Kabul Postcard: Newly paved sidewalks, a lion on the roof

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Kabul, July 17 (Newswire): I've just returned to Kabul after a month out of the country. In a place where it sometimes feels like nothing changes, a lot has changed.

First, a few oddities. An Afghan businessman on my street apparently bought a lion cub and has been keeping it on his roof. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the fact that I have yet to see any of the ubiquitous, dust-caked street dogs in the neighborhood since I returned, but I don't miss them.

Also, the average daytime temperature is 15 to 20 degrees higher that it was a month ago, which unfortunately brings out the pungent aroma from the open sewer trenches that line Kabul's streets.

The currency, the Afghani, has continued its downward slide in value, and the Internet here certainly hasn't gotten any faster.

A lot of foreigners left while I was away – journalists, aid workers, diplomats. While some will be replaced, some won't - at least not on a permanent basis - as organizations continue to downsize here as does the U.S. military forces, which will end its combat mission next year.

One of the most positive changes is that our street is finally paved. When I left in May, it was getting close, but every time it was close before, the workers would dig cavernous new trenches to repair water lines or sewer leaks. It seemed a Sisyphean process.

It seems construction in general has been hopping for the last month. On the drive in from the airport, I saw a number of buildings that were either much taller than when I left, or seemingly complete.

Here, construction projects are often cloaked with a green mesh - kind of a nylon burlap that looks tacky at best. Once buildings reach a certain phase of construction, the shroud comes down, and suddenly there is a shining new building.

And, that's the case a block from our house. At one end of the street is a gleaming new office building. At the other end, what had been a derelict looking wall has been torn down, and now there is a giant new wedding hall that was in full swing last night.

In a city where most buildings are old and drab, wedding halls are some of the most modern and flashy looking buildings in Kabul.

And, across the city, derelict buildings are coming down and new ones are rising from the ashes. It's really a shocking amount of change in a month.

Really, it's a continuum of change that I can see since my first visit to the city in 2009. There are countless new office and apartment buildings, more shops, more houses climbing up the craggy peaks across the city, and there are vastly more people. There was barely any traffic on the rough roads back in 2009, and not nearly the crush of vendors and pedestrians along the streets.

On one level, it seems like a healthy sign of growth, , it's also a case of a city growing much faster than the infrastructure and services.

Not everything was positive during my absence. The Taliban has carried out three high-profile attacks in the past month. In one, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Supreme Court and killed 17 civilians.

In a pre-dawn raid, militants attacked the military section of Kabul Airport, and shut down the facility for several hours.

, militants managed to get inside the first layer of security around the presidential palace and kill three guards in the attack.

Our driver says that everyone he's talked to in the last month thinks things are getting worse. They are increasingly concerned about security as international forces draw down, and they'd happily trade paved roads for better security.

Though, for the last year I've been living in Kabul, just about everyone you talk to feels that the city is becoming less safe. So, every time you hear something rumble outside, you hope it's a backhoe and not a bomb.

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Increased fighting takes toll on health care in Afghanistan

Kabul, July 17 (Newswire): It is close to midday and a group of patients wait outside the Mirwais regional hospital in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar city.

"There are no health clinics in our district so I have to come this long way for treatment. I have not met the doctor yet and have been waiting to see him for a long time," one man, who had been waiting since sunrise and had driven four hours from neighbouring Helmand Province, told IRIN.

According to health NGO Emergency, war-related admissions to their health facilities are up 42 percent in the first four months of 2013 on the same period last year, with the situation particularly bad in Helmand, which saw an increase of nearly 80 percent.

The figures correspond with accounts of increased violence from both the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

According to ANSO, the number of attacks by the armed opposition increased by 47 percent from January to March of this year, marking a return to the levels of violence seen in 2011, the highest on record.

UNAMA figures show a 13 percent increase in civilian casualties in the second half of 2012 compared to the same period in the previous year. The increasing use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) is a key cause of civilian injuries.

The violence is leading not just to a greater demand on medical services but also a climate of insecurity for health staff.

"The number of war-related cases we are receiving at Mirwais has definitely increased in the past four months," hospital director Farhad Dawod told IRIN.

"Until now our staff has not been threatened but they don't feel comfortable within the community because there's no peace. The attacks terrorize people."

Mirwais deals with 500-600 outpatients a day, sees 3-4 maternal deaths a month, and has a bed occupancy rate of 87-90 percent for adults, and 105 percent for children in the Intensive Care Unit, meaning sometimes three sick children share the same bed.

According to the country's humanitarian health cluster, which brings together NGOs and UN agencies working in the sector, Kandahar is one of nine provinces (out of 34) that have seen a 40 percent increase in security incidents involving public health facilities, staff and patients.

Health facilities and outreach programmes have also had to stop their activities in some areas due to fighting and insecurity along the roads.

More non-functioning health facilities

In February the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 40 percent increase in the number of non-functioning health facilities in 2012 compared to the previous year.

Insecurity and lack of funding prevented 540 health centres across the country from either opening or carrying on with their normal daily activities.

In turn, said the report, the suspension or closure of the health facilities was a main contributing factor to the 283 cases of disease outbreaks WHO handled in the first 10 months of 2012.

"The hospitals in the southwest part of the country are better off than those in other parts of the country," said Dawod. But "as you can see, even in Kabul they don't have basic medicine and health care for patients."

While attacks have picked up in Kabul, particularly over the past month, doctors working in government hospitals in the capital told IRIN they have not been affected by the overall increase in violence. But they said they are still facing the same chronic shortages, as in the past.

"Hospitals in Kabul have not experienced any noticeable differences [as violence across the country increases], but there is no doubt we are facing many problems regarding quality and standardization of health services," intensive care specialist Ajmal Mushkanny, who works in both a private and a government-run emergency hospital in Kabul, told IRIN.

"There are plenty of medical staff in Kabul, but the problem is finding those with the right level of qualifications."

Medical care for women

Female civilian casualties in 2012 were up 20 percent compared to the year before, according to UNAMA, but health centres and hospitals struggle with a shortage of qualified female staff.

