Bleak humanitarian outlook for 2013

Monday 14 January 2013

Dubai, Jan 14 : More violence and a worsening humanitarian situation are likely in Afghanistan in 2013, say aid agencies.

“The worsening conflict trends over the last five years indicate that civilians will continue to suffer because of armed violence and that the humanitarian situation will deteriorate,” says the new Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP) for 2013, published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The report brings together the major humanitarian challenges facing the country in 2013, a year that will see the continued withdrawal of international forces: Afghan security forces will take control of three-quarters of the country by June.

Afghanistan has some of the worst humanitarian indicators in the world - 34 percent of the population are food insecure and 10 percent of children die before they start primary school.

With many Afghans lacking access to rudimentary government services like basic education, water, primary health services and housing, the humanitarian community is requesting US$471 million to cover the cost of projects in 2013.

Many analysts think the steady withdrawal of international forces in 2013, ahead of full withdrawal in 2014, will lead to an upsurge in violence as anti-government forces capitalize on their stronger position vis-à-vis national security forces.

The strength of these national forces is disputed. Some analysts saw “significant improvements within the Afghan military” in 2012, while the CHAP points to high levels of desertion and low levels of re-enlistment, meaning that a third of the Afghan force needs replacing each year.

While civilian deaths and injuries declined by 4 percent in the first 10 months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, according to the UN Assistant Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), targeted attacks on civilians by anti-government forces increased by 53 percent in the first half of 2012, and overall, violence in 2012 has spread increasingly beyond southern and eastern areas.

Over the last few years the space for humanitarian work has reduced, especially as anti-government forces have radicalized and fragmented: aid workers say air transport is frequently the only safe way to reach remote areas.

However, the international pullout may also provide opportunities for more independent aid work and greater differentiation from the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), which operate closely with the government and military.

Aid groups increasingly have to work in areas where the Taliban and other non-government actors operate, making perceived neutrality crucial.

Many international organizations opt to manage projects from Kabul and work through local NGOs, says a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute.

“The privileged humanitarian access enjoyed by national NGOs should be more fully exploited,” Suzanne Murray-Jones, senior adviser with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Afghanistan, told IRIN, saying that they often need capacity-building and adequate funding to do the job.

To ensure that humanitarian work is carried out in the provinces with the greatest need, the 2013 CHAP plan introduces a ranking of provinces by assessed humanitarian need, to avoid aid being directed at areas that are either easy to reach or politically important.

If humanitarian challenges in 2013 were limited to conflict, they would be serious enough. But Afghanistan is also frequently a victim of natural disasters, which on average affect around a quarter of a million Afghans each year.

Harsh winters, deadly avalanches, earthquakes, landslides, droughts and floods leave nearly half of Afghanistan’s districts hazard-prone.

The last 12 months saw a good wheat harvest but with droughts in eight out of the last 11 years, a poor harvest looks probable in the coming year, according to the CHAP 2013 report.

Oxfam’s Afghanistan associate country director Kate O'Rourke says years of conflict have worn down people’s coping mechanisms: “Investing in projects designed to reduce the impact of disasters and improve people's resilience and their ability to deal with crises when they do occur is key. Only then will Afghans who are at risk be better prepared and able to cope, instead of being affected by reoccurring humanitarian `spot fires' that they are constantly trying to recover from, as they are now."

Economic growth has been around 7 percent over the last few years, but opportunities remain few and the private sector is hamstrung by the lack of a reliable electricity supply.

While large mining projects are being planned, the aid effort and the tens of thousands of international troops that make up a key part of the economy are set to reduce in size in the coming years.

“Afghanistan is entering a very challenging period that will likely be characterized by growing economic vulnerability resulting from a reduction in international assistance and the pullout of most international forces that is expected to translate into significant economic contraction and job losses,” said Mark Bowden, the humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is the world’s most aid-dependent country, with aid worth around $15.7 billion per year, roughly the same as the national GDP. The World Bank estimates that 6-10 percent of the population have worked in aid-financed employment.

Four decades of conflict in Afghanistan have been one of the key drivers of displacement, creating substantial refugee populations requiring support.

Around 2.7 million Afghans live in Pakistan and Iran, while within the country, 450,000 people are displaced; 34 percent of them newly displaced in the first three-quarters of 2012.

Meanwhile, UNHCR say nearly six million refugees have returned to Afghanistan in the last decade, something that has put considerable pressure on the economy and services.

“Many are being perceived as not having reached parity with other members of the communities in which they are living, and there is a possibility of additional unplanned, large-scale return,” said Murray-Jones at UNHCR.

To manage these needs in 2013, the humanitarian community is requesting $471 million, an increase on 2012 when the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) was $448 million.

In a sign of donor fatigue and the pressure on leading donor country budgets due to the global economic slowdown, humanitarian funding dropped by around half in 2012.

Afghanistan was the fourth-least funded humanitarian crisis, as a percentage, among the 22 global appeals, although at least $270 million in aid is provided annually outside the CAP funding mechanism.

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With US set to leave Afghanistan, echoes of 1989

Washington, Jan 14 : The young president who ascended to office as a change agent decides to end the costly and unpopular war in Afghanistan.

He seeks an exit with honor by pledging long-term financial support to allies in Kabul, while urging reconciliation with the insurgency. But some senior advisers lobby for a deliberately slow withdrawal, and propose leaving thousands of troops behind to train and support Afghan security forces.

This is a nearly exact description of the endgame conundrum facing President Obama as he prepares for a critical visit by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, planned for early January.

But the account is actually drawn from declassified Soviet archives describing Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s closed-door struggles with his Politburo and army chiefs to end the Kremlin’s intervention in Afghanistan — one that began with a commando raid, coup and modest goals during Christmas week of 1979 but became, after a decade, what Mr. Gorbachev derided as “a bleeding wound.”

What mostly is remembered about the withdrawal is the Soviet Union’s humiliation, and the ensuing factional bloodletting across Afghanistan that threw the country into a vicious civil war. It ended with Taliban control and the establishment of a safe haven for Al Qaeda before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

But scholars who have studied the Soviet archives point out another lesson for the Obama administration as it manages the pullout of American and allied combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

“The main thing the Soviets did right was that they continued large-scale military assistance to the regime they left behind after the final withdrawal in ’89,” said Mark N. Katz, a professor at George Mason University and author of “Leaving Without Losing: The War on Terror After Iraq and Afghanistan”.

“As long as the Afghan regime received the money and the weapons, they did pretty well — and held on to power for three years,” Mr. Katz said. The combat effectiveness of Kabul’s security forces increased after the Soviet withdrawal, when the fight for survival become wholly their own.

But then the Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991, and the new Russian leader, Boris N. Yeltsin, heeded urgings of the United States and other Western powers to halt aid to the Communist leadership in Afghanistan, not just arms and money, but also food and fuel. The Kremlin-backed government in Kabul fell three months later.

To be sure, there are significant contrasts between the two interventions in Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion and occupation were condemned as illegal aggression, while the American one was embraced by the international community, including Russia, as a “just war,” one with limited goals of routing the Taliban and eliminating Al Qaeda. That war of necessity has since evolved into a war of choice, one the Obama administration is working to end as quickly as is feasible.

Despite the differences going in, both the Soviet Union and the United States soon learned that Afghanistan is a land where foreigners aspiring to create nations in their image must combat not just the Taliban but tribalism, orthodoxy, corruption and a medieval view of women. As well, Pakistan has had interests at odds with those of the neighboring government in Afghanistan, whether Kabul was an ally of Moscow or of Washington.

“The Soviet Union did not understand religious and ethnic factors sufficiently, and overestimated the capacity of Afghan society to move very fast toward a modern era, in this case socialism,” said Svetlana Savranskaya, director of Russian programs at the National Security Archive, an independent research center at George Washington University.

