Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The battle to retake Mali's north from the al-Qaida-linked groups controlling it began in earnest Saturday, after hundreds of French forces deployed to the country and began aerial bombardments to drive back the Islamic extremists.
At the same time, nations in West Africa authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali, fast-forwarding a military intervention that was not due to start until September.
The decision to begin the military operation was taken after the fighters, who seized the northern half of Mali nine months ago, decided earlier this week to push even further south to the town of Konna, coming within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of Mopti, the first town held by the government and a major base for the Malian military.
Many believe that if Mopti were to fall, the Islamists could potentially seize the rest of the country, dramatically raising the stakes. The potential outcome was "a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe," French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Saturday.
France scrambled Mirage fighter jets from a base in neighboring Chad, as well as combat helicopters beginning the aerial assault on Friday. They have also sent in hundreds of troops to the front line, as well as to secure the capital. In just 24 hours, French forces succeeded in dispersing the Islamists from Konna, the town the fighters had seized in a bold advance earlier in the week, Le Drian said.
Malian military officials said they were now conducting sweeps, looking for snipers.
"A halting blow has been delivered, and heavy losses have been inflicted on our adversaries, but our mission is not complete," French President Francois Hollande said after a three-hour meeting with his defense chiefs in Paris. "I reiterate that it consists of preparing the deployment of an African intervention force to allow Mali to recover its territorial integrity."
However, in a sign of how hard the battle ahead may be, the extremists succeeded in shooting down a French helicopter, the defense minister confirmed. The pilot died of his wounds while he was being evacuated. The Islamists are using arms stolen from ex-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's arsenal, as well as the weapons abandoned by Mali's military when they fled their posts in the face of the rebel advance.
They have outfitted SUVs with high-caliber machine guns, and have released videos displaying their collection of anti-aircraft weapons.
The Islamists have vowed to retaliate against French interests, and they claim to have sleeper cells in all of the capitals of the West African nations who are sending troops. Hollande announced that he had raised France's domestic terror threat level.
Online in jihadist forums, participants called for fighters to attack French interests in retaliation for the air raids. They discussed possible targets, including the French Embassy in neighboring Niger, one of the countries donating troops, according to a transcript provided by Washington-based SITE Intelligence.
The sudden military operation is a reversal of months of debate over whether or not Western powers should get involved in a military bid to oust the militants, who took advantage of a coup in Mali's capital in March to capture the north. As recently as December, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cautioned against a quick military operation. Diplomats said that September would be the earliest the operation could take place.
All of that went out the window this week when the fighters pushed south from the town of Douentza, which demarcated their line of control, located 900 kilometers (540 miles) from the capital. By Thursday, they had succeeded in advancing another 120 kilometers (72 miles) south, bringing them nearly face-to-face with the ill-equipped and ill-trained Malian military in a showdown that couldn't be ignored by the international community.
In a statement released Saturday, the bloc representing nations in West Africa, ECOWAS, said they had authorized the immediate deployment of troops to Mali. ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said they made the decision "in light of the urgency of the situation."
In Washington, a U.S. official confirmed that the country has offered to send drones to Mali. He could not be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. After a telephone conversation with Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to send aircrafts to help transport troops, according to a statement.
who offered troop transport aircraft. Neither official could be named because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly
Lt. Col. Diarran Kone, a spokesman for Mali's defense minister, said on Saturday that he was at the Bamako airport to receive a contingent of French special forces from one of their tactical units. Residents in the town of Sevare, near the line of control, said they had seen planes of white people arriving, whom they assume were French soldiers.
Hundreds of French troops were involved in the operation, code-named "Serval" after a sub-Saharan wildcat, officials in Paris said.
"The situation in Mali is serious," Le Drian said in Paris. "It has rapidly worsened in the last few days ... We had to react before it was too late," he added.
French intelligence services had detected preparations for what they described as a "major offensive" organized and coordinated by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. After a large convoy of vehicles were spotted heading toward the strategic town of Mopti on Thursday, France sent in its first unit to the Central Malian town to support the Malian combat forces, Le Drian said.
Then on Friday, Hollande authorized the use of French air power following an appeal from Mali's president. French pilots targeted a column of jihadist fighters travelling in pickup trucks, who were heading down toward Mopti from Konna. He said that the helicopter raid led to the destruction of several units of fighters and stopped their advance toward the city.
Overnight Saturday, air strikes began in the areas where the fighters operate, Le Drian said, led by French forces in Chad, where France has Mirage 2000 and Mirage F1 fighter jets stationed. Residents in the town of Lere, near the Mauritanian border, confirmed that it had been bombed.
Al-Qaida's affiliate in Africa has been a shadowy presence for nearly a decade, operating out of Mali's lawless northern desert. They did not come out into the open until this April, when a coup by disgruntled soldiers in Bamako caused the country to tip into chaos. The extremists took advantage of the power vacuum, pushing into the main towns in the north, and seizing more than half of Mali's territory, an area larger than Afghanistan.
Turbaned fighters now control all the major northern cities, carrying out beatings, floggings and amputations in public squares just as the Taliban did.

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At least 11 killed during Mali military operation

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A presidential spokesman says at least 11 Malians were killed and over 60 injured after the country launched a military intervention to fight al-Qaida-linked rebels advancing on a crucial town.
In a communique read on state television late Saturday, Ousmane Sy, the secretary-general at the presidential palace said that the 11 were killed in the town of Konna, which the rebels took last Thursday, prompting France to authorize airstrikes to help Mali take back the territory.
The mayor of Konna, Sory Diakite, told The Associated Press on Sunday that at least three of the dead were children who drowned after they threw themselves into the river running alongside the town in an effort to escape the bombardments. Others were killed inside their compounds, and in the street.

