Peres sure to ask Netanyahu to form new Israeli government

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday began talks with political parties over who should form a new government, and appears certain to ask incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assemble it.

The formal consultation procedure to nominate a lawmaker to form a government, the president's only important executive power, began after Peres was presented with the official results from last week's general election.

Peres will meet representatives from all 12 parties elected to the Knesset according to size in descending order, and hopes to complete the formalities within days, after which he will assign the coalition building task to one lawmaker.

"I intend to carry out my duties in order that a government that represents the will of the people can be formed as soon as possible," he said.

He began the process by meeting representatives of Netanyahu's 31-seat Likud-Beitenu party, the biggest faction in the Knesset and then with Yesh Atid, a new party led by political novice Yair Lapid which won 19 seats.

Peres's nominee will have an initial 28 days to form a coalition and could seek a 14-day extension if needed. Coalition building in Israel often involves detailed negotiations.

Informal talks between factions began almost immediately after the election results became clear last Tuesday. Netanyahu is expected to partner Lapid's centrist party and the 12-seat far-right Jewish Home or "Bayit Yehudi" faction. The three parties comprise a parliamentary majority of 62 seats.

Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties are also expected to back Netanyahu.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Pravin Char)

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South Korea launches first civilian rocket amid tensions with North

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea launched its first space rocket carrying a science satellite on Wednesday amid heightened regional tensions, caused in part, by North Korea's successful launch of its own rocket last month.

It was South Korea's third attempt to launch a civilian rocket to send a satellite in orbit in the past four years and came after two previous launches were aborted at the eleventh hour last year due to technical glitches.

The launch vehicle, named Naro, lifted off from South Korea's space center on the south coast and successfully went through stage separation before entering orbit, officials at the mission control said. Previous launches failed within minutes.

South Korea's rocket program has angered neighbor North Korea, which says it is unjust for it to be singled out for U.N. sanctions for launching long-range rockets as part of its space program to put a satellite into orbit.

North Korea's test in December showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

However, it is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States.

The test in December was considered a success, at least partially, by demonstrating an ability to put an object in space.

But the satellite, as claimed by the North, is not believed to be functioning.

South Korea is already far behind regional rivals China and Japan in the effort to build space rockets to put satellites into orbit and has relied on other countries, including Russia, to launch them.

Launch attempts in 2009 and 2010 ended in failure.

The first stage booster of the South Korean rocket was built by Russia. South Korea has produced several satellites and has relied on other countries to put them in orbit.

South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and eventually send a probe to the moon.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Hamas allows Gaza voter registration in step to heal Palestinian split

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian officials will begin registering voters in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip next month to pave the way for elections aimed at healing a nearly six-year split between Palestinian factions.

Hamas had barred the Palestinian Central Election Commission from Gaza, a territory it seized from the Fatah movement in a brief 2007 civil war, accusing the body of bias in favor of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority which rules the West Bank.

Following Egyptian-brokered talks, the two factions agreed that registering Gaza voters ahead of national parliamentary and presidential polls would be the first step towards forming a national unity government.

"We are confident this process will begin soon and will be accomplished, and through it we would have achieved the first stage in the process of ending division," CEC chairman Hanna Naser told reporters in Gaza on Wednesday.

Registration will begin on February 9, the CEC said, when Palestinian factions are due to meet in Cairo to begin integrating Gaza-based militant parties Hamas and Islamic Jihad into the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinians' diplomatic body, which is now close to Fatah.

Palestinian law requires elections to be held within three months of voter registration.

The rivals have agreed they will form a unity cabinet of technocrats as an interim measure, but have bickered over the details.

Palestinian President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas has said ministers must have no affiliation to either party, but Hamas wants to make sure they are not bound to support any initiative Abbas may make toward reviving peace talks with Israel.

"The government in Gaza was determined to facilitate the mission of the CEC and provide them with what they need to carry out their job," said Taher Al-Nono, spokesman of the Hamas government in Gaza.

Egypt had hoped to exploit a partisan thaw following a status upgrade for Palestinians at the United Nations and a truce between Hamas and Israel in the wake of eight days of fighting in November.

But misgivings linger over the conduct of 2006 national elections, in which Hamas won a surprise majority.

Abbas continues to call the takeover of Gaza which followed a "coup". Hamas is resentful that its electoral victory is not recognized, and says continued detention of Hamas officials in the West Bank undermines unity efforts. Fatah also accuses Hamas of making arrests among its Gaza members.

The two parties have yet to reconcile their strategy toward Israel. Fatah renounces violence and favors talks while Hamas has pledged to keep its weapons trained on Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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Donors meet target of $1.5 billion aid for stricken Syrians: U.N.

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Donor countries have pledged more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians stricken by civil war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday after warning that the conflict had wrought a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

In a pointed message for Syria's leader, Ban told a fund-raising conference that President Bashar al-Assad bore primary responsibility to stop his country's suffering after nearly two years of conflict that have cost an estimated 60,000 lives.

"Every day Syrians face unrelenting horrors," Ban told the gathering in Kuwait, adding these included sexual violence and arbitrary killings. Sixty-five people were shot dead execution-style in Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said.

"We cannot go on like this.... He should listen to the voices and cries of so many people," Ban said.

"I appeal to all sides and particularly the Syrian government to stop the killing ... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence."

Ban said the one-day conference had exceeded the target of $1.5 billion in pledges. About $1 billion is earmarked for Syria's neighbors hosting refugees and $500 million for humanitarian aid to Syrians displaced inside the country.

The $500 million would be channeled through U.N. partner agencies in Syria. and the entire aid pledge would cover the next six months, Ban said.

But in the Syrian capital Damascus, the thud of artillery drowned out any optimism on the streets. Asked about the aid promises, Damascenes were uninterested or despairing.

"Where's the money going to go to? How does anyone know where it's going? It all seems like talk," said Faten, a grandmother from a middle-class family in the capital.

Another middle-class Damascene, a woman in her 70s who asked not to be named, said the money would not make it to Syrians.

"Tomorrow all that money will get stolen. (The middlemen) steal everything. If they could steal people's souls, they would. I wouldn't count on the money," she said.

The oil-rich Gulf Arab states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each promised $300 million at the meeting. Its 60 participants included Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Tunisia, the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and a number of European countries.

But relief groups say that converting promises into hard cash can take much time, and one of them said on Tuesday that aid now reaching Syria was not being distributed fairly, with almost all of it going to government-controlled areas.

"GETTING WORSE EVERY DAY"

Ban said that much more remained to be done to address Syria's humanitarian emergency. "The situation in Syria is catastrophic and getting worse every day."

Four million Syrians inside the country need food, shelter and other aid in the midst of a freezing winter, and more than 700,000 more are estimated to have fled to countries nearby.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said that Syrian agriculture was in crisis, hospitals and ambulances had been damaged and even painkillers were unavailable.

Freezing, snowy winter weather had made matters worse, and people lack warm clothes, blankets and fuel, with women and children particularly at risk, she said, adding:

"We are watching a human tragedy unfold before our eyes."

Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, told the meeting "horrifying reports" of violence had raised questions about Syria's future and relief efforts had to be redoubled.

Syrian opposition activists said at least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the embattled northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, the latest reported massacre over the course of 22 months of conflict.

They blamed militiamen loyal to Assad, while the government blamed the Islamist rebel Nusra Front. It was impossible to confirm who was responsible given Syria's restrictions on access for independent media.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in all, according to a U.N. estimate, since the conflict began as a peaceful movement for democratic reform and escalated into an armed rebellion after Assad tried to crush the unrest by force.

Diplomacy to halt the war has been stymied by deadlock in the U.N. Security Council between Western powers, who want Assad to quit as part of a democratic transition, and Russia, a close Assad ally that rejects outside interference in Syria.

And the fighting is largely stalemated in Syria, with rebels holding swathes of the north and east but unable to take key cities because of the government's air power and superiority in heavy weapons.

King Abdullah of Jordan told the donors' meeting Syrians had taken refuge in his country in their hundreds of thousands but Amman's ability to help was at its limits. "We have reached the end of the line, we have exhausted our resources," he said.

Iran, a staunch supporter of Assad, said the blame for the humanitarian crisis lay with rebel fighters who had come to Syria from abroad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the government and its Syrian opponents should "sit and talk and form a transitional government".

"Those who are causing these calamities are mercenaries who have come to Syria from outside the country," he said. For an interactive timeline on Syria, please click on http://link.reuters.com/rut37s

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, Ahmed Hagagy, Sami Aboudi, Mahmoud Habboush and Mirna Sleiman; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Egypt curfew scaled back as Mursi seeks end to bloodshed

CAIRO/BERLIN (Reuters) - Authorities in an Egyptian city scaled back a curfew imposed by President Mohamed Mursi, and the Islamist leader cut short a visit to Europe on Wednesday to deal with the deadliest violence in the seven months since he took power.

Two more protesters were shot dead before dawn near Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Wednesday, a day after the army chief warned that the state was on the brink of collapse if Mursi's opponents and supporters did not end street battles.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past seven days of protests by Mursi's opponents, raising global concern over whether the Islamist leader can restore stability to the most populous Arab country.

