Hanukkah festivities begin with candle lighting

JERUSALEM (AP) — Jews around the world ushered in the eight-day Hanukkah festival Saturday evening, lighting the first candles of ceremonial lamps that symbolize triumph over oppression.

In Israel, families gathered after sundown for the lighting, eating traditional snacks of potato pancakes and doughnuts and exchanging gifts.

Local officials lit candles set up in public places, while families displayed the nine-candle lamps, called menorahs, in their windows or in special windproof glass boxes outside.

Hanukkah, also known as the festival of lights, commemorates the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to impose its culture on Jews and adorn the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem with statues of Greek gods.

The holiday lasts eight days because according to tradition, when the Jews rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem, a single vial of oil, enough for one day, burned miraculously for eight.

For many Jewish people, the holiday symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.

Observant Jews light a candle each night to mark the holiday.

Oily foods are eaten to commemorate the oil miracle, hence the ubiquitous fried doughnuts and potato pancakes, known as latkes.

In Israel, children play with four-sided spinning tops, or dreidels, decorated with the letters that form the acronym "A great miracle happened here." Outside of Israel, the saying is "A great miracle happened there." Israeli students get time off from school for the holiday, when families gather each night to light the candles, eat and exchange gifts.

Hanukkah — which means dedication — is one of the most popular holidays in Israel, and has a high rate of observance.

In Ohio, the first public candle lighting on Saturday was done by Holocaust survivor Abe Weinrib, who turns 100 on Tuesday. Weinrib, who lit the first candle on a 13-foot public menorah at Easton Town Center in Columbus, says his biggest triumph was surviving the Holocaust, the Nazi campaign to eliminate Jews in Europe.

Weinrib told The Columbus Dispatch newspaper that he was arrested while working in Polish factories owned by his uncle when he was in his 20s. He spent six years imprisoned in camps, including the notorious Auschwitz.

"Rather than blowing out 100 candles, he'd rather light one candle representing kindness and good deeds," said Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann of the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center in New Albany, which sponsored the menorah lighting. "He wants this to be the way he ushers in his next century."

In New York City, Jews celebrated the holiday's start with the ceremonial lighting of a 32-foot-tall menorah at the edge of Central Park. Rabbi Shmuel Butman lit the giant structure that weighs about 4,000 pounds and has real oil lamps, protected from the wind by glass chimneys.

"It was a beautiful event," he said. "A wonderful way to start the holiday."

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott celebrated the beginning of Hanukkah with a menorah-lighting ceremony in his office at the state Capitol in Tallahassee. He was joined by a rabbi from the northwest Florida branch of the Chabad Lubavitch outreach organization.

"The story of Hanukkah reminds us that confidence in one's identity and hope for the future are powerful forces that cannot be defeated — even in the darkest of times. Hanukkah is also a time to reiterate our support for the people of Israel," Scott said, adding that he and his wife are "keeping our friends in Israel in our prayers for a future of peace."

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Egypt panel recommends referendum be held on time

CAIRO (AP) — A national dialogue committee said a referendum on a disputed draft constitution will be held on schedule, but President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to rescind the near-absolute power he had granted himself.

The statement came after a meeting that was boycotted by the main opposition leaders who are calling for the Dec. 15 vote to be canceled.

Morsi had called for the dialogue to try to defuse a spiraling crisis, but the decision appeared unlikely to appease the opposition since it recommends the referendum go ahead as scheduled. Morsi's initial declaration was to be rendered ineffective anyway after the referendum.

Gamal Eid, a human rights lawyer, said the recommendations to rescind some powers were a "play on words" since Morsi had already achieved the desired aim of finalizing the draft constitution and protecting it from a judicial challenge.

The charter, which would enshrine Islamic law and was drafted despite a boycott by secular and Christian members of the assembly, is at the heart of a political crisis that began Nov. 22 when Morsi granted himself authority without judicial oversight.

Opposition activists are camping outside the presidential palace and are calling for more protests on Sunday.

Several rallies on both sides have drawn tens of thousands of people into the streets and sparked fierce bouts of street battles that have left at least six people dead. Several offices of the president's Muslim Brotherhood also have been torched in the unrest.