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Troops head to Mali, as battle for north rages

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — The first days of the battle against Islamic extremists holding Mali's north have left at least 11 civilians dead, including three children who threw themselves into a river and drowned trying to avoid falling bombs, a presidential spokesman said Sunday as troops from Mali's neighbors are expected to join hundreds of French soldiers in the fight.
Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Nigeria agreed on Saturday to send soldiers, a day after France authorized airstrikes, dispatching fighter jets from neighboring Chad and bombing rebel positions north of Mopti, the last Malian-controlled town.
State television announced that the African troops, including as many as 500 each from Burkina Faso and Niger, are expected to begin arriving on Sunday. Britain has offered the use of its transport planes in order to help bring in the soldiers, according to a statement released by Prime Minister David Cameron's office in London.
The African soldiers will work alongside French special forces, including a contingent that arrived Saturday in Bamako in order to secure the capital against retaliatory attacks by the al-Qaida-linked rebel groups occupying Mali's northern half. National television broadcast footage of the French troops walking single-file out of the Bamako airport on Saturday, weapons strapped to their bodies or held over their shoulders.
Hundreds of Malians on Sunday also left the town of Lere for neighboring Mauritania, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) away, to escape the violence. Last year's initial fighting prompted hundreds of thousands of Malians to flee the north, displacing them or making them refugees in neighboring countries.
The military operation began Friday, after the fall of the town of Konna on Thursday to the al-Qaida-linked groups. Konna is only 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the government's line of control, which begins at the town of Mopti, home to the largest concentration of Malian troops in the country.
The United Nations had cautioned that a military intervention needed to be properly planned, and outlined a step-by-step process that diplomats said would delay the operation until at least September of this year.
The rebels' decision to push south, and the swift fall of Konna, changed everything. After an appeal for help from Mali's president, French President Francois Hollande sent in the Mirage jets and combat helicopters, pounding rebel convoys and destroying a militant base. Footage of the jets provided to French television stations showed the triangle-shaped aircrafts screaming across the sky over northern Mali. French newspaper Le Monde reported that the jets dropped at least two, 250-kilogram (550-pound) bombs over militant targets.
The human toll has not yet been calculated, but a communique read on state television late Saturday said that at least 11 Malians were killed in Konna.
Sory Diakite, the mayor of Konna, says the dead included children who drowned after they threw themselves into a river in an effort to escape the bombardments.
"Others were killed inside their courtyards, or outside their homes. People were trying to flee to find refuge. Some drowned in the river. At least three children threw themselves in the river. They were trying to swim to the other side. And there has been significant infrastructure damage," said the mayor, who fled the town with his family and is now in Bamako.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday that France now has more than 400 troops in Bamako, mainly to ensure the safety of French citizens and also to send a signal to the extremists.
"We will strengthen our operation depending on the situation," he said on a political talk show with itele and Europe 1 radio. Le Drian said that Rafale fighter jets will be part of the operation and that technical support will be arriving in the hours ahead.
He said that France has international support and "the Americans seconded us" with intelligence and logistical support, though he did not elaborate.
A senior British official suggested Sunday that UK personnel could also play a role in training the Malian army.
Africa minister Mark Simmonds told Sky News television that "we may well, through a European Union mechanism, provide training and support for the Malian army to give them strength to bring back the integrity of the Malian country in totality.
"It's absolutely essential, as part of our obligations as a permanent member of the Security Council that we provide assistance when we are requested," he said.
Simmonds also gave details of the said details of Britain's logistical help, saying that a pair C-17s — large Boeing-built transport planes adapted for operating out of crude airfields — would be dispatched to the area.
Storage hangars and "sensitive sites" were among targets destroyed so far and the Islamists lost a "significant number" in the fighting, Le Drian said. "The intervention is still in progress and we will continue" as long as needed.
Human rights groups have warned that any military intervention will exact a humanitarian price. As Mali and the international community took time to prepare for intervention in the north, the rebels affiliated with al-Qaida were able to dig into the terrain, and prepare for war. The rebels occupied Mali's northern half, an area larger than Afghanistan, in the chaos following a coup in Mali's capital last March.
With no clear leader at the head of the country, Mali's military simply gave up when the rebels arrived, retreating hundreds of miles to the south without a fight. In the nine months since then, the extremists have imposed their austere and severe form Islam, and those who disobey their rules are beaten with whips and camel switches. Public amputations of the hands of thieves have become a regular spectacle.
They have also used their nine-month siege of the north to dig into the landscape, creating elaborate defenses, including tunnels and ramparts using the construction equipment abandoned by fleeing construction crews.
In addition to the civilians, a French pilot was killed after the Islamists downed his combat helicopter, in a sign of how dangerous the terrain has become even for trained, special forces.

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Hugo Chavez's allies re-elect legislative chief

