Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed militant targets in Gaza for a fifth straight day on Sunday, launching aerial and naval attacks as its military prepared for a possible ground invasion, though Egypt saw "some indications" of a truce ahead.

Forty-seven Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 12 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday, killing a leading militant of the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza and rejects Israel's existence, with the declared goal of deterring gunmen in the coastal enclave from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Jewish state has since launched more than 950 air strikes on the coastal Palestinian territory, targeting weaponry and flattening militant homes and headquarters.

The raids continued past midnight on Sunday, with warships bombarding targets from the sea. And an air raid targeted a building in Gaza City housing the offices of local Arab media, wounding three journalists from al Quds television, a station Israel sees as pro-Hamas, witnesses said.

Two other predawn attacks on houses in the Jebalya refugee camp killed one child and wounded 12 other people, medical officials said.

These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida, who told a televised news conference.

"This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning."

The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel's blows Hamas "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy."

An Israeli attack on Saturday destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border.

Casualties there were averted however, because Israel had fired non-exploding missiles at the building beforehand from a drone, which the militant's family understood as a warning to flee, and thus their lives were spared, witnesses said.

Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Among those killed in air strikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding motorcycles, and several civilians including a 30-year-old woman.

ISRAELI SCHOOLS SHUT

Israel said it would keep schools in its southern region shut on Sunday as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days.

Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system destroyed in mid-air a rocket fired by Gaza militants at Tel Aviv on Saturday, where volleyball games on the beach front came to an abrupt halt as air-raid sirens sounded.

Hamas' armed wing claimed responsibility for the attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it had fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defense, but there was also a growing number of calls from world leaders to seek an end to the violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron "expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides," in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron said.

The United Kingdom was "putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate," the spokesman said, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu "to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end."

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believes Israel has a right to self-defense.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees."

Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unraveled with recent violence.

A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope," but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli official declined to comment on the negotiations. Military commanders said Israel was prepared to fight on to achieve a goal of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has plagued Israeli towns since late 2000, when failed peace talks led to the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising.

Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting.

POSSIBLE GROUND OFFENSIVE

Israel, though, with tanks and artillery positioned along the frontier, signaled it was still weighing a possible ground offensive into Gaza.

Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Friday to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000 and around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely."

"We have a plan. ... It will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added.

Another senior commander briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said Israel had scored "good achievements" in striking at nearly 1,000 targets, with the aim of ridding Hamas of firepower imported from Libya, Sudan and Iran.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year's period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's maneuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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India says farewell to firebrand Hindu leader Bal Thackeray

MUMBAI: Mourners were expected to throng Mumbai's streets on Sunday to bid farewell to Bal Thackeray, chief of the extremist Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party and one of India's most divisive politicians.

Thackeray, who called his followers "Hindu warriors" and was known for his fiery anti-Muslim rhetoric, died aged 86 on Saturday of cardiac arrest following a prolonged illness.

A huge funeral procession was planned for the founder of the Shiv Sena party, who was adored by followers and disliked by secular Indians, before the cremation of his body later in the day.

Despite Thackeray's polarising career, tributes poured in for the politician who gave Bombay the new name of Mumbai -- seen as a bid to rid the city of its British colonial past and emphasise its Marathi roots.

"He was a consummate communicator whose stature in the politics of Maharashtra was unique," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

A huge crowd was assembled outside his home late on Saturday and India's financial hub came to a virtual halt with witnesses reporting that Shiv Sena supporters were telling businesses to close as a mark of respect for Thackeray.

Authorities placed thousands of extra police on the streets in a bid to avert trouble following the death of Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena party championed Hindu nationalism against "anti-national Muslims".

The politician, known for his outsized sunglasses and jet-black hair, was accused by an official probe of inciting violence against Muslims in riots that claimed over 1,000 lives in Mumbai in the 1990s, although he was never charged.

He also vociferously sought to defend the rights of local Marathi-speaking "sons of the soil" against so-called "outsiders" -- whether south Indians, Gujaratis, north Indians or Bangladeshis -- who came to the region for work.

Many of the people outside Thackeray's house broke down in tears when his death was announced.

Police advised Mumbai residents to travel only in emergencies as taxis went off the roads and shopkeepers and restaurants quickly shut with news of his death spreading like wildfire.

Commercial establishments across Mumbai were expected to remain closed until after Thackeray's cremation with some owners saying they feared they could be targeted by Shiv Sena supporters if they did not close.

Protests and rallies by Shiv Sena -- Shiva's Army -- have often turned violent in the past.

