Greece rocked by third day of riots

VIOLENT clashes between police and protesters erupted for a third day in Greece Monday as anger over the fatal police shooting of a teenager continued to rage through major cities.

Riot police fired tear gas at youths attacking shops and a police station in the port city of Thessaloniki, The Associated Press reported.

Running battles also broke out in Veria, a town 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Thessaloniki, while violence was reported in the central city of Trikala, AP said.

Major protests were expected later in five Greek cities, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa, another central city, and on the island of Corfu.

There were scenes of destruction across the Greek capital after police apologies and the arrest of two officers in connection with the shooting failed to halt unrest on Sunday.

On Sunday night, police fired tear gas as rampaging youths smashed storefronts and burned businesses, leaving shattered glass and burnt debris scattered across major cities.

Residents of one apartment building in central Athens were evacuated on Sunday after angry demonstrators torched a car dealership on the basement floor. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video of rioting

Self-styled anarchists barricaded city streets in Athens and Thessaloniki, and hurled petrol bombs as they battled with police, who fought back with tear gas in the second day of rioting.

One officer has been charged with manslaughter over the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, another as an accomplice.

The men say they fired warning shots as Grigoropoulos was about to throw a fuel-filled device at them and a gang of youths pelted a patrol vehicle.

An autopsy is planned later Monday.

In another development, about 15 protesters entered the Greek consulate in the German capital, Berlin.

They submitted a letter of protest about the death of the teen and hung a banner outside the structure that said the boy was "murdered by the state."

While the shooting appears to have triggered the protests, much of the unrest is seen as reflecting increasing resentment towards Greece's scandal-hit government.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis of the center-right New Democracy party won reelection last year, promising to push ahead with key social and economic reforms while shielding workers from massive layoffs.
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Despite the assurances, the government's popularity has plummeted amid allegations of cronyism and corruption.

So-called anarchists have a long tradition of anti-government protests in Greece, stemming from seven years of military junta rule that ended in 1974. The movement was reborn in populist student protests in the 1990

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/12/08/greece.riots/index.html

Amsterdam to clamp down on sex shops, brothels, dope cafes

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven.

The city is targeting businesses that "generate criminality," including gambling parlors, and the "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering.

"I think that the new reality will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals," said Lodewijk Asscher, a city council member and one of the main proponents of the plan.

The news comes just one day after Amsterdam's mayor said he would search for loopholes in new rules laid down by the national government that would close marijuana cafes near schools citywide. The measures announced Saturday would affect about 36 coffee shops in the center itself, a little less than 20 percent of the city total.

Asscher underlined that the city center will remain true to its freewheeling reputation.

"It'll be a place with 200 windows [for prostitute]) and 30 coffee shops, which you can't find anywhere else in the world -- very exciting, but also with cultural attractions," he said. "And you won't have to be embarrassed to say you came."

Under the plan announced Saturday, Amsterdam will spend €30 million to €40 million ($38 million to $51 million) to bring hotels, restaurants, art galleries and boutiques to the center. It will also build underground parking areas.

Amsterdam had plans to close many brothels and some coffee shops, but those announced Saturday go further.

Asscher said the city would reshape the area, using zoning rules, buying out businesses and offering assistance to upgrade stores. The city has shut brothels and sex clubs in the past by relying on a law allowing the closure of businesses with bookkeeping irregularities.

Prostitution will be allowed only in two areas in the district, notably De Wallen ("The Walls"), a web of streets and alleys around the city's medieval retaining dam walls. The area has been a center of prostitution since before the city's golden shipping age in the 1600s.

Prostitution was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000, formalizing a long-standing tolerance policy.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but prosecutors won't press charges for possession of small amounts. Coffee shops are able to sell it openly.

Obama takes Shinseki for Cabinet, sources say

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama will nominate retired Gen. Eric Shinseki to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, two Democratic sources said Saturday.

Obama was expected to make the formal announcement Sunday -- Pearl Harbor Day -- at a news conference in Chicago. Veterans groups appeared to support the selection.

"I am excited. I don't know him personally but this is a huge move," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

For years, Shinseki, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, has been the patron saint of Pentagon critics who say the former Army chief's sage advice was ignored in 2003, resulting in too few U.S. troops being sent to Iraq after the invasion.

