Not enough time to implement election laws: IEC

Thursday 25 July 2013

Kabul, July 26 (Newswire): The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that the National Assembly has delayed approval of the election laws to the point that there is no longer sufficient time before the election to implement them in their entirety.

Fazal Ahmad Manawi, head of the IEC, said that, up to now, most of the election affairs have done led by President Legislative Decree and the remaining will also be implemented in the same way. Although the Law of Governing Independent Election Commission and Election Law are near finalized approval in the National Assembly, Mr. Manawi maintains that there is no time to implement the laws accordingly.

"With approval of the laws delayed, the Commission worked necessarily by the legislative decree of the president, and now if the law is approved, the time for its implementation is not enough. We will go through election by this decree, there is no other way," said Chairman Manawi.

Nevertheless, the IEC was proud to announce the progress made in the voter registration process. According to IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor, over 21,000 women out of around 100,000 Afghan citizens that have registered now have voting cards. Numbers are expected to rise dramatically in the coming months as registration centers will be open nationwide on July 27th.

Registration centers will be open until just two weeks before the election day, and the commission hopes to distribute a total of around 4 million voting cards to eligible citizens.

Continue Reading | comments

Ghazni airport to be operational within a year

Kabul, July 26 (Newswire): Residents of Ghazni will soon have access to an airport in their province. Nangyalai Qalatwal, spokesman of the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, said that the construction work at Ghazni Airport is in its completion stage, and within one year the runway and other parts of the airfield will be fully operational.

Funding for the airfield's construction was allocated from the "development budget" of the Ministry of Transport and Aviation. This year's allocation for the airfield's runway and security installations was in the sum of roughly two million USD. However, the Ministry is prepared to devote more funds to the project after this year if need be.

According to reports, officials at the Ministry of Transport and Aviation terminated the original contract for constructing the Ghazni airport after the first construction company failed to finish the job within the stipulated timeline. Reportedly, officials from the Ministry were also unsatisfied with the overall professionalism of the first company contracted for the project.

Following the termination of the first, a second contract was signed with a new company, a company the Ministry noted as being an Afghan one, nearly two and half a month ago.

Ghazni Airport is supposed to be one of the biggest construction projects in Afghanistan this year.

Continue Reading | comments

Afghanistan: Quest for a 'decent interval'

Kabul, July 26 (Newswire): History does not exactly repeat itself: the final outcome of the American intervention in Afghanistan will not be the same as the end result in Vietnam.

But the negotiations between the United States and its Taliban enemy that are lurching into motion in Qatar as the U.S. prepares to pull out of Afghanistan next year are eerily similar to the "Paris peace talks" that paved the way for the U.S. military withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1973.

In his Briefing Notes for a secret 1971 meeting in Beijing with Chinese government officials, Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to U.S. President Richard Nixon, wrote in the margin: "We are ready to withdraw all of our forces (from South Vietnam) by a fixed date and let objective realities shape the political future....We want a decent interval. You have our assurance."

The phrase got out, and it stuck: the whole point of the exercise by 1971, from the U.S. point of view, was to get out of the Vietnam War without admitting defeat. North Vietnam could collect its victory in the end, but it must allow a "decent interval" to pass so that Washington could distance itself from blame for the ultimate collapse of its local Vietnamese allies.

Direct American-Taliban peace talks are now on the menu for much the same reason. The Obama administration realizes that the intervention in Afghanistan has been a ghastly failure, but it needs some semblance of success, however transitory, to console the families of the 4,000 American dead in the war, and to save America's face internationally.

Just as in the Vietnam case, the fighting will continue while the diplomats are talking. Just as in Vietnam, American generals and diplomats must go on claiming in the meantime that victory is in sight.

When General John Allen, the last U.S. commander in Afghanistan, handed over to his successor in February, he said what he had to say: "This insurgency will be defeated over time by the legitimate and well trained Afghan forces that are emerging today....This is victory. This is what winning looks like, and we should not shrink from using these words." But privately, he must know better: American generals are rarely stupid.

And just as in Vietnam, the puppet regime in Afghanistan is now panicking as its master prepares to abandon it. South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, rightly sensing that he was about to be sold down the river, revealed the details of the secret American-North Vietnamese agreement in 1972, hoping to mobilize U.S. Congressional and public opinion against it. Fat chance. Both members of Congress and the public wanted out at any price.

So, too, with Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is refusing to send representatives to the American-organized talks in Qatar until he has a promise that the Taliban will not be given a share of power. He is also refusing to agree to a continuing U.S. military presence in the country after 2014 until he gets his way. But he will not get his way, and the U.S. will do whatever it wants.

Maybe the Taliban will be patient enough to give the U.S. the "decent interval" it wants, believing that they can collect their victory a few years after the American troops have gone home. Or perhaps they will reject anything short of immediate and total victory, knowing that the American troops will leave anyway. However, the war in Afghanistan is actually a civil war, and they can never win a decisive victory.

The Afghan civil war began in 1992, when the puppet government that the Russians left behind when they pulled their troops out the country in 1989 collapsed. The various mujaheddin groups who had fought the Russians went to war with one another for control of the country, and that civil war has continued ever since.

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country, and the conflict soon resolved into a struggle between the Taliban, the dominant organization in the Pashtun-populated parts of the country, and the militias of the Northern Alliance, the various smaller ethnic groups in the north of Afghanistan.

Since the Pashtuns are almost half the country's population and had Pakistani support, the Taliban won control of multi-ethnic Kabul and become the country's "government" in 1996. However, they never conquered the "Northern Alliance" that dominated the Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek provinces in the north.

Then, after 9/11, the U.S. invaded and made a de facto alliance with the warlords of the Northern Alliance. This tipped the balance in the war in the other direction, and it's the northern warlords who have effectively run (or rather, looted) the country for the past decade.

Once the U.S. leaves, the balance of power between these two sides will be restored ? and the civil war between them will continue on a more equal basis. This is not Vietnam, a homogeneous country with a strong national identity. It is a tribal country whose borders are entirely artificial. Decisive victory in Afghanistan is unattainable for any ethnic group.

