Oakland police use tear gas on Occupy protesters

Stephen Lam / Reuters

Police officers arrest an Occupy Oakland demonstrator during a clash Saturday in Oakland, Calif., where officers fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who tried to take over a shuttered convention center.

By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

Oakland police used tear gas and "flash" grenades Saturday to break up an estimated 2,000 Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing objects at officers and tearing down fencing.

There were at least 19 arrests in the afternoon, but no reports of serious injuries.

---

After 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET), police?in riot gear declared a group of protesters gathered near the YMCA under arrest en masse for failing to disperse.

Several protesters appeared to be put hard to the ground as police moved in and at least one protester had blood on his face.

Protesters chanted, "Let us disperse," but instead were taken one by one for police processing.

Earlier, Officer Jeff Thomason said police started making arrests when some in the crowd started throwing objects at them during the afternoon rally. Police declared an unlawful assembly after marchers tore down perimeter fences at the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.

Three officers were injured, police said, but did not elaborate.

After meeting up at Frank Ogawa Plaza around noon, protesters marched toward the convention center in hopes of making it their new meeting place and social center, NBCBayArea.com reported.

Read NBCBayArea.com coverage of the protest

Oakland officials said about 250 people were in the group when the protest started but the crowd grew to about 2,000.

@OaklandPoliceCA tweeted around 3 p.m., "Area of Oakland Museum and Kaiser Center severely impacted. Persons cutting and tearing fences for entry. Bottles and objects thrown at OPD."

Earlier during the rally one of the organizers, Shake Anderson, said, "We are here to protect each other and to be civil disobedient. ... We're doing it to change the world, not just today but every day."

Stephen Lam / Reuters

Occupy Oakland demonstrators shield themselves from an explosion Saturday during a confrontation with the police near the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, Calif.

The protesters were walking through Laney College around 2:30 p.m. Some people were wearing bandanas over their mouths and others were holding signs saying, "We are the 99%." A marching band dressed in pink and black tutus and neon pick tights also was in the crowd.

Once they reached the center, organizers planned to kick off a two-day "Oakland Rise-up Festival" to celebrate the establishment of the movement's new space.

Occupy Oakland spokesman Leo Ritz-Bar said the group's new headquarters "signals a new direction for the Occupy movement: putting vacant buildings at the service of the community."

He also warned that protesters could retaliate against any repressive police action by blocking the Oakland International Airport, occupying City Hall or shutting down the Port of Oakland.

City officials said that while they are "committed to facilitating peaceful forms of expression and free speech, police would be prepared to arrest those who break the law.

"The city of Oakland will not be bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity," city administrator Deanna Santana said in a statement issued Friday.

This article includes reporting from NBCBayArea.com, The Associated Press and msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger.

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GOP candidates prepare for Univision forum (AP)

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will be participating separately in a forum at the Univision TV network in Miami.

Univision is the nation's largest Spanish-language television network. The forum Wednesday is co-sponsored by Miami-Dade College and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Romney has additional events Wednesday in Miami and Orlando.

Gingrich is giving a lecture on Latin American policy at Florida International University and visiting Coral Springs and then Cocoa, Fla., for a space industry round table and a town hall.

Santorum is speaking at a rally in Naples before participating in the Univision forum.

Ron Paul has no events scheduled in Florida, which holds its Republican primary on Jan. 31.

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Rep. Giffords to resign from Congress this week (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago that shook the country.

"I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said on a video posted without prior notice on her Facebook page.

"I'm getting better. Every day my spirit is high," she said. "I have more work to do on my recovery. So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

Giffords was shot in the head and grievously wounded last January as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. Her progress had seemed remarkable, to the point that she was able to walk dramatically into the House chamber last August to cast a vote.

Her shooting prompted an agonizing national debate about super-charged rhetoric in political campaigns, although the man charged in the shooting later turned out to be mentally ill.

In Washington, members of Congress were told to pay more attention to their physical security. Legislation was introduced to ban high-capacity ammunition clips, although it never advanced.

Under state law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer must call a special election to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term, which ends at the end of 2012.

President Barack Obama on Sunday called Giffords "the very best of what public service should be."

"Gabby's cheerful presence will be missed in Washington," Obama said. "But she will remain an inspiration to all whose lives she touched ? myself included. And I'm confident that we haven't seen the last of this extraordinary American."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he saluted Giffords "for her service and for the courage and perseverance she has shown in the face of tragedy. She will be missed."

In a statement, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that "since the tragic events one year ago, Gabby has been an inspiring symbol of determination and courage to millions of Americans."

Democratic officials had held out hope for months that the congresswoman might recover sufficiently to run for re-election or even become a candidate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jon Kyl.

The shooting on Jan. 8, 2011, left six people dead, a federal judge and a Giffords aide among them. Twelve others were wounded.

A 23-year-old man, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the shooting. He has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and is being forcibly medicated at a Missouri prison facility in an effort by authorities to make him mentally ready for trial.

In the months since she was shot, Giffords, 41, has been treated in Houston as well as Arizona as she re-learned how to walk and speak.

She made a dramatic appearance on the House floor Aug. 2, when she unexpectedly walked in to vote for an increase in the debt limit. Lawmakers from both parties cheered her presence, and she was enveloped in hugs.

More recently, she participated in an observance of the anniversary of the shooting in Arizona.

In "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," a book released last year that she wrote with her husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly, she spoke of how much she wanted to get better, regain what she lost and return to Congress.

She delivers the last chapter in her own voice, saying in a single page of short sentences and phrases that everything she does reminds her of that horrible day and that she was grateful to survive.

"I will get stronger. I will return," she wrote.

Giffords was shot in the left side of the brain, the part that controls speech and communication.

Kelly commanded the space shuttle Endeavour on its last mission in May. She watched the launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Kelly, who became a NASA astronaut in 1996 and made four trips into space aboard the space shuttle, retired in October.

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Many Politicians Softening Opposition to Same Sex Marriages (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | A major step in the effort to legalize same-sex marriage was taken on Friday, January 20, when a coalition of 80 mayors announced their support for legalizing marriage between gays.

Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and head of Mayors for Freedom to Marry said ,"Mayors understand that welcoming committed gay couples to the rights and responsibilities of marriage isn't just the right thing to do." Mayors of Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles are each supportive of such measures.

This announcement comes one day after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie softened his opposition to same-sex marriage and that is a good thing. His most recent statement is that he will make a "deliberate and thoughtful" decision if the New Jersey legislature passes a bill. Previously, in 2009, he vowed to return to the legislature any bill legalizing same-sex marriage "with a big red veto across it."

Governor Christie and other politicians may have been influenced by a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University which showed that a majority of New Jersey voters favor legalizing marriage between same-sex partners. This is the first time that more than 50 percent of the respondents favored same-sex marriage. The key word here is "marriage", because New Jersey has recognized domestic partnerships or civil unions since 2006.

If, and when the bill is passed and signed into law, New Jersey would then become the seventh state where same-sex couples can get married. There are also 10 states which recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships.

This is important because during the Republican debates, many candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, have called for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. You need 39 states to ratify an amendment and the more states which recognize marriage, the less likely that passage would occur.

While it is wonderful that some states recognize same-sex marriage, the real progress will only come when the federal government and the IRS recognize that two people of the same sex can be married.

Unfortunately, much of the discrimination is in the form of financial punishment. Gay couples cannot save on their federal income taxes by filing a joint return. They are not entitled to the unlimited marital deduction which is available to heterosexual couples, and that makes their estate issues more complex and expensive.

Heterosexual couples can contribute to a spousal IRA even if one spouse does not work. Gay couples are denied that right. In a traditional marriage, the surviving spouse is entitled to roll over the retirement assets of their deceased loved one without incurring tax consequences. This process is denied gays.

Granting same-sex couples the same rights and entitlements that heterosexual couples receive should be fundamental and the sign of a maturing society.

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Renowned attorney Bennett to represent Megaupload

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this April 30, 2007 file photo, attorney Robert Bennett speaks in Washington. Bennett, one of the nation's most prominent defense lawyers will represent file-sharing website Megaupload on charges that the company used its popular site to orchestrate a massive piracy scheme that enabled millions of illegal downloads of movies and other content. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) ? When Megaupload executives arrive in court to answer charges that they orchestrated a massive online piracy scheme, they'll be backed by a prominent lawyer who has defended Bill Clinton against sexual harassment charges and Enron against allegations of corporate fraud.

Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday that he will represent the company, which was indicted in federal court in Alexandria Thursday on copyright infringement and other charges. The U.S. government shut down Megaupload's file-sharing website on Thursday, alleging that the company facilitated illegal downloads of copyrighted movies and other content. Seven individuals ? including the company's founder, who had his name legally changed to Kim Dotcom ? were also charged. Dotcom and three others were arrested in New Zealand; three others remain at large.

The shutdown and indictment generated headlines around the world in part because of the size and scope of Megaupload's operation. Sandvine, Inc., a Canadian company that provides equipment to monitor Internet traffic, said the website alone accounted for about 1 percent of traffic on U.S. cable and DSL lines. The site is even more popular in many foreign countries.

Bennett said that "we intend to vigorously defend against these charges" but declined to comment on the case in detail.

Bennett is best known for serving as President Bill Clinton's attorney when he was accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones. He has also represented Defense Secretaries Clark Clifford and Caspar Weinberger.

Megaupload was no stranger to accusations that its website existed for the sole purpose of mass copyright breach. Before its website was taken down, Megaupload offered a more detailed defense of its operations, claiming in a statement that such accusations are "grotesquely overblown."

The company said it had a clear, easy-to-follow procedure if movie studios or other copyright holders saw that their products were being illegally shared on Megaupload, and said that it responded to those "takedown notices" as required by law.

"Of course, abuse does happen and is an inevitable fact of life in a free society, but it is curbed heavily and efficiently by our close cooperation with trusted takedown partners. It is just unfortunate that the activities of a small group of 'black sheep' overshadows the millions of users that use our sites legitimately every day," the statement said.

Indeed, sites like megaupload.com, known as cyberlockers, can fulfill legitimate needs and are used every day by people looking for an efficient way to share or transfer large files that can't easily be sent by email.

In their indictment, however, federal prosecutors offered a detailed glimpse of the internal workings of the website. They allege that Megaupload was well aware that the vast majority of its users were there to illegally download copyrighted content.

According to the indictment, in a 2008 email chat session, two of the alleged coconspirators exchange messages, with one saying "we have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)" and the other responds, "we're not pirates, we're just providing shipping services to pirates :)".

In another instance, one of the defendants allegedly laments in colorful language that an episode HBO's "The Sopranos" has been uploaded to site, but the dialogue is in French, limiting its appeal.

In fact, prosecutors allege that the entire website was specifically designed to encourage piracy. The website provided cash bonuses to users who uploaded content popular enough to prompt mass downloads ? such content was almost always copyrighted material.

Stefan Mentzer, an intellectual property partner with the White and Case law firm in New York, said it's likely that Megaupload will try to argue at least two defenses: One is that its service qualifies as a so-called "safe harbor" under Digital Millennium Copyright Act ? the federal law governing copyright infringement ? if they can show, for instance, that they had no actual knowledge that infringing material was on their system. Another possible defense would be jurisdictional ? specifically, that a case can't be brought in the Eastern District of Virginia against a Hong Kong-based company like Megaupload without evidence that they directed criminal activity related to the district.

But Mentzer said both defenses would be a challenge, given the evidence that prosecutors appear to have collected.

"The Department of Justice doesn't just cavalierly file these lawsuits," Mentzer said.

Federal prosecutors have made Internet piracy a priority in the last decade, especially in the Eastern District of Virginia, which can claim jurisdiction over many such cases because large portions of the Internet's backbone ? servers and other infrastructure ? are physically located in northern Virginia's technology corridor.

The vast majority of those cases have resulted in guilty pleas and prison time. On Friday, a day after announcement of the Megaupload case, a federal judge sentenced Matthew David Howard Smith, 24, of Raleigh, N.C., to 14 months in prison for his role in founding a website called NinjaVideo. That site was one of many shut down in 2010, at a time when it facilitated nearly 1 million illegal downloads a week.

