Iran's cunning Rafsanjani seeks one more shot

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Signs on currency exchange shops in Tehran explained why the doors where temporarily shut: Waiting to see if former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani would seek to reclaim the office. On Sunday, the money changers reopened early amid a mini-surge in Iran's gasping economy after Rafsanjani joined the race.

Tehran's stock exchange nudged higher. Merchants cut prices as the slumping Iranian currency clawed back about 4 percent against the U.S. dollar.

That's how much Rafsanjani's surprise decision reawakened Iran's presidential election process, which now includes more than 680 hopefuls and will culminate June 14 with just a handful of names on the ballot to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The common wisdom held that the ruling clerics, which vet all the candidates, would clear only an establishment-friendly slate and pro-reform voters would be kept on the margins after years of withering crackdowns. The decision by another former president, Mohammad Khatami, to stay out of the race appeared to seal the scenario.

Suddenly, though, the 78-year-old elder statesman Rafsanjani has challenged that equation by putting his name in the election mix just minutes before the registration deadline Saturday.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third story in an occasional series examining the June 14 Iranian election and the wider global and internal Iranian consequences at the end of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's era.

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He has enough of a liberal aura to re-energize reformers for the first time since being crushed in the wake of Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 re-election. He also is seen as a potential steadying hand on Iran's sanctions-sapped economy as a "millionaire mullah" patriarch of a family-run business empire.

In one of his first statements since joining the race, Rafsanjani spoke in general terms Sunday of seeking a new "economic and political" rebirth in a time of "foreign threats and sanctions."

Meanwhile, he still holds a senior position inside the ruling theocracy — and unimpeachable credentials during the 1979 Islamic Revolution — that gives him tough armor against likely attempts to sully his reputation as the election moves into its next stage.

The challenge, however, is whether reformists can fully rally behind a leader who left office 16 years ago and has built a reputation as a cunning political survivor that earned him a host of nicknames including Akbar Shah, or Great King. He has criticized crackdowns on dissent, but also retains a top post inside the theocracy and closely follows the official line on issues such as Iran's nuclear program and regional alliances including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Syria's regime.

"Rafsanjani is still the only real candidate who can pull together reformists," said Hamid Reza Shokouhi, an editor at the pro-reform Mardomsalari newspaper.

There is no guarantee Rafsanjani even will make the final candidate list approved by the ruling clerics next week. But he casts a wide net that cannot be easily ignored.

As Rafsanjani headed to the Interior Ministry to submit his name on Saturday, dozens of supporters lined the streets to shout words of thanks. The numbers might be insignificant. But any kind of public outburst by reformists is certain to be noticed by authorities.

Late Saturday, a group of pro-reform leaders gathered as Khatami called Rafsanjani's candidacy "a national opportunity" and urged liberals and moderates to unite behind him. Some reformist candidates, including one of Khatami's former vice presidents, pledged to withdraw to throw his support behind Rafsanjani, who last sought the presidency in 2005 in a loss to Ahmadinejad that has left bad blood that lingers still.

"Khatami has guaranteed reformist support for Rafsanjani," said Tehran-based political analyst Ali Dowrani. "Reformists are reaching a consensus to back him."

It's somewhat of a political bandwagon by default.

With Khatami staying out, there were only longshot candidates for Iranians seeking to ease the hard-line pressures since 2009, including sharp clampdowns on the Internet and political freedoms. The leading opposition candidates from four years ago, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, remain under house arrest, while establishment enforcers, such as the paramilitary Basij corps, have been given far greater reach.

Rafsanjani's youngest daughter, Faezeh, was released from jail in March after serving a six-month sentence in connection with the post-election chaos. His middle son, Mahdi, also is to stand trial in coming weeks for his alleged role in the riots.

Rafsanjani, too, has suffered some blows but never enough to sweep him aside.

His main dissent moment came amid the punishing attacks on protesters claiming vote fraud brought Ahmadinejad back to power in 2009. Rafsanjani denounced the violence on both sides, but the comments were perceived as a message to the Revolutionary Guard and ruling clerics.

Rafsanjani, who carries the mid-level cleric rank of hojatoleslam, was forced to resign from his prestigious role as one of the leaders of Friday prayers at Tehran University. He later was pushed out of the Assembly of Experts — the only group with the power to dismiss the supreme leader — after failing to get enough support to leverage possible concessions from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the postelection clampdowns.

Rafsanjani, however, managed to keep his post as head of the Expediency Council, an advisory body that mediates disputes between the parliament and the Guardian Council, the watchdog group that vets all candidates for the presidency and other elections.

"I feel we young people will have an easier situation if Rafsanjani is in office," said Faezeh Jian, a 23-year-old Tehran resident who was still in elementary school when Rafsanjani left office after eight years in 1997. "I like him. I think we will face fewer crackdowns."

Such comments hint at Rafsanjani pulling in some support from the now dismantled Green Movement of four years ago. But his strongest appeal could be as a fiscal steward.