“Here I see similarities with the approach of the United States, especially with all the discussion about trying to leave behind an Afghanistan that is democratic and respects the rights of women, ideas that simply are not accepted across the broad society there,” said Ms. Savranskaya, who has written extensively on the Soviet archives.

If the Soviet experience offers any guidance to the current American withdrawal, she said, it would be to accelerate the departure of foreign combat forces — but to leave in their place a “sustained, multiyear international involvement in military training, education and civilian infrastructure projects, and maybe not focusing on building democracy as much as improving the lives of the common people.”

And she noted that the United States should already be seeking partnership with Afghan leaders beyond Mr. Karzai, who is viewed across large parts of the population as tainted by his association with the Americans.

Pentagon officials have signaled that they are hoping for an enduring military presence of 10,000 or more troops, but may have to accept fewer, to cement the progress of the years of fighting. Those troops would focus on training and supporting Afghan forces along with a counterterrorism contingent to hunt Qaeda and insurgent leaders.

In a parallel, one of Mr. Gorbachev’s closest early confidants, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the foreign minister, advocated a slow withdrawal pace — and pressed for 10,000 to 15,000 Soviet troops to remain to support the Communist government. The Soviets left only 300 advisers.

But after losing more than 15,000 Soviet troops and billions of rubles, the Kremlin knew it had to somehow justify the invasion and occupation upon withdrawal.

Mr. Gorbachev had “to face up to a difficult problem of domestic politics which has puzzled other nations finding themselves in similar circumstances,” Rodric Braithwaite, a former British ambassador to Moscow, wrote in “Afgantsy”, his book on the Soviet intervention based on Communist Party documents.

“How could the Russians withdraw their army safely, with honor, without looking as if they were simply cutting and running, and without appearing to betray their Afghan allies or their own soldiers who had died?” Mr. Braithwaite wrote of the internal Kremlin debate, in terms resonant of the Americans’ conundrum today.

Around the time of the Soviet withdrawal, an article by Pravda, the Communist Party mouthpiece, clutched for a positive view as the Soviet Army pulled out. Read today, it bears a resemblance to the news releases churned out by the Pentagon detailing statistics on reconstruction assistance.

“Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan repaired, rebuilt and constructed hundreds of schools, technical colleges, over 30 hospitals and a similar number of nursery schools, some 400 apartment buildings and 35 mosques,” the article said. “They sank dozens of wells and dug nearly 150 kilometers of irrigation ditches and canals. They were also engaged in guarding military and civilian installations in trouble.”

The Kremlin had learned that its armies could not capture political success, but Soviet commanders made the same claims upon withdrawal that are heard from NATO officers today: not a single battlefield engagement was lost to guerrillas, and no outpost ever fell to insurgents.

That understanding seemed to animate Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta as he toured Afghanistan recently in a traditional holiday visit with the troops.

At each stop, Mr. Panetta acknowledged that significant challenges remain to an orderly withdrawal and a stable postwar Afghanistan, and not just the resilient insurgency.

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Afghanistan’s roadmap to the past

Kabul, Jan 14  A recently disclosed arrangement for ending the war in Afghanistan, reportedly concluded in secret between Afghan and Pakistani officials, would be a sad end to a process that has been driving Afghanistan—at great cost—back to pre-9/11 conditions.

Pakistan, after cultivating extremist groups with precisely this objective in view, would regain indirect hegemony over its neighbor. It would also gain a say in the details of the international troop withdrawal.

While the arrangement may seem to provide the sort of “decent interval” many U.S. officials are wishing for as they plan the exit from Afghanistan, and while a number of commentators have hailed the apparent movement on negotiation that has come in its wake, it does not promise a path to stability.

There is every reason to take the “Peace Process Roadmap to 2015” seriously. It tracks with views transmitted to U.S. officials by Pakistani Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and with a pattern of decisionmaking by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose staff includes many members of the extremist Hezb-i-Islami faction, and who sent his older brother Qayum to Pakistan to meet with Taliban leaders as early as 2007.

More significantly, most of the concrete actions called for under step one in the document, such as cessation of cross-border shelling, release of Taliban prisoners in Pakistan, and a “follow-up meeting” in Turkey scheduled for December 2012, are either underway or completed.

The document’s most remarkable feature is its language. Purportedly recording an agreement between Karzai and Kayani (who calls the shots in Pakistan on these issues), it reflects neither of their writing styles. The English is flawless, and the construction British, with numbered steps formulated in the infinitive: “The negotiating parties to agree on modalities for the inclusion of Taliban and other armed opposition leaders in the power-structure of the state, to include non-elected positions at different levels.”

The first paragraph, “Afghanistan’s Vision by 2015,” reveals close familiarity with similarly titled classified U.S. interagency documents, whose rosy projections it echoes.

“By 2015,” it reads, “Taliban, Hizb-e Islami and other armed groups will have given up armed opposition, transformed from military entities into political groups, and are actively participating in the country’s political and constitutional processes . . . Afghanistan’s political system remains inclusive, democratic, and equitable, where all political actors co-exist and promote their political goals and aspirations peacefully . . . NATO/ISAF forces will have departed from Afghanistan, leaving the ANSF as the only legitimate armed forces.”

Afghan and Pakistani officials may have agreed to these terms, but they clearly had help developing them.

U.S. officials say that Washington was not involved in elaborating the initiative. Given the reduced role it envisages for the United States on critical national security priorities, such as the specifics of troop withdrawal, official American input may well have been limited—which is not to rule out freelance participation by American “advisers.” British officials and back-channel go-betweens have long worked toward this type of solution.

With no autonomous role in the process sketched out, the United States is essentially reduced to helping delist armed extremists and “supporting” (read financing) Afghanistan in the future.

Pakistan, by contrast, gains a preponderant stake. The very first step calls for a “focus on securing the collaboration of Pakistan.” In particular, Pakistan will “facilitate direct contact between the . . . Government of Afghanistan and identified leaders of . . . armed opposition groups.” Formal talks are to be launched with “authorized” Taliban representatives. Authorized by whom? The plan lets Pakistan determine outcomes by choosing the negotiators—and doubtless influencing their negotiating positions.

The negotiations, moreover, are not just aimed at converting armed insurgents into politicians and allowing them to run for office. The document also stipulates their appointment to key non-elective positions—cabinet posts, governorships, or police commands, for example. Afghan observers predict that this provision will result in their country’s Balkanization, with the Taliban effectively exercising autonomous control over much of the south and east.

Such an outcome—which would allow Pakistan to dominate aspects of Afghan public life and critical regions of the country—is what Pakistani military leaders have been working toward since they first began reconstituting the Taliban in late 2002. The effort was clearly visible at the time, as former Taliban congregated in the tightly controlled Pakistani border towns of Quetta and Chaman, opened recruiting offices and training facilities, distributed weapons and motorcycles at madrassas, and, in one case I became aware of in 2003, drove cars bearing military license plates.

The government of Pakistan claims it desires a peaceful Afghanistan. And yet, as U.S. officials have conceded for months, the Pakistani military has not just been turning a blind eye to the development of insurgent groups on its territory, but has taken an active, sometimes fraught, role in helping develop them. The question is, to what end? Why would a rational country foment explosive instability right on its border? Why would officials take the risk that the extremism they help foster might shift its focus—as it has—to them?

The answer has to do with the Pakistani military’s perception of its rivalry with India. The threat—so constantly evoked as to verge on paranoia—is that of Indian encirclement, a too-cozy relationship between Kabul and Delhi that could leave Pakistan trapped in the middle.

Pakistani officials, like their American counterparts, have opined that insurgencies end around negotiating tables.

The provisions in the “Peace Process Roadmap to 2015” indicate that, ten years on, this approach has succeeded. Should the process it describes go forward, resulting in the re-Talibanization of Afghanistan’s central government and border regions and the return of Afghanistan to roughly its pre-9/11 state, a number of dangerous repercussions will likely ensue.

