Japan-ASEAN call for freedom of air and seas, with tensions high over China

Japan and Southeast Asian countries called on Saturday for freedom of the air and sea and urged that disputes be resolved peacefully, amid concerns about Chinese military assertiveness that has raised regional tensions.

China's recent announcement of an air defense zone that covers islands in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing, triggered protests from Japan, United States and South Korea.

China is also locked in territorial rows with other Asian nations over wide swathes of the South China Sea, including waters claimed by several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Beijing has said it might set up a similar air defense zone there.

"We underscored the importance of maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region and promoting maritime security and safety, freedom of navigation, unimpeded commerce, exercise of self-restraint and resolution of disputes by peaceful means in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law," said a statement issued at a summit of Japanese and ASEAN leaders in Tokyo.

The statement did not refer to China's new air defense zone, but did note that Japan welcomed consultations between ASEAN and China on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

China has a hefty economic presence in the region and many ASEAN members are reluctant to directly challenge Beijing.

The heightened tensions with China have raised concerns that an minor incident in the disputed seas could quickly escalate.

U.S. and Chinese warships narrowly avoid collision in the South China Sea last week, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Friday.

Both Japan and China in recent months have scrambled aircraft over the disputed seas and conducted naval patrols.

"RULE OF LAW"

The Japan-ASEAN summit is the centerpiece of a three-day regional gathering officially billed as celebrating 40 years of diplomatic ties.

"I would like to build an Asia Pacific future that respects each other's cultures and construct an economic system that is realized not by force, but by rule of law and our efforts," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at the start of the summit with the 10 ASEAN countries.

Chinese state media kept up the invective against Japan's complaints over the air space zone on Friday, with the official Xinhua news agency saying Abe was going to "stage again its China-is-to-blame game" at the ASEAN summit.

"It is believed that anyone with only half a brain knows that it is Japan who intentionally set the region on fire in the first place," Xinhua said in an English-language commentary.

Abe has visited all 10 ASEAN nations during his year in office, a diplomatic campaign underlined by hefty aid and growing private investment by Japanese firms hoping to avoid rising costs and the potential risks of China.

On Saturday, Japan announced 2 trillion yen ($19.39 billion) in official development assistance to the grouping, including 300 billion yen for disaster management cooperation.

A day earlier, Tokyo gave the Philippines 6.6 billion yen to provide patrol ships, along with a special post-typhoon loan, and announced currency swap deals with five Southeast Asian nations.

ASEAN groups Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Brunei.($1 = 103.1400 Japanese yen)(GNN)(Reuters)

(Reporting by Elaine Lies and Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Perry and Linda Sieg)

U.S. sanctions move angers Iran, Russia sees threat to nuclear deal

A breakthrough agreement to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear program appeared to face its first major difficulty on Friday with Russia warning that expanding a U.S. sanctions blacklist could seriously complicate the deal's implementation.

Russia, which, along with the United States, is among the six world powers that negotiated the November 24 interim accord with Tehran, echoed Iranian criticism that it violated the spirit of the deal and could "block things".

The United States on Thursday blacklisted additional companies and people under existing sanctions intended to prevent Iran from obtaining the capability to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies any such aims.

Diplomats said Iran, in what appeared to be a response, interrupted technical talks in Vienna with the six nations over how to implement the agreement, under which Tehran is to curb its atomic activities in return for limited sanctions easing.

The developments highlighted potential obstacles negotiators face in pressing ahead with efforts to resolve a decade-old dispute between the Islamic Republic and the West that has stirred fears of a new Middle East war.

Western diplomats said the inconclusive outcome of the December 9-12 expert-level discussions should not be seen as a sign that the deal hammered out nearly three weeks ago was in trouble.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency in reaction to the U.S. decision that it was evaluating the situation and would "react accordingly", adding, "It is against the spirit of the Geneva deal."

Russia also made its concerns clear.

"The U.S. administration's decision goes against the spirit of this document," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, referring to the Geneva agreement between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

"Widening American 'blacklists' could seriously complicate the fulfillment of the Geneva agreement, which proposes easing sanctions pressure."

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said she did not think the blacklistings announced on Thursday had made the negotiations more difficult.

"No, I don't. I think it was always going to be very complicated," Harf told reporters, adding the United States had told Iranian officials in Vienna that more designations were coming.

DEAL OPPONENTS

Russia built Iran's first nuclear power plant and has much better ties with Tehran than Western states. It supported four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions aimed at reining in Tehran's nuclear program but has criticized the United States and Europe for imposing additional sanctions.

U.S. officials said the blacklisting move showed the Geneva deal "does not, and will not, interfere with our continued efforts to expose and disrupt those supporting Iran's nuclear program or seeking to evade our sanctions".

The new measure, the first such enforcement action since Geneva, targeted entities that are suspected of involvement in the proliferation of materials for weapons of mass destruction and trying to evade the current sanctions.

Some U.S. lawmakers want further sanctions on the Islamic state. But the administration of President Barack Obama has campaigned to hold off on new measures for now to create space for the diplomatic push to settle the nuclear dispute.

Iran's ambassador to France said expanding the blacklist played into the hands of those opposing the deal - including hardliners in Iran irked by the foreign policy shift and apprehensive that they are losing influence over Iran's most powerful man, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"This agreement has opponents both inside Iran and outside Iran," Ali Ahani told reporters at a meeting of business and political leaders in Monaco.

"We are determined to keep to our commitments, but we have to be sure that on the other side they are serious, and that we can show to our people that we can trust them and that the West is a viable partner."

"The contents of this accord are quite clear. It was decided not to add sanctions. This type of decision blocks things," added Ahani, speaking on behalf of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who pulled out of the World Policy Conference after his mother was taken ill.

'NOT PANICKING'
The Geneva deal was designed to halt Iran's nuclear advances for six months to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement. Scope for diplomacy widened after Iran elected the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as president in June. He had promised to reduce Tehran's isolation and win sanctions easing.

Under the agreement, Iran will restrain its atomic activities in return for some easing of the international sanctions that have battered the major oil producer's economy.

But one diplomat said the Iranian delegation in Vienna suddenly announced late on Thursday - hours after Washington made its blacklisting decision public - that it had received instructions to return to Tehran: "It was quite unexpected."

An EU diplomat said he did not believe the decision was linked to the issues under discussion in Vienna, but rather "their reaction to moves in the U.S. on sanctions".

The hope was that it was a temporary problem: "The Iranians have been committed to making this work. We are not panicking."

Iranian officials were not available for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he expected the implementation talks to resume in the coming days. "We have been hard at it in Vienna ... we are making progress but I think that they're at a point in those talks where folks feel a need to consult and take a moment," he said during a visit to Israel.

"There is every expectation that the talks are going to continue in the next few days and that we will proceed to the full implementation of that plan."

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates the discussions with Iran, also said they were expected to resume soon.

"After four days of lengthy and detailed talks, reflecting the complexity of the technical issues discussed, it became clear that further work is needed," Michael Mann said.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Adrian Croft in Brussels, John Irish in Monaco and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Alison Williams)

Russian central bank closes three more banks in crackdown

Russia's central bank said on Friday it had withdrawn the licenses of three more banks in a crackdown on shady financial activities a day after President Vladimir Putin renewed a drive to stem capital flight.

The closures of the three banks, the biggest of which was Investbank - ranked 79th in Russia by assets were linked to mounting payment problems and dubious operations, it said.

The closures come weeks after the central bank withdrew the license of Master Bank, a mid-sized Moscow bank, in the most potent demonstration that Governor Elvira Nabiullina is serious about halting rampant fraud and money laundering in Russia.

Dodgy banks are the conduit for illegal capital outflows that Nabiullina's predecessor estimated at $50 billion last year.

