Repealing 'don't ask, don't tell': the next steps

Although Congress has now voted to repeal the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, it will be at least a few months before the historic change takes effect.
President Barack Obama will sign the repeal on Wednesday morning, the White House says, setting the stage to allow gay people to serve openly in the armed forces. But the Pentagon has an 87-page implementation plan for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Over the next several weeks, military officials need to examine and rewrite a series of policies, regulations and directives related to the current law.
Once that potentially lengthy process is complete, Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen will each have to certify that the repeal can move ahead without negatively affecting unit cohesion and military readiness.
After the certification, another 60 days will need to pass before the repeal is officially enacted.
Even after the repeal, gay and lesbian service members will not have every right and privilege accorded to heterosexual members of the military, largely because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
-- all of whom identified themselves as gay but who do not want to be identified -- expressed relief at the congressional decision to repeal "don't ask, don't tell."
One member currently serves in the Air Force, while another serves in the Navy. The third referred to himself only as a military officer.
None of the three said the impending repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" would have a dramatic impact on their day-to-day life. They said they don't plan on revealing their sexual orientation to anyone who isn't already aware of it.
They predicted little drama on the day the repeal takes effect, contending that few people currently hiding their sexual identity would make any sort of public declaration.
All three said that passage of the repeal would make it more likely that they will remain in the military for a longer period of time.

A Pentagon study released this month concluded that allowing openly gay or lesbian troops to serve in the military would have little lasting impact on the U.S. armed forces. Opposition to the change was much higher in Army and Marine combat units than in the military as a whole.

Source: CNN

Severe weather crowds European airports with frustrated passengers

Frustrated passengers crammed Europe's major airports Monday as heavy snowfall forced new cancellations and delays for fliers across the continent.
London's Gatwick Airport was closed until Tuesday morning after 5 cm (2 inches) of snow fell in an hour Monday night, airport officials reported. Airport staff was working to make stranded passengers "as comfortable as possible," but it advised other travelers to check before they left for the airport to make sure their flights were still scheduled.
And London's Heathrow Airport, Britain's busiest, only a third of scheduled flights were likely to operate Monday night, according to Donna O'Brien, head of commercial communications for Heathrow Airport operator BAA. Many of those stranded there may not get their Christmas wish of being home for the holidays, she added.
"Passengers should anticipate further delays and cancellations in the following days and potentially beyond Christmas Day," O'Brien said. Airlines are currently updating which flights have been cancelled and the airport is showing the latest available flight information on its website, she said.
British Airways announced earlier Monday it had canceled all short-haul flights from Heathrow, but an airport official told CNN that other carriers' short-haul flights were still operating. Passengers who use the Heathrow Express to travel to and from the airport on Monday are being offered the service free of charge. Tickets normally cost between 16 and 30 pounds ($25 to $46) for single and return trips.
Only one of Heathrow's runways had been operational earlier Monday, a day after almost all flights at one of the world's busiest international airports were canceled.
Hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded over the weekend, with many sleeping at the airport. Many have sent their stories in to CNN's iReport.
"We're still standing by for someone to tell us what's happening," one frustrated passenger complained after spending several hours at the airport and having at least two flights canceled.
"It's a total disaster," said another stranded passenger. Other passengers voicing their concerns to CNN said they received no offers of assistance from the airport, including food or a hotel room.
Passengers headed to Heathrow from Brussels airport will get there by coach or boat, after a shortage of de-icing liquids at Brussels Airport caused more airline delays, its website said.
Paris Charles de Gaulle airport was set to cancel 30% of flights Monday, as was the city's second airport, Orly, Aeroports de Paris said.
And Frankfurt airport in Germany called off 325 flights out of a scheduled 1,300 to 1,400, spokesman Robert Payne said. Some of that is because of the weather in Germany and some of it is because of flight disruptions at other airports, he added.
The airport, Europe's third busiest, has 450 people working "around the clock, deicing and removing snow," he said.
Lufthansa airline announced it was gradually expanding its schedule after massive cancellations of its flights into and out of Frankfurt, Germany, to European destinations. A statement on its website advised travelers to exchange their air tickets for train tickets.
The company said it expects that "its scheduled services will largely be back to normal by Tuesday evening." Long-haul flights were being flown Monday, it said.
In other travel news:
-- Berlin airport in Germany was open, with some cancellations and delays, a spokesman said.
-- Temperatures hit a record low in Northern Ireland overnight, the Met Office said, with 18 degrees below zero Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in Castlederg, County Tyrone. There is no sign of a thaw, forecasters say.
-- British Airways advised travelers to check flight status at www.ba2go.com, but people report difficulty accessing the website.
Eurostar will operate a restricted service for the rest of the week, a representative said, because of bad weather, speed restrictions placed on Eurostar's high speed lines, have added up to two hours to journey times.
Lines outside London's St. Pancreas terminal are so long, Eurostar asked passengers not to come to the station, even if they have a booking. They are, however, offering refunds and exchanges to inconvenienced passengers.
Ground travel in France was also snarled by heavy snowfall and cold temperatures. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said Sunday that French authorities reported they are preventing all cargo trucks and buses from using roads in northern France and the greater Paris metropolitan area, and that car travel is "unadvisable." Air and rail services were also affected, the office said.
The adverse weather in France affected pop singer Lady Gaga, who said on her Facebook page that all 28 of her tour trucks had been detained by the government for more than 24 hours.
A Lady Gaga concert set for Sunday night was rescheduled for Tuesday, according to the website of the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where it was to be held. A Monday concert remains scheduled.
Paris police said that since noon Saturday, more than 1,300 trucks had been barred from entering Paris, and no trucks were being allowed to circulate in the city.
"We've got a few thousand people that have, unfortunately, had to spend the night," said Andrew Teacher, another spokesman for the company at operates Heathrow, on Sunday. "We've been making them as comfortable as possible with blankets, with food and water."
Teacher said ice was the main problem affecting flights.
"We are extremely sorry for the disruption that's been caused to people's journeys today, but the decision has been made simply to avoid any kind of potential risk," Teacher said.
"These are absolutely ... freak weather conditions," he added. "We've not seen a storm like this in 20 years."

