US seeks transfer of 2 Gitmo detainees to Algeria

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration is planning to transfer two Guantanamo Bay detainees to Algeria, the first movement of terrorist suspects from the prison since the president announced a renewed push to close the contentious facility run by the U.S. military in Cuba.

The White House said Friday it was starting the transfers as part of President Barack Obama's goal to close the prison, a campaign promise that has eluded him since he took office. The move signaled a new push to reduce the population of 166 detainees at the prison, where dozens are on a hunger strike to draw attention to their indefinite detention.

The White House said the two detainees will not be identified until after the transfer, which can't come until after a 30-day waiting period. Administration officials also wouldn't say what security assurances they had from the Algerian government as part of the arrangement.

An administration official said the detainees were chosen because Algeria is a close U.S. ally that has successfully managed detainees in the past ? none of the previous 12 to be released have returned to terrorist activities, unlike some returned to other countries. The official, speaking on a condition of anonymity without authorization to publicly discuss the process, said it has been in the works since several months before Obama announced his intention this spring to push anew for closure.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed off on the transfer based on the recommendation of an interagency team after a months-long review. As part of the certification process that has been required by Congress for more than two years, Guantanamo detainees can be transferred if the defense secretary certifies that the individual is not at risk to engage in terrorist activities.

That's a high bar that had slowed the transfer process with 166 remaining at Guantanamo, with the last transfer in September 2012.

Seven Algerian detainees remain at Guantanamo, including five who have been cleared for transfer. Attorney Cori Crider of the British human rights group Reprieve was on a previously scheduled phone call with one of them, 34-year-old Nabil Hadjarab, when the White House announced the certification. She said they were both sort of "shocked" about the prospect of movement. Crider said she did not know whether he or her other Algerian client, 43-year-old Ahmed Bel Bacha, were among the two up for transfer.

The hunger strike, in which both her clients have taken part, and pressure from members of Congress have clearly forced the administration to take action, Crider said. "I think this month there has been more attention and more pressure on the administration in some years to make some progress and there is finally a response," she said in a phone interview from London.

As of Friday, the military said 68 prisoners met the criteria to be classified as being on hunger strike, but officials have said most of the men are eating at least occasional meals and none is in immediate danger. Of the 68, 44 have lost enough weight that the military says they meet the criteria to be force-fed if necessary.

In the past, Bel Bacha has said he does not wish to return to Algeria, where he has been convicted in absentia for belonging to a terrorist group and given a 20-year-sentence.

In 2010, six Algerian detainees resisted efforts to be repatriated, saying they'd rather stay at the prison camp than return to their home country. The most prominent case was that of Aziz Abdul Naji, who argued all the way to the Supreme Court that he might face torture in Algeria. The Supreme Court rejected his plea, and he was transferred in 2010, indicted and placed under judicial supervision.

Administration official say they carefully examine standards of treatment in receiving countries as part of the repatriation process and are confident the Algerians being transferred will be treated humanely.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., was quick to criticize the move because of security concerns.

"With 28 percent of former Guantanamo detainees re-engaging or suspected of re-engaging in terrorist activities, I am deeply troubled by the president's plan to release detainees to a country where there is an active al-Qaida affiliate," she said in a statement. "Rather than releasing detainees who could potentially return to the battlefield, the administration should focus on developing a coherent policy for the long-term detention of foreign terrorists ? something it has failed to do after four and a half years."

Some Democratic lawmakers, however, applauded the certification and called on the Obama administration to work to transfer out the 84 other detainees who have been cleared. "At a cost of $454 million annually ? or $2.7 million per detainee ? it is in the national security interests of the United States to transfer these detainees to their home countries rather than keep them at our isolated military base in Cuba," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement.

Despite Obama's effort to shutter the prison, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress have repeatedly resisted. The House voted 247-175 Tuesday to reject an amendment that would have allowed Obama to begin closing the facility.

At his speech in May, Obama announced several steps to move detainees out of Guantanamo, including a lifting on the ban of transfers to Yemen because of security concerns there and the appointment of senior officials at the State and Defense departments responsible for negotiating transfers.