"Poor health services and a lack of female staff and doctors have a big impact on our activity with children and maternal care," said Dawod. "Our lack of qualified female staff, especially obstetrician/gynaecologist doctors, has greatly affected us, increasing our maternal mortality rate."

Female health workers, including unqualified support staff, make up 28 percent of the workforce in the country, according to a joint health report, but they are concentrated in midwifery and community health work.

Despite gains in maternal mortality, Afghanistan is still among the world's toughest countries to be a mother, with only 40 percent of births assisted by trained medical personnel, according to WHO.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that in the first five months of this year, the health sector was able to assist 708,000 people with emergency services (out of the 1.6 million people targeted for interventions this year).

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Afghanistan's real tragedy

Washington, July 17 (Newswire): The Obama Administration said it over and over to the women of Afghanistan: We will not abandon you. We will stand with you.

The Government of Afghanistan and its international allies - foremost of which is the United States - repeated time and time again that the Constitution of Afghanistan was off limits in any negotiations with the Taliban.

And "the Constitution" is often code for Article 22, the provision of the 2004 Constitution that specifies no discrimination on the basis of gender. The 29 words of that article were perhaps the most hard-won of a tumultuous, but ultimately democratic, Constitution-making process. Article 22 represented a weighty victory, won in the twilight of the bitter legacy of the Taliban's gender apartheid policies, by the tireless advocacy and behind-the-scenes perseverance of pioneering women politicians and a women's movement then in the midst of being re-born.

And it is those very women - braver fighters than the likes of which the Taliban will ever know - who are on the cusp of one of the greatest betrayals the world has ever known.

That depraved ragtag militia, the same Taliban who slaughtered thousands of Shias in an unacknowledged genocide in Balkh and the Central Highlands, who hang children accused of spying, who trick boys into blowing themselves up, who stone women to death, who locked girls out of their classrooms, who maim and murder in the name of reinstating their own uniquely despotic caliphate. Yes, it's these same Taliban who were invited to stake their ground in Qatar, endowed with an extravagant office they didn't pay for and a legitimacy they never earned. They plunked down their flag, and declared themselves anew, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, in effect, the real Afghan Government.

It led to a diplomatic uproar, a rebuff by the actual Afghan Government, and even some bristling among those watching from the comfort and safety of the West. It seemed a lot of license granted to a group that espouses what is perhaps today the world's most uncompromisingly violent, fascist ideology. But for the people of Afghanistan, who endured the brutish hell of life under a Taliban government, it was a bewildering insult in the extreme.

Across the political spectrum, Afghan politicians seem united in their acrimony from President Karzai, to the parliament, to the senate, to former Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, who points out that "Afghans in general are skeptical about talks with a brutal and oppressive extremist group". But they seem to be the last people of all consulted, in the scurry to talk to the Taliban.

Indeed, dawned in Kabul, over 1500 people made their way into the streets to protest the opening of the Taliban's Qatar office under the banner of the country's Green Movement. Youth organizations issued statements expressing their indignation, such as Afghanistan 1400, a broad-based political movement of young progressives, who stated, "The recognition of the need to pursue an end to Taliban terror should not be perceived as any openness of the people of Afghanistan, in particular our new generation, to backtracking on the hard-won achievements of the past decade." They emphasized that the democratic state is "THE ONLY means to lasting peace and stability in the country and the region."

Women's organizations launched petitions and issued statements in a desperate bid to make their voices heard over the noise of American fatigue for Afghanistan. Maniza Naderi of Women for Afghan Women, which leads the way in fighting violence against women throughout Afghanistan, wrote "the Taliban are murderers who will stop at nothing to regain the totalitarian power they held in Afghanistan in the 1990s," adding "we are unwaveringly for the Afghan people, which means that we are against negotiations with the Taliban."

Meanwhile, the Taliban carried out yet another attack today, on the Kabul-to-Jalalabad Highway. In Pakistan, they murdered 10 foreign tourists.

Taliban insurgents assassinated a police chief in Herat. On June 18, they killed more American soldiers. Earlier this week, as the news reported on the opening of their Emirati office, they shot one guard after another as they bombed their way past checkpoints towards the presidential palace in the city centre, unleashing chaos and bloodshed over a city that has seen plenty of it so far this summer at their hands. The only difference is that now there is talking and fighting.

It's a strategy bound to fail. Serious negotiations require a serious ceasefire. Why a ceasefire has not been the foremost condition for negotiations is baffling, but has certainly fueled Afghan suspicions that the US is impatient to sell them out. Overall, it's been a peace process that has seen a remarkably low investment from all sides, beholden to a narrow view of what peace means. For many ordinary Afghans, conceding to the worldview of the Taliban is the antithesis of peace.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is how little much of the world knows about the tremendous progress made in Afghanistan over the past decade, and just how much is at stake. This is not yet another chapter in an unending story of a country perpetually on the brink of self-implosion. Afghanistan is at a critical turning point, a nation in the midst of a defining struggle of the sort we in established democracies have long forgotten.

The greatest democrats, the greatest liberals, the greatest feminists I have ever encountered, are people I've met in Afghanistan. They are living and breathing for, and in some cases dying for, values we too often arrogantly claim as ours alone. The front lines in the battle for modernity over backwardness, for democracy over fascism, and for equality between men and women, have been drawn in the mountains and the deserts and the valleys of the heart of Central Asia. And the events of the past few days affirm this more than ever: as Afghans harden their stance against negotiating with the brutes whose rule they only recently escaped, it's the leaders in the world's most powerful democracy who insist that the Taliban are really not so bad.

Article 22 says "any kind of discrimination and privilege between the citizens of Afghanistan is prohibited. The citizens of Afghanistan - whether man or woman - have equal rights and duties before the law." It was Afghans who wrote those words, fought for them, and won them through democratic means, but it shouldn't be Afghans alone ready to defend them.

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Colorado attorney general accuses man, organizations of scamming donors

London, July 17 (Newswire): A man who formed two cancer organizations misled consumers into believing that most of their donated money was going to charity, says John Suthers, attorney general of Colorado.

