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New India rape protests fizzle, victim airlifted to Singapore

Written By Bersemangat on Jumat, 28 Desember 2012 | 00.25

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Police thwarted an attempt by activists on Thursday to rekindle mass protests in New Delhi over the gang rape and ferocious beating of a young woman, after the victim was airlifted to Singapore for specialist hospital care to save her life.

Demonstrations erupted in New Delhi after the December 16 attack, culminating last weekend in pitched battles between police and protesters around the city's India Gate war memorial.

However, activists who gathered on Thursday for a fresh march on India Gate were stopped by police in riot gear armed with tear gas and water cannons to hold them back.

"We will win back our freedom!" the protesters, mostly university students, shouted as they pushed against barricades on a road leading to the city's landmark monument. Unable to make further headway, the crowd dispersed as night fell.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex attacks among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to the National Crimes Records Bureau.

Most rapes and other sex crimes go unreported and offenders are rarely punished, but the brutality of the assault on the medical student in New Delhi triggered public outrage, demands for both better policing and harsher punishment for rapists.

The 23-year-old victim, who was thrown out of a moving bus after being attacked by six men, was flown to Singapore on Wednesday night for treatment at the city-state's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, after more than a week of intensive care in a government hospital in New Delhi.

Dr. Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of the Singapore hospital, said on Thursday evening that the woman was in "an extremely critical condition".

"Prior to her arrival, she has already undergone three abdominal surgeries, and experienced a cardiac arrest in India," Loh said. "A multi-disciplinary team of specialists is taking care of her and doing everything possible to stabilize her condition."

The outcry and spasm of violent protests over the case caught Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government off guard and set off a blame game between politicians and the police.

Singh digressed in a speech on economic planning on Thursday to stress that the safety and security of women was a priority issue for his government, and said there would be a review of the laws and levels of punishment for aggravated sexual assault.

But within an hour of that meeting, his Congress party was plunged into embarrassment over comments made by one of its lawmakers, Abhijit Mukherjee, son of the country's president.

Mukherjee described the anti-rape demonstrations as a "pink revolution" by women wearing heavy make-up who think it is fashionable to protest.

Quizzed repeatedly on news channels, Mukherjee said he regretted causing offence and apologized. However, his comments had already sparked a wave of fury on social media sites and even his own sister said she was "embarrassed" by her brother.

(Writing by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Additional reporting by Arup Roychoudhury in New Delhi and Hasan Saeed in Singapore; Editing by John Chalmers and Ron Popeski)


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Iran will open suspect military base if threats dropped: report

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran would let U.N nuclear inspectors into a military base they suspect was used for atomic weapons-related work, if threats against the Islamic Republic are dropped, a government official was quoted as saying.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iran conducted explosives tests with possible nuclear applications at Parchin, a sprawling military base southeast of Tehran, and has repeatedly asked to inspect it.

Western diplomats say Iran has carried out extensive work at Parchin over the past year to cleanse it of any evidence of illicit activities but IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said earlier this month a visit would still be "useful".

"If the trans-regional threats (against Iran) dissipate, then they will find it possible to visit Parchin," Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi was quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency as saying on Wednesday. The comments were also published on Thursday by online magazine Iran Diplomacy.

Qashqavi was most likely referring to Israel's threat of military strikes against Iran and the possibility of further sanctions by the West.

Israel has said it will resort to military action if diplomacy fails to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful.

Earlier this month, IAEA officials visited Iran to try to negotiate access to Parchin to resolve outstanding issues related to "possible military dimensions" of Iran's nuclear program.

Iran has repeatedly said that a wider agreement on the IAEA's inquiry must be reached before opening the site to inspectors.

(Reporting By Marcus George; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


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Central African Republic appeals for French help against rebels, Paris balks

BANGUI (Reuters) - The president of the Central African Republic appealed on Thursday for France and the United States to help push back rebels threatening his government and the capital, but Paris said its troops were only ready to protect French nationals.

The exchanges came as regional African leaders tried to broker a ceasefire deal and as rebels said they had temporarily halted their advance on Bangui, the capital, to allow talks to take place.

Insurgents on motorbikes and in pickup trucks have driven to within 75 km (45 miles) of Bangui after weeks of fighting, threatening to end President Francois Bozize's nearly 10-year-stint in charge of the turbulent, resource-rich country.

French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in the CAR's south - France's biggest commercial interest in its former colony.

The rebel advance has highlighted the instability of a country that has remained poor since independence from Paris in 1960 despite rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. Average income is barely over $2 a day.

Bozize on Thursday appealed for French and U.S. military support to stop the SELEKA rebel coalition, which has promised to overthrow him unless he implements a previous peace deal in full.

He told a crowd of anti-rebel protesters in the riverside capital that he had asked Paris and Washington to help move the rebels away from the capital to clear the way for peace talks which regional leaders say could be held soon in Libreville, Gabon.

"We are asking our cousins the French and the United States, which are major powers, to help us push back the rebels to their initial positions in a way that will permit talks in Libreville to resolve this crisis," Bozize said.

France has 250 soldiers in its landlocked former colony as part of a peacekeeping mission and Paris in the past has ousted or propped up governments - including by using air strikes to defend Bozize against rebels in 2006.

But French President Francois Hollande poured cold water on the latest request for help.

"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," Hollande said on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris.

"Those days are over," he said.

Some 1,200 French nationals live in the CAR, mostly in the capital, according to the French Foreign Ministry, where they typically work for mining firms or aid groups.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

Officials from around central Africa are due to meet in Bangui later on Thursday to open initial talks with the government and rebels.

A rebel spokesman said fighters had temporarily halted their advance to allow dialogue.

"We will not enter Bangui," Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, the rebel spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

Previous rebel promises to stop advancing have been broken, and a diplomatic source said rebels had taken up positions around Bangui on Thursday, effectively surrounding it.

The atmosphere remained tense in Bangui the day after anti-rebel protests broke out, and residents were stocking up on food and water.

Government soldiers deployed at strategic sites and French troops reinforced security at the French embassy after protesters threw rocks at the building on Wednesday.

In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said protecting foreigners and embassies was the responsibility of the CAR authorities.

"This message will once again be stressed to the CAR's charge d'affaires in Paris, who has been summoned this afternoon," a ministry spokesman said.

He also said France condemned the rebels for pursuing hostilities and urged all sides to commit to talks.

Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion that overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse.

However, France is increasingly reluctant to directly intervene in conflicts in its former colonies. Since coming to power in May, Hollande has promised to end its shadowy relations with former colonies and put ties on a healthier footing.

A military source and an aid worker said the rebels had got as far as Damara, 75 km (47 miles) from Bangui, by late afternoon on Wednesday, having skirted Sibut, where some 150 Chadian soldiers had earlier been deployed to try and block a push south by a rebel coalition.

With a government that holds little sway outside the capital, some parts of the country have long endured the consequences of conflicts in troubled neighbors Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo spilling over.

The Central African Republic is one of a number of nations in the region where U.S. Special Forces are helping local forces try to track down the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel group responsible for killing thousands of civilians across four African nations.

(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Andrew Osborn)


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Only son of Pakistan's murdered Bhutto launches political career

LARKANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The only son of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto told hundreds of thousands of supporters on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of his mother's death, that he would carry forward her legacy, an appearance designed to anoint him as a political heir.

"I am the heir to the martyr," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 24, told the crowd in the southern province of Sindh, referring to his mother and to his grandfather, the founder of the current ruling party who was hanged by a former military ruler.

"If you kill one Bhutto, there will be a Bhutto in every house."

Bhutto was joined by hundreds of high-ranking officials, including the current president, his father Asif Zardari, to commemorate his mother's killing in a gun and suicide attack during a 2007 political campaign rally.

Making his first address to a mass rally televised live, he said: "Bhutto is not a name, it is an obsession, a passion, a love. You can chain our feet to the ground but we will still keep moving."

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf told followers waving the Pakistan People's Party's green, black and red flag that the Oxford-educated Bhutto "will prove to be an important turning point for democracy and politics".

Bhutto was named party chairman after his mother's death, but his father was named co-chair due to his youth.

He is still not old enough to contest the elections scheduled for spring - the minimum age is 25. Bhutto, who has his mother's good looks, will only turn 25 in September.

Zardari, locking arms with his son and waving to the crowd, said: "Bilawal has completed his studies, but the time has now come to complete his political training, to stay in Pakistan among its people and learn from them."

Benazir Bhutto's killer has never been caught and a U.N. inquiry found that Pakistani authorities had failed to protect her or properly investigate her death. The U.N. also said that high-ranking Pakistani officials had tried to block its investigation.

