French troops deployed in last Mali rebel strongholds

DOUENTZA, Mali/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops seized the airport in Mali's northern town of Kidal, the last urban stronghold held by Islamist insurgents, as they moved to wrap up the first phase of a military operation to wrest northern Mali from rebel hands.

France has deployed some 4,500 troops in a three-week ground and air offensive to break the Islamist rebels' 10-month grip on major northern towns. The mission is aimed at heading off the risk of Mali being used as a springboard for jihadist attacks in the wider region or Europe.

The French military plans to gradually hand over to a larger African force, tasked with rooting out insurgents in their mountain redoubts near Algeria's border.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces using planes and helicopters defied a sandstorm late on Tuesday to capture the airport but had been prevented by the bad weather from entering the town itself.

"The terrorist forces are pulling back to the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains which are difficult to access," Le Drian told a news conference. "There is support from Chadian and Nigerian troops coming from the south."

The deployment of French troops to remote Kidal puts them in direct contact with pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels, whose rebellion last year was hijacked by the Islamist radicals. Le Drian said France had established good relations with local Tuareg chieftains before sending in troops.

MNLA leaders say they are ready to fight al Qaeda but many Malians, including the powerful military top brass in the capital Bamako, blame them for the division of the country. They view Paris' liaisons with the Tuaregs with suspicion.

French and Malian troops retook the major Saharan trading towns of Gao and Timbuktu at the weekend.

There were fears that many thousands of priceless ancient manuscripts held in Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site, might have been lost during the rebel occupation, but experts said the bulk of the texts were safe.

The United States and European governments strongly support the Mali intervention and are providing logistical and surveillance backing but do not intend to send combat troops.

The MNLA rebels, who want greater autonomy for the desert north, said they had moved fighters into Kidal after Islamists left the town earlier this week.

"For the moment, there is a coordination with the French troops," said Moussa Ag Assarid, the MNLA spokesman in Paris.

A spokesman for the Malian army said its soldiers were securing Gao and Timbuktu and were not heading to Kidal.

The MNLA took up arms against the Bamako government a year ago, seeking to carve out a new independent desert state.

After initially fighting alongside the Islamists, by June they had been forced out by their better armed and financed former allies, who include al Qaeda North Africa's wing, AQIM, a splinter wing called MUJWA and Ansar Dine, a Malian group.

RISK OF ATTACKS, KIDNAPPINGS

As the French wind up the first phase of their offensive, doubts remain about just how quickly the U.N.-backed African intervention force can be fully deployed in Mali to hunt down the retreating al Qaeda-allied insurgents. Known as AFISMA, the force is now expected to exceed 8,000 troops.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said France's military operation, codenamed Serval (Wildcat), was planned as a lightning mission lasting a few weeks.

"Liberating Gao and Timbuktu very quickly was part of the plan. Now it's up to the African countries to take over," he told the Le Parisien daily. "We decided to put in the means and the necessary number of soldiers to strike hard. But the French contingent will not stay like this. We will leave very quickly."

One French soldier has been killed in the mission, and Fabius warned that things could now get more difficult, as the offensive seeks to flush out insurgents with experience of fighting in the desert from their wilderness hideouts.

"We have to be careful. We are entering a complicated phase where the risks of attacks or kidnappings are extremely high. French interests are threatened throughout the entire Sahel."

An attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria earlier this month by Islamist fighters opposing the French intervention in Mali led to the deaths of dozens of foreign hostages and raised fears of similar reprisal strikes across North and West Africa.

NEED FOR RECONCILIATION

The French operation has destroyed the Islamists' training camps and logistics bases but analysts say a long term solution for Mali hinges on finding a political settlement between the northern communities and the southern capital Bamako.

Interim President Dioncounda Traore said on Tuesday his government would aim to hold national elections on July 31. Paris is pushing strongly for Traore's government to hold talks with the MNLA, which has dropped its claims for independence.

"The Malian authorities must begin without delay talks with the legitimate representatives of the northern population and non-terrorist armed groups that recognize Mali's integrity," French Foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said.

After months of being kept on the political sidelines, the MNLA said they were in contact with West African mediators who are trying to forge a national settlement to reunite Mali.

