Gunshots and plea for help heard in 911 calls from Colorado movie shooting

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - A 13-year-old girl caught in last summer's shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater was heard frantically pleading for help for two gravely wounded relatives in a tape of her emergency 911 call played in court on Tuesday.
In it, the distraught girl could be heard telling an emergency dispatcher that her 6-year-old cousin, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, and Veronica's pregnant mother, Ashley Moser, had been struck by gunfire. Veronica was the youngest of the 12 people killed in the attack.
"My two cousins have been shot," Kaylan Bailey cried, as the dispatcher tried in vain to instruct her on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The girl is heard telling the dispatcher, "It's too loud ... I can't hear you."
The recording was one of two emergency calls played in court during the second day of a preliminary hearing for the accused 25-year-old gunman, James Holmes, in which prosecutors are seeking to persuade a judge they have enough evidence to put him on trial.
The former University of Colorado neuroscience doctoral student is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 20 rampage at a midnight screening of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
In addition to the 12 people who died, 58 were wounded by gunfire, and prosecutors have counted a dozen others who suffered some other physical injury. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether they would seek the death penalty.
Should the judge order the case to proceed to trial, legal experts believe Holmes will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers have said he suffers from an unspecified mental illness and are expected to call witnesses later this week to testify about his state of mind.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, defense lawyers sought to draw attention to Holmes' erratic behavior while in custody.
Homicide detective Craig Appel acknowledged that during an initial interrogation at police headquarters, Holmes tried to insert a staple he found on a desktop into an electrical outlet.
During that interview, in which Holmes had plastic bags placed over his hands to preserve any traces of gunpowder residue, Holmes gestured with one of the bags as if it were a talking hand puppet, Appel testified.
Asked why blood samples were not taken of Holmes following his arrest, Appel added, "I saw no indication that he was under the influence of anything."
Holmes, now with a full beard, sat quiet and expressionless at the defense table on Tuesday, shackled and dressed in red prison garb, as he has at previous hearings.
ELABORATE PREPARATIONS
Police have testified that Holmes, who bought his movie ticket 12 days in advance, left the screening minutes after it began and re-entered Theater 9 at the Century 16 multiplex a short time later dressed in tactical body armor, a gas mask and helmet.
Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, shotgun and pistol, police say, he then lobbed a tear gas canister into the auditorium and sprayed the audience with bullets.
Later, in the parking lot, he surrendered without a struggle to the first police officers arriving on the scene and alerted them that his apartment had been booby-trapped with explosives.
Police have described encountering a nightmarish, bloody scene inside the darkened theater, where dozens of victims lay sprawled across the auditorium as the Batman film continued to play and emergency-alarm strobe lights flashed.
One officer choked up with emotion on Monday as he recounted hunching over the lifeless body of Veronica Moser-Sullivan trying to find her pulse. Her mother survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down and suffered a miscarriage.
The call from their cousin was made from inside the theater moments after the massacre.
A second call played in court by police detective Randy Hansen was placed during the shooting. In that tape, lasting 27 seconds, the distinct pop-pop-pop sound of 30 gunshots can be heard, though no voices are discernible.
FBI agent Garrett Gumbinner, an explosives expert, recounted on Tuesday that Holmes matter-of-factly described after the shooting how he had elaborately rigged his apartment with trip wires and homemade bombs.
Gumbinner said Holmes told authorities he had planned for the bombs to go off as a diversion to draw emergency personnel to his apartment while he carried out the theater attack a short distance away. Authorities managed to disarm the explosives.
Another federal agent, Steven Beggs of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that Holmes began stocking up on guns, ammunition and other gear about two months before the shooting.
The three weapons he carried into the theater, and a pistol found in his car, as well as nearly 6,300 rounds of ammunition and tactical body armor, were all legally purchased from gun shops and online dealers, and he passed all required background checks, Beggs said.
Testimony on Tuesday from police detective Thomas Welton also confirmed earlier media reports that Holmes had posted profiles on two online dating sites weeks before the shooting, both with a headline that read: "Will you visit me in prison?"
The postings, which prosecutors say are evidence of criminal deliberation, were accompanied by a photo of Holmes sporting the bright, red-dyed hair he had when he was arrested.

