Food prices easing but remain sky-high: World Bank

WASHINGTON: Global food prices have eased from their July records but remain very high, putting more people in danger of hunger and malnutrition-related disease, the World Bank said on Thursday.

"A new norm of high prices seems to be consolidating," said Otaviano Canuto, the World Bank's Vice President for Poverty Reduction.

"The world cannot afford to be complacent to this trend while 870 million people still live in hunger and millions of children die every year from preventable diseases caused by malnutrition."

Drought and soaring temperatures in the United States and Eastern Europe in the spring and summer savaged some of the key grain crops that feed much of the world, sending prices for corn (maize) and soybeans to record levels.

Prices soared 10 per cent in July alone, as the US food belt drought intensified, causing heavier crop losses.

Prices have since eased from the peaks, slipping especially in October, the World Bank said,

But they are still seven percent higher than a year before, and key grains were much higher -- corn prices were 17 per cent more than they were in October 2011.

The World Bank said 870 million people around the world live with chronic hunger and nourishment deprivation.

"Although we haven't seen a food crisis as the one of 2008, food security should remain a priority," said Canuto.

"We need additional efforts to strengthen nutrition programs, safety nets, and sustainable agriculture, especially when the right actions can bring about exceptional benefits."

- AFP/xq

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TOI Social Impact Awards 2012: Picking the true changemakers

From a cascade of applications from all corners of the country, a rainbow of organizations emerged after the first round of shortlisting for the TOI Social Impact Awards 2012. Entries and documents submitted by the shortlisted 67 entities — NGOs, corporate-backed bodies, government entities — have now been given to an experts' panel for detailed evaluation. And then the stage will be set for the final selection by an eminent jury.

The shortlisted entries span five sectors — education, health, livelihoods , environment and advocacy & empowerment. Within each sector three awards will be given, one each for an NGO, corporate and government entity.

Twenty experts will closely review the shortlist, bringing their vast experience into the evaluation process. Most of these experts have two to three decades of experience in the field, and have been associated with the voluntary sector.

"Some exciting work is being done and that must be brought to the knowledge of as many as possible," says Major Sabyasachi Chatterjee, one of the experts in the livelihood sector. Chatterjee is a scientific consultant at the office of the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India. He was earlier associated with developmental work in the department of science and technology.

"As it is, institutions of higher learning offer little recognition for socially-relevant research in rural areas, and therefore, this is one mechanism to highlight contributions of a few torch-bearers ," he adds. Commenting on this year's entries, Kartik Shanker, professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, felt that this year's entries are much better.

"I feel these things take time to catch on in terms of both applications and the prestige, and that is, of course, inter-related ," he said. The experts will evaluate the entries on seven key criteria: scale of impact, replicability, sustainability, finances, people's participation, innovativeness , and promotion of equity . The same criteria were used for the first shortlist by three Mumbai -based organizations, Dasra, GiveIndia and Guidestar India.

This year's Awards process has been marked by several new features which includes a simplified initial online application form, recommendation of worthy entities by a National Search Panel comprising eminent people from the developmental field and a more interactive set-up for entrants. Major Chatterjee felt that the process has "definitely improved compared to last year".

The shortlist after Phase 1 consists of 75 entries distributed over the five sectors as follows: Education (16), Health (15), Livelihoods (18), Environment (14), and Advocacy & Empowerment (12). Some entities have been shortlisted in more than one sector. There are 23 entries from corporate-backed organisations, 12 from government agencies or institutions , and 40 from NGOs.

The experts will grade each entry after evaluation on a grading matrix. The graded entries will be ranked and the top three from each category in each sector will constitute the second shortlist. Field visits will be made to each of the 45 final shortlisted entrants to cross-check various aspects such as the impact on the ground and involvement of people in field areas. Finally, a sevenmember jury will meet in the first week of January to scrutinize the final short list and select the 15 winners : for the three awards in each of the five sectors. The jury will be guided by the experts' evaluations as well as the field reports. The awards ceremony is scheduled for January 28, 2013 in Delhi.

