Disputed ownership of Afghan site used by NATO

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Kabul, Dec 11 : Afghan officials in Logar province, 60 kilometres south of the Afghan capital Kabul, say they have evidence that the purported owners of a piece of land currently used by NATO forces have no legal claims to it.

A former governor of the province also told IWPR that six individuals received a payment from international forces in 2009, and some of the money found its way into Taleban hands.

The Provincial Reconstruction Team, PRT, a joint military and civilian force based in the area, has a compound in a desert area known as Abchakan, just south of Logar’s main town Pol-e Alam.

International forces are planning to build an airstrip at the location, adding more buildings and roads.

Local officials say that six men from the area laid claim to a 53-square-kilometre area of land when they realised it was of interest to the PRT. In 2009, the six individuals received a payment of 2.6 million dollars, according to Atiqullah Ludin, who was provincial governor at the time.

IWPR understands that no further payments have been made since.

Ludin alleges that the men gave a fifth of the money to the Taleban, who have a strong presence in the province. (On this, see Taleban Justice Dominant in Logar Province.)

"In 2009, the intelligence agency in Logar reported to me that after the six men received 2.6 million dollars in rent for the first year from the Americans, they gave the Taleban 500,000 dollars,” Ludin said.

A spokesman for NATO forces in Logar, who asked to remain anonymous, told IWPR they were unable to give a statement on these matters for the moment, because they were still unclear about ownership of the land in question – whether it belonged to the state or to local residents. The PRT in Logar is run by the Czech military rather than the United States.

In April 2010, Abdul Hakim Sulaimankhel, chairman of the provincial council, wrote to governor Ludin saying, "The governor's office should immediately arrest those who have seized the Abchakan desert, and the money the six individuals have received from the Americans should be retrieved and deposited in the government treasury."

IWPR’s reporter spent a month trying to interview one of the men, Awal Khan, a tribal elder from the Abchakan area, and was eventually able to ask him a few questions about the money.

Awal Khan confirmed that he received 2.6 million dollars in rent for the first year, but refused to say what he did with it.

"If I have accepted money, it is rent for our property,” he said. Telling the reporter to “go away”, he said, “I know what I am doing, and I don’t care about anyone else.”

The head of the provincial agriculture department, Mohammad Humayun Omar, told IWPR there was no doubt the Abchakan land was government property, and he was aware that attempts had been made to appropriate it.

State-owned land is recorded by a properties agency that comes under Afghanistan’s agriculture ministry.

Ludin said the title deeds held by the six were invalid and did not have his approval. He said the document dated from before his time, when his predecessor Abdullah Wardak was governor.

"I have made no deal with the people of Abchakan on this matter. Anything that went on happened in Abdullah Wardak’s time, and I am completely unaware of it," he said.

Wardak was killed by a roadside bomb in 2008.

The governor’s own role has raised some questions. When he was first informed that a rent payment had been made in 2009, and was shown documentary proof that the area in question belonged to the state, he had four of the six men arrested.

A few days later, he ordered them to be set free. Local police confirmed to IWPR that the men were released on Ludin’s orders.

When IWPR asked him why he had done this, Ludin initially said the order came from the prosecutor’s office, not him. Shown a copy of the release order for one of the men bearing his own signature, he said, "I was only doing my duty."

Sayed Rahim, head of the provincial justice department then and now, says the blame for letting the men get away rests squarely with Ludin.

Ludin, however, insists he did nothing wrong, and that that allegations made against him were part of a conspiracy.

"I haven’t taken a bribe from anyone. I have only implemented the law," he said.

About 200 families live in the Abchakan area, and some received a share of the 2009 rental payment.

One farmer, Lotfullah, 36, told IWPR he was handed 18,000 dollars four years ago “because that was my share". Others got less – between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars – he said.

Lotfullah said that he had never seen that much money in his life, but that unfortunately, the windfall was never to be repeated.

IWPR approached Logar’s new governor, Mohammad Iqbal Azizi – appointed at the end of September 2012 – for his view on these matters, but was told he was not prepared to go into controversial matters that related to his predecessors.

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The bank bust that nearly took down Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 11: The lights blinked on and off in the newly remodeled basement of the Shah Bobo Jan Palace on the grounds of the Afghan Academy of Science, and then they finally died out.

At the podium, the translator joked that if Kabul Bank, Afghanistan‘s largest private bank, had not needed to be bailed out by the government, the money could have been used to rebuild andrestore the city’s power grid.

Drawing a similar conclusion, a report on the Kabul Bank crisis released here by the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring & Evaluation Committee, also revealed new details about how a small group of men profited from fraudulent loans. It called out local authorities for succumbing to political pressure and the international community for not doing enough to stave off the catastrophe which led to a near-complete meltdown of Afghanistan’s banking system in 2010.

The report, partly compiled from the results of a nine-month-long audit conducted by Kroll, a global investigations firm, said that the crisis was brought on by a well-hidden Ponzi scheme. More than 92% of the bank’s loan book, or $861 million, was extended to 19 related individuals and businesses, which ultimately benefitted 12 people. The remaining $74 million was extended to legitimate customers in loans, the report said. The report noted that the failure of Kabul Bank and the subsequent government bailout represented around 5% to 6% of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, making”Kabul Bank one of the largest banking failures in the world,” Drago Kos, the committee’s chair told TIME.

Kos’ committee went on to detail how the fraud was committed. According to its report, “The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Afghanistan was advised in late 2009 that Kabul Bank was moving money through food trays on Pamir Airway flights,” claiming that 10 Pamir Airways pilots were paid for the service. It also noted that the bank’s credit department “opened loan accounts for proxy borrowers on instruction from senior management, and forged supporting documents including applications, financial statements and registrations, and employed fake business stamps to lend authenticity to the documents.”

Beyond the $861 million, the committee’s report also said that there was an estimated $66.2 million in non-loan disbursements for lavish cars, shopping, travel and houses, as well as paying the salaries of non-existent employees. Ordinary Afghans had entrusted their deposits to Kabul Bank, convinced by a sweeping advertising campaign and good publicity surrounding the bank — which was touted by foreign donors and the Afghan government as proof that the country was modernizing and stable.

Kos says he and his colleagues found the political pressure and interference the most outrageous. “For example, we found out that the prosecution service prepared indictments in June 2011 and they sat on them and they sent them to the court in June 2012 – after one year. And what’s even worse is that the decision over who would and would not be indicted was taken at the political level,” Kos says.

