Out with the troops, in with the Afghan investment?

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Kabul, Jan 13 : Foreign forces are preparing to leave the country, capital is fleeing, and it's the Afghan government's job to stop it.

To meet its objective, the Afghan Finance Ministry has drafted a package of incentives to assure companies and individual that their investments in Afghanistan will be safe after the expected withdrawal of Western troops in 2014.

Outlined in a bill facing a parliamentary vote in February, the incentives would reward those who invest in the country over the next two years with significant tax breaks and the right to purchase land for a symbolic price.

Najibullah Manalai, an adviser to Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal, says the manufacturing, mining, and agricultural sectors would be the most likely areas of investment.

According to the Afghan National Bank, at least $4.6 billion has been taken out of Afghanistan in the past year, a development that has been attributed to fears over increased insecurity and corruption after the 2014 pullout.

Manalai downplays the impact the NATO withdrawal will have on the Afghan economy, but he acknowledges the incentive package is intended to "minimize such economic effects."

"We don't think there would be a major economic impact, but we are concerned about such speculation in the mass media," he says. "Such speculation could easily lead to economic downturn. So our aim is to counter such speculation and also to attract investors to Afghanistan over the next two years, which is a sensitive period."

According to Finance Ministry spokesman Wahid Tawhidi, the goal is to entice entities willing to invest at least $1 million each into the country's ailing economy.

"Investors will be exempt from tax and customs duties for the next 10 years," Tawhidi says. The spokesman says that companies would be given land effectively free of charge and electricity would be made available at a fraction of the current rates.

"In addition, if some companies are willing to invest but don't have enough money, we would help them to borrow the money from two state-owned banks -- the National Bank and the Pashtani Tujarati Bank," Tawhidi says. "Five hundred million dollars would be allocated for this purpose. We would enable them to borrow the money with low tax and low interest rates and to invest it in the Afghan economy."

While the incentives are looked upon as a potential boon to government coffers, not everyone shares the Finance Ministry's optimism that they can win over investors.

"Afghanistan has two major problems that scare away investors, and they are corruption and a lack of security," says Azarakhsh Hafizi of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Afghanistan ranks among the three most-corrupt countries in the world in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

"When investors have to bribe to operate and have to pay for additional security measures because of the constant attacks and kidnappings, it costs them more money to stay here," Hafizi says.

The Afghan government has had trouble providing security even for some of its most high-profile foreign investors.

Earlier this year, a group of Chinese miners left Afghanistan after militants attacked the Aynak copper mine in eastern Logar Province. The deal to lease the mine to the China Metallurgical Group for 30 years was the country's biggest private business venture when it was agreed in 2007.

The government has high hopes for similar investments in Afghanistan's lucrative energy and mineral sectors. The country boasts significant copper, iron, gold, and oil and gas reserves. Manalai notes that the goal is for revenue generated from investment in these areas to eventually "provide half of the country's gross domestic product."

Nasiruddin Shansab, the head of the U.S.-based Afghanistan-Central Asia Transnational Company LLC, says Afghanistan's natural resources and its geographical location offer great investment potential.

However, "in the climate of constant security threats and notoriously widespread culture of bribery," Afghanistan isn't going to see major Western companies rushing to invest there anytime soon, says the Afghan-born businessman.

"Tax breaks and other incentives for investors exist everywhere," Shansab says. "Afghanistan should know that it is competing with the rest of world to get investors."

Afghan officials insist they have been addressing the corruption issues. As a part of the campaign against corruption, the country has introduced so-called merit-based hiring tests to employ managers to government agencies. Several district governors and deputy provincial governors have recently been appointed after passing such tests, scrutinized by independent monitors.

The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries' Hafizi says the country still has a long way to go to eliminate corruption. "But I wouldn't say it's an impossible task," he says.

As for the lack of security, Hafizi believes many investors will still stay and watch what happens beyond 2014.

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Troops' role changing as 2012 ends in Afghanistan

London, Jan 13 : There has not been a British fatality for more than a month in Helmand. In part, it can be explained by the quieter winter - the insurgency is at its most deadly during the hot summer months. But it also reflects the changing role of the British military as they prepare to pull out.

It is the Afghan police and army that are now largely leading the fight, as British forces are lowering their profile. Nearly 60% of the British military bases in Helmand have either been handed over to the Afghans or dismantled.

Over the past year the British forces' focus, along with their Nato allies, has been on training up the Afghan security forces, in what is now becoming a more advisory role.

It is a task that still comes with risks, and 2012 has seen a dramatic rise in so-called "insider" or "green on blue" attacks, when rogue Afghans in uniform target foreign troops. A quarter of the 44 British troops who have died in Helmand this year have been killed in such attacks.

The most recent "insider attack" on a British soldier took place at Camp Shawqat in Nad Ali. Capt Walter Barrie was shot dead by an Afghan in uniform as he was playing football on Remembrance, the last British fatality of 2012.

His comrades who witnessed the tragedy are still training Afghans to detect roadside bombs on the same patch of muddy sand on which he was killed.

Capt Barrie's friend, Maj Andy Lumley, admits the incident gave his men "pause for thought". But he said in a show of "sheer bloody-mindedness" they were out playing football with the Afghans again the next day. Maj Lumley says the men still grieve for Capt Barrie, but they will not allow one incident to derail the mission.

There are, though, some doubts about the mission, which is training up the Afghans to provide their own security. While nearly every soldier in Helmand talked of real progress when asked, there is still a recognition that hard-fought gains could be lost.

Kingsman Ben Shaun of 1 Lancs sounded optimistic about the future, but if you read his words carefully you will detect concerns shared by other British soldiers regarding what will happen when they leave.

"Hopefully they'll keep to it. Maybe not as much now we're not there observing what they're doing. Maybe they'll slack it a little bit. But hopefully we don't have to come back and do the same job again," he says.

An Afghan military depot illustrates part of the the problem. Afghan engineers are able to carry out repairs on their old American Humvees, but outside the workshop there are more than 100 idle vehicles, waiting for spare parts. The logistical supply chain has still not been sorted out. How will they cope when international troops leave with all their kit and help?

Yet the British commander in Helmand, Brig Bob Bruce, is convinced that it is the right time to hand over control to the Afghan security forces. He says "they're ready and have huge pride in the job".

That is certainly shown by the top Afghan Army commander in central Helmand, Brig Gen Sherin Shah. He has been fighting the Taliban for more than a decade and his chin bears a large shrapnel scar to prove it. The insurgency has proved resilient, but so has he.

Gen Sherin Shah says he is not worried about the British withdrawal from Helmand, as it is not "sudden" but carefully planned. He insists the 438 British troops who have lost their lives in Afghanistan "have not died in vain". Before the British came, he says, Helmand was a violent province with no security and no democracy. Now 65,000 boys and girls are able to go to school.

There are real signs of progress in Helmand. But there are also reminders of the failures of past foreign intervention. Camp Shawqat, where Captain Walter Barrie died, is surrounded by the ruins of an old fort. The sandy mud walls that glow in the winter evening sun were built and occupied by British forces in the second Anglo Afghan War. But they were driven out and defeated in 1882.

This time the hope is that Britain will have left a more enduring legacy. But for now it is a "hope" and not a guarantee.

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Afghans seek more military hardware

Kabul, Jan 13 : Afghanistan's military leaders are preparing a weaponry wish list ahead of the withdrawal of most international troops, amid concerns about the ability of Afghan forces to take the lead on the country's security.

At the top of the list: more and better aircraft. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Air Force recently scrapped plans to equip Afghanistan with a fleet of refurbished transport planes, leaving the Afghan military with a crucial gap in its ability to move troops and cargo around the country.

