Many insider attacks in Afghanistan stem from personal motives, data suggest

Saturday 29 December 2012

Kabul, Dec 29 : The Taliban has billed a rash of insider attacks targeting international troops in Afghanistan as an effective battlefield strategy, but detailed data disclosed recently by the U.S. military suggest that the largest percentage of such incidents probably stemmed from personal motives rather than enemy infiltration.

Of the 79 insider attacks from May 2007 to September 2012, military investigators found that 38 percent were likely to have been triggered by personal motives; 6 percent were suspected cases of enemy infiltration; and 14 percent were attributed to co-option, in which insurgents persuaded a member of the security forces to help carry out an attack. The cause of 38 percent of the cases was unknown or still under investigation.

The data on attacks by Afghan security personnel or military interpreters were included in a Pentagon report to Congress on operations in Afghanistan that was released last week.

After a sharp uptick in the number of “green on blue” attacks in the summer, the U.S. military temporarily suspended joint patrols. At least 116 NATO troops have been killed in insider attacks since 2007, including 51 this year.

U.S. officials say they remain focused on enhancing training and security procedures to mitigate what they see as an enduring threat. As of Oct. 13, insider attacks accounted for 21 percent of NATO combat deaths in Afghanistan this year, an all-time high since the military started tracking such incidents in 2007.

“I would be very loath to say that it’s a problem that’s been solved,” a senior defense official said last week, briefing journalists on the Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan, which is issued twice a year. “It’s a problem we will continue to address.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity per department protocol, said that regardless of the motive behind insider attacks, “they were all used by the Taliban as part of their narrative.”

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has developed several initiatives to combat the threat, increased its emphasis on cultural sensitivity and established a “guardian angel” system in which designated American troops watch over their comrades during meetings and patrols with Afghans.

An Oct. 12 Army draft handbook on the insider threat in Afghanistan summarized a handful of cases in which Afghans opened fire on their foreign allies, providing a rare window into the kind of situations that sparked attacks. The draft said many altercations occurred because foreign troops “lack empathy for Muslims and/or cultural norms, resulting in a violent reaction” from Afghan troops.

One of the shootings cited occurred during an argument over the propriety of smoking during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, according to the draft manual, which was obtained by The Washington Post. While waiting outside a meeting of U.S. and Afghan security leaders, an American soldier asked an Afghan for a lighter so he could smoke.

“The [Afghan soldier] refused and rebuffed the U.S. service member for wanting to smoke during Ramadan,” a period in which Muslims fast and refrain from smoking during daylight hours, according to the draft. “The U.S. service member cursed the [Afghan soldier] and disparaged his religious beliefs,” the report said. As the argument escalated, the Afghan raised his weapon. Both the Afghan and the American fired shots, and both were wounded.

The 75-page manual, which the U.S.-led command in Afghanistan has not adopted or endorsed, contains several recommendations, including that foreign and Afghan troops should avoid discussion of religion, women, sex and human rights. The authors of the draft, which was disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, also suggested that female foreign troops avoid wearing shorts around Afghan men.

Ahmad Shuja, an Afghan writer and analyst who heads the Washington-based Foundation for Afghanistan, said leaders of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan have done a good job of understanding and explaining the cultural differences that have created friction.

“That’s the easy part,” Shuja said. “The hard part is translating that knowledge down to the fighting unit: changing ISAF soldiers’ behavior and changing how an Afghan soldier perceives a cultural faux pas.”

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Insight: Once a symbol of new Afghanistan, can policewomen survive?

Kabul, Dec 29: Shortly after Friba joined the Afghan National Police, she gave herself the nickname "dragon" and vowed to bring law and order to her tormented homeland.

Five years later, she is tired of rebuffing the sexual advances of male colleagues, worries the budget for the female force will shrink and fears the government will abandon them.

Women in the police force were held up as a showcase for Afghan-Western efforts to promote rights in the new Afghanistan, born from the optimism that swept the country after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

Images of gun-wielding Afghan policewomen have been broadcast across the globe, even inspiring a television program popular with young Afghan women.

But going from the burqa to the olive green uniform has not been easy.

In interviews with 12 policewomen in districts across the Afghan capital, complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and bitter frustration were prevalent.

President Hamid Karzai's goal is for 5,000 women to join the Afghan National Police (ANP) by the end of 2014, when most foreign troops will leave the country.

But government neglect, poor recruitment and a lack of interest on the part of authorities and the male-dominated society mean there are only 1,850 female police officers on the beat, or about 1.25 percent of the entire force.

Friba, who asked that her second name not be used, says it all when she runs a manicured finger across her throat: "Once foreigners leave we won't even be able to go to the market. We'll be back in burqas. The Taliban are coming back and we all know it."

Conditions for women in Afghanistan have improved significantly since the Taliban were ousted. Women have won back basic rights in voting, education and work since Taliban rule, when they were not allowed out of their homes without a male escort and could be publicly stoned to death for adultery.

But problems persist in the deeply conservative Muslim society scarred by decades of conflict. The United Nations said this month that despite progress, there was a dramatic under reporting of cases of violence against women.

Some female lawmakers and rights groups blame Karzai's government for a waning interest in women's rights as it seeks peace talks with the Taliban, accusations his administration deny.

"We have largely failed in our campaign to create a female police force," said a senior Afghan security official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

"Mullahs are against it, and the women are seen as not up to the job," he added, referring to Muslim preachers.

Almost a third of the members of the female force work in Kabul, performing duties such as conducting security checks on women at the airport and checking biometric data.

Friba sat in a city police station room decorated with posters of policemen clutching weapons to talk.

"I am the dragon and I can defend myself, but most of the girls are constantly harassed," she said.

"Just yesterday my colleague put his hands on one of the girl's breasts. She was embarrassed and giggled while he squeezed them. Then she turned to us and burst into tears."

On the other side of Kabul, detective Lailoma, who also asked that her family name not be used, said several policewomen under her command had been raped by their male colleagues.

Dyed russet hair poking out from her black hijab, part of the female ANP uniform, Lailoma wrung her hands as she complained about male colleagues: "They want it to be like the time of the Taliban. They tell us every day we are bad women and should not be allowed to work here."

Male colleagues also taunt the women, she added, often preventing them from entering the kitchen, meaning they miss out on lunch.

On several occasions, male colleagues interrupted interviews in what the policewomen said were attempts to intimidate them into silence.

One male officer entered the room without knocking three times to retrieve pencils; another spent 20 minutes dusting off his hat, only to put it back on a shelf. The women switched subjects when the men came in.

Rana, a 31-year-old, heavy-set policewoman with curly hair, said policewomen were expected to perform sexual favors: "We're expected to do them to just stay in the force."

The raping of policewomen by their male counterparts "definitely takes place", said Colonel Sayed Omar Saboor, deputy director for gender and human rights at the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police.

"These men are largely illiterate and see the women as immoral."

Insecurity, opposition to women working out of the home and sexism deter many women from signing up, said Saboor.

But impoverished widows sometimes have no choice. A starting salary is about 10,500 afghanis a month ($210).

The Interior Ministry and foreign organizations responsible for training the women police - NATO, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - say recruitment poses the main challenge to the force.

"It is just difficult. There is no real history of women in the police force, there is no precedent, even having an open space for women in employment is a challenge," UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan said.

A recruitment campaign of television adverts and posters has not produced the desired effect in a country where there are huge social and religious divides between the rural and urban populations. Even fewer join the national army, where some 350 women serve amongst 190,000.

"Much of the male leadership don't want to have anything to do with women in the ANP. Commanders want them out of their units," Saboor said, adding that having 2,500 female police officers could be realistic by end-2014.

Of those who join, few have prospects for promotion. They often find themselves in police stations without proper facilities for women, such as toilets or changing rooms which are vital for the many who hide the fact that they work from their families.

The sprawling Interior Ministry has only recently started work on installing toilets for women. "Ten years of this war have passed, and we're only now building them a toilet," Saboor said with a wry laugh.

For First Lieutenant Naderah Keshmiri, whose humble yet stern approach helps her pursue cases of violence against women, life as a policewoman means being undervalued.

"My male subordinates quickly became generals. But not me. Where's my promotion?" she asked in a UNDP-backed Family Response Unit, which she heads.

The UNDP has set up 33 of the units countrywide, which help increase female visibility in the ANP, with plans to more than double them by 2015.

A Western female police trainer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said policewomen are almost always passed over for promotion by their male commanders.

U.S. lawmakers are hoping to amend a defense bill by year-end to protect the rights of Afghan women during the security transition. They want to reduce physical and cultural barriers to women joining the security forces.

Ethnicity also plays a role: 55 percent of women in the ANP are ethnic Tajik, Afghanistan's second-largest ethnic group. Recruiting from the largest and most conservative ethnic group, the Pashtuns, is difficult.

The Taliban draw most of their support from the Pashtuns, who dominate the south of the country. Pashtun women make up only 15 percent of the force.

Hazaras, a largely Shi'ite minority who suffered enormous losses at the hands of the Taliban, are overrepresented amongst the women, making up 24 percent, according to figures from NATO's training mission in Afghanistan.

