'Kabul I love you' brings Afghan woes to the big screen

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Kabul, Aug 2 (Newswire): A decade after the fall of the cinema-hating Taliban, a group of Afghan directors have created a film love letter to their capital, rooted in the grim reality of everyday life in the war-torn city.

Forced marriage, people smuggling, illegal land grabs, land mines and ethnic conflict — life in Kabul is not short of problems, and "Kabul I Love You" explores them through 10 interwoven stories.

Afghanistan's film industry was hammered by 17 years of war after the Soviet invasion in 1979 and was snuffed out entirely under the extreme rule of the Taliban.

During their 1996-2001 regime, the hardliners closed cinemas and hung televisions from lampposts, regarding all images as un-Islamic. Even sculptures were targeted, with the famous giant Buddhas of Bamiyan paying the price.

Now Afghan cinema is struggling to re-emerge amid a wrecked economy and an ongoing insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Afghanistan produces around 100 films a year, according to documentary-maker Malek Shafi'i, but they are shot on tiny budgets and are often very poor.

"Kabul I Love You" has been funded by the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, as a means of giving the country's cinema a boost.

Ario Soltani, from UNAMA, says the idea was to encourage filmmakers to develop their own ideas.

"We wanted to reach the filmmakers, to support them, to communicate with Afghan people," he said.

"Not with our messages but with theirs. We hope they reflect the Afghan society and the Afghan ideas of that time."

The funding project was not an unqualified success — one of the 11 directors chosen from 200 applicants fled the country as soon as he got his hands on UNAMA's US$8,000, while another left for Iran after being threatened.

But despite these setbacks, the film was shot and got a warm reception when it was screened at the French cultural centre in Kabul in May.

The directors are raw and parts of the film betrayed their lack of experience — exaggerated characters, hammy dialogue and deathly slow pace.

But others showed real flair, with the modest, restrained dialogue of Farhad Razae's segment, a bitter denunciation of forced marriage, a highlight.

In the short section, titled "Virgin Towers," the caretaker of a mosque learns that a pretty young woman in his place of worship has fled her family to escape marrying one of her relatives.

The young woman, denounced by a neighbour, ends up running from the police. Her heavy breath and field of vision restricted by the burqa she wears to hide herself allow the viewer to feel the horror of the condition of women in Afghanistan.

Rezae said he based the film on experiences he had as a young man looking after a mosque.

"During that time, a girl was coming for prayers. She would rest in the mosque two hours after the prayers. I wanted to know who this girl is, but I was ashamed and because of religion, I never asked her what her problems were," said Rezae.

Shafi'i hailed Rezae's achievement, saying he had "managed to get closer to Afghan realities" than other film-makers.

Writers and artists have been pushing boundaries in what remains an extremely conservative society in the past 5 years, Shafi'i said.

"Now, people have started to realise that if they cross borders, nothing will happen to them," he said.

NATO forces are due to depart Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and the precarious security situation they will leave behind is not likely to be conducive to this dream of artistic growth.

Saying "Kabul I Love You" is a message of hope from these budding film-makers for their future.

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Aurora heroes: Three who gave their lives

Washington, Aug 2 (Newswire): Great evil often brings out the best in good men, men like Todd Beamer on Flight 93, Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy in Afghanistan and now the Aurora three -- the three young men, each in different parts of theater nine, who gave their lives to protect their girlfriends.

Twenty-five-year-old Jon Blunk was sitting next to his girlfriend, Jansen Young, at the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" when the gunman (who shall remain nameless) opened fire in the dark theater. Blunk instinctively pushed his girlfriend to the ground and threw his body on top of hers. Blunk, a security guard, served eight years in the Navy and was in the process of re-enlisting in hopes of becoming a Navy SEAL, family and friends said. He was killed in the gunfire; his girlfriend survived.

Twenty-four-year-old Alex Teves dived on top of his girlfriend, Amanda Lindgren, when the gunfire erupted. Covering her body, he took the bullets so they did not harm her. She survived the massacre; he did not.

Matt McQuinn, 27 years old, threw his body in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler, as the shooting continued. Yowler survived with a gunshot wound to the knee; McQuinn's body absorbed the fatal shots.

These men were three of the 12 innocent people killed early that morning. Their incredible sacrifice leaves us asking: Why? Why would a young man with his entire life ahead of him risk everything for a woman he has no legal, financial or marital obligations to?

They believed, to put it simply, in a code of honor. They put the lives of the women before their own, an old fashioned notion to be sure, but certainly an honorable one (if you have any doubt, ask the survivors). Their instincts were to protect, not run away.

