US: 200 teens have been detained in Afghan war

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

New York, Dec 18 :  The U.S. military has detained more than 200 Afghan teenagers who were captured in the war for about a year at a time at a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations.

The U.S. State Department characterized the detainees held since 2008 as "enemy combatants" in a report sent every four years to the United Nations in Geneva updating U.S. compliance with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The U.S. military had held them "to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield," the report said.

A few are still confined at the Detention Facility in Parwan, which will be turned over to the Afghan government, it said. "Many of them have been released or transferred to the Afghan government," said the report, distributed this week.

Most of the juvenile Afghan detainees were about 16 years old, but their age was not usually determined until after capture, the U.S. report said.

If the average age is 16, "This means it is highly likely that some children were as young as 14 or 13 years old when they were detained by U.S. forces," Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's human rights program, said.

"I've represented children as young as 11 or 12 who have been at Bagram," said Tina M. Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which represents adult and juvenile Bagram detainees.

"I question the number of 200, because there are thousands of detainees at Parwan," Foster said. "There are other children whose parents have said these children are under 18 at the time of their capture, and the U.S. doesn't allow the detainees or their families to contest their age."

Dakwar also criticized the length of detention, a year on average, according to the U.S. report.

"This is an extraordinarily unacceptably long period of time that exposes children in detention to greater risk of physical and mental abuse, especially if they are denied access to the protections guaranteed to them under international law," Dakwar said.

The U.S. State Department was called for comment on the criticism, and a representative said they were seeking an officer to reply.

The previous American report four years ago provided a snapshot of the focus of the U.S. military's effort in the endgame of the Bush presidency after years of warfare and anti-terrorism campaigns. In 2008, the U.S. said it held about 500 juveniles in Iraqi detention centers and then had only about 10 at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. A total of some 2,500 youths had been detained, almost all in Iraq, from 2002 through 2008 under the Bush administration.

Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency in 2008 in part on winding down active U.S. involvement in the Iraq War, and shifting the military focus to Afghanistan. The latest figures on under-18 detainees reflect the redeployment of U.S. efforts to Afghanistan.

Because the teen detainees were not charged with any crime, "a detainee would generally not be provided legal assistance." They were allowed to attend open hearings and defend themselves, and a personal advocate was assigned to each detainee, the report said.

"These are basically sham proceedings," Foster said. "The personal representatives don't do anything different for the child detainees than they do for the adults, which is nothing."

The report added that "the purpose of detention is not punitive but preventative: to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield."

It cited a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case, Hamdi vs. Rumsfeld, as establishing that "the law of armed conflict permits the United States to detain belligerents until the end of hostilities without charging such individuals with crimes, because they are not being held as criminals facing future criminal trial."

The U.S. military is fighting irregular forces — al-Qaida, the Taliban, and an array of similar shadowy insurgent or terrorist groups. So it is not clear when "hostilities" would ever formally end, since there is no declaration of war and no enemy government to defeat. Only the United States can decide when it deems a conflict to be over, in those circumstances.

Foster said that the teens seized are not in uniform or even typically taken in combat.

"We're not talking about battlefield captures, we're talking about people who are living at home, and four or five brothers might be taken together. It might take them a year or more to figure out that one of them was younger than 18, to determine the identities of these kids," she said.

In January, the State Department will send a delegation to Geneva to present the report to the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child, and to answer any further questions the U.N. committee members may have.

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Rural Afghan town feels caught between US and Taliban

Maidan Shahr, Dec 18 : Every day except Friday, the little midwife school bustled with activity. Students practiced listening for fetal heartbeats and cutting umbilical cords. New mothers and babies sometimes spent the night. It was the only center of its kind in Wardak province, a region of scattered villages surrounded by mountains.

A truck piled with firewood approached the clinic in this small provincial capital 30 miles south of Kabul. Challenged by a policeman, the driver detonated a powerful bomb hidden under his cargo, sending shock waves across the town and shattering almost every window in a five-block radius.

The midwife program was closed for the weekly Muslim holy day, so no one was harmed in the office. But much of it was destroyed, and officials there said it would not reopen. A dozen mud-brick houses nearby were reduced to rubble, and hundreds of people were knocked down or sliced by shards of glass. Panic-stricken residents stumbled or were carried to the town hospital. Four people died, including the bomber, and 160 were treated for injuries.

“The ground shook and everyone started to run,” said Abdul Wali, 25, a hardware shop owner whose gaping glass storefront was still covered with a blanket. “I don’t know who would do such a terrible thing, but we have no security at all. The police beat people, the Americans raid our villages and still we are not safe. We would be happy if they all left tomorrow.”

Even for people hardened by a decade of war, the massive truck bomb dealt a devastating psychological blow. More than a week after the attack, many shops were empty and not a single woman was to be seen outside the hospital. People in stores and offices were visibly nervous and seething with anger but unsure whether to direct it at the unknown culprits or the authorities, who had failed to protect them.

Taliban spokesmen claimed that they had carried out the bombing to avenge the execution of several Taliban prisoners in Kabul, but police officials had a different theory. They said Afghan security forces had been conducting intensive anti-insurgent raids in the area, and the Taliban wanted to prove that they could assault a high-security district that included police headquarters, the governor’s guesthouse and a joint U.S.-Afghan military command post, as well as the midwife school.

“The enemy stabbed us from behind,” said Gen. Abdul Razzak Qureshi, the deputy provincial police commander, whose office door was blown off its hinges. “We cleared 150 villages this month. We wanted to test our forces to see if they can defeat the Taliban once the American troops leave. We were very successful, but they did this cowardly attack to show they are still here.”