Last month, Washington attorney Clifford Sloan was named to reopen the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure, but the Pentagon official has yet to be announced. William Lietzau, deputy secretary of defense for detainee affairs, who has been the top Pentagon adviser on Guantanamo, told Pentagon colleagues Thursday that he's leaving to take a position in the private sector.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and Donna Cassata and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-seeks-transfer-2-gitmo-detainees-algeria-204017443.html

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Gunman among 7 dead after Fla. apartment shootout

HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) ? A gunman holding hostages inside a South Florida apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said.

Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez told The Associated Press that police got a call around 6:30 p.m. Friday that shots had been fired in a building with dozens of apartments in Hialeah, a few miles north of Miami.

Rodriguez said that when police arrived, they discovered an active shooter situation: "He's inside the building, moving from floor to floor. Eventually he barricades himself in an apartment."

A crisis team was able to briefly establish communication with the man. Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of an apartment unit where he was holding two hostages.

But Rodriguez said the talks eventually "just fell apart." Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire.

"They made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages," Rodriguez said. Both hostages survived. Rodriguez said he didn't have any information on how long negotiations lasted.

He said police discovered two people, a male and female, shot to death in the hallway in front of one unit. Three more, a male and two females, were found shot and killed in another apartment on a different floor. Another man who was walking his children into an apartment across the street also was killed. Rodriguez said it wasn't immediately clear whether the gunman took aim at him from an upper-level balcony or if he was hit by a stray bullet.

Zulima Niebles said police told her that three of her family members were among the victims. She said her sister Merly Sophia Niebles, her sister's husband, and her sister's daughter Priscila Perez, 16, were all shot and killed.

Zulima Niebles' husband, Agustin Hernandez, was moving the family's things out of the apartment building and into his car Saturday. Among them were several photos, one showing the teen girl smiling in a red graduation gown, another of his sister-in-law in a white dress, wearing pearls.

Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said Priscila Perez, 16, was about to enter her senior year at the school.

"She was a lovely girl," Chavarri said through tears. "She was always happy and helping her classmates."

Officials were not identifying the gunman or victims. Rodriguez said police were still investigating.

Neighbor Fabian Valdes, who lives across the street from the site of the standoff, said he heard shots fired and then looked out his window and saw a man lying on the floor, outside the front lobby. He was on his back and had his arms and legs outstretched.

Valdes said he was in shock. "It's something you never expect," he said.

In Hialeah ? a suburb of about 230,000 residents, about three-quarters of whom are Cuban or Cuban-American ? the entrance to the quiet neighborhood lined with apartment buildings was blocked off early Saturday.

The standoff occurred in an aging beige five-story building with an open terrace in the middle. The apartment where neighbors said the shooting started was charred, the door and ceiling immediately outside burned black.

Miriam Valdes, 70, said she lives on the top floor ? one floor above where the shooting began. She said she heard gunfire and later saw smoke entering her apartment.

She described running in fear to the unit across the hall, where she stayed holed up as officers negotiated with the gunman.

From the apartment, Valdes said she could hear about eight officers talking with the gunman.

She said she heard the officers tell him to "let these people out."

"We're going to help you," she said they told him.

She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.

Ester Lazcano said she lives two doors down from where the shooting began and was in the shower when she heard the first shots. Then there were many more.

"I felt the shots," she said.

Neighbors said the gunman lived in the building with his mother, but police wouldn't confirm that information.

Rodriguez said police were still investigating identities of victims and the gunman, as well as a possible motive.

"Investigators are talking with families of the victims, neighbors, people that were present when all this began," he said. "That way we can start to piece together this huge puzzle that we're working with."

___

Associated Press writer Suzette Laboy contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunman-among-7-dead-fla-apartment-shootout-095137897.html

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Revealed: Great Companies Vs. Great Investments - Seeking Alpha

By Carla Fried

Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn (LNKD) have all earned a vaunted "wide economic moat" rating from Morningstar (Full Disclosure: Morningstar is an investor in YCharts). While all three companies enjoy fundamental competitive advantages that separate them from the crowd, right now they are a case study in how a great business does not necessarily make for a great investment.

