US home sales rise 2.1 percent in October

U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose solidly in October, helped by improvement in the job market and record-low mortgage rates.
The increase along with a jump in homebuilder confidence this month suggests the housing market continues to recover.
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales rose 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million. That's up from 4.69 million in September, which was revised lower.
The sales pace is roughly 11 percent higher than a year ago. But it remains below the more than 5.5 million that economists consider consistent with a healthy market.
As the economy slowly recovers, more people have started looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Prices are steadily climbing, while mortgage rates have been low all year. At the same time, rents are rising, making the purchase of a single-family home or condominium more attractive.
"Altogether, the report is encouraging," said Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital. "Our view is that housing is in a recovery phase," he added, though it will be restrained by limited credit and modest job gains.
A separate report Monday showed confidence among homebuilders rose this month to its highest level in six and a half years. The increase was driven by strong demand for newly built homes and growing optimism about conditions next year.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index increased to 46, up from 41 in October. Readings below 50 suggest negative sentiment about the housing market. The index last reached that level in April 2006. Still, the index has been trending higher since October 2011, when it stood at 17.
The Realtors' group said Superstorm Sandy delayed some sales of previously occupied homes in the Northeast. Sales fell 1.7 percent there, the only region to show a decline. Those sales will likely be completed in future months, the group said.
The median price for previously occupied homes increased 11.1 percent from a year ago to $178,600, the Realtors' said.
A decline in the number of homes available for sale is helping push prices higher. There were only 2.14 million homes available for sale at the end of the month, the lowest supply in 10 years. It would take only 5.4 months to exhaust that supply at the current sales pace. That's the lowest sales-to-inventory ratio since February 2006.
Prices are also benefiting from the mix of homes being sold. Sales of homes priced at $500,000 and above have jumped more than 40 percent in the past year. Sales of homes and condominiums that cost less than $100,000 fell 0.6 percent.
There have been other positive signals from the housing market. Applications for mortgage loans to buy homes jumped 11 percent in the week ended Nov. 9, compared with a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers' Association said last week. Purchase applications are up 22 percent in the past year.
Foreclosures are slowing. The number of properties that began the foreclosure process in the first 10 months of the year fell 8 percent compared with the same period last year, RealtyTrac said last week.
And builders broke ground on new homes and apartments at the fastest pace in more than four years in September. The jump could help boost the economy and hiring.
Still, the market has a long way back to full health. Many potential home buyers cannot meet stricter lending standards or produce larger down payments required by banks.
That can be a particular problem for first-time homebuyers. They accounted for 31 percent of sales in October, down slightly from September and below the 40 percent that is common in a healthy market.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday that banks' overly tight lending standards may be preventing sales and holding back the U.S. economy.

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News Summary: US home sales rise 2.1 pct. in Oct.

SALES RISE: U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose moderately in October, helped by improvement in the job market and record-low mortgage rates. Sales rose 2.1 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million according to the National Association of Realtors.
INVENTORIES: A decline in housing inventory is helping push prices higher. There were only 2.14 million homes available for sale at the end of the month, the lowest in 10 years.
GAINS LIKELY TO CONTINUE: As the economy slowly recovers, more people have started looking to buy homes or rent apartments. Mortgage rates are at record lows and rents are rising. That makes buying a home more attractive.

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Syrian rebels make more gains in north

