New scenery for breaking the ice with the Taliban

Sunday, 30 December 2012

Paris, Dec 30: A year that began with hopes that the Taliban were ready to start talking peace is ending with a final initiative — informal talks outside Paris among Afghanistan’s competing factions, including militants — that, if anything, exemplifies how little progress has been made in 2012 toward opening negotiations to end the war.

The talks, which began and are to last two days, have been trumpeted as the first time the Taliban have sat down with their former enemies in Afghanistan’s old Northern Alliance, a collection of militias that fought Taliban rule in the 1990s and eventually helped the United States oust the Islamist movement. Afghan government peace negotiators are also attending, as are representatives of Hezb-e-Islami, an insurgent faction independent of the Taliban.

But going into the meetings, both the Taliban and many old Northern Alliance leaders were clear about their lack of expectations. Abdullah Abdullah, an opposition politician and former presidential candidate who draws much of his support from Afghanistan’s north, said the meetings were “not by any chance a breakthrough.”

The talks, which are closed to the news media, are meant to offer participants an informal occasion to “project themselves toward the horizon of 2020,” said Camille Grand, the director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, the Paris-based research group that organized the meetings. The Afghans in attendance have come on a personal basis, Mr. Grand said.

A handful of French defense and foreign affairs officials are participating as well, he said, though the French, who recently pulled their combat forces from Afghanistan, say the meetings do not represent an effort to open formal talks. Philippe Lalliot, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, described them as an “academic seminar.”

Mr. Abdullah, the opposition politician, opted to remain in Kabul and send lesser-known members of his party, the National Coalition of Afghanistan, to attend instead. A rival opposition group, the National Front of Afghanistan, which is also made up largely of old Northern Alliance leaders, was sending two of its top leaders to Paris.

Mr. Abdullah and others among the old Northern Alliance nonetheless held out the possibility that the talks could lead to more. The Taliban “will come there, and they will make their own decisions clear,” Mr. Abdullah said in an interview in Kabul. “I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I don’t want to raise expectations out of the meeting.”

The small Taliban delegation in Paris was being led by Shahabuddin Delawar, who is expected to be one of the insurgents’ negotiators should peace talks ever begin in earnest. But neither Mr. Delawar nor any other Taliban representatives who had gone to Paris were there to discuss the stalled peace process, said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the insurgents.

Rather, Mr. Delawar’s sole task was “to shed light on our stances and explain our official position and policies to the international community,” Mr. Mujahid said. “We want to explain it directly through our own official representatives to the international community, while in the past our position has been presented by the enemies, who were trying to display a wrong image.”

He did not elaborate on what those positions might be. The Taliban have repeatedly said they would not negotiate directly with the government of President Hamid Karzai, whom they deride as a puppet of the United States.

The Taliban suspended its preliminary talks with the United States in March after the Obama administration failed to push through a proposed prisoner swap, which was to be the first in a series of confidence-building measures. In the exchange, five insurgent leaders imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would have been traded for the sole American soldier known to be held by the Taliban, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The Taliban prisoners were to be sent to Qatar, where the insurgents were to then open a negotiating office.

American officials have said in recent months that they planned to revive the prisoner swap, and the Taliban have repeatedly emphasized that would be the first step necessary to restart the talks. But there have been no apparent moves to release the Taliban prisoners.

The Afghan government has tried to open a variety of other channels to the Taliban. Each has ended in failure, but recent overtures to Pakistan by Mr. Karzai’s High Peace Council have shown some progress.

The council, along with American officials, has been trying to gain support for peace talks from Pakistan, which has aided and sheltered the Taliban over the past dozen years, though it keeps a close watch on the group’s leading figures. Last month, Pakistan agreed to release some Taliban leaders imprisoned there, and nine have been freed, the Taliban and council members said.

What effect, if any, the releases will have on the Paris meetings is unclear. Two similar meetings have been held here since November 2011, but Taliban representatives did not attend.

Mr. Karzai, when asked about the meetings in Paris at a news conference this week, offered only a subdued endorsement, saying the government supports all meetings that could further the goal of reaching a peaceful settlement.

But Mr. Karzai, who late last year nearly scuttled American efforts to open talks with the Taliban in Qatar after complaining he had not been kept abreast of developments, also suggested there could be other motives for the Paris meetings, though he did not elaborate.

Mr. Karzai has bristled in the past when former Northern Alliance members, including some who are at the Paris talks, have held high-profile meetings outside Afghanistan. After a meeting in January in Berlin between former Northern Alliance leaders and United States Congress members, for instance, he accused Washington of plotting to dismember Afghanistan.

“Unless it is proven to us that a meeting has other purposes rather than peace, we are supporting all the peace meetings,” he said at the news conference this week. “But when it has been proven to us or we suspect that these meetings are following other goals, and the goal is not to bring peace in our country — that the meeting has other purposes — then we could talk about that.”

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Female Afghan cops say they are raped, molested by fellow

Kabul, Dec 30 : 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.

And it looks to get worse.

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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Concluding 2012, Afghanistan's neighbors gird for 2014

Islamabad, Dec 30: The Afghan army has been preparing to take over the country’s security as NATO’s 2014 deadline to withdraw all combat troops moves to within a year.

But even with 300,000 national security forces now hired, Afghanistan still faces a challenge from the Taliban, al-Qaida and Haqqani networks.

According to political analyst Imtiaz Gul, Afghanistan’s neighbors, including Pakistan, have launched efforts to create a level of political stability there in the face of shared threats.

“I think Pakistan, as well as several other countries, have changed the goal posts, have changed the outlook on Afghanistan," he said. "They realize they really need to get on board [and] join hands to fix the situation in Afghanistan as much as possible to avoid instability in their own territory.”

Over the past year, Afghanistan’s allies met in Chicago and elsewhere to pledge at least $4 billion in aid and lay out a vision for what the country might aim to achieve in the coming decade.

But the outgoing U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, says pledges are just one step.

“It only matters if people are meeting their commitments now and we can really support an Afghanistan that is secure, stable and prosperous, inside a secure, stable prosperous region," he said.

Investor countries like China could exert more diplomatic weight and economic influence in the region as the U.S. pulls out.

Analyst Andrew Smalls of the German Marshall Fund says that China's friendly relations with Pakistan are key.

“One reason why the Afghans were particularly keen to have the Chinese come in and be investors is that they are one of the only countries that Pakistan trusts," said Smalls. "So what it means, in practice, is that a lot of the different parties, including the Taliban, may be more willing to give Chinese projects a break than most other investors.