From all accounts, these young men were average, working men in their 20s. (We know a little about Jon Blunk, but not much, and we know even less about the others.) Like all men, they had their own struggles. After his death we learned that Blunk had an ex-wife and two children living in Nevada. He was scheduled to visit them to resolve marital issues. This isn't to take anything away from Blunk or the other two heroes, but to illustrate that, in spite of shortcomings, men can still recognize what it means to be a good man and act like one.

This is especially important given the state of many men. Record numbers of men aren't working or even looking for work. Record numbers aren't marrying or even acting as fathers to their children. These men need heroes to imitate whom they can relate to in everyday life, not just make-believe superheroes who catch their imagination for an hour or two. They need heroes like the Aurora three.

While much of the media obsesses over the psychology and motivations of this deranged killer, we should hold the Aurora three high. It is only by telling their story that this code of honor will survive for future generations of men. "The world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things," Matthew Arnold wrote.

In an age when traditional manhood has been increasingly relegated to fiction -- capes, masks and green screens -- these three men stand as real-life heroes. Their actions remind us that good triumphs over evil, not just in movies, but also in reality.

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Canada’s Afghan legacy: Plan for Kandahar dam was dropped when mission ended, US says

Washington, Aug 2 (Newswire): Canada had a plan to increase the water supply to desperate farmers in the Taliban heartland, but dropped it because Ottawa ended the Kandahar mission before the Dahla Dam could be restored, the U.S. military says.

Water flowing from the dam's reservoir is critical to the irrigation of thousands of desert farms, the backbone of the only economy Kandahar has outside of foreign aid and military spending, which is fast drying up as troops withdraw.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared the effort to restore the dam, and the irrigation canals snaking through the battleground of the Arghandab River valley, the top of Canada's three "signature projects," followed by school building and vaccinations against polio.

Canada spent $50 million on the dam and irrigation canals before Ottawa pulled all Canadian troops and civilian staff from Kandahar last fall. Much of the budget went to private security and other expenses, sums Ottawa refuses to disclose.

Afghan officials claim millions of dollars were wasted on security firms that operated like protection rackets, along with needless studies, leaving them without the solution they wanted — a higher dam wall — when the Canadians left.

"The Canadian forces had a two-part plan. The second part of the plan was to raise Dahla by five to eight metres to increase the amount of water that the dam can hold," Mark Ray, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kandahar, wrote in an email.

"They departed the theatre before they could implement the second part of their plan. The United States has taken on the responsibility for funding and executing this work and is moving forward with it."

More: Millions in Canadian aid fail to bring justice to Afghanistan

Ottawa's public statements on the rehabilitation project have not mentioned plans to raise the dam. In January 2009, then-international co-operation minister Bev Oda announced work was set to begin on the structure, built by American engineers in the 1950s. She said repairs would be completed by 2011.

The Harper government awarded the $50-million project to Quebec-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin and consulting firm Hydrosult.

Julian Fantino, Harper's new minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, declined an interview request. But following a July 14 Star report on the dam project's problems, he called the story "childish" and "immature" in an interview with Embassy magazine.

"It's really unfair . . . how you can be so critical of a nation, in our own country, that is so lauded, and appreciated, and recognized elsewhere in the world," Fantino was quoted as saying. "It's total lack of appreciation for the goodness of Canadians and what we're doing around the world."

CIDA sent a technical team to study the Dahla Dam, and related irrigation and agricultural areas, in April 2007, said agency spokeswoman Katherine Heath-Eves.

A year of data collection and study produced a 421-page, peer-reviewed "Technical Appraisal Mission" report, in which "development options were presented for increasing irrigation water," she added.

The CIDA team found that more than 70 per cent of water released from the dam was wasted each year, Heath-Eves said.

"Throughout hundreds of kilometres of canals, severe leaks and broken infrastructure was allowing the water to drain across half the province, instead of being used for irrigated agriculture.

"As such, the canal infrastructure and serious leakages were addressed first — as Phase 1.

"The TAM report also gave some initial information on the possibility of raising the dam, as long as further studies were conducted."

Ray, of the U.S. army engineers, said he sat in on a briefing by CIDA officials preparing to leave Kandahar last fall. They "discussed their work with the Arghandab River irrigation system" at the briefing, Ray said.

CIDA handed over study results and data "plus three conceptual alternatives for increasing the reservoir capacity and (resolving) water distribution problems," said Karla Marshall, another spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"One of the alternatives they envisioned for the dam is similar to the solution USACE is now pursuing," she added.

The American effort is expected to cost from $100 million to $250 million, with up to $75 million from the Afghan government if it decides to add another three metres to the five-metre increase the U.S. military is committed to building.

If the work goes ahead as planned, it will start as the U.S. military is ending its lead role in the country and Afghan troops and police are called on to do what the world's most powerful military couldn't: defeat the Taliban and its allies.

Washington is already withdrawing troops and is committed to get all but a small force out by the end of 2014.

