Syrian army declares conditional Eid ceasefire

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria's army command announced a ceasefire on Thursday to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha but said it reserved the right to respond to any rebel attack or moves to reinforce President Bashar al-Assad's armed foes.

A Free Syrian Army commander gave qualified backing to the truce, proposed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but demanded Assad free detainees. An Islamist group said it was not committed to the truce but may halt operations if the army did.

Brahimi proposed the temporary truce to stem, however briefly, the bloodshed in a conflict which erupted as popular protests in March last year and has escalated into a civil war which activists say has killed more than 32,000 people.

The fighting pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the Alawite faith which is linked to Shi'ite Islam, and threatens to draw in regional Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite powers and engulf the whole Middle East, Brahimi has warned.

"On the occasion of the blessed Eid al-Adha, the general command of the army and armed forces announces a halt to military operations on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, from Friday morning ... until Monday," an army statement read on state television said.

It reserved the right to respond if "the armed terrorist groups open fire on civilians and government forces, attack public and private properties, or use car bombs and explosives".

It would also respond to any reinforcement or re-supplying of rebel units, or smuggling of fighters from neighboring countries "in violation of their international commitments to combat terrorism".

Qassem Saadeddine, head of the military council in Homs province and spokesman for the FSA joint command, said his fighters were committed to the truce.

"But we not allow the regime to reinforce its posts. We demand the release of the detainees, the regime should release them by tomorrow morning," he said.

Abu Moaz, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, said the Islamist group doubted Assad's forces would observe the truce, though it might suspend operations if they did.

"We do not care about this truce. We are cautious. If the tanks are still there and the checkpoints are still there then what is the truce?" he said of the organization, which includes several brigades fighting in the capital and Damascus province.

Brahimi's predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.

Violence has intensified since then, with daily death tolls compiled by opposition monitoring groups often exceeding 200.

UN SEES AID WINDOW

U.N. aid agencies have geared up to take advantage of any window of opportunity provided by a ceasefire to go to areas that have been difficult to reach due to fighting, a U.N. official in Geneva said.

"UN agencies have been preparing rapidly to scale up especially in areas that have been difficult to reach due to active conflict and which may become accessible as a result of these developments," he told Reuters.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said that it had prepared emergency kits for distribution for up to 13,000 families - an estimated 65,000 people - in previously inaccessible areas including Homs and the northeastern city of Hassaka.

"We and our partners want to be in a position to move quickly if security allows over the next few days," UNHCR Syria Representative Tarik Kurdi in Damascus said in a statement.

The U.N. World Food Programme has identified 90,000 people in 21 hotspots from Aleppo to Homs and Latakia in need food parcels and will try to reach them through local agencies, the U.N. official said.

ALEPPO FIGHTING

Earlier on Thursday rebels seized two northern districts in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, on Thursday, activists said.

"We have just liberated Ashrafiyeh and the Syriac quarter," a rebel fighter said, referring to areas which had been held by Kurdish militias and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels were still fighting around the Rahman Mosque district and trying to besiege a security building, he added.

Activists said at least 14 people were killed. It was not clear if the dead were fighters or civilians.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group monitoring the Syrian conflict, said Kurdish units were still fighting to stop the rebels from entering Ashrafiyeh.

Battles have engulfed Aleppo since late July, but a stalemate had developed, with snipers restricting movement of fighters and the two sides largely entrenched on frontlines.

China urged all sides to respect a ceasefire, an idea also backed by Syria's main regional ally Iran,

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Libyan suspect in U.S. envoy attack killed in Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Libyan militant suspected by Egypt of involvement in last month's attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya has been killed during a raid by Egyptian security forces in Cairo, a security official said on Thursday.

The Libyan was killed on Wednesday in a raid targeting him and other militants with suspected links to al Qaeda in Cairo's eastern district of Nasr City, the official said. Four Egyptian militants were detained in the operation, he added.

The Libyan, identified as Karim Ahmed Essam el-Azizi, was killed by a bomb he had tried to use against the security forces during the raid, the security official said.

It was not immediately clear what role Azizi had played in the assault on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on September 11, in which the ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed.

The security official, who asked not to be named, said Azizi had been living in a rented apartment in Nasr City for the past three months. He said police had found 15 bombs and various weapons, including assault rifles, in the Libyan's flat.

The attack on the Benghazi consulate has become a highly politicized issue in the U.S. presidential election campaign.

It occurred during a wave of Muslim protest over an anti-Islam film produced in California, which also sparked violence against U.S. diplomatic missions in Tunisia and Egypt.

However, official emails obtained by Reuters showed that the White House and State Department were advised two hours after the consulate attack that an Islamist militant group had claimed responsibility.

President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials have acknowledged that the attack was a "terrorist" act by militants with suspected links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Yasmine Saleh, Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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South Africa union agrees gold mine pay deal as most strikers return

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's gold mines agreed a wage deal with unions on Thursday as the bulk of the gold sector's striking miners returned to work under threat of dismissal.

The returns marked success of a sort for a new tough approach by mining firms, but at least 12,000 gold and 20,000 platinum miners were still pursuing a wave of unofficial strikes that have cost Africa's largest economy over 10 billion rand ($1.14 billion) this year, according to the National Treasury.

About 100,000 workers in all have downed tools across South Africa since August in a wave of violent strikes that have triggered downgrades of South Africa's credit ratings, and awkward questions for President Jacob Zuma and the ruling ANC.

After three weeks of negotiations, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the gold industry, which employs around 157,000, announced agreement on wage increases of between 1.5 and 10.8 percent for different categories of mine workers.

