Syrian air force on offensive after failed truce

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed rebel targets with renewed intensity on Tuesday after the end of a widely ignored four-day truce between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and insurgents.

State television said "terrorists" had assassinated an air force general, Abdullah Mahmoud al-Khalidi, in a Damascus suburb, the latest of several rebel attacks on senior officials.

In July, a bomb killed four of Assad's aides, including his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and the defense minister.

Air strikes hit eastern suburbs of Damascus, outlying areas in the central city of Homs, and the northern rebel-held town of Maarat al-Numan on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, activists said.

Rebels have been attacking army bases in al-Hamdaniya and Wadi al-Deif, on the outskirts of Maarat al-Numan.

Some activists said 28 civilians had been killed in Maarat al-Numan and released video footage of men retrieving a toddler's body from a flattened building. The men cursed Assad as they dragged the dead girl, wearing a colorful overall, from the debris. The footage could not be independently verified.

The military has shelled and bombed Maarat al-Numan, 300 km (190 miles) north of Damascus, since rebels took it last month.

"The rebels have evacuated their positions inside Maarat al-Numaan since the air raids began. They are mostly on the frontline south of the town," activist Mohammed Kanaan said.

Maarat al-Numan and other Sunni towns in northwestern Idlib province are mostly hostile to Assad's ruling system, dominated by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Two rebels were killed and 10 wounded in an air strike on al-Mubarkiyeh, 6 km (4 miles) south of Homs, where rebels have besieged a compound guarding a tank maintenance facility.

Opposition sources said the facility had been used to shell Sunni villages near the Lebanese border.

"WE'LL FIX IT"

The army also fired mortar bombs into the Damascus district of Hammouria, killing at least eight people, activists said.

One video showed a young girl in Hammouria with a large shrapnel wound in her forehead sitting dazed while a doctor said: "Don't worry dear, we'll fix it for you."

Syria's military, stretched thin by the struggle to keep control, has increasingly used air power against opposition areas, including those in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. Insurgents lack effective anti-aircraft weapons.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said he will pursue his peace efforts despite the failure of his appeal for a pause in fighting for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

But it is unclear how he can find any compromise acceptable to Assad, who seems determined to keep power whatever the cost, and mostly Sunni Muslim rebels equally intent on toppling him.

Big powers and Middle Eastern countries are divided over how to end the 19-month-old conflict which has cost an estimated 32,000 dead, making it one of the bloodiest of Arab revolts that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The United Nations said it had sent a convoy of 18 trucks with food and other aid to Homs during the "ceasefire", but had been unable to unload supplies in the Old City due to fighting.

"We were trying to take advantage of positive signs we saw at the end of last week. The truce lasted more or less four hours so there was not much opportunity for us after all," said Jens Laerke, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva.

The prime minister of the Gulf state of Qatar told al-Jazeera television late on Monday that Syria's conflict was not a civil war but "a war of annihilation licensed firstly by the Syrian government and secondly by the international community".

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said some of those responsible were on the U.N. Security Council, alluding to Russia and China which have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad.

He said that the West was also not doing enough to stop the violence and that the United States would be in "paralysis" for two or three weeks during its presidential election.

(Additional reporting by Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Iran warships leave Sudan after four-day stay

PORT SUDAN (Reuters) - Two Iranian warships left Sudan on Wednesday after a visit that drew attention to the countries' military ties less than a week after Khartoum accused Israel of bombing a Sudanese arms factory.

Israel accuses the Muslim East African country of channeling weapons to the Gaza Strip, controlled by Iran's ally Hamas, via Egypt's Sinai desert - a charge Khartoum denies.

Last week, a fire at the Yarmouk munitions plant in the south of Khartoum killed four people, and Sudan said an Israeli air strike was behind the blast. Israel has not commented on the fire.

Two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan several days after the blast, triggering speculation the events were related. Sudan denied this, saying the warships were on a "routine" visit.

The two ships - a helicopter carrier and a destroyer - departed on Wednesday after a four-day stay.

"Today was the last day and we came to bid them farewell," said Sudanese navy officer Omer Al-Farouq, standing on the dock near one of the ships, which was mounted with machineguns and guarded by Iranian troops.

Sudan's armed forces spokesman said the ships visited as part of the two countries' efforts to strengthen "diplomatic, political and security" ties.

