Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has warned of a war between Khartoum and South Sudan because their failure to settle a dispute over an oil export deal.

Al-Bashir told Blue Nile TV on Friday that war “is a possibility” because of escalating tensions with Juba over the spat.

But he said his government will “not be the initiators of such a war.”

Landlocked South Sudan shut down oil production late last month after it accused Sudan of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil.

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbor Sudan on July 9 last year.

Researchers deduced that there had been water present during a warmer period lasting up to 5,000 years in the distant past, but this would have been too little time for life to establish itself on the surface.

The findings published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal were based on soil collected during the 2008 Nasa Phoenix mission to Mars.

Experts spent three years painstakingly scrutinising individual particles of soil to determine whether or not the planet was habitable.

The analysis, by Imperial College London researchers, showed that soil on Mars is formed under similarly arid conditions to the Moon.

The sample was taken from Mars’s icy northern arctic region, but separate studies have shown the entire planet is covered with the same type of soil.

Dr Tom Pike, who led the research, said: “We found that even though there is an abundance of ice, Mars has been experiencing a super-drought that may well have lasted hundreds of millions of years.

“We think the Mars we know today contrasts sharply with its earlier history, which had warmer and wetter periods and which may have been more suited to life.

“Future NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) missions that are planned for Mars will have to dig deeper to search for evidence of life, which may still be taking refuge underground.”

Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and President Barack Obama

Taliban leader Mullah Omar purportedly sent a letter to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in peace talks, US officials have claimed.

A former employee of one of the world’s largest international banks has provided WND with more than 1,000 pages of documents, including customer account ledgers for dozens of companies through which the financial institution was laundering money each month, according to the whistleblower.

“I found many accounts through which hundreds of thousands of dollars were being flowed as a conduit on a monthly basis,” John Cruz, an account relationship manager who worked in the HSBC southern New York region. told WND.

As WND reported, Cruz has a raft of customer account records he claims are evidence of an international money-laundering scheme involving hundreds of billions of dollars by London-based HSBC, which reportedly is under investigation by a U.S. Senate committee.

To illustrate the point, WND and Cruz selected the bank checking account ledger for a particular HSBC commercial account, called “Company ABC” for the sake of this article, for the months May through August 2009.

In the exhibits below, WND has redacted all information that might be used to identify the account holder, including removing the account number from the bank statements.

Company ABC was identified in HSBC records with the following information:

• “Delivery Service, DHL, office products, packages.”
• Located on West 39th Street in New York City, in operation for four years and organized under New York corporate laws.
• The account was identified as being 100 percent owned by a person from Malaysia who had non-resident status in the United States and a permanent address in West Hempstead, N.Y.
• The account registration was deficient in any meaningful “Know Your Customer” information, expect to list for the owner a New York drivers’ license number.
• The file described the business as: “SHIPPING COMPANY, OFFICE ON THE 9TH FLOOR, EMPLOYEES, DESKS, COMPUTERS, PRESIDENT’S OFFICE, OPERATIONS ON 13TH FLOOR.”
• The file noted that the business was last paid a site visit on March 10, 2009, by the HSBC branch manager in E. Northport, Long Island.
• The file listed the annual revenue of the company as $2 million. But also lists the gross for the 2008 tax return as $2,782,857.

“The first words out of my mouth when I first visited Company ABC in person were that this company is bogus,” Cruz said. “There were a few small boxes lying around and a few envelopes – but nothing of value, no large packages or anything else that would justify hundreds of thousands of dollars of business being transacted here on a monthly basis.”

Cruz said he found two women on Company ABC’s 13th floor, but they seemed to be only sitting at desks and talking.

“It turned out that the two women did not speak English,” he said. “So, when I said, ‘Hello,’ they just nodded. There were no managers or other employees around, so I left.”

As seen in Exhibit 1, for the month from May 7, 2009, through June 5, 2009, Company ABC started with an opening balance of $628,081.74 and a closing balance of $328,228.99.

On May 15, 2009, a debit reflects that $300,100 was wired from the account to an unspecified location via a telephone transfer.

Other than to be credited $247.25 on May 28, 2009, the account shows no other activity.

Israeli facilities in North America — and around the world — are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase.

“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” stated a letter circulated by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States. Guarded sites refers to government facilities like embassies and consulates, while ‘soft sites’ means Jewish synagogues, and schools, as well as community centers like the one hit by a terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.

The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, told an audience at a closed forum in Tel Aviv recently that Iran is trying to hit Israeli targetsbecause of what it believes are Israeli attacks on it nuclear scientists. Yoram Cohen said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the same militant wing of the government linked to the recent alleged plot against the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., is working tirelessly to attack Israeli and Jewish targets abroad in order to deter Israel.

Local and regional law enforcement and intelligence officials in U.S. and Canadian cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Toronto have been monitoring the situation closely for several weeks, and have stepped up patrols at Israeli government locations and Jewish cultural and religious institutions. They have issued awareness bulletins reminding officers to stay vigilant.

Federal officials in those cities told ABC News that they have also increased their efforts to watch for any threat stream pointing to an imminent attack on either Israeli facilities, Jewish cultural or religious institutions or other “soft targets.”

“When there is posturing like this, we always pay extra attention to any threat streams,” one federal official said.

“The thwarted assassination plot of a Saudi official in Washington, D.C., a couple of months ago was an important data point,” added the official, “in that it showed at least parts of the Iranian establishment were aware of the intended event and were not concerned about inevitable collateral damage to U.S. citizens had they carried out an assassination plot on American soil.”

“That was an eye opener, showing that they did not care about any collateral damage,” the federal official said.

After the disruption of the alleged plot, regional intelligence centers issued bulletins similar to the recent Israeli warning.

“In the past few weeks, there has been an escalation in threats against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” one regional document noted. “Open source has reported many demonstrations against Israel are expected to be concentrated on Israeli embassies and consulates. Such demonstrations have occurred internationally as well as domestically. These demonstrations could potentially turn violent at local synagogues, restaurants, the Israeli Embassy and other Israeli sites. … Law enforcement should be vigilant when making periodic checks at all Jewish facilities.

And the Israeli bulletin warned that Israel’s own passports might be used by terrorists intent on carrying out a plot.

“According to our evaluation there is a possibility that the forged passports will be used in order to pass as Israeli citizens at the security checks in Israel and around the world. Israeli security authorities may consider an Israeli citizenship as a [criterion] to proceed with a more lenient security check in secure sites such as airports, etc.,” the letter stated.

Israeli Military Strike Against Iran?

The Israeli security bulletin came in the midst of heated rhetoric on the part of the U.S., Iranian and Israeli political religious and military leadership and follows the recent assassination of a key scientist in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. If the rhetoric is to be believed, there is a deep concern that Israel might launch a military strike against Iran during the spring of 2012.

The intelligence community assessment of that possibility, based on interviews conducted by ABC News, is considerably more nuanced, taking into account as it does the political will of the United States during an election year, the fragile nature of Great Britain’s coalition government , the willingness of other allies to join in an offensive, the roles of Russia and China and Saudi Arabia in such a confrontation, and whether Israel would really be willing to launch a unilateral strike.

“But in this situation, the political rhetoric is actually quite important,” one official told ABC News. “And that is why the official position — of the U.S, England, France, Canada, Israel and allies — is that nothing is off the table.”

An apparent shift in the Israeli/U.S. relationship has complicated matters, however, said the official. In the past, Israel would probably have given the U.S. a heads up were it to launch a strike. Now that might not be the case. Among the English-speaking allies of the U.S., say multiple intelligence officials, there is currently a very limited expectation of any early warning.

While much of the public attention has focused on Israel and the rifts within its leadership on how to respond to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the reality for Iran’s leadership is also problematic. After threatening to strangle the world oil supply through the straits of Hormuz, Iran “has boxed itself into a corner,” said one Western intelligence official. “It would be quite humiliating for them to back down.”

The Israeli security letter sums up the resultant risks very clearly.

“In conclusion, we operate according to the information that Iran and Hezbollah are working hard and with great intensity to release a ‘quality’ attack against Israeli/Jewish sites around the world.”

Pedestrians enter a subway pass at the closed Doukisis Plakentias metro station during a 24-hour strike in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012.

Greece’s fight to win its second international bailout may only open a new chapter in its struggle to remain in the euro area.

The rescue plan, which European officials and Greek creditors say may be wrapped up in coming days, includes a loss of more than 70 percent for bondholders in a voluntary debt exchange and loans likely to exceed the 130 billion euros ($171 billion) now on the table.

That won’t stanch the bleeding, say economists including Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank in London. Greece will be saddled with too much debt, too little growth and too large a budget hole to do without even more money that euro nations led by Germany are increasingly reluctant to offer, they say.

“Greece is in deep trouble,” Schmieding said in a Jan. 30 report. “The current Greek adjustment program is failing. Excessive austerity, a lack of supply-side reforms, administrative incompetence and political deadlock have pushed the Greek economy into an apparent death spiral. More of the same will not work.”

As Greek officials negotiate with representatives of the so-called troika — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund – Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann may travel to Athens this weekend for talks over a swap involving Greek debt with a face value of about 200 billion euros.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said today the country is close to completing the bailout talks.

‘Final Phase’

“We are in the final phase of this very critical process to shape a new financing program for Greece and to complete the loan agreement which will lighten the burden of public debt and ensure funding for years to come,” Papademos said in a statement posted on his website.

The euro is headed for a weekly decline against all of its 16 major peers. It rose 0.2 percent to $1.3169 at 11:45 a.m. in London. The yield on Germany’s benchmark 10-year bond fell 1.5 basis points to 1.84 percent, while the yield on Italian 10-year bonds declined 2 basis points to 5.58 percent.

Creditors are prepared to accept an average coupon of as low as 3.6 percent on new 30-year bonds in the exchange, said a person familiar with the talks, who declined to be identified because a final deal hasn’t been struck yet. The aim is to cut Greece’s debt load to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 from 162 percent in 2011. The alternative is an uncontrolled default that may lead to deeper losses and ripple effects throughout Europe.

Agreement Seen

An agreement could be reached “in the coming weeks, maybe days,” said Ackermann, also chairman of the Institute of International Finance. The group, based in Washington, has more than 450 financial firms as members and is representing private creditors in the talks.

Meantime, the finance ministers of the AAA-rated euro countries — Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Finland — are set to meet today in Berlin to discuss options.

“We can’t pay into a bottomless pit,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said yesterday. “Greece needs a new program, there’s no question about that, but Greece must create the conditions for it.”

Greece remains in intensive care more than two years after triggering Europe’s debt crisis, testing the patience of other European Union nations. Last November, when discussing the Greek situation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time raised the prospect of a country’s exit from the euro.

