Taliban prisoner at Gitmo key to peace talks?

WASHINGTON?? The Obama administration is considering transferring to Afghan custody a senior Taliban official suspected of major human rights abuses as part of a long-shot bid to improve the prospects of a peace deal in Afghanistan, Reuters has learned.

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The potential hand-over of Mohammed Fazl, a "high-risk detainee" held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison since early 2002, has set off alarms on Capitol Hill and among some U.S. intelligence officials.

As a senior commander of the Taliban army, Fazl is alleged to be responsible for the killing of thousands of Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslims between 1998 and 2001.

According to U.S. military documents made public by WikiLeaks, he was also on the scene of a November 2001 prison riot that killed CIA operative Johnny Michael Spann, the first American who died in combat in the Afghan war. There is no evidence, however, that Fazl played any direct role in Spann's death.

Senior U.S. officials have said their 10-month-long effort to set up substantive negotiations between the weak government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban has reached a make-or-break moment. Reuters reported earlier this month that they are proposing an exchange of "confidence-building measures," including the transfer of five detainees from Guantanamo and the establishment of a Taliban office outside of Afghanistan.

Now Reuters has learned from U.S. government sources the identity of one of the five detainees in question.

The detainees, the officials emphasized, would not be set free, but remain in some sort of further custody. It is unclear precisely what conditions they would be held under.

In response to inquiries by Reuters, a senior administration official said that the release of Fazl and four other Taliban members had been requested by the Afghan government and Taliban representatives as far back as 2005.

The debate surrounding the White House's consideration of high-profile prisoners such as Fazl illustrates the delicate course it must tread both at home and abroad as it seeks to move the nascent peace process ahead.

One U.S. intelligence official said there had been intense bipartisan opposition in Congress to the proposed transfer.

"I can tell you that the hair on the back of my neck went up when they walked in with this a month ago, and there's been very, very strong letters fired off to the administration," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The senior administration official confirmed that the White House has received letters from lawmakers on the issue. "We will not characterize classified Congressional correspondence, but what is clear is the President's order to us to continue to discuss these important matters with Congress," the official said.

Even supporters of a controversial deal with the Taliban ? a fundamentalist group that refers to Americans as infidels and which is still killing U.S., NATO and Afghan soldiers on the battlefield ? say the odds of striking an accord are slim.

Critics of Obama's peace initiative remain deeply skeptical of the Taliban's willingness to negotiate, given that the West's intent to pull out most troops after 2014 could give insurgents a chance to reclaim lost territory or push the weak Kabul government toward collapse.

The politically charged nature of the initiative was on display this month when the Karzai government angrily recalled its ambassador from Doha and complained Kabul was being cut out of U.S.-led efforts to establish a Taliban office in Qatar.

U.S. officials appear to have smoothed things over with Karzai since then. Karzai's High Peace Council is signaling it would accept a liaison office for the Taliban office in Qatar - but also warning foreign powers that they cannot keep the Afghan government on the margins.

The detainee transfer may be even more politically explosive for the White House. In discussing the proposal, U.S. officials have stressed the move would be a 'national decision' made in consultation with the U.S. Congress.

Obama is expected to soon sign into law a defense authorization bill whose provisions would broaden the military's power over terrorist detainees and require the Pentagon to certify in most cases that certain security conditions will be met before Guantanamo prisoners can be sent home.

The mere idea of such a transfer is already raising hackles on Capitol Hill, where one key senator last week cautioned the administration against negotiating with "terrorists."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said such detainees would "likely continue to pose a threat to the United States" even once they were transferred.

In February, the Afghan High Peace Council named a half-dozen it wanted released as a goodwill gesture. The list included Fazl; senior Taliban military commander Noorullah Noori; former deputy intelligence minister Abdul Haq Wasiq; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former interior minister.

All but Khairkhwa were sent to Guantanamo on January 11, 2002, according to the military documents, meaning they were among the first prisoners sent there.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and White House official, said Fazl was alleged to have been involved in "very ugly" violence against Shiites, including members of the Hazara ethnic minority, beginning in the late 1990s, and the deaths of Iranian diplomats and journalists at the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998.

Michael Semple, a former UN official with more than two decades of experience in Afghanistan, said Fazl commanded thousands of Taliban soldiers at a time when its army carried out massacres of Shiites. "If you're head of an army that carries out a massacre, even if you're not actually there, you are implicated by virtue of command and control responsibility," he said.

He added: "However it does not serve the interests of justice selectively to hold Taliban to account, while so many other figures accused of past crimes are happily reintegrated in Kabul."

Some U.S. military documents ? select documents have been released, others were leaked ? indicate that Fazl denied being a senior Taliban official and says he only commanded 50 or 60 men. But the overall picture of his role is unclear from the documents which have become public.

Richard Kammen is an Indiana lawyer who has nominally represented Fazl; the detainee did not want an attorney.

"Based upon the public information with which I'm familiar, it would appear his role in things back in 2001 has been significantly exaggerated by the government," Kammen said.

According to the documents, Fazl and Noori surrendered to Abdul Rashid Dostum, now Afghanistan's army chief of staff but at the time a powerful warlord battling against the Taliban, in northern Afghanistan in November 2001.

While the men were being held at the historic Qala-i-Jani fortress in Mazar-i-Sharif, Taliban prisoners revolted against their captors from the Northern Alliance, the anti-Taliban coalition.

"Dostum brought (Fazl and Noori) to the bunker to ask the prisoners to surrender; detainee and (Noori) refused," the detainee assessment from a 2008 document read.

Spann, a one-time Marine captain who was sent to Afghanistan as a CIA operative in the fall of 2001, was trying to locate al-Qaida operatives at the Mazar fortress among a large group of Taliban soldiers who had surrendered, according to the CIA and media reports at the time. When the Taliban prisoners began to riot ? many of them were apparently armed ? Spann was surrounded and killed. After a bloody, multi-day battle his body was later found booby-trapped.

Even a loose association between Fazl and Spann's death ? despite the fact there is nothing to suggest he was directly involved ? is likely to increase the temperature of the debate in Washington.

What could be problematic for some Afghans is Fazl's identification with the killing of civilians in central and northern Afghanistan.

