Kidnap gangs use leaked bank details to prey on Afghan tycoons

Thursday 27 December 2012

Kabul, Dec 27 : Afghan construction magnate Haji Asadullah Ghaznawi was dragged from his office with a gun to his head and locked up in a slaughterhouse for almost three weeks.

Ghaznawi was later shocked to discover someone had leaked details of his bank account to the kidnap gang who pulled up in a car in broad daylight in Kabul a year ago and abducted him.

Violent criminals who gain access to confidential information about Afghan millionaires like Ghaznawi have raised alarming questions about the dangers of doing business in one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries.

"Eight days before I was kidnapped a business partner added one million dollars to my bank account," Ghaznawi said from his luxurious office in the Afghan capital.

"The kidnappers told me that I had one million dollars in my bank. How could they know this?"

The leaks, some businessmen allege, are coming from the very people who are supposed to be protecting Afghans and helping them prosper -- intelligence officials, police and bankers.

Safeguarding Afghanistan's economy is just as important for the troubled South Asian nation's stability as containing the Taliban-led insurgency as NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

The International Monetary Fund expects economic growth of 11 percent this year. While that might sound impressive, it will inevitably be offset by a sharp cut after 2014 in foreign aid that has long been Afghanistan's lifeline.

Wealthy Afghans fearful of a new civil war or a Taliban push to seize power have already been sending vast sums of money to banks in the Gulf emirate of Dubai and elsewhere, prompting authorities to impose measures to try and stem the flow.

Government officials fear bank account scams and kidnappings could accelerate that process, and potentially bring the fledgling economy to its knees.

Ghaznawi spent 17 days in the basement slaughterhouse, worried about his safety and also troubled that criminals now know exactly how much he is worth. A business partner bought his freedom for $820,000.

It's a problem that has Afghan entrepreneurs so worried many are hiring large teams of armed guards to provide around-the-clock protection.

Afghanistan's banking sector has seen an influx of cash from foreign aid and steady growth in industry and construction, but it remains weak and open to exploitation by criminals.

Critics say regulation and oversight is poor despite concerted efforts to rebuild the sector. The most alarming example was the looting of $935 million from politically well-connected Kabulbank, once Afghanistan's largest private lender, in a loans scam uncovered in 2010.

Businessmen and top officials from the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) say bank employees are leaking account balances to sophisticated gangs who arrange kidnappings.

"These kidnap gangs have some good connections, they work as teams, they know who the rich people are," said Shir Baz Kaminzada, president of the Afghan Industrial Union, who runs a lucrative printing and packaging firm and travels in a bullet-proof car.

"Our banks aren't so secure and some bank people, we suspect they're providing information to criminals."

Some businessmen go further and allege rogue officials from Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), are obtaining the financial records of high-rollers. The NDS did not respond to interview requests.

Kidnapping is a lucrative business, with ransoms often in excess of $1 million. Many cases go unreported and most are unsolved.

Corruption and lawlessness are endemic, and some businessmen suspect some police officials could be working with the gangs and sharing ransom payments, or at least turning a blind eye.

"Among our members, we have many kidnap victims and the problem is mostly solved by paying the ransom without involving police," said Ahmad Tawfiq Dawari, a deputy head at the ACCI.

"They hire 10-15 private guards themselves and it's expensive. When security forces do nothing to stop the kidnappers, how can we trust them to protect us?"

Media spoke to several kidnap victims, but most were too scared to provide details about their ordeals.

The gangs are ruthless. When they can't get their hands on the businessmen themselves, they grab their loved ones instead.

In some cases it has been done with frightening ease. One gang simply showed up at a wedding held by a rich family and snatched a three-year-old child named Milad, who was held for 29 days. His father is a well-to-do construction engineer.

"We told them that we had no money, but they warned us if we don't pay they will cut off his hands, legs and also blind him," said Abdul Kadir, the boy's grandfather. The ransom was paid, and the gang later arrested and paraded before the media.

"We hope the government punishes them seriously, so they should remember the pain they've given me," Kadir said.

The financial schemes and kidnappings will make it even more difficult for President Hamid Karzai's government to convince foreigners to invest in Afghanistan, which has been plagued by conflict for decades.

That task is gaining urgency as 2014 approaches. Many Afghans fear Western countries will withdraw their financial support along with troops.

ACCI officials estimate that until recently, as much as $10 million was being transferred outside Afghanistan each day. The central bank expects a record flight of cash this year of some $8 billion -- almost twice the size of the 2011 state budget.

"Without a doubt, these kidnappings will impact investment in Afghanistan," said Khan Jan Alokozai, a deputy chairman with the ACCI. "There's a lack of hope for the future and a belief Afghanistan will collapse in 2014."

More than 100 of Afghanistan's top businessmen raised concerns about alleged leaks of their bank balances with Karzai a month ago. Alokozai said Karzai was "very angry" and demanded it be stopped, telling the businessmen the NDS was not permitted to seek private information about individuals' bank accounts.

State agencies seeking access to customers' bank information can only obtain it through the central bank and "in no other circumstances", its governor, Noorullah Delawari, said.

Businessmen place the blame squarely on law enforcement agencies. The chief of the Kabul Criminal Investigation, Mohammad Zahir, insists police are cracking down on the gangs and says the leaks most likely came from employees or relatives.

"These kidnappers had private prisons where they tortured victims if they refused to pay, so we started a fight against them and we've brought this problem to its lowest point," Zahir said, reeling off the names of prominent people rescued and kidnapping kingpins who have been arrested.

"The government supports us and we're not afraid of anyone."

Sitting with an associate in his Kabul office, Ghaznawi gets little comfort from such talk and believes businessmen have a bleak future in Afghanistan. In the back of his mind is a constant fear that the kidnappers will be back.

"I wanted to shut down my business but my partners convinced me to continue," he said. "Other businessmen know what I went through, why would they put their money and lives at risk?"

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Gains in Afghan health: Too good to be true?

Washington, Dec 27: A US-sponsored mortality survey released last year announced huge improvements in health across Afghanistan. But the gains are so great that experts are still arguing about whether it's correct.

