California sea smuggling claims Coast Guard life

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

San Diego, Dec 12 : The killing of a U.S. Coast Guardsman whose crew was chasing a vessel suspected of being laden with drugs appears to be the latest example of how smugglers are venturing farther north in a game of cat-and-mouse along the California coast.
Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne, 34, died after he was struck in the head by the suspect vessel near the Channel Islands, west of Los Angeles and about 180 miles northwest of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Two Mexican men — Jose Meija Leyva and Manuel Beltran Higuera — were charged in Los Angeles with killing a federal officer while the officer was on duty.

Horne is the first law enforcement official to die on California's seas since a spike in illegal activity began several years ago, said Ralph DeSio, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman. At least six people aboard suspected smuggling vessels have been killed since the 2010 fiscal year.

The Halibut, an 87-foot patrol cutter based in Marina del Rey, was dispatched after a Coast Guard C-130 plane spotted the 30-foot "panga" vessel was spotted traveling without lights near Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the eight Channel Islands, according to a criminal complaint.

The cutter contains a 21-foot-long rigid-hull inflatable boat that the Coast Guard routinely uses on missions that require more speed and agility than the cutter can deliver.

As Horne and his team came within about 20 yards of the suspect vessel in their inflatable boat, the suspect vessel gunned its engine, knocking Horne and Brandon Langdon into the water, according to the complaint. Langdon was treated for a knee injury and two other crew members aboard the inflatable boat were unharmed in the collision at 1:20 a.m.

Coast Guard spokesman Adam Eggers said waiting for the vessel to make land would have introduced other risks and logistical challenges. The Coast Guard's mandate, he said, is to interdict at sea.

"As of right now, there are absolutely zero questions about whether they followed proper protocol," Eggers said.

Coast Guard crews followed the suspects by air and sea for nearly four hours until the vessel's engine died 20 miles north of the Mexican border, according to the complaint. An officer used pepper spray on both suspects.

Meija Leyva identified himself as the captain and told authorities he was taking gasoline to lost friends, according to the complaint. Beltran Higuera told authorities he was offered $3,000 to deliver gasoline to another boat that was waiting for them, but they never found it.

The complaint makes no mention of drugs being found on the boat.

Attorneys for both men did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment. A judge scheduled a preliminary hearing Dec. 17.

In growing numbers, smugglers are turning to California seas to bring people and drugs to the United States from Mexico. The number of Border Patrol agents on land has doubled in the past eight years and hundreds of miles of fences and other barriers have been erected, driving smugglers to the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. authorities spotted 210 suspected smuggling vessels on California shores during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up 15 percent from 183 incidents the previous year and more than quadruple the 45 incidents in 2008.

More than half the sightings are still in San Diego County, bordering Mexico, but boats are turning up as far north as San Luis Obispo County on California's central coast. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there were 14 incidents in Los Angeles County last year, seven in Ventura County and 11 in Santa Barbara County.

Migrants pay thousands of dollars to launch from beaches and small fishing villages south of Tijuana, Mexico. They typically use old, single-engine wooden fishing skiffs known as "pangas."

In one typical case in October, a Mexican woman told authorities she agreed to pay $12,000. A criminal complaint says she was among 16 people — all but one a suspected illegal immigrant from Mexico — found in a 31-foot vessel that appeared to be taking water in the Newport Beach harbor.

In September, authorities seized 3,475 pounds of marijuana from a boat that landed near Hearst Castle on the central coast.

The Halibut's commanding officer, Lt. Stewart Sibert, said he and his crew were devastated by the loss of Horne, calling the Redondo Beach man the best shipmate he ever knew.

"He was my friend, he was my confidante, he was the glue that held my crew together," Sibert said, choking back tears at a news conference. "He gave me advice more times than I could count."

Just a few months ago, Horne helped save the lives of three people on a sailboat that was struggling against darkness and howling winds near the Channel Islands.

"Our fallen shipmate stood the watch on the front lines protecting our nation, and we are all indebted to him for his service and sacrifice," said Admiral Robert J. Papp, Coast Guard commandant.

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College offering puppy room for stressed out students

Washington, Dec 12 : University students are well versed in coming up with ways to cope with the stress of college life. But some students at a college in Canada have started a new trend that is family-friendly, opening a puppy room for students during finals week.

The National Post reports that for three days during finals week (Dec. 4-6), students at Dalhousie University can spend some time with therapeutic dogs, which are being brought in by Therapeutic Paws of Canada.

"It fills a niche that people need right now because students are superstressed," Michael Kean, an environmental science student who first proposed the idea, told the Post.

After the student union first advertised the event on its Facebook page, the Puppy Room has gone viral across social networking sites.

"Our expectations are pretty high right now," Gavin Jardine, vice president of student life at Dalhousie told the Post. "We had 1,800 shares, thousands of 'likes.' It's gone viral on Twitter as well."

Don LeBlanc of Therapeutic Paws of Canada said all the dogs attending the event come from loving homes and enjoy the company of people. A number of different breeds will be on hand to interact with students who sign up to visit the Puppy Room.

And buzz from the Dalhousie Puppy Room has spread so quickly that LeBlanc says a half-dozen universities have already called about staging similar events for their students.

So, is there any actual evidence to support using guest dogs to alleviate the stress of busy college students?

"If you do any research at all about the benefits of using pets, you'll find out quite quickly that it lowers blood pressure," LeBlanc said. "It certainly made a huge difference in my life when I got a dog."

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McAfee says he's left Belize, is still on run

Mexico City, Dec 12  : Software company founder John McAfee said he has fled from Belize using a bizarre ruse, adding yet another chapter in what threatens to become one of the biggest media fugitive frenzies since O.J. Simpson led police on a low-speed chase in 1994.

McAfee claimed in a blog posting he had evaded authorities by staging an elaborate distraction in neighboring Mexico.

In an email, McAfee confirmed a posting to his website in which he described, in what appeared to be joking tones, how he mounted the ruse.

"My 'double,' carrying on (sic) a North Korean passport under my name, was detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior," McAfee wrote in the posting, "but due to indifference on the part of authorities (he) was evicted from the jail and was unable to serve his intended purpose in our exit plan."

It was a turn typical of the bizarre saga of the eccentric anti-virus company founder wanted for questioning in connection with the killing of fellow American ex-pat Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death at the Belize island where they both had homes in early November.

Since then, McAfee has refused to turn himself in for questioning saying he fears Belizean police would kill him, and has titillated the media with phone calls, emails and blog posts detailing his life on the lam. It has all resulted in a rather undignified media scrum to get interviews with McAfee, complete with taunts.

