Today's Middle East

US family pleas for couple missing in Afghanistan
AP -  The family of an ailing, pregnant American woman missing in Afghanistan with her Canadian husband has broken months of silence over the mysterious case, making public appeals for the couple's safe return.
     James Coleman, the father of 27-year-old Caitlan Coleman, told The Associated Press over the weekend that she was due to deliver in January and needed urgent medical attention for a liver ailment that required regular checkups. He said he and his wife, Lyn, last heard from their son-in-law Josh on Oct. 8 from an Internet cafe in what Josh described as an "unsafe" part of Afghanistan. The Colemans asked that Josh be identified by his first name only to protect his privacy.
     The couple had embarked on a journey last July that took them to Russia, the central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then finally to Afghanistan.     Neither the Taliban nor any other militant group has claimed it is holding the couple, leading some to believe they were kidnapped. But no ransom demand has been made.
     An Afghan official said their trail has gone dead.
It was not known whether the silence over the case by U.S. and Canadian officials and, until now, by the Coleman family was because of ongoing negotiations to seek their release. But information black-outs have kept some similar past cases quiet in an attempt to not further endanger those missing.
     According to Hazrat Janan, the head of the provincial council in Afghanistan's Wardak province, the two were abducted in Wardak in an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the capital Kabul. They were passing through Wardak while traveling from Ghazni province south of Kabul to the capital.
    Wardak province, despite its proximity to Kabul, is a rugged, mountainous haven for the Taliban and travel along its roads is dangerous. Foreigners who do not travel with military escorts take a substantial risk.
     He said it was suspected that the kidnappers were Taliban because criminal gangs would have likely asked for a ransom.

Afghan violence falls in 2012, insider attacks up
AP - Violence in Afghanistan fell in 2012, but more Afghan troops and police who now shoulder most of the combat were killed, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
     At the same time, insider killings by uniformed Afghans against their foreign allies rose dramatically, eroding confidence between the sides at a crucial turning point in the war and when NATO troops and Afghan counterparts are in more intimate contact.
     "The overall situation is improving," said a NATO spokesman, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Lester T. Carroll. He singled out Afghan special forces as "surgically removing insurgent leaders from the battle space."
     Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said Afghan forces were now charged with 80 percent of security missions and were less equipped to face the most lethal weapon of the militants - roadside bombs.
Afghan negotiator welcomes prisoner release 
AP - A top Afghan negotiator said Tuesday he hopes eight Taliban members freed by Pakistan will serve as peace mediators, describing Islamabad's move as a major step forward for Kabul's effort to enlist its neighbor's help in negotiating an end to its 11-year war.

Bahrain policemen jailed over detainee's death
AFP - A Bahrain court on Sunday jailed two policemen for seven years each after convicting them of torturing to death a Shiite detainee in the wake of last year's crackdown on protests, a local daily said.

Egypt's largest ultraconservative party splits 
AP - The leader of Egypt's largest Islamist ultraconservative party announced Tuesday he is forming a new political party, splitting from the Salafi Al-Nour, which has emerged as the country's second strongest political group.
     The new party is part of a proliferation of religion-based political parties. Another prominent ultraconservative TV preacher, who was a presidential candidate, has also announced plans to form a new party.
     The plans come just two months before President Mohammed Morsi is expected to call for new parliamentary elections.
     It could indicate divisions among Islamists as they compete for seats in the legislature and a role in Egypt's evolving political struggle between more secular-minded political parties and Islamists.
     It also reflects the dispute within the Islamists groups who struggle to reconcile democratic maneuvering with religious ideology.
Morsi denies Muslim Brotherhood support – ‘Allegation insult to Kuwaitis’
KT - Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi believes that allegations about the Muslim Brotherhood directly supporting its political arm in Kuwait were offensive to Kuwaiti people and said the pan-Arab group was not engaged in any covert activity in any of the Gulf States.
     Morsi was responding to a question by a local newspaper as part of an Arab media delegation which called upon the President on Monday. “Such assumptions are completely untrue and imply an insult to the people of Kuwait and the Gulf countries,” he said in response to Al-Rai’s inquiry about the supposed Muslim Brotherhood influence in Kuwait’s polity.

Morsi 'not afraid' of falling Egyptian pound
AFP - President Mohamed Morsi has said the fall of the Egyptian pound, which is at an eight-year low against the dollar, does not worry him and expects a return to stability in the coming days, a report said Monday.
Egypt questions suspected Israeli spy
AFP - Egyptian prosecutors were interrogating on Tuesday an Israeli man in the Red Sea port of Nuweiba who is suspected of espionage, a judicial source said."An Israel man was arrested on Monday in Taba on suspicion of espionage.
     In October 2011, Egypt freed a US-Israeli citizen under a prisoner exchange after he was arrested in Cairo and accused of working for Israel's Mossad spy agency and sowing sectarian strife in Egypt, allegations he denied.

Palestinians will outnumber Israeli Jews by 2020 
AP - The Palestinian statistics bureau estimates that Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land by the end of the decade, a scenario that could have grave implications for Israel. 
     The demographic issue is a main argument for Israeli backers of creation of a Palestinian state. They say relinquishing control of the Palestinian territories and its residents is the only way to ensure Israel's future as a democracy with a Jewish majority.
Hamas could oust Abbas from W.Bank: Netanyahu
AFP - The militant Islamic Hamas could wrest the West Bank from the western-backed rule of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, just as it did in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday.
West Bank Clashes Follow Israeli Raid to Arrest Militant 
NYT - Violent clashes broke out on Tuesday between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in a village in the northern West Bank, leaving up to 30 Palestinians injured, after an undercover Israeli force entered the village to arrest a wanted militant, according to Palestinian news reports and the Israeli military.
     The military said two soldiers had been wounded, neither seriously, by rocks thrown by Palestinians. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under army rules, said the purpose of Tuesday’s raid on the village, Tamoun, was to arrest a resident, Murad Bani Odeh, who she said was suspected of being a terrorist. Both the military and Palestinian reports identified Mr. Odeh, who was captured by the Israeli forces, as a member of Islamic Jihad, an extremist organization.
West Bank vehicle torched in 'price tag' attack
AFP - Suspected Jewish extremists have torched a vehicle in a West Bank village and scrawled racist graffiti on a nearby wall, Palestinians and Israelis said Tuesday.
     The pickup truck was totally destroyed, and a tractor belonging to the same owner was damaged by flames in the incident at Beit Ummar village, north of the city Hebron.
     The slogans "Price tag," "A good Arab is a dead Arab" and "Today in property, tomorrow -- lives" as well as "Revenge from Yitzhar" were spray-painted on a nearby wall.
     Yitzhar is a West Bank settlement known for its hardline residents and frequent confrontations with Palestinian neighbours.
     Price tag is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists.
     Initially carried out in retaliation for Israeli moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, the attacks tend to target Palestinian property. The perpetrators are rarely caught.

Egypt transfers tons of building materials to Gaza
AP - Thousands of tons of building materials such as cement and steel began crossing into the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said, temporarily easing a five year old blockade on the coastal territory.
     An Egyptian security official said shipment was made in consultation with Israeli officials, who were in Cairo Thursday to discuss security in the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreed upon by Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel last month. The Egyptian official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Fatah marks anniversary in Gaza for first time since 2007
AFP - The Gaza branch of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party has started celebrations of its 48th anniversary in the Hamas-ruled territory, a local leader said on Tuesday.
     Several thousand supporters gathered on Monday night at the Saraya complex in Gaza City, holding pictures of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Abbas and waving Fatah flags as fireworks went off, an AFP correspondent said.
     The last time that Fatah, which governs the West Bank, held celebrations in the Gaza Strip to mark its foundation was in 2007.
     Hamas and Fatah have been at loggerheads since the Islamist movement seized control of Gaza in June 2007, following its victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections the previous year.
     Under Egyptian mediation, the two groups reached a unity agreement in April 2011, although it has so far not been implemented.
Nablus Palestinians protest against PM Fayyad
AFP - Nearly 300 Palestinians staged a demonstration in the northern West Bank town of Nablus Monday, protesting against the economic situation and against Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.
     An AFP correspondent said the protest came after Fayyad on Sunday announced that the Palestinian Authority would as of 2013 enforce the payment of electricity bills by refugee camp residents, who have so far not had to pay them.
Israeli court gives new reprieve to W.Bank outpost
AFP - Israel's Supreme Court has ordered that the demolition of a wildcat settlement outpost in the northern West Bank be postponed until the end of April, a court document released on Tuesday showed.
     The ruling, dated December 30, extends once again demolition orders which settlement watchdog Peace Now says were originally issued in October 2004. The previous deadline for eviction of the Amona outpost's 50 families was December 31.
Abbas sees Palestinian state in 2013
AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas pledged on Monday that the coming year would see the implementation of Palestinian independence.
     Lighting a torch in the grounds of his West Bank headquarters to start celebration of the the 48th anniversary of his Fatah movement he spoke of last month's historic United Nations vote upgrading the Palestinians's diplomatic standing, referring to it as the "birth certificate" of a Palestinian state.

Ahmadinejad slams pressure to impose Islamic values
AFP - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again spoken out against the use of pressure to impose Islamic values on people, especially university candidates, media reported on Monday.
     "You cannot impose things by issuing decrees and directives -- a choice imposed by force has no value whatsoever," Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Sunday.
     "In some universities, female students are forced to wear the chador (covering the whole body, leaving only the face exposed), but the way they are forced to wear it... it is better not worn since it becomes worthless," he said.
     He also criticised criteria on the selection of university candidates, citing the case of a student denied university admittance in the 1980s because he had shaved. Being unshaven in Iran is a sign that you are a good Muslim.     Ahmadinejad also mentioned another case of a girl refused a university place because she had "talked to a boy in the street and had her headscarf back an inch," thereby showing her hair.

Iran 'stages cyber warfare drill'
AFP - Iranian forces have carried out what they called cyber warfare tactics for the first time as the Islamic republic's naval units staged manoeuvres in the key Strait of Hormuz, media reports said on Monday.
Iran warns foreign planes near Strait of Hormuz   
AP - Iran's navy issued dozens of warnings to foreign planes and warships that approached its forces during a five-day sea maneuver near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a semi-official news agency reported Tuesday. 

Iraq PM offers prisoner release as demos continue
AFP - Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki looked to head off protests in Sunni areas of the country on Tuesday with a prisoner release even as he threatened to use state resources to "intervene" to end the rallies.
     The move came as powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr voiced support for the demonstrations and predicted an impending "Iraqi spring" as ongoing rallies blocked off a key trade route connecting Iraq to Syria and Jordan for a 10th successive day.
     Maliki, who is Shiite, ordered the release of more than 700 female detainees, a key demand of demonstrators, the official appointed to negotiate with protesters, told AFP.
     On Monday Maliki warned protesters blocking the highway to Syria and Jordan that his patience was running thin.
     The rallies began on December 23, sparked by the arrest of at least nine guards of Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi, a Sunni Arab and a leading member of the secular Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc which, while part of Maliki's unity government, frequently criticises him in public.
     Protesters in mostly Sunni areas of Iraq's west and north have alleged that the Shiite-led authorities use anti-terror legislation to target their minority community.
     The rallies were given a boost on Tuesday, when powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr backed the demonstrations, and predicted that "an Iraqi spring is coming, if things stay the way they are."
     "The demonstrations will continue as long as policies do not satisfy the people," he said at a news conference at his home in the central Iraqi city of Najaf.
     Sadr's movement counts 40 lawmakers and five ministers among its supporters, and his Mahdi Army was once one of the most feared militias in the country, though it has since sworn off violence.

Iraq December toll down despite wave of unrest
AFP - Deadly violence in Iraq dropped to near its lowest levels of 2012 in December, figures compiled by AFP showed on Tuesday, despite a wave of attacks a day earlier which killed 23 people.
     Overall, 139 people were killed across the country last month, including 40 policemen and 15 soldiers, and 347 others were wounded, according to the data based on reports from security and medical officials.
     The monthly death toll was near 2012's low of 136 set in October.
     But in a sign insurgents were still capable of carrying out deadly nationwide attacks, a series of shootings and bombings in the north, centre, and south of the country killed 23 people and wounded 83 others on Monday.
     No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants such as Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq regularly target officials and security forces in a bid to destabilise the government, and also often attack Shiite pilgrims.

Israel must complete peace deal with Abbas: Peres
AFP - President Shimon Peres on Sunday urged Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, saying their president Mahmud Abbas was a willing partner with whom an agreement could be reached.
Peres says Israel would talk to Hamas if it seeks peace
AFP - Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Monday that there is no fundamental reason not to talk to the militant Palestinian Hamas if it renounces violence and decides to take a constructive course.

Israel court overturns ban on Arab politician
AFP - Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday overturned a decision by the Central Elections Committee banning Arab-Israeli politician Haneen Zuabi from standing in next month's snap general election.
     A member of the Arab-Israeli leftwing Balad party, Zuabi is a controversial figure in Israeli society.
     A firebrand critic of the government, Zuabi has regularly tangled with rightwing members of the Knesset, who sought to disqualify her from running in the next election.
     They argue that she fails to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and backed enemies of the state by participating in a 2010 Gaza-bound flotilla that was raided by Israeli commandos in an operation that killed nine Turkish activists.

Jordan rejects 'Saddam' electoral list
AFP - Jordan's electoral commission has refused to register an independent list of candidates calling itself "Saddam Hussein" after the executed Iraqi dictator, the group's leader said on Sunday.
     The commission gave its approval on Thursday to all would-be candidates for a general election called for January 23, except the Saddam Hussein list, "because it is the name of an individual," the state Petra news agency reported.
     The commission said it rejected "any name that could inflame sectarian, religious or racial enmity or affect national unity."
     Ziyadneh condemned the commission's decision, saying it had "no legal basis" and that "electoral law does not stipulate any restrictions on the name of a list."
     Ziyadneh said the list was named after one of the group's nine would-be candidates -- Saddam Hussein Wared al-Hawamdah -- but added it was also in memory of the hanged Iraqi leader.

Jordan arrests 4 Syrian soldiers near border 
AP - Jordan's security forces say the military has arrested four unarmed Syrian soldiers found in the zone between the two countries' borders. A security spokesman said the men were arrested on Monday and are being interrogated. 

Amir asks govt to iron out pending issues with Iraq
KT - “The main concern pertains to the continuing sectarian instigation in Iraq which can leave serious impact on Iraq’s relations with its neighbors,” said the sources who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity.
     Regarding Iran, the sources revealed that minister Al-Sabah “expressed Kuwait’s concern” about the Bushehr Nuclear Reactor, especially given “confirmed information” indicating that the plant was shut down for the second time most recently due to an electric error.
     There are also growing concerns about Tehran’s ability to run the facility “as the contract signed with Russia has been extended for six months after it expired by the end of 2012.” “The Iranians struggled to handle the plant even with Russian help, which adds to the growing concern about how they are going to manage alone when the Russian teams leave for good,” the sources said. 

Hezbollah MP says Cabinet shielded Lebanon from Syria crisis
DS - “Among the achievements of the current Cabinet were guaranteeing Lebanon’s stability by sparing the country the evils of the conflict in Syria,” said Musawi during a party celebration in the southern town of Tawra.
     Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet has adopted a dissociation policy since the start of the conflict in the war-torn neighboring country.
     However, Lebanon has been subject to shelling in both eastern and northern border towns.
     According to Musawi, the Cabinet, despite criticism, was able to reach major political achievements and introduce Lebanon as an oil production country.
     “After appointing members of the oil committee, this means that the Lebanese state has finalized preparations to get Lebanon into the club of oil production countries,” said the lawmaker.

Bomb hits prosecutor's office in Libya's Benghazi
AFP - An improvised bomb exploded outside the headquarters of the public prosecutor in the Libyan city of Benghazi causing material damage but no fatalities, a security source said.     "Initial evidence suggests the device was a suitcase packed with high yield explosives (TNT)," an investigator at the scene told AFP on Monday, adding that there were no casualties.
     The overnight blast marked the third attack on the site in 2012, he said.     
     December marked a tumultuous month for Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled the Kadhafi regime and ended in the killing of one of the region's veteran dictators.
     A spate of attacks targeting police stations claimed the lives of seven officers this month and pushed the chief of staff to send reinforcements to bolster security there.
     In 2012, Libya's second city witnessed a series of assassinations targeting security officials and judges, many of whom had served under the previous regime.

Militants Gun Down 7 Aid Workers in Pakistan 
NYT - Continuing a militant campaign of violence against aid workers in Pakistan, gunmen on Tuesday shot dead seven Pakistani teachers and health workers, six of them women, police officials said.
     There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the shooting, in the Swabi district of the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, fit a pattern of attacks against charity and aid workers across the country in recent weeks that officials have attributed to the Pakistani Taliban. The militant offensive has brought a wave of international outrage, particularly because it has focused on vaccination and health workers in a country where polio and measles have made troubling gains.
Qadri, Altaf start ‘journey to revolution’ from Karachi
DT - Tehreek-e-Minhajul Quran chief Tahirul Qadri on Tuesday said that first there should be reforms in the country and then elections.
     Addressing a large rally organised by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) at the Jinnah Ground, Qadri said, “From Karachi today, begins the path to revolution. On 14 January the people’s parliament will make its decision.” He said that he wanted to return to the people a “genuine democracy”, and added that MQM chief Altaf Hussain has answered the call for true democracy in Pakistan. 
     Qadri said that Islamabad will become Tahrir Square on January 14 but assured that the long march would be peaceful. He said that he only wants those people to participate in the elections who are permitted to do so by the constitution of the country. The Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran chief said that his agenda is aimed against feudal and exploitative forces in the country. Earlier on, Qadri arrived at MQM headquarter Nine Zero where he was received by members of the Rabita Committee and MQM workers.
     Qadri said that Islamabad is going to be the biggest ‘Tahreer Square’ of the world on January 14 where four million people will gather to “demolish the wall of cruelty with one stroke”. He again denied allegations that he or the MQM had a hidden agenda in the planned long march on January 14. He said that the MQM has remained allied to other parties and even supported the president and prime minister’s candidatures, and if there was no hidden agenda at that time then the same is true for now.
     Qadri said that their agenda for January 14 long march was elimination of feudalism and bringing real democracy, rule of law and implementation of the constitution in letter and spirit. “No leaf will break and no bullet will be fired on January 14,” he added. While noting that they were being accused of wanting to derail the system, he rhetorically asked which system. “We do not accept the system which does not run under the constitution.”

Islamic militants massacre five women teachers travelling to primary school in protest at female education in Pakistan
DM - The attack was a reminder of the risks faced by educators and aid workers, especially women, in an area where Islamic militants often target women and girls trying to get an education. 
     Many militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province oppose female education and have blown up schools and killed female educators as a way to discourage girls from getting an education.
     The workers were on their way home from a community centre in the town of Swabi where they were working at a primary school and adjoining medical center. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire with automatic weapons, said Javed Akhtar, executive director of the non-governmental organization Support With Working Solutions. 
Pakistan suffers 'record' child measles deaths
AFP - More than 300 Pakistani children died of measles last year, a staggering increase on the previous 12 months and a result of three consecutive years of flooding, officials said Tuesday.
Terrorism the biggest challenge for Pakistan in 2013: Imran Khan
ET - Terming the menace of terrorism as the biggest challenge for the country in the year 2013, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday called upon the government, political parties and all other stakeholders to sit down and chalk out a comprehensive strategy to flush out terrorists from the country.
     In a statement issued on Tuesday, Imran Khan said that the menace of terrorism was a major hurdle in the country’s progress.
     He said that terrorism was the main cause for the prevailing economic crisis, adding that the government should take immediate steps to provide protection to the people, which was its constitutional obligation.
UN chief condemns 'escalating' Pakistan violence
AFP - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "appalled by the escalating terrorist violence in Pakistan" after 19 Shiite pilgrims died in a car bomb and 21 kidnapped soldiers were killed.

Saudis flee dry kingdom to Bahrain for New Year 
AP - Residents of Saudi Arabia, where booze and New Year's celebrations are banned, flooded into neighboring Bahrain in search of festivities to ring in 2013. 
     More than 80,000 cars crossed a causeway over the Gulf to Bahrain Monday night to celebrate New Year's Eve, the Saudi newspaper Al-Youm reported on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia adheres to a strict interpretation of Islam and bans alcohol as well as celebrations of Christmas and New Year's Eve. It also prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling.

Sudan and South Sudan Leaders Agree to Meet
NYT - President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has agreed to meet with President Salva Kiir Miyardeit of South Sudan on Friday in Ethiopia to discuss border security and oil sharing, the official Sudanese news agency reported Tuesday.

Nearly 90% of Syria conflict dead killed in 2012: NGO
AFP - Nearly 90 percent of those who have died in Syria's 21-month conflict were killed in 2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.
Syrian troops, general defect to Turkey: official
AFP - A group of some 20 Syrian soldiers including a general defected from the army Tuesday and fled to Turkey, joining hundreds of other ex-troops from Syria's military, a Turkish diplomat told AFP.
     Since the start of the civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel forces, dozens of senior army officers including some 40 generals have defected and headed to Turkey.
Syria: Government Pounds Damascus Suburbs
NYT - Government forces continued to pound the Damascus suburbs with artillery and airstrikes on Tuesday, as antigovernment activists reported that the main airport in the northern city of Aleppo was closed because of fighting nearby.
Reports: Russia sends another naval ship to Syria 
AP - Russian news agencies say the navy is sending another ship to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base.
     The reports Sunday by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agency cited an unidentified official in the military general staff as saying the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, has set sail from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The ship is expected to arrive in the Tartus area in early January.

Syria ushers in New Year with more violence
AFP - Syrians woke up to air strikes near Damascus on New Year's Day as Aleppo airport was closed after repeated rebel attacks, casting doubts on diplomatic drives to end the 21-month conflict.
Aleppo airport closed due to rebel attacks
AFP - The international airport in Syria's second city of Aleppo has been temporarily closed due to repeated attacks by rebel fighters, an airport official said on Tuesday.
Dozens of tortured bodies found in Damascus
AFP - Dozens of tortured bodies have been found in a flashpoint district of Damascus, a watchdog reported on Monday, in one of the worst atrocities in Syria's 21-month conflict.     The report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came as a gruesome video emerged on the Internet of a separate slaying of three children who had their throats slashed, also in the capital.
     "Thirty bodies were found in the Barzeh district. They bore signs of torture and have so far not been identified," said the Britain-based Observatory.

Tunisians urged to spurn New Year greetings
AFP - A preacher from the hardline Salafist movement that has achieved growing prominence in Tunisia since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings told Tunisians on Monday that the exchange of New Year's greetings was un-Islamic.
     "Sharing the feast days of the infidel or even sending them greetings to mark them is a big sin," Sheikh Beshir Ben Hassine said in sermon posted on Facebook.
     "Wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year is forbidden by Islam," the preacher added.
     The regime of veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, overthrown in the first of the revolts that rocked the Arab world in 2011, was defiantly secular but, since its overthrow, Islamists have increasingly taken centre stage.

Turkey, jailed Kurd leader discuss disarmament: official
AFP - Turkey's intelligence services are in talks with jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan for disarming his PKK group in a bid to bring an end to the nearly three-decade old insurgency, officials said Monday.
"The intelligence services are in talks with him," Yalcin Akdogan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top political advisor said in televised remarks.
     "The goal is the disarmament of the PKK," he said, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party. "The government supports any dialogue to this end that could result in a halt to violence," Akdogan said.
     Ocalan remains "the main actor" in efforts to resolve the Kurdish conflict, Akdogan said, while casting doubt on his ability to influence some 2,000 militants fighting from rear bases in neighbouring Iraq.

UAE state security detains 10 over Muslim Brotherhood links
TN - State security have arrested a cell of at least 10 people accused of having links to the Muslim Brotherood in Egypt.
     Investigators had been monitoring the men’s movements for several years and believed they had formed their own network in the UAE, a security source told Al Khaleej newspaper in Sharjah.
He said they were organising well-planned activities “on state land”.
     They held secret meetings in various “administrative offices” around the country and recruited Egyptians in the UAE to their organisation.
     The group is also said to have set up companies in the UAE to support it financially, collected large sums of money to send illegally to its parent organisation in Egypt and gathered confidential information about the UAE’s defence capabilities.
New Year lights for world's tallest building in Dubai
AFP - Explosions of colour shot out of the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, illuminating the Gulf city state's sky as the huge expatriate and tourist hub celebrated the New Year.
     Fireworks engulfed the 828-metre (2,716-foot) tower, synchronised and choreographed to a live performance by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

One universal theme will dominate for all of us - the economy
TN - Abu Dhabi's GDP is estimated to grow at an average annual rate of 5.7 per cent between next year and 2016, Mohammed Omar Abdullah, the undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, said recently in the capital.
     A litmus test for Dubai's recovery will emerge next year and in 2014 in the shape of nearly US$42 billion (Dh154.26bn) in debt repayments coming due. How Dubai tackles this issue will provide the clearest sign yet of whether the emirate is firing on all cylinders again.
Dubai unveils budget with slight spending rise
AFP - Dubai's government unveiled its budget for 2013 on Monday, setting expenditure at 34.12 billion dirhams ($9.3 billion) and a deficit at 0.5 percent of gross domestic product.

US drone strike kills 3 Qaeda suspects in Yemen: official
AFP - A US drone strike has killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the central Yemen province of Al-Bayda, in the fourth such attack in a week, a local official said on Sunday.