Mursi imposed a curfew and a state of emergency on three Suez Canal cities on Sunday but that only seemed to further provoke crowds in a week of unrest marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

The governor of Ismailia, one of the three canal cities, said on Wednesday he was scaling back the curfew, which would now take effect nightly from 2:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 p.m..

Mursi, speaking in Berlin before hurrying home to deal with the crisis, called for dialogue with opponents but would not commit to their demand that he first agree to include them in a unity government.

Asked about that proposal, he said the next government would be formed after parliamentary elections in April.

Egypt was on its way to becoming "a civilian state that is not a military state or a theocratic state", Mursi said.

The violence at home forced Mursi to scale back his European visit, billed as a chance to promote Egypt as a destination for foreign investment. He flew to Berlin but called off a trip to Paris and was due back home after only a few hours in Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met him, echoed other Western leaders who have called on him to give his opponents a voice.

"One thing that is important for us is that the line for dialogue is always open to all political forces in Egypt, that the different political forces can make their contribution, that human rights are adhered to in Egypt and that of course religious freedom can be experienced," she said at a joint news conference with Mursi.

SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION

Mursi's critics accuse him of betraying the spirit of the revolution by keeping too much power in his own hands and those of his Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement banned under Mubarak which won repeated elections since the 2011 uprising.

Mursi's supporters say the protesters want to overthrow Egypt's first democratically elected leader. The current unrest has deepened an economic crisis that saw the pound currency tumble in recent weeks.

Near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday morning, dozens of protesters threw stones at police who fired back teargas, although the scuffles were brief.

"Our demand is simply that Mursi goes, and leaves the country alone. He is just like Mubarak and his crowd who are now in prison," said Ahmed Mustafa, 28, a youth who had goggles on his head to protect his eyes from teargas.

Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei called for a meeting of the president, ministers, the ruling party and the opposition to halt the violence. But he also restated the precondition that Mursi first commit to seeking a national unity government.

The worst violence has been in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, where rage was fuelled by death sentences passed against soccer fans for roles in deadly riots last year.

After decades in which the West backed Mubarak's military rule of Egypt, the emergence of an elected Islamist leader in Cairo is probably the single most important change brought about by the wave of Arab revolts over the past two years.

Mursi won backing from the West last year for his role in helping to establish a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians that ended a conflict in Gaza. But he then followed that with an effort to fast-track a constitution that reignited dissent at home and raised global concern over Egypt's future.

Western countries were alarmed this month by video that emerged showing Mursi making vitriolic remarks against Jews and Zionists in 2010 when he was a senior Brotherhood official.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said ahead of Mursi's visit that the remarks, in which Mursi referred to Zionists as "descendants of apes and pigs" were "unacceptable".

"NOT AGAINST JEWS"

Asked about those remarks at the news conference with Merkel, Mursi repeated earlier explanations that they had been taken out of context.

"I am not against the Jewish faith," he said. "I was talking about the practices and behavior of believers of any religion who shed blood or who attack innocent people or civilians. That's behavior that I condemn."

"I am a Muslim. I'm a believer and my religion obliges me to believe in all prophets, to respect all religions and to respect the right of people to their own faith," he added.

Egypt's main liberal and secularist bloc, the National Salvation Front, has so far refused talks with Mursi unless he promises a unity government including opposition figures.

"Stopping the violence is the priority, and starting a serious dialogue requires committing to guarantees demanded by the National Salvation Front, at the forefront of which are a national salvation government and a committee to amend the constitution," ElBaradei said on Twitter.

Those calls have also been backed by the hardline Islamist Nour party - rivals of Mursi's Brotherhood. Nour and the Front were due to meet on Wednesday, signaling an unlikely alliance of Mursi's critics from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy dismissed the unity government proposal as a ploy for the Front to take power despite having lost elections. On his Facebook page he ridiculed "the leaders of the Salvation Front, who seem to know more about the people's interests than the people themselves".

In a sign of the toll the unrest is having on Egypt's economy, ratings agency Fitch downgraded its sovereign rating by one notch to B on Wednesday.

German industry leaders see potential in Egypt but are concerned about political instability.

"At the moment many firms are waiting on political developments and are cautious on any big investments," said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, head of Germany's Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

(Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh and Marwa Awad in Cairo, Stephen Brown and Gernot Heller in Berlin and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Peter Millership)

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Israel hits Syria arms convoy to Lebanon: sources

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli forces attacked a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border on Wednesday, sources told Reuters, after Israelis warned their Lebanese enemy Hezbollah against using chaos in Syria to acquire anti-aircraft missiles or chemical weapons.

"The target was a truck loaded with weapons, heading from Syria to Lebanon," said one Western diplomat, adding that the consignment seemed unlikely to have included chemical weapons.

A source among rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said an air strike around dawn (0430 GMT) blasted a convoy on a mountain track about 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of where the main Damascus-Beirut highway crosses the border. Its load probably included high-tech anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.

"It attacked trucks carrying sophisticated weapons from the regime to Hezbollah," the source said, adding that it took place inside Syria, though the border is poorly defined in the area.

A security official in the region also placed the attack on the Syrian side. A Lebanese security official denied any strike in Lebanon. It was not clear whether special forces took part.

The Israeli government declined comment on the issue.

Such a strike would fit its existing policy of pre-emptive covert and overt action to curb Iranian-backed Hezbollah and does not necessarily indicate a major escalation of the war in Syria. It does, however, indicate how the erosion of Assad's family rule after 42 years is seen by Israel as posing a threat.

Some analysts suggested Hezbollah was moving its own arms caches from stores in Syria, fearing rebels would overrun them.

Though Israel this week echoed concerns in the United States about Syrian chemical weapons, officials say a more immediate worry is that the civil war could see weapons that are capable of denting its massive superiority in airpower and tanks from reaching Hezbollah; the group fought Israel in 2006 and remains a more pressing threat than its Syrian and Iranian sponsors.

Wednesday's strike could have been a rapid response to an opportunity. But a stream of Israeli comment on Syria in recent days was a reminder of a standing policy of pre-emptive strikes and may have been intended to limit surprise in world capitals.

The head of the Israeli air force said only hours before the strike that his corps, which has an array of the latest jet bombers, attack helicopters and unmanned drones at its disposal, was involved in a covert "campaign between wars".

"This campaign is 24/7, 365 days a year," Major-General Amir Eshel told a conference on Tuesday. "We are taking action to reduce the immediate threats, to create better conditions in which we will be able to win the wars, when they happen."

JETS OVER LEBANON

In Israel, where media operate under military censorship, broadcasters immediately relayed international reports of the strike. Channel Two television quoted what it called foreign sources saying the convoy was carrying anti-aircraft missiles.

In Lebanon, the army reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets over its territory throughout the night, following several days of increased incursions into Lebanese airspace. Israeli jets routinely fly and there have been unconfirmed reports in previous years of air strikes on Hezbollah arms shipments.

An Israeli attack inside Syria could be diplomatically provocative, particularly since Assad's Iranian ally said on Saturday that it would view such a strike as an attack on itself. Israel views Iran as its principal enemy and is engaged in a bitter confrontation over Tehran's nuclear program.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set for a new term after an election earlier this month, told his cabinet that both developments in Iran and turmoil in Arab states, notably Syria and Egypt, meant Israel must be strong.

"In the east, north and south, everything is in ferment, and we must be prepared, strong and determined in the face of all possible developments," he said.

The Israeli military confirmed this week that it had lately deployed two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket-interceptor system to around the northern city of Haifa, which came under heavy Hezbollah missile fire during a brief war in 2006.

Israel's refusal to comment on Wednesday is usual in such cases; it has, for example, never admitted a 2007 air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear site despite U.S. confirmation of it.

By not confirming that raid, Israel may have ensured that Assad did not feel obliged to retaliate. For 40 years, Syria has offered little but bellicose words against Israel. A failing Assad administration, some Israelis fear, might be tempted into more action, while Syria's Islamist rebels are also hostile to Israel and could present a threat if they seize heavier weapons.

Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said on Sunday that any sign that the Syrian army's grip on its presumed chemical weapons stocks was slipping could trigger Israeli intervention.

But Israeli sources said on Tuesday that Syria's advanced conventional weapons, much of it Russian-built hardware able to destroy Israeli planes and tanks, would represent as much of a threat to Israel as chemical arms in the wrong hands.

Interviewed on Wednesday, Shalom would not be drawn on whether Israeli forces had been in action in the north, instead describing the country as part of an international coalition seeking to stop spillover from Syria's two-year-old insurgency.

Recalling that President Barack Obama had warned Assad of U.S. action if his forces use chemical weapons, Shalom told Israel Radio: "The world, led by President Obama, who has said this more than once, is taking all possibilities into account.

"Any development ... in a negative direction would be something that needs stopping and prevention."

LEBANON WAR

During the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israeli aircraft faced little threat, though its navy was taken aback when a missile hit a ship. Israeli tanks suffered losses to rockets, and commanders are concerned Hezbollah may get better weaponry.

In what might have been a sign of seeking to reassure major powers, Israeli media reported this week that the country's national security adviser was dispatched to Russia and military intelligence chief to the United States for consultations.

Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London saw any strike on Wednesday as intended to deliver a signal rather than heralding a major escalation from Israel.