Even so, Putin said on Thursday that "nothing has been done" to implement an initiative he launched a year ago to stem capital flight that has sapped both investment and the Kremlin's coffers.

Continuing closures have highlighted counter-party risks among Russia's 900 banks, adding to negative sentiment on financial markets. The rouble fell to four-year lows following the latest closures.

The central bank has stripped around 30 banks of licenses since Nabiullina took the helm at the central bank in June.

The license withdrawals of Investbank, Smolensky bank (125th) and Project Finance Bank (129th) - their combined assets are 67 billion roubles ($2 billion), according to Interfax - did not come as a surprise.

All the three have had experienced recent payment problems with depositors and creditors, the central bank said in three separate statements.

Separately, the Russian central bank will hold a policy meeting on interest rates on Friday.($1 = 32.7602 Russian roubles)(GNN)(Reuters)

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; Additional reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Alister Doyle)

Man arrested for suspected suicide plot to blow up Kansas airport

Authorities said Friday they foiled a suicide bombing plot to blow up the Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, Kansas, arresting a man who proclaimed himself Muslim and had talked of committing "violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda."

Terry Loewen, a 58-year-old aviation technician from Wichita, was taken into custody early Friday morning as he attempted to enter the airport tarmac with a vehicle loaded with what authorities said he believed were explosives. He planned to trigger the explosives and die in the explosion, they said.

Loewen has been under investigation by the Wichita Joint Terrorism Task Force since early summer and had been working on the bomb plot with individuals he thought were accomplices. But they were actually undercover FBI agents, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in Wichita.

Loewen thought one of the undercover agents was a member of "AQAP," a Yemen-based terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for several terrorist acts against the United States, according to the criminal complaint. That agent helped Loewen with the construction of the device, which officials said, unknown to Loewen, was not active.

"It was not a bomb that would ever explode," said Barry Grissom, U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas. "At no time was the airport perimeter breached and at no time was any citizen or member of the traveling public in danger."

Officials refused to provide details on the materials in the device.

Authorities said Loewen had made statements prior to the attempted attack that he was resolved to commit an act of violence that would kill as many people as possible.

Loewen provided one undercover FBI agent with research he had conducted on the best time to execute the attack based on the number of people who would be boarding aircraft and the number of people who would be in the terminal, the criminal complaint said.

Loewen was charged in federal court with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Loewen left a letter dated December 11, 2013 for a family member describing his intent to conduct a martyrdom operation, according to the criminal complaint. Part of the letter reads: "By the time you read this I will - if everything went as planned- have been martyred in the path of Allah... The operation was timed to cause maximum carnage + death. My only explanation is that I believe in jihad for the sake of Allah + for the sake of my Muslim brothers + sisters."

Officials said they were continuing their investigation, but no further arrests were expected.

"This incident is a reminder that we must remain vigilant and reaffirm our commitment to protecting this country and its ideals from those who wish to do us harm," U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said in a statement.

The arrest comes a month after a man attacked security workers at Los Angeles International Airport on November 1, killing one Transportation Security Administration agent and wounding two others before police wounded him and took him into custody.

In October, Jacksonville International Airport in Florida was evacuated for five hours after a man made a false bomb threat. A trucking company worker was arrested and charged with telling a TSA agent he had a bomb in a backpack.

In February 2012, authorities arrested a Moroccan man near the U.S. Capitol wearing a vest he believed was full of al Qaeda-supplied explosives. The man, who like Loewen was the object of a lengthy undercover FBI investigation, was charged with the attempted suicide bombing of Congress and faces up to life in prison if convicted.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Editing by Vicki Allen, Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler)

Teacher, father recall terror, grief a year after Connecticut shooting

It has been a year since Kaitlin Roig barricaded herself and 15 first-graders in a bathroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School, hiding from a gunman who would go on to kill 26 people in an 11-minute rampage.

Roig doesn't know if Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old shooter, ever entered her classroom in Newtown, Connecticut, although she could hear gunfire and terrified pleas from the hallway and adjacent first-grade classroom.

"For myself, I am so aware that roles could have so easily been reversed," said Roig, 30, who has since married and now uses the name Roig-DeBellis.

"I remember, in the days after, it was so hard to get out of bed," she said, sitting on a sofa in her Greenwich, Connecticut home. "I just walked around singing Amazing Grace just over and over and over, because it was just so incredibly hard."

The December 14 tragedy at Sandy Hook, among the most deadly school shootings in U.S. history, rocked this leafy, suburban town 70 miles northeast of New York City. Coming just five months after a gunman opened fire in a Colorado movie theater, killing 12, the murder of 20 6-and 7-year-olds forced a national reckoning about gun violence.

Lanza, a loner who appears to have had severe emotional problems, used guns that were legally purchased by his mother, Nancy Lanza. He killed her in her bed, then drove to the elementary school he had once attended, shooting his way in just as the school day was getting started. After the rampage, he shot himself.

As the nation prepares to mark the first anniversary of the December 14 massacre, Newtown has asked the public to stay away.

For her part, Roig-DeBellis has planned a trip - a spa visit and maybe a nice dinner - anything to turn her focus away from the terror and excruciating sadness of that day.

"AN OPEN HEART"

The offices of Sandy Hook Promise, a parents group founded in the weeks after the shootings, are located in downtown Newtown. Artwork sent by children from across the country has been framed and mounted on the walls there. Scattered on tables are pamphlets on foundations set up by the families.

Seated at one of those tables, Mark Barden, who lost his son, Daniel, gives a long pause when asked about forgiveness.

"I'm trying to approach every bit of this with an open heart and an open mind," said Barden. "It's a work in progress."

Like many other Sandy Hook parents, Barden has kept up a punishing schedule over the last year, traveling to Washington to meet with lawmakers to support a gun law that stalled in the U.S. Senate, and promoting the work of Sandy Hook Promise.

"Maybe it has saved me," he said of the group. "The way that Daniel lived his short life, I know that he would have done a whole lot of good. We take it very seriously now that it's our responsibility to do that good work."

For Barden, a guitarist who often performs in town, every day is an anniversary. The last haircut. The last swim team practice. The last Thanksgiving.

"A lot of the memories are happy. But we're still so new at this. It's still so early on that it's hard not to get caught up in the grief," he said.

The parents of the children who died that day talk often about their struggle to break through the feeling of helplessness. Parent Together, an effort Sandy Hook Promise launched in November, aims to show people, regardless of their politics, that gun violence can be prevented.

"Nobody's pro gun violence. So, it's not like there's two sides to this," Barden said.

"If we can save another family from going through what we are going through, then I can feel good about that for the rest of my life," Barden said.

HOLIDAY SHARING

When the shooting started last December 14, Roig-DeBellis's class was seated in a circle, sharing their holiday traditions.

"I got up, I closed the door, I turned the lights off and I turned to my students and I said: 'We need to get into the bathroom - right now,'" she said.

The bathroom was not more than three by four feet, too small to even hold a sink. Children climbed onto the toilet, behind the toilet. One perched on the toilet paper dispenser.

"They were hearing exactly what I was hearing. It was extremely loud. It was extremely scary," she said.

Some 45 minutes later, when the police arrived, Roig-DeBellis would not let them in. For days after, she was in a daze, unsure if she was alive or dead.

She ended up taking more than a year off from teaching, and has devoted that time to Classes4Classes, a charity that facilitates acts of kindness between groups of students across the country. She plans to return to teaching this summer.

"What happened that day has nothing to do with being a teacher," she said.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Reporting By Edith Honan; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Japan PM Abe's ratings slide after state secrets act

Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slid in opinion polls after his ruling coalition steamrolled through parliament a tough secrecy act that critics fear could muzzle media and allow officials to hide misdeeds.

