Libya urges Niger to extradite Gaddafi son: report

By Taha Zargoun and Marie-Louise Gumuchian

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya has demanded that Niger extradite Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi, warning that his call for Libyans to prepare for a "coming uprising" threatened ties between the two countries, Libyan News Agency LANA said on Saturday.

As Libyan rebels gained the upper hand over Gaddafi's regime last September, Saadi and a group of senior loyalists fled across the border to Niger, where they remain under house surveillance in the capital Niamey.

In a telephone call to Al Arabiya television late on Friday, Saadi said that he was in regular contact with people in Libya who were unhappy with the authorities put in place after the ousting and killing of his father.

LANA cited a telephone call between Niger's Foreign Minister Bazoum Mohamed and his Libyan counterpart Ashour Bin Hayal on Saturday, quoting the Libyan minister as expressing "strong resentment" towards Saadi's "aggressive statements."

"Mr Ashour Bin Hayal reiterated to the foreign minister of Niger that these statements threaten the bilateral relationship between the two countries and that the government of Niger should adopt strict measures against him (Saadi) including extraditing him to Libya to be prosecuted for the crimes he committed against the Libyan people," LANA said.

Niger has said Saadi would remain in the West African nation until a United Nations travel ban on him was lifted, despite Tripoli's request for his return.

Interpol last year issued a "red notice" requesting member states to arrest Saadi with a view to extradition if they find him on their territory.

"The foreign minister of Niger ... expressed his regret and apologies to the government and Libyan people for what has happened and confirmed that he will contact the Niger president who is on a foreign visit to France," LANA said.

"He wants to assure the Libyan side that the demands made forth will be responded to in accordance to the laws and approved customs. He added that the communication between the parties will be open in this regard," LANA added.

Libyan government officials were not immediately available for comment.

BAD FOR THE NEIGHBOURS

In an interview broadcast by France 24 on Saturday but recorded before Saadi's interview was aired, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou stated that Niger had not received any formal extradition request from Tripoli but would study any future one.

"If we receive an official request we will study it. We are a state based on the rule of law. We will study that question according to our laws and our international commitments, because Niger signed the treaty that created the International Criminal Court," Issoufou told France 24.

"We took them in on humanitarian grounds ... and we were very clear with them at the time: we took them in on condition they do not carry out any subversive activities against the Libyan authorities."

The ICC in the Hague issued a warrant for Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam - who is in a Libyan jail awaiting trial on rape and murder charges - but not for Saadi, who before the war was chiefly known abroad for his obsession with soccer.

The Libyan conflict has created new problems for the fragile region to its south. Heavily armed former fighters from Gaddafi's army have joined a new rebellion in northern Mali that has forced tens of thousands to flee from their homes.

As many as 200,000 migrant workers once employed in Libya have headed back into Niger, which along with the rest of the Sahel region is facing the latest of its recurrent food crises.

Aid agencies say their arrival has stretched scarce food resources even more thinly.

(Additional reporting by Mark John in Dakar; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Greece warns bailout rebels of unknown, dangerous path

 

1 of 10. Riot policemen walk in front of the parliament during an anti-austerity rally in Athens February 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Yiorgos Karahalis

By Harry Papachristou and Lefteris Papadimas

ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek government told rebellious lawmakers on Saturday to back a deeply unpopular EU/IMF rescue in parliament or send the nation down "an unknown, dangerous path" to default and international economic isolation.

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras, who has attacked austerity policies for driving Greece ever deeper into recession, still told his party to back the 130 billion euro deal or be dropped as candidates in the next general election.

With voters deeply hostile to the bailout's tough conditions, former socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou admitted that backing austerity had cost him the premiership and even some of his friends, but the alternative was a collapse in living standards and further "unforeseeable consequences."

The coalition of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has a huge majority, which should ensure parliament approves on Sunday a package including a further 3.3 billion euros in budget cuts this year, needed to secure Greece's second bailout since 2010.

But six members of his cabinet have already resigned over the heavy pay, pension and job cuts which the European Union and International Monetary Fund are demanding as the price of the funds, which Greece needs by next month to avoid bankruptcy.

INCALCULABLE CONSEQUENCES

Officials hammered home the message that Greece's future in the euro was at stake.

"The consequences of disorderly default would be incalculable for the country - not just for the economy ... it will lead us onto an unknown, dangerous path," Deputy Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis said.

In an interview with the newspaper Imerisia, he described the catastrophe he believes Greece would suffer if it failed to meet debt repayments of 14.5 billion euros due on March 20.

"Let's just ask ourselves what it would mean for the country to lose its banking system, to be cut off from imports of raw materials, pharmaceuticals, fuel, basic foodstuffs and technology," he said.

Late on Friday the cabinet approved the draft bailout bill and a plan to ease the state's huge debt burden which has deepened the nation's political and social crisis and brought thousands out on the streets in protest.

As a 48-hour protest strike went into its second day, about 50 Communist party activists draped two huge banners on the ramparts of the Acropolis on Saturday, reading: "Down with the dictatorship of the monopolies (and the) European Union."

About 7,000 demonstrators gathered in central Athens, police said, but there was no repeat of trouble on Friday when police fired teargas at protesters throwing petrol bombs and stones.

SAMARAS CRACKS THE WHIP

Members of the conservative New Democracy party, which has a big lead in opinion polls before elections expected as early as April, are likely to back the deal solidly.

Samaras still warned his party, the second biggest in parliament, against stepping out of line. "This is obviously an issue of party discipline," he told New Democracy lawmakers in parliament, warning anyone who opposed the bailout "will not be a candidate in the next election."

However, the smallest party in the coalition, the far-right LAOS, quit the government in protest at the package on Friday, ordering its four cabinet members to resign. Two members of the Socialist PASOK party have also left the cabinet.

Papandreou, who negotiated the first bailout before his government collapsed in November, acknowledged the huge pressure on any politician backing the second rescue.

"I've lost friends, my family suffered, I gave up my office, I was insulted, vilified, like no other politician ever was in this country," he told PASOK's parliamentary group.

"Still, all that is nothing compared with what our people will suffer if we fail to do the right thing... Despite all the anger we are feeling inside, we must persevere."

Party discipline is much weaker at PASOK, whose support has dived to eight percent in the latest opinion from the nearly 44 percent it commanded when Papandreou led it into power in 2009.

A WHIFF OF REBELLION

Despite the whiff of rebellion, analysts expect parliament to pass the package, which also includes a bond swap which will ease Greece's debt burden by cutting the value of private investors' bond holdings by 70 percent.

Some economists suggest that if Greece defaulted and left the euro zone, its new national currency would dive in value and allow the Greek economy to become internationally competitive.

But government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis dismissed this notion. "We'll have to reduce the deficit, regardless of whether we have the euro or not."

Euro zone finance ministers have told Greece that it must explain how 325 million euros ($430 million) out of this year's total budget cuts will be achieved before it agrees to bailout.

Bailout documents released on Friday left blank the amount of the rescue but even 130 billion euros may not be enough.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Saturday 15 billion euros more might be needed to rescue the country's banks, confirming estimates from EU officials.

The banks are up to their necks in Greek government debt, the value of which will be slashed under the bailout, and have suffered huge losses of deposits as Greeks have either shipped their savings abroad or stuffed them under the mattress.

EU EXASPERATION

The European Union and the IMF have been exasperated by a series of broken promises and weeks of disagreement over the bailout. They will not release the aid without clear commitments by the main party leaders that the reforms will be implemented, regardless of who wins the next elections.

The uncertainty has upset world financial markets, with stocks snapping a five-day winning streak on Friday and the euro tumbling.

The bill, approved by the cabinet along with hundreds of pages of accompanying documents, sets out reforms including a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, pension cuts worth 300 million euros this year, as well as health and defense spending cuts.

"The government believes that sustained implementation of this policy program, complemented by debt restructuring, will put the public debt on a clear downward path," it says in a draft letter to EU and IMF chiefs, attached to the bill.

In the same letter, the government promises to speed up implementation of reforms in the labor, product and services markets, cut spending, and push through a privatization plan.

One of the attached documents, which spells out the reforms Greece will have to undertake in return for the aid, says the target of cutting the debt to "about" 120 percent of GDP by 2020 from about 160 percent now will be achieved.

(Writing by David Stamp)

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Syria forces shell Homs, Saudis push U.N. resolution

1 of 12. Demonstrators gather during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Homs February 10, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces unleashed new tank and rocket bombardments on opposition neighborhoods of Homs on Saturday while diplomats sought U.N. backing for an Arab plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in Syria.

Activists said seven people were killed in the latest attacks in a week-long government siege of Homs, a battered city at the heart of the uprising to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Mohammed Hassan, one opposition campaigner in Homs, told Reuters by satellite telephone that a 55-year-old woman was among those killed by shellfire on the Bab Amro district.

The bloodshed followed a day of violence across Syria on Friday, when bombings targeting security bases killed at least 28 people in Aleppo and rebel fighters battled troops in a Damascus suburb after dark.