The report outlined the political pressure that government officials faced in investigating the case. “Although there are legitimate capacity issues at the Attorney General’s Office that certainly contributed to the delay in investigation, the major factor impeding the criminal investigation process is political interference resulting in reluctance to pursue charges against some of the participants of the Kabul Bank fraud,” the report said.

Kos says there were institutional problems as well. “The problem is having institutions in place that do not know what their mandate is, which do not understand the meaning of the word ‘independence’ and which are coping with political interference all the time, that of course makes the situation unique for Afghanistan, but it is also a signal to other countries that if they do not fight each of those elements themselves, [...] the system will fail, and it has failed.”

Although Kos acknowledges that “the threat is getting smaller and smaller everyday” of similar institutions collapsing in Afghanistan, he still has deep-founded concerns about future stability in the country. “This case was a big blow to the trust of the people of Afghanistan in the government. You know, the level of trust here is already not the best. In cases like that, not only was there serious moral damage, but thousands of people felt, directly, because they were depositors in the bank, they felt the monetary consequences of it,” says Kos, adding that, “people are telling us that corruption has now reached such an extent that [life] was even better under the Taliban – its not security, it’s the corruption. So, this was really a big blow to all of the national and international efforts to build up the state.”

The report made 48 recommendations to improve all the sectors involved in the crisis, but even committee members are dubious thatthey will be implemented. “There is one simple reason for this,” says Yama Torabi, Ph. D., the head of Integrity Watch Afghanistan and a committee member, “the environment of impunity that we have in this country, for committing corruption and not being pursued by the courts, by the Attorney General’s office. That is something we need to address. If law enforcement does not work in this country, this is what we get. And it’s still continuing. We need tohave the law enforcement agencies take their responsibilities more seriously.”

When asked if he thinks these changes will take place after the report, Torabi says, “I have no hope that this will happen in the near future, but we’re working on it. We will try to see practical ways of doing it. Part of it is linked with the political will. The issue with the political will in Afghanistan is that we are extremely fragmented politically. [...] I don’t think we will get big changes before [2014], but who knows, I mean, these things can happen. Maybe some people will realize that you have to change things fundamentally in order to get there.”

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When the fighting stops

Kabul, Dec 11: After surviving four tours of duty, a suicide bomb and a bullet wound to the chest, Sgt. Karl Martin wonders whether he'll ever again feel so intensely alive now that his war is almost over.

Sgt. Martin, a 27-year-old Marine, has been going off to fight his entire adult life, and, in frank moments, he admits he's going to miss it.

"In a way, it just feels like what I was supposed to do," he said at his base in Sangin, Afghanistan.

The sentiment is shared by his commander, Capt. Sean Ramirez, who said he felt aimless after returning home from Afghanistan last year. He hit the bars, played videogames and gained 20 pounds. He began looking for a way back to the war before it was over.

"When I was in Afghanistan as a platoon commander, I had a task. I had a purpose," said Capt. Ramirez, a 28-year-old from Lakeville, Pa., who led three dozen men in near-daily firefights. "Every day I knew what I was going to do."

The U.S. has withdrawn from Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan, with a plan to pull out most troops by the end of 2014. Some 2.4 million Americans have served in the two conflicts, many deploying three, four or five times since the Sept. 11 hijackings triggered the U.S. engagement abroad.

For troops who grew up at war, the coming peace may prove complicated. Many combat veterans are only too glad to shed their uniforms. There is relief at making it back to the comfort of family and friends, to beer and baths.

But with peace looming, many others fear they will never again experience the vividness and sense of mission that war offers. There also are practical anxieties. Some worry about landing civilian jobs that pay less or offer fewer benefits than their military positions.

Capt. Ramirez dreads boredom most of all. He spent his second tour under attack almost every time he and his men left their Afghan outpost. "That was everything I wanted," he said. "An infantry platoon in the closest thing there is to a front line."

On the captain's current tour—his third—he and Sgt. Martin have been in Sangin, one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. But it has been a disappointment and, Capt. Ramirez fears, a taste of what to expect in a peacetime military. Instead of patrolling fields along the Helmand River, he and his men have stayed largely in a secure base advising Afghan troops who do the fighting, a big step in the handoff of security responsibilities to Kabul.

During the many slow moments of his days, Capt. Ramirez adds to his iPhone list of future peacetime pursuits: cliff diving, big-game hunting, ice climbing, riding motocross and running with the bulls.

"The war's over," he said. "Now is the rest of my life going to have to be turbulent for me to enjoy it? I think so."

His commander in Sangin, Lt. Col. Tom Przybelski, has gone to extraordinary lengths to prolong his wartime service. He was on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq, in October 2006, when he approached a metal push cart in a field of rubble. Hidden inside was an artillery shell with a radio-controlled trigger. Lt. Col. Przybelski was 10 feet away when it exploded. Shrapnel and grit peppered his legs. Flying rocks pulverized his right eye and temporarily blinded his left.

His later nightmares weren't of the explosion but of the insurgent shelling that pounded the base as he lay naked and blind at the field hospital. He did sit-ups in his hospital bed to stay in shape.

He recovered vision in his left eye. Technicians at the Naval hospital in Bethesda, Md., painted a blue iris on a white plastic insert and taught him to position it convincingly in his empty right socket.

Gen. Michael Hagee, then-commandant of the Marine Corps, visited him at the hospital. "Keep leading Marines," Gen. Hagee told the colonel. Lt. Col. Przybelski recalled thinking that the remark "felt like an order or a request."

When the regimental commander, Brig. Gen. David Berger, later called Lt. Col. Przybelski into his office and asked about his plans, the colonel said he wanted to return to combat. It was, in part, because of the commandant's words. He also missed his job.

Gen. Berger, then a colonel, paused. "Well," he said, "an officer has to shoot, move and communicate."

Lt. Col. Przybelski, a 40-year-old native of Spartanburg, S.C., taught himself to shoot a rifle left-handed and to aim a pistol with his left eye. He passed the physical-fitness test and resumed long-distance trail running and solo winter camping, hobbies that forced him to rely on hard-earned skills.

Two months after he was wounded, he was back in Fallujah. "I wanted to come back to the war, to the most warlike piece of the war," he said. "I think a person misses the intensity, the seriousness of purpose, having the authority."

Sgt. Martin, who is from Chelsea, Ala., may feel more trepidation about returning to peacetime life than any of the other Marine advisers leaving Sangin this month after a yearlong tour.

The 6-foot, 175-pound sergeant with dirty-blond hair and a boxer's forehead was the high-school quarterback who dated a cheerleader. After high-school graduation in 2004, he waited tables at Applebee's and sold hunting and fishing gear at a sporting-goods store.

