Arrest of abuse suspect is welcomed by Afghans

Friday, 26 July 2013

Kabul, July 27 (Newswire): Many residents of Afghanistan's troubled Wardak province welcomed the arrest of a former interpreter for U.S. special-operations forces who was allegedly involved in the killing, torture and abuse of local residents, saying his prosecution would ease tensions with the central government.

In a statement released, Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said its officers had detained Zakaria Kandahari in the southern city of Kandahar. The spy agency said he was arrested in possession of a pistol and several false identity cards.

While the statement didn't elaborate on the reasons for Mr. Kandahari's detention, Attaullah Khogyany, spokesman for the Wardak provincial government, said he faced charges of murder, torture and theft.

"We have received instruction from the central government to tell the people who have been victimized by him to prepare and file their formal complaints," Mr. Khogyany said.

The detention of Mr. Kandahari was the latest twist in a controversy that also strained relations between Kabul and its Western allies.

President Hamid Karzai was angered by allegations from Wardak residents that Afghans working with the special-operations forces had unlawfully detained, tortured and killed civilians in February. Mr. Karzai ordered the American units to pull out of the area.

In a compromise, the U.S.-led coalition agreed to withdraw special-operations forces from the district of Nerkh, the rural area of Wardak nearest to Kabul.

The U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force strenuously denied any involvement of coalition forces in abuse or murder of civilians, and officials said insurgents in some cases were encouraging abuse claims as part of a propaganda effort.

Khalilullah Ibrahimkhil, a tribal elder of Ibrahimkhil village of the Maidan Shahr district in Wardak, called the detention of Mr. Kandahari a "good deed" by Afghan security forces.

"He has done inhuman deeds here," he said. "His detention will bring people closer to the government."

Mr. Kandahari, whose detention was earlier reported by the New York Times, had worked as an interpreter for a U.S. special-forces operational detachment.

In December, a video surfaced of Mr. Kandahari allegedly beating an Afghan man in Wardak. Mr. Kandahari was subsequently detained but managed to escape custody before he could be handed over to Afghan authorities.

"After thorough investigation, there was no credible evidence to substantiate misconduct by ISAF or U.S. forces relating to the detainees or deaths in Nerkh," said U.S. Army Col. Jane Crichton, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-led coalition. "A thorough review of the video confirmed that there were no coalition forces present or involved in the incident."

Outrage in Wardak was further stoked by the February abduction and killing of a university student named Nasratullah, whose nearly decapitated body was found under a bridge in Ibrahimkhil village. Awal Khan, Nasratullah's brother, expressed concern that Mr. Kandahari would walk free again.

"He may be arrested for several days and then he will be released," he said. "The special forces haven't only killed my brother but they have oppressed people all over Maidan Wardak."

Mr. Khan said he wanted the Afghan government to either hand over those responsible for torturing and killing civilians to local people—or hang them in public.

Wardak is one of the key provinces that rings the Afghan capital. While local officials expressed concern that the withdrawal of coalition special-operations teams would worsen security in the area, locals who spoke to The Wall Street Journal said security had recently improved in Nerkh.

Adding to the mystery, Afghan officials also described Mr. Kandahari as having U.S. citizenship.

"After a thorough search, as far as we have been able to determine, he isn't an American citizen," said a U.S. official. "And in fact one indication is that he has not contacted the U.S. Embassy, which would be expected in these types of cases."

News of the arrest came as President Karzai announced a broad amnesty for prisoners ahead of the holy month of Ramadan. In a statement released by the presidential palace, Mr. Karzai said he would set free individuals sentenced to less than five years' imprisonment, provided they weren't accused of acts of terrorism.

In a separate statement, Mr. Karzai also lashed out at Taliban insurgents, who recently opened an office in the Gulf emirate of Qatar to facilitate peace talks, a move viewed with suspicion by Kabul.

"Neither their dignity nor their flag is safe in other countries, foreigners only use them as a tool," Mr. Karzai said.

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Bomb analysis lab in Kabul hunts for killer clues

Kabul, July 27 (Newswire): In a discreet laboratory in Kabul, a French military officer scans a long list of telephone numbers scrolling down a computer screen. "This is the call that triggered the explosion," he says, pointing.

The French-run facility is the nerve-centre of NATO efforts to analyse and trace how thousands of homemade bombs made by insurgents are evolving and becoming more sophisticated.

The team of 15 forensic specialists puzzle over how the devices are designed and how to prevent them from being detonated -- clues that could also lead back to the rebel bomb-makers themselves.

The IED (improvised explosive device) came to widespread public attention during the Iraq war and has also become the signature guerrilla tactic in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other insurgent groups have fought US-led forces since 2001.

The device typically uses old battlefield ordnance, explosives from mining or agricultural fertiliser, and is detonated by an electronic signal such a telephone call, a manual trigger line or a pressure plate.

Cheap, relatively-easy to make and adaptable, it is the militants' weapon of choice, killing US and Afghan soldiers, government officials, and civilians on a daily basis, often planted in dirt road tracks.

The Multi-National Theatre Exploitation Laboratory is located inside the Kabul airport military complex, a large highly-secure area that is a major base for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Clean, calm and quiet, the laboratory is a far cry from the frontlines where the IEDs are picked up. The devices are investigated in small rooms containing computers, monitors, spectrum analysers and oscilloscopes measuring voltage.

It is here that electronic experts Adjutant Olivier, who gave only his first name in line with French military policy, says he makes hard drives, USB memory sticks, data cards and mobile phones "talk to him".

"You can retrieve calendar items, incoming and outgoing calls, contact lists, text messages, multi-media content and even erased images, videos and files," he said enthusiastically.

He also tracks the frequencies used to detonate IEDs remotely -- a life-or-death calculation as it allows signal jammers to be set correctly and prevent bombs being triggered near ISAF vehicles.

Although the lab specialists employ the latest hi-tech equipment to fight against the IED threat, they face a difficult challenge, with the insurgents constantly re-inventing their fatal designs.

"They adapt, they are clever, they manage to combine techniques. And on the Internet, you will find many of the plans," said the adjutant.

One recent graphic example shows the rebels' ability to come up with deadly new ideas.

"In late February, an American soldier saw an American radio placed on the road," said Lieutenant Colonel Charles, head of the centre.

"The soldier recovered the radio, put it in his vehicle and a few seconds later it exploded, leaving many dead."

With materials for making IEDs freely available, their use is hard to counter.

The devices were responsible for 60 percent of ISAF fatalities in 2009, though the figure fell to 42 percent last year.

"You only need two components -- an oxidizer and a fuel, such as gasoline or motor oil. It is very easy to do," said Captain Julian, a military chemist working in the laboratory.

"This is ammonium nitrate gel," said the captain, pointing to a bottle containing a white jelly recovered after an attack in Kabul.

"It is normally used in quarries instead of dynamite. Everyone knows where it comes from, exactly which company in Pakistan," he said about the substance, which was banned by President Hamid Karzai to try to thwart bomb production.

"But on the border with Pakistan (where the Taliban have bases) the controls are very difficult to enforce."

