Marine's dream of an Afghan national water polo team advances

Friday 2 August 2013

San Diego, Aug 3 (Newswire):  For three years, Marine Warrant Officer Jeremy Piasecki has been trying to organize a national water polo team for Afghanistan.

His theory is simple: the people of such a war-torn land need sports heroes too.

When an Afghan won a bronze medal in the tae kwon do competition at the 2008 Olympic Games, cheers erupted not just in the capital, Kabul, but from the mountainous east to the deserts of the west.

But how do you train a water polo team in a land-locked country with few swimming pools and no history of aquatic sports?

Answer: a trip to Southern California, which is to water polo what Texas is to high-school football. The first and most expensive step has been to find a way to get the athletes here.

Now, Piasecki has gotten a pledge from commercial airline employees to provide transportation for 10 athletes, several of them members of the Afghan army. He's working with the State Department to get visas.

Their tentative arrival date is mid-November. The next step for Piasecki is to find enough sponsors to house and feed the athletes.

"If it was easy, I wouldn't be doing it," he said.

Piasecki has been focused on water polo since he played at Corona del Mar High in Newport Beach and Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. He coached for Temescal Canyon High in Lake Elsinore and the Fallbrook Associated Swim Team.

Enthusiasm notwithstanding, fundraising for what appears a long-shot endeavor has been slow. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that Piasecki is no longer stationed in Afghanistan.

He deployed last year to Stuttgart, Germany. He's saving up his leave time so he can come to Southern California to be with the team during the stay, which he hopes lasts through February.

The war has provided its own brand of setbacks: three of Piasecki's would-be players have been killed in combat. Others have decided it is too dangerous to leave their families while the fighting continues.

"They have endured hardships that most Americans and those in the western world cannot fathom," Piasecki said of his athletes. "They have had their homes destroyed, family members killed, have had to live in exile in other countries....But they still find ways to smile, laugh [and] enjoy camaraderie."

Bahram Hojreh, a former water polo player at UC Irvine and now club director of Los Al Water Polo in Los Alamitos, is arranging training sessions and matches for the Afghans. A large squad of volunteers, Hojreh said, meets weekly.

While others may have gotten discouraged, Hojreh stayed optimistic. "I knew this day would come," he said. "But we will not be satisfied until all details of the trip are covered."

Scott Tanner, head of sport development for the Huntington Beach-based USA Water Polo, which promotes water polo clubs nationwide, said Piasecki is "an inspiration for anyone in the U.S. involved in the sport, an example of overcoming incredible obstacles to put together a team."

Tanner recently hired organizers to spread the sport in Chicago and Orlando, Fla. It's a job perfectly suited for Piasecki, when he leaves the Marine Corps, Tanner said:

"If he ever gets back to the U.S., I want him to work for me. He has the moxie."

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Mapping violence against journalists in Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug 3 (Newswire): Last week, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a 25-year old stringer for the BBC, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan.

Khpulwak's death, as the many that came before it, is a tragedy and a reminder of the violence and danger journalists covering Afghanistan routinely face.

There have been 266 reported incidents of violence against journalists covering the country—and Khpulwak was the 22nd journalist to have died there—since the war began in 2001, according to Nai, an Afghan media advocacy and education organization.

This reality is presented in bleak and striking visual form through a new data-mapping project developed by Nai, in cooperation with Internews, an international media development organization, and supported by USAID.

Data from the 266 reported incidents has been broken down and built into a set of interactive maps layered with context, including number of media organizations and active journalists in each province.

The site offers a grim picture of the toll the war in Afghanistan has taken on the media, but more importantly, it is a smart and essential resource, particularly for journalists and news organizations in Afghanistan. The original data can be downloaded and the maps are embeddable.

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Afghanistan seeks to disband some armed militias

Kabul, Aug 3 (Newswire): Government officials seeking to break up hundreds of small independent militias in the volatile northern province of Kunduz have ordered more than 4,000 members to surrender their weapons within 20 days or face a military crackdown, threatening more violence in a region where security has steadily eroded over the last two years.

The militias in many cases piggybacked on an officially sanctioned American-financed program to recruit local men for police patrols to fight off the Taliban, an effort that has been tried in other parts of the country with varying degrees of success.

In Kunduz, where the government has armed and equipped about 1,500 militiamen, thousands of others have joined the proliferating independent groups, or arbakai.

Some have only a dozen men, while others number in the hundreds. But officials say they are little more than gangs that wreak havoc, frequently clashing with one another and collecting illegal taxes from local residents.

The new order is focused on Khan Abad district in the southeast of Kunduz, where officials say the concentration of the independent militias is highest. The decision came after a gathering there on Saturday of tribal elders, army and police officials and some militia leaders.