Selim al-Awa, an Islamist at the meeting, said the committee found it would be a violation of earlier decisions to change the date of the referendum.

However, the committee recommended removing articles that granted Morsi powers to declare emergency laws and shield him from judicial oversight.

Members of the committee said Morsi had agreed to the recommendations, but there was no confirmation from the Islamist leader.

Bassem Sabry, a writer and activist, called the changes a "stunt" that would embarrass the opposition by making it look like Morsi was willing to compromise but not solve the problem.

"In the end, Morsi got everything he wanted," he said, pointing out the referendum would be held without the consensus Morsi had promised to seek and without giving people sufficient time to study the document.

The majority of the 54 members of the committee were Islamists, as well as members of the constitutional panel that drafted the disputed charter. But the main opponents were not present at the meeting, which lasted over 10 hours.

The panel also said that if the constitution is rejected by voters, Morsi will call for the election of a new drafting committee within three months, a prospect that would prolong the transition.

Opponents say the draft constitution disregards the rights of women and Christians.

The president has insisted his decrees were meant to protect the country's transition to democracy from former regime figures trying to derail it.

The deepening political rift in Egypt had triggered an earlier warning Saturday from the military of "disastrous consequences" if the constitutional crisis isn't resolved through dialogue.

It was the first political statement by the military since the newly elected Morsi sidelined it from political life.

Weeks after he was sworn in, Morsi ordered its two top generals to retire, and gave himself legislative powers that the military had assumed in the absence of parliament, which had been dissolved by the courts.

The military said serious dialogue is the "best and only" way to overcome the conflict, which has left the country deeply divided between Islamist supporters of the president and his mostly secular opponents.

"Anything other than (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences, something which we won't allow," the military said in a statement broadcast on state TV and attributed to an unnamed military official.

Heightening the tension, Hazem Abu Ismail, the leader of group of radical Islamists staging a sit-in outside a media complex on the outskirts of Cairo, gave a thinly veiled threat of more violence, saying the protest outside the presidential palace was an "affront" to the president and will not be tolerated.

Earlier this week, the area around the palace was the scene of the worst civilian clashes since Morsi came to power.

In an attempt to calm the situation, Morsi called for Saturday's dialogue. But the main opposition leaders refused to attend, saying it didn't address their main demands and was being held under the threat of violence against protesters.

"No reasonable person would agree to be part of a dialogue held at the point of a sword," the National Salvation Front said in a statement.

The crisis began Nov. 22 when Morsi granted himself authority free of judicial oversight, mainly because he feared a looming court decision that was expected to declare the Islamist-led constitutional drafting assembly illegal and order it disbanded. The assembly then quickly adopted a draft constitution despite a walkout by Christian and secular members.

The moves touched off a new wave of opposition and unprecedented clashes between the president's Islamist supporters, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, and protesters accusing him of becoming a new strongman.

With the specter of more fighting among Egyptians looming, the military sealed off the presidential palace plaza with tanks and barbed wire.

State media also reported that the government was working on a new law to allow the military to arrest civilians, but there was no official word on that either.

The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper quoted an unnamed military official as saying the move would be "preventive" if the situation worsened.

The report could not be independently confirmed and the law would have to be signed by Morsi before it takes effect.

At the presidential palace sit-in on Saturday, TV footage showed the military setting up a new wall of cement blocks around the palace.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan accused the opposition of seeking the military's return to politics by "pushing matters to the brink."

He said the military statement showed it agrees on the legitimacy of the elected president, the referendum plans and state institutions, and will protect them from any "attack."

The group's top leader Mohammed Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater, meanwhile, held news conferences alleging a conspiracy to topple Morsi, although they presented little proof.

Badie said the opposition, which has accused his group of violence, is responsible for attacks on Muslim Brotherhood offices. He also claimed that most of those killed in last week's violence at the palace and other governorates were Brotherhood members.

