Why global labor reforms are vital

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Saudi authorities beheaded Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan woman


• She was convicted of killing a baby of the family employing her as a housemaid


• This was despite Nafeek's claims that the baby died in a choking accident


• Becker says her fate "should spotlight the precarious existence of domestic workers"

Jo Becker is the Children's Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch and author of 'Campaigning for Justice: Human Rights Advocacy in Practice.' Follow Jo Becker on Twitter.

(CNN) -- Rizana Nafeek was a child herself -- 17 years old, according to her birth certificate -- when a four-month-old baby died in her care in Saudi Arabia. She had migrated from Sri Lanka only weeks earlier to be a domestic worker for a Saudi family.

Although Rizana said the baby died in a choking accident, Saudi courts convicted her of murder and sentenced her to death. On Wednesday, the Saudi government carried out the sentence in a gruesome fashion, by beheading Rizana.

Jo Becker

Read more: Outrage over beheading of Sri Lankan woman by Saudi Arabia

Rizana's case was rife with problems from the beginning. A recruitment agency in Sri Lanka knew she was legally too young to migrate, but she had falsified papers to say she was 23. After the baby died, Rizana gave a confession that she said was made under duress -- she later retracted it. She had no lawyer to defend her until after she was sentenced to death and no competent interpreter during her trial. Her sentence violated international law, which prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed before age 18.

Rizana's fate should arouse international outrage. But it should also spotlight the precarious existence of other domestic workers. At least 1.5 million work in Saudi Arabia alone and more than 50 million -- mainly women and girls -- are employed worldwide according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Read more: Indonesian maid escapes execution in Saudi Arabia

Again according to the ILO, the number of domestic workers worldwide has grown by more than 50% since the mid-1990s. Many, like Rizana, seek employment in foreign countries where they may be unfamiliar with the language and legal system and have few rights.

When Rizana traveled to Saudi Arabia, for example, she may not have known that many Saudi employers confiscate domestic workers' passports and confine them inside their home, cutting them off from the outside world and sources of help.

It is unlikely that anyone ever told her about Saudi Arabia's flawed criminal justice system or that while many domestic workers find kind employers who treat them well, others are forced to work for months or even years without pay and subjected to physical or sexual abuse.

Passport photo of Rizana Nafeek

Read more: Saudi woman beheaded for 'witchcraft and sorcery'

Conditions for migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are among some of the worst, but domestic workers in other countries rarely enjoy the same rights as other workers. In a new report this week, the International Labour Organization says that nearly 30% of the world's domestic workers are completely excluded from national labor laws. They typically earn only 40% of the average wage of other workers. Forty-five percent aren't even entitled by law to a weekly day off.

Last year, I interviewed young girls in Morocco who worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for a fraction of the minimum wage. One girl began working at age 12 and told me: "I don't mind working, but to be beaten and not to have enough food, this is the hardest part."

Many governments have finally begun to recognize the risks and exploitation domestic workers face. During 2012, dozens of countries took action to strengthen protections for domestic workers. Thailand, and Singapore approved measures to give domestic workers a weekly day off, while Venezuela and the Philippines adopted broad laws for domestic workers ensuring a minimum wage, paid holidays, and limits to their working hours. Brazil is amending its constitution to state that domestic workers have all the same rights as other workers. Bahrain codified access to mediation of labor disputes.

Read more: Convicted killer beheaded, put on display in Saudi Arabia

Perhaps most significantly, eight countries acted in 2012 to ratify -- and therefore be legally bound by -- the Domestic Workers Convention, with more poised to follow suit this year. The convention is a groundbreaking treaty adopted in 2011 to guarantee domestic workers the same protections available to other workers, including weekly days off, effective complaints procedures and protection from violence.

The Convention also has specific protections for domestic workers under the age of 18 and provisions for regulating and monitoring recruitment agencies. All governments should ratify the convention.

Many reforms are needed to prevent another tragic case like that of Rizana Nafeek. The obvious one is for Saudi Arabia to stop its use of the death penalty and end its outlier status as one of only three countries worldwide to execute people for crimes committed while a child.

Labor reforms are also critically important. They may have prevented the recruitment of a 17 year old for migration abroad in the first place. And they can protect millions of other domestic workers who labor with precariously few guarantees for their safety and rights.

Read more: Malala, others on front lines in fight for women

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jo Becker.