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Illinois asks court to keep banning most handguns in the state

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois asked an appeals court on Tuesday to reverse itself and allow a ban that prevents most people there from carrying concealed handguns in public.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, asked the full Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to review the decision, saying it was not consistent with recent decisions by other courts.
Last month, three days before the mass shooting at a Connecticut school on December 14, the appeals court declared the Illinois concealed carry law unconstitutional, calling it the most restrictive gun law in the United States.
Until the ruling, Illinois was the only one of the 50 states to ban most residents from carrying concealed weapons.
The three-judge panel decided by a vote of 2-to-1 that the Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual's right to keep and bear arms for personal self-defense "could not rationally have been limited to the home" as required by the long-standing Illinois law.
Judge Richard Posner, writing for the majority, said the Illinois ban on most people carrying a weapon outside the home was "arbitrary" and declared the measure unconstitutional.
He called the Illinois law the most restrictive gun law of any of the 50 states, allowing only the police, select security personnel and some hunters and members of target shooting clubs to carry handguns.
The appeals court said its ruling would not take effect until early June to give state lawmakers time to amend the law and come up with less restrictive rules for gun possession outside the home.
A spokesman for the Illinois State Rifle Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Madigan's petition.
Madigan said on Tuesday that her petition for a rehearing did not affect that deadline.
The cases, which were consolidated for oral argument before the appellate court, are Michael Moore and Mary E. Shepard v. Lisa Madigan, Attorney General of Illinois, 12-1269, 12-1788.

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Italy's real election battle is Monti vs Berlusconi

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's election campaign is shaping up as a bitter contest not between right and left but between Silvio Berlusconi and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti to win the balance of power after the February poll.
The final lines were drawn on Monday when Berlusconi sacrificed his own candidacy for prime minister as the price for winning a crucial new alliance with his estranged allies in the devolutionist Northern League.
This alliance is aimed at blocking control of parliament by the center-left, which opinion polls show as virtually certain to win the February 24-25 elections.
But if Berlusconi succeeds, Italy is likely to face renewed instability and legislative paralysis which could make it once again the biggest concern in the euro zone.
Italy narrowly avoided a Greek-style meltdown in November 2011 when Berlusconi, weakened by a sex scandal, was forced out as prime minister and replaced by Monti.
If Berlusconi gains the balance of power he could frustrate center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani in fulfilling his promise to stick to Monti's austerity and pro-European policies, which have brought Italy relative stability in the past year.
The billionaire media owner's biggest problem in implementing his strategy is Monti, whose centrist alliance has the same aim as Berlusconi: winning enough seats in the Senate to give it influence way beyond its likely share of the poll.
While the center-left is almost certain to win the lower house, the real battleground will be in the much less certain Senate contest.
The battle for this prize explains why Berlusconi and Monti have made almost daily personal attacks on each other in a blitz of television interviews that have drawn accusations they are making unfair use of the airwaves.
Bersani has remained largely above the fray, cultivating his colorless but reassuring image of calm dependability while Monti and Berlusconi try to hurt each other.
However the launching of Monti's centrist front, the sealing of Berlusconi's broader center-right alliance and the emergence of a smaller leftist group are all bad news for Bersani because they could dilute his share of the vote.
TOO CLOSE TO CALL
A new Ipsos poll published in the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Tuesday showed the Senate vote too close to call in three big regions which could be decisive in the February vote.
"In Lombardy, Campania and Sicily the outcome of the vote is absolutely unpredictable," said Roberto D'Alimonte, one of Italy's foremost experts on voting trends.
Italy's much maligned electoral law awards Senate seat bonuses to the coalition that wins in each individual region. Bersani would therefore only have to lose in populous Lombardy and Veneto to forgo a majority in the upper house, even if he won all of Italy's remaining regions, said D'Alimonte.
In another paradox caused by the law, he said Monti should hope Berlusconi robs Bersani of enough Senate votes in key regions to hand the former European Commissioner the balance of power as a buttress for the future center-left government.
Despite largely refusing to join the mudslinging, Bersani is clearly worried about the way things have panned out since Monti announced in December that he would join forces with other centrist forces in the election.
In a television interview on Monday, Bersani said Monti's candidacy was "not good news for Italy". However, he saw Berlusconi as his real enemy and Monti only as a "competitor", adding that he was open to a post-election alliance with the centrists.
This idea has been espoused for months by moderates in Bersani's Democratic Party, including his deputy Enrico Letta. They argue this would reassure European partners that the left will not throw away Monti's achievements, while still trying to stimulate economic growth and reducing the burden on pensioners and workers who have suffered most from the deficit-cutting policies of the past year.
Although Monti sharply reduced the pressure on Italy and brought down the government's borrowing costs to more affordable levels, the recession has worsened. Data on Tuesday showed youth unemployment had risen to an all time high above 37 percent in November.
D'Alimonte said that if Bersani failed to win the battleground regions in the Senate vote, he could face a situation similar to or worse than former center-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi in 2006.
NIGHTMARE FOR LEFT
In a situation which is a recurring nightmare for Italy's left, Prodi's government collapsed and was replaced by Berlusconi within two years because it lacked a viable Senate majority. That election was fought under the same electoral law as this time.
An alliance between Bersani and Monti after the election would probably produce a stable government that could last and consolidate progress in implementing economic reform. But there is one big problem. Monti insists he would enter a government only if he were prime minister, and Bersani has ruled this out.
"The idea that the one who wins less votes should be in charge is an old theory unknown in the rest of western Europe," he said in his television interview.
Analysts say that if an agreement between Monti and Bersani was impossible, then the euro zone's third largest economy would be likely to face a short-lived center-left government and a period of political turmoil dangerous for the whole region.
A Tecne opinion poll on Tuesday showed the center-left comfortably ahead at nearly 40 percent, with Berlusconi's center-right on 24.6 and Monti's centrists on just over 15 percent. However the numbers that count will be in regional votes for the Senate and voter intentions are not known in all of those.
The poll in Il Sole 24 Ore, however, showed a surge in the region of Campania - which returns the second largest number of senators after Lombardy - of a new leftist grouping led by anti-mafia magistrate Antonio Ingroia. This group was polling at more than 11 percent and could gift a regional victory to Berlusconi rather than Bersani if the trends do not change.