IEDs come in all shapes and sizes, using plastic water jugs, steel cookers and pipes, and are placed on roads, footpaths and in trees.

Bigger attacks are designed to rip apart even US armoured trucks, while "daisy-chain" links are often used to attack convoys so that one explosion triggers a series of follow-up blasts.

The laboratory in Kabul tries to gather information on the identity of the bomb-makers by carefully gathering fingerprints and DNA traces.

The analysts can even lift prints off tape wrapped around a pressure plate by the insurgents.

The tape is placed in a sealed tank in which glue is heated up until it becomes a vapour. This reacts with residue from fingerprints to make them visible, and they can then be sent to a US forensic centre for checking.

With most of the NATO force about to depart Afghanistan next year, the future of IED analysis is uncertain, but Charles said that the laboratory had proved its worth many times over.

"It has enabled the arrest of... several hundred insurgents," he said. "And kept us up-to-date with new threats."

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Chellaney: Afghanistan’s looming partition

Washington, July 27 (Newswire): The United States, still mired in a protracted Afghan war that has exacted a staggering cost in blood and treasure, has agreed to formal peace talks with the Taliban, its main battlefield opponent.

With the Obama administration already reducing U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan after almost 12 years of fighting, the talks in Doha, Qatar, are largely intended to allow it to do so "honorably."

How the end of U.S.-led combat operations shapes Afghanistan's future will affect the security of countries nearby and beyond. Here the most important question is whether the fate of Afghanistan, which was created as a buffer between czarist Russia and British India, will be — or should be — different from that of Iraq and Libya (two other imperial creations where the United States has intervened militarily in recent years).

Foreign military intervention can effect regime change, but it evidently cannot re-establish order based on centralized government. Iraq has been partitioned in all but name into Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions, while Libya seems headed toward a similar tripartite, tribal-based territorial arrangement. In Afghanistan, too, an Iraq-style "soft" partition may be the best possible outcome.

Afghanistan's large ethnic-minority groups already enjoy de facto autonomy, which they secured after their Northern Alliance played a central role in the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban from power in late 2001. Having enjoyed virtual self-rule since then, they will fiercely resist falling back under the sway of the Pashtuns, who ruled the country for most of its history.

For their part, the Pashtuns, despite their tribal divisions, will not be content with control of a rump Afghanistan consisting of its current eastern and southeastern provinces. They will eventually seek integration with fellow Pushtuns in Pakistan, across the British-drawn Durand Line — a border that Afghanistan has never recognized. The demand for a "Greater Pashtunistan" would then challenge the territorial integrity of Pakistan (itself another artificial imperial construct).

The fact that Afghanistan's ethnic groups are concentrated in distinct geographical zones simplifies partition and makes the resulting borders more likely to last, unlike those drawn by colonial officials, who invented countries with no national identity or historical roots, lumping together disparate ethnic groups. Afghanistan's ethnic divide also runs along a linguistic fault line, with the Pashto language of the Pashtuns pitted against the more widely spoken Dari (a Persian dialect). Indeed, both geographically and demographically, Afghanistan's non-Pashtun groups account for more than half of the country, with Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras alone making up close to 50 percent of the population.

After waging the longest war in its history, at a cost of tens of thousands of lives and nearly $1 trillion, the United States is combat-weary and financially strapped. The American effort, pursued in coordination with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to cut a deal with the Pashtun-based, Pakistan-backed Taliban is stirring deep unease among the non-Pashtun groups, which suffered greatly under the Taliban and its five-year rule. (The historically persecuted Hazaras, for example, suffered several large-scale massacres.)

The rupture of Mr. Karzai's political alliance with non-Pashtun leaders has also aided ethnic polarization. Some non-Pashtun power brokers continue to support Mr. Karzai, but most others now lead the opposition National Front.

These leaders are unlikely to accept any power-sharing arrangement that includes the Taliban. In fact, they suspect that Mr. Karzai's ultimate goal is to restore Pashtun dominance throughout Afghanistan.

Their misgivings have been strengthened by the "Peace Process Road Map to 2015," a document prepared by the Karzai-constituted Afghan High Peace Council that sketches several potential concessions to the Taliban and Pakistan, ranging from the Taliban's recognition as a political party to a role for Pakistan in Afghanistan's internal affairs. The road map dangles the carrot of Cabinet posts and provincial governorships to prominent Taliban figures.

The most serious problem today is that the country's ethnic tensions and recriminations threaten to undermine the cohesion of the fledgling, multi-ethnic Afghan army. Indeed, the splits today resemble those that occurred when Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, an exit that led to civil war and the Taliban's eventual capture of the capital, Kabul.

This time, the non-Pashtun communities are better armed and prepared to defend their interests after the U.S. withdrawal. Thus, in seeking to co-opt the Taliban, the United States is not only bestowing legitimacy on a thuggish militia, it also risks unwittingly reigniting Afghanistan's ethnic strife, which would most likely tear apart the country for good.

This raises a fundamental question: Is Afghanistan's territorial unity really essential for regional or international security?

To be sure, the sanctity of existing borders has become a powerful norm in world politics. Yet this norm has permitted the emergence of ungovernable and unmanageable states, whose internal wars spill across international boundaries, fueling regional tensions and insecurity.

With a war-exhausted United States having run out of patience, outside forces are in no position to prevent Afghanistan's partition along Iraqi or post-Yugoslav lines, with the bloodiest battles expected to rage over control of ethnically mixed strategic areas, including Kabul. In this scenario, Pakistani generals, instead of continuing to sponsor Afghan Pashtun militant groups such as the Taliban and their allies such as the Haqqani network, would be compelled to fend off a potentially grave threat to Pakistan's unity.

A weak, partitioned Afghanistan may not be a desirable outcome, but a "soft" partition now would be far better than a "hard" partition later, after years of chaos and bloodletting — and infinitely better than the medieval Taliban's return to power and a fresh reign of terror. Indeed, partition may be the only way to prevent Afghanistan from sliding into large-scale civil war and thwart transnational terrorists from re-establishing a base of operations amid the rubble.

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First 3 gorings in Spain's San Fermin bull runs

Pamplona, July 27 (Newswire): An American and two Spaniards were gored during a danger-filled sixth bull run of Spain's San Fermin festival, with one loose bull causing panic in the packed streets of the city of Pamplona.

Tension soared when one of the animals charged a man and tossed him on the ground with its horns for almost 30 seconds as fellow runners tried to pull it away by its tail. The man clung to one of the horns as screams were heard all around.

Helpers eventually dragged the victim to safety by his feet. The local Diario de Navarra newspaper said the man was from Morella, Spain, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

The regional government of Navarra said one American and two Spaniards were gored in the run while another American and two Spaniards were also taken to city hospitals for other injuries suffered in falls and trampling during the frenzied event.

The government press office identified the American gored only by his initials — P.E. — and gave his age as 20.
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A runner is gored by an "El Pilar" fighting bull during …
A runner is gored by an "El Pilar" fighting bull during the running of the bulls at the San Fermin f …

Navarra Hospital chief Javier Sesma said doctors removed the American's spleen after it was found that the bull's horn had gone through the abdominal cavity and punctured the non-vital, blood-filtering organ. He said the young man was in stable condition.

