Arab body says monitors should quit Syria promptly

An Arab League advisory body called on Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the organization's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus to cover up continued violence and abuses.

The Arab League has sent a small team to Syria to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping his promise to end a crackdown on a nine-month uprising against his rule.

The observer mission has already stirred controversy. Rights groups have reported continued deaths in clashes and tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to show the observers the extent of their anger.

The Sudanese head of the mission also infuriated some observers by suggesting he was reassured by first impressions of Homs, one of the main centers of unrest.

The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims.

"For this to happen in the presence of Arab monitors has roused the anger of Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission," the organization's chairman Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas said.

"This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League," he said.

The Arab Parliament was the first body to recommend freezing Syria's membership in the organization in response to Assad's crackdown.

An Arab League official, commenting on the parliament's statement, told Reuters it was too early to judge the mission's success, saying it was scheduled to remain in Syria for a month and that more monitors were on their way.

The parliament called on the League's Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to convene a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to adopt a resolution to withdraw the mission immediately.

The continued abuse and killing of innocent Syrian civilians was a "blatant violation to the Arab League's protocol," Dekbas said.

Syria's state news agency SANA said there had been "massive demonstrations" throughout Syria on Friday in support of Assad, and denouncing "the plot which Syria is exposed to."

It said demonstrators had denounced "the pressure and biased campaigns targeting Syria's security and stability" and the "lies and fabrications of the misleading media channels."

Syrian authorities have accused foreign powers of arming and funding "terrorists" in the country and say 2,000 of the government's soldiers and police have been killed.

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Romney runs strong, but can he connect with voters?

Mitt Romney's crowds are larger now.

And with the Iowa caucuses looming on Tuesday, it seems inevitable that the former Massachusetts governor will do well in, if not win, the first contest in the race for the Republican nomination for president.

But even as Romney appears positioned to take control of the Republican race, a question hangs over his campaign: Can he connect with voters on a personal level any better than he did during his losing campaign in 2008 -- or even inspire them?

Nearly three days of traveling with Romney in Iowa revealed a candidate who has improved significantly in face-to-face encounters with voters, but who still has difficulty inspiring them.

Romney's crowds are respectful but not the boisterous groups one might associate with a front-runner.

His stump speeches often are more technocratic than inspirational. He criticizes Democratic President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, and offers disjointed transitions linking comments on patriotic songs, condemnations of the European way of life, and the need to create jobs and strengthen the U.S. military.

The crowd reacts to Romney's blinding smile with their own. There is applause and polite laughter. An occasional head nod can be seen as Romney lays out his plans. For the most part, the crowd is respectful but not overly enthused.

Several of those in the audience at his campaign stops this week said they like him in part because of what he's saying, but also because they think he'll probably win the Republican nomination to face Obama in the November election.

Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party, said that although Romney has improved on the stump, "everything seems forced."

"There's almost some sort of force field between you and him, but you can't break through it if you want to," said Robinson, who is not affiliated with any candidate this year. However, "I really will agree that he's better" than in 2008.

"The easiest thing to notice is that I have yet to see Romney wear a suit in the time he's been in Iowa," Robinson said, noting that Romney has replaced his trademark investment banker look with jeans and window-pane checked shirts.

Analysts say that developing a personal connection with voters is often crucial for presidential candidates.
They note that, for all the optimism surrounding Romney's campaign this year, his percentage of support in recent polls here - about 25% -- is roughly what he received four years ago, when he ran second in the Iowa caucuses to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
The analysts cite Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, two-term presidents during the past two decades, as politicians whose ability to inspire passion among voters helped to carry them to office, and through various crises.

Obama's place in history as the nation's first African-American president can inspire voters, even though the man himself often can seem aloof, analysts say.

Robinson said that although Romney has softened his touch, he is "not even in the same zip code" as Clinton and Bush when it comes to popular appeal.

Not surprisingly, talk of Romney's issues in connecting with voters is a sensitive subject with his campaign aides.

"The idea that Mitt isn't comfortable doing retail (politics) is ridiculous," said David Kochel, Romney's top aide in Iowa. "He might be better in the boardroom than the beer tent, but he knows how to work a room, and it shows."

Top Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom adds: "I've observed Mitt Romney in many settings over the years, and people are drawn to him and feel comfortable in his presence.

"They see in him someone who looks and acts like a leader. What people are hungry for these days is a strong leader who can fix the economy."
TRACES OF GORE, KERRY
As Romney last week began his homestretch sprint to Tuesday's caucuses, he made eight campaign stops in three days.
The stops - in which Romney was relaxed and cheery -- showed how far he has come as a candidate, and his ongoing challenges.