During three decades of war, Afghanistan remained a black hole of health information. The few mortality studies looked at a small slice of the population and then extrapolated.

The numbers were horrific. Life expectancy in 2004 was measured at just 42 years; 25 percent of children did not survive until the age of 5. For every 100,000 deliveries, a staggering 1,600 women died in childbirth, the second-worst rate in the world.

Enter last year's $5 million Afghanistan Mortality Survey, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development with a contribution from the U.N. Children's Fund. Officials say the new survey provides the most accurate snapshot ever of health in Afghanistan — and it delivered shockingly good news.

Afghan surveyors in all 34 provinces brought back data suggesting that life expectancy at birth is now 62 years. Child mortality under age 5 dropped to 10 percent. Of 100,000 live births, the maternal mortality number was down to 327.

"We were all surprised," says Susan Brock, health adviser with USAID in Kabul. "That's what led to additional review and much more analysis."

Brock says it was such an improvement compared with previous surveys that USAID delayed the release to crunch the numbers again. Last November, after months of re-examining results and meetings of technical experts in Dubai and in Washington, the agency confirmed the findings and released the survey with great fanfare.

But believing the new numbers are accurate probably means accepting that the old numbers were way off, which makes it impossible to say exactly how much health has really improved. It's unlikely that both the old life expectancy of 42 years and the new estimate of 62 years are correct.

Some experts who worked on the survey still think it shows too much of a leap forward to be credible. Dr. Kenneth Hill, a Harvard University demographer and technical adviser on the survey, says there are too many anomalies.

"If the results had come out closer to expectations, they would have been hugely valuable, I think," Hill says. "But because there are still huge question marks hanging over the estimates, I'm not sure there is an enormous value in the data."

The survey divided Afghanistan into three regions: north, center and south. In many findings, the southern zone is excluded, because security made it impossible to conduct polling. Cultural taboos about discussing female family members meant that the birthrate of female children was underreported, and that's also likely true of infant mortality.

The survey clearly and honestly explains these facts, and USAID says that statisticians accounted for many such factors. But Hill says he suspects the raw data is off.

"Conditions for data collection are desperately difficult," he says. "Knocking on someone's door and asking them details about their children and their household is not something most people would want to do."

Three of the six experts on the survey's technical advisory group told NPR they still have doubts, even after the extra analysis. That includes Julia Hussein, of Aberdeen University.

"You've got to match what you know in terms of evidence with what you see with your eyes," says Hussein, who has worked on maternal mortality in Afghanistan since the 1990s.

"My instinctive reaction to figures reported in the survey — I just find them unbelievable, knowing what sort of care is available in Afghanistan," she says.

But defenders of the study say people can't believe the numbers because they've become accustomed to thinking of Afghanistan as hopeless.

Dr. Mohammad Rasooly, with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, was the lead technician from the Afghan side of the survey. He says health care in his country is improving dramatically, and in many different ways.

"If we consider only the example of midwives, 10 years back we had only 400 midwives at the national level. So, today we have more than 3,000. This is very important for maternal care," Rasooly says.

Now, new paved roads mean that a journey to one of the thousands of newly built clinics takes hours instead of days in rural areas, says Rasooly. Widespread mobile phones have helped save the lives of people who in the past had no way to call for help. And there is little doubt that women have much more access to health care.

Maternal mortality is notoriously hard to measure, and the new figure of 327 maternal deaths per 100,000 births has a margin of error that could make it much higher. It could be nearer 500, says Rasooly, but it's certainly not 1,600, which is progress.

It's not about knowing the exact number, says Ken Yamashita, USAID mission director in Afghanistan.

"We're quite confident of the numbers. In the end, it's a survey, so any survey has an error margin," he says.

Yamashita says the new mortality survey is the best ever done in Afghanistan.

"What it represents is a more representative survey on the one hand, and two, a very real improvement in health," he says.

The only way to know will be to conduct more surveys a few years down the road, at the same comprehensive standard, says Yamashita. He adds that even the new, more encouraging numbers show that Afghanistan is still desperately in need of international aid to help improve the health of its people.

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Afghan air force learns to fly and fix aircraft

Kabul, Dec 27 : Twenty years ago, Afghan Air Force pilot Maj. Abdul Aziz was streaking across the sky in the Soviet Union's deadliest fighter-bomber.

Now 45, his new task is less dramatic or flamboyant, yet perhaps even more important: Help build and train a new skilled air force that can keep the planes and helicopters in the air after Western mentors go home.

The challenge of forging a modern, technically proficient air force in a country at war is an immense but essential element in the West's exit strategy. The target date for having an Afghan Air Force able to operate fully independently, with about 8,000 trained personnel and 145 aircraft, is 2016.

The war against the resurgent Taliban has relied heavily on NATO aircraft to fly infantry units to remote outposts, keep them supplied in battle and provide close air support. Missiles fired from drones and exploding roadside bombs may get the media attention, but in a mountainous country with few paved roads, this has largely been a helicopter war.

Schooling a new cadre of pilots and air crews to fly is tough enough. But Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who until last year headed NATO's training mission in Afghanistan, stressed that training the thousands of support and maintenance personnel is even more critical — if the force is to be sustainable in the long run.

If not, history will repeat itself. In the 1990s, the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance fighters battling the Taliban were flying Soviet-made helicopters left in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

"The Northern Alliance chief of staff told me they had 70 helicopters, mostly Mil Mi-17s," Caldwell said. "Within a one-year period, none of them could fly anymore — not because they were shot out of the sky, but because the (Afghans) could not maintain and sustain them."

The NATO-led force is due to end its combat role in 2014, when it will hand over responsibility for security to the Afghan military and police. But thousands of troops and advisers will likely remain behind for at least several years to help train and mentor the government's security forces.

Allied nations have already supplied refurbished Italian-built C-27A tactical transports, Mi-35 helicopter gunships and Mi-17 transport choppers. Aside from the attack helicopters, the only dedicated close air support aircraft will be about two dozen A-29 Super Tucano counterinsurgency turboprops.

