North Korea could have U.S. within missile range, says South

SEOUL (Reuters) - This month's rocket launch by reclusive North Korea shows it has likely developed the technology, long suspected in the West, to fire a warhead more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles), South Korean officials said on Sunday, putting the U.S. West Coast in range.

North Korea said the December 12 launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

North Korea is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests and the U.N. Security Council condemned the launch.

South Korea retrieved and analyzed parts of the first-stage rocket that dropped in the waters off its west coast

"As a result of analyzing the material of Unha-3 (North Korea's rocket), we judged North Korea had secured a range of more than 10,000 km in case the warhead is 500-600 kg," a South Korean Defense Ministry official told a news briefing.

North Korea's previous missile tests ended in failure.

North Korea, which denounces the United States as the mother of all warmongers on an almost daily basis, has spent decades and scarce resources to try to develop technology capable of striking targets as far away as the United States and it is also working to build a nuclear arsenal.

But experts believe the North is still years away from mastering the technology needed to miniaturize a nuclear bomb to mount on a missile.

South Korean defense officials also said there was no confirmation whether the North had the re-entry technology needed for a payload to survive the heat and vibration without disintegrating.

Despite international condemnation, the launch this month was seen as a major boost domestically to the credibility of the North's young leader, Kim Jong-un, who took over power from his father who died last year.

Apparently encouraged by the euphoria, the fledgling supreme leader called for the development and launching of "a variety of more working satellites" and "carrier rockets of bigger capacity" at a banquet in Pyongyang on Friday which he hosted for those who contributed to the lift-off, according to North Korean state media.

(Editing by Jack Kim and Nick Macfie)

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Israel says Syria chemical weapons are secure for now

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Syria's chemical weapons are still secure despite the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of parts of the country, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.

Amos Gilad told Army Radio that the civil war between Assad and opposition forces fighting to topple him had become deadlocked, but that the Syrian leader showed no signs of heeding international calls to step down.

"Suppose he (Assad) does leave, there could be chaos ... in the Middle East you never know who will come instead. We need to stay level-headed; the entire world is dealing with this. At the moment, chemical weapons are under control," Gilad said.

As Syria's southern neighbor, Israel has been concerned about chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants or Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, warning it could intervene to stop such developments.

Western countries said three weeks ago that Assad's government might be preparing to use poison gas to repel rebel fighters who are encamped around Damascus, the capital, and who control rural Aleppo and Idlib in the north.

"The opposition is not managing to defeat him and he is not defeating the opposition, though more and more parts of Syria are no longer under his control and that is what matters," Gilad said.

The rebels - mainly Sunni Muslims - are pushing southwards from their northern strongholds into the central province of Hama.

But Assad, who is from the Alawite minority linked to Shi'ite Islam, has responded with artillery, air strikes and, according to NATO, with Scud-type missiles.

Western powers and some Arab countries have called for Assad to step down, but Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that international efforts to persuade Assad to quit would fail.

Lavrov said Russia had rejected requests from countries in the region to pressure Assad to go or to offer him safe haven. If Assad did exit the political scene, it could lead to an upsurge in the fighting that activists say has killed 44,000 people since the uprising began in March 2011, Lavrov said.

(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Andrew Osborn)

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Egypt's constitution approved in vote, say rival camps

CAIRO (Reuters) - A constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly was approved by a majority of Egyptians in a referendum, rival camps said on Sunday, after a vote the opposition said drove a wedge through the Arab world's most populous nation.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64 percent of voters backed the charter after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday.

An opposition official also told Reuters their unofficial count showed the result was a "yes" vote.

The referendum committee may not declare official results for the two rounds until Monday, after hearing appeals. If the outcome is confirmed, a parliamentary election will follow in about two months.

Mursi's Islamist backers say the constitution is vital for the transition to democracy, nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. It will provide the stability needed to help a fragile economy, they say.

The constitution was "a historic opportunity to unite all national powers on the basis of mutual respect and honest dialogue for the sake of stabilizing the nation," the Brotherhood said in a statement.