"We reiterate that we are ready to talk with Bamako and to find a political solution. We want self-determination, but all that will be up to negotiations which will determine at what level both parties can go," Ag Assarid said.

There have been cases in Gao and Timbuktu and other recaptured towns of reprisal attacks and looting of shops and residences belonging to Malian Tuaregs and Arabs suspected of sympathizing with the MNLA and the Islamist rebels.

(Additional reporting John Irish and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, David Lewis and Pascal Fletcher in Dakar; Writing by David Lewis and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Rosalind Russell)

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2 new commercial belts to bring jobs closer to homes

SINGAPORE: Jobs will be brought nearer to the homes to help ease the congestion in the city centre, with two new commercial belts.

The government, which outlined these developments in its Land Use Plan, will also make it easier for people to use public transport. And, it hopes to see 75 per cent of all journeys made by public transport by 2030, compared with the current 60 per cent.

The first new commercial belt is the North Coast Innovation Corridor, spanning Woodlands Regional Centre, Sembawang, the future Seletar Regional Centre and Punggol, to be ready in 10 to 15 years.

Seletar Regional Centre, for example, will be a major employment node for people living in the north and north east. There'll be more land for new business activities when the existing shipyard facilities in Sembawang are phased out.

By 2030, it'll be easier to get around using the Cross Island Line, Thomson Line and the new North-South Expressway.

Within the regional hubs, there are plans to start community bus services, which will operate during specific periods of the day.

The other commercial belt is the Southern Waterfront City - from Marina Bay along the waterfront from Keppel, through Telok Blangah to Pasir Panjang Terminal. It'll have more commercial and housing developments after 2027.

To serve the expected increase along the North-South corridor and optimise the use of roads, the government may introduce what it calls a "reversible flow" scheme along certain expressways.

This means the traffic can flow in one direction during the morning peak hours and move in the opposite direction during the evening peak period.

- CNA/ck

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Discoms to allow repayment of arrears in instalments

CHANDIGARH: In a bid to increase the case recovery of electricity bills, the Haryana power distribution corporations have decided to allow payment of arrears in installments.

Till now, the distribution companies were resorting to civil or legal recoveries after disconnection in case the arrears of bills crossed three billing cycles.

Chairman and managing director of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Devender Singh said this has been done to facilitate the consumers.

The sub divisional officer (SDO) concerned can accept the payment of arrears in instalments with the condition that minimum 50% amount of the arrears is paid in the first instalment. The number of instalments can be two for arrear up to Rs 10,000, three for up to Rs 30,000, four for up to Rs 50,000, five for up to Rs 2 lakh and eight instalments for the amount of arrear above Rs 2 lakh.

Singh reiterated the promise of 20-hour power supply in rural belts, if consumers ensured regular payment of electricity bills. "If consumers pay for the power they consume, there would be no hurdle in supplying electricity for 20 hours a day in villages. There is no shortage of electricity, but the power distribution utilities should have sufficient money to purchase it,'' he said

Singh also elaborated on the campaign to maintain strengthen and renovate the electricity distribution system all over the state would help consumers bring down the aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) losses to the level of below 25% on their feeders to qualify for taking power supply on urban mode.

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Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.

All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.

Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting from real solutions to the nation's weight problems.

"The evidence is what matters," and many feel-good ideas repeated by well-meaning health experts just don't have it, said the lead author, David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Independent researchers say the authors have some valid points. But many of the report's authors also have deep financial ties to food, beverage and weight-loss product makers — the disclosures take up half a page of fine print in the journal.

"It raises questions about what the purpose of this paper is" and whether it's aimed at promoting drugs, meal replacement products and bariatric surgery as solutions, said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies.

"The big issues in weight loss are how you change the food environment in order for people to make healthy choices," such as limits on soda sizes and marketing junk food to children, she said. Some of the myths they cite are "straw men" issues, she said.

But some are pretty interesting.

Sex, for instance. Not that people do it to try to lose weight, but claims that it burns 100 to 300 calories are common, Allison said. Yet the only study that scientifically measured the energy output found that sex lasted six minutes on average — "disappointing, isn't it?" — and burned a mere 21 calories, about as much as walking, he said.