Source: CNN

U.N. Security Council extends peacekeepers' time in Ivory Coast

The United Nations Security Council on Monday extended its peacekeepers' mission in Ivory Coast through June 30, despite an expulsion order days earlier by the West African nation's disputed incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo.
The peacekeepers' mission had been scheduled to end December 31.
Head of U.N. peacekeeping Alain Le Roy told reporters Monday that the council's decision was unanimous.
"We consider it's not right for us to leave. We have a mandate to fulfill and we are not going to leave," Le Roy said.
"We are resupplying," he added. "We know it's going to be very delicate and dangerous. That's why it's so important to have unanimous support of the council."
Meanwhile, Gbagbo is considering hiring an objective outside mediator to investigate allegations of election fraud, according to a prominent American attorney hired by him to advise on options for resolving the crisis.
But the U.N. Security Council joined several other world bodies in calling for Gbagbo to step down after a contested election, with many world leaders saying Alassane Ouattara won the November runoff.
On Monday, the Obama administration joined that international chorus.
"The results are clear, and it's time for him to go," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said of Gbagbo.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to United Nations, said Monday that she was aware of reports of Gbagbo hiring mercenaries. Le Roy confirmed later Monday that some mercenaries are working with Ivorian forces.
"If they are confirmed, they would be of grave concern not only to the United States but to the entire Security Council," Rice said.
A U.N. spokesman said Monday that "any attack on peacekeepers will be held accountable."
Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to President Bill Clinton for two years, said Gbagbo is renouncing the violence that has enveloped Ivory Coast since its disputed presidential election.
Davis said he suggested the government hire former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who helped resolve violence in the Ivory Coast in 2005, or some other world leader respected by all parties to seek resolution to the country's presidential election dispute.
Ivory Coast's Independent Electoral Commission declared Gbagbo's main challenger Alassane Ouattara the winner December 2, but the country's Constitutional Council, closely aligned with Gbagbo, threw out some votes from the Ouattara-friendly Northern areas due to what it said were "flagrant irregularities." Gbagbo refuses to step down.
"I've urged the Ivory Coast government to be fully transparent as to all the reasons why the Constitutional Council determined that Gbagbo was the winner," Davis said at a press briefing Monday.
The government said in a statement that it has obtained videotape depicting incidents of voter suppression and intimidation of Gbagbo supporters, along with other evidence of fraud.
Davis, who insisted he is not trying to prove who won the election, said the international community should reserve judgment until all the facts are thoroughly examined.
State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday the United States is continuing to prepare targeted sanctions on Gbagbo, his immediate family, and his inner circle, but that any travel sanctions would not impede his ability to leave the country.
"Nothing that we decide to do would impede his stepping down and making way for the government of President-elect Ouattara," Crowley told reporters.
Davis said he has not personally spoken with Gbagbo.
"Mr. Gbagbo opposes violence and has authorized me to say he wants a mutual renunciation of violence and calls on Mr. Ouattara to join him on putting the arms down and let's sit down and talk," Davis said.
"He's not saying my way or the highway," Davis said.
But in a statement Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "the international community has spoken with one voice regarding Mr. Gbagbo's attempt to hold on to power," noting statements also from the African Union and Economic Community of West African States.
Gbagbo has remained defiant, and earlier Saturday he ordered all U.N. peacekeeping forces out of the country.
Ban responded by saying the peacekeepers will remain to "monitor and document any human rights violations, incitement to hatred and violence, or attacks on U.N. peacekeepers."
Two U.N. military observers were hurt Saturday in an attack by what Ban called "Young Patriots," according to the statement issued by the secretary-general.
On Friday, six armed men wearing military uniforms and traveling in a civilian vehicle opened fire on U.N. peacekeepers in Sebroko, according to a statement Saturday on the peacekeeping operation's website. The U.N. troops returned fire. There were no reports of injuries.
Ban reiterated Saturday that "any attack on U.N. forces will be an attack on the international community and those responsible for these actions will be held accountable."
"There will be consequences for those who have perpetrated or orchestrated any such actions, or (who) do so in the future," Ban said.
The Gbagbo government accuses the U.N. of providing military and logistical support to the former rebels, who are backers of Ouattara's. In a Friday national television appearance, Ivory Coast Army Col. Gohourou Babri accused the United Nations of transporting armed Ouattara supporters to various sites across the country to launch attacks.
Babri said four former rebels were killed Saturday in an attack by government forces on a camp in Trebissou near the cease-fire line. His claims could not be immediately verified.
And at least nine unarmed protesters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, were shot and killed by security forces during demonstrations Thursday, witnesses told Amnesty International. The violence erupted as troops loyal to the incumbent president and supporters of his challenger confronted each other.
Ban said Friday that Gbagbo's efforts to stay in power "cannot be allowed to stand," adding that anything other than his removal from office "would make a mockery of democracy."

