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China to launch second manned space mission

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 28 Februari 2013 | 21.50

BEIJING: China will send its second manned mission this year to dock with a space module currently orbiting the Earth, as the country continues experiments to set up a Spacelab to rival Russia's Mir station.

China's new manned spacecraft will be launched some time between June and August, a spokesperson for the office of the country's space manned programme said in a statement today.

Three Chinese astronauts will board the Shenzhou-10, which is expected to dock with the orbiting lab module Tiangong-1, the statement said.

The Tiangong-1 was sent into space in September 2011. It later docked with the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft in November 2011, and with the Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft in June, 2012.

Last year China sent its first woman astronaut aboard Shenzhou-9.

China's aims to keep its Spacelab ready by 2020 by which time Mir, being managed by both US and Russian scientists is expected to be scrapped, making it the lone space mission in operation.

After years of testing, the new mission will mark the first formal application of the manned space transportation system, the statement said.

The objectives of the new mission include further assessing the performance of the docking system, the combination's capabilities in supporting life and work, and the abilities of astronauts on the job, according to plans.

During the mission, astronauts will also give science lectures to teenage spectators back on Earth, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.

The general assembly of the Shenzhou-10 has been completed and it is being tested.

All tests have been completed on its carrier rocket and astronauts are being trained according to plan, the statement said.


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South African police drag man, who later dies

JOHANNESBURG: His hands are tied to the rear of a police van while his body lay behind it, on the ground. The van speeds off, dragging the slender man along the pavement as a crowd of onlookers shouts in dismay and at least one videotapes the scene. He is later found dead in a police cell.

It's a gut-wrenching video, made all the more disturbing by the fact that the men who carried out the abuse were uniformed South African police officers and the van was a marked police vehicle. The Daily Sun, a South African newspaper, posted video the footage on Thursday and it was quickly picked up by other South African news outlets and carried on the Internet. It sparked immediate outrage.

Some of those in the crowd who watched the scene unfold in a township east of Johannesburg shouted at the police and warned that it was being videotaped. The police did not seem at all concerned as they tied Mido Macia, a 27-year-old taxi driver from neighboring Mozambique, to the back of a police vehicle, his hands behind his head, his buttocks on the ground. At least three policemen participated in the incident. Macia was found dead in a police cell late Tuesday in the Daveyton township east of Johannesburg.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate, the police watchdog agency, said on Thursday that a murder probe is underway and that Macia suffered head and other injuries, including internal bleeding.

The graphic footage renewed concerns about brutality, corruption and other misconduct by a national police force whose reputation has suffered in recent years amid reports that many officers lack training. Some have been charged with committing the crimes they are supposed to prevent, including rape and murder.

"We are going to film this," several onlookers shouted in Zulu as the police tormented Macia. One bystander can be heard on the videotape shouting in Zulu: "What has this guy done?"

At first, Macia, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt, is dragged along the road by the vehicle at slow speed, the footage shows. He awkwardly tries to keep step even though he is almost horizontal above the ground. Then the van stops, two policemen pick up the legs of the taxi driver and drop them to the ground as the van picks up speed and drives off, beyond the view of the camera.

The police watchdog agency said the incident started just before 7pm on Tuesday when the cab driver was allegedly obstructing traffic with his vehicle. Then, Macia allegedly assaulted a constable and took his weapon before he was overpowered, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate said in a statement.

Macia was found dead over two hours later by another policeman, according to the watchdog agency.

In a statement, the police force said National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega "strongly condemned" what happened. The statement said people are "urged to remain vigilant and continue to report all acts of crime irrespective of who is involved."

Phiyega has sought to upgrade the reputation of the South African police. Last month, Phiyega told a group of police officials the standing of the force "has been severely but not irreparably tarnished over the past several years."


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US vows $ 60 million to Syria opposition

ROME: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Washington would provide USD 60 million in "non-lethal" assistance to support the Syrian political opposition against President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking after talks between foreign officials and the opposition in Rome, Kerry also said Washington would provide direct assistance to rebel forces in Syria in the form of food and medical assistance.

"The US will be providing an additional USD 60 million in non-lethal assistance to support the efforts of the Syrian opposition coalition over the coming months," Kerry said.

"We will be sending medical supplies and food to the (rebel) Supreme Military Council, so there will be direct assistance," he added.

"All Syrians... must know that they can have a future," he said.


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UK's Clegg admits 'serious mistakes' in sex scandal

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 27 Februari 2013 | 21.50

LONDON: British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg admitted on Wednesday that "very serious mistakes" were made over a sex scandal which has rocked his Liberal Democrat party ahead of a crucial by-election.

Clegg repeated his insistence that he was unaware of allegations of sexual harassment by several female party workers against former Lib Dem chief executive Lord Chris Rennard until they emerged last week.

But he conceded that rumours about the behaviour of Rennard -- who strongly denies groping the women -- had been "in the background" of the peer's resignation due to ill-health in 2009.

"There were some very serious mistakes and the women were not listened to and were let down," Clegg said during his weekly phone-in on a London radio station.

He said that "clearly something went seriously wrong in the organisation" as complaints dating back several years were not acted upon, but insisted: "My party has nothing to hide, I have nothing to hide."

The Lib Dems, the junior coalition partners in the government, have launched two internal inquiries into the allegations, which are also the subject of a police investigation, amid a media storm which has left the party struggling to respond.

Clegg's leadership has come under strain, amid claim and counterclaim about what he knew about the allegations against Rennard and when.

The affair could not come at a worse time as the Lib Dems battle to retain their parliamentary seat in Eastleigh, southern England, in a by-election on Thursday, which itself was sparked by another scandal.

The seat was vacated by Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne, a former energy minister, who is likely to receive a jail sentence after pleading guilty to asking his wife to take speeding points on his behalf a decade ago and then lying about it.

It is unclear how much of an impact the Rennard affair will have on the vote in Eastleigh, where the Lib Dems are in a tight race against Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, the senior partners in the governing coalition.

But commentators say it reveals serious weaknesses in Clegg's leadership and the structures of a organisation which until the 2010 general election was a party of protest that had never before held power.


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Three killed in shootout at Swiss factory

GENEVA: Two people were killed and seven others wounded when a gunman opened fire in a Swiss factory on Wednesday, police said, adding the gunman also died.

"There are three dead and seven wounded, a number of them seriously," local police spokesman Simon Kopp was quoted as saying by news portal Blick.ch.

The shooter was among those who died, he added without elaborating.

Three helicopters from the Swiss emergency service REGA evacuated four seriously wounded people from the scene of the shooting at the Kronospan wood panel plant in Menznau, near Lucerne, a spokesman told AFP.

A police statement said that the perimeter had been sealed off, and that a hotline had been set up for families and employees.

A major police deployment was under way, the statement said, without giving details of the number of dead and injured.

A witness quoted by the local newspaper the Luzerner Zeitung said that an individual had entered the factory canteen and opened fire.

"This is a tragedy," Munzau's mayor, Adrian Duss, told AFP.

Owned by Austrian group Kronospan, the factory is the top employer in Munzau, employing around 400 people.

Switzerland has a longstanding tradition of gun ownership, and ranks third in the world for the number of guns per inhabitant, after the United States and Yemen.

On January 2, a 33-year-old drifter wielding two weapons killed three women and wounded two men in the village of Daillon in southern Switzerland.


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Billionaire launches plans for Titanic replica

NEW YORK: An Australian billionaire is getting ready to build a new version of the Titanic that could set sail in late 2016.

Clive Palmer unveiled blueprints for the famously doomed ship's namesake Tuesday at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. He said construction is scheduled to start soon in China.

Palmer said 40,000 people have expressed interest in tickets for the maiden voyage, taking the original course from Southampton, England, to New York. He said people are inspired by his quest to replicate one of the most famous vessels in history.

"We all live on this planet, we all breathe the same air and, of course, the Titanic is about the things we've got in common," he said. "It links three continents."

The original Titanic was the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank on April 15, 1912. Only 700 people of the more than 2,200 on board survived the most famous maritime disaster in history, partly because there were not enough lifeboats to carry everyone.

Palmer said an unknown when the original ship sailed, climate change, may play into a positive for the new ship's fate.

"One of the benefits of global warming is there hasn't been as many icebergs in the North Atlantic these days," Palmer said.

Passengers on board the replica will dress in the fashion of that period and eat dishes from the original menu, in dining rooms copied from the ill-fated predecessor.

Joining Palmer on Tuesday was Helen Benziger, the great granddaughter of Titanic survivor Margaret "Molly" Brown. Benziger, who agreed to serve on the advisory board for the Titanic II, said her great grandmother, who died in 1932, would have loved to see the Titanic rebuilt and complete the journey it never got to finish.

In what some may consider a temptation of fate for a remake of a notoriously "unsinkable" ship that sank, a representative of the Finnish designer of the Titanic II said it will be the "safest cruise ship in the world."

Markku Kanerva, director of sales for marine design company Deltamarin said that while the vessel is modeled after the legendary liner _ the diesel-powered ship will even have four decorative smoke stacks mimicking the coal-powered originals _ it will meet modern navigation and safety requirements.