Yemen: Al-Qaida offers bounty for US ambassador
AP -  Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has offered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country.
     An audio produced by the group's media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold worth $160,000 for killing the ambassador, Gerald Feierstein.
     The group said it will pay 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) to anyone who kills an American soldier inside Yemen.
     It said the offer is valid for six months.
     The bounties were set to "inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad," the statement said.

Pakistan, India exchange lists of nuclear installations, facilities
ET - The governments of both the countries are required to exchange such lists in accordance with Article-II of the Agreement on prohibition of attacks against nuclear installations and facilities between Pakistan and India of 31 December 1988.
Pakistan handed over its list to a representative of the Indian High Commission at the Foreign Office, while India provided its list to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Pakistan has previously maintained that its nuclear weapons capability is a deterrent against India’s much larger conventional military.
Both the countries are not signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
French paper to publish comic book life of Mohammed
AFP - A French weekly known for publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed to the ire of conservative Muslims said Sunday it plans to release a comic book biography of Islam's founder that will be researched and educational.
     Satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has on several occasions depicted Islam's prophet in an effort to defend free speech and defy the anger of Muslims who believe depicting Mohammed is sacrilegious.
     The biography will be published Wednesday and was put together by a Franco-Tunisian researcher known only as Zineb, Charb said.
     "Before having a laugh about a character, it's better to know him. As much as we know about the life of Jesus, we know nothing about Mohammed," Charb said.
     In September Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film made in the United States that insults the prophet.
     In 2011 Charlie Hebdo's offices were hit by a firebomb and its website pirated after publishing an edition titled "Charia Hebdo" featuring several Mohammed cartoons.
     Charb, who has received death threats, lives under police protection.

Bailout candidate Cyprus slams eurozone austerity pill
AFP - Cyprus President Demetris Christofias hit out on Monday against the harsh austerity measures being meted out against struggling eurozone members as the Mediterranean island faces a bleak New Year.
     The communist head of state, who tried repeatedly to avoid the inevitable punishing terms of an EU bailout by seeking credit from Russia, said that the policies imposed by the bloc's richer members had been counter-productive.
Ethiopian court finds 10 guilty of terror charges
AP -  Ten men were found guilty Tuesday by an Ethiopian court of plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
     Ethiopia's late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in April told parliament that militants had formed al-Qaida cells in the country's southern Arsi and Bale areas.
     Ethiopia's military campaign against militants in Somalia from 2006-2009 angered al-Shabab.
     There are signs of rising Islamist militancy in Ethiopia. In late April four demonstrators were killed in a clash, after security forces arrested a Muslim religious leader in the Oromia region.
     Ethiopia's Federal Ministry on May 3 issued a statement accusing an unnamed group of trying to declare jihad against the government and working to incite violence in a number of mosques across the country. The statement said a dozen suspects were recruited by the group from the country's Oromia, Tigray and Amhara regions to carry out illegal activities.
     The government also expelled two Arabs who flew in from the Middle East on May 4. The government said the pair went to a mosque and tried to incite violence. 
Uzbekistan 'cuts off gas' to Tajikistan
 AFP - The impoverished Central Asian state of Tajikistan said Monday that it had been cut off from natural gas shipments by its neighbour and sole energy supplier Uzbekistan.
    The announcement comes amid traditional end-of-year contract negotiations and continuing tensions over Tajikistan's plans to build a hydroelectric power station that could choke off Uzbek water supplies.

Eradicating ‘impurities’: focus on the Hazaras
Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed - The hallmark of a fascist ideology is its rejection of any deviation from whatever is considered pure and unadulterated. Pakistan’s special variety of fascism is associated with the Taliban mentality. Another man has been set ablaze, this time in Sindh, by a mob gone berserk because he allegedly burnt a copy of the Quran. Even the Nazis could learn a skill or two how to extend the ambit of a killing spree to polio vaccination female workers on grounds that they were injecting poison that would transform infants into agents of US imperialism. A Swedish social worker, Sister Birgitta Alemby, 72, who had been for 39 years working with the education of orphaned girls in my native Lahore was shot in the chest by the Taliban on December 3 and expired on December 13. For her assailants she was a ‘legitimate target’ because she was a Christian, a foreigner, and was helping underprivileged females with education.     
     Originally belonging to Afghanistan, they were forcibly expelled in the 19th century by Amir Abdur Rahman from Afghanistan. Contrary to popular belief, the fact that they are Shias did not mean that they were welcomed in the neighbouring Iran; on the contrary they were treated as a pariah people by the Aryan-minded Persians who treated them as an inferior race.
     According to Human Rights Watch, more than 800 Hazaras have been killed since 2001, but the local sources show that almost 1,000 have died with 3,000 suffering injuries. More than 350 people have died since 2010 alone. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has reported that 300 Hazaras drowned in the Pacific Ocean while trying to escape to Australia by boat. Thousands have headed elsewhere in Europe and North America in search of safe havens.
Syria’s chaos isn’t America’s fault
Aaron David Miller - Who lost Syria? Comments of some U.S. senators, analysts and journalists, including the editorial board of this newspaper, suggest there is no doubt: Bashar al-Assad and his thugocracy are primarily responsible for the killings, but the tragedy of Syria is also a direct result of a terrible failure of leadership on the part of the international community, and of the United States in particular.
     Syria, it is charged, is Barack Obama’s Rwanda.
     The idea that Syria was anyone’s to win or lose, or that the United States could significantly shape the outcome there, is typical of the arrogant paternalism and flawed analysis that have gotten this country into heaps of trouble in the Middle East over the years.
     One of the virtues of the Arab ­Spring/Winter is that Arab people came to own their politics — for better or worse. This sense of ownership was often painful to watch — democracy isn’t always liberal — but it brought authority and legitimacy to the political turbulence roiling that region since late 2010. That made change real and home-grown. The United States and Israel were not central to the myths, tropes and narratives of these historic changes, nor should they be.
Egyptian model doesn’t apply to Pakistan
Tariq Fatemi - In the past weeks, there have been references in Pakistan to the “Egyptian model” as a panacea to our ills, primarily because many  Pakistanis have been so disillusioned by the government’s  widespread corruption and poor governance  that they are willing to throw out the baby (democracy) along with the bath water (the government). This is, however, a misreading of the situation. There may be common factors between Egypt and Pakistan but our historical development and nature of our states could not be more dissimilar. The country has already suffered enormously from different experiments by various authoritarian rulers, but notwithstanding the use of brute force and state manipulation, the overwhelming majority has demonstrated repeatedly that this multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic state can only be governed by a freely-elected parliamentary system. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the need is to recognise the value of our votes and use it to strengthen our institutions, rather than our individuals.
A Middle East Islamicized, or balkanized?
MICHAEL ZIMMERMAN - For decades it has been commonplace to describe the Middle East as “Arab-Muslim,” as though it belongs to them exclusively. In reality, the region’s multitude of minorities considered together may be a majority.
     Populations may be categorized by religion, ethnicity, language, race, nationality and perhaps other variables. For example, people of Syria define themselves not only as Syrian but also Alawite, Sunni, Shi’ite, Druse, Kurd and Christian.     The present era may be an opportune time to cease considering the Middle East as generically Arab-Muslim. It is a moment to redress the neglect of minorities via broader appreciation of the region’s varied populations. 
     We see in the “Arab Spring” (or “Winter”) that elections have not been accompanied by minorities’ rights being protected, a central feature of real democracies. A fresh perspective respecting such rights, and political entities that reflect component elements, may be beneficial, if not for full peace, at least for improved prospects for regional balances of power and stability.
     Might Yugoslavia’s recent devolution be a model? Would this leave most Middle East peoples better off? 

The Unspeakable Truth About Rape in India 
SONIA FALEIRO - I LIVED for 24 years in New Delhi, a city where sexual harassment is as regular as mealtime. Every day, somewhere in the city, it crosses the line into rape.
     As a teenager, I learned to protect myself. I never stood alone if I could help it, and I walked quickly, crossing my arms over my chest, refusing to make eye contact or smile. I cleaved through crowds shoulder-first, and avoided leaving the house after dark except in a private car. At an age when young women elsewhere were experimenting with daring new looks, I wore clothes that were two sizes too large. I still cannot dress attractively without feeling that I am endangering myself.
     If only it was just public spaces that were unsafe. In my office at a prominent newsmagazine, at the doctor’s office, even at a house party — I couldn’t escape the intimidation.
     The volume of protests in public and in the media has made clear that the attack was a turning point. The unspeakable truth is that the young woman attacked on Dec. 16 was more fortunate than many rape victims. She was among the very few to receive anything close to justice. She was hospitalized, her statement was recorded and within days all six of the suspected rapists were caught and, now, charged with murder. Such efficiency is unheard-of in India.
     In retrospect it wasn’t the brutality of the attack on the young woman that made her tragedy unusual; it was that an attack had, at last, elicited a response.
The ‘Star’ Or The ‘Beard’
Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli - OUR COLLEAGUE Ghassan Sharbal recently wrote in the Al-Hayat newspaper which is published from London. He is inquiring if we, Arabs, are destined or compelled to choose between the star and the beard — here he means between a military man and an opportunist from the Brotherhood Movement in countries of the so-called Arab Spring. Ghassan says these similes and comparisons remind him of the late Syrian Mohammed Al-Maghout who was desperate about positions adopted by the Arab countries. Al-Maghout said, ‘Don’t lie to yourself because there is no hope. You are left to choose between ‘the military man’ and ‘the bearded man’. The former will pluck your nails and the latter your freedom. We are laid bare on the road and have no relation to the future’.
Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem
Brett Stephens - Still, Mr. Hagel managed to say "I support Israel." This is the sort of thing one often hears from people who treat Israel as the Mideast equivalent of a neighborhood drunk who, for his own good, needs to be put in the clink to sober him up.
     In 2002, a year in which 457 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks (a figure proportionately equivalent to more than 20,000 fatalities in the U.S., or seven 9/11s), Mr. Hagel weighed in with the advice that "Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace." This was two years after Yasser Arafat had been offered a state by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David.
     In 2006, Mr. Hagel described Israel's war against Hezbollah as "the systematic destruction of an American friend, the country and people of Lebanon." He later refused to sign a letter calling on the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. In 2007, he voted against designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, and also urged President Bush to open "direct, unconditional" talks with Iran to create "a historic new dynamic in U.S.-Iran relations." In 2009, Mr. Hagel urged the Obama administration to open direct talks with Hamas.
     In fairness to Mr. Hagel, all these positions emerge from his belief in the power of diplomatic engagement and talking with adversaries. The record of that kind of engagement—in 2008, Mr. Hagel and John Kerry co-authored an op-ed in this newspaper titled "It's Time to Talk to Syria"—hasn't been stellar, but at least it was borne of earnest motives.
Women, the forgotten victims
Aida Dalati -Syrian women live in miserable conditions and on top of it all they are without prenatal care and are either victims of rape which is not talked about or worse kidnapped and then tortured and some are hung from a rope to make the freedom fighters talk. If they survive all of this then they may well lose a limb. My brother has seen many amputated incorrectly. The systematic bombing by the regime has done untold harm.
     The most destructive weapon is starvation. It is the latest method…. to starve the women and children then leave them out in the cold to freeze to death… This is how the regime hopes to control us.

Afghanistan female air force pilots left grounded
LAT, Dec 27, 2012 - Unlike most women in Afghanistan, Sourya Saleh knows how to drive — but she's taken the wheel only with her brother beside her, out of respect for tradition. Her friend Masooma Hussaini is still learning.
     Both young women, though, are experts in a more demanding mode of travel: They've flown 204 hours each as pilots of military helicopters.
     The first female chopper pilots in Afghanistan since the Soviets trained a woman as a pilot in the 1980s, these two young Afghans are pioneers in a land where a resurgent Taliban is determined to deny girls the right to an education, and violence against women is on the rise.
     After 18 months of military helicopter training in the United States, 2nd Lt. Saleh and 2nd Lt. Hussaini have returned home as two polished, confident Afghan air force pilots. But they don't have uniforms, flight suits or an assignment. They haven't even seen a helicopter, much less flown one.
     The pilots' imposed idleness elicits painful memories of their childhoods, when the Taliban government forced young women to stay at home, cooking and cleaning. Hussaini and Saleh were educated in secret, illegal girls' schools until the Taliban regime fell in 2001.
     "Things are much better now for Afghanistan, but there are still problems for women," Hussaini said. "Not everyone tells the truth about the situation. It's hard to know the truth."
     In a country where burkas are still common, especially in the countryside, the two pilots are portraits of modernity set against a backdrop of harsh patriarchal domination. Afghanistan's women's affairs minister reported last month that "extreme or brutal violence against women" is on the rise, with 3,500 reported cases in the first six months of the year.
     "In Afghanistan, women cannot raise their voices," Saleh said. "We wanted a way to raise our voices for all women, and flying for our country does that."
     Sexism is deeply embedded in Afghan society. Schoolgirls have been poisoned or doused with acid, and young women have been beaten and killed by male relatives for refusing arranged marriages to older men. Women who work outside the home are often threatened, or condemned as morally deficient.
     The Afghan military was slow to accept women, but it has admitted them in recent years under Western pressure. Today, about 350 women are in the Afghan military, according to NATO, almost all of them in administrative or support jobs. An Afghan army spokesman, Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, put the number at nearly 1,000 — in an army of 187,000.
     Hussaini and Saleh are glad to be back with their families, but they miss the United States: the open culture, the free expression, the friendships with American female pilots, the food. (They keep up with American friends via Facebook and email.) They fell in love with pizza, Southern fried seafood and Mexican food — "just like Afghan food, only spicier," Saleh said.
     On Dec. 8, six weeks after returning home, Hussaini and Saleh were invited to the Afghan military air base in Kabul to finally meet their commander. (Their only other visit to the base was two weeks earlier, for a German TV interview.)
     The commander welcomed them and told them that he hoped to have an assignment for them in the future, they said. But there was nothing yet. They were not issued military uniforms, much less flight suits. They were told to call him in a couple of days.
     "We'll see," Saleh said afterward, shrugging. "We've heard a lot of promises."
While change shakes the Arab world, inertia still reigns supreme in Morocco
TG, Jan 1, 2013 - Unlike Tunisia there is no controversy about Islamist policies here. Nor has Jordanian-style popular unrest sought to oust the monarchy. On 18 November only a handful of militants gathered outside parliament to demand a cut in the royal budget, estimated at about $300m. A year after the general election that brought the Islamist Justice and Development party (PJD) to power for the first time, Morocco is still keeping a low profile in the Arab world.
     "Nothing whatsoever is going on," says the PJD minister of higher education, Lahcen Daoudi, with a laugh, as if it were proof of success. But such inertia is beginning to irritate people in Morocco.
     A referendum in July 2011 approved a set of 20 reforms designed to establish a new constitution. But since it assembled last January the new parliament has only managed to vote one of them into law. No attempt has been made to encourage widespread debate, no major reform programme has been launched despite a difficult economic climate, with almost 30% unemployment among young people and a quarter of the population lacking welfare coverage. Perhaps this year was a just warm-up round for the government and monarchy, a "blank year", as people put it. But the approval ratings of the prime minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, have barely wavered.
     In power for the first time, after years in opposition, the Islamists were keen to gain the acceptance of the electorate and King Mohammed VI, whose supremacy they had never contested. "We have taken this line since the 1990s," says a PJD leader who did not wish to be named. "We would rather avoid conflict; this is the only way to bring about reform."
Pakistan’s military plays Afghan peacemaker
DT, Jan 2, 2013 - Pakistan’s military has agreed to release Taliban commanders and fighters as part of an agreement with the Afghan government intended to bring all parties to the negotiating table. The end goal is to transform the Afghan Taliban into a political force. Ahmed Rashid, author of “Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia”, said the situation is a major turning point for Pakistan’s military, which has for years been accused of aiding and abetting some of the most violent Taliban elements. 
     It has taken more than a decade for Pakistani generals to figure out their strategy for Afghanistan. The military has tried previously to broker peace agreements with various armed groups following the US invasion in 2001. But the contradictory policy of supporting some insurgents and not others has largely failed, said professor Hassan Abbas from National Defense University in Washington, DC. 
     While the US-led fight has neutralised many armed groups and individuals, the offensive has also resulted in the creation of one of the most deadly organisations in the world - the Pakistani Taliban. 
     Many Arab al Qaeda fighters fled the United States’ “war on terror” in Afghanistan, seeking refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas in 2002, and five-years later the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan was officially born. “That was the turning point when the Arabs were given shelter by these tribes, they became mentors to young, impressionable [tribal] leaders,” said Rashid. “With their arrival began a much deeper process of radicalisation for Pakistan’s fiercely independent tribes. This made them more radical and vicious than the Afghan fighters.” 
     The Taliban movement in Pakistan quickly gained notoriety for using suicide bombers as a weapon of choice. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was among more than 5,300 Pakistanis killed in suicide attacks since 2002. “In North Waziristan, you can buy a suicide bomber from anywhere between $5,000 to $11,000,” says Syed Irfan Ashraf, who has studied Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The money most often goes to the attackers’ impoverished families. 
     But monetary benefits are only part of the lure of the Pakistani Taliban. The movement’s rise can also be attributed to an expansionist interpretation of Islam, Rashid said. “In Afghanistan, the Taliban is still a peasant army. In Pakistan, its different – they’re ideologically primed, they have studied at madrasas,” he said. “A few religious political parties have also nurtured its leaders, [and] as a result they have a lot more political acumen and vision.”
     This vision - of a “global Islam” based on the al Qaeda model in which Arabs, Chechens, Pakistanis and others can network and pool resources - is an important reason why Pakistan’s military establishment is eager for a settlement in Afghanistan. In the past, it was easy for the Pakistani military to control different groups because of tribal and ideological divisions, but now these differences are proving to be a disadvantage because the groups often fight each other over influence and tribal allegiances. 
     Azaz Syed, a correspondent for Pakistan’s GEO television network, said it would be harder for the Afghan Taliban to influence Pakistan’s Taliban if violence continues to escalate. “The Americans have given the [Pakistani] army a free hand in Afghanistan, and the Afghan Taliban have given an assurance to resolve the Pakistani Taliban issue. But there’s a big question mark on whether these promises will be fulfilled,” said Syed. 
     Enforcing any peace deals with a fragmented Taliban movement may become impossible once US troops leave, said Rashid, adding after a decade of fighting the Afghan Taliban wants to consolidate its gains without diktats from the Pakistanis. “The Afghan Taliban faces an awkward perpetual situation,” said Rashid. “They are tired. They want to return back to Afghanistan. Their leaders do not want to be under the thumb of the Pakistan military any longer.”
Hazara Shias lose all hope in Pakistan
ET, Dec 31, 2013 - We are marginalized. As a working woman, I have seen better days. There was a time when I could travel to 30 districts, safely, even at night and my parents didn’t worry. Now, I  cannot walk even a kilometer down from Meezan Chowk to buy something I need. A Shia Hazara girl today cannot go till the Sariyab Road, Quetta, to the Balochistan University, to get an education. Do you know what it is like to live in a constant state of fear? To be surrounded by people who are also equally afraid? When fear becomes a way of life. Even if the sound of thunder or lightning strikes, we think someone is here to attack us. If a bus is stopped by the police for checking and we are on board, we are sure that this is it – that death has arrived.
     There used to be a time that my community was doing so well as traders and businessmen because of fair dealings. Hazara boys and girls got jobs easily because of their efficiency and integrity. Now, fear forces us to stay at home. Even going to the hospital for treatment is an ordeal. Our dead in hospital mortuaries are also not peacefully handed over to the families till their wives go and identify the bodies.  Even our children suffer. Look carefully at a Hazara child’s eyes.
Crisis-hit Sudan opens bigger dam in conflict state
AFP, Jan 1, 2013 - A torrent of water surged Tuesday into Sudan's Blue Nile river at the launch of the expanded Roseires dam, which officials say should help develop one of the country's poorest regions where insurgents are fighting the government.
     A strategically-important structure, the 66-year-old dam is already a major power generator for a Sudan struggling with economic crisis since South Sudan separated last year with most of the country's oil production.
     It is located on the Blue Nile near Ethiopia and the expansion has cost $460-million.
     After four years of work and the resettlement of 20,000 families, Roseires dam now stands 10 metres (33 feet) higher, doubling its storage capacity to allow additional power generation and agricultural irrigation, officials said.
     "The significance is very huge," Industry Minister Abdulwahab Mohammed Osman told AFP on the sidelines of the ceremony held to mark the country's 57th independence day.
     He said millions of feddans (acres or hectares) of land will be irrigated or provided with additional water because of the project.
     Sudan has been aggressively trying to tap its abundant Nile waters for power generation and agricultural development.
   The government sees agriculture as one way of trying to boost r  evenue after the separation of South Sudan, following a 23-year civil war, deprived the north of most of its export earnings and precipitated an economic crisis with soaring inflation and a sinking currency.
     When President Omar al-Bashir arrived to open the Arab-funded, Chinese-built expansion before thousands of dancing and flag-waving residents, an arc of water surged through the flag-draped dam, sending spray into the air and rapids surging into the river.
     Insurgents, which Sudan says are backed by South Sudan, have been fighting government forces in Blue Nile state since September 2011.
Iraq’s Sadr Encourages Antigovernment Demonstrations   
NYT, Jan 1, 2012 - A populist Shiite leader in Iraq, Moktada al-Sadr, expressed support on Tuesday for fresh protests against Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite but his political opponent, saying that Mr. Maliki bears “full responsibility” for the unrest in the country.
     Several times during the gathering, Mr. Sadr directed his remarks at Mr. Maliki, who has taken recent steps that suggested he was asserting greater control over many aspects of the government and that prompted fears he was cracking down on his political opponents. Mr. Sadr’s remarks could indicate that he is trying to test the political waters or possible support from the street before Iraq’s provincial elections, which are scheduled for the spring.
     Mr. Sadr was careful to appear moderate and to say he was speaking for all Iraqis in his remarks, which his media office distributed to journalists throughout the country. He said he supported the widespread demonstrations as long as they were peaceful and did not seek to create divisions, driving the last point home by adding that he was willing to go to Sunni-dominated Anbar Province to take part in protests.
     Demonstrations against Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government erupted in Sunni areas last month in response to a raid by security forces on the office and home of the Sunni finance minister, Rafie al-Issawi. In one protest last week, tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims blocked Iraq’s main trade route to neighboring Syria and Jordan, Reuters reported.
     Aside from reaction in the street, the raid had immediate political fallout. Mr. Issawi described it as a “pre-election blow” intended to weaken Mr. Maliki’s rivals. Leaders from the Sunni-dominated bloc, Iraqiya, threatened to pull out of the government and called for a no-confidence vote on Mr. Maliki.
     Mr. Sadr’s voice has now added his voice to the discord that has left the country in disarray a full year after the withdrawal of American forces left seemingly intractable problems among political factions and ethnic groups.
     Tensions between the Kurds in the north and the government in Baghdad, who were already at odds over sharing oil revenues, have risen as soldiers squared off with Kurdish militias after Mr. Maliki sought to consolidate his control over security in the north.
     Further political uncertainty occurred at the end of 2012 when the Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, suffered a stroke and was flown to Germany for treatment.
Local police an uncertain player in Afghan future
AFP, Dec 31, 2012 - The Afghan Local Police, branded by some critics as an incompetent Taliban-linked militia, is one of the many security challenges facing the country as international troops withdraw.
   Only founded in 2010, the ALP is tasked with community-level   policing to suppress violence in some of Afghanistan's most dangerous and remote areas, and despite its many opponents it has had some success.
     "The enemy has declared the ALP their number-one threat," Colonel Don Bolduc, who is in charge of the training project for the US military, told AFP. "The army and police see them as an asset.
     "People come with this preconceived idea that local defence forces are unruly, not accountable to the government and will be violent.
     "But they are relevant, resilient, accountable and cost-effective. Those things weigh heavily on how the Afghan government will see the local police 10-15 years from now."     But others are less convinced.
     "A number of individuals who have been recruited in the ALP have had membership records in illegal armed groups and the Taliban," the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said in a recent report.
     "Most of them have been members of hostile groups in the past. Some of them are notorious for having committed criminal acts... There are individuals within the ALP who have bad war records and who are even serial killers."
     The report concluded that the ALP could turn "into the armed opposition resisting government authority" -- adding to the volatile mix of factions that many fear could trigger civil war after international troops depart in 2014.
     "Reducing insecurity in the short-term has positive aspects but it is laying the ground for problems in the future," said Fabrizio Foschini from the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
AP photo essay: Ex-Soviet immigrants change Israel
AP, Dec 30, 2012 - In parts of Israel, it's hard to find a single Hebrew sign in a sea of Cyrillic. Shopkeepers address customers in Russian, and groceries are amply stocked with non-kosher pork, red caviar and rows of vodka. Russian pop beats thump at bars, and in some homes, people will as likely be hunched over a chessboard as a computer keyboard.
     The Soviet Union crumbled 20 years ago, and in the aftermath, more than 1 million of its citizens took advantage of Jewish roots to flee that vast territory for the sliver of land along the Mediterranean that is the Jewish state. By virtue of their sheer numbers in a country of 8 million people and their tenacity in clinging to elements of their old way of life, these immigrants have transformed Israel.
     Today, Russian-speaking emigres and their children occupy virtually every corner of Israeli society, from academia and technology to the military and politics. 
     The Russian-speaking community also wields an outsized influence in other aspects of Israeli life. Every fourth employee in Israel's flourishing high-tech industry is a Russian-speaking immigrant, as is every other engineer. 
     To some degree, many Russian speakers have insulated themselves from the broader Israeli society with Russian bookshops, Russian restaurants, Russian television and Russian newspapers.
     And they never forget the beloved Chekhov and Dostoyevsky of their motherland.
     "That's why Soviet immigrants never connected to Israeli society all the way," says Roman Bronfman, a former Israeli lawmaker born in today's Ukraine. "They felt they were connected to one of the most glorious cultures in the world." 