Continue Reading | comments

Florida transgender student barred from using women’s bathroom

London, July 26 (Newswire): Meet Alex Wilson, who is sort of between genders just now. Wilson, who was born male, is four years into a hormone therapy process designed to transform him into a female but hasn't undergone gender reassignment surgery.

Nevertheless, as Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA reports, the transgender student is mad because the trade school he attends has prohibited him from using the women's restroom.

Wilson is a certified nursing assistant. He's taking classes at Pinellas Technical Education Center — a public school in Clearwater, Fla. — with the goal of eventually becoming a licensed practical nurse.

He had been using the women's restroom at school. After an unidentified student complained to the administration, though, school officials pulled Wilson out of class and told him he could no longer use the women's restroom.

The consequences for future women's restroom use are allegedly grave.

"If I continue to use the female restroom that I would have charges pressed against me," Wilson told WFLA. "And that because of that I would be removed from the program as a nurse."

Right now, the student says he is using a facility in an inconvenient storage area, which he finds humiliating. It's not clear if the men's room is a viable option, or what other bathroom options Wilson has on the campus. Whatever the case, Wilson is displeased.

"It's not right. And the fact that I would have to continue to use that restroom for the continuation of my education, that's not right," the student protested.

A spokeswoman for the career and technical school offered the administration's take on the kerfuffle.

"In a scenario such as the one you're describing, a person will be offered access to a private restroom," said Melanie Marquez Parra. "And that's for the individual's privacy and for the privacy of other students."

The WFLA reporter who covered the story pointed to a reasonably similar case in Colorado involving transgender first-grader Coy Mathis. The Colorado Civil Rights Division, which enforces Colorado's anti-discrimination laws, decided in favor of Mathis after he had been prohibited from using the girls' bathroom at a public elementary school.

Continue Reading | comments

Deal emerging on student loans, talks continue

Washington, July 26 (Newswire): An emerging deal to lower interest rates on student loans took shape, offering Democrats promises that interest rates would not reach 10 percent and giving Republicans a link between borrowing terms and the financial markets.

Lawmakers and their aides were in talks about how they might reduce rates on subsidized Stafford loans, which doubled to 6.8 percent last week in the wake of congressional inaction. Efforts to restore those rates to 3.4 percent were abandoned in favor of a new compromise that bears many similarities with a bill that House Republicans have passed, and with President Barack Obama's budget proposal.

"There is no question that there is a compromise available on this important issue and that the sides have not been that far apart and we just need to get it done," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"We have been working with lawmakers to make that compromise happen. We need to make sure that students don't see their rates double," he said.

Under the plan lawmakers are considering, interest rates on new loans would be based on the 10-year Treasury note plus an additional percentage to pay for administrative costs.


Undergraduate students would see a better deal than the current 6.8 percent rate but could face higher costs if the economy improves and Treasury notes become more expensive. Rates for students this fall would be around 4 percent and would be capped at 8.25 percent in future years.

Graduate students and parents, too, could find better deals next year but again would face higher rates than the current 7.9 percent. Borrowing for those PLUS loans would be around 6 percent this fall and capped at 9.25 percent in coming years.

Lawmakers were still working on specific rates but both parties were in rough agreement on the numbers. They were waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to double check their math to make sure the proposal did not cost taxpayers or generate too much profit.

Talk of a compromise came just hours after Democratic-led efforts to restore the 3.4 percent interest rates failed to overcome a procedural hurdle in the Senate. After several failures to find a stopgap measure, Democrats abandoned that tactic and instead looked for a compromise.

Lawmakers met in Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin's office to discuss the next steps and that meeting suggested a compromise could be found.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the Senate education panel, also joined the talks.

"We must focus our attention now on a long-term solution such as the president supports, the House of Representatives has passed and a group of Republican, Democratic and independent senators have proposed," Alexander said.

A deal could be announced, and a vote could be scheduled as quickly.

If fresh negotiations prove fruitless, millions of students returning to campus next month will find borrowing terms twice as high as when school let out. Without congressional action in the coming weeks, the increase could mean an extra $2,600 for an average student returning to campus this fall, according to Congress' Joint Economic Committee.

Continue Reading | comments

Study: Distant quakes can affect oil, gas fields

Los Angeles, July 26 (Newswire): The powerful earthquake that rocked Japan in 2011 set off tremors around a West Texas oil field, according to new research that suggests oil and gas drilling operations may make fault zones sensitive to shock waves from distant big quakes.

It's long been known that large quakes can trigger minor jolts thousands of miles from the epicenter. Volcanically active spots like Yellowstone National Park often experience shaking after a large distant event.

Less is known about the influence of remote quakes on fault lines that have been weakened by man-made activity like the deep disposal of wastewater at the Texas oil field. A new study led by researchers at Columbia University and published in the journal Science suggests a strong quake that strikes halfway around the globe can set off small to mid-size quakes near injection wells in the U.S. heartland.

"The seismic waves act as the straw that breaks the camel's back, pushing the faults that last little bit toward an earthquake," lead researcher Nicholas van der Elst said in an email.

There has been heightened scrutiny in recent years of quakes near industrial areas as drilling is ramped up to satisfy the country's energy hunger. Research has shown that wastewater disposal — the process of pumping fluids deep into the ground at high pressures — can weaken nearby fault lines and even produce quakes big enough to be felt. The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses high-pressure mixtures of water, sand and chemicals to extract natural gas or oil, also can trigger quakes, but they're typically microquakes — smaller than magnitude-2.

By poring through the quake archives, van der Elst and colleagues found evidence that faults near wastewater injection sites were loaded with stress when ripples from a faraway earthquake traveled around the planet.

They contend:

—The magnitude-9 Japan quake set off a swarm in the West Texas town of Snyder, where oil extraction has caused shaking in the past.

—The magnitude-8.8 Chile quake in 2010 triggered a magnitude-4.1 in Prague, Okla., home of active injection wells.

—The Chile quake also set off a series of small quakes in the Colorado town of Trinidad near the New Mexico state line known for extracting natural gas from coal beds.

