Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the "Iron Dome" defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia's foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh's office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister's office and pledged: "We will declare victory from here."

Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday's rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

"Well that wasn't such a big deal," said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely."

"We have a plan ... it will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two," he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel's manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

"DE-ESCALATION"

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries," the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran's nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington "wants the same thing as the Israelis want", an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and "de-escalation".

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt's Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes - some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets - and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

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Rugby: France beat Argentina

LILLE, France: France won their second successive test on Saturday following up victory over the Australians with a deserved 39-22 win over traditional bogey team Argentina.

The French outscored their opponents by three tries to one including a double by Vincent Clerc, who moved onto 34 for his country, passing coach Philippe Saint-Andre's total of 32.

The Toulouse flyer's brace came at an opportune moment as the Pumas - who had beaten France in eight of their last 12 meetings - had stormed into an early 13-3 lead.

However another try by his team-mate Yannick Nyanga in the first-half and 24 points from the boot of the mercurial Frederic Michalak rounded off a terrific win for the French.

France will try and make it three wins from three with their final match against Samoa next Saturday at the Stade de France and all but assure themselves of a top four seeding for December's draw for the 2015 World Cup.

"We got off to a bad start, which is a bad habit of ours," said 31-year-old Clerc.

"However, we fought back and turned it round after 15 minutes. We could have scored a few more tries but we will take this.

"Will I ever play again after passing Philippe's mark? I hope so but I will have to talk to him!" he added laughing.

Michalak had opened the scoring in the third minute with a crisply taken penalty but the Pumas replied in style a couple of minutes later.

Marcelo Bosch ran in to touch down after a great break in midfield by Nicolas Sanchez and some poor French tackling saw Gonzalo Tiesi offload to the Biarritz back, and Bosch playing his 18th international went under the posts to touch down.

Sanchez converted and then added a penalty - French No 8 Louis Picamoles showed his frustration by subsequently tackling the fly-half when he was still in the air and received a ticking off from referee Steve Walsh.

Sanchez's faultless night with the boot continued as he slotted another penalty - Walsh penalising the French for offside - in the 14th minute for a 13-3 Pumas lead.

With the crowd starting to boo the French produced a brilliant try, which involved among others man of the match Picamoles and Maxime Mermoz before the latter's wild pass inside had the good fortune to be picked up by Clerc.

Michalak converted to pull France to within three points of their opponents.

Clerc racked up number 34 minutes later as he ran onto Florian Fritz's splendid grubber kick, which caught the Argentine defence napping, and went in under the posts unopposed - Michalak converted to give France a 17-13 lead.

Nyanga then continued his dynamic form since ending a five year international hiatus last week against Australia - as he picked up the ball at a ruck and ran from outside the 22, brushing aside two tackles, and although Juan Imhoff got to him his momentum carried him over the line for his fifth try for his country.

Michalak, who had been having treatment for a sore left shoulder, converted for 24-13.

Sanchez reduced the deficit to eight points four minutes into the second-half as he added another penalty but Michalak relied with a drop goal two minutes later for 27-16.

The game's hectic pace slackened and Sanchez added another penalty with just over 20 minutes remaining to make it 27-19 but Michalak restored the 11 point lead on the hour mark with yet another penalty.

Sanchez kept the Pumas in touching distance as he put over a drop goal for 30-22 with 14 minutes left but the metronomic Michalak added yet another penalty for 33-22 and extended the lead with eight minutes remaining with another penalty.

There was a worrying sight as with seven minutes remaining Pumas wing Horacio Agulla had to be stretchered off after a sickening clash of heads with Mermoz, who emerged unscathed.

- AFP/de

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Government, 2G auditor fought it out in House panels too

NEW DELHI: The bitter fight over the poor response to the 2G auction is only the latest episode of a dispute that has played out in Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on telecom where Congress and the federal auditor have clashed fiercely.