First, Pakistan will be rewarded for its decision to export extremist violence in pursuit of its national security aims. The perception in Pakistan (and in other countries such as Iran) could be reinforced that the best way to punch above its weight internationally is to use asymmetric violence, be it terrorism or nuclear proliferation.

Second, as history attests, partition is rarely clean or peaceful. Given the exclusion of the Afghan population from the development of this plan, and from the process it establishes, chances are that disenfranchised constituencies opposed to Pakistani domination will eventually take up arms.

Finally, the instability of such a scenario is likely to result in an exodus of refugees into fragile Central Asian states to the north.

Such a conclusion to the war in Afghanistan, while ironic—a dozen years, thousands of lives, and billions of dollars, just to get back to the starting point—was perhaps to be expected. After all, President Karzai was a senior official in the first Taliban regime and the United States has persisted in financing the very insurgents it was fighting, by way of its support to the Pakistani military. If, to cap off these contradictions, U.S. officials choose to go down the path outlined in this so-called roadmap, they would do well to design strategies to mitigate its very clear dangers.

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Sgt. in Saudi military accused of Vegas child rape

Las Vegas, Jan 14: A sergeant in Saudi Arabia's air force was jailed in Las Vegas on charges that he pulled a boy into a hotel room and sexually assaulted him the morning of Sin City's big New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza.

Mazen Alotaibi, 23, faces charges including kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and felony coercion that could get him decades in state prison, according to police and charging documents obtained.

The boy, who is younger than 14, told police the man forced him into a room at the Circus Circus hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and raped him. Police arrested Alotaibi after being called to the hotel before 9:30 a.m. Dec. 31.

"There was a kidnapping and sexual assault with force," Las Vegas police Lt. Dan McGrath said. "The victim said he was forced into the room and sexually assaulted. We have a strong case based on the evidence."

The boy, who lives out of state, was staying at the hotel with his family, McGrath said. He was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and evidence collection and released later to family members. His name was not made public.

McGrath said Alotaibi produced a Saudi Arabian military identification and said he was stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. U.S. federal authorities and Saudi military officials were notified, the police lieutenant said.

Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland spokesman Brent Boller said that records showed Alotaibi is currently stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. Boller said he could not immediately verify if Alotaibi had been at Lackland, but noted that international military students attend a Defense Language Institute English Language Center on the base to improve their English-language skills.

Alotaibi's lawyer, Don Chairez of Newport Beach, Calif., said he had been in contact with U.S. military authorities at both air force bases and with the Saudi government. He said Alotaibi had come to Las Vegas for the New Year's celebration and will plead not guilty.

Alotaibi also is charged with burglary, which in Nevada can stem from a person entering a building with intent to commit a felony.

The alleged attack took place on the sixth floor of a 15-story hotel tower. Circus Circus has a total of 3,767 guest rooms in three towers and five three-story motor lodge-style buildings dubbed Circus Circus Manor.

The arrest was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It cited a police report saying the boy was 13.

Alotaibi was being held without bail at the Clark County jail pending an evidence hearing January 17.

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Detroit reports highest homicide rate in 20 years

Washington, Jan 14 : Violent crime in Detroit shadows the landscape like its rows of abandoned buildings, but now the city faces a new precedent, even as gun-related killings decline nationwide: More people were killed here last year than at any time in the past 20 years.

"America has a problem with guns, but the epicenter seems to be here in Detroit," Interim Detroit Police Chief Chester Logan said at a news conference, as city officials reported 386 criminal homicides in 2012, the highest since 1992.

"As the chief of police in the city of Detroit, I take a certain amount of blame for the spiraling gunplay in the city," he said, "but one of the things you should realize, and everybody here in this room should realize, is that gunplay is a national problem.”

Logan is correct: The United States is in the throes of another cultural self-examination about guns after the horrific deaths of 20 children and six adults at the hands of a 20-year-old gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Other city officials and urban crime experts say the problem is not just guns.

"At least two-thirds of the homicides in Detroit are related to drug sales, disputes between people selling drugs or disputes between people owing people money about drugs," said David Martin, director of the Urban Safety Program at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Martin has researched police reports in all parts of the city to examine crime patterns. He says Detroit's police have to develop more effective methods of dealing with the city's drug economy and its consequences. "And that's very difficult," Martin told Yahoo News.

Detroit reported 411 homicides in 2012, 25 of them deemed "justifiable" by FBI crime reporting standards. Still, the remaining 386 represent 54.6 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to the Detroit Free Press. In 1993 the rate was 57.6 homicides per 100,000 residents.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing also pointed toward community-based causes and, potentially, solutions, but he stopped short of singling out drugs or guns. "The release of annual crime statistics reminds us of the senselessness of crime and violence in our community; the challenges facing our police force; and the need to improve conflict resolution and other anti-crime initiatives," he said in a statement.

Statistically, said Martin, Detroit harbors a range of factors that would contribute to a high homicide rate. The city has a high proportion of young men aged 20-29, he said. That age group accounted for 131 homicide victims and has demographic connections to the drug trade. The number of young men in the city who struggle with dysfunctional families and the high number of vacant homes in Detroit make matters worse.

"Groups of thugs have taken over the neighborhoods, and they can do what they please," Martin said. "It's like the Wild West out there."

Possible solutions addressing the homicide problem could be found in working with that age group, Bing said. "We've got to wrap our arms as best we can around these young folks and let them know that when they get into these kinds of situation it doesn't necessitate a gun; it doesn't have to necessitate a fight."
The mayor said he would meet with Detroit public school officials to try to engage young people in the city. He also promised more communication with local media in 2013 to address the problem.

Martin said the dramatic increase appears to have motivated city, county, state and federal officials to address Detroit's violent crime problem.

"There is a full-court press going on," he said. "There's probably going to be a revamping of each of their crime-fighting strategies. The magical number of 400 homicides seems to spur action."

The city reported a 2.6 percent overall decrease in major crimes such as aggravated assault, burglary and rape, officials said. But it also experienced year-over-year increases in car thefts and robberies.

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NJ man arrested in NY police cannibalism case

New York, Jan 14 : A lawyer claims that the arrest of a man accused of trying to pay a police officer to kidnap a Manhattan woman was done to prevent him from testifying about Internet sexual fantasies at the officer's cannibalism-tinged trial.

Authorities say the man, Michael Vanhise, agreed to pay Officer Gilberto Valle $5,000 to kidnap the woman in New York and deliver her bound to Vanhise's home in New Jersey, where she would be raped and killed.

Attorney Julia Gatto spoke after Vanhise, 22, of Trenton, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he was ordered held pending a bail hearing on a conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge.

"Mr. Vanhise is being used as a pawn by the government to bolster a very weak case," Gatto said outside court. She represents Valle, a 28-year-old New York City police officer from Queens. He is scheduled to go to trial later this month after being charged in October with one count of kidnapping conspiracy and one count of accessing a computer without authorization.

Gatto said Vanhise "would have exonerated our client" with testimony about his own participation in a world of Internet sexual fantasies where people could speak of unspeakable acts they would never commit. She said the arrest appeared to be a tactical move by authorities to prevent testimony by Vanhise or others about Internet fantasies.

"He definitely could have been a defense witness, yes. We believe he would certainly support the defense," Gatto said.

The lawyer said the government appeared to be pressuring potential defense witnesses not to take the witness stand by saying in court documents filed against Vanhise that there were other co-conspirators who had not been charged in the case.

Authorities say Vanhise also participated in planning the kidnapping of a girl.

Vanhise's lawyer, Alice Fontier, said her client, an auto mechanic who seemed to wipe tears from his eyes during his court hearing, was "very upset," especially because he wanted to be home after his wife gave birth to a daughter last month, one of several young children the couple has.