During an event in Mason City, Iowa, at the indoor artificial recreation of the 1912 town from the Broadway musical and movie "The Music Man," a boy asked Romney whether running for president is hard.

"If you get the chance to do it, make sure you do it. Win or lose, it's a good thing to do," Romney told the assembled crowd, many of whom seemed perplexed by the response.

At a packed diner in Cedar Falls, some reporters overheard Romney joking with a supporter that the best part of running for president is, "You get to hug all the girls and not get in trouble."

There are traces of former Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry in Romney, who at times displays the apparent aloofness attributed to Gore or the woodenness for which Kerry was known.

And like Gore and Kerry, Romney - the son of George Romney, a former Michigan governor, American Motors CEO and Housing and(...)More.

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Troops, tanks patrol in northeast Nigeria

Heavily armed troops and tanks patrolled the streets of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria Sunday, witnesses said, after the president declared a state of emergency in parts of the north affected by an Islamist insurgency.

President Goodluck Jonathan imposed the state of emergency on the northeast, the conflict-prone central city of Jos, and part of Niger state near Abuja Saturday, and closed the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the northeast.

Nearly a week after the radical sect Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57, Jonathan told state television his aim was to restore security in troubled parts of the north.

A Reuters reporter in Maiduguri, a remote city in the northeast and the center of the Boko Haram insurgency, saw several tanks patrolling the city and groups of a dozen or more soldiers at a time out on foot patrol.

"We woke up this morning only to see armed soldiers all over the place and some tanks patrolling. We fear what may happen next," said Maiduguri resident Buba Guduf.

Jonathan said he had told his chief of defense staff to take other "appropriate" measures, including setting up a special counter-terrorism force.

The blasts at churches have raised fears that Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban, is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.

Jonathan has been criticized by the opposition and Christian groups for what they said was a slow response to the bombings.

CLASHES FEARED

Residents of Maiduguri, located on the threshold of the Sahara Desert, have borne the brunt of previous clashes between Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden," and security forces.

Friday three explosions struck Maiduguri shortly after Muslim prayers but caused no casualties, and gunmen shot dead three members of a Muslim cleric's family.

Gun battles between security forces and Boko Haram killed at least 68 people in two days of fighting in the nearby city of Damaturu on December 22 and 23.
"The soldiers have intensified their patrol in our area and most people prefer to remain indoors for fear of the unknown," Ibrahim Usman, from the Gwange ward of Maiduguri, told Reuters by telephone.

"We are just doing our normal duty," said an officer for the Joint Military Taskforce for Maiduguri, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak.

The bomb attacks by Boko Haram have strained Nigeria's already fractious north-south divide.

Jonathan, a Christian from the south, upset many northerners by running for and winning the presidency in April, tearing up what many saw as a tacit deal to rotate the top job between a northerner and a southerner every two terms.

More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence in the north after Jonathan's victory, reflecting long-standing northern grievances about perceived alienation and exclusion by the government from the fruits of the oil wealth that is concentrated in the south.

Saturday, Jonathan visited the scene of the deadliest Christmas attack, on St. Theresa's Catholic church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja.

"We will crush the terrorists," he told weeping relatives of the victims gathered in the church for a vigil.

In a separate, unrelated incident, clashes between rival ethnic groups in southeastern Ebonyi state Saturday killed at least 50 people, and police said mobile units had been sent there to quell the violence.

Those clashes are likely to add to Jonathan's woes at a time when his forces are already stretched.

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Iran successfully tests domestically made nuclear fuel rods: TV

Iran has successfully produced and tested fuel rods for use in its nuclear power plants, state television reported on Sunday, in a snub to international demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work.

The rods, which contain natural uranium, were made in Iran and have been inserted into the core of Tehran's research nuclear reactor, the television reported.

Nuclear fuel rods contain small pellets of fuel, usually low-enriched uranium, patterned to give out heat produced by nuclear reaction without melting down.

"This great achievement will perplex the West, because the Western countries had counted on a possible failure of Iran to produce nuclear fuel plates," the Tehran Times newspaper said.

The development was announced at a time of growing tension between Western powers and Iran after the U.N. nuclear agency reported in November that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon. Secret research to that end may be continuing, it said.

The United States and its European allies have increased the sanctions pressure on Iran, one of the world's largest oil producers, to push Tehran to halt the enrichment.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed more sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, shortly after Iran signaled it was ready for new talks with the West on its nuclear program and said it had delayed long-range missile tests in the Gulf.

GAIN LEVERAGE

Western analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its nuclear advances to gain leverage in its stand-off with the West.

