Afghan forces, taking lead, hold steady in violent district

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Kabul, July 5 (Newswire): First, the British marines tried to pacify it, and lost more soldiers there than anywhere else in Afghanistan. Then the American Marines moved in, and suffered severe casualties, before finally subduing it after a large troop increase.

Now the foreigners are mostly gone from Sangin district in the southern Taliban heartland, and its fate is up to the Afghans. The Taliban insurgents, who never completely left the area, have wasted no time testing the mettle of Afghan government forces.

So far, the Afghan security forces have held, but like the Americans and British before them, the price has been high, according to Afghan and Western officials and accounts by locals. The police and the Afghan National Army, or A.N.A., are taking heavy casualties in a battle that American and Afghan officials see as a crucial test of the Afghans' ability to keep the Taliban at bay after the Western withdrawal.

"We hope the A.N.A. survives," said one Western official familiar with the terrain. "But it is a real test."

The Taliban started their offensive in Sangin about three weeks ago, as part of a publicized campaign to discredit Afghan forces and show their ability to disrupt territories across the country. Though the insurgents were reported to have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of Afghan troops, at one point Taliban fighters reached villages less than five miles from the district center, according to residents and local officials. The insurgents overran at least three and perhaps as many as eight Afghan Local Police checkpoints — reports vary — that the police were forced to abandon after running out of ammunition.

Along the way, the Taliban planted countless bombs, emptying several villages and intimidating Sangin residents who already had only limited faith in the government.

When the Afghan Army arrived, soldiers pushed the Taliban back, allowing the checkpoints to be re-established. But the fight is hardly done. A motorcycle bomb detonated when Afghan National Army soldiers were in the main Sangin bazaar, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding six others. A few days earlier they launched a suicide attack on a Georgian base in Now Zad, near the border with Sangin, killing seven Georgian soldiers.

Not counting the attack, the Afghan Army was reported to have lost six soldiers, and the police lost 13 men over the past three weeks of fighting, said Lt. Col. Mohammed Rasool Zazai, the press officer for the Afghan Army's 215th Corps, and Ghulam Ali Khan, the Sangin police chief. An additional 35 members of the security forces were wounded and at least a dozen civilians were reported killed, they said.

"A large number of people have been displaced and some have been killed," said Hajji Ghulam Jan, an Afghan Local Police militia commander who took over when the Taliban killed his brother in the recent fighting. "It is hard for people."

For now, the American military commanders who are mentoring the Afghan Army say that they are optimistic, and that the Afghan Army has basically done well. That view is not necessarily shared by villagers, farmers, rural elders or even the Afghan Local Police who are the front line in the fight with the Taliban.

Mr. Jan, who said he had been forced to leave his security post after running out of ammunition, said the Afghan National Army came too slowly and left too much fighting to his men, irregular local militia forces who have received basic training from American Special Operations forces.

"The A.N.A. is not doing enough," he said. "The Afghan forces are not weak against the Taliban, but they are not fighting with them. I told the district government and the A.N.A.: 'For God's sake, don't let Taliban into my village, Sarwan Kala. We have controlled and secured it with much effort from the Taliban.' "

"But they didn't pay attention, and they allowed the Taliban to take shelter and sow I.E.D.'s, which will be difficult for us to clear," he added, using the military abbreviation for improvised explosive devices.

Hajji Mira Jan, a member of the Sangin district council, agreed that the Afghan forces were not doing enough, and complained that they lacked support from the NATO-led military coalition. "I don't know the reason why the Americans are not taking part in this big battle," he said.

The Americans say they are holding back on purpose — still present in case disaster strikes but trying to leave the fighting to the Afghans. While the American commanders said they had few illusions that it would be a quick or cost-free fight, given the heavy Western losses in Sangin, they say they have been encouraged by the improvement shown by the Afghan Army.

"It's still a very dangerous place, you always have to be on your guard," said Col. Austin Renforth, the commanding officer for the Regimental Combat Team 7 of the Marines, whose troops are mentoring the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province, which includes Sangin. "Could the A.N.S.F. have done this last year?" he said, referring to the Afghan National Security Forces. "I don't think so, not without us. This year, we did very little."

Lt. Gen. Nick Carter, the deputy commander of the coalition forces, known as the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, commended the Afghan Army's performance in Sangin, but acknowledged that it was a real fight.

"Whilst a number of casualties were sustained by the police force, the fact of the matter was that with limited ISAF support, the corps commander, General Malouk, was able to resecure the upper Sangin Valley," General Carter said, referring to Gen. Sayed Malouk. "An operation in which significant numbers of enemies were killed or captured."

The Americans say that they provided satellite images to help the Afghans target groups of Taliban and evacuated wounded Afghan soldiers by air, but that they did not fight or provide the air support that they would have in the past.

For both sides, what is at stake in this fight is not just territory, but the psychological balance of power. A number of Sangin residents said repeatedly that they neither liked nor supported the Taliban, but that they also felt there was no government force that could effectively protect them.

A farmer from one of the villages overrun by the Taliban, Hajji Mohammad Naseem, said that he and many fellow villagers had fled their homes at night, leaving behind their crops and possessions, and now could not return because of homemade bombs.

"We were busy harvesting our wheat when the fighting erupted," said Mr. Naseem, who went to stay with relatives in Kandahar. "We left everything on the ground and the fighting burned the crop. We ran with our families, without any shoes. We are in a desperate situation."
The shooting began around May 20, after the opium poppy harvest had been brought in and the part-time fighter-farmers could join the insurgents for the summer fighting season, which by all accounts a number of people did.