Afghanistan's air force dates to the 1920s, and reached its zenith during the 1980s Soviet occupation with nearly 500 fighter planes and bombers, transport aircraft and helicopter gunships. But it became little more than a scrap heap, left to decay by the Taliban during the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal, then destroyed on the ground by U.S. bombing in 2001.

So when the corps was reformed in 2005, it had to start from scratch. Thousands of different specialists — including crew chiefs, engine and airframe technicians, avionics and communications experts, loadmasters and air base firefighters — had to be recruited and trained. The force currently has about 5,000 members and 86 aircraft.

"I loved being a pilot, but I chose to become an instructor because I wanted to serve my country," said Maj. Aziz, whose exchanged the cockpit of a Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jet for a classroom. "I am training the trainers who will in the future be able to train all the personnel that the air force needs, without the help of foreign advisers and supervisors."

And the search for the right personnel became the major challenge in developing the service.

In contrast to the effort to reconstitute the Iraqi Air Force in the 1990s, which retained a large cadre of trained and experienced pilots and engineers from before the 2003 U.S. invasion, the task in Afghanistan is much more complicated because it requires that the air force be created from the ground up — including basics such as teaching recruits how to read and write.

"About 85 percent of our current recruits are illiterate — and that's on a good day," said Col. Michael T. Needham, commander of the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron. The unit's American, Canadian, Jordanian and Portuguese instructors are assisting, training and advising the 230 Afghan staff of the aviation college at Kabul airport to provide general, as well as military, education.

"The goal is really to get them to a point where the mentors are not necessary," Needham said. "We would like to work ourselves out of the job."

A potentially equally serious problem is the air force's annual attrition rate of nearly 20 percent. While not as bad as the rate at which troops are leaving the desertion-ravaged Afghan Army, this makes it difficult to retain a cadre of trained and experienced personnel.

Pilots are being trained in Shindand in western Herat province. The school at Kabul airport is in charge of developing the maintenance skills that the ground crews will need to keep the planes flying.

In a sign of the difficulties faced by the air force in finding reliable personnel, an Afghan military pilot opened fire after an argument last April at Kabul airport, killing eight U.S. trainers and advisers and an American civilian contractor.

U.S. military investigators found no conclusive evidence that the officer, Col. Ahmed Gul, had any ties to the insurgency. But the incident illustrated the dangers faced by military and civilian trainers and advisers who work daily with Afghan forces to prepare for the eventual departure of international troops.

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Andy Williams' Navajo blankets set for NYC auction

New York, Dec 27 : The late American crooner Andy Williams, famous for easy-listening hits such as "Moon River" and "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" from his beloved Christmas TV specials, had a passion for Navajo blankets. He assembled a museum-quality collection that's slated to be auctioned for more than $1 million next year.

The bold, colorful wool blankets decorated his home and office and also the Moon River Theater in Branson, Mo., where they hung "alongside large photographs of Mr. Williams with other musical legends of the 20th century like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand," said David Roche, Sotheby's consultant on American Indian art.

The sale is scheduled for late May.

Williams began acquiring the blankets in the 1950s, when only a handful of people were collecting them.

The top lot is a rare Navajo Man's Wearing Blanket, woven in a "chief's first phase design" characterized by the addition of fine red stripes. Only about 50 are known to exist.

Its pre-sale estimate is $200,000 to $300,000.

"The red cloth was a very rare commodity and the effort to produce this yarn was painstaking," said Roche, Sotheby's consultant on American Indian art who knew Williams personally.

The collection numbers about 80 blankets, most woven from handspun wool.

"The early blankets are woven in limited palettes of natural brown and ivory, indigo blue and crimson red," said Roche. After 1870, there was an explosion of color because dyes from the East Coast became available through trade to the Navajo, he said.

Williams' blankets were featured at the St. Louis Art Museum in 1997-1998 in an exhibition titled "Navajo Weavings from the Collection of Andy Williams."

He died in September at age 84.

The baritone was known for his wholesome, middle-America appeal and easy-listening hits including the theme to the Oscar-winning tearjerker "Love Story." He outlasted many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s and continued to perform into his 80s.

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‘Django,’ ‘Les Miz’ deemed ineligible for top screenplay award

London, Dec 27 : WGA's list of screenplays eligible to be nominated for Oscars will not include Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," as Hitfix first reported.

Tarantino, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1995 for "Pulp Fiction," was expected to be one of the surest bets for a repeat nomination for "Django," even getting a nomination for Best Screenplay from the Golden Globes. Only slightly less surprising was the omission of "Les Miserables" in the Best Adapted category. When reached for comment, a WGA representative said this was due to both scripts being written outside union regulations.

Considering that neither film has yet been released—they both bow on Christmas Day—the only indication of either's awards prospects (to say nothing of box office) has been advance reviews, which are mixed for both. For Tarantino, a favorite of critics his entire career, this is perhaps more worrisome than it is for "Les Miz." With its giant built-in audience of its prior incarnation onstage ensuring large audience turnout, and its literary pedigree dating back to Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, that film is on safer ground than Django. Tarantino's now-legendary affinity for violent and transgressive content may be a harder sell for Christmas audiences than the big-budget musical, however secretly dark it may actually be.

Being ruled ineligible for Best Original Screenplay consideration is certainly an ominous sign for "Django"'s awards hopes. Tarantino and The Weinstein Company can only hope that the film is a hit with audiences.

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Posen filling Kors' 'Project Runway' hot seat

New York, Dec 27: Zac Posen is in on "Project Runway" — he'll be the new featured judge, filling the chair Michael Kors sat in for the show's first 10 seasons.

"This was an amazing opportunity," Posen said. "I hope I'm here to give a new perspective to the designers."

Kors isn't "out" — as host Heidi Klum likes to say to the fashion-design contestants who get the boot on the granddaddy of fashion reality TV shows. His schedule didn't allow a commitment, but he will come back as a guest judge for the season finale, according to a statement for Lifetime TV.

