Egypt army seeks national unity as crisis mounts

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army chief called for talks on national unity to end the country's mounting political crisis after a vital loan from the IMF was delayed and thousands of pro- and anti-government demonstrators took to the streets.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon was called in response to an increasingly destabilizing series of protests that has unfolded since President Mohamed Mursi awarded himself sweeping powers on November 22 to push through a new constitution shaped by his Islamist allies in a referendum on Saturday.

Armed forces chief and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a meeting of "national unity for the love of Egypt to bring together partners of the country in the presence of the president of the republic", the army spokesman said.

An aide said Mursi had supported the call for talks. The Muslim Brotherhood said it would be there, while the main opposition coalition said it would decide on Wednesday morning whether to attend.

Earlier, the finance minister disclosed that a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan, a cornerstone of Egypt's economic recovery hopes, would be delayed until next month.

Mumtaz al-Said said the delay was intended to allow time to explain a widely criticized package of economic austerity measures to the Egyptian people.

The announcement came after Mursi on Monday backed down on planned tax rises, seen as essential for the loan to go ahead, but which the opposition had fiercely criticized.

"Of course the delay will have some economic impact, but we are discussing necessary measures (to address that) during the coming period," Said told Reuters, adding: "I am optimistic ... everything will be well, God willing."

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said the measures would not hurt the poor. Bread, sugar and rice would not be touched, but cigarettes and cooking oil would go up and fines would be imposed for public littering. In a bid to rebuild consensus, he said there would be a public consultation about the program next week.

In Washington, the IMF said Egypt had asked for the loan to be postponed "in light of the unfolding developments on the ground". The Fund stood ready to consult with Egypt on resuming discussions on the stand-by loan, a spokeswoman said.

GUNMEN OPEN FIRE

On the streets of the capital, tensions ran high after nine people were hurt when gunmen fired at protesters camping in Tahrir Square, according to witnesses and Egyptian media.

The opposition has called for major protests it hopes will force Mursi to postpone the referendum. Thousands gathered outside the presidential palace, whose walls are scrawled with anti-Mursi graffiti.

A bigger crowd of flag-waving Islamist Mursi backers, who want the vote to go ahead as planned on Saturday, assembled at a nearby mosque, setting the stage for further street confrontations in a crisis that has divided the nation of 83 million.

In Egypt's second city of Alexandria, thousands of rival demonstrators gathered at separate venues. Mursi's backers chanted: "The people want implementation of Islamic law," while his opponents shouted: "The people want to bring down the regime." Others cities also witnessed protests.

The upheaval following the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year is causing concern in the West, in particular the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, made peace with Israel in 1979.

The turmoil has also placed a big strain on the economy, sending foreign currency reserves down to about $15 billion, less than half what they were before the revolt two years ago as the government has sought to defend the pound.

"Given the current policy environment, it's hardly a surprise that there's been a delay, but it is imperative that the delay is brief," said Simon Williams, HSBC economist in Dubai. "Egypt urgently needs that IMF accord, both for the funding it brings and the policy anchor it affords."

The IMF deal had been seen as giving a seal of approval to investors and donors about the government's economic plans, vital for drawing more cash into the economy to ease a crushing budget deficit and stave off a balance of payments crisis.

MASKED ATTACKERS

In central Cairo, police cars surrounded Tahrir Square in central Cairo, the first time they had appeared in the area since shortly after Mursi awarded himself sweeping temporary powers in a move that touched off widespread protests.

The attackers, some masked, also threw petrol bombs that started a small fire, witnesses said.

"The masked men came suddenly and attacked the protesters in Tahrir. The attack was meant to deter us and prevent us from protesting today," said John Gerges, a Christian Egyptian who described himself as a socialist.

The latest bout of unrest has so far claimed seven lives in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and opponents who gathered outside Mursi's presidential palace.

The Republican Guard, which protects the palace, has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the building, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades.

The army has told all sides to resolve their differences through dialogue, saying it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel". For the period of the referendum, the army has been granted powers by Mursi allowing it to arrest civilians.

In statement issued after rights groups criticized the army's new police powers, the presidency said anyone arrested by the military during the referendum would face civil rather than military courts. It said the army's new role would only last until results are declared after Saturday's referendum.

