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Dozens dead as Syria regime pounds Homs: activists
02/08 | 19:55 GMT

©AFP/YouTube / -
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on February 7 shows a Syrian man standing in front of what he says is a house that was bombed by government forces in the flashpoint city of Homs.

©AFP/YouTube / -
An image grab shows a Syrian man standing in front of what he says is a house that was bombed by government forces
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs on Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed, hours after President Bashar al-Assad said he was committed to ending the bloodshed.
The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells was launched at dawn and continued all day. State television said a car bomb had ripped through the central city, killing and wounding civilians as well as security officers.
The blast hit the neighbourhood of Bayada, the television reported, blaming "armed terrorist gangs." If confirmed, the attack would be the first of its kind in Homs.
It came as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted any outside intervention to stop the violence would be akin to behaving "like a bull in a china shop."
But France and Britain dismissed Moscow's efforts to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed in Syria and cast doubt on Assad's claim that he was "fully committed" to resolving the crisis.
Related article: 'God help us': appeal from Syria's Homs

©AFPGraphic
Homs bombarded
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 62 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, including 50 in Homs.
Among those killed in the beleaguered city were three entire families slain overnight by "shabiha" armed regime supporters, he said. The dead included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.
The most intense shelling was in Baba Amr, where at least 23 buildings were completely destroyed, including a home hit by a rocket that killed a little girl, Abdel Rahman said.
Activists in Homs said the widespread shelling was a clear bid to pave the way for a ground assault on Syria's third city.
"Since dawn the shelling has been extremely intense and they are using rockets and mortars," Omar Shaker, reached by satellite telephone from Beirut, told AFP.
"They have destroyed all infrastructure and bombed water tanks and electricity poles. The humanitarian situation is extremely dire and food is lacking.
"We are trying to set up a field hospital but we have no medical supplies."
Ali Hazouri, a doctor in Baba Amr, said a field hospital had been hit and several physicians were wounded, some critically.
"One rescuer from the Red Cross had both legs blown off in the shelling," he said.
As th
©AFP
'Omar the Syrian': citizen journalist killed in Homs. Duration: 00:52
e regime forces tightened their grip, severing power, communications and other supplies, state media reported "terrorists" attacked Homs' oil refinery.
The authorities frequently blame "terrorists" for attacks on infrastructure, while its opponents accuse the regime of carrying them out to punish centres of resistance.
The Observatory has reported 400 civilians killed since the onslaught on Homs, a junction city of 1.6 million inhabitants, was launched overnight Friday.
It reported a similar onslaught in Zabadani, a restive town near Damascus that has been targeted for seven consecutive days. The latest shelling killed three people.
In southern Syria, troops used heavy gunfire after an army officer and 17 soldiers defected in Daraa province, cradle of the uprising against Assad's 11 years of iron-fisted rule.
Rights groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died in nearly a year of upheaval in the Middle East country, as Assad's regime seeks to snuff out the revolt that began in March with peaceful protests amid the Arab Spring.
Western and Arab efforts to address the violence have met resistance from Russia, whose foreign minister said after meeting Assad that the Syrian leader was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed.
Sergei Lavrov pointedly declined to say whether Moscow had asked Assad to quit during their talks in Damascus on Tuesday.
"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," he said.
Putin issued a similar statement.
"Of course we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop. We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently."

©AFP / Faisal al-Tamimi
A Syrian girl with the old Syrian flag painted on her face attends a demonstration in the Qatari capital Doha
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had "very little confidence" in the Russian efforts, while French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Assad's promises were manipulation and should not be believed.
Moscow, which along with China vetoed a UN resolution condemning the crackdown at the weekend, has staunchly stood by its last ally in the region, a key buyer of military hardware that hosts a strategic Russian naval base.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged "the necessity of continuing -- including at the UN Security Council -- a search for coordinated approaches to help the Syrians regulate the crisis themselves."
He made the remarks in a phone call with the prime minister of Turkey, which said it was planning an international conference of regional players and world powers on solving the crisis "as soon as possible."
UN rights chief Navi Pillay said the failed Security Council resolution "appears to have fuelled the Syrian government's readiness to massacre its own people in a bid to crush dissent," calling for international action.
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Ai Weiwei to build London 2012 pavilion
02/08 | 05:34 GMT

©AFP/File / Peter Parks
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, pictured here in 2010, is reuniting with the Swiss architects with whom he created Beijing's spectacular Bird's Nest Stadium, to build a pavilion for this year's London Olympics.