That's for a man. The study was done in 1984 and didn't measure the women's experience.

Among the other myths or assumptions the authors cite, based on their review of the most rigorous studies on each topic:

—Small changes in diet or exercise lead to large, long-term weight changes. Fact: The body adapts to changes, so small steps to cut calories don't have the same effect over time, studies suggest. At least one outside expert agrees with the authors that the "small changes" concept is based on an "oversimplified" 3,500-calorie rule, that adding or cutting that many calories alters weight by one pound.

—School gym classes have a big impact on kids' weight. Fact: Classes typically are not long, often or intense enough to make much difference.

—Losing a lot of weight quickly is worse than losing a little slowly over the long term. Fact: Although many dieters regain weight, those who lose a lot to start with often end up at a lower weight than people who drop more modest amounts.

—Snacking leads to weight gain. Fact: No high quality studies support that, the authors say.

—Regularly eating breakfast helps prevent obesity. Fact: Two studies found no effect on weight and one suggested that the effect depended on whether people were used to skipping breakfast or not.

—Setting overly ambitious goals leads to frustration and less weight loss. Fact: Some studies suggest people do better with high goals.

Some things may not have the strongest evidence for preventing obesity but are good for other reasons, such as breastfeeding and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the authors write. And exercise helps prevent a host of health problems regardless of whether it helps a person shed weight.

"I agree with most of the points" except the authors' conclusions that meal replacement products and diet drugs work for battling obesity, said Dr. David Ludwig, a prominent obesity research with Boston Children's Hospital who has no industry ties. Most weight-loss drugs sold over the last century had to be recalled because of serious side effects, so "there's much more evidence of failure than success," he said.

___

Online:

Obesity info: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Former Police Captain Cleared of Ex-Wife's Murder

A former Ohio police captain has been cleared in the murder of his ex-wife and released from prison, where he had been for 15 years -- but prosecutors say they plan to appeal the ruling.

"I'm just a jumble of emotions and I just can't wait to hug all of my family," Douglas Prade told reporters outside the prison when he was released Tuesday afternoon, according to ABC News' Cleveland affiliate WEWS-TV.

He thanked "all of the people that supported me and communicated with me and told me to keep my spirits up."

Prade's ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade, 41, was found shot to death in her minivan outside of her medical practice in November 1997.

Douglas Prade was an Akron, Ohio, police captain at the time.

At trial, he was convicted on murder and wiretapping charges and sentenced to life in prison.

Prade, now 66, maintained his innocence and, eventually, the Ohio Innocence Project took up his cause and petitioned for his release or a new trial based on new DNA testing.

One of the key factors in Prade's conviction was a bite mark found on Margo Prade's body. The prosecution brought in an expert that testified the bite mark came from Douglas Prade.

Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal/AP Photo

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The Ohio Innocence Project commissioned a new DNA test that was not available at the time of the trial. The test found that the DNA around the bite was not Douglas Prade's.

Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter ruled that Prade should be set free because the new DNA results were "clear and convincing" in Prade's favor, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutor Sherri Walsh is strongly disputing the new DNA evidence.

"This is a gross misapplication of the law, and we will be appealing Prade's exoneration. The defendant had to present new evidence so convincing that no juror would have found him guilty, and he failed to do so," Walsh said in a statement. "The DNA evidence presented by the Ohio Innocence Project on behalf of Prade is contaminated and unreliable. It does not prove innocence."

Walsh said that all evidence points to Prade as the person who killed Margo Prade.

"He was a serial stalker," Walsh said. "He tapped her phones and recorded more than 400 of her personal calls. He had verbally abused and threatened her. And we know Margo was afraid of him."

Other evidence includes Prade's handwritten tally of the bills he owed subtracted from the life insurance money he'd get if his wife died, Walsh said. Two witnesses placed him at the murder scene.

"We have not seen any credible evidence that suggests innocence, and we are taking all available actions to keep a dangerous killer off the streets," Walsh said.

Margo Prade's family is also upset by the decision.

"I feel like my life is in danger and my family's life is in danger now," Margo Prade's nephew Tony Fowler told the AP. "[Dr. Prade and her mother] are probably turning over in their graves but God will have the final say."

