Obama election tweet most repeated but Olympics tops on Twitter

(Reuters) – An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama — “Four more years” with a picture of him hugging his wife — was the most retweeted ever, but the U.S. election was topped by the Olympics as the most tweeted event this year.

Obama’s tweet was retweeted (repeated) more than 810,000 times, Twitter said as it published a list of the most tweeted events in 2012. (http://2012.twitter.com/)

“Within hours, that Tweet simultaneously became the most retweeted of 2012, and the most retweeted ever. In fact, retweets of that simple message came from people in more than 200 countries around the world,” Twitter spokeswoman Rachael Horwitz said.

Twitter users were busiest during the final vote count for the presidential elections, sending 327,452 tweets per minute on election night on their way to a tally of 31 million election tweets for the day.

The 2012 Olympic Games in London had the most overall tweets of any event, with 150 million sent over the 16 days.

Usain Bolt’s golden win in the 200 meters topped 80,000 tweets per minute but he did not achieve the highest Olympic peak on Twitter. That was seen during the closing ceremony when 115,000 tweets per minute were sent as 1990s British pop band the Spice Girls performed.

Syria, where a bloody civil war still plays out, was the most talked about country in 2012 but sports and pop culture dominated the tally of tweets.

Behind Obama was pop star Justin Bieber. His tweet, “RIP Avalanna. i love you” sent when a six-year-old fan died from a rare form of brain cancer, was retweeted more than 220,000 times.

Third most repeated in 2012 was a profanity-laced tweet from Green Bay Packers NFL player TJ Lang, when he blasted a controversial call by a substitute referee officiating during a referee dispute. That was retweeted 98,000 times.

This was the third year running that the microblogging site published its top Twitter trends, offering a barometer to assess the biggest events in social media.

Superstorm Sandy, which slammed the densely populated U.S. East Coast in late October, killing more than 100 people, flooding wide areas and knocking out power for millions, attracted more than 20 million tweets between October 27 and November 1.

European football made the list of top tweets when Spain’s Juan Mata scored as his side downed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final — sparking 267,200 tweets a minute.

News of pop star Whitney Houston‘s death in February generated more than 10 million tweets, peaking at 73,662 per minute.

Romantic comedy “Think Like a Man” was the most tweeted movie this year, topping “The Hunger Games”, “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Rapper Rick Ross who notched his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart this year, was the most talked about music artist.

(Editing by Rodney Joyce)

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“Hobbit” actor McKellen has prostate cancer

LONDON (Reuters) – “The Hobbit” actor Ian McKellen said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had had prostate cancer for the last six or seven years, but added that the disease was not life-threatening.

McKellen, 73, played Gandalf in the hit “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, and reprises the role in three prequels based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit”.

The first of those, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, recently had its world premiere in New Zealand, where it was shot under the directorship of Peter Jackson.

“I’ve had prostate cancer for six or seven years,” McKellen told the Daily Mirror tabloid. “When you have got it you monitor it and you have to be careful it doesn’t spread. But if it is contained in the prostate it’s no big deal.”

His representatives in London were not immediately available to comment on the interview.

“Many, many men die from it but it’s one of the cancers that is totally treatable,” added McKellen, one of Britain’s most respected actors who is also well known in Hollywood for appearances in the X-Men franchise.

“I am examined regularly and it’s just contained, it’s not spreading. I’ve not had any treatment.”

He admitted he feared the worst when he heard he had the disease.

“You do gulp when you hear the news. It’s like when you go for an HIV test, you go ‘arghhh is this the end of the road?’

“I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn’t know they had got it and it went on the rampage. But at my age if it is diagnosed it’s not life threatening.”

“The Hobbit” opens in cinemas later this week.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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Boehner stands firm but hopeful on “fiscal cliff” talks

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner offered no concrete signs of progress on Tuesday on the “fiscal cliff” talks but said he remained hopeful that both sides would reach an agreement by the end-of-year deadline.

Amid signs the White House and Boehner‘s office are making headway in the talks, Boehner repeated his now-familiar call for President Barack Obama to offer a new proposal to avert the automatic steep tax hikes and spending cuts set for the end of the year unless Congress intervenes.

“I’m an optimist. I’m hopeful we can reach an agreement,” Boehner said on the House floor.

