What legal education could do for a resilient Afghanistan

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Stanford, Jan 22 : As Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai meets with President Obama in Washington this week, and the Senate prepares to consider Mr. Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, now seems like an apt time for reflection on the US strategy in Afghanistan.

In particular, what does America’s approach to Afghanistan’s educational needs reveal about its long-term goals for the country?

Last fall, in a brief and unceremonious election, I became the co-director of a small group – the Afghanistan Legal Education Project– at Stanford Law School. Our organization works with academics in Kabul to write law textbooks for young Afghans.

Early visions of prestige notwithstanding, I’ve learned by now that my duties are mostly administrative – editing, scheduling, sending cajoling emails. But for all that the job lacks in diplomatic glamour, it comes with an unusual perk. Each week, I host a Skype call with our American teaching fellow in Kabul. Over time, her insight has come to serve as a healthy source of perspective: a sense that Afghanistan is more sophisticated – and resilient – than many pundits and politicians suggest. America’s approach to its future should be, too.

Jenn Round is our longest serving teaching fellow, and she’s been reporting back from Kabul for more than 18 months. When our weekly calls began, she and I mostly stuck to discussing the project. Now, however, when there is little textbook business to discuss, we fill the time with other topics.

It’s in this way, through secondhand snippets about Jenn’s students, that I’ve learned the textured details of student life in Kabul. I’ve heard stories about a new “law club,” job-market jitters, even fledgling romances. For one hour each week, the lives of Jenn’s students are transmitted across continents, and reassemble themselves in my San Francisco apartment.

These are more than idle tangents. They serve as reminders that Afghanistan is not simply a place where military strategies play themselves out. It is home to a population of individuals with vibrant lives, personal ambitions, and, as history attests, ample capacity for endurance.

Much of our focus on Afghanistan is on the upcoming withdrawal of US troops (which the Obama administration has made clear will be concluded in 2014). We argue about failures and successes, profits and losses. Almost invariably, somewhere beneath these discussions lies an unwieldy question: What happens next?

America’s military presence is an important issue for Afghanistan, but it is not all encompassing. Afghanistan has experienced such transitions before, and the choice it now faces is not necessarily between cataclysmic violence and peace.

In short, the question is not solely one of what happens next in Afghanistan. It is about how Americans and the international community decide to contribute, regardless of what happens.

To that end, a basic tenet of our project is that legal knowledge, once provided, cannot be taken away. The learning that a student receives in a classroom may lie dormant. It may be tested and challenged. But it has a stubborn, intractable quality. It is far more difficult to destroy than roads or infrastructure.

In keeping with these long-term ideas, at the Afghanistan Legal Education Project, we believe that one manner in which to approach uncertainty is to prepare a small cohort for the future: a group of Afghans that has studied other legal systems as well as its own; a group with sufficient education to articulate ideas before an electorate; and a group empowered to embrace, and protect, a collective form of Afghan government.

Legal education, in short, is concomitant with – maybe even requisite to – long-term security.

Several months ago, our organization came one step closer to fulfilling these ideals. Our project is now the grateful recipient of a $7.2 million grant from the US State Department. That money will allow us to embark on a project that has been a long time in the making: the development of a fully accredited law school in Kabul. Several years from now, a small group of Afghan students – the first of its kind in many respects – will graduate with internationally recognized legal degrees.

To some, this may sound naive. There are those who argue that, without robust security, no progress can be made in Afghanistan. Perhaps, from America’s vantage, the fewer resources we expend in the lead up to the troop withdrawal, the better.

But if I had Jenn on the line right now, she would argue differently. We can remain conscious of uncertainty, she’d say, without abandoning our efforts. She’d remind me that the development of legal education in Afghanistan is likely to be the work of generations, rather than years.

She’d be right, of course – and, in delivering her message, she’d have articulated a complex, realistic, portrayal of Afghanistan. Policymakers and politicians, and the American people whose backing they seek, would do well to remember this more nuanced picture. That means US efforts to support education and the development of Afghan civil society should not be abandoned. Just as it means that these initiatives may require the patience – and persistence – of many years to bear fruit.

Julian Simcock is the student co-director of the Afghanistan Legal Education Project at Stanford Law School. The project works with academics in Kabul to develop legal curricula for the American University in Afghanistan, and is now developing a full, five year integrated law degree program. Julian and several other students traveled to Afghanistan in February 2012.

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$450,000 Stolen from the Afghan National Bank

Monday, 21 January 2013

Kabul, Jan 21 (Newswire): About half a million dollars was stolen from three branches of the Afghan National Bank in Kabul, Kunduz and Badakhshan.

At least $200,000 of the total was stolen from the Kabul branch, the remaining from the other two provinces, reports suggest.

Authorities have arrested 10 people in connection with the heists, ministry of interior spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.

Afghan National Bank officials refused to comment when approached by TOLOnews, but some reports suggest that bank employees might have been involved, including an employee in Kabul, whose mother is said to have served as an accomplice.

It is unclear if the three heists were coordinated by the same group of robbers.

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Afghan archaeologist discusses Bamiyan site

Kabul, Jan 21: Zemaryalai Tarzi, internationally recognized as the senior Afghan archaeologist, will speak and answer questions on recent finds at Bamiyan and the crisis of looting and vandalism for archaeology in Afghanistan in "A Stop on the Silk Route".

The event is cosponsored by the Near Eastern Studies Department, the American Institute of Archaeology and the Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology (APAA), Tarzi's own organization. Admission is free. A reception will follow the talk.

Tarzi went to France on a scholarship at age 20 to study at Strasbourg, where he now teaches, dividing his time between the university and fieldwork in Bamiyan during the summer. He was an associate of Daniel Schlumberger, the director of the French delegation of archaeology to Afghanistan, at a time when France had an exclusive contract with the (then) Kingdom of Afghanistan for excavation and research.

Tarzi directed the Archaeological Institute in Kabul and edited the national journal for archaeology, and specialized in the conservation of historical monuments, particularly mosques and Buddhist temples. He established the outdoor museum at Hadda, site of one of the largest Buddhist temples in Central Asia, and wrote his thesis on the art and architecture of the famous caves at Bamiyan. Afghani archaeology was coming into its own, scientifically, carrying on its own research and partnering with international teams.

Then came the Soviet invasion of 1979.

"My father was forced to flee to Pakistan, hidden in a double-decker trunk, with my step-brother disguised as a girl," said Nadia Tarzi, cofounder with her father of the APAA.

Tarzi (who will translate for her father, lecturing in French) described the genesis of their project to protect and promote Afghan archaeology: "I grew up in Strasbourg, where my father came, after his escape. I knew he was an archaeologist, in the way another kid might know her father's a dentist or accountant. I didn't really understand what he did."

"One day in 1994," she continued, "He received an express packet from a colleague still in Afghanistan. His whole demeanor changed; he opened the envelope and became sad. When I asked why, he finally picked up a book, showed me a picture in it of a beautiful niche with reliefs of waves in an aquatic scene with statues standing around, Buddha fighting demons from the Gandhara period-then said, 'Here's what it looks like today,' showing me the photos he'd received, which looked to me like piles of mud. I started crying. I understood my father's passion."

After the Taliban blew up the giant statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley in 2001 ("and it took them four days to destroy them because of the steel reinforcements my father helped put in"), Tarzi suggested to her father that they co-found an organization to educate the general public, both Afghani and Western, about the "5,000-year-old cultural heritage-even before Buddhism, before Islam-of Afghanistan, the diversity of cultures that have flourished there," to support further efforts in research and recovery of antiquities "and to give some sense of national awareness and pride to the Afghan people, who have such a task in rebuilding their country."

Father and daughter founded the APAA in 2002. Tarzi returned to his native country after the defeat of the Taliban to teach and do fieldwork, dividing his time with teaching in Strasbourg. With the support of President Karzai and of the first female governor of Bamiyan, work goes on, on several different levels.

"There's been 20 years of rampant, relentless looting," Tarzi said. "It's important to get archaeologists to the sites before the looters and the dealers to at least document what's there. Bamiyan is secure, and the population supportive, but elsewhere the Taliban is again on the rise, and there's a debate whether or not to even continue excavations."

Educational work has been carried on in Afghanistan and in the Bay Area.

"The first schools I visited were in the Berkeley-Oakland area," said Tarzi, who lives in Marin. "One class even put on a play about what they learned. In Bamiyan, we hope to teach the children to make pottery, then show them museum pieces in the same style. My own daughter taught me that. I call it art with a heart."

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From monkeys to surfers, San Diego braces for cold

San Diego, Jan 21  : Strawberry growers covered their crops while San Diego zookeepers turned on heaters for the chimpanzees as Southern California braced for a cold snap that was expected to drop temperatures to a six-year low.

Forecasters warned that a low pressure trough sinking over San Diego County and parts of neighboring Orange County could keep nightly temperatures below freezing in coastal areas, the low deserts and inland valleys, threatening orange, avocado orchards and other sensitive plants. The coldest nights were expected to hit.

Farmers were prepared to pull out giant fans to circulate the frosty air and keep it from settling on their citrus trees, said Eric Larson of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. Other growers were placing soft cloth over their strawberries and flowers. The National Weather Service predicted overnight lows in the 20s in the lower deserts and inland valleys and 30s along the coast.