 Syrian rebels fully captured a northern town near the Turkish border on Tuesday after weeks of heavy fighting and attacked a regime air base in a neighboring province, activists said.
The air base is in Aleppo province, where opposition fighters have already captured three other large military bases in recent months. Rebels have also laid siege to the international airport in the city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital, and launched an offensive on the police academy near the city.
With steady rebel gains across the north, President Bashar Assad's regime is having increasing difficulty sending supplies by land to Aleppo province, especially after rebels cut a major thoroughfare from Damascus. It is just another sign that the opposition is consolidating its grip across large swathes of territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border.
In his traditional Christmas address, Pope Benedict XVI decried the slaughter of the "defenseless" in Syria, where anti-regime activists estimate more than 40,000 have died in fighting since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule began in March 2011.
In another blow to the regime, activists said that Mohammed Adnan Arabo, a member of Syria's parliament has left the country and joined the opposition. Ahmad Ramadan, an executive council member of the opposition Syrian National Council group, and other activists said Arabo arrived in Turkey on Tuesday.
He said the regime's hold on power is deteriorating and rebels are besieging military bases for weeks until they either take over or negotiate with local army commanders to surrender. He added that some regime forces are being diverted to the capital to fight there.
"The regime cannot protect its bases and also cannot send forces to support troops under siege," he said.
Over the weeks, rebels fighting to overthrow Assad have also been able to take the battles into the capital Damascus, Assad's seat of power, where the southern neighborhoods are witnessing almost daily clashes between troops and rebels.
The big successes began in mid-November, when rebels captured Aleppo's Regiment 46, a large military base, carting off tanks, armored vehicles and truck-loads of munitions. Three weeks later, they captured the Sheik Suleiman base near the provincial capital of Aleppo and days later they took an infantry base in the city.
Last week, they captured an army technical regiment near Damascus' international airport but were pushed back in a counter attack. The army command said in a statement that the regiment's commander was killed in the battle.
The rebels have also brought the battle to areas around Damascus international airport where some flights were cancelled earlier this month because of the intensity of the fighting.
One of the biggest blows came in Damascus on Dec. 12 when a suicide attacker blew his vehicle outside the Interior Ministry, killing five and wounding many, including Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar. The government denied at first that al-Shaar had been wounded until it got out when he was brought last week to a Beirut hospital for treatment.
It was the second injury the minister suffered after being wounded in a July 17, bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister.
The rebel takeover of Harem, a town of 20,000 in northern Idlib province, was the latest in a string of recent rebel successes.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebels captured Harem in the early hours of Tuesday. Mohammed Kanaan, an Idlib-based activist, said the last post to be taken was the historic citadel, which overlooked the town. The army had turned the citadel into a military post.
"Harem is fully liberated now," Kanaan said via Skype. He added that as the rebels pounded army posts and checkpoints in Harem, the troops withdrew to the citadel that later fell in the hands of rebels.
Rami-Abdul-Rahman, who heads to Observatory, said nearly 30 soldiers and pro-government gunmen surrendered late Monday. He added that rebels set free all gunmen at the age of 16 or less and referred others to local tribunals.
"Harem was very important because it is one of the towns that was loyal to the regime," Abdul-Rahman said by telephone about the town that is nearly a mile from the Turkish border.
In Aleppo province, which neighbors Idlib, local activist Mohammed Saeed said rebels attacked the air base in the town of Mannagh near the Turkish border. He said it is one of four air bases in the province, adding that rebels also attacked the police academy near the city of Aleppo.
Regime forces have been using helicopters to carry supplies to besieged areas and to attack rebel positions.
The regime has had increasing difficulty sending supplies by land to Aleppo province after rebels captured in October the strategic town Maaret al-Numan. The town is on the highway that links Damascus with Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a major battleground in the civil war since July.
"Airplanes and helicopters are the only way to send supplies since the Free Syrian Army controls the land," Saeed said. He added that rebels are also laying a siege to Aleppo's international airport known as Nairab and threatening to shoot down military or civilians planes using it.
In the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, opposition gunmen ambushed the head of military intelligence in the area and seriously wounded him. He later died of his wounds, the Observatory said.
Elsewhere in Syria, the Observatory reported violence in areas including the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, the southern area of Quneitra on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Height and the southern region of Daraa.
In Israel, top officials said they cannot corroborate Syrian activists' claims that the regime has used chemical weapons against its citizens.
Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon told Army Radio that Israel has "no confirmation or proof" the regime has employed such weapons in the civil war. He says Israel is "monitoring the situation with concern."
Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad told Israel Radio that Syria was closely guarding its chemical weapons stockpiles.
On Monday, the Observatory quoted activists in the central city of Homs as saying that six rebels died in two neighborhoods the day before after inhaling white smoke that came out of shells fired by government troops in the area. Amateur videos released by activists showed men in hospital beds suffering breathing problems as doctors placed oxygen masks over their faces.