Iran's president has no direct say over nuclear policies — and no way to address international sanctions. But many Iranians complain about Ahmadinejad's economic policies of subsidies and government handouts. While they have earned Ahmadinejad a loyal following in many impoverished areas, they also are blamed for straining Iran's economy and contributing to the more than 30 percent plummet in the national currency's value.

"He (Rafsanjani) is internationally well-known and his economic team is quite powerful," said Kamyar Yaghouni, a 23-year-old law student.

Much of Rafsanjani's fiscal mystique is built around a family-owned business empire that began with pistachio trading but grew to include construction companies, an auto assembly plant, vast real estate holdings and a private airline. In 2003, he was listed among Iran's "millionaire mullahs" by Forbes magazine.

At a Tehran grocery story, owner Abbas Hemmati described Rafsanjani as the least offensive of the presumed front-runners, which include Tehran's mayor and a senior adviser to Khamenei. Also in the mix is Ahmadinejad's top aide, but there are questions on whether he will be cleared because of Ahmadinejad's internal political battles with the ruling clerics.

"Rafsanjani is bad, but I prefer him to others who are worse," said Hemmati. "When I cannot have a palace, I'll take a hut at least."

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Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.

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U.S. seeks North Korean amnesty for American jailed for 15 years

By Ju-min Park and Paul Eckert

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labor on Thursday for what it said were crimes against the state, prompting the United States to call for his immediate release to keep him from becoming a bargaining chip between the two countries.

Kenneth Bae, 44, was born in South Korea but is a naturalized U.S. citizen and studied psychology for two years at the University of Oregon. His sentencing comes after two months of saber-rattling that saw North Korea threaten the United States and South Korea with nuclear war.

Pyongyang has previously tried to use American prisoners as negotiation assets in talks with Washington. Washington is not looking for an envoy to try to secure Bae's release as it has sometimes done, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the United States has sought in recent years to break out of a pattern of having to resolve repeated crises with North Korea through transactional deals.

"We urge the DPRK (North Korea) to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. It was not clear if Bae had been taken immediately to jail.

Bruce Klingner, a former CIA North Korea analyst, dismissed the idea that Bae's release would trigger the renewal of long-stalled diplomacy.

"Previous arrests of U.S. citizens didn't lead to changes in North Korean policy, resumption of bilateral dialogue or breakthroughs in U.S.-North Korean relations," said Klingner, a senior fellow at Washington's Heritage Foundation think tank.

Human rights activists in South Korea say Bae may have been arrested for taking pictures of starving children.

FAMILY SAYS 'BAFFLED'

Bae is "a committed Christian," said David Ross, director of a missionary training center at Antioch World Ministries Inc in Monroe, Washington.

"He has feelings for orphans and has done some ministry work feeding orphans," added Ross, who said he has been a casual acquaintance of Bae since they met four years ago through church affiliations in Hawaii. "He has a missionary heart," Ross said.

Bae's mother, Myung-Hee Bae, told Reuters in a brief telephone interview that she had last spoken to her son on April 23 and that he told her during the call that he was well. Myung-Hee Bae, who lives in the Seattle area, said it was the only call she had received from her son since he was detained.

His sister, Terri Chung, told CNN in an interview that he had been working as a tour guide bringing people from China into North Korea and that he had never before run into trouble doing so.

"We can't really know for sure why he would be arrested. He's only had the biggest heart for the people and the nation of North Korea," she said. "We are baffled just like anybody else about why a man like my brother could be arrested."

"We just pray and ask for leaders of both nations to please just see him as one man caught in between and we just ask that he be allowed to come home," Chung said.

Bae was one of five tourists who visited the northeastern North Korean city of Rajin in November and has been held since then. The State Department recommends that U.S. citizens avoid travel to North Korea, although it does not block trips.

"U.S. citizens crossing into North Korea, even accidentally, have been subject to arbitrary arrest and long-term detention," reads the department's travel warning, updated in March.

NEGOTIATING CARD?

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has made numerous trips to North Korea that included efforts to free detained Americans, said Bae's case should not become entangled in the current U.S.-North Korea impasse.

"Now that the sentencing and the North Korean legal process has been completed, it is important that negotiations begin to secure Kenneth Bae's release on humanitarian grounds or a general amnesty," said Richardson, who visited North Korea in January with Google Inc CEO Eric Schmidt.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said any negotiations with North Korea were "dependent upon the North Koreans demonstrating a willingness to live up to their international obligations."

North Korea is the subject of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for an end to its nuclear and missile tests, as well as punitive U.N. sanctions.

Some media reports have identified Bae as the leader of the tour group. NK News, a specialist North Korea news website, said he was the owner of a company called Nation Tours that specialized in tours of northeastern North Korea.

