NEWS,27 AND 28.05.2013

Europe needs a youth jobs plan - govts

Europe must urgently tackle youth unemployment, the French, German and Italian governments said on Tuesday, urging action to rescue an entire generation who fear they will not find jobs.
Ministers called for a mixture of measures including helping small companies and boosting apprenticeships.
Some 7.5 million Europeans aged 15-24 are neither in employment nor in education or training, according to EU data. Youth unemployment in the EU stood at 23.6% in January, more than twice as high as the adult rate.
"We have to rescue an entire generation of young people who are scared. We have the best-educated generation and we are putting them on hold. This is not acceptable," Italian Labour Minister Enrico Giovannini told a conference in Paris.
Germany in particular, weary of a backlash as many in crisis-hit European countries blame it for austerity, has over the past weeks taken steps to tackle unemployment, striking bilateral deals with Spain and Portugal.
Its labour and finance ministers told the conference that, to help young people find jobs, Europe must continue on the path of structural reforms to boost its competitiveness as well as make good use of available EU funds, including €6bn that leaders have set aside for youth employment for 2014-20.
"We need to be more successful in our fight against youth unemployment, otherwise we will lose the battle for Europe's unity," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
While Germany insists on the importance of budget consolidation, Schaeuble spoke of the need to preserve Europe's welfare model.
If US welfare standards were introduced in Europe, "we would have revolution, not tomorrow, but on the very same day," Schaeuble told students at the Sciences PO political science institute hosting the conference.
While all agreed on the urgency needed to tackle youth unemployment, ministers offered no concrete plans, insisting Europe must be pragmatic and work on various strands.
Schaeuble said this was why Germany had also decided to strike deals with countries such as Spain and Greece.
"Let's be honest, there is no quick fix, there is no grand plan," said Werner Hoyer, head the European Investment Bank.
Together with ministers, he said policies aimed at boosting youth employment must focus on small and medium-sized enterprises as they are the main entry point to the labour market for most.
More than half of Spain's under 25-year-olds are jobless, as are nearly 40% in Portugal. In Greece, youth unemployment shot to a record 64% in February.
In March 2013, the lowest youth unemployment rates were in Germany and Austria, both below 8%, highlighting the wide disparities within the EU.
The youth employment crisis will be a central theme of a June EU leaders' summit, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited EU labour ministers to a youth unemployment conference in Berlin on July 3.
Following up on an idea aired earlier this month, French President Francois Hollande urged the euro zone to work towards a joint economic government with its own budget which could take on specific projects including tackling youth unemployment.

Bashir threatens to cut South Sudan oil

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned on Monday he will order the flow of oil from South Sudan to be cut off if Juba provides assistance to rebels in South Kordofan and Darfur.
Bashir said he would "completely close the pipeline" that carries oil from South Sudan to ports on Sudan's Red Sea coast.
He was speaking at a ceremony after the army recaptured Abu Kershola town in the far north of oil-rich South Kordofan, which rebels seized a month ago.
In March Sudan and South Sudan, which split from Khartoum in July 2011, signed detailed timetables to resume the flow of South Sudan oil through a major pipeline in the north that runs to a port on the Red Sea, and eight other pacts to normalise relations.
Bashir said on Monday that all of the nine agreements must be respected.
"Failure to abide by any agreement will nullify the nine accords," he said.
Bashir's remarks come less than a month after the Khartoum government announced that South Sudanese petroleum had returned to Sudan's main Heglig facility.
Heglig, along the disputed border with South Sudan, is where the export pipeline begins a journey of about 1 500 kilometres (930 miles) to the Port Sudan terminal on the Red Sea.
The pipeline will carry oil that will bring billions of dollars in revenue to both impoverished nations once exports resume.
But Khartoum accuses South Sudan of backing rebels fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states as well as in Darfur claims which Juba denies.
Gibril Adam, a spokesperson for the rebels, said the fighters pulled out of Abu Kershola to ease a government blockade on the town that was taking its toll on residents there.

