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Bishops Reject White House Proposal on Contraceptive Coverage

Posted by Aam February 8, 2013 0 comments
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the latest White House proposal on health insurance coverage of contraceptives, saying it did not provide sufficient safeguards for religious hospitals, colleges and charities that objected to such coverage.
The bishops said they would continue fighting the federal mandate in court.
The administration said the proposal, issued last Friday, would guarantee free coverage of birth control "while respecting religious concerns.''
The bishops said the new proposal seemed to address part of the church's concern. But they said it did not go far enough and failed to answer many questions, like who would pay for contraceptive coverage provided to employees of certain nonprofit religious organizations.
"The administration's proposal maintains its inaccurate distinction among religious ministries,'' said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. "It appears to offer second-class status to our first-class institutions in Catholic health care, Catholic education and Catholic charities. The Department of Health and Human Services offers what it calls an 'accommodation,' rather than accepting the fact that these ministries are integral to our church and worthy of the same exemption as our Catholic churches."
Under the White House proposal, churches and religious organizations that object to providing birth control coverage on religious grounds would not have to pay for it. Female employees of such nonprofit organizations could get free contraceptive coverage through a separate plan that would be provided by a health insurer. The institution objecting to the coverage would not pay for the contraceptives. Costs would instead be paid by an insurance company, with the possibility that it could recoup the costs through lower health care expenses resulting in part from fewer births.
The administration refused to grant an exemption or accommodation to secular, for-profit businesses owned by people who said they objected to contraceptive coverage on religious grounds.
The bishops rallied to the defense of such employers.
"In obedience to our Judeo-Christian heritage,'' Cardinal Dolan said in a statement, "we have consistently taught our people to live their lives during the week to reflect the same beliefs that they proclaim on the Sabbath. We cannot now abandon them to be forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences.''
Federal courts have issued differing judgments on the legality of the federal rule requiring most employers to provide contraceptive coverage. The litigation appears likely to end up in the Supreme Court, legal experts said.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia said that the administration proposal, at first glance, had struck some people as a modest improvement. The proposal, he said, appeared to increase the number of religiously affiliated entities that could claim exemption from the requirement to provide contraceptive coverage.
But on closer examination, the archbishop said, the federal mandate "remains unnecessary, coercive and gravely flawed."
"The White House has made no concessions to the religious conscience claims of private businesses, and the whole spirit of the 'compromise' is minimalist," Archbishop Chaput said.
The most difficult question, which the administration has not resolved, is how coverage will be provided to employees of religious organizations that object to contraceptive coverage and serve as their own insurers, without using commercial insurance companies.

Iran’s Leader Rejects Direct Talks With U.S.

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Khamenei Official Website, via European Pressphoto Agency
Speaking to air force commanders in Tehran on Thursday, Ayatollah Ali Khameini said Iran "will not negotiate under pressure."
Caren Firouz/Reuters
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran would not be intimidated by Washington.


