Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Monday after fighting raged for days in the district on the southern edge of President Bashar al-Assad's Damascus powerbase, rebel and Palestinian sources said.

The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril left the camp two days ago, rebel sources said.

"All of the camp is under the control of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army," said a Palestinian activist in Yarmouk. He said clashes had stopped and the remaining PFLP fighters retreated to join Assad's forces massed on the northern edge of the camp.

The battle in Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of Assad's capital, as rebels try to choke the power of the 47-year-old leader after a 21-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed.

Government forces have used jets and artillery to try to dislodge the fighters but the violence has crept into the heart of the city and activists say rebels overran three army stations in a new offensive in the central province of Hama on Monday.

On the border with Lebanon, hundreds of Palestinian families fled across the frontier following the weekend violence in Yarmouk, a Reuters witness said.

Syria hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, most living in Yarmouk, descendants of those admitted after the creation of Israel in 1948, and has always cast itself as a champion of the Palestinian struggle, sponsoring several guerrilla factions.

Both Assad's government and the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels have enlisted and armed divided Palestinian factions as the uprising has developed into a civil war.

"NEITHER SIDE CAN WIN"

Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that neither Assad's forces nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority, has rarely been seen since the revolt erupted in March 2011 and is not part of the president's inner circle directing the fight against Sunni rebels. But he is the most prominent figure to say in public that Assad will not win.

Sharaa said the situation in Syria was deteriorating and a "historic settlement" was needed to end the conflict, involving regional powers and the U.N. Security Council and the formation of a national unity government "with broad powers".

"With every passing day the political and military solutions are becoming more distant. We should be in a position defending the existence of Syria. We are not in a battle for an individual or a regime," Sharaa was quoted as telling Al-Akhbar newspaper.

"The opposition cannot decisively settle the battle and what the security forces and army units are doing will not achieve a decisive settlement," he said, adding that insurgents fighting to topple Syria's leadership could plunge it into "anarchy and an unending spiral of violence".

Sources close to the Syrian government say Sharaa had pushed for dialogue with the opposition and objected to the military response to an uprising that began peacefully.

In a veiled criticism of the crackdown, he said there was a difference between the state's duty to provide security to its citizens, and "pursuing a security solution to the crisis".

He said even Assad could not be certain where events in Syria were leading, but that anyone who met him would hear that "this is a long struggle...and he does not hide his desire to settle matters militarily to reach a final solution."

In Hama province, rebels and the army clashed in a new campaign launched on Sunday by rebels to block off the country's north, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked violence monitor, said fighting raged through the provincial towns of Karnaz, Kafar Weeta, Halfayeh and Mahardeh.

It said there were no clashes reported in Hama city, which lies on the main north-south highway connecting the capital with Aleppo, Syria's second city.

Qassem Saadeddine, a member of the newly established rebel military command, said on Sunday fighters had been ordered to surround and attack army positions across the province. He said Assad's forces were given 48 hours to surrender or be killed.

In 1982 Hafez al-Assad, father of the current ruler, crushed an uprising in Hama city, killing up to 30,000 civilians.

Qatiba al-Naasan, a rebel from Hama, said the offensive would bring retaliatory air strikes from the government but that the situation is "already getting miserable".

(Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Afif Diab at Masnaa, Lebanon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Thai woman's bid to bring in 3.4kg of Ice foiled

SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old Thai woman's bid to bring in approximately 3.4 kilograms (kg) of Ice was foiled by authorities on Monday.

The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) successfully halted the attempt at the Changi Airport terminal 3 arrival hall.

The estimated street value of the drugs found is about S$850,000.

The 27-year-old had arrived on a flight from New Delhi and was to transit to another flight in Singapore when she was stopped by officers for a more detailed check.

Her backpack was screened via the x-ray machine and anomalies were detected.

The officers also noticed her backpack was unusually heavy.

A big packet of crystalline substances, believed to be Ice, was discovered in a false compartment of the backpack.

She was immediately put under arrest and is being investigated for drug-trafficking.

If convicted, she may face the death penalty.

- CNA/lp

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MPs seek death penalty for Delhi gang rape accused

NEW DELHI: The bus driver, who along with six others allegedly gang-raped a 23-year-old girl on Sunday evening, was today remanded to five days in police custody by a Delhi court.

Ram Singh, who was the first person to be arrested last night, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal who allowed the plea of Delhi Police for his custodial interrogation for facilitating the arrest of three other accused who are absconding.

