Football: LionsXII fall to PKNS

SINGAPORE - After two confidence-boosting wins from their first two Malaysian Super League matches, V. Sundramoorthy's high-flying LionsXII side were brought down to earth on Tuesday night at the Shah Alam Stadium when they fell to their first defeat.

Ironically, PKNS Selangor, the team that defeated them on Tuesday, had entered the match in contrasting fashion - with two losses out of two matches.

But that did not stop PKNS Selangor from stunning the LionsXII and maintaining their 100 per cent home record against the Singapore side.

Last season, PKNS did the double over Sundram's men, beating them in Kuala Lumpur in the MSL as well as in the group stage of the Malaysia Cup.

Tuesday's match seemed headed for a 0-0 draw despite the LionsXII coming close through Fazrul Nawaz, Irwan Shah and Gabriel Quak in the first half which they had also dominated.

Fazrul sent his shot centimetres wide of the post after latching onto a pass by skipper Shahril Ishak. Irwan then missed another scoring opportunity during a goalmouth scramble minutes later, while Quak let himself down by shooting wide with only the keeper to beat after dribbling his way past several PKNS defenders.

In the second half, the two sides switched roles as PKNS attacked more, and had the LionsXII on the backfoot.

In the end, it was Nazrin Syamsul who made the difference when he blasted home the only goal of the game for PKNS.

The LionsXII's misery was further compounded when striker Fazrul was sent off in the dying minutes of the game for a nasty tackle.

The LionsXII's next match is on Saturday against Terengganu at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

- TODAY

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'Red October' malware spies on governments worldwide

Kaspersky Lab has discovered yet another worldwide spying campaign that targets governmental bodies, political groups and research institutions.

On par with the memorable Flame malware, Kaspersky and a number of Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) discovered the malware -- known as Rocra or Red October -- which mostly targets institutions based in Eastern Europe, former USSR members and countries in Central Asia.

Kaspersky says that Red October has been gathering data and intelligence from "mobile devices, computer systems and network equipment" and is currently still active. Data is gathered and sent to multiple command-and-control servers which the security firm says rivals the complex nature of Flame.

The malware is sent via a spear-phishing email which, according to the firm, targets carefully-selected victims with an organization. Containing at least three different exploits in Microsoft Excel and Word, the infected files, once downloaded, drops a trojan on to the machine which then scans the local network to detect if any other devices are vulnerable to the same security flaw.

By dropping modules that can complete a number of "tasks," usually as .dll libraries, an infected machine obeys commands sent by the command center and then immediately discards the evidence. Separated in to "persistent" and "one-time" tasks, the malware is able to spy and steal in a number of ways, including:

• Waiting for a
  Microsoft Office or PDF document and executing a malicious payload embedded in that document;
• Creating one-way covert channels of communication,
• Recording keystrokes, making screenshots,
• Retrieve e-mail messages and attachments;
• Collect general software and hardware environment information,
• Extracting browsing history from Chrome,
  Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and saving passwords,
• Extracting Windows account hashes;
• Extract Outlook account information,
• Performing network scans, dump configuration data from Cisco devices if available.

Some .exe tasks remain on the system while waiting for the correct environment, for example, waiting for a phone to connect. Microsoft's Windows Phone, the iPhone and Nokia models are all said to be vulnerable.

Designed to steal encrypted files and even those that have been deleted from a victim's computer, the malware -- named as a hat-tip to the novel "The Hunt for Red October" -- has several key features which suggests it may be state-sponsored, although there is no official word on this yet.

Among the features, there is a "resurrection module" within the malware which keeps the infection hidden, disguised as a plugin for a program such as Microsoft Office, which can then reincarnate the infection after removal.

In addition, Red October does not simply focus on standard machines, but is also able to infect and steal data from mobile devices, hijacking information from external storage drives, accessing FTP servers and thieving information from email databases.

In order to control the network of infection, Kaspersky says that over 60 domain names and several different servers, hosted in various countries, are employed. In order to keep the main command center secret, the C&C infrastructure works as a huge network of proxies.

Kaspersky believes that the cyberattackers have been active for a minimum of five years, based on domain name registration dates and PE timestamps, and the firm "strongly believes" that the origins of the malware are Russian.

This high-profile network may suggest that state sponsorship could be involved. As Kaspersky Labs notes:

The information stolen by the attackers is obviously of the highest level and includes geopolitical data which can be used by nation states. Such information could be traded in the underground and sold to the highest bidder, which can be of course, anywhere.