He was an easy catch for the Marine recruiter who worked out of a local strip mall, next to a barber shop, a nail salon and the Food Lion. The young man wanted to fight. "I just joined the Marine Corps to get over here," he said in his Alabama drawl. "I didn't join it to get an education." He married the cheerleader, Donna, in 2006, before he left for Iraq on his first tour.

The deployment was a letdown. His job was processing detainees.

On his second tour, to Fallujah in 2007, he saw his first firefights. But the deployment was marred when one of his Marines flipped a Humvee. Sgt. Martin was held responsible because his man didn't have a driver's license. The Marines docked him a month's pay and put a blot on his record.

Three months into the seven-month stint, he was driving through downtown Fallujah when a man wearing a vest filled with explosives walked up to Sgt. Martin's Humvee and blew himself up.

The sergeant suffered no visible injuries. But the next day his appendix ruptured, unleashing a wave of bacteria in his abdomen. The Marines concluded that the suicide attack and his burst appendix were unrelated. He underwent three operations and missed the rest of the tour.

Back at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he taught infantry skills to junior Marines but lost the job over an extramarital affair, a violation of military rules. His marriage survived. The Marines knocked him down from sergeant to corporal.

Sgt. Martin earned the rank back before he deployed to Afghanistan for his third tour at the end of 2010, with Kilo Co., 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment. He led a squad of Marines in Marjah, a farm village crisscrossed by irrigation canals.

On Feb. 4, 2011, Sgt. Martin and his squad were walking on patrol when villagers, who had been going about their business, suddenly vanished from view. One man remained, talking on a cellphone, a likely spotter for insurgents. The patrol fired a small flare in the man's direction, and he fled.

Moments later, as the Marines angled across a field, they came under heavy fire. They were seeking cover in a dry irrigation ditch when the bomb exploded. It was a buried metal tube aimed along the irrigation ditch and loaded with explosives, bullets, ball-bearings and spark plugs.

The wave of shrapnel hit the first two Marines in the legs. Sgt. Martin was third in line. A bullet, shrapnel from the bomb, missed his body-armor chest plate, slammed into the flesh just beneath his left shoulder and pivoted into his lung. Air leaked out into his chest cavity, crushing a lung.

He started to radio for a medevac helicopter. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the operating room at a rear base.

After a week, he was moved to the Army hospital in Germany, where doctors kept the wound open to avoid infection. Weeks later, he arrived at Camp Lejuene. His wife, Donna, and his infant son, Mason, were waiting.

Mrs. Martin, age 27, worked from home handling payroll for an Alabama thrift-store company. After her husband's return, she learned to pull bloody packing out of his wound and stuff in fresh gauze with a long swab until the hole closed. It was "gross," she said. Sgt. Martin talked her through it.

Surgeons had cut away muscle under his Sgt. Martin's left arm, leaving it so weak he couldn't lift a soda can. He was also diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. When he slept, his mind wandered back to the ambush, the ditch and the explosion. Military doctors recommended a discharge from the service.

Sgt. Martin, however, set a goal of returning to full duty by the time the men in his company returned home in July 2011. To avoid being discharged, he would have to run three miles in less than 33 minutes, do 100 sit-ups in two minutes and manage three pull-ups.

After his prescribed physical therapy, Sgt. Martin would hit the weight room on his own. Three days before his self-imposed deadline, he successfully completed the run and sit-ups. He also did 14 pull-ups.

A few days after the return of Kilo Co., Sgt. Martin joined the other men in formation outside the redbrick headquarters building at Camp Lejeune. As the formation broke up, Sgt. Martin made a beeline for the company commander, Capt. Justin Huber. "The best thing for me to do right now is get back out there," Sgt. Martin told him.

He learned he could return to Afghanistan as an adviser to the Afghan army and pitched it to his wife as a good career move. Sgt. Martin didn't mention his urge to get back to the fighting, but Mrs. Martin had suspected for months that he was itching for war. Still, she said, she was "quietly shocked" when he told her at the kitchen table that he was signing up for a one-year tour.

Mrs. Martin gave her husband a leather-bound journal. On the inside cover she glued a photo of Mason in a plaid shirt and blue-jean overalls. In neat printing she wrote: "So, here we go, Deployment #4. This is going to be the longest one yet, but I'm counting down the days until we're together again." She coated the sole of Mason's foot in black ink and stamped his footprint on the page.

In December 2011, Sgt. Martin returned to Afghanistan. From there, he addressed his journal entries to his wife. In January, he wrote how much he missed dressing Mason and fitting him in his high chair. "We should somehow live like I'm about to deploy so we don't take any moment for granted," he wrote.

On Feb. 3, he wrote: "What I can't believe is tmrw will be a year since I got hurt. If you told me that day I would be back here in Afghanistan I would have said, 'Yeah right, that's crazy and will never happen.' But I guess you never say never."

Over the summer, Sgt. Martin began planning his next career move in the Marine Corps, applying to teach again at the School of Infantry.

In September, he received an email from regimental headquarters informing him that the Marine Corps had rejected his application. The note cited a "pattern of misconduct"—in other words, the extramarital affair and the Humvee accident. It felt like a betrayal, Sgt. Martin said. After eight years, four tours and a Purple Heart, the Marine Corps didn't want him anymore.

He hesitated a day before he emailed Donna with the news. "It feels like I was just told I have Cancer and will die in a couple of years," he wrote.

Mrs. Martin felt sick to her stomach when she read the email. They had bought a house near Camp Lejeune, and a second son is due Dec. 26. She feared he would face a daunting civilian job market. Some 10% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were unemployed in October, compared with 6.3% of all veterans and 7.9% of the overall workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mrs. Martin had been hoping for a promotion. "Why are they doing this to us?" she asked her husband. "What can you do so we can stay in the Marine Corps?"

Lt. Col. Przybelski and Capt. Ramirez pledged to help. Sgt. Martin appealed to the regiment's sergeant major, who made inquiries on his behalf. The message back: Sgt. Martin's Marine Corps career would be over when his enlistment ends next year.

During the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the military was hungry for experienced combat leaders, his commanders said, and Sgt. Martin could have easily re-enlisted a few years ago. Now the Marine Corps is shrinking to fit the new peace and will cut forces by 10% from its peak of 202,000. Under the circumstances, the sergeant major said, one blemish is too many.

"I want you to be mentally prepared in the event you are not retained," the sergeant major wrote to Sgt. Martin.

