Israel premier vows to proceed with E-1 settlement

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel's prime minister pledged Sunday to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in a strategic part of the West Bank, speaking just hours after Israeli forces dragged dozens of Palestinian activists from the area.
The activists pitched more than two dozen tents at the site on Friday, laying claim to the land and drawing attention to Israel's internationally condemned settlement policy.
Before dawn Sunday, hundreds of Israeli police and paramilitary border troops evicted the protesters. Despite the eviction, Mustafa Barghouti, one of the protest leaders, claimed success, saying the overall strategy is to "make (Israel's) occupation costly."
The planned settlement, known as E-1, would deepen east Jerusalem's separation from the West Bank, war-won areas the Palestinians want for their state. The project had been on hold for years, in part because of U.S. objections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived the E-1 plans late last year in response to the Palestinians' successful bid for U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Jewish settlements are at the heart of the current four-year impasse in Mideast peace efforts. The Palestinians have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build settlements on the lands they seek for their state. Netanyahu says peace talks should start without any preconditions. Netanyahu also rejects any division of Jerusalem.
Israel expanded the boundaries of east Jerusalem after the 1967 war and then annexed the area — a move not recognized by the international community. Since then, it has built a ring of Jewish settlements in the enlarged eastern sector to cement its control over the city.
E-1 would be built in the West Bank just east of Jerusalem, and would close one of the last options for Palestinians to create territorial continuity between Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital, and the West Bank. According to building plans, E-1 would have more than 3,000 apartments.
The Palestinians say they turned to the U.N. last November out of frustration with the deadlock in peace talks. They believe the international endorsement of the 1967 lines will bolster their position in negotiations. Israel has accused the Palestinians of trying to bypass the negotiating process and impose a solution.
Netanyahu told Israel Army Radio on Sunday that it would take time to build E-1, citing planning procedures. Still, he said, "we will complete the planning, and there will be construction."
Asked why the protesters were removed, Netanyahu said, "They have no reason to be there. I asked immediately to close the area so people would not gather there needlessly and generate friction and disrupt public order."
Palestinian protest leaders hoped the tent camp would be the first of a new type of well planned, nonviolent protests against Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories.
In recent years, Palestinians have staged weekly rallies in some areas of the West Bank, demanding to get back land they lost to Israel's separation barrier. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held up such tactics as worthy of emulation. The protests have remained relatively small, and media coverage has dropped off over the years.
The tent camp was set up after a month of planning by grass-roots groups using Facebook, Google Earth and other tools to find the right spot and stay in touch, said organizer Abdullah Abu Rahma.
The Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in parts of the West Bank, provided legal assistance.
The activists said they pitched the tents on private Palestinian land and immediately obtained an Israeli court injunction preventing the removal of the tents for several days.
At the next court hearing, Israel will have to explain why it wants to take down the tents, said Mohammed Nazzal, a Palestinian Authority official whose department is involved in the legal proceedings. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said he believes one of the issues in the hearing will be the status of the land where the tents were pitched.
Barghouti, meanwhile, said troops beat some of the protesters, a claim Rosenfeld denied. Rosenfeld said the protesters were carried away without injuries, put onto buses and dropped off at a West Bank checkpoint.
About half a million Israelis live in the dozens of settlements that dot the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Over the past 15 years, Jewish settlers have also set up dozens of rogue settlement outposts without formal approval, and critics say the government has done little to remove them.

Read More..

Egyptian appeals court orders Mubarak retrial

CAIRO (AP) — A Cairo appeals court on Sunday overturned Hosni Mubarak's life sentence and ordered a retrial of the former Egyptian president for failing to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that toppled his regime.
The ruling put the spotlight back on the highly divisive issue of justice for the former leader — and his top security officers — in a country has been more focused on the political and economic turmoil that has engulfed the country for the past two years.
Mubarak, who is currently being held in a military hospital, will not walk free with Sunday's court decision— he will remain in custody while under investigation in an unrelated case. The 84-year-old ex-president was reported last year to have been close to death, but his current state of health is unknown.
A small crowd of Mubarak loyalists in the courtroom erupted with applause and cheers after the ruling was read out. Holding portraits of the former president aloft, they broke into chants of "Long live justice." Another jubilant crowd later gathered outside the Nile-side hospital where Mubarak is being held in the Cairo district of Maadi, where they passed out candies to pedestrians and motorists.
The relatively small crowds paled in comparison to the immediate reaction to his conviction and sentencing in June, when thousands took to the streets, some in celebration and others in anger that he escaped the death penalty. Sunday's muted reaction could indicate that the fate of Egypt's ruler of nearly three decades may have in some ways been reduced to a political footnote in a country sagging under the weight of a crippling economic crisis and anxious over its future direction.
The court did not provide the reasoning for its ruling, but was expected to do so later. No date has been set for the retrial.
The ruling in favor of the appeal, however, had been widely expected. When Mubarak was convicted and handed a life sentence in June, that trial's presiding judge criticized the prosecution's case, saying it lacked concrete evidence and that nothing that it presented to the court proved that the protesters were killed by the police.
Mubarak's defense lawyers had argued that the former president did not know of the killings or realize the extent of the street protests. But an Egyptian fact-finding mission recently determined that he watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed at his palace.
The mission's report could hold both political opportunities and dangers for Mubarak's successor, President Mohammed Morsi of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. A new Mubarak trial would be popular, since many Egyptians were angered he was convicted for failing to stop the killings, rather than ordering the crackdown that killed nearly 900 people.
But the report also implicates the military and security officials in the protesters' deaths. Any move to prosecute them could spark a backlash from the powerful police and others who still hold positions under Morsi's Islamist government at a time when the nation's new leader is struggling to assert his authority over a nation reeling from political upheaval.
In a retrial, the prosecution has the right to present new evidence, such as that reportedly unearthed by the fact-finding mission, which could lead the court to convict Mubarak of ordering the crackdown.
If convicted, Mubarak could face a life sentence or have it reduced. Under Egyptian law, a defendant cannot face a harsher sentence in a retrial, meaning the former leader cannot face the death penalty.
A new trial for Mubarak could further unsettle the nation at a perilous time.
Egypt is grappling with an ailing economy — the pound's value is slipping against the U.S. dollar, foreign reserves are shrinking and tourism is in a deep slump. And politically, the country is deeply divided by the bitter rivalry between its Islamist rulers and their allies and an opposition led by liberals and secularists.
Clashes between the two sides have left at least 10 people killed and hundreds wounded last month.
The judge also ordered a retrial of Mubarak's former security chief, Habib el-Adly, convicted and sentenced to life in prison on the same charges.
He also ordered the retrial of six of el-Adly's top aides who were acquitted in the same trial. Five of them were found not guilty of involvement in the killing of the protesters, while one was acquitted of "gross negligence." No date was set for their retrial either.
It also granted the prosecution's request to overturn not-guilty verdicts on Mubarak, his two sons and an associate of the former president, Hussein Salem, on corruption charges. Salem was tried in absentia and remains at large to this day.
The six top police commanders held key positions at the Interior Ministry, which was led by el-Adly and which is in charge of the security forces. Their acquittal surprised many Egyptians who are still demanding retribution for the nearly 900 protesters killed during the 18-day uprising that culminated with Mubarak's ouster on Feb 11, 2011.
The prosecutors in the Mubarak trial complained that security agencies and the nation's top intelligence organization had not cooperated with their investigation, leaving them with little incriminating evidence against the defendants. During the trial, prosecutors focused their argument on the political responsibility of Mubarak and el-Adly.
Sunday's ruling came one day after a prosecutor placed a new detention order on Mubarak over gifts worth millions of Egyptian pounds he and other regime officials allegedly received from Egypt's top newspaper, Al-Ahram, as a show of loyalty while he was in power.
The public funds prosecutor ordered Mubarak held for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation. Mubarak was moved to a Cairo military hospital last month after slipping inside a prison bathroom and injuring himself.
Mubarak's sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and businessman Alaa, are in prison while on being tried for alleged insider trading and using their influence to buy state land at a fraction of its market price.