Military officials say they will begin going house to house to collect the weapons if the militia members do not comply by the deadline.

"The existence of these illegally armed groups has created serious problems in bringing peace," said Mohammad Zaman Waziri, First Brigade commander of the Afghan National Army's 209th Corps. "These people take money from people in the name of religious tax, disturb locals, and they have also fought among each other many times."

But the province has only grown more dangerous in recent years, and militia leaders say turning over their weapons — which include rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and mortars — would leave them vulnerable to the Taliban they claim to be fighting.

"There are still many Taliban in our areas," said Hussain, an arbakai commander who goes by one name. "If our weapons are taken from us, the Taliban will kill us."

Others say that instead of being rewarded with local police jobs for their efforts to push out the Taliban, they are being punished.

"I am ready to surrender my weapons to the government," said another commander, Mohammad Omar. "But the condition is that I should get hired in the local police."

Many of the officially recognized militiamen in Kunduz are to be absorbed into the Afghan Local Police through the American-financed program, which aims to convert insurgents and other residents of remote areas into village defense forces until the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police can be built up enough to protect the entire country.

But Kunduz has only 1,200 local police slots available, and the process of screening and training has been slow. To date, only 105 militiamen have become officers. Khan Abad district has only 550 slots available, said Col. Abdul Rahman Aqtash, deputy police chief of Kunduz.

The problems in Kunduz reflect growing concern over the local police program. Begun a year ago, it had trained about 6,200 officers in 41 districts by mid-June with the goal of recruiting 30,000 in 100 districts by the end of the year. But aid workers and United Nations officials warn that the program risks empowering local strongmen who have little regard for human rights and legal procedure.

Other areas of concern include weak vetting of recruits and oversight, and issues of command and control over the forces, which are supposed to fall under the local police chief but which often remain loyal to their former bosses. A recent study by Oxfam and three other nongovernment groups concluded that that the program had failed to provide effective policing and instead produced forces that are "feared by the communities they are supposed to protect."

The controversy in Kunduz began during the spring harvest as new arbakai began demanding what they deemed an Islamic tax from the farmers, amounting to 10 percent of their harvest. Payments were also demanded from others. In June, two arbakai commanders with 30 armed men stormed a girls school in Kunduz city and beat the headmaster and assistant headmaster after they refused to pay, leaving both men in comas.

At least 50 families in Khan Abad say that groups have taken their homes to use as military compounds, and clashes between groups in the last few months have left at least six people dead and several more wounded, Mr. Aqtash said.

"We get reports and complaints about arbakai forces almost every day," he said.

The Taliban, meanwhile, have remained active in the province. At 4 a.m. on Tuesday, insurgents attacked a guesthouse in Kunduz city frequented by foreign aid workers and private security contractors, leaving four people dead.

The attack began when a suicide bomber rammed a Toyota Corolla packed with explosives into the front entrance of the guesthouse compound, killing the four guards at the gate. Two other attackers armed with light weapons and wearing explosive-laced vests ran into the compound before police arrived, leading to a three-hour firefight before one of the attackers was shot and killed and the other detonated his vest, killing himself as the police closed in, Mr. Aqtash said.

Nine civilians and a police officer were wounded, he said.

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South Korean Im breaks archery world record

London, Aug 3 (Newswire): South Korea's Im Dong-hyun broke his own 72-arrow world record in the archery ranking round for the London Olympics with a score of 699.

Im and his South Korean team mates, Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek, also broke the team world record for 72 arrows with a score of 2,087 at Lord's Cricket Ground.

Im, who won team gold at the 2008 and 2004 Games, lost his world number one ranking to American Brady Ellison in 2011 but has been in sensational form in the lead-up to the London Games, winning the test event at Lord's late last year and setting the previous record of 696 in Turkey in May.

The Korean, who suffers from strong myopia and just aims at a "blob of yellow color" in the center of the target 70 meters away, was happy to be at the top of the ranking round but was not about to get carried away.

"It's just the first round so I won't get too excited about it," he said.

Im will face 64th ranked archer Emanuele Guidi of San Marino in the first round. Guidi scored 110 points less than Im.

Im's team mate Kim would also have broke the record after shooting 698, while the third member of the team Oh finished with 690.

South Korean head coach Jang Young-sool was delighted his team had shot so well in the ranking round and said the damp drizzly conditions had not been a problem.

"It was good weather to shoot," he said. "A world record gives us confidence for the rest of the competition."

Despite winning the last three team gold medals, South Korea's men have yet to win the individual title.