Soon, Sgt. Martin will begin hunting for a position in the workaday world to replace his $59,000-a-year job leading men into battle.

"Guys and girls back home go through the same thing every month," he said. "Seasons go by and they do the same thing. I guess that's something I'll have to get used to."

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West Point chapel hosts its first same-sex wedding

West Point, Dec 11 : Cadet Chapel, the landmark Gothic church that is a center for spiritual life at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, hosted its first same-sex wedding.

Penelope Gnesin and Brenda Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, exchanged vows in the regal church in an afternoon ceremony, attended by about 250 guests and conducted by a senior Army chaplain.

The two have been together for 17 years. They had a civil commitment ceremony that didn't carry any legal force in 1999 and had long hoped to formally tie the knot. The way was cleared last year, when New York legalized same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama lifted the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military.

The brides both live in New Jersey and would have preferred to have the wedding there, but the state doesn't allow gay marriage.

"We just couldn't wait any longer," Fulton said in a phone interview.

Cadet Chapel was a more-than-adequate second choice, she said.

"It has a tremendous history, and it is beautiful. That's where I first heard and said the cadet prayer," Fulton said, referring to the invocation that says, "Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won."

The ceremony was the second same-sex wedding at West Point. Last weekend, two of Fulton's friends, a young lieutenant and her partner, were married in another campus landmark, the small Old Cadet Chapel in West Point's cemetery.

Fulton has campaigned against the ban on gays in the military as a member of two groups representing gay and lesbian servicemen and servicewomen. She graduated from West Point in 1980, a member of the first class to include women.

She served with the Army Signal Corps in Germany and rose to the rank of captain, but left the service in 1986 partly because she wanted to be open about her sexual orientation. Obama appointed her last year to the U.S. Military Academy's Board of Visitors.

Fulton said the only hassle involved in arranging her ceremony came when she was initially told that none of West Point's chaplains was authorized by his or her denomination to perform same-sex weddings.

Luckily, Fulton said, they were able to call on a friend, Army Chaplain Col. J. Wesley Smith. He is the senior Army chaplain at Dover Air Force Base, where he presides over the solemn ceremonies held when the bodies of soldiers killed in action overseas return to U.S. soil.

The couple added other military trappings to their wedding, including a tradition called the saber arch, where officers or cadets hold their swords aloft over the newlyweds as they emerge from the church.

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Spectator falls from stands at ACC Championship

Charlotte, Dec 11 : A 22-year-old man is in critical condition after sustaining life-threatening injuries after falling about 40 feet off a fourth-floor ramp outside Bank of America Stadium at the ACC Championship between No. 13 Florida State and Georgia Tech.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police identified the victim as Sean Michael Powers, a resident of New Port Richey, Fla. It's unclear if he was a student at Florida State.

Michael Stanford, the supervisor of special operations for Mecklenburg County EMS, said his agency responded to an incident in which a spectator fell from a ramp leading to the stands shortly after the 8 p.m. kickoff.

The fall is the first of its kind from Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers.

The stadium opened in 1996.

Stanford said the spectator was transported by ground to the trauma center at Carolinas Medical Center with "life-threatening injuries."

Major Eddie Levins of the Charlotte Police Department said officers are "investigating what is being referred to as a public accident. A 22-year old male fell from what is thought to be the fourth level of the stadium."

They had no comment on the extent of his injuries.

Bank of America Stadium has switchbank ramps that that take fans to the upper level of the stands.

The man fell on to a grassy area, which was taped off by police. Witnesses were taken to the police office for questioning.

Bud Elliott, 47, from Fort Myers Fla., said he came across the accident just after it happened around kickoff and several fans were looking down from the ramps.

"I came upon a crowd of people who were running," Elliott said. "They said this guy jumped or fell off. It didn't look good. It's just really sad to have something like that happen."

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Third major storm moving into Northern California

San Francisco, Dec 11: Another major storm moving into Northern California was expected to bring more pouring rain, flooding and additional problems to an area already soaked after two major storms, forecasters said.

Residents of Northern California enjoyed just a bit of a respite, but the next storm — the third in a string of powerful weather systems to hit the region since — is expected arrive and force several rivers over their banks, National Weather Service forecasters said.

With rivers and streams already running high and the ground saturated from the previous storms, the National Weather Service issued flood warnings for both the Napa and Russian rivers, two rivers north of San Francisco with a history of flooding, National Weather Service hydrologist Mark Strudley said.

"Some roads will become inundated and some of the agricultural areas will take on some water," Strudley said.

The Napa River was expected to flood near St. Helena and Napa around noon, while the Russian River was expected to flood near Guerneville, Strudley said.

The Napa River overwhelmed downtown Napa in 2005, flooding or destroying about 1,000 homes and forcing thousands of residents to leave the area.

With that in mind, residents worked to fill 700 bags with 10 tons of sand, city official Danny Lerma said.

"When you see it happen, you always remember, and you say, 'I'm going to be better prepared,'" Lerma told KGO-TV. "And that's what they're doing right now."

Forecasters said the Truckee River near Lake Tahoe is expected to crest above flood level. The threat of flooding prompted officials in Truckee, a small town of about 16,000, to set up an evacuation center.

A flash flood watch was also in effect for a wide area of Northern California through.

Just across the border in Nevada, a state of emergency was declared in Reno, Sparks and Washoe County due to the expected flooding.

Reno city spokeswoman Michele Anderson said public servants would be working overtime through the weekend to control what's expected to be the worst flooding there since 2005.

The weather also prompted cancellations of Christmas parades and tree lightings in Sparks and Truckee.

At the peak of the storm, thousands of people in Northern California were without power, but Pacific Gas & Electric was reporting only scattered outages, spokesman J.D. Guidi said.

The utility had extra crews standing by in anticipation of new outages caused by falling branches and strong winds, Guidi said.

The stormy weather may be behind a crash that involved several cars on Interstate 280 outside of San Francisco, as well as the death of a Pacific Gas & Electric worker in West Sacramento who was killed after his truck crashed into a traffic signal pole during the stormy weather.

With the ground saturated with water, increasing the possibility of trees and branches falling onto roadways, and the roads expected to be slick, California Highway Patrol officials urged drivers to be extra cautious.

Officials were also warning people to be careful along beaches.

A high surf advisory was issued by the weather service, with swells expected to be 14 to 16 feet along the Northern California coast. In Southern California, high surf was predicted in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

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Family owned pineapple business takes on produce giants

Washington, Dec 11: Think pineapple and Hawaii probably comes to mind.  Which is why it might be surprising to learn that though the 50th state led pineapple production in the 1960's, Hawaii doesn't even rank in the top ten global producers now.  But Lisa and Craig Bowden have a plan to change all that.

