Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera

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Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against global warming, may gross about $70 million from the sale of his Current TV network to al-Jazeera, the cable channel funded in part by oil-rich Qatar.


Al-Jazeera will pay about $500 million for Current TV, including the stake held by Gore, 64, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The network is one of dozens of investments made by the former vice president since he lost the 2000 presidential race by a slim margin.


“It’s reeking with irony,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, who studies corporate governance. “It seems to be at least a paradox in terms of his positions on sustainability and geopolitics.”

The deal highlights Gore’s makeover from career politician to successful businessman. His take from the Current TV sale is many times the maximum net worth of $1.7 million he reported while running for president in 1999. Besides investing in start-ups, Gore is on the board of Apple, an adviser to Google and a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to his Web site biography.

“The green of money knows no political boundaries,” said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “When you are running investments, your priority needs to be maximizing return.”

Gore’s holdings also include investments in Amazon.com, eBay and Procter & Gamble through his Generation Investment Management.

Gore holds a 20 percent stake in Current TV, according to those with knowledge of the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the sale terms are not public. His proceeds are difficult to pin down because the company had $41.4 million in debt, as well as preferred stock entitled to $99.5 million in the event of a sale or liquidation, according to a 2008 regulatory filing.

The Current TV price represents a sevenfold increase from the $71 million that Gore and his partners paid for the predecessor company in 2004, according to the filing. Gore, chairman, and Joel Hyatt, a co-founder and chief executive officer, announced the sale on Wednesday, without providing financial terms.

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, didn’t respond to a phone call or e-mail request for comment.

The network’s investors included funds controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum, according to the 2008 filing, when the company unsuccessfully sought to sell stock to the public. Blum is married to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The Raine Group advised Current TV on the sale. The owners introduced Current TV in 2005 after purchasing the network from Vivendi.

Al-Jazeera is closely held and receives some funding from the government of Qatar, a small country on the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula that gets almost half of its gross domestic product from oil and gas, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Under Qatari law, Al Jazeera Media Network is incorporated as a private, non-profit company,” Charlotte Fouch, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “Al Jazeera receives funding from the State of Qatar, much like other publicly funded broadcast networks.”

Last February, Gore said investors in oil and gas companies that ignore the cost of carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are making a mistake similar to those who invested in subprime mortgages.

Most of Gore’s investments are made through Generation Investment Management, which he co-founded with former Goldman Sachs Group executive David Blood. The most recent regulatory filing lists about $3.6 billion under management in 29 publicly traded companies.

In addition, Generation Investment Management also has stakes in private ventures such as Nest Labs, a company formed by Apple alumni to create a thermostat that adapts to user behavior and saves money. The fund also backed Elon Musk’s SolarCity, a developer of rooftop solar power systems that went public last month.

In April, Gore’s fund was part of $110 million in venture capital invested in Harvest Power, a closely held company that produces renewable energy from waste such as food scraps.

He is also the author of the climate-change-focused best-sellers “Earth in the Balance,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” “The Assault on Reason” and “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.” Gore was the co-recipient, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change,” according to his official biography.

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A*STAR develops instant speech-to-speech translator

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SINGAPORE: Singaporeans can now speak to its neighbours in Asia without having to worry about language barriers, thanks to a new instant translator, developed by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

The software detects users' speech on a handphone and translates it to the desired language.

The new speech-to-speech translator project is a collaboration of eight countries in Asia.

Singapore's A*STAR came on board some four years ago.

Currently in its final stages of development, it plans to translate 10 languages, including Japanese, Mandarin, Malay, Korean, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese and English.

Dr Li Haizhou, head of human language technology at A*STAR said: "Due to globalization, people travel a lot but language remains a barrier between people. And with technology, we think that we can help people to communicate in a better way."

- CNA/xq




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Cold claims 16 more lives as north India shivers, toll 100

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NEW DELHI: North India reeled under icy conditions Saturday with 16 people dying of the intense cold in Uttar Pradesh Friday, officials said Saturday. Over a hundred people have died so far in the bitter cold in India.

Authorities ordered closure of all schools in Lucknow up to Class 8 till Jan 13.

The regional Met Office said the minimum temperature in Lucknow was 2.1 degrees Celsius Saturday, which was five degrees below the season's average.

The minimum temperature in Kanpur settled at 3.7 degrees Celsius, while it was 4.7 degrees in Varanasi and 5.2 degrees Celsius in Gorakhpur.

In New Delhi, fog delayed trains by over six hours, though flights were not affected. Icy winds kept temperatures below average for the past few days.

The Met office has forecast a cold and foggy weekend in Delhi.

Saturday's maximum temperature was 12.6 degrees Celsius, eight notches below average for this time of the season. The minimum was 2.9 degrees, four notches below average, an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

"There is a heavy backlog leading to many delays and rescheduling of trains. A total of 23 trains were delayed and 10 cancelled due to fog," a Northern Railway spokesperson told IANS.

An official at Indira Gandhi International Airport said flight operations were not affected.

"Due to a thick fog in the morning 23 flights operated in Low Visibility Procedure (LVP) and one flight was delayed," an airport official said.

The Met department has forecast similar weather conditions Sunday.

"The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 13 and 3 degrees Celsius respectively on Sunday," a Met official said.

The national capital is experiencing intense cold conditions this week with Friday being the coldest with the minimum temperature dropping to this season's lowest of 2.7 degrees.

In the northern reaches, Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir recorded minus 5.4 degrees Celsius Friday night, the season's coldest.

The minimum temperature dropped to a bone-chilling minus 16.8 degrees in Leh town of the Ladakh region Saturday. It was minus 9.4 in Gulmarg ski resort and minus 5.4 in Pahalgam.

