Israel PM vows to proceed with disputed settlement

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel's prime minister pledged Sunday to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in a strategic part of the West Bank, speaking just hours after Israeli forces dragged dozens of Palestinian activists from the area.
The activists pitched more than two dozen tents at the site on Friday, laying claim to the land and drawing attention to Israel's internationally condemned settlement policy.
Before dawn Sunday, hundreds of Israeli police and paramilitary border troops evicted the protesters. Despite the eviction, Mustafa Barghouti, one of the protest leaders, claimed success, saying the overall strategy is to "make (Israel's) occupation costly."
The planned settlement, known as E-1, would deepen east Jerusalem's separation from the West Bank, war-won areas the Palestinians want for their state. The project had been on hold for years, in part because of U.S. objections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived the E-1 plans late last year in response to the Palestinians' successful bid for U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Jewish settlements are at the heart of the current four-year impasse in Mideast peace efforts. The Palestinians have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build settlements on the lands they seek for their state. Netanyahu says peace talks should start without any preconditions. He also rejects any division of Jerusalem.
Israel expanded the boundaries of east Jerusalem after the 1967 war and then annexed the area — a move not recognized by the international community. Since then, it has built a ring of Jewish settlements in the enlarged eastern sector to cement its control over the city.
E-1 would be built in the West Bank just east of Jerusalem, and would close one of the last options for Palestinians to create territorial continuity between Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital, and the West Bank. According to building plans, E-1 would have more than 3,000 apartments.
The Palestinians say they turned to the U.N. last November out of frustration with the deadlock in peace talks. They believe the international endorsement of the 1967 lines will bolster their position in negotiations. Israel has accused the Palestinians of trying to bypass the negotiating process and impose a solution.
Netanyahu told Israel Army Radio on Sunday that it would take time to build E-1, citing planning procedures. Still, he said, "we will complete the planning, and there will be construction."
Asked why the protesters were removed, Netanyahu said, "They have no reason to be there. I asked immediately to close the area so people would not gather there needlessly and generate friction and disrupt public order."
Palestinian protest leaders hoped the tent camp would be the first of a new type of well planned, nonviolent protests against Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories.
In recent years, Palestinians have staged weekly rallies in some areas of the West Bank, demanding to get back land they lost to Israel's separation barrier. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held up such tactics as worthy of emulation. The protests have remained relatively small, and media coverage has dropped off over the years.
The tent camp was set up after a month of planning by grass-roots groups using Facebook, Google Earth and other tools to find the right spot and stay in touch, said organizer Abdullah Abu Rahma.
The Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government in parts of the West Bank, provided legal assistance.
The activists said they pitched the tents on private Palestinian land and immediately obtained an Israeli court injunction preventing the removal of the tents for several days.
At the next court hearing, Israel will have to explain why it wants to take down the tents, said Mohammed Nazzal, a Palestinian Authority official whose department is involved in the legal proceedings. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said he believes one of the issues in the hearing will be the status of the land where the tents were pitched.
Barghouti, meanwhile, said troops beat some of the protesters, a claim Rosenfeld denied. Rosenfeld said the protesters were carried away without injuries, put onto buses and dropped off at a West Bank checkpoint.
About half a million Israelis live in the dozens of settlements that dot the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Over the past 15 years, Jewish settlers have also set up dozens of rogue settlement outposts without formal approval, and critics say the government has done little to remove them.

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Syrian warplanes bomb rebellious Damascus suburbs

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian fighter jets on Sunday bombed Damascus suburbs in a government offensive to dislodge rebels from strategic areas around the capital, activists said, as clashes raged around army bases and airfields in the country's north.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes were hitting towns and villages around the capital, while regime forces targeted other neighborhoods with artillery and mortars. At least nine people were killed when a shell hit eastern Ghouta district, the group said.
Also Sunday, Turkish state media said Assad's fighter jets bombed the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border.
At least 34 Syrians wounded in the airstrikes were brought across the border to the Turkish province of Kilis for treatment, the state-run Anadolu agency said. Seven died of the injuries, the report said.
The Observatory said troops were battling rebels in the suburb of Daraya a day after government officials claimed the army had taken much of the strategic area, which lies on the edge of a major military air base southwest of the capital.
In northern Syria, government forces were fighting rebels over an air base and the international airport of the city of Aleppo. The airport includes a military base.
Syrian troops have been pushing since November to regain Daraya, which had a population of about 200,000 before the fighting. Thousands have fled the relentless violence, among more than 2 million Syrians who have been internally displaced during the civil war. At least half a million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
Because of its strategic location, rebel control of the Daraya poses a particularly grave threat to the capital.
The suburb is flanked by the key districts of Mazzeh, home to a military air base, and Kfar Sousseh, where the government headquarters, the General Security intelligence agency head office and the Interior Ministry are located.
While Assad's loyalists appear to have an upper hand on the Damascus front due to the regime's air power, the rebels dealt the government a major blow in the north by capturing a sprawling air base in Idlib province on Friday.
Rebels retained control of the Taftanaz base Sunday and intensified their assault on the Mannagh air base and the international airport in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, activists said.
Among the rebels taking part in the battle are fighters from Jabhat al-Nustra, an Islamist group that the U.S. has branded a terrorist organization. Washington said the group, among the most organized and effective rebel forces on the ground, is affiliated with al-Qaida.
Syrian official statements regularly play up the role of Islamist militants in the civil war and refer to the rebels as terrorists.
More than 60,000 people have been killed since the revolt started almost two years ago.
Heavy fighting was reported Sunday in the northern province of Deir el-Zour, involving attacks by warplanes, activists said.
Last month an international aid group, Doctors Without Borders, said tens of thousands of Syrians, many of them wounded, are trapped in Deir el-Zour.
In Aleppo, where rebels fought troops to a stalemate last year, the two sides clashed near the air force intelligence building in the Zahra neighborhood.
The state-run SANA news agency said an army unit killed "a number of terrorists and destroyed a convoy of cars that was transporting weapons, ammunition and terrorists" in Deir el-Zour.
Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi formed a ministerial committee to conduct dialogue with opposition groups, SANA reported. The dialogue is part of efforts to implement a peace plan Assad outlined in a speech a week ago.
In his first address to the nation in six months, Assad rejected international calls to step down and offered to oversee a national reconciliation conference, while rejecting any talks with the armed opposition and vowing to continue fighting them.
The speech was condemned by the U.S. and its Western and Gulf Arab allies, while Assad's backers in Russia and Iran said his proposal should be considered.
In a rare demonstration in Damascus, dozens of protesters staged a sit-in at the Justice Ministry on Sunday, demanding the minister move against merchants who activists claim are trying to profit from the crisis by raising prices of cooking gas, flour and bread.
Food prices have soared in the past year in Syria, as the value of the local currency plummeted because of the conflict and an international ban on oil exports.

