Oscar Wilde's house up for sale for 1.29m pounds

LONDON: The family house of literary wit, playwright and gay icon, Oscar Wilde, where he wrote most of his famous plays, is up for sale for a whopping 1.29 million pounds.

Wilde moved to the tall, red brick house in Tite Street, Chelsea during 1884 with his new wife, Constance, when the street was distinctly bohemian, full of painters and writers.

Today the street is among the most expensive addresses in the UK, 'The Telegraph' reported.

Wilde sharpened his wit in a buttercup-yellow room on the ground floor and wrote his scandalous novel 'The Picture of Dorian Grey', and plays including 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'A Woman of No Importance', 'An Ideal Husband' and 'The Importance of Being Earnest'.

The same ground floor, now a flat with one big bedroom, scrubbed oak floors and high ceilings, is up for sale for 1.295 million pounds, with the estate agent John D Wood.

"It isn't a high price in the context of the street," says Robert Green, the estate agent handling the sale.

"You could spend over 15 million pounds on a substantial house here, and there was a smaller one for sale at 4.95 million pounds at the end of last year. We think it could go to an overseas buyer who wants a pied-a-terre in a smart part of Chelsea, with Gordon Ramsa's flagship restaurant in Royal Hospital Road just round the corner," said Green.

Wilde eventually left Tite Street in 1895 after one of the great trials in British literary history.

Angry at Wilde's love affair with his son, Lord Alfred Douglas, accused him of homosexuality.

Wilde sued him for libel but found himself prosecuted for homosexuality, damned himself by his replies during cross-examination about "the love that dare not speak its name" and was imprisoned in Reading Gaol.

Wilde emerged a broken man and died in exile in Paris in 1900, the report said.

In the late 19th century, the street, which nudges along the Thames Embankment, was full of creative minds.

John Singer Sargent kept a house and studio in the house, James McNeill Whistler too, and Augustus John lived there between 1940 and 1958. Portrait painter Frank Miles also lived in the house.

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Pak-Afghan strategic accord talks begin

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan today began negotiations on a Strategic Partnership Agreement even as Kabul called on Islamabad to take more steps, including the release of Taliban detainees, to push forward the troubled peace process in the war-torn country.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar presented a draft of the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) to her Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul during a meeting at the Foreign Office this afternoon.

Both ministers told a news conference after their talks that they would like the pact to be signed as soon as possible though Rassoul made it clear that such an agreement required "full trust" between the two sides.

"The issue is that you cannot sign a SPA where there is not full trust and confidence between the two countries. I think you are reaching that grade now," he said in response to a question about conditions set by President Hamid Karzai for the pact.

Rassoul said his discussions with Khar marked the "first step" in paving the way for signing the agreement.

Khar said that both sides had started the journey towards finalising the agreement, which was first suggested by Karzai during a trilateral meeting with the US in September.

Karzai had angered Pakistan in October by demanding that it should stop backing terrorists as a condition for negotiating the SPA.

At that time, the Foreign Office had described Karzai's comments as "entirely misplaced and without any basis".

During the news conference, Rassoul acknowledged that a list of Afghan Taliban detainees whose release has been sought by Kabul had figured in his talks with Khar. However, he did not give details.

Referring to the release of about a dozen mid-ranking Taliban detainees by Pakistan earlier this month, Rassoul said: "This is a time for continued action. Therefore I hope that we will continue with implementing other concrete measures in a timely manner in pushing the peace process forward as outlined in the peace process roadmap we have shared with the government of Pakistan".

He said that "all those who can help advance the peace process (should) go free" so that the "Afghan government and Taliban can engage".

While Kabul will continue working with all its allies to facilitate reconciliation, the peace process must be led by the Afghans, Rassoul said.

"The peace process should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. If not, there is no peace," he asserted.

Khar reiterated Pakistan's position that it is committed to backing an Afghan-led process.

"There is no doubt that Pakistan is walking the talk of supporting at all costs an Afghan-led, Afghan-driven and Afghan-owned process of peace and reconciliation," she said.

Issues like the release of prisoners, safe passage for those participating in the peace process, facilitation of contacts by Pakistan were "discussed thoroughly", she said.

Elaborating on Pakistan's role, Khar said Islamabad could not "be more than" a facilitator to "whatever future the Afghans choose for themselves".

Impressions that Pakistan had "favourites" in Afghanistan or had intentions of controlling the peace process were "historic hangovers", she contended.

Khar and Rassoul also announced that the two sides would operationalise a joint commission to address the issue of releasing prisoners held in both countries and work towards extending the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement to Tajikistan.

They said a conference of ulema (Islamic scholars) will be held in Kabul at the end of January to boost the Afghan peace process.

The two ministers said their discussions had also focussed on narcotics control, steps to counter terrorism and extremism and tensions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border caused by insurgent raids and shelling.

Rassoul said peace in both countries was closely linked and Pakistan had an "especially central and crucial role" in advancing the Afghan peace process.

He further said Afghanistan will not allow its soil to be used for terrorism against Pakistan.

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Bangladeshi politician hacked to death

DHAKA: A 53-year-old politician from the Awami League party has been hacked to death by unidentified men, a media report said on Friday.

Sujanur Rahman Sujan, the youth and sports secretary of the party's Bogra district unit, was killed on Thursday night, the Daily Star said.

Police said the attackers swooped down on Sujan while he was returning home and hacked him with sharp weapons, leaving him critically wounded.

Locals took him to a hospital where a doctor declared him dead.

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In Egypt, fears of 'second revolution'

CAIRO: Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers.

Activists warn that his actions threaten a "second revolution," but Mohammed Morsi faces a different situation than his ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak: He was democratically elected and enjoys the support of the nation's most powerful political movement.

Already, Morsi is rushing the work of an Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly at the heart of the power struggle, with a draft of the charter expected as early as Thursday, despite a walkout by liberal and Christian members that has raised questions about the panel's legitimacy.

The next step would be for Morsi to call a nationwide referendum on the document. If adopted, parliamentary elections would be held by the spring.

Wednesday brought a last-minute scramble to seize the momentum over Egypt's political transition. Morsi's camp announced that his Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists will stage a massive rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the plaza where more than 200,000 opposition supporters gathered a day earlier.

The Islamists' choice of the square for Saturday's rally raises the possibility of clashes. Several hundred Morsi opponents are camped out there, and another group is fighting the police on a nearby street.

"It is tantamount to a declaration of war," said liberal politician Mustafa al-Naggar, speaking on the private Al-Tahrir TV station.

Morsi remains adamant that his decrees, which place him above oversight of any kind, including by the courts, are in the interest of the nation's transition to democratic rule.

Backing down may not be an option for the 60-year-old US-educated engineer.

Doing so would significantly weaken him and the Brotherhood at a time when their image has been battered by widespread charges that they are too preoccupied with tightening their grip on power to effectively tackle the country's many pressing problems.

Morsi's pride is also a key factor in a country where most people look to their leader as an invincible figure.

He may not be ready to stomach another public humiliation after backing down twice since taking office in June. His attempt to reinstate parliament's Islamist-dominated lower chamber after it was disbanded in July by the Supreme Constitutional Court was overturned by that same court. Last month, Morsi was forced to reinstate the country's top prosecutor just days after firing him when the judiciary ruled it was not within his powers to do so.

Among Morsi's first acts after seizing near-absolute powers last week was to fire the prosecutor again.

Unlike last year's anti-Mubarak uprising, calls for Morsi's ouster have so far been restricted to zealous chants by protesters, with the opposition focusing its campaign on demands that he rescind his decrees, disband the constitutional panel and replace it with a more inclusive one, and fire the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.

"There is no practical means for Morsi's ouster short of a coup, which is very, very unlikely," said Augustus Richard Norton, a Middle East expert from Boston University.

Still, the opposition, whose main figures played a key role in the anti-Mubarak uprising, may be tempted to try to force Morsi from office if they continue to draw massive crowds like Tuesday's rally, which rivaled some of the biggest anti-Mubarak demonstrations. They will also likely take advantage of the growing popular discontent with Morsi's government and the fragility of his mandate — he won just 51 percent of the vote in a presidential election fought against Mubarak's last prime minister.

With the country still reeling from the aftershocks of the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak's 29-year regime, activists and analysts warn that any escalation carries the risk of a second, and possibly bloody, revolution — pitting Islamists against non-Islamists, including liberals, women and minority Christians.

Ominous signs abound. Anti-Morsi crowds have attacked at least a dozen offices belonging to the Brotherhood across the nation since last week. Clashes between the two sides have left at least two dead and hundreds wounded.

The violence and polarization has led to warnings from some newspaper columnists and the public at large of the potential for "civil war."

"As opposed to seeking face-saving compromises, (escalation by Morsi) would indicate starkly that Egypt's leaders have increasingly come to understand the current moment in zero-sum terms," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation.

"Beyond the political dangers it poses, the move will increase the risks that the contests for power will spill over into the streets, with civil strife a real possibility."

While potentially destabilizing, Morsi's tug-of-war with the liberal opposition pales in comparison to his battle with the powerful judiciary, which considers the president's decrees an unprecedented assault on its authority.

On Wednesday, judges of the nation's highest appeals court and its lower sister court went on strike to protest the decrees, joining hundreds of other judges who have not worked since Sunday.

