Iran arrests 5 musicians over dissident contacts

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian police have arrested five members of an underground band suspected of producing music for Farsi-speaking, dissident satellite channels based in the U.S.
The semiofficial Fars news agency quotes senior police official Col. Sadeq Rezadoost as saying the band was producing songs for Los Angeles-based Iranian singers and providing videos to Farsi-speaking, dissident TV channels.
The Wednesday report says the five have been handed over to the judiciary for trial. It did not name the band.
Women-only groups are banned in Iran, and Western music is rejected as "decadent." Many Iranians turn to underground bands to get bootleg videos of foreign-based singers.
Contact with foreign-based dissident media outfits is also banned in Iran.

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Iranians freed in major prisoner swap in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Rebels freed 48 Iranians on Wednesday in exchange for more than 2,000 prisoners, including women and children, held by Syrian authorities — a deal struck after rare negotiations involving regional powers Turkey, Qatar and Iran.
It was the first major prisoner swap since the uprising began against President Bashar Assad nearly 22 months ago.
Iran is one of Assad's main allies, and the Iranians, who were seized outside Damascus in August, were a major bargaining chip for factions trying to bring down his regime in the civil war that has killed more than 60,000 people.
The exchange also highlighted the plight of tens of thousands of detainees languishing in Syrian prisons, many of whom were picked up at street protests and have not been heard of since.
The group of 48 Iranians arrived Wednesday at the Sheraton hotel in several vans escorted by Syrian security forces. Looking disheveled but healthy, they were greeted by Iran's ambassador in Damascus, Mohammad Riza Shibani, and several Iranian clerics who distributed a white flower to each of the men, some of whom broke down in tears.
"The conditions placed (by the captives) were difficult, but with much work ... we succeeded in securing this release," Shibani told reporters. "I hope such tragedies will not be repeated."
He said their release was a result of elaborate and "tough" negotiations, but did not elaborate. The Syrian government, which rarely gives details on security-related matters, had no official comment and it was not clear what prompted the exchange.
Rebels claimed the captives were linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, but Tehran has denied that, saying the men were pilgrims visiting Shiite religious sites in Syria.
But U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described most of the Iranians as "members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," calling it "just another example of how Iran continues to provide guidance, expertise, personnel, technical capabilities to the Syrian regime."
The rebels had threatened to kill the captives unless the Assad regime halted military operations against the opposition.
It was not clear what prompted the government to negotiate the exchange, but opposition leaders said the Assad regime felt obligated to please its Iranian backers.
"The Iranian hostages had become an embarrassment to the regime," said Bassam al-Dada, a Turkey-based coordinator with the rebel Free Syrian Army. "Iran was pushing for a solution and Assad could not afford to cross his Iranian master," he said.
Kamer Kasim, an analyst at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, linked Assad's agreement to the swap to Damascus' desire not to be seen as the intransigent party, after it rejected U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's peace deal. He said Iran has long been pressing for the release, and Syria was eager to maintain good relations with Tehran.
"The Iranian government supports the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, and its possible refusal of the exchange deal might have harmed this relationship," Kasim said.
A spokesman for a Turkish Islamic aid group that helped coordinate the release said the regime had agreed to release 2,130 people in exchange for the Iranians.
As of Wednesday evening, it was not clear how many of those had been freed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the swap, but expressed regret that many remain locked up by the Syrian government.
"Let's hope that they may be released as well and let's hope that the process is beneficial for all," Erdogan said during a visit to Niger.
He said the deal was brokered with the help of a Turkish and a Qatari aid organization, and added that Turkey had been talking with the rebels during the negotiations. Four Turks and "a number of Palestinians" were among the prisoners released by the Syrian government, he said.
Speaking in Istanbul, Umit Sonmez of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief which coordinated the negotiations, said the 48 Iranians were handed over to aid workers soon after the Syrian regime let a group go.
Sonmez said the Syrian prisoners included "ordinary people or friends or relatives of the rebels."
"This is the largest prisoner exchange to date," Sonmez said. "We are pleased that people from all sides who were held and victimized have finally been freed."
"Turkey and Qatar, who have influence over the rebels, spoke with the rebels. They also spoke with Iran. Iran for its part spoke with Syria."
Turkey's state-run agency Anadolu Agency also said a group of people, including women and children, held in the Syrian Interior Ministry building in Damascus had been released and were escorted onto buses. The report could not be confirmed because of government restrictions on journalists in Syria.
Bulent Yildirim, the head of the Turkish aid organization, told Anadolu in Damascus that 1,000 people have been released so far, including 74 women and a number of children between the ages of 13 and 15.
Some photographs released from the aid organization showed a group of women lined up against a wall, apparently waiting to be released. Most seemed to be hiding their faces from the camera. Another showed a group of men, their heads shaven, standing in a room.
Regime forces and rebels have exchanged prisoners before, most arranged by mediators in the suburbs of Damascus and in northern Syria, but the numbers ranged from two to 20 prisoners. The Syrian Red Crescent also has arranged exchanges of bodies from both sides.
Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said "tens of thousands" of Syrian activists, opposition supporters and members of their families remain jailed in Syria since the uprising began in March 2011.
Many of those in government custody have had no contact with the outside world for months and no access to a lawyer. Most are being held by the state security services around the country, Houry said.
"For every person released, thousands remain detained and thousands more cannot be accounted for," he Told the Associated Press.
The rebels are also known to be holding a group of nine Lebanese Shiites, at least two Iranian engineers and scores of pro-regime supporters and captured soldiers.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said senior Russian and U.S. diplomats will discuss the Syrian crisis in talks later this week with Brahimi.
In a speech Sunday, a defiant Assad ignored international demands to step down and said he is ready to talk — but only with those "who have not betrayed Syria."
He outlined his vision for a peace initiative that would keep him in power to oversee a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new government. But he also vowed to continue to fight terrorists — a term the government uses for the rebels.
The opposition rejected his offer, which also drew harsh international criticism.
Russian officials said Assad's proposals should be taken into consideration.
Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said countries such as the United States and its Western allies have dismissed the president's initiative "before even having the time to translate it."
___
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Matthew Lee in Washington and Barbara Surk and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this story.