Posen said he learned from Kors. "When I was a guest judge, I saw he was always a generous, warm mentor."

Posen's best skill to offer the contestants is his sharp eye, he said. Craft and construction are among his passions, he explained, so nothing gets past him there.

It's Klum's role in the new lineup to bring the voice of the woman who might be the eventual customer. Nina Garcia, the fashion director at Marie Claire, has her editorial eye, and Posen analyzes the specifics of the design, he said.

Posen, however, also sounded a little jealous of Tim Gunn, who has the part of trusted adviser. "I wanted to be behind the scenes with Tim. ... I was seeing the clothes on the runway, but Tim had all the background interaction."

The silver lining? Posen said he'll appreciate a little more what the stylists, editors and retailers are looking for as they sit in the front row for his own catwalk shows, which last season drew much attention for a model lineup that included Naomi Campbell, Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova — a threesome getting their own TV reality show this winter called "The Face" on the Oxygen network.

Another twist to the revamped "Project Runway," in which the winner gets $100,000 to start their own brand, is that the contestants compete as teams instead of individuals.

"You can imagine the designers' reactions when we first told them," Klum, an executive producer, said, "but it resulted in some really interesting conflicts and partnerships. And that is how designers work in the real world — they do have to work on teams and manage teams — you get to understand their personalities more."

Posen said he aims to be a collaborative player and appreciates what everyone else at his company does, although he is the starting and stopping point of each look that bears his label.

He'll be at the studio solo next week over the holidays, sketching and draping fabric with the music "thumping": It's one of the most wonderful times of the year, he said. The "Project Runway" season starts January 24.

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Pfizer to cut 600 jobs as Lipitor sales decline

New York, Dec 27 : Pfizer Inc (PFE) plans to cut about 20 percent of its sales force for primary-care drugs, Bloomberg News reported, as the pharmaceutical company copes with the loss of a patent for top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor.

The staff cuts will amount to about 600 sales people out of 3,000, and will begin this month, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In November 2011, Pfizer lost its patent in the United States for Lipitor, whose sales topped $10 billion a year. The company is working to lower costs as cheaper generic drugs have entered the market, taking away market share and revenue.

Pfizer spokesman MacKay Jimeson would not comment on the job cut numbers cited by Bloomberg, but said the company is "making changes in some segments of our field force to better match the future needs of the business."

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Cliff talks hit a lull with Boehner's 'Plan B'

Washington, Dec 27 : Just two weeks from an economy-threatening deadline, fiscal cliff talks hit a lull as House Speaker John Boehner announced that Republicans would also march ahead with their own tax plan on a separate track from the one he's been pursuing with President Barack Obama.

The White House and leading congressional Democrats immediately rejected Boehner's "Plan B," which would extend soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts for everyone making less than $1 million but would not address huge across-the-board spending cuts that are set to strike the Pentagon and domestic programs next year.

"Everyone should understand Boehner's proposal will not pass the Senate," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Boehner's surprise move came after significant progress over the past several days in talks with Obama — talks that produced movement on tax rate hikes that have proven deeply unsettling to GOP conservatives and on cuts to Social Security benefits that have incensed liberal Democrats.

Obama offered concessions, including a plan to raise top tax rates on households earning more than $400,000 instead of the $250,000 threshold he had campaigned on. And the two sides had inched closer on the total amount of tax revenue required to seal the agreement. Obama now would settle for $1.2 trillion over the coming decade while Boehner is offering $1 trillion.

By contrast, protecting income below $1 million from a hike in the top tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent would raise only $269 billion over the coming decade.

But the outlines of a possible Obama-Boehner agreement appeared to have shaky support at best from Boehner's leadership team and outright opposition from key Republicans like vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a House GOP aide said. That aide spoke only on condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.

Though Obama spokesman Jay Carney had nothing good to say about Boehner's new option, he said, "The president is willing to continue to work with Republicans" toward a broader agreement.

The narrower Plan B faced plenty of opposition. Democrats announced they would oppose it, and many conservative Republicans continued to resist any vote that might be interpreted as raising taxes. Republicans were refining the measure in hopes of building support among the GOP rank and file, but passing the measure exclusively with GOP votes could prove difficult.

"I think it's a terrible idea," said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. "For a lot of reasons."

Republicans noted that top Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York have in the recent past supported the million-dollar threshold for rates hikes. "We've had an election on the President's tax plan, the President won, and Republicans can't turn the clock back," said Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon.

Boehner's back-up plan would extend current income tax rates except for income exceeding $1 million, set a 20 percent tax rate on capital gains and dividend income for income over $1 million instead of 15 percent now, and retain current rules regarding the estate tax instead of tighter parameters sought by Obama.

It would also prevent an expansion of the alternative minimum tax that would otherwise hit 28 million middle- and upper-class Americans with an average $3,700 increase on their 2012 tax returns.

Several rank-and-file House Republicans said the message they heard at an evening caucus was that passing plan B would strengthen Boehner's hand in negotiating steeper spending cuts with Obama.

If the Senate decides not to vote on the House bill or ignores it, "That's not our problem," said Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio. "The ball's in Harry Reid's court."

Democrats said Boehner's move made it clear he was abandoning efforts to reach an agreement with Obama — much as he quit talks with Obama 18 months ago.

"Plan B is yet another example of House Republicans walking away from negotiations," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

At the White House, officials remained cautiously optimistic that the talks could get back on track despite Boehner's maneuvering.

Boehner, however, said Obama is the one proving to be too inflexible, even as he held out hope that talks with Obama might yet bear fruit.

"He talked about a 'balanced' approach on the campaign trail," Boehner said. "What the White House offered yesterday — $1.3 trillion in revenue for only $850 billion in spending cuts — cannot be considered balanced."

Boehner also displayed new flexibility on the politically explosive issue of raising the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 67. Boehner said the idea — anathema to Democrats — didn't need to be dealt with this year but could be kicked over into a broader negotiation next year.

"That issue has been on the table, off the table, back on the table," Boehner said. "I don't believe it's an issue that has to be dealt with between now and the end of the year."

