Monday, March 9, 2009

Stanford receiver faces herculean task


Life isn't easy for Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver now overseeing the financial empire of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, accused by U.S. regulators of carrying out a massive Ponzi scheme.

Janvey, a straight-talking, Dallas-based lawyer and adjunct law professor at Southern Methodist University, has taken the helm of Stanford Financial Group, after a U.S. judge tapped him to serve as the receiver, with final say over Stanford's vast estate of offices, island properties, yachts and castles.

So far, he has been sued by angry investors and had to fire 1,000 Stanford employees on Friday.

"Imagine being thrust in at the top of this company right now," said Michael Goldberg, an attorney with Akerman Senterfitt in Miami, who has served as a receiver in many other SEC cases. By all measures of the law Janvey "is Stanford now," Goldberg said.

It is not the best time to take charge.

The company is in "dire" financial condition, with "tens of millions of dollars" in unpaid bills, Janvey reported to U.S. Judge David Godbey last week. There is mounting evidence that estate assets will only provide a "fraction" of amount needed to cover claims, Janvey said. On Friday, Janvey slashed 1,000 Stanford jobs -- about 85 percent of the company's workforce.

U.S. securities regulators have accused Stanford, his college roommate and three of their companies of carrying out a "massive Ponzi scheme" over at least a decade and misappropriating at least $1.6 billion of investors' money.

Charles Meadows, a Dallas-based lawyer representing Stanford, said in a filing that the allegations against his client are "false and the SEC has presented no evidence of any such Ponzi scheme." Janvey did not respond to multiple interview requests.

Alan Bromberg, a professor at the Dedman School of Law at SMU, once taught Janvey as a law student and described him as "one of the best I've ever had."

Now Bromberg is filling in for Janvey's evening class on regulation of securities markets -- with about 25 students.

After being appointed receiver, Janvey "just called me and said 'Can you pick up my class on Monday,'" Bromberg said.

GLOBAL ASSET HUNT

Now, Janvey must scour the globe and attempt to return assets to bereaved investors, field angry calls and emails from shareholders who have had access to their accounts frozen and decide the eventual fate of the company.

"He's got poor people who think their life savings are gone calling him and trying to speak to him," Goldberg said. "He's getting barraged by thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls."

To make matters worse a group of Stanford clients last week sued Janvey, the SEC and the U.S. Marshals office for freezing their assets.

Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells


President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research.Obama's move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time.

Obama also signed a presidential memorandum establishing greater independence for federal science policies and programs.

"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said at the White House.

"In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."The president pledged to develop "strict guidelines" to ensure that such research "never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction."

Such a possibility, he maintained, is "dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society or any society."Obama's order directs the NIH to develop revised guidelines on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research within 120 days, according to Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council.

"The president is, in effect, allowing federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research to the extent that it's permitted by law -- that is, work with stem cells themselves, not the derivation of stem cells," Varmus said in a conference call with reporters Sunday.

While conceding that "the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown" and "should not be overstated," Obama nevertheless expressed hope that the order will help spur faster progress in the search for cures to afflictions such as Parkinson's disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries.Researchers highly value embryonic stem cells because of their potential to turn into any organ or tissue cell in the body. Stem cells have this ability for a short time. A few days before the embryo would implant in the uterus, it starts to develop into specific cells that will turn into skin or eyes or other parts of a developing fetus.When the embryo is 4 or 5 days old, scientists extract the stem cells and put them in a petri dish. With the removal of these stem cells -- of which there may be about 30 -- the embryo is destroyed.

Twenty-one of the 60 stem cell lines authorized for research under the Bush policy have proven useful to researchers. Bush twice vetoed legislation -- in July 2006 and June 2007 -- that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research.

At the time, Bush maintained that scientific advances allowed researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos.

Conservative leaders echoed Bush's rationale in their criticism of Obama's decision.

"Advancements in science and research have moved faster than the debates among politicians in Washington, D.C., and breakthroughs announced in recent years confirm the full potential of stem cell research can be realized without the destruction of living human embryos," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Sunday.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed proper ethical limits on science.

"My basic tenet here is I don't think we should create life to enhance life and to do research and so forth," Shelby said Sunday. "I know that people argue there are other ways. I think we should continue our biomedical research everywhere we can, but we should have some ethics about it."