"These are crimes, not opposition or disagreement in opinion," he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition accused gangs organized by the Brotherhood and other Islamists of attacking its protesters, calling on Morsi to disband them and open an investigation into the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, with dialogue boycotted by the main opposition players, members of a so-called Alliance of Islamists forces warned it will take all measures to protect "legitimacy" and the president — comments that signal further violence may lie ahead.

Mostafa el-Naggar, a former lawmaker and protest leader during the uprising that led to Mubarak's ouster in February 2011, said the Brotherhood and military statements suggested the crisis was far from over.

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Syrian rebels get new leadership in bid to unite

BEIRUT (AP) — Rebel commanders from across Syria  have joined forces under a united command they hope will increase coordination between diverse fighting groups and streamline the pathway for arms essential to their struggle against President Bashar Assad.

While many of the brigades involved in the fighting are decidedly Islamist in outlook and some have boasted about executing captured soldiers, two of the most extreme groups fighting in Syria were not invited to the rebel meeting in Turkey or included in the new council — a move that could encourage Western support.

Disorganization has bedeviled Syria's rebel movement since its birth late last year, when some protesters gave up on peaceful means to bring down Assad's regime and took up arms, forming the base of what became the Free Syrian Army.

But the movement has never actually been an army. Scores of rebel groups battle Assad's forces across the country, many coordinating with no one outside of their own area. While some say they want a civil, democratic government, others advocate an Islamic state.

The new body, expected to be announced officially on Sunday, hopes to form the basis of a united rebel front.

Some 500 delegates elected the 30-person Supreme Military Council and a Chief of Staff on Friday and planned to meet soon with representatives from the opposition's newly reorganized political leadership, participants said.

"The aim of this meeting was to unify the armed opposition to bring down the regime," said a rebel commander from near Damascus who attended the meeting. "It also aims to get the situation under control once the regime falls."

The move toward greater unity on the armed front comes as the U.S. and others try to strengthen the opposition's leadership while sidelining extremist factions that have become a vital part of the rebels' ground forces.

The opposition's political leadership reorganized last month, under Western pressure, into a new National Alliance that its backers hope will have broader representation and stronger links to rebel fighters.

Britain, France, Turkey and several Gulf Arab nations have recognized the National Alliance, effectively considering it a government in exile.

The U.S. is expected to recognize it at an international "Friends of Syria" conference in Marakesh, Morocco, that begins Wednesday.

It remains unclear how the new military command will relate to the National Alliance and whether foreign powers will back it.

But two of Syria's most extreme rebel groups were not included: Jabhat al-Nusra, which has claimed deadly suicide bombings and is believed to be linked to al-Qaida, and Ahrar al-Sham, an Islamic fundamentalist brigade home to many foreign jihadis.

U.S. officials have said the Obama administration is preparing to designate Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization.

Many of the participating groups have strong Islamist agendas, and some have fought in ways that could scare away Western backers. They include the Tawheed Brigade, whose ideology is similar to that of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Falcons of Damascus, an ultraconservative Islamist group. Its leader, Ahmed Eissa al-Sheik, told The Associated Press earlier this year that his men had executed five captured government soldiers.

Elizabeth O'Bagy, who studies Syria's rebels for the Institute for the Study of War, said the new command included important on-the-ground commanders, which will give it more support from various rebel factions. The inclusion less extreme Islamist brigades will also give the body credibility.

"They are going to have a role in a future Syria and sidelining them will only fuel tensions," she said. Including them "shows that this command is representative of those on the ground, not just the ideal candidates for the West."

If the new command can lead effectively and supply badly needed weapons, it could attract fighters who joined hard-line groups because they were flush with arms but may not agree with their ideology, she said.

A rebel official said more than 500 delegates had been meeting since Wednesday in the Turkish resort of Antalya and were planning to announce their new group on Sunday.

The rebel commander from near Damascus said the group had chosen Brig. Gen. Salim Idriss, who defected from Assad's army, as its chief of staff. It also had divided Syria into five regions, each of which will be under one of Idriss' assistants.

The new structure diminishes the role of previous leaders in the Free Syrian Army. Brig. Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, who headed the FSA's Military Council, will play no rule in the new structure, the commander said. Riad al-Asaad, the head of the Free Syrian Army, will retain a symbolic post.

