TOKYO | Fri Jan 18, 2013 9:29am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Vancouver neighborhood of men who drink fig-infused martinis and eat fiddleheads on skewers faces a crisis when a beer-swilling, barbecue-loving truck driver moves in. An Olympic mascot marmot kidnaps a young boy from his parents.

These are just a few of the tales in "Better Living Through Plastic Explosives," a book of short stories by Canadian author Zsuzsi Gartner that brings to life a dark, satiric Vancouver set just a few years into the future.

"I would say it is a portrait of Vancouver, my Vancouver," said Gartner, who was short-listed for Canada's Giller Prize for the collection, published recently in the United States. "I've created my own kind of mythology, set in the near future, of how I view the city itself.

"I map different psychic and demographic spaces, but telling the stories I like to tell, which are dark satire."

In one, "The Adopted Chinese Daughters' Rebellion," Canadian parents push adopted offspring into Buddhism and feng shui, while the girls just want to be Canadian. "Once, We Were Swedes" features IKEA product names as a loving, erotic language.

Typical in many ways is "The Summer of the Flesh Eater," the tale of a cultural collision between the vegan locavores of one particular Vancouver cul-de-sac and the truck-driving carnivore who arrives in their midst, serving up huge slabs of meat he describes as "bodacious."

Like many of her tales, Gartner said, it began with a concept - the idea of the difficulty of being a man in the 21st century, combined with the idea of evolution and Darwin's theories, part of another project.

"Then the idea of devolution instead of evolution, what if we started devolving instead of evolving?" she said.

"Those things I was interested in came together and I found a narrative for them. Here's a cosy little setup, a classic story scenario - you know, 'At the Door Knocks a Stranger.' Equilibrium is disturbed. The out of towner, the lost brother, the guy who doesn't fit in."

The story also shares with several others in the book its location on a cul-de-sac, which Gartner said is her equivalent of Agatha Christie's isolated house or train on which all of the action takes place.

"The demographics of Vancouver are important if you're trying to understand the book... It's the fabric of what goes on here," she said. "When you isolate a microcosm of a population on a cul-de-sac and put a microscope on them, you have a bit of a petri dish."

As a satirist, though, she said she has run into difficulties, noting that some of the unreal or otherworldly things she has written have come true, such as reality TV.

"The world has become so self-satirizing. You open the paper or go online, and it's really hard to satirize a world - not just a society but a world - that's become so self-satirizing," she said.

"So I push things slightly into the future. I thought that if I project it three to five years ahead, and make up stuff that's a little otherworldly, then I can keep one step ahead of things."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

TALLAHASSEE | Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:40pm EST

TALLAHASSEE (Reuters) - Florida's Republican governor on Thursday proposed a hefty $4 billion hike in state spending in a budget plan that includes a $1.2 billion increase in school aid, cuts in business taxes, and relies on fatter state sales-tax collections.

Accompanied by teachers, business leaders and state employees, Gov. Rick Scott told reporters at the Capitol that his $74.2 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2013-14 illustrated economic recovery in Florida and tough budget decisions made by lawmakers over the last few years when revenues were faltering.

Buoyed by increases in sales-tax revenues, Scott's plan was the first since the 2008-09 budget cycle that did not include a sizeable revenue shortfall going into the legislative session set to begin in March.

Scott's proposal includes recommendations to lawmakers, who craft the state's spending plan ahead of the new budget year starting on July 1.

Florida's general revenue portion of the budget, a $27.1 billion pot used for discretionary spending, marks an increase of 4.7 percent over last year.

"This is further evidence that Florida's economy is back on track and growing again," Scott told reporters.

Other states, such as California, are also seeing increased revenues. Jerry Brown, California's Democratic governor, three weeks ago proposed a budget plan with the state's first surplus in a decade, but urged restraint in spending.

Some other governors are championing tax cuts, and in Texas on Tuesday, Republican Gov. Rick Perry recommended returning excess state revenue to taxpayers.

Florida's jobless rate stood at 8 percent in December, the best showing in four years for a state still battling back from the U.S. housing bust. But it still remains among the highest rates and above the national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent, according to federal government data. (For details, please see: here)

For business, Scott's plan calls for expanding the state sales-tax exemption on machinery and equipment used in manufacturing, a tax break expected to save 17,500 employers about $140 million a year.

On the education front, Scott seeks an across-the-board $2,500 raise for public school teachers as part of his proposed $1.2 billon of increases in K-12 education spending.

The plan drew praise from Florida's largest teachers union, whose members generally haven't seen raises in several years.

"We are happy the governor is recognizing and investing in Florida's high performing public schools," said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association. "In most of Florida, our public schools are the largest employer."

The governor's proposal also includes $60 million for Everglades restoration and another $75 million for the state's environmental land buying program.