"The composition and timing of any release has got to pay attention to Northern Alliance concerns," Semple said.

Buy-in from supporters of that alliance - and from those wary of a resurgent Taliban - will be key in making a peace deal stick, if one can be had.

Despite the congressional concerns that released Taliban will return to the battlefield, Semple said it was unlikely even prisoners like Fazl ? who truly was a significant military figure for the Taliban ? would alter that equation.

"These people are not going to make a real contribution to the Taliban war effort even if they are able to go over to Quetta and rejoin the fight. It's not risky in battlefield terms; it's only risky in U.S. political terms."

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45819911/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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Review: 'W.E.L.D.E.R.' leads parade of iPad gems

(AP)? So you just got an iPad for Christmas. You already have all the essentials loaded ? Facebook, Twitter, iBooks, whatever news app you prefer.

Now it's time to get serious and start learning what the iPad was really built for: games.

There are more than 26,000 iPad games available from Apple's App Store, with something for every imaginable taste. And the prices are so low you can build an impressive library for less than the cost of a single Xbox game. Here are some of my favorites from the last few months.

?"W.E.L.D.E.R." (Highline Games, $3.99): For the record, it stands for "Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment," but never mind the strained acronym. What "W.E.L.D.E.R." really stands for is the iPad's most addictive word game, a clever combination of "Bejeweled," ''Boggle" and "Scrabble." The object is to slide letter tiles around an 8-by-8 grid, forming words of four or more letters. However, you won't get far unless you figure out how to combine score-multiplying gold tiles with the limited number of moves you're given. If you're burned out on "Words With Friends," let this provide your new crossword puzzle fix.

?"Infinity Blade II" (Chair Entertainment, $6.99): If you want to show off your new toy, there are few better demonstrations than this sword-fighting epic. It's a series of one-on-one battles in which dodging, parrying and blocking attacks are just as important as slashing your foes. This sequel adds some role-playing elements and more alternate paths to the goal, but the core attraction remains the same: bone-crunching combat in breathtaking environments.

?"Chocolate Fix" (ThinkFun, $2.99): Take nine candies ? three shapes, each in three colors ? and arrange them in a 3-by-3 box. If you're a Sudoku maven, that probably sounds simple. But at the expert level, the clues to which candy goes where are more abstract, making this innocent-looking brainteaser devilishly challenging. It's another elegant treat from the creators of "Rush Hour."

?"Bag It!" (Hidden Variable Studios, $1.99): It's another adventure in food packaging! This time, you're a clerk cramming groceries into a paper bag. The goal is to fill each bag as tightly as possible without breaking anything; if you put a watermelon on top of a carton of eggs, you're asking for trouble. The groceries themselves are endearingly anthropomorphized, making "Bag It!" one of the cutest puzzle games around.

?"Blueprint 3D" (FDG Entertainment, 99 cents): Each screen in this game is a seemingly random assortment of lines floating in three dimensions. When you rotate the space, you can see how some lines might fit together. Eventually, they snap in place to create a 2-D image of a familiar object ? a house, perhaps, or the Eiffel Tower. The 200-plus puzzles here aren't terribly demanding, but they're undeniably satisfying.

Finally, some essential games from earlier in 2011:

?"Jetpack Joyride" (Halfbrick Studios, 99 cents): Keep your hero airborne while avoiding lasers, missiles and other obstacles in this breathless race from the creators of "Fruit Ninja."

?"Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP" (Capybara Games, $4.99): The old-school point-and-click adventure gets a postmodern makeover.

?"Where's My Water?" (Disney, 99 cents): Help an alligator take a bath in this adorably goofy physics puzzler.

?"Ticket to Ride" (Days of Wonder, $6.99): The best board-game translation on the iPad is this suspenseful race to build cross-country railroads.

___

Online:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/games.html

___

Follow Lou Kesten on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lkesten

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/SXBZOP1_shY/

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Get Siri on your iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod Touch or iPad. Legally, and easily.

This feels like old news. When news breaks in chunks like this, it tends to feel a lot less fresh.

We?ve seen multiple times a private port of Siri to unsupported iOS 5 devices.

TODAY IT?S LEGAL AND EASY

However, today Chpwn and Ryan Petrich went public today with a Siri port called Spire.

The port mirrors all the iPhone 4S Siri functionality and works on the jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third generation iPod touch, fourth generation iPod touch, and first generation iPad.

Don?t get your hopes up on the iPod Touch though. The microphones in those devices tend to be less powerful, and make for a poor Siri experience.

Spire is available free on the Cydia jailbroken application market, and the download comes in at approximately 100mb, according to a blog post from Chpwn. The developers recommend that users connect to a Wi-Fi network for downloading, not a standard cellular network, because of the large file size.

?Spire uses a new method to obtain the files necessary for Siri, so it doesn?t have the copyright issues encountered by previous attempts,? said Chpwn

YOU STILL NEED AN iPHONE 4S

Of course, with any port of this kind, there will be a caveat: you have to still gain authorization through your own server and an iPhone 4S. Chpwn explained the issue:

However, Spire is not a complete solution. Apple still requires authorization to use Siri, so information from an iPhone 4S is still required. To insert this information, Spire allows you to enter your own proxy server address. By using this (ancient) SiriProxy fork, you can setup a proxy using your own iPhone 4S to insert the needed information reasonably easily. Other solutions for proxying Siri will be listed here as they are developed ? perhaps that sort of proxy might be included in the main SiriProxy repository.

Long story short, you can absolutely get Siri working on your iPhone 4 in a fully legal way. You just need to convince your best friend with an iPhone 4S to let you use their ?halo-connection? with Siri.

?Until the iPhone 4S is jailbroken, this is the best Siri port,? said Steven Troughton-Smith, ?when the iPhone 4S is jailbroken, then we can avoid the proxy server issues.? Spire can be downloaded from this link, if you are on a jailbroken iOS 5 devices.

Update: The iPhone Dev team posted an update to their redsn0w jailbreak. You can now jailbreak any non-A5 device untethered (meaning you can reboot the device without hooking it back up to a computer). This of course, makes this Siri news a lot bigger.