Parts of Dal Lake in Srinagar are frozen.

The cold wave continued to grip Himachal Pradesh Saturday with the higher reaches experiencing temperatures below freezing point.

Saturday's minimum temperature in Shimla was 0.6 degrees Celsius, two degrees below the average for this time of the year.

The minimum temperature in Manali settled at minus 1.8 degrees Celsius, while it was minus 4.4 degrees in Kalpa in Kinnaur district and minus 7.1 degrees in Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district.

Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saw a low of 5.2 degrees Celsius.

The minimum temperature in Agra settled at 2.1 degrees Celsius Saturday with a thick fog enveloping the city in the early hours. The regional Met department office in the state capital Lucknow said the temperature could drop to one degree Celsius in the next two days.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

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Debt Limit Negotiating Tactic? No Negotiating

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ap obama ac 130102 wblog In Fiscal Wars No Negotiation Is a Negotiating Tactic

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk away from the podium after Obama made a statement regarding the passage of the fiscal cliff bill in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


Analysis


New for 2013: In the Washington, D.C. fiscal wars we’ve gone from everything must be on the table to politicians declaring they won’t debate.


The fiscal cliff deal either averted disaster or compounded the problem, depending on who you ask. It certainly created new mini-cliffs in a few months as Congress and the president square off on the debt ceiling, spending cuts and government funding. But it also made sure the vast majority of Americans won’t see as big a tax hike as they might have.


President Obama was pretty clear late on New Year’s night as he reacted to Congress’s passage of a bill to take a turn away from the fiscal cliff. He won’t negotiate with Republicans about the debt ceiling.


“Now, one last point I want to make,” said the president, before wrapping up and hopping on Air Force One for a redeye to Hawaii. “While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed.”


(Read more here about the Fiscal Cliff)


That’s pretty clear. No debt ceiling negotiation. Then he added for emphasis: ”Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.”


But in Washington, saying you won’t do something these days has almost become like an opening bid. At least, that’s how Republicans are treating the president’s line in the sand.


“The president may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have because it’s a debate the country needs,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, in an op-Ed on Yahoo! News about 36 hours later. “For the sake of our future, the president must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now.”


“We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt,” McConnell said.


The national debt is soon set to reach $16.4 trillion. That’s not a problem that can be solved with one bill or budget. And the two sides will have to figure out some sort of way to talk about entitlement/social safety net reform – meaning things like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – in addition to cutting spending and, most importantly, hope for an improving economy, to deal with those deficits.


House Speaker John Boehner, who has several times now failed to reach a big, broad fiscal deal with President Obama, told colleagues, according to The Hill newspaper, that he’s done with secret White House negotiations. He wants to stick with the constitutional way of doing things, with hearings and bills that are debated on Capitol Hill rather than hatched by the vice president and Senate Republicans.


Okay. Obama won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling. McConnell won’t not negotiate on the debt ceiling. Boehner doesn’t to do things by the book.


But McConnell won’t negotiate on taxes any more.


“Predictably,” McConnell had written earlier in his post, “the president is already claiming that his tax hike on the ‘rich’ isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over.”


It’s a new chapter in the ongoing fiscal saga in Washington. Back when the two sides were talking about a grand bargain or a big deal – some sort of all-inclusive reform that would right the listing deficit with one flip of the rudder – the popular trope was that “everything must be on the table.” That’s basically how Obama put it back in the summer of 2011 when he and Boehner failed to reach a grand bargain. He wanted higher taxes – they were calling them revenues back then. More recently, after Obama won the election and when he and Boehner were trying to hammer out another grand bargain to avert the fiscal cliff, Boehner wanted entitlements on the table. That means he wanted to find ways to curb future spending.


Both sides are declaring they won’t debate certain points, but this far – a full two months – before the mini-cliffs start, those are easier declarations to make than they will be when the government is in danger of defaulting or shutting down.


Even though they’re trying to take elements off the table, both men hope that coming negotiations can be a little more cordial and a little less down-to-the wire.


“Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour,” wrote McConnell.


“The one thing that I think, hopefully, in the New Year we’ll focus on is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinksmanship, not scare the heck out of folks quite as much,” said Obama.


That’ll be tough if neither side will talk about what the other side wants to talk about.


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Trio of budget-related measures could affect federal workforce in coming months

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The penchant of Congress to govern by brinksmanship continues.


The 113th Congress was sworn in Thursday and there’s little reason to think it will behave any better than the 112th. That’s not good for the nation as a whole and it’s particularly rough on federal agencies and their workers.


Instead of providing wise counsel and establishing priorities as good leaders do, Congress sets an example of operational chaos that it would find totally unacceptable in the government operations the legislators oversee.

The brinksmanship has been on display with threats of government shutdowns and recent events leading to the “fiscal cliff” vote on New Year’s Day, after the deadline for congressional action on tax rates.

That vote was not accompanied by action on sequestration, except to delay the across-the-board budget cuts for two months. That’s just about the time that two other issues also haunting federal agencies and their staffs will come to a head.

It’s a budgetary threesome that leaves everyone unsatisfied.

Debt limit: Congress must deal with the nation’s debt ceiling at the end of February. President Obama has vowed not to negotiate. But before agreeing to raising the limit on how much Uncle Sam can borrow, Republicans want significant budget cuts.

Sequester: This is Sam’s term for $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts, over 10 years, designed by Congress in 2011 to be so onerous that it would be forced to develop a more reasonable deficit reduction package by the end of last year. Instead, legislators gave themselves two more months.

The delay meant Congress needed to come up with money to cover $24 million in savings it would have realized had the sequester been implemented Jan. 1. Half of that, $12 million, will come from spending cuts. How those cuts will affect agencies and workers is to be determined.