Harmony Gold, South Africa's third-largest producer, said most of the 5,400 strikers at its Kusasalethu mine were now back at work. Strikes at Gold Fields' three mines are also now over.

"Stability in the gold mining industry has been achieved at many of the operations and there are hopes that this trend will continue," said Chamber of Mines executive Elize Strydom.

But AngloGold Ashanti, South Africa's biggest producer, said on Wednesday it had sacked around half of its 24,000-strong local workforce who had ignored an ultimatum to return to work or be fired.

PLATINUM STRIKES

And a six-week strike at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), the world's top producer of the metal, is no closer to ending, with 20,500 workers at its Union and Amandelbult operations still holding out for higher wages.

Amplats has also sacked 12,000 wildcat strikers at its Rustenburg mines.

Zuma has come in for particular criticism for not responding faster to the August 16 police killing of 34 strikers at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, the bloodiest security incident since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

Reluctant to take a hard line in the weeks after the "Marikana massacre", Amplats and then gold firms led by Gold Fields have since got increasingly tough with the strikers, issuing threats of mass sackings.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan cut South Africa's GDP forecast for the year to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent and said it would take the government some time to determine the full impact of the mining strife on growth.

"Declining mining output and the spread of strike activity has depressed activity in related industries including manufacturing, logistics and services, with negative consequences for GDP," the Treasury said in its interim budget policy statement.

In the year to August, mining output fell by 3.3 percent, with production of platinum group metals 15.3 percent lower, although strong iron ore demand from China helped offset some of the decline in the platinum, gold and coal sectors, it added.

Amplats on Thursday cut its full-year production target and capital expenditure plans after revealing that the walkouts had sliced 138,000 ounces off output, $217 million at today's price.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Man in Afghan uniform kills two U.S. servicemen: NATO

KABUL (Reuters) - A man wearing an Afghan police uniform has shot dead two U.S. servicemen in Afghanistan, NATO said on Thursday.

The assailant turned his weapon against the forces in Uruzgan province, it said in a statement.

"Insider" attacks on Western forces have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces as NATO prepares to withdraw most combat troops at the end of 2014.

At least 54 members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force have been killed this year by Afghans wearing police or army uniforms.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Alison Williams)

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WikiLeaks says releases hacked U.S. detainee rules

LONDON (Reuters) - The WikiLeaks website began publishing on Thursday what it said were more than 100 U.S. Defense Department files detailing military detention policies in camps in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in the years after the September 11 attacks on U.S. targets.

In a statement, WikiLeaks criticized regulations it said had led to abuse and impunity and urged human rights activists to use the documents, to be released over the next month, to research what it called "policies of unaccountability".

The statement quoted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as saying: "The 'Detainee Policies' show the anatomy of the beast that is post-9/11 detention, the carving out of a dark space where law and rights do not apply, where persons can be detained without a trace at the convenience of the U.S. Department of Defense."

"It shows the excesses of the early days of war against an unknown 'enemy' and how these policies matured and evolved," it said, and led to "the permanent state of exception that the United States now finds itself in, a decade later."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in London said it had no immediate comment.

In January, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said the United States was still flouting international law at Guantanamo Bay by arbitrarily and indefinitely detaining individuals.

Almost 3,000 people were killed in 2001 when militants from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Then President George W. Bush set up a detention camp at a U.S. naval base at Guantanamo in Cuba after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to expel al Qaeda following the September 11 raids. Of the 779 men held there, 167 remained as of mid-September 2012.

INTERROGATION

WikiLeaks said a number of documents it was releasing related to interrogation of detainees, and these showed direct physical violence was prohibited.

But it added the documents showed "a formal policy of terrorizing detainees during interrogations, combined with a policy of destroying interrogation recordings, has led to abuse and impunity".

A number of what can only be described as "policies of unaccountability" would also be released, it said.

One such document was a 2005 document "Policy on Assigning Detainee Internment Serial Numbers", it said.

"This document is concerned with discreetly 'disappearing' detainees into the custody of other U.S. government agencies while keeping their names out of U.S. military central records - by systematically holding off from assigning a prisoner record number," the WikiLeaks statement said.

WikiLeaks did not elaborate. But human rights activists say that after the September 11 attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used "black sites" in friendly countries to interrogate and sometimes torture suspected militants beyond the reach of normal legal protections.

"LOVE" AND "FEAR"

While Bush acknowledged the existence of a CIA program for detaining and questioning militants outside of the United States in speech in September 2006, the government has never publicly confirmed the location of the sites.

Some of the policies applied to other countries' personnel, Wikileaks said, citing what it said was a 13-page interrogation policy document from 2005 for U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.

It said the document detailed techniques such as the "Emotional Love Approach: Playing on the love a detained person has for family, homeland or comrades". In contrast, in the "Fear Up (Harsh)" approach, it said "the interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a loud and threatening voice in order to convince the source he does indeed have something to fear; that he has no option but to co-operate".

The documents released on Thursday date from 2001 to 2004.

Assange, whose website previously angered the United States by releasing thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, has been holed up inside Ecuador's embassy in central London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations. He denies wrongdoing.

(Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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In Myanmar's volatile west, sectarian violence worsens

YANGON (Reuters) - Hundreds of homes burned and gunfire rang out as sectarian violence raged for a fifth day between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in western Myanmar on Thursday, pushing the death toll to nearly 60 and testing the country's nascent democracy.

Security forces struggled to stem Myanmar's worst communal unrest since clashes in June killed more than 80 people and displaced at least 75,000 in Rakhine State.

The latest violence in Rakhine has spread to several towns, including commercially important Kyaukpyu, where a multi-billion-dollar China-Myanmar pipeline starts.