Thackeray was never a lawmaker, but his party held power for five years from 1994 at the state government level and still has control over Mumbai's governing civic body, the richest in India.

Thackeray had been in frail health for months.

The politician appeared to followers by videolink in October asking them to "take care" of his son Uddhav, the executive president of Shiv Sena, whose vote bank has weakened since Thackeray's nephew Raj set up a rival party.

-AFP/ac

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Wrapped in tricolour, Bal Thackeray's begins final journey

NEW DELHI: Wrapped in the tricolour, Bal Thackeray's final journey has begun. A sea of grieving people converged since early Sunday in Bandra here as preparations were underway for the funeral of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who passed away Saturday afternoon.

The procession was to start at 7 am, but was delayed as roads around Matoshree were filled with thousands of supporters. Bal Thackeray's body was finally brought out of his house a little after 9 am. His son, Uddhav, broke down just before the body was loaded onto the truck.

The flower bedecked truck on which a glass box carrying Thackeray's body will wend its way from Bandra east to Dadar west via the Mahim Causeway - one of the connecting links between south Mumbai and suburbs over the Mahim Creek.

Along the procession route alone, nearly 20,000 policemen, 15 companies of State Reserve Police Force and three contingents of the Rapid Action Force have been deployed. The Police Commissioner said he had cancelled his daughter's wedding reception party on Sunday since he would be busy.

Several Bollywood stars, important politicians and industrialists are expected to travel across the city today; they visited Thackeray in great numbers over Wednesday and Thursday this week signalling that despite his divisive politics, Mr Thackeray commanded the attention of virtually every camp in the city.

After allowing several thousands of Shiv Sainiks from all over the state to pay their last respects, the body will be taken to Shivaji Park and kept for a public 'darshan' for over 200,000 people who are expected to turn up.

Mumbai police have made elaborate security arrangements by deploying 20,000 policemen, 15 companies of State Reserve Police and three companies of Rapid Action Force to deal with any situation.

Mumbai, which resembled a ghost city since Saturday evening, has remained calm and peaceful as news of Thackeray's death began to sink in.

All major roads and public places were deserted barring the odd security vehicles, some Shiv Sena activists moving around or a few delayed office-goers scampering home.

Top VVIPs from all over India are expected to arrive for Thackeray's funeral, slated at 6 pm. Sunday evening at Shivaji Park. (Inputs from agencies)

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Israel's Iron Dome Proves Effective Defense

Israel said that it will install a fifth "Iron Dome" battery before the end of the year, adding another installation to the country's missile defense system, which has proven itself this week, intercepting more than 150 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

The missile defense system, which can identify enemy rockets, determine if they pose a threat to populated areas, and destroy them within a matter of seconds, has been praised by Israel's leaders for saving hundreds of lives.

The system, however, comes with a steep price. Each interceptor missile, which includes a radar guidance system, costs $40,000. Israel has not disclosed how many missiles are required to take down an enemy rocket or how many interceptors it has fired, but experts estimate the country has fired $8 million worth of missiles in the past three days.

The Israelis are only trying to shoot down about a third of the rockets fired by militants, those on a trajectory towards populated areas, said Ben Goodlad, a senior aerospace and defense analyst at IHS Jane's. But of the rockets Iron Dome has targeted, the system is between 87 and 90 percent successful in destroying.

"That is an incredibly high success rate for the system," he said. "What isn't clear is how many interceptor missiles are fired. There may be two, three, or four fired at a one time to take down a rocket."

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Palestinian militants working out of the Gaza Strip, a ribbon of coastline controlled by Hamas, have for years been stockpiling short- and medium-range rockets, built at a fraction of the cost of the Iron Dome missiles and then stored in highly populated areas near hospitals and schools.

Hamas is considered by the U.S. and Europe Union as a terrorist organization.

Militants this week fired rockets further into Israel than ever before, targeting the country's two largest cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but there were no casualties in those cities. Three Israelis were killed by rockets elsewhere in Israel.

"We are very pleased with the interception rates," aerial defense commander Brig. Gen. Shachar Shochet told reporters on Thursday. "We have intercepted dozens of Grad and Qassam rockets fired by Hamas and other groups, and prevented serious harm to our civilians."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the country the system had saved lives.

"No other country in the world has technology like the Iron Dome," Barak said. "Had the system not existed, many civilians would be in harm's way. However, the system is not a 100 percent foolproof defense, and does not absolve citizens of their duty to closely follow instructions given by Homefront Command."

