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MUNICH (Reuters) - Syria's opposition leader flew back to his Cairo headquarters from Germany on Sunday to explain to skeptical allies his decision to talk with President Bashar al-Assad's main backers Russia and Iran, in hope of a breakthrough in the crisis.
The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, and U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, portrayed Syrian National Coalition leader Moaz Alkhatib's new willingness to talk with the Assad regime as a major step towards resolving the two-year-old war.
"If we want to stop the bloodshed we cannot continue putting the blame on one side or the other," Iran's Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday, welcoming Alkhatib's overtures and adding that he was ready to keep talking to the opposition. Iran is Assad's main military backer together with Russia.
"This is a very important step. Especially because the coalition was created on the basis of categorical rejection of any talks with the regime," Lavrov was quoted as saying on Sunday by Russia's Itar Tass news agency.
Russia has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing Assad out or pressuring him to end a civil war in which more than 60,000 people have died. But Moscow has also tried to distance itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.
Syrian state media said Assad received a senior Iranian official and told him Syria could withstand "threats ... and aggression" like an air attack on a military base last week, which Damascus has blamed on Israel.
"USELESS" TALKING TO IRAN
Politicians from the United States, Europe and the Middle East at the Munich Security Conference praised Alkhatib's "courage". But the moderate Islamist preacher was likely to face sharp criticism from the exiled leadership back in Cairo.
Alkhatib has put his leadership on the line by saying he would be willing to talk to representatives of the Assad regime on condition they release 150,000 prisoners and issue passports to the tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled to neighboring countries but do not have documents.
"He has a created a political firestorm. Meeting the Iranian foreign minister was totally unnecessary because it is useless. Iran backs Assad to the hilt and he might as well have met with the Syrian foreign minister," said one of Alkhatib's colleagues on the 12-member politburo of the Syrian National Coalition.
Alkhatib, whose family are custodians of the Umayyad Mosque in the historic centre of Damascus, is seen as a bulwark against Salafist forces who are a main player in the armed opposition.
He was chosen as the head of the Coalition in Qatar last year, with crucial backing from the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Syrian opposition member, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to comments by Salehi and Lavrov on Sunday, a day after their meetings with Alkhatib, as evidence that they had not changed their positions and still backed Assad.
Salehi told the Munich conference where the round of talks took place that the solution was to hold elections in Syria - making no mention of Assad having to leave the country.
FIZZLE OUT?
Firm opposition backers like Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani and U.S. Republican Senator John McCain voiced frustration in Munich at the international community's reluctance to intervene in the Syrian conflict.
"We consider the U.N. Security Council directly responsible for the continuing tragedy of the Syrian people, the thousands of lives that were lost, the blood that was spilled and is still flowing at the hands of the regime's forces," said al-Thani.
Moscow played down the significance of the discussions in Munich, with one diplomatic source calling the talks between Lavrov and Alkhatib "simply routine meetings".
"We have presented our views when Minister Lavrov meet Alkhatib, we have noted his comments that there is still a chance for dialogue with Syrian government. That is something we have called for," said the Russian source.
"To what extent is that realistic, that's a different matter and there are doubts about that," said the source.
One source in Khatib's delegation said the offer of dialogue would find an echo among Syrians opposed to Assad who have not taken up arms "and want to get rid of him with the minimum bloodshed".
Fawaz Tello, a veteran Syrian opposition campaigner based in Berlin, said Alkhatib had made "a calculated political manoeuvre to embarrass Assad".
"But it is an incomplete initiative and it will probably fizzle out," Tello told Reuters. "The Assad regime cannot implement any item in the series of initiatives we have seen lately because it would simply fall."
Russia and Iran were already beginning to use Alkhatib's initiative negatively, he said, while "the regime and its allies will only treat Alkhatib's meetings as an additional opportunity to smash the rebellion or weaken it".
Asked about the risk of his strategy being seen as a sign of weakness in the opposition or frustration at the Free Syrian Army's gains, Alkhatib told Reuters in Munich: "The fighters have high morale and they are making daily advances."
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Munich and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Andrew Roche)
PARIS: Andre Cassagnes, the French inventor of the Etch A Sketch, a toy beloved of children around the world, has died at the age of 86.
His death in France in mid-January was announced by the Ohio Art Company which has been making the Etch a Sketch since 1960, according to media reports.
The Etch A Sketch, a grey screen with bold red frame, allows children to draw a picture using a stylus and then erase it with the turn of two buttons.
It has sold more than 100 million copies around the world.