Shinseki testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003 that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers would be required" to pacify the country. The comment infuriated some Bush administration officials, and he retired just a few months later. Video Watch why Obama may have selected Shinseki »

Shinseki has never spoken publicly about his testimony, which has often been cited by critics as evidence that then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored the advice of one of his key generals.

But as Army chief of staff, Shinseki was not in the chain of command, and played no direct role in drawing up the war plans.

Pentagon sources say that, in fact, Shinseki never advocated higher troop levels for Iraq, in part because it was not his job to do so. And sources say that just before the invasion, when asked by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard Myers if he agreed with the war plans, Shinseki voiced no objections.


Still, Rieckhoff said, "Shinseki is a guy who had a career putting patriotism above politics. He is a wounded veteran so he understands the plight of veterans."

He said Shinseki would have to make key connections with the veterans community, adding, "This is a big name and it shows that he (Obama) is not going to treat the Veterans Affairs secretary as a low priority."

John Rowan, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, called the reported pick an "interesting choice."

"I am satisfied with it," Rowan told CNN on Saturday, adding that the choice seems to be in the Obama transition team's pattern of "bringing in strong personalities into all the positions who aren't going to 'yes' him to death."

"When Shinseki had his disagreements with the administration, he wasn't afraid to speak up," Rowan said.

Veterans for Common Sense also weighed in, issuing a statement "strongly" supporting Shinseki.

"In February 2003, General Shinseki honestly and correctly assessed our nation's military needs before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003," the statement said. "This same level of candor and honesty will serve President-elect Obama well so he can quickly and accurately identify VA's many challenges and then implement responsible solutions that take into consideration our veterans' needs and concerns."

Like Obama, Shinseki was born in Hawaii. He was the first Asian-American to reach the top spot in the U.S. Army.

When a gallery to honor Shinseki was opened at the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii in 2006, Shinseki was humble while addressing the audience.

"I asked my Grandma Shinseki what I should say before I came here," he said at the time. "She told me, 'tell them you come from a good family ... and tell them you're a good American soldier.' "

Before he took over the Army's top post in November 1998, Shinseki spent his career with U.S. armored forces.

New Delhi airport gets security scare

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian police swiftly handled a "security scare" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened concern in the wake of last week's terror attack in which gunmen killed 179 people in Mumbai.

New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police responded to reports of gunfire at Indira Gandhi International Airport but found no casualties or damage. Bhagat said there was "no terror threat."

"And there's no cause of panic," he added.

Uday Banerjee, the head of India's Central Industrial Security Force, told reporters at the airport that something sounding like gunshots was heard, but no one saw anything and no bullet casings were found.

Indian authorities stepped up security at the nation's airports on Thursday after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists might be planning an air attack.

At Indira Gandhi, four armed police stood guard at each entrance, and people waiting for arriving passengers were not allowed inside. Video Watch what triggered the security scare there »

"There have been intelligence inputs about some terrorist activity, and therefore security has been tightened (at airports)," civil aviation spokesperson Moushmi Chakraborty told CNN.

Police beefed up security at all airports including in the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, Chakraborty said.

A spokesman for the Indian Navy, Cmdr. Nirad Sinha, also confirmed to CNN that security officials had received warnings about an airborne attack. Video Watch more on increase in security »

The Press Trust of India, a nonprofit newspaper cooperative, said that reports had suggested that terrorists could have sneaked into the country to carry out strikes on the anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition. The mosque -- one of the largest in the Uttar Pradesh state -- was destroyed on December 6, 1992, by Hindu nationalists who believe it was built on the site of an existing temple.

On Wednesday India's defense minister met with the chiefs of the army, air force and navy and discussed what the ministry in a news statement called "possible terror threats from air."

The officials also discussed the country's coastal security plans and how to tighten security along the military line of control dividing the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan to "prevent infiltration of terrorists," the statement said.