With more than 200 million users who have gone through the sticky process of creating an online career profile, LinkedIn isn't just dominant online, it is actively disrupting the executive search industry.

Revenue from corporate hiring/recruitment (deemed Talent Solutions in LinkedIn-ese) accounts for nearly 60% of company-wide revenue (ads and premium subscriptions bring in the rest.) In the first quarter of this year, revenue from this segment grew 80% compared to a year earlier. If the economy continues to ever-so-slowly keep growing, that should provide a soft breeze tailwind for LinkedIn as more companies look to hire.

Great company, great business model. But not so great valuation, as a little investment analysis shows. LinkedIn currently trades at a 50% premium to Morningstar's estimate of the company's fair value price. That makes it the worst value among the 150 or so companies that Morningstar says have compelling wide moats. As Morningstar bluntly puts it: "Despite our optimism for the company, we don't believe investors would be adequately compensated for their risk if they were to overpay."

Or overstay. If you're sitting on a nice profit, this chart should encourage you to maybe take some of that off the table. What sort of rationalization can you come up with to explain a forward PE ratio running more than 1700x?.

LNKD PE Ratio TTM data by YCharts

Sure, wide moat companies can demand a premium; but owning a stock -- no matter how great the company -- that is deemed to be trading at a 50%+ premium to its fair value is bordering on gambling, not investing.

At a 14% premium to Morningstar's fair value estimate, Google rates as not cheap, but not screamingly expensive either. Sure a 14% discount would be nice -- the average for all wide moat stocks is a 4% discount to fair value -- but it's not as if Google has hit a speed bump of late. It's actually one of the few megacap global leaders that has been able to deliver strong revenue growth. Here's how Google's quarterly revenue growth stacks up to the five largest companies in the S&P 500: Apple (AAPL), Exxon Mobil (XOM), General Electric (GE), Chevron (CVX) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). Google's market cap ranks as the eighth highest in the S&P 500.

GOOG Revenue Quarterly YoY Growth data by YCharts

While Google is a better value relative to LinkedIn, investors decided to play catch up when Google delivered surprisingly strong first-quarter results in mid April: the stock is up 15%, compared to a 4% gain for the S&P 500. That run-up has pushed the stock's PE ratio above 25, the highest level coming out of the global recession and nearly 50% above where it was a year ago. Second quarter earnings will be released on July 18th.

Of the three Internet wide-moaters, Facebook is the only full-on value according to Morningstar, which estimates the stock currently trades at a 30% discount to its fair value. That's the second biggest discount among the 20 stocks in the Market Vectors Wide Moat Focus ETF (MOAT) that tracks Morningstar's Wide Moat index. Western Union (WU) currently trades at a 32% discount.

Granted, Morningstar's $34 fair value estimate would put the stock where it hasn't been since its May 2011 IPO.

FB data by YCharts

Morningstar is long-term bullish on Facebook's ability to increase ad revenue from an expanding user base. An average of 660 million daily users in the first quarter of this year was 26% higher than a year earlier; monthly active users hit 1.1 billion, a 23% increase from a year earlier. Mobile usage grew by 54%. The $1.25 billion in first-quarter ad revenue was 43% higher than a year earlier; total revenue grew 38%.

Morningstar analyst Rick Summer notes that Facebook will need to expand its ad revenue -- which accounts for 85% of Facebook's total revenue -- across the internet, rather than just relying on revenue from ads it can jam into its own users' news feed. But Summer doesn't see a Google/Facebook zero-sum death match for ad dollars. "Although they compete for display advertising dollars, we do not expect one firm to disrupt the other," Summer recently wrote.