With U.S. Set to Leave Afghanistan, Echoes of 1989
NYT, Jan 1, 2013 - The young president who ascended to office as a change agent decides to end the costly and unpopular war in Afghanistan. He seeks an exit with honor by pledging long-term financial support to allies in Kabul, while urging reconciliation with the insurgency. But some senior advisers lobby for a deliberately slow withdrawal, and propose leaving thousands of troops behind to train and support Afghan security forces.
     This is a nearly exact description of the endgame conundrum facing President Obama as he prepares for a critical visit by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, planned for early January.
     But the account is actually drawn from declassified Soviet archives describing Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s closed-door struggles with his Politburo and army chiefs to end the Kremlin’s intervention in Afghanistan — one that began with a commando raid, coup and modest goals during Christmas week of 1979 but became, after a decade, what Mr. Gorbachev derided as “a bleeding wound.”
     What mostly is remembered about the withdrawal is the Soviet Union’s humiliation, and the ensuing factional bloodletting across Afghanistan that threw the country into a vicious civil war. It ended with Taliban control and the establishment of a safe haven for Al Qaeda before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
     But scholars who have studied the Soviet archives point out another lesson for the Obama administration as it manages the pullout of American and allied combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
     “The main thing the Soviets did right was that they continued large-scale military assistance to the regime they left behind after the final withdrawal in ’89,” said Mark N. Katz, a professor at George Mason University and author of “Leaving Without Losing: The War on Terror After Iraq and Afghanistan” (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).
     “As long as the Afghan regime received the money and the weapons, they did pretty well — and held on to power for three years,” Mr. Katz said. The combat effectiveness of Kabul’s security forces increased after the Soviet withdrawal, when the fight for survival become wholly their own.
     But then the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, and the new Russian leader, Boris N. Yeltsin, heeded urgings of the United States and other Western powers to halt aid to the Communist leadership in Afghanistan, not just arms and money, but also food and fuel. The Kremlin-backed government in Kabul fell three months later.
Saudi Arabia's riches conceal a growing problem of poverty
TG, Jan 1, 2013 - Millions of Saudis struggle on the fringes of one of the world's most powerful economies, where jobs and welfare programmes have failed to keep pace with a population that has soared from 6 million in 1970 to 28 million today.
     Under King Abdullah, the Saudi government has spent billions to help the growing numbers of poor, estimated to be as much as a quarter of the native Saudi population. But critics complain that those programmes are inadequate, and that some royals seem more concerned with the country's image than with helping the needy. In 2011, for example, three Saudi video bloggers were jailed for two weeks after they made an online film about poverty in Saudi Arabia.
     "The state hides the poor very well," said Rosie Bsheer, a Saudi scholar who has written extensively on development and poverty. "The elite don't see the suffering of the poor. People are hungry."
     The Saudi government discloses little official data about its poorest citizens. But press reports and private estimates suggest that between 2 million and 4 million of the country's native Saudis live on less than about $530 a month – about $17 a day – considered the poverty line in Saudi Arabia.
     The kingdom has a two-tier economy made up of about 16 million Saudis, with most of the rest foreign workers. The poverty rate among Saudis continues to rise as youth unemployment skyrockets. More than two-thirds of Saudis are under 30, and nearly three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s, according to government statistics.
Kabul Is The Best Place In The World To Move Boatloads Of Unmarked Cash
BI, Dec11, 2012 - The report examined the airport's plan to regulate bulk cash moving through the airport, and found persons passing through the "Very Important Persons" (VIP) lounge or the "Very Very Important Persons" (VVIP) lounge can stroll by nearly all safeguards placed on money laundering and bulk cash smuggling.
     VIPs do not undergo main security and customs screenings, and are allegedly not required to scan their carried cash through bulk currency counters, which capture and catalog currency serial numbers to allow for the detection and investigation of financial crimes, according to the report. The KBL lounges reportedly don't even have security cameras.
New crackdown on free speech in Egypt as government investigates popular TV comedian for making fun of country's Islamist president
DM, Jan 1, 2013 - A popular television satirist is being investigated for  allegedly insulting the Egyptian president as Islamist lawyers continue to bring cases against outspoken media personalities in the country.
     TV host Bassem Youssef is accused of insulting President Mohammed Morsi by putting the Islamist leader's image on a pillow and parodying his speeches.
     Youssef, 38, is one of Egypt's most popular TV presenters with 1.4 million fans on Facebook and nearly 850,000 followers on Twitter, just shy of the president's number of followers.
     The case against Youssef comes as opposition media and independent journalists grow increasingly worried about press freedoms under a new constitution widely supported by Morsi and his Islamist allies.
Without negotiations, Syria will be the new Somalia, UN envoy says
TG, Dec 29, 3013 - A diplomatic solution to the conflict in Syria seemed as far away as ever on Saturday, as the UN-Arab League envoy to Damascus, Lakhdar Brahimi, said the country risked slithering into "hell".
     Following talks in Moscow with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Brahimi said there was no alternative to negotiations. The country faced two stark choices, he said – a serious, Syrian-led political dialogue between the rebels and the regime, or what he darkly called "Somali-isation".
     Brahimi – who held talks on Monday in Damascus with Syria's defiant president, Bashar al-Assad – said stopping the bloody civil war in 2013 was indispensable. But, he conceded, the obstacles to peace were enormous.
     After almost two years of fighting, both sides "disagreed violently even about the analysis of the situation", he said. The Assad regime insisted it was battling "terrorists", while the armed opposition said it was leading a popular uprising against an "illegitimate" government, already in power for 40 years.
     Brahimi's trip to Moscow came amid an upswing in diplomatic activity by the Kremlin, Assad's most significant foreign backer and arms supplier. Russia last week signalled for the first time it was willing to hold talks with Syria's opposition.
Suppressed talent: For Peshawar’s artists, there is no place for show-and-tell
ET, Jan 1, 2013 - Contemporary artists in Peshawar have few avenues to hone their talent. With few exhibition halls and art galleries left in the city to exhibit their work, many sculptors and painters have been forced to confine their pieces to their homes.
     “The city has produced famous painters in the past so there is great potential here. However, there are no art galleries or exhibition halls which showcase our work, which is badly affecting young artists,” said painter Imran Khan.  “I have created more than a dozen art pieces in my studio, which are rusting away in my storeroom.”
     Even Da Ghani Derai, a memorial complex established in 2002 in Charsadda for revered poet and painter Ghani Khan, does not showcase his work anymore because of security problems, said budding artist Suleman Khan.
Yerevan: The Rise of the Caucasus Tiger
MT, April 22, 2012 - The capital, which contains over a third of the country's entire population, produces more than half of Armenia's gross domestic product. The city center, stretching beyond the vast expanse of the Republic Square, offers an abundance of restaurants and coffee bars and, especially during the long summer evenings, residents stroll in the streets or lounge in the outdoor cafes to meet with friends and family. The Opera House, with its renowned theater and symphony orchestra, and a plethora of local museums, create a lively cultural scene for aficionados of history and music.
     According to locals, the recent changes in Yerevan have been dramatic. "The '90s were dark years where people were sitting in candlelight in the evenings, all packed in one room for heat," said Ruzanna Tantushyan, a freelance writer and photographer who grew up in Yerevan. "But in the 2000s, living conditions improved. There is electricity and travel, and the city is a lot livelier."
     "I compare Yerevan to New York. In the spring, summer and fall, restaurants and cafes are full until 2:30 in the morning — just like New York is called the city that never sleeps. The city is very much alive. Women, kids, grandfathers — everyone is in the streets. I love the food and the warmth of the people." — Sigrid Lupieri
Was there a church in Mecca? Chiselled stonework with 'Christian figure' discovered at holy site in Yemen
DM, Dec 29, 2012 - An Archaeologist has discovered what he believes to be the ruins of a buried Christian empire in the highlands of Yemen.     The find has led to theories that there may have once been a Christian church in Mecca.
     A stone carving of a Christian figure was found in Zafar, some 581 miles south of the Holy City, and is thought to have been made in the era of the Prophet Muhammad.
     Paul Yule, an archaeologist from Heidelberg in Germany, has dated the 5ft 7in relief - which shows a man with chains of jewellery, curls and spherical eyes - to around 530AD.
     After excavating sites in Yemen, the German archaeologist concluded that Zafar was the centre of an Arab tribal confederation, an area that covered 772,000 sq miles and exerted its influence all the way to Mecca.
     The figure is barefoot, a pose typical of Coptic saints. He is holding a bundle of twigs, a symbol of peace, in his left hand, and there is a crossbar on his staff, making it look like a cross.
What North Korea's Rocket Launch Tells Us About Iran's Role
NPR, Dec 14, 2012 - We know North Korea and Iran have worked together in missile design. Vick says the evidence can be seen by comparing the North Korean Nodong missile with Iran's Shahab missile.
     "In every detail, right down to the re-entry vehicles, Nodong-A is the Shahab-3," he says. "The technology is being transferred in both directions, and I think that's what's going on in the nuclear technology, too."
     This cooperation may well have contributed to the success of this week's rocket launch.
     Theodore Postol, a missile expert at MIT, says the third stage of the North Korean rocket launched this week looks like a comparable stage in a rocket designed by the Iranians.
     "They were able to collaborate with equipment given to them or sent to them from North Korea, and at the same time do a lot of the research and engineering development needed to build this upper stage," Postol says.
     What this means, Postol thinks, is that this week's North Korean rocket was actually a joint production between North Korean and Iranian engineers.
    "While the North Koreans were working on the first stage, these guys were working on the third stage," he says. "So there's no doubt, looking at the technology, you don't need access to the intelligence information to see that these programs are very, very strongly collaborating."
BOOK REVIEW: The Fall of the House of Assad
AM, Jan 7, 2013 - Reports available since the book has appeared tend to corroborate reports available much earlier that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were supplying arms to Syrian rebels with C.I.A. assistance in coordinating war efforts from over the Turkish border. A recent U.S. appropriation of $45 million to aid rebels in “logistics” now confirms those reports. Lesch makes repeated references to reports of torture and killing by government forces, while rebel car bombs, roadside bombs and suicide bombers receive only passing mention and are never characterized as terrorism. The Syrian government has no monopoly on brutality.
     The possibility that violent sectarianism might follow an Assad fall becomes a growing concern. Lesch cites Henry Kissinger’s dire warning: “If the objective is confined to deposing a specific ruler, a new civil war could follow in the resulting vacuum, as armed groups contest succession, and outside countries choose different sides.” Retired C.I.A. agent Philip Giraldi, writing presciently last year, is even more explicit than Kissinger: “In the United States, many friends of Israel are on the Assad regime-change bandwagon, believing that a weakened Syria, divided by civil war, will present no threat to Tel Aviv. But they should think again, as these developments have a way of turning on their head. The best organized and funded opposition political movement in Syria is the Muslim Brotherhood.” 
Plan B for business in Beirut to avoid bust
AFP, Jan 1, 2013 - As civil war rages in neighbouring Syria and with tourism from the Gulf non-existent, hardened Lebanese merchants are surviving on a mixed bag of individual initiative, well-off Syrian tourists and help from expats.
     Over the summer, the oil-rich Gulf states urged their citizens to avoid Lebanon after Syria-linked clashes and kidnappings rocked the long-time shopping and nightlife hub.
   This badly affected tourism and the economy in general, said Violette Balaa, an economic analyst and strategy manager at First Protocol, an event planning agency.
 "On the surface, this decision was security-related, because of fears of     instability or kidnappings, but it is political and aimed at punishing Lebanon for its position on the Syrian issue," she said.
Libya church blast leaves Christians in shock
AFP, Dec 31, 2012 - Libya's small Christian community was in shock on Monday after an attack on a Coptic church near the city of Misrata killed two Egyptians and fanned fears of rising extremism.
     "This is the first time we see such an attack. Christians never had a particular problem in Libya before or after the revolution," Rezeau said.
     Reverend Edward Blasu of the Union Church of Tripoli was equally alarmed.
     "Everyone should be concerned. Especially if you look at the trend in northern Nigeria," said the reverend, a Ghanaian, who has spent decades living and preaching in Libya.
     Paris-based expert Karim Bitar said the attack would likely trigger "existential anxiety" among Copts in the run-up to Christmas which, with several other eastern churches, they celebrate on January 7.
     The attack also fans concern about the rise of jihadist groups in Libya.
     "The worry is that Christians in Libya... be but the first to suffer from the Libyan central government's endemic weakness (and) the proliferation of armed militias," Bitar said.
     Officials in Misrata condemned the attack.
     "We in Misrata consider this act a crime, an un-Islamic and inhumane crime," said Colonel Hadi Shaklawun, head of national security in Misrata. He said no one had been detained so far but that the investigation was ongoing.
North African nations take different reform routes
AP, Dec 31, 2012 - Two years after an itinerant Tunisian fruit-seller set himself on fire to protest government injustice and ignited uprisings across the Middle East, the three nations of the Maghreb - the former French colonies of North Africa - have taken vastly different paths. Tunisia has seen wholesale political change. In oil-rich Algeria, it's business as usual. Somewhere in the middle is Morocco, which has trumpeted what it describes as a third way of controlled change as a model for the region.
     These outcomes sum up much of the Middle East's disparate reactions to the Arab Spring - and their success or failure may hold lessons for the whole region.
     Morocco and Algeria seem remarkably stable, despite the social tensions boiling beneath their calm facade. Resource-strapped Tunisia seems to have fared poorly, with a struggling economy and dire predictions of chaos. Yet it's also the country that has made the most progress toward a more open society.

Saudi 2012 surplus hits $102.9 bn on rising revenues
AFP, Dec 29, 2012 - The Saudi finance ministry said on Saturday the kingdom's budget surplus in 2012 hit 386 billion riyals ($102.93 bn) as oil-dominated revenues continued to rise.  The kingdom also announced what it described as a record budget for the coming year, with expenditure expected at $218.7 billion and revenues amounting to $221 billion.
     The world's largest exporter of crude oil traditionally uses a conservative price for oil in its budget. Oil revenues amounted to 92 percent of total revenues in 2012, the finance ministry said in a statement.
     Saudi Arabia continues to use part of its surplus to repay its public debt.
     Assaf said debt by the end of 2012 will stand at 98.848 billion riyals ($26.36 billion) compared with 135.5 billion riyals (36.1 billion) at the beginning of the year.

Making Sense of the U.S. Oil Boom
WSJ, Sep 13, 2012 - The U.S. has long been seen as an energy hog. Thanks to hydraulic fracturing and deep water technology, it is now pumping more oil than it has in more than a decade, and its growing status as a crude producer is taking the world by storm.
     The last time we had a presidential election, the U.S. was going to run out of oil. Since then, U.S. oil production has grown about 25%. As has happened in the past, technology has opened doors people didn't know were there or didn't think could be opened.
     We expect to see tight-oil production [oil extracted from dense rock formations] grow dramatically over the rest of this decade. If you take what's happening in the U.S. and what's happening in Brazil and Canada, we're going to see a rebalancing of global oil flows. By the end of this decade, the Western Hemisphere may be importing very little oil from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Girl Shot by Taliban Asks That College Not Bear Her Name   
NYT - Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist who was shot by a Taliban gunman, has asked that a decision to name a college after her be reversed, citing safety concerns.
France hosts secretive inter-Afghan meeting
AP -  About 20 Afghans from President Hamid Karzai's government, the Taliban, as well as the political opposition and the Islamist Hezb-e-Islami militant group will just try to foster a conversation after 11 years of war and consider what their country's institutions and civil society will look like after 2020.
     French Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said the talks were not intended as a negotiation, but as a way to foster discussion among Afghans. "France believes it is up to Afghans - and Afghans alone - to lead the process of reconciliation, with the support of the United Nations that has a Security Council mandate toward this end."

Georgian Soldier Disappears in Afghanistan
NYT -  “I can confirm that there is an ISAF service member from Georgia who is based in southern Afghanistan who is listed as whereabouts unknown,” he said. “He was last seen on the 19th.” Major Crighton could not say which province in the southwest the soldier was serving in or whether he was on patrol duty outside a base when he was last seen.
     The southwest has been one of the centers of the drawdown of American forces this year, but coalition levels were bolstered by the arrival of a second battalion from the Georgian Army. Georgia has 1,561 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in Helmand Province.

European envoy urges Bahrain to free prisoners
AP -  The head of a European Parliament human rights delegation is urging Bahrain to release political prisoners as a step toward easing an anti-government uprising in the strategic Gulf nation.
     The visit comes less than a week after Bahrain's crown prince called for new efforts for talks between the Sunni leadership and the kingdom's majority Shiites, who seek a greater political voice.

Egyptian Islamists, opponents clash ahead of vote  
AP - Violence erupted between Egypt's divided camps on Friday, the eve of the final round of a referendum on a constitution that has polarized the nation, as Islamists and their opponents pelted each other with stones while police fired tear gas in the streets of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
     The contentious referendum, which would bring a greater implementation of Islamic law to Egypt, is expected to be approved in Saturday's voting.

Basic facts on Egypt's constitution referendum
AP - Egyptians vote Saturday in the second round of a highly contentious referendum on a new constitution to replace the one suspended after the 2011 revolution. Here are some basic facts and figures on the vote.
Egypt court orders retrial in case behind uprising    
AP - An Egyptian court has ordered the retrial of two policemen sentenced to seven years in prison in the killing of a young man whose death helped ignite last year's uprising.

Israel: Soldiers Wound 5 Palestinians in Gaza 
NYT - Israeli soldiers patrolling the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday shot and wounded five Palestinians who were in an area on the Gaza side thatIsrael deems off limits, the Israeli Army and Gaza medics said. Gaza medical officials said the five agricultural workers suffered light to moderate wounds and were not in a life-threatening condition. An Israeli Army spokesman said that the men had approached an area close to the border fence and that soldiers “had acted according to set procedures” after the men did not heed calls to leave the area. 

U.S. Acts With Europe to Strengthen Iran Penalties   
NYT - The United States and Europe increased the number of companies and individuals subject to penalties because of links to the Iranian nuclear program.
Iranian bomb suspects in Bangkok claim innocence    
AP - Two Iranians arrested after a botched bomb plot that allegedly targeted Israeli diplomats say they're innocent and were stunned to discover explosives stashed in a cabinet in their rented Bangkok home, a lawyer said Friday.

US 'aware' of report of jailed pastor in Iran 
AP - The U.S. State Department says it is in contact with the family of a man described by activists as an Iranian-American Christian pastor jailed in Tehran.

Arrest of a Sunni Minister’s Bodyguards Prompts Protests in Iraq  
NYT - Protests erupted Friday in Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq after 10 bodyguards to Rafe al-Essawi, the finance minister and a top Sunni politician, were arrested on terrorism charges in an episode that further deepened a political crisis that first flared a year ago, after the American military departed.
     The targeting once again of a Sunni leader by the Shiite-dominated central government threatened to further hinder Iraq’s halting process of sectarian reconciliation just as the country’s president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader and one of the few politicians capable of exerting a sense of calm over the country’s squabbling factions, was rushed to Germany for medical treatment after a stroke that officials said left him in a coma.

Iraq minister denounces arrests
BBC - Iraq's Sunni finance minister condemns raids on his home and office, as 10 of his bodyguards are reportedly accused of terrorism-related offences.

PM: I will ignore censure of J'lem construction
JP - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday said he would ignore the international community's condemnation ofprospective building plans for Jerusalem across the Green Line, in an interview aired in part on Channel 2.
     The interview is scheduled to air in full on Saturday.
     "The Western Wall is not occupied territory, and I don't care what the United Nations says," Netanyahu declared in reference to the plans.
     "We are living in the Jewish State," Netanyahu said, and "The capital of the Jewish state, for 3,000 years, has been Jerusalem. I want to say it clearly."
     "On election day, Israeli citizens will send a message," the prime minister continued, "not only domestically but also to the international community."
     "Do you know who will be paying attention to the election results?," Netanyahu added, "[Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, [and Hamas chief Khaled] Mashaal, they'll wait for polls to close and for results to be publicized. And they'll want to know if the prime minister was strengthened or weakened."

Two Palestinians infiltrate IDF base, steal weapon
JP - Two Palestinians infiltrated into an IDF base north-east of Ramallah overnight Thursday, attacking an IDF solder on guard duty and stealing his weapon.
     An initial investigation by the IDF revealed that the perpetrators managed to circumvent the base security due to the overcast weather conditions. The attack also occurred at 2:00 a.m., reducing the guard's visibility. The IDF said the attackers used pepper spray on the soldier and threatened him with a fake rifle.
     The attack came amid rising tensions in the West Bank between IDF security personnel and Palestinians.

Lebanese town drawn into Syria war
BBC - From where I'm standing - on Lebanon's northern border - I can see Syrian government soldiers talking and moving about.
     They appear to be staring in my direction. A local man next to me warns me not to take any photos.
     He explains that a local TV cameraman was shot recently by Syrian soldiers for doing just that. The fact that I'm standing on Lebanese territory clearly provides little if any protection.
     "Just last night this area was turned into a ball of fire with the Syrian soldiers firing artillery and bullets into the town," said the mayor of this part of Wadi Khaled, Rami Mohamed Hazal.
     "It was terrifying and many people fled to escape the shelling."
     Such events, it appears, are far from unusual here.
     "Not long ago a house was shelled and a girl was killed. A man on a motorbike got shot just around the corner here and three people were killed close to the border over there," the mayor said.
     He told me that over the last year, the population of Wadi Khaled - which is just a short drive from Syria's war-torn city of Homs - has been swelled by as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees.

Libya to release Lockerbie files
BBC - The new Libyan government in Tripoli is prepared to open all files relating to the Lockerbie bombing, the country's ambassador to the UK confirms.

Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Quran alive
Reuters - A mob broke into a Pakistani police station and burnt a man accused of desecrating the Koran alive, police said Saturday, in the latest violence focusing attention on the country's blasphemy laws.
     The man was a traveler and had spent Thursday night at the mosque, said Maulvi Memon, the imam in the southern village of Seeta in Sindh province. The charred remains of the Koran were found the next morning.
     "He was alone in the mosque during the night," Memon said. "There was no one else there to do this terrible thing."
     Villagers beat the man then handed him over to police. A few hours later, a crowd of around 200 stormed the police station, dragged the man out and set him on fire, said Usman Ghani, the senior superintendent of police in Dadu district.

Saudi Arabia: country seeks English-speaking docs, nurses
ANSAmed - Saudi Arabia needs foreign doctors and nurses fluent in English or its health care system will come to a standstill, Saudi officials made known at a summit of Arab League health ministers in Sharm el-Sheik, in Egypt.
     The Saudi health minister also voiced this concern to Arab World Association in Italy (Co-Mai) and Italian Association of Foreign Physicians (ASMI) President Foad Aodi.

UN: 4 peacekeepers killed in Darfur shooting 
AP - Four peacekeepers were killed and one injured in Darfur when one of the peacekeepers serving with the joint U.N.-African Union force opened fire at his fellow peacekeepers, the United Nations said Friday.
S Sudan: Hundreds of civilians shelter with UN 
AP - The U.N. mission in South Sudan says it is sheltering hundreds of civilians following an outbreak of violence. Elia Kamilo Dimo, a government official in Western Bahr el Ghazal state, said Wednesday that security forces have clashed with armed youth the last two days.

UN helicopter shot down in South Sudan; 4 dead 
AP - The United Nations said South Sudan's armed forces shot down a U.N. helicopter on Friday killing all four Russian crew members on board, an attack South Sudan's military spokesman blamed rebel fighters.

Putin Puts More Distance Between Russia and Assad   
NYT - In Brussels for a summit meeting, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said his country wants “a democratic regime in Syria based on the expression of the people’s will.”
Syria 'still using Scud missiles'
BBC - Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Syrian government forces are continuing to fire short-range ballistic missiles at rebel fighters.

Syrian rebels step up attacks on strategic sites   
AP - Syria's rebels stepped up attacks on strategic sites including a sprawling military complex in the country's north on Friday, while reports emerged that President Bashar Assad's forces continued to fire Scud missiles at rebel areas.

Tunisian Dictator’s Possessions to Be Sold at Public Auction  
NYT - It could be the Middle East’s most opulent yard sale.
     Just in time for Christmas, Tunisia’s Finance Ministry has organized a public auction of cars, jewels, carpets and trinkets that once belonged to the deposed president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the first autocrat to fall in the Arab Spring revolution incubated here two years ago.
     The monthlong sale and exhibition of 12,000 items begins Saturday at the Cleopatra Hotel, a sumptuous property in a northern suburb of Tunis.

Mounting Tensions Between Turkey and Iran
AT - In the already tense and volatile West Asia/Middle East region, a major confrontation has been brewing since early this week between Turkey and Iran due to a recent decision by the government of Turkey to seek Patriot missiles from the NATO powers for deployment along the borders of Syria.
     According to some analysts, Iran is worried because, once the Patriot anti-missile and anti-aircraft batteries are installed, Turkey -- free from threat of Syrian air and missile strikes -- would be emboldened to escalate support for the armed Syrian opposition. This would, in turn, pose a grave threat to the survivability of the pro-Iranian government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. It was therefore unsurprising that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi followed up General Firouzabadi's warning with an unambiguous statement in support of Mr. Assad, asserting that Iran would do everything in its power to thwart foreign efforts aimed at ensuring "regime change in Syria". In fact, Iran considers Syria as a lynchpin of the "axis of resistance" against Israel, which also includes the Lebanese Hizbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.

