BREAKING NEWS FROM TANZANIA

Shilingi bilioni 86 zaibwa Wizara ya Nishati/TANESCO, Gridi ya Taifa hatarini
Gazeti la The East African la Novemba 24 – 30, 2012 limetoa taarifa kwamba jumla ya dola za kimarekani milioni 54 zimegundulika kuibwa na watumishi waandamizi wa Wizara ya Nishati na Madini na Shirika la TANESCO kupitia manunuzi ya Mafuta ya kuendesha mtambo wa Umeme wa IPTL. Gazeti hili limenukuu taarifa ya ukaguzi kutoka kwa Mdhibiti na Mkaguzi Mkuu wa Tanzania (Controller and Auditor General). Taarifa hiyo inasema kuna kikundi (racket) ambacho kazi yake kubwa ni kujifaidisha binafsi na mpango wa umeme wa dharura kupitia manunuzi ya Mafuta mazito ya IPTL.
Itakumbukwa kwamba toka mwaka 2011 kumekuwa na shinikizo lililotolewa na Kamati ya Bunge ya Hesabu za Mashirika ya Umma, Kamati ya Bunge ya Nishati na Madini na Waziri Kivuli wa Nishati na Madini kwamba zabuni za ununuzi wa mafuta ya kuendesha mpango wa umeme wa dharura na mchakato mzima wa manunuzi ya mafuta haya ufanyiwe uchunguzi wa kina (forensic audit).
Katika mkutano wa 3 wa Bunge la Kumi (April 2011) niliuliza swali Bungeni kuhusu kashfa hii ya ununuzi wa mafuta ya kuendesha mtambo wa IPTL na baadaye tarehe 16 Aprili 2011 nilimwomba Spika airuhusu Kamati ya Nishati na Madini kufanya uchunguzi kuhusu kashfa hii. Kamati ya Nishati na Madini chini ya aliyekuwa Mwenyekiti ndugu January Makamba ililitaka Bunge kuazimia kufanyika kwa uchunguzi kuhusu suala hili kwenye Taarifa yake ya mwaka 2011 iliyowasilishwa Bungeni mwezi Aprili mwaka 2012. Waziri Kivuli wa Nishati na Madini ndugu John Mnyika katika Hotuba yake ya Bajeti ya Wizara hiyo mwaka 2011 alipendekeza kufanyika kwa uchunguzi kuhusu kashfa hii pia. Juhudi zote hizo hazikuzaa matunda.
Kipindi hicho kiwango kilichokuwa kinahojiwa kuibwa ni shilingi bilioni 15 tu. Taarifa ya The East African kama walivyonukuu kutoka kwenye taarifa ya CAG inaonyesha fedha zilizoibwa ni shilingi bilioni 86.
Zabuni za kununua mafuta ya kuendesha umeme wa dharura zimekuwa zikitolewa bila kufuata utaratibu wa zabuni kwa mujibu wa Sheria ya manunuzi. Hivi sasa kila mwezi Tanzania inatumia dola milioni 70 kununua mafuta ya kuendesha mitambo ya umeme. Fedha hizi zinatoka Hazina na sehemu ndogo kutoka TANESCO. Wakati fedha hizi bilioni 112 zinachomwa kila mwezi kununua mafuta mazito na dizeli ya kuendesha mitambo ya umeme, Taarifa za kitaalamu zinaonyesha kwamba Bwawa la Mtera hivi lina kina cha maji chini ya kiwango kinachotakiwa na uzalishaji wa umeme ni asilimia 20 tu ya uwezo (installed capacity). Iwapo TANESCO wataendelea kutumia zaidi maji yaliyopo Mtera, Mitambo itashindwa kazi na Gridi nzima itasimama maana Mtera ndio nguzo kuu ya Gridi ya Taifa. Hali hii ni hatari sana kwa uchumi na ulinzi na usalama wa Taifa. Kimsingi Gridi ya Taifa ipo hatarini kutokana na kiwango cha Maji kilichopo Mtera hivi sasa na kuendelea kupungua kwa kina hicho cha maji.
Wananchi wanapaswa kuelezwa kinaga ubaga nini kinaendelea katika sekta ndogo ya umeme hapa nchini;
1.      Taarifa ya Mdhibiti na Mkaguzi Mkuu wa Serikali kuhusu zabuni za manunuzi ya Mafuta ya kuendesha mitambo ya umeme wa dharura iwekwe wazi na ‘racket’ inayosemekana kuiba jumla ya shilingi bilioni 86 ionyeshwe na hatua za kisheria zichukuliwe mara moja na bila kuchelewa.
2.      Waziri wa Nishati na Maadini auleze umma hali yalisi ya sekta ya umeme nchini, uzalishaji wa umeme upoje, hali ya maji katika bwawa mkakati la Mtera na nini hatma ya mitambo ya IPTL, kesi zake na utekelezaji wa mapendekezo ya Bunge kuwa kesi za kampuni hii zimalizwe nje ya mahakama. Pia Taifa lielezwe Mpango wa Dharura wa umeme unakwisha lini maana muda uliotolewa na Bunge mwezi Agosti mwaka 2011 tayari umekamilika. Waziri aeleze hatua agni amechukua baada ya kukabidhiwa taarifa na CAG kuhusu maafisa waandamizi wa Wizara waliohusika na wizi wa shilingi bilioni 86 za kununua mafuta ya IPTL.
3.      Waziri wa Fedha na Uchumi aueleze umma ni kiwango gani cha fedha Hazina imetoa kununua mafuta ya kuendesha mitambo ya umeme wa dharura kati ya Mwezi Novemba mwaka 2011 na Oktoba mwaka 2012 na kama taratibu zote za zabuni zilifuatwa na pale ambapo hazikufuatwa ni hatua gani PPRA wamechukua dhidi ya waliokiuka sheria ya manunuzi na kuleta hasara ya mabilioni ya fedha kwa Serikali.