Sesma said the Spaniard that had been pinned to the ground was gored three times; in the groin, knee and thigh.

"The injuries are not as serious as one would have expected on seeing the televised footage," said Sesma.

None of the six taken to the hospital was said to be in serious condition.

Hospital authorities initially said four people were gored but the regional government revised that down to three.

The gorings were the first of this year's runs, during which thousands of thrill-seekers race daily with the bulls along a 930-yard (850-meter) route from a holding pen to the city bull ring.

The event lasted just under five minutes, roughly double the normal length. Longer runs normally occur when some of the bulls get separated from the pack and become disoriented and more dangerous.

The black bull which caused most panic made several more attempts to charge people before he was eventually guided along the narrow streets to join the rest for the pack in the pen of the packed bull ring.

The nationally televised 8 a.m. runs are the highlight of the nine-day street partying festival made world famous with the 1926 publication of Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises."

The bulls that take part each morning are invariably killed by matadors in evening bull fights, and their meat is served up in Pamplona's restaurants.

Runners make their way through the streets with "El …
Runners make their way through the streets with "El Pilar" fighting bulls watched by people from the …

Dozens of people are injured each year in the "encierros," as the runs are called in Spanish. Most get hurt after tripping and falling in the rush.

The fighting bulls used in the centuries-old fiesta can weigh up to at 1,380 pounds (625 kilograms) and have killed 15 people since record-keeping began in 1924.

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Report: Climate change causing energy disruptions

Washington, July 27 (Newswire): Climate change and extreme weather already are causing disruptions in the U.S. energy supply that are likely to worsen as more intense storms, higher temperatures and more frequent droughts occur, the government says in a new report.

The report, released by the Energy Department, says blackouts and other problems caused by Superstorm Sandy and other extreme weather events are likely to be repeated across the country as an aging energy infrastructure struggles to adapt to rising seas, higher storm surges and increased flooding. A range of energy sources are at risk, from coal-fired power plants to oil wells, hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants.

Climate-related disasters have already costs tens of billions of dollars, and the report says costs could grow exponentially unless a more comprehensive and accelerated response is adopted.

On the Gulf Coast, for instance, the report cites a study by an energy company and wetland foundation projecting that by 2030, nearly $1 trillion in energy assets in the region will be at risk from rising sea levels and more intense hurricanes. Based on an analysis of hazards, assets and vulnerabilities, the Gulf Coast energy sector faces an average annual loss from climate change and extreme weather of $8 billion in 2030, the report said.

The report urges private companies, governments and research institutions to take action to further understand the risks of climate change and reduce them. The report does not offer immediate recommendations, but says power plants and oil companies should use less water and recycle what they use.

Electricity providers should harden transmission grids and build emergency backup systems, the report says, and operators of hydroelectric dams should improve turbine efficiency. The report also recommends that governments and utilities work together to reduce demand for electricity.

"Water is obviously the big question," said Jonathan Pershing, deputy assistant secretary of energy for climate change policy and technology, who oversaw the report. "In drought you don't have enough water. As seas rise, you have too much."

While the risks from drought, floods and hurricanes are clear, water plays an important role in less obvious ways as well, Pershing said. Both coal-fired and nuclear power plants, for instance, need large volumes of water for cooling. As temperatures rise, that becomes more difficult.

The report cites several examples from 2012, the hottest year in the United States since record-keeping began in 1895:

— In August, a nuclear power station in Connecticut shut down one reactor because the temperature of the intake cooling water, withdrawn from Long Island Sound, was too high. The two-week shutdown resulted in the loss of 255,000 megawatt-hours of power, worth several million dollars, the report said.

—In the Midwest, drought and low river water depths disrupted the transportation of commodities, such as petroleum and coal, delivered by barges along the Mississippi River.

—In California, reduced snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains limited hydroelectric power generation capacity by about 8 percent.

"Costs are already happening and it's getting worse," Pershing said. "We are seeing damages across all parts of the energy sector."

Rising heat in the West will drive a steep increase in demand for air conditioning, which has already forced blackouts and brownouts in some places, the report said. The Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory found that air conditioning demand in the West will require 34 gigawatts of new electricity generating capacity by 2050, equivalent to the construction of 100 power plants.

The report sends a "significant message about the risks and vulnerabilities" facing the U.S. energy sector, Pershing said. It should provide a blueprint for states and municipalities to consider, along with utilities and other energy providers and even consumers, who can do their part by reducing energy use or seeking alternative forms of energy, he said.

The report is the first of many to be produced across a range of economic sectors as the Obama administration responds to climate change and makes recommendations, Pershing said.

President Barack Obama announced a wide-ranging plan last month to combat global warming. The plan for the first time would put limits on carbon pollution from new and existing power plants as well as boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures.

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Astronomers make landmark planet color discovery

London, July 27 (Newswire): Astronomers have for the first time managed to determine the color of a planet outside the solar system, a blue gas giant some 63 light years away.

An international team of astronomers working with the Hubble Telescope made the discovery observing HD 189733B, one of Earth's nearest planets outside the solar system.

Frederic Pont of the University of Exeter in England said that "measuring the planet's color is a real first — we have never managed it before with a planet outside our own solar system."

To ascertain the planet's color the astronomers measured the amount of light reflected off its surface as it eclipsed its host star.

HD 189733B belongs to a class of "hot Jupiters" and has an atmosphere temperature of around 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 Fahrenheit).

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'Boston Strangler' case: Will new DNA evidence finally bring resolution?

New York, July 27 (Newswire): For nearly two years back in the early 1960s, a man who came to be known as the "Boston Strangler" preyed on women, sexually assaulting and killing 11 of them – many in their homes.

The crimes were never successfully prosecuted, although Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the serial killer several years later. But Mr. DeSalvo later recanted his confession, and in 1973 he was stabbed to death at the state prison in Walpole, Mass., where he was serving a life sentence for armed robberies and sexual assault involving other victims.

Now, Massachusetts law enforcement authorities say they have enough physical evidence to link DeSalvo to the murder of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan – the last of the Boston Strangler's victims – in her apartment in 1964.

DNA from the scene of Ms. Sullivan's rape and murder has produced a "familial match" with DeSalvo, Suffolk County district attorney Daniel Conley said. The new physical evidence came from a water bottle discarded by a nephew of DeSalvo.

"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," Mr. Conley said at a news conference. Conley said he expected investigators to find an exact match when the evidence is compared with DeSalvo's DNA, which will be obtained when his body is exhumed.

Conley acknowledged widespread disagreement among law enforcement and researchers who have investigated the killings whether DeSalvo did in fact kill all the women, The Boston Globe reported.

"At this point in time, 50 years removed from those deaths and without the biological evidence that we have in the Sullivan case, that is a question that we cannot answer,'' Conley said. "But these developments give us a glimmer of hope that there can be one day finality, if not accountability, for the families of the 10 other women murdered so cruelly in Boston, Cambridge, Lawrence, Lynn, and Salem.''