Scott sees a lean year for bonding. His budget blueprint includes about $750 million in transportation bonds, which are paid for by fuel tax revenues and do not affect the state's general revenue budget. The proposal does not include any bonding for school construction or environmental land purchases.

(Writing and additional reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; editing by Gunna Dickson)

View the original article here

LONDON | Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:54pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - American poet Sharon Olds won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry on Monday for "Stag's Leap", a critically acclaimed collection that traces the end of her marriage 15 years ago.

The annual award, celebrating its 20th anniversary, goes to what a panel of poets decides is the best collection of verse published in the United Kingdom and Ireland each year, and is considered to be one of the world's top poetry prizes.

Stag's Leap, published in Britain by Jonathan Cape, was chosen from a record 131 submissions and a shortlist of 10.

"From over 130 collections, we were particularly impressed by the strong presence of women on the list and were unanimous in awarding the 2012 T.S. Eliot Prize to Sharon Olds' Stag's Leap," said Carol Ann Duffy, chair of the judges.

Duffy, also Britain's poet laureate since 2009, called the work "a tremendous book of grace and gallantry which crowns the career of a world-class poet."

Olds wins a cheque for 15,000 pounds ($24,000) for the prize, which is administered by the Poetry Book Society and supported by the estate of leading 20th century poet T.S. Eliot whose works include "The Waste Land".

When her marriage ended, Olds, now 70, promised her children she would not write about the divorce for 10 years. In fact, it took her 15 years to get around to publishing a collection which some critics said was her best yet.

"Olds, who has always had a gift for describing intimacy, has, in a sense, had these poems thrown at her by life and allowed them to take root: they are stunning - the best of a formidable career," wrote Kate Kellaway in The Observer.

The critic added that the collection was surprisingly kind considering its subject matter.

In "Unspeakable", from Stag's Leap, Olds writes:

"He shows no anger,/I show no anger but in flashes of humor/all is courtesy and horror. And after/the first minute, when I say, Is this about/her, and he says, No, it's about/you, we do not speak of her."

Olds was born in San Francisco in 1942 and her first collection of poems, "Satan Says" (1980), received the inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award.

She went on to win a string of other prizes and currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here

U.S. Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) meets with officials at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry during his visit to Baghdad July 26, 2009.

BOSTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:19pm EST

BOSTON (Reuters) - Representative Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat who has represented Boston and its surrounding since 2001, on Thursday formally launched a bid for the U.S. Senate, seeking the seat being vacated by John Kerry following his confirmation as the new U.S. secretary of state.

Lynch, a former ironworker, will face off against fellow House of Representatives member Edward Markey in an April 30 primary, ahead of a June 25 special election to choose a permanent successor to Kerry.

Lynch announced his candidacy with a speech in the headquarters of the ironworkers union he once ran - a site chosen to play up his working-class background.

After a series of appearances in Worcester and Framingham, the state's second- and third-most populous cities, Lynch told a crowd of supporters in Boston about his experience losing a job during a mass layoff at a nearby shipyard.

"I know what it's like to stand in an unemployment line. It's something you never forget," Lynch said, according to a text of his prepared remarks. "I learned that in severe economic downturns, that sometimes the only force that can correct that inequity ... is the government."

Lynch faces an uphill battle against Markey, who has held his seat in Congress since 1976, according to recent polls.

In a primary contest, 52 percent of voters would support Markey and just 19 percent Lynch, according to a Public Policy Polling study of 404 likely primary voters released on Wednesday.

No prominent Republicans have said if they will run for the seat, and observers wonder whether former Republican Senator Scott Brown will seek a return to Washington.

Brown stunned the liberal state's Democratic establishment in 2010 when he won a special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant with the death of Edward Kennedy.

Brown lost a re-election bid last year to Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, on Wednesday named his former chief of staff, William Cowan, to hold the U.S. Senate seat until a successor is elected.

Cowan told reporters he viewed the appointment as temporary and had no plans to run in the special election.

(Editing by Leslie Adler)

View the original article here

1 of 3. Christie's auction house CEO Steven Murphy is interviewed at his office in central London January 16, 2013.

LONDON | Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:02pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - When the public sits up and notices the art market, it is usually when an anonymous buyer pays a mind-boggling sum to acquire a prized painting or sculpture.

In 2012, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" fetched a record $120 million, a Mark Rothko abstract soared to $87 million and a Renaissance drawing by Raphael sold for $48 million - all in a year when making ends meet was most people's priority.

Yet Steven Murphy, the first American to head the auctioneer Christie's since its creation in 1766, is convinced the key to future success after another bumper year of sales lies not with the "one percent", but a much broader pool of art lovers.

The 58-year-old, who worked in publishing and music before his surprise appointment to the head of the world's largest auction house two years ago, wants to rid the art world of its stuffy image as a club exclusively for the rich.