The army has portrayed itself as the guarantor of the nation's security, but so far it has shown no appetite for a return to the bruising front-line political role it played after the fall of Mubarak, which severely damaged its standing.

OPPOSITION MARCHES

Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups say the hastily arranged constitutional referendum is polarizing the country and could put it in a religious straitjacket.

Opposition leaders want the referendum to be delayed and hope they can get sufficiently large numbers of protesters on the streets to change Mursi's mind.

The main association of Egypt's judiciary, the Judges' Club, voted against supervising the referendum, but the Islamists are confident they can muster enough judges to make sure the vote goes ahead with the necessary judicial supervision.

Islamists have urged their followers to show support for Mursi and for a referendum they feel sure of winning.

The opposition says the draft constitution fails to embrace the diversity of the population, a tenth of which is Christian, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Peter Graff and Will Waterman)

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Egypt army calls for talks as rival protests throng Cairo

CAIRO: Egypt's powerful army called for President Mohamed Morsi and the secular opposition to meet to resolve a deepening crisis over a constitutional referendum that sparked rival mass protests on Tuesday.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, the country's armed forces chief and defence minister, made the appeal "for the sake of Egypt" for all political groups and movements to meet on Wednesday at a Cairo military sports complex, according to a statement posted on the military's official Facebook page.

It came as tens of thousands of protesters filled Cairo streets to demonstrate for and against the referendum called for Saturday on a draft constitution backed by Morsi and his Islamist allies.

There were fears the rival rallies could mix, sparking clashes like those seen outside the presidential palace last week, when seven people were killed and hundreds injured in a melee between mobs wielding metal bars, petrol bombs and handguns.

Troops have orders from the president to use police powers to protect "vital state institutions".

Outside the palace, thousands of opposition protesters tore down a metal and concrete barricade to denounce the Saturday referendum, forcing hundreds of soldiers back but without violence.

"We are here to say: 'Down with the illegitimate constitution'... If the referendum happens we will have to vote. But hopefully it won't," said one protester, Ahmed Badawy, 29.

At a much bigger Islamist counter-demonstration a few kilometres (miles) away gathering tens of thousands of referendum supporters, determination was equally evident.

"It's the last battle for Islam against the secularists who want to ruin Egypt," said Ahmed Alaa, who was bussed in from the north of the country.

Around him the crowd held up banners saying "Yes to the constitution," and waved Saudi and black Islamist flags as well as the Egyptian one.

The military, which has vowed to maintain stability while trying to remain neutral, has been caught in the middle of the dispute.

The main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, has so far ignored a previous call the army made at the weekend to start dialogue, saying talks are not possible unless the referendum is called off.

A key group of judges said on Tuesday that they would refuse to oversee the plebiscite. It was not known whether other judges would follow their lead.

Political analyst Emad Gad said that if no solution was found, there was a chance the crisis might prompt the army to step in and maybe even seize back the political control they gave up on Morsi's June election.

"In the event there are violent clashes or especially if blood is spilt in the street, the army will certainly intervene," he said.

The opposition, made up of secular, leftwing and liberal groups, sees the draft constitution rushed through by an Islamist-dominated panel last month as weakening human rights, the rights of women and religious minorities.

The UN human rights chief and international watchdogs have criticised the draft and the way it was drawn up.

Morsi's supporters, however, argue that it is up to Egypt's voters to decide in the referendum.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a political analyst at US think-tank The Century Foundation told AFP that, as things stood, there was a good chance of the referendum passing.

If that happened, Hanna warned, "I fear they are going to have an institutionalised crisis" that would polarise Egypt in the long-term, raising "the spectre of violence".

The prolonged crisis, the worst since a popular uprising overthrew autocratic president Hosni Mubarak early last year, is intensifying uncertainty over Egypt's economy.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday put a proposed $4.8 billion loan on hold.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said: "We have officially requested the delay of a month in the negotiations with the IMF because of the political situation in the country."

The IMF's executive board had been expected this month to review a provisional agreement on the loan, which is needed to bridge financing shortfalls through fiscal 2013-2014 as the country rebuilds its battered post-revolution economy.

