all about politics news: February 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

A 1,500-year-old Bible in which Jesus is believed to have foretold the coming of the Prophet Mohammed to Earth has attracted attention from the Vatican this week.

Pope Benedict XVI has reportedly requested to see the book, which has been hidden in Turkey for the last 12 years, according to the Daily Mail.

The text, reportedly worth $22 million, is said to contain Jesus’ prediction of the Prophet’s coming but was suppressed by the Christian Church for years for its strong resemblance to the Islamic view of Jesus, Turkish culture and tourism minister Ertugrul Gunay told the newspaper.

“In line with Islamic belief, the Gospel treats Jesus as a human being and not a God. It rejects the ideas of the Holy Trinity and the Crucifixion and reveals that Jesus predicted the coming of the Prophet Mohammed,” the newspaper reported.

“In one version of the gospel, he is said to have told a priest: ‘How shall the Messiah be called? Mohammed is his blessed name.’

“And in another, Jesus denied being the Messiah, claiming that he or she would be Ishmaelite, the term used for an Arab,” the newspaper added.

According to the report, Muslims claim the text, which many say is the Gospel of Barnabas, is an addition to the original gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

St. Barnabas is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Church, an early Christian later named an apostle.

Gunay said the Vatican has officially requested to see the book, which Turkey had discovered during a police anti-smuggling operation in 2000.

The gang was reportedly convicted of smuggling various items seized during the operation, including the Bible, and all the artifacts were kept in a safe at an Ankara courthouse.

It remained closely guarded by authorities before being handed over to the Ankara Ethnography Museum where it will soon be put on show.

A photocopy of a single page from the leather-bound, gold-lettered book, penned in Jesus’ native Aramaic language is reportedly worth about $2.4 million.

But skepticism over the authenticity of the ancient handwritten manuscript has arisen.

Protestant pastor İhsan Özbek has said this version of the book is said to come from the fifth or sixth century, while St. Barnabas had lived in the first century as one of the Apostles of Jesus.

“The copy in Ankara might have been written by one of the followers of St. Barnabas,” he told the Today Zaman newspaper.

“Since there is around 500 years in between St. Barnabas and the writing of the Bible copy, Muslims may be disappointed to see that this copy does not include things they would like to see … It might have no relation with the content of the Gospel of Barnabas,” Özbek added.

But suspicions could soon be laid to rest.

The real age of the Bible could soon be determined by a scientific scan, theology professor Ömer Faruk Harman told the Daily Mail, possibly clarifying whether it was written by St. Barnabas or a follower of his.

A 1,500-year-old Bible in which Jesus is believed to have foretold the coming of the Prophet Mohammed to Earth has attracted attention from the Vatican this week.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Cory, age 15, is biologically female, but says he identifies himself more as a male.

Editor's note: This post is part of the Overheard on CNN.com series, a regular feature that examines interesting comments and thought-provoking conversations posted by the community.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics found that children who don't conform to typical gender roles (i.e. boys who act like girls or girls who act like boys) have a higher risk of suffering abuse than other children.

This wasn't a surprise to many CNN.com readers, including this guest, who said "I don't think it takes multiple Ph.D.'s and M.D.'s to figure this out. 'If you're not like the rest of us, we'll beat you up.' We learned that in elementary school."

Kids who veer from gender norms at higher risk for abuse

The article sparked some interesting discussions on gender, parenting and society's expectations for boys and girls.

JackiMaddie: "I would love and support my child no matter what, and I hope other people feel the same way. Just do the best you can as a parent to instill your values in your child, but if the child follows a different path, you should still be there for him/her. That being said, I am so relieved my daughter obviously doesn't have this problem."
But MindLikeWarp said you can't support everything your child does.
"Pretty soon we are going to say it is OK to be racist, because that is just who you are. I think parents have a responsibility to teach their children how to be able to function decently in society. I think parents should teach boys to be boys and girls to be girls. I know that isn't the PC thing to say, but you shouldn't just let kids do whatever they want. They need boundaries and rules. Society has them."

Readers also debated whether doctors were turning normal childhood behavior into a disorder.

Guest:
"Seriously? I was a tomboy when I was younger. I'm not boyish anymore. I was normal then and normal now. Why is everyone making such a big deal about this? Kids like to experiment. Some kids like to play outside and get dirty, some kids like to play with dolls, some kids like blue and some kids like pink. Stop trying to paint kids as transgender!! They are just trying to grow up and understand the world. The boys in my neighborhood used to come over and we would play dress up with my dresses. It was FUN. Calm down and let kids be kids!"
Michael J. Creamer Jr.:
"In fairness, it's the children who are painting themselves to be transgender. If you read the article carefully, you will see that they are talking about issues a little more substantial than a girl playing baseball and a boy playing with a Barbie doll."
mwhite5990:
"I really hope they don't start to think that girls that like sports now have a psychological disorder. When I was a kid I loved to play with Barbies, dress up, but I also loved to go outside and play sports and play video games. I think it is healthy for kids to show typical signs of both genders. Most of my friends went through a "tomboy" phase. And from what I know, all of us are straight women. If a girl wants to play sports or a boy wants to be a dancer, let him, don't just assume he/she is gay. Gender roles are created by society.
In short, let kids be kids and have fun."

Other readers argued that sexuality and gender are separate issues.

boatrocker:
"You people are missing the point. This is not about being homosexual. It's about how parents are STILL trying to stereotype their kids by gender – 'girls are supposed to wear pink dresses with bows in their hair, and play with dolls. Boys are supposed to wear jeans and play with trucks.' The parents get upset if the kids don't adhere to these stereotypes. It has nothing to do with sexuality."

blueduck13 said people can't be forced to accept someone who doesn't conform to gender roles.
"Personally, I could care less, but while everyone has freedom of choice, they also have consequences. If you have a Mohawk, some people might stare."

But Aucausin says it's much different from a haircut:
"Unless you have gender dysphoria it can be hard to understand. Imagine tomorrow you wake up as the opposite sex, all your friends and family have forgotten that you were ever different and now believe that you were always the opposite sex. You go to dress for the day and your wardrobe has been replaced with clothes indicative of your new sex. You must wear these clothes with your new body. You go to breakfast then school or work and everyone you know sees you as male or female even though you feel like something different. This doesn't seem like much in text, but it is hell."

What do you think? Share your opinion in the comments area below and in the latest stories on CNN.com. Or sound off on video via CNN iReport.

Sugarland says Indiana stage collapse was an accident

iReporter Agnes Schade captured this photo after wind caused a stage to collapse at the Indiana State Fair in August 2011.

(CNN) -- Country duo Sugarland has denied negligence claims against it, responding to a lawsuit by saying that a fatal stage collapse last year at an Indiana State Fair was "a true accident, or act of God."

Several families of victims from the August incident have filed a lawsuit against Sugarland, contending it was negligent in the stage collapse that left seven people dead and more than 40 injured.

The incident occurred after a storm toppled scaffolding just as the country band was about to take the stage.

In its response, Sugarland contended that the incident was caused by a "gust of wind of unprecedented intensity," according to court documents obtained by CNN affiliate WRTV.