How many Taliban took part in the initial assault is hard to say, but local estimates range from 600 to 800. The Americans believe the number that attacked was much smaller, probably fewer than 300.

The Afghan Army's counterattack was slowed by the thousands of bombs laid by the Taliban, said Colonel Zazai, the Maiwand Corps spokesman. "It wasn't easy fighting," he said. "The heavy I.E.D.'s they planted also slowed down the progress of the operation. It doesn't mean we are slow in removing the enemy, but we are looking at people's living conditions. The enemy doesn't care about people's conditions."

Colonel Zazai said the army regretted that so many fields burned in the fighting, but that there had been no way to avoid it.

Hajji Mohammed Dawoud, the Sangin district governor, described a nightmarish situation in which the insurgents planted bombs everywhere. "Even putting them on people's gates, in their homes, and laying them in the open fields," he said. "Anywhere they go they bury mines."

While the number of Taliban fighters ultimately killed is highly unreliable because no one actually counted the bodies, estimates by the police chief and village elders suggest that at least 100 died and possibly as many as 160.

At least 25 of the Taliban fighters were close neighbors, and Taliban families sent village elders to pick up the bodies, said Shamsallah Sahrai, a farmer from the village of Bostanzo, one of the places with intense fighting.

For now, there is an uneasy quiet, local residents said.

"There is no fighting now, yet we cannot say it has stopped yet completely," Mr. Sahrai said. "We think it will start again."

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Fusion of militants brings new threats

Washington, July 5 (Newswire): US officials boast that al-Qaida has never been weaker, its upper ranks decimated because of the stepped-up drone attacks in Pakistan and special operations raids in Afghanistan.

At the same time, they warn, in seeming contradiction: An even greater number of well-trained terrorists are setting their sights on the United States.
Across the remote tribal lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan where terror groups hide, U.S. officials say they've seen a fusion of al-Qaida and others targeted by U.S. forces, including the Haqqani group and the Pakistani Taliban, who formerly focused only on their local areas.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the groups have become a "synergy of terrorist groups" with "an expanding desire to kill Americans." He was speaking last week at the Aspen Institute security forum in Colorado.

At the same forum, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter warned that the "troubling alignment" extends all the way to Yemen and Africa. The dispersed network is making terror plots harder to spot and prevent, he said.

The officials are speaking publicly in an effort to convince the American public — and US ally Pakistan — that the time to hit harder is now, while al-Qaida is weakened. Failure to do that means an even stronger enemy, they argue.

A high-level U.S. counterterrorist delegation is headed to Pakistan this week to try to persuade Pakistan to keep the pressure on the militant groups that now operate almost as one with al-Qaida. The Pakistani government has denied news reports that it has reached out to its former ally, the Haqqani tribe, to secure its participation in talks with the Afghan government. U.S. officials want to make sure that remains the case.

 The other part of that administration message, that the campaign has diminished the al-Qaida leadership, is aimed at an American public increasingly weary of the 9-year-old war. In June, at least 60 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan, making it one of the deadliest months of the conflict. Polls now find a majority of Americans no longer think the Afghanistan war is worth fighting.

Purely by the numbers, al-Qaida has been devastated by the past 18 months of drone attacks and raids, Leiter said. Although Osama bin Laden remains at large, half of al-Qaida's leadership has been killed in the past year, he said.

The organization is down to only 50 to a 100 "card-carrying" members inside Afghanistan and roughly 300 operatives in Pakistan, he said. Al-Qaida agents in Pakistan are hemmed in, mainly north of Peshawar, as well as North Waziristan, where they have based themselves with the Haqqani network and the Pakistani Taliban, and a small number in the Quetta area, where the exiled Afghan Taliban mainly hold sway.

These groups have cooperated for years, even pre-dating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said New America Foundation's Peter Bergen, cautioning against describing that as a new development.

The Haqqani group fought beside the Afghan Taliban to help return the Taliban, al-Qaida's former host, to control of Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban have sought to overthrow the central government in Islamabad. Lashkar-e-Taiba, another group that works with al-Qaida, has concentrated on attacking Indian targets, like the three-day assault on Mumbai in 2008 that killed 170 people.

But the difference now, U.S. officials contend, is that the local groups are sharing manpower, weaponry and ideology with al-Qaida.

The Pakistani Taliban have already made an attempt on the U.S., through Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad. That attempt followed the pattern of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, which dispatched Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to try to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

US intelligence analysts, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, say even though neither the Haqqani network nor Lashkar e-Taiba has been linked to plots aimed at the mainland U.S., the United States now must assume the groups aspire to strike there, or at the very least help prepare and fund such attacks.

The Haqqanis, estimated by a senior defense official to be between 2,000 and 5,000 strong, have already supported attacks on U.S. targets within Afghanistan, including an al-Qaida and the Taliban suicide bombing that killed seven CIA operatives in Khost, in the suicide bombing last December.

Don Rassler, of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., says the group's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has been careful not to publicly support direct attacks on the United States, despite repeated questioning in online militant Jihadi forums.

"He knows where the red lines are and he's careful not to cross them, so as not to become even more of a target than he already is," Rassler says.