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Hamas flagship university grooms Hebrew teachers

 
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In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2013 photo, …
Enlarge Photo
In this Monday, Jan. 7, 2013 photo, …
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas' flagship university in Gaza has a new diploma on offer — Hebrew, the official language of its arch-foe Israel.
Gaza's Hamas rulers say they want to produce qualified teachers as the government gradually introduces Hebrew studies in its high schools. The aim is simple: It wants Palestinians in Gaza to learn their enemy's language.
"As Jews are occupying our lands, we have to understand their language," said Education Ministry official Somayia Nakhala.
There are 19 students enrolled in the first one-year Hebrew diploma course offered at the Islamic University in Gaza City, a stronghold of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007. Hamas does not recognize Israel, is officially pledged to its destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, rocket strikes and other attacks.
Officials hope graduates will become Hebrew teachers. Hamas has already begun offering Hebrew studies as an elective to ninth graders in 16 schools, and plans to expand the program to dozens of other schools in the coming months.
Israel occupied Gaza for 38 years after capturing it, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. Since withdrawing its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel has fought two wars against Hamas and restricts access to the territory by air, land and sea.
The coastal strip still relies on Israeli-run crossings for most consumer goods, and Gaza patients must receive special permits to reach medical care in Israel or the West Bank.
Students need to "understand what's going on, like wars, medical treatment in Israel, in the West Bank," said the Education Ministry's Nakhala.
There is no shortage of Hebrew speakers in Gaza, at least among older residents. For years, Gaza Palestinians entered Israel to work in restaurants, construction and other menial jobs. Thousands of others learned the language while held in Israeli prisons. In quieter times, many Israelis would come to Gaza to fix their cars, bargain hunt or eat at local restaurants.
But after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Israelis stopped coming. After a second uprising erupted in 2000, Israel sharply restricted the entry of Gazans. Since Israel's pullout and the subsequent Hamas takeover, direct contact between the sides is virtually nonexistent.
This tortured relationship with Israel was on display during Hebrew class this week at the Islamic University.
Two women, their faces veiled in line with conservative Muslim beliefs, practiced Hebrew in a doctor-patient dialogue. When the conversation turned to the chilly weather, another student described being cold while held in an Israeli prison because he wasn't given a blanket.
"Saval maspik," he said in broken Hebrew. "Suffered enough."
Discussing medical terms, lecturer Kamal Hamdan and a student created a dialogue between Palestinian paramedics and Israeli officials, asking how many people were wounded in an Israeli military incursion into Gaza.
Hamdan noted the similarities between Arabic and Hebrew, which are both Semitic tongues. He pointed at parts of his body, calling out the words.
"Rosh. Ras," he said, speaking in Hebrew, then Arabic as he pointed at his head. "Af, anf," he said, gesturing toward his nose, "Re-ot, Ri-a," he said, speaking the words for lungs.
"The head is 'rosh'?" a student asked. "Ah!" he exclaimed as it clicked.
"Even if there's a difference in politics, culture, even if there is an occupation and oppression, the languages resemble each other," Hamdan told the students.
The conversation even delved gingerly into Zionism, Israeli life and history.
In discussing the Israeli health care provider, "Maccabi," Hamdan told the students the word referred to ancient Jewish rebels. That led to a discussion of the early Zionist hero Joseph Trumpeldor, who helped bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine and was killed in 1920 while defending a Jewish settlement. Hamdan repeated a phrase attributed to the fighter as he died: "It is good to die for our country."
Some students said they were studying Hebrew to understand Israeli TV and radio broadcasts, which are easily accessible in Gaza.
Ghada Najjar, 26, described her frustration at not understanding Israeli news broadcasts during the last major round of Israel-Hamas fighting in November. At the time, Israel pounded Gaza from air and sea, while Palestinian militants fired rockets toward cities deep in Israeli territory.
"It's a weapon, even if it's not very powerful, to understand," said the mother of two.
Jihad Abu Salim, 24, said he began studying Hebrew after participating in a four-month coexistence program at New York University.
"I felt it was my duty to learn more about their history, politics and culture," he said.
Palestinian students in Gaza face unique challenges to learning Hebrew. Because of Israeli restrictions, few will ever practice the language with native speakers.
Contact with Israelis is frowned upon in Gaza, where it angers many residents who have lost loved ones or suffered injuries in fighting.
A small group of Gaza residents, mostly traders and medical officials, regularly enter Israel for business purposes. However, Hamas bristles at other contacts, and the government recently banned Gaza journalists from working for Israeli media. Some Gaza residents who communicate with Israeli friends on email or Skype say they shy away from discussing those relationships with others.
Hostile attitudes have left veteran Hebrew-language teachers treading a careful line. Like most Gaza residents, they view Israel bitterly after years of conflict. But they also have memories of more peaceful times, when they could freely enter Israel to study Hebrew.
Instructor Jamal al-Hadad, 60, railed against what he called linguistic theft, noting the many Arabic words that have been incorporated into modern Hebrew. "Like they stole Palestine, they also stole our words," al-Hadad said.
But he also proudly showed off a collection of poems he had written in Hebrew, a mix of pro-Palestinian rhymes and odes to love. And he said he objected to the idea he was merely teaching the language of his foes.
"It is the language of our enemies," he said. "But it is also the language of our neighbors."
Mixed attitudes are common on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.
Arabic is supposed to be mandatory in Israeli high schools from 7th to 10th grade, but only about half of them teach it. In most cases, students take it for two years, according to the coexistence group Abraham Fund.
Israeli Arabic language specialists are typically sought for military and intelligence positions, to monitor Arabic media, interrogate Palestinian suspects, handle Palestinian informants or use it during undercover operations.
In Gaza, high schools stopped teaching Hebrew in the mid-1990s, after a Palestinian self-rule government took over civilian affairs. Last year, the Hamas government decided to bring the language back — an acknowledgment that Gazans need the language to deal with Israelis, a people they are intertwined with for the foreseeable future. And while Hebrew had been offered as an elective at several Gaza universities, this is the first diploma to exclusively focus on the language.
Regardless of Hamas' intentions, teaching Hebrew could open doors of understanding, said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist.
"It has the potential to change world views," said Baskin. "Facebook, email, chatting, the whole world is open. You can't prevent contact if people want contact."