She said he had been in contact with the FBI since late October and there had "certainly been ongoing meetings."

"He has not stopped cooperating," she said, though she added: "Obviously, the relationship has changed since he was arrested."

Besides being accused of agreeing to pay Valle for the abduction last year when Valle was an active police officer, Vanhise also admitted emailing others about kidnapping, raping and killing women and children, the FBI said in court papers.

The FBI quoted Valle in court papers as saying in an email to Vanhise that it would be hard to restrain himself when he knocks the woman out, "but I am aspiring to be a professional kidnapper and that's business."

It quoted him as also saying he would tie her hands and bare feet and gag her. "Then she will be stuffed into a large piece of luggage and wheeled out to my van," it said he told Vanhise.

"Just make sure she doesn't die before I get her," Vanhise was quoted in court papers as telling Valle in response.

"No need to worry. She will be alive. It's a short drive to you," the officer was quoted as responding.

Valle was charged last year with using a law-enforcement database as he allegedly made plans to kidnap, rape, kill and eat women. Gatto said at that time that he was engaging in sexual fantasies and intended no violence.

In court papers filed, defense lawyers wrote that Valle was accused from January 2012 to Oct. 24 of conspiring with others he met on a website devoted to the exploration of deviant sexual fantasies.

"Mr. Valle and the individuals with whom he communicated discussed, among other things, their violent sexual fantasies of abducting, raping, murdering and cannibalizing women," they wrote. They said Valle sometimes distributed the photographs of women he knew through his social network "to enhance the fantasy," though he never intended for any acts to be committed in the "real world."

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Vanhise engaged in conduct "that reads like a script for a bad horror film."

He said the arrest was the second "in this bone-chilling case, but we are not finished."

George Venizelos, head of the New York FBI office, said the charges "convey the depravity of the offense."

The court papers said Vanhise also emailed photographs of a girl whom Vanhise knew well. They said this occurred after other unidentified co-conspirators expressed interest in kidnapping the child.

If convicted, Vanhise could face life in prison.

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NASA’s Curiosity rover finds ‘flower’ on surface of Mars

New York, Jan 14 : NASA has released a series of new photos taken by its Curiosity rover that appear to show a “flower” on the surface of Mars.

NBCNews.com’s photo blog reports that the photos were taken as part of an effort to capture 360-degree images during Curiosity’s trek through Mars’ Yellowknife Bay.

New Jersey-based journalist and photographer Ken Kramer has assembled the Curiosity photographs, adding color to give a realistic view of what the rover is seeing on the planet’s surface.

But what has really caught people’s attention is a raw image from NASA’s photo feed that one reader on Above Top Secret has called a “Martian flower.”

On the posting, the commenter going by the name “Arken,” writes: “The Albedo (or Reflectivity of Sun Light) of this object is very high, and its translucent appearance, the irregular conformation (like pistils) and the 'texture' of its wider areas is smooth, and seem that it is ground attached.


NBC’s Alan Boyle writes that he at first assumed the “flower” was actually just a piece of plastic that had fallen off the Curiosity rover. A similar event happened in October. So, Boyle reached out to NASA spokesman Guy Webster. Interestingly, Webster shot down the plastic theory, saying in response, "That appears to be part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft."

Scientists announced that an ancient rock that traveled from Mars to Earth over 2 billion years ago appears to have interacted with water on the planet’s surface.

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Body of missing Calif. woman found at Lake Tahoe

Reno, Jan 14 : The search for a missing 19-year-old California woman who disappeared on New Year's Eve at Lake Tahoe ended when her body was found behind a snow bank about a mile from the site of a music festival she attended that night, authorities said.

Alyssa Byrne of Petaluma may have tried to walk three miles in freezing weather to the hotel where she was staying, and became disoriented or lost, Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell said. Her body was found along a road.

The cause of death has not yet been determined, but neither foul play nor suicide is suspected, he said.

Howell noted other concertgoers decided to walk back to a hotel in Stateline, a tourist destination on Lake Tahoe's south shore, because there were long lines for shuttle buses.

Nighttime temperatures have plunged to zero in the area in the past week, with daytime highs still well below freezing.

"If exposed to the elements you could succumb to that," Howell said. "We won't speculate on that (hypothermia) as the cause of death, but we're hoping to get an answer from the autopsy."

The autopsy also will determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, he said.

Byrne's disappearance prompted a dayslong effort by search and rescue teams, friends and family members who posted fliers and urged anyone with information on her whereabouts to come forward.

Byrne's father, Kevin Byrne, issued a statement thanking those who helped.

"Our entire family is devastated," the statement said. "We were still holding out hope that she would be found safe. We will miss Alyssa and she will be in our hearts forever."

Chanel Kelly, a friend who was on the New Year's Eve trip in Tahoe, told reporters outside the Byrne home in Petaluma that the tragedy is everybody's worst nightmare.

"At the end of the day she's always responsible and safe, but this is one time that she wasn't," Kelly said.

Byrne worked as a hostess at Cattlemens restaurant in Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, and was taking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College's Petaluma campus to become a firefighter/paramedic.

A utility worker found her body around 8:30 a.m. along Pioneer Trail, a major thoroughfare on Tahoe's south shore, Douglas County sheriff's Sgt. Pat Brooks said. Her body was just off the roadway but obstructed from view by the snow bank.

The discovery was made about a mile southeast of the festival venue at Lake Tahoe Community College. Stateline hotel-casinos are some three miles east of the campus. Tens of thousands of young revelers gather in the area annually to ring in the new year.

Byrne was in South Lake Tahoe with friends to attend the outdoor SnowGlobe Music Festival, which drew 40,000 people over a three-day run. They were staying at the Horizon Casino Resort in Stateline.

Friends had told authorities that they last saw Byrne in a bar at the resort, but Howell later discounted that report and said Byrne never made it back to the hotel. He said it's not unusual for friends to become separated at major events.

Cellphone records show her last call that night was made from the vicinity of the concert, Howell said.

"We know she left the event, but we don't know where she was last seen," Howell said. "We'll talk to people who thought they saw her and try to determine what led to her death."

Howell dismissed angst-filled tweets concerning a falling-out with a friend the day of her disappearance, saying they were not believed to be a factor in her death.

Festival organizers issued a statement saying the investigation is ongoing and they are working with authorities to learn more.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Alyssa Byrne," the statement said. "Our deepest sympathies go out to Alyssa's family and friends."

The festival website urges concertgoers to be prepared for cold temperatures, and not to attempt to walk or hitchhike to and from the event.

Parking is prohibited at the festival, and attendees must buy a pass for shuttle bus service for transportation, the website says.

Festival producer Chad Donnelly told the Tahoe Daily Tribune that he plans to refine the shuttle service and develop ways to shorten the lines that formed at security, but overall the event went as predicted. The festival tilts toward electronic dance music but also features rap, hip-hop and electro-funk.

South Lake Tahoe City Manager Nancy Kerry didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The city approved a permit for the festival.

Lake Tahoe Community College issued a statement saying a memorial fund in Byrne's name has been set up with the college's foundation to assist her family.

"Administrators from the college are cooperating with authorities to assist with the ongoing investigation," the statement said.

