Cut Heating Costs by Winterizing Your Home – Home Improvement (NewsUSA) – As Old Man Winter makes his mighty push, 79 percent of Americans expect to pay the same or more to heat their homes as compared to last winter, according to a recent survey …
See on www.freedom-factor.com
An advertisement of Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner jet is seen at New Tokyo international airport in Narita, east of Tokyo Janauary 9, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Shohei Miyano
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday it would temporarily ground Boeing Co’s 787s after a second incident involving battery failures caused one of the Dreamliner passenger jets to make an emergency landing in Japan.
The FAA said airlines would have to demonstrate that the lithium ion batteries involved were safe before they could resume flying Boeing’s newest commercial airliner, but gave no details on when that could occur.
Boeing could not be immediately reached for comment.
All Nippon Airways Co Ltd said instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings. The incident was described by a transport ministry official as “highly serious” – language used in international safety circles as indicating there could have been an accident.
Boeing shares fell 2 percent in after-hours trading to $72.80 after the FAA announcement.
The 787, which has a list price of $207 million, represents a leap in the way planes are designed and built, but the project has been plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Some have suggested Boeing’s rush to get planes built after those delays resulted in the recent problems, a charge the company denies.
The use of new battery technology is among the cost-saving features of the 787, which Boeing says burns 20 percent less fuel than rival jetliners using older technology.
Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire if they are overcharged and, once alight, they are difficult to put out as the chemicals produce oxygen, Boeing’s chief engineer for the 787, Mike Sinnett, told reporters last week. He said lithium-ion was not the only battery choice, but “it was the right choice”.
In Asia, only the Japanese and Air India have the Dreamliner in service, but other airlines are among those globally to have ordered around 850 of the new aircraft.
Boeing has said it will at least break even on the cost of building the 1,100 new 787s it expects to deliver over the next decade. Some analysts, however, say Boeing may never make money from the aircraft, given its enormous development cost.
Any additional cost from fixing problems discovered by the string of recent incidents would affect those forecasts and could hit Boeing’s bottom line more quickly if it has to stop delivering planes, analysts said.
(Additional reporting by Olivier Fabre, Kentaro Sugiyama, Mari Saito, Yoshiyuki Osada, Deborah Charles, Tim Hepher, Anurag Kotoky, Jaroslaw Kowalski, Danilo Masoni and James Topham; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Gary Hill and Andre Grenon)
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled to a five-year low last week, a hopeful sign for the sluggish labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the largest weekly drop since February 2010.
The prior week’s claims figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.
While last week’s decline ended four straight weeks of increases, it is probably not the start of a new trend or a sign of a material shift in labor market conditions as claims tend to be very volatile around this time of the year.
This is because of large swings in the model used by the department to iron out seasonal fluctuations.
A Labor Department analyst said the model had expected a large increase in claims last week, but the actual number of filings only showed a modest increase, leading to a big decline in the seasonally adjusted figure.
He said there was nothing unusual in the state level data and that no states had been estimated.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 6,750 to 359,250, suggesting some improvement in underlying labor market conditions.
The claims data covered the survey week for January’s nonfarm payrolls. Job growth has been gradual, with employers adding 155,000 new positions in December. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.8 percent last month.
Job gains averaged 153,000 jobs per month in 2012, little changed from 2011. The sluggish labor market and subdued inflation pressures are likely to keep the Federal Reserve on its ultra easy monetary policy course.
The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 87,000 to 3.21 million in the week ended January 5.
The four-week average of the so-called continuing claims was the lowest since July 2008.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
U.S.President Barack Obama addresses a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the East Room of the White House in Washington, January 11, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON |
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House would be taking a risk if it tries to make a constitutional end-run around Congress’ authority to raise the debt ceiling, legal experts said.
The “public debt” clause of the 14th Amendment is being cited by a number of lawmakers as giving President Barack Obama a legal way to issue debt and pay bills, working around the debt ceiling and avoiding default.
The 14th Amendment is best known for extending civil rights protections in the wake of the Civil War. The amendment’s fourth section was designed to guarantee Union debt incurred during the war, including compensation due to Union soldiers and their widows.