The accused refused to undergo Test Identification Parade (TIP), the criminal procedure in which the alleged offender is brought before witnesses and victims for identification.

Out of the seven accused, four have already been arrested.

The Delhi Police told the magistrate that the other three arrested culprits, Ram Singh's brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor and Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, will be produced in court tomorrow.

While seeking the remand of the driver, the police said his custodial interrogation was needed to recover the clothes of accused, mobile phones and ATM cards of the victim and her male friend.

Further, "we need his remand as three more accused are to be arrested who hail from Rajasthan, UP and Bihar and we have to take Ram Singh to these places," police said.

Allowing the plea, the court said, "Since the accused is required for apprehending other co-accused and also for the identification of clothes and recovery of the ATM card and mobile phones of the complainant.

"Accused Ram Singh is remanded to five days of police custody. Accused be produced on December 23."

The girl, a paramedical student, was raped and brutally assaulted before being thrown out of the moving vehicle with her male friend.

Parliament shocked

Parliament on Tuesday expressed shock and outrage over the barbaric gangrape of a girl inside a moving bus in south Delhi with strong demands being made for capital punishment to perpetrators of such heinous crimes.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha saw members of all parties speaking in unison and raising serious concern over repeated incidents of rape in the national capital, whose law and order comes directly under the Union Home Ministry.

Opposition members demanded a categorical assurance from home minister Sushilkumar Shinde that such an incident will not recur.

Women members in both Houses were in the forefront in expressing shock and anguish over the incident, voicing concern over the safety of the fair sex in Delhi. Cinestar- turned-MP Jaya Bachchan even broke down while speaking on the issue in the Upper House.

In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar led the House in expressing outrage over the "spine-chilling" incident, saying it was shameful for the entire society.

She asked the government to take strong steps immediately in the matter as an impromptu debate took place in both Houses over Sunday night's incident in which the 23-year-old para-medic was raped and brutally assaulted.

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj made a strong pitch for capital punishment for such crimes, a demand which did not find favour with Girija Vyas (Cong), who said such a penalty would lead to killing of women after rape.

Swaraj, however, got support from her party colleague Najma Heptulla as well as UPA ally DMK member Vasanthy Stanley and V Maitreyan (AIADMK) in the Rajya Sabha, who said "these culprits should be hanged till death".

Maitreyan also urged the government to amend the law and introduce death penalty for rapists.

"Death penalty is the only punishment that is to be given. We can enact a law. This will serve as a deterrent," Heptulla said.

Eminent jurist and Rajya Sabha member Ram Jethmalani demanded removal of the Delhi Police chief over the failure to check the "heinous" crime.

Women members in both Houses said that the "barbaric" incidents of rape turned a woman into a living corpse and therefore there was need to give death penalty to perpetrators.

BSP chief Mayawati said law should be amended to ensure stronger action in such cases. "Nothing will happen by only arresting the perpetrators. Give them stringent punishment," she said.

Jethmalani said, "Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri set an example of democratic responsibilities that somebody's head must roll.

"I am not asking for the home minister's head...But the head of the Delhi Police chief must roll and you must ensure that this happens if he does not do it (resign) voluntarily."

Jaya Bachchan (SP), who stood in protest for quite some time over not being allowed to speak on the issue of women's safety in Delhi, said an act of sexual assault should be treated on par with murder and section 307 of IPC should be amended to include rape in it.

"I am terribly disturbed...I am very shocked," Bachchan said in a choked voice.

Derek'O' Brien (TMC) said as he spoke on the issue in the House, he was "nervous and scared as a father of a 17-year-old daughter" as Delhi is becoming "rape capital".

"It is not a woman's issue. It is a male issue. Men have stopped behaving like human beings and started behaving like animals...worse than animals," he said.

Attacking Shinde over the incident, Maya Singh ( BJP) said the gangrape raises a question as to whether it is the rule of the law or rule of goondas in Delhi.

"The incident continued for 90 minutes not in a village or some jungle but in south Delhi... who will take responsibility -- you or the Delhi chief minister. You look after Delhi police," she said.

Singh said the House should pass a proposal that no lawyer will plead on behalf of the perpetrators of such crime.

M Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) said a strong political will was needed to check these "very shameful" incidents. "Condolence for the dead and compensation to survivors cannot be a policy," he said.

"Every time an incident like this takes place, Government appears to be helpless. Is there a government, is there a system? The home minister should take moral responsibility," Naidu, who is also the chairman of Home Ministry's Standing Committee, said.