Shrinking support could push Abe, who took power last year pledging to revive a stagnant economy, to softpedal his security policies until next year's budget is enacted and a sales tax hike from April is safely navigated, some analysts said.

Abe was quick to defend his action, but said he should have taken more time to explain the bill carefully.

"With humility and sincerity, I must take the severe opinion from the public as a reprimand from the people. I now look back and think with regret that I should have spent more time to explain the bill carefully," Abe told reporters on Monday.

"But there have been no rules on designating, releasing, and preserving state secrets. That is where the real problem is."

Support for Abe's government fell 13.9 points to 54.6 percent in a poll by broadcaster JNN, the lowest since he took office, although backing for the main opposition Democratic Party rose just 0.9 point to 6.8 percent and was dwarfed by the 30.3 percent who backed Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

"Abe's support tends to drop when he shows his 'Abe color'," said Nihon University professor Tomoaki Iwai. "But he knows that. I think he will focus on the economy for a while."

A survey by news agency Kyodo showed support for Abe's cabinet fell 10.3 points to 47.6 percent, its first drop below 50 percent in a Kyodo poll since Abe began his rare second term.

His first 2006-2007 term ended when he quit after a year marked by a big election loss, deadlock in parliament and ill health.

REVISED OR ABOLISHED

About 82 percent of the respondents to the Kyodo poll, conducted on Sunday and Monday, wanted the secrets act - which some critics have likened to Japan's harsh authoritarian regime before and during World War Two - to be revised or abolished.

"During the parliament deliberations, there were expressions of concern such as 'Secrets will be multiplied endlessly', 'People will be deprived of their right to know', and 'Daily life will be threatened'," Abe said.

"But such things will never, ever happen."

Abe has said the secrecy act is vital to convince allies such as the United States to share intelligence as he sets up a U.S.-style National Security Council to streamline foreign and security policy.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters the drop was not unexpected. He attributed the decline to public misunderstanding of the law's content and said the government would continue to explain it to gain support.

The upper house of Japan's parliament late on Friday approved the state secrets act, which toughens penalties for leaks and broadens the definition of official secrets, despite protests by thousands of demonstrators near parliament and criticism from a broad swathe of media and intellectuals.

The law provides jails terms of up to 10 years for public servants or others leaking state secrets. Journalists and others in the private sector convicted of encouraging such leaks could get up to 5 years if they use "grossly inappropriate" means to get information.

Top officials will be able to designate special state secrets in four categories - defense, diplomacy, counter-terrorism and counterespionage - that can be kept secret for up to 60 years, and in some cases, longer.

A weekend survey by the Asahi newspaper also showed Abe's support rate falling, by three points, to 46 percent. In another poll by public broadcaster NHK, support for Abe's cabinet dropped 10 points from a month earlier to 50 percent.

Past governments have stretched the limits of Japan's U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution but Abe wants to go further, including by easing a self-imposed ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense, or aiding an ally under attack.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Mexico Senate panels OK energy reform; leftists oppose

Mexican Senate committees on Monday gave general approval to a draft energy bill allowing private investment in the world's No. 10 oil producer in what would be the biggest opening of the state-controlled sector in its 75-year history.

The bill, unveiled by senators from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and opposition conservatives on Saturday, would let private firms partner with ailing state oil firm Pemex via profit-sharing, risk-sharing and service contracts as well as licenses.

The revised draft was a positive surprise for many in the oil industry, and the government hopes it will help stem a decade-long slide in crude oil output. Mexico's peso rallied on Monday to a seven-week high. The energy reform is seen helping drive economic growth in Mexico, something that would underpin the peso.

Lawmakers from Senate committees had debated the bill on Sunday, but did not wrap up speeches in time for a vote.

They gave the bill general approval on Monday afternoon, and then began debating the dozens of reservations raised by leftist Senators opposed to Pena Nieto's plan.

Senators from the main leftist group, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), chanted "ask the people" inside the chamber as they tried to stall the process.

PRD Senators had earlier lined up in front of the podium in the upper chamber holding placards saying "no to privatization," then sang the Mexican national anthem.

Once committees have fully passed the bill, it would head to the full Senate and lower chamber for votes.

The reform is a cornerstone of an economic reform drive that President Enrique Pena Nieto hopes will boost long-lagging growth in Latin America's No. 2 economy.

It would allow private investors to drill for the country's crude, and although it stops short of full-blown concessions that oil majors had hoped for, the reform goes much further than many analysts had expected.

RIGHT TO BOOK RESERVES STILL MURKY
Lawmakers say companies will not have rights to book oil reserves on their balance sheets but will be able to report projected benefits from agreed contracts for accounting purposes, which lawyers say is tantamount to the same thing.

Jose Valera, a Houston-based energy expert with law firm Mayer Brown, stressed that booking reserves is not a function of ownership.

"So long as the booking of reserves is not expressly prohibited by Mexican law, U.S. companies may book reserves in accordance with SEC guidelines," Valera said in an emailed statement.

Other specialists say the proposal is vague on this point.

"The language... suffers from unnecessary ambiguity for not making it explicit that the lease-holder may post the expected economic benefit in volumetric units as well as in monetary units," George Baker, publisher of industry newsletter Mexico Energy Intelligence, said in a report.

In a section setting out how risk-sharing contracts work internationally, the draft bill explains that production-sharing contracts let companies book crude reserves for accounting ends.

The bill later says that "...the hydrocarbons beneath the surface are and will always be the property of the nation; in consequence, no participant in the oil industry will be able report the reserves of these products as assets."

Jorge Jimenez, a Mexico City-based energy law expert at law firm Lopez Velarde, Heftye & Soria, said the bill was a "good compromise" on a difficult political issue but that secondary legislation expected next year would need to ensure there was no room for misinterpretation on the issue of reserves.

FINISH LINE

The bill is a big step from the service contracts now on offer, under which companies are paid a fee and can recover costs. It also goes well beyond the proposal made by Pena Nieto in August, which was limited to profit-sharing contracts.

Pena Nieto, who has pushed through overhauls of Mexico's tax rules, telecoms sector, bank lending regulations and education system, hopes to pass the energy reform before Christmas but lacks a majority in Congress.

He needs the support of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) to pass the bill because the constitutional changes he wants to make require a two-thirds majority in Congress. But the PRD has vowed to fight the bill all the way to the finish line.

The reform is a major break with tradition in Mexico, where assets of foreign oil companies were expropriated in 1938 to create Pemex, which is still a potent symbol of national pride.(Reuters)(GNN)

(Additional reporting by Michael O'Boyle, Dave Graham, David Alire Garcia and Alexandra Alper; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by W Simon, Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)

Woman rescued from Taliban stoning by Afghan police

KUNDUZ: Police in a remote northern Afghan village rescued a woman from being stoned to death after she was condemned by the Taliban for allegedly cheating on her husband, officials said Tuesday.

Taliban militants, who often run informal justice systems in rural Afghanistan, handed down the death penalty on the woman after her husband accused her of having an affair.

"When police rescued her, she was locked in a room in a compound that was used as a Taliban base," Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, police spokesman for Kunduz province, told AFP. He said the rescue operation in the village, a militant stronghold, was launched after the woman´s relatives told police the Taliban had sentenced her to death. The husband, a supporter of the Islamic insurgent group, handed her over to the militants on Friday.

The incident happened in Dasht-i-Archi district of Kunduz, a province where the Taliban have had an active presence in recent years after they were ousted from power nationally in 2001. "The Taliban were preparing to stone her when the police reached the compound. The Taliban ran away and the woman was rescued. She´s now in police protective custody," Hussaini said.

Enayatullah Khaleeq, a spokesman for the Kunduz provincial administration, confirmed the rescue and give a similar account. "Her husband was with the Taliban. He had divorced his wife and, perhaps to justify this, he accused her of cheating on him and wanted to get her killed by the Taliban. "We are investigating this," Khaleeq told AFP.