Crisis-hit Italians swap cars for bikes

Bikes are outselling cars in cash-strapped Italy, but while cyclists in Milan say their city is ready for a two-wheel lifestyle, there are daily nuisances for riders on Rome's busy streets.
Some cities in Italy have bike-sharing initiatives, bike paths and public awareness schemes, while cyclists are still barely tolerated in others.
Giulietta Pagliaccio, head of the Italian Federation of Friends of the Bicycle, said: "The economic crisis has had repercussions for everyone, including in transport.
"There's been a small revolution in terms of lifestyle.
"We have seen a lot of people who have re-discovered this means of transport because it's ease, it's simplicity, its speed for short distances... " she said.
There were 2 000 more bicycles sold than cars in Italy in 2011 - a differential that rose to more than 200 000 units last year, according to figures from an association of biking businesses and the transport ministry.
The car sector has been hit by what the head of auto giant Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, dubs "Carmageddon" - with a 20% drop in sales in 2012.
Pagliaccio said Rome was a particularly "difficult" city for cyclists and that in general conditions were worse in the southern half of the country, with poorer quality roads and few bicycle paths.
Benefits
She said mentalities were beginning to change, except for a few motor die-hards "who would drive from their bedroom to the kitchen if they could" - but that politicians remained "very behind" in terms of bike-friendly policies.
"They are afraid of losing votes.
"It's terrifying since everything is done in this perspective, without a long-term urban vision," she said.
Piero Nigrelli, head of bicycles of an association of biking businesses, said it was "breathtaking to what point politicians lack awareness of the bicycle's value".
He said Germany boasts about seven million cycling tourists a year who generate €9bn in turnover and only "a modest investment in bike paths" would be needed to bring such benefits to Italy.
In the Italian capital, those who use existing routes complain of daily trials, from junk strewn across the paths, to stretches along the riverbank which periodically flood and in one case a path blocked by a sprawling Roma camp.
Famed for its annual Giro d'Italia bike race, Italy has yet to embrace bicycles as a form of transport, though a "Bikemi" bike-sharing scheme in Milan has been enthusiastically received by locals and sales in foldable models are on the up.
Specialist shops in the economic capital have begun stocking bikes specifically designed for urban life, such as the British Brompton model, which folds up neatly and has a handle so it can be pulled along like a suitcase.
The world's oldest bicycle-making company, Bianchi, famed for kitting out biking champions such as Fausto Coppi, has branched out into electric bicycles to meet a growing demand from Italians keen to swap four wheels for two.
"Customers are asking now for high-range commuter models...they are looking for a long-term investment that supports the idea that they are turning away from the car," said Bob Ippolito, head of Bianchi.
Commuter bikes are now the company's fastest selling models - up 35% last year - which is partly because some customers "instead of having two cars, now prefer to have a car and a bicycle", he said.

Romanians protest shale gas plans

Thousands of Romanians protested on Monday against plans by the US company Chevron to explore for shale gas in eastern Romania.
"I have three children and I want them to grow up within a safe environment with clean water. Exploring for shale gas threatens to contaminate ground water," Alina Secrieru, a 39-year old nurse from the Barlad region told AFP.
"No fracking", "Chevron go home", "We say no to shale gas", read some of the banners carried by protesters who came from Barlad and surrounding villages.
Chevron obtained a vast concession in this poor and rural area of Romania to prospect for shale gas.
"This area survives on agriculture. If our water gets contaminated by the extraction of shale gas, agriculture will die and this area as well," said Constantin, a water specialist who was among the protesters.
He refused to give his last name out of fear of losing his job as most of the local politicians are now defending shale gas drilling.
Chevron has said in the past that all its activities "have, and will continue to be conducted in compliance with Romanian laws, EU requirements and stringent industry standards."
Shale gas drilling has fuelled controversy around the world.
The technique to extract the gas, hydraulic fraction or fracking, has been banned in countries such as France and Bulgaria but is widely used in some US states.
Fracking is a process whereby liquid products, including water and chemicals, are pumped deep into oil or gas-bearing rock to cause fractures and release the hydrocarbons.
Environmentalists say the method poses serious threats that include contaminating ground water and triggering earthquakes.
Romania together with Britain, Hungary, Poland and Spain strongly pleaded for developing shale energy during the last European council on energy.
Protesters lashed at centre-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta, accusing him of flip-flopping on his position against shale gas.
Ponta, in power since May 2012, had slammed the previous government's decision to grant Chevron and other oil groups concessions to prospect for shale gas.
His government last year adopted a moratorium on drilling, putting Chevron's operations on hold.
But since the moratorium expired in December, Ponta said he was in favour of exploration.
"Politicians have let us down but we want to remind them that the people in this area are against the exploration of shale gas. People here care about their environment" said Lulu Finaru, a notary who helped organise the protest.
A US Energy Information Administration study said the joint reserves for Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary were around 538 billion cubic metres (19 trillion cubic feet), among the biggest in eastern Europe.