The U.S. army engineers have a two-phase plan to finish work on the dam. They expect to award the contract for the first step — the repair of the intake and outlet works — this fall, Marshall said.

But that first round of construction isn't scheduled to be completed before spring 2015, she added. That's long after the vast majority of U.S. and other foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan.

The contract for the second phase, which focuses on raising the dam by five metres, is to be awarded in the spring of 2013, assuming funds are available, Marshall said.

That construction is expected to take 27 months, she added, which means the crucial work to increase the dam reservoir's capacity will run well into 2016, when many Afghans fear they could be embroiled in a new civil war.

"A security plan is included in USACE's contract solicitation," Marshall said.

"We are very aware of the future force strength and are working with the (NATO-led) International Security Assistance Force, (American forces in Afghanistan) and the battle space owner to ensure that adequate security remains in place for the duration of construction."

Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wesa, an Afghan-Canadian, frequently complained to Canadian officials that too much of the dam project's budget was being spent on "unnecessary costs like security and training," said his chief of staff Pervez Najeeb.

Najeeb, who said he worked closely with Canadian civilian and military officials, never heard them discuss any plans beyond doing basic work such as cleaning canals, repairing water valves and gates, and training farmers on water use.

"Our officials, including the governor, have always raised some concerns about the weaknesses of the project," Najeeb said.

The private security contract for the Canadian dam and irrigation project was awarded to a London company, which subcontracted to an Afghan security company, the chief of staff added.

"Close to $10 million to $15 million was spent on security, which is too much," he said. "We were asking the Canadian officials, 'Are you are also working in Canada like this?' "

Sher Mohammed Atai, who worked closely with Canadians as head of the Kandahar government's Arghandab Irrigation Rehabilitation Project, said he told Canadians that raising the current structure's 50-metre wall by five metres would be a good Plan B.

"We advised that if it was possible, they should make a new dam for us because 30 years from now, this dam will be totally falling apart," Atai said. "They said it's not possible.

"Then we suggested they increase the height of the dam. Then again, they said it was too expensive. So they finally decided to just do some small repair work on the dam and clean the canals.

"They said, 'Building a new dam is a long project. Of course we will work on it in the future, but not now,' " Atai added.

So the job of completing the most critical repairs to the dam that Harper put at the top of the list of his government's three "signature projects" in Kandahar now falls to the U.S.

The "water supply to Kandahar province does not reach 30 per cent of the irrigation canals refurbished by the Canadian International Development Agency over the past several years," the U.S. army engineers said in a June 25 news release.

Frustrated Kandahari farmers and officials wonder why, more than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Dahla Dam and irrigation that is crucial to the province's economy still hasn't been fully fixed.

They complain that it's part of a much larger problem: Years of delay, and a massive loss of foreign aid money to waste and corruption, mean Kandahar province still lacks the infrastructure its economy needs to survive as foreign support dries up.

The long wait for a reliable supply of water to irrigate farms in the Taliban heartland feeds disappointment and resentment that insurgents use to build support for their war against foreign forces and the corrupt Afghan government they defend.

At least three recent books quote at length American and British military commanders and officials who think Canada was out of its depth in Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace where insurgents draw strength from popular support. They include Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan by the Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran;War Against the Taliban: Why it All Went Wrong in Afghanistan by Sandy Gall, a British foreign correspondent with long experience in Afghanistan; and Cables From Kabul: The Inside Story of the West's Afghanistan Campaign, by Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's former ambassador to Afghanistan.

Ray revealed the scuttled Dahla Dam plan in a spirited defence of Canadian efforts following the Star report that described farmers' anger over a chronic shortage of water, despite promises that foreign aid would solve their chief problem.

"On a personal level — the Canadians who served here worked long and hard, at the risk of their lives, to upgrade the irrigation system in Kandahar province," Ray wrote.

"I find it appalling that their efforts are misrepresented and trivialized by this article."

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Politician to post shirtless photos: Florida state Rep. Peter Nehr

 Florida, Aug 2 (Newswire): Some local media outlets noted they were sent to a political blog, which spurred Nehr's response. Nehr is running for re-election in the northern Pinellas-southern Pasco district of Florida.

Sending shirtless pictures that end up widely distributed on the Internet is usually a recipe for disaster.

Tawdry photos already forced two congressmen out of office. Former Rep. Christopher Lee, R-N.Y., abruptly resigned from the House after a report emerged that he sent flirtatious emails, including one with a bare-chested photo of himself, to a woman he met on Craigslist.

And former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., resigned after risqué online dealings with women, several of whom came forward with lewd photos and texts the congressman had exchanged with them.

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Suspect in hepatitis C outbreak was fired in Ariz.

Concord, Aug 2 (Newswire): A dozen hospitals in seven states are scrambling to identify people who might have been infected with hepatitis C by a traveling medical technician who was charged a week ago with causing an outbreak in New Hampshire.