"I think the Israelis are sending a message not just to Hezbollah, but also to Assad's forces, that they have no wish to get dragged in, but chemical weapons and certain types of missiles are a red line for them, and that regime forces ought to signal, in turn, to Hezbollah that they should proceed with caution," he said.

Worries about Syria and Hezbollah have sent Israelis lining up for government-issued gas masks. According to the Israel post office, which is handling distribution of the kits, demand roughly trebled this week.

"It looks like every kind of discourse on this or that security matter contributes to public vigilance," its deputy director Haim Azaki told Israel's Army Radio. "We have really seen a very significant jump in demand."

(Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Will Waterman)

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City officials probed for negligence over Brazil nightclub fire

SANTA MARIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Prosecutors in southern Brazil, where 235 people died when a fire ravaged the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria last weekend, are investigating whether city leaders and inspectors were negligent in allowing the club to operate.

The investigation, which is separate from a criminal probe into the causes of the tragedy, comes after police said the club's sole exit was partially blocked and that fire extinguishers and emergency exit lights weren't working.

Investigators say the lapses led to the stampede and consequent trampling and suffocation that killed most of the fire's victims.

"There is a political dimension to what happened," Cesar Augusto Carlan, a public prosecutor for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where the fire occurred, said in an interview on Wednesday.

He said the investigation sought to determine what fault may lie with the city, fire inspectors, and any other enforcement officials who had allowed the nightclub to operate.

In a news conference late Tuesday, Santa Maria's mayor, Cesar Schirmer, said city inspectors visited the club last April after it had undergone remodeling and found no reason to revoke its operating permit.

He said his mind was "at ease" that city hall had "fulfilled its obligation."

Schirmer added: "The establishment, in our view, had no irregularities. If any measures or inspections should have been taken, that was the responsibility of the fire department."

The local fire department, for its part, reiterated in a statement late Tuesday that it was in the process of renewing the club's safety permit when the fire occurred, but that the establishment was authorized to operate in the meantime.

It added, however, that the club appears to have committed several safety violations, noting that it did not have a permit allowing the sort of pyrotechnics that sparked the fire and that regulations require that the exit remain unobstructed, which wasn't the case.

"If there had been a request to use pyrotechnics in the nightclub Kiss, the fire department would not have authorized it," the statement read.

Further details of the tragedy continue to emerge.

Police said one of the club's owners, who with his co-owner is in police custody for questioning, on Tuesday tried to choke himself with a shower hose at a local hospital in a suicide attempt. The owner, identified by police as Elissandro Spohr, told officials he could not bear the strain of the tragedy.

In addition to the two club owners, two members of Gurizada Fandangueira, the band that was performing at the club, also are in custody for questioning. One of the band members, police say, lit an outdoor flare during its show, igniting overhead soundproofing material from which the fire rapidly spread.

None of the four men has been charged with any crime.

Local authorities have revised the death toll from the tragedy to 235, following the death of an injured man in hospital and a recount of the confirmed dead. Late on Tuesday, 121 people remained in hospital, 83 of them on respirators.

Some of those being treated are suffering complications from the toxic chemicals they inhaled during the fire.

(Writing by Paulo Prada; Editing by Todd Benson, Kieran Murray and David Storey)

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Erdogan says can seek referendum on Turkey constitution if no deal

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he will take proposed constitutional reforms, expected to include the creation of an executive presidency, directly to parliament and if necessary to the people if no deal can be reached by April.

A cross-party parliamentary commission drafting a new constitution had been expected to finish its work by the start of this year but has failed to reach a consensus.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since his AK Party first came to power in 2002, is widely viewed as wanting to change the charter to establish an executive presidency for himself in time for elections due next year.

Erdogan said the AK Party would take its proposals for an amended constitution directly to parliament if no agreement had been reached by the end of March.

"We are hoping that this matter will be finalized by the end of March ... If it is not completed, the AK Party will bring its work on this to parliament's agenda," he told a meeting of his ruling party deputies in parliament.

Approval of constitutional amendments require two-thirds support in the 550-seat assembly, or 367 votes, which the AK Party, which controls 326 seats, may struggle to achieve.

It would need only 60 percent, or 330 votes, for the bill to be put to a referendum, however.

"When we have the power to hold a referendum, we will go to the nation," Erdogan said.

Politicians from all Turkey's main parties agree Turkey's current constitution, drawn up after a 1980 coup, needs to be revised. But the opposition fears the reforms the AK Party wants will hand Erdogan too much power.

The clock is ticking. Local elections are due in March 2014, followed by a presidential vote a few months later and a parliamentary election in 2015.

In a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle ahead of that election cycle, Erdogan replaced his interior, tourism, health, and education ministers with close allies last week.

(Reporting by Gulsen Solaker; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Sonya Hepinstall)

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French troops deploy in last of Mali rebel strongholds

DOUENTZA, Mali (Reuters) - French troops took control on Wednesday of the airport of Mali's northeast town of Kidal, the last urban stronghold held by Islamist rebels, as they moved to wrap up the first phase of a military operation to wrest northern Mali from rebel hands.

A three-week ground and air offensive by French forces aimed at initially ending a 10-month Islamist rebel occupation of major towns is expected to eventually hand over to a larger African force.

The Africans' task will be rooting out insurgents hiding in the desert and mountains near Algeria's border.

"They (the French) arrived late last night and deployed in four planes and some helicopters," Haminy Belco Maiga, president of Kidal's regional assembly of Kidal, told Reuters.

However, the deployment of French troops to remote Kidal puts them in direct contact with pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels operating there.

The Tuaregs, whose separatist rebellion last year was hijacked by the Islamist radicals, say they are ready to fight al Qaeda, but many Malians blame them for triggering the collapse of democracy and division with their northern revolt.

France's military operation in its former West African colony involves around 3,500 troops on the ground backed by warplanes, helicopters and armored vehicles. It is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe.

French and Malian troops retook the major Saharan trading towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend.

There were fears that many thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts held in Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, might have been lost during the rebel occupation, but experts said the bulk of the texts were safe.

The United States and European governments strongly support the Mali intervention and are providing logistical and surveillance backing but do not intend to send combat troops.

The MNLA rebels, who want greater autonomy for the desert north, said they had moved fighters into Kidal after Islamists left the town earlier this week.

"For the moment, there is a coordination with the French troops," said Moussa Ag Assarid, the MNLA spokesman in Paris.

There were no reports of Malian government troops being in the town.

The MNLA took up arms against the Bamako government a year ago, seeking to carve out a new independent desert state.

After initially fighting alongside the Islamists, by June they had been forced out by their better armed and financed former allies, who include al Qaeda North Africa's wing, AQIM, a splinter wing called MUJWA and Ansar Dine, a Malian group.

RISK OF ATTACKS, KIDNAPPINGS

But as the French wind up the successful first phase of their offensive, doubts remain about just how quickly the U.N.-backed African intervention force, known as AFISMA and now expected to exceed 8,000 troops, can be fully deployed in Mali to hunt down the retreating al Qaeda-allied insurgents.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the French military operation, codenamed Serval (Wildcat), was planned to be a lightning mission that would last just a few weeks to avoid getting bogged down.

"Liberating Gao and Timbuktu very quickly was part of the plan. Now it's up to the African countries to take over," he told the Le Parisien daily. "We decided to put in the means and the necessary number of soldiers to strike hard. But the French contingent will not stay like this. We will leave very quickly."

Fabius warned that things could now get more difficult, as the offensive seeks to flush out insurgents with experience of fighting in the desert from their wilderness hideouts.

"We have to be careful. We are entering a complicated phase where the risks of attacks or kidnappings are extremely high. French interests are threatened throughout the entire Sahel."

An attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria earlier this month by Islamist fighters opposing the French intervention in Mali led to the deaths of dozens of foreign hostages and raised fears of similar reprisal strikes across North and West Africa.

NEED FOR RECONCILIATION

While the French operation has made destroying Islamist fighters, positions and assets with air strikes a priority, analysts say a long term solution for Mali hinges on finding a political settlement between the northern communities and the southern capital Bamako.

Interim President Dioncounda Traore said on Tuesday his government would aim to hold national elections on July 31.

After months of being kept on the political sidelines, the MNLA said they were in contact with West African mediators who are trying to forge a national settlement to reunite Mali.

"We reiterate that we are ready to talk with Bamako and to find a political solution. We want self-determination, but all that will be up to negotiations which will determine at what level both parties can go," Ag Assarid said.

However, there have been cases in Gao and Timbuktu and other recaptured towns of reprisal attacks and looting of shops and residences belonging to Malian Tuaregs and Arabs suspected of sympathizing with the MNLA and the Islamist rebels.

France has called for international observers to be deployed to ensure human rights abuses are not committed.

"Reconciling the Tuaregs with their Malian co-citizens will be extremely complicated," said Francois Heisbourg, a special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris-based think-tank.

(Additional reporting John Irish and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, David Lewis and Pascal Fletcher in Dakar; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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Pakistani girl shot by Taliban to have skull reconstructed

LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education is to return to a specialist hospital in Britain for surgery to reconstruct her skull.

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged from the hospital earlier this month to spend time with her family after her initial treatment phase.

Her doctors said on Wednesday she would return to hospital within the next 10 days to undergo surgery known as titanium cranioplasty to repair a missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate.