Vice magazine, two of whose journalists are reportedly traveling with McAfee, posted a story on its website entitled "We Are with John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," along with a photos showing McAfee and VICE editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro.

Wired magazine later said on its website that location information embedded in the photo shows McAfee and the journalists were at Guatemala's Rio Dulce National Park, near the border with Belize, when the photo was taken.

A representative of the Faull family said that the real issues — the murder of an American who by all accounts was well-liked by his neighbors on Belize's Ambergris Caye — are getting lost.

"The real issues are that a human life was violently taken, (and) authorities lack all the information ... we're beyond the danger of them being lost, it's become entertainment. This is tragic to the family," said Dan Keeney of Texas-based DPK Public Relations, who has issued statements on behalf of the Faull family.

A woman who answered the phone at an Orlando, Florida phone number listed for Vickie Faull confirmed she was a relative and said that Keeney spoke on behalf of the family, but had no further comment.

"Mr. McAfee is astute at media manipulation, and he's using those skills to great effect," said Keeney. "I would just caution the media not to let themselves be manipulated."

Keeney added in email that "we strongly urge journalists covering the McAfee story not to glorify the words and actions of this person who, by refusing to cooperate and tell police all he knows about the murder of Greg Faull, is harming the investigation of the murder."

"The family of Mr. Faull is concerned that journalists may be assisting Mr. McAfee either implicitly by helping him to create an elaborate fiction that undermines trust in authorities or explicitly in his efforts to escape."

Police in Belize have called McAfee a "person of interest" in the slaying of Faull and asked him to turn himself in for questioning. He has not been charged, however, and thus can travel at will.

Faull was shot to death in his home, a couple of houses down from the compound where McAfee kept several noisy dogs, armed guards and entertained a steady stream of young women brought in from the mainland. McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denied killing Faull. Several of the dogs were poisoned shortly before Faull's killing.

For two weeks, McAfee refused to turn himself in and claimed to be hiding in plain sight, wearing disguises and watching as police raided his house. It was unclear, however, how much of what McAfee — a confessed practical joker — said and wrote was true.

McAfee did not describe the entire plan, nor did he say where exactly he was now. He noted only that "we are not in Belize, but not quite out of the woods yet."

In a previous interview, McAfee had said he had no plans to leave Belize.

"I'm not going to leave this country," he had said. "I love this country, this is my home. I intend to fight the injustice that's here from here, I can't do much from outside, can I?"

In the post, McAfee said he left Belize because he thought "Sam," the young Belizean woman who has accompanied him since he went on the lam, was in danger.

"I left Belize because of a series of events which led both Sam and I to believe that she was in danger of capture. She has been my go-between and my eyes and ears in the outside world. I decided to make the move. I will be returning to Belize after I have place (sic) Sam in a safe position. My fight is in Belize, and I can do little in exile."

Police sources in Belize said they believed he was still in the country. The sparsely populated border between the two countries is unguarded and unmarked in many places.

Rumors arose over the weekend that McAfee had been caught, but Belizean police quickly denied that.

Belize's prime minister, Dean Barrow, has expressed doubts about McAfee's mental state: "I don't want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers."

McAfee, who is extremely polite and coherent in telephone conversations, brushes off such accusations, saying "if people want to call that paranoia, they can do so if you wish, that will not concern me."

McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus program, has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company that is named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as calling that claim "not very accurate at all." He has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and producing herbal medications.

McAfee has never said where he's hiding. But in his blog, he has claimed to have disguised himself as a grungy street peddler and a foul-mouthed German tourist.

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Wyo. campus killer 'near genius' at odds with dad

Cheyenne, Dec 12 : A man who killed his father in front of a computer science class at a Wyoming community college was a "borderline genius" upset by the belief he had inherited Asperger's Syndrome from his dad, an aunt of the killer said.

Christopher Krumm, 25, blamed Asperger's for his trouble keeping jobs after he got a master's degree in electrical engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 2009, said Barbara Nichols, of Bakersfield, Calif.

"Nice to be around. Never caused any trouble of any kind," said Nichols, who'd briefly lived with her sister's family in Casper in the early 1990s.

Asperger's is a mild form of autism. Asperger's is associated with difficulty making social connections but is not normally associated with predilection to violent behavior.

Krumm seemed normal to relatives as recently as three years ago, but then had a falling-out with his father. An uncle, Jon Sims, of Cheyenne, said he tried several times in recent years to reach his nephew by email, without success.

"As far as I know, he lived alone and had some social skill problems," Sims said.

Sims and Nichols both said they didn't know of any official diagnosis of Asperger's, but that Krumm may have diagnosed himself. Nichols said James Krumm told her that his son blamed him for Asperger's.

"He said 'He hates me. He blames me for this Asperger's,' " she said.

Police say Krumm shot 56-year-old James Krumm with an arrow and stabbed him in his Casper College classroom. The six or so students in the computer science class escaped unhurt.

Earlier, Krumm fatally stabbed his father's girlfriend, 42-year-old Heidi Arnold, at the home she and James Krumm shared in a quiet neighborhood about two miles from campus. Arnold was a math instructor at Casper College.

Christopher Krumm fatally stabbed himself in the classroom after attacking his father. Nobody saw the final moments of the struggle — all students were able to flee unhurt — but police say Christopher Krumm stabbed his father in the chest.

Police arrived to find James Krumm dead and Christopher Krumm breathing his last breaths; he died in the classroom. Authorities locked down the campus for two hours until they were reassured there were no other attackers.

Police said Krumm acted alone and that his motive was unclear. No suicide note was reported found.

Krumm had been living in an apartment house in Vernon, Conn., and drove to Casper a few days before the attack.

Nichols said she only knew her nephew to be polite and amiable. She said he was very close to his mother, Carol Krumm, who died of breast cancer in 2005.

Nichols said her nephew was friendly with his cousins but didn't seem to have any other friends his own age growing up.

"He was always comfortable around adults, and I guess kids in his class seemed too immature for him," Nichols said.

"I'm just real sad to lose him. I'm sad. I really loved him. It was hard losing my sister and now this. I wonder what's next. But he was obviously a lost soul, and I hope he's at peace now."

She described her nephew as a "borderline genius." As a high school student in Casper, Krumm had amassed 59 credits taking math, computer science, physics and violin at Casper College, school spokesman Rich Fujita said.

A typical major requires about 64 credits for a degree from the two-year school.

Krumm most recently worked as a groundman for Broadband Access Services, a company that builds cable lines along roadways throughout New England, but he quit.

A company spokeswoman said he worked for the Connecticut office for several months but she didn't have any details about his departure.

He also was hired early this year in Massachusetts to work for the power line company PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., which said he worked there for less than six months. A company spokeswoman didn't have his exact departure date or reasons for leaving.

