Israeli civilian, Palestinian girl killed in Gaza flare-up

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - A Gaza sniper shot dead an Israeli civilian over the border on Tuesday and Israel hit back with air strikes on two Hamas training camps which hospital officials said killed a Palestinian girl near one of the targets.

The Israeli man, who the military said was working on Israel's security fence, was the first Israeli killed on the Gaza frontier in more than a year.

His death, which drew a swift threat of retaliation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came amid heightened tensions after two suspected Palestinian attacks - a bus bombing near Tel Aviv on Sunday that caused no casualties and the wounding of an Israeli policeman in a stabbing on Monday.

Officials from Hamas, the Islamic group which rules Gaza, and witnesses said Israeli aircraft bombed the group's training camps in Khan Younis and al-Bureij. Witnesses said Israeli tanks had fired shells east of Gaza city.

Gaza hospital officials said a three-year-old girl was killed by shrapnel during the Israeli strike on the Bureij facility. They had initially estimated her age at two years.

She was standing with other family members outside their home near the camp and two of her brothers were wounded, the officials said. In a statement, Hamas condemned the girl's death as "a criminal and cowardly act".

The Israeli military said in a statement its aircraft, tanks and infantry had taken part in a series of strikes.

"The sites targeted were a weapon manufacturing facility and a terror infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip, a terror site and another terror infrastructure in the central Gaza Strip and a concealed rocket launcher," the military said.

Hamas Government spokesman Ehab Al-Ghsain said the group was "making internal efforts to contain the situation" and that it has contacted Egyptian mediators to prevent escalation.

Egypt last year brokered a ceasefire that ended an eight-day war between Israel and Hamas. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on the sides to abide by the 2012 truce and "exert maximum restraint to prevent another cycle of bloodshed."

CONCERNS

Earlier a Palestinian was killed in a separate incident in northern Gaza, hospital officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said he was handling an explosive device near the security fence and that soldiers fired at him after warnings.

Israel shut the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing on the Gaza border, an Israeli defense official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the sniper attack, which followed a Palestinian rocket strike on southern Israel on Sunday that caused no casualties.

Commenting on the sniper attack, Netanyahu said: "This is an extremely grave incident and we will not ignore it. Our policy has been to thwart (Palestinian attacks) and to respond forcefully, and that is what we will do in this case."

However, since the November 2012 war, both Israel and Gaza's Hamas Islamist rulers have been wary of taking military action that could trigger widescale fighting.

No one was hurt in Sunday's bomb blast on the bus, which had been evacuated after the explosives were spotted, and the wounded policeman was expected to recover. But the incidents, blamed by Israel on militants, fuelled concerns of a new Palestinian uprising as peace talks show few signs of progress.

Hamas praised Sunday's bus bombing - the first in Israel in more than a year - but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Violence in the West Bank has increased in recent months. At least 19 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed in the occupied territory since the U.S.-brokered talks on Palestinian statehood resumed in July after a three-year break.

(Writing by Maayan Lubell, Editing by Jeffrey Heller, Gareth Jones and David Evans)

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Bomb kills 12 at Egypt police compound

By Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO (Reuters) - A bomb blast tore through a police compound in Egypt's Nile Delta on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 134 in one of the deadliest attacks since the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July.

The army-backed government vowed to fight "black terrorism", saying the blast an hour after midnight in the city of Mansoura north of Cairo would not derail a political transition plan whose next step is a January referendum on a new constitution.

With eight policemen among the dead, the blast pointed to the risk of militancy moving to the densely populated Nile Valley from the Sinai Peninsula, where attacks have killed some 200 members of the security forces since Mursi's downfall.

"We face an enemy that has no religion or nation," Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, the survivor of an assassination attempt in September, said while inspecting the scene of the blast, an Interior Ministry statement said.

The military-backed presidency declared it a terrorist attack. "These type of operations only increase the state's determination to uproot terrorism across the country," it said in a statement published by state-run media.

Egypt has suffered the deadliest internal strife in its modern history since the army deposed Mursi, the nation's first freely elected leader, on July 3 after big protests against him.

The security forces killed hundreds of his supporters as part of a campaign to repress his Muslim Brotherhood, while lethal attacks on the security forces have become commonplace.