They have  a tiny company,  less than 20 employees and their business Hawaiian Crown is the last and only family-owned commercial pineapple farm in the state.  But what Hawaiian Crown lacks in size, it more than makes up for in spirit.  Even though Lisa and Craig may be outgunned by produce giants, they have still managed to invest more than $3 million and 20 years of research and development.

"Pineapple has a very special place in Hawaii as a symbol of hospitality," says Craig Bowden.  Yet, quality and quantity has "declined relative to cheaper, lower cost sources around the world."

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RIM’s rollercoaster ride clouds outlook ahead of BB10

New York, Dec 11 : Financial analysts can't seem to make up their minds about the prospects for Research In Motion, (RIMM) but deep in the heart of the company's home base of Waterloo, Ont., Wes Worsfold is still a believer.

The president of Motek Mobile and the coordinator of the local BlackBerry Developer Group, Worsfold is among those people who are focusing less attention on the ups and downs of RIM's stock -- which closed up 4 per cent at US$11.54 in New York — but on creating the kinds of consumer apps and games that will make people want to buy the next-generation BB10-based devices.

"Developing apps for RIM is streamlined," he says. "There are lots of development options and help and support is always available from the RIM dev relations team. We can submit apps for BB10 in AppsWorld today."

Sure, but will anyone in the outside world care? That's the question investors have been grappling with this week as they try to figure out the best course of action after RIM's previous share rally crashed in the wake of a legal dispute with Nokia over WLAN patent royalties.

Then Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating to "buy" and raised its price target from US$9 to US$16. There are still plenty of dissenters among financial analysts, however, and the BB10 platform and device launch is still almost two months away.

Kevin Restivo, lead mobility analyst at market research firm IDC, suggested it might be better to ignore any extreme views on RIM's outlook in favour of a more balanced perspective.

"There's still going to be growth, but it's a question of how much growth," he said. "The new management has been doing a good job of trying to turn the ship around, but over time RIM is faced with much steeper competition ... they're becoming more of a niche player than the RIM of old."

Here's the problem: RIM will probably face slower growth in North American markets where more advanced networks have been deployed, Restivo says. It's different in emerging markets, were 3G is considered state of the art and you'll still see the occasional lineups for new BlackBerry smartphones.

Although BB10 seems to be impressing the people who have gotten an early look at it, keeping the loyalty of developers like Worsfold is critical, because if BlackBerry's apps aren't interesting to consumers, the hardware differences won't really matter.

RIM is now operating in a much different environment than it did a few years ago. The company made its name by becoming the mobile phone of choice among businesses, which purchased them en masse and issued them to employees. It doesn't work that way anymore. The biggest trend in technology this year has been what's called the "bring your own device" (BYOD) movement, where employees demand to have the phones they use on their personal time to be connected to their company's network.

Investors need to understand the BYOD factor because it will have the biggest bearing on RIM's success over the long term. It's not about RIM landing another big corporate account, because the BlackBerry is no longer a corporate device. It's one of many choices in a consumer-dominated landscape, part of the Apple-to-apples comparisons that will require winning over individual subscribers one by one.

Popularity contests aren't easy to predict, which could be why RIM's share price has been so volatile. Maybe it's best to think about it this way: no one knows if the BlackBerry will win the contest, but it's probably got a good shot at being one of the finalists.

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Boeing union says trying to halt calls for wildcat strike

New York, Dec 11: The union that represents Boeing Co's (BA) engineers said it is trying to halt efforts by some of its members to call a one-day, unauthorized strike next week against the plane maker to protest the slow progress of labor talks.

Union leaders have circulated a letter "asking members to ignore the call for a wildcat strike," said Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said in an email. "We've also posted such messages on our Facebook page."

The response comes after union members apparently sent emails from fake accounts calling for a one-day walkout.

Boeing officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Talks between Boeing and SPEEA broke off last week after Boeing called for a federal mediator, saying the sides remained far apart even though they have been negotiating since April on contracts that expired in October. A 60-day extension expired, opening the door to a strike.

The two sides tentatively agreed to resume talks with a mediator present, provided they could agree on a venue and the choice of mediator.

The union has balked at a Boeing contract that it says would cut the growth rate of compensation of professional and technical employees. Boeing says its latest offer is much improved over its initial proposal and reflects a tough competitive environment.

The dispute comes as Boeing is speeding up jet production from 52 a month, worth about $8 billion at list prices, to about 60 a month by the end of next year. A walkout by the union could stop production and could cost the company about $400 million a day at current production rates and prices.

"No question there would be steep costs" to Boeing from a longer, union-sanctioned strike, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at The Teal Group in Virginia. A delay in production, particularly of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, would help jet maker Airbus catch up on competing jets.

A union-sanctioned strike, which might last only a few weeks, would have minimal effect on planes still in development, such as the 737 MAX, he said.

The last strike by SPEEA, in February of 2000, lasted 40 days and came after a mediator failed to resolve differences.

Goforth said those calling for a strike were frustrated with Boeing "for trying to impose a terrible offer" and impatient with the plane maker's negotiations tactics.

"They wanted to inflict some economic harm and signal to the customers and investment community that Boeing is about to provoke a serious strike."

The union said the one-day strike is not sanctioned by SPEEA and is not legally protected.

The union also said it had no plans to strike before the holidays, because Boeing closes its factories for the week between Christmas and the New Year holiday.

"We don't know whether such an action will happen December 5," Goforth said, because the union doesn't know how widespread the planning is nor "how many people will heed SPEEA's call to not participate in this action."

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Toyota China sales tumble again in Nov, though pace eases

Beijing, Dec 11 : Toyota Motor Corp is still struggling to revive sales in China, part of a broader slump Japanese car firms are suffering as a result of a diplomatic row between the countries.

Toyota's sales in China totaled roughly 60,000 vehicles last month, a senior company executive said, compared with 81,800 cars the company and its Chinese partners sold in November last year.

The pace of the last month's decline - roughly 25 percent from a year earlier - eased from the previous two months but was still "far off from our more normalized and targeted sales pace," said the Toyota executive who declined to be named because the information had not yet been made public.

Toyota's numbers indicate that sales in China by other Japanese carmakers are also likely to be down. For most of those firms, sales are still falling at double-digit rates from 2011 levels, though the pace of decline has slackened recently.