The clause states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
On Friday, Senate Democratic leaders told Obama to be ready to take “any lawful” steps to ensure that the United States did not trigger a global economic crisis.
Obama has said he would not negotiate with Republicans in Congress on the debt ceiling, increasing the prospect that they may try to block an increase in the borrowing limit.
Democrats hope to avoid a replay of the 2011 debt ceiling deadlock that pushed the country to the brink of default.
One congressional aide said using the provision was the only potential option available to Obama if Congress balks.
But some legal scholars say the provision does not give the president the authority to raise or ignore the $16.4 trillion debt cap.
“I don’t think the language of the 14th Amendment authorizes it,” said Erwin Chereminsky, professor at University of California Irvine School of Law. “The debt ceiling is set by statute, and the president can’t change statutes unilaterally.”
Eric Posner, a University of Chicago law professor, said the provision is vague and “does not implicitly give the president authority to do anything.”
“It’s not a very strong legal argument,” Posner said.
The public debt section’s only Supreme Court test, in 1935, had nothing to do with the debt ceiling.
“Nobody really knows what would violate that section (the 14th Amendment) since it’s so far removed from what the original idea was,” said Gerard Magliocca, a professor at Indiana University School of Law. “There’s not much law on it, so it’s really hard to come up with any firm conclusions.”
On December 31, the Treasury reached the limit on how much it is legally allowed to borrow and is now using emergency maneuvers to continue paying government bills such as interest on U.S. bonds and military salaries.
Those measures, which include tapping certain government pension funds, are due to run their course around mid-February, giving Congress around five weeks to raise the ceiling.
The debt limit only allows the Treasury to borrow funds to pay for existing obligations that Congress and the president have already agreed upon. Although Congress has routinely increased the limit since it was established in 1917, it has become more contentious since annual federal budget deficits have been topping $1 trillion, with conservatives in Congress using it as leverage to demand spending cuts.
BACK-UP PLANS
With fears that Congress will not act in time, the 14th Amendment provision has surfaced as a backup plan along with another offbeat proposal to mint a trillion dollar platinum coin.
Although the White House has said it does not believe that there is a constitutional workaround for the debt ceiling, Obama has repeatedly said he will not negotiate with Republican lawmakers who want to win concessions on federal spending before agreeing to a debt limit increase.
That has raised speculation that the Democratic president will eventually be forced to rely on the Constitution to avoid a debt default and ensuing havoc on global financial markets.
Even if Obama tried to move forward without congressional approval, the action could come too late to shore up investor confidence if it is already shattered. Bonds could be challenged as unconstitutional.
“The Treasury market is viewed as the largest, most liquid and from a credit stand point, the least risky market in world,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. McCarthy said if the credibility of the United States were to take a hit, that market would lose all of those attributes.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
An exterior shot of the New York Stock Exchange in New York December 20, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Andrew Kelly
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The biggest weekly inflow into U.S.-based equities mutual funds in more than 11 years could be a sign that stocks are coming back into favor for a broad swath of investors after lawmakers avoided the fiscal cliff, some top money managers said.
“We are at an inflection point where, especially in the U.S., you’ll start to see net inflows into equities,” said Margaret Patel, senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management, which oversees $331 billion in assets. “The risk-taker will be rewarded this year.”
In the week ended Wednesday, investors in U.S.-based funds poured $7.53 billion into stock mutual funds while exchange-traded funds investing in equities gained $10.78 billion in new cash, according to data from Thomson Reuters’ Lipper service.
The inflow into U.S. stock mutual funds was the biggest since May 2001, and the $18.32 billion aggregate injection of money into equities funds was the biggest since mid-2008.
Separately, EPFR estimated that net inflows into global equity funds, including ETFs, in the same week hit $22.2 billion – the highest since September 2007 and the second highest since comparable data began in 1996.
Since the U.S. Congress agreed on tax hikes for the higher paid and averted the fiscal cliff on January 1, the S&P 500 stock index has climbed more than 3 percent. Last year, including dividends, it returned about 16 percent.
BROKERS LESS CONVINCED
An increasing appetite for U.S. equities is seen by major investors as a sign of rising confidence in the U.S. economy but also an indication of how few appealing alternatives there are given that money market funds yield virtually nothing and bond yields have sunk.