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Egypt's parliament convenes after charter passes

 Egypt's upper house of parliament has convened in its first session after the passing of the country's Islamist-backed constitution, the first action by a state institution in accordance with a document whose legitimacy is still contested by the opposition.
The Shura Council was swearing in 90 new members appointed by President Mohammed Morsi Wednesday. The charter, approved by 63.8 percent in a two-round referendum that ended Saturday, gives the traditionally toothless upper house full legislative powers until elections for a new lower house is called within two months.
The Islamist-dominated council is expected to draft a law regulating upcoming parliamentary elections. Other items on the agenda may include laws on protests and the media.
The opposition says the constitutional process was rushed and the referendum marked by widespread irregularities.

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Report: Iran ex-president's family sues hardliner

 An Iranian news agency says four children of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani are suing a radical lawmaker for describing the influential ex-president's family as a corrupt "octopus."
Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei, who is a lawyer for Rafsanjani's family, was quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency Wednesday as saying that a complaint has been filed against Hamid Rasai.
Rafsanjani is considered a political centrist. Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009, in which Rafsanjani supported Ahmadinejad's reformist challenger, his family has come under pressure from hardliners.
In a speech broadcast on state radio last week, Rasai, who is one of Ahmadinejad's allies, called one of the ex-president's sons a "corrupt monster who has always enjoyed iron immunity.

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Report: Top Syrian general joins opposition

The general who heads Syria's military police has defected and joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, one of the highest walkouts by a serving security chief during the country's 21-month uprising, a pan Arab TV station has reported.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal appeared in a video aired on Al Arabiya TV late Tuesday saying he is joining "the people's revolution."
Al-Shallal's defection comes as military pressure builds on the regime, with government bases falling to rebel assault near the capital Damascus and elsewhere across the country. On Wednesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling in the northeastern province of Raqqa killed at least 20 people, including women and children.
Dozens of generals have defected since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. In July, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass was the first member of Assad's inner circle to break ranks and join the opposition.
Al-Shallal is one of the most senior and held a top post at the time that he left. He said in the video that the "army has derailed from its basic mission of protecting the people and it has become a gang for killing and destruction." He accused the military of "destroying cities and villages and committing massacres against our innocent people who came out to demand freedom."
Thousands of Syrian soldiers have defected over the past 21 months and many of them are now fighting against government forces. Many have cited attacks on civilians as the reason they switched sides.
The Observatory said the shelling in an agricultural area of Raqqa province near the village of Qahtaniyeh killed 20, including eight children, three women and nine others.
An amateur video showed the bodies of a dozen people including children lying in a row inside a room. Some of them had blood on their clothes, while weeping could be heard in the background.
The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.
Also Wednesday, activists said rebels were attacking the Wadi Deif military base in the northern province of Idlib. The base, which is near the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan, has been under siege for weeks.
The Observatory said at least five rebels were killed in the fighting that started after midnight. It added that Syrian army warplanes attacked rebel positions in the areas.
"It is the heaviest fighting in the area in months," said the Observatory, which relies on activists throughout Syria.
In October, rebels captured Maaret al-Numan, a town on on the highway that links the capital Damascus with Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a major battleground in the civil war since July.
The attack on Wadi Deif comes a day after rebels captured the town of Harem near the Turkish border. The rebels have captured wide areas and military posts in northern Syria over the past weeks.
Syria's crisis began with protests demanding reforms but later turned into a civil war. Anti-regime activists estimate more than 40,000 have died in the past 21 months.
In neighboring Lebanon, airport officials in Beirut said Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous flew early Wednesday to Moscow.
Their visit to Moscow comes two days after Assad met in Damascus with international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi. Brahimi, who is scheduled to go to Moscow before the end of the month, said after the talks Monday that the situation was "worrying" and gave no indication of progress toward a negotiated solution for the civil war.
Brahimi is still in Syria and met Tuesday with representatives of the opposition National Coordination Body, state-run news agency SANA said. Head of the group Hassan Abdul-Azim said Brahimi briefed them on the efforts he is exerting to reach an "international consensus, especially between Russia and the United Stated to reach a solution."
Rajaa al-Naser, NCB's spokesman, said his group has put forward proposals adding that there would be no exit but through halting violence and forming a "transitional government with full prerogatives."