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Allies of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez on Saturday chose to keep the same National Assembly president — a man who could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader in some circumstances.
The vote to retain Diosdado Cabello as legislative leader signaled the ruling party's desire to stress unity and continuity amid growing signs the government plans to postpone Chavez's inauguration for a new term while he fights a severe respiratory infection nearly a month after cancer surgery in Cuba.
The opposition and some legal experts have argued that if Chavez is unable to be sworn in as scheduled on Thursday, the president of the National Assembly should take over on an interim basis.
Cabello's selection quashed speculation about possible political reshuffling in the midst of Chavez's health crisis, and it came as Vice President Nicolas Maduro joined other allies in suggesting that Chavez could remain president and take the oath of office before the Supreme Court later on if he isn't fit to be sworn in on the scheduled date.
"It strikes me that the government has decided to put things on hold, to wait and see what happens with Chavez's health and other political factors, and figure out the best way to insure continuity," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "Maduro and Cabello are clearly the key players within Chavismo today, each heading separate factions, but for the time being the idea is to reaffirm both and project a sense of unity."
Cabello, a former military officer who is widely considered to wield influence in the military, was re-elected by a show of hands by Chavez's allies, who hold a majority of the 165 congressional seats.
Pro-Chavez party leaders ignored calls to include opposition lawmakers among the legislative leadership, and opposition lawmaker Ismael Garcia said the choices represented "intolerance." None of the opposition lawmakers supported the new legislative leaders.
Hundreds of Chavez's supporters gathered outside the National Assembly to show their support, some holding flags and pictures of the president.
The Venezuelan Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken Jan. 10 before the National Assembly. It also says that if the president is unable to be sworn in before the Assembly, he may take the oath before the Supreme Court, and some legal experts in addition to Chavez allies have noted that the sentence referring to the court does not mention a date.
"When, it doesn't say. Where, it doesn't say either," Cabello told supporters after the session. Apparently alluding to possible protests by opponents over the issue of delaying the inauguration, Cabello told supporters: "The people have to be alert on the street so that there is no show."
Without giving details, Cabello urged them to "defend the revolution."
Maduro argued that Chavez, as a re-elected president, remains in his post after Jan. 10 regardless of whether he has taken the oath of office on that date. "When he can, he will be sworn in," Maduro said.
The latest remarks by the two most powerful men in Chavez's party sent the strongest signals yet that the government wants to delay the 58-year-old president's inauguration.
Former Supreme Court magistrate Roman Duque Corredor disagreed with Maduro, saying that "the constitution doesn't allow an extension" of a presidential term.
"An extension of a term can't be discussed," Duque said told The Associated Press a phone interview. "What would be right is to definitively determine what the president's state of health is." He said the Supreme Court should designate a board of doctors to determine whether Chavez's condition prevents him from continuing to exercise his duties temporarily or permanently.
If Chavez dies or is declared incapacitated, the constitution says that a new election should be called and held within 30 days, and Chavez has said Maduro should be the candidate. There have been no public signs of friction between the vice president and Cabello, who appeared side-by-side waving to supporters after the session and vowed to remain united.
"Come here, Nicolas. You're by brother, friend. They don't understand that," Cabello said, hugging Maduro before the crowd. Referring to government opponents, he said: "They're terrified of that, unity."
But opposition lawmaker Julio Borges said the government's choices of legislative leaders pointed to an arrangement aimed at containing an internal "rupture."
Borges told reporters that he believes there is a behind-the-scenes "fight" in the president's party to avoid Cabello assuming powers temporarily if Chavez is unable to be sworn in on schedule. The lawmaker asserted that there are serious tensions between those who support a "model that's kidnapped from Havana" and a military-aligned wing in Chavez's movement.
Cabello sought to cut off such speculation, saying: "We will never betray the will of the Venezuelan people. We will never betray the orders and instructions of Commander Chavez."
The National Assembly president also dismissed the possibility of dialogue with Chavez's opponents, saying: "There is no conciliation possible with that perverse right."
Both Maduro and Cabello have reasons for presenting a united front, political analyst Vladimir Villegas said.
"They have the responsibility to keep Chavismo united because the division of Chavismo would be the ruin of both of them. For that reason, they're going to do everything possible to stay united," Villegas said.
If the government delays the swearing-in and Chavez's condition improves, the president and his allies could have more time to plan an orderly transition and prepare for a new presidential election.
Opposition leaders have argued the constitution is clear that the inauguration should occur Thursday, and one presidential term ends and another begins. They have demanded more information about Chavez's condition and have said that if Chavez can't make it back to Caracas by Thursday, the president of the National Assembly should take over provisionally.
If such a change were to occur, it might not lead to any perceptible policy shifts because Cabello is a longtime Chavez ally who vows to uphold his socialist-oriented Bolivarian Revolution movement. But the latest comments by pro-Chavez leaders indicate they intend to avoid any such changes in the presidency, at least for now.
"We're experiencing political stability," Soto Rojas said as he announced the choices of legislative leaders put forward by Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Referring to Chavez, the former legislative leader said: "Onward, Comandante."
Shifter said the government's stance has left opposition on the defensive, with its only tactic being to insist that Jan. 10 is the established date.
"The opposition's strong objections to the government's plan are unlikely to get much political traction," Shifter said. "What the government is doing may be of dubious constitutionality but it fits a familiar pattern under Chavez's rule and will probably have minimal political costs."
Chavez was re-elected in October to another six-year term, and two months later announced that his pelvic cancer had returned. Chavez said before the operation that if his illness prevented him from remaining president, Maduro should be his party's candidate to replace him in a new election.
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since before his Dec. 11 operation, his fourth cancer-related surgery since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. The government revealed this week that Chavez is fighting a severe lung infection and receiving treatment for "respiratory deficiency."
That account raised the possibility that he might be breathing with the assistance of a machine. But the government did not address that question or details of the president's treatment, and independent medical experts consulted by the AP said the statements indicated a potentially dangerous turn in Chavez's condition, but said it's unclear whether he is attached to a ventilator.

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US family builds Haiti orphanage for daughter

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — An American family who lost their daughter in a massive earthquake in Haiti three years ago has finished building an orphanage in her memory.
The parents of Britney Gengel, Leonard and Cherylann, led about 150 family and friends, including U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, in a solemn ceremony Saturday at the Be Like Brit orphanage in the coastal town of Grand Goave.
"It was a beautiful ceremony and had a great dedication," said Leonard Gengel, 52, of Rutland, Massachusetts.
The brick-and-mortar homage cost about $1.8 million to build, all raised through donations. The 19,000-square-foot (nearly 1,800-square-meter) facility has seismically resistant walls and a medical clinic.
Built in the shape of a letter "B," the orphanage will house 33 boys and 33 girls, representing the number of days Britney's body lay under the rubble.
Gengel was a 19-year-old sophomore at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, who had gone to Haiti to hand out meals for a Christian charity. She died when the hotel where she was staying, the Montana, collapsed.
On Saturday, Haiti will mark the 3rd anniversary of the earthquake that officials say killed more than 300,000 people and displaced more than a million others. The disaster is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

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Venezuela looks for missing plane with Missoni CEO