Counterterrorism chief Leiter said monitoring the spread-out terrorist threat is a growing undertaking. The counterterrorism center receives 8,000-10,000 pieces of counterterrorist information every day, he said.

"Within those reports, there are roughly 10,000 names every day" and "40-plus specific threats and plots," Leiter said, including "bombs that are going to go off today or tomorrow." He likened it to trying to find "a needle in a pile of needles, covered by a haystack."-

Identifying those needles has resulted in huge blows against al-Qaida, he said. Increasingly, though, the United States and Pakistan must explain its attacks, which the enemy uses in propaganda to drive Muslim world public opinion against the United States and the government in Pakistan. The press in Pakistan has claimed that thousands of innocents have been killed by U.S. drone strikes. U.S. officials say it's nowhere near that total, but they will not provide their own estimates.

Leiter said he wouldn't argue "that some of our actions have not led to some people being radicalized." But he added, "It doesn't mean you don't do it. It means you craft a fuller strategy to explain why you're doing it."

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, said that al-Qaida, too, has turned off wide swaths of Arab and Muslim public opinion by killing 10,000 soldiers, diplomats and mostly civilians in 2009 in Pakistan alone. U.S. officials believe that's partly because their stepped-up drone campaign has forced al-Qaida to work through proxies that don't always listen to the al-Qaida leadership when it comes to avoiding civilian casualties.

The U.S. officials hold out the hope that the next year of the secret war could provide the critical moment that could lead to the decapitation of al-Qaida's leadership. But, they contend, if the pressure comes off, al-Qaida could transform itself into an even stronger, more resilient foe — a process they acknowledge has already begun.

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Afghanistan's dangerous new wealth

Pentagon, July 5 (Newswire): Afghanistan has struck gold. And iron. And copper, cobalt, and lithium. A U.S. survey discovered almost $1 trillion of mineral deposits there, reports The New York Times. But it may not be good news.

The report, by James Risen, describes an internal Pentagon memo that states Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium." Officials are hopeful that the wealth will help stabilize the country.

Afghanistan, it hardly needs be said, is war-torn, has little infrastructure and has an economy dominated by the cultivation and export of opium poppies. The US (which will soon have 100,000 troops on the ground as part of a surge to bring peace to the country) and a shaky and corrupt central government battle with canny Taliban guerillas who have fought insurgent campaigns since they could walk. A patchwork of loosely affiliated warlords complicate matters further.

Meanwhile America is just one of many nations caught in a torrent of geopolitical interests. Already vertigo-inducing relations with Pakistan, Russia and China on the country will not get any easier now the four nations are tacitly competing for trillions in untapped wealth. Indeed, the Times article points out that last year "Afghanistan's minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine."

In such circumstances, the mineral wealth could be a curse. The Times is understated on the matter. "Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country," says Risen. 

The analogues are not promising. As lottery winners and rap stars will tell you, mo' money often means mo' problems. Saudi Arabia itself, though currently somewhat stable, has not been politically transformed since oil was first discovered there in the 1930s. As recently as 2008 the country was described as an "authoritarian regime," in The Economist's Democracy Index, which it placed 161st of 167 countries.

It is not alone. At a conservative estimate, 13 of the top 50 countries by oil reserves are unstable, and many of those—like Yemen, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—are among the most oppressive, dangerous and violent places in the world.

The latter was the birthplace for the phrase 'blood diamond'. We sincerely hope there is no gruesome prefix added to Afghan lithium in the near future.

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Bear climbs tree, says howdy to hunter

London, July 5 (Newswire): Not all bears are out to maul you. Some just want to say hello.

A hunter learned that firsthand while sitting high up in a tree in the forest. A bear approached the tree, apparently spotted the hunter and then began to climb.

We're not experts, but we'd wager that most of the time when a bear meets an armed hunter in the woods, somebody's going to get hurt.

Not so this time. The bear climbed the tree, stuck its nose into the hunter's perch, and then turned around and, we presume, trotted off to find another (unoccupied) tree in which to chill out.

The charming encounter reminded us of another unexpected meet-and-greet from earlier this month, when a baby sea lion hopped aboard a fishing boat and snuggled up to fisherman J.R. Gilkinson.

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Stranded teens rescued by helicopter from atop cliff

New York, July 5 (Newswire): A pair of California teens were rescued by helicopter from atop an 8,600-foot cliff after they became stranded and were unable to climb down, CNN reports.

The California Highway Patrol dispatched a helicopter and a small plane to retrieve them. With winds gusting up to 30 mph and the teenage boys, 16 and 17, perched on a narrow edge of the cliff, the rescue wasn't simple.

The rescuers lowered harnesses and barked instructions through a loudspeaker. One at a time, the two teens were brought to safety in a scene that resembled a Hollywood blockbuster.

The pilot told CNN that it took four passes.

The teens had been hiking on a family vacation in the Sierra Buttes in Northern California. After the rescue, the teens told reporters they thought they'd be able to walk across the ridge once they reached the top.

"When we got up there and saw the other side, it was heartbreaking," said Austin Deschler, one of the rescued teens.

Earlier this year, authorities rescued another pair of teens from the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California after they became lost and disoriented.

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Stunning maps show world’s most dangerous weather hot spots

London, July 5 (Newswire): A series of stunning heat maps—created by a man who's probably a little better with Excel than you are—shows the places in America most prone to natural disasters.