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Chinese shipping companies switching to RMB for transactions

SINGAPORE: More Chinese shipping companies are asking for renminbi (RMB) to be used as the settlement currency for shipping freight rates.

The shipping sector is seeing growing usage of the Chinese currency.

To help Chinese shippers manage their exposure, major shipping broker, Freight Investor Services, has even launched a freight derivative in Chinese Yuan last month.

A forward freight agreement (FFA) allows ship owners, charterers and speculators to hedge against the volatility of freight rates.

It gives contract owners the right to buy and sell the price of freight for future dates.

FFAs are built on an index composed of a shipping route for tanker (ship) or a basket of routes for dry bulk, contracts are traded "over the counter" on a principal-to-principal basis and can be cleared through a clearing house.

International settlements in renminbi have been on the rise.

Beijing has been promoting the wider use of its currency globally through bilateral currency swaps and trade settlement deals.

Global transaction services organisation SWIFT noted a 24 per cent surge in yuan settlement in November 2012 as compared to a month before.

Shipowners like First Ship Lease Trust Management said it is a natural development for charter rates to shift from US dollars to renminbi as a significant volume of goods being transported is also priced in Chinese Yuan.

Guy Broadley, director at Freight Investor Services said: "China's involvement in the commodity story over the last 10 years is obviously been very great... last year, China's dry bulk commodity imports were equivalent to about 44 per cent of global seaborne trade. We feel that it is important for Chinese traders to be able to hedge that price risk by having a RMB-denominated contract."

But shipping analysts believe this trend is limited to small and medium-sized Chinese shipping companies, which transact the bulk of their trades domestically.

Jayendu Krishna, senior manager at Drewry said: "China has a lot of restrictions in terms of foreign currencies and because of the restrictions they are not really able to trade in what exists today is the US-denominated transactions. So, with the introduction of this RMB-denominated FFA, probably more Chinese players will be interested because they are able to hedge against the risk of the freight volatility."

Currently, most shipping chartering is settled in US dollars.

Shekaran Krishnan, partner at Ernst & Young said: "It would make a lot of sense for them to have the revenue which is the freight revenue in local RMB because it is a natural arbitrage against the cost they have to pay locally and if they have it in local currency, they can avoid the currency fluctuation that they are exposed to."

Given the limited supply of the Chinese yuan, analysts do not see the renminbi replacing the US dollar anytime soon, as the shipping industry is still very much a US dollar-dominated business.

- CNA/xq

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Fonda, Steinem: Let woman head FCC

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Jane Fonda, Glora Steinem, Robin Morgan: Obama short on women appointees


• They say women helped him win, he must show he sees them as leaders, not just voters


• They say media companies shape attitudes. He should name women to head FCC, FTC


• Writers: Media is run largely by men. Time to close the gender gap in U.S. media leadership

Editor's note: Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem are the co-founders of the Women's Media Center.

(CNN) -- First, the good news. News organizations -- including CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg -- are asking: Where are the women? They've noticed that President Obama's nominees for his national security team and Cabinet, including Secretary of State, Defense, Treasury, and Director of the CIA, have excluded the talent of potential female appointees.

As co-founders of the Women's Media Center, whose purpose is to make women more visible and powerful in the media, we want to say thank you for noticing.

Jane Fonda

Robin Morgan

Gloria Steinem

Now, the bad news. President Obama isn't answering. He wouldn't have been re-elected without 55 percent of the women's vote, something he earned by representing women's majority views on issues, yet now he seems to be ignoring women's ability to be not only voters, but leaders.

Fortunately, there are still possibilities. A second-term President Obama still has time to demonstrate his commitment to equality in a different but equally important area of the federal government, the agencies that have oversight of the media and telecom industries.

Media companies have some of the most powerful resources at their disposal in shaping attitudes and culture. But media culture, from our TV shows to advertising, is often deeply sexist and normalizes roles that limit everyone. There is a powerful "bully pulpit" effect to having women at the head of these agencies.

Four important agencies regulating media include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. One slot has already been filled by a man. On January 3, William J. Baer was sworn in as assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division.

Erin Burnett: White men to fill Obama's cabinet

That could leave three. We say "could" because it's not yet 100% clear that the heads of the FTC or FCC will be stepping down, though top appointees do shift around in a president's second term. For instance, there has already been speculation that Lawrence E. Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information, which manages the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is in the running for FCC chair. Why not an equally logical woman's name?