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Orangutan sent to Island to kick smoking habit

New York, Aug 3 (Newswire): Hollywood stars always make headlines when their handlers send them to a far-off location to kick an unhealthy habit, but it turns out they're not the only ones.

Grabbing headlines now is Tori, a 13-year-old orangutan who has been sent by her keepers at Indonesia's Taru Jurug Zoo to a deserted island in the middle of a lake within the zoo in order to kick her smoking habit.

Tori, one of four orangutans at the zoo in the Central Java town of Solo, picked up her love of cigarettes from humans who would throw their discarded cigarette butts into her cage.

"A common problem for zoos in Indonesia are naughty visitors," zoo director Lilik Kristianto told the Jakarta Globe newspaper. "Although there are sign prohibiting them from giving food or cigarettes to the animals, they keep on doing it. It is not rare that visitors even hurt the animals."

Tori would hold the still-lit cigarettes between her fingers and puff, just as she watched the humans do, zookeepers said.

Also relegated to the remote island with Tori was her male companion, Didk, who didn't share her same smoking habit but did have a tendency to stamp on the butts to put them out, according to the zoo.

The permanent move is not completely punitive, however. The new island, the zoo says, is a more comfortable home for the primates that has grass and trees to better mimic their natural environment.

"Tori can climb five big trees on the island. This might be the best orangutan enclosure in Indonesia," Kristianto said.

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Anaheim police shoot at burglary suspect

Anaheim, Aug 3 (Newswire): Anaheim police have opened fire on a burglary suspect, days after officer-involved shootings killed two people and sparked violent protests.

Sgt. Bob Dunn says it's unclear whether anyone was hit in the  confrontation, but no one has showed up at a hospital.

Dunn says officers responding to a burglar alarm at about 3:15 a.m. at a community clubhouse saw appliances in the street and a man leaving the building. An officer chased him, and another checked out a nearby car that suddenly took off, heading toward the first officer.

Dunn says the second officer opened fire but the driver escaped.

Dunn says the man being chased on foot was later found hiding near some train tracks. Dunn says the man is a paroled burglar and was treated for a police dog bite.

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Chevron 2Q profit slips 7 percent

New York, Aug 3 (Newswire): Chevron's net income fell nearly 7 percent in the second quarter as oil prices and production declined.

The oil giant said it earned $7.21 billion, or $3.66 per share, last quarter. That compared with $7.73 billion, or $3.85, a year earlier. Revenue fell by 9 percent in the quarter to $62.6 billion.

Those results beat Wall Street estimates of $3.23 on revenue of $71.4 billion, according to FactSet. Shares rose by 24 cents to $108.51 in premarket trading.

Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. petroleum company behind Exxon Mobil, said production from its global network of oil and natural gas wells fell 2.6 percent in the second quarter. It also sold oil for lower prices in the U.S. and overseas. Natural gas fetched only half as much in the U.S. as it did a year earlier, though gas prices rose internationally.

The fall in production and prices was tempered by a surge in profits at Chevron's refining and marketing operations. Profits rose 80 percent as the company sold about $200 million in assets, including its stake in a South Korean energy business. Chevron's refineries were more profitable because the cost of oil fell and they sold gasoline and other fuels at higher prices on the West coast.

Like many of its peers, the San Ramon, Calif.-based company has increased spending on exploration this year, even though lower oil and gas prices are generating lower returns.

"Despite current weakness in the global economy, we continue to invest in our long-term growth projects to help deliver affordable energy to meet future demand," Chairman and CEO John Watson said.

A slump in oil and natural gas prices also weakened quarterly profits at Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and ConocoPhillips. BP reports its second-quarter financial results next week.

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ECB may take losses in second Greek debt restructuring

Brussels, Aug 3 (Newswire): European policymakers are working on "last chance" options to bring Greece's debts down and keep it in the euro zone, with the ECB and national central banks looking at taking significant losses on the value of their bond holdings, officials said.

Private creditors have already suffered big writedowns on their Greek bonds under a second bailout for Athens sealed in February, but this was not enough to put the country back on the path to solvency and a further restructuring is on the cards.

The latest aim is to reduce Greece's debts by a further 70-100 billion euros, several senior euro zone officials familiar with the discussions said, cutting its debts to a more manageable 100 percent of annual economic output.

This would require the European Central Bank and national central banks to take losses on their holdings of Greek government bonds, and could also involve national governments also accepting losses.

The favored option is for the ECB and national central banks to carry the cost, but that could mean that some banks and the ECB itself having to be recapitalized, the officials said.

The ECB declined comment.