Continuing Resolution: A temporary funding measure, CR (in government lingo) expires March 27. At that point, federal employees are scheduled to get a 0.5 percent pay raise, after a freeze on basic pay rates that is 2 years old this week. House Republicans have repeatedly voted for extending the freeze. It’s unlikely that the Democratic-controlled Senate would approve an extension, but the House action is enough to make feds wary.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) called this “a trinity of worse, worse and worser.” Her suggestion to deal with issues affecting employees and the trinity of issues in one package, instead of a series of “cuts, cuts, cuts,” would reduce employee anxiety.

The same policies that have been debated for two years, on federal pay, retirement benefits and workforce size, will continue to be in play as the trio of deadlines are considered on Capitol Hill. Jessica Klement, legislative director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said the debt limit, the sequester and the CR “represent a perfect storm that many may not be expecting since we have avoided going over the fiscal cliff.”

One was avoided, temporarily, yet three other cliffs remain a short distance away.

Don’t be surprised if House Republicans again advance legislation calling on federal employees to give up more in the name of deficit reduction. The workforce already is effectively losing $103 billion over 10 years because of hits to compensation.

“The federal employees have paid too much of a price,” said Rep. Frank R. Wolf (Va.), one of just two Republicans (the other was Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia) who voted against a bill this week to extend the freeze through 2013. “We need to protect the federal employees, because the person working on cancer research at [the National Institutes of Health] is a federal employee.”

The forces that the cancer researcher will need protection from are other Republicans, says Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

For everybody “who cares about a strong federal workforce, this is a time to be on maximum alert,” he said. Republicans always try “to use federal employees as the piggy bank to solve budget issues.” He expects that to continue. “That’s been the case in every one of their proposals.”

Rep. James P. Moran (Va.) wouldn’t dispute that, but he also holds his fellow Democrats responsible.

“Only bad things can happen,” he said. “I see no prospect for anything good coming from the deal that was voted on New Year’s Day.” That deal, negotiated with the Obama administration and congressional leadership, “was disastrous for federal employees particularly,” Moran said, because Democrats “gave up all of the leverage that we could have used to protect federal programs, employees.”

“Now, the only questions asked will be which programs do we cut and how deeply,” said Moran, who voted against the agreement. “I’m beside myself. I’m so upset about it.”





Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP




Previous columns by Joe Davidson are available at wapo.st/JoeDavidson.

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France seeks to grill Swiss shooter over Britons' murders in Alps

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GENEVA: French police investigating the murder of a British-Iraqi family in the Alps have asked to question a Swiss gunman who killed three women in his home village, police in Switzerland said Friday.

The police in the neighbouring French region of Haute-Savoie made the request to their colleagues in the Swiss canton of Valais, where on Thursday the gunman went on a shooting spree, a spokesman told AFP.

Saad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, were all found dead inside their estate car near Lake Annecy in Haute-Savoie on September 5, along with a French cyclist who police believe was an innocent bystander.

On Thursday, a gunman with psychiatric and drug problems killed three women and wounded two men in a shooting spree in the tiny Swiss village where he lived.

-AFP/fl



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Over 700,000 children in Himachal to get polio drops

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SHIMLA: Over 700,000 children will be administered polio drops in a two-round campaign beginning this month in Himachal Pradesh, an official said here Friday.

More than 5,850 booths, each catering to a population of 125, would be set up for the pulse polio immunization campaign to be carried out Jan 20 and Feb 24, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Ali R. Rizvi said in a statement.

He said residents of even snow-bound areas would be covered.

Special booths would be set up in forest and remote areas too for the children of Gaddi and Gujjar tribes, Rizvi added.

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Chelsea Clinton Raises Profile During Mom's Illness

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While Hillary Clinton was in the hospital it was daughter Chelsea -- not the secretary of state or the former president Bill Clinton -- who spoke for the family.


She, along with the State Department, doled out what little information the family wanted to share in a series of tweets and when her mother was released from the hospital, it was Chelsea who delivered the thanks on behalf of her parents, tweeting her gratitude to the doctors as well as those who kept her mother in their thoughts while she recovered from a blood clot.


When Hillary Clinton leaves office, possibly at the end of this month, it will be the first time since 1982 that a Clinton will not be holding a public office.


The watch will be on whether Hillary Clinton makes another run for the White House in 2016, but almost inevitably people will also be watching to see if Chelsea Clinton decides to run for office, too.


"Americans always look for dynasties: Bush, Kennedy, Cuomo, Clinton … it's some kind of continuity. There will always be pressure on her to run for public office," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political strategist in New York.


"She's learning from the two best politicians in recent American history and she understands when to hold them and when to fold them," Sheinkopf said.


That sense of dynasty could also present a significant hurdle.






James Devaney/Getty Images











Secretary of State Clinton: Mystery Health Issues Watch Video









Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Undergoing Blood-Thinning Therapy Watch Video





"She's got to A, demonstrate that she has the charisma of her father, or B, demonstrate that she has the policy chops of her mother. And I think like most people she is somewhere in between," a former Hillary Clinton aide from her 2008 campaign said. "People are judging her through each of her parents and it's an impossible standard."


Chelsea Clinton, 32, has inched towards a possible political career in recent statements and has become more politically active.


In an interview with Vogue published in August she was more open to it than she has been in the past, telling the magazine, "Before my mom's (presidential) campaign I would have said no," but "now I don't know."


"I believe that engaging in the political process is part of being a good person. And I certainly believe that part of helping to build a better world is ensuring that we have political leaders who are committed to that premise. So if there were to be a point where it was something I felt called to do and I didn't think there was someone who was sufficiently committed to building a healthier, more just, more equitable, more productive world? Then that would be a question I'd have to ask and answer."