Karen Kornbluh, who has just returned from serving as U.S. ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, was one of six women called qualified by the National Journal. Others named as possible FCC chairs were FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, Clinton administration FCC executives Susan Ness and Cathy Sandoval and Obama adviser and communications expert Susan Crawford.

We're glad to say there has been one black FCC chair, William Kennard, and he made a top priority of closing the digital divide for African-Americans and for Americans with disabilities. It's unfortunate that there has been only one, though we live in a diverse country in which white Americans are about to become the minority. Never in the 80 years of the FCC has a woman of any race or group been its chair, though women have been the nation's majority for a long time.

Then there's the Federal Trade Commission, which has broad oversight over everything from price fixing at the gas pump to whether Google is a monopoly. It includes the Bureau of Consumer Protection, which monitors false and deceptive advertising. Women still have most of the purchasing power in households. According to GfK MRI's Spring 2011 Survey of the American Consumer, 75% of women are the primary shoppers for all household products. Women are more likely to have the expertise for such decisions in the interest of consumers and also to be affected by those decisions.

As we step into 2013, America's media are still largely run by men. Women hold only 6% of all TV and radio station licenses. It's long past the time to close the gender gap in our nation's leadership and in the media and telecom industries' leadership especially, where in 2011 only 28.4% of TV news directors were women, according to the Women's Media Center's 2012 Status of Women in the U.S. Media report.

We thought President Obama wanted women in his inner circle. Right now, the makeup of that inner circle looks nothing like the country.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem.

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Costa Concordia survivors talk life 1 year later

(CBS News) This weekend marks one year since the Costa Concordia disaster off the tiny island of Giglio, Italy. The cruise liner ran aground and capsized while sailing too close to land, and 32 people were killed.

Complete coverage: Italian cruise disaster

In the year since the Costa Concordia ran aground, the more than 4,000 survivors have looked to move on in various ways. However, CBS News spoke with five passengers about the memories that still haunt them from the ordeal.

Benji Smith recalled, "People were screaming. It was really -- this was the most scared we had been at this point, and we're finally -- we felt like, 'Now we're going to die'."

Smith and his wife Emily Lau were on their honeymoon when the Costa Concordia struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany, Italy, and began to sink.

Lau said, "When we went up with our life jackets, there were so many people. And people were crying, old people, young people. And I looked at Benji. I said, 'Hey -- I don't want to push. Is that OK with you?' And he said, 'Yeah, I don't want to push either.' So I said, 'OK, if we don't push, we will be at the end of the line. That means we definitely won't get on a lifeboat and then we might die, is that OK with you?' ... And he said, 'Yeah. That's OK with me.' And I knew at that moment that I had married my soul mate."

On the other side of the ship, Brian Aho, his wife Joan Fleser and their daughter Alana were scrambling for a lifeboat.

Brian Aho said, "Everybody was pushing and shoving to get aboard it. But they wouldn't let anyone on until they blew the actual 'abandon ship' signal."

Alana Aho said she was thinking she was just happy to have made it to a lifeboat. "I was the last one on and I got separated from my parents. And my mom actually grabbed my ankles and like, pulled me into the boat. ... There were two younger guys that didn't make it onto our lifeboat and they were just screaming and yelling."

Brian Aho added, "It was heartbreaking to see people that were left behind, but there was nothing we could do."

Benji Smith said he found a rope that he and his wife used to repel down the side of the ship. "We were holding onto the rope for three hours," he said. "Helicopters were coming overhead, there were Coast Guard boats (that spotted us.) There's infrared imagery of the people on the side of the ship waving to helicopters. And so you can see us as these tiny dots in the infrared imagery when the helicopter was flying overhead."

About 45 minutes later, a returning lifeboat rescued Smith and Lau.

Smith said, "I think for us, this story is really about islands of compassion in this sea of indifference. That the institutions that were supposed to look after us all failed, one after another."

And that, they say, includes the U.S. government.

Fleser said, "When I called the embassy, I said, you know, 'Can you send someone? Can you send an ambassador?' 'Oh, no. That's not gonna happen. We don't send anybody.' 'Can you send a car for us?' 'No. No car.' 'You know, just take a taxi and come on down.' 'Can you get us the money for a taxi?' 'No, we will not give you any money'."

A year after the incident, Fleser said she and her husband have been focusing on crew safety. She said, "We've been to congressional hearings, we've met with representatives. We're working with an attorney to help change cruise laws."

