France, Britain join Syria peace push at U.N. (Reuters)

DAMASCUS (Reuters) ? Arab League monitors said the withdrawal of colleagues by Gulf Arab states would not hinder their work in Syria while France and Britain Wednesday joined efforts at the United Nations to end President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

"The U.N. Security Council must support the Arab League's courageous decisions which are trying to end the repression and violence in Syria and find a solution to the political crisis," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

"Our aim is to get a resolution approved." The Security Council could vote as early as next week on a Western-Arab draft resolution, council diplomats said.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that Assad would "soon discover that the forces of change can't be reversed."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country remained opposed to sanctions on Syria and reiterated its opposition to military intervention.

But it is unclear whether Russia is prepared to wield its veto powers again to block council action on Syria.

More than 50 observers from Gulf Arab states left Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were certain "the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue."

Their colleagues in Damascus, about 120 strong, pledged to continue the monitoring mission, now extended until February 23, to verify Syria's compliance with an earlier Arab peace plan.

"The departure of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will not have an impact on the mission's work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job," said a senior Arab monitor, who asked not to be named.

"We need more monitors of course and more will come soon to replace those who left."

Syrian opposition groups have accused the observer mission, which began on December 26, of giving Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels in which more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, by a U.N. tally.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the League's committee on Syria, wrote jointly to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon setting out their plan for a political solution in Syria.

Several diplomats at the United Nations said France and Britain were working with Qatar and other Arab delegations on a new draft resolution supporting the Arab League plan which envisages Assad stepping down and making way for a unity government to halt the bloodshed of a 10-month uprising.

Valero said the talks should enable the Security Council to support and enforce the Arab plan by giving it the necessary international guarantees for it to be implemented.

"TERRORISTS"

The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot dead Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, in an attack which Damascus blamed on "terrorists."

State news agency SANA also said a priest was killed by "terrorists" while helping a wounded person in the city of Hama.

The government says it is fighting foreign-backed Islamist "terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police. SANA said 30 more were buried in the last two days.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven other people were killed Wednesday. One was killed by soldiers surrounding the Bab Qabli district of Hama and a woman died after a shell landed on her house near the town of Qusair, 10 km from the Lebanese border, it said.

It also reported clashes between army deserters and state soldiers in the rebellious province of Idlib that disabled three armored vehicles and killed or wounded six soldiers.

The revolt in Syria was inspired by other uprisings that have toppled three autocratic Arab leaders over the past year and the bloodletting has battered Assad's standing in the world.

The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership and Iran, at loggerheads with Western powers over its disputed nuclear ambitions, is among Assad's few remaining allies.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem wrote to the Arab League accepting an extension of the monitoring mission. But he rejected the 22-member body's call for Assad to hand power to his deputy and allow a new unity government to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections.

"TO THE MOON"

"They have abandoned their role as the Arab League and we no longer want Arab solutions to the crisis," Moualem declared on Tuesday. "Heading to the Security Council will be the third stage in their plan, and the only thing left is the last step of internationalization."

Moualem said that while "half the universe is against us" Syria's long-time ally and arms supplier Russia would never permit foreign intervention. "That is a red line for them."

Britain, France and the United States have chastised Moscow for continuing to arm Syria despite the upheaval there.

"The supply of arms and aircraft to the Syrian regime will only fuel bloodshed - which is why the EU has imposed an arms embargo on Syria, and we are calling for the U.N. to do the same," a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said.

"All Security Council members, including Russia, need to throw their collective weight behind the Arab League's efforts to stop the violence and achieve a peaceful transition.

"We urge Russia to support these efforts instead of providing cover for a regime's brutal repression."

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Ayman Samir in Cairo, John Irish in Paris and Dominic Evans in Beirut; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_nm/us_syria

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5 things not in the State of the Union (Politico)

What gets into a State of Union matters. What doesn?t matters too ? sometimes just as much.

President Barack Obama embraced his base Tuesday night by affirming his commitment to Israel, clean energy, economic equality and immigration. He also placated his supporters by avoiding a few sensitive subjects.

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Here?s POLITICO?s list of the top 5 things that didn?t make Tuesday?s State of the Union.

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations

Obama took time out to talk about Israel ? key for securing Jewish support in November.