Wardak, a rural province where nomads camp in summer, has increasingly come under Taliban control in the past five years. The town of Maidan Shahr is strategically located on a major highway, and both the national police and the U.S. military have large bases less than a mile away. But most of the populace is from the same Pashtun ethnic group as the Taliban, and many farmers have turned to opium poppy cultivation, making them natural allies of the insurgents.

Taliban attacks have been relatively rare in Wardak, but in early September, twin suicide attacks in the town of Syedabad killed 13 people and wounded 80 when one bomber on foot and another driving a fuel tanker detonated explosives near a U.S. military base.

Although the trappings of security are visible in Maidan Shahr — including U.S. military cameras on posts and a spy balloon that floats over the town — residents complain that the Afghan government’s presence is woefully inadequate. They said the governor and most provincial officials live in Kabul for their own protection and visit Maidan Shahr a few hours a day at most, leaving well before sunset. The governor, through a spokesman in Kabul, declined to be interviewed.

“The problem is not that the Taliban are strong, it’s that the government is weak,” said Ghulam Nabi, an administrator for the Scandinavian charity that operated the midwife school. He said many civilian officials and police officers were ethnic Tajiks from the north, who have a history of conflict with Pashtuns. “If our governor and police chief lived here and had families here, they would make sure we had the peace and security and services we need.”

Residents expressed widespread indignation at the abusive behavior of local police, and half a dozen people separately described the recent beating and drowning of a truck driver at police hands. And although no one openly said they supported the Taliban, many people expressed far stronger concern and frustration about the village raids being carried out by Afghan troops with U.S. backing.

Two nervous officials from a government agency, who had driven from Kabul to assess bomb damage to shops, said they could not find most of the owners.

One of the few open stores was a small but stylishly arranged boutique for women’s fashions and shoes. The proprietor, a young man named Taj Mohammed, said he had been sleeping there at night, despite the freezing cold, because he feared being arrested if he returned to his home village.

“We have nowhere to stand. We have trouble with the government, the Americans and the Taliban too,” said Mohammed, who had just spent $400 to replace his picture window. He was clearly terrified by the bombing, which he described as a roaring wind that made the roof collapse on him. But he shook with emotion when he described other powerful forces, including NATO troops, as having replaced his town’s normal life with uncertainty, abuse and fear.

“We don’t even feel human,” he said. “I know we will suffer more when the American forces go, but we are fed up with them too. We don’t expect much from the Taliban except beatings, but the Americans are supposed to bring laws and principles. What we have here now is just chaos.”

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Extreme franchising: Bringing RadioShack to Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 18 : The next time you stroll through downtown Kabul, you might be able to buy batteries from a RadioShack (RSH) outlet, the result of a new effort by the U.S. to shore up Afghanistan’s economy: selling American franchises to Afghan entrepreneurs.

The U.S. has set a 2014 deadline for troops to withdraw from Afghanistan and turn security over to Afghan military and police. That is prompting capital flight, depressing property values, and triggering other economic pain. That’s where franchising might fit—and an initial foray into the country proved promising, U.S. executives say.

“I didn’t have huge expectations going there that we would consummate an agreement, but after being there on the streets and seeing some fairly sophisticated [retail] operators in a very difficult climate, I’ve walked away with the fact that we would do business in Afghanistan,” says Martin Amschler, a RadioShack vice president who joined several American franchise executives to participate in a five-day matchmaking event in Kabul this week.

Organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the International Franchise Association (IFA), the event gave franchising brass a chance to explore the market and meet with Afghan businessmen and U.S. and Afghan officials. Outside of mostly fast-food chains on bases, there aren’t any American franchises in Afghanistan, says Beth Solomon, a vice president at the IFA who led the trip. “There is a vast culture of young [Afghans] who are very tech savvy, Internet savvy. Everyone’s got the latest Samsung or iPhone,” she says, “and there is disposable income.”

The big idea behind the effort is the “knowledge transfer” of infrastructure-building and business services expertise to locals to help rebuild the country, says Solomon, who recruited participants from RadioShack, Hertz Equipment Rental (HTZ), Tutor Doctor, and AlphaGraphics. “Franchising can be a very useful transitional economic development strategy, because the challenges of security and so forth can be minimized because it’s Afghan business leaders who are going to run these businesses,” says Solomon.

Of course, with more than one-third of Afghanistan’s 30 million people living below the poverty line, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book, much of the population can’t afford to buy an American franchise.

Bill Edwards, a seasoned franchising consultant who specializes in exporting American franchise brands such as Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) and Denny’s (DENN), and was on the trip for AlphaGraphics, doesn’t see a lack of Afghan investors. “There’s a lot of money there” willing to invest in American franchises, Edwards says. “There’s a need for Western business. There’s a market, there’s consumers, there’s funding, there’s capital. But there’s all the other challenges, of course.”

Apart from security, the biggest challenge would be vetting prospective buyers, says RadioShack’s Amschler. “But at the end of the day there are private contractors over there today that provide those services and then, of course, we would have our own list of requirements in terms of net worth and what types of business experience they have,” he says.

Approved Afghan buyers would attend RadioShack University at corporate headquarters in Fort Worth and get “support on the ground” from RadioShack employees for about two weeks when a store opens, plus training visits throughout the year, Amschler says.

Among other efforts to stabilize Afghanistan’s economy, how significant could franchising be? A statement from the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration about the conference notes “franchising has proven to be an ideal market vehicle for both employment and economic growth.” Edwards says he thinks franchising is “the model” because “it brings a business model that’s proven. It brings training, which is the thing they need; the skill set is just really not good there.”