Krumm had lived in Vernon for the past few months in a three-story rooming house. Residents share a common bathroom on each floor. The rooms don't have kitchens so the only way to cook is on a hot plate or with a microwave.

Police searched Krumm's room at the request of Wyoming authorities and found some items, detective Jim Grady said. The Hartford, Conn., bomb squad assisted in the search, but no hazardous devices were found. Police said they turned over some paper records, a computer printer and unidentified other items that were requested by authorities in Casper.

Police in Connecticut said Krumm applied for a pistol permit Oct. 17 but the permit was still pending and wasn't issued.

Krumm got a bachelor's of science degree from Colorado State University in 2008, school spokesman Mike Hooker said.

According to the school's website, he studied high-resolution imaging with lasers for his senior project. His faculty adviser, Carmen S. Menoni, referred questions to a school spokesman.

His uncle said he last saw his nephew around the time he got his master's three years ago.

"We had him for dinner. He seemed fairly normal at that point to me. But then when he went back East we lost contact with him and weren't able to re-establish contact, so I don't know what was going on," Jon Sims said.

Nichols said she emailed her nephew a year ago and asked for his address to send him a birthday card, but he responded that he wouldn't give it to her because he didn't want his dad to find him.

"I wish we could have been in contact with him," Sims said. "We tried several times, but unsuccessfully. But, you know, there's only so much you can do."

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Store employee fired after ‘booting’ ambulance

New York, Dec 12 : One generally assumes that an ambulance with its lights flashing can park wherever it pleases. This past weekend in New Orleans, a parked ambulance was "booted" by a convenience store employee, who was apparently annoyed that the ambulance had parked in his store's lot. Never mind that the paramedics were treating a man inside the store. That employee has since been fired.

According to a report from WWLTV.com, the paramedics put the patient in the back of the ambulance and began to drive away when the vehicle came to a sudden stop. The medics saw that someone had put a boot on their vehicle. When a store employee finally removed the boot, the tire was flat. The paramedics had to call for backup while the man with chest pains waited in the back.

Jeb Tate, spokesman for New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, said, "We actually had to delay that patient's care by calling another ambulance out here to come transport this patient."

Now, a few days later, WWLTV.com reports that the convenience store employee has been fired and issued a citation by the New Orleans Police Department for simple criminal damage to property. According to the police report, the man, Ahmed Sidi Aleywa, claimed that he didn't know that the vehicle was an ambulance and that he doesn't speak English.

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Gacy's blood may solve old murders

Chicago, Dec 12: Detectives have long wondered what secrets serial killer John Wayne Gacy and other condemned murderers took to the grave when they were executed — mostly whether they had other unknown victims.

Now, in a game of scientific catch-up, the Cook County Sheriff's Department is trying to be creative: They've created DNA profiles of Gacy and others and figured out they could get the executed men entered in a national database shared with other law enforcement agencies because the murderers were technically listed as homicide victims when they were put to death by the state.

The department's hope is to find matches of DNA evidence from blood, semen or strands of hair, or skin under the fingernails of victims that link the long-dead killers to the coldest of cold cases. And they're hoping to prompt authorities in other states to submit the DNA of their own executed inmates or from decades-old crime scenes.

"You just know some of these guys did other murders" that were never solved, said Jason Moran, the sheriffs' detective leading the effort, noting that some of the executed killers ranged all over the country before the convictions that put them behind bars for the last time.

The Illinois testing, which began during the summer, is the latest chapter in a story that began when Sheriff Tom Dart exhumed the remains of unknown victims of Gacy to create DNA profiles that could be compared with the DNA of people whose loved ones went missing in the 1970s, when Gacy was killing young men.

That effort, which led to the identification of one Gacy victim, caused Dart to wonder if the technology could help answer a question that has been out there for decades: Did Gacy kill anyone besides those young men whose bodies were stashed under his house or tossed in a river?

"He traveled a lot," Moran said of Gacy. "Even though we don't have any information he committed crimes elsewhere, the sheriff asked if you could put it past such an evil person."

After unexpectedly finding three vials of Gacy's blood stored with other Gacy evidence, Moran learned the state would only accept the blood in the crime database if it came from a coroner or medical examiner.

Moran thought he was out of luck. But then Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil surprised him with this revelation: In his office freezer were blood samples from Gacy and at least three other executed inmates. The reason they were there is because after the death penalty was reinstated in Illinois in the 1970s, executions were carried out in Will County — all between 1990 and 1999, a year before then-Gov. George Ryan established a moratorium on the death penalty. So it was O'Neil's office that conducted the autopsies and collected the blood samples.

While the state does send to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System the profiles of homicide victims no matter when they were killed, it will only send the profiles of known felons if they were convicted since a new state law was enacted about a decade ago that allowed them to be included, Moran said.

That meant the profile of Gacy, who received a lethal injection in 1994, and the profiles of other executed inmates could not qualify for the database under the felon provision. They could, however, qualify as people who died by homicide.

"They're homicides because the state intended to take the inmate's life," O'Neil said.

Last year, authorities in Florida created a DNA profile from the blood of executed serial killer Ted Bundy in an attempt to link him to other murders. But officials there, where the law allows profiles of convicted felons be uploaded into the database as well as the phase-in of profiles of people arrested on felony charges, don't know of any law enforcement agency reaching back into history the way Cook County's sheriff's office is.

"We haven't had any initiative where we are going back to executed offenders and asking for their samples," said David Coffman, director of Florida Department of Law Enforcement's laboratory system. "I think it's an innovative approach."

O'Neil said he is still looking for blood samples of the rest of the 12 condemned inmates executed between 1977 when Illinois reinstated the death penalty and 2000 when then-Gov. George Ryan established a moratorium. So far, DNA profiles have been done on the blood of Gacy and two others; the profile of the fourth inmate has not yet been done.

Among the other executed inmates whose blood was submitted for testing was Lloyd Wayne Hampton, a drifter executed in 1998 for his crimes. Not only did Hampton's long list of crimes include crimes outside the state — one conviction was for the torture of a woman in California — but shortly before he was put to death, he claimed to have committed other murders but never provided details.

So far, no computer hits have linked Gacy or the others to any other crimes. But Moran and O'Neil suspect there are investigators who are holding DNA evidence that could help solve them.

That is exactly what happened during the investigation into the 1993 slayings of seven people at a suburban Chicago restaurant, during which an evidence technician collected a half-eaten chicken dinner even though there was no way to test it for DNA at the time.

When the technology did become available, the dinner was tested and it revealed the identity of one of two men ultimately convicted in the slayings.