WASHINGTON — Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any idea of bilateral talks with the United States on Thursday, in a speech in which he seemed to dismiss the views of Iranian officials — including the country's foreign minister — who had advocated for such negotiations.
"The Iranian nation will not negotiate under pressure," Ayatollah Khamenei said. Noting the international sanctions against Iran, which were bolstered on Wednesday by new American financial restrictions that essentially reduce Iran to using its oil for barter trade, he added: "The U.S. is pointing a gun at Iran and wants us to talk to them. The Iranian nation will not be intimidated by these actions."
"Direct talks will not solve any problems," he concluded.
His statement was considered particularly important because, as one senior Obama administration official put it, "we believe Khamenei now holds the entire nuclear file."
But the White House did not immediately react to the statement, and some officials said that history — including during the Iran-Iraq war — demonstrates that Iran can change its position quickly. Despite the ayatollah's comments, it appears that talks scheduled to begin Feb. 26 between Iran and six nations, including the United States, will go ahead in Kazakhstan.
But American officials have said repeatedly in recent months that they believe negotiating in that multinational forum can be awkward, partly because of differences with Russia and China over Tehran. That is one reason Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. went to a security conference in Munich last weekend to publicly reinforce President Obama's private offer of direct talks.
It was at that conference that the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said he was open to such talks, although Mr. Biden noted that they could proceed only if the ayatollah showed serious interest. Mr. Salehi had been one of Iran's top nuclear negotiators, and while he has often projected a moderate tone, he has also made it clear that his authority is limited. An effort to negotiate a deal early in Mr. Obama's presidency resulted in an agreement that Ayatollah Khamenei rejected.
The ayatollah's objection is an edict to which other Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, must adhere, and it comes after several high-ranking Iranian officials, including Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Salehi, said that the Obama administration had been taking positive steps toward Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei's wording was quite direct in his speech before air force commanders at his Tehran office, and his comments were reported on his personal Web site.
"I'm not a diplomat; I'm a revolutionary, and speak frankly and directly," he said. "If anyone wants the return of U.S. dominance here, people will grab his throat."
He said that while some "simple-minded people" might be eager for the prospect of bilateral talks, Iran had seen nothing from the Obama administration other than conspiracies. Those comments are in accord with American intelligence assessments of the supreme leader's views, which include, officials say, a belief by the ayatollah that the sanctions are hurting the United States more than they are hurting Iran.
Other officials close to the ayatollah have said in recent days that the real goal of America's negotiations, the sanctions and the sabotage of Iran's nuclear facilities is to bring down the Iranian government.
Under the new restrictions on Iranian oil payments announced Wednesday, when countries still buying Iranian oil pay for their purchases, the money must be put into a local bank account, which Iran can use only to buy goods within that country. It is a way of keeping the money from being transferred to Iran, and the Treasury Department said on Thursday that it would strictly enforce the provisions, barring any banks that violate the new sanctions from conducting transactions with the United States.
In Tehran, the comments were met with some sense of resignation — and suggestions that Mr. Obama's openness to negotiation was a ploy, intended to set international opinion against Iran.
"There is no room for any optimism," said Hamid Reza Taraghi, an influential politician. Pointing to the new sanctions, decisions by American courts to seize Iranian assets and the American support for the opposition in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is Iran's last regional ally, he said, "We haven't seen anything good from the U.S."
Iran experts outside the country said they were not surprised that Ayatollah Khamenei had ruled out dialogue with the United States, given his longstanding antipathy toward the Americans.
"This is expected from Khamenei; his ideological view of the United States is getting in the way," said Alireza Nader, a senior policy analyst at the Washington offices of the RAND Corporation. "Khamenei may be reluctant to negotiate — perhaps he does not want to from a weak position — but his hand is going to get weaker as time goes by."
Trita Parsi, the author of a critical account of the Obama administraton's diplomacy with Iran, "A Single Roll of the Dice" (Yale University Press, 2012), wrote in a post Thursday on The Daily Beast that the ayatollah sees little advantage in breaking the current stalemate.
"As long as the West does not put offers on the table that meet Iran's bottom line, the calculation goes, Iran should play for time and seek a game changer that enables it to set the terms for a deal," he wrote.
"Even though the price of stalling will be high, the price of failed talks will likely be equally high, leaving Tehran better off seeking to press the West to improve the deal — rather than participating in talks that are doomed to fail."
Thomas Erdbrink contributed reporting from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

Hewlett-Packard Joins Push to Limit Use of Student Labor in China

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Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
A worker checks parts of a laptop on a Hewlett Packard assembly line in Chongqing, China.