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'The big bang theory' is the new 'friends'

London, Jan 14 : So The Big Bang Theory, CBS's sitcom about how smart people are silly, has broken its second ratings record in as many months, with the episode "The Egg Salad Equivalency" attracting a mind-walloping 19 million viewers, with a 6.0 rating in the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

So that is about as big as a sitcom gets. Toward the end of its run, Friends was topping out around 20 million viewers, meaning Big Bang is now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with one of network TV's biggest and longest comedy successes. That is mighty impressive for any show, let alone one without much watercooler or blog buzz like Big Bang Theory. (People watch it, but do people really talk about it?) What does this mean for the future of the show? Well, basically it means that Johnny Galecki is going to be very rich, not that he isn't already, and that creator Chuck Lorre will be stuffed and mounted in the CBS HQ lobby once he dies and will be worshiped as some sort of deity. And that he can now make any show he wants, really. So get ready for Jerks and Blonde Ladies, coming to CBS in autumn 2013. [Entertainment Weekly]

Actually, get ready for Mom, a show that Lorre is currently developing and that has just signed Anna Faris as its lead. That's the one we heard about a little while back, about a newly sober single mom trying to get her life back together in Napa Valley. We've already made the jokes about new sobriety and wine country not exactly mixing that well — it'd be like a recovering meth addict moving to Heisenberg's Albuquerque — so let's instead focus on the fact that Anna Faris might soon be doing a network comedy. On CBS. Just a couple of years ago she was poised to be this big movie star! There was a New Yorker profile written about it for god's sake! But now it's a Chuck Lorre show. I suppose she could still be a movie star while working on TV — it seems to be working for fellow Lorre employee Melissa McCarthy — but we expected that Faris would give movie stardom a few more years before she jumped into a steady contract gig. Ah well, work's work, and money is absolutely money. It might have something to do with Faris being a new mother, with TV offering regular hours and workplace not far from home. Now she and Chris Pratt can drop each other off at work and it will be totally cute and they'll have their nice funny life and we'll watch from the other side of the screen and gurgle softly. Everyone wins.

The Television Critics' Association winter press tour is currently underway, and one big thing coming out of the junket so far is that A&E's upcoming show Bates Motel is really only using Psycho as vague inspiration rather than a guide or template. Show creator Carlton Cuse says "the mythology that you think is what dictates the relationship between Norma and Norman is not what it's going to turn out to be." Aha, OK. We kind of knew this already, after seeing a production featurette and realizing that this thing is set in present-day rather than the 1960s, but this solidifies it more. This is a show about a crazy kid named Norman Bates and his large, looming mama, but that is, I guess, the only similarity. Oh, and there's a motel. There is still a motel. Sigh. I don't know about this thing, guys. I just don't know.

Here's a trailer for director Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa, a Toronto Film Festival hit about two teenage girls forming an intense bond during the Cold War nuclear scares of the 1960s. It looks rather lovely, and features a cast of great actors, among them Elle Fanning (as Ginger), Christina Hendricks, Oliver Platt, Annette Bening, and Alessandro Nivola. Mostly we're excited about seeing Christina Hendricks and Elle Fanning do British accents. Why is it always so fun watching American actors do that? Who knows. But it always is.

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US regulator sues JPMorgan over WaMu mortgage securities

Washington, Jan 14 : The US credit union regulator sued JPMorgan (JPM) and Washington Mutual over $2.2 billion in mortgage securities sold to credit unions that collapsed because of losses from the securities.

The suit is the third the regulator, the National Credit Union Administration, has filed against JPMorgan involving mortgage losses, and the second in the past month.

In December, it sued the bank over $3.6 billion in securities sold by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired during the financial crisis. In June 2011, the NCUA sued over some $1.4 billion in securities in which JPMorgan was the underwriter and seller. Both suits are still pending.

JPMorgan bought the assets of Washington Mutual in 2008 after it failed and was seized by regulators.

In the lawsuit, the NCUA accused the bank of making misrepresentations in underwriting and selling mortgage-backed securities to U.S. Central, Western Corporate and Southwest Corporate federal credit unions.

The three credit unions became insolvent on the losses and were placed into NCUA conservatorship, the agency said.

"The damage caused by the actions of firms like Washington Mutual has been extremely expensive to contain and repair," NCUA board chairman Debbie Matz said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, adding that "it's only right that the people who caused the damage be required to pick up that burden, as well."

The lawsuit adds to a growing list of cases JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, is fighting over conduct tied to the financial crisis, including the conduct of entities it acquired at the height of the crisis.

In the past two years the agency has brought similar actions against Barclays Capital (BARC.L), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Goldman Sachs (GS), RBS Securities (RBS.L), UBS Securities (UBSN.VX), Wachovia and others.

Most of the cases are pending, but it has settled claims against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities (DBK.DE) and HSBC (HSBA.L) for around $170 million.

The credit union regulator has been trying to recover losses related to the failure of five institutions that it seized in 2009 and 2010 after they ran into trouble due to the crumbling housing market.

The wholesale credit unions have experienced more troubles than their retail counterparts because they did not face the same restrictions on permitted investments, leading to big losses during the financial crisis.

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Law firm recruits federal judge who presided over Ebbers case

New York, Jan 14 : Barbara Jones, the federal judge who presided over the criminal trial of former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, will join the law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder later this month, according to a partner at the firm.

Jones, 65, will begin work on January 15 at the New York office of the Washington-based firm, where she will focus on advising clients on internal investigations, corporate compliance and monitorships, said Zuckerman partner Paul Shechtman, who helped recruit her. She will join the firm as a partner, he said.

During 17 years on the bench, Jones presided over a wide range of cases, including the Ebbers trial and the 1997 trial of Autumn Jackson, the woman convicted of trying to extort $40 million from Bill Cosby. Ebbers was sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in prison for orchestrating an $11 billion fraud that led to WorldCom's bankruptcy.

Jones's move to Zuckerman, which was first reported by The New York Times, marks the first time she will practice law in a private setting and bolsters the law firm's New York presence.

In September 2011, it brought on board Steven Cohen, the former top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Other influential hires have included the September 2011 addition of Shechtman, a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, and Andrew Tomback, a civil and criminal litigator who joined from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley& McCloy.

Zuckerman Spaeder has more than 90 lawyers in four offices on the East Coast. The firm came into the spotlight when one of its partners, William Taylor III, helped defend former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn against charges that he sexually assaulted hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo.

The criminal charges were dropped in August 2011. A civil lawsuit brought by the maid settled for an undisclosed amount last month.

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Fed officials suggest possible end to asset purchases in 2013

San Diego, Jan 14: The Federal Reserve could halt its asset purchases this year, two top Fed officials suggested, a view also gaining traction among economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy panel in 2013, said a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent would probably constitute the "substantial improvement" in the labor market that the central bank seeks.

That's the bar for the Fed's policy-setting committee to halt the current round of asset purchases that it began in September. The Fed is currently buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion in Treasuries each month in a bid to push down borrowing costs and spark faster growth.

"If we get even moderately good growth this year I would expect unemployment to continue to tick down," Bullard later told reporters. "I would say that that would put the committee in a good position to think about doing a pause with the balance sheet policy."

Bullard also acknowledged that he had a more optimistic view on unemployment than some other Fed officials, and sees it in the "low 7's" by year-end.

Thousands of economists have gathered in San Diego for the annual American Economic Association meeting, drawing some of the biggest names in the profession as well as top policymakers.

Bullard stressed that the Fed would decide about changing its bond-buying program on the basis of the outlook for the labor market, and said that if it decided to pause, and then saw conditions weaken, it might resume the purchases.

The Fed has also promised to keep interest rates at their current near-zero level until unemployment drops to 6.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.5 percent.

Philadelphia Fed Bank President Charles Plosser, who spoke separately at the conference, said he expects unemployment to drop to between 6.8 percent and 7.0 percent by the end of 2013.

As a result, he hopes the Fed will stop buying bonds before the 6.5 percent threshold, implying he anticipates the asset purchases could halt this year. Unemployment registered 7.8 percent last month.

Economists at nine of 16 primary dealers -- the large financial institutions that do business directly with the Fed – said they expect the Fed to end its Treasuries purchases in 2013.

Fed policymakers are increasingly concerned about the impact of their monthly purchases, which currently total $85 billion.