©AFP/File / Peter Parks
Ai Weiwei, along with the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, will join forces again to design a pavilion
LONDON (AFP) - Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is reuniting with the Swiss architects with whom he created Beijing's spectacular Bird's Nest Stadium, to build a pavilion for this year's London Olympics.
Ai, along with the Swiss firm Herzog and de Meuron, will join forces again to design a pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery in London's Kensington Gardens park, the gallery said on Tuesday.
"It is a great honour to be working with Herzog and de Meuron and Ai Weiwei," said gallery director Julia Peyton-Jones.
"We are delighted that our annual commission will bring this unique architectural collaboration to Europe to mark the continuity between the Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Games."
In a joint statement, Ai and the architects said the project would involve digging some five feet (1.5 metres) into the park's soil to collect rainwater, which would be incorporated into the design.
The resulting construction will be "the perfect place to sit, stand, lie down or just look and be amazed," they said.
Britain's Guardian newspaper said Ai had been coordinating the project with the architects using online phone service Skype.
Ai -- whose activism has made him a thorn in the side of China's communist authorities -- disappeared into custody for 81 days last year as police rounded up dissidents and lawyers amid online calls for Arab-style protests in China.
Upon his release in June, the world-renowned artist was charged with tax evasion. He is currently battling Chinese demands that he pay 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) which he allegedly owes in back taxes.
The 54-year-old artist -- whose installation of 100 million sunflower seeds, made out of porcelain, was exhibited at London's Tate Modern last year -- denies the charges and insists the case is a politically motivated attempt to silence his activism.
The Serpentine Gallery has commissioned artists and architects to create a summer pavillion for the elegant 111-hectare (275-acre) park every year since 2000. Previous designers include the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
This year's pavillion will be part of the London 2012 festival, a series of 1,000 cultural performances and events across Britain to mark the London 2012 Olympics.

People
Ai Weiwei to build London 2012 ...Amazon strikes video deal with Viacom
02/08 | 16:58 GMT

©AFP/File / Emmanuel Dunand
Amazon announced a deal with entertainment giant Viacom on Wednesday, building up its arsenal of television shows as it takes on video streaming market leader Netflix.

©AFP/File / Emmanuel Dunand
Amazon said the Viacom deal takes the total number of videos available to Amazon Prime members to 15,000
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amazon announced a deal with entertainment giant Viacom on Wednesday, building up its arsenal of television shows as it takes on video streaming market leader Netflix.
The licensing agreement with Viacom will give Amazon Prime members access to TV shows from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo, Amazon said in a statement.
The Seattle, Washington-based online retail giant said the Viacom deal takes the total number of videos available to Amazon Prime members to 15,000.
For $79 a year, Amazon Prime members receive free two-day shipping and unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows. Amazon has been giving away a free month of Amazon Prime to buyers of its new tablet computer, the Kindle Fire.
Amazon said the Viacom offering will include MTV shows The Hills and Jersey Shore, Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show and The Sarah Silverman Program and Nickelodeon's iCarly, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The agreement does not include Hollywood movies from Viacom's Paramount Pictures, which has a deal with Netflix, or popular Comedy Central shows such as The Colbert Report or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
"We are constantly working to improve the service by adding the shows that our customers enjoy the most," said Brad Beale, director of video content acquisition for Amazon.
"This deal with Viacom brings Prime customers and Kindle Fire users thousands of comedies, kids' shows, reality TV and much more from some of the best cable networks available," Beale said.
Other Amazon content partners include CBS, Fox, PBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner Bros and Disney-ABC Television.
The Amazon-Viacom announcement comes two days after US telecom giant Verizon said it is teaming up with Coinstar, which operates Redbox movie rental kiosks, to launch a subscription video service later this year.
Verizon and Coinstar said Monday they had formed a joint venture that will add an online streaming option to the 35,400 Redbox vending machines located in grocery stores, McDonald's restaurants and other sites.
The Los Gatos, California-based Netflix, which offers online streaming and DVD delivery by mail, had 24.4 million US subscribers at the end of December, up from 23.8 million at the end of the previous quarter.
Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings, in a letter to shareholders last month, said he expects Amazon to eventually launch "their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours."
But Hastings said Amazon and another online video rival, Hulu -- a joint venture between News Corp., Disney and NBC Universal -- offer only a "fraction of our content" and their total viewing hours are "less than 10 percent of ours."
Amazon shares were up 0.59 percent at $185.27 in early trading on Wall Street. Netflix shares were down 1.21 percent at $126.33 and Viacom shares were 0.98 percent higher at $54.81.