But many of the policewomen are wondering whether their force can survive.

Lowering her voice, Friba whispered: "As soon as the foreigners leave, they'll reduce our salaries. This will not happen to the men. Or perhaps they'll kick us out entirely."

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Civilian analysts gained Petraeus’s ear while he was commander in Afghanistan

Kabul, Dec 29 : Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, a husband-and-wife team of hawkish military analysts, put their jobs at influential Washington think tanks on hold for almost a year to work for Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Provided desks, e-mail accounts and top-level security clearances in Kabul, they pored through classified intelligence reports, participated in senior-level strategy sessions and probed the assessments of field officers in order to advise Petraeus about how to fight the war differently.

Their compensation from the U.S. government for their efforts, which often involved 18-hour workdays, seven days a week and dangerous battlefield visits?

Although Fred Kagan said he and his wife wanted no pay in part to remain “completely independent,” the extraordinary arrangement raises new questions about the access and influence Petraeus accorded to civilian friends while he was running the Afghan war.

Petraeus allowed his biographer-turned-paramour, Paula Broadwell, to read sensitive documents and accompany him on trips. But the entree granted the Kagans, whose think-tank work has been embraced by Republican politicians, went even further. The four-star general made the Kagans de facto senior advisers, a status that afforded them numerous private meetings in his office, priority travel across the war zone and the ability to read highly secretive transcripts of intercepted Taliban communications, according to current and former senior U.S. military and civilian officials who served in the headquarters at the time.

The Kagans used those privileges to advocate substantive changes in the U.S. war plan, including a harder-edged approach than some U.S. officers advocated in combating the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction in eastern Afghanistan, the officials said.

The pro-bono relationship, which is now being scrutinized by military lawyers, yielded valuable benefits for the general and the couple. The Kagans’ proximity to Petraeus, the country’s most-famous living general, provided an incentive for defense contractors to contribute to Kim Kagan’s think tank. For Petraeus, embracing two respected national security analysts in GOP circles helped to shore up support for the war among Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.

Fred Kagan, speaking in an interview with his wife, acknowledged the arrangement was “strange and uncomfortable” at times. “We were going around speaking our minds, trying to force people to think about things in different ways and not being accountable to the heads” of various departments in the headquarters, he said.

The extent of the couple’s involvement in Petraeus’s headquarters was not known to senior White House and Pentagon officials involved in war policy, two of those officials said. More than a dozen senior military officers and civilian officials were interviewed for this article; most spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Petraeus, through a former aide, declined to comment for this article.

As war-zone volunteers, the Kagans were not bound by stringent rules that apply to military personnel and private contractors. They could raise concerns directly with Petraeus, instead of going through subordinate officers, and were free to speak their minds without repercussion.

Some military officers and civilian U.S. government employees in Kabul praised the couple’s contributions — one general noted that “they did the work of 20 intelligence analysts.” Others expressed deep unease about their activities in the headquarters, particularly because of their affiliations and advocacy in Washington.

Fred Kagan, who works at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was one of the intellectual architects of President George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq and has sided with the Republican Party on many national security issues. Kim Kagan runs the Institute for the Study of War, which favors an aggressive U.S. foreign policy. The Kagans supported President Obama’s decision to order a surge in Afghanistan, but they later broke with the White House on the subject of troop reductions. Both argue against any significant drawdown in forces there next year.

Petraeus’s successor, Gen. John R. Allen, allowed the Kagans to stay at the headquarters for his first few months on the job last year and permitted them to return for two additional short visits. After the couple’s most recent trip in September, they provided a briefing on the war and other foreign policy matters to the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

The Kagans said they continued to receive salaries from their think tanks while in Afghanistan. Kim Kagan’s institute is funded in part by large defense contractors. During Petraeus’s tenure in Kabul, she sent out a letter soliciting contributions so the organization could continue its military work, according to two people who saw the letter.

On Aug. 8, 2011, a month after he relinquished command in Afghanistan to take over at the CIA, Petraeus spoke at the institute’s first “President’s Circle” dinner, where he accepted an award from Kim Kagan. To join the President’s Circle, individuals must contribute at least $10,000 a year. The private event, held at the Newseum in Washington, also drew executives from defense contractors who fund the institute.

“What the Kagans do is they grade my work on a daily basis,” Petraeus said, prompting chortles from the audience. “There’s some suspicion that there’s a hand up my back, and it makes my lips talk, and it’s operated by one of the Doctors Kagan.”

Before the Iraq war hit rock bottom, the Kagans were little-known academics with doctorates in military history from Yale University who taught at West Point. He specialized in the Soviets, she in the ancient Greeks and Romans.

In 2005, Fred Kagan jumped to the American Enterprise Institute and joined the fractious debate over the Iraq war, arguing against the Bush administration’s planned troop withdrawals. The following year, as sectarian violence engulfed the country, he convened a strategy session at the institute aimed at developing a way to win the war. His follow-on research, conducted with his wife and retired Gen. Jack Keane, the former vice chief of staff of the Army, provided the strategic underpinning for the troop surge Bush approved in January 2007.

After Obama was elected, he made clear that his strategic priority was Afghanistan. The Kagans soon shifted focus. In March 2009, they co-wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that called for sending more forces to Afghanistan.

When Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal assumed command of the war that summer, he invited several national security experts to help draft an assessment of the conflict for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. The 14-member group included experts from several Washington think tanks. Among them were the Kagans.

The members, who were not paid by the military, stayed in Kabul for six weeks in an advisory role modeled after a similar team Petraeus convened in 2007 to evaluate the war in Iraq.

The Afghan assessment struck an alarming tone that helped McChrystal make his case for a troop surge, which Obama eventually authorized.

The Kagans should have been thrilled, but they soon grew concerned. They thought McChrystal’s headquarters was not providing enough information to them about the state of the war. The military began to slow-roll their requests to visit Afghanistan. In early 2010, they wrote an e-mail to McChrystal, copying Petraeus, that said they “were coming to the conclusion that the campaign was off track and that it was not going to be successful,” Fred Kagan said.

To some senior staff members in McChrystal’s headquarters, the e-mail read like a threat: Invite us to visit or we will publish a piece saying the war is lost.

Worried about the consequences of losing the Kagans, McChrystal authorized the trip, according to the staff members.

Fred Kagan said the message was not intended to pressure McChrystal, though he acknowledged, “I imagine that Stan didn’t appreciate receiving an e-mail like that.”

Indeed, McChrystal did not, according to the staff members. After an initial meeting in the headquarters, McChrystal asked his aides to leave the room and he proceeded to voice his displeasure to the Kagans.

After their trip, which lasted about two weeks, the Kagans penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal. “Military progress is steadily improving dynamics on the ground,” they wrote.

“We obviously came away with .?.?. a more nuanced view that persuaded us that we were incorrect in the assessment that we had gone in with,” Fred Kagan said in the interview.

When the couple returned to Kabul in late June 2010, they planned to stay for eight days. McChrystal had just been fired by Obama, and Petraeus was heading over to take charge of the war. They expected to meet with Petraeus, who had become a good friend, and then stick to their agenda of touring bases in the south.

The Defense Department permits independent analysts to observe combat operations, but the practice became far more common when Petraeus became the top commander in Iraq. He has said that conversations with outside specialists helped to shape his strategic thinking.

The take-home benefit was equally significant: When the opinion makers returned home, they inevitably wrote op-eds, gave speeches and testified before Congress, generally imparting a favorable message about progress under Petraeus, all of which helped him sell the war effort and expand his popularity.

Other commanders soon caught on. By the time the Kagans arrived in Kabul in June 2010, it was commonplace for think-tankers and big-name columnists to make seven-to-10-day visits once or twice a year. Two analysts from the Council on Foreign Relations, Max Boot and Stephen Biddle, were in Afghanistan at the same time at the invitation of Petraeus.

Petraeus asked the four to remain for a month to six weeks. Boot and Biddle couldn’t stay that long, but the Kagans were game, even though they had packed for only a short trip.

Petraeus called them his “directed telescopes” and urged them to focus on the challenge of tackling corruption and building an effective government in Afghanistan, a task they addressed with gusto.

“Petraeus relied on the Kagans for a fresh set of eyes .?.?. because he didn’t have the same nuanced understanding of Afghanistan that he had of Iraq,” a former aide to Petraeus said.

When the Kagans told Petraeus they had planned a vacation in August, he urged them to go ahead. But, Kim Kagan said, “he demanded that we return.”

When they returned in September 2010, the Kagans’ writ no longer resembled the traditional think-tank visit or an assessment mission intended to inform an incoming commander.

They were given desks in the office of the Strategic Initiatives Group, the commander’s in-house think tank, which typically is staffed with military officers and civilian government employees. The general’s staff helped upgrade their security clearances from “Secret” to “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information,” the highest-level of U.S. government classification.

The new clearances allowed the Kagans to visit “the pit,” the high-security lower level of the Combined Joint Intelligence Operations Center on the headquarters. There, they could read transcripts of Taliban phone and radio conversations monitored by the National Security Agency.

“They’d spend hours in there,” said one former senior civilian official at the headquarters. “They talked about how much they loved reading intel.”