In addition, plans call for a new "safety deck" featuring state-of-the-art lifeboats, safety chutes and slides. The new ship will also have amenities unknown a century ago, like air conditioning.

Palmer, who is funding construction of the ship himself, built his fortune in real estate and coal. Australia's BRW magazine estimated his net worth last year at $4 billion, although Forbes puts it at $895 million.

"I want to spend the money I've got before I die," he said. "You might as well spend it, not leave it to the kids to spend, there will be enough left for them anyway."


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Republicans sign brief for gay marriage

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 26 Februari 2013 | 21.50

WASHINGTON: Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter, Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Bush and one of the suit's two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief is being filed with Olson's blessing. It argues, as he does, that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances conservative values of "limited government and maximizing individual freedom."

Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments. The list of signers includes a string of Republican officials and influential thinkers — 75 as of Monday evening — who are not ordinarily associated with gay rights advocacy, including some who are speaking out for the first time and others who have changed their previous positions.

Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York; Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress.

Pryce said Monday: "Like a lot of the country, my views have evolved on this from the first day I set foot in Congress. I think it's just the right thing, and I think it's on solid legal footing, too."

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor, who favored civil unions but opposed same-sex marriage during his 2012 presidential bid, also signed. Last week, Mr. Huntsman announced his new position in an article titled "Marriage Equality Is a Conservative Cause," a sign that the 2016 Republican presidential candidates could be divided on the issue for the first time.

"The ground on this is obviously changing, but it is changing more rapidly than people think," said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former House leadership aide who did not sign the brief. "I think that Republicans in the future are going to be a little bit more careful about focusing on these issues that tend to divide the party."

Some high-profile Republicans who support same-sex marriage — including Laura Bush, the former first lady, Dick Cheney, the former vice president, and Colin L. Powell, a former secretary of state — were not on the list as of Monday.

But the presence of so many well-known former officials — including Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey, and William Weld and Jane Swift, both former governors of Massachusetts — suggests that once Republicans are out of public life they feel freer to speak out against the party's official platform, which calls for amending the Constitution to define marriage as "the union of one man and one woman."

By contrast, the brief, shared with The New York Times by its drafters, cites past Supreme Court rulings dear to conservatives, including the Citizens United decision lifting restrictions on campaign financing, and a Washington, DC, Second Amendment case that overturned a law barring handgun ownership.

"We are trying to say to the court that we are judicial and political conservatives, and it is consistent with our values and philosophy for you to overturn Proposition 8," said Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, who came out as gay several years ago. He is on the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which brought the California suit, and has spent months in quiet conversations with fellow Republicans to gather signatures for the brief.

In making an expansive argument that same-sex marriage bans are discriminatory, the brief's signatories are at odds with the House Republican leadership, which has authorized the expenditure of tax dollars to defend the 1996 marriage law. The law defines marriage in the eyes of the federal government as the union of a man and a woman. Related

Polls show that public attitudes have shifted drastically on same-sex marriage over the past decade. A majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage, up from roughly one third in 2003.

While Republicans lag behind the general population — the latest New York Times survey found a third of Republicans favor letting gay people marry — that, too, is changing quickly as more young people reach voting age. Several recent polls show that about 70 percent of voters under 30 back same-sex marriage.

"The die is cast on this issue when you look at the percentage of younger voters who support gay marriage," said Steve Schmidt, who was a senior adviser to the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and who signed the brief. "As Dick Cheney said years ago, 'Freedom means freedom for everybody.' "

Still, it is clear that Republican backers of same-sex marriage have yet to bring the rest of the party around to their views. Mr. Feehery said there are regional as well as generational divisions, with opposition especially strong in the South. Speaking of Boehner, he said, "I doubt very seriously that he is going to change his position."

Experts say that amicus briefs generally do not change Supreme Court justices' minds. But on Monday some said that the Republican brief, written by Seth P. Waxman, a former solicitor general in the administration of President Bill Clinton, and Reginald Brown, who served in the Bush White House Counsel's Office, might be an exception.

Tom Goldstein, publisher of Scotusblog, a Web site that analyzes Supreme Court cases, said the amicus filing "has the potential to break through and make a real difference."

He added, "The person who is going to decide this case, if it's going to be close, is going to be a conservative justice who respects traditional marriage but nonetheless is sympathetic to the claims that this is just another form of hatred. If you're trying to persuade someone like that, you can't persuade them from the perspective of gay rights advocacy."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 26, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the year in which Steve Schmidt was a senior adviser to Senator John McCain. It was 2008, not 2004.


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Ex-pope will have 'pontiff emeritus' title: Vatican

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI will have the official title of "pontiff emeritus" after he resigns on Thursday -- the first leader of the Catholic Church to do so since the Middle Ages, the Vatican said.

Benedict can still be addressed as "Your Holiness Benedict XVI" and will have the title of "Roman Pontiff Emeritus", spokesman Federico Lombardi told the Vatican press corps on Tuesday.

Benedict can also still wear a white cassock normally reserved only for pontiffs and will continue using the shoes given to him by artisans in Mexico during a trip last year, Lombardi said.

The Vatican spokesman also said that a series of meetings of cardinals to settle on a date for the start of a conclave to elect Benedict's successor could start on Monday, March 4.

Lombardi said the pope had already sorted between the official documents from his papacy that will remain in the Vatican and personal notes that he will take with him into retirement.

Benedict holds a final general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday before he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday.


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Sri Lankan army rapes, tortures Tamils: Report

Sri Lankan security forces have been using rape and other forms of sexual violence to torture suspected members or supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) even after the end of the civil war in 2009, a prominent rights group alleged today.

A report released by Human Rights Watch also accused the British government of continuing to deport failed asylum seekers back to the country despite mounting evidence that they face the risk of being raped and tortured on their return, nearly four years after the end of civil war.

"This report is a challenge to existing UK government policy. The UK continues to deport Tamils to Sri Lanka - a further charter flight is scheduled for this week - despite evidence that some Tamils with alleged links to the Tamil Tigers have been tortured by the Sri Lankan authorities, following their removal from the UK," said David Mepham, the UK director of the international rights body.

"The UK should urgently revise its guidelines for assessing Tamil asylum claims, and not press ahead with removing at-risk Tamils," he added.

The Sri Lankan military has denied there had been any cases of rape or sexual harassments as described in the report.

The report,'We Will Teach You a Lesson: Sexual Violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Forces' runs into 141 pages and has been compiled over six years.

It provides detailed accounts of 75 cases of alleged rape and sexual abuse that occurred from 2006 to 2012 in both official and secret detention centres throughout Sri Lanka.

In the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, men and women reported being raped on multiple days, often by several people, with the army, police, and pro-government paramilitary groups frequently participating.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is set to examine whether the Sri Lankan government adequately followed up on it commitments in a March 2012 resolution to provide justice and accountability for wartime abuses.

The council is expected to pass a resolution calling on Sri Lanka to do more to work towards reconciliation and India is likely to support the motion.

Human Rights Watch has now called for the council to direct the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an independent international investigation.


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Syria says ready to talk with rebels

Written By Unknown on Senin, 25 Februari 2013 | 21.50

MOSCOW: Syria is ready to hold talks with its armed opponents, foreign minister Walidal-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet of negotiations with rebels fighting to overthrow President Basharal-Assad.

But Moualem said Syria would continue its fight "against terrorism", a reference to its conflict with anti-Assad rebels in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.

"We are ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it... Even with those who have weapons in their hands. Because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Moualem as saying.

He was speaking in Moscow, a staunch ally of Assad, where he was meeting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Moaz al-Khatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Cairo he had not yet been in contact with Damascus about any talks, but said he had postponed trips to Russia and the United States "until we see how things develop".

Syria's government and opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.

But the opposition has said any political solution to the crisis must be based on the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. The government has rejected any pre-conditions for talks aimed at ending the violence, which started as a peaceful pro-democracy uprising.

Venue contested

The two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria. Assad's government says any serious dialogue must be held on Syrian territory under its control.

Adding to the difficulty of any negotiated settlement is the lack of influence that Syria's political opposition - mostly operating outside the country - has over the rebel forces on the ground who appear determined to fight on until Assad goes.

Itar-Tass did not report any further comments by the minister on the prospect for talks and did not say whether Moualem spelt out any conditions for starting dialogue.

"What's happening in Syria is a war against terrorism," the agency quoted him as saying. "We will strongly adhere to a peaceful course and continue to fight against terrorism."

The Syrian National Coalition said on Friday it was willing to negotiate a peace deal, but insisted Assad could not be party to any settlement - a demand with which the president appears in no mood to comply.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Assad had told him he intended to remain president until his term ends in 2014 and would then run for re-election.

The political chasm between the government and rebels and a lack of opposition influence over rebel fighters has allowed fighting to rage on for 23 months in Syria, while international diplomatic deadlock has prevented effective intervention.

Moualem's comments echoed remarks last week by Minister for National Reconciliation Ali Haidar, who said he was ready to meet the armed opposition. But Haidar drew a distinction between what said might be "preparatory talks" and formal negotiations.

Assad, announcing plans last month for a national dialogue to address the crisis, said that there would be no dialogue with people he called traitors or "puppets made by the West".