Contagion

Failure to control Greece’s troubles helped to push Ireland and Portugal into rescue programs, to raise borrowing costs for Italy and Spain, to embroil the European Central Bank in a controversial program of sovereign-bond purchases and to prompt Standard & Poor’s to stripFrance of its top credit rating.

Greece has lagged behind budget targets set when it won an initial, taxpayer-funded rescue of 110 billion euros in May 2010, prompting euro-area threats to cut off aid and hastening a German push to make bondholders contribute. The country is in its fifth year of recession, with a budget deficit still close to 10 percent of gross domestic product and unemployment of around 18 percent.

Bond Payment

Facing a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20 and general elections as soon as April, Papademos’s caretaker government must heed familiar calls by the euro area and the IMF for tighter austerity to complete the talks on a second aid package. The demands are also for lower wage costs and the deregulation of professions including lawyers and truck drivers.

The cuts risk triggering a “social explosion,” Hieronymos II, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church, said in a statement posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Athens.

“We are being asked to take even larger doses of a medicine that has proven to be deadly and to undertake commitments that do not solve the problem, but only temporarily postpone the foretold death of our economy,” the Archbishop said.

Greece will default on its debt and is likely to leave the euro, Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman said yesterday at a conference in Moscow.

“The Greek situation is essentially impossible,” Krugman said. “They will default on their debt. In fact they already have. The question is whether they will also leave the euro, which I think at this point is more likely than not.”

Mexico’s epidemic of violence first erupted in 2006, according to most accounts. But an ex-Muslim from India, who serves as a Christian pastor along the Texas-Mexican border, believes the problem began much earlier, with human sacrifice, witches, and the adoration of death in ancient Aztec days.

Bombay-born Mujahid Hussein, 41, who found Jesus aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean 17 years ago, is now known as David Elijah. He was ordained by Kings Revival Church International of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the largest and fastest growing congregation in the Middle East.

“There are few places in America more evil, or more steeped in witchcraft and demonic influences, along with false prophets, divination and corruption, than the border region of northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas,” Elijah told The Christian Post.

He pastors a church, leads an evangelistic healing and deliverance ministry, and hosts a weekly broadcast, “Avivamiento Del Rey,” on Radio Vida, a local Christian station in McAllen, Texas, just across the border from Reynosa, Mexico. The weekly program is heard in Spanish and English in Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, Texas and the western U.S., on a variety of AM frequencies.

“The worship of Santa Muerte (Holy Death, or Saint Death) is widespread, especially among the drug cartels, but it’s also rapidly growing among the general population in Mexico and in Hispanic communities in the U.S.,” he said.

Human blood is sometimes offered to gain the favor of this idol, which is depicted in illustrations and statues as a skeleton wearing a hooded robe, holding a scythe or globe. Some link Santa Muerte to the Aztec goddess of the dead, Mictecacihuatl.

“Beheadings, like the ones we see the cartels doing, were part of ancient Aztec human-sacrifice rituals. The adoration of death and the use of witchcraft have been practiced in Mexico for longer than anyone knows, and are regaining popularity,” he said.

While the violence in Mexico fills headlines, problems in the border area of south Texas seldom make the news but are just as serious, he said, especially in the spiritual realm. The population of the Rio Grande Valley is at least 90 percent Hispanic, and thousands of Mexicans from Mexico are flooding into the region, fleeing the violence in their homeland.

“A large majority of the Valley’s population is Catholic, but the Catholicism here is mixed up with ancient pagan rites, witchcraft, false religions like Santeria, Voodoo, Palo Mayombe, and other demonic cults, and the worship of false saints like ‘Saint’ Death and Jesus Malverde,” Elijah said.

“Basically, it all adds up to Satan worship, which feeds the violence and every other problem, like poverty, drought, hunger, chronic ill health, lack of jobs, and hopelessness,” he said.

While the main focus of his ministry is evangelism, he said there’s so much demonic activity it has to be dealt with in order to reach the lost.

“Intercessory prayer, prayer walks, extended worship, planting churches, setting up a school to train evangelists and pastors, these are just some of the things we’re doing, in addition to deliverance. I grew up in India where I learned at a young age about demons and demonization. I saw what it did to people. It’s real. When evil spirits invade a person’s life, that person needs deliverance. Jesus set the example by casting out demons,” Elijah said.

He shook his head and smiled. “Just about every Baptist who visits India becomes a Pentecostal.”

Then he grew serious.

“From the syncretism here along the border, from the mixture of Catholicism, witchcraft and idolatry, come blasphemies that always arise whenever something is exalted above God. Worshiping anyone, anything, or any idol instead of the Lord God Almighty brings escalating violence, mutilations, bombings, murders and slaughters for the sake of money, power and pride.

“Mexico is now the greatest exporter of cocaine, more than Columbia. In 2004, the mayor of Matamoros (directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas) officially recognized Santa Muerte as a saint. When the local seat of authority is recognizing a demonic cult as legitimate, all hell breaks loose. There are several Satanist churches operating openly in Matamoros that used to have to hide their existence. The local population supports them. Also in 2004, videos of al- Qaida beheadings went viral on the Internet, and now that old Aztec human-sacrifice ritual is being carried out all across Mexico.”

Elijah said the unclean spirits controlling the cartels have slithered into many levels of Mexican society and have also invaded the church on both sides of the border.

“When anyone begins dabbling in the occult and witchcraft, it brings spiritual defilement by attracting unclean spirits. You can’t be messing around with the devil and say you’re a Christian. Here in the Valley, the spirit of divination is taking over pulpits through false prophets and false prophetesses who are prophesying over people, laying on hands, causing all sorts of problems.

“The lack of discernment in the body of Christ is huge. People are impressed by what seem to be spiritual gifts, but they don’t realize there’s a ‘familiar spirit’ that counterfeits the Holy Spirit. They haven’t been taught that all signs and wonders aren’t from God. They don’t understand that even apparent healings can be deceptions in these end times when the Bible says wickedness will abound.”

In addition to the almost 50,000 estimated to have died in Mexico’s drug violence, another 10,000 have disappeared without a trace. Many of these, Elijah is convinced, are the victims of Satanic rituals that require human sacrifice.

“There’s lots of really gruesome stuff going on.”

Many of the murders and mutilations are so horrific and unwarranted, he said, there’s no reasonable explanation other than to conclude they’re inspired by the devil himself.

“There’s even a counterfeit Lord’s Supper where instead of bread and wine, human flesh and blood are used.”

Elijah said such abominations aren’t taking place only in Mexico.

“Come visit McAllen, Texas, sometime and take a look at the witchcraft shops operating on Main Street. They must have plenty of customers and be making good money to be able to afford the rent on such prime locations.

“On both sides of the border, so many people go to church on Sunday, then on Monday they go to a witch to get healed. They call them curanderas, faith healers. They don’t find any power in the church, so they go to someone who does have power. The only problem is, it’s Satanic power, and they get worse – they get demonized.”

That’s where Elijah’s deliverance meetings come in. They’re set up like prayer meetings, beginning with what Elijah calls “extravagant worship,” whereby the gathered believers sing praises to Jesus with great fervor for much longer than during a typical church worship session. He says it takes time to enter the presence of God, and many churches never get there because they seldom spend enough time worshiping.

Following praise and worship, those who feel they need deliverance are instructed to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to them their unconfessed sins, and then repent. They are prayed for, and the unclean spirits troubling them are identified by name and commanded to depart in the name of Jesus Christ.

“And usually, they do,” Elijah said.

An observer for The Christian Post was present at a deliverance session involving a man from Mexico who’d heard Elijah’s program on the radio and had called in, asking for help. The man was invited to Elijah’s house church where, according to the man, a demon was cast out of him.

This is how he explained his experience, speaking in rapid, excited Spanish, while a woman translated.

“When the pastor commanded the evil spirit to come out, I felt like there was a kitten inside my stomach that was being pulled out of me by its tail. It was stabbing its claws deep into my stomach and holding on with all its strength because it didn’t want to leave.

“It hurt me very bad, but finally it went out, and I felt like heavy chains had been lifted off me. I haven’t felt this good in a really long time.”

Elijah said this sort of experience occurs regularly at his deliverance meetings.

He said demons often seem to “nest” in the stomach, and usually when they’re expelled, the person they’re cast out from will spit up a foul, dark liquid that doesn’t look or smell like ordinary vomit.

He said he’d seen much demonic activity in India, and knew it was real. He said most people in America don’t believe in demons because they’ve never encountered them, or aren’t able to recognize demonic influence for what it really is.

It took several minutes and a woolly hat to resolve the latest differences among the loose alliance of Russian opposition groups challenging Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule.

Unable to agree on the order of a protest march through Moscow on Saturday, the organizers, gathered round a few tables shoved together in a crowded Moscow cultural centre, borrowed the hat from a woman bystander and drew lots from it.

A row was averted. Non-affiliated protesters will lead the march, increasing pressure on Putin to allow free elections and open up the political system, and they will be followed by liberals, right-wing groups and nationalists.

The many groups behind the biggest protests since Putin rose to power disagree on more than they agree on, and their chaotic meetings are often an exercise in conflict resolution.

Fearing the Kremlin will exploit any public differences, they are keeping their political demands and sensitive political discussions to a minimum to help maintain the fragile unity.

“A coalition as broad as this can only concentrate on achieving one goal,” said Maxim Blant, a journalist debating the protest movement with other civic activists during a political discussion one snowy evening this week.

“The groups involved all want a level playing field for political competition in Russia. This unites them even though they have different values otherwise. They understand the rules of the game – they must focus on the one goal that unites them.”

TEST OF MOMENTUM

Two opposition rallies in Moscow on December 10 and December 24 attracted tens of thousands of people angered by allegations of fraud in a parliamentary election on December 4 that was won by Putin’s ruling United Russia party.

Saturday’s march will test the opposition’s ability to keep up the momentum despite freezing weather, Putin’s refusal to meet their main demands and the prime minister’s all-but certain victory in a presidential election on March 4.

We know that Putin will win on March 4. But we want to ensure he is naked and wet when he enters the Kremlin, with all respect for him gone,” said Sergei Parkhomenko, a journalist who is part of the organizing committee.

Protesters were also united by an announcement by Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev on September 24 that they plan to swap jobs after the presidential election, a move seen by many Russians as openly flouting democracy.

The protest movement has brought together such diverse figures as former chess champion and opposition politician Garry Kasparov, environmental campaigner Yevgenia Chirikova, anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who has expressed nationalist views, and left-wing leader Sergei Udaltsov.

None has emerged as the group’s leader although Navalny, 35, is widely seen as having the potential to step into that role. At the first organizational meeting, his seat, marked by a place name, was empty at the start because he had been jailed for 15 days for his role in an earlier protest in December.