John Nelson, a mapping manager for IDV Solutions, created U.S. maps of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires using publicly available data and Excel—a process he describes as "the kitchen-sink school of thematic mapping."

Nelson's map of wildfires tracks hot spots since 2001, while his tornado travel map tracks the direction tornadoes have traveled in the U.S. over the past 63 years. An updated version of that map includes the deadly EF-5 tornado that killed 22 people in Moore, Okla., last month, while a new version of a map tracking hurricanes and tropical storms since 1951 includes Superstorm Sandy.

The earthquake map, using data culled from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California, Berkeley, shows the location of all major seismic activity since 1898.

Other maps posted on the company's Flickr page include a pre-Sandy hurricane-risk assessment for every building in New York City and a national portrait of drunken driving, using the locations of fatal crashes from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

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The money mattress: A Spanish invention stores cash in beds

Barcelona, July 5 (Newswire): For Spanish businessman Paco Santos, the safest place to keep money is still under a mattress—or rather, inside it.

Santos, according to NPR, who was laid off from Spain's largest mattress manufacturer three years ago, is the inventor of the Caja de ahorros Micolchon, or "My Mattress Safe." It's a plush, padded mattress with a keypad-equipped, armored safe built into the side.

After being contacted by NPR, Santos said the mattress was no joke. "We're completely serious," he said. "And we've sold many, many of these mattresses."

According to NPR, My Mattress Safe sells for more than $1,100. Santos said the investment was worth it: "We've got big economic problems in Spain, and people have really lost their confidence in banks."

In a 59-second video that Santos made with the help of a son who works in PR, the inventor explains that his company wants to "reinvent the traditional method of saving money."

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Husband still needs a kidney for his wife

London, July 5 (Newswire): Larry Swilling has been on a months-long quest: He's searching for a kidney for his wife.

The 78-year-old, who has been looking for a compatible kidney donor for 76-year-old Jimmie Sue since last September, has caught the attention of the Web.

But almost a year later, and despite lots of good will and plenty of offers from around the globe, he still doesn't have a match.

It all started when Jimmie Sue Swilling, who was born with one instead of a pair of these vital organs, began to experience kidney failure.

Larry Swilling, who has been married to his wife for 57 years, told CBS News last year that his wife is "my heart," and that he could not accept the two- to three-year-long waiting list from deceased donors.

Neither Larry nor other family members are a suitable match, which depends on blood and tissue compatibility, among other things.

There is no waiting list for someone who offers to donate a kidney to a specific person as long as the kidney is compatible.

Larry Swilling began a quest to find a donor, wearing a sandwich board with the simple plea "Need kidney 4 wife." He walked hundreds of miles on his solo search for help.

After CBS News aired the story last December, hundreds of calls came in to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

"I've had calls from miles around. I've had calls from Egypt, Sweden, all over," Swilling told the New York Daily News. But a year later, none has resulted in a kidney.

Unfortunately, just wanting to donate a kidney is not enough. "We have some donors who have a history of high blood pressure or diabetes and that rules them out," Sara Parker, exchange coordinator for living donors and a nurse in MUSC's transplant center, told Fox News.

Still, Larry Swilling is not giving up. For now, his wife undergoes dialysis while she waits. And hopes. For Larry Swilling, there is no other option. "She's my everything. ... She's my life," he said.

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3 charged with enslaving disabled Ohio mom, child

Ashland, July 5 (Newswire): A mentally disabled woman charged with shoplifting a candy bar asked to be jailed because three people "had been mean to her" — then went on to tell authorities about her time spent in unfathomably cruel servitude, along with her young daughter, at the hands of three people, authorities said.

On several occasions, according to an FBI affidavit, the suspects injured her and ordered her to go to an emergency room for pain medication they would then take for themselves.

The 29-year-old woman was forced to do housework under the threat of harm to her and her child by her captors' pet python or pit bulls, authorities allege, and a menagerie of snakes was put in the terrified 5-year-old's face until she cried.

Authorities announced federal charges against three people they say invited the woman and her child to live with them in their blue-collar Ashland neighborhood of older two-story houses. Beginning in early 2011, they forced the mother to cooperate with them by threats and physical abuse, authorities said.

The woman and her daughter were freed in October after police investigated an abuse allegation one of the suspects made against her, authorities said, and they are doing well.

"The victim in this case is slowly recovering," U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach said.

Jordie Callahan, 26, Jessica Hunt, 31, and Daniel J. "DJ" Brown, 33, were charged with forced labor. Callahan also was charged with tampering with a witness in the investigation.

The suspects had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Cleveland and were ordered jailed until a bond hearing.

Callahan's mother, Becky Callahan of Ashland, said in a phone interview that the allegations were "all lies." She said that the alleged victim was friends with her son and Hunt, her son's girlfriend, and that they tried to help the woman out by offering her a place to live because she didn't have a home.

Andrew Hyde, who represented Callahan on related state kidnapping charges dismissed as the federal case was announced, called the charges ludicrous and said the woman at the center of the alleged forced-labor plot moved in and out as she pleased.

"There was never any forced labor, any forced co-habitation. She was never forced to do anything. She used this story to get out of trouble she was in" with regard to a child-abuse allegation, Hyde said.

Hyde said county social service workers placed the girl with her mother when the woman was living with the three suspects.

A federal court lawyer for Callahan declined comment. A second defense attorney, Ed Bryan, said Hunt will plead not guilty and said there are credibility issues with the mother.