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Just Explain It: What is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Eliminating America's dependency on foreign oil has been a policy goal for at least the last two U.S. Presidents.  According to the International Energy Agency, by 2020,  the U.S. will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's number one oil producer.
However, there's still some work to do.  The United States Energy Information Administration reported that 45% of the petroleum consumed by the U.S. in 2011 was from foreign countries.   Even though the country is well on its way to becoming self reliant, there's always a chance we could hit a major bump in the road.  The good thing is we have protection.  It's called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or S.P.R.
So here's how the S.P.R. works:
The reserve was created after the 1973 energy crisis when an Arab oil embargo halted exports to the United States.  As a result, fuel shortages caused disruptions in the U.S. economy.
The reserves are located underground in four man-made salt domes in Texas and Louisiana.  All four locations combined hold a total of 727 million barrels of oil.  The inventory is currently at 695 million barrels.  That's around 80 days of import protection.  It's the largest emergency oil supply in the world -- it's worth about $63 billion.
Only the President has the ability to tap the reserves in case of severe energy supply interruption.  It's happened three times.  Twice within the last decade.  In 2005, President Bush ordered the emergency sale of 11 million barrels when Hurricane Katrina shutdown 25 percent of domestic production.  In 2011, President Obama ordered the release of 30 million barrels to help offset disruptions caused by political upheaval in the Middle East.
Following the release order, the reserve issues a notice of sale to solicit competitive offers.  In the most recent sale involving the Obama administration, the offers resulted in contracts with 15 companies for delivery of 30.6 million barrels of oil.  To put that in context, last year the U.S. consumed almost seven billion barrels of oil — that's 19 million per day -- or about 22% of the world's consumption.

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Apple to produce line of Macs in the US next year