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Iraq: New protests break out in Sunni heartland

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — Thousands of Iraqi demonstrators massed in a Sunni-dominated province west of Baghdad Wednesday, determined to keep up the pressure on a Shiite-led government that many accuse of trying to marginalize them.
It was the third major protest in less than a week in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, once the heart of the deadly Sunni insurgency that erupted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The unrest is part of a larger picture of sectarian conflicts that threaten the stability of the country, a year after the last U.S. troops left.
The demonstrations follow the arrest last week of 10 bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, who comes from Anbar and is one of the central government's most senior Sunni officials. The case is exacerbating tensions with Iraq's Sunnis, who see the detentions as politically motivated.
Protesters turned out Wednesday near the provincial capital Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad. The city and nearby Fallujah were the scenes of some of the deadliest fighting between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents.
Demonstrators gathered along a highway linking Baghdad with neighboring Jordan and Syria. They held banners demanding that Sunni rights be respected and calling for the release of Sunni prisoners in Iraqi jails. "We warn the government not to draw the country into sectarian conflict," read one. Another declared: "We are not a minority."
Al-Issawi made an appearance at the rally, arriving in a long convoy of black SUVs protected by heavily armed bodyguards. He condemned last week's raid on his office and rattled off a list of grievances aimed at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
"Injustice, marginalization, discrimination and double standards, as well as the politicization of the judiciary system and a lack of respect for partnership, law and constitution ... have all turned our neighborhoods in Baghdad into huge prisons surrounded by concrete blocks," he declared.
Iraq's majority Shiites rose to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, though the country's minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds do hold some posts in the government.
Many Sunnis see the arrest of the finance minister's guards as the latest in a series of moves by the Shiite prime minister against their sect and other perceived political opponents. Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, one of the country's highest-ranking Sunni politicians, is now living in exile in Turkey after being handed multiple death sentences for allegedly running death squads — a charge he dismisses as politically motivated.
"This sit-in will remain open-ended until the demonstrators' demands are met, and until the injustice against ends," cleric Hamid al-Issawi told The Associated Press at the protest. He accused al-Maliki's government of trying to create rifts between Sunnis and Shiites.
"These practices are aimed at drawing the country into a sectarian conflict again by creating crisis and targeting prominent national figures," the cleric said.
Al-Maliki has defended the arrests of the finance minister's guards as legal and based on warrants issued by judicial authorities. He also recently warned against a return to sectarian strife in criticizing the responses of prominent Sunni officials to the detentions.
In a recent statement, the prime minister dismissed the rhetoric as political posturing ahead of provincial elections scheduled for April and warned his opponents not to forget the dark days of sectarian fighting "when we used to collect bodies and chopped heads from the streets."
The political tensions are rising at a sensitive time. Iraq's ailing President Jalal Talabani is incapacitated following a serious stroke last week and is being treated in a German hospital. The 79-year-old president, an ethnic Kurd, is widely seen as a unifying figure with the clout to mediate among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.
Also Wednesday, the United Nations mission to Iraq said its monitors have determined that a hospital that treated a member of an Iranian exile group who died this week at a refugee camp near Baghdad did not consider his health condition serious enough to warrant hospitalization when he arrived for treatment in November.
An organization representing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq exile group on Monday accused Iraqi authorities of preventing 56-year-old Behrooz Rahimian from being hospitalized, and alleged that the U.N. failed to take sufficient steps to intervene. Iraq considers the MEK a terrorist group and wants its members out of the country.
The U.N. mission in Baghdad said in a statement Wednesday that it "does not have any indication so far that treatment was obstructed by the Iraqi authorities." It noted that representatives for the refugee residents told U.N. monitors that Rahimian "appeared to be in good condition until the time of his death.