"The results of the election are known. There was a clear winner. There is no other option," Ban said.

Source: CNN

Kosovo's PM fires back over stolen organs report

Kosovo's prime minster lashed out at critics Monday over a recent report alleging that officials may have stolen organs from prisoners of war and political rivals, calling it "pure fabrication." European authorities charged in a report released last week that executives who control the country may have stolen organs when the Kosovo Liberation Army was fighting Serbian forces in the late 1990s.
"It is a political accusation based on no facts or proof," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said. "Therefore, it is a pure fabrication."
The report says Thaci, a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was the "boss" of a prominent faction in the militia that "apparently wrested control" of "illicit criminal enterprises" from rivals across the border in Albania.
"Numerous indications seem to confirm that ... organs were removed from some prisoners ... to be taken abroad for transplantation," read the report.

It suggested that illegal organ trafficking continued after the war ended.
And links between "criminal activity" and "certain KLA militia leaders ... has continued, albeit in other forms, until today," the report charges.
Thaci said he is looking into all legal and political possibilities to correct what he sees as the report's inaccuracies. It was not immediately clear what action he planned to take.
"It is a lie for which Dick Marty will be accountable," the prime minister said of the author of the draft report.
Nearly 1,900 people who disappeared during the conflict still have not been found, and another 500 disappeared after NATO troops arrived in June 1999, according to Marty.
The report is based partially on investigations by European Union officials and was written for the Council of Europe's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
European Union officials in Kosovo have said that anyone with concrete evidence of war crimes or organized crime should step forward.
Kosovo was a province of Serbia but declared independence in 2008. About 70 countries have recognized the declaration, but Serbia does not, and international organizations including the United Nations and European Union continue to have administrators in Kosovo.
The Council of Europe, an organization with 47 member countries, seeks to promote democracy and human rights. The council's parliament plans to debate the report in January.

"This (report) of course is a blow (for Kosovo), but this challenge will be overcome because it has nothing in common with the truth, and the truth is that Kosovo is a story of success," Thaci said.

Source: CNN

Residents of South Korean island fleeing ahead of military drills

Amid South Korean plans to hold live-fire military drills this week and North Korean threats of retaliation, many residents of Yeonpyeong Island are evacuating, afraid of being caught in the middle.
Villagers streamed onto what they believed was the last ferry to Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday, carrying what belongings they could. Some were holding their children as others helped the elderly.
"I'm leaving because they said the drills are tomorrow," said Kim Ok Jin, 66.
Kim said the island was once a good place to live and she does not want to leave.
"Of course I'm angry," she said. "But that's not going to change anything."
Many Yeonpyeong residents are evacuating for a second time. This time, however, they have warning. On November 23, they had none before North Korea began shelling the island. Two civilians and two South Korean Marines died in the attack.
The South Korean military said Thursday that its drills will take place in the seas southwest of Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21, but bad weather forced a delay Saturday. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported the drills will take place Monday or Tuesday in the Yellow Sea off the island.
As villagers departed, few signs of life remained on the island -- only military trucks patrolling and waiting for possible North Korean retaliation for the drills.
Not everyone on Yeonpyeong, however, was leaving. Song Young Ok said she has not been told to stop selling tickets for the ferry off the island, and doesn't know when the military drills will take place.
Song said she is planning to stay put, holed up along with others in a military bunker.
She said she doesn't know why it has to be this way -- if South Korea carries out the drills, North Korea has threatened to retaliate even more strongly. South Korea's insistence on conducting the drills is picking a fight, she said.
Others were more optimistic. "It's OK," said ferry passenger Lee Chun Nyeo, 83. "The soldiers need to do (the exercises), right?"
Yeonpyeong is located just south of the Northern Limit Line, the line drawn in 1953 by the United Nations just after the Korean War. The U.N. drew the line three nautical miles from the North Korean coast and put five islands close to the coast under South Korean control.
That was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. But in the absence of a full peace agreement, the Northern Limit Line remains in place.
North Korea has suggested an alternative line, but South Korea has resisted, as it would bring the North's maritime boundary close to Incheon, a main port.
Waters in the Yellow Sea are important for fishing and crab. For North Korean fishermen especially, the blue crab season between June and September is an important source of income. Crabs have a habit of migrating south during that time, so the water is sometimes crowded with boats from both countries, as well as vessels from China. However, the Yellow Sea has seen armed clashes in the past few years, the most serious of them in 1999 and 2002.

China and Russia have asked South Korea to reconsider holding the drills. Russia called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.