The Supreme Constitutional Court, which is to rule Sunday on the legality of the constitutional panel and parliament's upper chamber — both dominated by Morsi's Brotherhood and other Islamists — admonished the president for accusing it of trying to bring down his government.

The loss of the judiciary's goodwill could prove costly for Morsi.

Already, the judges are warning that, unless their demands are met, they will not assume their traditional role of supervising a referendum on a new constitution or the parliamentary elections that would follow. Without them, the legitimacy of any vote would be in question.

"This is the highest form of protest," said Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession. "The judges felt that the constitutional declaration has taken away from them the dearest and most important mandates" — oversight of government decisions.

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UN set to recognise Palestinian state

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government.

A Palestinian resolution that would change the Palestinian Authority's UN observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation UN General Assembly.

Israel, the United States and a handful of other members are planning to vote against what they see as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been leading the campaign to win support for the resolution, and over a dozen European governments have offered him their support after an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.

The US State Department said on Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and US Middle East peace envoy David Hale traveled to New York on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider.

The Palestinians gave no sign they were turning back.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated to reporters in Washington on Wednesday the US view that the Palestinian move was misguided and efforts should focus instead on reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.

"The path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," she said. "The only way to get a lasting solution is to commence direct negotiations."

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated US warnings that the move could lead to a reduction of US economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might take significant deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

'SLAP IN THE FACE'

Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full UN membership - something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it would allow them access to the International Criminal Court and some other international bodies, should they choose to join them.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian Liberation Organization official, told a news conference in Ramallah that "the Palestinians can't be blackmailed all the time with money."

"If Israel wants to destabilize the whole region, it can," she said. "We are talking to the Arab world about their support, if Israel responds with financial measures, and the EU has indicated they will not stop their support to us."

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world.

In their draft resolution, the Palestinians have pledged to relaunch the peace process immediately following the UN vote.

As there is little doubt about how the United States will vote when the Palestinian resolution to upgrade its UN status is put to a vote sometime after 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the Palestinian Authority has been concentrating its efforts on lobbying wealthy European states, diplomats say.

With strong support from the developing world that makes up the majority of UN members, the Palestinian resolution is virtually assured of securing more than the requisite simple majority. Palestinian officials hope for over 130 yes votes.

Abbas has been trying to amass as many European votes in favor as possible.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland had all pledged to support the Palestinian resolution. Britain said it was prepared to vote yes, but only if the Palestinians fulfilled certain conditions.

Diplomats said the Czech Republic was expected to vote against the move, although other Europeans might join it. Germany said it could not support the Palestinian resolution, but left open the question of whether it would abstain, like Estonia and Lithuania, or vote no with the Czechs.

Ashrawi said the positive responses from European states were encouraging and sent a message of hope to all Palestinians.

"This constitutes a historical turning point and opportunity for the world to rectify a grave historical injustice that the Palestinians have undergone since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948," she said.

A strong backing from European nations could make it awkward for Israel to implement harsh retaliatory measures. Diplomats say Israel wants to avoid antagonizing Europe. But Israel's reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.

Israel also seems wary of weakening the Western-backed Abbas, especially after the political boost rival Hamas received from recent solidarity visits to Gaza by top officials from Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia.

Hamas militants, who control Gaza and have had icy relations with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, unexpectedly offered Abbas their support earlier this week.

One Western diplomat said the Palestinian move was almost an insult to recently re-elected US President Barack Obama.

"It's not the best way to convince Mr. Obama to have a more positive approach toward the peace process," a Western diplomat planning to vote for the Palestinian resolution said. "Three weeks after his election, it's basically a slap in the face."

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UN tribunal acquits Kosovo ex-PM of war crimes

THE HAGUE: The UN Yugoslav war crimes court on Thursday acquitted Kosovo's ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and two aides in a retrial on charges of murder and torture during the 1990s war of independence from Belgrade.

"The chamber finds you not guilty on all counts in the indictment," Judge Bakone Justice Moloto told the Hague-based court, ordering the men released in a decision that is certain to enrage Belgrade.

The court's public gallery erupted in cries of joy as the acquittals were announced.

Haradinaj, 44 and Idriz Balaj, 41, were being retried on six war-crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly murdering and torturing Serbs and non-Albanians during the 1998-99 war.

The third accused, Lahi Brahimaj, 42, faced four counts for his role in the fight between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerillas and the Belgrade forces of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The proceedings were broadcast live on a giant screen in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where Haradinaj is considered a hero by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority who had high hopes of an acquittal.

Prosecutors accused the three men of murdering and torturing Serbs and suspected collaborators against the separatist KLA and had demanded at least 20 years prison for all three men.

But judges found that the accused had not taken part in a "joint criminal enterprise" to cleanse the area of ethnic Serbs, and that some witness testimony was unreliable.

Moloto said that one witness may not have been in the Jablanica detention camp where alleged abuses took place and "may have told what he heard from others."

Following one incident of abuse "a KLA soldier apologised for the incident and blamed it on extremist groups within the KLA," the judge said.

"There is no credible evidence that Haradinaj was even aware of the crimes committed at Jablanica," Moloto said.

An acquittal is almost certain to be perceived by Serbia as a new slap in the face after the court earlier this month acquitted Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes against Serbs.

Senior Serbian officials had warned that should Haradinaj walk, EU-sponsored talks between Pristina and Belgrade -- which still considers Kosovo to be its southern province -- could be jeopardised.

The most senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders to be tried, Haradinaj as well as Balaj, his lieutenant and commander of the feared "Black Eagles" unit, were acquitted in April 2008 on 37 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Brahimaj was convicted of torture and sentenced to six years in jail.

Judges however ordered the court's first-ever partial retrial for all three after UN prosecutors appealed the acquittal and Brahimaj's sentence.

Appeals judges said the ICTY's trial chamber "seriously erred in failing to take adequate measures to secure the testimony of certain witnesses" during the original 10-month trial.

Haradinaj -- who quit his job as prime minister after 100 days in office to hand himself over to the tribunal -- and Balaj returned to court for the verdict while Brahimaj was still in detention.

Haradinaj, who established the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo party after the conflict, has been on provisional release since May 10 and living at home in Pristina.

He is now likely to continue his political career in Kosovo and is expected to run again for prime minister.

His face adorns huge billboards all over Kosovo that read "the leader who keeps his words" and "forward with a clean slate."

However, he is still considered a war criminal by Belgrade and an arrest warrant has been issued against him by Serbia's war crimes prosecutor for his alleged crimes.

Oliver Antic, legal advisor to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, had warned that should Haradinaj be acquitted "it will surely jeopardise negotiations."

"Haradinaj's acquittal will distance us from reconciliation," he added.

The conflict in Kosovo ended when NATO forces intervened to stop a crackdown on ethnic Albanians by the troops loyal to Milosevic.

In one of the most brutal episodes of the Balkans conflicts in the 1990s, more than 10,000 people died in the fighting.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade fiercely opposes its international recognition.

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Blasts kill 38 in Syria, 2nd aircraft downed

JARAMANA, Syria: Simultaneous car bombings killed at least 38 people and left a trail of destruction in a town near Syria's capital on Wednesday, as rebels downed a military aircraft for a second straight day.

The explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak in a pro-regime neighbourhood of the mainly Christian and Druze town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.

The blasts ripped through a central square near a petrol station, sending residents fleeing in panic.

There was a ball of fire at the end of a narrow lane, and the impact of the explosions brought walls down onto cars, crushing them and scattering debris over the ground.

Pools of blood and severed body parts were on the streets, said an AFP photographer in the town.

The death toll mounted as the morning wore on, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights giving tallies of 20, then 29 and finally at least 38. The interior ministry put the count at 34.

"Activists and residents in the town said most of the victims were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his car, just after an explosive device was used to blow up another car," said the Observatory.

Residents rushed with the dozens of wounded to hospital, or to visit the homes of bereaved families.

"What do they want from Jaramana? The town brings together people from all over Syria and welcomes everybody," one of them told AFP.

Jarmana has now been targeted by four such bomb attacks in three months. It is home to predominantly Christians and Druze, an influential minority whose faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Sectarian divides are a key factor in Syria's armed rebellion, with many in the Sunni Muslim majority frustrated at more than 40 years of Alawite-dominated rule.

SANA reported that "terrorists" blew up the two car bombs at the same time, as two separate explosive devices were set off without claiming any lives.

The Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011 with peaceful pro-democracy protests, inspired by the Arab Spring. It transformed into an armed insurgency when the government began a bloody crackdown on dissent.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad, himself from the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam, insists it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".

The failure of international diplomacy has enabled it to press on with its all-out military campaign to crush the rebellion, and the fighting has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, according to the Observatory.

In the latest violence, an AFP correspondent on the Syria-Turkey border reported that rebel fighters shot down a fighter jet in the embattled northwest.

The warplane came down in a massive explosion, leaving behind a plume of smoke, the journalist said, reporting several kilometres (miles) away from where the jet was downed.

The aircraft was hit by a missile and crashed at Daret Ezza, said the Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information.

It came a day after rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time with a newly acquired ground-to-air missile, in what the Observatory said had the potential to change the balance of military power in the conflict.

The gunship was on a strafing run near the besieged northwestern base of Sheikh Suleiman, the last garrison in government hands between Syria's second city and the Turkish border.