NinjaVideo was what prosecutors called a "linking site" to Megaupload. Casual users of Megaupload would be unable to find popular movies and TV shows on the site without the proper links. Sites like NinjaVideo allowed users to easily search for the desired movies or music and provided the links that enabled them to download the content from Megaupload.

The other co-founder of NinjaVideo, Hana Beshara, was sentenced earlier this month to 22 months in prison. While she admitted guilt, she portrayed herself as a sort of Robin Hood of the online world, stealing from greedy movie studios to provide entertainment downloads to the masses in the form of free films, TV shows, videogames and music.

While the legal defense for piracy may be difficult, accused Internet pirates clearly have their supporters, as evidenced by the millions of people who use their sites as well as the response to Thursday's Megaupload shutdown. Within hours of the indictment being unsealed, the loose affiliation of hackers known as Anonymous caused temporary shutdowns of the Justice Department website as well as the websites of the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups that support a tougher piracy laws.

It could be months before the criminal case against Megaupload gets underway. The four defendants arrested in made an initial appearance in a New Zealand court Friday and are scheduled to make a second appearance on Monday. Authorities have said it could take a year or more to bring them to the U.S. if they fight extradition.

___

AP Business Writer Daniel Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Stock Talk: Why Apple?s textbook announcement matters

Yesterday Apple made one of those cool little announcements that probably won?t affect too many of us in the short term. But I think their initiative with iBooks 2 and

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'30 Rock' episode mocks its own star's gay dilemma

FILE - In this March 26, 2011 file photo, actor and comedian Tracy Morgan appears onstage at the ?The Comedy Awards? presented by Comedy Central in New York. The NBC comedy "30 Rock" has mocked one of its own cast members. On Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, the show, which often finds laughs in real-life events in the show business world it inhabits, focused on Tracy Morgan, who found himself in real-life hot water last June after making anti-gay remarks during a stand-up appearance in Nashville, Tenn. On the "30 Rock" episode, Morgan character Tracy Jordan sparked a protest after making a couple of ridiculous gay-oriented jokes during a concert date. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)

FILE - In this March 26, 2011 file photo, actor and comedian Tracy Morgan appears onstage at the ?The Comedy Awards? presented by Comedy Central in New York. The NBC comedy "30 Rock" has mocked one of its own cast members. On Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, the show, which often finds laughs in real-life events in the show business world it inhabits, focused on Tracy Morgan, who found himself in real-life hot water last June after making anti-gay remarks during a stand-up appearance in Nashville, Tenn. On the "30 Rock" episode, Morgan character Tracy Jordan sparked a protest after making a couple of ridiculous gay-oriented jokes during a concert date. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC comedy "30 Rock" often finds laughs in real-life events in the show business world it inhabits.

But Thursday's edition targeted one of its own cast members, Tracy Morgan, who found himself in real-life hot water last June after making anti-gay remarks during a stand-up appearance in Nashville, Tenn.

On the "30 Rock" episode, Tracy Jordan, the character Morgan plays, sparked a protest after making a couple of ridiculous gay-oriented jokes at a club date.

A contrite Jordan mistakenly apologizes to the makers of Glad bags, rather than to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, known as GLAAD.

Jordan's boss, played by series star Tina Fey, is forced to apologize for him.

"He's not capable of hate," she assures the media. "He's just an idiot who doesn't know what he's saying."

In real life, Tracy Morgan publicly apologized to his fans and the gay and lesbian community for what he called "my choice of words." He denied being a hateful person and acknowledged that "even in a comedy club" what he said went too far "and was not funny in any context." During his rant, Morgan had said in part that if his son were gay, he would "pull out a knife and stab" him.

Fey, who is also the creator and an executive producer of "30 Rock," issued a statement at the time declaring "I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian co-workers at '30 Rock.'"

Mirroring that real-life statement on Thursday's episode, Fey's character, Liz Lemon, chides Jordan by saying, "Do you know how many of your hardworking and dedicated co-workers are gay?"

Associated Press

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Video: Katy Perry comes to the Sims

"The Sims 3: Showtime" is getting a special edition freaturing the 27-year-old pop star. In-Game's Todd Kenreck reports.

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Country music legend Merle Haggard hospitalized (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Country music great Merle Haggard has been admitted to a Georgia hospital with a respiratory illness that forced him to cancel a concert Tuesday night just seven minutes before taking the stage.

"He has a respiratory virus or infection," Frank Mull, his tour manager and close friend, said as he waited Wednesday morning for a taxi to take him to the hospital in Macon, Georgia.

Haggard, 74, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, is best known for songs like "Mama Tried," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."

With influences ranging from Lefty Frizzell to Bob Wills to Jimmie Rodgers, Haggard is an architect of country music's so-called "Bakersfield Sound."

Haggard was preparing to take the stage Tuesday night in Macon when it was determined he was too ill to perform, Mull said.

A concert scheduled for Wednesday night in Columbus, Georgia was cancelled. Haggard's next scheduled concert is Thursday in Paducah, Kentucky.

"I imagine we'll determine more (about other tour dates) when I get to the hospital," said Mull, who was going to meet with the singer and doctors.

Mull said Haggard was unwell when he left his California home to begin the tour, but did not want to disappoint his fans.

"He wasn't well when he left home," he said. "He thought he was well enough to work and he did work three dates, and he got progressively worse."

(Reporting By David Bailey; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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India army chief asks Supreme Court: How old am I? (AP)

NEW DELHI ? The Indian government and its army chief are asking the Supreme Court to answer a peculiar question: Just how old is the nation's top soldier?

Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh says he was born in May 1951 and will not reach the mandatory retirement age of 62 until next year. But India's Defense Ministry says its records show he was born a year earlier and must retire in four months.

The disagreement, the first time a serving general has dragged the government to court, is complicated because Singh's army records and school certificates show different dates. Like many Indians of his generation, Singh has no birth certificate.

Singh filed a Supreme Court petition Monday challenging the government's assertion that he is 61. On Tuesday, the Defense Ministry asked the court for time to present its own evidence.