HONG KONG — Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's largest makers of computers and other electronics, is imposing new limits on the employment of students and temporary agency workers at factories across China. The move, following recent efforts by Apple to increase scrutiny of student workers, reflects a significant shift in how electronics companies view problematic labor practices in China.
Many factories in China have long relied on high school students, vocational school students and temporary workers to cope with periodic surges in orders as factory labor becomes increasingly scarce. Students complain of being ordered by school administrators to put in very long hours on short notice at jobs with no relevance to their studies; local governments sometimes order schools to provide labor, and the factories pay school administrators a bonus.
For much of the last decade, many of the world's big electronics companies have largely neglected the problem, beyond in some cases tracking reports of the abuses. Apple made the unusual move last year of joining the Fair Labor Association, one of the largest workplace monitoring groups, which inspects factories in China that make computers, iPhones and other devices under contract from Apple. And last month, Apple said it would begin requiring suppliers to provide information about their student workers "so we can monitor this issue more carefully."
Now H.P. is pushing even harder. Its rules, given to suppliers in China on Friday morning, say that all work must be voluntary, and that students and temporary workers must be free "to leave work at any time upon reasonable notice without negative repercussions, and they must have access to reliable and reprisal-free grievance mechanisms," according to the company.
The rules also require that student work "must complement the primary area of study" — a restriction that could rule out huge numbers of students whose studies have nothing to do with electronics or manufacturing.
Enforcing workplace rules in China has always been difficult, as even Chinese laws on labor practices are flagrantly ignored by some manufacturers as they struggle to keep up with production demand amid labor shortages. The Chinese government announced last month that the nation's labor force had begun to shrink slowly because of the increasingly rigorous one-child policy through the 1980s and 1990s.
But complying with the new rules might be easier for suppliers contracting with H.P., which has relatively steady demand through the year for its products, than for suppliers working for rivals like Apple, with its big bursts of sales when new models are introduced.
Howard Clabo, an H.P. spokesman, said that the company would hold training sessions for suppliers starting in March and also discussion sessions for government officials, nongovernment organizations and academics — an initiative that could put pressure on other companies.
Tony Prophet, H.P.'s senior vice president for worldwide supply chain operations, said in a phone interview that H.P. was also capping the combined number of students and temp workers at any supplier factory at no more than 20 percent of labor during peak periods, which tend to be during summer vacations and the lengthy Chinese New Year holiday. H.P. plans to reduce that to 10 percent, but has not decided when, Mr. Prophet said.
The practice of employing students and temporary workers has been at the center of growing criticism of employment practices at Chinese suppliers used by big international electronics companies. Some of the companies are now seeing that the problems can harm their reputations.
In announcing increased scrutiny of student workers last month, Apple said in its supplier responsibility report that the "cyclical nature" of the student work "makes it difficult to catch problems."
"We've begun to partner with industry consultants to help our suppliers improve their policies, procedures and management of internship programs to go beyond what the law requires," Apple said.
Mr. Prophet of H.P. presented his company's new rules as a sign of corporate responsibility, as opposed to a competitive maneuver. "We're doing this because we think this is an important issue, and there are certainly concerns around it and some ambiguity around the appropriate standards," he said.
Labor activists have been particularly critical of Foxconn, a large Taiwanese contract manufacturer that produces electronic devices for Hewlett-Packard, Apple and other companies.
Keith Bradsher reported from Hong Kong and David Barboza from Shanghai. Xu Yan contributed research from Shanghai.

On the Runway Blog | Fast Fashion: Fashion Week Begins With a Conservative Touch

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Creatures of The Wind, fall 2013.Lucas Jackson/ReutersCreatures of The Wind, fall 2013.
There is only one way to approach the start of the fall 2013 fashion season in New York, with a month of runway shows and an endless parade of clothes to follow. That is to dive right in and enjoy the scenery.
So everyone was in Lincoln Center this morning to see Richard Chai's collection for men and women, but before the show could get started, there were celebrities to seat. Christina Ricci and Maggie Grace stepped onto the nightclub-dark-at-11 a.m. runway together, and were immediately walled in by the paps.
Richard Chai Love, fall 2013.Jennifer S. Altman for The New York TimesRichard Chai Love, fall 2013.
Richard Chai Love, fall 2013.Jennifer S. Altman for The New York TimesRichard Chai Love, fall 2013.
Handlers took away their coats and bags and coffee cups so the paps could see their outfits. Then the duo posed, only the petite one, Ms. Ricci, wearing flats, had to stand on her tippy toes so as not to appear in photos as Ms. Grace's little sister. This wasn't working. So Ms. Grace and Ms. Ricci posed separately.
The music started up and sounded approximately like a dance remix of spooky theme songs from Alfred Hitchcock movies as if they were being peppily performed by the cast of "Glee." And most of the male models looked like Robert Pattinson, which suggested that Mr. Chai was going for a younger demographic this season with his mix of inky dark jacquards and quasi-grunge classics, like an oatmeal boyfriend coat worn over a slip dress of pale silk. Except that many of the clothes looked unusually office-appropriate, even a bit polished. A gray skirt suit was made up of a charcoal plaid jacket and a huggy skirt with front and back panels of purple and silver sequins.
Also hewing to convention this season, at least more than in the past, was the Creatures of the Wind show that immediately followed. The designers of this cerebral insider label, Shane Gabier and Chris Peters, have previously given us collections somehow connected to 17th-century woodland creatures and Japanese movie monsters, so it was a mental relief that this one came with the title "Candy."
The clothes were not exactly sweet, but there were a lot of flavors to be sampled in the C.O.T.W. store, including several tailored chesterfield coats and cute tunic dresses with rugby collars all made of patchworks of different materials (leather, wool, cotton). It was their version of color blocking.