High Tech
Amazon strikes video deal with ...Greek leaders in final talks on austerity and rescue
02/08 | 17:42 GMT

©AFP/Pool / Orestis Panagiotou
Socialist leader George Papandreou (R) and conservative party leader Antonis Samaras arrive at the Maximos Mansion government headquarters in Athens prior to a critical meeting on Greek debt.

©AFP/Pool / Orestis Panagiotou
Socialist leader George Papandreou (R) and conservative party leader Antonis Samaras
ATHENS (AFP) - Greece's coalition leaders on Wednesday met Prime Minister Lucas Papademos for a final round of talks on radical budget cuts and a debt deal to avert default.
The leaders of the socialist, conservative and far-right leaders must approve reported cuts to the minimum wage -- strongly resisted by unions -- in addition to pension reductions and 15,000 civil service redundancies.
"I am troubled by the innermost intentions of our creditors," far-right leader George Karatzaferis told reporters on his arrival at the premier's official residence, adding that a pressing schedule was being used to "blackmail" Greece.
Greece kept the eurozone and financial markets on edge during the day, with the meeting of leaders backing Papademos' government repeatedly postponed since Sunday.
Agreement on new measures demanded by the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank -- known as the 'troika' -- and on a debt-write down by banks would open the way for a second rescue and so close a key chapter in the eurozone crisis.
The party heads earlier in the day received a 50-page text with the austerity cuts demanded in return for new loans under a 130-billion euro ($171-billion) eurozone bailout originally agreed in October.
The text was drawn up during a night of marathon talks between Papademos and representatives from the troika aimed at setting up a second rescue for Athens following an initial bailout worth 110 billion euros in May 2010.
Press reports have said that the latest measures, reportedly tweaked up to the last minute, include a cut of 22 percent in the minimum wage and 15-percent cuts in complementary pension programmes, along with a separate 15-percent reduction for public utility pensioners.
About 15,000 Greek public sector jobs are thought likely to be axed.
The new funding is vital if Greece is to avert a debt default on March 20, when it must repay 14.5 billion euros to bond holders.
If a deal emerges, it will be presented by Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to eurozone finance ministers on Thursday and be tabled in parliament on Friday for approval by Sunday, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported.

©AFP / -
Police stands guard in front of the Ministry of Development occupied by Public Power company unionists in Athens
The head of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, called a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Thursday at 1700 GMT for talks on Greece.
On the bond markets, where tension has eased markedly since the beginning of the year, the reaction was subdued.
"Whether this turns out to be the good news that the market is currently expecting, or another short term rally followed by a painful pull back remains to be seen," analyst Alistair Cotton said in a note.
"But there is reason to remain sceptical given the number of times over the last two years news about a Greek rescue deal moved the market in exactly the same way; euro positive on the rumour, retracement on the fact," he said.
The coalition party leaders were given a few hours to study the plan, which was said to include cost-saving measures worth 3.2 billion euros.
Savvas Robolis, a senior labour analyst at leading private-sector union GSEE, said the minimum wage cuts would affect 325,000 people or 17 percent of the workforce.
"The minimum wage will drop to around 500 euros ... and this will create a 2.2-billion-euro shortage in health and pension funds," he told Flash Radio.
The country is running out of time to agree the deal and to conclude a separate debt write-off with banks and other private creditors worth at least 100 billion euros.
Greece has run up total debt of about 350 billion euros, roughly 160 percent of its gross domestic product, and the IMF has insisted that level be brought down to a maximum of 120 percent of GDP in 2020.
On Tuesday, Papademos met Charles Dallara, head of the Institute of International Finance and chief representative in the private debt discussions.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the ECB would participate in a writedown of Greece's debt by agreeing "to exchange the government bonds it purchased in the secondary market last year at a price below face value, provided the debt-restructuring talks have a successful outcome."
burs-rl/bmm

Business
Greek leaders in final talks on austerity and ...Suicide car bomb 'kills 11 in Somali capital'
02/08 | 16:57 GMT

©AFP/File / Tony Karumba
A security officer standing guard at a camp for people displaced by famine near Adan Ade airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu, January 19. A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people Wednesday in the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu when he detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near the presidential palace, officials said.