Moran says he wants investigators in other states to know that Gacy's blood is now open for analysis in their unsolved murders. He hopes those jurisdictions will, in turn, submit DNA profiles of their own executed inmates.

"That is part of the DNA system that's not being tapped into," he said.

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China's Huaxia may face liability for troubled wealth product sale

Beijing, Dec 12 : China's Huaxia Bank Co Ltd may face some liability after a rogue employee sold unauthorized wealth management products which weekend reports claimed had stopped making payments, a bank official said.

An employee at Huaxia's Jiading branch, in a Shanghai suburb, sold the instruments issued by the Zhongding Wealth Investment Center without permission, and a police investigation is underway, the bank said.

A spokesman for the bank's Shanghai operations said that police investigators may assign some liability to the bank.

"Currently, investors think Huaxia Bank must take the responsibility and no matter what we argue, they won't listen to us. So we must let the police and judiciary decide the different responsibilities of all parties involved in this case," Huaxia's Shanghai division spokesman said.

"But it cannot be understood that the bank will pay for the default."

Huaxia has said it was "aware" of reports that the investments could not be repaid when the product matured, but has not confirmed those reports.

So far, there has not been a high-profile case of default by a Chinese wealth management product, many of which are marketed by banks and highly sought by retail depositors for their higher interest rates. Banks' liability for the performance of third-party instruments is therefore untested.

"We will take the responsibility that we should take, but there are some legal procedures to follow," Huaxia Bank's Shanghai division head Zheng Chao told investors assembled at door of his offices, according to the Securities Times.

Bankers and analysts worry that the proliferation of wealth management products, which promise higher interest rates than savings accounts, poses a danger to the Chinese banking system because of their opacity, and the risk that banks may have to cover any default.

Many of the products essentially channel money to the so-called shadow banking system, where they help fund real estate and other projects at very high interest rates.

Chinese investment bank CICC warned in an analyst report of the long-term reputational damage to Huaxia if its depositors lose money, although it acknowledged the Zhongding products were sold without principal or interest guaranteed.

CICC estimated the amount sold through the Jiading branch at 20 million yuan ($3.21 million), citing Chinese media reports. Even if Huaxia had handled all the full 160 million yuan raised by Zhongding, that would equal only about 1 percent of the bank's annual pre-tax profit, CICC said.

"Huaxia should take responsibility for lack of internal controls," CICC wrote. "Short-term pain is better than long-term pain."

Huaxia has not commented on how many depositors bought the products, the amount of money involved, nor what its exposure might be.

Investors' suspicions were raised when one of the wealth management products issued by the Zhongding Wealth Investment Center failed to pay out as scheduled on November 26, the Securities Times said. It said all four products issued by Zhongding have failed to make payments.

Zhongding wanted to raise up to 200 million yuan to invest in a pawn broking operation and an Audi sales company among other projects in Henan, and promised investors annual interest of 11-13 percent, according to its prospectus.

The company that guaranteed the product said that it would not honor that guarantee, claiming the documents provided by Zhongding were incorrect.

Huaxia's Shanghai-listed shares traded down 0.2 percent, compared with a 0.4 percent fall in the broader market (.SSEC).

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Analysis: US transport companies cashing in on Mexico trade boom

Washington, Dec 12 : US rail and trucking companies are making big investments on both sides of the border with Mexico to capitalize on booming trade between the two countries.

Every day, about 10 Kansas City Southern (KSU) trains hauling everything from cars to chemicals crisscross the border between Mexico and the United States at Laredo, Texas, up from about six just three years ago.

The fourth-largest U.S. public railroad is leading the charge to take advantage of the swelling freight between the countries as manufacturing booms south of the border because of the rising costs of goods from China and other overseas exporters.

Over the past five years, Kansas City Southern has spent about $300 million to lay roughly 90 miles of new track in Texas, buy and update terminals in Mexico and make other network upgrades. The rail company now generates one-quarter of its revenue moving parts and finished goods across the border.

Union Pacific Corp (UNP), the No. 1 U.S. railroad company, owns a 26 percent stake in Mexican railway company Ferromex.

Like its rivals CSX Corp (CSX) and Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC), Union Pacific partners with Kansas City Southern to haul carloads in the United States to locations not served by the railroad.

As the U.S. economy creaks along, the growing business with Mexico is a cause for cheer: Both Kansas City Southern and Union Pacific are reporting much bigger increases in cross-border shipments than in overall volume.

Two areas that are "just exploding" are transporting automobiles into the United States and intermodal shipping - moving goods in containers that are shifted from truck to train or train to ship, said William Galligan, vice president of investor relations at Kansas City Southern.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based company, which took full ownership in 2005 of a Mexican railroad now known as Kansas City Southern de Mexico, has built the first intermodal network between the countries.

The company, which started investing in the Mexican rail company a decade earlier, said it was betting the North American Free Trade Agreement would significantly alter shipping.

U.S. government data show total cross-border freight by train and truck between the countries has surged nearly 35 percent in the past five years.

At $291 billion through September, the volume of goods crossing the border this year is set to top the $352 billion of 2011 and $308 billion in 2010.

The Mexican automobile industry's double-digit production and export growth heightens transportation needs.

Kansas City Southern expects Mexico's vehicle output to leap 30 to 40 percent by 2015, citing Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics data.

The company, which already serves nine auto plants in Mexico, said Honda Motor Co, Mazda Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Audi AG will open plants there in the next two years. Five steel plants are also opening.

Galligan said Kansas City Southern was in talks with Asian and European manufacturers looking for space near the locations it serves in Mexico.

Of course, companies with business in Mexico must deal with the drug war. Kansas City Southern posts guards on trains in high-risk areas and scans cargo as trains cross the border.

Trains and trucks compete, but they are also partnering to keep up with demand.

"We don't have containers, we don't have intermodal customers. So we approached J.B. Hunt (JBHT), Schneider and Swift Transportation (SWFT), to name three big ones, and convinced them that this was a real huge opportunity," said Galligan.

Swift runs 700 trucks south of the U.S. border and plans to add up to 100 next year, Chief Operating Officer Richard Stocking said in mid-November.

"Mexico has increasingly been advantaged over Asia," said Foster Finley, co-head of the transportation practice at AlixPartners.

"China's real wage rates and cost of raw materials, overhead, the exchange rate, the freight costs - in ocean, inclusive of peak season surcharges and time on the water - have risen faster than the equivalent costs in Mexico."

Kansas City Southern's cross-border volume jumped 21 percent in the first nine months of 2012, compared with a 6 percent rise in overall volume and generated about one-quarter of its $1.67 billion in revenue.

