Former Ivory Coast leader’s wife wanted by ICC

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court unsealed an indictment Thursday against former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo‘s wife on charges including murder, rape and persecution. It was the first time in the court’s 10-year history it has charged a woman.

The world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal said the arrest warrant was issued on Feb. 29 for former first lady Simone Gbagbo for crimes against humanity.

Her husband, Laurent Gbagbo, is already in custody at the court’s detention unit in The Hague facing similar charges stemming from his fight to retain power after losing a 2010 presidential election. If his wife is extradited, they could face justice together in an unprecedented husband-wife trial.

But a senior member of Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara‘s government, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said Ivory Coast has already informed the ICC that the nation will not let her go.

“We informed them of this a long time ago,” he said.

The court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, urged Ivory Coast to extradite Gbagbo.

“The type of crimes committed in the aftermath of the 2010 elections did not happen by chance — they were planned and coordinated at the highest political and military levels and all those bearing the greatest responsibility must be held to account,” Bensouda said in a statement.

She said prosecutors continue to investigate crimes committed by both sides in Ivory Coast’s bloody power struggle and expect to issue further arrest warrants in the future.

“The investigations are objective, impartial and independent, and are conducted in strict accordance with the law,” she said.

Ivory Coast officials are holding the 63 year old under house arrest in the northwest town of Odienne. Last week, Ivorian prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau said lawyers had questioned Simone Gbagbo there for two days and that the domestic charges against her remained the same: genocide, blood crimes and economic crimes.

Unsealing the ICC arrest warrant issued nearly nine months ago appears to be a tactic by the court to put pressure on Ouattara’s administration to hand over Ms. Gbagbo.

If authorities in Ivory Coast want to prosecute her, they have to convince judges at The Hague tribunal that their case involves the same crimes she is charged with at the ICC. It is a court of last resort, meaning it only takes cases from countries unwilling or unable to prosecute them.

The international court said in the warrant that there is evidence pro-Gbagbo forces deliberately attacked perceived supporters of Ouattara in the aftermath of the election.

Judges who reviewed evidence supporting the charges against Ms. Gbagbo said they found “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms. Gbagbo bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes … as ‘an indirect co-perpetrator.’”

The warrant called Gbagbo an “alter ego for her husband” with the power to make state decisions. It said there is evidence to suggest she “instructed the pro-Gbagbo forces to commit crimes against individuals who posed a threat to her husband’s power.”

Her husband was the first former head of state to be taken into custody by the court when he was extradited to The Hague by the Ivory Coast government last year.

Prosecutors say about 3,000 people died in violence by both sides after Gbagbo refused to concede defeat following the election. Ouattara finally took power in April 2011 with the help of French and U.N. forces.

Ivory Coast is not a member state of the court, but has voluntarily accepted its jurisdiction.

It is very rare for a woman to be charged by an international war crimes court. In the past, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic of persecution and sentenced her to 11 years imprisonment.

The announcement of the arrest warrant and Ivory Coast’s refusal to hand over Gbagbo appeared likely to raise tensions between supporters of her husband and those who back Ouattara.

Moussa Toure Zeguen, a leader of the Gbagbo allies in exile in Ghana, said by phone from Accra that the former president’s supporters had no faith in the Ivorian authorities to give Simone Gbagbo a fair trial.

“We don’t trust them. The only thing that Ouattara is doing is revenge,” Zeguen said. “He wants to try us without trying any of the fighters from his side who also committed crimes. It is not fair, and this cannot bring reconciliation.”

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Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, contributed to this report.

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Carpe Twitter: Vatican tweets on new Latin academy

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A senior Vatican cardinal tweeted in Latin on Wednesday to urge people to attend the inauguration of, you guessed it, the Holy’s See’s new Academy for Latin Studies.

“Hodie una cum Ivano Dionigi novam aperiemus academiam pontificiam latinitatis a Benedicto conditam, hora XVII, via Conciliationis V,” was the tweet by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.

The approximate translation: “Today at 5 p.m., along with Ivano Dionigi, we will open the new Pontifical Academy for Latin Studies founded by Benedict. Via della Conciliazione, 5.”

It was not the first tweet in Latin – an Italian professor has been doing it for some time – but evidently Ravasi wanted to seize the day, or “carpe diem”.

