Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes struck Gaza militants for a fifth straight day on Sunday and its military prepared for a possible ground invasion, though Egypt saw "some indications" of a truce ahead.

Forty-seven Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 12 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday, killing a leading militant of the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza and rejects Israel's existence, with the declared goal of deterring gunmen in the coastal enclave from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Jewish state has since launched more than 950 air strikes on the coastal Palestinian territory, targeting weaponry and flattening militant homes and headquarters.

The raids continued past midnight on Sunday. One targeted a building in Gaza City housing the offices of local Arab media, wounding three journalists from al Quds television, a station Israel sees as pro-Hamas, witnesses said.

Two other predawn attacks on houses in the Jebalya refugee camp killed one child and wounded 12 other people, medical officials said.

These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida, who told a televised news conference.

"This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning."

The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel's blows Hamas "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy."

An Israeli attack on Saturday destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border.

Casualties there were averted however, because Israel had fired non-exploding missiles at the building beforehand from a drone, which the militant's family understood as a warning to flee, and thus their lives were spared, witnesses said.

Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Among those killed in air strikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding motorcycles, and several civilians including a 30-year-old woman.

ISRAELI SCHOOLS SHUT

Israel said it would keep schools in its southern region shut on Sunday as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days.

Israel's "Iron Dome" missile interceptor system destroyed in mid-air a rocket fired by Gaza militants at Tel Aviv on Saturday, where volleyball games on the beach front came to an abrupt halt as air-raid sirens sounded.

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

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

Israel's operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel's right to self-defense, but there was also a growing number of calls from world leaders to seek an end to the violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron "expressed concern over the risk of the conflict escalating further and the danger of further civilian casualties on both sides," in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a spokesperson for Cameron said.

The United Kingdom was "putting pressure on both sides to de-escalate," the spokesman said, adding that Cameron had urged Netanyahu "to do everything possible to bring the conflict to an end."

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believes Israel has a right to self-defense.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees."

Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unraveled with recent violence.

A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope," but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli official declined to comment on the negotiations. Military commanders said Israel was prepared to fight on to achieve a goal of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has plagued Israeli towns since late 2000, when failed peace talks led to the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising.

Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting.

POSSIBLE GROUND OFFENSIVE

Israel, though, with tanks and artillery positioned along the frontier, signaled it was still weighing a possible ground offensive into Gaza.

Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Friday to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000 and 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.

Another senior commander briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said Israel had scored "good achievements" in striking at nearly 1,000 targets, with the aim of ridding Hamas of firepower imported from Libya, Sudan and Iran.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for 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 Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year's period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.

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.

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

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Obama to tell Hun Sen of "grave" rights concerns

BANGKOK: US President Barack Obama will raise "grave concerns" over human rights and the need for political reform in Cambodia when he meets Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday, the White House said.

Obama, who opens a Southeast Asia swing in Thailand on Sunday, which also includes a historic trip to Myanmar, will meet Hun Sun before he takes part in the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh.

"We are going to Cambodia to attend a summit, and I think it's fair to say that we would not be having a bilateral visit in the absence of the multilateral business that we're doing in Cambodia," said Ben Rhodes, a deputy US national security advisor.

"As it relates to Cambodia's human rights situation, we have very grave concerns about human rights within Cambodia," Rhodes said aboard Air Force One, as Obama flew to Asia.

"The president will raise that certainly when he sees Hun Sen. We'll raise it publicly in every opportunity that we have to address it.

"We'll continue to make clear that we want to see greater political freedom in Cambodia. We want to see a movement towards an election that is credible and fair. We want to see the release of political prisoners there as well."

Obama will be the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia, where human rights groups accuse the government of stepping up a crackdown on dissidents and on protests, many linked to land disputes.

A dozen US senators and members of the House of Representatives last month urged Obama to speak out over Cambodia's "deteriorating human rights situation."