Though all three companies have generated a wide moat rating, it's important to note that Morningstar also assigns a high level of uncertainty to its fair value estimates for each company. (That's the mid point of its uncertainty ratings, which run from low to extreme.) It's hard to have a high level of confidence in financial modeling, going out 10 years or more, when a company has only been publicly traded for little more than year (Facebook and LinkedIn), in addition to the ever-evolving nature of what is still a very young Internet business world. As Warren Buffett wrote in Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.B) 2007 shareholder letter, "A truly great business must have an enduring "moat" that protects excellent returns on invested capital. Business history is filled with "Roman Candles," companies whose moats proved illusory and were soon crossed."

It's going to take years before Facebook and LinkedIn can be judged on endurance. Google, public since 2004, is barely out of its infancy. Its current 15% return on invested capital (ROIC) is about half that of Apple, which only rates a "narrow" moat from Morningstar given the shifting nature of consumer technology tastes.

Carla Fried, a senior contributing editor at ycharts.com, has covered investing for more than 25 years. Her work appears in The New York Times, Bloomberg.com and Money Magazine. She can be reached at editor@ycharts.com. You can also request a demonstration of YCharts Platinum.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1563012-revealed-great-companies-vs-great-investments?source=feed

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Bankruptcy Lawyers See Land Of Opportunity In Detroit Crisis

By Nick Brown
July 21 (Reuters) - With more than $18 billion at stake in Detroit's restructuring, big law firms and other advisers are clamoring to represent the city's many creditors - including some advisers not exactly known for municipal work.
The city, which filed the largest-ever U.S. municipal bankruptcy on Thursday, tapped high-priced lawyers from Jones Day, financial advisers from Ernst & Young and restructuring consultants from Conway MacKenzie, court papers show.
For creditors and related parties, there is clearly a lot at stake. That means bondholders, insurers, retirees and others are sure to be accompanied in court by platoons of lawyers.
Detroit owes more than $8 billion in bond debt, and the insurers likely on the hook for those costs have already retained big-name law firms to take their cases.
Federal Guaranty Insurance Co tapped Weil Gotshal & Manges, according to a source close to the matter, who declined to be named because the information was not public as of Saturday. An attorney for Weil declined to comment.
David Dubrow, a lawyer at Arent Fox, confirmed on Saturday that he has been tapped by Ambac Financial Group.
And, according to the court's electronic docket, Syncora hired Kirkland & Ellis, known for its corporate bankruptcy work, while Assured Guaranty retained Winston & Strawn, and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp hired Sidley Austin.
Bond insurers will play a key role in Detroit's case. While a portion of the city's $1.13 billion in general obligation bonds are secured by city assets, about $651 million of it is secured only by the ability to raise taxes. The city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has said he will treat that portion of the debt as an unsecured claim.
That classification, which has been largely untested in federal courts, is likely to be hotly contested and possibly litigated by bondholders or their insurers.
Detroit also owes $5.7 billion in unfunded healthcare and other benefits to retirees, and has asked the judge to form a committee to look out for their interests. The Department of Justice may also appoint a committee of unsecured creditors in the case. Both moves would mean opportunities for professional advisers.
The city needs to negotiate new labor deals with unions, and its pension funds are underfunded by $3.5 billion, providing yet more opportunities for attorneys to advise creditors.
Chapter 9, the section of the bankruptcy code that governs municipal bankruptcies, is attractive for advisers, provided there is money to pay them. Unlike in Chapter 11, where billing is subject to court and regulatory review, Chapter 9 allows bills to stay between the adviser and its client.
In corporate restructurings, creditors, judges and the Justice Department pore over fees line by line, and can raise objections to unnecessary or overpriced items. Over the past few years, the Justice Department has ramped up its policing of high fees and has required bankruptcy lawyers to disclose more.
In municipal bankruptcies, fees could be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, but they do not need to be reported publicly in court.
"You're used to being in a world where you have to explain yourself, and suddenly you don't anymore," said a bankruptcy lawyer, who asked not to be named.
The catch is that, unlike in corporate bankruptcies, there is no mechanism under Chapter 9 to make the bankrupt entity pay certain creditors' fees. And corporate bankruptcies are generally more lucrative for advisers because there is often more money to go around.
But with $18.5 billion in debt, Detroit is an outlier among municipal bankruptcies, where advisers see the potential for high fees without the hassle of having to justify them in court.