Any information harvested, including stolen credentials or confidential data, is stored for later use. For example, if an attacker needs to guess a password in another location, it is possible that harvested data could provide clues -- creating an espionage network full of intelligence that hackers can refer to in need. After at least five years of activity, the Russian security firm believes that at least 5 terabytes of confidential information could have been stolen.

"During the past five years, the attackers collected information from hundreds of high profile victims although it's unknown how the information was used. It is possible that the information was sold on the black market, or used directly," Kaspersky said.

The majority of infections are based in Russia, although Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the U.S. and Italy have all reported cases. The exploits appear to have Chinese origins, whereas the malware modules may have a Russian background.

Red October was first brought to Kaspersky's attention in October 2012 after a tip of of an anonymous source. A full report on the spying campaign is due to be published this week.

This item first appeared on ZDNet under the headline "'Red October' spies on diplomats, governments worldwide."

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India rape suspect actually a minor, lawyer says

NEW DELHI One of the five men charged with gang-raping and killing a woman is a minor, his lawyer said Monday as he demanded an age-determination test in what could be a tactic to delay the case from being tried in a fast-track court.

The five charged in last month's attack of the 23-year-old student in a moving bus in New Delhi would face a possible death penalty if convicted. A sixth suspect says he is 17 years old, and if he is tried in a juvenile court he would face a maximum sentence of three years in a reform facility.

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Gang-rape sparks rage in India

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Indian prosecutors to push for death penalty in gang rape case

The rape of the woman, and the brutal beating that led to severe organ failure, has set off an impassioned debate about what India needs to do to prevent such tragedies. Protesters and politicians have called for tougher rape laws, police reforms and a transformation in the way the country treats women.

The five men charged with various crimes in the incident live in a slum in New Delhi, and were riding in an off-duty bus that picked up the woman and a male companion late in the evening of Dec. 16 in a posh part of the capital. Both were beaten severely and thrown off the bus. The woman died two weeks later of the injuries in a Singapore hospital.

Manohar Lal Sharma, the lawyer for one of the five charged men, Mukesh Singh, said at a court hearing Monday that his client is under 18, and that police documents indicating Singh is 26 had been "manipulated."

"If you could just see his face, he is only a child," Sharma told The Associated Press.

The hearing has been closed to the media under a gag order placed by the magistrate. The defendants have been brought to the court with their faces masked, and authorities have not released photos of the accused.

Sharma said Singh had added several years to his age to get a driver's license. He said he asked the court to order a medical test to determine his client's age, but that the court did not indicate whether it would meet his request.

The case was expected to be shifted to the fast-track court Monday to avoid the delays that plague most trials in India. But the court addressed only procedural matters and paper work at the hearing, and the case was not handed over.

The next hearing was scheduled for Thursday, but it was not clear whether the case would be handed over then to the fast-track court, which was created this month to deal with crimes against women.

Last week, Sharma made a series of inflammatory and often-contradictory statements, saying that police had beaten the five charged suspects and placed other prisoners into their cells to threaten them with knives.

Indian policemen stand with six men, faces covered in black, accused in the gang-rape of a bus passenger in Punjab state, India, Jan. 13, 2013.

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AP

Monday's hearing had been set for last week but was rescheduled when it turned out that the official list of charges was not completely legible.

On Sunday, police said they had arrested six suspects in another gang rape of a bus passenger in India.

Police officer Raj Jeet Singh said a 29-year-old woman was the only passenger on a bus as she was traveling to her village in northern Punjab state on Friday night. The driver took her to a desolate location, he said. There, the driver and the conductor took her to a building where they were joined by five friends and took turns raping her throughout the night, Singh said.

The driver dropped the woman off at her village early Saturday, he said, adding that police arrested six suspects on Saturday and were searching for another.

Also on Saturday, police arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl two weeks ago in Ahmednagar district in western India, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

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Obama to Congress: 'We Are Not a Deadbeat Nation'

President Obama says the U.S. economy is "poised for a good year" but that progress could be threatened by political brinksmanship on the nation's debt limit.

"While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up," Obama said at a White House news conference.

"We are not a deadbeat nation," he said. "The consequences of us not paying our bills would be disastrous."

Lawmakers have until the end of February to raise the nation's debt limit and address the delayed $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to defense and domestic spending.

Failure to raise the debt limit would set the stage for a U.S. default on its loan obligations or force immediate cuts to government spending that could threaten hundreds of thousands of federal employees and beneficiaries of government aid, including Social Security recipients and active-duty military personnel.

