Egypt's Mursi calls referendum as Islamists march

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi called a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution on Saturday as at least 200,000 Islamists demonstrated in Cairo to back him after opposition fury over his newly expanded powers.

Speaking after receiving the final draft of the constitution from the Islamist-dominated assembly, Mursi urged a national dialogue as the country nears the end of the transition from Hosni Mubarak's rule.

"I renew my call for opening a serious national dialogue over the concerns of the nation, with all honesty and impartiality, to end the transitional period as soon as possible, in a way that guarantees the newly-born democracy," Mursi said.

Mursi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he gave himself extensive powers and put his decisions beyond judicial challenge, saying this was a temporary measure to speed Egypt's democratic transition until the new constitution is in place.

His assertion of authority in a decree issued on November 22, a day after he won world praise for brokering a Gaza truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, dismayed his opponents and widened divisions among Egypt's 83 million people.

Two people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests by disparate opposition forces drawn together and re-energized by a decree they see as a dictatorial power grab.

A demonstration in Cairo to back the president swelled through the afternoon, peaking in the early evening at least 200,000, said Reuters witnesses, basing their estimates on previous rallies in the capital. The authorities declined to give an estimate for the crowd size.

"The people want the implementation of God's law," chanted flag-waving demonstrators, many of them bussed in from the countryside, who choked streets leading to Cairo University, where Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood had called the protest.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians had protested against Mursi on Friday. "The people want to bring down the regime," they chanted in Cairo's Tahrir Square, echoing the trademark slogan of the revolts against Hosni Mubarak and Arab leaders elsewhere.

Rival demonstrators threw stones after dark in the northern city of Alexandria and a town in the Nile Delta. Similar clashes erupted again briefly in Alexandria on Saturday, state TV said.

"COMPLETE DEFEAT"

Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said he had joined the rally in Cairo to support Mursi and his decree. "Those in Tahrir don't represent everyone. Most people support Mursi and aren't against the decree," he said.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a hardline Salafi Islamist scholar and a member of the constituent assembly, said secular-minded Egyptians had been in a losing battle from the start.

"They will be sure of complete popular defeat today in a mass Egyptian protest that says 'no to the conspiratorial minority, no to destructive directions and yes for stability and sharia (Islamic law)'," he told Reuters.

Mursi has alienated many of the judges who must supervise the referendum. His decree nullified the ability of the courts, many of them staffed by Mubarak-era appointees, to strike down his measures, although says he respects judicial independence.

A source at the presidency said Mursi might rely on the minority of judges who support him to supervise the vote.

"Oh Mursi, go ahead and cleanse the judiciary, we are behind you," shouted Islamist demonstrators in Cairo.

Mursi, once a senior Muslim Brotherhood figure, has put his liberal, leftist, Christian and other opponents in a bind. If they boycott the referendum, the constitution would pass anyway.

If they secured a "no" vote to defeat the draft, the president could retain the powers he has unilaterally assumed.

And Egypt's quest to replace the basic law that underpinned Mubarak's 30 years of army-backed one-man rule would also return to square one, creating more uncertainty in a nation in dire economic straits and seeking a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF.

"NO PLACE FOR DICTATORSHIP"

Mursi's well-organized Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi allies, however, are convinced they can win the referendum by mobilizing their own supporters and the millions of Egyptians weary of political turmoil and disruption.

"There is no place for dictatorship," the president said on Thursday while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft constitution which Islamists say enshrines Egypt's new freedoms.

Human rights groups have voiced misgivings, especially about articles related to women's rights and freedom of speech.

The text limits the president to two four-year terms, requires him to secure parliamentary approval for his choice of prime minister, and introduces a degree of civilian oversight over the military - though not enough for critics.

The draft constitution also contains vague, Islamist-flavored language that its opponents say could be used to whittle away human rights and stifle criticism.

For example, it forbids blasphemy and "insults to any person", does not explicitly uphold women's rights and demands respect for "religion, traditions and family values".

The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt's system of government but retains the previous constitution's reference to "the principles of sharia" as the main source of legislation.

"We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society," said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.

Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.

Egypt cannot hold a new parliamentary election until a new constitution is passed. The country has been without an elected legislature since the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.

The court is due to meet on Sunday to discuss the legality of parliament's upper house.

"We want stability. Every time, the constitutional court tears down institutions we elect," said Yasser Taha, a 30-year-old demonstrator at the Islamist rally in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh and Tom Perry; Editing by Myra MacDonald and Jason Webb)

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Football: Bayern held as Dortmund keep grip on rivalry

BERLIN: Bayern Munich were unable to break champions Borussia Dortmund's stranglehold in a 1-1 draw on Saturday as their lead at the top of the Bundesliga was trimmed back to eight points.

Bayern had lost their last four league meetings with Dortmund but had looked on course for victory when Toni Kroos gave them a 67th-minute lead.

However, Mario Goetze equalised for Dortmund in the 74th minute as the spoils were shared.

Third-placed Dortmund improved to 27 points to remain 11 points behind Bayern while Bayer Leverkusen, in second spot, are second on 30 points after their 1-0 win earlier Saturday over Nuremberg.

"I would swap the goal for a victory," said Kroos. "I think we did enough to get the victory, and we deserved to win."

Dortmund's defence did a good job keeping the Bayern attack in check throughout the first half.

But Bayern took the lead in the 67th minute with a wonderful individual effort by Kroos, who collected a ball from Thomas Mueller, danced past two defenders before blasting a low left foot shot into the far right corner.

Dortmund equalised seven minutes later as Marco Reus' corner from the right side was headed away by Mario Mandzukic but directly to Goetze, who chested the ball down and struck into the corner of the net.

Bayern had a series of chances in the final five minutes but Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller would not let his team down.

"I think we could have taken more. But we are satisfied with the one point. The championship is not decided. We saw today that we can keep track with this team," said Weidenfeller.

Leverkusen did just enough to beat Nuremberg 1-0 as Stefan Kiessling found the target in the 37th minute for the team's fourth straight victory.

"We have to remain calm and happy that we have a little streak," said Kiessling, who has scored nine goals this season.

"It's a nice moment but we have a lot of important games ahead of us and we don't want to think about Bayern. We have to worry about ourselves, and that's it."

Schalke's struggles continued with a 1-1 at home against Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Timo Hildebrand replaced Lars Unnerstall as Schalke's keeper and looked less than impressive on Igor de Camargo's goal for Gladbach in the 62nd minute.

Julian Draxler equalised for Schalke in the 85th minute.

"We were relieved to have at least picked up the point. If we had lost things would have been bad here," said Draxler.

Schalke, however, have not won in four games and improved to just 25 points while Gladbach have 21 points.

"The point was deserved. Schalke played well. But to get a point at Schalke is not too bad," said Gladbach coach Lucien Lavre.

Adam Szalai's goal in the 89th minute gave 10-man Mainz a 2-1 victory at home over Hannover in a battle of teams fighting for European spots.

