Mursi opponents clash with police in Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi clashed with Cairo police on Tuesday as thousands of protesters around the nation stepped up pressure on the Islamist leader to scrap a decree they say threatens Egypt with a new era of autocracy.

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets off the capital's Tahrir Square, heart of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. Protesters also turned out in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and cities in the Nile Delta.

A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling teargas in Cairo, the second death since last week's decree that expanded Mursi's powers and barred court challenges to his decisions.

Tuesday's protest called by leftists, liberals and other groups deepened the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed a divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

Mursi's administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. Opponents say it shows he has dictatorial instincts.

"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir chanted, echoing slogans used in the anti-Mubarak revolt.

Mursi's move provoked a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling after two years of turmoil.

Opponents have accused Mursi of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh, a jibe long leveled at Mubarak. The United States, a benefactor to Egypt's military, has expressed concern about more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.

"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini said in Cairo.

Some protesters have been camped out since Friday in Tahrir, and violence has flared around the country, including in a town north of Cairo where a Muslim Brotherhood youth was killed in clashes on Sunday. Hundreds have been injured.

Supporters and opponents of Mursi threw stones at each other and some hurled petrol bombs in the Delta city of el-Mahalla el-Kubra. A doctor said nine people were brought to hospital, but he expected numbers to rise to dozens.

SHOW OF STRENGTH

The protest was a show of strength by the non-Islamist opposition, whose fractious ranks have been brought together by the crisis. Well-organized Islamists have consistently beaten more secular-minded parties at the ballot box in elections held since Mubarak was ousted in February, 2011.

"The main demand is to withdraw the constitutional declaration (decree). This is the point," said Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief and presidential candidate who has joined the opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front.

Some scholars from the prestigious al-Azhar mosque and university joined Tuesday's protest, showing that Mursi and his Brotherhood have alienated some more moderate Muslims. Members of Egypt's large Christian minority also joined in.

Mursi formally quit the Brotherhood on taking office, saying he would be a president for all Egyptians, but he is still a member of its Freedom and Justice Party.

The decree issued on Thursday expanded his powers and protected his decisions from judicial review until the election of a new parliament expected in the first half of 2013.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it gives Mursi more power than the interim military junta from which he took over.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an Austrian paper he would encourage Mursi to resolve the issue by dialogue.

Trying to ease tensions with judges outraged at the step, Mursi has assured Egypt's highest judicial authority that elements of the decree giving his decisions immunity would apply only to matters of "sovereign" importance. Although that should limit it to issues such as a declaration of war, experts said there was room for much broader interpretation.

In another step to avoid more confrontation, the Muslim Brotherhood cancelled plans for a rival mass rally in Cairo on Tuesday to support the decree. Violence has flared in the past when both sides have taken to the streets.

But there has been no retreat on other elements of the decree, including a stipulation that the Islamist-dominated body writing a new constitution be protected from legal challenge.

LEGITIMACY UNDERMINED

"The decree must be cancelled and the constituent assembly should be reformed. All intellectuals have left it and now it is controlled by Islamists," said 50-year-old Noha Abol Fotouh.

With its popular legitimacy undermined by the withdrawal of most of its non-Islamist members, the assembly faces a series of court cases from plaintiffs who claim it was formed illegally.

Mursi issued the decree on November 22, a day after he won U.S. and international praise for brokering an end to eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas around the Gaza Strip.

Mursi's decree was seen as targeting in part a legal establishment still largely unreformed from Mubarak's era, when the Brotherhood was outlawed.

Though both Islamists and their opponents broadly agree that the judiciary needs reform, Mursi's rivals oppose his methods.

Rulings from an array of courts this year have dealt a series of blows to the Brotherhood, leading to the dissolution of the first constitutional assembly and the lower house of parliament elected a year ago. The Brotherhood dominated both.

The judiciary blocked an attempt by Mursi to reconvene the Brotherhood-led parliament after his election victory. It also stood in the way of his attempt to sack the prosecutor general, another Mubarak holdover, in October.