With details of David Kwiatkowski's resume still emerging, a hospital official in Arizona said he had been fired from her facility in April 2010, after he was found unresponsive in a men's locker room with syringes and needles. Kwiatkowski was treated at the hospital, and tests showed he had cocaine and marijuana in his system, said Monica Bowman, chief executive officer of the Arizona Heart Hospital.

Kwiatkowski, 33, is accused of stealing anesthetic drugs from Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire and contaminating syringes used on patients. His same strain of hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral infection that can cause liver disease and chronic health issues, has been diagnosed in 30 of the patients.

Testing has been recommended for about 4,700 people in New Hampshire alone, and officials are still determining who should be tested elsewhere. In addition to Arizona, hospitals and state health agencies have confirmed that Kwiatkowski also worked in Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania before being hired in New Hampshire in April 2011.

While other health care workers have been prosecuted for diverting drugs and infecting patients, the Kwiatkowski case stands apart, said U.S. Attorney John Kacavas.

"Because of his employment as a traveler, working for agencies and being sent around the country to various states, it really has tentacles all over the country," he said. "Its scope is unprecedented and scary."

A court-appointed lawyer declined to comment at a court hearing this week. Messages left for Kwiatkowski's lawyers after business hours were not immediately returned.

Kwiatkowski, who is being held on federal drug charges, told authorities he did not steal or use drugs. He said he learned he had hepatitis C in May, but authorities say there is evidence that it was diagnosed as early as June 2010. Kacavas said nailing down that date is his top priority, but in the meantime, the uncertainty is further complicating efforts by hospitals to make recommendations about testing.

In Michigan, officials at Oakwood Annapolis Hospital in Wayne noted that there was no indication that Kwiatkowski had hepatitis C when he was employed there from January to September 2007, and that he passed at least two drug tests during that time. State health officials said they are still looking into other locations where Kwiatkowski worked and what steps, if any, they need to take.

Other states have moved ahead with notifying patients and offering free testing.

Twenty-five former patients at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Kwiatkowski worked for three months in late 2007 and early 2008, have been asked to get tested. In Kansas, state health officials are sending letters to about 460 patients who were treated at the cardiac catheterization lab at Hays Medical Center from May 24, 2010, to Sept. 22, 2010. The state also is setting up an informational website, and the hospital has set up a telephone hotline.

In Maryland, hundreds of patients are being contacted by the four hospitals where Kwiatkowski worked between May 2008 and March 2010. None of the four, which include The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a Veterans Affairs hospital in Baltimore, reported that Kwiatkowski was fired or that his behavior raised red flags.

That wasn't the case in Arizona. Kwiatkowski completed one stint at Maryvale Hospital from March to June 2009 without apparent incident but was fired 11 days into his second stint, at the Arizona Heart Hospital.

Barbara Yeninas, a spokeswoman for SpringBoard Healthcare Staffing and Search, said her agency reported Kwiatkowski's firing to a state regulatory board, as well as a national certification organization. Aubrey Godwin, director of the Arizona Radiology Regulatory Agency, said as the agency began investigating, Kwiatkowski surrendered his certification that allowed him to work in the state.

"His statement was that he didn't have enough resources to fight it," Godwin said.

Officials have identified 270 patients at Maryvale and fewer than 200 at the heart hospital who could have been exposed to Kwiatkowski.

At Houston Medical Center in Warner Robins, Ga., CEO Cary Martin the identification process hasn't been completed yet. Kwiatkowski worked in the cardiac cath lab there from October 2010 to March 2011 but did not have access to the hospital's medication system, he said.

Kwiatkowski didn't have direct access to Exeter Hospital's medication system, either, but investigators believe he was able to steal medication that other employees were in the process of preparing for patients and switch it with syringes he had filled with another liquid, possibly saline. Former co-workers reported that he sometimes came in on his days off and attended procedures he wasn't assigned to.

Testing originally was recommended only for patients who had been treated at Exeter's cardiac lab, but state officials have expanded the recommendation to include anyone who underwent surgery or was admitted to the intensive care unit because Kwiatkowski sometimes took patients to those areas. Clinics planned for this weekend and early next week were postponed due to logistical problems.

If convicted of the charges he currently faces — tampering with a consumer product and fraudulently obtaining a controlled drug — Kwiatkowski could get as many as 24 years in prison for.

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Report shows US drought rapidly intensifying

St. Louis, Aug 2 (Newswire): The widest drought to grip the United States in decades is getting worse with no signs of abating, a new report warned, as state officials urged conservation and more ranchers considered selling cattle.

The drought covering two-thirds of the continental U.S. had been considered relatively shallow, the product of months without rain, rather than years. But the report showed its intensity is rapidly increasing, with 20 percent of the nation now in the two worst stages of drought — up 7 percent from last week.