"These guys are going to be up all night watching thermometers," Larson said.

Freezing temperatures weren't the only weather challenge for a region boasting one of the planet's most temperate climates.

Forecasters say a combination of astronomical high tides, high surf and strong winds will bring minor flooding to low-lying areas of the Southern California coast. The weather service issued coastal flood advisories for all counties from San Luis Obispo south to San Diego.

They also warned motorists to watch out for blowing sand across coastal highways and snow in the mountains down to 2,000 feet. Snow briefly closed the Grapevine section of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles. Several accidents and spinouts were reported in the mountain pass as the winter weather bore down on Southern California.

Winds could gust to 60 mph there and up to 45 mph in valleys and coastal areas. Highs will only hit the 50s and 60s and rain showers are expected throughout the region.

Families pushed aside boogie boards and pulled out sleds as snow fell in the mountains of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Chains were required on all vehicles.

Workers at SeaWorld planned to crank up the heat for their macaws, toucans and parrots. San Diego zookeepers were also heating rooms for chimpanzees, apes and other tropical animals.

"They'll probably be huddling together and not be in areas where people will be able to see them," said zoo spokeswoman Christina Simmons.

Many local residents planned to do the same.

"We'll have to huddle up, drink coffee, and tell stories," joked J.P. Pierre, owner of Surfy Surfy Surf Shop in the beach town of Leucadia. "But there's a no whining rule around here because I have so many friends from the northeast and Canada. If everyone had a decent jacket it would be no big deal, but everyone is walking around in flip flops."

The so-called king tides will peak around 7 feet, depending on location. The conditions may cause some flooding across beaches, parking lots and around estuaries, lagoons and harbors. Parts of Pacific Coast Highway between Sunset Beach and Seal Beach could see standing water.

San Diego's Mission Beach was nearly empty except for a few snowbirds who scoffed at a cold snap that seemed downright balmy to them. Some shot pictures of the wind-swept waves.

"We're from Chicago so to us this is like a heat wave," said Rod Erdohaty, 54, walking to the beach in blustering wind.

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Afghanistan: Girls and women traded for opium debts

Helmand, Jan 21 : On 4 November 2006, Nasima, 25, a member of a local women's council, grabbed the AK-47 from the policeman guarding the council meeting in the Grishk district of southern Helmand province and killed herself.

She had had enough of the daily beatings by her husband. Like many other women in Helmand, Nasima was given away by her family in 2005. Her father owed a huge amount to an opium dealer and, unable to return the money or provide the quantity of opium he had promised, he offered his daughter to the smuggler, who already had a wife and four children. Under Islamic law and in many Muslim countries a man is allowed up to four wives.

"Nasima was enduring a bitter life in the family. The family members and her husband considered her as an extra burden," Gulalai, head of the local women's council in Grishk district, told IRIN.

Nasima's case is just one of hundreds of such incidents where women are traded for debts. Most go unreported in the troubled southern provinces, where most of the opium in Afghanistan is produced. The practice is also reported in other provinces, particularly the east and the north, but the stakes are higher in the south, the heartland for drug trading.

In another case in the Marja district of Helmand, 18-year-old Saliha considers herself lucky to be living a relatively peaceful life. "I was 13 when my father married me off to a 20-year-old man, whose father had given a loan to my parents and they were unable to return the amount or the quantity of opium," Saliha said.

She says she is fortunate to be the first wife and only wife for her husband, who is only seven years older and not double her age, which is common in this part of the country.

Qais Bawari, acting head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) for the southern region, based in Kandahar, said they received 69 cases of self-immolation and murders from Helmand and Kandahar provinces in 2006 alone. He said several were related to marriages in exchange for drugs. "Unfortunately many of the cases of violence against women go unreported and a very small proportion is reported to us," Bawari said.

He said people were reluctant to report cases regarding domestic violence against women for fear of reprisals.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the opium available in the world today. Human rights activists say local drug dealers pay in advance to farmers for their poppy yield but they often end up giving their daughters to the drug traffickers when they fail to harvest the expected yield.

The sale of opium is banned in Afghanistan - but since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the crop has re-emerged as a profitable trade. Despite government efforts and international pressure, poppy farmers are reluctant to give up their crop in return for a less lucrative alternative in a country where poverty is rife.

Afghanistan and its female population are at the bottom of the global poverty scale. The country is the fourth lowest in the world for living standards and third lowest in gender disparities, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) stated in August 2006.

Ahmad Shah Mirdad, legal analyst with AIHRC in Kabul, criticised central government for doing little to stem the growing problems faced by women in the country.

"Stronger efforts are needed to battle these awful and discriminatory practices in our communities," Mirdad said.

Some say the status of women has not changed much since the ousting of the Taliban, which enforced strict rules on the movement of women and curtailed their rights. Head of the women's affairs department in Helmand, Fawzia Ulomi, said more than 20 women and girls had committed suicide over the past 10 months - most of them had been handed over to dealers instead of drugs, or to settle family disputes.

Cases of violence are generally kept secret in rural areas but if the victim or family chooses to complain, tribal Jirgas or local councils are convened to resolve it. Such cases were rarely referred to the women's affairs department or other concerned authorities, Ulomi said.

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Whew! Huge asteroid apophis won't hit earth in 2036

London, Jan 21 : The Earth is safe from the giant asteroid Apophis when it flies extremely close to our planet in 2029, then returns for seconds in 2036, NASA scientists announced. The chances of an impact in 2036 are less than one in a million, they added.

Asteroid Apophis — which is the size of three and a half football fields — was discovered in June 2004 and gained infamy after a preliminary study suggested it had a 2.7 percent chance of hitting the Earth during its 2029 flyby. Subsequent observations ruled out an impact in 2029, but astronomers were closely studying Apophis’ return in 2036.

Now, new observations of asteroid Apophis recorded have revealed the space rock poses no real threat to the Earth in 2036, NASA officials said. Astronomers tracked the asteroid as Apophis made a distant flyby of Earth at a range of about 9.3 million miles (15 million kilometers).

"The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036,” Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, said in a statement. The office is based at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. [See Photos of Giant Asteroid Apophis]

 "Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future," Yeomans said.

And that scientific interest will be high.

When Apophis buzzes the Earth on April 13, 2029, it will come within 19,400 miles (31,300 km) of our planet. That's closer than some geostationary satellites, which orbit the Earth at a range of 22,370 miles (36,000 km), and will be the closest flyby of an asteroid the size of Apophis in recorded history, NASA officials said.

"But much sooner, a closer approach by a lesser-known asteroid is going to occur in the middle of next month when a 40-meter-sized asteroid, 2012 DA14, flies safely past Earth's surface at about 17,200 miles," said Yeomans. "With new telescopes coming online, the upgrade of existing telescopes and the continued refinement of our orbital determination process, there's never a dull moment working on near-Earth objects."

Also, the European Space Agency announced that new observations of Apophis by the infrared Herschel Space Observatory revealed that the asteroid is about 1,066 feet (325 meters) wide, nearly 20 percent larger than a previous estimate of 885 feet (270 m). It is also 75 percent more massive than previous estimates, ESA officials said.

The new observations of asteroid Apophis this week were made by astronomers at the Magdalena Ridge observatory, operated by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS telescope. The observations were combined with data from NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar to rule out any chance of a 2036 impact.

NASA astronomers regularly use telescopes on Earth and in space to search for any asteroids that may pose an impact threat to Earth.


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Daughter claims Klaus Kinski abused her as child

Berlin, Jan 21 : Klaus Kinski's eldest daughter claims the late German actor raped her when she was a child, showering her with gifts as he used her as a "sex object," according to an interview published here.

Pola Kinski, 60, told Germany's Stern magazine that her father, a prolific and mercurial actor who starred in films such as "Doctor Zhivago" and "Nosferatu the Vampyre," started abusing her when she was 5 or 6.

"Whether one believes me or not, this is what happened to me. It's the truth," she told the weekly in an interview to coincide with the publication in German next week of her autobiography.

Klaus Kinski died of a heart attack in California two decades ago, aged 65. He began theater acting after World War II, gained praise for his evocative stage readings and achieved international fame after playing a villain in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western "For A Few Dollars More," which also starred Clint Eastwood.

Kinski is most famous for his collaboration with German director Werner Herzog. In films such as "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," ''Woyzeck" and "Fitzcarraldo," Kinski portrayed characters that mirrored his own volatile personality.

In an autobiography, written a few years before his death and titled "All I Need is Love," he described himself as sexually voracious and suffering from mental health problems.

An advance copy of Pola Kinski's book obtained by the media details her father's alleged emotional and sexual abuse over a 14-year period, during which he warned his daughter not to tell anyone what happened and repeatedly gave her expensive presents.

"He bought himself a little sex object, which he bedded on a cushion made of silk," she told Stern magazine, adding that she wanted to reveal "who this person really was" in her book.

Friends and other family members couldn't immediately be reached or declined to publicly discuss Pola Kinski's allegations.

An agent for Nastassja Kinski, Pola's younger half-sister from her father's second marriage, said she was "not commenting just yet."

One of Kinski's biographers, Peter Geyer, also declined to comment.

Although she said she told her mother of the alleged abuse when she was 19, Pola Kinski said she only felt real relief when her father died in 1991.