Unsolved for decades, the case continued to fascinate the public even though the string of killings thought to be linked to the Boston Strangler seemed to have stopped. Dozens of books were written. Actor Tony Curtis played DeSalvo and Henry Fonda the lead detective in the 1968 Hollywood version.

Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey, who helped to obtain the confession from DeSalvo, said the announcement will probably help put to rest speculation over the Boston Strangler's identity.

Mr. Bailey had been representing another inmate who informed the attorney that DeSalvo, who was already in prison for the other crimes, knew details of the crimes. Bailey went to police with the information, and he said that DeSalvo demonstrated he knew details only the killer would know.

"It was a very challenging case," said Bailey, who lives in Yarmouth, Maine. "My thought was if we can get through the legal thicket and get this guy examined by a team of the best specialists in the country, we might learn something about serial killers so we could spot them before others get killed."

If this new evidence proves conclusive, one – and only one – of the Boston Strangler cases will have been solved. No DNA evidence is believed to exist for the other Boston Strangler slayings.

Still, resolution in the haunting serial-killer case may finally be in the offing, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, according to The Boston Globe.

"We may have just solved one of the nation's most notorious serial killings,'' Ms. Coakley said.

Meanwhile, more-recent serial-killer cases – including the Long Island case involving 10 to 14 women killed over a period of 15 years – remain unsolved.

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House farm bill leaves food stamps in limbo

Washington, July 27 (Newswire): House Republicans achieved the elusive goal of passing a farm bill by slicing federal support for food programs from the bill, breaking a half-century long legislative connection between farm policy and food programs for the poor.

The House GOP's revamp of federal farm policy represents about 20 percent of the cost of the original $1 trillion bill. It passed on a 216-to-208 vote with 12 Republicans joining all 196 Democrats in opposition.

The Republican bill is both narrower in scope and less impactful on the federal deficit than its companion in the Senate – raising questions about how the two chambers will come to an accord on federal farm and food policy before the current farm bill expires at the end of September.

While Democrats bitterly protested the absence of federal nutrition programs for the House bill, there's little chance nutrition programs will feel much pain.

By shearing the farm bill in half, the House chose to put off the questions of cuts to food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A previous version of the House farm bill, rejected last month, would have made $20 billion in cuts over the next decade. Instead, House Republicans vow to get to work on a nutrition-only bill that could cut as much as $100 billion from the program, but the legislative prospects for such a proposal are murky.

Without those reductions being passed, the GOP would appear to have little leverage to persuade the Senate to increase the $4 billion in food stamp reductions in its version of the farm bill, says Rep. Colin Peterson (D) of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. After all, should Congress fail to agree to a deal, the food subsidy programs will continue without any cuts.

But those are fights that Republicans from agricultural areas will be happy to join when the time comes. For now, they're just relieved to have gotten the farm bill across the finish line.

"We'll keep rattling sabers when it gets to conference – this is a long battle," says Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R) of Indiana, who was a key player in the bid to split food assistance programs from the farm bill.

Later, he added: "The House needs to go to conference with the strongest hand, and I think this is the strongest hand we can have."

The passage was bittersweet for House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R) of Oklahoma, who worked doggedly to craft a bipartisan farm bill measure in each of the last two Congresses.

In 2012, Republican leaders held a bipartisan farm bill off the House floor. Then last month, a bipartisan bill failed when 60 Republicans revolted against the food programs included in the bill, which they see as bloated, and all but two dozen Democrats withdrew their support over the prospect of some $20 billion in cuts to those food programs.

The final House bill passed lost its bipartisan support by dealing only with GOP concerns, at the behest of House majority leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia.

"I'd like to back this train up if we could – but we can't," said Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, an agriculture committee member who also favored a bipartisan farm bill.

With no Democrats to be had, House leaders furiously sought votes from their rank-and-file for the measure during the past several days, mustering enough to pass the bill over the opposition of conservative groups like the Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation.

For House Republicans, the main victory was in divorcing farm policy from food stamps – what some of them dubbed an "unholy alliance" that led to little fiscal scrutiny in either program.

But there was also another sweetener for Republicans buried in the legislation: It repealed permanent farm law from 1938 and 1949.

Those half-century-old laws had remained on the books in order to pressure Congress to reauthorize more modern farm legislation every five years – or else risk sending farm supports back to the Truman Administration.

The House farm bill makes the 2013 law the permanent rule. As such, the subsidies and support programs in place today would continue indefinitely without future farm authorizations.

While lawmakers like Representative Stutzman see the change as a step forward for good government, the move has opponents on both sides.

Democrats like Representative Peterson believe taking away pressure on Congress will allow future farm bills to lapse even longer than the nearly two years that the current measure took to pass the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, conservative advocacy groups that detest federal supports for agriculture believe that without a sunset, subsidy programs will continue unabated. The bill "seeks to lock in record commodity prices and farm income as the new business as usual farm policy," wrote Taxpayers for Common Sense in a note to lawmakers.

House leaders have not said whether they would commit to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House bill and the Senate measure, which included food programs and drew support from two-thirds of that chamber last month. But Senate Democrats are clearly ready to get to work.

"We will go to conference with the bipartisan, comprehensive Farm Bill that was passed in the Senate that not only reforms programs, supports families in need and creates agriculture jobs, but also saves billions more than the extremely flawed House bill," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) of Michigan, the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in a statement.

The Congressional Budget Office said the House bill would reduce the deficit by about $13 billion over the next decade. That's less than the $18 billion the Senate measure would shave off the deficit over the same time.

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Quebec town takes small steps toward normalcy after train disaster

Lac-Megantic, July 27 (Newswire): Shell-shocked residents of Lac-Megantic in Quebec took a small step toward normalcy after homes and businesses reopened just yards away from the lakeside town's devastated center.

Police erected an 8-foot (2.5-meter) fence blocking from view what was once a downtown core of restaurants, bars and shops - but which now resembles a blackened warzone after a train pulling 72 cars of crude oil jumped the track and exploded into flames there on July 6.

Bells from the town's main church, whose spire towers over the treetops in this normally quiet town in Quebec's eastern hills, could be heard ringing out for the first time since the incident as residents prepared to bring in mementos of the dead for a memorial.

"It is good to be home, even if we're near a disaster area," said Andre Gabouri, 47, as he stood on his doorstep peering over the police barricade across the street and into the warped pile of train cars.

In a testament to the intensity of the blast, which killed an estimated 50 people in Canada's worst train incident in years, the vinyl siding of nearby houses was curled outward and the leaves in the trees blackened.

Some 24 bodies have so far been recovered in the blast zone, police said, with another 26 reported missing and presumed dead.

A death toll of 50 would make the accident the worst rail crash in North America since 1989, and Canada's deadliest accident since 1998, when a Swissair jet crashed into the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing 229 people.

Investigators continued a round-the-clock search of the enclosed 'red zone' for more bodies and fresh clues to the cause of the crash.