The U.S. Drought Monitor classifies drought in various stages, from moderate to severe, extreme and, ultimately, exceptional. Five states — Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska — are blanketed by a drought that is severe or worse. States like Arkansas and Oklahoma are nearly as bad, with most areas covered in a severe drought and large portions in extreme or exceptional drought.

Other states are seeing conditions rapidly worsen. Illinois — a key producer of corn and soybeans — saw its percentage of land in extreme or exceptional drought balloon from just 8 percent last week to roughly 71 percent, the Drought Monitor reported.

And conditions are not expected to get better, with little rain and more intense heat forecast for the rest of the summer.

"Some of these areas that are picking up a shower here and there, but it's not really improving anything because the heat has been so persistent in recent weeks, the damage already is done," said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. "Realistically, the forecast going forward is a continuation of warm, dry conditions through the end of August easily, and we may see them in the fall."

Some are reacting to the drought with inventiveness. At Lake DePue in Illinois, the dangerously low water level threatened to doom an annual boat race that's a big fundraiser for the community. Hundreds of volunteers joined forces and built a makeshift dam out of sandbags before hundreds of millions of gallons of water were pumped in from a river. The effort had added 2 feet to the water level, doubling the lake's size and saving the race.

In other areas, communities are instituting water restrictions and asking people to voluntarily conserve.

The drought stretches from Ohio west to California and runs from Texas north to the Dakotas. Only in the 1930s and the 1950s has a drought covered more of the U.S., according to National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Rain-starved Oklahoma could get a brief respite with perhaps a quarter of an inch possible through sunrise, the National Weather Service said.

But that won't be of much help to people like Clinton rancher Paul Schilberg, who would sell his herd of Black Angus cattle if he didn't stand to lose maybe $2,500 per head for the animals he usually buys for more than $3,000. With the grass and forage dead from lack of rain, he's been forced to buy hay.

"I'm feeding just like I would during the winter time," he said.

Nationwide, ranchers have been selling off large numbers of animals they can't graze and can't afford to buy feed for. The nation's cattle inventory, at 97.8 million head, is the smallest since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began a July count in 1973.

Mark Thompson, a professional farm manager with about 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans near Fort Dodge, Iowa, said good land management practices including no-till farming could help crop farmers muddle through.

"Eastern Iowa is in worst shape than we are," he said. "Right around here, we're still at the tipping point, but conditions have improved somewhat, even though last night's rain wasn't widespread."

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback declared a drought emergency in all of the state's 105 counties this week and urged residents to conserve as much water as possible as the drought becomes more intense. The latest Drought Monitor report, which covers conditions through, lists 73 percent of Kansas in an extreme drought, up 9 percent from a week earlier.

Brownback's move allows farmers, ranchers and communities to draw water from 28 state fishing lakes. Tracy Streeter, the Kansas Water Office's director, said there was adequate supply in the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer lakes to meet the demand.

"Even today, the lake elevations are good, all things considered," Streeter said.

He said ranchers can take 4,000 to 5,000 gallons of water at a time on semi-trucks loaded with tanks, but that's not a permanent solution. "Folks can't do that long term because of the cost of hauling the water. If they are buying feed, too, they may just have to sell the cattle."

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Centamin Egypt cuts 2011 gold output guidance

London, Aug 2 (Newswire): Centamin Egypt cut its output guidance for the full year after announcing lower-than-expected gold production in the second quarter due to restrictions imposed on blast products.

The company said it is confident that the blast issues will be resolved in the third quarter.

However, along with the supply disruption in the first quarter the company has been forced to reduce its 2011 production guidance to 200,000-210,000 ounces, at cash cost of about $550 an ounce, from 250,000-290,000 ounces.

It produced 47,991 ounces in the second quarter, taking half-year output to just over 93,000 ounces.

Second-quarter operating profit rose to $48.2 million from $19.1 million in the year-earlier quarter on higher production and gold prices.

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Australian bond futures rally to two-year high

Sydney, Aug 2 (Newswire): Australian debt futures rallied on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept interest rates unchanged and sounded less certain about the global economic outlook.

The three-year bond futures rose as high as 95.750, up 0.25 points on the day, reaching highs not seen since July 2009. Interbank futures also rose strongly as some in the market again priced in the chance of an interest rate cut.

The move was encouraged by big losses in Asian stocks as worries about the health of the global economy mounted following Monday's sluggish manufacturing data.

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Yuan edges lower, but further gains seen

Beijing, Aug 2 (Newswire): The yuan fell slightly versus the dollar on Tuesday after the People's Bank of China set a weaker mid-point, following a slight rebound in the dollar index after the passage of a last-minute deal to raise the US borrowing limit.

Traders said yuan appreciation appears to be still on the cards, although some narrow-band fluctuations may be seen in the near term, due to the movements of global currencies.