Their immersion occurred at an opportune time. Petraeus was fond of speaking about the importance of using troops to protect Afghan communities from insurgents, but he recognized that summer that the Obama White House wanted to narrow the scope of the war. As a consequence, the general decided to emphasize attacking insurgent strongholds — and so did the Kagans.

They focused on the Haqqani network, which U.S. officials believe is supported by Pakistan’s intelligence service. Haqqani fighters have conducted numerous high-profile attacks against U.S. and Afghan targets in Kabul and other major cities.

The Kagans believed U.S. commanders needed to shift their focus from protecting key towns and cities to striking Haqqani encampments and smuggling routes, according to several current and former military and civilian officials familiar the issue.

In the late summer of 2010, they shared their views with field officers during a trip to the east. “They implied to brigade commanders that Petraeus would prefer them to devote their resources to killing Haqqanis,” said Doug Ollivant, a former senior adviser to the two-star general in charge of eastern Afghanistan.

But Petraeus had not yet issued new directives to his three-star subordinate or the two-star in the east. “It created huge confusion,” a senior military officer said. “Everyone knew the Kagans were close to Petraeus, so everyone assumed they were speaking for the boss.”

While the Kagans refused to discuss their work in detail — they said it was privileged and confidential — Fred Kagan insisted that they were careful to note before every meeting “that we were not speaking for Petraeus.”

“We did have a number of occasions where we sparred with local staffs,” Fred Kagan said. He said he and his wife wanted to facilitate conversations about vital tactical issues, exposing field commanders “to different ideas and different ways of looking at the problem.”

“Some people agreed with us,” he said, “and some people didn’t.”

The Kagans are prolific contributors to debates about national security policy, cranking out a stream of op-eds and convening panel discussions at their respective institutions. But once they began working for Petraeus, they ceased writing and commenting in public.

“When we were in Afghanistan .?.?. we were not playing the Washington game,” Fred Kagan said. “We were not thinking about anything . ?.?. except how to defeat the enemy.”

He insisted he and his wife will never write a book about their work for Petraeus. “It is important to preserve the confidence and the integrity of the command climate,” Kim Kagan said.

Although they functioned as members of Petraeus’s staff, they said they did not want to be paid. “There are actual patriots in the world,” Fred Kagan said. “It was very important to me not to be seen to be profiting from the war.”

Military officials said the Defense Department travel rules permit civilian experts to provide services to the military without direct compensation. A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, Col. John Robinson, said that the military was still examining to what extent Petraeus’s arrangement with the Kagans “satisfied regulations regarding civilian services to government organizations.”

The Kagans’ volunteerism was an open secret at the headquarters, and it bred suspicion. Some officers questioned whether they funneled confidential information to Republican politicians — the Kagans said they did not. Others worried that the couple was serving as in-house spies for Petraeus.

A colonel who worked for Petraeus said the Kagans “did great work,” but “the situation was very, very weird. It’s not how you run a headquarters.”

Allen, who succeeded Petraeus in July 2011, did not want to continue his predecessor’s arrangement with the Kagans, but he also did not want to upset them. Allen allowed them to stay for a few months. Two subsequent visits were kept to less thana month, according to a senior official in the Allen headquarters.

For Kim Kagan, spending so many months away from research and advocacy work in Washington could have annoyed many donors to the Institute for the Study of War. But her major backers appear to have been pleased that she cultivated such close ties with Petraeus, who went from Kabul to head the CIA before resigning this fall over his affair with Broadwell.

At the August 2011 dinner honoring Petraeus, Kagan thanked executives from two defense contractors who sit on her institute’s corporate council, DynCorp International and CACI International. The event was sponsored by General Dynamics. All three firms have business interests in the Afghan war.

Kagan told the audience that their funding allowed her to assist Petraeus. “The ability to have a 15-month deployment essentially in the service of those who needed some help — and the ability to go at a moment’s notice — that’s something you all have sponsored,” she said.

She called her work for him “an extraordinary and special occasion.”

After accepting the award, Petraeus heaped praise on the institute.

“Thanks to all of you for supporting an organization that General Keane very accurately described as filling a niche — a very, very important one,” he said. “It’s now a deployable organization. We’re going to start issuing them combat service stripes.”

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Mexico's ethnic Maya unmoved by 2012 "Armageddon" hysteria

Izamal, Dec 29 : Thousands of mystics, New Age dreamers and fans of pre-Hispanic culture have been drawn to Mexico in hopes of witnessing great things when the day in an old Maya calendar dubbed "the end of the world" dawns.

But many of today's ethnic Maya cannot understand the fuss. Mostly Christian, they have looked on in wonder at the influx of foreign tourists to ancient cities in southern Mexico and Central America whose heyday passed hundreds of years ago.

For students of ancient Mesoamerican time-keeping, December 21, 2012 marks the end of a 5,125-year cycle in the Maya Long Calendar, an event one leading U.S. scholar said in the 1960s could be interpreted as a kind of Armageddon for the Maya.

Academics and astronomers say too much weight was given to the words and have sought to allay fears the end is nigh.

But over the past few decades, fed by popular culture, became seen by some western followers of alternative religions as a day on which momentous change could occur.

"It's a psychosis, a fad," said psychologist Vera Rodriguez, 29, a Mexican of Maya descent living in Izamal, Yucatan state, near the center of the 2012 festivities, the site of Chichen Itza. "I think it's bad for our society and our culture."

Behind Rodriguez, her two children played in a living room decorated with Christmas trees and Santa Claus figurines.

Mexico's government forecast around 50 million tourists from home and abroad would visit southern Mexico in 2012. Up to 200,000 are expected to descend on Chichen Itza.

"It's a date for doing business, but for me it's just like any other day," said drinks vendor Julian Nohuicab, 34, an ethnic Maya working in the ruins of the ancient city of Coba in Quintana Roo state, not far from the beach resort of Cancun.

Watching busloads of white-haired pensioners and dreadlocked backpackers pile into their heartland, Maya old and young roll their eyes at the suggestion the world will end.

"We don't believe it," said Socorro Poot, 41, a housewife and mother of three in Holca, a village about 25 miles from Chichen Itza. "Nobody knows the day and the hour. Only God knows."

Tracing its origins to the end of the 4th millennium BC, the ancient Mesoamerican civilization of the Maya reached its peak between A.D. 250 and 900 when they ruled over large swathes of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.

Famed for developing hieroglyphic writing and an advanced astronomical system, the Maya then began a slow decline, but pockets of the civilization continued to flourish until they were finally subjugated by the Spanish in the 17th century.

Today, ethnic Maya are believed to number at least 7 million in Mexico, Guatemala and other parts of Central America.

The vast majority are nominally Roman Catholics, though many still uphold elements and rites of their old beliefs. According to a 2000 Mexican census, there were also a few hundred Jews and handful of Buddhists among the Maya.

Tales of human sacrifice, pioneering architectural feats and an interest in the stars burnished the Maya's supernatural reputation. So too, say experts, has the misguided notion that the Maya died out with the arrival of the conquistadors.

"That idea that they disappeared culturally back in the deep past is one of these things that feeds into this idea that they are mysterious, that they are otherworldly," said David Stuart, a Maya expert at the University of Texas.

The reality is that many Maya live in rural areas where water can be scarce, communications poor and education patchy.

Even as some shrug their shoulders at the awe and reverence December 21 has inspired, others worry it has become a free meal ticket for sharp-witted businessmen.

"There's the legend and there's the reality," said Yolanda Cornelio, 21, a tourism official in the city of Merida, whose mother speaks Maya at home. "Some people take the legend and abuse it, using it to make money. There's a lot of con artists."

With scores of old Maya ruins, temples and monuments dotting the landscape between southern Mexico and Central America, locals have plenty of opportunities to impress foreign visitors.

One of the most popular attractions lies in a leafy grove near the crumbling pyramids of Coba, where a large stone tablet records the Maya creation date of August 13, 3114 BC - quite literally the cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon.

"This is a very powerful, sacred place," said Jonathan Ellerby, 39, a writer from Canada. "I feel something energetic, emotional, and I feel I'm in the right place. I really do."

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Gun lobbyists plan media push after Newtown massacre

Washington, Dec 29 : One week after a school shooting that shocked Americans - with many of the 27 victims buried and time allowed for prayers and investigation - the National Rifle Association will dive in to the fierce national debate about gun control.

The largest U.S. gun rights lobby plans a well-coordinated public entrance to the conversation on how to prevent such tragedies, starting with a rare news conference at a hotel across the street from the White House.

NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre and President David Keene will then appear on separate television talk shows for their first interviews since gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother, 20 young children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

Inside and outside the NRA, an organization with powerful ties to politicians in Washington, expectations are the group will offer condolences and condemn the killings but offer little in the way of compromise over gun laws.

The group kept largely quiet in the first days after the Connecticut shooting, citing "common decency" and the need to allow time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts. It broke its silence to say it wanted to contribute meaningfully to prevent another massacre and announced its plans for the news conference.

"They will talk about how terrible the violence is, about helping the victims, about violence in society," said Robert Spitzer, a professor at the State University of New York at Cortland and author of "The Politics of Gun Control."

