By QAIS AL-BASHIR, Associated Press Writer Mon Dec 25, 11:43 AM ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Umm Salam draws her curtains across her windows, then settles into an armchair in a living room festooned with colored lights and a portrait of Jesus on the cross. Her Christmas tree glitters in the corner. ADVERTISEMENT
One of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians, the 56-year-old widow celebrates the holiday quietly with her children and grandchildren, as violence sweeps the country.
"It is very risky to go the church in our neighborhood, so we will have a party at home and some of our relatives will come to celebrate," she said. "They'll have to stay the night at our home due to the security situation and the curfew."
The evening service at the local church was canceled for security reasons.
The spirit of Christmas is still alive in Iraq, but it's tucked away behind the closed doors of Christian families, who represent about three percent of Iraq's 26 million people.
Most of the fighting in Iraq involves Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but Christians have also become targets. Church bombings and other sectarian attacks spiked amid a wave of anti-Christian anger over comments by Pope Benedict XVI in September that seemed to link the prophet Muhammad's teachings to violence.
In October, a priest in the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped by a group demanding that he retract the pope's statements. He was eventually found beheaded.
According to the United Nations, more than a million Iraqis have fled since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, with about 3,000 people now leaving daily. About 40 percent of those leaving are Christian, the U.N. says.
Umm Salam, who goes by her tribal name meaning "mother of Salam" out of fear she will be targeted if she reveals her Christian name, said Sunday she has no choice but to keep her religion a secret.
"We cannot show our happiness (about Christmas) to neighbors. But every single Iraqi has his own wounds, and life must go on," she said. "Happiness is for the children when they will awake tomorrow and find their gifts near the tree."
It wasn't always like this. Umm Salam's daughter, Um Mawj, recalls more peaceful times, when Christmas celebrations went on for days.
"We use to go to the clubs, and all the relatives and friends were there. Those years are unforgettable, but they have faded," the 38-year-old said.
Her brother used to own a liquor store in Baghdad, but converted it into a grocery store when other alcohol vendors were attacked by Islamic militiamen. He sells Christmas trees, Santa dolls and colored lights at this time of year, but business is not as good as it used to be, Wisam Wadie said.
"Violence has kidnapped our happiness and joy on this great occasion, and planted fears in our hearts," he said.
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Somalia's main airport Monday, the first direct attack on the city that serves as the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to wrest power from the internationally recognized government. Another airport also was hit nearby.
Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Somalia's main airport, which recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of Mogadishu. An Associated Press reporter who arrived shortly after the strike saw one wounded woman taken away. The runway and one building used by the Islamic forces were damaged.
Shortly afterward, Baledogle Airport, about 60 miles outside Mogadishu, was hit, an Islamic soldier said. There were no reliable casualty reports available for either attack.
"The Ethiopian government is bombing non-civilian targets in Somalia in order to disable and prevent the delivery of arms and supplies to the Islamic courts," said Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Ethiopia and the Somali government have long accused the Islamic council of recruiting foreign fighters into its ranks.
The Somali government started sealing its borders Monday in an attempt to keep foreigners from joining the Islamists. Residents living along Somalia's coast have seen hundreds of foreign Islamic fighters entering the country to answer calls by religious leaders to wage a holy war against largely Christian Ethiopia.
But the move is unlikely to have any major immediate effect, particularly along Somalia's 1,860-mile coastline. The country has no coast guard or navy and piracy is rampant.
Ethiopia's prime minister said Sunday that his country was "forced to enter a war" with Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts. Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the already volatile Horn of Africa.
For their part, the Islamic fighters say they are prepared for war.
"We will overcome the Ethiopian troops in our land," Abdirahman Janaqow, deputy chairman of the Islamic courts' executive body, told reporters at the airport after the bombing. "Our forces are alert and ready defend our country."
Somali troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, also captured a key border town early Monday and residents celebrated as government soldiers moved through the town and headed south in pursuit of fleeing Islamic militiamen, a Somali officer said.
Islamic fighters left the town of Belet Weyne, on the Somali-Ethiopian border, overnight after Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Islamic positions Sunday, residents said.