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The search for a missing plane carrying Italian fashion executive Vittorio Missoni and five other people has entered its third straight day on Sunday with no signs of the aircraft.
Venezuela's government said authorities would not call off the search involving the National Civil Aviation Institute, Coast Guard and Navy until they find the BN-2 Islander plane that disappeared off South American country's coast and all of those who were on board.
"All the authorities involved in these tasks are not reducing the intensity of the search until they locate the plane as well as its crew and passengers," the government said in a written statement. It said search teams are using a plane and two helicopters as well as several coast guard vessels and 29 divers.
The small, twin-engine plane was reported missing hours after taking off Friday from Los Roques, a string of islands and islets popular among tourists for their white beaches and coral reefs.
The plane was carrying the CEO of Italy's iconic Missoni fashion house, his wife, two Italian friends and two Venezuelan crew members.
Officials from Venezuela's civil aviation agency have said that authorities declared an alert after the plane didn't make contact with the control tower at the Caracas airport or with the tower in Los Roques. The plane took off at 11:39 a.m. on Friday and had been expected to arrive at Caracas' Simon Bolivar International Airport 42 minutes later, according to officials.

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Cricket-Australia 440-8 v Sri Lanka (156) - close

Australia were 440 for eight wickets at the close of the second day of the second test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday.
Scores: Sri Lanka 156 (K. Sangakkara 58; M. Johnson 4-63) v Australia 440-8 (D. Warner 62, S. Watson 83, M. Clarke 106, M. Johnson 73 not out; D. Prasad 3-102)

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PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters) - A powerful batting display and disciplined bowling helped South Africa to a 33-run victory over New Zealand in the third and deciding T20 International at St.George's Park on Wednesday.
Opener Henry Davids top scored with 68 from 51 balls as the Proteas posted a formidable 179-6 after winning the toss and batting first.
Left arm spinner Aaron Phangiso and seamer Ryan McLaren then collected identical figures of 3-25 as the Black Caps subsided to a disappointing 146-9 in reply.
The home side were briefly in trouble at 26-2 until Davids was joined by Justin Ontong who belted 48 from 30 balls with three sixes and four during a third-wicket stand of 89 which laid the platform for a dynamic end to the innings.
David Miller struck four boundaries in 28 from 15 balls and Farhaan Behardien finished with an unbeaten 22 from just 11 deliveries.
Martin Guptill (24) and captain Brendon McCullum (25) briefly threatened to make a game of it but the run rate proved unmanageable and wickets fell steadily with the result in little doubt from the 10th over when the Black Caps slumped to 60-4.
The tourists now play a three-day match against provincial side Boland in Paarl from December 28 in preparation for the first of two test matches starting in Cape Town on January 2.

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CORRECTED-Cricket-Australia captain Clarke caps banner year in style

MELBOURNE, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Michael Clarke's inspired century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday ticked off another milestone for Australia's high-flying captain, but was also a stunning riposte to critics who had suggested he should never have been selected.
Having sustained a hamstring injury in the first test in Hobart, Clarke was given until the last minute to prove his fitness and only announced himself ready to take on Sri Lanka on the morning of the second test.
Meanwhile, young seamer Mitchell Starc, 100 percent fit and champing at the bit, was rested despite a five-wicket haul that helped drive the hosts to victory in Hobart.
Pundits and former players cried double-standards. Clarke, a selector himself, simply put his head down to score 106 and surpass Ricky Ponting as his country's most prolific test run-scorer in a calendar year.
The four-hour innings of 14 boundaries, while not without chances, broke the hearts of Sri Lanka and helped drive Australia to a mammoth first innings lead of 284.
"In regards to beating Ricky, in my eyes he was certainly the greatest batsman I was lucky enough to play with so to beat any record that Ricky holds is very special that's for sure," the 31-year-old Clarke told reporters after notching his fifth ton for the year.
"Numbers have never really bothered me too much. It's nice to be making runs and leading by example as one of the leaders in the team and the captain of the team, I think it's really important that the captain is doing that.
"But to me it's about winning games. If I am helping this team have success then I feel like that's part of my job  As long as we keep winning that's my priority."
Clarke's 22nd test century made him fourth on the all-time list with 1,595 runs for the year but he is unlikely to get another chance to reel in Mohammad Yousuf (1,788), Viv Richards (1,710) or Graeme Smith (1,656) this year.
POOR SHOT
Australia may not need a second innings to wrap up the test and the take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, so Clarke was disappointed not to have made more runs after being dismissed slashing an edge to the slips.
That also broke his perfect record in 2012 of going on to make double-tons after passing 100.
"I thought it was a poor shot, especially at that time, we'd just seen off the second new ball so it was probably the best time to bat and again it shows for the next couple of guys that we lost three wickets quite quickly together," added Clarke, who became the first man to hit four double-centuries in a calendar year in 2012.
"I guess with regards to my form it's about - enjoy this time and make the most of it because there'll come a time where you nick the first few and get a couple of ducks."
Clarke, backed up admirably by the evergreen Mike Hussey in recent tests, brought Shane Watson into his orbit on day two, with the bulky all-rounder composing 83 in a welcome return to form.
The pair put on a record fourth-wicket partnership of 194 against their opponents at the MCG but Watson was left to rue another missed opportunity to post a century.
Watson has only converted two of his 19 half-centuries into tons, his last a 126 against India in Mohali more than two years ago.
The statistics have dogged Watson, who has been dismissed in the 90s four times and was out caught with an ill-timed hook shot, but Clarke dismissed queries about his vice captain's mental fortitude.
"As his captain I'm not disappointed with his shot selection because he pulls and hooks as good as anybody in our team," he said. "Nine times out of ten that will generally go for four or six. Unfortunately, today it went straight to the fielder.
"If he continues to play the way he did today and show that patience and discipline, I have no doubt he'll score plenty of hundreds for Australia.

