Securing Gaza cease-fire proves elusive

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel and the Hamas militant group edged closer to a cease-fire Tuesday to end a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but after a day of furious diplomatic efforts involving the U.S. secretary of state, U.N. chief and Egypt's president, a deal remained elusive and fighting raged on both sides of the border.

Israeli tanks and gunboats pummeled targets in Gaza in what appeared to be a last-minute burst of fire, while at least 200 rockets were fired into Israel. As talks dragged on near midnight, Israeli and Hamas officials, communicating through Egyptian mediators, expressed hope that a deal would soon be reached, but cautioned that it was far from certain.

"If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem by diplomatic means, we prefer that. But if not, then I am sure you will understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions are necessary to defend its people," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a late-night meeting with visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton was hastily dispatched to the region by President Barack Obama to join a high-profile group of world leaders working to halt the violence. Standing alongside the Israeli leader, Clinton indicated it could take some time to iron out an agreement.

"In the days ahead, the United States will work with our partners here in Israel and across the region toward an outcome that bolsters security for the people of Israel, improves conditions for the people of Gaza and moves toward a comprehensive peace for all people of the region," she said.

Clinton expressed sorrow for the heavy loss of life on both sides, but called for the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel to end and stressed that the American commitment to Israel's security is "rock solid."

"The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike," she said.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton met with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials for two hours.

"They discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring about a sustainable outcome that protects Israel's security and improves the lives of civilians in Gaza," Nuland said. "They also consulted on her impending stops in Ramallah and Cairo, including Egyptian efforts to advance de-escalation."

Israel launched the offensive on Nov. 14 in a bid to end months of rocket attacks out of the Hamas-run territory, which lies on Israel's southern flank. After assassinating Hamas' military chief, it has carried out a blistering campaign of airstrikes, targeting rocket launchers, storage sites and wanted militants.

The campaign has killed more than 130 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and wounded hundreds of others. Five Israelis have been killed by rocket fire, including a soldier and a civilian contractor on Tuesday.

With Israel massing thousands of ground troops on the Gaza border, diplomats raced throughout the region in search of a formula to halt the fighting.

In a meeting with Netanyahu, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, but urged Israel to show "maximum restraint."

"Further escalation benefits no one," he said.

Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into Gaza through tunnels under the border with Egypt. It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.

Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007. Israel has rejected such demands in the past.

Egypt's new Islamist government is expected to play a key role in maintaining a deal.

The crisis has thrust Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, into the spotlight as he plays a difficult balancing act.

Morsi belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' parent movement, and clearly sympathizes with the Islamic militant group. At the same time, he relies heavily on U.S. aid and is trying to preserve a historic peace agreement with Israel.

Earlier, Morsi raised hopes that a cease-fire was near when he predicted the negotiations would yield "positive results" during the coming hours.

Netanyahu also said his country would be a "willing partner" in a cease-fire agreement.

But as the talks stretched into the evening, it became clear that a deal remained a ways off.

"Most likely the deal will be struck tomorrow. Israel has not responded to some demands, which delayed the deal," Hamas official Izzat Risheq said.

Hamas officials refused to discuss the remaining sticking points.

Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.

Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations said Hamas wanted assurances of a comprehensive deal that included new border arrangements — and were resisting Israeli proposals for a phased agreement. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Although Israel claims it has inflicted heavy damage on militants' capabilities, its roughly 1,550 airstrikes and shelling attacks have failed to halt the rocket fire.

More than 1,400 rockets have been fired at Israel, including about 200 on Tuesday. A U.S.-financed Israeli rocket-defense system has knocked down roughly 400 of the incoming projectiles.

Violence raged on as the talks continued. An airstrike late Tuesday killed two journalists who work for the Hamas TV station, Al-Aqsa, according to a statement from the channel. A third journalist, from Al Quds Educational Radio, a private station, also was killed.

The Al-Aqsa TV cameramen were in a car hit by an airstrike, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities. Earlier this week it targeted the station's offices, saying they served as a Hamas communications post.

Late Tuesday, a Palestinian rocket hit a house in the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, wounding two people and badly damaging the top two floors of the building, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Minutes before Ban's arrival in Jerusalem from Egypt, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Jerusalem, just the second time it has targeted the city. The rocket fell in an open area southeast of the city.