In a 30-minute address delivered alongside his mother's onion-domed tomb, Bhutto denounced the courts for what he said was the slow pace of the trial of her alleged killers. He also touched on women's rights, insurgent violence, and the economy.

POWERFUL SYMBOL

Benazir Bhutto has become a powerful symbol for the ruling party, which often refers to her as a martyr. The capital's airport and a scheme to give cash to poor families have been named after her. Officials hang her portraits on walls.

The Bhuttos championed the rights of the poor in a country where feudal landlords owned vast tracts of land and agricultural workers often live in deep poverty. Many rally participants waved portraits of Benazir Bhutto wearing her trademark white headscarf.

Her husband, elected following her death, is less popular. Zardari was jailed on corruption charges from 1996 to 2004 that he says were politically motivated.

The president is locked in a power struggle with the Supreme Court, which has been battling to reopen corruption cases against him. Zardari's aides say he has immunity.

Many Pakistanis are angry that Zardari's government has failed to tackle pervasive corruption or end the daily power cuts that have brought its industrial sector to its knees.

The elections should mark the first time in Pakistan's history that one elected civilian government hands power to another.

The nuclear-armed country of 180 million people has a history of military coups. After one such coup, the new military ruler hanged Benazir Bhutto's father in prison in 1979.

Benazir Bhutto served civilian governments as prime minister twice but was dismissed on corruption charges both times.

(Writing By Katharine Houreld; Editing by Ron Popeski)


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Syria envoy calls for political change to end conflict

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The international envoy seeking a solution to Syria's 21-month-old conflict said on Thursday political change was needed to end the violence which has killed 44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule until elections.

Speaking in Damascus at the end of a five-day trip during which he met President Bashar al-Assad, Lakhdar Brahimi did not spell out detailed proposals but said that only substantial change would meet the demands of ordinary Syrians.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added to the envoy's call for a peaceful solution when he told a senior Syrian diplomat that only a "broad inter-Syria dialogue and political process" could end the crisis.

Brahimi's push for a transitional government suggested he was trying to build on an international agreement in Geneva six months ago which said a provisional body - which might include members of Assad's government as well as the opposition - should lead the country into a new election.

But the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels have seized the military initiative since the Geneva meeting in June and the political opposition has ruled out any transitional government in which Assad, from Syria's Alawite minority, plays a role.

Rebel fighters resumed attacks on Thursday against the military base of Wadi Deif, which lies next to Syria's main north-south highway linking Aleppo with Damascus. Around the capital itself, Assad's forces have tried for weeks to dislodge rebels from suburbs which ring the east and south of the city.

"Certainly it was clear in Geneva, and it's even clearer now that the change which is needed is not cosmetic or superficial," Brahimi told a news conference in Damascus before leaving Syria.

"I believe the Syrian people need, want and aspire to genuine change and everyone knows what this means," he said.

"A government must be created ... with all the powers of the state," Brahimi added. He said it should hold power for a transitional period until elections - either for a new president or a new parliament - are held.

"This transitional process must not lead to the ... collapse of state institutions. All Syrians, and those who support them, must cooperate to preserve those institutions and strengthen them," he said.

Radwan Ziadeh of the opposition Syrian National Council dismissed Brahimi's proposal as "unrealistic and fanciful" and said a transitional government could not be built on the same "security and intelligence structure as the existing regime".

TOO SOON FOR COMPLETE PLAN

Russia's Lavrov met Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad in Moscow on Thursday and underscored "the lack of an alternative to a peaceful resolution of (Syria's) internal conflict through a broad inter-Syria dialogue and political process," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. But it made no mention of ways to achieve those goals.

Syrian and Lebanese sources said Makdad had been sent to Moscow to discuss details of a peace plan proposed by Brahimi.

Brahimi is due in Moscow on Saturday and said he also expected to have a third joint meeting with U.S. and Russian officials soon following two rounds of talks earlier this month. But he denied the existence of a U.S.-Russian plan to end the crisis and said it was too soon to present a "complete plan".

"What is preferred is that we don't present such a plan until we feel that all sides have agreed to it. That way, implementing it is easy. If that doesn't happen, the other solution could be to go to the (United Nations) Security Council to issue a binding resolution for everyone," he said.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman also denied any joint initiative between Moscow and Washington.

World powers remain divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle, with Sunni Muslim states such as Turkey and the Gulf Arab countries supporting the rebels while Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah have backed Assad, whose Alawite community has its roots in Shi'ite Islam.

Syria's struggle "has taken a vicious form of sectarian confrontation," Brahimi said. "Syrian officials foremost, as well as the international community, must not let Syria slide down this very dangerous path which threatens the future of Syria."

Deep differences between Western powers opposed to Assad - led by the United States - and Russia and China which have supported his government, have left the U.N. Security Council paralyzed and largely sidelined throughout the conflict.

The political stalemate has helped transform a once-peaceful uprising into a civil war in which rebels have grown in military strength and taken control of swathes of territory in the north, leaving Assad increasingly reliant on air power to curb them.

Activists in the central province of Hama, where rebels launched an offensive last week to extend their control southwards towards the capital, reported on Thursday that rebels shot down a MiG jet near the town of Morek.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence across Syria, said air force jets launched three raids on rebel forces around Wadi Deif. The British-based group also reported fierce clashes in the area.

The violence has been accompanied by an escalation in apparently sectarian attacks between the Sunni Muslim majority and minorities such as Assad's Alawite sect, which has largely supported the president.

Activists in Hama uploaded a video of what appeared to be Assad soldiers and shabbiha militia members stabbing the body of a dead man and setting it on fire. The man looked as if he had been beaten to death.

"This is a terrorist, a brother of a whore, one of those trying to destroy the country," one of the men shouted. Two men in camouflage uniforms and army helmets stood by watching. Samer al-Hamawi, an activist from Hama, said rebels in his area found the video on the phone of a soldier they captured this week.

The video emerged a day after Islamist rebel units released footage showing the bodies of dozens of Assad's fighters along a highway near an Alawite town in Hama.

(Additional reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Damascus and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Pravin Char)


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Life returns to shell-shocked Syrian town

ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) - After months of air raids and artillery shelling, some inhabitants of northern Syria are returning to their stricken homes to clear the rubble and rebuild, despite fear that President Bashar al-Assad's forces will strike again.

One town visited by a Reuters correspondent near the Turkish border was largely abandoned two months ago after relentless bombardment reduced buildings to piles of masonry. A local activist said around 200 people were killed there.

Residents trickling back after the violence abated remain deeply fearful. Local leaders asked that the town's name not be identified out of concern it would be targeted if the government discovered it was starting to function again.

Market stalls have reopened but chronic energy shortages make it hard to heat cold homes. The town's leadership must find a way to effectively police the area and re-establish basic services.

Restoring some normality in this and other bombarded towns would comfort Assad's opponents, who insist his use of force to quell an uprising that began with peaceful demands for political reform will fail.

The government in Damascus says it is fighting a Sunni Islamist "terrorist" campaign to topple Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect affiliated with Shi'ite Islam.

The 21-month-old conflict has killed 44,000 people.

Schools in the northern town have begun to function once again. Teachers have struck 'Nationalism' from the curriculum, a subject that taught respect for Assad and lauded his Baath Party's achievements.

At a secondary school, dozens of students are crammed in classrooms, some of them reading English and maths textbooks.

The school operates for three hours a day with a fraction of its usual staff. Before the conflict intensified in the town, it had 800 students. Now only 200 show up to study in the freezing classrooms.

Though aware that a college education is probably out of the question for now, many pupils convey a quiet discipline.

"I am learning so that I can help the revolutionary movement," said 16-year-old student Mohamed.

Asked why he returned to teach in difficult conditions, one 50-year-old Arabic teacher said: "The citizen has to adapt to the new reality. Death is a matter of fate".

SECURITY VACUUM

As well as running the schools, a town council struggles to provide diesel for heating and transport and flour for the bakeries and is fixing faults in the electricity network - often the target of attacks.

Its efforts are complicated by a dire shortage of cash. None of the town's employees receive salaries for now and they often fund projects using their own money.

"Since the area was liberated from army and security forces, there has been a vacuum that requires leadership," Walid al-Arid, a member of the 20-member civil council set up around six weeks ago, told Reuters.

The council's headquarters is in a cultural centre that used to show plays that praised Assad and the Baath Party.

The town even has a local court overseen by lawyers who oversee the preparation of paperwork from rental agreements to real estate contracts.