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Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years.

"An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ordered the blueprint, said in the report.

"Make no mistake about it, HIV may well be with us into the future but the disease that it causes need not be," she said at the State Department Thursday.

President Barack Obama echoed that promise.

"We stand at a tipping point in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and working together, we can realize our historic opportunity to bring that fight to an end," Obama said in a proclamation to mark World AIDS Day on Saturday.

Some 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and despite a decline in new infections over the last decade, 2.5 million people were infected last year.

Given those staggering figures, what does an AIDS-free generation mean? That virtually no babies are born infected, young people have a much lower risk than today of becoming infected, and that people who already have HIV would receive life-saving treatment.

That last step is key: Treating people early in their infection, before they get sick, not only helps them survive but also dramatically cuts the chances that they'll infect others. Yet only about 8 million HIV patients in developing countries are getting treatment. The United Nations aims to have 15 million treated by 2015.

Other important steps include: Treating more pregnant women, and keeping them on treatment after their babies are born; increasing male circumcision to lower men's risk of heterosexual infection; increasing access to both male and female condoms; and more HIV testing.

The world spent $16.8 billion fighting AIDS in poor countries last year. The U.S. government is the leading donor, spending about $5.6 billion.

Thursday's report from PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, outlines how progress could continue at current spending levels — something far from certain as Congress and Obama struggle to avert looming budget cuts at year's end — or how faster progress is possible with stepped-up commitments from hard-hit countries themselves.

Clinton warned Thursday that the U.S. must continue doing its share: "In the fight against HIV/AIDS, failure to live up to our commitments isn't just disappointing, it's deadly."

The report highlighted Zambia, which already is seeing some declines in new cases of HIV. It will have to treat only about 145,000 more patients over the next four years to meet its share of the U.N. goal, a move that could prevent more than 126,000 new infections in that same time period. But if Zambia could go further and treat nearly 198,000 more people, the benefit would be even greater — 179,000 new infections prevented, the report estimates.

In contrast, if Zambia had to stick with 2011 levels of HIV prevention, new infections could level off or even rise again over the next four years, the report found.

Advocacy groups said the blueprint offers a much-needed set of practical steps to achieve an AIDS-free generation — and makes clear that maintaining momentum is crucial despite economic difficulties here and abroad.

"The blueprint lays out the stark choices we have: To stick with the baseline and see an epidemic flatline or grow, or ramp up" to continue progress, said Chris Collins of amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.

His group has estimated that more than 276,000 people would miss out on HIV treatment if U.S. dollars for the global AIDS fight are part of across-the-board spending cuts set to begin in January.

Thursday's report also urges targeting the populations at highest risk, including gay men, injecting drug users and sex workers, especially in countries where stigma and discrimination has denied them access to HIV prevention services.

"We have to go where the virus is," Clinton said.

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Accused WikiLeaker Manning Speaks for First Time

Private First Class Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified and confidential military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, took the stand in a military court today to make his first public statements since his arrest in 2010.

Manning appeared confident and animated at a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade in Maryland as he described the mental breakdowns and extreme depression he suffered during his first year in detention, from cells in Iraq and Kuwait to the Marine base at Quantico in Virginia. Within weeks of his arrest, Manning said, he became convinced he was going to die in custody.

"I was just a mess. I was really starting to fall apart," the 24-year-old former Army intelligence analyst said. Manning said he didn't remember an incident while in Kuwait where he bashed his head into a wall or another where he fashioned a noose out of a bed sheet as his civilian attorney, David Coombs, said he had, but Manning did say he felt he was "going to die... [in] an animal cage."

"I certainly contemplated [suicide]. There's no means, even if the noose... there'd be nothing I could do with it. Nothing to hang it on. It felt... pointless," he said. Manning had been on suicide watch since late June 2010, a month after his initial arrest in Baghdad.

Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images

Manning faces 22 charges related to his alleged use of his access to government computers to download and pass along a trove of confidential government documents and videos to WikiLeaks, including the 2010 mass release of 250,000 State Department cables detailing years of private U.S. diplomatic interactions with the governments and citizens the world over. The unprecedented document dump became known as "Cablegate."

Earlier this month Coombs wrote on his blog that Manning was willing to plead guilty to some lesser offenses. On Thursday the military judge in the case said eight lesser charges could be reviewed by Manning's defense attorneys for a potential plea deal, but a response likely won't be determined until December.

The most serious charge Manning now faces, aiding the enemy, could bring a penalty of life in prison should he be found guilty.

Manning's defense has argued for all charges to be dropped, citing a perceived breach of Manning's right to speedy trial and his "unlawful pretrial punishment" while in custody at the Marine brig in Quantico.

But in today's hearing, Manning described his time in custody prior to his stay at Quantico as an ordeal of its own.

He recounted an incident in Baghdad when he fainted from the heat in his cell. Later in Kuwait, Manning said he was initially given phone privileges he used to call an aunt and friend in the United States, but that privilege was taken away a short time later.

After his alarming breakdown in June 2010, Manning told a mental health specialist that he really "didn't want to die, but [he] just wanted to get out of the cage," saying he believed his life had "just sunk."

Manning was given medication that improved his mood to the point that the young soldier felt he "started to flatten out" and resigned himself to "riding out" whatever was coming his way.

After he had been held in Kuwait, Manning said he was "elated" when he learned he was being transferred back to America. He had feared being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or to a U.S. facility in Djibouti in Africa.

"I didn't think I was going to set foot on American soil for a long time," he said.

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Palestinians win de facto U.N. recognition of sovereign state

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue "birth certificate."

The U.N. victory for the Palestinians was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against the move to upgrade the Palestinian Authority's observer status at the United Nations to "non-member state" from "entity," like the Vatican.

Britain called on the United States to use its influence to help break the long impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Washington also called for a revival of direct negotiations.

There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. Three countries did not take part in the vote, held on the 65th anniversary of the adoption of U.N. resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip set off fireworks and danced in the streets to celebrate the vote.

The assembly approved the upgrade despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinians by withholding funds for the West Bank government. U.N. envoys said Israel might not retaliate harshly against the Palestinians over the vote as long as they do not seek to join the International Criminal Court.

If the Palestinians were to join the ICC, they could file complaints with the court accusing Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counterproductive," while the Vatican praised the move and called for an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem, something bound to irritate Israel.

The much-anticipated vote came after Abbas denounced Israel for its "aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes" from the U.N. podium, remarks that elicited a furious response from the Jewish state.

"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel," Abbas told the assembly after receiving a standing ovation.

"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded quickly, condemning Abbas' critique of Israel as "hostile and poisonous," and full of "false propaganda.

"These are not the words of a man who wants peace," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. He reiterated Israeli calls for direct talks with the Palestinians, dismissing Thursday's resolution as "meaningless."

ICC THREAT

Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full U.N. membership - something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it would allow them access to the ICC and other international bodies, should they choose to join them.

Abbas did not mention the ICC in his speech. But Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters after the vote that if Israel continued to build illegal settlements, the Palestinians might pursue the ICC route.

"As long as the Israelis are not committing atrocities, are not building settlements, are not violating international law, then we don't see any reason to go anywhere," he said.

"If the Israelis continue with such policy - aggression, settlements, assassinations, attacks, confiscations, building walls - violating international law, then we have no other remedy but really to knock those to other places," Maliki said.

In Washington, a group of four Republican and Democratic senators announced legislation that would close the Palestinian office in Washington unless the Palestinians enter "meaningful negotiations" with Israel, and eliminate all U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it turns to the ICC.

"I fear the Palestinian Authority will now be able to use the United Nations as a political club against Israel," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the sponsors.

Abbas led the campaign to win support for the resolution, which followed an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose a negotiated peace.