Sugarland not fined for stage collapse

Police tapes detail stage collapse

Sugarland concert helps heal wounds

The band also said "they had nothing to do with the construction of the venue" and did not have the final say if the show should happen or not.

"Sadly when a tragedy occurs, people want to point fingers and try to sensationalize the disaster. The single most important thing to Sugarland, are their fans ... for anyone to think otherwise is completely devastating to them," said Gail Gellman, the band's manager.

An attorney representing the family of one of the victims blasted Sugarland comments.

"Sugarland's response is a carefully crafted legal document that inappropriately attempts to distance the band from the responsibilities incumbent upon the show performers as to the safety of their fans ... And this spin doctoring of Sugarland's role in the case is both offensive and outlandish," said Carl Brizzi.

He represents Heather Goodrich, who lost her husband in the collapse.

Earlier this month, Indiana State Fair Commission paid a $6,300 fine imposed after state workplace safety regulators concluded the fair failed to conduct an adequate safety evaluation at the fairgrounds.

Also the Indiana Department of Labor has announced penalties totaling $80,800 in the incident, saying various companies and the state fair itself failed to comply with safety precautions.

Court and state documents reveal differing accounts of what happened.

In an affidavit from a lawsuit against one company, the fair's executive director says she twice sent the show's promoter to talk to Sugarland in an effort to delay the show.

Twice the answer came back -- we want to go on, according to the deposition by Cynthia Hoye, the executive director of the state fair, according to the court filing.

But in a separate document contained in a state report on the incident, Sugarland tour manager Helen Rollins said no one asked the band to delay its set.

The lawsuit, filed last November, seeks unspecified damages, WRTV reported.

Greece back on track - but for how long?

Back on track, the finance minister cried, giddy from all-night negotiations. Back on track they shrilled, grateful that they had got a deal to shovel another €130 billion into Greece to prevent a default… for now.

Wait a moment. From the second my Blackberry buzzed with economists’ analysis this morning, there has been an uneasy truth they may be “back on track” - but for how long?

It may be raining on the eurozone’s parade. There are a lot of private economists who basically say this deal is not good enough because no matter how much money is being shovelled into Greece, it still leaves the country with a debt-to-GDP ratio that is too high.

While the lower official interest rate and the ECB paying over profits helps, there is no escaping the fact that Greece is still left with too much debt. This story is now firmly one about how much debt Greece still has on its books.

Paul Donovan of UBS chimed in with an early email at 06:14, in time for breakfast, calling 120.5% debt-to-GDP “an unsustainable level.”

Barclays Capital attempted to be fair, calling the debt dynamics “challenging.” Finally, they could resist no longer. “Public debt will remain excessively high,” they intoned. That sounds very like Donovan’s “unsustainable.”

Stephen Pope of Spotlight Consultancy was even more blunt. “One has to be honest here,” he wrote. “There is not a solution in this deal.”

Challenging. Optimistic. Questionable. All good words to describe a situation which HSBC has summed up in a sentence: “The Greek crisis is far from over.”

I don’t always believe private economists working for banks have the final answers. They either missed or weren’t looking for the financial landmines that blew up in 2008. So far, though, they have been right most of the time. They said the first bailout would fail and it did. They warned that Greece would need far more money, and it has. And finally they are declaring that this latest deal won’t solve the problem - and it doesn’t .

Despite the ringing endorsement from the eurozone to “provide adequate support to Greece during the life of the program and beyond” my gut feeling is that if this one doesn’t work, they will pull the plug.

Judging by the economists comments today, they won’t have long to wait.

02:48 PM ET Close Share this on: Facebook Twitter Digg del.icio.us reddit MySpace StumbleUpon Share Comments (18 comments) Permalink Briefing Bites: Franklin Graham, Gas Prices and Syrian Militarization

At the beginning of Tuesday's briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that President Obama will address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference on Sunday March 4th in Washington D.C. The next day, Obama is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

For much of the rest of the briefing, Carney was asked to respond to comments made on television and on the campaign trail.

Early Tuesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe", Rev. Franklin Graham questioned the president's commitment to Christianity, saying he "can't say categorically" that the president is not a Muslim.

"Under Islamic law, Sharia law, Islam sees him as a son of Islam," Graham said. "Because his father was a Muslim. Grandfather was a Muslim. That's just the way it works. That's the way they see it. He says he didn't grow up that way and he believes in Jesus Christ. So the Muslim world, Islam sees him as a son of Islam."

Graham also said "Islam has had a pass under Obama," and the president "seems more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries."

Carney was asked specifically about Graham's comments but passed on the opportunity to take the issue up directly:

I did meet with the president this morning for about 45 minutes and amazingly he didn’t bring this up because he was actually talking about policy issues that he believes are the most important things he can do and he can focus on as president. And that they are the most important things for the vast majority of the American people who are concerned about paying the rent or the mortgage, sending their kids to school, making ends meet. You heard him speak earlier today at the payroll tax cut extension event where he firmly believes that getting an extra forty dollars in every pay check is of vastly greater significance to most Americans than someone’s opinion expressed on cable television about his personal faith which again he has spoken about explicitly as recently as a few weeks ago at the national prayer service.

Earlier Carney was asked about other criticisms of the president's faith made last week by GOP candidate Rick Santorum, and he was a bit more expansive in his response:

I would simply point you and others to statements the president made at the National Prayer Breakfast not long ago where he spoke very explicitly about his own Christian faith, and then I would say that this president is focused on doing thinks that he believes the American people elected him to do, which is work with Congress or independently to take every measure and every action he can to grow the economy and create jobs. To protect the middle class, to help this country recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression. You guys can decide and your editors and your bookers what's a story and what's not. This president's focused on his job as president, getting this country moving in the right direction, ensuring the recovery which is underway continues forward, that we continue the positive economic growth that we've had, that we continue the 23 straight months of private sector job growth that we've had – over 3.7 million jobs created – private sector jobs created in the last 23 months. Those are issues that the president is focused on. Those are the issues that the president believes the American people are focused on, and want their representatives in Washington and those who represent them in the White House to focus on.

Reporters also asked Carney about another hot topic of political debate – gas prices. He reiterated that domestic oil production has increased every year of Obama's presidency, and he pointed to "millions of new acres" opened for oil and gas exploration over the last three years as evidence that the administration was seriously addressing the issue.

There are no magic solutions to rising oil prices and the pain that Americans feel at the pump. This is – the fact is that the president is very aware of the impact that the global price of oil has on families and this is not something that this administration discovered or rediscovers every spring as some politicians do. As you're aware, Jake, oil production in the United States has increased every year that this president has been in office.

On Syria and recent calls from GOP senators for the U.S. to arm the opposition movement there, Carney said that the U.S. continues to push for a "political solution."

We don't want to take actions that would contribute to the further militarization of Syria because that could take the country down a dangerous path. But we don't rule out additional measures that – working with our international partners – that the international community might take if the international community should wait too long and not take the kind of action that needs to be taken to ensure that Assad steps aside, to ensure that a peaceful democratic transition can take place in Syria. So I'm not ruling out potential future actions, but there is an opportunity that still exists we believe for a peaceful transition to occur in Syria and we don't want to contribute to the further militarization there.

