Egyptian military says only dialogue can avert disaster

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military said on Saturday only dialogue could avert "catastrophe", stepping into a crisis pitting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against opponents who accuse him of grabbing excessive power.

State broadcasters interrupted their programs to read out an army statement telling feuding factions that a solution to the upheaval in the most populous Arab nation should not contradict "legitimacy and the rules of democracy".

That sounded like a swipe at protesters who have besieged the palace of the freely elected president and called for his removal, going beyond mainstream opposition demands for him to retract a decree that expanded his powers.

The statement also called for a "serious" national dialogue - perhaps one more credible than talks convened by Mursi on Saturday in the absence of opposition leaders. They insist he must first scrap his November 22 decree, defer next week's popular vote on a new constitution and allow the text to be revised.

Deep rifts have emerged over the destiny of a country of 83 million where the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30 years of military-backed one-man rule led to a messy army-led transition, during which the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies won two elections. Many Egyptians crave a return to stability and economic recovery.

The spokesman for the main Islamist coalition demanded that the referendum go ahead on time on the constitution drafted by an Islamist-led assembly from which liberals had walked out.

The army, which ran Egypt for months after Mubarak fell in February 2011, again cast itself primarily as the neutral guarantor of the nation. A military source said there was no plan to retake control of the country or its turbulent streets.

"DARK TUNNEL"

"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," the statement said. "The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."

The instability in Egypt worries the West, especially the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since it made peace with Israel in 1979.

The army might be pushing the opposition to join dialogue and Mursi to do more to draw them in, said Hassan Abu Taleb of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

He discounted the chance of direct military intervention, adding: "They realize that interfering again in a situation of civil combat will squeeze them between two rocks."

However, the military did seem poised to take a more active role in security arrangements for the December 15 referendum.

A cabinet source said the cabinet had discussed reviving the army's ability to make arrests if it were called upon to back up police, who are normally in charge of election security.

According to the state-run daily al-Ahram, an expanded military security role might extend to the next parliamentary election and, at the president's discretion, even beyond that.

Mursi's office said the "national dialogue", chaired by the president, had begun with about 40 political and other public figures discussing "means to reach a solution to differences over the referendum...and the constitutional decree".

The army issued its statement while protesters were still camped out by the gates of the presidential palace.

The tens of thousands of Mursi foes who surged past tanks and barbed wire to reach the palace gates on Friday night had dispersed. But a hard core stayed overnight in a score of tents.

"LEAVE"

Some had spray-painted "Down with Mursi" on tanks of the elite Republican Guard posted there after clashes between rival groups killed at least seven people and wounded 350 this week.

Others draped the tanks with posters of Mursi and the word "Leave" scored across his face in red letters.

"We are no longer calling for scrapping the decree and delaying the referendum," Samir Fayez, a Christian protester at the palace, said. "We have one demand in five letters: leave."

Nearby, a Mursi supporter named Mohamed Hassan was quietly observing the scene. He suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist allies could easily overwhelm their foes if they chose to mobilize their base.

"The Brotherhood and Salafis by themselves are few but they have millions of supporters who are at home and haven't taken it to the streets yet," murmured the 40-year-old engineer.

The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, denounced opposition protests that have swirled around the walls of Mursi's palace, saying they "ruin legitimacy".

Badie said eight people, all of them Brotherhood members, had been killed this week and urged the interior minister to explain why police had failed to prevent assailants from torching the organization's headquarters and 28 other offices.

"Get angry with the Brotherhood and hate us as much as you like, but be reasonable and preserve Egypt's unity," he told a news conference. "We hope everyone gets back to dialogue."

The well-organized Brotherhood, which thrust Mursi from obscurity to power, remains his surest source of support, with over 80 years of religious and political struggle behind it.

In the referendum, due to be followed by a parliamentary election, Islamist proponents of the constitution may benefit from the votes of millions of Egyptians desperate for the country to move on and revive its crippled economy.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Omar Fahmy and Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Egypt's Morsi preparing to modify decree

CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is preparing to amend a controversial decree in which he assumed sweeping powers, Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said on Saturday.

Morsi tasked six officials who met on Saturday with elements of the opposition to "modify the constitutional declaration" he issued on November 22, Qandil said on the private Al-Mihwar television channel.

The officials, among them politicians and members of the judiciary, "met to draft a new text (decree) and could finalise it late on Saturday or on Sunday morning," he added.

Morsi also said he wished to discuss the possibility of postponing a referendum on a draft constitution that the opposition said was rushed through by a panel dominated by Islamists.

Morsi's November 22 decree -- which put his decisions beyond judicial review -- sparked Egypt's current political crisis, which has seen deadly clashes between his Islamist supporters and secular-leaning opponents.

Seven people died and more than 600 were injured on Wednesday night in clashes between the two sides outside the presidential palace, and army tanks were deployed to keep demonstrators at bay.

The new draft charter, approved by an Islamist-dominated panel, boycotted by liberals and Christians and objected to by the opposition on the grounds that it limits freedom of expression, women's rights and freedom of worship, is set for a popular referendum on December 15.

Opposition leaders have said they will only take part in talks if the referendum is postponed and Morsi repeals his decree.

- AFP/fa

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

MUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the debate—that the Indian attitude to China was influenced by a mix of ignorance, cautious optimism about partnerships and a whole lot of misguided paranoia. "Don't demonise the Chinese, please," Guha finally said in response to a question.

"China has existed in our imaginations," observed Sunil Khilnani, professor of politics and author of The Idea Of India. "There's been very little sustained engagement with the reality of China and very little of our own produced knowledge about China." It was after the events of 1962 ('war' in the popular imagination, 'skirmish' to the scholars participating in the discussion), explained Khilnani, that a miffed India "withdrew". It's the 50th anniversary of that exchange this year, and "what we haven't been able to do is learn from the defeat", observed Khilnani. Both could have benefited from greater engagement. "China has had a very clear focus on primary education and achieved high levels of literacy before its economic rise. It has also addressed the issue of land reform," said Khilnani. Guha added that China could learn from the "religious, cultural and linguistic pluralism" in India.

But China and India weren't always so out of sync with each other. Srinath Raghavan, a scholar of military history, got both Guha and Khilnani to talk about pre-1962 relations between the two when the picture was rosier. Tagore was interested in China and so was Gandhi. Both were very large countries with large populations and shared what Guha calls a "lack of cultural inferiority". "They were both," he continued, "also heavily dependent on peasant communities." Nehru was appreciative of China's will to modernize and industrialize and its adoption of technology to achieve those ends. In turn, Chinese politicians argued for Indian independence.