Singh took over as army chief nearly two years ago and insists his case is not about getting an extra year in power.

"It's all about honor and integrity, not tenure," Singh was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

The Defense Ministry has said that it will stick to 1950 as Singh's year of birth.

Defense Minister A.K. Antony met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Cabinet members Tuesday to discuss the government's strategy in the dispute.

Opposition parties said the army chief's removal was likely to affect troop morale.

"The mindlessness of the government in handling a sensitive situation will have its consequences," Jaswant Singh, a former defense minister, warned Tuesday.

India has one of the world's largest armies, with 1.2 million soldiers and nearly another million in reserves.

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U.S. gun industry appeals new rifle reporting rules (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The gun industry on Monday appealed a U.S. judge's decision to uphold new Obama administration regulations requiring gun dealers in four states bordering Mexico to report the sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles.

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Friday the reporting requirements ordered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) last year were sufficiently narrowly tailored.

Because the reporting demand "was limited to only certain sales of certain guns in certain states, ATF did not exceed its authority," she wrote in a 21-page ruling.

Gun dealers backed by the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying group, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, challenged the requirements, arguing they would effectively require national registration of firearms sales, which they said the ATF was not authorized to do.

The dealers and the foundation filed notices of appeal with the district court. The appeal will go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Dealers must report within five business days a sale of two or more semiautomatic rifles to the same person. That includes rifles with a caliber greater than .22 and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine.

The ATF issued the reporting requirements as part of a stepped-up effort to clamp down on the weapons flowing across the border to drug cartels in Mexico. The rules affect more than 8,000 gun dealers in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Mexican officials have complained bitterly about guns coming illegally from the United States. The gun industry has said the rules will have no impact on the cartels but rather burden law-abiding retailers.

(Reporting By Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/us_nm/us_usa_guns_court

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Concerns about Romney's faith quieter but not gone (AP)

GREER, S.C. ? The second time around, the shock has worn off.

The prospect of a Mormon president appears to be less alien to South Carolina Republicans who are giving Mitt Romney a second look after his failed White House bid in 2008.

Still, worries about his faith persist in a state where one pastor jokes there are "more Baptists than people." Voters preparing for the Jan. 21 presidential primary are weighing whether Romney's religion should matter so much when they cannot pay their bills and a Democrat many distrust occupies the White House.

"Although Romney's faith is still a matter of some discussion, it is less of a political problem for him than it was in 2008," said Jim Guth, a political scientist at Furman University in Greenville, in South Carolina's conservative upstate. "Most Republicans have a generally positive view of Romney, even evangelical Christians."

Four years ago, the Romney campaign directly took on suspicion about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Conservative Christians, including Protestants and Roman Catholics, do not consider Mormons to be Christian, although Mormons strongly do.

The former Massachusetts governor courted evangelical pastors and formed a national faith-and-values steering committee. Romney gave a major 2007 speech in Texas, modeled on John F. Kennedy's pivotal 1960 address on Catholicism, that promised "no authorities of my church or of any other church for that matter" would influence his policies.

This time, Romney has no formal religion committee and rarely mentions his faith unless asked.

In an appearance Thursday in a motorcycle dealership in Greer, he said the election was about "the soul of America" and described the national debt as a moral issue. He called "America the Beautiful" a "national hymn." (The music was, in fact, originally composed by a church organist for a hymn.)

The only direct mention of religion at the event came from the South Carolina state treasurer, Curtis Loftis. In a speech introducing Romney, Loftis noted that he was a Baptist.

By contrast, at South Carolina barbecue joints and churches, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been giving what evangelicals call personal testimony of how he accepted Christ at age 14.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative and Roman Catholic who's sometimes mistaken for an evangelical Protestant, recently asked an audience in Greenville to pray for his campaign.

"It's a tough battle every day out there," Santorum said. "And we need that hedge of protection."

Appeals like these are almost expected in a state where Christianity is so much part of daily life.

As Romney arrived in Columbia for the first time since his New Hampshire primary victory, churches around the state were welcoming families for the weekly food, fellowship and Bible study that is a Wednesday night tradition in evangelical churches throughout the South.

In 2008, 60 percent of Republican voters in the South Carolina primary identified themselves as born-again Christians, according to exit polls.

Underscoring the focus on religion in this state, if not the skepticism about Romney's faith, the second question from the audience at a town hall-style event in Hilton Head on Friday was whether he believes "in the divine saving grace of Jesus Christ?" His answer: "Yes, I do."

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a conservative policy group based in Columbia, said the state "is sort of an evangelical-permeated culture."

Smith said South Carolina "is strongly influenced by very large churches. Even for those who just go to church for the ritual of it, the values people preach have become part of people's worldview."

The Romney campaign is making a play for these votes with a focus on values, according to Mark DeMoss, a senior adviser to Romney and veteran public relations executive who represents evangelical pastors and ministries.

The campaign released a new radio ad Friday that asserts, "Today Christian conservatives are supporting Mitt Romney because he shares their values: the sanctity of life, the sacredness of marriage and the importance of the family."

A glossy brochure that began arriving in South Carolina mailboxes last weekend noting Romney has been a lifelong member of the same church. It didn't say which one. The detail also can read as a dig at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who left Lutheranism and converted to Southern Baptist, then Catholic.

The underlying message of Romney's generic faith language is "I'm just like you," said John Green, a specialist in religion and politics at the University of Akron, Ohio,

"It's kind of like an inoculation to say, `I'm good on these values. Now let's talk about the economy,'" Green said. "He wants to get past a potential criticism."

Romney has acknowledged that there are some votes he'll never win.

In the upstate city of Easley, the Rev. Brad Atkins, president of the South Carolina General Baptist Convention, has posted an email exchange on his church website with a local reporter on his objections to the LDS church.

"Romney's Mormonism will be more a cause of concern than Gingrich's infidelity," Atkins wrote. Christians can forgive sin, the pastor said, "but will struggle to understand how anyone could be a Mormon and call themselves a Christian."

Hector Chavez, a Roman Catholic and Republican voter in Columbia, said he can't support Romney and neither can many people he knows. "As a Christian, I can't vote for somebody who can't lead us in a Christian way," Chavez said. He's leaning toward voting for Perry.