Toyota is expected to announce its China sales data for November, according to a Beijing-based company spokesman. He did not respond to calls seeking comment on November sales.

"It probably won't be until March or April when we see sales return to a pre-September pace," the senior executive said, echoing a consensus expressed by officials from other Japanese brands.

Demand for leading Japanese car brands in China virtually halved in September and October. That reduced the Japanese firms' collective market share in China's passenger car market, which excludes trucks and buses, to about 17 percent from 19 percent at the end of August, according to the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers.

Toyota's sales fall in November followed a decline of 44 percent in October, and almost 50 percent in September.

Violent protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese products broke out across China in mid-September after Japan nationalized two East China Sea islands, known as the Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, by buying them from their private owners.

Some Chinese consumers have since avoided Japanese-brand cars. In a widely reported incident during the height of anti-Japanese sentiment, a Chinese man was attacked by angry protesters for driving a Toyota Corolla. The driver was so severely beaten that he was partially paralyzed.

At the start of the year, Toyota said it aimed to sell 1 million cars annually in China. This target is unlikely to be met until 2013 at the earliest.

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Emails suggest SEC's Schapiro delayed JOBS Act rule amid concerns about legacy

Washington, Dec 11: Outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro delayed immediately implementing a rule to lift a ban on broader-based advertising for private placements in part because she feared it would tarnish her legacy as a pro-investor leader of the agency, internal SEC emails obtained by a U.S. House of Representatives oversight panel show.

The emails were highlighted in a letter critical of Schapiro sent to her by congressman Patrick McHenry, the Republican chairman of a prominent House subcommittee that oversees financial services, who called on Schapiro to hurry up and finalize the rule.

Schapiro, who is stepping down as chairman in two weeks, decided to take more time seeking public comments about the rule after Barbara Roper, a well-known investor advocate with the Consumer Federation of America, wrote a letter to Schapiro's chief of staff voicing "strong objections" to lifting the ban without vetting the rule first.

Schapiro's decision went against the recommendations of the SEC's staff, including Corporation Finance Director Meredith Cross, the emails suggest.

It also angered Republican SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher, who told Schapiro he was "furious" and accused her of failing to negotiate with other commissioners in good faith, according to an email included in McHenry's letter.

After changing her mind on the direction of the rule-making, she only informed Commissioner Elisse Walter - her close friend who is taking over the chairmanship this month - and no other member of the SEC until the following week, the letter says.

"I don't want to be tagged with an anti-investor legacy," Schapiro wrote in an e-mail to Cross with the subject line "Please don't forward."

"In light of all that's been accomplished, that wouldn't be fair, but it is what will be said ..."

McHenry said Schapiro's concerns about her legacy shouldn't delay implementation of the rule.

"The continued second-guessing, and the accompanying delays in the process, is simply unacceptable," McHenry wrote.

The SEC issued a statement in response to reporters seeking a comment about the McHenry letter.

"Chairman Schapiro strongly believes that protecting investors should be the desired legacy of all SEC Chairmen," the SEC said. "It is part of our mission and should inform our decisions at all times. She (Schapiro) also believes that the agency should not consider investors — or the groups that represent them — to be special interests."

The SEC's proposal would greatly loosen strict advertising rules to make it easier for hedge funds, private equity funds and other firms to reach potential investors in the private marketplace.

The proposal pertains to several kinds of offerings, including those made under what is known as "Rule 506" of Regulation D, which allows companies to raise an unlimited dollar amount from accredited investors who meet certain income or asset thresholds.

Proponents say it will help spur more capital-raising and makes a lot of sense - especially in a social media world.

The SEC was required by Congress to lift the advertising ban under the 2012 Jumpstart our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act.

The JOBS Act aims to reduce the regulatory burden for small business start-ups by relaxing various securities regulations.

The law passed with bipartisan support, though shortly before it was enacted Schapiro wrote a lengthy letter raising concerns it could erode many important investor protections.

Consumer advocates and state regulators are afraid it will leave the door open to fraud by people who will be able to peddle products to unsuspecting investors.

The SEC was supposed to finalize the rule by July 4, but missed its deadline. Originally, staff had wanted to bypass the lengthier public comment process by adopting it as an "interim final rule" instead of a "proposed" rule. That would have let the SEC lift the ban right away, and then potentially tweak the rule down the road.

Roper and other investor advocates, however, strongly opposed that approach, saying important protections need to be added to the rule. Schapiro later dropped the plan for an interim final rule and took the longer route of seeking public comments first.

The SEC said that it sought public comments first because there was a "high level of investor interest and numerous requests to be able to comment on a specific proposal." The SEC added that there could have been a "very real threat of a legal challenge" if the agency did not go through a more rigorous rule-making process.

Investor advocates are still upset with the draft of the proposed rule because they say none of their suggestions for improving the rule were even contemplated, such as amending the definition of "accredited investor" to make sure unsophisticated people are not sold or marketed unsuitable products, and tweaking the filing rules so the commission can collect data on solicitation practices to help it police the marketplace.

Democratic SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar has called for re-proposing it, and incoming SEC Chairman Walter has also raised concerns about a lack of investor protections.

Republicans in the U.S. House and at the SEC, however, want to see the rule go into effect right away.

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Little progress in U.S. "fiscal cliff" talks

Hatfield, Dec 11: With barely a month left before the "fiscal cliff," Republicans and Democrats remained far apart in talks to avoid the across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that threaten to throw the country back into recession.

While President Barack Obama visited a Pennsylvania toy factory to muster public support for tax hikes on the rich, portraying Republicans as scrooges at Christmas time, his primary adversary in negotiations, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, continued to describe the situation as a stalemate.

The argument will resume when Boehner, along with Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and others, take to weekly political talk shows and pick up further steam next week with a possible confrontation in the House of Representatives between Democrats and Republicans over the timing of a vote on tax hikes.

Lawmakers are nervously eyeing the markets as the deadline approaches, with gyrations likely to intensify pressure to bring the drama to a close.

The markets, in turn watching the politicians, fell as Boehner spoke, but recovered afterward. It was a repeat of the pattern earlier in the week when the speaker offered a similarly gloomy assessment.

The latest round of high-stakes gamesmanship focuses on whether to extend the temporary tax cuts that originated under former President George W. Bush beyond their December 31 expiration date for all taxpayers, as Republicans want, or just for those with incomes under $250,000, as Obama and his fellow Democrats want.