Republicans have said they plan to use the debate on a debt-limit increase to extract spending cuts from the Obama administration. They note a legislative precedent, including most recently in 2011, of coupling the debt ceiling with deficit-reduction legislation.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"The president and his allies need to get serious about spending, and the debt-limit debate is the perfect time for it," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in response to Obama's remarks.

"We are hoping for a new seriousness on the part of the president with regard to the single biggest issue confronting the country," he said. "And we look forward to working with him to do something about this huge, huge problem."

Obama says he will "not negotiate" on an increase to the debt limit, which covers spending obligations that have already been passed into law, insisting that the issue should be independent of a debate on new limits on future spending.

"The financial well being of the American people is not leverage to use," Obama said. "The full faith and credit of the U.S.A. is not a bargaining chip to use."

The White House said the news conference would be Obama's last of his first term, coming six days before the inauguration and at a critical juncture in an ongoing fight with Congress on federal deficits and debt.

It also comes one day before Vice President Joe Biden will present to Obama his task force's recommendations for curbing gun violence in the wake of the deadly Newtown, Conn., shooting.

"They've presented me now with a list of sensible, common-sense steps that can be taken to make sure that the kinds of violence we saw at Newtown doesn't happen again," Obama said.

"I expect to have a fuller presentation later in the week to give people some specifics about what I think we need to do. My starting point is not to worry about the politics," he said. "My starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works."

ABC News' Mary Bruce contributed to this report.

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Syria war envelops region in "staggering" crisis: aid agency

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's civil war is unleashing a "staggering humanitarian crisis" on the Middle East as hundreds of thousands of refugees flee violence including gang rape, an international aid agency said on Monday.

Opposition activists said an air strike on rebel-held territory southwest of Damascus killed 20 people, including women and children, adding to the more than 60,000 people estimated to have been killed in the 21-month-old conflict.

Over 600,000 Syrians have fled abroad - many to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - as violence has spread and international efforts to find a political solution have sagged.

Refugees interviewed by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) cited sexual violence as a major reason they fled the country, the New York-based organization said in a 23-page report on the crisis published on Monday.

Gang rapes often happened in front of family members and women had been kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed, it said.

"After decades of working in war and disaster zones, the IRC knows that women and girls suffer physical and sexual violence in every conflict. Syria is no exception," the group added.

Rebels and government forces have both been accused of human rights abuses during the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

The unrest turned violent after government forces fired on demonstrators and has since become a full-scale civil war.

Fierce winter weather has worsened the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees. The IRC urged donors to step up planning and funding in the expectation that more Syrians will flee.

"Nearly two years into Syria's civil war, the region faces a staggering humanitarian disaster," the IRC report said.

AIR POWER

Despite advancing in Syria's north and east and winning support from regional powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the Syrian rebels have been unable to break a military stalemate with government forces elsewhere.

They have struggled to counter government air power in particular, making it hard for them to take and hold territory crucial to Assad's grip on power, including major cities.

An activist in Moadamiyeh, a rebel-held town southwest of Damascus, said an air strike there killed 20 people on Monday.

Activist video footage showed images of the limp body of a boy being pulled out from broken concrete, his back covered in dust and his front in blood.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at least 13 people had died in the air raid but the toll was likely to rise.

Syrian state television said "terrorists" - its word for rebels - had fired a mortar from the Damascus suburb of Daraya on a civilian building in Moadamiyeh, killing women and children.

The reports could not be independently verified because of government restrictions on independent media in Syria.

Syrian warplanes also bombarded the strategic Taftanaz air base that rebels seized last week, the Observatory said.

In another sign of escalating bloodshed, Human Rights Watch said it had evidence that government forces had used multi-barrel rocket launchers to deliver Egyptian-made cluster munitions in recent attacks.

"Syria is escalating and expanding its use of cluster munitions, despite international condemnation of its embrace of this banned weapon," it said.

DEADLOCK

Syria's rising death toll has brought international intervention no closer. The United States and Russia have been deadlocked over how to resolve the crisis.

Moscow - which has continued to back its long-standing ally and arms client Assad - urged the opposition on Sunday to make its own proposals in response to a speech by Assad a week ago.

The speech, which offered no concessions, was criticized by the United Nations and United States. Syrian rebels described it as a renewed declaration of war.

Talks between Russia and the United States in Geneva on Friday failed to produce a breakthrough.