"If it weren't for the Free Syria Army, the regime would never have allowed us to have our own court," said one of the lawyers, Assi Hallaq, sitting at a desk with Syria's green, white and black revolutionary flag perched behind him.

"The judiciary was not independent and was politicized in its actions. So the judge used to feel like a lowly employee for the regime and had no freedom," he said.

At the local prison, a tall, stone building with black metal arches dating back to the French occupation, a lone prisoner lay on an iron bed covered in blankets in one of its five-by-15-metre cells.

One of the men guarding the prison was Hisham, a 29-year-old dressed in a black tracksuit, who said he helped run a 50-strong team providing security in the town.

Traffic police work at crowded intersections, night patrols are in operation and some team members guard municipal buildings, said Hisham, who did not give his family name.

Prisoners are held for 24 hours until they are charged or released, he said, a contrast to the indefinite incarcerations that many Syrians have complained of during the Assad family's four-decade rule.

Rebels say Assad's forces and their sympathizers resort increasingly to torture and summary executions.

Opposition-held areas have also seen cases of vigilante justice.

Despite the partial return to normality, the daily thud of tank shells is a reminder that the conflict is never far away.

"Life is more awful than you can imagine," said Hussein Abdullah, a vegetable-seller at one open-air market. "People are taking on debts to buy food. God rid us of him (Assad)."

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)


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Russia's Putin signals he will sign U.S. adoption ban

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signaled on Thursday he would sign a bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children into law and sought to forestall criticism of the move by promising measures to better care for his country's orphans.

In televised comments, Putin tried to appeal to people's patriotism by suggesting that strong and responsible countries should take care of their own and lent his support to a bill that has further strained U.S.-Russia relations.

"There are probably many places in the world where living standards are higher than ours. So what, are we going to send all our children there? Maybe we should move there ourselves?" he said, with sarcasm.

Parliament gave its final approval on Wednesday to the bill, which would also introduce other measures in retaliation for new U.S. legislation which is designed to punish Russians accused of human rights violations.

For it to become law Putin needs to sign it.

"So far I see no reason not to sign it, although I have to review the final text and weigh everything," Putin said at a meeting of senior federal and regional officials that was shown live on the state's 24-hour news channel.

"I intend to sign not only the law ... but also a presidential decree that will modify the support mechanisms for orphaned children ... especially those who are in a difficult situation, by that I mean in poor health," Putin said.

Critics of the bill say the Russian authorities are playing political games with the lives of children.

Children in Russia's crowded and troubled orphanage system - particularly those with serious illnesses or disabilities - will have less of a chance of finding homes, and of even surviving, if it becomes law, child rights advocates say.

They point to people like Jessica Long, who was given up shortly after birth by her parents in Siberia but was raised by adoptive parents in the United States and became a Paralympic swimming champion.

However, the Russian authorities point to the deaths of 19 Russian-born children adopted by American parents in the past decade, and lawmakers named the bill after a boy who died of heat stroke in Virginia after his adoptive father left him locked in a car for hours.

Putin reiterated Russian complaints that U.S. courts have been too lenient on parents in such cases, saying Russia has inadequate access to Russian-born children in the United States despite a bilateral agreement that entered into force on November 1.

NATIONAL IDENTITY

But Putin, who began a new six-year term in May and has searched for ways to unite the country during 13 years in power, suggested there were deeper motives for such a ban.

"For centuries, neither spiritual nor state leaders sent anyone abroad," he said, indicating he was not speaking specifically about Russia but about many societies.

"They always fight for their national identities - they gather themselves together in a fist, they fight for their language, culture," he said.

The bid to ban American adoptions plays on sensitivity in Russia about adoptions by foreigners, which skyrocketed as the social safety net unraveled with the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Families from the United States adopt more Russian children than those of any other country.

Putin had earlier described the Russian bill as an emotional but appropriate response to the Magnitsky Act, legislation signed by President Barack Obama this month as part of a law granting Russia "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) status.

The U.S. law imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russians accused of human rights violations, including those linked to the death in a Moscow jail of Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-graft lawyer, in 2009.

The Russian bill would impose similar measures against Americans accused of violating the rights of Russian abroad and outlaw some U.S.-funded non-governmental groups.

(Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Steve Gutterman; Editing by Andrew Osborn)


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Taliban seize 22 Pakistani paramilitary fighters

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban have seized at least 22 men from a regional paramilitary force in attacks on three checkpoints in northern Pakistan, a regional official said on Thursday.

Taliban and other Pakistani sources put the number higher.

The raids close to the provincial capital of Peshawar follows two high-profile attacks in the city this month, underlining the Taliban's willingness to take on the Pakistani state amid speculation of divisions among senior Talibani leadership.

At least 22 men were missing, two had been killed and one was injured after militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles launched the overnight attacks, said Naveed Akbar, a regional official whose remit covers the Levies, or tribal force, units.

Other Pakistani officials said at least 30 men had been taken, a figure echoed by Taliban spokesmen.

Eight of the paramilitary soldiers have been killed, Taliban spokesman Mohammed Afridi said in Khyber agency, or region. He said the group had captured 30 soldiers. Another spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, said 33 were taken.

Military sources said no soldiers or police were missing. The Levies is a force raised from the tribes and supported by the Pakistani government.

The kidnappings follow a daring suicide attack on Peshawar airport and a bombing that killed a senior politician and eight others at a political rally in the city earlier this month.

It was not immediately clear whether the uptick in attacks was connected to speculation that the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, is losing control to his deputy.

On Thursday, two Taliban spokesmen laid out conditions for a ceasefire with the Pakistani government that included the adoption of Islamic law, renouncing the alliance with the United States and halting any involvement in Afghanistan.

But there was no statement from Mehsud himself. Interior Minister Rehman Malik said there was no point discussing any potential ceasefire without Mehsud's endorsement.

Pakistani officials have said they want to support the Afghan peace process, statements interpreted to mean they might help persuade militant groups to negotiate with the Kabul-based government.

There are many divisions within the Pakistani Taliban. One main point of contention is whether to focus on attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan or the military in Pakistan. One militant leader who favored not attacking Pakistani forces was injured in a bombing last month.

Some Pakistani Taliban are hiding over the border in southern Afghanistan, prompting the Pakistanis to complain that U.S. and Afghan forces are not doing enough to root them out.

Those Taliban, led by Maulana Fazlullah, beheaded 17 Pakistani soldiers kidnapped in an attack earlier this year and ordered the attempted assassination of Malala Yousufzai, a teenage advocate for girl's education.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Michael Roddy)


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Cabinet resignations deal setback for Egypt's Mursi

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Islamist minister quit Egypt's government on Thursday, the second cabinet resignation this week as President Mohamed Mursi tries to shore up his authority and gather support for unpopular austerity measures.

An economic crisis and a battle over a new constitution have underlined bitter divisions between Mursi and his opponents and delayed a return to stability almost two years since a popular uprising.

Rivals accuse Mursi, who won Egypt's first freely contested leadership election in June, of polarizing society by foisting a divisive, Islamist-leaning constitution on the country and using the autocratic ways of his deposed predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

Deadly violence preceded a referendum on the basic law, dealing a blow to a struggling economy. Mursi's political rivals refused to accept the result - the text won about 64 percent in the vote - and they reject his call for national unity talks.

In a move that may preempt a planned reshuffle by Mursi, parliamentary affairs minister Mohamed Mahsoub announced he was quitting because he disagreed with the slow pace of reform.

"I have reached a clear conclusion that a lot of the policies and efforts contradict with my personal beliefs and I don't see them as representative of our people's aspirations," he said in his resignation letter.

Communications Minister Hany Mahmoud quit earlier this week, citing his inability to adapt to the government's "working culture".

Earlier on Thursday, a Christian member of Egypt's upper house of parliament, Nadia Henry, quit a day after the Islamist-dominated chamber took over legislative authority under the new constitution.

The constitution crafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly is meant to be the cornerstone of a democratic and economically stable Egypt after decades of authoritarian rule. The opposition says it does nothing to protect minorities.

Mursi says the constitution and an upcoming vote to re-elect the lower house of parliament will help end squabbling among feuding politicians.

He and his Muslim Brotherhood allies say ordinary people are fed up with street protests that often turn violent and want the government to focus on urgent bread-and-butter issues.

The strife has cast doubt on the government's ability to push through the spending cuts and tax hikes needed to secure a vital $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

The Egyptian pound tumbled to its weakest in almost eight years against the dollar this week as people rushed to withdraw savings from banks.

CRISIS MODE

The resignations this week come ahead of a promised cabinet reshuffle. Cabinet sources have told Reuters as many as eight cabinet members from second-tier ministries might go next week.