Federal investigators have said they are focusing their probe on whether the train's operator - Montreal, Maine and Atlantic - followed proper safety rules. Police said they have not yet ruled out a crime - possibly criminal negligence.

MMA's owner, Ed Burkhardt, visited the town and said the train's conductor may not have set enough handbrakes when he parked late on July 5 in Nantes, a neighboring town 8 miles up a gentle slope from Lac-Megantic.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, whose government is making a C$60 million ($58 million) aid package available to the community of about 6,000 people, said the company's behavior had been "absolutely deplorable."

Guy Farrell, deputy director of the Quebec steelworkers' union Syndicat des Métallos, said he blamed the incident largely on inadequate federal regulations to keep operators like MMA in check.

"After what we saw in Lac-Megantic... I mean, I don't want to panic the Canadian people, but if you live near a railroad track in this country can you really sleep peacefully at night?" he said. "For us, the important thing is that the government must tighten regulations now."

The train was part of a vast expansion in rail shipments of crude oil throughout North America as oil output soars in Canada and North Dakota and pipelines run out of space.

Its crash had forced a third of Lac-Megantic's residents to leave their homes as the fires burned. All but 200 have now been allowed to return home.

Daniel Lessard, 57, returned to his home on the perimeter of the restricted area with his wife, Lorraine Poirier.

"Just having a drink on my balcony, to calm my nerves and enjoy being in my own home again," he said.

But he said things would never be the same.

"We'll keep hearing that train for years. It'll be old memories that will come grab us when we sleep."

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Ahead of the bell: Gap

New York, July 27 (Newswire):  A trio of analysts lifted their price targets for Gap, following the retailer's better-than-expected June results for revenue at stores open at least a year.

Gap Inc. reported that the metric, a key gauge of a retailer's health, climbed 7 percent. This topped the 4.7 percent increase that analysts expected.

Revenue at stores open at least a year excludes results from stores recently opened or closed. Analysts say that provides a clearer picture of a retail company's underlying performance.

Gap Inc. said that the figure rose five percent at Gap's global division and 13 percent at Old Navy's global business. But at its Banana Republic stores, revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1 percent.

Sterne, Agee & Leach's Ike Boruchow said in a client note that the performance was solid, given that the chain faced an easy year-ago comparison — a 1 percent increase. The analyst said Gap stores saw strong sales of denim, woven tops, dresses and shorts, while Old Navy did well because of promotions on items like flip-flops, dresses and activewear.

Boruchow boosted Gap's price target to $40 from $35 and maintained an "Underperform" rating. The analyst said he kept the "Underperform" rating in part because of tougher comparisons that are coming up, high inventory levels and concerns that Old Navy's recent strong performance may have been due to promotions.

Adrienne Tennant of Janney Capital Markets said that Old Navy may have a harder time in July as it's up against a 12 percent increase in same-store revenue for the prior-year period. The analyst also pointed out that the company shifted its Super Cash promotion to June this year, while it was in July last year. Still, Tennant says that Gap should benefit from continued product momentum at all three of its units. She reaffirmed a "Buy" rating and lifted its price target to $52 from $48.

Stifel Nicolaus' Richard Jaffe also increased Gap's price target, raising it to $48 from $45. He maintained a "Buy" rating.

A Gap representative did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Its shares finished at $44.76 after hitting a 52-week high of $44.96 earlier in the session.

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For Icahn, $10.7 million profit from Dell is not enough

New York, July 27 (Newswire): Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake are looking increasingly likely to get shareholder approval to take Dell Inc (DELL) private in a $24.4 billion deal. But agitator Carl Icahn still sees room to gamble.

The activist investor, who is Dell's second-largest shareholder after Michael Dell, is now trying to sway investors to vote down the buyout deal by raising his competing offer for the No. 3 PC maker.

If Michael Dell wins, Icahn will go home with a profit of $10.7 million for his troubles, calculations show. If Icahn wins, he will have a troubled company on his hands to turn around. But if neither happens, the billionaire investor could potentially lose hundreds of millions of dollars.

Representatives of Icahn, Dell and Silver Lake declined to comment.

Icahn's cost basis, which has not been reported before, and his new Dell offer show why the 77-year-old investor is seen as one of the most feared activists in corporate America. Earlier this week, he urged Dell shareholders to go to court to get a higher price for their shares from Michael Dell. Dell's special board committee as well as legal experts said that strategy was fraught with challenges, such as the risk that the court may decide the shares are worth less than the offer price.

"You know this guy is willing to put up a good fight," said James Cox, a corporate and securities law professor at Duke University School of Law.

Dell faces an uncertain future amid a steep decline in personal computer sales as the popularity of tablet computers grows. The company's special committee of the board, which is overseeing the sale process, has repeatedly spurned Icahn's alternative plans to recapitalize Dell and reward shareholders, leaving open the possibility that the shares will plunge if the buyout is voted down. Dell shareholders will vote on the Michael Dell-Silver Lake offer of $13.65 per share on July 18.

So far the odds are in the favor of the Michael Dell-Silver Lake buyout offer getting shareholder approval even if the vote is seen as close, investors say. All the three major advisory shareholder firms this week backed the take-private bid.

Icahn's offer, whose details are due to be unveiled, would sweeten his previous plan to have Dell repurchase 1.1 billion shares at $14 apiece with warrants.

His hope is that arbitrage-loving hedge funds will find the warrants - which are expected to have an exercise price of $20 per share - to be an attractive piece of paper to trade. People familiar with the deal estimate that 25 percent to 30 percent of Dell's stock is now owned by such event-driven funds.

For Icahn, whose net worth is pegged by Forbes at $20 billion, Dell has been an uphill struggle from the get-go. But he has managed to turn some of the odds in his favor.

Last month, he managed to lower the average cost of his stake in Dell by buying 72 million shares for $13.52 each from Southeastern Asset Management Inc, another shareholder that is also backing his cause. Icahn had earlier paid $13.89 each for 73.5 million Dell shares.

The maneuver brought down the cost of his now 8.7 percent stake in Dell to $13.58 per share, including Dell's dividends, which is 7 cents per share below Michael Dell's offer.

He would stand to lose a substantial portion of the $2.07 billion he paid for his stake were Dell shares to collapse if the Michael Dell offer was voted down and he did not succeed in getting his way.

But Icahn is clearly confident that shareholders would back his plan if they decided to vote down the buyout. Icahn has committed more than $3 billion of his wealth towards a $5.2 billion financing package for his share buy-back plan. He would have to pay this money only if all 12 of his nominees were appointed to Dell's board.

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Analysts vs. market strategists: Who’s more accurate?

Washington, July 27 (Newswire): With literally trillions of dollars at stake, investing is serious business. And for those who make their living off managing other people's money or advising them what to do with it, the stakes are even higher.

And yet, when it comes to picking stocks, even the most successful, highest paid players will readily concede how often their predictions are wrong.

With this in mind, John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, set out to settle an age-old debate over who is the better predictor of the market.

"At this point in time the analysts have been more accurate over the last few months," Butters says in the attached video. "However, it's interesting to note that both the analysts and the strategists have actually underestimated the rise we've seen in the markets the last few quarters."

