Namdhari fired at Ponty Chadha's brother Hardeep: Police

NEW DELHI: The police on Saturday told the court that sacked Uttarakhand Minorities Commission chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari had fired at Ponty Chadha's brother Hardeep.

Namdhari was the main conspirator in the shootout, the police said. He has been charged with attempt to murder.

Namdhari has been sent to 5 days' police custody by the court in connection with the November 17 shootout case.

In a sudden turn of events in the Ponty-Hardeep Chadha shootout case, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari was arrested on Friday from his Bajpur home in Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand.

Namdhari carried a licensed pistol with him when the shootout occurred. He had rushed Ponty to the hospital and had also given a statement ; but after that he was not in touch with the cops.

Udham Singh Nagar SSP Anant Shanker Takwale said Namdhari, who was untraceable ever since he was sacked as chairman of Uttarakhand Minorities Commission, was arrested around 11am by a six-member team of Delhi Police.

Police said Namdhari came in contact with the Chadha brothers with the help of Uttarakhand BJP leaders such as Kashipur MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema and Congress MLA from Kapurthala Rana Gurjeet Singh. A senior Uttarakhand IPS officer said soon after he came in contact with the Chadha brothers, he managed to become a partner in their booming real estate and stone quarrying business.

Bansal also said that of the 14 cases of heinous crimes, including murder, dacoity and kidnapping, registered against Namdhari in Uttarakhand since 1995, he had been acquitted in 12 cases while two cases are still on against him. These two cases belong to Udham Singh Nagar district.

(Inputs from PTI)

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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'Dallas' Star Larry Hagman Dead at 81













Larry Hagman, who emerged in the 1960s as the slightly befuddled astronaut in "I Dream of Jeannie," then became a major star in the 1980s primetime soap "Dallas," playing evil oil baron J.R. Ewing, has died. He was 81.


Hagman's cause of death was due to complications related to his battle with cancer according to his family.


Linda Gray, who played Hagman's on-screen wife on "Dallas" was at the actor's bedside when he died.


"He brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented, and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest," Gray said in a statement released through her publicist.


Warner Bros."Dallas" executive producers Cynthia Cidre and Michael M. Robin, and the show's cast and crew released the following statement today: "Larry Hagman was a giant, a larger-than-life personality whose iconic performance as J.R. Ewing will endure as one of the most indelible in entertainment history. He truly loved portraying this globally recognized character, and he leaves a legacy of entertainment, generosity and grace. Everyone at Warner Bros. and in the "Dallas" family is deeply saddened by Larry's passing, and our thoughts are with his family and dear friends during this difficult time."


Hagman inherited the acting gene from his mother, Broadway musical legend Mary Martin. He'd had roles in television programs 20 years prior to "Dallas," including "I Dream of Jeannie" from 1965-70.


"Dallas," which debuted in 1978 on CBS and had an astonishing 13-year run, centered on the Ewings, a family of Texas oil barons who had money, cattle, and more scandals and power struggles than the Kardashians.






AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman













Gary Clark Jr. Performs 'Things Are Changin'' Live Watch Video







The original strategy behind "Dallas" was to focus on the newly-married Bobby and Pam Ewing. But Hagman made his role more than the producers had intended, and he quickly became the focus of the program.


When TNT revived the program earlier this year, he was the undisputed power villain.


"All of us at TNT are deeply saddened at the news of Larry Hagman's passing. He was a wonderful human being and an extremely gifted actor," TNT officials said in a statement. "We will be forever thankful that a whole new generation of people got to know and appreciate Larry through his performance as J.R. Ewing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very difficult time.


VIEW: "Dallas" Then and Now


But though he may be best known as a villain, Hagman used his fame to try to give back.


In addition to actively supporting charities like the National Kidney Foundation and, in what might seem an irony, efforts to develop solar power, Hagman just last month announced the formation The Larry Hagman Foundation, to fund education programs promoting the fine arts and creative learning opportunities for economically disadvantaged children in Dallas.


Hagman began his acting career in the late 1950s, but it wasn't until "I Dream of Jeannie" premiered in 1965 that he found himself a star. He played Anthony Nelson, an astronaut who during a mission finds an unusual bottle, and when he opens it, out pops a genie named Jeannie -- Barbara Eden.


Through the series' five-year run, Jeannie found new ways to make Hagman's life difficult, as she tried to serve her "master."


Though Hagman continued to work regularly after "I Dream of Jeannie" ended in 1970, it wasn't until "Dallas" hit the air in 1978, that he again struck a chord with audiences.