The German government's commissioner for sexual abuse issues said the allegations against Kinski showed how hard it was for victims to break their silence.

"Pola Kinski needed 20 years to say how terribly she was abused by her father for years," Johannes-Wilhelm Roerig told German public television station ZDF.

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Hero teacher talks shooter into dropping gun

New York, Jan 21 : A California high school teacher is being hailed a hero for talking a 16-year-old shooter into putting down his gun and turning himself in after opening fire on a classroom and wounding another student, police said.

The student victim was taken to a nearby hospital and remains in critical but stable condition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told reporters.

The teacher, whose name has not yet been officially released by authorities, helped evacuate nearly two dozen students out a door at Taft Union High School in Taft, Calif., while calmly engaging the young gunman, who is a student at Taft Union, in conversation.

The teacher and a campus supervisor, who responded to the gunfire and arrived at the classroom, helped convince the teenager to stop shooting.

"They talked him into putting the shotgun down," Youngblood said.

The shooting began around 9 a.m. in the school's science building and sheriff's deputies were on the scene within one minute of the call. An armed security guard who is typically at the school was not on campus because he had been snowed in, the sheriff said.

Two other students received minor injuries: One reported hearing loss and the other fell over a table. The teacher was shot with a pellet, but refused medical treatment, according to police.

The school's 900 students were evacuated from the building and many of them were met by parents within minutes of the first 911 calls.

The shooting comes less than month after 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire on an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. killing 20 children and six adults.

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Sheriff: Calif. teen planned attack on classmates

Taft, Jan 21 : A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into a rural California high school, shot one student and fired at others and missed before a teacher and another staff member talked him into surrendering, officials said.

The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, and the suspect, whose pockets were stuffed with ammunition, was still being interrogated, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference.

The suspect used a shotgun that belonged to his brother and went to bed with a plan to shoot two fellow students, Youngblood said.

Surveillance video shows the alleged shooter trying to conceal the gun as he nervously entered Taft Union High School through a side entrance after school had started.

When the shots were fired, teacher Ryan Heber tried to get the more than two dozen students out a back door and engaged the shooter in conversation to distract him, Youngblood said. Campus supervisor Kim Lee Fields responded to a call of shots fired and also began talking to the teen.

"They talked him into putting that shotgun down. He in fact told the teacher, 'I don't want to shoot you,' and named the person that he wanted to shoot," Youngblood said.

"The heroics of these two people goes without saying. ... They could have just as easily ... tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didn't," the sheriff said. "They knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun."

The shooter didn't show up for first period, then interrupted the class of 28 students.

Youngblood said the suspect alleges the two students he targeted had bullied him for more than a year, but the sheriff couldn't confirm the allegations.

"Certainly he believed that the two people he targeted had bullied him, in his mind. Whether that occurred or not we don't know yet," Youngblood said.

Youngblood did not release the student's disciplinary record, saying he didn't have it.

The shotgun is believed to belong to the boy's brother and was in the boy's home, Youngblood said.

The Sheriff's Department did not release the boy's name because he was a juvenile and had yet to be charged. But many students and community members said they knew the boy and said he was often teased, including Alex Patterson, 18, who went to Taft with the suspect before graduating last year.

"He comes off as the kind of kid who would do something like this," Patterson said. "He talked about it a lot, but nobody thought he would."

Trish Montes, who lived next door to the suspect, said he was "a short guy" and "small" who was teased about his stature by many, including the victim.

"Maybe people will learn not to bully people," Montes said. "I hate to be crappy about it, but that kid was bullying him."

Montes said her son had worked at the school and tutored the boy last year, sometimes walking with him between classes because he felt sorry for him.

"All I ever heard about him was good things from my son," Montes said. "He wasn't Mr. Popularity, but he was a smart kid. It's a shame. My kid said he was like a genius. It's a shame because he could have made something of himself."

The wounded student was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield and was listed in stable but critical condition. Officials said a female student was hospitalized with possible hearing damage because the shotgun was fired close to her ear, and another girl suffered minor injuries during the scramble to flee when she fell over a table.

Officials said there's usually an armed officer on campus, but the person wasn't there because he was snowed in. Taft police officers arrived within 60 seconds of first reports.

Bakersfield television station KERO reported receiving phone calls from people inside the school who hid in closets. About 900 students are enrolled at the high school, which includes ninth through 12th grades.

Wilhelmina Reum, whose daughter Alexis Singleton is a fourth-grader at a nearby elementary school, got word of the attack while she was about 35 miles away in Bakersfield and immediately sped back to Taft.

"I just kept thinking this can't be happening in my little town," she said.

"I was afraid I was going to get hurt," Alexis said. "I just wanted my mom to get here so I could go home."

Taft is a community of fewer than 10,000 people amid oil and natural gas production fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The attack there came less than a month after a gunman massacred 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

That shooting prompted President Barack Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement that her father had attended Taft Union and she has visited the school over the years.

"At this moment my thoughts and prayers are with the victims, and I wish them a speedy recovery," Feinstein said. "But how many more shootings must there be in America before we come to the realization that guns and grievances do not belong together?"

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Boeing to cut 40 percent jobs at El Paso plant

New York, Jan 21 : Boeing Co (BA) said it will cut a little more than 40 percent of jobs, or 160 positions, at its El Paso plant as it looks to reduce the impact of planned U.S. defense budget cuts.

The company said it will reduce occupied square footage 50 percent at the plant by moving from three buildings to one. The plant in Texas manufactures electronics for a variety of Boeing products.

The reductions will be completed by the end of 2014, the company said.

Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division in November that would cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities and consolidate several business units.

The company's shares closed at $77.09 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Sandy victims surprised by 'new' home

New York, Jan 21: She and her husband, Burt Metz, lost their home in Breezy Point, part of New York City's Queens borough, after it was completely ravaged by Hurricane Sandy in October.

When they returned to the property, their prayers had been answered, and they found their home completely rebuilt.

"I'm just completely shocked," Metz said. "We are so blessed and can't thank those that did this for us enough. Thank you."

The 80-year-olds have had the Breezy Point property for more than 30 years. They sold their primary residence in Brooklyn last year to help an ailing family member, and invested their life savings to upgrade the home for year-round living. When the contractor died in August, the work was never completed.

Hurricane Sandy brought four feet of water into the home, making it unlivable.

"When you're old, it's tough," Burt Metz said. "We didn't know what we were going to do."

That's when Operation Blessing stepped in.

The Virginia-based humanitarian organization gathered 300 volunteers from around the country to rebuild the Metz's home. The group has worked on more than 400 homes in Queens since the storm struck, but this was the first they completely rebuilt.

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Private equity eyed Legg Mason but were spurned

New York, Jan 21 : Legg Mason Inc (LM) has been approached in recent months by some of its senior managers and private equity firms with plans to take the struggling asset manager private, but the board has decided against exploring that option at least until the company has a new chief executive, three sources said.

At least two large private equity investors have shown interest in financing a buyout led by the leaders of the money manager's largest affiliates, but the board has refused to engage in such discussions, the sources familiar with the situation said. At least one of the private equity investors approached the board as recently as November, according to one of the sources.

A spokeswoman for Legg Mason, the fourth-largest publicly traded U.S. asset manager, declined to comment and said that Allen Reed, chairman of the board, and Joe Sullivan, interim CEO, declined to comment for this article.

Legg Mason shares rose as much as 7 percent to $27.93 on the news, hitting their highest since April, in their most active trading day since May. The company has a $3.42 billion market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange.

The identity of the private equity firm and the managers could not be learned. Nor was there any information about how any proposed deal was structured. The sources declined to be identified because they are not allowed to speak to the press.

Legg Mason rode the technology boom at the turn of the century and then a enjoyed a period of good stock-picking, but has seen its fortunes wither in recent years amid choppy markets and mixed investment performance.

Returns have recovered in many cases but it can take years for asset managers to recover investors. Even a recent quarter of inflows for the three months ended September 30 was driven by the $9.7 billion that came into low-margin money funds, barely offsetting the $9.5 billion investors pulled out of Legg Mason's equity and fixed-income products.

In 2012, star fund manager, Bill Miller, gave up management of his main fund after a string of sub-par results, and in the fall of last year CEO Mark Fetting stepped down. Activist investor Nelson Peltz, known for pushing for change at companies, bought a stake in the company and has taken a seat on the board.

Despite the recent quarterly inflows - the Baltimore firm's first since 2007 - analysts have hesitated to recommend the stock until it can show more quarters of inflows. At $26 a share it is worth just a fraction of its 2006 peak of around $130. The firm had $648 billion in assets under management as of November 30.

A part of the problem with Legg Mason, according to people who have worked with the company and insiders, is that the firm has been created over the years through a patchwork of deals, resulting in eight main independent asset management units, each having separate revenue sharing agreements with the parent.

Tensions have emerged in a number of areas, such as gripes from some affiliates they should get more help from the parent with selling and marketing their funds given how much of their revenues they turn to over to the firm, these people said.

By becoming a privately held company, Legg Mason could rework these arrangements, cut costs and fix its other problems outside of the public eye, analysts said.