Authorities: Mumbai attackers had help

(CNN) -- The attackers who killed nearly 180 people last week in Mumbai, India, had help from a Bangladeshi national, Indian security sources told CNN sister network CNN-IBN. The Bangladeshi national bought cell phone SIM cards for the attackers at several locations inside India, the sources said Thursday.

SIM cards -- subscriber identity modules -- are portable memory-chips that make it easy to switch cell phones. Intelligence experts say they're used by terrorists to throw their pursuers off the trail.

Indian authorities believe all the attackers were Pakistanis, specifically blaming Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan. LeT has denied any responsibility for the attacks, but the sole surviving gunmen told interrogators he was trained by LeT, Indian authorities have said.

Pakistani authorities denied the attackers were from their country, instead blaming what they call "non-state" actors.

But one analyst who studies India-Pakistan tensions believes this operation was planned and carried out by militants from Bangladesh, Pakistan -- and India.

"They needed people on the ground who could guide them and provided the inside dope," said Shuja Nawaz, author of "Crossed Swords," which analyzes the role of Pakistan's military in the country's politics. "Otherwise, the Lashkar doesn't have the capacity to have cased the joints, to have made all these plans and get these people into the target area so effectively."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who traveled to the region this week to meet with Indian and Pakistani officials, hit hard on the need for Pakistan to root out Islamic extremists inside its borders.

The Pakistani leadership must understand "the importance of doing that, particularly in rooting out terrorists and rounding up whoever perpetrated this attack from wherever it was perpetrated, whatever its sources, wherever the leads go," Rice said.

Meanwhile, Indian police swiftly handled a "security scare" at New Delhi's major airport early Friday amid heightened security at the nations airports. Video Watch what was known about the scare »

Intelligence reports indicated terrorists may be planning an airborne attack.

"This is based on a little warning which has been received," Indian Air Force chief Maj. Fali Homi said. "That's all, nothing else. We are prepared as usual."

Indian officials are also weighing how to tighten security along their coasts, where the Mumbai attackers entered the country.

CNN: Rice urges Pakistan to take on terrorists within its borders

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Pakistan Wednesday to take responsibility for terrorists that are operating within its borders, terrorists India accuses of masterminding last week's attacks on Mumbai.

"We believe Pakistan has a central role to play in this, to make certain that these terrorists cannot continue to operate and operate in this fashion," Rice said at a joint news conference with her Indian counterpart in New Delhi.

While stressing that the investigation into who is behind last week's terrorist siege is still ongoing, she took issue with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's assertion in a CNN interview that Pakistan had no role in the attack which he said was carried out by "stateless actors."

"Non-state actors sometimes operate within the confines a state ... and when that is the case, there has to be very direct and tough action against them," Rice said.

"Non-state actors, that's still a matter of responsibility if in fact it somehow relates to your territory."

Indian investigators say the lone surviving suspect in last week's attack has told them he is a Pakistani, as were the the other gunmen.

The attacks last week killed at least 179 people, including six Americans. Rice is in New Delhi to try to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers and key allies of the United States. She will head to Islamabad on Thursday.

At Wednesday's news conference, India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee warned that New Delhi will consider all options "to protect its territorial integrity" if Pakistan refuses to hand over a group of wanted terrorist suspects

"So far as (the) government of India is concerned, what action will be taken by government will depend on the response we have from Pakistan authorities," Mukherjee said.

"After obtaining the response, whatever governmental-considered necessity to protect its territorial integrity ... and security of its citizens, government will do that." Video Watch claims attackers came from Pakistan »

India recently renewed its demand that Pakistan arrest the suspected Islamic militant leaders, who have been on India's most wanted list for some time. New Delhi believes the group -- which includes the leader of the al Qaeda-linked terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba -- helped plot last week's attacks on Mumbai.

Rice warned India that "any response needs to be judged by its effectiveness in prevention, and also by not creating other unintended consequences or difficulties."

"We are going to work very closely over this time, and as I said, we are focused with India on both bringing the perpetrators to justice and on preventing further attacks."

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/12/03/india.pakistan.rice/index.html

Police: Mumbai suspect admits Pakistan link

THE attackers who carried out last week's siege in Mumbai spent the past three months in Pakistan carefully planning their strike on India's financial capital, according to the police official leading the investigation into the attacks.

Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said the information comes from his interview with the suspect in custody, who police say is the only surviving attacker.

Maria identified the suspect as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, from the Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province. He is the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab, the police commissioner said.

Maria said all 10 attackers were Pakistanis, something that Pakistani officials have denied, blaming instead "stateless actors."

The band of gunmen attacked 10 targets in Mumbai last Wednesday night, sparking three days of battles with police and Indian troops in the heart of the city that is the hub of India's financial and entertainment industries. Most of the 179 deaths occurred at the city's top two hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal.

Maria said Kasab spent the past 18 months training at various camps run by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba -- a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda. Kasab told police he joined the group, known by its acronym LeT, six months before he began training.

Pakistan banned LeT in 2002, after an attack on the Indian parliament that brought the nuclear rivals to the brink of war.

The training primarily took place in the Kashmiri city of Muzaffarabad, Maria said.

"He was told things like, 'You'll come in through this door, then go over here, then go out through that door,'" Maria told CNN. "Very, very detailed, explicit instructions. The gunmen were hand-picked, but there were no examinations per se."

All of the attackers were trained in Kashmir by former Pakistani army officers, but apparently did not know each other, the investigator said.

"While in the camps they all had code names," Maria said. Video Watch claims attackers came from Pakistan »

Kasab was trained to handle small arms as well as automatic weapons, the police commissioner said. He also received "explosives training, survival training, (and) nautical training."

During the last three months of the training, which focused on the Mumbai strike, Kasab was "shown photographs of the locations he was to target," including one of the city's main railway stations and a hospital.

Police have identified Kasab as the clean-shaven young man photographed in a black T-shirt carrying an assault rifle during the attack on Mumbai's Victoria Terminus train station, also known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

Indian authorities Wednesday defused a bomb at the station -- one of the first locations targeted in last week's siege, CNN sister station CNN-IBN reported. They said Kasab had provided its location.

The officials said the explosive device was made from RDX, a powerful explosive. Four other RDX bombs planted during the well-coordinated attacks have also been defused and police believe there are no more, officials said.

Maria said Kasab joined LeT because he was poor, but he expressed surprise at how easily he was "brainwashed" into joining the terror group.

LeT has denied any role in the attack. The only claim of responsibility has been in an e-mail -- which Indian police say originated in Pakistan -- from a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahedeen.

Maria said he thinks LeT used the name Deccan Mujahedeen because it operates illegally in Pakistan.

He described the 21-year-old suspect as someone who would go unnoticed, with a criminal record in Pakistan only for petty theft. But he said Kasab is a cold-blooded killer. Kasab told police investigators that he shot a small boy and, because he was crying, "He shot him again, and killed him, to shut him up," Maria said.

Kasab told the Indian investigators that the mission to strike Mumbai began on November 23 -- the Sunday before the attack -- when the attackers loaded a boat with their weapons, ammunition and fake Indian identification documents, Maria said.

A few days later, they hijacked a Pakistani fishing vessel near Indian international waters, and used that vessel to cover most of the approximately 500 nautical miles from Lahore, Pakistan, to Mumbai, he said.

This account was confirmed by Mumbai's police chief in a news conference on Tuesday, who also cited the suspect's police interview.

Maria said, according to Kasab's account, that the 10 attackers killed the captain and the crew, left them on the boat, and headed ashore in inflatable dinghies on Wednesday, the day of the attack.

Asked if Kasab's testimony could be trusted, Maria said the suspect's description of the captain's body and the location of the attackers' satellite phone and global-positioning system matched what investigators found on the boat.

"The dead captain lay in the front of the boat face down with his throat cut, hands tied behind his back," Maria said.

He also noted that the weapons that were used in the Mumbai attack can be traced back to Pakistan.

Maria said none of the attackers was carrying their real identification documents because they did not expect to return home. Video Watch survivor recount Mumbai horror »

The police commissioner said the operation, as described by Kasab, was unique in its planning and execution -- not just in India, but worldwide. He said he expects Kasab to provide more details in his ongoing interrogation by Indian police, who have 90 days to charge him.
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They intend to charge Kasab with terrorism and ask a judge for the death penalty, which in India is carried out by hanging. They expect the whole process to cover the next year to year and a half.