Source: http://www.zagg.com/community/blog/get-siri-on-your-iphone-4-3gs-ipod-touch-or-ipad-legally-and-easily/

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Video: Gingrich support plummets ahead of caucuses

Eric Gay?/?AP

In the past two weeks, support has fallen sharply in Iowa for Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich. NBC?s Chuck Todd reports.

Related Links:

TODAY.com home page

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45824313/

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Oil eases after Iran threat, Italy gets debt boost

By Mike Peacock and Ikuko Kurahone

LONDON (Reuters) - Crude prices broke a six-day rally on Wednesday after Iran's threat to stop the flow of oil from the Gulf was written off as no more than rhetoric, while a strong short-term Italian debt sale eased stress in European markets.

Tehran said on Tuesday it would stop oil transiting through the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions were imposed on its crude oil exports because of its nuclear ambitions. Washington said it saw "an element of bluster" in the threat.

Brent fell 0.9 percent to $108.28 a barrel by 1150 GMT after climbing more than a dollar in the previous session. Prices have surged over 5 percent since December 16.

European shares reversed early losses to add 0.5 percent <.fteu3>, while Asian stocks slipped, leaving the MSCI world equity index <.miwd00000pus> flat on the day. Futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street.<.n/>

"The threat by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz supported the oil market yesterday, but the effect is fading today as it will probably be empty threats as they cannot stop the flow for a longer period due to the amount of U.S. hardware in the area," said Thorbjoern bak Jensen, oil analyst with Global Risk Management.

It has been an ugly year for equities outside the United States.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.7 percent, keeping it on course for a 2011 loss of 18 percent, underperforming a 12 percent decline in European shares <.fteu3> and a 9 percent drop in world stocks.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> ended down 0.2 percent, on track for a 17.6 percent drop this year. <.t/>

Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory Co, said the chances of a violent confrontation with Iran were remote for now but added the tensions would be a major source of volatility in 2012 along with the unresolved euro zone debt crisis.

EURO CURBED

The euro held above an 11-month low against the dollar after Italian short-term debt costs halved at auction, helped by a new government austerity package and cheap liquidity from the European Central Bank.

The country faces the more difficult task of selling long-term debt on Thursday where there will be a greater reliance on international investors to buy 8.5 billion euros of debt with maturities of up to 10 years.

Analysts said market tensions could easily reignite. Italy faces almost 150 billion euros of debt refinancing in February-April alone.

"Tomorrow's auction is more important and will give more insight into general sentiment. Today was a warm-up," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

The euro was last marginally higher on the day at $1.3071.

Safe-haven German Bund futures were barely changed while yields on Italian 10-year bonds dropped to 6.8 percent, just below the 7 percent rate that is widely seen as unsustainable in the long term for the country's finances.

Banks deposited a record 452 billion euros ($538 billion) at the European Central Bank overnight, giving no sign that interbank lending is reviving, although the nearly half a trillion euros of 3-year liquidity handed out by the ECB last week pushed bank-to-bank lending rates lower.

In the United States, data suggested the economy was on track for a moderate recovery, with improving labor market conditions lifting U.S. consumer confidence to an eight-month high in December although U.S. single-family home prices fell more than expected in October.

Wall Street ended flat on Tuesday following a five percent rally last week which pushed the S&P 500 into positive territory for the year.

Gold edged lower, tracking falls in industrial metals and equities.

The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.crb> -- largely influenced by U.S. crude oil -- is set for a 7 percent drop in 2011, faring slightly better than equities.

U.S. crude oil has been among the best performers this year with a 10 percent increase, while gold has gained 12 percent as a loss of confidence in the euro zone accelerated investor flight to bullion.

(Additional reporting by Valentina Za in Milan, Nia Williams and William James in London, Chikako Mogi in Tokyo, editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/news.newsmain/article/0/5/1889372/Business/Oil.eases.after.Iran.threat..Italy.gets.debt.boost

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NH filmmaker Ken Burns to speak at Vt. theater (AP)

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. ? New Hampshire filmmaker Ken Burns is going to kick off the Vermont Humanities Council's 2012 first Wednesday series at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro.

The Jan. 4 event, "An Evening with Ken Burns," is free and open to the public.

Burns' presentation will feature clips from his latest film "Prohibition," which premiered in October, as well as three works in progress -- Dust Bowl, the Roosevelts and the Central Park Five.

Burns lives nearby in Walpole, N.H. He says he enjoys public speaking and it will be a pleasure to speak in Brattleboro.

Burns is known for making such films as "The Civil War" and "Baseball."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111227/ap_on_bi_ge/us_filmmaker_lecture_vermont

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China's fiscal deficit to fall in 2012: source (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) ? China's central government will run a smaller fiscal deficit in 2012, according to a report by local media.

Fiscal outlays will increase 11 percent to 11.1 trillion yuan ($1.75 trillion) in 2012, against a revenue increase of 9 percent, according an unnamed finance ministry source cited by the Shanghai Securities Journal.

The figures, which emerged at the conclusion of the national Ministry of Finance Work Meeting on Monday, imply a 2012 fiscal deficit of 800 billion yuan, down 50 billion yuan from the expected 2011 deficit, the paper calculated.

A smaller deficit would disappoint those hoping for robust stimulus by the government to support growth. Industrial production slowed to its slowest pace in four years in November.

Concerns about slowing growth prompted policymakers to lower the required reserve ratio for banks on December 5, but analysts believe authorities have limited space for additional monetary stimulus, given the flood of bank lending that resulted from the previous round in 2008-10.

The relatively healthy state of China's public finances raised hopes that China would use fiscal spending to support the economy in 2012.

For 2011, China's full-year fiscal revenue is on pace to reach 10.2 trillion yuan, a 22 percent increase over 2010, the source said, while spending will reach 11 trillion yuan, an increase of 20 percent.

Of next year's 800 billion yuan deficit, the central government's share will be 550 billion yuan, a decrease of 150 billion yuan, while the local government share will be 250 billion yuan, an increase of 50 billion yuan.

Local government spending will be fueled by an increase in direct bond issuance by local governments, the source said. ($1 = 6.3364 yuan)

(Reporting by Gabriel Wildau; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111227/bs_nm/us_china_deficit

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iPhone apps to properly prepare for New Year?s Eve (Appolicious)

Break out the fine bubbly and start prepping for the party of the year because New Year?s Eve is almost here. Whether you plan on hibernating in your holiday pajamas on the couch or partying in your sexiest threads at the bar, here are some iPhone apps to start preparing for New Year?s Eve now.