"And also, of course, that China may be willing to use its influence over Pakistan, and then Pakistan’s influence over the Taliban, to give those projects a break that other investments in the country may not have," he added.

Iran, to the west of Afghanistan, has already cultivated strong cultural and commercial ties with its neighbor.

What Iran does with that influence is critical, according to former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth.

“The question is whether or not Iran can become a part of a group of countries, [part of] a regional approach that will work to prevent Afghanistan [from] sliding back to the Taliban era and moving forward to a more democratic progressive approach toward [domestic governance and] relations with its neighbors," he said.

How Afghanistan, its neighbors and allies cooperate on all these issues will help determine the future of that country.

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Man enters different Sandy Hook Elementary School with wood labeled ‘High Powered Rifle’

Washington, Dec 30 : A man carrying a two-by-four that was labeled "High Powered Rifle" was arrested at Sandy Hook Elementary School in northern Virginia, five days after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

According to NBC Washington, the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office said the 33-year-old man, Christopher Johnson, was "met" by the Strasburg school's staff at 11:40 a.m. before being detained by a resource officer stationed at the school. Johnson was then arrested and taken into custody without incident, police said.

A police spokesman said he was not sure why Johnson entered the school, but said it appeared the man was attempting to deliver a message "related to school safety."

Johnson was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and given a Jan. 8 court date.

There have been reports of other arrests in the wake of the massacre in Newtown. Security has been increased at schools nationwide, and police and parents have been, understandably, on edge.

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The wildest alien planets of 2012

London, Dec 30 : From massive bodies that fell just short of becoming stars to the tiniest solar systems known, 2012 has brought an array of intriguing exoplanets to light. And double-star systems that once seemed unlikely to host planets have produced a wealth of them this year.

Here's a look at some of the most exciting alien planets discovered in 2012:

Potentially habitable worlds

In the fall of 2012, astronomers announced two new planets, discovered separately, that may have the potential to support life outside of our solar system. Both planets were found in the habitable zone of their stars, the region where a planet could hold liquid water on its surface. Water is thought to be a key ingredient in the formation of life.

HD 40307g, a "super-Earth" announced in November, is approximately seven times as massive as the planet we live on. The planet, which could be either rocky or a Neptune-like gas giant, sits in the middle of its habitable zone, making it possible for water to exist. [Gallery: 7 Potentially Habitable Exoplanets]

HD 40307g is the most distant of the six planets in its system, taking approximately 200 days to orbit its star. Its distance means that it isn't tidally locked, with one face perpetually turned toward its star, making it more likely to have Earth-like conditions. Because the planet is only 42 light-years away from Earth, it could potentially be imaged by telescopes in the future. Its parent star is smaller and dimmer than the sun.

Gliese 163c also lies within its star's habitable zone, although it skirts the edge. Like HD 40307g, it is approximately seven times the mass of Earth, and could be a large rocky planet or a smaller gas giant. The planet orbits a red dwarf that is slightly dimmer than our sun, flying around it once every 26 days. Depending on its composition, Gliese 163c could host an ocean and a dense atmosphere, or it could be too hot for life to exist.

Both planets were found using the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, the European Southern Observatory's telescope located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Two suns, four stars

A number of double-sun systems were discovered in 2012, but perhaps the most astonishing was found by amateur astronomers. The gas giant PH1 orbits a pair of stars that are part of a four-star system, the first discovery of its kind.

A close binary set of stars with masses about 1.5 and 0.41 times that of the sun, the twin stars at the core of the system dance around each other every 20 days. Two more stars circle the pair at about a thousand times the Earth's distance to the sun.

Circling the central pair once every 138 days, PH1 is a gas giant, with a temperature ranging from 484 degrees Fahrenheit (251 degrees Celsius) to 644 F (340 C). Just bigger than Neptune, the planet could potentially host rocky moons, but such moons would also be too hot for liquid water.

PH1 was discovered by two amateur astronomers participating in the citizen scientist program Planet Hunters. A dip in the light from the system signified the potential presence of a planet, which was then confirmed by a team of professional astronomers.

In addition to being the first planet discovered by Planet Hunters, PH1 is also the first planet found orbiting a double star in a quadruple system and the first planet found in a quadruple system.

Near-habitable Tatooine system

Scientists discovered two separate binary systems this year with planets that lay near their habitable zone. Often referred to as "Tatooine planets," due to the famous double-star-system home of Luke Skywalker in the film "Star Wars," planets orbiting a binary star system have two suns overhead. Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b are particularly notable because they lay near their stars' habitable zone.

Kepler-34b is a gas giant with almost 70 times the mass of Earth. It travels around two sunlike stars once every 289 days, staying about as far away as Earth stays from the sun. It lies 4,900 light-years from Earth.

Kepler-35b weighs in at about an eighth of Jupiter's mass. It takes 131 days to travel around its parent pair, which are both slightly smaller than the sun. The system is only 5,400 light-years from Earth.

Both systems were found using NASA's Kepler space telescope.

Tatooine twins

In another double-star system twist, two planets were found orbiting a binary pair, the first time multiple planets have been seen around twin stars. The Kepler-47 stars are 5,000 light-years from Earth. One is sunlike, while the other is smaller and fainter. They orbit each other once every 7.5 days.

Kepler-47c is a gas giant that takes 303 days to circle its suns, and rests in the habitable zone of its stars. Although it is considered unsuitable for life, its existence means that other planets could survive in the habitable zones of twin-star systems. It could also host rocky moons that have the potential for life.

Kepler-47b takes less than 50 days to orbit the pair of stars. Only three times the radius of Earth, it is the smallest known planet orbiting in a binary system. Scientists think the rocky planet may be a sweltering world with a thick atmosphere.

Closest known exoplanet

Earth's closest star system, Alpha Centauri, hosts a molten terrestrial planet, scientists found. A rocky planet orbits Alpha Centauri B, one of the three stars in the system with 90 percent the mass of the sun, once every 3.2 days. The planet passes within only a few million miles of its star, hovering at a tenth of the distance between Mercury and the sun.

Although the overheated planet likely has a scorched surface too hot for life, scientists think the system has the potential to contain other planets. Only 4.2 light-years from Earth, such planets would be easier to image with telescopes in the not-too-distant future than more faraway candidates.

Astronomers used HARPS to identify the nearby planet.

Tiniest solar system

Most of the newly discovered planets have been "super"-size: super-Earths, super-Jupiters, and so on. Larger planets are generally easier to find. But three new planets only a fraction the size of Earth, including one Mars-size body, make up the smallest alien system found to date.