After five days of increasingly confrontational exchanges, the work week drew to a close with an announcement by Democrats of a long-shot effort next week to force an early tax-hike vote in the Republican-controlled U.S. House to break the deadlock.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would undertake the rarely successful effort unless Boehner agreed to bring a bill to the floor allowing taxes on the wealthy to rise, something Boehner is highly unlikely to do until he is ready.

"The clock is ticking," Pelosi said at a news conference. "The year is ending. It's really important with tax legislation for it to happen now. We're calling upon the Republican leadership in the House to bring this legislation to the floor next week."

While Boehner offered no immediate response to Pelosi's threat, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, recently elected by Republicans to be the fourth-ranking party leader in the House, told Fox News in an interview not to expect any tax vote next week.

Amid the competing statements from the two sides, there were some actual, albeit modest, signs of potential movement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threw Republican proposals into the mix for reform of Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors, which has exploded in cost in recent years and is a major contributor to the country's soaring deficit.

McConnell of Kentucky told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that Republicans would agree to more revenue - although not higher tax rates - if Democrats agreed to such changes as raising the eligibility age for Medicare and slowing cost-of-living increases in the Social Security retirement program.

Rodgers, in her Fox News interview, declined to completely rule out a much-discussed potential compromise in which Republicans would accept some increase in tax rates on the rich, but not to the level desired by Obama.

More House Republicans - although still just a handful -expressed flexibility beyond that of their party leaders about considering an increase in tax rates for the wealthy, as long as they are accompanied by significant spending cuts.

Most House Republicans refuse to back higher rates, preferring to raise revenue through tax reform.

Obama, speaking in Pennsylvania, said he was encouraged by the shifting views of some Republicans, and urged House approval of a bill that has already cleared the Democratic-controlled Senate that would lock in the middle-class tax cuts and raise the rates for the rich.

"If we can get a few House Republicans on board, we can pass the bill. ... I'm ready to sign it," Obama said.

But neither he nor the other principals in the debate budged from their basic positions.

Instead, Obama turned up the pressure, hitting the road to drum up support for his drive to raise taxes on the wealthy and warning Americans that Republicans were offering them "a lump of coal" for Christmas.

In a visit to the Pennsylvania toy factory, Obama portrayed congressional Republicans as scrooges who risked sending the country over the fiscal cliff rather than strike a deal to avert the tax increases and spending cuts that begin in January unless Congress intervenes.

"We already all agree, we say, on making sure middle-class taxes don't go up. So let's get that done. Let's go ahead and take the fear out for the vast majority of American families so they don't have to worry," Obama said at the Rodon Group factory, which makes K'NEX building toy systems as well as Tinkertoys and consumer products.

In Washington, Boehner said Obama's plan to raise taxes on the rich was the wrong approach.

"There is a stalemate. Let's not kid ourselves," the Ohio Republican said. "Right now we are almost nowhere."

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Hyderpora reels under darkness

Srinagar, Dec 11: The residents of Post Office Lane Hyderpora complained that they are plunged into darkness for the past three days since the colony transformer developed snag.

Stating that the power supply was “terribly erratic”, they appealed the Chief Engineer PDD to look into the matter.

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Horror behind the bars in Shaher-e-Khaas!

Srinagar, Dec 11 : The parents of accused stone-pelters who were released last night have accused police of excesses like denial of food, water and medicines during the detention.

 65-year-old Ghulam Qadir Sheikh who was detained for four days in Nowhatta and Kothibagh Police Stations alleged of excesses. “It was worst experience of my life. They dragged me like animal. They abused us all including daughters and sisters,” Sheikh narrated at his house near historic Jamia Masjid.

 Recalling the fateful night of his arrest, Sheikh said: “At around 12 PM, we heard screaming at main doors. As we were trying to figure out what is happening, our door was banged repeatedly.”

 “We got scared and in the meantime they(policemen) broke our windows and forced entry into the house,” Sheikh said.

 “They asked us about my younger son and we simply replied that he was not at home. And then they grabbed my collar and whisked me away in Gypsy to police station.”

 Sheikh said he suffers from blood pressure and number of ailments. “We were denied food, medicines, water and even ablution until we were shifted to Kothi Bagh police station,” Sheikh said adding there he was “treated well”.

 Echoing Sheikh, father of another 18-year-old alleged stone-pelter, Muhammad Hussain Khan (55) said: “At around 11:45 PM police banged our door repeatedly. We got scared and finally somehow mustered courage to open it.”

 “As soon as I opened the door, they asked about my son and started abusing us. Some of them went inside on the pretext of searching and ransacked our households,” he said adding “When they could not find my son, they threw something in my neck and bundled me in a Gypsy.”

 Khan also accused the Nowhatta Police of terrorizing them and accused them of depriving them of food, medicines and water. “We shivered with cold on the cement floors of Nowhatta police station. They didn’t even provide us a blanket,” Khan complained. He however was also praise for Kothibagh police officials.

 Other parents of the accused stone pelters also accused the Nowhatta Police of excesses in detention.

 The four parents Sheikh Ghulam Qadir (65), Muhammad Hussain Khan (65), Fayaz Ahmad Zargar and Ghulam Mohammad Ahmad Sofi were arrested by police a few days ago back during raids at their houses.

 When Contacted SDPO, Nowhatta, Sajad Ahmed Shah refuted the allegations saying the four were never detained at Nowhatta Police Station but instantly shifted. “As soon as they were arrested, they were shifted to Kothibagh police station,” the SDPO told Greater Kashmir.

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Heating system non-functional in held Valley Hospitals

Srinagar, Dec 11: The heating system in major hospitals of held Kashmir Valley are non-functional as workers running the system went on an indefinite strike demanding release of pending salary.

With mercury dipping in held Valley, the patients and their attendants are facing a huge inconvenience in absence of alternate heating arrangements for them in the health institutions.

 Hundreds of casual workers associated with the Mechanical Hospital and Central Heating Division (MH&CHD), said that they have not received their salary for the past one year due to “callous approach” of health authorities.

 “Every time we raise the issue, authorities assure us that salary would be released soon but despite passing of 12 months nothing has been done. So, we decided to hold strike till our salary is released,” the workers told Greater Kashmir.       

 The attendants of patients admitted in various hospitals associated with the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK) and Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar complained that the shutdown of heating system by the hospital administration was causing hardships to the ailing people.

 “The patients shiver and are suffering immensely due to lack of heating during nights as the temperature reaches close to freezing point,” they said, adding the administration failed to make alternate arrangements.

 According to sources, the heating system was stopped due to paucity of funds. They also attributed the problem to the lack coordination between Health and Medical Education Department and MH&CHD authorities.