?Our iron-clad ? and I mean iron-clad ? commitment to Israel?s security has meant the closest cooperation between our two countries in history,? Obama said, adding the second ?iron-clad? to the prepared version of the speech. He?s also likely to get applause for the tough line he took against Iran over its nuclear program.

But Obama avoided any mention of peace negotiations ? and of the trouble he faced for his unsuccessful effort to jump-start them.

Since Palestinians formally applied for statehood at the United Nations in September, despite pleas from the U.S. not to do so, Obama could have addressed the topic this year. He did in his 2009 message to Congress, when he referred to the special envoy appointment of former Sen. George Mitchell, who ultimately resigned last May.

Obama did pay tribute to the Arab Spring democracy movement, welcoming the demise of Libya?s Muammar Qadhafi and warning that Syria?s Bashir Assad?s government ?will soon discover that the forces of change can?t be reversed.? But he left discussions of the negotiations over the region?s thorniest problem to another day.

Keystone XL Pipeline

Obama?s speech Tuesday night was chock-a-block with mentions of energy ? 23 in all. Not one of them was about the major decision he made just last week to reject ? at least for now ? plans to build a massive, 1700-mile long pipeline to carry oil sands from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Keystone project pits two major Democratic constituencies ? environmentalists and labor ? against one another. Greens oppose the pipeline not just because of the acquifer issue, but because processing and burning the oil sands has a heavy greenhouse gas impact. Unions are eager for the thousands of jobs involved in constructing it. Obama chose to incite neither.

But Republicans wouldn?t let the night go by without mentioning it. The party views the pipeline rejection as a perfect example of Obama?s unwillingness to make job creation a priority. In the official GOP response to the president?s speech, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels warned against ?the extremism that?cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands.?

Anti-piracy legislation

The showdown over the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act consumed both chambers of Congress last week. But there wasn?t a peep about it from the president?s podium Tuesday night.

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House panel challenges gov't response on Volt (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A GOP-led House committee is challenging the Obama administration's investigation into Chevy Volt batteries that caught fire last year, raising questions about whether the government's partial ownership of General Motors Co. created a conflict of interest.

The report by the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it was "deeply troubling" that safety regulators waited several months before telling the public that a Volt battery caught fire three weeks after a government crash test. The fire happened in June but was not made public until November ? "a period of time that also coincides with the negotiation over the 2017-2025 fuel economy standards," the report states, adding that it was possible that those negotiations "incentivized NHTSA to remain silent on the issue."

But in a recent letter to committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland said that the agency's investigation into the Chevy Volt "is completely unrelated to the fuel economy standards rulemaking."

The committee was set to hold a subcommittee hearing on the issue Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its official release.

In an email Tuesday, NHTSA spokeswoman Lynda Tran said that following the June fire, the agency needed to determine through careful forensic analysis whether the Volt was the actual cause ? and if so, what the implications were for safety ? and that took time.

"If at any time during this process we had reason to believe that vehicle owners faced any imminent safety risk we would have made that point known to the public right away," she said.

NHTSA began studying the Volt last June after a fire broke out in one of the cars three weeks after it was crashed as part of safety testing. Two other fires related to separate safety tests occurred later, and NHTSA opened an official investigation into the vehicle on Nov. 25. The government ended its investigation last week, concluding that the Volt and other electric cars don't pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered cars. The agency and General Motors Co. know of no fires in real-world crashes.

But some critics have criticized the government's response, accusing it of having a conflict of interest because the government still owns 26.5 percent of the company's shares, and because the administration has touted electric cars. Wednesday's subcommittee hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform was titled, "Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA Know and When Did They Know It?"

"Questions have been raised as to whether or not GM receives special deference from the administration because of its status as a ward of the state," the committee report states, adding, "the Obama administration has tied the political reputation of the president closely to the success of GM generally, and to the Chevy Volt specifically." The report also accuses NHTSA officials of not cooperating with its investigation, and of being unprepared to respond to car battery risks.

Both Strickland and GM chairman and CEO Daniel F. Akerson were scheduled to testify at Wednesday's hearing.

In written testimony, Akerson said that testing by government regulators resulted in fires "after putting the battery through lab conditions that no driver would experience in the real world."

The company advised Volt owners to return their cars to dealers for repairs that will lower the risk of battery fires. GM hopes that, by adding steel to the plates protecting the batteries, it will ease worries about the car's safety. The cars are covered by a "customer satisfaction program" run by GM, which is similar to a safety recall but allows the carmaker to avoid the bad publicity and federal monitoring that come with a recall.