Mursi is also promising incentives aimed at making Egypt - once a darling of emerging market investors - an attractive place to do business again.

The 270-seat upper house, or Shura Council, holds legislative authority until a new parliament is elected in early 2013. Opposition figures say they fear the Council could issue laws curbing freedoms.

Henry represents Anglican Christians in Egypt. Her resignation underscores fears by Egypt's Christians, who make up about a tenth of its 83 million population, about the gains by Islamists since Mubarak was ousted in 2011.

In a resignation letter published by state media, she said liberal and other minority groups were not represented properly in the chamber.

Under pressure to acknowledge Egypt's diversity, Mursi appointed 90 members including Christians, liberals and women to the Council - alongside figures from the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Salafis - last week. Two-thirds of the upper house were already elected in a vote this year.

"We stress again that the nation should achieve internal reconciliation and forget its differences," the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badei, told Egyptians in his weekly message.

"Let's work seriously to end the reciprocal wars of attrition. We urgently need to unify ranks and group together and focus our capabilities and assets for the general benefit."

(Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)


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Story on Iranian lawyer withdrawn

To a black ESPN sports analyst, this is the critical question: Is Robert Griffin III, aka RG III, the black rookie sensation Washington Redskins quarterback, "a brother, or is he a cornball brother?" What has RG III done or said to raise a suspicion about his bona fides as a black person? More importantly, what does this have to do with appreciating — or choosing not to appreciate — Griffin as an athlete?


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French colonization of Algeria "brutal": Hollande

Written By Bersemangat on Jumat, 21 Desember 2012 | 00.25

ALGIERS/PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande acknowledged on Thursday that France's colonization of Algeria had been "brutal and unfair" but stopped short of making an apology to the oil-rich North African state which Paris sees as a major trading partner.

With France's own economy spluttering, Hollande had hoped his visit would not only strengthen trade ties but improve security cooperation, as Paris pushes for intervention against Islamists who have seized control of northern Mali.

Algeria, which has 12 billion barrels of oil reserves, is geographically the world's largest Francophone nation, yet annual trade with its one-time colonial master is just 10 billion euros.

Hollande's comments on the 1954-1962 Algerian war, which ended in Algerian independence and France's withdrawal, are likely to be carefully analyzed for signs they could help remove lingering resentment about the conflict in both countries, a legacy that has held back a trading partnership which Paris hopes could revive the Mediterranean basin's economic fortunes.

"For 132 years, Algeria was subjected to a brutal and unfair system: colonization. I acknowledge the suffering it caused," Hollande told the Algerian parliament on the second day of his visit.

Seeking to strike a more conciliatory stance than his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy whom Algerians viewed as overly hostile towards their country because of what they regarded as his tough immigration policies, Hollande tried to take a nuanced approach.

"We respect the act of memory, of all the memories. There is a duty of truth on the violence, the injustices, the massacres and the torture," he said.

But the 58-year-old Hollande had limited room for maneuver.

A formal apology for France's colonial past is a sensitive issue. Many French citizens who lived there before independence and who fought in the French army against Algerian insurgents oppose the idea, as do former loyalist Muslim volunteers known as "harkis".

"I am not forgetting the French of Algeria," he said, calling on archives from both countries to be made available to reveal the truth of the era. He made no mention of the harkis.

In his previous role as Socialist party leader he had said in 2006 that France should apologize to the Algerian people, but on Thursday he appeared to go as far as he felt he could.

Algerian political analyst Farid Ferrahi said that Hollande's visit had been preceded by a lot of hype but had failed to deliver as much as it had promised.

"Normalizing relations with France won't get done with a single visit," Ferrahi said.

NEW ERA

The speech came a day after Hollande was greeted by thousands of cheering Algerians on arrival in the Algerian capital. He called for an equal partnership between the two states but said he had not come "to repent or apologize".

Sarkozy had sought to review preferential visa arrangements from which thousands of Algerians benefit each year, a policy critics said served only to deepen resentment of France in immigrant-heavy suburbs.

One of Hollande's pledges was to break with Sarkozy's immigration and security policies, which were badly received by France's 5 million Muslims, many of whom are of Algerian origin.

Hollande said he wanted to make it easier for Algerians and French to travel between the two countries.

"Asking for a visa should not be full of obstacles nor a humiliation," he said.

Around 700,000 Algerians live in France and French authorities issue some 200,000 visas to Algerians each year.

Larbi Zouak, a columnist at Algerian daily El Khabar said "Hollande's speech shows that France is pursuing its economic interests. Nothing else."

Hollande, who brought with him senior executives from some of France's top firms, said Renault had agreed to build a factory to produce some 75,000 cars a year, although no other major contracts were signed during the visit.

As Algiers has diversified its economy, China, Spain and Italy have eroded France's market share.

"France and Algeria must enter a new era in which we increase our exchanges and investments," said Hollande. "We have to meet the challenge of unemployment, especially among the young."

(Additional reporting by Lamine Chikhi in Algiers; Editing by Mark John, Brian Love and Andrew Osborn)


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In China's shadow, ASEAN leaders look to India for maritime security

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations and India vowed on Thursday to step up cooperation on maritime security, a move that comes amid tension with China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea.

In a vision statement agreed at a summit in New Delhi, India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) set their sights on a new "strategic partnership" that would bring closer political, security and economic cooperation.

Significantly, they underlined the need for freedom of navigation, a contentious issue because of competing claims with Beijing over parts of the South China Sea, though there was no mention of China in their statement.

In speeches, the Philippines and Vietnam referred to tensions in their region, but India's foreign minister sought to distance New Delhi from the wrangling over the South China Sea.

"There are fundamental issues there that do not require India's intervention," External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid told a news conference, adding that issues of sovereignty "need to be resolved between the countries concerned".

An ASEAN summit ended in acrimony last month over China's assertiveness in the South China Sea, with its leaders failing to agree on a concluding joint statement.

The South China Sea has become Asia's biggest potential military flashpoint as Beijing's sovereignty claim over a huge, looping area has set it against Vietnam and the Philippines as the three countries race to tap possibly huge oil reserves. Malaysia and Brunei, also members of ASEAN, as well as Taiwan also claim parts of the sea.

Other members of ASEAN include Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Laos.

Last month, China announced a plan to board and search ships that illegally enter what it considers its territory in the South China Sea, prompting ASEAN's secretary-general to warn that the move could spark naval clashes.

"At this time of rising concerns about maritime issues, the need to maintain a high level of maritime security and freedom of navigation offers us ... an opportunity for enhanced cooperation," Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay said.

INDIAN OCEAN ROUTES

Although India has no territorial claim in the region, it is hungry for energy and is exploring for oil and gas with Vietnam in an area contested by China. In future, it is expected to ship liquefied natural gas from Russia through the Malacca Straits.

This month, India's navy chief said he was ready to deploy vessels to the South China Sea to protect exploration interests there if needed. Last year, an Indian navy ship was challenged for entering 'Chinese waters' off the coast of Vietnam.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the summit that closer maritime cooperation with India was needed because 70 percent of the world's traffic in petroleum products passes through the Indian Ocean from the Middle East to East Asia.

"While the center of the global economy is shifting eastward, the Indian and Pacific Oceans have been and will become even more important in providing the vital sea routes for trade and commerce," Yudhoyono said.

The New Delhi summit underscored India's growing role in one of the world's fastest-growing regions.

Twenty years after India launched a 'Look East' diplomatic push to promote trade with a neglected neighboring region, the relationship is finally beginning to gain traction. Annual trade has nearly doubled in four years and India's growing economic clout make it appealing as a balance to other Asian powers.

However, China's trade relations and links with ASEAN are far deeper than India's.

Ian Storey, senior fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said many ASEAN nations want to see all major powers playing a role in their region so it is not dominated by one or two players, in particular China.

"So that presence by India in Southeast Asia would provide them additional hedging options," he said.

(Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)


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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels thrust into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday, activists said, pursuing a string of territorial gains to help cut army supply lines and cement a foothold in the capital Damascus to the south.

They have made a series of advances across the country, seizing several military installations and more heavy weaponry, hardening the threat to President Bashar al-Assad's power base in Damascus 21 months into an uprising against his rule.

Rebels said a day earlier they had captured at least six towns in Hama province. On Thursday heavy fighting erupted in Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground.

The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels were trying to take checkpoints in Morek, one of which they had already seized, and described the town as a critical position for the Syrian army.