- AFP/ck
KATHMANDU: A bandh was observed today in Nepal's southeastern city of Biratnagar to protest the killing of a prominent Nepalese businessman who was found murdered in India after being kidnapped for ransom.
Gangabisan Rathi, a 69-year-old businessman from Nepal's Biratnagar, was abducted for ransom by Chandra Kumar Chudal, chief of Shiva Sena Nepal, and two other accomplices Surendra Kumar Mishra and Abhijit Basu from West Bengal.
Highly decomposed bodies of Rathi, who had gone missing since January 11, and Chudal were found yesterday in a gorge at Rung Tung near Sukna in the Kurseong sub-division, three weeks after the abduction.
Rathi had gone to Siliguri on January 10 with Chudal and had been missing from the next day.
The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has expressed concern over the murder of Rathi, a Morang district chairman of Nepal-India Friendship Association.
In a press statement, the apex body of the business community condoled the death of Rathi.
The federation also called on the concerned authorities to take necessary steps to guarantee security of Nepali citizens in the border areas. It said that Nepali and Indian security forces need to increase cooperation to check increase in criminal activities along the porous Nepal-India border.
Businesses in Biratnagar closed down their shutters to protest businessman Rathi's murder today. The closure of the businesses was called by Morang Commerce Association.
According to Rathi's family members, they had paid Rs 5 million to the abductors for the release of Rathi against Rs 20 million asked by them.
They could not get Rathi alive despite paying the ransom amount, the family sources said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.
For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.
Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.
The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.
Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.
"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.
Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.
The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.
The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.
"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.
Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.
The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.
Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.
Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.
"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.
The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.
A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.
___
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A man is under arrest in connection with the killing of former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle, the most deadly sniper in U.S. history, and another man at an Erath County, Texas, gun range, police said.
"We have lost more than we can replace. Chris was a patriot, a great father, and a true supporter of this country and its ideals. This is a tragedy for all of us. I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to his wife and two children," "American Sniper" co-author Scott McEwen said in a statement to ABC News.
ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Kyle and a neighbor of his were shot while helping a soldier who is recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome at a gun range in Glen Rose.
The suspect, identified as Eddie Routh, 25, was arrested in Lancaster, Texas, after a brief police chase, a Lancaster Police Department dispatcher told ABC News.
Routh was driving Kyle's truck at the time of his arrest and was held awaiting transfer to Texas Rangers, according to police.
Investigators told WFAA that Routh is a former Marine said to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Authorities identified the other man who was killed with Kyle as 35-year-old Chad Littlefield.
AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Paul Moseley
PHOTOS: Notable Deaths in 2013
Kyle, 38, served four tours in Iraq and was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation.
From 1999 to 2009, Kyle recorded more than 150 sniper kills, the most in U.S. military history.
After leaving combat duty, Kyle became chief instructor training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual. He left the Navy in 2009.
"American Sniper," which was published last year in 2012, became a New York Times best seller.
Kyle was also an advocate for his fellow service members suffering from PTSD, creating a foundation to help with their treatment.
Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares, the non-profit foundation Kyle established, said Kyle's wife Taya and their children "lost a dedicated father and husband" and the country has lost a "lifelong patriot and an American hero."
"Chris Kyle was a hero for his courageous efforts protecting our country as a U.S. Navy SEAL during four tours of combat. Moreover, he was a hero for his efforts stateside when he helped develop the FITCO Cares Foundation. What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an organization that will carry that torch proudly in his honor," Cox said in a statement.
The fatal shooting comes after week filled with gun-related incidents, as the national debate heats up on what to do about gun violence.
In the past week, a teen who participated in President Obama's inaugural festivities was shot to death in Chicago, a bus driver was fatally shot and a 5-year-old was taken hostage in Alabama, and a Texas prosecutor was gunned down outside a courthouse.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish leftist group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy and accused Washington of using Turkey as its "slave", according to a statement posted on the internet.
The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C) said it carried out Friday's attack, in which a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at the embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a Turkish security guard.
In a statement on "The People's Cry" website, the DHKP-C, which is listed as terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, warned Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan he too was a target.
"Murderer America! You will not run away from people's rage," the statement said, next to a picture of the bomber, named as Alisan Sanli, wearing a black beret and military-style clothes and with an explosives belt around his waist.
Erdogan, who said hours after the attack that the DHKP-C were responsible, met with his interior and foreign ministers as well as the head of the army and state security service in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss the bombing.
Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the attacker had served time in jail on domestic terrorism charges in Turkey in the past, re-entered the country using false documents and was wanted by the authorities.