"The Volt is safe," Akerson said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_go_co/us_volt_fires

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Upbeat and on a roll, Obama showing some swagger (AP)

CHANDLER, Ariz. ? If President Barack Obama is showing some swagger, it shouldn't be a surprise.

His job approval ratings point to an uptick. The Navy SEAL unit that killed Osama bin Laden just pulled off a daring rescue that Obama authorized in Somalia. He's fresh off a big speech before Congress, and the Republicans who want his job are criticizing each other probably more than they are Obama.

As he hits the road for three days of travel to important political states, Obama is on a roll.

Feeling good, he even tried his hand at a bit of public crooning a few days ago, channeling the Rev. Al Green to a fundraising crowd at the Apollo Theater in New York and securing the highest of pop culture distinction: a ring tone.

It could be a fleeting moment for Obama. While the economy is improving with indicators trending positively, unemployment remains high at 8.5 percent and international debt crises and tensions could unravel the gains.

For now, Obama is not hiding his upbeat demeanor.

Arriving in Iowa on Wednesday, he jogged, grinning, to a rope line of a couple of dozen supporters. He later expressed nostalgia for the days in 2007 when he was campaigning in Iowa and struck a defiant tone against congressional Republicans that was even sharper than the repudiation he offered Tuesday night in his State of the Union address.

"Our economy is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," he told workers and guests at a conveyor manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids. Speaking of Republicans, he said, "Their philosophy is simple: We're better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."

"Well, I am here to say they are wrong," he said.

In a stop later in the day in Arizona, Obama stripped off his jacket and joked about the warm weather to a crowd at an Intel chip plant, seeming to revel in being out on the stump.

The spring in his step comes as polls show slight improvement in his job approval ratings. A Washington Post/ABC poll last week had him evenly split 48-48 on that question. A Gallup tracking poll has him even in recent surveys, compared with a few months ago where more disapproved than approved

On the road through Friday, Obama will bask in the afterglow of his prime-time address and use the power of the presidency to compete for headlines with leading GOP White House hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as they knock heads ahead of the Jan. 31 Florida primary. He will try to promote a populist message of income equality that Obama's team believes can resonate with voters.

If 2011 began with overtures to Republicans and big business, 2012 is about operating on his own terms. He will challenge Congress to pass his initiatives, some of which he has tried before without success. For now, Obama is liberated. The thrust and parrying of governing has not picked up in Washington yet.

The road gives him an opportunity to goad congressional Republicans, believing he has been able to sway public opinion with his presidential megaphone before. He cites Washington's decision to extend, for two months, a payroll tax cut for workers. He's now seeking to extend it for the full year, and while there's little doubt that Congress eventually will agree, Obama prodded anyway.

"Your voices convinced Congress to extend this middle-class tax cut before," he said. "You remember there was little resistance there last year. I need your help to get them to do it again. Tell Congress to pass this tax cut without drama, without delay. No soap operas. Just get it done."

Political events are going his way as well.

Just as he stepped up his call for a minimum 30 percent tax rate for millionaires, Romney released his tax returns under pressure, revealing that he paid an effective tax rate of 14 percent. That not only underscored Romney's wealth, it also provided an argument for altering the nation's tax laws, a central element of Obama's re-election campaign.

Gingrich on Wednesday helped keep the focus on Romney's wealth, saying that the wealthy businessman lived in "a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work."

Romney and Gingrich have been forced to target each other in the GOP presidential contest, freeing Obama from the fray. For instance, Romney has ads in Florida and Nevada blaming the housing crisis on Gingrich and concludes that nothing would make Obama happier than Gingrich winning the nomination.

___

AP Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Cristina Silva in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

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Dentist accused of paper clip use in root canals (AP)

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. ? A former dentist in Massachusetts has pleaded guilty to Medicaid fraud for using paper clips instead of stainless steel posts in root canals.

Michael Clair is scheduled to be sentenced next Monday after pleading guilty last week in New Bedford Superior Court to a variety of charges, including defrauding Medicaid of $130,000 assault and battery, illegally prescribing prescription drugs and witness intimidation.