Afghan Defense Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi told reporters at a press conference in Kabul that the lack of planes was a "serious challenge" for the Afghan military. "Sixteen transport planes were delivered but they weren't useful," he said.

The U.S. Air Force earlier this month notified Alenia Aermacchi North America, a unit of the Italian defense conglomerate Finmeccanica SpA, FNC.MI -0.46% that it would not renew a contract to maintain and support 20 refurbished cargo planes for the Afghan military because the company didn't deliver enough aircraft in good working order.

"It's all a bit surprising that this decision is being made now when the [remediation] plan is being fully implemented," a representative of Alenia said last week.

Mr. Mohammadi expressed the hope that Afghanistan's international partners would step in to provide transportation planes sometime next year. "Until then, we will mostly rely on NATO planes," he said.

The cargo plane development cast a spotlight on some major shortfalls in Afghanistan's military inventory. For several years, Afghanistan and its international allies focused mostly on recruitment, drawing 344,000 new members into its army and police forces despite relatively basic equipment. Now, Afghan and coalition officials say the Afghan military will need new "enablers"—military shorthand for more high-end military technology—so Afghan troops can operate without international support.

Maj. Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, told The Wall Street Journal the Afghan military was talking with the U.S. and its international allies about bolstering its capabilities in several key areas: air power, fire support, intelligence technology and equipment to detect and clear roadside bombs.

Gen. Azimi said the Afghan military was in line to receive at least four C-130 cargo planes from the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, but also wants aircraft for surveillance as well as for transportation. The Afghan military, he said, is still dependent on the U.S.-led coalition for the intelligence provided by drones and other surveillance equipment.

Countering roadside bombs, Gen. Azimi added, is a particularly urgent requirement: Over the past year, he said, 85% of Afghan troop casualties were caused by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. U.S. and coalition troops operate an array of costly equipment to find and clear roadside bombs, and the Pentagon has spent tens of billions of dollars on specialized vehicles that are better able to withstand mine blasts.

"We expect the international community to consider this issue," he said. "The U.S. promised us they would provide this equipment for counter-IED, but it is not enough."

Gen. Azimi said the Afghan military also needs better and longer-range artillery than its current Soviet-made 122mm howitzers. He said discussions about acquiring more modern guns are in early stages.

The Afghan military's equipment shortfalls are coming to the fore ahead of a visit to Washington in early January by Afghan President Hamid Karzai—and as top Afghan officials announce that Afghan forces are now assuming responsibility for security in most of the country.

In a press conference, Ashraf Ghani, chairman of the Afghan government commission that is overseeing transition of security to Afghan control, said Afghan security forces are now poised to take the lead for security in 23 of the 34 Afghan provinces and for 87% of the Afghan population.

But Mr. Ghani said challenges remain, and said the Afghan government and its international partners would undertake a comprehensive review of Afghan security forces, including their weaponry, bases and training.

"A significant part of the forthcoming trip of the president of Afghanistan to Washington and the meeting with the president of the United States is going to focus on enablers," he said.

At the same press conference, top Afghan officials said the security situation had improved in areas handed over to Afghan security forces.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, disputed that, saying the insurgency had "wide areas under our control" in the Afghan countryside.

"Only the district headquarters are controlled by the government," he said. "The Taliban control the villages around."

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NY county: Releasing gun names endangers public

New York, Jan 13 : A New York county clerk justified his refusal to release the names and addresses of handgun permit holders to a newspaper, saying it would give stalkers and thieves a convenient roadmap to target potential victims — and determine whether they have a gun.

"This certainly puts my public in danger," Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant said following a news conference in which he was backed by the county executive and other elected officials.

The Journal News, which serves New York City's northern suburbs, sparked an outcry last month when it published clickable online maps with the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester counties.

When the newspaper requested the same information from Putnam, Sant initially said the county needed more time to fulfill the request. Sant balked entirely this week, saying the law gives him the prerogative to refuse to release public information if it endangers the public. Judges and police officers could be targeted by the people they put behind bars, he said. People with orders of protection have expressed concern to him about would-be attackers finding them through the database.

While anyone can come into his office and file the necessary paperwork to request information on individual permits, Sant said the difference is that the Journal News plans to publish the information in a way that makes it accessible to everyone, instantaneously.

"First of all, it tells criminals who doesn't have a gun," he said. "It gives a burglar or it gives a thief a map."

The Journal News' database and accompanying story, "The Gun Owner Next Door," was published as part of the newspaper's coverage following the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. Some readers say it unfairly stigmatized gun owners, branding them in the same way as online maps showing where child molesters live. The newspaper says it received threats and has posted armed guards at its offices.

Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson did not respond to several requests for comment but has issued statements previously standing behind the newspaper's project and maintaining residents have a right to see such public information.

Diane Kennedy, president of the New York News Publishers Association, said she reached out to Hasson offering support. She said editors may debate whether the Journal News should have published the database, but they fully backed the newspaper's right to access public records under New York's Freedom of Information Law. If the issue went to court, she said, member newspapers would file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the Journal News.

"It's really clear cut," Kennedy said. "The existing law doesn't have exemptions in it. It says this information is subject to FOIL."

Rex Smith, editor of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., said : "There is a broad consensus that the kind of resistance to the FOIL application that we're seeing in Putnam County is intolerable."

The denial of similar information to The Wall Street Journal by New York City's police commissioner led to a case that in 1981 was decided in favor of the newspaper.

But Sant says that times have changed.

"The technology today is so different," he said. "I'm looking forward to the opportunity of bringing to the magistrates that this is not 30 years ago."

Several attempts to pass a law that would shield gun permit holders' personal information have failed to pass the legislature in recent years.

Experts say the county may have a difficult time defending the refusal, because New York state law classifies the data as public.

"The argument has been made and rejected," said Robert Freeman of the State Committee on Open Government. "There's never been any indication that disclosure resulted in any jeopardy."

Edward S. Rudofsky, a New York attorney who specializes in the First Amendment, added, "I don't see why technology makes this any more or less sensitive than it would otherwise be."

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Farm bill extension evidence of lost clout

Washington, Jan 13 : A patchwork extension of federal farm programs passed as part of a larger "fiscal cliff" bill keeps the price of milk from rising but doesn't include many of the goodies that farm-state lawmakers are used to getting for their rural districts.

House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders who spent more than a year working on a half-trillion-dollar, five-year farm bill that would keep subsidies flowing had to accept in the final hours a slimmed-down, nine-month extension of 2008 law with few extras for anyone.

With the new Congress, they'll have to start the farm bill process over again, most likely with even less money for agriculture programs this year and the recognition that farm interests have lost some of the political clout they once held.

"I think there's a lot of hurt feelings, that all of this time and energy was put into it and you've got nothing to show for it," said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said it even more bluntly on the Senate floor just after she learned that the bare-bones extension would be part of the fiscal cliff deal.

"There is no way to explain this," she said angrily as the deal came together New Year's Eve. "None. There is absolutely no way to explain this other than agriculture is just not a priority."

After Congress failed to pass a farm bill earlier last year, the legislation became tangled in the end-of-the-year fiscal cliff talks as dairy subsidies were set to expire Jan. 1 and send the price of milk to $6 or $7 a gallon, double current prices. The White House and congressional leaders negotiating the fiscal cliff had agreed that the bill would somehow have to avert that "dairy cliff," but it was uncertain how.

Hoping to salvage some of their work, Stabenow and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., crafted a last-minute extension of 2008 farm law to add to the fiscal cliff package, including help for their own state interests: fruit and vegetable growers plentiful in Michigan, and more than $600 million in emergency money for livestock producers who were affected by drought, a priority for Lucas. In addition to averting the milk price spike, their bill also contained an overhaul of dairy programs, a priority for House Agriculture's top Democrat, Collin Peterson of Minnesota.