Yet, even Atkins ended his website post by predicting that most Christians will vote based on economic, not moral, concerns.

While he made the comment ruefully, he inadvertently highlighted what evangelical leaders have been struggling to explain ever since the 1980s emergence of the Christian right: Christian conservatives don't just vote on religion, not in South Carolina or anywhere else.

South Carolina has one of the most dramatic examples of how political pragmatism can co-exist with faith.

Bob Jones III, chancellor of the fundamentalist Christian school Bob Jones University in Greenville, stunned many when he endorsed Romney in the 2008 primary.

Fundamentalists generally steer clear of anyone with even the most minor difference over Scripture. But Jones said the country elects a president not a preacher. This past week, Jones said through a spokeswoman that he hasn't endorsed anyone so far in the 2012 primary.

Romney supporters often compare his plight to that of Kennedy, who overcame widespread prejudice to become the first Catholic president.

Charles Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, said the story of the Rev. Jerry Falwell may be more apt for this election cycle as a model for Christian conservatives. When Falwell was building the Moral Majority in the 1980s, he set aside deep theological differences with Catholics and worked closely with them against abortion.

"Evangelicals have been willing to make alliances with groups you never would have imagined," Wilson said.

Maybe Mormons will be next.

____

Associated Press reporters Brian Bakst and Kasie Hunt contributed to this story.

____

Rachel Zoll is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/rzollAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re/us_rel_the_mormon_factor

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Concerns about Romney's faith quieter but not gone (AP)

GREER, S.C. ? The second time around, the shock has worn off. The prospect of a Mormon president appears to be less alien to South Carolina Republicans who are giving Mitt Romney a second look after his failed White House bid in 2008.

Still, worries about his faith persist in a state where one pastor jokes there are "more Baptists than people." Voters preparing for the Jan. 21 presidential primary are weighing whether Romney's religion should matter so much when they cannot pay their bills and a Democrat many distrust occupies the White House.

"Although Romney's faith is still a matter of some discussion, it is less of a political problem for him than it was in 2008," said Jim Guth, a political scientist at Furman University in Greenville, in South Carolina's conservative upstate. "Most Republicans have a generally positive view of Romney, even evangelical Christians."

Four years ago, the Romney campaign directly took on suspicion about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Conservative Christians, including Protestants and Roman Catholics, do not consider Mormons to be Christian, although Mormons strongly do.

The former Massachusetts governor courted evangelical pastors and formed a national faith-and-values steering committee. Romney gave a major 2007 speech in Texas, modeled on John F. Kennedy's pivotal 1960 address on Catholicism, that promised "no authorities of my church or of any other church for that matter" would influence his policies.

This time, Romney has no formal religion committee and rarely mentions his faith unless asked.

In an appearance Thursday in a motorcycle dealership in Greer, he said the election was about "the soul of America" and described the national debt as a moral issue. He called "America the Beautiful" a "national hymn." (The music was, in fact, originally composed by a church organist for a hymn.)

The only direct mention of religion at the event came from the South Carolina state treasurer, Curtis Loftis. In a speech introducing Romney, Loftis noted that he was a Baptist.

By contrast, at South Carolina barbecue joints and churches, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been giving what evangelicals call personal testimony of how he accepted Christ at age 14.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative and Roman Catholic who's sometimes mistaken for an evangelical Protestant, recently asked an audience in Greenville to pray for his campaign.

"It's a tough battle every day out there," Santorum said. "And we need that hedge of protection."

Appeals like these are almost expected in a state where Christianity is so much part of daily life.

As Romney arrived in Columbia for the first time since his New Hampshire primary victory, churches around the state were welcoming families for the weekly food, fellowship and Bible study that is a Wednesday night tradition in evangelical churches throughout the South.

In 2008, 60 percent of Republican voters in the South Carolina primary identified themselves as born-again Christians, according to exit polls.

Underscoring the focus on religion in this state, if not the skepticism about Romney's faith, the second question from the audience at a town hall-style event in Hilton Head on Friday was whether he believes "in the divine saving grace of Jesus Christ?" His answer: "Yes, I do."

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a conservative policy group based in Columbia, said the state "is sort of an evangelical-permeated culture."

Smith said South Carolina "is strongly influenced by very large churches. Even for those who just go to church for the ritual of it, the values people preach have become part of people's worldview."

The Romney campaign is making a play for these votes with a focus on values, according to Mark DeMoss, a senior adviser to Romney and veteran public relations executive who represents evangelical pastors and ministries.

The campaign released a new radio ad Friday that asserts, "Today Christian conservatives are supporting Mitt Romney because he shares their values: the sanctity of life, the sacredness of marriage and the importance of the family."

A glossy brochure that began arriving in South Carolina mailboxes last weekend noting Romney has been a lifelong member of the same church. It didn't say which one. The detail also can read as a dig at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who left Lutheranism and converted to Southern Baptist, then Catholic.

The underlying message of Romney's generic faith language is "I'm just like you," said John Green, a specialist in religion and politics at the University of Akron, Ohio,

"It's kind of like an inoculation to say, `I'm good on these values. Now let's talk about the economy,'" Green said. "He wants to get past a potential criticism."

Romney has acknowledged that there are some votes he'll never win.

In the upstate city of Easley, the Rev. Brad Atkins, president of the South Carolina General Baptist Convention, has posted an email exchange on his church website with a local reporter on his objections to the LDS church.

"Romney's Mormonism will be more a cause of concern than Gingrich's infidelity," Atkins wrote. Christians can forgive sin, the pastor said, "but will struggle to understand how anyone could be a Mormon and call themselves a Christian."

Hector Chavez, a Roman Catholic and Republican voter in Columbia, said he can't support Romney and neither can many people he knows. "As a Christian, I can't vote for somebody who can't lead us in a Christian way," Chavez said. He's leaning toward voting for Perry.

Yet, even Atkins ended his website post by predicting that most Christians will vote based on economic, not moral, concerns.