Col. Abdi Yusuf Ahmed, a Somali government army commander, told The Associated Press that his forces entered Belet Weyne early Monday without a shot fired. He held up his telephone and a reporter could hear street celebrations.
Heavy artillery and mortar fire continued to echo through the main government town of Baidoa on Monday, said Mohammed Sheik Ali, a resident reached by telephone. Government and Ethiopian troops were attempting to push back Islamic forces just 12 miles south of Baidoa.
Sunday marked the first time Ethiopia has acknowledged that its troops are fighting in Somalia, though witnesses had been reporting their presence for weeks. Ethiopia supports Somalia's U.N.-backed government, which has been losing ground to the Islamists since June.
"Our defense force has been forced to enter a war to defend against the attacks from extremists and anti-Ethiopian forces and to protect the sovereignty of the land," Meles, the Ethiopian prime minister, said in a television address Sunday night. "Our intention is to win this war as soon as possible."
Ethiopia dropped bombs on several towns held by the Council of Islamic Courts and its soldiers used artillery and tanks elsewhere. No reliable casualty reports were immediately available.
The Islamic group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al-Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have become leaders in Somalia's Islamic militia.
Major fighting broke out Tuesday night. On Sunday, Ethiopian forces fought alongside secular Somali soldiers in Dinsoor, Belet Weyne, Bandiradley and Bur Haqaba, officials said.
Ethiopia and Somalia have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years, and Islamic court leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.
Thousands of Somalis have fled their homes as troops loyal to the two-year-old interim administration fought Islamic fighters who had advanced on Baidoa, about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.
Government officials and Islamic militiamen have said hundreds of people have been killed in clashes since Tuesday, but the claims could not be independently confirmed. Aid groups put the death toll in the dozens.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into chaos. The government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert any real control.
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Associated Press writers Salad Duhul and Mohamed Sheik Nor in Mogadishu and Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.
By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic fighters were in a tactical retreat Tuesday, a senior Islamic leader said, as government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turn around in the battle for control of Somalia. ADVERTISEMENT click here
Somalia's internationally backed government called on the Council of Islamic Courts to surrender and promised them amnesty if they lay down their weapons and stop opposing the government, spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the government.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts' executive body, said the group had asked its troops to withdraw from some areas.
"The war is entering a new phase," he said. "We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace."
Ahmed declined to explain is comments in greater detail, but some Islamic leaders have threatened a guerrilla war to include suicide bombings in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.
Patrick Mazimhaka, the deputy chairman of the African Union Commission, expressed support for Somalia's government and defended Ethiopia's military advances.
"If Ethiopia feels sufficiently threatened, then we recognize the right of Ethiopia to defend itself if it thinks its sovereignty and its security are under direct threat."
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, pushing the country into anarchy. Two years ago, the United Nations helped set up a central government for the arid, impoverished nation on the Horn of Africa.
But the government has not been able to extend its influence outside the city of Baidoa, where it is headquartered about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu. The country was largely under the control of warlords until this past summer, when the Islamic militia movement seized power.
Experts fear the conflict in Somalia could engulf the region. John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, said the war "dangerously escalates regional tensions and leaves the Horn of Africa less secure than it has been in a long time."
Some analysts also fear that the courts movement hopes to make Somalia a third front, after Afghanistan and Iraq, in militant Islam's war against the West.
The Islamic group's often severe interpretation of Islam is reminiscent, to some, of Afghanistan's Taliban regime — ousted by a U.S.-led campaign in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al-Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, are now leaders in the Islamic militia.
The African Union, Arab League and a regional group known as IGAD were scheduled to take up Somalia at meeting on Wednesday designed to resume the peace process.
But Ahmed rejected any suggestion of resuming peace talks and appeared unbowed by his group's losses.
Skirmishes were continuing on Tuesday, with a witness in Bur Haqaba reporting that he heard explosions nearby after two Ethiopian jets flew overhead.
"I saw two helicopters, I heard the sounds of bombs at Lego village," said Mohamed Abdulle Siidi by telephone. The account could not be immediately confirmed.
Islamic troops withdrew more than 50 miles to the southeast from Daynuney, a town just south of Baidoa. The retreat along the western front follows the bombing by Ethiopian jets of the country's two main international airports.