Tuesday's bombing prompted a cabinet statement declaring Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist organization", though the bulletin carried by the state news agency did not explicitly accuse the group of staging the attack.

The Brotherhood condemned the blast, saying it was "an attack on the unity of the Egyptian people". Ibrahim said the police were investigating exactly how it had been staged.

State television showed the security building with shattered windows and one wall partially collapsed, and a bulldozer removing rubble in the street in front of it. A security source said the blast may have been caused by a car bomb.

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Sinai has been the site of most major attacks since Mursi's ouster. A car bomb killed 10 soldiers in November and militants killed 24 policemen in an ambush in August.

Many of the Sinai attacks have been claimed by a group called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, "Supporters of Jerusalem". It also said it was behind the failed assassination attempt on Ibrahim in Cairo in September. Small-scale attacks occur almost daily.

There have also been lethal attacks on security forces in the Nile Delta, though nothing on the scale of Tuesday's blast.

Witnesses in Mansoura said many cars inside and outside the security compound were burned out and the entire city was in chaos as people hurried to hospitals to check on victims.

Egypt's Nile News TV cut into its late-night programming to urge people to go to hospitals to donate blood to the victims.

The government has accused the Brotherhood of turning to violence - charges the group denies. Last week, the public prosecutor ordered Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders to stand trial in two separate terrorist cases.

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Ali Abdelatti; Editing by Tom Perry and Alistair Lyon)

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South Sudan rebel leader sets out conditions for talks

By Carl Odera and Aaron Maasho

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar told Reuters on Monday he was ready to negotiate with President Salva Kiir to bring an end to the nine-day conflict if Kiir first released his detained political allies.

The U.S. special envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, said Kiir was committed to opening talks with Machar.

Information Minister Michael Makuei immediately dismissed the demands made by Machar, who was South Sudan's vice president until Kiir sacked him in July. "There is no way we will release anybody who is accused of a coup d'etat," Makuei told Reuters.

Makuei also dismissed Machar's claims that his rebels have taken over all the major oil fields in Unity and Upper Nile states as "wishful thinking".

Hours before meeting Ambassador Booth, Kiir vowed to attack rebel-held Jonglei State capital Bor amid deepening fears that the conflict is provoking broader ethnic bloodletting.

"President Kiir committed to me that he was ready to begin talks with Riek Machar to end the crisis without preconditions as soon as his counterpart is willing," Booth told reporters.

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Western powers and east African states, which want to prevent the fighting from destabilizing a fragile African region, have tried to mediate between Machar, who hails from the Nuer tribe, and Kiir, a Dinka.

But so far their efforts have been fruitless as clashes which started in Juba on December 15 entered their second week, reaching the country's vital oil fields and destabilizing a state which won independence from Sudan only in 2011.

Hundreds of people have been killed, with reports of summary executions and ethnically-targeted killings.

Diplomats told Reuters the U.N. Security Council was on Tuesday likely to approve U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's request for another 5,000 peacekeepers to be sent to the world's newest country.

Speaking from "the bush", rebel leader Machar told Reuters he had spoken to U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice and U.N. envoy Hilde Johnson about trying to end fighting that has killed hundreds of people and driven thousands from their homes.

"My message was let Salva Kiir release my comrades who are under detention and let them be evacuated to Addis Ababa and we can start dialogue straightaway, because these are the people who would (handle) dialogue," he said by telephone.

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Among those Machar listed should be released were Pagan Amum - chief negotiator during the recent oil shutdown with Sudan, which hosts the sole oil export pipeline; and Rebecca de Mabior, the widow of former South Sudanese leader John Garang.

"They are criminals who must be brought to the books, so there is no way we can negotiate with (Machar). We are only ready to negotiate with him unconditionally," Makuei added.

He also dismissed Machar's suggestion for the peace talks to be held in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, insisting they should be held in Juba.

CHRISTMAS PEACE

Joe Contreras, the United Nations spokesman in South Sudan, said the U.N. was now sheltering about 42,000 civilians across South Sudan and would not leave the country despite worsening security situation.

"For those elements who are trying to intimidate us or who have attacked us, the message is loud and clear: we are here to serve the people of South Sudan and we are not leaving the country under any circumstances," Contreras said.