Planning is in the early stages and no formal discussions have yet taken place. But there is an awareness that Greece is way off-track in improving its finances and that aggressive action is needed to keep the country inside the euro zone.

Officials described a further restructuring of Greek debt as a last chance to restore the country to solvency, with the agreed goal of cutting its debt to 120 percent of GDP by 2020 already seen as far beyond reach.

The International Monetary Fund, a party to the two rescue packages Greece has so far received, is in favor of overhauling Athens's official-sector loans - a process policymakers refer to as "OSI" or official-sector involvement.

"If I were to assign a percentage chance to OSI in Greece happening, I would say 70 percent," one euro zone official involved in the deliberations said.

One of the options being worked on would involve the ECB and national central banks in the Eurosystem writing down the value of the Greek government bonds they hold by 30 percent, under a process that bankers refer to as a "haircut".

Total outstanding official-sector credits to Greece, which also includes bilateral loans extended to Greece by euro zone governments, is about 220-230 billion euros.

A 30 percent writedown would therefore amount to slightly more than 70 billion euros, one official said. Another put the figure at between 70 and 100 billion euros, depending on how the process is carried out.

"It is very complicated and the precise method has not been decided yet because it is very early days," one source said.

Officials considered writing down the value of official-sector loans to Greece last year when they were putting together the second EU/IMF rescue program, which focused on the restructuring of Greece's private-sector debt.

But OSI was deemed too politically sensitive at the time and was pushed into the background. One official described that as a missed opportunity and suggested it should not be repeated.

"The big mistake was that we didn't manage to haircut the Greek government bonds that were in the investment portfolios of the national central banks. That was really, really stupid," the official said.

Politically it may be easier for policymakers to get the ECB and national central banks to take a hit on their bond holdings, rather than euro zone governments which would mean that taxpayers suffered direct losses.

However, the process would still come with complications. First of all, several national central banks would probably have to be recapitalized, officials said.

Two officials indicated that the French, Maltese and Cypriot central banks were most exposed to Greek government debt and would probably need a capital injection. Two other officials said the ECB could also need balance sheet support.

"The preference is that the OSI would happen on ECB books," one of the sources said. "The ECB would have to be recapitalized as a result, but that would be politically much more acceptable than a loss for taxpayers."

Another of the sources said that while the ECB held reserves to cover such writedowns, a restructuring of Greece's debt could require "action to protect the balance sheet further".

Asked about the exposure of specific national central banks to Greece, one of the four officials said: "France has a huge amount. Very large."

Asked whether that would not mean a recapitalization of some central banks, he replied: "Yes, but so what?"

The Cypriot and Maltese central banks did not immediately respond to queries. The Bank of France referred calls to the ECB.

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Why TrimTabs' CEO is 100% Bearish

New York, Aug 3 (Newswire): Despite Mario Draghi's reassurance that the ECB will do everything in its power to save the euro zone, Europe is not going to do anything meaningful and central bank action will not save the equity markets - on the contrary, they'll "implode", Charles Biderman, Chief Executive and Founder of TrimTabs Investment Research, told CNBC.

"We see no chance that Europe is going to do anything meaningful. Mario Draghi and the other officials have been talking a good game for many years now but nothing has actually happened," he said.

Speaking to CNBC's "European Closing Bell", Biderman, known for his bearish stance on stocks and portfolio management, said that the only option he could see for Europe was money printing assuming that Germany agreed to such a stimulus measure, but that that alone was not enough to save Europe from its immediate crises.

"The fundamental problem in Europe is that the economies [there] are not generating enough taxable revenues to meet current bills, let alone growing future entitlements and let alone the huge stack of already molding debt that exists," he said. "In the face of that, I don't know what else they can do but talk."

Biderman was not only pessimistic about Europe, however, adding that another reason to be bearish was the faltering U.S. economy, low gains in wages (barely above inflation, he said) the jobs market and the Federal Reserve's strategy.

"The jobs market is bad, companies are now selling more shares than they're buying so even zero interest rates isn't enough to convince them their capital balance sheets to buy back shares."

As the Federal Reserve hesitates introducing another round of stimulus by reducing interest rates further, Biderman cautioned against believing that a more extreme strategy of quantitative easing could save the economy.

"I know most people wish for good things and are praying for a miracle but the only thing that printing money will do is give people a printed piece of paper. How is printing money going to solve anything if there is a gap between income and expenditures for the economies and the governments?."

"That's the issue that nobody wants to talk address," he said.

Biderman defended his 100 percent bearishness on equity markets, saying that central bank interference in the markets would not last, and could do permanent damage.

"I'm not saying that the world is going to zero, I'm saying that the companies that have been profiting from the central bank rigging of the equity and bond markets, will suffer as those markets implode."