Maria said Kasab is not being tortured for answers, stressing that that would be counterproductive.

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Celebs help Britney celebrate her 27th birthday

DESEMBER 2 was a big day for Britney Spears: she performed live on “Good Morning America,” her new album “Circus” dropped, and it was her 27th birthday. Spears celebrated in a way that came as a surprise to some: with a party at Tenjune, a rather trendy Manhattan nightclub.

“She’s been so careful with her image lately, it came as a surprise that she’d turn around and have her party at a club,” said one person in the Spears inner circle. “We don’t expect anything bad to happen, but it just sounds like trouble on the surface.”

That said, “Everyone’s really excited that Britney’s back,” says another person who was privy to some of the party planning. “And it’s not about it (the party) being at a nightclub, it’s about what’s going to happen in the space.”

By Courtney Hazlett
The Scoop
msnbc.com
updated 11:39 a.m. ET Dec. 3, 2008

Leftover explosives found in Mumbai train station

POLICE on Wednesday discovered leftover explosives hidden in a bag in Mumbai's main train station — a stunning new example of botched security after the deadly rampage that left the government open to accusations it missed warnings and bungled its response.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Islamabad has a "special responsibility" to cooperate with the investigation into the attacks, which Indian and U.S. officials have blamed on militant groups based in Pakistan.

During a joint press conference with Rice, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "there is no doubt the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were perpetrated by individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan."

India's defense minister summoned the army, navy and air force chiefs to warn them to be prepared for terror attacks from the air and the sea in the wake of growing criticism about slack security.

The bomb squad defused the two four-kilogram (8-pound) bombs, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Bapu Domre, but it was not immediately clear why the bombs hadn't been found earlier.

The suspected militants sprayed Chhatrapati Shivaji train station with gunfire last Wednesday night, but authorities reopened it and declared it safe Thursday morning. The crowds of commuters quickly returned the station, one of the country's busiest, and it has been serving millions of passengers in the days since.

Rice, in New Delhi as part of a U.S. effort to ease tensions in the region following the attacks, said the United States expects all "responsible governments" to help with the investigation and "Pakistan has a special responsibility to do so and to do so transparently, urgently and fully."

"The responsibility of the Pakistani government should be one of cooperation and of action," she said.

Mukherjee vowed to bring the suspected Muslim militants to justice but said "what action will be taken by (the Indian) government will depend on the response that we have from the Pakistan authorities."

Defense Minister A.K. Antony told his military chiefs that they needed to improve intelligence coordination so that security forces can act on all credible threats, according to a ministry statement.

The statement said Antony discussed beefing up maritime security and "reviewed in detail the preparedness against any possible terror threats from air."

Defense Ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said the moves were a precaution and not based on concrete intelligence.

"We saw how they came through the sea routes," Kar said. "We are not ruling out any threats. It's a preventive measure."

Authorities believe the gunmen responsible for last week's attacks reached Mumbai by boat after launching from Karachi, Pakistan.

Indian and U.S. officials have blamed Pakistani-based groups for the attacks and have pressured Islamabad to cooperate in the investigation.

"I have said that Pakistan needs to act with resolve and urgency, and cooperate fully and transparently," Rice said during a press conference in New Delhi. "I know too this is a time when cooperation of all parties who have any information is really required."

Rice said it was too early to say who was responsible for the attack, but: "Whether there is a direct al-Qaida hand or not, this is clearly the kind of terror in which al-Qaida participates."

India has called on Pakistan to turn over 20 people who are "fugitives of Indian law" and wanted for questioning, but President Asif Ali Zardari said the suspects would be tried in Pakistan if there is evidence of wrongdoing.

"At the moment, these are just names of individuals — no proof and no investigation," he said Tuesday in an interview with CNN's Larry King. "If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts and we would try them in our land and we would sentence them."

A week after the attacks, more details of intelligence failures began to emerge, drawing further criticism to authorities already blamed for moving slowly and ineptly during the 60-hour siege carried out by 10 gunmen.

Navy chief Sureesh Mehta earlier called India's failure to act on multiple warnings "a systemic failure."

