Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/98917
Friday, December 14, 2012 ��� Daily News 3B WORLD BRIEFING Russia acknowledges rebels might win in Syria BEIRUT (AP) ��� Syria���s most powerful ally and protector, Russia, began positioning itself Thursday for the fall of President Bashar Assad, saying for the first time that rebels might overthrow him and preparing to evacuate thousands of Russian citizens from the country. The head of NATO echoed the Russian assessment, saying the Syrian government is near collapse following a nearly two-year conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people and threatened to ignite the Middle East. Assad appears to be running out of options, with insurgents at the gates of the capital and the country fracturing under the weight of a devastating civil war. ������An opposition victory can���t be excluded, unfortunately, but it���s necessary to look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory,������ Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Moscow���s Middle East envoy, said during hearings at a Kremlin advisory body. Still, Bogdanov gave no immediate signal that Russia would change its pro-Syria stance at the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow has shielded Damascus from world sanctions. The U.S. commended Russia ������for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime���s days are numbered,������ State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. Obama, Boehner to meet on ���fiscal cliff��� WASHINGTON (AP) ��� With time growing short and no ������fiscal cliff������ progress evident, President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner set faceto-face negotiations for late Thursday at the White House. The meeting comes shortly after Boehner publicly accused Obama of dragging out negotiations on a federal tax-andspending agreement that would avoid an economythreatening series of wide-ranging tax increases and spending cuts that could come in less than three weeks. Other Republicans say such a tactic seems to be working when it comes to a deal forcing up tax rates for the wealthy. The two sides appear far apart on the issues, and Boehner is scheduled to return home to Ohio on Friday. An impasse between Obama and Boehner, ROhio, over the president���s demand for higher tax rates on income over $250,000 continues to be a main obstacle in negotiations to avoid broad tax increases and spending cuts that will be triggered automatically on Jan. 1. Boehner says the president refuses to offer spending cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare whose costs are rapidly rising. ������Unfortunately, the White House is so unserious about cutting spending that it appears willing to slow-walk any agreement and walk our economy right up to the fiscal cliff,������ Boehner told reporters Thursday. Karzai accepts invitation to come to Washington KABUL (AP) ��� President Hamid Karzai said Thursday he will meet President Barack Obama in Washington next month to discuss a postwar U.S. role in his country, whose fragile security was highlighted hours earlier by a suicide bombing that killed one U.S. troop and two Afghan civilians. At a news conference Every picture tells a story. Visit dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com http://dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com throughout the day. News ��� Sports ��� Entertainment ��� Best Images of the Day See photojournalism at its best. http://dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com/ Bookmark dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com today. If every picture is worth a thousand words, the dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com Media Center will take your breath away. Filled with images from across America and the globe, our Media Center is constantly updated to showcase the best in photojournalism. Bookmark dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com today and see the world in a whole new way. DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY http://dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com dfm-ssp.medianewsgroup.com with visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Karzai said he and Obama will discuss how many U.S. troops will remain after the Western combat mission ends in December 2014. He said he understands that immunity from Afghan laws for those remaining Americans is of ������immense importance������ to Washington, but he added that he has his own priorities in negotiating a postwar U.S. role. ������Give us a good army, a good air force and a capability to project Afghan interests in the region,������ Karzai said, and he would be ready to argue ������with ease and with reason������ that his country should grant immunity to U.S. troops. Obama has said the U.S. will not abandon Afghanistan and risk that it might revert to the alQaida haven it became in the 1990s after the Taliban came to power. Nor has he indicated what size and scope of post-2104 military mission he thinks is necessary and affordable. The Taliban are a small but resilient force, even after 11 years of fighting a vastly larger U.S.-led international force. They managed to send a dramatic reminder Thursday, claiming credit for the suicide bombing that killed three and wounded 17 near an entrance to Kandahar Air Field, the largest Western base in southern Afghanistan. Panetta and his traveling party had left the air field about two hours before the attack. NKorea still years from reliable missiles SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ��� After 14 years of painstaking labor, North Korea finally has a rocket that can put a satellite in orbit. But that doesn���t mean the reclusive country is close to having an intercontinental ballistic missile. Experts say Pyongyang is years from even having a shot at developing reliable missiles that could bombard the American mainland and other distant targets, though it did gain attention and the outrage of world leaders Wednesday with its first successful launch of a three-stage, long-range rocket. A missile program is built on decades of systematic, intricate testing, something extremely difficult for economically struggling Pyongyang, which faces guaranteed sanctions and world disapproval each time it stages an expensive launch. North Korea will need larger and more dependable missiles, and more advanced nuclear weapons, to threaten U.S. shores, though it already poses a threat to its neighbors. ������One success indicates progress, but not victory, and there is a huge gap between being able to make a system work once and having a system that is reliable enough to be militarily useful,������ said Brian Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force Space Command officer and a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, a think tank on space policy. North Korea���s satellite launch came only after repeated failures and hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an achievement for young authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, whose late father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, made development of missiles and nuclear weapons a priority despite international opposition and his nation���s poverty. HAPPY HOLIDAYS Pruning Classes Start in January See our Website or Stop by for a schedule. WYNTOUR GARDENS 365-2256 8026 Airport Road, Redding I-5 North, Exit #673, Rt on Knighton, Rt on Airport Located 1 mile south of the Airport (Next to Kents Mkt) Open Mon-Sat 8-5 & Sunday���s 10-4 wyntourgardens.com Facebook inform@wyntourgardens.com