Europe will get its money back, says Bank of Greece

BERLIN: Greece will pay back the billions of euros of European aid it has received to fight its debt crisis, the head of the country's central bank told Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"I understand the concern of European taxpayers," Governor of the Bank of Greece George Provopoulos, said in Thursday's edition of the daily newspaper.

"But I can tell you one thing: this time, the government will get results. The country is transforming itself. The Europeans will get their money back."

"The Greeks, including the politicians, have understood one thing: this time around it's the last chance for Greece," he added.

Provopoulos acknowledged that the application of structural reforms required by the country's international creditors had in the past not been adequate.

"That was a big mistake," he said.

He also conceded that if "tax evasion is a problem in every country, it is particularly prevalent in Greece".

But he insisted that confidence was returning to the country, for while 87 billion euros ($118b) had been withdrawn from Greek bank accounts since 2010, 15 billion euros had been put back in over the past seven months.

The EU and IMF have committed a total of 240 billion euros ($320b) in rescue loans to Greece since 2010. In return they insisted on a tough austerity programme to get the country's finance in order.

So far, however, Greece has failed to deliver, particularly when it has come to cutting the public deficit.

The coalition government led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced last week that Greece had narrowed its public deficit to 8.1 per cent in 2012, marking a rare improvement over targets pledged to its EU-IMF creditors.

The hardship caused by the swingeing public sector cuts has caused a wave of sometimes violent protests and strikes.

The harsh economic climate has also seen the rise of the far-right in the country with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn winning 18 seats in the 300-seat parliament in last year's elections.

International human rights groups have warned of a surge in xenophobic attacks on migrants in Greece.

- AFP/ck

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Discoms to allow repayment of arrears in instalments

CHANDIGARH: In a bid to increase the case recovery of electricity bills, the Haryana power distribution corporations have decided to allow payment of arrears in installments.

Till now, the distribution companies were resorting to civil or legal recoveries after disconnection in case the arrears of bills crossed three billing cycles.

Chairman and managing director of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Devender Singh said this has been done to facilitate the consumers.

The sub divisional officer (SDO) concerned can accept the payment of arrears in instalments with the condition that minimum 50% amount of the arrears is paid in the first instalment. The number of instalments can be two for arrear up to Rs 10,000, three for up to Rs 30,000, four for up to Rs 50,000, five for up to Rs 2 lakh and eight instalments for the amount of arrear above Rs 2 lakh.

Singh reiterated the promise of 20-hour power supply in rural belts, if consumers ensured regular payment of electricity bills. "If consumers pay for the power they consume, there would be no hurdle in supplying electricity for 20 hours a day in villages. There is no shortage of electricity, but the power distribution utilities should have sufficient money to purchase it,'' he said

Singh also elaborated on the campaign to maintain strengthen and renovate the electricity distribution system all over the state would help consumers bring down the aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) losses to the level of below 25% on their feeders to qualify for taking power supply on urban mode.

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Former Police Captain Cleared of Ex-Wife's Murder

A former Ohio police captain has been cleared in the murder of his ex-wife and released from prison, where he had been for 15 years -- but prosecutors say they plan to appeal the ruling.

"I'm just a jumble of emotions and I just can't wait to hug all of my family," Douglas Prade told reporters outside the prison when he was released Tuesday afternoon, according to ABC News' Cleveland affiliate WEWS-TV.

He thanked "all of the people that supported me and communicated with me and told me to keep my spirits up."

Prade's ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade, 41, was found shot to death in her minivan outside of her medical practice in November 1997.

Douglas Prade was an Akron, Ohio, police captain at the time.

At trial, he was convicted on murder and wiretapping charges and sentenced to life in prison.

Prade, now 66, maintained his innocence and, eventually, the Ohio Innocence Project took up his cause and petitioned for his release or a new trial based on new DNA testing.

One of the key factors in Prade's conviction was a bite mark found on Margo Prade's body. The prosecution brought in an expert that testified the bite mark came from Douglas Prade.

Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal/AP Photo

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The Ohio Innocence Project commissioned a new DNA test that was not available at the time of the trial. The test found that the DNA around the bite was not Douglas Prade's.

Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter ruled that Prade should be set free because the new DNA results were "clear and convincing" in Prade's favor, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutor Sherri Walsh is strongly disputing the new DNA evidence.

"This is a gross misapplication of the law, and we will be appealing Prade's exoneration. The defendant had to present new evidence so convincing that no juror would have found him guilty, and he failed to do so," Walsh said in a statement. "The DNA evidence presented by the Ohio Innocence Project on behalf of Prade is contaminated and unreliable. It does not prove innocence."