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will move production of one of its existing lines of Mac computers from China to the United States next year.
Industry watchers said the announcement is both a cunning public-relations move and a harbinger of more manufacturing jobs moving back to the U.S. as wages rise in China.
Cook made the comments in part of an interview taped for NBC's "Rock Center," but aired Thursday morning on "Today" and posted on the network's website.
In a separate interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he said that the company will spend $100 million in 2013 to move production of the line to the U.S. from China.
"This doesn't mean that Apple will do it ourselves, but we'll be working with people and we'll be investing our money," Cook told Bloomberg.
That suggests the company could be helping one of its Taiwanese manufacturing partners, which run factories in China, to set up production lines in the U.S. devoted to Apple products. Research firm IHS iSuppli noted that both Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles iPhones, and Quanta Computer Inc., which does the same for MacBooks, already have small operations in the U.S.
Apple representatives had no comment Thursday beyond Cook's remarks.
Like most consumer electronics companies, Apple forges agreements with contract manufacturers to assemble its products overseas. However, the assembly accounts for a fraction of the cost of making a PC or smartphone. Most of the cost lies in buying chips, and many of those are made in the U.S., Cook noted in his interview with NBC.
The company and Foxconn have faced significant criticism this year over working conditions at the Chinese facilities where Apple products are assembled. The attention prompted Foxconn to raise salaries.
Cook didn't say which line of computers would be produced in the U.S. or where in the country they would be made. But he told Bloomberg that the production would include more than just final assembly. That suggests that machining of cases and printing of circuit boards could take place in the U.S.
The simplest Macs to assemble are the Mac Pro and Mac Mini desktop computers. Since they lack the built-in screens of the MacBooks and iMacs, they would likely be easier to separate from the Asian display supply chain.
Analyst Jeffrey Wu at IHS iSuppli said it's not uncommon for PC makers to build their bulkier products close to their customers to cut down on delivery times and shipping costs.
Regardless, the U.S. manufacturing line is expected to represent just a tiny piece of Apple's overall production, with sales of iPhones and iPads now dwarfing those of its computers.
Apple is latching on to a trend that could see many jobs move back to the U.S., said Hal Sirkin, a partner with The Boston Consulting Group. He noted that Lenovo Group, the Chinese company that's neck-and-neck with Hewlett-Packard Co. for the title of world's largest PC maker, announced in October that it will start making PCs and tablets in the U.S.
Chinese wages are raising 15 to 20 percent per year, Sirkin said. U.S. wages are rising much more slowly, and the country is a cheap place to hire compared to other developed countries like Germany, France and Japan, he said.
"Across a lot of industries, companies are rethinking their strategy of where the manufacturing takes place," Sirkin said.
Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group, likened Apple's move to Henry Ford's famous 1914 decision to double his workers' pay, helping to build a middle class that could afford to buy cars. But Cook's goal is probably more limited: to buy goodwill from U.S. consumers, Howe said.
"Say it's State of the Union 2014. President Obama wants to talk about manufacturing. Who is he going to point to in the audience? Tim Cook, the guy who brought manufacturing back from China. And that scene is going replay over and over," Howe said. "And yeah, it may be only (public relations), but it's a lot of high-value PR."
Cook said in his interview with NBC that companies like Apple chose to produce their products in places like China, not because of the lower costs associated with it, but because the manufacturing skills required just aren't present in the U.S. anymore.
He added that the consumer electronics world has never really had a big production presence in the U.S. As a result, it's really more about starting production in the U.S. than bringing it back, he said.
But for nearly three decades Apple made its computers in the U.S. It started outsourcing production in the mid-90s, first by selling some plants to contract manufacturers, then by hiring manufacturers overseas. It assembled iMacs in Elk Grove, Calif., until 2004.
Some Macs already say they're "Assembled in USA." That's because Apple has for years performed final assembly of some units in the U.S. Those machines are usually the product of special orders placed at its online store. The last step of production may consist of mounting hard drives, memory chips and graphics cards into computer cases that are manufactured elsewhere. With Cook's announcement Thursday, the company is set to go much further in the amount of work done in the U.S.