Alison McCarty, the former prosecutor on the case, told WEWS she respected the court's decision, but emphasized that the case is not yet closed.

"[Margo Prade] was such a superstar and it was just such a tremendous loss, and her death still needs justice," McCarty said.

The state has 30 days to file a motion in the court of appeals requesting permission to appeal the decision for a new trial.

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Sixty-five people executed in Syria's Aleppo: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 65 people were found shot dead with their hands bound in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday in a "new massacre" in the near two-year revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Opposition campaigners blamed the government but it was impossible to confirm who was responsible. Assad's forces and rebels have been battling in Syria's commercial hub since July and both have been accused of carrying out summary executions.

U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told the U.N. Security Council "unprecedented levels of horror" had been reached in Syria, and that both the government and rebels had committed atrocious crimes, diplomats said.

He appealed to the 15-nation council to overcome its deadlock and take action to help end the civil war in which Syria is "breaking up before everyone's eyes".

More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the war, the longest and deadliest of the revolts that began throughout the Arab world two years ago.

The U.N. refugee agency said the fighting had forced more than 700,000 people to flee. World powers fear the conflict could envelop Syria's neighbors including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, further destabilizing an already explosive region.

Opposition activists posted a video of at least 51 muddied male bodies alongside what they said was the Queiq River in Aleppo's rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood.

The bodies had what looked like bullet wounds in their heads and some of the victims appeared to be young, possibly teenagers, dressed in jeans, shirts and trainers.

Aleppo-based opposition activists who asked not to be named for security reasons blamed pro-Assad militia fighters.

They said the men had been executed and dumped in the river before floating downstream into the rebel area. State media did not mention the incident.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says it provides objective information about casualties on both sides of Syria's war from a network of monitors, said the footage was evidence of a new massacre and the death toll could rise as high as 80.

"They were killed only because they are Muslims," said a bearded man in another video said to have been filmed in central Bustan al-Qasr after the bodies were removed from the river. A pickup truck with a pile of corpses was parked behind him.

STALEMATE

It is hard for Reuters to verify such reports from inside Syria because of restrictions on independent media.

Rebels are stuck in a stalemate with government forces in Aleppo - Syria's most populous city which is divided roughly in half between the two sides.

The revolt started as a peaceful protest movement against more than four decades of rule by Assad and his family, but turned into an armed rebellion after a government crackdown.

About 712,000 Syrian refugees have registered in other countries in the region or are awaiting processing as of Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said.

"We have seen an unrelenting flow of refugees across all borders. We are running double shifts to register people," Sybella Wilkes, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters in Geneva.

The United Nations said it had received aid promises ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on Wednesday where it is seeking $1.5 billion for refugees and people inside Syria. Washington announced an additional $155 million that its said brought the total U.S. humanitarian aid to the crisis to some $365 million.

Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said the bulk of the current aid was going to government-controlled areas in Syria and called on donors to make sure they were even-handed.

MISSILES

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, insurgents including al Qaeda-linked Islamists captured a security agency after days of heavy fighting, according to an activist.

Some of the fighters were shown carrying a black flag with the Islamic declaration of faith and the name of the al-Nusra Front, which has ties to al Qaeda in neighboring Iraq.

The war has become heavily sectarian, with rebels who mostly come from the Sunni Muslim majority fighting an army whose top generals are mostly from Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. Assad has framed the revolt as a foreign-backed conspiracy and blames the West and Sunni Gulf states.

Fighting also took place in the northern town of Ras al-Ain, on the border with Turkey, between rebels and Kurdish militants, the Observatory said.

In Turkey, a second pair of Patriot missile batteries being sent by NATO countries are now operational, a German security official said.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands each committed to sending two batteries and up to 400 soldiers to operate them after Ankara asked for help to bolster its air defenses against possible missile attack from Syria.

(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Kuwait, Sabine Siebold in Berlin and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Robin Pomeroy)

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Million mourners set to honour Cambodia's ex-king

PHNOM PENH: More than one million mourners are expected to line the streets of the Cambodian capital on Friday for a lavish funeral procession for their revered former King Norodom Sihanouk, officials say.

The late monarch's body will be transported atop a golden float shaped like a mythological bird from the royal palace -- where he has been lying in state for three months -- to a funeral pyre in a city park.