Walsh said that all evidence points to Prade as the person who killed Margo Prade.

"He was a serial stalker," Walsh said. "He tapped her phones and recorded more than 400 of her personal calls. He had verbally abused and threatened her. And we know Margo was afraid of him."

Other evidence includes Prade's handwritten tally of the bills he owed subtracted from the life insurance money he'd get if his wife died, Walsh said. Two witnesses placed him at the murder scene.

"We have not seen any credible evidence that suggests innocence, and we are taking all available actions to keep a dangerous killer off the streets," Walsh said.

Margo Prade's family is also upset by the decision.

"I feel like my life is in danger and my family's life is in danger now," Margo Prade's nephew Tony Fowler told the AP. "[Dr. Prade and her mother] are probably turning over in their graves but God will have the final say."

Alison McCarty, the former prosecutor on the case, told WEWS she respected the court's decision, but emphasized that the case is not yet closed.

"[Margo Prade] was such a superstar and it was just such a tremendous loss, and her death still needs justice," McCarty said.

The state has 30 days to file a motion in the court of appeals requesting permission to appeal the decision for a new trial.

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Sixty-five people executed in Syria's Aleppo: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a "new massacre" in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Opposition campaigners blamed the government but it was impossible to confirm who was responsible. Assad's forces and rebels have been battling in Syria's commercial hub since July and both have been accused of carrying out summary executions.

U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told the U.N. Security Council "unprecedented levels of horror" had been reached in Syria, and that both the government and rebels had committed atrocious crimes, diplomats said.

He appealed to the 15-nation council to overcome its deadlock and take action to help end the civil war in which Syria is "breaking up before everyone's eyes".

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, the longest and deadliest of the revolts that began throughout the Arab world two years ago.

The U.N. refugee agency said the fighting had forced more than 700,000 people to flee. World powers fear the conflict could envelop Syria's neighbors including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, further destabilizing an already explosive region.

Opposition activists posted a video of at least 51 muddied male bodies alongside what they said was the Queiq River in Aleppo's rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood.

The bodies had what looked like bullet wounds in their heads and some of the victims appeared to be young, possibly teenagers, dressed in jeans, shirts and trainers.

Aleppo-based opposition activists who asked not to be named for security reasons blamed pro-Assad militia fighters.

They said the men had been executed and dumped in the river before floating downstream into the rebel area. State media did not mention the incident.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says it provides objective information about casualties on both sides of Syria's war from a network of monitors, said the footage was evidence of a new massacre and the death toll could rise as high as 80.

"They were killed only because they are Muslims," said a bearded man in another video said to have been filmed in central Bustan al-Qasr after the bodies were removed from the river. A pickup truck with a pile of corpses was parked behind him.

STALEMATE

It is hard for Reuters to verify such reports from inside Syria because of restrictions on independent media.

Rebels are stuck in a stalemate with government forces in Aleppo - Syria's most populous city which is divided roughly in half between the two sides.

The revolt started as a peaceful protest movement against more than four decades of rule by Assad and his family, but turned into an armed rebellion after a government crackdown.

About 712,000 Syrian refugees have registered in other countries in the region or are awaiting processing as of Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said.

"We have seen an unrelenting flow of refugees across all borders. We are running double shifts to register people," Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.

The United Nations said it had received aid promises ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on Wednesday where it is seeking $1.5 billion for refugees and people inside Syria. Washington announced an additional $155 million that its said brought the total U.S. humanitarian aid to the crisis to some $365 million.

Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said the bulk of the current aid was going to government-controlled areas in Syria and called on donors to make sure they were even-handed.

MISSILES

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, insurgents including al Qaeda-linked Islamists captured a security agency after days of heavy fighting, according to an activist.

Some of the fighters were shown carrying a black flag with the Islamic declaration of faith and the name of the al-Nusra Front, which has ties to al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq.

The war has become heavily sectarian, with rebels who mostly come from the Sunni Muslim majority fighting an army whose top generals are mostly from Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Assad has framed the revolt as a foreign-backed conspiracy and blames the West and Sunni Gulf states.

Fighting also took place in the northern town of Ras al-Ain, on the border with Turkey, between rebels and Kurdish militants, the Observatory said.

In Turkey, a second pair of Patriot missile batteries being sent by NATO countries are now operational, a German security official said.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each committed to sending two batteries and up to 400 soldiers to operate them after Ankara asked for help to bolster its air defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.