India had received a warning from the United States that militants were plotting a waterborne assault on Mumbai, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of intelligence information.

India's foreign intelligence agency also had warnings as recently as September that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks on Mumbai, according to a government intelligence official familiar with the matter.

The information, intercepted from telephone conversations apparently coming out of Pakistan, indicated that hotels might be targeted but did not specify which ones, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the details.

Authorities said Tuesday that ex-Pakistani army officers trained the gunmen behind the attacks — some for up to 18 months.

India has stepped up the pressure on its neighbor after interrogating the only surviving attacker, who told police that he and the other nine gunmen had trained for months in camps in Pakistan operated by the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ajmal Qasab told police his group trained for about six months in Lashkar camps in Pakistan, learning close-combat techniques, hostage-taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation.

The training was "meticulous and rigorous," said a security official who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity.

The official said the gunmen sailed from Karachi in a Lashkar vessel that brought them to the waters near an Indian vessel they hijacked, the MV Kuber.

They killed three crew members and dumped their bodies in high seas, but kept the captain alive so that he could guide them into Mumbai.

The captain was killed some three nautical miles off Mumbai's coast, the official said.

Police were questioning the owner of the MV Kuber, from which investigators recovered a global positioning system that belonged to the attackers.

American officials said there is reason to suspect that the terror attacks were the work of a group at least partly based in Pakistan, although they've stopped short of mentioning Lashkar by name.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Tuesday the same group that carried out last week's attack is believed to be behind the Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 200 people two years ago.

While he didn't identify the group, the Indian government has attributed the 2006 attack to Lashkar and the Students Islamic Movement of India.

Last week's attacks against hotels, a restaurant and other sites across this sprawling city killed 171 people, including 26 foreigners, officials said Wednesday. The death toll was revised down from 172 after authorities realized they had counted a victim twice.

"More bodies being found is ruled out," Maharashtra state government spokesman Bhushan Gagrani said.

___

Associated Press writers Ramola Talwar Badam and Ravi Nessman in Mumbai, Ashok Sharma and Anne Gearan in New Delhi, Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.

Bill Clinton Eyes Role, Too

FORMER President Bill Clinton says he is open to the possibility of a role in the Obama administration but said he otherwise plans to be deferential to both the president and Clinton's wife, the soon-to-be secretary of state.

Clinton could be named as a sort of super-ambassador on a specific issue like India, or on a broad topic like restoring goodwill for the United States abroad. He was deferential to President George W. Bush, accepting assignments on hurricane and tsunami relief in conjunction with the president’s father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Clinton told CNN International that he’s “just try to be a helpful sounding board” for Hillary Clinton when she becomes the nation’s chief diplomat.

“Unless he asks me to do something specific, which I'm neither looking for nor closed to,” Clinton said.

Clinton spoke in Hong Kong, where the William J. Clinton Foundation convened a Clinton Global Initiative Asia meeting with current and former heads of state from around the region.

Friends say Clinton believes that every former president has a lifetime obligation to every future president, and he will continue to be deferential.

Here are excerpts of Clinton’s comments to CNN:

Question on steps he took to satisfy the Obama transition team

BILL CLINTON: “First of all, I think that virtually everything I have agreed to do — although it’s all over and above what the law requires — is quite appropriate. For example, if she is going to be secretary of state and I operate globally and I have people who contribute to these efforts globally, I think that it’s important to make it totally transparent. Say who the donors are and let people know that there's no connection to the decisions made by America's national security team, including the secretary of state. So everything else that's part of this, I have no problem with. I think it's a good idea. I think what the Obama transition team was concerned about is not that there's something wrong with having CGI in Asia or Latin America, for that matter, but that if you have an event like this overseas and the sponsors are largely non-American, they don't even want the appearance, which I think is important, the appearance of this is important that someone is supporting this because they want to be viewed favorably by the secretary of state and the White House.

Q: How involved do you think you will get in the decisions that your wife will have to make as far as foreign policy?