Nicolai Mueller scored on a loose ball after Shawn Parker's shot hit the post after 10 minutes for Mainz but was equalised by Christian Schulz for Hannover.

Mainz lost their keeper four minutes after the break when Christian Wetklo was red-carded but Szalai provided the heroics.

Stuttgart picked up their third victory in the last four games by fending off Greuther Fuerth on the road 1-0 thanks to Shinji Okazaki's goal in the 45th minute.

Stuttgart played the final 37 minutes a man down as Serdar Tasci was shown a red card.

Fuerth dropped to last place in the table with eight points.

Eintracht Frankfurt missed a chance to keep track with the top challengers by losing 4-0 at Fortuna Duesseldorf on Friday to remain on 24 points.

Second-bottom Augsburg picked up a point in a 1-1 draw at home against Freiburg with Tobias Werner's goal being equalised by Jonathan Schmid.

- AFP/fa

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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

NEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest.

BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.

"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.

The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.

BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.

The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.

Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.

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Police: KC Chiefs Player Killed Girlfriend, Self

Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said.

"We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.

The name of Belcher's girlfriend has not yet been released, but police said she and Belcher recently had a child together.

Kansas City Police were first alerted something was wrong by the girlfriend's mother.

"The individual that called, the mother of the victim, stated that her daughter's boyfriend is the one who shot her and he is a Chiefs player," Snapp said.

It is believed Belcher drove to Arrowhead Stadium shortly after the shooting and police were called.

"When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot," Snapp said. "As officers pulled up, and began to park, that's when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life."

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Snapp said the coaches told officers they didn't feel they were in any danger from Belcher.

"They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him," he said. "They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself."

Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and the league has told the Panthers to go ahead with their travel plans because the game will be played as scheduled.

In a statement posted on their website, the Chiefs said they are "cooperating with authorities in their investigation" and did not mention Belcher by name.

The 6-foot-2, 228-pound linebacker joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009, and had spent all four seasons of his career with the team. He has played every in game since joining the team.

Originally from West Babylon, N.Y., where he was a three-time all-America wrestler in addition to playing on the football team, Belcher went undrafted out of the University of Maine, where he started all 45 games in which he played.

He signed with the Chiefs as a rookie free agent, started 15 of 16 games his second season and last year started all 16 games as left inside linebacker.

Belcher expressed gratitude for his NFL career in an article posted on Nov. 21 on the Chiefs' website that has since been taken down.

"First and foremost, God. Family and friends just keeping me focused, coaches and just everyone," he said.

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Egyptians protest after draft constitution raced through

CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Mursi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the Islamist leader's newly expanded powers.

"The people want to bring down the regime," they chanted in Tahrir Square, echoing the chants that rang out in the same place less than two years ago and brought down Hosni Mubarak.

Mursi said a decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which sparked eight days of protests and violence by Egyptians calling him a new dictator, was "for an exceptional stage" and aimed to speed up the democratic transition.

"It will end as soon as the people vote on a constitution," he told state television while the constituent assembly was still voting on a draft, which the Islamists say reflects Egypt's new freedoms. "There is no place for dictatorship."

But the opposition cried foul. Liberals, leftists, Christians, more moderate Muslims and others had withdrawn from the assembly, saying their voices were not being heard.

Even in the mosque where Mursi said Friday prayers some opponents chanted "Mursi: void" before sympathizers surrounded him shouting in support, journalists and a security source said.

Tens of thousands gathered across the country, filling Tahrir Square and hitting the streets in Alexandria and other cities, responding to opposition calls for a big turnout. Rival demonstrators clashed after dark in Alexandria and the Nile Delta town of Al-Mahala Al-Kobra, some hurling rocks in anger.

An opposition leaflet distributed on Tahrir urged protesters in Cairo to stay overnight before Saturday's rallies by Islamists; the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies said they would avoid the square during their demonstrations backing Mursi.

The disparate opposition, which has struggled to compete with well-organized Islamists, has been drawn together and reinvigorated by the crisis. Tens of thousands had also protested on Tuesday, showing the breadth of public anger.

POTENT MACHINE

But Islamists have a potent political machine and the United States has looked on warily at the rising power of a group it once kept at arms length now ruling a nation that has a peace treaty with Israel and is at the heart of the Arab Spring.

Protesters said they would push for a 'no' vote in a constitutional referendum, which could happen as early as mid-December. If the new basic law were approved, it would immediately cancel the president's decree.

"We fundamentally reject the referendum and constituent assembly because the assembly does not represent all sections of society," said Sayed el-Erian, 43, a protester in Tahrir and member of a party set up by opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei.

ElBaradei said in a statement the constitution had "lost legitimacy" and called for ending the polarization of Egypt.

The plebiscite on the constitution is a gamble based on the Islamists' belief they can mobilize voters again after winning every election held since Mubarak was toppled in February 2011.

Despite the big numbers opposed to him, Mursi can count on backing from the disciplined Brotherhood and Islamist allies, as well as many Egyptians who are simply exhausted by the turmoil.

"He just wants us to move on and not waste time in conflicts," said 33-year-old Cairo shopkeeper Abdel Nasser Marie. "Give the man a chance and Egypt a break."

But Mursi needs the cooperation of judges to oversee the vote, and many have been angered by a decree from Mursi they said undermined the judiciary. Some judges are on strike.

The assembly concluded the vote after a 19-hour session, faster than many expected, approving all 234 articles of the draft, covering presidential powers, the status of Islam, the military's role and human rights.

It introduces a presidential term limit of eight years - Mubarak served for 30. It also bring in a degree of civilian oversight over the military - though not enough for critics.

An Egyptian official said Mursi was expected to approve the document on Saturday and then has 15 days to hold a referendum.

"This is a revolutionary constitution," said Hossam el-Gheriyani, head of the assembly, urging members to campaign for the new constitution across Egypt, after the all-night session.

DEEPENING DIVISIONS

Critics argue it is an attempt to rush through a draft they say has been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, which backed Mursi for president in a June election, and its Islamist allies.

Two people have been killed and hundreds injured in protests since the decree was announced on November 22, deepening the divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their critics.

Seeking to placate opponents, Mursi welcomed criticism but said there was no place for violence. "I am very happy that Egypt has real political opposition," he told state television.

He said Egypt needed to attract investors and tourists. The crisis threatens to derail a fragile economic recovery after two years of turmoil. Egypt is waiting for the International Monetary Fund to finalize a $4.8 billion loan to help it out.

An alliance of opposition groups pledged to keep up protests and said broader civil disobedience was possible to fight what it described as an attempt to "kidnap Egypt from its people".

Several independent newspapers said they would not publish on Tuesday in protest. One of the papers also said three private satellite channels would halt broadcasts on Wednesday.

The draft injects new Islamic references into Egypt's system of government but keeps in place an article defining "the principles of sharia" as the main source of legislation - the same phrase found in the previous constitution.

The president can declare war with parliament's approval, but only after consulting a national defense council with a heavy military and security membership. That was not in the old constitution, used when Egypt was ruled by ex-military men.