"You can't fix markets forever without fixing the underlying problem of income and spending on a societal and governmental basis."

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US auto sales tick up

Detroit, Aug 3 (Newswire): Major automakers posted July US sales that ticked higher from the slump of recent months, but failed to dispel doubts about the strength of the economy and the mood of American consumers.

"We're seeing that the consumer confidence is pretty fragile right now because of everything that's happened in the past few months," General Motors Co's US sales chief, Don Johnson, told reporters on a conference call.

GM's US sales in July rose about 8 percent, while those at Ford Motor Co and Fiat-controlled Chrysler increased 9 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

High unemployment and concern about the strength of the US recovery could force automakers to offer consumers more generous incentives that sap profits, analysts said.

Monthly car sales figures are among the first snapshots of consumer demand each month. Consumer spending habits are of particular interest after last week's tepid increase in US second-quarter output and sharp downward revision for the first quarter.

The auto industry also is coming off May and June sales that fell short of economists' predictions, raising concerns about the recovery.

Analysts said higher pricing by many automakers backfired at a time of penny-pinching consumers.

Shares of GM and Ford were down by 3 percent on Tuesday afternoon.

Thirty-nine economists polled were expecting an annual sales rate in July of 11.8 million vehicles.

That pace would still trail the 13 million-plus rate from earlier this year, but many industry executives said it would mark the beginning of a recovery from a bottom in June, when the rate was 11.45 million.

The numbers are a far cry from the almost 17 million averaged from 2000 to 2007, before the deepest US economic downturn since the Great Depression and the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler in 2009.

Chrysler's US sales chief, Reid Bigland, called the market "tougher than a cheap steak."
At the start of the year, analysts had forecast a bounce back in 2011 sales to between 13 million and 15 million vehicles, but the March earthquake in Japan that led to production cuts and the weak economy changed that picture.

On Tuesday, GM and Ford reiterated their outlooks for the low end of the 13 million to 13.5 million ranges, including about 300,000 in medium and heavy truck sales. However, GM's Johnson said "a real cloudy economic outlook" had hurt consumer sentiment.

"It will continue to recover although more gradually than we had anticipated in the second half," he said.

Consumer nervousness was reflected in the Commerce Department's announcement on Tuesday that US consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June to post the first decline in two years.

The US housing market's strength is critical for the more profitable full-size pickup truck sales, but Ford US sales analyst George Pipas said a recovery is more a matter of if than when.

"Last I heard, the housing market was still on wounded knee," he said.

Industry research firm Edmunds.com said to appeal to those consumers, automakers may boost incentive spending. In July, automakers raised such spending by about 8 percent over June.

Japanese brands already increased incentive spending about 25 percent to $1,990 per vehicle from June to July, compared with a 4.5 percent rise to $2,919 per vehicle by the US automakers, according to Edmunds.

While the US level is 47 percent higher than the Japanese rate, the difference is far below a year ago when it was a 69 percent gap, suggesting Johnson and his US peers may resort to priming the incentive pump, Edmunds said.

"I'm sure Ford and the domestic folks will have to follow," said Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management, which owns Ford shares.

GM on Tuesday posted an 8 percent sales gain to almost 215,000 vehicles on stronger demand for compact vehicles including the Chevrolet Cruze car and Equinox.

GM said July sales of cars and crossovers rose 8 percent and 20 percent, respectively, showing a continuing tilt toward vehicles with smaller profit margins than full-size pickup trucks, which fell 3 percent.

GM, which was previously criticized for its bloated inventory of big pickups which stood at 122 days at the end of June, now expects to end the year at 90 days. That is down from the 100 to 110 days it previously forecast and closer to the 80 days typically preferred by the industry.

Johnson said GM's goal is not to resort to discounting to drive truck sales.

Ford sales rose 9 percent due to stronger demand for its Fusion and Fiesta cars, as well as the small Escape sport utility vehicle.

Both GM and Ford said supply of smaller cars and crossover vehicles was constrained by an inability to make enough.

"The consumer is telling us that they need two more than we can make," Ford's US sales chief Ken Czubay.

Chrysler sales jumped 20 percent, while those at Nissan Motor Co and Hyundai Motor Co rose 3 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Sales at Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co, still recovering from the aftermath of the earthquake, fell 23 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

GM shares were down 2.9 percent at $27.26 and Ford shares were down 2.8 percent at $12.00 on Tuesday afternoon.

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Standard Chartered bank profits rise 20pc

London, Aug 3 (Newswire): Standard Chartered, the British-based emerging markets bank, said Wednesday that net profits rose 20 percent in the first half to a record US$2.52 billion (1.78 billion euros) as revenues soared.