Clinton also spoke of a change in her private to public life:


"Historically I deliberately tried to lead a private life in the public eye," she told the magazine. "And now I am trying to lead a purposefully public life."


Besides her work as a special correspondent with NBC, Chelsea Clinton has taken on high profile roles with her father's Clinton Global Initiative. She sits on several corporate boards and has both moderated and sat on panels discussing both women in politics and childhood obesity, among other issues.


She has also worked toward making same-sex marriage legal in New York last year, as well as gay marriage referendums in Maine, Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington state, all of which were successful in November. She has also been active in superstorm Sandy recovery, most notably delivering aid to the devastated Rockaways with her father.






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Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

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The fiscal pact Congress reached hours into the new year will delay $109 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts for two months. But it will make a down payment on those reductions that will affect federal operations this year and next.


The eleventh-hour agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes put off the major cuts known as a sequester until March 1, when another showdown is expected over the federal debt limit and how much to reduce the size of government.


Congress and the White House agreed to find $24 billion to pay for the delay, divided between spending cuts and a tax change that allows Americans holding traditional retirement plans to convert more of them to Roth IRAs, a process that requires tax payments up front.

The remaining $12 billion in cuts to domestic and defense agencies will not take effect until at least March 27, when the stopgap budget funding the government expires. The first $4 billion in cuts must come by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, and the remaining $8 billion in fiscal 2014, which will start Oct. 1.

The cuts will be rolled into budget deliberations on Capitol Hill, and no one knows what agencies and programs they will affect. Out of a discretionary spending budget of $1.04 trillion, $12 billion is relatively small. But it’s not a rounding error.

“There will be a few select cuts that will be painful,” said Patrick Lester, fiscal policy director at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (formerly OMB Watch). “We won’t know for months what those cuts are, which makes them easy to do.”

William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said $12 billion “spread across the government doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it depends on how it’s spread out.”

Even if each agency took a hit, some “will still be looking at furloughs and even [reductions in force] as a possible solution,” he said. Those are some of the near-certain actions many agencies have said they would take if they had to make the across-the-board cuts Congress imposed in 2011 to force itself to reckon with the federal deficit.

On Wednesday, government and union leaders said that threat, just two months away, is making them nervous.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Congress has “prevented the worst possible outcome by delaying sequestration for two months.”

But he warned that the “the specter of sequestration” threatens national security.

“We need to have stability in our future budgets,” Panetta said in a statement. “We need to have the resources to effectively execute our strategy, defend the nation, and meet our commitments to troops and their families after more than a decade of war.”

Several officials said they are still sorting out what the two-month delay means.

“We are working hard with [the Office of Management and Budget] to understand the impact, but we’re just not there yet,” said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Defense consultant Jim McAleese said the deal to raise taxes on families with income above $450,000 and individuals earning more than $400,000 will bring in so much less revenue than the $250,000 threshold President Obama proposed that steep defense cuts are inevitable.

Instead of the $10 billion in cuts a year over 10 years that the Defense Department could have expected to see under Obama’s most recent deficit reduction plan, McAleese said the reductions could be more in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion a year over 10 years.

“People were talking before about defense cuts of $10 billion per year, but the sheer size of the disagreement is going to bring about an immediate, aggressive reaction that will impact the final outcome of the spending cuts,” he said.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said of the $12 billion in cuts, “I would hope agencies could find these savings without impacts on front-line employees and without impacts on services to the public. We have more questions than answers right now.”

Steve Vogel contributed to this report.

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141 journalists killed in 2012: media watchdog

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GENEVA: Last year was one of the deadliest on record for journalists, with 141 killed in 29 different countries and Syria the most dangerous place on earth for reporters, a media watchdog said Thursday.

The Swiss-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), which fights for the protection of journalists, said the figure was up by 31 percent on 2011.

At least 37 journalists, among them 13 working for foreign media, were killed in Syria, it said in a statement.

Four journalists are reported missing or detained: Ukrainian Anhar Kochneva, Jordanian-Palestinian Bashar Fahmi, freelance US reporter Austin Tice and another American reporter James Foley, who has contributed video to Agence France-Presse.

The situation in Somalia has deteriorated dramatically, where 19 were killed, said the PEC.

Three Latin American countries followed among the most dangerous places: Mexico with 11 journalists killed, Brazil also with 11 dead, and Honduras, where six journalists were killed.

The Philippines ranked number seven with six killed, followed by Bangladesh and India with four each, said the PEC.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists for its part said last month that 67 reporters were killed in 2012, up 42 percent from the previous year, due in large part to the Syria conflict, shootings in Somalia, violence in Pakistan and killings of reporters in Brazil.

The Paris-based press rights group Reporters without Borders (RSF) meanwhile put the number of those killed at 88 last year.

-AFP/fl



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PM unveils new science policy

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KOLKATA: India today unveiled a new science policy that lays greater thrust on innovation, establishing research institutes and encourage women scientists with an aim to position itself among the top five scientific powers in the world by 2020.

The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy, 2013 also speaks of modifying the intellectual property regime to provide for marching rights for social good when supported by public funds and co-sharing of patents generated in the public private partnership mode.

Unveiling the STI policy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it aspires to position India among the top five global scientific powers by 2020.

"It is an ambitious goal," he said, adding the policy also aims at producing and nurturing talent in science, to stimulate research in universities, to develop young leaders in the field of science and to reward performance.

It also seeks to create a policy environment for greater private sector participation in research and innovation and to forge international alliances and collaborations to meet the national agenda, he said.

The policy also talks of raising gross expenditure in R&D to two per cent of GDP from the current one per cent in this decade by encouraging enhanced private sector contribution.