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

(Reuters) - Canada's holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.
Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company's research and consulting division, found that in recent years, holiday shopping peaks from December 20 to December 22.
"Many Canadians may have gotten an early start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, but it's still a very young phenomenon in Canada," Senior Vice-President Richard McLaughlin, said in a release.
The Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season south of the border, and in recent years retailers have imported Black Friday sales to Canada.
Some also promote online sales the following Monday.
Canada's online retail sales continued to grow in November, increasing 26.4 percent.

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Chevron to buy stake in Kitimat LNG from Encana, EOG

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Chevron Corp said on Monday it will enter the Canadian liquefied natural gas business with the acquisition of the 50 percent stake in the Kitimat LNG project held by Encana Corp and EOG Resources Inc.
Chevron will take Encana's and EOG's 30 percent stakes in the LNG-export project for an undisclosed price as the No.2 U.S. oil company looks to jumpstart North American natural gas exports.
It will also buy the two companies' interest in a pipeline serving the project, at Kitimat, 650 kilometers (400 miles) north of Vancouver, and will pay $550 million for a half stake in 644,000 acres of exploration lands in the Horn River and Liard shale-gas fields owned by Apache Corp.
Apache will then pay Chevron $150 million to raise its stake in the British Columbia project and associated lands to 50 percent, netting the U.S. independent oil and gas producer $400 million from the transaction.
Analysts say the addition of a deep-pocketed partner increases the likelihood that the multi-billion dollar Kitimat LNG -- the most advanced of a handful of gas-export facilities slated for British Columbia's northern coast -- will be completed.
"With Chevron involved it will happen sooner than it otherwise would have," said Michael Dunn, an analyst with FirstEnergy Capital.
Though no price was given, Robert Morris, an analyst with Citi Research, estimates that Encana and EOG each received about $450 million for their stakes and the exploration lands.
Kitimat LNG was last year awarded Canada's first LNG export license by the National Energy Board, allowing it to export 10 million tons of LNG per year. The project is slated to begin shipping gas to Asian markets by 2017.
Other Canadian LNG facilities are planned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Malaysia's Petronas, BG Group Plc and others, making British Columbia a rival to the U.S. Gulf coast, where nine projects have been announced and one, Cheniere Energy Inc's, Sabine Pass project, is already under construction.
Chevron has existing LNG projects in Australia, Africa and South America. Adding the Canadian operation will let it tap high-priced export markets and escape a domestic gas market that remains depressed because of burgeoning production from shale gas fields.
"This investment grows our global LNG portfolio and builds upon our LNG construction, operations and marketing capabilities," George Kirkland, Chevron's vice chairman, said in a statement. "It is ideally situated to meet rapidly growing demand for reliable, secure, and cleaner-burning fuels in Asia, which are projected to approximately double from current levels by 2025."
Encana said the sale of its stake was consistent with its plan to focus on its core natural gas business and that the deal will reduce its future capital commitments while EOG will now focus on U.S. crude oil production.
The acquisition is expected to close it the first quarter of 2013.
Chevron shares fell $1.00 to $108.71 by early afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange while Apache fell $1.35 to $78.65 and EOG dropped 72 cents to $122.83
Encana shares were down 51 Canadian cents at C$19.62 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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Ontario government imposes new contracts on teachers