Jerusalem had previously been considered beyond the range of Gaza rockets — and an unlikely target because it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest shrine.

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on several Gaza neighborhoods asking residents to evacuate and head toward the center of Gaza City along specific roads. The army "is not targeting any of you, and doesn't want to harm you or your families," the leaflets said. Palestinian militants urged residents to ignore the warnings, calling them "psychological warfare."

Israeli security officials acknowledge they rely on a network of Palestinian informants to identify targets. Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection Tuesday, witnesses said.

An Associated Press reporter saw a mob surrounding five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing, and one of the bodies was dragged through the streets by a motorcycle.

Hamas did not provide any evidence against the alleged collaborators.

Clinton was also scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Egyptian leaders in Cairo on Wednesday. Turkey's foreign minister and a delegation of Arab League foreign ministers traveled to Gaza on a separate truce mission. Airstrikes continued to hit Gaza even as they entered the territory.

"Turkey is standing by you," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. "Our demand is clear. Israel should end its aggression immediately and lift the inhumane blockade imposed on Gaza."

At the United Nations, U.N. ambassadors after hours of closed-door meetings announced the Security Council will hold an open debate on the Gaza crisis Wednesday afternoon if a cease-fire is not called before then. The move comes after the United States blocked adoption of a unanimous press statement from the council because it did not explicitly criticize Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel.

The U.S. considers Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide and other attacks, to be a terror group and does not meet with its officials. The Obama administration blames Hamas for the latest eruption of violence and says Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, it has warned against a ground invasion, saying it could send casualties spiraling.

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Barzak reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Hamza Hendawi in Cairo, Karin Laub in Gaza City and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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Turbulence on Cuba-Italy flight leaves 30 bruised

ROME (AP) — An airliner flying from Havana to Milan abruptly plunged some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) when it hit unusually strong turbulence over the Atlantic on Monday, terrifying passengers and leaving some 30 people aboard with bruises and scrapes, airline officials said.

The flight continued to Milan’s Malpensa airport after the plane’s captain determined that it suffered no structural damage and two passengers who are physicians found no serious injuries, Giulio Buzzi, head of the pilots division at Neos Air, told Sky TG24 TV.

The ANSA news agency quoted bruised passenger Edoardo De Lucchi as saying meals were being served when suddenly there was “10 seconds of terror.” He recounted how plates went flying and some passengers not wearing seatbelts bounced about.

Buzzi had said that the drop measured some 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) in a cloudless sky. But Milan daily’s Corriere della Sera’s web site, quoting Neos official Davide Martini, later reported that the plane first bounced up some 500 meters (1,650 feet), then dropped some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) to some 500 meters (1,650 feet) below the original altitude.

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Intel CEO Paul Otellini to retire in surprise move

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Intel CEO Paul Otellini dropped a bombshell on the company’s board of directors last week, telling them in private that he plans to retire from the world’s largest maker of microprocessors in May. Otellini‘s move comes at a time when Intel faces a shaky economy and a mobile gadget craze that is eating away at demand for its PC chips —and it gives the company just six months to find a new leader.

Intel‘s board expected the 62-year-old Otellini to remain chief executive until the company’s customary retirement age of 65. The company announced his impending departure on Monday.

“The decision was entirely Paul’s,” said Intel spokesman Paul Bergevin. “The board accepted his decision with regret.”

Otellini will be ending a nearly 40-year career with Intel, including an eight-year stint as CEO by the time he leaves. He joined the Santa Clara, Calif. company after graduating from the nearby University of California at Berkeley and worked his way up the ranks before succeeding Craig Barrett as CEO in May 2005.

“It’s time to move on and transfer Intel‘s helm to a new generation of leadership,” Otellini said in a statement.

In another statement, Intel Chairman Andy Bryant praised Otellini for leading the company through “challenging times and market transitions.”

Intel‘s board plans to consider candidates inside and outside the company as it searches for Otellini’s successor. Otellini will be involved in the search.

Otellini and the four other men who have been Intel‘s CEO during the company’s 45-year history have all been promoted from within. The company’s board is believed to be leaning in that direction again.