While Boehner demanded more specific spending cuts from Obama, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration had submitted extensive proposals to reduce spending but Republicans had not offered specifics on increasing revenues.

“There is a deal out there that’s possible,” Carney told reporters. It could include reduced spending, more revenues and tax reform as long as Republicans accepted higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, he said.

“We do believe the parameters of a compromise are pretty clear,” Carney said.

The pace of staff-level talks has quickened since Boehner met on Sunday with Obama at the White House in a meeting that the Republican described as “nice” and “cordial.”

But Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said it would be difficult to reach an agreement before Christmas.

“Until we hear something from Republicans, there’s nothing to draft,” Reid told reporters, referring to writing legislation based on a deal. “It’s going to be extremely difficult to get it done before Christmas.”

The two major elements of the fiscal cliff are broad spending reductions starting January 1 and tax cuts that expire at the end of the year. Economists have warned the fragile economy could slip back into recession without a deal.

Obama and Boehner have exchanged opening proposals aimed at cutting deficits by more than $ 4 trillion over the next 10 years, but they differ on how to get there.

Obama and Democrats demand that tax rates rise for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. Republicans want existing lower rates continued for all brackets and prefer to raise more revenue by eliminating tax loopholes and reducing deductions.

Republicans also want deeper spending cuts than those sought by Obama and fellow Democrats, particularly on social entitlement programs like the government-funded Medicare and Medicaid healthcare plans.

Stocks rose on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 reaching its highest close since Election Day. Markets endured a sharp selloff after the November 6 re-election of Obama, as investors focused on the fiscal cliff concerns.

“I guess in our own dysfunctional way, there is progress,” said Frank Davis, director of sales and trading at LEK Securities in New York. “Since conversations are occurring, it clarifies at least they are taking some action. My personal gut is they’ll jostle this into the holiday week and try to do a last-minute push.”

FRAMEWORK FOR A DEAL

While senior figures from both parties caution they are far from a deal, a softening of partisan rhetoric in recent days and the increased frequency of talks has created speculation that negotiations are going well.

If there is a fiscal cliff deal, congressional leaders will have to decide the most efficient way to move the controversial legislation forward. Aides said those decisions had not yet been made as negotiators were still focused on the elements of a possible deal and would then figure out the legislative vehicle to carry out any fiscal cliff measure.

The most frequently discussed scenario on Capitol Hill involves Democrats getting the higher rates on the top earners in exchange for significant concessions on reducing costs in entitlement programs.

The two parties could then work together next year on comprehensive tax reform aimed at creating more revenues, in part by eliminating some tax breaks.

A group of corporate leaders urged a fiscal cliff compromise that would include both higher taxes and spending cuts, but it did not take sides on whether the revenues should be from raising taxes on the wealthiest, as Obama wants, or from limiting deductions and closing loopholes, as Republicans want.

“For far too long, political paralysis has fueled global uncertainty that discourages businesses from investing and hiring new workers,” the CEOs said in a letter sent under the umbrella of the Business Roundtable, a non-partisan group that promotes business.

Complicating the talks is the looming need for an increase in U.S. borrowing authority that Obama wants before Congress wraps up for the year. Without the authority, the government will hit its $ 16.4 trillion borrowing limit by year’s end and run out of steps to stave off default by mid-February.

Obama has asked for the power to raise U.S. borrowing authority without legislation from Congress in hopes of avoiding another confrontation with Republicans like the 2011 showdown that led to an embarrassing downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

Also in the mix is a payroll tax “holiday” set to expire, which, if not extended, will quickly reduce the take-home pay of a large segment of the U.S. workforce.

The holiday, now in its second year, has been providing workers with an average of about $ 1,000 a year in extra cash. Significant divisions remain on the payroll tax question in part because it funds the Social Security retirement program.

The payroll tax is paid by employers and employees each at a rate of 6.2 percent of wages, up to a maximum of $ 110,110. The holiday, enacted in 2010, reduced the rate by 2 percentage points on the portion paid by the worker.

Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen said Republicans were coming around on the tax-rate hikes on the wealthiest Americans and there was a good chance of resolving that soon. But the other things might have to wait, he said, mentioning the budget cuts and the payroll tax.

If not complete by January 1, he said, “my belief is you would get it done very soon” after the New Year, noting that the government has some flexibility on withholding taxes that could limit the immediate hit to taxpayers while negotiations continued into 2013.