-AFP/ac

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Walmart row forges non-UPA unity

NEW DELHI: The attack on the government over alleged payments by US retail giant Walmart to lobby for access to the Indian market widened on Tuesday with even Congress's usually reliable outside supporter Lalu Prasad backing the Opposition demand for a judicial probe or a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

The Walmart affair united non-UPA parties and disrupted the Lok Sabha as parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath's assurance that the government is open to an inquiry and is concerned over reports of the firm spending $25 million on lobbying failed to assuage a combative Opposition.

With the government as of now unlikely to accept either a judicial probe or a JPC demanded by the Opposition, the forecast for Parliament on Wednesday seems as gloomy as Delhi's cold and wet weather. The government offer is expected to be on the lines of an investigation by an official agency and hopes to nip the protests.

Sources said the government's mind is not closed on the form of inquiry as it feels it has nothing to hide in the Walmart revelations. This is a matter involving the US firm and the government need not be defensive, official sources said.

The government's position is expected to be firmed up after consultations involving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday morning parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath also spoke to leader of opposition Sudhma Swaraj on Tuesday evening.

Anything less than a judicial probe may not mollify the Opposition, raising prospects of the Lok Sabha being adjourned. BJP leaders made it clear that the party is not likely to settle for anything less than a judicial probe and will discuss its options at a party meeting on Wednesday morning.

The Rajya Sabha also functioned fitfully on Tuesday as attempts to move a bill on quotas for dalits and tribals in promotions ran into the Samajwadi Party's sustained opposition. In an attempt to forge an elusive consensus on quotas in promotions, Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari is meeting SP, BSP, BJP and Left along with parliamentary affairs ministers Kamal Nath and Rajeev Shukla on Wednesday.

Congress strongly rebutted the suggestion that Walmart's payments can cast a shadow over the government's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, but the charge is damaging and party chief Sonia Gandhi's concern was evident as she prompted Nath to respond to the Opposition.

Both issues - Walmart's lobbying and the quota in promotion bill - are giving the government a migraine as it faces the likelihood of the week being consumed by protests without any progress on key reform bills dealing with banking, pension and insurance that it is keen to pass.

The Walmart row also gave BJP an opportunity to try and stage a comeback after the government comprehensively won the vote on FDI in multi-brand retail last week. The SP-BSP face off on the quota promotions has also proved a spoiler.

A dissatisfied Opposition renewed its onslaught when the House met in the afternoon with CPM, CPI, JD(U), BJD, TMC and SP demanding either a judicial probe or the setting up of a JPC to examine allegations of bribe giving.

In a rare convergence, the RJD chief agreed with BJP leader Yashwant Sinha in demanding a JPC to examine the implications of the disclosures made by Walmart and its ongoing investigation into the role of five of its officials, including some based in India.

Congress rejected the suggestion that Walmart's lobbying influenced the decision on FDI in multi-brand retail but the absence of senior ministers in the House gave the Opposition an open goal to shoot at. Finance minister P Chidambaram made a brief appearance while CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta noted that Nath was "notably absent".

The lack of response from the government saw Sinha warn that the House could not be expected to run unless the government clarified exactly what sort of an inquiry it was open to.

Congress MPs privately expressed their concern over the government's lack of response as they felt that allegations that the FDI policy is tainted by illegal payments is damaging and needs to be energetically countered.

In its official briefing, Congress stuck to the position that money was spent by Walmart in the US and this did not concern India. "The money is being spent from 2008 and the Opposition is being selective with facts," said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi.

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Video of Columbus Circle Killer Released

The hunt for New York's Columbus Circle killer took on a new impetus today as police released surveillance video showing the killer moments before he calmly walked up to Brandon Lincoln Woodard and put one bullet from a silver colored handgun into the back of the Los Angeles man's head in full view of holiday shoppers.

The video confirms the details of the hit man's calculated wait for his victim as first reported on ABCNews.com on Monday.

"In the video, the gunman wanted in the shooting death yesterday of Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, of Los Angeles, is seen 10 minutes before the shooting," Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne said in a statement today.