One of the organizers, liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, served in government under President Boris Yeltsin but others, such as novelist Boris Akunin, have no experience of politics and are not affiliated with any political party.

Chirikova, who led a campaign to prevent the Khimki forest outside Moscow being bulldozed to make way for a highway, said the groups’ differences should not be seen as a weakness.

“Our campaign over Khimki forest brought together right-wing people, left-wing people, all sorts of people. That’s why we succeeded,” she said, explaining that the broad support base had made the authorities sit up and take notice.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION

When problems arise, the protest leaders have so far managed to get round them at their regular meetings staged in premises lent to them by sympathizers. Unable to agree on a list of speakers before the December 24 rally, they held a popularity poll on the Internet, allowing supporters to decide for them.

When Nemtsov and an ally, Vladimir Ryzhkov, called at the first meeting for the protesters to add a call for Putin to quit to their list of demands, they were shouted down by others who did not want to politicize the protests at that stage.

At times the discussions threaten to become heated.

Akunin’s concerns that it was too cold to have speeches at the end of Saturday’s march, and Udaltsov’s call for no political leaders to speak, were beaten back by others such as Ryzhkov and Nemtsov.

Such disputes have to be settled quickly to avoid opening deep-seated divides. Nemtsov, for example, is reviled by nationalists and leftists for his role in free-market reforms in the 1990s, when, they say, Russia sold its wealth too cheaply.

Liberals fear the nationalists will try to hijack the protests to press their calls for immigrants to leave the country, while leftists are just as wary of liberals’ beliefs in market reforms.

Any row would quickly grab the public’s attention. The protest organizers allow the media to attend their meetings and stream them on the Internet, even though much of the discussion focuses on mundane issues and the participants can often be seen looking bored and tapping away on their iPads or mobile phones.

Fears that the Kremlin could try to exploit any differences between the opposition forces mounted in December after a media outlet published a recording of telephone calls in which Nemtsov used profanities to describe Chirikova and derided supporters as “office plankton” who had never seen a riot policeman.

Nemtsov said the recordings were partly falsified and intended to deter support and split the opposition.

“They will not succeed: it will have the opposite effect and more people will come out,” he said at the time.

COMPETING PROTESTS

The main opposition protests were suspended over the long New Year holiday, when Russia comes to a halt, and Saturday’s march to a square across the Moscow River from the Kremlin will show whether the opposition can still mobilize large crowds.

A few isolated opposition protests have taken place since December. A banner reading “Putin, go away” was erected on a rooftop near the Kremlin on Wednesday and hundreds of people on Sunday drove cars trailing white ribbons, the protest symbol, to show defiance of Putin.

So far, 26,000 people have registered for Saturday’s protest on social network sites, the organizers say, but some registered weeks ago and their commitment cannot be taken for granted after temperatures fell below -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow this week.

Putin’s supporters also plan a rally at the same time in another part of the capital but it is not expected to attract as many people as the opposition protest.

Novelist Akunin said support for the protest movement was growing but the weather would be an important factor.

“Wrap up well and bring some hot tea,” Nemtsov said, offering some advice to protesters.

The protest organizers have agreed to repeat the demands Putin has ignored – a rerun of the parliamentary election, the release of prisoners jailed for political reasons, reform of the political system, dismissal of the central election commission chief and registration of more political parties.

A key demand was added without any dissent among the opposition groups at the latest meeting – sympathizers should be urged not to cast a single vote for Putin on March 4.

One committee member, Olga Romanova, said funds were running low and this could affect efforts to arrange a video and sound system for speakers at the end of the march.

One of the organizing committee drew attention to the need to mobilize support outside Moscow – a key issue because Putin, president from 2000 until 2008 and prime minister since then, has stronger support outside the big cities.

PUTIN ON COURSE FOR VICTORY

Opinion polls show Putin, a former KGB spy, will win the election although he acknowledged on Wednesday that he might not win in the first round.

Putin, 59, has outlined token political reforms in response to the protests but has also mocked the demonstrators – saying they lack leadership and goals, and suggesting they are funded by foreign governments. The opposition denies the allegation.

Putin has also likened the white ribbons the protesters wear to condoms, and a decision by election officials to prevent liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky running for president was seen by the opposition as Putin laying down the gauntlet.

“Something has changed in Russia and only people like Putin – one person living in a bunker – could say it hasn’t,” Chirikova said. “People have realised there is no chance of change coming from above, from Putin.”

Prime Minister David Cameron will make an official visit to the US next month, the White House has said.

Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha will be in the US on 13-14 March.

A spokesman said President Barack Obama would welcome Mr Cameron to “highlight the fundamental importance of the US-UK special relationship”.

The two leaders will discuss the forthcoming Nato and G8 summits, as well as developments in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

‘Liberties and values’

The White House spokesman said: “The visit will highlight the fundamental importance of the US-UK special relationship and the depth of the friendship between the American people and the people of the United Kingdom, as well as the strong personal bond that has developed between the two leaders and their families.

“It will also be an opportunity to recall the valour and sacrifice of the US and British armed forces and their long tradition of standing shoulder to shoulder beside each other in defence of our liberties and shared values.

“The visit will underscore the strength of our economic links, which contribute to millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The White House said issues such as Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran, human rights and global economic stability and growth would be on the agenda.

“They will also review progress in the implementation of the various initiatives launched during the president’s state visit to the UK last year,” said the spokesman.

Troop withdrawal

Downing Street confirmed on Twitter that Mr Cameron and his wife had accepted the invitation to visit the White House.

A message from the official @Number10gov account said: “The Prime Minister and Mrs Cameron have accepted invitation from @whitehouse for official visit the US on 13th & 14th March.”

Downing Street said on Thursday that British troops would step back from their lead combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2013.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman said UK and international troops would offer a “supporting combat role” in 2014.

The prime minister had previously said the UK’s military role in Afghanistan would be completed by the end of that year.

Mr Obama became the first US president to address members of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall when he and wife Michelle were on a two-day state visit to the UK in May last year.

Mr Cameron made his first official visit to the US as prime minister in July 2010.

At least 37 people have been killed in South Sudan during a shoot-out at a peace meeting aimed at ending recent violence, officials said.

Officials from three states and the UN had met for talks in the remote town of Mayendit in Unity state in an effort to reduce inter-ethnic tensions.

The talks were called after a series of clashes, including one in which 74 people were killed earlier this week.

Thousands of people have been displaced in the violence.

According to the UN, the fighting took place when four trucks of gunmen arrived at the meeting after a row broke out, and began to shoot indiscriminately.

The gunmen included policemen from different units, soldiers, bodyguards and armed wildlife officials, according to AFP news agency.

Many others were wounded in the confrontation, including a UN staff member.

Correspondents say the lack of security in South Sudan, which became independent last July, is one of its greatest challenges.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in a series of tit-for-tat cattle raids in Jonglei state in recent weeks.

All four of the female MPs who served in the previous parliament lost their seats. Liberals, who had five seats in the previous parliament, now have just two.

Voters punished pro-government MPs during Thursday’s parliamentary election, reducing them to a small minority, the results showed.

Only two of 13 former MPs who the public prosecutor questioned over corruption charges were re-elected, and the rest either lost or did not contest the poll.

Following the announcement of the results, hundreds of opposition supporters gathered at the campaign tents of candidates they backed to celebrate the outcome.

Speaking after his victory, new opposition MP Obaid al-Wasmi warned all “corruption files will be opened,” including claims that hundreds of millions of public funds were stolen.

“I tell the decision-makers that the Kuwait of tomorrow will not be the same as of the Kuwait of yesterday,” said the outspoken independent opposition figure.

The snap election was called after the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state dissolved parliament following youth-led protests and bitter disputes between the opposition MPs and the government.

The vote followed a fierce campaign amid heightened sectarian and tribal tensions that impacted on the results, with hardliners making gains and moderates losing.

An independent Scotland would be heavily indebted and at increased risk of default, placing greater restrictions on economic and fiscal policy, a think tank has warned.

“Even with a favourable settlement on future oil revenues, its fiscal balances are likely to be volatile with large deficits in some years as a result of its dependence on oil revenues. Under these assumptions fiscal debt is likely to be around 70pc of GDP,” NIESR said.

Scotland should continue to use the pound even if it votes for independence, the think tank said, because it is so highly integrated with the rest of the UK.

“This would bring with it its own set of problems; as the example of the eurozone shows, using a currency which a parliament has no direct control over brings restrictions,” said Angus Armstrong of NIESR.

He said an independent Scotland would issue its own bonds, presumably in sterling. “Like any other country, the issue of Scottish government bonds without the ability, in extremis, to print money to repay creditors opens up the possibility of default, albeit in very remote circumstances.

Argentina has accused David Cameron’s government of fanning the row over the Falklands Islands in an attempt to distract the British public from high unemployment.

He spoke as a small group of protesters marched on the UK embassy in Buenos Aires, burning a British flag. A branch of the British-owned bank HSBC was also attacked yesterday.

Tensions over the Falklands have been rising as the 30-year anniversary of the war between Argentina and Britain approaches.

The clashes came as Prince William arrived in the Falklands for a six-week stint with the Royal Air Force. Buenos Aires has labelled him a “conqueror” and called his deployment a “provocation”, but the UK has insisted it is merely routine.

London has also announced that it will deploy one of the country’s most lethal warships, the HMS Dauntless, to the area. Buenos Aires has accused the British government of trying to militarise the conflict.

The sabre-rattling has also been somewhat fuelled by the release of the new Meryl Streep film “The Iron Lady”, in which the actress portrays Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands war.

Argentine critics have praised Streep’s acting but panned the film itself. Film-goers in Buenos Aires shared their views.

“It didn’t fool me,” Mario Huguet, 75, a psychoanalyst who called Mrs Thatcher a word unfit for publication, said after seeing the premiere.

“It presents her as a senile grandmother, but the Argentine dictators also got to be old and pitiful.”

Argentina has received the backing of Latin American countries for its claim of sovereignty over the remote, wind-lashed islands, which were occupied by Britain in 1833.

The dispute erupted into warfare in April 1982 when Argentine troops seized the islands, only to be routed in a 74-day war that claimed the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 Britons.

Diplomatic friction between Argentina and Britain has intensified since 2010, when London authorized oil exploration in the waters near the islands.

Yesterday the Venezuelan government backed Argentina, saying it “is not alone in its legitimate claim to the right of sovereignty” over the islands.

“The decision to send a warship to the Falklands, along with the aggressive statements of Prime Minister David Cameron and of (Foreign Secretary) William Hague (…) show an unacceptable attitude” that “causes the rejection of the entire Latin American continent and the Caribbean,” a Venezuelan statement said.