Kabwe Zuberi Zitto, Mb
Naibu Kiongozi wa Upinzani Bungeni na Waziri Kivuli wa Fedha
Dar es Salaam. Novemba 25, 2012

Hezbollah warns of rocket barrage if Israel attacks Lebanon

BEIRUT

 Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Sunday that thousands of rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities if Israel attacked Lebanon.

In a speech marking the Shi'ite Muslim festival of Ashura, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's response to any attack would dwarf the attacks from Gaza during the eight-day conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas rulers of the coastal strip.

"Israel, which was shaken by a handful of Fajr-5 rockets during eight days - how would it cope with thousands of rockets which would fall on Tel Aviv and other (cities)... if it attacked Lebanon?" he said in speech, relayed by video-link to tens of thousands of Shi'ite faithful in central Beirut.

Hezbollah, which fought an inconclusive 34-day war with Israel in 2006, flew a drone over Israel last month, further escalating tensions in the region after Israel threatened to bomb the nuclear sites of Hezbollah's patron Iran.

Nasrallah said the rockets fired into Israel during the Gaza conflict had a range of between 40 to 70 km (25 to 45 miles), while Hezbollah could strike anywhere from Israel's northern border to its southern Red Sea port of Eilat.

The mourning festival of Ashura commemorates the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein and most of his family, leading to the division of Islam into Sunni and Shi'ite sects, a split that continues to plague the Islamic world.

(Reporting by Dominic Evans

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp

Dhaka Bangladesh clothes factory fire kills more than 100

Firefighters took several hours to bring the fire under control

More than 100 people are now known to have died in a fire that swept through a clothes factory in Bangladesh, local officials say.