The issue of whether to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has, however, exposed a clear rift between the more moderate and conservative factions of the GOP.

In February, a group of six moderate GOP congressmen sent a letter to Obama urging him to lift the funding ban.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan also issued a statement Monday thanking Obama for lifting the ban.

"These new rules will now make it possible for scientists to move forward," Reagan said. "Countless people, suffering from many different diseases, stand to benefit from the answers stem cell research can provide. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything in our power to find cures for these diseases."

President Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease after leaving office -- an affliction that many scientists say eventually may be cured with the help of embryonic stem cell research.

Obama's presidential memorandum, however, may turn out to have a broader impact than his executive order.

The memorandum is expected to create a clear change of tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues.

Bush's critics argued the former president allowed political factors improperly to influence funding decisions for science initiatives as well as to skew official government findings on issues such as global warming.

Friday, March 6, 2009

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The US jobless rate jumped in February to 8.1%, according to official figures from the Labor Department.

The number of people out of work rose by 651,000 during the month. Both figures were bigger than expected.

The number of job cuts in January was revised up to 655,000 while December's losses were pushed up to 681,000.

December's figure was the biggest job loss in a single month since October 1949. The unemployment rate was the highest since December 1983.The extra 161,000 jobs added to December and January's figures mean that almost two million jobs have been lost in the past three months.

A total of 12.5 million people are now unemployed in the US.

"It just continues to show the grim state of the labour market, which suggests a deepening US recession," said Joe Manimbo, currency trader at Ruesch International in Washington.

There were further signs of companies cutting back on their spending with the news that the number of people who wanted to work full-time but were forced to work part-time for economic reasons rising 787,000 to 8.6 million.The average working week stood at 33.3 hours, matching the record low set in December.

Jobs were cut in most sectors, with only government, education and health services adding staff.

In the manufacturing sector 168,000 jobs were cut in the month while 104,000 jobs went in construction and 375,000 were cut in the service sector.

"The payroll numbers are very weak. With the revisions, we've had significant job losses in the past four months," said Gary Thayer, senior economist at Wachovia Securities in St Louis.

"Companies are reducing workers and output in order to bring inventories into line with weak sales."

Among the companies that announced big job cuts in February were Goodyear, Estee Lauder, Macy's and General Motors.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress earlier in the week that economic indicators "show little sign of improvement" and suggest that "labour market conditions may have worsened further in recent weeks".

More young girls face rape in Afghanistan


Rapes targeting girls as young as seven are on the increase in Afghanistan where conditions for women are little better than under the Taliban, the U.N. and rights groups say.
In its annual report on human rights, the U.N. warned conditions were deteriorating in the war-ravaged country despite U.S.-led efforts after the 2001 removal from power of the hardline militia.

"Violence is tolerated or condoned within the family and community, within traditional and religious leadership circles, as well as the formal and informal justice system," said Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

The "Afghan government has failed to adequately protect the rights of women despite constitutional guarantees."

With a resurgent Taliban targeting NATO forces, government security forces and civilians, violence has been on the increase in Afghanistan..

The number of civilian casualties in 2008 totaled 2,118 -- the highest number recorded since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, the U.N. said, urging greater protecting for ordinary Afghans.

Violence against women comes in the form of rape, "honor killings," early and forced marriages, sexual abuse and slavery, the report says. "The security is the big issue," said Suraya Pakzad, founder of the Voice of Women Organization, which promotes education and awareness of women's rights and protects women and girls at risk in Afghanistan.

People’s dreams to materialise soon; Nawaz


LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has said the dream of a prosperous and economically viable Pakistan will soon come true.

Addressing a massive public rally here, Nawaz said the people of Pakistan have been demanding their rights for the last 60 years and soon they will emerge victorious.

He said the PML-N would fulfill the commitments it made to the people. He said soon a new era of hope and democracy would usher in the country. He said the PML-N would ensure the supremacy of law and constitution.

Nawaz said he would join the protest rally in future, PML-N chief also regretted he could not timely participate in the rally due to his engagements with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan.

He said President Asif Ali Zardari belittled his own words by not honoring his promises that were enshrined in the Charter of Democracy (CoD). Nawaz said the long march would play a decisive role once it reaches Islamabad.