In his decree, Mursi gave himself the power to sack that prosecutor and appoint a new one. In open defiance of Mursi, some judges are refusing to acknowledge that step.

Mursi has repeatedly stated the decree will stay only until a new parliament is elected - something that can happen once the constitution is written and passed in a popular referendum.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Seham Eloraby, Marwa Awad and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo and Michael Shields in Vienna; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Anna Willard, David Stamp and Alastair Macdonald)

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Experts comb for clues in deadly German blaze

TITISEE-NEUSTADT, Germany: Experts sifted through a fire-ravaged workshop for the disabled in Germany on Tuesday, hunting for the cause of a fierce blaze there that killed 14 people.

Most of the dead from the fire which began on Monday at the centre in the southwestern town of Titisee-Neustadt in Germany's Black Forest region were disabled, police said.

A 50-year-old female carer was also killed, they said, while another nine people were hurt although their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

"Fire experts from the criminal police and accident investigators were on site during the night gathering evidence," a police spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by helicopters had battled the fire at the workshop run by the Roman Catholic Caritas welfare association for the mentally and physically disabled which made Christmas decorations among other things.

Candles have been placed outside the modern building whose windows were broken, and police stood at the entrance while more officers combed through the blackened interior.

Up to 60 people were in the centre at the time of the fire, which broke out just before 2 pm (1300 GMT) and spread quickly, damaging one floor of the site in Titisee-Neustadt, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the city of Freiburg.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences, saying in a telegram he would remember in his prayers the victims of this "tragic accident", according to the Freiburg archbishopric.

A memorial service has been planned for Saturday at a local cathedral, the mayor's office said.

Among the dead were 13 disabled people, of whom 10 were women. They were all aged between 28 and 68, according to a police statement.

The cause of the fire was still unclear. "The investigations are not yet finished" but are continuing "relentlessly", police said.

On Monday police had said an explosion had taken place.

It was not clear whether chemicals were stored in the building but the workshop's activities included the treatment of wood.

Gotthard Benitz, of the Titisee-Neustadt fire service, told AFP that the fire began on the ground floor of the building which also had a basement and an upper floor.

"The victims were all on the same floor where the fire was," he said adding this was the only area to have sustained fire damage and the stairwell had remained smoke-free meaning those on the other two floors had been able to use it.

"We have no evidence that there were any shortcomings in the existing fire safety system," he added.

He also said firefighters were prepared for dealing with an emergency at the workshop as practice fire alarms were regularly carried out there, with the last one having been last year.

Two firefighters were lightly injured by smoke and spent the night under observation in hospital.

On Monday another local fire chief Alexander Widmaier had said firefighters were on the scene within six minutes and that there had been a "massive" amount of smoke that filled the building "extremely quickly".

The head of Caritas in Germany, Peter Neher, told ZDF public television that emergency practice drills were done regularly.

"But everyone knows who has taken part in such a drill, that the practice is one thing and when it's really an emergency situation, everyone reacts very individually," he said.

Local resident Dietlinde Kerler said she had thought a practice drill was underway initially as she watched from her balcony.

"Those in wheelchairs came out of the back and they even carried one... Only then did we notice that it was smouldering, that it was burning, the real thing," she said.

-AFP/ac

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Cash transfer scheme will be a game changer step for 2014 general elections: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Gearing up for the next general elections, scheduled in 2014, the Congress on Tuesday termed its big-ticket plan to directly transfer cash to various social welfare beneficiaries as "game changer" and "politically revolutionary" step for UPA-II.

"It will be a game changer," finance minister P Chidambaram said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters here.

"It is a politically revolutionary step. It was a promise we made in the 2009 manifesto," added rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who accompanied Chidambaram.

On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced direct cash payout of social sector benefits and subsidies to the beneficiaries from Jan 1, 2013, in 51 districts across 14 states. The scheme would be rolled out all over the country by 2013-end - just months ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The significance of the move for the Congress can be gauged from the fact that the party's de facto number 2 Rahul Gandhi, who now heads the its poll coordination panel, would address a meeting of the Congress committees of the 51 districts where the scheme will begin.