Little more than a week ago, the rebels seized tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, 120-mm mortars and rocket launchers when they took the government forces' sprawling Base 46, about 12 kilometres (eight miles) west of Aleppo.

The rebels, a mix of military defectors and armed civilians, are vastly outgunned but analysts say they are now stretching thin the capabilities of Assad's war machine and its air supremacy by opening multiple fronts.

This was evident again on Tuesday, as rebels further tightened the noose around the key northern city of Aleppo, and violence across the country killed at least 132 people, 58 of them civilians, said the Observatory.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, regime warplanes carried out five raids in 15 minutes on Maaret al-Numan, a rebel-held town on the strategic Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Fighter jets also bombarded anti-regime town Daraya southwest of Damascus and the besieged, rebel-held neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh in the central city of Homs, dubbed by activists as "the capital of the revolution".

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Rice faces uphill battle to succeed Clinton after Senators' snub

WASHINGTON: Heat from powerful Republican lawmakers against her nomination has triggered off a spate of jokes playing on her last name, from fried Rice to boiled Rice to burnt Rice. But President Obama's move to elevate Susan Rice as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's replacement remained undercooked on Tuesday after she failed to win over three Republican Senators who said they remained troubled by her testimony on the Benghazi attack which killed four Americans including the US ambassador to Libya.

Rice went up the Hill on Tuesday to make her case before Senator John McCain and others who have threatened to block her nomination after they indicated they might relent if she could explain why she repeatedly said the attack was a result of spontaneous protests when it was a terrorist assault. But although Rice conceded she was wrong, and the President and his team has said she was only echoing the briefing points given to her by the administration in a fluid situation, the Senators did not relent. Instead, they dug in their heels. Her prospects of succeeding Clinton remain uphill.

"Bottom line, I'm more disturbed now than I was before [by] the 16 September explanation about how four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya, by Ambassador Rice," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said following the closed-door briefing also attended by acting CIA Director Michael Morrell, echoing his Republican colleague John McCain. Republicans would prefer Democratic Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State and have indicated their fellow lawmaker would have an easy confirmation.

In a statement following Tuesday's meeting, Rice acknowledged "there was no protest or demonstration" in Benghazi and conceded that she had relied on faulty briefing notes prepared by the intelligence community that underplayed the terrorist attack. "While we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved," she said. But the Republican senate guard was unimpressed by her explanation despite President Obama backing her and taking the blame for the fiasco.

The ball is now in President Obama's court on whether to press ahead with her nomination or save his energies for other taxing battles such as an agreement on the so-called fiscal cliff. Rice can clear the first step of the nomination process in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where Democrats have a simple majority, but she will need approval of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the 100-member full Senate to clinch the post. Democrats, with supporting Independents, have 55 and will need five Republican senators to win the battle.

While that may be possible with lobbying by Obama, the contentious process could undermine her position even if she wins.

Rice's setback was one of the two faced by the Obama administration on Tuesday ahead of its second term starting January. In another development, the administration's Special Representative for Af-Pak (SRAP) Marc Grossman announced he is leaving for the private sector.

Grossman, who was an undersecretary of state, was coaxed out of retirement and a private sector job to take over as SRAP in 2011 after the death of Richard Holbrooke. Nearly two years later, with the imminent departure of Hillary Clinton, the drawdown in Afghanistan, and the continuing flux in ties with Pakistan, Grossman reportedly told his staff this week that he would leave in December.

The Obama administration's Af-Pak policy itself has floundered between ostracizing Pakistan and tactically co-opting it to help with the US drawdown in Afghanistan. Washington appears to have virtually abandoned Islamabad to its own devices, literally, after inter-agency battles about how best to handle the troubled country.

In a recent interview, Cameron Munter, the former US envoy to Islamabad, related how he was at odds with Washington over US drone strikes inside Pakistan, going to the extent of clashing with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The account had both of then telling each other, "I don't work for you."

Munter's replacement, Richard Olson is attempting to rebuild bridges with Islamabad, promising a $ 150 million aid for a dam project on Tuesday even as Pakistan burned up a few more million in a nuclear-capable missile test. Meantime, the U.S military-intelligence agencies have held back from drone strikes for more than a month now. The last drone strike occurred on October 24.

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AIDS killed nearly 18,000 in China this year

BEIJING: Around 17,740 people have died in China this year due to AIDS, the country's health authority announced on Wednesday.

The figure from January to October is a 8.6 per cent increase year-on-year, Xinhua reported.

The ministry of health said 34,157 new AIDS cases were reported in China in the 10 months, up by 12.7 per cent year-on-year.

HIV cases have risen among people aged 15 to 24 and those over 50.

In total, China had 492,191 cases of HIV/AIDS by the end of October.

Sexual transmission has become the primary cause of the spread of HIV, and sex between men registered a sharp increase, the ministry said.

Of the new cases in the 10-month period, 85 per cent contracted the virus through sex.

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Increased activity at North Korean launch site

WASHINGTON: A new satellite image shows a marked increase in activity at a North Korean missile launch site, pointing to a possible long-range ballistic missile test by Pyongyang in the next three weeks, according to satellite operator DigitalGlobe Inc.

The imagery was released days after a Japanese newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, reported that US intelligence analysts had detected moves that were seen as preparation by North Korea for a long-range missile launch as early as this month.

DigitalGlobe, which provides commercial satellite imagery to the US government and foreign governments, on Monday released a new image that it said showed increased activity at North Korea's Sohae (West Sea) Satellite Launch Station.

It said the imagery showed more people, trucks and other equipment at the site, a level of activity that was consistent with preparations seen before North Korea's failed April 13 rocket launch.

"Given the observed level of activity noted of a new tent, trucks, people and numerous portable fuel/oxidizer tanks, should North Korea desire, it could possibly conduct its fifth satellite launch event during the next three weeks," DigitalGlobe said in a statement accompanying the image.

A Pentagon spokeswoman declined to comment on the reported satellite images, but said the Defense Department's position on North Korea's missile development efforts had not changed.

She urged North Korea to comply with UN Security Council resolutions that "require Pyongyang to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner, and re-establish its moratorium on missile launching."

North Korea, which carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is under heavy UN sanctions for its atomic weapons program, has tried for years to influence major events in South Korea by waging propaganda or armed attacks. South Korea is gearing up for a presidential election on December 19.

North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and regional powers have for years been trying to rein in the North's nuclear program.

North Korea is believed to be developing a long-range ballistic missile with a range of up to 4,200 miles aimed at hitting the continental United States but the last two rocket test launches failed.

In April, under its new leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea launched a rocket that flew just a few minutes covering a little over 60 miles before crashing into the sea between South Korea and China.

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Pak judge makes official stand for hours over a lie

LAHORE: In an action reminiscent of that of a school teacher punishing an errant student, a Pakistani judge made a government official stand up for hours in his courtroom for telling a lie.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court asked Muzaffarul Haq, a section officer of the Faisalabad district government, to stand in his courtroom for lying and for concealing facts about the appointment of a peon.

Petitioner Muhammad Irfan contended that he had applied for the post of peon in the city district government and only his name had appeared on the merit list issued by authorities.

However, officials ignored the merit list and appointed another person who had not even applied for the post, Irfan said.

At a previous hearing, Haq had told the judge that the name of the appointed person too was on the merit list.

During a hearing yesterday, the judge snubbed Haq for concealing facts and punished him for misleading the court.

The judge directed Haq to appear in court again on December 6 with the records of the case.

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Air strike kills 10 kids near Damascus

AMMAN: A Syrian government air strike on a rebel-held village near Damascus killed 10 children on Sunday as they played outdoors, opposition activists said, and video footage showed residents while collecting young bodies torn by shrapnel.

The children went out after a lull in fighting in Deir al-Asafir, a village 12km (8 miles) east of Damascus, when fighter jets struck, activists and residents said.

Video footage taken by activists showed the bodies of two young girls, one wearing purple, the other red, on the street in the village, with wounds to their neck and head. A sobbing woman picked up one of the girls up and hugged her lifeless body.

Another two dead boys, hit in the head and face, were shown on the backseat of a car. Men picked up the bodies of two other children while a larger body lay next to the front wheel of a vehicle.

"None of those killed were older than 15-year. There are two women among 15 people wounded, mostly hit as they were inside the courtyards of their houses," said Abu Kassem, an activist in the village told Reuters.

"There were no fighters inside Deir al-Asafir when the bombing occurred. They operate on the outskirts. This was indiscriminate bombing," he said.

Abu Kassem said the munitions dropped by the fighter jets were cluster bombs. Other footage showed a row of what appeared to be unexploded small bombs.

"We collected 70 of these so far," one man said. Syria has barred most reporters from the country making it hard to verify the report.

Syrian authorities made no comment on the report, but official media have said the army has been on the offensive to "cleanse" the area of what the government calles as terrorists.

Earlier this month, the U.N. political affairs chief told the Security Council of credible reports that the Syrian military has used cluster bombs in fighting the 20-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule.

The Syrian army has denied a Human Rights Watch report issued in October that Assad's forces have used cluster bombs, saying it did not possess such weapons.

Cluster bombs are banned under a 2010 U.N. treaty, though Syria, like Israel, Russia and the United States have not signed the pact.