The reports could not be verified and North Korean state news agency KCNA did not list any specific charge other than crimes against the state, and used a Korean rendering of Bae's name, Pae Jun-ho, when it reported the Supreme Court ruling.

"North Korea has shown their intention to use him as a negotiating card as they have done in the past," said Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul.

North Korea appears to use the release of high-profile American prisoners to extract a form of personal tribute, rather than for economic or diplomatic gain, often portraying visiting dignitaries as paying homage.

'HEFTY' SENTENCE

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has traveled to North Korea before to try to free a detained American, has no plans to do so for Bae, Carter's spokeswoman said.

According to North Korean law, the punishment for hostile acts against the state is between five and 10 years' hard labor.

"I think his sentencing was hefty. North Korea seemed to consider his acts more severe," said Jang Myung-bong, honorary professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a North Korea law expert.

North Korea is one of the most isolated states on earth. Its official policy of "Juche," or self-reliance, is a fusion of Marxism, extreme nationalism and self-sufficiency centered on the cult of the ruling Kim family.

Bae likely will not be incarcerated in one of the North's notorious slave labor camps, such as the one where defector Kwon Hyo-jin was locked up. There, Kwon said, prisoners were worked to death and often survived only by eating rats and snakes.

"If an American served jail together with North Korean inmates, which won't happen, he could tell them about capitalism or economic developments. That would be the biggest mistake for North Korea," said Kwon, a North Korean sentenced to a camp for seven years until 2007. He defected to South Korea in 2009.

"(Bae) would be sent to a correctional facility that only houses foreigners and was set up as a model for international human rights groups."

Bae's sentencing brought bad back memories for Euna Lee, one of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years in 2009 and released only after a visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton. She cried out loud in the courtroom when her labor camp sentence was handed down.

"The word 'labor camp' took the tiny hope I had away from me. I was physically and mentally weak and I really thought I would not make it home," South Korea-born Lee said via email.

Lee, then a journalist for Current TV, said her 12-year sentence included two years for illegal border crossing and 10 for the "hostile act" of making a documentary on North Koreans who risk their lives fleeing their country for nearby China.

Bae was given counsel by the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. The embassy has declined to comment on the case and Ventrell said the Swedes did not attend Bae's trial.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in Seoul, Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Laura L. Myers in Seattle and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Alistair Bell, David Brunnstrom and Mohammad Zargham)

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Kerry heads to East Asia, seeks help on NKorea

LONDON (AP) — John Kerry had been secretary of state for little more than a week when North Korea tested a nuclear bomb.

He gathered top aides together for a morning meeting and asked for ideas, prompting a conversation about how to get China to join the United States in putting pressure on Pyongyang, according to a senior administration official who was present. The debate encapsulates America's struggle to come up with a strategy — based on sticks, carrots or a combination of both — to convince China to police its own backyard.

As Kerry heads to East Asia for his first time as America's top diplomat, some progress has been made in convincing Beijing, North Korea's biggest benefactor, to start getting tough with its neighbor. The question is whether it will make a difference.

North Korea's government agency said Thursday that it has "powerful striking means" on standby for a launch, amid speculation in Seoul and Washington that North Korea will test-fire a mid-range missile designed to reach the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. It was the latest warning from the North, which launched a long-range rocket in December and conducted an underground nuclear test in February.

For years, Washington has been putting its hopes in Beijing to rein in the provocative behavior and combative rhetoric from North Korea. China has more leverage over the North than any other country, having massively boosted trade ties with the isolated regime in recent years and maintaining close military relations.

But the U.S. has been frustrated by the reaction from a government that in many ways has different priorities. China, analysts and officials often say, fears the implosion of North Korea's impoverished state and the regional instability that would cause far more immediate damage than the North's nuclear proliferation and missile program. And China remains wary of any enhanced U.S. involvement in its backyard.

"If anyone has real leverage over the North Koreans, it is China," U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress Thursday. "And the indications that we have are that China is itself rather frustrated with the behavior and the belligerent rhetoric of ... Kim Jong Un."

China's role in containing North Korea is expected to be front and center when Kerry arrives in Seoul on Friday. He then travels to Beijing and Tokyo.

At a meeting Wednesday in London, Kerry and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida "discussed the special role China can play in exerting pressure on the North Korean leadership," according to a State Department official who was present.

Kerry, the official added, stressed the need to "change the dynamic in North Korea, and he emphasized the importance of continuing to put pressure on North Korea with economic sanctions." The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the closed-doors meeting and demanded anonymity.

Kerry and the other foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations "condemned in the strongest possible terms" Thursday the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

"They condemned DPRK's current aggressive rhetoric and confirmed that this will only serve to further isolate the DPRK," the final communique said, using the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "They urged the DPRK to engage in credible and authentic multilateral talks on denuclearization."

In recent weeks, Washington and Beijing have cooperated on new sanctions against the North and both have decried the increasing threats from Kim Jong Un's government, which have expanded to include talk of a nuclear strike against the United States. It is not believed to have such capacity, but the provocative rhetoric has officials around the world extremely worried.