The violence is one of the biggest tests yet of a reformist government that has vowed to forge unity in one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.

Win Myaing, information officer of Rakhine State government, told Reuters that 56 people, including 31 women, had died and 64 had been wounded as of Wednesday evening.

Access to Rakhine State was restricted and information hard to verify, but witnesses said at least three more people were killed on Thursday.

A statement from the president's office read on state television spoke of only 12 people dead as of Wednesday and said 1,948 houses and eight religious buildings had been destroyed.

It said the international community was watching Myanmar and the violence was against the interests of the nation.

"Therefore, the police and the army in cooperation with the people will take effective measures to ensure the rule of law, community peace and tranquility," it said.

The United Nations called for calm, saying large numbers of people were reported to be seeking refuge in already overcrowded camps near the state capital, Sittwe.

"The U.N. is gravely concerned about reports of a resurgence of inter-communal conflict in several areas in Rakhine State which has resulted in deaths and has forced thousands of people including women and children to flee their homes," Ashok Nigam, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said in a statement.

There were widespread unconfirmed reports of razed and burning homes, gunfights and Rohingya fleeing by boat.

A representative of the Wan Lark foundation, which helps ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, said local people told him trouble had flared in the early hours of Thursday in Kyauk Taw, a town north of the state capital, Sittwe.

"Fires started in Pike Thel village. About 20 houses were burned. There was gunfire reported and, as far as we know, three Rakhines were shot dead on the spot," Tun Min Thein told Reuters by telephone.

A senior official from the Rakhine State government also said three people had been killed in Kyauk Taw. Witnesses reported soldiers arriving and at least one road closed.

CHINESE INVESTMENT

In Yathedaung, a town northwest of Sittwe, security forces opened fire in a Rohingya district and about 10 houses were burned, Tun Min Thein added, reporting what he had been told by locals. Fires were also seen in Pauktaw, a town east of Sittwe.

That followed violence in Kyaukpyu, about 120 km (75 miles) south of Sittwe, where official media said one person had been killed, 28 wounded and 800 houses burned down.

The area is crucial to China's most strategic investment in Myanmar: twin pipelines that will stretch from Kyaukpyu on the Bay of Bengal to China's energy-hungry western provinces, bringing oil and natural gas to one of China's most undeveloped regions.

Rohingyas are officially stateless. Buddhist-majority Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.

Around 50 boats carrying Rohingyas were reported to have left the Kyaukpyu area on Wednesday and were spotted apparently heading for Sittwe, Tun Min Thein said.

It was unclear what set off the latest arson and killing that started on Sunday. In June, tension had flared after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims, but there was no obvious spark this time.

Sittwe was the scene of violence in June but has escaped the latest unrest. Thousands lost their homes there in June and many Rohingyas left or were moved out of the town by the authorities.

Curfews were imposed in Minbya and Mrauk Oo north of Sittwe from Monday after violence there. It was unclear if the authorities had extended that to other areas.

President Thein Sein's government has negotiated ceasefires with most ethnic rebel groups that have fought for autonomy for half a century but has done nothing to address the Rohingya problem.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Myanmar to amend or repeal a 1982 citizenship law to end the Rohingyas' stateless condition.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Reuters staff reporters; Writing by Alan Raybould and Jason Szep; Editing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Hundreds sicken as dengue fever hits Portugal's Madeira

LONDON (Reuters) - Fifty-two people are confirmed to be suffering from dengue fever in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira and another 404 probably have the mosquito-borne disease, health officials said on Thursday.

Two cases of dengue - also called "breakbone fever" because of the severe pain it can cause - have also been reported in France among people returning from Madeira, as well as one each in Britain and Sweden.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which monitors disease in the European Union, said it was not recommending any restrictions on travel to Madeira, but was advising protection against mosquito bites.

While there have been no deaths since the first cases were reported in Madeira three weeks ago, some 40 people have required treatment in hospital. The archipelago lies north of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

The first local transmissions of dengue fever in Europe were recorded in France and Croatia in 2010.

Earlier this year, Greek health officials attributed the death of an 80-year-old man to its first case of dengue since an outbreak there in 1927-28. Greece is suffering from an upsurge in a number of mosquito-borne diseases.

Dengue is a viral infection that can cause a range of symptoms, from mild flu-like illness to more serious illnesses including rashes and bone pain. Severe and potentially deadly forms develop in around five percent of patients.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Israel's Netanyahu, ally Lieberman merge parties

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main coalition partner, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, plan to merge their right-wing parties ahead of Israel's January 22 election, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.

"The fact they reached agreement should be welcomed by all of us," Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, a stalwart from Netanyahu's Likud party, told Israel's Channel Two television. "There will be a really clearly defined nationalist, rightist camp here."

Netanyahu and Lieberman, who heads the ultranationalist Israel Beiteinu ("Israel is Our Home") party, scheduled a joint press conference for 8.00 pm (1800 GMT).

According to Channel Two, the new party would be called Likud Beiteinu - "The Likud is Our Home". Erdan said the merger would be subject to the approval of the Likud central committee.

Such a move, if confirmed, would further strengthen Netanyahu's hand ahead of the election, with the newlook party capable of winning around double the number of seats of its nearest rival at the forthcoming vote.

However, the merger might raise eyebrows abroad. Lieberman has been a long-standing and outspoken critic of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, calling earlier this year for the ousting of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Crispian Balmer)

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Increased extortion threatens Ivorian cocoa flows

DIVO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Extortion at illegal roadblocks manned by police, soldiers and customs officials has increased in Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions in recent months and threatens to undermine reforms aimed at improving farmer incomes, officials said on Thursday.