UAE shuts US-based think tank RAND
AP -  The U.S.-based policy think tank RAND Corp. says it has been ordered to close its Abu Dhabi office, the latest such move against Western research groups this year.
     The order appears to reflect a tightening of political-related activity in the United Arab Emirates, which has widened crackdowns on perceived dissent by activists and others.

Three Westerners seized in Yemen
BBC - Two Finns and an Austrian are kidnapped by masked gunmen in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, security officials say.

Kerry a familiar face on the world stage
AP -  Sen. John Kerry, President Barack Obama's pick for secretary of state, is a familiar face to the world leaders vital to American interests.
     The son of a diplomat and Obama's unofficial envoy, Kerry spent hours walking around the palace in Kabul persuading Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff election in fall 2009. The relationship will be crucial in the coming months as the administration draws down U.S. forces after more than a decade of war.
     In Pakistan, Kerry helped quell the anger after the U.S. incursion into the country to kill Osama bin Laden in May 2011. The uneasy ties between Washington and Islamabad will be a priority for Kerry at the State Department.
     "He knows most of the world leaders," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "So when he goes into a country he will be a known quantity."
3 Men Appear in Court in Terror Case Shrouded in Mystery
NYT -  Three men appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday on charges that they had trained to be suicide bombers with a Somali terrorist group.
     The defendants, Ali Yasin Ahmed, 27, Mahdi Hashi, 23, and Mohamed Yusuf, 29, were arrested in August by authorities in Africa while going to Yemen. They are accused of participating in weapons and explosives training with Al Shabab, a United States-designated terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, during a four-year period beginning in 2008. Court documents show no connection between the alleged crimes and the United States.
Lost Jewish tombstones found in Greece    
AP - In a find that local Jewish groups have described as highly significant, Greek police said Thursday that hundreds of marble headstones and other fragments from Jewish graves destroyed during the Nazi occupation in World War II have been recovered.

France Suspects Islamists in a Kidnapping 
NYT - The man, an engineer working for a French renewable-energy contractor, was seized by a large group of armed men on Wednesday night in the town of Rimi, near the border with Niger. A guard and another man at the engineer’s residence were killed.
     The men responsible for the kidnapping Wednesday of a French citizen in northern Nigeria are believed to be linked to Al Qaeda’s North African affiliate or other radical Islamist groups in northern Mali, French officials said Friday.
North Mali Islamist group adds new brigade
AP - An Islamist group behind public executions and amputations in northern Mali is further expanding its reach, taking in a new brigade of members.
     The new wing of Ansar Dine, known as Ansar Shariah, has raised a new flag in Timbuktu that reads: "There is no god but God" emblazoned on white cloth.
     "We want to broaden Ansar Dine to other communities in the north of Mali," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, an Islamic commander who is one of the organizers of the new brigade.
Mali leader acknowledges extremists not foreigners 
AP - Mali's president acknowledged Wednesday that the Islamist group carrying out public executions and amputations in the country's north is made up mostly of Malians and not foreign fighters, a declaration that appears aimed at fostering dialogue with the group. 
Mali militants seek peace after UN backs force 
AP - The al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of northern Mali and other rebels agreed Friday to cease hostilities in the areas they control, a day after the United Nations backed a regional plan to oust the Islamists from power in a military intervention next year.

Geopolitical malignancy
ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE - Since World War II, the Middle East in particular and the Arab world in general is a kaleidoscope of wars, revolutions, coups, counter-coups and assassinations.
     The only democracy Egypt has known in 5,000 years of recorded history lasted six years -- from 1946, when the World War II British protectorate came to an end, until 1952 when Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Free Officers movement dethroned and exiled King Farouk.
     Nasser's coup was inspired by Egypt's defeat in the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. No more than 100 colonels, majors and captains were involved, including Anwar Sadat, who succeeded Nasser upon his death in 1970.
     Officially, Nasser and his Free Officers said they had taken over to wipe out corruption among their generals who, they charged, had led Egypt to its first defeat by Israel in 1948.
     Several more humiliating defeats were to come but Nasser had the knack for metamorphosing defeats into victories.
  Nasser later admitted, albeit off the record, that the main target of his    was the Brotherhood of Muslim extremists. 

Tunisia's path ahead
OUSSAMA ROMDHANI - Two years after the revolutions, Arab Spring nations continue to face turbulent transitions as they try to forge ahead through new challenges and old legacies.
     The new set of actors in these Arab countries have the unenviable task of steering the ship of state through domestic, regional and international challenges -- not the least of which are ensuring a peaceful democratic transition, procuring jobs for tens of thousands of unemployed graduates, attracting investments for economic recovery, containing the inevitable fallout from the European financial crisis and restoring a climate of security and confidence in state institutions.
     A no less crucial challenge is building a new political culture where "fault lines" are turned into low-intensity disagreements that are amenable to debate and compromise within the country's new democratic environment.
     This requires the establishment of a climate where differences of views don't necessarily lead to confrontation and violence.

Support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Erodes in an Islamist Bastion
NYT -  Mohamed Salamah used to vote with theMuslim Brotherhood. But in Saturday’s referendum on the Islamist-backed constitution, Mr. Salamah says he is voting against it, mainly because he no longer trusts the movement.
     “They aren’t even doing anything very Islamic,” said Mr. Salamah, a 24-year-old waiter in a cafe in Al Talbeya, a working-class neighborhood in Giza across the Nile from Cairo that was an Islamist stronghold in previous votes. “They are just doing things that aren’t very competent.”
     Residents here and around Cairo say the damage to the Brotherhood’s popularity is unrelated to its religious ideology. It reflects a consistent trio of complaints: confusing economic policies of the Brotherhood-led government, a near-monopoly on power and civilian supporters’ use of force against opponents in a street battle two weeks ago. Even so, many say the Brotherhood remains the most potent political force, in part because of the incoherence of the opposition, which has often focused on accusing the Brotherhood of imposing religious rule.
Key events in Egypt's revolution and transition
AP -  Egyptians are voting Saturday in the second round of a referendum on disputed draft constitution that has polarized the country and plunged it into its worst crisis since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in last year's uprising.
     The referendum and draft charter have pitted supporters of the Islamist Morsi against liberal parties, youth groups, Christians and a large group of moderate Muslims who fear the new document enshrines too big a role for Islam and undermines freedoms of expression, gender equality and rights of minorities.
     The new crisis means that the political instability that followed Mubarak's February 2011 overthrow will likely continue.
     Here are some key events from 23 months of turmoil and transition.
Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria
AP -  Even for those who have escaped direct injury, the civil war is posing a mounting health threat. Half the country's 88 public hospitals and nearly 200 clinics have been damaged or destroyed, the World Health Organization says, leaving many without access to health care. Diabetics can't find insulin, kidney patients can't reach dialysis centers. Towns are running out of water-purifying materials. Many of the hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting are exposed to the cold in tents or unheated public buildings.
     "You are talking about a public health crisis on a grand scale," said Dr. Abdalmajid Katranji, a hand and wrist surgeon from Lansing, Michigan, who regularly volunteers in Syria.
     More than 43,000 have been killed in the past 21 months, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, basing his count on names and details provided by activists in Syria. He said the number of wounded is so large he can only give a rough estimate, of more than 150,000.

New female mayor gears Bethlehem up for Christmas 
AP - Bethlehem's first female mayor, Vera Baboun, can't walk through the main square of the biblical town without being stopped by admirers.
     "This is our new mayor, who is turning Bethlehem into one of the greatest cities in the world," a tour guide hollered to a group of Christian tourists passing by the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.
     Starting with Christmas celebrations - the high point of the year in the town - Baboun is hoping to turn things around in the troubled city. For the past seven years, the Islamic Hamas militant group had a strong presence in Bethlehem's leadership, prompting a cutoff of international aid funds. But they lost their seats in October elections that brought in Baboun, who is Christian, as Bethlehem's mayors traditionally are.
     The local economy is battered, with the highest unemployment in the West Bank, and local Christians continue to leave Bethlehem, which years ago moved from a Christian majority to a Muslim one. But Baboun is trying to raise hope, pointing to the Palestinans' recent boost of status at the United Nations.
AP Exclusive: Palestinians aim to isolate Israel
AP - Weeks ahead of Israeli elections, Palestinian officials are already plotting a series of tough steps against Israel to be taken if, as polls predict, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected and peace efforts remain stalled.
     Emboldened by their newly upgraded status at the United Nations, the Palestinians are talking of filing war crimes charges against Israel, staging mass demonstrations in the West Bank, encouraging the international community to impose sanctions, and ending the security cooperation that has helped preserve quiet in recent years.
     These plans, combined with growing international impatience with Israeli settlement construction on occupied land, could spell trouble and international isolation for the Israeli leader.
Indian Jews from 'Lost Tribe' move to Israel 
AP - A group of 50 Jews said to descend from one of the 10 Lost Tribes prepared Thursday to emigrate to Israel from their village in northeastern India.
     The members of the Bnei Menashe community prayed in their local synagogue and then hugged their crying relatives before heading off to the airport in the Manipur state capital of Imphal, 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.
     The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century B.C.
Two years later, Arab women weigh risks
UPI - Two years after the start of the Arab Spring, Hajer Naili interviews three post-revolutionary women about the increasingly radical Islamist forces that are smothering their hopes.
Dubai: From Dusty Village to Global City
CNN - Information on Jebel Ali Port

A tortuous triangle - The governments of Turkey, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan play a dangerous game
TE - Last year, trade between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan amounted to $8 billion. Turkish money has paid for pristine airports in Erbil and Dohuk, an Iraqi Kurdish city further north, and for other large projects. Not long ago, Turkish politicians, wary of their own large and restless Kurdish minority still fighting for autonomy (or more) in eastern Turkey, barely acknowledged Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
     Now Turkey’s government is using its commercial clout to press the Iraqi Kurds’ president, Masoud Barzani, to help restrain militant Kurds within Turkey. A stroke recently suffered by Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who is president of federal Iraq and who has often mediated between his kinsmen and the rulers in Baghdad, may make it even harder to keep the calm.
     Oil and gas are at the core of this warm new relationship between Turkey and Iraq’s Kurds. “Turkey has made a strategic shift in its relations with us,” says an official in a ministry in Erbil. “Whatever the scenario, our market is in Turkey.”
     Nuri al-Maliki’s government in Baghdad, dominated by Shia Muslims, has unwisely pushed Turkey into this oily Kurdish embrace. Mr Maliki’s close ties to Iran and support for President Bashar Assad in Syria have angered Turkey’s government and convinced it not to rely on Iraq.

Exxon warned on northern Iraq development
UPI - Sami al-Askari, a member of the Iraqi Parliament close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying Exxon would "face the Iraqi army" should it lay "a finger" on contested border regions in northern Iraq.
     The government in Baghdad and the semiautonomous Kurdish government in the north have squared off over the so-called disputed territories, which spread from northeastern Ninawa province to the western border with Iran.
     Tensions over oil legislation in the country have frustrated Iraq's oil ambitions.
     Askari said he didn't want war but would consider force to defend oil and sovereignty. Former Oil Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said it's Baghdad's obligation to defend the country's sovereignty. He advised Exxon against working in the north.
Russia's Gazprom to buy Kyrgyz state gas company 
AP - Kyrgyzstan's state-owned natural gas company says it is to be sold to Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom, raising hopes of an end to debilitating energy shortages in the impoverished Central Asian nation.

Afghan Forces Not Ready for Post-2014 Threats: Rasool
TN - On an official trip to Sri Lanka, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasool stated Thursday that Afghan forces will not be fully prepared to confront possible treats after the international forces withdraw from the country.
     He said that fighting the insurgency will not end by 2014 and Afghanistan will need continued support from international troops.
     Rasool's comments directly contradict statements from President Karzai, who maintains that the Afghan forces are ready and willing to take control of security in Afghanistan. Karzai has been firmly demanding the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan, saying the war on terrorism is not in Afghanistan and attention should be paid to Pakistan, where terrorists are based.

Afghanistan Should Do More Against Corruption: German President
TN - "If corruption is not decreased, public and donor confidence on Afghan government will decline," he warned.
     Germany is one of Afghanistan's largest donors, having pledged €400 million ($529 million), of which €150 million are for Afghan security forces.
     Donor countries meeting in Tokyo earlier this year made the $16 billion in aid conditional on Afghanistan fighting corruption.

Hollande Uses Softer Tone on Delicate Visit to Algeria   
NYT - President François Hollande of France sought to strike a more nuanced and conciliatory tone with the former French colony but stopped short of issuing the apology Algiers has long called for.

Egyptian Islamists plan big rally as referendum looms
Reuters - Egyptian Islamists are planning a mass protest in Alexandria on Friday in a move likely to raise tensions on the eve of a divisive referendum that will determine the political future of the Arab world's biggest nation.
     The Muslim Brotherhood called for the rally after a violent confrontation between Islamists and the liberal, secular opposition in Egypt's second city last week ended with a Muslim preacher besieged inside his mosque for 14 hours. Rival factions were armed with clubs, knives and swords.
     The opposition, facing defeat in the referendum, has called for a "no" vote against a document it views as leaning too far towards Islamism.
     The first day of voting on December 15 resulted in a 57 percent majority in favour of the constitution. The second stage on Saturday is expected to produce another "yes" vote as it covers regions seen as more conservative and likely to back Mursi.

Egypt’s Chief Prosecutor Retracts His Resignation   
NYT - The move was the latest bizarre turn in a complicated three-way struggle among the new Islamist president, the institutions of the old government and the president’s opposition in the streets.

Palestinian Premier Calls for Boycott of Israeli Goods
NYT - The Arab countries pledged to send $100 million per month after the United Nations move as a safety net, but that money has not yet materialized, part of the reason the Palestinian Authority was already in such difficult circumstances.     Yet with Mr. Fayyad warning that the Palestinians are at a financial precipice, “so close to the cliff,” the boycott call seemed more symbolic than punitive. The economy of the Palestinian Authority, an interim, self-rule body established nearly 20 years ago, remains intrinsically dependent on Israel.
     Boycott advocates say that in the past few years, the number of Palestinian products available has proliferated. Aside from dairy products there are local lines of cleaning products, soaps and pharmaceuticals. High-end products like mozzarella are also being imported from other countries like Turkey.
     Nour Odeh, a spokeswoman for the Fayyad government, attributed the growth in locally produced goods to the government’s fiscal and security policies.
     “The commitment of the government to law and order has encouraged people to plan ahead,” she said. “Over time, it has produced a sense of stability.”
     Yet at the Diamond Supermarket in central Ramallah, most of the products lining the shelves this week were Israeli or foreign. Many shoppers were skeptical about the boycott call, saying that the Palestinian products were limited and of inferior quality.
     Haya al-Tarifi, 19, a college student, was buying classic Israeli-made treats — Bamba peanut-flavored snacks, Apropo corn snacks and Elite chocolate.
     “When I buy I look for good quality products,” she said. “There is no good alternative.”

Israeli attacks on Gaza journalists unlawful - rights group
Reuters - Israel's killing of two Palestinian journalists and attacks on media facilities during its Gaza offensive last month violated the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

Iran firms that shipped arms to Syria hit with U.N. sanctions
Reuters - A U.N. Security Council committee on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Iranian firms that violated a U.N. arms embargo on Tehran by shipping weapons to the Syrian government.
Top aide to Iran's Ahmadinejad temporarily freed from prison
Reuters - A top aide to Iran's president was temporarily freed from prison on Wednesday, Iranian media said, in the latest twist in a case seen as reflecting the waning influence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the country's factionalised politics.

Russia hopes for nuclear talks with Iran next month
Reuters - Russia hopes the next round of six-power talks with Iran to resolve a protracted dispute over its atomic programme will take place in January, RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

Israel complains to U.N. about rearming by Hezbollah
Reuters - Israel's U.N. envoy urged the Security Council on Thursday to condemn what he described as significant rearming by Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese militant group now possessed an arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles capable of hitting Israel.
Israeli Arab MP who joined Gaza flotilla barred from re-election
Reuters - Israel's electoral authority barred an Arab lawmaker from re-election on Wednesday, saying she had supported the nation's enemies by joining a protest ship that tried to break a naval blockade of Gaza.
Israel in battle against "high-level" Iranian cyber attacks: agency
XN - Iranian hackers have been engaged in "high-level" cyber attacks against Israel's critical infrastructure in recent weeks, officials of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) warned.
     "The teams on the ground took the necessary action to locate the hackers, stop them from reaching the critical areas of the infrastructure and thwart the breach," Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted a Shin Bet Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) unit official as saying Thursday.
     In mid November, during the Israeli army's "Operation Pillar of Defense" in Gaza to quell Hamas rocket fire, Israeli security officials said hackers had launched a mass cyber-warfare campaign that targeted government websites.

Israeli settlements leave U.S. odd man out at U.N. Security Council
Reuters - In a rare move on Wednesday, all but one of the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council made statements at the United Nations opposing Israeli plans to expand Jewish settlements around Jerusalem after the United States repeatedly blocked attempts to take stronger action.
Jerusalem municipality builds road to cut Arab neighborhood in half
XN - A highway constructed currently by the Jerusalem municipality will cut off an Arab neighborhood of Beit Sfafa in half, the Ha'aretz daily reported Thursday.
     The highway benefits settlers from the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements in the West Bank by shortening their trip to the center of Jerusalem and to Tel Aviv, while it cut the residents of Beit Sfafa away from various facilities, including mosques and schools which are several minutes walk to their houses.
     The highway is set to pass just several meters from the residents' homes and will force them to bypass it through bridges to get to the other side of the village.

U.N. warns Lebanese against meddling in Syria conflict
Reuters - The reported participation of Lebanese fighters on both sides of the escalating Syrian conflict violates the country's policy of not interfering in Syria's civil war and creates risks for Lebanon, the U.N. political affairs chief said on Wednesday.

Palestinian exodus from Yarmuk camp into Lebanon
AFP - Lebanon saw a mass influx of Palestinians on Tuesday, as hundreds fled mounting violence in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Syria and entered through the Masnaa border in the east, an AFP correspondent said.

Four killed in clash in Libya's Benghazi - officials
Reuters - Four people were killed when security forces clashed with armed demonstrators outside a police station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Thursday, security sources said.

Female Vaccination Workers, Essential in Pakistan, Become Prey  
NYT - One of Pakistan’s most crucial public health campaigns has been plunged into crisis after militants killed nine volunteers over the course of a three-day polio vaccination drive.

Sudan, South Sudan to discuss rebel support next month
Reuters - The disputes came to a head in January - when landlocked South Sudan shut down its entire 350,000 barrel-a-day oil output in a row with Khartoum over transit and other fees - and again in April, when border clashes brought the two close to all-out war.    
     Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting rebels fighting in two states that border South Sudan. Juba denies supporting the rebels, known as the SPLM-North, and in turn accuses Khartoum of backing insurgents on its territory.     
     The SPLM-North rebels were part of the southern insurgent army during the civil war but were left in Sudan after partition.     
     Facing heavy pressure from the United Nations and African Union mediators, Sudan and South Sudan signed a raft of deals in September including one to pull back their armies from the border. Both sides say that step is needed to resume oil flows.

Sudan rebels say shoot down warplane; army blames malfunction
Reuters - Rebels fighting to overthrow Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Thursday they had shot down a MiG-23 combat jet and threatened all military aircraft flying over areas they control with the same fate.
Thousands fleeing South Sudan clashes seek U.N. refuge
Reuters - Youths armed with sticks, machetes and spears battled police in a South Sudanese town, forcing thousands of civilians to seek refuge in a U.N. compound, officials and witnesses said.

U.N. seeks $1.5 billion to help suffering Syrians
Reuters - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion (922 million pounds) to help save the lives of millions of Syrians suffering a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation.
Syria Fires More Scud Missiles at Rebels, U.S. Says   
NYT - American officials, who have been monitoring Syrian military actions via aerial surveillance, said there was no indication that the missiles were armed with chemical weapons.
Russia's Putin set for stand-off with EU on Syria, energy
Reuters - Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders are likely to clash over issues ranging from Syria to trade, energy and human rights on Friday when Putin holds his first talks in Brussels since his re-election as president in May.
Rebels seize towns in central Syria
Reuters - Syrian rebels have captured at least six towns in the central province of Hama, activists say, in an operation aimed at putting pressure on President Bashar al-Assad from the north as insurgents close in on the capital from its southern suburbs.
Syrian minister in Lebanon for treatment after bombing
Reuters - Syria's Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for medical treatment following a bomb attack on his ministry in central Damascus a week ago, security sources said.
Nephews of Syria vice president arrested: NGO
AFP - Two nephews of Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa have been arrested along with five of their friends over their support for democratic change, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province
Reuters - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said.
     The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on.
Russia's Putin warns of endless conflict in Syria
Reuters - Any solution to the conflict in Syria must ensure President Bashar al-Assad's forces and his opponents do not simply swap roles and fight on forever, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
Russian Speakers Become Prey in Syrian Conflict  
NYT - Russians and Russian speakers living in Syria are increasingly becoming kidnappers’ targets, posing a challenge for rebels as they try to win trust and support abroad.
Strife-torn Syria wins West Asian cup
AFP - After nearly two years of war, fate smiled on Syria for a brief moment on Thursday as its national football team scored a historic 1-0 victory in the West Asia Cup.

Turkey to fly troops to bases after deadly road convoy attacks
Reuters - The agreement, with state carrier Turkish Airlines, follows a dramatic increase in attacks on Turkish security forces in the past 18 months by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have launched a series of fatal raids on troop convoys in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
     Turkey's government and military began discussing alternative transport arrangements with the airline after a bomb attack on a security convoy in southeastern Bingol province which killed 10 people in September.

Dutch troops "lack experience" on Patriot missiles in Turkey
Reuters - Some of the Dutch troops due to man Patriot missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria are inadequately trained in the weapon systems, largely due to spending cuts, a trade union official said on Wednesday.

Saleh's son cedes missiles to new Yemen president
Reuters - A powerful general who is the son of Yemen's former president has agreed to give up his missiles after his elite Republican Guard was disbanded by the Arab nation's new leader, sources at the presidency said on Thursday.
     Brigadier-General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh's apparent compliance with an armed forces shake-up ordered by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday eases fears of more turmoil in a country in the throes of a tense political transition.

Yemen president sacks Saleh's military cronies
AFP - President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has dramatically restructured Yemen's military to curb the influence of those linked to toppled strongman Abdullah Ali Saleh with the strong backing of Yemen's Gulf neighbours.

Putin Defends Stand on Syria and Chastises U.S. on Libya Outcome   
NYT - President Vladimir V. Putin reiterated Russia’s opposition to military intervention in Syria and suggested that the United States’ role in toppling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi ultimately led to the Benghazi catastrophe.
Somalia: Few Survivors Are Found After Crowded Boat Capsizes Off Coast  
NYT - Fifty-five people are believed to have drowned after an overcrowded boat capsized off the Somali coast, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday. 
U.N. condemns rights abuses in Iran, North Korea and Syria
Reuters - The U.N. General Assembly condemned North Korea, Iran and Syria on Thursday for widespread human rights abuses and all three countries rejected the separate resolutions adopted by the 193-member world body, slamming them as politicized.
U.N. urges countries to ban female genital mutilation
Reuters - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Thursday urging countries to ban female genital mutilation, calling it an "irreparable, irreversible abuse" that threatens about three million girls annually.
Putin says Russia insists on rebel Georgia regions' independence
Reuters - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia will not back down on its decision to recognise Georgian breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia despite a recent parliamentary election that swept a new coalition to power.
WikiLeaks to release files on 'every country' in 2013: Assange
AFP - WikiLeaks will release one million documents next year affecting every country in the world, founder Julian Assange said in a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday.
Qatar-based firm to produce $1 bn Prophet Mohammed series
AFP - Qatar-based company Alnoor Holding has said it will raise the budget for a planned movie series on the life of Prophet Mohammed to $1 billion dollars from the $1.5 million announced three years ago.
     The biopics will be produced as a series of "seven films -- instead of three films as per an earlier announcement -- with a total budget of $1 billion," Alnoor chairman Ahmed Al-Hashemi said in a statement received by AFP on Tuesday.
     Alnoor announced in 2009 that it was seeking financing for the film series, to be produced by Barrie Osborne, a Hollywood veteran of more than 40 years whose credits include Lord of the Rings and The Matrix.
     Mohammed himself will not appear in the films, out of respect for Islamic traditions forbidding images of the Prophet.