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Syria says ready for talks with rebels

MOSCOW: Syria is ready to hold talks with its armed opponents, foreign minister Walidal-Moualem said on Monday, in the clearest offer yet of negotiations with rebels fighting to overthrow President Basharal-Assad.

But Moualem said Syria would continue its fight "against terrorism", a reference to its conflict with anti-Assad rebels in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have been killed.

"We are ready for dialogue with everyone who wants it... Even with those who have weapons in their hands. Because we believe that reforms will not come through bloodshed but only through dialogue," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Moualem as saying.

He was speaking in Moscow, a staunch ally of Assad, where he was meeting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Moaz al-Khatib, head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Cairo he had not yet been in contact with Damascus about any talks, but said he had postponed trips to Russia and the United States "until we see how things develop".

Syria's government and opposition have both suggested in recent weeks they are prepared for some contacts - softening their previous outright rejection of talks to resolve a conflict which has driven nearly a million Syrians out of the country and left millions more homeless and hungry.

But the opposition has said any political solution to the crisis must be based on the removal of Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970. The government has rejected any pre-conditions for talks aimed at ending the violence, which started as a peaceful pro-democracy uprising.

Venue contested

The two sides also differ on the location for any talks, with the opposition saying they should be abroad or in rebel-held parts of Syria. Assad's government says any serious dialogue must be held on Syrian territory under its control.

Adding to the difficulty of any negotiated settlement is the lack of influence that Syria's political opposition - mostly operating outside the country - has over the rebel forces on the ground who appear determined to fight on until Assad goes.

Itar-Tass did not report any further comments by the minister on the prospect for talks and did not say whether Moualem spelt out any conditions for starting dialogue.

"What's happening in Syria is a war against terrorism," the agency quoted him as saying. "We will strongly adhere to a peaceful course and continue to fight against terrorism."

The Syrian National Coalition said on Friday it was willing to negotiate a peace deal, but insisted Assad could not be party to any settlement - a demand with which the president appears in no mood to comply.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Assad had told him he intended to remain president until his term ends in 2014 and would then run for re-election.

The political chasm between the government and rebels and a lack of opposition influence over rebel fighters has allowed fighting to rage on for 23 months in Syria, while international diplomatic deadlock has prevented effective intervention.

Moualem's comments echoed remarks last week by Minister for National Reconciliation Ali Haidar, who said he was ready to meet the armed opposition. But Haidar drew a distinction between what said might be "preparatory talks" and formal negotiations.

Assad, announcing plans last month for a national dialogue to address the crisis, said that there would be no dialogue with people he called traitors or "puppets made by the West".


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Israel, US successfully test anti-missile system

JERUSALEM: With Iran in mind, close allies Israel and the US successfully tested the Arrow anti-missile system for the first time on Monday, giving the Jewish state defence against "threats in the regional arena".

"This is the first flight test of the Arrow 3 interceptor and was conducted at an Israeli test range over the Mediterranean Sea," the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.

"Israel's Missile Defense Organisation and US Missile Defense Agency officials conducted the flight test," the statement said of the successful test of Arrow 3, also known as Hetz-3.

The Arrow is a jointly-produced, cutting-edge system designed to counter long-range missile attacks.

"This successful test is a milestone in Israel's operational and defensive capabilities vis-a-vis threats in the regional arena," the statement said.

"This was the first test of a system that has been years in development. The system still has to undergo further tests before it becomes fully operational," it added.

Today's test did not involve an interception of any target, but was designed to try out the flight of the missile, the statement said.

Arrow 3's interceptors are designed to be launched into space, where their warheads detach, turning into "kamikaze" satellites that seek out and slam into target missiles.

The Pentagon and US firm Boeing are partners with Israel in the development of the interceptor missile system.

The US has described its support for Israeli missile interceptors as a means of reassuring its close ally that it has a more passive means of defending itself.

The new surface-to-air missile defence system will enable Israel to better counter future threats, the defence ministry said.

Arrow-3 joins Israel's multi-layered aerial defences, alongside the Arrow-2, Iron Dome and David's sling, better known as "Magic Wand," defence systems.

Altogether the systems aim to provide Israel with a protective umbrella that will counter the threats posed by short and mid-ranged missiles used by Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups in the south and Lebanese Shiite faction Hezbollah in the north, besides possible threat of long-range Iranian missiles.


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Regional leaders sign DR Congo peace deal

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 24 Februari 2013 | 21.50

ADDIS ABABA: Regional African leaders signed a deal on Sunday aimed at bringing peace and stability to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after years of unrest.

Eleven countries in the Great Lakes region — including those accused of stoking trouble by backing rebel groups — signed on to the accord at a ceremony in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in the presence of UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

DR Congo's mineral-rich east has been ravaged by conflict involving numerous armed groups for the past two decades, with new rebel movements spawned on a regular basis.

"It is my hope that that the framework will lead to an era of peace and stability for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region," said Ban.

But he added: "It is only the beginning of a comprehensive approach that will require sustained engagement."

The presidents of the DR Congo, South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda, Congo and Tanzania were present for the signing, along with envoys from Uganda, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic and Zambia.

The accord calls for regional countries to refrain from interfering in each other's affairs and aims to encourage the reform of weak institutions in the DRC, central Africa's largest country.

It could also lead to creation of a special UN "intervention brigade" in eastern DR Congo to combat rebel groups as well as new political efforts.

The latest surge in violence was in 2012 and culminated in the rebel March 23 movement (M23) force briefly seizing the key town of Goma last November.

"It shows that the right course of action is still being taken and that based on this there are opportunities and avenues which will be open for our common action for the peace and security of DRC and in the region," AU's commissioner for peace and security Ramtane Lamamra said at Sunday's signing.

The pact calls on regional actors "to neither tolerate nor provide assistance or support of any kind to armed groups."

It also sets out a plan for the "appointment of an United Nations special envoy to support efforts to reach durable solutions in a multi-track plan that allows the convergence of all initiatives in progress."

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, whose country is accused of backing the M23 rebels, said he wanted to see "peace, security and stability emerge".

"Today's agreement is an important step and opportunity in reaffirming our commitment to regional peace. I unreservedly welcome it, he said.

"Nothing would be of greater benefit to Rwanda than real progress towards regional peace and stability," Kagame added.

Neighbouring states, including not only Rwanda and Burundi but also Uganda, have regularly been accused of meddling in the region, with the illegal extraction of its valuable minerals as one of their motivations.

A first attempt to get the peace agreement signed last month on the sidelines of the African Union summit was called off at the last minute.

The DR Congo is the biggest and most populous country in central Africa and has enormous but largely untapped potential mineral weath including copper, oil, diamonds, gold, silver, zince and uranium.


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Pistorius's brother faces trial in car crash death

JOHANNESBURG: The older brother of South African star sprinter Oscar Pistorius — himself accused of murdering his girlfriend — has been charged over a deadly road crash five years ago, the family confirmed on Sunday.

"Carl Pistorius, brother of Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, faces charges of culpable homicide after a 2008 road accident in which a woman motorcyclist sadly lost her life," the family said in a statement.

His trial had been due to start last Thursday, a day before his Olympic and Paralympic hero brother, was granted bail on a charge of premeditated murder over the Valentine's Day killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

But his case has been adjourned to the end of March, meaning he will likely go on trial before his younger brother.

The 28-year-old Carl "deeply regrets" the incident, the family said. "It was a tragic road accident after the deceased collided with Carl's car."

He had no alcohol in his blood at the time of the accident, according to tests, the family added.

Prosecutors reinstated the charges after they were initially dropped.

Attorney Kenny Oldwage, who also represents Oscar Pistorius, had "no doubt" Carl was innocent, the statement added.

The eNews Africa television channel reported the accident happened in Vereeneging 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Johannesburg.

Oscar Pistorius, the 26-year-old double amputee athlete known as "Blade Runner", was released on one million rand ($112,770) bail on Friday. He is due back in court on June 4.

He says the shooting of his 29-year-old girlfriend, a law graduate and cover girl who he had been dating since late last year, was an accident and that he mistook her for a burglar.

Carl Pistorius, whose last known job was as at an events management company in 2010, was a constant presence in court last week to support his brother during the four-day bail hearing in Pretoria, along with his sister Aimee and father Henke.

When Oscar broke down crying in the dock, Carl would lean forward and put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

Relatives of the slain model have lashed out at the Pistorius family, with her uncle Michael criticising them for failing to contacting the Steenkamp family after the shooting.

"They have not offered their condolences, nor made a simple phone call to us," he told the City Press newspaper on Sunday, although the Pistorius family did send a bouquet of flowers and a card.

Meanwhile, City Press said a substance found in Pistorius's luxury Pretoria home during a police search was an over-the-counter herbal sexual stimulant.

The prosecution had said during Pistorius's bail hearing that police found two boxes of "testosterone" and needles, but the defence countered that it was a legal herbal remedy known as testocompasutium coenzyme.

City Press said the remedy was a combination of vitamins, herbal cures partly derived from animal organs.

Sports physician Jon Patricios told the paper the product is used to boost sexual energy, but that athletes are not advised to use it since it may increase their testosterone levels.