In those instances, the triggered seismic activity was followed months later by a moderate quake and researchers say that could be a warning sign of stress on the fault. The triggered events are too small to relieve all the stress and some of that stress can be transferred to nearby faults, making a future larger event more likely, said van der Elst.

Not all sites near injection wells showed increased shaking after a strong distant quake. The team found the most affected areas were places where pumping has been going on for decades.

University of Utah mechanical engineer Sidney Green called the results interesting but "rather speculative" and said they need more study.

If the observations bear out, it could help oil and gas operators know "where it's safe to inject and where it's not," said Julie Shemeta, a geophysicist and president of Colorado-based MEQ Geo Inc., a consulting company.

Despite a history of man-made quakes near wastewater injection sites, only a small number of the country's 30,000 disposal wells are a problem, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist William Ellsworth, who published an article in the journal reviewing the state of research.

Ellsworth said fracking does not pose a high risk for triggering quakes strong enough to feel. The largest man-made quake linked to fracking was a magnitude-3.6 in British Columbia in 2009.

In a third quake-related paper appearing in Science, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found increased seismic activity over a 30-year period around a Southern California geothermal plant located near the San Andreas Fault. The plant pumps water in and out of an underground reservoir to make steam that drives turbines.

Lead author Emily Brodsky said she has come up with a way to determine the rate of quakes from pumping at the site and plans to test the method at other geothermal plants.

Continue Reading | comments

There's no peace in the baby veronica case

New York, July 26 (Newswire): Veronica has lived in two homes. Two years with her adoptive family, in South Carolina.

Two years with her biological father, a member of the Cherokee nation, in Oklahoma. All the while her life was in the hands of various courts in the American legal system.

The case got so tangled, combining adoption law with a law designed to protect the children of Native Americans, that the Supreme Court stepped in. The details of the case are long, and heart-wrenching. Do yourself a favor and listen to the background of the story on Radiolab.

While the Court's decision favors the adoptive couple, their ruling was narrow. According to the majority opinion, the South Carolina court that ruled in the biological father's favor incorrectly invoked the Indian Child Welfare Act, which prioritizes Native American parents for Native American children up for adoption. The case now goes back to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which has the immense task of deciding which family the girl should live with. It won't be cut and dry—and the justices will take the overall welfare of the child into consideration.

And the case becomes even more of a mess with this update: The biological father and the paternal grandparents have now filed for the adoption of Veronica in the Cherokee Nation District Court. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor did underscore that the majority's decision did not invalidate the Indian Child Welfare Act, just the way it was used in this case.

If the biological father's custody is taken away from him, members of an Indian tribe still might get preference in an adoption (that's why his parents are filing as well). Also, in filing for adoption, the biological father will surely slow up the proceedings, seeing how multiple states' and Cherokee legal systems will be in play.

Continue Reading | comments

5 free things in Havana, from cobblestones to cars

Havana, July 26 (Newswire): For a city where people earn an average of $20 a month at government jobs, Havana can be a surprisingly pricey place — at least for tourists.

From $6 daiquiris at El Floridita, Ernest Hemingway's favored watering hole, to the ubiquitous hustlers looking to con visitors into buying knock-off cigars, much about the Cuban capital seems geared toward separating travelers from their money.

Fortunately some of Havana's most charming details can be experienced free of charge. Here are five great ways to explore this city stuck in time, without adding to the hefty fees charged by tour companies.

Begun in 1900 during U.S. occupation and completed in 1958 under strongman Fulgencio Batista, the Malecon, or seawall, stretches 4 miles (6 kilometers) from old town to the Almendares River. There's no bad time of day for a stroll along what's known as "the great sofa" for being Havana's 24/7 center of social activity. At dawn, fishermen dip lines into the gentle waves as the city rouses itself from slumber. In the afternoon, when the sunlight seems impossibly bright — don't forget the sunblock! — kids keep cool by doing somersaults into the water. But the Malecon truly comes alive in the evening when thousands gather to laugh and sip rum, and canoodling couples form romantic silhouettes against the crimson sky. Weekends at 23rd Street and Malecon are a real party atmosphere; for a more mellow experience and the best sunsets in town, pull up some concrete where Paseo Boulevard meets the Florida Straits.

No visit is complete without a leisurely walk through the cobblestoned Spanish colonial quarter, much of it patiently rehabilitated by the Havana City Historian's Office. A tour of four public squares is enough to hit the highlights: intimate Cathedral Square, home to the city's main Roman Catholic temple; leafy Plaza de Armas, where vendors hawk books, coins and Ernesto "Che" Guevara memorabilia at a daily flea market; sun-drenched Plaza Vieja, where uniformed children from a local school play rollicking games of tag; and breezy Plaza San Francisco, the jumping-off point for tour buses to Old Havana. The latter teems with colorfully dressed, cigar-chomping women who make a living as what you might call officially licensed "greeters," attaching themselves to the arms of male travelers and leaving lipsticky kiss marks on their cheeks. A tip is expected if you have your picture taken with them, but a polite, preemptive "no gracias" before they can pucker up should keep you on budget.

Havana doesn't disappoint on its reputation as a living automotive museum, with finned 1950s Chevrolets, Fords and Cadillacs rarely seen elsewhere still cruising the city's avenues. While some are barely held together by makeshift parts and creative soldering, many have been maintained with surprising amounts of TLC. For a four-wheeled blast from the past, head to the streets around the wedding-cake-like Capitol building, where classic car owners park their antiques so nostalgic tourists can gawk. Motorcycle enthusiasts will delight in the weekly gathering of the "hogs" just down the hill from the Hotel Nacional. Members of Havana's tightly knit Harley-Davidson club meet informally here to show off their vintage rides, nearly all of them predating the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

See art come alive at the Taller Experimental de Grafica, ensconced at the end of an alley off Cathedral Square in a former public bathhouse. Founded in 1962 on "Che's" instructions, the shop hosts dozens of artists who are remarkably friendly and happy to chat with even the slightest prompting. Some speak English and will give visitors an up-close demonstration of how lithographs, etchings and woodcuts get made. Just about everything you see is for sale, but there's no pressure to buy. For more free art, walk up gently sloping 23rd Street, also known "la Rampa," or "the Ramp," where dozens of mosaics by Cuban masters such as Wilfredo Lam form a sidewalk gallery that goes for blocks and blocks.