The Taliban, the biggest militant group behind a 12-year insurgency in Afghanistan, implemented a harsh version of Sharia law during their rule of Kabul between 1996 and 2001, stoning women to death and chopping off thieves´ hands.

In July last year a 21-year-old woman was stoned to death in a Taliban-controlled village just 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Kabul, sparking international condemnation.

Pakistan wants peace, stability in Asia: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday that Pakistan's government was working on war footing to tackle terrorism and the energy crisis in the country.

Addressing the Asian Parliamentary Assembly here, Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan’s parliament was strengthened from a peaceful transition of power. He added that Asian countries could learn from each other’s experiences. “The exchange of parliamentary delegations can help bring people together.”

The prime minister further said that work was underway to generate electricity via resources from Central Asia.

PU hostel admin hands over 15 illegal occupants to police

LAHORE: The Punjab University hostel administration in an operation against the illegal residents caught 15 outsiders and later handed them over to Muslim Town police station.

Punjab University administration said that on a tip-off they raided the University new campus hostel no. 18 in the wee hours Tuesday caught hold of 15 persons illegally residing in different rooms and handed them over to police by registering an FIR against them for illegal occupation of public property.

More such operation against the illegal occupants of the hostel rooms would continue, said the administration of the Punjab University hostel.(Geo)(GNN)

French army battles militias in Central African Republic's capital

The French army said it has restored some stability in the capital of Central African Republic after battling gunmen on Monday in an operation to disarm rival Muslim and Christian fighters responsible for killing hundreds since last week.

Shooting erupted near Bangui's airport in the morning when gunmen refused to hand over weapons and French forces later came under attack by former rebels in the city center, but by evening there were no armed groups on the streets, the army said.

"There are no more patrols by armed groups in the city and the population is no longer threatened by the terror that these groups caused," said Colonel Gilles Jaron, spokesman for the French army joint staff in Paris.

"The spike in violence has gone down and we have returned to a more stable situation. We are still deployed in Bangui to carry out our mission," Jaron said.

Paris boosted its military presence to 1,600 troops over the weekend as waves of religious violence swept its former colony.

At least 465 people have been killed in Bangui alone since Thursday, according to Red Cross officials.

In an audio message to the country's people, President Barack Obama pledged U.S. support for efforts by France and African countries to restore security and protect civilians.

"You, the proud citizens of the Central African Republic, have the power to choose a different path," Obama said in the message. He said Muslim and Christian leaders, "are calling for calm and peace. I call on the transitional government to join these voices and to arrest those who are committing crimes."

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has authorized military transport aircraft to carry troops to the country from Burundi to support the French-led effort, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Hagel authorized the use of the planes on Sunday after being asked for airlift assistance by French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the spokesman said in a statement.

Central African Republic has spiraled into chaos since mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in March and embarked on months of looting, raping and killing. Seleka's leader, Michel Djotodia, installed as the interim president, has lost control of his loose band of fighters.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said any party involved in the violence could be prosecuted.

ATTEMPT TO INTIMIDATE

Christian militias and gunmen loyal to ousted president Francois Bozize attacked Bangui on Thursday, the same day the U.N. Security Council authorized France to use lethal force to help African peacekeepers already struggling to restore order.

In an early test of France's resolve, its troops traded fire with gunmen near the airport on Monday morning.

"Many armed elements who held positions in Bangui have left their positions to go back to their barracks," said Jaron, who called the incident "insignificant".

However, French troops again came under attack later in the day in the PK 5 neighborhood from suspected Seleka fighters.

"It was an attempt to intimidate. We responded with 20mm cannon, then sent in a platoon to carry out clean-up operations," said Captain Guillaume Fresse, spokesman for the French forces in Bangui.

The French operation is running smoothly though its most difficult phase lies ahead, France's ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, told reporters in New York.

"The French forces have reestablished law and order in Bangui, even if there is still some looting in the periphery," said Araud, president of the U.N. Security Council this month, after briefing the council on the situation.

With French forces on checkpoints and on patrol, crowd violence erupted in several districts of Bangui.

In the Castor neighborhood, a Reuters reporter saw a crowd attack a man they accused of being a disarmed Seleka fighter after French soldiers removed weapons from a house there and then left.

At a mosque in the PK 5 neighborhood, the resident imam showed journalists the bodies of two men who he said had been beaten to death by Christians.

French troops have been broadly welcomed in a city struggling to emerge from a period that saw fighters, both Christian and Muslim, go door-to-door killing civilians.

SHOPS REOPEN

As French warplanes and helicopters flew low overhead, residents reappeared on the streets and some shops and market stalls reopened for the first time since last week.

"Yesterday we couldn't even come here to cross this road because the Seleka came and set up a base here," said a woman who gave her name only as Armelle. "Thank God the French came. If there's peace, things will get better."

However, the United Nations said it had counted some 72,000 people displaced by the violence staying in various sites in Bangui, including at the airport, where French troops and African peacekeepers have their base.

"There are still conflicts in some neighborhoods. There's still killing," said Amy Martin, head of the U.N. aid agency OCHA in Bangui. "For now, we don't have the feeling that people are ready to go home.

Information began to trickle in from parts of the country cut off from the capital since last week.

A humanitarian worker in the town of Bossangoa said the number of dead there from several days of violence between Seleka and Christian "anti-balaka" militias had risen to 38. France has sent two companies of troops to the town, Araud said.

In Bozoum, in the northwest, U.N. officials received reports of dozens of dead, and there was also violence in the nearby town of Bocaranga.

Humanitarian agencies and rights groups said the final toll was likely to be much higher.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier in Paris, Joe Bavier in Abidjan, Matthew Mpoke Bigg in Accra, Bate Felix in Casablanca, Phil Stewart and Jeff Mason in Washington, David Alexander in Doha and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Paul Simao)

China's 2014 growth in focus as leaders met on reform plans

China's leaders began mapping out their economic and reform plans for 2014 behind closed doors on Tuesday, and would have drawn confidence from data showing the economy has sustained momentum from a mid-year pick-up into the final quarter.

Even as the government's 7.5 percent growth target for this year looks increasingly secure, some advisors think it may not issue a specific target for 2014 in order to have more room to pursue reforms intended to lead to more sustainable growth.

The government has repeatedly said it has the appetite to overhaul the world's second-largest economy, and last month outlined an ambitious agenda for the next decade, but it has also shown a distaste for growth slowing towards 7 percent.

Top government think tanks, which make policy proposals, were still debating whether the growth target should be cut to 7 percent in 2014 from this year's 7.5 percent as the leadership convened in Beijing for the Central Economic Work Conference.

Zhao Xijun, deputy head of the Finance and Securities Institute at Renmin University in Beijing, said he had proposed to the government that it set a range of 7-7.5 percent, but saw an outside chance that Beijing simply scrapped the target.

"It's even better not to announce a target, otherwise you strengthen the importance of GDP," Zhao said, adding that the government could simply stress economic stability for next year.

The annual conference brings together top party leaders, ministers and provincial officials to set economic targets for the year ahead, which will be unveiled in parliament next March, according to government economists familiar with the meetings.

High on the agenda this year is a detailed reform plan for 2014 after the Communist Party last month unveiled sweeping economic and social changes, including relaxing the country's one-child policy and liberalizing financial markets.

Economists expect priorities to include preparations for freeing up bank deposit rates and experimenting with greater yuan convertibility in a new free-trade zone in Shanghai.

Already this week, new standards have been issued for local officials. Their performance will no longer be based simply on their region's growth rate, but will include resource and environmental costs, debt levels and work safety.

Promotions will also depend on how officials boost technological innovation, employment, household incomes and social security, the central organization department said.