"This is not an anabolic steroid and it is unlikely it will lead to irrational anger," he said.

The National Prosecuting Authority has said it was awaiting the results of forensic tests to determine what the product is.

The International Paralympic Committee said the athlete — who became a hero as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics last year — was tested twice during the London Paralympics in 2012 and tested negative.

South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper also said a new investigation team had visited Pistorius's house on Friday and would investigate his apparent links with a network that used recreational drugs.

City Press also said the Steenkamp family has hired a private eye to follow the probe into her killing, quoting the investigator Lance Epstein.

Since the shooting, Pistorius's career has come to a halt and he has lost endorsement contracts with Nike, sunglasses maker Oakley and French cosmetics firm Clarins.

Despite his success on the track, he has had a rocky private life with stories of rash behaviour, beautiful women, and a love of guns and fast cars.


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Activists urge US cardinal to avoid papal conclave

LOS ANGELES: Roman Catholic activists on Saturday petitioned a US cardinal to recuse himself from taking part in selecting a new pope so as not to insult survivors of sexual abuse by priests committed while he was archbishop of Los Angeles.

The activists delivered a petition with nearly 10,000 signatures to the North Hollywood church where cardinal Roger Mahony resides.

"It's a total slap in the face to victims to think (Mahony) can cover up 25 years of child sex abuse and then go prancing off to Rome like a prince of the (Roman Catholic) Church," said Joelle Casteix, western regional director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

As archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until 2011, Mahony worked to send priests known to be abusers out of state to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s, according to church files unsealed under a US court order last month.

Although his successor, archbishop Jose Gomez, removed him from all public and administrative duties, Mahony has announced his intention to be among 117 cardinals allowed into the Vatican's Sistine Chapel to vote for the next leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI, 85, announced his resignation effective February 28, making him the first pope in centuries to abdicate rather than die in office.

His eight-year reign will be remembered by many for the child sex abuse scandal in Europe and the United States - most of which took place in the 1980s but which came to light more recently.

In California, at a news conference outside the St Charles Borromeo Church, where Mahony is in residence, members of the groups held up signs reading, "Respect the victims. Honor the church. Hold leaders accountable."

"This should be a time for new beginnings," said Chris Pumpelly, a spokesman for social justice nonprofit Catholics United, before delivering the petitions to the church. If Mahony were to vote, "it would be a step backward. It would be a validation of the old ways."

It was unclear whether Mahony was at the church at the time, or if he would receive the documents before he left for Rome.

Earlier on Saturday, Mahony was deposed for more than three hours about his handling of sex-abuse cases. It was the first time he was asked about the church files unsealed last month, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Influential Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana, or "Christian Family," has also questioned whether Mahony should be part of the conclave. Many readers responded online that he should not.

On Friday, Mahony took to Twitter to repeat his intent on voting: "Just a few short hours before my departure for Rome. Will be tweeting often from Rome, except during the actual Conclave itself. Prayers!"


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Vatican slams gossip over pope's resignation

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 23 Februari 2013 | 21.50

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican on Saturday condemned Italian media reports of intrigue, corruption and blackmail among senior prelates, saying these could be a form of pressure to sway voting in next month's conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi dismissed as "gossip, disinformation and sometimes calumny" the reports, which are linked to an investigation by a committee of cardinals last year over a series of damaging leaks of confidential papal documents.

In a statement on Vatican radio's website, Lombardi also referred to the upcoming conclave saying there was "unacceptable pressure to condition the vote of one or other member of the college of cardinals, who might be disliked for one reason or another".

"There are people who are trying to take advantage of this moment of surprise and disorientation of weak spirits to sow confusion and discredit the Church and its government," Lombardi said.

"People who think in terms of money, sex and power and see different realities through this prism cannot see the Church any differently," he said.

"The result is a profoundly unjust description of the Church and many of its people," he added.

"We want this to be a time of sincere reflection as tradition and the laws of the Church indicate."

The pope last year appointed three retired cardinals to conduct an investigation, in parallel with a police inquiry, into a scandal known as "Vatileaks", which led to the conviction and later pardoning of the pope's former butler Paolo Gabriele.

They submitted their secret report for the pope's eyes only, but Italian media have reported they will also share their conclusions with the cardinals who will elect the next pope, ahead of the pontiff's resignation next week.


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ElBaradei calls for Egyptians election boycott

CAIRO: Egyptian liberal opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei called on Saturday for a boycott of parliamentary elections which start in April, saying he refused to take part in "an act of deception".

Islamist President Mohamed Morsi called the elections on Thursday, aiming to conclude Egypt's turbulent transition to democracy which began with the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak by popular protests.

But ElBaradei, a former UN nuclear agency chief, noted that he had called in 2010 for a similar boycott of polls held under Mubarak, who was ousted the following year.

"Today I repeat my call, (I) will not be part of an act of deception," ElBaradei said on his Twitter account.

Islamists have used well-organized campaign operations to win every election since the revolution, while the liberal and leftist opposition has been beset by division.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which backs Morsi, dismissed suggestions that the elections, to be held in four stages from April to June, would lack credibility.

Essam Erian, senior member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said the polls would be carried out under "complete judicial supervision" as well as being followed by Egyptian, regional and international media.

Voting would also be monitored by Egyptian and foreign civil society and human rights organizations, he said on his Facebook page, adding that he expected wide participation.

ElBaradei's call appeared to reflect confusion within the National Salvation Front (NSF), which groups a number of parties opposed to the Islamists - including his own.

Only on Friday NSF spokesman Khaled Dawood said the front would meet in the coming week to decide whether to participate. Previous opposition boycott threats have failed to materialize.


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65 Islamic rebels killed in Mali

N'DJAMENA, CHAD: The Chadian army says that its troops killed 65 Islamic extremist rebels and destroyed five vehicles in fierce fighting northern Mali.

The Chadian military said in a statement on Saturday on state broadcasting that 13 Chadian soldiers were also killed and six were wounded in the fighting on Friday in northern Mali.

The statement said the clashes were in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains of northeastern Mali.

Chad has deployed some 1,800 troops in Mali as part of the French-led military intervention begun in January to wrest control of northern Mali from the Islamic radicals linked to al-Qaida.

The Islamic rebels retreated to mountainous hideouts near Mali's northern border with Algeria, after being expelled at the end of January by French and Malian forces from the major towns in northern Mali.


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Third Bahraini Shia protester dies

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 22 Februari 2013 | 21.50

MANAMA: A Shia protester died of wounds after he was shot during clashes with Bahraini police on the second anniversary of the February 14, 2011 uprising, the opposition said on Friday.

Mahmud al-Jaziri, 20, succumbed on Thursday to wounds suffered when he was "hit with a direct shot to the head by regime forces during peaceful protests" marking the uprising, the main Shia opposition Al-Wefaq group said.

The shooting occurred on Nabi Saleh island, south of Manama, on a day that two other people died during demonstrations commemorating the uprising, which Saudi-backed Bahraini forces crushed in mid-March 2011.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed what was said to be a Bahraini policeman firing from a close range at a protester hurling stones at advancing riot police.

The type of gun used is unclear in the video, also posted on Al-Wefaq's Facebook page and which shows the protester collapsing, as white smoke comes out of the gun's barrel.

The Bahraini authorities have so far not made any comment on Jaziri's reported death.

Police in the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, mostly use shotguns and tear gas to disperse protests by disgruntled members of the Shia majority.

Jaziri's funeral is expected later on Friday.

Another protester, Hussein al-Jaziri, 16, was killed on February 14 in the village of Daih, while a policeman was killed on the same day at Al-Sahla village, on the outskirts of Manama.

Bahrain has witnessed two years of political upheaval linked to opposition demands for a real constitutional monarchy, with the unrest claiming at least 80 lives, according to international rights groups.

Protests continue despite the resumption on February 10 of a national dialogue between opposition groups and the government.

The talks that also include representatives of Sunni political groups and members of the parliament are being held twice a week, but the government said no statements will be made on the progress of the dialogue.


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Third Bahraini Shia protester dies

MANAMA: A Shia protester died of wounds after he was shot during clashes with Bahraini police on the second anniversary of the February 14, 2011 uprising, the opposition said on Friday.

Mahmud al-Jaziri, 20, succumbed on Thursday to wounds suffered when he was "hit with a direct shot to the head by regime forces during peaceful protests" marking the uprising, the main Shia opposition Al-Wefaq group said.

The shooting occurred on Nabi Saleh island, south of Manama, on a day that two other people died during demonstrations commemorating the uprising, which Saudi-backed Bahraini forces crushed in mid-March 2011.

Video footage posted on YouTube showed what was said to be a Bahraini policeman firing from a close range at a protester hurling stones at advancing riot police.

The type of gun used is unclear in the video, also posted on Al-Wefaq's Facebook page and which shows the protester collapsing, as white smoke comes out of the gun's barrel.

The Bahraini authorities have so far not made any comment on Jaziri's reported death.

Police in the kingdom, which is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty, mostly use shotguns and tear gas to disperse protests by disgruntled members of the Shia majority.

Jaziri's funeral is expected later on Friday.