Chidambaram denied the move was politically motivated.

"It has nothing to do with elections," he said, adding the move would help plug leakages and duplication in implementation of social sector schemes and result in savings for the government.

He rubbished the opposition's charge of the cash transfers being an attempt to bribe the voters. "It is absurd," Chidambaram said, reacting to the opposition remark.

Ramesh described the policy initiative as "aap ka paisa, aap ke haath", aimed at ensuring the right of the poor was delivered to them at their door-step.

The cash amount would be transferred to the beneficiaries' bank accounts linked to their Aadhaar cards.

The poor in the villages, who would not be able to go to a bank branch, would be able to get cash through an expanded network of banking correspondents, said Ramesh.

Chidambaram said the government would start with scholarships and old-age pension schemes and cover other welfare plans including various subsidies.

However, he clarified that "complex" issues like food, fertiliser and cooking gas cylinder subsidies would be taken up later only when the government is more confident and the bottlenecks in the implementation of food and fertiliser subsidies are addressed.

"We are prudent, we don't want to stumble and fall," he said.

The scheme is expected to cut down leakages and corruption in the implementation of various social sector schemes and distribution of subsidised items.

The cash transfers scheme is expected to reap rich electoral dividends in the same manner the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) worked for the UPA-I.

"MGNREGS brought lasting benefit to millions and cash transfers will bring lasting benefit to millions," said Chidambaram.

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael Morell for more than an hour on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Ayotte said Rice told the lawmakers that her comments in a series of national television interviews five days after the attack were wrong. However, that failed to mollify the three lawmakers, who have talked about blocking her nomination if the president taps her to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was leading up to the attack on the consulate and the tragic death of four brave Americans and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared, or informed sufficiently, to give the American people the correct depiction of the events that took place," McCain told reporters.

Said Graham: "Bottom line I'm more disturbed now than I was before that 16 September explanation."

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

The three insisted that they need more information about the Libyan raid before they even consider Rice as a possible replacement for Clinton.

"I'm more troubled today," said Ayotte, who argued that it was clear in the days after the attack that it was terrorism and not a spontaneous demonstration prompted by an anti-Muslim video.

Despite lingering questions over her public comments after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative.

The strong statements from the three senators clouded Rice's prospects only two days after Republican opposition seem to be softening. Rice planned meetings on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is in line to become the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Corker said Tuesday that he had concerns with a possible nomination.

"When I hear Susan talk she seems to me like she'd be a great chairman of the Democratic National Committee," Corker said. "There is nobody who is more staff supportive of what the administration does. That concerns me in a secretary of state."

Rice's series of meetings on Capitol Hill will be a critical test both for Republicans, who will decide whether they can support her, and the administration, which must gauge whether Rice has enough support to merit a nomination.

A senior Senate aide said the administration was sounding out moderate members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, such as Corker and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. Assessing the prospects for Rice before Obama makes any announcement would avoid the embarrassment of a protracted fight with the Senate early in the president's second term and the possible failure of the nominee.

Rice is scheduled to meet with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., her most vocal critic on Capitol Hill, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. McCain and Ayotte are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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Egypt's Mursi holds crisis talks over power grab

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi negotiated with senior judges on Monday to try to defuse a crisis over his seizure of new powers which set off violent protests reminiscent of an uprising last year that led to the rise of his Islamist movement.

The justice minister said he believed Mursi would agree with Egypt's highest judicial authority on its proposal to limit the scope of the new powers. Mursi's spokesman said the president was "very optimistic Egyptians would overcome the crisis".

But the protesters, some camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square, have said only retracting the decree will satisfy them, a sign of the deep rift between Islamists and their opponents that is destabilising Egypt two years after Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

"There is no use amending the decree," said Tarek Ahmed, 26, a protester who stayed the night in Tahrir, where tents covered the central traffic circle. "It must be scrapped."

One person has been killed and about 370 injured in clashes between police and protesters since Mursi issued the decree on Thursday shielding his decisions from judicial review, emboldened by international plaudits for brokering an end to eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas.