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US economy adds 146K jobs, rate falls to 7.7 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pace of U.S. hiring remained steady in November despite disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and employers' concerns about impending tax increases from the year-end "fiscal cliff."
Companies added 146,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent — the lowest in nearly four years — from 7.9 percent in October. The rate declined mainly because more people stopped looking for work and weren't counted as unemployed.
The government said Superstorm Sandy had only a minimal effect on the figures.
The Labor Department's report Friday was a mixed one. But on balance, it suggested that the job market is gradually improving.
November's job gains were roughly the same as the average monthly increase this year of about 150,000. Most economists are encouraged by the job growth because it's occurred even as companies have reduced investment in heavy machinery and other equipment.
"The good news is not that the labor market is improving rapidly — it isn't — but that employment growth is holding up despite all the fears over the fiscal cliff," said Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight.
Still, Friday's report included some discouraging signs. Employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September combined than the government had initially estimated.
And economists noted that the unemployment rate would have risen if the number of people working or looking for work hadn't dropped by 350,000.
The government asks about 60,000 households each month whether the adults have jobs and whether those who don't are looking for one. Those without a job who are looking for one are counted as unemployed. Those who aren't looking aren't counted as unemployed.
A separate monthly survey seeks information from 140,000 companies and government agencies that together employ about one in three nonfarm workers in the United States.
Many analysts thought Sandy would hold back job growth significantly in November because the storm forced restaurants, retailers and other businesses to close in late October and early November.
It didn't. The government noted that as long as employees worked at least one day during a pay period — two weeks for most people — its survey would have counted them as employed.
Yet there were signs that the storm disrupted economic activity in November. Construction employment dropped 20,000. And weather prevented 369,000 people from getting to work — the most for any month in nearly two years. These workers were still counted as employed.
All told, 12 million people were unemployed in November, about 230,000 fewer than the previous month. That's still many more than the 7.6 million who were out of work when the recession officially began in December 2007.
Investors appeared pleased with the report, though the market gave up some early gains. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 53 points in mid-day trading.
The number of Americans who were working part time in November but wanted full-time work declined. And a measure of discouraged workers — those who wanted a job but hadn't searched for one in the past month — rose slightly.
Those two groups, plus the 12 million unemployed, make up a broader measure that the government calls "underemployment." The underemployment rate fell to 14.4 percent in November from 14.6 percent in October. It's the lowest such rate since January 2009.
Since July, the economy has added an average of 158,000 jobs a month. That's a modest pickup from an average of 146,000 in the first six months of the year.
In November, retailers added 53,000 positions. Temporary-help companies added 18,000. Education and health care also gained 18,000.
Auto manufacturers added nearly 10,000 jobs. Still, overall manufacturing jobs fell 7,000. That was pushed down by a loss of 12,000 jobs in food manufacturing that likely reflects the layoff of workers at Hostess.
Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that hiring by private companies was actually better in October than the government first thought. The overall job figures were revised down for October because governments themselves cut about 38,000 more jobs than was first estimated.
The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. But many economists say growth is slowing to a 1.5 percent rate in the October-December quarter, largely because of the storm and threat of the fiscal cliff.
The storm held back consumer spending and income, which drive economic growth. Consumer spending declined in October, the government said. And work interruptions caused by Sandy reduced wages and salaries that month by about $18 billion at an annual rate.
Still, many say economic growth could accelerate next year if the fiscal cliff is avoided. The economy is also expected to get a boost from efforts to rebuild in the Northeast after the storm.

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Poll: Spike in Palestinian support for military operations against Israel