(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Kuwait, Sabine Siebold in Berlin and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Robin Pomeroy)

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21,227 cartons of contraband cigarettes seized

SINGAPORE: Customs officers seized 21,227 cartons of contraband cigarettes and arrested five men and a woman during islandwide operations last week.

Singapore Customs said on Wednesday that the total value of the cigarettes seized was over S$2 million, while the total duty and goods and services tax (GST) evaded was S$1.8 million.

Three distribution networks were disrupted.

The biggest seizure was from a prime-mover, which had a consignment of goods declared as pottery.

The vehicle, which was moving out of Jurong Port on 23 January, had 18,000 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes hidden in wooden crates.

Three men were arrested in connection with this seizure.

Investigations are ongoing.

- CNA/ck

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Where Mahatma Gandhi died 65 years ago - this day

NEW DELHI: The faintly heard traffic commotion does not affect the serenity of 5, Tees January Marg, a leafy avenue in the heart of the Indian capital, where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and where he was assassinated on Jan 30, 1948.

The expansive premises, which houses a museum that showcases the life and philosophy of the man Indians revere as the Father of the Nation, it is difficult to imagine that the man who always preached peace was violently killed by a Hindu zealot, Nathuram Godse.

The only indication that such a violent act happened at this peaceful surroundings are the cemented foot marks - that indicate the path that Mahatma Gandhi took when he came out to meet people on that fateful day - on the manicured lawn. The path leads to a simple white, canopied marble plaform with the inscription "Hey Ram".

Escorted by his grandnieces Abha and Manu, Gandhi was going for his evening prayers.

Gandhi, who was clad in his familiar white dhoti and wraparound, was shot thrice from point blank range. The first indication that he was shot was when a sparkling crimson spot appeared on his white cloth. It was at 5.17 pm.

His last words were — Hey Ram.

Kuldip Nayar, veteran journalist, still remembers the day. "I was working for the Urdu newspaper Anjam at that time when I heard the alerting bell of the news agency ticker. I rushed to the teleprinter and read the incredible words: 'Gandhi shot'.

"I sank into a chair, but then recovered my wits to rush to Birla House. There was complete pandemonium there. Gandhi was lying swathed with a white sheet and people were crying all around him. Nehru was there, looking shocked and shaken," Nayar told IANS.

"Not knowing what to do, I went and reverently touched the chair where Gandhi had last sat. My only thoughts where: what will happen to my country now!"

The premises were earlier known as Birla House which was owned by industrialist G.D.Birla, who had offered it to Gandhi as a place of residence and where he held his important political meetings, including with the nation's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

"Though it has been 65 years, nation cannot forget him. And the youth still come to Gandhi Smriti," said Krishna, 27, a volunteer here at Gandhi Smriti (Gandhi Memorial) that has been turned into a museum.

"Gandhi ji used to stay in Panchkuian Road in Paharganj in New Delhi but he was requested to move here following communal violence. So he came here," Krishna told IANS.

The subcontinent was witnessing unprecedented communal violence after India and Pakistan were partitioned.

The nation Wednesday will observe the 65the death anniversary of the man also fondly called "Bapu".

Gandhi, who is revered world over as an apostle of peace, was a great believer in inter-faith harmony and fought all his life for it.

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.

Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.

"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.

That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.

Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."

Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.

Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.

Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."

The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.

"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.

For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.

The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.

Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.

The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.

"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."

Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.

A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.

"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.

He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.

Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.

And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.

"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.

Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.

Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.

His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."

"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."

___

Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

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Jodi Arias Borrowed Gas Cans Before Killing Ex

Accused murderer Jodi Arias borrowed two five-gallon gas cans from a former boyfriend the day before she drove to Arizona to kill another ex, Travis Alexander, according to testimony in Arias' murder trial today.

In cross examination, prosecutors also forced Arias' former live-in boyfriend Darryl Brewer to describe his sex life with Arias as "pretty aggressive."

Brewer, 52, dated Arias for four years and shared a home with her in California for two years. He told the court today that Arias called him in May 2008, asking to borrow gas cans, but would not explain why. She called him again at least two more times, and arrived at his house on June 2008, to borrow the cans.

On the day she picked up the gas cans she told Brewer that she was going to visit friends in California and Arizona.