The system is not perfect, and can be breeched by a large volley of rockets fired at once, a problem of "saturation," said former White House counterterrorism adviser and ABC News consultant Dick Clark.

Israel, therefore, plans to target the rocket stockpiles rather than continue to shoot down individual missiles. Israel has called up more than 60,000 reserve soldiers and appears to be planning a ground strike in Gaza soon.

Currently four mobile batteries equipped with sophisticated radar technology and missiles and on-board radar, are combined to create a shield over the country.

In 2006, 4,000 rockets were fired at Israel during a war with Lebanon that left 44 civilians dead. In response, the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli defense manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems began developing Iron Dome.

In 2010, after tests proved effective, the United States began funding the program in part. Earlier this year, Congress authorized $600 million for the program, with instructions that the U.S. would eventually begin co-production of the system.

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Israel authorizes more reservists after rockets target cities

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft pounded Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the building housing the prime minister's office, after Israel's Cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing the ground for a possible invasion into Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli planes bombed the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister, and struck a police headquarters building.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the strike on Haniyeh's office.

On Friday, Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.

Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.

Hamas claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.

The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein's Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session late on Friday with a clutch of senior ministers in Tel Aviv on widening the military campaign, while other Cabinet members were polled by telephone on raising the mobilization level.

Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000. The move did not necessarily mean all would be called into service.

Hours earlier, Egypt's prime minister, denouncing what he described as Israeli aggression, visited Gaza and said Cairo was prepared to mediate a truce.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Friday, the White House said.

Officials in Gaza said 30 Palestinians - 14 militants and 16 civilians, among them eight children and a pregnant woman - had been killed in the enclave since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

The Israeli military said 133 rockets fired from Gaza had hit Israel since Friday and 82 more were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system. Dozens of Israeli bombing raids rocked the enclave.

In a further sign Netanyahu might be clearing the way for a ground operation, Israel's armed forces announced that a highway leading to the territory and two roads bordering the enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians would be off-limits to civilian traffic.

Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the border area on Friday, and the military said it had already called 16,000 reservists to active duty.

Netanyahu is favored to win a January national election, but further rocket strikes against Tel Aviv, a free-wheeling city Israelis equate with New York, and Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its capital, could be political poison for the conservative leader.

"The Israel Defense Forces will continue to hit Hamas hard and are prepared to broaden the action inside Gaza," Netanyahu said before the rocket attacks on the two cities.

Asked about Israel massing forces for a possible Gaza invasion, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, "The Israelis should be aware of the grave results of such a raid, and they should bring their body bags."

SOLIDARITY VISIT

A solidarity visit to Gaza by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, whose Islamist government is allied with Hamas but also party to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, had appeared to open a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy.

Kandil said, "Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce."

But a three-hour truce that Israel declared for the duration of Kandil's visit never took hold.

Obama commended Egypt's efforts to help calm the Gaza violence in a call to Mursi on Friday, the White House said, and underscored his hope of restoring stability.

In a call with Netanyahu, Obama discussed options for "de-escalating" the situation, the White House said.

Obama "reiterated U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself, and expressed regret over the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives," a statement on the call said.

Israel Radio's military affairs correspondent said the army's Homefront Command had told municipal officials to make civil defense preparations for the possibility that fighting could drag on for seven weeks. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Gaza conflagration has stoked the flames of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to leap across borders.

It is the biggest test yet for Mursi, a veteran Islamist politician from the Muslim Brotherhood who was elected this year after protests ousted military autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are spiritual mentors of Hamas, yet Mursi has also pledged to respect Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, seen in the West as the cornerstone of regional security. Egypt and Israel both receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to underwrite their treaty.

Mursi has vocally denounced the Israeli military action, while promoting Egypt as a mediator, a mission that his prime minister's visit was intended to further.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone on Friday to the Egyptian and Israeli foreign ministers as well as Jordan's King Abdullah and planned to speak on Saturday with Qatar's prime minister, said a senior State Department official traveling with her in Singapore.

"We believe that Egypt has an important leadership role to play on this. It has the relationships in Gaza. The PM traveled there yesterday ... so we believe that they have the stature, the credibility and the relationships to be able to persuade Hamas and its allies to stop," the State Department official said. "So our message to them has been: 'Use it, use those things.'"

A Palestinian official close to Egypt's mediators told Reuters that Kandil's visit "was the beginning of a process to explore the possibility of reaching a truce. It is early to speak of any details or of how things will evolve".