"(The bomber) was demanding to pass through the guest and staff gate of the U.S. embassy using a fake ID when he detonated the explosives," the provincial governor's office in Ankara said in a statement.
It said he had also detonated a hand grenade.
The White House condemned the bombing as an "act of terror", while the U.N. Security Council described it as a heinous act.
U.S. officials said the DHKP-C were the main suspects in Friday's bombing but did not exclude other possibilities.
Islamist radicals, extreme left-wing groups, ultra-nationalists and Kurdish militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.
U.S. PATRIOT MISSILES
The DHKP-C, formed in 1978, is virulently anti-American.
It called on Washington to remove Patriot missiles, due to go operational on Monday as part of a NATO defense system, from Turkish soil. The missiles are being deployed alongside systems from Germany and the Netherlands to guard NATO-member Turkey against a spillover of the war in neighboring Syria.
"Our action is for the independence of our country, which has become a new slave of America," the statement said.
Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism and has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the civil war in Syria.
It was the second attack on a U.S. mission in four months. On September 11, 2012, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three American personnel were killed in an Islamist militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The DHKP-C was responsible for the assassination of two U.S. military contractors in the early 1990s in protest against the first Gulf War and launched rockets at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in 1992, according to the U.S. State Department.
It has been blamed for previous suicide attacks, including one in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square, and has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.
Friday's attack may have come in retaliation for an operation against the DHKP-C last month in which Turkish police detained 85 people. A court subsequently remanded 38 of them in custody over links to the group.
(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Andrew Roche)
DUBAI: Stephen Gallacher fired two eagles on the back nine in a remarkable bogey-free round of 10-under par 62 to take a three-shot lead into the final day of the $2.5 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Gallacher, nephew of the former European Ryder Cup captain Bernard, rattled the pin with his second shot on the par-5 13th and then holed his bunker shot on the 18th from 30 yards.
That, along with six other birdies, helped him reach 21-under par 195 after three rounds.
The 195 total of the 38-year-old Scotsman was one better than the tournament record of 20-under par set by Tiger Woods during his first visit to the UAE in 2001.
The lowest winning total in the tournament is 22-under par by Thomas Bjorn that same year.
South Africa's Richard Sterne, leader after the first two days at 12-under par, added a solid third round of six-under par 66, but could only watch in astonishment as Gallacher sped past him.
Two shots behind Sterne's 198 was rising Danish star Thorbjorn Olesen (67), while Chile's Felipe Aguilar (66) and India's Jeev Milkha Singh (67) were tied for the fourth place at 14-under par 202.
World No8 Lee Westwood made a charge with a 66 that moved him to ninth place at 204, nine shots behind the leader, while No14 Sergio Garcia could only add a 71 to tie for 19th place at 206.
Defending champion Rafael Cabrera-Bello shot a third successive round of 69.
Gallacher, who shot a 63 on the opening day and has finished second and 10th the previous two years in the tournament, said: "I just think I've played this golf course a lot of times.
"I've come out on holiday here and I am quite familiar with the course. I came here over Christmas and a couple days earlier before the start of the season.
"You know your way around here, the lines, you know where to hit it and where not to hit it. It's obviously in great condition and kind of suits my eye as well.
"I'm excited and looking forward to tomorrow. I struggled last week in Doha and found out that my driver had a hairline crack. With the new one, I'm hitting more fairways and I've putted really good. On these courses, you have got to be hitting from the fairways."
While Gallacher, ranked 111th in the world, is looking for his first win since the 2004 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, his good friend Sterne is hoping end a title drought that started in early 2009.
"I'm quite happy. The weather was a bit dodgy in the beginning, but the weather kind of came around and it wasn't too bad," said 165th-ranked Sterne.
"The conditions are pretty good. As you can see, a couple of good scores. You know, shooting 66 and I'm three behind, which unfortunately can happen in this game."
"I've given myself a chance going into tomorrow, in the last group again which will be hopefully a lot of fun and put some good scores on there and put some pressure on Stephen."
- AFP/de
Showering praise on Modi, the BJP leader said: "Modiji hamari party ke sabse kaabil aur mashhoor neta hain. Unka naam PM ke taur pe bahut munasif waqt pe liya gaya hai (Modi ji is our party's most capable and famous leader. His name for PM's post has been taken at a very appropriate time)." But he added that the "party is proud of the fact that it has a number of capable leaders who have the skill to face any type of challenge".