The extension Stabenow and Lucas crafted cost around $1 billion — an amount too high and too risky for House and Senate leaders negotiating the broader fiscal cliff deal. According to aides familiar with the talks, the White House and congressional leaders wanted a farm bill extension with no major policy changes or new spending that could subject the entire fiscal cliff bill to opposition.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky added a bare-bones version of a farm bill extension that didn't include money for any of the agriculture leaders' top priorities and renewed other farm programs without any new funding.

The result, the aides said, was a farm bill extension that would keep major programs going but didn't spend any new money. Missing were dollars for some organic programs, environmental programs and several different energy programs for encouraging renewable fuels. Many of those programs were renewed, but without any money.

The reaction from farm-state lawmakers was swift. Stabenow went to the Senate floor called the new bill "absolutely outrageous." Peterson said farm-state leaders had been "disrespected." Stabenow, as well as Lucas, ended up voting for it, Peterson against.

The National Farmers Union issued a statement saying it was "left out in the cold." The long-powerful National Corn Growers Association's statement said the group is "tired of the endless excuses and lack of accountability."

Direct payments, a subsidy that costs $5 billion annually and is paid to farmers whether they farm or not, were retained in the agreement. Both a Senate bill passed in June and a House Agriculture Committee bill passed in July had cut those payments after a consensus in the farm community that those subsidies would be eliminated and redirected.

"That is amazing to me, I have to say. That is absolutely amazing to me. I want to hear someone justify that on the Senate floor," Stabenow said.

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War is over: Imaginary “Bicholim Conflict” page removed from Wikipedia after five years

London, Jan 13: While Wikipedia editors strive for perfection, some elaborate hoaxes have managed to slip through.

A 17th Century international conflict has finally been laid to rest, nearly 400 years after it never happened. Wait a second. Are you feeling confused?

A fascinating new story in the Daily Dot chronicles how for more than five years, rogue editors on Wikipedia perpetuated a hoax about the “Bicholim Conflict,” a purely fictional historical event.

Before its eventual deletion, the 4,500-page read in part:

“From 1640 to 1641 the might of colonial Portugal clashed with India's massive Maratha Empire in an undeclared war that would later be known as the Bicholim Conflict. Named after the northern Indian region where most of the fighting took place, the conflict ended with a peace treaty that would later help cement Goa as an independent Indian state.”

Amazingly, the article was even nominated for the site’s Featured Article of the Day, a Wikipedia stable that highlights some of the site’s best-researched and written articles.

The actual writer of the Wikipedia article is still unknown, but members of the Wikipedia community have narrowed down at least one suspect.

“Unfortunately, hoaxes on Wikipedia are nothing new, and the craftier they are, the more difficult it is to catch them,” William Beutler, president of Beutler Wiki Relations, a Wikipedia consulting firm, told Yahoo News. “Anyone who's clever enough to make up convincing sources and motivated enough to spend the time and skilled enough to write a plausible article can deceive whole Internet—at least for awhile.”

A December 2012 poll by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that Google and Wikipedia were the top two research tools used by U.S. middle and high school students.

To its credit, Wikipedia has its own page devoted to Wikipedia hoaxes. Some of the more noteworthy attempts include a page on a fictional conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, a false claim of inspiration in the “Lord of the Rings” novels and a former Harvard student who for eight years successfully operated a Wikipedia page claiming he was the mayor of a small Chinese town.

Beutler, a longtime Wikipedia community editor himself, says he once helped remove a hoax article after its author contacted him in an attempt to boast of their prank.

And as Beutler notes, in many ways, Wikipedia is no different than the professional journalism world from which it culls so much of its source material. No single source is infallible, even to the watchful and detail oriented community of Wikpedia editors.

“There are the outliers in each: Jayson Blair for the New York Times, the ‘Bicholim conflict’ author on Wikipedia,” Beutler said. “Stephen Glass would have been a terrific Wikipedia hoaxer.”

Even stranger, while the fake article itself has been deleted, the Bicholim Conflict continues to haunt the halls of the Internet at large.

As the Daily Dot notes, several references to the Bicholim Conflict continue to exist online, with other web sites having copied and pasted the text verbatim.

There’s even a book version of the fraudulent article available for sale on the Barnes and Noble website for $20 and credited to “authors” Jesse Russell and Ronald Cohn. As the product’s one reviewer notes in their comment, “A copy of a hoax Wikipedia article (which you could have read for free) in printed form.”

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Scientists say ancient Martian rock was full of water

London, Jan 13 : An examination of the Martian meteorite known as NWA 7034 determined it is 2.1 billion years old and is water-rich.

A 2 billion year old Martian rock appears to have at one time been full of water from the surface of the Red Planet.

"Here we have a piece of Mars that I can hold in my hands. That's really exciting," Carl Agee, director of the Institute of Meteoritics and curator at the University of New Mexico, said.

Agee led a team of scientists who published their report on the newly discovered meteorite, nicknamed Black Beauty, in the journal Science. The rock is estimated to have contained 6,000 parts per million water, and scientists believe it likely interacted with water at a time when most of the planet’s surface was believed to have been arid.

The baseball-size rock was discovered in the Sahara, and scientists say it contains more evidence of water than any of the other known Martian rock samples.

"It's fairly fresh. It hasn't been subjected to a whole lot of weathering," University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd told the AP.

Billions of years ago, an eruption on the surface of Mars, likely caused by a volcano or asteroid collision, sent the rock into space, where it eventually made the journey to Earth. Agee and his team said the sample is “strikingly similar to the volcanic rocks examined by the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the Martian surface.”

Over the years, scientists have collected more than 60 Martian rock samples, with most being discovered in the Sahara and Antarctica. The new sample is much older than most of the other specimens, which are about 600 million years old or younger. The oldest known sample is an estimated 4.5 billion years old.

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Secret US cybersecurity program to protect power grid confirmed

Austin, Jan 13 : It's a scenario Austin Energy didn't expect. Thousands woke up without electricity, after about 50 power pole fires broke out across the city.

When business owner Greg Phea arrived at Austin Rising Fast Motor Cars, his sign was dark. "All of our systems were down and we had to reboot them all," said Phea.

"We have backup units and all the backups were depleted, so it was out for a while. They're supposed to stay up for six to nine hours. When we don't have power it's really hard for us to conduct business, it's really impossible to do deals." Austin Energy said the first power pole fires started around midnight but the majority happened around 5 a.m. At the height of the outages, approximately 3,000 customers were without power.

Seventeen crews spent hours trimming poles and repairing electric lines. It's a problem the utility has faced before. "It looks like we had a record number of power pole fires," said Austin Energy spokesman Ed Clark. Clark said the drought played a big role. "Every electric system in America needs a good washing off periodically and we just haven't had one in a while," he said.

Without rain, dust and dirt build up on the pole's insulators that connect power lines to the poles. "So overnight you have mist, just enough water to give it body, it tracks over the devices and it creates a pathway for electricity from the power line to the pole and you have a fire," Clark said. There are 140,000 power poles across the Austin area. Clark said there's no way to prepare or prevent these kinds of fires from happening. Power was restored to everyone.

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Rare San Francisco river otter stumps researchers

San Francisco, Jan 13 : A rapt crowd followed a trail of bubbles that zipped over the surface of a seaside pond in the ruins of a 19th century bath in San Francisco.

San Francisco's newest star — the first river otter seen in the city in decades — surfaced its whiskery head furtively, a mouth full of sea grass. The crowd oohed as large waves pounded rocks just offshore, a briny smell and chill in the air.