But the opposition accuses Mursi of pushing through a text that favors Islamists and ignores the rights of Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population, as well as women. They say it is a recipe for further unrest.

"According to our calculations, the final result of the second round is 71 percent voting 'yes' and the overall result (of the two rounds) is 63.8 percent," a Brotherhood official, who was in an operations room monitoring the vote, told Reuters.

His figures were confirmed by a statement issued shortly afterwards by the group and broadcast on its television channel.

The opposition said voting in both rounds was marred by abuses. However, an official said the overall vote favored the charter, with nearly 70 percent in favor in the second round, in line with the Islamists' estimate.

"They are ruling the country, running the vote and influencing the people, so what else could we expect," a senior official from the main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, told Reuters.

PROTESTS

The vote was split over two days as many judges had refused to supervise the ballot, making a single day of voting impossible.

"I'm voting 'no' because Egypt can't be ruled by one faction," said Karim Nahas, 35, a stockbroker, in Giza, greater Cairo.

At another polling station, some voters said they were more interested in ending Egypt's long period of political instability than in the Islamist aspects of the charter.

"We have to extend our hands to Mursi to help fix the country," said Hisham Kamal, an accountant.

During the build-up to the vote there were deadly protests, sparked by Mursi's decision to award himself extra powers in a November 22 decree and then to fast-track the constitutional vote.

Hours before polls closed, Vice President Mahmoud Mekky announced his resignation. He said he wanted to quit last month but stayed on to help Mursi tackle the crisis that blew up when the Islamist leader assumed wide powers.

Mekky, a prominent judge who said he was uncomfortable in politics, disclosed earlier he had not been informed of Mursi's power grab. The timing of his resignation appeared linked to the lack of a vice-presidential post under the draft constitution.

The new basic law sets a limit of two four-year presidential terms. It says the principles of sharia, Islamic law, remain the main source of legislation but adds an article to explain this. It also says Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia - a source of concern to Christians and others.

TURNOUT

Rights groups reported what they said were illegalities in voting procedures. They said some polling stations opened late, that Islamists illegally campaigned at some polling places, and complained of irregularities in voter registration.

But the committee overseeing the two-stage vote said its investigations showed no major irregularities in voting on December 15, which covered about half of Egypt's 51 million voters. About 25 million were eligible to vote in the second round.

The Brotherhood said turnout was about a third of voters.

The opposition says the constitution will stir up more trouble on the streets since it has not received sufficiently broad backing for a document that should be agreed by consensus, and raised questions about the fairness of the vote.

In the first round, the district covering most of Cairo voted "no," which opponents said showed the depth of division.

"I see more unrest," said Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party and a member of the National Salvation Front, an opposition coalition formed after Mursi expanded his powers on November 22 and then pushed the constitution to a vote.

He cited "serious violations" on the first day of voting, and said anger against Mursi was growing. "People are not going to accept the way they are dealing with the situation."

At least eight people were killed in protests outside the presidential palace in Cairo this month. Islamists and rivals clashed in Alexandria, the second-biggest city, on the eves of both voting days.

Late on Saturday, Mursi announced the names of 90 new members he had appointed to the upper house of parliament, state media reported, and a presidential official said the list was mainly liberals and other non-Islamists.

But a spokesman for the National Salvation Front, which groups liberals, socialists and other opposition parties and politicians, said the Front's members had refused to take part in the appointments to the chamber.

Legislative powers, now held by Mursi because the lower house of parliament was dissolved earlier this year, will pass to the upper house under the new constitution.

Two-thirds of the 270-member upper house was elected in a vote this year, with one third appointed by the president. Mursi, elected in June, had not named them until now. Mursi's Islamist party and its allies dominate the assembly.

(Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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India moves to quell gang-rape protests, but crowds build again

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government moved on Sunday to stamp out protests that have swelled in New Delhi since the gang-rape of a young woman, banning gatherings of more than five people, but still thousands poured into the heart of the capital to vent their anger.