Critics highlighted other flaws, such as articles pertaining to the rights of women and freedom of speech.

A new parliamentary election cannot be held until a new constitution is passed. Egypt has been without an elected legislature since a court ordered the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated lower house in June.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Alastair Macdonald)

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Abbas calls for renewed talks with Israel after UN vote

NEW YORK: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas called on Friday for a return to peace talks, but slammed Israel's latest settlement plans in reaction to a United Nations vote recognising Palestine as a non-member state.

"I've said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it," Abbas told reporters in New York.

"We are not setting any condition but there are at least 15 UN resolutions which consider settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace which must be removed," he said. "Why do (the Israelis) not stop settlement?"

In the landmark Thursday vote in New York, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution recognising Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.

Israel lashed out in response on Friday, with an official confirming to AFP plans to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, without specifying exactly where they were to be sited.

Palestine Liberation Organisation official Hanan Ashrawi reacted by telling AFP "it is an act of Israeli aggression against a state, and the world needs to take up its responsibilities."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously warned that by going to the UN, the Palestinians had "violated" previous agreements with Israel, such as the 1993 Oslo Accords, and that his country would "act accordingly."

Israel's US ally the United States also criticised the decision on new homes.

"We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements. We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations or (to) achieve a two-state solution," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

"Direct negotiations remain our goal and we encourage all parties to take steps to make that easier to achieve," Vietor said.

Such talks have been on hold since September 2010, with the Palestinians insisting on a settlement freeze before returning to the negotiating table and the Israelis insisting on no preconditions.

The move was also denounced by Peace Now, Israel's settlement watchdog.

"Instead of punishing the Palestinians, this government is punishing Israel by making peace harder to achieve and showing that Israel does not want peace," said spokeswoman Hagit Ofran. "That is very dangerous."

Israeli rights group Yesh Din said the plan amounted to "collective punishment trampling Palestinian human rights".

"Expanding building in the West Bank will also implicate more Israelis in committing offenses against international law," a statement said.

Israel has long feared that if the Palestinians won the rank of a UN non-member state, they could pursue the Jewish state for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague -- particularly over settlement.

With their newly acquired status, the Palestinians now have access to a range of UN agencies as well as to the ICC, but Abbas said he had no plans to immediately petition the tribunal.

"We now have the right to appeal the ICC, but we are not going to do it now and will not do it except in the case of Israeli aggression," he said.

Israeli media reports said that some new settlement construction would be in a highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1, a corridor that runs between the easternmost edge of annexed east Jerusalem and the Maaleh Adumim settlement.

Palestinians bitterly oppose the E1 project, as it effectively cuts the occupied West Bank in two, north to south, and makes the creation of a viable Palestinian state highly problematic.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of their state and vigorously oppose expansion plans for Maaleh Adumim, which lies five kilometres (three miles) from the city's eastern edge.

Linking the settlement and the city is an idea espoused by hardliners within Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party but strongly opposed by Washington.

Arab east Jerusalem was captured by Israel with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its "eternal, indivisible" capital, and does not view construction in the eastern sector to be settlement activity.

-AFP/ac

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Shweta Bhatt raised voice to free husband who was targeted by Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who would take on Narendra Modi from the Maninagar assembly seat, launched a national campaign to free her husband, who she alleged was targeted by the Modi government for alleging the CM's complicity in the 2002 riots.

Sanjiv Bhatt had told the Supreme Court last year that Modi was complicit in the 2002 riots. He also deposed against him before the Nanavati Commission set up to probe the riots. Bhatt, who was principal, State Reserve Police Training School in Junagadh, was later suspended by the government.

Shweta's campaign won support across sections: from Bollywood actors to college students in Allahabad. Social networking sites were full with blogs and campaigns supporting her.

"I was scared and cried for the first night after he was arrested. I had two options: to sit at home and pray for his release or tell world about the injustice. I chose the latter," Shweta later said.

Modi, on the other hand, took on bete noire Keshubhai Patel and Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel. He harped on the incident in which a 12-year-old child reportedly snatched away the Congress candidate's nomination paper in Visavadar, the constituency Keshubhai is contesting from.

"Recently, the Congress supporters were seen crying because the child snatched away a Congress candidate's papers. In a state where a child is so wise, people are set to snatch way Congress's mandate for good. Congress doesn't dare say there is fixing (between them and Keshubhai's party, GPP)," he said.

"Congress is unable to find anyone other than Ahmed Patel... it lacks leaders," Modi said, adding, "In the last four days, no Congress leader has been seen. Even their party workers are trying to locate them."

Reacting to the jibe, Gujarat Congress said Modi is hungry for power. Describing him as 'Khursidas', state Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia said, "Modi only dreams of the chair. Ahmed Patel has never asked for CM's post in the past and never will."

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Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.

Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

Saturday is World AIDS Day, but the executive director of the aid group Nyumbani, which oversees the village of the same name, hates the name which is given to the day because for her the word AIDS is so freighted with doom and death. These days, it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Millions live with the virus with the help of anti-retroviral drugs, or ARVs. And the village she runs is an example of that.

"AIDS is not a word that we should be using. At the beginning when we came up against HIV, it was a terminal disease and people were presenting at the last phase, which we call AIDS," said Sister Mary Owens. "There is no known limit to the lifespan now so that word AIDS should not be used. So I hate World AIDS Day, follow? Because we have moved beyond talking about AIDS, the terminal stage. None of our children are in the terminal stage."

In the village, each grandparent is charged with caring for about a dozen "grandchildren," one or two of whom will be biological family. That responsibility has been a life-changer for Janet Kitheka, who lost one daughter to AIDS in 2003. Another daughter died from cancer in 2004. A son died in a tree-cutting accident in 2006 and the 63-year-old lost two grandchildren in 2007, including one from AIDS.

"When I came here I was released from the grief because I am always busy instead of thinking about the dead," said Kitheka. "Now I am thinking about building a new house with 12 children. They are orphans. I said to myself, 'Think about the living ones now.' I'm very happy because of the children."

As she walks around Nyumbani, which is three hours' drive east of Nairobi, 73-year-old Sister Mary is greeted like a rock star by little girls in matching colorful school uniforms. Children run and play, and sleep in bunk beds inside mud-brick homes. High schoolers study carpentry or tailoring. But before 2006, this village did not exist, not until a Catholic charity petitioned the Kenyan government for land on which to house orphans.

Everyone here has been touched by HIV or AIDS. But only 80 children have HIV and thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, none of them has AIDS.

"They can dream their dreams and live a long life," Owens said.

Nyumbani relies heavily on U.S. funds but it is aiming to be self-sustaining.

The kids' bunk beds are made in the technical school's shop. A small aquaponics project is trying to grow edible fish. The mud bricks are made on site. Each grandparent has a plot of land for farming.

The biggest chunk of aid comes from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has given the village $2.5 million since 2006. A British couple gives $50,000 a year. A tree-growing project in the village begun by an American, John Noel, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted and thousands more were being planted last week.