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Palestinian premier urges Arabs to pay pledged aid

CAIRO (AP) — The Palestinian prime minister warned Sunday that his government could fail to meet its obligations to its people because of a cash crunch, and urged Arab countries to deliver on promised aid.
Salam Fayyad met with Arab League members to discuss ways to raise the $100 million they pledged earlier to his Palestinian Authority. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said seven countries have responded favorably, but he did not name them.
League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo decided to dispatch a delegation to the region to raise the funds the Palestinian government needs to make ends meet. The group would include the Elaraby, Fayyad, and the foreign ministers of Iraq and Lebanon.
Fayyad told The Associated Press last week that the authority's cash crunch has gradually worsened in recent years, reaching a point where the government is unable to pay the salaries of about 150,000 government employees. On Sunday, he told reporters that the situation may push more than 1.5 million of 4 million Palestinians into poverty.
He warned that the financial crisis could lead to the disintegration of the Palestinian Authority.
"The absence of these funds threatens the Palestinian Authority's ability to carry out its obligations to the Palestinian people, including helping them stay in the territory," he said.
Fayyad said the Palestinian's successful bid in November to gain U.N. recognition for a state of Palestine has so far led only to Israeli punitive measures, including a halt to monthly transfers of about $100 million in tax funds the Jewish state collects on behalf of the Palestinians.
In a statement, the Arab League urged Israel to release those funds, and called on the international community to press Israel to do so.
Fayyad said those tax rebates amount to about one-third of the monthly operating costs of the Palestinian Authority. Fayyad said he now only takes in about $50 million a month in revenues.
Israel has said it used the withheld money to settle Palestinian Authority debt to Israeli companies, and it's not clear whether the transfers will resume.
The Palestinian Authority employs some 150,000 people, including civil servants and members of the security forces. About 60,000 live in Gaza and served under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas before the Islamic militant Hamas group took over the strip in 2007, but continue to draw salaries even though they've since been replaced by Hamas loyalists.
In recent months, the government has paid salaries in installments. The Palestinian Authority relies heavily on foreign aid, and is already heavily indebted to local banks and private businesses.

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AP Interview: Palestinian PM warns of cash crisis

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Palestinian self-rule government is in "extreme jeopardy" because of an unprecedented financial crisis, largely because Arab countries have failed to send hundreds of millions of dollars in promised aid, the Palestinian prime minister said Sunday.
The cash crunch has gradually worsened in recent years, and the Palestinian Authority now has reached the point of not being able to pay the salaries of about 150,000 government employees, Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press. The number of Palestinian poor is bound to quickly double to 50 percent of the population of roughly 4 million if the crisis continues, he said.
"The status quo is not sustainable," Fayyad said in an interview at his West Bank office.
The Palestinian Authority, set up two decades ago as part of interim peace deals with Israel, is on the "verge of being completely incapacitated," Fayyad warned. Only a year ago, he said he expected to make great strides in weaning his people off foreign aid.
The self-rule government was meant to be temporary and replaced by a state of Palestine, which was to be established through negotiations with Israel. However, those talks repeatedly broke down, and for the past four years the two sides have been unable to agree on the terms of renewing the negotiations.
In late November, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, overriding Israeli objections to the largely symbolic step. On Sunday, Abbas asked his West Bank-based government to prepare for replacing the words "Palestinian Authority" with "State of Palestine" in all public documents, including ID cards, driving licenses and passports.
Israeli officials declined comment, including on whether Israel would prevent Palestinians with new ID cards and passports from crossing borders and checkpoints.
The U.N. bid gave the Palestinians new diplomatic leverage by affirming the borders of a future state of Palestine in lands Israel captured in 1967, but changed little in the day-to-day lives of Palestinians.
In an apparent response to the U.N. move, Israel in December halted its monthly transfer of about $100 million in tax rebates it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. That sum amounts to about one-third of the monthly operating costs of the Palestinian Authority. Fayyad said he now only takes in about $50 million a month in revenues.
Israel has said it used the withheld money to settle Palestinian Authority debt to Israeli companies, and it's not clear whether the transfers will resume. In the meantime, the 22-nation Arab League has not kept a promise to make up for the funds Israel withholds, Fayyad said.
The head of the League has written to member states, urging them to pay the $100 million, Mohammed Sobeih, a league official, said Sunday.
Fayyad pinned most of the blame for the Palestinian Authority's financial troubles on delinquent Arab donors, saying they are "not fulfilling their pledge of support in accordance with Arab League resolutions."
European countries kept their aid commitments, he said.
Some $200 million in U.S. aid were held up by Congress last year, a sum the Obama administration hopes to deliver to the Palestinians this year, along with an additional $250 million in aid. "We have made it clear that we think the money should go forward," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last week.
The Palestinian Authority has relied heavily on foreign aid since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000. It has received hundreds of millions of dollars each year since then, but has struggled to wean itself off foreign support, in part because harsh Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement have hurt economic growth.
Only a year ago, Fayyad said he hoped to increase local revenues, including through spending cuts and higher taxes for wealthier Palestinians. He even set 2013 as a target for financing the government's day-to-day operations with local revenues. However, his tax plan was met by widespread protests and modest economic growth slowed.
Now he's not even sure how he will cover the government payroll, his heftiest monthly budget item.
The Palestinian Authority employs some 150,000 people, including civil servants and members of the security forces. About 60,000 live in Gaza and served under Abbas before the Hamas takeover, but continue to draw salaries even though they've since been replaced by Hamas loyalists.
In recent months, the government has paid salaries in installments.
Fayyad said he managed to pay half the November salaries by getting another bank loan, using as collateral Arab League promises of future support. He said he can't pay the rest of the November salaries, let alone start thinking about December wages.
The Palestinian Authority already owes local banks more than $1.3 billion and can't get more loans. It also owes hundreds of millions of dollars to private businesses, including suppliers to hospitals, some of whom have stopped doing business with the government.
The crisis "has put us in extreme jeopardy," Fayyad said.
The malaise has sparked growing protests. Civil servants have held warning strikes. On Sunday, their union called for four days of strikes over the next two weeks.
Walid Abu Muhsin, a government employee who makes 4,000 shekels ($1,000) a month, said he received only $500 in November, and his bank deducted 50 percent of that for car and home loans, leaving the father of three with $250 to live on.
"I am spending from the few savings I have," he said.
Fayyad said he's thought about quitting, but won't leave during a crisis. He was appointed by Abbas in 2007, after the Islamic militant Hamas seized Gaza by force. Hamas has received money from Iran, while Qatar last year pledged some $400 million for housing projects in Gaza.
Repeated attempts to heal the Palestinian rift have failed. Meanwhile, recent surveys suggest support for Hamas is on the rise, in part because it extracted what were perceived as Israeli concessions after a round of heavy cross-border fighting late last year.
The failure of the Palestinian Authority to deliver on many of its promises, Fayyad said, "has produced a reality of a doctrinal win" for Hamas.
He said the international community must decide whether it wants the Palestinian Authority, once seen as key to any Mideast peace deal, to survive.
"A weak Palestinian Authority cannot be an effective player if you are all the time preoccupied with making ends meet," he said.