Read More..

Iran's election tip to critics: Keep quiet

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Elections to pick Iran's next president are still five months away, but that's not too early for some warning shots by the country's leadership.
The message to anyone questioning the openness of the June vote: Keep quiet.
A high-level campaign — including blunt remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — seeks to muzzle any open dissent over the process to select the successor for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and likely usher in a new president with a far tamer political persona.
Public denunciations are nothing new against anyone straying from Iran's official script. But the unusually early pre-emptive salvos appears to reflect worries that the election campaign could offer room for rising criticism and complaints over Iran's myriad challenges, including an economy sputtering under Western-led sanctions, double-digit inflation and a national currency whose value has nosedived.
"Elections, by their nature, are an opportunity to make your voice heard," said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Center based in Geneva. "Iran's leaders understand this very well and are not likely to take any chances."
And Iranian authorities hold nearly all the cards. Their main goal this time is to avoid any repeat of 2009, when reform-leaning candidates were allowed on the ballot and led an unprecedented street revolt after Ahmadinejad's re-election to his second, and final, term amid claims of vote rigging.
The protest leaders are now under house arrest and their opposition Green Movement has been systematically dismantled through crackdowns and intimidation. The next group of presidential hopefuls — who must be cleared by Iran's ruling clerics — is almost certain to have no wildcards.
Instead, the emphasis is likely to be on easing the domestic political friction as Iran attempts the strategic version of a win-win: Finding ways to ride out sanctions, while negotiating a deal with the U.S. and allies that would allow Tehran to keep some levels of uranium enrichment, the centerpiece of its nuclear program.
The West and others fear Iran's ability to make nuclear fuel could eventually lead to warhead-grade material. Iran claims it only seeks reactors for energy production and medical applications. Iran is scheduled to hold talks with envoys from the U.N. nuclear agency later this week.
For more than a year, internal political spats have been an unwelcome distraction for Iran's ruling system.
Ahmadinejad shattered protocol by openly defying the all-powerful Supreme Leader Khamenei over a Cabinet choice. What followed was a feud that left Ahmadinejad politically weakened and many of his allies sidelined or jailed. It also raised major doubts about whether his chief protege, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, will be allowed on the June 14 ballot.
A more likely scenario — at the moment, at least — is more predictable loyalists to both the ruling system and its guardians, the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Perceived front-runners include former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, prominent lawmaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and ex-Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei.
But it will be months before any kind of race begins. In the meantime, Iranian authorities appear ready to pounce hard on any perceived opposition.
What has touched a nerve has been debates among reformists and moderates, including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, about whether Iran will hold "free elections" — a coded phrase pointing to the expected rejection of any potential opposition candidates.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, responded sharply. He equated the phrase with aiding the Islamic Republic's "enemies" — meaning the U.S., Israel and others — that have raised questions about the fairness of Iran's elections. Iranian leaders also are concerned about a possible low turnout if former Green Movement backers stage a boycott.
"Even those who may make general recommendations about the election out of good will for the nation must be cautious not to help the enemy's purpose," Khamenei told a crowd in Tehran last week. "Be careful that your words don't discourage people from the elections."
Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born political analyst based in Israel, said the Arab Spring uprisings — including the rebellion against Iran's key ally Bashar Assad in Syria — are likely to keep Iranian authorities on high alert for any signs of unrest as the election draws closer.
"When the supreme leader looks at these developments, it would be understandable for him to be concerned," Javedanfar said.
In a rare common message, Friday prayer leaders around Iran described the phrase "free elections" as a new buzzword to create "sedition" in the upcoming vote. Hardliners call opposition leaders "seditionists."
"Those promoting the term of 'free elections' are politically defeated ones. Others who raise this term are monarchists, the U.S. and Israel ... shame on you. Why do you repeat the words of the enemy?" said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, addressing Friday prayers at Tehran University. Jannati heads the Guardian Council, which vets election candidates.
In the seminary city of Qom, prayer leader Mohammadi Saeedi called the term "free elections" an effort "to create riots in the upcoming elections."
"We steadfastly declare that people, having put the 2009 sedition behind, won't allow the enemy and seditionists to create riots in the elections," he said.
Mohammad Shahcheraghi, leading prayers in Semnan, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Tehran, urged authorities to stamp out the "second sedition."
"From today, anyone ... who promotes the term free elections should be considered an opponent of the position of the supreme leader and has served the ominous aims of the enemy," he said.
Tehran-based political analyst Davoud Hermidas Bavand interpreted the attacks as an attempt to keep Rafsanjani and others from trying to build a new pro-reform movement around the vote.
"The slogan of 'free elections' casts doubt on the authenticity of previous elections," he said. "That makes the establishment unhappy and authorities take it as an indication that reformists are seeking to provoke tensions ahead of the vote."