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, earlier said that if Obama does not speak out over concerns "his visit will be seen by the government as an endorsement and deepen the sense of inviolability."

The group alleges more than 300 people have been killed in politically motivated attacks in over two decades of authoritarian rule by Hun Sen.

-AFP/ac

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Bal Thackeray: In his Pawar games, he played friend and foe

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, veteran trade union leader George Fernandes and Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar were arch-rivals for several years. However, the 1982 textile workers' strike united them against trade union leader Datta Samant. The trio addressed a large public rally at the historic Shivaji Park, where they said a strike would have an adverse impact on the textile industry and ruin the metropolis's economy. The trio wanted to stop Samant from gaining followers. They did not succeed, as a record number of textile workers joined the strike. But the strike was unsuccessful.

In subsequent years, while Thackeray's and Pawar's personal relations peaked, they became the biggest rivals on the political front. Veteran journalist Vasant Deshpande said, "They never mixed personal relations and politics. As a result, even today Pawar has very cordial relations with the Thackeray family." For over four-anda-half decades, relations between Pawar and the Thackeray family, particularly Thackeray Sr, soured on several occasions due to political issues, but both these stalwarts ensured there was no strain on their personal relations. The Sena's mouthpiece, Saamna, wrote very critically about Pawar several times, but he never reacted too sharply to the stringent observations.

Another veteran journalist, Dinkar Raikar, agreed that Pawar and Thackeray had a soft corner for each other. "In 1972, Pawar was the minister of state for home and the Shiv Sena had just begun to spread its tentacles in the metropolis. There were moments of tension, but Pawar always dealt with the situation diplomatically. They were political rivals, but their personal equations were like family members," Raikar said.

Maharashtra witnessed a public spat between Pawar and Thackeray on at least three occasions. First, when Chhagan Bhujbal, as a Sena legislator , launched a frontal attack on Pawar over an alleged plot scam. Second, when Bhujbal engineered a split in the Shiv Sena. Thirdly, when Bhujbal, as home minister in the Congress-NCP government, got Thackeray arrested in a decade-old case.

In 1989, when Pawar was the Congress chief minister, Bhujbal, the lone Sena legislator in the assembly, single-handedly launched a campaign against Pawar over an alleged plot scam in the metropolis. "We were expecting that the senior Thackeray would step in and halt the campaign against Pawar, but Thackeray did not come to the rescue of Pawar. As a result, Pawar's image was massively damaged," said a senior Shiv Sena leader.

Shockingly, a year later, Bhujbal led the biggest-ever split in the Sena, when a record 14 legislators quit to join the Congress. "It was one of the biggestever setbacks for Thackeray, who expected that Pawar would halt the split. But this time there was no response from Pawar," the Sena leader said.

Later in 2000, when Bhujbal was state home minister and deputy chief minister, he dug out a decade-old case under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code — creating communal enmity — and ensured that Thackeray was arrested . The Sena made an all-out effort to thwart Bhujbal's attempt, but Pawar did not step in. As a result, the senior Thackeray had to face an embarrassing arrest. A month ago, Bhujbal told a public meeting that he had not sought the permission of Pawar or then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to arrest Thackeray.

Thackeray drafted an ambitious plan to dislodge the Congress government in 1990, but did not succeed. However, prior to the 1995 assembly polls, Thackeray, accompanied by BJP leader Gopinath Munde and Sena leader Manohar Joshi, launched a statewide campaign against Pawar, saying it was high time that the people of Maharashtra dislodged the Pawar-led Congress government. "It was a setback for Pawar when the saffron combine assumed power. Till then it was assumed that Pawar was the undisputed leader of Maharashtra . A question mark then came over Pawar's leadership," a senior Congress minister said.

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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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Israel authorizes more reservists after rockets target cities

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists late on Friday, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.

Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.

The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein's Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session with a clutch of senior ministers in Tel Aviv on widening the military campaign, while other cabinet members were polled by telephone on raising the mobilization level.

Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000. The move did not necessarily mean all would be called into service.

Hours earlier, Egypt's prime minister, denouncing what he described as Israeli aggression, visited Gaza and said Cairo was prepared to mediate a truce.

Officials in Gaza said 29 Palestinians - 13 militants and 16 civilians, among them eight children and a pregnant woman - had been killed in the enclave since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

The Israeli military said 97 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel on Friday and 99 more were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system. Dozens of Israeli bombing raids rocked the enclave, and one flattened the Gaza Interior Ministry building.

In a further sign Netanyahu might be clearing the way for a ground operation, Israel's armed forces announced that a highway leading to the territory and two roads bordering the enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians would be off-limits to civilian traffic.

Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the border area on Friday, and the military said it had already called 16,000 reservists to active duty.

Netanyahu is favorite to win a January national election, but further rocket strikes against Tel Aviv, a free-wheeling city Israelis equate with New York, and Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its capital, could be political poison for the conservative leader.

"The Israel Defence Forces will continue to hit Hamas hard and are prepared to broaden the action inside Gaza," Netanyahu said before the rocket attacks on the two cities.

Asked about Israel massing forces for a possible Gaza invasion, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "The Israelis should be aware of the grave results of such a raid, and they should bring their body bags."

SOLIDARITY VISIT

A solidarity visit to Gaza by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, whose Islamist government is allied with Hamas but also party to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, had appeared to open a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy.

Kandil said: "Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce."

But a three-hour truce that Israel declared for the duration of Kandil's visit never took hold.

Israel Radio's military affairs correspondent said the army's Homefront Command had told municipal officials to make civil defence preparations for the possibility that fighting could drag on for seven weeks. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Gaza conflagration has stoked the flames of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to leap across borders.

It is the biggest test yet for Egypt's new President Mohamed Mursi, a veteran Islamist politician from the Muslim Brotherhood who was elected this year after last year's protests ousted military autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are spiritual mentors of Hamas, yet Mursi has also pledged to respect Cairo's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, seen in the West as the cornerstone of regional security. Egypt and Israel both receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to underwrite their treaty.

Mursi has vocally denounced the Israeli military action while promoting Egypt as a mediator, a mission that his prime minister's visit was intended to further.

A Palestinian official close to Egypt's mediators told Reuters Kandil's visit "was the beginning of a process to explore the possibility of reaching a truce. It is early to speak of any details or of how things will evolve".

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 2008-2009, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

Tunisia's foreign minister was due to visit Gaza on Saturday "to provide all political support for Gaza" the spokesman for the Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki, said in a statement.

The United States asked countries that have contact with Hamas to urge the Islamist movement to stop its rocket attacks.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. By contrast, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules in the nearby West Bank, does recognize Israel, but peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2010.

Abbas's supporters say they will push ahead with a plan to have Palestine declared an "observer state" rather than a mere "entity" at the United Nations later this month.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell, Jeffrey Heller and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Giles Elgood and Will Waterman)

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Football: Australia still hoping for Beckham deal

SYDNEY: Australia's football federation said Saturday it had not given up hope that David Beckham will still play in Australia's A-League this season, despite denials from the former England captain's representatives.

Beckham's management team on Friday played down talk of a potential move to Australia after Football Federation Australia said that the star player wanted to join an A-League club.

FFA chief executive David Gallop said there was still a chance that one of the biggest names in football could join the A-League for a guest stint from January.

The FFA said the 37-year-old has been in talks with Australian teams over a 10-game loan spell in the fledgling domestic competition.

Gallop, who recently took over as FFA chief executive, said there was no need for A-League clubs to be disheartened by the denials.

He said a similar situation arose earlier this year when Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero's management tried to hose down speculation linking him to Sydney FC.

"As we all know, that came to be," Gallop told local radio.

"So let's just see how this one plays out. It's certainly an exciting proposition - no one would deny that."