For example, a year ago, when the S&P 500 was at about 1330, he says analysts were targeting that we would be in the 1550 range today, while strategists were more conservative and even lower in mid-1400s.

And going forward, Butters says he has discovered ''a dichotomy in the opinions" between analysts and strategists, with the former projecting an average increase of about 10% from current levels over the next year, and the latter are not as optimistic and are predicting markets will remain fairly flat.

As for sectors, Butters says more analysts prefer the Energy sector than any other, with 60% recommending it as a buy, seconded by 55% who say the same thing about Health Care. It's a trend that he says has held for at least the last two years.

On the flip side, Utilities get the least love from analysts with just a 32% buy rating, which is lucky since they are up just 2% in 12 months, at a time when the S&P 500 has gained 22%.

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UPS says 2Q profit smaller than analysts expected

Atlanta, July 27 (Newswire): UPS says its second-quarter earnings will be hurt as customers use cheaper options.

The package delivery and logistics company also says it's seeing a slowdown in the U.S. industrial economy.

United Parcel Service Co. says its second quarter earnings per share will be $1.13. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had been expecting $1.20 per share.

UPS stock is down $4.60, or 5 percent, to $86.85 in premarket trading.

It says it expects the same trends to continue, and it's adapting to meet those conditions. It cut guidance for full-year earnings to a range of $4.65 to $4.85 per share. That's more than it earned last year. But it's lower than the $4.98 per share that analysts had been expecting.

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High-frequency trading is making a joke of the markets

London, July 27 (Newswire): "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made!" –Groucho Marx

I suspect the SEC, FINRA, and CFTC are big fans of Groucho Marx, or at least his observations on fair dealing. How else could they justify turning a blind eye to a global media powerhouse selling early access to market-moving information? How could these authorities not condemn a practice like high-frequency trading (HFT), which causes significant market disruptions on a daily basis and destroys investor confidence?

Why would agencies that are charged with oversight of the most robust capital markets in the world choose to disregard their fiduciary duty? My guess is, as usual, it all comes back to money.
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me briefly explain what HFT is and why someone getting an early peek at information makes of complete joke of fair markets.

Anyone who has traded in any listed product--whether Apple (AAPL) or IBM (IBM), gold or corn, or options on virtually any asset--knows that the speed of trading grows faster than the federal deficit. A vast majority of trades of stocks, options, and futures are entered electronically, responded to electronically, and completed electronically.

This has eliminated the need for the runners who would literally transport the buy or sell order from the desk of the brokerage house to the trading pit, as well as key punchers who filled in the contra-party information, clearing firm, time of execution, and filled price, as well as a host of other jobs. I could wax nostalgic about the good old days, but we all knew then that technology would eventually replace human intervention, order input, and trade processing.

In addition, as exchanges were transformed from member-owned/operated not-for-profit entities to for-profit, publicly traded companies, volume of trade became a top priority. Before that switch, the top priority of stock and futures exchanges was maintaining a "fair and orderly market." This change in priorities opened the door for HFTs to quietly enter the markets. Exchanges began to cater to systems that would rapidly enter buy and sell orders much faster than humanly possible. Soon the exchanges began to offer co-located space for the HFT servers right next to their data centers.

This gave the HFTs a significant edge, and they were quick to exploit that advantage as they soon began handling the majority of volume in stock, options, and futures. And as their volumes grew, the exchanges bent the rules all the more to accommodate the HFTs. But it was not just the volume of trade that surged; it was also their volume of quotes, electronic bids, offers, and cancellations that stressed the exchange's ability to disseminate information.

Knowingly or not, the HFTs had discovered that their quotes could blind other investors to the true market price, and this soon became one of their biggest weapons against the investing public. HFT firms could afford 10-gigabyte pipelines, microwave-transmission towers, even tunneling through Pennsylvania Mountains to ensure that they could be the first to see and react to the "real" price of assets they were trading. The rest of us were left to trade on the equivalent of yesterday's prices, as the HFTs' nanosecond trading made a full second seem like a full day's advantage!

We all understand why U.S. exchanges (the majority of which are now for profit and publically traded) would be so accommodative to HFTs, but that doesn't give the SEC, FINRA, or CFTC an excuse to abdicate their oversight responsibilities. Co-location of servers is already enough of an advantage to HFTs, but letting them flood the pipeline with quote traffic--a majority of which is not bids and offers but cancel orders--is simply ludicrous.

Moreover, beyond blinding investors with this technological smokescreen, the HFTs cause exchanges to upgrade their pipes that transmit market data far more rapidly than would otherwise be needed. That, in turn, increases costs to all those who want live quotes, further extending the HFTs' advantage.

Fortunately, my friends, not all is lost. The folks at FINRA and several stock-exchange regulators fined Newedge USA $9.5 million for lax oversight of the trading firms from 2008 to late 2011. It seems that the slumbering regulators are finally stepping up scrutiny of computer-driven trading, which, as I've said for years, poses risks to the markets and destroys investor faith.

Recently my CNBC colleague Eamon Javers broke news that had been selling early access to the University of Michigan's consumer-sentiment report, and his investigative reporting really shed some light on this despicable practice. For an rumored $20,000 per month, an HFT firm could buy access to data that would be released to the rest of the world two seconds later. Eamon, with the help of my friend Eric Hunsader of Nanex, a firm that tracks high-frequency trading and its impact on our financial markets, proved that the HFTs profited mightily from this early look at the market-moving data.

When called out on live television about this practice, neither the University of Michigan said they saw anything wrong with letting a very small number of market participants have access to the reports ahead of the rest of us. I was shocked, and said both institutions brought shame on themselves by perpetrating this scam, but the SEC, FINRA, and CFTC refused to comment.

Then New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman forced to suspend its practice of "tiered release" of market-moving data early to paying clients. Javers said the investigation "will follow all logical leads." In a statement, it said it was cooperating with Schneiderman's investigation and that its decision to stop the early release came voluntarily but "at the request of the attorney general."

I applaud the move by the New York AG, as I saw him fighting against corporate greed for the good of our capital markets and the little guy/gal. "Promoting fairness and avoiding distortions in the securities markets is an important focus of this office," Schneiderman said. "The securities markets should be a level playing field for all investors and the early release of market-moving survey data undermines fair play in the markets."

I hope that Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis was right about sunlight being the best disinfectant. I believe that the more investors hear about manipulation by HFTs and so-called tiered releases of important data, the sooner we can fix these distortions before they wreck our markets.

As former Sen. Alan Simpson famously said: "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, then nothing else matters."

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Wells Fargo profit rises 20 percent, sets aside less for bad loans

New York, July 27 (Newswire): Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, reported a higher-than-expected 20 percent rise in quarterly profit as it set aside less money to cover bad loans.

The fourth-biggest U.S. bank's net income applicable to common stockholders rose to $5.27 billion, or 98 cents per share, in the second quarter from $4.40 billion, or 82 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts had expected earnings of 93 cents per share. This marked the 14th consecutive quarter of earnings growth per share.

Provision for bad loans fell 64 percent to $652 million.