"My wife and I got married as teenagers and started out being very poor. Lived in a trailer. And we found out what it was like to be in a situation where you can't support yourself," he said. "As an entrepreneur I looked to my enterprise skills to see what we could do to sustain the village forever, because we are in our 60s and we wanted to make sure that the thousand babies and children, all the little ones, were taken care of."

He hopes that after a decade the timber profits from the trees will make the village totally self-sustaining.

But while the future is looking brighter, the losses the orphans' suffered can resurface, particularly when class lessons are about family or medicine, said Winnie Joseph, the deputy headmaster at the village's elementary school. Kitheka says she tries to teach the kids how to love one another and how to cook and clean. But older kids sometimes will threaten to hit her after accusing her of favoring her biological grandchildren, she said.

For the most part, though, the children in Nyumbani appear to know how lucky they are, having landed in a village where they are cared for. An estimated 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have HIV as of 2011, representing 69 percent of the global HIV population, according to UNAIDS. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions. Millions of people — many of them parents — have died.

Kitheka noted that children just outside the village frequently go to bed hungry. And ARVs are harder to come by outside the village. The World Health Organization says about 61 percent of Kenyans with HIV are covered by ARVs across the country.

Paul Lgina, 14, contrasted the difference between life in Nyumbani, which in Swahili means simply "home," and his earlier life.

"In the village I get support. At my mother's home I did not have enough food, and I had to go to the river to fetch water," said Lina, who, like all the children in the village, has neither a mother or a father.

When Sister Mary first began caring for AIDS orphans in the early 1990s, she said her group was often told not to bother.

"At the beginning nobody knew what to do with them. In 1992 we were told these children are going to die anyway," she said. "But that wasn't our spirit. Today, kids we were told would die have graduated from high school."

___

On the Internet:

http://www.trees4children.org/

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Mo. Couple Wins Half of Powerball Jackpot

The lucky winners of half of the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot have been identified as Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearborn, Mo., their working-class lives suddenly taking a turn to the financial stratosphere.

Cindy Hill, who with her husband has three adult sons and a 6-year-old daughter adopted from China, purchased the ticket at a Trex Mart gas station in Dearborn.

"I called my husband and told him, 'I think I am having a heart attack,'" Cindy Hill, 51, said, according to the Missouri Lottery. "I think we just won the lottery!"

Cindy, who worked as an office manager but was laid off in 2010, said that when she learned that a winning ticket was sold in Missouri, she dropped her daughter off at school, went to a convenience store for a winning numbers report, and checked her tickets in her car, according to the Missouri State Lottery.

"I was just telling my daughter the night before, 'Honey, that probably never happens (people winning)," Cindy said. "It's really going to be nice to spend time – not have to work – and be able to take trips with our family."

Cindy did mention that her husband has mentioned one extravagance -- a red Camaro, but today he said that he plans on keeping his same old pick-up truck.

The winning ticket was one of five Cindy purchased, for a total of $10. She let the computer quick-pick choose the numbers, according to the Missouri Lottery. As soon as she saw that she had a winning ticket, Cindy had her mother-in-law and husband double check it.

"You know it's the Show Me State, so he said, 'Show me,'" she said.

Appearing at a press conference today in Dearborn along with their three sons, aged 28, 30, 31, and their 6-year-old daughter, the Hills appeared overjoyed.

"We were blessed before we ever won this," Cindy said. "We want to go back to China, Ireland of course -- we're Irish, and wherever the win takes us."

Cindy said that she bought the winning ticket Wednesday at about 4:45 p.m.

"I stuck it in my car, and it stayed there all night," she said. "Now that I know that it was a winner I wouldn't have done that!"

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Powerball Winners: Video Out of Possible Winners Watch Video

The Hills will take home $193,750,000 in lump sum payout -- which works out to $396,000 for each person in Dearborn, a town of 496.

The couple say that they will remain in Dearborn, and plan on launching a scholarship at the local high school.

Speculation began running wild in the small town when 52-year-old Hill, a factory worker, updated his Facebook account late Thursday, writing, "We are truly blessed, we are lucky winners of the Powerball."

Within hours, his family began celebrating, telling ABC News Hill is one of the two big winners.

"Just shocked. I mean, I thought we were all going to have heart attacks," Hill's mother, Shirley, said Thursday.

Hill's mother says her son and his wife have been struggling financially. Hill works in a hot dog and deli packaging factory, but it was unclear whether he showed up for work Thursday night.

"I'm very happy for him. He's worked hard in his life; well, not anymore," Hill's son Jason said. "Well, I hope we all stay very grounded, stay humble and don't forget who we are."

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News Thursday that one of the winning tickets was purchased at a Trex Mart in Dearborn, about 30 miles north of Kansas City.

The winning numbers were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29; Powerball was 6.

Hill did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
Meanwhile, employees and customers at Marlboro Village Exxon in Upper Marlboro, Md., said a tall, black, bald man held the winning ticket purchased in Arizona, according to ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV.

Surveillance cameras at the Upper Marlboro gas station captured the apparent winner walking into the store Thursday afternoon, digging into his chest pocket for his lottery tickets. After a few seconds of scanning the wad of tickets, the man began jumping up and down, pumping his arms.

The man gave the tickets to store manager Nagassi Ghebre, who says the six Powerball numbers were on the ticket, which the apparent winner said he bought in Arizona.

"And then he said, 'I got to get out of here,'" employee Freddie Lopez told WJLA.

But before leaving, the possible winner felt the need to check again to see whether he really had the ticket that millions of Americans dreamed of having.

"He says, 'Is this the right number? I don't know.' And I said, 'Yeah that's the numbers. You got them all,'" customer Paul Gaug told WJLA.

Employees and customers said the main stuck around for a few more seconds shouting, "I won," before leaving.

"He came back a minute later and said, 'I forgot to get my gas. What am I thinking?'" Lopez said.

The man drove out of the gas station in a black car and on a full tank of gas with a cash payout of $192.5 million coming his way.

"He said he lives in Maryland. I'm pretty sure," Gaug said.

The possible jackpot winner was wearing bright neon clothing and store employees told WJLA that he appeared to be a highway or construction worker.

Arizona lottery officials told WJLA that if the man does have the winning ticket, it needs to be redeemed within 180 days of the drawing in Arizona.

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Palestinians turn to U.N. for state recognition

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly is set to approve an implicit recognition of Palestinian statehood on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding funds for the West Bank government.

A resolution that would lift the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation General Assembly. At least 15 European states plan to vote for it.

Israel, the United States and a handful of other members are set to vote against what they see as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians, which takes place on the 65th anniversary of the assembly's adoption of resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full U.N. membership - something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it would allow them access to the International Criminal Court and other international bodies, should they choose to join them.

"The ICC issue is what the Israelis are really worried about," a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity. "They know this whole process isn't really symbolic except for that."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been leading the campaign to win support for the resolution, which follows an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.