Since the wreck, the cruise industry has tried to change some safety policies, and many cruise lines now do lifeboat drills before their ships ever leave the dock. But it's not a rule. And throughout the industry, other issues that plagued the Costa Concordia's crew, such as standardized language requirements and cross-training with lifeboat operations and firefighting, have generally not been improved.

Brian Aho said he has issues with flashbacks, among other things. Lau said she's had intense post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. She said, "We were told that, 'You guys must go through this, otherwise you will be messed up for the rest of your life'."

Watch CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg's full report in the video above.

Smith added, "Emily and I both took this experience and we wanted to create something meaningful from this. I wrote a book about the experience, a book that I'm really, really proud of. And Emily composed a CD of original compositions about the experience -- just beautiful, haunting pieces about those moments on the ship and off the ship."

Lau said, "I'm a classical musician, and my whole life I've been trying to you know, perfect something, make it better, make it so perfect. And it has been an obsession my whole life. And fear comes with being a perfectionist. And I think the emotional take for me, you know, after being almost dead, was that I don't have to be so scared any more."

These days cruise liners continue to pass Giglio -- although not so close now -- and what was the biggest shipwreck of its kind has now become the biggest salvage effort ever undertaken.

Watch Allen Pizzey's full report from Giglio in the video below.

The rusting white hull of the once-luxury liner has been overwhelmed by the massive equipment needed to refloat it. Most of the 450 workers live in a blue housing complex moored alongside the wreck. Their job is well underway, and reportedly on-schedule, but it's hard to tell.

The bulk of the work is out of sight, amid eerie debris that still drifts out of the wreck. More than 100 divers are the preparing gigantic anchor points to hold cables that will roll the ship off the rocks. An underwater platform will stabilize the nearly 1,000 feet long liner when it is rolled over. Massive flotation tanks -- some as high as 11 stories -- will be welded to the sides, in effect making a steel life preserver to keep the Costa Concordia afloat.

The 96-ton rock that ripped the hull open has been removed. A piece of it sits in the church that sheltered scores of survivors on the fatal night.

On Sunday, exactly one year after the accident, a memorial service will be held. Rev. Lorenzo Pasquatti, the affable local priest, says the 32 people who died will always be remembered, but the islanders want the wreck gone, so they can get back to what he calls "the natural rhythm of their lives".

"The people would like this to end as soon as possible," he said. "It is becoming too heavy."

The Costa Concordia will be there at least until the fall. However, the lawsuits will undoubtedly drag on even longer. The judicial inquiry into the wreck runs to some 50,000 pages, which will make the trial of Capt. Francesco Schettino on charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning his ship one of the biggest in Italian legal history. It's scheduled to begin next month.

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Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.

Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School.

"I don't want to shoot you," the teen gunman told Heber, who convinced the teen gunman to drop his weapon, a high power shotgun.

Responding to calls of shots fired, campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields arrived at the classroom and helped Heber talk the boy into giving up the weapon.

"This teacher and this counselor stood there face-to-face not knowing if he was going to shoot them," said Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. "They probably expected the worst and hoped for the best, but they gave the students a chance to escape."

One student, who police say the shooter had targeted, was shot. He was airlifted to a hospital and remains in critical, but stable condition, Youngblood said. He is expected to undergo surgery today.

Two other students received minor injuries. One suffered hearing loss and another fell over a table while evacuating. Heber received a wound to his head from a stray pellet, police said.

Taft Midway Driller/Doug Keeler/AP Photo

Tennessee Teen Arrested Over School Shooting Threat Watch Video

Tragedy at Sandy Hook: The Search for Solutions Watch Video

Police said the teen, whose name has not been made public because he is a minor, began plotting on Wednesday night to kill two students he felt had bullied him.

Authorities believe the suspect found his older brother's gun and brought it into the just before 9 a.m. on Thursday and went to Heber's second-floor classroom where a first period science class with 20 students was taking place.

"He planned the event," Youngblood said. "Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet."

The gunman entered the classroom and shot one of his classmates. Heber immediately began trying to talk him into handing over the gun, and evacuating the other students through the classroom's backdoor.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The gunman was found with several rounds of additional ammunition in his pockets.

Within one minute of the shooting, a 911 call was placed and police arrived on the scene. An announcement was made placing the school on lockdown and warning teachers and students that the precautions were "not a drill."

The school had recently announced new safety procedures following last month's deadly shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school in which 20 young children were killed. Six school staffers, including the principal, were killed as they tried to protect the children from gunman Adam Lanza.

The school employs an armed security guard, but he was not on campus Thursday morning.