Adam Cole Shryock used money from Boobies Rock! and Say No 2 Cancer for himself and gave only nominal sums to legitimate cancer causes, a complaint states.

"Shryock misled thousands of consumers in Colorado and across the country into believing they were supporting breast cancer-related charities," said Suthers in a statement.

"In reality, very little of the money collected went to legitimate cancer groups as Shryock tapped those funds to buy himself a BMW, subscribe to an online dating service, and pay his bar and cleaning service tabs."

The website for Boobies Rock! has been taken down, although the online blog Westword was able to capture a screen grab of it. A twitter feed also exists but has not been updated since late November.

But a blog that seems to be connected to Boobies Rock! and was surfaced by Westword is still on the Web. The bright pink site describes Boobies Rock! as a "creative blend of music, sports, fashion and pop culture. Established in September of 2010, Boobies Rock! has quickly grown to become one of the leading advocates for the awareness of breast cancer across the U.S. Our mission is simple; to create awareness through fun, fashionable and humorous clothing and accessories."

According to the attorney general's complaint, both Boobies Rock! and Say No 2 Cancer would hold events, mostly in bars across the country, and "hire promotional models to 'take donations' on behalf of Boobies Rock!, saying the company was raising money for breast cancer nonprofit groups. The models would sell T-shirts, beer koozies, bracelets and other items with pro-breast or anti-cancer images and/or slogans."

The complaint alleges that bar owners and customers were told that a significant donation would be made to cancer organizations, but that none of the legitimate organizations received money from the groups until they threatened to sue.

Reviews on Yelp also may add doubt to the company's intentions. One reviewer from Joliet, Ill., called the company "sleazy and dishonest." Kelly H. from Tucson, Ariz., added, "I worked for this organization for two months as a promotional manager and was given information to give to all the girls that directs them to say "'all of the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Awareness.' That is a TOTAL LIE! This is a for profit company that gives very little to none of their money to breast cancer. I am doing everything I can to make sure that this scam is made known nation wide. Do not buy anything from this company!"

Colorado began investigating the organizations after the attorneys general of Illinois and Indiana did so. A Denver judge issued a temporary restraining order last week, which led to the websites being taken down, activities halted, and funds frozen. A hearing for a preliminary injunction.

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Zimmerman studied Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law: witness

Sanford, July 17 (Newswire): Former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was well versed in Florida's self-defense laws before he shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, despite a previous claim to the contrary, jurors were told at Zimmerman's trial.

The contradiction came into evidence as prosecutors were preparing to wrap up their case after two weeks of testimony aimed at showing inconsistencies in Zimmerman's accounts of the February 2012 shooting.

Seminole County Judge Debra Nelson let the jury hear a television interview in which Zimmerman said he had no knowledge of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which underpins his trial defense.

But an army prosecutor who taught Zimmerman in a 2010 college class on criminal litigation, testified that he often covered Florida's self-defense and "Stand Your Ground" laws in his 2010 course. Army Captain Alexis Carter said Zimmerman "was probably one of the better students in the class," calling him an "A" student.

Under the "Stand Your Ground" law, which was approved in 2005 and has been copied in some form by about 30 other states, people fearing for their lives can use deadly force without having to retreat from a confrontation, even when it is possible.

The statute is central to Zimmerman's defense in a case that captivated the United States throughout much of 2012 because police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman based on his self-defense argument and right to use deadly force under Florida law.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, saying he shot Martin in self-defense during their confrontation inside a gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford on February 26, 2012.

In allowing evidence about Zimmerman's criminal law studies, the judge overruled strenuous objections from Zimmerman's lead lawyer, Mark O'Mara.

Prosecutor Richard Mantei had said during a hearing that Zimmerman's legal studies would help jurors understand his "state of mind" and "ambitions and frustrations" in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting.

Prosecutors say Zimmerman's choice of classes at Seminole State College, on criminal investigation and witness testimony among other topics, underscored his intense interest in law enforcement and previous interest in becoming a police officer.

In testimony, the jury heard a medical examiner say Zimmerman suffered "insignificant" injuries in the fight in which he shot and killed Martin.

Zimmerman, 29, has said Martin, 17, punched him in the face and repeatedly slammed his head into a concrete walkway. Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, could face life in prison if convicted.

Despite those claims, a DNA expert with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement testified that none of Zimmerman's DNA was found in scrapings of Martin's fingernails or on the cuffs or other parts of the hooded sweatshirt he wore on the night he died.

There was also no trace of Martin's DNA on Zimmerman's gun, the expert, Anthony Gorgone, told the court. Zimmerman has said Martin tried to grab the 9mm Kel-Tec semi-automatic before he shot him at point-blank range.

Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, accepting his story of self-defense.

A special prosecutor later brought the murder charge. The prosecutor accused Zimmerman of profiling Martin and chasing him vigilante-style rather than waiting for police to arrive.

Martin was a student at a Miami-area high school and a guest of one of the housing development's homeowners. He was walking back to the home in the rain from a convenience store when Zimmerman spotted him and called police, saying Martin looked suspicious. During the confrontation between the two, which is still clouded by competing narratives and conflicting witness testimony, Zimmerman shot Martin through the heart.

Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda had said he hoped to rest the prosecution's case against Zimmerman but court adjourned before he was able to call his final witnesses.

The court will be closed for the U.S. Independence Day holiday so the final state witnesses, including the medical examiner who autopsied Martin's body and the dead teenager's parents, won't take the stand.

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Car splits in half in accident, driver disappears

New York, July 17 (Newswire): A car split in half after hitting a power pole in Des Moines, Iowa, and police say there is no sign of the driver and few clues as to who even owns the car, KCCI reports.

Police received an anonymous tip about the accident. They arrived on the scene and found the car severed in two, with the back end of the red Pontiac Grand Am completely destroyed. The front end, however, was surprisingly well intact.