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Woodard, who is described by police as linked to the hip hop part of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, was strolling down 58th Street near the southern end of Central Park when he was gunned down.

"The shooter, who appears to be bald and may have a beard, exited a late model Lincoln sedan, initially bare-headed, but soon pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. Ten minutes later, at approximately 2 p.m., the shooter walked up behind Woodard and fired," Browne said.

In a grainy still image also released, the gunman is seen behind Woodard a moment before the shooting, pulling the weapon from his jacket.

Just before he was shot, Woodard turned "instinctively almost," then turned back to his portable electronic device, police told ABC News.

Sources tell ABC News that Woodard was arrested in 2009 in connection with a robbery in California.

Woodard was raised in Los Angeles' Ladera Heights neighborhood and attended the private Campbell Hall High School, they said. He attended college and law school at Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles, law enforcement sources and friends said.

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Egypt army given temporary power to arrest civilians

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist president has given the army temporary power to arrest civilians during a constitutional referendum he is determined to push through despite the risk of bloodshed between his supporters and opponents accusing him of a power grab.

Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and their critics besieging Mohamed Mursi's graffiti-daubed presidential palace. Both sides plan mass rallies on Tuesday.

The elite Republican Guard has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the palace, which it ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades after last week's violence.

Mursi, bruised by calls for his downfall, has rescinded a November 22 decree giving him wide powers but is going ahead with a referendum on Saturday on a constitution seen by his supporters as a triumph for democracy and by many liberals as a betrayal.

A decree issued by Mursi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians and refer them to prosecutors until the announcement of the results of the referendum, which the protesters want cancelled.

Despite its limited nature, the edict will revive memories of Hosni Mubarak's emergency law, also introduced as a temporary expedient, under which military or state security courts tried thousands of political dissidents and Islamist militants.

But a military source stressed that the measure introduced by a civilian government would have a short shelf-life.

"The latest law giving the armed forces the right to arrest anyone involved in illegal actions such as burning buildings or damaging public sites is to ensure security during the referendum only," the military source said.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said the committee overseeing the vote had requested the army's assistance.

"The armed forces will work within a legal framework to secure the referendum and will return (to barracks) as soon as the referendum is over," Ali said.

Protests and violence have racked Egypt since Mursi decreed himself extraordinary powers he said were needed to speed up a troubled transition since Mubarak's fall 22 months ago.

The Muslim Brotherhood has voiced anger at the Interior Ministry's failure to prevent protesters setting fire to its headquarters in Cairo and 28 of its offices elsewhere.

Critics say the draft law puts Egypt in a religious straitjacket. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the crisis has polarized the country and presages more instability at a time when Mursi is trying to steady a fragile economy.

On Monday, he suspended planned tax increases only hours after the measures had been formally decreed, casting doubts on the government's ability to push through tough economic reforms that form part of a proposed $4.8 billion IMF loan agreement.

"VIOLENT CONFRONTATION"

Rejecting the referendum plan, opposition groups have called for mass protests on Tuesday, saying Mursi's eagerness to push the constitution through could lead to "violent confrontation".

Islamists have urged their followers to turn out "in millions" the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning with their loyal base and perhaps with the votes of Egyptians weary of turmoil.

The opposition National Salvation Front, led by liberals such as Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, as well as leftist firebrand Hamdeen Sabahy, has yet to call directly for a boycott of the referendum or to urge their supporters to vote "no".

Instead it is contesting the legitimacy of the vote and of the whole process by which the constitution was drafted in an Islamist-led assembly from which their representatives withdrew.

The opposition says the document fails to embrace the diversity of 83 million Egyptians, a tenth of whom are Christians, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.

But debate over the details has largely given way to noisy street protests and megaphone politics, keeping Egypt off balance and ill-equipped to deal with a looming economic crisis.

"Inevitability of referendum deepens divisions," was the headline in Al-Gomhuriya newspaper on Monday. Al Ahram daily wrote: "Political forces split over referendum and new decree."

Mursi issued another decree on Saturday to supersede his November 22 measure putting his own decisions beyond legal challenge until a new constitution and parliament are in place.

While he gave up extra powers as a sop to his opponents, the decisions already taken under them, such as the dismissal of a prosecutor-general appointed by Mubarak, remain intact.