Intel identified the leading internal candidates Monday by anointing three of Otellini’s current lieutenants as executive vice presidents. They are: Renee James, head of Intel‘s software business; Brian Krzanich, chief operating officer and head of worldwide manufacturing; and Stacy Smith, chief financial officer and director of corporate strategy.

If recent history is any indication, Krzanich has the inside track to become Intel‘s CEO. Both Barrett and Otellini served as chief operating officer before becoming CEO.

Although Otellini is generally well regarded, he has faced criticism for initially underestimating the impact that smartphones and tablet computers would have on the personal computer market. It was a pivotal change that also confounded Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer, whose software company makes the Windows operating system that runs most of the PCs relying on Intel‘s chips.

“The shift came more quickly than they expected, and when they did finally see what was happening, they were a little late to react,” said technology analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.

Indeed, in 2008, nearly 300 million PCs were sold and most of them were powered by Microsoft‘s Windows and Intel‘s microchips, according to Forrester Research. Some 142 million smartphones sold that year, at a time when the tablet market hadn’t really taken off. That wouldn’t happen until Apple‘s 2010 release of the iPad.

By contrast, this year, Forrester estimates 330 million PCs will be sold worldwide compared with 665 million smartphones and just over 100 million tablets. By 2016, Forrester predicts annual sales of PCs will rise only slightly to 370 million machines while more than 1.6 billion smartphones and tablets will be purchased.

The fates of Intel and Microsoft have been so tightly wound for the past 30 years that computers using a combination of their chips and software are famously known as “Wintel” machines.

Now, much of the technology industry is questioning whether Intel and Microsoft can catch up in the mobile market to ensure their products remain as essential — and profitable — in the future as they have been in the past three decades.

It’s a challenge that Ballmer, 56, is confident he can tackle. He signaled his intent to remain Microsoft‘s CEO earlier this month when he ushered out the head of the company’s Windows division because of philosophical differences over the company’s future direction. For whatever reasons, Otellini concluded it was time for new leadership at Intel — an opinion that many investors share, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Doug Freedman.

“A shift in leadership could be welcome news to investors as Intel could be in greater position to broaden its portfolio into higher growth markets,” Freedman wrote in a Monday research note.

Intel‘s stock was unchanged at $ 20.19 shortly before the market closed Monday. The stock has fallen more than 20 percent during Otellini’s reign. Most of the decline occurred this year amid concerns about the company’s ability to adjust to mobile computing and weakening demand for its core products in countries with troubled economies, particularly in Europe and China. The company blamed the poor economy for a 14 percent drop in its earnings during its most recent quarter.

Intel‘s chips have become even more dominant in the PC computer market during Otellini’s tenure, helping to boost the company’s annual revenue from $ 39 billion in 2005 to $ 54 billion last year. Besides supplying Windows-powered PCs, Otellini also scored a coup in 2006 when he convinced Apple to start using Intel chips in Mac computers instead of IBM Corp.’s microprocessors.

But Apple‘s pioneering work in smartphones and tablet computers also muddled Intel‘s future. Both the iPhone and iPad inspired a wave of sophisticated handheld devices that are undercutting demand for desktop and laptop machines that house Intel processors.

Most tablets rely on a technology licensed from British chip designer ARM Holdings Plc. Even Microsoft has tweaked the latest version of the Windows operating system so it works on ARM chips.

Other chip makers such as Qualcomm Inc. have developed less expensive microprocessors that have eclipsed Intel in the smartphone market. Qualcomm‘s inroads in the mobile market are a key reason why its stock has soared by more than 70 percent while Otellini was running Intel.

The contrasting performances of the two companies’ stocks enabled Qualcomm to surpass Intel as the world’s most valuable chip maker. Qualcomm‘s market value now stands at about $ 106 billion versus $ 100 billion for Intel.

Even though its stock under Otellini has lagged the rest of the market, Intel‘s ongoing prosperity has enabled the company to reward shareholders in other ways. Intel has paid stock dividends totaling $ 23.5 billion under Otellini as its quarterly payments rose 8 cents per share in 2005 to 22.5 cents per share currently.