The pope earlier this month announced that he had instituted the Pontifical Academy for Latin Studies, placing it under the auspices of the Vatican’s ministry for culture.

Dionigi, a Latin scholar who is rector of Bologna University – widely recognized to be the world’s oldest – is the academy’s first president.

The pope started the academy to promote the study and use of Latin in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond.

When instituting the academy, the pope said Latin, which is still the official language of the universal Church, was the subject of renewed interest around the world and the academy was mandated to encourage further growth.

(Reporting By Paolo Biondi and Philip Pullella)

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Chevy Chase Exiting “Community”

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Chevy Chase is leaving “Community” after a rocky run on the NBC series.

The actor is leaving by mutual agreement with the show’s producers, a person close to the show told TheWrap. He will appear in most of the 13 episodes of the show’s upcoming fourth season, but not the final one or two episodes.

Chase had a very public feud with former showrunner Dan Harmon that included Harmon airing an angry rant by Chase. The situation hardly improved when new showrunners Moses Port and David Guarascio took over this season.

The original “Saturday Night Live” player reportedly used the N-word last month in an on-set rant complaining about the racism of his character, Pierce Hawthorne. Chase asked how far the character’s bigotry would go, and whether he would be forced to say the word. He later apologized.

Chase made little effort to hide his mixed feelings about the show, telling the Huffington Post in March, “I probably won’t be around that much longer, frankly.”

“I have creative issues with this show,” he said. “I always have. With my character, with how far you can take character … just to give him a long speech about the world at the end of every episode is so reminiscent. It’s like being relegated to hell and watching ‘Howdy Doody‘ for the rest of your life. It’s not particularly necessary, but that’s the way they do these things. I think it belies the very pretenses that his character, Jeff, has, that he’s giving these talks. They’re supposed to, in some way, be a little lesson to people who watch sitcoms … to that degree, I can’t stand sitcoms. … I think, if you know me and my humor over the years, you know that this is certainly not my kind of thing.”

“Community” returns February 7.

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Ob-Gyns: Sell ‘The Pill’ Over The Counter

Women’s health and reproductive rights experts are lining up to lend support to the push to make oral contraceptives available without a prescription.

This week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a committee opinion, calling for the switch.

The aim is to increase access and lower the unintended pregnancy rate, which has held steady at 50% in the U.S. for two decades.

RELATED: Affordable Care Act Won’t End Disparities

“I think it’s great,” says Jeff Peipert, MD, PhD, the Robert J. Terry professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis. “These pills are very, very safe. Pregnancy is far riskier than taking a birth control pills. In fact aspirin has greater health risks than the birth control pill.”

“I think the benefits outweigh any downsides,” says Dan Grossman, MD, vice president for research at  Ibis Reproductive Health, a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and the promotion of reproductive rights and women’s health.

Ibis issued a statement applauding the move.

Easier access to birth control pills should help reduce the U.S. unintended pregnancy rate, according to the ACOG.  The price tag for U.S. taxpayers is about $ 11.1 billion every year.

No birth control pills are currently available over the counter. Emergency contraception (such as Plan B) is sold over the counter.

Making the pill available over the counter will reduce or remove two barriers–access and convenience, the doctors say. Teens who may be reluctant to ask a family doctor for the pill would have access.

How it will affect the barrier of cost remains to be seen. On average, the cost for birth control pills is about $ 16 a month, surveys suggest.

Some women could be affected adversely if the pills goes over-the-counter and they lose insurance coverage. While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidelines require new private health plans to cover, cost-free, all FDA-approved contraceptive methods, it is not clear how those guidelines will play out. Medicaid is exempted.

RELATED: Pediatrician Group Urges Doctors To Offer Teens Emergency Birth Control In Advance

“But it’s important to remember this would [if approved by the FDA] add another way to access birth control–it wouldn’t eliminate any existing ways,” Grossman tells Take Part. “Women who want to go to a doctor [for their contraceptives] would still have that option.”

In a video released by ACOG along with the announcement, it emphasizes the importance of an annual ”well woman” visit to her doctor, regardless of  how a woman gets her birth control method.

Research suggests that those who get birth control pills without a prescription will still see their doctor for screening and other preventive health needs.