©AFP/File / Tony Karumba
A security officer stands guard at a camp for displaced people in Mogadishu on January 19
MOGADISHU (AFP) - A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people Wednesday in the war-torn Somali capital Mogadishu when he detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near the presidential palace, officials said.
"There was a heavy explosion, a car full of explosives was detonated. At least 11 people were killed and a greater number were wounded," lawmaker Mohamed Iro said.
The bomber detonated the vehicle at a small cafe where people had gathered to drink tea, a spot also close to a hotel once popular with officials and located in the heart of the government quarter.
"It was a suicide bomber in a car -- they were trying to target the people near the hotel," said Abdi Abullahi Jama, a security official.
"There are many people dead and many wounded, we are still investigating."
The attack took place hours after senior European Union diplomat Alexander Rondos, Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, visited the war-wracked city, where he met with the embattled government.
The blast occurred outside the Mona hotel, where 32 people including six members of parliament were killed in an August 2010 attack by two Islamist suicide gunmen wearing government security uniforms.

©AFP/Graphic
Wednesday's blast occurred outside the Mona hotel, where 32 people were killed in an August 2010 attack
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, the latest in a string of blasts including roadside bombs and grenade explosions that have rocked the Somali capital in recent months.
The city has seen an increase in such attacks since the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab abandoned fixed positions there in August and switched to guerrilla tactics against the Western-backed government and African Union troops.
The explosion was the deadliest in the anarchic city since October, when a truck packed with explosives killed at least 82 people.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991 and the government in Mogadishu is propped up by a 10,000-strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.
Hardline Shebab insurgents control large parts of central and southern Somalia, but are facing increasing pressure from government forces and regional armies.
Armies from neighbouring countries are converging on the Shebab -- Kenyan forces in the south, Ethiopia's army in the south and west, and the AU troops in Mogadishu.
The United Nations says Somalia is suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
It lifted a declaration of famine in areas including inside Mogadishu last week, but warned the situation remains dire with a third of the population needing emergency aid.

Africa
Suicide car bomb 'kills 11 in Somali ...Dozens dead as Syria regime pounds Homs: activists
02/08 | 19:55 GMT

©AFP/YouTube / -
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on February 7 shows a Syrian man standing in front of what he says is a house that was bombed by government forces in the flashpoint city of Homs.

©AFP/YouTube / -
An image grab shows a Syrian man standing in front of what he says is a house that was bombed by government forces
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syrian forces pressed a relentless assault on the protest city of Homs on Wednesday, with dozens of civilians reported killed, hours after President Bashar al-Assad said he was committed to ending the bloodshed.
The barrage of gunfire, mortars and shells was launched at dawn and continued all day. State television said a car bomb had ripped through the central city, killing and wounding civilians as well as security officers.
The blast hit the neighbourhood of Bayada, the television reported, blaming "armed terrorist gangs." If confirmed, the attack would be the first of its kind in Homs.
It came as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insisted any outside intervention to stop the violence would be akin to behaving "like a bull in a china shop."
But France and Britain dismissed Moscow's efforts to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed in Syria and cast doubt on Assad's claim that he was "fully committed" to resolving the crisis.
Related article: 'God help us': appeal from Syria's Homs