Whether you are at a house party in Minnesota or a chic bar in Paris, you can watch the world famous New Year?s Eve Ball drop courtesy of the free Times Square app for iPhone. Use the app to submit your favorite New Year?s Eve photo and it may be featured behind the ball in Times Square. Last year, more than 75,000 photos from around the world were submitted.

Lucky enough to be in the Big Apple this year for the big ball drop? Then check out Gwyneth Paltrow?s freshly hatched Goop City Guides app for iPhone ($3.99) and get a New Yorkers? guide to NYC. Paltrow has tips for you on where to stay, what to eat and, of course, where to shop until you drop. The interactive maps in this travel app are super great for planning and prepping your city tours.

Growing tired of Instagram? Gather your New Year?s Eve posse and download the free Hipstamatic Disposable app for iPhone to create a memorable and unique photo album of your annual festivities ringing in the New Year. All photos taken are automatically saved to your group?s album making for easy photo exchanges. No more asking strangers to take a dozen photos of you and your girls with each and every camera. Think twice before taking those questionable shots with this photo app.

If you avoid New Year?s Eve parties like the plague, plan on ordering some hot chow courtesy of the free GrubHub Food Delivery & Takeout app for iPhone. If you live near a pretty big city and love you some takeout food, this app is a must-have for sure. My favorite part is your past orders are saved for easy reordering at your favorite restaurant haunts. You might want to mix it up on a special night like New Year?s Eve though, and order something new.

One of my favorite New Year?s Eve memories is watching a Sex and the City marathon on HBO. With the handy and free HBO GO app for iPhone, subscribers to HBO can take their favorite shows like The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood and many more with them wherever they go. So if you are stuck at a bad party with no way out, take long bathroom breaks and catch an episode of your favorite show.

Create a list of must-have iPhone or iPad apps for New Year's Eve

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/applecomputer/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_tc/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10602_iphone_apps_to_properly_prepare_for_new_years_eve/44014405/SIG=133jns603/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/shine/articles/10602-iphone-apps-to-properly-prepare-for-new-years-eve

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Obama marks Christmas with gifts, carols, church

HONOLULU (AP) ? President Barack Obama blended his roles as a father and commander-in-chief this Christmas, exchanging presents and singing carols with his family, then greeting U.S. service members stationed at a Marine base in Hawaii.

The president and his family woke up early Sunday to open gifts, the White House said, then had breakfast and sang Christmas carols at the multimillion-dollar house they rent in Kailua Beach, near Honolulu.

Obama made two trips on Christmas to nearby Marine Corps Base Hawaii, first to attend church services at the base chapel. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright, breezy day on the island of Oahu.

After spending a few hours at their rental home, the president and Michelle Obama returned to the base to visit with several hundred service members and their families, as they have done in past years.

The Obamas posed for posed for photos, signed autographs and stopped to chat with the military families gathered in the dining hall, where roast beef, salad and apple pie were on the Christmas Day menu.

Eight-month-old Cooper Wall Wagner, son of Capt. Greg Wagner, got up close and personal with the president, grabbing his face, then sticking his fingers in Obama's mouth.

An amused Obama said he thought the baby just liked his "big nose" ? a comment that drew laughter from several of the Marines.

Many of the service members stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii have deployed to Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, where the last American troops were withdrawn earlier this month.

Back in the Washington area, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden spent Christmas visiting wounded service members and their families at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Obama also called 10 service members stationed around the world ? two from each branch of the military ? on Christmas Eve. The White House said he thanked them for their service and the sacrifice of being away from their families at the holidays.

The Obamas were wrapping up their Christmas festivities with dinner at the rental home with friends and family. Among those joining the first family in Hawaii are the president's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives on Oahu, and several friends Obama has known since high school.

The president has kept a low profile since arriving in Hawaii on Friday evening to start a vacation delayed by the stalemate in Washington over extending payroll tax cuts. He has no public events planned, and his only outings are expected to be to the golf course or to take his daughters for shave ice, a Hawaiian snow cone.

The Obamas are expected to return to Washington shortly after New Year's Day.

___

Associated Press writer Jaymes Song in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.chron.com/~r/houstonchronicle/topheadlines/~3/SLUyA4EYdEE/Obama-marks-Christmas-with-gifts-carols-church-2424723.php

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Arab monitors head to Syria, government kills 20 (AP)

BEIRUT ? The Arab League forged ahead with plans to send teams of monitors into Syria Monday even though President Bashar Assad's regime has only intensified its crackdown in the week since agreeing to halt bloodshed, killing several hundred civilians according to activists.

At least 20 more deaths were reported on Monday from intense shelling by government forces in the center of the country, just hours before the monitoring teams were to arrive. Activists said at least 275 civilians have been killed by government forces in the past week and another 150 people died in clashes between army defectors and regime troops ? most of them defectors.

The stepped up crackdown, including what activists said was a "massacre" in one town where 110 people were mowed down in several hours last week, brought a new round of international condemnation of Syria. Neighboring Turkey said the violence flew in the face of the Arab League deal that Syria signed and raises doubts about the regime's true intentions.

The Arab League plan agreed to by Assad requires the government to remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. The monitors are supposed to ensure compliance, but so far there is no sign that Assad is implementing any of the terms, much less letting up on the brutal crackdown.

Members of the opposition say the regime's agreement to the Arab League plan is a farce.

"I very much doubt the Syrian regime will allow the observers to do their work," said prominent opposition figure Waleed al-Bunni from Cairo. "I expect them to try and hinder their movements by claiming that some areas are not safe, intimidating them or sending them to places other than the ones they should go to."

Syria's top opposition leader, doubtful that the Arab League alone can budge Assad, called Sunday for the League to bring the U.N. Security Council into the effort. The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have been killed since March in the political violence.

The opposition has warned that the government, which has been besieging the Baba Amr district in the city of Homs for days, was preparing a massive assault on the area. Activists said the forces shelled the area with mortars and sprayed heavy machine gun fire in the most intense assault since the siege began Friday.