The shooting of Yousufzai, in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

British doctors who treated Yousufzai say the bullet hit her left brow but instead of penetrating her skull, traveled underneath the skin along the side of her head and into her shoulder.

The shock wave shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and the soft tissues at the base of her jaw were damaged. The bullet and its fracture lines also destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing, rendering her deaf in her left ear.

She is being cared for in a specialist department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, which has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director, said a procedure to insert a cochlear implant to restore her left side hearing and the complicated skull reconstruction surgery would be carried out by a team of 10 doctors and nurses.

The skull will be repaired with a 0.6 mm plate molded from a 3D model created using imaging data from Malala's skull.

The cranioplasty, which is expected to take between one and two hours, will be carried out first, followed by the cochlear implant operation, which should take around 90 minutes, Rosser said in a statement.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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Russia: Syria rebels obsession with Assad blocks peace

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's foes are bent on overthrowing his government and called their "obsession" with this goal an insurmountable obstacle to peace.

Lavrov's comments at an annual news conference signaled no shift in the stance of Russia, which says Assad's exit from power must not be a precondition for a deal to end 22 months of violence in which more than 60,000 people have been killed.

"Everything runs up against opposition members' obsession with the idea of the overthrow of the Assad regime. As long as this irreconcilable position remains in force, nothing good will happen - armed action will continue, people will die," he said.

Russia has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed pressuring Assad to end the bloodshed, which began with a crackdown on protests in March 2011 and later escalated into civil war.

Lavrov also accused Western and Arab states that have recognized the opposition Syrian National Coalition of undermining chances for a peaceful solution to the conflict by granting too much support to the rebels.

"Opposition activists continue to categorically reject dialogue, have opted for military conflict and our partners... are encouraging them in that and support them with everything needed to prolong that fight," he said.

Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister since 2004 and the face of its policy on the Syrian conflict, said Moscow's main goal in Syria was to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible.

"But apparently other colleagues have other priorities," he said. "We often talk to them about that, they seem to understand it all, and the threat accompanying the prospect of the breakup of the Syrian state."

"But when they speak in public they say somewhat different things, differing from what they tell us privately," he said without elaborating.

NO NEED TO EVACUATE

Lavrov said the situation in Syria was "causing utmost concern" but that it did not warrant a mass evacuation of Russian citizens living there.

Russia flew 77 of its citizens fleeing the violence to Moscow early on Wednesday after they were bussed to Lebanon, but Lavrov said it was not the start of a broader evacuation.

"We have plans (in place), as we have plans for any country, in case of an escalation of the internal situation ... But there is no talk of implementing them," Lavrov said.

Russia is a long-time arms supplier for Assad's government, though President Vladimir Putin has said it is not providing weapons that could be used in the conflict. Russia maintains a modest naval facility in the port of Tartous that is its only military base outside the former Soviet Union.

Russia is currently holding what it says are its biggest naval exercises in decades in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, not far from Syria, a show of force that Lavrov said was a positive factor.

"Of course we have no interest in the Mediterranean region becoming even more destabilized, and the presence of our fleet there is undoubtedly a stabilizing factor," he said.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Jon Boyle)

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Panel slams police in India rape case, rejects tougher penalties

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India needs to implement existing laws, not introduce tougher punishment such as the death penalty, to prevent rape, a government panel set up to review legislation said on Wednesday, following a brutal gang rape that shook the nation.

Panel head, justice J.S. Verma, rejected outright the idea of the death penalty for rape cases, a demand from some protesters and politicians in the days after the 23-year-old physiotherapy student was attacked on a moving bus.

"There was an overwhelming opinion against the death penalty, even women's groups opposed this," Verma told a news conference. This recommendation was in line with the opinions of rights organizations concerned harsh new laws would not solve the rising number of reported sexual assault cases in India.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Verma to look at possible amendments of criminal law in response to public anger after the rape and subsequent death of the student, who was assaulted with metal bars and dumped bleeding on a highway.

In that case, because the woman died of her injuries, the five accused have been charged with murder and face the death penalty if found guilty. The victim died of massive organ damage in a Singapore hospital two weeks after the attack.

Hearings in the case against the accused begin in a fast track sessions court on Thursday. The court must decide which of the prosecution's charges it will hear before a trial formally begins.

Separately, the Supreme Court is hearing a petition to move the case out of Delhi, after one of the accused said strong public opinion in the city would prejudice the case.

Verma said he was shocked to hear top government officials congratulate the Delhi police chief's handling of the case, when, he said, police negligence was to blame for a climate of insecurity in New Delhi, known as India's "rape capital."

"Practically every serious breach of the rule of law can be traced to the failure of performance by the persons responsible for its implementation," the recommendations submitted to the government by Verma on Wednesday stated.

The report said the failure of public functionaries responsible for traffic regulation and law and order enabled the Delhi gang rape, and said the case had revealed "officials' low and skewed priority of dealing with complaints of sexual assault".

He also rejected lowering the age juveniles can be tried as adults, a demand from some politicians and protesters. A sixth accused in the case has told police he is under 18, meaning he would face a maximum three year sentence if found guilty.

The panel did recommend other milder forms of sexual harassment be more strictly legislated against and punished.

"Sexual assault degenerates to its gravest form of rape beginning with uncontrolled sexual harassment in milder forms, which remain uncontrolled. It has, therefore to be curbed at the initial stage."

(Reporting By Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Suicide bomber kills 22 inside Iraqi Shi'ite mosque

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber disguised as a mourner killed at least 22 people inside an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim mosque on Wednesday when he set off his explosives in the middle of a crowded funeral.

The latest of four suicide attacks in a week came as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faces mounting pressure from mass Sunni protests that threaten to return Iraq to the scale of sectarian violence that killed thousands in 2006-2007.

Dressed in a suit, the bomber mingled with mourners before detonating the blast at the Saif al Shuhada, Sword of the Martyrs, mosque in Tuz Khurmato city at a ceremony for a Shi'ite ethnic Turkman, police and witnesses said.

"I was sitting in the seats at the back when all of sudden I heard the sound of a huge explosion. Thank God I was behind because people in front of me saved me with their bodies," said Abbas Qadir Mohammed, 35, one of the wounded.

Panicked survivors packed the injured and dead wrapped in carpets into trucks and cars to rush them to hospital in the religiously and ethnically mixed city 170 km (105 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

Rigot Mohammed, an Iraqi army spokesman, said at least 22 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the blast.

No one claimed responsibility, but al Qaeda's local wing, Islamic State of Iraq, often targets Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims and sites to try to trigger widespread Sunni-Shi'ite confrontation in Iraq a year after the last American troops withdrew.

The Sunni militant group has pledged to win back ground lost during the war following the U.S.-led 2003 invasion and has been reinvigorated by Sunni Islamists fighting against President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria.

Maliki is struggling to calm weeks of street protests by Sunni Muslims while his delicately balanced government, a coalition of Sunnis, ethnic Kurds and the Shi'ite majority, is deadlocked in a crisis over power sharing.

The attack on Tuz Khurmato was the fourth suicide bombing in Iraq in a week. At least 55 people have been killed in the blasts, including a Sunni lawmaker visiting a town where protesters were gathering. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for that bombing.

POLITICAL UNREST

Sunni unrest and renewed violence in Iraq are compounding fears the war in neighboring Syria - where Sunni rebels are battling to topple Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - will upset Iraq's own fragile sectarian and ethnic mix.

The local al Qaeda affiliate's position has been boosted by Sunni Islamist fighters, cash and arms flowing to the war in Syria.

Sunni protests erupted in late December after authorities arrested the bodyguards of a Sunni finance minister on charges of terrorism. Sunni leaders said the arrests were part of a crackdown from the Shi'ite-led government on their sect.

Since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the rise of the Shi'ite majority to power through elections, many Iraqi Sunnis say they feel they have been marginalized over the decade since the U.S.-led invasion.

Protesters want reforms to an anti-terrorism law and an easing of a campaign against members of Saddam's former Baath party, two measures they say officials use unfairly to target the Sunni community.

Maliki has appointed a top Shi'ite figure to investigate those conditions and authorities have freed nearly 1,000 detainees in a gesture to appease protests. But demonstrators are calling more and more for the Shi'ite premier to step down.

(Reporting by Mustafa Mohammed and Omar Mohammed in Kirkuk, and Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Israeli voters punish Netanyahu but keep him in power

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu set about forging a new ruling coalition on Wednesday after Israeli voters fed up with state coddling of ultra-Orthodox Jews chastised him by propelling an upstart centrist party to prominence.

Tuesday's vote crystallized demands for attention to bread-and-butter issues over the ambitions of religiously fired hardliners, and largely sidelined foreign policy issues such as Iran's nuclear plans and Palestinian aspirations.

The right-wing prime minister claimed victory after his Likud party and its ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu ally took 31 of parliament's 120 seats, according to a near-final tally.

That made it the biggest single bloc, despite losing 11 of its previous seats. Overall, right-wing factions emerged with roughly half the total. Final results are expected on Thursday.

Making a virtue of necessity, a weakened Netanyahu has signaled a desire to broaden his coalition with centre-left parties that would lend it a more moderate gloss.