In April, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization announced that the installation of the machinery needed for producing nuclear fuel plates had started. The nuclear plant for converting enriched nuclear fuel into fuel rods was inaugurated in 2009.

"Currently, the rod is also undergoing rays at Tehran's Research Reactor to examine its long-term performance, Iran's English language Press TV reported.

Iran says only a few countries are capable of making both the fuel "plates," used in the Tehran reactor, and nuclear fuel rods, which are used in power stations.

Enriched uranium can be used to fuel power plants and other types of reactors, which is Iran's stated aim, or to provide material for atomic bombs if processed much further, which the West suspects is the country's ultimate intention.

Tehran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Iran's decision last year to raise the level of some enrichment from the 3.5 percent purity needed for civilian power plant fuel to 20 percent worried Western states that feel this will bring Tehran much closer to the 90 percent suitable for an atomic bomb.

Tehran has so far refused to change its nuclear course but is ready to hold new talks to resolve the dispute. Negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany (P5+1) stalled in January.

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Exclusive: U.S. is top 2012 property investment pick

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

While the United States offers the most stable and secure option in commercial real estate, investors said improvement in rent and occupancy growth and the repeal of a 1980 foreign investment tax would have the strongest impact on their investment decisions, according to the 20th annual survey of Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) members.

For about the past year or so, investors in U.S. commercial real estate have focused on gateway cities such as New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles, driving prices up and yields down.

Meanwhile commercial property in Brazil, with its bubbling economy and safer investment environment, has become a hot spot for global investors. Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, jumped to the fourth best city for real estate investment dollars in 2012, up from 26th place last year.

The United States is still very desirable and was second behind the UK in attracting cross border investment in 2011, according to Real Capital Analytics preliminary figures.

"The negative is it doesn't promise a whole lot of capital appreciation because the prime markets are already fully priced," AFIRE Chief Executive Officer James Fetgatter said. "By no means will Brazil replace the U.S., at least not in the forseeable future. Brazil is considered now a much safer place to invest and a place where you can get capital appreciation and good yield."

AFIRE'S survey respondents hold more than $874 billion of real estate globally, including $338 billion in the United States.

Sixty 60 percent of respondents said they plan to increase their investment in U.S. real estate in 2012, down from a record 72 percent last year, according to the 20th annual survey.
Some 42.2 percent said they believed the United States in 2012 would offer the best opportunity for the price of their commercial real estate investments to increase, down from 64.7 percent last year's survey.

The United States lost ground to Brazil, with 18.6 percent saying Brazil's property market offered the best growth opportunity for their investment dollars. That's up 14.2 percentage points, moving Brazil up to second place from fourth, and pushing China down to No. 3, according to the AFIRE survey.

Seventy percent of respondents picked one of the three countries as their favorite, while the remaining 30 percent had top choices from 13 other countries on five continents.

Respondents said they would invest more in U.S. commercial property if the fundamentals of rent and occupancy growth were stronger.

Another U.S. barrier respondents cited was the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA). The 1980 act, originally designed to protect farm property from foreign ownership, subjects foreign buyers to both their domestic and U.S. taxes when they sell their investment, unless their home country has a taxation treaty with the United States.

FIRPTA opponents have argued that the act unfairly penalizes foreign investors of real estate. Such double taxation does not apply if they buy U.S. stocks or bonds.
As for the top cities for foreign investment in 2012, New York remained No. 1. London moved up to No. 2 from No. 3, swapping ranks with Washington. Sao Paulo was fourth, and San Francisco moved up to No. 5 from No. 10 last year.

Europe's sovereign debt problems and looming recession pushed most of the countries there - except for a few such as Switzerland and Poland - off the map for real estate investors. Germany lost about half its support among respondents in terms of stability and price appreciation, according to the survey.

Emerging markets also seem to be getting more popular among potential investors. Respondents identified 25 countries they would consider for investment, up from 18 last year. Brazil topped the list, with China in second place, as each did last year. Turkey moved up to No. 3 from No. 7 last year. India and Vietnam each dropped down one spot, to No. 3 and No. 4 respectively. Appearing for the first time were Colombia, at No. 10, Hungary at No. 12, and Qatar at No. 17.

As for U.S. commercial real estate, respondents said that this year they would most likely invest in apartment buildings, the fourth consecutive year multifamily topped the list. Of all the types of U.S. commercial real estate, the multifamily sector has not only recovered from the post-2007 real estate slump but rents and occupancy are even stronger than before.

Warehouse and distribution centers ranked second, up from No. 5 last year. Office properties were third, up a notch from No. 4. Retail properties - shopping centers and malls - slipped to No. 4 from No. 2. Hotels ranked No. 5, down from No. 3 last year.

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