Assad has ignored repeated international appeals, the latest from the European Union, to halt his crackdown.

"I am appalled by the reports of the brutal attacks by the Syrian armed forces in Homs. I condemn in the strongest terms these acts perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilian," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

However, the world is deeply divided over how to end the Syria conflict. On Sunday Russia and China vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution sponsored by Western and Arab states that backed an Arab League call for Assad to step down.

HOMS SUFFERS

The government offensive on opposition-held, mostly Sunni Muslim areas of Homs has killed at least 300 people in the past week, according to activists. Food and medical supplies are running low in blockaded areas, where many people are trapped in their houses, fearful of coming under fire if they step out.

Accounts could not be independently confirmed as Syria restricts access by most foreign journalists.

Youtube footage provided by activists showed a doctor at a field hospital next to the body of the woman. "Shrapnel hit her in the head and completely drained her brain matter," he says.

Big guns also pounded other Sunni neighborhoods in Homs that have been at the forefront of the uprising.

The 46-year old president belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the majority Sunni country since Assad's late father took control in a 1970 coup.

Security forces have also made house-to-house raids in Homs in the last two days. The bodies of three people shot by snipers were pulled from the streets on Saturday, activists said.

YouTube footage from Friday showed two tanks said to be on the edge of Bab Amro, one firing its main gun across a highway.

"The indiscriminate shelling is killing mostly civilians," Fawaz Tello, an Egyptian-based member of the opposition Syrian National Council, told Reuters.

"Assad cannot push his troops into street fighting...so he is content with shelling Homs to bits until civilian losses pressure the Free Syrian Army to withdraw and regime troops can enter these neighborhoods without taking any serious losses."

TROOPS AMBUSHED

Elsewhere in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 soldiers were killed in an ambush by army defectors on Friday in the rebellious Idlib region on the border with Turkey.

The defectors hit a patrol between two villages with hand grenades and roadside bombs, the British-based Observatory said.

In Damascus, Free Syrian Army rebels fought for four hours on Friday night against troops backed by armored vehicles who had entered al-Qaboun neighborhood, activists said.

The fighting between government and rebel soldiers showed how opposition to Assad has increasingly evolved from pro-democracy street protests to armed insurrection.

World powers fear a slide into all-out civil war which could inflame a region already riven by revolts and rivalries from Bahrain and Yemen to Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gulf Arab states, the United States, Europe and Turkey are leading diplomatic efforts to force Assad to end his 11-year rule. But they have ruled out a military intervention of the kind that helped bring down Libya's Muammar Gaddafi last year.

Assad can count on the support of Russia, Syria's main arms supplier and an ally stretching back to the Soviet era, as well as Iran. Moscow, which is keen to counter U.S. influence in the Middle East, insists foreign powers should not interfere.

Kamel Ayham, a Eurasia Group analyst, said Syria was also the nexus of a regional power struggle, with Assad's fate the focus of competition between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim countries.

At the United Nations, Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution backing an Arab peace plan for Syria among members of the General Assembly on Friday, diplomats said. The text echoed the one vetoed by Russia and China in the Security Council.

Like the failed draft, the assembly text "fully supports" the Arab League plan floated last month. The assembly is due to discuss Syria on Monday and vote on the draft later in the week.

Russia and China blocked the Security Council draft, saying it was unbalanced and failed to blame Syria's opposition, along with the government, for violence in which thousands have died.

The United Nations, which says it can no longer tally casualties, estimated in mid-December that the security forces had killed more than 5,000. A week later, the government said armed "terrorists" had killed over 2,000 soldiers and police.

Eurasia's Ayham said the Russian and Chinese vetoes indicated that change was not imminent. As the rebel forces lacked structure and a unified command, Assad would keep the military edge, but would find it hard to stamp out the revolt.

"In the next few months, Syria will transition from civil conflict into civil war. Assad's power and control over the country will diminish and civilian casualties on both sides are expected to rise," Ayham said.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations and Dominic Evans in Beirut; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Nigerian president's state votes amid tight security

By Austin Ekeinde and Tife Owalabi

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerians voted amid tight security in a governorship election on Saturday in President Goodluck Jonathan's restive and oil-rich home state of Bayelsa, where last week militants attacked a major oil pipeline.

Nigeria's 36 state governors are some of the most powerful politicians in Africa's most populous nation, in some cases controlling budgets larger than other African countries and gubernatorial elections can stoke violence.

At least one person was killed and several injured at a pre-election rally on Tuesday in the southern Ijaw region in Bayelsa, witnesses said.

"Ten thousand to 15,000 policemen are deployed for the election, these include anti-bomb squads from Delta, Edo and Rivers states to ensure that all key points are saved," said Chris Olakpe, Bayelsa's police commissioner.

"We are going to effectively police all polling booths and normal patrols would go on to ensure miscreants do not hijack the process," added Olakpe, who took up his position this week.

Even with a huge police and military presence it will be difficult to guard all ballot boxes in Bayelsa, where thousands of kilometers (miles) of labyrinthine creeks weave through swamplands, sitting on top of billions of dollars of crude oil.

"Soldiers, police are all over so I'm hopeful there will be no problem of shooting, killing, burning of houses and all that," said John Masi, a 35-year old laborer.

"I want the new governor that will be elected today to quickly construct the new university so I can get work to do and make money to get out of this wooden shack and have a better life for my wife and two children."

Bayelsa is one of the three Nigerian states that make up the oil rich Niger Delta, where militant gangs held the government to ransom for years by sabotaging pipelines and stealing industrial amounts of oil until an amnesty in 2009.

Attacks have been rarer and less destructive since the amnesty but they still occur. Last week the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), formerly Nigeria's main militant threat, claimed a strike on a pipeline owned by Italian firm Eni, which confirmed 4,000 barrels per day of output had been cut by the attack.

MILITANTS

Under the amnesty thousands of militants gave up their weapons, joined training schemes and drew stipends. Security sources say remaining gangs in the Niger Delta do not have the capacity to do the damage seen in the past, which at its height cut more than a third of the OPEC-member's output.

Several false threats purporting to be from MEND have been sent in the past and recent damage caused to Nigeria's oil infrastructure has been done by gangs stealing oil for illicit refining and sale, rather than the result of militant strikes.

Diplomats and security sources have said violence in the Niger Delta is often stoked by rival politicians and the race for the Bayelsa governorship post has been fierce.

Nigeria's Supreme Court removed Governor Timipre Sylva from his post last month because it said his tenure should have expired, replacing him with Bayelsa's speaker of the house of assembly.

The dominant ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) didn't allow Sylva to run in its primary last November, the first time the PDP has stopped a sitting governor from seeking a second term. Thousands of soldiers were then deployed to Bayelsa, prompting outrage from Sylva's team.

The winner of that primary, Henry Dickson, is the clear favorite to win Saturday's vote. President Jonathan is backing Dickson and is traveling from the capital Abuja to his home state to cast his vote, the presidency said.

Western diplomats said Sylva was snubbed because he fell out with his former ally Jonathan. Sylva will not run in the election but is seeking to nullify the most recent PDP primary, hoping to revert back to the primary he won last year.

Bayelsa has a population of around 1.5 million, the least populous state in a country of more than 160 million but it is key to Nigeria's economy due to its substantial oil wealth.

(Additional reporting and writing by Joe Brock, editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Mexico cartels paid $4.5 million political bribes: court

By Isabella Cota

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican drug cartels paid $4.5 million in bribes to buy protection and political favors in a state run by the country's main opposition party, U.S. court documents said on Friday, as the party leads polls to win the presidency in July.

The money-laundering case in Texas charges Antonio Pena, arrested on Wednesday, with funneling cash from the feared Zetas cartel to officials in the state of Tamaulipas, according to documents from the U.S. District Court in San Antonio, Texas.

A sworn affidavit from an undercover agent at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration names former Tamaulipas Governor Tomas Yarrington of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as having a direct personal relationship with Zeta leaders.

A DEA undercover source "described Antonio Pena as a conduit between Mexican politicians, in particular Tomas Yarrington, and Zeta members Miguel Trevino and Heriberto Lazcano," according to the documents, available on U.S. court database PACER.

Lazcano and Trevino are the leaders of the cartel, which is notorious for decapitations and kidnappings across Mexico.

Yarrington, in office from 1999 to 2005, is under investigation separately in Mexico along with two other ex-governors of the state, which the PRI has ruled since the party's foundation.

The centrist PRI has said the probe is politically motivated ahead of the hotly contested July 1 presidential vote.

The federal attorney-general's office confirmed the investigation but declined to give further details. Mexican media have reported authorities are searching for evidence the politicians are linked to money laundering.

The accusations have given President Felipe Calderon's ruling conservative National Action Party, or PAN, fresh ammunition against the PRI, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until it was ousted in 2000.

Yarrington did not immediately reply to requests for comment. He said via a Twitter account on January 30 that his name had appeared on an alert blocking his travel outside of Mexico.