Spitzer said he did not expect the NRA media blitz to lay out specific plans because so many within the organization consider the right to own guns absolute.

"If they did, it would contradict the path they have been following for about the last 35 years," he said. "Much of their membership would declare war on their leaders."

One NRA board member, Houston lawyer Charles Cotton, said the NRA should not say much until it hears more from gun-control supporters like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"You can't say specifically what you want to do before you sit around a table and talk about it," Cotton said.

NRA board member Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman, said he was skeptical any new law would make a difference.

"None of the laws that the gun control folks want to put into place would have prevented this shooting. I think that's where we all start from," he said. Even proposed bans on guns known as assault weapons would not cover all semi-automatic rifles, he said.

America's unique gun culture means there are hundreds of millions of firearms in the United States for hunting, self-defense and leisure, as well as illicit uses. No one knows how many guns there are because there is no national registry.

About 11,100 Americans died in gun-related killings during 2011, not including suicides, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were 19,766 suicides by firearms in 2011, the CDC said.

The NRA uses political pressure against individual lawmakers in Congress and in state legislatures to press for loosening restrictions on gun sales and ownership while promoting hunting and gun sports.

Gun-control proponents have been pushing for tighter gun controls since the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre, the fourth mass shooting in the United States this year.

President Barack Obama has vowed to present a detailed plan in January. Vice President Joe Biden held the first meeting of an interagency effort among Cabinet members and law enforcement officials.

"The president is absolutely committed to keeping the promise that he will act," said Biden, who authored a crime bill in 1994 that included a ban on some semiautomatic rifles that has since expired. "We have to take action," he said.

Democrats in Congress who favor gun control have called for quick votes on measures to ban assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, hoping that the slaying of the 6- and 7-year olds in Newtown might be enough to win over more lawmakers.

Lanza used a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle, police said.

The NRA's power is partly due to its large and active membership, which reportedly has been growing rapidly since the Newtown shootings. NRA officials did not immediately comment, but Fox News, citing a source within the organization, said the group has been adding 8,000 new members a day.

The NRA is frequently described as having 4 million members, although nonprofit groups are not required to disclose their membership or how they define the term.

At key moments, such as before votes in Congress, many of those members flood lawmakers' offices with calls - a tactic few organizations can pull off, and one that the NRA's opponents want to imitate.

Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group co-led by Bloomberg, said his group orchestrated tens of thousands of calls that jammed White House phones.

"It's the kind of thing that makes a difference in public policy. It's the kind of thing the NRA does very well," Glaze said. "And that's the kind of movement that we have to build if we're going to make any kind of difference."

There is a vast difference in resources of the organizations lining up in the gun debate.

During 2011, the NRA spent $3.1 million on lobbying lawmakers and federal agencies, while all gun-control groups combined spent $280,000 - a ratio of 11-to-one - according to records the groups filed with Congress.

Some of the NRA's money goes to Washington lobbying and law firms not usually associated with gun rights. SNR Denton, for instance, represents not only the NRA but major insurance, food and pharmaceutical companies. Lobbyists there did not return calls.

On another measure, that of spending on political campaigns, gun-control organizations have been more competitive. Independence USA PAC, a vehicle for Bloomberg's personal fortune on issues including gun control, spent $8.2 million on the 2012 election, compared to the NRA's $18.9 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Violence, named for President Ronald Reagan's press secretary James Brady who was injured in a 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, spent $5,816 on the election, much lower than the $1.7 million it spent on the 2000 election, according to the center.

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Magic mushrooms may explain Santa & his 'flying' reindeer

London, Dec 29 : This Christmas, like many before it and many yet to come, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer will be told, including how the "jolly old elf" flies on his sleigh throughout the entire world in one night, giving gifts to all the good children.

But according to one theory, the story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or "magic" mushrooms.

"Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world," said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.

According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped into locals' teepeelike homes with a bag full of hallucinatory mushrooms as presents in late December, Rush said.

"As the story goes, up until a few hundred years ago these practicing shamans or priests connected to the older traditions would collect Amanita muscaria (the Holy Mushroom), dry them, and then give them as gifts on the winter solstice," Rush told LiveScience. "Because snow is usually blocking doors, there was an opening in the roof through which people entered and exited, thus the chimney story."

But that's just the beginning of the symbolic connections between the Amanita muscaria mushroom and the iconography of Christmas, according to several historians and ethnomycologists, or people who study the influence fungi has had on human societies. Of course, not all scientists agree that the Santa story is tied to a hallucinogen.

In his book "Mushrooms and Mankind" (The Book Tree, 2003) the late author James Arthur points out that Amanita muscaria, also known as fly agaric, lives throughout the Northern Hemisphere under conifers and birch trees, with which the fungi —which is deep red with white flecks — has a symbiotic relationship. This partially explains the practice of the Christmas tree, and the placement of bright red-and-white presents underneath, which look like Amanita mushrooms, he wrote.

"Why do people bring pine trees into their houses at the Winter Solstice, placing brightly colored (red and white) packages under their boughs, as gifts to show their love for each other … ?" he wrote. "It is because, underneath the pine bough is the exact location where one would find this 'Most Sacred' substance, the Amanita muscaria, in the wild."

Reindeer are common in Siberia, and seek out these hallucinogenic fungi, as the area's human inhabitants have been known to do. Donald Pfister, a biologist who studies fungi at Harvard University, suggests that Siberian tribesmen who ingested fly agaric may have hallucinated into thinking that reindeer were flying.

"At first glance, one thinks it's ridiculous, but it's not," said Carl Ruck, a professor of classics at Boston University. "Whoever heard of reindeer flying? I think it's becoming general knowledge that Santa is taking a 'trip' with his reindeer," Ruck said. [6 Surprising Facts About Reindeer]

"Amongst the Siberian shamans, you have an animal spirit you can journey with in your vision quest," Ruck continued. " And reindeer are common and familiar to people in eastern Siberia. They also have a tradition of dressing up like the [mushroom] … they dress up in red suits with white spots."

Ornaments shaped like Amanita mushrooms and other depictions of the fungi are also prevalent in Christmas decorations throughout the world, particularly in Scandinavia and northern Europe, Pfister points out. That said, Pfister made it clear that the connection between modern-day Christmas and the ancestral practice of eating mushrooms is a coincidence, and he doesn't know about any direct link.

Many of these traditions were merged or projected upon Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century saint who was known for his generosity, as the story goes.

There is little debate about the consumption of mushrooms by Arctic and Siberian tribes' people and shamans, but the connection to Christmas traditions is more tenuous, or "mysterious," as Ruck put it.

Many of the modern details of the modern-day American Santa Claus come from "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (which later became famous as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), an 1823 poem credited to Clement Clarke Moore, an aristocratic academic who lived in New York City.

The origins of Moore's vision are unclear, although Arthur, Rush and Ruck all think he probably drew from northern Europe motifs that derive from Siberian or Arctic shamanic traditions. At the very least, Arthur wrote, Santa's sleigh and reindeer are references back to various related Northern European mythology. For example, the Norse god Thor (known in German as "Donner") flew in a chariot drawn by two goats, which have been replaced in the modern retelling by Santa's reindeer, Arthur wrote.

Ruck points to Rudolf as another example of the mushroom imagery resurfacing: his nose looks exactly like a red mushroom, he said.  "It's amazing that a reindeer with a red-mushroom nose is at the head, leading the others."

Other historians were unaware of a connection between Santa and shamans or magic mushrooms, including Stephen Nissenbaum, who wrote a book about the origins of Christmas traditions, and Penne Restad, at the University of Texas.

One historian, Ronald Hutton, told NPR that the theory of a mushroom-Santa connection is off-base. "If you look at the evidence of Siberian shamanism, which I've done," Hutton said, "you find that shamans didn't travel by sleigh, didn't usually deal with reindeer spirits, very rarely took the mushrooms to get trances, didn't have red-and-white clothes." But Rush and Ruck say these statements are incorrect; shamans did deal with reindeer spirits, and the depiction of their clothes' coloring has more to do with the colors of the mushroom than the shamans' actual garb. As for sleighs, the point isn't the exact mode of travel, but that the "trip" involves transportation to a different, celestial realm, Rush said.

"People who know about shamanism accept this story," Ruck said. "Is there any other reason that Santa lives in the North Pole? It is a tradition that can be traced back to Siberia."

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Fla. teen arrested for threat to 'shoot everyone'

Fort Pierce, Dec 29 : Police have arrested a Florida teen who they say posted a Facebook message threatening to "bring a gun to school tomorrow and shoot everyone."

The St. Lucie County Sheriff's office said that they received a tip from a parent who saw the threat from the 13-year-old student.

Neither the teen nor his school has been identified.

A sheriff's spokesman says the student did not have access to any weapons. No schools were evacuated or locked down, but security at area schools had already been increased as a result of the mass shooting at a Connecticut school. The student is charged with a single second-degree felony charge of making a written threat.

Authorities say he is being held at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Pierce.

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San Bernardino paid $2 million in cash-outs before bankruptcy filing

Los Angeles, Dec 29 : The California city of San Bernardino paid $2 million in cash-outs to employees for unused vacation and sick time in the three months before declaring bankruptcy on, data reviewed showed.