More child soldiers in Somalia fighting

(CNN) -- Children as young as 10 years old increasingly face horrific abuse in war-torn Somalia as the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab has targeted them to replenish its diminishing ranks of fighters, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday.

While the recruitment of child soldiers by the Somali insurgent group is not new, the report said the scale of child abductions over the past two years is like nothing documented in the past.

Shocking patterns have also emerged of children serving as human shields on the battlefields, according to Human Rights Watch.

"We're beginning to see more and more instances where children are essentially being used as cannon fodder," Tirana Hassan of Human Rights Watch told CNN.

Al-Shabaab fighters abduct young girls and boys from their homes or schools, in some cases taking entire classes, the report said.

Children can be sent out to recruit other children, according to the organization. One survivor told Human Rights Watch he was asked by a group of kids to play football at a nearby field. When he arrived, he and others were gathered up and sent to training camps, the survivor told Human Rights Watch.

The camps are places where children live in fear, said Hassan, an emergencies researcher for the international human rights group.

"They see injured and dead fighters, many of them children, coming back from the battlefield," Hassan added.

Recruits are taught to use weapons and to throw hand grenades, and are subjected to a myriad of abuses including rape, assault and forced marriages, according to Hassan.

Dozens of recruits, mostly aged 14 to 17, are driven by truckloads to the front line, where they are told to jump out only to be mowed down by gunfire while Al-Shabaab fighters launch rockets from behind, according to Hassan.

A 15-year-old boy recruited by Al-Shabaab from his school in Mogadishu in 2010 told Human Rights Watch that "out of all my classmates -- about 100 boys -- only two of us escaped, the rest were killed."

"The children were cleaned off. The children all died and the bigger soldiers ran away," the youth told Human Rights Watch.

Somalia's transitional government also was criticized by Human Rights Watch for not ending its own use of child soldiers.

"Al-Shabaab's horrific abuses do not excuse Somalia's Transitional Federal Government," said Zama Coursen-Neff, the group's deputy children's rights director. "The TFG should live up to its commitments to stop recruiting and using children as soldiers, and punish those who do."

Gen. Abdulkadir Ali Diimi, the head of Somalia's National Army, said he was unable to comment on the report.

The 104-page report, released two days ahead of a Somalia conference hosted by the British government, grimly details countless violations against children based on more than 160 interviews conducted over the last two years with Somali youngsters who escaped from Al-Shabaab forces, as well as parents and teachers who fled to Kenya.

"For children of Somalia, nowhere is safe," Coursen-Neff said.

On Thursday, senior representatives from more than 40 governments will converge on London in a diplomatic push to find political solutions to restore stability in Somalia.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

German jobs miracle as Latin unemployment soars

The latest Eurostat data shows that the two halves of the currency bloc have diverged dramatically. Germany's jobless rate dropped to 5.5pc in December, the lowest since reunification in 1990, with even lower rates of 4.9pc in Holland and 4.2pc in Austria.

The jobs miracle is in cruel contrast to the slump in the southern bloc, where unemployment has risen relentlessly as austerity bites.

Spain's jobless rate has reached 22.9pc – or 48.7pc for youths – with Greece fast catching it at 19.2pc. Italy, at 8.8pc, is climbing steadily but this is likely to accelerate as austerity bites and recession deepens.

The jobs data came as Europe's markets rallied on hopes that Germany will back a bigger rescue machinery after securing an EU "fiscal compact" on Monday.

FT Deutschland said Berlin is discussing plans for a €1.5 trillion "mega-fund" in conjunction with the IMF, but details are vague and Germany has yet to soften its hardline stand on Greece.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would not stump up more money for Athens as rescue costs escalate by €15bn to €145bn. The shortfall would have to be covered by "more action from the Greek government, more contributions from private creditors," she said.

Market opinion is split over whether Mrs Merkel is playing poker to enforce discipline, or seriously intends to push Greece into default and EMU exit.

Germany's jobs miracle reflects its industrial structure. Its top-notch machines and cars are sought by China, Russia, and Mid-East sheikhdoms.

The country shook up its labour markets under Harz IV reforms, allowing it gain labour competitiveness against southern Europe by compressing wages. Its economy is now 20pc-30pc undervalued within EMU against Club Med.

It is hotly disputed whether this was deliberate mercantilism. "A slice of educated opinion in Germany went into monetary union with this idea in mind, seeing the advantage," said Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research.

For Spain, the jobs crisis can only get worse with the IMF expecting its economy to contract 1.7pc this year. Private analysts say unemployment could top 26pc by year-end.

The new premier Mariano Rajoy has vowed to shake up Spain's rigid labour laws. That risks a fight with trade unions, and will inevitably lead to more jobs losses at first.

Just four years ago the jobless rates in Germany and Spain were similar. That was an illusion of the cycle, with Germany coming out of slump and Spain at the top a bubble. The harsh reality is now painfully clear.

Rumours of Drudge bias are unfounded: the Report can't pretend Newt Gingrich isn't flawed

Some on the Right now resent the Drudge Report's influence

Matt Drudge is the Howard Hughes of the Internet. Like Hughes, he lives in splendid isolation, communicating only through a small group of trusted friends. Like Hughes, his influence has quietly helped shape Republican politics for a generation. But while the eccentric Hughes used money to put his pals in the White House, Drudge has always relied on blogs and Tweets. The Drudge Report, which started life as an emailed gossip column, now receives millions of unique visitors per month. One study found that it drives more traffic than Twitter and Facebook combined.

Drudge’s claim to be the authentic voice of the conservative movement is now under attack. Last week, the Report was dominated by headlines attacking Newt Gingrich: “Gingrich Repeatedly Insulted Reagan” and “Now Dole Drops Stink on Newt” were prime examples. Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh called the coverage a “coordinated” attack on Gingrich, and many Right-wing bloggers concluded that Drudge had turned his site into an unofficial wing of the Romney campaign. Fred Thompson – a former Senator and influential Newtite – complained about “Romney’s staff … patting themselves on the back, talking about how mean and down they are. How they've got Matt Drudge in their back pocket. And how Romney is in on all of it.” The New York Times listed some of the outraged Tweets from conservative activists. One wrote, “Where the hell was all this effort into “exposing” a candidate when Obama was running? Drudge is officially irrelevant now!”

If Drudge has indeed gone over to the dark side (AKA the presumptive nominee), then he’s far from alone. Conservative stalwarts like Limbaugh, Herman Cain and Michael Reagan are stumping for Gingrich, but Romney boasts Ann Coulter, John Bolton and actor Jon Voight. Mitt has the support of several key figures from the American Right because 1) he enjoys relatively good numbers when run against Obama and 2) he’s actually very conservative. He is perceived as being a moderate because he's rather preppy and once supported abortion rights. But his platform in 2012 ticks all the conservative boxes: prolife, anti-gay marriage, tax cutting, budget balancing etc. Things are getting a little hysterical when Mitt is denounced as a proto-socialist bankrolled by the Mormons.