In December, the South American Mercosur trading bloc agreed to prevent ships flying the Falklands flag from entering their ports.

Mercosur includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela has announced its intent to join the group.

The supreme leader of Iran issued a blunt warning Friday that war would be detrimental to the United States — and that Iran is ready to help anyone who confronts “cancerous” Israel.

“You see every now and then in this way they say that all options are on the table. That means even the option of war,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during Friday prayers in Tehran. “This is how they make these threats against us.

“Well, these kinds of threats are detrimental to the U.S.,” he said. “The war itself will be 10 times as detrimental to the U.S.”

Khamenei’s rhetoric is hardly new. But the timing of his comments could prove critical with nuclear talks around the corner.

Tensions between Iran and world powers have been ratcheted up in the aftermath of an alarming nuclear watchdog agency report in November that said Tehran was likely developing nuclear weapons.

The standoff grew more serious this week with renewed fears of an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran to take out its suspected nuclear weapons program.

Khamenei said Iran will support any nation or group that stands up against Israel.

“The Zionist regime is really the cancerous tumor of this region and it needs to be removed and will be removed,” Khamenei said to a cheering crowd.

He said Iran doesn’t interfere in other nations but has aided militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah in conflicts with Israel in Gaza and Lebanon.

His comments came after stern comments Friday from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

“Today, unlike in the past, there is a broad global understanding that it is crucial to stop Iran becoming nuclearized and that no options should be taken off the table,” he said.

Barak said allowing Iran to continue on its path will be far more complex and dangerous in blood and money than cutting it off now.

“Those who say in English, ‘later,’ may find later is too late,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he feared Israel could attack Iran sometime this spring in an effort to destroy its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to a senior administration official.

The official declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information.

The United States and its allies have warned that Iran is trying to make a nuclear weapon. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes.

A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center said the United States needs to put more teeth into its threat to use military power against Iran.

The Washington think tank recommended in its report that Washington should undertake visible, credible military preparations to go along with more intense sanctions and diplomatic efforts.

The military activities could include naval deployments, military exercises and positioning supplies in the region.

To stop Iran’s nuclear clock, the report said, the United States “needs to make clear that Iran faces a choice: it can either abandon its nuclear program through a negotiated arrangement or have its program destroyed militarily, by the United States.”

The report also said the United States should give credibility to the Israeli military threat against Iran by selling Israel two to three KC-135 aerial refueling tankers and 200 GRU-31 bunker-buster munitions.

Former Sen. Chuck Robb, who co-chaired the task force that wrote the report, said the group advocates neither war nor a military strike at the moment, but believes the United States will only be effective if it takes credible steps to let Iran know it is serious.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said Panetta “has made it clear that he is comfortable with the military capabilities we have and operate in the region.”

However, Kirby said, “the U.S. military must and will be ready to provide the president options should those options be desirable.”

Khamenei blamed Western powers for Iran’s troubles, starting with the brutal eight-year war Iran fought with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s and continuing with the latest round of punishing international sanctions.

“So far we have overcome all these challenges and none of them managed to bring (Iran) to its knees,” Khamenei said. “We have stood firm and strongly treaded our course.”

Syrian army and security officers detained and tortured children with impunity during the past year, a rights group said in a report Friday, as it urged the United Nations to take action.

The Human Rights Watch report comes as the U.N. Security Council considers a draft resolution intended to pressure Syria to end its months-long crackdown on anti-government demonstrators — and as violence continues unabated in Syria.

At least 28 people were killed across Syria on Friday, including three children and three defected soldiers, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists.

A Security Council meeting ended Thursday evening without agreement on the text of the draft, according to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice.

However, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters that the draft resolution had been agreed upon and would be sent to the governments of Security Council members for consultation, according to Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

“We have the text which we shall send to our capital cities and will wait for the result,” Churkin said.

Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council “to demand that the Syrian government end all human rights violations.”

Syria must also be made to cooperate with monitoring teams sent by the Arab League and the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global monitor said.

“Children have not been spared the horror of Syria’s crackdown. Syrian security forces have killed, arrested, and tortured children in their homes, their schools, or on the streets,” said Lois Whitman, children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.

“In many cases, security forces have targeted children just as they have targeted adults.”

The organization said it has documented at least 12 cases of children detained under inhumane conditions and tortured, as well as children shot while in their homes or on the street.

“Human Rights Watch has also documented government use of schools as detention centers, military bases or barracks, and sniper posts, as well as the arrest of children from schools,” a statement from the group says.

The draft of the resolution discussed Thursday had dropped demands from an Arab League plan for Syria to form a unity government and for President Bashar al-Assad to delegate power to his deputy.

“We had what I would characterize as sometimes difficult but ultimately useful discussions,” Rice told reporters. “We’re still working. This is not done.”

She said the Moroccans, who submitted the original draft, would come back with another version that could be voted on. “In any case, there are some still complicated issues that our capitals will have to deliberate on and provide each of us with instructions on.”

Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, insisted Thursday evening that council members “are two words” apart on agreeing on the text.

Before the talks, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said that even a watered-down resolution would pressure the Syrian government.

U.N. diplomats said the changes reflected a big concession to Russia, which has been reluctant to sign on to any plan that could be seen as a mandate for regime change in Damascus, as occurred in Libya after it signed a resolution calling for a no-fly zone.

Russia, which has said it is concerned about the prospect of a Syrian civil war and does not want al-Assad pushed from power, has made clear it will not accept an arms embargo or economic sanctions.

A call for other nations to follow the Arab League members in adopting measures such as sanctions against Syria had also been dropped from the latest version of the draft resolution.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud had said he hoped to have the text finalized by the end of Thursday and suggested that a vote could happen as soon as Friday, or Monday if necessary. Other diplomats suggested that a vote over the weekend was possible.

U.S. and European diplomats insisted that the revised text still fully endorsed the Arab League plan and that it did not need to spell out every detail to have the same meaning.

“It will still put pressure on the Syrian government, because they realize that Russia cannot stand up forever. And they are under great pressure now. And, you know, Russia does not want to be against the people,” Elaraby said.

Asked why Libya was seen as a case for international intervention because of the threat of a massacre, whereas Syria has seen thousands of deaths but no intervention, Elaraby cited the situation on the ground, the geopolitical location of Syria, the fact it has a strong, regular army — “and, maybe, there is no oil in Syria.”

The economic element could be a factor, he suggested, especially in a year when the United States and France are holding presidential elections and when Europe is in the grip of a debt crisis.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday: “This is not Libya, the situation is different, what we are looking to do is to support the plan of the Arab League, which is quite clear on how a peaceful Syrian lead transition could go forward.”

At least 7,100 people, including 461 children, have died since the start of the Syrian uprising in March, according to the Local Coordination Committees.

The United Nations estimated in December that more than 5,000 people have died since March. But the global body has not been able to update that figure because of the insecurity.

CNN cannot independently confirm opposition or government reports from Syria because access to the country is limited.

More than 100 people have now died as a result of freezing weather in Ukraine since last Friday, the government has announced in Kiev.

Most of the 101 who died were homeless people and 64 of them were found dead on the streets, the emergencies ministry said.

Hundreds of others have been treated in hospital for frostbite, hypothermia and other cold-related conditions.

Temperatures plunged to below -35C in parts of eastern Europe this week.

At least eight more deaths were reported in Poland on Thursday, bringing the death toll there since last week to 37.

Cold weather deaths have been reported across eastern and central Europe

• Russia recorded cold 64 cold weather deaths for the whole of January, Interfax news agency reports, but it is unclear if this is related directly to the hard frosts which began last week
• In Serbia at least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in mountainous areas, the Associated Press reports
• In Italy, weather experts said it was the coldest week for 27 years.

Gas burn

In Ukraine, more freezing weather was forecast for Friday, with overnight temperatures set to fall to as low as -32C in the north and west.

The authorities closed schools and colleges and set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters across the country.

Health officials instructed hospitals not to discharge homeless patients, even after treatment, in order to save them from the cold.

Eastern Europe's freezing weather has hit the poorest hard, particularly in Greece

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov announced that the country had burnt 1bn cu m of gas in just three days.

The country’s gas order from Russia for the whole of 2012 is 27bn cu m.

“It’s a very hard time for the country,” he said, promising that the difficulties would be overcome.

The Russian gas supplier, Gazprom, said Ukraine was exceeding the level of gas consumption envisaged in the contract.

Most Russian gas exports to EU countries transit Ukraine. On Thursday Austria’s energy firm OMV reported a 30% drop in its supply of Russian gas, while Italy’s gas distributor Snam Rete Gas said its Russian gas was down by about 20%.

In the winter of 2009 Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas meant for European customers. Gazprom cut supplies, leaving more than a dozen countries short of Russian gas.

Some, like Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, are almost completely dependent on supplies via Ukraine and so were left with major shortages, during a very cold spell in Europe.

‘Take exercise’

Ukraine’s Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloga has advised the public to take more exercise as a remedy against the cold.

“You need to get up in the morning, take active exercise and work,” he was quoted by Ukrainskaya Pravda as telling reporters on Wednesday.

“It hasn’t killed anyone yet and only makes a person fitter.”

His personal advice to keep warm, he added, was to “run 8-10km [5-6 miles] every morning and bathe in cold water, all year round”.

Gunmen in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula have kidnapped two American women tourists, Egyptian security sources say.

They were travelling in a small bus with three other tourists from St Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh when it was stopped by the gunmen.

One official told the Reuters news agency that the men wanted a ransom.

Bedouins kidnapped 25 Chinese workers in northern Sinai earlier this week, but released them unharmed after a day.

They were demanding the release of fellow tribesman who were jailed after the 2004 bomb attack at the resort of Taba that killed 31 people.

Search operation

The Americans were reportedly travelling through the Wadi al-Sual area of Sinai, about 40km (25 miles) from St Catherine’s, when a vehicle carrying masked men armed with machine-guns forced the bus to stop.

The gunmen took the tourists’ money and valuables before grabbing the two women, forcing them into a vehicle and fleeing into the mountains.

Their Egyptian tour guide was also kidnapped, AFP news agency said.

The three other tourists who had been in the bus were left behind.

Police teams assisted by a military plane are searching for the Americans, state television reported.

One officer believed the kidnappings were meant to pressure the authorities to release Bedouins detained for their role in kidnapping the Chinese workers; others said the motive was financial.

Tribesmen in Sinai have been involved in a series of confrontations with security forces in recent months.

A gas pipeline from Egypt to Israel has also repeatedly been sabotaged, though Sinai’s tourist resorts have remained largely secure.

At least two people have been killed in the latest unrest in the Egyptian capital Cairo, amid continuing anger over 74 deaths after a football match in Port Said on Wednesday.