At least 17 European nations voted in favor of the Palestinian resolution, including Austria, France, Italy, Norway and Spain. Abbas had focused his lobbying efforts on Europe, which supplies much of the aid the Palestinian Authority relies on. Britain, Germany and others chose to abstain.

The Czech Republic was unique in Europe, joining the United States, Israel, Canada, Panama and tiny Pacific Island states likes Nauru, Palau and Micronesia in voting against the move.

PALESTINIANS RALLY

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. There are 4.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

After the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice called for the immediate resumption of peace talks.

"The Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded," she said.

She added that both parties should "avoid any further provocative actions in the region, in New York or elsewhere."

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he hoped all sides would use the vote to push for new breakthroughs in the peace process.

"I hope there will be no punitive measures," Fayyad told Reuters in Washington, where he was attending a conference.

"I hope that some reason will prevail and the opportunity will be taken to take advantage of what happened today in favor of getting a political process moving," he said.

Britain's U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters it was time for recently re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama to make a new push for peace.

"We believe the window for the two-state solution is closing," he said. "That is why we are encouraging the United States and other key international actors to grasp this opportunity and use the next 12 months as a way to really break through this impasse."

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington, Noah Browning in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Robert Mueller in Prague, Gabriela Baczynska and Reuters bureaux in Europe and elsewhere; Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Beech)

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Myanmar police fire water cannon at mine protest: activist

YANGON: Riot police fired water cannon to disperse people protesting against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine in northern Myanmar, an activist told AFP on Thursday.

"While we were sleeping riot police came to the site and fired water," said Yaywata, a monk who was among hundreds of people demonstrating against the mine, which has seen months of protests over complaints of alleged land grabbing.

Several monks were arrested and around 30 others "suffered burns to their body" after police also fired an unknown gas at the group, Yaywata, who goes by one name, added without speculating what the gas was.

"We are now gathering at a monastery nearby. We haven't decided what to do yet," he added.

Villagers, monks and students had been warned to vacate protest camps near the mine -- a joint venture between military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings and Chinese group Wanbao -- by Tuesday, but had vowed to defy authorities.

Protesters are demanding the company stops work until it releases environmental and social impact studies.

During a September protest activists said some 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) of land had been confiscated from local farmers without consultation, and in some cases without compensation.

- AFP/xq

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Indira Gandhi lent Indian politics the dynastic shift: Ramachandra Guha

BANGALORE: The Congress led by Indira Gandhi fostered a generation of hero worship and dynasty politics after 1969. This inspired many others like Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who started off with noble intentions to fight against caste discriminations, to do the same and has led to a centralization of politics in present India, said Ramachandra Guha, on Wednesday.

He was speaking during the launch of his latest book, Patriots and Partisans.

The 54-year-old historian went on to add that Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the most charismatic leaders of Indian politics, has been slowly losing his popularity because of the Congress's dynastic politics.

"Sins of seven successive generations have been bestowed on Nehru," he said light-heartedly.

The highest paid non-fiction writer of the country also slammed the phenomenon called the 'Congress chamchagiri'. "I saw a long queue of Congress party members waiting outside Rahul Gandhi's house during his birthday, a couple of years ago, braving scorching sun. Nevertheless, Rahul didn't come out to greet them while the 100 kilogram cake they had brought for him disintegrated leaving a trail from the Congress general secretary's house till the Indira Gandhi circle," he said.

He said that scientific institutions in Delhi couldn't achieve the success of ones in other parts of the country as officials chosen in the capital-based institutions are often selected on the recommendation of politicians.

Guha went on to add that massacre of Muslims in Hyderabad during the annexation of the state by the Indian army happened before the constitution came into being in 1950, but it is sad that the perpetrators of 1984 Sikh massacre and 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat, which were initiated by Congress and BJP, respectively, haven't still been punished.