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Mitt Romney a Twihard? Candidate and Wife Take in “Twilight” Finale

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – He may have missed out on becoming leader of the free world when he lost the election to President Obama, but Mitt Romney is keeping busy – with the romantic vampires and werewolves of “Twilight.”

Saturday night, he was spotted with his wife Ann heading into a showing of “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ at a cineplex in Del Mar, Calif., by TMZ. After the movie, they and two young men went to a nearby pizza place, where they reportedly spoke and posed for pictures with patrons.

The Saturday night out for the Romneys was in contrast to the recent movie-viewing by the man who beat him in the election. President Obama last week viewed Oscar hopeful “Lincoln” in a special White House screening with several of the cast members and filmmakers.

There was no word on whether Romney or his wife aligned with Team Edward or Team Jacob.

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Antibiotics in pregnancy tied to asthma in children: study

(Reuters) – Children whose mothers took antibiotics while they were pregnant were slightly more likely than other children to develop asthma, according to a Danish study.

The results don’t prove that antibiotics caused the higher asthma risk, but they support a current theory that the body’s own “friendly” bacteria have a role in whether a child develops asthma, and antibiotics can disrupt those beneficial bugs.

“We speculate that mothers’ use of antibiotics changes the balance of natural bacteria, which is transmitted to the newborn, and that such unbalance bacteria in early life impact on the immune maturation in the newborn,” said Hans Bisgaard, one of the study’s authors and a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Previous research has linked antibiotics taken during infancy to a higher risk of asthma, although some researchers have disputed those findings.

To look for effects starting at an even earlier point, Bisgaard and his colleagues gathered information from a Danish national birth database of more than 30,000 children born between 1997 and 2003, and followed for five years.

They found that about 7,300 of the children, or nearly one quarter, were exposed to antibiotics while their mothers were pregnant. Among them, just over three percent, 238 children, were hospitalized for asthma by age five.

The study, which appeared in The Journal of Pediatrics, found that by contrast, about 2.5 percent, or 581 of some 23,000 children whose mothers didn’t take antibiotics, were hospitalized with asthma.

After taking into account other asthma risk factors, Bisgaard’s team calculated that the children who had been exposed to antibiotics were 17 percent more likely to be hospitalized for asthma.

Similarly, these children were also 18 percent more likely to have been given a prescription for an asthma medication than children whose mothers did not take antibiotics when they were pregnant.

His team also looked at a smaller group of 411 children who were at higher risk for asthma because their mothers had the condition. They found that these children were twice as likely as their peers to develop asthma too if their mothers took antibiotics during the third trimester of pregnancy.

Others said that it was possible that something besides the antibiotics was responsible, such as the illness the drugs were prescribed for.

“This study, it doesn’t tell us whether it’s the antibiotic use or whether it’s the infection. That’s one thing we can’t decipher,” said Anita Kozryskyj, a professor at the University of Alberta who also studies the antibiotics-asthma link but wasn’t involved in the new study.

The results don’t suggest that women should avoid antibiotics since some infections can be quite dangerous to a fetus, she said, adding that Bisgaard’s study suggests that the development of asthma might start before birth, something researchers hadn’t studied very closely.

“We’re beginning to appreciate that some of the origins of asthma and changes to the immune system, maybe they start earlier than right after birth,” she added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/W9SnlJ (Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

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Gaza offensive was years in the making

JERUSALEM (AP) — With little notice, Israel has launched a blistering air offensive against the Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group. Here's a look at why the violence erupted, the goals of the warring sides and how it may end:

LIGHTNING STRIKE

Israel opened its offensive with a surprise airstrike on Nov. 14 that killed the shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing. Since then, it has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in what it says is a systematic campaign to halt years of rocket attacks launched from Gaza. While Israel claims to have inflicted heavy damage, dozens of rockets have continued to fly out of Gaza each day.

WHY NOW?

Israel launched the operation in response to days of rocket attacks out of Gaza, highlighted by a rare missile strike on an Israeli military jeep that wounded four soldiers. But the operation was actually years in the making. Since a previous Israeli offensive four years ago, Hamas has restocked its arsenal with more sophisticated and powerful weapons smuggled in from Egypt through underground tunnels. After a lull following Israel's previous offensive, rocket fire has steadily climbed the past two years. The Israeli military says more than 700 rockets were launched into Israel this year before it launched the offensive last week. In this environment, Israeli officials have said it was only a matter of time before a new round of fighting broke out.