Many Egyptians blame the authorities for failing to protect fans.

A demonstrator and a soldier died on Friday as clashes continued outside the interior ministry, with police firing tear gas at stone-throwing crowds.

Violence on Thursday left two dead in Suez and hundreds injured.

Revenge for revolution?

The latest bout of unrest began on Wednesday, after a pitch invasion in Port Said, when Cairo’s visiting al-Ahly side were attacked after losing to the local al-Masry side. Seventy-four people died and over 1,000 were injured.

Most of the dead were believed to be al-Ahly supporters. Hardcore fans – known as “ultras” – have accused the authorities of allowing the killings to happen.

They say the authorities wanted revenge because the ultras were among those battling the police during last year’s revolution that ousted strongman leader Hosni Mubarak.

Anger over the deaths has combined with widespread frustration at the pace of reforms undertaken by Egypt’s interim military rulers.

On Thursday, about 10,000 protesters gathered outside the interior ministry, where they clashed with security forces preventing them from reaching the building. Hundreds were injured, health officials said.

The BBC’s Yolande Knell in Cairo says protesters spent the night dismantling concrete security walls erected around the ministry last November after a previous outbreak of unrest.

Thousands gathered outside the ministry on Thursday and became embroiled in angry clashes with security forces. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

The health ministry said more than 1,000 protesters were injured, some with broken bones, most suffering from tear gas inhalation. Some 54 police officers and soldiers were also reported injured.

Spreading unrest

By Thursday night, the unrest had spread across the country. Two people were shot dead in Suez as a crowd of hundreds attempted to overrun a police station.

On Friday, protests resumed outside the interior ministry in Cairo, where at least one protester was reported dead. A soldier also died from injuries sustained on Thursday, state media said.

In Alexandria, a protest march is heading for the regional offices of the military government.

Protester Wael Nawara told the BBC’s Network Africa programme that many middle-ranking officers loyal to the former president were still in charge at the ministry and were “conspiring against revolution”.

“There have been many calls throughout the last few months of restructuring the ministry of interior to bring the officers who are responsible for earlier deaths to trial, but nothing really has changed much in the behaviour of the ministry,” he said.

The government has dismissed several senior officials in response to the football deaths.

Port Said’s director of security and the head of investigations were suspended and are now in custody.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister says his country “cannot support” a draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria.

According to the Interfax news agency, Gennady Gatilov said that despite changes that took some of its concerns into account, Russia could not support the text in its current form.

“This is not enough for us,” he said.

The resolution, drafted by European and Arab countries, endorses an Arab League plan for Syria.

At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen injured in an attack on a police station in western Colombia.

The violence in Villa Rica comes a day after 11 people were killed in an explosion in Tumaco, in the south.

Police blamed that attack on the left-wing rebel group, the Farc.

The rebels have been stepping up their offensive against the security forces since their leader was killed in a military operation in November.

Police officials said the commander of the police station, three civilians and one child died when explosive devices went off outside the police station in Villa Rica, in Cauca province.

Targeted attacks

Eighteen police officers were in the station at the time of the explosion.

Preliminary investigations indicate gas cylinders laden with explosives were used in the attack.

On Wednesday, 11 people were killed and 79 injured when an explosive device went off outside a police station in the Pacific port city of Tumaco.

The explosion happened as the police commander for the region, Gen Jorge Nieto Rojas, and his senior staff were meeting at the station to devise a new strategy to fight drug trafficking in the area.

Gen Nieto Rojas was not hurt.

Three hundred extra police have been sent to Tumaco to improve security and help track down those behind the attack.

Minister of Defence Juan Carlos Pinzon has offered 1,200 million-peso reward ($670,000; £425,000) for information leading to the capture of alias Rambo, the Farc rebel suspected of the attack.

Mayor of Tumaco Victor Gallo has imposed a nighttime curfew and schools stayed closed on Thursday.

Tumaco is one of Colombia’s most lawless cities, where drug trafficking gangs and leftist rebels fight for control of the lucrative Pacific coast drug smuggling routes.

The recovery remains “frustrating slow” in the United States, and now Europe’s debt crisis is posing additional challenges, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday.

“Risks remain that developments in Europe or elsewhere may unfold unfavorably and could worsen economic prospects here at home,” Bernanke told the House Budget Committee.

But he also assured lawmakers that the Fed is doing everything in its power to prevent an economic slowdown in the U.S.

“We are in frequent contact with European authorities, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely and take every available step to protect the U.S. financial system and the economy,” Bernanke said.

Europe’s debt problems started in Greece more than two years ago, and the situation there has yet to be fully resolved.

Repeating points he has made before Congress in prior appearances, Bernanke told the committee members that while cutting the national debt should be a priority over the long term, they should also take great care not to impede the current economic recovery.

“Do no harm is an important piece of advice I would offer you,” Bernanke said.

Fed to keep rates low until 2014

Rep. Scott Garrett, a Republican from New Jersey, slammed Bernanke for giving Congress advice on how to fix the struggling housing market. The Fed is in charge of monetary policy, and Republicans have critiqued Bernanke for overstepping his bounds by giving its opinion on fiscal matters.

“I was truly taken aback when just recently, as you know, the Fed issued in an unsolicited white paper on housing policy where if you didn’t advocate for, you certainly mirrored much of the positions of this administration,” Garrett said.

“Well, Congressman, first the Fed has a lot of interest in housing. It’s important for the economy. It’s important for monetary policy,” Bernanke said.

“We were trying to provide pros and cons, analysis, background. I’m sorry if you think we went too far,” he added.

The House hearing comes a week after the Fed said it intends to keep interest rates low until the end of 2014, a move that signals the central bank fears the economy will not recover fully for another three years. The Fed also laid out a goal to keep inflation around 2% each year, while it also tries to bring down the unemployment rate.

Fed forecasting breaks new ground

Many Republicans, including Rep. Paul Ryan, oppose the move, fearing it could trigger rapid inflation later on.

“I think this policy runs the great risk of fueling asset bubbles, destabilizing prices and eventually eroding the value of the dollar,” Ryan said. “The prospect of all three is adding to uncertainty and holding our economy back, in many of our judgments.”

While Ryan commended Bernanke for the Fed’s recent efforts to increase its transparency, he also pressed him on the inflation question.

Bernanke responded, “We are not seeking higher inflation. We do not want higher inflation and we’re not tolerating higher inflation.”

The Fed forecasts the unemployment rate will remain high in 2012, ending the year between 8.2% and 8.5%. It also cut its predictions for growth, forecasting U.S. gross domestic product will expand by only 2.2% to 2.7% this year.

More than 500 suspected Taliban fighters detained by U.S. forces have been released from custody at the urging of Afghan government officials, angering both American troops and some Afghans who oppose the policy on the grounds that many of those released return to the battlefield to kill NATO soldiers and Afghan civilians.

And those numbers understate the problem, military officials say. They do not include suspected Taliban fighters held in small combat outposts or other forward operating bases throughout the region who are released before they ever become part of the official detainee population.

An Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that President Hamid Karzai’s government has personally sought the release of as many as 700 suspected Taliban fighters since July, including some mid-level leaders. “Corruption is not just based on the amount of money that is wasted but wasted lives when Taliban return only to kill more NATO forces and civilians,” said the official, who opposes what he considers corruption in the Karzai administration.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Karen Davis, a spokeswoman in Kabul, told The Washington Examiner ”nearly 500 detainees held in the [detention facility in Parwan] have been released outright or transferred to the [Afghan government] for disposition under Afghan law” so far this year.

She did not comment on detainees held at other facilities throughout the country, dozens of whom have been released, according to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan. Parwan is the main prison facility located at Bagram Airfield, just north of the capital of Kabul.

Davis added “nearly 200 of those 500 [at Bagram] have been released” since July.

The criteria for detention is not based upon a particular affiliation, such as the Taliban, “but rather is an assessment based upon a preponderance of evidence that an individual participated in the conflict as an enemy combatant and, if so, detention is necessary to mitigate the threat posed to the government and people of Afghanistan, the U.S. and its coalition partners,” Davis said.

The Detainee Review Board, made up of three U.S. commissioned officers with a rank of major or above, determines when a prisoner is eligible for release and whether a detainee is likely to be rehabilitated.

Prisoners held at the Bagram facility are not considered guilty or innocent but rather a determination is made “based upon evidence that detention is necessary to mitigate the threat the detainee poses to the government and people of Afghanistan, the U.S. and its coalition partners,” states a document provided by the International Security Assistance Force.

Earlier this year, The Examiner reported that numerous insurgents captured in Pakistan, including some members of al Qaeda, were returned to Afghanistan upon the request of the Karzai government, and then, according to a senior Pakistani official, “released back to the Taliban as bargaining chips in negotiations.”

A marine stationed in southern Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province told The Examiner that efforts to detain insurgent fighters are “worthless.”

Earlier this year, his unit held a man known to be working with the Taliban. The Marines had gathered evidence that the man was transporting hundreds of pounds of bomb-making equipment and explosives for the Taliban. But, shortly after they captured him, he was set free.

“Less than two weeks later, we saw the same guy walking through the bazaar,” said the marine, who spoke on condition that he not be named. “He recognized us. I wanted to shoot him right then and there. We got the guy, and yet there he was, walking around planning to kill again, and we couldn’t do a thing about it.”

For American combat troops in Afghanistan, the release of suspect Taliban is seen as a symptom of the corruption of the Karzai government.

“Back-room dealings between Karzai officials and local government connected to the Taliban make NATO’s work almost impossible,” said a military official stationed in Afghanistan. “They call the shots, and we’ve got to release the bad guys.”

The release of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks last week provided a rare glimpse into what the State Department considers official corruption in the Karzai government.

That was the opinion of Afghan officials interviewed recently. “Afghanistan is a corrupt mess populated by citizens who are far more comfortable thinking and acting locally and tribally than nationally,” one official said. “Karzai takes advantage of that for his own benefit,” he added. “The U.S. turns a blind eye because they don’t know how to stop it.

Heavy snow has left at least 11,000 villagers cut off in remote areas of Serbia amid a European cold snap that has claimed more than 130 lives.

At least six people have died in Serbia, with emergency services expressing concern for the health of the sick and the elderly in particular.

Temperatures are below -30C (-22F) in parts of Europe and 63 people have died in Ukraine and 29 in Poland.

In Italy, weather experts say it is the coldest week for 27 years.

Emergency services in Serbia have described the situation, close to the country’s south-western borders with Kosovo and Montenegro, as very serious.

In places, the snow has reached a depth of 2m (6ft 6in). Fourteen municipalities are affected, emergency official Predrag Maric told the BBC.