Things soured more, feel both Khilnani and Guha, after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. "He was welcomed here as a spiritual leader but the intensification of the conflict dates to the Dalai Lama's flight," said Guha. Both Guha and Khilnani argued that Nehru's decision to not react aggressively to China's occupation of Tibet was, in the long run, the right one and prevented further "militarization" of the region. An audience member wondered if that didn't make India "China's puppet". Guha disagreed. "If there's a Tibetan culture alive today," he said, "it's not because of Richard Gere. Don't believe in the hypocrisy of the Western countries. Will they give them land, employment, dignified refuge? The Tibetans is one of the few cases in which our record is honorable."

But the difference in levels of development and the lopsided trade relations between the two countries have only fuelled the suspicions many Indians seem to harbour about China. People were worried, said Guha, even about cricket balls made in China. Audience questions reflected those worries. A member asked about China's "strategy to conquer the world" and its likely impact on India. Guha cautioned against stereotypes; Khilnani explained, "History is littered with the debris of states that have tried to dominate the world. What we're doing may be more long-lasting."

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.

Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.

A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.

"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"

Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.

Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.

In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.

King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.

Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."

Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.

In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.

Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"

"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."

Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.

The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."

The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.

That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.

"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Egypt Terror Leader Possibly Linked to Benghazi Attack Arrested

Dec 8, 2012 2:16pm

Mohammad Hannon/AP Photo

The leader of an Egyptian terrorist cell that planned attacks in Egypt and may be linked with the storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11 has been arrested by Egyptian intelligence officers, according to an official close to Egypt’s intelligence agency and a senior U.S. official.

Mohammad Jamal Abdo Ahmed had become one of Egypt’s most dangerous terrorists and led a small cell of Egyptians that collected suicide vests, bombs and grenades before their Cairo safe house was raided by intelligence officials in late October, according to the U.S. official.

PHOTOS: Benghazi: US Consulate Attack Aftermath

Most of the cell’s targets were Egyptian, but both the U.S. and Egyptian officials said Ahmed admitted to traveling to Libya and assisting Ansar al Sharia, which U.S. officials suspect organized the attack on the consulate that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

READ: More on the Political Fallout From the Benghazi Attack

Until now, neither the United States nor Egypt has determined exactly what role Ahmed played in the attack in eastern Libya, according to both officials.

Ahmed may have also been planning attacks on U.S. targets in Egypt and neighboring countries, the U.S. official said, and had aspirations to join al Qaeda.

Ahmed, who is Egyptian, was arrested two weeks ago in eastern Egypt in the Sharqiyah province, the Egyptian official said.

Egyptian officials continue to question him and he will remain in custody for another 15 days, according to the Egyptian official.

His arrest was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

READ: Four Americans Slain in Libya ‘Come Home’

SHOWS: World News

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Charter enshrining Shariah at core of Egypt crisis

CAIRO (AP) — One of Egypt's most prominent ultraconservative Muslim clerics had high praise for the country's draft constitution. Speaking to fellow clerics, he said this was the charter they had long wanted, ensuring that laws and rights would be strictly subordinated to Islamic law.

"This constitution has more complete restraints on rights than ever existed before in any Egyptian constitution," Sheik Yasser Borhami assured the clerics. "This will not be a democracy that can allow what God forbids or forbid what God allows."

The draft constitution that is now at the center of worsening political turmoil would empower Islamists to carry out the most widespread and strictest implementation of Islamic law that modern Egypt has seen. That authority rests on the three articles that explicitly mention Shariah, as well as obscure legal language buried in a number of other articles that few noticed during the charter's drafting but that Islamists insisted on including.

According to both supporters and opponents of the draft, the charter not only makes Muslim clerics the arbiters for many civil rights, it also could give a constitutional basis for citizens to set up Saudi-style "religious police" to monitor morals and enforce segregation of the sexes, imposition of Islamic dress codes and even harsh punishments for adultery and theft — regardless of what laws on the books say.

The spiraling crisis is threatening to turn into an outright fight for the identity of post-revolutionary Egypt, splitting the nation between those who want an Islamic state and those who oppose it, two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

For Islamists, the constitution is the keystone for their ambitions to bring Islamic rule, a goal they say is justified by their large victory in last winter's parliamentary elections. President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected opposition demands that he cancel a Dec. 15 nationwide referendum on the draft.

"Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal," thousands of Morsi supporters chanted Friday after the funeral of two men killed in clashes earlier this week. Witnesses say the violence began when Islamists attacked an anti-Morsi protest camp outside the presidential palace.

"Bottom line, this is a struggle between ideologies — the Islamic ideology moving with a clear plan with public support, and the secularists," said pro-Morsi demonstrator Khaled Omar, his head bandaged from Wednesday's fighting. "We are defending Islam, which people want."

The opposition is determined to stop the draft, and thousands marched for a third straight day Friday on the palace.

The Brotherhood is "unleashing its gang chanting jihadi slogans, as if they are in a holy war against the infidels," said businessman Magdi Ashri, who opposes Morsi. "Their agenda is to monopolize power in Egypt, whatever it takes."

Egypt's Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly debated the draft for months, until most liberal members — and all the Christian ones— walked out to protest what they called hard-liners' railroading of the process.

Islamists rammed through approval of the final draft in an all-night session Nov. 30. Of the 85 members who voted, 80 percent were members of the Muslim Brotherhood or the ultraconservative movement known as Salafis, or their allies.

Some Salafis had been reluctant about the draft because they wanted more explicit commitments to Shariah. But several days before the assembly session, Borhami — who is also an assembly member — assured them that what they sought was there, hidden in subtler language.

He said that by defining Egypt's political system as "democracy and Shura" — the Islamic term for "consultation" — the draft prevents what he called an "American or European" democracy that "gives the power of legislation to people and not to God."

Before liberals and Christians quit the panel, Islamists convinced them to allow a number of crucial clauses that solidified Shariah, either because of bargaining or because they didn't realize the articles' significance, he said.

"They didn't understand it well at first," he told the clerics, according to a full video of his speech posted on YouTube. "They only got it later and that's why they said it was disastrous."

How much some of the Shariah provisions in the constitution come into effect depends on who would be implementing it. And attempts to use some of its provisions would likely bring court battles over what the constitution really allows. But Borhami expressed confidence the courts would be obliged by the charter to allow a widespread implementation of Shariah.

Three articles of the more than 230-article draft mention Shariah directly.

Article 2 states that the "principles of Shariah" are the main source of legislation, the same phrasing as past constitutions. The vague term "principles" previously gave lawmakers so much leeway that they could almost ignore tenets of Islamic law. As a result, Islamic law largely only governed rules on marriage, divorce and inheritance.