U.N. Panel Votes to Help Mali’s Army Oust Islamist Extremists
NYT -  The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday that will send thousands of African troops into the desert nation of Mali to help oust Islamist extremists who have turned its northern half into a vast Qaeda enclave and training ground, menacing the stability of neighboring states and posing a potent new international terrorism threat.
     But the resolution also makes it clear that such a military intervention will not happen until Mali’s own dysfunctional army is adequately trained and a framework for political stability and elections is restored in the country, which has been in turmoil since a military coup in March.
     The resolution, which was sponsored by France, the former colonial power in Mali, does not specify a time frame for the first deployment of foreign troops, to be supplied by a group of West African nations that are eager to see calm restored in Mali. United Nations officials and diplomats who worked on the resolution said that a 3,300-soldier force would be sent, and that any attempt to drive the Islamists from northern Mali would not happen before September or October at the earliest.
House approves sweeping defense spending bill
AFP - House and Senate conferees had to compromise on overall spending figures for the bill, settling on $527.4 billion for the base Pentagon budget; $88.5 billion for overseas contingency operations including the war in Afghanistan; and $17.8 billion for national security programs in the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Mother of 'I am a bomb' T-shirt boy in French court
AFP - The mother and uncle of a three-year old named Jihad, who was born on September 11, were due in a French court Wednesday for sending him to school in a top with "I am a bomb" written on it.
     The sweatshirt also had the words "Jihad, born on September 11" emblazoned on the back when he turned up at his nursery school in the southern town of Sorgues on September 25.
     The pair are charged with condoning a crime over the alleged reference to the 9/11 attacks on New York's twin towers in 2001. The uncle bought the top and the mother dressed her son in it when she sent him to school that day.

Team Obama's entire Middle East policy has failed and the problem is about to get worse
Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland - But the Benghazi report misses the point.  The events of September 11 are a symptom of a much larger problem -- the Obama administration’s entire Middle East policy has failed. And the problem is about to get much worse as the as yet unpunished but ascendant Al Qaeda and its affiliates contemplate what they might do next to attack Americans.
     If the chaos and upheavals continue, which seems likely, we could in a few years see a region stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to Pakistan which is anti-American and consumed by ethno-sectarian violence.  The region extends from North Africa to the Middle East to the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf to Central Asia.  It’s home to terrorists, much of the world’s exported oil and our long time ally Israel.
     The Benghazi Report calls for beefed up security and new rules of engagement, but as yet we have failed to punish those responsible, although we know who they are and where they live.  Should anyone be surprised if in 2013 we see more attacks on Americans and on American soil?

Some Answers on Benghazi  
NYT - If Congressional Republicans are truly interested in protecting American diplomats abroad they should support increased financing for improved security, without forcing the State Department to divert money from an underfinanced budget that has been earmarked for other uses.
     Mrs. Clinton is seeking to transfer $1.3 billion slated for Iraq-related expenses to put $553 million into additional Marine security guards worldwide, $130 million for diplomatic security personnel and $691 million for improved security at overseas facilities. Even if the State Department makes the needed reforms, it will not be able to carry them out without a commitment of new money to the project.

Syria Unleashes Cluster Bombs on Town, Punishing Civilians   
NYT - Many forms of violence and hardship have befallen Syria’s people as the country’s civil war has escalated this year. But the Syrian government’s attack here on Dec. 12 pointed to one of the war’s irrefutable patterns: the deliberate targeting of civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s military, in this case with a weapon that is impossible to use precisely.
     Syrians on both sides in this fight have suffered from the bloodshed and sectarian furies given dark license by the war. The victims of the cluster bomb attacks describe the tactic as collective punishment, a mass reprisal against populations that are with the rebels.
     The munitions in question — Soviet-era PTAB-2.5Ms — were designed decades ago by Communist engineers to destroy battlefield formations of Western armored vehicles and tanks. They are ejected in dense bunches from free-falling dispensers dropped from aircraft. The bomblets then scatter and descend nose-down to land and explode almost at once over a wide area, often hundreds of yards across.
German Health Care Attracts Foreign Patients 
NYT - Before the Arab Spring uprisings, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak traveled to Munich in 2004 for back treatment and to Heidelberg in 2010 to have his gallbladder removed. Last year, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan reportedly had a surgical procedure on his prostate at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
     According to German government statistics, the number of hospital patients from the United Arab Emirates rose to 1,754 from 339 between 2000 and 2010, the most recent year available. From Saudi Arabia, the figure climbed to 712 from 143. The numbers from Iraq were smaller but still rose to 176 from 95. Over the same period, the number of Russians jumped to 4,873 from 842.
     “We have one of the worldwide best health care systems and people from abroad know that,” said Isabella Beyer, research associate in medical tourism at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. Mr. Talabani, 79, is among them; he was treated in Germany before for back trouble.
      Mr. Talabani is now being cared for at Berlin’s Charité hospital, which is more than 300 years old and is one of Europe’s largest university hospitals. The storied institution was home to several Nobel Prize winners, including Robert Koch and Paul Ehrlich. 
Al Qaeda grows powerful in Syria as endgame nears
Reuters - Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt.
     The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher in a long and deadly confrontation with the West, and perhaps Israel.
     Members of the group interviewed by Reuters say al-Nusra aims to revive the Islamic Caliphate, which dates back to the Prophet Mohammad's seventh century companions, forerunners of the large empire that once stretched into Europe.
     That prospect alarms many in Syria, from minority Christians, Alawites and Shi'ites to traditionally conservative but tolerant Sunni Muslims who are concerned that al-Nusra would try to impose Taliban-style rule.
     Fear of religion-based repression has already prompted Kurds to barricade their quarter of Aleppo city and was behind fierce clashes between Kurdish and al-Nusra fighters in the border town of Ras al Ain in November.
     The ideas of al-Nusra are also at odds with a new Syrian opposition coalition that was recognised last week by dozens of countries as an alternative to Assad and is committed to establishing a democratic alternative to Assad's rule.
     Omar, a 25-year-old university graduate and former army conscript, said he deserted and joined al-Nusra in reaction to repression he experienced as a Sunni from Alawite officers who all but monopolise the army's higher echelons.
     Prior to the revolt, Omar said he had sympathised quietly with Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic international party with a vision for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate abolished by the secular Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924.
     "Prayer in the army is banned, and if they suspected that you pray they would send you to the most remote posts," Omar said by phone from a rural area near Aleppo city.
     "Our aim is to depose Assad, defend our people against the military crackdown and build the caliphate. Many in the Free Syrian Army have ideas like us and want an Islamic state."
     "We and other Islamists have gained a reputation as being able to hold our own in battle. Lots of people want to join Nusra, but we do not have enough weapons to supply all of them."
     But a woman teacher, who lives in the central Mogambo district of Aleppo, said Nusra's thinking was abhorrent.
     "Al-Nusra thinks that by shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) they can justify anything they do. We did not rise up to move from the humiliation from being under Assad to the humiliation of being under al Qaeda," she said.
Asian maids in Jordan tell of abuse, misery
AFP - In October, the Philippines lifted a ban imposed in 2007 on its citizens working in Jordan after the two countries signed deals to protect them, including guaranteeing a minimum monthly salary of $400.
     The ban had been imposed because of "the growing number of distressed Filipino workers" seeking help from Philippine diplomatic offices in Jordan, according to Manila.
      But despite the accords, abuse is still reported.
      Many Sri Lankan workers in Jordan, estimated to number 40,000, are also suffering.
     "Around 100 domestic workers run away from their employers every month," I.L.H. Jameel of the Sri Lankan embassy told AFP.
     "One day a woman came here after she ran away from a sponsor's house because his 16-year-old boy burned her with a hot iron. Another woman came to us in August after her sponsor severely tortured her."

Israel Defies Allies in Move to Bolster Settlements
NYT - The Housing Ministry authorized construction on 1,000 housing units in the West Bank, while the city of Jerusalem approved 2,610 units in Givat Hamatos, a new neighborhood in an area annexed after the 1967 war.
     The actions came after 1,500 controversial units in the Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo were approved Monday and 500 others in Givat Hamatos on Tuesday. An additional 1,000 units, in Gilo, are expected to move forward on Thursday, in what experts said was the most activity in years in the areas known collectively as East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital.
     Every member of the United Nations Security Council except the United States issued statements on Wednesday condemning the construction.
     While the projects have long been planned, their advancement is part of Israel’s retribution for the lopsided vote at the United Nations last month that upgraded the Palestinians’ status to a nonmember observer state.
     The developments in Givat Hamatos, which would be the first new neighborhood in Jerusalem in more than a decade, and in an area east of Jerusalem called E1 — which Israel also promised to move forward after the United Nations vote — are widely seen as threats to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.N. warns of foreign influx into sectarian Syria war
Reuters - Fighters from around the world have filtered into Syria to join a civil war that has split along sectarian lines, increasingly pitting the ruling Alawite community against the majority Sunni Muslims, U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday.
     Most of the "foreign fighters" slipping into Syria to join rebel groups, or fight independently alongside them, are Sunnis from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the U.N. investigators found, reporting on their findings after their latest interviews conducted in the region.
     "They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighbouring countries," said Abuzayd, adding that names from 29 states had been recorded so far.
     The report covers the period between September 28 and December 16, and will be part of a final document to be prepared in March.
     It said the Lebanese Shi'ite Hezbollah had confirmed that group members were in Syria fighting on behalf of Assad.
     Hezbollah has previously denied sending members to fight alongside Syrian government forces.
     But Hezbollah held a series of funerals two months ago for Fighters killed "performing their jihadist duties" and leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah suggested they had been fighting in areas along the poorly defined Lebanon-Syria border.
     The U.N. report also cited reports of Iraqi Shi'ites coming to fight and said Iran, a close ally of Assad, confirmed in September that its Revolutionary Guards were in Syria providing assistance. Tehran has denied military involvement in Syria.
     Investigators also said human rights violations were being committed on all sides of the conflict and members of government and anti-government groups alike would be listed for possible referral to the International Criminal Court.
Fear slows Libyan probe into attack on U.S. mission in Benghazi
Reuters - A Libyan reluctance to crack down on suspected Islamist groups behind the deadly attack on the U.S. Benghazi mission highlights the failure of police and courts to stamp their authority and may open the way for militants to strengthen their grip.
     The September 11 assault, in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, was the most high profile attack in post-war Libya and yet no significant arrests have been made and witnesses say they have yet to be questioned.
     A year after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the legacy of four decades of one-man rule - when many formal institutions of statehood withered - and of the popular uprising that killed him, is an anarchic swarm of militias that provide both what passes for official security and poses the main threat to it.
     Libya has insisted it will lead the investigation but one U.S. official in Washington familiar with the inquiry described it as "a joke": "(There is) no real progress that we can see."
     Another offered a more tempered view. "It has been inherently challenging considering the nature of the crime and the region of the world."
     A Libyan security source initially involved in the investigation said he quickly decided to step down. "Who was going to protect me if we carried out the investigation honestly?" he said.
     "Benghazi is a small place, everyone knows everyone and those people with the kind of weapons used during the attack are well-known in the community. The probe was going to lead to them but we were not given guarantees of protection."
     "The suspects are free and known but each have their own security brigade for protection. The police are not strong enough to declare war on them, but the people are on the police's side."
     "The groups have territories, independent sources of income, they have political bases, and they have military capabilities," said Geoff Porter of North Africa Risk Consulting. "The central government has been compelled to accommodate them in some instances and to ignore them or avoid them in others."
Egypt's liberals decry "shadow" of the Brotherhood
Reuters - "Under the shadow of the Brotherhood and extremist groups the future of all Egyptians will no doubt be dark," said Fatma Naoot, 48, a poet and columnist, who often speaks out on women's issues and defends the arts against censorship.
 Naoot, a liberal Muslim, refers to some of the radical preachers who are now common faces on television as "strangers" to Egyptians, adding: "But I am confident that Egypt will return to us soon."

Turkey, Iraq Kurds near explosive oil deal
UPI - Turkey and Iraq's independence-minded Kurds are reported to be close to a potentially explosive deal on major investment by Ankara in the burgeoning energy industry of the semiautonomous Kurdish enclave on Turkey's southern border.
     Iraq's federal government, whose relations with Turkey are strained and getting worse, is bitterly opposed to such an agreement.
     Baghdad, along with U.S. and other diplomats, fear it could lead to Kurdish independence and trigger the breakup of the Iraqi state.
     The proposed deal highlights a "sea change in relations between Ankara and Erbil," the northern Iraqi city where the Kurdish Regional government is based, the Financial Times reported.
     It "could transform the region," the newspaper declared.
     Kurdistan sits on 45 billion barrels of oil and has extensive natural gas reserves.
     That's only a fraction of Iraq's proven oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels but for major oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total of France the returns are more lucrative than they are drilling in Iraq's huge fields in the south.
     The arrival of Big Oil in Kurdistan since October 2011, when Exxon led the break with Baghdad to develop Kurdish fields, transformed the Kurds' fledgling energy industry, just as it looks like triggering a geopolitical turnaround in one of the world's most volatile regions.
     Oil strikes in Kurdistan have attracted some $10 billion in investment from foreign oil companies, a huge total for a territory of 4.9 million people that was once a tribal backwater.
     "It's almost the only place in the Middle East where the private sector can explore virgin territory," said Tony Hayward, former chief executive of BP who now runs British-Turkish explorer Genel Energy.
     In May, energy-poor Turkey, which has ambitions to become the pivotal energy hub between East and West, agreed to a broad partnership with the KRG and outlined plans to build pipelines from land-locked Kurdistan to Turkey's export terminals on the Mediterranean.
     That will free the KRG from reliance on the state-owned bottleneck-plagued Iraqi pipelines that currently pump oil north from the Kirkuk fields, which the Kurds claim as their territory, through Turkey.
     That will make Kurdistan totally independent of Baghdad's Oil Ministry for the first time.
     Right now, a trickle of condensates -- a byproduct of natural gas -- is being trucked to Turkey, which sends back refined products to Kurdistan.
     But energy development is accelerating rapidly. In 2008, there were three drilling rigs in Kurdistan. Now there are 24. Next year there will be 40. Production, currently 180,000 barrels per day, is set to hit 250,000 bpd by 2013 and 1 million bpd by 2015. By the end of the decade that could reach 3 million bpd.

Egypt Resumes Natural Gas Exports to Jordan, Petra Says
BN - Egypt resumed pumping natural gas to Jordan at 250 million cubic feet a day as stipulated under an agreement between the countries, the state-run Petra news agency cited Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour as saying.
India to Cut Iran Oil Imports in its 2014 Fiscal Year
Reuters - India plans to cut oil imports from Iran by 10 to 15 percent in the next fiscal year, and more if Tehran does not lower prices to help cover higher costs resulting from Western sanctions, a government source said.
     Iran’s top Asian oil buyers – China, India, Japan and South Korea – have all reduced imports after the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
     The sanctions have more than halved Iran’s oil exports this year, costing Tehran up to $5 billion a month in lost revenue.
Russia ready to meet Turkey's gas needs
UPI - A spokeswoman for the Russian Energy Ministry said Moscow was ready to increase the amount of natural gas it ships to Turkey.
     Russia sends around 950 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year to Turkey through the Blue Stream and Transbalkan pipelines. An unnamed spokeswoman for the country's Energy Ministry told the Platts news service that more gas could be delivered at Ankara's request.
     "In principle, Russia is ready to increase supplies to Turkey by 100 billion cubic feet year, we are waiting for an official request from the Turkish side," she said.
Morocco eyed for oil and gas reserves
UPI - Acquiring opportunities in the natural resources of Morocco gives Gulfsands Petroleum the chance to diversify its Middle East holdings, an executive said.
     Gulfsands Petroleum announced it acquired Cabre Maroc Ltd., a subsidiary of British independent Caithness Petroleum, in a deal valued at around $19 million. Gulfsands said the company has "an extensive portfolio" of around 5,100 square miles of "highly prospective oil and gas" acres in northern Morocco.

Karzai Welcomes British Pullout from Afghanistan
Time - The Afghan president on Thursday welcomed the withdrawal of nearly half of the British troops from Afghanistan next year, saying his forces were ready to take on defense of the country.
     A statement from Hamid Karzai’s office said the partial pull-out was an “appropriate” move as NATO forces hand over the war against the Taliban to the Afghan military.
     British Prime Minister David Cameron announced Wednesday that about 3,800 British troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2013, leaving some 5,000 into 2014. The majority of NATO forces, including those of the United States, will depart by the end of 2014.

Morsi-appointed chief prosecutor retracts resignation
AFP - Egypt's chief public prosecutor on Thursday retracted his resignation, days after offering to step down following protests by prosecutors and judges against his appointment by President Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt: Mubarak back to prison 
AP - Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak was returned to his prison Wednesday after he was transferred to a Cairo military hospital briefly for an X-ray of his head, a security official said.

Palestinian president offers aid to Syria refugees
AP - The Palestinian president said Wednesday he is ready to take in Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria's civil war, and the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel to facilitate their entry.
     Mahmoud Abbas' offer follows an attack by Syrian warplanes against the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus and days of fighting there.
     U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he received a request from Abbas to help in bringing the refugees to the Palestinian territories. This could include the West Bank, where Abbas governs, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Abbas to UN: help Syria refugees enter West Bank
AFP - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday urged the international community to help Palestinian refugees fleeing fighting in camps in Syria to enter the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian workers strike over unpaid salaries
AFP - Palestinian government employees across the West Bank were on strike on Wednesday over unpaid salaries, with the protest expected to continue into Thursday.

Iran sidesteps sanctions to export its fuel oil
Reuters - Iran is becoming increasingly creative in dodging Western sanctions, managing to sell a rising volume of fuel oil to generate revenue equal to up to a third of its crude exports, which have been badly hit by restrictions.
     Compared with the first half of the year, Iran has on average exported more fuel oil per month since July, when European Union oil and shipping insurance sanctions came into effect and more than halved its crude exports.
     "The National Iranian Oil Company has been very successful in finding new strategies to circumvent sanctions and sold its fuel oil to Asia in August and September. Now we think Middle Eastern buyers of Iranian fuel oil have reappeared," he said.
     Using ship-to-ship transfers, discharging and loading at remote ports and blending the Iranian fuel oil with other fuels to disguise the origin have become popular tactics for the Gulf-based middlemen and helped keep sales steady, several trading and industry sources familiar with the region said.
Ahmadinejad aide on leave from Iran jail: report
AFP - Top presidential aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr has been given a short leave from Tehran's notorious Evin prison for medical treatment, government-run Iran newspaper reported on Thursday.

Ahmadinejad says Western sanctions won't stop Iran
AP -  Iran's president says Western sanctions could cause a short delay in Tehran's nuclear program but will not slow it down substantially.
     State TV quoted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday as claiming that the "West is not happy with Iran's progress" in various technological fields, including uranium enrichment, which is a possible pathway to nuclear arms.
     His remarks come just days after Tehran again rebuffed visiting U.N. nuclear agency inspectors from visiting the Parchin military base near the Iranian capital.
Iran hangs six drug smugglers, rapist: report
AP - Iran has hanged seven men, six of them for drug trafficking and another for rape, in prison in the central province of Isfahan, Kayhan newspaper reported on Thursday.

Group: Israel broke law by targeting media in Gaza 
AP - Israeli army attacks on journalists and media facilities in the Gaza Strip during last month's military operation violated the laws of war, Human Rights Watch said in a release Thursday. 
Israel okays initial stages of new W. Bank city
AFP - Israel has approved plans for the construction of more than 500 homes in the southern West Bank in the first step towards creating a new settlement city, a local settler council said Thursday.
UN calls on Israel to cancel new settlements
AFP - The United Nations on Wednesday called on Israel to cancel plans to build thousands of new settler homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, warning it could be "an almost fatal blow" to peace hopes.
Israel 'okays 2,610 new E. Jerusalem settler homes'
AFP - An Israeli committee gave final approval on Wednesday to plans to build 2,610 new homes in Givat HaMatos, a settlement suburb of annexed east Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO told AFP.

Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a Leading Israeli Peace Negotiator, Dies at 68
NYT -  Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former chief of staff of the Israeli military and a cabinet minister who was deeply involved in peace talks with the Palestinians, died here on Wednesday. He was 68.
     Mr. Lipkin-Shahak, who reached the peak of his military career as a general in the mid-1990s, embodied the spirit of that period, when Israel balanced hopes for a permanent peace with the Palestinians against the country’s inherent security challenges.
     In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Mr. Lipkin-Shahak “an Israeli hero who dedicated his best years to the security of the state of Israel.”

EU observers to monitor Jordan's January elections 
AP - A European Union official says the bloc's observers will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections in Jordan for the first time in the country's history. 

Libya court probing military chief's killing quits
AP - A Libyan military tribunal investigating the death of a former military chief has quit.
     This came after the tribunal's decision to summon the former head of the transitional government prompted a Tripoli militia to block roads in protest, the latest sign of instability in Libya.
     Abdel-Fattah Younis served as ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi's interior minister until last year's revolution. He was killed in July 2011 in custody after he was arrested on suspicion of treason.

Death toll from Pakistan polio worker attacks rises
AFP - The death toll from a string of attacks on polio vaccination teams in Pakistan this week rose to nine on Thursday, as a wounded health worker succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

More than 3,000 Saudis support women driving 
AP - A Saudi online newspaper says more than 3,000 nationals of the kingdom, including prominent writers and academics, have endorsed a study that recommends lifting a ban on women driving.
     Sabaq quoted on Tuesday Abdullah al-Alami, a researcher who contributed to the study, as saying it was sent to King Abdullah's main advisory body, the Shura Council, asking them to set a date to discuss it.

BAE says Saudi jet deal facing unresolved 'issues'
AFP - Defence group BAE Systems on Wednesday warned that a lucrative deal to sell fighter jets to Saudi Arabia was facing unresolved "issues" five years after an agreement was struck between the two sides.

Thousands of Palestinians return to Damascus camp
AFP - Thousands of Palestinians returned Thursday to the Syrian capital's Yarmuk refugee camp, despite sporadic gunfire, after fleeing battles between between pro- and anti-regime forces, residents said.
End of Syria regime 'matter of time': Turkey minister
AFP - The fall of the Syrian regime is "only a matter of time", Turkey's foreign minister said on Wednesday, calling on other countries to help make the transition period as brief as possible.

Talks to remove warring sides from Damascus camp
AFP - Talks were under way on Wednesday aimed at removing both rebel and pro-government fighters from a Damascus Palestinian refugee camp after deadly clashes, a Palestinian relief official told AFP.

Yemen's president shakes up army 
AP - Yemen's president on Wednesday ordered a shake-up of the country's Defense Ministry, removing the powerful son, relatives and aides of the ousted leader, in a harsh blow to the ex-president's remaining ties to power.

Yemen president sacks Saleh's military cronies
AFP - President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has dramatically restructured Yemen's military to curb the influence of those linked to toppled strongman Abdullah Ali Saleh with the strong backing of Yemen's Gulf neighbours.
     In a series of decisions announced late on Wednesday, Hadi scrapped the elite Republican Guard commanded by Saleh's oldest son Ahmed and removed Saleh's nephew, Yehya, from his powerful post as deputy chief of central security.

Oil prices rise as US reports drop in energy stockpiles
AFP - Oil prices rallied on Wednesday as the United States revealed that its energy stockpiles had fallen last week, indicating increasing demand in the world's biggest economy.
     New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January jumped $1.48 to $89.41 a barrel.
     Brent North Sea crude for February advanced $1.15 to $109.99 a barrel in late London deals.
     The US Department of Energy on Wednesday said stockpiles of heating fuel and crude oil both dropped last week. Inventories of US distillates, comprising diesel and heating fuel, slid 1.1 million barrels in the week to December 14, the DoE said.
At Benghazi Hearing, State Dept. Concedes Errors
NYT -  The weaknesses with the handling of diplomatic security in Benghazi, Libya, that led to a deadly attack on a diplomatic outpost there were “unacceptable,” Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns told a Senate committee on Thursday.
     “We have to do better,” Mr. Burns said in prepared testimony to the Foreign Relations Committee, which opened a hearing into the attack in which four Americans, including the American ambassador, were killed on Sept 11. Three department officials resigned on Tuesday after the release of a scathing report by an inquiry panel led by Thomas R. Pickering, a retired diplomat.
     In an opening statement, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s chairman, said that Congress “also bears some responsibility” to provide adequate financing for diplomatic security. He noted that the board’s report called for spending $2.3 billion a year in the coming decade to protect American Embassies and offices abroad.
     Mr. Kerry and Mr. Burns said it was important to find ways for diplomats to get out among the people, even in dangerous countries.
Britain to pull nearly 4,000 troops from Afghanistan
AFP - Britain will slash its military force in Afghanistan next year, withdrawing nearly 4,000 troops as local security forces become increasingly capable, Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday.

U.N. Vote Planned on Mali Security
NYT - The United Nations Security Council was expected to vote Thursday on a resolution that would approve the deployment of a multinational African force in Mali, along with Western training and equipment for the Malian Army, to help retake the northern part of the country from Islamist militias.
     The resolution, drafted and offered for a formal vote by France, has widespread support among Mali’s neighbors and other African states and was expected to gain unanimous approval by the 15-member Security Council.
     It would constitute the Council’s most assertive action to deal with the crisis in Mali. The country descended into mayhem after a military coup in March created a power vacuum that enabled Islamist extremists to occupy vast stretches of territory, including the ancient city of Timbuktu.
     The militants have enforced a strict Islamic code of conduct on residents, committed human rights abuses and permitted Al Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate to operate training camps there. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, has said Mali is “at risk of becoming a permanent haven for terrorists and organized criminal networks.”
Top Holy Land Catholic's dismay at religious site attacks
AP - The head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land has expressed "dismay" at a wave of attacks on local Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious sites over the past year.
55 Somalis, Ethiopians dead or missing in boat capsize
AFP - Fifty-five Somalis and Ethiopians drowned or went missing after their boat capsized off Somalia on Tuesday in the worst such disaster in the area in almost two years, the United Nations said.
US senators slam Oscar-tipped Bin Laden movie
AFP - Three top US senators, including former White House hopeful John McCain, slammed a new Osama bin Laden manhunt movie for suggesting that torture helped find the Al-Qaeda chief.

