Women in Combat

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the militarys official ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said Wednesday.

The groundbreaking decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such combat roles, even though in reality women have frequently found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan; according to the Pentagon, hundreds of thousands of women have deployed in those conflicts. As of last year, more than 800 women had been wounded in the two wars and more than 130 had died.Defense officials offered few details about Mr. Panettas decision but described it as the beginning of a process to allow the branches of the military to put the change into effect. Defense officials said Mr. Panetta had made the decision on the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Women have long chafed under the combat restrictions and have increasingly pressured the Pentagon to catch up with the reality on the battlefield. The move comes as Mr. Panetta is about to step down from his post and would leave him with a major legacy after only 18 months in the job.The decision clearly fits into the broad and ambitious liberal agenda, especially around matters of equal opportunity, that President Obama laid out this week in his Inaugural Address. But while it had to have been approved by him, and does not require action by Congress, it appeared Wednesday that it was in large part driven by the military itself. Some midlevel White House staff members were caught by surprise by the decision, indicating that it had not gone through an extensive review there.Mr. Panettas decision came after he received a Jan. 9 letter from Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who stated in strong terms that the armed service chiefs all agreed that the time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service.A military official said the change would be implemented as quickly as possible, although the Pentagon is allowing three years, until January 2016, for final decisions from the services.Each branch of the military will have to come up with an implementation plan in the next several months, the official said. If a branch of the military decides that a specific job should not be opened to a woman, representatives of that branch will have to ask the defense secretary for an exception.To implement these initiatives successfully and without sacrificing our war-fighting capability or the trust of the American people, we will need time to get it right, General Dempsey wrote.It will be carried out during what the administration describes as the end of the American combat role in Afghanistan, the nations longest war.A copy of General Dempseys letter was provided by a Pentagon official under the condition of anonymity.The letter noted that this action was meant to ensure that women as well as men are given the opportunity to succeed.It was unclear why the Joint Chiefs acted now after examining the issue for years, although in recent months there has been building pressure from high-profile lawsuits.In November 2012 the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban on behalf of four service women and the Service Womens Action Network, a group that works for equality in the military. The A.C.L.U. said that one of the plaintiffs, Maj. Mary Jennings Hegar, an Air National Guard helicopter pilot, was shot down, returned fire and was wounded while on the ground in Afghanistan, but could not seek combat leadership positions because the Defense Department did not officially acknowledge her experience as combat.

In the military, serving in combat positions like the infantry remains crucial to career advancement. Women have long said that by not recognizing their real service, the military has unfairly held them back.

The A.C.L.U. embraced Mr. Panettas decision with cautious optimism. Ariela Migdal, an attorney with the A.C.L.U.'s Womens Rights Project, said in a statement that the organization was thrilled by the decision, but added that she hoped it would be implemented fairly and quickly.By law Mr. Panetta is able to lift the ban as a regulatory decision, although he must give Congress a 30-day notice of his intent. Congress does not need to approve the decision before it goes into effect. If Congress disagrees with the action, members would have to pass new legislation prohibiting the change, which appeared highly unlikely.Although in the past some Republican members of the House have balked at allowing women in combat, on Wednesday there appeared to be bipartisan endorsement for the decision, which was first reported by The Associated Press and CNN in midafternoon.It reflects the reality of 21st century military operations, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.SenatorPatty Murray, Democrat of Washington and the chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called it a historic step for recognizing the role women have, and will continue to play, in the defense of our nation.Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican and a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that she was pleased by the decision and said that it reflects the increasing role that female service members play in securing our country.Representative Loretta Sanchez, the California Democrat who has long pressed to have womens role in combat recognized, said that she was pleased that Mr. Panetta was removing what she called the archaic combat exclusion policy.SenatorKirsten E. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who has pushed for lifting the ban, called it a proud day for our country and an important step in recognizing the brave women who are already fighting and dying.But the leadership of a conservative Christian group, the Family Research Council, immediately weighed in with its opposition, sending out a statement from Jerry Boykin, a retired three-star general with a long career in Special Operations Forces.General Boykin said that the people making this decision are doing so as part of another social experiment. He especially criticized the concept of placing women into Special Forces units where living conditions are primal in many situations with no privacy for personal hygiene or normal functions. It remains unclear if women will be permitted to fight in Special Forces and other commando units.Public opinion polls show that Americans generally agree with lifting the ban. A nationwide Quinnipiac University poll conducted a year ago found that three-quarters of voters surveyed favored allowing military women to serve in units that engaged in close combat, if the women wanted to.Policy experts who have pushed the military to lift the ban said that it was striking that much of the impetus appeared to come from Joint Chiefs, indicating that the top military leadership saw that the time had come to open up to women.Its significant that the change came from the uniformed side, rather than being forced on the uniformed side by the civilian leadership, said Greg Jacob, the policy director of the Service Womens Action Network.Under current rules, a number of military positions are closed to women and to open them, the services have to change the rules.Under Mr. Panettas new initiative, the situation is the opposite: Those combat positions would be open to women, and they could only be closed through specific action.Capt. Emily Naslund, a Marine officer who saw ground combat in Afghanistan in 2010, said Wednesday that she embraced the decision. This is awesome, she said.

Drones

WASHINGTON Irans political and military elite boasted last month that their forces shot down an American intelligence-gathering drone, a remotely piloted Navy vehicle called ScanEagle that they swiftly put on display for the Iranian news media.Navy officials responded that no drones had been downed by enemy fire, although the Pentagon acknowledged that it had lost a small number of ScanEagles, likely to engine malfunction, over Afghanistan and in the Persian Gulf region. The drone that the Iranians showcased appeared cobbled together after a crash thus earning the nickname FrankenEagle across the Navy.Regardless, the loss was hardly an intelligence coup for Iran, since ScanEagle carries only off-the-shelf video equipment with less computing power than can be found in a smartphone.They could have gone to Radio Shack and captured the same secret technology, said Vice Adm. Mark I. Fox, the Navys deputy chief for operations, plans and strategy.The minor diplomatic contretemps over the fallen drone did, however, shine an unwanted light on the growing role of these relatively low-cost, nearly expendable unmanned surveillance aircraft in military operations over the Persian Gulf, as well as in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and in the Asia-Pacific region.A ScanEagle flying off the deck of the destroyer Bainbridge is credited with providing images critical to the ability of Navy SEAL snipers to identify and kill three hijackers holding hostage the captain of the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Africa in 2009. And a ScanEagle flying from the destroyer Mahan provided images of Libya in the first 72 hours of a North Africa mission by American and NATO forces in 2011 to protect civilians and then support rebels who overthrew Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.Most ScanEagles are owned and flown by contractors; some of these private crews are even based aboard American warships. The drones are considered an important addition in the militarys surveillance architecture, which ranges from very costly spy satellites to advanced drones like Predators and Reapers, which carry advanced surveillance systems and can be armed with missiles, and down to the low-tech ScanEagle.ScanEagles fly from two Navy ships in the Persian Gulf area, the Ponce and the Gunston Hall, both amphibious support and staging vessels; they also fly from one ground operations center in the region established when a ScanEagle unit serving in Iraq was withdrawn as the mission there ended.Since it can be launched on short notice, ScanEagles value is in allowing local commanders the ability to gather close-in, live and real-time images of an immediate target.Anybody who goes to sea is interested in having an understanding of the environment in which they are operating, Admiral Fox said. These low-end assets give you an ability to have a much better understanding of whats going on around you. Whos in that dhow? What flag is it flying? But we are still in an early stage of it.Navy officers say that adding another layer of surveillance aircraft to the American fleet also has a deterrent effect on Iran.The fact that we are physically present with more and more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets the Iranians know we are out there watching, said one officer familiar with ScanEagle deployments. We are flying in international airspace and over international waters. But these assets give us ground truth on what everybody is doing in the gulf.But the increased surveillance flights do carry a risk of provoking Tehran at a time of increased international tensions over its disputed nuclear program.Last November, Iranian warplanes shot at an Air Force surveillance drone flying over the Persian Gulf. Pentagon officials said the Predator was in international airspace and was not hit, and that the episode prompted a strong protest to the Iranian government. Iran said the Predator had violated its airspace.And in late 2011, an RQ-170 surveillance drone operated by the C.I.A. rather than the military crashed deep inside Iranian territory while on a mission that is believed to have been intended to map suspected nuclear sites. That episode came to light only after Iran bragged that it had hacked into the drones controls and guided it to a landing inside its borders. American officials said the drone had crashed after a technical malfunction.