But at the insistence of Salafis, Article 219 was added, defining the principles of Shariah for the first time. It says the principles are based on "general evidence, fundamental rules of jurisprudence, and credible sources accepted in Sunni doctrines and by the larger community."

The language is obscure, drawn from the terminology of religious scholars and largely incomprehensible to anyone else.

But "it is like a bombshell," says Mohammed Hassanein Abdel-Al, constitutional law professor at Cairo's Ain Shams University.

The article means that laws passed by parliament must adhere to specific tenets of Shariah that the four main schools of Sunni Islam agree on. That could include banning interest on loans, forbidding mixing of genders, requiring women to wear headscarves and allowing girls to marry when they reach puberty.

"The doors are wide open to restrict individuals' freedoms," Abdel-Al said.

Another new article says clerics from Al-Azhar, Egypt's most prominent Islamic institution, are "to be consulted on any matters related to Shariah," implicitly giving them oversight in legislation.

Other articles give sweeping powers for implementing Shariah, without directly mentioning it, often through subtle additions introduced by Islamists.

Article 10, for example, commits both the state and "society" to protecting "the moral values" of the "true Egyptian family."

The vague language empowers private citizens to enforce Islamic morals, Abdel-Al said. It could even give a constitutional justification for the creation of religious police, known as commissions "for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice."

"If I'm walking with my wife and her face is not covered or she's not wearing a headscarf, a man can come up and order me to cover her. I can't protest or object because the constitution instructs him to do so," Abdel-Al said.

Borhami pointed to Article 76, which he called "amazing." Originally the text said the only crimes and punishments can be those set by law. But Islamists amended the phase to "by law or by virtue of constitutional text."

As a result, punishments could be implemented based on the constitution's Shariah clauses even if they are not passed into law by parliament, such as bans on adultery and bank interest, Borhami said. Abdel-Al agreed on the article's effect.

The charter includes a section on personal rights, including guarantees of freedom of belief, creative and political expression and the press. The section also bans arrests and searches without court order and explicitly forbids torture for the first time. Many of the rights are more firmly worded than past constitutions under Mubarak and his predecessors.

But the section's final article says those rights cannot be implemented in a way contradicting the charter's articles on Shariah and protection of morals — giving a tool for Islamists to limit the freedoms. "These human rights are now restricted by Article 2," Borhami said.

The charter has a broad clause saying all citizens are equal, but an article specifying women have equal rights to men was dropped amid squabbles over the wording, and the article on children's rights is vague, experts say.

Overall, the draft leaves it unclear who is "the final authority in law and its interpretation — the elected parliament, the senior clerics or the judiciary," economist and former lawmaker Ziad Baha el-Din wrote in the independent El-Shorouk newspaper Wednesday.

The charter also limits the mandate of the Supreme Constitutional Court, which is seen as one of the strongest opponents of Islamists. Islamists also wrote in a last-minute article shrinking the court to 11 judges, from 18, eliminating its younger members.

That removes some of the fiercest anti-Islamist judges on the body, such as the court's only female judge, Tahani el-Gibali.

Youth activist Mahmoud Salem warned in his blog that "if this constitution is passed, Cairo will truly become Kandahar, with the blessing of the Egyptian president and the Muslim Brotherhood" —referring to the home city of Afghanistan's Taliban movement.

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Six more countries added to landmine-free list

GENEVA: Six more countries have been added to the list of nations that have eliminated "the scourge of landmines", organisers of a conference on the deadly weapons said Friday.

Congo, Denmark, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan and Uganda have declared all mined areas in their territories cleared, said organisers at the end of a five-day meeting aimed at evaluating progress since the signing of the 1997 Ottawa Convention.

Gambia had been added to the list as late as Friday, after a country representative unexpectedly announced its mine-free status to the gathering, Laila Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Geneva event, told AFP.

As for the perhaps most surprising name on the list of countries not considered landmine-free until this year, Denmark in July finished clearing minefields left over from World War II, when Nazis put about 1.4 million landmines along the Jutland peninsula to ward off an allied invasion.

Following the new additions, 36 signatory countries to the Mine Ban Treaty are still in the process of clearing mines, organisers said.

"Fifteen years after the opening of the Mine Ban treaty, we still see a high level of commitment... aimed at ending for all time the scourge of landmines," said Stephen Goose, chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which oversees the implementation of the 1997 treaty.

Poland's announcement during the conference of its imminent ratification of the treaty was also grounds for celebration, ICBL said, pointing out that Polish participation will mean that all EU member states will be part of the pact as the 161st signatory country.

That will leave the United States as the only NATO member that has yet to ratify the treaty.

A US delegation nonetheless took part in the Geneva conference and announced that a domestic landmine policy review launched in 2009 would "soon" be complete, which could potentially open the way for a US ratification.

The Palestinians, who attended the conference for the first time, had meanwhile told the gathering they wanted to take advantage of the upgraded United Nations status they gained late last month to join the Mine Ban Treaty.

Conference organisers lamented that three signatory countries -- Belarus, Greece and Ukraine -- were still in violation of the treaty since they had missed deadlines for destroying their stockpiles.

The ICBL said that almost 4,300 people were killed by landmines worldwide last year -- or nearly 12 deaths a day, compared with 32 in 2001.

It said the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad was the only government in the world to lay new landmines in 2012.

- AFP/fa

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Haryana plans to buy hydel power from Arunachal Pradesh

CHANDIGARH: Haryana power minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav said on Friday that the visit of Haryana chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda to Bhutan in connection with the purchase of 2000 MW of hydel power is very significant step for making the state free of any power shortage in the coming times. Hooda would visit Bhutan from December 14 and 16 regarding purchase of 2000 MW hydel power from Bhutan.

Capt Ajay Singh Yadav said that he would not be able to become a part of this visit as he has to attend 'Vijay Divas Samaroh' pre-scheduled to be organized at Rewari on December 16 in the memory of martyrs of Rejangala on 50th anniversary of Indo-China war. He said that senior officers of Power Utilities would be part of this delegation.

He said that coal based power plants were operational in the State, but keeping in view the limited resources of coal and increasing rate of power, other alternatives of power generation needed to be sought to meet increasing future demands. He said that hydel power was available at cheaper rates as compared to coal based power plants. Also, nuclear power plant of 2800 MW was being set up at village Gorakhpur of district Fatehabad which would soon be operational and the state would not face power shortage anymore, said Yadav.

He said that senior officers of Power Utilities had already visited Bhutan and have interacted with them at official level. The rates of the power would be as per the MoU to be signed between the two countries. He said that the State Government was also exploring the possibilities of purchasing hydel power from Arunachal Pradesh in the future. He said that the power plants of Yamunanagar and Khedar had restarted power generation.