Main crop harvesting in the world's top cocoa grower opened earlier this month with an overhaul of the sector that saw the government fix a guaranteed farmgate price of 725 CFA francs ($1.43) per kg for the 2012/13 season.

The reform measures are intended to encourage farmers to reinvest in their ageing plantations and improve cocoa quality, but bribe payments not factored into an already tight reimbursable cost scale could derail the scheme.

"The cocoa sector is losing 10 billion (CFA francs) each year, and if we do nothing about it our farmers won't be able to receive the guaranteed price," Mohamed Kouyate, the head of Ivory Coast's Transport Flow Observatory, told Reuters.

The number of roadblocks ballooned during Ivory Coast's decade-long political crisis, which ended last year in a brief civil war. Most are located along the principal arteries used to transport cocoa to the two ports of Abidjan and San Pedro.

A senior military official, who was not authorized to speak to the press, told Reuters that the army was working to clamp down on illegal roadblocks through its participation in a new anti-extortion unit comprised of soldiers, police and gendarmes.

And while the government promised to fight the phenomenon after the conflict ended, a raft of armed raids since early August blamed on supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo has further increased the number of checkpoints.

"With the security situation these last weeks, we're counting between 200 and 300 roadblocks, most of which are illegal," Kouyate said.

The government-funded watchdog recognizes just 33 authorized checkpoints for the entire country.

Ivory Coast's marketing board, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), has set up a hotline to allow middle men to report illegal roadblocks and plans to distribute vehicles to the anti-extortion unit.

But the CCC's director, Massandje Toure, acknowledged during a visit to Divo, among the country's most productive cocoa regions, that the program had struggled to make headway.

"I learned that transporters who refused to pay bribes on the road to Abengourou were beaten by (the army) because they called the hotline to complain," Toure said.

"It's the security forces who are involved in this racket, and everyone knows it. We are going to do everything possible to ensure that there is no impact on the farmgate price," she said.

Under the new scheme, the middle men responsible for collecting from plantations and delivering to the ports the bulk of Ivorian cocoa production can no longer pass along the cost of bribes to farmers in the form of lower prices for beans.

The merchants initially threatened to block the start of the season over reimbursable transport costs proposed by the CCC, but agreed to participate after the body raised its cost estimate.

However, they now say they that poor road conditions and extortion risk leaving them with losses. And authorities have already arrested three middle men for cocoa price violations since the season began on October 3.

"The current system is such that if you have to pay extra costs, you can't earn any money. You lose out and you risk having problems with the exporters," said Ehui Besson, director of the CAFCO buying center in Divo.

"We're going to try two more trips into the bush, and if the bribes wipe out our profits, we're going to stop working," he said.

(Writing By Joe Bavier; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Keiron Henderson)

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Russia wants answers on NATO post-2014 Afghan mission

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia wants to know more about the scale and scope of NATO's post-2014 mission in Afghanistan before deciding whether to keep cooperating with the Western alliance, an envoy for President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Moscow, NATO's Cold War-era foe and still a frequent critic, fears instability in Afghanistan after the pullout of most foreign troops by the end of 2014 may spill over into ex-Soviet Central Asia and threaten Russia's own southern borders.

The former Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979 and withdrew its forces by early 1989 after a disastrous war.

Moscow supported the U.S.-led invasion after the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks and has allowed transit of supplies for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), including through a new hub in the city of Ulyanovsk.

But Zamir Kabulov, Putin's special envoy for Afghanistan, told Reuters that Russia wanted "full clarity" on the combat capabilities of the post-2014 mission and reiterated a threat to withdraw cooperation unless the alliance receives approval from the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow holds veto power.

"At the end of the day NATO is a military bloc. If a military-political group appears in the neighborhood of Russian territory, without our consent and with tasks unknown to us, this is problematic. A mandate is indispensable," Kabulov said.

"Our current cooperation with NATO is based on the current NATO mandate from the U.N. Security Council. And we will only cooperate with such missions as have a mandate for which we have also voted," he told Reuters in an interview.

NATO aims to hand security responsibility to Afghans in 2014 and revamp its mission into a training and advisory one.

Russia's acting ambassador to NATO said this month that Russia would stop cooperating over Afghanistan post-2014 if no Security Council resolution authorizing the new mission is secured. A NATO official said it would be helpful but stopped short of saying it was essential.

Kabulov, a former ambassador to Kabul, said Moscow wanted more information about foreign forces in Afghanistan after 2014.

"The Americans say various things. Generally they say it will be a training mission, but then it becomes clear that there will be special forces, combat groups that will engage in combat in case of necessity," he said.

"We need full clarity on the capacities they will have, what that is supposed to be. Because such a strong network of foreign military bases in the region provokes questions."

REGIONAL WORRIES

NATO has not yet given details on how many troops it wants to deploy in Afghanistan post-2014 but Kabulov questioned the ability of a limited force to ensure stability when tens of thousands of ISAF troops have not managed to do that.

"And if they are not there for this purpose, then what for? This is our question and we are asking for a clear answer," he said. "Imagine several thousand instructors sitting in a base and suddenly being attacked by the Taliban. What will they say, 'Don't shoot, we are instructors'?"

He added any final decision on cooperation with NATO in Afghanistan was in the hands of Putin, whose term ends in 2018.

After the Soviet experience in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Russia ruled out sending soldiers to aid the United States and NATO this time around.

Kabulov said Moscow was ready to supply Kabul with arms, including air-defense systems, any time.

"NATO itself does nothing without air coverage in Afghanistan. Why should the Afghan army not have that? No modern army can do without it ... We are ready for this, but there have been no detailed talks about it yet," he said.