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's government said on Thursday it will impose labor contracts on tens of thousands of teachers in Canada's most populous province as part of its controversial push to reduce a large budget deficit.
Education Minister Laurel Broten announced contract terms covering some 130,000 teachers that included a broad wage freeze, a reduction in the number of sick days and limits on the number of sick days teachers are allowed to cash out when they retire.
Ontario's Liberal government, which holds only a minority of seats in the provincial parliament, managed to reach tough new deals with other teacher groups and its doctors but failed to come to terms with the larger group of elementary and secondary school teachers.
The showdown led many teachers to drop extracurricular activities and take other job action such as one-day strikes.
The new deal will save the province C$250 million ($253.79 million) in 2012-13 and C$540 million in 2013-14, the government said in a statement. In addition, the government will realize one time savings of C$1.1 billion from changes to the sick day policy.
The new contracts will expire in August, 2014.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who announced late last year that he would resign once the Liberals elect a new leader in January, pledged last March that the government would reduce its C$14 billion deficit by holding the line on public sector wages.
The government passed a law last fall covering its public sector workers that froze wages, cut sick days and limited their right to strike. The legislation, which sparked furious opposition from labor groups, set the bargaining deadline for last December 31.
Ontario's teachers are among the highest paid in Canada, a country where educators rank as some of the best compensated in the world.
Credit rating agencies have repeatedly warned Ontario that tackling its deficit would require tough austerity measures.
Healthcare and education make up about 70 percent of Ontario's spending, with wages and fees accounting for more than half of the expenses.

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Clashes near Syrian capital, Aleppo airport closed

 Syrian troops and rebels fought Tuesday in suburbs of Damascus as well as near Aleppo's airport, stopping all flights in and out of the northern city, activists and state media said.
The intense fighting underlined the rebels' tenacity in the capital and around Aleppo, Syria's largest city, but also the determination of the Bashar Assad regime to carry on fighting. Activists say more than 45,000 people have been killed in the 22-month civil war.
In the past few weeks, rebels have stepped up their attacks on airports in Aleppo province, trying to chip away at the air power that poses the biggest challenge to their advances against Assad's forces.
The Syrian air force has been bombing and strafing rebel positions and attacking towns under opposition control, but the rebels have no planes or effective anti-aircraft weapons to counter the attacks.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting around the base of Syrian army Brigade 80, part of a force protecting Aleppo's airport, led to the closure of the airport late Monday.
"Heavy fighting is taking place around Brigade 80," said Rami Abdul-Rahman who heads the Observatory. The Observatory relies on a network of activists around Syria. "The airport has been closed since yesterday."
The Syrian government had no comment on the closing of the airport. On Saturday, Syria's national airline canceled a flight to Aleppo because of fighting nearby.
Rebels have warned that they would target civilian as well as military planes using the Aleppo International Airport, saying the regime is using civilian planes to bring in supplies and weapons.
The rebels have been attacking three other airports in the Aleppo area, including a military helicopter base near the Turkish border.
Rebels have posted dozens of videos online showing fighters shooting mortars, homemade rockets and sniper rifles at targets inside the bases.
Activists also reported heavy fighting in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.
The Observatory and activist Mohammed Saeed, who is based near Damascus, said Syrian warplanes took part in bombing Daraya on Tuesday.
State-run news agency SANA said troops killed "tens of terrorists" in Daraya and nearby areas. The regime refers to rebels as "terrorists."
Daraya is few kilometers (miles) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh in a western neighborhood of the capital.
Amateur videos showed smoke billowing from Daraya from what activists said were the air raids. Another video showed a street covered with debris as fire raged on the second floor of a five-story building.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

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Egypt orders 15-day detention for Israeli

 Egyptian security officials say a former sergeant in the Israeli army has been ordered detained for 15 days for investigation into his illegal entry from Israel into the Sinai Peninsula.
The authorities say the 24-year-old unarmed Israeli has been in custody since Friday. They announced the arrest Monday.
The officials said Tuesday he is under investigation in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh for allegedly trying to reach the Gaza Strip through Sinai. They have identified him as Andrew Yaacoub Cheteko.
Known in Israel as Andre Pshenichnikov, the Jewish immigrant from Tajikistan made headlines last year when he announced he wanted to move to a West Bank refugee camp in solidarity with Palestinians there.
The security officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