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-2009, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

Tunisia's foreign minister was due to visit Gaza on Saturday "to provide all political support for Gaza" the spokesman for the Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki, said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. By contrast, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules in the nearby West Bank, does recognize Israel, but peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2010.

Abbas' supporters say they will push ahead with a plan to have Palestine declared an "observer state" rather than a mere "entity" at the United Nations later this month.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell, Jeffrey Heller, Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, David Brunnstrom in Singapore, and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Giles Elgood, Will Waterman and Peter Cooney)

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Obama eyes deeper reform on historic Myanmar visit

BANGKOK: US President Barack Obama will endow Myanmar's startling reform drive with his newly replenished political prestige Monday, as he makes history in a short, but hugely symbolic, visit to the country.

Thirteen days after he was re-elected, Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit the formerly isolated state, hoping to spur greater reform and to highlight a rare success for his policy of engaging pariah regimes.

But his mission is not without peril: should Myanmar's new political dawn darken and conservative forces move to regain control, Obama's trip could appear in hindsight as premature and invite a domestic political backlash.

Obama, who first flies into Thailand on Sunday for a night, hopes to solidify the political reforms of President Thein Sein by granting the Myanmar leader his highest profile moment on the world stage since his nominally civilian government replaced outright military rule.

"I want to be very clear that we see this visit as building on the progress that the Burmese government has made," said Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national security advisor. Washington still refers to Myanmar as Burma.

"We are going in part to encourage them to continue down that road, because much more needs to be done within Burma to realise the full potential of its people."

After meeting Thein Sein, Obama will visit the rickety home of Aung San Suu Kyi, where his fellow Nobel peace laureate was confined for years of house arrest by the paranoid and repressive junta.

Obama was deeply impressed by Suu Kyi during their private meeting in the Oval Office in September, and told aides the National League for Democracy leader lived up to her billing.

But there will be an air of incongruity when Air Force One touches down and Obama's armoured motorcade rattles through Yangon's decrepit streets, in the shadow of the gleaming, golden spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda.

The fact Obama will be there at all is testament to the pace and depth of a reform drive that took American officials by surprise, after they spent years isolating the country's ruling generals through sanctions.

"It's a bit risky for the president to go," said Michael Green, a former Bush administration specialist on Southeast Asia, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This (reform) is not irreversible," he said, adding that Obama's visit was not a "victory lap" but designed to encourage wider change.

For some US-based human rights groups, the visit is coming too soon in a reform process that has left the cards overwhelmingly stacked in favour of the military in the country's new parliament.

Myanmar watchers also say the future of reforms faces a serious threat from the country's intractable ethnic insurgencies and deadly communal unrest in the West.

Euphoria over Myanmar's emergence from decades of junta rule has been tempered by concern over the persecution of the Rohingya, a minority group in Rakhine state who are widely seen as illegal immigrants to the country.

Rights groups have criticised Thein Sein for a military crackdown in the region and accused Suu Kyi of staying mute on the highly-contentious issue.

Washington is concerned that unrest in Rakhine, and other festering ethnic conflicts in Shan and Kachin states, risk undermining hopes of stability.

Obama's remarks on the Rohingyas will be closely watched, as he gives a speech at a hurriedly spruced up Rangoon University, in veiled homage to the cradle of 1988 student-fuelled protests that were brutally crushed by the junta.

The White House is calibrating the symbolism, after deciding not to stage the Obama visit in Naypyidaw, the new capital constructed by the junta, in what would have been seen as an endorsement of the military.

Senior White House officials say the impetus for a closer relationship with Myanmar initially came from Yangon after years in which the pariah state had looked to China for support.

In response Obama has eased sanctions and dispatched a US ambassador to Yangon and US corporations are now keenly eyeing Myanmar's virgin market.

For Washington, there are plenty of upsides to Myanmar exiting the geopolitical deep freeze, as it pivots US foreign policy towards Asia as a counterpoint to China's influence in the region.

Daniel Twining, an analyst with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said there were "multiple wins" for Washington if Myanmar's emergence is sustained.

-AFP/ac

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Where is India, we need it, Asean says

PHNOM PENH: As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives in Phnom Penh on Sunday, he is likely to hear a common refrain in this part of the world: India is sorely needed here, but India is too slow.

It's a critical time for Asean countries -- they are struggling to remain cohesive and stay relevant. They are caught in a bruising territorial dispute with the big Heavy in the region, China. And now the even bigger US is sailing into their waters and telling them how to stand up to China, with its help. US defense secretary Leon Panetta told everyone he who would listen on Friday, "we are deepening our military engagement with our allies and partners in this region in order to ensure that we are able to promote security and prosperity in this region for many years to come."