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Displaced people from South Sudan's Nuer tribe, who fled their home in fear of ethnic killing by …

Two Indian peacekeepers and at least 11 Dinka civilians were killed last week in an attack by about 2,000 armed youths from another ethnic group on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Jonglei state.

Both Machar and Kiir have denied opposing claims that they are stoking ethnic tensions in a country boasting many tribes but where the Nuer, and in particular the Dinka, are dominant.

But many of the people seeking shelter inside sprawling U.N. compounds say the conflict is certainly ethnically based.

"We still don't feel secure, but it is definitely safer here," said Deng, a man who saw several dead bodies lying face down as he took his frightened family to a U.N. base in Juba.

The U.S. said it is repositioning its forces in Africa as the U.S. military prepares for the possibility of further evacuations of U.S. and other citizens from South Sudan.

U.S. Ambassador Booth, who met Kiir in Juba, said the duo had very frank and open dialogue about the problems facing South Sudan and discussed ways the U.S. and the international community can bring the country "back from the precipice".

"We notice that the African Union has said there is Christmas season upon us, and called for all parties to cease hostilities. We support that call," Booth said.

Earlier in the day Kiir told parliament government troops were ready to attack Bor, where about 17,000 people were seeking refuge at a U.N. compound. Makuei said government troops were also looking to take back Unity State capital Bentiu.

Toby Lanzer, the U.N.'s Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, said on a recent visit to Bor that many humanitarian compounds there had been looted. "There was a lot of looting, a lot of gun shots and a lot of dead bodies," he told the BBC.

While Juba remains tense but calm, Contreras added there were reports of fighting between rival Sudan People's Liberation Army factions about 25 km (15 miles) east of the capital.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair; Writing by Drazen Jorgic, editing by David Evans)

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Netanyahu says any U.S. spying on Israel unacceptable

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting on allegations the United States had spied on Israel's leaders, said on Monday such activity was unacceptable and had no place in the allies' close relationship.

Documents leaked on Friday by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden showed the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ had in 2009 targeted an email address listed as belonging to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and monitored emails of senior defense officials.

"With regard to things published in the past few days, I have asked for an examination of the matter," Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks, in a clear reference to the alleged espionage.

He did not elaborate on whether Israel intended to ask Washington for clarifications.

"In the close ties between Israel and the United States, there are things that must not be done and that are not acceptable to us," Netanyahu said, speaking to legislators from his right-wing Likud party.

On Sunday, several Israeli cabinet members and lawmakers said disclosure of U.S. spying on Israel was an opportunity to press Washington to free jailed Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was sentenced to a life term in 1987 in the United States for spying for Israel. A succession of U.S. presidents have spurned Israeli calls for his pardon.

In what appeared to be an attempt to calm the clamor, Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had constantly sought Pollard's release and did not need any "special occasion" to discuss his case with Washington.

Israeli Officials have played down the importance of any information the United States may have gleaned from its alleged espionage activities.

Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel had always assumed that even its allies spied on it. A statement issued by Olmert's office, said the reports, if accurate, referred to a public email address and that chances that any security or intelligence damage had been caused were minuscule.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Amnestied Russian punk band pair criticize Putin after release

By Maria Vasilyeva and Nikolai Isayev

KRASNOYARSK/NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia (Reuters) - Two members of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot were freed from prison on Monday, deriding President Vladimir Putin's amnesty that led to their early release as a propaganda stunt and promising to fight for human rights.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, shouted "Russia without Putin" following her release from a Siberian prison, hours after band mate Maria Alyokhina, 25, was freed from jail in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod.

They walked free days after former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was released under a pardon from Putin after more than 10 years in jail, a move widely seen as intended to improve Russia's image before it hosts the Winter Olympics in February.

"The border between being free and not free is very thin in Russia, a totalitarian state," Tolokonnikova, looking relaxed and smiling in a black jacket and chequered shirt, told reporters outside prison in Krasnoyarsk.

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in prison for a profanity-laced protest against Putin in a Russian Orthodox church in 2012 after a trial Kremlin critics said was part of a clampdown on dissent in his third presidential term.

The case caused an outcry in the West, but there was much less sympathy for the women at home than abroad.

They had been due for release in early March. Putin, who denies jailing people for political reasons, has said the amnesty would show that the Russian state is humane.