Read More..

Palestinians change their name following UN bid

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian president has ordered his government to officially change the name of the Palestinian Authority to "State of Palestine."
The move follows the November decision by the United Nations to upgrade the Palestinians' status to that of a "non-member observer state."
President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that all official Palestinian stamps, stationery and documents will now bear the new name.
A statement from his office said the move was aimed at enhancing Palestinian "sovereignty on the ground" and was a step on the way to "real independence." Israel still controls most of the West Bank.
Israel objected to the Palestinian statehood bid at the U.N., calling it a unilateral step aimed at bypassing direct peace negotiations. Abbas denied that.
Israel had no comment Sunday.

Read More..

Assad calls on Syrians to defend the country

BEIRUT (AP) — President Bashar Assad called on Syrians to defend their country against Islamic extremists seeking to destroy the nation, dismissing any prospect of dialogue with the "murderous criminals" he says are behind the uprising even as he outlined his vision for a peaceful settlement to the civil war.
In a one-hour speech to the nation in which he appeared confident and relaxed, Assad struck a defiant tone, ignoring international demands for him to step down and saying he is ready to hold a dialogue — but only with those "who have not betrayed Syria."
He offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution but demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels trying to overthrow him first.
Syria's opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. Those fighting to topple the regime, including rebels on the ground, have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than the president's departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.
"It is an excellent initiative that is only missing one crucial thing: His resignation," said Kamal Labwani, a veteran secular dissident and member of the opposition's Syrian National Coalition umbrella group.
"All what he is proposing will happen automatically, but only after he steps down," Labwani told The Associated Press by telephone from Sweden.
On top of that, Assad's new initiative is reminiscent of symbolic changes and concessions that his government made earlier in the uprising, which were rejected at the time as too little too late.
Speaking at the Opera House in central Damascus, Assad told the hall packed with supporters — who frequently broke out in cheers and applause — that "we are in a state of war."
"We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other," he said. "It is a war between the nation and its enemies, between the people and the murderous criminals."
Assad has rarely spoken since the uprising against his rule began in March 2011, and Sunday's speech was his first since June. His last public comments came in an interview in November to Russian TV in which he vowed to die in Syria.
On Sunday, he seemed equally confident in his troops' ability to crush the rebels fighting his rule, even as they edge in closer than ever to his seat of power, Damascus.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's speech was "beyond hypocritical." In a message posted on his official Twitter feed, Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one."
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's office said in a statement that the bloc will "look carefully if there is anything new in the speech but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition."
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Assad's speech was filled with "empty promises" and repetitive pledges of reform by a president appeared out of touch with reality of the Syrian people.
"It seems (Assad) has shut himself in his room, and for months has read intelligence reports that are presented to him by those trying to win his favor," Davutoglu told reporters in the Aegean port city of Izmir on Sunday.
Turkey is a former ally of Damascus, and while Ankara first backed Assad after the uprising erupted, it turned against the regime after its violent crackdown on dissent.
At the end of his speech and as he was leaving the hall, he was mobbed by a group of loyalists shouting: "With our blood and souls we redeem you, Bashar!"
The president waved and blew kisses to the crowd on his way out.
Assad acknowledged the enormous impact of the conflict, which the United Nations recently estimated had killed more than 60,000 people.
"Suffering is overwhelming Syrian land. There is no place for joy in any corner of the country in the absence of security and stability," he said. "I look at the eyes of Syria's children and I don't see any happiness."
The Internet was cut in many parts of Damascus ahead of the address, apparently for security reasons.
As in previous speeches, Assad said his forces were fighting groups of "murderous criminals" and jihadi elements and denied that there was an uprising against his family's decades-long rule.
He stressed the presence of religious extremists and jihadi elements among those fighting in Syria, calling them "terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaida" and "servants who know nothing but the language of slaughter."
He said Syria will not take dictates from anyone — a reference to outside powers — and urged his countrymen to unite to save the nation.
Outlining his peace initiative, he said: "The first part of a political solution would require regional powers to stop funding and arming (the rebels), an end to terrorism and controlling the borders."
He said this would then be followed by dialogue and a national reconciliation conference and the formation of a wide representative government which would then oversee new elections, a new constitution and general amnesty.
Assad made clear his offer to hold a dialogue is not open to those whom he considers extremists or carrying out a foreign agenda, essentially eliminating anyone who has taken up arms against the regime.
"We never rejected a political solution ... but with whom should we talk? With those who have an extremist ideology, who only understand the language of terrorism?" he said. "Or should we with negotiate puppets whom the West brought?"
"We negotiate with the master, not with the slave," he said.
As in previous speeches and interviews, he clung to the view that the crisis in Syria was a foreign-backed agenda and said it was not an uprising against his rule.
"Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God, I say they are a bunch of criminals," he said.

Read More..