Education is crucial to Afghanistan, says Rogelio Martinez, vice president of international franchise development at 30-employee Tutor Doctor, a “supplementary education” business that has sold about 400 franchises in 14 countries. “It’s something that everybody was talking about. [Afghan] business owners wanted to develop Afghan employees to take mid-level, senior-level management positions. Families want their kids to learn and attend good universities in Afghanistan or abroad.”

The Van Nuys (Calif.) company, which Martinez says charges franchisees about $57,000 to get started, provides training and an online tool that uses a Skype-like interface for tutors and students to communicate online. He expects to sell about seven franchises in Afghanistan in 2013. “They can’t be importing expats all the time; they need to have the local talent to have a sustainable model,” says Martinez.

David Riker, franchise development director for Hertz, is also optimistic about his company’s prospects in Afghanistan. Unlike fellow participants on the Kabul trip, he already has franchises on two military bases there, renting heavy machinery used in building roads and construction projects. “As the military draws down, Afghanistan is going to have to support more of its infrastructure, so that’s where the opportunity comes in,” Riker says. Depending on what kind of equipment a franchise buyer wants, getting started is “probably in the $3 million range.”

Aiding Afghanistan through franchising certainly won’t be quick, says Edwards. “Let’s not be too Pollyannaish. This is going to be a challenge, but it’s definitely an opportunity.”

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Ingersoll-Rand to spin off security business

New York, Dec 18 : Ingersoll-Rand Plc (IR) is expected to announce it will spin off its security division, two people familiar with the matter said, as the industrial conglomerate cedes to pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz to unlock more shareholder value.

The company, which has a market value of more than $14.5 billion, also plans to buy back shares and increase dividends, one of the sources said.

The spin-off, buybacks and dividend hikes come as part of a strategic review undertaken by Ingersoll after Peltz's Trian Fund Management LP acquired a stake of about 7 percent and proposed a break-up of the company. Peltz joined the company's board in August after three months of agitating for changes at the manufacturer.

Ingersoll's security technology division -- which makes mechanical and electronic locks as well as steel doors -- had operating income of more than $330 million in 2011 on revenue of $1.63 billion.

The sources, who declined to be identified as the matter is not public, did not put a value on the division. Ingersoll and Peltz declined to comment.

Peltz has, among other proposals, suggested separating Ingersoll's main business units into three standalone publicly traded companies focused on air conditioning and heating, security, and the remainder of its industrials businesses.

Some analysts agreed, saying that Ingersoll's shares were undervalued because of its disparate businesses. Several other diversified conglomerates have also decided to break up, often under pressure from activist investors.

Activist investor Ralph Whitworth pressured industrial conglomerate ITT Corp (ITT.N) to split up its defense and water purifying businesses. Other companies announcing breakups or major divestitures include Tyco International Ltd (TYC.N), Kraft Foods Inc (KFT.O) and Fortune Brands (FBHS.N).

Ingersoll's biggest business is heating and cooling systems as a result of its 2008 purchase of Trane. It also makes industrial air compressors and golf carts.

Its competitors in heating and cooling include Johnson Controls' (JCI) York business, United Technologies Corp's (UTX) Carrier unit and Lennox International Inc (LII).

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Islamic banks to expand, compete for mainstream clients

Manama, Dec 18  : Islamic banks are set to expand as they compete increasingly with conventional lenders in attracting mainstream customers, according to a report by consultancy Ernst & Young released.

The total of all commercial banks' Islamic assets is estimated to reach $1.55 trillion this year, $1.8 trillion in 2013 and over $2 trillion mark, the report said. Gulf-based Islamic banks now have $450 billion in assets, about 30 percent of the total.

Islamic banks will grow as they focus on customers who expect more than just sharia-compliance in terms of products and service and have traditionally relied on conventional banks.

"Success will be defined in the core markets through the transformation of Islamic banks so they are able to compete with the much bigger, conventional boys for mainstream customers," Ashar Nazim, Islamic financial services leader at Ernst & Young, said.

Islamic finance follows religious guidelines such as a ban on interest and on pure monetary speculation, with its core markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The role of pure Islamic banks will also become important by comparison with banks that deliver products just through Islamic windows at their existing branch networks.

"There is no truly fully fledged Islamic bank (that stretches) across international markets or even regional," Nazim said.

He identified a group of 20 Islamic banks as likely candidates to become significant regional institutions. They now account for 55 percent of total Islamic banking assets after having grown over the past three years at an average rate of 16.2 percent a year, Nazim said.

"It is a lopsided industry at this point ... only 13 Islamic banks have $1 billion or more in equity," Nazim said, adding that the difference between small and large Islamic banks will widen.

Between 100 to 150 new financial institutions could be launched in the next five to seven years to cater to markets that are new to Islamic finance or have low rates of penetration including Egypt, Libya, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, he predicted. Ten of the 25 fastest growing emerging markets have large Muslim populations.

Even while growing, Islamic banks have experienced a decline in profitability, and their average return on equity lags behind that of conventional banks by 20 percent, Nazim estimated.

Return on equity for both Islamic and conventional banks has deteriorated since 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis, dropping to 12 percent in 2011 for Islamic banks, compared with 15 percent for conventional banks, the report showed.

This 3 percent gap is much wider than the 1 percent difference observed in 2008-2010.

The return on assets for Islamic banks dropped to 1.3 percent in 2011 from 1.7 percent in 2008, while rising for conventional banks to 1.7 percent in 2011 from 1.5 percent in 2008.

Operating expenses are 50 percent higher for Islamic banks, while their cost of funds still remain more competitive than for conventional banks, the report said.