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Palestinians will outnumber Israeli Jews by 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian statistics bureau estimates that Arabs will outnumber Jews in the Holy Land by the end of the decade, a scenario that could have grave implications for Israel.
The bureau said Tuesday that 5.8 million Arabs live in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. That compares to about 6 million Israeli Jews, according to Israeli data.
It said that based on current birth rates, the two populations would be equal in 2016, and in 2020, Arabs would outnumber Jews by 7.2 million to 6.9 million.
The demographic issue is a main argument for Israeli backers of creation of a Palestinian state. They say relinquishing control of the Palestinian territories and its residents is the only way to ensure Israel's future as a democracy with a Jewish majority.

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Clashes in Syria shut down Aleppo airport

BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between government troops and rebels on Tuesday forced the international airport in Aleppo to stop all flights in and out of Syria's largest city, while fierce battles also raged in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
The rebels have been making inroad in the civil war recently, capturing a string of military bases and posing a stiff challenge to the regime in Syria's two major cities — Damascus and Aleppo.
The opposition trying to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar Assad has been fighting for control of Aleppo since the summer, and they have captured large swathes of territory in Aleppo province west and north of the city up to the Turkish border.
In the past few weeks, the rebels have stepped up their attacks on airports around Aleppo province, trying to chip away at the government's air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to their advances.
The air force has been bombing and strafing rebel positions and attacking towns under opposition control for months. But the rebels have no planes or effective anti-aircraft weapons to counter the attacks.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime activist group, said the fighting around the base of Syrian army Brigade 80, part of a force protecting Aleppo International Airport, led to the closure of the airport late Monday.
"Heavy fighting is taking place around Brigade 80," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. The Observatory relies on a network of activists around Syria.
"The airport has been closed since yesterday," he said.
The Syrian government had no comment on the closing of the airport. On Saturday, Syria's national airline canceled a flight to Aleppo because of fighting nearby.
Rebels have warned that they would target civilian as well as military planes using the Aleppo airport, saying the regime is using civilian planes to bring in supplies and weapons.
The rebels have been attacking three other airports in the Aleppo area, including a military helicopter base near the Turkish border. They have posted dozens of videos online that appear to show fighters shooting mortars, homemade rockets and sniper rifles at targets inside the bases.
There was also heavy fighting in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, southwest of the capital. Daraya is one of the closest suburbs to the capital and is on the edge of two important neighborhoods that are home to a strategic air base and government headquarters.
The fighting in Daraya was so fierce that the explosions echoed in some parts of the capital.
Although the regime still tightly controls much of Damascus, its seat of power, rebels have been posing a stiffer challenge in the suburbs. In the past few weeks, there has been fighting near the capital's international airport that interrupted some flights. The road to the airport, just south of the capital, was also closed during the fighting.
The Observatory and activist Mohammed Saeed, who is based near Damascus, said Syrian warplanes bombed Daraya on Tuesday.
State-run news agency SANA said troops killed "tens of terrorists" in Daraya and nearby areas. The regime refers to rebels as "terrorists."
Activists say more than 45,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began 22 months ago.
Daraya is few kilometers (miles) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh in a western neighborhood of the capital. It is also on the edge of the Kfar Sousseh neighborhood that is home to the government headquarters, the General Security intelligence agency head office and the Interior Ministry. That ministry was targeted in a recent suicide attack that wounded Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar.
"The regime is doing all it can to regain Daraya," said Maath al-Shami, an activist based in the Syrian neighborhood of Mazzeh, via Skype. "The regime is dying to get back it back," he added.
"Daraya is the gate of Damascus for the rebels," said al-Shami.
Amateur videos showed smoke billowing from Daraya from what activists said were the air raids. Another video showed a street covered with debris as fire raged on the second floor of a five-story building.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.
In August, activists reported that between 300 and 600 people were killed in Daraya over several days in a killing spree by troops and pro-regime militiamen who stormed the town after heavy fighting and days of shelling.
The Observatory and al-Shami reported sporadic shelling and clashes in southern neighborhoods of Damascus and the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk on Tuesday. The Observatory said shelling and snipers fire killed two people in Yarmouk and two in another neighborhood.

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Clarification: Israel-Palestinians story

JERUSALEM (AP) — In a story Dec. 31, The Associated Press reported that Israel dropped a 5 1/2-year-old ban that prevented construction materials from entering the Gaza Strip. The story should have made clear that the ban applied to Gaza's private sector. Under the closure, imposed following the Hamas militant group's takeover of Gaza in June 2007, Israel allowed small amounts of construction goods into Gaza for humanitarian projects. In 2010 it began allowing such materials for projects under the auspices of the United Nations. Monday's announcement by Israel, part of a cease-fire deal reached with Hamas in November, further eases the ban by allowing private businesses to ship in building materials.