China 'steals' Australia spy agency plans

Chinese hackers have stolen top-secret blueprints to Australia's new intelligence agency headquarters, a report said on Tuesday, but Foreign Minister Bob Carr insisted ties with Beijing would not be hurt.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the documents taken in the cyber hit included cabling layouts for the huge building's security and communications systems, its floor plan, and its server locations.

Carr said the government was "very alive" to the threat of cyber attacks on national security, adding that "nothing that is being speculated about takes us by surprise".

But he refused to confirm or deny China was behind the attack.

"I won't comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or not," he said.

"I won't comment on matters of intelligence and security for the obvious reason: We don't want to share with the world and potential aggressors what we know about what they might be doing, and how they might be doing it."

'Enormous areas of co-operation'

While Australia has a long-standing military alliance with the United States, China is its largest trading partner and the two countries have been forging closer ties.

Carr insisted that the relationship would not be damaged by the allegations, which follow several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past two years.

"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," he said. "We have enormous areas of co-operation with China."

The revelations saw Canberra came under pressure to launch an independent inquiry into the "sorry saga" by opposition politicians, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on "these unsubstantiated reports".

The state broadcaster's investigative Four Corners programme said the attack on a contractor involved with building the new Canberra headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was traced to a server in China.

It cited security experts as saying the theft exposed the agency to being spied on and may be the reason for a cost blowout and delays to the opening of the building, which was supposed to be operational last month.

Deepening concern

Des Ball, from the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said the blueprints would show which rooms were likely to be used for sensitive conversations, and how to put devices into the walls.

"Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections," he was quoted as saying.

The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.

In 2011, the computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks reportedly originating in China.

At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that government and private networks were under "continuous threat".

Beijing dismissed the allegations as "groundless and made out of ulterior purposes".

Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware searching for sensitive information.

This followed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei being barred in 2012 from bidding for contracts on Australia's ambitious $35bn broadband rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.

N Korea kidnap numbers 'much higher'

The number of Japanese people kidnapped by North Korea decades ago to train its spies may be far higher than previously thought, a report said on Tuesday, citing a former Pyongyang agent.

Between 1965 and 1985, a team of around 120 North Korean troops repeatedly abducted young Japanese fishermen, the conservative Sankei Shimbun reported, citing a government interview with a formerly high ranking North Korean military official.

One of the missions involved the snatching of a man in his 30s from a boat in waters off Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, the report said. The vessel and its remaining four crew members were sunk, it said.

The issue of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea is a running sore in relations between the two countries.

Pyongyang admitted in 2002 its agents had snatched some young Japanese in what Tokyo said was an operation to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

Following a summit between then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and Kim Jong-Il, the late North Korean leader, five of those who were taken were allowed to return to Japan, along with their Korea-born offspring.

Pyongyang insisted at the time that all the others had died.

‘Acts of terrorism’

But suspicions persist in Japan that the isolated state has not come clean about the scope of its abductions and the issue colours all of Tokyo's dealings on North Korea.

Asked about the report, Keiji Furuya, the state minister in charge of the kidnap issue, declined to comment, saying he could not give specifics about what the government discovered.

Japanese officials say they believe many of the hostages are still alive, and say the kidnapping of at least 17 nationals during the 1970s and 1980s - some of whom were as young as 13 - were "acts of terrorism"

The Sankei report on Tuesday, which did not name the defector or say where the interview with him took place, comes as Japan has struck out alone to re-engage with North Korea.

Earlier this month a top aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pyongyang in a move that appeared to take Washington and Seoul by surprise.

The US and South Korea have pushed for North Korea to re-join a six-party forum, which also involves Japan, China and Russia.

Those talks, which were derailed by nuclear and missile tests that began at the end of 2012, are aimed at curbing North Korea's atomic ambitions.

But despite the keen threat felt by Tokyo, which lies within easy reach of North Korean weaponry, the kidnapping issue trumps all others because of its domestic resonance.

Japan would not resume aid to even a completely de-fanged North Korea unless all abduction cases have been settled, Furuya said earlier this month.

NEWS,11.05.2013

Turkey car blast death toll rises to 43

The death toll of twin car bombs in a Turkish town near the Syrian border rose to 43 and wounded many more on Saturday and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement.

The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighbouring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70 000 people have been killed.