Palestinian support for military operations against Israel has registered its most significant jump in 10 years, spurred by the recent Gaza conflict, ongoing Israeli settlement expansion, and frustration over a peace process that has been essentially deadlocked for more than four years.
The percentage of Palestinians supporting such operations has reached 50.9 percent, up from 29.3 percent in January 2011.
The change in sentiment, together with a resurgent Hamas and an uptick in Israeli-Palestinian clashes in recent weeks, underscores the risks of a continued stalemate both for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“I think if the situation continues the way it is … the Palestinian people might rise in rebellion, similar to the rebellion being waged in the rest of the Arab countries,” says Shireen Qawasmi, a mother of three in Hebron with manicured nails and a faux fur wrap. “I will carry arms and be the first one to go and fight…. We are not war lovers, but when you see your children getting killed, and your land confiscated, you are forced to fight.”
Recommended: Five largest Israeli settlements: who lives there, and why
As PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party today marks 48 years since the group’s founding – first as a guerrilla organization and later as a Western-backed political movement – Mr. Abbas has reaffirmed his party’s commitment to nonviolent means.
But in the wake of the November conflict between Israel and Hamas, he faces a serious challenge in persuading Palestinians that his model is better than Hamas’s militant approach. While Abbas got a boost from the recent United Nations vote, which recognized Palestine as a non-member state instead of just an observer, he is still seen as fighting an uphill battle.
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“There has been a shift from negotiations to struggle against the [Israeli] occupation,” says Hassan Khresheh, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who lives in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. “[Palestinians] believe that negotiating for many years has given them nothing except more settlements and more settlers.”
Indeed, after nearly 20 years of negotiation with Israel, during which Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem roughly doubled to more than 550,000, Palestinians are increasingly questioning the value of talking with Israel. By contrast, most Palestinians saw Hamas – which targeted Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with missiles for the first time – as victorious in the recent conflict, since Israel refrained from a ground invasion and made significant concessions in the cease-fire talks.
“The public is comparing the diplomatic, peaceful negotiation approach of [Abbas] that has been actually taking us from bad to worse … with the violent approach of Hamas and Gaza, and they seem to be more attracted to the Gaza model rather than the West Bank model,” says Ghassan Khatib, former PA spokesman and founder of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, which conducted the recent poll showing an uptick in Palestinian support for military operations. (The poll was published Dec. 20 and can be found here.)
“This is a bigger fluctuation than anything we saw in the last 10 years,” Mr. Khatib says, though he adds that it’s too soon to tell whether it’s just a temporary spike or something more enduring.
ARMED, MASKED MEN AT FATAH RALLY
This week, undercover Israeli operations in Jenin and Tamoun sparked demonstrations in both places, injuring dozens of Palestinians. In addition, masked, armed men participated in a Fatah Day rally in Bethlehem’s Dheisheh refugee camp – something that hasn’t been seen in the West Bank for years. Their presence was reported by the Israeli news outlet YnetNews, which posted a video. Nasser al-Laham, editor of the Bethlehem-based Palestinian news agency Maan, confirmed the reports for the Monitor.
Mohammad Laham, a Fatah leader in Bethlehem, says he wasn’t present at the march but points to the tremendous economic pressure the PA is facing, particularly since Israel withheld tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA, as one of the reasons for local discontent. Israel's move was seen as retaliation for Abbas’s UN bid, but Israel said the money was taken to offset PA debts for Israeli electricity services.
“There are a lot of crises coming together now – economic, political, and social, the financial crisis, the continuation of [Israeli] settlement and the absence of a horizon for the political process and of hope,” says Mr. Laham. “The continuation of this situation in Bethlehem, Nablus, or any other Palestinian city does not augur well.”
When asked whether this might translate into armed struggle, he replies simply: “All the possibilities are open.”
The JMCC poll distinguishes between military operations, such as Hamas’s campaign of firing missiles into Israel, with armed struggle, which would include things like suicide bombings. There was also an uptick in support for armed struggle, albeit to a more modest 32 percent.
GENERATION OF LIBERATION
Last month, the Israeli killing of a Palestinian teenager who reportedly had a fake gun sparked protests in Hebron, a Hamas stronghold and an area of particular friction with Israeli settlers. A previously unknown Palestinian militant group there, the National Unity Brigades, announced the start of a third intifada.
Prof. Mohammed Assad Ewaiwi, who teaches political science at Al Quds Open University in Hebron, dismisses it as an “unorganized, spontaneous group,” but says its existence expresses the level of upheaval and unrest following the Gaza conflict. “This group and others like it should be a message to the world that there is a readiness among Palestinians to engage in military conflict.”
His youngest students, at age 18, weren’t even alive when the historic Oslo peace accords were signed in 1993. The second intifada broke out when they were a mere six years old, and three more Israeli-Arab wars – Lebanon in 2006, Gaza in 2009, and 2012 – punctuated their youth.
Ali Najjar, an 18-year-old from a nearby refugee camp, advocates the two-pronged model espoused by the late Palestinian leader and Fatah founder Yasser Arafat, or Abu Ammar.
“There was an interest in the Palestinian issue during Arafat’s time – Abu Ammar carried a gun in one hand, an olive branch in the other hand,” he says, wearing only a thin jean jacket in the frigid classroom. “Therefore the whole world rose to help him.”
“In my view, what was taken by force will only be returned by force. Twenty years after Oslo, we haven’t gained one inch of Palestine,” he says, declaring his generation to be the one that will liberate Palestine. “Israel only understands the language of military language.”
'JEWS SHOULD GO BACK WHERE THEY CAME FROM'
Many of these students support armed struggle as a way of regaining all of historic Palestine, not just a state alongside Israel.
“When you say ‘two-state solution,’ what state are you talking about?” asks Ayman Jawabreh, who wants to return to his family’s village near Lod. “I do not see it acceptable in any way for a group of people who have come from different parts of the world and based themselves in this country and call it their own…. In my opinion there is no Israeli state.”
Classmate Mohamed Abu Shkhdem shares a similar sentiment. “Jews should go back to where they came from,” he says. “I wonder why the international community has not, since the establishment of the PA, worked hard or in any serious way toward peace.”
The deal former President Bill Clinton clinched at the 2000 Camp David talks doesn't even register – Mr. Abu Shkhdem doesn’t remember it; he was nine years old.
Some of the students leave open the possibility for a peaceful solution to the conflict if Israel will honor the dignity of Palestinians and their right to be here, even though they say they believe that their people deserve more than what they would be given under a two-state solution.
“Israel has acted aggressively and unfairly toward Palestinians …. Therefore I see it fair that we should be the rulers and owners of historical Palestine – the whole thing,” says Abdul Moatti Albab. “I don’t see us living side by side with Israel, because they don’t want it. However, if they accept the two-state solution, I accept them.”
Israel has blamed Abbas for the deadlock in negotiations, since he has refused to come back to the table while Israeli settlements continue to expand. But in recent days Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also expressed reservations about engaging in negotiations with the PA, since Palestinian reconciliation could give Hamas – considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the US – more of a role in Palestinian affairs.
Hamas and its secular rival, Fatah, took a big step toward reconciliation today, with as many as 1 million Palestinians turning out at a Fatah rally in Gaza today – the first such event since Hamas violently ousted Fatah from the coastal territory in 2007.
Abbas, for his part, vowed in an interview yesterday to remove what is seen by some as a fig leaf for Israeli occupation by giving Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu full responsibility for the West Bank.
"I'll tell him, 'My dear friend, Mr. Netanyahu, I am inviting you to the Muqata [the PA presidential headquarters in Ramallah],” he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “Sit in the chair here instead of me, take the keys, and you will be responsible for the Palestinian Authority.