City officials chalked up the payment spurt to coincidence and other factors. Still, the payments may run afoul of a core provision of the bankruptcy code that imposes strict rules on the types of payments that can be made immediately prior to a bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy lawyers who are not involved in the case.

In a court hearing, the city is expected to argue that it is so penniless that it needs bankruptcy protection and relief from payments owed to the California Public Employees Retirement System and other creditors.

Yet in July alone, the city paid $1.2 million to 33 employees for unused sick and vacation time, with more than half of that paid out the day before the bankruptcy filing. The next highest similar total for a recent July was $471,149, in 2010. Media analyzed city data from 2008 to this year obtained through a public-records request.

In the three months before the bankruptcy, 51 city workers received sick and vacation time payouts totaling $2 million. Most of the workers received the payments as part of their retirement, as provided for in union contracts, city officials said.

Rhonda Haynes, the city's acting human-resources director, said the timing of the payouts was a coincidence. July 31 is the normal cash-out payment date for employees who retired and received their final wage check on July 15, she said. Other city officials also suggested that general anxiety among older workers over the city's finances led to a blip in retirements.

Legal analysts said the cash-outs immediately prior to bankruptcy filing were troubling and could be a breach of the federal bankruptcy code. Payments made by a debtor 90 days prior to a filing can be subject to clawback if they are found to be "preferential." Preference payments violate the bankruptcy code, a civil statute that does not provide for criminal sanctions.

"It looks really bad and it needs to be investigated," said Karol Denniston, an expert in municipal bankruptcy at Schiff Hardin law firm in San Francisco who is not involved in the San Bernardino case.

"If you want to say you can't make payroll, but can pay $2 million to your employees while not paying other creditors, those are questions all creditors will be asking," Denniston said.

Michael Sweet, a bankruptcy attorney with Fox Rothschild who is not involved in the San Bernardino case, said: "This looks like they are were trying to take care of certain employees, and that is precisely what the bankruptcy code is designed to protect - preferring one creditor over another."

City officials said there were good reasons for the spike. Asked why the number of cash-out payments in May, June and July were abnormally high, acting HR director Haynes said in an email provided by the city clerk's office: "My guess is because you have a lot of retirements at the end of the fiscal year."

Haynes said the city has no formal written policy governing cash-outs. "Normal practice" was that once an employee retired and received their final paycheck, the retiree would automatically receive a cash-out payment for unused sick and vacation time under the terms of their employment with the city, she said.

The retirement spike could also have been a result of some older employees' choosing to retire in light of the city's well-known financial woes.

"People were sensitive to how the city's finances could affect them," said Gigi Hanna, the city clerk. "There were certainly discussions in my department over whether it was better to retire now or wait it out."

The city was trying to reduce its workforce to cut costs. City attorney James Penman told the city council on November 5 that in his department, "we urged several people to retire, which they did and weren't necessarily ready to do so."

Penman was arguing in that council session for the re-hiring of Henry Empeno Jr.

Empeno, senior deputy in the city attorney's office, retired from the workforce with cash-out payments of $89,583 shortly before August 1 bankruptcy filing. On November 5, the city council approved Empeno's re-hiring on a monthly salary of $11,307 a month, and total annual salary and benefits of $161,140. The effective date for his reinstatement is December 26, according to the city clerk's office.

San Bernardino's acting city manager and the city's finance director did not respond to emails asking who authorized the cash-outs.

Haynes said cash-outs can only be paid when a city employee retires from the workforce. The city data reviewed, however, showed that seven employees who received cash-out payments in the three months prior to the filing also received wage checks afterward.

Gigi Hanna, the city clerk, said some retired workers - such as Empeno - had been hired back as contractors, but could not provide further detail.

The city council voted to suspend cash-outs to its workers shortly after it filed for bankruptcy and to award them on a case-by-case basis.

Hanna, the city clerk, said in an email: "The city manager has the ultimate authority to approve cash-outs for all employees. As for the large number of retirements during that three month period...the budget discussions began in April and it was clear from what was being discussed in open session that the city was in serious financial straits."

The city of 210,000, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection citing a $46 million deficit for this fiscal year.

The amount of cash-outs in May, June and July of this year was the highest for any three-month period in the data reviewed.

The pre-bankruptcy cash-outs included David Harp, a police lieutenant, who walked away with $123,156, the third-highest amount during the period. Theodis Henson Jr, a police captain, left with $234,907, while Brian Boom, another lieutenant, departed with $171,110.

Harp, 58, left after 35 years with the San Bernardino Police Department and said it was "time to go." He'd been planning to retire for two years, he said, and gave city officials two weeks' notice.

"People knew I was going to leave," he said. The bankruptcy had no effect on his decision, he said. He noted that San Bernardino's financial troubles were not new, and "you'd have to be a blind man not to see what was going on."

Empeno did not respond to a message left with the city attorney's office or an email sent to his work account. Attempts to contact Boom were not successful.

The hearing will be the first time San Bernardino's biggest creditors - the California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), and Wall Street bondholders and insurers - will meet to argue their case before the judge overseeing the city's bankruptcy application.

The case is emerging as a landmark legal battle over whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy, which could have ramifications for municipal creditors, including Wall Street bondholders, as more cities and towns have trouble meeting their obligations.

Calpers, San Bernardino's biggest creditor and America's biggest pension fund, is arguing that under California law it has primacy as a creditor and must continue to be paid in full, even in a bankruptcy. In its original bankruptcy filing, the city said its unfunded obligations to Calpers totaled $143.3 million.

Last week Calpers, which is opposing the city's request for protection, filed court papers denouncing what it called a "sham" bankruptcy. It accused the city of "criminal behavior" in withholding payments to the pension plan.

The city has failed to make its twice-monthly $1.2 million payments to Calpers since it filed for bankruptcy on August 1. City officials traveled to Calpers headquarters on December 5 to plead for more time to pay.

Calpers officials said they have little latitude to allow San Bernardino - or any other city that pays into its pension fund - to alter the payment schedule.

In its court filing last week, Calpers said the city had "buried its head in the sand", rather than deal with a long-standing financial crisis.

A Calpers spokesman said the cash-out payments were "something we will look at."

The city's second-largest creditor is Wells Fargo Bank, the trustee for nearly $50 million in pension-obligation bonds the city issued in 2005 to reduce its debt to Calpers.

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Newtown residents ready to step out of media glare

Newtown, Dec 29 : That's what many residents here have been saying about the media since, when funerals began for 20 children and six adults killed in last week's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"There are people who should be able to get to these funerals," Janice Butler of Newtown told Yahoo News, standing a few hundred yards from the entrance to the school where the shootings took place. "But some of them can't because you all are here."

At the Newtown General Store, when a member of the media thanked a store employee for a breakfast sandwich, she replied, smiling, "Thank you for leaving."

In the first days after the tragedy, most reporters here were respectful of the town's 27,000 residents, sharing in their shock and grief while trying to cover it. And most residents and shop owners seemed to understand that it was a major news story of deep interest to many readers and viewers.

Figs Restaurant welcomed TV host Geraldo Rivera for two meals. By, though, the restaurant had stationed one of its cooks in the parking lot, barring media from parking there.

Also, a Newtown teacher offered use of his bathroom and WiFi to several reporters. And the back dining room of the Iron Bridge bar in Sandy Hook became an ABC News bureau, where network staff watched President Barack Obama's speech at the interfaith vigil at Newtown High School.

But, the Newtown Bee posted a note on its Facebook page, imploring its colleagues and journalists in the media to leave families of the dead alone. "PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE VICTIMS," the note said.

"We acknowledge it is your right to try and make contact," the paper added on Facebook, "But we beg you to do what is right and let them grieve and ready their funeral plans in peace."

Several local residents visited the page, adding their voices to the chorus of criticism.

"We want our town, our lives back," Dennis Brinkmann wrote. "You did your job, now leave us be."
"Journalists should be reporters not voyeurs," wrote another.

"We did turn to you when it was unfolding, because we needed to know what was going on, but now leave," Dorene Doran wrote. "We need to give these families time to themselves. Don't worry they will seek you out if they want to talk to you."

"As I drove down Main Street today I was upset at the number of cameras just aimed at the door to the funeral home," Gail Lovorn wrote, suggesting the community erect a screen to block the view. "The last thing these families need is to see their family and friends in these tender moments broadcast for the world to see."

A man walking up Church Hill Road carried a sign that read: "Dear Media, GTFO!"

"Even I'm getting sick of us," a cameraman for a German television network said after filming an interview with a woman about the crush of press in town.

There are signs that the media swarm is beginning to ease.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who arrived, left Newtown after his broadcast. Most of the satellite trucks that lined the center of Sandy Hook, steps from a makeshift memorial and less than a half mile from Sandy Hook Elementary School, were gone. The parking lot at Treadwell Park, where close to 100 satellite trucks were parked, sat empty, too.

The Starbucks next to Saint Rose of Lima Church on Church Hill Road, which had served as a makeshift international media center since the funerals began, was filled with residents heading to services for 7-year-old victim Daniel Barden--no media in sight.