"A public company structure is the worse possible format for an asset manager because it sets a short-term focus when it needs to have a long-term outlook," said Neil Bathon, managing partner of FUSE Research Network, a Boston-area fund consulting company, who declined to comment specifically about Legg Mason.

To be sure, any potential management-led buyout would not be an easy task. The firm's long-term debt to market value ratio of 31 percent is far higher than peers, according to Nomura Securities analyst Glenn Schorr.

That makes a take-private deal more difficult because it typically requires adding on more debt to the company's balance sheet.

A change of ownership also creates a lot of uncertainty for both employees and investors. "A lot of bad things can happen in that process," said one industry banker, who mentioned the risk that institutional clients and human capital could leave.

It is also unclear if Peltz would support a management buyout. A spokeswoman for Peltz's investment firm, Trian Fund Management L.P, which owns about 10 percent of Legg Mason, said executives at Trian would not comment, citing Peltz's role as a board member.

Raymond "Chip" Mason, one of the founders of the company that eventually became Legg Mason in 1970, put the money manager together over decades via acquisitions. Today, Legg Mason's eight main affiliates span an array of asset classes. The firm's biggest affiliate, Western Asset Management, is a fixed income manager with $459 billion under management as of September 30. The second largest affiliate, the ClearBridge Advisors equity unit, had $59 billion. And the third biggest, Brandywine Global equity and bonds shop, had $41 billion.

The question of whether Legg should be sold or should spin off one of its affiliates has been discussed on and off for years, even before Fetting stepped down, according to three sources with knowledge of the firm.

Since the CEO's departure, pressure from affiliates to take the company private has again increased, according to one of the sources.

Legg Mason has been taking other steps to restructure the business. In December, the firm said it was acquiring Fauchier Partners, a fund-of-hedge-funds firm with $6 billion in assets, from BNP Paribas Investment Partners, and merging it with its own $17 billion funds-of-funds firm, Permal.

As part of that deal, Legg Mason said it had revised its employment deals and revenue sharing agreements with Permal, which could become a model for additional changes aimed at resolving tensions among its affiliated investment units.

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Ford hiring 2,200 U.S. white-collar staff as vehicle lineup expands

Detroit, Jan 21 : Ford Motor Co plans to fill 2,200 white-collar positions this year in product development and other units based in the United States as the automaker expands and updates its vehicle lineup worldwide.

About 75 percent of the jobs will be in engineering, manufacturing and information technology, Ford said in a statement, describing this as its largest increase in new salaried positions in more than a decade.

"As we expand our product lineup of fuel-efficient vehicles, we need more people in critical areas," said Joe Hinrichs, head of Ford's North and South American operations.

The No.2 U.S. automaker is relying in part on temporary workers and interns to fill those positions. Some of the jobs already exist, but are vacant at the moment.

Beyond that, Ford estimated that it will add about 900 new jobs to its current salaried workforce in North America. Ford cautioned that the figure is preliminary and could change.

Like many U.S. companies, Ford is tackling its growth goals with a smaller workforce than it had before the recession. In 2006, Ford employed 38,600 salaried workers in North America. At the end of last year, that figure was 28,400.

Still, Ford's current white-collar workforce has grown 13.6 percent in its largest and most profitable market since the depths of the U.S. economic recession in 2009.

Meanwhile, Ford is expanding and refreshing its models worldwide. In China, Ford aims to sell 15 models, up from its current five. It is also revamping it South American lineup and in Europe is launching 15 new or refreshed models over the next five years.

The 2,200 new salaried workers expected this year are in addition to more than 8,100 hourly and salaried workers Ford hired in the United States last year. About 1,000 were hourly jobs that were recently brought in-house that were once performed in other locations or by Ford suppliers in Mexico and Japan.

In 2011, Ford and the United Auto Workers union struck a deal that would require the automaker to create or retain 12,000 U.S. hourly jobs by 2015. Ford said it had fulfilled half of that commitment.

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Fed hawks worry about threat of inflation

Madison, Jan 21 : Two top Federal Reserve policymakers expressed discomfort with the U.S. central bank's easy monetary policy, in comments suggesting Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may face more dissent this year.

In remarks that stamped her as a hawk on the Fed's policy-setting committee, Kansas City Federal Reserve President Esther George warned that the Fed's near-zero interest-rate policy - aimed at boosting the economy - could spark inflation.

"A prolonged period of zero interest rates may substantially increase the risks of future financial imbalances and hamper attainment of the 2 percent inflation goal in the future," she said in her most extensive remarks in a year on policy.

"Monetary policy, by contributing to financial imbalances and instability, can just as easily aggravate unemployment as heal it," she said in a speech in Kansas City.

That stance is hardly representative of other influential officials at the central bank, including Bernanke and the vice chair, Janet Yellen.

Their view was more closely captured by comments from Narayana Kocherlakota, who noted inflation was forecast to remain below the central bank's 2 percent target for the foreseeable future, even by the Fed's own estimates.

"This forecast suggests that, if anything, monetary policy is currently too tight, not too easy," he said in remarks in Minneapolis.

Last month, the Fed voted to keep up asset purchases at an $85 billion monthly pace to lower borrowing costs and spur hiring. It said it would continue that policy, called quantitative easing, until it saw substantial improvement in the labor market outlook.

U.S. central bankers also pledged to hold interest rates near zero until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent, provided inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.5 percent.

George will cast her first vote this month on monetary policy since taking the helm at the Kansas City Fed in October 2011, while Kocherlakota is not a voter this year.

"The latest remarks from Kansas City Fed's Esther George have cemented the presence of a hawkish dissenter on the FOMC in 2013, with Richmond Fed's (Jeffrey) Lacker passing along the hawkish torch," said Gennadiy Goldberg, U.S. strategist at TD Securities.

Lacker was the lone dissenter on the Fed's policy-setting panel last year.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who votes as well this year on U.S. monetary policy, also warned about the potential for inflation, although he noted that inflation was so far running under the Fed's 2 percent goal.

"It is a very aggressive policy and it is making me a little bit nervous that we are overcommitting to the easy policy," he told reporters after a speech to the Wisconsin Bankers Association in Madison. "We are taking risk."

As Fed officials mull when to reduce or end the asset buying - some, including Bullard, say that could happen this year - the debate may focus on potential inflation as well as the outlook for the economy.

On the latter front, George was decidedly more downbeat than Bullard, saying she expected the U.S. economy to grow just above 2 percent in 2013, while unemployment falls about another half percentage point.

Bullard sees growth at 3.2 percent this year and next, he said, and sees the jobless rate dropping to 6.5 percent - the Fed's threshold for rethinking its low-rate policy - by the middle of next year. The U.S. jobless rate in December was 7.8 percent.

Kocherlakota predicts U.S. gross domestic product will expand at an annual pace of 2.5 percent in 2013 and 3 percent next year, estimates that put him on the weak end of Fed policymakers' forecasts.

"This growth will do little in terms of returning the economy to the historical trend," Kocherlakota said in prepared remarks to a Minneapolis Fed event. "Consistent with this slow output growth, I expect unemployment to continue to fall only slowly."

Minutes from the Fed's December meeting suggested George, while definitely on the hawkish end of the central bank's policy views, was not alone.

They said several voting FOMC members were concerned about possible risks to financial stability from the Fed's prolonged stimulus policies.

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Analysis: Glimmer of Japan reform hope among clouds of skepticism

Tokyo, Jan 21 : Doubting politicians' commitment to economic reform is a tough habit for Japan experts to kick, so the air of cautious optimism around the appointments of dynamic CEOs to advise on boosting industrial competitiveness comes as a bit of a surprise.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who returned to power last month after his business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) big election win, has prescribed a potent mix of government spending and easy money to revive a stagnant economy. But critics question whether he will also tackle the more painful structural reforms needed for longer-term growth.

The list of eight CEOs and an academic joining cabinet ministers in a panel to advise on steps for competitiveness, however, has raised hopes that Abe may have a bigger appetite for reform than first thought.

"Clearly, the 'wall of worry' over the next few months is that it's nothing but old-style LDP pork barrel," said Jesper Koll, director of equity research at JP Morgan in Tokyo. "But he's picked people from leading Japanese companies, old and new, with proven records of strong competitiveness in highly competitive industries. Will he dare tell them it was all for show? It's highly unlikely."

Among those tapped for the advisory panel are Hiroshi Mikitani, 47, CEO of e-commerce operator and Amazon.com Inc rival Rakuten Inc; convenience store chain Lawson Inc CEO Takeshi Niinami, 53; and construction equipment maker Komatsu Ltd Chairman Masahiro Sakane, 72, ranked by Harvard Business Review among the top 20 global CEOs in 2009.

Mikitani, for one, has been an outspoken critic of Japan's 'old guard' business leaders, dropping out of the biggest lobby Keidanren and starting his own rival group.

"My mission is to contribute to creating a framework that makes it easy to start venture businesses," local media quoted Mikitani as telling reporters, mentioning tax breaks and other steps.

Also included is academic Heizo Takenaka, an ex-economics minister who served as then-premier Junichiro Koizumi's reform czar during the latter's 2001-06 tenure and the arch-nemesis of many LDP politicians for favoring reforms that would hurt the interests of some of their staunchest supporters. Takenaka has also criticized Abe's plan to boost public works in light of the country's massive public debt, now more than twice the size of its economy.