"The front doors, I was told, actually could be opened and closed without a problem. Given that information, it's not totally unlikely someone could have walked away from that accident," police spokesman Sgt. Jason Halifax told KCCI.

WHOTV.com reported that police searched the area for signs of the driver, but found none, and that the investigation is ongoing. "They searched the area for well over an hour, had a dog come in, the dog wasn't able to find anything," Halifax said.

Police also checked local hospitals for anyone who might have injuries related to a car crash. That effort came up empty, too, according to WHOTV.com.

"What the officers do now is they go to that last person who had the vehicle registered to them and basically ask them, 'Where's the car now? What did you do with the car? Did you sell it, loan it out? What happened with it?'" Halifax told WHOTV.com.

Police say the car didn't have license plates when it was discovered. Its last registration expired August 2012.

"I've never seen anything like this," Adam Garris of G & S Services, the company that towed the 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, told WHOTV.com. "That's definitely one of the craziest accidents, one of the worst accidents I've seen."

UPDATE: Sgt. Halifax told Yahoo News that police have located the owner of the car. The owner told police she fell asleep and suspects a house guest took the car out without her permission. Halifax said the woman would not tell police who was in her house or who might have taken her vehicle.

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Loch Ness Monster mystery could be explained by a fault line under the lake

London, July 17 (Newswire): The legend of the Loch Ness Monster has persevered for more than 200 years. But could tales of a prehistoric sea creature located in a deep Scottish body of water be explained by science?

That's the source of a new theory, which speculates that the Loch Ness Monster may actually be a fault line lying underneath the Scottish lake.

Even after 200 years of technological advances since the first reported spotting in 1806, rumors of the Loch Ness Monster continue to persist. In fact, technology has played a role in spawning some Nessie theories.

For example, in 2011, local boat skipper Marcus Atkinson produced a sonar image of what he described as a large object following his boat for several minutes at a depth of 75 feet.

And in 2012, George Edwards shared a photo of an unexplained image in Loch Ness. Skeptics have said the image was likely of a log floating atop the water.

Scientific American reports that Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi believes the Great Glen fault system is actually responsible for mysterious bubbles and the shaking ground commonly associated with supposed creature sightings.

"There are various effects on the surface of the water that can be related to the activity of the fault," Piccardi told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

And he has some compelling evidence to back up his case. For example, he notes that many of the alleged sightings have happened at times when the 62-mile fault was experiencing an active period.

"We know that this was a period [1920-1930] with increased activity of the fault. In reality, people have seen the effects of the earthquakes on the water."

So, what do you think? There have been strange reports near Loch Ness going all the way back to the 7th century. Are the numerous sightings over the years proof of the creature's existence, mere coincidence, or even a self-fulfilling prophecy continued on by people who want to take part in the legend? Or, could it all actually simply be explained by a natural phenomenon found across the planet?

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Insight: Nigeria seeks farming revival to break oil curse

Saulawa, July 17 (Newswire): Down a winding dirt track in this sleepy village in northern Nigeria lies a corn farm which looks much like the dozens that surround it. The difference is, this one is turning a profit.

"I can barely lift my 8-year-old. He's the fattest in the village," said Ibrahim Mustapha, 50, drawing laughter from his fellow farmers as he pretends to lift up his chubby son.

The Babban Gona or "Great Farm" project, in northern Kaduna state, is one of a handful where private investment is helping former subsistence farmers like Mustapha make profits for themselves and the companies backing them.

When President Goodluck Jonathan was elected two years ago, he pledged reforms that would transform the lives of tens of millions of farmers who live on less than $2 a day despite occupying some of Africa's most fertile land.

Oil remains the main source of foreign currency and state revenues, but agriculture is by far the biggest contributor to GDP, making up 40 percent of Africa's second largest economy.

With 170 million mouths to feed and a growing food import bill thanks to the disarray in the farming sector, agriculture ministry officials say there's no time to lose.

If productivity does not improve Nigeria could face a food crisis within a decade, its current account surplus would be wiped out and the credit worthiness of Africa's second biggest debt issuer would be under threat.

"If we did nothing, it would be a disaster," Agriculture Minister Akinwumi Adesina said in the capital.

"We don't eat oil, we don't drink it ... We cannot sustain the amount of money we use to import food," Adesina said, a Nigerian flag hanging behind his office chair.

In some cases, the imports substitute for things Nigerians are growing but can't get to market or lack the means to process.

The country is the second largest grower of citrus fruit in the world after China and yet it spends $200 million a year on imported fruit juice while its own produce rots, Adesina said.

It also produces 1.5 million metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) of tomatoes annually of which 45 percent perish, while consumers spend $360 million on tomato paste imported from countries such as Italy and China.

To succeed, Adesina's reforms will need to reverse the inadvertent damage done to the sector by Africa's earliest and biggest oil and gas boom, which crowded out other commodities.

In the 1960s, Nigeria was the biggest exporter of peanuts in the world and had 27 percent of the palm oil trade. It remains one of the world's top cocoa growers, but production and bean quality have declined since their heyday in the 1970s.

While an elite allied to a series of military dictatorships grew rich on the spoils of the energy sector, millions of mostly subsistence farmers were given little or no help at all.

The result: Nigeria is now the world's second largest importer of rice and the biggest buyer of U.S. wheat, while much of its own fertile land lies fallow. A booming population has sent its food import bill rocketing to around $11 billion a year - equivalent to more than a third of the federal budget.

Agriculture also offers the best chance to cut unemployment, which feeds an Islamist insurgency in the north and oil theft in the south. Unemployment is 23 percent and youth unemployment double that, national statistics suggest.

"Poverty is the source of a lot of the insecurity problems we have. A hungry man is an angry man," Adesina said.

The minister plans to create 3.5 million new jobs in agriculture and boost food production by 20 million metric tons by 2015, the year of the next national election.

To achieve this, he wants to boost access to microfinance for farmers and draw in $10 billion of foreign investment into farming and food processing.

He has received tentative praise for early successes from foreign diplomats, bankers and aid agencies, but big agro-business projects have yet to take off.