Some banks have started to focus on improving efficiency and reducing costs, which could boost their profit margins by about 25 percent within two to three years, Nazim said.

"The severity of this performance challenge has put many Islamic banks in a difficult place. They have taken the decision to transform the way their businesses work," Nazim said.

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US, UK bank seizure plans focus on absorbing losses

Washington, Dec 18  : Both the United States and United Kingdom have developed viable approaches to seizing and unwinding failing global financial institutions, but more work is needed on the UK side to ensure that losses can be adequately absorbed, American and UK regulators said.

The Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said in a joint paper that each country's plans for dealing with the types of cataclysmic financial failures that marked the 2007-2009 financial crisis would reduce risks to financial stability.

"The FDIC and the Bank of England have developed resolution strategies that take control of the failed company at the top of the group, impose losses on shareholders and unsecured creditors - not on taxpayers — and remove top management and hold them accountable for their action," they said in the paper.

The new authorities to seize and resolve so-called global systemically important financial institutions came in the United States from the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and in Britain from the anticipated approval by early 2013 of the European Union Recovery and Resolution Directive.

Both the U.S. and UK approaches ensure continuity of all critical services of the failing firms and minimize cross-border contagion, the regulators said.

In both approaches, equity holders would likely be wiped out, and unsecured debt holders would face writedowns and conversion of at least part of their holdings to new equity to recapitalize the institutions as part of the restructuring.

In the United States, this is a relatively straightforward process, because in most large financial institutions, the capital structure is largely made up of equity and unsecured debt issued at the holding company level. There is often limited debt issued directly by operating subsidiaries that may be the source of the financial distress that brings down the company.

In the UK, however, financial holding companies at the top of the group do not typically issue much debt - more tends to be issued at the subsidiary level.

"For a top-down approach to work, there must be sufficient loss-absorbing capacity available at the top of the group to absorb losses sustained within operational subsidiaries," the regulators said.

UK companies could restructure to issue more debt at the holding company level, they said. UK authorities also need to find better ways of assigning subsidiary losses to unsecured creditors throughout the group.

A statutory tool to "bail in" such losses proposed under the EU directive would need to prevent counterparties from terminating dealings with the failing firm as it is seized.

In the 2008 crisis, the sudden pullout by Wall Street counterparties from some large firms helped accelerate their failure and magnified losses later borne by taxpayers.

Valuing a failed financial firm's assets is also critical to writing down losses and determining which classes of creditors will face conversion to new equity. Both the United States and United Kingdom are working on ways to develop a credible valuation process that can be applied quickly and flexibly.

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Mayor Bloomberg weighs buying Financial Times: NYT

Washington, Dec 18 : New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing up whether to make a bid for The Financial Times Group, which includes the namesake paper and a half interest in The Economist magazine, the New York Times reported, citing three people close to the mayor.

Pearson Plc, the publisher of FT, is about to lose two of its top executives, raising speculation the paper could be up for sale.

Analysts value The Financial Times Group at about $1.2 billion, well within the reach of Bloomberg LP, which in 2011 had revenue of $7.6 billion, the paper said.

One media banker with knowledge of the company expects the paper to be sold around early next year, the New York Times said.

Factions within Bloomberg LP have argued that it would be smarter to buy a digital property, pointing to the website LinkedIn as an example.

Daniel Doctoroff, a confidant of Bloomberg and the chief executive of the company, is said to be particularly skeptical about the value of buying a newspaper, the paper said.

A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment to the New York Times on his conversations about the Financial Times paper.

A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg and Pearson Group could not immediately be reached for comment outside of regular U.S. business hours.

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Fiat, chocolate giveaways in fight for holiday traffic

New York, Dec 18: As the holiday season chugs through its traditionally slower period following the Black Friday rush, retailers are pulling out all the stops - even Fiat giveaways - to drive consumer traffic to brick-and-mortar stores.

"We have seen a big focus for retailers doing everything they can to generate more traffic in the stores," said Dana Telsey, the CEO and chief research officer at Telsey Advisory Group.

This includes offering services and events that give consumers a reason to step into stores, extending store hours and giving loyalty customers a higher priority than others, Telsey added.

Additional traffic not only results in purchases of what customers initially intended to buy but sparks impulse buys too, which are crucial for driving sales.

Boosting traffic and sales now also pushes some sales forward during the 32-day long holiday period, the longest possible stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"Getting the customer now, there's more of a chance that there's not as deep of a markdown in the 10 days before Christmas," Telsey said. "It's a more profitable sale than it would be two weeks down the road."

To lure customers, (GPS)-owned Banana Republic launched its "12 Days of Joy" campaign on Dec. 1, which features a different surprise each day, including complimentary makeup, movie vouchers and chocolate interspersed with days featuring steep discounts. As part of the company's last giveaway, consumers will have the chance to win one of six Fiat vehicles.

Meanwhile, (SBUX) announcement that it would sell 5,000 steel gift cards at a non-so-bargain price of $450 generated buzz just days after it launched its "12 Days of Gifting" campaign of discounts and promotions. Day 3's offer of free coffee throughout January with each purchase of a specific $30 tumbler will serve as a way to boost foot traffic after the holiday rush dies down.

Despite accusations that the company was catering to the caffeinated 1 percent, the cards sold old in seconds.

But not all mid-holiday promotions are as successful. (TGT) much-hypedjoint launch with Neiman Marcus of a collaboration featuring 24 high-end designers failed to live up to expectations.

Deutsche Bank analysts surveyed more than 50 stores across the country and visited a handful in the Northeast Corridor and said Target associates commented that they thought the collection's pieces were too expensive and could last through early January when the time frame for returns ends.