The bombs ripped into crowded streets near Reyhanli's shopping district in the early afternoon, scattering concrete blocks and smashing cars in the town in Turkey's southern Hatay province, home to thousands of Syrian refugees.

Restaurants and cafes were destroyed and body parts were strewn across the streets. The damage went at least three blocks deep from the site of the blasts.

President Bashar Assad's administration was the "usual suspect" in the attacks, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

"We know that the people taking refuge in Hatay have become targets for the Syrian regime," Arinc said in comments broadcast on Turkish television. "We think of them as the usual suspects when it comes to planning such a horrific attack."

Condemned

Another deputy prime minister, Besir Atalay, was quoted by NTV as saying initial findings suggested the attackers came from inside Turkey, but had links to Syria's intelligence agency.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Nor was there any comment from Damascus.

The United States strongly condemned the attacks and vowed support in identifying those responsible, while Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius voiced "full solidarity" with Turkey.

Nato member Turkey supports the uprising against Assad and violence has crossed the border before, but not on the same scale. The bombings were the bloodiest incident on Turkish soil since Syria's conflict began more than two years ago.

War fears

Turkey is far from alone in fearing the impact of Syria's war, which is already helping inflame the Middle East's tangle of sectarian, religious and nationalist struggles.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was no coincidence the bombings came as diplomatic moves to end the Syrian conflict intensify.

"There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that," Davutoglu told reporters during a trip to Berlin. "No one should attempt to test Turkey's power."

Prospects appeared to improve this week for diplomacy to try to end the civil war, now in its third year, after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference.

But a Russian official said on Saturday that there was already disagreement over who would take part and he doubted whether a meeting could happen this month.

As well as disputes over who would represent the rebels and government at any talks, there have also been questions over possible participation by Assad's Shi'ite ally Iran. The rebels are backed by the largely Sunni Gulf states.

Diplomats in New York said the Syria meeting would likely slip into June and it was unclear who would participate.
Death toll may rise

In Reyhanli, smoke poured from charred ruins after the blasts outside administrative buildings.

"My children were so scared because it reminded them of the bombings when we were in Aleppo. God help us," said one refugee from the northern Syrian city, a mother of three who gave her name as Kolsum.

Atalay said 43 people had been killed, while Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned the toll could rise. Officials said more than 100 people were injured, many of them critically.

Erdogan said the bombings might have been related to Turkey's own peace process with Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who began a withdrawal this week to end a three decade conflict.

Syrian refugees

But the PKK's main area of operation was hundreds of kilometres further east and Erdogan said the blasts could also have been aimed at provoking sensitivities in a region that is home to so many Syrian refugees.

Turkey is sheltering more than 300 000 Syrians, most of them in camps along the 900km frontier, and is struggling to keep up with the influx.

Protests erupted in Reyhanli after the blasts, with some locals blaming Syrian there for bringing violence over the frontier and smashing their car windows, while others railed against Turkey's foreign policy, chanting for Erdogan to resign.

The main opposition Syrian National Coalition said the attacks were a failed attempt to "destroy the brotherhood" between Syrians and Turks and were intended as a punishment for Turkey's support of the uprising.

Erdogan said this week Turkey would support a US-enforced no-fly zone in Syria and warned that Damascus crossed President Barack Obama's "red line" on chemical weapons use long ago.

A no-fly zone to prohibit Syrian military aircraft from hitting rebel targets has been mentioned by American lawmakers as one option the United States could use to pressure Assad.

Erdogan is due to meet Obama in Washington on May 16.

Violence also crossed the border in February, when a minibus blew up at a border crossing near Reyhanli, killing 14 people.

The Syrian opposition said one of its delegations appeared to have been the target of that attack, but there has been no confirmation of this from the Turkish authorities.

In October, five Turkish civilians were killed in Akcakale when a mortar bomb fired from Syria landed on their house, prompting Turkey to fire back across the frontier.

Sharif claims victory in Pakistan vote

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif late on Saturday declared victory for his centre-right opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party and invited other parties to work with him.

"We should thank Allah that he has given PML-N another chance to serve you and Pakistan," he said in a speech to jubilant supporters, who shouted "prime minister Nawaz Sharif" in his powerbase Lahore.

"Whatever promises we made with our youth, I assure you that we fulfil each of them. Results are still coming but there is a confirmation that PML-N will emerge as the largest party," Sharif said.

According to the unofficial, partial results it appeared that no single party would win a simple majority of 172 seats in the national assembly, raising the prospect of protracted talks to form a coalition government.