He said that with a view to provide uninterrupted power supply of 14 to 20 hours to the rural consumers, power utilities had already launched a campaign in the State. Uninterrupted power would be supplied to those villages where line losses would be less than 25%, each house equipped with power connection, the electricity meters installed outside the house and timely payment of electricity bills. He said that continuous efforts were being made to prevent power theft for which eight special police stations had been set up in the State and about 2000 such cases had been caught. He said that power utilities were also encouraging the people to pay off their electricity bills on time. Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav had appealed the people to join hands with the government to prevent power theft.

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.

Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they cheered and sparked up in unison.

A few dozen people gathered on a sidewalk outside the north Seattle headquarters of the annual Hempfest celebration and did the same, offering joints to reporters and blowing smoke into television news cameras.

"I feel like a kid in a candy store!" shouted Hempfest volunteer Darby Hageman. "It's all becoming real now!"

Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to decriminalize and regulate the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults over 21. Both measures call for setting up state licensing schemes for pot growers, processors and retail stores. Colorado's law is set to take effect by Jan. 5.

Technically, Washington's new marijuana law still forbids smoking pot in public, which remains punishable by a fine, like drinking in public. But pot fans wanted a party, and Seattle police weren't about to write them any tickets.

In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

The mood was festive in Seattle as dozens of gay and lesbian couples got in line to pick up marriage licenses at the King County auditor's office early Thursday.

King County and Thurston County announced they would open their auditors' offices shortly after midnight Wednesday to accommodate those who wanted to be among the first to get their licenses.

Kelly Middleton and her partner Amanda Dollente got in line at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Hours later, as the line grew, volunteers distributed roses and a group of men and women serenaded the waiting line to the tune of "Chapel of Love."

Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.

In dealing with marijuana, the Seattle Police Department told its 1,300 officers on Wednesday, just before legalization took hold, that until further notice they shall not issue citations for public marijuana use.

Officers will be advising people not to smoke in public, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

He offered a catchy new directive referring to the film "The Big Lebowski," popular with many marijuana fans: "The Dude abides, and says 'take it inside!'"

"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."

Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.

The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress."

The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.

That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

Alison Holcomb is the drug policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and served as the campaign manager for New Approach Washington, which led the legalization drive. She said the voters clearly showed they're done with marijuana prohibition.

"New Approach Washington sponsors and the ACLU look forward to working with state and federal officials and to ensure the law is fully and fairly implemented," she said.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Royal Hoaxers Pulled Off Air After Nurse's Death

The two Australian radio hosts who prank called the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated have been pulled off the air "until further notice" after the hoaxed nurse was found dead today.

"Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) and 2Day FM are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha from King Edward VII's Hospital and we extend our deepest sympathies to her family and all that have been affected by this situation around the world," the radio station said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

The station's chief executive spoke with the DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, and "they are both deeply shocked," the statement said. The parties agreed that the hosts would not comment on the situation.

"SCA and the hosts have decided that they will not return to their radio show until further notice out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy," the statement said.

In the Tuesday morning prank call, information about the duchess' condition was released by a nurse to Greig and Christian when they pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles looking to speak to Middleton, who was being treated at the hospital for acute nausea related to her pregnancy.

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When the royal impersonators called the hospital, Saldanha put through to a second nurse who told the royal impersonators that Kate was "quite stable" and hadn't "had any retching."

"It is with very deep sadness that we confirm the tragic death of a member of our nursing staff," the hospital said in a statement released today.

"We can confirm that Jacintha was recently the victim of a hoax call to the hospital," the statement said. "The hospital had been supporting her throughout this difficult time."

The hospital said that Saldanha worked at the hospital for more than four years. They called her a "first-class nurse" and "a well-respected and popular member of the staff."

The hospital extended their "deepest sympathies" to family and friends, saying that "everyone is shocked" at this "tragic event."

"She will be greatly missed," the hospital said.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacintha Saldanha," a spokesman from St. James Palace said in a statement.

"Their Royal Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times by everybody at King Edward VII Hospital, and their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha's family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time," the statement said.

Police were called to an address near the hospital at about 9:35 a.m. GT today to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. "Inquiries continue to establish the circumstances of the incident. Next of kin have been informed," the statement said.

Circumstances of the death being investigated, but are not suspicious at this stage, according to police.

The duchess spent three days at the hospital undergoing treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe or debilitating nausea and vomiting. She was released from the hospital on Thursday morning.

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Military halts clashes as political crisis grips Egypt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Republican Guard restored order around the presidential palace on Thursday after clashes killed seven people, but passions ran high in a contest over the country's future.

President Mohamed Mursi had been due to address the nation, but a presidential source said the Islamist leader, criticized by his opponents for his silence in the last few days, might speak on Friday instead. He did not explain the possible delay.

Mursi supporters withdrew before a mid-afternoon deadline set by the Republican Guard, an elite unit whose duties include protecting the palace. Opposition protesters remained, kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks, and by evening their numbers had swelled to a few thousand.

The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.

Thousands of Mursi's Islamist partisans fought protesters well into Thursday's early hours during dueling demonstrations over the president's November 22 decree to expand his powers to help him push through a mostly Islamist-drafted constitution.

Officials said seven people were killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other. Six of the dead were Mursi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.

The street clashes reflected a deep political divide in the most populous Arab nation, where contrasting visions of Islamists and their liberal rivals have complicated a struggle to embed democracy after Mubarak's 30 years of one-man rule.

The United States, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid, has urged dialogue.

Prosecutors investigating the unrest said Brotherhood members had detained 49 wounded protesters and were refusing to release them to the authorities, the state news agency said.

"MILITIA REGIME"

The Brotherhood's spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan denied this, saying all "thugs" detained by members of the Islamist group had been handed over to the police or the Republican Guard.

Opposition factions called for mass protests after Friday prayers aimed at "the downfall of the militia regime", a dig at what they see as the Brotherhood's organized street muscle.

A communique from a leftist group urged protesters to gather at mosques and squares across Egypt, and to stage marches in Cairo and its sister city Giza converging on the presidential palace. "Egyptian blood is a red line," the communique said.

Hardline Islamist Salafis urged their supporters to protest against what they consider biased coverage of the crisis by some private Egyptian satellite television channels.

The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.

"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.

Outside Cairo, supporters and opponents of Mursi clashed in his home town of Zagazig in the Nile Delta, state TV reported.

Egypt plunged into renewed turmoil after Mursi issued his November 22 decree and an Islamist-dominated assembly hastily approved a new constitution to go to a referendum on December 15.

Since then six of the president's advisers have resigned. Essam al-Amir, the director of state television, quit on Thursday, as did a Christian official working at the presidency.

The Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, to which Mursi belonged before he was narrowly elected president in June, appealed for unity. Divisions among Egyptians "only serve the nation's enemies", Mohamed Badie said in a statement.

Rival factions used rocks, petrol bombs and guns in the clashes around the presidential palace.

"GRIP ON THE COUNTRY"

"We came here to support President Mursi and his decisions. He is the elected president of Egypt," said demonstrator Emad Abou Salem, 40. "He has legitimacy and nobody else does."

Opposition protester Ehab Nasser el-Din, 21, his head bandaged after being hit by a rock the day before, decried the Muslim Brotherhood's "grip on the country", which he said would only tighten if the new constitution is passed.

Mursi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new "dictatorship". The president says his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by Mubarak from derailing a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay urged the Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters and prosecute anyone inciting violence, including politicians.

"The current government came to power on the back of similar protests and so should be particularly sensitive to the need to protect protesters' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Pillay said in Geneva.

The Islamists, who have dominated presidential and parliamentary elections since Mubarak was overthrown, are confident they can win the referendum and the parliamentary election to follow.

Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's secretary-general, said holding the plebiscite was the only way out of the crisis, dismissing the opposition as "remnants of the (Mubarak) regime, thugs and people working for foreign agendas".

As well as relying on his Brotherhood power base, Mursi may also tap into a popular yearning for stability and economic revival after almost two years of political turmoil.

Egypt's pound hit an eight-year low on Thursday, after previously firming on hopes that a $4.8 billion IMF loan would stabilise the economy. The stock market fell 4.6 percent.

Foreign exchange reserves fell by nearly $450 million to $15 billion in November, indicating that the Central Bank was still spending heavily to bolster the pound. The reserves stood at about $36 billion before the anti-Mubarak uprising.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Football: FIFA extend Mohamed Bin Hammam provisional ban

PARIS: FIFA have extended the provisional ban of former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed Bin Hammam, world football's governing body said on Thursday.

The 63-year-old Qatari had a lifetime ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July due to lack of evidence over corruption allegations, but was banned again provisionally by FIFA who launched a new probe by ethics committee investigator Michael Garcia.

The final report was completed on December 4 and submitted to the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee for examination.

In it Garcia requested the imposition of provisional measures against Mohamed "given the extraordinarily complex nature and the considerable scope of the present case".

"Based on the report, the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber has decided to provisionally ban Mohamed given that a breach of the FCE (FIFA Code of Ethics) appears to have been committed and that a decision on the main substance of the case may not be taken early enough," FIFA said in a statement.

"Given the seriousness of the violations of the FCE as alleged in the final report, Garcia said in his letter to the chairman of the adjudicatory chamber that it was imperative that Mohamed remained banned from football during the pendency of any decision on these charges."

The ethics committee want to look for fresh evidence to relaunch the affair which saw Mohamed receive a lifetime ban.

Mohamed, who challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency last year, was accused of trying to buy votes of Caribbean officials. He withdrew his candidacy and Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president.

Mohamed was then banned for life after being found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA's ethics code, including one on bribery.

-AFP/ac

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Cabinet approves amendments to Lokpal Bill

NEW DELHI: The government today gave ex post-facto approval to some official amendments to the Lokpal Bill moved in the Rajya Sabha earlier this year.

One of the amendments included applicability of Lokpal Bill to a state only upon passing a resolution by the state legislature.

These amendments were moved by the government on May 21 this year in Rajya Sabha before the bill was referred to a select committee.

After the select committee report was tabled last month, the official amendments have little meaning. But their approval by the Cabinet was necessary.

The other official amendments included: only government-funded NGOs to be under the ambit of the Lokpal and the appointment of Lokpal to be made by a more balanced body where the government has no upper hand.

The select committee has recommended delinking of creation of Lokayuktas in states from the central bill.

The controversial bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha last year, faced opposition hurdle in the Rajya Sabha on various provisions, including the one making it mandatory for states to set up Lokayuktas.

The Prime Minister has been exempted from the ambit of Lokpal on issues of external and internal security, atomic energy, international relations and public order.

The select committee has not recommended any change in the provision relating to "reservation". The original provision said not less than 50 per cent of the members of Lokpal would be from SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women.

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.

Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans public use of marijuana, which is punishable by a fine, just like drinking in public.

Nevertheless, some people planned to gather at 12:01 a.m. PST Thursday to smoke in public beneath Seattle's Space Needle. Others planned a midnight party outside the Seattle headquarters of Hempfest, the 21-year-old festival that attracts tens of thousands of pot fans every summer.

"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."

In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

That law also takes effect Thursday, when gay and lesbian couples can start picking up their wedding certificates and licenses at county auditors' offices. Those offices in King County, the state's largest and home to Seattle, and Thurston County, home to the state capital of Olympia, planned to open the earliest, at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, to start issuing marriage licenses. Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.

The Seattle Police Department provided this public marijuana use enforcement guidance to its officers via email Wednesday night: "Until further notice, officers shall not take any enforcement action — other than to issue a verbal warning — for a violation of Initiative 502."

Thanks to a 2003 law, marijuana enforcement remains the department's lowest priority. Even before I-502 passed on Nov. 6, police rarely busted people at Hempfest, despite widespread pot use, and the city attorney here doesn't prosecute people for having small amounts of marijuana.

Officers will be advising people to take their weed inside, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.

But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.

The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.

"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress" — a non-issue, since the measures passed in Washington and Colorado don't "nullify" federal law, which federal agents remain free to enforce.

The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.

That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

Colorado's measure, as far as decriminalizing possession goes, is set to take effect by Jan. 5. That state's regulatory scheme is due to be up and running by October 2013.

___(equals)

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Wash. Pot Smokers Celebrate as Feds Stand Back

Marijuana smokers breathed a puff of relief today as they lit up legally for the first time in Washington state and were not cited, ticketed, or arrested for what is still a federal offense.

"There are no federal agents out there busting people," Seattle police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said today, hours after a new state law legalizing pot went into effect.

Seattle police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the department's blog, "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a Lord of the Rings marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

Voters in the state overwhelmingly pushed through a bill on November's ballot legalizing the possession of marijuana, putting state law in direct contrast with federal law, under which marijuana is still an illegal substance.

Read ABC's Coverage of the "Tipping Point" of Pot Legalization

The U.S. Attorneys Offices in Washington released statements Wednesday, before the law took effect, reminding residents that possessing marijuana was still a federal crime.

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"Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 6th in Washington State, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law," read a statement released by the Department of Justice. "The Department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged."

Today, however, no federal agents were out pursuing charges against people celebrating the new state law by enjoying a toke, according to Seattle police.