"This is our last homage to say goodbye to the great hero king," Prime Minister Hun Sen said on national radio this week.

Sihanouk died of a heart attack aged 89 in Beijing on October 15 last year.

He abdicated in 2004 after steering Cambodia through six decades marked by independence from France, civil war, the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and finally peace.

His body will be kept at the cremation site for religious ceremonies until Monday when his wife and son King Norodom Sihamoni are expected to light the pyre.

Foreign dignitaries -- including French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Japan's Prince Akishino and a host of Asian leaders or high-ranking officials -- are due to attend the cremation.

Flags will fly at half-mast. Radio and TV stations as well as entertainment venues have been instructed to refrain from showing "joyful spectacles", performances and concerts.

Cambodians have been urged to wear black ribbons pinned to their shirts.

"This is the first time in Cambodian history that the country holds such a large funeral for a king," said Sihanouk's long-time personal assistant Prince Sisowath Thomico.

"The nation does this to show him the same respect he gave to the country," he told AFP.

After the cremation, Sihanouk's remains will be put in a golden-colour urn that will be placed in a stupa inside the royal palace, he said, in line with the late monarch's wishes.

Large portraits of Sihanouk have been erected along Phnom Penh's streets and outside the royal palace where people have regularly gathered for religious ceremonies since his death.

"When the King-Father is cremated, it will be a big loss for Cambodia. We will lose our spirit," said Khut Simon, who joined about 100 people for one such ceremony.

"He was a good king who was incomparable," said the 61-year-old, clutching three pictures of the late monarch to her chest.

Sihanouk was just 18 when placed on the throne in 1941 by French colonial authorities, but quickly defied his patron's expectations of a pliant king.

Many elderly Cambodians fondly recall the 1950s and 1960s as a golden era, when Sihanouk led the country to independence from France and a rare period of political stability.

Hundreds of thousands filled the capital's boulevards when his body returned home from China in October.

A self-confessed "naughty boy" who married six times and fathered 14 children, the former king was also a prolific amateur filmmaker and shrewd political survivor who repeatedly backed different regimes.

He was not immune to controversy, notably aligning himself with the communist Khmer Rouge after being ousted by US-backed general Lon Nol in 1970.

After seizing power, the Khmer Rouge put Sihanouk under house arrest in the royal palace. Their 1975-79 reign of terror killed up to two million people, including five of Sihanouk's own children.

Before the Vietnamese invaded and toppled the Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk took exile in China.

He continued to push for peace, which eventually came in the 1990s. Sihanouk triumphantly regained the throne in 1993 but his influence diminished as strongman premier Hun Sen extended his grip on power.

In recent years, Sihanouk -- who battled illnesses including cancer, diabetes and heart problems -- spent long periods of time in China undergoing medical treatment, with his devoted sixth wife Monique always at his side.

-AFP/fl

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Where Mahatma Gandhi died 65 years ago - this day

NEW DELHI: The faintly heard traffic commotion does not affect the serenity of 5, Tees January Marg, a leafy avenue in the heart of the Indian capital, where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and where he was assassinated on Jan 30, 1948.

The expansive premises, which houses a museum that showcases the life and philosophy of the man Indians revere as the Father of the Nation, it is difficult to imagine that the man who always preached peace was violently killed by a Hindu zealot, Nathuram Godse.

The only indication that such a violent act happened at this peaceful surroundings are the cemented foot marks - that indicate the path that Mahatma Gandhi took when he came out to meet people on that fateful day - on the manicured lawn. The path leads to a simple white, canopied marble plaform with the inscription "Hey Ram".

Escorted by his grandnieces Abha and Manu, Gandhi was going for his evening prayers.

Gandhi, who was clad in his familiar white dhoti and wraparound, was shot thrice from point blank range. The first indication that he was shot was when a sparkling crimson spot appeared on his white cloth. It was at 5.17 pm.

His last words were — Hey Ram.

Kuldip Nayar, veteran journalist, still remembers the day. "I was working for the Urdu newspaper Anjam at that time when I heard the alerting bell of the news agency ticker. I rushed to the teleprinter and read the incredible words: 'Gandhi shot'.