Adesina took a corrupt fertilizer subsidy out of politicians' hands and now farmers are texted subsidy vouchers directly to their mobile phones so they can recoup from fertilizer sellers, a policy used in Kenya's farming reforms.

Seventy percent of farmers now receive subsidized fertilizer and seeds, compared with 11 percent under the corrupt program previously run by state governments, Adesina said.

Production of rice, cassava, wheat, sorghum, and corn are rising and cocoa, Nigeria's most important export crop, looks set to go up by more than a third this season.

In 2012, agriculture exports rose by 128 billion naira ($788 million) and food imports fell by 850 billion, Adesina says.

Foreign investors such as food giant Cargill, seed company Syngenta, brewer SABMiller and Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote are planning to build everything from fertilizer plants to food processing factories.

Yet rice imports still soak up $7 million a day, while poor infrastructure and policy flip-flopping have in the past seen farming potential wasted. Farmers needs infrastructure to get goods to market -- and rural Nigeria's is as woeful as it gets.

Nigerian billionaire Dangote has pledged to spend $35 million on a tomato paste plant in the northern city of Kano and $45 million in Cross River state to process pineapple juice.

Adesina says he has received $8 billion in commitments but such promises are often not kept in Nigeria. Cargill and SABMiller said they are only "considering" investing.

"I would estimate that no more than one dollar of investment actually occurs for every $100 of announced commitments," said Fola Fagbule, an Africa-focused investment banker in Lagos.

A central bank initiative has issued guarantees on around 25 billion naira of agriculture loans since it began in July last year, lifting lending to the sector to around 4 percent of total loans, from 1.5 percent at end-2009, the bank says.

The World Bank is putting in $100 million into agriculture, while British and U.S. aid projects pump in tens of millions.

This barely scratches the $10 billion Adesina says the sector needs by 2015. Smallholders say banks still don't lend to them, while the scheme doles out cheap money to big firms.

"We've heard it all before and I have never seen it get better," says Alhaji, a farmer wrestling with two scrawny long-horned cows dragging a rusty plough through a field.

"I have 15 children and ... we barely get enough food to feed ourselves," he said.

A few success stories nonetheless give cause for optimism.

Farmer Mustapha says he made $1,350 per hectare from his harvest after paying back private firm Doreo Partners, which runs the Babban Gona project, compared to previous years where he might earn $200 per hectare.

"Now I want to grow my farm, I have so much space I never used. Now I will send my children to school," he said, while behind him mostly unused farmland stretched to the horizon.

Doreo is working with 600 farmers. It has ambitious plans to boost this to 500,000 by 2020, and 5 million by 2030.

"I know it sounds ambitious but it's been done elsewhere and Nigeria has so much easy-to-reach potential," said Kola Masha, the company's head.

Masha is attempting to emulate giant food cooperatives like CHS in the U.S. or India's dairy franchise Amul, who make huge profits while helping millions of smallholder farmers.

He gives farmers high-quality fertilizer, seeds, equipment and expertise on credit to massively increase their yields, while negotiating with firms like Nestle to buy the produce at higher prices than the farmers could get themselves.

Farmers working with Masha, he said, are using 40 times more fertilizer than neighbors who could never afford that amount.

"It's early days but I'm more optimistic than I've ever been," he said.

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Americans share glimpses into country’s educational slide

New York, July 17 (Newswire):  The United States is slipping against its peers in educational attainment.

Notably, the country now ranks 10th in the world in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who've graduated high school, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Americans claim the top spot for 55- to 64-year-olds globally. There also has been a similar skid in college: The older age group places third among those with a diploma, and younger Americans—those no more than a decade out of what could have been their college years—are 13th across the globe.

CFR notes that an educational slide endangers a nation's innovation, prosperity and national security. But the country's economy aside, how does living a life sans a degree hit home for individual Americans, at least anecdotally? Yahoo News asked younger readers who haven't obtained high school or college degrees to write about their choices not to graduate. Here are a few of their perspectives.

Roderick Brenes, 28, of California, graduated as high school valedictorian in 2003 and assumed he'd head to college. But with his family stuck in a financial netherworld—they earned too much for financial aid and too little to pay for his college of choice—he grew frustrated. After just two months at a community college in Merced, he dropped out and moved to Prague, where he pulled down $800 a month teaching at an all-English preschool. After five years, he traveled to China to study Mandarin. All along, he told himself he'd eventually go back to college.

He writes:

"It never happened. I kept telling myself, 'I'll go back next year.'

"China was awesome, but after three years I grew tired of the traveler lifestyle. Plus, the 6,000-renminbi-per-month salary just didn't allow me to save much in dollars. I began to feel that money was going to be the key to a secure future, and I started researching how to make more of it. A host of deadends and scams eventually led me to a business training community where I learned the basics of online business. At the same time, I had also started a brick-and-mortar sandwich shop with a buddy of mine in China. It was becoming clear that I would not be going to university any time soon.

"The sandwich shop failed due to a lack of financial backing, but my online business ventures were very successful. I have since returned to the United States, and I am now self-employed as an online marketer, building websites and ranking them in search engines.

"I never did make it to college. And that was the best decision I ever made. I have zero debt in college loans. I've been to more countries than my age in years. I speak two foreign languages fluently. Lastly, being the sole proprietor of a successful online business is something I love doing."

Shauna Silva, 30, of Connecticut, is unemployed after working in retail for several years. She earned her high school diploma in 2001 and studied psychology at Teikyo Post University in Waterbury. She dropped out when she realized she didn't have the money to complete her degree.

She writes:

"Life without a degree is financially crippling. I am stuck making minimum wage. I'm looking for writing jobs or something in the medical field, and I have applied to about two dozen jobs in the past month, yet I've secured only one interview. Paying back student loans, not to mention credit cards, has been tough. I am nearly $30,000 in debt.

"I made a lot of mistakes in my 20s, and I'm paying for it now. It is tough to find a positive aspect of not having a degree. The only bright spot: I have experience in various fields, which could work out in my favor once I return to the working world. If I had finished my schooling and earned my degree, I know I would have made four times more—at least $40,000—than what I have been making per year."