"I hope that the authorities clarify the motive and scope of this action," his Twitter account said.

The PRI is hoping its youthful presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, who has a big lead in opinion polls, will bring a new face to the party, still remembered by some Mexican voters for corruption and vote buying during 70 years in power.

HORRIFIC VIOLENCE

Members of Calderon's PAN have accused the PRI of negotiating in the past with organized crime, a charge the party vehemently denies.

PAN party chairman Gustavo Madero responded to the Yarrington report by urging a thorough investigation of alleged links between the PRI and organized crime.

"Our concern isn't political posturing, it's an appeal to the conscience of those governing to think again, because this is putting the lives and well-being of all Mexicans at risk," he said in a televised statement.

The PAN's popularity has suffered since the government launched a frontal attack on the cartels five years ago. Since then, more than 47,000 people have died in Mexico as turf wars between the gangs over lucrative smuggling routes intensified.

The Zetas, who began as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel but split off from their former employers, have been blamed for some of the most horrific acts of violence, including the massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas in 2010.

In the Texas court case document, Yarrington is mentioned several times.

"This relationship started with the election of Governor Tomas Yarrington and continued with the placement of other PRI candidates in government positions throughout Tamaulipas who could ensure favorable protection for the cartels," the testimony said.

The DEA agent says Yarrington met with Pena on various occasions in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and the United States.

The testimony also cites another confidential source who said he delivered $500,000 in drug proceeds from the Gulf cartel to Pena when he was an associate of the mayor of Nuevo Laredo in 2002.

John Ackerman, a political analyst at the National

Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said the government should have begun probes into the ex-governors much earlier.

It chose not to because the PAN needed opposition support in Congress due to its lack of a majority, he added.

"This is not a witch hunt, this is the reality: governors and government officials in this country are involved with drug dealers," he said. "They are not clean, neither those from PRI nor the PAN."

(Reporting by Isabella Cota; Editing by Mica Rosenberg, Krista Hughes and Philip Barbara)

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Iran to announce nuclear progress: Ahmadinejad

 

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a ceremony to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran's Azadi square February 11, 2012. Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce ''very important'' achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported.

Credit: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi

By Parisa Hafezi and Mitra Amiri

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the Islamic Republic, targeted by tougher Western sanctions, would soon announce advances in its nuclear program.

He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organized rallies to mark the occasion.

"In the coming days the world will witness Iran's announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements," Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." Ismail Haniya, who heads the Islamist Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, also attended the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad gave no details of how Iran's nuclear work, which Tehran says has only peaceful purposes, has progressed.

The United States and Israel, a country which Iran does not recognize, have not ruled out military action if sanctions fail.

Iran has warned of a "painful" answer, saying it would hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf as well as block the vital Gulf oil shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

"If attacked by the Zionist regime (Israel), we will turn it to dust," said a Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Shirdel, semi-official Fars news agency reported Saturday.

"Thousands of our missiles will target Israel and the 40 bases of America in the region," he added.

The nuclear dispute has fuelled tension as the West tightens sanctions. The European Union has agreed to ban Iranian oil imports by July and to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank.

Its measures reinforce those imposed by the United States as the West tries to force Tehran to return to talks before it produces enough nuclear material for an atomic bomb.

Neither side has shown much appetite for compromise. Iran says it will fight EU sanctions with counter-measures and its parliament plans legislation to ban oil exports to the EU.

Iranian officials brush off the impact of sanctions, while also proclaiming that Iranians will endure any hardship in support of their country's right to nuclear technology.

"I am saying openly that if you (the West) continue to use the language of force and threat, our nation will never succumb to your pressure," Ahmadinejad said.

IMPACT OF SANCTIONS

Industry analysts say sanctions are hitting Iran's vital oil sector and say falls in crude output and exports will speed up.

Global oil flows are realigning even though the EU ban on imports from Iran only takes effect in July, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly Oil Market Report Friday.

Asia's two giants, China and India, want to head off new sanctions on Iran. China, Iran's biggest trade partner, is one of six major powers involved in nuclear talks with Tehran.

Ahmadinejad, echoing Iran's official stance, said fresh nuclear talks would be welcome. The last round collapsed a year ago over Iran's refusal to halt its uranium enrichment work.

"They say we want to negotiate. That is fine with us, we have been always ready to hold talks in the framework of justice and mutual respect," Ahmadinejad said. "The Iranian nation will not withdraw even one iota from its path."

Western nations say talking is pointless unless uranium enrichment is on the table, something Iran refuses to discuss.

Iran's economy is around 60 percent reliant on oil. The country is heavily dependent on food imports, buying 45 percent of its rice and most of its animal feed abroad.

Sanctions-linked trade snags risk fuelling already high inflation, which Iranian critics blame on Ahmadinejad's economic policies. The official inflation rate exceeds 20 percent.

But Ahmadinejad said the economy was "flourishing," reeling off figures to back his contention. Critics have in the past accused the government of falsifying economic statistics.

"We have saved over $30 billion for rainy days," he said. "Iran's non-oil exports will reach over $43 billion by March ... Iran's imports in the past 10 months dropped five percent."

Following reforms under which the government phased out hefty subsidies on staples like food and fuel since 2010, Ahmadinejad said billions were saved by not importing petrol.

"We were importers of fuel but ... now we are among main exporters of fuel and oil products," he said.

Fresh U.S. and EU financial sanctions are snarling Iranian payments for staple food and other imports, causing hardship for its 74 million people weeks before a parliamentary election.

The election will be Iran's first since a disputed presidential vote in 2009, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election. That sparked eight months of street protests which the government forcibly suppressed.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Rock star welcome for Suu Kyi on Myanmar campaign trail

 

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech to supporters as she stands on a vehicle en-route to Kawhmu township, the constituency where she will contest April by-elections, February 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/ Soe Zeya Tun

By Aung Hla Tun

WARTHINKHA, Myanmar (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to give a rapturous welcome on Saturday to Myanmar Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as she hit the campaign trail for the first time in her bid to win a seat in the country's parliament.

Riding in a convoy of three dozen cars and flanked by hundreds of motorcycles, Suu Kyi received rock star treatment from crowds of cheering, flag-waving supporters chanting "long live mother Suu" throughout her seven-hour crawl to the rustic constituency where she will contest April by-elections.

The leader of Myanmar's pro-democracy struggle stood through a car sunroof, waving and smiling as dilapidated, overloaded trucks shuttled in the crowds, in an outpouring of excitement at a rare rally in a country tightly controlled for 49 years by an army that brutally suppressed activism.

"We need your strength, for the people," Suu Kyi shouted to the crowd, much of which held aloft her picture alongside that of her late father and independence hero, Aung San who was assassinated when his daughter was two years old.

The decision to contest the by-election represents a giant leap of faith for Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after two decades being jailed, harassed and sidelined by the former junta, which made way to a nominally civilian government 11 months ago.

The NLD boycotted the widely flawed 2010 election but last year accepted an olive branch from president and former junta fourth-in-command, Thein Sein, who reached out to Suu Kyi. She regards the reform-minded ex-general as sincere and trustworthy.

The motorcade moved at a snail's pace on a 56-km (35-mile) venture south of the commercial capital Yangon, weaving through bamboo-hut villages on bumpy, dusty dirt-tracks as farmers and children jostled to catch a glimpse of "The Lady," as she is affectionately known.

Some 5,000 supporters in Warthinkha, a village of just 1,000 people, packed into a rice paddy to hear her rousing speech on a makeshift stage, her voice drowned out by bursts of applause.

'ALL-OUT EFFORT'

"I call on the people to have confidence in us. The NLD has no magic power, but we will get to our desires soon with an all-out concerted effort, with the courage and ability to get over the struggle," Suu Kyi told the crowd.

"There are so many struggles ahead, I recognize this not because I'm disappointed but just to say we need strength and reinforcement to overcome them.

"The journey we are on, with the people, is very rough but the destination we are headed for is peaceful."

Her bid for a parliamentary role is largely symbolic, with only 48 seats up for grabs in the by-elections, meaning the NLD can only secure a tiny stake in the national legislature.

The last time the party contested an election was in 1990, when its landslide win was ignored by the junta. Suu Kyi did not run in the poll because she was under house arrest.

It remains to be seen exactly what Suu Kyi could achieve in a parliament stacked with military appointees and lawmakers allied with a party widely believed to have been formed and funded by the ruling generals before they stepped aside.

But the farmers who turned out in their droves believe Suu Kyi can be the decisive factor in transforming the country.

"I've never seen such a huge crowd. We're very lucky she's decided to stand in the election representing our village," said mother of four, Naw Ohn Kyi, 59. "It's like we've won the biggest prize in the lottery without even buying a ticket."

Another villager, Sa San Thein, 35, added: "We were thrilled to hear Aunty Suu was coming. It's just like a mother who left on a long journey, coming home unexpectedly."