"I appeal for all parties to come to the table and sit with me and solve the country's problems," Sharif said.

"I'm doing this only because of you. If it had been only myself, I would not talk to them but it's for you and for the survival of your future generations," he added.

Iran ex-leader Rafsanjani to stand again

Iran's moderate conservative former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday registered his candidacy to stand for the office again in the election on 14 June, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Rafsanjani, who will be 79 in August, filed his papers at the interior ministry during the final minutes of the five-day registration process which wrapped up on Saturday.

"I came to serve. It is the right of the people to choose me or not," Iranian media quoted him as saying.

Rafsanjani has been isolated since the 2009 presidential election, which saw massive street protests against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He then called for the release of people rounded up during the demonstrations.

Rafsanjani, president between 1989 and 1997, currently chairs the Expediency Council, the highest political arbitration body, whose members are appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Heavyweight

Also on Saturday, Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and close figure to all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly showed up at the ministry and registered his candidacy.

A veteran of the 1980s war with Iraq in which he lost his lower right leg, Jalili, 47, did not speak to reporters, an AFP correspondent said.

Jalili heads the team in negotiations with world powers over Tehran's controversial atomic activities which the West fears are aimed at developing a military capacity, a claim denied by Iran.

According to the interior ministry, more than 450 people have registered, including 14 women. Approved candidates will have three weeks to campaign before polling day on 14 June.

Milan: Man kills 1 in pickaxe rampage

An immigrant from Ghana went on a rampage with a pickaxe in Milan at dawn on Saturday, killing a passerby and wounding four others in an apparently random attack, police said.

Carabinieri paramilitary police in Milan said the 21-year-old attacker was taken into custody shortly after the attacks in a residential area on the northern outskirts of the city.

People working in cafes and other businesses near the attack told Sky TG24 TV that the man wildly swung a pickaxe, running down streets and ferociously striking passersby, mainly on the head. Pools of blood stained the streets.

A 40-year-old man died after being struck on the head with the pickaxe and suffering further blows to the abdomen while he lay on the ground, police said. The victim was described as an unemployed man who was heading to a cafe near his home.

Among those wounded was a man in his 20s who was helping his father deliver newspapers to newsstands; another was a man walking his dog.

Motive

At first it appeared five people had been wounded, but police later said the sixth person the attacker swung at darted into a doorway in the nick of time and escaped injury.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition.

Police said the motive was unclear.

"Police blocked him with difficulty. He was in an evident state of marked psychological stress," Colonel Biagio Storniolo told reporters. Asked about the motive, Storniolo said the suspect "was not being co-operative. He says only that he is hungry and has no home".

The man, identified as Mada Kabobo, 21, was jailed while he is investigated for murder and two counts of attempted murder for the two persons who were most critically wounded, police said.

Previous arrest

First media reports said the man had ignored a 2011 expulsion order because he was not legally in the country, but police later clarified that the expulsion papers had not yet been issued because legal proceedings in southern Italy were pending.

Police said they identified the suspect, who had no documents on him, from fingerprints.

Police said he was in the country illegally, and had previously been arrested in the Puglia region for alleged, theft, robbery, property damage and resisting public authorities.

Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said the entire city was shocked that a man would go on such a rampage, "killing one and wounding several, even gravely, just because he ran into them on his path".

Cleveland women face long road to healing

Year after year, the clock ticked by and the calendar marched forward, carrying the three women further from the real world and pulling them deeper into an isolated nightmare.

Now, for the women freed from captivity inside a Cleveland house, the ordeal is not over. Next comes recovery - from sexual abuse and their sudden, jarring re-entry into a world much different from the one they were snatched from a decade ago.

Therapists say that with extensive treatment and support, healing is likely for the women, who were 14, 16 and 21 when they were abducted. But it is often a long and difficult process.

"It's sort of like coming out of a coma," says Dr Barbara Greenberg, a psychologist who specialises in treating abused teenagers. "It's a very isolating and bewildering experience."

In the world the women left behind, a gallon of gas cost about $1.80. Barack Obama was a state senator. Phones were barely taking pictures. Things did not "go viral". There was no YouTube, no Facebook, no iPhone.

Adolescence taken

Emerging into the future is difficult enough. The two younger Cleveland women are doing it without the benefit of crucial formative years.

"By taking away their adolescence, they weren't able to develop emotional and psychological and social skills," says Duane Bowers, who counsels traumatised families through the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

"They're 10 years behind in these skills. Those need to be caught up before they can work on reintegrating into society," he says.