Helicopters have helped move several people to safety, and food and medicines have been airlifted to isolated areas.

Snow began falling in Serbia on 7 January and has hardly stopped since, says BBC correspondent Nick Thorpe. Serbian media say further snow is expected in the coming days.

Ukraine has seen the highest number of fatalities, many of them homeless. Over a 24-hour period, as many as 20 people died.

Food shortages have been reported in the capital, Kiev, because lorries have been unable to transport supplies.

Trapped overnight

Heavy snow has also caused widespread disruption in northern and central Italy.

More than 600 passengers were trapped on an unheated train in the Apennine mountains for seven hours on Wednesday night, when the brakes and electrical cables froze.

The coldest temperatures have been recorded in Russia and Kazakhstan.

In the Urals and Siberia, the temperature fell to -40C (-40F) while in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, a forecaster told Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency the wind-chill factor meant the real temperature was down to -52C, even though the air temperature was -35C.

In southern Russia, cars and lorries became stuck in snow drifts between Novorossiisk and Krasnodar.

Heavy snow has also hit Turkey, with 50cm falling in Istanbul on Wednesday. An avalanche in the south-east of the country killed a woman in her home, reports say.

Another avalanche blocked a main road connecting the provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir.

Rescuers in Germany were unable to save an elderly woman after she had gone swimming in the frozen waters of a gravel pit in Lower Saxony. Reports said she had often swum in the lake.

Diplomats at the UN Security Council have watered down a resolution on Syria in an apparent attempt to overcome Russian objections to an earlier draft.

The new text drops explicit reference to a call for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power, a key part of an Arab League plan.

The Russians have argued that this demand would impose regime change.

However the new text still supports what it calls the League’s “decision” to facilitate political transition.

Western diplomats say this means that while the draft no longer mentions the details of the Arab plan, it still clearly backs the substance.

The revised draft – seen by the BBC – also removes a paragraph calling on member states to act to prevent the flow of arms into Syria. This was another clause opposed by Russia even though it does not impose an arms embargo.

Ambassadors began intense negotiations on Wednesday, after a high-level meeting urging the council to back the Arab plan to end the Syrian crisis.

Diplomatic sources say Western states may support the new text – drawn up by Morocco – if it gets a yes vote from Russia, rather than an abstention, according to the BBC’s Barbara Plett at the UN headquarters in New York.

So far the Russians have been non-committal, she says.

‘Consensus’

Human rights groups and activists say more than 7,000 people have been killed by Syrian security forces since the uprising began in March.

On Wednesday, diplomats said discussions had been positive, with US Ambassador Susan Rice saying talks had been conducted in a “constructive and roll-up-your-sleeves manner”.

However, she also admitted that the call for Mr Assad to delegate powers to his deputy remained “one of the more difficult issues”.

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin also said progress had been made, saying: “I think we have a much better understanding of what we need to do to reach consensus.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier said Council members must decide whether they supported the Syrian people or “a brutal, dictatorial regime”.

Russia, a key ally of Syria, has continued to send weapons for use by the Assad government despite the uprising.

In Moscow, a top defence ministry official said there were no plans to halt such deliveries.

“As of today there are no restrictions on the delivery of weapons and we must fulfil our obligations”, said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov, according to Russian news agencies. “And this what we are doing.”

Hama anniversary

Meanwhile, security forces in the central Syrian town of Hama have closed public squares and set up checkpoints.

The move came after protesters splashed red paint in the streets to mark 30 years since an uprising there was crushed by Mr Assad’s father Hafez, with the deaths of at least 10,000 people.

“They want to kill the memory and they do not want us to remember,” said an activist in the city, where residents said tanks blocked main squares to prevent demonstrations.

“But we will not accept it,” the activist told Reuters news agency.

Mr Assad’s forces have been fighting back against rebels – in recent days claiming back suburbs of Damascus and areas north-west of the capital.

At least 43 people were killed by security forces on Wednesday, according to one activist group.

The UN stopped estimating the death toll in Syria after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm.

The government says at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed combating “armed gangs and terrorists”.

Demonstrators angered by the deaths of 74 people after a football match in the city of Port Said on Wednesday have clashed with police outside the Egyptian interior ministry in Cairo.

Hundreds have been injured, state-owned Egyptian TV reported.

Earlier, the Egyptian prime minister announced the sackings of senior officials in Port Said and at the Egyptian football association.

Funerals of some of the victims took place in Port Said.

Wednesday’s riot began when fans invaded the pitch after a football match involving top Cairo club al-Ahly and the Port Said side al-Masry.

Slogans and stones

In Cairo, people gathered in the streets around Tahrir Square, the focal point of last year’s protests which led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

Demonstrators, many of them al-Ahly supporters known as Ultras, used metal barriers and vehicles to close the square.

Thousands then marched to the interior ministry, some 500m (547 yards) away. Some chanted slogans against Egypt’s military rulers, while others threw stones.

Police responded with tear gas, causing hundreds to run away.

Motorcycles ferried the injured from the scene as ambulances were unable to get through.

Channel 1 of Egyptian TV, which is state-owned, said 382 people had been injured, of whom 266 were taken to hospital, while the remainder were treated on site.

TV pictures from Cairo showed crowds outside the barricades which surround the interior ministry.

Earlier on Thursday, parliament met in emergency session, beginning with a minute’s silence.

Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri told MPs the head of Egypt’s football association had been sacked and the board dissolved, with its members referred to prosecutors for questioning.

Port Said’s director of security and the head of investigations were suspended and are now in custody, Mr Ganzouri said.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says there is a mood of extreme bitterness. Many supporters believe police were incompetent, or actively provoked the unrest.

Police in Egypt have been keeping a much lower profile since last year’s popular protests.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood – which has emerged as Egypt’s biggest party in recent elections – blamed ex-President Mubarak’s supporters for the violence.

The United States took Kabul by surprise by laying out plans to end its Afghan combat role earlier than expected, just after the leak of a secret report that the Taliban is confident of regaining control of the country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said late on Wednesday the United States would stop taking the lead role in combat operations before the end of 2013 and step into a supporting role as it winds down its longest war.

He said U.S. forces would remain “combat-ready” but would largely shift to a train-and-assist role as Afghan forces take over responsibility for security ahead of a 2014 deadline for full Afghan control.

The announcement, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, was greeted with surprise in Kabul, where a senior Afghan security official said the move “throws out the whole transition plan.”

“The transition has been planned against a timetable and this makes us rush all our preparations,” the official said.

“If the Americans withdraw from combat, it will certainly have an effect on our readiness and training, and on equipping the police force,” he said, adding that his government had not been informed of the change in plans.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted there was no change in NATO’s plans and it expected responsibility for security to be handed over to the Afghan security forces by mid-2013 and for them to have full control at the end of 2014.

“It is of course of crucial importance that this change of role takes place in a coordinated manner,” he said, emphasizing that the changes of role would have to take into account “the actual security situation on the ground.”

CLASSIFIED REPORT

Britain said on Thursday NATO’s strategy has not changed and alliance forces will continue to operate in a combat role.

“They (ISAF forces) will be operating in 2014 in a combat role. But it will be a supporting role,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Britain has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the 130,000-strong NATO-led force. Cameron has announced that Britain will pull out 500 soldiers from Afghanistan this year but has not set out troop reduction plans beyond that. He plans to end Britain’s combat role by the end of 2014, leaving some troops behind to train and mentor Afghan forces.

Panetta’s announcement came just after British media published excerpts of a classified U.S. report saying that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, remained confident of regaining control in Afghanistan despite a decade of NATO efforts.

U.S. officials said the timing of the transition to Afghan security lead would be discussed at NATO on Thursday and Friday. They said the process envisioned continued combat operations by coalition forces in support of the Afghans as needed.

“The idea we’re discussing with our allies is to transition lead responsibility for combat operations to the Afghan National Security Forces, but ISAF forces would still be expected to conduct combat operations alongside our Afghan partners,” a U.S. defense official said on condition of anonymity.

Norwegian Defense Minister Espen Barth Eide said he was “not alarmed” by Panetta’s remarks and “we should all now prepare for a decent transition.”

A European NATO diplomat said Panetta’s remarks were the first time he had gone on record with U.S. plans “but it’s not a change in NATO strategy.”

“It is for the U.S. to decide, but he has not said explicitly that the U.S. will end its combat role in 2013. There will be a shift, but he hasn’t said when the shift will end.”

CONCERN AMONG AFGHANS

The United States, which led the Western invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, has previously said it would withdraw most combat troops by the end of 2014. Panetta said on Wednesday the U.S. had not made any decisions on troop levels for 2013 but Washington did aim to withdraw its forces by the end of 2014.

“Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid- to the latter part of 2013 we’ll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise-and-assist role,” Panetta said.

A decision to end the U.S. lead role in combat operations could give President Barack Obama an election-year lift by enabling him to point to progress in Afghanistan.

But Panetta’s remarks about the transition have already drawn criticism from Obama’s chief rival for the presidency and Republican lawmakers in Congress who worry the administration is moving before the Afghans are ready to take control.

The remarks also prompted concern among Afghans who fear a return to Taliban rule and hope that reconciliation between all parties would deliver a better alternative.

Hotel waiter Yama, 19, expressed alarm at the prospect of an early end to a U.S. combat role. “Everything Afghanistan has built during the past years would be destroyed, robbed and sold to neighboring countries,” he said.

The United States has been trying to draw the Taliban into reconciliation talks with the Afghan government. But a key part of its strategy has been to increase military pressure on the Taliban to persuade it to join peace talks.

Washington believes Afghanistan cannot be pacified without strong cooperation with Pakistan, but ties have been damaged by events, including the unilateral U.S. raid that killed Osama bid Laden on Pakistani soil in May last year, and a NATO cross-border raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said after a visit to Kabul this week that “a lot of ill will had faded.”

While cautioning that a nascent peace process is far from producing breakthroughs, she said Islamabad would encourage insurgent groups like the Haqqani network and the Taliban to lay down their arms and pursue peace if asked by Afghanistan.

Pakistan has long been accused of using militant groups as proxies in Afghanistan to counter the influence of its rival India there, allegations it denies.

Greece’s international debt inspectors have discovered that the debt-ridden country still needs an extra euro15 billion ($20 billion) in help — on top of a promised euro130 billion bailout and a euro100 billion debt relief from private investors, a European official said Thursday.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has asked the other 16 countries that also use the euro to help foot the bill for the missing euro15 billion, the official said, indicating that a limit has been reached of what can be achieved by Athens implementing further cuts and private investors taking losses on the bonds they hold in the country.