But it’s unlikely that Drudge really is taking orders from Romney Central. The Drudge Report is a news aggregate site – and it just so happens that a lot of anti-Gingrich news came out last week. Was Drudge supposed to ignore it? In the run up to South Carolina, Romney got hit by stories about Swiss bank accounts and job layoffs. So, it’s purely a function of the news cycle/cosmic karma that Gingrich got all the flak during Florida. And most of those stories were investigations into hyperbolic claims that Newt himself had made. It’s inevitable that if Gingrich goes on TV and claims that he invented Supply Side economics or got Reagan elected in 1980, a few old retainers were going to come forward to correct the record. Meanwhile, Drudge has been happy to run plenty of anti-Mitt links. One headline on Monday afternoon was “FRED [Thompson] DECLARES: Romney has 'DRUDGE in back pocket'…”

It doesn’t matter who Drudge is privately backing, the fact that the content of his site is of such concern to Fred Thompson proves that he’s far from “irrelevant”. On the contrary, he still wields enormous power. Its source is the Right’s declining faith in the mainstream media. Feeling that they are unable to get a fair hearing on TV, the Tea Party has placed greater and greater faith in Web based reportage like Drudge’s. But there is always a risk among partisans that they will mistake the reporting of sad truths for “coordinated” attacks. Newt Gingrich happens to be a weak candidate. Drudge can’t take the blame for that.

Mind-reading device could become reality

A device which reads the thoughts of brain-damaged patients could become a reality, scientists claimed, after proving they could tell what someone was hearing just by decoding their brain waves.

In the video embedded above, each word spoken to a group of patients by an electronic voice is replicated twice by a computer which analysed the patients' brain waves to 'guess' what they had heard.

Researchers demonstrated that the brain breaks down words into complex patterns of electrical activity, which can be decoded and translated back into an approximate version of the original sound.

Because the brain is believed to process thought in a similar way to sound, scientists hope the breakthrough could lead to an implant which can interpret imagined speech in patients who cannot talk.

Any such device is a long way off because researchers would have to make the technology much more accurate and find a way to apply it to sounds which the patient merely thinks of, rather than hears.

It would also require electrodes to be placed beneath the skull onto the brain itself, because no sensors exist which could detect the tiny patterns of electrical activity non-invasively.

But the proof-of-concept study published in the Public Library of Sciences Biology journal could offer hope to thousands of brain-damaged patients who face the daily agony of being unable to communicate with their loved ones.

Prof Robert Knight, one of the researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, said: "This is huge for patients who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke or Lou Gehrig's disease and can't speak.

"If you could eventually reconstruct imagined conversations from brain activity, thousands of people could benefit."

The team studied 15 epilepsy patients who were undergoing exploratory surgery to find the cause of their seizures, a process in which a series or electrodes are connected to the brain through a hole in the skull.

While the electrodes were attached, the researchers monitored activity in the temporal lobe – a speech-processing area of the brain – as the patients listened to five to ten minutes of conversation.

By breaking down the conversation into its component sounds, they were able to build two computer models which matched distinct signals in the brain to individual sounds.

They then tested the models by playing a recording of a single word to the patients, and predicting from the brain activity what the word they had heard was.

The better of the two programmes was able to produce a close enough approximation of the word that scientists could guess what it was, from a list of two options, 90 per cent of the time.

Researchers said it could be made more accurate by studying patients' brain signals during a longer conversation, or examining other parts of the brain involved in speech-processing.

Dr Brian Pasley, who led the study, compared the method to a pianist who could watch a piano being played in a soundproof room and "hear" the music just by watching the movement of the keys.

Any concerns about sinister "mind-reading" devices which could spy on a person's secret thoughts would be misguided, he added, because the technique would rely on a patient consciously "hearing" a word in their mind.

He said: "This is just to understand how the brain converts sound into meaning, and that is a very complicated process. The clinical application would be down the road if we could find out more about those imaginary processes.

"This research is based on sounds a person actually hears, but to use this for a prosthetic device these principles would have to apply to someone who is imagining speech."

Jan Schnupp, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University, described the study as "remarkable".

He said: "Neuroscientists have long believed that the brain essentially works by translating aspects of the external world, such as spoken words, into patterns of electrical activity.

"But proving that this is true by showing that it is possible to translate these activity patterns back into the original sound (or at least a fair approximation of it) is nevertheless a great step forward, and it paves the way to rapid progress toward biomedical applications."

Prince William deploys to Falkland Islands as tensions rise with Argentina

2:46AM GMT 01 Feb 2012

Yesterday it emerged that one of the Royal Navy's most advanced new warships is being sent to the area.

HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, is due to set sail for the South Atlantic on her maiden mission in the coming months to replace frigate HMS Montrose.

Today it was confirmed that the Duke of Cambridge will begin his six-week deployment as a helicopter pilot earlier than expected. He will fly out from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, tonight.

He will be crewing one of two search-and-rescue helicopters on call 24 hours a day for missions flying out of a large British military base, 45 minutes from Stanley, the islands' capital.

Argentina's foreign ministry slammed Prince William's visit, saying that the heir to the British throne would be arriving as a "conqueror."

A year later, Egyptian neighbourhood awaits justice

Samira Qilada and Makram Nazir sit below the photos of their 15-year-old daughter Mariam who was killed last year in Cairo, Egypt. - AP Photo.

CAIRO: A year later, the neighbours still speak of those killed the night they attacked the police station: The young man shot in the neck while carrying off his wounded friend; the bodybuilder who took a bullet in the hip; the 15-year-old girl shot in the face while standing on her roof.

On that day, January 28, 2011, the world was focused on Tahrir Square, the downtown center of the popular uprising that would end the 30-year rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. But in neighborhoods across Cairo, residents were targeting the local face of Mubarak’s oppressive rule: the police station.

In the poor district of al-Zawiya al-Hamra that day, 1,000 protesters rallied in the shabby park in front of the station. Some threw rocks, then gas bombs, then the police opened fire, residents said. By morning, 45 residents and one police officer were dead and smoke still rose from the torched station.

On the anniversary of those deaths, ‘martyr’ posters adorn neighbourhood walls, and the lack of justice for the dead remains an open wound. Residents complain that no police have been punished, and it is unlikely that those facing trial will be convicted.

In a wider sense, their feelings one year after the uprising reflect those in many long-neglected parts of Egypt: That the revolution was necessary but its benefits have barely reached the common person.

”We feel that we are living among free people, but we haven’t seen anything concrete yet,” said Omar Ali, 46, who struggles to pay rent on a windowless flat by fixing computers.

But like many here, he is optimistic that the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party holds nearly half the seats in the newly elected People’s Assembly, will serve the neighborhood well. The Brotherhood won heavily in al-Zawiya al-Hamra.

”They do what is right, they won’t oppress us and they fear God,” Omar said.

Al-Zawiya al-Hamra, a crowded grid of squat apartment blocks amid smoggy boulevards, typifies the decades of governmental neglect that helped fuel the uprising. It sprouted on agricultural land in northern Cairo in the 1960s when the government built blocks of drab, low-cost public housing and has since swelled to more than 300,000 people packed into just over a square mile.

Many streets are trash-strewn and unpaved, and public school classes often have 70 students. The government shuttered the local hospital for years for ”maintenance,” and even now it often turns patients away, residents said.

Unemployment rates are high. At night young men pass the time around wood fires on street corners. Crooks and drug dealers have long operated in the area.