"Unfortunately, for Target, the results were very similar across the board, suggesting the hyped collection is indeed off to a much worse than expected start," analysts wrote in a recent report.

A Citigroup research report cautioned investors against believing the collection's hype.

"The collection was tucked in the back of the store, shelves were full and messy, and we saw little traffic," the report said.

A separate report from JPMorgan mentioned that a Westchester, N.Y., Target employee was already "seeing some returns, perhaps implying that the collection saw a high number of early purchases for resale in anticipation of being sold out, but given product availability resale opportunities are limited." Indeed a search on (EBAY) for the collection's items returned nearly 2,000 items, mostly at steep markups and many without bids.

Overall though, retailers' attempts to drive traffic during the typically slow two weeks following the Black Friday rush appear to be working. During the week ended Dec. 1, ShopperTrak Founder and Executive Vice President Bill Martin said sales and traffic ticked up from last year.

"After Black Friday, we run into a two-week trough where consumers kind of go to the side lines and are going to wait for the next round of promotions," Martin said. "So that has occurred, but the trough is not as deep as it was last year. In fact, we saw an increase over last year in foot traffic of 3.7 percent and a 2.3 percent increase in sales."

This is good news for retailers as they seek to counteract a weaker-than-expected increase in same-store sales in November due to Hurricane Sandy.

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AIG to sell up to 90 percent of ILFC to Chinese group

New York, Dec 18 : American International Group Inc (AIG) said it would sell up to 90 percent of its ILFC airplane leasing business to a Chinese consortium led by New China Trust Co Ltd in a deal that values ILFC at $5.28 billion.

New China Trust, China Aviation Industrial Fund and P3 Investments Ltd will buy 80.1 percent of ILFC for $4.23 billion, with the option to buy another 9.9 percent. The group will be expanded to include an arm of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) upon regulatory approval.

New China Trust is 20 percent-owned by British bank Barclays Plc (BARC.L).

AIG said it would record a non-operating loss of $4.4 billion on the sale, including a charge for tax-related items. It expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2013.

ILFC will retain its current management and continue to be based in Los Angeles. It will appoint a new board with a majority of U.S. and European representatives, AIG said.

News of the potential deal was first reported. AIG had been pursuing an initial public offering of ILFC for more than a year, but found market conditions unfavorable.


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Unscheduled power cuts haunt Baramulla residents

Baramulla, Dec 18  : The Power Development Department here often attributes the frequent power cuts to extra demand of power in winter.

However, according to sources, it is the ‘ailing’ power distribution system in the district, coupled with overloaded grid stations, which is hampering the PDD to draw more energy.

According to sources, the existing power receiving stations of Amargarh, Pattan and Sheeri are so overloaded that the PDD finds it difficult to draw more power, thus making the residents suffer due to erratic power cuts. “The department is not in a position to receive the required power as the existing receiving system is stretched beyond its capacity, prompting the PDD to go for unscheduled power cuts," said a PDD official, wishing anonymity.

The poor power distribution system, he said, has also been a matter of concern for the past many years.

According to sources, the outdated distribution system is leading to huge power losses.

Pertinently, the much-awaited 220-132 KV Amargarh-Delina grid station, which is almost complete but awaiting commissioning, is believed to address the problem of frequent power cuts. But the delay in its commissioning has raised many eyebrows.

Constructed by M/S Jyoti Constructions at an estimated cost of Rs 65 crores, the work on the project was initiated in 2008. While the authorities claim that the delay in completion of the project has been “due to disturbances in Kashmir in 2008 and 2010”, there is more to it than meets the eye. A similar power grid station in south Kashmir—the work on which was initiated simultaneously—has already been commissioned some six months back.

“We are carrying out the load-testing of this power grid station and within few days it will be commissioned," said Executive Engineer PDD Baramulla Irshad Ahmad.

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For 25 years, Bandipora man serves Education Dept at Rs 25/month

Chaki Arsalan, Dec 18 : A 70-year-old man from Chaki Arsalaan Khan area of this occupied Kashmir district is serving the State Education Department on a monthly salary of Rs 25 for the past two decades.

 Muhammad Ramzan Wani has rendered the 25 year service at the Primary School at Chak-i-Arsalaan Khan (now a Middle school) on a monthly salary of Rs 25, which has been recently raised to Rs 50. Although Wani was promised that his services would be regularized, the promise is yet to be fulfilled.

 Wani was appointed as Sweeper-Cum–Chowkidar vide order No Accts/33-34, dated 04-04-1988 on a monthly salary of Rs 25 with the condition that the appointee will be responsible for watch and ward of the school.

 “I was made to work round-the-clock all these years. No leave was given to me. I had no time to take rest. I gave my life to looking after this school. In case any damage was reported in the school, my salary was stalled for months together,” he told Greater Kashmir.

“The officers then had promised to pay me by regularizing my service and enhancing my salary. But I am paid only Rs 25 a month. I had no option but to work as per their terms and conditions. In the present context, it is just exploitation,” he said.
 After Wani sought relief in 2007, he said the Education Department stopped paying him even Rs Rs. 25.

 However sometime later the salary was enhanced to Rs 50 in 2008 vide order No ZB/08/2861-62 Dated 07-01-2008 when the appointee approached then MLA for ‘justice’.

 “I lost my land, my property worth lakhs to the hollow promises of officials who forced me to work on the meager amount of Rs 25 a month,” he said. “I approached every officer in the Bandipora Zone and even at the Directorate level but nobody favoured me.”
 Wani says he has been the victim of official ‘apathy.’

 Meanwhile, Wani continues to clean the school and its toilets for the past four years without any payment. “Ramzan lost his property of walnut and poplar tress worth lakhs to fake promises and monthly salary of Rs 25,” said his neighbours.