BILL CLINTON: Very little. I think my involvement will be what our involvement with each other’s work has always been, which is all the years that I was governor and president, I talked to her about everything. I found her advice invaluable, and I'm sure we'll talk about all this. I mean, I really care about all these profound challenges that our country and the world are facing. But the decisions will have to be ultimately the President-elect Obama's decisions to make about what we are going to do, what our policies are going to be, and she will be part of the team formulating those policies and carrying them out. I'll just try to be a helpful sounding board to her, but I don't think I'll do any more than that. Unless he asks me to do something specific, which I'm neither looking for nor closed to.

Question on his wife finding out about being considered for secretary of state

BILL CLINTON: I must say she didn't do it with any thought of becoming secretary of state. I think she was shocked; she first read about it in the newspaper speculation. … And I think it was a very wise decision by the president-elect, and I think she made the right decision, but for her it was hard. She adored being in the senate.

Question on the U.S. economy

BILL CLINTON: I don't think we can turn it around in less than a year, because too much wealth has already disappeared. The stock market might come back in less than a year but the shrinkage. … It’s already occurred in investment wealth is going to play itself out in the real economy. I don't think it will take longer than three years. So I would say if they make really, really good decisions, which I think they will, probably somewhere between 15 months and two years we will back up again.

Chambliss wins second term in U.S. Senate, Defeats Jim Martin after arduous runoff campaign

REPUBLICAN U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss beat back a prolonged challenge from Democrat Jim Martin on Tuesday to win a second term in office after a bruising four-week runoff between the one-time University of Georgia fraternity brothers.

Chambliss’s double-digit victory dashed Democrats’ dreams of securing a filibuster-proof, 60-vote “super majority” in the Senate and buoyed a Republican Party battered by staggering losses in the Nov. 4 general election.


“Republicans still know how to win an election,” Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan told hundreds of Chambliss supporters at the Cobb Energy Centre.

Chambliss said GOP volunteers from 43 states came to Georgia to assist his runoff bid, licking envelopes, calling voters and knocking on doors to get voters back to the polls.

“You’re the reason this happened,” the 65-year-old Moultrie lawmaker told cheering supporters. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Martin, 63, called Chambliss to concede at 9:45 p.m. and addressed his supporters 15 minutes later at the Park Tavern.

“Tonight the voters of Georgia have spoken,” Martin, an Atlanta attorney, told his supporters. “I accept that decision.”

Anna Beck, 25, of Atlanta, who worked for the Martin campaign as deputy finance director seemed to sense the inevitable after major news organizations began to call the race at 9 p.m.

“I’m sorry for the turnout. I wish it could have been higher. [But] I don’t know what we could have done differently,” Beck said.

Chambliss and Martin — Sigma Chi frat brothers in the 1960s — faced off in a race that became the focus of U.S. politics in wake of the Nov. 4 general election.

Despite the gravity of the race and the media attention focused on the two candidates, turnout appeared to be just over half what it was in the general election.

The Chambliss win was a major save for Republicans, who watched their political fortunes wither on Nov. 4. A Martin victory would have been another setback for the GOP, which threw a small army of its political stars, volunteers and millions of dollars into the race.

Chambliss’s victory means Republicans now will have at least 41 votes in the upper chamber, enough to stop major legislative initiatives by the Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress. Only the senate race in Minnesota, where a recount is ongoing, still must be decided.

During the runoff, Republicans painted Chambliss as a “firewall,” the “last man standing” to prevent what they contend would have been Democratic excesses. Democrats touted Martin as the man who would provide a “bridge” to the change promised by President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama tip-toed into the race, but never became fully involved. He recorded a radio ad for Martin and an automated “robo” call, but declined an invitation to come to Georgia and campaign for his fellow Democrat. Many of his campaign volunteers came to Georgia to help the Martin effort.

Big-name politicos also flocked to the state to stump for the two candidates. Former President Bill Clinton came for Martin as did former Vice President Al Gore. Former GOP presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to the state for Chambliss as did McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Keith Miller, 31, volunteered for Chambliss the last two weeks and came to the Cobb Energy Centre for the election results.

“I’ve always identified myself with Saxby and his conservative values — the Fair Tax and he’s pro-life,” said Miller, a mental health counselor who lives near Buford. “Because the Democrats might obtain a filibuster-proof majority I felt an extra urgency.” He volunteered for Chambliss, making phone calls last week.