The U.S. State Department made a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider, but the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, gave no sign that it was turning back.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated to reporters in Washington on Wednesday the U.S. view that the Palestinian move was misguided and efforts should focus instead on reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.

"The path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," she said. "The only way to get a lasting solution is to commence direct negotiations."

Acknowledging strong European support for the Palestinians, Clinton said on Thursday: "We and our European partners agree on the most fundamental issues and share a common objective - two states living side by side in peace and security."

Speaking at an annual U.N. event in support of the Palestinians, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki appealed to U.N. member states to support Thursday's U.N. resolution. He also repeated his support for peace with Israel.

"Despite diminishing hopes and the decline of the situation on the ground due to Israel violations, we remain committed to the two-state solution and our hand remains extended in peace," he said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated U.S. warnings that the move could cause a reduction of U.S. economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might take significant deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

PALESTINIANS RALLY IN WEST BANK, GAZA

Despite its fierce opposition, Israel seems concerned not to find itself diplomatically isolated. It has recently toned down threats of retaliation in the face of wide international support for the initiative, notably among its European allies.

"The decision at the United Nations will change nothing on the ground," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem. "It will not advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. It will delay it further.

But U.N. diplomats say that Israel's reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as calling on Washington and Israel to avoid "any hasty and destructive decisions."

"Supporting the Palestinian authorities is not only in the interest of the Palestinian side, but also of Israel and the whole international community that is longing for a peaceful political settlement," he said.

The European Union, a key donor for the Palestinians, has made clear it will not curtail aid after Thursday's vote.

Flag-waving Palestinians thronged the squares of the West Bank and Gaza Strip before Thursday's vote. In a rare show of unity, Abbas's Islamist rivals Hamas, who have ruled Gaza since a brief civil war in 2007, let backers of the president's Fatah movement hold demonstrations there.

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. There are 4.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In the draft resolution, the Palestinians have pledged to relaunch the peace process immediately following the U.N. vote, expected sometime after 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Thursday.

With strong support from the developing world that makes up the majority of U.N. members, it is virtually assured of securing more than the requisite simple majority. Palestinian officials hope for more than 130 yes votes.

Abbas has focused on securing as many votes as possible from Europe, and his efforts appear to have paid off.

Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all pledged to support the resolution. Britain said it was prepared to vote yes, but only if the Palestinians fulfilled certain conditions.

The fiercely pro-Israel Czech Republic was planning to vote against the move, dashing European hopes of avoiding any no votes that would create a three-way split on the continent into supporters, abstainers and opposers.

It was unclear whether some of the many undecided Europeans would join the Czechs. Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Estonia and Lithuania plan to abstain.

(Andrew Quinn in Washington, Noah Browning in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Michelle Nichols in New York, Robert Mueller in Prague, Gabriela Baczynska and Reuters bureaux in Europe and elsewhere; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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EU backs Palestinian state even if split on UN vote

BRUSSELS: The European Union reiterated the bloc's support for a Palestinian state Thursday despite splits between its 27 member states over granting upgraded status to the Palestinians at the United Nations.

"The EU has repeatedly expressed its support and wish for Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations as part of a solution to the conflict," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

"The EU reiterates its readiness to recognise a Palestinian state when appropriate," she added.

But her statement underlined that "only a political solution to the conflict can bring lasting security, peace and prosperity to Palestinians and Israelis."

Despite hopes the 27 EU nations might line up on a single position at the UN -- for, against, or abstaining -- the bloc remained divided hours before the 2000 GMT vote.

The EU is Israel's leading economic partner and the Palestinians' leading donor. But in the end, the bloc split three ways: "yes", "no" and "abstain".

While three EU nations had been expected to vote against -- the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands, in the end, Germany and the Netherlands decided to abstain.

The Czechs seemed to be the only EU member to have come out against the Palestinian bid. A two-state solution could only be reached through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, said a Czech ministry statement Thursday.

Security Council member France was the first European state to come out in favour of the Palestinian bid, on Tuesday. It was followed by Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy and Spain. Diplomats expect around 15 EU nations to back the Palestinians.

But another Security Council member, Britain, said it was likely to abstain.

Foreign minister William Hague said Wednesday that Britain would abstain unless the Palestinians undertook to resume talks with Israel and foreswear any move to take Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Baltic states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania will all abstain, expressing regret the EU couldn't muster a common stance.

Hungary also announced plans to abstain, as did Slovenia and Bulgaria, which said "the proposed resolution will not change for better the situation between Israel and the Palestinians."

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said it was "disappointing" the EU was unable to reach a common position.

But a senior EU official said the divisions did not mirror deep-seated differences between the EU states.

"We see pretty well eye-to-eye. Even if there is a three-way split there is a good understanding for the way forward on the peace process," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ashton's statement said "a comprehensive negotiated peace, which is a fundamental interest of the EU, as well as the parties in the region, must and can be achieved on the basis of a two-state solution.

"Looking ahead after today's vote, it is important for all parties and actors involved to work towards a settlement of the conflict with renewed purpose and sense of urgency," Ashton said.

She urged both sides in the conflict "to refrain from actions" that could undermine the peace process.

"The European Union urges both sides to seek constructive ways to overcome the current obstacles for a resumption of direct negotiations without delay or preconditions."

The Palestinians are poised to gain the backing of a majority of the UN's 193 member states, despite the opposition of the United States, Israel and some other countries.

-AFP/ac

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White paper on irrigation a dud, Maharashtra skirts corruption

MUMBAI: The much-awaited white paper on irrigation, which was placed before the state cabinet on Thursday, has turned out to be a dud. As expected, it skirts the core issue of corruption and irregularities in the water resources department, and merely collates data on projects approved in the last decade.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday night, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the two-volume report, which was not discussed in the cabinet meeting — with observers saying it was part of a Congress strategy — will be uploaded on the state government's website by Friday. The first volume addresses issues pertaining to land brought under irrigation, while the second sheds light on big and medium projects executed by five state irrigation corporations.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who resigned as deputy chief minister last September following a series of exposes in TOI, is believed to be desperate to make a comeback in the government based on the findings of the white paper, which many in official circles described as a "whitewash". Pawar was the state's water resources minister between 1999 and 2010, when most of the dubious contracts were awarded to select contractors. Political sources said infighting between rival groups in the NCP may scuttle Pawar's re-entry plans.

According to an estimate, as much as Rs 35,000 crore may have been siphoned off by the politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus in dud irrigation projects in the past ten years.

Government sources said only a criminal investigation will unravel the extent of the scam, described as the largest in Maharashtra's history.

"If there is an independent judicial inquiry, the Democratic Front government will collapse, considering the involvement of powerful politicians and officials," they said.

As reported by TOI on Thursday, the white paper has justified irrigation project cost escalations, blaming them on delays in relief and rehabilitation, land acquisition and environmental clearances. It says the escalations were commensurate with hikes approved for similar projects in other states.