The rise in U.S. interest rates since early May contributed to a slowdown in refinancing, which accounted for 54 percent of Wells Fargo's mortgage applications in the second quarter, down from nearly two-thirds in the first quarter.

Overall demand for refinancing fell 45 percent in the latest quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Wells Fargo originated $112 billion of home loans in the second quarter, down from $131 billion a year earlier but up from $109 billion in the first quarter.

Mortgage banking fees fell 3 percent from a year earlier to $2.80 billion.

Wells Fargo had a 22 percent share of the U.S. mortgage market in the first quarter, down from 27.7 percent at the end of the fourth quarter, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry publication.

Thirty-year mortgage rates rose to 4.58 percent at the end of the second quarter, up 0.82 percentage points from the first quarter.

Wells Fargo's shares, which were up about 1 percent at $42.35 in premarket trading, have risen about 20 percent this year, roughly in line with the increase in the KBW index of bank stocks.

The bank's net interest margin, an indicator of how profitable its loans are, fell to 3.46 percent from 3.91 percent a year earlier and 3.48 percent in the first quarter.

Rising interest rates should ease pressure banks have faced on their margins, but that trend will take time to bear fruit.

Wells Fargo's total revenue rose marginally to $21.37 billion from $21.29 billion a year earlier. Non-interest expenses fell to $12.25 billion from $12.40 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a higher-than-expected 31 percent rise in quarterly profit earlier as its trading revenue rebounded and it set aside less to cover bad loans.

JPMorgan is the second-biggest provider of mortgages in the United States, with an 11 percent market share.

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Illegal sand extraction goes unabated in Pulwama streams

Pulwama, July 27 (Newswire): Despite the puppet IHK government banning illegal extraction of stones, boulders and sand from streams in the State, the practice is going on unabated in Rambi Ara stream in this held Kashmir district.

Reports said heavy extraction of sand and boulders is going on in Rambi Ara in Shahoora area of Pulwama district. While the Deputy Commissioner Pulwama vide order No. DDCP G & Mining 121356/61 dated 10/05/2012 directed complete halt on illegal extraction of stones, boulders and sand from the stream, the directives have never been implemented.

 The illegal extraction of sand and boulders, according to residents, is causing damage to agricultural land as the water level in the stream is decreasing.

"Some years back, there were dozens of springs and streams flowing through this area. But today the water level is decreasing even in Rambi Ara due to illegal extraction of sand and boulders. Today we are forced to fetch water after covering a long distance," said a delegation from Panjren area.

 The stream environs look like a bus stand in presence of huge number of tippers and dozers.

 "We are surprised why the district administration is not looking into the issue," they said.

 The ADDC Pulwama Arif Ullah today along with Tehsildar Pulwama and local police visited the area to take stock of the situation, after a delegation from the area requested for the same. "The team inspected the area and found that illegal extraction is going on at a very large scale," sources in the Deputy Commissioner's office said.

"He after assessing the situation, the officers held a meeting with police and other concerned officers. The ADDC directed them to stop all extraction in the area and also ordered police to seize the machines found extracting the material."

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8 yrs on, IHK’s e-governance nowhere in sight

Srinagar, July 27 (Newswire): All efforts by the puppet Jammu and Kashmir regime to ensure e-governance in the Sate seem to be going in vain as major schemes funded by India have been grounded before their take-off.


A crucial project worth Rs 53 crore titled 'State Wide Area Network (SWAN)' aimed at bringing accountability in the system is stuck in a series of technical hitches, especially the tendering process.

 The project, according to sources, is yet to be executed after being approved by the Union IT Ministry in 2005.

 According to official documents, SWAN is envisaged to create a connectivity in the State to bring speed, efficiency, reliability and accountability in overall system of the Government functioning.

"When implemented, SWAN would work as a converged backbone network for voice, video and data communications across State. SWAN is designed to cater to the governance information and communication requirements of entire State," the documents read.

 However, the prestigious project has yet to come out of the tendering process.

 "Jammu and Kashmir E-Governance Agency (JKEGA) had floated tenders and received bids on December 28 last year. The bidding process is still on," the documents reveal. Sources said tendering process is on for the past more than three years.

 Minister of State for Information and Technology, Feroz Khan said the Government of India has already earmarked Rs 53 crore for the SWAN project. "We have received a lowest bid of Rs 70 Crore so far. But there are some other difficulties due to which the tendering process hasn't been closed," he said.

 Khan said that they have taken up the issue with the Union IT Minister Kapil Sibal.  "We hope that the Union IT Ministry would guide us to overcome the hurdles in establishing SWAN," the Minister said.

 Sources said after tendering process, the State will face another challenge which is that of identification of land for laying wires. "Land acquisition is always a problem in JK," sources said.

 The official documents reveal that the vertical component of SWAN would be implemented using multi-tier architecture (typically-three-tier) with the State headquarter connected to each district headquarter which in turn will get connected to each block headquarter.

 SWAN, the documents state, would facilitate vertical as well as horizontal connectivity between various departments and offices for roll out services to common man. "The J&K cabinet has already made it mandatory for all companies to have a local company (of JK) as a partner while bidding for SWAN," the documents read. "In JK, SWAN aims to establish a secure network consisting of 174 points of presence (PoPs) at State, district and block headquarters."

 Pertinently, Government of India (GOI) approved SWAN project in 2005, with financial outlay of Rs 3000 crore for various states across India.

 Sources said JK is lagging behind other states in setting up of SWAN as 20 states, including those in Northeast and other underdeveloped states, are reaping the benefits of the e-program.
 According to sources, initially National Informatics Centre (NIC) was chosen as agency for implementing the SWAN in the state but due to reasons best known to the IT department the project was withdrawn from them in 2009.

 "The JK government then decided to go for Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for implementing the project. However, there is no headway in that as the project continues to be engulfed in tendering process," they said. 

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Damaged roads blot Pahalgam beauty

Pahalgam, July 27 (Newswire): The circuit road, one of the vital road links leading to the hutment area in this held Kashmir tourist resort, is in shambles causes tremendous inconvenience to the locals and tourists.

"Many luxury huts of Tourism, Forest, PDA, JKTDC, PDD and PHE are located in the circuit road area but the condition of the road is pathetic. It is as such for the last five years and the authorities do not bother to macadamize it even during this summer season too," said a local resident.

The road is completely damaged, dotted with pot holes and remains inundated even during a small downpour.

"The bumpy and muddy road makes the movement of vehicles as well as pedestrians difficult," said Shabir Ahmad, another local resident. He said during dry season dust emanates from it further adding to the woes of passengers and pedestrians.

The pathetic condition of the road forces the tourists to stay away from these huts.

"The road is an alternate link to Pahalgam and could ease the traffic mess in the market if macadamized," say the locals. The villagers living en-route circuit road also suffer due to its dilapidated condition.

The locals have appealed the authorities to immediately macadamize the road. The residents of Larkipora village in Pahalgam have also sought macadamization of the road in their area.