"The policy is truly aspirational and seeks to accelerate the pace of discovery and delivery of science-led solutions for faster, sustainable and inclusive growth," Science and Technology Minister S Jaipal Reddy said.

He dubbed the policy as a "rare and resounding expression of collective will and wisdom of the Indian scientific community that is at once a product of and a clarion call of the scientific community".

The document is a revision of the 2003 policy which sought to bring science and technology together and emphasised on the need for higher investment into R&D to address national problems.

The (STI) policy also seeks to trigger an ecosystem for innovative abilities to flourish by leveraging partnerships among diverse stakeholders and by encouraging and facilitating enterprises to invest in innovations.

The aim of the policy is to accelerate the pace of discovery, diffusion and delivery of science-led solutions for serving the aspirational goals of India for faster, sustainable and inclusive growth.

The key features of the STI Policy 2013 include making careers in science, research and innovation attractive, establishing world-class infrastructure for R&D for gaining global leadership in some select frontier areas of science.

The policy also includes linking contributions of science, research and innovation system with the inclusive economic growth agenda and combining priorities of excellence and relevance.

It also stresses on creating an environment for enhanced private sector participation in R&D, enabling conversion of R&D outputs into societal and commercial applications by replicating successful models as well as establishing of new public-private partnership structures.

India first unveiled its Scientific Policy Resolution in 1958 which resolved to "foster, promote and sustain" the cultivation of science and scientific research in all its aspects.

The Technology Policy Statement of 1983 focused on the need to attain technological competence and self reliance.

Officials said in today's world, innovation was no longer a mere appendage to S&T but has assumed centre stage in its own right in the development of countries around the world.

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Pictures: Errant Shell Oil Rig Runs Aground Off Alaska, Prompts Massive Response

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Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard

Waves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.

The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel and the 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of diesel fuel and lubricants on board. The Kulluk came to rest just east of Sitkalidak Island (map), an uninhabited but ecologically and culturally rich site north of Ocean Bay, after a four-day odyssey, during which it broke free of its tow ships and its 18-member crew had to be rescued by helicopter.

The U.S. Coast Guard, state, local, and industry officials have joined in an effort involving nearly 600 people to gain control of the rig, one of two that Shell used for its landmark Arctic oil-drilling effort last summer. "This must be considered once of the largest marine-response efforts conducted in Alaska in many years," said Steve Russell, of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The 266-foot (81-meter) rig now is beached off one of the larger islands in the Kodiak archipelago, a land of forest, glaciers, and streams about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The American Land Conservancy says that Sitkalidak Island's highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska, attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait, which separates the island from Kodiak. Sitkalidak also has 16 wild salmon rivers and archaeological sites tied to the Alutiiq native peoples dating back more than 7,000 years.

Shell incident commander Susan Childs said Monday night that the company's wildlife management team had started to assess the potential impact of a spill, and would be dispatched to the site when the weather permitted. She said the Kulluk's fuel tanks were in the center of the vessel, encased in heavy steel. "The Kulluk is a pretty sturdy vessel," she said. " It just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather is severe."

—Marianne Lavelle

*Shell is sponsor of National Geographic's Great Energy Challenge initiative. National Geographic maintains editorial autonomy.

Published January 2, 2013

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Senate Swears in Historic 20th Female Senator

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Today the Senate will make history, swearing in a record-breaking 20 female senators – 4 Republicans and 16 Democrats – in office.


As the 113th Congress is sworn in today on Capitol Hill, ABC "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer has an exclusive joint interview with the historic class of female Senators.


Diane Sawyer's complete interview will air on World News this evening.


"I can't tell you the joy that I feel in my heart to look at these 20 gifted and talented women from two different parties, different zip codes to fill this room," Sen. Barbara Mikulksi, D-Md., said while surrounded by the group of women senators. "In all of American history only 16 women had served. Now there are 20 of us."



Senator-elect Deb Fischer, R-Neb., becomes today the first women to be elected as a senator in Nebraska.


"It was an historic election," Fischer said, "But what was really fun about it were the number of mothers and fathers who brought their daughters up to me during the campaign and said, "Can we get a picture? Can we get a picture?' Because people realize it and -- things do change, things do change."










Tammy Baldwin Becomes First Openly Gay Senator Watch Video









Elizabeth Warren Wins Massachusetts Senate Race Watch Video





The women senators all agree that women will be getting things done in this new Congress, a sign of optimism felt for the new Congress, after the bruising battles of the 112th Congress.


"We're in force and we're in leadership positions, but it's not just the position that we hold. I can tell you this is a can-do crowd," Mikulski said of both Democrats and Republican senators in the room. "We are today ready to be a force in American politics."


And while the number of women in the Senate today makes historic, many of the women agreed that they want to keep fighting to boost those numbers. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said that women are still "underrepresented" in the Senate.


"I think that until we get to 50, we still have to fight because it's still a problem," Boxer said. "I think this class as you look around, Republicans and Democrats... I think that because of this new class and the caliber of the people coming and the quality of the people coming, I think that hopefully in my lifetime -- and I really do hope and pray this is the case -- we will see 50 percent. "


No Sorority Here, Even With the Will to Work Together


The cooperation does not make them a "sorority," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., says. There are real differences in ideology and personality and they don't want their gender to define them as senators.


But the women also admit that they believe having more women in the room would help in fierce negotiations, compromise, and legislating on Capitol Hill, traits they say do not come as naturally to their male colleagues in the Senate. That sentiment enjoys bipartisan support among the women of the Senate.


"What I find is with all due deference to our male colleagues, that women's styles tend to be more collaborative," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.


Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said by nature women are "less confrontational." Sen-elect Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, says that women are "problem solvers."


Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., says that women have a camaraderie which helps in relationships that are key to negotiations on Capitol Hill, something she says comes natural to women more than men.


"I think there's just a lot of collaboration between the women senators and... advice and really standing up for each other that you don't always see with the men," she said.






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US stocks soar on fiscal cliff deal

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NEW YORK: US stocks shot up Wednesday on news of a fiscal cliff deal in Congress that prevented most tax increases and delayed sharp spending cuts.

Fifteen minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 215.17 points (1.64 percent) at 13,319.31.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 71.73 points (2.38 percent) at 3,091.24, while the broad-market S&P 500 gained 25.76 points (1.81 percent) at 1,451.95.

In the first trading day of the new year, Wall Street joined a global equities rally celebrating the passage of a bill that avoids the "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases.

While markets were closed on Tuesday for the New Year holiday, lawmakers approved a compromise bill that raises taxes on the rich and puts off automatic $109 billion federal budget cuts for two months.

If they had failed, Americans would have been hit by sweeping tax hikes, and spending cuts would have kicked in across the government, in a combined $500 billion shock that could have undermined the tepid recovery.

The Wall Street rally reflected a sense of relief that the tax deal should help keep the US economy from slipping back into recession, said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

"Still, it seemingly ignores the fact that the tax deal, which did not include an extension of the payroll tax cut, is going to be a drag on the economy."

- AFP/de



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Delhi gang rape: CJI Altamas Kabir calls for speedy trial of case

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NEW DELHI: A fast-track court to try sexual offence cases against women was inaugurated here by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on Wednesday who advocated speedy trial of the case relating to the December 16 gang-rape of the 23-year-old girl who later died of injuries sustained .

The CJI, who justified the public reaction against the ghastly incident, said the offence could have been averted had the Supreme Court guidelines on removal of tinted glasses from the vehicles been followed.

"It's good to know that after the December 16 tragic incident, people have started raising their voice on crime against women," he said while expressing the hope that the fast track court at Saket district courts complex here would be operational immediately.

The CJI, however, said blame game should be avoided and the case of the paramedic, which is in the "public eye", should be decided on fast track.

"Blame game will not serve anything. We have to go to the root of the problem. This case, which is in the public eye, should be decided as early as possible," he said.

He also cautioned about the people's reaction against sending the accused for trial and calling for handing them over to the public to be dealt with by saying that it is a "dangerous reaction".

"People's reaction has been that do not send the accused to trial. Hand them over to us, we will deal with them. Hang them. But let us not get carried away. Let us deal with the matter in a manner in which we are able to do justice as early as possible. Let us show that the judiciary is behind the common man," he said.

The CJI said a fast track court particularly for trying sexual offences against women was not only necessary but also welcome and the government has also "woken up" to the need of fast track courts for such cases.

The CJI said he will try his level best with the administration to see that the other part of the case, that is the part before the matter comes to the court, is taken care of as quickly as possible.

Justice Kabir said four other fast track courts would be made operational in different parts of Delhi to show "we mean business in tackling matters of such nature".

Chief justice of the Delhi high court D Murugesan said judicial officers have been identified for the fast track courts and wherever possible, cases will be taken up on a day-to-day basis.

Apart from the CJI and the chief justice of the Delhi high court, several judges of the high court and district courts were also present at the inauguration ceremony.

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Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm

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Obama Hails 'Cliff' Deal, Warns of Next Fiscal Fight

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Minutes after the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan Senate deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" and preserve Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans making less than $400,000 per year, President Obama praised party leaders and wasted little time turning to the next fiscal fight.


"This is one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy for everybody," Obama said.


Obama lamented that earlier attempts at a much larger fiscal deal that would have cut spending and dealt with entitlement reforms failed. He said he hoped future debates would be done with "a little less drama, a little less brinksmanship, and not scare folks quite as much."


But Obama drew a line in the sand on the debt ceiling, which is set to be reached by March.


"While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether they should pay the bills for what they've racked up," Obama said. "We can't not pay bills that we've already incurred."


An hour after his remarks, Obama boarded Air Force One to rejoin his family in Hawaii, where they have been since before Christmas.






AP Photo/Charles Dharapak













House Republicans agreed to the up-or-down vote Tuesday evening, despite earlier talk of trying to amend the Senate bill with more spending cuts before taking a vote. The bill delays for two months tough decisions about automatic spending cuts that were set to kick in Wednesday.


A majority of the Republicans in the GOP-majority House voted against the fiscal cliff deal. About twice as many Democrats voted in favor of the deal compared to Republicans. One hundred fifty-one Republicans joined 16 Democrats to vote against the deal, while 172 Democrats carried the vote along with 85 Republicans.


The Senate passed the same bill by an 89-8 vote in the wee hours of New Year's Day. If House Republicans had tweaked the legislation, there would have been no clear path for its return to the Senate before a new Congress is sworn in Thursday.


The vote split Republican leaders in the House. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, voted yes, and so did the GOP's 2012 vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.


But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., the No. 2 Republican in the House, voted no. It was his opposition that had made passage of the bill seem unlikely earlier in the day.


The deal does little to address the nation's long-term debt woes and does not entirely solve the problem of the "fiscal cliff."


Indeed, the last-minute compromise -- far short from a so-called grand bargain on deficit reduction -- sets up a new showdown on the same spending cuts in two months amplified by a brewing fight on how to raise the debt ceiling beyond $16.4 trillion. That new fiscal battle has the potential to eclipse the "fiscal cliff" in short order.


"Now the focus turns to spending," said Boehner in a statement after the vote. "The American people re-elected a Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the president accountable for the 'balanced' approach he promised, meaning significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt."