The blaze broke out late on Saturday in the multi-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
Some people died after jumping from the building to escape the flames.
It is unclear what caused the fire, which started on the ground floor trapping many victims in the factory.
Firefighters managed to contain the blaze on Sunday morning, and officials suspect an electrical short circuit might have caused the disaster.
Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector, and the BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka says Western companies are likely to renew pressure on the local businesses to improve safety.
Anxious wait

Relatives of the factory's workers gathered at the scene - desperate for news about their loved ones

Initial reports said eight people had been killed, but the scale of the disaster became clear when rescue workers entered the building on Sunday.
"We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building," Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah of the Dhaka fire brigade told AFP news agency.
Later reports said that 120 people had died, but the number of fatalities was then lowered to at least 112. A number of people are believed to be missing.
The fire started on the ground floor - which was reportedly used as a warehouse - and quickly spread through the building.
Senior fire department official Mohammad Mahbub told the Associated Press news agency that the factory had no fire exit on the outside of the building.
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
The factory owner denied the allegations that the building was unsafe to work in.
"It is a huge loss for my staff and my factory. This is the first time we have ever had a fire at one of my seven factories," Delwar Hossain told AFP.
Police and soldiers were deployed to keep the situation under control as thousands of anxious relatives of factory employees gathered at the scene.
"Where's my son?" cried Sabina Yasmine. She said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, who died in the fire, but her son was missing, AP reports.
She expressed fury at the factory owners, who she blamed for the fire.
Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector.
Lax safety standards, poor wiring and overcrowding are blamed for causing several deadly factory fires every year.
In December 2010, a wiring problem led to a fire in another clothes factory in the same industrial zone, leaving at least 25 people dead.
There are around 4,500 factories in Bangladesh, employing more than two million people.
Clothes account for up to 80% of Bangladesh's $24bn (£15bn) annual exports.

Poor lung cancer care hinders survival, say experts

A persistent cough is one of the symptoms of lung cancer.

Poor care for lung cancer patients is "hindering" their survival, an expert group says.

The UK Lung Cancer Coalition said a lack of access to specialist teams and poor awareness about the disease were among the major problems.
The coalition, which includes doctors, patient groups and drug firms, said if standards could be raised as many as one in 10 deaths could be prevented.
Its report sets out a range of measures that could improve care.
These included giving all patients access to specialist nurses and ensuring they are part of teams of professionals that include specialist lung surgeons.
The coalition believes this is not the case for about a third of patients.
'Not good enough' The report also said there needed to be better co-ordination between GPs and hospitals, including the ordering of quick diagnostic tests for patients with suspected lung cancer.
And awareness about the disease needed to be increased among both patients and GPs - late recognition of symptoms is one of the key causes of late diagnosis which means the UK has low survival rates.

Lung cancer

• Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, according to the World Health Organisation
• In the UK, it's the second most-frequently occurring cancer among men (after prostate cancer), accounting for one in seven new cases, and the third most-frequently diagnosed cancer in women (after breast and bowel cancer) accounting for about one in nine new cases
• Numbers have dropped considerably in recent times, by about 16% in the last decade alone
• The majority of cases are caused by the effects of smoking - and while people are living longer with lung cancer, unfortunately the majority of cases cannot be cured

 

• Lung cancer symptoms and causes

It believes if all 30 of its recommendations were implemented across the board it would help the UK match the best in Europe, which could lead to 3,500 lives being saved each year.

The coalition said lung cancer was still being unfairly stigmatised because of the perception it was self-induced by smoking - despite one in eight cases being among people who have never smoked
Dr Mick Peake, who helped to draw up the report, said the current standards were "simply not good enough" and urged the NHS to take action.
"The report identifies a gold-standard practice for lung cancer - the sort of care clinicians would wish for their own families."
Duleep Allirajah, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "For too long lung cancer has been one of the more overlooked cancers, despite being the UK's biggest cancer killer.
"Implementation of these recommendations, especially with regards to vital and often life saving surgery, would undoubtedly go a long way to improving survival, where we still trail behind Europe."
The report comes after the new health secretary has vowed to improve survival in areas such as cancer.
Jeremy Hunt has said matching the best standards in Europe was one of his priorities after replacing Andrew Lansley in September.

KUWEKEA NDOA YAKO MSINGI MZURI (2)

KUWEKEA NDOA YAKO MSINGI MZURI (2)

UJIJUE MWENYEWE KWANZA.

Wanataka nini katika ndoa? Mambo ya kimwili, ya moyoni  nay a kiroho unayotaka ni nini?