At the State Department meeting after North Korea's Feb. 12 nuclear test, different ideas for how to bring about a new assertiveness from Beijing were tossed around, according to the senior U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the meeting and demanded anonymity.

One approach could be described best as the power of persuasion: Make the case to Chinese authorities, offered many times previously, that both the U.S. and China share a common interest in ensuring a stable Korean Peninsula, without the threat of nuclear war in the Asia-Pacific.

The other approach is more akin to the power of example: Show the Chinese what it means if they cannot control the North's behavior by beefing up U.S. defenses and sending more American military assets right into China's backyard.

Over the past few weeks, the Obama administration has applied doses of both, while keeping up diplomatic efforts. President Barack Obama called Chinese President Xi Jinping in mid-March to discuss North Korea.

Military maneuvers in South Korea have served as a reminder of the overwhelming deterrent force the U.S. and its ally maintain. The deployments also have sent a message to Beijing.

But the North's history of unpredictability means no one knows for sure what it will all mean, even if analysts say North Korea is unlikely to initiate any attack on South Korea like the one that started the Korean War in 1950, and is unlikely to target Japan or American interests in the region.

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AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report from Washington.

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U.S. seeks swift transfer of Congo warlord to Hague court

By Jenny Clover

KIGALI (Reuters) - The United States is seeking the swift transfer of a Congolese warlord from its embassy in Rwanda to a war crimes tribunal for a trial that could help eastern Democratic Republic of Congo inch towards peace.

Bosco Ntaganda gave himself up to the U.S. Embassy in Kigali on Monday after a 15-year career that spanned a series of Rwandan-backed rebellions in eastern Congo.

He asked to be sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where he faces war crimes charges.

Ntaganda's departure from the conflict zone, where he was a leading commander in the M23 group fighting Congolese forces, could improve prospects for stability in a region where vast mineral resources have fuelled two decades of conflict.

But the trial of Rwandan-born Ntaganda could also prove an embarrassment to the Rwandan government which has denied charges by a U.N. panel that accused it of backing the M23 rebels. The could take months or even longer to start.

"This is an opportunity to advance a little bit of peace and stability in the eastern Congo," Johnnie Carson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told a conference call on Ntaganda's situation.

He also said Rwanda could use the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to a February deal signed in Addis Ababa that called for regional states to help end conflict in Congo.

He said the Rwandan government had offered "appropriate assurances" that it would not interfere in the process of transferring Ntaganda, who needs to be transported through the capital to the airport in coordination ICC authorities.

Speaking from Washington, Carson said he wanted Ntaganda moved "as quickly as possible". He did not give a precise timeline.

OBSTACLE TO PEACE?

"The next 48 hours or so will be critical," Carson said. Practical arrangements were still being worked out and ICC officials were heading to Rwanda to help with those logistics. In the meantime, he said Ntaganda did not have access to communications equipment at the embassy that might allow him to contact former comrades in the field.

Ntaganda faces charges of recruiting child soldiers, murder, ethnic persecution, sexual slavery and rape during the 2002-3 conflict in northeastern Congo's gold-mining Ituri district.

Ntaganda's whereabouts had been unknown after hundreds of his fighters fled into Rwanda or surrendered to U.N. peacekeepers at the weekend following their defeat by a rival faction of M23 rebels in the mineral-rich eastern Congo.

With an arrest warrant hanging over him, Ntaganda and his faction were seen as an obstacle to a peace deal between the M23 and the Congolese government. Jason Stearns of the Rift Valley Institute, a research body working in the region, said he might have feared being sold out.

But his decision to give himself up may improve the prospects for a deal that the M23 faction he opposed has shown signs of warming to.

Born in Rwanda, Ntaganda grew up in Congo before fighting alongside Rwandan Tutsi rebels who seized control of the small central Africa country, ending the 1994 genocide in which over 800,000 people died.

For Rwanda, the worries of being implicated by Ntaganda in any testimony when on trial may be outweighed by the desire to avoid being seen as a nation seeking to protect an ICC indictee.

"It's possible the Rwandans will be nervous about what he might say if he got on the stand in the Hague," said Ben Shepherd, an analyst at Chatham House, a London-based international affairs institute.

But Shepherd said the relationship between Ntaganda and Rwanda was ambiguous so Kigali might be confident it could avoid being implicated or might simply be hoping it would take years before he stood trial.

(Writing by Edmund Blair and Richard Lough in Nairobi; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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Asia's F-35 buyers forced to wait as China seeks edge

By Rob Taylor and David Lague

CANBERRA/HONG KONG (Reuters) - The Pentagon's F-35 warplane is giving U.S. allies in Asia a headache as they look to replace ageing jets with a cutting edge aircraft now likely to be at least seven years late in offering a strategic deterrent to China.