The stock market is down more than 7 percent.

Mursi's political opponents have accused him of behaving like a dictator and the West has voiced its concern, worried by more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel and lies at the heart of the Arab Spring.

Mursi's administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. Leftists, liberals, socialists and others say it has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

"President Mursi is very optimistic that Egyptians will overcome this challenge as they have overcome other challenges," presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told reporters, shortly before the president started his meeting with members of Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council.

COMPROMISE?

The council has hinted at a compromise, saying Mursi's decree should apply only to "sovereign matters". That suggests it did not reject the declaration outright. It urged judges and prosecutors, some of whom went on strike, to return to work.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky, speaking about the council statement, said: "I believe President Mohamed Mursi wants that."

The presidential spokesman said two Mursi aides had asked to resign over the crisis, but Mursi had yet to accept.

The protesters are worried that Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood aims to dominate the post-Mubarak era after winning the first democratic parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

A deal with a judiciary dominated by Mubarak-era judges, which Mursi has pledged to reform, may not placate them.

A group of lawyers and activists has also challenged Mursi's decree in an administrative court, which said it would hold its first hearing on December 4. Other decisions by Mursi have faced similar legal challenges brought to court by opponents.

Banners in Tahrir called for dissolving the assembly drawing up a constitution, an Islamist-dominated body Mursi made immune from legal challenge. Many liberals and others have walked out of the assembly saying their voices were not being heard.

Only once a constitution is written can a new parliamentary election be held. Until then, legislative and executive power remains in Mursi's hands, and Thursday's decree puts his decisions above judicial oversight.

One Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were hurt on Sunday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said.

The party's offices have also been attacked in other cities.

ASSURANCES

One politician said the scale of the crisis could push opponents towards a deal to avoid a further escalation. Mursi's opponents have called for a big demonstration on Tuesday.

"I am very cautiously optimistic because the consequences are quite, quite serious, the most serious they have been since the revolution," said Mona Makram Ebeid, former member of parliament and prominent figure in Egyptian politics.

Mursi's office repeated assurances that the steps would be temporary, and said he wanted dialogue with political groups to find "common ground" over what should go into the constitution.

Talks with Mursi have been rejected by members of a National Salvation Front, a new opposition coalition that brings together liberal, leftist and other politicians and parties, who until Mursi's decree had been a fractious bunch struggling to unite.

"There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday. He has said he expected to act as the Front's coordinator.

The military has stayed out of the crisis after leading Egypt through a messy 16-month transition to a presidential election in June. Analysts say Mursi neutralised the army when he sacked top generals in August, appointing a new generation who now owe their advancement to the Islamist president.

Though the military still wields influence through business interests and a security role, it is out of frontline politics.

Egypt had hoped to stop the economic rot by signing an initial deal last week for a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. As well as tumbling share prices, yields at a Sunday treasury bill auction rose, putting even more pressure on the government that faces a crushing budget deficit.

"We are back to square one, politically, socially," said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities, an Egyptian brokerage firm.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Patrick Werr and Marwa Awad in Cairo; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood)

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Syria warplanes hit village near Turkey

ATME, Syria: A Syrian warplane bombarded the village of Atme near the northwestern border with Turkey on Monday, prompting hundreds of panicked residents to flee, an AFP journalist said.

The fighter jet overflew Atme three times at a low altitude and dropped at least six bombs or rockets into populated areas near a school that houses a rebel command centre, without causing any casualties, witnesses said.

The journalist observed six points of impact on three houses, a garden and a road. Residents spoke of three bombs while others said rockets caused the damage.

The rebel command centre, which also houses the Damascus Eagles brigade of the Free Syrian Army, was not affected.

A warplane again bombed the area of Atme and the nearby border crossing of Bab al-Hawa at 3:00pm (1300 GMT). The jet made four sorties, bombing twice, each time using decoys first to avoid possible anti-aircraft fire.

Two plumes of smoke rose over the hills around Bab al-Hawa, the reporter said.

With each overflight, the aircraft verged on Turkish airspace. People familiar with the terrain claimed it had briefly crossed into Turkey, from where the hum of high altitude jets could be heard.