The ScanEagle, at the low end of the surveillance technology scale, can stay aloft for 24 hours, and at altitudes of up to 19,500 feet. It has a tiny engine just 1.9 horsepower but sufficient to carry the vehicle, four and a half feet long with a 10-foot wingspan, at a cruising speed of 48 knots. Built by Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, the ScanEagle can carry a video camera with night vision and a thermal imaging system. It is unarmed.The Defense Department fields about 250 ScanEagles across all of the armed forces, and the drone has logged 650,000 flight hours since it was first tested by the military in 2004.While it is currently aboard a half-dozen warships, Navy officers expect that number to grow. Part of the push for ScanEagle is its relatively low cost, only $100,000 each.Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the deployment of unmanned aircraft aboard Navy warships could be as revolutionary as the first introduction of conventional aircraft to the fleet.This is a game changer, Mr. Singer said. Using remotely piloted vehicles in the framework of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is just the first step.Fitting missiles onto drones is already a proven asset for the military and the intelligence community, and the Navy might push the abilities even further, using drones perhaps even jet-powered and refuelable in the air to penetrate adversary air defenses for attack missions and for jamming communications and spoofing radar, he said.In a time of tight budgets, though, Mr. Singer warned that the traditional flying communities in both the Navy and Air Force might push back against development and procurement programs that might take pilots out of the cockpit and put them in trailers to operate the aircraft remotely.And he noted that what truly scares the pilot community is the possibility that technological advancements might allow future drone missions to be preprogrammed, perhaps even fully automatic getting rid of a pilot altogether.

ArmsWASHINGTON During a lengthy and at times emotionally wrenching news conference, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California on Thursday announced legislation that would ban the sale and manufacture of 157 types of semiautomatic weapons, as well as magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The bill, which Ms. Feinstein said she would introduce in the Senate on Thursday afternoon, would exempt firearms used for hunting and would grandfather in certain guns and magazines. The goal of the bill, she said, would be to dry up the supply of these weapons over time.Surrounded by victims of gun violence, colleagues in the Senate and House and several law enforcement officials, and standing near a peg board with 10 large guns attached, Ms. Feinstein acknowledged the difficulty in pursuing such legislation, even when harnessing the shock and grief over the shooting of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., last month. This is really an uphill road, Ms. Feinstein said.Since the expiration of a ban on assault weapons in 2004, there has been a deep reluctance among lawmakers to revisit the issue. They cite both a lack of evidence that the ban was effective and a fear of the powerful gun lobby, which has made significant inroads at both the state and federal level in increasing gun rights over the last decade.Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, recently said during an interview in his home state that he was skeptical about the bill. Ms. Feinstein immediately called him to express her displeasure with his remarks.Many lawmakers, including some Democrats, prefer more modest measures to curb gun violence, like a bill that would enhance background checks of gun buyers or focus on enforcement of existing laws.One such measure has been introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will begin hearings next week on gun violence. His bill would give law enforcement officials more tools to investigate so-called straw purchasing of guns, in which an individual buys a firearm for someone who is prohibited from obtaining one on his own. While Mr. Leahy has said he supports a limit on magazines, he has expressed skepticism about a broad assault weapons ban. Many gun control groups have set more modest goals, focusing on gun trafficking and the tracking of mental health records.More legislation is expected to arise over the next week or two. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, and Senator Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, have agreed to work together on gun trafficking legislation that would seek to crack down on illegal guns. Currently, there is no federal law that defines gun trafficking as a crime.Ms. Feinstein was joined on Thursday by several other lawmakers, including Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York, who will introduce companion legislation in the House, and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who emotionally recalled the day when the children and adults were gunned down in Newtown. I will never forget the sight and the sounds of parents that day, he said. Several gunshot victims, families of those killed and others gave brief statements of support for the bill.Ms. Feinsteins bill which, unlike the 1994 assault weapons ban, of which she was a chief sponsor, would not expire after being enacted would also ban certain characteristics of guns that make them more lethal and would require that grandfathered weapons be registered. More than 900 guns would be exempt for hunting and sporting.Such a measure is vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association and many Republicans lawmakers, as well as some Democrats. I dont think you should have restrictions on clips, said Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who has said he welcomes a Senate debate on guns. The Second Amendment wasnt written so you can go hunting, it was to create a force to balance a tyrannical force here.President Obama has called on Congress to act on some gun restrictions; on Thursday afternoon, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was to hold an online fireside hangout via Google.

Sexual Assault in the Military If the United States had previously allowed women to serve officially in military combat roles, including special operations forces, there might be fewer sexual assaults in the armed services, the Pentagon's top general told reporters Thursday.Having studied the issue of rampant sexual misconduct in the ranks, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that he has concluded that the phenomenon exists partly because women have been subordinated to men in military culture: "It's because we've had separate classes of military personnel."

Dempsey's comments came during a press conference with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, with the pair announcing the end of restrictions on women serving in previously all-male combat-arms roles, such as within the infantry, the artillery, and special forces. "We've been on a long journey, a long journey towards achieving equality, and there have been some tough challenges along the road," Panetta said.Despite the announcement, the road to full equality may well be rocky; each of the armed services has until May to report to the incoming defense secretary (presumably Chuck Hagel) on howand how quicklyit will integrate women into combat billets. "We want to make sure we get the standards right, and we don't overengineer them either," Dempsey said.Nevertheless, the move largely codifies a practice long under way in combat zones like Afghanistan and Iraq, where women serving in what are technically non-combat rolessuch as patrolling in vehicles and aircraftcan find themselves under fire. And the transition to women serving fully side-by-side with men has been happening in several services already. "Women are now in submarines, and that was one of the concerns at the time," Panetta said, answering a reporter's questions about "privacy issues" among troops. "Women are fighter pilots now. So Air Force, Navy have moved in that direction. The Marines and the Army are now gonna move in that direction."Dempsey echoed that. "We figured out privacy right from the start," he said, referring to Desert Shield operations in 1990 and 1991 that required men and women to huddle together in ad hoc desert encampments.Asked whether the military's elite Seals and Green Berets might soon see female recruits, Dempsey said he had discussed that with Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno and Marine Commandant James Amos, both combat veterans themselves. "I think we all believe that there will be women who can meet those standards," he added.Dempsey appeared to chafe when asked by a reporter about his personal opinions on whether women would affect combat readiness: "I graduated from West Point in 1974. It was an all-male institution. I went back to teach at West Point in 1984 and found the place far better than it was when I had been a cadet... I attributed a good amount of that to the fact that we opened up the academy to women."Dempsey noted that allowing women to serve in such coveted roles as infantry could help erode a male-dominated culture in which sexual assaults have been rising among uniformed personnel. "The more we can treat people equally, the more likely they are to treat each other equally," he said.Both men conceded that they didn't know if this move means that women will have to register for the draft with Selective Service, as young men are required to do. "That's not our operation," Panetta said, stumbling over his words, then adding, "I don't know who the hell controls Selective Service, to tell the truth."

An Excerpted Inaugural AddressEach time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional what makes us American is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize it together.For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher.We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative; ,they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.It is now our generations task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity,y; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.That is our generations task to make these words, these rights, these values of Llife, and Lliberty, and the Ppursuit of Hhappiness real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life;. I it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.