The overall intention is to restructure China's economy so it is driven by consumption and services, as is the case in Western economies, rather than by exports and investment.

SPLIT ON TARGET

The push for reform means growth will be slower -- something leaders have said they are comfortable with as it will lead to more sustainable growth.

But as a protracted slowdown extended into the first half of 2013 and analysts questioned whether the growth target would be missed, the government stepped in to shore up activity.

That saw growth pick up in the third quarter, and many analysts had expected that to taper into year-end. However, data on Tuesday showed retail sales, industrial output and investment maintaining their annual growth rates in November.

That followed figures showing a strong jump in exports and a run of surveys of factory and service sector activity suggesting the pick-up since mid-year has been sustained.

"The economy is humming along and there is no need for growth upgrades or growth downgrades. They can focus on what they need to focus on, with no need to worry about growth stabilization policies," said Tim Condon, Asia economist at ING in Singapore.

Last month, Premier Li Keqiang said economic growth of 7.2 percent was needed to keep a lid on unemployment, and on Monday the official China Securities Journal said the government was likely to stick with this year's 7.5 percent target for 2014.

The State Information Centre and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have proposed lowering the growth target for 2014, arguing it would help Beijing focus on reforms, but other think tanks, such as China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), have proposed keeping the current target.

"The difference on growth target remains big," Wang Jun, senior economist at the CCIEE, told Reuters. As a compromise, the government may consider setting a growth range of 7-7.5 percent for next year, he said.

Government economists also think the government will target 3.5 percent inflation, 13 percent broad money supply growth and 20 percent growth in fixed-asset investment for 2014.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing and Aileen Wang; Editing by John Mair)

Rangers’ targeted operation continues in Karachi

KARACHI: Sindh Rangers in their continued targeted operation in the city last night rounded up eight professional criminals and recovered weapons from them.

Rangers’ spokesperson said that targeted operation were conducted last night in different parts of the city including Landhi, Liaquatabad, Nizimabad, North Nazimabad, Nusrat Bhutto Colony, Lasi Goth, Taimuria, Rufi Banglows, Sunny Heights, Aram Bagh and Malir Khokhrapar.

The weapons recovered from the eight criminals taken into custody included LMG, sniper rifle and pistols, spokesman disclosed.(Geo)(GNN)

France's Hollande to visit Central African Republic

French President Francois Hollande will visit the Central African Republic on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by his office, after boosting French troops in order restore stability in the country.

Hollande will visit the country on his way back from South Africa, where he was due to attend a ceremony to honor Nelson Mandela.

Paris raised its military presence in the Central African Republic to 1,600 troops during the weekend as waves of religious violence swept over its former colony.(Reuters)(GNN)

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by James Regan)

SC orders to present missing persons in 7 days

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has issued the verdict in the missing persons case Tuesday and ordered the concerned authorities to present the disappeared persons in seven days along with initiating action against those responsible.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Ameer Hani Muslim resumed hearing into the missing persons’ case and delivered the verdict today.

During the hearing the court stated that the court’s order was not implemented in the missing persons’ case.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry summoned Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on immediate basis.

Attorney General Munir A Malik and acting Defence Secretary Arif Nazir appeared in the court. The CJ questioned them about the missing persons on which acting defence secretary responded that the missing persons could not be presented in the court due to some serious security issues.

On this, the CJ remarked that the court order has to be implemented come what may. He further said that if they want to detain someone, then they should introduce an ordinance.

On this occasion, the attorney general told that a bill for missing persons will be presented in the current Parliament session.

The Chief Justice, then, said that the government including the prime minister is well aware about the case. The CJ also summoned the acting head of FC and said that army personnel can even come down from Siachen via helicopters.(GNN)(Geo)

Protests a memory, Brazil opposition struggles to catch Rousseff

This year has been difficult for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, but it hasn't been much easier for her opposition. Brazil's PSDB party, the main rival to Rousseff's Workers' Party, failed to capitalize on a turbulent period marked by a sputtering economy and the widespread, often violent street protests against poor public services and corruption that rocked the country in June.

Latin America's largest economy, a one-time market darling after posting a 7.5 percent growth rate in 2010, has slowed sharply under Rousseff as industry struggles with high tax and labor costs, among other issues. Rousseff's popularity had been mostly insulated from the economic headwinds, however, due to her government's focus on expanding popular social programs.

While Rousseff's approval rating plunged immediately after June's protests she has since made up much of those losses. She is currently outpacing all her potential rivals in the 2014 presidential race, in which she is widely expected to run for a second four-year term.

"We had a big wave of people mobilizing, pouring into the streets," said Carlos Melo, a political scientist at the Insper business school in Sao Paulo. "But as the wave passed, people began to ask 'what is the alternative?'"

Apparently not the PSDB, as recent polls have shown.

The 1995-2002 administration of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who helped stabilize Brazil's once-chaotic economy, is a high-water mark for the PSDB, which has lost all three succeeding presidential races to the Workers' Party.

Next year's election doesn't look much different. Support for the PSDB's most likely candidate, Aecio Neves, remains at less than half what Rousseff enjoys as he fends off competition from the PSB Party's Eduardo Campos, now running alongside popular environmental activist Marina Silva.

The PSDB's internal divisions have pitted Neves, a political scion from the state of Minas Gerais, against Jose Serra, a former Sao Paulo state governor and two-time presidential runner-up.

The 53-year-old Neves, who is hugely popular in his home state, was expected by some analysts to inject a degree of youth and excitement into the PSDB following Serra's runs for the presidency. Serra, 71, continues to hover over the party, however, raising doubts about his willingness to concede the nomination to Neves.

So far, neither has received the party's final nod.

Meanwhile, PSDB leaders are grappling with politically damaging allegations of a bribery and price-fixing scandal involving Sao Paulo's metro system, as well as a potential Supreme Court ruling on an alleged illegal campaign financing scheme that took place in 1998.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS BOOST ROUSSEFF

Rousseff herself proved in 2010 that early polls can be misleading, having definitively passed Serra just two months before the election. This time around, however, she finds her adversary in a weaker position.

"The PSDB is divided," said Roberto Romano, a political scientist with state university UNICAMP. "It does not offer a clear opposition to the Workers' Party."

Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva first ushered the Workers' Party into power in 2003 on a promise to improve conditions for the poorest Brazilians, expanding the previous administration's social welfare policies into the Bolsa Familia program.

Under Rousseff, the program now serves almost one-quarter of Brazil's population, and those who benefit tend to be among her biggest supporters.

"A poor Brazilian may look at Dilma's administration and say 'Sure, it has defects, it has problems, but this government has social policies that benefit me. Would some other administration guarantee that for me?' That's what the PSDB hasn't been able to do," said Insper's Melo.

Indeed, Neves' communications strategy has been contradictory at times. Earlier this year on a popular variety show, he highlighted that his party originated the popular program. "If you could take Bolsa Familia ... and take it to a clinic to do a (DNA) exam, the name of the father would come out PSDB/FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso)," he said.

Last month, however, he characterized Bolsa Familia as "the daily administration of poverty," suggesting the government should work to get more people off the program than on it.

Neves has also doled out harsh criticism of the Workers' Party over corruption and their role in Brazil's weakening macroeconomic fundamentals - two subjects the country's poor have traditionally overlooked as long as their quality of life is improving.

With unemployment currently near record lows and household incomes gaining steadily, Neves' words, and the PSDB's message, may be falling on deaf ears.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Reporting by Asher Levine; Editing by Todd Benson and Eric Beech)

South Carolina sheriff refuses to lower flag for Mandela

The U.S. flag flew high outside a sheriff's office in South Carolina on Monday in defiance of an order from President Barack Obama to lower all flags in memory of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said he believed the lowering of the flag to half-staff was a tribute that should be reserved for U.S. citizens.