Source: CNN

U.N.: Thousands flee Ivory Coast amid fears of regional conflict

A political standoff has forced nearly 4,000 citizens of northwest Ivory Coast to flee to neighboring countries, prompting fears of regional insecurity, according to the United Nations.
The disputed presidential election outcome between opposition leader Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo has threatened to derail a fragile peace process in the west African nation.
The renewed refugee flow has also put neighboring Liberia and Guinea on high alert.
"In my village the majority voted massively for President Laurent Gbagbo, and [the New Forces soldiers] threatened us because of that. They came to our houses and started to harass us, to mistreat us," said Jean-Jacques Issignate, 19, from Nyale, an Ivorian village along the Guinea border. "We fled to the forest ... I spent one week in the forest."
Provisional results from a November presidential runoff intended to end more than 10 years of civil war showed Ouattara as the winner with a nearly eight-point margin.
Earlier this month, the nation's highest court, headed by an ally of Gbagbo, canceled thousands of votes from the north -- Ouattara's stronghold -- and declared Gbagbo the winner with 51 percent of the vote.
Both candidates have said they won and set up parallel governments in the city of Abidjan, where violence between their supporters has killed dozens since results were announced.
Britain's Foreign Office Sunday urged British people to leave the country "due to the threat of widespread instability and violence in Abidjan and other major cities."
Ouattara has unanimous international support. He urged his supporters to forcefully "liberate" the country's national television station and parliament building, sparking a standoff with soldiers loyal to Gbagbo.
The U.N. security council and other world bodies called for Gbagbo to step down, with many world leaders saying Ouattara won.
Political intimidation has forced nearly 4,000 Ivorians to flee to neighboring Liberia and Guinea, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
Red Cross representatives in Guinea say many more have been separated from their families.
"They're spread out all over. There are others who are in the bush, there are others who we haven't seen, there are small children who have come here without their brothers, there are mothers who are still in the bush, there are fathers who fled to Liberia," said Mayoh Bohmimy, who is managing a U.N.-sponsored camp for displaced Ivorians in Bossou, a Guinean village near the Liberian border.
Clutching silver pots and pans, and hoisting plastic buckets filled with clothes and blankets on their heads, Ivorians such as Jean-Jacques fled without food and water for days.
Their new neighbors include wild chimpanzees that inhabit a reserve in Bossou.
Sebastien Gome, 18, is a Ouattara supporter who left town because his parents had voted for Gbagbo.
He said he found many people sleeping in the forest after he split with his parents for safety.
"I arrived by bicycle at the border, but they told me the road was closed and I should turn around. I had to pass by the forest. I saw many people there so I spent the night with them ... they had set up a tarp and we slept underneath it," he said. Eloi Onseu, a farmer from Nyale, sought refuge in Guinea.
"Our village was majority Gbagbo, so the New Forces were not happy with that," he said. "They entered the village around 3 p.m. one day and started to beat people."
Onseu said they beat residents and and shot in the air.
"That was when people started to flee," he said.
Authorities for the New Forces denied any violence or the existence of refugees.
"We heard reports of Ivorian refugees who fled to Guinea, which is surprising because we haven't seen any ... everything is fine here and people are living in harmony," said Lounceny Ouattara, a commander in the New Forces army.
Meanwhile Sunday, Navi Pillay, the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, warned of "growing evidence of massive violations of human rights," according to a statement.
Pillay said that more than 50 people have been killed in the past three days and more than 200 injured.
"When people are victims of extrajudicial killings there must be an investigation, and there must be accountability," Pillay said. "However, the deteriorating security conditions in the country and the interference with freedom of movement of U.N. personnel have made it difficult to investigate the large number of human rights violations reported."
The tensions in Ivory Coast have spiked fears that refugees could destabilize neighboring states, and armed groups could attack across porous borders.
"There is the risk any time conflict flares up that ex-combatants ... will follow the potential looting and fighting opportunities in neighboring countries, and will thus become active fighters again, setting the process of post-conflict peace-building back to zero," said Mike McGovern, an expert on Ivory Coast at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Astrid Castelein, interim head of UNHCR's operations in southeast Guinea, said that contingency plans have been set up in all countries bordering Ivory Coast amid fears of a conflict.
"We have about 3,500 refugees in Liberia, here we have 227 registered by today, and we are really preparing for an emergency situation especially in Liberia where there is already a big amount and they are facing already hard challenges in housing and foodstuffs," Castelein said.
Guinea has mobilized a special commando force to patrol its borders with Ivory Coast since the start of the Ivorian election process, while Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently warned ex-rebels in her country not to get involved in Ivory Coast's problems.
The southeastern forest region in Guinea saw an influx of refugees from civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast in the past two decades, and the country's authorities are keen to avoid a similar situation.
Guinean forces are on high alert and have been ordered to patrol the dirt roads, tall grass and thick forest that separate the country from Ivory Coast.
But villagers threatened by political intimidation are concerned about their safety.

"Bullets don't have bias toward supporters of Ouattara or Gbagbo," Onseu said. "I want peace in my country so that my family and I can return home."