"It's sexy and it's cool and it's news to talk about the most important work in a single sale on a single evening, but one has to be careful of the myopia as a business of focusing only on that very important activity," Murphy told Reuters.

"Twenty percent of our buyers this past year were brand new to Christie's, never bought here before," he said in an interview at the company's headquarters in central London, sitting beneath a small Picasso being sold next month.

He was referring to one of the encouraging statistics in the company's annual sales report, which on Thursday showed record revenues of 3.9 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) in 2012, a rise of 10 percent on 2011.

In 2009, when the art market contracted sharply due to the global financial crisis, sales were just 2.1 billion pounds.

ASIA DOWN BUT NOT OUT

The overall increase in 2012 came despite a slump in Christie's auction sales of Asian art, which fell by a quarter to 415 million pounds after providing the engine for growth in recent years.

Competition from Chinese auctioneers and the end to a speculative bubble in some Asian art contributed to the decline, but Murphy said the region had the potential to grow again longer term.

"I think the opportunity in Asia is far bigger than any of us in the art business have truly tapped into," he said.

In contrast, Christie's saw private sales surge 26 percent to 631 million pounds, and Murphy expected deals behind closed doors to be key in maintaining growth in 2013 and beyond.

"Look for a big increase in our private sales activity," he said. "Our current clients want to do more of that."

Murphy, whose laid-back manner stands out in the London art scene, said he was convinced more private sales did not mean less business in the auction room, still the mainstay of Christie's income.

A key part of Murphy's strategy since arriving has been to build its online presence, both by attracting visitors to the website and encouraging them to bid over the internet.

From six online-only auctions in 2012, the company will hold more than 30 in 2013, and while digital sales tend to be for more modestly priced items, Edward Hopper's "October on Cape Cod" sold for $9.6 million to an internet bidder in November.

EXPLOSION IN INTEREST IN ART

"One of the things that is driving the opportunity for a company like Christie's is cultural," he said.

"There is a huge cultural surge around the world toward the experience of art. Museum attendance is way up on the previous year and the year before that ...People are accessing art on their iPads, on their laptops, on their iPhones."

By expanding its online presence, Christie's aims to capture more business in the mid- to lower-tier markets, away from the multi-million-dollar deals that grab the headlines.

Murphy pointed to a 20 percent rise in sales at Christie's South Kensington offices, which specialize in lower-end art and antiques.

For Christie's, that sector is key in terms of the bottom line because profits from it outstrip those from more high-profile post-war, contemporary, impressionist and old master art, Murphy said.

He believes that only a "tiny percentage" of clients are buying art purely as a "commodity", or alternative investment at a time when stocks and bonds have delivered modest returns while some artists' values soar.

"From the top end, no-one has bought a Rothko for more than $30 million who doesn't want the Rothko and at the middle and lower end the purchaser of the 20,000-pound Jasper Johns lithograph ... really wants that work," he argued.

"What is happening is that people of wealth are choosing not to invest in other areas, and therefore they have more available for the activity they already love, so it's not money management as much as personal choice."

And if equities start to pick up again?

"I am here to say that when the markets go up there is more money to spend so actually our sales go up, so we don't want to see the stock market do anything but go up."

Christie's, a private company owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault, does not report profit or loss, only sales.

Its main rival is Sotheby's, slightly smaller in terms of sales. Sotheby's, listed in New York, posted auction sales of $4.4 billion last year versus $5.3 billion at Christie's.

Murphy confirmed the company was in the black. When asked whether it was more profitable now than when he joined in late 2010, he replied: "I can say that we're very happy. There's wind in our sails."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

View the original article here

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks next to Vice President Joe Biden (L) after the House of Representatives acted on legislation intended to avoid the ''fiscal cliff,'' at the White House in Washington January 1, 2013.

WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:08am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Big automatic cuts in federal spending are fast approaching again, alarming the defense sector but generating little activity in Congress to avoid them.

The cuts, known as a "sequestration," were postponed for two months as part of the legislation that ended the standoff over the "fiscal cliff" on January 1.

But the sense of crisis that accompanied the thought of across-the-board reductions then has all but vanished, replaced by a widespread sense of inevitability.

"I think we're going to have" the cuts "for some period of time, and I think the squeals from constituents will compel some compromise that will emerge in the second half of March," said Steve Bell, economic policy director at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Republican House Budget Committee staff director.

The defense industry's concern stems from the fact that half of the $85 billion in spending reductions will come from the budget of the Department of Defense, with the other half hitting a wide array of other government programs.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as well as his designated successor, Chuck Hagel, have warned that the cuts will impair military readiness.

Congress' lack of urgency as it hurtles toward the launch of spending reductions on March 1 may be affected by Wednesday's news that the U.S. economy contracted in the fourth quarter.