"The town of Morek lies on the Damascus-Aleppo road ... it has eight checkpoints and two security and military headquarters. If the rebels were able to control the town they would completely sever the supply lines between Hama and Damascus to Idlib province," the group said in an email.

Idlib is in the rebel-dominated north bordering on Turkey.

The British-based Observatory has a network of activists across the country. Activist reports are difficult to verify, as the government restricts media access into Syria.

Fighting in Hama could aggravate Syria's sectarian strife as it is home to many rural minority communities of Alawites and Christians. Minorities, and particularly the Alawite sect to which Assad himself belongs, have largely backed the president. Syria's Sunni Muslim majority has been the engine of the revolt.

"Rebels are trying to take Mohardeh and al-Suqaylabiya, which are strongholds of the regime and are strategic. The residents are Christian and the neighboring towns are Alawite. The rebels worry security forces may be arming people there," said activist Safi al-Hamawi, speaking on Skype.

He said the opposition feared skirmishes that had previously been largely Sunni-Alawite could spread into a broader sectarian conflict.

"I think it is still unlikely, because the residents have tried to maintain neutrality, but if the battle became a sectarian clash, it could be a catastrophe. Christians and Muslims could suddenly find themselves enemies."

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

The deepened sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

FIGHTS FOR DAMASCUS CAMP

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with bouts of heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

But rebels said on Thursday they were negotiating to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

Despite warnings of continued violence, a video released by activists on Thursday showed dozens of people returning to Yarmouk. Most of the people in the footage were men, suggesting entire families may not be venturing back yet.

"There are still negotiations going on between the Palestinians and the rebels. The rebels want control of the checkpoints to be sure they can keep supply routes open to central Damascus," said a rebel who asked not to be named.

"Palestinians want their fighters to run the checkpoints so the army will stop attacking and people can go home. But we are worried there are government collaborators among them."

The fighter said rebels were looking to ensure their Palestinian allies could keep open access for rebels in Yarmouk, which they have described as a gateway to central Damascus.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

"This is the end of you, Bashar you dog," one of the fighters said. The remains of two army trucks, which the rebels said had been blown up, stood nearby on a single track dirt road crossing a flat brown plain between snow-capped mountains.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors not only from the army but from the government as well, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

But the conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces arrested on Thursday an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government to solve a crisis that has killed more than 40,000 Syrians.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)


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India's Modi wins state poll, may boost prime ministerial ambitions

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Narendra Modi won a fourth successive term as the chief minister of India's Gujarat state on Thursday, a victory that could launch the prime ministerial ambitions of one of the country's most popular but controversial leaders.

Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 115 of the state legislative assembly's 182 seats against 61 for the Congress party, which heads India's national government.

The result is likely to have repercussions far beyond the borders of the prosperous western state of 60 million people.

The BJP won 117 seats in 2007 and analysts say Modi needed another convincing victory to present himself as the party's presumptive candidate for prime minister in national elections due by 2014.

Modi's win could fire up the ailing main opposition BJP, giving it a leader who inspires euphoric support for the high growth, uninterrupted power supply and safe streets he is credited with providing in Gujarat.

But the 62-year-old Modi, portrayed by his critics as a closet Hindu zealot, could prove too divisive a figure to become a nationally acceptable leader who would also need to win over enough allies to form a coalition government.

That could play into the hands of the Congress party as it prepares to launch Rahul Gandhi, heir to India's most powerful political dynasty, as the man to take over the reins from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Markets will now ponder upon whether the PM candidate from the BJP will be Narendra Modi, and whether we are looking at a showdown between Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi in 2014," said Deven Choksey, managing director of K R Choksey Securities.

To his detractors, Modi's reign is overshadowed by Hindu-Muslim riots that tore through his state 10 years ago, killing 1,000-2,000 people. Critics accuse him of not doing enough to stop the violence, or even quietly encouraging it, allegations he has strenuously denied and have never been proven.

But that has not stopped him winning successive elections, touting his credentials as an effective economic manager in contrast to the policy drift in New Delhi that has helped drag India's economic growth to its worst pace in a decade.

Modi's supporters shouted "PM, PM" at his victory speech. He addressed the crowd in Hindi rather than Gujarati, which was seen by commentators as an attempt to address a national audience in preparation for a possible run for higher office.

"I apologies for the mistakes I've made," Modi told the crowd. "You have given me power. Give me your blessings so that I make no mistakes in the future."

Modi first came to power in Gujarat in 2001, and subsequently won elections in 2002 and again in 2007.

PLAYED DOWN

He has always publicly played down a possible bid to become prime minister, saying Gujarat was his priority.

His supporters' admiration is shared by Indian and foreign business leaders who extol Gujarat's ability to cut through red tape and find cheap land for factories, drawing investment from firms including Ford Motor Co and Tata Motors.

The question will now turn to whether Modi will secure the backing of the BJP, which has been plagued by internal squabbling and has lacked a leader to galvanize the party's Hindu, middle class "vote bank".

"Modi means development," said Shrikant Sharma, a BJP spokesman. "A lot of Indians expect him to be made the prime ministerial candidate, but that's a call the party will take."

Modi's appeal outside Gujarat is largely untested. Gujarat has been a BJP stronghold since the 1990s and benefited from a weak state-level opposition. But his campaigns on behalf of the party outside his home state have had mixed results.

"Modi has had a history of championing Gujarat, but this reputation for provincialism is obviously a liability if you're aiming to lead a huge, diverse country of 28 states," said Anjalika Bardalai, an analyst at the Eurasia Group.

"His reputation as a Hindu hardliner ... is of course a major potential liability in a country with a non-Hindu population of about 20 percent."

Critics, even within his own party, see Modi as arrogant and divisive. He is also likely to struggle to revive the BJP's fortunes in northern states with large Muslim populations, and could struggle to win regional allies - who rely on religious minorities - to form a national coalition.

That could help the Congress party, although it has seen its popularity slide while in power due to voter anger over slowing growth, high inflation and a string of corruption scandals.

It might be tempted to call an early election next year if the BJP looks weak enough, but analysts said this was unlikely.

"They still have to prepare themselves in other parts of India, which they haven't done yet," said Badri Narayan, professor of politics at G.B. Pant Social Institute in Allahabad. "They need the next one year to boost their policies and pass reforms. It'll take time."

Meanwhile, the Congress party won a consolation prize on Thursday, taking back the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh from the BJP in the second of two provincial elections.

(Additional reporting by Annie Banerji, Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Arup Roychoudhury and Rajesh Kumar Singh in NEW DELHI; Abhishek Vishnoi, Swati Bhat and Manoj Dharra in MUMBAI; Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)


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Egyptian prosecutor suddenly retracts resignation

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's chief public prosecutor, forced to quit this week after opposition protests, retracted his resignation on Thursday, setting the stage for more turmoil as the nation votes in a referendum on its political future.

Prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi when he assumed sweeping new powers last month, said he had changed his mind because his resignation on Monday had been offered under duress.

Ibrahim had quit after more than 1,000 members of his staff gathered at his office in Cairo to demand that he step down. Mursi's decision to appoint Ibrahim, instead of leaving the appointment to judicial authorities, threatened the independence of the judiciary, the angered prosecutors said.

Ibrahim described his removal from office as "mysterious and abnormal" and said it was now up to the justice minister to decide on his future, according to the state-run al-Ahram news website.

Several prosecutors immediately announced they were suspending work and would stage an open-ended protest outside Ibrahim's office.

Ibrahim's about-face came 48 hours before Egyptians vote in a referendum on a divisive new constitution championed by Mursi as a vital step in Egypt's transition to democracy almost two years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

The opposition, facing defeat over the constitution, urged voters to reject the Islamist-backed charter and pledged to fight on to amend it during elections expected next year.

OPPOSITION URGES 'NO' VOTE

The opposition, a coalition of liberals, leftists, Christians and secular Muslims, called for a "no" vote against a document it views as leaning too far towards Islamism.

The first day of voting on December 15 resulted in a 57 percent majority in favor of the constitution. The second stage on Saturday is expected to produce another "yes" vote as it covers regions seen as more conservative and likely to back Mursi.

The National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, said a "no" vote meant taking a stand against attempts by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi's political base, to dominate Egypt.

"For the sake of the future, the masses of our people should strongly and firmly say 'no' to injustice and 'no' to the Brotherhood's dominance," the Front said in a statement.

A senior Front member, Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, head of the Popular Socialist Coalition Party, said that if the constitution was approved, the opposition would go on fighting to change it.

"That's why we will participate in the legislative election because it is the only way to amend the constitution," he said.

The constitution must be in place before elections can be held. If it passes, the poll should be held within two months.