Youngblood said the student would be charged with attempted murder, but the district attorney would decide if he was to be tried as an adult.

Some 900 students attend Taft Union High School, located in Taft, Calif., a rural community in southern California.

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Terror group fills Syria rebels' space

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• U.S. declared a key opposition group in Syria a terrorist organization


• New report says it is the most effective group in the opposition, with 5,000 fighters


• Nada Bakos: The group has ties to al Qaeda but also seeks to provide social services


• She says the chances are slim that it could be persuaded to give up radical goals

Editor's note: Nada Bakos is a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst.

(CNN) -- In the midst of the struggle against Bashar al-Assad's government stands Jabhat al-Nusra, recently designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.

A new report by the Quilliam Foundation in London says the organization is the most effective arm of the Syrian insurgency and now fields about 5,000 fighters against the Assad regime.

Practically speaking, the terrorist designation means little that is new for the immediate struggle in Syria. Shortly after al-Nusra claimed credit for one of its early suicide bombings in January 2012, the Obama administration made known al-Nusra's connection to al Qaeda in Iraq, a group with which I was intimately familiar in my capacity as an analyst and targeting officer at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Nada Bakos

The administration's position was reinforced when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper one month later testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee that "...we believe al-Qaeda in Iraq is extending its reach into Syria."

Analysis: Study shows rise of al Qaeda affiliate in Syria

Al-Nusra is filling a power vacuum through charitable efforts to galvanize local support and generating influence among Syrians. In light of al-Nusra's influence in Syria, the real question is not so much about the scope and scale of al-Nusra currently, but rather how should the United States respond to its rise, particularly after al-Assad's eventual exit?

Read more: Al-Assad touts plan for resolution, says enemies of Syria 'will go to hell'

Historically, the U.S. government seemed to believe that as soon as people are given the chance, they will choose and then create a Jeffersonian democracy. Then we are surprised, if not outraged, that people turn to organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood in electoral contests. These organizations often provide the basic necessities that people need to survive: food, water, medical care, education and security.

As ideologically distasteful as we might find them, they are often doing things corrupt, weak or failing governments do not: providing the basic necessities that people need to survive (let alone create the conditions that enable people to aspire to thrive).

Why does al-Nusra keep quiet about its ties to al Qaeda in Iraq? The documents pulled from the Abottabad raid that killed Osama bin Laden shed light on his awareness that the al Qaeda brand had been deteriorating.

Read more: Appeals court to consider release of photos of bin Laden's body

Bin Laden urged regional groups, "If asked, it would be better to say there is a relationship with al Qaeda, which is simply a brotherly Islamic connection, and nothing more," according to CNN. Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had criticized the Jordanian-born founder and leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for his killing of civilians and lack of political acumen to win public support.

Talk about al Qaeda seems distant. It was a bogeyman made real in 1993 when it unsuccessfully attacked the World Trade Center and terrifyingly tangible in 2001 when its operatives succeeded in destroying the twin towers and expanded their attacks to the Pentagon and the air over Pennsylvania. Its looming shadow has since faded from the public eye, particularly with the death of bin Laden. Its vision and ideology, however, continue to have a strong appeal.

Now that al Qaeda central has a less visible role, what makes players like al-Nusra and al Qaeda in Iraq threats? Even today, after Zarqawi's death, al Qaeda in Iraq has managed to continue to wreak havoc in Iraq and in the region through an autonomous, adaptable structure.

Read more: Senior al Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan, officials say

Al-Nusra has declared itself a player in the fight for a global jihad, a bold statement for what is today a localized group . Even small groups, however, have the potential to disrupt regional stability and complicate America's pursuit of its national security objectives—a fact I learned firsthand tracking and trying to stem the rise, influence and efficacy of al Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Zarqawi, until his death in 2006, was able to confound U.S. forces and attack Jordan by attracting recruits from North Africa (including Libya), Central Europe, Jordan and Syria.

Some of Zarqawi's earliest recruits were veterans of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that lashed out against the Syrian government during the 1980s. Captured records from a raid near the city of Sinjar, Iraq, indicated that during the 2006-2007 time frame, 8% of al Qaeda in Iraq operatives were Syrians. The percentage likely ebbed and flowed as the group formed, became influential and waned, but it suggests that there was no shortage of recruits amenable to engage in religious conflict in Syria as recently as 5-10 years ago.

Read more: What is the Muslim Brotherhood?