The GDP report showed government spending tumbled at a 6.6 percent rate, with defense outlays plunging at a 22.2 percent pace, the largest drop since the third quarter of 1972.

But failure to find replacement savings by the March 1 deadline is not expected to spark a financial crisis because the cuts, split evenly between military and domestic programs, would start to bite gradually.

Unlike the "fiscal cliff" cuts, these are not accompanied by the threat of massive tax hikes, ultimately imposed only on the wealthiest taxpayers as a result of the legislation that ended the fiscal cliff standoff.

'DEVASTATING'

Worry runs deep through the defense sector, from weapons maker Northrop Grumman Corp to President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary, Hagel. They are calling on lawmakers to find a solution.

Hagel said the cuts would be "devastating" to the Pentagon.

"It would harm military readiness and disrupt each and every investment program," he said in written answers to senators' questions before a confirmation hearing on Thursday. "I urge Congress to eliminate the sequester threat permanently and pass a balanced deficit reduction plan."

While there are no public signs of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats to avert the cuts, the blame game is well under way.

Republican House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said earlier this week he believed the automatic cuts "will probably happen" because Democrats were not willing to accept further cuts to domestic programs to shield military spending.

Top Senate Democrats have put the onus on House Republicans, saying they are unwilling to accept higher tax revenues as part of a balanced approach to replacing the cuts.

Another factor is at work in the House - the increasing influence of deficit hawks who believe the military should shoulder more of the deficit reduction burden. Traditionally, Republicans, including Ryan, last year's Republican vice presidential nominee, have tried to protect military programs.

"The momentum has shifted to those in the caucus who believe that the only savings we're ever going to get are going to be the sequester savings," said Bell.

Those fiscal conservatives believe Obama will not negotiate with them or agree to any significant cuts in social programs.

He added that it was possible that in the absence of a deal, Congress could provide some legislative language that gives domestic agencies and others some flexibility in making their cuts, rather than accept them in their current, across-the-board form.

Some Democrats are voicing concern the cuts could do serious economic damage.

"I think there should be a sense of urgency, because ... we're looking at an economy struggling to recover and the number of people who we want to have jobs who are still unemployed," said Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire.

"A failure to take action on what we know is going to have a significant impact on that is simply unacceptable," said Shaheen, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees.

Northrop Grumman, which builds electronics and unmanned surveillance planes, warned that profits this year would fall sharply due to the increasing pressure on the defense budget.

"Our nation needs a balanced, strategic approach to our fiscal challenges ... not blind, indiscriminate budget cutting" Northrop Grumman Chief Executive Wes Bush told an earnings conference call.

LAYOFFS DETAILED

The Pentagon has begun to detail its cost-cutting plans in workforce and regional terms. It has enacted a freeze in civilian hiring, a move that hits employment for veterans since 44 percent of civilian defense employees are vets.

The military services also are planning to lay off temporary or contract employees, which could affect up to 46,000 workers. They will also delay routine maintenance of ships and aircraft that had been planned for the third and fourth quarters, officials said.

The Navy estimates its planned cuts will reduce spending by $1.4 billion along the East Coast, including canceling $271 million in maintenance at shipyards in the Norfolk, Virginia, area and $81 million in aircraft maintenance at Cherry Point, North Carolina.

The Navy also is planning to cancel $681 million in spending in California, $339 million in the Pacific Northwest, $299 million in Florida, $197 million in the U.S. Northeast and $110 million in Hawaii, officials said.

If automatic spending cuts under sequestration go into effect on March 1, the Navy would have to cut a further $4.08 billion in spending through the end of the current fiscal year, over and above the $6.3 billion it is trying to reduce now.

Those cuts would require further delays in repairs and a reduction in the number of steaming and flying days, the Navy said. The Navy might also have to reduce the number of carrier strike groups in the Middle East, it said.

The Army and Air Force also are expected to implement spending reductions before March 1 and are due to submit their plans to Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter later this week.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander, Patricia Zengerle, Phil Stewart and Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Fred Barbash, Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

View the original article here

NEW YORK | Thu Jan 31, 2013 5:26pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch was moved to a hospital intensive care unit on Thursday, his spokesman said, in a sign that his health could be deteriorating.

Koch spokesman George Arzt said the 88-year-old politician, who earned a reputation for being as outspoken as he is colorful, was being moved so his cardiologist could better monitor his condition. Koch has been treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital on and off since January 19.

Koch was re-admitted to the hospital on Monday after complaining of shortness of breath. He was unable to attend Tuesday's premier of "Koch," a documentary about his turbulent three terms as mayor, at the Museum of Modern Art.

In New York's City Hall from 1978 to 1989, Koch - with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doing?" - was seen as the personification of New York City.