Some brokerage executives are less convinced than the fund managers that sentiment has changed as they point to continued distrust among retail investors about the stock market and whether the odds are stacked against them. Many of these mom-and-pop investors are also very concerned about the impact of further battles in Washington over the debt ceiling and spending cuts.
Still, the fund managers, particularly fixed-income investors, have warned that the gains in bond prices in recent years cannot go on forever. Junk bonds and corporate debt “which we felt good about a year ago… we now feel OK about,” said Tad Rivelle, chief investment officer of fixed income at money manager TCW, where he helps oversee $135 billion in assets.
The average yield on U.S. high-yield “junk” debt fell below 6 percent this week for the first time ever, according to the Barclays Capital High Yield bond index.
Loomis Sayles & Co Vice-Chairman Dan Fuss, one of the best-known bond fund managers in the world with $182 billion in assets under management, has been raising warning flags that an extended period of rising interest rates is on the horizon and bond investors should adjust their portfolios while they can. “U.S. stocks are the place to be relative to U.S. bonds, in general,” Fuss said.
On January 1, after weeks of uncertainty and fears that the U.S. was going to be hit by big spending cuts and tax rises that would have sent the economy over the “fiscal cliff” and probably into a recession, President Barack Obama and Congress reached a deal that averted the most draconian of the measures. Most of the tax increases only hit the highest income Americans and spending cuts were postponed.
Patel said “relief” that taxes on capital gains and dividends didn’t go up across the board encouraged many investors to put money back to work in stock mutual funds.
Retail investors may have an “aha” moment if they contrast 2012′s equity returns against much weaker returns from money-market, municipal bond and other fixed-income holdings, said Barbara Reinhard, chief investment strategist in the private banking Americas division of Credit Suisse AG.
“It may give them confidence that the equity market is the place to go back to for wealth creation and capital appreciation,” she said. “You might see a rotation attempting to catch up on the misses of 2012.”
BITTER MEMORIES
In a report sent to some Credit Suisse advisers and clients this week, however, Patel acknowledged that many investors are more affected by the memory of losses than the hope of gains.
“Investors in this group, still reeling from the devastating equity market action during the financial crisis, remain very reluctant to invest in equities,” she wrote.
Equally concerning is a tendency to believe that the fixed-income returns that sustained investors during the crisis can continue despite a more stable economy and declining bond returns, some brokerage executives said.
“At some point you have to think they will see stocks have been awfully good and there is no other game in town, but I said that last year, too,” lamented Arthur Grant, chief executive of Cadaret Grant & Co, a Syracuse, New York-based broker-dealer that employs about 1,000 contract brokers.
He said he doubted that the past week was the turning point. “It’s hard for me to imagine that a single week would make that much of a difference in people’s concerns,” he said. “They’re incredibly concerned about the debt limit and getting our fiscal affairs in order, and it’s much stronger than fiscal cliff fears because they knew that one way or another their taxes were going up.”
While the higher paid got hit with substantial tax increases, many people are facing a more modest increase – through higher payroll taxes.
Fractious debates in Washington over raising the U.S. government’s debt ceiling and cutting government spending raise fears of a U.S. government debt default that could throw global markets into frenzy, brokerage executives said.
“There is a lot of money sitting around in risk-free assets that can go into equities, and I think retail investors are getting more bullish,” said Fred Tomczyk, chief executive of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, the second largest discount brokerage. “The risk is that they will screw up in Washington.”
In the latest week to January 9, investors still sought riskier bonds and pumped $1.11 billion into high-yield “junk” bond funds, the most since mid-September, according to Lipper. Investors also gave $2.16 billion to investment-grade corporate bond funds, while taking $1.07 billion out of U.S. Treasury funds, the most since October of last year.
EPFR’s latest weekly figures showed a net $7.39 billion inflow into emerging market equity funds and $3.4 billion into world equity funds. Inflows into U.S. equity funds, at $10.35 billion, were at a six-week high.
(With reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Martin Howell)
1 of 8. U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai shake hands at the conclusion of a news conference at the White House in Washington January 11, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama’s determination to wind down a long, unpopular war.
Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground in talks at the White House on U.S. demands for immunity from prosecution for any American troops who stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, a concession that could allow Obama to keep at least a small residual force there.
Both leaders also threw their support behind tentative Afghan reconciliation efforts with Taliban insurgents, endorsing the establishment of a Taliban political office in Qatar in hopes of bringing insurgents to inter-Afghan talks.
Outwardly, at least, the meeting appeared to be something of a success for both men, who need to show their vastly different publics they are making progress in their goals for Afghanistan. There were no signs of the friction that has frequently marked Obama’s relations with Karzai.
Karzai’s visit came amid stepped-up deliberations in Washington over the size and scope of the U.S. military role in Afghanistan once the NATO-led combat mission concludes at the end of 2014.
“By the end of next year, 2014, the transition will be complete,” Obama said at a news conference with Karzai standing at his side. “Afghans will have full responsibility for their security, and this war will come to a responsible end.”
The Obama administration has been considering a residual force of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops – far fewer than some U.S. commanders propose – to conduct counterterrorism operations and to train and assist Afghan forces.
A top Obama aide said this week that the administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal after 2014, a move that some experts say would be disastrous for the weak Afghan central government and its fledgling security apparatus.
Obama on Friday left open the possibility of that so-called “zero option” when he several times used the word “if” to suggest that a post-2014 U.S. presence was far from guaranteed.
Insisting that Afghan forces were “stepping up” faster than expected, Obama said Afghan troops would take over the lead in combat missions across the country this spring, rather than waiting until the summer as originally planned. NATO troops will then assume a “support role,” he said.
“It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty,” Obama said.
Obama said final decisions on this year’s troop cuts and the post-2014 U.S. military role were still months away, but his comments suggested he favors a stepped-up withdrawal timetable.
There are some 66,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan. Washington’s NATO allies have been steadily reducing their troop numbers as well despite doubts about the ability of Afghan forces to shoulder full responsibility for security.
‘WAR OF NECESSITY’
Karzai voiced satisfaction over Obama’s agreement to turn over control of detention centers to Afghan authorities, a source of dispute between their countries, although the White House released no details of the accord on that subject.
Obama once called Afghanistan a “war of necessity.” But he is heading into a second term looking for an orderly way out of the conflict, which was sparked by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by an al Qaeda network harbored by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
He faces the challenge of pressing ahead with his re-election pledge to continue winding down the war while preparing the Afghan government to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence once most NATO forces are gone.
Former Senator Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee to become defense secretary, is likely to favor a sizable troop reduction.
Karzai, meanwhile, is eager to show he is working to ensure Afghans regain full control of their territory after a foreign military presence of more than 11 years.
Asked whether the cost of the war in lives and money was worth it, Obama said: “We achieved our central goal … or have come very close to achieving our central goal, which is to de-capacitate al Qaeda, to dismantle them, to make sure that they can’t attack us again.”
He added: “Have we achieved everything that some might have imagined us achieving in the best of scenarios? Probably not. This is a human enterprise, and you fall short of the ideal.”
Obama made clear that unless the Afghan government agrees to legal immunity for U.S. troops, he would withdraw them all after 2014 – as happened in Iraq at the end of 2011.
Karzai, who criticized NATO over civilian deaths, said that with Obama’s agreement to transfer detention centers and the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghan villages, “I can go to the Afghan people and argue for immunity” in a bilateral security pact being negotiated.
Addressing students at Georgetown University later in the day, the Afghan leader predicted with certainty that the United States would keep a limited number of troops in Afghanistan after 2014, in part to battle al Qaeda and its affiliates.
“One of the reasons the United States will continue a limited presence in Afghanistan after 2014 in certain facilities in Afghanistan is because we have decided together to continue to fight against al Qaeda,” Karzai said. “So there will be no respite in that.”
Many of Obama’s Republican opponents have criticized him for setting a withdrawal timetable and accuse him of undercutting the U.S. mission by reducing troop numbers too quickly.
Karzai and his U.S. partners have not always seen eye to eye, even though the American military has been crucial to preventing insurgent attempts to oust him.
In October, Karzai accused Washington of playing a double game by fighting the war in Afghan villages instead of going after insurgents who cross the border from neighboring Pakistan.