The otter ducked back under water and took the sea grass underneath a concrete remnant of the historic baths, where the animal was building a nest.

"We came here to see the baths and this was just a bonus," said Eliza Durkin, who brought her son Jonathan to the site for a school project on historic places.

Beyond tourists, the otter has mystified and delighted conservationists, who are piecing together clues to figure out how he got there. The furry creature was first spotted by birdwatchers in September and has since settled into the City by the Bay.

River otters once thrived in the San Francisco Bay area, but development, hunting and environmental pollution in the 19th and 20th centuries has taken its toll on the once thriving local population.

The critters are a living barometer of water quality - if it's bad they cannot thrive. But new populations being seen north and east of San Francisco are giving hope to conservationists that years of environmental regulations and new technologies are making a difference.

"The fact that this otter is in San Francisco and doing so well in other regions of the Bay Area, it's a good message that there's hope for the watershed," said Megan Isadore, director of outreach and education for the River Otter Ecology Project, a group that studies otter populations further north and in the bay.

The group said until now it had no evidence the creatures had returned to San Francisco, and the last sighting was nearly a half-century ago as best they can tell.

The otter is nicknamed "Sutro Sam" after the old baths, which were named after former San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro, who built the building which at the time was an engineering marvel.

The facility opened in 1896 on a cliff facing the Pacific Ocean, its baths fed by the salty ocean tides and a freshwater seep. They were torn down and burned in a fire in 1966, and the building's carcass has long been a tourist draw on the city's rugged, western shoreline.

The aquatic mammal seems to have found the mix of the environment he needs to make a home, to the delight of tourists and local nature lovers.

"They do need freshwater to drink and keep their fur clean," Isadore said. "They are also happy in salt and brackish water — wherever there is food — and he is getting freshwater from seeps behind the baths."

River otters can be found in other regions of the San Francisco Bay area. To the north of the Golden Gate, the researchers are tracking a group in Marin County. They have also found river otters in shore-side San Francisco Bay area communities of Alameda, Richmond and Martinez.

"Habitat destruction had an impact on the river otters," said Dorren Gurrola, a science teacher at the Marine Mammal Center, which studies Sam's relatives, the sea otter. "So it's always exciting to see these animals return to their habitat."

Young males like Sam often are the ones that travel away from groups, looking for food. If they find a new, hospitable habitat, others including females may join and create the basis of a new colony, Gurrola said.

While there is no certain reason for Sam's appearance in San Francisco, Isadore and biologists working to unlock more clues have some leads to go on.

He could have swam across the bay's mouth from Marin County, and scat collected from Sam will be analyzed to see if there's a genetic link to that population. But now, Sam seems to be happy swimming around and munching on small fish, including goldfish discarded in the area.

"We're just trying to piece things together in a logical way," Isadore said. "River otters sometimes even stow away on boats, we just don't know."

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India's Infosys to fire up to 5,000 workers

Mumbai, Jan 13 : India's Infosys is planning to lay off up to 5,000 employees as the software services provider looks to cut costs and boost sales, The Economic Times reported.

The report came as Infosys Ltd executive co-chairman S. Gopalakrishnan was quoted by other media reports as saying 2013 will be better than last year for India's IT industry.

Gopalakrishnan was quoted as saying brighter prospects for the United States and China would help the IT sector, as he addressed an event for the Infosys Science Foundation.

Infosys was not immediately available to comment on the reports.

Infosys shares were up 0.5 percent, in line with the 0.6 percent gain in the IT sub-index.

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Wave damage, flooding found on beached Shell drill ship

Anchorage, Jan 13  : The Royal Dutch Shell drill ship that was tossed by high winds and grounded off an Alaska island on New Years Eve has suffered some damage from waves and flooding, but so far has not spilled any of the 155,000 gallons of fuel and other petroleum products aboard, officials managing the emergency response said.

Salvage experts were flown to the stricken Kulluk, officials said at a news conference in Anchorage.

"Today we can confirm that the Kulluk remains upright and stable and there is no evidence of sheening in the vicinity," Sean Churchfield, Shell's Alaska operations manager and the company's emergency-response coordinator, said at the news conference.

The salvage crews found "some wave damage to the topside of the vessel" and several breached hatches that caused water damage inside, Churchfield said. Generators had also been damaged, he said, and new generators might have to moved in to provide power to move the vessel.

It remains unclear how serious the damage is or how long it will take to move the ship away from its site, Churchfield and other officials said. Churchfield said he could not comment on how the Kulluk grounding would affect Shell's 2013 drilling plans.

Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler III said that, at his request, marine-casualty investigators were on their way to Alaska from the Coast Guard's Center of Excellence in New Orleans. Findings from the Coast Guard investigation will be made public, Mehler said.

Area residents have expressed concerns about conflicts with upcoming commercial fishing seasons and traditional food-gathering activities, state and local officials said. A particular concern is the vulnerability of a nearby historical site, they said.

The Kulluk is grounded near an important cultural site for the region's native Alutiiq people, who are concerned about protecting the area's values to their heritage, state and local officials said.

Sitkalidak Island was the site of a notorious 18th century massacre in which Russian colonial forces killed hundreds of Alutiiq men, women and children.

The site, called "Refuge Rock," is "probably the most culturally significant place" for residents of the nearby village of Old Harbor, said Duane Dvorak, a community liaison from the Kodiak Island Borough.

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Hiring seen edging up, recovery grinds on

Washington, Jan 13: US employers likely stepped up hiring a touch in December as retailers and other businesses took on more staff for the holidays, but the gain will probably not be enough to make inroads in the country's still high unemployment rate.

Payrolls outside the farming sector are expected to have grown by 150,000 last month, a modest increase from November's 146,000 job gain.

The employment reading, due to be released by the Labor Department, is likely to point to modest economic growth despite uncertainty in late 2012 over a fiscal crisis that continues to threaten the economy.

The forecast increase in payrolls would be the most in five months, but would probably not make the U.S. Federal Reserve rethink its easy-money policies that have been propping up the economic recovery.

The jobless rate is seen holding steady at 7.7 percent in December, down nearly a percentage point from a year earlier but still well above the average rate over the last 60 years of about 6 percent.

"It's not a booming economy, but it is growing," said Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.

December's likely pace of hiring suggests the jobless rate will come down at a painfully slow rate in 2013, dropping to around 7.4 percent in the last few months of the year, he said.

Most economists expect the U.S. economy will only grow about 2 percent this year, held back by tax hikes as well as weak spending by households and businesses that are still trying to reduce their debt burdens.

A mammoth storm that hit the East Coast in late October will once again make it difficult to use the employment report as a gauge of the underlying strength of the economy.

The storm led to a spike in new jobless claims, but the government said in its employment report last month that the storm had no substantial impact on hiring in November.

Some economists found that conclusion hard to believe because a separate survey of households, which is used to calculate the jobless rate, showed a jump in the number of workers not reporting to work because of bad weather in November.

That suggests December's payroll figures could get a one-off boost, said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics in London. He expects 175,000 new jobs were created last month.

At the same time, consumer spending has shown signs of accelerating in recent months, and retailers added 140,000 jobs in the three months through November.

"There is some evidence that underlying jobs growth has improved," Dales said.

Also pointing to strength in hiring, payrolls processor ADP said the private sector added 215,000 jobs in December. ADP has a mixed track record for predicting the government's more comprehensive jobs report, but the data helped prompt Goldman Sachs to raise its forecast for jobs growth in December to 200,000.

Average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2 percent in December, while the length of the average work week is seen holding steady at 34.4 hours, the poll showed.

Despite the signs of some momentum in hiring, a wave of government spending cuts due to begin around March loom over the economy.