AP Interview: Palestinian PM blasts Arab donors

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian self-rule government is close to being "completely incapacitated," largely because Arab countries haven't delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in promised aid, the Palestinian prime minister said in an interview Sunday.
If allowed to continue, the Palestinian Authority's unprecedented financial crisis will quickly double the number of Palestinian poor to 50 percent of a population of roughly 4 million, Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press.
Fayyad said the malaise is further boosting the political appeal of the Islamic militant Hamas while discrediting him and other proponents of a nonviolent path to statehood in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Hamas seized Gaza from Fayyad's boss, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a 2007 takeover, leaving Abbas with only the West Bank.
The failure of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority to deliver on many of its promises, coupled with recent Israeli concessions to Hamas, "has produced a reality of a doctrinal win for what Hamas stands for, and correspondingly a doctrinal defeat for the Palestinian Authority," Fayyad said.
The Palestinian Authority was established nearly two decades ago, as part of interim peace deals with Israel, and was meant to make way after five years for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. However, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations repeatedly broke down, at times amid bursts of violence, and failed to produce a final deal.
After the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, which resulted in harsh Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, the Palestinian Authority became heavily dependent on foreign aid. It has received hundreds of millions of dollars each year since then, but has struggled to wean itself off foreign support.
Fayyad said his budget deficit has widened in recent years, blaming Arab states that broke aid promises.
"The financing problem that we've had ... in the last few years is solely due to some Arab donors not fulfilling their pledge of support in accordance with Arab League resolutions," Fayyad said. European countries kept all their aid commitments and the U.S. honored most, with the exception of $200 million held up by Congress last year, he added.
The crisis worsened sharply after the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in late November, at the request of Abbas, to recognize a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in 1967. Israel objected to the U.N. upgrade, accusing Abbas of trying to bypass negotiations.
Starting in December, Israel halted the monthly transfers of about $100 million in tax rebates it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. That sum amounts to about one-third of the monthly operating costs of the Palestinian Authority. Fayyad said he now only takes in about $50 million a month in revenues.
On Sunday, Abbas declared that his Palestinian Authority would be known as the State of Palestine from now on, in keeping with U.N. recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state in November.
Fayyad's heftiest monthly budget item is the government payroll. The Palestinian Authority employs some 150,000 people, including civil servants and members of the security forces. About 60,000 live in Gaza and served under Abbas before the Hamas takeover, but they continue to draw salaries even though they've since been replaced by Hamas loyalists.
In recent months, the government has paid salaries in installments.
Fayyad said he managed to pay half the November salaries by getting another bank loan, using as collateral a promise by the Arab League to cover whatever money Israel might withhold in retaliation for the U.N. bid. The money from the Arab states never came, and Fayyad said he can't pay the rest of the November salaries, let alone December wages.
The Palestinian Authority already owes local banks more than $1.3 billion and can't get more loans. It also owes hundreds of millions of dollars to private suppliers, and some have stopped doing business with the government.
Fayyad said his government is on "the verge of being completely incapacitated." About 1 million Palestinians who depend on government salaries "are at a very serious threat of being pushed into a circle of poverty," he said. This would double the poverty rate, which currently stands at 25 percent in the West Bank and Gaza, he said.
Fayyad said these dire consequences would happen in "short order," but he would not give specifics.
Mohammed Sobeih, an official in the 22-nation Arab League, acknowledged Sunday that the Palestinian Authority is in a "critical situation." He said the head of the league has written to member states urging them "to pay the pledged $100 million."
The growing hardships have sparked repeated protests in the West Bank. Civil servants have held several warning strikes. On Sunday, the union decided to step up protests, calling for four days of strikes over the next two weeks.

Read More..

About 25 arrested in Moscow New Year's Eve protest

 About 25 people reportedly have been arrested in Moscow on New Year's Eve for trying to hold an unsanctioned protest.
The gathering at Triumphalnaya Square in central Moscow on Monday attracted 50 to 100 people.
Among those arrested was prominent radical writer Eduard Limonov; the Interfax news agency cited activists as saying about 25 people were taken into custody.
For about two years, activists have tried to rally on the 31st of each month with that many days, a reference to Article 31 of the Russian constitution that guarantees free assembly. Authorities routinely deny permission for the demonstrations. Limonov's faction has fallen out with other elements of the wave of opposition to President Vladimir Putin that arose last year.
In his New Year's Eve address, Putin made no reference to the protests of the past year, saying only of 2012 that "it was very important to us," according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
"We believe that we can change the life around us and become better ourselves, that we can become more heedful, compassionate, gracious" he was quoted as saying. Russia's fate "depends on our enthusiasm and labor.

Read More..

Pope marks end of difficult year, notes God's good

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI marked the end of a difficult year Monday by saying that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails.
Benedict celebrated New Year's Eve with a vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He appeared tired during the service and used a cane afterward — an indication that the busy Christmas season may be taking a toll on the 85-year-old Benedict.
In his homily, Benedict said it's tough to remember that goodness prevails when bad news — death, violence and injustice — "makes more noise than good." He said taking time to meditate in prolonged reflection and prayer can help "find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life."
This past year was full of highs and lows for the pope, including a successful trip to Mexico and Cuba but also the betrayal of his butler, convicted in October of stealing Benedict's personal papers and leaking them to a journalist.
After the service, Benedict was brought out in a covered car to pray before the Vatican's main nativity scene in St. Peter's Square. Walking with a cane in the chilly piazza, Benedict chatted animatedly with the artist who crafted the scene, which recreated an entire village from the poor, southern Italian region of Basilicata which donated this year's crèche.
The Vatican gladly accepted Basilicata's donation after the €550,000 price tag the Vatican paid for the 2009 nativity scene was revealed in the documentation leaked by Benedict's ex-butler Paolo Gabriele.
Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He received a pre-Christmas papal pardon and is expected to soon leave his Vatican City apartment for a new home and job elsewhere.
On Tuesday morning, Benedict celebrates a New Year's Day Mass, which the Catholic Church celebrates as its world day of peace.

Read More..

Pope convinced of peace in 2013 despite world woes

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he is convinced that peace will prevail in 2013, despite the inequality, terrorism and "unregulated financial capitalism" that afflict the world today.
Benedict celebrated a New Year's Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to mark the church's world day of peace. His target audience was in the front pews: diplomats accredited to the Holy See, who next week will attend the pope's annual address about the plight of the world's poor and its war-torn regions.
In his homily, Benedict said that despite today's terrorism, criminality and the inequality between rich and poor, he is convinced the "numerous works of peace, of which the world is rich, are testimony to the innate vocation of humanity to peace."
He cited "unregulated financial capitalism" as evidence of an "egotistical and individualistic mentality" that is rife in the world.
Later, Benedict appeared at his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square to wish the crowds below a Happy New Year.
Nearby, a man scaled the scaffolding along the colonnade surrounding the square and draped a banner calling on Benedict to "Stop Terrorism." After a few hours of police negotiations, he came down and was escorted away.
The protest didn't appear to cause the pope any disturbance.

Read More..

France counts 1,193 cars torched on New Year's Eve

Hundreds of empty, parked cars go up in flames in France each New Year's Eve, set afire by young revelers, a much lamented tradition that remained intact this year with 1,193 vehicles burned, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday.
His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released. The conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy had decided to stop publishing them in a bid to reduce the crime — and not play into the hands of car-torching youths who try to outdo each other.
France's current Socialist government decided otherwise, deeming total transparency the best method, and the rate of burned cars apparently remained steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, the last public figure available, 1,147 vehicles were burned.
Like many countries, France sees cars set on fire during the year for many reasons, including gangs hiding clues of their crimes and people making false insurance claims.
But car-torching took a new step in France when it became a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. The practice reportedly began in earnest among youths — often in poor neighborhoods — in the 1990s in the region around Strasbourg in eastern France.
It also became a voice of protest during the fiery unrest by despairing youths from housing projects that swept France in the fall of 2005. At the time, police counted 8,810 vehicles burned in less than three weeks.
Yet even then, cars were not burned in big cities like Paris, and that remained the case this New Year's Eve. Minister Valls said the Paris suburban region of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the 2005 unrest started, led the nation for torched cars, followed by two eastern regions around Strasbourg.
For some, the decision to tell the public how many cars have been burned on New Year's Eve is a mistake.
Bruno Beschizza, the national secretary for security matters in Sarkozy's UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes. "We know that neighborhoods compete," he said. Gang rivalries center on who can torch the most cars, with claims made on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, he said.
.