In Friday’s news conference, Karzai did not back down from his previous comments that foreigners were responsible for some of the official corruption critics say is rampant in Afghanistan. But he acknowledged: “There is corruption in the Afghan government that we are fighting against.”
Adding to tensions has been a rash of deadly “insider” attacks by Afghan soldiers and police against NATO-led troops training or working with them. U.S. forces have also been involved in a series of incidents that enraged Afghans, including burning Korans, which touched off days of rioting.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Mark Felsenthal, Jeff Mason, Phil Stewart, Tabassum Zakaria, David Alexander; Editing by Warren Strobel and Will Dunham)
Credit cards are pictured in a wallet in Washington, February 21, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Stelios Varias
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are beginning to feel the pinch from Washington’s decision to embrace austerity measures aimed at bringing down the nation’s budget deficit.
Paychecks across the country have shrunk over the last week due to higher federal tax rates, and workers are already cutting back on spending, which will drag on the economy this year.
In Warren, Rhode Island, Ben DeCastro got his first paycheck on Friday in which taxes on his wages rose by 2 percentage points. That works out to about $30 a week.
“You sit back and do the calculation, and that’s $30 I’m not going to spend at a restaurant,” said DeCastro.
He said he worries that people hit by higher taxes will spend less at the chain of furniture stores where he works as a marketing manager.
Politicians in Washington made much hubbub last week about a bipartisan deal to soften or postpone some $600 billion in scheduled tax hikes and government spending cuts. President Barack Obama said the deal would shield 98 percent of Americans from a middle-class tax hike.
Nevertheless, for most workers, rich and poor alike, taxes went up on December 31 as a temporary payroll tax cut expired. That cut – a 2 percentage point reduction in a levy that funds Social Security – was put in place two years ago to help the economy, which was still smarting from the 2007-09 recession.
About 160 million workers pay this tax, and the increase will cost the average worker about $700 a year, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
“It stinks,” said Beverly Renfroe, an accountant for a realty firm in Jackson, Mississippi. “I definitely noticed a decrease.”
The pain will trickle through the economy over the next few weeks. Already, the new rate of 6.2 percent has trimmed paychecks for about half of the 200,000 employees whose paychecks are processed by Advantage Payroll Services, a payroll firm based in Auburn, Maine.
“HEADWIND TO GROWTH”
Economists estimate the payroll tax hike will reduce household incomes by a collective $125 billion this year. Some households could reduce contributions to retirement accounts or other savings, but most are also expected to cut back on spending.
That alone could reduce economic growth this year by about 0.6 percentage point, said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York City.
“The headwind to growth should be noticeable,” he said.
Most mainstream economists say the government should still be trying to stimulate the economy by lowering taxes or raising spending to help bring down the 7.8 percent jobless rate.
Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ban Bernanke has said Congress could consider short-term stimulus measures if they can be coupled with a plan to tame the deficit over the long run.
But a consensus has emerged between Congress and the White House that the federal government should step up the pace at which it cuts the deficit, which ballooned during the recession.
That decision is having repercussions across the country.
In Bergenfield, New Jersey, Evelyn Weiss Francisco has put off plans to upgrade her cell phone and thinks she might go to fewer music concerts. A director at a public relations firm, she thinks the higher payroll taxes will cost her about $1,000 this year.
Some Americans will also pay higher income taxes this year. Congress and Obama let income tax rates rise for households making more than $450,000 a year, a partial repeal of tax cuts put in place under President George W. Bush. The wealthy will also pay a new tax to help fund a health insurance reform passed in 2010.
These will have a smaller impact on the wider economy because they affect fewer people. But taken together, this year’s tax hikes could subtract a full percentage point from growth, Feroli said.
Most economists see economic growth of roughly 2 percent this year, a lackluster pace held back by the government’s austerity measures that is likely to do little to reduce unemployment.
Failure to postpone government spending cuts due to begin around March would slow growth more, further frustrating the economic recovery.
DROP THAT BAGEL
The blow to the economy from the tax hikes will hurt the most during the first half of the year as people adapt to their smaller paychecks.
Consumer spending, which drives more than two thirds of the economy, will likely grow at a mere 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter, and 1.5 percent in the second, said Sven Jari Stehn, an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York.