Such a shift could ease friction between him and U.S. President Barack Obama, himself embarking this week on a new term in office and who wants to avert an Israeli attack on Iran and restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The likelihood of a purely right-wing government has receded, along with the headaches that would cause for Obama," said David Makovsky, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "So there's a better chance for Netanyahu to find a 'modus vivendi' with the U.S."

Israeli media highlighted the electoral setback for Netanyahu and the surprise surge of the centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party, runner-up with 19 projected seats in a parliament likely to include about a dozen parties in all.

"SHARING THE BURDEN"

Yesh Atid and the centre-left Labour party, which came third with 15 seats, tapped into secular middle-class resentment that taxpayers must shoulder what they see as the burden of welfare-dependent ultra-Orthodox Jews exempt from military conscription.

Netanyahu, who in two terms as premier has enjoyed backing from the growing religious minority, quickly made overtures to his opponents by saying he wanted to form as wide a coalition as possible, a process that is likely to take several weeks.

In an apparent bid to persuade Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to join his cabinet, Netanyahu pledged his administration would ensure "a more equal sharing of the burden" - a reference to generous privileges granted to the ultra-Orthodox 10 percent.

Listing other priorities that he said he had agreed with his hardline ally and former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, he promised affordable housing and changes in the electoral system.

Lapid has focused his campaign on ending military draft exemptions for Jewish seminary students and drawing more of the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom receive state stipends, into the workforce - steps supported by many secular Israelis.

"We awaken to a morning after the elections with a clear message from the public, which wants me to continue to lead the country," Netanyahu told reporters summoned to his office.

A senior member of Yesh Atid said that ending exemption from military service was central to the party's platform, as was reviving U.S.-backed peace talks with the Palestinians.

"Whoever wants Yesh Atid in the coalition will need to bring these things," Ofer Shelah told Army Radio.

Palestinians reacted warily to the outcome of the poll, voicing doubts it would produce a government more willing to compromise for peace, even if it included centrist parties.

An editorial in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds said such parties would provide a "cosmetic decoration" for a Netanyahu-led government that would mislead world public opinion without halting a drive to expand Jewish settlement on occupied land.

IRAN IN HIS SIGHTS

"We're not seeking to make peace with this or that party in Israel," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that peace required creation of a Palestinian state to live alongside Israel based on the lines that existed before the 1967 war.

Netanyahu has complained that Palestinians' own divisions and the violence of some groups undermine attempts to talk.

He has unsettled Israel's Western friends, including Obama, with threats to attack Iran and a tough approach to the Palestinians: "The first challenge was and remains preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said in an initial speech claiming victory overnight.

Iran denies it is planning to build an atomic bomb, and says that Israel, widely believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, is the biggest threat to the region.

Few in the region expect the election to change much: "It does not move the state of Israel closer to any sort of pragmatic government that Arab states can work with," said Michael Stephens at the Royal United Services Institute in Doha.

"There is too much baggage and little goodwill toward (Netanyahu) for the pendulum to swing towards a more favorable view of Israel anytime soon."

Israeli financial markets gained on Wednesday on investor hopes that Netanyahu will remain prime minister and exclude from his coalition ultra-Orthodox parties which have long demanded budget-draining state subsidies in return for political support.

The blue-chip Tel Aviv 25 stocks index closed one percent higher at 1,204.65 points.

Israel posted a budget deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP last year, more than twice the target, meaning the next government will probably have to impose tax increases and spending cuts.

Amram Mitzna, a senior member of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni's centrist Hatnua party, told Army Radio the election had "arrested the rightward drift of Israeli society".

He mooted an unlikely "dream government" in which Likud would forge a strong coalition with leftist and centrist parties, leaving far-right and religious factions in the cold.

But Naftali Bennett, high-tech millionaire son of American immigrants who leads the hard-right, pro-settler Jewish Home party, remains a likely coalition partner despite making a poorer election showing than opinion polls had predicted.

Bennett, who advocates annexing West Bank land to Israel, told cheering supporters: "There is only one truth and it is simple. The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel."

U.S.-brokered peace talks broke down in 2010 amid mutual acrimony. Since then Israel has accelerated construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem - land the Palestinians want for their future state - much to the anger of Western partners.

Tuesday's vote was the first in Israel since Arab uprisings swept the region two years ago, reshaping the Middle East.

Netanyahu has said the turbulence, which has brought Islamists to power in neighboring Egypt and elsewhere, shows the importance of strengthening national security.

(Reporting by Jerusalem bureau; and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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EU says Iran stalling on nuclear talks

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran is stalling on fixing a date and location for a new round of talks on its nuclear program, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Wednesday, but there is still hope that talks between Tehran and six world powers can begin soon.

EU officials have been in contact with Iranian negotiators repeatedly since December to try to prepare a new set of talks, which the West hopes will lead to Iran scaling back its atomic work. No plans have yet been fixed.

"We proposed concrete dates and a venue in December," said a spokesman for Catherine Ashton, who oversees contacts with Iran on behalf of United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, often referred to as the six world powers.

"Since then, we have been very surprised to see Iran come back to us again and again with new pre-conditions on the modalities of the talks, for example by changing the venue and delaying their responses," spokesman Michael Mann said.

The six powers have used a mix of diplomacy and economic sanctions for years to force Iran to comply with United Nations demands that it suspends all of its activities related to enriching uranium, a key component of nuclear weapons.

But Iran rejects international accusations that its nuclear work has military goals, saying it is for medical and energy purposes, and has repeatedly said it wants international sanctions eased before it limits its atomic work.

Three rounds of negotiations last year failed to produce to a breakthrough, fuelling concerns that the stand-off could prompt Israel to attack Iran's nuclear installations and envelop the Middle East in another war.

Western diplomats had hoped that a new round could take place in January, following last year's presidential election in the United States. But Iran had failed to respond in time to a proposal to have talks take place on January 15.

Ashton's spokesman said negotiators remained in contact to agree on a new date.

"The (world powers) are still hoping to reach agreement with Iran on the modalities of the talks, including venue, with a view to resuming talks shortly," he said.

The Iranian Students' News Agency reported on Wednesday that Tehran had proposed Cairo as a possible venue.

An EU diplomat said several locations had been proposed so far and there was no agreement.

"We do not exclude any, but Iran is proposing different venues all the time. The venue is not the issue, but Iran appears to be trying to delay the process by coming up with new conditions," the diplomat said.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak; editing by Luke Baker)

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Cameron promises Britons contentious vote on EU future

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday promised Britons a vote on whether the country should stay in the European Union or leave, rattling London's biggest allies and some investors by raising the prospect of uncertainty and upheaval.

Cameron announced the referendum would be held by the end of 2017, provided he wins the next election, and said that while Britain did not want to retreat from the world, public disillusionment with the EU was at "an all-time high".

"It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time for us to settle this question about Britain and Europe," Cameron said in a speech, adding that his Conservative party would campaign for the 2015 election on a promise to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership.

"When we have negotiated that new settlement, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the European Union on these new terms; or come out altogether. It will be an in-out referendum."

A referendum would mark the second time Britons have voted on the issue. In 1975, they decided by a wide margin to stay in the EU's predecessor, two years after the country had joined.

Domestically, Cameron stands on relatively firm ground. Most recent opinion polls have shown a slim majority would vote to leave the EU amid often bitter disenchantment about its influence on the British way of life. However, a poll this week showed a majority wanted to stay.

Cameron's position is fraught with uncertainty. He must come from behind to win the next election, secure support from the EU's 26 other states for a new British role, and hope those countries can persuade their voters to back the changes.

Critics say that in the long run-up to a vote, Britain would slip into a dangerous and damaging limbo that could leave the country adrift or pushed out of the EU.

The United States, a close ally, is also uneasy about the plan, believing it will dilute Britain's international clout. President Barack Obama told Cameron by phone last week that Washington valued "a strong UK in a strong European Union".

Some of Britain's European partners were also anxious and told Cameron on Wednesday his strategy reflected a selfish and ignorant attitude. However, Angela Merkel, the leader of EU paymaster Germany, was quick to say she was ready to discuss Cameron's ideas.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was less diplomatic, quipping: "If Britain wants to leave Europe we will roll out the red carpet for you," echoing Cameron, who once used the same words to invite rich Frenchmen alienated by high taxes to move to Britain.

Billed by commentators as the most important speech of Cameron's career, his referendum promise ties him firmly to an issue that has bedeviled a generation of Conservative leaders.

In the past, he has been careful to avoid bruising partisan fights over Europe, an issue that undid the last two Conservative prime ministers, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

His speech appeared to pacify a powerful Eurosceptic wing inside his own party, but deepen rifts with the Liberal Democrats, the junior partners in his coalition. Their leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said the plan would undermine a fragile economic recovery.

Sterling fell to its lowest in nearly five months against the dollar on Wednesday as Cameron was speaking.

"BREXIT"?

Cameron said he would seek to claw back powers from Brussels, saying later in parliament that when it came to employment, social and environmental legislation "Europe has gone far too far".

But such a claw back - the subject of an internal audit to identify which powers he should target for repatriation - is likely to be easier said than done.

If Cameron wins the election but then fails to renegotiate Britain's membership of the EU, a 'Brexit' could loom.