The Baba Amr district has been a center for anti-government protests and army defections and has seen repeated crackdowns by the Syrian regime in recent months. The Syrian conflict is becoming increasingly militarized with growing clashes between army defectors and troops.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, described the attacks in Homs as a kind of "hysteria" as government forces desperately try to get the situation there under control ahead of the monitors' arrival.

"The observers are sitting in their hotel in Damascus while people are dying in Homs," he said.

The Observatory called on the monitors "to head immediately to Baba Amr to be witnesses to the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated by the Syrian regime."

France expressed strong concerns about the continued deterioration of the situation in Homs and urged Syria's government to allow Arab League observers immediate access. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Syrian authorities should allow the observers access to the city "starting this afternoon."

Although Syria showed no sign of altering its course, the Arab League said it was going ahead and officials declined to comment on the continued crackdown. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said 70 Arab monitors will arrive in the evening to join an advance team. Elaraby told reporters after meeting with the observers in Cairo that the mission will begin its work Tuesday. Up to 500 monitors are to be eventually deployed.

Anwar Malek, a member of the monitoring mission, insisted they will have absolute freedom of movement in Syria, adding that the team will travel to flashpoint cities including Homs, Aleppo, Daraa, Idlib and Hama. He and other observers refused to disclose the exact travel itinerary, saying they preferred to maintain some secrecy to ensure the mission's success.

Assad stalled for weeks on agreeing to the Arab League plan and signed only after the League threatened to turn to the U.N. Security Council to help stop the violence.

The opposition believes the authoritarian leader is only trying to buy time and forestall more international sanctions and condemnation.

Amateur videos posted by activists on the Internet showed gruesome footage of at least four corpses lying in pools of blood in front of a house in Baba Amr, where they reportedly died from mortar shells that struck the neighborhood.

Men could be heard crying for help and women wailing in the video, which also showed several destroyed homes and cars.

A resident of a neighborhood next to Baba Amr said he heard "loud explosions" throughout the night and Monday morning.

"It doesn't stop," he told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals.

The Local Coordination Committees activist network also reported intense shelling "targeting homes and anyone who moves" in Baba Amr.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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27 dead in church blast near Nigerian capital: Priest

MADALLA, Nigeria: A suspected bomb blast on Christmas Day near a church outside the Nigerian capital has killed at least 27 people, a priest there said, citing the toll provided to him by rescue officials.

"The officials who counted them told me that 27 people died," Father Christopher Barde told AFP, adding that the explosion happened as the Christmas morning service was ending.

Source: http://timesofindia.feedsportal.com/fy/8at2EuL0UwNLk1UK/story01.htm

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Gang-Politician Alliances, Adoption Fraud, and NATO?s Bungled Bombings

In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll, the New York Times
NATO?s secretary general said in November there were no confirmed civilian casualties from airstrikes. But on-the-ground reporting revealed credible accounts of at least 40 deaths, and maybe more than 70, that weren?t acknowledged until the Times presented the evidence.?
Contributed by @AlejandroLazo

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=9e24ba93af78783b1ec2f008c5d3dc0b

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Men's Basketball vs. Transylvania University at Las Vegas, Nev.

Men's Basketball vs. Transylvania University Las Vegas, Nev.

Live Stats

The Gustavus men's basketball team will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada to play it's second game in the D3hoops.com Classic on Thursday, December 29 against Transylvania University at 11:00 p.m. central standard time (9:00 p.m. pacific).

Give a gift to Gustavus Basketball

Source: https://gustavus.edu/calendar/men-s-basketball-vs-transylvania-university/32350

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Myth Busting: The Truth About Animals And Tools

Ben Cranke/Getty Images

A tufted capuchin uses a stone hammer to crack open a nut in Brazil's Parnaiba Headwaters National Park.

A wasp uses a pebble as a hammer. An octopus carries around a coconut shell to hide in. A shrike impales its prey on a sharp thorn.

Those are just a few examples of animal tool use that appear in the new book Animal Tool Behavior by Robert W. Shumaker, Kristina R. Walkup and Benjamin B. Beck. The book updates an edition published in 1980 by Beck. And in the new version, the authors try to dispel a number of persistent myths about animals and tools.

Shumaker tells me about some of those myths during a walk around The Indianapolis Zoo, where he is vice president of life sciences. (He is also a member of the adjunct faculty at Indiana University.)

As we approach a female polar bear named Tundra, Shumaker says one myth he hopes to deflate is that tool use is limited to monkeys and apes. Polar bears offer a powerful rebuttal of that idea, he says. In zoos, they often throw objects with great force and accuracy. It's less clear whether this sort of tool use occurs in the wild. But there are anecdotal reports from early Arctic explorers of polar bears using projectiles to hunt.

"One of the stories we have is polar bears getting up on a cliff and hurling great chunks of ice down on something like a walrus to kill it," Shumaker says.

Another common misconception: Tool use requires fingers, or at least hands, Shumaker says. Apparently, no one bothered to tell dolphins. "They have nothing to hold tools with except their mouth," he says, "and yet they are still innovative and creative."

Dolphins play with just about any object they find, Shumaker says. In some cases, the objects are merely toys ? but they become tools when used to manipulate another object or creature for a specific purpose. And dolphins do that kind of manipulating a lot, says Jodie Baker, who is in charge of marine mammals at the zoo. As we speak over the din of dolphin splashes and chatter, Baker sees a dolphin named Kimo preparing to manipulate us with a tool ? in this case, a buoy.

"If you walk by the pool and there's a dolphin playing with a toy, they'll typically throw it in your direction to get your attention," she says.

That's a form of tool use known as baiting or enticing. But scientists have collected lots of examples of dolphins doing other things with tools, Shumaker says.

"One is a dolphin that found a piece of tile and took it down to the bottom of their pool and used it to scrape algae off the bottom of their pool and then they ate the algae," he says.

And wild dolphins in Australia sometimes flush out their prey with a sponge, he says. "They hold the sponge on their rostrum, and then they use that as they disturb the sandy bottom to get fish like flounder that are down in the sand."

Genetics Or Intelligence?