(Additional reporting by Rachelle Younglai, Kim Dixon, Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)

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W.Va. natural gas line explosion melts road, burns homes

SISSONVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — At least five homes went up in flames Tuesday afternoon and a badly burned section of Interstate 77 in West Virginia was closed after a natural gas line exploded in an hour-long inferno.

No injuries were immediately reported, but firefighters had just begun to reach damaged structures late in the afternoon after the intense flames kept them at bay for several hours.

Several people were treated for smoke inhalation, and a shelter was set up at Sissonville High School, where Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin planned a late-afternoon press conference

State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous said a slight risk of a secondary explosion remained, but people were told to stay inside their homes rather than evacuate. The explosion occurred near Sissonville just before 1 p.m. in a 20-inch transmission line owned by NiSource Inc., parent of Columbia Gas.

The gas flow was shut off, but 1st Sgt. James Lee said there was still pressure on the transmission line.

"The gas company is doing a check on it now," he said.

Kent Carper, president of the Kanawha County Commission, said flames had been shooting 50 to 75 feet into the air before the fire was extinguished.

"It sounded like a Boeing 757. Just a roar," he said. "It was huge. You just couldn't hear anything. It was like a space flight."

Trevor Goins lives about a half-mile from the explosion and was watching television in his apartment when he saw a ripple in his coffee cup and the floor shook.

"I thought possibly (it was) a plane crash," said Goins, who immediately went outside with several neighbors. "It was so loud it sounded like a turbine engine. You almost had to put your hands over your ears."

He got in his car and drove closer, seeing fire that stretched as high as the hilltops.

"The flames were so high, they were so massive," he said. "I could only imagine what had happened"

Carper said the flames spanned about a quarter of a mile and ran through a culvert under the interstate.

"It actually cooked the interstate," he said. "It looks like a tar pit."

The interstate will be shut down for two days while engineers and inspectors repair the damage and assess whether a bridge was compromised, said State Police Sgt. Chris Zerkle. Route 21 will also be closed until further notice, he said.

Zerkle said a State Police helicopter team was going up to ascertain the extent of the damage while a command center was being set up nearby.

Mike Banas, communications manager for NiSource, said the company was still gathering facts.

"Our first priority is the safety of our employees and the community," he said, adding that no impacts on customers are anticipated.

Sissonville Fire Chief Tim Gooch said a nursing home is less than a mile from the site of the blast, but the patients are safe. Paramedics were sent to check on them as a precaution.

___

Smith reported from Morgantown.

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Egypt army given temporary power to arrest civilians

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Islamist president has given the army temporary power to arrest civilians during a constitutional referendum he is determined to push through despite the risk of bloodshed between his supporters and opponents accusing him of a power grab.

Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and their critics besieging Mohamed Mursi’s graffiti-daubed presidential palace. Both sides plan mass rallies on Tuesday.

The elite Republican Guard has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the palace, which it ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades after last week’s violence.

Mursi, bruised by calls for his downfall, has rescinded a November 22 decree giving him wide powers but is going ahead with a referendum on Saturday on a constitution seen by his supporters as a triumph for democracy and by many liberals as a betrayal.

A decree issued by Mursi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians and refer them to prosecutors until the announcement of the results of the referendum, which the protesters want cancelled.

Despite its limited nature, the edict will revive memories of Hosni Mubarak’s emergency law, also introduced as a temporary expedient, under which military or state security courts tried thousands of political dissidents and Islamist militants.

But a military source stressed that the measure introduced by a civilian government would have a short shelf-life.

“The latest law giving the armed forces the right to arrest anyone involved in illegal actions such as burning buildings or damaging public sites is to ensure security during the referendum only,” the military source said.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said the committee overseeing the vote had requested the army’s assistance.

“The armed forces will work within a legal framework to secure the referendum and will return (to barracks) as soon as the referendum is over,” Ali said.

Protests and violence have racked Egypt since Mursi decreed himself extraordinary powers he said were needed to speed up a troubled transition since Mubarak’s fall 22 months ago.

The Muslim Brotherhood has voiced anger at the Interior Ministry’s failure to prevent protesters setting fire to its headquarters in Cairo and 28 of its offices elsewhere.