Ni mambo gani unayoona kuwa ya maana sana? Una miradi na njia gani za kuyatimizia? Ili ujibu maulizo hayo inakupasa ujijue mwenyewe. Jambo hilo si jepesi kama mtu anavyoweza kudhani. Linataka hekima ya hali ya juu ili tujichunguze, na hata hivyo haiwezekani kujijua mwenyewe kabisa katika kila jambo.Paulo mtume alionyesha jambo hilo alipoandika maneno haya katika  1 Wakorintho 4:4. “Maana sijui sababu ya kujishitaki nafsi yangu, lakini sihesabiwi haki kwa ajili hiyo; ila anihukumuye mimi ni Yehova.”

                Wakati Fulani muumba alitaka mwanadamu Ayubu ajue mambo Fulani aliyokuwa akikosa kuyafahamu, naye Mungu akamwambia hivi:  “Nitakuuliza neno, nawe niambie.” (Ayubu 38:30) Maulizo yanaweza kusaidia kujijua wenyewe na kupata kujua habari ya makusudi yetu. Basi jiulize mwenyewe upate kujua namna unavyopendezwa na ndoa.

                Je, wataka kuoa au kuolewa ili utimize mambo ya kimwili yanayotakiwa – chakula,mavazi,nyumba? Hayo ni mambo ya kwanza kwetu sote, kama biblia inavyosema: “Tukiwa na chakula na nguo tutaridhika na vitu hivyo.” Na uhitaji wa ngono? Vilele hilo ni jambo la kawaida linalotakiwa. “Ni afadhali kuoa kuliko kuwaka tama.” (1 Timotheo 6:8; 1 Wakorintho 7:9) Je, kusudi la ndoa ni kuwa na mwenzi?. Hiyo ilikuwa sababu kubwa iliyomfanya Mungu aanzishe mpango wa ndoa. Sababu nyingine ilikuwa ya kwamba watu wawili washirikiane wafanye kazi pamoja(Mwanzo 2:18; 1:26-28) kutimiza kazi njema kunafurahisha na kunapaswa kuwe na thawabu yake: “Imempasa kila mtu ale na kunywa, aone mema kwa kazi yake yote ngumu. Hiyo ni zawadi kutoka kwa Mungu.” – Mhubiri 3:13.

                Watu wanaopendana wameuona moyo kwa muda mrefu kuwa mfano wa maoni yao. Lakini Biblia inauliza ulizo lenye kusumbua juu ya moyo: “Nani awezaye kuujua?” (Yeremia 17:9) Je! Unajua yaliyo katika moyo wako hakika?

                Mara nyingi, uzuri wan je unatuzuia tusijue mambo mengine ya moyoni tunayotaka. Unapotafuta mtu wa kuoana naye, je! Unataka sana kufahamika, kuonyeshwa fadhili na kuhurumiwa? Mambo ya kwanza ambayo sote tunataka ni haya: Mtu wa kuwa karibu nasi, wa kutumainia, wa kufunulia mambo yetu pasipo kuogopa kwamba atakasirika, mtu ambaye ‘hatakuzuilia huruma zake’. (1 Yohana 3: 17) Je! Unaweza kumpa mwenzi wako yote hayo, je! Naye atakurudishia yayo hayo?

                Yesu alisema: “Wenye furaha ni wale wanaoona uhitaji wao wa kiroho.” (Mathayo 5:3) Uhitaji wako wa kiroho ni nini? Je! Unahusiana na kutafuta kazi ya maisha? Utajiri? Mali za mwili? Basi, Je! Mambo hayo yanaleta amani na furaha ya moyoni? Kwa kawaida hayaleti. Kwa hiyo inatupasa tufahamu ya kwamba kunabaki na njaa ya roho ndani ya watu wote, hata yakiisha kutimizwa mahitaji yote ya kimwili. Roho yetu yatamani sana kujua kujua sisi ni nani, tuko namna gani, sababu ya kuwapo hapa, na tunakoelekea. Je! Wewe unaona uhitaji(ulazima) wa mambo haya ya kiroho, na namna ya kuyatimiza?