Indians

FARMINGTON, N.M. In a small, brightly decorated room at the Childhaven youth shelter, a group of Navajo children played a quiet game of Monopoly, their faces registering the occasional faint smile. Abandoned, neglected or worse, the children have been living here, on the edge of their tribes reservation, and most have been waiting for months until the state can find foster homes or relatives where it can send them.In the often wrenching world of foster care, the plight of American Indian children is especially fraught. Under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, local agencies must try to place Indian children with Indian families whenever possible, and tribes may intervene in certain custody proceedings.Congress passed the law after generations of Indian children were wrested from their homes and placed in non-Indian foster facilities and boarding schools. The laws supporters say it has worked in many instances allowing Indian children to remain connected to their heritage, even when families fall apart.But a chronic shortage of licensed Indian foster families in states like New Mexico, coupled with the poverty and substance abuse endemic to American Indian communities, has also made it challenging to apply.In Bernalillo County, for instance, there are 65 Indian children in state custody but only 5 Indian foster homes, prompting Gov. Susana Martinez to publicly appeal for more families last March.Having enough families to meet the intent of the Indian Child Welfare Act is a big problem, said Jared Rounsville, the protective services director for New Mexicos Children, Youth and Families Department. Which ends up resulting in Native children at times being placed with non-Native families. And then often times they are adopted by non-Native families.Recently, the laws interpretation has been tested in a case that will be heard by the United States Supreme Court this year and is being watched closely by child welfare experts.In that case, a family court judge ordered a white South Carolina couple to turn over a 27-month-old girl they had raised since birth to her Indian biological father.The father, a member of the Cherokee tribe, was estranged from the mother and had relinquished rights to the child. He said he was unaware his daughter would be put up for adoption and sought custody when he found out, four months after she was born.Lawyers for the couple said the child, known as Baby Veronica, forged a deep bond with her adoptive parents, who were present at her birth.The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the decision after the couple appealed. The court ruled that the birth mother made some efforts to conceal the fathers Cherokee identity during the adoption and that federal law required Veronica to remain with her father, whom the court found had created a safe, loving home.In a 3-to-2 ruling, the court said it had reached its decision with a heavy heart, conceding that the adoptive couple, Matt and Melanie Capobianco, were ideal, loving parents.Last year, supporters of the Capobiancos delivered a petition signed by more than 20,000 people to South Carolina lawmakers, urging them to revisit the law.But its proponents say the case illustrates, with heartbreaking consequences, what happens when information about a childs tribal status is withheld.What is at stake is whether or not we not we go back to the days where deception and coercion are the norm in adoptions, said Terry L. Cross, the executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association.According to the child welfare group, Indian children are still overrepresented in foster care at twice their rate in the general population evidence, Mr. Cross said, that child welfare agencies are still too quick to pull Indian children from their homes.

Fewer than 2 percent of Minnesota children are Indian, for instance, but they make up 15 percent of the foster care system, according to the group. In Montana, the group found that Indian children make up about 9 percent of the population but represent 37 percent of foster care children. Mr. Cross said that a childs welfare was always paramount, and that the ideal situation was to place the child with relatives or a stable foster family even a non-Indian family so long as a tribal bond was emphasized.While the current law is imperfect, he said, it seeks to balance the rights of the child, the birth parents and the interests of the tribe, which needs to protect its members.Mark Fiddler, one of the lawyers acting as counsel for the Capobiancos, would not comment on the case. While he said the act was well intentioned, he contended that its application had become misguided, where a stable family environment was too often eclipsed by a desire to keep children linked to their tribe.An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Mr. Fiddler once supported the law as a Minneapolis public defender.But he changed his mind after a case from the 1990s, during which he opposed the adoption of an Indian girl, Sierra Goodman, by her white foster parents, Eugene and Carol Campbell.After Sierras tribe successfully challenged the adoption, she was taken to live with Indian relatives despite her pleas to stay. According to accounts of the case in The Minneapolis Star Tribune, she lived in more than 20 foster homes and became deeply troubled, aiding her boyfriend in a failed attempt to murder the Campbells.The Campbells eventually adopted her as an adult, after she spent time in a juvenile treatment facility.After many years of handling these cases, I got to the point where I became much more focused on the childs developmental needs than the childs cultural needs, Mr. Fiddler said. Im not saying there arent some issues of loss when a child is placed out of their culture. But those are more remediable than the profound psychological damage we risk by moving them from a stable family.But for every failed case, there are dozens that end well, said Therese Yanan, a director of the Native American Disability Law Center in New Mexico.The bond between child and tribe, Ms. Yanan said, is vital to giving Indian children a clear identity.Its difficult for non-Natives to fully understand the connection individuals have with their Native community, she said.Brenda Riggs-Valle, who is Navajo, has been fostering mostly Indian children in Farmington while raising her own two children as a single mother.She said there is a shared experience between Indian foster families and Indian children that creates a comfortable foster environment. But she worries about might happen when they leave her care.What we give them is a glimpse of happiness, Ms. Riggs-Valle said. And when they go back, they are going to have to be strong.