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Britain suspends exploratory drilling of Antarctic lake

An ambitious British plan to search for minute forms of life in an ancient lake beneath Antarctica's ice has been suspended because of technical problems, the scientist leading the project said on Thursday.
In a move that clears the way for U.S. and Russian teams to take the lead, Professor Martin Siegert said technical problems and a lack of fuel had forced the closure on Christmas Day of the 7-million-pound ($11 million) project, which was looking for life forms and climate change clues in the lake-bed sediment.
"This is of course, hugely frustrating for us, but we have learned a lot this year," said Siegert of the University of Bristol, principal investigator for the mission, which was headed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
"By the end, the equipment was working well, and much of it has now been fully field-tested," he said on the BAS website.
Experts from Britain's Lake Ellsworth mission had expected to find minute forms of life in the lake three km (two miles) under Antarctica's ice, the most remote and extreme environment known on Earth.
They had also hoped that by dating bits of seashell found in the water they would have been able to ascertain when the ice sheet last broke up and to better understand the risks of it happening again.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Scientists from the United States and Russia are hot on Britain's heels when it comes to drilling through Antarctic ice to lakes that have been hidden for thousands of years.
The U.S. team is aiming to start drilling in Lake Whillans, one of 360 known sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica, in January or February 2013.
Russia was the first to pierce 3,769 meters (12,365 ft) of solid ice to reach Lake Vostok early in 2012. But some scientists believe their samples may have been contaminated by drilling fluids.
The British scientists decided to abandon the mission after trying for 20 hours to connect two holes in the ice that were needed for the hot-water drill to work, said a BAS spokeswoman.
Without a connection between the two holes, the hot water would seep into the porous surface layers of ice and be lost, reducing the pressure and rendering the drill ineffective.
The team tried to melt and dig more snow to compensate for the water loss, but without success.
As a result of the extra time taken to fix the problem, fuel stocks had been depleted to such a level as to make the operation unviable.
Asked how long the delay might be before the project could be resumed, Siegert told the BBC: "It will take a season or two to get all our equipment out of Antarctica and back to the UK, so at a minimum we're looking at three to four, maybe five years I would have thought."
However, he said he felt this year's mission had not been a complete loss.
The BAS spokeswoman said: "It's very possible that either the U.S. or Russia may take the lead but I think the one thing we've learned here is that anything can go wrong."
"We've never depicted this as a race. All sub-glacial lakes would give different information," she said.

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Experts call off search for life in Antarctic lake

 British scientists have called off the hunt for exotic life in an ice-bound Antarctic lake after their mission was hit by a technical hitch.
Researchers with the British Antarctic Survey had hoped to drill into Lake Ellsworth, which they believe has been frozen over for hundreds of thousands of years, in the hope of finding microbial life forms that might provide new insight into the evolution of life on Earth. They also hoped the lake floor's sediments might yield a new record of the Earth's climate.
But the project had to be called off following difficulties with drilling. A statement posted to the survey's website on Thursday said the operation had been canceled, and it was not clear if or when the scientists would try again.

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Pakistan says 29 nationals beaten by Afghans

Afghan officials say they are investigating allegations by neighboring Pakistan that Afghan forces severely beat Pakistani nationals.
The Saturday protest note from Islamabad's Foreign Office provided no details other than to say that all 29 had valid travel documents.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai says he has no information about the allegations, but Kabul will try to investigate them.
Relations between the neighboring countries are poor, with the Kabul government accusing Pakistan of harboring and supporting Taliban insurgents. But last month a top Afghan peace mediator hailed Pakistan's recent decision to free nine Taliban members who favor negotiations, saying it was a sign that Pakistan is willing to bring the militants to the table and end Afghanistan's 11-year war.

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Bombing at political rally kills 8 in Pakistan

 Pakistani police say a suicide bomber attacked a political rally in the country's northwest, killing eight people.
Police officer Arfan Khan says the bombing Saturday in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, also wounded more than 20 people.
Khan says the rally was being held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban. A provincial Cabinet minister from the party, Bashir Balour, was wounded in the attack.

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Bombing at political rally kills 9 in Pakistan

 A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally held Saturday by a party that has opposed the Taliban, officials said.
The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Taliban.
Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial Cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.
Over 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing in a statement, reiterating the United Nations' support for Pakistani efforts "to combat the scourge of terrorism."
Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.
"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.
The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants. He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Taliban.
"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain. "They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."
Ten Taliban militants attacked the military area of an international airport in Peshawar with rockets and car bombs a week ago, killing four people and wounding over 40 others. Five of the militants were killed during the attack, and five others died the next day in a gunbattle with security forces.
Also Saturday, police said a mob in southern Pakistan stormed a police station to seize a mentally unstable Muslim man accused of burning a copy of Islam's holy book. The crowd beat him to death, and then set fire to his body.
The case is likely to raise further concerns about the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which can result in a death sentence or life in prison to anyone found guilty. An accusation or investigation alone can lead to deaths, as people take the law into their own hands and kill those accused of violating it. Police stations and even courts have been attacked by mobs.
Police arrested the man on Friday after being informed by residents that he had burned a Quran inside a mosque where he had been staying for a night, said local police official Biharud Deen.
An angry mob of more than 200 people then broke into the police station in the southern town of Dadu and took the accused man, who they say was under questioning. Deen said police tried their best to save the man's life but were unable to stop the furious crowd.
Police have arrested 30 people for suspected involvement in the attack, said Deen. The head of the local police station and seven officers had been suspended, he said.
Past attempts by governments in predominantly Muslim Pakistan to review these laws have met with violent opposition from hardline Islamist parties.
In southwestern Pakistan, gunmen late Friday killed 11 Pakistanis and Afghans who were trying to cross into neighboring Iran to travel on to Europe as illegal immigrants, said local government official Zubair Ahmed. The shooting took place in Sunsar town in Baluchistan province, he said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans are captured by Iranian border guards every year for illegally trying to travel to Europe to find better jobs.