THE BATTELFIELD

Hamas seized control of Gaza, a densely populated strip of land sandwiched between southern Israel and Egypt's Sinai desert, five years ago from the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, has developed is rocket arsenal to the point where nearly half of Israel's population is in range.

WHY FIRE ROCKETS?

Palestinian militants, led by Hamas, say the rocket fire is a legitimate response to continued Israeli attacks. They also claim they are resisting Israeli occupation of the territory. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, ending a 38-year military occupation. But it has maintained a blockade of the territory in a step it says is needed to prevent arms smuggling. In the murky world of Gaza politics, the attacks also stem from internal rivalries between groups eager to prove their militant credentials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says no country would tolerate repeated missile attacks on its civilians.

RISKY BUSINESS

Prolonged fighting carries great risks for both sides. As Israel presses forward, the number of Palestinian civilian casualties is likely to rise — a scenario that could quickly turn international opinion against it. Israel's previous offensive left hundreds of civilians dead, drawing international condemnation and war crimes accusations. By continuing to fire rockets, Hamas raises the risk of tougher Israeli attacks, including a possible ground offensive. Well aware of these risks, both sides are working through mediators to arrange a cease-fire.

TERMS OF THE DEAL

Israel wants a halt to the rocket attacks and an end to arms smuggling into Gaza, most likely in a deal that is guaranteed by Egypt or other international parties. Hamas wants a halt to Israeli assassinations of its leaders and a lifting of the Israeli blockade. While gaps remain wide, both sides have strong interests in a deal. Bringing quiet to Israel's embattled south will make Netanyahu a national hero, weeks before parliamentary elections. Hamas, branded a terrorist group by Israel and the West, has seen its influence grow as the Arab Spring brings Islamists to power across the region. A cease-fire, particularly an arrangement guaranteed with international partners, would cement Hamas' control of Gaza and give it more of the international recognition it covets so much.

BY THE NUMBERS

—More than 100 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed, according to Palestinian medical officials. Three Israeli civilians have died from rocket fire.

—Israel has attacked more than 1,350 targets in the current offensive, according to the Israeli army. Hamas and smaller armed groups have responded with nearly 600 rockets, the army says.

—Israel says its new "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system has shot down more than 300 incoming projectiles.

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Rebels in Congo reach door of Goma

GOMA, Congo (AP) — A Rwandan-backed rebel group advanced to within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time that rebels have come this close since 2008.

Congolese army spokesman Col. Olivier Hamuli said the fighting has been going on since 6 a.m. Sunday and the front line has moved to just a few kilometers (miles) outside the city. After more than nine hours of violent clashes the two sides took a break, with M23 rebels establishing a checkpoint just 100 meters (yards) away from one held by the military in the village of Munigi, exactly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) outside the Goma city line.

Contacted by telephone on the front line, M23 rebel spokesman Col. Vianney Kazarama said the group will spend the night in Goma.

“We are about to take the town. We will spend the night in Goma tonight,” said Kazarama. “We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu,” he said mentioning the capital of the next province to the south.

The M23 rebel group is made up of soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defense of the People, or CNDP, a group made-up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi ethnic group, the ethnicity that was targeted in Rwanda‘s 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando Gen. Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the doorstep of Goma, abruptly stopping just before taking the city.

In the negotiations that followed and which culminated in a March 23, 2009 peace deal, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not pick up their arms again until this spring, when hundreds of ex-CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming that the Congolese government had failed to uphold their end of the 2009 agreement.

Reports, including one by the United Nations Group of Experts, have shown that M23 is actively being backed by Rwanda and the new rebellion is likely linked to the fight to control Congo’s rich mineral wealth.

The latest fighting broke out Thursday and led to the deaths of 151 rebels and two soldiers. On Saturday U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo.

Also on Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had called Rwandan President Paul Kagame “to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack,” according to peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous who spoke at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Saturday.

North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said Saturday that the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Goma, after thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels, attacked early Saturday.

“Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us,” he said Saturday.