Another protester, Hussein al-Jaziri, 16, was killed on February 14 in the village of Daih, while a policeman was killed on the same day at Al-Sahla village, on the outskirts of Manama.

Bahrain has witnessed two years of political upheaval linked to opposition demands for a real constitutional monarchy, with the unrest claiming at least 80 lives, according to international rights groups.

Protests continue despite the resumption on February 10 of a national dialogue between opposition groups and the government.

The talks that also include representatives of Sunni political groups and members of the parliament are being held twice a week, but the government said no statements will be made on the progress of the dialogue.


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Princess Diana's India dress to go under hammer

LONDON: A Mughal-inspired designer gown worn by Princess Diana during her state visit to India in 1992 is among 10 iconic outfits coming up for auction here next month.

The lavishly embroidered pink silk evening gown and bolero, designed by Catherine Walker especially for the state visit to India in February 1992, is set to fetch between 80,000-120,000 pounds.

"It is one of the most lavish of all her gowns. Richly embroidered royal dresses have been a tradition for royalty and aristocracy since Elizabethan times," a spokesperson for Kerry Taylor Auctions told PTI.

It was during this particular trip that Princess Diana was famously photographed sitting alone at the Taj Mahal, which led to a flurry of speculation in the press at the time.

According to the lot description, the inspiration for the embroidered design came from the lid of an Indian inlaid marquetry box discovered by the designers in a London market.

Great care was taken when choosing the colours of the needlework as it needed to be colourful and exuberant to reflect the country of her visit.

The other nine lots at the auction includes another iconic gown worn by the princess while dancing with actor John Travolta during a state dinner at the White House in 1985.

The Victor Edelstein midnight blue velvet outfit is the highlight of the sale and set to fetch up to 300,000 pounds.

"Diana was photographed wearing these gowns by not only by the paparazzi, but by some of the leading photographers of the day - including Mario Testino and Lord Snowdon," said the auction house, which specialises in vintage fashion sales.

It is confident that the latest auction will prove hugely popular as the lots include some of the "most important and iconic" dresses worn by Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

At Diana's request, the 10 dresses were originally sold in a charity auction in New York in June 1997, just two months before she died.

Florida-based businesswoman Maureen Dunkel bought the dresses but was forced to put them up for auction in 2011 after she went bankrupt - but only four of them sold.

"That sale was a bit of a disaster... The reserve prices were ridiculously high. But they are beautiful dresses. We have a good reputation for selling these things and the estimates are sensible, rooted in reality and obtainable," the spokesperson added.

The princess is a well-known fashion icon and her style was minutely scrutinised, discussed and imitated around the world.

The latest sale of her collection, which includes the handiwork of her favourite designers like Zandra Rhodes and Bruce Oldfield, is expected to raise a whopping 800,000 pounds.

Black was her favourite colour and Diana often chose to wear it, despite the fact that Prince Charles had advised her that it was strictly against royal protocol - as members of the royal family are only supposed to wear it for periods of mourning.


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Bangladesh cracks down on anti-Islam blogs

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 21 Februari 2013 | 21.50

DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a crackdown on Internet sites for "hurting religious feelings" in the majority Muslim nation amid protests by Islamic groups against bloggers seen as anti-Islamic, officials said on Thursday.

Giasuddin Ahmed, vice chairman of the country's telecommunications regulator, told AFP at least two websites had been blocked. Authorities had also removed 10 blog posts for "spreading hatred, provoking social disorder and hurting religious feelings of the people".

"We've taken the actions in line with the country's ICT (Information Communication Technology) Act," he told AFP.

Authorities have also asked blog operators to "moderate" their posts to try to filter out anti-religious writings, another official said.

Tensions have risen in the overwhelmingly conservative nation over the alleged anti-Islamic blog posts by Ahmed Rajib Haider, who was hacked to death near his home in the capital Dhaka last week.

In recent weeks Haider and fellow bloggers had launched huge protests demanding a ban on the largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, and the execution of its leaders for alleged war crimes in the 1971 liberation struggle.

Police have yet to comment on a motive for Haider's killing. But his brother said Haider was targeted by Jamaat's student wing for his online activities.

Fellow bloggers said a pro-Jamaat website had issued a veiled threat against Haider. Jamaat has condemned the murder and denied any role.

Since Haider's death, Bangladeshi social media has been flooded with his alleged blog posts and those by other bloggers mocking Islam, triggering protests by a number of Islamic groups and clerics.

On Wednesday up to 5,000 Islamists rallied in the capital Dhaka demanding punishment -- some calling for execution -- of blasphemous anti-Islam bloggers, police said. There were also protests in other cities.

The groups have also called for protests against the "atheist bloggers" in the country's nearly half a million mosques after weekly prayers on Friday.

The government has warned of tough steps against those who incite social tension, and urged newspapers and blogs not to publish defamatory writings against the Prophet Mohammed.

It has also given police protection to some bloggers in the wake of Haider's murder, police and bloggers said.

"Some newspapers, which are funded by war criminals, are trying to portray us as anti-Islam," said Imran Sarker, a blogger who played a key role in organising the protests against Jamaat and its leaders for their alleged wartime roles.

The killing of Haider was the second attack in Dhaka against a blogger critical of Islamist groups in less than a month.


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Three British Muslims guilty of rucksack bomb plot

LONDON: Three British Muslim men were found guilty on Thursday of planning a string of bombings that prosecutors said could have been deadlier than the July 7, 2005, attacks on London's transport network.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, were convicted of being "central figures" in an Islamist extremist plot to set off eight rucksack bombs and possibly other timed devices in crowded areas.

The three men, all from Birmingham, central England, had denied charges of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts during their trial at Woolwich Crown Court in London.

Police said it was the most significant terror plot to be uncovered in Britain since the 2006 conspiracy to blow up transatlantic airliners using bombs in drinks bottles.

Two of the men -- Naseer and Khalid -- travelled to Pakistan for terror training while Naseer also helped others to travel to the country for the same purpose, the court heard.

The group were also heavily influenced by the teachings of American-born Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, police said.

Judge Richard Henriques said the three men will face life in prison when they are sentenced in April or May.

He told Naseer: "You were seeking to recruit a team of somewhere between six and eight suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11."

Naseer was found guilty of five charges, Khalid four, and Ali three, all between December 25, 2010 and September 19, 2011.

Prosecutor Karen Jones said that while the "precise targets remained unclear" there could have been "catastrophic" damage and loss of life from the plot had it gone to plan.

"The evidence we put to the court showed the defendants discussing with awe and admiration the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7. These terrorists wanted to do something bigger, speaking of how 7/7 had 'gone a bit wrong'," Jones said.

"Having travelled to Pakistan for expert training and preparation, Naseer and Khalid returned to the UK where they discussed attacks involving up to eight rucksacks.

"Had they not been stopped, the consequences would have been catastrophic."

The group tried to fund the plot by fraudulently posing as street collectors for the charity Muslim Aid and they managed to raised £12,000 ($18,400, 13,700 euros), the trial heard.

But the group then lost three quarters of that sum while playing the foreign currency markets and had to take out loans.

British domestic intelligence agency MI5 recorded them discussing the plot during the 18-month investigation that led to their arrests.

During the surveillance Naseer was heard talking about mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to kill people, and about welding blades to a truck and driving it into people.


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NATO chief urges countries to halt defense cuts

BRUSSELS: The head of NATO urged member countries Thursday to stop cutting their defense budgets in response to tough economic times, saying continued reductions will compromise the safety of all of the military alliance's 28 members.

"It is of course a matter of concern that we have seen and continue to see declining defense budgets all over the alliance," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on his way into a two-day meeting of NATO country defense ministers.

"My appeal to governments is, firstly, hold the line, stop the cuts," Fogh Rasmussen said. "Secondly, make more efficient use of the resources we do have, through more multinational cooperation. And thirdly, once the economies recover, start to increase defense investments again."

The defense secretaries will consider ways for their countries to cooperate more effectively on defense procurement in order to get the most value for the money being spent. Fogh Rasmussen said that, in this time of austerity, it is essential for nations to get the best value for taxpayers' money - and working together is the best way to do that.

In addition, the ministers are expected to discuss the role NATO troops will play in Afghanistan once they withdraw from combat and focus instead on training, advising and assisting Afghan forces. But few firm decisions are expected at the meeting, which NATO officials have describes as mostly devoted to taking stock of developments.

Pentagon officials said that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who arrived at the meeting Thursday, will warn NATO allies that Washington's fiscal impasse will have repercussions abroad, as impending budget cuts force the military to scale back its training and presence overseas.

Many of his meetings with other defense ministers are likely to center on the plans to wind down the war in Afghanistan. But shadowing every conversation will be how the cutbacks will ripple across Europe.

U.S. officials have long urged that the burden of mutual defense be shared more equitably. A senior NATO official pointed out this week that the U.S. still spends 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product, while most European countries are dropping below 1.5 percent. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk about the discussions before the meeting had taken place.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said the across-the-board budget cuts slated to take effect next week will reduce U.S. military readiness and, as a result, diminish NATO's ability to respond to crises.

Little said the budget cuts will force reductions in training that could affect NATO, and the Navy has already announced that it will delay the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman to the Persian Gulf because of fiscal restraints. He said that Panetta will discuss the impacts of the budget cuts with the defense ministers during the two-day meeting.