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Defiant Assad pledges to continue fighting

BEIRUT (AP) — A defiant Syrian President Bashar Assad rallied a chanting and cheering crowd Sunday to fight the uprising against his authoritarian rule, dismissing any chance of dialogue with "murderous criminals" that he blames for nearly two years of violence that has left 60,000 dead.
In his first public speech in six months, Assad laid out terms for a peace plan that keeps himself in power, ignoring international demands to step down and pledging to continue the battle "as long as there is one terrorist left" in Syria.
"What we started will not stop," he said, standing at a lectern on stage at the regal Opera House in central Damascus — a sign by the besieged leader that he sees no need to hide or compromise even with the violent civil war closing in on his seat of power in the capital.
The theater was packed with his supporters who interrupted the speech with applause, cheers and occasional fist-waving chants, including "God, Bashar and Syria!"
The overtures that Assad offered — a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution — were reminiscent of symbolic changes and concessions offered previously in the uprising that began in March 2011. Those were rejected at the time as too little, too late.
The government last year adopted a constitution that theoretically allows political parties to compete with Assad's ruling Baath Party. It carried out parliamentary elections that were boycotted by his opponents.
Assad demanded that regional and Western countries must stop funding and arming the rebels trying to overthrow him.
"We never rejected a political solution ... but with whom should we talk? With those who have an extremist ideology, who only understand the language of terrorism? "Or should we with negotiate puppets whom the West brought?" he asked.
"We negotiate with the master, not with the slave," he answered.
As in previous speeches and interviews, he clung to the view that the crisis was a foreign-backed plot and not an uprising against him and his family's decades-long rule.
"Is this a revolution and are these revolutionaries? By God, I say they are a bunch of criminals," he said.
He stressed the presence of religious extremists among those fighting in Syria, calling them "terrorists who carry the ideology of al-Qaida" and "servants who know nothing but the language of slaughter."
He said the fighters sought to transform the country into a "jihad land."
Although he put up a defiant front, Assad laid out the grim reality of the violence, and he spoke in front of a collage of photos of what appeared to be Syrians killed in the fighting.
"We are now in a state of war in every sense of the word," Assad said, "a war that targets Syria using a handful of Syrians and many foreigners. It is a war to defend the nation."
He said Syria will take advice but not dictates from anyone — a reference to outside powers calling on him to step down.
The speech, which was denounced by the West, including the U.S. and Britain, came amid stepped-up international efforts for a peaceful way out of the Syrian conflict. Previous efforts have failed to stem the bloodshed.
U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met Assad last month to push for a peace plan for Syria based on a plan first presented in June at an international conference in Geneva. The proposal calls for an open-ended cease-fire and the formation of a transitional government until new elections can be held and a new constitution drafted.
The opposition swiftly rejected Assad's proposals. Those fighting to topple the regime have repeatedly said they will accept nothing less than his departure, dismissing any kind of settlement that leaves him in the picture.
"It is an excellent initiative that is only missing one crucial thing: His resignation," said Kamal Labwani, a veteran dissident and member of the opposition's Syrian National Coalition umbrella group.
"All what he is proposing will happen automatically, but only after he steps down," Labwani told The Associated Press by telephone from Sweden.
Haitham Maleh, an opposition figure in Turkey, said Assad was offering the initiative because he feels increasingly besieged by advancing rebels.
"How could he expect us to converse with a criminal, a killer, a man who does not abide by the law?" he asked.
Assad has spoken only on rare occasions since the uprising began, and Sunday's speech was his first since June. His last public comments came in an interview in November to Russian TV in which he vowed to "live and die" in Syria.
On Sunday, he seemed equally confident in the ability of his troops to crush the rebellion despite the recent fighting in Damascus.
"He did not come across as a leader under siege, nor as a leader whose regime is on the verge of collapse," said Fawaz A. Gerges, head of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.
"He seemed determined that any political settlement must come on his terms, linking those terms with the Syrian national interest as if they are inseparable," he said.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement that Assad's speech was "yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition."
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called Assad's speech "beyond hypocritical." In a message posted on his official Twitter feed, Hague said "empty promises of reform fool no one."
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's office said in a statement that the bloc will "look carefully if there is anything new in the speech, but we maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition."
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey said the speech was filled with "empty promises" and repetitive pledges of reform by a leader out of touch with the Syrian people.
"It seems (Assad) has shut himself in his room, and for months has read intelligence reports that are presented to him by those trying to win his favor," Davutoglu told reporters in the Aegean port city of Izmir on Sunday.
Turkey is a former ally of Damascus, and while Ankara first backed Assad after the uprising erupted, it turned against the regime after its violent crackdown on dissent.
Observers said the speech signaled the violence would continue indefinitely as long as both sides lacked the ability to score a victory on the battlefield.
Randa Slim, a research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, said Assad's made clear he has no intention of making way for a political transition.
"He sees himself rather as an orchestrator and arbiter of a process to be organized under his control," she said.
The Internet was cut in many parts of Damascus ahead of the address, apparently for security reasons, and some streets were closed.
At the end of his speech, loyalists shouted: "With our blood and souls we redeem you, Bashar!"
As he was leaving the hall, supporters pushed forward and swarmed around him to try to talk to him. Nervous security guards tried to push them away.
Many shouted "Shabiha forever!" — referring to the armed regime loyalists whom rebels have blamed for sectarian killings.
Amid the melee, Assad quickly shook hands with some of them and blew kisses to others.