The most striking thing about the captured records, however, is that it appears almost every foreign fighter entering Iraq to join al Qaeda in Iraq came through Syria. As a targeter, I can tell you that facilitation networks are key: they are the means by which groups such as al Qaeda in Iraq are funded, supplied and sustained. During the Iraq war, Zarqawi's top aides in Syria played a critical role in recruiting, funding and operational planning outside Iraq.

Read more: Syrian minister: Enemies 'brainwashed' slain rebel son

One of the things U.S. officials and the international media should watch for is how al-Nusra uses its terrorist designation: If it seeks to use the declaration to burnish its jihadist credentials, it might be able to bolster the image of the organization in the eyes of the extremist community and parlay that recognition into larger, or steadier, streams of funding—a development that will make the group more viable over the long-term or allow it to expand its operations or influence in the short- to mid-term.

An important differentiator between al Qaeda in Iraq and al-Nusra is one of its tactics: Zarqawi made a practice of indiscriminately killing Iraqi civilians, effectively terrorizing the Iraqi population, especially the Shiite minority. Zarqawi, despite identifying with al Qaeda, had a much thinner theological basis than al Qaeda central.

Key figures at al Qaeda central such as bin Laden and Zawahiri argued with Zarqawi over his tactics, complaining that alienating mainstream Muslims would not help achieve the over-arching goal of instilling Sharia law.

Read more: Ayman al-Zawahiri - Fast Facts

Al-Nusra is using some of the same tactics as al Qaeda in Iraq (e.g., suicide bombings, kidnappings and car bombs), but it appears to be trying to strike a balance Zarqawi was unwilling to make: Not only does it seem to be avoiding alienating—if not antagonizing—the larger population, but it also is providing the people of Syria with a range of goods and services such as food, water and medical care—basic necessities that people need to survive in the best of times, let alone when their country is in the throes of a civil war.

If this becomes a trend, it might signal that al-Nusra aspires to be more like Hezbollah or Hamas, organizations that defy neat categorization based on the range of social, political and military activities they engage in and the resultant legitimacy they have in the eyes of their constituencies.

Read more: Hamas leader unbending, but seeks Palestinian unity

In the Syrian uprising, the opportunity for meaningful U.S. intervention might have passed: Exhaustion from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken their toll on the U.S. military, have taxed the national treasury, and sapped political will, especially as the state of the economy remains at the center of the debate in Washington.

Our absence from the fight is going to cost us if the al-Assad regime fails, leaving rebel groups like al-Nusra dictating the direction, pace and scope of a new Syria.

Read more: Syrian rebel leader talks victory and squalor

Given that managing affairs in the Middle East has never been one of our strong suits, the question at this point should be how can the United States, particularly the Department of State, best engage groups that might be inimical to U.S. values but necessary to our interests in the Middle East? For that, I am not sure there is a clear or simple answer.

One opportunity would be if the United States uses its designation of al-Nusra as both a stick and carrot, cajoling and encouraging it to enter into mainstream politics when (or if) the Assad regime falls.

My read of al-Nusra, however, is that, like Zarqawi, it does not aspire to be a political player and is unlikely to settle for a political role in the new government. Instead, it may aim to play the spoiler for any transitional government and use its resources and political violence to empower and encourage other like-minded extremists. With time and opportunity, al-Nusra could not only add to regional instability in the Middle East, but also rekindle global jihad.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Nada Bakos.

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Football: Adebayor included as Africa Cup squads named

JOHANNESBURG: Emmanuel Adebayor will play at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations after he was included in Togo's squad as the 16 sides finalised their 23-man squads.

Mahamadou Diarra will meanwhile miss the tournament, and a late-minute change left Brown Ideye thrilled and Nigeria team-mate Raheem Lawal devastated.

It was all part of the drama ahead of the January 19-February 10 tournament that will be played in five South African cities.

Tottenham striker and Togo captain Adebayor said last year he would shun the competition, citing security concerns after being part of the squad attacked in Angola ahead of the 2010 finals.

A player and an official were killed by separatists seeking independence for the oil-rich Cabinda enclave and Adebayor escaped injury by cowering under a bus seat.

As Tottenham, the Togo president and national football officials became involved in the saga, Adebayor refused to reveal his plans, and his inclusion became official only when the 23-man squad was named by coach Didier Six.

Perennial underachievers Togo are in the Rustenburg-based 'group of death' with title favourites Ivory Coast and other former champions Algeria and Tunisia and are given little hope of survival.