One of the most widespread myths about tool use is that it is a sign of intelligence. Of course, some really smart animals do use tools. But so do creatures like the bolas spider, which is named after the throwing weapon used by South American gauchos. The spider's version of the bolas is a ball made from the same silk it uses to spin a web, Shumaker says.

"When an insect flies by, they throw it and it attaches to the insect because it's sticky and they reel them in," he says. "It's very complex. Very impressive. Very dramatic. But all available information tells us that it's completely controlled from this animal's genetic history." In other words, it's programmed behavior, not something the spider figured out. Genetic programming is also the reason hermit crabs carry around another creature's shell and ant-lions throw sand at their prey.

When intelligent animals do use tools, though, they often do so in very creative ways, Shumaker says.

At the zoo's spacious elephant enclosure, Tim Littig, a senior animal trainer, points toward a baby elephant named Kalina, who is standing next to her mother, Kubwa. Kalina has been able to nurse without any help, Littig says. But things were trickier with Kubwa's previous baby, he says.

"Her last calf was a little smaller than this one and required a step stool to be able to reach her mammary glands to nurse," Littig explains. "Kubwa would move the stool around so the calf could stand up on the stool to nurse."

Technically, that made her baby the tool user. But it was Kubwa who figured out how to use the tool. And that sort of problem-solving is a sign of intelligence, Shumaker says.

So is figuring out how to make a tool ? a skill many scientists once thought of as uniquely human. Shumaker says those scientists must not have spent much time around orangutans. Then he takes me to the orangutan enclosure for a demonstration.

I'm holding a large microphone, which Shumaker reminds me not to point at the orangutans, lest they think it's a weapon. But the animals aren't frightened. Several orangutans reach through the steel mesh and make it clear to Shumaker that they want to have the microphone. Shumaker tells a female named Knobi that she can touch it, which she does several times. When I move it out of reach, though, Knobi walks off and comes back with a small tree branch.

"She's making a reaching tool to try and get your microphone," Shumaker explains as Knobi breaks off one forking branch so the limb will fit through the steel mesh.

But this reaching tool isn't long enough, so Knobi fetches a branch that's 5 or 6 feet long. I stay where I am as Knobi prods at the microphone with the tool.

"She's doing her best to draw the mic in," Shumaker says to me. Then to Knobi he says: "I'm sorry; you cannot have it. Good job with your tool."

As we walk away, we can see Knobi grabbing an even larger branch.

Using Symbols As Tools

Just 10 or 15 years ago, scientists were still debating whether orangutans in the wild also made tools, Shumaker says. Now it's clear they do, and there are several examples in Animal Tool Behavior. The book also offers scientific documentation of other species making tools in the wild. New Caledonian crows make hooks out of twigs to catch prey. Wild chimpanzees make wooden spears for hunting.

Perhaps the most surprising and controversial findings in the new book involve what scientists refer to as symbolic tool use. "These are examples where we see tools being used to represent something else or to provide a change in psychological state," Shumaker says

Symbolic tool use is something people do every time they pay for an item with paper bills or coins. And some monkeys and apes in captivity have learned to use tokens that they trade for various foods.

But Shumaker is more intrigued by the sort of symbolic tools that can affect emotions. There are lots of examples of this in people. Children often have a special stuffed animal or blanket that is much more than a toy. The object represents comfort or security to them, and they use it to feel better.

It's one more behavior that scientists once considered uniquely human. But Shumaker says there is more and more evidence that some animals use symbolic tools in much the same way.

"We would see great apes in times of great stress or sadness, like a female who had an infant that died," Shumaker says. "That female would create something that researchers called a doll and then [she] treated it exactly as she had treated her infant that had recently died."

Shumaker says scientists are still debating the significance of examples like this. But he says the fact that such a debate is even taking place shows how much things have changed since the 1960s, when scientists first realized that humans weren't the only ones using tools.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/23/143833929/myth-busting-the-truth-about-animals-and-tools?ft=1&f=1007

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Belated 'Aloha' for Obama (ABC News)

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Hospitals to lockout striking nurses

Eric Koch, a critical care nurse, speaks to fellow nurses dressed as "The Grinch" from the the Dr. Seuss children's books at Alta Bates Summer Medical Center, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Berkeley, Calif. Nurses in California staged a one-day walkout Thursday in the latest dispute with management over staffing levels, health care costs and sick leave. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Eric Koch, a critical care nurse, speaks to fellow nurses dressed as "The Grinch" from the the Dr. Seuss children's books at Alta Bates Summer Medical Center, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Berkeley, Calif. Nurses in California staged a one-day walkout Thursday in the latest dispute with management over staffing levels, health care costs and sick leave. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach carry picket signs during a contract dispute in a one day job walk off on Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach carry picket signs during a contract dispute in a one day job walk off on Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Nurses chant slogans Thursday at Alta Bates Summer Medical Center, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 in Berkeley, Calif. Nurses in California staged a one-day walkout Thursday in the latest dispute with management over staffing levels, health care costs and sick leave. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach carry picket signs during a contract dispute in a one day job walk off on Thursday, Dec 22, 2011 in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Hospital officials say nurses who staged a one-day strike against nine hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles will not be allowed to return to work Friday.

Thursday's strike ? the second in three months ? and the planned lockout are the latest in a series of disputes between nurses and hospital management over health care costs, staffing levels and sick leave.

The California Nurses Association ? the union behind the walkout ? had expected 6,000 nurses at nine hospitals in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas to participate in the strike. A hospital official said a "significant number" of nurses had crossed the picket lines.

The San Francisco Bay area hospitals targeted by the nurses are controlled by Sutter Health. The nurses' contract with Sutter expired about six months ago, and union officials have objected to changes in paid sick leave and health care premiums proposed by Sutter.

In Southern California, nurses at Long Beach Memorial Hospital and adjoining Miller Children's Hospital, which are not controlled by Sutter Health, have raised concerns about staffing levels they say don't allow them to take meal and rest breaks.

Both hospital systems said they would lock out striking nurses for additional days because their contracts with replacement nurses require a minimum number of days of service.

Hospital officials said replacement nurses had been brought in and patient care was not immediately affected.