The $400 billion weapons project has suffered technical faults, delays, cost overruns and now U.S. budget cuts that could force Washington to scale back its own purchases.

At the same time, China's soaring defense spending is rapidly eroding the advantage in technology, particularly in air power, that Washington and some of its regional allies have had over the People's Liberation Army (PLA) since the 1950s.

China is also flight testing two stealth fighters, the J-20 and the J-31, although they are not expected to enter service until the end of the decade at the earliest, military aviation experts said.

"It's an open question as to how advanced and sophisticated they actually are," said Andrew Davies, a senior strategy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, referring to the Chinese fighters.

"But having said that, they make life more difficult for existing types, so the F-35 becomes more important."

The F-35 is the costliest weapons program in history. Lockheed Martin Corp is the prime contractor. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, makes the engine.

Australia has ordered 100 F-35s, although defense analysts say it might buy only 50 to 70 given Canberra is expected to decide in June to double its fleet of 24 Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornets. That would prevent a frontline gap until the F-35 is delivered later in the decade.

Japan said it was not changing its plan to buy 42 planes while South Korea is expected to choose the F-35 as the winner of a 60-jet competition to be decided this summer.

Singapore is likely to order more than a dozen F-35s in the coming weeks.

TERRITORIAL ROWS WITH CHINA

When Asian customers first lodged orders, regional conflict appeared remote. But a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over a group of islands in the East China Sea has crystallized attention on China's expanding fleet of advanced fighters and strike aircraft.

China is also pitted against the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations over claims to the South China Sea. Both bodies of water are potentially rich in oil and gas.

Western analysts are skeptical about whether the new Chinese fighters will be any match for the fifth generation F-35 or the more expensive Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor already in service with the U.S. air force but not available for export.

In addition to the challenges of designing and operating stealth aircraft, China will have to overcome shortcomings with locally made engines that have forced it to rely almost exclusively on Russian power plants for its current frontline fighters.

While Lockheed continues to promise F-35s on Asia-Pacific runways from around 2017, the aircraft may not be available in meaningful numbers for five years beyond that.

That leaves Japan and South Korea relying on a generation of older planes the F-35 was supposed to replace.

"You can keep an aeroplane for as long as you want. The problem with aircraft age is you lose availability and reliability of the aircraft," said Australia's air force chief, Air Marshal Geoff Brown.

Japanese defense officials and experts said Tokyo was not about to panic.

"It's not like China has great stealth fighters. What matters in military capability is where you are in relation to your opponent," said Toshiyuki Shikata, a Teikyo University professor and a retired general.

Japan is not sitting on its hands. It is upgrading its fleet of about 200 Boeing F-15s, its mainstay fighter.

Tokyo has committed so far to buying only four F-35s but is building an assembly line to manufacture the remaining 38 aircraft locally.

The F-35 locks Japan in with the future U.S. order of battle - as it does for Australia, South Korea and Singapore - flying the same sensor-packed fighter aircraft as U.S. forces.

"Tensions with China will absolutely lock that in. And South Korea will follow Japan, because politically it would be very difficult for a South Korean government to be seen to settle for something less than Japan has," said Davies.

Steve O'Bryan, Lockheed's F-35 vice president for program integration, said all the world's great militaries were employing fifth generation capability for future deterrence and security needs.

"Only fifth generation aircraft give you the enhanced flexibility, versatility and the ability to deploy anywhere to meet the challenge of future emerging threats," O'Bryan said.

F-35 WON'T BE EVERYWHERE

The F-35 could still be a rare sight in Asia.

Japan's 42 F-35s would join an air force of more than 350 fighter aircraft, some old even by fourth generation standards.

Assuming it places an order, South Korea's 60 would replace ageing types in an air force of more than 460 fighter bombers, while Singapore's handful would spearhead a force of around 148 aircraft, many of them later model F-15s and F-16s. Singapore is likely to buy additional batches of F-35s in the coming years, eventually building its fleet up to as many as 75, according to U.S. government and industry sources.

Even if all four countries opt for the plane in numbers expected by Lockheed, the F-35 will still only account for roughly one in 10 frontline aircraft in Asia, although in Australia it would be one in two.

Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, a strong supporter of the F-35, is encouraging the U.S. air force to rapidly deploy its early F-35s to U.S. bases in the region, networking them with F-22s and other warplanes to send a powerful message to China and North Korea.

Chinese military planners have already gotten the message about air power, having studied the way the United States and its Western allies crushed opponents in the Balkans and the Middle East.

In these conflicts, coordinated air and missile strikes on air defense systems, communications and air-bases allowed the United States to control the skies, leaving their adversaries blind and virtually defenseless.

The PLA has set out to ensure it would not suffer this fate, military experts said.

CHINA BUILDING UP AIR DEFENCES

Underpinning its defenses, China has built a hardened, integrated air defense system bristling with batteries of Russian-made and locally produced surface-to-air missiles.