Kabulov said he saw the overall situation in Afghanistan deteriorating and said NATO failed to meet its goals there, but admitted things were better now than before ISAF was launched.

"If destabilization becomes a regional phenomenon, which has already happened in practice in many ways, then obviously Russia will have to redirect large resources from domestic development to safeguard its national interests and security. We would not like that," he said in his office at Russia's Foreign Ministry.

On October 5 Putin secured a new 30-year lease on a military base in Tajikistan, Russia's main line of defense against radical Islamists and drug trafficking from Afghanistan.

"We are ready to cooperate with NATO on Afghanistan not because we like NATO, not at all, but because it corresponds with our own interests. This is a very pragmatic approach, nothing personal," he said.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Colorado marijuana-legalization measure raises question of pot tourism

Colorado's legalization of limited possession of marijuana — if voters approve it this November — would bring the attention of the nation to the state, both sides of the issue agreed Wednesday.

Where they disagreed, though, is whether that attention would be a good thing.

In a debate co-hosted by The Denver Post and 9News, Amendment 64 opponent Happy Haynes said the measure would attract illegal-drug dealers, hurt Colorado's brand among businesses and bring in unwanted marijuana tourists. Proponent Betty Aldworth saw it differently, saying there is no evidence the measure would harm the state's business climate and that any marijuana-motivated visitors would be welcome.

"Those are tourism dollars, are they not?" Aldworth asked.

Haynes said the state should be more discriminating.

"The idea that any dollars that we get are OK, I'm not in favor of swelling our state coffers ... with money because people are getting high," she said.

Amendment 64 would make legal possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and older and also allow adults to grow up to six marijuana plants in their home. But it would also allow for specially licensed marijuana stores, which could sell to anyone 21 and older who presents "government-issued identification to determine the consumer's age."

Haynes said those types of regulations would draw not only tourists, but black-market dealers looking to operate under the cover of the state's marijuana laws.

"Colorado will just become a magnet for pot dealers," she said.

Haynes said businesses would be reluctant to move to the state if it is known for marijuana.

Aldworth, though, said regulation would make it easier to identify those acting illegally. And she disputed suggestions that Colorado's image would suffer if voters pass Amendment 64.

"The notion that Colorado's brand would be negatively impacted by Amendment 64 is not supported by any careful analysis," she said. "It's 'Reefer Madness' scare tactics."

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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After string of quarterbacks, Broncos finally have their man in Peyton Manning

So this is how quarterback is played. Peyton Manning has taught Broncos fans more in six games about the craft of playing quarterback than Brian Griese, Jake Plummer, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow did in the previous 13 seasons combined. Playing quarterback is not about having Cutler-like arm strength. It's not necessarily about Plummer-like mobility, or Tebow-ish athleticism.

Manning can skip over prone, pass rushers with the best of them, as he showed Monday night against the San Diego Chargers. "Luke Richesson was proud of that one," Manning said in reference to the Broncos' strength-and-conditioning coach who incorporates jump roping into the quarterback's program, but mostly he demonstrates that quarterback play is

about vision.

Quarterback play is about intense preparation that allows Manning to know where up to five receivers will be on any given pass route. It's about having a mind that can process quickly enough to look at the first receiver, feet chopping, spot the second receiver, feet chopping, look over to the slot receiver and tight end, chop, chop, chop, and then realize tailback Willis McGahee is all by himself in the left flat.

"That's one where you do a progression drill in practice every day," Manning said Wednesday before heading off to enjoy the bye week. "You see guys, they hold two hands up if they're open, one hand up if they're not. So you work on that."

That 31-yard pass play to McGahee in the first half of the Broncos' remarkable 35-24 comeback victory against San Diego took very little arm. It required zero mobility.

It took a quarterback so well-prepared that Manning knew where McGahee would be if all his primary targets were covered. It took composure to not panic as he scanned the field standing in the pocket.

"I was saying, 'Eat it! Eat it!' " said Champ Bailey, the Broncos' all-pro cornerback who was watching from the sideline. "Then he throws it out there and there's Willis."

It takes the kind of field vision where only the quarterback could see that McGahee was wide open.

"To me, it's about trying to move the chains," Manning said. "Whether it's about the little 5-yard checkoff, or throwing that — what was that pass to (Eric) Decker, 35, 38 yards in the air? Whatever it was, I have gotten over that. I feel like it's about trying to move the ball. We have been pretty selective in our shots down the field. I think we're second in the league in 20-yard plays but they haven't all been bombs. I feel like at my age, the (neck) injury, I have to be good on the intermediate throws and be good on your progressions."

His best numbers

Manning is not only back

from his neck injury, the numbers say he is better than ever. He just became the first quarterback ever — first ever — to throw for 300 yards, three touchdowns and complete at least 70 percent of his passes in three consecutive games. His latest work of quarterback artistry turned a 24-0 halftime deficit into a stunning victory that earned Manning his NFL-record 22nd AFC offensive player of the week honor.

Manning's six-game start with his new team is the third-best, six-game start in his 15-year career, as measured in passing statistics.

Sure, Bronco fans were optimistic they were getting Manning circa 2004, when the former Indianapolis Colt signed with their team in March. But that wasn't reality. Reality was Manning coming back from a year-long neck injury, with a new team, at 36 years old.

He wasn't supposed to be this good, this soon. Yet, the numbers say optimism was reality.

"I'm still trying to taper the expectations," Manning said. "I know we've done some good things at times offensively. I feel like we have found some plays that everybody likes. Some plays that I like and (offensive coordinator Mike) McCoy has figured out what those are, call these against certain coverages and we can make something happen. That's a comfortable feeling as a quarterback with a receiver.