Union Pacific's cross-border carloads rose 6 percent in the first nine months, far outpacing its 1 percent overall volume rise, said Chief Financial Officer Rob Knight. Last year, Mexico volumes grew 9 percent, triple the total rise.

Railroad companies report results by business segment not region, but Knight said the Mexico business netted about $1.5 billion of the $15.6 billion in revenue through September, on pace to top last year's $1.8 billion.

"Mexico represents roughly 10 percent of our total book and growing," up from 8.5 percent in 2007, Knight said.

A number of ventures that broaden the footprint of U.S. transport in Mexico have surfaced recently.

Celadon Group Inc's (CGI) Celadon Trucking Services took over equipment and drivers from USA Dry Van, and FedEx Corp (FDX) added two service centers in Mexico.

U.S. Xpress Enterprises said it would buy 90 percent of Xpress Internacional and has formed a joint venture with Logisti-K in Mexico.

Logistics company Pacer International Inc (PACR) has a multi-year agreement to manage and provide transport for Union Pacific, as well as container and chassis management in Mexico.

Celadon is sticking with trucking, calling a revenue-sharing rail tie-up "not viable" because its trucks are more economical for moving freight near the border.

"If you're going to take things from Southern Mexico then it may make more sense," said Paul Will, Celadon's president and chief operating officer.

Whether companies go it alone or form partnerships, experts say Mexico is a top market for U.S. companies.

"Anybody with an opportunity to position themselves in this marketplace and chooses not to will probably regret it sometime in the next five to 10 years because cross-border market growth is going to outstrip probably any growth in any other (intermodal) transportation," said Dahlman Rose analyst Jason Seidl.

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Auto sales race to five-year high for November

New York, Dec 12  : Auto sales in November raced to a five-year high for that month on a rebound from storm-ravaged October and the need to replace aging vehicles, leaving industry executives optimistic about 2013.

Sales in November rose 15 percent to 1.14 million vehicles, the highest level for that month since 2007, before a recession caused a dramatic decline in demand and led to the bankruptcy filings of General Motors Co (GM) and Chrysler.

"Vehicle sales are one of the encouraging spots of our economy," said Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas.

Ford Motor Co (NYS:F), Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co. posted better-than-expected sales, while Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co also reported strong increases that industry executives and investors said should continue through the end of the year.

However, sales for GM came in short of expectations. The No. 1 U.S. automaker said it benefited less than its rivals from the November recovery after Superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. Northeast as a smaller share of GM's sales come from that region. It also relied less on incentives.

Auto sales are an early indicator each month of U.S. consumer demand, and the improving housing market and rising consumer confidence have industry executives optimistic heading into 2013.

"Looking at the national picture, the apparent recovery in housing that we talked about last month and the encouraging new data on consumer sentiment and confidence are all positive factors," Kurt McNeil, GM's vice president of U.S. sales operations, said on a conference call.

He declined, however, to provide a 2013 industry sales forecast until a deal is reached to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of federal spending cuts and steep tax increases that could tip the U.S. economy back into recession.

"Exactly how much growth we can expect next year will depend in part on how Congress and the president resolve the fiscal cliff issue," McNeil added. "Consumers hate the uncertainty, so an agreement on ways to reduce long-term federal budget deficits could remove an impediment to growth."

The 15 percent sales gain in November easily surpassed the gain of 11 to 13 percent most analysts had expected. The annual sales rate in November of 15.54 million was the industry's strongest for any month since the 15.55 million rate of February 2008.

Superstorm Sandy hurt the last few days of sales in October, which finished below expectations, but many consumers simply shifted their purchases to November. In addition, the average age of cars on the road has risen to just above 11 years, and industry officials say that will continue to drive demand.

McNeil said the auto industry is clearly heading this year toward the high end of GM's forecasted range of 14 million to 14.5 million. Many analysts expect the industry to finish 2012 with 14.4 million sales, which would mark the strongest year since the 16.1 million of 2007.

TrueCar.com analyst Jesse Toprak expects U.S. auto sales to rise to 15.4 million next year. "Stable growth is really the motto of the industry."

Jonathan Browning, CEO of Volkswagen (VOW3.DE) Group of America, sees a continuation of a steady recovery for the economy as well as for U.S. December and early 2013 auto sales, but expressed concern about the negative impact on consumer confidence if the fiscal cliff occurs. VW brand sales rose more than 29 percent in November.

Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president of U.S. sales, agreed, saying "the clock is kind of ticking," in reference to the Washington talks on avoiding the fiscal cliff.

Ford's November sales rose 6.5 percent to 177,673 vehicles, better than even some of the most optimistic forecasts for the No. 2 U.S. automaker. In a more positive sign for consumer demand, Ford's retail sales rose 12 percent.

The company had its strongest small-car sales for the month in 12 years. Demand for Ford's popular F-150 full-size pickup truck increased 17 percent, while GM's Chevrolet Silverado pickup saw sales drop 10 percent.

GM, with 139 days' worth of Silverado inventory at the end of November, blamed aggressive incentives by Chrysler, Nissan and Ford for the decline, and said it would focus on curtailing production of trucks rather than risk becoming trapped in a price war.

GM, with 96 days' worth of Cruze small cars in inventory at the end of November, plans to idle the Lordstown, Ohio, plant where the car is built for two weeks in December instead of the planned one week to reduce supplies, said two people with knowledge of the plans who asked not to be identified. A spokesman did not confirm the plans.

Ford's shares closed down 0.3 percent at $11.41, while GM shares fell 1.4 percent to $25.51 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ford said it planned to build 750,000 vehicles in North America in the first quarter of 2013, which would be an 11 percent increase from 2012. That would be the highest first-quarter production level since 2006.

GM's sales rose 3 percent to 186,505 cars and trucks, below the expectations of several analysts. The company said the average price paid per vehicle rose $750 from last year.

TrueCar estimated that the industry's average vehicle selling price in November rose 1.1 percent, or $335, from last year, and rose a similar amount from October to $30,832.

Chrysler, majority-owned by Fiat SpA, said sales rose 14 percent to 122,565 cars and trucks, its strongest result since 2007.

Toyota's sales rose more than 17 percent to 161,695 vehicles. Honda and Nissan both reported better-than-expected results, with the former jumping about 39 percent and the latter increasing 13 percent.

Hyundai said sales increased 8 percent to the company's all-time high for the month. November marked the first sales results since the South Korean automaker and its Kia Motors Corp affiliate announced they had overstated the fuel economy ratings by at least a mile per gallon on more than 1 million recently sold vehicles.

In the battle for the luxury sales title for the U.S. market, Daimler's Mercedes brand leads last year's winner, BMW, by fewer than 2,000 vehicles with one month to go.