In an attempt to mobilize voters, the opposition said it planned to hold public meetings, distribute flyers and send cars equipped with loudspeakers through the streets.

A street protest against the constitution in Cairo this week attracted only a few hundred people, well down on the numbers drawn to previous such events.

ISLAMIST PROTEST

Islamist groups are planning a mass protest in Alexandria on Friday, a move likely to raise tensions a day before the vote.

The Muslim Brotherhood called for the rally after a violent confrontation between Islamists and the opposition in Egypt's second city last week that ended with a Muslim preacher besieged inside his mosque for 14 hours.

The run-up to the referendum has been marked by often violent protests in which at least eight people have died.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is needed to advance Egypt's transition from decades of military-backed autocratic rule. Opponents say it is too Islamist and ignores the rights of women and of minorities, including 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian.

Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extraordinary powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through a drafting assembly dominated by his Islamist allies and boycotted by many liberals.

The referendum is being held over two days because many of the judges needed to oversee polling stayed away in protest.

Judicial authorities on Thursday named the judges who will supervise polling stations on Saturday. The opposition cited a lack of judges at some polling stations in a list of alleged irregularities in the first round.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those voting.

(Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Alistair Lyon)


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Putin backs tit-for-tat response to U.S. rights law

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin backed a ban on Americans adopting Russian children on Thursday in a feud over a U.S. law that aims to punish Russians accused of violating human rights.

In his first annual news conference since he began a new six-year term in May, the former KGB spy often struck a hawkish tone, signaling support for tough retaliation against the "unfriendly" Magnitsky Act passed by Moscow's former Cold War enemy, which he said was poisoning relations.

He also held up a court ruling that will free former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky - a fierce critic of Putin's rule - from jail two years early in 2014 as evidence that he does not control the courts.

The 4-1/2-hour performance, broadcast live, was intended to end speculation about the 60-year-old's health and portray him as the guarantor of stability in a country that was under Soviet communist rule two decades ago.

"This is by no means the least successful period in Russia's history," he said, adding: "Because I love Russia."

"Without irony, I look forward to any future president being more successful."

Sitting in an immaculate suit and tie behind a large desk in front of 1,200 journalists in a Moscow conference center, Putin calmly took questions, some of them hostile, on issues from pensions to the crisis in Syria.

Occasionally sipping tea as journalists frantically waved their arms in the hope of asking a question, he became most animated when asked about the legislation signed by President Barack Obama last week.

MAGNITSKY ACT

The Magnitsky Act, drawn up over concern about the death in a Russian prison of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009, will deny visas to Russians accused of human rights abuses and freeze their assets in the United States.

"This, of course, poisons our relationship," he said of the measures.

Russia's lower house of parliament has prepared a tit-for-tat law to prevent Americans adopting Russian children and bar entry to U.S. citizens accused of abusing Russians' rights.

"It is an emotional response by the State Duma, but it is an appropriate response," Putin said of the draft law.

The dispute threatens efforts by Putin and Obama to improve their relationship after presidential campaigns in both countries raised tensions between the countries.

The Kremlin says Obama is likely to visit Russia in the first half of 2013 but Western diplomats say the U.S. president will agree to a summit only if he feels progress can be made.

Asked about the conflict in Syria, another irritant in relations with Western powers that have backed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, Putin said Moscow's main concern was the fate of the country and not that of long-time ally Assad.

He said Moscow wanted to ensure that any solution to the conflict must prevent the opposition and government forces just swapping roles and continuing to fight indefinitely.

"We are not concerned about the fate of Assad's regime. We understand what is going on there," Putin said. "We are worried about a different thing - 'what next?'"

MARATHON PERFORMANCE

During his first spell as president from 2000 until 2008, Putin began a tradition of giving long annual news conferences to show his grasp of policy detail. The last one, in 2008, ran for four hours and 40 minutes - slightly longer than Thursday's.

He appeared intent on Thursday on showing he has a firm grip despite protests against him that at times last winter attracted tens of thousands of people before fading after he won March's presidential election.

Critics, including in the United States and Europe, accuse him of trying to smother dissent by pushing through laws that they say can be used to stifle opponents.

But Putin said: "I cannot call it authoritarian, I cannot agree ... I think that order, discipline and following the rule of law do not contradict democracy."

However, soon after the news conference ended, federal investigators announced that protest leader Alexei Navalny had been charged with money laundering and fraud. The anti-corruption blogger already faces up to 10 years in jail on theft charges he says are politically motivated.

Critics have also said Putin would only allow Khodorkovsky, long a thorn in his side, to be freed if he was certain that he posed no political threat.

While he was addressing the news conference, a court reduced Khodorkovsky's sentence for money laundering and tax evasion from 13 to 11 years, meaning he could be freed in October 2014.

Khodorkovsky, now 49, was arrested in 2003. He had appeared to defy calls by Putin for rich businessmen not to get involved in politics by flirting with the opposition.

"There was no personal persecution," Putin said. But after his imprisonment, Khodorkovsky's Yukos oil company was broken up and sold off, mainly to the state.

Addressing question after question, Putin showed he still has a command over detail. He dismissed speculation over a back problem as rumors spread by his opponents.

Critics were scornful of his performance, particularly his remarks on democracy and the rule of law.

"'Because I love Russia.' But if you respect it too, why do you treat it like cattle?" tweeted broadcaster and commentator Yevgenia Albats.

Another Twitter user, who identified himself as Sergei Neptun, wrote: "Mr President, how much longer do we have to put up with this lawlessness in the country?"

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove, Gabriela Baczynska and Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Will Waterman)


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Amnesty warns of crisis for migrants in Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece is detaining migrants, including children, in inhuman conditions unworthy of a member country of the European Union, human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Greece - the main entry point into the European Union for Asian and African migrants - has long struggled with illegal immigration, a situation worsened by a deep economic crisis that has boosted anti-immigrant sentiment among Greeks.

In a report, Amnesty said the tens of thousands of migrants who cross into the heavily indebted nation each year struggle to lodge asylum claims, face appalling conditions in detention and racist attacks at the hands of far-right groups.

A new agency set up in 2011 to hear asylum applications is yet to process a single case due to staffing shortages, it said.

"Greece's failure to respect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers is taking on the proportions of a humanitarian crisis," John Dalhuisen, the group's Europe and Central Asia director said in a statement.

"The current situation in Greece is totally unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning European Union and so far below international human rights standards as to make a mockery of them."

Greek officials blame the so-called Dublin II treaty - which deems asylum seekers to be the responsibility of the country where they entered Europe - for leaving border states like Greece with an outsized migrant population and say Europe must do more to help the country handle the flow of migrants.

In its critique, Amnesty cited accounts of Syrians fleeing conflict being pushed back to Turkey by Greek authorities, including one alleged incident of a policeman sinking the migrants' inflatable boat by stabbing it with a knife and leaving them to swim back.

Those who make it in to Greece must queue for days in a line that stretches to hundreds of people down the street in Athens for the chance to be one of the 20 allowed to register asylum claims each week, with fights breaking out for a place in line, the group said.

Those who fail to apply for asylum risk arrest in police sweeps and detention in overcrowded, unhygienic facilities for up to a year or more, the group said, citing centers with filthy toilets, no natural light and poor quality drinking water.

"The Greek authorities continue to systematically detain asylum-seekers and irregular migrants including unaccompanied children in breach of international standards and seem to use detention - often in appalling conditions - as a deterrent," said Dalhuisen.

The report cited examples of children separated from their families. It said the youngsters were held in poor conditions among adults and released without access to shelter if no place was found for them at a reception centre.

Migrants were also increasingly at risk from racist attacks, Amnesty said.

"The burden on Greece is great, and given the current economic crisis, increasingly difficult for it to deal with alone," the report said. "However, this cannot excuse the impediments that deny people their rights, the xenophobic rhetoric, or the racist attacks."

(Reporting by Deepa Babington; Editing by Michael Roddy)


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Saleh's son cedes missiles to new Yemen president

SANAA (Reuters) - A powerful general who is the son of Yemen's former president has agreed to give up his missiles after his elite Republican Guard was disbanded by the Arab nation's new leader, sources at the presidency said on Thursday.

Brigadier-General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh's apparent compliance with an armed forces shake-up ordered by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday eases fears of more turmoil in a country in the throes of a tense political transition.

The overhaul is widely seen as part of efforts to curb the still-considerable influence of Saleh's father, ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, loosen his family's grip on the military and implement an internationally-backed plan to restore stability.