ImmigrationWASHINGTON President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators will begin separate but simultaneous efforts next week to build support for an overhaul of immigration laws, an effort that had long stalled in Washington but was pushed to the forefront again during the 2012 presidential campaign.The group of at least six senators with a long-held interest in immigration issues is preparing to release a detailed set of principles next Friday, laying the legislative foundation for what they hope will become a comprehensive immigration bill. Their initiative coincides with a similar push by the White House. On Friday, the president met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, calling the issue a top legislative priority, and on Tuesday he is set to give an immigration-focused speech in Nevada, where Hispanic voters are growing in numbers.The Senate proposal will probably include four main elements: border enforcement, employer enforcement, handling the future flow of legal immigration (including temporary agriculture workers and high-skilled engineers) and a pathway to citizenship for those who entered the nation illegally. Mr. Obamas approach will largely echo his 2011 immigration blueprint, which he first outlined in a speech in El Paso, and calls for a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.Though all members of the Senate group agree that some pathway to legal residency must be a part of the final proposal, they are still divided on what exactly that route should be. Republican lawmakers are urging that border security be tied to a pathway to citizenship and other requirements like having those who entered illegally go to the back of the line behind immigrants already waiting to enter the country legally, paying fines and back-taxes, and learning English.Youve got border security, youve got employer verification and youve got a temporary worker program that addresses the magnet, so those three things have to go together to address operational control over your border, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, one of the senators mapping out the legislation. Then you go to the next big thing the 12 million. How do you deal with the 12 million in a firm, fair way, realizing you cant put them all in jail and theyre not all going to self-deport?The bipartisan group, which has been meeting regularly since the November election, includes Mr. Graham, the Democratic Senators Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Charles E. Schumer of New York, and the Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida. Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, and the Republican Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Mike Lee of Utah have also taken part in the discussions.Its going far better than any of us expected, Mr. Schumer said in an interview. On both sides, there is a spirit that everyone is going to have to meet somewhere in the middle, and were very close to coming out with a detailed list of principles.Aides said that the group hoped to have legislation ready by the end of March and was aiming for a vote in the Senate before the August recess. Though Republicans talked about handling immigration reform in steps, the senators are aiming for a comprehensive bill.Mr. Rubio, who has been publicly promoting his own set of principles, was approached by the group in December, said a Republican close to the senator. However, it was unclear until recently whether he would join the bipartisan team or offer his own proposal.In 2010, Mr. Graham and Mr. Schumer outlined a framework for overhauling immigration in a Washington Post op-ed. Their proposal similarly called for four central elements and a tough but fair path to legalization for those already here, but itdid not advance. It is now being used as a starting point for the groups efforts.The 2012 election, in which Mr. Obama beat Mitt Romney with the help of 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, has also proved a galvanizing force for Republicans. Because of the mood of the country that its time to move forward on this issue, its different than it was some years ago, Mr. McCain said. The election results always have an effect on that.Both Democratic and Republican advocates for immigration changes are hoping that the White House will delay releasing any specific plan of its own to allow a bipartisan bill to emerge from the Senate. While Republicans have previously called upon Mr. Obama to take the lead, they say the timing, now that compromise in the Senate is under way, is inauspicious.Gao, MaliKONNA, Mali French forces took control of the Islamic rebel stronghold of Gao, the French government said Saturday, winning the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of Mali.Gao, which lies 600 miles northeast of the capital, Bamako, has for months been under the control of one of several Islamist groups seeking to overrun Mali. French warplanes have been pounding the city since France joined the fight at Malis request on Jan. 11.French troops took control of the city and handed it over to the Malian Army to secure, according to the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.Soldiers from Chad and Niger are expected to arrive soon in Gao, Mr. Le Drian said in a statement. They will be part of a contingent of 1,900 African troops who have already arrived in Mali to drive out the rebels, aided by the 2,500 French soldiers deployed here.Gaos mayor, who had fled to Bamako, returned on Saturday, Mr. Le Drian said.One of three major cities in northern Mali, Gao had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.Al Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held but would return with greater force.Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao, have been under rebel control, but little information has come from either place for the past 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.In Konna which was overrun by Islamic fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene a clearer picture began to emerge of the fighting. Residents and officials here said that at least 11 civilians had been killed in French airstrikes.Charred husks of pickup trucks lined the road into the town, and broken tanks and guns littered the fish market, where the rebels appeared to have set up a temporary base.Frances sudden entry into the fray has left the United Nations and Ecowas, the regional trade bloc, scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force to help retake the northern half of the country. Malis army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of serious human rights violations.From Konna, it is easy to see why the Malian government pleaded for French help after the Islamist fighters took control of the town. Just 35 miles of smooth asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Svar, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian Army troops who had been guarding the town after a fierce battle.Amadou Traore, a 29-year-old tire repairman, said residents had heard that the Islamist rebels had surrounded the town before the attack, but he had been confident that the army would keep them at bay.We thought there was no way for them to enter into the town, he said. But they came in the night. They told us, Tomorrow we will go to Svar.A woman who lives in his compound was hit by a bullet, he said. They tried to take her to the town clinic, but the doctor had fled. There was no doctor, no nurses, Mr. Traore said. After two days, she died.Baro Coulibaly fled her house along the main road into town, moving with her husband and six children to the relative safety of the town center, where they stayed with her in-laws. They hunkered down for days, hearing the sound of French bombs and rebel bullets ricocheting around the mud-walled dwellings.Nobody could get in or out, Ms. Coulibaly said. We were so afraid we barely ate or slept.Residents said they heard that the fearsome Tuareg leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, Iyad ag Ghali, had led the attack on their town, but no one saw him in person. The rebels spoke many languages, according to the residents. Some were light-skinned Arabs and Tuaregs, a nomadic people, while others were dark-skinned people who spoke the local languages of Niger, Nigeria and Mali.Boubacar Diallo, a local political leader, said that only a few rebel fighters came at first. Later, hundreds more joined them, overwhelming the Malian soldiers based here. He said he had never seen them pray and scoffed at their assertion that they would teach the Muslim population a purer form of Islam.They say they are Muslims, but I dont know any Muslim who does not pray, Mr. Diallo said.The fighters took down the Malian flag and raised a banner of their own, a white piece of paper printed with words in Arabic Assembly for the Spiritual Ideology to Purify the African World and pictures of machine guns.After the Islamist fighters fled, Mr. Diallo took it down and replaced it with the Malian flag.Iraq ElectionsBAGHDAD In the bloody aftermath of street protests that turned violent on Friday in Falluja, Iraqs Parliament passed a law on Saturday intended to prevent Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki from seeking a third term.The parliamentary move was the latest threat to Mr. Malikis hold on power and reflected rising anger among rivals over his leadership, but it appeared unlikely that the law, which would need to approved by Iraqs president, would ever go into effect.Mr. Malikis coalition in Parliament boycotted the vote, and an official close to the prime minister called it unconstitutional and vowed to appeal to the federal courts, which on paper are independent but in practice bend to Mr. Malikis will.Sami al-Askari, a lawmaker from Mr. Malikis coalition, said the law would not see the light of day because, he said, it is unconstitutional. We are not worried about the vote on this law, Mr. Askari said.The vote came after weeks of protests in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar resulted in violence on Friday, when the Shiite-led governments security forces opened fire, leaving at least seven protesters in Falluja dead.Dueling scenes that played out on Saturday the hundreds of mourners who hoisted the coffins of dead protesters in the streets of Falluja and the lawmakers in Baghdad who cast votes in an attempt to limit the power of the prime minister encapsulated the prevailing features of Iraqi public life after the long and costly American war: sectarianism, violence and political dysfunction.Both events nudged Iraq further along the path of political instability before provincial elections in April, which will be the first test of Iraqs fragile democracy at the voting booth since the departure of American forces at the end of 2011.On Saturday, a curfew that had gone into effect on Friday in Falluja was lifted and, as the army withdrew from the city, one soldier was killed by sniper fire and another was wounded, according to a security official in Anbar. As mourners in Falluja shouted, The blood of our people will not be lost in vain, protesters set fire to an army checkpoint.During the clashes on Friday, two soldiers were killed, and later three off-duty soldiers were kidnapped by gunmen and remained missing on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.Mr. Maliki earned his second term as prime minister after a divisive political struggle and inconclusive elections in 2010, and it is not clear if he intends to seek a third term in 2014, when the next parliamentary elections are scheduled.Last year, rivals unsuccessfully sought to oust Mr. Maliki from power through a vote of no confidence in Parliament.Chvez He emphatically added that Mr. Chvez would return to Venezuela take charge of the government again.Mr. Maduro spoke on his return from Cuba, where Mr. Chvez had surgery on Dec. 11.The commander is in the best moment that we have seen him in all these days of struggle and battle, Mr. Maduro said. He is smiling, he has a look full of light, he has a special illumination in his thought.Mr. Maduro said that Mr. Chvez had asked him to deliver a brief message to Venezuelans.He said tell the people that he is optimistic and has lots of faith in what were doing, Mr. Maduro said, adding that Mr. Chvez was referring to his medical treatment. He said the president was holding tight to Christ and to life.He went on to predict Mr. Chvezs return, but did not say when that might occur.This blessed land of the Liberator will see our commander president, it will see him, in his time, in his time it will see him here, Mr. Maduro said. Were going to have him, as he should be, as president, in charge of our country.Mr. Chvez has not been seen since his surgery last month. Unlike the presidents previous trips to Cuba for treatment, this time there have been no photographs or videos or television appearances, and Mr. Chvez has not called in to government run television programs to make his voice heard.The political opposition has demanded more information about his condition and has asked for a team of medical experts to travel to Cuba to get an update on his health, but the government has rebuffed those requests.Mr. Chvez has refused to say what kind of cancer he has or exactly where it was found in his body. Government officials have not offered details about his most recent cancer surgery, his fourth since June 2011. But on Saturday, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said that the purpose of the surgery was to remove a malignant lesion in the pelvis. He added that Mr. Chvez had recovered from a severe lung infection that occurred after surgery.Mr. Chvez, who was re-elected in October, was unable to return to Venezuela for the inauguration for his new term, which began Jan. 10. The long absence has plunged the country into uncertainty and has led many to question whether he will be able to regain his health and continue as president.