Latakia will become Focus of Alawi-Sunni Contest; Scorched Earth; Hama in Flames; 27% of US Public Say…
Joshua Landis - Latakia will surely become the focal-point of the Sunni-Alawi contest for power. It is hard to imagine that there will not be ethnic cleansing. At least %60 of the city’s inhabitants are Sunni, but it is the capital of the predominately Alawi coastal region. Today it is calm, but the storm is gathering.
     Latakia is a key port for the Syrian Hinterland and Aleppo. It is necessary for exporting the farm and industrial output of the city and its hinterland. The port of Alexandretta used to be the main port for Aleppo, but it was replaced by Latakia once the Turks took Antioch and Alexandretta in 1938. For this reason, Sunnis will need to make a drive for it. They will also understand that it is the key to any future Alawite enclave and must be denied to Assad and his army.
     The Alawites see Latakia to be essential to their future in Syria. It is the political capital of the Alawite region. Qurdaha, the Assads’ hometown, is a village of Latakia, dependent on it in every way. Latakia is the home of most of the Shabiha elites as well as leading Alawite families.
     It is the political capital of the Alawite coastal region and thus essential to the future of the coastal region that the Alawites will fall back on. It was the capital of the Alawite State under the French Mandate and remains psychologically central to the Alawite community, which is based along the coast.

In shifting sands of Middle East, who will lead? 
Steven A. Cook - The issue of leadership is critical for the region. States with prestige and financial, diplomatic, and military resources can drive events in the Middle East – hopefully for good, but potentially for bad. In the 1950s and ’60s, for example, Egypt’s leadership under Gamal Abdel Nasser shaped regional politics around the myths of Arab nationalism, which led to intra-Arab conflict and regional war. The Arab Spring provides an opportunity for a power or group of powers to usher in a new era of peace, prosperity, and perhaps democracy.
     In the spring of 2011, some observers believed that Turkey was a model for countries in the Arab world that aspire to democratic politics and successful economies. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s triumphal tour of Cairo, Tunis, and Tripoli in September 2011 reinforced the idea that Ankara was the natural center of a new emerging regional order.
     Turkey certainly has much to offer the region. It is more democratic than any country in the Arab world and boasts the 16th largest economy in the world. The din of various Arabic dialects spoken by Egyptian, Libyan, Saudi, and other tourists at passport control at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport or in the famous Grand Bazaar speaks to Turkey’s regional pull.
     However, a little more than a year after Mr. Erdogan’s regional tour, Turkey’s popularity – while still strong – is softening. In a recent poll, the respected Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation uncovered a creeping ambivalence among Arabs about Turkey’s regional role.

Rape outcry shines light on India's 'misogyny'
AP, Dec 20, 2012 - Despite an outpouring of anger at a student's gang-rape, observers say misogyny remains widespread in India where sex assaults are often dismissed as "teasing" and victims find themselves blamed for attacks.
Chemical warfare in the Middle East: A brief history
JP, Dec 17, 2012 - In the modern era, Egypt used gas during the civil war in Yemen between 1963 and 1967 (with a short break for the Six Day War) but denied the charge. The United Nations General Assembly issued a condemnation, but secretary general U Thant said he was “powerless” in the matter. The Soviet Union used gas against civilians during its long Afghan war, and Syria apparently used gas against Muslim Brotherhood rebels in Hama in 1982.
     The epitome of modern chemical warfare occurred during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Iraq initiated the war in September 1980, and by November, in a desperate response to Iranian human wave tactics, was using gas. In 1984 Iraq became the first nation ever to use nerve gas. Many Western countries had provided Iraq with dual-use technologies and precursor chemicals; Egypt and China helpfully supplied specialized munitions. In 1988 Iraq also used gas against rebellious Kurds, killing perhaps 15,000. In the immediate aftermath, the US government blamed Iran; the Central Intelligence Agency maintained this position into the 1990s.
     Deterred by US and Israeli weaponry, Iraq did not use chemical weapons against the Americans during 1991 or 2003 or against Israel. For the same reason, however, Israel, despite a series of missile strikes against it in 1991, did not use unconventional weapons against Iraq.
Lebanon’s Shiites and Sunnis Battle in Syria, but Not at Home  
NYT, Dec19, 2012 - The patchwork of Sunni Muslim and Shiite villages arrayed along the northern border with Syria are heavily embroiled in the protracted struggle there, but with a distinctive twist.     Fighters from Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite movement, cross the frontier to fight for Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who is Alawite and whose sect dominates the government. Sunni Muslims sneak over to join the opposition. Once back home in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, however, both sides observe an uneasy truce.
     “Inside they are slaughtering us, but as soon as we cross into Lebanon there is nothing between us,” said Abdullah, 22, a stocky Sunni farmer who now toils as both a fighter and a smuggler, using only one name to protect his identity. “I would say it is something normal to fight on the other side, given that we are against the regime while they are with it.”
     Yet the confrontation over controlling the strategic border throws off sparks that could ignite a bigger conflagration given that it is part of the Sunni-Shiite contest to dominate the Middle East. “There is already a kind of chaos along the border which neither Lebanon nor Syria fully controls, so there is a fear that it will spread into Lebanon,” said Talal Atrissi, a Lebanese academic and expert on Arab-Iranian relations.
     Recently nearly two dozen Lebanese Sunni jihadists were ambushed by the Syrian Army soon after they crossed the border, but details of the number killed, wounded or captured are still unconfirmed.
Female Vaccination Workers, Essential in Pakistan, Become Prey
NYT, Dec 20, 2012 -  The front-line heroes of Pakistan’s war on polio are its volunteers: young women who tread fearlessly from door to door, in slums and highland villages, administering precious drops of vaccine to children in places where their immunization campaign is often viewed with suspicion.
     Now, those workers have become quarry. After militants stalked and killed eight of them over the course of a three-day, nationwide vaccination drive, the United Nations suspended its anti-polio work in Pakistan on Wednesday, and one of Pakistan’s most crucial public health campaigns has been plunged into crisis. A ninth victim died on Thursday, a day after being shot in the northwestern city of Peshawar, The Associated Press reported.
     The World Health Organization and Unicef ordered their staff members off the streets, while government officials reported that some polio volunteers — especially women — were afraid to show up for work.
     At the ground level, it is those female health workers who are essential, allowed privileged entrance into private homes to meet and help children in situations denied to men because of conservative rural culture. “They are on the front line; they are the backbone,” said Imtiaz Ali Shah, a polio coordinator in Peshawar.
Yemeni Leader Tries to Centralize a Divided Military
NYT, Dec 19, 2012 - President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen ordered a sweeping restructuring of the country’s divided and weak military on Wednesday, moving to replace or sideline commanders who were loyal to his predecessor and whose competing agendas had fed the country’s persistent insecurity.     The decrees issued by the president centralized the command of the military under five branches, officials said. Most significant, they said, the president’s edict would result in the dismantling of the powerful Republican Guard, a unit led by a rival of Mr. Hadi’s who had defied the president’s orders.
     Overhauling the military was seen as a crucial step in Yemen’s delicate transition after the autocratic rule of Mr. Hadi’s predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who held power for more than three decades. Months of street protests against Mr. Saleh’s rule last year led to a political crisis while creating a security vacuum that allowed groups linked to Al Qaeda to seize territory, especially in the south of the country.
AP Interview: Egypt atheist blasts Islamist regime
AP, Dec 19, 2012 -  An Egyptian atheist convicted then released from prison on bail this week told The Associated Press Wednesday that the new Islamist government is no better than the dictatorial regime it replaced.
     The blasphemy case against Alber Saber, 27, is seen by rights advocates as part of a campaign by Egypt's ultraconservative Islamists to curb free expression. It underlines the growing divide between the country's powerful Islamists and those who say their uncompromising approach is creating a new authoritarian system that does not represent all Egyptians.
     Saber was arrested in September after neighbors complained he had posted an anti-Islam film that sparked protests across the Muslim world on his Facebook page, but investigators didn't find evidence of that. Even so, he was put on trial and sentenced last week to three years in prison for blasphemy and contempt of religion. He was released on bail on Tuesday pending an appeal in January.
     Saber, wearing a black tracksuit that hung off of his slight frame, told the AP that he believes the Muslim Brotherhood used him as an example - and as a means of warning those who oppose their Islamist ideology that alternate views will not be tolerated.
     "They are no different from the former regime," said Saber of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government.
Israeli Arabs unenthusiastic about Jan. 22 vote 
AP, Dec 19, 2012 - Israeli Arab activist Rasool Saada is crisscrossing the country to encourage fellow Arab citizens to vote in Jan. 22 parliamentary elections, convinced they can make a difference. Numerically, he's right. Historically, it hasn't worked out that way.
     Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population, but their voter turnout has been much lower than that of the Jewish majority. Many Arabs are disillusioned with politics, feeling alienated as a minority in a Jewish state and dissatisfied with their own squabbling, ineffective representatives.
     On the Jewish side, suspicion over the loyalty and ultimate goals of Israeli Arabs, always in the background, has grown in recent years with the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and more overt identification with the Palestinians by Israeli Arab leaders.
     "It's a daily identity crisis living as an Arab in Israel, because your Palestinian identity is your core," said Saada, 23, the only Arab in his law school class at Israel's Bar-Ilan University. "Many throw their hands up and don't want to participate in politics, but because we're a minority, we need to have our voices heard."
In Syrian rebel training, motivation trumps skills
AP, Dec 18, 2012 - Sixteen grunting rebel fighters dropped down for pushups in a rain-slick backyard, practiced storming a house from the cover of an olive grove, and then assembled for a refresher course on firing rocket-propelled grenades.
     Their instructor, a former Syrian commando, said his young trainees still have a lot to learn, but that their drive to topple President Bashar Assad already makes them better soldiers than the regime's conscripts.
     "Our faith in our cause outweighs our shortcomings," said the instructor, who defected from the Syrian army in February and gave his name only as Abu Hamza to protect his relatives against regime retribution. "Psychologically, they (rebel fighters) are stronger than the Syrian army."
     Monday's training, in a rural area of Syria's largely rebel-controlled northwestern Idlib province, is part of a widening attempt to transform ragtag rebel groups into a disciplined fighting force.

Rubble and Despair of War Redefine Syria Jewel
NYT, Dec 18, 2012 - Winter is descending on Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and the bloodied stage for an urban battle, now running into its sixth month, between rebels and the military of PresidentBashar al-Assad.
     As temperatures drop and the weakened government’s artillery thunders on, Aleppo is administered by no one and slipping into disaster. Front-line neighborhoods are rubble. Most of the city’s districts have had no electricity and little water for weeks. All of Aleppo suffers from shortages of oil, food, medicine, doctors and gas.
     Diseases are spreading. Parks and courtyards are being defoliated for firewood, turning streets once lined with trees into avenues bordered by stumps. Months’ worth of trash is piled high, often beside bread lines where hundreds of people wait for a meager stack of loaves.
     One of the Middle East’s beautiful and historic cities is being forced by scarcity and violence into a bitter new shape. Overlaying it all is a mix of fatigue and distrust, the sentiments of a population divided in multiple ways.
     Aleppo’s citizens scavenge and seethe. And along with the sectarian passions of civil war, some residents express yearnings for starkly opposite visions of the future: either for a return of the relative stability of the Assad government or for the promises of Islamic rule.
UN confirms Hezbollah fighting for Assad in Syria
JP, Dec 20, 2012 - The Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has confirmed that its members are in Syria fighting on behalf of the government, United Nations human rights investigators said on Thursday.
     There are also reports that Iraqi Shias are coming to fight in Syria, and Iran confirmed in September that its Revolutionary Guards are in Syria providing assistance, the independent investigators led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro said in their latest 10-page report.
'2013 to be decisive year for Obama foreign policy'
JP, Dec 20, 2012 - 2013 is going to be a very decisive year for the second Obama administration, Ambassador Dennis Ross, a councilor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said in Jerusalem on Thursday.
     Speaking to a joint conference of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Ross forecast that the three priorities of the Obama administration that would be in convergence with Israel would be Iran, Syria and what he termed, the "Arab Awakening" as distinct from the Arab Spring.     Ross stated that the particular focus of the Arab Awakening was Egypt, and the reason he called it an awakening was because for the first time people could see themselves as citizens with a voice instead of subjects on whom the regime imposes its views.
Israel Defies Allies in Move to Bolster Settlements
NYT, Dec 19, 2012 - Israel pushed ahead with aggressive new settlement building on Wednesday, brushing aside a growing chorus of international opposition, including criticism by its Western allies, that the move threatened to destroy the peace process with thePalestinians.
     The Housing Ministry authorized construction on 1,000 housing units in the West Bank, while the city of Jerusalem approved 2,610 units in Givat Hamatos, a new neighborhood in an area annexed after the 1967 war.
     The actions came after 1,500 controversial units in the Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo were approved Monday and 500 others in Givat Hamatos on Tuesday. An additional 1,000 units, in Gilo, are expected to move forward on Thursday, in what experts said was the most activity in years in the areas known collectively as East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital.
     Every member of the United Nations Security Council except the United States issued statements on Wednesday condemning the construction.
War in Syria Is Becoming Sectarian, U.N. Panel Says
New York Times, Dec 20, 2012 - Syria’s civil war has evolved from a battle over political change into a conflict that is “overtly sectarian,” pulling fighters from across the Middle East and North Africa into the fray, United Nations investigators said on Thursday.
     The risk of political confrontation erupting into ethnic and religious strife had always been present but “as battles between government forces and antigovernment armed groups approach the end of their second year, the conflict has become overtly sectarian in nature,” said the investigators, who are members of a panel appointed by the United Nations and led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil.
     In an interim report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on developments over the last two months, the investigators said attacks and reprisals had led communities to arm themselves and to be armed by different parties to the conflict. “Entire communities are at risk of being forced out of the country or killed inside the country,” they said.
     “Feeling threatened and under attack, ethnic and religious minority groups have increasingly aligned themselves with parties to the conflict, deepening sectarian divides,” the panel said.
     The sharpest split is between the Alawite sect, a Shiite Muslim minority from which President Bashar al-Assad’s most senior political and military associates are drawn, and the country’s Sunni Muslim majority, mostly aligned with the opposition, the panel noted. But it said the conflict had drawn in other minorities, including Armenians, Christians, Druze, Palestinians, Kurds and Turkmen.
New Syria rebel chief describes clandestine life
AP, Dec 19, 2012 - The new Syrian rebel chief said he's been moving between safe houses since taking up command, even changing quarters twice in one night when he feared regime spies.
     Grappling with largely untrained and at times undisciplined fighters, Salim Idris said in an interview that he is trying to turn local militias into a united force of some 120,000 men for a final push against President Bashar Assad.
     The challenges keep him awake at night, said Idris, a former general who defected from the Syrian army five months ago and was chosen as rebel chief of staff in a meeting of several hundred field commanders this month in Turkey.
     Idris is "very afraid" a cornered Assad might unleash chemical weapons on the fighters. He said old friends of his still in the regime have warned him that the military, which already fired several Scuds, is training more ready-to-fire missiles on rebel strongholds in Syria's northwest.
Egypt's Alexandria gripped by feud over future 
AP, Dec 18, 2012 - The Qaed Ibrahim mosque, revered by Alexandrines as the embodiment of their Mediterranean city's cosmopolitan heritage, has become a battleground between the two visions fighting over the future of Egypt, literally.
     When prominent ultraconservative cleric Sheik Ahmed el-Mahalawi denounced opponents of the Islamist-backed draft constitution as "followers of heretics" in a sermon, angry protests erupted, turning into clashes between sword-wielding supporters of the cleric and rock-throwing opponents, while police did nothing. The 87-year-old el-Mahalawi was trapped inside for over 12 hours during the battle, while protesters outside tried to free several of their comrades detained - and beaten, they say - in the mosque.
     Afterward, powerful Islamist groups in Egypt's second largest city threatened to deploy their own armed militias in the streets to protect their symbols.
     Alexandria is often seen as a predictor of Egypt's trends - one prominent local writer, Alaa Khaled, calls it "Egypt's subconscious," where the country's true nature comes out.
Syrian family's tough year away from home
AJE, Dec 20, 2012 - As 2012 draws to a close, Al Jazeera is taking a look at some of this year's most important stories, through the eyes of familes that have experienced them.
     Conflict has forced more than two and a half million Syrians to flee their country.
     Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh went to Al Zaatri camp in northern Jordan to hear one family's story.
The Battle for the Sinai
AJE, Dec 19, 2012 - Half a million people live in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip. For decades, they have been governed by a strong security paradigm, and the Camp David accords with Israel – underwritten by billions of dollars in US military aid.
     Now they are back in the international spotlight because of an increase in militant attacks, arms smuggling and human trafficking.
     When Egyptians took to the streets against Hosni Mubarak’s police state in January 2011, the Sinai was no exception. But the insurgency here continued long after his ouster, causing worry among some of Egypt’s powerful backers.
     The true test of the evolving Egyptian relationship with the US then may lie in Cairo’s ability to control any instability in the peninsula.
     Fault Lines explores the roots of Sinai’s ongoing uprising and, as Egypt’s new leaders vow to crack down on militancy and smuggling, the dangers of following an old script. How did the Sinai Peninsula become a crucible for geopolitical tensions?

How Unconventional Oil And Gas Is Supercharging The U.S. Economy
Forbes, Dec 13, 2012 - This guest article is byJulie M. Carey, an energy economist with Navigant Economics
     It’s an exciting time to be in the energy industry in America. The impact of unconventional oil and gas development on the U.S. economy is considerable, with potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in investments, millions of new jobs, and a renaissance of American ingenuity and innovation.
     In thinking about what is to come, looking back five years helps set the stage. January 2008: The energy sector was facing the great recession, high current and future expected natural gas prices, and job losses to China. There was a generally poor outlook for the energy industry and the economy.
     Few could have predicted the changes that were to come.  Unforeseen happenings include the North Dakota oil rush, liquefied natural gas facilities being used as export facilities (instead of as import facilities as originally planned), railroads hauling crude oil, and jobs coming back from China. And, this is just the beginning. The commencement of the crude oil and natural gas revolution can be boiled down to one simple equation:
     Abundant resources + cost effective extraction = high production levels of unconventional oil and gas
Statoil buys acreage in US shale field for $590 mn
AFP - State-owned Norwegian oil major Statoil said on Wednesday that it had bought 70,000 acres (283 square km) of land in the US Marcellus shale gas field for $590 million.

The Day A Computer Virus Came Close To Plugging Gulf Oil
Forbes, Nov 9, 2012 - The attack on Saudi Aramco saw critical data on its PCs replaced with the image of a burning American flag, according to the New York Times. Was that a calling card for hacktivists, or an attempt to throw investigators off the scent of the real attackers and their motivations?
     That still is unclear, but Schenk says the attack on his client was so serious, that if its critical, industrial control (or SCADA) systems had been hit, “more than 30% of the Gulf’s oil supply would have stopped.”
     Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest oil producer, and supplies more than 10% of global oil demand, with more than half of its crude oil going to the Far East.
     “Luckily enough they had good systems in place,” Schenk said on the sidelines of the McAfee security conference in London on Thursday, and the virus only got as far as the company’s business systems.
BP says sells stake in China gas field to Kuwait
AFP - British oil giant BP said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell its stake in China's Yacheng gas field to the state-owned Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) as part of a divestment programme.

Bitter Afghan enemies to meet for peace talks
BT - TALIBAN representatives will this week meet their bitter foes from the Northern Alliance in an initiative aimed at heading off civil war in Afghanistan after NATO forces leave at the end of 2014.
     The old enemies will be represented among 20 delegates attending a conference organised by a French think tank at an undisclosed location outside Paris.
     The Taliban has insisted that the meeting will not involve negotiations, but a senior member of the Afghan High Peace Council said simply getting the enemies in the same room was ''an excellent development''.

U.N. makes it easier for blacklisted Taliban to travel for peace talks
Reuters - The U.N. Security Council renewed its Taliban sanctions regime on Monday, but made it easier for blacklisted people to get an exemption to travel outside of Afghanistan for peace and reconciliation talks.
Afghan officials, Taliban meet in Paris
UPI -  Taliban leaders and supporters of Afghan President Hamid Karzai traveled to Paris Wednesday to begin discussing a peace road map, officials said.

Senior al Qaeda man reported arrested in Algeria
Reuters - The number two in the militant Islamist organisation Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been arrested in northern Algeria, an Algerian news website reported on Monday.

Hollande begins visit to Algeria
UPI - French President Francois Hollande began a two-day trip to Algeria Wednesday, hoping to ink several business deals, officials said.

Egyptian Islamists plan mass protest ahead of constitution vote
Reuters - Egyptian Islamist groups are planning a mass protest in Alexandria on Friday, a move that will raise tensions a day before the final stage of a referendum on a new constitution that has split the nation.
Egypt opposition protests against constitution
Reuters - Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi staged protests in Cairo on Tuesday against an Islamist-backed draft constitution that has divided Egypt but looks set to be approved in the second half of a referendum this weekend.
Islamic preacher sentenced to insult
UPI - A Cairo court sentenced Islamic preacher Abdullah Badr to one year in prison for insulting a prominent Egyptian actress.

Egypt's new public prosecutor resigns
Reuters - Egypt's new public prosecutor, appointed by President Mohamed Mursi last month, has resigned from his post, judicial sources and the main state newspaper al-Ahram said on Monday.
Mubarak to go to military hospital
UPI - Egyptian prison authorities are seeking permission from the Defense Ministry to transfer former president Hosni Mubarak to a military hospital.

Rattled Israel holds key to Palestinian uprising
Reuters - Mohammad Salaymeh was killed on his 17th birthday after going to buy a cake for the family celebration, shot dead by an Israeli paramilitary policewoman just two years older than him.     The Israeli police called him a terrorist and said he had pulled a gun on guards manning a permanent checkpoint next to his house in this divided city. The gun turned out to be a child's toy and Salaymeh never got to his party.
     "He was no terrorist. He was just a lovely kid," said Adel Salaymeh, a relative walking behind Salaymeh's funeral cortege, the teenager's face poking out of the green flag of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas that shrouded his body.
     "The people don't want another Intifada (uprising), but if the Israelis carry on like this, then they will get one," he said, rain dripping from his forehead as a crowd of more than 1,000 walked briskly to the sodden cemetery.
     As a winter chill falls on the West Bank, tensions are rising after years of relative calm, with clashes reported almost daily across the territory in a tangled ritual that has come to define 45 years of Israeli occupation.
     Groups of Palestinian youths, their faces wrapped in a chequered Keffiyeh headdresses, hurl abuse, stones and the odd petrol bomb at soldiers, who respond with tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and the occasional live round.
     "Raids in Ramallah, arrests in Jenin, shootings and riots in Hebron. Scenes from the start of the Third Intifada?" said Amir Mizroch, editor of the Israel Hayom English-language news website.
     Despite the friction, another sustained, organised uprising against Israeli occupation looks unlikely in the near future.
     To a large degree, the Israelis themselves may determine which way the balance tips. A confrontational approach to security, unchecked violence by Jewish settlers or a poorly calibrated response to Palestinian diplomatic manoeuvring could yet unleash massive unrest in this rocky, arid territory.
     While Hamas is committed to armed resistance and has refused to renounce an inch of modern-day Israel, although it has said it would consider a long-term truce with the Jewish state, Fatah says it is ready to accept a state along 1967 lines. It believes diplomatic pressure and non-violent confrontation can win out.
     In this vein, it is considering joining a welter of global bodies following its U.N. upgrade, including the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which it could use to pursue Israel for alleged war crimes tied to the settlement movement.
     Such a move could pose a trickier challenge to Israel than a renewed uprising, with the hi-tech army well versed in dealing with the West Bank's 2.5 million Palestinians. However, senior officers say they are taking nothing for granted.
     "Our forces must increase their alertness and maintain their operational preparedness, at all levels," Major General Nitzan Alon, who heads the military Central Command that oversees West Bank operations, told his troops on December 11.

West Bank Palestinians strike as Israeli sanctions bite
Reuters - Palestinian government employees in the West Bank began a two-day general strike on Wednesday to protest against a delay in the payment of their wages because of Israeli economic sanctions.

Iran defiant on enrichment ahead of possible nuclear talks
Reuters - Iran will not stop higher-grade uranium enrichment in response to external demands, its top nuclear energy official was quoted as saying on Tuesday, signalling a tough bargaining stance ahead of planned new talks with world powers.
Iran reopens Afghan consulate after protests
Reuters - Iran has reopened its consulate in the Afghan city of Herat, a week after it was reported closed following anti-Iranian protests outside the compound, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Former Iranian diplomat wanted by U.S. arrives in Tehran
Reuters - A former Iranian diplomat arrested in London for trying to export night-vision weapons' sights to Iran arrived back in Tehran on Tuesday after winning a six-year legal battle in Britain.

Kurdish troops fire on Iraqi army helicopter in dispute
Reuters - Troops from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan opened fire on an Iraqi army helicopter on Tuesday, underscoring tensions between Baghdad's Arab-led central government and the Kurdish region, officials said.
Iraq's President Talabani to be transferred to Germany after stroke
Reuters - Iraq's President Jalal Talabani is in stable condition and will be transferred to Germany within a day for treatment after suffering a stroke, one of his medical team said on Wednesday.