Advancing government and Ethiopian troops captured Bur Haqaba, one of the Islamists' main bases after it was abandoned early Tuesday.
"We woke up from our sleep this morning and the town was empty of troops, not a single Islamic fighter," Ibrahim Mohamed Aden, a resident of Bur Haqaba said.
Islamic fighters were also reportedly retreating on two other fronts. On the southern front, government troops captured Dinsor, Dinari said.
On the northern front, government and Ethiopian troops entered the town of Bulo Barde, where just two weeks ago an Islamic cleric said anyone who did not pray five times a day would be executed.
Government and Ethiopian troops were headed for Jowhar, 55 miles north of Mogadishu, after driving Islamic troops from Bandiradley, Adadow and Galinsor.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced on Saturday that he had sent troops into Somalia to fight international terrorists, defend Ethiopian interests and prop up the besieged U.N.-backed government, which only has a very small military force.
But Meles has said he does not intend to keep his forces in Somalia for long, perhaps only a few weeks. He has told visiting dignitaries in Addis Ababa that his goal is to severely damage the courts' military capabilities, take away their sense of invincibility and allow both sides to return to peace talks on even footing.
Meles said he would not send troops into Mogadishu, but instead encircle the city to contain the Islamic forces.
The Islamic group, which wants to rule the country by the Quran, has been a source of grave concern by largely Christian Ethiopia. Since June, the group has seized control of the capital and much of southern Somalia.
No reliable casualty reports were immediately available. Both sides have claimed to have killed hundreds of their enemy, but independent observers were not given access to the battlefield.
The Arab League, which has mediated several rounds of talks between the Somali government and the Islamists, called on Monday for all parties involved to "immediately hold a comprehensive cease-fire."
Many Somalis are enraged by the idea of Ethiopian involvement here because the countries have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years. Islamic leaders have repeatedly said they want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti into a Greater Somalia.
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's highest appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence and said he must be hanged within 30 days for the killing of 148 Shiites in the central city of Dujail. ADVERTISEMENT click here
The sentence "must be implemented within 30 days," chief judge Aref Shahin said. "From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation."
On Nov. 5, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to the gallows for ordering the 1982 killings following an attempt on his life.
Under Iraqi law, the appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has in the past deputized a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf — a substitute that was legally accepted.
Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the judicial system would ensure that Saddam is executed even if Talabani and the two vice presidents do not ratify the decision.
"We'll implement the verdict by the power of the law," Juhi said. He did not elaborate.
The appeals court also upheld death sentences for Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.
The appeals court concluded the sentence of life imprisonment given to former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was too lenient and returned his file to the High Tribunal. Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder in the Dujail case.
"We demand that he be sentenced to death," said Shahin, the appeals judge.
At his trial, Saddam argued that the Dujail residents who were killed had been convicted in a legitimate Iraqi court for trying to assassinate him in 1982.
The televised trial was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for theater as for substance. Saddam was ejected from the courtroom repeatedly for political harangues, and his half brother once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to the judges.
The nine-month trial inflamed Iraq's political divide, however, and three defense lawyers and a witness were murdered during the course of its 39 sessions.
Saddam is in the midst of a second trial charging him with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.
Saddam was found hiding with an unfired pistol in a hole in the ground near his home village north of Baghdad in December 2003, eight months after he fled the capital ahead of advancing American troops.
By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic fighters retreated Tuesday as Somali government and Ethiopian troops advanced on three fronts in a decisive turn in the battle for control of this Horn of Africa nation. ADVERTISEMENT click here
Somalia's internationally backed government called on the Council of Islamic Courts to surrender and promised amnesty if they lay down their weapons, spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said from Baidoa, the seat of the interim administration.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose military openly joined the war Sunday after weeks of quietly aiding the Somali government, said his forces had completed about half their mission.
"As soon as we have accomplished our mission — and about half of our mission is done, and the rest shouldn't take long — we'll be out," Meles told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
He also claimed Islamic militiamen had suffered heavy casualties, citing internal reports from Ethiopia's military. "I hear reports of close to 3,000 injured in Mogadishu's hospitals ... and well over 1,000 might have died," Meles said.