For many, India is a natural balancer in this region. India struck roots here hundreds of years ago, and there are signs all around. But in the current strategic debate roiling the region, India is a peripheral presence. India's only statement so far has been to endorse the importance of ensuring freedom of navigation and mineral resources in the troubled wats of the South China Sea. In a joint statement with the Chinese, India also emphasized its stakes in the Asia-Pacific. That lone position by the MEA, India believes may have absolved it of all other responsibility. With $80 billion in bilateral trade, India needs a louder ASEAN policy.

"Asean needs India now, not 10 years later," says Kavi Chongkittavorn, a regional expert, of the Jakarta-based ERIA group. "we need strategic support from India about the way forward. How do we deal with the advent of big powers and still retain our relevance?" there is much talk about "Asean-led" and the "centrality" of Asean, but everyone knows its in danger of being swamped.

China watchers here say Beijing is likely to get more tough in the next six months, as the leadership transition will only be completed by next March. This is the time, they say, India needs to ramp up its engagement and support in this region. But there is no Indian voice that is heard here. Seoung Rathavy, secretary of state of the Cambodian foreign ministry, said 200 senior officials have gathered here to discuss the agenda of the key summits. She told journalists, "implementation of a declaration of conduct on the South China Sea is crucial for political and social stability of Asean."

The South China Sea disputes would be discussed at every meeting in the several summits that will be held here. The Chinese are unlikely to agree to the declaration of conduct on the issue, regarding it as their sovereign territory. Indonesian experts, familiar with their country's position, said very little forward movement would be expected.

For many, the US "pivot" is a mixed blessing. While many countries here are happy to get external support as they deal with the rise of China, there remains some uncertainty about whether the US would actually come to their help. For many, Vietnam and Philippines have been "burnt". In 2011, the US stopped short of fully backing up these countries during their respective stand-offs with China on the South China Sea.

Cambodia needs the kind of defence interest from India like Vietnam has. India should offer joint exercises with everyone in this region. Most of them have old naval fleets, and even with modest means, India can help upgrade them. In fact, India needs to work harder with naal cooperation with all the ASEAN countries. In 2011, Indian naval vessels paid port calls to many in the region before ending up in Shanghai. That should become a run-of-the-mill affair. A look at the map will show how India, with its still superior navy, can successfully block off the Malacca Straits for the Chinese if a conflict breaks out in the Himalayas. For India to carry out a successful blockade, it needs all the littoral countries on its side.

India, many Asean analysts here believe, should openly reiterate its position on an issue which will deeply affect India's own future. There is a sense that India is piggybacking on the US. Even Cambodia, which is believed to be close to China, is crying out for an alternative partner. The India linkages are for all to see, from the Ganesha idols to the Mekong river.

"Connectivity" is India's mantra but it's China that's putting stakes on the ground. China is doing more on the Mekong river and China is building the Kunming-Singapore links, while India's trilateral highway to Thailand through Myanmar will take many more years to realise. The wasted opportunities are stacking up.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Pelosi: No Deal Without Tax Hike for Wealthy

Nov 16, 2012 6:28pm

ABC

In an interview that will air in its entirety on Sunday’s “This Week,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gave ABC’s Martha Raddatz a firm “no” when asked if a deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” could exclude tax rate hikes on the wealthy. Pelosi, D-Calif., said that simply closing loopholes and capping tax deductions for the wealthy would not suffice.

“Well, no… just to close loopholes is far too little money,” Pelosi said. “If it’s going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher income people have to pay their fair share.”

Pelosi’s position puts her directly at odds with GOP House Speaker John Boehner, who said tax rate hikes would be ”unacceptable” during an interview with ”World News” anchor Diane Sawyer earlier this month. Boehner has said he is open to rewriting the tax code and closing loopholes, which would result in additional revenue for the federal government, but has ruled out rate hikes for the wealthy.

Still, Pelosi seemed optimistic a deal could be cut after today’s first fiscal cliff summit between President Obama and top congressional leaders at the White House.

“The spirit at the table was one of everybody wants to make the best effort to get this done. Hopefully that is possible; hopefully it is possible by the middle of December so the confidence of the markets and most importantly the confidence of the consumers returns to infuse our economy with demand, which creates jobs,” Pelosi said.

The “fiscal cliff” refers to a series of tax hikes and spending cuts that are scheduled to go into effect in January.

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