Russia Olympics Hit Snag Over Time

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A year before the world's top ski racers are due to rocket down the Rosa Khutor alpine track here in the Caucasus Mountains, a sharp debate is under way among senior Russian officials over how to keep time at next year's Winter Olympics — not the time on the race clocks, but the actual time of day.

President Vladimir V. Putin, center, on Thursday visited a newly built site for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
The crux of the matter is how many hours ahead Russia will be — two or three — compared with most of Europe when Sochi holds the 2014 Winter Olympics. While the difference may seem slight, at stake are broadcast rights worth billions of dollars and the added viewership and profitability of showing the games in prime time.
Also hanging in the balance appears to be the legacy of former President Dmitri A. Medvedev, now prime minister, who decided in 2011 that Russia should abandon daylight saving time, widening the gap with Europe for six months of the year.
Mr. Medvedev has watched many of his liberal-leaning policy changes be undone since his mentor, Vladimir V. Putin, returned to the Russian presidency last year. And Mr. Medvedev seems to view the time change as an important decision he wants to preserve.
The topic is so delicate that officials of the International Olympic Committee recently denied asking Mr. Putin to revert to daylight saving time, and said they had asked only for Russia's Olympics planning team to consider the issue.
And when reports emerged on Thursday that Mr. Putin had cut a deal with International Olympic Committee officials to resume daylight saving time next year, Mr. Medvedev spoke out publicly and with uncharacteristic force.
"The government finds a new correction of time in the current period unadvisable," Mr. Medvedev told government ministers at a cabinet meeting.
He urged that the government consult medical doctors and other experts as well as measure public opinion before making another change.
Of course, the outcome has real-life consequences for 140 million Russian citizens, who already grapple with the challenges of being spread across nine time zones.
In Moscow, leaving the clocks unchanged means that for much of the winter, people wake up in the dark, arrive at school and work in the dark and return home in the dark.
And for anyone working in the financial sector, it means an additional hour's difference with London and New York — lengthening the workday.
"In Moscow it's unbearable," said a senior Russian official who asked not to be identified while sharing a personal opinion. "It's really unbearable. You simply lose your living power, because you don't see sun. You don't see light."
To be sure, Russia has always taken an idiosyncratic approach to time.
Official railroad schedules are printed only in Moscow time, and arrivals and departures are similarly shown that way on electronic billboards in every station — even in cities like Vladivostok, seven time zones away in the Far East.
Mr. Putin has not publicly stated a position on the time issue, though the decision is his to make.
On Thursday, he was here in Sochi with officials from the International Olympic Committee, presiding over a celebration to start the one-year countdown to the games.
Also on Thursday, new details emerged of Mr. Putin's fury over construction delays and cost-overruns for a ski-jump that is part of the Olympics mountain cluster.
The cost had soared from a projected $400 million to about $2.4 billion.
In a video of Mr. Putin touring the site on Wednesday, he appeared incredulous, repeating aloud the amount of the projected cost overrun.
"Well done," he said sarcastically.
Nikolay Khalip contributed reporting.

In California, the Snow Tells the Future for the Water Supply

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Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Frank Gehrke, center, has led snowpack surveys in California for a quarter-century. The state's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry pays close attention.