While he made the comment ruefully, he inadvertently highlighted what evangelical leaders have been struggling to explain ever since the 1980s emergence of the Christian right: Christian conservatives don't just vote on religion, not in South Carolina or anywhere else.

South Carolina has one of the most dramatic examples of how political pragmatism can co-exist with faith.

Bob Jones III, chancellor of the fundamentalist Christian school Bob Jones University in Greenville, stunned many when he endorsed Romney in the 2008 primary.

Fundamentalists generally steer clear of anyone with even the most minor difference over Scripture. But Jones said the country elects a president not a preacher. This past week, Jones said through a spokeswoman that he hasn't endorsed anyone so far in the 2012 primary.

Romney supporters often compare his plight to that of Kennedy, who overcame widespread prejudice to become the first Catholic president.

Charles Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, said the story of the Rev. Jerry Falwell may be more apt for this election cycle as a model for Christian conservatives. When Falwell was building the Moral Majority in the 1980s, he set aside deep theological differences with Catholics and worked closely with them against abortion.

"Evangelicals have been willing to make alliances with groups you never would have imagined," Wilson said.

Maybe Mormons will be next.

____

Associated Press reporters Brian Bakst and Kasie Hunt contributed to this story.

____

Rachel Zoll is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rzollAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120115/ap_on_re/us_rel_the_mormon_factor

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Martin Luther King Jr.: 8 peaceful protests that bolstered civil rights

From 1955 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was the dominant leader of the US civil rights movement. Following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Dr. King believed that nonviolent protest is the most effective weapon against a racist and unjust society. But it required rallying people to his cause. Here are?some of the most revolutionary peaceful protests King led.

- Andrew Mach,?Contributor

Lasting just over a year, the Montgomery bus boycott was a protest campaign against racial segregation on the public transit system in Montgomery, Ala. The protest began, on Dec. 1, 1955, after African-American Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person.?The next day, Dr. King proposed a citywide boycott of public transportation at a church meeting.

The boycott proved to be effective, causing the transit system to run a huge deficit. After all, Montgomery?s black residents not only were the principal boycotters, but also the bulk of the transit system?s paying customers.?The situation became so tense that members of the White Citizens' Council, a group?that opposed racial integration, firebombed King's house.?

In June 1956, a federal court found that the laws in Alabama and Montgomery requiring segregated buses were unconstitutional. However, an appeal kept segregation intact until Dec. 20, 1956, when the US Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling.?The boycott's official end signaled one of the civil rights movement's first victories and made King one of its central figures.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3BbqlygHW2U/Martin-Luther-King-Jr.-8-peaceful-protests-that-bolstered-civil-rights

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Dish CEO denies talk of asset sale, commits to nationwide network

A new service trademark, a 67-page FCC application and a recently redefined brand? These are not the marks of a company looking to lend itself to the altar of M&A. After plunking down over a billion dollars on acquired spectrum, Dish appears dead set on launching its own wireless network, despite rumors of an impending asset sale and a regulatory hold up. In an interview at this week's CES, CEO Joe Clayton put to rest speculation that the satco was looking to place itself or its airwaves on the auction block, saying it was definitively "not part of [the company's] strategy." Regardless, that planned, nationwide LTE network is still a ways off for the pay TV provider, as its 2GHz holdings are still pending the Commission's approval. If and when the outfit gets the greenlight, expect a full buildout in three years time.

Dish CEO denies talk of asset sale, commits to nationwide network originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/DJX2MZMxM28/

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'Family friend' accused of aiding cartel hit squad in Ju?rez wedding party target

A man described as a family friend faces charges for allegedly identifying a New Mexico bridegroom and his relatives to a cartel hit squad before they were abducted during a wedding and then tortured and killed in Ju?rez.

Gonzalo Delgado Chavez, 22, was allegedly paid $1,000 to identify members of the Morales family from La Mesa, N.M., to a hit squad in 2010, according to court documents.

The slayings were among the more brazen acts of violence since a drug war erupted between the Ju?rez and Sinaloa drug cartels in 2008.

Delgado, who is in custody, was indicted in September on a charge of conspiracy to kill in a foreign country. He made a routine courtroom appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in El Paso.

Bridegroom

Rafael Morales Valencia, 29, his brother, Jaime Morales Valencia, 25, and their uncle, Guadalupe Morales Arreola, 51, were kidnapped by gunmen who burst in at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony at Se?or de la Misericordia Catholic church.

Another man, Alonso Sotelo Corral, was fatally shot in the church parking lot as he ran away or tried to intervene during the abduction on May 7, 2010.

Three days later, the bodies of the kidnapped men were found in the bed of a pickup in Ju?rez. The men appeared to have been tortured.

Rafael Morales was a U.S. citizen, his brother was a legal permanent resident, and their uncle was a Mexican citizen with a visa, stated a criminal complaint filed by a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

agent.

Relatives had said the victims were from La Mesa in Do?a Ana County. The family is originally from the city of Namiquipa in the central part of Chihuahua, but the brothers grew up in the United States.

The father of Rafael and Jaime Morales had said the wedding took place in Ju?rez because that is where the bride was raised. She is a U.S. citizen.

According to the criminal complaint by the DEA, Delgado was also from Namiquipa, knew the victims and was supposed to be an usher at the wedding. Delgado is a legal U.S. resident.

The document, citing informants (unnamed cooperating defendants), alleged that Delgado was a drug smuggler for the Sinaloa cartel and was hired in El Paso by a man named Irving Enriquez to point out the victims at the wedding.

The document stated the victims were reportedly targeted because they were affiliated with the Ju?rez cartel.

One of the unnamed informants is described in documents as a member of the Sinaloa cartel who had been in charge of a "hit team" in Ju?rez and worked directly for Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo.

Torres has been identified in court cases as the reputed top boss in Ju?rez of the group known as the "Gente Nueva" of the Sinaloa cartel.

The documents stated that informants told the DEA that Torres ordered the kidnapping at the wedding, interrogated the men and then gave the final order to have them killed.

Other documents reveal that Delgado was arrested after being stopped March 16 at the Santa Teresa border crossing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers allegedly found 38 kilos of marijuana hidden in a car Delgado was driving. Delgado allegedly confessed that he was to be paid $2,800 for driving the load from Ju?rez to El Paso. He was sentenced to a year in prison as part of a plea agreement.