There was no immediate response to phone and email messages left for the attorney representing Brown.

According to an FBI affidavit, the mother and child were denied food at times or given leftovers; on one occasion when they hadn't eaten all day, the mother was given a plate of food and ordered to feed a pet dog.

The trio looted the woman's bank account and public assistance and on several occasions injured her and ordered her to go to the emergency room for pain medication, according to the affidavit.

The woman told investigators the trio learned of her plan to try to escape and punished her by shaving her hair into a Mohawk and using a marker to write "slut," ''tramp" and "whore" on her face and chest. She was forced to clean up the hair without a broom or dust pan, according to the affidavit.

The woman was forced to do house work and shop for her captors and clean up after pets, authorities said.

The trio kept the mother and daughter under surveillance with a baby monitor, according to the affidavit, and at one point, the woman was lured back with ice cream.

"They treated her with such cruelty that it is hard to comprehend," Dettelbach said. "They tried to take away her human dignity."

Police first got involved when the woman was charged with shoplifting a candy bar and asked to be jailed because the three suspects "had been mean to her," said Ashland police Lt. Joel Icenhour.

It wasn't clear whether she had staged the candy bar theft to get police help.

Police checking into her "mean" claim went to the apartment after one of the suspects said it was the woman who was abusive. Authorities said the allegation was a ruse complete with a video staged by the suspects. They said the suspects forced the woman to act as if she were mistreating her child.

Defense attorney Hyde said police told the woman they would help if she felt she had been framed with an incriminating video. According to Hyde, she bought that argument and made up the enslavement allegation.

"I think the feds just failed to fully investigate this before they jumped to some conclusions," Hyde said.

A woman in the Ashland neighborhood said she was surprised by the allegations, saying that Callahan sometimes helped her husband with yard work and other chores and that she never saw signs someone was being held captive in the house.

Tara Williams, 51, said she occasionally saw Callahan walking down an alley with a large yellow-and-white snake draped around his neck but never saw him threaten anyone with it. She said three pit bulls also lived in the apartment, along with a pot-bellied pig that once got loose.

The white, two-story house of three apartments, including the defendants' apartment, is set back from the road with a "no trespassing" sign near the front.

Williams said she occasionally saw the presumed victim walking by quickly and sometimes underdressed for cold weather. The woman never spoke or looked at others, Williams said. Williams never saw a child, she said.

Like many in Ashland and around Ohio, Williams said she couldn't help but think of the parallels to the case in Cleveland a little more than a month ago, in which three women were freed from a house where a man allegedly imprisoned them for a decade, raping them during that time and fathering a child with one of them.

Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to more than 300 counts against him, which include kidnapping, rape and felonious assault.

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Kodak prepares $406 million offering as it eyes bankruptcy exit

Washington, July 5 (Newswire): Eastman Kodak Co said it will seek court approval for a $406 million rights offering that could give creditors a big equity stake in the company after it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Kodak said creditors agreed to backstop an offering that would let the Rochester, New York-based company issue 34 million common shares at $11.94 each, equal to about 85 percent of the equity of a reorganized company.

"This agreement, which serves as a critical component of the capital structure for the emerging Kodak, positions us to comprehensively settle our obligations with our various key creditor constituencies," Kodak Chief Executive Antonio Perez said in a statement.

Kodak has said it hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 in the third quarter of this year.

It said proceeds from the rights offering would go to repay various creditors, including more junior second-lien creditors who would no longer receive equity in the reorganized company.

Kodak said its official committee of unsecured creditors has advised that it supports the backstop and rights offering.

Creditors proposing the backstop are GSO Capital Partners, BlueMountain Capital, George Karfunkel, United Equities Group and Contrarian Capital, Kodak said.

Kodak sought protection from creditors in January 2012 amid high pension costs, and after falling many years behind rivals in embracing digital technology in its photography business.

The company has since sold a variety of assets and plans to emerge from Chapter 11 as a commercial imaging business.

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Adobe expects third-quarter Creative Cloud subscriber adds to exceed second-quarter

New York, July 5 (Newswire): Adobe Systems Inc, known for its Photoshop and Acrobat software, reported a higher-than-expected adjusted second-quarter profit and said demand rose for Creative Cloud, the subscription-based version of its flagship software package.

The company said it expects the number of paid subscribers for Creative Cloud in the current quarter to top the 221,000 subscribers who signed up in the second quarter, increasing the total to 700,000. The company added 153,000 subscribers in the first quarter.

Adobe is the latest traditional software company to make a big bet on the cloud-based subscription model pioneered by companies such as Salesforce.com Inc, NetSuite Inc and Google Inc.

Subscription models bring in less money upfront as payment is spread over the entire period of use unlike traditional packaged software, but typically ensure more predictable recurring revenue.

Shares of Adobe rose 4.4 percent in after-market trading. They closed at $43.36 on the Nasdaq.

Promotions to drive adoption of Creative Cloud may affect average revenue per user (ARPU) in the short term, but will add to annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in the long term, Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett said on a conference call with analysts.

"If I can get to a better ARR number with more subscriber numbers at a slightly lower ARPU, I would gladly make that tradeoff because it gets more people on the platform, it gives us more critical mass," he said.

Adobe has been shifting to web-based subscription service Creative Cloud from a licensing model since last year.