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13 die in Pak after drinking cough syrup

LAHORE: Thirteen people have died in a main Pakistani city after drinking cough syrup suspected of being toxic, police said Monday.

The victims were all drug addicts who apparently drank the cough syrup in an attempt to get high, said police officer Multan Khan.

Khan said they died at various hospitals in the eastern city of Lahore over the past three days. Five other addicts who drank the cough syrup were being treated.

Police arrested the owners of three drug stores where the cough syrup was sold and sent a sample to determine whether it was toxic, said Khan.

Elsewhere in the country, a bomb hidden in a cement construction block exploded in the southern city of Karachi killing one person, said senior police officer Farooq Awan. Four other people were wounded, he said.

The bomb contained about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives and was detonated by a mobile phone, said Awan.

Pakistan suspended mobile phone service throughout most of the country on Saturday and Sunday to prevent attacks against Shiite Muslims during a major religious commemoration.

Despite the ban, a pair of bombings over the weekend killed at least 13 people.

Awan, the police officer, said he suspected the bomb in Karachi was meant to target Shiites over the weekend, but militants were not able to detonate it because of the mobile phone ban.

Shiites are currently observing the holy month of Muharram. Pakistani Shiites on Sunday marked Ashoura, the most important day of the month.

Pakistan has a long history of Sunni Muslim extremists targeting Shiites, who they consider heretics.

Also Monday, police in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, found and defused a bomb planted underneath the car of one of Pakistan's most prominent TV anchors, Hamid Mir of Geo Television.

The bomb was made up of half a kilogram (1 pound) of explosives stuffed in a tin can, said Islamabad police chief Bani Amin. It was placed in a bag and attached to the bottom of Mir's car, said Amin.

One of Mir's neighbors noticed the bomb underneath the car after the TV anchor returned from a local market, and the police were notified, said Rana Jawad, a senior official at Geo TV.

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Twin suicide attacks at Nigerian church kill 11

NIGERIA: Two suicide bombers targeted a church inside a military barrack in northern Nigeria today, killing at least 11 people and injuring several others as worshipers were returning after a Sunday mass.

The attack occurred at St Andrews Military Protestant Church located inside Armed forces command and Staff College in Jaji in the northern Kaduna state.

The blasts occurred in quick succession as the church was ending the service. The second blast occurred at the same spot minutes after the first one had rocked the area.

An officer described the incident as embarrassing because the bombers drove their way into a military cantonment without being detected.

Military spokesman Lt-Col Muhammed Dole told PTI that 11 people had died in the attack and 30 others were injured.

"The injured are receiving treatment at military hospitals both in Jaji and Kaduna. Investigation into the bombings have commenced," he said on phone.

Dole said the bombers struck after church services with the first car exploding inside the church premises, while the second bomb-laden car exploded outside with much casualties.

"Two suicide bombers exploded their bombs around 1200 hours today using two cars at St Andrew Military Protestant Church after the church services. One exploded inside the church premises and the second one exploded outside the church," he said.

Describing the scene of the attack, another military officer said that just as initial chaos was settling in after the first explosion and people started gathering to help out, the second bomber exploded his car right in the midst of the survivors.

Suspicion immediately fell on fundamentalist Islamic group, Boko Haram which has been carrying out series of bombings in northern Nigeria.

The government of President Goodluck Jonathan has sent a special Joint Task Force (JTF) made up of police and army personnel to fight the group that has vowed to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region.

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Nicolas Sarkozy's party battles to save itself

PARIS: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party is holding emergency meetings on Sunday to try to figure out who's in charge, after a disputed election for its new leader that could reshape French politics.

After a decade at the helm of one of the world's leading economies, the Union for a Popular Movement party is now in shambles and may fall apart altogether.

Central to the troubles is a debate among conservatives over immigration and Islam in France. The election a week ago split party members into those leaning toward the anti-immigrant far right, represented by Jean-Francois Cope, and those hewing to more centrist views, supporting Francois Fillon.

Cope, who led France's push to ban face-covering Islamic veils, was initially declared winner. But uncounted votes were then discovered that could swing the vote in Fillon's favor.

A UMP commission that handles vote disputes convened Sunday morning to discuss what to do. Then Fillon's team, arguing that the commission was weighted in Cope's favor, suspended its involvement around midday, the Sipa news agency reported.

Hopes focused on Sunday evening, when former Prime Minister Alain Juppe is to meet with both candidates to try to mediate a solution.

Juppe knows his task is nearly insurmountable.

Speaking on Europe-1 radio on Sunday, he said he is hoping to "cultivate a small flame of hope," though admitted "I have very few chances" of success.

"If this evening, Jean-Francois Cope and Francois Fillon do not accept what I propose ... I have no ability to impose it," he admitted.

Both Cope and Fillon want to lead opposition to Socialist President Francois Hollande — and run for president themselves in 2017. Since Sarkozy left office in May, France's presidency, parliament and most regional governments have all been under Socialist control.

France's politics weigh on Europe's direction, too. Hollande's Socialists have pushed against austerity plans for indebted countries that use the shared euro currency, and battled Britain over cutbacks in the European Union budget.

France's far right National Front is hoping to capitalize on the UMP's troubles and bring in new support from the more hard-right members of the conservative party. Meanwhile a new centrist party, UDI, has already reaped benefits from the drama, winning new members over the past week amid increasing disillusion with the divided UMP.

At the same time nostalgia for Sarkozy is on the rise, with many conservatives hoping he returns to politics — even though the former leader was named special witness in an investigation last week involving alleged illegal party financing that could see him face charges.

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Security bases bombed in Egypt's Sinai

ISMAILIA (EGYPT): Militants bombed security bases being built in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, injuring three people, authorities said, as the state tries to reassert control over territory that slipped from its grip after the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

A massive explosion partly destroyed the wall of a security base being built for border guards in the town of Rafah at the border with the Gaza Strip overnight, but without causing injuries.

Further south, three workers were injured by a separate blast that damaged a compound being built in Quseima for a different security agency responsible for guarding a pipeline that exports gas to Jordan, security sources said.

Hardline Islamist militant groups have expanded into a vacuum left by the collapse of state control in North Sinai during the uprising that overthrew Mubarak in February, 2011.

The state launched a concerted effort to reestablish control following an Aug. 5 attack in which 16 border guards were killed. But a Nov. 3 gun attack in which three policemen died underlined the challenge still facing the authorities.

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Five killed in second attack on Shias in Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A bomb killed at least five people and wounded 90 near a Shia procession in Pakistan on Sunday, police said, as the government struggles to stop a wave of attacks by sectarian Sunni militant groups determined to wipe out the minority sect and seize power.

Sunni hardliners threatened to strike hard this weekend, an important one in the Shia religious calendar, prompting authorities to halt cellphone coverage in several areas to prevent bombings triggered by remote control.

Authorities have also restricted motorcycle travel, hoping to deprive suicide bombers of one mode of transportation.

The wounded were carried away in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan, where a bomb targeting Shias killed at least seven people, including four children, on Saturday.

Pakistan's Taliban, who are focused on battling the state but are also allied with Sunni sectarian groups, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

"For Interior Minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik, who blocked mobile phones across the country and banned motorbikes, you can't stop our activities against the Shia community and security forces," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehasan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"We will keep continuing our activities and this is a failure of security forces, police and army that we have made successful attacks in Dera Ismail Khan."

Past attacks during the religious event have killed large numbers of Shias.

Sunday's bomb, planted in a shop near a street market, also wounded five security officials, said senior police official Malik Mushtaq.

Doctors at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan said five people were killed and 90 wounded. "There is a lack of ambulances and not enough hospital beds," said one. "People brought many of the injured to the hospital on rickshaws."

Hardline Sunni groups, which are becoming increasingly dangerous, have vowed to carry out more attacks as the Shia mourning month of Muharram comes to a climax on Sunday.

Security officials say organisations such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are stepping up attacks on Shias, who they regard as non-believers, in a bid to destabilise nuclear-armed, U.S. ally Pakistan and establish a Sunni theocracy.

Al Qaeda, which is close to LeJ, pushed Iraq to the brink of a sectarian civil war several years ago with large-scale suicide bombings of Shias.

More than 300 Shias have been killed in Pakistan so far this year in sectarian conflict, according to human rights groups. The campaign is gathering pace in rural as well as urban areas such as Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city.

Shias account for up to 20 percent of this nation of 180 million.

The growing death toll has discouraged some Shias from taking part in processions this year during one of their most sacred rituals, when people flagellate themselves with chains and other items to commemorate the martyrdom of the grandson of Islam's prophet, who was killed during the battle of Karbala.

"If I were to compare with last year, the fear has definitely increased," said Sadia Fatema, 28. "Just last night me and my mother were asking my father and brother if they really had to go to the procession. We are worried."

Others say the pressure has made Shias stand up to Sunni hardliners.

"There is fear, but there is also anger and defiance among Shias," said one, who asked not to be named.

"Shias never felt like a minority in Pakistan but now they are slowly being turned into a real minority. And Shias will not let this happen."

Washington, a critical source of financial aid for cash-strapped Pakistan, has been pressuring the South Asian nation to crack down on militants based in tribal areas who cross the border to attack American-led forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan, meanwhile, faces major domestic security challenges from a wide range of groups, including the Taliban, who capitalise on issues such as unemployment, official corruption and poverty to boost recruitment.