Brandie Parton, 32, of Georgia, got married a month after graduating from high school in 1999. But her wedding didn't halt her college plans. She says she just lacked direction, and she didn't want to toss time and money at college until inspiration hit her. She now writes from home and cares for her 9- and 11-year-old children.

"I occasionally wish that I had a degree. I am not sure what the future will hold for me in regard to higher learning. I may go to college when my kids are grown. I would most likely earn an English degree to help me with my writing if I did go back. However, it is possible that I will go into a totally different career field. However, since I got married young and had children young, I have plenty of time to find my niche in life. Therefore, I have not regretted not obtaining a degree.

"My choice of neglecting college was the best decision for me. I have enjoyed staying home with my children and personally being there as they took their first steps and said their first words. Being able to witness these events and attending school parties and field trips with them now is worth far more than any college degree. It's too bad there isn't some sort of college credit for shaping the next generation, as I think I would be close to earning a bachelor's degree."

Sonya Abarcar, 34, of Indiana, left her inner-city Chicago high school midway through her senior year after she accused a teacher of sexually assaulting her. After the charges were dropped—and when students and teachers began bullying her, she said—she considered transferring but instead dropped out. Because she excelled academically, dropping out was one of her biggest mistakes, she says. She hasn't had trouble finding work, but she regrets not graduating.

"I was always a highly motivated person, so I began applying for jobs. I taught myself to speak Spanish, I could type 80 words per minute, and I had many other talents that I used to land a job with a utility company in Chicago. Within a year, I worked my way up the ladder and found myself making a salary of $32,000 in a customer service job.

"I've done well in my life by always maintaining a secure job with great benefits to take care of my only child but my life would have been much different if I would have received my diploma.

"I now work for a transportation company and make more than $60,000 a year with excellent benefits. Even with all of that, I'm not happy. We live in a world that will judge you based on titles and education. Due to this class system, if you haven't attained a certain level of education, you receive less respect in some venues.

"I am often mistaken for a college graduate when I speak, but I am mortified when I have to admit that I didn't finish school. I can cite Voltaire, speak German, and calculate the escape velocity from Earth, but it means nothing to many people because I don't have my diploma and degree. I have decided to get my GED and enroll in college classes to major in astrophysics, a subject that I've always studied and loved. Although I can't complain, I know that I would have built a better career for myself if I would have stayed in school."

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Germany says Greece 'could cut debt by 20bn euros': Report

Berlin, July 17 (Newswire): Germany's finance minister believes Greece could slice 20 billion euros ($28 billion) of its massive debt burden by buying back its own bonds, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.

This scenario, one of several it envisaged, was the one the ministry thought most likely to win consensus in Europe, the weekly added.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) could lend the money to Greece so it could buy back bonds from private creditors at market prices, Der Spiegel reported.

Thanks to its AAA status with the ratings agency, the EFSF could easily raise the money required in the markets then lend it to Greece at favourable rates it can longer find on the open market.

European sources said that this scenario has been put forward during recent talks between eurozone leaders.

Another German proposal would involve the exchange of existing Greek bonds for ones that mature over a longer period.

Eurozone nations will hold an extraordinary summit on July 21 in Brussels to discuss how to tackle the debt crisis and provide fresh aid for Greece, EU president Herman Van Rompuy announced on Friday.

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Singapore says growth faces headwinds, but no forecast changes yet

Singapore, July 17 (Newswire): Singapore is reviewing its 2011 GDP forecasts but expects no big adjustment despite global sluggishness and its own economy slowing in the second quarter, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Singapore announced last week that GDP contracted a seasonally adjusted, annualised 7.8 percent quarter-on-quarter in the April-June period, leading some economists to say the government's 5-7 percent GDP growth forecast for the full year may be difficult to achieve

"We review it every quarter and we are reviewing it now as well," Tharman said, referring to the forecast.

"I don't think we will see significant adjustment because what was a dominant factor in the second quarter results were the temporary factors," he was quoted as saying by the local Sunday Times newspaper.

The second quarter figures were dragged down by a fall in manufacturing, especially in the volatile pharmaceutical sector.

Nevertheless, Tharman said Singapore would be affected by sluggishness in the global economy.

"Things are not looking better in Europe," he said. "They are still kicking the can down the road and unless the problems are being resolved decisively, confidence is going to keep ebbing."

About the United States, he said: "Corporates are not investing in the way they should at this stage of the recovery."

Singapore, he said, will be affected by these sevents.

"I don't think we will get a repeat of the Lehman crisis," Tharman said, referring to the collapse of the US bank at the start of the 2008 global financial crisis.

"But we have to expect some mini-shocks from time to time that will affect confidence."

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Sudan to circulate new currency this month

Khartoum, July 17 (Newswire): Sudan's central bank said it would begin circulating a new currency this month after South Sudan said it planned to create a currency of its own.

South Sudan, which declared independence on July 9 under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war, said on Monday it would begin circulating its previously announced South Sudan pound in the coming week, pegging it one-to-one with Sudan's existing pound.

Sudanese Central Bank Governor Mohamed Kheir al-Zubeir, asked when the north's new currency would go into circulation, told reporters in Khartoum, "Before the end of this month."

He added that the replacement of currency would take "maybe two to three months. We have good experience in that."

The new currency is a "precautionary measure" following the South Sudan plans for a separate currency, he said.

The Sudanese pound has been falling on the black market in Khartoum for weeks as economists say foreign currency inflows needed for imports will decline alongside falling oil revenues.

The south took about 75 percent of Sudan's 500,000 barrel-a-day oil reserves with it when it left.

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Saudi Electricity Q2 net profit up 25pc

Dubai, July 17 (Newswire): Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) reported a 25 percent rise in its second-quarter net profit, according to a statement.

SEC made a net profit of 1.335 billion riyals ($356 million) in the three months to end-June, compared to 1.068 billion riyals in the same period last year, said the statement posted on the bourse website.