He said the Pentagon "also is talking about the prospect of not being able to send military units to the region on a rotational basis as planned. Little said he did not know what impact that may have on the plans to deploy small components of an Army brigade to various countries in Africa over the next year.

This is Panetta's fifth visit to Brussels for a NATO meeting - a trip he never intended to take. Expectations were that defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, would be confirmed by the Senate last week and he would travel to the meeting.

Hagel's nomination stalled, however, as it got caught up in senators' complaints about the attack in Benghazi, which left four Americans dead, including the ambassador.

___

Don Melvin can be reached at http://twitter.com/Don_Melvin


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‘Handle with care’ : China wades into Maldives row

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 20 Februari 2013 | 21.50

BEIJING: China on Monday reacted cautiously to the political turmoil in Maldives and former President Mohamed Nasheed's decision to seek refuge in the Indian mission in Male, hoping that the issue will be handled "properly".

"The Chinese side sincerely hopes that Maldives could maintain peace, stability and development, and hopes and believes that relevant issue could be properly handled," the Chinese foreign ministry said. This is the first time the Chinese government has reacted to the crisis in Male.

The 45-year-old Nasheed took refuge in the Indian high commission on February 13 to evade arrest in a case concerning the detention of chief judge of the criminal court during his presidency in January last year.


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Earth quake hits China; 8 injured

BEIJING: Eight people were injured in an earthquake near the border area of China's southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, local authorities said today.

The 4.9-magnitude quake, which occurred at 10:46 a.m. yesterday with an epicenter 6 km deep, toppled 72 houses and damaged 949 others in Yunnan's Qiaojia County, the county government said.

The injured, including two people in serious condition, have been sent to local hospitals, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Many people ran out of buildings when the quake came, but there was no falling debris. The shopping mall resumed business shortly after," a mall shopper in the county said.

Rescue work is underway and local civil affairs authorities have dispatched relief materials such as tents and quilts to the area, the county government said.

The quake was followed by two more in Sichuan Province that both registered above magnitude 4.

A 4.5-magnitude quake jolted Yibin City, Sichuan Province, at 3:55 p.m., and another 4.7-magnitude quake hit Mianyang City at 10:17 p.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Casualties and damages from the two quakes are not yet known.


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Earthquake hits China; 8 injured

BEIJING: Eight people were injured in an earthquake near the border area of China's southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, local authorities said today.

The 4.9-magnitude quake, which occurred at 10:46 a.m. yesterday with an epicenter 6 km deep, toppled 72 houses and damaged 949 others in Yunnan's Qiaojia County, the county government said.

The injured, including two people in serious condition, have been sent to local hospitals, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Many people ran out of buildings when the quake came, but there was no falling debris. The shopping mall resumed business shortly after," a mall shopper in the county said.

Rescue work is underway and local civil affairs authorities have dispatched relief materials such as tents and quilts to the area, the county government said.

The quake was followed by two more in Sichuan Province that both registered above magnitude 4.

A 4.5-magnitude quake jolted Yibin City, Sichuan Province, at 3:55 p.m., and another 4.7-magnitude quake hit Mianyang City at 10:17 p.m., according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

Casualties and damages from the two quakes are not yet known.


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Assassinations soar in Afghanistan: UN

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 19 Februari 2013 | 21.50

KABUL: Insurgent attacks on Afghan government employees soared last year by a staggering 700 per cent even as the overall civilian death toll from the war fell, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The targeted killings of women in government service by Taliban-led insurgents was "particularly disturbing", the UN mission in Afghanistan said in its annual report on civilian casualties.


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Fiji regime to shut down 14 political parties

SUVA: Fourteen of Fiji's 17 political parties are being closed down after failing to apply for registration under restrictions imposed on opposition groups last month, the military regime said Tuesday.

The move means the Pacific nation will potentially have only three political parties involved in elections scheduled for next year, the country's first move toward democracy since a military coup in 2006.

Fiji's registrar for political parties Mere Vuniwaqa said 14 parties did not meet a deadline for registration last week and they would be wound up, with all their assets being forfeited to the government.

"By law, I am mandated to make an application to the High Court to wind up the rest of the existing parties that did not apply by the deadline," she told the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation.

"We are now working in the Solicitor General's office to put together the relevant applications for the winding up in the High Court."

Under a decree passed last month, the membership threshold for registering a political party was lifted 40-fold from 128 to 5,000, a major hurdle for opposition groups in Fiji, which has a population of about 870,000.

Trade union officials were also banned from political parties in a move the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said was "an affront to democratic principles".

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has described the conditions imposed on Fiji's political parties as "onerous" and unjustified, saying they threaten to undermine confidence in next year's elections.

After the 2006 coup, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama initially promised to hold elections in 2009 but then tore up the constitution in favour of rule by decree, arguing the country was not ready for democracy.

He insists elections will be held in 2014 but has made clear it will be on terms set by the military, which has been a key player in the four coups the country has endured since 1987.

While Bainimarama has not yet announced if he will stand in the elections, he is widely expected to seek office in the poll and the ITUC has accused him of seeking to minimise opposition though the decree on political parties.

Carr is expected to visit Fiji this month as part of a delegation from the Pacific Islands Forum, which expelled Fiji in 2009 for failing to restore democracy.


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Hugo Chavez's return to Venezuela raises questions

CARACAS, VENEZUELA: The announcement of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's return to Venezuela after a 10-week silence in Cuba is raising questions about his cancer treatments, his delicate health, and the political purposes that motivated his homecoming.

Three messages appeared on Chavez's Twitter account early Monday saying he was back, and the government announced that he had arrived at 2:30am and was taken to Caracas' military hospital to continue with his treatments. The government released no images of the president, though, and while his supporters threw street celebrations to welcome him, some also said they wanted to see him to get a better idea of how he is doing.

The government has said Chavez is undergoing "complex and tough" treatments for his illness but hasn't specified what sort of treatment. The government has said he is breathing through a tube inserted into his windpipe and therefore has difficulty talking, but officials haven't given a detailed medical report despite demands by the opposition.

Even as Vice President Nicolas Maduro has increasingly stood in for Chavez since the president's Dec. 11 surgery, he and other leading officials have insisted that Chavez remains in charge and has been signing off on government decisions.

Chavez's announced return to Caracas came less than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him in a bed looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The lack of any images of Chavez on Monday underlined the many unanswered questions about where he stands in his prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas broke into song on television early Monday, exclaiming: "He's back, he's back!"

"Bravo," Villegas said, before state television employees joined him in the studio clapping and celebrating.

A giant inflated Chavez doll was placed beside a corner of the National Assembly building.

Villegas reiterated in an interview with Venezuelan radio station Union Radio that Chavez is going through a "difficult, hard and complex" recovery process, and that his return doesn't change the "difficult circumstances he has been in."

The vice president later presided over a televised Cabinet meeting at the presidential palace, though he didn't offer additional details about Chavez. "He will live and he will triumph," Maduro said at the end of the meeting, while on television an image of Chavez's face was superimposed on the oval-shaped table.

Hundreds of Chavez supporters celebrated his return in downtown Caracas, chanting his name and holding photos of the president in Bolivar Plaza. Supporters also gathered outside the hospital, wearing the red T-shirts of Chavez's socialist movement and chanting: "He's back!"

"I want to see my president," said Alicia Morroy, a seamstress who stood outside the hospital on the verge of tears. "I've missed him a lot because Chavez is the spirit of the poor."

Six hospital employees who were asked about the president said they hadn't seen him. Yusmeli Teran, a waitress who serves food to patients, told The Associated Press that the area where Chavez was being treated on the 9th floor is a restricted area guarded by police and soldiers. "No one has seen him at all," she said.

Chavez's precise condition and the sort of cancer treatments he is undergoing remain a mystery, and speculation has grown recently that he may not be able to stay on as president.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer in Bogota, Colombia, said that given the government's accounts that Chavez is undergoing "complex" treatment, he thinks he likely will have to step down.

"Unfortunately, the cancer he has isn't going to go away, and he's returning to continue his battle. But I think he's conscious that he isn't going to win his fight against cancer, as much as he'd like to win it," Castro told the AP in a telephone interview.

The Venezuelan Constitution says that if a president dies or steps down, a new vote must be called and held within 30 days. Chavez raised that possibility before he left for Cuba in December by saying that if necessary, Maduro should run in a new election to replace him.

Chavez's return could be used to give a boost to his would-be successor and gain time to "consolidate his alternative leader" ahead of a possible new presidential vote this year, said Luis Vicente Leon, a Venezuelan pollster and political analyst.

Leon said that even if Chavez isn't seen in public, his presence will allow the government to keep up his emotional connection to his followers and rally support.

Even the state newspaper Correo del Orinoco referred to the possibility of a new election in its Monday edition. The top headline, published before Chavez's announced return, said a poll found Maduro would win a possible election.

Maduro and other Cabinet ministers held hands and prayed in a televised gathering on Monday night in which a priest and a minister offered words of thanks for Chavez's return.

Venezuela's opposition responded to the news by saying that it's natural for the president to be back in his own country and that creating a "spectacle" with his return serves no useful purpose.