The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting Tuesday to be briefed on the fighting. An African force authoritized by the Security Council on Dec. 6 to protect the Somali government has not yet been deployed.
The Dec. 6 resolution, sponsored by the United States and co-sponsored by the council's African members, also partially lifted an arms embargo on Somalia so the regional force could be supplied with weapons and military equipment.
Both sides have claimed to have killed hundreds of their enemy, but independent observers have not been given access to the battlefields to check on the reports.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, leader of the Council of Islamic Courts' executive body, said the group had told its troops to withdraw from some areas.
"The war is entering a new phase," he said. "We will fight Ethiopia for a long, long time and we expect the war to go everyplace."
Ahmed declined to explain his comments in greater detail, but some Islamic leaders had threatened a guerrilla war to include suicide bombings in Addis Ababa. He also accused Ethiopian troops of massacring 50 civilians in the central town of Cadado.
Ethiopian officials were not immediately available to respond to the allegation.
Patrick Mazimhaka, deputy chairman of the African Union Commission, expressed support for Somalia's government and defended Ethiopia's military advances.
"If Ethiopia feels sufficiently threatened, then we recognize the right of Ethiopia to defend itself if it thinks its sovereignty and its security are under direct threat," he said.
The United Nations helped set up the acting government in the arid, impoverished nation two years ago, but the administration was not able to extend its influence outside Baidoa, which is about 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu, the country's nominal capital.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew a longtime dictator in 1991, plunging the country into anarchy. Warlords remained largely in control until this summer, when the Islamic movement seized power in Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia.
Experts fear the conflict could engulf the region. John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, said the war "dangerously escalates regional tensions and leaves the Horn of Africa less secure than it has been in a long time."
Some analysts also fear the Islamic movement hopes to make Somalia a third front, after Afghanistan and Iraq, in militant Islam's war against the West.
The group's often severe interpretation of Islam is reminiscent, to some, of Afghanistan's Taliban regime — ousted by a U.S.-led campaign in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden. The U.S. government says four al-Qaida leaders, believed to be behind the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, are now leaders in the Islamic militia.
The African Union, Arab League and a regional group known as IGAD were scheduled to take up Somalia at meeting Wednesday designed to restart peace negotiations between the Somali government and the Islamic movement.
But Ahmed rejected any suggestion of peace talks and appeared unbowed by his group's losses.
Skirmishes were continuing Tuesday.
A witness in the town of Bur Haqaba reported hearing explosions nearby after two Ethiopian jets flew overhead.
"I saw two helicopters, I heard the sounds of bombs at Lego village," Mohamed Abdulle Siidi said by telephone. The account could not be confirmed.
Islamic militiamen withdrew more than 50 miles to the southeast from Daynuney, a town just south of Baidoa. The retreat along the western front followed the bombing by Ethiopian jets of the country's two main international airports.
Advancing government and Ethiopian troops captured Bur Haqaba, one of the Islamists' main bases after it was abandoned early Tuesday.
"We woke up from our sleep this morning and the town was empty of troops, not a single Islamic fighter," Ibrahim Mohamed Aden, a resident of Bur Haqaba said.
Islamic fighters were also reportedly retreating on two other fronts.
On the southern front, government troops captured Dinsor, the government spokesman, Dinari, said. On the northern front, government and Ethiopian troops entered Bulo Barde, where just two weeks ago an Islamic cleric said anyone who did not pray five times a day would be executed.
Government and Ethiopian troops also were headed for Jowhar, 55 miles north of Mogadishu, after driving Islamic troops from Bandiradley, Adadow and Galinsor.
But Meles has said he does not intend to keep his forces in Somalia long, perhaps only a few weeks. He has told visiting dignitaries that his goal is to severely damage the Islamic movement's military capabilities and allow both sides to return to peace talks on even footing.
Meles said he would not send troops into Mogadishu, but instead encircle the city to contain the Islamic forces.
Ethiopia and Somalia have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years, and the Islamic movement has said it want to incorporate ethnic Somalis living in eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and northeastern Kenya into a Greater Somalia.