Gallop said there had been definite contact but the FFA would have preferred for negotiations with Beckham to have been done behind closed doors.

"At the mere mention of Beckham's name, it did leak out and there's been a mushroom of interest," he said.

"There would have to be a fair few hoops that would have to be jumped through and getting a deal with one of the clubs is the first step.

"There's definitely been some contact made and let's just see where it gets to."

Gallop said A-League clubs needed to take the initiative with negotiations.

"I think the connection points now are going to be between the A-League clubs that are interested and Beckham's management, so we'll just have to let that dialogue happen," he said.

"But the timing is pretty good in terms of him being able to come in on a guest stint from the middle of January for 10 games. I think it's a bit of a wait-and-see situation."

-AFP/ac

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Bal Thackeray still brings Mumbai to a halt

MUMBAI: There are two words any Mumbaikar learns to respond to instantly: Sena Bandh. Whether formally declared by Bal Thackeray, the Sena supremo, or taken out apparently spontaneously in response to something momentous in his life (the death of his wife, threats to arrest him, or as we have seen in the last few days, his declining heath), the implication is clear - trains will be stopped, cars stoned, buses burned, shop windows broken, so you had really best be safe at home.

Mumbaikars' feelings about this are complicated. There is apprehension, of course, since no one wants to be caught in the chaos, and possibly irritation at the time lost, plans disrupted and workdays wasted. Yet, along with that is a certain schoolkid's sense of satisfaction at an unexpected day off. Till recently at least, 'Sena Bandh' was the excuse no employer could contest, even in a hardworking city like Mumbai. And unlike festival holidays, which had their own pressures of rituals and visits, a Sena Bandh was a totally relaxed and peaceful day at home.

It is true that in the early years of the Sena, there was always apprehension at the scale of violence, which turned against different targets. During the agitation against south Indians, Udupi restaurants were attacked and burned, and there was also the horror of the anti-Muslim riots in 1993. Yet, as the Sena got increasingly established, the bandhs took on a ritualistic aspect that was high on strong rhetoric but reassuringly limited in actual violence and disruption.

The pattern would start early in the morning with party workers lying on tracks to stop trains, and this in a city so dependent on long-distance commutes was enough to send people home. Shiv Sena shakha workers would fan out in their neighbourhoods and warn shops, which would quickly down shutters. A token bus was usually burned, but in recent years the focus has been more on taxis that tend to be driven by north Indian migrants, who are acceptable targets for the Sena.

Thackeray makes no pretence

With the city shut down for the day, people would sleep late, have leisurely lunches - they would have stocked up on food the night before - and kids would play cricket on the conveniently empty streets. By late afternoon, with the standard office day getting over and the Sena's point proven, the bandh would relax, local shops would open, and some evening parties and weddings would get underway, so that even those whose events coincided with a bandh didn't suffer too much. This week's slowdown, coming on the heels of the Diwali holidays, was a particularly welcome extension of the break.

We have no idea if Thackeray has thought through his influence in this way, but it is quite likely he would be amused at the use to which the city puts his bandhs. He has always had the sharpest of senses for what really moves Mumbai and what appeals work with it. He might be notorious for his blunt and inflammatory talk, exhorting voters to stand up for themselves and attack their enemies (exactly what has changed over the years). But as Stanford-based anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen notes in Wages of Violence, his study of the Sena, "He never asks his audience to change their ways or embark on a new endeavour..."

Hansen contrasts this with other Indian politicians, including those from BJP who "address their audiences as ma-baaps, meaning parents, patrons and well-wishers of the humble politician before them. They ask for votes, they promise to make a number of improvements, and they disavow power as a goal in itself". But Thackeray makes no such pretence. "He makes it a point never to be humble, and he ridicules hollow promises." Right from the start, he never hid the fact that the Sena's aim was to achieve and retain power in the city and the state, and to do so by any means possible.