Minutes from their December policy meeting showed that "several" top officials expected to slow or stop the so-called quantitative easing program, dubbed QE3, "well before" the end of the year - news that surprised some on Wall Street and prompted a drop in stocks and bonds, and a rise in the dollar.

Meanwhile, another top Fed official warned the U.S. central bank's aggressive easing plan threatens the Fed's credibility.

Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed, held his ground opposing QE3, arguing that continued monetary policy is not the appropriate way to tackle the problem.

"It is unlikely that the Federal Reserve can push real growth rates materially higher than they otherwise would be, on a sustained basis," Lacker, who dissented on all Fed easing moves last year, told a meeting of the Maryland Bankers Association.

The U.S. economy expanded 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.

"I see an increased risk, given the course the committee has set, that inflation pressures emerge and are not thwarted in a timely way," he said.

Bullard, speaking on a panel in San Diego, warned that central bankers, in fighting to stabilize financial markets, have sacrificed some of their cherished independence, an attribute many Fed historians and policymakers argue is key to keeping inflation under control.

Bullard singled out the European Central Bank as one of the worst offenders, but warned more broadly about the "creeping politicization" of central banking globally -- something that he said would deliver disappointing economic results.

While Lacker and Plosser are outspoken policy hawks, Bullard is more of a centrist who is nonetheless toward the hawkish end of the spectrum of Fed officials. The three were the first top central bank officials to speak publicly since the minutes were unveiled.

After the December meeting, the Fed said it would continue buying bonds until the labor market outlook improves "substantially," which Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has characterized as a "sustained" decline in the unemployment rate.

Government data released showed the U.S. jobless rate held steady from November to December. Bullard called the December jobs number - a boost of 155,000 in new non-farm jobs - "reasonably good.

Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, a proponent of aggressive Fed easing, also spoke at the conference, but confined her comments to how regulators are tackling risks to financial stability.

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Citigroup to seek permission to buy back shares: WSJ

New York, Jan 14: Citigroup Inc (NYS:C) is planning to ask regulators for permission to buy back a "minimal" number of shares, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The bank is not planning to ask to increase its quarterly dividend, which is currently a penny a share, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the company's plans.

Citigroup Chairman Michael O'Neill and newly installed CEO Michael Corbat have told company executives that the capital plan the company submits to the Federal Reserve must be so conservative that it will not be rejected, the Journal said.

Big banks are due to submit their capital plans to the Fed.

Another bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), has reason to be "cautiously optimistic" about its chances of winning approval to raise its dividend and buy back more stock, an official who asked not to be named said.

In November, JPMorgan won approval from the Fed to resume previously approved buybacks it had suspended in May after a multi-billion dollar loss surfaced on derivatives transactions in its London office. JPMorgan's operations have generated more than enough capital to cover those losses.

The Journal reported that Morgan Stanley (MS) will focus its plan for the Fed on using its capital to complete its purchase of Citigroup's minority stake of a joint venture the two companies have in a wealth-management business. A spokesman for the investment bank declined to comment.

Citigroup's last annual plan was rejected by the Fed in March after former CEO Vikram Pandit led analysts and investors to believe the company would be allowed to spend a few billion dollars on share buybacks and additional dividends. The rejection became a major embarrassment for the bank and contributed to the board's decision to replace Pandit.

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Mediocre job growth points to slow grind for U.S. economy

Washington, Jan 14 : US employers kept their pace of hiring steady in December, falling short of the levels needed to bring down a still lofty unemployment rate and pointing to lackluster economic growth in 2013.

Other data gave stronger signals on the health of the economy, with the U.S. service sector activity expanding the most in 10 months.

Payrolls, excluding farm jobs, grew by 155,000 last month, the Labor Department said. That was a touch more than analysts' expectations and only slightly below the revised gain of 161,000 reported for November.

The jobless rate was steady at 7.8 percent.

While firms kept on hiring despite the uncertainties raised by a budget stand-off in Washington, the report reinforced expectations of 2 percent economic growth this year.

Such slow growth is unlikely to quickly bring down the unemployment rate and probably will not make the U.S. Federal Reserve rethink its stimulus plan anytime soon despite growing unease among some policymakers over its bond-buying program.

"The U.S. economy is just muddling through," said Tom di Galoma, managing director at Navigate Advisors in Stamford, Connecticut.

The Labor Department raised its estimate for unemployment in November by a tenth of a point to 7.8 percent.

Most economists expect the U.S. economy will be held back this year by tax hikes as well as by weak spending by households and businesses, which are still trying to reduce big debts taken on before the 2007-09 recession.

The data nonetheless gave signals of some momentum in the labor market's recovery.

Gains in employment were distributed broadly throughout the economy, from manufacturing to health care. The government also said 14,000 more jobs were created in October and November than originally estimated.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent last month, slightly more than analysts had expected, while the length of the average workweek edged higher.

"This shows the economy is chugging along," Tom Porcelli, an economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

A increase in the number of construction jobs in December may represent a one-time bounce from reconstruction efforts following a mammoth East Coast storm, but the fledgling recovery in America's housing market could also be behind the gains, said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Separately, the Institute for Supply Management said its services index rose to 56.1 last month, the highest since February. Another report showed a gauge of business spending plans remained firm in November.

U.S. stocks rose slightly and prices fell for U.S. government debt. The ISM report showed much stronger levels of activity than analysts were expecting, fanning investor speculation that a strengthening economy could lead the Fed to scale back its bond buying programs.

Still, many analysts said hiring remains too weak for the Fed to consider taking its foot off the accelerator. The Fed has said it wants substantial improvement in the labor market before it eases up on its bond buying.

"There is nothing here to suggest the Fed will see indications of a 'substantial' improvement," said Julia Coronado, an economist at BNP Paribas.

Taking the opposite view, Craig Dismuke, a strategist at Vining Sparks in Memphis, Tennessee, said the current pace of job creation could raise pressure on the Fed to stop bond purchases after the middle of the year.

Minutes from the Fed's December policy review pointed to rising concerns over how the asset purchases will affect financial markets. St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, thought to be less tolerant of inflation than many of his colleagues at the central bank, said the bond program could end this year if the economy improves.

Despite the signs of momentum in hiring, government spending cuts due to begin around March are looming over the economy.

Also threatening the recovery, the United States risks defaulting on its debt if Congress doesn't give the government permission within a few months to increase borrowing. White House economic adviser Alan Krueger told MSNBC the economy would do better if Congress promptly raised the debt ceiling.

The government's $16.4 trillion debt limit has become a poker chip in congressional talks over how to push scheduled spending cuts further into the future.

A last-minute deal this week softened the tax hikes and postponed the cuts by two months, and hiring in December may have been slowed by uncertainty over the timing of the so-called "fiscal cliff."

"Companies were very worried about the fiscal cliff, so it's a good number that they were still hiring," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

Austerity already held back the U.S. economy in 2012. In December, government payrolls shrank by 13,000.

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Streetlights defunct at SBI lane

Srinagar, Jan 14: The shopkeepers of the State Bank of India (SBI) at Residency Road have expressed strong resentment over failure of the authorities to repair street-lights there.

A delegation of shopkeepers said that the street-light developed technical snag many months ago. “In absence of street-lights, our customers face immense inconvenience to walk through the lane during evenings,” they said.

They also said the lane is most of the time littered with garbage. “The SMC sweepers hardly clean this lane which presents a filthy look,” the shopkeepers said appealing the SMC Commissioner to look into the matter. 

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S&P 500 finishes at 5-year high on economic data

New York, Jan 14 : The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index ended at a five-year high, lifted by reports showing employers kept up a steady pace of hiring workers and the vast services sector expanded at a brisk rate.

The gains on the S&P 500 pushed the index to its highest close since December 2007 and its biggest weekly gain since December 2011.