PHILLIPS, Calif. — Along Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada, elevation 6,820 feet, a California winter ritual unfolded here on a recent morning. In the snow-blanketed meadow of a local homeowner's backyard, reporters representing news organizations from across the state followed a man on skis who kept plunging an aluminum tube into the snow.
Leading the pack was Frank Gehrke, California's chief snow surveyor, the man responsible for measuring the Sierra Nevada's snowpack, the source of a third of this state's water supply. Part groundhog, whose appearances signal the shift of the seasons, and part Federal Reserve chairman whose utterances on the state of the snowpack can move California's multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, Mr. Gehrke has led the Department of Water Resources' snowpack surveys for a quarter-century.
In the state that is home to Silicon Valley, Mr. Gehrke and his team use the stick-the-tube-into-the-snow method developed by a local classics professor more than a century ago.
"There've been only incremental changes," Mr. Gehrke said, interspersing this winter's second monthly survey with a veteran's calm observations of the snowfall and hints of the possible coming drama that is California's annual snowmelt. "This course is very uniform, which is normal, because the snowpack during accumulation is kind of uniform. But once you start getting into the melt, it starts to go crazy."
His assessment of this month's survey — after a strong start, the snowpack's water content fell to 93 percent of average for this time of the year because of a "midwinter lull" — was carried on television channels throughout the state. Pictures of Mr. Gehrke, grasping the tube with his gray mittens against a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, appeared on the front page of newspapers in Sacramento and the Bay Area.
In California's water system, one of the world's most sophisticated and complex, the snowpack plays a leading role by supplying water to more than 25 million people and almost one million acres of farmland. Snow that accumulates on the Sierra Nevada's 400-mile range starts to melt in the spring, draining into rivers that feed reservoirs below.
As Mr. Gehrke and his team gauge the depth and water content of the snowpack, other department officials begin forecasting how much water the snowpack will be able to deliver this year.
Those who depend on the snowpack for water adjust their plans accordingly. Water districts may start looking for water elsewhere or carry out conservation measures. Farmers consider the forecasts in deciding what crops to plant or whether to take bank loans to buy more seed and equipment for the year.
Ryan Jacobsen, who is executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau and also sits on the board of the Fresno Irrigation District, said that the snow surveys are the "bible for what decisions irrigation districts are going to make for the rest of the year."
"Fresno County is the No. 1 agricultural county in the nation, but we also happen to be situated climatically in the middle of a desert," he said. "It really is the Sierra Nevada snowpack that makes this desert bloom."
It was in 1908 that James E. Church, a classics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, developed the existing method of forecasting water runoff from the depth and water content of snow. To settle a dispute over water rights in nearby Lake Tahoe, he was able to predict the water from the snowpack on Mount Rose by using a hollow tube that he called the Mount Rose snow sampler. Government agencies adopted his technique and, in 1929, California passed a law mandating that state officials measure the Sierra Nevada snowpack and issue forecasts of the water supply.
"You can almost say it made the development of the West possible," Mr. Gehrke said. "Prior to that, they really didn't even have tools to use to hope to predict how much runoff they would have."

China Denies Directing Radar at Japanese Military

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China on Friday denied directing a radar capable of aiding weapon strikes at a Japanese naval vessel and helicopter near disputed islands, instead accusing Japan of fanning tensions, in the latest exchange to lay bare festering discord between the two countries.
Graphic
The Chinese Ministry of Defense's account of the two incidents stood starkly at odds with one given on Tuesday by Japan's Ministry of Defense, which said that on Jan. 30 a Chinese military vessel trained a radar used to help direct weapons on a Japanese naval destroyer near the islands in the East China Sea. Japan also said that a Chinese frigate directed the same kind of radar at one of its military helicopters on Jan. 19.
Because using such "fire-control" radar can precede an attack, the Japanese defense minister. Itsunori Onodera, said that a misstep "could have pushed things into a dangerous situation."
China's first substantial response to the allegations amounted to a wholesale denial – which only deepened the puzzle of what happened, and who made any of the alleged decisions to use the radar. Japan promptly rejected the statement.
When Chinese naval vessels encountered the helicopter and destroyer in the East China Sea, their radar had "maintained normal observational alertness, and there was no use of fire-control radar," said a statement issued on the Chinese defense ministry's Web site on Friday. The statement was first issued by state media late on Thursday Beijing time. It did not explain what was meant by "normal observational alertness."
"The Japanese claim that Chinese naval vessel fire-control radars had aimed at a Japanese vessel and craft is out of step with the facts," said the Chinese defense ministry.
The Chinese defense ministry accompanied its denial with accusations that Japan was to blame for any unnervingly close encounters between their ships and aircraft in the East China Sea area.
"The Japanese side has recently incessantly issued falsehoods that distort and malign the normal combat preparedness training of Chinese military forces," it said. Japan was "deliberately creating a tense atmosphere and misleading international opinion," the Chinese defense ministry said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that a "competent department" was investigating the Japanese allegations.
The contested islands are called the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan. They are controlled by Japan, but both China and Taiwan maintain that history and international law give them rightful claim.
Long-standing tensions over the disagreement flared in September, when the Japanese government purchased three of the five islands from a private owner, a step that China said amounted to a provocative denial of its territorial claims. Torrid and sometimes violent protests broke out in dozens of Chinese cities.
In the months since, the Chinese government has underscored its claim to the islands by sending government vessels and military ships and aircraft in their vicinity in a cat-and-mouse contest with Japanese Coast Guard ships. Tensions mounted in January, when both countries sent fighter jets over the East China Sea at the same time.
In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded Friday at a news conference, saying, "We cannot accept China's explanation."
"We urge China to take sincere measures to prevent dangerous actions which could cause a contingency situation," he said.
For all China's vehemence, the statement by its defense ministry about the radar suggested that senior officials in Beijing want to avoid an escalating quarrel, said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu who researches security issues in the Asian region.
"I think it's a positive development that the Chinese would deny doing this, as opposed to saying, 'Yes we did it, and we'll do it again, and maybe we'll do more than that next time'," said Mr. Roy. "For the Chinese to not want to be portrayed as an aggressor, I think, is a good sign."
China's opaque and deeply secretive politics made it difficult to say whether any decision to use the fire-control radar came from the top of the Communist Party leadership or lower rungs of the military, Mr. Roy said. Many experts believe that "such a decision is not likely to be made by the local commander," he said.
"But that doesn't discount the possibility that somebody caught up in a situation could make the decision themselves," Mr. Roy said.
Bree Feng and Patrick Zuo provided research from Beijing.