The elections will be closely watched by the international community as a litmus test of the government's sincerity towards reforms, which have included the release of an estimated 650 political prisoners and ceasefires with ethnic rebel armies.

Diplomats expect the polls will be free and fair, despite irregularities in the 2010 election, because the participation of Suu Kyi, the charismatic darling of the West, would be a powerful endorsement of its fledgling democratic system.

A clean poll is also a pre-requisite for lifting of sanctions that are currently under review, as Western nations seek to bring the vastly underdeveloped but resource-rich country out from the cold after two decades of isolation.

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Lane)

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9:50 PM | 0 comments

UK to "robustly" defend Falklands, Argentina seeks U.N. aid

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS | Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:46pm EST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - London's U.N. ambassador warned Argentina on Friday that Britain would "robustly" defend the Falkland Islands if necessary, but added that his country remained open to bilateral talks with Buenos Aires on any issue except the islands' sovereignty.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant was speaking to reporters after Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the U.N. Security Council to ask for help in stopping what he said was Britain's "militarization of the South Atlantic."

"We are not looking to increase the war of words, but clearly if there is an attempt to take advantage of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war by Argentina, then we will obviously defend our position and defend it robustly," Lyall Grant said.

The British envoy's comments came a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to defend the islands "properly.

Britain and Argentina fought a 10-week war over the Falkland Islands in 1982 after Argentina invaded the South Atlantic islands, which the Argentines call Las Malvinas. London has refused to start talks on sovereignty with Buenos Aires unless the 3,000 islanders want them.

Tensions have risen before the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict this year. Oil exploration by British companies off the islands has raised the stakes.

Timerman repeated accusations that surfaced in the British press about a nuclear submarine being sent to the South Atlantic. He said that bringing atomic weapons into the region violated Latin America's treaty banning the presence, pursuit or use of nuclear weapons.

Britain has signed two protocols to the 1967 treaty, according to which it vowed to support the maintenance of a nuclear-weapons-free zone across Latin America.

BRITAIN OPEN TO BILATERAL TALKS

Lyall Grant denied militarizing the region and said Britain had a "purely defensive military posture" for the islands. He neither confirmed nor denied reports a nuclear-armed British submarine is lurking around the Falklands.

"We do not comment on the disposition of nuclear weapons, submarines, et cetera," he said.

"But it is well known that ... as part of our overall defensive posture, there are submarines on patrol all around the world at any time. So it's not a question of anything new in what he (Timerman) is suggesting," Lyall Grant added.

Timerman said he welcomed Ban's offer to mediate in the dispute.

"Argentina agrees that the secretary-general should begin conversations with both countries so that we can sit down at a table ... to resolve this conflict in a peaceful way," he said.

Security Council action on Argentina's complaint is very unlikely given Britain's veto on the 15-nation panel.

Lyall Grant said Britain was open to bilateral talks with Argentina and there was no need for "third-party mediation." He said it was Buenos Aires, not London, that was preventing talks aimed at defusing the tensions between the two nations.

"We have always been open to dialogue with Argentina. ... We had a dialogue with Argentina and they broke it off," he said, adding that "we are not going to discuss sovereignty."

Lyall Grant said one of the problems in restarting talks with Buenos Aires was a 1994 amendment to Argentina's constitution requiring that the government seek sovereignty over the islands.

"We have made clear that we are not prepared to go into talks with the precondition that has been set in the Argentine constitution and discuss sovereignty over the heads of the people of the Falkland Islands," he said.

Argentina has also condemned British plans to deploy one of its most advanced destroyers, HMS Dauntless, to the area. It has also criticized the posting of Prince William, second in line to the British throne, to the islands as a military search-and-rescue pilot.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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3:15 PM | 0 comments

One killed in clashes in Lebanon's Tripoli

 

Debris is seen scattered on the road in front of graffiti (L) that reads ''Down with Bashar'' in the Sunni Muslim Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, on the second day of heavy gunfire and clashes, that has left at least one dead, February 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Omar Ibrahim

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - One person was killed and several soldiers wounded in street battles in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli Saturday, a security source said, in a second day of violence involving supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The coastal city is dominated by Sunni Muslims who support the 11-month uprising against Assad in neighboring Syria, but is also home to members of Assad's Alawite minority.

Residents said rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the Sunni Muslim district of Bab al-Tabbaneh toward the Alawite district of Jebel Mohsen, but caused no injuries.

Saturday, Reuters Television footage showed gunmen taking cover on street corners and firing volleys of automatic gunfire.

"We are the supporters of the Syrian revolution in Lebanon, and we are going to (fight) the shabbiha," one of the gunmen said, referring to pro-Assad militias blamed by Syrian opposition activists for much of the killing in Syria.

A Lebanese army statement said troops had deployed in the Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jebel Mohsen districts to restore order and were "carrying out raids on sites that took part in the clashes," making arrests and seizing weapons.

Several soldiers were wounded, one seriously, it said.

There are frequent clashes in Tripoli between rival sects, but tensions have heightened sharply since the outbreak of unrest in Syria. Friday's violence came after hundreds of people demonstrated against Assad following weekly Muslim prayers.

(Reporting by Nazih Siddiq, Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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8:05 AM | 0 comments

Two Westerners kidnapped in Pakistan held by Taliban

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two Western aid workers kidnapped in Pakistan in January are being held by the Pakistan Taliban near the border with Afghanistan, a senior militant commander told Reuters on Saturday.

Gunmen stormed a house in Multan in southern Punjab province on January 19 and drove away with two foreigners -- one an Italian citizen and the other believed to be a German.

"The two NGO (non-governmental organization) workers who were kidnapped in Multan nearly a month ago are in our custody near the border. We haven't made any demands yet," a senior commander of the Pakistan Taliban said.

"They are in good health."

A Punjab provincial police chief said last month the foreigners were being held for ransom.

Criminal gangs often target foreign aid workers in Pakistan in hope of securing large ransoms for their release. Pakistani officials say militant groups such as the Taliban are also involved in kidnappings.

The senior commander said the Westerners were being held by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group of Pakistani militant factions formed in 2007 which is also allied with the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.

In January, a Kenyan aid worker and his Pakistani driver went missing in southern Sindh province. A British doctor with the International Committee of the Red Cross was kidnapped by gunmen from the southwestern city of Quetta on January 5.

Last year, American aid worker Warren Weinstein was kidnapped from the central Pakistani city of Lahore. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for Weinstein's abduction in December.

In July, a Swiss couple was kidnapped from the southwestern Baluchistan province by the Pakistani Taliban.

Such kidnappings in Pakistan put off long-term investors. Foreign direct investment in Pakistan fell 37 percent to $531.2 million in the second half of 2011 from $839.6 million in the final six months of 2010.

(Reporting by Saud Mehsud; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Ed Lane)

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"Executed" corpses dumped in restive Syrian city

1 of 13. Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Hula near Homs, January 27, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Alistair Lyon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The bodies of 17 men previously held by Syrian security forces have been found in the city of Hama, activists said on Saturday, victims of a deadly struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and those determined to topple him.

Turkey was due to meet Gulf Arab states later in the day to reinforce support for an Arab call for Assad to quit. The Arab League and Western countries are pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, resisted by Assad's ally Russia.

Elsewhere in Syria, security forces firing mortars at the northeastern town of Quwaira killed an infant, activists said.

An oil pipeline was also set ablaze in the town at dawn, although it was not immediately clear if this was the work of saboteurs or the result of firing by security forces. The pipeline supplies crude oil to the Banias refinery.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops were battling rebels in the central town of Rastan and that security forces had killed a man in the southern province of Deraa and another at a checkpoint in Harasta, near Damascus.

Activists also reporting fighting between armored forces and rebels at the edges of the Damascus suburb of Irbin.

The reported killings in Hama occurred during a military offensive this week that intensified a five-month-old crackdown on the conservative Sunni Muslim city, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist revolt in 1982 and killed thousands.

"They were killed execution-style, mostly with one bullet to the head. Iron chains that had tied them were left on their legs as a message to the people to stop resisting," Abu al-Walid, an activist in the city, told Reuters by telephone.

Another activist said the bodies, their hands tied with plastic wire and some with their legs chained, were dumped in the streets of five Hama neighborhoods on Thursday evening.

Turkey, hosting a meeting with Gulf Arab foreign ministers later in the day, urged Syria's leadership to comply with an Arab League transition plan that calls on Assad to step down.

"We are siding with the Syrian people and their legitimate demands," Turkish President Abdullah Gul was also quoted as saying by the United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Bayan.

MORE SYRIANS FLEE CONFLICT

Turkish officials say the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary in Turkey has risen in the past six weeks, with 50 to 60 arriving daily, taking the total living in refugee camps to nearly 9,600 from about 7,000 previously.

More than 6,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon.

Turkey, which spent years rebuilding relations with Syria, turned against Assad after he ignored its advice to enact reforms to calm what began in March as a peaceful uprising against his rule, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.