One oft-mentioned risk of oral contraceptives–blood clots–is low, the ACOG says, “and significantly lower than the risk of blood clots during pregnancy and the postpartum period.”

Women are able to determine their own health risks and decide if they should or should not take the pill, according to ACOG.

The process of reclassifying drugs from prescription to over-the-counter status is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. It relies on its advisory panels to make the decision.

That takes time, of course. “I think the timeline might be two to four years,” Grossman says.

The complete opinion by the college is published in the December 2012 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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Kathleen Doheny is a Los Angeles journalist who writes about health. She doesn’t believe inmiracle cures, but continues to hope someone will discover a way for joggers to maintain their pace.

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HSBC China flash PMI at 13-month high as growth quickens

BEIJING (Reuters) – China‘s vast manufacturing sector saw expansion accelerate in November for the first time in 13 months, preliminary results from a factory survey showed, a sign that the pace of economic growth has revived after seven consecutive quarters of slowdown.

The China HSBC Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high of 50.4 in November, the latest indicator of recovery in the real economy after data showing solid credit growth, firmer exports and rising industrial output in the previous month.

A sub-index measuring output rose to 51.3, also the highest since October 2011.

“This reflects that conditions for smaller firms, especially exporters, are looking up,” said Li Wei, a Shanghai-based economist for Standard Chartered. “The consensus in the market is already for a small, gradual improvement.”

An uptick in key economic activity indicators in October, following encouraging signs in September, cemented the view of many analysts and investors that a rebound in the world’s second largest economy gathered momentum as it entered the fourth quarter, thanks to a raft of pro-growth policies rolled out by the government over recent months.

China is currently shuffling its senior officials after the seven top leaders of the ruling Communist Party were selected at a congress last week. The new appointments should end months of uncertainty in the highest ranks, although economic policy is not expected to change abruptly in the near-term.

Even before the congress, the central bank had moved to ease liquidity by pumping short-term cash into money markets rather than resorting to the interest rate cuts or reduction in banks’ required reserve ratios that many investors had expected.

STEADY THROUGH YEAR-END

This month’s PMI reading above 50 is likely to be seen as a turning point by the market, particularly if it is born out by the final reading due on December 1 and by official indicators.

Asian shares <.MIAPJ0000PUS> extended gains slightly after the data to stand up nearly 1 percent on the day and the Australian dollar, sensitive to demand from the biggest customer for Australia’s resources, rose as far as $ 1.04.

“This confirms that the economic recovery continues to gain momentum towards the year-end,” Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at index sponsor HSBC, said in a statement accompanying the data.

“However, it is still the early stage of recovery and global economic growth remains fragile. This calls for a continuation of policy easing to strengthen the recovery.”

With a one-month exception in October 2011, the HSBC PMI — which largely reflects the private manufacturing sector — has remained stubbornly below the 50-point level separating accelerating from slowing growth since June 2011.

Unlike the patchy results seen in previous months, in November almost all the sub-indices in the HSBC survey concurred in showing an improving economy.

The one exception was a fall in the sub-index measuring output prices, demonstrating that manufacturers are still struggling with overcapacity and relatively weak domestic demand.

That could also reflect the weight in the survey of exporting firms, which have less ability to raise sales prices, said Standard Chartered’s Li.

Indeed, China’s exporters are increasingly squeezed by rising domestic costs and competition from new international suppliers, Zhou Haijiang, head of Chinese textile exporter Hodo Group, told reporters this month.

“Not only Western countries manufacture industrial goods, but also a lot of developing countries including former socialist countries who now have market economies are all exporting, thus creating a global surplus that cannot be changed,” Zhou said.

“Because of this it is hard to raise sales prices, everyone is selling and it is hard for manufactured goods prices to rise. In some cases prices have even fallen.”

Analysts expect no further cuts to interest rates this year or next after back-to-back cuts in June and July, and only one more 50 basis point cut to banks’ required reserve ratios (RRR) in 2012 after three since late 2011 that have freed an estimated 1.2 trillion yuan for new lending.

Chinese banks are on course to make new loans worth more than 8.5 trillion yuan ($ 1.4 trillion) in 2012, expansionary versus the 7.5 trillion of new loans extended in 2011 and above the 8 trillion yuan that sources told Reuters back in February was the target for 2012.