Cubans are just as crazy for "beisbol" as Americans, and Spanish-speaking fans won't want to miss the Central Park's "esquina caliente," or "hot corner." Named after the baseball term for third base, this shady spot is a favorite place for Havana residents, mostly men, to engage all comers in passionate arguments about the sport during the November-June season. Still haven't gotten your fill of Cuba's national pastime? A ticket to the raucous bleachers of El Latino Stadium, home to Havana's most storied ball club, Industriales, costs just a few pennies' worth in the local currency. Go on, splurge — after a day in Havana without once opening your pocketbook, you've earned it.

Continue Reading | comments

Northern Colorado wants to secede from Colorado

Washington, July 26 (Newswire): Will North Colorado become America's 51st state?

That's what some residents in the Centennial State are pushing for. Representatives from eight northern counties convened, CBS Denver reports, to "begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado."

The secession movement stems from "a growing urban-rural divide," with state lawmakers in Denver passing sweeping gun control legislation and calling for more renewable energy and less oil and gas production—a big part of northern Colorado's economy.

"Northern and Northeastern Colorado and our voices are being ignored in the legislative process this year, and our very way of life is under attack," Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway told Coloradoan.com.

"This is not a stunt. This is a very serious deliberative discussion that's going on," Conway told CBS Denver. "There's a real feeling that a lot of folks who come from the urban areas don't appreciate the contribution that many Coloradans contribute."

Officials from Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma and Kit Carson counties were involved in the discussions, Conway said, adding that two counties in Nebraska are interested in joining the new state.

"We need to figure out way to re-enfranchise the people who feel politically disenfranchised now and ignored," he said.

Conway and his coalition are hoping to put the question of secession to voters in November through a ballot referendum.

Of course, seceding isn't that easy. West Virginia was the last to state to do it, breaking free from Virginia during the Civil War in 1863—or 14 years before Colorado was admitted to the Union. To form a new state, approval would be needed from voters, the Colorado General Assembly and U.S. Congress.

The movement does appear to have at least one supporter in Washington.

"The people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have every right to be," U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Yuma, Colo., told Denver's 9 News last month. "The governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don't blame people one bit for feeling attacked and unrepresented by the leaders in our state."

Feeling disenfranchised, one could argue, is part of being American. Residents from more than 30 states, including Colorado and Texas, filed petitions to secede in the wake of President Barack Obama's reelection in November. But citizens in Austin, Texas, filed a counter petition to allow the city to "peacefully" secede from Texas and remain a part of the United States.

Continue Reading | comments

Tycoon’s ex-lover jailed 12 years for forged will

New York, July 26 (Newswire): Chan Chun-chuen, the geomancer and lover of late Hong Kong property tycoon Nina Wang, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for forging a 2006 will that made him the beneficiary of her $10.7 billion fortune.

Chan's conduct was "shameless and wicked, as well as borne of unparalleled greed," High Court Judge Andrew Macrae said in pronouncing the sentence today. Forging a will is "particularly nasty and insidious" because the dead person can't speak her true intention, he said.

Former fung shui practitioner Peter Chan Chun-chuen sits inside a prison van after being convicted of forging a will to claim the fortune of the late tycoon Nina Wang by a High Court jury on July 4, 2013 in Hong Kong. Photograph: Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images
Enlarge image Former Feng Shui Practitioner Peter Chan Chun-chuen

Peter Chan Chun-chuen, former Feng shui practitioner, enters the High Court in Hong Kong on July 4, 2013. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images

Chan lost a five-year legal battle for Wang's estimated HK$83 billion ($10.7 billion) fortune in 2011, with the will in his favor found to be a forgery and the estate awarded to Wang's charity foundation. Wang, once Asia's richest woman, who died from uterine cancer in 2007, had herself fought her father-in-law for six years over the fortune.

Chan had argued that Wang left him the money in part because they had been lovers for 15 years. Chan, who is married with children, said he was hired by Wang in 1992 to help find her husband, Teddy, who had been kidnapped for a second time in 1990. Teddy Wang was declared legally dead in 1999 and his body was never found.

Chan was convicted by an eight-member jury yesterday of the forgery, and using a false instrument. Macrae also sentenced Chan to 12 years on the second offense, to be served concurrently with the first. He faced as many as 14 years for each conviction.
Feng Shui

Chan dug holes at various sites owned by the Chinachem Group for seven years in his role as Wang's feng shui adviser or geomancer, receiving about HK$2.1 billion from her between 2005 and 2006, according to a court judgment. His lawyers said the payments were intended to groom him for managing her estate.

Feng shui, literally translated as "wind and water," is a 5,000-year-old Chinese practice of arranging the physical environment to harmonize with the daily lives of people who live within it. Feng shui masters used the practice to advise emperors on the best locations for their palaces and tombs.

Chan recently renounced the practice and converted to Christianity, and said he prayed while the jury spent more than nine hours considering its verdict, the South China Morning Post reported.

In explaining his reasoning in the sentencing, Macrae said he considered Chan's crimes to be of the worst category, and that Chan showed no remorse for his actions.

It wasn't just the vast fortune involved, Macrae said, "but the shameless dishonoring of a woman" who had given Chan great trust and friendship during her life.

Continue Reading | comments

Microsoft revamps structure and management

New York, July 26 (Newswire): Microsoft is breaking up its fiefdoms as it seeks to create better products, faster.

The company said that it would dissolve its eight existing product divisions in favor of four new ones arranged around broader themes, a change it believes will encourage greater collaboration. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's longtime chief executive, will shuffle the responsibilities of nearly every senior member of his executive bench as a result.