The official and commander spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting before its conclusion.

The Syrian government did not comment on the new rebel command and throughout the uprising has considered the rebels terrorists backed by foreign powers that seek to destroy the country.

Assad's regime appears increasingly embattled, with rebels making gains in northern Syria and near Damascus while the U.S., Turkey and others seek to hasten its demise. U.S. officials have expressed fears that Assad could use chemical or biological weapons, and U.S. intelligence has reported new activities at sites housing Syria's chemical weapons.

The government tried to reverse the charge on Saturday, saying it had warned the United Nations that "terrorist groups" might use chemical weapons.

Syria's state news agency said the Foreign Ministry had sent letters to the U.N. Security Council and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon saying that Syria would not use chemical weapons against its own people.

Syria has never confirmed it has chemical weapons, but outside experts believe it has substantial stockpiles of mustard gas and a range of nerve agents, including sarin, a highly toxic substance that can suffocate its victims by paralyzing their lungs.

No rebel groups are known to possess chemical weapons and it is unlikely their mostly amateur fighters would know how to use them.

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Egypt's military returns to the political fray

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's powerful military, sidelined last summer by the newly elected Islamist president, edged back Saturday into a political fray boiling over with tensions between secular forces and a government determined to pass a constitution enshrining a central role for religion.

A military statement warning of "disastrous" consequences should the standoff continue was widely interpreted as pushing President Mohammed Morsi to compromise and meet the opposition halfway over a draft constitution and the near-absolute powers he gave himself.

A direct military intervention to stave off bloodshed would likely enjoy the paradoxical and tacit support, at least initially, of some pro-democracy activists mortified by the authoritarian bent and Islamist ambitions of the freely elected Muslim Brotherhood-backed government.

Egypt's military, which had been the nation's de facto ruler since army officers seized power in a 1952 coup, remains the country's most powerful institution. But it has kept a low profile since Morsi ordered the retirement of its top two officers in August and canceled a constitutional declaration that gave it legislative powers when parliament's law-making chamber was dissolved by a court ruling.

The carefully worded statement appeared designed in part to show the military's growing impatience with the deepening political crisis pitting Morsi and his Islamist supporters against secular and liberal forces, including minority Christians.

It said dialogue was the "best and only" way to overcome the nation's deepening conflict. "Anything other than that (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences; something that we won't allow," it warned. "Failing to reach a consensus," is in the interest of neither side, it added. "The nation as a whole will pay the price."

Following its return to the barracks in June after a 16-month stint leading the country after Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the military has been busy cleaning up its image and focusing on its core task. Morsi, meanwhile, has since taking office five months ago been going out of his way to assure the generals that he has no intention of meddling in their affairs. The draft constitution hurriedly adopted by Morsi's Islamist backers also leaves the armed forces as an entity above oversight.

Whether the military wants to return to the messy business of running a nation torn by divisions and beset by political turmoil and chronic economic woes may be doubtful. However, many, in view of Saturday's statement, see the possibility of a limited and temporary intervention to save the country from civil strife if the need arises.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mahmoud Ghozlan, said he saw the statement as an expression of support for Morsi, but lamented the military's return to the political fray. "We don't accept the interference of the military," he said.

Mohammed Waked, a prominent activist of the National Front for Justice and Democracy and a veteran of last year's uprising against Mubarak's rule, said any attempt by the military to return to power would initially be successful given heightened fear of violence.

"We will oppose it ... but there is a larger segment in society now that is willing to accept it more than before," he added. "It is in Morsi's hands."

The military's role in the ongoing crisis began Thursday with troops sealing off the area around Morsi's Cairo palace — scene of mass opposition rallies and deadly clashes — with tanks, armored vehicles and barbed wire. Images of elite Republican Guards' troops surrounding the palace area were the most high-profile troop deployment since the army handed power to Morsi in June.

The troops, however, have been anything but hostile to the opposition protesters in the area, allowing them on Friday to bypass their lines and surge ahead all the way to the walls of the palace, which they covered with anti-Morsi graffiti and banners denouncing the Brotherhood. Protesters also have painted anti-Morsi graffiti on the tanks.