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Egypt Copts mark Christmas with fear of future

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's minority Christians were celebrating their first Christmas after the election of an Islamist president and a new pope — and following adoption of a constitution many argue has an Islamist slant.
Christians gathered in Cairo's main cathedral Sunday for Midnight Mass on the eve of Orthodox Christmas led by their new pope. Pope Tawadros II was elected in November to replace longtime Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after 40 years as the leader of the church.
Islamist President Mohammed Morsi called Tawadros with Christmas greetings and sent one of his aides to the Christmas mass.
Concerned for their future and their ancient heritage in Egypt, some Copts are reportedly considering leaving the country.
As Egypt struggles with the role of religion in society, many Copts are aligning themselves with moderate Muslims and secular Egyptians who also fear the rise of Islamic power.
Amir Ramzy, a Coptic Christian and a judge in Cairo's court of appeals, said Christmas is a chance to retreat and pray for a "better Egypt."
"Christians are approaching Christmas with disappointment, grief and complaints, fearing not only their problems but Egypt's situation in general," Ramzy said. "During the reign of (ousted President Hosni) Mubarak and the (military rulers), mainly Christians were facing problems, but now with the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, each and every moderate Egyptian is facing problems."
In one of his first public messages after his enthronement, Tawadros said the ouster of Mubarak opened the way for a larger Coptic public role, encouraging them to participate in the nation's evolving democracy.
Egypt's Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 85 million people, have long complained of discrimination by the state and the country's Muslim majority. Clashes with Muslims have occasionally broken out, sparked by church construction, land disputes or Muslim-Christian love affairs.
Following the ouster of Mubarak in 2011, sectarian violence rose, and attacks on churches sent thousands of Coptic protesters into the streets. A protest in October 2011 was violently quelled by the country's military rulers, leaving 26 people dead and sparking further outrage.
Ereny Rizk, 34, whose brother George died in that incident, said it was the second Christmas without him, but that the election of a new pope has raised her spirits.
"I felt like he's my father. Having him lessened the severity of my grief," she said. "I definitely thought about leaving the country, but two things stopped me. First the churches and the monasteries in Egypt, our heritage that I'll be missing. Also, I decided not to let my brother's blood go in vain."
The violence has abated, and 2012 was characterized more by the struggle for political and religious rights, said Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
"It is not actual frequent sectarian violence, it is fear of further marginalization and second class citizenship," he said, adding that Egypt has been deeply polarized as it drafted the constitution. Christians and liberals walked out of the committee writing it, complaining that their concerns were not being addressed by the Islamist majority.
Youssef Sidhom, the editor of Egypt's main Coptic newspaper, Watani, said Christians are more concerned for the identity of Egypt, saying that legislation based on the new constitution will be focus of attention out of fear of restrictions on the way of life of Christians and their freedom of worship and expression.
"Egypt is stepping into 2013 split and divided between Copts and moderate Muslims on one side confronting political Islam and fundamentalists on the other side," Sidhom said. "It will only be (resolved) through reconciliation, and this is the challenge that we will have to meet."
Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with EIPR who monitors religious freedom cases in Egypt, said Coptic Christians are facing two new sets of problems: cases of insulting Islam and fear for their life style because of increasingly assertive radical Islamists.
In October, two Coptic boys were put in a juvenile detention after locals accused them of urinating on pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book. It was one in a series of cases against Coptic Christians in the same period, following the fury over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States. The case against the boys was later dropped after mediation.
Ibrahim said some wealthy Copts, who have connections abroad, have temporarily sought to leave Egypt.
"But the majority (of Christians) are also less fortunate," he said. "Like most Egyptians, they are with little education and have difficult economic conditions."
Verna Ghayes, a 21-year old arts student, also noted the deteriorating economic situation. Her father, an architect, lost his job because of a tight market. She felt the hardships, have, in turn, encouraged Christians to seek relief from God.
"With all the unfortunate events that are happening to Egypt, Christians came closer to God, they started to pray more, believing that only God could handle it," she said. "For me that's the good thing, and everything is according to God's plan," she said.