Prosecutors argue that Arias then drove to Mesa, Ariz., where she allegedly had sex with Alexander, took nude photos of him, and then stabbed him 27 times, slashed his throat, and shot him twice in the head. She is charged with murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Arias, who claims she killed Alexander in self defense, had approached prosecutors two years ago offering to plea to a second degree murder charge, which could carry a 25 year term, but the state rejected the offer, Nancy Grace reported on Good Morning America today.

Brewer said that Arias never returned the gas cans. The pair had been broken up two years earlier and they had only spoken "sporadically," he said.

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Prosecutors also showed receipts from Arias' trip from her California home to Alexander's home in Mesa, showing that she purchased a 10 gallons of gas at one gas station the night before she drove to Arizona, and then another 10 gallons from a different gas station 10 minutes later. Prosecutors are expected to argue she brought the gas with her to fill up her car secretly on the way to Alexander's home, showing premeditation for the murder.

Arias' attorneys called Brewer as one of their first witnesses as they began mounting their case that Arias killed Alexander in self defense, arguing that Alexander was controlling and abusive toward Arias.

They asked Brewer to explain how he and Arias had been in a stable relationship for four years, from 2002 to 2006, and had bought a home together before Arias met Alexander at a business conference and began to change.

"I saw a lot of changes in Jodi. She became a different person than I had known previously," Brewer said, describing how Arias' behavior changed in May 2006 when she joined a company called Pre-Paid Legal. There, she met Alexander and began seeing him. She continued to live with Brewer.

"She had continued to pay the mortgage, but she was not paying other household bills, she began getting into debt or financial trouble," Brewer said. "For me it seemed she was not as rational or logical."

Arias also converted to Mormonism while living with Brewer, telling him that he could no longer curse and she would no longer have sex with him because she was saving herself for marriage.

The pair had previously had an "enthusiastic" and "aggressive" sex life, Brewer admitted to prosecutors. They had engaged in anal sex, Arias had taken nude photos of Brewer, and Arias had purchased breast implants in 2006, he testified.

Brewer said that after Arias began to change, he made arrangements to move closer to his son from his first marriage, and he and Arias broke up.

They kept in touch with occasional phone calls until Arias asked to borrow the gas cans in June 2008, and then called him a week after borrowing the cans to say that her friend had been killed.

Martinez, reading notes from an interview Brewer gave to authorities during the investigation into Alexander's death, asked if Arias had ever mentioned needing an "alibi." Brewer said he did not recall any conversation about alibis.

"After this date of June 4, 2008," Martinez asked, "you received a call from Jodi Arias, and she was very agitated?"

"She was sad," Brewer said.

"Did she tell you that her friend had been killed and she did not have an alibi?"

"I don't remember that," Brewer said.

Arias was arrested a month after Alexander was found dead, in July 2008.

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French seal off Mali's Timbuktu, rebels torch library

GAO, Mali (Reuters) - French and Malian troops retook control of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on Monday after Islamist rebel occupiers fled the ancient Sahara trading town and torched several buildings, including a library holding priceless manuscripts.

The United States and the European Union are backing a French-led intervention in Mali against al Qaeda-allied militants they fear could use the West African state's desert north as a springboard for international attacks.

The recovery of Timbuktu followed the swift capture by French and Malian forces at the weekend of Gao, another major town in Mali's north that had been occupied by the alliance of jihadist groups since last year.

The two-week-old mission by France in its former Sahel colony, at the request of Mali's government, has driven the Islamist rebels northwards out of towns into the desert and mountains.

Without a shot being fired, 1,000 French soldiers and paratroopers and 200 Malian troops seized Timbuktu airport and surrounded the town on the banks of the Niger River, looking to block the escape of insurgents.

In both Timbuktu and Gao, cheering crowds turned out to welcome the French and Malian troops.

A third town in Mali's vast desert north, Kidal, had remained in Islamist militant hands. But Malian Tuareg MNLA rebels, who are seeking autonomy for their northern region, said on Monday they had taken charge in Kidal after Islamist fighters abandoned it.

A diplomat in Bamako confirmed the MNLA takeover of Kidal.

A French military spokesman said the assault forces at Timbuktu were avoiding any fighting inside the city to protect the cultural treasures, mosques and religious shrines in what is considered a seat of Islamic learning.

But Timbuktu Mayor Ousmane Halle told Reuters departing Islamist gunmen had four days earlier set fire to the town's new Ahmed Baba Institute, which contained thousands of manuscripts.

UNESCO spokesman Roni Amelan said the Paris-based U.N. cultural agency was "horrified" by the news of the fire, but was awaiting a full assessment of the damage.