 The plight came to light when Ramzan’s name was dropped in the list of sweepers and Chowkidars after it was sought by the Education Department.

 Zonal Education Officer Bandipora said the office has received Wani’s order from higher-ups.

 “We are paying such employees under the Contingent Paid Employees category,” he said.

“We have directed the concerned headmaster to release the pending emoluments of the Chowkidar at an earliest.”

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IHK to get e-toilets

Kochi, Dec 18 : Kerala's own electronic toilets (e-toilets), one of the prominent innovations of the state in public health, hygiene and sanitation sector, would now be set up in held Kashmir. A 2.5 ton container loaded with the e-toilet and STP components would be leaving from Thiruvananthapuram to IHK.

 Pioneered by Eram Scientific Solutions, the Thiruvananthapuram based scientific R&D firm, the e-toilets for JK region have been customized as per the region's own geographical and sub-zero climatic conditions in response to J&Ks Tourism Department’s request for setting up e-toilets in the occupied State.

 The e-toilets would be set up at Affarwat and Gulmarg. Affarwat is one of the world's highest locations which uses cable car using gondolas at a height of over 4000 ft above sea level and the only one location in the world that takes skiers to a height of 4,390 metres.

 In addition to the e-toilets, specifically designed STPs (Sewage Treatment Plants) would also be set up at Dal Lake to address its waste treatment woes.

 Eram Scientific has designed customized e-toilets which can function in sub-zero temperatures, even at minus 55 Degrees Celsius. In order to function at this sort of extreme cold temperatures, military grade equipments have been used in the customized e-toilet model.

Eram Scientific has successfully implemented over 400 e-toilets in various parts of the country.

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Why humans are more sensitive to certain viruses: Primate immune system differences identified

Islamabad, Dec 18 : The greater susceptibility of humans to certain infectious diseases when compared to other primates could be explained by species-specific changes in immune signaling pathways, a University of Chicago study finds.

The first genome-wide, functional comparison of genes regulated by the innate immune system in three primate species discovers potential mediators of differences in disease susceptibility among primates.

These findings are published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Humans are more sensitive than chimpanzees to the severe effects of certain viral infections, such as progression of HIV to AIDS or severe complications from hepatitis B. Genomic comparisons of humans and their close primate relatives reveal many changes in immune system genes. By stimulating immune cells from humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques, Luis Barreiro and colleagues tested functional differences in primate immune pathways.

The "core" response, critical to fight any invading pathogen, was found to be evolutionarily conserved, with similar gene expression patterns across all three species. However, the regulatory response associated with genes involved in fighting certain viral and microbial infections produced unique effects in each species, probably reflecting rapid adaptation cycles between specific hosts and viruses. Interestingly, many HIV-interacting genes responded uniquely in chimpanzees, animals which do not routinely develop AIDS after HIV/SIV infection, possibly pointing to mechanisms of chimpanzee resistance to the virus. In humans, immune responses were particularly enriched for genes known to be involved in cell death (apoptosis) and cancer biology.

Though detailed species-specific gene expression patterns were identified in this study, more experiments will be required to assess the phenotypic impact of those unique immune responses. Future studies will also test the immune response of each species to specific infectious agents. According to the authors, the present findings are "only the first step in characterizing inter-species differences in immune response."

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PSA test better predicts cancer in men taking prostate-shrinking drug

Islamabad, Dec 18 : The PSA screening test for prostate cancer is not perfect. It can indicate cancer when none is present and miss life-threatening tumors. But a new study suggests the test is more reliable in men taking dutasteride (Avodart), a drug widely prescribed to shrink an enlarged prostate gland.

Dutasteride lowers PSA levels by about half within six months. But the researchers found that even a slight rise in PSA levels among men taking the drug was a stronger indicator of prostate cancer, particularly aggressive tumors that require early diagnosis and treatment, than rising PSA levels in men who took a placebo.

"Dutasteride stabilizes the amount of PSA that comes from enlarged prostates and low-grade cancers," says lead author Gerald Andriole, MD, the Robert Killian Royce, MD, Distinguished Professor and chief of urologic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"This enhances a rising PSA's ability to detect high-grade cancers that require early diagnosis and treatment, while reducing the discovery of tumors that are unlikely to cause harm if left untreated."

The study is now available online and will be published in January in the Journal of Urology.

The PSA test measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen in the blood. The larger a man's prostate, the more PSA he produces. Elevated levels can point to cancer. But PSA often rises naturally as men age, mainly due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a progressive enlargement of the prostate. This leads to many false positive PSA tests for cancer. Indeed, biopsies only find cancer in about one in four men with an elevated PSA.

In the new study, the researchers looked more closely at data from a four-year trial that evaluated whether dutasteride could reduce the risk of detecting prostate cancer in men with an increased risk of the disease. The study involved 8,231 men ages 50-75 who were randomly assigned to receive a placebo or a daily 0.5 mg dose of dutasteride. The men had elevated PSA levels (2.5 ng/ml-10 ng/ml) but no evidence of cancer on biopsies performed within six months of enrolling in the trial.

Results published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that dutasteride reduced the risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis by 23 percent. Dutasteride appears to keep tumors small or shrink them to the point that they are less likely to be detected by a biopsy, says Andriole, who led the steering committee that oversaw the earlier trial.

In the current analysis, the researchers looked at the performance of PSA as a marker for prostate cancer, particularly for aggressive cancer. Among men taking dutasteride, the investigators found that any subsequent rise in PSA levels over the course of the study was more likely to be linked to aggressive, high-grade tumors (Gleason score 7-10), compared to rising PSA levels in men on a placebo.