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Morgan Stanley trader was probed at Goldman

Washington, Dec 12 : Morgan Stanley hired former Goldman Sachs trader Edward Glenn Hadden to run its Treasury bond desk last year, even though his former employer had placed the trader on paid leave for about a year following an internal inquiry, said three people familiar with the situation.

The inquiry by Goldman involved a matter separate from an ongoing investigation by exchange operator CME Group into a December 2008 trade that involved U.S. Treasury futures.

Neither Hadden nor Goldman has been accused of wrongdoing in the 2008 trading incident. But the decision by Morgan Stanley to hire Hadden even though some of his activities had raised questions within Goldman could put the firm in an uncomfortable position in light of the revelations of the CME Group investigation.

Hadden was a partner at Goldman Sachs when the 2008 trade drawing scrutiny occurred. The incident that led to the Goldman internal inquiry took place the end of 2009 and involved profits Hadden is said to have made ahead of the launch of a new Treasury futures contract introduced by the CME Group in early 2010.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs both recently learned of the CME investigation into the 2008 incident. But sources said Morgan Stanley was aware Goldman had put Hadden on paid leave when it hired him in March 2011.

Hadden's lawyer said his client did nothing wrong with the 2008 trade and expects the CME to reach a similar conclusion when it completes its investigation.

"There is no legal or factual basis for any suggestion of market manipulation," said James Benjamin, who defended his client in response to a recent regulatory disclosure by the firm that Hadden is being investigated by CME over a 4-year-old trade.

Benjamin had no comment about the incident that led to Goldman putting Hadden on paid leave that effectively barred him from trading at the firm for about a year.

Hadden, who goes by his middle name "Glenn," officially left Goldman (GS) in late 2010. A few months later, Hadden, who had been a partner at Goldman, joined Morgan Stanley with much fanfare to run the Wall Street firm's Treasury bond and interest rate derivatives trading desk.

Hadden is one of the most successful traders in the market for Treasury bonds and interest rate derivatives, whose value stands at $531.6 trillion, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. He had worked for Goldman Sachs for about 11 years before voluntarily leaving the firm at the end of 2010.

Trading in Treasuries and interest rate derivatives is an important part of Morgan Stanley's bond trading business, as it focuses on high-volume trading that can be easily automated and cleared under new regulations, rather than riskier and more complex over-the-counter trades.

Benjamin, a defense attorney with Akin Gump, said the CME investigation involves a "technical risk management activity" that occurred "in a one-minute period four years ago." While Benjamin declined to discuss the specifics of the allegation against Hadden in his statement, the lawyer said his client had "acted properly and followed established market practice."

Morgan Stanley spokesman Mark Lake said Hadden is still employed by the firm, and in good standing.

News of the investigation broke when The New York Times posted a story on its website about Hadden with the headline "Morgan Stanley Trader Faces Inquiry on Possible Manipulation."

The paper, citing a regulatory filing and sources familiar with the matter, said the CME was investigating Hadden over whether his Treasury futures trading had manipulated prices.

Hadden's file with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority cites a pending CME investigation of his Treasury futures orders placed on the expiration date in December 2008.

The trades being probed by the CME pertained to programs set up by the Federal Reserve during the height of the financial crisis to help support Wall Street and the banking system, a person familiar with the matter said.

The New York Times reported that some at the Fed had suspected that Goldman was trying to improperly profit from one of the government's bond-buying programs, and complained to Goldman about Hadden.

The 2009 incident that led to the Goldman internal inquiry also involved Treasury futures but had nothing to do with the U.S. government's efforts to prop up the financial system.

Instead, the 2009 matter involved a new Treasury futures trading product the CME was developing and one which Hadden had advised on, said those people, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Hadden had found a way to structure a Treasury trade ahead of the CME's official announcement in September 2009 that it was going to launch in early 2010.

That incident moved his superiors at Goldman to put him on leave, keeping him on the payroll but preventing him from actively trading for about a year.

Indeed, even as the CME investigates Hadden over the 2008 incident, its product development team has continued to turn to him for help in devising new Treasury futures products. CME Group quoted Hadden in a September 18 press release highlighting a new interest rate swap futures product.

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Court withdraws win for BNY Mellon in Sentinel case

New York, Dec 12 : A federal appeals court in the United States has withdrawn a ruling that put Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK) ahead of former customers of Sentinel Management Group seeking to recoup money lost in the futures broker's 2007 collapse.

In a two-line ruling that gave no further explanation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit withdrew an August 9 opinion. "This appeal remains under consideration by the panel," the three-judge panel wrote in a ruling dated November 30.

The decision overturns an August opinion from the same court affirming an earlier district court ruling that Bank of New York Mellon had a "secured position" on a $312 million loan it gave to Sentinel.

Frederick Grede, the trustee in Sentinel's bankruptcy, alleged that the broker pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in customer assets to secure an overnight loan at the bank, leaving the bank in a secured position but Sentinel's customers with losses of millions.

Futures brokers are required to keep customers' funds in dedicated accounts to protect them from being used for anything other than client business. At Sentinel, customer funds were allegedly moved from the protected accounts to other accounts so they could be used as collateral for loans to Sentinel's own trading operations.

The appeals court said in August that "perhaps the bank should have known that Sentinel violated segregation requirements" but agreed with the district court's earlier ruling that "such a lack of care does not rise to the level of the egregious misconduct" needed to reprioritize a claim.

That decision was a blow for Grede, who had sought to strip Bank of New York Mellon of its secured position.

Sentinel largely managed money for other futures brokers, delivering outsized returns that Grede says were boosted by improperly using customer money to secure loans that funded risky trades.

The scheme unraveled when the credit crisis hit began the summer of 2007.

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Fed officials laud stimulus, quibble over future plans

New York, Dec 12 : Central bankers appear satisfied with the impact of their latest monetary stimulus, though there is some disagreement over how forcefully to continue purchasing bonds, remarks by two top policymakers showed.

Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren, one of the most vocal proponents of Fed asset purchases, said there was a "strong case" for the Fed to stay the course on accommodative policies next year and continue buying a total of $85 billion in bonds each month.

In September, the Fed announced an open-ended bond buying scheme that began with $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed securities.

That new effort to boost the economy comes on top of a separate program in which the Fed was buying $45 billion of longer-term Treasury securities per month with proceeds from sales of a like amount of shorter-term debt.

The latter plan, known as Operation Twist, is set to expire at the end of this month, and most analysts expect the central bank to substitute an equal amount of long-term Treasury buying.

However, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, argued the central bank should not replace its expiring 'Operation Twist' program on a dollar-for-dollar basis. He said purchases that expand the Fed's $2.8 trillion balance sheet would have a bigger effect than Twist, which does not add to the balance sheet.