"I don't think there was anybody who had more fun being mayor as Ed Koch," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is in the race to be the city's next mayor, said while walking the premier's red carpet.

Koch was credited with helping to restore confidence in the city at a time when it stood at the brink of financial ruin. Under his leadership, New York City regained its fiscal footing and underwent a construction boom.

His time in office was also marked by corruption among his political allies, racial tensions, a rise in cases of AIDS and HIV, and an increase in homelessness and the crime rate.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

View the original article here

1 of 5. A portait of late PKK activist Sakine Cansiz is seen at the Kurdish cultural centre in Paris, after three Kurdish women were found shot dead, January 10, 2013. Three female Kurdish activists including a founding member of the PKK rebel group were shot dead in Paris overnight in execution-style killings condemned by Turkish politicians trying to broker a peace deal.

ISTANBUL | Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:19am EST

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels suggested on Friday that clandestine Turkish nationalists may have assassinated three Kurdish activists in Paris, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the killings appeared to have been the result of an internal feud.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said the execution-style killings in an institute in central Paris had been premeditated and planned and warned France would be held responsible if it failed to get to the bottom of their deaths.

Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK, and two fellow activists were found shot in the head early on Thursday in an attack which shocked the Kurdish community and overshadowed peace moves between Turkey and the rebels.

Turkey put its missions in Europe - home to a large Kurdish diaspora - on alert and asked the French authorities to boost security around its interests there, after the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) called for protest meetings.

Around 200 Swedish Kurds chanting "Long Live the PKK" and "Turkey, Terrorists" demonstrated in sub-zero temperatures outside the French embassy in Stockholm. A demonstration was also planned in Berlin, home to a large Kurdish and Turkish population.

"The targeting of three of our female comrades at a time like this is a premeditated, planned and organized attack," said a statement on the website of the armed wing of the PKK.

"France has a responsibility to elucidate these killings immediately. Otherwise, they will be held responsible for the massacre of our comrades."

The statement blamed "international and Turkish Gladio forces" for the killings, a reference to NATO's Cold War anti-communist Gladio operations, now used in Turkey as shorthand for alleged state-sponsored nationalist violence.

Shadowy Turkish nationalist groups are believed to have killed hundreds of activists in the mainly Kurdish southeast over the past three decades.

Turkish media reports have also suggested the possible involvement of Syria or Iran, which both have Kurdish minorities and are at odds with Ankara over issues including the conflict in Syria.

Erdogan said that while investigations needed to be completed before a definitive conclusion could be reached, evidence so far pointed to an internal feud, as the building was secured by a coded lock which could be opened only by insiders.

"Those three people opened it. No doubt they wouldn't open it to people they didn't know," Erdogan told reporters on his plane returning from Senegal on Friday, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

He said the killings could also have been intended to sabotage efforts towards peace talks with the PKK.

THREAT TO PEACE TALKS

Cansiz was a prominent PKK figure, initially as a fighter and later in charge of the group's civil affairs in Europe. A 1995 photograph shows her standing next to militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, wearing olive battle fatigues and clutching an assault rifle.

French investigators gave no immediate indication of who might be behind the murders. The PKK has seen intermittent internal feuding during an armed campaign in the mountainous Turkish southeast that has killed some 40,000 people since 1984.

Turkish nationalist militants - linked by critics of Turkey's military to the security establishment - have in the past also been accused of killing Kurdish activists, who want regional autonomy. But such incidents have been confined to Turkey.

"Kurds don't benefit from this murder. I don't think in-fighting is at all behind this," said Eren Keskin, one of Ocalan's lawyers who first met Cansiz in 1991.

"The Kurdish problem isn't just in Turkey, it involves many states in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. There are many circles that are uncomfortable with the prospect of peace, and there are many who profit from the lack of peace."

Turkey recently announced it had begun talks with Ocalan, jailed on the small island of Imrali near Istanbul. Hardliners in the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union, are likely to be skeptical about such talks.

According to media reports, the Turkish state and PKK have agreed the framework for a peace plan, which would involve boosting Kurdish minority rights in exchange for the ultimate disarmament of the militants.

"If the events surrounding this murder aren't revealed, then this process will collapse, sooner or later," Sebahat Tuncel, a BDP lawmaker who knew Cansiz, told Reuters.

"Anyone who knows the Kurdish movement and its history knows it is not possible for the PKK to fracture like this ... In the past, these types of provocations that have derailed peace efforts have come from the state," she said.

Erdogan has introduced reforms allowing Kurdish language broadcasting and other concessions on language; but activists are demanding more freedom in education and administration.

Kurdish politicians are also demanding improved prison conditions for Ocalan with a view to him being released from jail and put under house arrest, but Erdogan played down any changes in Ocalan's situation.