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Associated Press writers Mohamed Olad Hassan and Mohamed Sheik Nor in Mogadishu, Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Chris Tomlinson in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
Ethiopia predicts victory against Somali Islamists
By Guled Mohamed 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Tuesday it was halfway to crushing Somali Islamists as its forces advanced on the religious movement's Mogadishu stronghold after a week of war in the Horn of Africa. ADVERTISEMENT click here
Somalia's envoy to Addis Ababa said Ethiopian troops were within 70 km (40 miles) of the capital and could capture it in 24 to 48 hours.
Islamists countered that they were ready for a long war and any attempt to oust them would prove disastrous for their foes.
The Red Cross said hundreds had been wounded and thousands were fleeing their homes in the combat zone, with the United Nations saying the displacement could trigger an aid crisis in a region where relief resources are already stretched.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces supporting Somalia's weak interim government had killed up to 1,000 Islamist fighters. There was no independent verification of that. The Islamists also claim to have killed hundreds.
"We have already completed half our mission, and as soon as we finish the second half, our troops will leave Somalia," Meles told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital.
"We will not keep a single fighter in Somalia once our mission getting rid of the terrorists is completed."
He said a force of between 3,000 and 4,000 Ethiopians had "broken the back" of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) around the government's south-central base Baidoa, and that the Islamists were now in "full retreat."
Ethiopia backs Somalia's secular interim government against the Islamists who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June. Addis Ababa and Washington say the Islamists are backed by al Qaeda and by Ethiopia's enemy, Eritrea.
SICC spokesman Abdi Kafi said any such attempt by Ethiopian forces to take Mogadishu "will be their destruction and doomsday ... It is a matter of time before we start striking at them from all directions."
The Islamists claim broad popular support and say their aim is to restore order to Somalia under sharia law after years of anarchy since the 1991 ousting of dictator Siad Barre.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting to be briefed on Tuesday by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall of Guinea.
AU BACKING
Meles said his forces' main target now were Eritrean troops and foreign jihadists. He said a handful of Islamist prisoners taken on the battlefield were holding British passports.
At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist fighters on Tuesday shortly after pro-government forces recaptured two towns near Baidoa. It was the third day of Ethiopian air attacks in the escalating conflict.
"Over 800 war wounded have arrived at the various medical structures around Baidoa and Mogadishu is the last few days," said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Thousands of people are fleeing the combat areas. It is too early to tell if this is a temporary displacement," Notari said.
"The last thing we and the people of Somalia need is yet another round of massive displacement," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
The African Union backed Ethiopia's right to intervene. Diplomats say that, allied to Washington's tacit support, may embolden Meles to try to seize Mogadishu.
The fighting could now draw in Eritrea on the side of the Islamists, the diplomats said. They added that Kenya, which is taking in a flood of Somali refugees across its north border, was trying to broker ceasefire talks.
The Islamists insisted their retreat was a tactic in what they vowed would be a long war. "We will fight to the last man until we ensure there are no more Ethiopian troops in our country," Kafi said.
Thousands of Islamist fighters crammed into trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns and left Mogadishu for the frontlines.
Analysts say Ethiopia's heavy arms and MiG jets had saved the Somali government from being routed.
"This is the first stage of victory ... When this is all over, we will enter Mogadishu peacefully," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said by telephone from Baidoa. He offered amnesty to Islamists who lay down their arms.
Addis Ababa fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep and accuses the SICC of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region.
(Additional reporting by Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Hassan Yare in Baidoa, Ibrahim Mohammed in Jowhar, Sahra Abdi Ahmed in Kismayu, Andrew Cawthorne and Bryson Hull in Nairobi, Jack Kimball in Asmara, Irwin Arieff in New York and Sam Cage in Zurich)
An obesity pill which can help women drop two dress sizes in a year has been hailed by scientists after stunning test results.
The drug fools the body's metabolism into staying active, cutting weight by 12 per cent in under a year.
For a 12 and a half stone woman, this would mean shedding 21lb - or two dress sizes. The pill, Excalia, is said to work better and faster than existing drugs.
A course of one a day could have a dramatic effect on quality of life and cut the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Excalia will need official approval before being made available on the NHS. But a successful weight-reduction pill would be a major attraction for a health service-which spends £1billion a year on obesity-related problems.