The show was originally only supposed to be a five-episode miniseries, but the show caught on so quickly, that it was extended and eventually became a series that would become the highest rated TV show of all time.


Unlike many TV stars, who find themselves playing variations on the same character over and over, the Hagman viewers saw in J.R. Ewing was worlds away from Major Nelson.


While the astronaut was always at wits end, trying to keep Jeannie a secret and trying to prove to the base psychiatrist that he was sane, Ewing was a man who seemed completely in control of his world, wheeling and dealing, backstabbing and cheating on his wife.



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Gaza ceasefire holds but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held firm on Thursday with scenes of joy among the ruins in Gaza over what Palestinians hailed as a victory, and both sides saying their fingers were still on the trigger.


In the sudden calm, Palestinians who had been under Israeli bombs for eight days poured into Gaza streets for a celebratory rally, walking past wrecked houses and government buildings.


But as a precaution, schools stayed closed in southern Israel, where nerves were jangled by warning sirens - a false alarm, the army said - after a constant rain of rockets during the most serious Israeli-Palestinian fighting in four years.


Israel had launched its strikes last week with a declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its territory from Gaza, ruled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which denies Israel's right to exist. Hamas had responded with more rockets.


The truce brokered by Egypt's new Islamist leaders, working with the United States, headed off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.


It was the fruit of intensive diplomacy spurred by U.S. President Barack Obama, who sent his secretary of state to Cairo and backed her up with phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.


Mursi's role in cajoling his Islamist soulmates in Gaza into the U.S.-backed deal with Israel suggested that Washington can find ways to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood leader whom Egyptians elected after toppling former U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, a bulwark of American policy in the Middle East for 30 years.


Mursi, preoccupied with Egypt's economic crisis, cannot afford to tamper with a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, despite its unpopularity with Egyptians, and needs U.S. financial aid.


MORE DEATHS


Despite the quiet on the battlefield, the death toll from the Gaza conflict crept up on both sides.


The body of Mohammed al-Dalu, 25, was recovered from the rubble of a house where nine of his relatives - four children and five women - were killed by an Israeli bomb this week.


That raised to 163 the number of Palestinians killed, more than half of them civilians, including 37 children, during the Israeli onslaught, according to Gaza medical officials.


Nearly 1,400 rockets struck Israel, killing four civilians and two soldiers, including an officer who died on Thursday of wounds sustained the day before, the Israeli army said.


Israel dropped 1,000 times as much explosive on the Gaza Strip as landed on its soil, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.


Municipal workers in Gaza began cleaning streets and removing the rubble of bombed buildings. Stores opened and people flocked to markets to buy food.


Jubilant crowds celebrated, with most people waving green Hamas flags but some carrying the yellow emblems of the rival Fatah group, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.


That marked a rare show of unity five years after Hamas, which won a Palestinian poll in 2006, forcibly wrested Gaza from Fatah, still dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.


Israel began ferrying tanks northwards, away from the border, on transporters. It plans to discharge gradually tens of thousands of reservists called up for a possible Gaza invasion.


But trust between Israel and Hamas remains in short supply and both said they might well have to fight again.


"The battle with the enemy has not ended yet," Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said at an event to mourn its acting military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari, whose killing by Israel on November 14 set off this round.


"HANDS ON TRIGGER"


The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said in Cairo his Islamist movement would respect the truce, but warned that if Israel violated it "our hands are on the trigger".


Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told Israelis a tougher approach might be required in the future.


Facing a national election in two months, he swiftly came under fire from opposition politicians who had rallied to his side during the fighting but now contend he emerged from the conflict with no real gains for Israel.


"You don't settle with terrorism, you defeat it. And unfortunately, a decisive victory has not been achieved and we did not recharge our deterrence," Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition Kadima party, wrote on his Facebook page.


In a speech, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, urged all Palestinian factions to respect the ceasefire and said his government and security services would monitor compliance.


According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.


The deal also provides for easing Israeli curbs on Gaza's residents, but the two sides disagreed on what this meant.


Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas won a Palestinian election in 2006, but Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings with Israel and Egypt.


Israel let dozens of trucks carry supplies into the Palestinian enclave during the fighting. Residents there have long complained that Israeli restrictions blight their economy.


Barak said Hamas, which declared November 22 a national holiday to mark its "victory", had suffered heavy military blows.


"A large part of the mid-range rockets were destroyed. Hamas managed to hit Israel's built-up areas with around a metric tone of explosives, and Gaza targets got around 1,000 metric tonnes," he said.


He dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas, saying: "The right to self-defense trumps any piece of paper."


He appeared to confirm, however, a Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier that the army says has prevented Hamas raids.


(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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Singapore's Chinese TV dramas well-received in Indonesia






JAKARTA : Singapore's Chinese TV dramas are being well-received in Indonesia - a country where many people do not speak the language.

More than half a million households subscribe to MediaCorp's Channel 8i, carried by Indonesia's top pay-TV operator IndoVision.

That makes up almost a third of its subscriber base, which is the largest in Indonesia.

Some TV stars such as Jeanette Aw and Tay Ping Hui descended on Jakarta to meet fans and celebrate Channel 8i's first anniversary.

Actress Jeanette Aw said: "It is very rare we get to go and meet the fans from overseas, especially when our dramas are being shown over there...It makes me feel that all my hard work was worth it, especially when it has gone beyond the shores of Singapore."

Actor Tay Ping Hui commented: "In Singapore, we have our Malay friends and our Indian friends and they actually watch our shows. I am really glad that the crowd in Indonesia likes us."

To date, more than half a million households in Indonesia are paying to watch Singapore's Chinese dramas on IndoVision - Indonesia's top pay-TV operator.

Rudy Tanoesoedibjo, CEO of PT MNC Sky Vision, said: "This is half a million homes - not including hotels, apartments and commercial places. So 8i is seen by so many millions of eyeballs."

8i is IndoVision's first all-Chinese drama channel that runs 24 hours a day.

Mr Rudy said: "We will be launching the pay-per-view very soon. And we would like MediaCorp to take part in it by giving us the best and latest content."

Buoyed by its success in Indonesia, MediaCorp is looking at bringing 8i to other countries in the region.

Chang Long Jong, Deputy CEO of MediaCorp, said: "Immediately, we are looking at our other regional markets in ASEAN. For example, markets like Thailand, Vietnam, even Myanmar."

Obviously, it is the universal appeal of drama that has and will continue to draw viewers, regardless of language or nationality. And that has been the main ingredient of MediaCorp's success.

Familiarity was one other reasons cited for Channel 8i's success in Indonesia. Tens of thousands of Indonesians visit Singapore regularly. Nationals from Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar have also made Singapore one of their favourite destinations, and they too love TV dramas.

- CNA/ms



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EC sometimes takes decisions in over-anxiety: SC

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has done good work in recent years but sometimes it takes decisions in over-anxiety, the Supreme Court today said while referring to poll watchdog's order on cash seizure above Rs 2.5 lakh in transit ahead of Gujarat assembly elections.

"It has done good work in the last few years and we must appreciate it. We must give credit to you for this but sometimes you do something in over-anxiety," a bench headed by Justice D K Jain said.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Election Commission challenging order of Gujarat High Court which had quashed it's orders for cash seizure above Rs 2.5 lakh saying that it was unconstitutional.

The bench, however, did not pass any order and adjourned the hearing for Monday.

The High Court, on a PIL filed by Bhagyoday Jan Parishad and Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had on November 9 said that EC's directive to randomly search and seize 'in-transit' cash above Rs 2.5 lakh in poll-bound Gujarat was "unconstitutional" and directed it to immediately stop such operations.

"The instructions by the EC which empower its officers to randomly search any vehicle and seize cash above Rs 2.5 lakh is ultra vires (beyond powers) being violative of Article 21 of the Constitution, and also beyond the powers conferred on the EC," the High Court had said.

"We direct the EC that (such) instructions shall not be implemented and there shall not be any indiscriminate or random search or seizure of any vehicle, unless there is any reliable or credible information with the EC," it had said.

The Election Commission directive, dated October 3, followed announcement of the state Assembly elections.

EC had deployed 587 static surveillance teams (SSTs) and 182 flying squads in the state, which have so far seized Rs 22.56 crore of unaccounted money, of which Rs 22.20 crore was handed over to the Income Tax department.

The search and seizure drive had caused a lot of resentment in the business community.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

Shoppers Descend on Black Friday Deals













HERE for Full Coverage of Black Friday


"I'm here because my mom is making me, because she said I couldn't eat any of the Thanksgiving food if I didn't hold her place in line," Alex Horton told ABC News station WLS-TV in Chicago Thursday.


Many critics panned the early start this year, saying it cuts into quality time that should be spent with family and friends.


Chicago resident Claudia Fonseca got creative and took Thanksgiving to go.


"We brought a plate, but that's about it, we've been here since 11 a.m. And that's it," Fonseca told WLS Thursday.