The gap could be filled either though more help from eurozone governments or by eurozone central banks or state-owned banks like France’s Caisse de Depots taking a cut on their Greek bondholdings, the official said. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The new push for Greece’s public and government creditors to take a cut on their investments — dubbed the official sector involvement, or OSI — is a new front in the battle to save the country from a potentially devastating default. So far the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have given billions in bailout loans to the struggling country, but they haven’t been asked to take losses.

The official added that a related deal with private creditors to take losses on their holdings has to be announced before the end of the week, adding that experts from national finance ministries will discuss the tentative deal on Friday.

People familiar with the talks on so-called private sector involvement — or PSI — have said that the deal would see investors take losses of more than 70 percent through a 50 per cent cut in the value of the bonds, a lower interest rate of between 3.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent on the bond and more time to pay back the debt.

Analysts estimate that the European Central Bank holds euro50 billion to euro55 billion in Greek bonds. The majority of these bonds were bought at a discount by the ECB, with the idea that the central bank would up give up any profits it may get on these holdings. However, the ECB has so far given no indication that it is willing to do so, with some of its governing board members saying that forgoing profits would clash with the bank’s ban on funding national governments.

If eurozone states are unwilling to boost their bailout loans beyond euro130 billion, some relief for Greece could be achieved by further lowering interest rates on these loans.

As well as the tragedy for the individual and their families, suicides on the Tube can create hours of chaos and disruption for millions of other passengers.

So to try to get the transport network up and running as soon as possible bodies are often moved to a secure room within the station until they can be taken away by an undertaker.

The shocking revelation was made by London Underground staff on a new documentary about the Tube.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, several workers expressed their disgust at the practice.

One male member of the Tube’s Emergency Response Unit said leaving bodies in cupboards was very disrespectful.

He told Channel 4’s Confessions from the Underground: “As far as I understand it, London Ambulance services have limited resources and a few years back they stopped taking anybody who’s deceased into their ambulances back to hospitals.

“Sometimes there’s a delay, it might be half an hour, maybe even two hours and then we’re left with a body on the platform and disturbingly for us we have to find a place to put a body. “Unfortunately, we had to use, at Stratford, a bin store outside in the car park, you know the big, massive, industrial bins. Putting someone’s body in there, not in the bin, in with the bins, it’s not really respectful.

“However, do I keep the station shut until the coroner and his guys gets there and inconvenience the rest of London?”

Another female worker said many staff found it deeply distressing to know that bodies had been hidden from the public in cupboards.

She explained: “I know that we’ve got a store cupboard that we put the bodies in and there is one station supervisor who will not go in that cupboard at all.”

Another worker added: “We’ve even heard of situations where cleaners come down to get a mop or a bucket or whatever and there’s some poor unfortunate person’s body in there.”

A spokesman for London Underground explained workers were offered support and counselling should they need it.

The spokesman said: “Following agreed procedures, a body may be moved to a secure room within the station to await collection by undertakers. We believe our staff do a fantastic job in responding to such difficult circumstances and they are offered counselling support, if necessary.”

According to Italian press reports, based on interviews with prosecutors, she said she had fallen deeply for the skipper – despite him having a wife and a teenage daughter.

“I love him, and it’s not right to destroy his reputation,” Ms Cemortan allegedly told investigators. “Everyone is hammering him.”

Passengers have claimed they saw the Moldovan being wined and dined by Capt Schettino, 52, shortly before the accident happened at around 9.40pm on Jan 13.

Ms Cemortan confirmed to prosecutors that the captain had invited her up onto the bridge as his guest, to see the ship perform a ‘salute’ of the island of Giglio. “I was on the bridge,” she reportedly said.

The captain misjudged the manoeuvre, sailing to within 150 yards of the shore and smashing into a rocky shoal, ripping a huge gash in the hull.

He then grounded the 950ft-long vessel on a different part of Giglio’s coast and belatedly ordered the evacuation of its 4,200 passengers and crew.

The death toll stands at 17, with 15 people still missing, presumed dead.

Francesco Verusio, the chief prosecutor in the case, said Ms Cemortan’s testimony would be key in establishing exactly what happened on the bridge that night and whether the captain was distracted – as claimed by some of his officers.

“There are many witnesses and each one will offer their point of view,” Mr Verusio said. “We’re comparing all the different versions to see how they fit together.” Electronic data recovered from the ship’s black box would also be vital, he said.

Ms Cemortan is not accused of any offence. Capt Schettino is under house arrest at his home in Meta di Sorrento, near Naples, and faces charges of manslaughter and abandoning his ship ahead of passengers and crew members.

He could face at least 12 years in prison.

Passengers claim to have seen and photographed a young blonde woman resembling Ms Cemortan eating dinner and sharing a decanter of red wine with him less than 40 minutes before the collision happened.

Ms Cemortan had worked for Costa Cruises as a dancer and passenger rep, but she was on the week-long cruise as a guest.

It has been reported that she did not have her own cabin. La Repubblica newspaper offered an explanation for the unusual arrangement when it claimed that some of the former dancer’s belongings were found in Capt Schettino’s cabin, suggesting that they were sharing.

Investigators have meanwhile identified a mystery woman who turned up on Giglio on the morning after the disaster and spirited Capt Schettino away from television cameras.

She is a lawyer for Costa Cruises and will be questioned by prosecutors in coming days.

The woman was photographed with the captain in the lobby of the Hotel Bahamas, in Giglio’s main port, where he briefly took refuge before being arrested by police.

There were fresh concerns over the stability of the stricken ship, which lies on its side in shallow water, after it shifted three inches in seven hours on Wednesday.

Rough seas buffeted the wreck, again delaying the operation to start removing the 500,000 gallons of diesel and heavy oil in its fuel tanks.

A large gap opened up between two glass panels that formed part of the vessel’s roof, raising fears that the bad weather is weakening the structure of the luxury liner.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court is to charge Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with contempt for failing to reopen corruption cases against the president.

Mr Gilani must appear before the court on 13 February. If convicted he faces jail and being barred from office.

The prime minister has refused to ask Swiss officials to reopen a corruption case against President Zardari, saying he has immunity as head of state.

The president rejects the corruption charges as politically motivated.

The BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad says the Supreme Court decision is another twist in a case which could bring down the prime minister and his government.

Recent weeks have seen intense political uncertainty in Pakistan, with the government at loggerheads with the country’s powerful military as well as the judiciary.

Although tension with the military appears to have subsided, critics argue that in pursuing the prime minister the Supreme Court is doing the army’s bidding, our correspondent says.

Pakistan has had three military coups since independence in 1947 but analysts believe the army has little appetite for a takeover now. Most observers predict an early general election later this year.

‘PM must be present’

“We are satisfied that prima facie there is a case for further proceeding into the matter,” Judge Nasir-ul-Mulk said after Thursday’s hearing.

He said the prime minister was required to be in court to hear the charges against him on 13 February.

Mr Gilani’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, said he would advise him to appeal against the charge.

Mr Gilani has already appeared before the court – on 19 January – when he refused to back down.

He would be the first serving Pakistani prime minister to be convicted of contempt. The Supreme Court charged former PM Nawaz Sharif with contempt in 1998 but he was not found guilty.

Correspondents say Mr Gilani can continue as prime minister while court proceedings take place.

Only if he is found guilty and when he has exhausted the appeals process, would he face disqualification from holding public office for a period of five years.

At the centre of the dispute is the record of Mr Zardari and his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, who were found guilty in absentia by a Swiss court in 2003 of laundering millions of dollars in kickbacks from Swiss firms while they were in government.

They appealed and Swiss officials dropped the case in 2008 at the request of the government led by the Pakistan People’s Party of Mr Zardari.

The case was one of thousands dropped under an amnesty that allowed Ms Bhutto to return from self-imposed exile and run for election in 2008. She was assassinated shortly after returning.

However in 2009 Pakistan’s Supreme Court declared the amnesty unconstitutional, leaving those covered by it open to prosecution.

Mr Zardari, nicknamed Mr Ten Percent for his allegedly corrupt dealings, spent years in prison in Pakistan but was never convicted.

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country.

The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold.

Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed.

Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI’s most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed.

According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island, Sulu province, in the Mindanao region.

Regional military commander Maj Gen Noel Coballes told Agence France Presse news agency that troops on the ground had confirmed the deaths.

Marwan, a top JI leader, is said to have been behind a series of bomb attacks in the southern Philippines since 2006.

The military identified the other two senior militants as Jemaah Islamiyah leader Abdullah Ali, aliases Muhamda Ali or Mauwiya, and an Abu Sayyaf leader, Gumbahali Jumdail alias Doc Abu.

According to the FBI, Marwan is “an engineer trained in the US” and has conducted bomb-making activities for militant groups, especially Abu Sayyaf.

Muawiya, also a top JI leader, is said to be a Singaporean national who came to the Philippines after the Bali bombings in 2002. A reward of $50,000 had been offered for his capture.

JI has links to al-Qaeda and has a long track record of attacks in Indonesia. It is believed to have been behind the Bali bombings of 2002.

Doc Abu, a Filipino, is said to be a regional Abu Sayyaf leader wanted for multiple kidnappings. Abu Sayyaf is one of the most radical of the Islamic separatist groups in the southern Philippines.

The islands in the south-west Philippines are known to harbour various militant groups – some of which also operate as kidnap-for-ransom gangs, reports the BBC’s Kate McGeown.

Just this week, Abu Sayyaf is thought to have kidnapped two European tourists from the area.

Crowds are gathering in Cairo as tension rises after riots in the city of Port Said on Wednesday which left at least 74 people dead.

Angry fans blocked Tahrir Square. Others are marching in protest at the handling of the riots by police.

Three days of national mourning were declared over the riot, in which fans invaded the pitch after a football match involving top Cairo club al-Ahly.

The cabinet and parliament are meeting, and Port Said’s governor has resigned.

Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the questioning of 52 people arrested after the riots, as well as the Port Said governor and the city’s security chief, who was sacked earlier.

Parliament opened with a minute’s silence. Speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni said the riots were the “work of the devil” and that Egypt’s revolution was “in danger”.

Funerals were expected to be held after noon (10:00 GMT) prayers in Port Said.

All Egyptian premier-league matches have been postponed indefinitely, and reports say the leadership of the country’s football federation has been sacked.

The Confederation of African Football said a minute’s silence would be held at the quarter-final matches of the African Cup of Nations at the weekend.

World football body Fifa said it was “in mourning” and had asked Egypt for a full report on the incidents.

‘Rage in their eyes’

Demonstrators, many of them al-Ahly supporters known as Ultras, used metal barriers and vehicles to close Tahrir Square, the scene of huge protests last year which led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

Others are marching from the club’s headquarters towards the interior ministry.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo says there is a mood of extreme bitterness. Many supporters believe police were incompetent, or had actively provoked the unrest.