Algeria Mourad Medelci also conceded that Algeria will need international help to fight terrorism. Algeria's decision to refuse foreign offers of aid in handling the crisis, and to send the military to fire on vehicles full of hostages, drew widespread international criticism."We are in the process of assessing our mistakes," Medelci told The Associated Press in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday.He did not, however, identify any mistake or address specific criticism of the chaotic and bloody operation. But overall, he suggested that the Algerian government did the right thing."In that assessment we are leaning more towards establishing that the operation was a success," he said.The Jan. 16 attack, which an al-Qaida-affiliated organization has claimed responsibility for, sent scores of foreign energy workers fleeing across the desert for their lives. A four-day siege by Algerian forces on the complex left at least 37 hostages and 29 militants dead. Some of the fatalities were badly burned, making it difficult to identify them.The minister said Algeria is likely to reinforce security measures at sites where multinationals operate in the oil- and gas-rich country. But he insisted that foreign workers in Algeria "will continue to work in Algeria and that is the best way to answer the terrorists."He defended the government's decision to attack instead of negotiating, pointing to its years of experience dealing with Islamist extremist violence."Faced with such an attitude (of terrorism), it's not just words that solve the problem. It's action," he said.But he admitted that Algeria can't face international terrorism alone."It absolutely needs support," he said.He argued that Algeria wasn't the target of the attack. Instead, he said, the terrorists were targeting investors and the foreigners who work for them.An international group of militants led by a Mali-based warlord staged the attack. The extremists demanded an end to the French-led military operation in neighboring Mali, where al-Qaida-linked groups have seized and expanded control over the past year.Israel vs IranJERUSALEM Israels departing defense minister, Ehud Barak, said that the Pentagon had prepared sophisticated blueprints for a surgical operation to set back Irans nuclear program should the United States decide to attack a statement that was a possible indication that Israel might have shelved any plans for a unilateral strike, at least for now.In an interview conducted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and published by The Daily Beast on Friday, Mr. Barak was asked if there was any way Israel could go to war with Iran over what many in the West believe is a nuclear weapons program without dragging in the United States.Mr. Barak replied that there were more than just the two options of full-scale war or allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons capability in the event that sanctions and diplomacy failed.What we basically say is that if worse comes to worst, there should be a readiness and an ability to launch a surgical operation that will delay them by a significant time frame and probably convince them that it wont work because the world is determined to block them, he said.Under orders from the White House, the Pentagon prepared quite sophisticated, fine, extremely fine, scalpels, Mr. Barak added, referring to the ability to carry out pinpoint strikes.Herbert Krosney, an American-Israeli analyst and the author of a book about the arming of Iran and Iraq, said Mr. Baraks statement now indicates that there is close cooperation between Israel and the United States following months of tension between the countrys leaders (though military and intelligence services continued to work together closely).I think there is a realization in Israel that it would be extremely difficult for Israel to operate alone, he said.Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was pushing hard for the Obama administration to set clear red lines on Irans nuclear progress that would prompt the United States to undertake a military strike, infuriating the administration. And Mr. Barak repeatedly warned that because of Israels more limited military capabilities, its own window of opportunity to carry out an effective strike was closing.It has appeared that Mr. Barak has drifted away from Mr. Netanyahu in recent months, sounding more conciliatory toward the Obama administration, but even the prime minister has become less antagonistic.The Pentagon declined to comment on The Daily Beast report, but a senior defense official said, The U.S. military constantly plans for a range of contingencies we might face around the world, and our planning is often quite detailed. The official added, That shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone.In recent years, Mr. Barak and Mr. Netanyahu had become increasingly alarmed as Iran moved forward with a nuclear program that it says is solely for peaceful purposes, but that Israel, the United States and others believe is geared toward producing a bomb. The two men consistently emphasized Israels doctrine of self-reliance for such existential issues.But faced with tough opposition from Washington and public criticism from a string of former Israeli security chiefs, the prospect of an imminent unilateral Israeli strike receded in recent months.In the past few weeks Mr. Netanyahu campaigned for re-election in Israel as a strong leader who, among other things, had managed to persuade the world to deal with the Iranian threat.Mr. Netanyahu and his conservative Likud Party emerged weakened from the elections, with much of the Israeli electorate more focused on domestic issues. In a speech after the voting, he said, The first challenge was and still is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But he did not again threaten to go it alone.In the interview last week, Mr. Barak did not specify what the Pentagons scalpels were. But there has been a broad effort at the White House, the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies to develop a series of options that could set back, though probably not halt, Irans nuclear progress.The first was a covert plan called Olympic Games to undermine Irans nuclear enrichment plans with cyberattacks, according to participants in that program. The second layer of plans, American and other officials have said, involves covert means of interrupting the supply of uranium to Irans enrichment plants, or crippling the plants themselves. The biggest target is a deep underground plant called Fordo, near Qum. There, under a mountain, Iran is producing most of its medium-enriched uranium, which could be converted to bomb grade in a matter of months. The site is hardened, and probably beyond Israels ability to destroy from the air. The United States recently added one weapon to its arsenal that officials believe could do significant damage: the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a huge conventional bomb that is designed to attack deep, hardened sites.But the existence of any plans, officials note, does not indicate an intent to them carry them out.Greek DebtThe 38-year-old leftist opposition leader in Greece who could become its next prime minister on a wave of simmering popular fury over the governments austerity measures, called on Friday for a European summit meeting to ease the crushing debts that threaten not only his country but all of Europe.

The opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, whose criticism of international bailouts propelled his party, Syriza, to win the second biggest bloc of parliamentary seats in the June 2012 elections, also said he did not believe Greece would be forced to withdraw from the group of 17 countries that use the euro currency. Greeces heavy indebtedness has raised fears that the country could leave or be expelled from the euro zone, a possibility that many economists regard as a threat to the euros survival.They say I am the most dangerous man in Europe, Mr. Tsipras said in an interview with the editorial board of The New York Times. What I feel is dangerous is the policy of austerity in Europe. The Greek people have paid a heavy price.Mr. Tsipras was in New York as part of a trip to the United States that has included meetings in Washington with the International Monetary Fund and the Treasury Department. The trip is part of a campaign intended to bolster his credibility as a politician and to counter what his aides call the fictional portrayals of him as a financial bomb-thrower in Greeces mainstream news media, controlled by the so-called oligarch families of privilege in the country who fear Syrizas ascent to power.Given the fragility of the conservative-led coalition that took over after the June elections, any no-confidence vote in Parliament could lead to new elections that give Mr. Tsipras the latitude to form a government. Recent polls put Syrizas popularity at nearly 30 percent, about the same as the current coalition leader, the conservative New Democracy party.This month Mr. Tsipras also visited Germany, Europes most powerful economy, which has been the driving force behind the insistence that Greece must endure sacrifices and impose fiscal discipline in exchange for help on its debt burden. Mr. Tsipras has argued that the strategy has not only been an expensive failure but has also increased Greeces indebtedness relative to the size of its economy, where joblessness and cuts in wages and benefits have stoked widespread anger.After six years of recession in Greece, he said, we are witnessing a humanitarian crisis.The symptoms were on display this week in Athens, where striking subway workers, outraged over pay cuts, paralyzed a transit system that carries one million riders a day. The government on Friday used an emergency decree to halt the strike.Mr. Tsipras said he would like to see a summit meeting that would result in an end to the austerity approach, which he said is needed to restart growth and avert a deeper economic malaise.We are suggesting an overall plan for a European solution, he said. A European conference on debt that would include all of the countries of the region facing a significant debt issue.He drew an analogy to the London Debt Agreement of 1953, in which postwar Germanys debt was cut by 50 percent and the repayment spread over 30 years.Mr. Tsipras said the German government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, has held the possibility of expulsion from the euro zone over Greece as leverage for enforcing its austerity solution, but that in his view neither Germany nor its supporters want to see Greece exit the euro.The constant threats, that they will kick us out of the euro zone, is a strategy with no foundation, he said. Its just a way to blackmail us.Mexican ViolenceMEXICO CITY An outbreak of violence in rural southwestern Mexico has led civilians in a string of communities to take up arms and police their own communities, shining a light on the lack of state security as a new administration prepares to take on the countrys violence.