Read More..

Trade, tax, transparency on June G8 meet agenda - UK

Trade, tax compliance and promoting greater transparency will be the main focus of the next meeting of leaders of the Group of Eight major economies in June, Britain said on Wednesday as it assumed the group's rotating presidency.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he hoped the group's seven other member nations - the United States, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Canada and Germany - would join Britain in trying to "fire up economies and drive prosperity".
"At the heart of my agenda for the Summit are three issues - advancing trade, ensuring tax compliance and promoting greater transparency," Cameron said in a letter to other G8 leaders.
The next G8 meeting is expected to be held in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland.
On trade, Cameron said deals between the European Union and Canada, Japan and the United States was on the table, and efforts are also expected to be made to close international tax loopholes and strengthen global tax standards.
Cameron also hopes to boost transparency and accountability of aid spending.
The British prime minister said the G8 economies together account for around half of the world's economic output and so should be able to achieve ambitious goals.
However, experts question the group's continuing relevancy given it does not include rising powers China, Brazil or India.

Read More..

Police: Idaho US Sen. Crapo arrested in northern Virginia, charged with DUI

U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with driving under the influence in a Washington, D.C., suburb, authorities said.
Police in Alexandria, Va., said Sunday that the Idaho Republican was pulled over after his vehicle ran a red light. Police spokesman Jody Donaldson said Crapo failed field sobriety tests and was arrested at about 12:45 a.m. He was transported to the Alexandria jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond at about 5 a.m..
"There was no refusal (to take blood alcohol tests), no accident, no injuries," Donaldson said. "Just a traffic stop that resulted in a DUI."
Police said Crapo, who was alone in his vehicle, registered a blood alcohol content of .110. The legal limit in Virginia, which has strict drunken driving laws, is .08.
The 61-year-old Crapo (KRAY'-poh) has a Jan. 4 court date.
"I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance," Crapo said in a statement Sunday night. "I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter. I will also undertake measures to ensure that this circumstance is never repeated."
A Crapo spokesman declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding his arrest.
Currently in his third term, Crapo has been in the Senate since 1998, and served for six years in the U.S. House of Representatives before that. He was easily re-elected in 2010, and won't have to run again until 2016.
In Congress, Crapo has built a reputation as a staunch social and fiscal conservative. It was expected he would take over the top Republican spot next year on the Senate Banking Committee. He also serves on the Senate's budget and finance panels. Crapo was a member of the so-called "Gang of Six" senators that worked in 2011 toward a deficit-reduction deal that was never adopted by Congress.
A Mormon who grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Crapo was named a bishop in the church at age 31. He is an attorney who graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He has five children with his wife, Susan, and three grandchildren.
The Mormon Church prohibits the use of alcohol, as well as caffeine and other mind-altering substances. The state has a significant Mormon population.
Crapo has told the Associated Press in past interviews that he abstains from drinking alcohol.

Read More..

Indian police shut down roads in heart of New Delhi to prevent more protests against gang rape

 Authorities have shut down roads in the heart of India's capital to put an end to weeklong demonstrations against the brutal gang rape of a woman in a moving bus.
Thousands of armed police and paramilitary troops blocked roads in central New Delhi on Monday to prevent protesters from marching to the presidential palace.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm and promised that the government would take action to prevent crimes against women.
Singh said, "Anger at this crime is justified, but violence will serve no purpose."
There has been outrage across India over the Dec. 16 gang rape that left the young woman in critical condition in a hospital.
Police used tear gas and water cannons and hit protesters with batons during weekend protests.

Read More..

Russian leader Putin in India for talks focusing on trade, reinvigorating political ties

 Russian President Vladimir Putin is in India for talks intended to help cement Russia's position in the growing Indian market and reinvigorate political ties.
Following meetings Monday between Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Moscow and New Delhi are expected to sign agreements on trade, science, education and law enforcement.
While the volume of Russian-Indian trade has risen sixfold since 2000 and is expected to reach $10 billion this year, the growth has slowed in recent years. And even though India remains the No. 1 customer for Russia's arms industries, Moscow has recently lost several multibillion-dollar contracts to Western weapons makers.
Russia and India have shared close ties since the Cold War, when Moscow was a key ally and the principal arms supplier to New Delhi.

Read More..

Afghan policewoman kills American adviser at Kabul police HQ

An Afghan police official says an Afghan policewoman has killed an American adviser at the Kabul police headquarters.
Kabul's Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Daoud Amin says an investigation is underway to determine whether the killing today was intentional or accidental.
It was not known whether the victim was a military or civilian adviser.
The NATO military command says it's looking into reports of the shooting but had no independent information.
At least 53 international troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers or police this year, and a number of other assaults are still under investigations.
NATO forces, due to mostly withdraw from the country by 2014, have speeded up efforts to train and advise Afghan military and police units before the pullout.

Read More..