The shake-up is an effort by Microsoft to reduce the rivalries that have built up over time among its previous divisions, which sometimes resulted in needless duplication of effort. Each one of the old divisions had its own finance and marketing organizations, and in the revamping, Microsoft is centralizing those functions.

The new divisions are meant to effectively force its groups to work more closely together to create complete products consisting of hardware, software and services.

It is not clear, though, that simply revamping the company's structure will enable Microsoft to create products that are more timely and resonate more with customers. Microsoft has been widely criticized for being late with compelling products in two lucrative categories, smartphones and tablets.

For the last year, Mr. Ballmer has talked increasingly about transforming Microsoft into a "devices and services" company, a sign that the company needs to evolve from its roots as a pure software company to pay more attention to all the ingredients that make modern devices appealing. That is one area where a Microsoft rival, Apple, has excelled.

While the company is emphasizing hardware more prominently in its new organization, Microsoft does not, for the time being, appear to be abandoning its strategy of working with outside manufacturers of personal computers and mobile phones.

Among the top executives named to new roles is Julie Larson-Green, who had overseen the development of the Windows operating system, will lead a new devices and studio group that consists of Xbox hardware, the Surface family of tablet computers, hardware accessories and games.

Microsoft will consolidate all its major operating systems, including Windows, Windows Phone and the software that powers the Xbox, under Terry Myerson, who handled engineering for only Windows Phone before.

Qi Lu, the head of Bing and Microsoft's other Internet initiatives, will take over a new applications group and oversee the company's lucrative Office franchise and Skype.

Satya Nadella, as the head of the new cloud and enterprise group, will manage the network of data centers that power all of Microsoft's online services, in addition to Windows Azure, the cloud service he has been running for some time.

In addition to changes to its product groups, Tony Bates, the former president of the Skype division, will be in charge of business development and relations with developers, along with mergers and acquisitions.

Continue Reading | comments

E-book ruling cements Amazon’s virtual monopoly

New York, July 26 (Newswire): A federal judge ruled that Apple (AAPL) had conspired with major book publishers in an effort to raise the prices of e-books.

On the surface the widely expected ruling is a win for consumers who have yet to benefit from the minimal production and distribution costs of e-books. In reality, the decision does little more than extend Amazon.com's (AMZN) dominance in books from retail into publishing.

Short of colluding with one another or an outside vendor like Apple, publishers have almost no pricing power. Barnes & Noble (BKS) is the last national bookseller standing and they've recently signaled a retreat from e-books back to their brick and mortar stores.

The lack of viable competition gives Amazon monopolistic power in the still growing e-book business. The question is what the company is going to do with it.

Hitha Prabhakar, retail analyst and author, says Amazon is already signalling its intentions with its subscription-based Amazon Prime service.

"What you can do is borrow and lend books, either from your friends or from the stores," Prabhakar explains. "I think this is something you're going to see Amazon do in a widespread way very soon."

The idea of borrowing books isn't new, but monetizing the service is. Library cards have been free or nearly free for hundreds of years. With Amazon now having near total control over the book pricing model the only question is whether or not the company thinks going into the lending business makes sense when the company can still make handsome margins while undercutting publishers and competitors on price.

Citing digital content distribution companies like Netflix (NFLX) in video and Spotify in music, Prabhakar says Amazon will go into lending and subscription services because that's what the customer wants. "More people are going to want to go ahead and use a lending subscription as opposed to just buying books," she predicts.

Ultimately Amazon can only retain its stance at the top of the publishing food chain by giving the customers what they want in as many forms as possible. CEO Jeff Bezos' defining traits have been customer service and flexibility. Despite the court ruling giving Amazon the legal right to gouge publishers and pass the savings onto customers ala Walmart (WMT), it's more likely that Bezos will opt to keep e-book prices more or less where they are while increasing the number of distribution channels.

The bottom line after the ruling against Apple is that Amazon has more power than ever to distribute digital content however it sees fit. Analysts estimate as much as a quarter of Amazon's revenues will come from digital content distribution in 2014. Look for Amazon to offer monthly subscriptions, social network-like book borrowing options, the traditional one-click tablet distribution model, and even books made of paper, ink and glue for the dwindling number of old-school consumers.

In other words, the court's effort to strike down price fixing has done little more than cement Amazon as king of the book selling empire. Consumers can only hope Jeff Bezos is a benevolent ruler.

Continue Reading | comments

Mortgage rates rise to the highest level in nearly 2 years

Washington, July 26 (Newswire): The 30-year mortgage rate rose to its highest level in nearly two years this week, according to mortgage financing company Freddie Mac.

After a slight pause, Freddie Mac said rates climbed 0.22 percentage point to 4.51% for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan. The rate is the highest it has been since the week of July 28, 2011.

The rate for a 15-year mortgage hit 3.53%, up 0.14 percentage point.

Related: Best advice now for homebuyers and sellers

Analysts blamed a 0.53 percentage point spike two weeks ago on the actions of the Federal Reserve. Rates began to run up following hints by chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed would soon start tapering off on its purchases of up to $85 billion a month in bonds and mortgage-backed securities, a program designed to keep borrowing costs low.

This time, the rate rise culprit is the economy, according to Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a mortgage information company.

"Strengthening employment data put the bond and mortgage markets on the defensive again," he said. "The employment report for June, was firmer than expected, and upward revisions to April and May figures showed that hiring is on stronger footing than was previously believed."

It wasn't just the job gains that drove rates higher, according to Frank Nothaft, Freddie's chief economist. Hourly wages also went up 2.2% over the past 12 months, the largest annual increase in nearly two years.

The rate increases signal trouble for house hunters, according to a survey by Trulia, the Web-based real estate company. It found that 41% of consumers sampled called the increases their number one worry, even ahead of price increases.

A rate increase of a percentage point from 3.5% to 4.5% adds about $57 to monthly mortgage bills for every $100,000 borrowed. Combined with the 12% rise in home prices over the past 12 months, as reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, mortgage payments have gone up by about 25% for a typical homebuyer.

So far, however, the biggest impact of the rate rise on the mortgage market has been to discourage existing homeowners from refinancing their loans.