Debunking the claim that Rs 70,000 crore was spent on irrigation projects in the past ten years, the document puts the figure at just Rs 42,000 crore. The paper, prepared by the state water resources department, claims that of this amount, Rs 30,000 crore was spent towards relief and rehabilitation; Rs 5,000 crore is shown under administrative expenses. The paper adds that over 30% of the relief and rehabilitation cost went towards projects that are yet to be completed. It is pertinent to note that departments controlled by the Congress are responsible for relief and rehabilitation and land acquisition.

The paper says 69 ongoing mega projects and 189 medium projects were taken up under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) and bore approvals of the Central Water Commission and the Planning Commission. It says the central agencies ratified the cost escalations.

The paper says the scheduled rates for materials used by the department while awarding contracts (department scheduled rates) were lower than those used for similar projects in other states and also less than rates used by other agencies in Maharashtra like the public works department and the MMRDA.

The paper claims that the scope of project work was often increased on account of demand from local politicians. The document gives status reports for mega projects, including details like original cost, escalations and their reasons.

Of the state's 226 lakh hectares of cultivable land, the white paper says irrigated land stood at 48.5 lakh hectares in 2010, which it says is a 28% increase from 2001 when the area was 37 lakh hectares. The paper says the cropped irrigated area (the ratio of irrigation potential generation to land under irrigation) grew by 5.17% during the ten-year period.

According to the economic status report (ESR), the cropped irrigated area only rose by 0.1% during this period (from 17.8% in 2001 to 17.9% in 2010). The chief minister had cited ESR data while asking the department to prepare the white paper in May this year.

The paper also refuted allegations that the department had created liabilities worth Rs 70,000 crore. It said that while projects worth Rs 80,000 crore were in the pipeline, liabilities had been booked only for Rs 35,000 crore.

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

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Obama Lunches With Romney as 'Cliff' Talks Falter

President Obama and Mitt Romney met face to face today for the first time since the election, breaking bread at the White House as talks over the looming "fiscal cliff" appeared to be faltering on Capitol Hill.

The lunch between former rivals, served in an elegant private dining room in the West Wing, lasted just over an hour, with Romney seen coming and going from a side entrance in a black SUV. The former GOP nominee arrived without fanfare and sans entourage. He opened his own car door both times.

"I haven't looked at the menu, but I bet it was and is quite tasty," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of the meal, "because [the chefs] know how to prepare very fine meals."

Administration officials, who promised a readout of the meeting, have said there was no formal agenda or a "specific ask" or assignment for Romney. The men planned to smooth things over after a bruising campaign, away from the glare of cameras and nosy reporters.

Governor Romney "presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that I actually agree with, and so it'd be interesting to talk to him about something like that," Obama said at a news conference on Nov. 14. "There may be ideas that he has with respect to jobs and growth that can help middle-class families that I want to hear."

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

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Obama also said he is also interested in identifying "some ways that we can potentially work together."

Romney, who has kept a relatively low profile since losing the election on Nov. 6, has not publicly addressed Obama's post-election overtures or the prospect of working together. Both men have little personal history and had a chilly relationship during the campaign.

Senior Romney campaign strategist Eric Fehrnstrom called Obama's lunch invitation "gracious" and said that Romney was "glad to accept." The governor also met earlier Thursday in Washington with former running mate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

The Obama-Romney detente comes as talks between the White House and congressional Republicans to prevent the economy from going over the "fiscal cliff" of mandatory spending cuts and tax increases set for Jan. 1 appeared to hit a snag.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the lead White House negotiator in the talks, and White House legislative chief Rob Nabors held a flurry of meetings today with congressional leaders of both parties in the House and Senate.

But following sessions, top Republicans poured cold water on what had been budding optimism of progress toward a deal.

"No substantive progress has been made over the last two weeks," said House Speaker John Boehner at a press conference.

"We know what the menu is. What we don't know is what the White House is willing to do to get serious about solving our debt crisis," he said, accusing the administration of failing to detail plans for significant spending cuts to correspond with desired tax revenue increases.

Obama and Boehner spoke by phone Wednesday night, sources told ABC News, their second conversation in four days. Boehner described it as "direct and straightforward," but suggested "disappointment" with Obama's reticence to waver on hiking tax rates on the wealthy.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in advance of his meeting with Geithner, said everything the White House has put down on the table so far has been "counterproductive," and he hopes that the Treasury Secretary brings "a specific plan from the president" with him today.

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Britain's Cameron warns press regulation must change

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Wednesday that the current newspaper regulation system was unacceptable, as he received a key report into the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal.

Cameron's comments came a day before senior judge Brian Leveson was due to publish his findings from a year-long judicial inquiry into press ethics, which are widely expected to include recommendations for statutory regulation.

But Britain's oldest political magazine said it would refuse to sign up to any government-enforced regulator system, and other newspapers warned that introducing new laws were a threat to 300 years of press freedom.

Cameron set up the Leveson inquiry in July 2011 after the discovery of widespread hacking of voicemails and other illegal practices at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, which the Australian-born tycoon then closed down.

The prime minister told parliament on Wednesday he hoped the process would lead to "an independent regulatory system" for the press and called for a cross-party consensus, but did not say if he supported new laws.

"The status quo, I would argue, does not just need updating -- the status quo is unacceptable and needs to change," Cameron said.

The British press is currently regulated by itself through the Press Complaints Commission, a body staffed by editors which critics say is toothless.

Cameron will give a statement to parliament on Thursday following the publication of Leveson's report and there will be a parliamentary debate next week on its recommendations, probably followed by a non-binding vote.

The prime minister's Downing Street office received "half a dozen" advance copies of Leveson's 1,000-page report so that Cameron could prepare his statement, a spokesman told AFP.

He is not obliged to follow the report's recommendations but they are likely to present him with a dilemma amid splits in his Conservative party over the need for statutory regulation.

More than 80 lawmakers from the three major parties said in a letter published Wednesday that any introduction of statutory regulation would be the biggest blow to media freedom in Britain for 300 years.

"As parliamentarians, we believe in free speech and are opposed to the imposition of any form of statutory control even if it is dressed up as underpinning," said the letter published in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph newspapers.

But 42 MPs from the centre-right Conservatives -- who are the senior partners in a coalition government with the centrist Liberal Democrats -- have previously written a letter calling for strong new press laws.

British newspapers are thought to be ready to accept a tougher independent regulator that could hand out big fines but insist that signing up should be voluntary.

The Spectator, a right-leaning political magazine which says it is the oldest continuously published weekly in the English language, said that laws aimed at tackling tabloid abuses could have a "chilling effect" on the rest of the press.

"If the press agrees a new form of self-regulation, perhaps contractually binding this time, we will happily take part. But we would not sign up to anything enforced by government," it said in a leader article.

News International chief executive Tom Mockridge also warned against state-backed regulation.

"They need an effective watchdog, they need a tough watchdog, they need a watchdog with a majority of people outside the industry, they need a watchdog with bite and a watchdog with investigative powers," he said.