Lawmakers worry 'fiscal cliff' deal elusive; some predict small-scale patch may be only option

With anxiety rising as the country lurches towards a "fiscal cliff," lawmakers are increasingly skeptical about a possible deal and some predict the best possibility would be a small-scale patch because time is running out before the yearend deadline.
Sen. Joe Lieberman predicted Sunday: "We're going to spend New Year's Eve here, I believe."
Even those who see the possibility of a deal don't expect a lot.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she expects "it is going to be a patch because in four days we can't solve everything."
With the collapse Thursday of House Speaker John Boehner's plan to allow tax rates to rise on million-dollar-plus incomes, Lieberman said: "It's the first time that I feel it's more likely we'll go over the cliff than not," meaning that higher taxes for most Americans and painful federal agency budget cuts would be in line to go ahead.
"If we allow that to happen it will be the most colossal consequential act of congressional irresponsibility in a long time, maybe ever in American history because of the impact it'll have on almost every American," said Lieberman, a Connecticut independent.
Wyoming Sen. Jon Barrasso, a member of the GOP leadership, predicted the new year would come without an agreement, and he faulted the White House.
"I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes. He senses a victory at the bottom of the cliff," he said.
Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, was incredulous at Barrasso's assertion that 'there is only one person that can provide the leadership" on such a matter vital to the nation's interests.
"There are 535 of us that can provide leadership. There are 435 in the House, 100 in the Senate and there is the president, all of us have a responsibility here," he said. "And, you know what is happening? What is happening is the same old tired blame game. He said/she said. I think the American people are tired of it. What they want to hear is 'What is the solution?'"
President Barack Obama and Congress are on a short holiday break. Congress is expected to be back at work Thursday and Obama will be back in the White House after a few days in Hawaii.
"It is time to get back to the table," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., "And I hope if anyone sees these representatives from the House in line shopping or getting their Christmas turkey, they wish them a merry Christmas, they're civil, and then say 'go back to the table, not your own table, the table in Washington.'"
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he expects something will be passed, but nothing that will solve the nation's growing financial problems.
"I think there's unfortunately only going to be a small deal," he said, but added "it's critical we get to the big deal."
Obama already has scaled back his ambitions for a sweeping budget bargain. Before leaving the capital on Friday, he called for a limited measure that extends George W. Bush-era tax cuts for most people and stave off federal spending cuts. The president also urged Congress to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that would otherwise be cut off for 2 million people at the end of the year.
The failure of Boehner's option in the House has shifted the focus.
"The ball is now clearly with the Senate," said Lieberman.
He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky "have the ability to put this together again and pass something. It won't be a big, grand bargain to take care of the total debt, but they can do some things that will avoid the worst consequences going over the fiscal cliff."
It was only a week ago when news emerged that Obama and Boehner had significantly narrowed their differences. Both were offering a cut in taxes for most Americans, an increase for a relative few and cuts of roughly $1 trillion in spending over a year. Also included was a scaling back of future cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients — a concession on the president's part as much as agreeing to higher tax rates was for the speaker.

Read More..

Japan's hawkish Abe claims the win, but not a mandate

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party may have secured a convincing victory on Sunday, but it can hardly claim a mandate.

The vagaries of the Japanese electoral system and the sheer number of party choices on offer left the LDP with about 30 percent of the popular vote, in an election that saw a postwar low turnout of 59.3 percent.

The incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded with a dose of humility, conceding that the LDP had simply benefited from widespread anger with the outgoing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration.

"Our victory this time does not mean trust in the LDP has been completely restored,” he said. “Rather, it was a decision by the public that they should put an end to the political stagnation and confusion over the past three years, caused by the DPJ's misguided political leadership.”

QUIZ How well do you know Japan? Take this quiz!

Even with control of two-thirds of the lower house as part of an expected alliance with the much smaller New Komeito Party, analysts say Mr. Abe does not have carte blanche to push his right-wing agenda: revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution to give the military a greater role, higher defense spending, and the development of uninhabited islands at the center of a dispute with China.

“This wasn’t a foreign policy election,” says Robert Dujarric, director of contemporary Asian studies at Temple University. “As in many countries, it was about the economy. “Abe clearly has very hawkish instincts, very conservative ones; but, that said, you are not going to see more money for the military.”

'HAWKISH ABE'

Abe, who will be installed as prime minister on Dec. 26, is known for his strong nationalistic stance. (Read more about Abe's tough line here)

He quickly brought one of the country’s biggest flashpoints with China back to the surface upon election and restated Japan’s claim to the Senkaku islands – known by the Chinese as the Diaoyu. However, he also promised to work “persistently” to improve Sino-Japanese relations.

Though Abe has also angered South Korea by denying that evidence exists for Japan’s use of Asian women as sex slaves before and during the war, Mr. Dujarric believes he will rein in his nationalist tendencies, much as he did when he was prime minister from 2006 to 2007.

“It’s not clear that you will see a dramatically different foreign policy, because the LDP is not united behind Abe’s hawkish stance,” he says. “It’s a very broad church, and includes hawks and people you could almost describe as pacifists.”

Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now

China issued a more measured response to Abe’s victory than might have been expected, given the rancor surrounding the territory scuffle of recent months.

"We think the most pressing issue is that Japan must show sincerity and take practical steps to appropriately deal with the present situation and work hard to resolve the issue and improve relations between the two countries," Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters in Beijing.

In the 48 hours since his victory, Abe’s focus has been almost exclusively on Japan’s economy, stagnant for two decades and now in its fourth recession since 2000.

His prescription includes a return to deficit spending on public works, ending deflation, and weakening the yen to help battered exporters.

A verdict on Abe’s first few months in office will come earlier than he would have liked, with upper house elections slated for next summer. If he fails to make progress on his economic pledges and succumbs to his nationalist instincts, the criticism at home could be every bit as harsh as that from Beijing and Seoul.

Read More..

NBC's Richard Engel released in Syria, a journalist danger zone

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

NBC News Chief Correspondent Richard Engel and three members of his production crew were released safely from captivity last night, five days after being kidnapped in Syria, the news network reports. It is unclear who is responsible for the kidnapping, but the episode highlights the dangerous nature of reporting in war-torn Syria, a country the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) dubbed the deadliest place for journalists this year.

NBC reports that Mr. Engel’s captors have not been identified but are “not believed to be loyal to the Assad regime.” Engel and his team went missing after crossing into Syria from Turkey last week, and there had been no communication with the network – neither requesting ransom nor laying claim for the kidnapping – while the team was in captivity.

After entering Syria, Engel and his team were abducted, tossed into the back of a truck and blindfolded before being transported to an unknown location believed to be near the small town of Ma’arrat Misrin. During their captivity, they were blindfolded and bound, but otherwise not physically harmed, the network said.

Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued. Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said.

Engel and his team have since re-entered Turkey and say they were unharmed in the incident, NBC reports.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 after a government crackdown on protests calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The violence has spiraled into a bloody civil war that has claimed the lives of close to 40,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Think you know the Middle East? Take our quiz.

But, according to The Wall Street Journal, “the multiplying of militias on both sides of the conflict has quickly and vastly complicated the scenarios for how fighting might end or a political transition may be negotiated, and what may come next after the end of the regime.”