"We have a great relationship with federal law enforcement in Seattle, and we're not going to be jeopardizing that in any way. We recognize that federal law says it's prohibited... but our primary area of concern is making sure we're enforcing the law our bosses want us to, and our bosses are the general public of Seattle," Whitcomb said.

Calls to the U.S. Attorneys Offices in Seattle and Spokane were not returned today.

Washington's new law, known as I-502, went into effect at midnight, and drew large crowds of smokers to Seattle's Space Needle to celebrate with joints. Officers on the scene did not ticket any participants, despite the fact that smoking in public is still against the law.

Police in Seattle announced that for the first few days of the new law's enactment, officers would only remind users to smoke indoors.

"In the meantime, in keeping with the spirit of (the new bill), the department's going to give you a generous grace period to help you adjust to this brave, new, and maybe kinda stoned world we live in," department spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the department's blog.

"Does this mean you should flagrantly roll up a mega-spliff and light up in the middle of the street? No. If you're smoking pot in public, officers will be giving helpful reminders to folks about the rules and regulations under I-502 (like not smoking pot in public)."

The legislatures in Washington and in Colorado, where legalization will go into effect in January, will still have to decide how to license and tax growers and sellers of pot in the state. The U.S. Department of Justice has not yet said whether it will pursue criminal charges against growers and sellers in those states.

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Clashes erupt in Egypt despite proposal to end crisis

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamists fought protesters outside the Egyptian president's palace on Wednesday, while inside the building his deputy proposed a way to end a crisis over a draft constitution that has split the most populous Arab nation.

Stones and petrol bombs flew between opposition protesters and supporters of President Mohamed Mursi who had flocked to the palace in response to a call from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Two Islamists were hit in the legs by what their friends said were bullets fired during the clashes in streets around the compound in northern Cairo. One of them was bleeding heavily.

A leftist group said Islamists had cut off the ear of one of its members. Medical sources said 23 people had been wounded in clashes.

Riot police deployed between the two sides to try to stop the confrontations which flared after dark despite an attempt by Vice President Mahmoud Mekky to calm the political crisis.

He said amendments to disputed articles in the draft constitution could be agreed with the opposition. A written agreement could then be submitted to the next parliament, to be elected after a referendum on the constitution on December 15.

"There must be consensus," he told a news conference, saying opposition demands had to be respected to reach a solution.

Facing the gravest crisis of his six-month-old tenure, Mursi has shown no sign of buckling, confident that Islamists can win the referendum and a parliamentary election to follow.

Many Egyptians yearn for an end to political upheaval that has scared off investors and tourists, damaging the economy.

Egypt's opposition coalition blamed Mursi for the violence around his palace and said it was ready for dialogue if the Islamist leader scrapped a decree he issued on November 22 that gave him wide powers and shielded his decisions from judicial review.

"We hold President Mursi and his government completely responsible for the violence happening in Egypt today," opposition coordinator Mohamed ElBaradei told a news conference.

POLARISATION

"We are ready for dialogue if the constitutional decree is cancelled ... and the referendum on this constitution is postponed," he said of the document written by an Islamist-led assembly that the opposition says ignores its concerns.

"Today what is happening in the Egyptian street, polarisation and division, is something that could and is actually drawing us to violence and could draw us to something worse," the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog added.

Opposition leaders have previously urged Mursi to retract the November 22 decree, defer the referendum and agree to revise the constitution, but have not echoed calls from street protesters for his overthrow and the "downfall of the regime".

Mursi has said his decree was needed to prevent courts still full of judges appointed by ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak from derailing a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

Rival groups skirmished outside the presidential palace earlier on Wednesday. Islamist supporters of Mursi tore down tents erected by leftist foes, who had begun a sit-in there.

"They hit us and destroyed our tents. Are you happy, Mursi? Aren't we Egyptians too?" asked protester Haitham Ahmed.

Mohamed Mohy, a pro-Mursi demonstrator who was filming the scene, said: "We are here to support our president and his decisions and save our country from traitors and agents."

Mekky said street mobilization by both sides posed a "real danger" to Egypt. "If we do not put a stop to this phenomenon right away ... where are we headed? We must calm down."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed into Egypt's political debate, saying dialogue was urgently needed on the new constitution, which should "respect the rights of all citizens".

DIALOGUE

Clinton and Mursi worked together last month to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

"It needs to be a two-way dialogue ... among Egyptians themselves about the constitutional process and the substance of the constitution," Clinton told a news conference in Brussels.

Washington is worried about rising Islamist power in Egypt, a staunch U.S. security partner under Mubarak, who preserved the U.S.-brokered peace treaty Cairo signed with Israel in 1979.

The Muslim Brotherhood had summoned supporters to an open-ended demonstration at the presidential palace, a day after about 10,000 opposition protesters had encircled it for what organizers dubbed a "last warning" to Mursi.

"The people want the downfall of the regime," they chanted, roaring the signature slogan of last year's anti-Mubarak revolt.

The "last warning" may turn out to be one of the last gasps for a disparate opposition that has little chance of scuttling next week's vote on the draft constitution.

State institutions, with the partial exception of the judiciary, have mostly fallen in behind Mursi.

The army, the muscle behind all previous Egyptian presidents in the republic's six-decade history, has gone back to barracks, having apparently lost its appetite to intervene in politics.

In a bold move, Mursi sacked Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the Mubarak-era army commander and defense minister, in August and removed the sweeping powers that the military council, which took over after Mubarak fell, had grabbed two months earlier.

The liberals, leftists, Christians, ex-Mubarak followers and others opposed to Mursi have yet to generate a mass movement or a grassroots political base to challenge the Brotherhood.

Investors have seized on hopes that Egypt's turbulent transition, which has buffeted the economy for two years, may soon head for calmer waters, sending stocks 1.6 percent higher after a 3.5 percent rally on Tuesday.

Egypt has turned to the IMF for a $4.8 billion loan after the depletion of its foreign currency reserves. The government said on Wednesday the process was on track and its request would go to the IMF board as expected.

The board is due to review the facility on December 19.

Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that if Egypt was to find a compromise solution to its crisis, it would not be through slogans and blows.

"It will be through quiet negotiation, not through duelling press conferences, street brawls, or civil strife."

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Tamim Elyan and Edmund Blair; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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EADS unveils new structure to "simplify" group

PARIS: The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which owns the plane maker Airbus, said on Wednesday that it has agreed to a new equity structure that will reduce the role of state shareholders while preserving their strategic interests.

The deal will leave France and Germany each with 12-percent holdings and Spain with 4.0 percent, a statement said, as the German automaker Daimler and French conglomerate Lagardere curtailed their own stakes.