Diplomatic pressure has failed so far to persuade Damascus to halt a violent crackdown on what the government says are armed terrorists implementing a foreign-inspired conspiracy.

The United Nations, which estimated in mid-December that more than 5,000 people had been killed, says it can no longer keep track of the death toll. The government says insurgents have killed more than 2,000 soldiers and policemen.

The U.N. Security Council discussed a new European-Arab draft resolution on Friday aimed at halting the bloodshed.

Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the European-Arab version was unacceptable in its present form but added that it was willing to "engage" on it.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized the draft, which endorses the Arab transition plan.

Moscow, he said, wants a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change."

Britain and France said they hope to put the draft to a vote next week after Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby and the Qatari prime minister brief the council on Syria on Tuesday.

The draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for a "political transition" in Syria. While not calling for U.N. sanctions against Damascus, it says the council could "adopt further measures" if Syria does not comply with the resolution.

Russia and Iran are among Syria's few remaining allies.

With Prime Minister Vladimir Putin facing the biggest protests of his 12-year rule and planning to return to the Kremlin in a March presidential vote, Russia wants to avoid approval of any regime change engineered from outside.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Joseph Logan in Dubai, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and Simon Cameron-Moore in Istanbul; editing by Tim Pearce)

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5:54 PM | 0 comments

Putin's Russia set against regime change in Syria

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian warnings to the West and its Arab allies to keep their hands off Syria hide a slight chance for compromise on a U.N. resolution aimed at halting bloodshed in the country, but a demand for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside could be a deal-breaker.

With Prime Minister Vladimir Putin facing the biggest protests of his 12-year rule and planning to return to the Kremlin in a March presidential vote, Russia wants to avoid stamping its approval on any regime change engineered from outside.

Moscow has been busy drawing "red lines" as it comes under pressure to stop shielding its old ally Assad and to use its power as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member to push Damascus into ending the crackdown which has killed thousands of civilians.

Russia has erected a wall of noise, emphasizing it opposes sanctions against Syria - a major customer for its arms - and making clear it will block any attempt for the Council to endorse military intervention.

The latest test of Russia's resolve, a new draft resolution backed by Western and Arab powers led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, does not call for new sanctions or threaten military action - but it does call for Assad to cede power.

The draft says the Council supports an Arab League plan "to facilitate a political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system ... including through the transfer of power from the President and transparent and fair elections."

Moscow could potentially be appeased if the draft's supporters remove the specific reference to the transfer of power by Assad or add a clause ruling out military intervention.

However, it may also demand a clear statement that Assad's more violent opponents share blame for the bloodshed. Russia would also be pleased by the removal of a clause calling for "further measures" if Syria does not comply swiftly, wording that to Moscow smacks of sanctions.

Gennady Gatilov, a deputy foreign minister, said on Friday that Russia would not support a demand for Assad's resignation and warned that a rushed vote would be doomed to failure, indicating Moscow could veto the draft in its current form.

Putin has said little publicly on Syria for months, letting diplomats do the talking, and President Dmitry Medvedev is formally responsible for foreign policy.

But Putin, who is expected to win a six-year Kremlin term despite a drop in popularity from previous highs, is widely believed to be guiding Russia's Syria strategy.

Russia and China used a double veto in October to block a Western-backed draft resolution condemning Assad's government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and opponents, which the United Nations says has killed more than 5,000 people.

Western diplomats say Russia might find it difficult to veto a resolution they say is simply intended to provide support for the Arab League, whose efforts to end the Syrian violence have generally been welcomed by Moscow.

REGIME CHANGE

But Sergei Markov, a university vice president and former lawmaker with Putin's party, predicted Russia would also veto the new Western-Arab resolution if its call for Assad to give up power remains. "For Russia, this is intervention in domestic politics and part of a strategy of regime change," he said.

Russia has adamantly warned the West it would not allow a repeat in Syria of last year's events in Libya, where NATO military intervention helped rebels to drive longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi from power.

Moscow had let the NATO air operation go ahead by abstaining in the U.N. vote that authorized it, but then accused the alliance of overstepping its mandate to protect civilians.

Putin has angrily likened the Libyan resolution to "medieval calls for crusades," and last month suggested Gaddafi was hounded to his death with the help of NATO special forces and U.S. pilotless drones.

Russia has plenty of pragmatic reasons to resist political change in Syria, one of Moscow's strongest footholds in the Middle East since the Soviet era. Syria has been a major client for Russian arms sales and hosts a naval maintenance facility on its Mediterranean coast that is the only base outside the former Soviet Union for Russia's shrunken navy.

More importantly, analysts say, Putin needs to be seen to be standing up to the West and making clear that the internal affairs of sovereign states, including Russia, are off-limits to foreign interference.

The call for Assad to step aside is particularly objectionable for a leader who, since coming to power in 2000, has answered U.S. and European charges that he has rolled back democracy with accusations of Western meddling and told his citizens to guard against efforts to foment revolution in Russia.

PUTIN'S POLITICS

"For Putin, the language is unacceptable, because it sets a precedent," said Vladimir Frolov, president of LEFF Group, a Moscow-based government relations firm.

To many Russians, he said, "Putin would look inconsistent, weak and stupid if he were to authorize the Foreign Ministry to support that. He's been saying the opposite to his supporters on the stump."

Putin has turned to anti-Western rhetoric repeatedly during his campaign for the March 4 vote.

Facing criticism over a December parliamentary vote that many Russians suspect was rigged to favor the ruling party, Putin accused the United States of stirring up a persistent street protest movement that have undermined his authority.

He told students in Siberia on Wednesday that the United States "wants to control everything" and seeks to make other countries its "vassals," not allies.

Russia's warning on Friday indicated that it will seek to remove the reference to the transfer of power. But its insistence that details of a political settlement be worked out in talks seemed to leave little room for compromise.

Russia might be more pliable on other aspects of a resolution if it clearly rules out military intervention, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

But he said Western and Arab states were unlikely to put recourse to the use of force entirely out of reach or bend far enough on the call for Assad to give up power to satisfy Moscow.

With Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar determined to get Assad out of power and Russia opposed, he said, "I cannot really see some resolution that could be agreed by all."

"This is not Libya, it's a completely different situation."

(editing by David Stamp)

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1:29 PM | 0 comments

Fading Gingrich attacks Romney in ad

1 of 2. U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks during the Hispanic Leadership Network conference in Doral, Florida January 27, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - Newt Gingrich struggled to regain momentum in the Republican presidential race on Friday as two new polls showed him falling behind rival Mitt Romney, who was seen as the winner of the final debate before the Florida primary.

The White House contenders courted Florida's sizable Hispanic vote, many of them Cubans, with appearances on Friday at the Hispanic Leadership Network, where Romney received an unusually warm reception and the reaction to Gingrich was more sedate.

Bouncing back after losing the South Carolina primary to Gingrich on Saturday, Romney had an 8-percentage point lead over him in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. A Quinnipiac University poll gave him a 9-percentage point edge.

The Reuters/Ipsos online poll gave Romney 41 percent and Gingrich 33 percent ahead of Saturday's contest.

That margin is similar to three polls released on Thursday that all showed Romney taking control of the battle in Florida, where the former Massachusetts governor enjoys a financial and organizational advantage over Gingrich.

Romney battered the former House of Representatives speaker in two debates this week, wounding him in the same format that has helped fuel Gingrich's campaign.

"With the debates now over, Gingrich will need some other way to reverse the tide that appears to be going against him," Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown said.

Tuesday's Florida primary is the fourth contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. election. Romney won in New Hampshire and former Senator Rick Santorum won the first contest in Iowa.

Romney repeatedly attacked Gingrich at Thursday's debate in Florida, scoring points on immigration, candidates' finances and even lunar exploration.

"That was Romney on Red Bull," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said. "You could tell Newt was tired, he's carrying a heavy load. He was counting on pure momentum to carry him through Florida, and that momentum has stopped."

At a campaign event in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Romney reminded the crowd of his debate performance.

"How about that debate last night? Wasn't that fun?" Romney asked. "I've had the fun of two debates where I had to stand up and battle, and battling was fun."

'CUBA WILL BE FREE'

An energized Romney, whom Gingrich has described as the most anti-immigrant candidate in the Republican race, won several standing ovations from the Hispanic crowd in Miami earlier on Friday.

"There is a time coming soon when Cuba will be free," Romney told them, adding "America can't sit back" in dealing with the island nation off the coast of Florida.

Gingrich received a much quieter response, once again mocking Romney's call for "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants as "a fantasy. It's not a solution."

Gingrich said the concept might work for younger illegal immigrants who had been in the United States a short time, but not for older immigrants with deep family ties. They should be allowed to apply for citizenship through local councils similar to draft boards, he said.

A Florida win for Romney would put him in a strong position to capture the nomination as the primary map tilts in his favor in February with contests in seven states where he has the potential for strong showings.

Next up on February 4 is Nevada, where Romney won with 51 percent of the vote during his failed 2008 presidential bid. On February 7 Minnesota and Colorado hold caucuses and Missouri holds a primary. Gingrich did not make the ballot in Missouri.