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Blasts aimed at Iraqi Shiites, police kill 23

 Insurgents launched a wave of attacks across Iraq on Monday, primarily targeting Shiite communities and pilgrims and killing at least 23 people, officials said.
The attacks appeared aimed at undermining security and confidence in the government by fomenting sectarian conflict. Overall violence has dropped since the nation neared a civil war several years ago, but attacks of a sectarian nature come almost daily, and government forces seem powerless to prevent them.
The deadliest blasts on Monday were in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, where militants planted bombs around two houses, one belonging to a police officer. Two women, two children and three men were killed in the pre-dawn explosions, a police officer said.
In Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Karrada, a parked car bomb went off next to a tent for Shiite pilgrims making their way to the southern city of Karbala to mark the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, a police officer said. Five were killed and 25 wounded, he said.
The explosion rattled nearby buildings and sent a thick plume of black smoke billowing into the air. Ambulances and police rushed to the scene in the busy downtown shopping district, and several helicopters hovered above.
A roadside bomb injured six pilgrims in the capital's Baiyaa neighborhood later in the evening, according to police.
That came hours after a parked car bomb exploded in a busy street in the city of Hillah where local government offices are located, killing three people and wounding 21, another police officer said. He said some Shiite pilgrims were among the casualties, but he didn't say how many. Hillah is about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad.
Two other Shiite pilgrims were killed and 16 wounded in the town of Khalis, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, when two bombs exploded simultaneously, another police officer said. In the town of Latifiyah, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, one pilgrim was killed and 11 wounded when two mortar rounds exploded nearby, another police officer said.
Six doctors confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information to reporters.
Also Monday, four policemen were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk while trying to defuse a bomb the center of the city, according to police Col. Taha Salaheddin. Kirkuk is 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad. The city is a focus of a power struggle among several sects and the Baghdad government.
Another a policeman was killed when a bomb hit a police convoy in the town of Tuz Khormato, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad, said the provincial spokesman of Salahuddin province, Mohammed al-Asi.
Although violence has ebbed since the height of the insurgency in the past, some groups presumed to be primarily Sunni extremists are still able to launch deadly attacks nationwide against government officials or civilians.
Shiite pilgrims are one of their favorite targets. Each year, hundreds of thousands converge on the southern city of Karbala where the Imam Hussein, an important figure in Shiite Islam, is buried. Many travel on foot, and the mass gatherings are frequently attacked, despite tight security.

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Egypt arrests former Israeli soldier in Sinai

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) — Egyptian security officials say they have arrested a former sergeant in the Israeli army after he illegally entered from Israel into the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
The authorities say the 24 year-old unarmed Israeli entered Egypt near the Taba crossing.
He was detained by Egyptian authorities Monday. The officials say he was trying to reach the Gaza Strip through Sinai to fight alongside Palestinians. They identified him as Andre Yaacoub.
Also known as Andre Pshenichnikov, a Jewish immigrant to Israel from Tajikistan, he made headlines earlier this year when he announced he wanted to renounce his Israeli citizenship and move to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.
The Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

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Israel eases ban on building materials for Gaza

 Israel has started allowing long-banned building materials into the Gaza Strip, its first key concession to the territory's Hamas rulers under a cease-fire that ended eight days of intense fighting last month, the military said Monday.
Israel offered an added incentive to the Islamic militant Hamas as well, with the military saying shipments will continue and a 5-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory may be eased even further if the border remains quiet.
"Now we're talking about a permanent easing," said military spokesman Maj. Guy Inbar. He said 20 truckloads a day could enter Gaza depending on demand and other concessions may follow.
"The longer the calm persists, the more we'll weigh additional easings of restrictions that will benefit the private sector," he said.
A Hamas official described the quantity sent so far as "cosmetic" and Gaza economists said it would take years of round-the-clock shipments to even make a dent in the gap left by the five years of blockade.
Israel imposed a wide-ranging land and naval embargo on Gaza after the Islamic militant Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007. Although it eased the land embargo in 2010, building materials such as cement, gravel and metal rods continued to be largely banned because Israel claimed militants could use them to make fortifications and weapons.
There had been limited exceptions. Israel last week authorized the entry of 60 trucks and buses for the first time since Hamas' 2007 Gaza takeover, though there are conflicting reports on whether vehicles have actually gone through.
The military said it began allowing shipments of gravel to Gaza's private sector on Sunday because the Israeli attacks on Hamas in November had stopped near-daily rocket attacks from Israel.
After the November hostilities, Israel and Hamas began indirect, Egyptian-brokered talks over new border arrangements.
Hamas still wants Israel to lift the remainder of the embargo, including a naval blockade still in place. In return, Israel demands an end to arms smuggling into Gaza.
Gazans also want another major concession from Israel, the lifting of a near-ban on exports from the impoverished territory. Exports, especially to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory on the opposite side of Israel, once formed the backbone of Gaza's economy. The West Bank and Gaza have separate, rival governments.
The army spokesman said exports might be expanded "depending on the continuation of the calm."
Critics contend the export ban punishes ordinary Gazans instead of pressuring Hamas, hurting four in five Gaza factories and contributing heavily to an unemployment rate of about one-third of the workforce. Eighty percent of Gaza's 1.6 million people rely on U.N. handouts.
Hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border gave Gazans a conduit for goods — and weapons — while the embargo remained intact.
Israel lifted its restrictions on consumer goods entering Gaza over land after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a blockade-busting flotilla in 2010 drew international attention to the Israeli blockade. But the blockade on construction materials remained in place, save for shipments used to build U.N. schools and a pilot project of shipments to the private sector a year ago.
"The Israelis promised to undertake further measures to alleviate the difficult economic situation in Gaza as a result of the calm," said Palestinian crossing official Raed Fattouh in Gaza, confirming that the Israelis had agreed to send in 20 trucks of gravel daily, five days a week. "This move had been expected as part of the deal."
Israel has not eased its naval blockade of the territory, which it says is imperative to keep weapons from being smuggled into Gaza by sea.
Egypt, which had joined the Israeli blockade, similarly eased its own restrictions on Saturday, allowing in 1,400 tons of gravel paid for by Qatar. The oil-rich emirate recently pledged $425 million to build housing, schools, a hospital and roads in Gaza as part of its attempt to build its influence in Palestinian politics and its power in the region, at the expense of regional rival Iran, Hamas' longtime patron.
Shipments from Egypt are expected to be ramped up to 4,000 tons daily, said Yassir al Shanti, Gaza's deputy minister of housing and public works. He estimated Gaza needs up to 3 million tons of gravel to build roads and that the Qatar-funded projects need more than 1 million tons.
The shipments from Egypt were launched following consultation with Israeli officials, who were in Cairo Thursday to discuss the cease-fire and other matters, an Egyptian official said last week.
Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Israel's longtime ally, Egypt had poor relations with Hamas, and teamed up with Israel to blockade Gaza. Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, comes from Hamas' parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, and has vowed not to abandon the Palestinians. But he is moving cautiously, in part to avoid alienating Cairo's biggest patron, the United States.
Palestinian economist Mouin Rajab said the new shipments would go only a small way to meet the needs Gaza has accumulated throughout five and a half years of blockade, during which time Hamas and Israel warred twice.
"Gaza needs more than what Israel has allowed and what Egypt has promised to allow. We are talking about six years of blockade, no real economy and no projects in addition to what Gaza lost during two wars in 2009 and 2012," Rajab said.
A Hamas government official in Gaza said there was still a long way to go.
"This amount which has been sent by the Israelis still is cosmetic," he said. "Israel, according to the understanding, should allow more building materials into Gaza as part of the understandings reached by Cairo. We are waiting and we told the Egyptians that."
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the understandings.
Reconstruction since the 2009 fighting has been slow, in large part because of the blockades. To make up the shortage, a bustling smuggling industry through underground tunnels along the Egyptian border has sprung up. While prices for key construction goods have come down, they still remain expensive for the majority of Gaza's 1.6 million people, 80 percent of whom rely on U.N. handouts.
Israel and Hamas shun each other, so Egypt is mediating the new border arrangements. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose confidential contacts, said a Hamas delegation arrived Sunday night in Cairo to meet with Egyptian security officials for a second round of talks on the border arrangements.