The deployment, however, was received with mixed feelings— underlining the tenuous relations between the two sides and the lingering fear of a return to military rule. Some in the crowd posed with army officers for pictures, as soldiers assured them they won't let anyone harm them. But others rejected the military's reassurances, and one female protester shouted to the officers that their tanks had protesters' blood on them, a reference to a violent crackdown by the military on a protest last year.

Many protesters also heckled a small crowd that chanted "the military and the people are one hand" — a slogan first used by protesters when army troops replaced the hated police on the streets during the 18-day anti-Mubarak uprising.

Abdullah el-Sinawi, a prominent commentator close to the military, said Saturday's statement was a warning to Morsi and his Islamist backers to reach an agreement with their opponents to prevent the country's security from unraveling.

"We don't want a coup, and the military itself doesn't want to return to politics. But if it is forced to interfere to restore security, it will," el-Sinawi said. "The onus is on Morsi."

Mostafa el-Naggar, a former lawmaker and protest leader during last year's anti-Mubarak uprising, speculated that it could not have been easy for the military to issue the statement after the scathing criticism it endured for its running of the country starting from Mubarak's ouster in February, 2011 and June this year when it handed power to Morsi, the country's first civilian and freely elected president.

"It means a return to political life," el-Naggar said of the statement. "The military is saying it is still here and will interfere when necessary."

Egypt's military long enjoyed an aura of invincibility. All four presidents before Morsi hailed from the army, which considers itself the ultimate guarantor of the nation's sovereignty and safety.

Army generals taking powerful jobs on retirement in the state-owned public sector and as provincial governors ensured that the military's influence extended beyond the armed forces, which have over the years built an economic empire above oversight of any kind. But its reputation was shattered in the aftermath of Mubarak's ouster.

Until Morsi came to power in June as the nation's first freely elected president, Egypt's military had been struggling with protesters accusing it of trying to stall the transition to democracy after Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February 2011.

It faced allegations of human rights violations, including torturing detainees, and scenes of elite troops beating up peaceful protesters, including women, on the streets hurt its standing as the defender of the nation.

This week's scenes of Brotherhood supporters armed with sticks carrying out military-type drills on streets close to Morsi's palace in the upscale Heliopolis district have revived suspicions that the fundamentalist group is running militias and made the prospect of an army intervention more palatable.

"The escalation of the conflict into civil strife becomes a risk to the military's interests and the country as a whole," said Michael W. Hanna, an Egypt expert from the New York-based Century Foundation. "So, the statement is a reminder of the potential role of the military and a signal for civilians to manage the political process."

Egypt's ongoing crisis is the worst since Mubarak's ouster, with the two sides repeatedly bringing out tens of thousands of supporters on the streets and the two sides at times fighting each other with firebombs, sticks and rocks. Offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood have been attacked, sometimes torched, by his opponents. With neither side willing to compromise and a flurry of threats of violence by radical Islamists, the specter of more and widespread violence is real.

Omar Abdel-Halim, a 28-year-old veteran of the 2011 uprising, says he and his comrades will reserve judgment on a possible intervention by the military to end the violence.

If there is large scale bloodshed between the revolutionaries and the Islamists, he added, the army may not even be able to end it. "I think troops will just deploy to protect state institutions. They are not equipped to go after combatants on side streets and in alleys."

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Yemen: 8 soldiers killed in ambush

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Eight Yemeni soldiers including a senior officer were killed in an ambush by militants while visiting a main oil pipeline that had been destroyed in an earlier attack, the defense ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry called the Saturday attack in Marib province a "terrorist ambush," confirming that the chief-of-staff for Yemen's central military region was killed.

Security officials said earlier that they believed the militants in the attack were from al-Qaida. The army began an offensive last week in the restive, oil-rich province east of the capital to target militants who had repeatedly attacked the pipeline and power lines in recent weeks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

The militants stole six military vehicles in the ambush.

The U.S. considers the local al-Qaida branch the world's most active. The U.S. has helped Yemen intensify its campaign against militants.

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