Four of the states with February contests - Nevada, Maine, Colorado and Minnesota - use caucus systems, which often require greater organization to rally voter turnout. That could help Romney take advantage of his superior financial and staff resources.

On February 28, Michigan and Arizona hold primaries. Romney was raised in Michigan, where his father was a governor and car executive.

A new Gingrich television ad in Florida asked: "What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election?"

"This man would be Mitt Romney," the ad's narrator said.

Romney's camp said the sharp tone from Gingrich was a sign he was desperate to distract from his own record as House speaker, where he faced an ethics probe, and as a consultant with mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

"It is laughable to see lectures on honesty coming from a paid influence peddler who suffered an unprecedented ethics reprimand, was forced to pay a $300,000 penalty, and resigned in disgrace at the hands of his own party," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny; writing by John Whitesides; editing by Alistair Bell and Mohammad Zargham)

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8:51 AM | 0 comments

Salvage crews suspend work on capsized ship

By Emilio Parodi

GIGLIO, Italy Jan 28 (Reuters) - Salvage crews preparing to pump thousands of tonnes of diesel fuel and oil from the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast suspended work on Saturday after heavy seas made conditions unsafe, officials said.

A barge carrying pumping equipment that was attached to the capsized ship was withdrawn although work may be resumed in the afternoon, depending on conditions.

"The wind conditions and waves of more than a metre have forced us to interrupt work but we'll start up again when conditions improve," said Antonino Corsini, one of the emergency services divers working with Dutch salvage company SMIT.

Despite the interruption the search continued for bodies on the half-submerged vessel, which lies in about 20 metres of water on a rock shelf close to the island of Giglio off the Tuscan coast.

Divers found the body of a woman on Saturday, bringing the total number of known dead to 17.

But with no hope of finding survivors, the focus has switched to preventing an environmental disaster in Giglio, a popular holiday island in a marine nature reserve.

Before the work was suspended, crews were installing valves to help pump out six of the ship's fuel tanks, which contain around half of the more than 2,300 tonnes of diesel.

Pumping, originally expected to begin on Saturday, is expected to be delayed until at least Sunday. The process of extracting all the fuel is expected to take at least 28 days, officials have said.

The Concordia, a 290-metre long floating resort carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew, sank more than two weeks ago after it ran into a rock which tore a hole in its hull.

The accident, expected to create the most expensive maritime insurance claim ever, has triggered a legal battle which has seen U.S. and Italian lawyers preparing class action and individual suits against the operator, Costa Cruises.

In a bid to limit the fallout, Costa, a unit of Carnival Corp , the world's largest cruise ship operator, has offered the more than 3,000 passengers $14,500 each in compensation on condition they drop any legal action.

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, suspected of causing the accident by steering too close to shore and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation was complete.

The ship's first officer, Ciro Ambrosio, has also been questioned by prosecutors but the company itself has not been implicated in the investigation at this stage.

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4:19 AM | 0 comments

U.S. government invalidates potent Rambus patent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last of three patents that tech licensing company Rambus (RMBS.O) used to win infringement lawsuits against Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and others has been declared invalid, according to legal documents.

The three patents - collectively known as the Barth patents - pertain to memory chips used in personal computers and are considered to be among Rambus' most valuable intellectual property.

An appeals board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declared the patent invalid on January 24, according to a ruling posted on their website. The previous two were declared invalid in September.

The invalidation is more bad news for Rambus, whose stock shed 60 percent of its value in the weeks after a November 16 court decision in which it lost a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology Inc (MU.O) and Hynix Semiconductor Inc

(000660.KS).

The Barth patents had been used to accuse a long list of tech companies of infringement, earning Rambus millions of dollars in licensing fees through settlements.

Rambus can appeal the latest decision from the PTO. "We're evaluating our options," said company spokeswoman Linda Ashmore.

Rambus' share price fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing. The company announced Thursday that it had fourth-quarter revenue of $83.4 million and annual revenue of $312.4 million.

Rambus has aggressively used the three Barth patents to pursue infringement claims against technology companies.

It was met with success in July 2010 when the International Trade Commission, which hears patent litigation involving imported products, ruled that graphics chip maker Nvidia, Hewlett-Packard and other smaller companies had infringed the three Barth patents. Nvidia subsequently settled with Rambus on the issue.

POTENT PATENT

The patents in question were also among six that Rambus used in accusing a long list of companies of infringing in a new ITC complaint filed in early 2011. That complaint was filed against STMicroelectronics(STM.PA), MediaTek (2454.TW) and Broadcom, among others. Broadcom has since settled.

It was unclear if Rambus appealed the invalidation of the first two Barth patents from September, and the company did not immediately respond to a telephone call seeking comment.

Scott Daniels, a partner in the law firm Westerman, Hattori, Daniels and Adrian, LLP, said Rambus was unlikely to win an appeal on the third Barth patent, since it would be appealed back to the examiner, who would be highly unlikely to disagree with the higher-ranking appeals board.

Once appeals are exhausted at the patent office, companies can dispute patent invalidations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington.

(Reporting By Diane Bartz; Editing by Gary Hill)

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1:18 AM | 0 comments

Occupy protesters barred from camping in DC squares

By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Park Service will bar Occupy DC protesters from camping in the two parks where have been living since October, in a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement denouncing economic inequality.

The Occupy DC protesters must stop camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, both a few blocks from the White House, starting at about noon on Monday, the Park Service said on Friday.

The Park Service will start to enforce regulations that "prohibit camping and the use of temporary structures for camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza," the agency said in a flyer distributed at the sites.

"Although 24/7 demonstration vigils and the use of symbolic temporary structures, including empty tents used as symbols of the demonstration, may be permitted in the park areas, camping and the use of temporary structures for camping is not."

The protesters have been in the two sites since around the start of October. They have spearheaded numerous protests in Washington, including a demonstration that drew hundreds of people to the Capitol this month.

The McPherson Square site has drawn increasing criticism from Congress and the District of Columbia administration.

The park bordering K Street, a symbol of Washington lobbyists, has been criticized because of squalor and rats, and the protesters' numbers have been swelled by homeless people.

Sara Shaw, a McPherson Square protester handling contacts with the media, said the group would discuss its response at an evening meeting. She said 50 to 100 people were living in the square.

Bob Vogel, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said in a statement: "The National Park Service takes very seriously its tradition of providing opportunities for First Amendment activities.

"We have a long history spanning several decades of 24-hour First Amendment vigils."

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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8:45 PM | 0 comments

Steve Jobs told Google to stop poaching workers

By Dan Levine

(Reuters) - Apple's Steve Jobs directly asked former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt to stop trying to recruit an Apple engineer, a transgression that threatened one junior Google employee's job, according to a court filing.

The 2007 email from Jobs to Schmidt was disclosed on Friday in the course of civil litigation against Apple Inc, Google Inc and five other technology companies. The proposed class action, brought by five software engineers, accuses the companies of conspiring to keep employee compensation low by eliminating competition for skilled labor.

In 2010, Google, Apple, Adobe Systems Inc, Intel Corp, Intuit Inc and Walt Disney Co's Pixar unit agreed to a settlement of a U.S. Justice Department probe that bars them from agreeing to refrain from poaching each other's employees.

According to an unredacted court filing made public in the civil litigation on Friday, the now-deceased Jobs emailed Schmidt in March 2007 about an attempt by a Google employee to recruit an Apple engineer. Schmidt was also an Apple board member at the time.

"I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs wrote.

Schmidt forwarded Job's email onto other, undisclosed recipients.

"Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening?" Schmidt wrote.

Google's staffing director responded that the employee who contacted the Apple engineer "will be terminated within the hour."

He added: "Please extend my apologies as appropriate to Steve Jobs."

Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said on Friday the company, "has always actively and aggressively recruited top talent."

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The tech defendants have asked a U.S. judge in San Jose, California to quickly dismiss the civil lawsuit, arguing that the companies engaged in bilateral anti-poaching deals to protect collaboration. The companies did not participate in an "overarching conspiracy," they argued in filings.

But at a court hearing this week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said the civil lawsuit will proceed, although it may be split up into multiple potential class actions.

Among the revelations stemming from the civil litigation is a 2007 note from Palm's chief executive to Apple's Steve Jobs, saying that an anti-poaching agreement would be "likely illegal.

The latest court filing also refers to a 2007 note from Intel chief executive Paul Otellini discussing that company's agreement with Google.

"Let me clarify. We have nothing signed," Otellini wrote. "We have a handshake 'no recruit' between eric and myself. I would not like this broadly known."

Intel representative Sumner Lemon said on Friday the company, "disagrees with the allegations contained in the private litigation related to recruiting practices and plans to conduct a vigorous defense."