The refinance share of mortgage applications dropped to 64% this week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It had often been running at 75% or more of the market until rates started to move up.

As for what direction mortgage rates are headed, the Fed this week seemed to calm fears about an early end to its bond buying program and there was some speculation that mortgage rates would start to drop again. Gumbinger reports they leveled off earlier this week, but it's still too early to tell if they're moving down.

Bond investors are becoming accustomed to the reality that the Fed will opt out of its buying program, according to Gumbinger. "What's not known is how quickly that will happen," he said.

Continue Reading | comments

The trade: Dump the gold miners

New York, July 26 (Newswire): Today marks the beginning of a new segment on Breakout called "The Trade" where we don't just talk about markets, but tell you the best way to play the day's hottest stories.

All opinions are my own. It isn't advice on what to do with your portfolio, your money is your own. The Trade is about explaining the facts at hand and telling you what I'd do with my personal portfolio.

Today's Trade: Market Vector's Gold Miner ETF (GDX), commonly referred to as its ticker symbol. The GDX is designed to trade in line with the fortunes of the most prominent gold mining companies in the world. Companies like Barrick Gold (ABX), Goldcorp (GG) and Newmont (NEM) are three of the largest component companies.

Now that you know what it is here's the story, as discussed with Yahoo! Finance senior columnist Michael Santoli in the attached video. The GDX is more than 5% higher today driven by a more than 2.5% rally in gold prices. The ostensible driver of the gold rally is Ben Bernanke's comments regarding the future of interest rates. As has been the case for the last 18-months, gold needs a specific catalyst to justify a rally and no excuse at all to plunge.

If owning gold over the last year has been painful, being long the GDX has been so brutal it would make Torquemada squeamish. Even including today's rally the GDX has lost 47% year-to-date and more than 40% for the last 12-months.

Unlike gold itself, patient owners of the ETF have been crushed as well. Despite the precipitous decline in gold, investors in the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) have made more than 20% over the last five years. Over the same time GDX holders have lost 50%.

Sometimes the market gives investors an opportunity to gracefully exit losing positions. If you've been lugging around the GDX today is your chance to hit the sell button and look for better investments. At last count there are roughly 15,000 publicly traded companies in the world. At least 14,900 of them have better prospects than the GDX.

Continue Reading | comments

Investors got it wrong last month, ‘follow the data’ & expect more fed stimulus: Economist

New York, July 26 (Newswire): Global stock markets are once again rallying on the words of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Just two hours after the Fed released meeting minutes showing a split among policy makers, Bernanke told a meeting of economists that the Fed needs to continue its "highly accommodative monetary policy" for the foreseeable future."

Then, U.S. stocks, which had just ended a lackluster session, took off, and the rally continued overseas and into today - the S&P500 is trading up about 1%.

Related: Ignore Feldstein, Fed Should Taper in 2014: Dean Baker

"Bernanke made it absolutely clear that policy in his view was going to remain highly accommodative both looking at inflation and unemployment," says Danny Blanchflower, a Dartmouth College economics professor and Bloomberg TV Contributing Editor.

The message was not what many in the market had expected. Investors were anticipating the Fed would start reducing asset purchases as early as this year, based on what they thought Bernanke had hinted at after last month's policy meeting.

Related: Bernanke & Fed Don't Know How to Quit QE: David Stockman

Bernanke said then that the Fed intends to taper its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities if the economy continues to improve, then end those purchases once the unemployment rate hits 7%. Stocks sold off.

"The market misinterpreted what he [Bernanke] said last time," says Blanchflower. "This is the Fed keeping going, no tapering... the idea that they were going to start tapering in September was for the birds."

Blanchflower advises investors to "follow the data, look at the labor market… and look at the inflation data… It says do more stimulus."

And those aren't the only things keeping the Fed's monetary pedal to the metal.

"It looks like the main growth areas in the U.S. are in the housing market, driven by the Fed, and are in the cars market because that's where cheap loans have driven the cars market," Blanchflower contends. "The Fed is putting stimulus in and it looks like that's pretty much driving everything."

In other words, the Fed is the only game in town when it comes to the economy.

In terms of a timeline for tightening monetary policy, Blanchflower estimates we'll see some slowing of bond purchases in 2014, and rates not moving up perhaps until 2017 or 2018.

For those honing their Fed-watching skills, Blanchflower advises focusing your gaze on what happens in January when Bernanke's term as chairman is up. The key will be whether there is "seamlessness" in the case of a transition to a new Fed chair.

Blanchflower would place his bet (in the case of a new Fed chair) on current Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, widely considered the frontrunner. And FYI, she's thought to be even more dovish than Bernanke.

Continue Reading | comments

Illegal constructions in Gulmarg

Srinagar, July 26 (Newswire): The held Jammu and Kashmir High Court issued show cause notice to the Chief Executive Officer Gulmarg Development Authority as to why action can't be initiated against him for allowing illegal constructions in famed ski resort of Gulmarg in occupied Kashmir.

A division bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice D S Thakur passed the direction after perusing the compliance report of the GDA, in which it has been stated that two constructions were coming up in Gulmarg without permission. The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation against the encroachments at Gulmarg.   

Counsel representing the petitioner, Ajaz Ahmad Chasti had previously presented a copy of Greater Kashmir newspaper before the Court in which it was reported that an illegal construction was going on in Gulmarg. The Court had taken cognizance of the report and directed the concerned authorities to file a report stating whether illegal constructions were going on in the area.

In its observations the Court said that the salaries of the officers who are not discharging their duty should be stopped forthwith.

On April 9, the High Court had pulled up the Gulmarg Development Authority for "acting remiss" in controlling illegal constructions at Gulmarg and had asked the Chief Secretary to appear in the court with all the details.

After perusing the report on the illegal constructions filed by the government, the court had observed that despite court directions, Commissioner/Secretary Tourism Department and GDA had not paid any attention to control the illegal constructions at Gulmarg effectively.

The division bench also restrained the subordinate courts and tribunals from passing any orders with regard to the issues pending in the Public Interest Litigation seeking doing away with illegal constructions at Gulmarg and preservation of its environment.