Police in riot gear used tear gas and batons to hold crowds back from marching on the presidential palace, just as they did the day before in clashes that media reports said injured more than two dozen protesters.

Doctors said the 23-year-old victim of last week's attack, who was beaten, raped for almost an hour and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi, was still in a critical condition on respiratory support but responding to treatment.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures.

Most sexual assaults go unreported and unremarked, but the brutality of last week's attack triggered the biggest protests in the capital since mid-2011 demonstrations against corruption that rocked the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The protesters, predominantly college students but also housewives and even children, are demanding more steps from the authorities to ensure safety for women and some want the death penalty for the accused.

Several city metro stations were closed and several roads were barricaded on Sunday to prevent a build-up of protesters.

However, by early afternoon the crowd around the India Gate monument - normally a festive place on a Sunday - had swelled to more than 2,000, according to police there. Scuffles broke out near government buildings, where youths shouted "Down with Delhi police!" and threw bottles at the forces holding them back.

Bowing to public pressure, Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress party, emerged from her residence after midnight to talk to protesters. She went out again on Sunday with her son, Rahul Gandhi, who is seen as a future prime minister.

"She assured us of justice," said one of the students who met the Gandhis, though some in the crowds shouted "Down with Sonia Gandhi!".

Since last week's rape, the authorities have promised better police patrolling to ensure safety for women returning from work and entertainment districts, the installation of GPS on public transport vehicles, more buses at night, and fast-track courts for swift verdicts on cases of rape and sexual assault.

(Writing and additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by John Chalmers and Sanjeev Miglani)

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Iran defense minister says NATO missiles harm Turkey security

DUBAI (Reuters) - The installation of Patriot anti-missile batteries sent by NATO members to bolster Turkey's defenses against a possible missile attack from Syria will only harm Turkey's security, Iran's defense minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

NATO approved Turkey's request for the air defense system earlier this month, in a move meant to calm Ankara's fears of being hit by Syrian missiles.

Iran has strongly supported its Arab ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria as he attempts to suppress a 21-month-old uprising against his rule. Tehran opposes the installation of NATO missiles as Western interference in the region and has said it could lead to a "world war.

"The installation of Patriot missiles in Turkey plays no role in establishing Turkey's security and this harms the country of Turkey," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). "The West has always pursued its viewpoints and interests and we disagree with the presence of Western countries in regional interactions."

Vahidi also denied that Iran is training Syrian forces to battle the rebels, ISNA reported. Iran considers itself, Syria's rulers and the Lebanese Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah as part of an "axis of resistance" against U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East, but has denied accusations that it helping Assad militarily.

"Syria has no need for the training of its forces by the Islamic Republic of Iran, because Syria has a powerful military which has prepared itself for involvement with the Zionist regime (Israel)," Vahidi said.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Plight of teen prompts education debate, protest in China

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As the end of middle school approached this year, Zhan Haite, 15, faced two choices: attend vocational school in Shanghai in the fall or move to her ancestral home in distant Jiangxi province to take the high school entrance exam and study there.

Taking the test and going to senior high school in cosmopolitan Shanghai, where she had lived since she was four, was not an option.

Zhan is one of millions of children whose parents belong to China's vast migrant workforce and are barred from taking senior high school or college entrance exams where they live by half-century-old policies on household registration, or hukou.

The hukou system has split China's population in two for decades, affording different privileges and opportunities to urban and rural residents. It is a major challenge for China's new economic policymakers under Premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang as they try to push urbanization as an engine of growth.

Not content with her choices, Zhan launched a microblog in May where she argued her case online, igniting a heated national debate.

In the process, she has become the poster child for a loose-knit but growing campaign for equal education opportunities.

"She is, of course, very important because she is a victim, and all along we have been hoping one of the children who have been hurt by these policies would stand up and represent all the victims so that the community more broadly can pay attention to the issue," said Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing civil rights lawyer, who has campaigned for people like Zhan.

Zhan, who has been home schooling since May, seems comfortable in the role.