As diplomatic efforts have stalled, the conflict has continued to draw in Syria's neighbors.

A mortar round apparently fired from Syria crashed in a field in Turkey overnight close to a refugee camp housing thousands of Syrians along the border, Turkish state media said.

NATO troops have begun deploying Patriot defense missiles in Turkey against a potential attack from its southern neighbor. The missiles are expected to be operational by the end of the month. Turkey is a strong supporter of the Syrian rebels.

NATO said Syrian government forces had launched a short-range, Scud-style ballistic missile on Sunday, bringing to more than 20 the number launched in the past month.

The missiles, apparently fired against opposition targets, landed in Syrian territory, mostly in northern Syria, a NATO spokeswoman said in Brussels, but some of the missiles landed "quite close" to the Turkish frontier.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut and Adrian Croft in Brussels; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Golf: McIlroy joins Nike in blockbuster golf deal

ABU DHABI: World No.1 Rory McIlroy on Monday confirmed he had signed on with sportswear and equipment giant Nike in a deal believed to be one the biggest sponsorship contracts in sport.

With the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque lit up in the background, McIlroy stepped onto a stage wearing the Nike swoosh and revealed the clubs he will take into competition starting at this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the UAE capital.

No exact details of what the deal was worth were released, but press reports have estimated it could bring the 23-year-old Northern Irishman up to US$250 million over 10 years.

"Growing up I always thought all the best athletes in most sports were Nike players and I'm looking forward to joining the Nike family," he said.

"I began testing the clubs late last year at the Nike factory in Texas and I could not be more happy.

"Hopefully now using Nike I have an even better year than last year. Last year was great winning a second major Championship and getting to No.1 in the world and this year I feel I can go to a new level and higher than I ever had and hopefully more majors."

McIlroy was introduced as a Nike staff player by Cindy Davis, president of Nike Golf, who indicated he had signed a 'multi-year' agreement.

"Today marks a significant moment for our brand and our golf business, and for the career of an extraordinary young athlete," she said.

"We could not be more thrilled with tonight's announcement.

"The beginning of 2013 for us is one of the most exciting times since Tiger Woods joined the 'Swoosh'."

McIlroy, who grew up in humble surrounds in suburban Belfast, insisted his switch of clubs from Titleist to Nike was not about the money.

"I don't play golf for the money as I am well past that," he said.

"I am Major Champion that I have always dreamed of being and I am World No. 1 as I have always dreamed of being, and really Nike is the company that can help me sustain that.

"So I play for Major titles, not the money."

Welcoming McIlroy to the Nike family were three of Nike's famed stars - Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, tennis great Roger Federer and 14-time Major winning Tiger Woods, who delivered video welcome messages to McIlroy.

McIlroy will face Woods in this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, part of the European PGA Tour with both players choosing the emirate to start their season's for the second straight year.

Like Woods, McIlroy was a boy wonder who was the world under-10 champion in 1998, turning professional in 2007, two months after finishing as the leading amateur in The Open at Carnoustie.

He had to wait until the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic for his first victory and oddly he has yet to win on European soil, all his successes since coming in the United States (five, including two majors), Asia (two) or back in the Middle East.

He finished last season with five birdies in a row to lift the DP World Tour title in Dubai.

It was the 2011 US Masters that put him on a new level in terms of fame and popularity.

McIlroy led by four with a round to play and was still out in front at the turn, but in a horrific back-nine meltdown he crashed to an 80 and ended up in only 15th place, 10 shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel.

The sporting world waited to see how long the mental scars would last, and got their answer two months later when he won the US Open by eight shots.

At just 22 he was the youngest winner of the title since Bobby Jones in 1923. A superstar was born.

- AFP/jc

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Researchers honor Swartz's memory with PDF protest

In a tribute to Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide Friday, researchers have begun posting PDFs to Twitter to honor his campaign for open access.

Swartz, 26, had faced $4 million in fines and more than 50 years in prison for allegedly stealing 4 million documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Jstor, an archive of scientific journals and academic papers. The authorities claimed that he broke into a restricted-access computer wiring closet at MIT and accessed that network without authorization.

The PDF campaign was born out of a desire to honor Swartz's memory and his battle for open access to documents on the Internet, said Micah Allen, a researcher in the fields of brain plasticity, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive science.

"A fitting tribute to Aaron might be a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles," Allen wrote yesterday on Reddit. "Dump them on Gdocs, tweet the link. Think of the great blu-ray encoding protest but on a bigger scale for research articles."