Egypt's Mursi faces judicial revolt over decree

CAIRO.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered violence in the street and exposed the country's deep divisions.
The Judges' Club, a body representing judges across Egypt, called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding the "downfall of the regime" - the rallying cry in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.
Mursi's political opponents and supporters, representing the divide between newly empowered Islamists and their critics, called for rival demonstrations on Tuesday over a decree that has triggered concern in the West.
Issued late on Thursday, it marks an effort by Mursi to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. The decree defends from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.
It also shields the Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from a raft of legal challenges that have threatened the body with dissolution, and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house of parliament.
Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, said the decree was an "unprecedented attack" on the independence of the judiciary. The Judges' Club, meeting in Cairo, called on Mursi to rescind it.
That demand was echoed by prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. "There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," he said.
"I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity," he said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.
More than 300 people were injured on Friday as protests against the decree turned violent. There were attacks on at least three offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that propelled Mursi to power.
POLARISATION
Liberal, leftist and socialist parties called a big protest for Tuesday to force Mursi to row back on a move they say has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.
In a sign of the polarization in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood called its own protests that day to support the president's decree.
Mursi also assigned himself new authority to sack the prosecutor general, who was appointed during the Mubarak era, and appoint a new one. The dismissed prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero's welcome at the Judges' Club.
In open defiance of Mursi, Ahmed al-Zind, head of the club, introduced Mahmoud by his old title.
The Mursi administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak's rule to a new system of democratic government.
Analysts say it reflects the Brotherhood's suspicion towards sections of a judiciary unreformed from Mubarak's days.
"It aims to sideline Mursi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.
"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."
ADVISOR TO MURSI QUITS
Following a day of violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of tear gas hung over the capital's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and the stage for more protests on Friday.
Youths clashed sporadically with police near the square, where activists camped out for a second day on Saturday, setting up makeshift barricades to keep out traffic.
Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt's most widely read dailies, hailed Friday's protest as "The November 23 Intifada", invoking the Arabic word for uprising.
But the ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind Mursi's decree.
The Nour Party, one such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the Mubarak regime.
Samir Morkos, a Christian assistant to Mursi, had told the president he wanted to resign, said Yasser Ali, Mursi's spokesman. Speaking to the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Morkos said: "I refuse to continue in the shadow of republican decisions that obstruct the democratic transition".
Mursi's decree has been criticized by Western states that earlier this week were full of praise for his role in mediating an end to the eight-day war between Israel and Palestinians.

"The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process.

New corruption scandal rocks Brazilian government

BRASILIA,BRAZIL

(Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, moving quickly to nip a new scandal in the bud, ordered the dismissal on Saturday of government officials allegedly involved in a bribery ring, including the country's deputy attorney general.
Federal police raided government offices in Brasilia and Sao Paulo on Friday and arrested six people for running an influence peddling ring that sold government approvals to businessmen in return for bribes.
Among those under investigation are the former personal secretary of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rosemary de Noronha, who has headed the regional office of the presidency in Sao Paulo since 2005.
The bribery scandal erupted on the heels of Brazil's biggest political corruption trial that sentenced some of Lula's closest aides to prison terms for buying support in Congress for his minority Workers' Party government after taking office in 2003.
Rousseff, Lula's chosen successor, was not affected by the vote-buying scandal and she has built on his popularity by gaining a reputation for not tolerating corruption. But the ruling Workers' Party was rocked by the scandal which tarnished Lula's legacy even though he was not implicated.
The new corruption case could further hurt the standing of Lula, who remains Brazil's most influential politician.
Friday's arrests included two brothers who were recommended for positions in the federal government by Lula's former secretary, Noronha: Paulo Rodrigues Vieira, director of the National Water Agency and Rubens Carlos Vieira, director for airport infrastructure at Brazil's Civil Aviation Agency.
Police accused the brothers of recruiting second-tier government employees who would be open to bribery, while a third brother also under arrest, Marcelo Rodrigues Vieira, contacted businessmen willing to pay for false or speeded-up approvals.
Police have been investigating the bribery ring since 2010 when an official in the government accounting office who was offered $150,000 for a favorable report got cold feet, returned the money he had been paid and blew the whistle.
Early on Friday, police seized computers and data from the Brasilia office of Deputy Attorney General Jose Weber de Holanda Alves, who has been dismissed and is under investigation along with a dozen other people, including a former senator.
"By presidential decision, all the government employees under investigation by the Federal Police will be dismissed or fired from their positions," a statement form Rousseff's office said. She ordered all agencies mentioned in the police probe to open internal investigations.
Police are investigating possible bribery cases at several other federal agencies, including the Ministry of Education.
While Noronha served as chief of staff of the president's regional office in Sao Paulo, Rousseff had inherited her as a Lula appointee.
Veja news magazine reported that Noronha, who was very close to Lula and traveled with him abroad when he was president, received bribes for influence peddling that included a luxury cruise trip and plastic surgery.