Khartoum has blamed Israel for blasts in its territory in the past, but Israel has either refused to comment or said it neither admitted or denied involvement.

A car exploded in Port Sudan in May, killing one person. Sudan said the blast resembled an explosion last year it blamed on an Israeli air strike.

(Reporting by El-Tayeb Siddig and Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz, Editing by William Maclean)

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New Savile allegations add to pressure on BBC

LONDON (Reuters) - Fresh allegations emerged on Wednesday of sexual misconduct by late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, further damaging the corporation's reputation and increasing pressure on its management.

Facing questions on how suspicions about Savile were handled are BBC head George Entwistle and his predecessor Mark Thompson, new CEO of the New York Times co. Two independent inquiries and a police investigation are under way.

Police looking into the hundreds of allegations, mostly from the 1970s and 80s, of sexual abuse involving Savile - who died last year - arrested 1970s pop star Gary Glitter earlier this week. More arrests are expected.

Savile was regularly allowed to take "star-struck" young women into private bedrooms at a hospital in northern England, Terry Pratt, a former porter there, told the BBC on Wednesday.

Savile, a fund-raiser for Leeds General Infirmary, would regularly arrive at the hospital late at night with two women, go to the nurses' flats and leave before dawn.

"He would go up and see the lad on the desk ... he'd take the key and ... would walk out and the two women would follow him towards the nurses' home," he told the BBC. Pratt said the women seemed "star-struck" and "not very streetwise".

The hospital said in a statement: "We continue to be shocked by each new allegation. It is important that they are investigated properly".

The report came a day after a former royal aide said Savile's behavior on visits to Prince Charles' residence, St James' Palace, had aroused "concern and suspicion".

Dickie Arbiter told the Guardian newspaper Savile would greet young women working at the palace by "rubbing his lips all the way up their arms".

An ex-patient at the secure hospital Broadmoor has shed light on how difficult it was for individuals to come out against Savile at the height of his fame.

According to the tabloid Sun, the woman was put in solitary confinement for six months after telling a nurse Savile had sexually assaulted her.

The nurse accused her of "bizarre made-up thoughts".

An inquiry into whether the BBC's culture and practices enabled sexual misconduct to go undetected in the Savile years began this week, led by former Appeal Court judge Dame Janet Smith. She is expected to publish her findings by December.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Merkel reassures Turkey on EU talks, Erdogan raps Cyprus

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday the European Union (EU) would pursue accession talks with his country in good faith, despite some persistent disagreements.

Erdogan said on Tuesday the EU would lose Turkey if it did not grant it membership by 2023, the first time he has indicated how long Ankara might continue down the path towards EU entry.

Turkey's talks to join the bloc, launched in 2005, have all but ground to a halt due to an intractable dispute over the divided island of Cyprus, an EU member, and opposition from core EU members France and Germany.

But Merkel told a joint news conference with Erdogan after talks in Berlin: "The EU is an honest negotiating partner."

"These negotiations will continue irrespective of the questions that we have to clarify," she said, referring to criticisms of Turkey in the European Commission's report on its performance as a candidate country.

Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU) is opposed to Turkey, a mainly Muslim but secular country, joining the European Union and instead favors a 'privileged partnership' that would fall short of full membership.

"The question of full membership for Turkey is seen within my party in a certain way... We (Germany and Turkey) have learned to live with this difference and still to have good relations," she added.

Germany is Turkey's largest trade partner in the 27-nation EU and is also home to some three million Turks, the largest Turkish diaspora in Europe.

Erdogan, in Berlin to open a new Turkish embassy building, said Merkel would visit Turkey next year.

Erdogan took a swipe at Cyprus, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, saying it should not have been allowed to join the bloc in 2004 because it was - and remains - split between an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a northern Turkish Cypriot state recognized only by Ankara.

Erdogan said Merkel had told him in the past she also believed it had been a mistake to admit a divided Cyprus.

"This was a serious mistake and the mistake continues with increasing effects," Erdogan added.

PROTEST

Turkey has completed only one of 35 policy 'chapters' every accession candidate must conclude.

All but 13 policy chapters in Ankara's negotiations are blocked because of the Cyprus issue and the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, says Turkey does not yet meet required standards on human rights and freedom of speech.

Turkey's European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis told a seminar in Berlin earlier on Wednesday that the situation of human rights and religious and political freedoms had greatly improved since Erdogan's AK Party took power 10 years ago.