Smaller and dimmer than the sun, red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the Milky Way galaxy. Scientists once thought they were too small to have a sustainable habitable zone, but a separate study earlier this year showed that more could maintain planets with the potential to host life. Such small planets would have been a challenge to find around a larger, sunlike star. [Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?]

Kepler found the planets orbiting their star KOI-961 between 0.6 to 1.5 percent of Earth's distance to the sun, tearing around the red dwarf in less than two days. The rocky bodies have temperatures ranging from 350 F (177 C) to 836 F (447 C), resulting in broiling hot surfaces unlikely to support life. The three planets have diameters 0.78, 0.73, and 0.57 times that of Earth, with the smallest being Mars-size.

A planet that's almost a star

Kappa Andromedae b, or Kappa And b, is a massive planet that came in just shy of the ability to be a star. The gas giant, which is 13 times as massive as Jupiter, fell just short of having enough mass to be classified as a brown dwarf, failed stars too low in mass to sustain fusion in their core.

Astronomers were able to take a rare direct photo of the planet using Japan's Subaru telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.The wannabe star orbits Kappa Andromedae, a star 2.5 times as massive as the sun that lies 170 light-years away. Circling the young star at almost twice Neptune's wide-reaching orbit, Kappa And b averages 2,600 F (1,400 C) and would appear bright red if seen up close.

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Sexual assault reports jump 23 percent at US military academies

Washington, Dec 30 : Sexual assaults reported by students at the three U.S. military academies jumped 23 percent in 2012, underscoring what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said was a "persistent" problem that required a "strong and immediate response" from the services.

Eighty cases of sexual assault were reported by cadets and midshipmen during the 2011-2012 academic year, compared to 65 the previous year, the Pentagon said in its annual report on sexual harassment and violence at the academies. The victims were primarily women, although four were men.

It was the third straight year of increases, from a low of 25 in 2009. Prior to that, reported sexual assault cases had fallen regularly from 42 in 2006, when the Pentagon first began tracking the issue at the direction of Congress, the report said.

"Despite our considerable and ongoing efforts, this year's annual report ... demonstrates that we have a persistent problem," Panetta said in a memorandum to the secretaries of the Navy, Army and Air Force.

He said the lack of progress at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, merited "a strong and immediate response."

Panetta and he asked the services to identify "new ways to advance a climate of dignity and respect" at the academies and report back to him by the end of March.

The findings drew expressions of concern from lawmakers and special interest groups that track the issue. Representative Niki Tsongas said that while the rise could partly be attributed to improved conditions that encourage people to report assaults, they also showed the issue remains a problem.

"Sexual assault remains a persistent and untenable crime throughout the armed forces," she said in a statement. "These numbers are an affront to the educational institutions that are developing our military's future leaders."

Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, said the report "shines a light on the severity and scope of the crisis" of sexual assault in the military.

"There is a culture of high tolerance for rape and sexual predators in the ranks that pervades the military," she said. "Clearly all the reforms that have been announced over many years aren't making a difference."

The academies are implementing programs to try to reduce sexual assaults. At the same time, they are attempting to create an environment that encourages reporting, whether on a confidential basis that enables victims to get care and counseling or an unrestricted basis that also permits full criminal investigation.

Of the 80 cases reported in 2012, 42 were unrestricted, allowing authorities to pursue a criminal investigation with the assistance of the victim. Thirty-eight cases remained confidential and were not investigated, officials said.

The academies investigated 40 sexual assault cases in 2012, 23 from 2012 and 17 from the previous year. Of that number, 11 were prosecuted and punished, including eight suspects who were court martialed. The others were not prosecuted, either because the military lacked jurisdiction or evidence, officials said.

The Pentagon surveys students every two years to assess gender relations at the schools and to get a better idea about the number of sexual assaults that go unreported.

The survey conducted as part of this year's report found that 12.4 percent of women and 2 percent of men had reported unwanted sexual contact during the previous 12 months - statistically unchanged from the prior survey.

Fifty-one percent of women reported experiencing sexual harassment during the previous year, down from 56 percent in the 2010 survey. Ten percent of men reported experiencing sexual harassment, statistically unchanged from the earlier survey.

Unwanted sexual contact ranged from rape or sexual assault, to attempted attacks, forcible sodomy and other types of sexual contact, officials said. Major General Gary Patton, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said there was an important correlation between sexual assault and sexual harassment.

"Eliminating sexual harassment is critical to preventing sexual assault," he said, adding that those who experience sexual assault in the past year had also been sexually harassed.

"The solution to this problem is ... creating a nonpermissive environment where sexual harassment, sexist behavior, stalking and these types of behaviors are not condoned," Patton said.

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NRA offensive exposes deep U.S. divisions on guns

Washington, Dec 30: Any chance for national unity on U.S. gun violence appeared to wane a week after the Connecticut school massacre, as the powerful NRA gun rights lobby called for armed guards in every school and gun-control advocates vehemently rejected the proposal.

The solution offered by the National Rifle Association defied a push by President Barack Obama for new gun laws, such as bans on high-capacity magazines and certain semiautomatic rifles.

At a hotel near the White House, NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre said a debate among lawmakers would be long and ineffective, and that school children were better served by immediate action to send officers with firearms into schools.

LaPierre delivered an impassioned defense of the firearms that millions of Americans own, in a rare NRA news briefing after the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting in which a gunman killed his mother, and then 20 children and six adults at an elementary school.

"Why is the idea of a gun good when it's used to protect our president or our country or our police, but bad when it's used to protect our children in their schools?" LaPierre asked in comments twice interrupted by anti-NRA protesters whom guards forced from the room.

Speaking to about 200 reporters and editors but taking no questions, LaPierre dared politicians to oppose armed guards.

"Is the press and political class here in Washington so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and America's gun owners," he asked, "that you're willing to accept a world where real resistance to evil monsters is a lone, unarmed school principal?"

Proponents of gun control immediately rejected the idea, hardening battle lines in a social debate that divides Americans as much as abortion or same-sex marriage.

A brief NRA statement three days earlier in which the group said it wanted to contribute meaningfully to ways to prevent school massacres led to speculation that compromise might be possible, or that the NRA was too weak to defeat new legislation.

"The NRA's leadership had an opportunity to help unite the nation behind efforts to reduce gun violence and avert massacres like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School," said Democratic Representative Carolyn McCarthy of New York. She supports new limits on ammunition and firearms, and universal background checks for gun buyers.

Adam Winkler, author of "Gunfight," a history of U.S. gun rights, said he expected the NRA might yield on background checks. About 40 percent of gun purchasers are not checked, according to some estimates.