Many economic forecasts assume the cuts - which would hit the military, education and other areas - will ultimately be pushed into next year as part of a deal sought by lawmakers to reduce gradually the government's debt burden.

Initially, the cuts were planned to have begun this month as part of a $600 billion austerity package that also included tax hikes. Hiring in December may have been slowed by uncertainty over the timing of the austerity, economists say.

Congress this week passed legislation to avoid most of the tax hikes and postpone the spending cuts.

Even with the last-minute deal to avoid much of the "fiscal cliff," most workers will see their take-home pay reduced this month as a two-year cut in payroll taxes expires.

That leaves the Fed's efforts to lower borrowing costs as the main program for stimulating the economy.

The Fed has kept interest rates near zero since 2008, and in September promised open-ended bond purchases to support lending further. However, minutes from the Fed's December policy review pointed to rising concerns over how the asset purchases will affect financial markets.

Analysts think some of the expected strength in job creation in December was due to the Fed's policies.

"Despite the end-of-year angst over the 'fiscal cliff,' financial conditions remained supportive of job growth in December," economists at Nomura said in a note to clients.

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Analysis: Alimta patent seen as Lilly's "wild card"

New York, Jan 13 : Eli Lilly & Co may have a $15 billion wild card up its sleeve as it waits for desperately needed new drugs to bear fruit.

Should an obscure patent on Lilly lung cancer drug Alimta survive a court challenge this year, the company would be able to wring more than five additional years of peak sales out of the fast-growing product that it would otherwise lose to cheaper generics.

Annual sales of Alimta are expected by Wall Street to climb to $3.5 billion by 2016, when its basic patent lapses. Once faced with generic competition, branded drugs typically lose more than 80 percent of sales within a year.

While the likelihood of a Lilly victory is not a widely held view, a growing number of patent attorneys and industry analysts believe the particular patent being challenged will pass legal muster.

Alimta may keep its marketing exclusivity until 2022, thanks to protection from a separate so-called method-of-use patent on the way the drug is administered that many investors and Wall Street watchers are not aware of or have failed to appreciate.

Historically, method-of-use patents have had a much tougher time holding up in court than basic chemical patents on medicines. They are often viewed as manipulative, blatant efforts to extend the sales life of products.

But this one could be different because of specific safety language in the Alimta label that could provide a road block to cheaper generics.

The so-called '209 patent covers the administration of two nutrients - folic acid and vitamin B12 - to patients before they receive Alimta, to protect against toxic side effects of the cancer drug. Alimta's approved label instructs doctors to administer the nutrients prior to and during use of the medicine.

"For a generic to win approval, it usually has to copy the branded drug's label," said patent attorney Ben Hsing, a partner in the law firm of Kaye Scholer in New York.

Generics could have a hard time doing so because Lilly has a separate patent on the pre-administration of the nutrients, said Hsing, who last year successfully defended Roche Holding AG's Tarceva lung cancer drug from patent challenges by generic drugmaker Mylan Inc. "So I think generics would have a tough time" prevailing.

If generic versions of Alimta cannot mention use of the nutrients in their own labels, they could be compromising patient safety, which is not likely to sit well with health regulators that must approve any generic, according to patent attorneys.

Lilly, whose attorneys declined to comment for this story, is expected to counter legal arguments that use of folic acid and vitamin B12 is "obvious" and therefore not patentable by arguing that its researchers discovered the protective effects of the nutrients with respect to Alimta specifically.

Gary Frischling, a Los Angeles-based patent attorney for Irell & Manella, agreed that the language in Alimta's label could keep cheap generics at bay until 2022.

"This seems to be a case in which research done on how to safely use this particular drug has turned out to be very economically important," said Frischling, who has represented Elan Corp and other drugmakers.

Lilly badly needs new medicines to replace ones that have already lost patent protection or will in the next two years.

In October 2011, the company began facing one of the worst patent cliffs in industry history when its biggest drug, Zyprexa for schizophrenia, began facing generics. Sales of the former $4.5 billion-a-year drug have plunged by two-thirds.

The pain worsens in December of 2013, when Lilly's current top seller, the $5 billion-a-year anti-depressant Cymbalta, goes generic, and after cheap versions of its $1 billion Evista osteoporosis drug arrive in early 2014.

Blockbuster Alimta sales well into 2022 could go a long way toward easing some of that pain, while other new medicines work their way toward approvals.

Generic drugmakers Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd and APP Pharmaceuticals LLC have challenged the validity of the '209 patent, and will battle Lilly this summer in federal court in the drugmaker's hometown of Indianapolis.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington last August upheld the validity of the patent on the drug's chemical structure, protecting it from generics through late 2016.

If the method of use patent also holds up in court, Alimta would then be protected from 2017 to 2022, according to Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann, who received a four-star rating from StarMine for his predictions about Lilly over the previous two years.

His "outperform" rating on Lilly is based partly on that expectation, even though the general consensus on Wall Street is to the contrary.

"We see a real opportunity here," said Fernandez, who estimated Lilly's earnings per share would get more than a 25 percent lift in 2017, 2018 and 2019 if the patent is upheld.

"It would provide a pretty nice runway to launch products and get them to market," said Fernandez. He cited Lilly treatments for Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, psoriasis, diabetes and cancer now in late-stage studies.

Michael Liss, portfolio manager at American Century Investments, said Lilly's profits and share price could expand significantly if only a few good-selling drugs are introduced during the next few years.

Sanford Bernstein's Tim Anderson also has an "outperform" rating on Lilly, based largely on confidence the method of use patent will prevail in court. Anderson also received a four-star out of five StarMine professional rating for his analysis of Lilly.

The company has taken a conservative stance, not stressing the possibility of a patent victory. Lilly Chief Financial Officer Derica Rice has said an extension of Alimta's patent would be an "upside" for Lilly.

Attorneys for Lilly declined to comment on the case. A Teva spokeswoman also declined to comment.

To be sure, keeping Alimta patent protection beyond 2016 is no lock. Based on historical precedence, Morningstar analyst Damien Conover offered little hope the patent will pass muster with the federal court. "Most people expect the patent to fail," Conover said. "Method-of-use patents tend to be particularly weak."

But most people may be underestimating the protective differences of this particular patent, according to legal experts.

Patricia Carson, a patent lawyer with the firm of Kirkland & Ellis in New York, said pre-administration of folic acid and vitamin B12 appears to be "specific to Alimta" and not a procedure common with other drugs.

"In development (of Alimta), they came up with this type of method," she said.

Even so, Carson said Lilly may have to convince the court the method would not have been obvious to the ordinary researcher.

Should the Alimta patent prevail, Conover said it would significantly bolster Lilly's attractiveness and profits beginning in 2017. It also would help Lilly cope with a second patent cliff that would begin that year, as its Cialis impotence treatment and Effient blood clot drug begin facing generics. The drugs now have annual sales of $2 billion and $450 million, respectively.

Lilly's fourth-quarter results, due later this month, are expected to show earnings tumbled about 24 percent in 2012. The company expects to begin rebounding from its patent cliff in 2015.

Cowen and Co analyst Steve Scala, called the patent case a "wildcard opportunity" for Lilly.

Lilly shares rose 19 percent in 2012, compared with a 10 percent gain for the ARCA Pharmaceutical Index of large U.S. and European drugmakers, suggesting confidence in an eventual turnaround for Lilly.

"If the court upholds the Alimta patent," Scala said, "Lilly will bounce back a lot more quickly."

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Analysis: Alimta patent seen as Lilly's "wild card"

New York, Jan 13 : Eli Lilly & Co may have a $15 billion wild card up its sleeve as it waits for desperately needed new drugs to bear fruit.