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Yemen: Al-Qaida offers bounty for US ambassador

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has offered to pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country.
An audio produced by the group's media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold worth $160,000 for killing the ambassador, Gerald Feierstein.
The group said it will pay 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) to anyone who kills an American soldier inside Yemen.
It said the offer is valid for six months.
The bounties were set to "inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad," the statement said.
The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa did not respond to an Associated Press phone call asking for comment.
Washington considers al-Qaida in Yemen to be the group's most dangerous branch.
The group overran entire towns and villages last year by taking advantage of a security lapse during nationwide protests that eventually ousted the country's longtime ruler. Backed by the U.S. military experts based at a southern air base, Yemen's army was able to regain control of the southern region, but al-Qaida militants continue to launch deadly attacks on security forces that have killed hundreds.
In the capital, Sanaa, security officials said two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed two intelligence officers early Sunday as they were leaving a downtown security facility. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations, said all intelligence and security officers have been instructed to take precautionary measures outside working hours.
The government blames al-Qaida for the killing of several senior military and intelligence officials this year mainly by gunmen on motorbikes.
The officials said security authorities in Sanaa have launched a campaign against motorcyclists suspected of involvement in these attacks or other crimes, arresting about 200 for questioning for violations, including driving motorcycles without license plates.
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Showrooming little threat to clothiers in ho-hum holidays

 In retail, showrooming has not hit shirts yet.
Showrooming, the retail term for shoppers who try a product, then buy it cheaper on Amazon.com or other websites, has driven retailers to the point of hiding barcodes, improving their own websites and coming up with methods to get people to complete their purchase in the store.
But brand-name clothing retailers have an advantage over companies that sell items you can buy anywhere, like televisions and home goods.
"Specialty apparel retailers are some of the least affected by showrooming since the more exclusive the product is, the harder it is to showroom," said Joel Bines, managing director of the retail practice at advisory firm AlixPartners.
That, in turn, has helped retailers like Gap Inc and Lululemon Athletica Inc find favor with investors.
A survey of 2,010 adults conducted by AlixPartners showed consumers who shop for apparel were among the least likely (35 percent) to go to other websites after they liked an item at a store, compared with 42 percent of electronics shoppers and 41 percent of those looking for accessories like watches and jewelry.
"If you look at some of the most successful (clothes) companies in the past few years, they are those that have that moat around them," said hedge fund manager Shawn Kravetz, who runs Esplanade Capital in Boston.
He cites yogawear maker Lululemon and Gap as good examples of how it can help to have clothes that are not sold elsewhere.
If a shopper wants to buy a Banana Republic or Nordstrom shirt from the latest season, they have to buy it either from their stores or online shop.
Discount retailers like Zappos, Amazon and others stock brand-name products, but the merchandise is often not from the current season or limited in colors and sizes.
"I don't need to see if a television fits my body shape when I buy a TV," said Joe Megibow, senior vice president of omni-channel e-commerce at American Eagle Outfitters. The teen clothes retailer has seen better sales than its peers over the past year.
"I can get a sense of the TV and I'm good. Clothing is different. Does it fit me, is it my style, do I like the quality of the material and how it is put together. There's so much more with apparel that matters," he said.
That is the part of the reason, analysts say, why online-only clothing companies like Bonobos and Gap's Piperlime have started opening brick-and-mortar stores or tied up with retailers to sell their products in physical locations.
Choice and easy availability are the two most important aspects of shopping, especially during a holiday season that has lost steam after what looked like strong Thanksgiving sales.
Estelle Tran, an "impulsive" shopper in her twenties, agreed.
"If I want to buy books, tech items, DVDs, I would definitely buy online. For clothes, I would rather (visit stores) as it is also a fun experience to try on clothes," said the Chicago-based finance auditor.
Tran said she would definitely check prices online if she was spending more than $100.
Luxury and high-priced items can be more susceptible to showrooming, because pricing is what drives the behavior, said Marshal Cohen, chief economist at the consultancy NPD Group.
"With electronics and certain consumer goods it is very easy to compare specific brands across multiple websites. But (showrooming is) happening and it will be growing. If a (clothes) retailer isn't taking it seriously, they are going to fall behind," said Bolette Andersen, principal in KPMG's retail industry practice.
ROOM TO GROW
Some investors are betting on apparel stocks because of their relative insulation from the threat of showrooming.
While the S&P Apparel Index has returned a sizzling 27.71 percent year to date, according to Reuters data, far outperforming the S&P 500, which is up 14.80 percent, more gains may be coming.
"We still think there's plenty of room to grow," said Brian Peery, co-portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds. Its growth fund, heavily weighted in apparel and consumer discretionary goods shares, is up 30 percent over the year.
"As we look into the sector 12-18 months, we continue to buy the discretionary area. Two of our heaviest investments would be Foot Locker Inc and TJX Companies Inc," he said.
Discount chains like TJX and Ross Stores, which sell branded clothes at low prices, have benefited from the surge in bargain-seeking shoppers.
Even the stocks of retailers like Gap and American Eagle that have staged or are staging turnarounds have gotten a good boost over the year. Gap has soared 69 percent and American Eagle is up 31 percent.
R. Shawn Neville, president of Avery Dennison retail branding and information solutions, said another reason that apparel and to a broader extent other consumer discretionary stocks do well is because of their sustainability.
"In uncertain times, investors look towards market segments that have strong underlying demand which are more stable, like the apparel industry," Neville said.
Moreover, in times of economic uncertainty, shoppers can still afford clothes and shoes, as opposed to a new car, home, or expensive vacations, helping apparel stocks do well, he said.
"Though Amazon is clearly stealing some share in various categories, clothes retailers, say Abercrombie & Fitch isn't going anywhere. They're not being run out of the shopping mall," said Esplanade's Kravetz.