Prosecutors say the 53-year-old Clair was suspended by Medicaid in 2002, but continued to file claims from August 2003 to June 2005 by using the names of other dentists in his Fall River practice.

Authorities say instead of stainless steel posts for root canals, he used sections of paper clips ? which can cause pain and even infection ? in an effort to save money.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_us/us_paper_clips_dentist

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Rep. Giffords to resign from Congress this week

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

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

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According to officials in Washington, her resignation, first disclosed on the congresswoman's Facebook page, is expected to take effect on Monday.

The Democratic congresswoman was shot in the head last January as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz. While her progress has seemed remarkable, she said she has more work to do to recover, and it is best for her state if she resigns her seat in the House.

IN PICTURES:?Gabrielle Giffords, political survivor

Her shooting prompted an agonizing national debate about super-charged rhetoric in political campaigns.

In a two-minute video posted to her Facebook page, Giffords says: "I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice."

She says, "I'm getting better. Every day my spirit is high. I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country."

Under state law, a special election will be called to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term.

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

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

The shooting on Jan. 8, 2011, left 6 victims dead, a federal judge among them. Twelve others were wounded as well as Giffords.

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

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

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

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

IN PICTURES:?Gabrielle Giffords, political survivor

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/w8fNYqQ9iJ4/Rep.-Giffords-to-resign-from-Congress-this-week

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Organization: Kosovo supervision to end this year (AP)

VIENNA ? Kosovo moved a step closer to full control of its own affairs Tuesday, with a multinational organization announcing it will end its mandate this year pending continued progress on democratization and human rights.

The mandate of the International Civilian Office, which operates under the 25-nation International Steering Group, was to run out this year. But an ISG announcement was the first official confirmation the ICO plans to end the work in 2012, amid expectations that Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority government will enact remaining legislation meant to fully guarantee and strengthen democratic institutions and human rights.

"We have helped establish the institutions," ICO head Pieter Feith told reporters. "From the end of this year onwards, Kosovo will be like any other European state and will be helped and moved forward as part of the broader European project."

Kosovo declared independence in February 2008 after almost 10 years under a U.N. umbrella, and following a devastating conflict pitting its independence-seeking ethnic Albanian majority against Serbs who fought to maintain its status as a Serbian province.

While most of Europe, the U.S. and other western nations recognized its sovereignty, Russia, China and others did not.

Russia sees itself as a protector of Kosovo's minority Serbs, implicitly backing their refusal to accept the authority of the country's majority ethnic Albanian institutions and their wish for fusion of their region with neighboring Serbia.

Serbia itself refuses to recognize Kosovo's independence, continuing to maintain a police presence and other "parallel institutions" in the province's mostly Serb north and allowing Kosovo Serbs to cast ballots in Serbian elections.

With occasional ethnic violence continuing to flare, much of the international focus in Kosovo has been trying to ease Serb-Albanian tensions. The ICO has been operating under the Steering Group, whose mandate is to establish "a multiethnic society, which shall govern itself democratically, and with full respect for the rule of law."

An ISG statement ? issued after a Vienna meeting Tuesday ? said the organization will "start preparations for an organized end to supervised independence and the closure of the International Civilian Office (ICO), which should be possible by the end of 2012" if the country carries out its commitments to expand and strengthen western democratic norms.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci welcomed the move, telling reporters in Vienna that "the ending of supervised independence means that Kosovo has been completely successful in the last four years and now we will enter a new phase of European perspective."

At the same time, the Steering Group urged both Serbs and Kosovo Albanians to work together, in a nod to remaining tensions not only between the two communities but also Serbia and Kosovo, which are trying to work out differences in occasional negotiations.

The Steering Group urged Serbia to "refrain from interfering in Kosovo, including by withdrawing its police, security, and other state presence ... (and) to ensure that its local elections are not extended into northern Kosovo."

It called on Kosovo's government to "reach out actively to its Serb citizens, particularly those in its northern municipalities," by agreeing to give them a greater role in running their own affairs.

Kosovo's government "needs to demonstrate that it understands and respects their rights, their concerns (especially for security), their language and their identity."

Feith urged Serbs both in Kosovo and Serbia to accept the territorial integrity of Kosovo, saying "we do not want to reinforce the expectation or the hope among certain policy makers in the region that partition is still an option."

___

Associated Press video reporter Philipp Jenne contributed.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_eu/eu_austria_kosovo

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