Should an obscure patent on Lilly lung cancer drug Alimta survive a court challenge this year, the company would be able to wring more than five additional years of peak sales out of the fast-growing product that it would otherwise lose to cheaper generics.

Annual sales of Alimta are expected by Wall Street to climb to $3.5 billion by 2016, when its basic patent lapses. Once faced with generic competition, branded drugs typically lose more than 80 percent of sales within a year.

While the likelihood of a Lilly victory is not a widely held view, a growing number of patent attorneys and industry analysts believe the particular patent being challenged will pass legal muster.

Alimta may keep its marketing exclusivity until 2022, thanks to protection from a separate so-called method-of-use patent on the way the drug is administered that many investors and Wall Street watchers are not aware of or have failed to appreciate.

Historically, method-of-use patents have had a much tougher time holding up in court than basic chemical patents on medicines. They are often viewed as manipulative, blatant efforts to extend the sales life of products.

But this one could be different because of specific safety language in the Alimta label that could provide a road block to cheaper generics.

The so-called '209 patent covers the administration of two nutrients - folic acid and vitamin B12 - to patients before they receive Alimta, to protect against toxic side effects of the cancer drug. Alimta's approved label instructs doctors to administer the nutrients prior to and during use of the medicine.

"For a generic to win approval, it usually has to copy the branded drug's label," said patent attorney Ben Hsing, a partner in the law firm of Kaye Scholer in New York.

Generics could have a hard time doing so because Lilly has a separate patent on the pre-administration of the nutrients, said Hsing, who last year successfully defended Roche Holding AG's Tarceva lung cancer drug from patent challenges by generic drugmaker Mylan Inc. "So I think generics would have a tough time" prevailing.

If generic versions of Alimta cannot mention use of the nutrients in their own labels, they could be compromising patient safety, which is not likely to sit well with health regulators that must approve any generic, according to patent attorneys.

Lilly, whose attorneys declined to comment for this story, is expected to counter legal arguments that use of folic acid and vitamin B12 is "obvious" and therefore not patentable by arguing that its researchers discovered the protective effects of the nutrients with respect to Alimta specifically.

Gary Frischling, a Los Angeles-based patent attorney for Irell & Manella, agreed that the language in Alimta's label could keep cheap generics at bay until 2022.

"This seems to be a case in which research done on how to safely use this particular drug has turned out to be very economically important," said Frischling, who has represented Elan Corp and other drugmakers.

Lilly badly needs new medicines to replace ones that have already lost patent protection or will in the next two years.

In October 2011, the company began facing one of the worst patent cliffs in industry history when its biggest drug, Zyprexa for schizophrenia, began facing generics. Sales of the former $4.5 billion-a-year drug have plunged by two-thirds.

The pain worsens in December of 2013, when Lilly's current top seller, the $5 billion-a-year anti-depressant Cymbalta, goes generic, and after cheap versions of its $1 billion Evista osteoporosis drug arrive in early 2014.

Blockbuster Alimta sales well into 2022 could go a long way toward easing some of that pain, while other new medicines work their way toward approvals.

Generic drugmakers Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd and APP Pharmaceuticals LLC have challenged the validity of the '209 patent, and will battle Lilly this summer in federal court in the drugmaker's hometown of Indianapolis.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington last August upheld the validity of the patent on the drug's chemical structure, protecting it from generics through late 2016.

If the method of use patent also holds up in court, Alimta would then be protected from 2017 to 2022, according to Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann, who received a four-star rating from StarMine for his predictions about Lilly over the previous two years.

His "outperform" rating on Lilly is based partly on that expectation, even though the general consensus on Wall Street is to the contrary.

"We see a real opportunity here," said Fernandez, who estimated Lilly's earnings per share would get more than a 25 percent lift in 2017, 2018 and 2019 if the patent is upheld.

"It would provide a pretty nice runway to launch products and get them to market," said Fernandez. He cited Lilly treatments for Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, psoriasis, diabetes and cancer now in late-stage studies.

Michael Liss, portfolio manager at American Century Investments, said Lilly's profits and share price could expand significantly if only a few good-selling drugs are introduced during the next few years.

Sanford Bernstein's Tim Anderson also has an "outperform" rating on Lilly, based largely on confidence the method of use patent will prevail in court. Anderson also received a four-star out of five StarMine professional rating for his analysis of Lilly.

The company has taken a conservative stance, not stressing the possibility of a patent victory. Lilly Chief Financial Officer Derica Rice has said an extension of Alimta's patent would be an "upside" for Lilly.

Attorneys for Lilly declined to comment on the case. A Teva spokeswoman also declined to comment.

To be sure, keeping Alimta patent protection beyond 2016 is no lock. Based on historical precedence, Morningstar analyst Damien Conover offered little hope the patent will pass muster with the federal court. "Most people expect the patent to fail," Conover said. "Method-of-use patents tend to be particularly weak."

But most people may be underestimating the protective differences of this particular patent, according to legal experts.

Patricia Carson, a patent lawyer with the firm of Kirkland & Ellis in New York, said pre-administration of folic acid and vitamin B12 appears to be "specific to Alimta" and not a procedure common with other drugs.

"In development (of Alimta), they came up with this type of method," she said.

Even so, Carson said Lilly may have to convince the court the method would not have been obvious to the ordinary researcher.

Should the Alimta patent prevail, Conover said it would significantly bolster Lilly's attractiveness and profits beginning in 2017. It also would help Lilly cope with a second patent cliff that would begin that year, as its Cialis impotence treatment and Effient blood clot drug begin facing generics. The drugs now have annual sales of $2 billion and $450 million, respectively.

Lilly's fourth-quarter results, due later this month, are expected to show earnings tumbled about 24 percent in 2012. The company expects to begin rebounding from its patent cliff in 2015.

Cowen and Co analyst Steve Scala, called the patent case a "wildcard opportunity" for Lilly.

Lilly shares rose 19 percent in 2012, compared with a 10 percent gain for the ARCA Pharmaceutical Index of large U.S. and European drugmakers, suggesting confidence in an eventual turnaround for Lilly.

"If the court upholds the Alimta patent," Scala said, "Lilly will bounce back a lot more quickly."

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Wal-Mart defends low-price ads after rivals' objection

New York, Jan 13 : Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT) has gone on the defensive against charges by competitors that a recent ad campaign is using inaccurate information, leading the competitors to file complaints with state legal officials.

A Wal-Mart Stores spokesman defended the retailer's ad campaign that claims to offer better prices on some products than competitors, after the Wall Street Journal reported rivals have complained to attorneys general in more than half a dozen states.

In documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, rivals have claimed that Wal-Mart's advertisements cross a line by making misleading comparisons or promoting products the company does not have in ample supply.

Wal-Mart ads have targeted retailers including Toys "R" Us Inc (TOYS.N) and Best Buy Co Inc (BBY), as well as several regional supermarket chains. Best Buy complained about a Wal-Mart ad to the Florida attorney general's office, while Toys "R" Us complained to Michigan officials, the Journal said.

"We know competitors don't like it when we tell customers to compare prices and see for themselves," Wal-Mart spokesperson Steven Restivo told the Wall Street Journal. "We are confident on the legal, ethical and methodological standards associated with our price comparison advertisements," he added.

Restivo confirmed the accuracy of his comments published by the Journal.

Wal-Mart, which launched the radio and television ads last spring, said the initial ads spurred a 1.2 percent boost in sales at stores open at least a year and a 1.1 percent rise in store visits in areas where those ads were aired, compared with similar regions where they did not run.

Wal-Mart told the paper it responded to attorneys general in Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Missouri over complaints from regional supermarket chains and Toys "R" Us.