The latest eruption of citizen policing began about three weeks ago in the small, mountainous town of Ayutla de los Libres, in Guerrero State, when residents picked up rifles and machetes and arrested at least three dozen people they said the authorities had failed to apprehend.Since then, the practice has spread to other areas of the state, with movement leaders and local human rights officials saying more than a hundred small communities are now patrolling themselves.Last week, local news media reported that indigenous communities in Jalisco State were also planning their own citizen police forces.Vigilante justice is not uncommon in Mexico, particularly in rural, indigenous areas where there is a lack of police officers and mistrust of state institutions runs deep. But the spread of drug and organized crime gangs into remote regions in recent years has worsened the sense of lawlessness there, creating the kind of flare-ups in violence that the new government of President Enrique Pea Nieto has promised to control with a planned paramilitary force.The new vigilante movements join older, more established citizen police forces in Guerrero State, some dating to 1995. Before the outbreak this month, the vigilante movement already claimed to be the law in 77 towns and villages in the state. The movement has also spread to Colonia Lebarn, in the border state of Chihuahua, where residents set up a civilian defense force in 2009 after two residents were murdered, and Chern, in Michoacn State, whose residents expelled the police in 2011, closed entrances to the town and armed themselves against violent illegal loggers believed to be protected by criminal syndicates.In Ayutla de los Libres, the citizen police squads have built their own checkpoints, copying the other grass-roots police movements in the region. The fate of those arrested, who are suspected of extortion and kidnapping, is uncertain. Abel Barrera Hernndez, a human rights official in Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero, said residents would investigate the offenses and hold a public trial by months end.There are no independent estimates of how many people are participating in these efforts. But movement leaders expect more and more communities to join in.The most important weapon will be the organization of the people, said Bruno Plcido Valerio, who helps organize community policing in Guerrero. He said he had been getting regular calls from other community leaders who want to join the movement.The state governor, ngel Aguirre Rivero, appears to be tolerating the turn of events, striking a balance between promises to restore state authority while acknowledging the gaps in policing by providing some of the more established community police with vehicles, uniforms and radios. Federal officials sent in the military to take control of checkpoints in Ayutla de los Libres and several other towns on Wednesday, according to the Guerrero State government.We understand you, and thats why we have to exercise all the force of the state to protect you, Miguel ngel Osorio Chong, the interior secretary, said Thursday at a news conference in Nayarit State.Much of the self-policing occurs in indigenous communities, where poverty and marginalization run deep. Many of these communities have long harbored suspicion of the state; indeed some consider themselves autonomous from Mexico, which at times has granted them de facto self-rule. They have been permitted to re-evaluate their institutions, recreate them, and confront something that the Mexican state has not been able to resolve, said Sergio Sarmiento Silva, an expert on indigenous movements at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.Some officials, including the governor, are balancing calls to respect state authority while advocating for some legal recognition of the community police groups to fill obvious gaps in law and order. We should propose a constitutional reform where the participation of the community police is included, because in many places where they operate, delinquency levels are down, Mr. Aguirre Rivero said.Mr. Plcido Valerio said the community police would abide by due process for those detained.Meanwhile, they are already facing some of the thorny issues encountered by the professionals they replaced. On Tuesday, a self-defense civilian unit in Atliaca, Guerrero, shot and killed Benito Garca, a 30-year-old suspected of stealing. The details remain murky. Mr. Garcas family says he was innocent and has demanded a state investigation.Israeli WomenJERUSALEM One of her fellow soldiers lay dead, and her Humvee was being fired upon. She saw one of the attackers three armed men who had penetrated Israels border with Egypt reach toward his waist. Fearing he was about to detonate a suicide belt, she fired two shots at his head. Once you come face to face, at that very moment, you dont think twice, the soldier, who can be identified under military rules only as S., told the Israeli news site Ynet when she received a citation for her performance in the skirmish. There is no room for hesitation, and there is no room for mistakes.The Israeli news media heralded S. as proof that integrating women into combat roles had been a success. But the next day, the story shifted: Another woman in the unit, the one who radioed in the attack, had cowered behind a bush for an hour and a half, as her comrades feared she had been kidnapped or killed.As the United States moves to integrate more women into combat roles, some have looked to Israel, which on paper has one of the most gender-neutral militaries in the world, starting with a universal draft (although, since many do civilian service instead, only half of women enlist, compared with 70 percent of the nations men). But the episode near Mount Harif in September highlighted some of the complex realities behind the policies of the Israel Defense Forces, where it remains rare for women to kill or be killed, and questions persist about their fitness.While more than 92 percent of I.D.F. jobs are now open to women they are fighter pilots, infantry officers, naval captains and Humvee drivers just 3 percent serve in combat roles.Its not really open, said Yehuda Segev, a retired businessman and a general in the Army reserves who in 2007 headed a committee on women in the military. They dont make the right path for women that they can volunteer and join the combat units.Mr. Segev said the militarys chief of staff rejected his committees recommendation that all jobs including paratrooper and other elite units like Golani and Nahal be integrated, adding: The Army has a lot of excuses.Still, Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said the military really did a revolution since she joined up more than 20 years ago, when the vast majority of female soldiers served in human resources or educational posts. Today, about half the I.D.F.s lieutenants are women, as are 13 percent of those at or above the rank of lieutenant colonel. You see more and more women in the battalions and the brigades, said Colonel Leibovich, an I.D.F. spokeswoman.Women served alongside men in ground forces in the paramilitary groups that predated Israels foundation as a state in 1948. For the next 25 years, they were mostly relegated to roles as administrators, medical assistants or trainers, but after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, they began serving as combat instructors and officers.A major turning point came in 1995, when a woman named Alice Miller petitioned the Supreme Court for access to pilot training school. The first woman graduated from the school in 1998.During war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, a female air force mechanic was killed in a chopper crash. In 2011, in a widely noted episode, a medic used her bra as a tourniquet after a terrorist attack on a bus near the Egyptian border.The main combat unit for women is Caracal, named for a desert cat that looks similar whether male or female. Since its founding in 2000, the unit, which has been up to two-thirds female, has guarded the borders with Jordan and Egypt, and was the one involved in the Mount Harif episode. While most female soldiers serve two years, women in Caracal are required to serve three, like the units men.Arielle Werner, 21, who grew up in Minnesota and immigrated to Israel in order to join the combat unit, said female recruits underwent the same training regimen as the men, except for occasionally shorter runs or treks with full regalia. Once in a while we can guilt the guys into doing the heavy lifting of huge water bottles or stretchers, she said, but girls do the same as guys; its pretty equal.Still, Ms. Werner said she found herself running faster when in a coed group. Theres a lot of pressure on the women to be just as good as the men because we have a lot to prove, she explained. Theres always a question of could they shut down the unit if we dont do as well. You dont see them threatening to shut down the paratroopers.