Unlike the maverick Koizumi, Abe has no history of commitment to economic reforms. Indeed, during his first brief term in office, which ended with his abrupt resignation in 2007, Abe welcomed back rebels who had left the LDP to protest Koizumi's plan to privatize Japan's giant postal system.

This time, though, with another tough national election for parliament's upper house looming in July, Abe has made reviving the economy his top priority. The LDP and its coalition partner have a two-thirds majority in the lower house and so can over-ride rejections of bills by the upper chamber, but want to win a majority there to make enacting legislation smoother.

"The most urgent issue is that he needs to show results or lose the election, and he is working on all kinds of things to spend and print money that could produce results in the short-term," said Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute. "On the other hand, he has to follow up on structural policies - and this is where we could have some hope."

Still, skepticism remains strong given the deep resistance to change among many of the vested interest groups, such as doctors, farmers and small businesses, that could suffer from deregulation seen by many experts as key to generating growth in an economy whose population is ageing fast and shrinking.

"They've learned that 'It's the economy, stupid', but in terms of structural policies, most of Abe's supporters are not friends of structural reform," Schulz added. "That the LDP does nothing is still the most likely forecast."

Concerns persist that the LDP might slip into bailout-mode when it comes to key industries such as electronics, while the party remains deeply conflicted over joining a U.S.-led free trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), for fear of angering the powerful farm lobby ahead of the July poll.

"This is Japan and it's always going to be a kinder, gentler capitalism," Koll said. "They are still wavering on TPP and they aren't going to 'get religion' before the election because it cuts into vested interests."

Even if Abe takes on board recommendations crafted by the panel for a growth strategy to be drafted by June, some fear the reforms may help companies, but not the domestic economy itself.

"What the Abe government is thinking of as structural reform is ... how to reduce costs to boost the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector, so they can increase exports. But that will expand the current account surplus and the yen will rise again and competitiveness will decline," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo.

"What they are thinking about is how to reduce the corporate burden, rather than how to develop businesses that will help the Japanese economy develop," he said. "Because they are not just old-fashioned manufacturers, we can have some hope, but their concept is to make money from overseas demand.

"It's a half-step forward from focusing on public works and construction, but it doesn't mean a big change in thinking."

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American Express to cut 5,400 jobs, take charges in fourth quarter

New York, Jan 21: Credit card company American Express Co said it would cut about 5,400 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its workforce, as it restructures its business and pay legal bills.

The steps will cost the company about $600 million in charges in the fourth quarter after taxes, which will halve its net income.

Nearly $300 million of the charges are to cover restructuring, primarily in its travel division, to save money and adapt to the fact that customers increasingly book travel online and on their mobile phones instead of with travel agents.

The other half of the charges are for higher costs from customers redeeming more rewards for spending with cards, as well as $153 million of payments to reimburse customers that were overcharged or short-changed benefits.

American Express tends to cut staff at the beginning of recessions. But CEO Kenneth Chenault, speaking to stock analysts after the announcement, said spending with its cards continues to grow.

"This is not driven by our view of the macro environment," he said.

The company said the job cuts will happen over the year and come even as it hires some new employees and invests in more online customer service. The current workforce of 63,500 people will be about 4 to 6 percent smaller by the end of 2013.

The job reductions would be spread proportionately between the U.S. and international markets, New York-based AmEx said.

Even with the restructuring, Chenault said operating costs could increase by as much as 3 percent annually as the company spends more money for cardholder services, international expansion, and new products, such as prepaid debit cards.

At the same time, the company said that it is going to pay out $153 million to customers because of errors it made in charging fees and crediting people with rewards for spending with their cards.

Many of the reimbursements stem from previously-disclosed consent orders that the company reached with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in October. Others are for problems the company found as its went back into its records as far as seven years, Chief Financial Officer Dan Henry told analysts.

Some of the errors happened as the company got caught up in applying complex award formulas. For example, a cardmember who bought vegetables in a market that the company had not classified as a supermarket wrongly received half the reward points due, Henry said.

Cardholders due money will be notified directly in coming months, the company said.

"We are going to continue to work closely with regulators and strengthen our controls," Chenault said in a statement from the company.

The company also said that a previously-announced review of its model for forecasting how many of its member rewards will be redeemed showed that it was underestimating redemptions. The company now expects customers to redeem 94 percent of their rewards, instead of 93 percent, a difference that forced it to set aside an extra $342 million to cover the expense.

The change means the company will show about $40 million each year of additional expense, Henry said.

The cost is worthwhile, Chenault said, because customers who use the rewards programs more tend to use their cards for more of their spending and are less likely to switch to a different credit or charge card. Higher spending translates to higher revenue for the company from merchants who take the cards for payment.

Without the charges, the company said it would have reported fourth-quarter adjusted net income at $1.2 billion, or $1.09 per share. Instead, it said made $637 million, or 56 cents per share.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn $1.06 per share, excluding items, on revenue of $8.12 billion.

The charges, after tax, included $287 million for the restructuring, $212 million to account for the higher redemptions of rewards and $95 million for the customer errors.

The company said cardmember spending grew 8 percent in the fourth quarter, the third straight quarter of single-digit growth after nine quarters of double-digit growth. About two points that growth was due to changes in foreign exchange rates.

Consolidated total revenue net of interest expense rose 5 percent to $8.1 billion in the quarter.

AmEx will report more details about the quarter on January 17, when it originally planned to issue results.

Shares of the company fell slightly in trading after the announcement and the market-closing bell to $60.50. They closed at $60.79 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Narrow roads cause inconvenience, frequent traffic jams

Islamabad, Jan 21: The narrow roads in this held Kashmir town are causing tremendous inconvenience to the people besides causing frequent traffic jams.

 The roads network in the town is below par. “Though the traffic has increased manifold but the roads remain to be same,” the residents rue.

 They said the unabated encroachments on the road sides, state land and even the footpaths have made the things worse.

 “Due to the ill planning of the government there is a lot of overcrowding and congestion in the town as illegal constructions including shops continue to thrive with the tacit support of the municipal council authorities,” said Zahoor Ahmad, a resident.

 He said that it is even difficult for the pedestrians to walk through the narrow roads of the town not to speak of the vehicles. “Not a single day passes when you cannot see the traffic mess everywhere in the town putting the passengers as well as commuters to inconvenience,” he added.

 Residents of the town are of the opinion that government should go for widening of some of the important roads of the town viz, Mattan Chowk-Dangerpora road , Cheeni-Chowk-Janglat Mandi road , Janglat Mandi- Donipwa road , Reeshi Bazar road , Iqbal Market road, Kadipora-Sarnal road and Malakhnag-Sherpora road to overcome the problem of frequent traffic snarls.

 “The government and district administration should launch a drive against the encroachers,” they added.

 Residents have also demanded shifting of the Mini Bus Stand Terminal Mattan Adda to General Bus Stand to avoid traffic mess in the interior areas of the town.

 Authorities should also take on the illegal sumo stands and shift them at a proper place,” residents said.

They suggested that all the Sumo stands of the town can be relocated to Mattan Adda terminal and the available stand land behind Wazir Bagh.

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A 'Zero Option' for Afghanistan

Sunday, 20 January 2013

Kabul, Jan 20 : Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit this week to Washington marks one of the final big decision points in America's 11-year Afghanistan war.

This week's meetings are likely to determine the final U.S. footprint in Afghanistan after 2014, when all international combat operations are slated to end. And that residual number of U.S. forces could well be zero.

Recent reports suggest that the White House is looking at troop options ranging from 3,000 to as many as 15,000 stay-behind troops. Many think that the final figure will be well under 10,000. These numbers are much diminished from proposals seriously considered even 12 to 24 months ago of a long-term presence in the range of 20,000 to 35,000 troops. The realities of shrinking budgets and crumpled public support for the war have dramatically trimmed those expectations. In recent weeks, vigorous debate has been under way inside the administration in advance of Karzai's visit to sort out a minimalist approach that will protect long-term U.S. interests in the region, but do so with the absolute leanest outlay of dollars and troops.

Karzai comes to this week's discussions convinced that the United States desperately needs long-term military bases in Afghanistan. He sees an America without other viable options to maintain its regional influence, cajole Pakistan, threaten Iran, or launch raids against nearby terrorists. Because of this, Karzai thinks that he holds all the cards in the upcoming negotiations. He is absolutely convinced that the United States has no workable strategic choice but to station substantial U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014.

But Karzai has it wrong. There is strong sentiment in the United States to look at all the options. Here are five reasons why:

Iraq. The outcome of America's war in Iraq sets a strong precedent for a similar "zero" U.S. military posture in Central Asia. Iraq has not become an Iranian puppet state nor descended into chaos since the United States withdrew all its military forces at the end of 2011. The United States maintains a robust diplomatic presence there -- and presumably conducts intelligence activities -- to protect its interests. Iraqi political decisions are often at odds with U.S. preferences; few think that a U.S. troop presence would change that reality. Iraq's failure to grant remaining U.S. soldiers legal immunity from Iraqi law doomed any possibility of a residual force there; the same could happen in Afghanistan, and withdrawal could be seen as an equally viable outcome by many Americans.