"General Ahmed has started to transfer all the missiles under his command to President Hadi," a source at the presidential palace told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"The decree will be executed. I don't think anyone can stand against the international community, which has threatened to impose sanctions against those who oppose Hadi's decrees."

Earlier this month Saleh had refused orders from Hadi to hand over long-range Scud missiles to the Defence Ministry.

Another presidential source confirmed the missile transfer and said the United States, once an ally of Saleh in combating al Qaeda, had told his relatives "that the international community supports the decisions made by President Hadi".

Officials at Ahmed Saleh's office were not available for comment. But his father's press secretary said Hadi's decisions to restructure the armed forces were "welcomed".

After a year of protests against his rule, President Saleh made way for Hadi in February under a Gulf-brokered transition plan backed by Washington and its Western allies.

FEARS OF CHAOS

But the former president's continuing clout in the army and wider society worries its neighbors and Western nations who fear further conflict could plunge Yemen back into chaos.

The agreement, signed in Saudi Arabia, aims to hold Yemen together in the face of crippling economic woes, internal divisions and separatist movements, as well as the challenge from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen.

Ahmed Saleh's apparent decision to give up some of his heaviest weapons could smoothe the way for national reconciliation talks foreseen under the power transfer deal.

Senior diplomats of 10 countries, including Gulf Arab states, European Union members, the United States and Russia, agreed in Sanaa in September to recommend that their governments start preparing possible measures against transition "spoilers".

"The message of the U.N. Security Council is clear that it will not allow obstructing the political settlement in Yemen," U.N. envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar told Reuters on Thursday.

Lawlessness in Yemen has alarmed neighbor and top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States, which increasingly view the impoverished Arab state as a front line in their struggle against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Hadi has promised to unify the army, which is split between allies and foes of the former president. In August, he transferred the command of some Republican Guards units to a newly formed force called the Presidential Protective Forces under his authority.

That attempt to trim General Ahmed's power ignited clashes between Yemeni troops and about 200 members of the Republican Guard, who surrounded the Defence Ministry.

(Writing by Rania El Gamal, Editing by William Maclean and Alistair Lyon)


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Turkey to fly troops to bases after deadly road convoy attacks

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey signed an agreement on Thursday to transport troops to and from their military bases by air after a string of fatal attacks on road convoys prompted it to rethink security their arrangements.

The agreement, with state carrier Turkish Airlines, follows a dramatic increase in attacks on Turkish security forces in the past 18 months by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have launched a series of fatal raids on troop convoys in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey's government and military began discussing alternative transport arrangements with the airline after a bomb attack on a security convoy in southeastern Bingol province which killed 10 people in September.

At the signing ceremony on Thursday, Turkey's defense minister said he envisaged some 250,000 soldiers and non-commissioned officers would be transported under the scheme. It will begin on December 28.

Flights will be free of charge for troops with all costs met by the defense ministry. Other private airlines have also agreed to transport the soldiers, when needed, at a reduced cost and at no charge to the troops.

Soldiers will be flown to existing airports and transferred from there to outlying bases.

Military service is compulsory in Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO, with around half a million men.

Violence between the state and the PKK has reached levels not seen since the 1990s with at least 870 people killed between June 2011 and the end of last month, according to a tally by the think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG).

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Turkey and the PKK since it took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland in the southeast.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as by Turkey, has since softened its demands for greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Andrew Osborn)


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Italy prosecutors wind up Costa Concordia ship investigation

GROSSETO, Italy (Reuters) - Prosecutors have concluded their investigation into the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner in which 32 people died and are preparing to seek a trial for its captain and seven other people, a magistrate said on Thursday.

Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship, which was carrying some 4,000 passengers and crew when it hit rocks and capsized after he brought it too close to the island of Giglio.

Francesco Verusio, who headed the investigation in the Tuscan port city of Grosseto, said he expected to file a request for an indictment at the end of January. He said Schettino faces up to 20 years in jail.

A judge will then decide if there is enough evidence to hold a trial.

The 114,500 ton liner hit rocks after Schettino tried to perform a maneuver known as a "salute" - an attempt to show passengers the island and islanders the ship.

He argues he managed to prevent a worse disaster by steering into shallow waters even closer to shore after the impact to facilitate the rescue operation.

Five other members of the crew, including Schetttino's first officer, and three members of a crisis unit set up by Costa to deal with the accident also face indictment and trial.

Costa Cruises is a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp.

(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene; Writing by Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Sophie Hares)


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Hitmen on hold, Israelis might talk to Meshaal

Written By Bersemangat on Jumat, 07 Desember 2012 | 00.25

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel once tried to kill Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in a botched assassination attempt on the streets of the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Fifteen years later, it is starting to view him in a slightly different light and Israeli analysts say he might yet prove the man who can open a dialogue between the Palestinian Islamist movement and the Jewish state.

Meshaal is due to make his first visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday for a two-day stay to join celebrations for Hamas's 25th anniversary and to take part in what the militant group says will be a victory rally after its recent conflict with Israel.

Israeli leaders have an alternative view of the eight-day conflagration, which ended in a ceasefire. They say they dealt Hamas a sharp blow which should deter rocket fire out of the small coastal territory for many months to come.

They also believe the fighting distanced Hamas further from Shi'ite Iran's sphere of influence and put it squarely in the camp of Sunni Muslim powers Qatar and Egypt - with Meshaal, who has lived in exile from his native West Bank for 45 of his 56 years, the key player in this evolving regional shift.

"From Israel's point of view, Khaled Meshaal now plays a more positive role," said Shlomo Brom, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an independent research institute based in Tel Aviv.

"Generally speaking, Hamas is divided into two factions, the Gaza faction and the external faction. There is a debate between them on several levels, and Meshaal's external faction is much more moderate. This is why he is of interest to Israel."

No cabinet minister in Israel would call Meshaal a moderate, at least not in public. To Israelis, Hamas is synonymous with suicide bombings and rocket fire. It is classed by Israel and its Western allies as a terrorist group and widely condemned for refusing to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

But in recent years Meshaal has adopted a more nuanced stance, backing the idea of a long-term truce in return for a withdrawal to the lines established ahead of the 1967 war, when Israel seized East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We accepted it, but not at the expense of recognizing Israel or giving away Palestinian rights, but as a common (Arab) factor," he told Reuters last week in Qatar, where he has lived since quitting Syria some months ago.

EXITING THE AXIS

Meshaal's decision to leave Damascus after falling out with President Bashar al-Assad over his crackdown the countrywide uprising, was greeted with secret glee in Israel.

The Hamas leader himself told Reuters that the move affected ties with the group's main paymaster and weapons' supplier, Iran - a country Israel believes is by far the greatest threat to it, because of its ambitious nuclear program.

"Hamas's external leadership is trying to leave the Iranian axis. This is remarkable, but it won't be easy because they are still dependent on Iranian arms," said INSS research fellow Yoel Guzansky. "In the end, it could be good for Israel."

The abrupt departure from Syria initially weakened Meshaal within Hamas. His relations with Damascus and Tehran had made him an essential linchpin, but with those links damaged or broken, the Gaza leaders started to assert their authority.

Hamas's internal dynamics are shrouded in secrecy, but those in Gaza have enjoyed more influence since they managed to seize control of the isolated enclave in 2007 after fighting with the allies of President Mahmoud Abbas. He exercises only limited Palestinian self-government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

A senior Israeli official, who declined to be named, said he was not convinced that Meshaal had done enough to restore his credibility within Hamas as undisputed leader. "There is a power struggle going on," he said. "But they are keeping it hidden."

Adopting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's uncompromising line, the official also dismissed suggestions that Meshaal might one day be willing to sit down and talk with Israel.

"Between the various leaders, there are small differences between what they say, but at the end of the day, it is all shades of black," he said. "They all lead a terror group."

Netanyahu played an accidental but important role in establishing Meshaal's militant credentials when he ordered Mossad agents to kill him in 1997 in retaliation for a Jerusalem market bombing that killed 16 people and was blamed on Hamas.

The agents were caught by Jordanian police after injecting Meshaal with poison in the street; Netanyahu, in his first term as premier, was forced to hand over the antidote and the incident turned the middle-aged former schoolteacher into a hero of the Palestinian resistance.

"In a movement like Hamas, being the target of a political assassination is a medal of honor, and he wore that medal on his chest," said Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States who teaches at Tel Aviv University.

CHANGING DYNAMICS

Israel has long regarded Hamas as a dangerous, yet containable menace. At one time the group dispatched suicide bombers into Israeli cities. Then it attacked from Gaza, firing thousands of rockets at Israel's southern borderlands.