Double Bombing in Baghdad Is Said to Kill 10

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Four car bombs struck two outdoor markets in Baghdad and a town south of the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The blasts were the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents seeking to re-ignite sectarian violence and undermine the Shiite-led government's efforts in maintaining security.
The bombings targeted an outdoor pet market in Baghdad's northern Kazimyah neighborhood and in a vegetable market in the town of Shomali in Hillah province, south of the Iraqi capital.
Every Friday, Iraqis converge on markets to shop and spend family time during the Muslim weekend. Markets are a frequent target for militants who seek to inflict large numbers of casualties.
In Baghdad, the first car bomb exploded around mid-morning at the entrance to the Kazimyah market, two police officers said. When panicked shoppers tried to flee the area, a second parked car exploded a few meters (yards) away, according to the officers.
At least 14 people were killed and 42 were wounded in the two blasts, police said. All the victims were civilians.
About an hour later, two car bombs exploded simultaneously at the Shomali market, killing at least six people and wounding 15, two police officers said.
Health officials confirmed the casualty figures in each attack. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Despite a drop in violence since the worst sectarian fighting in 2006-2007, insurgents carry out near-daily attacks on security forces and civilians in an attempt to undermine the Shiite-led government.

At Least 26 Killed in Bombings Across Iraq

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A series of explosions across Iraq killed at least 26 people Friday, continuing a spate of violence that has marked recent political turmoil and witnessed bombings now on seven consecutive Fridays.
The bombings come amid worsening sectarian tensions, with Sunnis and others saying that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his political bloc are seeking to monopolize power before provincial elections in April.
In a bird market in Khadumiya north of Baghdad the Shiite majority city, twin car bombs exploded, killing 16 people killed and wounding 45 others, according to security and medical sources. That blasts fit the pattern of deadly attacks on markets on Fridays, when they are typically crowded with people.
"I come to the bird market each Friday to sell and buy birds," Waleed Salman, 28, said from his hospital bed after he was wounded in his leg and back in the bombing. "I love birds as they are a sample of peace, all we want is peace but we always find blood. I lost my birds and my people today."
In Hilla province two car bombs exploded, one at a parking lot and another at a market in Shomali district south of Baghdad. The two explosions killed 10 people and wounded 40 others, security officials said.

Tunisians Prepare for Burial of Slain Opposition Leader

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In a country quieted by the largest labor strike in decades, thousands of people started to gather early Friday for the funeral of Chokri Belaid, a leading opposition figure assassinated by unknown gunmen two days ago. 