"The government should tell the truth and dedicate itself to working to confront Venezuelans' serious problems," the opposition coalition said in a statement, citing problems such as violent crime, soaring inflation and worsening shortages of some foods.

The 58-year-old Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition.

Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be sworn in. But government officials haven't yet addressed that possibility.


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EU launches military training mission in Mali

Written By Unknown on Senin, 18 Februari 2013 | 21.50

BRUSSELS: European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels are officially launching a mission to train the military in the African country of Mali.

The first people in the mission _ about 70 _ have already been sent to Mali so that they could begin working as advisers as soon as Monday's decision was made. EU officials say military instructors will be deployed before the end of March and training will start in April.

The mission is designed to help the government of Mali maintain control of the country.

French and African troops are working to wrest control of the vast northern part of the country from Islamic radicals and other rebel groups.


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North Korea nuke test is lesson on Iran: Israel PM

JERUSALEM: Israel's prime minister says North Korea's recent nuclear test shows that "sanctions alone will not stop" Iran's atomic program.

Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of international Jewish leaders on Monday that the Western sanctions against Tehran "have to be coupled with a robust, credible, military threat. If they are not, then there is no chance to stop them."

He says Iran will top his agenda when President Barack Obama visits Israel next month.

North Korea conducted a nuclear test last week despite warnings of more international punishment. Iran, like North Korea, is under stiff sanctions from the West over its nuclear program.

Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat. Netanyahu often hints about a possible strike on Iran's nuclear sites if sanctions fail.


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Ecuador's Correa breezes to re-election

QUITO (ECUADOR): A landslide second re-election secured, President Rafael Correa immediately vowed to deepen the "citizen's revolution" that has lifted tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans out of poverty as he expanded the welfare state.

"In this revolution the citizens are in charge, not capital," the leftist US-trained economist said after winning 56.9 per cent of the vote Sunday against 23.8 per cent for his closest challenger, longtime banker Guillermo Lasso.

With 57 per cent of the vote counted, former President Lucio Gutierrez finished third with 6 per cent. The remainder was divided among five other candidates. Lasso conceded defeat late on Sunday.

The fiery-tongued Correa has brought surprising stability to an oil-exporting nation of 14.6 million with a history of unruliness that cycled through seven presidents in the decade before him.

With the help of oil prices that have hovered around $100 a barrel, he has raised lower-class living standards and widened the welfare state with region-leading social spending.

The 48-year-old Correa dedicated his victory to his cancer-stricken friend President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who some analysts have suggested he could succeed as the standard-bearer of Latin America's left.

"We are only here to serve you. Nothing for us. Everything for you," Correa told cheering supporters from the balcony of the Carondelet presidential palace Sunday shortly after polls closed.

Yet Correa has also drawn wide rebuke for intolerance of dissent and some analysts have questioned how sustainable his economic policies are. The number of people working for the government has burgeoned from 16,000 to 90,000 during Correa's current term if office, Ecuador's nongovernmental observatory of fiscal policy reported in December.

Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, called Correa's ramping up of social spending "simply applying the standard recipe for many populist governments in the region." While it succeeds in building political support in the short term, he said, it is not clear whether it is sustainable.

And while Correa has shown himself to be the "undisputed rhetorical leader of Latin America's left" — and should now see his standing enhanced there — Shifter said Correa's consolidation of power have damaged Ecuador's "already precarious institutions" and he lacks the clout, the ambition and the coffers to build a coalition that could curtail US power in the region.

Correa's result Sunday easily topped the 51.7 per cent that he won in his first re-election in April 2009. He is barred by the constitution from another 4-year term.

While a practitioner of one-man rule in the Chavez mold, he is more respectful of private property.

Ecuador relies on petroleum for more than half of its export earnings, and he has used this oil wealth to make public education and health care more accessible, and lay thousands of kilometers (miles) of new highways.

Foreign investment has suffered, however, and Lasso, the former head of the Banco de Guayaquil, ran on a platform of guaranteeing multinational businesses more favorable terms, such as abolishing a 5 per cent tax on capital removed from Ecuador.

Correa said he's happy to have more foreign investment but "it's better not to have it than to mortgage the country in the name of that pipe dream called foreign investment."

He did not explain, meanwhile, how he planned to pay for efforts to "quicken and deepen" poverty reduction. Skeptical economists say the state can't afford it without major new revenue sources.

Such talk doesn't dim the enthusiasm for Correa of the likes of Jomaira Espinosa.

"Before (Correa), my family didn't have enough to eat" and her father couldn't find work, the 18-year-old said. Now her father has a job as a public servant and she expects to be able to study for free at a university thanks to Correa's programs.

Since Correa took office in 2007, the United Nations says Ecuador's poverty rate has dropped nearly five per centage points to 32.4 per cent. In all, 1.9 million people receive $50 a month in aid from the state. Critics complain that the handouts to single mothers, needy families and the elderly poor, along with other subsidies, have bloated the government.

Civil liberties, meantime, have suffered.

Correa has been widely condemned for using criminal libel law against opposition news media and for such strong-arm tactics as seizing Ecuador's airwaves virtually at will to spread his political gospel and attack opponents.

German Calapucha, a 29-year-old accountant, said he voted against Correa because he's tired of the president's imperiousness.

"He thinks that because he wins elections he has the right to mistreat people," Calapucha said.

Correa has eroded the influence not just of opposition political parties but also of the Roman Catholic Church and independent news media. He has stacked courts with friendly judges and prosecuted indigenous leaders for organizing protests against Correa's attempt to open up Ecuador to large-scale mining without their consent.

Meanwhile, Correa has been unable to stop a growing sensation of vulnerability in a country where robberies and burglaries grew 30 per cent in 2012 compared with the previous year.

The graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained an early reputation as a maverick, defying international financiers by defaulting on $3.9 billion in foreign debt obligations and rewriting contracts with oil multinationals to secure a higher share of oil revenues for Ecuador.

He has also kept the United States at arm's length while upsetting Britain and Sweden in August by granting asylum at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the online spiller of leaked US government secrets who is wanted for questioning in Sweden for alleged sexual assault.

Correa has, meanwhile, cozied up to US rivals Iran and China. The latter is the biggest buyer of Ecuador's oil and holds $3.4 billion in Ecuadorean debt, according to finance minister Patricio Rivera.


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23 killed in series of blasts: Iraqi officials

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 17 Februari 2013 | 21.50

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say a series of car bombs has killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens in Shiite areas of Baghdad.

The attacks on Sunday, the start of the local work week, mostly targeted outdoor markets.

Police and hospital officials provided the death toll, saying nearly 70 people were wounded in the blasts.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but lethal attacks are still common.


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Dam collapses in China, thousands evacuated

BEIJING: Thousands of people were evacuated after a dam in north China's Shanxi province collapsed, causing heavy flooding and damaging highways and rail tracks.

The top of an irrigation water duct of Quting Reservoir in Hongtong county caved in on Saturday leading to collapse of its dam walls, official media reported.

No casualties have been reported. Thousands of villagers were evacuated to safety.

The floods damaged a highway and rail lines, leaving thousands of holiday passengers stranded at various places.

While the highway was flooded with silt, railway tracks were swept away. Eight railway lines have been shut.

More than 3,000 passengers have been stranded and temporary offices are dealing with ticket returns.

Officials said the irrigation duct was built in 1959 and attributed its collapse to its age.


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Masked raiders damage Greek gold mining site

ATHENS: About 40 masked attackers raided a disputed gold-mining project in northern Greece early on Sunday, setting fire to machinery and lightly injuring four security guards, police said.

The Skouries project in the Halkidiki peninsula has been the target of several protests by locals and activists who strongly oppose a gold mine being built because they say it would devastate the environment.

Police said the assailants entered the facility around 12.40am (2240 GMT), causing extensive damage with firebombs and flammable liquid, and that 27 people had been detained.

The Skouries project, an open pit copper-gold mine, is run by Hellas Gold, a subsidiary of Canadian firm Eldorado Gold that runs the Stratoni mixed sulfide project in northern Greece and is developing three gold projects in the region.

Mired in a sixth year of recession, Greece has been scrambling to attract foreign investment that will help kickstart growth in the economy.

Vancouver-based Eldorado employs about 680 people in Greece and expects to invest about $1 billion in the debt-plagued nation over the next five years.


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Australia 'deeply involved' in Israel spy case

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 16 Februari 2013 | 21.50

SYDNEY: Australian intelligence had detailed knowledge of the case of a Melbourne man thought to have been an Israeli spy well before he died in a Tel Aviv jail in 2010, a report said on Saturday.

"Every day that goes by you see how deeply involved they were," a senior Israeli official told The Australian newspaper. "It is clear they were in the know long before he died."

The unnamed source told the paper that Australian officials had suspected the man known as "Prisoner X" of spying for Israel and had interrogated him, adding "they (the Australians) knew many things".

"Then, when the coffin was returned to Australia, they knew he was not some backpacker who got lost trekking," the official said.

An Israeli probe into the death in December 2010 of the prisoner identified in Australian media as Ben Zygier, a 34-year-old Australian Jew recruited by Israel's Mossad spy agency, found he had committed suicide.