The company said it has not received complaints from Best Buy. The attorneys general offices in Florida and New Jersey said they were reviewing similar complaints, according to the paper.

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Fed becoming worried about stimulus side effects

Washington, Jan 13 : Federal Reserve officials are increasingly concerned about the potential risks of the U.S. central bank's asset purchases on financial markets, even if they look set to continue an open-ended stimulus program for now.

In a surprise to Wall Street, minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, published, showed a growing reticence about further increases in the central bank's $2.9 trillion balance sheet, which it expanded sharply in response to the financial crisis and recession of 2007-2009.

"Several (officials) thought that it would probably be appropriate to slow or to stop purchases well before the end of 2013, citing concerns about financial stability or the size of the balance sheet," the minutes said, referring to the narrower group of voting Fed members.

Investors picked up on the report's hawkish tone, with stock prices drifting lower after the announcement, while the U.S. dollar extended gains against the euro. Yields on the 30-year Treasury bond hit 3.12 percent, their highest levels since May.

"The minutes of the Federal Reserve's December monetary policy meeting revealed a somewhat surprising level of concern among the ranks of central bankers regarding the long-term impact of the bank's asset purchase program, or quantitative easing," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington D.C.

Still, the Fed appeared likely to continue buying assets for the foreseeable future, having announced in December it was extending monthly purchases of $40 billion in mortgage securities and also buying $45 billion in Treasuries each month.

A few of the voting members on the central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee thought asset buying would be warranted until about the end of 2013. A few others highlighted the need for further large-scale stimulus but did not specify an amount or time frame.

Fed officials generally agreed that the labor market outlook was not likely to improve without further nudging from the monetary authorities.

The U.S. economy expanded a respectable 3.1 percent in the third quarter on an annualized basis, but growth is believed to have slowed sharply to barely above 1.0 percent in the last three months of the year.

Data showed a solid gain of 215,000 new private sector jobs for December, while analysts polled last week were looking for a rise of 150,000 new jobs in the Labor Department's official survey, due out.

Still, the minutes indicated worries about quantitative easing policies were spreading beyond the usual regional Fed hawks who, like Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, have opposed additional Fed easing.

"What's clear from these minutes is that there is little consensus among the members of the FOMC on how long asset purchases should carry on," said Jason Conibear, trading director at Cambridge Mercantile.

"Some members want more accommodation for as long as it takes, some want more but to start winding it down while others have got the heebie-jeebies about the size of the balance sheet."

In the December meeting, the Fed also launched a new framework of policy thresholds, numerical guideposts that are supposed to give markets and the public a clearer idea of how policymakers will react to incoming economic data.

Officials say they will keep interest rates near zero until the unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent for as long as estimates of medium-run inflation do not exceed 2.5 percent.

The minutes suggested it took officials some time to build a consensus around the idea.

"A few participants expressed a preference for using a qualitative description of the economic indicators influencing the Committee's thinking," the minutes said.

U.S. unemployment has come down steadily after hitting a peak of 10 percent in late 2009, but remains elevated at 7.7 percent.

Fed officials noted worries about the looming "fiscal cliff," which was dealt with only partly in an agreement earlier this week, were hurting the confidence of businesses and households.

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Erratic power supply irks Gojwara residents

Srinagar, Jan 13 : The frequent unscheduled power cuts have irked the residents of Malik Sahab, Gojwara, in downtown city.

The residents of the area have threatened protests in case the government failed to improve power supply to the area.

They have also warned the authorities of power development department (PDD) against unscheduled power cuts. 

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Tangmarg: Old transmission lines pose threat to lives, lead to power shortage

Tangmarg, Jan 13 : Many villages receiving electricity from Kunzar-grid here in held Kashmir are facing acute power shortage due to deterioration of the transmission infrastructure.

Residents of Bongam, Ketchmatipora, Gonipora, Soipora, Batpora, Manglora, Lalpora, Wussan, Dhobiwan, Waripora, Utikoo, Barzulla, Pinjura, Goigam, Hardebani, Kunzar, Chanpora, Gokhama, Devbugh, Gofabal, Katjan, Awlara, Mulgam, Kralweth and Beeyawah said that since the inception of these transmission lines hardly any repairs have been done.

In most villages at many places the electric wires have been made to pass through trees and tied with residential houses. The wires are decayed and fall only with a few inches of snowfall.

The condition of the transmission lines and poles receiving power supply from the grid stations of Tangmarg area is no better. The dilapidated condition of electricity transmission infrastructure in villages, Qazipora, Katipora, Hajibal, Waripora, Ichloo, Khimanderpora, Ratnipora, Zaspora, Reshipora, Maddam, Sulindah, Hardeshoora needs utmost attention of PDD.

 Pertinently, a few days back people had narrow escape when an HT Line fell down at Ichloo village creating panic in the area.
 The condition of power supply and transmission lines and poles in the far-flung villages of Tangmarg near BabaReshi is also pathetic.

 Residents of Chuntipathri, Namblinaar, Alpathri and Pandoori said the lines pass over trees instead of electric poles posing threat to the passers by and the populace of the area. The tale of southern villages viz Traren, Druroo,Rarem, Shrai, Tumberhama, Kulhama, Darhama, Chandil-Wanigam, Gangibaba etc is no better.

The High Tension Transmission lines (HT) in Kunzar and Tangmarg areas have been posing a major threat to the lives and the property of the residents. The HT line passing through villages Gofabal, Devbugh and Awlara upto Kralweth passes over the residential houses in these villages. These wires pose anytime threat to the lives of the people staying in these villages.

 “There have been short circuits to the Kralweth HT line passing through Gofabal many times, we experience bangs of short circuit during nights at that time our children run out of the houses due to fear and threat” said Naseer Ahmad Dar, of Gofabal village.

“This area got power supply in 1965, since then  wires and wooden poles continue to be the same. The HT Line from Kunzar to Kralweth is a big danger to the people as its wooden poles are damaged.” Said Bashir Ahmad Ganai, of Kralweth village. “We have apprised the PDD authorities time and again about the grim situation with the request to align this HT Line to safeguard the lives and the property of the residents but so for no heed has been paid to our demand,” said the residents.

 Another HT Line passing through Batpora near Kunzar has been a cause of concern for the villagers and the school teachers as it has a widened the gap between the two consecutive poles near Govt. Middle School Batpora. Due to this wide gap the HT Line is posing a threat to the children of the said school. “Whenever there is a wind or rain, the lines touch the branches and extend flames of fire,” said Muzaffar Hussain a local teacher. 

 Yet another HT Line passing through Chakthan-Chanpora near Chandilora poses threat as it is aligned closely with Govt Middle School Chacthan-Chanpora. 

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She braves pain, silently

Srinagar, Jan 13: The red, swollen and scarred stretch of her face reflects the pain that she is in, at the SMHS hospital here. It also reveals the magnitude of the tragedy that has befallen her and her family.

For the 30-year-old acid attack victim, her beautiful face and persona has been the calling card as she would teach children at a preparatory school in Parraypora locality of uptown Srinagar, her family says.

The victim was attacked with acid by a stalker Reyaz Ahmad Nath of Chanapora area after assaulting her.

She tries to speak, but the pain and memory of the brutal incident don’t let her do so. She only gestures, seeking help from her relatives. She has suffered serious burns to her face and injury to the left eye.

Her family says she converses with them in murmur as her skin is bruised by acid, making her difficult to talk properly. “It was the most painful thing ever to happen,” she has told her family.
“Acid has ripped through her clothing the moment it touched her. She is feeling a burning sensation through the layers of her skin,” says her aunt.