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Offshore investors net buyers of won NDFs in Q2

Seoul, July 17 (Newswire): Offshore investors swung to net buying of dollar/won non-deliverable forwards (NDF) in the second quarter amid concerns over Eurozone sovereign risks and a slowing global recovery, the Bank of Korea said on Sunday.

Non-residents bought a net $2.52 billion in dollar/won NDFs during the April-June period, versus net sales of $11.34 billion in the preceding quarter.

South Korea's won, the best-performer among emerging Asian countries this year, gained 2.7 percent against the dollar during the second quarter, according to the central bank.

Separately, South Korean companies turned net sellers of dollar/won forwards worth $5.0 billion in the second quarter, due to increased hedging by shipbuilders that had enjoyed booming overseas orders.

South Korean companies were net buyers of $1.2 billion of dollar/won forwards in the first quarter.

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Renault Samsung seeks to cut reliance on Japanese parts

Seoul, July 17 (Newswire): The South Korean unit of Renault SA plans to source more automotive components from local firms after its Japanese suppliers were hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, disrupting the carmaker's production, the operation head said.

The remarks by Jean-Marie Hurtiger, released on Sunday, come as Japanese and other foreign carmakers are increasingly turning to South Korean parts makers. Japanese suppliers are reeling from the strong yen and face a potential risk of natural disasters.

In April, Renault Samsung Motors, which imports some parts of powertrains from Japan, was forced to reduce production volume at its Busan plant by about 20 percent due to supply chain disruptions in Japan.

In May, it normalised production as Japan's parts crisis eased, but the carmaker saw its sales drop 9 percent here and overseas in the first half partly because of a production loss.

"What we continue to do is... to localise as much as we can in Korea, provided that Korean suppliers are competitive, which is most of the time the case," Hurtiger, CEO and representative director of Renault Samsung Motors, told reporters.

He said the company sought to localise all powertrains.

"This is what impacted us in terms of the yen /won exchange rate in the past and what impacted us in the tsunami for instance," he said. "So I think this is a critical and priority task for us."

A media report said in February that Nissan Motor, an alliance partner of Renault, looked to boost its purchases of South Korean parts to 2 trillion won ($1.9 billion) in 2013, a 40-fold jump from last year.

Hurtiger did not confirm the report, but told Reuters: "This makes sense... The strong yen has pushed Nissan to come to South Korea for parts."

He was attending a test drive event for its revamped version of the SM7 large-sized sedan, to be launched in Korea next month. Renault Samsung is considering exporting the model to China, but not in the near future, an official told Reuters.

Hurtiger said Renault Samsung was considering introducing a new shift scheme at its Busan plant to extend production, raising optimism about its sales for the second half.

"It is not exactly a 3-shift, it is something in between... so the day the volume reaches 300,000 mark we will be able to switch to a higher mode," he said.

But he advised caution on expanding production capacity at Busan, saying it needed "study."

The Busan factory, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, exports cars under the brands of Renault or Nissan Motor to the Middle East, China, Russia, South America and Europe. Their products include Nissan's Sunny and Almera and Renault's Fluence and Latitude.

Hurtiger also reiterated that Renault planned to expand into the small car segment, addressing concerns about its limited product line-up, cited as a major hurdle for sales expansion.

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Hurriyet leader, girl student arrested in IHK

Srinagar, July 17 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, Indian police have arrested Tehreek-e-Hurriyet Jammu and Kashmir leader, Amir Hamza, in Budgam district.

The spokesman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyet, Ayaz Akbar, in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the police shifted Amir Hamza to an unknown destination after arresting him from Nagam Chadoora area of the district on Saturday. "We condemn his arrest. We are not aware where he has been lodged by the police," he added.

On the other hand, the police have also arrested a girl student allegedly in connection with the recent blasts outside Sopore police station, which had killed one policeman and injured ten others.

The relatives of the 21-year-old girl, Quratul-Ain of Jalalabad, told media that she was summoned to the police station on July 10 where she was detained.

They said that Qurat had just completed Bachelors in Arts and was planning to appear for B. Ed course this year. "She is innocent. She was aspiring for higher education. But her life is ruined now with these false allegations," said the relatives.

Meanwhile, the High Court Bar Association of the occupied territory in a statement issued in Srinagar condemning the arrest of Qurat demanded her immediate release.

Terming the arrest as cruel and malicious, the Bar General Secretary, Advocate Ghulam Nabi Shaheen said that the arrest was being used as a tool of state repression to demoralize and humiliate the Kashmiri women.

"The Bar Association is deeply concerned about the life, liberty, health, honour and dignity of the arrested girl," the statement said.

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Gilani concerned over plight of Kashmiri detainees

Srinagar, July 17 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, has expressed serious concern over the plight of illegally detained Kashmiri Hurriyet leaders and activists.

Syed Ali Gilani addressing a public meeting in Khanmoh said that it was the collective responsibility of the people to take care of the families of the detainees. He urged the well-off people to deposit their donations with his party, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, for providing legal and monetary help to hundreds of Kashmiris languishing in different jails for years.

The veteran Hurriyet leader maintained that no time frame could be fixed for liberation and the freedom struggle could go to any length of time and urged the Kashmiris to carry forward the ongoing movement with determination till it reached its logical conclusion.

Syed Ali Gilani also expressed concern over the huge expenditures on marriages terming it as suicidal for the society. "On the one hand, a section of people spend crores on unnecessary expenditures in marriages, on the other hand, our daughters in poor families are sitting unmarried even after crossing their marriageable age for want of dowry and other expenditure," he said.

He reiterated his appeal to masses for setting Bait-ul-Mal in every locality to help widows, orphans and poor and other needy people especially the victims of state terrorism.

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Indian troops martyr one more youth in occupied Kashmir

Srinagar, July 17 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, Indian troop, in their fresh act of state terrorism, martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Kishtwar district.

The troops of 11-Rashtriya Rifles, 74-Central Reserver Police Force (CRPF) and Special Operations Group killed the youth identified as Khursheed Ahmed during a siege and search operation at Battalhal in Keshwan area of the district.