A NEW FRONTIER
In the past, only a small handful of professionals were known for having expertise in municipal restructuring. But a recent slew of Chapter 9 filings has yielded many new faces, and Detroit's bankruptcy will only continue that trend.
"Every time a case gets bigger, there are new players," said Richard Levin, a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore who is representing the Detroit Institute of Arts in the restructuring.
Chapter 9 filings are rare, with only about 650 cases filed in the 75 years to 2012, mostly involving small municipal entities like sewer districts. But, the last three years have seen filings by the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Jefferson County, Alabama and the California cities of Stockton and San Bernardino.
And a concurrent lull in corporate bankruptcies has put strain on big restructuring firms like Weil Gotshal, which last month laid off 170 associates and support staff, driving professionals toward municipal work.
"Chapter 9 is not something I started out doing," said George South, a partner at DLA Piper who has become well-versed in the arena, representing creditor groups in the bankruptcies of both Harrisburg and Jefferson County.

PLENTY OF CONSTITUENCIES
In addition to general obligation bonds, Detroit owes nearly $6 billion in revenue bonds and $1.43 billion in pension certificates. Even though the bond insurers are likely to be the ones on the hook, the bondholders themselves will also "lawyer up."
Subsets of the holders may even band together to form committees if they feel a united front would better serve their interests, providing yet another potential path for advisers.
A number of other large law firms, including Brown Rudnick, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and DLA Piper, are involved in the case or looking for ways in, according to people familiar with the matter.
Even if advisers lose out on big-money clients, Detroit's restructuring calls for a slew of projects and transactions that will require their own armies of professionals.
"There's all kinds of consulting opportunities," said Levin, whose client, the Detroit Institute of Arts museum, is at the center of a dispute over whether the city can sell the museum's art collection.
Orr, the emergency manager, has outlined in court papers his plans to create a new water and sewer management authority, transfer Detroit's Belle Isle Park to the state of Michigan, and restructure Coleman A. Young airport, which has not serviced commercial jets in 13 years but which the city must maintain to keep some federal subsidies.
Each of those moves will require lawyers, consultants and financial advisers to strategize the most cost-efficient execution, said Kenneth Klee, a Chapter 9 expert and bankruptcy lawyer at Klee Tuchin Bogdanoff & Stern.
"Chapter Nines require complete expertise in the area of municipal finance," Klee said. "If you only have bankruptcy expertise, that's not enough."
Eventually, hedge funds and other investment vehicles could find ways into the case, as Orr has stressed the importance of new investment, particularly with respect to the proposed new water and sewer authority, which could finance its operations with new bond issuance.
The case could be a boon for smaller law firms, too.
While large, corporate creditors are apt to tap similarly colossal law firms with whom they have preexisting relationships, smaller or locally-based stakeholders may opt to hire attorneys native to Detroit.
"There are a lot of talented lawyers in Detroit," Levin said. "I would think pensions and unions, for example, might opt for those guys."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/21/bankruptcy-lawyers-detroit-creditors_n_3630960.html

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'Avengers: Age Of Ultron' Sequel Announced At Epic Marvel Panel

Joss Whedon took to the Comic-Con stage to introduce the follow-up to the 2012 blockbuster.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

"The Avengers"
Photo: Marvel

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1710960/marvel-panel-2013-san-diego-comic-con.jhtml

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Re: How to install/recover Windows 8 to mSATA drive on Alienware 14?

I got this.

1. Download free Acronis Western Digital edition (look it up, its free with WD external drives but unlike Seagate edition it doesn't check for a drive to be present).

2. Back up the whole, all partitions, 750GB drive to some external drive with enough free space (for me it was about 16GB since laptop was the way it came from Dell and I haven't installed anything but Windows 8 updates)

3. Install mSATA drive

4. Change SATA to AHCI mode in BIOS

5. Restore your back up to the mSATA drive in Windows. Acronis will re-size partitions automatically so going from 750GB to 256GB is ok.