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Canada spending growth sluggish in November, Mastercard says

 Canada's holiday shopping season got off to a slow start in November with retail sales rising only 1.3 percent from the previous year, compared with 4.2 percent growth a year earlier, according to data released by MasterCard on Thursday.
Still, the shopping season was still young in November. MasterCard Advisors, the payment company's research and consulting division, found that in recent years, holiday shopping peaks from December 20 to December 22.
"Many Canadians may have gotten an early start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, but it's still a very young phenomenon in Canada," Senior Vice-President Richard McLaughlin, said in a release.
The Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving is the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season south of the border, and in recent years retailers have imported Black Friday sales to Canada.
Some also promote online sales the following Monday.
Canada's online retail sales continued to grow in November, increasing 26.4 percent.

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Canadian speedskater Denny Morrison breaks leg while cross-country skiing

Canadian speedskater Denny Morrison is expected to be out of action until March after breaking his leg while cross-country skiing.
Speedskating Canada says Morrison broke the fibula in his left leg Saturday while training on his own in Fernie, B.C., where he was visiting family for the holidays.
Morrison, the reigning world champion in the 1,500 metres and current World Cup leader in the 1,000 metres, has since returned to Calgary to meet with the national team's medical staff and specialists to further evaluate the injury and establish a rehab program.
"I'm optimistic about my recovery," Morrison said in a statement Sunday. "I'm expecting to be in good form for the World Single Distances Championships in March, which are also a venue test event for the Sochi 2014 Olympics."
The 27-year-old from Fort St. John, B.C., competed in all five fall World Cups this season, winning gold and silver medals in the 1,000 metres.
Morrison was a gold and silver medallist in team pursuit at the 2010 and 2006 Olympics, respectively, and has 37 individual medals and 12 in team pursuit in 55 career World Cups.

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Humperdinck's 'Haensel und Gretel' a treat for young and old at Vienna's Volksoper

At the end of the evening, the witch was toast Sunday — or more precisely a gingerbread cookie — and the audience at Vienna's Volksoper loved it.
Of course, with many at the performance of "Haensel und Gretel" at Vienna's second opera house under the age of 6, one could argue that it was an easy sell. And yes, the fairy tale set to music by Engelbert Humperdinck is bound to please kids, even if the singers and the orchestra are sub-par — which they weren't this evening.
For the youngsters it's mostly about the action on stage. Like past generations, the children at Saturday's performance watched wide-eyed, captivated by the story of the brother and sister who get lost in the woods, are captured by the witch and finally escape her by tossing her in the oven, where, in this version of the tale, she turns into a huge gingerbread cookie.
But more than half of the audience Saturday was adults without children, which tells us that there is much more to this opera than just a fairy tale that Vienna's "Omas" and "Opas" take their grandkids to, come Christmas.
Humperdinck worked with Richard Wagner, the master of German operatic folklore, and his music, is Wagnerian — rich, lyrical and vaguely reminiscent of some of the German master's early works. The vocal line is melodic and ranges from pretty to the sublime, evoking occasional frissons even from grey-haired opera goers who have long outgrown fairy tales.
This is music worth performing well. And it was, this Saturday.
As Gretel, Rebecca Nelsen started off well and grew stronger. Her light-lyric soprano was a good fit for the role and she mugged her way admirably through the part of the young waif who saves her and her brother before they turn kids the witch has turned into gingerbread back to life.
Mezzo Adrineh Simonian was Nelsen's perfect dramatic foil as the bumptious older brother who narrowly escapes turning into the witch's Sunday roast. Her voice — and acting — harmonized well with Nelsen's performance.
Robert Woerle was a witch with a difference. The Volksoper version of a production from Karl Doench that premiered more than two decades ago has a man in that role, and what Woerle doesn't deliver terms of voice, he more than compensates for in terms of the creepy factor. His solo "Hur, hopp" as the witch rants about his evil plans for the kids, was a highlight Saturday.
Sebastian Holecek was strong as Peter, the children's poverty-stricken father, tossing off his signature "Ach, wir armen, armen Leute (Oh, we poor, poor, people)" in a powerful and carefree manner that belied the difficulties of this aria. But Gertrud Ottenthal, as his wife, occasionally had to slide into some of her higher notes.
Also good: Sera Goesch as the Sandman and Claudia Goebl as the Dew Man.
In the orchestra pit, conductor Alfred Eschwe did justice to the full Germanic tapestry of the score, weaving a polyphonic musical manuscript to the onstage goings on.
A work for kids? Not only. Richard Strauss, the great German composer of the early and mid-20th century, described Haensel und Gretel as "a masterwork of the highest quality," and its creator as "a great master."