But not everyone in Newtown wants to see the media gone.

"Please, please don't leave," a Sandy Hook resident named Dennis told Connecticut Public Radio's Colin McEnroe. "Because I know that people on the outside are feeling the same thing that the people on the inside are feeling. And it's ... it's just helplessness. So the more information they can get--as long as it's correct information--it might help them a little bit. It might, you know?"

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SEC enforcement chief Khuzami to step down: Bloomberg

Washington, Dec 29: Robert Khuzami, the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, plans to step down as early as next month, Bloomberg reported.

Khuzami notified SEC Chairman Elisse Walter of his decision earlier this month, according to Bloomberg, which cited three people with knowledge of the matter.

Khuzami, a former federal prosecutor and bank executive, came to the SEC in 2009 to help reshape the agency's enforcement efforts amid criticism that it missed the $65 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme and other major frauds.

In his tenure with the agency, Khuzami oversaw efforts to pursue financial institutions that contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis.

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American Air flight attendants to join talks on potential merger

New York, Dec 29 : The Association of Professional Flight Attendants union, which represents workers at AMR Corp's (AAMRQ.PK) American Airlines, said it had been invited to take part in confidential talks on a potential merger with US Airways Group (LCC).

The union said it signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that will permit its involvement in discussions with the two airlines and American's unsecured creditors' committee.

"This non-disclosure agreement gives us further opportunity to affect the potential merger as we engage in direct and confidential discussions with key stakeholders," the flight attendants union said in a communications update.

"We know from previous major mergers that labor discussions like these were critical milestones," the union added. A spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants declined further comment.

American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 protection last year, and US Airways has been pursuing a merger with its larger rival for much of 2012.

Merger discussions among US Airways, AMR and its creditors are at an advanced stage, with a decision on whether to pursue a combination or emerge as an independent company expected as soon as January, people familiar with the matter have said.

Pilot unions at American and US Airways have also joined merger talks with AMR creditors and the companies.

The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American's pilots, said this week those talks were aimed at addressing merger-related concerns of both pilot groups and reaching a memorandum of understanding that would serve as an interim agreement while a merger is undertaken. The talks are continuing, an APA spokesman said.

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RIM shares slump as service revenue, subscriber concerns weigh

New York, Dec 29 : Research In Motion shares tumbled more than 10 percent after the company reported the first ever decline in its subscriber numbers and outlined plans to transform the way it charges for its BlackBerry services.

RIM, which hopes to revive its fortunes and reinvent itself via the launch of a brand new line of BlackBerry 10 devices next month, caught investors off-guard on its quarterly conference call, when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model - a move that will pressure the high-margin business that accounts for about a third of RIM's sales.

"RIM provided few details regarding the economics of these changes, thus adding a large cloud of uncertainty to the primary driver of its profitability, which we view as especially worrisome given risks already surrounding the firm's massive BlackBerry 10 transition," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

Those subscribers who need enhanced services like advanced security will pay for these services, while those who do not use such services will generate much lower to no service revenue, RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told analysts and investors on a conference call.

"I want to be very clear on this. Service revenues are not going away, but our business model and service offerings are going to evolve ... The mix in level of service fees revenue will change going forward and will be under pressure over the next year," cautioned Heins.

The news startled investors, who had earlier in the evening pushed RIM's stock more than 7 percent higher in post-market trading, after the company reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and said it boosted its cash cushion ahead of next month's crucial launch of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

RIM's shares have for weeks been on a tear as optimism around BB10 has grown. Following RIM's surprise announcement on service revenues, however, the stock ended 9 percent lower at $12.85 in trading after the closing bell.

Analysts also expressed concern about the decline in RIM's subscriber base.

"The early reaction was probably just 'Hey, numbers looked OK, better loss, the cash flow was good' but if you know the company, you're looking at the subscriber base falling off," said Mark McKechnie at Evercore Partners in San Francisco.

One reason the shares rose earlier was RIM managed to build up its cash cushion to $2.9 billion from $2.3 billion in the previous quarter.

Analysts have been keeping a sharp eye on the size of RIM's cash pile, as RIM will need the funds to manufacture and effectively promote BlackBerry 10 in a crowded market.

RIM is counting on the new line to claw back market share lost in recent years to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone and a slew of devices powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.

"They've done a great job at generating cash," said Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt in Nashville. "They're certainly in a much better position than they were three or four quarters ago."

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said it is now testing its BB10 devices with more than 150 carriers - up from about 50 carriers as of the end of October. RIM expects more carriers to come on board ahead of the formal launch of BB10 on January 30.

Positive feedback from developers and carriers around RIM's new BlackBerry 10 devices has buoyed the stock in the last three months. Despite the plunge in RIM's share price, the stock has more than doubled in value the last three months.

On an operating basis, RIM fared a little better than Wall Street had expected. It reported a loss of $114 million or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Analysts, on average, had forecast a loss of 35 cents a share.

RIM also reported a surprise net profit of $9 million, or 2 cents a share, for its fiscal third quarter ended December 1, on the back of a one-time income tax related gain. That compared with a year-ago profit of $265 million, or 51 cents.

RIM said it shipped 6.9 million smartphones in the quarter, even as its subscriber base fell to about 79 million in the quarter from about 80 million in the period ended September 1.

In recent years, RIM's user base has grown, even as the BlackBerry lost ground in North America and Europe, boosted by gains in emerging markets. While eye opening, the shrinkage was not as bad as some observers expected during the last quarter before the BB10 launch.

"We're encouraged that the subscriber base only declined slightly during a very public transition, and BlackBerry sales were about what we expected," said Morningstar's Colello, who is based in Chicago.

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Ex-banker arrested in U.S. over Olympus fraud

Los Angeles, Dec 29 : A former Singapore banker was arrested in Los Angeles and accused of helping "liquidate" hundreds of millions of dollars in the Olympus Corp (TYO:7733) accounting scandal, one of the biggest corporate frauds in Japan's history.

Chan Ming Fon, who resides in Singapore and is a citizen of Taiwan, is the latest former executive to become ensnared in the $1.7 billion accounting cover-up at the camera and medical equipment maker.

Three former Olympus executives pleaded guilty over charges related to the fraud in September, and the company has also admitted it used improper accounting to conceal massive investment losses under a scheme that began in the 1990s.

Court papers said Chan was paid $10 million by Olympus or entities controlled by Olympus for his role in the decade-long fraud.

He is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Olympus declined to comment. Chan's family in Singapore could not be reached for comment.

Chan, 50, was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) this week, and was being held in custody ahead of scheduled appearance in a federal court in Los Angeles, U.S. authorities said.

"The defendant had a direct role in the secret liquidation of hundreds of millions of dollars of Olympus investments. He then waged a six-year campaign to conceal that misdeed by lying, certifying to auditors that the investments still existed years after liquidation," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos.

The accounting fraud at 93-year-old Olympus was exposed in October 2011 by chief executive Michael Woodford, who was fired after he questioned dubious deals that were later found to have been used to hide losses.

The three former executives who pleaded guilty had been identified by an investigative panel, commissioned by Olympus, as the main suspects in the fraud seeking to delay the reckoning from risky investments made in the late-1980s bubble economy.

Former chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada pleaded guilty to charges that they inflated the company's net worth in financial statements for five fiscal years to March 2011. They are awaiting sentencing.

Revelations of the huge accounting fraud have revived calls for more outside scrutiny of its boardrooms but have failed to trigger sweeping corporate governance reforms similar to those introduced a decade ago in the wake of U.S. scandals such as at Enron.

In 2005, Chan established an entity in the Cayman Islands called SG Bond Plus Fund, the complaint said.

Until about 2010, Chan submitted false and misleading documents to Olympus' outside auditor regarding hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets purportedly maintained by Chan at SG Bond for the benefit of Olympus, it said.

Chan had actually transferred the assets to a British Virgin Island-based entity controlled by Olympus, the complaint said.

The case is filed in federal court in New York.

An investigative panel report, commissioned by Olympus last year, mentioned a banker referred only by his last name Chan as an outside collaborator who first met Olympus executives Yamada and Mori in 1998.

At the time "Chan" was working at Commerzbank in Singapore, but resigned in 2000. After leaving Societe Generale in 2004, the report said Chan formed his own company where he continued to work for former Olympus executives.

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San Bernardino paid $2 million in cash-outs before bankruptcy filing

Los Angeles, Dec 29 : The California city of San Bernardino paid $2 million in cash-outs to employees for unused vacation and sick time in the three months before declaring bankruptcy on August 1, data reviewed.

City officials chalked up the payment spurt to coincidence and other factors. Still, the payments may run afoul of a core provision of the bankruptcy code that imposes strict rules on the types of payments that can be made immediately prior to a bankruptcy, according to bankruptcy lawyers who are not involved in the case.

In a court hearing scheduled, the city is expected to argue that it is so penniless that it needs bankruptcy protection and relief from payments owed to the California Public Employees Retirement System and other creditors.

Yet in July alone, the city paid $1.2 million to 33 employees for unused sick and vacation time, with more than half of that paid out the day before the bankruptcy filing. The next highest similar total for a recent July was $471,149, in 2010. Media analyzed city data from 2008 to this year obtained through a public-records request.