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is In Re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, 11-cv-2509.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; editing by Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)

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5:09 PM | 0 comments

Obama administration bolsters homeowner lifeline

A realtor and bank-owned sign is displayed near a house for sale in Phoenix, Arizona, January 4, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Joshua Lott

By Margaret Chadbourn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration, in an election-year bid to help distressed homeowners, on Friday expanded its main foreclosure prevention program, and pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive mortgage debt.

The administration said it would extend the life of the Home Affordable Mortgage Program by a year through 2013 and widen it to reach more heavily indebted homeowners.

It also said it would provide incentives to encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage finance providers, to write down loans, an idea which their regulator has worried would unnecessarily add to the cost of taxpayer bailouts for the two firms.

The regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, withheld final judgment on the proposal, saying it would study it further.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half of all U.S. home loans, and their participation in principal reduction under HAMP could greatly expand the reach of the $29.9 billion program.

Nearly 11 million Americans are underwater on their mortgages - meaning they owe more than their homes are worth. With some key electoral swing states among the hardest hit by the housing crisis, the sector's health could become an important factor in November's elections.

President Barack Obama made clear in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he would continue to press for aggressive action to help homeowners, and Friday's announcement was just the first of several on housing initiatives that are expected in coming weeks.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives last year sought to shut down HAMP, arguing it was ineffective, but the bill died in the Democratic-led Senate.

The HAMP program, which draws from the Treasury Department's financial bailout fund, pays mortgage servicers to rewrite loan terms to reduce monthly payments.

When the administration launched the program in 2009, it expected as many as 4 million loans would be modified. So far, only about 900,000 households have permanently won new loan terms.

As of the end of last year, only about $3 billion had been spent of the $29 billion set aside for HAMP.

EXPANDING ITS REACH

As part of its effort to reach more Americans, both the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said they would seek to aid homeowners pinched by other types of debt, including credit cards and medical bills.

In addition, the administration said it was tripling the incentives paid to investors when they reduce loan balances. Investors who rent out properties would also be able to access mortgage aid under the revamped program.

FHFA's acting director, Edward DeMarco, has argued that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could provide equal relief to homeowners through loan forbearance at less cost to taxpayers than slashing mortgage debt.

Treasury has notified the FHFA that it "will pay principal reduction incentives to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac if they allow servicers to forgive principal in conjunction with a HAMP modification," Treasury Assistant Secretary Timothy Massad said.

By offering taxpayer money to cover the costs of write-downs at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Obama administration is seeking to overcome DeMarco's objections.

"DeMarco said he is willing to reconsider principal reduction for mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie, if, in his words, 'a source of funds outside the enterprises emerge to cover some portion of the costs associated with reducing principal,'" Senator Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

"The administration has now made those funds available," Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said. "I expect FHFA to promptly reconsider their analysis and help more Americans avoid foreclosures."

Reed has been urging the administration to tap HAMP for principal reductions on loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The administration did not specify how much it would pay Fannie and Freddie to participate in HAMP.

(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Tim Ahmann, Andrew Hay, Leslie Adler)

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1:34 PM | 0 comments

"Barefoot Bandit" gets 6.5 years of federal time

Colton Harris-Moore (L), the Barefoot Bandit, talks with one of his lawyers at his sentencing in Island Superior Court in Coupeville, Washington in this December 16, 2011 file photograph.

Credit: Reuters/Marcus Donner/Files

By Laura L. Myers

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A serial burglar nicknamed the "Barefoot Bandit" was sentenced on Friday in Seattle to 6-1/2 years in prison for his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a sensational, two-year crime spree as a sometimes-shoeless teenage runaway.

The federal judge also ordered that Colton Harris-Moore, 20, serve his federal sentence simultaneously with a state term of more than seven years in a move his lawyers say could see him freed before his 26th birthday.

The proceedings marked the end of an extraordinary two-year saga for Harris-Moore, a high school dropout and self-taught pilot who escaped from a juvenile detention facility and stayed one step ahead of the law as he broke into homes and stole cars, boats and planes across nine states and British Columbia.

His exploits, which prosecutors said included at least 67 crimes, came to an end when he was captured in the Bahamas in July 2010 after crash-landing a stolen aircraft he had flown to the islands from Indiana.

The 78-month federal prison term he was given on Friday was the maximum he faced for seven federal charges he pleaded guilty to in June, including interstate transportation of two stolen airplanes and a yacht, a bank burglary, possessing a firearm as a fugitive and piloting an aircraft without a valid license.

Last month in state court in Coupeville, Washington, Harris-Moore, who grew up in the Puget Sound community of Camano Island, was sentenced to 87 months for 33 crimes ranging from residential burglary to attempting to elude police.

His lawyers said that with credit Harris-Moore is expected to receive for time served and good behavior, their client, who turns 21 in March, would likely spend 4-1/2 years in prison and could be released before his 26th birthday.

In a 5-minute statement read before District Judge Richard Jones pronounced the sentence, Harris Moore apologized for his crimes, "The lessons learned on the back of my victims are no way an excuse for my crimes."

Asked by the judge what message he would wish to send to young people, Harris-Moore said, "What I did could be called daring, but I'm lucky to be alive."

MOVIE DEAL

As part of his plea deal, Harris-Moore agreed to forfeit any profits from the rights to his life story. He has signed a movie deal with 20th Century Fox, setting aside about $1.3 million in proceeds as restitution to his victims.

During his December 16 state sentencing, Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill called Harris-Moore's case a tragedy but also a "triumph in the human spirit" because of his severely-troubled childhood.

Defense documents filed on Thursday argued that Harris-Moore was "at a low risk for re-offending and has the will and interest to make a life for himself as a member of the community."

A small commuter airline has communicated with Harris-Moore "about his future after incarceration," the documents said. They also cited e-mails from him expressing ambition to become a pilot.

A 39-page sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors, however, questioned whether Harris-Moore was truly remorseful.

Prosecutors referred to e-mails and calls by Harris-Moore while in federal detention in which he referred to police as "swine" and "asses," the media as "vermin," and a Washington county prosecutor as a "complete fool."

The defense responded that "quoting and parsing his e-mails is, frankly, nothing more than an inflammatory attempt to use a cognitively impaired adolescent's thoughts against him."

At his state sentencing hearing, Harris-Moore described his childhood, growing up with an alcoholic mother, as one "that I would not wish on my darkest enemies."

His mother, Pam Kohler, slipped into Friday's proceedings shortly after they began and sat in the back row of the packed courtroom, listening intently, taking her sunglasses on off and craning her neck to catch glimpses of her son.

She waved to him during a break, and Harris-Moore, who has said through his attorneys in the past that he would rather she not attend his court appearances, acknowledged her with a nod and a slight smile. She then called his name out loud, "Colt."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Darwin Roberts said Harris-Moore's behavior was not excused by his troubled upbringing.

"Having a bad childhood and dreaming of flying an airplane is not a reason to break into a bank," he said.

One of the burglary victims, Kelly Kneifl of Yankton, South Dakota, testified about how his family was terrorized when they returned home from a trip in the middle of the night to find that Harris-Moore, naked, had broken into their house.

"For the next year, literally ... Dad would have to go into the house first" and the children were to afraid to sleep in their own room.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Daniel Trotta and Cynthia Johnston)

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9:24 AM | 0 comments

Exclusive: Germany wants Greece to give up budget control

By Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.

"There are internal discussions within the Euro group and proposals, one of which comes from Germany, on how to constructively treat country aid programs that are continuously off track, whether this can simply be ignored or whether we say that's enough," the source said.

The source added that under the proposals European institutions already operating in Greece should be given "certain decision-making powers" over fiscal policy.

"This could be carried out even more stringently through external expertise," the source said.

The Financial Times said it had obtained a copy of the proposal showing Germany wants a new euro zone "budget commissioner" to have the power to veto budget decisions taken by the Greek government if they are not in line with targets set by international lenders.

"Given the disappointing compliance so far, Greece has to accept shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time," the document said.

Under the German plan, Athens would only be allowed to carry out normal state spending after servicing its debt, the FT said.

"If a future (bail-out) tranche is not disbursed, Greece cannot threaten its lenders with a default, but will instead have to accept further cuts in primary expenditures as the only possible consequence of any non-disbursement," the FT quoted the document as saying.

The German demands for greater control over Greek budget policy come amid intense talks to finalize a second 130 billion-euro rescue package for Greece, which has repeatedly failed to meet the fiscal targets set out for it by its international lenders.

CHAOTIC DEFAULT THREAT

Greece needs to strike a deal with creditors in the next couple of days to unlock its next aid package in order to avoid a chaotic default.

"No country has put forward such a proposal at the Eurogroup," a Greek finance ministry official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the government would not formally comment on reports based on unnamed sources.

The German demands are likely to prompt a strong reaction in Athens ahead of elections expected to take place in April.

"One of the ideas being discussed is to set up a clearly defined priorities on reducing deficits through legally binding guidelines," the European source said.

He added that in Greece the problem is that a lot of the budget-making process is done in a decentralized manner.