"Narendra Modi has emerged as a symbol of nationalism with a proven record of providing good governance and tackling terrorism and lawlessness," Naqvi said adding, "his popularity has been gradually growing outside the state and it would not be wrong to say that he has gained a countrywide appeal."
Taking a dig at Congress scion and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, Naqvi said, "Rahul said that politics cannot be practiced by 'riding the family swing and one has to delve into ground reality', but by using derogatory terms like saffron terrorism, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has branded the whole Bharatvarsh as 'terrorist'. This is perhaps not his personal view but that of the entire Congress party and Sonia Gandhi."
Sharing his experience with TOI, an elated Naqvi said, "For me both Prayag and Ganga are no strangers and Kumbh Mela is the biggest religious congregation. But this time after talking to a cross-section of people and meeting saints, I feel that a new course for the political destiny of the country would be charted out during the Kumbh Mela. Issues like corruption and price rise would usher in a new revolution in the political arena."
The Kumbh snan of Naqvi assumes significance in the light of the fact that AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi was here recently to oversee arrangements for the expected visit of Congress president and vice-president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively.
Congress secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi was also in the Kumbh Mela area on Saturday to make arrangements for the visit of the two Congress biggies, which may take place anytime between February 5 to 9 this year, said a party source.
Though former BJP state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi and Charkhari MLA Uma Bharati have taken a plunge in the Sangam, many senior leaders from the saffron party, including party ideologue Govindacharya, Kalraj Mishra and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, have visited the Kumbh Mela but it is not confirmed whether they took a dip or not, said senior party leader Yogesh Shukla.
Exuding confidence of forging new alliances and advancement of Lok Sabha poll dates coinciding with elections in some states by the end of 2013, Naqvi, who was accompanied by his wife Seema, also went to the camp of Peethadheeshwar of Juna Akhara Swami Avadheshanand Saraswati where he stayed for an hour. He also visited the camp of Shankaracharya of Jyotish Peeth (Badrinath) Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati where he spent half an hour.
On being asked about the specific details of the visit, he said: "The two saints are disenchanted with the state of affairs in the country and shocked at the use of statements like 'saffron terrorism'."
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
After a week of speculation over the authenticity of claims by President Obama that he regularly participated in skeet shooting at Camp David, the White House released a photograph today showing him firing a shotgun.
The photo shows Obama targeting clay pigeons at the presidential retreat last August, according to the White House. In an interview published Sunday the president said he shoots skeet “all the time” during stays at the compound. The comment was a response to a question of whether he had ever held a gun.
“Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake,” he said.
READ: Skeet-Shooter Obama Has ‘Respect’ for Hunters
But amid a White House-backed push for stronger gun-control in the U.S., some questioned whether the claim was an embellishment or even true. Politicians who regularly use firearms often advertise the fact to gun owners, but ABC News has not found a quote from Obama referencing his own use before the statement on Sunday.
“If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this?” asked Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “Why have we not seen photos? Why has he not referenced it at any point in time as we have had this gun debate that is ongoing?”
PHOTOS: From 2009 to Now: Obama Since His First Inauguration
Appearing on CNN this week, the congresswoman challenged Obama to a skeet shooting contest.
The Associated Press reported in 2010 a second-hand reference to the activity. After a visit with the Texas Christian University rifle team, a student reportedly told the AP that Obama told him he practiced shooting with the Secret Service.
This the only known image of Obama holding a gun.
Asked Monday about the president’s interview, Press Secretary Jay Carney responded to reporters about how often the president participates in shooting.
“I would refer you simply to his comments,” he said. “I don’t know how often. He does go to Camp David with some regularity, but I’m not sure how often he’s done that.”"
On Wednesday, Carney addressed the issue again, telling press that when the president travels to “Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs.”
White House officials and some Obama supporters have compared skeet-doubters to “skeeters” or “birthers,” the label fixed to those who deny Obama was born on U.S. soil in his home state of Hawaii, and therefore is ineligible for the Oval Office.
“Attn skeet birthers. Make our day — let the photoshop conspiracies begin!” senior adviser David Plouffe wrote on Twitter this morning, referencing the popular photo-editing software.
In January, Obama signed several executive orders strengthening gun regulation and revealed proposals that, if enacted, would include bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. The move began in response to the December mass-shooting of 20 first graders and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.
INFOGRAPHIC: Guns in America: By The Numbers
A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll released found 53 percent of Americans viewed Obama’s gun control plan favorably, 41 percent unfavorably.
The photo’s release comes two days before Obama travels to Minneapolis for a speech continuing his push for tougher gun control, where he is expected to appear alongside local law enforcement officials.
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