Customers are responding to the attraction of the Creative Cloud offering and the convenience of subscriptions which are reflected in the results and stock movement, B. Riley & Co analyst Daniel Cummins said.

Edward Jones technology analyst Josh Olson termed the guidance "pretty impressive".

"They are essentially setting some pretty high standards in terms of what they need to do for Q3 here, to surpass what was an already impressive Q2 in terms of subscription adds," he said.

Adobe forecast current-quarter adjusted earnings of 29 cents to 35 cents per share on revenue of $975 million to $1.03 billion.

Analysts on average are expecting earnings of 35 cents per share on revenue of $1.01 billion.

Adobe said in May that upgrades for Creative Cloud, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash, would be available only through online subscriptions. The company also said it would not develop upgrades for Creative Suite, the license-based version of Creative Cloud.

Adobe said that net income for the second quarter fell to $76.5 million, or 15 cents per share, from $223.9 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, earnings were 36 cents per share.

Revenue fell 10 percent to $1.01 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 33 cents per share on revenue of $1.01 billion.

The company maintained its full-year outlook for adjusted earnings of about $1.45 per share on revenue of about $4.1 billion.

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Mexican oil producer Pemex evacuates headquarters after bomb threat

Mexico City, July 5 (Newswire): Mexico's state oil producer, Pemex, said it had evacuated its Mexico City headquarters, the site of a deadly explosion in January, after a bomb threat.

"In the face of the threat, we're applying security measures at the Pemex tower in Mexico City," Pemex said in a tweet.

A company spokesman confirmed there was a bomb threat and said there were very few people in the building at the time of the evacuation. Another Pemex spokeswoman could not immediately provide details on how the threat arrived.

In a separate tweet, Pemex said that authorities were inspecting the company's installations in downtown Mexico City.

In January, a blast at the same facility killed at least 37 people. The government said a gas leak caused the explosion, although many Mexicans questioned the explanation, speculating it may have been caused by a bomb.

Mexico's new government, which took office in December, is preparing to open up the state oil firm to private investment, which is a sensitive issue in Mexico.

Pemex has been a symbol of Mexican self-sufficiency since the oil industry was nationalized in 1938.

The government's plans, details of which have yet to be unveiled, have prompted accusations that President Enrique Pena Nieto plans to privatize the company, which he has repeatedly denied.

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Vodafone raises Kabel Deutschland offer after rival bid: report

London, July 5  (Newswire): Britain's Vodafone Group Plc has raised its preliminary offer to buy Germany's largest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, a day after U.S. media group Liberty Global Plc made a rival bid, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the bid.

Bloomberg reported that Vodafone told Kabel Deutschland this week that it would be willing to pay 85 euros a share compared with its initial offer of 80 euros to 82 euros for the German company.

Vodafone is said to be studying Kabel Duetschland's books before making an official offer, Bloomberg said.

Liberty Global, which owns Unity Media, Germany's second biggest cable operator, made an 85 euro a share offer days after the British mobile company said it was in talks about a deal.

Vodafone's revised offer matches the Liberty Global bid valuing Kabel Deutschland at 7.5 billion euros ($10.04 billion).

Vodafone could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Asia business sentiment rises in second quarter, global growth risk still dominates

Seoul, July 5 (Newswire): Asia's top companies have become more optimistic about their business outlook with the retail and shipping industries rebounding sharply in the second quarter of 2013.

Asia Business Sentiment Index climbed six points to 71 in June, its highest level in five quarters and the third consecutive quarterly rise. A reading above 50 indicates a generally positive outlook.

Global economic uncertainty remains the biggest business risk across most countries and sectors, but 44 percent of the 91 companies that participated in the poll are now positive about their outlook, up from 30 percent in the prior quarter.

Corporate sentiment in China, the world's second-largest economy, remained unchanged at its record low of 50 as companies worried about rising costs and global economic uncertainty.

"If you go back a year ago, there is a lot of concern about the global economy - a hard landing in China, a collapse in Europe, and double dip in the U.S. Some of those fears are still around, but they have certainly faded over the course of last year," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney.

"So whilst companies in Asia still worry about China, it's about whether the growth is 7.5 percent or 7.8. Some of the more extreme fears that were seen a year ago continue to fade, showing a gradual pick-up in company optimism."

Corporate sentiment in Japan showed solid improvement with the index rising to the highest level in three years as aggressive monetary stimulus starts to revive its economy.

Of the 19 Japanese respondents, which included Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Sharp Corp, five were positive on their outlook and 14 were neutral. In the previous survey, only one out of 22 participants was positive.

Australia and Indonesia saw big improvements in their outlook and were among the most optimistic economies in Asia.

Australia continued to improve in the second quarter, driving the country's sentiment index to its highest level since the first quarter 2012, although more participants were worried about the global economy.

"From a general point of view, it has a lot to do with the currency, interest rates going down, and the offshore news has been better," said Stephen Walters, chief economist at JP Morgan in Sydney.

"Of the three the currency is probably the main one. When the currency was over parity, it was quite painful for a lot of firms. So it follows when the currency is below parity they will feel a little bit less under pressure."

On the downside, business sentiment in India fell to its weakest level in more than three years, weighed down by worries about rising costs, while Thailand's sentiment index dropped to an all-time low of 42 from 60.

Broken down by sector, most industries showed steady growth, with property turning in its highest reading in more than two years. Sentiment in food, drugs and the resources industries fell.