"Clearly defined, legally binding guidelines on that could lead to more coherence and make it easier to take decisions - and that would contribute to give a whole new dynamic to efforts to implement the program," the source said.

"It is clear that talks on how to help Greece get back on the right track are continuing," the source said. "We're all striving to achieve a lasting stabilization of Greece," he said. "That's the focus of what all of us in Europe are working on right now."

(Reporting By Noah Barking; Additional reporting by George Georgiopoulos in Athens and; Adrian Croft in London; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Andrew Roche)

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5:20 AM | 0 comments

Iran sends rare letter to U.S. over killed scientist

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks Mehrabad airport with journalists Tehran after his visit to Latin America 14 January 2012.

IMG credit: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi

By Parisa Hafezi

Tehran (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington behind the latest killing, a nuclear scientist was, State television reported, at a time when tensions with regard to the country's nuclear program have escalated at their highest level ever.

In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb at the door of the 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan designed car during the Wednesday morning rush hour in the capital. His driver was also killed.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton denied responsibility and Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Israel had no role in the attack to the best of his knowledge.

"We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was designed, led and supported by the CIA," the Iranian Foreign Ministry in a letter to the Swiss Ambassador to Tehran, said passing State TV reported. The Swiss Embassy represents the interests of the United States in a country where Washington has no diplomatic relations.

The spokesman of Iran joint armed forces staff Massoud Jazayeri, said: "Our enemies, especially America, Great Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel), must be liable for their actions."

Iran in the past has accused caused a number of spectacular and sometimes bloody breakdowns Israel its nuclear programme. Israeli officials comment on any involvement in these events, although publicly expressed some satisfaction with the setbacks.

Does feel of the warmth of unprecedented new sanctions, Iran's clerical establishment the sword swung by threat, the most important Mid-East route block oil, start to enrich uranium to an underground bunker and sentenced an Iranian-American citizens to death espionage charges.

State TV said that a "Declaration of the sentence" also had been sent, United Kingdom, say that the Iranian nuclear scientists started killing after the head of British MI6 spy service intelligence operations against the States announced nuclear weapons.

The West says that Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at building a bomb. Tehran says that it has the right to peaceful nuclear energy.

The UN Security Council and Secretary-General asked Ban Ki-moon Tehran to condemn the latest killing.

After years of international sanctions, which had little effect on the Iran, signed President Barack Obama new measures on new year's Eve, which, if fully implemented, it would make it impossible for most countries for Iranian oil to numbers.

Washington is where the countries gradually reduce their purchases of Iranian oil to get temporary relief from the sanctions.

The European Union should reveal similar measures next week, and terminate one gradually between their Member States, which buy about one-fifth of Iranian exports oil embargo.

The combined measures mean that Iran will fail to sell 2.6 million barrels per day of exports, which it uses its 74 million people to feed all. Even if it finds a buyer, must these steep discounts, cut offer much-needed revenue into the.

On Tuesday, shipping sources said Reuters Iran was less than 8 million barrels - storage an increasing supply of oil at sea - and was likely to more as they battle to sell it to save.

Iran denies it problems: "there was no interruption of Iran's crude oil exports through the Persian Gulf..." We have oil in the Gulf because of the sanctions as some foreign media reported not stored "Oil official Pirouz Mousavi said more on Friday the semi-official news agency."

The sanctions cause real hardship on the roads, where prices for basic imported goods soar, currency is the Rial fell and the Iranians have been have stream in Rial, dollars, to protect their savings, buy sell.

The pain comes less than two months before the parliamentary elections, Iran only since the year 2009 by eight months of demonstrations was followed a presidential election.

The revolt by force successfully put Iranian authorities, but since then she "Arab spring" has shown fueled by anger over economic difficulties the vulnerability of the authoritarian governments in the region to protest.

ZUSAMMENSTOß threat

Iran has threatened, blocking the Strait of Hormuz leads to the Gulf when its oil exports imposed sanctions and threatened, take unspecified action if Washington an aircraft carrier through the Straits, international waterway sails.

Military experts say Tehran can do little to the massive US-led fleet to fight, which protects the road, but increase the threats could lead the chance of a misunderstanding, to a military conflict and a global oil crisis.

The Pentagon said on Friday that small Iranian boats close to U.S. ships in the Strait last week had indeed said that they believed not, that it was "hostile intent."

The United States and Israel have ruled out non-military action diplomacy fails, the nuclear dispute. Iran says that it would take revenge if attacked.

The tension has spikes in global oil prices in recent weeks, caused, although prices facilitate trade on the prospect of lower demand in economically affected European countries last week at the end. Brent crude oil fell to pay 82 cents to $110.44 per barrel on Friday.

The chances of an immediate relaxation seek to set away on the nuclear further deadlock due to the refusal of Iran, the sensitive nuclear work.

Last week Iran uranium enrichment began u-Bahn - the most controversial part of its nuclear programme - a bunker deep under a mountain near the Shi Shi'ite Holy City of Qom.

Nuclear talks with powers collapsed a year ago. Iran says it wants to resume the talks, but in the West says that unless no point in it, it is ready, a setting of uranium enrichment, to discuss, that can be used, make material for a bomb.

(Additional reporting by Mitra Amiri;) Writing by Parisa Hafezi. (Editing by Peter Graff)

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6:53 PM | 0 comments

Blast in home of Gaza militant leader kills one

GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian man who had been preparing an attack on Israeli targets was killed on Saturday in an explosion at the home of a militant leader in the Gaza Strip, his group said.

The explosion took place at the Rafah home of Zuhair Al-Qaissi, chief commander of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed Palestinian faction that often operates independently of Gaza's Hamas rulers.

The PRC confirmed the man killed was a member of the group and that he was preparing an attack on Israelis when the blast occurred. Al-Qaissi himself was not hurt in the explosion.

Al-Qaissi's predecessor, Kamal al-Nairab was killed in an Israeli air strike in August.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Maayan Lubell)

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11:15 AM | 0 comments

Tunisians celebrate their revolution one year on

 

1 of 2. Tunisians celebrate the first year anniversary of the revolution at Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis January 14, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Zoubeir Souissi

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisians Saturday marked the first anniversary of the revolution that started the "Arab Spring" with celebrations that were true to the spirit of the revolt: raucous, unscripted, and driven by the energy of ordinary people.

Thousands of people flooded into Bourguiba Avenue in the center of the capital, the same spot where demonstrators massed exactly one year ago, forcing autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to accept his rule was over and flee the country.

Since that moment, Tunisia has become a model for democratic change in the Middle East and its revolt has re-shaped the political landscape of the region. It inspired revolutions in Egypt and Libya, as well as uprisings in Syria and Yemen whose outcome is still in the balance.

In a nod to the "people power" origins of Tunisia's revolution, the country's new authorities did not try to stage-manage the public celebrations.

Instead they invited people to descend on the center of the capital to mark the day in their own way.

Some people marched down Bourguiba Avenue chanting "Tunisia is Free!" and "Bye bye dictatorship. Welcome freedom!" Others carried Tunisian flags, and cages with their doors swinging open, an allegory for the country's journey to freedom.

"This is an occasion when all Tunisians should celebrate with pride," said Samir Ben Omrane, who was in the center of Tunis with his wife and two daughters. His wife was carrying a birthday cake with a single candle on the top.

"I am happy that my children can live in freedom in this country, which has provided an example to the world," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that a year ago the world was inspired by Tunisia's demands for democracy, freedom and dignity.

"Their courage echoed throughout the region, where other peoples, encouraged by the actions of their Tunisian brothers and sisters, found the courage to also make their rightful aspirations heard," he said in a statement.

COMPETING VOICES

The celebrations in Tunisia were in stark contrast to the tightly-regimented and starchy public occasions held during Ben Ali's 23-year-rule over Tunisia, when dissent was punished with long jail terms, torture or forced exile.

The new Tunisia is a cacophony of different groups, each demanding to be heard.

For all its progress toward democracy, Tunisia has acute problems of poverty and unemployment and its society is split over the rise to power of Islamists who were banned from public life for years under Ben Ali.

One group of young people gathered in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters to press for deeper reforms.

"It's true that Ben Ali is not here any more," said one of the group, 25-year-old Walid Ben Salam. "But we still have to be careful and to protect this revolution ... What we are missing is a separation of religion from politics," he said.

"We need to pay homage to the martyrs of the revolution and not forget the thousands of unemployed people."

Elsewhere, several dozen relatives of people killed by security forces in the run-up to the revolution protested outside the Saudi Arabian embassy.

They were demanding the extradition of Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, who have been in Saudi Arabia since fleeing there a year ago.

Moncef Marzouki, a political prisoner under Ben Ali who is now the country's president, declared Saturday a national holiday. He marked the event by granting pardons to 9,000 prisoners and commuting 122 death sentences.

In the official part of the celebrations later Saturday, Marzouki will take part in a ceremony attended by visiting officials including the heads of state from Qatar, Libya and Algeria.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Ben Harding)

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3:43 AM | 0 comments