"UNWELCOME" CHOICE

Lamia Kamel, a spokeswoman for former Arab League chief Moussa, said the opposition factions were still discussing whether to boycott the referendum or call for a "no" vote.

"Both paths are unwelcome because they really don't want the referendum at all," she said, but predicted a clearer opposition line if the plebiscite went ahead as planned.

A spokeswoman for ElBaradei, former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said: "We do not acknowledge the referendum. The aim is to change the decision and postpone it."

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman, said the opposition could stage protests, but should keep the peace.

"They are free to boycott, participate or say no, they can do what they want. The important thing is that it remains in a peaceful context to preserve the country's safety and security."

The army stepped into the conflict on Saturday, telling all sides to resolve their disputes via dialogue and warning that it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel".

A military source said the declaration read on state media did not herald a move by the army to retake control of Egypt, which it relinquished in June after managing the transition from Mubarak's 30 years of military-backed one-man rule.

The draft constitution sets up a national defense council, in which generals will form a majority, and gives civilians some scrutiny over the army - although not enough for critics.

In August Mursi stripped the generals of sweeping powers they had grabbed when he was elected two months earlier, but has since repeatedly paid tribute to the military in public.

So far the army and police have taken a relatively passive role in the protests roiling the most populous Arab nation.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Samsung, Apple top 'smart device' Q3 sales: survey

WASHINGTON: Samsung and Apple led the field of makers of "smart connected devices" -- tablets, smartphones and PCs -- in the third quarter as sales hit fresh records, a survey showed Monday.

Research firm IDC found that the global market for such devices grew 27.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to 303.6 million units, valued at $140.4 billion dollars.

The firm said it expects shipments will continue to reach record levels in the fourth quarter, rising 19.2 percent from the third quarter's figure and 26.5 percent above the same quarter a year ago.

IDC expects sales of 362 million units with a market value of $169.2 billion in the final quarter, with tablet sales up 55.8 percent and smartphones up 39.5 percent, while PCs are expected to show small declines.

Samsung maintained the top position with a 21.8 percent market share while Apple help 15.1 percent based on unit shipments.

But Apple led all vendors in value with $34.1 billion in quarterly sales and an average selling price of $744 across all device categories.

"The battle between Samsung and Apple at the top of the smart connected device space is stronger than ever," said IDC analyst Ryan Reith.

"Both vendors compete at the top of the tablet and smartphone markets. However, the difference in their collective ASPs (average selling prices) is a telling sign of different market approaches. The fact that Apple's ASP is $310 higher than Samsung's with just over 20 million fewer shipments in the quarter speaks volumes about the premium product line that Apple sells."

In terms of shipments, Lenovo ranked third with seven percent of the market, followed by Hewlett-Packard (4.6 percent), and Sony (3.6 percent).

IDC expects the worldwide smart connected device market will hit 2.1 billion units in 2016 with a market value of $796.7 billion worldwide.

In 2011, PCs accounted for 39.1 percent of this market but by 2016 it is expected to drop to 19.9 percent.

Smartphones will be the top product category with share growing from 53.1 percent in 2011 to 66.7 percent in 2016 and tablets will grow from 7.7 percent in 2011 to 13.4 percent in 2016.

"Both consumers and business workers are finding the need for multiple 'smart' devices and we expect that trend to grow for several years, especially in more developed regions," said IDC's Bob O'Donnell.

"The advent of cloud-based services is enabling people to seamlessly move from device to device, which encourages the purchase and usage of different devices for different situations."

-AFP/ac

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Judges going abroad must reveal source of funds: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Judges of the Supreme Court and high courts will now have to inform the government about their foreign visits, including the purpose, duration and source of funding.

The Supreme Court on Monday partially stayed a Delhi High Court order which had quashed three paragraphs of the Union government's 2010 circular mandating judges to undertake foreign visits only with the approval of the chief justice of the high court concerned or the Chief Justice of India and after submission of travel details to the government.

The HC had termed these conditions an affront to the independence of higher judiciary and quashed them on May 25. Though the HC also quashed Paragraph 10 -- which listed the travel details to be submitted -- it clarified that judges needed to give information about duration of the trip and city of intended stay to the chief justice of the HC concerned and the CJI as the case may be.