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Gang rape protesters clash with Indian police

Police in India's capital used tear gas and water cannons for a second day Sunday in a high-security zone to break up protests by thousands of people demonstrating against the gang rape and beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus.
Police chased angry protesters with batons some of whom fought pitched battles with steel rods and rocks as they tried to get past steel barricades and a wall created by hundreds of policemen to reach the president's mansion to present their demands. "We want justice," they shouted.
Television footage showed that some protesters were injured in the clashes.
The protesters made bonfires and damaged cars and police vehicles.
Police blamed the violence on hooligans. "A peaceful protest by people has been taken over by hooligans," Dharmendra Kumar, a senior police officer, told reporters. He urged people to go home to help police deal with the trouble makers.
The demonstrations continued Sunday despite Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde promising to consider their main demand for death penalties for all six suspects who have been arrested by police following the Dec. 16 attack.
Shinde said Saturday night that the government was taking steps to better ensure the safety of women.
A group of protesters met Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, and her son and lawmaker Rahul Gandhi, on Sunday and demanded a speedy trial of the suspects.
Popular yoga guru Babar Ramdev stood on the roof of a bus and pledged support to the protesters. "The government must set up fast-track courts to punish the offenders in rape attacks," he said.
The attack one week ago has sparked days of protests across the country. The victim is recovering from injuries in a New Delhi government hospital but is still in critical condition.
After battling the protesters throughout the day on Saturday, authorities early on Sunday banned their entry into the high-security zone, which also houses the offices of the prime minister and defense, home and external affairs ministries. Police evicted dozens of protesters who had spent the night there.
However, as groups of protesters marched through the streets of New Delhi and began converging on the high-security area on Sunday, authorities withdrew the ban on the assembly of more than five people there. But it set up barricades to keep them away from the president's residence.
Protesters tried to break the police cordon repeatedly by hurling stones and water bottles and pressing against the steel barricades. Policemen responded by firing tear gas and using water cannons against them. The battle continued throughout the day.

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In Afghan Taliban birthplace, US troops step back

President Barak Obama will decide in the coming weeks how many American troops to send home from Afghanistan next year. A major factor in his decision will be the question of how successful U.S. troops have been in preparing the Afghans to secure their country at bases like this one, located in one of the country's most violent areas — the birthplace of the Taliban.
There have been calls in Congress for Obama to increase the size of a planned drawdown of U.S. forces before the end of summer 2013, when the Afghan military is supposed to take the lead in security across the country. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well, has suggested he wants the drawdown accelerated.
"We are working to make this transition of security happen sooner. We want all the foreign forces to come out of the villages and go to their bases so the Afghan forces can carry out security," Karzai said last week.
But too large a pullout too soon could undermine the fight against the Taliban insurgency if Afghan forces are not fully prepared. It is widely thought that Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan, and his senior staff want to keep a large force in place for the summer fighting season, before international forces move into an entirely back-up and training role behind the Afghan forces by the start of autumn — an event known as "Milestone 13."
Obama is expected to decide on the size of the withdrawal after meeting with Karzai in Washington in early January. Their talks will also be key on determining what the U.S. military's role will be in Afghanistan after December 2014, when the foreign combat mission is set to end and almost all international troops are scheduled to leave. The U.S. currently has 66,000 thousand troops in Afghanistan out of an international force totaling about 102,000.
The work of training Afghan army units being done at this dusty base in the Zhari district of Kandahar province and at other bases scattered around the country will help shape Obama's decision.
U.S. and Afghan officers here say the district is a success story: Violence has not gone up more than two months after the American presence here was brought down from around 3,500 troops to around 300, with Afghan forces taking the lead in more areas.
But the situation remains tenuous. Residents say Taliban fighters remain in control of large parts of the district.
Zhari is where Taliban leader Mullah Omar was born, where he founded the movement that ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s and has battled U.S. and Afghan forces for the past 11 years. Three years ago, Taliban forces controlled the district, and it has been one of the three most violent areas of Kandahar, the province that is the Taliban's traditional heartland.
U.S soldiers had a hard fight in Zhari when they moved into the south in large force as part of the surge in American troops early in the Obama administration. The district has rich farmland that produces pomegranates and grapes used for raisins, and the fields, covered in dirt mounds, formed natural trenches the Taliban could fight from. Food, which was abundant, was easily coerced by the Taliban from villagers.
Lt. Col. Tim Davis, commander of Combined Task Force Buffalo, said, "the density of mines was impressive" when his task force arrived and that it required "an entire combat operation just to put a road in."
The commander of international forces in Kandahar and three other southern provinces, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams, told reporters recently that progress in Zhari had been "astounding." Afghan forces are already in the lead of security duties in many parts of the district, he said. Across the south, the Afghans carry out 400 to 500 daily patrols without coalition assistance.
Afghan military officers in Zhari contend they can now handle the fight without much help from the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force.
"Zhari is about 70 percent safe now," said Col. Abdul Rahimi, operations officer of the Afghan army's 3rd Brigade 205th Corps at Pasab base, though he acknowledged neighboring Maiwand district remains a problem. The number of Taliban fighters was down to around 100 in Zhari and Maiwand, compared to some 900 two years ago, he said.
"The enemy is not able right now to fight against the government, nor can it take over if ISAF leaves," Rahimi said.
Residents in Zhari, however, give a different picture. Some said the government has control of the main highway but not much else.
"Government claims that they control most of the area are just a dream not related to any reality," Allahnoor Taraki, a 38-year-old farmer, said.
Mohammed Salim Danghar, a taxi driver, said the province remains hotly contested. While the government has improved its position, he said, "we all know that most of the area is controlled by the Taliban."
The American drawdown in Zhari is a model of plans for the pullback elsewhere.
Here, large American combat units have been replaced by smaller teams made up of about 18 soldiers each. The teams are embedded with Afghan units, advising them on tactics, leadership and strategy — but not fighting.
In Zhari, attacks "have not only decreased, but significantly decreased," said Davis.
"The challenge is when we start pulling back," he said. The key to a successful transition will be "to see if the local security forces can take up the slack."
The U.S. military plans to repeat that process elsewhere in the south and east by creating 400 such teams. At the same time, eight of the 14 U.S. brigades in Afghanistan will be reduced in size to 1,400-1,900 personnel, down from 3,500, to act as support for the teams. That role change alone will mean a reduction of between 13,000 to 17,000 NATO troops.
The U.S. military has not made public its recommendations to Obama about the size or timing of next year's drawdown. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said recently that NATO and the Afghan government intend to begin the final phase of transition by the mid to latter part of 2013 — suggesting he prefers a later start to the drawdown, as opposed to earlier in 2013.
The top contender for Panetta's job, former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, is thought to support a more rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has already announced that about 3,800 of his country's troops will leave by the end of 2013, leaving 5,000 to stay into 2014.
The Afghan army now numbers about 350,000 and has taken the lead on security in areas that are home to 76 percent of Afghanistan's population of 30 million. Still, despite their progress, only one of Afghanistan's 23 brigades around the country can operate on its own without coalition help of some kind, the U.S. Defense Department said in its most recent semi-annual report to Congress.
Attacks by insurgents around the country have not decreased, but the violence has been pushed out of most population centers, the report said. Civilian and NATO casualties have fallen. But Afghan forces are taking an increasing toll. More than 300 Afghan soldiers and policemen are dying each month, according to Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, who said that represented an increase, though he did not provide comparative figures.
"We still face challenges in southern Afghanistan," Abrams acknowledged in his headquarters at Kandahar Air Field.