While Reyaz threw acid on the victim, another youth Junaid Ahmad alias Mudasir helped him carry the attack in a lane in Srinagar, as she walked home from the school, says police.
By the time the victim tried to save herself, a part of her face and an eye had already become the target of the deadly chemical. “Her only crime was refusing the proposal of Nath as she was getting engaged after a few months,” her brother Riyaz Ahmad says.

A woman heard her screams and poured water on her. Others eventually came to help take her to the SMHS hospital. While she is in pain at the hospital, her family members console her. “Please sprinkle some water on my face. I am burning,” she murmurs.

Her father had died in an accident last year and she is being looked after by her uncle. “The perpetrator of the crime should be hanged. It will become a trend if he is not given exemplary punishment for the dastardly act,” her uncle said.

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Zoster vaccine associated with lower risk of shingles in older adults

Islamabad, Jan 13: Vaccination for herpes zoster, a painful rash commonly known as shingles, among a large group of older adults was associated with a reduced risk of this condition, regardless of age, race or the presence of chronic diseases, according to a study in the January 12 issue of JAMA.

"The pain of herpes zoster is often disabling and can last for months or even years, a complication termed postherpetic neuralgia. Approximately 1 million episodes of herpes zoster occur in the United States annually, but aside from age and immunosuppression, risk factors for this condition are not known," the authors write.

Although prelicensure data provided evidence that herpes zoster vaccine works in a select study population under idealized circumstances, the vaccine needs to be evaluated in field conditions to show whether benefits of the vaccine can be generalized to conditions of clinical practice, according to background information in the article.

The researchers note that this is particularly important for the herpes zoster vaccine, given the medical and physiological diversity in the elderly population for whom the vaccine is indicated.

Hung Fu Tseng, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Southern California Kaiser Permanente, Pasadena, Calif., and colleagues evaluated the risk of herpes zoster after receipt of herpes zoster vaccine among individuals in general practice settings. The study included community-dwelling adults, age 60 years or older, who were members of a managed care organization. There were 75,761 members in the vaccinated cohort, who were age matched (1:3) to 227,283 unvaccinated members.

Compared with the unvaccinated cohort, individuals in the vaccinated cohort were more likely to be white, women, and to have had more outpatient visits, and a lower prevalence of chronic diseases.

There were 5,434 herpes zoster cases identified in the study (6.4 cases per 1,000 persons per year among vaccinated individuals and 13.0 cases per 1,000 persons per year among unvaccinated individuals). In the fully adjusted analysis, vaccination was associated with reduced risk of herpes zoster.

The reduction in risk did not vary by age at vaccination, sex, race, or with presence of chronic diseases. Herpes zoster vaccine recipients had reduced risks of ophthalmic herpes zoster and hospitalizations coded as herpes zoster. Overall, the vaccine was associated with a 55 percent reduction in incidence of herpes zoster.

"Herpes zoster vaccine was licensed recently, which means the durability of its protection needs to be assessed in future studies. Meanwhile, however, this vaccine has the potential to annually prevent tens of thousands of cases of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia nationally.

To date, herpes zoster vaccine uptake has been poor due to weaknesses in the adult vaccine infrastructure and also due to serious barriers to the vaccine among clinicians and patients. Solutions to these challenges need to be found so that individuals seeking to receive herpes zoster vaccine will be able to reduce their risk of experiencing this serious condition," the authors conclude.

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Eating vegetables gives skin a more healthy glow than the sun

Islamabad, Jan 13 : New research suggests eating vegetables gives you a healthy tan. The study, led by Dr Ian Stephen at The University of Nottingham, showed that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables gives you a more healthy golden glow than the sun.

The research, which showed that instead of heading for the sun the best way to look good is to munch on carrots and tomatoes, has been published in the Journal Evolution and Human Behaviour.

Dr Ian Stephen, from the School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, led the research as part of his PhD at the University of St Andrews and Bristol University. He said: "Most people think the best way to improve skin colour is to get a suntan, but our research shows that eating lots of fruit and vegetables is actually more effective.

Dr Stephen and his team in the Perception Lab found that people who eat more portions of fruit and vegetables per day have a more golden skin colour, thanks to substances called carotenoids. Carotenoids are antioxidants that help soak up damaging compounds produced by the stresses and strains of everyday living, especially when the body is combating disease. Responsible for the red colouring in fruit and vegetables such as carrots and tomatoes, carotenoids are important for our immune and reproductive systems.

Dr Stephen said: "We found that, given the choice between skin colour caused by suntan and skin colour caused by carotenoids, people preferred the carotenoid skin colour, so if you want a healthier and more attractive skin colour, you are better off eating a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables than lying in the sun."

Dr Stephen suggests that the study is important because evolution would favour individuals who choose to form alliances or mate with healthier individuals over unhealthy individuals.

Professor David Perrett, who heads the Perception Lab, said: "This is something we share with many other species. For example, the bright yellow beaks and feathers of many birds can be thought of as adverts showing how healthy a male bird is. What's more, females of these species prefer to mate with brighter, more coloured males. But this is the first study in which this has been demonstrated in humans."

While this study describes work in Caucasian faces, the paper also describes a study that suggests the effect may exist cross culturally, since similar preferences for skin yellowness were found in an African population.

The work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Unilever Research, and published with support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the British Academy and Wolfson Foundation.

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Scientists discover way to stop pancreatic cancer in early stages

Islamabad, Jan 13 : Cancer researchers at the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center have found a way to stop early stage pancreatic cancer in research models -- a result that has far-reaching implications in chemoprevention for high-risk patients.

The research already has sparked a clinical trial in California, and the FDA-approved drug, Gefitinib, should be in clinical trials at OU's cancer center and others nationwide in about a year. The research appears in the latest issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

C.V. Rao, Ph.D., and his team of researchers were able to show for the first time that a drug used in current chemotherapy for later stages of pancreatic cancer had a dramatic effect if used earlier.

With low doses of Gefitinib, which has no known side effects at this level, scientists were able to not only stop pancreatic cancer tumors from growing, but after 41 weeks of treatment, the cancer was gone.

"This is one of the most important studies in pancreatic cancer prevention," Rao said. "Pancreatic cancer is a poorly understood cancer and the focus has been on treatment in the end stages. But, we found if you start early, there will be a much greater benefit. Our goal is to block the spread of the cancer. That is our best chance at beating this disease."

The Oklahoma cancer center research team said the finding points to an effective way to stop pancreatic cancer before it reaches later stages of development where the survival rate drops below 6 percent.

Currently, most pancreatic cancer is not identified until the later stages. However, research is moving closer to the development of an early detection test for pancreatic cancer. When that is in place, Oklahoma cancer center researchers believe they now have a method to target the cancer before it spreads.

Rao said OU officials and researchers will meet with other centers, including M.D. Anderson, whose specialists called the research "provocative," to discuss a pilot study in early 2011. Researchers hope to begin a Phase II clinical trial at the centers within 18 months. A Phase I trial is not required since the drug already has approval for human use from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The clinical trials will focus on at-risk patients, particularly those with an inflammation of the pancreas called pancreatitis. The drug also could help other high risk populations, including patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer and American Indian populations or others with Type 2 diabetes.

Gefitinib works by targeting signals of a gene that is among the first to mutate when pancreatic cancer is present. By targeting the signal for tumor growth expressed by the mutated gene, researchers were able to stop the cancer's procession.

"This gene is the key in 95 percent of cases of pancreatic cancer. It is our best target," Rao said. "By targeting this gene, we can activate or inactivate several other genes and processes down the line."

Rao said the drug also could be effective in lung and colorectal cancer, but it is not known if it would work as well as in pancreatic cancer. The OU College of Pharmacy is assisting in the development of drugs and imaging techniques needed to further test Gefitinib with patients.

Rao's research was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

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