Mali, third last year and considered likely quarter-finalists after being drawn with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Niger, suffered a late setback when Fulham midfielder Diarra pulled out injured.

A recurring knee injury failed to heal, meaning the veteran will miss a second consecutive Cup of Nations, although the blow was cushioned by the return of another experienced midfielder, Mohamed Lamine Sissoko.

Turkey-based midfielder Lawal was included in a Nigerian squad leaked to the media a day before the final-squad deadline, only to be replaced by striker Ideye when it was officially announced.

Home-based players have traditionally been ignored by Super Eagles coaches, but Stephen Keshi has chosen six, including goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim and strikers Sunday Mba and Ejike Uzoenyi from Enugu Rangers.

Shock absentees from the 2012 tournament, Nigeria face defending champions Zambia and outsiders Burkina Faso and Ethiopia in Group C and are expected to make the knock-out phase at least.

Debutants Cape Verde made a couple of last-minute changes with injured midfielder Odair Fortes and unavailable striker Ze Luis replaced by Portugal-based pair Platini and Rambe.

Cape Verde face hosts South Africa in the January 19 opening fixture at the 90,000-seat Soccer City stadium in Soweto and also confront former champions Morocco and Angola in the first round.

- AFP/de

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Bennett: Obama, wake up to spending

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• William Bennett: National debt doesn't look like a priority for President Obama


• Bennett: Obama more concerned with his legacy rather than our economic well-being


• He asks why the president is so unwilling to cut the size and scope of government


• Bennett: GOP should make it clear that it will fulfill our debt obligations in a responsible way

Editor's note: William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.

(CNN) -- Second terms, untainted by re-election posturing, often reveal a president's true governing philosophy. In the case of President Obama, two recent revelations have confirmed all we may need to know about his agenda for the next four years.

On December 30, the president sat down for an interview with David Gregory on "Meet the Press." Gregory asked the president, "So what is your single priority of the second term? What is the equivalent to health care?"

President Obama replied, "Well, there are a couple of things that we need to get done. I've said that fixing our broken immigration system is a top priority. I will introduce legislation in the first year to get that done." He went on to say, "The second thing that we've got to do is to stabilize the economy and make sure it's growing."

William Bennett

During his first term in office, coming off "the worst recession since the Great Depression," to use the president's own words, it appeared to many that he prioritized Obamacare over the economy. Now it appears that the economy, and all that goes along with it, like the ever-growing national debt, will again play second fiddle, this time to immigration reform.

If priorities are any reflection of politics, it appears the president is more concerned with what he regards as historic, landmark legislation to build his legacy, rather than the economic well-being of the nation. If that seems like a harsh assessment, consider that just this week we learned from Stephen Moore's interview of House Speaker John Boehner in the Wall Street Journal that the president told Boehner during the fiscal cliff negotiations, "We don't have a spending problem."

If $16 trillion of national debt and the huge deficits each year aren't spending problems, then what is? The United States most certainly has a spending problem. For the president to insist otherwise is dumbfounding but at the same time entirely consistent with his policies.

He called for the Simpson-Bowles Commission on deficit reduction, but ignored their recommendations. He campaigned ad nauseam about the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction, but the latest fiscal cliff deal is almost entirely tax hikes and even includes more stimulus spending. The only spending cuts he agreed to, the sequestration cuts, he had announced during one of the presidential debates "will not happen."

There seems to be a near invincible unwillingness by this president and his advisors to cut the size and scope of government. How then do conservatives negotiate the coming debt ceiling extension, especially when they control neither the White House nor the Senate?

There is no easy answer, but perhaps they should begin by explaining to the American people "the politics of reality," as William Buckley aptly defined conservatism.

The recent elections seem to indicate that a majority of the American people want lower taxes for themselves but approve of the president's increased spending programs. In the end, they cannot have both. A vibrant and prosperous private sector cannot coexist with a one-size-fits-all caretaker state. One relies on low taxes and limited government interference, the other on high taxes and government redistribution of resources.

So Americans must choose between the two and conservatives must make that choice clear: higher taxes, higher spending and more government services, or opportunity and upward mobility with lower taxes and less government interference.

The debt ceiling is just the first of many opportunities to bring this choice to the public. Republicans should make it clear that they will fulfill our debt obligations in a responsible manner, but they will only give the president short-term debt ceiling extensions until we get this problem under control. If Obama doesn't want to cut spending in a meaningful way he's going to have to explain that to the American people every couple of months for the next four years.