"The conditions at Imrali are better than those in any country in the world and we're talking about special treatment," Erdogan said. Ocalan was able to walk daily in a courtyard with other inmates and would be given a television, he said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Ankara, Daren Butler in Istanbul, Alistair Scrutton in Stockholm and Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

View the original article here

SARAJEVO | Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:06am EST

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's war crimes court jailed a former Serb police officer for 20 years on Friday for his role in the 1995 mass killing of Muslims in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity on European soil since World War Two.

Bozidar Kuvelja, 41, was found guilty of crimes against humanity but cleared of genocide.

The court has jailed more than 20 former Bosnian Serb soldiers and police officers over the Srebrenica massacres in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed and dumped in mass graves.

"Kuvelja is convicted of taking part in the persecution and forced removal of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from Srebrenica on religious and ethnic grounds and the killing of several dozen detainees at a warehouse in nearby Kravica between July 11 and July 14," presiding judge Jasmina Kosovic said.

Kosovic said the panel of judges could not conclude beyond reasonable doubt that Kuvelja knew of the genocidal intent of the principal perpetrators of the massacres.

Declared a "safe haven" by the United Nations, Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia fell to Bosnian Serb forces under General Ratko Mladic towards the end of the 1992-95 was, in which about 100,000 people died.

Mladic and his wartime political master, Radovan Karadzic, are standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, on charges that include genocide in Srebrenica.

Kuvelja was an officer in the special police brigade of the Jahorina Training Centre, part of the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry. He was accused of helping round up Bosnian Muslim civilians, dividing men from women and transporting detainees to dozens of execution sites, including a warehouse in Kravica.

In Kravica, Kosovic said, "members of Kuvelja's brigade fired from automatic weapons and threw hand grenades into the packed warehouse."

Around 100 who initially survived the assault were lured out for medical treatment, only to be fired on again by Kuvelja's brigade while forced to sing nationalist Serbian songs, the judge said. (Reporting By Maja Zuvela; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

View the original article here

U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing to be secretary of state, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 24, 2013.

WASHINGTON | Thu Jan 31, 2013 2:47pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has hinted it might try Middle East peace-making once again, but Secretary of State-designate John Kerry is likely to move cautiously, in contrast to U.S. President Barack Obama's failed, high-profile first-term initiative.

While the possibility of another failure may hang over the White House, Kerry suggested this week that time was running out for a two-state solution with Israel living alongside a sovereign Palestinian state. He said it would be "disastrous" if it did.

When Obama came into power in 2009, he made peace between Israelis and Palestinians a priority, visiting the State Department two days after taking office to announce his choice of former Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy.

Four years later, the president has little to show for it.

Formal talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 within weeks of resuming. Mitchell resigned in 2011 and both sides have since taken steps that have antagonized the other - Israel by building Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for a state and the Palestinians by seeking enhanced status at the United Nations.

Against this backdrop, former senior U.S. peace negotiators said they expect Obama to proceed cautiously and to let Kerry, who will be sworn in on Friday, take soundings for any fresh effort. That could allow Obama to avoid investing too much personal capital in a fresh effort until there was a prospect of real progress.

"I believe that Kerry and Obama are committed and interested in doing something," said Aaron David Miller, a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who advised Democratic and Republican secretaries of state on Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from 1982 to 2003.

However, Miller said the two sides were too far apart right now for any big initiative to succeed and that a more circumspect approach made more sense.

"Unlike last time around ... (Obama) is going to be quite patient and deliberate in avoiding the mistakes he made during his previous run, which is why it's really hard right now ... to predict the arc of any sort of big initiative," he said.

While neither Kerry nor Obama have specified what approach they plan, some of Kerry's allies outside government have suggested that he wants to move aggressively.

Miller and other former U.S. diplomats interviewed said they were not privy to what plans, if any, the two men might have.

However, they said Obama's second term offered a new chance with Kerry, a new chief diplomat who has made no secret of his interest in the Middle East, and that the January 22 Israeli elections created a somewhat better environment for peace despite the intrinsic challenges.

Having watched the peace process unfold, and unravel, from his perch on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the last three decades, analysts said Kerry has a deep knowledge of the issue and its players.

Among the obstacles are the divisions within the Israeli and Palestinian societies about making peace; a sense of disbelief that peace itself may ever be possible; and the rise of Islamist parties, notably in Egypt, that may be less supportive of it.

'DISASTROUS'

At his January 24 confirmation hearing, Kerry said "my hope ... my prayer is that perhaps this can be a moment where we can renew some kind of effort to get the parties into a discussion."

"We need to try to find a way forward, and I happen to believe that there is a way forward," he said, but added:

"I also believe that if we can't be successful, the door ... to the possibility of a two-state solution could shut on everybody and that would be disastrous."

The two-state solution refers to the idea of Israel living alongside a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

To achieve this, the two sides would have to agree on borders, Jewish settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, compromises that have eluded them for decades.