"Tourists, mostly foreigners, prefer to stay in the hotels and huts of Larkipora and Manzimpora, but the road here is in a dilapidated condition causing tremendous inconvenience to them," said the owner of Hotel Brown Palace, Ibrahim Raina.

He urged the authorities to macadamize the road which is in a shabby condition, so that their business doesn't suffer in the remaining tourist season.

"The road also leads to the Golf Course and as such needs immediate attention," Raina said.

The residents say that same is the condition of other important roads in Pahalgam, including Baisaran road.

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Detecting Alzheimer's early

Islamabad, July 27 (Newswire): Building upon a recent discovery that the same Alzheimer's disease process that goes on in the brain also occurs in the eye, researchers have developed a pair of optical tests that can determine the presence of amyloid beta proteins -- found in all Alzheimer's patients -- in the lens of the eye. A device called an interior laser ophthalmoscope can pick up the presence of the amyloid protein.

Since 1980 the number of Americans with Alzheimer's has nearly doubled to 4.5 million. The disease robs people of their memory, while early detection of Alzheimer's has eluded members of the medical field for years. Now a new eye test may help determine if you're at risk and may unlock that mystery.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, now they may be the key to saving some people's lives. A new eye test may help in the early detection of Alzheimer's. Dr .Lee Goldstein, a psychiatrist in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says, "We found the Alzheimer disease process that goes on in the brain also occurs in the lens of the eye."

Dr. Goldstein developed a pair of optical tests that can determine the presence of amyloid beta proteins in the eye lens -- a protein prevalent in the brain of all Alzheimer's patients. The interior laser ophthalmoscope can pick up the presence of the amyloid protein. "What this instrument is capable of doing is picking up those gummy aggregated particles in the lens very early, before you see the cataracts," he says.

The cataract looks like a cloudy arc on the rim of the lens. This is different than the common cataract. To determine if this is an Alzheimer's cataract, Dr. Goldstein injects the eye with special fluorescence drops that bind to the amyloid beta proteins. Under an infrared light, the proteins will glow, indicating Alzheimer's disease.

"If we can get treatments early ... we can slow the disease to the point where we've effectively cured it," Goldstein says. That extra time could give Alzheimer's patients more precious time to live.

This eye test may not only improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, but it could also speed development of new Alzheimer's drugs.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed two optical tests that could potentially diagnose Alzheimer's disease in its beginning stages. The tests build upon a recent discovery that the presence of telltale proteins in the eye is an early sign of the disease. Such tests can improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, and may also speed development of new drugs.

The same type of amyloid beta proteins which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's when found in the brain are also found in the lens and fluid of the eye. These proteins produce an unusual type of cataract in a different part of the eye than common cataracts (which are not associated with Alzheimer's). Scientists can detect these proteins by injecting a light-sensitive dye, then shining a laser onto the specific part of the lens where the cataracts tend to form. The molecules in the dye bind to the protein molecules, if they are present, and the light will cause the resulting molecules to glow. This technique is called quasi-elastic light scattering.

Alzheimer's is a slow-moving disease, and in its earliest stages, may merely appear to be mild forgetfulness, and confused with age-related memory change. There may be problems remembering recent events or activities, or the names of familiar people or objects. As the disease progresses, the forgetfulness becomes more severe, interfering with daily activities, such as brushing one's teeth. There are problems speaking, understanding, reading or writing, and eventually the brain damage becomes so severe as to require total care.

As many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease. It usually sets in after age 60, and the risk increases with age, although it is not a normal part of the aging process. While only about 5 percent of men and women aged 65-74 have the disease, nearly half of those 85 or older may have it.

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Burger diet boosts kids' asthma and wheeze risk, study finds

Islamabad, July 27 (Newswire): Eating three or more burgers a week may boost a child's risk of asthma and wheeze -- at least in developed nations -- reveals a large international study, published in Thorax.

Conversely, a Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, and fish seems to stave off the risk, the research shows.

The research team base their findings on data collected between 1995 and 2005 on 50,000 children between the ages of 8 and 12 from 20 rich and poor countries around the world.

Their parents were asked about their children's normal diet and whether they had ever been diagnosed with asthma and/or have had wheeze.

Just under 30,000 of the children were tested for allergic reactions, to see if diet also influenced their chances of developing allergies.

Diet did not seem to be associated with becoming sensitised to common allergens, such as grass and tree pollen. But it did seem to influence the prevalence of asthma and wheeze.

High fruit intake was associated with a low rate of wheeze among children from rich and poor countries.

Similarly, a diet high in fish protected children in rich countries, while a diet rich in and cooked green vegetables protected children against wheeze in poor countries.

Overall, a Mediterranean diet, high in fruit, vegetables, and fish was associated with a lower lifetime prevalence of asthma and wheeze.

But eating three or more burgers a week was associated with a higher lifetime prevalence of asthma and wheeze, particularly among children with no allergies in rich countries.

A heavy meat diet, however, had no bearing on the prevalence of asthma or wheeze.

The authors say that fruit and vegetables are rich in antioxidant vitamins and biologically active agents, while the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish have anti-inflammatory properties, so there are biologically plausible links for the findings.

Burger consumption could be a proxy for other lifestyle factors, they add, particularly as the increased asthma risk associated with it was not found in poor countries.

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Probiotics use in mothers limits eczema in their babies, study finds

Islamabad, July 27 (Newswire): Mothers who drank milk with a probiotic supplement during and after pregnancy were able to cut the incidence of eczema in their children by almost half, a new study published in the British Journal of Dermatology has shown.

The randomized, double-blind study, conducted by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), compared mothers who drank one glass of probiotic milk a day to women who were given a placebo. Use of the probiotic milk -- which the mothers drank beginning at week 36 in their pregnancy up through to three months after birth -- reduced the incidence of eczema by 40 percent in children up to age two, the researchers found.

The study is a part of a larger research project at the university called the Prevention of Allergy Among Children in Trondheim, or PACT, an ongoing population-based intervention study in Norway focused on childhood allergy.

Researchers followed 415 pregnant women and their children from pregnancy until the children were two years old. The participants were randomly selected among pregnant women in Trondheim -- and then randomly divided into two groups, one of which was given milk with probiotics, and the other a placebo milk. Mothers in the study did not know whether they were given the probiotic milk or the placebo milk.

"The taste of both products was similar, and the milk was delivered in unmarked milk cartons. This means that neither the participants in the study or the researchers knew who had received probiotic milk or placebo milk," says NTNU researcher Torbjørn Øien, one of the scientists involved in the study. "We can therefore say with great certainty that it was the probiotic bacteria alone that caused the difference in the incidence of eczema between the two groups."

The children were checked for eczema throughout the period, as well as for asthma and allergy at age two. Afterwards, the incidence of asthma, eczema and allergy was compared in the two groups.

"The results showed that probiotic bacteria reduced the incidence of eczema in children up to age two years by 40 percent. And the kids in 'probiotics group' who did have eczema, had less severe cases," explains Christian Kvikne Dotterud, a student in the Medical Student Research Programme at the Department of Community Medicine at NTNU.

The study did not show any effect from the probiotic milk on asthma or allergies, however.

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