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Mother loses legal fight to stop son's cancer radiotherapy

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother in Britain, who was so desperate to stop her cancer-stricken son having to undergo conventional medical treatment that she went into hiding with him, lost a court battle on Friday to prevent him receiving radiotherapy.
The case of Sally Roberts, 37, a New Zealander living in Brighton, southern England, and the plight of her seven-year-old son has made headlines in Britain.
Roberts wants to try alternative treatments first, including immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy for her son Neon. She has been told the boy needs treatment fast but fears the side-effects of conventional medicine.
Doctors treating the boy had warned that without radiotherapy he could die within three months
Judge David Bodey told the High Court in London the life-saving radiotherapy treatment could start against the mother's wishes, the Press Association reported.
"The mother has been through a terrible time. This sort of thing is every parent's nightmare," the judge said.
"But I am worried that her judgment has gone awry on the question of the seriousness of the threat which Neon faces."
The story of the sick blue-eyed blonde boy came to public attention earlier this month when Roberts prompted a nationwide police hunt by going into hiding with Neon for four days to stop him from undergoing the treatment.
The mother's relentless battle in court also cast a light on the dilemmas parents can face when dealing with the illness of a loved one, considering the short-term and long-term risks of a treatment and handling conflicting medical information available at the click of a mouse.
Roberts said in court she had researched on the Internet her son's condition - a fast-growing, high-grade brain tumour called medulloblastoma - and sought advice from specialists around the world because she did not trust British experts.
She feared radiotherapy would stunt the boy's growth, reduce his IQ, damage his thyroid and potentially leave him infertile.
Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Neon could undergo emergency surgery to remove a tumour which had resisted an initial operation in October, despite opposition from his mother, who found he appeared to be recovering after what she said was a "heartbreaking" stay in hospital.
"EXPERIMENTAL AND UNPROVEN"
Surgeons said Neon's operation on Wednesday had been successful but that radiotherapy was needed to ensure no residual tumour was left behind.
Neon's father Ben, who lives in London and is separated from Roberts, has sided with his son's doctors.
But his wife suggested exploring several alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, which mainly consists of stimulating the body's immune system to fight cancerous cells, and photodynamic therapy, which uses a photosensitizing agent and a source of light to kill malignant cells.
The hospital treating Neon slammed "experimental and unproven" methods which entered "unchartered territory". The hospital, which cannot be named, also questioned the credentials of some of the private specialists contacted by Roberts's team.
The court heard that at least one of these could not even correctly spell medulloblastoma.
Radiotherapy is used to prevent cancer from spreading or striking back after surgery but it can damage nerve tissue and healthy brain cells.
Long-term side effects tend to be more common in children, whose nervous systems are still developing.

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Instant View - Third quarter GDP revised down, public finances worsen