However, the measure will not benefit opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a vocal Putin foe who will be kept out of elections for years by a conviction and five-year suspended sentence on a theft charge he says was Kremlin revenge for his activism. Putin, in power since 2000, has not ruled out seeking another six-year term in 2018.

Alyokhina echoed critics who said the amnesty was far too narrow and aimed at deflecting criticism over human rights before the Olympics in the Black Sea city of Sochi on February 7-23.

"I do not think it is a humanitarian act, I think it is a PR stunt," she said by telephone in comments to the Russian Internet and TV channel Dozhd. "My attitude to the president has not changed."

Tolokonnikova, who staged a hunger strike earlier this year and drew attention to stark conditions and long hours of mandatory labor in the jail where she was previously held, said she would fight for prisoners' rights.

"Everything is just starting, so fasten your seat belts," she said, suggesting Pussy Riot - jailed for a "punk prayer" in the main cathedral of Russia's dominant faith - would continue to use attention-grabbing protests to make their point.

"I think we will unite our efforts in our human rights activity ... the methods which we will use will remain the same," Alyokhina said in Nizhny Novgorod. "We will try to sing our the song to the end."

"I'M NOT AFRAID"

Bundled in a thick green prison jacket and with her long curly hair loose, Alyokhina said she would have rejected the amnesty if that been a option. She said she wants to focus on human rights including the rights of prisoners.

"I'm not afraid of anything anymore - believe me," she said.

In addition to the amnesty, Putin unexpectedly pardoned Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos oil company chief who had been in jail since his arrest in 2003 and conviction in two trials that Kremlin critics said were punishment for challenging Putin.

Khodorkovsky, who was freed on Friday and flown to Germany, said Putin is seeking to improve his image while also showing that he is confident in his grip on power after weathering large opposition protests and winning a third term last year.

Putin wants to send "a signal to society and the world that he feels secure and is not afraid", Khodorkovsky, who supporters feared would be behind bars as long as Putin remains in power, said in an interview with Russian magazine the New Times.

The amnesty is also expected to enable 30 people arrested after a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling to avoid trial on hooliganism charges, removing another irritant in ties with the West. They faced up to seven years' jail if convicted.

Putin said the amnesty was not drafted with the Greenpeace activists or Pussy Riot in mind. In an annual news conference last week, he described Pussy Riot's protest as disgraceful, saying it "went beyond all boundaries".

Rights activists have estimated the amnesty will free fewer than 1,500 of the 564,000 convicts in Russian prisons. Another 114,000 people are in pre-trial detention, the government says.

A third Pussy Riot member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed last year when a judge suspended her sentence on appeal.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Writing by Steve Gutterman and Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Thai protesters seek to block election, baht slumps

By Pairat Temphairojana

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The Thai baht plumbed its lowest level in almost four years on Monday as a political crisis grew more intractable, with anti-government protesters attempting to stop candidates from registering for a February election.

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the capital on Sunday as they pressed ahead with their demands that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, resign.

Yingluck remains caretaker premier after calling a snap election for February 2 in a bid to cool tension.

The main opposition party has decided to boycott the vote as it tries to stop her from renewing her mandate and perpetuating the influence of the powerful former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin.

It is an all-too-familiar picture after eight years of deadlock broadly between supporters and opponents of Thaksin, whose populist political machine has won every election since 2001 with widespread support from the rural poor in the north and northeast.

Opposed to Thaksin is the Bangkok-based establishment that backs protests against governments controlled by him.

Critics say Thaksin is a tax-dodging crony capitalist who wins elections with hand-outs, abused his power to enrich his family and friends and even tried to undermine the monarchy.

But to millions of farmers and other rural poor outside Bangkok, Thaksin is a benevolent billionaire who improved their living standards with cheap healthcare and state subsidies.

The seemingly irresolvable conflict hit the currency in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy after rallies that left the outcome no clearer. The baht touched a low of 32.71 to the U.S. dollar, its weakest level since March 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Satoshi Okagawa, a Singapore-based global markets analyst for Sumitomo Mitsui, said the baht had already been hit by the dollar's strength after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided last week to start trimming its bond-buying program in January.

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Anti-government protesters gather during a rally at Victory Monument in Bangkok December 22, 2013. R …

"There hasn't been any end to the political uncertainty," Okagawa said.