Critics say the draft law puts Egypt in a religious straitjacket. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the crisis has polarized the country and presages more instability at a time when Mursi is trying to steady a fragile economy.

On Monday, he suspended planned tax increases only hours after the measures had been formally decreed, casting doubts on the government’s ability to push through tough economic reforms that form part of a proposed $ 4.8 billion IMF loan agreement.

“VIOLENT CONFRONTATION”

Rejecting the referendum plan, opposition groups have called for mass protests on Tuesday, saying Mursi’s eagerness to push the constitution through could lead to “violent confrontation”.

Islamists have urged their followers to turn out “in millions” the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning with their loyal base and perhaps with the votes of Egyptians weary of turmoil.

The opposition National Salvation Front, led by liberals such as Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa, as well as leftist firebrand Hamdeen Sabahy, has yet to call directly for a boycott of the referendum or to urge their supporters to vote “no”.

Instead it is contesting the legitimacy of the vote and of the whole process by which the constitution was drafted in an Islamist-led assembly from which their representatives withdrew.

The opposition says the document fails to embrace the diversity of 83 million Egyptians, a tenth of whom are Christians, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.

But debate over the details has largely given way to noisy street protests and megaphone politics, keeping Egypt off balance and ill-equipped to deal with a looming economic crisis.

“Inevitability of referendum deepens divisions,” was the headline in Al-Gomhuriya newspaper on Monday. Al Ahram daily wrote: “Political forces split over referendum and new decree.”

Mursi issued another decree on Saturday to supersede his November 22 measure putting his own decisions beyond legal challenge until a new constitution and parliament are in place.

While he gave up extra powers as a sop to his opponents, the decisions already taken under them, such as the dismissal of a prosecutor-general appointed by Mubarak, remain intact.

“UNWELCOME” CHOICE

Lamia Kamel, a spokeswoman for former Arab League chief Moussa, said the opposition factions were still discussing whether to boycott the referendum or call for a “no” vote.

“Both paths are unwelcome because they really don’t want the referendum at all,” she said, but predicted a clearer opposition line if the plebiscite went ahead as planned.

A spokeswoman for ElBaradei, former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said: “We do not acknowledge the referendum. The aim is to change the decision and postpone it.”

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spokesman, said the opposition could stage protests, but should keep the peace.

“They are free to boycott, participate or say no, they can do what they want. The important thing is that it remains in a peaceful context to preserve the country’s safety and security.”

The army stepped into the conflict on Saturday, telling all sides to resolve their disputes via dialogue and warning that it would not allow Egypt to enter a “dark tunnel”.

A military source said the declaration read on state media did not herald a move by the army to retake control of Egypt, which it relinquished in June after managing the transition from Mubarak’s 30 years of military-backed one-man rule.

The draft constitution sets up a national defense council, in which generals will form a majority, and gives civilians some scrutiny over the army – although not enough for critics.

In August Mursi stripped the generals of sweeping powers they had grabbed when he was elected two months earlier, but has since repeatedly paid tribute to the military in public.

So far the army and police have taken a relatively passive role in the protests roiling the most populous Arab nation.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

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Tech guru McAfee’s legal appeals win him respite in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – U.S. software pioneer John McAfee, facing deportation from Guatemala to Belize to answer questions over the death of a neighbor, has bought himself some time with legal appeals, the Guatemalan government said on Sunday.

McAfee’s lawyers have filed a request with a local court to grant him leave to stay in Guatemala until his legal appeals against deportation have been settled, which could take months.

“The government of Guatemala respects the courts and we have to wait for them to make a decision,” said Francisco Cuevas, a spokesman for the Guatemalan government.

The government initially said it would deport him straight away after rejecting McAfee’s request for asylum on Thursday.

Guatemala has been holding the former Silicon Valley millionaire since he was arrested on Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

Officials in Belize want to question McAfee as a “person of interest” in the killing of fellow American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

The court has up to 30 days to rule on his request, but McAfee’s lawyers said on Sunday they expect a ruling in the American’s favor as early as Monday.

“We are filing a series of papers with the court to attempt to keep me here long enough for the world to see the injustice of sending me back to Belize,” McAfee said in an online news conference on Sunday evening.

McAfee has been evading Belizean officials for nearly a month, saying he fears they want to kill him, and that he is being persecuted for speaking out about corruption in the country’s ruling party. Belize’s prime minister has rejected McAfee’s claims, calling him paranoid and “bonkers.”