"What they don't need is the state sending people into newspapers to determine what's a good story or what's a bad story."

But actor Hugh Grant, who has spoken out on behalf of victims of phone hacking, called for new laws.

"What people are campaigning for is an end to newspapers being able to regulate themselves, marking their own homework," he told the BBC.

The Leveson inquiry heard eight months of testimony from hacking victims, politicians and media figures.

British police have launched three linked investigations into alleged misdeeds by newspapers, while Cameron's former spokesman Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, former head of Murdoch's British newspaper wing News International, have each been charged with phone hacking and bribery. Both are former Murdoch newspaper editors.

-AFP/ac

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Centre refuses to equate blind employees with deaf & dumb

NEW DELHI: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that deaf and dumb government employees could not be equated with blind and physically handicapped ones, who face much more difficulty in commuting and are hence given double the transport allowance paid to other employees.

Citing a health ministry office memorandum, the government said it was advised that "it would not be just and fair to equate the disability of deaf and dumb persons with those of blind persons in so far as grant of transport allowance facility is concerned".

The ministry in the 2003 memorandum said that deaf and dumb people generally do not require physical assistance for commuting to and from their residence to the place of duty. However, the proposal to give deaf and dumb employees enhanced transport allowance was again considered in 2006.

The Centre said the Sixth Central Pay Commission did not make any recommendation on this aspect while revising the transport allowance. "As per the recommendation of the commission, as accepted by the government, status-quo continues regarding the categories of physically disabled employees eligible for transport allowance at enhanced rate," it said.

"In view of the aforesaid position, it is not considered feasible to extend the benefit of enhanced transport allowance to hearing impaired employees," the government said. However, solicitor general R F Nariman sought 12 weeks time from a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra to make a fresh attempt to find an amicable resolution to the grievances of deaf and dumb employees.

A PIL filed by 'Deaf Employees Welfare Association' had alleged that the government remained unmoved despite several representations by hearing impaired employees seeking enhancement of transport allowance to bring at par with that paid to blind and physically handicapped.

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a nine-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Will Winning Powerball Buy You Happiness?

Nov 28, 2012 1:02pm

Can money buy happiness? If you’re clutching several Powerball tickets in one hand as you thumb through yacht and pony catalogs with the other, you’re probably betting yes.

We’re all told the odds of winning are abysmal — about 1 in 175 million — but let’s assume you win the $500 million jackpot. Experts say the initial euphoria will wear off relatively quickly and you’ll be left with pretty much the same dismal outlook on life you’ve always had.

“Winning will release some pleasurable chemicals in your brain over the short term,” said Scott Bea, a clinical psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “Unfortunately, your brain will likely revert back to the same old same old before too long.”

Bea conceded that the extra bushels of cash would ease any anxiety over paying the bills, and you’d probably get an additional rush of those joy-boosting neuro-hormones when you went on a shopping spree, but ultimately the basal ganglia, the part of your brain that tends to dwell on the negative, will kick in and you’ll be back to your usual miserable self in no time.

Why? Because in its dark little heart, the brain is a pessimistic organ. Studies show bad memories tend to be far stickier than pleasant memories. And as Bea pointed out, complaints are the topic of nearly 70 percent of all conversation. So according to this logic, you’re less likely to relive the glory of your jackpot moment than you are to grouse about all the fifth cousins suddenly friending you on Facebook to ask for a handout.

Bea also said big winners who aren’t careful to cultivate happiness skills such as optimism, a charitable attitude and savvy money management habits often wind up in more wretched circumstances than where they started. History is certainly littered with such examples.

Back in the 1980s, Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery not once, but twice. She quickly gambled away all $5.4 million and today she’s flat broke, living in a trailer park. Then there’s Billy Bob Harrell Jr. a Pentecostal preacher who was working as a stock boy in 1997 when he scored a cool $31 million in the Texas lottery. The stress of winning so overwhelmed him that he divorced his wife and committed suicide.

Does this mean you should hope the odds work against you when they draw those lucky numbers at 10:59 ET tonight? According to Bea, not at all.

“For most people, purchasing a ticket and fantasizing about what life will be like once you’ve won is the most pleasant part of the lottery experience,” he said, “You could probably flush the same amount of money down the toilet and get much the same result — but then you wouldn’t have the dream.”

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Egyptians challenge Mursi in nationwide protests

CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands Egyptians protested on Tuesday against President Mohamed Mursi in one of the biggest rallies since Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, accusing the Islamist leader of seeking to impose a new era of autocracy.

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets near the main protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square, heart of the uprising that toppled Mubarak last year. Clashes between Mursi's opponents and supporters erupted in a city north of Cairo.

But violence could not overshadow the show of strength by the normally divided opponents of Islamists in power, posing Mursi with the biggest challenge in his five months in office.

"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir chanted, echoing slogans used in the 2011 revolt.

Protesters also turned out in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and other Nile Delta cities.

Tuesday's protest called by leftists, liberals and other groups deepened the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed the deep divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling teargas in Cairo, the second death since Mursi last week issued a decree that expanded his powers and barred court challenges to his decisions.

Mursi's administration has defended the decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation.

But opponents say Mursi is behaving like a modern-day pharaoh, a jibe leveled at Mubarak. The United States, a benefactor to Egypt's military, has expressed concern about more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.

"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini said in Cairo.

The fractious ranks of Egypt's non-Islamist opposition have been united on the street by crisis, although they have yet to build an electoral machine to challenge well-organized Islamists, who have beaten their more secular-minded rivals at the ballot box in two elections held since Mubarak was ousted.

MISCALCULATION

"There are signs that over the last couple of days that Mursi and the Brotherhood realized their mistake," said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations, adding the protests were "a very clear illustration of how much of a political miscalculation this was."

Mursi's move provoked a rebellion by judges and has battered confidence in an economy struggling after two years of turmoil. The president still has to implement unpopular measures to rein in Egypt's crushing budget deficit, action needed to finalize a deal for a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

Some protesters have been camped out since Friday in Tahrir, and violence has flared around the country, including in a town north of Cairo where a Muslim Brotherhood youth was killed in clashes on Sunday. Hundreds have been injured.

Supporters and opponents of Mursi threw stones at each other and some hurled petrol bombs in the Delta city of el-Mahalla el-Kubra. Medical sources said almost 200 people were wounded.

"The main demand is to withdraw the constitutional declaration (decree). This is the point," said Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief and presidential candidate who has joined the new opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front. The group includes several top liberal politicians.

Some scholars from the prestigious al-Azhar mosque and university joined Tuesday's protest, showing that Mursi and his Brotherhood have alienated some more moderate Muslims. Members of Egypt's large Christian minority also joined in.

Mursi formally quit the Brotherhood on taking office, saying he would be a president for all Egyptians, but he is still a member of its Freedom and Justice Party.

The decree issued on Thursday expanded his powers and protected his decisions from judicial review until the election of a new parliament expected in the first half of 2013.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney urged demonstrators to behave peacefully.