As of Sunday morning, it appeared that hundreds were participating in the protest/tribute, posting links to thousands of documents on Twitter using the hashtag #pdftribute, the creation of which Allen attributed to Eva Vivalt and Jessica Richman.

The original #pdftribute tweets.

(Credit:
Jessica Richman)

In a tweet this morning, Vivalt said the campaign was attracting growing attention.

News of Swartz's suicide came only days after Jstor announced this week that it would make "more than 4.5 million articles" publicly available for free.

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

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France bombs Islamist stronghold in north Mali

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French fighter jets pounded an Islamist rebel stronghold in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country's north.

The attack on Gao, the largest city in the desert region controlled by the Islamist alliance, marked a decisive drive northwards on the third day of French air strikes, moving deep into the vast territory seized by rebels in April.

France is determined to end Islamist domination of north Mali, which many fear could act as a base for attacks on the West and for links with al Qaeda in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French intervention on Friday had prevented rebels driving southward to seize Bamako itself. He said air raids would continue in the coming days.

"The president is totally determined that we must eradicate these terrorists who threaten the security of Mali, our own country and Europe," he told French television.

In Gao, a dusty town on the banks of the Niger river where Islamists have imposed an extreme form of Sharia law, residents said French fighters and attack helicopters pounded the airport and rebel positions. A huge cloud of black smoke rose from the militants' camp in the north of the city.

"The planes are so fast you can only hear their sound in the sky," resident Soumaila Maiga said by telephone. "We are happy, even though it is frightening. Soon we will be delivered."

A Malian rebel spokesman said the French had also bombed targets in the towns of Lere and Douentza.

France has deployed about 550 soldiers to Mali, split between Bamako and the town of Mopti, 500 km (300 miles) north, Le Drian said. State-of-the-art Rafale fighter jets were also dispatched to reinforce "Operation Serval" - named after an African wildcat.

In Bamako, a Reuters cameraman saw more than 100 French troops disembark on Sunday from a military cargo plane at the international airport, on the outskirts of the capital.

The city itself was calm, with the sun streaking through the dust enveloping the city as the seasonal Harmattan wind blew from the Sahara. Some cars drove around with French flags draped from the windows to celebrate Paris's intervention.

AFRICAN TROOPS EXPECTED

More than two decades of peaceful elections had earned Mali a reputation as a bulwark of democracy, but that image unraveled in a matter of weeks after a military coup last March that left a power vacuum for the Islamist rebellion.

French President Francois Hollande's intervention in Mali has won plaudits from leaders in Europe, Africa and the United States, but it is not without risks.

It raised the risk level for eight French hostages held by al Qaeda allies in the Sahara and for the 30,000 French expatriates living in neighboring, mostly Muslim states.

Concerned about reprisals, France has tightened security at public buildings and on public transport. It advised its 6,000 citizens in Mali to leave as spokesmen for the Islamist groups have promised to exact revenge.

In its first casualty of the campaign, Paris said a French pilot was killed on Friday when rebels shot down his helicopter.

Hours earlier, a French intelligence officer held hostage in Somalia by al Shabaab extremists linked to al Qaeda was killed in a botched commando raid to free him.

President Hollande says France's aim is simply to support a mission by West African bloc ECOWAS to retake the north, as mandated by a U.N. Security Council resolution in December.

With Paris pressing West African nations to send their troops quickly, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who holds the rotating ECOWAS chairmanship, kick-started the operation to deploy 3,300 African soldiers.

Ouattara, installed in power with French military backing in 2011, convened a summit of the 15-nation bloc for Saturday in Ivory Coast to discuss the mission.

"The troops will start arriving in Bamako today and tomorrow," said Ali Coulibaly, Ivory Coast's African Integration Minister. "They will be convoyed to the front."

Military analysts expressed doubt, however, that African nations would be able to mount a swift operation to retake north Mali - a harsh, sparsely populated terrain the size of France - as neither the equipment nor ground troops were prepared.

The United States is considering sending a small number of unarmed surveillance drones to Mali as well as providing logistics support, a U.S. official told Reuters. Britain and Canada have also promised logistical support.

Former French colonies Senegal, Niger and Burkina Faso have all pledged to deploy 500 troops within days. In contrast, regional powerhouse Nigeria, due to lead the ECOWAS force, has suggested it would take time to train and equip the troops.

HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCHES

France, however, appeared to have assumed control of the operation on the ground. Its airstrikes allowed Malian troops to drive the Islamists out of the town of Konna, which they had briefly seized this week in their southward advance.