Since 2000, the PLA air force has taken delivery of almost 550 advanced fighter and strike aircraft that potentially match or even exceed the capabilities of all current Western aircraft except the F-22, some aviation experts said.

And, the PLA still has more than 1,000 less advanced fighters to defend its airspace.

That means only the U.S.'s 185 F-22s and 20 stealthy B-2 bombers could penetrate China's airspace in a conflict right now, according to senior U.S. and Asian military commanders.

Another key objective for Beijing is to keep U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups far away from areas of operations near the Chinese coast.

It has invested heavily in submarines, surface warships and missiles that could be used to attack carriers or keep them at bay, forcing their aircraft to operate at long distances.

Paradoxically, some analysts believe China's capacity to attack carriers could mean the F-35 makes less difference to Asia's arms buildup than most assume.

"It's a bit radical, but I don't think the U.S. Navy really needs the F-35 because I don't think the USN can get the F-35 within range of Chinese targets. The Chinese capacity to sink the carriers they are floating on is too great," said Hugh White, a former top Australian defense official who steered Canberra's decision to buy the F-35.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington. Editing by Dean Yates)

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As drone monopoly frays, Obama seeks global rules

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs.

The United States was the first to use unmanned aircraft fitted with missiles to kill militant suspects in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

But other countries are catching up. China's interest in unmanned aerial vehicles was displayed in November at an air show . According to state-run newspaper Global Times, China had considered conducting its first drone strike to kill a suspect in the 2011 murder of 13 Chinese sailors, but authorities decided they wanted the man alive so they could put him on trial.

"People say what's going to happen when the Chinese and the Russians get this technology? The president is well aware of those concerns and wants to set the standard for the international community on these tools," said Tommy Vietor, until earlier this month a White House spokesman.

As U.S. ground wars end - over in Iraq, drawing to a close in Afghanistan - surgical counterterrorism targeting has become "the new normal," Vietor said.

Amid a debate within the U.S. government, it is not yet clear what new standards governing targeted killings and drone strikes the White House will develop for U.S. operations or propose for global rules of the road.

Obama's new position is not without irony. The White House kept details of drone operations - which remain largely classified - out of public view for years when the U.S. monopoly was airtight.

That stance is just now beginning to change, in part under pressure from growing public and Congressional discomfort with the drone program. U.S. lawmakers have demanded to see White House legal justifications for targeting U.S. citizens abroad, and to know whether Obama thinks he has the authority to use drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil.

On Friday, a three-judge federal appeals court panel unanimously ruled that the CIA gave an inadequate response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking records about drone strikes. The CIA had said it could neither confirm nor deny whether it had drone records because of security concerns.

The judge who wrote the ruling noted that the president had publicly acknowledged that the United States uses drone strikes against al Qaeda.

LETHAL ACTION

Strikes by missile-armed Predator and Reaper drones against terrorism suspects overseas began under former President George W. Bush and were expanded by Obama.

The ramp-up started in 2008, the last year of Bush's term, when there were 35 air strikes in Pakistan, and escalated under Obama to a peak of 117 in 2010, according to The Long War Journal ( http://www.longwarjournal.org/pakistan-strikes.php ).

That jump in use of armed drones resulted from the authorization to use "signature" strikes, which allowed targeting terrorism suspects based on behavior and other characteristics without knowing their actual identity, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said the administration is committed to explaining to Congress and the public as much as possible about its drone policies, including how decisions to strike are made.

"We are constantly working to refine, clarify, and strengthen the process for considering terrorist targets for lethal action," Hayden said.

The administration recognizes "we are establishing standards other nations may follow," she said.

James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said other countries, including Russia, have unarmed reconnaissance drones. China says it has an armed drone, but "we don't know if it works," he said.

"Getting agreement on the applicability of existing humanitarian law to the new technologies is crucial," he said, because China and Russia do not endorse applying laws of armed conflict to new military technologies.

One of the Obama administration's goals is to "regularize" the drone program, making it more a part of accepted U.S. practice in the future, Lewis said. "This is going to be part of warfare."

While the Obama administration moves toward refinement and transparency of standards, drone strikes continue to spark outrage in countries where they are conducted. Washington has sought to portray civilian casualties from drone strikes as minimal, but groups collecting data on these attacks say they have killed hundreds of civilians.

A U.N. human rights investigator who is looking into drone strikes worldwide said on Friday the U.S. campaign had violated Pakistan's sovereignty.

INTERNAL DEBATES

One focus of U.S. officials' internal debate is whether to shift drone operations to the Pentagon from the CIA.

That would allow the CIA to return to more traditional operations of espionage and intelligence analysis, and put the killing of terrorism targets in the hands of the military.

It would probably be a "phased approach" that would account for differences in the threat and political sensitivities, said a second U.S. official. "There would have to be some tailoring."

In Pakistan, where the U.S. military is not in ground combat, the Obama administration would probably not want drone strikes to appear as being conducted by the military.