Profit after tax for the six months to June compared with net profit of $2.10 billion a year earlier and beat expectations of $2.42 billion, according to a poll of analysts from Dow Jones Newswires.

Revenues jumped 11 percent to $8.76 billion in the first half.

"Standard Chartered continues to deliver strong, broad-based results," chief executive Peter Sands said in the group's earnings statement.

"We have stuck to our familiar strategy, to focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, markets in which we have a long history and which we know intimately."

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Hitachi to move to outsourcing of TV production

Tokyo, Aug 3 (Newswire): Japan's Hitachi Ltd said on Wednesday it will outsource all television production as early as this business year as it expects demand to shrink in an increasingly price-competitive market.

It expects the domestic TV market to shrivel to 7 million units in 2012, after ballooning ahead of the switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting this year. The market was about 25.7 million units size in 2010.

Hitachi had just 0.5 percent of the global flat panel TV market by revenues in the first quarter of this year, according to DisplaySearch.

The news helped Hitachi shares recover much of their morning losses to trade down 0.4 percent at 465 yen, outperforming a 2.1 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei 225.

Hitachi said its first quarter profit fell 41 percent on quake-related supply disruptions, and it kept its annual forecast slightly below expectations amid fears of power outages at home and frailty in consumer and corporate demand in the United States and Europe.

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‘Use of force can’t suppress liberation movement’

Srinagar, Aug 3 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, the forum patronised by veteran Kashmiri Hurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilani, has maintained that the ongoing movement can't be suppressed through use of brute force.

The General Secretary of the forum, Masarrat Alam Butt in a statement issued in Srinagar, while reacting to statement of the puppet Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah that special force would be used to quell the unrest in the occupied territory, said the 'Quit Jammu and Kashmir' campaign is a revolution and it will not be stopped by use of force and other tactics.

He also paid rich tributes to those killed by troopers in Pulwama, Kupwara, Islamabad, Budgam, Sopore, Pampore, Khrew and Srinagar.

Meanwhile, the Chairperson of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Aasiya Andrabi in a statement denounced the assertion of the puppet chief minister, adding that he was speaking military language.

She said that the people of Kashmir were not rendering sacrifices for jobs or perks but were struggling for attaining their right to self-determination and they would continue their struggle till its logical conclusion.

On the other hand, the spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir High Bar Association in a statement condemned the killings of Kashmiris by Indian troops and expressed condolence with families of the martyrs.

He also denounced the statement of Omar Abdullah in which he had demanded additional armed forces in the territory to crush the movement.

The Bar spokesman also appealed the world leaders to use their influence and help stop organised massacre in occupied Kashmir.

The Bar association also demanded immediate release of all illegally detained Kashmiri Hurriyet leaders and activists.

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Youth shot at in Srinagar, one martyred, several injured

Srinagar, Aug 3 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, one youth was killed and several others injured when Indian troops shot at protesters in Qamarwari area of Srinagar, this morning.

Locals told mediamen that a group of youth was fired upon by the troops and police when they were demonstrating peacefully. One youth identified as Meraj-ud-Din Lone was killed in the action.

Meanwhile, several protesters have sustained injuries due to the firing of troops and police in Humhama and Budgam areas when last reports came in, Tuesday.

On the other hand, the occupation authorities have deployed heavy contingents of regular Army on Srinagar-Jammu highway right from Qazigund to Srinagar. Hundreds of Army personnel have taken up position all along the highway, while sealing off all the roads leading to the highway right from Ganderbal up to Srinagar By-Pass.

The authorities continue to impose a strict curfew across South Kashmir with even small villages having been brought under curfew in Islamabad and Kulgam districts.

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Dance of death continues in occupied Kashmir

Srinagar, Aug 3 (Newswire): In occupied Kashmir, the killing spree by Indian troops continues as at least 17 protesters have been killed and over three hundred injured in two days due to the indiscriminate firing of the troops in the Kashmir Valley.

Nine persons were killed and over 180 injured when police and paramilitary CRPF men opened fire on protesters at several places in the valley on Monday. Of those martyred, two teenagers were killed in Kulgam, two in Sangam and one each in Karalpora, Kakapora and Batamaloo when CRPF troops and police opened fired on protesters. Locals at Sangam said that the troops caught hold of a handicapped 17-year-old youth, Arshid Ahmad Bhat and tortured him to death.

A seven-year-old boy, Sameer Ahmad Rah was beaten to death by CRPF troopers at Batamaloo. Locals told mediamen that Sameer was playing outside his house at SD Colony when a CRPF party caught hold of him. "He shouted pro-freedom slogans which infuriated the CRPF men. They beat him till he died," they added.