Calm returned to the town on Sunday after three nights of combat as the Malian army mopped up any rebel fighters. A senior Malian army official said more than 100 rebels had been killed.

"Soldiers are patrolling the streets and have encircled the town," one resident, Madame Coulibaly, told Reuters by phone. "They are searching houses for arms or hidden Islamists."

Human Rights Watch said at least 11 civilians, including three children, had been killed in the fighting.

A spokesman for Doctors Without Borders in neighboring Mauritania said about 200 Malian refugees had already fled across the border to a camp at Fassala and more were on their way.

In Bamako, civilians tried to contribute to the war effort.

"We are very proud and relieved that the army was able to drive the jihadists out of Konna. We hope it will not end there, that is why I'm helping in my own way," said civil servant Ibrahima Kalossi, 32, one of over 40 people who queued to donate blood for wounded soldiers.

(Additional reporting by Adama Diarra, Tiemoko Diallo and Rainer Schwenzfeier in Bamako, Joe Bavier in Abidjan, Leila Aboud in Paris and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Alison Williams and Will Waterman)

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Grieving relatives mark Italy shipwreck anniversary

GIGLIO ISLAND: Grieving relatives of the 32 victims of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster laid flowers by the giant wreck on Sunday in an emotional one-year anniversary commemoration on the Italian island of Giglio to try and heal the wounds of the tragedy.

Salvage workers on a tugboat also used a crane to lower into the sea a piece of the enormous rock that the Costa Concordia crashed into and then tore from its base before veering sharply and keeling over with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board.

A ship's horn sounded out 32 times under a leaden sky in memory of those who died, echoing across the water as the rock slowly descended into the sea and tearful families looked on from another ship.

"I want justice for my family and for all the victims," said Susy Albertini, mother of a five-year-old girl who perished with her father.

Twelve of the victims on the luxury liner were from Germany, seven from Italy, six from France, two from Peru, two from the United States, one from Hungary, one from India and one from Spain.

Survivors of the disaster who came for the ceremony re-lived the panic of that night, when hundreds had to jump into the freezing waters, clamber down a rope ladder in the dark or be evacuated by helicopter after several lifeboats failed to deploy.

"We came because we wanted to express our gratitude. We survived," said Ronald Dots, who was with his wife and son when tragedy struck.

"It was a painful night and at first we cried a lot. Even now, when I see the sea I shake," he said.

French passenger Daniele Dubuc broke down in tears upon stepping off a ferry -- the first time she had been back on a ship since that night.

Dubuc said she and her husband loved ballroom dancing and had enjoyed dances on the cruise, but "the tragedy has made us lose the will to dance."

Many said they also came to thank local residents who rushed to pluck shivering survivors from the water and bring them food and blankets.

Ten people are being investigated including the ship's infamous captain Francesco Schettino -- who is accused of reckless seamanship and abandoning the ship early -- and three executives from owner Costa Crociere, but a trial is still months away.

"From last January 13 and for the rest of my life I will always have something in my heart that will tie me to that event and to the families of the victims," Schettino said in a television interview from his home in southern Italy where he has been confined pending the investigation.

Costa Crociere, Europe's biggest cruise operator, had asked passengers in a letter to stay away from the ceremony on the island because of a lack of space, infuriating many survivors.

Costa Crociere said it would mark the day by holding masses in the chapels of all its vessels around the world and flying their flags at half-mast.

Among those attending the ceremony on Giglio was coast guard official Gregorio De Falco, who upbraided Schettino with an expletive in a phone call when the man dubbed "Captain Coward" refused to get back on the ship to aid the evacuation.

At a mass in the same church that served as a temporary refuge for many survivors, objects from the ship were put on display -- a life jacket, a rope, some bread and a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Of the 32 people who died that night, two -- an Indian waiter and an Italian passenger -- are still officially missing.

Elio Vincenzi, whose wife's body has never been found, could hardly speak for tears as he presented the island with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Kevin Rebello, who is still searching for his brother's body, gave the island a plaque with four lions on it, the emblem of India -- which he said stood for power, courage, pride and confidence, characteristics "also shared by Giglio."

The 290-metre liner crashed into a group of rocks just off Giglio, veered sharply and keeled over just as many passengers were sitting down for supper on the first night of a Mediterranean cruise.

Salvage workers on Saturday said an unprecedented US$400 million operation to refloat and remove the ship for scrapping will be completed by September.

- AFP/jc

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