Prashant Chatterjee (CPI-M) said the unimaginable barbaric incident happened even as the vehicle in which all that took place passed three PCR vans. A television footage showed there was no police at any of these points, he said.

Renuka Chowdhary (Cong) said this is not the time to nitpick and say who is to blame collectively. "It is our collective social failure," he said.

Swaraj earlier said it was lamentable that such incidents continued to happen in the capital city, which is the seat of power of the Centre and where a woman is Chief Minister.

Vyas, a former Chairman of the National Commission for Women, said Parliament should expeditiously enact law on sexual offence.

She regretted that in recent times, there has not been much security in the buses especially during evening. Besides, there has been inadequate police patrolling in sensitive areas.

Vyas made a strong pitch for fast track courts to deal with such crimes.

Meanwhile, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said in Parliament that a special committee, headed by home secretary, has been constituted to look into the safety of women in Delhi. (Input from PTI)

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Siblings of Sandy Hook Victims Face Survivor's Guilt

Six-year-old Arielle Pozner was in a classroom at Sandy Hook school when Adam Lanza burst into the school with his rifle and handguns. Her twin brother, Noah, was in a classroom down the hall.

Noah Pozner was killed by Lanza, along with 19 other children at the school, and six adults. Arielle and other students' siblings survived.

"That's going to be incredibly difficult to cope with," said Dr. Jamie Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York. "It is not something we expect her to cope with today and be OK with tomorrow."

READ: Two Adult Survivors of Connecticut School Shooting Will be Key Witnesses

As the community of Newtown, Conn., begins to bury the young victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting today, the equally young siblings of those killed will only be starting to comprehend what happened to their brothers and sisters.

"Children this young do experience depression in a diagnosable way, they do experience post-traumatic stress disorder. Just because they're young, they don't escape the potential for real suffering," said Rahil Briggs, a child psychologist and professor at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

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Arielle and other survivor siblings could develop anxiety or other emotional reactions to their siblings' death, including "associative logic," where they associate their own actions with their sibling's death, Howard said.

"This is when two things happen, and (children) infer that one thing caused the other. (Arielle) may be at risk for that type of magical thinking, and that could be where survivor's guilt comes in. She may think she did something, but of course she didn't," Howard said.

CLICK HERE for photos from the shooting scene.

Children in families where one sibling has died sometimes struggle as their parents are overwhelmed by grief, Howard noted. When that death is traumatic, adults and children sometimes choose not to think about the person or the event to avoid pain.

Interested in How to Help Newtown Families?

"With traumatic grief, it's really important to talk about and think about the children that died, not to avoid talking and thinking about them because that interferes with grieving process, want their lives to be celebrated," Howard said.

Children may also have difficulty understanding why their deceased brother or sister is receiving so much, or so little, attention, according Briggs.

"I think one of the most challenging questions we can be faced with as parents is how to 'appropriately' remember a child that is gone. So much that can go wrong with that," Briggs said. "You have the child who is fortunate enough to escape, who thinks 'Why me? Why did my brother go?' But if you don't remember the sibling enough the child says 'it seems like we've forgotten my brother.'"

"They may even find themselves feeling jealous of all the attention the sibling seems to be receiving," Briggs said.

Parents and other adults in the family's support system need to be on alert, watching the child's behavior, she said. Children could show signs of withdrawing, or seeming spacy or in a daze. They could also seem jumpy or have difficulty concentrating in the wake of a traumatic event.

"For kids experiencing symptoms, and interfering with ability to go to school, they may be suffering from acute stress disorder, and there are good treatments," Howard said.

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Syrian vice president says neither side can win war

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said that neither the forces of President Bashar al-Assad nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war which is now being fought on the outskirts of Assad's powerbase in Damascus.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority, has rarely been seen since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011 and is not part of the president's inner circle directing the fight against Sunni rebels.

But he is the most prominent figure to say in public that Assad will not win. He was speaking to the pro-Assad al-Akhbar paper in an interview from Damascus which is now hemmed in by rebel fighters to the south.

Assad's forces have used jets and artillery to try to dislodge the fighters from around Damascus but the violence has crept into the heart of the capital and rebels announced on Sunday a new offensive in the central province of Hama.

Sharaa said the situation in Syria, where more than 40,000 people have been killed, was deteriorating and a "historic settlement" was needed to end the conflict, involving regional powers and the U.N. Security Council and the formation of a national unity government "with broad powers".

