drain in advertising revenue and the loss of readers, who are reading news elsewhere.

Total revenue at the newspaper division dropped 4 percent to $127.3 million because of lower ad sales at its print edition. It reported an operating loss of $34.5 million mainly due to severance costs.

At its education division known as Kaplan, revenue fell 3 percent to $527.8 million.

Net income for the quarter was $4.7 million, or 64 cents per share, compared with $31 million, or $4.07 per share in the same quarter last year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal authorities have charged a prominent New York art dealer and one of Russia's top reputed mobsters with operating high-stakes gambling rings in New York and Los Angeles that catered to billionaires, bank executives, movie stars and professional athletes.

Among 34 people indicted on Tuesday are suspected Russian organized crime figure Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who was charged in 2002 with plotting to rig sports events at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Tokhtakhounov remains outside of the United States, and that case has not gone to trial.

Also charged was Hillel "Helly" Nahmad, a leading international art dealer and the owner of an exclusive art gallery that bears his name inside Midtown Manhattan's posh Carlyle Hotel.

The gallery was raided on Tuesday as part of the investigation, authorities said.

According to an 83-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Tokhtakhounov ran a sports-betting ring that catered to Russian oligarchs in the former Soviet Union, and laundered proceeds through Cyprus banks to the United States.

A second, related operation in New York and Los Angeles allegedly served wealthy U.S. clients including Hollywood celebrities, Wall Street executives and professional athletes, authorities said.

That operation was allegedly run by Nahmad, who was expected to surrender on Tuesday in Los Angeles, a spokeswoman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.

Tokhtakhounov, according to court documents, used his reputation as a mobster to "resolve disputes with clients of high-stakes illegal gambling operation with implicit and sometimes explicit threats of violence and economic harm."

INDICTED IN 2002

Tokhtakhounov was indicted by federal authorities in New York in 2002 on charges that he plotted to rig the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics pairs figure skating and ice dancing competitions.

He was arrested that year in Italy, whose highest appeals court ruled in 2003 against extraditing him to the United States. He was released by the Italian court.

According to court papers, Tokhtakhounov earned $10 million in 2011 alone as head of the gambling ring.

He is known in Russia as a "vory v zakone," or a "vor," a Russian term that translates to "Thief-in-Law" and refers to the highest echelon of Russian organized crime figures, according to prosecutors.

A number of defendants in the case, of whom 30 were in custody, were expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan later on Tuesday.

Michael Fineman, an attorney for defendant Vadim Trincher, 52, declined to comment after court.

Dana Cole, an attorney for Molly Bloom, who was arrested in Los Angeles and faces bookmaking charges only, said a judge released his client on Tuesday afternoon into the custody of her mother. She is scheduled to appear again in a New York federal courtroom on Friday.

Cole said that while he did not want to "minimize the seriousness" of the charges, "this is not the crime of the century."

Tokhtakhounov and three other indicted suspects - Abraham Mosseri, Donald McCalmont, and William Edler - remain at large and are wanted by federal officials, said Kelly Langmesser, a spokesman for the New York field office of the FBI.

None of the rich and famous clients of the alleged ring were charged or named by authorities on Tuesday. A person who answered the phone at the Nahmad Gallery in New York declined to comment on the indictments.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Mohamad Zargham)

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The next CEO of China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd will not be a family member of the incumbent chief, Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer who founded the company 26 years ago and built an empire that now rivals big global names in telecom gear and handsets.

Huawei, which ranks behind just Sweden's Ericsson in telecom equipment sales and is also the world's No.5 smartphone maker, has no plans to list in the next 5-10 years, Ren said an internal letter to employees dated Sunday and whose contents were confirmed by two sources within the company on Monday.

"Huawei's successor should not only have vision, character and ambition, like what we've said before, but also a good global perspective and the acumen to drive the business," Ren wrote. "My family members do not possess these qualities. Thus, we will never be in the running of the successor race," said the 68-year-old.

The two sources within the company, who declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the letter was authentic. Huawei declined comment.

The market has been speculating about who will take the helm of the company that which has annual sales of $35 billion with global operations stretching from Asia to Africa.

Even though Ren's son and daughter work at Huawei, they are not involved in the rotating CEO system that the board has put in place to pave the way for the era after Ren.

Under the rotating CEO system, three top executives, deputy chairmen Ken Hu and Guo Ping, as well as vice president Eric Xu take turns as acting-CEO for six-month stints. None of them are related to Ren.

Ren, one of China's most influential businessmen and an elusive one who has never granted any media interviews, started the company in 1987 in the Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen.

Huawei has since grown into an enormous company competing against global players such as Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent SA selling telecom gear to global carriers and taking on Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in smartphones.

In 2012, its revenues rose 8 percent to 220.2 billion yuan ($36 billion), while net profit rose by a third to 15.38 billion yuan, outpacing rivals such as Ericsson and ZTE Corp.

As to whether Huawei will list, Ren said in the letter that would not happen in the next 5-10 years, adding that the company will not enter the game of the capital markets.

"We have not studied the issue of an IPO because we feel that listing is not conducive for our development," he said.

In his latest letter to employees, Ren also said he was transparent to the outside world as his articles were usually posted on the company's website and available to everyone.

"I don't have to be interviewed by the media to be considered as being transparent. I can make friends through the written word," he said.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Matt Driskill)