Total social financing aggregate, a broad measure of liquidity in the economy, weakened to 1.29 trillion yuan in October, down from 1.65 trillion yuan in September, but still remained on track to hit a record 14 trillion yuan this year.

China also opened many previously-closed sectors to private investment with a view to funding new infrastructure projects and supporting economic growth without piling on more debt that local governments can ill-afford.

Although analysts expect fourth quarter GDP growth to outpace the 7.4 percent seen in the third quarter, full-year expansion for 2012 is expected to be the slowest in 13 years.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Ivory Coast: New prime minister named

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — President Alassane Ouattara has tapped Foreign Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan to serve as prime minister in a new government one week after the surprise dissolution of cabinet.

The appointment of Duncan, a member of the PDCI party of former President Henri Konan Bedie, was announced at a press conference Wednesday by Amadou Gon Coulibaly, general secretary of the presidency.

Ouattara dissolved the cabinet last week over a feud between his political party and the PDCI over proposed changes to the country’s marriage law.

The PDCI supported Ouattara in the November 2010 runoff election in exchange for the prime minister’s post, helping him defeat incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office led to five months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives before Ouattara’s forces won.

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Scott Derrickson to direct feature adaptation of hit video game “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Scott Derrickson (“Sinister,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose“) has signed on to direct the big screen adaptation of the hit Square Enix video game, “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” for CBS Films, the company announced on Thursday.

Derrickson will also write the screenplay for the film with C. Robert Cargill (“Sinister.”)

Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh are attached to produce the film, with John P. Middleton serving as the executive producer.

Set in the near future, when dramatic advances in science, specifically human augmentation, have triggered a technological renaissance, “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” follows Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT security specialist who must embrace mechanical augments in order to unravel a global conspiracy.

“‘Deus Ex’ is a phenomenal cyberpunk game with soul and intelligence,” said Derrickson. “By combining amazing action and tension with big, philosophical ideas, ‘Deus Ex‘ is smart, ballsy, and will make one hell of a movie. Cargill and I can’t wait to bring it to the big screen.”

The “Deus Ex” franchise was originally introduced in June 2000. Its latest entry, “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” launched in 2011, ranked number one across global sales charts and earned over 100 industry awards.

Developed by Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix, “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” will serve as the primary template for the film.

Derrickson and Cargill, pictured above, are represented by WME and managed by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

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“Hitchcock” trains lens on the love story of Alfred and Alma

NEW YORK (Reuters) – She won Oscar gold for her uncanny performance as Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, but Helen Mirren‘s latest portrayal finds her as the power behind the throne — or, more precisely, the director’s chair.

In “Hitchcock,” Mirren stars opposite Anthony Hopkins as legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s devoted wife Alma Reville, and early buzz has her a contender for another Oscar nomination.

The film, which opens in limited release on Friday, explores the domestic life of one of Hollywood‘s most iconic and revered directors, set during the days of his struggle to put the ground-breaking 1960 classic, “Psycho” on the silver screen.

Toggling back and forth between his on-set battles with censors and his cast including Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson), Vera Miles (Jessica Biel) and Tony Perkins (James D’Arcy), and his strained relationship with Alma as she copes with his well-documented obsession with his ravishing leading ladies, “Hitchcock” treats film fans to a glimpse of bygone Hollywood.

But it paints a more nuanced and sympathetic portrait of the director Hopkins called “a damaged man” than the recent television film “The Girl,” which dramatized the hell Hitchcock put Tippi Hedren through during filming of “The Birds.”

“It’s a great role,” Mirren said of Alma, a film editor and assistant director in her own right who ceded the spotlight to her husband, but as the film makes clear was involved in virtually every aspect of his films and even re-cut “Psycho” into the masterpiece it is known as today.

“So, you don’t turn that down,” she told Reuters.

Having won her Oscar as one of the world’s most famous women, Mirren said she finds herself drawn to “the ones I don’t know anything about, like Alma. Those are the most fun.”

With little to go on, Mirren said she turned to the 2003 book “Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man,” by the couple’s daughter Patricia, who also acted in several Hitchcock films.

“I’m not that much of a film buff that I knew about Alma, and I had no idea about Hitchcock‘s private life,” she said, adding the book aimed “to bring her mother out of the shadows.”