A series of army offensives has failed to break the back of militant groups based along the border with Afghanistan.

"Our children are being killed but the government is powerless," complained Shia Amina Bokhari. "What is the purpose of this security they claim to give us?"

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Thai anti-govt protesters clash with police

BANGKOK: Protesters calling for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down rallied in the heart of Bangkok on Saturday, clashing with police in the first major demonstration against the government since it came to power last year.

Although the rally site itself was peaceful, protesters on a nearby street tried and failed to break through a concrete police barricade, at one point ramming a truck into it. Both demonstrators and riot police lobbed tear gas canisters at each other.

Police spokesman Maj Gen Piya Utayo said five officers were injured in the skirmishes, two of them seriously. He said 130 demonstrators were detained, some of them carrying knives and bullets.

The demonstration underscores the simmering political divisions that have split the country since the army toppled Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 military coup, a move that triggered years of instability.

Saturday's rally was organized by a royalist group calling itself "Pitak Siam" or "Protect Thailand". Led by retired army Gen Boonlert Kaewprasit, the group accuses Yingluck's administration of corruption, ignoring insults to the revered monarchy and being a puppet of Thaksin.

Yingluck has taken the threats seriously, and accused demonstrators of seeking to overthrow her government, which came to power in mid-2011 after winning a landslide election. Earlier in the week, Yingluck ordered nearly 17,000 police deployed ahead of Saturday's rally and invoked a special security law, citing concerns it could turn violent.

Protest organizers had spoken of mobilizing hundreds of thousands of supporters. But by Saturday afternoon, only around 10,000 had turned up.

Speaking from the rally's central stage on Saturday, Boonlert vowed the demonstration would remain peaceful. But he said: "I promise that Pitak Siam will succeed in driving this government out."

He then led the crowd in a chant: "Yingluck, get out! Yingluck, get out!"

The rally was held at Bangkok's Royal Plaza, a public space near Parliament that has been used by protesters in the past.

Police allowed protesters into the site, and two roads leading to it were open. But in an effort to control access, they blocked roads on another street leading to Royal Plaza.

Protesters tried to break through the barriers in the morning, cutting through rings of barbed wire. They clashed with police in the area at least twice on Saturday.

While Pitak Siam is a newcomer to Thailand's protest scene, it is linked to the well-known "Yellow Shirt" protesters, whose rallies led to Thaksin's overthrow. The same movement later toppled a Thaksin-allied elected government after occupying and shutting down Bangkok's two airports for a week in 2008.

Thaksin remains an intensively divisive figure in Thai politics. The Yellow Shirts and their allies say he is corrupt and accuse him of seeking to undermine the popular constitutional monarch — charges Thaksin denies.

On Thursday, Yingluck's cabinet invoked an Internal Security Act in three Bangkok districts around the protest site. The act allows authorities to close roads, impose curfews and ban use of electronic devices in designated areas.

Since then, police have closed roads around Yingluck's office and Government House, and boosted security at the homes of senior officials, including the prime minister.

In a nationally televised address explaining the move, Yingluck had said protest leaders "seek to overthrow an elected government and democratic rule ... and there is evidence that violence may be used to achieve those ends."

Analysts said they did not view the protest as an immediate threat to Yingluck's government, but were watching it closely.

"Anytime you have tens of thousands of people converging, assembling in a central Bangkok location, it becomes a government stability concern," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

But he added: "I think it's a serious concern more than a serious threat."

Boonlert, the protest group's leader, is best known for his role as president of the Thailand Boxing Association. His name is unfamiliar in the anti-Thaksin protest movement, but his message appears to have resonated with Yellow Shirt supporters who have laid low in recent years after Yingluck's party won the last elections.

Thailand has been gripped by bouts of political instability since 2006, with Thaksin's supporters and opponents taking turns to spar over who has the right to rule the country.

The most violent episode came in 2010, when Thaksin's "Red Shirt" supporters led a two-month occupation of central Bangkok to demand the resignation of an anti-Thaksin government. The protests sparked a military crackdown that left at least 91 people dead and more than 1,700 injured.

Thaksin has lived in self-imposed exile since 2008, when he jumped bail to evade a corruption conviction and two-year jail term. He retains huge popularity among the rural poor, who want to see him pardoned and returned to power. But he is reviled by the urban elite and educated middle class, who see him as authoritarian and a threat to the monarchy.

Buoyed by Thaksin's political machine, Yingluck was elected by a landslide victory in August 2011. She initially was criticized for her lack of political experience — she was an executive in Shinawatra family businesses — but has won praise for leading the country through one of its longest peaceful periods in recent years.

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Egypt's judges slam Morsi's new powers

CAIRO: Egypt's official news agency says that the country's highest body of judges has called the president's recent decrees an "unprecedented assault on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings."

In a statement carried on MENA Saturday, the Supreme Judicial Council says they regret the declarations President Mohamed Morsi issued on Thursday.

The council is packed with judges appointed by former President Hosni Mubarak. It regulates judicial promotions and is chaired by the head of the court of Cassation.

The judges released their statement following an emergency meeting on Saturday, a day after tens of thousands of Egyptians demonstrated to denounce Morsi's decision.

The edicts give him near-absolute power and immunity from appeals in courts for any decisions or laws he declares until a new constitution and parliament is in place.

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Pope elevates 6 cardinals to choose successor

VATICAN CITY: Six new cardinals, including an Indian, today joined the elite club of red-robed churchmen who will elect the next pope, bringing a more geographically diverse mix into the European-dominated College of Cardinals.

Pope Benedict XVI presided over the ceremony in St Peter's Basilica to formally elevate the six men, who hail from Colombia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States.

As Benedict read each name aloud in Latin, cheers and applause erupted from their friends and family members in the pews.

The ceremony was both joyful and emotional: Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, seen by many to be a rising star in the church, visibly choked up as he knelt before Benedict to receive his three-pointed red hat, or biretta, and gold ring, and wiped tears from his eyes as he returned to his place.

Abuja, Nigeria Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, meanwhile, seemed to want to sit down and chat with each one of the dozens of cardinals that he greeted in the traditional exchange of peace that follows the formal elevation rite.

Benedict has said that with this "little consistory," he was essentially completing his last cardinal-making ceremony held in February, when he elevated 22 cardinals, the vast majority of them European archbishops and Vatican bureaucrats.

Benedict said today that the new cardinals represent the "unique, universal and all-inclusive identity" of the Catholic Church.

"In this consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the church is the church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents," he told the crowd, which included Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, the vice president of the Philippines Jejomar Binay and lawmakers from India and Nigeria.

Aside from Harvey, Tagle, and Onaiyekan, the new cardinals are: Bogota, Colombia Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez; the Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites in Lebanon, His Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai; and the major Archbishop of the Trivandrum of the Siro-Malankaresi in India, His Beatitude Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal.

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China sacks 'sex-tape' official

SHANGHAI: China sacked on Friday a district Communist Party official after images of him having sex with his mistress were splashed across microblog websites.

The case highlights the influence of China's fast-growing microblogging community, and the ruling Communist Party's growing sensitivity and responsiveness to public anger against abuse of power, official impunity and corruption.

Screenshots from the sex video first appeared on Sina Corp's Weibo site on Tuesday.

Lei Zhengfu, a district party chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was fired after an investigation by the party's discipline watchdog confirmed that it was he who appeared in the video, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The agency reported on Thursday that Lei had told a reporter the video, shot in 2007, was a fake.

The party has stepped up its rhetoric against corruption, seeking to counter anger from citizens over regular reports of graft and debauchery among officials, but efforts to root out the problem have hardly made a dent.

Disgraced politician Bo Xilai, whose expulsion from the party overshadowed the run-up to last week's once-in-a-decade leadership transition, has been accused of engaging in "improper sexual relations with multiple women", among other crimes.

Bo, who also faces possible charges of corruption and abuse of power, has yet to stand trial.

Net-savvy Chinese people have found a potent weapon for fighting official corruption and abuse of power in microblogs like Weibo, which had more than 420 million users at the end of the third quarter this year.

In September, another official, Yang Dacai, lost his job in the northwestern province of Shaanxi after Internet users compiled photos of him wearing several luxury watches that he was unlikely to be able to afford on a civil servant's salary.

A month later, an urban management official in the southern province of Guangdong, Cai Bin, was sacked after online postings about him owning 22 homes.

Lei's sacking was among the most talked about topics on the hugely popular Weibo site on Friday.

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Can anyone crack the pigeon's wartime code?

LONDON: A World War Two code found strapped to the leg of a dead pigeon stuck in a chimney for the last 70 years may never be broken, a British intelligence agency said on Friday.

The bird was found by a man in Surrey, southern England while he was cleaning out a disused fireplace at his home earlier this month.

The message, a series of 27 groups of five letters each, was inside a red canister attached to the pigeon's leg bone and has stumped code-breakers from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's main electronic intelligence-gathering agency.

"Without access to the relevant codebooks and details of any additional encryption used, it will remain impossible to decrypt," a GCHQ spokesman said.

The message is consistent with the use of code books to translate messages which were then encrypted, according to GCHQ, one of Britain's three intelligence agencies.

However without knowing who the sender, "Sjt W Stot", is or the intended destination, given as "X02", it is extremely difficult to decipher the code, GCHQ said.