The Capitol bristled with optimism that Boehner and Obama might strike a bargain.

In a new offer, Obama dropped his long-held insistence that taxes rise on individuals earning more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000. He is now offering a new threshold of $400,000 and lowering his 10-year tax revenue goals from the $1.6 trillion he originally sought.

The new Obama plan seeks $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years and $1.2 trillion in 10-year spending reductions. Boehner aides say the revenue is closer to $1.3 trillion if revenue triggered by a new inflation index is counted, and they say the spending reductions are closer to $930 billion if one discounts about $290 billion in lower estimated debt interest.

The two sides also differ on the estate tax, extending unemployment benefits and how to address the need to raise the government's borrowing cap to prevent a first-ever U.S. default and a re-run of last year's debt crisis.

The White House was facing its own backlash, with labor, liberal and elderly advocacy groups mounting an organized campaign against any adjustments in cost-of-living for Social Security beneficiaries.

"President Obama and other Democrats campaigned saying Social Security doesn't affect the deficit," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future. "Social Security recipients are going to notice and they are either going to blame John Boehner or President Obama."

The change would reduce annual cost-of-living increases for beneficiaries of Social Security and other government programs. It also would push more people into higher tax brackets by making smaller annual adjustments to brackets.

The administration appeared confident that most Democrats would reluctantly vote for the idea in an attractive enough budget package, particularly one that has the backing of Obama.

"I think many of us still have faith that the president will ultimately, if he strikes a deal with the Republicans, give us a plan that we can vote on that provides that fairness and balance," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

White House spokesman Carney described the inclusion of the inflation adjustment as "a technical change" that was "not directed at one particular program." He also said that if instituted, the administration would ensure that the most vulnerable beneficiaries would not be affected.

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FTC to delay Google anti-trust probe decision

Washington, Dec 27 : The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had been expected to wrap up an anti-trust probe into Google within days, will now delay its decision for weeks, a source said.

Google has been accused of giving competitors in lucrative areas like travel a lower ranking in search results, thus making it harder for their customers to find them. Google has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz had hoped to wrap up the long-running investigation this month.

Talk of a potential settlement in recent days had suggested Google would emerge from the more than two-year probe with little more than a slap on the wrist from the commission.

The delay, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, came after the European Union took a hard line with the search engine giant in a parallel investigation.

The EU's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, gave Google a month to come up with detailed proposals to resolve a two-year investigation into complaints that it used its power to block rivals, including Microsoft.

The European Commission has been examining informal settlement proposals from Google since July but has not sought feedback from the complainants, suggesting it is not convinced by what Google has put on the table so far.

Google's critics have accused it of a long list of wrongdoing - everything from putting its own products high up in search results to bring them business to "scraping" reviews of hotels and restaurants from other sites for its own products.

Google had reportedly been prepared to make some changes to its business practices to secure an end to the FTC investigation but had balked at allowing regulators to interfere with its search algorithm. The company was also apparently prepared to make concessions on certain patent infringement lawsuits.

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UK's FSA fines UBS 160 million pounds for Libor rigging

London, Dec 27 : Britain's Financial Services Authority fined Swiss bank UBS 160 million pounds for manipulating the Libor interest rate in four countries over six years.

UBS said separately it will pay a total of 1.4 billion Swiss francs to settle charges with Swiss, UK and U.S. regulators for manipulating the London interbank offered rate (Libor).

"The integrity of benchmarks such as LIBOR and EURIBOR are of fundamental importance to both UK and international financial markets. UBS traders and managers ignored this," FSA director of enforcement Tracey McDermott said in a statement.

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SPX closes in on $4.2 billion Gardner Denver deal

New York, Dec 27  : Industrial machinery maker SPX Corp is closing in on a roughly $4.2 billion deal to buy rival Gardner Denver Inc, as it makes progress in securing financing, a source familiar with the matter said.

A deal could value Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Gardner Denver at about $85 per share, the source said. Gardner Denver's shares closed at $73.68. SPX has a market value of $3.23 billion, compared to $3.62 billion for Gardner Denver.

SPX's financial advisor Credit Suisse Group AG has been joined by Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co in efforts to raise debt for the deal, the source said on condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential.

A deal could value Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Gardner Denver at about nine times estimated 2012 earnings before earnings, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the source said, cautioning details had yet to be finalized.

A deal announcement could come as early as this week though no final agreement has yet been reached and negotiations could still fall apart, the source added.

Depending on the availability of financing, SPX shareholders may be called on to vote on a capital increase to finance the share portion of the bid, the source said.

A Gardner Denver spokesman declined to comment while SPX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Bank of America declined to comment.

A deal with Charlotte, North Carolina-based SPX would represent a huge premium to the $55 per share level that Gardner Denver's shares traded at before media reported news of a potential sale on October 25.

Gardner Denver passed on private equity firms Advent International, KKR & Co LP, and a consortium of TPG Capital LP and Onex Corp, which made all-cash offers in the mid-to-high $70s per share range, people familiar with the matter said.

The SPX offer was substantially higher, the people said. Some analysts looking at the financial fundamentals of a potential deal have suggested that an offer of up to $90 per share would not be unreasonable.

"Comparing this to a sample of 47 large deals since 2009, we come to the conclusion that implied (valuation) multiples do not look egregious -- the average multiples paid since 2009 has been 2.1 times trailing sales and 12.9 times trailing EBITDA," Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on December 16.

SPX Chief Executive Chris Kearney has worked over the past few years to focus the company on its flow control business, making equipment used in processing liquids ranging from petroleum to dairy products.

Gardner Denver makes compressors, pumps and vacuum products for industrial uses. Its decision to explore a sale followed months of pressure from activist investor ValueAct Capital LLC, which acquired a roughly 5 percent stake.

The shareholder campaign followed the sudden resignation of Chief Executive Barry Pennypacker in July and his interim replacement by Chief Financial Officer Michael Larsen, who last month was appointed as permanent CEO.