The UK has the worst weight problem in Europe, with almost a quarter of adults classed as obese.
Existing anti-obesity pills generally cut weight by five to ten per cent when taken for a year.
But men and women taking Excalia for 48 weeks lost 12 per cent of their body weight, it was reported at a conference run by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, the world's leading scientific obesity research body.
The U.S. scientists developing the pills say their beauty lies in their ability keep the pounds coming off long after most dieters would stop losing weight.
Many slimmers find that, after weeks of successfully losing weight, their metabolism slows down and they hit a plateau. With the pounds slower to come off, many lose their resolve and end up piling weight back on.
Excalia gets round this by tricking the hypothalamus - the brain's weight and appetite thermostat - into keeping the metabolism running fast.
The pill contains two drugs which are already widely used, against epilepsy and smoking, so there is a reduced danger of side-effects emerging in trials. The pills also boost levels of a hormone that stops us getting hungry.
Dr Ken Fujioka, one of the doctors running the trials, said: 'The brain is good at figuring out that the body is losing weight. If a drug affects one pathway that could be used to bring the weight back, it will switch to another pathway.
With a combination of drugs we have a better chance of hitting two pathways and getting better and more sustained weight loss.'
The Boston conference heard that Excalia, being developed by the Californian company Orexigen, was given to 27 obese people for 24 weeks. Almost three quarters lost five per cent of their weight and half shed ten per cent. By 48 weeks most had lost 12 per cent of their weight.
Dr Gary Tollefson, Orexigen's chief executive officer, said the results exceeded their expectations. Larger trials will now be held.
The drug could be on the market in the UK, for private prescription, within four years. Approval for NHS use, by the Government's drugs' rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, will take longer.
British experts said overcoming the weight-loss plateau was a vital step.
Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: 'Twelve per cent of body weight is an impressive figure and would certainly make a significant difference in terms of the risk of conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart problems.
'The slowing down of the metabolism is a barrier to weight loss, so, if it does prevent that, it would make it easier to lose weight.'
But others cautioned against using drugs as a 'quick fix' for a problem which can also be tackled by diet and exercise.
Neville Rigby, of the International Obesity Task Force, said: 'There is no magic bullet. There are products which can help weight loss but people also need to help themselves in terms of diet and activity.'
Last week, it emerged that the number of NHS prescriptions for obesity drugs has jumped almost 600 per cent since 1999.
Those currently available in the UK are Xenical, which blocks absorption of fat, Reductil, which makes the stomach feel full, and Acomplia, which reduces cravings and stops the body storing abdominal fat.
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer Tue Dec 26, 4:07 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The State Department signaled support Tuesday for Ethiopian military operations against Somalia, noting that Ethiopia has had "genuine security concerns" stemming from the rise of Islamist forces in its eastern neighbor. ADVERTISEMENT click here
Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos also noted that the Ethiopian military acted at the request of Somalia's internationally-backed secular government, which has been resisting with little success the spreading influence of the more powerful Islamist forces.
Gallegos had no information on whether the United States has been bolstering the Ethiopian military through delivery of supplies. He noted that Ethiopia has said that its action is intended to prevent further aggression by the Islamic Courts militias.
The Bush administration has been increasingly alarmed by the growing strength of the militias and the welcome they reportedly have given to al-Qaida militants.
The Islamic militants operate under the umbrella of the Council of Islamic Courts.
The government has no presence in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, its reach limited to the western town of Baidoa. In contrast, the CIC has dominated the country's entire southern region.
A priority U.S. goal in Somalia is the capture of three reputed al-Qaida militants wanted for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and a hotel in Kenya in 2002. The three are from Sudan, Kenya and the Comoros Islands, located off Africa's east coast.
Al-Qaida militants are operating with "great comfort" in Somalia, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said recently.
The Islamists have caused unease in Washington by expressing interest in establishing a "Greater Somalia" that would include ethnic Somali regions of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon recommended a new U.S. military command for Africa, which is seen as having greater strategic importance to the United States since the start of the fight against terrorism.
At present, U.S. military responsibility for Africa has been split among several commands, all based elsewhere.