The purpose isn't to thrash the president and his party or be ideological shock troops, as Ronald Reagan once warned against, but to hold a national education seminar on fiscal responsibility. Republicans have not won the argument, and will not win it, when these fiscal deals are made behind closed doors before the strike of midnight.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant and so too in politics. Republicans can win the argument by making a clear and cogent public articulation of the president's spending problem and how the American people, especially the lower and middle classes, will be the ones to suffer as a result.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of William J. Bennett.

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Locals: Trapped whales freed with sea ice shift

In this Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013 photo provided by Marina Lacasse, a killer whale surfaces through a small hole in the ice near Inukjuak, in Northern Quebec. Mayor Peter Inukpuk urged the Canadian government Wednesday to send an icebreaker as soon as possible to crack open the ice and help the pod of about a dozen trapped orcas find open water. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it is sending officials to assess the situation. / AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Marina Lacasse

Updated at 10:45 a.m. ET

MONTREAL A Canadian village leader says about a dozen killer whales that were trapped under sea ice appear to have reached safety after the floating ice shifted on Hudson Bay.

5 Photos

Killer whales trapped in Quebec ice

Tommy Palliser said Thursday that two hunters from Inukjuak village reported the water had opened up around the area where the cornered whales had been bobbing frantically for air.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans said that it would send a helicopter to locate them, Isabelle Dubois of the Nunavik Tourism Association told CBS News.

Locals said the mammals had been trapped around a single, truck-sized breathing hole for at least two days.

Palliser says villagers had been planning to launch a rescue operation Thursday.

But he says the winds seemed to shift overnight, pushing the floating ice further away from shore to open up the water.

Mayor Peter Inukpuk had urged the Canadian government to send an icebreaker.

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Oscar Nominations 2013: Full List

"Lincoln" is leading the way to the 2013 Oscars. This morning, the biopic about the 16th president picked up 12 Academy Award nominations, including best director for Steven Spielberg and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" followed close behind with 11 nominations. "Les Miserables" and "Silver Linings Playbook" tied for third place, with eight nominations each.

The Academy also named its eldest and youngest best actress nominees ever. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, is up for best actress along with "Amour" lead Emmanuelle Riva, 85.

See who made the cut below, and weigh in on who you want to win with Oscar.com's My Picks, an interactive and social Oscar ballot that allows you to pick who you think will win in each category. You can compete with your Facebook friends when the Academy Awards air on Feb. 24.

FULL COVERAGE: The 85th Annual Academy Awards

Best Picture:

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Lincoln"

"Les Miserables"

"Life of Pi"

"Amour"

"Django Unchained"

"Argo"

My Picks: Create an Oscar Ballot and Play With Friends

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

PHOTOS: 2013 Oscar Nominees

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"

David James/Dreamworks/AP

Seth MacFarlane, Emma Stone Discuss Oscar Nominations Watch Video

Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"

Amy Adams, "The Master"

RELATED: Oscar's Likely Winners

Best Director:

David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"

Michael Haneke, "Amour"

Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Actor:

Daniel Day Lewis, "Lincoln"

Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Hugh Jackman, "Les Miserables"

Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Best Actress:

Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Original Screenplay:

"Zero Dark Thirty"

"Django Unchained"

"Moonrise Kingdom"

"Amour"

"Flight"

Best Adapted Screenplay:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Best Animated Feature:

"Frankenweenie"

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits"

"Wreck-It Ralph"

"Paranorman"

"Brave"

Best Foreign Feature:

"Amour"

"A Royal Affair"

"Kon-Tiki"

"No"

"War Witch"

Best Visual Effects:

"Life of Pi"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"The Avengers"

"Prometheus"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Cinematography:

"Skyfall"

"Anna Karenina"

"Django Unchained"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

Best Costume Design:

"Anna Karenina"

"Les Miserables"

"Lincoln"

"Mirror Mirror"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Documentary Feature:

"Searching for Sugar Man"

"How to Survive a Plague"

"The Gatekeepers"

"5 Broken Cameras"

"The Invisible War"

Best Documentary Short:

"Open Heart"

"Inocente"

"Redemption"

"Kings Point"

"Mondays at Racine"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

Best Film Editing:

"Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook"

"Life of Pi"

"Argo"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

"Hitchcock"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Les Miserables"

Best Music (Original Score):

"Anna Karenina"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Skyfall"

Best Music (Original Song):

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