People placed flowers at the site outside his home where opposition leader Chokri Belaid was killed the day before on Thursday in Tunis.
Chokri Belaid in Tunis in 2010.
The killing of Mr. Belaid, a human rights activist who had been a harsh critic of the ruling Islamist-led party, has led to fears that polarization and growing political violence will imperil Tunisia's transition, often held up as a model in the region.
"We are steadfast, like mountains," mourners chanted in the Jebel Jalloud neighborhood, where they gathered the rain in preparing to march to the city's largest cemetery.  "We do not fear assassination."
A steady stream of supporters also traveled to Mr. Belaid's home, where a circle of flowers and other mementos marked the spot where he was killed, raising fears of a broader conflagration.
  "I'm afraid the country will descend into chaos," said Nuzha ben Yayha, a mourner who came to pay her respects.
The country's labor federation called the first general strike in more than three decades for Friday to coincide with the burial, adding to a combustible mix of passions just two years after the overthrow of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in early 2011 signaled the beginning of the Arab revolts sweeping the region.
The official TAP news agency said the national Army had been ordered to "secure" Mr. Belaid's funeral "and ensure the protection of participants" while the trade union federation had called for a "peaceful" general strike "in order not to serve the objectives of Tunisia's enemies who had planned Chokri Belaid's assassination."
The embassy of France, the former colonial power, said on its Web site that it would close its schools in the capital on Friday and Saturday for fear of renewed outbursts of violence.
On Thursday, protesters clashed with riot police officers in several cities. In Tunis, shuttered stores, tear gas and running street battles recreated the atmosphere of that uprising against former President Ben Ali but with none of the hope. Instead, many worried about a growing instability following the killing.
Adding to the uncertainties, Tunisia's governing Islamist-led party on Thursday rejected a proposal by the prime minister to form a national unity government.
The announcement by the party, Ennahda, revealed growing strains within a movement that has promoted its blend of Islamist politics and pluralism as a model for the region. As it rejected the proposal by the prime minister, Hamadi Jebali, a member of Ennahda, the group also publicly rebuked one of its most senior leaders and rejected his efforts to calm the political crisis.
"The prime minister did not ask the opinion of his party," Abdelhamid Jelassi, Ennahda's vice president, said in a statement reported on the party's Web site that rejected the proposal to replace the government with technocrats not affiliated with any party. "We in Ennahda believe Tunisia needs a political government now. We will continue discussions with other parties about forming a coalition government."
The troubles in Tunisia unsettled the region and endangered a country that was credited with avoiding the chaos plaguing some its neighbors. In the same way some had held up Tunisia's transition as an example, politicians in the region studied Mr. Belaid's assassination and saw a broader warning.
Mr. Belaid's death was seen as a blow to the country's turbulent transition, raising the possibility that the political violence in Tunisia had reached a dangerous new level.
In the southern mining city of Gafsa, riots broke out and the police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones, a local radio station reported. The city is known as a powerful base of support for Mr. Belaid, who was a fierce advocate for the miners.
A regional headquarters of Ennahda was burned down in the town of Siliana, according to local news media, one of more than a dozen party offices attacked by protesters in the last two days.
In one of the most disturbing aspects of the situation, Mr. Belaid had himself warned just before his death about Tunisia's troubling turn toward violence and called for a national dialogue to combat it. He took special aim at Ennahda, accusing the Islamist group of turning a blind eye to crimes perpetrated by hard-line Islamists known as Salafis, including attacking Sufi shrines and liquor stores.
There have been no arrests in the killing, and no suspect has been identified. The governing party has condemned the assassination. Anxiety about the assassination reverberated in Egypt, where political feuds have been eclipsed by street clashes between protesters and the riot police. Security officials said plainclothes guards had been assigned to guard the homes of prominent opponents of Egypt's Islamist-dominated government. The worries were amplified because of a fatwa issued by a hard-line Egyptian cleric saying that opponents of President Mohamed Morsi should be killed. The fatwa specifically mentioned Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations diplomat and leader of Egypt's largest secular-leaning opposition bloc, which led him to request the protection.
"Regime silent as another fatwa gives license to kill opposition in the name of Islam," Mr. ElBaradei wrote in a Twitter message. "Religion yet again used and abused."
On Thursday, Mr. Morsi addressed the issue in a speech, saying that political violence "has become one of the most important challenges that face the Arab Spring revolutions."
In what seemed to be a direct challenge to religious hard-liners — as well as an attempt to avoid the criticism directed at Ennahda — he condemned those "who claim to speak for religion" and who "permit killing based on political differences."
"This is terrorism itself," he said.
Kareem Fahim reported from Tunis, David D. Kirkpatrick from Antakya, Turkey, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Monica Marks contributed reporting from Tunis, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

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