Nurses at the Sutter hospitals would be allowed to return to work on Saturday, spokeswoman Karen Garner said. Nurses at the Long Beach hospital would be allowed to return Tuesday.

A union official blasted the hospitals for refusing to allow nurses to immediately return, and said the quality of patient care would suffer during a lockout.

"For a one-day strike, it's unwarranted, it's unnecessary and it's punitive," said Charles Idelson, a spokesman for the association.

Hospital officials criticized the union for calling the strike just before Christmas.

"It's unfortunate and disappointing that the union called this disruptive strike, especially during the holidays, when only the sickest of the sick are in the hospital, Sutter spokeswoman Kami Lloyd said in a statement late Thursday.

Lloyd did not have an exact number of the nurses who crossed picket lines during the strike but said 63 percent of the nurses at the Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch crossed picket lines, while 59 percent went to work at the Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley.

Union officials disputed the hospital's numbers, but could not say how many nurses participated in the strike.

In Oakland, dozens of nurses picketed Thursday outside Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. They chanted and carried signs that read "RNs on strike for patient care."

Leslie Silket, a registered nurse and union representative, said she had worked at the center for 21 years.

"Today's strike is to let Sutter know that we are standing solid in solidarity to fight back their corporate greed," said Silket, 44. "We are fighting for our patients. We are fighting for our contract."

Sutter Health says its full-time nurses receive an average salary of $136,000 a year and have the option of a 100 percent employer-paid health benefits package.

"They're doing pretty darn well," said Dr. Steve O'Brien, vice president of medical affairs at Alta Bates.

Nurses at the Sutter hospitals also went on strike in September. That strike, which union officials said involved 23,000 nurses, also affected hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and the independent Children's Hospital Oakland.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-23-Calif%20Nurses%20Strike/id-fe78b5fc7df9423397285f55de615266

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Video: Lessons learned from international travel

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45770237#45770237

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US urges Iranian dissidents to accept camp closure (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration on Monday urged Iranian dissidents at a camp in Iraq to accept a U.N.-brokered deal to move to another location to avoid a possible violent standoff with Iraqi authorities who have vowed to close the facility by year's end.

With the Iraqi government's Dec. 31 deadline to close Camp Ashraf looming, senior U.S. officials said that about 3,000 members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran should leave and go to a new, temporary site near the Baghdad airport ? likely Camp Liberty, the recently vacated former U.S. military base ? where they could be processed for resettlement in other countries.

The U.S. officials said the People's Mujahedeen had been resisting the idea but that recent signals from the group offered some signs of hope. However, they also warned the group against threatening to resist the closure of Camp Ashraf and called on the People's Mujahedeen to be "realistic" and stop using "maximalist" language of defiance.

The officials spoke during a conference call with news media and insisted their names not be used in reports about the administration's efforts. Negotiations on the move continued between the United States, United Nations and Iraq and between U.N. envoy Martin Kobler and the People's Mujahedeen.

The camp in eastern Iraq houses Iranians dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian government. Members of the group won refuge at Ashraf decades ago during the regime of Saddam Hussein, who saw them as a convenient ally against Tehran.

Since Saddam's fall in 2003, the exiles have become an irritant to Iraq's Shiite-led government, which is trying to bolster ties with Iran. A deadly April raid on the camp by Iraqi forces drew international criticism of Baghdad's treatment of the group.

The Paris-based group's spokesman, Shahin Gobadi, said no agreement would be forthcoming unless it had received safety assurances and Camp Ashraf residents agreed, something that has not yet happened.

"The United Nations has categorically told Camp Ashraf leadership and their representatives outside Iraq that it would not sign anything with the Iraqi government without the agreement of the residents of Ashraf and the Paris leadership," Gobadi said. "Until this hour, the minimum assurances have not yet been given. Any relocation from Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty without agreement on these minimum guarantees would be tantamount to forcible relocation and internment of the residents of Ashraf and would thus be unacceptable."

With fewer than two weeks until the deadline, the U.S. officials said it would not likely be possible to move all the residents in time even with an agreement.

But, the U.S. officials said they were hopeful that if the People's Mujahedeen agreed to the terms and began to leave Camp Ashraf for the Baghdad location, the Iraqis might extend the closure deadline as a goodwill gesture. The new facility would be under the control of the Iraqi government, unlike Camp Ashraf, but would be under U.N. supervision and residents not wanting to return to Iran or live in third countries to which they have family ties would be able to apply for U.N. refugee status, the officials said.

The People's Mujahedeen has been branded a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. ? a designation that is now under review by the State Department ? but it has been removed from similar blacklists in Europe.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111219/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iraq_camp_ashraf

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Protesters slam Lowe's for pulling Muslim show's ads

ALLEN PARK, Mich.?? Protesters descended on a Lowe's store in one of the country's largest Arab-American communities on Saturday, calling for a boycott after the home improvement chain pulled its ads from a reality television show about five Muslim families living in Michigan.

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About 100 people gathered outside the store in Allen Park, a Detroit suburb adjacent to the city where "All-American Muslim" is filmed. Lowe's said this week that the TLC show had become a "lightning rod" for complaints, following an email campaign by a conservative Christian group.

Protesters including Christian clergy and lawmakers called for unity and held signs that read "Boycott Bigotry" and chanted "God Bless America, shame on Lowe's" during the rally, which was organized by a coalition of Christian, Muslim and civil rights groups.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Detroit Democrat and the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan Legislature, said it was "disgusting" for Lowe's to stop supporting a show that reflects America ? the conservatives, liberals and even "the Kim Kardashians" in the Muslim community, she said.

"We're asking the company to change their mind," said protester Ray Holman, a legislative liaison for a United Auto Workers local. He said he was dismayed that the retailer "pulled sponsorship of a positive program."

A local rabbi extended his support to clergy at the protest and local Arab Americans, saying he and other Jews would have been at the protest had it not fallen during the Jewish Sabbath.

"I hope that they would likewise stand up and demonstrate should something outrageous like this take place against another religion," Rabbi Jason Miller said in a statement.

Lowe's spokeswoman Karen Cobb said Saturday that the company respected the protesters' opinion.

"We appreciate and respect everyone's right to express their opinion peacefully," she said.