LONDON (Reuters) - The Office for National Statistics released revised third-quarter GDP figures and November public sector finances data on Friday.
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KEY POINTS
- Biggest quarterly increase in GDP since Q3 2007
- Biggest quarterly increase in industrial output since Q2 2010
- Biggest quarterly increase in services output since Q3 2007
- Biggest quarterly increase in gross operating surplus of corporations since Q3 2010
- Highest household savings ratio since Q3 2009
- Highest level on record of public sector net debt excluding financial sector interventions as a share of GDP, at 68.5 percent
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ECONOMISTS' VIEWS
HOWARD ARCHER, IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT
"The modest revisions to the GDP data do not fundamentally change the story of an economy that is likely to have been essentially flat overall in 2012, with the quarterly performances distorted since the second quarter by a number of factors, notably including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.
"It currently looks touch and go as to whether the economy can avoid renewed contraction in the fourth quarter as it faces the unwinding of the Olympics boost.
"News that service sector output only edged up 0.1 percent month-on-month in October reinforces (the) belief that the economy is having a difficult fourth quarter, but at least services output was marginally positive and that gives a small boost to hopes that the economy will avoid renewed contraction.
"While it really makes little difference whether the economy grows marginally in the fourth quarter, is flat or contracts marginally, it would be good for confidence if the economy could avoid a GDP decline and avert headlines of a 'triple dip'.
"With economic recovery likely to remain fragile and limited, we believe there is still a very real possibility that the Bank of England will ultimately decide to give the economy a further helping hand with a final 50 billion pounds of QE (quantitative easing)during the first half of 2013. However, this seems unlikely to happen before the second quarter, if at all."
ROSS WALKER, RBS
"We had 0.9, it looked quite a close call between 0.9 and 1.0. But, with the monthly industrial production numbers showing small downward revisions, we thought it would probably be trimmed. I suppose the Q3 number reinforces the weakness.
"The more significant figure is the October services sector output number. This is the first official estimate we have for any Q4 month. It is not a great number but it is positive and it is better than the decline that had been expected.
"On the basis of all the published data it looks like the fourth quarter will be broadly flat, rather than negative - based on the published data.
"I think the Bank of England's policy is on hold in terms of QE, probably the focus is more on the Funding for Lending Scheme.
"They could easily come back to it, but I think it is probably a second half of next year story once Mr Carney is in place, and his nine member committee. You could get a slight change in emphasis or focus when he comes in. We don't expect more QE, but if it comes it is a second half of next year story."
TOM VOSA, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK
On GDP: "Not entirely surprised, that was our forecast. The partials that we'd had from retail sales, from industrial production, all pointed to this. To some degree this is old news and 0.9 or 1.0 percent doesn't really matter, it's still very strong growth."
On public finances: "It does make us wonder how the Chancellor is going to meet his borrowing targets when in reality borrowing tends to be running now a little bit above where we were last year.
"They must be hoping for a very big increase in revenues in January, which given the weakness of corporation tax and the reduction in financial sector pay I find very difficult."
PHILIP SHAW, INVESTEC
"There's a lot of data being released and there's no single overriding trend. We're not surprised to see GDP revised down a touch but what matters a lot more are prospects for the fourth quarter and because of last week's construction data, we're more optimistic that a decline will be avoided.
"Current account again, it's reassuring to see that there's been a narrowing of the deficit over the third quarter. Effectively, as earnings from direct investment have bounced back after two quarters of weakness. Nonetheless, one would still reach the conclusion that imbalances in the economy remain."
Public finances: "It's another month of disappointing deficit data and it's pretty clear now that barring unexpected positive developments, that the underlying deficit will widen this year, compared with 2011-12.
"We wouldn't say that the releases as a whole have that many implications for economic prospects.
"Although we suspect that the GDP figures will be a bit better than expected over the next quarter, perhaps next couple of quarters, it is clear that the underlying pace of growth will remain weak for some time to come.
"I think what's important here is whether the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme has a positive effect on credit flows that the housing market picks up and that we see a sustained recovery in business investment as well."
DAVID TINSLEY, BNP PARIBAS
"The headline GDP figure is a shade disappointing, but 0.1 percentage point is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The fact that the service sector output rose in October is at least as important.
"It does suggest that, while some of the production data has been weak in the fourth quarter, the service sector momentum looks, at the outset of the quarter, to be holding up."
Public finances: "The data continue to show a worrying slippage against the government forecasts.
(To achieve the OBR forecasts) there has got to be either some improvement in the numbers or back revisions, or at the end of the financial year the under spends of government departments needs to be quite significant. All that we will see in due course but for now the figures still look like they are worse than OBR was expecting."
JAMES KNIGHTLEY, ING
"All in all, the UK appears to be ending 2012 not in particularly great shape and as such we suspect the Bank of England has more work to do with further policy stimulus likely in early 2013, especially if the worst fears over the U.S. fiscal cliff materialise."
Public finances: "For the financial year to date (2012/13), income tax revenues, corporation tax revenues and VAT revenues are all down on the same period for financial year 2011/12.
"This highlights the weak state of the UK economy and the fact that austerity measures are failing to generate the improvement in government finances that were hoped for.
"Government cash outlays are down as well, but this is purely down to lower interest costs resulting from the plunge in yields, helped by BoE purchases and the UK's relative safe haven status."
ALAN CLARKE, SCOTIABANK
"I actually think the monthly services (figure) was the most important one. That makes it all the more likely that the UK did not slip into a triple dip recession at the end of the year.
"The chances are that we could grow by 0.3 percent, maybe even more, because we had stonkingly good construction data and some growth in services, although clearly that could change in November and December.
"Notwithstanding the drop in industrial production, I think we probably grew. So it has been a great end to the year."
Public finances: "The public finances are going in the wrong direction. But we know that there is all sorts of jiggery pokery going on with the transfer of coupons by the ONS (Office for National Statistics), probably next month. So, it is very hard to read too much into that data."

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Budget deficit worsens, credit rating at risk