"The NRA missed a huge opportunity to move in the direction of compromise. Instead of offering a major contribution to the gun debate, which is what they promised, we got the same old tired clichés," said Winkler, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

A poll showed the percentage of Americans favoring tough gun regulations rising 8 points after the Newtown shooting, to 50 percent.

Inside the NRA, though, attitudes might not change much.

"The anti-gun forces which are motivated by hysteria and a refusal to deal with the facts are going to be facing a counter-attack here that is going to be very, very effective," said Robert Brown, an NRA board member and the publisher of Soldier of Fortune, a military-focused magazine.

During the news conference, LaPierre laid out a plan for a "National School Shield" and said former U.S. congressman Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas would head up the NRA's effort to develop a model security program for schools.

The NRA is far and away America's most powerful gun organization and dwarves other groups with its lobbying efforts. In 2011, it spent $3.1 million lobbying lawmakers and federal agencies, while all gun-control groups combined spent $280,000, according to records the groups filed with Congress.

Ken Blackwell, another NRA board member, said NRA leaders were discussing how to react to the Newtown shooting on the day it happened, helping LaPierre formulate a position.

"He and the team of lawyers around him are very bright and they understand the Constitution," said Blackwell, a Republican former state official in Ohio.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in 2008 guarantees an individual right to own firearms, though it allows for some limits.

While LaPierre's proposal to arm schools came as a surprise to those who hoped for compromise, it is not new.

Former NRA president, the late actor Charlton Heston, made a similar proposal after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre near Denver that killed 12 students and one teacher.

"If there had been even one armed guard in the school, he could have saved a lot of lives and perhaps ended the whole thing instantly," Heston said in April 1999, according to The New York Times.

Columbine had an armed sheriff's deputy who exchanged gunfire outside the school with one of the two teenage killers, according to a Jefferson County, Colorado, sheriff's office report. The deputy was unable to hit or stop the student, who was armed with a semiautomatic rifle, from entering the school, and the deputy stayed in a parking lot with police, the report said.

Protesters at the news briefing accused the NRA of being complicit in gun deaths.

"If teachers can stand up to gunmen, Congress can stand up to the NRA," said Medea Benjamin, co-director of the peace group Code Pink, who was escorted from the news conference.

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Security firm sues Zimmerman, attorney over fees

Orlando, Dec 30 : A security company claims in a lawsuit that George Zimmerman, his wife and attorney owe more than $27,000 for protection services.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Associated Investigative Services filed the lawsuit in Orange County Circuit Court. The company says it was hired in June to provide security for the Zimmerman family but promised payments stopped after an independent trustee took over Zimmerman's defense fund.

Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara says the lawsuit was a surprise and that the company was paid some $40,000.

Zimmerman is awaiting trial on second-degree murder charges in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman contends the unarmed teenager attacked him and is claiming self-defense in the February killing. Zimmerman is free on $1 million bail and is in hiding.

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Mexico frees ex-Marine jailed for bringing in gun

Miami, Dec 30 : A Marine veteran jailed for months in Mexico after trying to carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border has been freed, U.S. officials and his lawyer said.

The attorney for 27-year-old Jon Hammar tweeted that his client had been released from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico.

"Jon is out, going home!" Eddie Varon Levy tweeted.

Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesman for the State Department, confirmed Hammer's release and return to the U.S. in a statement.

"Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros met him at the prison and escorted him to the U.S. border, where he was reunited with members of his family," the statement said. "We sincerely appreciate the efforts on the part of Mexican authorities to ensure that an appropriate resolution was made in accordance with Mexican law, and that Mr. Hammar will be free to spend the holidays with his loved ones."

An aide to a legal representative of the Mexican attorney general's office had told U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's staff about the pending release after the Florida Democrat's office got word from Hammar's mother, according to a press release from Nelson's office.

"No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge," Nelson said in that statement. "We're grateful; this is a good Christmas present."

Earlier, Varon Levy said he was flying from Mexico City to Matamoros to pick up his client. After that, the attorney said, they intended to cross the border at Brownsville, Texas. "I'm very happy. I feel that the Mexican legal system came out the way it should have," he said.

U.S. immigration and State Department officials had been at the Mexican detention center waiting for Hammar's release.

A defense lawyer said Mexican authorities determined there was no intent to commit a crime, Nelson's office said. The senator was among a handful of elected officials who urged the State Department to help get Hammar out of Mexico. His family had said he was being held in isolation after threats to his safety were received.

"These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., in a statement. " I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends."

The attorney, Varon Levy, said the path for Hammar's return was cleared when Mexican officials decided not to appeal the judge's ruling.

Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner purchases the weapon from a special shop run by the country's Department of Defense.

"The Department of State warns all U.S. citizens against taking any type of firearm or ammunition into Mexico," the U.S. Embassy in Mexico writes on its website. "Entering Mexico with a firearm, certain types of knives, or even a single round of ammunition is illegal, even if the weapon or ammunition is taken into Mexico unintentionally."

Mexican law also bans shotguns with barrels of less than 25 inches. The family said Hammar's shotgun has a barrel of 24 inches.

Tourists are allowed to bring guns for hunting on rare occasions, but Mexican officials said all visitors must receive a special permit before entering the country. Mexican customs agents do not issue gun permits. As a result, anyone crossing the border with a firearm or ammunition without a previously issued government permit is in instant violation of Mexican law, which stipulates long jail terms for breaking weapons laws.

Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with surfboards and camping gear. Hammar asked U.S. border agents what to do with the unloaded shotgun. His family said agents told them to fill out a form for the gun, which belonged to Hammar's great-grandfather.

But when the pair crossed the border and handed the paperwork to Mexican officials, they impounded the RV and jailed the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar's friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him.

Before Hammar's release, Varon Levy said he was not sure of his client's immediate plans upon being freed. "Probably some down time," he said.

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US gives foreign banks more time on swap rules

Washington, Dec 30 : The top U.S. derivatives regulator gave foreign banks more time to meet new derivative trading rules that had earlier sparked fears that international financial markets could pull away from U.S. banks.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said that foreign banks now had until July 12, 2013, to comply with the rules and said it would continue to fine tune the regulations that have also drawn the wrath of foreign regulators.

"The relief period provides time for the Commission to work with foreign regulators as they implement comparable requirements," CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement.

Countries worldwide are drawing up rules for the $650 trillion swaps industry to mend flaws brought to light by the 2007-09 financial crisis, bringing trading onto regulated platforms and making data public.

The CFTC had been facing a year-end deadline by which it needed to decide how its rules apply overseas or delay them. It had drawn flak from regulators in Asia and Europe about the blunt way it imposed its rules on banks abroad.