"But I'm still trying to lower the bar of expectations so we can keep getting better. I don't feel like 2004. I still feel like there's new players and still think there's some things where me and the receivers can improve on and things I can still improve on."

When this season began and Manning was returning from a one-year layoff because of a neck injury that required four surgeries — four! — to repair, his arm strength, or lack thereof, had been the NFL's most discussed topic for several months. Six games into Manning's comeback season, arm strength is right there with mobility, or lack thereof: They're irrelevant. It's like saying Manning doesn't throw well with his left hand.

What difference does it make?

"I didn't know what to expect because I couldn't find anybody that really had the same deal," Manning said. "(Tom) Brady and Carson Palmer had ACLs and there is a standard set with those injuries. All these trainers say this is where you should be at this point. There were a couple guys — Brad Johnson had something sort of like it. Chris Weinke had something sort of like it. John Lynch had something like it — if I could play safety it might be a little easier. I was kind of creating my own bar."

Nerves take time

When an athlete goes through four surgeries to repair one body part, the assumption is the first three didn't take and the doctor who performed the fourth sliced to the rescue.

"No, the surgeries were about fixing my issues with the neck, but the nerves — there's no surgery for nerves," Manning said. "That's been the issue and that's been rehab and the No. 1 thing doctors tell you on that is time. It's not a rep thing. Which is hard because when you get an ACL, you say, 'Hey I can do 10 more pounds.' With a nerve thing it's time.

"We're still learning as far as rehab and recovery but ultimately it's about what you do on the field from a performance standpoint. There's still some things that I wish would be easier."

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055, mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Presidential debate puts women's issues at forefront of campaign

MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio — Republican nominee Mitt Romney's comment during the second presidential debate that he had received "binders full of women" as Massachusetts governor when he requested more female job candidates went viral Wednesday, fueling a broader fight between the two campaigns over the key support of women.

Romney's remark was just a sliver of the discussion Tuesday night about issues relevant to women, as the candidates tussled over subjects such as contraception and unequal pay. The battle escalated Wednesday, as President Barack Obama worked to reclaim his advantage among women — and as the Romney campaign returned to its core argument that the Republican is better suited to manage women's top concern, the economy.

Campaigning in Iowa, Obama ridiculed his opponent. "I've got to tell you, we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women, ready to learn and teach in these fields right now," he said.

Romney, at a stop in Chesapeake, Va., revisited a question from the debate about the gender pay gap, saying that answers women want to hear about the economy are coming from him, not from Obama.

"This is a presidency that has not helped America's women. And as I go across the country and ask women, 'What can I do to help?' what they speak about day in and day out is 'Help me find a good job, or a good job for my spouse,' " Romney said. "That's what the women of America are concerned about. And the answers are coming from us and not from Barack Obama."

Renewed focus

Although the candidates have courted female voters all year, they are renewing their attention to the demographic as polls show the race tightening. Some surveys indicate that Obama's once-sizable advantage among women has slipped.

Romney shifted his emphasis Tuesday on at least one issue relevant to women, saying "every woman in America should have access to contraceptives."

He objects to Obama's policy that requires employers to pay for contraception as part of health-insurance coverage, an issue important to conservatives who consider it an infringement on the rights of religious institutions. But he did not mention that and instead focused on the undisputed issue of access, as he appeared to be trying to present a more moderate face in the closing weeks before the election.

The Romney campaign also debuted an ad this week that tries to soften his image. The spot, called "Sarah," features a young woman who says Obama's ads accusing Romney of wanting to ban all abortions and contraception "concerned" her.

"So I looked into it," she says. "Turns out, Romney doesn't oppose contraception at all. In fact, he thinks abortion should be an option in cases of rape, incest or to save a mother's life."

The Obama campaign is working to blunt shifts among women in swing states. White House senior adviser David Plouffe, traveling to Iowa after the debate, previewed the team's plan to argue that Romney is on the wrong side of women's issues, such as his support for the Blunt Amendment, which allows employers not to pay for birth control if they have a moral objection to doing so.

"Mitt Romney: Wrong for American Women," read a news release from the campaign late Wednesday. During stops that day, Obama wore a pink bracelet for breast cancer awareness.

In the Tuesday night face-off, Romney emphasized his record of hiring women, saying a key to doing so for top jobs was allowing family-friendly work hours.

"I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce, that sometimes you need to be more flexible," he said, recalling that his gubernatorial chief of staff had two school-age children. "She said, 'I can't be here until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o'clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school.' So we said, 'Fine. Let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you.' "

Obama spoke about growing up with a single, working mother and a working grandmother who trained men for jobs that paid more than hers. He also talked about signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 — which made it easier for women to file lawsuits alleging pay discrimination — as one of his first actions in office.

Contradictory data

Polling about where women stand in the race has been a point of controversy, with seemingly contradictory data pouring in each day.

Two recent surveys — a national Pew poll after the first debate and a more recent USA Today-Gallup survey in 12 battleground states — had Obama and Romney tied among female voters, something that would be a historic shift away from a gender gap that has helped Democrats in recent elections.

A Quinnipiac University poll in Pennsylvania released Tuesday had Romney closing in on Obama there, but had the president with an 18-point advantage among women who are likely to vote. But a new poll from Marquette University Law School shows Romney making big gains in Wisconsin, entirely by winning over women.

In the new Washington Post-ABC News national poll, 51 percent of women back Obama and 44 percent support Romney, with the 7-point margin a numerical, but not statistically significant, advantage for Obama.

Copyright 2012 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

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Civic Center becomes Denver's 1st National Historic Landmark

 Historically, Denver was the Queen City of the Plains, and Wednesday its centerpiece park became a jewel in the nation's crown.