In the three months before the bankruptcy, 51 city workers received sick and vacation time payouts totaling $2 million. Most of the workers received the payments as part of their retirement, as provided for in union contracts, city officials said.

Rhonda Haynes, the city's acting human-resources director, said the timing of the payouts was a coincidence. July 31 is the normal cash-out payment date for employees who retired and received their final wage check on July 15, she said. Other city officials also suggested that general anxiety among older workers over the city's finances led to a blip in retirements.

Legal analysts said the cash-outs immediately prior to bankruptcy filing were troubling and could be a breach of the federal bankruptcy code. Payments made by a debtor 90 days prior to a filing can be subject to clawback if they are found to be "preferential." Preference payments violate the bankruptcy code, a civil statute that does not provide for criminal sanctions.

"It looks really bad and it needs to be investigated," said Karol Denniston, an expert in municipal bankruptcy at Schiff Hardin law firm in San Francisco who is not involved in the San Bernardino case.

"If you want to say you can't make payroll, but can pay $2 million to your employees while not paying other creditors, those are questions all creditors will be asking," Denniston said.

Michael Sweet, a bankruptcy attorney with Fox Rothschild who is not involved in the San Bernardino case, said: "This looks like they are were trying to take care of certain employees, and that is precisely what the bankruptcy code is designed to protect - preferring one creditor over another."

City officials said there were good reasons for the spike. Asked why the number of cash-out payments in May, June and July were abnormally high, acting HR director Haynes said in an email provided by the city clerk's office: "My guess is because you have a lot of retirements at the end of the fiscal year."

Haynes said the city has no formal written policy governing cash-outs. "Normal practice" was that once an employee retired and received their final paycheck, the retiree would automatically receive a cash-out payment for unused sick and vacation time under the terms of their employment with the city, she said.

The retirement spike could also have been a result of some older employees' choosing to retire in light of the city's well-known financial woes.

"People were sensitive to how the city's finances could affect them," said Gigi Hanna, the city clerk. "There were certainly discussions in my department over whether it was better to retire now or wait it out."

The city was trying to reduce its workforce to cut costs. City attorney James Penman told the city council on November 5 that in his department, "we urged several people to retire, which they did and weren't necessarily ready to do so."

Penman was arguing in that council session for the re-hiring of Henry Empeno Jr.

Empeno, senior deputy in the city attorney's office, retired from the workforce with cash-out payments of $89,583 shortly before August 1 bankruptcy filing. On November 5, the city council approved Empeno's re-hiring on a monthly salary of $11,307 a month, and total annual salary and benefits of $161,140. The effective date for his reinstatement is December 26, according to the city clerk's office.

San Bernardino's acting city manager and the city's finance director did not respond to emails asking who authorized the cash-outs.

Haynes said cash-outs can only be paid when a city employee retires from the workforce. The city data reviewed, however, showed that seven employees who received cash-out payments in the three months prior to the filing also received wage checks afterward.

Gigi Hanna, the city clerk, said some retired workers - such as Empeno - had been hired back as contractors, but could not provide further detail.

The city council voted to suspend cash-outs to its workers shortly after it filed for bankruptcy and to award them on a case-by-case basis.

Hanna, the city clerk, said in an email: "The city manager has the ultimate authority to approve cash-outs for all employees. As for the large number of retirements during that three month period...the budget discussions began in April and it was clear from what was being discussed in open session that the city was in serious financial straits."

The city of 210,000, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection citing a $46 million deficit for this fiscal year.

The amount of cash-outs in May, June and July of this year was the highest for any three-month period in the data reviewed.

The pre-bankruptcy cash-outs included David Harp, a police lieutenant, who walked away with $123,156, the third-highest amount during the period. Theodis Henson Jr, a police captain, left with $234,907, while Brian Boom, another lieutenant, departed with $171,110.

Harp, 58, left after 35 years with the San Bernardino Police Department and said it was "time to go." He'd been planning to retire for two years, he said, and gave city officials two weeks' notice.

"People knew I was going to leave," he said. The bankruptcy had no effect on his decision, he said. He noted that San Bernardino's financial troubles were not new, and "you'd have to be a blind man not to see what was going on."

Empeno did not respond to a message left with the city attorney's office or an email sent to his work account. Attempts to contact Boom were not successful.

The hearing will be the first time San Bernardino's biggest creditors - the California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), and Wall Street bondholders and insurers - will meet to argue their case before the judge overseeing the city's bankruptcy application.

The case is emerging as a landmark legal battle over whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy, which could have ramifications for municipal creditors, including Wall Street bondholders, as more cities and towns have trouble meeting their obligations.

Calpers, San Bernardino's biggest creditor and America's biggest pension fund, is arguing that under California law it has primacy as a creditor and must continue to be paid in full, even in a bankruptcy. In its original bankruptcy filing, the city said its unfunded obligations to Calpers totaled $143.3 million.

Last week Calpers, which is opposing the city's request for protection, filed court papers denouncing what it called a "sham" bankruptcy. It accused the city of "criminal behavior" in withholding payments to the pension plan.

The city has failed to make its twice-monthly $1.2 million payments to Calpers since it filed for bankruptcy on August 1. City officials traveled to Calpers headquarters on December 5 to plead for more time to pay.

Calpers officials said they have little latitude to allow San Bernardino - or any other city that pays into its pension fund - to alter the payment schedule.

In its court filing last week, Calpers said the city had "buried its head in the sand", rather than deal with a long-standing financial crisis.

A Calpers spokesman said the cash-out payments were "something we will look at."

The city's second-largest creditor is Wells Fargo Bank, the trustee for nearly $50 million in pension-obligation bonds the city issued in 2005 to reduce its debt to Calpers.

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ICE to buy NYSE Euronext for $8.2 billion

New York, Dec 29 : In October, Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of upstart IntercontinentalExchange, approached NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer with a modest proposal to team up on clearing trades in London.

As the men continued talking, Sprecher grew bolder, instead suggesting that ICE buy NYSE in what became an $8.2 billion deal announced.

The deal will link up two powerful derivatives exchange and clearing house operators, but threatens to further reduce the clout of the New York Stock Exchange. While the New York Stock Exchange has stood for 200 years as an iconic symbol of U.S. capitalism, it is almost an afterthought in this deal.

For ICE, the crown jewel of NYSE Euronext is Liffe, Europe's second-largest derivatives market, analysts said. Niederauer had long felt that NYSE's shareholders did not appreciate the true value of the London-based futures and options exchange, and had talked to bankers about how to improve NYSE's stock price, a person familiar with the matter said.

Liffe will help ICE compete against U.S.-based CME Group, owner of the Chicago Board of Trade. Derivatives trading remains highly profitable for the exchanges, and new rules next year will dramatically expand the demand for clearing over-the-counter contracts.

The stock market businesses are less valuable to ICE. The company said it will try to spin off the Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering, generating speculation it may also have little interest in the NYSE trading floor. Profits from stock trading have been significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of other places for investors to trade, including venues known as "dark pools."

ICE's Sprecher will be CEO of the combined organization, and the NYSE Euronext CEO will be president, a ceremonial title at many U.S. companies. In an interview, Niederauer said he would remain at least through 2014 as an "important senior member" of Sprecher's management team.

Niederauer will also be CEO of the NYSE Group. The combined company will be based in New York and Atlanta, where ICE is headqurtered.

Sprecher and Niederauerhave been friends for years, but the two stopped talking for about six weeks in 2011 when ICE teamed up with Nasdaq OMX Group to make an unsolicited bid for NYSE Euronext. That bid came even as the New York Stock Exchange operator was trying to sell itself to Deutsche Bourse. Regulatory concerns killed both deals.

Without the Nasdaq or Deutsche Bourse's huge equity operations, ICE alone has far less overlapping business and should face easy approvals, antitrust lawyers said.

The deal values each NYSE Euronext share at $33.12, a 28 percent premium to the stock's closing price. NYSE Euronext stock rose 34 percent to end at $32.25. ICE's shares fell as much as 4 percent but finished regular trading at $127.60, up 1.4 percent on the day.

ICE said it would pay annual dividends of $300 million to the companies' shareholders once the deal closes, about what NYSE pays its shareholders now.

The deal reflected Niederauer's inability to get his company's share price out of the doldrums. Before the latest ICE offer emerged, NYSE Euronext's shares had fallen by nearly a third since ICE and Nasdaq launched their thwarted joint bid.

Further consolidation of exchanges was "inevitable" and ICE was a "great partner," Niederauer said on a call with analysts, so continuing on alone did not make sense.

"We can sit here and keep slugging away and keep working hard, but the bottom line is we had not delivered, in my mind, sufficient returns to shareholders," Niederauer said. NYSE bought Euronext, including Liffe, for 8 billion euros in 2007.

Sprecher incorporated the stalled stock price - and the unrecognized value of Liffe - as part of his pitch.

"The reason that we were prepared to pay $33 a share for a company that was trading at $24 a share was that there is a $33 company in here and the market was just not either seeing it or willing to give credit for," he said in an interview. "We said, ‘let's just force the credit.'"