That society can be terrifying. As freed captive Georgina DeJesus arrived home from the hospital, watched by a media horde, she hid herself beneath a hooded sweatshirt. The freed Amanda Berry slipped into her home without being seen.

"They weren't hiding from the press, from the cameras," Bowers says. "They were hiding from the freedom, from the expansiveness."

Control

In the house owned by Ariel Castro, who is charged with kidnapping and raping the women, claustrophobic control ruled.

Police say Castro kept them chained in a basement and locked in upstairs rooms, that he fathered a child with one of them, and that he starved and beat his captives into multiple miscarriages.

In all those years, they only set foot outside of the house twice - and then only as far as the garage.

"Something as simple as walking into a Target is going to be a major problem for them," Bowers says.

Jessica Donohue-Dioh, who works with survivors of human trafficking as a social work instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, says the freedom to make decisions can be one of the hardest parts of recovery.

"'How should I respond? What do they really want from me?'" Donohue-Dioh says, describing a typical reaction. "They may feel they may not have a choice in giving the right answer."

Kidnap survivors

That has been a challenge for Jaycee Dugard, who is now an advocate for trauma victims after surviving 18 years in captivity - "learning how to speak up, how to say what I want instead of finding out what everybody else wants," Dugard told ABC News.

Like Berry, Dugard was impregnated by her captor and is now raising the two children. She still feels anger about her ordeal.

"But then on the other hand, I have two beautiful daughters that I can never be sorry about," Dugard says.

Another step toward normalcy for the three women will be accepting something that seems obvious to the rest of the world: They have no reason to feel guilty.

"First of all, I'd make sure these young women know that nothing that happened to them is their fault," Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 and held in sexual captivity for nine months, told People magazine.

Guilt
Donohue-Dioh says that even for people victimised by monstrous criminals, guilt is a common reaction. The Cleveland women told police they were snatched after accepting rides from Castro.

"They need to recognise that what happened as a result of that choice is not the rightful or due punishment. That's really difficult sometimes," Donohue-Dioh says.
Family support will be crucial, the therapists say. But what does family mean when one member has spent a decade trapped with strangers?

"The family has to be ready to include a stranger into its sphere," Bowers says. "Because if they try to reintegrate the 14-year-old girl who went missing, that's not going to work. That 14-year-old girl doesn't exist anymore. They have to accept this stranger as someone they don't know."

Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped in Austria at age 10 and spent eight years in captivity, has said that her 2006 reunion with her family was both euphoric and awkward.

"I had lived for too long in a nightmare, the psychological prison was still there and stood between me and my family," Kampusch wrote in 3096 Days, her account of the ordeal.

Kampusch, now 25, said in a German television interview that she was struggling to form normal relationships, partly because many people seem to shy away from her.

"What a lot of these people say is, what's more important than what happened is how people react," says Greenberg, the psychologist.

Sympathy, support

The world has reacted to the Cleveland women with an outpouring of sympathy and support. This reaction will live on, amplified by the technologies that rose while the women were locked away.

Yet these women are more than the sum of their Wikipedia pages. Dugard, Smart and other survivors often speak of not being defined by their tragedies - another challenge for the Cleveland survivors.

"A classmate will hear their name, or a co-worker, and will put them in this box: This is who you are and what happened to you," Donohue-Dioh says. "Our job as society is to move beyond what they are and what they've experienced."

"This isn't who they are," Dugard told People. "It is only what happened to them."

Still, for the three Cleveland women, their journey forward will always include that horrifying lost decade.

"We can't escape our past," Donohue-Dioh says, "so how are we able to manage how much it influences our present and our future?"

NEWS,19.02.2013

Italy Elections 2013: Nearly A Third Of Population Undecided Or Will Not Vote, According To Final Poll