 “The funds released by the government are inadequate for running the central heating in the hospitals. The matter was brought to the notice of government many times but no major headway took place in this regard as yet,” they said.

 Some district hospitals in Baramulla, Islamabad, Bandipora and Kupwara have installed Gas heaters but authorities never filed gas cylinders that left the alternate arrangement non-functional, they added.

 “Though the heaters are being used by the hospital administration regularly but the hundreds of the patients are kept in lurch,” the sources added, while saying that the Gynecological section was suffering most as arrangement of heating is mandatory for the pregnant women.

 They stated that traditional heaters and blowers are inadequate to warm up the rooms and wards of the hospital due to erratic power supply during the winter season.

 Official said that the winter season has just set in the state and department has made all necessary arrangements of heating in all districts and sub districts hospitals. The district hospitals have in built heating systems and would be made functional soon.

 When contacted, the Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman admitted the paucity of funds. “We have received Rs 93 lakhs for running the central heating system in Kashmir hospital which is inadequate,” he said.

However, he said the directorate had already sent a request to the government for extra money. “We require more than Rs 2 crore for it that we have conveyed to government,” he said.

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Twin study helps scientists link relationship among ADHD, reading, math

Islamabad, Dec 11: Children with ADHD can sometimes have more difficulties on math and reading tests compared to their peers. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, used identical and fraternal twins to look at the genetic and environmental influences underlying ADHD behaviors, reading, and math skills in children in an attempt to better understand the relationship among them.

Sara Hart, of the Florida State University, and her colleagues used twins enrolled in a long-term study of reading and math. Hart says by focusing on twins specifically, psychological scientists are able to tease out the difference between nature and nurture.

To do this, scientists compare identical twins, who have nearly the same DNA, with fraternal twins, who generally only share about half of their DNA. If identical twins are generally more alike on a trait -- say, their eye color or reading ability -- and fraternal twins are much less alike on the same trait, you can presume the trait is inherited. On the other hand, if pairs of identical twins are alike on a trait to the same extent that pairs of fraternal twins are alike on that trait -- like how outgoing they are -- you know the trait is probably influenced by their environment. Most traits fall somewhere in between, and twin studies can show that, too.

In this case, Hart and her colleagues were interested in how twins matched up on symptoms of ADHD, reading achievement, and math achievement. At about age 10, every pair of twins was tested on their reading and math ability. Their mothers also filled out surveys on any problems the children have with attention or hyperactivity.

The researchers found that ADHD behaviors, reading achievement, and math achievement were all influenced by the same genetic influences; this doesn't prove anything about what causes what, but some psychological scientists think that all three might be linked through the working memory system.

Although common genetic influences is a typical result from twin studies, the exciting aspect of this work was that that ADHD behaviors, reading achievement, and math achievement are also associated by common environmental influences.

Although it is not known what the actual environmental influences are, Hart and her colleagues suggest that it could be related to aspects of the classroom and homework environment. If researchers can figure out what these environmental influences really are, they may be able to help children with ADHD do better in school.

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Doctors don't need to fear red heads

Islamabad, Dec 11 : A study in the BMJ's Christmas issue published on the British Medical Journal website confirms that there is no need for doctors to fear red heads.

The research concludes that, contrary to popular belief, people with red hair do not bleed any more than other patients.

The authors, led by surgeon Jonathan Barry from Morriston Hospital in Swansea, say that "red haired patients are traditionally regarded with a degree of trepidation by surgeons and anaesthetists alike due to a reputation for excessive bleeding, reduced pain threshold and a propensity to develop hernias."

Globally around 1-2% of the general population have red hair, this rises to 2-6% in the Northern hemisphere and is highest in Scotland where as many as 13% are red heads with at least 40% carrying the recessive red hair gene.

Barry and colleagues say that there have been anecdotal reports about the clinical behaviour of red heads with claims of increased bleeding.

However, in their review of existing scientific literature on this issue, they found no robust evidence to support these anecdotes.

Some small studies found that when undergoing surgery people with red hair needed more anaesthetic than other patients. And another study indicated that red heads were more sensitive to cold and heat pain than the control group.

In conclusion, the authors say that red heads have no greater risk during surgery than the rest of the population.

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There's a new 'officer' in the infection control army

Islamabad, Dec 11: Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a previously unrecognized step in the activation of infection-fighting white blood cells, the main immunity troops in the body's war on bacteria, viruses and foreign proteins.

"It's as if we knew many of the generals, colonels and majors and now we have discovered a new officer that helps the troops carry out the right battle plan," says Joel Pomerantz, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Biological Chemistry in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences and member of the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins.

The discovery, published in Molecular Cell also presents new opportunities to develop drugs to enhance the immune system, or to slow down hyperactive immune cells in cases of autoimmunity and cancer, Pomerantz says.

Faced with infection, the body's white blood cells are commanded by a protein -- CARD11 -- to either make more antibodies and white blood cells that attack the invader or to stand down and abort the mission.

The new research shows that CARD11 is under the control of GAKIN, another protein that supervises the directives given to each white blood cell. Because of CARD11's importance in the decision-making process, it needs a regulator to make sure it turns off when it's no longer needed to avoid the risk of hyperactivity. If too many T or B cells, particular types of white blood cells, are made or sent to battle infection, the consequences can be cancer or autoimmune disease, Pomerantz says.

The discovery of GAKIN's role in immune cell activation began when researchers attached the gene that codes for luciferase -- a natural protein that makes fireflies glow -- to a gene that CARD11 turns on in response to an infection. This allowed them to see when a CARD11-responsive gene was turned on by measuring the amount of light released from the cells. Pomerantz's group discovered that the more GAKIN protein they added to the cells, the less the cells glowed, meaning that GAKIN represses these genes' activation.

In other experiments, the researchers learned that GAKIN has multiple ways of controlling CARD11 output. CARD11 can only turn on if all of the other specific key regulatory proteins -- like a tactical team -- are present. When researchers labeled the CARD11 protein with a red-colored tag and watched it under a microscope inside a white blood cell, they could see that CARD11 moved away from its tactical team activators to a different location in the cell shortly after the cell was alerted of an infection. But, CARD11 hung out longer with the tactical team activators in cells that had less GAKIN. According to Pomerantz, GAKIN can control CARD11 by moving it to another location in the cell away from the proteins that are needed to turn CARD11 on.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society, as well as funds from the Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Cell Engineering, a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, a Kimmel Scholar Award and a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award. Additional authors of the study are Rebecca Lamason and Abraham Kupfer of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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