POLITICAL LIMBO

Thailand's future was muddied further at the weekend when the opposition Democrat Party decided to boycott the February election, saying the democratic system had been distorted by Thaksin and was failing the country.

The protesters are led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a firebrand former Democrat heavyweight whose campaign is less about policy than weakening the influence of the Shinawatra family before an election Yingluck's Puea Thai Party would most likely win.

He vowed on Sunday his supporters would stop election candidates from registering for the vote, a week-long process that began on Monday.

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Several thousand protesters, watched by police and soldiers, began gathering soon after midnight around a Bangkok sports stadium where the registrations will take place.

By about 11 a.m. (0400 GMT), candidates representing 34 parties arrived to register. Nine were successful and the other 25 would lodge complaints with police, an Election Commission (EC) official said.

EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn told reporters the registration process could be extended beyond Friday's original closing date if not enough candidates had registered.

Police warned protesters they risked jail terms or stiff fines if they impeded the process.

The events of the past two days have only added to concern that Thailand could be left in political limbo. Suthep wants democracy to be suspended and for an appointed "people's council" to reform Thailand before any election can happen.

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Anti-government protesters rest as they block the gate of the Thai-Japan youth stadium in central Ba …

Yingluck had enjoyed a smooth two years in office but her party made a political miscalculation in November when it tried to push through an amnesty bill that would have nullified Thaksin's 2008 graft conviction, which he says was politically motivated, and allowed him to return home from self-exile.

The protests, which have attracted up to 160,00 people, have been largely peaceful but have failed to stop Yingluck's government from functioning.

Government supporters have stayed away but are likely to be enraged if they see Yingluck forced from office.

The Democrats boycotted an election called during similar protests in 2006, when Thaksin tried to renew his mandate. His party won, but the result was annulled on a technicality.

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Masayuki Kitano in SINGAPORE; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Anti-government protesters gather during a mass rally at a major business district in Bangkok Decemb …

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Anti-government protesters gather at Ratchaprasong Junction during a mass rally at a Major business  …

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Anti-government protesters gather during a mass rally at Victory Monument in Bangkok December 22, 20 …

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Anti-government protesters gather at Ratchaprasong Junction during a mass rally at a major business  …

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Anti-government protesters gather during a rally at Victory Monument in Bangkok December 22, 2013. R …

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Anti-government protesters clash with riot police during a mass rally outside the house of Prime Min …

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Anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban speaks to his supporters during a rally at the Demo …

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Anti-government protesters hold a wreath addressed to the Shinawatra family during a mass rally outs …

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An anti-government protester uses a clapper in a rally at the Democracy Monument in central Bangkok  …

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Anti-government protesters carry placards during a mass rally outside the house of Prime Minister Yi …

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Anti-government protesters carry a large Thai national flag as they march in a rally at a major busi …

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U.S. will seek triggers to reimpose sanctions on Iran: Rice

By Ros Krasny

HONOLULU (Reuters) - The United States and its allies will have ways to reimpose sanctions on Iran if the Islamic Republic is caught making bombs after striking a deal to freeze its nuclear program, national security adviser Susan Rice said on Sunday.

In an interview on the CBS news program "60 Minutes," Rice rejected the idea that, once relaxed, the economic sanctions on Tehran would be hard to reinstate.

Any United Nations Security Council resolution that enshrines a final nuclear deal with Iran - not the interim six-month deal signed in Geneva in November - could have triggers to automatically reimpose sanctions on Iran if they violate the deal, she said.

"We will not construct a deal or accept a deal in which we cannot verify exactly what they are doing," Rice said. "And if they're caught, we will ensure that the pressure is reimposed on them."

A mechanism for such "automatic triggers" has not been finalized, Rice said. Any deal beyond the current arrangement is still months away.

"We haven't designed that resolution yet. But this is something that's quite doable," Rice said. The United States does not want Iran to be "in a position to race towards a bomb undetected."

Rice said it was still unclear if Iran was hurting enough from existing sanctions on its oil exports and other industries to give up its nuclear ambitions in a "verifiable way."

"We don't know. But the other half of the answer is we have every interest in testing that proposition," she said.

Under November's interim agreement, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited relief from sanctions.

The Obama administration has clashed with Congress over the sanctions issue; many lawmakers want to impose tougher sanctions on Iran.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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