An official of the Indian police talking to media men claimed that the martyred youth was a militant (mujahid).

On the other hand, hundreds of people participated in the funeral prayers of five youth who were martyred by Indian troops during violent military operations at Maidanpora in Lolab area of Kupwara on Friday. The people including children thronged the area to see the bodies of the martyred after they were retrieved from debris of the house destroyed by the troops. Later, the martyred were buried in Kuligam graveyard.

Meanwhile, the troops of 34-Rashtriya Rifles and 15-Punjab regiment clashed with Mujahideen near Maidan Behak in Uri area of Baramulla.

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New study may lead to quicker diagnosis, improved treatment for fatal lung disease

Islamabad, July 17 (Newswire): One-fifth of all patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension suffer with the fatal disease for more than two years before being correctly diagnosed and properly treated, according to a new national U.S. study led by researchers at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.

"For a lot of patients, that means the treatment is more difficult and the damage is irreversible," said Lynnette Brown, MD, PhD, a pulmonologist and researcher at Intermountain Medical Center and lead author of the study, which is published in the Chest, the journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.
"Finding out which patients are getting a delayed diagnosis is the first step in identifying them earlier, when treatment is easier and hopefully more effective," she said.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but fatal disease that occurs when small arteries in the lungs become narrowed and unable to carry as much blood as healthy arteries. Pressure builds as the heart works harder to move blood into the lungs. Eventually, the heart may fail.

Treatment options have improved, extending the lives of many patients. But treatment may be less effective for patients who receive a delayed diagnosis.

The study found that: More than 21 percent of patients with PAH had symptoms for over two years before being diagnosed and beginning treatment.

Patients younger than 36 years old were most likely to receive a delayed diagnosis.

Patients who previously had been diagnosed with a common respiratory disorder such as obstructive airway disease or sleep apnea were also more likely to have a delayed diagnosis.
Dr. Brown and her colleagues gave several possible reasons for delayed diagnosis:

Symptoms -- shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling, and chest pain -- can also point to more common disorders, such as asthma.

Younger patients are typically more active than older patients and notice symptoms when they are subtler. But because the symptoms are less severe, physicians may be less likely to order testing to confirm PAH.

Younger patients make up one of the largest groups of uninsured Americans and therefore are less likely to seek early treatment.

Earlier diagnosis and treatment are vital, said Gregory Elliott, MD, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Intermountain Medical Center and another member of the research team.

"We have a lot more medications available to fight pulmonary arterial hypertension, but we can't use them all if we don't get to patients early enough in the course of the disease. If we can treat these patients sooner, we may find that we can improve survival," he said.

Researchers hope the study will give physicians more guidance in diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension.

"If a young person comes in complaining of shortness of breath, it's alright to suspect something common. But if a patient is getting worse and not responding to treatment, it's time to look for something else," said Dr. Brown.

The study examined the medical records of 2,493 PAH patients from the national REVEAL registry (Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management), including many of the 200 patients who are being treated at Intermountain Medical Center or University Hospital, the only hospitals in the Intermountain region capable of treating the complicated disease at an advanced stage.

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PSA test for men could get a second life for breast cancer in women

Islamabad, July 17 (Newswire): The widely known PSA blood test for prostate cancer in men may get a second life as a much-needed new test for breast cancer, the most common form of cancer in women worldwide, scientists are reporting in a new study in the American Chemical Society's journal Analytical Chemistry.

Chien Chou and colleagues say that the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measured in the test also is a potential biomarker of breast cancer in women. However, levels of PSA in healthy women are usually so small that only ultrasensitive tests can measure them.

To improve PSA detection in women, the researchers built a tiny fiber-optic biosensor using gold nanoparticles and PSA antibodies to detect and report PSA levels via a fluorescent signal.

The biosensor's sensitivity (its ability to detect elevated PSA levels in cases of breast cancer) and its specificity (how well it avoids false predictions of breast cancer) are comparable to those found in using PSA as a biomarker for prostate cancer. "Furthermore, these values may compare favorably with the sensitivity and specificity of the current screening methods for breast cancer such as clinical examination… and mammogram," the scientists report.

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Poor bone health may start early in people with multiple sclerosis

Islamabad, July 17 (Newswire): Osteoporosis and low bone density are common in people in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published in the Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"We've known that people who have had MS for a long time are at a greater risk of low bone density and broken bones, but we didn't know whether this was happening soon after the onset of MS and if it was caused by factors such as their lack of exercise due to lack of mobility, or their medications or reduced vitamin D from lack of sun exposure," said study author Stine Marit Moen, MD, of Oslo University Hospital Ulleval in Norway.

Low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk of MS. Low vitamin D levels can lead to reduced calcium absorption and bone mineralization, or the process the body uses to turn minerals into bone structure.

"Our hypothesis was that if vitamin D exerts a major effect on the risk of MS, then the effects of low vitamin D levels on bone density would be apparent soon after the onset of MS," Moen said.

The study involved 99 people with an average age of 37 who were recently diagnosed with MS or clinically isolated syndrome, which means they had a first episode of symptoms like those in MS but have not yet been diagnosed with the disease. All had no or minor physical disability from the disease.

The participants had bone density tests an average of 1.6 years after the first time they had any symptoms suggestive of MS. Their tests were compared to bone tests of 159 people of similar age, gender and ethnicity who did not have the disease.

A total of 51 percent of those with MS had either osteoporosis or osteopenia, compared to 37 percent of those who did not have the disease. Osteoporosis is a disease where low bone density causes the bones to become thin and brittle, making them more likely to break. Osteopenia is low bone density that is less severe than osteoporosis but puts a person at risk for osteoporosis.

The results remained the same after researchers adjusted for other factors that can affect bone density, such as smoking, alcohol use and hormone treatment.

"These results suggest that people in the early stages of MS and their doctors need to consider steps to prevent osteoporosis and maintain good bone health," Moen said. "This could include changing their diet to ensure adequate vitamin D and calcium levels, starting or increasing weight-bearing activities and taking medications."

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