The Gleason scoring system measures tumor aggressiveness based on biopsy results and can range from 2-10, with 10 being the most aggressive.

"If a man is taking dutastride and his PSA level starts to rise, he has a higher chance of having an aggressive cancer," Andriole says. "This makes PSA a more effective screening tool for prostate cancer but even more importantly for aggressive cancer."

Over four years, PSA levels increased in 72 percent of men taking a placebo and only 29 percent of men taking dutasteride, the data show. However, there was no significant difference in high-grade tumors between the two groups.

Men taking dutasteride were almost twice as likely to have aggressive prostate cancer if their PSA levels rose, compared to men whose PSA levels went up while taking a placebo. In men with any increase in PSA, aggressive, high-grade tumors were diagnosed in 13.2 percent of those on dutasteride and 7.7 percent of those taking a placebo.

Even a slight rise in PSA levels was a more accurate predictor of aggressive tumors. Among men whose PSA levels increased one point or less, 10.3 percent of those taking dutasteride had aggressive cancer, compared with 5.4 percent taking a placebo.

That trend also held for larger increases in PSA levels. Among men whose PSA levels rose two points or more, nearly 20.9 percent of those taking dutasteride had aggressive cancer, compared with 9.8 percent taking a placebo.

In contrast, PSA levels tended to decrease or remain stable in men taking dutasteride who either had low-grade tumors or no cancer at all.

The study's authors do not suggest that men take dutasteride just to get a more accurate readout of PSA levels attributable to cancer. "However, men who are taking dutasteride can be confident that the drug does not weaken the ability of PSA to find cancer if it develops," Andriole says. "Rather, the drug enhances the ability to find cancer if PSA levels are rising."

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Immune cell plays unexpected role in autoimmune disease

Islamabad, Dec 18: A new study provides fascinating insight into the underlying pathology associated with the autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

The research, published by Cell Press in the journal Immunity, reveals an unexpected role for a key type of immune cell and provides a potential new therapeutic strategy for SLE and, potentially, other autoimmune diseases.

SLE is a chronic systemic disease that can affect many regions of the body and, as a result, presents with diverse clinical symptoms. As is characteristic of other autoimmune disease, in SLE the immune system attacks and damages the body's own cells and tissues. Previous research had shown that SLE is associated with activation of the two main parts of the adaptive immune system, B cells and T cells.

"We were interested in examining the contribution of another type of immune cell, the dendritic cell (DC), to SLE pathology," explains senior study author Dr. Mark J. Shlomchik from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. "DCs initiate and control the adaptive immune response to infection and have the potential to influence SLE in many different ways."

Dr. Shlomchik and colleagues deleted DCs in a mouse model of SLE and observed that although DCs contributed to the expansion and differentiation of T cells, they were surprisingly not required for the initial activation of T cells. These findings were unexpected because it is well established that DC cells initiate the T and B cell immune response to pathogens. Alternatively, DCs were very important for the invasion of target organs by inflammatory cells, including T cells. SLE-prone mice lacking DCs had markedly reduced kidney and skin disease. DCs also markedly affected the quantity and quality of the classic autoantibody response associated with lupus.

Taken together, the observations indicate that the way DC cells function in autoimmune disease is quite different from their role in the immune response to pathogens. "Our findings reveal that DCs operate not to initiate but rather to amplify disease in a mouse model of lupus which is in contrast to how they are thought to work in response to infection," concludes Dr. Shlomchik.

"Although there is much more work to do in defining the roles of DCs in autoimmunity our current data validate DCs as a potential new therapeutic target in autoimmunity as well as point to future studies to determine how DCs promote local tissue inflammation and to test if depleting DCs will be therapeutic during disease."

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Woman pleads guilty in 'total identity theft' case

Wichita, Jan 18 : An illegal immigrant accused of assuming the persona of a Texas teacher pleaded guilty in a case that put a face on the growing crime of "total identity theft" in the United States.

Benita Cardona-Gonzalez, a Mexican national living in Topeka, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of possessing fraudulent identification documents in a deal with prosecutors that calls for an 18-month prison term.

The 32-year-old was accused of completely assuming the persona of Houston elementary school teacher Candida Gutierrez, who first went public in a story. Gutierrez recounted how the thief not only opened bank and credit accounts, but assumed her entire persona — using it to get a job, a driver's license, a mortgage, food stamps and even medical care for the birth of two children. All the while, the crook claimed the real Gutierrez was the one who had stolen her identity.

As part of the plea deal, Cardona-Gonzalez agreed not to contest deportation after serving her sentence.

Defense lawyer Matthew Works said after the hearing in Wichita that his client was sorry and didn't intend to harm Gutierrez.

"She wanted to give her children a better life. That is what this is all about," Works said.

Gutierrez said in a phone interview that she plans to attend the sentencing, which is scheduled for March 25.

"I want to see her face to face. I want to see it actually happening," Gutierrez said. "After all this time, I am still haunted. I want to be sure she is put away."

Gutierrez said she would have liked to see Cardona-Gonzalez spend a more than 18 months in prison after everything she put her through. Still, she said she was satisfied with the plea deal because she and her husband want to get the case over with and move on with their lives.

She praised the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas and said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson even came to Houston to talk to her about the deal. He returned her original Social Security card and birth certificate, she said.

"They were pretty amazing getting on it once we contacted them," Gutierrez said. "Brent was informative and helpful. He was very efficient."