Martin Indyk, vice president of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, said there were signs of Obama's skepticism about the odds for peace. He cited a piece by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg in which Obama is reported to have said "Israel doesn't know what its own best interests are."

Indyk said that if Obama believed "that the prime minister of Israel doesn't have the best interests of Israel at heart, is a political coward, isn't going to take risks for peace - if that your basic view, why would you bother, why would you try?"

"On the other side is John Kerry's belief that the window is closing on the two-state solution and that it is an obligation of the United States to try to stop that from happening, at least to preserve the hope of a two-state solution," he said.

'TESTING THE WATERS'

"The combination could lead to a willingness on the part of the president to have the secretary of state try again, but rather than jump in ... it's likely to be a testing of the waters," Indyk, the former top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East as well as a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said.

The fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies lost ground in Israel's election while centrists did better than expected suggested Israel's next coalition government may tilt more toward peace-making.

"I actually think that this election opens doors, not nails them shut," outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday, adding that a significant number of Israelis were signaling a desire for different approach on peace with the Palestinians as well as on domestic policy.

Dennis Ross, a long-time U.S. Middle East peace envoy now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, said one danger would be if the Palestinian society evolved toward an Islamist rather than a nationalist identity.

"The combination of disbelief on the part of each side and the issue of the future identity of the Palestinians being at stake argues for making an effort," he said. "I think that it's likely that the new secretary of state will make an effort."

(Editing by Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom)

View the original article here

1 of 11. Pakistani journalists chant slogans during a protest against bomb blasts in Quetta and condemn killings of members of the media, outside the press club in Karachi January 11, 2013. The banner reads in Urdu ''we wholeheartedly salute our martyr brothers''.

QUETTA, Pakistan | Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:07am EST

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - In a rare challenge, a Shi'ite Muslim leader publicly criticized Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Kayani over security in the country on Friday after bombings targeting the minority sect killed 118 people.

The criticism of Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in the South Asian state, highlighted Shi'ite frustrations with Pakistan's failure to contain Sunni Muslim militant groups who have vowed to wipe out Shi'ites.

"I ask the army chief: What have you done with these extra three years you got (in office)? What did you give us except more death?" Maulana Amin Shaheedi, who heads a national council of Shi'ite organizations, told a news conference.

Most of Thursday's deaths were caused by twin attacks aimed Shi'ites in the southwestern city of Quetta, near the Afghan border, where members of the minority have long accused the state of turning a blind eye to Sunni death squads.

Shi'ite leaders were so outraged at the latest bloodshed that they called for the military to take control of Quetta to shield them and said they would not allow the 85 victims of twin bomb attacks to be buried until their demands were met.

The burials had been scheduled to take place after Friday prayers but the bodies would remain in place until Shi'ites had received promises of protection.

Shaheedi said scores of bodies were still lying on a road. "They will not be buried until the army comes into Quetta."

Violence against Pakistani Shi'ite is rising and some communities are living in a state of siege, a human rights group said on Friday.

"Last year was the bloodiest year for Shias in living memory," said Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. "More than 400 were killed and if yesterday's attack is any indication, it's just going to get worse."

A suicide bomber first targeted a snooker club in Quetta. A car bomb blew up nearby 10 minutes later after police and rescuers had arrived.

In all, 85 people were killed and 121 wounded. Nine police and 20 rescue workers were among the dead.

"It was like doomsday. Bodies were lying everywhere," said police officer Mir Zubair Mehmood.

The banned Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the attack in what is a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood where the residents are ethnic Hazaras, Shi'ites who first migrated from Afghanistan in the 19th century.

While U.S. intelligence agencies have focused on al Qaeda and the Taliban, Pakistani intelligence officials say LeJ is emerging as a graver threat to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed, strategic ally of the United States.

It has stepped up attacks against Shi'ites across the country but has zeroed in on members of the sect who live in resource-rich Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is capital.

The paramilitary Frontier Corps is largely responsible for security in Baluchistan province but Shi'ites say it is unable or unwilling to protect them from the LeJ.

"STATE OF SIEGE"

The LeJ wants to impose a Sunni theocracy by stoking Sunni-Shi'ite violence. It bombs religious processions and shoots civilians in the type of attacks that pushed countries like Iraq towards civil war.

The latest attacks prompted an outpouring of grief, rage and fear among Shi'ites, many of whom have concluded that the state has left them at the mercy of the LeJ and other extremist groups who believe they are non-Muslims.

"The LeJ operates under one front or the other, and its activists go around openly shouting 'infidel, infidel, Shi'ite infidel' and 'death to Shi'ites' in the streets of Quetta and outside our mosques," said Syed Dawwod Agha, a top official with the Baluchistan Shi'ite Conference.