Nicki Hagen, who received her first reduced paycheck on January 4 and then another on Friday, estimates the higher taxes will shrink her paychecks by about $10 a week.
She has already started holding back from coffee-and-bagel runs made by coworkers at the home improvement company where she works as an office administrator in New York City.
She expects a much bigger hit to her family’s income when her husband gets his first paycheck for 2013 on Tuesday.
The two will then sit down and figure out how to budget their money. They might cut cable channels, or take vacation days when their daughter is out of school to save on babysitter expenses.
“This is going to affect our lives,” she said.
(Additional reporting by Emily Le Coz in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Xavier Briand)
MOGADISHU |
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – French military helicopters attacked a base belonging to al Shabaab insurgents in southern Somalia to rescue a French secret agent held hostage since 2009, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.
French officials were not immediately available to comment on reports of the raid, in which a Somali government official said at least two people were killed.
France carried out air strikes against al Qaeda linked rebels in Mali in west Africa on Friday.
The official for al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said one of the French commandos had been killed by anti-aircraft fire from the rebels.
The government official in Bula Mareer, about 120 km (75 miles) south of Mogadishu, said the helicopters attacked on early on Saturday and were believed to have been on a mission to rescue Denis Allex. He did not confirm which country the helicopters belonged to.
Allex was one of two French intelligence officers from the DGSE agency kidnapped by al Shabaab in Mogadishu in 2009 but one, Marc Aubriere, escaped a month later. Allex has been held ever since. His fate was not immediately clear.
“Helicopters attacked al Shabaab at 2.00 am this morning. Two civilians died in the crossfire,” Ahmed Omar Mohamed, deputy chairman for lower Shabelle region, told Reuters.
“The helicopters resumed attack after hours and targeted a house – so far we have no more details.”
The al Shabaab official, who asked not to be named, said they exchanged fire with French commandoes.
“Three helicopters dropped French commandoes. We exchanged fire,” the official told Reuters. “They attacked us in a house where they thought their Frenchman was held.
“We drove them back. They missed one commando and then the helicopters resumed attacking but we repulsed them using anti-aircraft guns. The helicopters lost one commando whose body is lying in the town.”
VIDEO PLEA
The French government has previously said the two men were in the Somali capital to train local forces before being kidnapped.
After his abduction al Shabaab issued a series of demands, which included an end to French support for the Somali government and the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers, whose 17,600-strong troops are helping battle the rebels.
Given the sensitivity of Allex’s work, Paris has been cautious when commenting on the situation and there are few public campaigns for his release.
A video of Allex pleading with French President Francois Hollande to negotiate his release and save his life appeared on a website in October used by Islamist militant groups around the world. Reuters could not immediately verify its authenticity.
Hollande said at the time the government was seeking to start talks with any party able to facilitate Allex’s release.
Bula Mareer residents said they feared there would be a repeat raid.
“We are afraid the helicopters will return to bomb the town; (al Shabaab) fighters are on the move,” said Rukia Hassan, a mother of three.
Al Shabaab fled its last urban bastion of Kismayu in October during an offensive by African Union and Somali government troops. The loss of the port city was a major blow to the rebels, depriving them of revenue from taxing local businesses and shipping.
Malian government troops drove back Islamist rebels from a strategic central town after France intervened on Friday with air strikes to halt advances by the militants controlling the country’s desert north.
(Editing by George Obulutsa and Alison Williams)
1 of 8. Smoke rises after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad at Deir Al-Zor, in this picture provided by Shaam News Network and taken January 9, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Muhammad Younis/Shaam News Network/Handout
MOSCOW/BEIRUT |
MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country’s conflict.
Some 60,000 Syrians have been killed during the 21-month-old revolt and world powers are divided over how to stop the escalating bloodshed. Government aircraft bombed outer districts of Damascus on Saturday after being grounded for a week by stormy weather, opposition activists in the capital said.
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement following talks on Friday with the United States and Brahimi reiterated calls for an end to violence in Syria, but there was no sign of a breakthrough.