Republicans hope that allowing the fiscal cliff compromise, which raised taxes without an equal amount of spending cuts, will settle the issue of tax rates for the coming debates on spending.






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Helping VA rehabilitate those with multiple wounds of war

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Micaela Cornis-Pop oversees more than 110 rehabilitation facilities around the country, helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stay at the forefront of developments in treating traumatic brain injury and other medical injuries and issues facing injured veterans and military service members.


With the increase in battlefield survival rates of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, service members live with more complex casualties, which led the VA to coin the word “polytrauma” to describe multiple injuries to one person, the most prevalent of which is traumatic brain injury, but also can include post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple amputations, burns, auditory and visual impairments and mental health issues.


In 2005, Cornis-Pop helped conceive, develop and implement the VA’s Polytrauma System of Care, an integrated network of facilities that provide specialized programs to help wounded men and women recover, and move from acute care to outpatient rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. She now leads and manages the system, developing policies and procedures and monitoring their implementation.

“We have a direct impact on how health care is delivered and is impacting veterans and service members, and that is tremendously gratifying,” said Cornis-Pop, national program manager of the Polytrauma System of Care at the Veterans Health Administration, Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, at the VA.

She also is responsible for providing education opportunities for VA health care providers who treat traumatic brain injuries. And the system works with another 39 VA locations that provide some, but not all elements of comprehensive polytrauma rehabilitation care, to define the care those facilities can provide and help make the decision when to refer patients to another level of care.

In addition, Cornis-Pop was the lead author and editor of a “massive project” to publish a 166-page book that came out in April 2010, which serves as an accredited independent study course on traumatic brain injury for members of VA health care teams around the country, said Joel Scholten, director of Special Projects at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program Office (PM&R), which manages the Polytrauma System of Care. Nearly 12,000 clinicians have completed the course between April 2010 and July 2012, using either the book or a Web version of it.

Cornis-Pop “has the innate ability to pull people together and get focused on a task and think creatively, and, most amazingly, develop an end product that is useful and veteran-centric,” Scholten said. “She develops programs and projects that have been sustained because they are clinically relevant. It’s not just policy that is developed and sits there.”

Dr. David Cifu, national director of the PM&R office, not only relies on Cornis-Pop to coordinate the care programs around the country but also to respond to outside requests for information, including from Congress. “She’s the person who makes it all happen,” he said. “She doesn’t care about getting credit. She just gets things done. That’s gold.”

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Football: Brazil starlet Lucas relishing PSG challenge

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DOHA: Brazilian international midfielder Lucas Moura said Tuesday he is ready to embrace the "challenge" at an evolving Paris Saint-Germain.

Lucas, 20, signed from Sao Paulo in the summer on a four-and-a-half-year deal worth 40 million euros as PSG held off competition from the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid to snare a player hailed as one of the bright hopes of the Brazilian team.

"It's a real challenge for me," said Lucas, who has scored three goals in 22 appearances for Brazil.

"PSG is in full evolution. (Sporting director) Leonardo helped me a lot to take the decision to sign when I could have continued with my former team in Brazil until season's end.

"It's a very important step in my career. There are stronger competitions in Europe. PSG has a long history with Brazilian players and I hope I'll be able to write a new page in this history."

PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi added: "We're very happy to start the year with one of the world's best players."

Lucas, who has joined his new teammates at a training camp in Qatar, could make his debut in a friendly against Qatari champions Lekhwiya on Wednesday, four days before PSG's French Cup round-of-64 match against Arras in Calais.

Khelaifi said the club was not planning to recruit any more players in the January transfer window, adding however that "anything could happen".

"We've got a great team with some great players, I don't think we need to recruit," he said.

"We've got a month ahead of us. For the moment, we're not planning on recruiting anyone but I don't know, there could be injuries, anything can happen."

Khelaifi added: "PSG today wants to build a big European club and place itself among the best in Europe and the world.

"We have to spend money for that and act like the other big clubs. If we hadn't have spent this much, we wouldn't be at this level."

- AFP/fa



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High speed train on Delhi-Mumbai route on track with speed as high as 200 km per hour

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NEW DELHI: Railways today expressed optimism over progress in its plans to run passenger trains on busy Delhi-Mumbai corridor at 200 km per hour and launching for the first time train sets services on shorter routes.

Maintaining that global crisis is coming in the way from achieving higher growth, it said its earnings have, however, gone up by 20 per cent this fiscal.

Chairman Railway Board Vinay Mittal said even though there are several financial hurdles to overcome for materialising the high-speed corridor project, they are working towards achieving the objective of running train at 200 km per hour on Delhi-Mumbai route.

"Japan is involved in the study of the high speed train on Delhi-Mumbai route and things are progressing well," Mittal said here but did not give any time frame for its implementation.

Currently Rajdhani trains are expected to run at a maximum speed of 100 km to 120 km per hour while other express trains are running at an approximate speed of 80 km per hour because of the dense traffic condition.

Asked about the proposed train set project which will reduce travel time, he said that it was being studied but it will be launched in a limited scale in some Shatabdi routes.

However, on the proposed project on bullet train which will travel at 300 km per hour, he said "it is a long way to go as it involves heavy funding."

Even though railways' finances remain a big challenge, he said the bridge gap funding of Rs 3000 cr has been paid back with interest to Finance Ministry.

He said the foggy condition over north India have affected revenue earnings and the poor market condition led several of its rakes to lie idle.

Expressing optimism over the increased fund allocation, he said plan allocation in the 12th Five-Year Plan to railways has been increased to Rs 1.94 lakh crore from the Rs 77,000 crore in the 11th Five-Year Plan.