Federal agents also arrested Enriquez in March after he allegedly bought a cache of firearms in a deal in the parking lot of the Love's truck stop west of Las Cruces.

A criminal complaint filed by the FBI alleged Enriquez ordered 20 automatic AK-47s, 10 9-mm pistols and 10 .308 rifles. The gun sellers turned out to be undercover agents. All 40 weapons were recovered.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19698139?source=rss_viewed

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Ranger Gunned Down At Ranier NP

Source: http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/index.php?/archives/4334-Ranger-Gunned-Down-At-Ranier-NP.html

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Casio's smartphone-ready G-Shock watch set to hit Japan in March

Casio's G-Shock GB-6900 watch was originally set to roll out sometime this year (having even made an appearance at FCC way back in July) but, according to TechCrunch, the company was forced to delay its release to due to shortages resulting from the Thailand floods. Now it looks like you'll be able to finally pick one up on March 16th of next year -- at least in Japan, where it's set to run ¥18,000 (or about $230). Of course, we wouldn't be covering this if it was just an ordinary G-Shock watch. The key feature here is Bluetooth LE connectivity (part of the Bluetooth 4.0 spec), which consumes far less power than other Bluetooth variations, and allows the watch to communicate with your smartphone. As you might expect from that tiny display, that functionality is a bit more limited than something like Motorola's MOTOACTV, but it will let you see incoming calls, emails and text messages, and control some basic features like your phone's ringer or alarm.

Casio's smartphone-ready G-Shock watch set to hit Japan in March originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IJ9S2nfZ82g/

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Test drove the new Ford Focus today.

So my aunt showed up with a new Focus sedan today and says "you like my new car? here take it for a spin and throws me the keys."

Let me start with the LIKES

Immediate I like the overall exterior design. It's a very elegant design which looks like will age well. The doors are heavy and close with a solid thunk. Then there's the engine which is silky smooth from idle all the way to redline, though it didn't feel particularly punchy, not any more so than a 140 hp Civic. The suspension is pretty tight, but not harsh and absorbs bumps really well while letting you know what's going on. The Petals also feel tight and not mooshy like many american cars i've driven in the past. The Dash is covered in a nice soft material which is pleasant to the touch and the interior is relatively roomy.

Now on to the DISLIKES

First lets start with the steering wheel. At a glance it looks just like any other ordinary relatively thick and inoffensive steering wheel, but then you hold onto to it and behind it there are these two huge blocks with square edges which feel like you're gripping two giant lego-blocks there there are the seats which are not very comfortable and when you go to adjust it you're met by some very cheap and hard-edge plastic levers which aren't very precise and feel like would stop working after a few years of use. The door handles and window switches were very cheap and flimsy and door panels are of hard cheap plastic. Why would they go to the length of making a nice soft dash which one would most like never touch and then make all the other items which you do have to touch on a daily basis hard, cheap plastics. Then there's the shifter location. You better hope you didn't get a manual because your elbow will hit the armrest on every shift.

Remember that nice smooth engine, well forget about enjoying it because it's paired with a transmission which is constantly hunting for gears and never seems to know which gear it is supposed to be. Visibility all around is not all that great, marred by huge pillars all around. The Mirrors are huge and the overall dash is really bulky and full of odd shapes and angles, giving you the impression you're in a car twice the size.

I've been in bad interior before with the Honda Civic and probably taking the cake as the worst, but in the Civic at least once you sit in it and get over the aesthetic mess that it is you feel comfortable and there is at least some though put into ergonomics, not so in the Focus.

The Focus interior is just a giant cluster**** of odd shapes, angles and texture which make no sense at all. It is as if designers just put together an interior which makes sense and looks good on paper, but never bother to test it out in the flesh.

I drove my cousin's based 2009 Impreza immediately after and there's not contest. Aside from the Solid, heavy doors in the Focus everything felt better in the Impreza. I actually felt a sense of relieve sitting in the Impreza, like when you're sitting on a pile of rocks for a long time and then sit on a nice comfortable chair. Everything just felt much more natural and airy, and even the engine felt a lot stronger.

Source: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5538039-Test-drove-the-new-Ford-Focus-today.&goto=newpost

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For Colombia ex-fighters, few jobs and crime pays (AP)

BOGOTA, Colombia ? Thousands of former combatants in Colombia's long-running conflict who surrendered their weapons to the government have since discovered the downside to civilian life: unemployment.

From both sides of the old battle lines, former right-wing militiamen and leftist rebels are being lured into jobs as kidnappers, drug runners and hit men for emerging crime rings ? a new security threat that ranks among the biggest challenges confronting President Juan Manuel Santos' government.

Former rebel Sabas Duque, who uses a wheelchair because he was partially paralyzed in a shooting, now helps run a Bogota workshop that teaches craft-making with papier-mache and fabric. But he knows plenty of other ex-fighters who have left their jobs and drifted back to gunslinging.

"It's easy and that's what you know how to do," said Duque, 43.

Since 2003, about 54,000 fighters have agreed to give up their weapons, many receiving cash benefits and other aid in exchange. Most belonged to far-right militias that disbanded under a peace pact with the government in which their leaders were offered reduced prison sentences.

The government is still providing assistance to about 32,000 of them, including at least 6,000 who found jobs. But the rest of the former fighters either died or have been expelled from the program for criminal behavior, according to the Colombian Reintegration Agency.

The monthly government check is about $170, often less than a quarter of what crime rings pay a hired gun, analysts say.

The new groups thrive on cocaine trafficking and other crimes, and go by names such as Los Rastrojos (The Remains) and Las Aguilas Negras (The Black Eagles). They include some ex-rebels but far more former members of the right-wing forces known as paramilitaries.

Sometimes, former ideological rivals are teaming up for mutual criminal benefit, authorities say.

"What we've noticed is that guerrillas, former paramilitaries and common criminals are getting together" to commit ransom kidnappings or extortion, said Gen. Humberto Guatibonza, who heads the police anti-kidnapping unit.