McAfee’s attorney, Telesforo Guerra, said that if his request with the court is successful, McAfee would be allowed to stay in the country until the legal suits have been resolved.

His lawyers have filed several injunctions against government officials, alleging McAfee’s rights were violated because his asylum request was not given proper consideration.

McAfee said on Saturday he wanted to return to the United States, and Guerra said he had filed a motion that would require Guatemalan authorities to deport him there and not to Belize.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

(Editing by Dave Graham; editing by Todd Eastham)

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Obama takes his case to people for “fiscal cliff” deal

REDFORD, Michigan (Reuters) – Making no visible headway in direct talks with Republicans, President Barack Obama took to the road on Monday to apply pressure on his political opponents to agree to a “fiscal cliff” deal that would raise taxes on the richest Americans.

Wearing shirtsleeves with no suit coat and speaking in front of an array of auto workers, Obama plunged into his new campaign a month after winning re-election on a vow to raise taxes on the wealthiest and take care of the middle class.

Obama made his appeal in Michigan where his popularity is high due in part to the 2009 government bailout of the state’s auto industry. He won Michigan easily in the November 6 election.

Now, Obama is trying to convince Americans that congressional Republicans need to avert a year-end fiscal crisis by increasing taxes on people making more than $ 250,000 a year.

If no agreement is reached by January 1, Bush-era tax cuts on all Americans expire and spending cuts agreed to last year kick in, a scenario known as the fiscal cliff that could hurl the economy back into recession.

A typical middle-class family of four, Obama said, would see an income tax hike of $ 2,200 a year if no deal is done.

“How many of you can afford to pay another $ 2,200?” he asked workers at a Daimler automobile manufacturing plant near Detroit. “That’s a hit you can’t afford to take.”

Polling shows most Americans would blame Republicans if the country goes over the fiscal cliff, and pressure has been building from some Republicans for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to get an agreement quickly, even if it means tax hikes on the wealthiest.

Obama painted a stark picture of what would happen if bipartisan talks fail.

Consumer spending would go down because families would have less expendable income, meaning businesses would have fewer customers and the economy would go into a “downward spiral,” he said.

“There’s good news,” he said. “We can solve this problem.”

Republicans accuse Obama of not proposing sufficient cuts to entitlements, like the Medicare health insurance program for seniors, to make a tax increase more palatable to Republicans.

The two sides have hit back at each other with rhetorical broadsides and appear no closer to an agreement than they did a month ago. The White House and Boehner’s office held more talks on Monday.

The Michigan trip was Obama’s second to hammer away on the fiscal cliff theme, after a stop in Pennsylvania on November 30.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Beech)

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Obama blasts Michigan right-to-work bills

President Barack Obama at the Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in Redford, Mich., on Monday. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

President Barack Obama traveled to the Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in Redford, Mich., Monday to issue a speech on the economy, pressure Republicans in Congress to raise taxes on the nation's top earners, and highlight Daimler's new $120 million investment in the plant.

But it was the president's criticism of Michigan's right-to work legislation that stole the show for the audience of Daimler union employees.

"What we shouldn't be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages," the president told the audience, which immediately roared with cheers, applause and whistles. "These so-called right-to-work laws, they don't have to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics." They're about "giving you the right to work for less money," he added, noting that Michigan's history shows how unions have helped "build a better America."

New state right-to-work legislation, which forbids requiring all employees who benefit from a labor contract to pay union dues, is scheduled to move through the Michigan Legislature for final action this week. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has pledged to sign the final version.

Activists have mobilized against the legislation, which they view to be an anti-union effort, resulting in a state Capitol lockdown last Thursday.

The president's comments Monday were his first public statements on the situation in Michigan.
His appearance was pegged to Daimler's announcement of its investment in the Detroit Diesel plant, which created 115 good, new "union" jobs, the president said. "That's great for this plant, good for this community, but it's also good for American manufacturing."

The president highlighted the plant as a symbol of how American manufacturing and auto industries are rebounding and growing in the new global economy.

"The competitive balance is tipping a little," the president said.

Obama appealed to the audience, which he characterized as middle-class, on the issue of the "fiscal cliff" by warning that the average middle-class family stands to pay $2,200 more in taxes next year if the automatic spending cuts and tax increases go into effect Jan. 1.