"The current constitutional impasse is an internal Egyptian situation that can only be resolved by the Egyptian people, through peaceful democratic dialogue," he told reporters.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the decree gives Mursi more power than the interim military junta from which he took over.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an Austrian paper he would encourage Mursi to resolve the issue by dialogue.

TENSIONS

Trying to ease tensions with judges, Mursi assured Egypt's highest judicial authority that elements of his decree giving his decisions immunity applied only to matters of "sovereign" importance. That should limit it to issues such as declaring war, but experts said there was room for interpretation.

In another step to avoid more confrontation, the Muslim Brotherhood cancelled plans for a rival mass rally in Cairo on Tuesday to support the decree. Violence has flared in Cairo in the past when both sides have taken to the streets.

But there has been no retreat on other elements of the decree, including a stipulation that the Islamist-dominated body writing a new constitution be protected from legal challenge.

"The decree must be cancelled and the constituent assembly should be reformed. All intellectuals have left it and now it is controlled by Islamists," said 50-year-old Noha Abol Fotouh.

With its popular legitimacy undermined by the withdrawal of most of its non-Islamist members, the assembly faces a series of court cases from plaintiffs who claim it was formed illegally.

Mursi issued the decree on November 22, a day after he won U.S. and international praise for brokering an end to eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas around the Gaza Strip.

Mursi's decree was seen as targeting in part a legal establishment still largely unreformed from Mubarak's era, when the Brotherhood was outlawed.

Though both Islamists and their opponents broadly agree that the judiciary needs reform, Mursi's rivals oppose his methods.

Rulings from an array of courts this year have dealt a series of blows to the Brotherhood, leading to the dissolution of the first constitutional assembly and the lower house of parliament elected a year ago. The Brotherhood dominated both.

The judiciary blocked an attempt by Mursi to reconvene the Brotherhood-led parliament after his election victory. It also stood in the way of his attempt to sack the prosecutor general, another Mubarak holdover, in October.

In his decree, Mursi gave himself the power to sack that prosecutor and appoint a new one. In open defiance of Mursi, some judges are refusing to acknowledge that step.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Seham Eloraby, Marwa Awad and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Michael Shields in Vienna; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Anna Willard, David Stamp, Alastair Macdonald and Giles Elgood)

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BBC Trust chief defends huge director-general payout

LONDON: The head of the BBC's governing body insisted Tuesday he had to give director-general George Entwistle a huge pay-off when he quit in the wake of paedophilia scandals engulfing the corporation.

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten told lawmakers the £450,000 ($720,000, 560,000 euros) given to Entwistle after just 54 days in the job was "one hell of a lot of money", but there was no better option on the table.

The world's largest public broadcaster has been battered by claims that Jimmy Savile, one of its biggest stars, was among Britain's most prolific sex offenders -- as well as a television report wrongly accusing a politician of paedophilia.

There were bad-tempered exchanges as former Hong Kong governor Patten was grilled by parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a scrutiny panel of lawmakers.

Patten said Entwistle, who quit on November 10, had refused to resign if he received a pay-off of six months' salary, but agreed to go if he was given 12 months.

But Patten insisted that Entwistle was "a decent man who was overwhelmed by a very difficult job" and said he would not join in the "general trashing" of the character of a man who spent most of his career at the BBC.

"What's happened is a small tragedy which has been made rather larger by money," he said.

At one point in the crisis, Entwistle had asked Patten: "Are you urging me to go?" and got the reply: "We're not urging you to go but we're not urging you to stay", Patten revealed.

He said the trust did not have sufficient grounds to sack Entwistle and therefore had no choice but to accept his terms.

Otherwise, Patten added, the crisis would have stretched on and the BBC would have found itself "with a constructive dismissal and probably an unfair dismissal on top of that," which would have been even more expensive.

"It was better than any alternative course of action," he said.

On Thursday the BBC appointed Royal Opera House boss Tony Hall, its former news chief, as its new director-general to an almost universally warm reception. He is expected to start work in March.

An inquiry into the dropping of a report on Savile's abuse by the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight is due to report by the New Year.

A second independent probe is looking into the BBC's practices during the more than 20 years Savile spent at the corporation.

Patten said the costs, "however much they are", would be met from the licence fee, the compulsory £145.50-per-household annual levy.

Acting BBC director-general Tim Davie said around 40 people were interviewed for the Newsnight review, with the legal costs reaching £200,000 so far. There is a cap of £50,000 per person.

Patten admitted that the BBC had work to do to restore trust in its output and journalism, but insisted it remained superior to its counterparts elsewhere in the world.

"Trust in the BBC has taken a knock," he said. "We have shot ourselves in the foot. We have to rebuild that trust."

He added: "Anybody who rubbishes the BBC should be forced to watch Italian or French or American TV for a week or so."

Meanwhile Britain's top police officer Bernard Hogan-Howe said the investigation into Savile's abuse had cost around £2 million so far, and involves around 450 potential victims.

And police said they were now publicly acknowledging that the late Cyril Smith, a prominent 30-stone (190-kilogramme) lawmaker who died two years ago, had physically and sexually abused young boys in care homes in the 1960s.

-AFP/ac

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Will prune security further to VIPS: Sukhbir Badal

CHANDIGARH: Caught in a controversy over Punjab's free of cost security to the slain liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday said that his government will further prune the security cover provided to VIPs.

"No one, irrespective of party affiliations and stature, will get security unless there was a real threat perception. The security moving with these VIPs outside the state is a concern. I've already had a long discussion with the state police head and security cover to VIPs will be reduced to 1,000-1,500 from 1,900," said Badal Jr, who holds the home portfolio, at a press meet.

He was replying to a query on BJP MP ( Himachal Pradesh) Anurag Thakur and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala - both of whom are close to the Badal family - enjoying the security patronage of Punjab police personnel outside the state. Anurag, who is HP chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal's son and looks after the family business in Jalandhar, has two PSOs (personal security officers). Chautala has three PSOs for the family.

Badal Jr's comments came a day after state police chief DGP Sumedh Singh Saini had said that only those who have Punjab domiciles would be entitled for security cover from the state. In May, the Punjab government had overhauled its policy when Sukhbir made a public announcement to prune the security cover of self-styled VIPs. By June 14, nearly 2,000 personnel deployed across the state were pulled back and 109 vehicles used for protection duties withdrawn.

However, TOI learnt that around this time the security cover for the slain Chadha brothers was renewed and given the permission to use it indiscriminately outside Punjab. The shootout had revealed that the duo had been enjoying a free security cover - six PSOs with Hardeep and one with Ponty.

According to Punjab police's own admission, 1,900 personnel are guarding 740 political leaders and top businessmen like Chadhas, depleting the already limited resources of the force.

OUTSIDE SECURITY

INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala: 3

BJP MP Anurag Thakur: 2

SAD(B) Delhi president Manjeet Singh GK: 2

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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