The United States consistently has backed the establishment of an African force to help defend the Baidoa government, thus creating a power balance between the government and the CIC and enhance prospects for negotiations on power sharing.
But with Ethiopia's invasion, creation of the force now seems highly unlikely.
Ethiopia has been backing the Somali government for months, while Eritrea has been supporting the Islamists.
A report by a U.N. panel last month said that in addition to Ethiopia and Eritrea, weapons had been sent to armed groups in Somalia by Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iran, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Uganda. Most of the nations have denied the allegations.
The shipments would be in violation of a U.N. arms embargo against Somalia, in effect since 1992.
CHICAGO - An intern in Sen. Barack Obama's office last year was recommended by an Illinois Democratic fundraiser later indicted for seeking kickbacks on government deals. ADVERTISEMENT click here
Obama has denied doing any favors for Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. The internship was one of 98 Illinois spots filled from a pool of 350 applicants.
John Aramanda, a 20-year-old student, served in Obama's Capitol Hill office from July 20 to Aug. 26, 2005, and was paid an $804 stipend, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times in reports published Sunday.
Gibbs said Rezko recommended the intern to Obama but contended that the internship did not contradict Obama's statements about not doing any favors for Rezko.
"I think that it's fairly obvious that a few-week internship is not anything of benefit to Mr. Rezko or any of his businesses," he said.
The intern's father, Joseph Aramanda, a businessman in the Chicago suburb of Glenview, once served as chief operating officer of a Rezko company and had a long-term business relationship with Rezko, according to court records and business filings.
The intern's father said there was no relationship between the internship and his business with Rezko.
Rezko has pleaded not guilty to charges he plotted to squeeze millions of dollars in kickbacks out of investment firms seeking state business. He also has pleaded not guilty to obtaining a $10.5 million loan from GE Capital through fraud and swindling a group of investors.
Rezko's wife bought a vacant lot next door to Obama on the same day last year that Obama and his wife, Michelle, closed on their home, according to published reports last fall. In January, Obama paid Rezko $104,500 for part of the lot to balance the space between his house and the fence.
Obama, who is weighing a run for president, has said the arrangements were ethical, but he also acknowledged he "misgauged" the implications suggested by his purchase of the additional land.
Messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press for Obama's representatives and Rezko's attorney, Joseph J. Duffy, were not immediately returned.
LOS ANGELES - Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93. ADVERTISEMENT
Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly controlled and conspiratorial.
He took office minutes after Nixon flew off into exile and declared "our long national nightmare is over." But he revived the debate a month later by granting Nixon a pardon for all crimes he committed as president. That single act, it was widely believed, cost Ford election to a term of his own in 1976, but it won praise in later years as a courageous act that allowed the nation to move on.
The Vietnam War ended in defeat for the U.S. during his presidency with the fall of Saigon in April 1975. In a speech as the end neared, Ford said: "Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned." Evoking Abraham Lincoln, he said it was time to "look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the nation's wounds."
Ford also earned a place in the history books as the first unelected vice president, chosen by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew who also was forced from office by scandal.
He was in the White House only 895 days, but changed it more than it changed him.
Even after two women tried separately to kill him, the presidency of Jerry Ford remained open and plain.
Not imperial. Not reclusive. And, of greatest satisfaction to a nation numbed by Watergate, not dishonest.
Even to millions of Americans who had voted two years earlier for Richard Nixon, the transition to Ford's leadership was one of the most welcomed in the history of the democratic process — despite the fact that it occurred without an election.
After the Watergate ordeal, Americans liked their new president — and first lady Betty, whose candor charmed the country.
They liked her for speaking openly about problems of young people, including her own daughter; they admired her for not hiding that she had a mastectomy — in fact, her example caused thousands of women to seek breast examinations.
And she remained one of the country's most admired women even after the Fords left the White House when she was hospitalized in 1978 and admitted to having become addicted to drugs and alcohol she took for painful arthritis and a pinched nerve in her neck. Four years later she founded the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, a substance abuse facility next to Eisenhower Medical Center.
Ford slowed down in recent years. He had been hospitalized in August 2000 when he suffered one or more small strokes while attending the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
The following year, he joined former presidents Carter, Bush and Clinton at a memorial service in Washington three days after the Sept. 11 attacks. In June 2004, the four men and their wives joined again at a funeral service in Washington for former President Reagan. But in November 2004, Ford was unable to join the other former presidents at the dedication of the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.