Although the code books and encryption systems used should have been destroyed, there is a small chance that one exists somewhere.

A spokesman for GCHQ said it was "disappointing" that the message brought back by a "brave" carrier pigeon cannot be read.

He added: "It is a tribute to the skills of the wartime code-makers that, despite working under severe pressure, they devised a code that was undecipherable both then and now."

The Curator of the Pigeon Museum at Bletchley Park, north of London, Britain's main code-breaking centre during World War Two, is also trying to trace the identity numbers of the pigeon found in the message, according to GCHQ.

Pigeons were used extensively in the war to carry vital information to Britain from mainland Europe. Flying at speeds of up to 80 km per hour, they can travel distances of up to 1,000 km but were vulnerable to hungry hawks and bored soldiers who used to take pot-shots at them as they flew overhead.

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Nepal's president sets deadline for new PM

KATHMANDU: Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav has given political parties until next week to agree on a candidate to replace caretaker Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, opening the door for a change of leadership in the unstable Himalayan nation.

Nepal has been in a political crisis since May when a special Constituent Assembly missed a deadline to prepare a new constitution amid a political row over the number and names of the federal states to be created under the new system.

Yadav asked political parties "to choose the prime minister on the basis of a political consensus and recommend the name to him by November 29," his office said in a statement on Friday.

Bhattarai and his aides were not immediately available for comment, and it was not clear whether the prime minister was ready to give up power, or if the feuding parties would reach a consensus before the deadline.

Efforts to forge a consensus on a new prime minister will require bringing together more than a dozen feuding political parties, reinforcing the difficulties of building an agreement in one of the world's poorest countries which has seen four prime ministers change in as many years.

The interim constitution that governs Nepal is unclear about what the president could do if political parties fail to agree on a candidate for prime minister by next week.

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Obama commends Gaza ceasefire efforts

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Wednesday spoke with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, praising his efforts to help broker a ceasefire in the conflict flaring in the Middle East, the White House said.

Under the Egyptian-brokered agreement, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire after more than a week of fighting in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.

Obama spoke earlier with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Hamas-Israel truce holds, Gaza calm

GAZA CITY (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES): Hamas leaders in Gaza declared victory over Israel on Thursday, and thousands of flag-waving supporters rallied in celebration as the battered territory entered its first day of calm under an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended the worst cross-border fighting in four years.

Eight days of punishing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and a barrage of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli ended inconclusively. While Israel said it inflicted heavy damage on the militants, Gaza's Hamas rulers claimed that Israel's decision not to send ground troops into the territory, as it had four years ago, was a sign of a new Hamas deterrent power.

"Resistance fighters changed the rules of the game with the occupation (Israel), upset its calculations," Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who had attended the rally, said later in a televised speech. "The option of invading Gaza after this victory is gone and will never return."

At the same time, Haniyeh urged Gaza fighters to respect the truce and to "guard this deal as long as Israel respects it."

The mood in Israel was mixed. Some were grateful that quiet had been restored without a ground operation that could have cost the lives of soldiers. Others _ particular those in southern Israel hit by rockets over the past 13 years _ thought the operation was abandoned too quickly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offensive's aims of halting Gaza rocket fire and weakening Hamas were achieved. "I know there are citizens who were expecting a harsher response," he said, adding that Israel is prepared to act if the cease-fire is violated.

Despite the tough talk, the cease-fire raised hopes of a new era between Israel and Hamas. The two sides are now to negotiate a deal that would end years of Gaza rocket fire on Israel and open the borders of the blockaded Palestinian territory. Talks are supposed to begin sometime after a 24-hour period that began with the cease-fire late Wednesday.

However, the vague language in the agreement and deep hostility between the combatants made it far from certain that the bloodshed would end or that either side will get everything it wants. Israel seeks an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza, while Hamas wants a complete lifting of the border blockade imposed in 2007, after the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Israel launched the offensive November 14 to halt renewed rocket fire from Gaza, unleashing some 1,500 airstrikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Hamas and other Gaza militant groups showered Israel with just as many rockets.

The eight days of fighting killed 161 Palestinians, including 71 civilians, and five Israelis. Israel also destroyed key symbols of Hamas power, such as the prime minister's office, along with rocket launching sites and Gaza police stations.

In Gaza, the announcement of a truce late Wednesday set off frenzied street celebrations.

"Today is different, the morning coffee tastes different and I feel we are off to a new start," said Ashraf Diaa, a 38-year-old engineer from Gaza City.

Hundreds of masked Hamas fighters, who had slipped out of sight during the offensive, appeared in public for the first time Thursday during a funeral for five of their comrades. The armed men displayed grenade launchers and assault rifles mounted atop more than 100 brand-new pickup trucks.

The latest round of fighting brought the Islamists unprecedented political recognition. During the past week, Gaza became a magnet for visiting foreign ministers from Turkey and several Arab states _ a sharp contrast to Hamas' isolation in the past.

Israel and the United States, even while formally sticking to a policy of shunning Hamas, also acknowledged the militant group's central role by engaging in indirect negotiations with them. Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak defended his decision not to launch a ground offensive. Barak was also defense minister during Israel's previous major military campaign against Hamas four years ago, which drew widespread international criticism and claims of war crimes.

"You don't get into military adventures on a whim, and certainly not based on the mood of the public, which can turn the first time an armored personnel carrier rolls over or an explosive device is detonated against forces on the ground," he told Israel Army Radio.

"The world's mood also can turn," he said, referring to warnings by the U.S. and Israel's other Western allies of the high cost of a ground offensive.

President Barack Obama had personally lobbied Netanyahu to avoid a ground offensive and give the cease-fire a chance.

Egypt, meanwhile, emerged as the pivotal mediator, raising its stature as a regional power.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will now have to assume a more direct role as a referee between Israel and Hamas, at a time when he faces many domestic challenges, including reviving a faltering economy.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and the head of the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group Ramadan Shalah met with Egypt's intelligence chief Thursday as the follow-up talks geared up.

Reaching a deal on a new border arrangement for Gaza would require major concessions from both sides.

Hamas wants both Israel and Egypt to lift all border restrictions.

In 2007, Israel and Morsi's pro-Western predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, sealed the territory, banning virtually all travel and trade. Israel eased its restriction somewhat in 2010 in response to international pressure, allowing Gazans to import consumer goods, while barring virtually all exports and travel. Gaza's battered economy recovered slightly, but the ban on exports prevented it from bouncing back fully.

After Mubarak's fall last year, Egypt eased travel through its Rafah crossing with Gaza. However, Morsi has rebuffed Hamas demands to allow full trade ties with Gaza, in part because of fears this would give an opening to Israel to "dump" Gaza onto Egypt and deepen the split between Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinians hope the West Bank and Gaza, which lie on opposite sides of Israel, will one day make up the bulk of a Palestinian state. Israel has barred most travel between them during the past decade and closer ties between Egypt and Gaza could exacerbate the division.

Egypt is unlikely to implement major changes at the Rafah crossing, said a senior member of a Palestinian Islamic faction involved in the truce talks in Cairo.

Both Morsi and Hamas belong to the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, but during the truce talks, Morsi acted more like a mediator than a fellow Muslim Brother, said the Islamist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the closed-door meetings with reporters.

Israel, meanwhile, wants Egypt to halt weapons smuggling across its Sinai region into Gaza, through smuggling tunnels under the border.

Hamas has been able to significantly boost its arsenal in the past four years, largely with weapons from Iran, according to Mashaal, who thanked Tehran for its support late Wednesday.

The Palestinian negotiator said Iran sent Russian-made anti-tank missiles to Gaza after the last Israeli offensive, and claimed that these weapons helped deter Israel from launching a ground offensive.

As part of the cease-fire, Israel received U.S. pledges to help curb arms shipments to Gaza.

The fighting gave a major boost to Hamas' popularity, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, where the Islamists' internationally backed rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, oversees a self-rule government.

Abbas, the leading Palestinian proponent of non-violence and negotiations with Israel, was forced to watch from the sidelines as his bitter rivals scored political points by using rocket fire on Israel as leverage.

A senior Abbas aide, Nabil Shaath, stood alongside Hamas leaders during Gaza City's victory rally Thursday. Despite the symbolism, it was not clear whether the two sides would be able to mend their rift.

Within hours of the truce, life regained a degree of normality after fighting that pinned down hundreds of thousands of people in their homes on both sides of the Gaza-Israel border.

In Gaza, men swept streets and bulldozers removed debris and fallen trees, remnants of the airstrikes. Shoppers crowded outdoor markets to stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables. During the night, gunmen fired into the air in joy, and one man was killed and three wounded by the random celebratory fire, a health official said.

"We are back to business," said Iyad Radwan, a 23-year-old employee in a Gaza City window repair shop that had received 60 orders by mid-morning to fix damage. "Now it's time for rebuilding."

In southern Israel, schools remained closed as the region slowly came back to life.

In the hard-hit border town of Sderot, which has suffered years of rocket fire, few people were outdoors and most businesses remained closed. The coastal city of Ashkelon was closer to normalcy. Businesses were reopening, but suffered from shortages of supplies and staffers who had fled.