"It is only a short-term correction, as the yuan has climbed relatively fast over the past month, and the currency will continue on its ascending path for the rest of this year," said a trader at a medium-sized bank in Shenzhen.

Spot yuan was trading at 6.4387, weaker than Monday's close of 6.4340. It has now appreciated 6.02 percent since it was de-pegged from the dollar in June 2010 and 2.35 percent so far this year.

Before trade began the PBOC fixed the yuan's mid-point at 6.4419 against the dollar, weaker than Monday's record high of 6.4399.

Dealers said a weaker-than-expected recovery in the US economy and lingering fears over a US credit downgrade could drag on the dollar in the future.

"The deal having been struck does not represent that the US debt issue has been solved thoroughly," said a trader in a state bank in Shanghai.

"And a weakening dollar may add fuel for yuan appreciation in coming months," he added.

Initial euphoria about the US Congress agreeing on a deal to raise the government's statutory borrowing limit faded as investors worried that the country might still lose its triple-A credit rating even though the risk of a default appeared to be off the table.

Chinese economists also said US debt woes still threaten the global economy despite a last-minute deal struck by the White House and political party leaders, China's main official newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Offshore, benchmark one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) were bid at 6.3655 by midday, weaker than 6.3600 at the previous day's close.

Their implied yuan appreciation in a year's time fell to 1.20 percent from 1.26 percent.

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BMW net profit more than doubles to 1.81 billion euros

Frankfurt, Aug 2 (Newswire): The world's leading luxury car maker, BMW, said Tuesday that its second quarter net profit more than doubled from the same period a year earlier to 1.81 billion euros ($2.58 billion).

Sales gained 16.5 percent to almost 17.9 billion euros, and a BMW statement said that "we expect the business environment to remain favourable during the second half of 2011.

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Barclays profit down a third as fixed income trading falls

London, Aug 2 (Newswire): Barclays said its half-year profits fell by a third after a fall in bond trading activity at its investment bank and a charge to compensate customers mis-sold insurance, offsetting a sharp improvement in bad debt charges.

The British bank on Tuesday reported pretax profit in the six months to the end of June of 2.64 billion pounds, down 33 percent from a year ago but above the average forecast of 2.4 billion pounds of analysts polled by the company.

Barclays Capital's half-year profit fell 9 percent on the year and income at the investment banking arm was down 11 percent to 6.26 billion pounds, led by a fall in fixed income revenue.

The bank also took a 1 billion pound charge to cover compensation for the mis-selling of insurance policies in Britain, which had been signalled previously.

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Banks still vulnerable, German watchdog warns

Frankfurt, Aug 2 (Newswire): Germany's banking sector is still vulnerable even though most lenders passed recent Europe-wide stress tests, the new regulator said Tuesday in an interview with the business daily Handelsblatt.

"I think the German banking market is still vulnerable," said Raimund Roeseler, now in charge of banking oversight at the financial markets regulator BaFin.

"There is no reason to rest on our laurels," he said, even though most German banks tested during a European Union exercise were deemed to have enough capital to weather a fresh crisis the financial sector.

One German bank, the state-owned regional lender Helaba, refused to accept the stress test results, claiming the European Banking Authority had not considered changes to so-called hybrid capital provided by regional authorities.

Roeseler warned that "it is possible that the next crisis emerges in a sector that we have not examined closely," and underscored "problematic cases among the Landesbanken," or regional German banks.

But the regulator also took a swipe at the European Commission, which has demanded that such banks sharply restructure their operations in exchange for state aid received during the 2008-09 global financial crisis.

"I worry when the Commission intervenes and demands that Landesbanken curb lending in sectors that are functioning well," Roeseler said, citing the case of HSH Nordbank with the maritime and aerospace industries in northern Germany.

He also spoke up in defence of the international ratings agencies, which were slammed for underestimating the threat from risky mortgage loans and which "today we reproach for speaking out" on the issue of excessive public debt.

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Residents of Srinagar face shortage of essentials, medicines

Srinagar, Aug 2 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, the residents of Srinagar are facing immense shortage of essentials and medicines due to continued undeclared curfew imposed by the authorities.

Shafaat Ahmed, a local, talking to the media men, said that the domestic stock of edibles had exhausted. "We had stocked edibles but due to prolonged curfew and other restrictions, we ran short of the stock," he said.

Ghulam Muhammad, a resident of Narwara, said that the puppet administration was committing gross rights abuses by depriving the people of basic necessities.

The people said that Indian police and Central Reserve Police Force personnel did not even allow the milkmen to move out for business while many families could not get bread since many days. The residents said that they could not get even medicines.

"I couldn't get medicines for my ailing mother because Indian troopers did not allow me to go out," said Javed, a Maharaja Bazar resident.