In Yemen, there may not be the same sensitivities. U.S. military personnel are on the ground working with Yemenis in counterterrorism operations.

The United States has also carried out drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Somalia.

"I think if they moved it, not as a covert action program, but one of the tools of the warfighter, then the result of it is probably going to be more public exposure about what they are doing," Stephen Hadley, national security adviser under Bush, said.

The "center of gravity" in internal administration debates is the goal of greater consistency on how drone strikes are managed, decided upon, and executed, the second official said.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Mohammad Zargham)

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Bill seeks open government rule violation as crime

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A lawmaker's effort to make it a criminal misdemeanor for an official to violate North Carolina's public records and open meetings laws faced hurdles after Senate committee members and local government lobbyists objected Tuesday.

Primary sponsor Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover, said he filed his bill in response to local Alcoholic Beverage Control board meetings that had been closed to the public unlawfully and in which no minutes were kept for the public to review later.

Goolsby said there's no way to punish those who close meetings unlawfully or deny access to public records. Current law directs people or media outlets to sue government officials in civil court to get a judge's ruling that the open government law was broken. But often members of the public don't have the resources to litigate, he said.

The bill would make any elected or appointed office holder who willfully denies access to public records or violates open meetings laws guilty of the lowest-grade misdemeanor. That's punishable by community service on a first offense to a maximum of 20 days in jail after five or more convictions.

"This is the public's record. This is a public meeting and when you close the meeting down and or deny the public record there should be a requirement — something on the officials who do that rather than just saying, 'we're just going to let you file a lawsuit,'" Goolsby said.

Several senators spoke against the bill in its current form, saying it was too harsh a judgment upon officials who try to carry out open government laws that are full of exceptions and may require judgments on what's open to inspection or confidential. Many officials follow the advice of a board or commission attorney.

The committee didn't take a vote and it's unclear what the next step would be for the bill beyond the discussion attended by about half the senators on the panel. The bill's future may brighten because the other primary sponsor is Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson and chairman of the powerful Senate Rules Committee.

Many local governments often don't have the resources to respond to increasing numbers of public records requests, said Sen. Pete Brunsetter, R-Forsyth, a critic of the bill. The city of Greensboro, for example, has received 104 more requests during the current fiscal year compared to all of the previous fiscal year that ended last June 30, said city spokesman Donnie Turlington.

"Increasingly what they're dealing with are large-scale fishing expeditions," Brunstetter said, adding that the bill's result could be that when officials make a judgment call "that dissatisfies somebody, they're dealing with a criminal charge." Paul Meyer with the North Carolina League of Municipalities said this type of a proposal "will slow down the release of records" and "it will likely drive up costs" for governments.

John Bussian, an attorney representing the North Carolina Press Association, told the committee that district attorneys would have discretion to prosecute local officials. He said the bill is aimed at public officials who repeatedly deny access to records and meetings that are clearly required to be open.

Nineteen states make criminal penalties available for public records law violators and 21 states offer them for breaking open meetings laws, according to a document distributed by Bussian.

"It's a big deal because the current system we have doesn't work," Bussian said. "Nothing short of criminal penalties really works."

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, D-Mecklenburg, suggested encouraging compliance with the open government laws through other methods. A government official, for example, always could be required to cite the exception they're using to deny access to records, Clodfelter said. Investigative records and public security documents, for example, are subject to confidentiality.

Media outlets often already seek such an explanation in their written records request.

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Obama seeks authority for IMF vote reforms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has asked the U.S. Congress for authority to implement historic voting reforms in the International Monetary Fund agreed in 2010 that would boost the influence of emerging economies like China in the institution, sources said on Tuesday.

The Treasury Department submitted the request as a provision to be inserted into pending legislation, that aims to keep the U.S. government funded through 2010, congressional aides said. The Treasury sought authority to shift $65 billion in existing U.S. money from an IMF crisis fund into U.S. quotas, which determine voting power in the Fund.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Netanyahu seeks time to build new Israeli coalition

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a possible snap election, officials said on Friday.

They said Netanyahu would meet President Shimon Peres on Saturday to ask for a two-week extension after his right-wing party, the narrow victor in Israel's January 22 ballot, exhausted the standard four weeks allotted to build a coalition.

Peres is expected to accept Netanyahu's request.

However, should the rightist premier fail to win enough allies for a parliamentary majority by March 16, the president could hand the task to a rival party leader. If no government emerged then, Israelis may have to return to the polls.

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit Israel at the end of March.

Netanyahu's trouble building a new government raises the question of whether he may call off that visit. But when asked about Israeli reports he might cancel, an official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no talk at this point about the possibility of scrubbing the trip.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said: "President Obama looks forward to travelling to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman later this month."

Netanyahu's Likud-Beitenu ticket won 31 of the Knesset's 120 seats in the January vote - an eroded lead that required he cast a wide net for partners while juggling their disparate demands.