The show premiered last month and chronicles the lives of families living in and around Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit at the heart of one of the largest Arab-American populations outside the Middle East.

Dearborn is home to the Islamic Center of America, one of the largest mosques in North America. Overall, the Detroit area has about 150,000 Muslims of many different ethnicities and is served by about 40 mosques.

It airs Sundays and ends its first season Jan. 8.

The Florida Family Association has said more than 60 companies it emailed, from Amazon to McDonalds, pulled their ads from the show, but Lowe's is the only major company so far to confirm that it had done so. The group accused the show of being "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."

The travel planning site Kayak.com also pulled its ads, though its marketing chief said the decision was made because the company was dissatisfied by the show's quality and TLC wasn't upfront with advertisers about how the show would be presented.

Saturday's rally was met by about 20 counter-protesters including John White, who lives in nearby Livonia and called those protesting against Lowe's "terribly misdirected." He acknowledged that he hadn't watched the show, saying he'd seen previews and read about it, but believed the company made a decision based on business, not bigotry.

"Americans are not suspicious ... of baseball-playing, apple-pie eating Muslims," he said. "It's the ones you see on the news."

The manager of the Lowe's store, Doug Casey, said the company wasn't influenced by any outside group or ideology. He said those who criticized Lowe's have a right to their opinion, but that "it's not the opinion of most of the customers I spoke to in the store today."

"I'm deeply sorry if it's caused any divide in our community," he said. "It was never our intention to offend or alienate anyone."

The hubbub didn't keep people from shopping at the store. Keith Rissman, who was buying finishing boards for windows he's installing in his mother's garage, said he supported the company.

"It's a decision they're allowed to make," the 57-year-old said. "If (people) don't want to shop here, they don't have to."

Karen Lundquist, 65, came to the store with her son even though she didn't support Lowe's decision. "It just seems like they yielded to a Christian hate group," she said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45709626/ns/us_news-life/

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China sends long-missing lawyer Gao back to jail

FILE - In this file photo taken on April 7, 2010, Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer, gestures as he spoke during his first meeting with the media since he resurfaced, at a tea house in Beijing, China. State media says a Chinese court has sent activist lawyer Gao back to jail for three years for breaking his probation. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

FILE - In this file photo taken on April 7, 2010, Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer, gestures as he spoke during his first meeting with the media since he resurfaced, at a tea house in Beijing, China. State media says a Chinese court has sent activist lawyer Gao back to jail for three years for breaking his probation. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

FILE - In this file photo taken on April 7, 2010, Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer, speaks during his first meeting with the media since he resurfaced, at a tea house in Beijing, China. State media says a Chinese court has sent activist lawyer Gao back to jail for three years for breaking his probation. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

BEIJING (AP) ? More than a year and a half after prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, China's government gave the first sign Friday that he is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation.

A brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency did not answer key questions about Gao ? the condition of his health and his whereabouts now and in the 20 months since he disappeared, presumably at the hands of the authorities.

"Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?" said Gao's brother, Gao Zhiyi, who has been on a quest to find his sibling.

Charismatic and pugnacious, Gao was a galvanizing figure for the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters. Convicted in 2006 of subversion and sentenced to three years, he was quickly released on probation before being taken away by security agents in 2009 in the first of his forced disappearances that set off an international outcry.

The Xinhua report referred to his 2006 subversion conviction and said Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found that Gao "had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation."

The report did not explain what violations Gao had committed but said his five-year probation was due to expire next Thursday ? timing which legal experts said may have prompted the government to send Gao back to jail. "He would serve his term in prison in the next three years," the report said.

Calls to the No. 1 court and the city's appeals court rang unanswered Friday.

Gao has been held incommunicado in apparent disregard of laws and regulations for all but two months of the last three years. When he emerged from the first 14-month bout in April 2010, he told The Associated Press that he had been shunted between detention centers, farm houses and apartments across north China and repeatedly beaten and abused.

He said he had been hooded several times. His captors made him sit motionless for up to 16 hours and threatened to kill him and dump his body in a river.

"'You must forget you're human. You're a beast,'" Gao said police told him in September 2009.

At one point, six plainclothes officers bound him with belts and put a wet towel around his face for an hour, bringing on a feeling of slow suffocation.

"It's hard to fathom what they might be referring to when they say that he violated his parole given that he seems to have been under constant supervision," said Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights researcher based in Hong Kong. "It's kind of cynical."

Formalizing Gao's detention as a prison term, Rosenzweig said, gives Chinese leaders a ready response to queries from foreign governments and officials. Gao's case has repeatedly been raised by the U.S. and European governments, drawing cryptic responses if any from Chinese officials. U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke mentioned him in a public statement last weekend.

Gao's wife, Geng He, fled China with their two children, escorted by human traffickers overland to Southeast Asia, around the time he first disappeared. They now live in the United States.

Activists in China seemed astounded and outraged by the news. Huang Qi, who runs a rights monitoring group in Sichuan province, strongly condemned what he said was the use of the judicial system to persecute dissidents and he offered his services to Gao's family.

"Gao Zhisheng has used his actions to write a glorious page in the history of the Chinese democracy movement," Huang said in a statement.

Amnesty International called the move to send Gao to prison "a travesty."

"This inhuman treatment must stop. Gao Zhisheng and his family have suffered enough and he must be freed," Catherine Baber, deputy director in Asia for the group, said in a statement.

While Gao may be the most prominent government critic to be treated so harshly in years, the authorities have done so with other dissidents.

Du Daobin, an outspoken critic also convicted of subversion and sentenced to three years in prison in 2004, did not immediately start his sentence, according to the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group that runs a website for which Du wrote. Instead, Du was released and lived under probation for four years before being sent to prison in 2008, apparently because he continued to criticize the government online.

Gao's family and supporters meanwhile have continued to campaign for him, with little result. His brother, Zhiyi, has been on a constant search for information. When he asked Beijing police in September about his brother, one officer told him Gao Zhisheng was a "missing person and no one knows where he is."

___

Associated Press writers Alexa Olesen and Gillian Wong contributed to this report.

The Evening Sun

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-16-AS-China-Missing-Lawyer/id-16d323d86b6e4f299b4bb86456177ad2

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Ryan Glitch helps facilitate dating at warp speed (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

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