The delay is "very much an interim process to buy everyone a little bit of time," said Gareth Old, a lawyer at Clifford Chance in New York.

It will "allow the coordination between regulators, and permit the dealers and their counterparties to adapt to the changes that are going to be coming into place," he added.

Non-U.S. regulators are saying they are already working on similar rules as the U.S. agency, and the potential doubling up of the rules has sparked fears foreign banks could stop trading with U.S. counterparties.

When an earlier deadline loomed in October, several European banks ordered their brokers to rein in and even quit trading some derivatives with U.S.-based peers, in a protest against the tough new American rules.

"It is important that the CFTC continue to provide relief to avoid confusion in the market, like that market participants experienced on and around October 12th," the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) banking lobby said.

The CFTC has drawn criticism over the overly aggressive way in which it is implementing the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul of Wall Street, which has so far this year forced it to send out more than 50 letters granting temporary reprieves.

So far, the CFTC has completed two-thirds of the rules Congress told it to write, putting it well ahead of other agencies who are similarly executing Dodd-Frank, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Global regulators meeting in New York last month failed to hammer out a deal on how to jointly supervise the lucrative derivatives market, and how to rely on each other for foreign entities operating in their jurisdictions.

A group of U.S. lawmakers across the political divide urged the CFTC to decide quickly how its rules apply abroad, or risk disrupting derivatives markets.

In its present order, the CFTC said it would continue to seek comment on how to define a U.S. person - a hotly debated issue among lawyers because it determines how much leeway foreign banks have to trade with U.S. banks.

Foreign banks must stick to the same rules as their U.S. market parties if they want to do business with a U.S. person, which includes companies, if their swaps trading volume exceeds $8 billion a year, according to the CFTC's proposed rules.

For now, the CFTC would continue to use a narrow definition that was largely similar to the one it used in an earlier temporary reprieve on October 12, which gave the foreign banks more exemptions than in its original rule in July.

"It's a bit of a mixed bag. The U.S. person definition is narrower than the original proposal, but broader than the ... (October 12) letter," said Clifford Chance's Old.

Republican Commissioner Jill Sommers disagreed with the agency's decision, the only dissenting vote among the CFTC's five top officials, three of whom are Democrats.

"Foreign entities will not have the basic information they need to make informed decisions regarding the ultimate obligations of engaging in swaps activities with U.S. persons (the definition of which continues to shift)," she said.

"There is no reason why the Commission could not have issued broader relief until these issues are settled. We have simply chosen not to," she added.

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Wells Fargo agrees to proposed settlement on shareholder actions

New York, Dec 30 : Wells Fargo & Co would pay up to $2.5 million in attorneys' fees and implement certain corporate governance changes under a proposed settlement of lawsuits brought by shareholders on behalf of the company, according to a securities filing by Wells.

The suits were filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California in 2010 on behalf of Wells Fargo and its shareholders against current and former directors and executives largely related to conduct at Wachovia bank, which Wells bought in 2008.

The suits claim that from 2005 to 2008 the former Wachovia defendants disregarded "their fundamental responsibilities" with respect to Wachovia's acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial and other activities at Wachovia, according to settlement documents. The suits also allege that Wells directors did not pursue "valuable claims" that it inherited in the Wachovia acquisition, according to the documents.

Wells bought Wachovia as the lender verged on collapse due to ballooning mortgage losses and a run on its deposits. All the defendants denied wrongdoing and filed motions to dismiss, according to the documents.

A hearing will be held on the settlement on March 5, according to the filing by Wells with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The governance changes include a requirement that the risk committee of the Wells Fargo board hire an outside consultant for three years.

Under the proposed settlement, the defendants would not make any payments to Wells Fargo or the plaintiffs, according to the securities filing. Wells will pay any attorneys' fees.

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Dish seeks more time to fight Sprint's Softbank, Clearwire deals

New York, Dec 30: Dish Network (DISH) has asked the U.S. telecom regulator for more time to file an objection to wireless service provider Sprint Nextel's (NYS:S) proposed sale of a controlling stake to Japan's SoftBank Corp (TYO:9984) due to Sprint's announcement this week of a plan to buy out Clearwire Corp (CLWR).

The request may indicate that satellite television provider Dish, controlled by billionaire founder Charlie Ergen, is gearing up for a fight with Sprint over its plan to sell a 70 percent stake to SoftBank for $20 billion. Dish declined further comment on the matter.

Dish, which recently gained regulatory approval to build its own wireless service, told the Federal Communications Commission in a document dated December 20 that it wants a three-week extension to the FCC's January 4 filing deadline for petitions against the Softbank deal, which was announced in October.

Earlier this week, Sprint, which owns 50.45 percent of Clearwire, said it agreed to buy the rest of Clearwire for $2.2 billion, in a deal that would be conditional on the success of the SoftBank purchase.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile provider, declined to comment on the Dish filing.

It sent the FCC an amendment to its application for approval of the SoftBank deal including notice of its agreement with Clearwire, which would gives Sprint control of the smaller company's substantial spectrum holdings.

Dish said in its filing that Sprint's plan "raises a number of issues deserving of careful consideration" and that interested parties need an appropriate amount of time to consider and address these issues.

For example, Dish questioned if it is in the public interest for a foreign company such as SoftBank to control more wireless spectrum than any other company in the United States.

It also asked whether the FCC should re-evaluate "the competitive effects" of a combination of Sprint's and Clearwire's spectrum holdings under one owner.

Dish and Sprint recently clashed with each other during the regulatory review of Dish's plans for its spectrum holdings.

Sprint is already meeting objections to the deal from some minority shareholders who are not happy with the $2.97 per share price it agreed on with Clearwire.

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US judge approves settlement in BP class action suit

New York, Dec 30: A US judge gave final approval to BP Plc's settlement with individuals and businesses who lost money and property in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The order only addressed the settlement of economic and property damage claims, not a separate medical benefits settlement for cleanup workers and others who say the spill made them sick.

BP has estimated that it will pay $7.8 billion to settle more than 100,000 claims in the class action litigation.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier initially approved the deal in May, but held a "fairness hearing" in November to weigh objections from about 13,000 claimants challenging the settlement to resolve some of BP's liability for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

London-based BP's Macondo well spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The torrent fouled shorelines from Texas to Alabama and eclipsed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in severity.

Lawyers for some affected parties had objected to the deal, reached in March between BP and lawyers representing plaintiffs ranging from restaurateurs, hoteliers, and oyster men who lost money from the spill. They argued that some claimants would be underpaid or unfairly excluded.

But in a 125-page order approving the settlement, Barbier called the deal "fair, reasonable and adequate," citing the low number of class members who objected or opted out.