World Bank pledges $900 million for Iraq
Reuters - The World Bank pledged $900 million to Iraq over the next four years to help it create jobs, build stronger institutions and improve social inclusion, the global development lender said in a statement on Tuesday.
Iraqi president stroke fuels succession talk
Reuters - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was responding to treatment on Wednesday after suffering a stroke that raised fears of a messy succession battle to replace the Kurd leader who has mediated among Iraq's competing factions.

Israel presses on with plan for 6,000 new settler homes
Reuters - Israeli officials said they would press on with plans this week to build 6,000 homes for settlers on land claimed by Palestinians, defying criticism from Western powers who fear the move will damage already faint hopes for a peace accord.
Bus bomb terror cell nabbed in Ramallah
UPI - Israel security agency Shin Bet has arrested members of an alleged terror cell in the Ramallah area supposedly responsible for bombing a bus in Tel Aviv.
U.N. sees risk of escalation in Syrian-Israeli tensions in Golan
Reuters - A U.S. and Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a peacekeeping mission in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel warns that tensions between the neighbours could escalate as Syria's civil war spills into the area.

Israel sees new U.S. poise, including military, to curb Iran
Reuters - U.S.-led efforts to curb Iran's nuclear programme have resumed since President Barack Obama's re-election and include preparation for possible military action, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday.
Israel charges Tel Aviv bus bomb suspect
Reuters - Israel charged an Israeli Arab citizen on Wednesday over a bomb explosion on a Tel Aviv bus during Israel's November military offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the Justice Ministry said.

Libya flexes muscle to seal off problematic south
Reuters - Plagued by violence, drugs, weapons trafficking and an influx of illegal immigrants, Libya's new rulers are seeking to clamp down on lawlessness in the vast desert south by closing the region's porous borders.

Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Reuters - Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in an unprecedented string of attacks over the past three days that has partially halted the U.N.-backed campaign.
Grenade attack on PAF academy injures 10
UPI - At least 10 people, including five security officers, were injured Tuesday when grenades were thrown at a military school in Risalpur, Pakistan, officials said.

U.N. suspends polio program in Pakistan
UPI -  The United Nations halted its polio immunization program in Pakistan Wednesday after three workers were killed in attacks in Peshawar, officials said.

Sudanese man beheaded in Saudi Arabia
BBC - A Sudanese man convicted of murder has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf kingdom's interior ministry has said.
     According to the ministry statement, published by the state news agency, the execution of Othman Mohammed took place in the western city of Mecca.
     He had been found guilty of killing another man from Sudan, Salah Ahmed, by repeatedly beating him around the head.
     Under the kingdom's strict Islamic laws, the death penalty can be imposed for a number of offences.

Sudan, South Sudan to discuss rebel support next month
Reuters - Sudan and South Sudan will tackle the sensitive issue of support for rebel groups for the first time when they resume security talks next month, Sudan's defence minister said on Wednesday.

Russia eyes Syria evacuation as rebels take Damascus district
Reuters - Russia sent warships to the Mediterranean to prepare a potential evacuation of its citizens from Syria, a Russian news agency said on Tuesday, a sign President Bashar al-Assad's key ally is worried about rebel advances now threatening even the capital.
Iranian minister denies Syria's Assad about to fall
Reuters - Iran does not believe Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government are about to fall, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Tuesday.
Syrian rebels take over Palestinian camp in Damascus
Reuters - Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus on Monday after days of fighting, rebel and Palestinian sources said.

Syrian rebel-Palestinian battle in Yarmouk
UPI - Palestinians loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and armed rebels battled in a Damascus Palestinian neighborhood two days after rebels claimed control.
Wounded, starving crowd ill-equipped Damascus hospital
Reuters - Wounded and starving Syrians, many of them women and children, are crowding into Damascus's main hospital where medical supplies are increasingly short, World Health Organization (WHO) officials told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
Italian and two others kidnapped in Syria - Italy
Reuters - An Italian and two other workers at a steel plant near Syria's main port city of Latakia have been kidnapped, Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Turkey sees France unblocking two EU chapters
Reuters - Turkey is hopeful France will unblock talks over EU membership on at least two policy chapters in the coming months ahead of a visit by President Francois Hollande, Ankara's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said on Tuesday.

UAE says Egypt media carried false plot claims
Reuters - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has rebuffed claims carried by Egyptian media that it was behind a plot against the Egypt's leadership, saying they were "fabricated", state news agency WAM reported.
     Egyptian official sources, who declined to be named because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said the UAE was responding to accusations by Mohammed Yaqout that the Gulf state was involved in a plot to kidnap Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.
     Yaqout is a former member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, according to independent newspaper al-Masry al-Youm.
     The UAE has arrested about 60 local Islamists this year, accusing them of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood - which is banned in the country - and conspiring to overthrow the government.
     Thanks to cradle-to-grave welfare systems, the UAE and other Gulf Arab monarchies have largely avoided the Arab Spring unrest which unseated rulers elsewhere.
     But they fear that the rise of the Brotherhood in Egypt, and of other Islamist groups elsewhere, could increase dissent on their own turf.

UAE arrests four people after tightening Internet law
Reuters - Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have arrested at least four people in what human rights campaigners said might be part of a crackdown on online dissent and a tightening of the Gulf Arab state's Internet law.

Yemen investigates pipeline attacks
UPI - Yemeni investigators concluded that saboteurs used artillery rockets to attack a natural gas pipeline in a southern province last weekend.
     Energy company Yemen LNG said this week that a 38-inch natural gas pipeline tied to the Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden was attacked. Investigators said militants used two artillery rockets to detonate the pipeline, the Yemen Post reports.

Panel Assails Role of State Department in Benghazi Attack   
NYT, Dec 18, 2012 - An inquiry into the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Libya criticized the State Department for a lack of seasoned security personnel and for ignoring requests for more guards.
     The investigation into the attack on the diplomatic mission and the C.I.A. annex in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans also faulted State Department officials in Washington for ignoring requests from the American Embassy in Tripoli for more guards for the mission and for failing to make sufficient safety upgrades.
     The panel also said American intelligence officials had relied too much on specific warnings of imminent attacks, which they did not have in the case of Benghazi, rather than basing assessments more broadly on a deteriorating security environment. By this spring, Benghazi, a hotbed of militant activity in eastern Libya, had experienced a string of assassinations, an attack on a British envoy’s motorcade and the explosion of a bomb outside the American Mission.
     Finally, the report blamed two major State Department bureaus — Diplomatic Security and Near Eastern Affairs — for failing to coordinate and plan adequate security. The panel also determined that a number of officials had shown poor leadership, but they were not identified in the unclassified version of the report that was released.
Clinton accepts Benghazi findings, orders broad changes
Reuters - WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she accepted the findings of an independent panel that faulted the State Department over the deadly September attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and had ordered widespread changes to bolster U.S. diplomatic security overseas.
Factbox - Key recommendations of U.S. panel on Benghazi attack
Reuters - An independent U.S. inquiry into the September attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, released on Tuesday made recommendations on how to improve U.S. diplomatic security overseas.
World must not let up pressure on Somali pirates - NATO
Reuters - Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have dropped sharply this year but piracy remains a viable "business model" and could bounce back if international naval forces in the region are cut back, the outgoing commander of the NATO mission said on Monday.
Soldiers turn hijackers of N.Korea ship in Somali port
Reuters - A dozen soldiers guarding a North Korean ship impounded in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region for maritime violations have hijacked the vessel and its 33 crew, government and naval sources said on Wednesday.
2012 deadliest year on record for journalists
Reuters - More journalists were killed doing their job in 2012 than in any year since monitoring started 17 years ago, with Syria and Somalia seeing a particularly heavy toll, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday.

Gang rape draws public anger in India
UPI - Indian public ire over the horrific gang rape of a female student in a moving bus exploded into protests as the victim fought for her life.
At least 18 Somalis die when boat capsizes off Puntland
Reuters - At least 18 Somalis drowned when their boat sank and their bodies washed ashore near the port city of Bosaso in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Puntland, a government official said on Tuesday.
U.N. sees risk of escalation in Syrian-Israeli tensions in Golan
Reuters - A U.S. and Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution to extend a peacekeeping mission in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel warns that tensions between the neighbours could escalate as Syria's civil war spills into the area.
World Bank sees "formidable risks" to Western Balkans growth
Reuters - The economies of the Western Balkans will shrink an average of 0.6 percent this year, the World Bank said on Tuesday, slashing its 2013 forecast and warning of "formidable risks" to growth.     The bank had previously seen average growth for the region - comprising Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo - at 1.1 percent, but said the fallout from the euro zone debt crisis was worse than previously feared.
U.N. makes it easier for blacklisted Taliban to travel for peace talks
Reuters - The U.N. Security Council renewed its Taliban sanctions regime on Monday, but made it easier for blacklisted people to get an exemption to travel outside of Afghanistan for peace and reconciliation talks.
Joy for NBC crew freed from kidnappers in Syria
CNN - An NBC reporter and his crew spoke Tuesday of their overwhelming relief after being freed from kidnappers in Syria who kept them bound, blindfolded and repeatedly threatened to kill them during a five-day ordeal.
David Cameron confirms Afghan withdrawal starting in April
TG - David Cameron has confirmed that British troops will begin to return home from Afghanistan in their thousands next April as ministers urged the Taliban to engage in peace talks and accept that "reconciliation is not surrender".
     Shortly after making the announcement, Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, conceded that the withdrawal of Nato forces would lead to "messy compromises", and that in all likelihood, "some parts of Afghanistan will not be under central government control".
     "It is not a perfect democracy and it never will be," he said.
     Hammond's stark assessment came as the government insisted that Afghan security forces were now strong enough to take the lead in combat operations in Helmand province, where British forces have been based since 2006.
     Cameron said this allowed the UK to plan for the withdrawal of 3,800 British troops by the end of 2013, leaving just over 5,000 still in the country.

After the constitution
Ali Ibrahim - If we are to believe the unofficial polling figures announced after the first stage of the controversial constitutional referendum in Egypt, where 57 percent are reported to have voted “yes” and 43 percent have voted “no”, with similar figures expected, with a slight give or take on either side, when the final results are announced after the second stage on Saturday, then we are still facing a clear state of division in Egyptian society between the so-called Islamist forces and the civil forces who fear the Brotherhoodization of the state system. The basic principle of a written constitution is that it regulates a social contract, with the largest degree of agreement and consensus possible, between all the components of society. It is not like an election where one party or political force may win by a slight majority, and the minority accepts this in the hope of being able to change the situation in later elections, rather it serves as the basis for the relationship between the state and the society. It outlines the form of the political process that everyone has agreed upon and the rules of the game on the ground.     
     This is what the transitional political process in Egypt has failed to achieve thus far and consequently a clear division and dangerous confrontation has emerged, both before the referendum and after it. Furthermore, roughly 33 percent of the electorate has so far taken part in the vote, and considering they were going to the polls to vote on something as crucial as the constitution, this figure should have been higher than that.
     Most importantly there must be a desire to meet the other forces in the middle of the road in the first place, for the transitional process has proven, through the presidential elections and the constitutional referendum, that no one has an exclusive mandate or an overwhelming majority, and this is what the forces of political Islam must realize, having previously exaggerated the size of their power, and having begun to discover the truth now. 

Is this the same Brotherhood?
Samir Atallah - Then they came to power. The first scene we saw was President Mursi sitting on a seat akin to a throne. The first thing he did was remove the very people who had secured his election. The Brotherhood said he had the right to do so; for every leader in the West is entitled to bring in his own administration and men. This is true, but not every new president should change the constitution. Any president can change the minister of justice, but not the judges themselves. Any president can protect a constitution that guarantees the continuity of the state, but not lead a coup against it.
     People thought that the Brotherhood would overcome their opponents first and foremost by receiving them with open arms, upholding their interests and making Egypt a state for everyone, not just for a particular party or group. Yet all of a sudden we saw President Mursi being steered by the Brotherhood's General Guide, whilst on the ground Khairat el-Shater was trying to show people that he was the group’s strong man and the real maker of difficult decisions. We saw Egypt being divided twenty times as much as it was under the previous regime. We also saw the Brotherhood's supporters on red alert, engaging in violence against the people in a manner reminiscent of the practices of the previous state security apparatus. We were expecting to see the future of Egypt in the Brotherhood’s leadership, but in fact we saw it on the streets. We saw a wall of cement being built around the presidential palace, as the Brotherhood acted as brothers only to each other. What an unfortunate surprise.

Delhi bus gang rape: 'What is going wrong with our society?'
TG, Dec 19, 2012 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across India on Wednesday, calling on authorities to stem the country's rising tide of violent sexual attacks on women, after a 23-year-old medical student was raped and beaten by six men on a Delhi bus.
     The incident on Sunday night has convulsed India, sparking fierce criticism of the police, rows in parliament, blanket coverage in the media and even a debate on the role of revealing outfits worn by stars of Bollywood films in sexual violence.
     The country's biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan, called on every Indian to become "vigilantes".
     "What is going wrong with our society, our people?" he asked in a Facebook post.
     Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, visited the victim in hospital where she is still in a critical condition after a series of emergency operations to treat serious injuries sustained in the attack.
     In a letter to Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, Gandhi spoke of the "painful regularity" of such incidents and said it was "a shame that ... our daughters, sisters, mothers are unsafe in the capital city".
     Ministers have scrambled to shuffle blame elsewhere while senior police officers have promised tough action. Politicians have called for the imposition of the death penalty for rape.
     So far four men – aged between 25 and 33 – have been arrested. Two more are still being sought. Several of the attackers were living in a slum in the south of the capital. They include a bus driver, a fruitseller and a gym instructor.
Is this the endgame in Syria?
EN, Dec 18, 2012 - If pictures being broadcast on You tube are genuine, then they show rebels storming the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.
     The Free Syrian Army claims to have launched an operation inside the Yarmouk camp against a Palestinian pro-Assad group led by veteran militant Ahmed Jibril.
     If proven, it will draw into the crisis most of Syria’s 500 000 Palestinian refugees who live in the camp on the southern edge of the capital.
Will Hollande put France’s bitter Algerian past to rest?
France 24, Dec 18, 2012 - Fifty years after the end of Algeria’s bloody war of independence against France, President François Hollande is visiting its former colony amid new hopes of reconciliation. The question on Algerian minds is whether France will offer an apology.
Afghans turn to AK-47, fearing Taliban return or civil war
Reuters - Afghan father-of-four Mohammad Nasir has a secret he's been keeping from his family.
     The aid worker pulls a television bench out from the living-room wall of his Kabul home. Behind it is a carved out shelf, hiding what he hopes will keep loved ones safe when Western troops withdraw by the end of 2014 -- an AK-47 assault rifle.
     Arms purchases are soaring in Afghanistan, along with the price of weapons, a sign that many Afghans fear a return of the Taliban, civil war or rising lawlessness.
     An assault rifle cost $400 a year ago. Today, some arms dealers are selling them for triple the price.
     And it's not just ordinary Afghans who are buying. Warlords who control militias, and former anti-Soviet mujahideen fighters are also boosting the trade.
     "Whenever you turn on the TV or radio, the discussion is 2014. I'm not feeling safe now, it's become like doomsday for Afghans," said Nasir, 48, storing the polished second-hand rifle and slamming the TV unit back against the wall.
     "People are saying security will collapse, or soldiers will join warlords or the Taliban, so we need something to protect our families when there's a crisis."
Russia may ease Muslim Brotherhood ban to boost Egypt ties
Reuters - Russia may ease restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood soon to improve relations with Egypt and rebuild influence lost during the Arab Spring revolutions, diplomatic sources say.     
     The election of President Mohammed Mursi, propelled to power by the Islamist group, offers President Vladimir Putin a chance to improve relations with Cairo that were strained during the long rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.
     Russia's Supreme Court banned the Muslim Brotherhood from operating in Russia in 2003, describing it as a terrorist organisation.
     But Moscow is now trying to beef up ties with Egypt, partly to offset some of the influence it has lost in the Arab world in the past two years, particularly in countries such as Libya and Syria that have been recipients of Russian arms.
Two-thirds of top Qaeda leaders 'removed' since 2009 - Obama aide
Reuters - The United States has eliminated more than 20 of al Qaeda's top 30 leaders based in Afghanistan and Pakistan from the battlefield since Barack Obama became president, a top U.S. government security official said on Tuesday.

Syria's Palestinians sleep rough in wintry Damascus
Reuters - Syria hosts half a million Palestinians, refugees who fled at the creation of Israel in 1948 and their descendants. Most are housed in the densely-built apartment blocks of Yarmouk.
     As rebels took the area late on Monday evening, retaliatory strikes from government forces came hard and fast. Fleeing residents said they ran, many on foot, as high-explosive and hot metal destroyed their homes.
     Several thousand jumped into taxis and buses and fled for the Lebanese border, 50 km (30 miles) away. Others had friends and families who could offer support. But after 21 months of conflict, many were out of money and out of options.
     Residents of Damascus speak of hundreds of families stumbling into the wide boulevards of hitherto affluent central Damascus, looking dazed as they sit in parks and on pavements.
     One woman who lives there told Reuters the Palestinians appeared to be in disbelief at their own fate: "I was trying to get a taxi when I saw a dazed old man on the pavement," she said, asking not to be named for fear of official retribution.
     The man, well dressed in a blue jacket, was trying to cover himself in newspapers to protect his body from the cold: "He couldn't get his legs covered because he didn't have enough newspapers. He wrapped his hands around his head to keep warm."
Tunisian faith in the Revolution fades
EN, Dec 17, 2012 - “This is a second anniversary, but nothing has changed here there is no development, no employment,” said one man.
Georgia: Making Cohabitation Work
ICG, Dec 18, 2012 - The immediate priority of the new government should be to build trust in the judiciary, the penal service and the powerful interior ministry. The courts, as well as prosecutors, must be given real independence from political pressures. Without viable recourse to a legal system enjoying broad public acceptance, other state institutions will not be able to develop properly, and politicisation will continue to affect the entire governing system. Business and investor confidence, vital to economic stability and growth, requires an unbiased legal system that provides protection and guarantees against harassment from the authorities. Encouragingly, the Ivanishvili team has already prepared far-reaching legislation aimed at de-politicising the judiciary, including the High Council of Justice.
     If Georgia’s leaders succeed in overcoming the challenges of the next ten months with vigilance and patience, the country will be able to serve proudly as a true development model for the region. Compromise, considerable restraint and hands-on diplomacy are necessary to prevent squandering of fragile democratic gains or, worse yet, re-ignition of the often violent instability that marked the first decade of independence.
King Ramses III's throat was slit by assassin, experts say
Reuters - The Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III, whose death has puzzled historians for centuries, had his throat slit in a succession plot concocted by his wife and son, a new analysis suggests.     New CT scans have revealed a deep and wide cut that was hidden by the bandages covering the throat of the mummified king, which could not be removed in the interests of preservation, researchers said on Tuesday.
     "Finally, with this study, we have solved an important mystery in the history of ancient Egypt," said Albert Zink, a paleopathologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy, which led the investigations.
France confident it can bridge gap with U.S. on Mali
Reuters - France said on Tuesday it would address U.S. concerns about a military mission to retake northern Mali from Islamist rebels and hoped for a Security Council vote this week, but U.N. envoys said a French-U.S. agreement on the issue remained elusive.
From central Damascus, war seems ever closer
Reuters - (This story was reported by visiting journalists, whose names are withheld for security reasons - updates with rebels taking over camp)
     From the centre of Damascus, Syrians can see the shrouds of smoke rising overhead and feel the shake of explosions that warn of a frontline creeping ever closer.
     The same squares where President Bashar al-Assad once drew tens of thousands to cheer in support lie empty and walled off by concrete barriers up to two metres (six feet) high.
     Damascus is bracing itself after nearly two years of civil conflict as rebel forces seep deeper into the capital, and anxiety is etched across the faces of people in the city centre.
     "There is fear and pain in people's hearts, a feeling of despair and paralysis because of the enormity of the crisis," said Suad, an architect in the Salihiya neighbourhood. "The sounds of all the different explosions - mortar, artillery and warplanes - suggest the frontline is getting closer," she said.

Iran oil revenues hit very hard by sanctions
MEO, Dec 17, 2012 -  Iran is losing half of its oil revenues because of international sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said in remarks quoted by media on Monday.
     "Iran is facing a 50-percent drop in its oil revenues due to sanctions," Hosseini told state television, Jomhuri Eslami newspaper reported.
     Hosseini put down the loss to difficulties in repatriating oil money.
     Subject to harsh Western sanctions over its controversial nuclear work, Iran is struggling against what it calls an "economic war" to cope with punitive measures targeting its vital oil income and access to global financial systems.

Middle East Oil-Tanker Glut Seen Unchanged in Shipbroker Survey
BN, Dec 18, 2012 - A surplus of the largest crude oil- tankers available for loading in the Middle East will stay unchanged over the next two weeks, according to a Bloomberg News survey of shipbrokers.
     There are 20 percent more very large crude carriers for hire over the next 30 days than there are cargoes, according to the median estimate of seven shipbrokers and owners in a Bloomberg News survey today. That’s the same as last week, the data showed. The average surplus of the tankers this year is on course for the lowest since at least 2009, survey data showed.

Blast Kills 10 Girls in Eastern Afghanistan; Car Bomber Targets Kabul
NYT -  A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives targeted the compound of a private military contractor on the eastern outskirts of Kabul on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring at least 15 others, including foreigners, the police said.
     In a separate episode, 10 girls were killed in a rural district of eastern Afghanistan on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded while they were collecting firewood, the Afghan police said. The office of the governor of Nangarhar Province said the girls were all between 9 and 11 years old. The Ministry of Education said some were as young as 6.

Taliban bomb hits US firm, mine kills 10 Afghan girls
AFP - A Taliban car bomb targeted a US company in Kabul on Monday, killing one person and wounding at least 15 shortly after a landmine killed 10 young girls in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.

Bahrain protesters challenge police in capital    
AP - Security forces in Bahrain fired tear gas and arrested protesters Monday during marches in the traditional market area of the Gulf nation's capital, forcing many businesses to close.
Bahrain extends detention of rights campaigner held in rally
AFPI - Bahrain has extended by seven days the detention of a leading human rights activist who was arrested on Monday during a demonstration in the Gulf Arab island kingdom, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Bahrain police tear gas Manama protest: witnesses
AFP - Bahraini police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse dozens of anti-regime Shiite demonstrators who staged a protest in central Manama on Monday to mark the opposition's "Martyrs' Day", witnesses said.

Low turnout in Egypt's vote raises questions   
AP - Just under a third of voters turned out for the first stage of the referendum on a constitution meant to be a historic milestone in setting Egypt's future - a showing critics say deepens doubts over the legitimacy of a charter that has already polarized the country.
Egypt Islamists challenged by new protests
AFP - Fresh opposition protests are to be held in Cairo on Tuesday over a draft constitution shaped by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Islamist allies that looks on track to be adopted this weekend.
Egyptian prosecutor's resignation angers Brotherhood
Reuters - Egypt's public prosecutor resigned under pressure from his opponents in the judiciary, dealing a blow to President Mohamed Mursi and drawing an angry response on Tuesday from the Islamist leader's supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt evacuates 4,000 people from Syria
AP -  Egypt's Foreign Ministry says that Cairo has more evacuated more than 4,000 of its nationals and their family members from Syria over the past several months.
     The Sunday statement did not provide a more specific time frame for the evacuations. It cited one recent instance of 90 people, including Egyptian nationals and their Syrian spouses and children, who were given special passage through the Syria-Lebanon border before being taken to Beirut airport.

Gaza fisherman shot, army arrests 4 West Bankers
AFP - Israeli naval forces shot and wounded a Palestinian fisherman in waters off the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, sources on both sides said.
     Nizar Aayesh, head of the Gaza fishermen's union, said the man was wounded when navy gunfire hit his boat after which he was taken to a hospital in the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon.
     "There was a shooting towards a Palestinian fishing boat in the sea off northern Gaza. One fisherman was injured and the occupation's navy took him to Barzilai hospital," he told AFP.
     Meanwhile, troops in the northern West Bank arrested four Palestinians in Beit Rima near Ramallah early on Monday on suspicion of shooting offences, witnesses told AFP.
     "Soldiers came to a house and arrested three brothers and another Palestinian, who was wounded," witnesses told AFP, saying they were accused of shooting at soldiers.
     The arrests sparked several hours of clashes, they added.
     An army spokeswoman confirmed the arrests saying: "Four Palestinians were arrested overnight in Beit Rima on security grounds. They were taken for questioning."

Palestinian PM urges Arabs to pay emergency funds
AFP - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday urged Arab League nations to make good on $100 million a month in pledged "safety net" funds, warning that his government was facing a "dangerous" financial crisis.

Mooted IAEA-Iran 'deal' just the beginning: analysts
AFP - The UN atomic agency, after a year of false starts, finally expects to sign a long-elusive deal with Iran on January 16, but that will be the easy part, experts say.
      Implementing the accord will be a lengthy and fragile process that will only partially resolve a decade-long standoff over Iran's nuclear programme and help to silence Israeli "drums of war".
     Implementing the accord between the IAEA and Iran "will take years", one Vienna diplomat said, adding: "It's not going to be solved overnight."
     The International Atomic Energy Agency's announcement on Friday after "good" talks in Tehran that it expects a deal in January was something of a surprise after a string of previous fruitless meetings, and considerable scepticism remains.
Iran cautiously ponders Syria after Assad    
AP - It wasn't exactly a break-up moment between Iran and ally Bashar Assad. But Tehran's whiplash diplomacy over the weekend suggested its embrace of the Syrian president could be cooling.
Iran says it got 2 more US drones in past missions 
AP - The naval chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims Iranian forces had captured at least two other U.S. drones before unveiling a purportedly downed ScanEagle craft earlier this month.
     Monday's report by the official IRNA news agency does not say when the two other drones were allegedly taken.
     It quotes Adm. Ali Fadavi as saying the drone shown on state TV was the third captured ScanEagle, a relatively simple surveillance craft made by a Boeing subsidiary.