"To show a sign of respect for what Nelson Mandela's done, I have no problem with lowering it in South Africa, in their country," Clark told a local television station.

"But in our country, it should be the people, in my opinion, who have sacrificed for our country."

On Friday, the sheriff's flag flew at half-staff in honor of a South Carolina law enforcement officer who was killed in the line of duty and it remained lowered through Pearl Harbor Day on Saturday.

The flag was raised to the top of the mast on Monday, however, and the sheriff's office said Clark would have no further comment beyond what he told a local TV reporter.

Obama ordered flags to be flown at half staff until sunset Monday.

South Carolina, in the heart of the old Deep South, has a troubled history when it comes to race relations and civil rights.

Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican and daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants, posted a tribute to Mandela on her Facebook page last Thursday.

Some commentators on the Facebook page later responded by calling Mandela everything from an "evil man" and "devout Marxist" to "a socialist goon."

Sheriff Clark was far more respectful in the specific comments about Mandela he made on his own Facebook page.

"I urge you to read about President Mandela over the next few days of mourning and be inspired for public service for your community and the nation as he was," Clark wrote.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Editing by Tom Brown, Andrew Hay and Lisa Shumaker)

Quetta: Two minors killed in gas leak explosion

QUETTA: Two minors were killed and three others sustained injuries when the leaked Sui gas in a house caused an explosion at the Satellite Town on Tuesday here.

Police said that an explosion occurred in a house filled with leaked Sui gas at Ghousabad in Satellite Town area when the housewife lit a matchstick for getting the water heated, resulting in the death of two minors Rafiqullah, six months old and Sadia, 10, while three persons including two women sustained injuries.

The injured were shifted to the Civil Hospital for medical aid.(Geo)(GNN)

SC delivers verdict on POL price increase

ISLAMABAD : The Supreme Court of Pakistan delivered its verdict in the petroleum, CNG and electricity price increase case, directing the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to ascertain prices of petroleum products in line with the international markets.

During proceedings today the Supreme Court bench remarked that while prices in the international market are going down the same trend is not witnessed in Pakistan.

Fertilizer
On the issue of subsidizing gas to the fertilizer industry the court has ordered that the subsidy should be continued while availability of urea fertilizer at low rates to farmers should be guaranteed.

Captive Power

The court has ordered that subsidy on gas to captive power plants should be stopped.

NEPRA

The bench further stated, that NEPRA has failed to execute its responsibilities; adding that the authority should ascertain prices in future while keeping consumers and stakeholders in mind. The Supreme Court has also ordered that subsidy being given on electricity prices should not be revoked.

CNG

The Supreme Court has also ordered that collecting additional tax on CNG is illegal. Meanwhile the court has directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to look into the matter of illegal CNG station licenses.

Deposit Tax collection with FBR in three months

The Supreme Court has also ordered that OGRA deposit tax collections with the Federal Bureau of Revenue within 3 months of collections.(GNN)(Geo)

Karachi: Five of a family found dead; gas poisoning suspected

KARACHI: Five members of a family were found dead inside their house in Baldia Town here on Monday. The police claimed the family apparently died of gas poisoning after the electricity generator was left running throughout the night. But doctors at the Civil hospital suspected deliberate poisoning as the victims were all foaming at the mouth.

The Saeedabad police were informed about the incident by the family’s neighbours and had to break through the door to enter the house.

“The family probably died of suffocation as when the policemen went inside, they could not stand there because of the accumulation of natural gas,” SSP West Irfan Baloch told Geo News.

The neighbours had heard the generator running despite the restoration of electricity in the area. They tried to inform the family to switch off the generator but no one responded to their calls.

Abrar Ahmed, 40, his wife Uzma Abrar, 35, and their sons 12-year-old Raza Junaid, nine-year-old Hamza Junaid and eight-year-old Samad Junaid were found dead in the two-room house in Sector 8-E, Baldia Town.

The bodies were shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) for medico-legal formalities.Police claimed Abrar was the second husband of Uzma, who had her three sons from the first marriage. The family hailed from Kashmir.

Abrar used to switch occupations and was currently jobless. He had kept a “large natural-gas powered generator at his house and had been providing electricity to several houses in the neighbourhood. He also charged money for the electricity.

“The deaths appear to be from suffocation but directives have been issued to send stomach samples for chemical examination to see if the family was poisoned,” Baloch said.

Saeedabad DSP Zahoor Ahmed said the investigation was under way but owing to the start of the polio vaccination drive in Baldia Town, police were busy in providing security to the vaccinators.

Dr Rajinder Kumar, a medico-legal officer at CHK, said the postmortem examination of the victims was being done to ascertain actual cause of death. “It appears to be a case of poisoning as the victims were frothing at the mouth.”

Fluids and semi-digested food from the bodies had been sent for chemical examination to determine if they were poisoned, he said.

“The family did not die of suffocation.”Kumar also denied some media reports that the victims were bore tortured. “There were no torture marks on any of the bodies.”(GNN)(Geo)

NATO supply blocked: Chuck Hagel warns Nawaz of stopping US assistance

ISLAMABAD: Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel during his meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday warned that US lawmakers could withhold military assistance if Islamabad failed to ensure security for the key (NATO) supply route.

"There will be those home back in Congress... who will seize upon this issue if it continues to be a concern," a defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters after Hagel´s talks with the prime minister.

The US provides major defence aid to Pakistan, including "coalition support funds" in which Washington reimburses Islamabad for the cost of counter-terrorism operations.

"The secretary made the point that we need to demonstrate the continued flow of goods in order to be able to continue fulfilling their reimbursements, the defence official said.

Torkham gate is the main overland route used by the Americans and NATO to withdraw military hardware from Afghanistan as part of the troop pullout set to wrap up by the end of 2014.

Hagel´s trip to Pakistan was also to establish a constructive dialogue with Pakistan´s new army chief Sharif, who is expected to be at the centre of sensitive security decisions.

"Issues concerning (the) defence relationship, Pak-US bilateral ties and regional stability came under discussion," the Pakistan military said after Hagel met the army chief.

Newtown families urge kindness as shooting anniversary nears

The families of many of those who died last year in a shooting rampage at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, gathered on Monday to encourage people to perform an act of kindness on the anniversary of the slayings.

In a tearful procession, representatives from 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School families stood up to say they would light a candle to mark the anniversary this Saturday.

"We hope that some small measure of good may be returned to the world," said JoAnn Bacon, who lost her 6-year-old, Charlotte, last December 14, when a gunman entered the school and shot 20 children and six adults before turning a gun on himself.

The families also announced the launch of a new website, Mysandyhookfamily.org, to honor the victims. The website is intended to create a "singular place of sharing, communication, and contact with the families of those who lost their lives that day."

"In the midst of our grief we have come to realize that we want our loved ones to be remembered for the lives they lived and how they touched our hearts," said Krisa Rekos, whose 6-year-old daughter, Jessica, died in the shooting.

The shootings shocked the nation and led President Barack Obama to propose a series of new gun-control measures, including an expansion of federal background check laws. Those efforts were blocked in the U.S. Senate after some lawmakers argued the changes would be onerous to law-abiding gun owners.

In a report released last month, state investigators said the gunman acted alone, using guns legally purchased by his mother, whom he shot dead before driving to the school. His motive and reason for targeting Sandy Hook, a school he once attended, remain a mystery, the report said.

Earlier on Monday, officials in Newtown, a suburban town about 70 miles northeast of New York City, held a news conference with television reporters to ask for privacy and a restrained media presence as the anniversary nears.

"We can't choose to not have this horrible thing happen to us. It happened. We cannot make it un-happen," said First Selectman Pat Llodra. "But we can choose how we react to it."