Analysis: Fiscal battles could sideline U.S. immigration reform

WASHINGTON |

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's re-election this month gave supporters of comprehensive immigration reform an immediate dose of optimism.
They hoped that Obama, bolstered by the 70 percent-plus support he received from Hispanic voters, might now feel ready to champion the cause he largely avoided during his first term.
And they thought that Republicans, after the thumping they got at the hands of Latinos in the November 6 election, might soften their resistance in order to stay competitive in future elections.
But as advocates mobilize for what is likely to be a two-year drive to get an immigration law enacted, their optimism may be tested by a dose of reality.
However sympathetic Obama might be, he will be preoccupied with fiscal battles well into next year and less likely to engage in the kind of salesmanship analysts believe is essential to sell broad immigration policy changes to the public.
And Republicans in Congress, as a group, may not be eager to reverse long-held and deeply felt positions on immigration in an era when so many are vulnerable to primary election challenges from the right. Plus, they may be just as consumed by fiscal issues as the rest of Washington.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner noted the fiscal cliff - the tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect in January - will suck up Washington's energy early in 2013, even as his party wants to use the new Congress to tackle big issues like immigration, climate change and job creation.
"We're not going to get to any of that until we get this (fiscal cliff) fixed, until we lance this boil," Warner said in a meeting with Reuters reporters and editors last week.
PARTISAN DIVIDE
Immigration reform, which has failed repeatedly in Congress over the past decade, aims to accomplish several goals - none of them easy.
For Democrats and their labor union supporters, the 11 million undocumented foreigners, many having spent years in the United States, should be allowed to come out of the shadows and given a path to citizenship while working here legally.
Many Republicans complain that this approach would reward those who broke the law by jumping in front of those waiting to emigrate legally.
The 11 million includes the children of illegals who have been brought into the United States through no fault of their own. Obama, impatient with Congress' inaction and with an eye on re-election, last June moved on his own to allow some of them to avoid deportation for two years and obtain work permits.
For Republicans, stronger enforcement measures are necessary to keep more illegals from entering the United States through states bordering Mexico, especially if an improving U.S. economy begins creating more jobs. Democrats argue that tough controls already are in place.
Both sides want to more efficiently verify legal workers in the United States, while the business community wants better access to low-paid farm workers and well-paid high-tech workers on a temporary basis, which troubles some union leaders.
Supporters of reform hope to see progress soon.
"At a minimum, they'll want to have a bill (introduced) by early spring, around April," said Andrea Zuniga DiBitetto, who follows Congress for the AFL-CIO, the confederation of U.S. labor unions.
Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat and a close ally of Obama, told Reuters he aims to get such a bill onto the Senate floor for votes next year. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, in an interview, said his panel would move early to write the measure.
REPUBLICANS WEIGH RESPONSE
It was Obama's re-election that emboldened his fellow Democrats in Congress to move swiftly with comprehensive immigration legislation next year.
It also led some Republicans to conclude that they have to start responding to the concerns of the fastest-growing demographic group in the United States.
Republicans' November 6 election losses prompted House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to note the need for immigration reform.
But one senior House Republican aide, who did not want to be named, noted that House Republicans as a whole are "still pretty conservative."
He added that immigration "won't be the first thing we do or even the second, but we have two years to act" before the 113th Congress ends.
And Boehner, however open he may be, does not control the Republicans he leads in the House.
The next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the panel that would craft that chamber's immigration bill, could be Representative Bob Goodlatte, a conservative who opposes amnesty for those who came to the United States illegally.
Goodlatte also has praised the controversial Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which has been partially struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Representative Steve King, also a conservative Republican, said during a post-election press conference that Obama could not be trusted to enforce any immigration reform law that Congress might produce.
And he downplayed any notion that an alienated Hispanic community contributed to Republican losses in this year's elections.
But Representative Raul Labrador, a fellow conservative and a native of Puerto Rico, quickly rebutted King, arguing that Hispanic votes are essential to a healthy Republican Party.
"One of the biggest things conservatives talk about often is that we want to fix a broken government. Well, if you know anything about immigration law, the immigration system is absolutely broken in the United States," said Labrador, adding that he is eager to tackle reform.
In the Senate, the work will start without some of the titans of earlier immigration battles. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, died in 2009. Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican-turned-Democrat, was defeated in a 2010 Democratic primary election and left the Senate before his death last month.
Senator Richard Lugar, a moderate Republican, will leave at year's end along with Joseph Lieberman, an independent. It is unclear whether John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran for president in 2008, will help lead the fight or sit on the sidelines.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Durbin, joined by fellow Democrats Robert Menendez and Charles Schumer, will watch closely to see whether some fresh Republican faces become serious players.
Among those Republicans are first-term Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and incoming Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Ted Cruz of Texas - all conservatives from states with large Hispanic populations.
In his first term, Obama disappointed many Hispanics and Democrats with his aggressive deportation policy and failure to seek broad immigration reforms, opting for a policy decision that defers deportation for some younger illegal immigrants who are enrolled in school.
A House Democratic aide, who asked not to be identified, complained that Obama, when it came to immigration reform, "for the most part sat back and told Congress to work it out and 'I'll give a speech.' He's going to have to be more hands-on" this time around.
Meanwhile, Hispanics are hoping that the 2012 election has finally opened the door to change.
"We have a check to cash, and 2013 is going to be a new year," said Daniel Rodriguez, an Arizona activist with United We Dream, a network of youth-led immigration groups.