"Steps are being taken to curb expenditure as there is a need for fund renewal of assets and safety upgradation," he said.

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Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm

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Senate Approves 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal, Sends to House

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Two hours after a midnight deadline for action, the Senate passed legislation early New Year's Day to avert the so-called fiscal cliff with an overwhelming vote of 89-8.


Senate passage set the stage for a final showdown in the House, where a vote could come as early as today.


"While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay," President Obama said in a statement shortly after the vote.


"There's more work to do to reduce our deficits, and I'm willing to do it. But tonight's agreement ensures that, going forward, we will continue to reduce the deficit through a combination of new spending cuts and new revenues from the wealthiest Americans."


The bill extends Bush-era tax cuts permanently for individuals making less than $400,000 per year and couples making less than $450,000 but allows the top marginal tax rate on incomes above those levels to rise to 39.6 percent.


Capital gains taxes would rise to 20 percent from 15 percent.


The measure would raise the estate tax from 35 to 40 percent for estates larger than $5 million, prevent the alternative minimum tax from hammering millions of middle-class workers and extend unemployment benefits for one year.








'Fiscal Cliff': Lawmakers Scramble for Last-Minute Deal Watch Video









Lawmakers also decided at the last minute to use the measure to prevent a $900 pay raise for each member of Congress due to take effect this spring.


The steep "sequester" budget cuts scheduled to go into effect with the New Year -- a $1.2 trillion hit to defense and domestic programs -- would be postponed for two months.


"I've said all along our most important priority is protecting middle-class Americans, this legislation does that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said early this morning prior to the vote.


The deal at hand does little to address the nation's long-term debt woes, however, and does not entirely solve the problem of the "fiscal cliff."


Indeed, the last-minute compromise -- far short from a so-called grand bargain on deficit reduction -- could set up a new showdown on the same spending cuts in two months amplified by a brewing fight on how to raise the debt ceiling beyond $16.4 trillion. That new fiscal battle has the potential to eclipse the "fiscal cliff" in short order.


Reid said he is "disappointed" they were unable to achieve a broader deal but that the compromise was necessary.


"We tried," he said. "If we did nothing, the threat of a recession is very real."


Speaking after Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the deal an "imperfect solution" and noted this should not be the model on how things get done in the Senate.


McConnell also thanked Vice President Joe Biden, who visited Capitol Hill late Monday night and brokered the deal with Senate Republicans.


The measure must now move to the Republican-led House.


Five Senate Republicans and three Democrats voted against the plan, but the large margin of passage was seen as boosting the bill's prospects in the House, even though fiscal conservatives were poised to vehemently oppose the deal when it comes to the floor for a vote.


House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said the House would not vote on any Senate-passed measure "until House members, and the American people, have been able to review" it.






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Syria backs plan for talks to end conflict

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DAMASCUS: Syria's government on Monday welcomed any initiative for talks to end bloodshed in the country, after UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said he had a peace plan acceptable to world powers.

The Damascus regime's stand, expressed by Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity led by Brahimi to find ways to end the 21-month conflict.

But the violence still raged, with activists reporting the gruesome discovery of dozens of tortured, headless corpses in the northern Damascus district of Barzeh and adding that nearly 90 percent of the 45,000 people killed so far died in 2012.

"The government is working to support the national reconciliation project and will respond to any regional or international initiative that would solve the current crisis through dialogue and peaceful means and prevent foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs," Halaqi told parliament.

He said the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad must be resolved only by the Syrian people, "without external pressures or decrees."

Halaqi said the country was "moving toward a historic moment when it will declare victory over its enemies, with the goal of positioning Syria to build a new world order that promotes national sovereignty and the concept of international law."

His remarks came after Brahimi said the conflict was worsening "by the day."

Speaking after talks in Russia, the veteran Algerian troubleshooter said on Sunday he had crafted a ceasefire plan "that could be adopted by the international community."

"I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria... I think this proposal could be adopted by the international community," Brahimi said, without going into detail.

"There is a proposal for a political solution based on the Geneva declaration foreseeing a ceasefire, forming a government with complete prerogatives and a plan for parliamentary and presidential elections," he said, referring to a peace initiative world powers agreed to in June.

That plan was rejected by Syria's opposition, which insists Assad must go before any national dialogue can take place.

Russia and China have so far vetoed three UN Security Council draft resolutions seeking to force Assad's hand with the threat of sanctions.

The violence has escalated, with activists reporting the discovery of 30 tortured bodies in Damascus.

"Thirty bodies were found in the Barzeh district. They bore signs of torture and have so far not been identified," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on medics and activists on the ground in compiling its tolls.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots network of anti-regime activists, gave a higher estimate of 50 bodies, saying "their heads were cut and disfigured to the point that it was no longer possible to identify" them.

These reports could not be verified independently because of restrictions on international media.

The Observatory said three civilians were killed on Monday in air attacks on the town of Douma northeast of Damascus, while fierce clashes erupted in Daraya southwest of the city.

In Idlib province, fighters from Al-Nusra Front -- blacklisted by Washington as a terror group -- and other rebels who are besieging the Wadi Deif base also clashed with troops at a nearby military post, the Observatory said.

It said at least 160 people were killed on Sunday, including 78 civilians, and that nearly 90 percent of the 45,000 people killed so far died in 2012.

It put the 2012 death toll at 39,362 people, including 28,133 civilians.

On Sunday, regime forces unleashed a fierce offensive in the central city of Homs after overrunning Deir Baalbeh, a key neighbourhood, a day earlier in fighting which left dozens dead.

A video released by the Syrian Revolution General Commission showed the bodies of nine male victims from Deir Baalbeh lying on the ground, their faces bloody and mutilated.

- AFP/xq



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