Saxby Chambliss’ mother, 91-year-old Emma B. Chambliss, was on hand to her son’s victory celebration. She couldn’t vote for him, though. Miss Chambliss moved from Saluda, N.C., to Roswell just two months ago and missed the deadline for voter registration in Georgia.

“No, I didn’t get here in time” she said. “I was disgusted, disgusted,” she said, shaking her head.

Much of the money that poured into Geoergia was spent on a barrage of televised attack ads, which were still being aired as voters headed to the polls.

The Chambliss-Martin runoff was a surprise to many. Chambliss had a strong lead in the polls until the economy tanked in September and the first-term senator backed a controversial $700 billion financial rescue package. Neither Chambliss nor Martin got a majority of vote Nov. 4 in their senate battle with Libertarian Allen Buckley. That set up a runoff between the two top vote-getters.

Both campaigns knew turnout was the key to a win, and both worked hard to get campaign-weary voters to the polls in the aftermath of the Thanksgiving holiday. Both Martin and Chambliss put hundreds of volunteers on the ground to call and visit potential voters and get them to vote.

Chambliss first won election to the Senate in 2002, defeating former Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Cleland. Chambliss had served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before that win.


Tuesday, December 02, 2008
By JIM THARPE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
— Staff writers Aaron Gould Sheinin and Mary Lou Pickel contributed to this report.

Gossip Girl Girl Kelly Rutherford Is Pregnant

NOTHING makes us happier than when a woman from a TV show we never watch announces that she’s got a bun in the oven. So congratulations to Kelly Rutherford, who we’re told is a) a star of Gossip Girl and b) pregnant. We’re not experts on Gossip Girl or pregnancy, but we hear one involves backache, uncontrollable mood swings, a slack bladder, nausea and rabid constipation. The other one is pregnancy.

This will be Kelly Rutherford’s second child, following the birth of her… really, are you still actually reading this? Are people genuinely interested in Kelly Rutherfords’s pregnancy? Weirdos.

There’s a certain step-by-step guide that older American TV actresses need to follow when they get pregnant, because pregnancy at an advance age is fraught with danger. It’s essentially the guide laid out by Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives, so in the next few months we’re expecting to see 40-year-old Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl demand that all her scenes are filmed in her own bed, partly as a safety precaution and partly because she’s embarrassed that the naked photos she took of herself have been leaked onto the internet.

Oh, and also Kelly Rutherford needs to also give her baby a name so stupid that’ll ensure it gets bullied at school, passed over for jobs in adulthood and dies alone and bitter at a tragically young age, but that’s de rigeur for all celebrities anyway, not just middle-aged women off the telly who’ve got themselves knocked up.

But, yes, Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl is pregnant. You know, Kelly Rutherford. She plays the mother in Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl, you know. It’s a bit like The OC, except not as many people care about it because we’re all that much older now. Anyway, if you don’t recognise Kelly Rutherford from Gossip Girl, then maybe you’ll recognise her for her role in E-Ring. No? Her role in Threat Matrix? No? Her role in Backflash 2: Angels Don’t Sleep Here? No? Her role in Melrose Place? Anyone?

Oh, anyway, look, someone called Kelly Rutherford is pregnant, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Philly Burbs reports:

Kelly Rutherford is expecting her second child! A rep for the 40-year-old Gossip Girl star says she has a June due date. Kelly also tells people that the Gossip Girl set is very kid friendly so she won’t have to worry what to do with the newborn when she is filming. “We have such a nice set because people bring their kids and their dogs. It looks like we’re running a doggy daycare in the makeup room. It’s really something.”

Regardless of the fact that we don’t really know who she is, we wish Kelly Rutherford all the best for her pregnancy. As she no doubt knows herself, a baby is a like a little unwritten book, and nobody can ever be certain what its life will hold. Maybe it’ll discover the cure for cancer. Maybe it’ll just be content to stay at home and raise a family of its own. Or maybe it’ll become as famous as its mother.

If that last one’s the case, you shouldn’t really bother learning its name, by the way.

December 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 by Stuart Heritage