"This agreement aims at normalising and simplifying the governance of EADS while securing a shareholding structure that allows France, Germany and Spain to protect their legitimate strategic interests," a statement issued by the company said.

EADS added that it would buy back up to 15 percent of its free-floating capital in the first half of next year, subject to market conditions, a move that would underpin the share price as Daimler and Lagardere sold their stakes.

EADS shares jumped by 2.46 percent to 27.73 euros on the Paris stock exchange, which closed before the announcement on Wednesday with a gain of 0.28 percent overall.

The agreement allows for the percentage of freely floating EADS shares to jump from 49 percent at present to more than 70 percent, the group said.

A statement issued by the French presidency emphasised that the deal would "guarantee the interests of the French, German and Spanish states within the group."

It would also give EADS "the freedom of movement it needs to pursue its development," the French statement added, while underscoring that the group's headquarters would remain in Toulouse, southern France.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the deal as well, saying in a statement that as a result, "the Franco-German partnership within EADS can advance in a balanced manner. The spirit that existed when the group was founded is thus respected."

EADS was created in July 2000 via a merger of the German defence company DASA, France's Aerospatiale-Matra and the Spanish group CASA.

According to the French presidency's statement, the new agreement "reinforces the protection of the nation's strategic defence interests via a specific agreement between EADS and the French state."

In particular, Paris would have a priority to buy shares in the French aerospace company Dassault, in which EADS owns a stake of 46 percent, should it be put up for sale.

Officials in Paris and Berlin have been in talks for several months on how to handle the exits of key EADS shareholders Daimler and Lagardere, a development that was set to shake up the original equity framework.

According to the EADS statement, the "present shareholder pact (is) expected to be replaced by a normal company governance scheme."

EADS, which is officially registered in the Netherlands, is active in building satellites, rocket launchers, helicopters and defence systems in addition to its main unit, Airbus.

The group recently tried to seal a tie up with the British defence group BAE Systems, but that deal, said to be worth $45 billion (34 billion euros) fell through, reportedly owing to German concern that it would be sidelined within the merged entity.

Britain was said to be concerned about undue state influence over a new global aerospace giant.

-AFP/ac

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20th anniversary of Babri mosque demolition: The damage has not been undone as yet

LUCKNOW: Twenty years after demolition of Babri mosque, the Ayodhya debate is still on. The frenzy mob which razed the masjid to ground on December 6, 1992, perhaps had little or no inkling that the fanatic act would change the Indian politics for all times to come. Though the Ram Temple issue seems to have lost its electoral appeal, the damage has not been undone as yet and the efforts to polarise votes on religious lines continues, at least in UP, where eight major communal clashes have taken place after Samajwadi Party (SP) came to power in March this year and the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is trying to cobble up the team of Hindutava hardliners who played a crucial role in the Temple movement, leading to the demolition of the masjid.

The communal rift created by the 1990 Ram temple movement which resulted in demolition of the mosque saw the BJP emerging as a national force, particularly in the north and west India, thereby changing the Indian polity forever. Till then the politics mainly revolved around the Congress and anti-Congressism, but post 1992, it became 'triangular' with the addition of the anti-Congress-BJP Third front. The demographic vote equations also changed with the Muslims, who also held inaction of the then Congress government headed by PV Narasimha Rao at the Centre equally responsible for the demolition of the mosque, shifting loyalty to regional parties which they felt could counter the saffron threat. It led to the rise of regional satraps like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav among others.

The upheaval also pushed India into an era of instability which saw four prime ministers heading various coalition governments and two mid-term lok sabha polls between 1990-99. As no single party could win majority since then, the regional parties have been playing crucial role in formation of the governments. The coalition politics still continues but now its more mature and stable than 90s. But in UP, the instability continued from 1989 to 2007, during which period, the state saw ten governments of different permutations and combinations, three mid term assembly elections, four chief ministers, defections in parties and two stints of president rule. Interestingly, while the BJP was able to sustain in other states after Babri mosque demolition, in UP its tally declined steadily with every election.

Many political analysts believe that the 'Mandir' issue should be seen along with the 'Mandal'. After revolting against Rajiv Gandhi over Bofors scam, VP Singh formed Janta Dal in 1989 by bringing all the anti-Congress forces together. In the subsequent elections, the Congress was defeated but Janta Dal could not get the majority either. Singh became prime minister with support of the Left and the BJP. On August 7, 1990, Singh implemented the Mandal commission report providing 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) to mobilise backward vote bank. On September 25, BJP's LK Advani began his rath yatra from Somnath in Gujrat demanding construction of Ram Temple at the disputed site housing Babri masjid in Ayodhya, which the saffron forces claimed was the birth place of Lord Ram.

The yatra, which was to end at Ayodhya, left behind a trail of communal clashes. On Singh's direction, the then Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav's ordered police to intercept yatra at Samastipur and arrest Advani on October 23. On October 30, the then UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered firing on people, who had assembled in Ayodhya on BJP's call, when they tried to storm into the mosque. The firing in Ayodhya and ensuing communal clashes in all over the country left over 500 dead. The immediate impact was that the mandir (communal) politics overshadowed the mandal (caste) politics. As a result, the BJP's number in Lok Sabha rose to 120 in 1991 from 85 in 1989. The BJP also won state assembly elections in five states in 1991 -- UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh.

The communal plank polarised votes across all castes. After assuming power in UP under Kalyan Singh, saffron forces gave call to start 'symbolic' construction of Temple on December 6, 1992, which led to demolition of the mosque. Kalyan was jailed for a day for 'contempt of court'. He had assured the Supreme Court that the government will protect mosque but failed to discharge the constitutional duty. The turn of events led to more communal riots across the country but by razing the mosque down, the saffron brigade killed the goose that laid the golden egg. At least, it was true for UP where caste politics took over communalism after tempers cooled down following fall of the 15th century mosque, allegedly built by a Mughal ruler over ruins of a temple at Lord Ram's birth place after destroying it.

"Temple politics created 'upper caste dominated middle class' vote bank for the BJP. A few dominant OBCs also supported it. The party sustained in the states where it is in direct fight with the Congress. But in UP, dalits by Mayawati and OBCs by Mulayam realised that supporting temple politics means accepting the brahminical order responsible for their repression since ages", said political analysts. In due course, said political observer JP Singh, the BJP also realised that the factor which increased its tally from 2 in 1984 to 182 in 1999 is also the major hurdle in exceeding further. The party had to put the temple issue on the back seat to form a coalition with other parties to assume power at the Centre. This, however, left supporters disappointed, leading to drop in its tally in subsequent elections.