"I am representative of students like me, our needs, our hopes," she said in her the two-bedroom apartment where she lives with her parents, grandmother, brother and sister.

"People should be able to take the tests where they study. There is no need to debate this."

SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS

But there has been debate, and people have taken to the streets. Beijing police on Saturday broke up a small protest and detained some of the demonstrators calling for hukou reform.

"We are doing this for the right of our children to an education," one of the protesters, who gave his family name as Tie, told Reuters on a freezing street.

"We want them to get rid of these restricting rules on household registration and give equal rights to education. We will keep fighting for it," he added.

For as long as there have been migrants after market reforms started more than three decades ago there have been complaints about the hukou system's inadequacies. Discussion of hukou reform has circulated for years, but steps have been cautious.

China's 230 million migrant workers have been the oarsmen of the world's second-biggest economy but have long been treated as second-class citizens with unequal access to education, health and other services tied to official residence status.

The education issue has been particularly divisive.

Zhan's father, Zhan Quanxi, was detained for several days this month after publicly protesting for education rights in central Shanghai, but criminal charges were dropped.

Still, his online posts have been met with sharp criticism from Shanghai hukou holders, some of whom have claimed to be part of a "Shanghai Defence Alliance".

The verbal mud slinging reflects a battle over turf in big cities where high school seats can help students get into top universities, said Ralph Litzinger, an anthropology professor at Duke University who studies Chinese migrant issues.

"In an increasingly stratified and almost insanely competitive society, of which the rural-urban hukou system is one part, Zhan Haite's case is ultimately, in my view, about uncertain and unpredictable Chinese futures," he said.

(Additional reporting by Maxim Duncan and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Tougher EU sanctions against Iran come into force

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Rigorous new sanctions against Iran's banking, shipping and industrial sectors took effect on Saturday, as part of the European Union's effort to force Tehran to scale back its nuclear program.

The sanctions, agreed in October, entered EU law with their publication in the European Union's Official Journal on Saturday.

The toughest EU measures yet, they include bans on financial transactions, sales to Iran of shipping equipment and steel, and imports of Iranian natural gas, adding to earlier bans, including on the OPEC producer's oil.

They reflect heightened concern over Iran's nuclear goals and Israeli threats to attack Iranian atomic installations if diplomacy and other measures fail to deliver a solution.

Diplomats say they hope talks with Iran can resume in January, but are waiting for an answer from Tehran, which maintains its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.

In a statement, Britain's foreign office said there was a clear need "for an urgent solution".

"Iran's leaders know that sanctions are having a significant impact," Britain's Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt said.

"They should be in no doubt that the international community will keep up the pressure until they are ready to negotiate in good faith and take the concrete steps needed to convince the international community that they are not building a nuclear weapon."

The new sanctions mark a significant change of policy for the 27-member bloc, which previously sought mainly to target specific people and companies with economic restrictions.

It has lagged the United States in imposing blanket industry bans because it is anxious to avoid penalizing ordinary Iranian citizens, while punishing the Tehran government.

Sanctions have increasingly inflicted severe pain on the Iranian economy, although the country has years of experience of circumventing them by using front companies and tortuous shipping routes.

The new European measures make clear natural gas shipments are prohibited in any form and swapping, as opposed to simply buying, cargoes is also outlawed.

While imposing a general ban on financial transactions, they make exceptions for those involving humanitarian aid, food and medicine purchases and provisions for legitimate trade.

In a statement, the European Commission said the new law brought the number of entities subject to sanctions to 490 and the total number of persons to 105.

The latest companies added to the banned list include energy and steel distribution firms and financial companies.

The latest individual to be added is Babak Zanjani, owner of the Sorinet Group, based in the United Arab Emirates. He is referred to as "a key facilitator for Iranian oil deals and transferring oil-related money".

Iran says its nuclear project has only peaceful energy purposes and has refused in three rounds of talks since April to scale back its uranium enrichment activity unless major economic sanctions are rescinded.

(Editing by John Stonestreet)

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