6. Change boot drive in BIOS to mSATA

7. Erase 750GB drive and delete all the partitions on it to have one full 750GB parting on it. I did that in Linux since Windows8 didn't let me delete Dell's recovery and diag partitions.

8. Format 750GB partition.

Done and it works.

Source: http://en.community.dell.com/thread/20414451.aspx

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India: Unarmed Protesters Killed in Kashmir

(New York) ? The Indian government should appoint an independent commission to promptly and transparently investigate the killing of four protesters by Border Security Force (BSF) troops in Jammu and Kashmir state, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should act to end the BSF?s longstanding impunity for large numbers of killings over many years.

The unclear circumstances resulting in the deaths of four protesters, and the wounding of nearly a dozen more people, highlight the urgency of an independent inquiry. The BSF reported that on July 18, 2013, in Ramban district, its troops interrogated a local resident who it said ?made baseless and false allegations about being mistreated.? After protesters gathered and ?started stone pelting vigorously on the BSF post,? troops fired at the protesters in self-defense, the BSF said.

Local residents allege that BSF soldiers entered a mosque during a search operation and were rude and disrespectful to the mosque staff. When unarmed protesters gathered at the post, the BSF troops called for police support. The security forces then opened fire on the protesters, the local residents said.

?The loss of life at the Ramban mosque needs a prompt investigation by an independent commission,? said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director. ?Any finding of illegal use of force by BSF troops should result in prosecutions. Too often the BSF?s version of events is simply accepted, allowing killing after killing for which no one is held to account.?

Senior Indian officials have responded appropriately to the incident, but need to follow up with action, Human Rights Watch said. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that it is ?highly unacceptable to shoot at unarmed protesters.? Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has promised an investigation and said that ?any use of excessive force or irresponsible action will be dealt with strictly.? Previous investigations of BSF abuses have often been delayed and prosecutions stalled.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented misbehavior and serious human rights violations by BSF troops along the Bangladesh border. The border guards, who are deployed to prevent infiltration, trafficking, and smuggling, had engaged in numerous cases of unlawful use of force, arbitrary detention, and torture, and killed over a thousand Indian and Bangladeshi nationals. The BSF was ordered to exercise restraint and use rubber bullets instead of live ammunition, which led to a decrease in the number of people fatally injured, though unlawful killings continue.

The government has repeatedly failed to prosecute BSF personnel responsible for serious abuses. Inquiries by the National Human Rights Commission receive a standard response that fatalities occurred when troops had to fire in self-defense.

Human Rights Watch called on the Indian government to publicly order the security forces to follow the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. The Basic Principles state that security forces shall ?apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms,? and that ?whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall: (a) Exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved; (b) Minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life.? Furthermore, ?intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.?

Since the shootings, violent protests have broken out in several parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and authorities have imposed curfews in some areas. Human Rights Watch called on organizers of protests to take steps to deter supporters from engaging in violence, including attacks on law enforcement officers.

?Security forces sometimes react with gunfire when outnumbered by an angry crowd, which is why they need to be properly trained in nonlethal crowd control methods,? Ganguly said. ?Incidents that end in shootings are not only terrible for all those involved, but set the stage for unnecessary bloodshed in the future.?

Source: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/19/india-unarmed-protesters-killed-kashmir

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Air Force to study drilling for oil off California coast

With the Pacific Ocean in the background, a rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Jan. 21, 2011.
Pat Corkery/U.S. Air Force

Stars and Stripes

Published: July 18, 2013

The U.S. Air Force will consider leasing land on Vandenberg Air Force Base for private companies to extract offshore oil and gas from the central California coast, officials said Wednesday.

The proposal would allow oil companies to use onshore equipment with new extended reach ?slant drilling? technology to access deposits several miles offshore. Sunset Exploration and Exxon Mobil recently asked the Air Force to revisit their proposal to use the technology to build an oil and gas drilling project on the base near Lompoc, officials said.

Over the next several months, the military will study whether the new type of drilling is compatible with the base?s space and satellite-launching missions and determine if it is ?economically, environmentally and politically feasible,? the Air Force said in a statement.