Saudi royals, officials visit king in hospital after surgery

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia

Senior Saudi royals and government officials have visited King Abdullah in hospital, state news agency SPA reported, a week after the monarch - believed to be in his late 80s - had surgery to tighten a ligament in his back.
The stability of the world's biggest oil exporter and an important regional U.S. ally is of global concern as the kingdom holds more than a fifth of the world's crude reserves and is a venue for millions of Muslim pilgrims every year.
SPA's report on Saturday carried a photograph of officials and royals gathered inside the National Guard's King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, but did not say who was allowed to see the king or when he is expected to leave hospital.
The king was admitted for surgery on November 16 and an announcement from the Royal Court said that he had undergone a successful back operation that lasted for 11 hours. No photographs of Abdullah have been released.
Saudi analysts said on Saturday it was understandable that he would take time to recover, given his age.
Abdullah underwent a similar operation in October last year and had back surgery twice in the United States in 2010 for a herniated disc, after which spent three months outside Saudi Arabia recuperating.
After his back operation last year, Abdullah appeared on state television two days after his surgery and was released from hospital within five days of the operation.
Investors attributed Saudi stock market selling last week to worries over the king's health. The benchmark index fell 3 percent in the trading week ending on Wednesday and fell 1.4 percent on Sunday after a 0.8 percent bounce on Saturday.
The crown has passed down a line of the sons of the kingdom's founder King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, who died in 1953.
Abdullah - who took power in 2005 - named his brother Prince Salman, 13 years his junior, heir apparent in June after the death of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz.
Salman, who deputizes for the king, was shown on television last week meeting visiting U.S. officials. He also chaired the weekly cabinet meeting last Monday.