A 22-year-old Imam, Muhammad Yaqoob Bhat, was killed in Kakapora when police and CRPF troops fired upon peaceful protesters who were on way to Khrew to express solidarity with the families of people killed in a blast in a local police station on Sunday. Eyewitnesses said that thousands of people from different villages were marching towards Khrew. On reaching Kakapora they were intercepted by police and CRPF troops and stopped from moving ahead. While 13 other people sustained bullet injuries, Yaqoob was also hit by a bullet in the chest and killed on the spot.

Meanwhile, Tariq Ahmad Shiekh, 17, who was injured by the troops on Saturday in Bijbehara, succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Srinagar. At least 36 persons were injured in Bijbehara town when police and troops resorted to firing on Shiekh's funeral procession at Jablipora. Over 180 people were injured in troops and police actions in Nowhatta, Rawalpora, Bemina, Batamaloo, Hyderpora, Rawalpora, Sanat Nagar, Hazratbal, Harwan, Budgam, Khrew, Bijbehara, Qazigund, Kupwara, Trehgam, Kralpora, Handwara, Kangan, Ganderbal, Wudipora, Kulangam, Langate, Pampore, Naidkhai, Bandipora, Pulwama, Islamabad, Kulgam, Awantipora, Shopian, Kakapora, Kralpora, Sangam and Bijbehara areas.

The angry protestors attacked police stations, government buildings at several places and set ablaze a shed of railway station in Budgam.

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Pediatric neurologists use MRI to understand how strokes impair verbal abilities

Islamabad, Aug 3 (Newswire): Children who have speech-impairing strokes often learn to talk again, while adult stroke victims can lose their verbal abilities for good.

By giving reading and verbal tests inside the MRI, researchers are comparing the inner workings of both children's and adults' brains that suffered from strokes, as well as of healthy subjects'. The researchers hope to develop therapies to help the adult patients talk again.

Ryan Timmerman has gone through many ups and downs. When Ryan was born he suffered a stroke. Evonne Timmerman, Ryan's mother, says, "In one minute your child goes from everything is perfect to it falls apart. It's hard."

In five short years, Ryan is almost completely recovered with absolutely no problems with his speech. Dr. Bradley Schlaggar says, "How they do it, how they recover, people don't know. If we get at that, we might be able to help other kids who don't recover so well, and maybe help adults as well."

Dr. Schlaggar, a pediatric neurologist from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., is studying healthy child and adult brains and comparing their development to that of a stroke victim.

When you compare a healthy brain to a stroke brain, you can see the brain has re-wired itself and uses more areas to compensate for what was lost. How does it work? Dr. Schlaggar's team is using an fMRI machine to find out if exposure to visual or language cues encourages the brain to heal.

Dr. Schlaggar says, "We could come up with more specific rational interventions, treatments, that are really targeted at the exact problem at hand." And with the discoveries being made, things will continue to look up for stroke victims like Ryan.

Dr. Schlaggar hopes his research will help neurologists better treat their patients and come up with more specific and rational interventions that are targeted to the patient's exact problems.

Researchers at Washington University's School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that children activate different and more regions of their brains than adults when they perform word tasks. This may reflect the more efficient use of our brains as we mature. It may also shed insight on the brain function seen in children with Tourette's syndrome or cerebral palsy, among other conditions.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses radio waves and a strong magnetic field rather than X-rays to take clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues. fMRI uses this technology to identify regions of the brain where blood vessels are expanding, chemical changes are taking place, or extra oxygen is being delivered. These are indications that a particular part of the brain is processing information and giving commands to the body. As a patient performs a particular task, the metabolism will increase in the brain area responsible for that task, changing the signal in the MRI image. So by performing specific tasks that correspond to different functions, scientists can locate the part of the brain that governs that function.

The fMRI scanner takes images for long periods of time, like leaving the shutter open on a camera. While it is easy to detect brain activity, however, it's difficult to tell how the brain reacts to specific stimuli. The Washington University researchers used an improved method known as "event-related" fMRI, in which the scanner takes a series of quick snapshots three seconds apart. This enabled them to tell which parts of the brain were activated as it was stimulated by the word-generation tasks.

Even before a baby says his first word, his brain is sorting out the sounds and shapes of the words and sentences he sees around him. By the age of two, children already know quite a bit about sentence structure and basic grammar. Our ability to learn languages resides in a specific portion of the brain. The brain is hard-wired with connections, made by billions of neurons that send electrical signals to the brain when they are stimulated.