Business leaders have warned that years of doubt over Britain's EU membership would damage the $2.5 trillion economy and cool the investment climate.

"Having a referendum creates more uncertainty and we don't need that," Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising giant WPP, told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "This is a political decision. This is not an economic decision. This isn't good news. You added another reason why people will postpone investment decisions."

Cameron has been pushed into taking such a strong position partly by the rise of the UK Independence Party, which favors complete withdrawal from the EU and has climbed to third in the opinion polls, mainly at the expense of the Conservatives.

"All he's trying to do is to kick the can down the road and to try and get UKIP off his back," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Eurosceptics in Cameron's party, who have threatened to stir up trouble for the premier, were thrilled by the speech.

Conservative lawmaker Peter Bone called it "a terrific victory" that would unify 98 percent of the party. "He's the first prime minister to say he wants to bring back powers from Brussels," Bone told Reuters. "It's pretty powerful stuff".

Whether Cameron holds the referendum remains as uncertain as the Conservatives' chances of winning the election. They trail the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, and the coalition is grappling with a stagnating economy as it pushes through unpopular public spending cuts to reduce a large budget deficit.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said on Wednesday his party did not want an in/out referendum.

EU REFORM

Cameron said he would campaign for Britain to stay in the EU "with all my heart and soul", provided he secured the reforms he wants. He made clear the EU must become less bureaucratic and focus more on trade deals. It was riskier to maintain the status quo than to change, he said.

"The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy," he said.

Cameron said the euro zone debt crisis was forcing the bloc to change and that Britain would fight to make sure new rules were fair to the 10 countries that don't use the common currency, of which Britain is the largest.

Democratic consent for the EU in Britain was now "wafer thin", he said. "Some people say that to point this out is irresponsible, creates uncertainty for business and puts a question mark over Britain's place in the European Union," said Cameron. "But the question mark is already there: ignoring it won't make it go away."

A YouGov opinion poll on Monday showed that more people wanted to stay in the EU than leave it, the first such result in many months. But it was unclear whether that result was a blip.

Paul Chipperfield, a 53-year-old management consultant, said he liked the strategy. "Cameron's making the right move because I don't think we've had enough debate in this country," he told Reuters. "We should be part of the EU but the EU needs to recognize that not everybody's going to jump on the same bandwagon."

Asked after the speech whether other EU countries would agree to renegotiate Britain's membership, Cameron said he was an optimist and that there was "every chance of success".

"I don't want Britain to leave the EU," he told parliament later. "I want Britain to reform the EU."

In the 1975 referendum, just over 67 percent voted to stay inside with nearly 33 percent against.

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Davos, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin and Brenda Goh in London; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp)

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Libya reinforces border, oilfields after Algeria attack

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya has strengthened its oil protection force in southwestern oilfields near the Algerian border after the In Amenas attack in its neighbor.

In an interview with Reuters, Colonel Ali Elahrash, head of Libya's Petroleum Faculty Guard, said men from the Western Mountain town of Zintan had been sent in as reinforcements to boost border security as well to oilfields in the area.

Last week's raid on the Algerian desert plant, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Libyan border pushed Saharan militancy to the top of the global agenda.

Libyan oilfields, like Italy's Eni's El Feel and Spain's Repsol's Sharara, are several hundred miles away.

Oil force members on leave swiftly returned to work, while other former rebel fighters from Zintan - whose men already guards oil fields in the area - were also dispatched.

"As soon as we heard about what happened in Algeria we upped the level of security, especially in the area close to the border," Elahrash said at his office in the Libyan capital.

"Most of the forces have been sent to the border, they are doing a lot of patrols which is helpful for protecting the oil fields; support has also been sent to the fields. We think there are enough forces and enough equipment to protect the area."

Walid Hassan Mohammed, director of public relations, said hundreds of men were sent; while the force usually deploys 50 to 100 men at fields there, it now had at least 100 at the sites.

The 15,000 strong Petroleum Faculty Guard, the majority made up of former rebel fighters from the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi, is divided into five branches across the country.

The southwestern area - which looks after the El Feel, Sharara and other oilfields - comes under the Zintan branch.

An operations room has been set up in Zintan and Tripoli.

"They may not have the experience because many of them are not from the army, they are rebel fighters but they want to protect their country," Elahrash said.

NEW EQUIPMENT NEEDED

OPEC members Libya and Algeria are Africa's third and fourth largest oil producers with Libya also holding the largest oil reserves on the continent.

A foreign worker close to the Libyan-Algerian border said he had seen more pick-ups mounted with anti-aircraft guns and a boosting of man power in the last few days.

"Pretty much everyone was on essential expat manning prior to the (In Amenas) incident, due to the instability across the country and there doesn't seem to have been any radical change since last week," he said.

Mohammed said embassies with workers in the area had been in touch with the force over security in the last few days.

Eni is boosting its security in North Africa, a source familiar with the matter said, while another added it had not considered repatriation of its foreign staff at El Feel.

BP, which had staff at In Amenas and also has exploration rights in western Libya, has a few expatriate staff in Tripoli and fewer than 100 local staff, a spokesman said.

"We are reviewing security across the region," he said.

While the return of foreign oil companies to Libya helped it climb back up close to pre-war output of 1.6 million barrels per day, the full return of expatriate workers has been slow to the country, awash with weapons, because of precarious security.

Elahrash said movement outside a desert camp or oilfield has to be accompanied by members of the oil protection force.

"Everyone knows that protecting the oilfields is something very important - the foreign oil companies would not work here unless the security was good," he said. "No local or foreign company has received a single threat ... The security conditions of all the companies working in oilfields are very good."

However the force admits it does not have the equipment it needs: proper communications, night vision equipment or cars for the desert. Instead, the guard, of which 2,000 are army-trained, use medium to light weapons left over from the war.

"We are missing technology and new materials but at the same time we are able to protect all these areas in fields with the old equipment we already have," Elahrash said, adding the training the guards still lacked could begin in March.

"They must learn how to work in oilfields, how to secure them," he said, adding about 3,500 men had already been trained.

The men signed contracts with the force, which has a budget from the National Oil Corporation to pay salaries, which start at 1,000 ($770) Libyan dinars a month and reach 1,600 dinars.

Asked what message he could give to worried foreign oil companies, Elahrash said: "The Libyan nation can protect all the foreigners who work on its land."

(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati and Alex Lawler in London; Stephen Jewkes in Milan, editing by William Hardy)

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Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian woman in West Bank

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot dead a 21-year-old Palestinian woman near the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday and wounded another local youth, Palestinian medics said.

Witnesses said Lubna Hanash and her companions were walking to al-Arroub College when men in Israeli military uniforms travelling in a civilian car shot at the group.

Asked about the incident, an Israeli army spokeswoman said Palestinians had thrown petrol bombs at soldiers, who then opened fire.

Earlier on Wednesday, Saleh al-Amareen, 16, died of his wounds in an Israeli hospital after being shot in the head during clashes with Israeli soldiers in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Friday.

Violence and deadly confrontations have become more frequent in the occupied West Bank since Israel announced plans late last year to expand settlements and the Palestinians won de-facto statehood recognition at the United Nations in November.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad issued a statement calling for "strong condemnation from the international community" of these shootings, and urged "immediate intervention to compel Israel to desist from these serious attacks on our people".

(Reporting by Mamoun Wazwaz in Hebron and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Russia says West to blame for arms used by Mali rebels

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday the rebels fighting French and African troops in Mali are the same fighters the West armed in the revolt that ousted Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

An Islamist alliance of al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM and home-grown Malian groups captured northern Mali last year, armed with weapons seized from Libya after the fall of Gaddafi.

Russia backed a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Mali but is still bristling that its abstention from a U.N. vote over Libya in 2011 allowed NATO air strikes to help the rebels trying to topple the veteran leader.

Russian officials accused the United States and its allies of overstepping their mandate.

"Those whom the French and Africans are fighting now in Mali are the (same) people who overthrew the Gaddafi regime, those that our Western partners armed so that they would overthrow the Gaddafi regime," Lavrov told a news conference.

The aim of the foreign intervention is to prevent northern Mali from becoming a launchpad for international attacks by al Qaeda and its allies. Fears of this increased sharply after a hostage-taking raid by Islamist militants last week on a gas plant in Algeria.

"Terrorist acts have become almost daily in the region, arms are spreading in uncontrollably, infiltration by militants is taking place, including in the Sahara-Sahel area", Lavrov said.

"The situation in Mali feels the consequence of events in Libya. The seizure of hostages in Algeria was a wake-up call."

Lavrov denied reports that Russia had offered help in transporting French troops to Mali where an African troop deployment and a U.S. military airlift has swelled international support for French operations against Islamist rebels.

Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter, has pointed to the example of Libya to reject Western accusations it is shielding the authorities in Syria where rebels are trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, which has a naval facility in Syria, has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed pressuring Assad to end the bloodshed, which began with a crackdown on street protests but later escalated into civil war.

"It's important to lift one's head a bit and look over the horizon, look at all those processes more widely, they are interconnected and carry very many threats," Lavrov said, speaking of unrest across the Middle East that could play into the hands of militants.

"This will be a time bomb for decades ahead," he said.