"Please respect our need to be alone and to be quiet and to have that personal time to continue on our journey of grief in the way that serves us," she said.

Newtown's police chief, Michael Kehoe, said the town would have extra police officers on duty over the coming weekend and that the department's goal would be to encourage an atmosphere of normalcy.

Many of those directly affected by the shooting, including parents of the children killed that day, have said they plan to be out of town this week. Groups that have used Newtown as a rallying call in advocating for changes in public policy have also vowed to stay out of Newtown on the anniversary, holding events in Washington and other cities instead.

"We are broken," said Matt Crebbin, the coordinator of the Newtown Interfaith Clergy Association. He encouraged people in Newtown and elsewhere to perform acts of kindness as a way to allow something positive to emerge from the tragedy.

"In Newtown, we know that we have to choose to be kind to one another every day because all of us are dealing with a whole variety of challenges," Crebbin said. "Kindness is a choice that we all make."(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

China Everbright Bank to launch $2.8 billion Hong Kong offer on Tuesday

China Everbright Bank Co Ltd (601818.SS) will be the third mainland lender in three months to raise funds in Hong Kong by launching an up to $2.8 billion share sale on Tuesday. The bank and peers Huishang Bank Corp Ltd (3698.HK) and Bank of Chongqing (1963.HK) are building capital buffers in anticipation of a rise in bad loans as growth of the world's second-biggest economy slows.

They have turned to Hong Kong in search of a wider pool of international investors but the shadow of bad loans has made many wary. In response, the banks have signed up so-called cornerstone investors who buy significant portions of the offered shares which they agree to hold for at least six months.

The banking unit of state-backed China Everbright Group is attempting to raise capital in Hong Kong for the third time after market conditions led it to abandon efforts last year and the year before.

China's 11th biggest bank by market capitalization said on Monday it will offer 5.1 billion shares from Tuesday at an indicative price of HK$3.83 to HK$4.27 each, to yield up to HK$21.8 billion ($2.81 billion). The offer will be priced on Friday, with trading to start on December 20.

The offering would be Hong Kong's biggest since China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (0386.HK) (600028.SS), Asia's largest refiner, raised $3.1 billion in February.

The price range values the Shanghai-listed bank at a 2013 full-year forecast price-to-book ratio of 0.9 to 1.0 times, Thomson Reuters publication IFR previously reported.

China Everbright Bank received commitments worth $1.74 billion from 19 cornerstone investors including China Shipping (Group) Co CNSHI.UL and Prudential Financial Inc (PRU.N), according to its prospectus released on Monday.

It hired China Everbright Securities, China International Capital Corp (CICC), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and UBS AG (UBSN.VX) to coordinate the offering.

The share sale would come soon after Huishang Bank and Bank of Chongqing raised a combined $1.92 billion. Huishang closed on Monday at HK$3.54 compared with a listing price of HK$3.53, and Bank of Chongqing ended at HK$5.82 from HK$6.00.

Other Chinese banks including Bank of Shanghai and China Guangfa Bank plan to list in Hong Kong within the next 12 months.

Chinese banks' bad loans climbed 24.1 billion yuan ($3.96 billion) in July-September to 563 billion yuan - the steepest quarterly rise since 2005. ($1 = 7.7543 Hong Kong dollars)(GNN)(Reuters)

(Editing by Denny Thomas and Christopher Cushing)

France to start disarming Central African Republic fighters on Monday

France said it will start disarming fighters in the Central African Republic by force if necessary on Monday, as relative calm returned to the capital Bangui following three days of heavy fighting between Christians and Muslims.

Residents reported sporadic gunfire from some Bangui neighbourhoods on Sunday after the violence in which the Red Cross said at least 394 people had died.

Despite a government order for gunmen to return to their barracks, a Reuters reporter saw soldiers in camouflage fatigues driving around in pickup trucks near the presidential palace and in clear view of French troops, deployed to the country under United Nations authorisation.

Central African Republic has slid into chaos as interim president Michel Djotodia struggled to control his loose band of Seleka fighters, who have attacked members of the Christian majority and prompted them to organise militias.

Djotodia seized power in March with the help of Seleka, a mainly Muslim rebel group that has been fighting the militias.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said fighters had to hand over their weapons. "It's from tomorrow that the disarmament will start. First we'll ask nicely and if they don't react, we'll do it by force," he said in an interview on French television station LCI on Sunday.

France is deploying 1,600 troops to its former colony after the U.N. Security Council authorised it on Thursday to use force to help African peacekeepers struggling to restore order. The African Union force is also due to be increased to 6,000 from 3,500.

On Sunday the morgue at Bangui's Hopital Communautaire was full, with bodies piled up there and in the hospital's corridors, another Reuters correspondent saw.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the death toll would have been much higher without the deployment. "Calm has returned in Bangui, even if acts of violence are still being committed," he told the France 3 TV channel. "Had we not intervened, the 394 deaths would have been 5,000 or 10,000."

One campaigner said Seleka remained active in Bangui. "Even as the mourning begins, Seleka has not been confined. They are still operating in the city," said Joseph Bindoumi, president of the Central African League for the Defence of Human Rights.

The country, rich in gold, diamonds and uranium, has seen little but conflict and political instability since independence from France in 1960. The Red Cross said it was working to recover more bodies on Sunday.

Pastor Antoine Mbao Bogo, who is Red Cross president in the country, told Reuters that his group planned to prepare two grave sites - one for Christians and one for Muslims.

FUNERALS DIFFICULT

Residents of both faiths have huddled in churches for protection from the armed groups.

Thousands attended a Sunday morning service at St. Paul's church in Bangui. Makeshift beds inside the church were removed temporarily to allow space for prayer benches, but still people spilled into the courtyard.

"We need today to promote inter-religious dialogue to transform the dynamic of violence and war into a dynamic of peace and solidarity," Dieudonne Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui, said at the service.

The church is struggling to provide funerals for its congregation, said Bishop Nestor Aziagba, who assisted at Sunday's service. "Men can't leave their homes and women are taking the risk of taking the bodies and digging their own holes to bury them," he told Reuters.

President Djotodia announced three days of national mourning on state radio on Saturday.

French helicopters flew low over Bangui while soldiers patrolled both the capital and Bossangoa, about 300 km (180 miles) to the north.

Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergency director, said that the first French helicopter had arrived in Bossangoa. "Every French move reassures the population," he said on his Twitter feed.

Following the outbreak of violence, France wants elections brought forward to next year, putting an end to the interim period originally scheduled to run into 2015.

Djotodia, who blames the recent attacks on gunmen loyal to his ousted predecessor Francois Bozize, acknowledged on Sunday that he had received the request and said it was under consideration.

The United Nations has estimated that as many as 6,000 child soldiers have been drawn into the latest violence and aid workers say that many of the victims have been children.

Souleymane Diabate, of children's rights organisation UNICEF, said that many children were being brought to hospitals with wounds from bullets and crude weapons. "We are living through a major crisis and children haven't been spared," he said.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Muriel Boselli and Marion Douet in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by David Stamp)

Analysis: U.S. budget deal could bring truce, minimize shutdown threats

A minimalist U.S. budget deal that congressional negotiators hope to reach in coming days will do almost nothing to tame rising federal debt, but it could usher in a nearly two-year fiscal truce, minimizing the risk of future funding crises and government shutdowns.

If the accord comes together, it would blunt some of the automatic "sequester" spending cuts and set funding levels at around $1 trillion for fiscal 2014 and 2015 for government agencies and programs from the military to national parks.

Such a deal would not address an increase in the federal borrowing limit, which is expected to come up again by the spring, leaving conservatives a pressure point to try to exploit.

However, it might restore some order to the federal budget process, which broke down years ago and has been replaced by stopgap funding measures, accompanied by brinkmanship and shut-down risks.