Bagis cited Kurdish language broadcasts and the restitution of property to religious minorities as examples of what he called "a much more democratic, transparent" Turkey, adding that Ankara could not accept a "privileged partnership" with the EU.

"Either you are a member or you are not, there can be no half-way house," he said.

About 1,000 people protested against Erdogan's visit in front of the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin. Some carried red flags or placards that read 'Dictator Erdogan', 'Erdogan oppresses minorities' and 'Freedom for the media'.

"We have to protest against Erdogan because journalists, Alevis and others are sitting in prison in Turkey today," said Natalie Dogan, 50, a housewife from Hamburg, referring a religious minority. "Turkey wants to join the European Union but it is absolutely not ready to do so because it tramples on people's freedoms."

In its latest progress report, the European Commission accused Turkey of infringing citizens' rights to liberty, security, fair trial and freedom of expression and assembly.

Almost 100 journalists are in prison in Turkey as well as thousands of activists, lawyers, politicians, military officers and others. Most are accused of plots against the government or support for outlawed Kurdish militants.

(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones; Writing by Gareth Jones, Editing by William Maclean)

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Myanmar must protect Muslims and halt discrimination, U.N. says

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators called on Myanmar on Wednesday to halt deadly sectarian violence and warned it not to use the conflict as a pretext to remove Rohingya minority Muslims.

Some 89 people have been killed in clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas in western Myanmar in the past 10 days, according to the latest official toll.

"This situation must not become an opportunity to permanently remove an unwelcome community," said a joint statement issued by Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, and independent experts on minority issues and the internally displaced.

They voiced their "deep concern about the assertion of the government and others that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants and stateless persons".

"If the country is to be successful in the process of democratic transition, it must be bold in addressing the human rights challenges that exist," Ojea Quintana said.

"In the case of Rakhine State, this involves addressing the long-standing endemic discrimination against the Rohingya community that exists within sections of local and national government as well as society at large."

The Rohingyas say their homes were burned down by Rakhines armed with slingshots, wooden staves, knives and gasoline.

The United Nations says more than 97 percent of the 28,108 people who have fled the violence are Muslims, mostly stateless Rohingya. Many now live in camps, joining 75,000 mostly Rohingya displaced in June after a previous explosion of sectarian violence killed at least 80 people.

Fearful Buddhists and Muslims are arming themselves with homemade weapons, testing the reformist government's resolve to prevent a new wave of violence.

Rita Izsak, U.N. independent expert on minority issues, said the Rohingya constituted a minority which must be protected according to international minority rights standards.

"The government must take steps to review relevant laws and procedures to provide equal access by the Rohingya community to citizenship and promote dialogue and reconciliation between communities," she said.

The U.N. refugee agency has called on authorities to restore law and order so as to prevent further bloodshed and displacement. An estimated 6,000 people are stranded on boats or on islets along Myanmar's western coast, it said on Tuesday.

"We are appealing to neighboring countries, Bangladesh being very much one of them, to keep borders open. It is clearly important that people do have access to safe haven," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Martin Petty in Rakhine; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Portugal faces court battle after budget passes

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's parliament approved the biggest tax increases in the country's modern history on Wednesday, paving the way for a court battle over a budget which the government says is vital for keeping its international bailout afloat.

The government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has searched for ways to guarantee revenues in order to meet budget goals set under the 78-billion euro ($101 billion) bailout deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

All lawmakers present from the two parties in the centre-right ruling coalition voted for the budget at its first reading while all other parties, including the opposition Socialists, voted against in parliament.

The budget sets Portugal, which this year is suffering its deepest recession since the 1970s, on course for a third year of economic contraction in 2013 as households face higher taxes and record unemployment of over 15 percent.

The 2013 budget, which raises tax rates on income, property and financial transactions, was the government's third attempt in recent months to ensure its budget goals are met. Some households face tax increases equivalent to two months' salary.

The budget is now expected to face an almost certain challenge in the constitutional court on the grounds that the tax increases weigh too heavily on the poor.

The court threw out one austerity plan in July and a second was abandoned after street protests.

"In the national emergency situation Portugal faces we cannot have a political crisis," Foreign Minister Paulo Portas of the junior coalition partner CDS told parliament just before the vote. "Failure to have a budget would imply a serious lack of compliance with the bailout plan."