Gutierrez first learned her identity had been hijacked when she was turned down for a mortgage nearly 12 years ago. Both women claimed they were identity theft victims and sought new Social Security numbers. The Social Security Administration turned down the request from Gutierrez, instead issuing a new number to the woman impersonating her. In another twist, Gutierrez was forced to file her federal income tax forms using a special identification number usually reserved for illegal immigrants.

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Man in Calif. school shooting not fit for trial

Oakland, Jan 18 : A judge ruled that a man accused of killing seven people at a small Northern California Christian college is not mentally fit for trial.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carrie Panetta temporarily suspended the case against One Goh after two psychiatric evaluations reached the conclusion that Goh suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.

An initial psychiatric evaluation found that Goh has had the disorder for several years.

Alameda County Assistant Public Defender David Klaus said after the brief hearing that both doctors who examined Goh had similar experiences. Goh's condition causes him to have hallucinations and delusions and distrust people, including those trying to help him, Klaus said.

"He's certainly a deeply troubled man," Klaus said. "He's locked up in shame, remorse and sadness. He's not eating, he's not taking care of himself."

Klaus said he and his co-counsel have trouble talking with their client because of his mental state.

Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the April 2 attack at Oikos University in Oakland.

He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail.

Authorities have said Goh, a former Oikos student, planned the killing spree at the school that caters to Korean immigrants after becoming angry with school officials over a tuition dispute. He previously decided to drop out of the school's nursing program.

Panetta ordered Goh to return to court on Jan. 28, when Klaus said discussions will likely focus on where his client should be placed in order to regain his competency.

Eventually, Klaus said, the plan would be for Goh to go to a facility where "he is expected to be restored to competency with a combination of medication and therapy."

Klaus said that facility would likely be Napa State Hospital in Napa County.

Victims' family members, including Efanye Chibuko, have suggested Goh may be faking his condition.

In November, Chibuko, whose wife Doris was one of the seven killed, said he believed that Goh was acting and playing the legal system.

Klaus said his client is not trying to avoid anything.

"I just want to make sure it's understood that this is a temporary suspension of proceedings in this case," Klaus said. "This is really about his present mental status and the Constitution demands he be competent and be able to understand and rationally participate in the proceedings.

"And, right now, he can't do that."

After the hearing, Chibuko dashed out of the courtroom into a waiting elevator and declined to comment to a reporter.

There is no timetable on when Goh could stand trial, Klaus said.

Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew, who is seeking murder charges against Goh, declined to comment after the hearing.

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Possible victims of 'speed freak killers' sought

San Francisco, Jan 18  : The FBI began the excavation of an abandoned well in Central California in a renewed search for possible victims of two men known as the "Speed Freak Killers."

A team of the agency's forensic experts will be joined by local authorities, California State University, Chico anthropologists and other investigators for the next few weeks to painstakingly dig up the San Joaquin County site mostly by hand, said Herbert Brown, the agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento office.

The FBI is leading the new excavation effort after the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department requested help.

The sheriff's department was criticized for its handling of a previous excavation of another abandoned well that yielded the remains of three bodies and a fetus that authorities suspected were victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.

Two other bodies were found buried elsewhere around the same time. Four of the bodies have been identified as long-missing women suspected of being killed by Shermantine and Herzog. The fifth remains unidentified.

Local authorities say the pair went on a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree in the 1980s and '90s and might be responsible for as many as 19 deaths.

Shermantine and his boyhood friend Herzog were arrested in 1999 and convicted of several murders each. Shermantine was sentenced to death after a jury convicted him of four murder charges.

Herzog's three murder convictions and 78 years-to-life prison sentence were overturned by an appeals court that ruled his confession was illegally coerced. He later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was paroled in 2010.

Herzog hanged himself in January 2012 after Shermantine began directing authorities to grave sites.

Shermantine began cooperating with authorities after Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla promised to pay him about $30,000 for disclosing the location of bodies. Officials briefly removed him from his death row cell at San Quentin Prison to personally show investigators several sites in San Joaquin County.

San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore asked the FBI for help in November after Joan Shelley said remains of her 16-year-old daughter, JoAnn Hobson, were returned to her mixed with bones from at least three other people who were discovered in Linden.

The FBI said that heavy machinery would be used initially to clear soil covering the well and then the new dig will be done largely by hand.

"We all remain hopeful that our efforts at this site will ultimately return the remains of victims to their loved ones but know that such is not a certainty," Brown said.

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Casey Anthony appeals four convictions for lying

Orlando, Jan 18 : Lawyers for Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in 2011, will be back in a Florida court to appeal her four convictions for lying to the authorities.

The convictions stemmed from claims Anthony made after her toddler disappeared in 2008, triggering a nationwide search that drew widespread media attention.

Caylee Anthony's body was eventually found dumped in the woods near the Anthony home.

Anthony, 26, was convicted of lying to lead detective Yuri Melich when she said she left Caylee on or about June 9, 2008, with a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez at the Sawgrass Apartments in Orlando.

She was also convicted of lying when she claimed she was employed at Universal Studios, had told Universal co-workers that Caylee was missing, and later received a phone call from Caylee.

According to an appellate brief, Anthony's lawyers will argue that the four lies should have been considered one offense, because the statements were made during an extended interrogation by detectives.

Though she was acquitted of all major charges at her closely watched trial, Anthony was sentenced to a maximum total of four years in prison on four charges of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

Taking into account the three years she spent in jail awaiting trial, time off for good behavior and other factors, Casey is scheduled to complete her sentence after serving one year of probation at a secret location.

In their oral arguments before the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Daytona Beach, Florida, Anthony's lawyers will also argue that jurors should never have heard any of her statements to detectives during the initial investigation because she had not been advised of her constitutional right to remain silent.


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