"The civilian militias to come out of this conflict are going to make Hezbollah [in Lebanon] look like a walk in the park," Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, told the Journal. Syria is not simply seeing a faceoff between government forces and rebel fighters, but the involvement of Al Qaeda-linked fighters and Iranian militants have also been noted.

Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now

CPJ projects that 2012 will be the deadliest year yet for journalists, with 67 journalist deaths registered through mid-December alone. The high numbers are in large part attributed to the conflict in Syria and how it has impacted local and international journalists trying to report there. Four international journalists were killed in Syria in 2012, but the majority of the 28 journalists killed there this year were local reporters, largely working online.

“This feels like the first YouTube war,” BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood told CPJ. “There’s a guy with a machine gun and two guys next to him with camera phones.” Mr. Wood added that local journalists are facing multiple risks. “We’ve seen pro-regime journalists targeted by rebels – it is well known. But opposition journalists say the regime is intent on targeting them as journalists.”

The number of fatalities related to the Syrian conflict approached the worst annual toll recorded during the war in Iraq, where 32 journalists were killed in both 2006 and 2007.

Paul Wood … who covered Iraq and numerous other wars, said the Syrian conflict “is the most difficult one we’ve done.” Bashar al-Assad’s government sought to cut off the flow of information by barring entry to international reporters, forcing Wood and many other international journalists to travel clandestinely into Syria to cover the conflict. “We’ve hidden in vegetable trucks, been chased by Syrian police – things happen when you try to report covertly.”

With international journalists blocked and traditional domestic media under state control, citizen journalists picked up cameras and notepads to document the conflict – and at least 13 of them paid the ultimate price. One, Anas al-Tarsha, was only 17 years old. At least five of the citizen journalists worked for Damascus-based Shaam News Network, whose videos have been used extensively by international news organizations.

Engel is an experienced reporter who reported on the Iraq war in its entirety and has “covered wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years,” according to NBC. But there are many factors making reporting by inexperienced journalists in high-risk countries like Syria increasingly common today.

In addition to the rise of Internet journalism, there are other factors like “relatively cheap flights to some of the world’s trouble spots” and “shrinking budgets for foreign news” that “have dramatically reduced barriers to entry for would-be foreign correspondents,” reports the BBC.

For organisations working to improve the safety of journalists it’s a cause for increasing concern.

“There’s something of a worrying trend developing,” says Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute. “I’m hearing it from people that have recently graduated. I’m seeing it on Facebook. And I see it sometimes when I talk to students in universities.

“It feels like now in places like Syria there are more and more people in their early or mid-20s with little or no experience - but with an overriding enthusiasm which makes them want to go out there and make a name for themselves, without taking the realities on board.”

Many of these young reporters are working as freelancers, which can create an additional risk. Freelance reporter Austin Tice has been missing since August when he was kidnapped near Syria’s capital, Damascus. The Monitor reports that the number of journalists kidnapped has gone up, and "with the rise in the number of reporters operating in dangerous places like Syria – and with many parties seeing value in targeting them – many expect the threat to persist,” reports the Monitor. However, while all journalists reporting in conflict zones can expect to face threats, the increasing number of freelancers can make working in places like Syria “particularly acute, as they are often operating without significant institutional backing and experience.”

"More and more of those journalists are freelancers because of the nature of the changing field," El Zein says, referring to the rise in the number of freelancers reporting in dangerous places, traditionally more a world for journalists on the staff of major publications.

"Especially in Syria, the risks are very high for journalists, and a freelancer going in there without any support structure – it can be very risky and daunting."

The Christian Science Monitor’s Tom Peter has been in and out of Syria over the course of the past few months and noted other distinct differences in reporting from Syria compared to other conflict zones in the past. “With Aleppo just a two-hour drive from Kilis [Turkey], many journalists have opted to drive into Syria each morning and return to Turkey to write stories and sleep. Not only is it safer, but electricity and Internet access are a sure thing,” he writes.

The commute made my job of writing and filing stories easier, but it also made for a surreal reporting experience. In one afternoon, I might find myself taking cover as windows blew out around me in a bombing. By that evening, I'd be back in Kilis getting my hair cut in a barbershop where a miscommunication led to an accidental mud facial mask.

I've always thought the hardest part of conflict journalism is the anxiety you feel before and after an assignment. When you're navigating a war, you're too busy to think about the what-ifs. Commuting in and out every day creates one of the strangest cycles of stress and decompression I've ever experienced.

Read More..

For Brits, Newtown shooting brings reminders of Dunblane

The massacre at Sandy Hook  elementary school has sent a particular chill down the spines of Britons, particularly those old enough to remember the 1996 massacre of 16 children and their teacher by a lone gunman at a Scottish school.

But while that tragedy catalyzed Britain’s evolution into a country with some of the toughest gun laws in the world, the cultural divide between the US and Britain may prove too wide to help Americans looking across the pond for guidance in the wake of Newtown.

The killings on March 13, 1996, in the town of Dunblane, Scotland, in many ways as close-knit a community as Newtown, spurred a radical overhaul of British gun laws. Subsequent measures introduced by governments of both Conservative and Labour hues culminated in a ban on handguns and automatic weapons, as well as an onerous system of ownership rules involving hours of paperwork, criminal reference checks, and mandatory references designed to reduce as far as possible the likelihood of guns falling in the wrong hands.

Gun laws: How much do you know?

The result has been a success, if figures Britain’s Home Office announced in January are anything to go by. They noted that last year saw the seventh consecutive annual fall in offenses that involved firearms. The 11,227 recorded last year was also a decrease of 13 percent on the previous year, while supporters of gun control have expressed contentment that the murder rate from guns is going in the right direction.

But Britain is not without its gun-control debate, albeit a different one than in the US. Britain’s public, politicians, and law enforcement officials traditionally view firearms very differently to their US counterparts. A Washingtonian notion of an armed civilian populace is absent, while a majority of police are opposed to being routinely armed on duty. The debate is not about balancing individual rights versus public safety, but about how to best tackle crime rooted in poor communities.

“The main problems around gun use here are associated with the development of [black] markets, including the drug market, which require or fall back on some element of violence,” says Roger Grimshaw, research director at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.

Noting that "gun crime" offenders and their victims in the UK are likely to be male; disproportionately from African, Caribbean, and Black British backgrounds; and come from economically deprived communities, Dr. Grimshaw's think tank advocates social and economic solutions – rather than criminal justice ones – to this type of illegal use of firearms.