?Initial information obtained by the Air Force indicates there may be potential for new technology slant drilling capable of targeting oil deposits off Vandenberg Air Force Base?s coastline from locations with minimal or mitigable mission/environmental impacts,? Master Sgt. Kevin Williams, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command, wrote in an email to The Times.

Environmental groups, which have long fought attempts to open the California coast to new drilling, say land-based drilling operations can pose many of same risks to marine life as offshore platforms.

"We have tremendous concerns about their proposal," Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, told The Times. "This would be a new oil drilling project along a very biologically rich and sensitive area of the California coast. It would threaten migrating whales and other important species with oil spills and other impacts that result from offshore oil drilling."

[Updated at 6:11 p.m.: Sunset Exploration President Bob Nunn said the land-based drilling operation the company has proposed would fully avoid the marine environment, with its drill bit sitting one-half mile below the seafloor. "It's the antithesis of offshore drilling," he said.]

Sunset and Exxon for years have sought to drill for oil from the base, but Santa Barbara County deemed their application incomplete in 2006 because the Air Force did not sign off on it.

U.S. law allows the military to lease land for oil development, and Vandenberg currently has five active oil wells, Air Force officials said.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek), California?s former lieutenant governor, and State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are among the politicians who have urged the Air Force to move forward with Sunset Exploration?s drilling project.

California regulators rejected a previous proposal to drill for oil near the base from an offshore rig over concerns it would harm the marine environment.

Last month, House Republicans launched a new effort to open federal waters off California to drilling, reviving an idea that has been controversial ever since a 1969 spill off Santa Barbara devastated the coast.
?

Source: http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/air-force-to-study-drilling-for-oil-off-california-coast-1.230944

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Housing starts fall to ten-month low

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts and permits for future home construction unexpectedly fell in June, offering further evidence of a sharp slowdown in economic activity in the second quarter.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday housing starts dropped 9.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 units. That was the lowest level since August last year.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected groundbreaking to rise to a 959,000-unit rate last month. June's drop unwound the prior month's gains, suggesting a smaller boost from residential construction to second-quarter gross domestic product growth.

Permits to build homes fell 7.5 percent last month to a 911,000-unit pace. Economists had expected them to rise to a 1-million unit pace.

Data including retail sales, trade and inventories indicate the economy lost considerable momentum in the last quarter, with growth estimates as low as 0.5 percent.

The economy, which grew at a 1.8 percent annual pace in the first quarter has been hit by tighter fiscal policy and slowing global demand. Housing has been providing some buffer against those headwinds.

Despite the unexpected drop in groundbreaking and permits last month, there was little in the report to suggest the housing recovery in unraveling as the volatile multi-family segment accounted for much of the decline.

Sentiment among single-family home builders hit a 7-1/2 year high in July, a report showed on Monday, amid optimism over current and future home sales. But many builders have been complaining about a shortage of labor and materials, which may have contributed to last month's surprise decline in activity.

"We should see growth in single-family construction into 2014. That's positive for housing, jobs and overall growth," said Gus Faucher, senior macroeconomist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.

Last month, groundbreaking for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, slipped 0.8 percent to a 591,000-unit pace, the lowest since November 2012. Starts for multi-family homes declined 26.2 percent to a 245,000-unit rate.

Permits for multi-family homes fell 21.4 percent to a 287,000-unit rate. But permits for single-family homes rose 0.6 percent to a 624,000-unit pace, the highest since May 2008.

Housing's recovery is being aided by still-low mortgage rates engineered by the Federal Reserve's accommodative monetary policy and steady employment gains.

While mortgage rates have spiked in recent weeks after the Fed expressed its desire to start cutting back on its bond purchases later this year, economists do not believe that this will derail the housing recovery. The monthly $85 billion in bond purchases have been holding down interest rates.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank still expected to start scaling back its massive asset purchase program later this year, but left open the option of changing that plan in either direction if the economic outlook shifted.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/housing-starts-fall-ten-month-low-124046675.html

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