"We have become a community of grave diggers. We are so used to death now that we always have shrouds ready."

The roughly 500,000-strong Hazara people in Quetta, who speak a Persian dialect, have distinct features and are an easy target, said Dayan of Human Rights Watch.

"They live in a state of siege. Stepping out of the ghetto means risking death," said Dayan. "Everyone has failed them - the security services, the government, the judiciary."

Earlier on Thursday, a separate bomb killed 11 people in Quetta's main market.

The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for that blast. The group is one of several fighting for independence for Baluchistan, an arid, impoverished region with substantial gas, copper and gold reserves.

Baluchistan constitutes just less than half of Pakistan's territory and is home to about 8 million of the total population of 180 million.

In another attack on Thursday, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat valley in the northwest, at least 22 people were killed when an explosion targeted a public gathering of residents who had come to listen to a religious leader.

No one claimed responsibility for that bombing. Swat has been under army rule since a military offensive ejected Pakistani Taliban militants in 2009.

The LeJ has had historically close ties to elements in the security forces, who see the group as an ally in any potential war with neighboring India. Security forces deny such links.

In a measure of the outrage, several Pakistani social media users posted Facebook comments urging the U.S. to expand its covert programme of drone warfare beyond Taliban strongholds on the Afghan border to target LeJ leaders in Baluchistan.

Among the dead in Quetta was Khudi Ali, a young activist who often wore a T-shirt with fake bloodstains during protests against the rising violence against Shi'ites.

Ali's Twitter profile said: "I am born to fight for human rights and peace."

(Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Katharine Houreld in Islamabad and Matthew Green in Lahore.; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

View the original article here

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:14pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Audience Inc seems to be doing pretty well, even with less of Apple: the audio technology company forecast quarterly revenue well above Wall Street's expectations, helped by more business from Samsung and other smartphone makers.

Shares of Audience jumped 24 percent in after hours trading, after the company said Thursday that it expected revenue between $43 million and $46 million in the March quarter, versus analysts' average estimate of $31.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Audience, which went public in May 2012, saw its stock slump 58 percent in a single session last September on news that Apple Inc, to which it had been a supplier since 2008, would likely drop its noise-filtering technology in future iPhones, including the iPhone 5.

Its quarterly report underscored the increasing opportunity for Apple's suppliers to look to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other mobile device makers to fuel their growth as the iPhone and iPad face stiffer competition.

"Most people bought this stock at the IPO because it was an Apple business. But there's life without Apple," said Jay Srivatsa, an analyst at Chardan Capital Markets.

Audience executives said that more business from Samsung and other smartphone makers would offset dwindling revenue from Apple as fewer and fewer older iPhones that use its technology are sold.

Audience's chief executive, Peter Santos, told Reuters that as growth in smartphone sales moderates, manufacturers would fight more for market share.

"This idea that things stay the way they are - that Apple has a dominant position - I think we're seeing early signs that that's not going to be a permanent situation," Santos said. "What they've done and continue to do is great, but the world is much bigger."

The amount of Audience's revenue that comes from Apple fell from 40 percent in the September quarter to 33 percent in the December quarter.

Chief Financial Officer Kevin Palatnik said Apple would continue to contribute about a third of Audience's revenue in the first quarter, and then decline further this year as Apple launches new devices.

SAMSUNG BOOST

Samsung accounts for more than half of revenue at the Mountain View, California company, which sells chips and licenses intellectual property that improve voice quality in mobile devices by filtering out background noise.

To be sure, even with the jump in Audience's shares following its results on Thursday, its stock price is still 20 percent lower than before it disclosed its loss of Apple's business.

Audience's technology is used in Samsung's Galaxy S3 smartphone, giving it a reasonable chance that it will also be used in future Samsung devices.

"Part of the reason Q1 is so good is they're potentially in the Galaxy S4 that's going to be launched in the April-May timeframe," said Srivatsa of Chardan Capital.

Audience's technology is not used in the iPhone 5, but it is used in two prior generations of the smartphone.

Apple sold a record 48 million iPhones in the December quarter, but its share of the overall market is expected to peak this year at 22 percent and become dependent on repeat business from loyal customers unless it accepts lower margins by making low-cost iPhones, according to ABI Research.

In the fourth quarter that ended in December, Audience posted revenue of $38.7 million, up from $18.0 million in the year-earlier period and beating analysts' expectations of $31.8 million. Quarterly net income was $3.1 million, or 14 cents per share, swinging from a net loss of $5.6 million, or $5.56 per share, a year earlier.

Audience's shares were 24 percent higher in extended trade after closing up 2.86 percent at $12.22.

(This story is refiled to correct figure to $38.7 million, not $38.7 billion, in 17th paragraph)

(Reporting By Noel Randewich; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Chris Gallagher)

View the original article here