"If this holds together, it is a very good story," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group, which advises institutional investors.

"The chances of another Washington budget crisis have diminished greatly, and I think it increases the chances that the economy surprises to the upside," he said.

Two U.S. senators on Sunday expressed optimism that a two-year budget deal could be reached soon. Republican Senator Rob Portman, who sits on the House and Senate negotiating panel, told the ABC program "This Week" that he was hopeful an agreement could be struck "by the end of this week."

Richard Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said the talks were "moving in the right direction."

Some argue that the deal, which would trade some of the sequester cuts - perhaps $30 billion to $40 billion a year - for a mix of fee-based revenues and other savings, would mark the death of ambitious efforts to reduce deficits.

"I don't really see a natural way for there to be a grand bargain during the rest of the Obama presidency," which ends in January 2017, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that urges fiscal responsibility.

NEGOTIATIONS STILL UNDER WAY

The negotiations under way stem from the deal that ended the government shutdown in October, which set up a House-Senate conference committee led by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray.

They are still struggling to pin down the final details of their modest compromise before the House ends its session for the year on December 13.

Among the proposals under discussion are a doubling of airport security fees levied on airlines to about $5 per ticket, and a plan to require federal workers to contribute a higher percentage of their income towards their pension plans, according to people familiar with the talks. Other items include funds raised by auctioning some government-held telecommunications airwaves or hiking corporate fees for the U.S. agency that protects workers' retirement funds.

Democrats have objected to the hike in federal employee's pension contributions, which they view as a benefit cut.

Republicans backed by the conservative Tea Party movement also are objecting to the idea that a Ryan-Murray deal could push spending levels above the $967 billion cap set by the sequester, sacrificing what they view as essential savings.

If no House Democrats vote for a Ryan-Murray deal, the Tea Party group is large enough to prevent its passage.

After the public relations disaster suffered by Republicans as a result of the October shutdown, few conservatives are showing any interest in a repeat performance.

"I don't think there's any use of government shutdown threats if we can get something out of the conference committee," Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas, a Tea Party supporter, told reporters on December 3. "I think we'll get bipartisan support on something a conference committee comes up with."

Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress also have warned that they want a one-year extension of federal unemployment benefits that are set to expire the end of this month. A Senate Democratic aide said on Saturday it was still unclear whether such an extension would be included in the deal.

While the savings would be small, the deal would bring some much-needed order to a chaotic budget process in Congress that has broken down over the past few years, leaving Congress lurching from one stopgap funding resolution to another.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, a Republican critic of the deep sequester cuts, said he is now willing to live with only modest relief, and is determined that Congress pass annual spending bills for the first time since 2009.

"We need to get the train back on the tracks," said Rogers, who is from Kentucky. "If we get a 2015 number, we can do that."(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Aruna Viswanatha. Editing by Fred Barbash and Christopher Wilson)

Defying protesters, Ukraine's Yanukovich meets Putin on pact

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich met Russia's Vladimir Putin on Friday to lay the grounds for a new "strategic partnership" to shore up Ukraine's creaking economy in defiance of protesters back home enraged by his U-turn away from Europe.

The leaders met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Russia, after Yanukovich flew in for an unannounced stop on his way back from China to map out a new agreement on trade and economic cooperation, a statement on Yanukovich's official website said.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told journalists Yanukovich would visit Moscow at some point in the future and sign a large number of documents. "We are talking about a major agreement here," Azarov said though he gave no precise details of the outline deal.

Yanukovich faces turmoil in Kiev, where protesters are massed on Independence Square and others occupy City Hall, furious at Yanukovich for walking away last month from a landmark pact on trade and integration with the European Union. Police have threatened to crack down harshly to enforce a court order that they disperse.

Ukraine needs help to meet $17 billion in debt repayments and Russian gas bills next year.

Analysts say Yanukovich's government appears to have struck a bargain with Putin, including for supplies of cheaper Russian gas and possibly credits, in exchange for backing away from the EU deal which would have heralded a historic shift westwards.

But the Sochi talks will lend ammunition to the Ukrainian opposition, which accuses Yanukovich of betraying the national interest by turning the clock back and forging closer economic ties with Ukraine's old Soviet master.

The stand-off is taking a toll on the fragile economy. The central bank has twice been forced to support the hryvnia currency this week and the cost of insuring Ukraine's debt against default has risen further.

Ukraine's dwindling currency reserves have particularly sparked alarm among investors. Intervention to support the hryvnia, repayments to the IMF and on treasury bills pushed these reserves further down by nine percent in November to $18.8 billion, the central bank said on Friday - less than that needed to cover two and a half months of imports.

Former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, one of the opposition leaders, warned of even bigger protests if Yanukovich signed any agreement with Putin on the Russian-led customs union which Moscow wants Ukraine to join.

"If Yanukovich tries to sign anything with Russia about the customs union it will lead to a bigger wave of protests," Yatsenyuk told journalists.

In Kiev, several hundred demonstrators manned a protest camp on Independence Square as the opposition pressed for the resignation of the government, the release of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the prosecution of the interior minister for being behind an earlier crackdown on protesters.

Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevgenia, told reporters her mother had ended a 12-day hunger strike, launched in solidarity with the protesters, at the behest "of the square".

Opposition leaders, also including world heavweight boxing champion-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, urged people to turn out for another rally in central Kiev on Sunday.

DEFAULT RISK

A separate, smaller, group of protesters milled around in the corridors and staircases of City Hall on Friday despite the strongly worded threat from police to eject them.

"We have an evacuation plan," said a 30-year-old trader, who was part of the protesters' security staff and gave his name only as Igor. "If they come at us, we will be able to hold them long enough to be able to get the women, children and the weakest men out of the building," he said.

"We won't let them take the building back. We will resist to the end. We are not hindering anyone. The employees here are working normally," added a 22-year-old Kiev student, also called Igor.

Klitschko, who seems to be emerging as an agreed opposition candidate to take on Yanukovich in an election in 2015, warned authorities that any attempt to clear the large crowds from Independence Square would lead to a country-wide revolt.

"If the authorities try to disperse people from the (Independence) Square, then you will see rising up not 100,000 or 500,000 Ukrainians but the whole country," he declared in a statement on his party's web site.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, angered at Kiev's November 21 decision to abandon the deal with the EU, poured on to the streets last Sunday after many people - a lot of them young students - were hurt in police action.

Though the government later apologized, Azarov returned to the attack on Thursday, labeling those holding public buildings like the mayor's office "nazis, extremists and criminals."

He has rejected calls for his dismissal and an opposition call for early elections. His first deputy, Serhiy Arbuzov, who appeared to say on Thursday he supported snap elections, denied this on Friday, saying his words had been "twisted".

The Ukrainian state and companies will struggle to repay the $7 billion of debt maturing next year, while doubts are growing as to how long the central bank's meager reserves can stave off a currency collapse.

"We think that default risk is being seriously under-estimated," Timothy Ash, the head of emerging markets strategy at Standard Bank, said in a note to clients.

The International Monetary Fund has suspended negotiations with Ukraine for a new bail-out program, leaving the government to hunt for economic relief elsewhere.

The crisis has exposed a gulf between Ukrainians, many from the West of the country, who hope to move rapidly into the European mainstream, and those mainly from the East who look to Moscow as a guarantor of stability.

In the city of Kharkiv, a court hearing in a new prosecution against Tymoshenko - whom many demonstrators regard as their leader - was put off again because of her non-attendance due to back trouble.

The EU considers Tymoshenko, the peasant-braided politician who co-led the "Orange Revolution" protests of 2004-5, a political prisoner and campaigned in vain for her release before Kiev broke off negotiations.(GNN)(Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Shadi Bushra and Carolyn Cohn in London; Writing by Richard Balmforth; and Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)