The president said America will head into a "downward spiral" if this happens, and placed the onus once again on Republicans to resolve the crisis by agreeing to raise taxes on households making more than $250,000.

"We've got to get past this whole situation where we've manufactured crises because of politics," Obama said.

Obama met Sunday with House Republican Speaker John Boehner, the GOP's lead voice on "fiscal cliff" negotiations, but no details of that conversation have been offered.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, during Monday's briefing on Air Force One en route to Michigan, also would not reveal any information. "I won't characterize yesterday's meeting or other conversations, but the president does believe we can reach an agreement," Carney said.

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EU leaders in Norway to pick up Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) — European Union leaders on Sunday hailed the achievements of the 27-nation bloc, but acknowledged they need more integration and authority to solve problems, including its worst financial crisis, as they arrived in Norway to pick up this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Conceding that the EU lacked sufficient powers to stop the devastating 1992-95 Bosnia war, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the absence of such authority at the time is “one of the most powerful arguments for a stronger European Union.”

Barroso spoke to reporters with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Oslo, where the three leaders were to receive this year’s award, granted to the European Union for fostering peace on a continent ravaged by war.

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland will present the prize, worth $ 1.2 million, at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall, followed by a banquet at the Grand Hotel, against a backdrop of demonstrations in this EU-skeptic country that has twice rejected joining the union.

About 20 European government leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, will be joining the ceremonies. They will be celebrating far away from the EU’s financial woes in a prosperous, oil-rich nation of 5 million on the outskirts of Europe that voted in 1972 and 1994 in referendums to stay out of the union.

The decision to award the prize to the EU has sparked harsh criticism, including from three peace laureates — South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina — who have demanded the prize money not be paid out this year. They say the bloc contradicts the values associated with the prize because it relies on military force to ensure security.

The leader of Britain’s Independence Party, Nigel Farage, in a statement described rewarding the EU as “a ridiculous act which blows the reputation of the Nobel prize committee to smithereens.”

Hundreds of people demonstrated against this year’s prize winners in a peaceful torch-lit protest that meandered through the dark city streets to Parliament, including Tomas Magnusson from the International Peace Bureau, the 1910 prize winner.

“This is totally against the idea of Alfred Nobel who wanted disarmament,” he said, accusing the Nobel committee of being “too close to the power” elite.

Dimitris Kodelas, a Greek lawmaker from the main opposition Radical Left party, or Syriza, said a humanitarian crisis in his country and EU policies could cause major rifts in Europe. He thought it was a joke when he heard the peace prize was awarded to the EU. “It challenges even our logic and it is also insulting,” he said.

The EU is being granted the prize as it grapples with a debt crisis that has stirred deep tensions between north and south, caused soaring unemployment and sent hundreds of thousands into the streets to protest austerity measures.

It is also threatening the euro — the common currency used by 17 of its members — and even the structure of the union itself, and is fuelling extremist movements such as Golden Dawn in Greece, which opponents brand as neo-Nazi.

Barroso acknowledged that the current crisis showed the union was “not fully equipped to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.”

“We do not have all the instruments for a true and genuine economic union … so we need to complete our economic and monetary union,” he said, adding that the new measures, including on a banking and fiscal union, would be agreed on in coming weeks.

He stressed that despite the crisis all steps taken had been toward “more, not less integration.”

Van Rompuy was optimistic saying that EU would come out of the crisis stronger than before. “We want Europe to become again a symbol of hope,” he said.

The EU says it will donate the prize money to projects that help children in conflict zones and will double it with EU funds.

The European Union grew from the conviction that ever-closer economic ties would ensure century-old enemies like Germany and France never turned on each other again, starting with the creation in 1951 of the European Coal and Steel Community, declared as “a first step in the federation of Europe.”

In 60 years it has grown into a 27-nation bloc with a population of 500 million, with other nations eagerly waiting to join, even as its unity is being threatened by the financial woes.

While there have never been wars inside EU territory, the confederation has not been able to prevent European wars outside its borders. When the deadly Balkans wars erupted in the 1990s, the EU was unable by itself to stop them. It was only with the help of the United States and after over 100,000 lives were lost in Bosnia was peace eventually restored there, and several years later, to Kosovo.

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