Another resident said that despite request before the troopers, he was denied permission to get milk for his child from adjoining locality. The residents of Chanapora and Eidgah said that the troops did not allow any vegetable vendor to venture out nor was anyone allowed to go outside for the essential shopping.

Meanwhile, the police and CRPF men hampered relief efforts made by locals at hospitals, where most of the injured in firing were being treated. "We had arranged tea, cold drinks and food for attendants and others arriving in the premises. The police and CRPF chased us away and beat many of us," said Soura resident, Muhammad Shafi.

The residents of Eidgah, Nowshehra, Awanta Bhawan and adjacent areas collected relief and reached the hospital early in the morning for its distribution. "We were in the midst of distribution when the police arrived and beat up many people there," said a resident.

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Unmarked grave discovered in Uri

Srinagar, Aug 2 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, forceful demonstrations erupted in Uri town of Baramulla district following the discovery of an unmarked grave near an Indian army camp situated in the area.

The locals spotted a fresh grave along with a body near the army camp. A large number of people marched towards the site as the news about the discovery of the grave spread across the town. They exhumed the body and marched towards the police station.

However, Indian police swung into action and lobbed tear smoke shells to disperse the people. The occupation authorities clamped an undeclared curfew in the town and illegally detained at least 20 innocent Kashmiris during raids to quell the protests.

Later, the occupation authorities handed over the town to Indian army.

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Another Kashmiri boy succumbs to injuries

Srinagar, Aug 2 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, a 17-year-old boy, Tariq Ahmed Dar, who was injured when he was hit by a teargas canister fired by Indian troops on his head on Srinagar-Jammu highway at Bijbehara has succumbed to his injuries

Tariq Ahmed Dar was critically injured on Saturday and died at Soura Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar, this morning, after battling for life for two days.

As the news about the death of Tariq spread, people took to streets in Bijbehara and staged forceful demonstrations against the killing. The protests were going on till last reports came in.

At least 9 persons were martyred and over 150 injured on Sunday. Three persons including a girl were killed and scores others injured when Indian troops opened fire on protesters in Pampore and Khrew areas. 6 more people were killed and 42 injured in an explosion in Khrew police station.

As the word about the Pampore and Khrew killings reached Srinagar, large number of people took to streets in different parts of the city. Defying curfew restrictions, they took out marches and held demonstrations. Indian police resorted to brute force to disperse the demonstrators. Police and CRPF burst smoke shells inside a hospital where the injured were getting treated. They also beat the patients, attendants and others.

Scores of people were wounded when police and troopers resorted to indiscriminate firing and tear gas shelling in Batamaloo, Natipora, Kupwara, Handwara, Kralpora, Lolab, Shopian, Naaman, Sangam, Pulwama, Islamabad, Bandipore, Baramulla and Sopore areas.

On the other hand, thousands of people staged night protests in the occupied Valley. They staged sit-ins at Srinagar-Jammu highway and raised slogans 'We want freedom' and 'Go India go'.

Meanwhile, the occupation authorities continue to impose strict curfew in all major cities and towns across the Kashmir valley.

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Cancer killer found in the ocean

Islamabad, Aug 2 (Newswire): Biomedicine scientists identified and sequenced the genes of a bacteria called Salinispora tropica. It produces anti-cancer compounds and can be found in ocean sediments off the Bahamas.

A product called salinosporamide A has shown promise treating a bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma, as well as solid tumors.

It's estimated that over 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and for more than 500,000 it will be fatal. But now, scientists have found a new weapon against it. The ocean! You run in it ... play in it ... splash in it ... but what's found at the bottom of it can kill cancer!

"This bacteria makes a really potent anti cancer agent," Bradley Moore, Ph.D., marine biochemist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Calf., told Ivanhoe.

The bacterium was discovered in 1991, but just recently researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography unlocked the genomic sequence, revealing this bacteria's cancer fighting potential.

"That's how new drugs are discovered. We really have to go out there and grow bacteria, look at the genomes," Dr. Moore said. "What we've recently been able to do is take the enzymes out of the cell, put them in a test tube, and then play God and manipulate these enzymes and make new chemistry."

And make new drugs. "There's a major search underway for better drugs to treat cancer and one way to find these new medicines is to look to nature," Paul Jensen, Ph.D., associate research scientist at Scipps Institution of Oceanography, told Ivanhoe.

And unlike most of the drugs used to fight cancer today -- this bacterium is not found on land.

"When you look at a globe ... there's more blue than there is land," said Dr. Moore.

Revealing that our oceans maybe an even more valuable resource than we realize. A clinical trial is already underway. A San Diego pharmaceutical company is using it to treat patients that have a form of bone marrow cancer -- and it could soon be tested to treat other cancers.