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Pakistani officials say US drones kill 9 militants

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near the Afghan border on Sunday, killing nine Pakistani Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said.
The strikes targeted the group's hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The identity of the killed militants was not immediately known, they said, but two important commanders of the Pakistani Taliban — including the head of a training unit for suicide bombers — may be among them.
Sunday's drone attack was the third suspected U.S. drone strike in five days. One such hit late Wednesday night killed a top Pakistani militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, accused of carrying out deadly attacks against American and other targets across the border in Afghanistan. That attack was followed close on by another strike on Thursday in the North Waziristan tribal area.
Islamabad opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory, but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in past. The drone campaign also infuriates many Pakistanis who see them as a violation of their country's sovereignty. Many Pakistanis complain that innocent civilians have also been killed, something the U.S. rejects.
But an attack like Sunday's may be less likely to anger the Pakistani military and public because it targeted militants believed to have been going after targets in Pakistan and not in neighboring Afghanistan.
The Pakistani intelligence officials said that informants had told them one of the two dead commanders was Wali Muhammad Mahsud, also known as Toofan, who headed a wing of the group that trained suicide bombers. His predecessor, Qari Husain Mehsud, was believed to have been killed in a U.S. missile strike in late 2011.
Mahsud was part of the Pakistani Taliban that have waged a bloody war against the Pakistani state by targeting army, police, government officials, civilians and even religious leaders who wouldn't agree to their interpretation of Islam. The Pakistani Taliban demand that the state should sever ties with the U.S. and amend the constitution to enforce a Sharia based Islamic system in the country.
In December, a Taliban suicide bomber killed a top government minister, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, who came from an anti-militant political party in northwest Pakistan and abducted and beheaded several Pakistani paramilitary troops and tribal police.
The militant commander, Nazir, who was killed last Wednesday was also part of the Taliban but he led a faction that agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistan military in 2009 and did not attack domestic targets.
As a result, while his death is likely to be seen in Washington as affirmation of the necessity of its controversial drone program, it could cause more friction in already tense relations with Pakistan.
Analysts say Nazir's killing is likely to complicate the Pakistani army's fight against the local and foreign al-Qaida linked militants holed up in the country's tribal region. They say his fighters may turn their guns toward Pakistani troops and may join the Pakistani Taliban's fight against the state.
Still, Nazir outraged many Pakistanis in June when he announced that he would not allow any polio vaccinations in territory under his control until the U.S. stops drone attacks in the region.
Washington wants Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, believed to be the last stronghold of many of the militant groups. But Islamabad had been refusing, saying it does not have enough troops and resources to do that.
In absence of such an operation, the U.S. relies more on drone strikes to take out militants. The program has killed a number of top militant commanders including Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was al-Qaida's No. 2 when he was killed in a June strike.