Source: CNN

Protests erupt after Lukashenko appears to win Belarus election

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, once called "the last dictator in Europe" by a U.S. official, easily won re-election in voting Sunday, according to exit polls reported by several media outlets.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates were protesting in the capital city of Minsk and clashing with police. Two opposition candidates were injured, one reportedly seriously.
Several hundred protesters were arrested and taken away by riot police, according to journalist Alexander Lukashuk. They were herded into about 20 trucks and driven off, he said.
The square outside government headquarters in Minsk was cleared of protesters as of about 11:50 p.m. (4:50 p.m. ET), he said, although a few hundred stragglers could still be seen waving flags in groups. Streets were closed and police cordoned off the area.
One demonstration was in support of presidential candidate Vladimir Neklyayev, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Neklyayev was hurt in clashes with riot police, another candidate, Nikolay Statkevich, told Interfax, and was taken away unconscious to his office. His spokeswoman, Yulia Ymashevskaya, told Interfax he had been badly beaten. Statkevich and Neklyayev's attorney were also injured, she said.
Lukashuk told CNN Neklyayev was attacked by people in civilian clothes.
Neklyayev was treated by paramedics, Ymashevskaya told Interfax. State-run Russian news agency RIA-Novosti later reported he was hospitalized with a head injury.
"I was beaten and Neklyayev was beaten and he lost consciousness," Statkevich told RIA-Novosti. He said the special forces used noise grenades and batons.
Authorities used stun grenades on the demonstrators as they headed toward the square, Interfax reported. However, several thousand people gathered in the square, chanting "For Belarus!" Some of them were waving flags with the symbol of the Christians Democratic Party, led by candidate Vitaly Rymashevskuy.
Police were using force to push the protesters back and disperse them, Lukashuk said. He said no shots were fired, but beatings were taking place.
Police turned the downtown square into a skating rink to head off the protests, RIA-Novosti said. Organizers told supporters to bring salt and sand to throw on the ice.
Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, was running against nine other candidates, according to the Central Election Commission. National polls showed he enjoys wide support of the electorate.
Belarus' official news agency, the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTa), estimated voter turnout at 84%. Lukashenko garnered some 76.4% of the vote, it reported, citing exit polls. Interfax said Lukashenko got 79.1% of the vote, citing another exit poll. State-run Russian news agency RIA-Novosti gave 76.4% of the vote to Lukashenko.
Four of Lukashenko's nine rivals received a vote share of a little more than 3% each, BelTa reported.
Andrei Sannikov, a former diplomat who wants to see Belarus as a member of the European Union, was one of the main opposition leaders. The two others are Yaroslav Romanchuk and Neklyayev.
Economist Romanchuk, a candidate from the United Civil Party, has been prolific in publicizing his views on economic reforms. Meanwhile, Neklyayev ran a social campaign, "Tell the Truth!" He was arrested for participating in public protests earlier this year and later released.
Preliminary results show that at least 10% of eligible voters cast their votes early, as voting was held earlier this week for those unable to make it to the polls Sunday.
On December 4, state television broadcast live pre-election debates for the first time since the 1994 presidential race. Lukashenko and Neklyayev chose not to participate.
The contestants were also allowed two half-hour slots on primetime national television to address the Belarusians, according to a news release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All candidates except for Lukashenko used this opportunity during the campaign.
In 2006, security forces cracked down on protesters in the aftermath of the elections, fearing the replication of a Color Revolution in Belarus. In neighboring Ukraine, the Orange Revolution deposed the regime of Leonid Kuchma two years earlier and the 2005 Tulip Revolution in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan brought down President Askar Akayev and his government.
The Central Electoral Commission issued a statement Wednesday saying that it had accredited 1,015 international observers.
Many remained skeptical despite the unprecedented number of contestants and international observers invited to participate in the elections.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has repeatedly expressed concerns over the status of civil and political rights in Belarus. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once called Lukashenko "the last dictator in Europe."