The two sides negotiated in secret for about eight to 10 weeks, the two CEOs said. In options markets, there were some signs that word might have leaked out, with a sudden upswing in the demand for call options on NYSE, which perform well when a company's share price rises.

ICE started out as an online marketplace for energy trading before Sprecher initiated a string of acquisitions from the London-based International Petroleum Exchange in 2001, to the New York Board of Trade and, most recently, a handful of smaller deals, including a climate exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house.

ICE's current main operations are in energy futures trading and, it has steered clear of stocks and stock-options trading, key businesses for NYSE Euronext.

"This deal is probably not going to generate a lot of concern from an antitrust perspective," said Warren Rosborough, a veteran of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division who is now with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery.

In clearing, ICE has a popular U.S. over-the-counter and listed business, while Liffe's operation is strong in futures and based in Europe.

Concerns over a small amount of competing derivatives business could be addressed with straightforward divestitures, Rosborough said. "It's an open question about whether it will generate questions," he added. "If there is a fix, it will be relatively easy fix."

Sprecher said the deal had been "well received" by regulators after he and Niederauer completed a "whirlwind tour" in the United States and Europe ahead the announcement. Officials at the European Commission, the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment.

Last year, Justice Department objections blocked ICE and Nasdaq OMX's $11 billion bid on concerns the tie-up would dominate U.S. stock listings. The rival $9.3 billion bid by Deutsche Boerse fell afoul of European regulators.

A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leap-frog Deutsche Boerse to become the world's third-largest exchange group with a combined market value of $15.2 billion. CME Group has a market value of $17.5 billion, data shows.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is the world's largest exchange group with a market cap of $19.5 billion.

ICE said it expected to achieve $450 million in cost savings from the takeover. In the first year after the deal closes, additional earnings of 15 percent are expected.

Long-time Wall Street traders saw the potential takeover of the venerable stock exchange by a 12-year-old derivatives upstart as fraught with symbolism.

"It's the end of an era," said a director on the board of a rival exchange who did not have clearance to speak to the press and asked not to be named. "I think ultimately the floor will be closed, because Jeff (Sprecher) has shut every floor he's ever had," the person said.

With the deal still a long way from completed, Sprecher and Niederauer said they planned to keep the high-profile NYSE trading floor running. "The floor has value and in particular, it has a lot of brand value," Niederauer said. "So we are committed. Jeff is committed."

The exchange was prepared to shut down the floor temporarily during superstorm Sandy and trade completely electronically, Wall Street executives said.

Shareholders will have the option of accepting $33.12 in cash per NYSE Euronext share or 0.2581 ICE share or a mix of $11.27 in cash and 0.1703 ICE share, subject to a maximum cash consideration of $2.7 billion.

Morgan Stanley was the lead financial adviser to ICE, with assistance from BMO Capital Markets Corp, Broadhaven Capital Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Lazard Group LLC, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wells Fargo Securities LLC. ICE legal advisers are Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Shearman & Sterling LLP.

The main financial advisers to NYSE Euronext are Perella Weinberg Partners and BNP Paribas. Further financial advice to NYSE Euronext was provided by Blackstone Advisory Partners, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs & Co. and Moelis & Co. Legal advisers to NYSE Euronext are Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Slaughter & May, and Stibbe NV.

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IHK’s poultry sector hit by Rani Khet Disease

Srinagar, Dec, 29 : The poultry sector of the valley has been badly affected as thousands of birds have died due to New Castle Disease or Rani Khet Disease, called Kokuer Kone in local parlance.

The disease has taken a heavy toll of birds in Ranbirgarh in Srinagar, followed by some farms in Budgam and one farm in Baramulla.

According to reports from different district headquarters, the mortality of poultry birds has shot up to 88 percent. 0ut of total 40,700 reared birds 36,000 died due to this disease.
Reports of low intensity disease outbreak are also pouring in from far and wide.

Experts say, Kokuer Kone, a poultry viral disease which was virtually eliminated from the poultry population over the years with consistent vaccination of entire poultry population here has staged a comeback in a big way.

Confirming outbreak of the disease Dr M Tuffail Banday, Prof & Head Livestock Production & Management of Veterinary College, SKUAST-K attributes it to the stressful conditions of winter (extreme low temperatures), poor bio-security, vaccination failure and improper way of vaccination.

Dr Tufail said it has been the common practice with local farmers to administer F1 vaccine against the New Castle Disease on day-5 of their age mixed with water in which process it is but natural that some chicks do not take the water and even one such bird is enough to cause outbreak of the disease.

He said that regardless of repeated advice to the farmers that the vaccine should be administered either through intra-ocular or intra-nasal route, they prefer the easier but risky method of administering it with drinking water, lamented the Professor.

Dr Farooq A Jan working in Zakura station of the department too confirmed the reports of Kokuer Kone and said the Institute of Animal Health and Biological Products did collect samples from far and wide and could confirm the disease by subjecting the same to a variety of tests.

Farmers, however, blamed the department for poor response in dealing with the situation. “When we informed Animal Husbandry department they dismissed initial reports as figment of somebody’s imagination,” said poultry owners.

“Had the field veterinary units taken note of the disease outbreak in the backyard perhaps the situation could have been saved,” said a farmer.
He said many a farmers are now reluctant to share the information with anybody fearing ill effects on their future marketing of their produce.

A farmer lamented that the department has not been able to purchase the vaccine manufacturing machine called Lyophiliser which would help the poultry farmers to have an effective vaccine against the local strains of Ranikhet Disease Virus.

When contacted Director Animal Husbandry, Dr Ghulam Rasool Mir told Greater Kashmir that poultry farmers need not panic.
“So far we have come to conclusion that it is Kokuer Kone and we have employed task force at district level to maintain bio-security and check its outbreak. Department commissioned a control room at directorate office for the farmers,” Mir said.

Mir, however appealed private poultry owners not to import birds till the diseases are eradicated.


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Fake driving licenses on sale in IHK

Islamabad, Dec 29: The fake driving licenses are on sale in the Assistant Regional Transport Office (ARTO) here in this held Kashmir district.

Sources said the agents in nexus with some officials in ARTO, Islamabad are issuing fake driving licenses in lieu of huge money. “Many gullible people have been duped by these agents by issuing them fake driving licenses and the authorities are acting as mute spectators,” sources said.

Residents here alleged that the office has become a den of corruption with the agents ruling the roost.

“The irony is that if you have to get the driving license or renew it you have to approach the agents instead of the employees in ARTO,” said Muhammad Imran, of Islamabad town.

He said the agents have been provided a separate room adjacent to the ARTO, office where they issue and renew driving licenses for heavy and light vehicles after receiving huge amounts. “We fail to understand why don’t ARTO office itself issue the licenses rather than leaving us at the mercy of these agents,” said a Muhamad Junaid, of Bijbehara.

He said that one can only get the license after greasing the palms of these agents. “The ARTO office employees are hand in glove with these agents and they also get their share,” he alleged.

People, however, say that they are forced to approach the agents for driving licenses, as the process of acquiring the driving license being cumbersome. “The transport authorities have made the entire process of issuing licenses so cumbersome that we have no choice but to approach the agents in order to get the driving license in time,” said some of the applicants.

They said that even though there is a Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) in place wherein it is mandatory for the transport authorities to issue license within the stipulated period of time but the authorities take their own time to do so.

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Sopore gunbattle leaves behind tragedies,trail of destruction

Sopore, Dec 29 : The gunbattle at Saidpora, Sopore in which six militants were killed has left behind a trail of destruction in the area with scores of orchards and houses damaged completely.

 The 48-hour encounter that ended last evening had put Saidpora area under complete siege with parts of Sopore witnessing heavy stone-pelting.

 The locals of Saidpora said their orchards and houses were completely damaged in the encounter. “We were not allowed to step outside our houses during the past two days. We only heard blasts every second minute,” said a local. “It was a war-like situation.”

 According to locals, houses of Ghulam Muhammad Dar son of Ghulam Rasool Dar and Khaati wife of Late Muhammad Nawab Dar were razed to rubble in the fierce gunbattle. “The families are roofless now,” the locals told Greater Kashmir.

 The residents said scores of orchards were badly damaged during the action. “We have less regret about damage to the houses but destruction to the orchards is a big loss. It took us decades to groom the orchards,” the families said.

 The damage to orchards was caused by the movement of army bulldozers, the locals said. “Dozens of trees were uprooted in the encounter. It is a big loss. We have been giving our best to maintain the orchards but now there is nothing more than debris,” Khaati said with tears rolling down her cheeks.

 According to locals, the houses of Muhammad Ramzan Bhat, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, Ghulam Mohiuddin Dar, Abdul Hamid Dar, Ghulam Muhammad Dar, Khursheed Ahmad Dar, Abdul Malik Dar, Muhammad Ashraf Dar, Ghulam Rasool Dar, Muhammad Dilawar, Muhammad Ashraf Dar, Mushtaq Ahmad Dar and Abdul Rashid Peer were also damaged in the encounter.

Meanwhile, the town observed complete shutdown for the second consecutive day today. Government institutions and business establishments remained closed with traffic remaining off the roads.

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