(Reporting by Timothy Heritage; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Syrian civil war devastates farming, U.N. says

ROME/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's 22-month civil war has ravaged vital infrastructure and halved the output of staple crops, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

What began as a peaceful protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 60,000 people, devastated the economy and left 2.5 million people hungry.

Prospects of a negotiated peace have receded as the war becomes more overtly sectarian, making Western powers more wary of supporting the largely Sunni Muslim, and increasingly radicalized, rebellion.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday pointed to the burning and looting of religious sites of minorities in recent months that suggested an escalation of sectarian strife.

As fighting raged throughout the country on Wednesday, Assad's most powerful foreign backer Russia said the war would not be resolved peacefully as long as rebels insisted on the overthrow of Assad.

Underscoring the damage wrought by the conflict, the longest and deadliest of the Arab Spring uprisings, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said wheat and barley production in Syria had dropped to 2 million metric tons in 2012 from 4-4.5 million metric tons in normal years.

Agriculture is vital to the economy, accounting for roughly a fifth of gross domestic product before the war.

A U.N. assessment in Syria this month, coordinated with both Syria's government and the opposition, found the conflict was destroying infrastructure and irrigation systems and that insecurity and fuel shortages were making it harder for farmers to harvest crops.

The devastation to farming could push the government to spend more money on food imports, further straining the resources of a country that officials said was self-sufficient in wheat before the conflict.

"The mission was struck by the plight of the Syrian people whose capacity to cope is dramatically eroded by 22 months of crisis," Dominique Burgeon, director of FAO's Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, said in a statement.

"Destruction of infrastructure in all sectors is massive and it is clear that the longer the conflict lasts, the longer it will take to rehabilitate it," he said.

Power cuts and fuel shortages have become part of daily life in the country and residents of central Damascus, which had been spared the worst fallout of the war, say basic services are breaking down.

Drivers in Damascus said there had been no petrol in the capital for two days.

A black market for fuel has developed in which traders charge roughly 20 percent more than government prices, residents said. Some also reported food shortages in the city centre.

Severe shortages have also hit other parts of Syria, especially rebel-held areas subjected to daily bombardment by government artillery and warplanes.

SECTARIAN DIVISIONS

Assad and his family, who have ruled the country for more than four decades, belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Syria is also home to Christians, Ismailis, Druze and other minorities.

New York-based Human Rights Watch pointed to a video published online in December that showed rebels waving assault rifles and cheering as a Shi'ite place of worship in the northern village of Zarzour burned in the background.

In the video, which Reuters cannot independently verify, one man announces the "destruction of the dens of the Shi'ites and Rafida", a derogatory term used to describe Shi'ites.

Rebels also clashed with Kurdish People's Defence Units in the northern border town of Ras al-Ain on Wednesday, a monitoring group said.

Fighting there has killed more than 56 people over the last week as insurgents brought in heavy weapons including tanks and mortars to attack the Kurdish militants, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

RUSSIA STANDS FIRM

Russia, which has a naval base on Syria's Mediterranean coast, said on Wednesday the conflict would not be resolved peacefully as long as Assad's opponents were bent on his exit.

"Everything runs up against the opposition members' obsession with the idea of the overthrow of the Assad regime. As long as this irreconcilable position remains in force, nothing good will happen, armed action will continue, people will die," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.

Moscow has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to step down or seek a negotiated end to the conflict, and divided world powers have been unable to halt the violence.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said their failure had led to a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria.

"What we are seeing now are the consequences of the failure of the international community to unite and to resolve the political crisis after nearly two years," she told reporters at the Davos World Economic Forum.

President Vladimir Putin told Lebanon's visiting President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday that Moscow could offer financial and humanitarian aid to help Lebanon cope with 200,000 refugees who have crossed into his country from Syria.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Heritage and Thomas Grove in Moscow and Oliver Holmes in Beirut; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Jon Hemming)

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Israel can remove Palestinian protest tents: court

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Supreme Court gave the government the go-ahead on Wednesday to remove tents Palestinian activists pitched on a patch of West Bank land marked for Jewish settlements.

On Sunday, Israeli police evicted 50 Palestinian protesters from the site, in the "E1" area outside the Arab suburbs of East Jerusalem, where Jewish settlements could split the Israeli-occupied West Bank in two.

But the activists' large, steel-framed tents remained standing in accordance with a court order banning the government from tearing them down while judges considered a Palestinian claim of ownership of land where the encampment was built.

In its new ruling, the court canceled its previous order and agreed with the government's argument that the tents could be a magnet for violent Palestinian protests.

The court, in a decision released by the Justice Ministry, noted that clashes broke out at the encampment on Tuesday, when Israeli police, using stun grenades, blocked protesters who had returned to the site and tried to reoccupy the tents.

Israel has drawn strong international criticism over plans to build settler homes in "E1".

For years it froze building in E1, which houses only a police headquarters, after coming under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush to keep the plans on hold.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans late last year to expand settlements after the Palestinians won de-facto statehood recognition at the United Nations General Assembly in November.

Most countries view Jewish settlements in areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal and echo concerns voiced by Palestinians that building more settler homes could deny them a viable and contiguous state.

E1 covers some 12 square km (4.6 square miles) and is seen as particularly important because it not only juts into the narrow "waist" of the West Bank, but also backs onto East Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to establish their capital.

About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 over the issue of Israel's continued settlement building.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Apartment block collapses in Egypt, at least 22 killed

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - At least 22 people were killed in Egypt on Wednesday when an apartment block collapsed in Alexandria, the state news agency reported.

The eight-storey building in a working class district of the Mediterranean city caved in just before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). Residents said the building was home to more than 30 people.

Rescue workers used mechanical diggers and their bare hands to search through the rubble. Building collapses are common in Egypt because of lax building standards and poor maintenance.

Housing Minister Tarek Wafik said the building had been put up in 2006 without a license. He added that 318,000 buildings had been erected without official permission since 2009, when the rate of illegal construction accelerated.

(Reporting by Abdel Rahman Youssef; Writing by Tom Perry in Cairo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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France launches ground campaign against Mali rebels

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops launched their first ground assault against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in a broadening of their operation against battle-hardened al Qaeda-linked fighters who have resisted six days of air strikes.

France has called for international support against Islamist insurgents it says pose a threat to Africa and the West, acknowledging it faces a long fight against the well-equipped militant fighters who seized Mali's vast desert north last year.

After Islamist pledges to exact revenge for France's intervention, militants claimed responsibility for a raid on a gas field in Algeria.

Mauritanian media said an al Qaeda-linked group claimed to have seized as many as 41 hostages, including seven Americans, in the attack, carried out in retaliation for Algeria allowing France to use its air space. At least two people were killed.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud said his ground forces were stepping up their operation to engage directly "within hours" with the alliance of Islamist fighters, grouping al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM with Mali's home grown Ansar Dine and MUJWA militant movements.

Residents said a column of some 30 French Sagaie armored vehicles advanced toward rebel positions from the town of Niono, 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Bamako. With the Malian army securing the northern border region near Mauritania, Islamist fighters were pinned down in the town of Diabaly.

"Fighting is taking place. So far it is just shooting from distance," said Oumar Ould Hamaha, a MUJWA spokesman. "They have not been able to enter Diabaly."

A Malian military source said French special forces units were taking part in the operation.

Guillaud said France's strikes, involving Rafale and Mirage jet fighters, were being hampered because militants were using the civilian population as a shield.

"We categorically refuse to make the civilian population take a risk. If in doubt, we will not shoot," he said. Residents who fled Diabaly said Islamists had used the town's inhabitants to protect themselves in recent days.

Many inhabitants of northern Mali have welcomed the French attacks against Islamists who have imposed a harsh form of sharia law, cutting off hands and feet for crimes, and destroyed the famed shrines of the ancient desert town of Timbuktu.

Residents said French fighter jets struck the headquarters of the Islamic police in Niafunke, a sleepy town on the Niger river near Timbuktu, as part of Operation Serval, named after an African wildcat.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian acknowledged that France faced a difficult operation, particularly in Western Mali where AQIM's mostly foreign fighters have camps. Mauritania has pledged to close its porous frontier to the Islamists.

"It's tough. We were aware from the beginning it would be a very difficult operation," Le Drian said.

WAITING FOR AFRICAN TROOPS

President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday that French forces would remain in Mali until stability returned to the West African nation. Hollande said France hoped, however, to hand over to African forces in its former colony, "in the coming days or weeks."

West African military chiefs met for a second day in Bamako to hammer out details of a U.N.-mandated deployment which had been expected to start only in September but was suddenly kick-started by French intervention.

They said their aim was to send in the first detachments of a 2,000-strong emergency force on Thursday.

"Nigeria is ready and Niger has its troops at the border and is just awaiting the green light," said Aboudou Toure Cheaka, special representative of the ECOWAS regional bloc.

Regional powerhouse Nigeria, which is battling the Boko Haram Islamist movement at home, has said the first 190 soldiers from its 900-strong detachment would arrive soon.

Military experts fear that any delay in following up on the French air bombardments of Islamist bases and fuel depots with a ground offensive could allow the insurgents to slip away into the desert and mountains, regroup and counter-attack.

The Africans will join some 1,700 French troops involved in the operation, part of a contingent expected to reach 2,500 soldiers. France is using Harfang surveillance drones to guide its strikes and also plans to deploy Tiger attack helicopters.