HITCH THE BRAND

By all accounts making the movie about the movies was a joy, with Mirren and Hopkins co-starring in their first film together under first-time director Sacha Gervasi (“Anvil: The Story of Anvil”), who fixed a script that had made the rounds.

Hopkins described it as the “most fun” since his Oscar-winning role in the thriller “Silence of the Lambs.”

Mirren recalled rushing off to work each day: “I couldn’t wait.” And it helped that the actors have the same approach.

“There’s no mystery to it … They talk about chemistry, and Helen agrees with me, there’s no such thing. You know your part, she knows hers, and off you go, hope it works,” Hopkins said.

But Mirren and Hopkins, who is also being touted for an Oscar nomination, parted ways when speculating on how the auteur director, who never won an Oscar during five decades of work, would have fared in the Hollywood of today.

“He would have despaired,” Hopkins said. “It would have been anathema to him. That kind of artistry is gone.”

Corporate control means “you have eight or nine producers on the set, everyone’s got a say in the scripts, and even craft services!”

But Mirren differed, imagining “he’d do brilliantly well.”

“He was a great salesman, and the Hollywood of today is so much about being a salesman and being able to sell yourself as a brand,” she explained. “He did that brilliantly. I think the two of them sold Hitch. Hitch was the faceman, he was the brand.”

“Also,” she added, “his filmmaking techniques would be incredibly successful,” given the technological advances since Hitchcock’s death in 1980.

Hitchcock was on a roll in his early 60s, with his “Psycho” follow-up, the shocking thriller “The Birds” becoming a hit and a much-loved classic. But none of the handful of films he made afterward attained their iconic status.

Mirren, 67, by contrast, truly hit her stride during her 40s, despite a steady two-decade career by that point.

Starting with the TV show “Prime Suspect” to the films “Gosford Park,” “The Queen” and “The Last Station,” she racked up four Oscar nominations and a mantel full of Emmys, which raises a question about the validity of complaints that Hollywood has no use for actresses over 40.

“I think what has changed is, the world around has changed,” Mirren said when reflecting on her success and acclaim.

“I was lucky that I hit my 40s just as the world around me was changing. Twenty years before I never would have been cast in ‘Prime Suspect’ because there were no women inspectors.”

And so, she looks forward.

“As I’ve carried on, my God, 20 years ago it was inconceivable that you’d have a female president of the United States,” she said.

“Now, the next president of America may well be a woman, and if there is a female president, that means that if a movie comes along, and there’s the president of America …” She laughs.

“You know what I mean?”

(Editing by Christine Kearney)

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U.S. soldier accused of Iraq shooting “psychotic”: doctor

TACOMA (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow servicemen at a military combat stress center in Baghdad in 2009 was psychotic and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder during the shooting frenzy, a top U.S. forensic psychiatrist testified on Tuesday.

Sergeant John Russell, 48, is accused of going on a shooting spree at Camp Liberty, near the Baghdad airport, in an assault the military said at the time could have been triggered by combat stress.

Russell, of the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, faces five charges of premeditated murder, one charge of aggravated assault and one charge of attempted murder in connection with the May 2009 shootings.

Six months ago, he was ordered to stand trial in a military court that has the power to sentence him to death, if he is convicted.

Russell’s civilian attorney, James Culp, entered no plea at an arraignment on Monday at a military base in Washington state. Russell’s court martial is tentatively set for mid-March and could last four to five weeks, attorneys told Reuters on Tuesday.

In a second day of hearings to discuss Russell’s state of mind at the time of the shooting and establish what evidence or testimony to admit at the court martial, Robert Sadoff, a University of Pennsylvania forensic psychiatry expert, gave the opinion that Russell was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Russell has “dissociative disorder,” or a lack of memory about the shootings, said Sadoff, who examined Russell for a total of 20 hours after the shootings. “He cannot remember. It’s a legitimate disorder. He also has post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Sadoff, a veteran of 10,000 criminal cases added: “It’s a matter of what’s going on in this man’s mind. He was psychotic. He was not dealing with reality. That’s what psychosis is.”