The American Geophysical Union and The American Society for Microbiology contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

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Mining bacterial genomes reveals valuable 'hidden' drugs

Islamabad, Aug 2 (Newswire): A new tool to excavate bacterial genomes that potentially hide a rich array of pharmaceutical treasures has led to the discovery of a novel antibiotic.

The study, reported in Microbiology, could lead to new treatments for serious diseases that are rapidly acquiring multi-drug resistance.

Scientists from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands successfully used a 'genome mining' approach to find and activate a group of genes in the bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. This resulted in the production of a new antibacterial compound that was effective against several bacterial strains, including Escherichia coli.

Streptomyces is a common soil bacterium that is well-known for its antibiotic-producing capabilities. In 2002, genomic sequencing of one Streptomyces species, S. coelicolor, revealed several groups of genes whose function was unknown. By digging deeper and removing a molecule that specifically inactivates one of the mystery gene groups, known as cpk, the researchers in this study were able to 'awaken' the genes, to find that they produced the new antibiotic, in addition to a bright yellow pigment.

This is the first time a genome mining approach to drug discovery has been successfully used in Streptomyces. "The strategy is a powerful and innovative way of searching for new antibiotic production capabilities in bacteria," said Dr Eriko Takano who led the study. "As bacterial infections previously considered as mild and easily curable are suddenly becoming lethal and completely unresponsive to all existing medication, it is crucial that new antibiotics are discovered at a sufficiently rapid rate," she said.

The same approach for 'awakening' new antibiotic production pathways could also be used to tap other micro-organisms, such as filamentous fungi, for sources of biologically active compounds. Aside from antibiotics, these compounds may include other antimicrobials or antitumour agents.

"There are several thousand other uncharacterized groups of genes that have been found recently in microbial genome sequences. This opens up a rich treasure trove of new potential drugs for clinical use," explained Dr Takano.

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Memory's master switch: molecular power behind memory discovered

Islamabad, Aug 2 (Newswire): Neuroscientists have long wondered how individual connections between brain cells remain diverse and "fit" enough for storing new memories.

Reported in the science journal Neuron, a new study led by Dr. Inna Slutsky of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University describes what makes some memories stick.

The key is GABA (Aminobutyric acid), a natural molecule that occurs in the brain, which could be the main factor in regulating how many new memories we can generate, the new study has found. The understanding of these mechanisms might lead to the development of new memory enhancers and new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Memories, Dr. Slutsky says, are stored in synaptic connections between neurons in our brain. In the past, other teams, including her own, have demonstrated that the strength of individual synapses is highly variable, even at the single neuron level. This variability ultimately determines if and how new memories are stored, and the key to this variability is GABA, a naturally-occurring chemical found in the brain.

Tight connections and lone rangers

Dr. Slutsky's graduate student Tal Laviv and postdoctoral fellow Inbal Riven, the lead authors in the study, applied advanced nanotechnology methods in optical imaging to track how proteins engineered by Prof. Paul Slesinger and his team at The Salk Institute interact with GABA at the single-synapse level.

In the hippocampus, one of the main areas of the brain involved in learning and memory, the strength of neuronal connections is known to be highly variable. Some neurons are tightly connected to others, while some appear to be "lone rangers."

The new paper, which examines individual synapses in the hippocampus, demonstrates that this process is regulated by GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in our brain. "We determined that variations in the local level of GABA in the vicinity of individual synapses are responsible for the differences or 'heterogeneity' of synaptic strength. And this heterogeneity may facilitate the formation of new memories," Dr. Slutsky explains.

While looking at the brain in its basal state -- when the activity was "at rest" before attempting to memorize a list of items or after a memory had been stored -- Dr. Slutsky's team could actually "see" where synapses differ at different dendritic branches in the neuronal network. Those branches of neurons close to a cell body displayed a larger number of weak synapses, while the most distant branches were composed of a smaller number of strong synapses.

"Why the difference?" they asked. GABA was the answer. Higher concentrations of GABA near a synapse induced a stronger activation of its receptors, weakening basal synapse strength. As a result, GABA makes this synapse more liable to the formation of new memories, the researchers propose.

Dr. Slutsky, who previously discovered a basal-state regulator molecule, says that the research may also have implications for treating diseases of the mind. "We found that amyloid-beta, a well-known hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, regulates basal synapse strength in an opposite way to GABA," she notes, suggesting that an increase in the basal activity of synapses may initiate memory decline in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Experiments in the study were done using neuronal cultures and brain slices of rats subjected to molecular biology, optical imaging and electrophysiological techniques.

The study also constituted a technical achievement, since it used advanced imaging techniques such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) spectroscopy that looked at protein-to-protein interactions in the brain at the 10 nanometer scale. In the past, such fine resolution was impossible -- brain scientists could only investigate interactions at the level of entire tissues, not between molecules at individual synapses.

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