In downtown Goma, panicked residents had come out to try to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she has nowhere to go.

“I don’t really know what is happening, I’ve seen soldiers and tanks in the streets and that scares me,” said Imaculee Kahindo. Asked if she planned to leave the city, she said: “What can we do? I will probably hide in my house with my children.”

Hamuli, the spokesman for the Congolese army, denied reports that soldiers were fleeing.

In 2008 as Nkunda’s CNDP rebels amassed at the gates of Goma, reporters inside the city were able to see Congolese soldiers running in the opposite direction, after having abandoned their posts. The Congolese army is notoriously dysfunctional with soldiers paid only small amounts, making it difficult to secure their loyalties during heavy fighting.

“We are fighting 3 kilometers from Goma, just past the airport. And our troops are strong enough to resist the rebels,” said Hamuli. “We won’t let the M23 march into our town,” he said. Asked if his troops were fleeing, he added: “These are false rumors. We are not going anywhere.”

U.N. peacekeeping chief Ladsous said that the rebels were very well-equipped, including with night vision equipment allowing them to fight at night.

Reports by United Nations experts have accused Rwanda, as well as Uganda, of supporting the rebels. Both countries strongly deny any involvement and Uganda said if the charges continue it will pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing an important role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels.

The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate stop to the violence following a two-hour, closed-door emergency meeting. The council said it would add sanctions against M23 rebels and demanded that rebels immediately stop their advance toward the provincial capital of Goma.

“We must stop the M23″ because Goma’s fall “would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis,” said France‘s U.N. Ambassador, Gerard Araud. He added that U.N. officials would decide in the coming days which M23 leaders to target for additional sanctions.

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Associated Press writer Maria Sanminiatelli at the United Nations and Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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Movie industry has shed 16,000-plus jobs in L.A. since 2004, study says

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The motion-picture industry has lost more than 16,000 jobs in Los Angeles County since the peak year of 2004, according to a new study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

And according to the study, “runaway productions” that have moved out of the county due to tax incentives in other areas could be to blame.

The study noted that the motion-picture and video production sector of the entertainment industry – the largest segment of the industry in Los Angeles County – was responsible for 118,200 jobs in the county in 2004, a peak year for the sector. In 2011, by contrast, that number dropped to 102,100 – a 13.6 percent decrease that accounts for 16,100 jobs.

“Arguably, runaway production has had a deleterious effect on industry employment,” the report notes. “New York State alone added 14,100 jobs in this sector over that period, while Georgia added nearly 800 jobs. Meanwhile, Louisiana added over 2,200 jobs since implementing its own tax-credit program in 2002. Other states added jobs in the sector as well.”

The study also points out other factors that could account for the job drain, such as piracy and international competition in such farflung areas as Canada, India and Nigeria, which surpassed Hollywood in 2009 as the second-largest film producer in the world, following India’s Bollywood, according to a report from UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics.

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Doping-Four year bans proposed under new WADA Code

Nov 18 (Reuters) – Athletes guilty of serious doping offenses will be suspended for four years from 2015 under proposals being considered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but there are no plans for a specific rule to ban offenders from the Olympics.

Currently, athletes found guilty of a first major doping offense are handed a two-year ban with any subsequent positive test incurring a life-ban.

The longer ban would be introduced for offenses that include the use of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, masking agents and trafficking, according to a second draft of the 2015 WADA code which was reviewed over the weekend.

“It is clear … there is a strong desire in the world of sport, from governments and within the anti-doping community to strengthen the sanction articles in the code,” WADA President John Fahey said in a statement.

“This second draft has done that, doubling the length of suspension for serious offenders and widening the scope for anti-doping organizations to impose lifetime bans.”

The draft does not, however, consider a former International Olympic Committee (IOC) rule regarding Olympic participation, which was ruled in non-compliance with the WADA Code in 2011 by sport’s highest court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The IOC rule, introduced in 2008, banned athletes from participating at the next Olympic Games if they had been suspended for six months or longer.

After the rule was ruled non-compliant, Britain was forced to overturn lifetime Olympic bans on their drug cheats.

“The rational is if more four-year sanctions are delivered, then there won’t be any need for (the IOC rule) because the athletes will be missing the next Olympics,” WADA spokesman Terence O’Rorke said by telephone from Montreal.