BP welcomed the approval order in a statement, adding that the settlement resolves the majority of economic and property damage claims stemming from the accident.

"Today's decision by the Court is another important step forward for BP in meeting its commitment to economic and environmental restoration efforts in the Gulf and in eliminating legal risk facing the company," BP said.

Separate from the class action claims, BP has been locked in a year-long legal battle with the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars in civil and criminal liability from the explosion.

In a settlement with the U.S. government announced last month, BP agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct. The government also indicted the two highest-ranking BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig during the disaster, charging them with 23 criminal counts including manslaughter.

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Rating agencies won't cut U.S. on fiscal cliff - yet

New York, Dec 30  : The stalled progress in the Washington budget battle may be rattling markets but the gridlock among policymakers will not move the rating agencies to downgrade the United States - yet.

The U.S. credit rating is far from safe. All three major agencies have negative outlooks on the United States, which suffered its first downgrade in history last year when Standard & Poor's stripped it of its triple-A rating.

But the fiscal cliff is only one event in a series of issues that will see ratings agencies looming over Washington for months.

Investors sold off riskier assets such as stocks and scooped up safe-havens such as the dollar and U.S. Treasuries after Republican Representative John Boehner failed to find enough support from his own party to push a measure raising taxes on millionaires through the House of Representatives.

With Boehner's leadership as speaker of the House on the line, markets worry he can't get any tax plan through Congress at all - much less the stricter terms Obama wants in what's becoming the latest drawn-out political budget debacle.

Dysfunction in Washington was specifically cited as one of the reasons Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. debt rating to AA-plus in August 2011. The "fiscal cliff" itself will reduce the deficit, but Fitch has said that a continuing political standoff could cost the country its top-notch rating.

"This potential for continued gridlock among legislators could have profound effects for the U.S. economy," Standard & Poor's said in a report after the November elections.

Without a budget deal among lawmakers, the fiscal cliff, a package of $600 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, will begin to kick in January 1 and could push the economy into recession.

If investor hope is fading, though, the rating agencies still have some confidence. Fitch still sees a compromise before year-end, spokesman Brian Bertsch confirmed. "That base case has not changed" from a previous view, he said.

But failure could lead to a rating cut.

If the fiscal fracas drags into next year and looks set to hurt the economy, "the U.S. sovereign rating could be subject to review, potentially leading to a negative rating action," Fitch said in a report.

Moody's will probably resolve its negative outlook on the U.S. rating in 2013, as well, but how remains to be seen.

A spokesman for Moody's said that the rating agency's view hasn't changed since it issued a report in September saying that the United States could be off the hook for a potential downgrade if there is a medium-term plan that stabilizes the debt and reduces it as a percentage of GDP.

In the event of a plan without such policies, "we would expect to lower the rating, probably to Aa1," according to the report, co-authored by Moody's lead sovereign credit analyst on the United States, Steven Hess.

Moody's might take some time to assess a plunge over the fiscal cliff - but not beyond 2013.

In contrast, of the three major agencies, Standard & Poor's is the least likely to act soon, since the agency cut the U.S. rating to AA-plus last August after intransigence on the debt ceiling debates dented confidence in policymakers.

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ICE's NYSE swoop creates derivatives giant

London, Dec 30 : Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) agreed as part of its $8.2 billion takeover of NYSE Euronext (NYX) to pay the New York Stock Exchange operator a termination fee of $750 million if it fails to gain antitrust clearances, suggesting a high level of confidence the deal will go through.

Big Board parent NYSE could get out of the arrangement for a fee of $300 million if a sweeter deal were to come along, according to a regulatory filing.

ICE failed last year to buy NYSE in a joint bid with Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ). At the time, NYSE was involved in year-long pursuit to sell itself to Frankfurt's Deutsche Bourse (DB1.DE). In the end, regulators killed both deals, saying they would be anti-competitive.

On its own, Atlanta-based ICE lacks the massive equities operations of Nasdaq or Deutsche Bourse, so there is less overlap between the two exchanges, antitrust lawyers said, making regulatory approval far more likely.

Some in the industry have suggested that CME Group (CME) could table a competing offer for NYSE, but they said that would not be likely for several reasons, including the break-up fee.

People familiar with the deal said other issues include potential antitrust concerns and the fact that under the latest agreement, NYSE's Liffe business will do all its clearing through ICE regardless of whether the deal goes through.

"The clearing deal they signed is like a second break-up fee," one of the people said.

Also, CME has not been known for making large deals. "It does not seem to be in its DNA," said Adam Sussman, director of research at Tabb Group.

NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer acknowledged a higher bid could come along, but that NYSE would not chase after a deal unless it was almost certain it would pass regulatory muster.

"If we did that for another year and at the end we are told, 'we are not going to allow you to do this because of the overlap of your businesses,' we would look beyond foolish," he said in an interview.

The deal, announced, would give 12-year old commodities and energy bourse ICE a powerful presence in Europe's lucrative financial derivatives market through control of NYSE Liffe, Europe's second-largest futures exchange, and a major advantage over U.S.-based rivals CME and Nasdaq.

All three want to challenge Deutsche Boerse's European dominance. A shake-up in banking regulation is expected to increase demand sharply for clearing financial derivatives through such exchanges.

"The deal would place a bigger and more aggressive competitor on Deutsche Boerse's doorstep," said Richard Perrott, an analyst at Berenberg Bank.

Regulatory changes in the wake of the financial crisis are forcing banks to channel derivatives business through clearing houses and regulated exchanges to ensure their risk positions can be better monitored than they were when bank dealers were trading complex contracts directly among themselves.

The reforms are expected to be fully operational in Europe in 2014.

ICE's takeover of NYSE Liffe will give it an advantage of existing presence in Europe over Chicago-based CME, owner of the world's largest futures market, and New York's Nasdaq, both of which plan to open their own London-based exchanges next year.

While the New York Stock Exchange, an enduring symbol of American capitalism, is NYSE Euronext's prestige business, London's Liffe is the real jewel in the crown.

With profits from stock trading significantly eroded by new technology and the rise of other places for investors to trade, the stock market businesses like NYSE are less valuable to ICE.

The company has said it will try to spin off NYSE's Euronext European stock market businesses in a public offering. This has generated speculation, which the company has denied, that it may also have little interest in the NYSE trading floor on Wall Street.

NYSE made an operating income of $473 million from Liffe in 2011 on revenues of $861 million compared to an income of $533 million on revenues of $1.3 billion from its equities business.