Denver's Civic Center has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior, the first such designee in Denver and one of three sites in Colorado to join the list this year.

The extension of the 64-mile stretch of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad through the San Juan Mountains and Big Spring Creek in Saguache County also joined the list.

"Each of these landmarks represents another thread in the great tapestry of our national park system that tells the story of our beautiful land, our diverse culture and our nation's rich heritage," U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado, said in a statement.

The downtown park becomes the first Denver site among 22 other national landmarks in Colorado that have been designated since the landmarks program began in 1935.

The 27 new entries join 2,527 national historic landmarks and 592 national natural landmark sites.

Sites are chosen based on their "exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States," associated with a turning point in American history

Civic Center is one of Denver's most beautiful and historic locations, hosting presidents, protestors and festivals since 1886 in the space between state, city and county buildings downtown. After he was elected mayor in 1904, Robert Speer used the grounds as a focal point for his "City Beautiful," an urban-planning trend in major cities at the beginning of the 20th century.

Only a handful of such parks were completed, and Denver's downtown gathering place remains a glorious example of the City Beautiful movement's intent, to deliver "beautification and monumental grandeur in cities to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations," according to the Park Service

The San Juan Extension in Conejos and Archuleta counties, was part of the original 1,000-mile Denver & Rio Grande Railroad network and was named a landmark because it represents "the country's longest and most complete representation of late 19th- and early 20th-century railroading, and the best surviving example of the American railroad at its peak of national influence, roughly 1870 to 1930," the National Park Service stated.

Big Spring Creek, just west of Great Sand Dunes National Park, northeast of Alamosa, is a stream fed from an underwater aquifer. Along with its wetlands, it supports "a diversity of rare species and plant communities in an otherwise arid landscape," according to the Department of Interior.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch

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Colorado school experts examine whether giving cash for AP scores works

There's a reward waiting for Moises Banuelos if he passes the standardized tests in three Advanced Placement classes he's taking this semester at Denver's Abraham Lincoln High School: $100 for each qualifying score.

"It shows that hard work pays off," said Banuelos, 16, who hopes to receive the money from a program channeled through the Colorado Legacy Foundation. "If you really study your butt off and get a good turn out, it should be recognized with an incentive."

As educators continue to debate the effectiveness — or even the propriety — of using financial rewards to boost academic achievement, Colorado has moved forward, and the National Math and Science Initiative-backed program soon will operate in 30 schools.

It aims to increase participation among students who traditionally don't enroll in AP classes. Already, it has posted big gains in some schools that regard it as a cost-effective way to advance achievement.

"What we found was that the small cash incentive of $100 for each qualifying score will get your attention," said Heather Fox, spokeswoman for the Colorado Legacy Foundation. "But you have to want to do the work. It's a huge commitment on the part of the students."

But the basic question, says Tony Lewis of the reform-minded Donnell-Kay Foundation, is what constitutes the primary motivator in education.

"When students are provided rigorous, relevant, exciting curricula, that's the motivator, not money," Lewis said. "To think that we could turn it on its head through economics, I don't think is right — or fundamentally works."

More than money

NMSI has pumped nearly $80 million into the program in 462 schools in nine states, but the group's senior vice president, Gregg Fleisher, says incentives alone don't make it work. A mix of teacher training and student support, including weekend study sessions, constitute the majority of the investment. Students generally have the $89 per test cost covered, as well.

But incentives do drive students to make "appropriate choices" and ultimately help change the academic culture within a school, he said.

"We don't want to give the message that you get paid for doing what you're supposed to be doing — but for achieving something difficult," Fleisher said. "They have to work hundreds of hours to get $100 in August."

Incentive for achievement is "consistent in the academic landscape," he said. "We can do it the old-fashioned way, with trying to recruit students, encouraging them, having campaigns to get them to take this. But the incentives help us accelerate change in the culture in those schools.

"Once they're in those classes, it's all about the attainment. Nobody ever mentions the incentives."

Michaela Taylor, 17, and a senior at Widefield High School near Colorado Springs, jumped into the school's AP program — before she knew about the cash incentives — because she felt it gave her an edge in the college admissions process.

She recently received a check for $200. Although she plans to put it toward college books, she has seen classmates use the cash for everything from savings to a down payment on a car.

And this year, she's taking five AP classes.

Without the incentive, she said, "I feel there would not be as many kids taking, let alone passing, AP classes. I don't look at it as bribery."

As an economist who has turned her attention to education, Kristin Klopfenstein has no philosophical objection to incentives for students — as long as the incentives work.

But the problem with the cash payments in the AP program, which she has studied virtually from its inception in Texas in the late 1990s, is that the data don't show those incentives necessarily lead to better results.

Klopfenstein, now the executive director of the Education Innovation Institute at the University of Northern Colorado, examined the program in Texas expecting to publish a paper confirming the conventional wisdom that the incentives worked.

"But once I controlled for other courses that were taken, the resources of the school, other characteristics, it was quite easy to make the AP effect go away," she said.

The problem with research supporting the AP program, she added, is that most studies haven't controlled for other variables, so there's no way to know whether the incentives are responsible for the bump. Plus, the schools chosen for the AP program aren't randomly selected.

One study, by Harvard economist Roland Fryer, remains what she considers the "gold standard" of a randomized control trial. That study handed out $6.3 million to about 20,000 students at 261 urban schools to gauge the effect of incentives on achievement.

It found that achievement didn't improve as a result of direct payments, but students responded more favorably to "input" incentives. In other words, incentives that encouraged students to do the kinds of things that lead to better results — such as reading books — are more effective than incentives for an end result like test scores.