Sentiment among shipping firms turned sharply upbeat, helping the sector register the best showing since the first quarter of 2012.

"Perhaps optimism is creeping back simply because we're tired of being pessimistic," said Tim Huxley, chief executive of Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings Ltd in Hong Kong.

"Seriously, we are seeing a degree of optimism as there is a belief that the industry is working through its self-inflicted over-supply issues and that there might be some balance in 2014. It could prove to be a false dawn if there is too much ordering of new ships though."

Huxley said there was hope for an improvement in bulk-carrier rates in the fourth quarter with iron ore restocking and lower iron ore prices in China. He also said crude oil tankers have been able to maintain rate gains with owners resisting charter demands for lower prices.

Retail sentiment climbed the most after shipping to 69 from 50, while the technology industry's recovery gained momentum, climbing to its highest level in more than a year.

Confidence among food and beverage companies fell to 75 from the previous survey's record high of 88, as currency volatility and rising costs posed risks.

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Dish abandons Sprint bid for now to focus on Clearwire

New York, July 5 (Newswire): Dish Network Corp said it would not make a new offer to buy No. 3 U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel in time for a  deadline and would instead focus on its tender offer for Clearwire Corp.

The decision may be good news for Japan's SoftBank Corp, which is also trying to buy Sprint. A purchase by SoftBank could provide Sprint with access to more capital that it could use to beef up its network and compete better.

Satellite TV provider Dish said in a statement that it was not practical for it to submit a revised offer on the June 18 deadline imposed by Sprint even though it "continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint."

Dish said it would consider its options with respect to Sprint without providing further details. While missing the deadline would make it more complicated for Dish to make a new offer, in theory Sprint would have to consider any new offers it gets ahead of a June 25 shareholder vote on the SoftBank deal.

The Dish decision was the latest turn in a takeover battle that started on April 15 when Dish - led by its chairman and founder, Charlie Ergen - offered to buy Sprint for $25.5 billion in a challenge to SoftBank.

Known for his aggressive tactics in deal-making, Ergen is looking to expand into the wireless market as Dish's traditional pay-TV business has been maturing.

SoftBank is controlled by billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, who is known as a risk-taker despite his country's normally cautious corporate culture. If SoftBank succeeds in buying Sprint, it would rank as the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company.

After Sprint shareholders said they preferred Dish's offer, SoftBank was forced to raise its bid for Sprint on June 10 to $21.6 billion from its previous offer of $20.1 billion. The revised deal would give SoftBank 78 percent ownership of Sprint compared with a 70 percent stake under its earlier offer.

Sprint accepted the latest SoftBank offer as it provides shareholders with more cash than the previous agreement. Sprint shareholders are due to vote on Sprint's agreement with SoftBank at a June 25 meeting.

While SoftBank's latest offer is an improvement for shareholders, it provides $3 billion less direct capital investment in Sprint itself than the previous offer. New Street analyst Jonathan Chaplin said in a research note that he believes SoftBank will make large capital investments in Sprint after the deal is done.

Paulson & Co, Sprint's second-biggest shareholder, has already said it would vote for the latest SoftBank deal but other Sprint shareholders have said they wanted to hear Ergen's response before making a decision on the latest bid.

Sprint shares fell 11 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $7.21 in after-hours trading, suggesting that at least some shareholders appeared to lose hope for a higher bid after Dish's statement.

SoftBank shares rose 5 percent in Tokyo following the announcement.

Along with shareholder support, SoftBank still also needs approval for the deal from the U.S. telecommunications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission.

The Japanese mobile operator still expects to be able to close its deal with Sprint in early July, a SoftBank representative said. Sprint declined to comment on the Dish statement.

Dish said that it was unable to meet Sprint's deadline because of changes the wireless company made in its agreement with SoftBank, such as higher break-up fees that raised the hurdles for a Dish deal.

SoftBank, one of Japan's top mobile operators, has promised that Sprint would be able to save money on equipment such as smartphones by getting bulk-buy discounts from vendors.

SoftBank has also argued that it could bring Sprint valuable expertise in wireless technology, an area where Dish's Ergen has no experience.

Dish's promise was additional wireless spectrum that it has bought in recent years as well as the opportunity to expand its video services to cellphone users.

But even if SoftBank wins the Sprint deal, its battle with Ergen is not over as Dish is also fighting with Sprint to buy out the minority shareholders of Clearwire, which is already majority owned by Sprint.

The board of Clearwire - a small wireless provider with a vast trove of valuable wireless airwaves that both SoftBank and Dish want - last week recommended that its shareholders vote against Sprint's $3.40 per share offer at a June 24 meeting and instead urged them to accept Dish's tender offer to buy Clearwire shares for $4.40 each.

Sprint has filed a lawsuit against Dish and Clearwire over the Dish offer and Clearwire's recommendation.

Some analysts have said that if Dish fails to win Sprint it could use a minority ownership of Clearwire as a bargaining chip to help it forge an agreement with SoftBank either to buy spectrum or to create a network partnership.

While SoftBank has said that it would be happy for Sprint to just own a minority stake in Clearwire, it would forgo savings and some control if Clearwire remains a separate company with a separate board and a separate network.

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Authorities impose curfew to thwart Islamabad Chalo March

Srinagar, July 5 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, the authorities have clamped strict curfew restrictions in different areas of Srinagar and Islamabad, Monday, to thwart the 'Islamabad Chalo March'.