Black Friday makes headlines every year, but not always for the right reason as violence has become linked to the day after Thanksgiving tradition.






Bloomberg via Getty Images













4 Steps to Get the Best Holiday Shopping Deals Watch Video







In Los Angeles, police aren't taking any chances with the LAPD deploying dozens of extra officers around the city to make sure things don't get out of hand.


Ontario Mills shopping mall in Los Angeles opened at midnight last year, but decided to give excited shoppers a two-hour head start to get their hands on the cut-rate deals, especially for electronics.


"This is my first year," Gabriela Mendoza told ABC News station KABC-TV Thursday. "I tried to stay away from this but I've heard it's really exciting so, I'm looking forward to it."


Things have been relatively calmer compared to the incident last year when a woman was accused of unleashing pepper spray on other shoppers in a dash for electronics at Walmart in Los Angeles.


The Black Friday madness kicked off Thursday when a south Sacramento, Calif., Kmart opened its doors at 6 a.m. Thursday. A shopper in a line of people that had formed nearly two hours earlier reportedly threatened to stab the people around him.


At two Kmarts in Indianapolis, police officers were called in after fights broke out among shoppers trying to score vouchers for a 32-inch plasma TV going for less than $200, police told ABC News affiliate RTV6. No injuries or arrest were made.


Stores have taken preventive measures in hopes of shoppers and tempers at ease, where safety is the main concern for everyone involved.


Mall of America has tightened its Black Friday policies and will bar unaccompanied minors from the megamall all day today. After a chair-throwing melee last year after Christmas, which was captured on smartphones and posted online, the mall is taking steps to prevent any repeat.


At the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., security planned to place barricades at the mall entrance to control the crowds and officials planned to double the number of security officers.


ABC News' John Schriffen and Sarah Netter contributed to this report.



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Gaza ceasefire takes hold but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last.


Quiet reigned on both sides of the frontier overnight and during the morning after a dozen rockets landed in Israel in the initial hours after the truce came into force late on Wednesday. Israeli police said there had been no casualties or damage.


The deal brokered by Egypt's new Islamist government, working with the United States, prevented - at least for the moment - an Israeli invasion of the Palestinian enclave.


Gaza medical officials said 162 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, including 37 children and 11 women, were killed. Nearly 1,400 rockets were fired into Israel, killing four civilians and a soldier, the Israeli military said.


Israel's defense minister said Israel dropped 1,000 times as much explosive on the Gaza Strip as had landed in Israel.


Municipal workers in Gaza began cleaning streets and removing the rubble of buildings bombed in Israel's air strikes. Stores opened and people flocked to markets to buy food.


"Israel learnt a lesson it will never forget," said 51-year-old Khalil al-Rass from Beach refugee camp in the city of Gaza.


In rocket-hit towns in southern Israel, schools remained closed as a precaution. Nerves were jangled when warning sirens sounded, in what the military quickly said was a false alarm.


Trust was in short supply. The exile leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist movement would respect the truce if Israel did, but would respond to any violations. "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," he told a news conference in Cairo.


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told his people a tougher approach might be required in the future.


Facing a national election in two months, he swiftly came under fire from opposition politicians who rallied to his side during the fighting but now contend he emerged from the conflict with no real gains for Israel.


"You don't settle with terrorism, you defeat it. And unfortunately, a decisive victory has not been achieved and we did not recharge our deterrence," Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition Kadima party, wrote on his Facebook page.


BLOCKADE


If the truce holds, it will give the 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that have unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.


Both sides quickly began offering differing interpretations of the ceasefire, which highlighted the many actual or potential areas of discord.


According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.


The deal also provides for easing Israeli restrictions on Gaza's residents, who live in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called an "open prison".


The text said procedures for implementing this would be "dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire".


Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas, which preaches the Jewish state's destruction, won a Palestinian election in 2006.


However, Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings. "The document stipulates the opening of the crossings, all the crossings, and not just Rafah," he said. Israel, trying to stop Hamas arming itself, controls all entry to Gaza apart from one crossing with Egypt.


Israel let dozens of trucks carry supplies into the Palestinian enclave during the fighting. Residents there have long complained that Israeli restrictions blight their economy.


HAMAS HOLIDAY


Meshaal thanked Egypt for mediating and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms. "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure".


Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Hamas had suffered a heavy military blow, including the death of its top commander, killed in an air strike at the start of the operation on November 14 and the deal merely let Hamas surrender while saving face.