Hence the violence and intimidation, where needed, and also the unlikely alliances he has struck over the years. No one could spew stronger rhetoric against the Congress today, yet in its early years the Sena enjoyed the patronage of the Congress, which, in its typical style, overlooked its potential as a possible future rival in favour of its use against its immediate rival of the time, the Communist parties. Thackeray is famously good friends with Sharad Pawar, yet has heaped abuses on him over the years. Consistency in allies has never been of much value to Thackeray, compared with the compulsions of maintaining the Sena's power.

None of which matters to the public because - and this is Thackeray's insight - they feel that nearly all politicians are the same, but others cover it up with deception and hypocrisy. This fits with practices like drinking and smoking that many politicians do in private, but pretend not to in public. Hansen notes how young people tell him they like the fact that Thackeray likes drinking beer (and Heineken - no pretence at supporting Indian brands). He drinks and smokes openly and it all counts towards his image as honest and unashamed, which resonates with many Mumbaikars, who dislike political pretensions and also the idiocies of liquor permits and the problems of consuming alcohol easily.

Hansen ascribes the Sena's success to perfecting a kind of "performative politics, which deals with everyday problems rapidly, visibly, and though rarely aimed at transforming institutions or practices, with some immediate effect". This is the story that the Sena likes to tell, of shakhas that serve as neighbourhood benefactors and guardians (Hansen's book suggests that the truth is a bit more complex, but the story is persuasive). Performance is also at the heart of the Sena's rallies and bandhs, which the city accepts, for all their inconveniences, perhaps in return for accepting the Sena's patronage, or perhaps because, as with bandh holidays, it finds its own benefit from them.

There are limits though to this acceptance, and it is notable that for all the Sena's strong image in the city and ability to shut it down, its actual electoral success is more limited. It has only held state-level power once and all the city's MPs and the bulk of its MLAs are currently with the Congress-NCP. As Hansen points out, the Sena's record at institutional change is poor - even with alcohol, for all Thackeray's honest pleasure in it, when his party was in power it did nothing substantive to change the state's restrictive liquor laws. The city may accept the Sena's diktat to stop working, but it doesn't follow it in less public, but possibly more effective ways.

Perhaps this is an equation Thackeray can accept. If, as Hansen suggests, politics is primarily performative for the Sena, then it is things like the mass outpouring of emotions that we've been seeing outside Matoshree, and the visits from Bollywood actors, performers of another kind, that count for the Sena and him. He built the Sena in the 1960s and '70s by making politics exciting and engaging for young men in the city, at a time the alternatives were the rigid cadres of the Communists or the dreary in-fighting of the Congress. And now he is showing how, even when old and infirm, he can still pull off a spectacle that can bring Mumbai to a standstill.

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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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Cops Stop Alleged 'Twilight' Movie Theater Gun Plot

A Missouri man is accused of planning a movie theater massacre at a screening of the final "Twilight" movie.

Blaec Lammers, 20, was charged Friday with first-degree assault, making a terroristic threat and armed criminal action after his mother alerted police that he had purchased 400 rounds of ammunition and two assault rifles "very similar to the ones in Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting," according to probable cause statement issued by the Bolivar, Mo., Police Department.

Lammers told police that he had "homicidal thoughts" and "had purchased the firearms with the intentions of shooting up the movie theater" in Bolivar, Mo., according to probable cause statement.

Polk County Sheriff?s Office

Lammers allegedly told the cops that he had already purchased a ticket for the Nov. 18 screening of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 2"

Lammers said he also planned to shoot up a nearby Wal-Mart store, according to the statement. He had previously threatened to stab a Wal-Mart employee in 2009.

Police characterized Lammers as "being off his medication," but he was able to purchase the rifles on Monday and Tuesday this week. He then practiced shooting them in Aldrich, Mo.

According to the Springfield News-Leader, Lammers is being held on $500,000 bond and does not yet have an attorney.

On July 20, suspected gunman James Holmes shot up an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, killing 12 and wounding 58 on the opening weekend of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."

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