Continue Reading | comments

Patients face inconvenience at PHC Natipora

Srinagar, July 26 (Newswire): The residents of Natipora have complained that the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in the area was not working properly.

A delegation of residents alleged that: "At times the doctors are not present while at the other the paramedics are absent."

 "We have been facing hardships in the absence of proper working of the PHC," the residents said.

The Chief Medical Officer Srinagar, Dr Dildar Ahmed however refuted the allegations saying the PHC works properly.

 "The doctors were not present only once (last week) when they had to attend an official meeting. Rest they are always there," the official said.

Continue Reading | comments

Biscoe responds to ‘mammoth land lease arrears’

Srinagar, July 26 (Newswire): Prompted by the show cause notice served for failing to clear "mammoth land lease arrears",  the Tyndale Biscoe and Mallinson School authorities appeared before the administration and pleaded their case.

 Sources said the school management called on the District Magistrate Er Farooq Ahmed Shah and other officials at least twice and held detailed discussions.

Last week the Assistant Commissioner Nazool Syed Sajad Qadri had served the notice to "Principal and Director, Tyndale- Biscoe & Mallinson Society, Srinagar Parwez Samuel Kaul", as to why action should not be initiated against the school for failing to clear the arrears.

 "Whereas on calculations of the rent as per the sanction of renewal of lease and subsequent modification and the lease agreements, the Tyndale-Biscoe and Mallinson schools has a mammoth arrears pending amounting to Rs. 1999096 (approx. subject to further calculations & verifications) till date," reads a copy of the show cause notice adding that the school was supposed to pay Rs 500 per kanal for the 100 odd kanal prime land.

"Whereas, despite the fact that there was no formal lease agreement in 2004, the Assistant Commissioner Nazool vide no. 501/N/WBN dated 28-02-2004 and vide no. CAN/Ps/63 dated 24-03-2004 issued notices to the Principal Tyndale-Biscoe School to pay the outstanding rent as on that date but still there was no response," the notification adds. The school management confirmed to have appeared before the administration and pleaded their case.

 The government has been saying that the land leased out to this and some other schools was given for "charity meaning non-profit purpose." "Such institutions as per the section 4 of Land Grants Act, are supposed to be a registered charitable society established for a non-profitable purpose," an official said.

 Meanwhile, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Shailendra Kumar is understood to be finalizing modalities that the schools operating from Nazool land keep reservation for the "underprivileged sections of the society."

 The administration pleads that the schools given Nazool land for "peanuts of annual fee" are supposed to work for "charity as non-profitable organization."

Continue Reading | comments

Proteins enable essential enzyme to maintain its grip on DNA

Islamabad, July 26 (Newswire): Scientists have identified a family of proteins that close a critical gap in an enzyme that is essential to all life, allowing the enzyme to maintain its grip on DNA and start the activation of genes.

The enzyme, called RNA polymerase, is responsible for setting gene expression in motion in all cells. RNA polymerase wraps itself around the double helix of DNA, using one strand to match nucleotides and make a copy of genetic material.

RNA polymerase cannot fall off of the DNA or stop this process once it starts. If it does, no proteins will be made, and the cell will die.

A team led by Ohio State University researchers demonstrated in a bacterial model that a specific protein binds to two sides of a space in the RNA polymerase molecule at a critical point in its connection to DNA, effectively closing the gap and creating a clamp around the two strands.

In bacteria, two related proteins perform this function. One is NusG, which is required for bacterial growth. Another is RfaH, a virulence factor that gives bacteria their ability to infect and cause disease. Depending on the gene, either NusG or RfaH bridges the critical gap in RNA polymerase in bacteria to maintain the enzyme's attachment to DNA, the researchers found.

"DNA could be imagined as a cylinder, and RNA polymerase encircles it," said Irina Artsimovitch, associate professor of microbiology at Ohio State and senior author of the research. "Before, we had a structural model where these proteins sit at a site where RNA polymerase contacts the DNA. But even if you see something binding, you still have to prove this binding has a functional consequence. We show here that RNA polymerase forms two halves of a clamp, and these proteins bind in the middle and make the clamp complete."

Though understanding this mechanism was the main goal of the study, the findings could contribute to research in antibiotic development. With these proteins known to have a critical role in supporting cell life, they could function as targets for drugs designed to either kill bacteria or take away their ability to cause disease.

RNA polymerase is an unusual enzyme because of its processivity, a quality that both requires and enables it to do its extremely long and complicated job perfectly every time, without pausing or making a mistake. Scientists have known that RNA polymerase is processive, but until now didn't know how it remained so. Because RNA polymerase is universally conserved -- meaning it is present and has the same function in all living organisms and has for generations -- these findings in bacteria apply to all other forms of life, including humans.

"RNA polymerase has to make very long messages. In humans, RNA chains can be up to 1 million nucleotides long. If RNA polymerase stops prematurely, it loses the RNA chain and has to start over again. To prevent this futile cycle, some factor has to help RNA polymerase to stay bound to the DNA and RNA," Artsimovitch said. "Our major argument is that RNA polymerase can run longer if it makes a ring around the DNA."

Artsimovitch pursued the roles of RfaH and NusG because these proteins, too, are universally conserved, just as the RNA polymerase enzyme is. In other single-celled and also more complex organisms, they have different names than those found in bacteria, but their roles as transcription factors -- proteins that control gene expression -- are the same. And they are the only family of transcription factors known to be universally conserved.

"It makes sense -- if something is universally conserved, it is likely doing something very important," said Artsimovitch, also an investigator in Ohio State's Center for RNA Biology.

She and colleagues conducted a series of genetic and biochemistry experiments in cells and test tubes, respectively, to define the roles of the RfaH and NusG proteins in Escherichia coli, their model system. Their findings helped confirm recent reports from other researchers studying single-celled Archaea organisms suggesting that the structures of these proteins allow them to close the clamp on RNA polymerase and contribute to its processivity.

There is additional context from Artsimovitch's work, however, that determines which protein fills the gap.