"The MIG flew very low. It made three passes," according to Mahmud, the owner of one of the damaged houses.

One of the missiles plummeted into his garden, leaving a large crater in the ground, shattering windows and scattering furniture.

"The whole family was in the house. Thank God, nobody was hurt," he told AFP.

"This is what Bashar (al-Assad) sent us to solve the problems of Syria. And thanks to (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan for this no-fly zone," he said sarcastically, referring to the Syrian president and the Turkish prime minister.

The village of Atme, just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border, was once home to 7,000 people.

Ongoing violence has forced many to seek shelter in a refugee camp in nearby Qaa village, or even in makeshift camps in the surrounding olive groves.

The bombing did not hit the camps but caused a mass panic among the refugees, hundreds of whom climbed over barbed wire fences for safety in neighbouring Turkey.

"The Turkish border guards fired in the air, but it was useless. Hundreds of families, with bundles on their heads, entered Turkey," said a witness.

By the late afternoon, the guards ordered the refugees to return back the way they came. With no alternative, most returned to the muddy, cold and unhygienic tents on the other side.

The region in Idlib province is a hub for the rebellion and Atme and its environs in particular are home to numerous rebel groups.

- AFP/fa

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Manmohan Singh unveils direct cash transfer scheme for subsidies

NEW DELHI: In a landmark step, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday announced the much-awaited direct cash transfer scheme wherein the subsidy amount will go directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

The government will implement the scheme for cash transfer to the beneficiary's account in 51 districts from January 1, 2013.

Manmohan Singh chaired the first meeting of the National Committee on Direct Transfers and asked ministries "to work in right earnest" for implementation of this pioneering initiative.

"They will need to digitize their databases, most of which are with the states, and seed them with Aadhaar numbers. You will be provided help by both the Unique Identification Authority and the IT ministry. But, you will in turn need to assist the states," he said in his closing remarks.

"Direct cash transfers, which are now becoming possible through the innovative use of technology and the spread of modern banking across the country, open the doors for eliminating waste, cutting down leakages and targeting beneficiaries better."

"We have a chance to ensure that every rupee spent by the government is spent truly well and goes to those who truly deserve it," he added.

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Cracks in the Conservative Armor?

So much for pledges?

As lawmakers return to Washington today, the deadline to put on the brakes before the country plunges off the fiscal cliff is now in sight, and it appears that both sides are open to some wheeling and dealing.
For Republicans, that may mean breaking a promise many of them made not to raise taxes.

"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday in a "This Week" interview. "Republicans should put revenue on the table."

Infographic: What to Know About the "Fiscal Cliff"

But for Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, the spirit of the pledge seems as alive as ever even as GOP lawmakers like Graham publicly contemplate defecting.

"What the pledge does of course is allows elected officials to make it clear openly to their voters where they stand," Norquist said in an interview with ABC's David Kerley. "Are they going to be with reforming government or raising taxes to continue more of the same?"

Peter Foley/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

Norquist is casting the pledge as lawmakers' "commitment to their constituents" -- rather than to him -- and he told ABC News over the weekend that the hundreds who have signed it "are largely keeping it."

But other prominent Republicans are joining Graham, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who signaled his openness to re-thinking the pledge yesterday on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"The world is changed and the economic situation is different," King said.

Watch: Nancy Pelosi on the status of the fiscal cliff

Of course, Graham on "This Week" and other GOP members of Congress who appeared on the Sunday talk shows qualified their support for raising revenue on not raising tax rates but rather on capping certain deductions.

And for all the talk of taxes, there's another elephant in the room that gets a lot less attention: Entitlement reform.

"I will violate the pledge -- long story short -- for the good of the country only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.

Also appearing on "This Week," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., acknowledged that "meaningful reforms" for Medicare should be on the table.

"Only 12 years of solvency lie ahead if we do nothing," Durbin said. "So those who say don't touch it, don't change it are ignoring the obvious."

But how many other Democrats are going to be willing to see serious reform as part of the discussion?

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