While many French troops come battle-hardened from Afghanistan, some regional African forces may need to adjust to desert combat far removed from the jungle terrain many are used to. A contingent of some 200 EU military trainers, led by a French general, is not expected before mid-February.

With African states facing huge logistical and transport challenges to deploy their troops, Germany promised two Transall military transport planes to help fly in the soldiers.

Britain has already supplied two giant C-17 military transport planes - larger than France's five C-135 planes - to ferry in French armored vehicles and medical supplies. The United States is considering logistical and surveillance support but has ruled out sending in U.S. troops.

Hollande's intervention in Mali brings risks for eight French hostages held by AQIM in the Sahara as well as the 30,000 French citizens living across West Africa. A French helicopter pilot was killed on Friday, France's only combat death so far.

AQIM and Ansar Dine have vowed to take revenge for France's intervention on its interests around the globe.

The attack in Algeria, where AQIM has its roots, targeted the southern Ain Amenas oil facility, located close to the border with Libya and operated by a joint venture including BP, Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.

Security experts have warned that the multinational intervention in Mali could provoke a jihadist backlash against France and the West, and African allies.

U.S. officials have warned of links between AQIM, Nigeria's Boko Haram and al Shabaab Islamic militants fighting in Somalia.

Al Shabaab, which foiled a French effort at the weekend to rescue a French secret agent it was holding hostage, said it had decided to execute him. France has said it believes the hostage was already killed during its botched raid.

The conflict in Mali raised concerns across mostly Muslim West Africa of a radicalization of Islam in the region. In Senegal, a traditionally moderate Islamic country, President Macky Sall warned citizens to be vigilant for attacks.

"We must be on the watch in our towns and villages because infiltrations are taking place," he said in a speech on Tuesday. "You will hear foreign preachers talking in the name of Islam. You must denounce them to authorities."

The fighting in Mali, a landlocked state at the heart of West Africa, has displaced an estimated 30,000 people. Hundreds have fled across the border into neighboring Mauritania and Niger in recent days.

"We were all afraid. Many young fighters have enrolled with them recently," said Mahamadou Abdoulaye, 35, a truck driver who fled from the northern Gao region of Mali into Niger. "They are newly arrived, they cannot manage their weapons properly. There's fear on everybody's face."

(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra in Bamako, Lamine Chikhi in Algiers, Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by David Lewis and Peter Graff)

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Marine accused of urinating on Taliban corpses to face trial

CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A Marine accused of urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters and then posing for photographs, a scene captured in a widely circulated video on the Internet, is due to be tried by court martial on Wednesday at a North Carolina military base.

Staff Sergeant Edward W. Deptola is among a group of Marines to face disciplinary action after the video, posted on YouTube and other websites in January 2012, showed four U.S. servicemen in camouflage combat uniforms urinating on several corpses.

One of them said, "Have a nice day, buddy," during the footage, and another Marine made a lewd joke.

Military officials said the actions depicted in the video occurred during a counter-insurgency operation in the vicinity of Sandala, Musa Qala District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in July 2011.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other military leaders denounced the Marines' behavior, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the video. Officials worried the video would stir up already strong anti-U.S. sentiment in Afghanistan after a decade of a war that had seen past cases of abuse.

Deptola is due to appear on Wednesday afternoon for a military trial at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he is assigned to the Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment.

He is charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice on allegations that he desecrated human casualties and posed for unofficial photographs with the bodies.

Other charges against him include failing to properly supervise junior Marines, wrongfully and indiscriminately firing a recovered enemy machine gun and failing to stop the unnecessary damaging of Afghan compounds.

A fellow Marine, Staff Sergeant Joseph W. Chamblin, pleaded guilty in December to urinating on a dead Taliban fighter's body and posing for photos. A military judge ordered 30 days in jail, a fine, forfeited pay and a reduction in rank.

Three other Marines pleaded guilty and were punished last August for their role in the video incident as part of a non-judicial military proceeding, according to the Marine Corps. Their names and specific punishments were not disclosed.

(Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Andrew Hay)

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Reputed organized crime boss shot dead in Russian capital

MOSCOW (Reuters) - One of Russia's most prominent reputed crime bosses was shot dead on a street in central Moscow on Wednesday, law enforcement officials said, less than three years after he survived an assassination attempt.

An unidentified gunman shot Aslan Usoyan, 75, known in the underworld of the ex-Soviet Union as "Grandpa Hassan", and he died shortly afterward in hospital, the federal Investigative Committee said. A woman suffered two gunshot wounds.

Usoyan was shot outside a restaurant by a sniper, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unidentified official. News site lifenews.ru, which has ties to law enforcement agencies, said the sniper fired from a rooftop.

The Investigative Commitee said they were looking into potential motives for the killing, including links to his criminal activities, but declined to give details.

Usoyan was first convicted at age 19 and served multiple jail terms in the Soviet era, including for refusing to obey police, theft and "speculation" - illegally trade that was under close scrutiny in the communist Soviet Union.

He earned the underworld title of "vor v zakone" - or thief in law - meaning a criminal godfather.

During the chaos which accompanied the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union there were almost daily killings across Russia as criminal gangs battled to gain control of lucrative businesses and carve up territory.

According to Russian media reports, in the years after the Soviet collapse he headed an organized crime network involved in illegal gambling, drugs and arms sales and natural resources extraction.

Usoyan survived an attempt on his life in September 2010, when a hitman shot him in the stomach as he got out of his car near the Kremlin. Media reports at the time linked that shooting to a turf war.

Usoyan's killing echoed that of criminal boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, known as Yaponchik, who served a prison term in the United States on extortion charges. He was shot by a sniper in July 2009 outside a Moscow restaurant and died three months later.

(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Dozens held after Islamists attack Algerian gas field

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria on Wednesday, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports.

The raiders were also reported to have killed three people, including a Briton and a French national.

An al Qaeda affiliated group said the raid had been carried out because of Algeria's decision to allow France to use its air space for attacks against Islamists in Mali, where French forces have been in action against al Qaeda-linked militants since last week.

The attack in southern Algeria also raised fears that the French action in Mali could prompt further Islamist revenge attacks on Western targets in Africa, where al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) operates across borders in the Sahara desert, and in Europe.

AQIM said it had carried out Wednesday's raid on the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported.

The Algerian interior ministry said: "A terrorist group, heavily armed and using three vehicles, launched an attack this Wednesday at 5 a.m. against a Sonatrach base in Tigantourine, near In Amenas, about 100 km (60 miles) from the Algerian and Libyan border."

The gas field is operated by a joint venture including BP, Norwegian oil firm Statoil and Algerian state company Sonatrach.

ARMED MEN

BP said armed men were still occupying facilities at the gas field.

"The site was attacked and occupied by a group of unidentified armed people at about 0500 UK time. Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site," it said.

Algeria's official APS news agency said a Briton and an Algerian security guard had been killed and seven people were injured. A French national was also killed in the attack, a local source said.

Also among those reported kidnapped by various sources were five Japanese nationals working for the Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp, a French national, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a number of Britons.

A member of an Islamist group styling itself the "Blood Battalion" was quoted by Mauritanian media as saying that five of the hostages were being held at the gas facility and 36 were in a housing area. APS said the Islamist raiders had freed Algerians working at the gas facility.

"The operation was in response to the blatant interference by Algeria and the opening of its air space to French aircraft to bomb northern Mali," the Islamist spokesman told Mauritania's ANI news agency.

ANI, which has regular direct contact with Islamists, said that fighters under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar were holding the foreigners.

Belmokhtar for years commanded al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara before setting up his own armed Islamist group late last year after an apparent fallout with other militant leaders.

The Algerian army was in the area of the gas facility, according to French and Algerian sources.

SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

The attack was the first time in years that Islamist militants are known to have launched an attack on an Algerian energy facility.

The attack could have implications for security across the whole of Algeria's energy sector, which supplies about a quarter of Europe's natural gas imports and exports millions of barrels of crude oil each year.

Such an attack would require a large and heavily-armed insurgent force with a degree of freedom to move around -- all elements that al Qaeda has not previously had.

However, the conflict in neighboring Libya in 2011 changed the balance of force. Security experts say al Qaeda was able to obtain arms, including heavy weapons, from the looted arsenals of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Statoil, a minority shareholder in the gas venture, said it had 17 employees at the plant and four of them had been evacuated. The company declined to comment on the other 13.

The five Japanese work for the engineering firm JGC Corporation, Jiji news agency reported, quoting company officials. JGC has a deal with Sonatrach-BP-Statoil Association for work in gas production at In Amenas.

A reporter for Japan's NHK television managed to call a JGC worker in Algeria.

The worker said he got a phone call from a colleague at the gas field. "It was around 6 a.m. this morning. He said that he had been hearing gunshots for about 20 minutes. I wasn't able to get through to him since."

French troops launched their first ground operation against Islamist rebels in Mali on Wednesday in an action to dislodge from a strategic town al Qaeda-linked fighters who have resisted six days of air strikes.

(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer and John Irish in Paris, Laurent Prieur in Nouakchott, Andrew Osborn in London, Balazs Koranyi in Oslo, Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Christian Lowe in Warsaw; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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