He slammed right and left wing politicians, saying that the citizens have allowed the Hindu rightists' claims to be truly patriots of the country because the left is often considered anti-patriotic because their fatherland has always been a different country - depending upon the prevalence of Marxists movements in these countries, like China, the USSR, Cuba and currently Venezuela - and also due to the high decibel levels and angry outbreaks of the saffron brigade.

"Violence unleashed by left ( Naxalites) and right (Hindu fundamentalists) is against democracy, liberalism, religious plularism and tolerance, the idea that our Constitution promotes. Citizens should protect the country from these extremisms," he said.

TOO EARLY

Guha had a word of advice for the Arvind Kejriwal-launched Aam Aadmi Party, saying that it's too early for them to participate in the 2014 general elections. "Their current economic policies are a bit naive," he added.

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a 10-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

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Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Huge Jackpot Looms, but Can Money Buy Happiness?

Nov 28, 2012 1:02pm

Can money buy happiness? If you’re clutching several Powerball tickets in one hand as you thumb through yacht and pony catalogs with the other, you’re probably betting yes.

We’re all told the odds of winning are abysmal — about 1 in 175 million — but let’s assume you win the $500 million jackpot. Experts say the initial euphoria will wear off relatively quickly and you’ll be left with pretty much the same dismal outlook on life you’ve always had.

“Winning will release some pleasurable chemicals in your brain over the short term,” said Scott Bea, a clinical psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “Unfortunately, your brain will likely revert back to the same old same old before too long.”

Bea conceded that the extra bushels of cash would ease any anxiety over paying the bills, and you’d probably get an additional rush of those joy-boosting neuro-hormones when you went on a shopping spree, but ultimately the basal ganglia, the part of your brain that tends to dwell on the negative, will kick in and you’ll be back to your usual miserable self in no time.

Why? Because in its dark little heart, the brain is a pessimistic organ. Studies show bad memories tend to be far stickier than pleasant memories. And as Bea pointed out, complaints are the topic of nearly 70 percent of all conversation. So according to this logic, you’re less likely to relive the glory of your jackpot moment than you are to grouse about all the fifth cousins suddenly friending you on Facebook to ask for a handout.

Bea also said big winners who aren’t careful to cultivate happiness skills such as optimism, a charitable attitude and savvy money management habits often wind up in more wretched circumstances than where they started. History is certainly littered with such examples.

Back in the 1980s, Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery not once, but twice. She quickly gambled away all $5.4 million and today she’s flat broke, living in a trailer park. Then there’s Billy Bob Harrell Jr. a Pentecostal preacher who was working as a stock boy in 1997 when he scored a cool $31 million in the Texas lottery. The stress of winning so overwhelmed him that he divorced his wife and committed suicide.

Does this mean you should hope the odds work against you when they draw those lucky numbers at 10:59 ET tonight? According to Bea, not at all.

“For most people, purchasing a ticket and fantasizing about what life will be like once you’ve won is the most pleasant part of the lottery experience,” he said, “You could probably flush the same amount of money down the toilet and get much the same result — but then you wouldn’t have the dream.”

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Egypt assembly seeks to wrap up constitution

CAIRO (Reuters) - The assembly writing Egypt's constitution said it could wrap up a final draft later on Wednesday, a move the Muslim Brotherhood sees as a way out of a crisis over a decree by President Mohamed Mursi that protesters say gives him dictatorial powers.

But as Mursi's opponents staged a sixth day of protests in Tahrir Square, critics said the Islamist-dominated assembly's bid to finish the constitution quickly could make matters worse.

Two people have been killed and hundreds injured in countrywide protest set off by Mursi's decree.

The Brotherhood hopes to end the crisis by replacing Mursi's controversial decree with an entirely new constitution that would need to be approved in a popular referendum, a Brotherhood official told Reuters.

It is a gamble based on the Islamists' belief that they can mobilize enough voters to win the referendum: they have won all elections held since Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power.

But the move seemed likely to deepen divisions that are being exposed in the street.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies called for protests on Saturday in Tahrir Square, setting the stage for more confrontation with their opponents, who staged a mass rally there on Tuesday.