Arguing the government's challenge to the HC order, solicitor general R F Nariman said the circular was meant to provide security to judges when they were abroad. He said judges visited foreign countries on diplomatic passports issued by the Centre and gathering information about the visit was to enable the ministry concerned to help the judges in case of a need.

Though the SC stayed the HC order quashing Paragraph 10, a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S S Nijjar and J Chelameswar said they knew of many instances where judges went abroad on their personal passport and not on a diplomatic passport.

The CJI said, "Is it possible for persons to have diplomatic and private passport... I know of judges who travel every three months, but they do not hold a diplomatic passport."

Additional solicitor general Paras Kuhad, appearing with the SG, said, "The policy manual under the Passports Act entitles you to hold only one passport." Nariman added, "Visas are also given to judges on diplomatic passports."

Paragraph 10 of the circular said proposal of foreign visits must contain information relating to name, address and other details of the inviting organization, purpose of visit and duration, whether accompanied by spouse, other judges/officers, cost of visit including travel, DA and accommodation, source of funding, foreign tours undertaken in last three years, working days during the period of visit, whether official tour was clubbed with private visit and form of FCRA clearance.

However, the bench headed by the CJI was unrelenting on the other quashed paragraphs of the circular, which sought details of private visits by SC/HC judges at their own expense. "You normally go out with your medical insurance. Why should Paragraph 9E (relating to information on private visits) of the circular be allowed to stay," it asked.

Nariman said, "The idea is only to help. If the information is supplied to the chief justice, how can he help? The HC seems to have quashed the government order under a misconception that it relates to only private visits." The matter will come up for consideration after six weeks.

dhananjay.mahapatra@timesgroup.com

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers.

Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program.

Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees.

The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.

But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage.

"This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues.

Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year.

America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect.

But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars.

"It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer.

The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it.

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New Evidence Suggests Biblical Flood Happened

The story of Noah's Ark and the Great Flood is one of the most famous from the Bible, and now an acclaimed underwater archaeologist thinks he has found proof that the biblical flood was actually based on real events.

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour for ABC News, Robert Ballard, one of the world's best-known underwater archaeologists, talked about his findings. His team is probing the depths of the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey in search of traces of an ancient civilization hidden underwater since the time of Noah.

Tune in to Christiane Amanpour's two-part ABC News special, "Back to the Beginning," which explores the history of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus. Part one airs on Friday, Dec. 21 and part two on Friday, Dec. 28, both starting at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Ballard's track record for finding the impossible is well known. In 1985, using a robotic submersible equipped with remote-controlled cameras, Ballard and his crew hunted down the world's most famous shipwreck, the Titanic.

Now Ballard is using even more advanced robotic technology to travel farther back in time. He is on a marine archeological mission that might support the story of Noah. He said some 12,000 years ago, much of the world was covered in ice.

"Where I live in Connecticut was ice a mile above my house, all the way back to the North Pole, about 15 million kilometers, that's a big ice cube," he said. "But then it started to melt. We're talking about the floods of our living history."

The water from the melting glaciers began to rush toward the world's oceans, Ballard said, causing floods all around the world.

"The questions is, was there a mother of all floods," Ballard said.

According to a controversial theory proposed by two Columbia University scientists, there really was one in the Black Sea region. They believe that the now-salty Black Sea was once an isolated freshwater lake surrounded by farmland, until it was flooded by an enormous wall of water from the rising Mediterranean Sea. The force of the water was two hundred times that of Niagara Falls, sweeping away everything in its path.

Fascinated by the idea, Ballard and his team decided to investigate.

"We went in there to look for the flood," he said. "Not just a slow moving, advancing rise of sea level, but a really big flood that then stayed... The land that went under stayed under."

Four hundred feet below the surface, they unearthed an ancient shoreline, proof to Ballard that a catastrophic event did happen in the Black Sea. By carbon dating shells found along the shoreline, Ballard said he believes they have established a timeline for that catastrophic event, which he estimates happened around 5,000 BC. Some experts believe this was around the time when Noah's flood could have occurred.