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Syria rebels seize strategic town as toll hits 40,000

DAMASCUS: Rebels seized the eastern Syria town of Mayadeen on Thursday, the latest in a series of strategic advances, as the number of people killed in the increasingly violent conflict passed the 40,000 mark.

Defeated government troops fled from Mayadeen to a military airport near the main eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The area east of the city of Deir Ezzor, on the Iraqi border, is now the largest area in the entire country that is out of army control," said the observatory's director, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said in an email to AFP that insurgents had captured an important military base on the edge of Mayadeen.

"The FSA took control of an artillery garrison in the outskirts of Mayadeen, after a siege that lasted more than 20 days," said Fahd al-Masri, a spokesman for the FSA.

The oil and gas-rich province of Deir Ezzor is home to Sunni Muslim tribes whose ties extend across the border into Iraq.

"In that area of Syria there are deep tribal loyalties, and fighters in western Iraq help the rebels fight the regime," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Despite its battlefield losses, most oil and gas fields in the large desert province remain still under regime control, said the Britain-based observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground.

Syria's rebels have also overrun vast swathes of territory in northern Syria along the Turkish border and control most border crossings into Iraq and Turkey, cutting off key supply lines for the regime.

In mid-October, rebels seized Maaret al-Numan, a strategic town in the northern province of Idlib, as well as a section of highway, thereby reducing the army's ability to resupply its forces locked in battle for months with the FSA in the commercial capital Aleppo.

More recently, rebel fighters last Sunday captured Base 46, a sprawling army base in northern Syria after weeks of intense fighting with regime forces.

As the rebellion grows bolder, the regime is focusing its territorial ambitions on Damascus, central Syria and Alawite bastions, according to analysts.

The regime's goal is to entrench in key positions, fight off further rebel advances and hold out for an opportune time to negotiate, they say.

Elsewhere today, warplanes carried out several air strikes on the Eastern Ghuta area on the outskirts of Damascus, said the observatory.

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Congolese rebels seize Goma, take airport

GOMA (Congo): A rebel group believed to be backed by Rwanda seized the strategic, provincial capital of Goma in eastern Congo on Tuesday, home to more than 1 million people as well as an international airport in a development that threatens to spark a new, regional war, officials and witnesses said.

Explosions and machine-gun fire rocked the lakeside city as the M23 rebels pushed forward on two fronts: toward the city center and along the road that leads to Bukavu, another provincial capital which lies to the south. Civilians ran down sidewalks looking for cover and children shouted in alarm. A man clutched a thermos as he ran.

Thousands of residents fled across the border to Rwanda, the much-smaller nation to the east which is accused of funneling arms and recruits to the M23 rebels.

By early afternoon the gunfire had stopped and M23 soldiers marched down the potholed main boulevards, unimpeded. Their senior commanders, who the United Nations has accused of grave crimes including recruiting child soldiers, summary executions and rape, paraded around the town in all-terrain vehicles, waving to the thousands of people who left their barricaded houses to see them.

The United Nations peacekeepers, known by their acronym MONUSCO, were not helping the government forces during Tuesday's battle because they do not have a mandate to engage the rebels, said Congolese military spokesman Olivier Hamuli, who expressed frustration over the lack of action by the peacekeepers.

"MONUSCO is keeping its defensive positions. They do not have the mandate to fight the M23. Unfortunately, the M23 did not obey the MONUSCO warnings and went past their positions (at the airport). We ask that the MONUSCO do more," he said.

A U.N. spokesman said in New York said that the nearly 1,500 U.N. peacekeepers in Goma held their fire to avoid triggering a battle. The peacekeepers "cannot substitute for the efforts of national forces" in Congo, said spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

On Wednesday the Security Council will review the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo. A resolution adopted Tuesday by the Security Council asks the U.N. secretary-general to recommend possible redeployment, and possible "additional force multipliers."

The resolution approved unanimously by the council imposes targeted sanctions, including a travel ban and assets freeze on the M23 rebel group leadership. But it did not name two countries accused by Congo of supporting the rebels: Rwanda and Uganda.

The council demanded that the M23 rebels withdraw from Goma, disarm and disband, and insisted on the restoration of the crumbing Congolese government authority in the country's turbulent East.

The resolution also calls for an immediate end to external support to the rebels and asks the U.N. secretary-general to report on the allegations of foreign support while expressing its readiness to take appropriate measures.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that the mandate of the U.N. forces in Congo "must be reviewed." Speaking in Paris, he said it is "absurd" that the U.N. has 17,000 peacekeepers in all of Congo but they "couldn't stop several hundred men" in Goma.

The French minister also said a rapprochement between Congo and Rwanda was critical to solving the crisis. Fabius said he's been in touch with officials in both countries.

The rebels are believed to be backed by Rwanda, and to a smaller extent by Uganda, which are accused of equipping them with sophisticated arms, including night vision goggles and 120 mm mortars. Evidence is mounting of the involvement by the neighboring country and on Friday, the United Nations Group of Experts is expected to release its final report, detailing the role the neighboring nations played in the recruitment, financing and arming of the rebel movement, which was born in April.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said that Rwandan soldiers had crossed into Goma, hiking over footpaths across a volcano that looms between the two countries.

"Goma is in the process of being occupied by Rwanda," said Mende, speaking from Congo's distant capital of Kinshasa. "We have people who saw the Rwandan army traverse our frontier at the Nyamuragira volcano. They have occupied the airport and they are shooting inside the town. Our army is trying to riposte but this poses an enormous problem for them - this is an urban center where hundreds of thousands of people live," he said.

A Congolese colonel, who was at the frontline in Goma before the city fell, said that the soldiers he saw were Rwandan. Neither his claim nor Mende's could be independently verified.

Congo's President Joseph Kabila flew to Uganda Tuesday for talks with President Yoweri Museveni, a Ugandan government spokesman confirmed. The official spoke in Kampala on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge the information.

M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama confirmed that they had taken the airport and the city. "We are now inside the city of Goma," he said.

Goma, a city of low-lying buildings, many topped by rusted corrugated roofs, was last threatened by rebels in 2008 when fighters from the now-defunct National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, stopped just short of the city. Their backs to the wall, the Congolese government agreed to enter into talks with the CNDP and a year later, on March 23, 2009, a peace deal was negotiated calling for the CNDP to put down their arms in return for being integrated into the national army.

The peace deal fell apart this April, when up to 700 soldiers, most of them ex-CNDP members, defected from the army, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the deal. Like in 2008, they again advanced toward Goma. This time, the city fell and the disastrous consequences for the population were already on display.

At a municipal hospital, 19-year-old Nene Lumbulumbu described how she was cleaning her house, when she was hit by a stray bullet in the torso. A father stood over his little girl's bed, clutching an X-ray showing the bullet lodged in her chest. He had sent her to fetch water in this city where most live without running water. She was brought back by neighbors, after being hit by a bullet.

The hospital was treating children whose arms were sheared off by exploding shells, and teenagers paralyzed from the neck down. Hospital director Justin Lussy said the injuries were just the tip of the iceberg.

"Regional and international actors must now prevent this turning into a new regional war," said the International Crisis Group in a statement. "The past week has shown history repeating itself in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with the same tragic consequences for civilians in the region."

If the rebels succeed in taking Bukavu, it will mark the biggest gain in rebel territory since at least 2003, when Congo's last war with its neighbors, including Rwanda and Uganda, ended.

Jean-Claude Bampa, who lives near the road to Sake, the first town on the drive to Bukavu, spoke on the telephone over loud gunfire in the background. "I can hear gunshots everywhere, it is all around my home," he said on Tuesday morning. "We are stuck inside and are terrified. I pray this will be over soon."

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China detains man for Twitter joke on party meet

BEIJING: Hundreds of Chinese Internet users are rallying around a Beijing blogger who has been detained by police after posting a joke on Twitter about the pivotal Communist Party congress.

Chinese authorities have been especially sensitive to any perceived dissent about the party meeting, which closed last week after ushering in a new generation of leaders.

Ahead of the event, police sent activists out of Beijing and rounded up the hundreds of people who tried to draw the attention of central authorities to their grievances against local governments.

Zhai Xiaobing's Nov 5 tweet suggested the next movie in the "Final Destination" horror franchise would be about the Great Hall of the People collapsing on party delegates.

The tweet said, "An earthshaking debut will be seen at the global premiere on Nov 8!" The weeklong congress began Nov 8.

After Zhai's Twitter account fell silent for a few days, Liu Yanping, a friend of his, grew worried and visited his home in Miyun county in Beijing's northeastern suburbs. There, his family members told Liu that Miyun county police had taken Zhai away on Nov 7 and seized his computer, Liu said.

A Miyun county police officer who would only give his surname, Sun, told The Associated Press today that Zhai was being investigated for "spreading terrorist information."

The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.

Zhai's supporters call the allegation absurd and more than 400 people have signed an online petition calling on police to release him and to have more of a sense of humour.

"I was very shocked when I realised what happened to him.

I've consulted a few lawyers and I feel that it's clear his Twitter joke does not amount to spreading terrorist information," Liu said. "It's just preposterous."

Liu said she and a few other activists have been in touch with Zhai's family and would help hire a lawyer. She said state security officials visited Zhai's wife to warn her to keep a low profile.

Zhai's wife, when reached by phone, declined to comment on her husband's situation.

The online petition, written by outspoken blogger and free speech advocate Wen Yunchao, urges authorities to lighten up.