Budgetary pressure. With a debt crisis and crumbling infrastructure at home, enthusiasm on Capitol Hill for spending taxpayer dollars on foreign adventures is at an all-time low. The recent action to avert the fiscal cliff has delayed, but not fixed, the substantial imbalance between U.S. spending and revenue. A perpetual flow of billions of aid dollars to Afghanistan after 2014 -- for U.S. troops or for Afghans -- will be a much tougher sell two years from now than it is today. And it is very tough today.

War weariness. By 2014, the United States will have been at war in Afghanistan for over 12 years. The connection between Afghanistan and the 9/11 attacks has frayed deeply since Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. forces in 2011. With over 2,000 Americans killed and another 17,000 wounded in over a decade of inconclusive fighting, most Americans are looking for an exit from a seemingly interminable war. Maintaining congressional and popular support for an unending deployment of thousands of U.S. troops after 12 years at war will be supremely difficult, even more so if casualties continue.

Stand-off capabilities. The United States has powerful remote intelligence, surveillance, and strike capabilities that could only be dreamed of in the 1990s. These capabilities increasingly can be employed from "stand-off" distances, with a few flying from as far as the United States. Some of these capabilities require regional basing, but Afghanistan is not the only country that can provide low-visibility basing options. Drones have changed the face of warfare, and used in concert with U.S. intelligence into remote areas, they are increasingly lethal to terrorists.

U.S. intelligence networks. Eleven years of extensive quiet intelligence efforts partnered with Afghans (and Pakistanis) have created a deep web of friendly contacts that will be maintained long after 2014. In some ways, the post-2014 environment in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area could evolve into a prolonged "intelligence war," with hundreds of U.S. operatives and billions of covert dollars invested in preventing further terrorist attacks on the United States. Given its vital importance, this undertaking will endure -- regardless of the size of the residual U.S. military presence.

U.S. President Barack Obama will have to weigh the substantial risks inherent in a "Zero Option" for Afghanistan. Absent the stabilizing influence of some numbers of U.S. troops, Afghanistan could slip back into chaos, experiencing a new version of the devastating civil war that rent the country in the 1990s. The ability to see and strike terrorist groups that aim to attack the United States or its allies from within the region would be degraded. Al Qaeda could surge into growing ungoverned spaces and perhaps re-establish a more prominent foothold. U.S. influence on a nuclear-armed Pakistan would undoubtedly lessen if U.S. troops were no longer stationed next door. And the potential for the United States to put pressure on Iran from U.S. forces posted near its eastern border would vanish. By any measure, it is a suboptimal posture for the United States in the region, but not necessarily an untenable one.

Obama must consider all these risks as he sits down with Karzai to hammer out this last chapter of the war. Karzai would be wise to avoid overplaying his hand. Even though the Zero Option is not the best choice to protect American long-term regional interests, it certainly remains on the table. Overreach on Karzai's part could easily sour prospects for any sort of enduring U.S. military presence.

For Americans, the Afghanistan war is entering its final phase. Obama knows that this war will end on his watch. His legacy as president will inevitably be shaped by its outcome. Whether U.S. troops ultimately stay or leave Afghanistan after 2014 may now come down to just one week of tough bargaining. Each nation has a great deal at stake.

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The open question of Afghanistan

Kabul,. Jan 20 : Most speculation has focused on how rapidly the remaining 60,000-plus U.S. combat troops will be withdrawn and how many will be permanently assigned there after 2014. But as the U.S. financial belt is being tightened, people want to know the financial cost, for how long and what will be accomplished.

The fiscal 2013 Defense Authorization Act contains $4.7 billion for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), an amount that the U.S. government can’t continue to expend. The House-Senate conferees on the bill, realizing that Afghan support must be reduced, called for an independent study of what size the ANSF should be to make certain that Afghanistan will not again serve as a training camp for terrorists. The Afghans cannot support the security forces that the United States and its allies have created. That means Washington will have to pay or get others to join in future funding of Kabul’s forces.

“There are no public U.S. plans that show how the Obama administration will deal with either the civil or military aspects of this transition between now and the end of 2014, or in the years that follow,” Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote last week. A former Pentagon official who has closely followed the 10- year war in Afghanistan, Cordesman questioned recent Pentagon statements of continuing successes, saying his reading of official reports shows “there has been no meaningful military progress since the end of 2010.”

He also wrote, “The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have never issued a remotely credible report on the progress and impact of the civilian surge or any aspect of the civil aid program.”

The real issue, Cordesman said, “is the future size of the civil-military effort, not the military effort alone. Any debate or analysis of the future U.S. role in Afghanistan that does not tie the two together is little more than intellectual and media rubbish.”

High on the Obama-Karzai agenda is a status-of-forces or similar agreement that would authorize a U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after 2014. Discussions have been underway since November. One has to only look back at Iraq to see the pitfalls that may arise before the two sides can reach such an agreement. Not the least is getting an Afghan-U.S. guarantee over which country will exercise criminal jurisdiction over U.S. personnel and under what circumstances.

Karzai, who is set to give up the presidency next year, has his own wish list that seems to include a long-term U.S. presence, but under Afghan terms. He has a list that “he has enumerated for months in public speeches, including accusations that the United States has fomented corruption in Afghanistan and continues to violate the country’s sovereignty,” according to The Washington Post’s Kabul correspondent Kevin Sieff.

One of Karzai’s favorite subjects is the U.S. approval of contracts “with [Afghan] warlords who use the money for their own gains,” according to his spokesman, Aimal Faizi. While one of the U.S. complaints about the Afghan government is its corruption, Karzai has repeatedly said that corruption is “imposed on us, and it is meant to weaken our system.”

A glance at the contracts awarded or offered in the first week of January shows how deeply committed the U.S. operation is in Afghanistan.

Construction contracts alone awarded last week totaled $41.3 million to build various facilities for elements of the ANSF and other government agencies. The largest was for $14.2 million to build a national fire training academy near Kabul that would be “for a population of 350 personnel to include students, instructors, mentors, administration and support staff,” according to the award notice.

Also awarded were contracts to construct a $3.4 million Afghan Border Police headquarters in Farah province; a $3.3 million Class B fire station for the Afghan National Police (ANP) in Ghor province; a $4.3 million expansion of Afghan army facilities in Helmand province; a $5.6 million supply facility for the ANP in Baghlan province; a $6.8 million expansion of facilities for the Afghan army and air force combined wing in Kandahar province; and $3.8 million to expand facilities at Camp Zafar in Herat province, which I wrote about last week.

New contracts also were in the offing. For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking a contractor to upgrade the Afghan army’s Khair Khot garrison in Paktika province. The work, to involve 25 structures, would include “a new compound for a Transient Kandak [Afghan battalion of about 600], an Operations Coordination Center, additional barracks and latrines for existing units already fielded, two literacy training classrooms and utility upgrades,” according to the government notice.

Remember, this was just the first week in January, and the United States is planning to be in Afghanistan 51 more weeks this year. It would be much better for Obama and Karzai to end their meeting with a specific list of what exactly will be involved rather than empty words saying they will continue to support each other in the fight against terrorists.

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Saving Afghanistan

Kabul, Jan 20 : In the year 2000, well before the tragic Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent liberation of Afghanistan, a secret meeting took place in northern Afghanistan, one of the few areas not conquered by the Taliban.

A man named Hamid Karzai, as part of a delegation representing the former king of Afghanistan, flew in to meet Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the anti-Taliban United Front, and me to discuss the future of the country.

Our conversation might have seemed presumptuous, focused as it was on outlining a post-Taliban government.

Following 9/11 and the global response, these ideas became the structure for the future Afghan government. But today, despite incredible amounts of blood and treasure and unprecedented support from the United States and the international community, Afghanistan is perceived as on the brink of collapse, with the shadow of the 2014 withdrawal date casting a pall on everything from soldier morale to the economy.

Despite the overwhelming list of challenges, however, from corruption to an economy dependent on foreign aid, Afghanistan can still experience a successful political transition in 2014. For this to happen, all the stakeholders involved must stop thinking strictly in terms of military means.

Afghanistan arrived at this point through a tragic combination of errors, some internal and some external. The initial mistake was to entrust President Karzai with the sacred duty of securing the fate of our embattled nation. His lack of faith in his fellow countrymen is perhaps best exemplified by his request that the CIA, even before he was officially inaugurated as president, provide bodyguards to protect him not from al Qaeda but from the Afghans who helped install him in power. Despite high hopes, he has rarely pursued local support for his policies and alienated many U.S. and international partners with his xenophobic pronouncements, thus tainting any opportunity for genuine leadership.

Karzai's lack of trust led directly to the ill-conceived policy of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration, best described as Iraqi-style de-Baathification but in practice targeted against those who had fought as U.S. allies against the Taliban. The end result was a power vacuum that pitted a government with limited resources and capability against a nascent but determined and foreign-supported insurgency. Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's fateful decision to continue to view elements of the Taliban, and Islamic extremism more broadly, as a strategic asset for use in Afghanistan set the stage for the current conflict and fed the insecurity, while the United States became more focused on Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, and the rise of China.