ICE's Jeff Sprecher will be CEO of the combined organisation and Duncan Niederauer, the NYSE Euronext CEO, will be president - a post he said he plans to remain in until at least 2014. The two are longtime friends.

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 products exchange and a stake in a Brazilian clearing house.

A combined ICE-NYSE Euronext would leapfrog Deutsche Boerse (DB1.DE) 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.

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

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Naveedabad drainage system choked

Srinagar, Dec 30 : Inhabitants of Naveedabad, Tengpora Bypass are up in arms against the authorities for failing to repair the drainage system there.

 “Drains in our area are defunct from past many years. The problem is compounded in winter as most of the lanes are inundated in sewage water. This has hampered our movement and caused immense inconvenience to us particularly children,” said Ghulam Nabi, a local.

 The inhabitants said the sewage water has seeped into foundation of their houses. “Due to water logging, walls of our houses have developed cracks,” said Mushtaq Ahmad a local.

 “We apprised the concerned authorities about the issue many times but our pleas met with deaf ears,” said Abid Salam a local.

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Thieves on prowl at Shah Anwar Colony

Srinagar, Dec 30 : Thieves decamped with tyres of a vehicle parked at Green Lane Shah Anwar Colony Hyderpora Byepass.

 Residents of the area said due to construction of a drain there, they park their vehicles in an open land in the colony.

 “Last night thieves decamped with tyres of a vehicle belonging to Tariq of Green Lane Shah Anwar Colony. Due to this incident, we have become apprehensive about protection of other vehicles. We make a fervent appeal to the SSP to nab the accused at the earliest and restore sense of security in the area,” they said.

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Conversion of agriculture land goes unabated

Srinagar, Dec 30: In blatant violation of norms, agricultural land in Srinagar district is shrinking at a fast pace with booming illegal colonies and constructions coming up on it under the nose of authorities, a survey has revealed.

 According to the survey conducted by the Agriculture department, it has come to fore that Srinagar district has now only 4219 hectares of agriculture land, while the total cultivable area stands at 5444 hectares.

 Sources in the Agriculture department said earlier survey had revealed that the district has 4767 hectares of agriculture land. “It means that around 500 hectares of agriculture land has been converted for construction of residential and commercial establishments,” they said.

 Over the years, many illegal colonies have come up on agriculture land in Batpora, Ahmednagar, , HMT and Narbal on city outskirts.
 “The current survey points towards rapid decrease in the agriculture land. This will have disastrous effect on the population in coming years,” sources in the Agriculture department.

 “Most of the violations are done by the bureaucrats, businessmen and other officials who purchase large chunk of agriculture land and then converted it into colonies and subsequently sell it an exorbitant rates,” they said.

 However, sources also blamed alleged nexus between land mafia and some corrupt officials in the administration under whose patronage the conversion is going on at a rapid pace.

 “It is the duty of Srinagar Municipal Corporation and Srinagar Development Authority to ensure that the constructions coming in the district are not in violation of the Master Plan. But when the officials whose duty is to enforce writ of the Master Plan are hand in glove with land mafia, how can one accept anything from them?” said an official wishing not to be named.

 According to experts, conversion of farm lands for residential purposes have negative consequences on food security, water supply besides health of the people, both in the cities and in the peripheries area.

 “Our state is already facing food shortage and we are mostly depended on imports. If the conversion of agriculture land goes at the same pace, in coming years the state would have no agriculture land,” said an official of SKUAST.

 Agriculture was the largest land use category in the 1971, covering an area of 70.13 percent of Srinagar district which has been  reduced to 48.93 percent in 2009 at an annual rate of  -0.79  (-5.58 kms2) percent.

 The maximum conversion has taken place along major transportation corridors around the city, therefore, giving rise to ribbon settlements.

 The agriculturists believe that the government was sitting over the serious issue. “Governments need to do something on ground. Presently dozens of colonies are coming up on agriculture land in different parts of the Valley. Even residential houses and restaurants are being constructed on it. The law enforcement agencies need to curb the menace before the problem assumes horrendous ramifications,” they said.

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Self-regulation of the immune system suppresses defense against cancer

Islamabad, Dec 30 : Regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are part of the body's immune system, downregulate the activity of other immune cells, thus preventing the development of autoimmune diseases or allergies.

Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now found the activation steps that are blocked by Tregs in immune cells. Since Tregs can also suppress the body's immune defense against cancer, the findings obtained by the DKFZ researchers are important for developing more efficient cancer treatments.

It is vital that the body's own immune system does not overreact. If its key players, the helper T cells, get out of control, this can lead to autoimmune diseases or allergies. An immune system overreaction against infectious agents may even directly damage organs and tissues.

Immune cells called regulatory T cells ("Tregs") ensure that immune responses take place in a coordinated manner: They downregulate the dividing activity of helper T cells and reduce their production of immune mediators. "This happens through direct contact between regulatory cell and helper cell," says Prof. Peter Krammer of DKFZ. "But we didn't know yet what this contact actually causes in helper cells." The researchers' hypothesis was that the contact with the Tregs affects certain steps in the complex signaling cascade that leads to the activation of the helper T cells.

If the T cell receptor, a sensor molecule on the surface of helper cells, senses foreign or damaged protein molecules, this will trigger a cascade of biochemical activation reactions. At the end of this signaling cascade, genes that are required for an immune attack will be read in the nucleus of helper cells.
Jointly with colleagues from several German research institutes, Peter Krammer, Angelika Schmidt and co-workers have now compared the signaling cascades in helper cells with and without contact to Tregs.

The immunologists found out that a short contact of the two types of cells in the culture dish is sufficient to suppress the helper cells. Following Treg contact, the typical release of calcium ions into the plasma of helper cells does not occur. As a result, two important transcription factors, NFkappaB and NFAT, do no longer function. They normally activate genes for immune mediators, thus alerting the immune system.

"The mode of action of Tregs is of great importance for cancer medicine. Many of our colleagues have shown in various types of cancer that Tregs can downregulate the immune response against tumors so that transformed cells escape the immune defense. This can contribute to the development and spread of cancer. We are therefore searching for ways to reactivate such suppressed helper cells," said Krammer, explaining the goals of his work. For developing immune therapies against cancer it is also crucial to understand how Tregs work.

The researchers are trying to prevent that immune cells which have been painstakingly activated against cancer in the culture dish are immediately suppressed again by Tregs.

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'Rare' brain disorder may be more common than thought

Islamabad, Dec 30: A global team of neuroscientists, led by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, has found the gene responsible for a brain disorder that may be much more common than once believed.

In the Nature Genetics, the researchers say they identified 14 different mutations in the gene CSF1R that lead to development of hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS).