Under Mubarak, the police station was the government’s most prominent local face, and it was often an ugly one. Officers beefed up meagre salaries by extorting locals and taking cash from drug dealers to look the other way, said Sayeed al-Sayid, a local lawyer. They often ignored poor residents’ calls for help.

”Those with money would enter the station and leave right away,” knowing they’d be helped, al-Sayid said. ”They would pay for police service.”

That frustration was common throughout Egypt, and protesters across the country attacked police stations, torching 99 in a few days. In many cases, police shot and killed protesters before fleeing.

The gunfire in al-Zawiya al-Hamra started around 7 pm and lasted until midnight, said Mohammed al-Sayid, a nearby butcher. Police fired on men near the station, but also hit people more than 200 yards away, he said, recalling residents collapsing on the sidewalk.

”It was like faucets of blood,” he said.

Bullet holes mar the walls of his shop. One bullet pierced the metal pan he uses to weigh meat. Bullets whizzed into the bedrooms of his neighbours. One bullet passed through the sleeve of a woman upstairs before lodging in her kitchen wall.

Lamie Suleiman, 63, said his son Girgis was shot in the neck while carrying a wounded man. Fathallah Ibrahim, 61, said his son Mohammed, a weightlifter, was heading to his metal workshop behind the station when he was shot in the hip. Both died soon after.

Samira Qilada was watching from her roof with her daughter Mariam, 15, when the girl collapsed.

”I went to see what happened and saw a river of blood from her face,” Qilada said. A bullet shattered the girl’s jaw. She died the next day.

Relatives of the dead have compiled a list of 45 people killed that night.

Anwar Awad, an officer in the station, said police were first told to fire in the air, then to protect the station.

”After people started attacking the station, (the police) were told that anyone getting close to the station or throwing stuff or firing at the station should be shot,” he said.

One officer, Abdullah Mahmoud, was shot dead in the chaos, he said.

Awad blamed the attack on criminals trying to settle scores with the police _ an argument police have used, sometimes successfully, in court cases.

Charm school for a new India

Students of International School Of Ethics learn to toast during a class on dining etiquette in New Delhi. - AFP Photo.

NEW DELHI: At the prompting of Pria Warrick, her class of aspiring politicians open their arms wide and press their palms together over their heads — milking the cheers of an imaginary crowd of supporters.

“This gesture conveys you want to embrace the masses as one of your own,” explained Warrick, who runs the Pria Warrick Finishing School in India’s capital New Delhi.

Originally targetted at newly-weds and the wives of businessmen eager to improve their hostessing skills, the school has recently become a popular resource for politicians wanting to beef up their voter appeal.

“We’ve been having a lot of people from various political parties coming here,” Warrick told AFP.

“They don’t know how much difference a receptive body language can make. But they are keen to change.”

According to Warrick, very few Indian politicians employ image consultants and most rely on advice from civil servants who are “very intelligent but have no idea about professional etiquette.”

In their class, the students conduct role-plays to explore how they might behave in different situations on the campaign trail, whether visiting an influential supporter or an impoverished farmer.

“Some of them feel they lack the spontaneity to answer questions,” said Warrick, who learned her trade at a classic Swiss finishing school before setting up shop in India.

“We teach them how to evade an uncomfortable question, how to be firm in their replies and yet appear friendly.”Yawning, burping and scratching the nose are three strict no-nos in Warrick’s guide book for the political class.

“You must be ultra-careful because any action will be seen as reflecting your actual thought process,” she said.

Warrick is protective of her political students, refusing to divulge any of their names and not allowing them to be questioned directly.

A series of state elections has swollen intake for the specialist classes, but the main business of the school remains firmly based in its original, almost exclusively female, clientele looking to polish their social skills.

Rapid economic expansion, an increasingly upwardly-mobile middle class and the growing number of Indians taking up overseas posts with large multinational firms, have all fuelled a demand for Warrick’s expertise.

“I used to be quite introvert and shy,” said Saba Khan, 26, a homemaker whose husband works for a multinational bank.

“I struggled to interact with my husband’s boss or his wife in social gatherings. Now, I feel ready to host a party. Important deals are sometimes struck over lunches and dinners. It is very important to dress, dine, talk and walk properly,” Khan said.

A typical class includes lectures on the power of “small talk” as well as tips on dinner table etiquette such as bringing the spoon to the mouth rather than the other way round.

Across town at the International School of Ethics, a similar class is underway, but this time the students are women who want their own careers and businesses.

The institute school is run by Monica Garg who conducts workshops on personal presentation and business etiquette for business schools, management students and people working in India’s expanding hospitality and retail sectors.

“The colour black is stubborn and authoritative. So wear black when you want to put across this message. Wear warm colours like red and yellow if you want to show that you are approachable,” Garg tells her class.

Garg says the students who attend her school are well educated and professionally competent, but often feel they lack social networking skills.

“There is a lot more awareness about image and confidence building than there was about a decade back,” Garg told AFP.

Namrata Khanna, 24, said the course covered issues that were never touched on in business school.

“I was confused if I should dress formally for a weekend meeting with a client at a five-star hotel. Also, how much make-up should I wear, whether I should wear high heels,” Khanna said.

“I learnt so much here, even something as basic as shaking hands. I have been told never to offer limp fish handshake.”

Syrians face crackdown with creativity and humour

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. - AFP Photo.

BEIRUT: Throughout 40 years of Assad family dictatorship, one thing united Syrians _ the culture of self-censorship, fear and paranoia.

But the uprising against President Bashar Assad has unleashed a burst of blunt irreverence and black humour that would have been unthinkable before, when any satire had to be indirect or hidden.

”The type of expression has now shifted, the subtlety has gone,” said Rime Allaf, associate fellow at London’s Chatham House.

”Today, for the first time in recent Syrian history, people are able to get out and say it openly.”

Opposition Syrians are pouring contempt on Assad using whatever medium they can, with a humour that also helps them get through the death and destruction in a crackdown that has killed more than 5,400, according to the UN.

The Internet provides a layer of anonymity, which is vital when retribution is a real danger, but the creativity has also spilled into the streets in the banners, signs and songs of the protesters.

”” is one of several new online shows. It was created by 10 young professional artists inside Syria. It uses finger puppets that impersonate Bashar Assad _ nicknamed Beeshu in the series _ and his inner circle.

In one episode, Beeshu competes against Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi on ”Who wants to Kill a Million,” a play on the game show ”Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” His final question: Will you be able to crush the protests? He answers yes.

When he’s told that’s the wrong answer, he flies into a petty rage, wrecking the set.

In another, he consults with two devils about how to deal with the uprising. They suggest he kill a single protester to scare the others. He proclaims he will kill 30 protesters a day, torture children and shell cities.

”You are completely insane,” the devils shriek, running away. ”I want to get the hell out of here.”

The director of the series, who goes by the online name of Jameel, says the idea is to ”break down the wall of fear.”

”When you see the shabih (pro-government militiaman) or the president as puppets, you can’t take them seriously anymore,” he said, asking that his name and location not be used to protect him from retaliation.

More simply, it ”elicits a little laugh” from people who are suffering from the crackdown, he said.