"If the goal is to keep policy on its present course, the replacement rate should be less than one-for-one," Bullard told the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, suggesting $25 billion as an adequate monthly amount.

Whether to expand the Fed's balance sheet further will be a key topic of debate at Fed policymakers' next meeting on December 11-12. Also under consideration: tweaking Fed communications by adopting numerical thresholds for inflation and joblessness to signal when rates might rise.

Bullard said he supported the adoption of such thresholds as long as the Fed can address his concerns, especially his worry that the Fed is seen as trying to target unemployment. That approach was badly discredited in the 1970s, he said, when rates were kept low to boost jobs and inflation skyrocketed.

Bullard had previously sounded more skeptical on thresholds, saying they could rob the central bank of flexibility.

But the idea has recently gained traction, with Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen voicing strong support for the idea, first advocated by Chicago Fed President Charles Evans a year ago.

Evans wants the Fed to keep rates low until unemployment drops to at least 6.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.5 percent. Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota and Boston Fed's Rosengren have also pitched specific proposals.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter but is expected to have slowed in the final months of the year. Unemployment remains elevated at 7.9 percent.

Bullard said he expects the expansion to pick up steam in 2013, allowing gross domestic product to rise about 3.5 percent. But he added that estimate was predicated on a successful resolution of a year-end budget crunch, still a big "if".

William Dudley, head of the New York Fed, argued the Fed's mortgage-backed securities purchases have provided much-needed support to the economy, even if their benefits in easing financial conditions have not been fully passed through from financial institutions down to customers.

"Our policy has been and continues to be effective - though it is certainly not all-powerful in current circumstances," he said at a conference on mortgage finance at the New York Fed, at which his Boston Fed counterpart Rosengren was the keynote speaker.

The conference was aimed at exploring some of the blockages in the transmission of Fed policy to American consumers, Dudley said.

"We are focusing on ... the significant widening of the spread between yields on mortgage-backed securities and primary mortgage rates," he said.

In response to the financial crisis and deep recession of 2007-2009, the Fed had already slashed official rates to zero and bought some $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage-backed bonds prior to the launch of its latest stimulus.

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Mandoora faces acute shortage of drinking water

Tral, Dec 12 : Acute shortage of potable drinking water at Mandoora village here has caused immense inconvenience to the inhabitants.

The inhabitants said for past many weeks they are not receiving potable drinking water through the pipes laid by the Public Health Engineering department.

“Shortage of potable drinking water has caused immense inconvenience to us. Women folk are forced to fetch water from other villages,” the residents said.

“The PHE officials have failed to restore water supply in the area. We appeal the Chief Engineer PHE to look into the matter and get the water supply restored at the earliest,” he said.

When contacted the Executive Engineer PHE Awantipora Rajinder Pandita said the water supply has been affected due to depletion of main water source.

“Dry weather conditions have compounded the problem. We will make all efforts to restore the water supply at the earliest,” he said.

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Pulwama sans lavatories

Pulwama, Dec 12: Failure of the municipal authorities to construct public lavatories here is causing immense problems to the people. Though Pulwama was accorded district status nearly three decades ago it sans basic civic amenities.

A public lavatory was constructed at main bus stand here few years ago. However in absence of maintenance it has been rendered defunct.

“The lavatory has turned into a garbage dump and safe haven for stray dogs. Pungent smell emanating from this place has drastically affected health of locals,” the locals said.

In absence of lavatories people particularly women, aged and students face immense hardships to answer nature’s call.

“It is ironical that the district administration has failed to provide basic civic facility of constructing lavatories here. We demand a probe to ascertain what happens to funds for civic amenities in the district,” they said.

Sources said during the previous Board meeting in Pulwama it was decided that new lavatories would be constructed in the town. But the decision is yet to be implemented.

When contacted the Executive Officer Pulwama Municipal Committee, Anis Chowdhary, acknowledged delay in construction of lavatories.
“Due to some reasons we could not start work on the lavatories. We have received Rs 3.58 lakh for the project. In the first phase, three each lavatories for males and females will be constructed,” he added.

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Family hit by twin tragedies

Srinagar, Dec 12 : In an alley of congested Batamaloo locality of Srinagar, the family of Nazir Ahmed Sheikh is finding it hard to accept that their son has been sentenced to life in a case dating 22 years back. The family has been hit by twin tragedies as Nazir’s mother Raja Begum died only 10 days back.

Nazir, a car mechanic, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Jammu court in connection with the murder of a BSF officer in 1990. After the murder, Nazir was arrested along with three others - Showkat Ahmed Khan of Nishat, Farooq Ahmed and Farooq Ahmed Mir. While Showkat will serve life imprisonment with Nazir, Farooq Ahmed has been sentenced for five years. Mir is the only person acquitted in the case.

According to the family, Nazir has already served 14 years in jail in connection with the case. “He was in jail from 1990 to 2002. Then he was rearrested in 2004 and released in 2006. After that he was regularly attending the court,” says his sister Masnaz, who was married off while Nazir was in jail. “Nazir used to borrow money from relatives and friends to attend the court,” she says.

“Our father died of hypertension in 2004 after Nazir’s re-arrest,” she says.

Masnaz says that four days after her mother’s death, Nazir was summoned to Jammu court. “But he did not go as he was very disturbed and depressed with the death of his mother. When he today attended the court in Jammu he showed them all the documents to justify his absence during last hearing,” she says.

“But we never knew he will be sentenced to life imprisonment. He was hopeful of his release as he always used to tell us that he was forced to accept the murder during torture in custody,” Masnaz sighs.

In another corner of the old fashioned house, Nazir’s wife Parveena is motionless as a stone, only tears flow unabated from her eyes. Nazir’s son Moomin, a class first student, silently looks at whosoever talks.

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Simulations aim to unlock nature's process of biomineralization

Islamabad, Dec 12 : A University of Akron researcher is leveraging advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand how organic materials bond to inorganic materials, a natural phenomenon that if harnessed, could lead to the design of composite materials and devices for such applications as bone replacement, sensing systems, efficient energy generation and treatment of diseases.

Hendrik Heinz, Ph.D., an assistant professor of polymer engineering at UA, is accessing the systems of the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) to study the process of biomineralization, nature's ability to form complex structures, such as bones, teeth and mollusk shells, from peptides.

"Research in our group aims at the understanding of complex interfacial phenomena, particularly biomineralization and organic photovoltaics, at the molecular scale using computer simulation," said Heinz. "Simulation with atomistic and coarse-grain models and the development of computational tools goes hand in hand with collaborative experimental efforts."