The puppet authorities have barricaded all the exit and entry points of different cities and towns along while the frisking of every passer-by is continued.

The call for the March has been given by the forum patronised by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani to draw attention of the world community towards the killing of innocent Kashmiri people by the troops.

It may be mentioned here that the troops during the last six months martyred 44 Kashmiri youth without any reason in indiscriminate firing.

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Three CRPF troopers injured in Srinagar blast

Srinagar, July 5 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, three paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were injured in a grenade blast in Srinagar.

The device exploded near a bunker of 44 battalion of CRPF at Saraf Kadal injuring two troopers.

A police constable died of heart attack at Bishnah police station in Samba while a CRPF head constable was critically injured when his weapon went off in Udhampur.

Body of a woman was recovered from Iqbal Colony, Zainakote, in Srinagar, while two girls, who were grazing cattle, were killed and two were injured when lightning struck at Parthrabanali Behak in Uri.

Meanwhile, authorities booked a class 8 student, Sheikh Akram under draconian law PSA.

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IHK people urged to participate in protest demos

Srinagar, July 5 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, the forum patronised by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, has urged the people of Kashmir to succeed the ongoing struggle by massive participation in the protest rallies.

The spokesman of the forum in a statement issued in Srinagar said that the "Quit Kashmir campaign" had proved that the people of the occupied territory were politically aware and India could no longer continue its illegal and unconstitutional occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that India would try to weaken the struggle of Kashmiri people by using different tactics but the people should foil all such tactics by maintaining unity in their ranks. He said that the people of the territory had rendered matchless and unprecedented sacrifices for securing their birthright to self-determination and they would continue their struggle till complete success.

The spokesman also welcomed the support of illegally detained Hurriyet leaders, Shabbir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Ahmad Khan towards the "Quit Kashmir campaign." He condemned the authorities for slapping the draconian law, Public Safety Act, against the Chairman of Democratic Political Movement, Firdous Ahmed Shah, after the High Court quashed his illegal detention.

He demanded the release of all illegally detained Kashmiri Hurriyet leaders and activists languishing in different jails and interrogation centres of India and the occupied territory.

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Airport body scanners ‘could cause cancer’

Islamabad, July 5 (Newswire): Airport body scanners have a potentially greater risk of cancer than previously thought, a scientist has warned.

The devices emit radiation up to 20 times more powerful than it was believed.

Dr David Brenner, head of the centre for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, said that the concentration of the radiation on skin could pose a greater risk of cancer than expected.

The risk is due to inability of a body to repair X-ray damage to its cells.

"If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk," the Telegraph quoted Brenner as saying.

"The population risk has the potential to be significant," he added.

However, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman insisted that all the health regulations by the Department for Transport and Health Protection Agency have been considered for the device's use.

"Under current regulations, up to 5,000 scans per person per year can be conducted safely," he added.

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Public transport good for your health, wallet: study

Islamabad, July 5 (Newswire): Taking the train, tram or bus instead of your car increases physical activity so much that the average person drops more than six pounds in as little as a year.

The findings suggest that increasing the use of public transport could improve health and lower obesity levels.

"The built environment can constrain or facilitate physical activity. Understanding ways to encourage greater use of local environments for physical activity offers some hope for reducing the growth in the prevalence of obesity," said lead author Dr John MacDonald, at the University of Pennsylvania.

In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and the RAND Corporation found that construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased physical activity (walking) and subsequent weight loss by people served by the LRT.

In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that construction of a light-rail system (LRT) resulted in increased walking and subsequent weight loss by people served by the LRT.

An added benefit of public policy investments in LRT, on top of the general transportation benefits accrued, is the potential reductions in obesity in the population, " said Dr MacDonald.

Using two surveys, one collecting data prior to the completion of an LRT in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second after completion, investigators found that using light rail for commuting was associated with reductions in body mass index (BMI) over time. 
LRT reduced BMI by an average of 1.18 kg/m2 compared to non-LRT users in the same area over a 12-18 month follow-up period.

This is equivalent to a relative weight loss of 6.45 lbs for a person who is 5'5. LRT users were also 81 per cent less likely to become obese over time.

Survey questions assessed level of physical activity, BMI, perception of the neighborhood environment, public transit use before and after LRT construction, any plans to use LRT when available, and actual LRT usage.

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Eating blueberries may lower risk of liver disease

Islamabad, July 5 (Newswire):  Consuming blueberries, a food source that contains high levels of antioxidants, may help prevent the development of liver disease, according to findings published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Despite the development of many liver disease medications, researchers have yet to find a prescription that cause numerous side effects. In an effort to discover a natural alternative to lowering the risks of the illness, investigators tested blueberries, since little is known on how the fruit affects liver health.

During a recent study, investigators fed blueberries to rats that were genetically altered to suffer from liver fibrosis, a disorder that causes excess scar tissue to build up in the organ. The team then compared these animals to a control group that wasn't fed the fruit.

The results of the study showed that eating blueberries lowered toxin levels in the liver, and improved some side effects caused by the condition. Also, the researchers found that certain nutrients in the fruit increased compound activity level in the organ, which better protected the liver against fibrosis.

In addition to preventing liver disease, other studies have found that consuming blueberries also lowers the risks of developing liver cancer. Researchers from the University of Georgia found that the antioxidants and other nutritional compounds in the fruit hindered the growth of cancer cells in the liver.

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