Even in the darkest places, Syrians seem to try to extract some fun. The central city of Homs has been one of the worst hit by the regime’s crackdown. But as in many rallies, giant protests there often saw crowds dancing, linking arm in arm and doing a sort of joyous simultaneous hop, along with circles of the traditional ”debke” dance.

The song ”Yalla Irhal, ya Bashar!” _ a simple yet powerful rendition which translates into ”Come on, Bashar, leave” _ is often heard shouted by exultant protesters to the beat of a drum. It’s the most popular, but an entire catalogue of protest songs has arisen, full of puns and references to members of Assad’s inner circle.

”We are discovering ourselves for the first time,” said a 28-year-old Syrian who goes by the name of Samer Lathkani, from the coastal town of Lattakia. ”The uprising has awakened patriotic sentiments among young people, now every protest is a thrill.”

Kfarnebel, a rebellious village in northern Syria, has become famous for coming up with colourful, amusing banners.

”Aleppo will not rise even if it took Viagra,” said one recent banner, criticizing Syria’s second largest city, where anti-government protests have yet to take hold.

Some have paid the price for taking it too far.

In August, Syria’s renowned political cartoonist Ali Ferzat, 60, was beaten by gunmen who broke his fingers and dumped him on a road outside Damascus after he posted cartoons satirizing Assad on his website.

Ibrahim Qashoush, a Syrian firefighter who wrote the ”Come on, Leave, Bashar” song, was murdered in July, his vocal cords cut out and his body dumped in the river in the city of Hama.

Syria had a flourishing theatre and comedy scene in the 1970s and 1980s, despite the autocratic regime of strongman Hafez Assad, which his son Bashar inherited in 2000. Syrian productions were popular around the Arab world for their black, satirical humor.

But it had to be indirect and confined to certain limits.

In one of the 1970s’ most famous Syrian political plays, ”Kasak ya Watan,” or ”Toast to the Homeland,” the country’s top comedian Dureid Lahham kept his satire broad.

His character, swigging from a liquor bottle, has a dialogue with his dead father who chides him over the failures of his Arab generation, particularly the failure to free Palestine.

They get into a debate over which is better, Heaven or Earth, and Lahham argues, ”We don’t lack a thing here … Just a little bit of dignity.”

It’s a far cry from a blunt banner at one recent protest: Assad’s face plastered on a pack of Marlboros, reading ”the Syrian regime is a main source of cancer.”

Attacks by Afghans on US troops often personal

US forces have been working alongside newly recruited Afghan forces to train them. — Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: Supposedly friendly Afghan security forces have attacked US and coalition troops 45 times since May 2007, US officials say, for the first time laying out details and analysis of attacks that have killed 70 and wounded 110.

In testimony prepared for delivery Wednesday to the House Armed Services Committee, defence officials said that in most cases the Afghans acted out of personal motivation and were not controlled or directed by insurgent groups. The second most common circumstances involved insurgents impersonating or infiltrating Afghan security forces.

Such insider attacks by Afghan security forces have been on the rise, punctuated by the Jan 20 shooting of four French troops by an Afghan soldier, which prompted France to halt its training program and threaten to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan earlier than planned. The incidents further erode support for the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, and add more complications to the already difficult mission of US forces.

The testimony, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of Wednesday’s hearing, lays out the screening process for Afghan nationals who are brought in to provide security for US forces. And it includes improvements in the program made after an attack at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in March 2011 that killed two US soldiers and wounded four others. The base is in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan, and lawmakers have been demanding details about the incident.

”The insider threat is an issue of increasing significance to coalition forces and Afghan National Security Forces operating in Afghanistan,” the defence officials said. ”It creates distrust between our forces and their Afghan counterparts during a critical juncture in Afghanistan.”

Among the officials scheduled to present the data to the committee are Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary David Sedney and Brig. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who is the Pentagon’s director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan coordination group.

While there have been some instances of insurgents secretly joining the Afghan security forces, officials said it is difficult to determine how often that has happened because the infiltrator often remains undetected. Insurgents can easily disguise themselves as Afghan security forces and have been doing so more often, the military said, noting that the attackers simply obtain and wear Afghan uniforms.

Overall, however, officials said most attacks have come from members of the Afghan forces ”acting intentionally yet independently” without any direct guidance from outside insurgent groups. They are generally spurred by personal motivations, grievances, ideological differences or even combat stress.

Until now, Pentagon officials had not released figures on the number of incidents. But the officials said there have been 42 incidents involving Afghan security forces and three others involving private security company personnel. In most cases the assault involved small arms fire.

The report to Congress also includes details about the March 2011 incident that involved an Afghan man hired by the private security contractor Tundra, which provides protection at nine installations in Afghanistan.

Security companies that hire Afghans are required to carry out an in-depth vetting process that includes verifying applicants’ identities, work history, address and other personal information, as well as police checks, fingerprinting and other biometric information such as iris scans and photographs. The contractors are also required to report individuals who turn out to be security risks.

According to the defence officials, Tundra’s official records had indicated the company had investigated the man involved in the Frontenac attack as a possible threat but the allegation was unsubstantiated. And Tundra did not pass that information along to US military authorities prior to the Frontenac incident.

As a result of the attack, the military issued a request for corrective action — a formal action taken against contractors that requires them to submit plans to fix the problems found. Tundra submitted a plan, which was accepted by the military, and the case was closed, although the contract will continue to be audited.

Since then the US has directed commanders to conduct random checks on private security companies to ensure that all of their personnel are properly screened, including all of the biometric requirements. Commanders also have to do weekly biometric screenings of local nationals to compare against watch lists.

Pakistan helping Taliban: secret Nato report

The leaked “State of the Taliban” report claims that Pakistan and its ISI intelligence agency are aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders. — File Photo

LONDON: The Pakistani security services are secretly helping Afghanistan’s Taliban, who assume their victory is inevitable once Western troops leave, a secret Nato document says, according to reports on Wednesday.

The leaked “State of the Taliban” report – seen by the BBC and The Times newspaper – was compiled from information gleaned from insurgent detainees and was given to Nato commanders in Afghanistan last month, the media reports said.

It claims that Pakistan and its ISI intelligence agency are aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

The BBC said the report was based on material from 27,000 interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives, plus other foreign fighters and civilians.

“Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly,” the report was quoted as saying.

“ISI officers tout the need for continued jihad and expulsion of foreign invaders from Afghanistan.”

The Times quoted the report as saying the Taliban’s “strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact”, despite setbacks in 2011.

“Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban,” it said.

“Once (Nato force) Isaf is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable.”

Kabul, which accuses Islamabad of supporting the 10-year Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, put relations on ice after the September murder of its peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, which one Afghan minister blamed on Pakistani spies.

The US Department of Defense said it could not comment on the report but set out its fears about Pakistan and its influence in Afghanistan.

“We have not seen the report, and therefore cannot offer comment on it specifically,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told AFP.

“We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks.” US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

In its conclusion, the report said there had been unprecedented interest in joining the Taliban cause in 2011 – even from members of the Afghan government.

“Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption,” it was reported as saying.

The Times, in an editorial, said Pakistan was “actively hindering reconciliation” between the Taliban and Kabul.