Source: CNN

Assange granted bail, but Sweden appeals

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Tuesday after a hearing at Westminster Magistrate's Court in London, but a lawyer representing Swedish prosecutors immediately filed an appeal.
That means Assange will remain in jail until the next hearing, which should be before the High Court within 48 hours, lawyers said.
The 39-year-old Australian handed himself over to London police last week to answer a European arrest warrant over alleged sex crimes in Sweden.
Assange is facing accusations of rape, sexual molestation and illegal use of force in separate incidents in August in Stockholm. He could be sentenced to two years in prison if convicted. His lawyers deny the allegations and have vowed to fight any attempts at extradition.
The magistrate agreed to grant bail Tuesday after Vaughan Smith, a former British army officer who founded London's Frontline Club, testified that Assange could stay at his mansion in Suffolk.
Smith will keep Assange "if not under house arrest, at least under mansion arrest," said defense attorney Geoffrey Robertson. At that, Assange, dressed in a white shirt and a blue jacket and sitting in a glassed-in corner of the court with three security guards, smiled wryly.
The magistrate set bail at 200,000 pounds (about $315,000) plus two sureties of 20,000 pounds each (about $31,500). Assange's passport must remain with police, and he will be monitored by a location tag.
Assange must be at Smith's mansion, about two hours outside of London, for at least four hours overnight and four hours during the day. He will be required to report to police daily between 6 and 8 p.m. The next court hearing was scheduled for January 11.
After the conditions were set, Assange stood and said, "I understand," with a neutral expression.
His mother Christine told reporters after the hearing that she was "very, very happy" and thanked "the media for all your support of my son."
But several hours later, Sweden filed its appeal.
Outside the court, about 100 people demonstrated in support of Assange, holding signs saying "Julian Assange is a political prisoner" and "Why are you shooting the messenger?" and "This is not 1984."
During the hearing, Assange's team of attorneys argued that since he is only wanted for questioning and has not been formally charged, he is presumed innocent. The magistrate agreed.
But, said Gemma Lindfield, the attorney representing the Swedish prosecution, "The court has already found that Mr. Assange is a flight risk. Nothing has changed in this regard."
She said if the alleged offenses had occurred in Britain, "it undoubtedly would have been a charge of rape in this jurisdiction."
Robertson disputed that.
Celebrity supporters of Assange at the hearing included Bianca Jagger, who sat next to Fatima Bhutto, niece of the late Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto and current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, and prominent left-wing journalist John Pilger.
Socialite Jemima Khan came to court but it is not clear she got into the very crowded hearing room. Many were turned away for lack of space.
Judge Howard Riddle denied Assange's first request for bail at a hearing on December 7 on the grounds that there was a risk he would fail to surrender.
On Tuesday, he cited four reasons for his insistence a week earlier on keeping Assange in jail: his lack of fixed residence, confusion over when and how he last entered the United Kingdom, the evidence against him in Sweden, and a dispute over whether Assange is wanted only for questioning or for prosecution.
Smith's offer of his mansion satisfied Riddle on the question of an address, and testimony from someone who arrived in the U.K. with Assange from Switzerland answered that question, he said.
He said he was not taking a position on the Swedish evidence against Assange, and that a future hearing would have to determine whether Assange was wanted for questioning or prosecution.
WikiLeaks' release of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic and military documents is under criminal review in the United States.
Almost half of Britons believe that the sex charges against Assange are "an excuse" to keep him in custody so that the U.S. government can prosecute him for releasing secret diplomatic cables, a new poll for CNN shows.
The ComRes poll of British opinion, released Monday on the eve of Assange's bail hearing, finds that 44% of respondents in Great Britain believe that Sweden's sex charges are just a pretext, while only 13% flatly disagree.
The remaining 43% say they don't know.
Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said he had authorized "significant" actions related to a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks' publication of the materials but has declined to elaborate.
WikiLeaks inflamed U.S. authorities last month by publishing the first of a large group of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables.
Only a small fraction of the 250,000 U.S. State Department documents have been released and more are being published daily.
U.S. authorities and other Western leaders say the documents' publication threatens lives and national security.

WikiLeaks and its supporters say that the public has a right to know what is going on behind diplomatic doors.

Source: CNN

Researchers report possible HIV infection cure; others cite dangers

Researchers in Germany are reporting that they may have cured a man of HIV infection. If true, that would represent a scientific advance, but not necessarily a treatment advance, said researchers familiar with the work.
In the study, published last week online in the journal Blood, researchers at Charite-University Medicine Berlin treated an HIV-infected man who also had acute myeloid leukemia -- a cancer of the immune system -- by wiping out his own immune system with high-dose chemotherapy and radiation and giving him a stem-cell transplant. Stem cells are immature cells that can mature into blood cells.
At the time of the transplant, which occurred in February 2007, he stopped taking anti-HIV medications.
Thirteen months later, after a relapse of the leukemia, he underwent a second round of treatment followed by another stem-cell transplant from the same donor.
The donor's stem cells contained a rare, inherited gene mutation that made them naturally resistant to infection with HIV, according to the authors, led by Kristina Allers, who hypothesized that HIV would nevertheless rebound over time. But that has not happened.
After three-and-a-half years off of anti-HIV drugs, the patient shows no sign of either leukemia or HIV replication and his immune system has been restored to normal health, the researchers reported, concluding, "our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient."
But AIDS researchers predicted the report will have little impact on practice.
"This probably is a cure, but it comes at a bit of a price," said Dr. Michael Saag, professor of medicine and director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham AIDS Center.
"For him to receive the donor cells, his body had to have all of his immune system wiped out" and then receive a bone marrow transplant, Saag noted. "The Catch-22 here is that the best candidates for a cure, ideally, are people who are healthy" and don't have leukemia.
The treatment associated with wiping out the immune system "is very hazardous," he said in a telephone interview.
"Even if somebody doesn't die from a transplant, there are complications that make it very unpleasant for people to live with," he said, citing graft-versus-host disease, where the infused donor cells attack the body. In a number of cases, the transplant proves fatal.
The study is a proof of the concept "that our understanding of HIV biology is correct, and that if you eliminate -- not just in theory but in practice -- all of the cells in the body that are producing HIV and replace them with uninfected cells, you have a cure," Saag said.
But remaining infected with HIV is not always associated with the same grim outcome that was the norm prior to the mid-1990s, when more effective anti-HIV drugs were developed, he said.
"We can keep people alive for a normal life span," he said. "That means a 25-year-old diagnosed today with HIV has a reasonably good chance of living to 80, 85, 90."
Further limiting the treatment's potential appeal is the fact that it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for each patient who gets it, he said.
"It's not going to be applicable unless they develop leukemia or lymphoma and need a bone-marrow transplant,"Saag said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called it impractical. "It's hard enough to get a good compatible match for a transplant like this," he said in a statement. "But you also have to find (a) compatible donor that has this genetic defect, and this defect is only found in 1% of the Caucasian population and 0% of the black population. This is very rare."