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's budget deficit worsened in November, data showed on Friday, increasing the risk it will lose its top-notch credit rating and overshoot this year's borrowing forecast.
The data - which showed public sector net borrowing, excluding financial sector interventions, hit 17.5 billion pounds last month - is gloomy news for Britain's coalition government.
Deficit reduction and preserving Britain's credit rating have been top goals for the coalition of Conservatives and Lib Dems, which came to power in June 2010, just after the country's budget deficit peaked at 11.2 percent of GDP.
Last year, the budget deficit totalled 8 percent of GDP, and the government's own budget watchdog forecasts it will take until 2017 before it falls below 3 percent and the government manages to run a surplus on cyclically-adjusted non-investment spending.
Chancellor George Osborne had originally planned to meet this goal by the next election in 2015, but far weaker than expected growth since 2010 now makes that look impossible.
While other official data released on Friday showed Britain's economy may avoid a forecast contraction in the last three months of 2012, analysts say the borrowing numbers could see the country's credit rating revised early next year.
"The disappointing November public finance data fuel mounting expectations that at least one of the credit rating agencies will strip the UK of its AAA rating in 2013," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.
Standard & Poor's last week joined Fitch and Moody's and put a negative outlook on its triple-A rating for Britain. The latter two agencies - which have had a negative outlook since early this year - will review their ratings in early 2013.
Last month's public sector net borrowing figure of 17.5 billion pounds exceeded economists' expectations. They had forecast it would come in just below the 16.3 billion pounds reached in November 2011.
Borrowing since the start of the tax year in April is now nearly 10 percent higher than at the same point in 2011.
This calls into question forecasts issued earlier this month by the government's budget watchdog which estimated borrowing will fall 11 percent to total 108.5 billion pounds in the 2012-13 tax year.
Some of the fall in borrowing forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was due to money expected from the auction of next-generation mobile phone frequencies and a deal with the Bank of England to return interest paid on its bond holdings - cash that will not boot the public finances until early 2013.
But even disregarding this, some economists think Osborne, the finance minister, may struggle to hit the OBR's targets.
Archer expects an overshoot of some 14 billion pounds, while economists at Barclays see an overshoot of 6.5 billion pounds, assuming the radio spectrum auction brings in the 3.5 billion pounds pencilled in by the OBR.
WEAKER GROWTH
Britain's economy shrank for nine months between late 2011 and mid-2012, but revised figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday that growth rebounded by 0.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012, a little less than the 1.0 percent first estimated.
There was slightly brighter news from Britain's dominant services sector, which grew 0.1 percent in October after a 0.6 percent decline in September.
This was better than many economists had expected, and raises the prospect that the economy will avoid a return to contraction that the OBR and the Bank of England have predicted.
"It's not a great number but it is positive," said Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland. "On the basis of all the published data it looks like the fourth quarter will be broadly flat, rather than negative."
Another bright spot was third-quarter current account data, which showed Britain's deficit with the rest of the world narrowed more than expected to 12.8 billion pounds, equivalent to 3.3 percent of GDP, from 17.4 billion in the second quarter.
However, economic growth will need to translate into stronger tax revenues and lower spending on social benefits if the government is to meet its budget goals.
November's budget overshoot was driven by a 6.3 percent year-on-year rise in central government spending, while tax revenues grew just 0.6 percent.
The closure of a North Sea oil field earlier this year has done major damage to corporation tax revenues, but Barclays economist Blerina Uruci said she was more concerned about signs that spending by government departments was rising more than expected.
"It could suggest difficulties with delivering efficiency savings as austerity fatigue sets in," she said.
The OBR said it expected to see underspending by government departments towards the end of the fiscal year, as well as stronger future growth in income tax and sales tax revenues.
Business minister Vince Cable sought to play down worries about the state of public finances, saying more austerity than planned could tip the economy back into recession.
"The fact that there has been a temporary increase in borrowing I don't think is a matter for criticism," he told BBC radio. "The government ... have been flexible, just accepting that when the economy slows down you are going to get bigger deficits (and) the government has to borrow to cover them."
However, the Labour Party said Friday's data showed there had already been too much austerity.
"By squeezing families and businesses too hard, choking off the recovery and so pushing borrowing up, not down, (Prime Minister) David Cameron and George Osborne's economic plan has completely backfired," said Labour legislator Rachel Reeves.

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Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — People across the vast territory where Josef Stalin once imposed his terror have marked the 133rd anniversary of the dictator's birth, some in hatred but others in reverence.
In Moscow, several hundred Russian Communists led by their leader Gennady Zuyganov laid flowers at Stalin's grave at the Red Square Friday, while smaller rallies were held across Russia and several former Soviet republics.
Leftists in neighboring Belarus said they found a Stalin statue that was buried after denunciation of his personality cult in 1956, but refused to specify its whereabouts because they fear authorities will order its destruction. Authorities in Stalin's hometown of Gori, Georgia, they will reinstall his statue that was removed in 2010.
In southern Ukraine, several ethnic Crimean Tatars trashed a small street exhibition on Stalin. The entire Crimean Tatar population of Ukraine was hastily deported in cattle trains on Stalin's orders in 1944 for their alleged collaboration with Nazi Germans during World War II. Of the 200,000 Crimean Tatars, almost a fifth died of starvation and diseases, and the survivors were allowed to return only in the late 1980s.
According to the prominent Russian right group Memorial, Stalin ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people during the purges and repression of the 1930s, while millions died as a result of the forced labor system in Gulags, the Soviet prison system.
But, some people believe he was a strong and valiant leader whose grip on the nation was needed for security and his popularity in Russia has been climbing amid Kremlin-backed efforts to defend his image.

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Margaret Thatcher in hospital after operation

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday.
After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations executive who once served as image maker to Thatcher, said.
"The operation was completely satisfactory. She's now recovering in hospital and as soon as she's recovered she'll go home," Bell said.
Known as the "Iron Lady," Thatcher, who stepped down in 1990, embraced free market policies, challenged trade unions and privatised many state-owned companies during her 11 years in power, polarising British voters.
Britain's only woman prime minister, who led her country in a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982 and was close to the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, was forced to step down by her own party.
Thatcher suffered a series of mild strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
She was hospitalised in 2010 for tests relating to a flu illness.

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