The PAC draft report remains disputed while minister of state for information and broadcasting Manish Tewari — before he became a minister — had challenged CAG Vinod Rai in JPC meetings during which both sides tested each other's resilience and defences. Records of the JPC meetings show Tewari did his best to pin down Rai over the precise context of the term "presumptive" which the auditor has referred to while calculating a likely revenue loss in the allocation of 2G spectrum.

The Congress leader quizzed Rai over where the auditor derived his definition of the word presumptive in the Income Tax Act, arguing that the provision is intended to allow an assumption of tax liability in the event of books not having been audited.

This, Tewari argued, is not the same as presumptive loss. "To extrapolate that context of presumptive loss is not clear" he said and pointed out that the tax authorities had informed the JPC that they did not calculate this on a "presumptive basis." He wanted to know if CAG was using terminology that is not defined in the Income Tax Act.

In response, Rai said revenue audit reports always point to a revenue loss and a potential loss. He said he was also drawing the inferences used by CAG from the finance bill and its memorandum that talks of the special provision for computing profits and gains of business on a "presumptive" basis.

Rai said that Tewari referring to the term of consequence was surprising and the two went over the letter sent to the JPC by the central board of direct taxes. He referred to the CBDT saying "...in some cases where the mistake resulted in computing loss over and above the actual loss, the corresponding tax effect is merely a notional figure generally called by CAG as potential tax."

Rai contended that this was an incorrect claim on part of CBDT as the loss that CAG points out to is recovered by tax authorities. "It is actually recoverable, that is why it causes concern," he said. Tewari pressed Rai on whether they could agree on the word presumptive not being defined by the Income Tax Act. Tewari also referred to a Supreme Court ruling that presumption is only an inference and that there is need for a specific provision in the statute. Rai countered by saying that the statute did not mention the word potential either but this has not been challenged. "Am I to conclude that you are regularly in violation of your own statutes?" Tewari asked the CAG. "...what is a statute?...All we said is that a potential or a presumptive is till such time as is actually assessed to be proved to the contrary," Rai responded.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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GOP Mourning for Mitt Romney? Not So Much

Republicans are over it.

And most of them aren't doing much mourning for Mitt Romney.

Just over a week since the two-time Republican presidential hopeful failed to deny President Obama a second term, instead of offering up condolences for a candidate who garnered 48 percent of the popular vote, GOP leaders seem to be keeping Romney at arm's length.

"I've never run for president -- I've lost elections but never for the presidency -- and I'm sure it stings terribly," New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie said in an interview Friday morning with MSNBC, but added: "When you lose, you lost."

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, an early endorser and a frequent presence by Romney's side on the campaign trail, echoed Christie.

"The campaign is over," she said in an MSNBC interview on Thursday, "and what the voters are looking for us to do is to accept their votes and go forward."

A period of blame and soul-searching was inevitable for Republicans after Nov. 6, but Romney hastened it with his candid comments on a conference call with donors this week in which he attributed President Obama's win to the "gifts" he gave to key voting blocs.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Specifically, Romney told some of his top campaign contributors that he lost because, in his words, "what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked."

According to Romney, some of the best "gifts" went to Hispanic voters, who overwhelmingly supported President Obama.

"One, he gave them a big gift on immigration with the Dream Act amnesty program, which was obviously very, very popular with Hispanic voters, and then No. 2 was Obamacare," Romney said on a conference call, audio of which was obtained by ABC News.

It took almost no time for GOP leaders to disavow Romney's assessment.

"I don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, said at a press conference at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Las Vegas earlier this week. "If we're going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and second, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream."

Ayotte also refused to give Romney any cover: "I don't agree with the comments."

Neither did former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, one of Romney's primary rivals who went on to become one of his most ardent surrogates.

"I don't think it's as simple as saying the president gave out gifts," he said in an interview with C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program that is set to air this weekend.

Pawlenty said that President Obama "just tactically did a better job getting out the vote in his campaign" and "at least at the margins, was better able to connect with people in this campaign."

His view is backed up by the national exit polls, which show that 53 percent of voters said that President Obama was "more in touch" with people like them compared with 43 percent who said the same of Romney.

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