Political tension has been increasing and anti-austerity demonstrations have become more common in recent weeks in Portugal, which despite being one of the countries worst hit by the euro zone crisis had so far escaped unrest of the sort seen elsewhere.

Unions and 'Indignados', a group of young unemployed people, staged protests in front of parliament on Wednesday. A few hundred had gathered by the time the vote took place, shouting anti-government slogans.

Opposition politicians were furious at what they saw as government lawmakers cutting short the debate on the budget due to concerns about protests outside parliament.

"This (to vote quickly) is a degrading decision and brings shame on this house," said Socialist deputy Sergio Sousa Pinto.

Political experts say the outcome of a court challenge is uncertain. "If the court finds something unconstitutional, it could still be something relatively easy to fix, or alternatively it could shoot down the budget and cause a political crisis," said Pedro Magalhaes, a political scientist at the Social Sciences Institute of Lisbon University.

"It's hard to predict the outcome: it wouldn't be the constitutional court if it were predictable."

TOUGHEST PERIOD

Passos Coelho said the 2013 budget aimed to help Portugal to "turn the page on one of the most difficult periods of our history", but the tax increases will cause even greater problems for ordinary Portuguese.

Portugal's judges' union has promised to challenge the budget on the grounds that it goes against the constitutional principle that all should be taxed equally. The Socialists have also said they would challenge it, and the president could submit it to the court himself in the process of signing off on it.

A group calling itself the "Congress of Democratic Alternatives" that includes left-wing politicians, urged rejection of the budget, or "at least for the president to send it to be checked by the constitutional court".

Filipe Garcia, head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros, a consultancy in Porto, said it was becoming ever more difficult to enact austerity plans. "Many Portuguese are beginning to think this route is not paying off," he said

The 2013 budget, relying on large increases in income tax, has strained the coalition government. The small rightist CDS party had made clear it would prefer spending cuts to achieve the targets, but subsequently backed down.

Passos Coelho spelled out plans to reform government spending in 2013-14 on Tuesday in a move aimed at soothing CDS concerns.

With the government's popularity already at record lows, a general strike planned for November 14 and some economists warning Portugal could enter a recession cycle like Greece, additional doubt over austerity measures would hurt confidence further.

The economy is forecast to contract at least 3 percent this year and 1 percent in 2013. Many economists think even this is far too optimistic.

The budget predicts unemployment will rise further to 16.4 percent next year from 15 percent now.

The concerns prompted the IMF to warn last week that the risks to Portugal's bailout have "increased markedly". Portuguese bonds have also reacted, beginning to reverse sharp declines in yields since the beginning of year.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Alvarenga; Editing by Peter Graff, David Stamp and Giles Elgood)

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Egypt detains 12 militants, including Tunisian, Libyan

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has detained 12 Islamist militants including a Tunisian and a Libyan suspected of having links to al Qaeda and planning attacks inside the country and abroad, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Egypt, now run by an elected, moderate Islamist president, has been battling to quell Muslim militants particularly in its Sinai region that borders Israel and the Islamist-ruled Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

The 12 militants belonged to cells in the Cairo districts of Nasser City, Sayyida Zeinab and Heliopolis as well as an area on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, a ministry statement said, adding they lived in rented apartments and used false names.

A ministry official said 12 people were being held, identifying one as Tunisian and another as Libyan.

The investigation suggested militant networks might have a foothold beyond Sinai and that Egypt could be attracting militants from other nations such as Libya and Tunisia, which like Egypt have toppled an autocrat who had kept a lid on militant Islam.

"The security forces of the Interior Ministry have successfully detained terrorist formations," the statement said, adding that they had been found in possession of a range of arms, explosives and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Last week, security forces carried out raids on militants holed up in Nasser City. One man, Karim Ahmed Essam el-Azizi, who was initially identified as a Libyan, was killed. A security official said on Wednesday that he was actually Egyptian.

Officials have said they had information Azizi may have had links to an attack in September on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, in which Washingon's ambassador to Libya was killed, but that this could not be confirmed.

The statement said three of the militants were arrested while trying to cross the border into Libya.

(Reporting by Marwa Awad; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Lonmin job cuts could bring more unrest in South African mines

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Lonmin management and workers appeared on Wednesday to be shaping up for a new battle after the strike-hit mining company said jobs would be cut.