Ahmadinejad cancels visit to Turkey
AP -  An Iranian semi-official news agency is reporting that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled a visit to Turkey.
     Mehr's Monday report said the cancellation was because of the president's busy agenda. But the decision comes during a dispute over the deployment of NATO Patriot missiles in Turkey.
Iran, powers must end nuclear deadlock: minister
AFP - Iran's foreign minister said on Monday that it was time to end the country's long standoff with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme.
Iran oil revenues halved by sanctions: minister
AFP - Iran is losing half of its oil revenues because of international sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear programme, Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said in remarks quoted by media on Monday.
Iran slams Sakharov prize honours as 'political'
AFP - Iran on Sunday slammed the European Parliament for its "political" selection of two Iranian rights activists jailed in the Islamic republic for its prestigious Sakharov prize.
Patriot missiles in Turkey 'provocative': Iran FM
AFP - Planned deployment of US-made Patriot missiles in Turkey is a "provocative" action which could bring about "uncalculated" results, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday.
Iran defiant on enrichment ahead of possible nuclear talks
Reuters - Iran will not stop higher-grade uranium enrichment in response to external demands, its top nuclear energy official was quoted as saying on Tuesday, signaling a tough bargaining stance ahead of planned new talks with world powers.

Iraq president hospitalised due to 'health emergency'
AFP - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has been hospitalised in Baghdad due to a "health emergency," his office said on Tuesday.
Timeline: A look at Iraqi president Talabani
AFP - Here is a timeline on Iraq's Kurdish President, Jalal Talabani, 79, who suffered a stroke on Tuesday and was hospitalized in Baghdad.

Iraq attacks kill at least 20 people
AFP - Attacks against Iraqi security forces, Shiites and a small minority killed at least 20 people and wounded 37 on Monday, police and medics said, ahead of the first anniversary of the departure of US forces.

Israel pushes on with east Jerusalem building plan    
AP - Israel on Monday said it was pushing forward with plans to build hundreds of homes in a Jewish settlement of east Jerusalem, risking renewed tensions with the Palestinians and its Western allies over the contentious project.
Israel presses on with plan for 6,000 new settler homes
AFP - Israeli officials said they would press on with plans this week to build 6,000 homes for settlers on land claimed by Palestinians, defying criticism from Western powers who fear the move will hit already faint hopes for a peace accord

Israel green-lights 1,500 settler homes
AFP - Israel on Monday gave the green light for developers to go ahead with controversial plans to build 1,500 settler homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the interior ministry told AFP.

Kuwait budget surplus surges on high oil income
AFP - Kuwait's provisional budget surplus surged 43 percent to 14.7 billion dinars ($52.2 billion) in the first seven months of the fiscal year, boosted by oil income, government data showed on Monday.

Thousand Palestinians enter Lebanon after Damascus fighting
AFP - More than 1,000 Palestinian refugees living in Syria have crossed into Lebanon in the past 24 hours, a source at the Lebanese border said on Tuesday, after Syrian rebels took control of a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.
     Syria hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, descendants of those admitted after the creation of Israel in 1948, and has always cast itself as a champion of the Palestinian struggle, sponsoring several guerrilla factions.
     The rebels, fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad, took full control of Yarmouk camp on Monday, rebel and Palestinian sources said, and government forces have been shelling the camp which is 2 miles from the city centre.
     The battle in Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of Assad's capital, as rebels try to choke off the power of the 47-year-old leader after a 21-month uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Police station blasts in Libya's Benghazi: security
AFP - Two explosions rocked police stations in the Libyan city of Benghazi early on Monday and police foiled a third attack, a security official told AFP, adding that there were no casualties.
Libya flexes muscle to seal off problematic south
AFP - Plagued by violence, drugs, weapons trafficking and an influx of illegal immigrants, Libya's new rulers are seeking to clamp down on lawlessness in the vast desert south by closing the region's porous borders.

Libya closes borders, declares south military zone
AFP - Libya ordered the closure of its borders with four of its neighbours on Sunday, as it declared the desert south of its territory a closed military zone in the face of mounting unrest, state media reported.

Car Bomb Kills 17 in Pakistani Tribal Region   
NYT - A powerful explosive ripped through the women’s waiting area of a bus stop in Jamrud town, close to Peshawar, on Monday, leaving women and children among the dead.
Bomb attack kills 16 at Pakistan market
AFP - A car bomb attack killed 16 people and wounded around 70 on Monday in a Pakistan market in the northwestern town of Jamrud, close to the Afghan border, officials said.
Five polio workers shot dead in Pakistan: police
AFP - Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers on Tuesday, police said, highlighting resistance to the country's immunisation campaign.

Gunmen kill 5 female polio workers in Pakistan
AP -  Gunmen shot dead five women working on U.N.-backed polio vaccination efforts in two different Pakistani cities on Tuesday, officials said, a major setback for a campaign that international health officials consider vital to contain the crippling disease but which Taliban insurgents say is a cover for espionage.
     Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio is endemic. Militants however accuse health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and claim the vaccine makes children sterile. Taliban commanders in the troubled northwest tribal region have also said vaccinations can't go forward until the U.S. stops drone strikes in the country.
     Insurgent opposition to the campaign grew last year after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, who was hiding in the town of Abbottabad in the country's northwest.
     The Taliban have targeted previous anti-polio campaigns, but this has been a particularly deadly week. The government is in the middle of a three-day vaccination drive targeting high risk areas of the country as part of an effort to immunize millions of children under the age of five.

Saudi rights activist faces apostasy charge
AFP - A Saudi court on Monday referred a rights activist to a higher court for alleged apostasy, a charge that could lead to the death penalty in the ultra-conservative kingdom, activists said.

Commuters stranded as Sudan economy nears 'collapse'
AFP - Khartoum's decaying fleet of public buses is leaving commuters stranded as surging inflation and a sinking Sudanese currency drive maintenance costs out of control, bus operators say.

FBI agent heads to South Sudan to investigate journalist's killing
AFP - A senior U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation official will travel to South Sudan to help investigate the killing of a journalist critical of the government, the U.S. embassy said on Tuesday.

Syrian rebels fight Palestinian pro-Assad group    
AP - Clashes between Syrian rebels and an armed Palestinian group loyal to President Bashar Assad raged inside a Damascus refugee camp Tuesday, as the Syrian military deployed tanks outside, activists said. 
Syria rebels advance in battle for Palestinian camp: NGO
AFP - Syrian rebels made advances Tuesday in a fierce battle for control of a Palestinian camp in southern Damascus that forced refugees to flee, residents and a watchdog said.
Syria hits back at UN over Palestinian refugees
AFP - Syria on Monday hit back at the United Nations over the fate of Palestinian refugees after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced "grave concern" following a deadly air strike on Yarmuk camp in southern Damascus.
Camp residents flee Syria warplanes: NGO
AFP - Residents of a Palestinian camp in Damascus were fleeing on Monday amid fresh clashes, as Syrian warplanes raided the eastern outskirts of the city to try to quash the rebellion in the capital, a watchdog said.
Russia eyes Syria evacuation as rebels take Damascus district
Reuters - Russia sent warships to the Mediterranean to prepare a potential evacuation of its citizens from Syria, a Russian news agency said on Tuesday, a sign President Bashar al-Assad's key ally is worried about rebel advances now threatening even the capital.

Syria Warns Refugees Not to Aid Rebels  
NYT - The warning appeared to reflect the sensitivity President Bashar al-Assad attaches to the loyalty of the country’s Palestinians, an important element of what remains of his political legitimacy.
UN sending chemical weapons kits to Syria monitors
AFP - The United Nations is sending chemical weapons kits to UN troops in the Golan Heights because of growing fears over Syria's deadly non-conventional arsenal, officials said Monday.
Syrian elected new Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch 
AP - Syria's state-run news agency says John Yazigi has been elected to head the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.
Italian engineer kidnapped in Syria: ministry
AFP - An Italian engineer has been kidnapped in Syria along with two other workers from the steel works in the port city of Latakia, the foreign ministry in Rome said Monday.
Hezbollah chief says Al-Qaeda 'tricked' to fight in Syria
AFP - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Al-Qaeda on Sunday that it had been tricked into fighting in Syria, and that the rebellion would not be able to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad militarily.
Wounded, starving crowd ill-equipped Damascus hospital
AFP - Wounded and starving Syrians, many of them women and children, are crowding into Damascus's main hospital where medical supplies are increasingly short, World Health Organization (WHO) officials told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Unrest marks Tunisia revolution anniversary event    
AP - Protesters threw stones and tomatoes and booed Tunisian leaders Monday at a ceremony marking two years since the start of an uprising that changed regimes around the Arab world. 

Stones thrown at Tunisian leaders in Sidi Bouzid
AFP - Protesters on Monday hurled rocks at Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the revolution that erupted exactly two years ago.

Turkey urges Iran to pressure Syria for end to violence
AFP - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Tehran on Tuesday to "send a clear message" to Syria's embattled regime to stop the violence against its own people.
Turkey sees France unblocking two EU chapters
AFP - Turkey is hopeful France will unblock talks over EU membership on at least two policy chapters in the coming months ahead of a visit by President Francois Hollande, Ankara's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said on Tuesday.

Turkey proposes to Russia new Syria plan: report
AFP - Turkey has made a new proposal to Russia for an orderly peaceful transition in war-ravaged Syria in the post-regime era, a Turkish newspaper reported on Monday.

UAE says Egypt media carried false plot claims
AFP - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has rebuffed claims carried by Egyptian media that it was behind a plot against the Egypt's leadership, saying they were "fabricated", state news agency WAM reported.

Gunmen kill Yemen intelligence colonel
AFP - Gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni intelligence officer in an overnight attack that targeted him on his way home in the eastern province of Hadramawt, a security official told AFP."

Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria
NBC - NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, five days after they were taken prisoner, NBC News said early Tuesday.
     Engel said their captors “were talking openly about their loyalty to the government” of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
     He said he had a “very good idea” about who they were -- members of the “shabiha” militia, loyal to Assad, trained by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.
     Engel said their captors’ plan was to use them to win the freedom of people held by the rebels.
     “They captured us in order to carry out this exchange,” he said.
     Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued.  Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said.
     The NBC News crew was unharmed in the incident. They remained in Syria until Tuesday morning when they made their way to the border and re-entered Turkey, the network said. They were to be evaluated and debriefed, but had communicated that everyone was in good health.
NBC's Engel would 'rather forget' Syria kidnap   
AP - NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has told Turkish media that he would "rather forget" the five difficult days he spent in captivity inside Syria.Russia sends warships for possible Syria evacuation: agencyMOSCOW - Russia has sent warships to the Mediterranean Sea in case it has to evacuate its citizens from Syria, Interfax news agency quoted a naval source as saying on Tuesday.
Russia sends warships for possible Syria evacuation
Reuters - Russia has sent warships to the Mediterranean Sea in case it has to evacuate its citizens from Syria, Interfax news agency quoted a naval source as saying on Tuesday.

Russia may ease Muslim Brotherhood ban to boost Egypt ties
AFP - Russia may ease restrictions on the Muslim Brotherhood soon to improve relations with Egypt and rebuild influence lost during the Arab Spring revolutions, diplomatic sources say
US names Lebanese ex-minister Samaha 'global terrorist'
AFP - The United States on Monday named former Lebanese information minister Michel Samaha a "specially designated global terrorist" for allegedly aiding the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to launch attacks in Lebanon.
Somali militants publicly rebuke American member
AP - Militants in Somalia are publicly rebuking their best known American fighter.
     Al-Shabab posted a statement Monday scolding Omar Shafik Hammami, formerly of Daphne, Alabama.
     Hammami, who is also known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, said publicly earlier this year that he fears members of al-Shabab may kill him over differences of opinion.
     The new al-Shabab statement says Hammami's video releases are the result of personal grievances that stem from a "narcissistic pursuit of fame." The statement said al-Shabab has been speaking to Hammami in private but that those efforts have been "fruitless." The statement said al-Shabab was morally obligated to out his "obstinacy."
Ethiopian Muslim activists deny terror charges
AP - A group of more than two dozen Ethiopian Muslims pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of terrorism.
     Federal prosecutors are accusing the group, which includes prominent clerics and journalists, with terrorism and attempts to create an Islamic state that would undermine the country's secular constitution. Among the 28 pleading not guilty was the wife of a former senior Cabinet minister who was fired last month after publicly defending her. One defendant did not plead and instead said he was mentally unfit to stand trial.
     "I have not committed any crimes but a crime has been committed against me," one defendant told the court.
     The charges come amid running confrontations between authorities and Muslim protesters who accuse the government of unconstitutionally encouraging a moderate teaching of Islam called Al-Ahbash. Some of protests turned violent and eight people were killed in two spate incidents in regional towns.

What would overthrowing Mursi actually mean?
Dr. Hamad Al-Majid - Is the fierce campaign being launched by the "remnants alliance" seeking to topple President Mursi?
     The answer is yes. Implicit and explicit statements issued by the alliance’s symbols have been reported by media outlets, and we are not talking about secret leaks from closed meetings. For example, let us consider what ElBaradei meant when he said the regime has lost its legitimacy.
     Before I proceed any further, I would like to point out that when I use the term “remnants alliance” I do not only mean the remnants of the former regime and Mubarak’s inner circle such as Ahmed Ezz, Ahmad Fathi Sorour, Safwat El-Sherif or Ahmed Shafik. Rather, I also mean anyone who ever used the regime, its mechanisms and individuals as a shield from opponents, and anyone who benefitted from it politically, economically or ideologically.
      The remnants alliance is currently fooling people into thinking that the mass mobility on the Egyptian street stems from President Mursi’s temporary constitutional decrees, even though they will be invalid in a few days after the Egyptian people endorse the constitution by means of a fair and democratic vote. In fact, the impartial and well-organized nature of the referendum can already be seen in the marginal difference between those who have voted yes and those who have voted no. It is hard to believe that the remnants alliance is inciting its supporters in front of the presidential palace (a dangerous and far from innocent act) simply because of two or three articles in the constitution. Everyone is well aware that key figures within this alliance participated in the drafting of the constitution over six months, yet all of a sudden the whole group decided to withdraw in order to spark off a crisis that the country is yet to recover from. This is the very same tactic used by the Egyptian security services during the million man marches in Tahrir Square, which sought to overthrow the Mubarak regime. At that time policemen would suddenly withdraw from the Egyptian street in order to create a security vacuum that would delude the Egyptian people into thinking that the bleariness of the Mubarak regime would be better than the blindness of the revolution.

Post-Assad Iran once again
Tariq Alhomayed - In August I wrote an article entitled “Post-Assad Iran” and I am returning now to write about post-Assad Iran once again. This is because the situation on the ground in Syria has begun to move incredibly quickly, and also because of the assurances I heard from three sources, Arab and European, about Iran planning for the post-Assad phase.
     Before I begin we must consider Hassan Nasrallah’s latest statement, or warning, in which he said that the situation in Syria is becoming increasingly complex, but those who think that the armed opposition will be able to resolve the situation on the ground are “very, very mistaken”. Nasrallah’s words are important because they reflect the Iranian stance of course, and Nasrallah here is not talking about al-Assad being victorious, rather he is talking about the difficulty of the rebels succeeding, and there is a big difference. Up until recently, Hezbolah used to think that al-Assad would win, and some leaders of the party even warned against burning any playing cards with al-Assad in view of the fact that his hour of victory was imminent.
     What I heard from my three sources, two of whom have previously met with al-Assad and know him well, is that the Iranian strategy - which utilizes Hezbollah in Syria - is based on three main objectives. The first is to desperately defend al-Assad with money, men and weapons, and for this reason, according to the sources, Qassem Soleimani is something of a semi-resident in Damascus. Yet this strategy has failed, and Tehran is now convinced of that. The second objective is to create a separate Alawite state, connected to Hezbollah via its borders. Much work has been done in this regard; Sunni cities and villages have been cleared for this purpose, but the plan has also failed. The third aspect of the Iranian strategy, and this is what is being worked on now, is that in the event of the fall of al-Assad, Iran and its allies will seek to ensure the failure of the subsequent political system, or state, in Syria, at any cost. This will be achieved through spreading chaos, violence, instability and whatever else it takes. This, of course, is where Hezbollah truly comes into play, not to mention the information I obtained from intelligence sources suggesting that al-Assad himself intends to carry out insane acts if he feels he is nearing his final moments in power.

Scream: Yemeni women make their voices heard
AFP, Dec 17, 2012 - At the peak of the uprising against now ousted Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, Khadija al-Salami left her diplomatic post in Paris to film the mass participation by long-marginalised women in the revolt.
     In her documentary "The Scream," screened at the Dubai International Film Festival, Salami -- who was forced to marry aged just 11 -- focuses on the role women played during the year-long uprising in the impoverished Arab state.
     "Traditionally, a woman's voice must not be heard, just as her hair must remain covered," said Salami, who herself does not cover her long dark hair.
     "I chose this title for my film because women have shouted out through their uprising and movement that they exist" in Yemen's male-dominated society, she said.
     "They screamed out their suffering, announcing that their revolt is not only against the government but also against all of Yemeni society, including their husbands and fathers."
West Bank Land, Empty but Full of Meaning
NYT, Dec 17, 2012 - Israel sees E1, only 4.6 square miles and largely rocky desert, as the stone in the arch that connects East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed, to Maale Adumim, one of the biggest of the so-called settlement blocs, with a population of 40,000. Israel says it intends to keep Maale Adumim in any peace settlement, hoping to swap land with any future Palestinian state. In fact, it was Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor Party who in 1994 attached E1 to the municipality of Maale Adumim.
     For the Palestinians, E1 is seen as essential if they are ever to achieve a viable independent state with East Jerusalem as their capital. Palestinians say they need the land to preserve a workable, practical connection between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and to build housing for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. As important, the Palestinians contend, E1 is central to a crucial north-south route through the West Bank from Ramallah to Bethlehem.
     Israeli officials argue that a system of protected roads and tunnels through E1 could allow Palestinians passage. Palestinians say that Israelis could instead use such roads to travel between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem, where many of the settlers work. Israeli officials also argue that the West Bank is not obstructed farther to the east, and that Palestinians can drive north-south closer to the Jordan River; Palestinians say that the Jordan Valley is too far out of their way and that Israel has said it will demand a security presence there in any case.
     And of course the Palestinians, like the United States and most other nations, regard all Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 boundaries, including in East Jerusalem itself, as illegal or as “obstacles to peace.” They regard Israeli assertions of “consensus” on keeping three main settlement blocs in the West Bank as self-delusion. Washington, however, does accept the principle of land swaps to accommodate demographic changes on the ground, but always subject to final agreement between the parties.
Tactical victory bittersweet for Syria rebels
AFP - A key tactical victory for rebels in northern Syria proved bittersweet when a well-respected commander was killed, with fighters recalling a father figure with a sharp military mind.
     Colonel Yusef al-Jader -- known among rebel fighters simply as Abu Furat -- died as his forces fought to take an infantry academy in the town of Muslimiyeh just north of the embattled city of Aleppo on Saturday.
     The rebel takeover of the academy, a sprawling base where regime forces were initially reinforced by troops flown in by helicopter, follows another successful operation to overrun a base in Sheikh Suleiman, also in the north.
     The latter success was spearheaded by the Al-Nusra Front, recently blacklisted by Washington for its ties to Al-Qaeda, while the Muslimiyeh operation was led by Liwa al-Tawhid which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
     "We feel proud when a soldier dies in a victorious battle," said Mustafa Marai, a rebel fighter from a nearby town.
     "But if I had to choose, I wish Abu Furat were still alive, rather than taking control of the school," the 26-year-old added. "He made many operations a success -- it is hard to find someone like him."

In Syrian rebel training, motivation trumps skills
AP, Dec 18, 2012 - Sixteen grunting rebel fighters dropped down for pushups in a rain-slick backyard, practiced storming a house from the cover of an olive grove, and then assembled for a refresher course on firing rocket-propelled grenades.
     Their instructor, a former Syrian commando, said his young trainees still have a lot to learn, but that their drive to topple President Bashar Assad already makes them better soldiers than the regime's conscripts.
    "Our faith in our cause outweighs our shortcomings," said the instructor, who defected from the Syrian army in February and gave his name only as Abu Hamza to protect his relatives against regime retribution. "Psychologically, they (rebel fighters) are stronger than the Syrian army."
     Monday's training, in a rural area of Syria's largely rebel-controlled northwestern Idlib province, is part of a widening attempt to transform ragtag rebel groups into a disciplined fighting force.
US-Iraq ties still evolving a year after war's end
AP, Dec 17, 2012 - A year after the last American troops rumbled out of Iraq, the two countries are still trying to get comfortable with a looser, more nuanced relationship as the young democracy struggles to cope with political upheaval and the legacy of war.
     The military pullout a year ago Tuesday did not end Washington's engagement. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a fortress-like campus as big as Vatican City, remains a highly visible reminder of America's ongoing interest in Iraq's future.
     Several senior U.S. officials have visited Baghdad over the past year, and America's role as Iraq's biggest arms supplier ensures continuing ties to the Iraqi military for years to come.
     U.S. companies are hunting for Iraqi oil, and Chevrolet Malibus and Dodge Chargers increasingly cruise Baghdad streets still dotted with checkpoints. Iraqi Airways just days ago got its first Boeing jetliner in three decades, and it's waiting for dozens more.
      But Iraq is at the same time busily pursuing its own interests - sometimes against America's wishes - as it seeks to balance its position in a precarious part of the world and reestablish itself as a regional power.
     "Since the U.S. withdrawal, Baghdad ... has attempted to re-think its relations with the U.S." said Maria Fantappie, an Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group. She described the strategy as trying to establish a two-way, "non-exclusive relationship with the United States."
     Iraq's desire to go its own way was on display last month when authorities freed a jailed Hezbollah commander that Washington had wanted to keep behind bars. The U.S. considers Ali Mussa Daqduq to be a major threat to Americans in the region and believes the Lebanese militant was behind a brazen 2007 raid on a military base that left five U.S. soldiers dead.
     Iraqi courts determined there was insufficient evidence to keep him locked up, and the country's Shiite-led government refused to extradite him to the U.S. to face further trials there.
     Iraq meanwhile continues to forge ever stronger ties with neighbor Iran, Hezbollah's top patron, even as the United States and many of its allies work to isolate Tehran over its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to make his second visit to Baghdad soon.

Coal use set to surpass oil in a decade: IEA
AFP - Coal is set to surpass oil as the world's top fuel within a decade, driven by growth in emerging market giants China and India, with even Europe finding it hard to cut use despite pollution concerns, according to a report published Tuesday.
New Frontiers: the buzz about oil in Morocco
MH - The list of African countries that have discovered big new reserves in recent years is impressive, led by the giant natural gas finds of Mozambique. Another country that thinks it can at least become a more significant producer, if not necessarily a behemoth, is Morocco. In this week’s Oilgram News column “New Frontiers,” Tamsin Carlisle talks about the recent buzz about Morocco at a key industry gathering.
Sudan, S.Sudan talks "deadlocked", oil deal threatened
DS, Dec 18, 2012 - Border security talks between Sudan and South Sudan are deadlocked, the top southern negotiator said on Tuesday, raising the prospect of an impasse that could prolong a shutdown of oil exports and push both economies closer to collapse.
     The former civil war foes came close to all-out war in April after troops clashed along their shared border in the worst violence since South Sudan declared independence from Sudan last year.
    They agreed in September to end hostilities, pull back troops and restart oil exports. But South Sudan negotiator Pagan Amum told Reuters talks on how to put those promises into practice had now stalled.
     "The talks now are deadlocked and, essentially, I see these talks as having collapsed because Sudan has taken a new strategic position opposing the development of cooperation between the two states," he said in an interview. 

Saudi Arabia’s oil policy: the challenges ahead
AAN - Saudi Arabia’s oil policy is facing internal and external challenges which could have a huge impact on its statute as a leader in the global oil market. Firstly, the kingdom is facing a significant shift in oil demand from the west (America and Europe) to east (Asia). Secondly, Saudi Arabia’s dominant role in the world oil supply could be altered by (a) large new unconventional oil reserves in North America. (b) Saudi Arabia’s place in the world oil market is threatened by unrestrained domestic fuel consumption. And, (c) increased Iraqi production with significant spare capacity could challenge Saudi Arabia’s dominance in OPEC, which we have seen small part of it in the last meeting of OPEC. 
Egypt’s rising fuel bill reflects energy crisis
Egypt is becoming increasingly dependent on fuel imports as it uses oil to pay off debts instead of refining the crude at home, in a downward spiral that is piling pressure on its deteriorating finances.
     Political and social unrest is making suppliers and creditors nervous about financing Egypt, forcing it to rely more on sales of crude to cover imports of other products and debts.
     This leaves less for Egyptian refineries to process into products such as diesel, forcing the state oil firm to rely on global markets for increasing volumes of fuel, traders and analysts say.
     These growing imports are inflating its debts and heightening creditors’ concerns, according to Hakim Darbouche, a research fellow at Oxford Energy Institute for Energy Studies.