Most of the gains came early in the holiday-shortened week, including the largest one-day rise for the index in more than a year after politicians struck a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 43.85 points, or 0.33 percent, to 13,435.21. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 7.10 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,466.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 1.09 points, or 0.04 percent, to 3,101.66.

For the week, the S&P gained 4.6 percent, the Dow rose 3.8 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 4.8 percent to post their largest weekly percentage gains in more than a year.

The CBOE Volatility index, a measure of investor anxiety, dropped for a fourth straight session, giving the index a weekly decline of nearly 40 percent, its biggest weekly fall ever. The close of 13.83 on the VIX marks its lowest level since August.

In the economic reports, the Labor Department said non-farm payrolls grew by 155,000 jobs last month, slightly below November's level. Gains were distributed broadly throughout the economy, from manufacturing and construction to healthcare.

Also serving to boost equities was data from the Institute for Supply Management showing U.S. service sector activity expanding the most in 10 months.

With the S&P 500 index at a five-year closing high, analysts said any gains above the index's intraday high near 1,475 in September may be harder to come by.

"We are getting to a point where we need a strong catalyst, which could be earnings, it could be three months of good economic data, it could be a variety of things," said Adam Thurgood, managing director at HighTower Advisors in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"What is going on right now is this conflicting view of fundamentals look pretty good and improving, and then you've got these negative tail risks that could blow everything up," Thurgood said.

He referred to "a fiscal superstorm brewing" of issues still left unresolved in Washington, including tough federal budget cuts and the need to raise the government's debt ceiling all within a couple of months.

The rise in payrolls shown by the jobs data did not make a dent in the U.S. unemployment rate still at 7.8 percent.

A poll of economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions showed that most expect the Fed in 2013 to end the program with which it bought Treasury debt in an effort to stimulate the economy.

A drop in Apple Inc (AAPL) shares of 2.6 percent to $528.36 kept pressure on the Nasdaq.

Adding to concerns about Apple's ability to produce more innovative products, rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> is expected to widen its lead over Apple in global smartphone sales this year with growth of 35 percent. Market researcher Strategy Analytics said Samsung had a broad product lineup.

Eli Lilly and Co (LLY) was among the biggest boost's to the S&P, up 3.7 percent to $51.56 after the pharmaceuticals maker said it expects its 2013 earnings to increase to $3.75 to $3.90 per share, excluding items, from $3.30 to $3.40 per share in 2012.

Fellow drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) rose 1.2 percent to $71.55 after Deutsche Bank upgraded the Dow component to a "Buy" from a "Hold" rating. The NYSEArca pharmaceutical index climbed 0.6 percent.

Shares of Mosaic Co (MOS) gained 3.3 percent to $58.62. Excluding items, the fertilizer producer's quarterly earnings beat analysts' expectations.

Volume was modest with about 6.07 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE MKT and Nasdaq, slightly below the 2012 daily average of 6.42 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,287 to 701, while on the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners 1,599 to 866.

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Waripora sans basic amenities

Waripora, Jan 14 : Inhabitants of Waripora Payeen in this held Kashmir area are up in arms against the non-availability of the basic amenities in the village.

 Located at the bank of Nallah Frashar, the village is at a distance of 16 kms from district quarters and 1 km away from Kreeri tehsil.
 The village has a population of nearly 1000 souls.

This picturesque village is rich in scenic beauty. Its meadows and gushing streams add to its charm but it is craving for attention.
 Residents alleged that this village has been neglected by the successive regimes and no one has paid any attention towards developing it.    

 They said they face unscheduled power cuts, drink contaminated water and their village is without healthcare facilities. "We have been totally neglected by the authorities, we have no facility here, be it electricity, drinking water, hospital etc, we are facing discrimination in every sphere of life,” said Farooq Ahmad, Numberdar of the village.

 "Despite paying electricity bills, we face unscheduled power cuts. Low voltage adds to our problem, our schools and roads are in dilapidated condition," he added.

 Resident said that they are forced to drink contaminated water from a nearby stream (Farashar Nallah).

 "We were promised Sadak, Bijli and Pani by the politicians at the time of election but their promises proved to be a hoax," they said.
 The village is also without a dispensary due to which the locals have to rush to SDH Kreeri in case of emergency.

"We are facing hardships because we don't have a dispensary here, in case of emergency we have to rush to Kreeri," the locals said.
 “Village also lags behind in education,” said Riyaz Rabbani, who is the first graduate and the first government employee of the village. "Our schools are in dilapidated condition. We are still living in the dark ages authorities have failed to mitigate our sufferings."

 Residents accused successive regimes of ignoring the village. “No one has ever paid any attention towards the development of this hamlet. So many regimes came and went but nothing was done to upgrade the standard of living of the people,” locals said.

 Accusing district administration of neglecting the area locals said: "Officers appear if some politician visits the area. They are never seen in normal days."

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Pattan faces drinking water shortage

Pattan, Jan 14 : Residents of this held Kashmir town are up in arms against the authorities for failing to provide them with safe drinking water.

Residents of Harinara, Najan, Dastipora, Khanpeth, Ganastan and adjoining areas complained that they are facing acute water shortage and they are using contaminated water from nearby wells, ponds and streams.

According to the residents the water supply scheme located at Devar Parihaspora does not supply water properly. "Our women have to walk kilometers to fetch water from nearby ponds and wells," said Showkal Ali of Najan.

“We are facing inconvenience in this chilly weather and there is every possibility of entire village falling sick,” Ali added.
 Residents urged PHE Minister Taj Mohiddin to look into the matter.

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More breaks from sitting are good for waistlines and hearts

Islamabad, Jan 14 : It is becoming well accepted that, as well as too little exercise, too much sitting is bad for people's health. Now a new study has found that it is not just the length of time people spend sitting down that can make a difference, but also the number of breaks that they take while sitting at their desk or on their sofa. Plenty of breaks, even if they are as little as one minute, seem to be good for people's hearts and their waistlines.

The study, which is published in the European Heart Journal, is the first in a large, representative, multi-ethnic population to look at the links of the total amount of time spent sitting down and breaks in sedentary time, with various indicators of risk for heart disease, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, and inflammatory processes that can play a role in atherosclerosis (blocked arteries).

It found that prolonged periods of sedentary time, even in people who also spent some time in moderate-to-vigorous exercise, were associated with worse indicators of cardio-metabolic function and inflammation, such as larger waist circumferences, lower levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol, higher levels of C-reactive protein (an important marker of inflammation) and triglycerides (blood fats).

However, the study also found that, even in people who spent a long time sitting down, the more breaks they took during this time, the smaller their waists and the lower the levels of C-reactive protein.

There were some racial and ethnic differences. The most significant was that longer sedentary time had a marked adverse effect on waist circumference for non-Hispanic whites only, but made no difference to Mexican Americans and appeared to be beneficial for non-Hispanic blacks.

Dr Genevieve Healy, a research fellow at the School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Australia, who led the study, said: "Overall, for length of sedentary time, the most clinically significant findings were for blood fats and markers of insulin resistance. For the number of breaks in sedentary time, the most significant differences were observed for waist circumference. The top 25% of people who took the most breaks had, on average, a 4.1cm smaller waist circumference than those in the lowest 25%."

Dr Healy and her colleagues analysed data from 4,757 people aged 20 and over, who took part in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003 and 2006. The participants wore a small device called an accelerometer, which monitored the amount and intensity of walking or running activity. It was worn on the right hip during waking hours for seven days and it gave researchers information on sedentary time and breaks in sedentary time. Measurements were taken of waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and C-reactive protein concentrations, and they also measured levels of triglycerides, plasma glucose and insulin in a sub-sample of participants who were fasting when attending a morning examination. The researchers accounted statistically for socio-demographic differences between study participants, their medical histories and their lifestyles (smoking, alcohol intake, diet).