Successive governments responded. In 2008-2009, Israel launched a three-week offensive that killed 1,400 Palestinians while 13 Israelis died. In November, it waged an 8-day battle, which left 170 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.

Unlike four years ago, Hamas had more to cheer about at the end of the last round of fighting.

For the first time, its missiles managed to reach the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. It also showed the world that it had the solid backing of top Arab nations - most notably Egypt - whose support appeared at best lukewarm before the Arab Spring.

These changing regional dynamics undoubtedly stayed Israel's hand. Unlike in 2009, it did not launch a ground offensive although thousands of troops with tanks were massed on the border ready to move in. And it swiftly accepted Egyptian mediation, unwilling perhaps to do anything that might irreparably damage cherished diplomatic ties with Cairo.

The three sides are now engaged in talks in Egypt aimed at strengthening the ceasefire. Hamas demands an end to the land and sea blockade imposed in 2006, which is aimed at halting the import of arms into Gaza and which has stifled economic growth.

In 2010, under international pressure to relax its blockade, Israel rolled back some of the controls on imports and exports via its land links, and more concessions are now likely, officials say. However, the sea blockade looks certain to remain in place as long as Hamas demands the right to rearm.

The fact that talks are taking place, albeit via mediators, shows that Israel and Hamas are already engaged in a dialogue. Israeli analysts say this could deepen if Meshaal can predominate in Hamas and develop a more tempered discourse.

No one expects such talks, if they ever happen, to bring about the end of the decades-old Middle East conflict, but they might at least ensure that it does not degenerate further.

"Officially we say we are not dealing with them, but things are changing before our eyes," said Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in Tel Aviv.

"If Khaled Meshaal can deliver, believe you me, someone here will talk to him, even behind the scenes."

(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)


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Syria says chemical scare "pretext for intervention"

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Western powers are whipping up fears of a fateful move to the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war as a "pretext for intervention", President Bashar al-Assad's deputy foreign minister said on Thursday.

He spoke as Germany's cabinet approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria, a step requiring deployment of NATO troops that Syria fears could permit imposition of a no-fly zone over its territory.

"Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide," Faisal Maqdad said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders have warned that using chemical weapons would cross a red line and have consequences, which they have not specified.

Assad would probably lose vital diplomatic support from Russia and China that has blocked military intervention in the 20-month-old uprising that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

A senior Russian lawmaker and ally of President Vladimir Putin said Syria's government is incapable of doing its job properly, a sign that Moscow may already be trying to distance itself from Assad.

"We have shared and do share the opinion that the existing government in Syria should carry out its functions. But time has shown that this task is beyond its strength," Vladimir Vasilyev, who heads President Putin's party group in the State Duma lower house, was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.

Syria's Maqdad said Western reports the Syrian military was preparing chemical weapons for use against rebel forces trying to close in on the capital Damascus were simply "theatre".

"In fact, we fear a conspiracy ... by the United States and some European states, which might have supplied such weapons to terrorist organizations in Syria, in order to claim later that Syria is the one that used these weapons," he said on Lebanon's Al Manar television, the voice of Hezbollah.

"We fear there is a conspiracy to provide a pretext for any subsequent interventions in Syria by these countries that are increasing pressure on Syria."

UNCONTROLLABLE

Exactly what Syria's army has done with suspected chemical weapons to prompt a surge of Western warnings is not clear. Reports citing Western intelligence and defense sources are vague and inconsistent.

The perceived threat may be discussed in Dublin on Thursday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi to try to put a U.N. peace process for Syria back on track.

The talks come ahead of a meeting of the Western-backed "Friends of Syria" group in Marrakech next week which is expected to boost support for rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Brahimi wants world powers to issue a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a transitional administration.

In addition to the possible use of chemical bombs by "an increasingly desperate" Assad, Clinton said Washington was concerned about the government losing control of such weapons to extreme Islamist armed groups among the rebel forces.

U.S. officials said Washington was considering blacklisting Jabhat al-Nusra, an influential rebel group accused by other rebels of indiscriminate tactics that has advocated an Islamic state in Syria and is suspected of ties to al Qaeda.

An explosion in front of the Damascus headquarters of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent killed at least one person on Thursday, Syrian state television said.

It blamed "terrorists from al Qaeda" -- a term often employed to refer to rebel forces.

Meanwhile, activists said the army pummeled several eastern suburbs of Damascus, where the rebels are dominant, with artillery and mortar fire. The suburbs have also been cut off from the city's water and electricity for weeks, rebels say, accusing the government of collective punishment.

COLLAPSE

Rebels say they have surrounded an air base 4 km (2-1/2 mikes) from the center of Damascus, a fresh sign the battle is closing in on the Syrian capital.

They also said they were battling soldiers on the road to Damascus International Airport, 20 km (12 miles) out of the capital where several airlines have canceled flights due to security concerns.

Maqdad, in his interview on Thursday, argued that reports of such advances were untrue: "What is sad is that foreign countries believe these repeated rumors."

But residents inside the capital say the sound of shelling on the outskirts has become a constant backdrop and many fear the fight will soon come to Damascus.

The Western military alliance's decision to send U.S., German and Dutch Patriot missile batteries to help defend the Turkish border would bring European and U.S. troops to Syria's frontier for the first time in the civil war.

The actual deployment could take several weeks.

"Some countries now are now supplying Turkey with missiles for which there is no excuse. Syria is not going to attack the Turkish people," Maqdad said.

But a veteran Turkish commentator, Cengiz Candar of the Radikal newspaper, said Ankara fears Syria's 500 short-range ballistic missiles could fall into the wrong hands.

The government is "of the view that Syria was not expected to use them against Turkey, but that there was a risk of these weapons falling into the hands of 'uncontrolled forces' when the regime collapses", he wrote.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Andrew Quinn and Mark Hosenball in Washington; writing by Douglas Hamilton; editing by Philippa Fletcher)


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Military halts clashes as political crisis grips Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Republican Guard restored order around the presidential palace on Thursday after fierce overnight clashes killed seven people, but passions ran high in a struggle over the country's future.

The Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, criticized by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, was due to address the nation later in the day, state television said.

Hundreds of his supporters who had camped out near the palace overnight withdrew before a mid-afternoon deadline set by the Republican Guard. Dozens of Mursi's foes remained, but were kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.

The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.

Mursi's Islamist partisans fought opposition protesters well into the early hours during dueling demonstrations over the president's decree on November 22 to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.

Officials said seven people had been killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other. Six of the dead were Mursi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.

The street clashes reflected a deep political divide in the most populous Arab nation, where contrasting visions of Islamists and their liberal rivals have complicated a struggle to embed democracy after Mubarak's 30-year autocracy.

The United States, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid, has urged dialogue.

The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.

"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.

Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the opposition National Salvation Front, said more protests were planned, but not necessarily at the palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district.

"Our youth are leading us today and we decided to agree to whatever they want to do," he told Reuters.

UNITY APPEAL

Egypt plunged into renewed turmoil after Mursi issued his November 22 decree and an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a new constitution to go to a referendum on December 15.

The Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, to which Mursi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies", Mohamed Badie said in a statement.

Rival factions used rocks, petrol bombs and guns in the clashes around the presidential palace.

"We came here to support President Mursi and his decisions. He is the elected president of Egypt," said demonstrator Emad Abou Salem, 40. "He has legitimacy and nobody else does."

Opposition protester Ehab Nasser el-Din, 21, his head bandaged after being hit by a rock the day before, decried the Muslim Brotherhood's "grip on the country", which he said would only tighten if the new constitution is passed.

Another protester, Ahmed Abdel-Hakim, 23, accused the Brotherhood of "igniting the country in the name of religion".

Mursi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship". The president says his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by Mubarak from derailing a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

Mursi has shown no sign of buckling under pressure from protesters, confident that the Islamists, who have dominated both elections since Mubarak was overthrown, can win the referendum and the parliamentary election to follow.

Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's secretary-general, said holding the plebiscite was the only way out of the crisis, dismissing the opposition as "remnants of the (Mubarak) regime, thugs and people working for foreign agendas".

As well as relying on his Brotherhood power base, Mursi may also tap into a popular yearning for stability and economic revival after almost two years of political turmoil.

The Egyptian pound sank on Thursday to its lowest level in eight years, after previously firming on hopes that a $4.8 billion IMF loan would stabilize the economy. The Egyptian stock market fell 4.4 percent after it opened.

Foreign exchange reserves fell by nearly $450 million to $15 billion in November, indicating that the Central Bank was still spending heavily to bolster the pound. The reserves stood at about $36 billion before the anti-Mubarak uprising.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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