"With every passing day the political and military solutions are becoming more distant. We should be in a position defending the existence of Syria. We are not in a battle for an individual or a regime," Sharaa was quoted as saying.

"The opposition cannot decisively settle the battle and what the security forces and army units are doing will not achieve a decisive settlement," he told the paper, adding that the insurgents fighting to topple Syria's leadership could plunge it into "anarchy and an unending spiral of violence".

Sources close to the Syrian government say Sharaa had pushed for dialogue with the opposition and objected to the military response to an uprising that began peacefully.

In Damascus, residents said on Monday the army had told people to evacuate the Palestinian district of Yarmouk, suggesting an all-out military offensive on the southern district was imminent.

The centre of the city, largely insulated from the violence for 21 months, is now full of army and vigilante checkpoints and shakes to the sound of regular shelling, residents say.

Queues for bread form at bakeries hours before dawn, as people seek out dwindling supplies, power cuts are increasing and fears are growing that Damascus could descend into chaos.

In a veiled criticism of the crackdown, Sharaa said there was a difference between the state's duty to provide security to its citizens, and "pursuing a security solution to the crisis."

He said even Assad could not be certain where events in Syria were leading, but that anyone who met him would hear that "this is a long struggle...and he does not hide his desire to settle matters militarily to reach a final solution."

CHANGE INEVITABLE

"We realize today that change is inevitable," Sharaa said, but "none of the peaceful or armed opposition groups with their known foreign links can call themselves the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people".

"Likewise the current leadership...cannot achieve change alone after two years of crisis without new partners who contribute to preserving (Syria's) national fabric, territorial unity and regional sovereignty".

Rebels have now brought the war to the capital, without yet delivering a fatal blow to the government. But nor has Assad found the military muscle to oust his opponents from the city.

In Paris, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France, one of the powers most insistent that Assad has lost his legitimacy, said: "I think the end is nearing for Bashar al-Assad."

On the ground, rebels said they were launching an operation to seize the central province of Hama to try to link northern rural areas of Syria under their control to the center.

Qassem Saadeddine, a member of the newly established rebel military command, said fighters had been ordered to surround and attack checkpoints across the province. He said forces loyal to Assad had been given 48 hours to surrender or be killed.

"When we liberate the countryside of Hama province ... then we will have the area between Aleppo and Hama liberated and open for us," he told Reuters.

The city of Hama in the province of the same name has a special resonance for anti-Assad activists. In 1982 Hafez al-Assad, father of the current ruler, crushed an uprising in the city, killing up to 30,000 civilians.

In Damascus, activists said fighter jets bombed the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, killing at least 25 people sheltering in a mosque.

The attack was part of a month-old campaign by Assad's forces to eject rebels from positions they are establishing around the capital's perimeter. Yarmouk, to the south, falls within an arc of territory running from the east of Damascus to the southwest from where rebels hope to storm the government's main redoubt.

MOSQUE HIT

Opposition activists said the deaths in Yarmouk, to which refugees have fled from fighting in nearby suburbs, resulted from a rocket fired from a warplane hitting the mosque.

Footage showed bodies and body parts scattered on the stairs of what appeared to be the mosque.

The latest battlefield accounts could not be independently verified due to tight restrictions on media access to Syria.

Syria is home to more than 500,000 Palestinian refugees, most living in Yarmouk, and both Assad's government and the rebels have enlisted and armed Palestinians as the uprising, which began as a peaceful street movement 21 months ago, has mushroomed into a civil war.

After Sunday's air raid, clashes flared between Palestinians from the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and rebels including other Palestinian fighters and some PFLP-GC fighters were killed.

In the latest of a string of military installations to fall to the rebels, the army's infantry college north of Aleppo was captured on Saturday after five days of fighting, a rebel commander with the powerful Islamist Tawheed Brigade said.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Samia Nakhoul and Anna Willard)

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6.1-magnitude quake hits off central Indonesia

JAKARTA: A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of central Indonesia Monday, the US Geological Survey said, sending panicked people rushing into the streets but there was no tsunami alert.

The quake struck at 0916 GMT more than 160 kilometres south-southeast of Gorontalo in central Indonesia's Sulawesi island at a depth of 18 kilometres.

The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics agency (BMKG) measured it at 6.0 at a depth of 10 kilometres.

"The epicentre was in the sea but it doesn't have the potential to trigger a tsunami," BMKG official Agung Utomo told AFP. "We haven't received any report of damage so far."

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said the ground shook for several seconds.