This is a devastating disorder of the brain's white matter that leads to death between ages 40 and 60. People who inherit the abnormal gene always develop HDLS. Until now, a definite diagnosis of HDLS required examination of brain tissue at biopsy or autopsy.

The finding is important because the researchers suspect that HDLS is more common than once thought and a genetic diagnosis will now be possible without need for a brain biopsy or autopsy. According to the study's senior investigator, neurologist Zbigniew K. Wszolek, M.D., a significant number of people who tested positive for the abnormal gene in this study had been diagnosed with a wide range of other conditions. These individuals were related to a patient known to have HDLS, and so their genes were also examined.

"Because the symptoms of HDLS vary so widely -- everything from behavior and personality changes to seizures and movement problems -- these patients were misdiagnosed as having either schizophrenia, epilepsy, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or other disorders," says Dr. Wszolek. "Many of these patients were therefore treated with drugs that offered only toxic side effects.

"Given this finding, we may soon have a blood test that can help doctors diagnose HDLS, and I predict we will find it is much more common than anyone could have imagined," he says.

Dr. Wszolek is internationally known for his long-term efforts to bring together researchers from around the world to help find cases of inherited brain disorders and discover their genetic roots.

Dr. Wszolek's interest in HDLS began when a severely disabled young woman came to see him in 2003 and mentioned that other members of her family were affected. The diagnosis of HDLS was made by his Mayo Clinic colleague, Dennis W. Dickson, M.D., who reviewed the autopsy findings of the patient's uncle, who had previously been misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, and subsequently, Dr. Wszolek's patient and her father. All members of the family had HDLS.

Dr. Dickson had identified other cases of HDLS from Florida, New York, Oregon and Kansas in the Mayo Clinic Florida brain bank and knew of a large kindred in Virginia with similar pathology, based upon a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuropathologists. With concerted efforts, Dr. Wszolek and collaborators at University of Virginia were able to obtain DNA samples from the Virginia kindred. Dr. Wszolek also sought other cases, particularly those that had been reported in the neuropathology literature, and he was able to obtain samples from Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, and other sites in the U.S. He and his team of investigators and collaborators have since published studies describing the clinical, pathologic and imaging characteristics of the disorder, and they have held five international meetings on HDLS.

In this study, which included 38 researchers from 12 institutions in five countries, the study's first author, Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., led the effort to find the gene responsible for HDLS. Her laboratory studied DNA samples from 14 families in which at least one member was diagnosed with HDLS and compared these with samples from more than 2,000 disease-free participants. The gene was ultimately found using a combination of traditional genetic linkage studies and recently developed state-of-the art sequencing methods. Most family members studied -- who were found to have HDLS gene mutations -- were not diagnosed with the disease, but with something else, thus emphasizing the notion that HDLS is an underdiagnosed disorder.

The CSF1R protein is an important receptor in the brain that is primarily present in microglia, the immune cells of the brain. "We identified a different CSF1R mutation in every HDLS family that we studied," says Dr. Rademakers. "All mutations are located in the kinase domain of CSF1R, which is critical for its activity, suggesting that these mutations may lead to deficient microglia activity. How this leads to white matter pathology in HDLS patients is not yet understood, but we now have an important lead to study."

"With no other disease have we found so many affected families so quickly," says Dr. Wszolek. "That tells me this disease is not rare, but quite common." He adds, "It is fantastic that you can start an investigation with a single case and end up, with the help of many hands, in what we believe to be a world-class gene discovery."

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How bacteria fight fluoride in toothpaste and in nature

Islamabad, Dec 30: Yale researchers have uncovered the molecular tricks used by bacteria to fight the effects of fluoride, which is commonly used in toothpaste and mouthwash to combat tooth decay.

In the journal Science Express, the researchers report that sections of RNA messages called riboswitches -- which control the expression of genes -- detect the build-up of fluoride and activate the defenses of bacteria, including those that contribute to tooth decay.

"These riboswitches are detectors made specifically to see fluoride," said Ronald Breaker, the Henry Ford II Professor and chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and senior author of the study.

Fluoride in over-the-counter and prescription toothpastes is widely credited with the large reduction in dental cavities seen since these products were made available beginning in the 1950s. This effect is largely caused by fluoride bonding to the enamel of our teeth, which hardens them against the acids produced by bacteria in our mouths. However, it has been known for many decades that fluoride at high concentrations also is toxic to bacteria, causing some researchers to propose that this antibacterial activity also may help prevent cavities.

The riboswitches work to counteract fluoride's effect on bacteria. "If fluoride builds up to toxic levels in the cell, a fluoride riboswitch grabs the fluoride and then turns on genes that can overcome its effects," said Breaker.

Since both fluoride and some RNA sensor molecules are negatively charged, they should not be able to bind, he notes.

"We were stunned when we uncovered fluoride-sensing riboswitches" said Breaker. "Scientists would argue that RNA is the worst molecule to use as a sensor for fluoride, and yet we have found more than 2000 of these strange RNAs in many organisms."

By tracking fluoride riboswitches in numerous species, the research team concluded that these RNAs are ancient -- meaning many organisms have had to overcome toxic levels of fluoride throughout their history. Organisms from at least two branches of the tree of life are using fluoride riboswitches, and the proteins used to combat fluoride toxicity are present in many species from all three branches.

"Cells have had to contend with fluoride toxicity for billions of years, and so they have evolved precise sensors and defense mechanisms to do battle with this ion," said Breaker, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Now that these sensors and defense mechanisms are known, Breaker said, it may be possible to manipulate these mechanisms and make fluoride even more toxic to bacteria. Fluoride riboswitches and proteins common in bacteria are lacking in humans, and so these fluoride defense systems could be targeted by drugs. For example, the Yale team discovered protein channels that flush fluoride out of cells. Blocking these channels with another molecule would cause fluoride to accumulate in bacteria, making it more effective as a cavity fighter.

Fluoride is the 13th most common element in Earth's crust, and it is naturally present in high concentrations throughout the United States and elsewhere. Its use in toothpaste and its addition to city water supplies across the United States sparked a controversy 60 years ago, and the dispute continues to this day. In the United Kingdom, and in other European Union countries, fluoride is used to a much lesser extent due to fierce public opposition.

The new findings from Yale only reveal how microbes overcome fluoride toxicity. The means by which humans contend with high fluoride levels remains unknown, Breaker notes. He adds that the use of fluoride has had clear benefits for dental health and that these new findings do not indicate that fluoride is unsafe as currently used.

Other Yale authors of the paper include: Jenny L. Baker, Narasimhan Sudarsan, Zasha Weinberg and Adam Roth.

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