The world's third largest platinum producer, Lonmin is scrambling to get back on its feet after a violent six-week strike at its Marikana mine that crippled production and led it to ask shareholders for $800 million in a rights issue on Tuesday.

It also gave unions notice of a restructuring, with proposed job losses in its 25,000-strong work force expected to be implemented in early 2013.

"We haven't decided how many employees will be impacted. What we have said is we are freezing our production target at 750,000 ounces for the next two years," Lonmin spokeswoman Sue Vey said.

"What we are doing is shaping the business accordingly."

The company had said earlier the strike would cause it to miss targets. With production almost halving in the three months to September 30, it has postponed its aim of increasing output to more than 900,000 ounces a year.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would fight any job cuts.

"Of course, we are in principle opposed to retrenchments. We will discourage them from going on a restructuring process that would see any jobs being lost," NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said.

The union hoped to meet management next week, he said.

The timing of the move is delicate as a wildcat strike is still gripping the nearby Anglo American Platinum mines at Rustenburg - where police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at strikers on Tuesday - and Lonmin workers only having been back at work for a month since their strike.

Emotions are also still high after the police killing of 34 striking Lonmin miners at Marikana on August 16, the bloodiest security incident since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

Tens of thousands of gold miners have also only returned to work in the last two weeks and lay-offs at Lonmin could trigger sympathy strikes.

Gideon du Plessis of the white-collar Solidarity trade union said he was not surprised by the Lonmin notice but he feared middle-management rather than the rock-drillers who led the strikes would bear the brunt of cuts.

"The focus will be on management levels but that means they are punishing those who did not participate in the strikes," Du Plessis said.

"These innocent people are now casualties."

(Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas; Editing by Ed Cropley and Angus MacSwan)

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French police face retrial over deaths that sparked 2005 riots

PARIS (Reuters) - France's highest court has ordered a retrial of police officers who were cleared of blame in the deaths of two teenagers seven years ago that triggered nationwide rioting.

In a ruling that averts possible tension in the grim suburbs ringing many French cities, the court ordered a retrial to fully assess accusations that police failed to rescue two teenagers who fled inside an electrical substation and were electrocuted.

The deaths in the night of October 27, 2005, sparked clashes between angry youths and riot police in the downtrodden suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois north of Paris.

In the following three weeks rioters in cities across the country burned thousands of cars, damaged buildings and opened fire at times in running battles with police.

The unrest, which forced the government of President Jacques Chirac to impose emergency curfew measures, occurred mostly in the immigrant-heavy social housing estates on city fringes where poverty, joblessness and social alienation are rife.

In Wednesday's ruling, the Cour de Cassation overturned an April 2011 ruling in which two police officers in Clichy-sous-Bois were cleared of failing to rescue the two teenagers.

One was a trainee on a police switchboard on the night of the event and the other a beat officer who was accused of leaving the vicinity of the substation without raising an alert.

An internal police inquiry showed the two youths who died had committed no offence although they fled from police who suspected them of involvement in a nearby break-in.

(Writing by Brian Love; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Libya congress approves new PM's proposed government

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's General National Congress approved new Prime Minister Ali Zeidan's proposed government line-up on Wednesday but cut its session short as security forces fended off protesters outside.

Zeidan presented a coalition cabinet on Tuesday, drawn from liberal and Islamist parties, to the national congress, which had rejected his predecessor's cabinet line-up.

The assembly had met on Tuesday to vote but its session was postponed after protesters, angry with some of the nominations, stormed its headquarters.

A televised vote on Wednesday showed that 105 congress members voted in favor of the line-up. The congress is made up of 200 members but not all were present.

"The government was approved. Now the session is over due to the mess outside," congress member Suleiman Zoubi told Reuters.

As congress met amid tight security, Libyan security forces briefly fired shots in the air to disperse a crowd of about 100 protesters outside the building, a Reuters witness said.

Zeidan needed congress' approval to take office. His transitional government will focus on restoring security in the oil-producing country where many militias have yet to disarm since Gaddafi's overthrow last year.

Congress elected Zeidan prime minister this month after his predecessor, Mustafa Abushagur, lost a confidence vote on his choice of ministers, criticized inside and outside the assembly.

(Reporting by Ghaith Shennib and Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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