In UP, the disillusionment of upper casts from BJP was so strong that a section brahmins voted for BSP in 2007 assembly elections and for SP in 2012. But, says political analyst Sudhir Panwar, the divisive politics based on cast and faith has divided farmers, artisans and industrial workers, as a result the issues related to agriculture and labour have become secondary in the priority list of the political parties. "One should also not forget that maximum cases of terror attacks in India have happened after demolition of Babri mosque, which communalized the social-political environment of country further. We need to defeat hardliners, in all the communities, and their political masters, for the sake of the nation and people", he added.

However, political parties seems to be in no mood to leave caste and communal politics. In fact, the BJP leaders said that today party needs the kind of tailwind that was necessary for the party in 1984 when it was reduced to just two seats in Parliament. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad had then came to the rescue. It formed a committee to 'liberate' the 'birthplace' of Lord Ram in Ayodhya and build a temple. Advani was given leadership of the campaign. The BJP gained from the issue till 1999 but decline started thereafter. The decline was mainly because of loss in UP where BJP's seatshare dropped to 10 in 2009 from 51 in 1991.

Today, the BJP has reached a saturation point in most of the states except UP where its prospects may improve. But the situation in UP has gone from bad to worse for the BJP to the extent that it lost the Ayodha seat for the first time since 1989 in the assembly elections held earlier this year. The 'embarrassment' has made saffron forces to sit up and revive the Hindutva agenda, as in 1984, by bringing back the Hindutva mascots like Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh. Simultaneously, the work at the workshop set up in Ayodhya during temple movement to carve pillars for the 'grand Ram Temple' has started, indicating that something is cooking in the saffron camp. The riots under the SP rule have come as a booster.

While the BJP is desperate for a revival in UP, the Congress and SP are also looking forward to cash in on the 'fear psychosis' among Muslims after demolition of the Babri Masjid. The two parties are trying to appease the minority committee by announcing a number of sops. Mulayam has prime ministerial ambitions and that can be fulfilled only if his party is able to win maximum seats in UP. And, it will be possible only if Muslims stick to him, so Mulayam is doing all he can to keep them in good humour. Besides welfare schemes for the Muslims, he has promised to release all Muslims 'falsely' implicated in terror acts. He is even taking support of hardliner Muslims and has inducted some of them in the party.

The Bahujan Samaj Party is also trying to win the confidence of the Muslims by publicising that the community was safe during the Mayawati rule, during which period no riots took place. Mayawati, too, has prime ministerial ambitions. Both SP and BSP are banking on the fact that the Ram Temple movement and the Babri Masjid demolition pushed India into an era of instability. As no single party could win majority after the incident, the regional parties have been playing a crucial role in the formation of central governments. Also, ever since the Muslims have been voting tactically for the party which can stop the BJP. Under these circumstances, Mayawati and Mulayam know that Muslim votes would be crucial for them to become king or kingmakers in 2014.

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.

The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.

In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.

In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.

Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.

He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.

"The result of this trial will have a major, immediate impact on premenopausal women," Ravdin said.

About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.

Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.

But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.

The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.

Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.

Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.

Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.

"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.

The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.

The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.

Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.

"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.

Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.

The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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NYC Subway Pusher Charged With Murder

A New York City man was charged today with murder for shoving another man onto subway tracks where he was struck and killed by an oncoming train.

Naeem Davis, 30, was charged after being questioned by police since Tuesday about the death of Ki-Suck Han, 58, of Queens, N.Y.

The charges include murder second degree: intentional, as well as murder second degree: depraved indifference.

He is charged with murdering Han "with depraved indifference" not because he intended to kill Han, but because his lack of regard for Han's life resulted in the death. Two sources involved in Davis' arrest and charging say there is a question whether he intended to kill Han or whether his death was an unintended consequence of an altercation.

NYC Man Pushed on Subway Tracks, Killed by Train Watch Video

Bystanders Pull Mom, Son From Subway Tracks Watch Video

Davis admitted to police while explaining the incident that he shoved Han in a way that caused him to fall onto the subway tracks, according to multiple sources involved with the investigation.

Han struggled to pull himself up from the shoulder-high track bed and back onto the platform at the 49th Street and Seventh Avenue station around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, but was hit and killed by a Q train when it barrelled into the station.

Davis could be heard arguing with Han before the fatal shove, according to surveillance video from the station. Davis told police that Han was harassing him and would not leave him alone, so he pushed Han.

Detectives are investigating whether the altercation began at the subway station turnstile and whether Han had jumped that turnstile and bumped Davis.

Police are also awaiting toxicology results on Han, who was found with an empty pint bottle of vodka on him when he died, according to sources.

Davis has no currently known mental illness history. He has prior arrests for minor charges, although the search of his arrest record is not complete. Those arrests in New York City appear to be peddler related.

He is expected to be arraigned this evening in New York.

Han death shocked New York City and the moment was frozen in the city's psyche by a photograph that captured Han with his arms and head above the platform staring at the oncoming train.

A doctor who was standing nearby attempted to perform CPR on Han, but he was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital shortly after the accident.

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NATO approves Turkey request for Syria border missiles

BRUSSELS: NATO on Tuesday agreed to deploy Patriot missiles along the border of member state Turkey as requested by Ankara to help it defend its territory against threats from Syria.

"NATO has agreed to augment Turkey's air defence capabilities in order to defend the population and territory of Turkey and to contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the alliance's border," a statement said.

Turkey formally asked its NATO partners to deploy the US-made anti-missile system after a series of cross-border shellings, including one that left five civilians dead on October 3.

"We say to anyone who would want to attack Turkey -- don't even think about it," said NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announcing the decision taken by the 28-member military alliance.

Germany, the Netherlands and the United States have agreed to provide the Patriot missile batteries, which would come under the command of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), the NATO statement said.

Stressing that the surface-to-air Patriot system was purely defensive, Rasmussen said technical discussions would now follow about how many of the missiles would be deployed and where.

The discussions at NATO came amid reports that Syria is moving chemical weapons from among its stockpile, as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fights rebels seeking to oust him.

"NATO members expressed grave concerns about reports that the Syrian regime is considering the use of chemical weapons. Any such action would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law," Rasmussen said.

The joint NATO statement on the Patriots' deployment stressed that it "will be defensive only. It will in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operation."

Rasmussen insisted deploying the missiles would lead to a de-escalation of the crisis, and added that NATO officials would regularly assess the situation and the implementation of the deployment.

NATO's decision reflected "our full determination and resolve to protect our nations and territories," Rasmussen told journalists.

Calling what is happening in Syria "absolutely outrageous," Rasmussen said it was "a responsibility for the international community to facilitate and ensure a peaceful" end to the conflict.

- AFP/fa

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