The constitution is one of the main reasons Mursi is at loggerheads with non-Islamist opponents. They are boycotting the 100-member constitutional assembly, saying the Islamists have tried to impose their vision for Egypt's future.

The assembly's legal legitimacy has been called into question by a series of court cases demanding its dissolution. Its popular legitimacy has been hit by the withdrawal of members including church representatives and liberals.

"We will start now and finish today, God willing," Hossam el-Gheriyani, the assembly speaker, said at the start of its latest session in Cairo, saying Thursday would be "a great day".

"If you are upset by the decree, nothing will stop it except a new constitution issued immediately," he said. Three other members of the assembly told Reuters there were plans to put the document to a vote on Thursday.

ENTRENCHING AUTHORITARIANISM

Just down the road from the meeting convened at the Shura Council, protesters were again clashing with riot police in Tahrir Square. Members of the assembly watched on television as they waited to go into session.

"The constitution is in its last phases and will be put to a referendum soon and God willing it will solve a lot of the problems in the street," said Talaat Marzouk, an assembly member from the Salafi Nour Party, as he watched the images.

But Wael Ghonim, a prominent activist whose online blogging helped ignite the anti-Mubarak uprising, said a constitution passed in such circumstances would "entrench authoritarianism".

The constitution is supposed to be the cornerstone of a new, democratic Egypt following Mubarak's three decades of autocratic rule. The assembly has been at work for six months. Mursi had extended its December 12 deadline by two months - extra time that Gheriyani said was not needed.

The constitution will determine the powers of the president and parliament and define the roles of the judiciary and a military establishment that had been at the heart of power for decades until Mubarak was toppled. It will also set out the role of Islamic law, or sharia.

The effort to conclude the text quickly marked an escalation, said Nathan Brown, a professor of political science at George Washington University in the United States.

"It may be regarded with hostility by a lot of state actors too, including the judiciary," he said.

Leading opposition and former Arab League chief figure Amr Moussa slammed the move. He walked out of the assembly earlier this month. "This is nonsensical and one of the steps that shouldn't be taken, given the background of anger and resentment to the current constitutional assembly," he told Reuters.

Once drafted, the constitution will go to Mursi for approval, and he must then put it to a referendum within 15 days, which could mean the vote would be held by mid-December.

COURTS DECLARE STRIKE

Deepening the crisis further on Wednesday, Egypt's Cassation and Appeals courts said they would suspend their work until the constitutional court rules on the decree.

The judiciary, largely unreformed since the popular uprising that unseated Mubarak, was seen as a major target in the decree issued last Thursday, which extended his powers and put his decisions temporarily beyond legal challenge.

"The president wants to create a new dictatorship," said 38-year-old Mohamed Sayyed Ahmed, an unemployed man, in Tahrir.

Showing the depth of distrust of Mursi in parts of the judiciary, a spokesman for the Supreme Constitutional Court, which earlier this year declared void the Islamist-led parliament, said it felt under attack by the president.

In a speech on Friday, Mursi praised the judiciary as a whole but referred to corrupt elements he aimed to weed out.

"The really sad thing that has pained the members of this court is when the president of the republic joined, in a painful surprise, the campaign of continuous attack on the Constitutional Court," said the spokesman Maher Samy.

Senior judges have been negotiating with Mursi about how to restrict his new powers.

Mursi's administration insists that his actions were aimed at breaking a political logjam to push Egypt more swiftly towards democracy, an assertion his opponents dismiss.

The West worries about turbulence in a nation that has a peace treaty with Israel and is now ruled by Islamists they long kept at arms length.

Trying to ease tensions with judges, Mursi said elements of his decree giving his decisions immunity applied only to matters of "sovereign" importance, a compromise suggested by the judges.

A constitution must be in place before a new parliament can be elected, and until that time Mursi holds both executive and legislative powers. An election could take place in early 2013.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair and Tom Perry; Editing by Will Waterman and Giles Elgood)

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