"The quake was quite strong and all the guests here -- about 30 people -- panicked and ran out into the street," said Rudi Gowarno, manager of Ramayana hotel in the town of Luwuk.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

- AFP/ir

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Extortion bid case: Two Zee editors get bail

NEW DELHI: After spending 20 days in jail, two Zee group editors were on Monday granted bail by a Delhi court in the case of alleged Rs 100 crore extortion bid from Congress MP Naveen Jindal's firm.

"Bail is granted to both the accused," Additional Sessions Judge Raj Rani Mitra said allowing the plea of Zee News Editor Sudhir Chaudhary and Zee Business Editor Samir Ahluwalia who were arrested by Delhi Police on November 27.

The court said both of them will be released on furnishing a bail bond and surety of Rs 50,000 each.

They were directed to surrender their passports and not leave the country without the permission of the court which also asked them to cooperate with the investigation.

The court on Saturday had reserved its order on the bail plea of the two editors after hearing them for around five hours during which the Delhi Police had opposed their application for grant of relief.

Both Chaudhary and Ahluwalia, who were lodged in Tihar jail, have been booked under section 384 (extortion), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the IPC.

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'We Can't Tolerate This Anymore,' Obama Says

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would do everything in his power to "engage" a dialogue with Americans, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, because "we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change."

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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The president was not specific about what he thought would be necessary and did not even use the word "gun" in his remarks, but his speech was widely perceived as prelude to a call for more regulations and restrictions on the availability of firearms.

The grieving small town hosted the memorial service this evening as the the nation pieces together the circumstances that led to a gunman taking 26 lives Friday at the community's Sandy Hook Elementary School, most first graders.

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside your body all of the time, walking around," he said, speaking of the joys and fears of raising children.

"So it comes as a shock at a certain point when you realize no matter how much you love these kids you can't do it by yourself," he continued. "That this job of protecting kids and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, with the help of a community, and the help of a nation."

CLICK HERE for Full Coverage of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook

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Egyptians narrowly back constitution, say rival camps

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted narrowly in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists but opposed by other groups who fear it will deepen divisions, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum.

Next week's second round is likely to give another "yes" vote as it includes districts seen as more sympathetic towards Islamists, analysts say, meaning the constitution would be approved.

But a close win, if confirmed, would give Islamist President Mohamed Mursi only limited cause for celebration as it would show a wide rift in a country where he needs to build consensus on tough measures to fix a fragile economy.

The Muslim Brotherhood's party, which propelled Mursi to office in a June election, said 56.5 percent backed the text. Official results are not expected till after the next round.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is vital to move Egypt's democratic transition forward. Opponents say the basic law is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights, including those of Christians who make up 10 percent of the population.

The build-up to Saturday's vote was marred by deadly protests. Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extra powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies.

However, the vote passed off calmly with long queues in Cairo and several other places, though unofficial tallies indicated turnout was around a third of the 26 million people eligible to vote this time. The vote was staggered because many judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott in protest.

The opposition had said the vote should not have been held given violent protests in the Arab world's most populous nation, which is watched closely from abroad to see how Islamists, long viewed warily in the West, handle themselves in power.

"It's wrong to have a vote or referendum with the country in the state it is - blood and killings, and no security," said Emad Sobhy, a voter who lives in Cairo. "Holding a referendum with the country as it is cannot give you a proper result."

INCREASINGLY DIVIDED

As polls closed, Islamists attacked the offices of the newspaper of the liberal Wafd party, part of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition that pushed for a "no" vote.

"The referendum was 56.5 percent for the 'yes' vote," a senior official in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party operations room set up to monitor voting told Reuters.

The Brotherhood and its party had representatives at polling stations across the 10 areas, including Cairo, in this round. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the tally was based on counts from more than 99 percent of polling stations.

"The nation is increasingly divided and the pillars of state are swaying," opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. "Poverty and illiteracy are fertile grounds for trading with religion. The level of awareness is rising fast."

One opposition official also told Reuters the vote appeared to have gone in favor of Islamists who backed the constitution.

The opposition initially said its exit polls indicated the "no" camp would win comfortably, but officials changed tack during the night. One opposition official in the early hours of Sunday said it would be "very close". There was no formal statement from the opposition National Salvation Front.

"Even if this result is correct, that does not mean that this constitution can pass, because it means more than 40 percent of the people didn't agree with it," said Issam Amin, speaking on a Cairo street and echoing the opposition line that the constitution needed consensus backing not a simple majority.