"A large part of the mid-range rockets were destroyed. Hamas managed to hit Israel's built-up areas with around a metric tonne of explosives, and Gaza targets got around 1,000 metric tonnes," Barak told Israel Radio.


"So whoever misses what is happening in Gaza does not understand that this entire agreement is a paper bridge for the defeated so that they can explain to their public how they can even show their faces after what they were hit with for a week."


Hamas declared November 22 a national holiday marking "the victory of the resistance". Its spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "Resistance has achieved and has imposed a new formula - if you hit Gaza, we will hit Tel Aviv and beyond Tel Aviv.


Some Israelis staged protests against the deal, notably in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, where three civilians were killed by a rocket from Gaza last week, army radio said.


Interviewed on Israel's Army Radio, Barak dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas as "a piece of paper which I don't remember anyone going around with - there's no signature on it".


He appeared to confirm, however, a key Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier that the army says has prevented Hamas raids:


"If there are no attacks along the border ... then I tell you that there is no problem with them working the farmland on the perimeter up to the fence," Barak said.


But should the Palestinians exploit such measures to breach the truce, Israel would be "free to act," he said, adding: "The right to self-defense trumps any piece of paper."


CAIRO


Egypt, an important U.S. ally now under Islamist leadership, took centre stage in diplomacy to halt the bloodshed. Cairo has walked a fine line between sympathies for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that produced President Mohamed Mursi and much of his government, and preserving its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its ties with Washington, its main aid donor.


Announcing the agreement in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said mediation had "resulted in understandings to cease fire, restore calm and halt the bloodshed".


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, standing beside Amr, thanked Mursi for peace efforts that showed "responsibility, leadership" in the region.


Gaza erupted in a Middle East already shaken by last year's Arab revolts that toppled several veteran U.S.-backed leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and by a civil war in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting for survival.


Israel, the United States and the European Union all classify Hamas as a terrorist organization over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Palestinian-Israeli peace deal.


But its stance is popular with many Palestinians and has kept the movement competitive with the secular Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas, who remains in the occupied West Bank after losing Gaza to Hamas in a civil war five years ago.


The ceasefire was forged despite a bus-bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Israeli air strikes that killed 10 people in Gaza. It was the first serious bombing in Israel's commercial capital since 2006. There was no claim of responsibility, though Hamas praised the attack.


Israeli forces detained 55 suspected militants in the West Bank on Thursday, the military said, citing a need to prevent "the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli communities".


(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Marwa Awad, Yasmine Saleh, Shaimaa Fayed and Tom Perry in Cairo; Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Alistair Lyon and David Stamp; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)


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Indonesian workers demand better wages, employment benefits






JAKARTA: Thousands of Indonesian workers have marched towards the Presidential Palace, demanding higher minimum pay and better employment benefits.

Nearly 20,000 police and soldiers were deployed to watch over the demonstration, organised by Indonesian labour unions.

The protest march began with the Indonesian national anthem, as disgruntled workers displayed patriotism in an ongoing struggle that has lasted for years.

Thousands of workers under the Confederation of Indonesian Workers' Union have gathered at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to conduct a long march to the Presidential Palace.

The workers blocked a stretch of road from Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the Presidential Palace about two kilometres away.

The workers support a social security law, requiring employers to pay for their health insurance.

But they are unhappy about their wages, which they say is too low... and about having to pay for a national pension fund.

They are also against a move by the Association of Entrepreneurs to contest recently a revised regulation on outsourcing at the State Administrative Court.

Said Iqbal, Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers' Union (KSPSI - Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia) said: "We've asked that outsourcing be restricted to five types of jobs. We're aware the Manpower and Transmigration minister issued a ministerial decree on outsourcing so (entrepreneurs) should not file a judicial review. If they continue with it, it will trigger a harsh reaction from their labour workers."

Under the decree, outsourcing will only be limited to cleaning services, security, driving, support services on mining sites and catering.

Companies will also be given six months to alter the status of contract workers to permanent staff.

The Jakarta governor has already agreed to increase the monthly minimum wage by over 40 percent to US$224 a month.

Analysts argue that the move could trigger inflation and discourage investment.

Businessmen say the wage hike would mean higher costs which could result in layoffs, and possibly even force some companies to close.

But protest leaders are not convinced.

Andi Gani Nena Wea, President of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers' Union (KSPSI), said: "We call on President Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono to not take this labour movement lightly as it will likely escalate if the government does not hear the majority of labour workers' aspirations."

Workers say if their demands are not met, they will hold even bigger national protests which could stall production for three consecutive days.

- CNA/de



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