Gardner Denver has grappled with lower demand for petroleum and industrial pumps, which pressured its engineered products group. That group reported a 20 percent drop in revenue in the third quarter.

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Ford says recalls have not hurt auto sales

Detroit, Dec 27 : Ford Motor Co is not experiencing a hit to its auto sales as a result of a recent spate of safety recalls, Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields said.

"I think overall our sales are doing well," Fields told reporters, adding that consumers have a good perception of the quality of Ford products.

"But we also understand that's a very precious thing and we're working very hard every day to deliver that quality commitment to our costumers," said Fields.

Last week, Ford issued the fourth recall on its 2013 Escape crossover since July. The most recent recall was for increased risk of an engine fire due to a software glitch in the cooling system of the Escape as well as the midsize Fusion sedan.

On December 10, the same day as the Escape and Fusion recall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would investigate claims by Consumer Reports magazine that Ford's hybrid models of the Fusion and C-Max crossover fell well short of the official fuel economy rating of 47 miles per gallon.

Fields spoke with reporters after an event in Detroit where Fields and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced a $10 million program Ford is to fund to create a community center, youth recreation and summer camp and support for education and summer job programs.

Ford's 2103 Escape launched in July. Fields defended Ford's response to the safety recalls.

"I think on the Escape launch, we've had a few issues," said Fields. "Our approach to any of our issues were very proactive - we go out and fix it for our customers."

Fields said December sales were going well, but he declined to offer an estimate of this month's sales.

Ford sales in November rose 6.4 percent from the previous November.

Ford's 2012 sales through November were up 5 percent at 2.03 million new vehicles, for a 15.5 percent share of the U.S. auto market, down from 16.8 percent market share at the same time in 2011, when sales for Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co were limited due to the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Ford is No. 2 in U.S. auto sales, behind market leader General Motors Co (GM).

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IHK families worried

Srinagar, Dec 27 : The families in whose houses the encounter took place in Sopore are worried about the safety of some of their members as they have failed to locate their whereabouts.

Khursheed Ahmad of Saidpora told Greater Kashmir over telephone that they have no whereabouts of six members of the two families.

“We have no information about them since morning,” Khursheed said. He identified the family members as Zahoor Ahmad Dar, Mehraj Ahmad Dar, Aashiq Dar, Sajad Ahmad, Tabasum Akhter and Hajera Bagum.

SP Sopore, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir, told Greater Kashmir that they are safe. “They have been evacuated and are safe,” the SP said adding that it is very difficult for them to move out from the area as the gun-battle is on. “There is nothing to worry about,” he said.
However, Khursheed Ahmad said the telephones of his relatives are switched off and they have failed to contact them.

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Drug mafia ‘manages’ closure of fair price shops in IHK

Srinagar, Dec 27 : Hundreds of poor patients coming to different government hospitals in occupied Jammu and Kashmir don’t have access to life-saving drugs on affordable prices as the state’s Health Department has put the lid down on fair price medicine shops project.

The project was grounded due to “expanding drug mafia” inside the health institutions and pending court cases for more than 10 years.

“Every day the arrival of patients has been increasing but they don’t get affordable medicines despite establishment of fair price shops inside every district and sub-district hospital. The attendants have to bear huge financial burden as the shops are either unauthorized or violate the guidelines of State Cooperative Act by selling medicines on the market rate or even higher in some cases,” a senior health official told Greater Kashmir.

He said the prestigious project turned out to be a “flop show” as there are various court cases pending in district and state courts for settling the bid amount and allotment period.

The official documents reveal that around 22 court cases are pending in held Kashmir division following the writ petitions filed by the proprietors in different courts staying fresh allotment.

According to sources, some cases are pending disposal for around 10 years as the concerned health officials in the respective hospitals failed to pursue the cases.

As per the documents, in case of two shops setup at District Hospital Anantnag (Islamabad) the case is pending disposal since August 2003. The tendering process has also been stopped by the court after the proprietor filed the writ petition.

Similarly, the court cases are pending for other fair price shops setup in various District Hospitals (DH), Sub-district Hospitals (SDH) and Community Health Centres (CHC) including DH Mattan (time not known); DH Sallar since June 2003; SDH Dooru (February 2004); DH Pulwama (May 2003); CHC Keller (time not known); DH Shopian (September 2007); SDH Qazigund (unknown); DH Budgam (April 2009); SDH Magam (May 2007); SDH Chadoora (June 2003); JLNM Hospital (July 2003); SDH Kreeri (unknown); SDH Sopore (unknown); SDH Tangmarg (unknown); DH Baramulla (unknown); SDH Bandipora (unknown); SDH Sogam (unknown); SDH Tanghdar (unknown); SDH Kupwara (unknown) and DH Handwara (unknown).
“There has been hardly any follow up by the health department to get the stay vacated,” sources said.

Officials at various hospitals reveal that some doctors and even paramedical staff have a nexus with touts and drug mafia running their outlets outside the hospitals.

Sources said that much-hyped government proposal to open fair price shops, called Jan Aushadhi Drug Stores (JADS), under a centrally-sponsored scheme have also become casualty of doctor-pharma companies nexus.

“The proposed fair price shops under JADS scheme were to be opened across the State to make quality drugs available for the common man at genuine rates. But the project has failed to take off due to pressure from powerful drug manufactures and distributors,” they said.

Pertinently, J&K Red Cross Society was asked to open fair price shops at six places including two in held Kashmir division, two in Jammu, one each in Leh  and   Kargil but so far only two shops have been opened by Red Cross Society.

He said the Red Cross Society would open shops at every Tehsil headquarters if authorities provide the required space.

When contacted, the Minister for Health Sham Lal Sharma said the matter had already been discussed in the Standing Committee meeting. “There are many cases pending in different courts and it is very difficult for the government to contest these individually. We will identify all the cases and club them so that it would be easier for the government to contest and vacate them as soon as possible,” he said.

The Minister admitted the hand of drug mafia in making the case weaker for the government. “We are going to constitute Drug Corporation in the state. It will definitely top such practices in the future,” Sham said.