But HIV itself is not. According to the World Health Organization, 33.4 million people worldwide have the virus that causes AIDS.

Source: CNN

Dozens killed in northern Israel forest fire

As many as 40 people were killed Thursday in a massive wildfire that erupted Thursday near Haifa in northern Israel and showed no sign of being controlled, the Israel Defense Forces said.
A bus carrying up to 50 people overturned "allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke" as it was traveling between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, the IDF website said.
It was not clear from the IDF website how many of the deaths attributed to fire occurred in the bus accident, but the newspaper Haaretz reported that all 40 of the dead were on the bus.
Inmates of the prison were evacuated to temporary jails nearby.
Earlier, authorities had said that 22 people were dead, another 25 were seriously hurt and more were missing in the blaze, which had scorched more than 750 acres in the Carmel Forest near Haifa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called it one of the worst fires in Israel's history and ordered the military to assist rescue and firefighting efforts.
He urged people, including the news media, to stay away from the blaze, which he called "a fire on an international scale."
Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense since last spring, when Israeli commandoes boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.
In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said.
Spain was sending four aircraft, Netanyahu said. "The necessary means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, adding that he planned to request more planes from Russia.
He predicted that the fire would take time to douse and called for calm. "I think that together, we will surmount this."
In Washington, President Barack Obama said the U.S. government had launched an effort to identify the firefighting assistance that the United States could offer and to provide it to Israel "as quickly as possible."
Friday morning, the Israeli Cabinet was to meet in Tel Aviv to formulate a response.
Micky Rosenfield, an Israeli police spokesman, told CNN that more than 1,500 people had been evacuated from their homes and that the fire was within approximately 5 kilometers of Haifa, Israel's second-largest city.
"We must achieve two goals -- saving lives and putting out the fire, " Netanyahu said Thursday night at the forward command center, according to his media adviser.
Firefighters were continuing to fight the blaze as authorities evacuated nearby communities.
The fire, bolstered by strong winds, blanketed Haifa in smoke.

It was not clear how the fire started, but police were investigating if the blaze started in an illegal dumping ground. 

Source: CNN

WikiLeaks now storing files in 'James Bond' bunker

Amazon dumped the controversial site WikiLeaks from its computer servers on Wednesday.
But WikiLeaks, which is known for publishing state secrets, apparently has found a new home for its files: A Cold War bunker, inside a Swedish mountain, that's been described as fit for a "James Bond" movie.
A company called Bahnhof is hosting the WikiLeaks site from a literal cave inside White Mountain, near Stockholm, Sweden, according to news reports from Forbes, The Associated Press, and the Norwegian news website VG Nett.
The MIT Technology Review, where we spotted this story, describes the situation this way:
"If Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying to turn himself into a Bond villain, he's succeeded: the ongoing distributed denial of service attack against Wikileaks has forced his minions to move the site to a fortified data center encased in a cold war-era, nuke-proof bunker encased in bedrock. Really."
Forbes has further details about the storage site:
"That data center will store Wikileaks' data 30 meters below ground inside a Cold-War-era nuclear bunker carved out of a large rock hill in downtown Stockholm. The server farm has a single entrance and is outfitted by half-meter thick metal doors and backup generators pulled from German submarines --fitting safeguards, perhaps."

There are YouTube videos about the bunker, photos on Flickr, and a page on Bahnhof's website dedicated to the White Mountain site. (You may have to translate that page from Swedish to figure it out, but there are photos there, too).
One video, from a group called Data Center Pulse, describes the center as one of the coolest on earth and "fit for a James Bond villain." A man who describes himself as Bahnhof's CEO in the video says that the inspiration for the center actually was "science fiction and James Bond movies.