If the defense can persuade a jury that Russell was not in control of his actions, it may be able to argue that he is not legally responsible and could spare him from the death penalty, if convicted.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Culp sought authority from Judge Colonel David Conn to hire a forensic hypnotist to unlock Russell’s buried memories and conduct a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to measure Russell’s “mild diffused brain atrophy”, which Culp argues played a part in his behavior.

This would help diagnose “the extent of brain damage as it relates to criminal responsibility,” Culp said.

Army prosecutors urged the judge to decline. Major Dan Mazzone, one of four Army attorneys prosecuting the case, told the judge that an Army medical review already indicated that Russell’s brain atrophy was typical of a man his age and further testing is an unnecessary expense to the Army.

“The bottom line, this is just not necessary. It’s something the government should not be entitled to fund,” Mazzone said.

The judge is set to rule on the matter over the next few days.

The proceedings, held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, come at a sensitive time for the Army, which is in the process of deciding how to prosecute Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a soldier accused of killing Afghan villagers in cold blood earlier this year.

A two-week hearing at Lewis-McChord to establish if there is sufficient evidence to send Bales to a court martial wrapped up last week after harrowing testimony from Afghan adults and children wounded in the attack.

Bales’ civilian defense lawyers have also suggested he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

On Monday, Russell’s attorney outlined a defense based on his declining mental state.

Russell suffered from depression, thoughts of suicide, anxiety and stress from multiple deployments, and suffered “at least one traumatic experience involving civilian casualties” and “mass grave sites” while serving in Bosnia and Kosovo during 1998 and 1999, Culp said in presenting arguments to the judge after the arraignment.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Asia stocks fall after Greece aid delayed

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets were mostly lower Wednesday, shedding morning gains after European Union officials failed to release a loan payment to debt-mired Greece and postposed further action until next week.

European finance ministers adjourned a meeting in Brussels without granting Greece the next installment of an emergency bailout loan that has been on hold for months. The €31.5 billion ($ 40 billion) loan is needed so that Athens can pay its bills and avoid running out of cash.

The aid is being delayed until officials can resolve a dispute over whether to give Greece an extra two years to get to a point where it can independently raise funds on bond markets. Greece has been locked out of the international long-term debt market since 2010 and thus relies on rescue loans.

The reform program attached to the bailout was to steadily reduce Greece’s debt to 120 percent of its annual gross domestic product by a 2020 deadline. But some officials say the deadline may have been too ambitious and that Greece needs two more years.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.4 percent to 1,882.62 after a higher open. Meanwhile, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell further into negative territory, down 0.3 percent at 4,371.10. Benchmarks in Thailand, New Zealand and Taiwan also were lower.

But Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 percent to 9,178.05, with export shares enjoying the benefits of a weakened yen. Hong Kong‘s Hang Seng added 0.2 percent to 21,272.48. Benchmarks in India and the Philippines also rose.

Mainland China‘s Shanghai Composite Index briefly dipped below 2,000, an important psychological mark. The benchmark hasn’t gone above 2,100 since July 6.

The benchmark “has been hovering around 2,000 for such a long time that investors have lost interest,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong. “The weakness in China‘s market is dragging down the Hong Kong market.”

The losses reflected disappointment among investors hoping to see changes in how the stock market is run now that China has new leaders. But reforms have so far not materialized.

“There has been too much resistance to cleaning up the malpractice” in mainland Chinese markets, Lun said. “Investors have lost confidence.”

Among individual stocks, Japanese snack food maker Calbee dropped 3.7 percent after announcing the recall of millions of bags of potato chips due to possible contamination with glass fragments.

Wall Street stocks finished roughly flat Tuesday after a warning from the Federal Reserve chairman about the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1 percent to 12,788.51. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,387.81. The Nasdaq composite index inched up to 2,916.68.

In a speech in New York on Tuesday, Bernanke urged Congress and the Obama administration to strike a budget deal to avert the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that will automatically take effect in January if nothing is done.

“This overshadowed some positive economic data which came in the form of better-than-expected housing starts,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne in a market commentary.

Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 1 cent at $ 86.74 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $ 2.53 to close at $ 86.75 a barrel on Tuesday, falling sharply after signs that Israel and Hamas are close to putting a halt to fighting that has lasted nearly a week.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 81.79 yen from 81.71 yen late Tuesday in New York. The euro fell to $ 1.2747 from $ 1.2807.

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