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For Madvan village, primary health centre still a distant dream

Madvan, Dec 27 : There is no supply of safe drinking water in this village of district Bandipora in occupied Kashmir.

The electricity remains mostly off and roads are potholed. But what haunts villagers of this hamlet most is the lack of a hospital.
In 2010, the villagers saw a ray of hope when foundation stone for a primary health center was laid. But it was not to be.

The proposed primary health centre is yet to see light of the day with locals caught in a severe healthcare crisis.
Villagers said the local MLA had promised them that the health centre would be established soon. “But even after two years, not a single brick has come up,” they said.

The foundation stone of the proposed hospital, they said, was laid with much fanfare. “When the foundation stone was laid, various political leaders lectured on the need of having better healthcare in far-flung areas, but no one has shown up since then,” said a postgraduate student, Tanveer Ahmad. “It was purely for political interests that hospital’s foundation stone was laid. Then why the construction of the hospital is in limbo?” he asked.

The announcement of a primary health centre in Madvan had thrown up a pleasant surprise for locals but they have now lost hope in the government.

“Why is it that we are remembered only at election time,” the villagers asked. “We are suffering in need of a hospital. Nobody is considering it. The government has abandoned us- but only till elections,” said another local, Ghulam Muhammad.

The villagers said land for the construction of hospital was taken from a public Eidgah. “Neither is there a hospital nor Eidgah. The government’s negligence has taken away both the things from us. Not a single brick has been come up,” they said.

The locals said a delegation of villagers even went to the concerned MLA- who is also the Speaker of Legislative Assembly- but to no avail.

“Even though we went to concerned MLA, nothing has been done on the matter. We even apprised him about the grave conditions faced by the locals in absence of a hospital but our pleas were not heeded,” the locals said.

Asked where they go for treatment, the locals said they either go to Hajin or Sumbal or to private clinics. “Those of us who can afford go to private clinics while as those who cannot afford have to travel miles together for treatment,” said Ghulam Qadir, a government teacher.

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Cardiac surgeons install tiny temporary pump inside heart

Islamabad, Dec 27 : Cardiologists weave an eight gram pump through an artery in the groin into the left ventricle, where it pumps up to five liters of blood per minute.

This temporary device assists the heart as it recovers after surgery, prompting faster recovery.

Not only do patients need rest after heart surgery, so do their hearts! Next, a new device that helps weak hearts heal.

J.J. McCarthy is happy to be moved into his new home, but not long ago, breathing problems would have made even unpacking a box difficult. "I started having some shortness of breath and I went in to get it check out," he told Ivanhoe.

McCarthy learned he had a heart problem and needed bypass surgery, but a delicate heart can take a beating during surgery. "We repair a heart in surgery," Bartley Griffith, M.D., a heart surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, told Ivanhoe. "It's a little bit like we create a bruise and the bruise has to heal in the heart."

Now, to help hearts heal after surgery, cardiac surgeons temporarily implant a new device that helps the heart pump blood, giving it a short-term rest. "It basically can perform the function of two-thirds of the heart, and so we let the heart kind of just hang out and repair itself," Dr. Griffith explains.

The tiny pump fits inside a catheter that is inserted through an artery in the groin leading to the heart. The device then helps pump blood in the left ventricle -- the heart's main pumping chamber. It's designed to support the heart for a week or less after surgery, allowing the heart to recover faster. "I think we can pull more patients through open heart surgery than we ever could before, because we have a powerful tool to assist the heart healing," Dr. Griffith says.

McCarthy needed the pump for just two days after surgery. His heart healed quickly and he was back on his feet. "I think it really shortened my recovery time a lot," McCarthy says. "I was able to get up and around a lot faster."

The heart pump device can pump up to five liters of blood per minute -- about three-quarters of a normal heart's output of seven liters per minute. After the device has done its job, it's removed from the patient.

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Darwin had it right all along

Islamabad, Dec 27 : More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans.

Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. Now, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.

The results of the study confirm that Darwin had it right all along. In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, the British naturalist proposed that, "all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form."

Over the last century and a half, qualitative evidence for this theory has steadily grown, in the numerous, surprising transitional forms found in the fossil record, for example, and in the identification of sweeping fundamental biological similarities at the molecular level.

Still, rumblings among some evolutionary biologists have recently emerged questioning whether the evolutionary relationships among living organisms are best described by a single "family tree" or rather by multiple, interconnected trees -- a "web of life."

Recent molecular evidence indicates that primordial life may have undergone rampant horizontal gene transfer, which occurs frequently today when single-celled organisms swap genes using mechanisms other than usual organismal reproduction. In that case, some scientists argue, early evolutionary relationships were web-like, making it possible that life sprang up independently from many ancestors.

According to biochemist Douglas Theobald, it doesn't really matter. "Let's say life originated independently multiple times, which UCA allows is possible," said Theobald. "If so, the theory holds that a bottleneck occurred in evolution, with descendants of only one of the independent origins surviving until the present. Alternatively, separate populations could have merged, by exchanging enough genes over time to become a single species that eventually was ancestral to us all. Either way, all of life would still be genetically related."

Harnessing powerful computational tools and applying Bayesian statistics, Theobald found that the evidence overwhelmingly supports UCA, regardless of horizontal gene transfer or multiple origins of life. Theobald said UCA is millions of times more probable than any theory of multiple independent ancestries.

"There have been major advances in biology over the last decade, with our ability to test Darwin's theory in a way never before possible," said Theobald. "The number of genetic sequences of individual organisms doubles every three years, and our computational power is much stronger now than it was even a few years ago."

While other scientists have previously examined common ancestry more narrowly, for example, among only vertebrates, Theobald is the first to formally test Darwin's theory across all three domains of life. The three domains include diverse life forms such as the Eukarya (organisms, including humans, yeast, and plants, whose cells have a DNA-containing nucleus) as well as Bacteria and Archaea (two distinct groups of unicellular microorganisms whose DNA floats around in the cell instead of in a nucleus).