Five days before national elections almost a third of Italians have yet to decide who to vote for or are considering not voting at all, a survey showed on Tuesday, highlighting uncertainty over the outcome. The poll in Corriere della Sera daily showed the proportion of Italians undecided or tempted to abstain has declined from 51.5 percent in December but remains at a significant 27.7 percent less than a week before the vote on Sunday and Monday. Final polls on Feb. 8, before a legal black-out period set in, indicated that the centre-left Democratic Party would win a lower house majority but will need to form a coalition with outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti's centrist grouping. Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right alliance was about 6 percentage points behind the frontrunners. But the hefty proportion of undecided voters means the outcome is still unpredictable and the final days of campaigning will be crucial. Publication of polls is illegal in the two weeks leading up to the Feb. 24-25 election but analysts are permitted to reveal data on likely participation rates. Most of the undecided are middle-aged housewives or pensioners with relatively low education levels, mainly living in the south of Italy, and with little interest in politics, pollster Renato Mannheimer of the ISPO institute said. "More than half of those who are currently undecided or potential abstainers say they can't place themselves on the right or the left," Mannheimer told the Milan daily. He added it was likely that many people who were yet to decide would probably not vote, based on past electoral trends. But historical participation rates suggest about 5 million people, or 10 percent of voters, will make up their minds in the last few days, swayed by last-minute promises from party leaders regardless of their place on the political spectrum, he said. Many polls over the last year have shown Italians disenchanted with a political class clinging to its privileges as the euro zone's third biggest but chronically uncompetitive economy descended deeper into crisis.

China Suspected Of Hacking Attacks Against The U.S.

A secretive Chinese military unit is believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks, a U.S. computer security company said, prompting a strong denial by China and accusations that it was in fact the victim of U.S. hacking. The company, Mandiant, identified the People's Liberation Army's Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind the hacking. Mandiant said it believed the unit had carried out "sustained" attacks on a wide range of industries. "The nature of 'Unit 61398's' work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful 'Computer Network Operations'," Mandiant said in a report released in the United States on Monday. "It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively," it said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the government firmly opposed hacking, adding that it doubted the evidence provided in the report. "Hacking attacks are Trans national and anonymous. Determining their origins is extremely difficult. We don't know how the evidence in this so-called report can be tenable," spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing."Arbitrary criticism based on rudimentary data is irresponsible, unprofessional and not helpful in resolving the issue."Hong cited a Chinese study which pointed to the United States as being behind hacking in China. "Of the above mentioned Internet hacking attacks, attacks originating from the United States rank first. "China's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the report. Unit 61398 is located in Shanghai's Pudong district, China's financial and banking hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in English as well as computer programming and network operations, Mandiant said in its report.The unit had stolen "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organisations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006", it said.Most of the victims were located in the United States, with smaller numbers in Canada and Britain. The information stolen ranged from details on mergers and acquisitions to the emails of senior employees, the company said.The 12-storey building, which houses the unit, sits in an unassuming residential area and is surrounded by a wall adorned with military propaganda photos and slogans; outside the gate a sign warns members of the public they are in a restricted military area and should not take pictures. There were no obvious signs of extra security on Tuesday. "ECONOMIC CYBER ESPIONAGE" Some experts said they doubted Chinese government denials of military involvement in the hacking. "The PLA plays a key role in China's multi-faceted security strategy, so it makes sense that its resources would be used to facilitate economic cyber espionage that helps the Chinese economy," said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer and co-founder of CrowdStrike, one of Mandiant's competitors. Though privately held and little known to the general public, Mandiant is one of a handful of U.S. cyber-security companies that specialise in attempting to detect, prevent and trace the most advanced hacking attacks, instead of the garden-variety viruses and criminal intrusions that befoul corporate networks on a daily basis. But Mandiant does not promote its analysis in public and only rarely issues topical papers about changes in techniques or behaviours. It has never before given the apparent proper names of suspected hackers or directly tied them to a military branch of the Chinese government, giving the new report special resonance. The company published details of the attack programmes and dummy websites used to infiltrate U.S. companies, typically via deceptive emails. U.S. officials have complained in the past to China about sanctioned trade-secret theft, but have had a limited public record to point to. Mandiant said it knew the PLA would shift tactics and programmes in response to its report but concluded that the disclosure was worth it because of the scale of the harm and the ability of China to issue denials in the past and duck accountability.The company traced Unit 61398's presence on the Internet including registration data for a question-and-answer session with a Chinese professor and numeric Internet addresses within a block assigned to the PLA unit and concluded that it was a major contributor to operations against the U.S. companies. Members of Congress and intelligence authorities in the United States have publicised the same general conclusions: that economic espionage is an official mission of the PLA and other elements of the Chinese government, and that hacking is a primary method. In November 2011, the U.S. National Counterintelligence Executive publicly decried China in particular as the biggest known thief of U.S. trade secrets. The Mandiant report comes a week after U.S. President Barack Obama issued a long-awaited executive order aimed at getting the private owners of power plants and other critical infrastructure to share data on attacks with officials and to begin to follow consensus best practices on security.Both U.S. Democrats and Republicans have said more powerful legislation is needed, citing Chinese penetration not just of the largest companies but of operations essential to a functioning country, including those comprising the electric grid.

Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba

 

President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela early Monday after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery, his government said, triggering street celebrations by supporters who welcomed him home while he remained out of sight at Caracas' military hospital. Chavez's return was announced in a series of messages on his Twitter account, the first of them reading: "We've arrived once again in our Venezuelan homeland. Thank you, my God!! Thank you, beloved nation!! We will continue our treatmen there. "They were the first messages to appear on Chavez's Twitter account since Nov.1."I'm clinging to Christ and trusting in my doctors and nurses," another tweet on Chavez's account said. "Onward toward victor always!! "Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Chavez arrived at 2:30 a.m. and was taken to the Dr.Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital in Caracas. Chavez's return came fewer than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The government didn't release any additional images of Chavez upon his arrival in Caracas, and unanswered questions remain about where he stands in a difficult and prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition. Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be swornin. Hundreds of Chavez supporters celebrated his return in downtown Caracas, chanting his name and holding photos of the president in Bolivar Plaza. Supporters also gathered outside the hospital. "I want to see my president," said Alicia Morrow, a seamstress who stood outside the hospital on the verge of tears. "I've missed him a lot because Chavez is the spirit of the poor. "Chavez's precise condition and the sort of cancer treatments he is undergoing remain a mystery, and speculation has grown recently that he may not be able to stay on as president. The Venezuelan Constitution says that if a president dies or steps down, a new vote must be called and held within 30days. The 58-year-old president hasn't spoken publicly since he left for Cuba on Dec. 10. He underwent his fourth cancer-related surgery on Dec. 11, and the government says that he is now breathing through a tracheal tube that makes talking difficult.

Israeli leader brings dovish rival into coalition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday added his first coalition partner as he works to build a new government, agreeing to bring in a dovish rival to oversee contacts with the Palestinians in what could signal a new approach to peacemaking by the hard line leader. Under the deal, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will serve as justice minister in the next Israeli government, in charge of peace efforts with the Palestinians. Livni, who led negotiations during the last substantive round of peace talks four years ago, has a good relationship with Palestinian President Mohmoud Abbas and favours a softer line than Netanyahu. Standing alongside Livni at a news conference Tuesday evening, Netanyahu vowed to make a serious attempt to reach peace under his next government. He said bringing in Livni, who has been a fierce critic, was part of his goal of forming a "wide and stable" government. "We need a Palestinian partner and I hope we will find a Palestinian partner who will take seriously Israel's security needs and that will be willing to end the conflict once and for all. Today Israel outstretches its hand to peace once again," he said. Netanyahu, who has come under heavy criticism, both at home and abroad, for the deadlock in peace efforts during his previous term, has promised to take a more aggressive approach under his next government. But he has given no details on whether he is prepared to make any new concessions, and it remained unclear whether Livni's addition to his Cabinet would be enough to lure the Palestinians back to negotiations. "What is important is the policies that will be adopted and implemented by the incoming Israeli government," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top adviser to Abbas. He said that if Netanyahu stuck to his policies of building settlements on occupied land, "it's better for Livni to search for another mission." As foreign minister, Livni served as the chief negotiator with the Palestinians under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. While both sides have said they made great progress during that time, the talks collapsed in late 2008 and have remained virtually frozen since Netanyahu took office early the following year. The Palestinians have refused to negotiate with Netanyahu while he continues to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians claim both areas, along with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for their future state. The Palestinians also want negotiations to resume from the point where they broke off under Olmert and Livni. Olmert has said he offered a near total withdrawal from the West Bank and shared control over Jerusalem. Netanyahu has said these concessions were far too generous and that negotiations should begin without any preconditions. He also has claimed that even when he imposed a partial freeze on settlement construction, the Palestinians did not enter substantive negotiations. But after four years of deadlock, the international community has grown impatient with the Israeli leader. In a sign of the international disapproval, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in November in favour of an independent Palestinian state in all of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza. Although largely symbolic, the vote signified an international endorsement of key Palestinian demands on future borders. With President Barack Obama scheduled to visit in late March, Netanyahu is eager to present a new face to the international community. Livni's addition to his Cabinet is a step in that direction. In addition to her good working relationship with the Palestinians, Livni is well known and well respected around the world, and has appeared on lists of the world's most influential women compiled by magazines like Forbes and Time.