In January, Ford was hospitalized with pneumonia for 12 days. He wasn't seen in public until April 23, when President Bush was in town and paid a visit to the Ford home. Bush, Ford and Betty posed for photographers outside the residence before going inside for a private get-together.
The intensely private couple declined reporter interview requests and were rarely seen outside their home in Rancho Mirage's gated Thunderbird Estates, other than to attend worship services at the nearby St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert.
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Attacking at dawn, Ethiopian and Somali government troops on Wednesday drove Islamic fighters out of the last major town on their road to the Islamic-held capital. ADVERTISEMENT
A former warlord who ruled the town of Jowhar before it was captured by the Council of Islamic Courts in June led the Somali government troops as they drove into the city, a resident said.
"Ethiopian troops and Mohammed Dheere have entered the city," said Abshir Ali Gabre.
Hundreds of people fled Jowhar, anticipating major fighting, but others seemed resigned to it after suffering from drought and flooding over the last two years.
"We do not know where to escape, we are already suffering from floods, hunger and disease," Abdale Haji Ali said from Jowhar. "We are awaiting death."
Ethiopia sent fighter jets streaking deep into militia-held areas Sunday to help Somalia's U.N.-recognized government push back the Islamic militias. Ethiopia bombed the country's two main airports and helped government forces capture several villages.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday that Ethiopian forces may soon wrap up their offensive against the Islamic militias that until recent days controlled most of southern part of the country.
The Islamic fighters, meanwhile, threatened a "new phase" in the war — a chilling pronouncement from a movement that has threatened a guerrilla war that would include suicide bombings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, pushing the country into anarchy.
Two years ago, the United Nations helped set up a central government for the arid, impoverished nation on the Horn of Africa. But until the past week, it had little influence outside of its seat in the city of Baidoa, about 140 northwest of Mogadishu.
The country was largely under the control of warlords until this past summer, when the Islamic militia movement pushed them aside.
One critical issue is whether the central government can win the support of Somalis. Many resent Ethiopia's intervention because the countries have fought two wars over their disputed border in the past 45 years.
"The USDA suggested several methods for containing the cats, including hiring a night watchman...."
this is the best part....
Much of the dispute revolves around the wanderings of Ivan, an orange tomcat born in 2004, the year Hurricane Ivan killed dozens of people in the Caribbean and the USA. According to Schultz, Ivan the cat wreaks another type of havoc on the cat population that lived outside the museum wall.
She says Ivan often stops by a feeding station she keeps for neighborhood cats. Schultz says she took Ivan to the animal shelter six times. Higgins says the museum had to "bail him out," each time.
"I saw Ivan many times loose," she says. "Ivan is a very unneutered, very macho male cat, and in each case, he had one of the street cats pinned down," she says. "We have an ordinance that says a nuisance cat can be removed."
By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago
MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Islamist forces who have controlled Somalia's capital for months abandoned the city to clan rule on Thursday after government forces advanced to within striking distance. ADVERTISEMENT
An AP reporter in Mogadishu saw gunmen taking off their Islamist uniforms and submitting to the command of traditional elders. Gunfire echoed through the streets as people began looting Islamist bases and buildings belonging to Islamist officials, witnesses said.
"I have seen that the Islamists are defeated, I'm going to rejoin my clan," said gunman Mohamed Barre Sidow. "I was forced to join the Islamic courts by my clan, so I now I will return to my clan and they will decide my fate, whether I join the government or not."
Residents south of the city reported seeing Islamist forces in a long convoy heading south.
The Council of Islamic Courts seized the capital in June and went on to take much of southern Somalia, often without fighting. They were later joined by foreign militants, including Pakistanis and Arabs, who supported their goal of making Somalia an Islamic state.
The Islamists seemed invincible after capturing the capital, but they have been no match for Ethiopia, which has the strongest military in the Horn of Africa.
Ethiopian forces crossed the border Sunday to reinforce the internationally recognized Somali government, which was bottled up in Baidoa, 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu.
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