“Islamabad appears to be engaged in a systematic effort to destabilise the Kabul government of (President) Hamid Karzai prior to the withdrawal of Western forces, and to assist those attacking and killing those forces.”

“The ISI emerges from this document looking considerably more villainous, even, than the Taliban itself.”

“The picture that is painted is very much one of a force that both expects, and is widely expected, to have a big stake in controlling the Afghanistan of the future.”

Boat accident off Malaysia kills eight

KUALA LUMPUR: Eight men drowned and five others went missing after a boat loaded with 25 people believed to be from Afghanistan and Iraq overturned off southern Malaysia, police said Wednesday.

Police found the bodies of eight men on a beach in southern Johor state early Wednesday, said Che Mahazan Che Aik, a district police chief, while 12 others managed to swim to shore after their boat overturned.

Search and rescue operations were underway to find five others believed to be missing at sea, Che Mahazan told AFP.

Authorities were also still searching for the boat’s skipper.

None of the men, believed to be between 20 and 35 years old, had travel documents but the survivors, who have been detained, claimed they were asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq, Che Mahazan said.

Malaysia is a well-known transit point from people from war-torn poorer regional countries to embark on a perilous boat journey seeking to reach Australia via Indonesia in hope of a better life there.

Boats, often in poor condition and overcrowded, occasionally capsise. In June last year, seven Indonesians went missing and 17 others were rescued after their boat sank off Johor state.

A month later, Malaysian authorities rescued 46 Indonesians who were trying to sneak back into their country when their boat sank.

Taliban deny plan for Saudi talks with Afghan govt

Earlier, Afghan officials revealed about the talks, separate from planned negotiations in Qatar between the Taliban and the US. – File Photo by AFP

KABUL: The Taliban militia leading a 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan on Wednesday denied that they would soon hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government in Saudi Arabia.

“There is no truth in these published reports saying that the delegation of the Islamic Emirate would meet with representatives of the Karzai government in Saudi Arabia in the near future,” the Taliban said on their website.

Afghan officials, requesting anonymity, had suggested that the two sides would hold talks in Saudi Arabia separate from planned negotiations in Qatar between the Taliban and the United States.

But it was never clear whether the Taliban, who have so far resisted talks with the Afghan government, or the Saudis, who have conditioned involvement on the Taliban renouncing al Qaeda, would come on board.

Taliban negotiators have begun preliminary discussions with the United States in Qatar on plans for peace talks aimed at ending the decade-long war.

They have also announced plans to set up an office in Doha.

On Wednesday, the Taliban said they had not yet “reached the negotiation phase with the US and its allies”.

“Before there are negotiations there should be a trust-building phase, which has not begun yet,” the statement on its website said.

A day earlier, a government spokesman in Kabul cautioned that no steps had been taken to start talks in Saudi Arabia.

“The Afghan government is very clear on talks — we have always preferred Saudi to Qatar,” Akim Hasher, head of the Government Media and Information Centre, told AFP.

“There is a possibility that the talks will take place in Saudi as well — Qatar is definitely not the only option.” On Monday, an Afghan diplomat based in Riyadh said talks would be held in Saudi Arabia, but stopped short of announcing any date.

A member of the Taliban’s leadership council told AFP on Sunday that “the idea” that the Taliban should have a point of contact in Saudi Arabia was being pushed by the Pakistan and Afghan governments.

Analysts have warned that any move to open a second front in peace talks was being driven by fear in Kabul of being sidelined and could sow confusion in the tentative process of “talking about talks” to end the devastating conflict.

“When you have all these different players trying to open up talks with the Taliban it might look to the Taliban like a deliberate ploy, an attempt to divide and rule or to get some advantage,” said analyst Kate Clark.

India’s low-caste queen launches re-election bid

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh state Mayawati gestures as she addresses an election rally at Sitapur, near Lucknow, India. -AP Photo

SITAPUR: India’s “Dalit Queen,” a low-caste firebrand in power in the country’s most populous state since 2007, launched her re-election bid Wednesday vowing to continue working for the downtrodden.

Crowds of supporters from India’s Dalits, formerly “untouchables” or the lowest social class, cheered and waved as she swooped down in a helicopter before appearing on stage clutching her trademark leather handbag.

Mayawati, who uses one name, rules deeply impoverished Uttar Pradesh where she has helped elevate the status of the low castes, but is also accused of letting the state slide further into corruption and dysfunction.

She has also faced criticism for spending more than a billion dollars building giant statues of herself and her party symbol of an elephant, as well as memorials to past low-caste icons, in parks in the state capital Lucknow.

“It is the first time for this state that our government took up the cause of the Dalits and the deprived, as well as Muslims who were always neglected by successive regimes,” she said in an hour-long speech.

Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls next Wednesday to elect a new state assembly, has a population of 200 million, about the size of Brazil’s, and some of the most entrenched poverty in the world.

Around 30 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line and the rural female literacy rate is 56 per cent, according to government data.

The state is influential in national politics as a power base — Mayawati once said she hoped to rule the nation — and is the home constituency of India’s dynastic Gandhi family, which has dominated post-independence India.

A Muslim singer was chosen to warm up the crowds, signalling the importance of the minority religious community in the state’s politics.

Mayawati, 56, dressed smartly in beige, sat alone on a raised armchair at the front of the platform before rising to speak as her ministers and the local candidates stood discreetly at the back.

The crowd of as many as 50,000, many of them families of low-caste farm labourers, were packed into a field in the town of Sitapur, about a two-hour drive northwest from Lucknow.

Many said the election of Mayawati as chief minister in 2007 had helped improve their lives as they were less often victims of persecution and harassment from higher castes.

Some described being forced to carry cow dung, or having new clothes ripped by the resentful higher castes. Others said they were previously prevented from drinking from the same wells as higher castes or eating near them.

“We have got tremendous relief. Now we don’t have to work under duress,”said Lakhan Pasi, a 24-year-old labourer with two children. “That is why we will stick with Mayawati.”

Few seemed bothered by the allegations of corruption that swirl around her, or the criticism of her extravagant spending on her statue parks.

“It was only one percent of the budget on statues, and she made all these new parks,” said Kuldeep Bhati, 35.

In a speech focused largely on attacking her opponents, she promised 24-hour electricity to every home in her next term and said economic growth in Uttar Pradesh had increased during her reign.

She dwelt at length on the alleged corruption in the rival Congress party, which is in power in the national government and is pushing her in the state polls.

Rahul Gandhi, the heir-apparent of the Congress party and next in line in the Gandhi family, campaigned in Sitapur on Tuesday but in front of far smaller crowds.

Congress, Mayawati said, was stuck with an “anti-Dalit mindset”.

“It cannot tolerate the daughter of Dalits ruling the state because Congress is basically anti-Dalit,” she said.

After her speech, she waved briefly at the crowds before heading for her helicopter as supporters rose to their feet and started dancing.

Romney wins in Florida, turns sights on Obama

U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney addresses supporters after the television networks declared him the winner of the Florida primary, at his primary night rally in Tampa, Florida January 31, 2012. -Reuters Photo

TAMPA: Mitt Romney clobbered Newt Gingrich by 14 percentage points in Florida’s Republican primary vote and moves on to the next state, Nevada, on Wednesday with a fat campaign bankroll and a renewed sense that he is the inevitable challenger to President Barack Obama in November.