Czech RepublicPRAGUE Milos Zeman, a burly former leftist prime minister and economist known for his outspoken populism, was elected president of the Czech Republic on Saturday, becoming the countrys first popularly elected president.The election of Mr. Zeman, 68, an avowed supporter of European integration, signals the end of the era of Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president for the past 10 years, whose vociferous skepticism of the European Union and scorn for the battle against climate change made him a sometimes awkward partner in Europe and the United States.With all of the vote counted, Mr. Zeman, a feisty man of the people who is often seen with a glass of Czech beer, won 55 percent compared with 45 percent for Karel Schwarzenberg, a pipe-smoking prince who is foreign minister in the current center-right coalition government. During the campaign, Mr. Zeman linked Mr. Schwarzenberg to unpopular austerity measures, including tough spending cuts.Speaking with characteristic bluntness after his victory was announced, Mr. Zeman said he wanted to be the president of all the Czechs, but not of Godfather structures here, an allusion to the countrys problems with corruption.While the Czech presidency is largely ceremonial, the president influences foreign policy, makes central bank appointments and approves judges. Parliament used to select the winner.The election campaign between a left-leaning populist and an urbane conservative deeply polarized the country. Mr. Schwarzenberg, retooled as a punk rocker in his campaign posters, struck a chord with middle-class urbanites yearning for a change. But it was Mr. Zeman who ultimately won the hearts of a majority of Czechs, buffeted by economic hard times.Once considered an economic and democratic stalwart among the former Soviet bloc countries, the Czech Republic has been suffering from weak economic growth and a spate of corruption scandals.Vaclav Havel, the hero of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that brought down Communism, died in late 2011, depriving the Czechs of their most celebrated moral leader. There is also a feeling of disappointment here that his revolution came up short.Mr. Zeman is widely regarded as a canny pragmatist who, as prime minister from 1998 to 2002, helped modernize the economy, setting the stage for the country to join the European Union in 2004.Petr Pithart, a former prime minister and lawyer, who has known Mr. Zeman for decades, said he was strong-willed and could prove to be an even more volatile presence in the Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech president, than the provocative Mr. Klaus. Mr. Zeman has indicated he will attend cabinet meetings and try to influence important legislation. Mr. Pithart predicted he would push the presidential powers to their limits and make life difficult for the government.Zeman is viewed as a relic of the past, he said. He plays on basic fears like xenophobia. He could prove to be a terrible nuisance for the government.During the campaign, he came under criticism after his supporters depicted Mr. Schwarzenberg as a foreigner because he had fled communist Czechoslovakia for Austria in 1948.Mr. Zeman was also attacked by womens rights advocates when he explained during a televised debate that raping female serfs had conferred an evolutionary advantage on squires that his rival Mr. Schwarzenberg, a prince, did not have. Mr. Zemans last name means squire in Czech.While Mr. Zeman is seen as an avid supporter of close ties with the European Union and the United States, he is also perceived as being close to Moscow. In 2010, he suggested that Russia could become a member of the European Union in the next several decades.Some analysts argue that a 1998 grand coalition agreement between the leftist Mr. Zeman and rightist Mr. Klaus entrenched links between powerful business interests and the main political parties that opened the door to endemic corruption.Mr. Zeman is regarded as personally incorruptible, a perception solidified in the police surveillance recording of a notorious gangster who was caught complaining in March 2000 that Mr. Zeman could not be bribed, and wanted only a sandwich, three pickles and for people to like him.Yet his sharp tongue has attracted controversy. When he was prime minister, he drew fire for comparing the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat to Hitler. He has also heaped scorn on journalists, in the past labeling them manure and hyenas.He has shrugged off criticism for his tendency to speak his mind, noting on occasion that his role model, Winston Churchill, had a much harsher vocabulary than his.Mr. Zeman, who led a minority government when he was prime minister, has long been a presence on the Czech political scene. He gained prominence in August 1989 when, during the dying days of Communist Czechoslovakia, he wrote a strident article blasting the failure of the Communist economic system.He had joined the Communist Party during the 1968 Prague Spring, a short-lived blossoming of freedom that was smashed by the invasion of Czechoslovakia by roughly 750,000 Warsaw Pact troops. Two years later he was kicked out of the party and lost his job as an economics professor, forcing him to make a living working for a sporting federation.After the fall of Communism in 1989, he joined the Social Democratic Party, becoming its leader in 1993, and, five years later, prime minister.After he failed to win the presidency in 2003, a contest won by Mr. Klaus, he retreated from politics to his dacha in the Czech countryside. But he was soon back meting out advice, delivered on camera in worn sweaters.Zdenek Janek, 66, a retired construction worker from Zabcice, in South Moravia, said he voted for Mr. Zeman because he was a straight talker. He is a reasonable man who understands economics, talks to the point and is a man of action.Mr. Zeman will take up his new role in March.Piers Morgan Anybody who has been watching Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN since the shootings at the Sandy Hook elementary school could discern he is no fan of guns, but on Tuesday night he made it clear that he doesnt much like the people who own them either.Interviewing Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, he went off on Mr. Pratt in a way that rarely occurs outside some of the more rugged reality shows on television.Mr. Pratt was making the argument that what America needed was more guns, not fewer, than the 300 million already in circulation, and that schools need serious weaponry on hand to meet the threat of force like the one in Newtown, Conn., last week. When Mr. Pratt digressed into a rather tortured argument to explain away lower murder rates in Europe, where gun ownership is far more restrictive, Mr. Morgan erupted.Youre an unbelievably stupid man, arent you? Mr. Morgan said. (The clip above picks up the action right before then.)Mr. Pratt did not take the bait, calmly continuing to elucidate his argument. It seems to me you are morally obtuse, he told Mr. Morgan. You seem to prefer being a victim to being able to prevail over the criminal element. I dont know why you want to be the criminals friend.To which Mr. Morgan responded: What a ridiculous argument. You have absolutely no coherent argument. You dont actually give a damn about the gun murder rate in America.It was a bit of a moment, watching a talk show host losing it talking to one of his guests. Its clear that advocates for the rights of gun owners should expect very tough sledding if they agree to a slot on Piers Morgan in the future.

Venezuala prison riotCARACAS, Venezuela Dozens of people have been killed in fierce clashes between inmates and National Guard soldiers at a Venezuelan prison, local news media accounts said Saturday.It was the latest in a series of riots over the past year in overcrowded prisons, where guns and drugs abound and inmates control many aspects of life.Newspapers initially reported that more than 50 people had been killed at the Uribana prison in Barquisimeto, a northwestern city, citing the director of a hospital where the wounded and the dead were taken. Later Saturday, the director, Ruy Medina, said that the number of dead had risen to 61, and that 120 people had been injured, The Associated Press reported. He said nearly all the wounds were from gunshots.The minister of prisons, Iris Varela, said the violence broke out Friday when troops entered the prison to search for weapons and establish order.The situation remained chaotic on Saturday. Local news media reports said that most of the dead were prisoners.We are all afraid because we dont want to die, said a man who identified himself as an inmate inside the prison when reached Saturday by cellphone; it is typical for inmates here to have phones.The 27-year-old inmate, imprisoned on a robbery charge, asked not to be identified for fear that speaking out could put him at risk. He said that many of the inmates remained inside the prison, although the dead and badly wounded had been removed.We are hiding here, waiting to find out what happens to us, for them to help us, he said.The prison violence poses a new test for the government as President Hugo Chvez remains in Cuba, where he has been for more than six weeks undergoing treatment for cancer. Top officials have been trying to show that the government is running smoothly, even as they grapple with uncertainty about the presidents health, a constitutional dispute over the start of his new term, shortages of basic goods and signs of resurgent inflation.There was a tragic situation of confusion that we lament very much, Vice President Nicols Maduro said Saturday, promising an investigation. He spoke after returning from Cuba, where he had gone to visit Mr. Chvez.Ms. Varela said that officials decided to conduct the raid after receiving information that violence had increased between inmate factions vying for control.But she said that word of the operation leaked out and that it was reported by a television station, a local newspaper and social networking sites.Ms. Varela called the reports a detonator of the violence. She said that the dead had wounds from knives, firearms and explosives, and that some were killed before the troops arrived.The Venezuelan Prison Observatory, a human rights group, said 560 prisoners were killed in the nations prisons in 2011.Last year, two major episodes left dozens dead: 25 people were killed at one prison, the government said, and 30 died in another, the Prison Observatory said.Outside the Barquisimeto prison and a hospital on Saturday, hundreds of people, mostly inmates relatives, waited for news.This happens all the time and nothing changes, said Yolanda Rodrguez, 57, who was waiting for information about her 24-year-old son, an inmate. We know nothing about whats happening inside.Mali v. FranceKONNA, Mali French special forces took control of the airport in the Islamic rebel stronghold of Gao, the French government said Saturday, meeting serious resistance from militants even as they pressed northward.