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Insight: Security fears dogged Canada debate on China energy bid

In September, two months after China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd made an unexpected $15.1 billion bid for Canadian energy company Nexen Inc, Canada's spy agency told ministers that takeovers by Chinese companies may threaten national security.
The rare warning from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was disclosed to Reuters by intelligence sources, did not stop the takeover. That was approved by Canadian authorities earlier this month.
But the intervention and an influential U.S. lawmaker's warning in October that Canadian companies should be careful about doing business with Chinese telecom equipment companies Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp made the approval process for the deal more difficult than initially expected.
"CSIS did not like the Nexen bid and thought it was a bad idea for Chinese firms to be investing in the oil sands. It all played into their greater fears about firms like Huawei," said one person familiar with the agency's concerns. "They do not want to wake up one day and realize a crucial sector of the economy is under the control of foreign interests."
And after listening to the spy service, which usually keeps a low profile, Canada drew up surprisingly tough foreign investment rules that were unveiled when approving the Nexen deal, China's biggest-ever successful foreign takeover. In a clampdown on companies it deems influenced by foreign governments, Canada will block similar purchases in the future.
CSIS has been silent about what it said to Ottawa on the Nexen transaction, and it declined to comment for this story. It didn't specifically recommend the CNOOC deal be blocked, but rather warned more generally about such deals with Chinese entities, the person said.
In reality, the government was unlikely to want to block the CNOOC bid, given a high-profile push by Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier in the year to boost ties with China, and given that a lot of Nexen's assets are outside Canada, and it has underperformed other energy companies.
SPECIFIC WORRIES
By pushing back aggressively, CSIS ensured that it got foreign investment policy tightened significantly to deter similar such takeovers by companies under the sway of foreign governments.
"I think people at CSIS and elsewhere are going 'Good. That was a very good response by the government'," said Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS assistant director of intelligence, who retired this year after almost three decades at the agency.
"It did reflect some of those deep strategic concerns that practitioners have had about this kind of investment."
Specific worries include theft of Canadian intellectual property, espionage, computer hacking and foreign companies gaining too much influence over crucial sectors of the economy, said the person familiar with the agency's views.
The government could, in theory, nationalize assets if it thought foreign control was problematic. But the pro-business Conservatives would likely find it politically unpalatable to take such a step.
"To be blunt, Canadians have not spent years reducing the ownership of sectors of the economy by our own governments, only to see them bought and controlled by foreign governments instead," Harper said as he announced the new investment rules.
In October, the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee urged U.S. firms to stop doing business with Huawei and another Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE on the grounds that Beijing could use products made by the two companies to spy.
The House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, urged Canada to take a similar stance, and two days later, the Canadian government indicated it would not let Huawei help build a secure government communications network because of possible security risks.
"The Huawei business caused a lot of political complications for the CNOOC bid," another person familiar with the CNOOC deal said of the U.S. committee's report.
Both Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly denied the allegations in the report, and China's foreign ministry dismissed as "baseless" the idea that security concerns could impede commercial ties.
"We hope that the relevant party can objectively and justly treat Chinese companies' overseas investment and cooperation plans, and stop actions which harm Chinese companies' image and do more to benefit the promotion of bilateral trade and business cooperation," said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
CLANDESTINE SUPPORT
In its annual report, released in September, CSIS noted risks that included espionage and illegal technology transfers, and said some foreign state-owned enterprises had "pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits" in Canada.
The agency did not give details, but added: "When foreign companies with ties to foreign intelligence agencies or hostile governments seek to acquire control over strategic sectors of the Canadian economy, it can represent a threat to Canadian security interests."
CSIS, hit by controversy in 2010 after its head suggested China had too much influence over some Canadian provincial politicians, did not mention any country or firm in its report.
It is unclear how much, if any, influence the United States had on the Canadian authorities' foreign investment policy.
Fen Hampson, head of the global security program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, said he had learned that a U.S. official visited Ottawa in the last few months to discuss mutual concerns about foreign state-owned enterprises.
U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson told Reuters he was not aware of such a meeting, but he noted that officials from the two countries met constantly. "I would be surprised if almost any issue you could think of has not come up in one or more of those conversations," he said. "The United States has not sought to influence Canada's decision with respect to that (CNOOC's bid)... We respect that decision."
The Canadian government did not respond to a request for a comment.
Chinese companies have bought up smaller Canadian energy firms before, but the July 23 bid for Nexen was their first attempt to buy one of the larger players.
Nexen has assets in Canada, the North Sea, Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Technology that Nexen and its partners use for deep sea drilling could interest CNOOC. [ID:nL4N09N3R5]
Asked about the CSIS concerns, a spokeswoman for Industry Minister Christian Paradis replied: "The government has the authority to take any measures it considers necessary to protect national security."
Yet two people close to the deal noted that the Canadian government did not exercise its option to do a separate review of the potential security risks of the CNOOC-Nexen bid, again signaling its concerns were tied to overall Chinese investment rather than to this particular deal.
Under the new rules, which Paradis is responsible for enforcing, foreign state-owned enterprises can no longer buy controlling stakes in assets in the oil sands, the biggest reserve of crude oil outside Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Such enterprises can buy minority stakes in the oil sands, or majority stakes in companies outside the oil sands. Companies deemed to have strong government links will be treated with particular caution wherever they propose to invest.
"When it comes to our security and intelligence services, they would rather pull up the drawbridge than let it down," said Hampson, co-author of a report on trade ties between Canada and emerging nations that he discussed with Harper in June.

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