"We solemnly request that Beijing police find a little sense of humour and not make a big deal out of nothing," the letter said.

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Prince William's pics leak out sensitive defence info

LONDON: Photographs of Prince William intended to show off his role as a search and rescue pilot have resulted in a security blunder with four shots leaking out sensitive defence information.

The British Ministry of Defence was yesterday forced to reset the user names and computer passwords of dozens of RAF staff following the embarrassing security blunder over pictures of Prince William.

Ten photographs of the future king in his role as a search and rescue helicopter pilot were published by St James's Palace yesterday on the Duke's website before being cleared by the MoD, the Daily Mail reported.

The pictures, taken by an RAF photographer, had been intended to show off a "day in the life" of the 30-year-old Prince on base as Flight Lieutenant Wales at RAF Valley on Anglesey, north Wales.

They were considered something of a coup for his new website.

But the publicity exercise back-fired within hours as it emerged that sensitive information was visible in four of the shots.

In one, William is in a briefing room in front of a computer with a password prompt screen open.

Another shows a document on the desk and an email open on a computer. Other photographs show details of passwords and user names pinned up on a wall.

By the time horrified defence officials spotted the mistake, some four hours after publication online, the shots had appeared on websites around the world, on TV and in newspapers including the Evening Standard in London.

They were 're-released' with the details pixellated, but the MoD had no choice but to reset passwords of some personnel "as a precaution".

"Due to an administrative oversight, these photographs were not properly cleared at RAF Valley. They have now been amended," the MoD said.

"The pictures were taken by an RAF photographer and any security issues are a matter for the MoD," the St James's Palace said.

The amended photos, which capture the prince's normal working day, show that while the Duke of Cambridge may be second in line to the throne, as a working member of the RAF Prince William clearly doesn't stand on ceremony.

In the photographs William can also be seen using the base's tiny kitchen to make a cup of tea as he and his colleagues make up their flight plans and wait for their next 'shout'.

William has been based at RAF Valley since 2010.

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Singapore cabbie returns $900,000 to Thai couple

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean taxi driver has been heralded as a hero after he returned Sg$1.1 million ($900,000) in cash to a vacationing Thai couple who left the money in his cab.

Sia Ka Tian, 70, was shocked to find the money in a black paper bag on the back seat on Monday after he dropped the couple off at a shopping centre.

"When I saw the money, I thought, trouble is here. I was sure there was at least $200,000 in the bag," the Straits Times quoted the 31-year veteran in the taxi business as saying.

But when he brought the money to transport company ComfortDelGro's lost-and-found office, his stunned colleagues counted Sg$1.1 million in thousand-dollar bills.

"The money is unimportant to me. It doesn't belong to me, so how can I use it?" he told the newspaper.

The Thai couple reported the loss to the transport company and Sia was waiting for them when they arrived to claim the money.

The report did not say what the couple were doing with such a large sum.

The driver received an undisclosed cash reward from the grateful couple, whose names have been withheld, and the company also plans to give him an award for good service.

"Finding one million dollars in cash is not an everyday affair and in fact, we wonder how many people would have possibly been tempted" to pocket it, company spokeswoman Tammy Tan said.

"We are immensely proud of him and are glad that the passengers recovered their money."

It was the most valuable item returned by a cabbie working for the company. In 2009, another taxi driver returned five kilograms (11 pounds) of gold bars worth Sg$377,000.

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World pressure for Gaza truce intensifies

GAZA: The UN chief called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to the region with a message that escalation of the week-long conflict was in nobody's interest.

Nevertheless, Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket fire continued for a seventh day.

Egypt was trying to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas movement. An Egyptian intelligence source said "there is still no breakthrough and Egypt is working to find middle ground".

Israel's military on Tuesday targeted about 100 sites in Gaza, including ammunition stores and the Gaza headquarters of the National Islamic Bank. Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said six Palestinians were killed.

Israeli police said more than 60 rockets were fired from Gaza by mid-day, and 25 of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system. The military said an officer was wounded.

Some 115 Palestinians have died in a week of fighting, the majority of them civilians, including 27 children, hospital officials said. Three Israelis died last week when a rocket from Gaza struck their house.

In Cairo, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate ceasefire and said an Israeli ground operation in Gaza would be a "dangerous escalation" that must be avoided.

He had held talks in Cairo with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil before travelling to Israel for discussions with its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. Ban planned to return to Egypt on Wednesday to see Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was unavailable on Tuesday due to the death of his sister.

Israel's leaders weighed the benefits and risks of sending tanks and infantry into the densely populated coastal enclave two months before an Israeli election, and indicated they would prefer a diplomatic path backed by world powers, including US President Barack Obama, the European Union and Russia.

The White House said Clinton was going to the Middle East for talks in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo to try to calm the conflict. An Israeli source said she was expected to meet Netanyahu on Wednesday.

Netanyahu and his top ministers debated their next moves in a meeting that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday.

"Before deciding on a ground invasion, the prime minister intends to exhaust the diplomatic move in order to see if a long-term ceasefire can be achieved," a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said after the meeting.

A delegation of nine Arab ministers, led by the Egyptian foreign minister, was due in Gaza later on Tuesday in a further signal of heightened Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.

Any diplomatic solution may involve Egypt, Gaza's other neighbour and the biggest Arab nation, where the ousting of U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak and the election of Mursi is part of a dramatic reshaping of the Middle East wrought by Arab uprisings and now affecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood was mentor to the founders of Hamas, on Monday took a call from Obama, who told him Hamas must stop rocket fire into Israel - effectively endorsing Israel's stated aim in launching the offensive last week. Obama also said he regretted civilian deaths - which have been predominantly among the Palestinians.

"The two leaders discussed ways to de-escalate the situation in Gaza, and President Obama underscored the necessity of Hamas ending rocket fire into Israel," the White House said, adding that the U.S. leader had also called Netanyahu.

"In both calls, President Obama expressed regret for the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives."

Mursi has warned Netanyahu of serious consequences from a ground invasion of the kind that killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza four years ago. But he has been careful not to alienate Israel, with whom Egypt's former military rulers signed a peace treaty in 1979, or Washington, a major aid donor to Egypt.

Egypt's Kandil told Reuters a ceasefire was possible: "I think we are close, but the nature of this kind of negotiation, (means) it is very difficult to predict."

After Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal laid out demands in Cairo that Israel take the first step in restoring calm, and warned Netanyahu that a ground war in Gaza could wreck his re-election prospects in January, a senior Israeli official denied a Hamas assertion that the prime minister had asked for a truce.

"Whoever started the war must end it," Meshaal said, referring to Israel's assassination from the air on Wednesday of Hamas's Gaza military chief, a move that followed a scaling up of rocket fire onto Israeli towns over several weeks and attacks against Israeli troops along the border.

An official close to Netanyahu told Reuters: "We would prefer to see a diplomatic solution that would guarantee the peace for Israel's population in the south. If that is possible, then a ground operation would no longer be required."

Fortified by the ascendancy of fellow Islamists in Egypt and elsewhere, and courted by Sunni Arab leaders in the Gulf keen to draw the Palestinian group away from old ties to Shi'ite Iran, Hamas has tested its room for manoeuvre, as well as longer-range rockets that have reached the Tel Aviv metropolis.

Hamas said four-year-old twin boys had died with their parents when their house in the town of Beit Lahiya was struck from the air during the night. Neighbours said the occupants were not involved with militant groups.

Israel had no immediate comment on that attack. It says it takes extreme care to avoid civilians and accuses Hamas and other militant groups of deliberately placing Gaza's 1.7 million people in harm's way by placing rocket launchers among them.

Nonetheless, fighting Israel, whose right to exist Hamas refuses to recognise, is popular with many Palestinians and has kept the movement competitive with the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who remains in the West Bank after losing Gaza to Hamas in a civil war five years ago.

"Hamas and the others, they're our sons and our brothers, we're fingers on the same hand," said 55-year-old Faraj al-Sawafir, whose home was blasted by Israeli forces. "They fight for us and are martyred, they take losses and we sacrifice too."

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of the coastal enclave, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border.

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Maldives sacks minister for criticising police

MALE: The Maldives sacked its human rights minister on Tuesday after she accused police of brutally assaulting her husband when he was arrested for allegedly drinking alcohol, an offence in the Islamic republic.

Dhiyana Saeed, the minister for Gender and Human Rights, said police had beaten up Abdulla Jabir during a raid on a small island being developed as a tourist resort.

"Police even hit Jabir on his private organs so hard that he is still bleeding," Saeed was quoted as saying on the local Minivannews website.

President Mohamed Waheed's office said she was sacked "for making false allegations" against the police.

Jabir, a member of parliament, was arrested on Friday along with another opposition lawmaker and two senior advisers of former president Mohamed Nasheed.

Drinking is punishable with hefty fines and lengthy jail terms under local and sharia law in the Maldives, a nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims.

The opposition has described the arrests as politically motivated.

The Maldives is best known for its upmarket tourism industry but has recently been troubled by an increase in religious extremism, with calls to ban spas and massage parlours from tourist resorts.

The country has also been in political turmoil for over a year.

Nasheed, the nation's first democratically elected president, resigned in February after weeks of street protests against his administration and later claimed he was ousted in a coup.

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