"So we know the mechanism by which these proteins work is similar in all organisms, but you can have different scenarios," said Anastasia Sevostyanova, a postdoctoral researcher in microbiology at Ohio State and first author of the study.

In most cases, a bacterial cell needs to turn on genes just so it can continue to grow. In those cases, NusG would close the gap. However, under circumstances when specialized control of genes is in order -- such as when bacteria infect their human host -- then RfaH, the virulence factor, will fill that gap in the RNA polymerase clamp instead.

The researchers hope to further elucidate how other factors from the same universally conserved family of proteins orchestrate the gene expression programs that control cell life.

Continue Reading | comments

Skin sentry cells promote distinct immune responses

Islamabad, July 26 (Newswire): A new study reveals that just as different soldiers in the field have different jobs, subsets of a type of immune cell that polices the barriers of the body can promote unique and opposite immune responses against the same type of infection.

The research, published by Cell Press in the journal Immunity, enhances our understanding of the early stages of the immune response and may have important implications for vaccinations and treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Dendritic cells serve as sentries of the immune system and are stationed at the body's "outposts," like the skin, where they are likely to encounter invading pathogens. When dendritic cells encounter pathogen-associated antigens (molecules that trigger an immune response), they process the antigen and present it to other responding immune cells in an effort to inititate a cellular cascade resulting in clearance of the pathogen.

This is a critical part of the immune response because many responding immune cells cannot "see" antigen and initiate the proper protective response unless the antigen is properly presented by a dendritic cell.

"There are at least three different types of dendritic cells in the skin," explains senior study author, Dr. Daniel Kaplan from the University of Minnesota. "Despite studies examining these cells, the basic question of whether skin resident dendritic cells have unique or redundant functions remains unresolved." Dr. Kaplan and colleagues developed a model of yeast infection that is limited to the superficial layer of the skin and studied antigen-specific immune responses in mice lacking specific subsets of skin dendritic cells.

The researchers discovered that direct presentation of antigen by one type of dendritic cell, Langerhans cells, was necessary and sufficient for the generation of antigen-specific T helper-17 (Th17) cells but not the generation of cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTL). T helper cells play a key role in orchestrating the immune response, whereas CTLs can directly destroy infected cells. While Th17 cells play productive roles in indirectly eliminating pathogens when their response is dysregulated, they have been implicated in autoimmune disease, Meanwhile, another subset of dendritic cells was required for the generation of antigen-specific CTLs and inhibited the ability of other dendritic cells to promote Th17 cell responses.

"Our work demonstrates that dendritic cells in the skin promote distinct and opposing antigen-specific responses," concludes Dr. Kaplan. "This has important implications for vaccination strategies that selectively target dendritic cell populations. In addition, the requirement for Langerhans cells in the development of Th17 cells suggests these cells may participate in the early pathogenesis of Th17 cell-mediated skin diseases such as psoriasis."

Continue Reading | comments

Vascular changes linked to dementia, experts say

Islamabad, July 26 (Newswire): The same artery-clogging process (atherosclerosis) that causes heart disease can also result in age-related vascular cognitive impairments (VCI), according to a new American Heart Association/American Stroke Association scientific statement published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Cognitive impairment, also known as dementia, includes difficulty with thinking, reasoning and memory, and can be caused by vascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, a combination of both and other causes.

Atherosclerosis is a build- up of plaque in the arteries associated with elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and other risk factors. When it restricts or blocks blood flow to the brain, it is called cerebrovascular disease, which can result in vascular cognitive impairment.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that damages and destroys brain cells. "We have learned that cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease may work together to cause cognitive impairment and the mixed disorder may be the most common type of dementia in older persons," said Philip B. Gorelick, M.D., M.P.H., co-chair of the writing group for the statement and director of the Center for Stroke Research at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago.
The prevalence of dementia increases with advancing age and affects about 30 percent of people over 80 years of age, costing more than $40,000 per patient annually in the United States, according to the statement authors. . .

Treating risk factors for heart disease and stroke with lifestyle changes and medical management may prevent or slow the development of dementia in some people, Gorelick said. Physical activity, healthy diet, healthy body weight, tobacco avoidance as well as blood pressure and cholesterol management could significantly help many people maintain their mental abilities as they age.

"Generally speaking, what is good for the heart is good for the brain," Gorelick said. "Although it is not definitely proven yet, treatment or prevention of major risk factors for stroke and heart disease may prove to also preserve cognitive function with age."

Understanding common causes of late-life cognitive impairment and dementia has advanced and many of the traditional risk factors for stroke also are risk markers for Alzheimer's disease and vascular cognitive impairment. For example:

• Reducing high blood pressure is recommended to reduce the risk of vascular cognitive impairment. High blood pressure in mid-life may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline later in life. • Controlling high cholesterol and abnormal blood sugar may also help reduce the risk of vascular cognitive impairment, although more study is needed to confirm the role of these interventions. • Smoking cessation could lessen the risk of vascular cognitive impairment. • Increasing physical exercise, consuming a moderate level of alcohol (i.e., up to 2 drinks for men and 1 drink for non-pregnant women) for those who currently consume alcohol; and maintaining a healthy weight may also lessen the risk of VCI, but more study is needed to confirm usefulness. • Taking B vitamins or anti-oxidant supplements, however, does not prevent vascular cognitive impairment, heart disease or stroke.

Identifying people at risk for cognitive impairment is a promising strategy for preventing or postponing dementia and for public health cost savings, the writers said. "We encourage clinicians to use screening tools to detect cognitive impairment in their older patients and continue to treat vascular risks according to nationally- or regionally-accepted guidelines." Vascular cognitive impairment is most obvious after a stroke, but there could be cognitive repercussions from small strokes, microbleeds or areas of diminished blood flow in the brain that cause no obvious neurological symptoms, according to the statement.

In many cases, the risk factors for vascular cognitive impairment are the same as for stroke, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, abnormalities in heart rhythm and diabetes. The American Academy of Neurology and the Alzheimer's Association have endorsed the statement.

Continue Reading | comments