Theobald studied a set of 23 universally conserved, essential proteins found in all known organisms. He chose to study four representative organisms from each of the three domains of life. For example, he researched the genetic links found among these proteins in archaeal microorganisms that produce marsh gas and methane in cows and the human gut; in fruit flies, humans, round worms, and baker's yeast; and in bacteria like E. coli and the pathogen that causes tuberculosis.

Theobald's study rests on several simple assumptions about how the diversity of modern proteins arose. First, he assumed that genetic copies of a protein can be multiplied during reproduction, such as when one parent gives a copy of one of their genes to several of their children. Second, he assumed that a process of replication and mutation over the eons may modify these proteins from their ancestral versions. These two factors, then, should have created the differences in the modern versions of these proteins we see throughout life today. Lastly, he assumed that genetic changes in one species don't affect mutations in another species -- for example, genetic mutations in kangaroos don't affect those in humans.

What Theobald did not assume, however, was how far back these processes go in linking organisms genealogically. It is clear, say, that these processes are able to link the shared proteins found in all humans to each other genetically. But do the processes in these assumptions link humans to other animals? Do these processes link animals to other eukaryotes? Do these processes link eukaryotes to the other domains of life, bacteria and archaea? The answer to each of these questions turns out to be a resounding yes.

Just what did this universal common ancestor look like and where did it live? Theobald's study doesn't answer this question. Nevertheless, he speculated, "to us, it would most likely look like some sort of froth, perhaps living at the edge of the ocean, or deep in the ocean on a geothermal vent. At the molecular level, I'm sure it would have looked as complex and beautiful as modern life."

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Faster salmonella detection now possible with new technique

Islamabad, Dec 27 : Using technology available through a local company, an Iowa State University researcher is working on a faster method to detect and genetically identify salmonella from contaminated foods.

Byron Brehm-Stecher, an assistant professor of food science and human nutrition, wants to replace the current system of salmonella detection with a new approach that can provide DNA sequencing-like results in hours rather than days.

Brehm-Stecher's collaborator, Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc., from Ames, is providing advanced biomedical instruments and reagents for the research.

The recent results of the research, funded by the Grow Iowa Values Fund, will be presented at the August meeting of the International Association for Food Protection in Anaheim, Calif.

Currently, definitive genetic identification of food-borne pathogens is done using traditional DNA sequencing methods first developed in the 1980s.

"If you want (DNA) sequence information now, you first need to run a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on total DNA extracted from a sample of contaminated food," said Brehm-Stecher. "This amplifies DNA from the pathogen you're looking for and will let you know if salmonella is present or not.

"However, further details about the pathogen are lacking, like what strain is present. To dig deeper, you need to run a cycle sequencing reaction -- similar to a long PCR reaction -- and send the output from this to a DNA sequencing core facility. Results are available about two days later," said Brehm-Stecher.

"This is not fast enough to keep up with the pace of today's food production and distribution networks. We are able to get foods from the farm to the table -- really any table around the globe -- in a remarkably short period of time," he added.

Faster detection of specific strains can mean recognizing an outbreak sooner and stopping tainted food from being delivered and consumed. The new method might be helpful for investigative agencies, Brehm-Stecher said.

"Especially for the type of investigation where things are still in motion. The food has been shipped and you may not know where it is. It may be in a truck, on a shelf or in some consumer's pantry, so time really is of the essence," he said.

"Next-generation sequencing tools are available, but these are still too complex and expensive for routine use in the food industry," Brehm-Stecher explained. "New approaches that are able to bridge the gap between the limitations of traditional PCR and next-generation sequencing could enhance food safety efforts by providing both rapid presence/absence testing and detailed genetic characterization of isolates."

You don't have to go further than the local newspaper to see the depth of the problem. Recent national outbreaks of salmonella in foods include peanut butter (2007 and 2009), alfalfa sprouts (2009), black pepper and hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) (2010). Adding to the problem is the fact that peanut butter, black pepper and HVP are all base ingredients used in many other food products. Salmonella in these ingredients has led to thousands of product recalls, hundreds of illnesses and several deaths, Brehm-Stecher said.

The method being developed at Iowa State University starts with a rapid PCR reaction that amplifies a salmonella-specific gene, generating millions of fluorescently labeled copies of this DNA in about 20 minutes.

Next, instead of cycle sequencing, the PCR product is purified for five minutes, SNAP71 (a reagent developed by Advanced Analytical) is added, and the DNA is heated for 10 minutes at 100ºC.

This reaction chemically cuts the labeled salmonella DNA at all adenine and guanine sites (A's and G's) in the DNA chain.

The result is a complex soup of fluorescently labeled DNA fragments of all sizes. These fragments are then separated in a high-voltage electric field by sieving them through a polymer matrix (a gel) contained in glass capillaries that are 50 microns -- not much thicker than a human hair. This process separates the DNA fragments according to their size, from smallest to largest, and each piece is detected as it passes in front of an intense light source. For a PCR product that's 300 bases long, this separation and detection process takes approximately 90 minutes.

Because the SNAP71 reagent cleaves the salmonella DNA only at adenine and guanine, and not at thymine and cytosine sites (T's and C's), the method is not a direct replacement for DNA sequencing. Instead, the process rapidly generates a reproducible pattern of DNA fragments, Brehm-Stecher said.

Salmonella strains having slightly different DNA sequences within a given gene will yield different patterns of fragments, allowing discrimination of different strains of salmonella.

From "food to finish," the whole process can be accomplished in about two and a half hours.

"We're very excited about this approach and about the rapid progress we've made since the project began," said Brehm-Stecher. "The funding for this project has enabled us to work very closely with Advanced Analytical and accelerate application of their instruments to solving important food safety problems."

The team at Iowa State University includes post doctoral researcher Hyun Jung Kim and master's student Brittany Porter. The group is also working with Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The ultimate goal of the project is faster detection and characterization of human pathogens from "farm to fork to physician."

Advanced Analytical's instruments are based on technology originally developed at Iowa State University in the lab of Ed Yeung, the Robert Allen Wright Professor and Distinguished Professor in Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Lab.

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