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When memory-related region of brain is damaged, other areas compensate

Islamabad, Aug 3 (Newswire): Many neuroscientists believe the loss of the brain region known as the amygdala would result in the brain's inability to form new memories with emotional content. New UCLA research indicates this is not so and suggests that when one brain region is damaged, other regions can compensate.

The research appears this week in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"Our findings show that when the amygdala is not available, another brain region called the bed nuclei can compensate for the loss of the amygdala," said the study's senior author, Michael Fanselow, a UCLA professor of psychology and a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute.

"The bed nuclei are much slower at learning, and form memories only when the amygdala is not learning," he said. "However, when you do not have an amygdala, if you have an emotional experience, it is like neural plasticity (the memory-forming ability of brain cells) and the bed nuclei spring into action. Normally, it is as if the amygdala says, 'I'm doing my job, so you shouldn't learn.' With the amygdala gone, the bed nuclei do not receive that signal and are freed to learn."

The amygdala is believed to be critical for learning about and storing the emotional aspects of experience, Fanselow said, and it also serves as an alarm to activate a cascade of biological systems to protect the body in times of danger. The bed nuclei are a set of forebrain gray matter surrounding the stria terminalis; neurons here receive information from the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and communicate with several lower brain regions that control stress responses and defensive behaviors.

"Our results suggest some optimism that when a particular brain region that is thought to be essential for a function is lost, other brain regions suddenly are freed to take on the task," Fanselow said. "If we can find ways of promoting this compensation, then we may be in a better position to help patients who have lost memory function due to brain damage, such as those who have had a stroke or have Alzheimer's disease.

"Perhaps this research can eventually lead to new drugs and teaching regimens that facilitate plasticity in the regions that have the potential to compensate for the damaged areas," he said.

While the current study shows this relationship for emotional learning, additional research in Fanselow's laboratory is beginning to suggest this is a general property of memory.

Fanselow's PNAS study was federally funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Co-authors include lead author Andrew Poulos, a research scientist in Fanselow's laboratory; Ravikumar Ponnusamy, also a research scientist in Fanselow's laboratory; and Hong-Wei Dong, UCLA assistant adjunct professor of neurology and a member of UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging.

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Tongue piercing may cause gapped teeth; could cost thousands of dollars in orthodontic repairs

Islamabad, Aug 3 (Newswire): Mark this one down as a parental nightmare.

First, your child gets her tongue pierced. Then, as if you needed something else, she starts "playing" with the tiny barbell-shaped stud, pushing it against her upper front teeth. And before you know it, she forces a gap between those teeth -- a fraction-of-an-inch gap that may cost thousands of dollars in orthodontic bills to straighten.

How and why this happens has been documented in a case study by University at Buffalo researchers published in the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics.

"It is a basic tenet of orthodontic that force, over time, moves teeth," explains the study's primary investigator, Sawsan Tabbaa, DDS, MS, assistant professor of orthodontics at the UB School of Dental Medicine.

Tabbaa notes that a previous UB dental school survey study of Buffalo high school students revealed that the presence of a barbell implant/stud caused a damaging habit whereby subjects pushed the metal stud up against and between their upper front teeth, a habit commonly referred to among the students as "playing."

"And it happened in very high percent of the cases," said Tabbaa.

That repeated "playing" with the stud may result in a gap as is demonstrated in Tabbaa's current case study.

The study involved a 26- year-old female patient examined at UB's orthodontic clinic who complained that a large space had developed between her upper central incisors or upper front teeth. The patient also had a tongue piercing that held a barbell-shaped tongue stud.

The tongue was pierced seven years earlier and every day for seven years she had pushed the stud between her upper front teeth, creating the space between them and, subsequently, habitually placing it in the space. The patient did not have a space between her upper front teeth prior to the tongue piercing.

"The barbell is never removed because the tongue is so vascular that leaving the stud out can result in healing of the opening in the tongue, said Tabbaa, "so it makes perfect sense that constant pushing of the stud against the teeth -- every day with no break -- will move them or drive them apart."

The patient provided the research team with photos that demonstrated she had no diastema, or space, prior to having her tongue pierced. For the purposes of treating this patient's space, it was assumed that positioning of the tongue stud between the maxillary central incisors or "playing" caused the midline space.

Her treatment involved a fixed braces appliance to push the front teeth back together.

Tongue piercing can result in serious injury not just to teeth but has also been associated with hemorrhage, infection, chipped and fractured teeth, trauma to the gums and, in the worst cases, brain abscess, said Tabbaa.

"The best way to protect your health, your teeth and your money is to avoid tongue piercing."

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