Although Klopfenstein says proponents of the AP program are "fighting the good fight," she remains unconvinced that the incentives work, or even that the professional development provided to teachers in the program is adequate.

"At heart, I'm an empiricist. Show me the data," she said. "And the data I've seen has yet to convince me that it's anything other than these are the kids who would have done well anyway, or they're in a setting where there were other reforms happening."

Teacher incentives

In the NMSI program, teachers also earn $100 per passing score. At Widefield, the average reward has been about $2,000, assistant principal for curriculum and instruction Megan Houtchins said.

But she adds that she considers the money a nice recognition for the extra hours they put in — not a game-changer.

Maureen Blunt, who has taught AP classes at Widefield for 12 years, sees the cash as an expression of commitment from the sponsoring organizations.

"But I can say for myself and those I know well," Blunt said, "the same work would be put in without the incentive."

In her AP literature and composition classes, Blunt sees a group of students already highly motivated. She figures that it isn't the cash that's driving the program.

"You don't win the tournament to get the trophy," she said. "That $100 is not going to be make-or-break for these kids, but it's a little trophy with their name on it."

Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739, ksimpson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ksimpsondp

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3 arrested in deaths of 5 at Fero's Bar & Grill in Denver

Denver police have arrested three suspects — including two brothers and a parolee — in the deaths of five people whose bodies were found inside a Denver bar after a fire was set.

The bodies were found about 1:50 a.m. Wednesday by firefighters responding to a blaze at Fero's Bar & Grill, 357 S. Colorado Blvd., according to the Denver Police Department.

Investigators arrested Dexter Bernard Lewis, 22; Joseph Hill, 27; and Lynell Jonathan Hill, 24, on Wednesday night about 11 p.m., Denver police

announced Thursday morning.

"It appears the motive of this crime was a robbery," said Ron Saunier, Denver Police Department's major crimes unit commander. "The arson was set to try to cover up the crime."

The victims have been identified as: Young Suk Fero, 63, the owner of the business; Daria M. Pohl, 22, of Denver; Kellene Fallon, 45, of Denver; Ross Richter, 29; and Tereasa Beesley, 45, of Denver.

Saunier said he does not know which of the victims were employees and which were customers.

Tae Moon Park, Fero's brother, says police have told him his sister was shot before the bar was set on fire.

Saunier said all three suspects will face five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of felony murder, aggravated robbery and arson. He said he does not believe that anyone who had been in the bar when the robbery began managed to escape. All customers and employees were killed.

Lewis was serving a parole term for a 2009 felony menacing case out of Jefferson County, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. He had been arrested June 22, 2009, for numerous charges including assault, robbery, menacing and assaulting a police officer. The robbery count was dismissed and he was sentenced to three years in prison for menacing with a weapon.

Lewis was charged with a misdemeanor sexual assault charge in 2008.

Lynell Hill also had a criminal record. In 2010, he was charged with third-degree assault in Arapahoe County. He was given a deferred sentence to a reduced charge of harassment.

On April 24, 2011, he was charged with third-degree assault, reckless endangerment, careless driving and driving while his license was suspended.

Lewis was taken into custody in the 8300 block of East Colfax Avenue, police said, and Joseph and Lynell Hill, who are brothers, were arrested in the 4800 block of Quebec Street.

Saunier said that the suspects entered Fero's shortly before the bar's 2 a.m. closing time.

They lit the bar on fire before they left the building.

The fire was burning for 15 to 20 minutes before firefighters arrived at the scene, he said.

He said he couldn't comment on whether the robbery was gang- or drug-related. He added that the investigation is in the beginning stages and that he could not discuss evidence.

Saunier did not explain how the evidence pointed to the three suspects. He said authorities do not believe there are other suspects linked to the crime.

Denver Police Chief Robert White began the Thursday morning news conference by saying he was "elated" that his police officers were able to arrest the suspects in the case.

White thanked the numerous people in the city who phoned in tips to investigators. He said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshal's Service assisted on the case.

"We think this is an isolated event," White said. "There is still much work to be done."

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or twitter.com/kmitchellDP

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Missing Centennial son arrested with body parts in back seat

 After a car that was eluding Greenwood Village police crashed at East Orchard Road and South Dayton Street early Wednesday, officers made a shocking discovery in the back seat: the dismembered remains of a woman.

After a short chase on foot, Ari Misha Liggett, 24, of Centennial was arrested.

The woman whose body was found in the car has not yet been identified, but before the crash, Liggett and his 56-year-old mother had been reported missing. Their family had asked people to check on them Monday, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday night.

His mother's name was not released, but public records show the home is owned by Beverly A. Liggett, a registered nurse.

Authorities used credit-card

information to learn that at least one of the two had traveled to Colorado's Western Slope early Tuesday.

About 30 minutes before Wednesday's crash, a vehicle similar to the one driven by the family was seen driving past their home in the 6200 block of East Peakview Drive, and area law enforcement was alerted.

About 1:50 a.m. Wednesday, a Greenwood Village police officer tried to pull over the vehicle.

Liggett is being held without bond in the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office Detention Facility on suspicion of first-degree murder.

The sheriff's department said an earlier search of the family's home turned up a quantity of what appeared to be potassium cyanide, a poisonous compound, although laboratory tests have not yet been concluded.

Liggett has been in the news before.

In March 2010, he caused a seven-hour evacuation of a homeless shelter in Boulder after bringing in a suspicious chemical in his suitcase. The chemical was never publicly identified, and Liggett was not charged with a hazardous-material violation. Instead he was arrested on a warrant alleging possession of a dangerous weapon from Arapahoe County.

He pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in December and received a four-year deferred sentence and one year of probation, records show.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch

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