Source: CNN

China's gold imports surge fivefold

Gold imports into China have soared this year, turning the country, already the largest bullion miner, into a major overseas buyer for the first time in recent memory.
The surge, which comes as Chinese investors look for insurance against rising inflation and currency appreciation, puts Beijing on track to overtake India as the world's largest consumer of gold and a significant force in global gold prices.
The size of the imports -- more than 209 tonnes of gold during the first 10 months of the year, a fivefold increase from an estimate of 45 tonnes last year -- was revealed on Thursday. In the past, China has kept the volume secret.
"Investment is really driving demand for gold," said Cai Minggang, at the Beijing Precious Metals Exchange. "People don't have any better investment options. Look at the stock market, or the property market -- you could make huge losses there."
Beijing has encouraged retail consumption, with an announcement in August of measures to promote and regulate the local gold market, including expanding the number of banks allowed to import bullion.
Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, who disclosed the import numbers, said uncertainties about the Chinese and global economies, and inflationary expectations, had "made gold, as a hedging tool, very popular".
The rise in Chinese demand could further inflate gold prices. Bullion hit a nominal all-time high of $1,424.10 a troy ounce last month. But adjusted for inflation, prices are far from the 1980 peak of $2,300.
"The trend is undeniable -- gold demand in China is rising rapidly," said Walter de Wet, of Standard Bank in London. China surpassed South Africa three years ago as the world's largest producer.
The surge in gold imports to China bodes well for some of the world's biggest hedge fund managers, including David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital and John Paulson of Paulson & Co, who have invested heavily in bullion, and top miners Barrick Gold of Canada, US-based Newmont Mining and AngloGold Ashanti of South Africa.
The market upswing has prompted an increase in gold scams in Hong Kong, according to industry executives. The counterfeits have shocked the Chinese' territory's gold community not because of the amounts involved -- between 200 and 2,000 ounces -- but because of their sophistication.
In one case, executives discovered a coating advertised as pure gold that masked a complex alloy which included rare metals such as osmium, iridium, ruthenium and rhodium.

Chinese total gold demand rose last year to nearly 450 tonnes, up from about 200 tonnes a decade ago, according to the World Gold Council, the lobby group of the mining industry. Analysts anticipate a further leap this year, putting the country whiting striking distance of India's total gold demand of 612 tonnes in 2009.

Source: CNN

Leaked cables show U.S. concerns with Mexico's ongoing drug war

Behind the headlines of the Mexican offensive against the drug cartels, there is a Mexico-U.S. relationship that is equal measures success and skepticism, leaked state department documents show.
The documents, made public through the WikiLeaks website, show that the United States has doubts about the way Mexican President Felipe Calderon's government is carrying out the fight against the drug gangs.
The United States provides intelligence and aid to the Mexican effort, but in the same breath lacks confidence in the way the Mexican army is operating, the documents show.
"Mexican security institutions are often locked in a zero-sum competition in which one agency's success is viewed as another's failure, information is closely guarded, and joint operations are all but unheard of," a January 2010 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico states.
The U.S. assessment is that "official corruption is widespread," and it points out that only 2% of those detained are brought to trial. In Ciudad Juarez, a flash point in the war, only 2% of those arrested have been charged with a crime, it says.
Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has made the fight against the cartels the cornerstone of his administration, a decision that has come at a price. More than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since then, as rival cartels fight for lucrative smuggling routes, and as security forces and drug hit men clash.
The U.S., the consumer nation where the drugs are headed to, has pledged help to Mexico through agreements such as the Merida Initiative, which promises equipment, money and training.
As 2010 comes to a close, the violence and the drug traffic continue unabated.
Mexico's "inability to halt the escalating numbers of narco-related homicides in places like Ciudad Juarez and elsewhere...has become one of Calderon's principal political liabilities as the general public has grown more concerned about citizen security," the cable states.
The U.S. is particularly concerned with the effectiveness of the Mexican army, the leaked documents show.
For instance, the army was in charge of security in Juarez. After an initial success, the killings rose again, and the army handed its command over to the federal police earlier this year.
The U.S. state department viewed the Juarez experiment with the army in charge as a failure. The soldiers were not trained in law enforcement and cannot introduce evidence into the judicial system. As a result, the cable notes, there were more arrests, but no increase in prosecutions.
The United States was concerned that the criticism would make the army more risk-averse, and the embassy suggested to an American delegation heading to Mexico that they should convince the army not to look back, the document shows.
"The challenge you face ... is to convince them that modernization and not withdrawal are the way forward, and that transparency and accountability are fundamental to modernization," the cable states.
The embassy also suggests that the United States can help Mexico with institutional improvements, "including greater attention to human rights and broader regional participation"
According to the cable, the U.S. was influential in the decision to pull the army back in Juarez.
A second cable, from December 2009, also shows an American hand in one of Mexico's biggest successes -- the killing of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva. The Mexican navy conducted the operation based on U.S. intelligence, the document says.
"The unit that conducted the operation had received extensive U.S. training," the cable states.
But the navy's success once again put the army in the American cross hairs.
"(The navy's) success puts the Army in the difficult position of explaining why it has been reluctant to act on good intelligence and conduct operations against high-level targets," the document says.
At the same time, the January cable praised Mexican efforts.
There is "unprecedented commitment" from Mexico to focus not just on high-value targets, but on social and economic conditions that the cartels thrive in.
And Mexico, too, asks for help.
A third cable retells of a meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials where Mexico asked for greater intelligence sharing and more technology for intelligence gathering, as opposed to U.S. loaners.
In another communication with Washington, the U.S. Embassy was concerned about Mexican Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan's idea to declare a state of exception in parts of the country in order to provide further legal justification for using the military in domestic anti-drug operations.
"Our analysis suggests that the legal benefits in invoking a state of exception are uncertain at best, and the political costs appear high," the cable states.
The document noted that the minister of the interior believed that a court decision already gave the military the justification it needed to operate. To date, the Calderon government has not resorted to using the state of exception.

In a cable back from Washington, the State Department asks for its embassy in Mexico to probe deeper into Calderon's personality and how he was handling the stress from the drug war, economic woes and midterm election losses.

Source: CNN