“People are really angry, you could see the rage in their eyes,” al-Ahly supporter Mohammed Abdel Hamid told the BBC.

Our correspondent says Egyptian fans are notoriously violent, particularly the Ultras.

They have been heavily implicated in confronting the police during recent political protests, he adds, and there is speculation that the security forces may have had an interest in taking them on.

Police in Egypt have been keeping a much lower profile since last year’s popular protests.

On Wednesday night hundreds gathered at Cairo’s main railway station to receive the injured and the first bodies arriving from Port Said, with some chanting slogans against military rule.

“They were beating us from inside and outside, with fireworks, stones, metal bars, and some had knives,” one fan told a private TV station.

Army units were deployed in Port Said and joined police patrols around morgues and hospitals, but most streets had no police presence.

The army has set up checkpoints at entrances to the city.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s ruling army council, went to an airbase near Cairo to meet al-Ahly players who were flown back from Port Said on a military aircraft.

“This will not bring Egypt down… These incidents happen anywhere in the world. We will not let those behind it go,” he said, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Police overwhelmed

Our correspondent says it appears some fans had taken knives into the stadium, and the lack of the usual level of security in the stadium might have contributed to the clashes.

Wednesday’s violence broke out at the end of the match, which Port Said club al-Masry won 3-1.

Witnesses said the atmosphere had been tense throughout the match – since an al-Ahly fan raised a banner insulting supporters of the home team.

As the match ended, people flooded onto the pitch attacking al-Ahly players and fans.

A small group of riot police tried to protect the players, but were overwhelmed.

Part of the stadium was set on fire.

Officials say most of the deaths were caused by concussions, deep cuts to the heads and suffocation from the stampede.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood – which has emerged as Egypt’s biggest party in recent elections – blamed supporters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for the violence.

In Cairo, another match was halted by the referee after news of the Port Said violence.

It prompted fans to set parts of the stadium on fire, though no casualties were reported and the fire was quickly extinguished.

Recently the BBC saw a secret NATO report which says that the Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly supported by the Pakistani security services – the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). There is nothing particularly new about this revelation, as we have heard much on this alignment before. It is the fact that the co-operation between the Pakistani ISI and Taliban is in black and white in a (formerly secret) NATO document.

What does the NATO document tell us?

-         Information garnered from over 27,000 interrogations of over 4,000 Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other Afghan insurgents.

-         The Taliban generally and more and more so have the backing of the people.

-        Pakistan knows the locations of the Taliban leadership.

-         Report itself states that it should be taken as informational and not necessarily analytical.

-         Widespread collaboration between insurgents and Afghan police and military.

-         Unprecedented interest from Afghan government officials in joining Taliban.

-         Where ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) has withdrawn, Taliban influence increases with no resistance from Afghan forces and police who are supposed to fill the void. In fact they often join the Taliban.

Additional Information:

-         Haqqani family resides immediately west of ISI office at the airfield in Miram Shah inPakistan. (The Haqqani family used to be the CIA-backed anti-Soviet group, which has now become one of the most feared anti-western militant organizations in the area.)

-         Taliban weary of war, but see little hope of negotiated peace.

-         Narcotics trade provides funding, but not indirectly from donations made to the Taliban by farmers or smugglers or others along the production line of the drug.

-         This past year (2011) more funds than in any previous year given to the Taliban.

There is much more contained in the report, but I have highlighted the main points.

So why are we in Afghanistan? There is more reason to wonder why. The Karzai government is corrupt and the last elections were unfair, Osama bin Laden was captured in a compound inPakistan  – most probably set up by the Pakistani ISI for his safety.

Deadly attacks by Afghan army personnel on US, British and most recently French troops amongst others. (Possibly a reason President Sarkozy has moved up the French withdrawal to the end of 2013 in addition to the French soldiers’ deaths is the likelihood that he saw, or got wind of the NATO report.)

Again, Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?

The real reason for going intoAfghanistan, or so we were told, was to capture Osama bin Laden. That has been done, he is dead (according to theUSauthorities as we have seen no proof).

We sent over 100,000 troops between NATO and US forces intoAfghanistanwhen a much smaller specialist force of Marines and Rangers could have done the job of tracking down Al-Quada, and much quicker. Instead we decided to nation-build, putting US and NATO forces in harm’s way by having them build schools, act as public liaison officers with the locals, and playing a politically correct game which has reduced significantly the ability of US and NATO forces to act as soldiers in order to win the war.

Cost of the War

-         Going on 3,000 US and NATO troops lives.

-         Financial burden is half a trillion dollars and rising.

-         Billions of dollars in aid toPakistan.

Where Do We Stand Right Now?

Relations between the US and Pakistan are at one of their lowest points ever, since the US raid that captured Osama bin Laden, the killing of Pakistani soldiers by US aircraft through a misunderstanding on both the Afghan and Pakistani sides of the border, as a result of which Pakistan closed a vital NATO supply route into Afghanistan. Now this no-holds-barred NATO report has ratcheted the whole mess up even further.

This Correspondent says we cannot trust the Pakistanis, if we ever could, and there is no reason to believe that we ever can. They control, one way or another, the whole Afghanistan/Pakistan picture. We cannot win and never could. It is time to leave. Not in 2014, not in one year, but RIGHT NOW.

So Why Are We Still in Afghanistan? Answer: For No Good Reason Whatsoever.

Attacks by Afghan allies against US troops rose sharply over the past two years, Pentagon data has revealed.

Officials told a congressional committee most attackers were acting alone, not carrying out insurgent orders, although some attacker were insurgents disguised as soldiers.

Lawmakers said the screening process for Afghan forces was “tragically weak” and called for more stringent vetting.

Of 42 attacks since 2007, 75% took place in the last two years.

“The screening and vetting has been tragically weak in picking up signs of threats after the Afghans joined either the Afghan National Security Force, or a private security contractor,” Congressman Howard McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said.

Defence officials said some improvements had already been made after an attack in March 2011 killed two US soldiers and wounded four others.

The military has asked commanders on the ground in Afghanistan to carry out random checks on private companies that provide security for US soldiers, as well as cross-checking biometric data against watch lists.

But Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Gary Motsek said that while the attacks were unacceptable he did not think they could be eliminated altogether.

The question of whether or not Greece will default seems moot at this point. Greece is in the process of defaulting. The only question is whether the default will be orderly or disorderly.

Make no mistake. The ongoing negotiations in which Greek debt holders are being asked to take losses estimated at around 70% of their original investment are tantamount to a default. Greece is acknowledging it can’t pay its debts, and that’s a default.

It’s the first phase of what all of Europe hopes is an orderly default.

The point has already been conceded by officials at two of the big three ratings firms. Last week a senior official at Standard & Poor’s told Bloomberg Television, “Greece will default very shortly.” And a Fitch official told Reuters, “It is going to happen. Greece is insolvent so it will default. So in that sense it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.”

So regardless of how these current negotiations are described, the orderly default now being cobbled together in Athens greatly reduces the likelihood of a much messier alternative. But any final deal hinges on whether investors can be persuaded that taking massive losses is in their best interests.

A lot of people think it is.

Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com, described the worst-case-scenario of a disorderly default as “akin to mayhem.”

Argentina’s disorderly default in 2002 comes to mind. At the time, Argentina simply stopped paying its debts and the country’s economy came to a virtual standstill. Rioters, angered by severe austerity measures and soaring inflation, vented their frustrations on banks and foreign companies. The widespread chaos chased foreign investors out of Argentina and a decade later the country has yet to fully recover.

Europe is desperate to avoid a repeat of Argentina in Greece. That’s why Europe’s fiscal decision makers – namely the leaders of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – are being patient with the tortuous process now playing out in Athens.

An agreement is needed soon, however. Greece must come up with 14.5 billion euro by March 20 to pay down its bond debt. If Greece fails to make that payment, it will almost certainly trigger a disorderly default, the impact of which is certain to reach far beyond Greece’s borders.

Inside Greece the impact would be devastating. Greek banks would be forced to close for an extended period to prevent runs by depositors afraid of losing their life’s savings. A banking freeze could shut down Greece’s already fragile economy, causing shortages of food and other essential goods.

Greece has been wracked with protests for months by citizens angered by harsh austerity measures imposed largely by authorities outside Greece. If a worst-case disorderly default scenario plays out, some fear those protests could escalate into civil war.

On a global scale, if Greece is unable to meet its obligations in March, the default would trigger payment of costly credit default swaps written by various large financial institutions to protect investors against that very possibility.

But given the fragile state of the global economy, there are fears that those financial institutions couldn’t cover the credit default swaps. There could also be an increase of collateral requirements on contracts related to other countries, requiring further cash burdens on those financial institutions.  That could set off a domino effect much like the situation in 2008 when insurer AIG couldn’t cover credit default swaps triggered by the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers.

If the institutions that wrote credit default swaps on Greece can’t cover their losses, they in turn can’t pay their debts to their creditors. Those creditors then can’t pay their debts, and so on.

The hope among Europe’s leaders is that Greece can persuade as many of its creditors as possible to voluntarily accept the haircuts, a move that would avoid triggering the credit default swaps. By most estimates, Greece will need 90% of its bondholders to agree to the cuts for that to happen.

There will be elements of a disorderly default unless 100% of those creditors agree to the cuts, an unlikely scenario.

“Governments will push for it to be orderly and voluntary, but the individual investors may file suit and litigate the matter,” said Peter Tchir, with TF Market Advisors in Connecticut.

Already there have been reports that a major Spanish hedge fund has dropped out of the negotiations. No wonder. Various reports suggest that under the agreement now under consideration bondholders would take a 70% loss by virtue of cutting the bonds’ face value in half, reducing the average interest rate to between 3.5% and 4% and pushing repayment of the bonds 30 years into the future.

Such an agreement would reduce Greece’s debt by about euro100 billion, or $131.1 billion, and save it billions of euros in interest payments.

Another wild card that could throw the delicate situation into chaos is Europe’s patience with Greece’s fiscal policy makers in terms of the latter’s conviction for implementing further austerity measures sought as part of a rescue packages cobbled together in October.

If the EU, the ECB and IMF decide Greek politicians don’t have the stomach to cut spending further, they could rescind that 130 billion euro rescue package, forcing Greece into default.

Many critics of Europe’s approach to the long-running debt crisis have argued that Greece should have been allowed to default months ago. An earlier default, they argue, would have isolated the problem in Greece and allowed Europe to spend its time and resources addressing similar debt problems in Italy and Spain, two countries whose economies are far more important to the eurozone than Greece’s.

But after allowing the process to drag out for this long, it’s unlikely Europe’s leaders will settle on that option now.