The paramilitaries were first formed in the 1980s to defend ranchers and drug traffickers against rebel extortion, and later evolved into armed bands that often operated in concert with the military. At least 55 percent of the fighters who have disarmed came from paramilitary groups, officials said.

But human rights groups say many paramilitaries never disarmed, ignoring the peace pact their leaders made with the government of former President Alvaro Uribe.

"The groups that have emerged after the demobilization of paramilitary organizations constitute the greatest threat to the rule of law and the protection of human rights in Colombia," said Christian Salazar, representative for the Colombia office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"These groups maintain a strong presence in much of the country, and they're a principal source of violence," Salazar told reporters in early December.

Colombia now has at least seven organized criminal bands with a total of 8,000-10,000 members, of which 20-25 percent are estimated to be ex-combatants, according to the think tank Nuevo Arco Iris. The police, on the other hand, recognize six groups and say they have about 5,000 members.

Former paramilitary Duvan Barato, 38, has gone back to college to study psychology and is optimistic he has made a clean break from the days when he made a living demanding extortion money from ranchers. But some of his former comrades-in-arms who earned college degrees are struggling to land jobs.

The government provides job training for participants in fields such as cooking and carpentry, and also offers counseling and remedial education programs.

Barato and others have their tuition paid by the government, and job placement assistance is also provided.

But the men often face other challenges. Many are ostracized by co-workers and others who learn about their previous lives.

"They don't see us as people who can contribute," Barato said. "I've been fortunate. I haven't felt that rejection and that stigma."

Duque, the former rebel, said many ex-militants aren't responsible enough to hold down jobs. Seven of them, including both former rebels and paramilitary fighters, left their jobs at the workshop where Duque teaches craft-making. He is the only one left.

The country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, continues to fight the government with an estimated 9,000 fighters, down from about twice that number in 2000.

Despite the problems, the governments of both Uribe and Santos have called the demobilization program a success. It met its goal of getting tens of thousands to disarm. Government officials deny any increases in crime rates in recent years.

In fact, Colombia's murder rate has declined by more than half, from more than 70 homicides per 100,000 people at the beginning of the last decade to 33 in 2010, according to a recent report on homicide by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

The organization Pais Libre, however, says crimes including kidnapping are on the rise. The group said there were at least 177 kidnappings reported in the first half of 2011, up from 131 during the same period in 2010.

Some experts say the flaws in the Uribe government's peace pact with the paramilitaries included a failure to identify and target midlevel commanders, not just their bosses.

"The midlevel commanders continue to be in the same business," said Carlos Espitia, an analyst with the Bogota-based Institute of Studies for Development and Peace. In a study earlier this year, the organization found that when paramilitary groups partially broke up, some of the midlevel commanders went on to lead new criminal gangs and recruited former comrades.

They cite Pedro Guerrero, alias "Cuchillo" or "Knife," a former paramilitary commander who demobilized in 2006 but then went on to form a powerful crime ring. He was killed by security forces a year ago.

When more than 280 members of his gang surrendered to authorities in late December, prosecutors said at least 15 of them were not just criminals, but former members of paramilitary groups.

Some of the experts warn that the weaknesses in the government effort could prove costly. In Central America, countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador are now terrorized by powerful drug organizations that absorbed fighters after the countries' civil wars of the 1980s ended.

For his part, Barato said that if other educated ex-fighters don't find jobs soon, they may end up training recruits for the new crime gangs.

"We're going to have demobilized troops being armed once again," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120101/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_colombia_jobless_ex_fighters

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Turkey attacks suspected rebel targets in Iraq (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkey's air force attacked suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in Iraq, the military said Thursday, but Kurdish officials claimed many of the roughly 35 people killed were teenaged smugglers mistaken for guerrillas.

The Turkish military confirmed the Wednesday night raids, saying its jets struck an area of northern Iraq frequently used by the rebels to enter Turkey after drones detected a group approaching the often unmarked mountainous border. It said an inquiry has been launched, but did not say whether there were casualties.

The governor's office for the province of Sirnak ? which borders Iraq ? said 35 people were killed and one other person was injured in the aerial operation.

Pro-Kurdish legislator Nazmi Gur said most of those killed were teenagers who were carrying diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey on donkeys or horses ? often the only livelihood in local villages. He claimed that officials would have known that Turkish smugglers would be operating in the area.

Video footage provided by the Dogan agency Thursday morning showed mourners, some crying, as they surrounded dozens of bodies that lay side-by-side and wrapped in blankets in the Turkish village of Ortasu.

Border troops had been placed on alert following intelligence indicating that Kurdish rebels were preparing attacks in retaliation for a series of recent military assaults on the guerrillas, the military said.

It said drones had detected a group approaching Turkey, apparently at a mountain pass that the rebels have used to smuggle weapons into Turkey, and that the military conducted strikes in areas where the rebels have bases far away from civilian settlements.

Ahmet Deniz, a spokesman for the rebel group, put the number of dead at 28. He said they were among a group of about 50 people who were attacked on their way back to Turkey from Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Most of the survivors were injured, he said.

"Those who were killed yesterday had no links to PKK. They were only smugglers who were on their way back to Turkey from Iraq," Deniz said, referring to the Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We were on our way back when the jets began to bomb us," the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency quoted one survivor, Servet Encu, as saying. "Five or six took refuge behind some rocks, but the planes bombed those as well. They all died behind the rocks."

Gur's pro-Kurdish party released a statement condemning "the massacre." Kurdish activists were planning protests to denounce the raids in Istanbul.

Kurdish rebels have long used northern Iraq as a springboard for hit-and-run attacks on Turkish targets in a campaign for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

This year, Turkey's air force has launched dozens of air raids on suspected rebel bases and other targets in northern Iraq and along the Turkish side of the mountainous border. Turkish authorities said at least 48 suspected rebels were killed in two offensives backed by air power in southeast Turkey last week.

Recently, the United States deployed four Predator drones to Turkey from Iraq following the American troops' withdrawal from the country to assist Turkey in its fight against the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict since rebels took up arms in 1984.

__

Associated Press writer Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_re_eu/eu_turkey_airstrikes

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