Ali Baba, a worker at the Ahmed Baba Institute, told Sky News in Timbuktu more than 3,000 manuscripts had been destroyed. "They are bandits. They have burned some manuscripts and also stole a lot of manuscripts which they took with them," he said.

Marie Rodet, an African history lecturer at Britain's School of Oriental and African Studies, said Timbuktu held one of the greatest libraries of Islamic manuscripts in the world.

"It's pure retaliation. They (the Islamist militant rebels) knew they were losing the battle and they hit where it really hurts," Rodet told Reuters. "These people are not interested in any intellectual debate. They are anti-intellectual."

ISLAMISTS "ALL FLED"

The Ahmed Baba Institute, one of several libraries and collections in Timbuktu containing fragile documents dating back to the 13th century, is named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare and houses more than 20,000 scholarly manuscripts. Some were stored in underground vaults.

The French and Malians have encountered no resistance so far in Timbuktu. But they will now have to comb through a labyrinth of ancient mosques, monuments, mud-brick homes and narrow alleyways to flush out any hiding fighters.

The Islamist forces comprise a loose alliance that groups Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) with Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine and AQIM splinter MUJWA.

They have retreated in the face of relentless French air strikes and superior firepower and are believed to be sheltering in the rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range, north of Kidal.

The MNLA Tuareg rebels who say they now hold Kidal have offered to help the French-led offensive against the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamists. It was not clear, however, whether the French and Malians would steer their offensive further towards Kidal, or hold negotiations with the MNLA.

FRANCE: MALI "BEING LIBERATED"

The world was shocked by Timbuktu's capture in April by Tuareg fighters, whose separatist rebellion was later hijacked by Islamist radicals who imposed severe sharia (Islamic law).

Provoking international outrage, the Muslim militants - who follow a more radical Salafist brand of Islam - destroyed dozens of ancient shrines in Timbuktu sacred to Sufi Muslims, condemning them as idolatrous and un-Islamic.

They also imposed a strict form of Islamic law, or sharia, authorizing the stoning of adulterers and amputations for thieves, while forcing women to go veiled.

On Sunday, many women among the thousands of Gao residents who came out to celebrate the rebels' expulsion made a point of going unveiled. Other residents smoked cigarettes and played music to flout the bans previously imposed by the rebels.

Hundreds of troops from Niger and Chad have been brought to Gao to help secure the town.

"Little by little, Mali is being liberated," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France 2 television.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, French President Francois Hollande said French troops would take a step back once the job of retaking key towns was complete, and Malian and other African troops would take over the task of hunting the rebels.

"They are the ones who will go into the northern part, which we know is the most difficult because that's where the terrorists are hiding," Hollande said.

As the French and Malian troops thrust into northern Mali, African troops for a U.N.-backed continental intervention force for Mali, expected to number 7,700, are being flown into the country, despite severe delays and logistical problems.

Outgoing African Union Chairman President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin scolded AU states at a weekend summit in Addis Ababa for their slow response to assist Mali while former colonial power France took the lead in the military operation.

Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Chad are providing soldiers for the AFISMA force. Burundi and other nations have pledged to contribute.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said these regional troops could play a useful "clean-up" role once the main military operations against the Islamist rebels end.

Speaking in Addis Ababa on Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. was "actively considering" helping the troop-contributing African countries with logistical support.

(Additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis in Sevare, Mali, Bate Felix and David Lewis in Dakar, Maria Golovina in London, Alexandria Sage, Vicky Buffery and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako, Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey, Richard Lough and Aaron Masho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Myolie Wu seeing new mystery man

SHENZHEN, China: Hong Kong actress Myolie Wu revealed Monday that she is now seeing someone, months after she ended her eight-year relationship with actor Bosco Wong, reported Hong Kong media.

When asked if she has any suitors recently, Wu told reporters "that's about right".

Speaking at a hotel in Shenzhen, where she was shooting a wedding scene for her new Chinese drama "Scent of Beauty", Wu said she is "happy" and that the new man in her life is "not of the entertainment industry".

Although Valentine's Day is just round the corner, Wu expressed that they may not be spending it together as they are "still at the 'friends' stage".

Apart from love, Wu also spoke about her career.

Wu is one of the many Hong Kong stars that have headed to China in recent years, lured by high acting fees.

The actress denied rumours that she is making a killing taking on roles in Chinese productions, though she conceded that her acting fee in "Scent of Beauty" was "enough to buy a property".

-CNA/ha

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