The new WADA Code draft also includes a proposal that to be prohibited, substances or methods must be performance enhancing, contrary to the spirit of sport or contrary to the health of athletes.

The proposed code will undergo further review between now and March 2013, when it will be presented to the WADA Foundation Board before a final draft is prepared for ratification at the world anti-doping conference in Johannesburg next November.

“Athletes must know that there is a heavy price to pay for intentional doping,” Fahey said. “I am confident this draft will deliver that message loud and clear.”

WADA also said its funding would be frozen for a second successive year at approximately $ 28 million in 2013.

“This freeze is not ideal for the fight against doping in sport,” Fahey said. “It is widely accepted that doping is a major issue no longer restricted to the sporting world, and that it must be addressed by society as a whole.” (Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina, editing by Nick Mulvenney)

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Israeli air strike kills 11 civilians in Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday, medical officials said, apparently an attack on a top militant that brought a three-storey home crashing down.

International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount in response to the deadliest single incident in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has taken the lead in trying to broker a ceasefire and Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi met Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and Islamic Jihad's head Ramadan Shallah as part of the mediation efforts, but a presidency statement did not say if they were conclusive.

Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel "stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza".

Listing Israel's terms for ceasing fire, Moshe Yaalon, a deputy to the prime minister, wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

Gaza health officials said 72 Palestinians , 21 of them children and several women have been killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began. Hundreds have been wounded.

Israel gave off signs of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-run enclave as the next stage in its offensive, billed as a bid to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. It also spelt out its conditions for a truce.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that while Israel had a right to defend itself against the salvoes, it would be "preferable" to avoid a military thrust into the Gaza Strip, a narrow, densely populated coastal territory. Such an assault would risk high casualties and an international outcry.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said 11 people, all of them civilians, were killed when an Israeli missile flattened the home of the Dalu family. Medics said four women and four children were among the dead.

Israel's chief military spokesman said Yihia Abayah, a senior commander of rocket operations in the Gaza Strip, had been the target.

The spokesman, Yoav Mordechai, told Israel's Channel 2 television he did not know whether Abayah was killed, "but the outcome was that there were civilian casualties". He made no direct mention of the destroyed dwelling.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that he had assured world leaders that Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties in the military showdown with Hamas.

"The massacre of the Dalu family will not pass without punishment," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement.

VIOLENCE

In other air raids on Sunday, two Gaza City media buildings were hit, witnesses said. Eight journalists were wounded and facilities belonging to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain's Sky News were damaged.

An employee of the Beirut-based al Quds television station lost his leg in the attack, local medics said.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity", and that journalists in the building had effectively been used as human shields by Gaza's rulers.

For their part, Gaza militants launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day, once in the morning and another after dark.

Israel's "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down all three rockets, but falling debris from the daytime interception hit a car, which caught fire. Its driver was not hurt.

In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border. Military convoys moved on roads in the area newly closed to civilian traffic.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details.

The Israeli military said 544 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since Wednesday, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. Some 302 were intercepted and 99 failed to reach Israel and landed inside the Gaza Strip, it added.

Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force the Islamist Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedevilled Israeli border towns for years and is now displaying greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the crosshairs.

Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.

OBAMA CAUTIONS AGAINST GROUND CAMPAIGN

At a news conference during a visit to the Thai capital Bangkok, Obama said Israel has "every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory".

He added: "If this can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza that is preferable. That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it's also preferable for Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they're much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded," he said.

Obama said he had been in regular contact with Egyptian and Turkish leaders - to secure their mediation in bringing about a halt to rocket barrages by Hamas and other Islamist militants.

"We're going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours," he added.

Diplomatic efforts continued on Sunday when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Israeli officials and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

"It is absolutely necessary that we move urgently towards a ceasefire, and that's where France can be useful," Fabius told French television, adding that war must be avoided.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be in Egypt on Monday for talks with Mursi, the foreign ministry in Cairo said. U.N. diplomats earlier said Ban was expected in Israel and Egypt this week to push for an end to the fighting.

Israel's operation has so far drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called its right to self-defence, but there was also a growing number of appeals from them to seek an end to the hostilities.

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