Brahimi said the issue of Assad, whom the United States, European powers and Gulf-led Arab states insist must step down to end the civil war, appeared to be a sticking point at the meeting in Geneva.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said: “As before, we firmly uphold the thesis that questions about Syria’s future must be decided by the Syrians themselves, without interference from outside or the imposition of prepared recipes for development.”
Russia has been Assad’s most powerful international backer, joining with China to block three Western- and Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed to pressure him or push him from power. Assad can also rely on regional powerhouse Iran.
In Geneva, Russia called for “a political transition process” based on an agreement by foreign powers last June.
Brahimi, who is trying to build on the agreement reached in Geneva on June 30, has met three times with senior Russian and U.S. diplomats since early December and met Assad in Damascus.
Russia and the United States disagreed over what the June agreement meant for Assad, with Washington saying it sent a clear signal he must go and Russia contending it did not.
CONFLICT INTENSIFIES
Moscow has been reluctant to endorse the “Arab Spring” popular revolts of the last two years, saying they have increased instability in the Middle East and created a risk of radical Islamists seizing power.
Although Russia sells arms to Syria and rents one of its naval bases, the economic benefit of its support for Assad is minimal. Analysts say President Vladimir Putin wants to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the U.N. Security Council to bring down governments it opposes.
However, as rebels gain ground in the war, Russia has given indications it is preparing for Assad’s possible exit, while continuing to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers.
Opposition activists say a military escalation and the hardship of winter have accelerated the death toll.
Rebel forces have acquired more powerful anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons during attacks on Assad’s military bases.
President Assad’s forces have employed increasing amounts of military hardware including Scud-type ballistic missiles in the past two months. New York-based Human Rights Watch said they had also used incendiary cluster bombs that are banned by most nations.
STALEMATE IN CITIES
The week-long respite from aerial strikes has been marred by snow and thunderstorms that affected millions displaced by the conflict, which has now reached every region of Syria.
On Saturday, the skies were clear and jets and helicopters fired missiles and dropped bombs on a line of towns to the east of Damascus where rebels have pushed out Assad’s ground forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The British-based group, which is linked to the opposition, said it had no immediate information on casualties from the strikes on districts including Maleiha and farmland areas.
Rebels control large swathes of rural land around Syria but are stuck in a stalemate with Assad’s forces in cities, where the army has reinforced positions.
State TV said government forces had repelled an attack by terrorists – a term it uses for the armed opposition – on Aleppo’s international airport, now used as a helicopter base.
Reuters cannot independently confirm reports due to severe reporting restrictions imposed by the Syrian authorities and security constraints.
On Friday, rebels seized control of one of Syria’s largest helicopter bases, Taftanaz in Idlib province, their first capture of a military airfield.
Eight-six people were killed on Friday, including 30 civilians, the Observatory said.
(Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
Lee Woodruff, journalist and co-founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation ReMIND (www.remind.org), learned first-hand about the toll that pain can take on a family when her husband was critically injured in Iraq while working as a broadcast news correspondent. She also learned about the importance of taking an active role in her husband’s care and speaking up.
“It’s important to remember that you can be your best advocate when it comes to pain care. Learning as much as you can about your pain, and asking for help is a great way to start your advocacy journey. This isn’t a time to be shy,” said Mrs. Woodruff.
The percentage of Americans reporting chronic pain is on the rise. New data from the National Center for Health Statistics recently show that 28 percent of Americans experience low-back pain, an estimate that has increased steadily over the past decade.2
According to pain specialist Donna Kalauokalani, MD, MPH, pain affects our lives in surprising ways. “Pain doesn’t discriminate, but we know that our most vulnerable populations often have the hardest time accessing pain care,” said Dr. Kalauokalani. “People with pain and their caregivers can lend a powerful voice to improving pain care through advocacy.”
For people with pain, it’s easy to get discouraged. But there is hope. Even now, the National Institutes of Health are working across agencies to set a pain research agenda. Advocates are working to advance recommendations put forth by the Institute of Medicine to help improve pain care through increased patient and provider education. Telling your story is just one way that YOU can take action and help improve care and access to care for people who live with pain. Learn more at www.IntheFaceofPain.com.
1. IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2011. Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
2. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2011: With Special Feature on Socioeconomic Status and Health. Hyattsville, MD. 2012.