A narrow loss could still hearten leftists, socialists, Christians and more liberal-minded Muslims who make up the disparate opposition camp, which has been beaten in two elections since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

They were drawn together to oppose what they saw as Mursi's power grab and his constitution push. The National Salvation Front includes prominent figures such as ElBaradei, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and firebrand leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.

If the constitution is approved, a parliamentary election will follow early next year. Opposition leaders say the Front could help unite the opposition for that poll after their divided ranks have split the vote in previous elections.

DEADLY VIOLENCE

But analysts question whether the opposition group in this form will survive until a parliamentary election. The Islamist-dominated lower house of parliament elected earlier this year was dissolved based on a court order in June.

Violence in Cairo and other cities has plagued the run-up to the referendum. At least eight people were killed when rival camps clashed during demonstrations outside the presidential palace earlier this month.

Several party buildings belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood's party have been burned by angry protesters in recent weeks. On Friday, a day before the vote, rival factions armed with clubs, knives and swords fought in Alexandria.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those casting ballots. There are 51 million were eligible voters in the nation of 83 million.

Rights groups reported some abuses, such as polling stations opening late, officials telling people how to vote and bribery. But Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, said abuses were not enough to invalidate the vote.

"We accepted the referendum so we accept the result," said Ahmed Mohamed, a Cairene who backed the draft. "If the majority said ‘yes', so be it. I didn't see forgery where I voted."

Islamists have been counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and on Egyptians desperate for an end to turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt's pound to eight-year lows against the dollar.

If the constitution is voted down in a second round, which now looks unlikely, a new assembly will be formed to draft a revised version, a process that could take up to nine months.

The army has deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis.

(Additional reporting by Tamim Elyan, Shaimaa Fayed and Reuters Television; Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Pakistan police battle militants after deadly airport raid

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Six people were killed on Sunday as police and troops battled militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades and mortars in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar, a day after a deadly Taliban raid on the city's airport.

Fierce firing broke out after police acting on an intelligence report stormed a building near the airport, where a suicide and rocket attack on Saturday killed five civilians and the five attackers, and wounded 50 other people.

The assault late Saturday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, sparked prolonged gunfire and forced authorities to close the airport, a commercial hub and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Peshawar on the edge of the tribal belt.

It was the second Islamist militant attack in four months on a military air base in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In August 11 people were killed when heavily-armed insurgents wearing suicide vests stormed a facility in the northwestern town of Kamra.

Police backed by troops launched a raid early Sunday on a building under construction near the airport following reports that five militants who fled after the airport attack had taken refuge there, according to provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

In the fierce shootout that followed, three militants and a policemen were killed, police said, while two other officers were wounded.

The clashes ended after six hours when the two remaining militants detonated their suicide vests inside the building, another senior police officer, Imtiaz Altaf, told AFP.

"All five militants are dead now and the area has been cleared," Altaf said.

"All of them were wearing suicide jackets. Three were killed in a shoot out with police, while two others blew themselves up in the building under construction."

A PAF statement said five attackers were killed on Saturday and no damage was done to air force personnel or equipment.

Dr Umar Ayub, chief of Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said five civilians had also been killed and some 50 wounded.

"The base is in total control and normal operations have resumed. The security alert was also raised on other PAF air bases as well," the air force added.

Peshawar airport is a joint military-civilian facility. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the passenger side had reopened after an 18-hour closure and there was no damage to the terminals.

The air force said Saturday's attackers used two vehicles loaded with explosives, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. One vehicle was destroyed and the second badly damaged.

Security forces found three suicide jackets near one of the vehicles, it said.

"Security forces consisting of Pakistan Air Force and Army personnel who were on full alert, cordoned off the base and effectively repulsed the attack," the air force said.

Television pictures showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.

Five nearby houses were destroyed after rockets landed on them and several other houses developed cracks, while the bomb squad detonated five out of eight bombs found near the base after the attack.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that the group would continue to target the airport.

"Our target was jet fighter plans and gunship helicopters and soon we will target them again," he said.

The armed forces have been waging a bloody campaign against the Taliban in the country's northwest in recent years and the militants frequently attack military targets.

Aside from the August attack on Kamra, in May 2011 it took 17 hours to quell an assault claimed by the Taliban on an air base in Karachi. The attack piled embarrassment on the armed forces just three weeks after US troops killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Its forces have for years been battling homegrown militants in the northwest.

- AFP/xq

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