Yet other obstacles to success in Afghanistan are much harder to quantify. The tolerance of the Afghan government and foreigners alike toward high-brow corruption has today become a significant threat to a stable Afghanistan, along with the Taliban. It would be a tragic mistake for the international community to conclude that democracy doesn't work in Afghanistan, while the only thing that doesn't work is democracy as Karzai's government understands it. The Afghan government has done little to ensure that the institutions of democracy, from our parliament to our courts and civil society, are supported and nurtured. Instead, it has confused the Afghan people by being passive toward corruption and pursuing an inconsistent and ambivalent policy regarding reconciliation with the armed insurgency. As the current Afghan government has repeatedly made clear, a red line of reconciliation with the Taliban must be their acceptance of the Constitution -- and Karzai needs to illustrate his own commitment to this same standard. No wonder Afghans feel no connection to this government and understand democracy to be code language for anarchy.

Because of these countless psychological and structural missteps, influential, democratically minded Afghans -- and those who support them -- must focus more sharply on a political transition, without which any "military transition" will ultimately be meaningless. And for a successful political transition, Afghanistan needs every country involved in its rebuilding effort to send a clear message to today's Afghan leadership demanding a democratic transition of power based on the principles of free and fair elections. Instead of abandoning democracy because it hasn't worked under a kleptocracy, Afghanistan and the international community must clean it up.

Can this be done in just over a year? Yes. The time until the 2014 elections must be used to implement procedures that support democracy. Our international partners, in particular the United States, should ensure the positioning of foreign observers to keep a clean tally of the votes. Karzai and the Afghan parliament should approve new voter registration procedures to ensure that every voter's voice -- new and old -- is heard. Our parliament needs to mandate the vetting of all election officials who will oversee election centers, rather than accepting them as a result of presidential decree, as they are now. There needs to be an independent body to resolve all electoral disputes -- an independent Electoral Complaints Commission whose members are selected transparently and with meaningful consultations among Afghan political opposition groups, parliament, civil society, and others.

Karzai must clearly illustrate his willingness both to step down when his constitutionally limited time is up and to promise not to interfere in the election process, addressing the top two concerns of the Kabul political elite. Taking into account our recent presidential and parliamentary elections in 2009 and 2010, state resources should not be used to influence the outcome of the elections.

The political transition, based entirely on credible and transparent elections, is of paramount importance because it will restore the Afghan people's faith and sense of ownership in their government. Despite all the fraud and mismanagement in previous elections, it is, remarkably, not yet lost. And if the government obtains this mandate from the people, it can act with confidence on issues from dealing with the Taliban to stabilizing the economy and receiving long-term assistance from the West and the international community that will ensure Afghanistan's security, stability, and prosperity. By playing a constructive role in facilitating necessary electoral reforms and overseeing a credible and legitimate transfer of power in 2014, Karzai can still take advantage of this unique opportunity and moment in Afghan history to be remembered as a reformist.

The structure of Afghanistan's political process, which was discussed in that meeting in 2000, further implemented in the 2001 Bonn agreement, and painfully built over the past decade, is still the right one. But work remains on that central point -- ensuring that every person gets the opportunity to choose his or her government. With a push from the international community, and in particular, the United States, to help Afghanistan conduct free and fair elections, Afghanistan can be saved -- and move into the next decade from a position of strength. Together with our international partners, the Afghan nation has come a long way in our transition toward democracy and stability. We must march on forward.

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Gun Owners on Gun Violence: Education, enforcement, but not fewer guns

New York, Jan 20: The NRA's Wayne LaPierre stoked emotion on both sides of the gun-control debate in December when he suggested that armed guards in American schools would prevent tragedies like the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will announce a push for stricter firearms legislation, including broadening an assault-weapons ban and limiting high-volume magazines.

President Barack Obama, while not as a specific, told the country shortly after Newtown that the nation has "an obligation to try" any measures that will reduce gun-related violence. He tapped Vice President Joe Biden to lead a task force to explore options.

Very public efforts and ideas notwithstanding, it is also everyday gun owners (80 million strong) who sway much of the firearms debate in the United States. A CBS News poll from December says 57 percent of Americans believe the country needs stricter gun-control laws, an 18-point surge since last spring.

This week, Yahoo News asked gun owners how they'd specifically address gun-related violence. We received a variety of suggestions—focus on the mentally ill, educate more and increase gun ownership—but, perhaps not surprisingly, not one advocated for fewer guns.

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Trail of Cheetos leads to store robber

Washington, Jan 20 : Police nabbed a South Carolina teenager when they followed a trail of Cheetos leading from a convenience store to a local residence where he was staying.

Austin Lee Westfall Presler, 19, was arrested on January 6 in Kershaw County, S.C., after allegedly stealing beer, cigarettes, snacks and energy drinks from the local Cassatt Country Store, WLTX reported. Calls placed to Kershaw County sheriff's office by ABCNews.com were not immediately returned.

Store manager Howard "Buck" Buckholz told ABCNews.com that Presler only stole $160 worth of goods, but caused upwards of $2,500 worth of damage.

"The fella broke in our store," he said. "We were called at 3:15 a.m. The fuel truck fella said that the front door had been knocked in, so he called it in. He knocked out our front door, he knocked out the beer cooler, and stole beer, cigarettes, Slim Jims, and in his haste, he punctured two or three bags of Cheetos."

Those Cheetos were strewn all over the store's floor and in the doorway. Buckholz said that a neighbor across the street told him and police that the car Presler was driving was parked across the street at the Hard Times Café.

"Cheetos were all over the parking lot, at the place where he parked his car, and at the residence," Buckholz said.

Presler does not live in the area, but was staying with someone that lives less than 1/5 of a mile from his store, Buckholz said.

"He was very easy to catch," he said. "It was a very quick deal."

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Teachers flock to gun courses as gun-violence debate heats up

New York, Jan 20 : Free gun courses aimed at teachers and school administrators in Utah, Texas, North Carolina and Ohio have attracted hundreds of applicants in the wake of the shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The classes provide gun training and a concealed carry license for those who qualify. Gerard Valentino, a co-founder of the Buckeye Firearms advocacy group in Ohio, said more than 900 teachers and administrators have signed up to take the three-day class his organization is offering at the Tactical Defense Institute in West Union, Ohio. Local news reports out of Utah, Texas and North Carolina suggest that hundreds more teachers are undergoing gun training in those states as well.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has sent armed volunteers to patrol areas around about 50 schools this week, and a city council in a small town in Utah is considering passing a resolution that encourages all teachers to carry concealed weapons to schools.

The vast majority of teachers are not allowed to bring weapons to school, training or no training. It's unclear how many school districts allow teachers to carry weapons, but at least one district in Texas and all the districts in Utah do so. A handful of states, including Ohio, do not expressly prohibit guns on school campuses, in theory leaving it up to local governments and school districts to decide. But it doesn't appear that any district in Ohio does allow guns in schools. State lawmakers in Tennessee and other states are weighing legislation to change this, however, and to open up schools to armed teachers.

One middle school teacher in Central Ohio said she decided to sign up for the gun course because in the Newtown shooting, many of the teachers who followed the school's security procedures exactly were still unable to save their kids. "I love my students; they are everything to me," said Carly, who asked that her real name not be used because her school district does not want employees talking about the issue. "I would do anything to protect them. Putting them in a lockdown drill and hiding them in the closet isn't enough. It's time for something to change."

Carly says she could hide her weapon with an ankle or bra holster, so that none of her students will ever know that she's carrying a weapon.

Many have expressed concern and even disbelief at the idea of arming teachers as a way to combat gun violence. The disconnect points to a big split in the way Americans view the problem of gun violence, with one side calling for fewer restrictions on legal gun owners and the other pushing for more restrictions and fewer guns.

“Guns have no place in our schools. Period,” said the presidents of both major teachers' union in a rare joint statement last month. The union heads called the idea "disturbing."

"More guns are not the answer. Freedom is not a handgun on the hip of every teacher," Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, a Democrat, said in a speech.

Vice President Joe Biden said the White House would move quickly to address gun crime and that Obama would turn to executive action if Congress won't cooperate. While Biden didn't outline specifics, many expect Obama to push for more thorough background checks for every gun buyer and possibly a ban on certain kinds of semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity ammo clips. The gun used in the Newtown shooting was an AR-15 type of semi-automatic rifle that was legally purchased by the shooter's mother, according to authorities. It's one of the best-selling guns in the country.

Meanwhile, National Rifle Association Vice President Wayne LaPierre argues that "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Valentino, the Ohio gun advocate, notes that a school shooter in Pearl, Miss., in 1997 was killed by an assistant principal who ran to his car to get his rifle. If capable teachers were armed, more shooters could be stopped, he said.

According to a recent Christian Science Monitor poll, 64 percent of Americans support an increased police presence at schools. That's the recommendation of school safety expert Ken Trump, who says it's a bad idea for schools to allow teachers to be armed.

"There is a huge difference between having trained, certified and commissioned law enforcement officers who are full-time, career public safety professionals that are armed and assigned the duty of protecting students and staff versus having teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other non-public safety professionals packing a gun in school with hundreds of children," Trump wrote.

Many districts say they can't afford to pay a police officer to be at every school, however. Carly, the Ohio teacher, says her school has only a part-time officer on the premises.

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Attorneys spar over fate of California boy who killed neo-Nazi dad

Riverside, Jan 20 : A lawyer for a California boy accused of murdering his neo-Nazi father urged a judge on Wednesday to convict his client of a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, citing what he termed an abusive upbringing.