But a justice ministry official told Israeli journalists the judge handling the case has demanded a further probe "to examine issues of negligence".

The fact that the detainee, held in a high security prison under continuous surveillance, managed to hang himself has raised questions and fed conspiracy theories that have been reported by the Israeli and Australian media.

Many questions remain unanswered in the mysterious case and Zygier's family has not commented since the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broke the story naming him as Prisoner X last week.

Australian journalist Jason Koutsoukis, who interviewed Zygier several times in 2010 while working for Australia's Fairfax Media, said the Melbourne-raised lawyer who moved to Israel in about 2002 had vehemently denied spying.

Australia's foreign minister Bob Carr said last week he was troubled by Zygier's death but could do little without a complaint from the family.

Carr, who only became foreign minister in early 2012, had earlier said he had been told there was no record of contact between the prisoner's family and the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv or the department of foreign affairs in Canberra.

"So on my advice, the Australian government was not informed of his detention by his family or by anyone else," he told the ABC.

Carr has since admitted that Canberra was informed in February 2010 — 10 months before Zygier died — that Israel had detained an Australian-Israeli citizen on national security grounds.

He has since ordered a review of Australia's handling of the case.

Carr said Canberra had sought assurances at the time that the detainee's legal rights would be respected and that he was not being mistreated.

"At no stage during his detention did the Australian government receive any request from the individual or his family to extend consular support," he added.


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Chavez supporters rejoice after first photos release

CARACAS: Supporters of President Hugo Chavez displayed new confidence on Saturday after the government released the first post-surgical photos of the ailing Venezuelan leader, in which he appears bed-ridden but smiling in the company of his daughters.

The pictures show the 58-year-old Chavez lying on his back in a Havana hospital and leafing through Thursday's edition of the official Cuban newspaper Granma.

Chavez supporters rejoiced at the confirmation that the president was alive.

The four images broke a virtual news blackout for Venezuelans who have been living in limbo without their media-happy comandante — a populist firebrand who is the most visible face of the Latin American left and who has irked the United States by aligning himself with Iran, Syria and Cuba.

For over two months Venezuelans had not seen a photo or TV image of Chavez, nor heard the voice of a man usually omnipresent across state media. Sketchy government updates about his health fueled speculation he was actually dead.

Chavez's absence has also enraged political opponents, who have wondered aloud who is running Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

He was last seen as he left Caracas airport on December 10 for treatment in Cuba.

On Thursday night, opposition leader Henrique Capriles kept up his assertion that the government has probably been lying about Chavez's health, suggesting the president is in worse shape than officials have said he is.

Capriles expressed fresh anger over of the release of the pictures and said they had not clarified the president's true health condition.

However the pro-Chavez camp was jubilant to see their hero, and could not resist a dig at the rumors simmering on social media that Chavez was no more.

"Wow! For a dead man you look really good, comandante," tweeted @mormaldonado.

"He's alive, he's alive! Thanks be to God and to the whole world. This is proof," said Dora Salcedo, 67, one of dozens of Chavez fans who gathered in downtown Caracas after the photos came out.

But Venezuelans apparently will have to wait longer for the former commando to break his silence.

He has been fitted with a breathing tube in his throat, making it hard for him to speak, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said.

That's because of a respiratory infection that emerged after the surgery. The infection has been brought under control but "the underlying disease is not without complications," Villegas said in a televised speech to the nation.

It was Chavez's son in law Jorge Arreaza, also science minister, who showed the printed photos of Chavez on television.

"We wanted to share with you now some shots from last night of our commander accompanied by his two daughters Rosa Virginia and Maria Gabriela ... yesterday on the day of friendship, on Valentine's Day," Arreaza said.

A leading political analyst here said it was a savvy move by the government to publish the photos, even if Chavez appeared to be in a somewhat debilitated state.

"It was the right move politically," said Luis Vicente Leon, president of the firm Datanalisis.

The pictures are similar to each other, and show Chavez with the daughters, one on either side of him, looking through the Cuban newspaper. Chavez wears a white baseball-type jacket that goes up to his neck. The breathing tube is not visible, with the leader lying back, his face puffy, but smiling.

These pictures "put us at ease," Arreaza said in a broadcast that all radio and TV stations were ordered to carry.

Chavez remains alert with all his mental faculties intact and is "in close collaboration with his government team and on top off all the issues" facing the government, Villegas said.

But Capriles reacted with scorn. He said that while just a few days ago government officials who have been shuttling back and forth to Havana said they had spoken to Chavez "now they say he cannot speak. They are making a mockery of their own people," Capriles tweeted.

Chavez was first diagnosed with cancer in 2011. After surgery and treatment he declared himself free of the disease and went on to win another term in elections last October.

But he suffered a relapse, and after the latest surgery he was still too sick to come back to Venezuela for his scheduled inauguration on January 10. It has been postponed indefinitely, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro has essentially been running Venezuela.

Maduro used the occasion of the pictures' publication to accuse the opposition of "trying to confuse the public" and "destabilizing" the country, with its strident criticism of the president's prolonged absence.

The government has never said where Chavez's cancer is located or how serious it was or is.

Opposition parties insist Chavez's term ended January 10 and that if he cannot start a new one in person, an interim president should be named pending a decision on whether Chavez should be declared incapacitated, in which case a new election would be called quickly.


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Suicide attack kills top Iraqi intelligence officer

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber, pretending to ask for help, assassinated a senior Iraqi military official and three bodyguards at his home on Saturday in the north, officials said.

Brig Gen Ali Aouni, the head of the Iraq defence ministry's intelligence academy, and his bodyguards were killed when the bomber detonated his explosive vest just as Aouni was leaving his house in Tal Afar, 420 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.

The suicide bomber, who was waiting outside of Aouni's house, told the guards that he wanted Aouni to help him on some matter. When the guards opened a gate to let Aouni's car through, the bomber blew himself up.

There was no claim of responsibly for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida's local franchise, which often uses high profile-killings to sow fear and undermine the government's authority. Violence has decreased in Iraq, but insurgent attacks are still frequent.

A medic in Tal Afar hospital confirmed the death toll.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.


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Kenya court clears Kenyatta to run for presidency

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 15 Februari 2013 | 21.50

NAIROBI: Kenya's high court said on Friday it lacked the jurisdiction to rule whether presidential hopeful Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces a crimes against humanity trial, is eligible to run for office next month.

With little time left before the March 4 election, the ruling effectively clears the way for Kenyatta to contest the polls, in which he is seen as one of the leading candidates for the country's top job.

"The High Court lacks jurisdiction to deal with a question relating to the election of a president," the panel of five judges said in a statement read to a packed courtroom, saying only the Supreme Court could rule on the case.

Kenya is less than three weeks from a presidential election, the first since polls five years ago erupted into bloody ethnic violence that left more than 1,100 people dead and hundreds of thousand displaced.

The ruling also applies to Kenyatta's running mate William Ruto, who together lead the Jubilee Coalition party.

Both men face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged roles in orchestrating murder, rape and violence after the 2007 polls.

Judge Mbogoli Msagha said despite ICC charges "every citizen has the right to vie for office ... an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty".

Around a hundred supporters of the pair — who were not present in court — celebrated after the ruling, chanting their names, shouting "elections now!", and waving placards.

"Our march towards forming a Jubilee government is still on course," Kenyatta wrote in a message on Twitter, shortly after the ruling. "Thank you for all your support and prayers this far. God is Great!"

Ruto added in a Twitter message that he believed his "quest for leadership will be decided by the people of Kenya through the ballot."

Activists had sought a ruling as to whether the pair should be allowed to stand for office, as under a new constitution introduced in 2010, leaders must rule with "integrity".

"This is an issue that is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," the judges' ruling said.

Moving the case to the higher court would require an application by the coalition of civil society organizations that launched the case.

"This is the official death of the constitution," said Lempaa Suiyanka, a spokesman for the civil society groups said, noting that since they must pay the costs of Kenyatta and Ruto, they lacked funds to continue.

"We are constrained by time and resources, we have not decided whether we will proceed with the case or not," Suiyanka added.

Judges said that since Kenya's election commission had already passed Kenyatta and Ruto as fit to stand for election, any ruling "would end up usurping" the powers of the commission.

The politically volatile case has been repeatedly delayed, and an earlier petition was unexpectedly withdrawn in December.

However, new applications were made, including by the Kenya human rights commission, the Kenyan branch of the International Commission for Jurists, and the International Centre for Policy and Conflict.

They argued that the any person committed to trial at The Hague-based ICC would not be able to properly carry out their duties of running the country, while the honour and integrity of the public office would also be damaged.

Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister and son of Kenya's founding president, faces five charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts.

Ruto faces three charges of crimes against humanity.

Both have proclaimed their innocence, remain free and have promised to cooperate with the court.

The 2007-8 violence shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of stability in east Africa, and concerns are high over the risk of possible repeat violence.

Human Rights Watch have warned the risk of political violence is "perilously high", noting that the "underlying causes of past election-related violence remain in place."

At least 484 people were killed and over 116,000 fled their homes due to ethnic violence last year, according to the United Nations.


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