"It probably was a bad day," Ballard said. "At some magic moment, it broke through and flooded this place violently, and a lot of real estate, 150,000 square kilometers of land, went under."

The theory goes on to suggest that the story of this traumatic event, seared into the collective memory of the survivors, was passed down from generation to generation and eventually inspired the biblical account of Noah.

Noah is described in the Bible as a family man, a father of three, who is about to celebrate his 600th birthday.

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Egypt's opposition rejects constitutional referendum

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected on Sunday Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's plan for a constitutional referendum this week, saying it risked dragging the country into "violent confrontation".

Mursi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on a constitution shaped by Islamists.

"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the National Salvation Front, told a news conference, calling for more street protests on Tuesday.

The Front's main leaders - Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy - did not attend the event.

Hundreds of protesters milled around Mursi's palace, despite tanks, barbed wire and other barriers installed last week after clashes between Islamists and their rivals killed seven people.

"Holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflects haste and an absence of a sense of responsibility on the part of the regime, which risks pushing the country towards violent confrontation," a statement from the Front said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi from obscurity to power, urged the opposition to accept the referendum's verdict.

Islamists say the vote will seal a democratic transition that began when a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago after three decades of military-backed one-man rule.

Their liberal, leftist and Christian adversaries say the document being fast-tracked through could threaten freedoms and fails to embrace the diversity of Egypt's 83 million people.

"ACT OF WAR"

Mursi had given some ground on Saturday when he annulled the fiercely contested decree issued on November 22 that gave him extra powers and shielded his decisions from judicial review.

But some measures taken under the decree remain in force and the president has insisted the referendum go ahead on December 15.

Liberal opposition leader Ahmed Said earlier described the race to a referendum as an "act of war" against Egyptians.

Egypt is torn between Islamists, who were suppressed for decades, and their rivals, who fear religious conservatives want to squeeze out other voices and restrict social freedoms. Many Egyptians just crave stability and economic recovery.

Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said the scrapping of Mursi's decree had removed any reason for controversy.

"We ask others to announce their acceptance of the referendum result," he said on the group's Facebook page, asking whether the opposition would accept "the basics of democracy".

The cancellation of Mursi's decree, announced after a "national dialogue" on Saturday boycotted by almost all the president's critics, has not bridged a deep political divide.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, a technocrat with Islamist leanings, said the referendum was the best test of opinion.

"The people are the makers of the future as long as they have the freedom to resort to the ballot box in a democratic, free and fair vote," he said in a cabinet statement.

But opposition factions, uncertain of their ability to vote down the constitution against the Islamists' organizational muscle, want the document redrafted before any vote.

"A constitution without consensus can't go to a referendum," said Hermes Fawzi, 28, a protester outside the palace. "It's not logical that just one part of society makes the constitution."

DIALOGUE

Egypt tipped into turmoil after Mursi grabbed powers to stop any court action aimed at hindering the transition. An assembly led by the Brotherhood and other Islamists then swiftly approved the constitution it had spent six months drafting.

Opponents, including minority Christians, had already quit the assembly in dismay, saying their voices were being ignored.

After the dialogue hosted by Mursi, a spokesman announced that the president had issued a new decree whose first article "cancels the constitutional declaration" of November 22. He said the referendum could not be delayed for legal reasons.

The decree ignited more than two weeks of sometimes violent protests and counter-rallies in Egypt. Mursi's foes have chanted for his downfall. Islamists fear a plot to oust the most populous Arab nation's first freely-elected leader.

Islamists reckon they can win the referendum and, once the new constitution is in place, a parliamentary election about two months later. The Islamist-led lower house elected this year was dissolved after a few months by a court order.

Investors appeared relieved after Mursi rescinded his decree, sending Egyptian stocks 4.4 percent higher on Sunday. Markets are awaiting approval of a $4.8 billion IMF loan later this month designed to support the budget and economic reforms.

The military, which led Egypt's transition for 16 turbulent months after Mubarak fell, told feuding factions on Saturday that only dialogue could avert "catastrophe". But a military source said these remarks did not herald an army takeover.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh; editing by David Stamp)

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