The least amount of sedentary time was 1.8 hours per day, the most 21.2 hours per day; the least number of breaks over the full seven days was 99, and the most was 1,258.

Dr Healy said: "The benefits of regular participation in moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise are well accepted scientifically and by the general public. However, the potential adverse health impact of prolonged sitting (which is something that we do on average for more than half of our day), is only just being realised. Our research highlights the importance of considering prolonged sedentary time as a distinct health risk behaviour that warrants explicit advice in future public health guidelines. In particular, the findings are likely to have implications for settings where prolonged sitting is widespread, such as in offices.

"Our research showed that even small changes, which could be as little as standing up for one minute, might help to lower this health risk. It is likely that regular breaks in prolonged sitting time could be readily incorporated into the working environment without any detrimental impact on productivity, although this still needs to be determined by further research. 'Stand up, move more, more often' could be used as a slogan to get this message across."

She said that existing occupational health and safety guidelines recommend regular changes in posture and a variety of work tasks, and that these would help to incorporate more breaks from sitting in the working day, and might lead to less sedentary time overall. Practical tips that might help to do this in an office-based workplace included:

Standing up to take phone calls
Walking to see a colleague rather than phoning or emailing
Having standing meetings or encouraging regular breaks during meetings for people to stand up
Going to a bathroom on a different level
Centralising things such as rubbish bins and printers so that you need to walk to them
Taking the stairs instead of the lift where possible.
Dr Healy said that the size of the differences in the various cardio-metabolic and inflammatory risk biomarkers between the top and bottom 25% of people in terms of their sedentary time was large enough to suggest that "in theory, population-wide reductions in sedentary time of between one to two hours a day could have a substantial impact on the prevention of cardiovascular disease."

She concluded: "Prolonged sedentary time is likely to increase with future technological and social innovations, and it is important to avoid prolonged periods of sitting and to move more throughout the day. Reducing and regularly breaking up sedentary time may be an important adjunct health message, alongside the well-established recommendation for regular participation in exercise. While further evidence of a causal nature is required, less sitting time would be unlikely to do harm. It would, at the very least, contribute to increased overall levels of daily energy expenditure and could help to prevent weight gain."

The study was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council/National Heart Foundation of Australia postdoctoral fellowship to Dr Healy; a Victorian Health Promotion Foundation Public Health Research Fellowship to David Dunstan; and a Queensland Health Core Research Infrastructure grant and NHMRC Program Grant funding to Elisabeth Winkler and Neville Owen.

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Drug reduces the increase in fear caused by previous traumatic experiences in mice

Islamabad, Jan 14 : Living a traumatic experience favors the persistence of fear associated with an aversive stimulus, known as fear conditioning. Scientists in the US and Spain have now found that such effect, in mice, can be suppressed with a single dose of 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, a type of flavonoid which boosts the ability to acquire new emotional behaviors.


The findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in a study carried out by researchers at Emory University and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), who consider that the drug could be used as an effective treatment of post-traumatic stress, panic and phobia disorders in humans.

Mice previously exposed to traumatic situations demonstrate a more persistent memory of fear conditioning -- acquired by associating an acoustic stimulus with an aversive stimulus -- and lack the ability to inhibit this fear.

This phenomenon is similar to that of people who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder which appears after being exposed to highly traumatic situations, such as a violent attack, a natural disaster or physical abuse. In the study, researchers verified that the 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone injected into mice previously subjected to a traumatic experience made them extinguish fear conditioning more quickly. The enhancement of this new learning is the result of 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone activating the TrkB receptors in the brain, probably those found in the amygdala, which are essential for emotional learning and memory.

7,8-dihydroxyflavone is a type of flavonoid. These chemical compounds are present in our diets in elements such as red wine, citrus, cereals, tea and chocolate (at least 70% cocoa), etc. Chronic administration of foods rich in flavonoids in lab animals has demonstrated neuroprotective effects in aged rodents, but the activation of TrkB receptors produced by these foods is probably low compared to the effects of 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone.

TrkB receptors in the brain are activated in mammals by the BDNF protein. There are different pathologies, such as depression or anxiety disorders, in which this protein shows alterations in its function. Unfortunately, administration of the BDNF protein as a drug is limited given that a large part of the amount injected does not permeate the blood-brain barrier and cannot access the brain. Very recent studies have demonstrated that 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone is the first drug to imitate BDNF actions and enter the brain with much more efficacy than the protein, thus revealing therapeutic actions in animal models suffering from Alzheimer's, strokes, Parkinson's and/or depression.

The results obtained in this study suggest that 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone as a drug could be an useful treatment for disorders based on fear such as PTSD, panic attacks and phobias. Researchers consider it convenient to study its effects combined with psychotherapy, administering the drug in fear extinction therapy sessions for anxiety disorders or even shortly after a person experiences a traumatic situation.

Led by Dr Kerry Ressler of Emory University, Atlanta, the study was developed with the participation of Dr Antonio Armario, researcher at the UAB Institute of Neuroscience and professor of the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, and Dr Raul Andero, researcher at Emory University. The article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry is part of Dr Andero's doctoral thesis.

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Measles virus, a weapon against cancer?

Islamabad, Jan 14 : When most people in the developed world think of measles, what comes to mind is only a dim memory of a vaccination at a pediatrician's office. But while childhood vaccination has virtually eliminated measles from North America and much of Europe, researchers remain interested in the virus.

This fascination persists partly because improving the measles vaccine could help eliminate the more than 10 million measles infections and 150,000 measles-caused deaths that still occur worldwide. But it also has another source: Scientists believe that modified measles viruses can be "re-targeted" to attack only tumor cells, and thus transformed into a powerful new therapy for cancer.

Now, a new discovery about the process by which measles invades cells has brought the dream of transforming the virus into a weapon against cancer one step closer to reality. A research team including scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. have produced a detailed picture of the intricate molecular mechanism that measles virus uses to attach to and enter the cells it infects.

The key players are two proteins that form the spherical envelope surrounding the genetic material of the measles virus. One is an attachment protein that binds to receptor molecules on the outer membrane of a host cell, and the other is a fusion protein that merges the viral envelope with the cell membrane, enabling the virus to infect the cell. The study, published in the recent issue of Nature Structural Biology & Molecular Biology demonstrated that the intrinsic flexibility of the attachment protein is a necessary condition to initiate the cell fusion process.

"The overall goal of our Mayo Clinic collaborator, Roberto Cattaneo, is to redirect the measles virus to attack specific cancer cells, and to accomplish that he and his group need to know as much as they can about the mechanisms of measles infection," said UTMB professor Werner Braun, an author of the study. "We have a long-standing collaboration with his group, using our theoretical predictions and computational methods to help them better target their experimental work."

UTMB Health research scientist Numan Oezguen used computer-based molecular modeling to predict interaction sites and suggested specific mutations that would alter the interaction and mobility of the attachment protein heads. Results of these experiments performed by the Mayo Clinic team -- led by Cattaneo -- showed that cell entry of the measles virus depends on a twisting motion of the attachment protein's heads.

To produce an accurate portrait of the dynamic mechanism the Mayo Clinic group created measles viruses with mutations affecting the mobility of their attachment protein heads, and then tested the mutated viruses to determine each type's ability to infect cells. "What Dr. Cattaneo's experiments showed was that the motion of these two parts of the attachment protein has a dramatic effect on infectivity," Braun said. "In a simplified sense, we think this works like a lever -- if the cell receptors pull on the attachment protein properly, they generate this type of motion, and this triggers the fusion protein and leads to infectivity."

Other authors of the paper include Cattaneo, Chanakha Navaratnarajah, Levi Rupp, Leah Kay and Vincent Leonard of the Mayo Clinic. The National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center supported this research.

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