Ten days after Gingrich hammered Romney by a similar margin in South Carolina, one of the most conservative American states, the chaotic Republican nominating contest took another dramatic turn in Florida, which awards all of its party delegates to the top vote-getter and gives Romney momentum as the race heads to friendlier states out west.

Florida also will be a key battleground in the general election later this year as a large and diverse state with a history of backing candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Romney and his allies poured roughly $16 million into Florida television advertising for the primary alone.

Romney spoke as though he was the presumptive nominee Tuesday night, declaring himself ready ”to lead this party and our nation.”

”Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it’s time to get out of the way,” he said.

Obama’s campaign issued a fund-raising appeal Wednesday focused on the millions that Romney and his supporters have poured into negative ads.

”That’s ugly, and it tells us a lot about what to expect from Romney if he wins the Republican nomination,” said campaign manager Jim Messina. ”They’re going to try to spend and smear their way to the White House.”

With Obama vulnerable in his bid for a second White House term because of the slow US economic recovery, about half of Florida primary voters said the most important factor for them was a candidate who could defeat the president, according to exit poll results conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.

Not surprisingly, in a state with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, about two-thirds of voters said the economy was their top issue. Nearly nine in 10 said they were falling behind or just keeping up.

Florida was one of the hardest hit states in the collapse of the US housing market that caused a near meltdown of the American financial sector in the final months of the George W. Bush presidency.

Romney, who had failed to draw much above a quarter of the vote in three previous primary and caucus contests in smaller states, won almost half the votes in Florida’s four-person race. That damages Gingrich’s contention that the voters who oppose Romney outnumber those who favor him.

Returns from 100 per cent of Florida’s precincts showed Romney with 46 per cent of the vote to 32 per cent for Gingrich. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 13 per cent, and Texas congressman Ron Paul 7 per cent. Neither mounted a substantial effort in the state and campaigned Tuesday in western states with upcoming caucuses.

Florida’s winner-take-all primary was worth 50 delegates to the Republican National Convention in late August in Tampa, Florida. That gave Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, a total of 87, to 26 for Gingrich, 14 for Santorum and four for Paul, with 1,144 required to clinch the nomination.

Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, said most states have yet to vote. The sign on his podium read ”46 States to go.”

”We are going to contest everyplace,” he said.

The candidates were converging Wednesday on Nevada, which holds its caucuses on Saturday. Romney won Nevada’s caucuses after losing in Florida in 2008, and a substantial Mormon population there could propel him to victory again this time.

Romney dropped out of the presidential race four years ago when Sen. John McCain became the clear favorite among Republicans. His focus on the economy this time could play well in a state with the highest unemployment rate in the US.

”The path ahead is looking very good,” Romney told NBC’s ”Today” show on Wednesday.

The nomination battle so far this year has been defined by an unusually large series of 18 debates, typicallya strong point for Gingrich. But he faltered in Florida as Romney hired a new debate coach and went on the attack. And no debates are planned for three weeks, hurting candidates with little funding who relied on the free national exposure. The candidates next debate in Arizona on Feb. 22.

While the debates have tended to galvanize support for the candidates, massive negative advertising has proved a major factor. Romney’s campaign raised $24 million in the final months of 2011, dwarfing his competitors. He has $20 million to fight the primary battle and has had staff and volunteerson the ground in upcoming states for months as he’s prepared for a drawn-out fight.

Romney and Restore our Future, an outside group supporting him, outspent Gingrich and his outside organization, by about $15.5 million to $3.3 million, an advantage of nearly 5-1.

Eleven soldiers killed in Balochistan clashes

Baloch militants have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan's wealth of natural oil, gas and mineral resources. — File Photo by AFP

QUETTA: Baloch militants attacked security forces overnight, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding another 12 in clashes that raged for five hours, officials said Wednesday.

Gunmen attacked two posts in the Margut area, about 60 kilometres east of Quetta, capital of the insurgency-torn southwestern province of Balochistan. The soldiers were responsible for guarding coal mines, they said.

“About two dozen gunmen armed with light and heavy weapons attacked the Frontier Corps (paramilitary) posts and killed 11 soldiers,” a senior military official said.

He said another 12 soldiers were wounded in the assault.

Other security officials confirmed the casualties.

The assailants belonged to a Baloch militant group led by Hyrbyair Marri who is living in self exile in London, the official said.

Baloch militants have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan’s wealth of natural oil, gas and mineral resources.

Substandard medicine caused deaths, says Shahbaz

LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that according to tests conducted in a London laboratory, substandard medicine caused the deaths of dozens of people in the province, DawnNews reported.

Speaking at a press conference, the chief minister said that the medicine contained anti-malarial chemical 14 times more than required.

He said the medicine, suspected to have caused the deaths of cardiac patients in Punjab, was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company in Karachi.

The chief minister moreover said that the company had now been sealed and its owners’ names had been put on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Sharif further said that the antidote to the medicine in question had been made available in hospitals across the country and was being distributed in hospitals.

The test reports of the London laboratory would be submitted before the judicial commission and the apex court and would also be made public in order to prosecute the culprits, said Sharif.

Moreover, the chief minister vowed to investigate as how all the laboratories from Karachi to Peshawar were unable to conduct tests on the suspected medicines.

“Any doubts about our intentions would now be removed,” said the chief minister.

Cabinet meeting discuss Khar’s Russia visit

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of federal cabinet held on Wednesday discussed Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to Russia, DawnNews reported.

Khar briefed the meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, on her upcoming tour.

The meeting gave go ahead to Khar to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Russian authorities.

She would sign the MoU next week during her planned visit.

Anthrax parcel sent to PM House in Jan: police

ISLAMABAD: Police on Wednesday said that they were investigating how and why a parcel containing anthrax was sent to the prime minister’s official residence in the capital Islamabad last month.

It appeared to be the first reported case of anthrax sent to a government office in Pakistan.

“The parcel containing anthrax powder was sent last month, about 20 days ago. After the laboratory test confirmed that the parcel contained anthrax we registered a case against unknown people,” said police officer Hakim Khan.

There was no immediate confirmation from the prime minister’s house, which lies in the heavily secured secretariat area of Islamabad.

The parcel was posted from the Jamshuru district in Sindh.

“We have sent a police team to investigate it and to find the culprits there,” said Khan, a police officer in the secretariat district.

Gilani takes Shujaat in confidence over 20th Amendment

PM Gilani in meeting with PML-Q chief Ch.Shujaat Hussain at PM Secretariat in Islamabad.- File Photo by PPI

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday took Pakistan Muslim League – Q (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain into confidence about the proposed 20th Constitutional Amendment.

Talking to the PML-Q leader here at the Prime Minister House, Gilani also discussed present political situation in the country.

He said the political alliance with the PML-Q will continue as it would strengthen the democracy and the federation.

The PML-Q chief assured the prime minister that his party would extend full support to the government, as one of the coalition partners they were committed to resolve all important issues of national importance with consultation and consensus.

Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah and Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo were also present during the meeting.