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Pakistan says 1 dead in border clash with India

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and India traded accusations Sunday of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a cross-border raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side.
The accusation of a border crossing resulting in military deaths is unusual in Kashmir, where a cease-fire has held between these two wary, nuclear-armed rivals for a decade. Tensions over the disputed region are never far from the surface, however, as the countries have fought two full-scale wars over it.
Pakistan and India have been in the midst of a tentative rapprochement in recent months that could be upset by the cross-border raid. Just last month, the two countries announced a new visa regime designed to make cross-border travel easier. And they have been taking steps to facilitate economic trade as well. Neither action would have been possible without the backing of Pakistan's powerful military.
The developments show how tensions have eased a great deal since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which 10 Pakistani terrorists killed 166 people. India claims the terrorists had ties to Pakistani intelligence officials, which Islamabad denies.
The Pakistani military's public relations office said in a statement that a Pakistani soldier was also critically wounded in the incident. It said troops exchanged gunfire after Indian forces crossed the "line of control" dividing the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir in the Haji Pir sector and raided a post called Sawan Patra.
The remote area where the incident occurred is up in the Himalayan mountain peaks. The closest town of Bagh, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, is itself about 260 kilometers (160 miles) from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
Col. Brijesh Pandey, a spokesman for the Indian army in Kashmir, called the allegations that Indian troops crossed the border "baseless." Instead, he said that Pakistani troops "initiated unprovoked firing" and fired mortars and automatic weapons at Indian posts early Sunday morning. He said Pakistani shelling had destroyed a civilian home on the Indian side.
"We retaliated only using small arms. We believe it was clearly an attempt on their part to facilitate infiltration of militants," Pandey said
India often accuses Pakistan of sending militants into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, often under cover of these types of skirmishes.
The mostly-Muslim mountainous Kashmir region has been a flashpoint of violence between these two neighbors for decades. Both claim the entire region as their own, and the countries fought two full-scale wars over control of Kashmir and some minor skirmishes.
On Saturday, leaders of a Pakistan-based militant coalition held a rally in the city of Muzaffarabad near Kashmir, in which they pledged to continue the fight to gain control of the entire region.
The United Jihad Council is a coalition of 12 anti-India militant groups. Many of the groups were started with the support of the Pakistani government in the 1980s and 1990s to fight India for control of Kashmir. The rally was held to mark the Jan. 5, 1949 call by the United Nations for a referendum on Kashmir's fate.
A 2003 cease-fire ended the most recent round of fighting. Each side occasionally accuses the other of violating it by lobbing mortars or shooting across the LOC.
A number of Pakistani civilians were wounded in November due to Indian shelling, and in October the Indian army said Pakistani troops fired across the disputed frontier, killing three civilians.
But accusations that one side's ground forces actually crossed the LOC are rarer.

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US economic growth improves to 2 pct. rate in Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. economy expanded at a slightly faster 2 percent annual rate from July through September, buoyed by an uptick in consumer spending and a burst of government spending.
Growth improved from the 1.3 percent rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday.
The pickup in growth may help President Barack Obama's message that the economy is improving. Still, growth remains too weak to rapidly boost hiring. And the 1.74 percent rate for 2012 so far trails last year's 1.8 percent growth, a point GOP nominee Mitt Romney will emphasize.
The report is the last snapshot of economic growth before Americans choose a president in 11 days.
The economy improved because consumer spending rose 2 percent in the July-September quarter, up from 1.5 percent in the second quarter. Spending on homebuilding and renovations increased more than 14 percent. And federal government spending expanded sharply on the largest increase in defense spending in more than three years.
Growth was held back by the first drop in exports in more than three years and flat business investment in equipment and software.
The economy was also slowed by the severe drought this summer in the Midwest. That sharply cut agriculture stockpiles and reduced growth by nearly a half-point.
The government's report covers gross domestic product. GDP measures the nation's total output of goods and services — from restaurant meals and haircuts to airplanes, appliances and highways.
The first of three estimates of growth for the July-September quarter sketched a picture that's been familiar all year: The economy is growing at a tepid rate, slowed by high unemployment and corporate anxiety over an unresolved budget crisis and a slowing global economy.
While growth remains modest, the factors supporting the economy have changed. Exports and business investment drove growth for most of the recovery, but are now fading. Meanwhile, consumer spending has ticked up and housing is adding to growth after a six-year slump.
Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economic activity.
Businesses have grown more cautious since spring, in part because customer demand has remained modest and exports have declined as the global economy has slowed.
Many companies worry that their overseas sales could dampen further if recession spreads throughout Europe and growth slows further in China, India and other developing countries. Businesses also fear the tax increases and government spending cuts that will kick in next year if Congress doesn't reach a budget deal.
Since the recovery from the Great Recession began in June 2009, the U.S. economy has grown at the slowest rate of any recovery in the post-World War II period. And economists think growth will remain sluggish at least through the first half of 2013. Some analysts believe the economy will start to pick up in the second half of next year.

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