He has faced strong demands from the parties that placed second and fourth, Yesh Atid (There is a Future) and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), to cut back mass exemptions from military conscription and welfare stipends to ultra-Orthodox Jews.

David Shimron, Likud Beitenu's negotiator, said before meeting Bayit Yehudi on Friday that Yesh Atid was "ruling out" sitting in government with the ultra-Orthodox. Yesh Atid has not disputed that characterization.

"We need to clarify this and other matters with Bayit Yehudi," Shimron told reporters. "In the end of the day, we have to build a government, and we do not accept the invalidation of a sector that is part of the Israeli people."

Netanyahu's outgoing coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties which have generally backed him on other policies such the settlement of occupied West Bank land in defiance of world powers, who support the Palestinians' drive for statehood there.

Bayit Yehudi is even less accommodating of the Palestinians than Netanyahu, who says he wants to revive stalled peace talks. By contrast, Yesh Atid says Israeli diplomacy is too listless.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Michael Roddy)

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Arias seeks death penalty stay, court rejects

PHOENIX (AP) — Jodi Arias' effort to get the death penalty option in her murder case temporarily set aside was met Friday with a swift rejection from the Arizona Supreme Court in a one-sentence response denying the motion filed just hours earlier.

Arias is charged in the June 2008 stabbing and shooting death of her lover in his suburban Phoenix home. She claims self-defense, while authorities say she planned the attack in a jealous rage. Testimony has been ongoing since early January.

After failing to win a mistrial or stay of the death penalty option in the lower court earlier this year, her defense attorneys sought relief Friday from the state's highest court, which quickly rejected it. Her trial is set to continue Monday with the death penalty still on the table if prosecutors can secure a first-degree murder conviction.

Arias' attorneys argued in early January before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens, who is overseeing the trial, that the lead detective on the case perjured himself during a pretrial hearing aimed at determining whether the death penalty should be considered an option for jurors.

Mesa police Detective Esteban Flores testified at the hearing that based on his own review of the scene, and a discussion with the medical examiner, it was apparent that Alexander had been shot in the forehead first. Arias then repeatedly stabbed and slashed him 27 times and slit his throat, he said.

However, shortly before the trial began, the prosecution changed its theory of how the killing occurred, stating that Arias first stabbed Alexander, slit his throat and in a final savage salvo, shot him in the head. Their story aimed to undercut Arias' claim of self-defense by noting the sheer brutality of the attack.

Arias' attorneys claim she shot Alexander first to fend off his attack on her, but the bullet didn't stop him, forcing her to continue to fight for her life by stabbing him, which they are hoping could lead to a conviction on a lesser second-degree murder charge or even an unlikely acquittal.

Contrary to Flores' testimony at the previous hearing, a medical examiner later told jurors the gunshot probably would have incapacitated Alexander. So given his extensive defense wounds, including stab marks and slashes to his hands, arms and legs, it wasn't likely the shot came first.

The detective later acknowledged that he misunderstood the medical examiner in his mistaken testimony, but he never admitted committing perjury.

Stephens denied the mistrial motion and testimony continued.

Prosecutors declined comment Friday. Defense attorneys have not responded to a telephone message from The Associated Press.

Arias, 32, has been on the witness stand for nine days, describing in painstaking detail specifics of her life in the years leading up the killing — from an abusive childhood to dead-end jobs. Yet when asked to detail events from the day she killed Alexander, Arias drew a blank, noting there were "huge gaps" in her memory from that day.

She has said she only remembers shooting at him, putting a knife in the dishwasher and disposing of the gun in the desert as she drove from Arizona on her way to Utah to see a friend. And she immediately began planning an alibi "to "throw the scent off for a little while."

Arias' grandparents reported a .25 caliber handgun stolen from their Northern California house about a week before the killing — the same caliber used to shoot Alexander — but Arias claims to know nothing about the burglary. She says she brought no weapons to Alexander's home on the day she killed him, again attempting to undercut the prosecution's theory of premeditation.

During her cross-examination Thursday, the exchanges grew so heated that the judge admonished Arias and prosecutor Juan Martinez to stop talking over each other. Arias smirked at times, while Martinez stammered in frustration.

"Do you have memory problems, ma'am?" Martinez asked.

"Sometimes," Arias replied.

Martinez hammered back, noting it's puzzling that she can't remember such crucial details to the case, yet "can tell us what kind of coffee you bought at Starbucks sometime back in 2008."

Arias first told authorities she knew nothing about Alexander's death. She later blamed it on masked intruders before eventually settling on self-defense. She now says she remembers Alexander in a rage, body slamming her and chasing her around his home.

She said she grabbed a gun from his closet, and fired it as they tussled. She had no explanation for the multiple stab wounds and slit throat.

However, according to court records, she previously told police before her trial began that Alexander was unconscious after she shot him, but then "crawled around and was stabbed."

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