©AFPGraphic
Homs bombarded
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 62 people were killed across the country on Wednesday, including 50 in Homs.
Among those killed in the beleaguered city were three entire families slain overnight by "shabiha" armed regime supporters, he said. The dead included at least three children aged five, seven and 15.
The most intense shelling was in Baba Amr, where at least 23 buildings were completely destroyed, including a home hit by a rocket that killed a little girl, Abdel Rahman said.
Activists in Homs said the widespread shelling was a clear bid to pave the way for a ground assault on Syria's third city.
"Since dawn the shelling has been extremely intense and they are using rockets and mortars," Omar Shaker, reached by satellite telephone from Beirut, told AFP.
"They have destroyed all infrastructure and bombed water tanks and electricity poles. The humanitarian situation is extremely dire and food is lacking.
"We are trying to set up a field hospital but we have no medical supplies."
Ali Hazouri, a doctor in Baba Amr, said a field hospital had been hit and several physicians were wounded, some critically.
"One rescuer from the Red Cross had both legs blown off in the shelling," he said.
As th
©AFP
'Omar the Syrian': citizen journalist killed in Homs. Duration: 00:52
e regime forces tightened their grip, severing power, communications and other supplies, state media reported "terrorists" attacked Homs' oil refinery.
The authorities frequently blame "terrorists" for attacks on infrastructure, while its opponents accuse the regime of carrying them out to punish centres of resistance.
The Observatory has reported 400 civilians killed since the onslaught on Homs, a junction city of 1.6 million inhabitants, was launched overnight Friday.
It reported a similar onslaught in Zabadani, a restive town near Damascus that has been targeted for seven consecutive days. The latest shelling killed three people.
In southern Syria, troops used heavy gunfire after an army officer and 17 soldiers defected in Daraa province, cradle of the uprising against Assad's 11 years of iron-fisted rule.
Rights groups estimate more than 6,000 people have died in nearly a year of upheaval in the Middle East country, as Assad's regime seeks to snuff out the revolt that began in March with peaceful protests amid the Arab Spring.
Western and Arab efforts to address the violence have met resistance from Russia, whose foreign minister said after meeting Assad that the Syrian leader was "fully committed" to ending the bloodshed.
Sergei Lavrov pointedly declined to say whether Moscow had asked Assad to quit during their talks in Damascus on Tuesday.
"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," he said.
Putin issued a similar statement.
"Of course we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop. We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently."

©AFP / Faisal al-Tamimi
A Syrian girl with the old Syrian flag painted on her face attends a demonstration in the Qatari capital Doha
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he had "very little confidence" in the Russian efforts, while French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Assad's promises were manipulation and should not be believed.
Moscow, which along with China vetoed a UN resolution condemning the crackdown at the weekend, has staunchly stood by its last ally in the region, a key buyer of military hardware that hosts a strategic Russian naval base.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged "the necessity of continuing -- including at the UN Security Council -- a search for coordinated approaches to help the Syrians regulate the crisis themselves."
He made the remarks in a phone call with the prime minister of Turkey, which said it was planning an international conference of regional players and world powers on solving the crisis "as soon as possible."
UN rights chief Navi Pillay said the failed Security Council resolution "appears to have fuelled the Syrian government's readiness to massacre its own people in a bid to crush dissent," calling for international action.

International News
Dozens dead as Syria regime pounds Homs: ...Capello quits as England manager
02/08 | 20:08 GMT

©AFP / Max Nash
England football manager Fabio Capello leaves the Football Association headquarters at Wembley in north London. Capello quit as England manager following the Football Association's decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy, the FA announced.

©AFP / Max Nash
England football manager Fabio Capello leaves the Football Association headquarters
LONDON (AFP) - Fabio Capello has quit as England manager following the Football Association's decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy, the FA announced Wednesday.
"Fabio's resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England manager with immediate effect," the FA said in a statement.
The Italian quit following a meeting at Wembley with FA chairman David Bernstein.
The FA said their discussions focused on its decision to remove the captaincy from Chelsea skipper Terry, who is facing trial later this year on charges of racially abusing QPR player Anton Ferdinand.
Capello had publicly disagreed with the decision in an Italian television interview.
"I would like to stress that during today's meeting and throughout his time as England manager, Fabio has conducted himself in an extremely professional manner," Bernstein said.
"We have accepted Fabio's resignation, agreeing this is the right decision. We would like to thank Fabio for his work with the England team and wish him every success in the future."
The decision comes within hours of Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp being cleared by a jury over charges of tax evasion.
Redknapp is the bookmakers' favourite to become the next England manager.
Capello was heavily criticised for England's disappointing performance at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where they were thrashed by Germany in the second round.
His contract was due to expire following the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, which kicks off in June.