IMPACT ON KILLING SPREES

As for outbreaks of killing sprees such Dunblane and the question of whether gun laws have made repetitions less likely, Grimshaw points out that such incidents are extremely difficult to predict, adding that there are difficulties in drawing conclusions on the basis of a relatively small number of incidents.

Since Dunblane, the most high-profile episode of a similar nature was a 2010 killing spree by a taxi driver who shot dead 12 people over the course of several hours at different locations in Cumbria, a scenic northwestern English county. A report by British policing's most senior firearms-licensing specialist proposed further restrictions on gun ownership and mandatory liaisons between mental health services before the granting of firearms licenses.

Dereck Bird, the gunman who carried out the killings using a weapon which he legally owned, bore grudges against colleagues and feared he was about to be imprisoned for tax offenses, but had no diagnosed history of mental health problems. In comparison, warnings that Thomas Hamilton, the Dunblane killer, was a danger to children were ignored for many years by the authorities.

Advocates for greater gun control in the UK meanwhile accept that the likelihood of another incident like Dunblane or Cumbria can be never be eliminated, but argue that it is a matter of eliminating the risk where possible.

Gill Marshall-Andrews, chair of the Gun Control Network, says: “If you look at what was happening to this country at the time of Dunblane in 1996, at that time pistol shooting was the fastest growing sport in the UK and we were going down the American road. Since then, gun laws have been tightened and homicides are very, very low.”

SMALLER GUN LOBBY

Still, she asserts that much more can be done to limit the likelihood of gun holders carrying out killings, such as introducing annual checks with doctors, spouses, and the police in relation to alcohol or drug abuse, depression, and domestic violence.

Such measures, for now, are not at the top of the mainstream political agenda, although Ms. Marshall-Andrews suggests that events in the US may have an impact on public opinion.

Politically, British proponents of greater gun control face nothing like a powerful political lobbying organization on a par with the National Rifle Association. Still, criticism of gun control measures introduced over recent decades have come from sportspeople and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, a lobbying organization which has 129,000 members.

It organized shooters to lobby MPs when they debated the possibility of tighter firearms laws in the wake of the Cumbria shootings, and last year welcomed the government's rejection of calls for greater gun control such as the centralized storage of firearms and further restrictions on shotgun licensing.

Read More..

In Venezuela, the future of Chavismo is tested

When Venezuela’s leader, Hugo Chávez, won a clear victory in presidential elections  in October, it was hardly surprising: The opposition had mounted its strongest campaign ever. But over the course of his 14 years in power, Mr. Chávez  has remained widely popular and been re-elected on four separate occasions – no matter oil prices, world politics, or who is in charge in Washington.

Now, Venezuela is facing the very real possibility that Chávez, who is in Cuba recovering from surgery after being diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer, might have to step down. So the test came yesterday, in the form of regional elections for 23 governors.

Almost all the states during Sunday's election went with the ruling Socialist Party (PSUV). The results are viewed as a litmus test for a future presidential race, if Chávez can no longer run Venezuela. To many, it shows that Chavismo, as Chávez's political and social movement is called, is alive and well.

“There is now evidence that Chavismo can survive without Chávez,” says Miguel Tinker-Salas, a Latin America studies professor at Pomona College and author of several books on Venezuela.

RELATED: Think you know Hugo Chavez? Take our quiz and find out!

'NOT JUST ABOUT CHáVEZ'

In 23 state elections yesterday, 20 governorships were won by Chávez allies, while only three went to the opposition, which had previously held eight. Among the biggest losses were opposition stronghold and oil-rich Zulia state, and Tachira state.

Some have surmised that Chávez allies were voted in by Venezuelans as a message of sympathy and support for Chávez the man, but Maria Artiga, a homemaker in one of the poor neighborhoods of Caracas called Petare, says the results show that it’s not just about Chávez.

"Chávez has done so much in los barrios, people want a governor that represents him,” Ms. Artiga says. "I think some people are voting in part to support him while he recovers, but most are voting to support his political program."

The staying power of that political program could be tested very soon. If Chávez is unable to stand for his inauguration on Jan. 10, a new election will be called within 30 days. He has named Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his preferred candidate.

No member of Chávez’s party has the same kind of brand name or popularity as Chávez himself. Carmen Carreño, who works as a messenger for the government, says she supports Mr. Maduro but worries about life post- Chávez, noting levels of corruption among many within the PSUV, especially at the local level.

“If Chávez is around keeping an eye [on things,] things will stay the same,” Ms. Carreño says. “But without Chávez, things will change."

And in the context of a potential new presidential election, yesterday’s race was not an outright loss for the opposition. Maduro would most likely stand against Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chávez in the presidential race in October but crucially retained his position as governor of Miranda state during Sunday's election, boosting morale among his supporters. He beat Elias Jaua, a former vice president.

"I'm extremely happy we at least held on in Miranda. Capriles has now beat two vice presidents, with all the resources and advantages they have,” says Jorge Mellet, a leather salesman, who came to celebrate Capriles’s victory outside of his party headquarters in Caracas. The other vice president he's referring to is current National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.

However, Mr. Mellet adds, "certainly, losing Zulia and Táchira hurts, we have to revise and improve where we failed."

SINKING ROOTS

It is unclear how these regional elections would translate into a Maduro vs. Capriles stand-off, but analysts see an advantage for the PSUV.

“This is the first time in 14 years Chávez was not actively campaigning for candidates that support his cause,” says Mr. Tinker Salas. “There is a degree of institutionality that we have not seen previously.... The PSUV has sunk enough roots at the regional level that they now have a party apparatus.”

Christopher Sabatini, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly in New York, also says that the results will favor the PSUV in a national election scenario because of the resources that states in PSUV control now wield. “It gives the PSUV a tremendous amount of political machinery and state access for when a presidential election comes again,” Mr. Sabatini says, in terms of “patronage and ‘get out the vote’ campaigns.”

Others are less clear about what Sunday’s race says for the future of Chavismo.

Eloy Torres, a political analyst at Santa María University in Caracas and a former PSUV administrative diplomat in Cuba and Russia, says he didn’t see a “show of force” by the PSUV because of high abstention rates. Yesterday's election saw about 54 percent of eligible voters turn out to vote, compared with 80 percent for presidential elections in October. This lack of turnout occurred, he says, despite government handouts and vast resources used to help encourage voters.

Read More..