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Ireland announces abortion law reforms, leaving no one satisfied

Ireland took a step today toward loosening its strict antiabortion regime, as the government announced legislation to legalize abortion in limited circumstances. But a battle lies ahead, as both abortion-rights and antiabortion groups appear dissatisfied with the government's new prescription.
A statement issued after a meeting of ministers today announced legislation and medical-legal guidance allowing for the provision of abortion when a woman's life is at risk in pregnancy. The statement also said criminal law would be amended. At present, abortion is outlawed under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act. A bill will be published in the New Year, and, after being considered by parliamentary committee, will be put to a vote.
The announcement is a significant move by the Irish government, which for decades has been resistant to shedding its near total ban of the procedure. But its hand was forced two years ago when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanded that Ireland clarify its legal stance on abortion.
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The ECHR ruling stems from the so-called X case of 1992, when a 14-year old girl who had become pregnant after being raped was forbidden to travel to Britain to obtain an abortion. Ireland's Supreme Court overturned the decision and demanded Parliament enact legislation to allow for abortion in circumstances when a woman's life was at risk in pregnancy, including by threat of suicide. The pregnant girl, known only as X due to reporting restrictions, subsequently miscarried.
The government's statement said both the legislation and the guidance would be “within the parameters" of Ireland's constitution, "as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the X case."
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Government lawmakers will be unlikely to have a free hand, though, when it comes time to vote – likely before Easter. Speaking after the meeting, Health Minister James Reilly said: "I know that most people have personal views on this matter. However, the government is committed to ensuring that the safety of pregnant women in Ireland is maintained and strengthened."
Despite the decision, division lies ahead – and the government knows it.
Speaking in Parliament Monday, Kathleen Lynch, a junior health minister, said her government's move would not satisfy people. “Mark my words, there will be another incident when we will have to come back and face this issue again. What we’re about to do is way too narrow," she said.
But Sinéad Ahern of campaign group Choice Ireland welcomes the move as a first step. "It's not something to be sniffed at, politically," she says. "I think it marks a fundamental shift in the debate."
Nonetheless, the matter is far from settled to the satisfaction of campaigners on either side. Antiabortion activists claim it opens the door to abortion on demand, while choice campaigners say the regime will remain restrictive.
What is clear is that any further loosening of antiabortion laws would require a referendum to overturn the eighth amendment to Ireland's constitution. The amendment, added after an antiabortion referendum in 1983, recognizes the right to life of the unborn as equal to the right to life of the pregnant woman.
NEW URGENCY
The question of abortion has taken on a new urgency in Ireland following not only the ECHR decision, but also recent events.
Ireland is still reeling after the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year old Indian woman who died after a miscarriage in a Galway hospital in October. Ms. Halappanavar's widower, Praveen, claims his wife was denied an abortion that would have saved her life. Two separate inquires into Halappanavar's death are underway.
As soon as Halappanavar's death was made public, abortion-rights groups started holding regular protests outside Ireland's government offices and Parliament. After a few weeks of relative silence, antiabortion groups have upped the ante, holding their own demonstrations and leaflet campaigns. Now, both sides are poised for a fight.
Veteran feminist campaigner Ailbhe Smyth says Irish politicians are only acting because public opinion has forced its hand.
"Successive governments have been pusillanimous and completely cowardly on the whole issue. It's beginning to become apparent to our legislators that there is a sense for movement on this issue," she says.
However, antiabortion campaigners make similar claims of support and, unusually, are united with their opponents in calling for a public referendum on abortion.
Youth Defense spokesperson Ide Nic Mhathúna says her group will be stepping-up campaigning in response to the government decision, slamming the proposed legislation.
"Controlled murder is still not acceptable just because it's controlled," she says.
Ms. Nic Mhathúna also questioned recent media coverage of the issue in Ireland. "The entire media is blatantly pro-abortion. A lot of people are afraid to say they're 100 percent pro-life," she says.
PART OF A LARGER DEBATE
The renewed campaigning puts Ireland at the epicenter of an international struggle. The Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, recently told the Sunday Business Post newspaper it would be funding groups including Youth Defense to the tune of “hundreds of thousands of dollars."
According to Pro-Life Action League's Eric Scheidler, Ireland is of importance to American antiabortion activists because it is a modern nation and yet, until now, all but banned abortion. "It's unusual to have all of modernity but still not have abortion, so those of us who seek to have legal protections for the right to life look at it as an example that this state of affairs can exist," he told The Monitor.
Choice Ireland's Sinéad Ahern says abortion-rights groups do not have similarly deep pockets and a full-blown campaign would be very uneven.
"There is no parity in terms of funding. It would make a huge difference for our campaign to have a bit more reach. Even something as basic as a leaflet campaign is quite difficult for us [and] we have no staff," she says.
Despite being portrayed in the world's media in the wake of Halappanavar's death as a bastion of Catholicism, Irish views on abortion are nuanced.
An opinion poll conducted by research firm Red-C found 85 percent those surveyed said they wanted the government to legislate for the X case, "which means allowing abortion where the mother's life is threatened, including by suicide." As far back as 1997, 77 percent of Irish people surveyed said there should be some access to abortion.
However, the same poll found a further 63 percent supported the removal from any legislation of the threat of suicide as grounds for abortion.
Ivana Bacik, a senator and law professor who is known for her abortion-rights campaigning, says the Irish political class is playing catch-up with public opinion on abortion.
"I think public opinion had already changed before the death of Savita Halappanavar, but it was solidified," she says. "There was a huge fear of the antichoice movement but more and more people are willing to see abortion legislated for."