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Soccer-Swansea hot-shot Michu set for Spain debut

 Swansea City's free-scoring striker Michu is set to make his Spain debut early next year following a sensational start to his career in the English Premier League.
Vicente del Bosque, coach of European and world champions Spain, told Spanish television that the 26-year-old will play in the Feb. 6 friendly against Uruguay in Doha.
Michu will be joined in the Spain squad by Iago Aspas, currently being linked to Swansea, whose manager Michael Laudrup is an admirer of the Celta Vigo forward.
"Iago Aspas and Michu will appear (against Uruguay)," confirmed Del Bosque.
Michu has been prolific since his bargain $3.2 million transfer from Rayo Vallecano in the summer, topping the Premier League scoring charts with 13 goals in 18 games.
He leap-frogged Manchester United's Robin van Persie after scoring the equaliser in Sunday's 1-1 home draw against the league leaders.
Aspas may well be on Laudrup's wish-list for the January transfer window but the expected price tag of around $13 million could put Swansea off.

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Zambia retain faith in winning squad

All but two of the squad who took Zambia to the last African Nations Cup title have been retained by coach Herve Renard for their defence in South Africa next month.
Renard named a provisional list of 26 players on Monday for the tournament, keeping faith in the rump of the squad who won a first continental championship for Zambia.
The only players left out are defender Nyambe Mulenga, who has lost form since injury in mid-year, and winger Clifford Mulenga, who was expelled for ill discipline during the tournament in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon at the start of the year.
Dutch-based striker Jacob Mulenga, who was forced to miss the last tournament because of injury, returns and is expected to lead the attack when Zambia begin their title defence in Group C against Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Nigeria. They play their first match on January 21.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Kalililo Kakonje (Napsa Stars), Kennedy Mweene (Free State Stars), Joshua Titima (Power Dynamos) Defenders: Hichani Himoonde (TP Mazembe Englebert), Chintu Kampamba (unattached), Francis Kasonde (TP Mazembe Englebert), Emmanuel Mbola (FC Porto), Joseph Musonda (Lamontville Golden Arrows), Davies Nkausu (SuperSport United), Salulani Phiri (Zanaco), Stoppila Sunzu (TP Mazembe Englebert)
Midfielders: Isaac Chansa (Henan Jianye), Noah Chivuta (Free State Stars) Rainford Kalaba (TP Mazembe Englebert), Chris Katongo (Henan Jianye), Felix Katongo (Petro Atletico), Chisamba Lungu (Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast), Mukuka Mulenga (Power Dynamos), William Njobvu (Hapoel Beer Sheva), Nathan Sinkala (TP Mazembe Englebert).
Forwards: James Chamanga (Liaoning Whowin), Emmanuel Mayuka (Southampton), Collins Mbesuma (Orlando Pirates), Jacob Mulenga (FC Utrecht), Evans Kangwa (Nkana), Jonas Sakuwaha

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Swansea hot-shot Michu set for Spain debut

Swansea City's free-scoring striker Michu is set to make his Spain debut early next year following a sensational start to his career in the English Premier League.
Vicente del Bosque, coach of European and world champions Spain, told Spanish television that the 26-year-old will play in the February 6 friendly against Uruguay in Doha.
Michu will be joined in the Spain squad by Iago Aspas, currently being linked to Swansea, whose manager Michael Laudrup is an admirer of the Celta Vigo forward.
"Iago Aspas and Michu will appear (against Uruguay)," confirmed Del Bosque.
Michu has been prolific since his bargain $3.2 million transfer from Rayo Vallecano in the summer, topping the Premier League scoring charts with 13 goals in 18 games.
He leap-frogged Manchester United's Robin van Persie after scoring the equaliser in Sunday's 1-1 home draw against the league leaders.
Aspas may well be on Laudrup's wish-list for the January transfer window but the expected price tag of around $13 million could put Swansea off.

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