"I sank into a chair, but then recovered my wits to rush to Birla House. There was complete pandemonium there. Gandhi was lying swathed with a white sheet and people were crying all around him. Nehru was there, looking shocked and shaken," Nayar told IANS.

"Not knowing what to do, I went and reverently touched the chair where Gandhi had last sat. My only thoughts where: what will happen to my country now!"

The premises were earlier known as Birla House which was owned by industrialist G.D.Birla, who had offered it to Gandhi as a place of residence and where he held his important political meetings, including with the nation's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

"Though it has been 65 years, nation cannot forget him. And the youth still come to Gandhi Smriti," said Krishna, 27, a volunteer here at Gandhi Smriti (Gandhi Memorial) that has been turned into a museum.

"Gandhi ji used to stay in Panchkuian Road in Paharganj in New Delhi but he was requested to move here following communal violence. So he came here," Krishna told IANS.

The subcontinent was witnessing unprecedented communal violence after India and Pakistan were partitioned.

The nation Wednesday will observe the 65the death anniversary of the man also fondly called "Bapu".

Gandhi, who is revered world over as an apostle of peace, was a great believer in inter-faith harmony and fought all his life for it.

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.

Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.

"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.

That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.

Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."

Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.

Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.

Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."

The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.

"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.

For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.

The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.

Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.

The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.

"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."

Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.

A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.

"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.

He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.

Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.

And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.

"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.

Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.

Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.

His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."

"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."

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Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

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Clinton Talks 2016, Stands by Benghazi Testimony

In her final television interview as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton told ABC's Cynthia McFadden that she is "flattered and honored" at the intense interest in whether she might run for president in 2016.

But Clinton maintained that right now she's "not focused" on a presidential campaign; instead she said she wants to return to a "normal" life when she steps down from office on Friday.

Watch Cynthia McFadden's full interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 a.m. ET

Clinton's first order of business, she said, will be sleep.

"I hope I get to sleep in," she told McFadden with a laugh. "It will be the first time in many years. I have no office to go to, no schedule to keep, no work to do. That will probably last a few days then I will be up and going with my new projects," she said.

"I have been working or attending school full-time since I was 13. This is going to be new for me. I don't know how I'm going to react to it, to be honest."

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton Through the Years: From Wellesley to the White House, and Beyond

Clinton has had no trouble articulating her reaction to what has arguably been the darkest chapter of her tenure as Secretary of State: the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.

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Secretary Clinton had a heated exchange with Republican Senator Ron Johnson during her five hours of testimony before Congress about the attack last week. Johnson accused the administration of misleading the American people about the cause of the attack, when UN Ambassador Susan Rice, on Sunday political talk shows, blamed it on protesters.

Clinton snapped back at Johnson, "Four Americans are dead. What difference does it make?" For that, she has been sharply criticized by some conservatives.

Clinton said she "absolutely" stands by her response to Johnson, maintaining that the administration has been transparent with the information it knew, when it was available. Clinton said partisan politics have no place in a response to a terrorist attack against Americans.

"I believe that we should in public life, whether you're in the administration or the Congress, de-politicize crisis and work together to figure out what happened, what we can do to prevent it and then put into place both the institutional changes and the budgetary changes that are necessary, " she said.

"When someone tries to put into a partisan lens, when they focus not on the fact that we have such a terrible event happening with four dead Americans but instead what did somebody say on a Sunday morning talk show? That to me is not in keeping with the seriousness of the issue and the obligation we all have as public servants"

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's "Nightline" Interview

Asked about her health, Clinton said her recent illness, concussion and blood clot were all a surprise.

"When I got sick and fainted and hit my head I was so surprised, and I thought I would just get up and go to work. And thankfully I had very good medical care and doctors who said, 'No we'd better do an MRI, we'd better do this, we'd better do that,'" she said, calling herself "lucky."

"I know now how split second beset by a virus and dehydrated, what it can do to you."

Though she confirmed she is wearing special glasses to help with double vision, a lingering issue following her illness, Clinton said that she expects to be fully recovered and operating at "full speed" soon.

The Secretary told McFadden that if she does decide to run, she would have "no problem" making her health records public.

"Of course, that goes with the territory," she said.

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