"Advanced materials remains one of the cornerstones of research supported by the Ohio Supercomputer Center and is fundamental to both the economic legacy and future prospects for the State of Ohio," noted Ashok Krishnamurthy. "OSC is committed to providing state-of-the-art computational and storage resources to scientists, such as Dr. Heinz, who are focused on the design of fascinating new classes and applications of materials."

In a recent paper published by Interface, a journal of The Royal Society, Heinz describes how induced charges modify the interaction of proteins, peptides and bond-enhancing surfactants with metal surfaces. In another recent article, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Heinz explains how he used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate molecular interactions involved in the selective binding of several short peptides to the surfaces of gold, palladium and a palladium-gold bimetal.

"Advances in materials science such as in biomedical and energy conversion devices increasingly rely on computational techniques and modeling," Heinz said. "In particular, interfaces at the nanoscale are difficult to characterize experimentally, such as charge transport mechanisms in solar cells, the formation of biominerals, and self-assembly of polymers in multi-component materials. Model building and simulation are critical to understand dynamic processes across the length and time scales."

This summer, Heinz received $430,000 for two years of research funding from the National Science Foundation's CAREER award program. Heinz and his research team are taking an interdisciplinary approach using concepts from physics, chemistry, biology, polymer science and engineering, as well as computation and statistical mechanics. The grant supports the development of new computational tools to understand biotic-abiotic interactions at the molecular level, as well a team of student researchers, ranging from graduates and undergraduates to high school pupils.

"We have carried out quantitative molecular simulations of inorganic-organic interfaces in excellent agreement with experimental results and developed accurate molecular models for inorganic components," Heinz explained. "These concepts serve as a starting point for understanding biomineralization processes and the performance of hybrid photovoltaic cells, as current examples. Our research efforts aim at complementing experimental results by molecular-level models to intelligently design (bio)molecules, interfaces, and, ultimately, devices."

Heinz' research is supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory/ Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, ETH Zurich, Sika Technology AG, Procter and Gamble, The University of Akron and with computational resources provided by the Ohio Supercomputer Center.

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New risk factors for brain metastases in breast cancer patients uncovered

Islamabad, Dec 12 : Nearly one-fifth of all metastatic breast cancer patients develop brain metastases and have significantly shorter overall survival than patients who do not have brain involvement. One way to improve the affected patients' survival might be to prevent the brain metastases from arising in the first place. With that in mind, researchers have been working on a predictive model that accurately identifies these high risk patients.

Now, Veeraiah Siripurapu, M.D., and colleagues from Fox Chase Cancer Center have verified several factors -- including high tumor grade, negative progesterone receptor status, and inflammatory breast cancer -- that are associated with an increased risk.

"If we can identify those patients who are predisposed to brain metastases, we may be able to mirror the model used in small cell lung cancer where prophylactic cranial irradiation has decreased the frequency of brain metastases and improved patient survival," says Siripurapu, a surgical oncology fellow at Fox Chase, who will present the new data at the 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In this study, Siripurapu and colleagues identified 49 patients with brain metastases who were included in a prospectively-collected database of breast cancer patients. They compared these patients with control patients who had similar tumor size, nodal status, and estrogen receptor status at diagnosis but lacked brain tumors. The patients with brain metastases had a median overall survival of just 38.6 months compared with the group of control patients which had not reached a median overall survival with a mean follow-up of 100 months.

When the team compared the tumor characteristics of the two patient groups, they found that prior non-brain metastases, high nuclear tumor grade, progesterone receptor negativity, and inflammatory breast cancer were associated with an increased risk of brain metastases in a univariate analysis with high nuclear grade remaining significant in a multivariable analysis.

"The data are accumulating in the literature with regard to what tumor characteristics are associated with brain metastases, but there is no consensus on what should be included in a model to predict risk," Siripurapu says. "Factors such as age, tumor grade, lobular or mixed histology, estrogen receptor negativity, Her2/Neu status, and number of extra-cranial metastases have all been thrown into the mix, and some investigators have suggested recently that a predictive tool can be formulated. We agree with that."

"Looking at our case-control analysis -- which is a novel approach for this question -- we also found that high tumor grade was certainly a marked factor in risk. Progesterone receptor negativity and a diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer may also be valuable additions to a predictive model." Siripurapu added.

Siripurapu cautions that it is too early to say how a predictive model might alter patient care.

"At a minimum, we might be able to use it to identify patients who should be followed more closely," he says. "Ultimately, we might be able to use in a preventive treatment strategy, but that would require having a model that has higher sensitivity and specificity than we can achieve right now."

Finally, while prophylactic cranial irradiation has improved overall survival in patients with small cell lung cancer, Siripurapu is cautious that researchers would need to prove that this was also true for breast cancer patients before such an approach could be widely adopted. "The importance of piecing together a strong predictive model is that it would allow us to test the possibility in a randomized clinical trial."

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Double block of blood vessels to starve cancerous tumors

Islamabad, Dec 12 : A novel strategy of blocking the growth of blood vessels with antibodies should result in improved treatment of cancerous tumors.

The growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature is called angiogenesis. In adults, angiogenesis occurs only during wound healing and menstrual cycling, but is abundant and harmful in cancerous tumors and the old-age eye disease frequently leading to blindness called age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Without the formation of new blood vessels, tumors cannot grow beyond a small size due to lack of oxygen and nutrients. Inhibition of angiogenesis is used in the treatment of cancer and AMD, but not all cancer patients respond, while others become refractory to therapy.

Academy professor Kari Alitalo and co-workers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, have previously shown that antibodies directed towards vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-3, found on the surface of endothelial cells lining vessels, can inhibit lymphatic metastasis by 50-70% in preclinical tumor models. Furthermore, antibodies that inhibited the growth factor VEGF-C from binding to the VEGFR-3 suppressed angiogenesis. However, the trouble with this type of inhibitors is that they work poorly in high growth factor concentrations, when the growth factor easily outcompetes the inhibitor. Also the delivery of drugs into tumors is hampered by erratic blood flow and high tumor pressure, which may prevent sufficient amounts of the inhibitor from reaching its target within the tumor.

The novel type of VEGFR-3 blocking antibody has an unprecedented mechanism of action, which was effective even at very high concentrations of the VEGF-C growth factor. Importantly, the authors showed that combined use of antibodies blocking growth factor binding VEGFR-3 dimerization provided not only an additive, but rather a synergistic inhibition.

"The new dimerization inhibitor unveils a biologically meaningful rationale for suppressing angiogenesis in tumors that could outperform traditional competitive inhibitors of angiogenesis in tumor therapy. These findings should translate into improved anti-angiogenic and anti-lymphangiogenic tumor therapies," says Professor Alitalo.

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