But a prosecutor told the court that Joseph Hall, who both sides agree shot his father at point blank range in May 2011 when he was 10 years old, knew at the time his actions were wrong, and that abuse allegations cited by the defense were a diversion.

"Joseph was not raised in the home described by the defense here," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Michael Soccio said during his closing remarks in the high-profile trial. "It doesn't exist. It's fiction, a smoke screen, a red herring."

Defense lawyers concede that Hall, now 12, shot his 32-year-old father, a regional director of the National Socialist Movement, with his own gun, but argue that the boy should not be held criminally responsible.

The case in Riverside, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, has made headlines because of Jeffrey Hall's neo-Nazi associations and the rarity of a parent being killed by a child so young.

Kathleen Heide, a criminologist who specializes in juvenile offenders, has said that 8,000 murder victims over the past 32 years were slain by their offspring, but only 16 of those crimes were committed by defendants aged 10 or younger.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jean Leonard, who is hearing the juvenile case without a jury, was expected to render her verdict on Monday.

Because Hall is a minor, the purpose of the trial is not to determine guilt or innocence, but whether certain allegations about his motives are true. If he is found responsible for the crime, he could be sent to a juvenile facility until he is 23.

Defense lawyers have said the boy was conditioned by his father's violent, racist behavior and that he killed him to put an end to physical abuse.

Defense attorney Matthew Hardy - who on Monday withdrew his young client's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity - told Leonard that Hall should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter because he was essentially acting in self-defense.

Hardy displayed a photo of Hall, his father and an unidentified young girl standing with a man who was wearing Ku Klux Klan robes. Hall was holding a toy gun in the picture.

"I put this photo up to show the type of conditioning Joseph had," he said. "This young man never had a chance in his life. He was pre-programmed to act immorally."

A psychologist called as a witness by the defense testified during the trial that the boy had been conditioned to violence by years of physical, emotional and likely sexual abuse.

But Soccio called Jeffrey Hall a "loving father" who taught his son to be nonviolent despite his own neo-Nazi ties, and said the boy "made the choice" to kill.

Prosecutors say Hall, who lived with four siblings, shot his father because he thought he was planning to divorce his stepmother, Krista McCary. Prosecutors said the boy was close to McCary and considered her his true mother.

"The proper finding should be murder," he said. "The evidence is ample that it was premeditated and planned."

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Mother of serial killer Ted Bundy dies in Wash.

Tacoma, Jan 20 : Louise Bundy, who was a staunch defender of her serial killer son, Ted Bundy, before he made a series of death-row confessions, has died. She was 88.

She died last month in her hometown of Tacoma after a long illness, The News Tribune newspaper reported.

Her death was confirmed by the Rev. Melvin Woodworth, pastor of Tacoma's First United Methodist Church, which she attended from 1951 until a few years ago, when her health prevented her.

In the mid-1970s, Louise Bundy was a married mother of five working as a secretary at the University of Puget Sound when authorities across the nation began to accuse her eldest son in a series of gruesome killings.

For years, she refused to believe the charges.

"Ted Bundy does not go around killing women and little children!" she told The News Tribune in 1980 after Ted Bundy was convicted in the Florida killings. "And I know this, too, that our never-ending faith in Ted - our faith that he is innocent - has never wavered. And it never will."

Her stance softened after Ted Bundy made a number of death-row confessions, the newspaper reported.

He ultimately confessed to murdering more than two dozen women and was executed in 1989 after being convicted of killing two Florida State University sorority members and a 12-year-old girl.

Louise Bundy spoke with him twice on his execution day, telling him at the end of the second call, "You'll always be my precious son."

Ted Bundy was among some of the notorious criminals who have been represented by Seattle lawyer John Henry Browne. He recalled Louise Bundy as "very quiet, very much concerned about her son."

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Browne said he hadn't spoken with Louise Bundy in several decades but had flown to Florida with her several times after Bundy was arrested there.

"I do know her insistence on Ted's innocence actually waned even before he started confessing, but her love for him certainly didn't," Browne said.

Louise Bundy remained in Tacoma following her son's execution and was an active member of the First United Methodist Church.

Her son's troubles took a toll, the newspaper reported. Louise Bundy and her husband, John Bundy, endured jokes and dirty looks over the years and often changed their telephone number to avoid angry calls.

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NYC crane collapses, 7 people hurt, 3 seriously

New York, Jan 20 : A 200-foot crane collapsed onto a building under construction near the East River waterfront Wednesday, injuring seven people, three of them seriously.

A two-story framework for the residential building in the New York City borough of Queens had been erected when the red crane toppled and went sprawling across it around 2:30 p.m. behind a big neon "Pepsi Cola" sign, a local landmark.

The three people who were seriously injured were in stable condition.

One person appeared to have a broken bone. Three people had to be extricated from underneath the crane, Deputy Fire Chief Mark Ferran said.

Preston White, 48, a carpenter from the Bronx, was on his first day on the job at the site in the Long Island City neighborhood.

He had turned to speak to a friend when he heard a popping sound and turned back around.

At that moment, "I saw the cable whipping toward the deck. ... You could just hear it buckling," White said.

The impact shook the scaffolding he was on.

The crane cut down the framework of the building "like a hot knife in butter," White said, because there was no plaster on it yet.

A fellow worker, Russell Roberson, 32, of Brooklyn, said the crane had been up about four days — and went down really fast.

City officials went up in a cherry picker while investigating the accident.

Construction cranes have been a source of safety worries in the city since two giant rigs collapsed within two months of each other in Manhattan in 2008, killing a total of nine people.

Those accidents spurred the resignation of the city's buildings commissioner and fueled new safety measures, including hiring more inspectors and expanding training requirements and inspection checklists.

Another crane fell and killed a worker in April at a construction site for a new subway line. That rig was exempt from most city construction safety rules because it was working for a state-overseen agency that runs the subway system.

During Superstorm Sandy, a construction crane atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds and danged precariously for several days until it could be tethered.

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BlackRock to buy Credit Suisse's European ETFs

New York, Jan 20  : BlackRock Inc has won the bidding for Credit Suisse Group AG's European exchange-traded fund business, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The deal is expected to be announced shortly, said the source, who declined to be identified because the deal is not yet public. The value of the deal could not be determined.

A BlackRock spokeswoman and a Credit Suisse spokeswoman declined to comment.

Credit Suisse put its $17.6 billion ETF unit up for sale in October, sources said at the time.

In November, Credit Suisse said it was integrating its private banking and asset management divisions into a new wealth management unit.

BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors, the asset management arm of State Street Corp, were among the companies bidding for the business, but State Street dropped out of the bidding in December.

Credit Suisse is the fourth largest ETF provider in Europe, with 58 ETFs and a 5.3 percent market share as of December 31, according to ETFGI, a London-based ETF research firm.

BlackRock is the largest ETF provider in Europe, with more than 42 percent of the $331 billion European ETF market. Its 202 European iShares ETFs had $139.6 billion in assets as of December 31, the research firm said.

Credit Suisse's ETF business would be the second international ETF business BlackRock has acquired in the past several months.

BlackRock bought Toronto-based Claymore Investments, a Canadian ETF operation, from Guggenheim Partners LLC, in March.

"This acquisition shows BlackRock's further commitment to being the dominant player in ETFs in every market they are in," said Dave Nadig, director of research at IndexUniverse LLC, a San Francisco-based firm that tracks ETFs.

In October, BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence Fink said it was looking at a "fill-in ETF acquisition in another country.

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KFC's parent apologizes to China customers over handling of food scare

Shanghai, Jan 20 : Fast-food chain KFC's parent Yum Brands Inc apologized to customers in China over its handling of a recent food scare that has hit the company's sales in its biggest market.

"We regret shortcomings in our self-checking process, a lack of internal communication," Su Jingshi, chairman and chief executive of Yum China, wrote on the company's Weibo microblog.

Yum, which gets more than half of its revenue and operating profit from China, warned that bad publicity from the safety review of its chicken suppliers had hit sales in China harder than expected in the fourth quarter.

Subsequent findings by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration found the levels of antibiotics and steroids in Yum's current batch of KFC chicken supply were safe, though the watchdog found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested.

The scandal erupted when the official China Central Television reported in late December that some of the chicken supplied to KFC and McDonald's Corp contained excess amounts of antiviral drugs and hormones used to accelerate growth.

A spokesman for Yum said that the firm had stopped using the two suppliers before the official probe was announced, after its own random tests showed they were not meeting Yum's own standards.

Yum's Su also apologized for the company's failure to actively report test results to the government and a lack of transparency and speed in its external communication.

Nonetheless, the bad publicity has hurt KFC's image in China, where Western brands are often regarded as safer and higher quality than Chinese peers, an important factor as food safety is often near the top of the list of consumer concerns.

"They do finally apologize now, but it's too late. I don't know if other people will forgive them or not, but I certainly won't!" wrote Jackson_Dong on popular microblog site Sina Weibo.

Yum, which has more than 5,100 restaurants in China and is the largest Western restaurant operator in China, pulled some products in 2005 because they contained "Sudan Red" dye, which was banned from use in food due to concerns it could lead to an increased risk of cancer.

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