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Panel on Benghazi attack heaps blame on State, citing 'systemic failures'

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An independent panel investigating the 9/11 attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi concluded that the State Department suffered “systemic failures” in providing adequate security.
The failures listed in a report released last night include relying too heavily on poorly trained local militias for security; “leadership and management” deficiencies in coordination of two important State Department bureaus; and an “under resourced” embassy lacking adequate security equipment, such as security cameras and outer perimeter walls high enough to protect the compound.
“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department … resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” according to the report. The panel, known as an Accountability Review Board, was made up of five people appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including Adm. Mike Mullen and longtime US diplomat Thomas Pickering.
The Benghazi attack, which fell on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. It highlighted the depth of lawlessness still plaguing the country in the aftermath of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's ouster.
“The attack on the US consulate was just the latest in a series of incidents,” Mohamed Abu Janah, a local radio executive and one of the protest’s organizers, told The Christian Science Monitor in September.
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The month before the attack, in a piece titled “Worrying signs of lawlessness in Libya,” The Monitor’s Dan Murphy noted that some of the militias that fought to oust Qaddafi had taken on gang-like qualities. “Generally untouchable, they continue to swagger through Libya's towns and cities, demanding special treatment as a reward for their role last year. Many of them are now technically integrated into the security services, but continue to operate with impunity,” Mr. Murphy wrote.
He warned that “[T]he steady drumbeat of problems is worrying. If it isn't dealt with, 'rat-a-tat-tat' can transform into 'boom.' "
According to The New York Times, these signs of insecurity were, in part, ignored in planning security for the US Mission in Libya.
The panel also said American intelligence officials had relied too much on specific warnings of imminent attacks, which they did not have in the case of Benghazi, rather than basing assessments more broadly on a deteriorating security environment. By this spring, Benghazi, a hotbed of militant activity in eastern Libya, had experienced a string of assassinations, an attack on a British envoy’s motorcade and the explosion of a bomb outside the American Mission.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the report is “likely to represent the government’s lasting judgment on the attacks.” According to the document, the attack was:
the calculated effort of militants and not a "spontaneous" reaction of an outraged crowd, the first explanation offered by U.S. officials.
Yet the five-member independent panel said that, despite the lapses, no officials had failed to carry out their duties in a way that required disciplinary action.
It also determined that there had been "no immediate, specific intelligence" on the threat against the mission.
The Obama administration's initial response to the attacks and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice’s inconsistent statements describing the events of the night garnered anger from lawmakers in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
“The report affirmed there were no protests of an anti-Islamic video before the attack, contrary to what Ms. Rice had said on several Sunday talk shows days after the attack,” notes the Times. This confirmation could reignite arguments that the White House “politicized” Ambassador Steven’s death and the embassy attack.
The Monitor reports that, “At issue were her statements over what had precipitated the attack on the US mission in Benghazi.”
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The legacy of Secretary of State Clinton could also be tarnished by last night’s panel report.
"This is a mark against Secretary Clinton. While she was not singled out, the report highlighted the lack of leadership and organization on security issues, and those fall into her bailiwick," Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Reuters.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal goes a step further, outlining reasons why Clinton, who is currently recovering from a concussion after fainting earlier this month, should testify on the Benghazi matter.
Mrs. Clinton's testimony is months overdue. Ambassador Chris Stevens and the Benghazi consulate staff reported to her. Their safety was her responsibility. Congress needs to flesh out why security was so lacking, why requests for additional protection for the mission were denied, and who made those decisions.
Despite background briefings by the Pentagon, State and CIA, the Obama Administration hasn't offered a consistent timeline of the Benghazi events. Mrs. Clinton hasn't said what she did that day and precisely how her department liaised with the military and intelligence services. It shouldn't take this long to fill such gaps.
The backdrop to Benghazi matters too. Mrs. Clinton was presumably – as the President's chief foreign policy adviser – instrumental in drawing up the "light footprint" policy in Libya. After the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, the US disengaged. As an elected but weak government struggled to establish itself in Libya, Islamist militias with al Qaeda ties filled the gap. One such group, Ansar al-Shariah, laid siege to the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, killing four Americans. Both the CIA and State immediately pulled out of the city—an abject retreat. What was the rationale for the U.S. approach to Libya, and will it change?
Mrs. Clinton will soon leave the Obama cabinet with sky-high approval ratings and an eye on the 2016 presidential nomination. It's logical for her not to want to dwell on the worst debacle of her tenure at State. But two months ago, she said "I take responsibility" for Libya without ever doing so. It's well past time she did.
According to Reuters, Clinton “said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations.” And the Los Angeles Times reports she is already taking steps to rectify problems identified in the report, including asking for a transfer of $1.3 billion from Congress.
They say the State Department is asking permission from Congress to transfer more than $1.3 billion from contingency funds that had been allocated for spending in Iraq. This includes $553 million for hundreds of additional Marine security guards worldwide; $130 million for diplomatic security personnel; and $691 million for improving security at installations abroad.

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