Gao is one of three main northern cities in Mali that has been under rebel control for months, and the capture of the main strategic points in Gao represents the biggest prize yet in the battle to retake the northern half of the country.French airstrikes have been pounding the city since France joined the fight at Malis request on Jan. 11. French troops also took control of a bridge over the Niger River on Saturday, and the capture of the airport allowed a company of French soldiers to be airlifted in on Saturday afternoon, according to Col. Thierry Burkhard, the French military spokesman.Another French company was on the road to Gao from Svar on Saturday night, and Malian and other African forces had begun to arrive, he said.He stepped back from an earlier statement by the French Defense Ministry that declared the city freed by French forces, acknowledging that the statement was a bit overdone. Noting Gaos 70,000 inhabitants, he added, its not with a detachment of special forces that you take over a city.But with reinforcements streaming in, the battle for Gao appeared imminent.Soldiers from Chad and Niger are expected to arrive soon, the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said in a statement. They will be part of a contingent of 1,900 African troops who have already arrived in Mali, fighting alongside the 2,500 French soldiers deployed here.Gaos mayor, who had fled to Bamako, the capital, returned to his city on Saturday, Mr. Le Drian said.In Washington, the Pentagon said Saturday that the United States would provide aerial refueling for French warplanes. The decision increases American involvement, which until now had consisted of transporting French troops and equipment and also providing intelligence, including satellite photographs.Gao, 600 miles northeast of the capital, had been under the control of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, a splinter group of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.Al Jazeera broadcast a statement from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in which the group said it had withdrawn temporarily from some cities it held, but would return with greater force.Little information has come from the other two main cities under rebel control Timbuktu, the fabled desert oasis, and Kidal, northeast of Gao for the past 10 days because mobile phone networks have been down.Konna was overrun by Islamic fighters on Jan. 10, prompting France to intervene, and a clearer picture has begun to emerge of the fighting. Residents and officials here said that at least 11 civilians had been killed in French airstrikes.Charred husks of pickup trucks lined the road into the town, and broken tanks and guns littered the fish market, where the rebels appeared to have set up a temporary base.Because of Frances sudden entry into the fray, the United Nations and the regional trade bloc known as Ecowas, the Economic Community of West African States, have been scrambling to put together an African-led intervention force that has been in the planning stages. The Mali Army, which has struggled to fight the Islamist groups, has been accused of serious human rights violations.From Konna, it is easy to see why the Malian government pleaded for French help after the Islamist fighters took control of the town. Just 35 miles of asphalt separate Konna from the garrison town of Svar, home to the second-biggest airfield in Mali and a vital strategic point for any foreign intervention force.Residents said their town fell to the rebels when 300 pickup trucks of fighters, bristling with machine guns, rolled in and pushed back the Malian Army troops who had been guarding the town after a fierce battle.Amadou Traore, 29, a tire repairman, said residents had heard that the Islamist rebels had surrounded the town before the attack, but he had been confident that the army would keep them at bay.

We thought there was no way for them to enter into the town, he said. But they came in the night. They told us, Tomorrow we will go to Svar.A woman who lived in his compound was hit by a bullet, he said. They tried to take her to the town clinic, but the doctor had fled. After two days, she died, Mr. Traore said.Baro Coulibaly fled her house along the main road into town, moving with her husband and six children to the relative safety of the town center, where they stayed with her in-laws for days. They heard French bombs and rebel bullets ricocheting around the mud-walled dwellings.Nobody could get in or out, Ms. Coulibaly said. We were so afraid we barely ate or slept.Residents said they heard that the fearsome Tuareg leader of the Islamist group Ansar Dine, Iyad ag Ghali, had led the attack on their town, but no one saw him. The rebels spoke many languages, the residents said. Some were light-skinned Arabs and Tuaregs, a nomadic people, while others were dark-skinned people who spoke the local languages of Niger, Nigeria and Mali.Boubacar Diallo, a local political leader, said that only a few rebel fighters came at first. Later, hundreds more joined them, overwhelming the Malian soldiers based here. He said he never saw them pray and scoffed at their assertion that they would teach the Muslim population a purer form of Islam.They say they are Muslims, but I dont know any Muslim who does not pray, Mr. Diallo said.The fighters took down the Malian flag and raised a banner of their own, a white piece of paper printed with words in Arabic Assembly for the Spiritual Ideology to Purify the African World and pictures of machine guns.After the Islamist fighters fled, Mr. Diallo took it down and replaced it with the Malian flag.Egypt RiotingCAIRO Egypts new government lost control of a major city, Port Said, on Saturday as rampaging soccer fans attacked the main jail, drove police officers from the streets and cut off all access to the city.

Set off by the sentencing of 21 Port Said soccer fans to death, the rioting was the sharpest challenge yet to the efforts of Egypts new Islamist rulers to re-establish order after the two years of turmoil that have followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, Egypts autocratic president.By evening, fighting in the streets had left at least 30 people dead, mostly from gunfire, and injured more than 300. Residents said they were afraid to leave their homes. Doctors said the local hospital was overloaded with casualties and pleaded for help. Rioters sacked and burned a police barracks; attacked police stations, the Port Said power plant and the jail, where the convicted men were being held; and closed off all roads to the city as well as the railroad station.President Mohamed Morsi canceled a foreign trip to deal with the crisis at home and instead met with the National Defense Council, which includes the nations top military leaders. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry acknowledged that its security forces were unable to control the violence and urged that political leaders to try to calm the rioters.By 8 p.m., a spokesman for the Egyptian military said its troops had moved in and secured vital facilities, including the prison, the Mediterranean port, and the Suez Canal. But in telephone interviews, residents said the streets remained lawless. Im worried for my sister and mother, said Ahmed Zangir, 21. I could run or do something, but it is not safe for them to get out.Mr. Zangir added: Thugs are abusing the opportunity. They are everywhere.Friday was the second anniversary of the revolt that toppled Mr. Mubarak, an occasion that had already set off clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and other cities. Those battles began Thursday and continued for a third day on Saturday in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. In Suez, where two police officers and seven protesters were killed on Friday, protesters attacked police stations and attempted to set fire to a central security building.The anniversary battles were fueled by a combination of hostility toward the countrys new Islamist leaders and frustration with the meager rewards of the revolution so far. But those battles were more isolated, typically confined to just a few blocks around symbols of government power, like the Interior Ministry headquarters in Cairo or the headquarters of the provincial government in Suez.In contrast, the escalating chaos that enveloped Port Said over the soccer riot sentencing posed a far greater challenge to the Islamist leaders, who have pledged a new era of respect for the law.It was unclear how the fledgling government might regain control of the city without either a brutal crackdown on the mob or capitulation to its demands. And either alternative could further inflame the streets in Cairo and around Egypt.The information minister said the National Defense Council had the authority to impose a curfew or a state of emergency over any trouble spot. But in an illustration of the political risks to any perception of a crackdown, a spokesman for the president, Yassir Ali, declared a few hours later that there was no intention to impose a curfew on Port Said.In a television interview, Gen. Osama Ismail, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, acknowledged that the violence had spiraled beyond the control of the security forces. The solution isnt a security solution, he said. We urge the political and patriotic leaders and forces to intervene to calm the situation.The case that set off the riot grew out of a deadly brawl last February between rival groups of hard-core fans of soccer teams from Cairo and Port Said at a match in Port Said. The hard-core fans, called Ultras, are known for their appetite for violence against either rival fans or the police. Some had smuggled knives and other weapons into the stadium, security officials said at the time.Seventy-four people were killed and over 1,000 injured in the soccer riot. Many died after being trampled under the stampeding crowds or falling from stadium balconies, according to forensic testimony later reported in the state news media.

It was the worst soccer riot in Egyptian history and among the worst in the world. Many political figures, including members of Mr. Morsis Muslim Brotherhood, initially sought to blame a counterrevolutionary conspiracy orchestrated by Mubarak loyalists or the Interior Ministry.But prosecutors ultimately charged 21 Port Said fans with attacking their Cairo rivals and charged nine security officers with negligence. On Saturday, a judge in Cairo convicted the 21 fans of murder before passing sentence. Six of them remain fugitives.The verdict was awaited with acute anxiety because any outcome risked the fury of the Ultras in either Port Said or Cairo. To warn of their wrath if the Port Said defendants were acquitted, the Cairo Ultras staged severa