‘I did not compromise over people’s interest. We joined the federal cabinet on Zardari’s insistence and I did not ask for any material benefit from Zardari before and even after the general elections”, he told a wavering crowd.

Terming the apex court decisions in former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his cases unjust, Nawaz said president Zardari is contravening the very manifesto of the PPP which was promised to the nation by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Struggle to help Gaza's traumatised





Omsyat, 12, has become nervous and aggressive, Hala, 7, has completely stopped speaking and Sobhy, 11, burned the toys he was brought with a candle, says their mother, Wafa Awersha.

Psychiatric nurse Rowiya Hamam nods as she sits on a thin mattress on floor of the tent in al-Atatra in northern Gaza.

In what is now their home, Mrs Awersha updates her on how the five children are coping with their brother's death in the recent conflict.

Sobhy stares at the floor fiddling with a toy as he is asked about his loss

Ibrahim, 9, was hit by Israeli bullets on 4 January and died before his siblings' eyes, with their injured parents barely conscious nearby, the family say.

His body lay for four days outside their house before the fighting waned enough for neighbours to take it away on a donkey cart.

Israel blames civilian casualties on militants' practice of operating from populated areas and says Palestinian fighters fired at its forces during the daily unilateral three-hour ceasefire it instituted to allow emergency workers to reach the dead and injured.

Several hundred of the 1,300 Palestinian deaths were children and some accounts of civilian deaths have raised concerns of war crimes.

After Ibrahim's death, Sobhy began behaving like his sibling and asking to be called Ibrahim, Ms Hamam says.

"School's fine," he says, when asked. "I like maths." But he stares at the ground and tears soon well in his eyes.


Audio gallery: Children's drawings

Mrs Awersha says he used to be top in his class, but he struggles to concentrate now.

Hala covers her head with a blanket whenever Ibrahim is mentioned, while Diya, 3, beheaded the soft toys he was given, Ms Hamam says.

'For my kids'

Ms Hamam is one of a team of mental health workers in Gaza that say they have been "overwhelmed" by the scale of the needs since the conflict.

She has visited the Awersha family several times, bringing toys and games, trying to help the children express their feelings and teaching them deep breathing exercises.

Mrs Awersha smiles and teases the children as she scrapes the girls' matted hair into pony tails and helps them put on the school smocks rescued from the rubble of their home. The tent buzzes with fat, black flies.

Mrs Awersha exhales hard when asked how she is coping. And then the tears flow.

Wafa says she jokes with her children, but cries when she is alone

"Maybe you found me making people laugh, but honestly I'm doing this just for my kids," she says.

Whenever she goes back to her bulldozed home and stands in the spot where Ibrahim was killed, she weeps and weeps, she says.

Gaza's mental health professionals have been working flat out in schools, kindergartens, clinics, homes and tents to try to help similar cases.

Hassan Zeyada, who heads the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme's centre in Gaza City, and his colleague, psychiatrist Sami Owaida, say they are exhausted.

"Many of our colleagues lost relatives. We have to give support, but sometimes we feel that we need support," says Dr Oweida.

Dr Zeyada also points out the difficulty of treating "ongoing and continuous trauma" in a place where a long-term political solution remains elusive.

"Sometimes you feel you are wasting your efforts. Another invasion, another war, another attack will happen - you feel they will demolish or destroy all your efforts," he says.

Anxiety

Ongoing trauma too plagues the residents of Israel's southern towns, who live under the constant threat of Palestinian rocket fire, with about 8,000 rockets and mortars fired since 2001.

At least 18 people have been killed in that time. Children under eight have known little else but a constantly heightened state of anxiety.


Children hit hard as Gaza toll rises
Sderot longs for end to rockets

And even after the recent fighting, which Israel said was aimed at reducing the rocket fire, a steady flow of rockets and mortars has continued.

But while mental health workers on both sides say at least 20-30% of the population suffers symptoms of trauma, the Israeli south is clearly better equipped to tackle the problems than Gaza.

GCMHP say there are only five clinical psychiatrists in Gaza trained to international standards, and no clinical psychologists.

'Basics for life'

John Jenkins, the World Health Organization's mental health project manager for the West Bank and Gaza , says that, as well as difficulties in getting people with the right skills into Gaza , shortages of drugs such as tranquilisers and antidepressants are a constant problem.

He says it is too early to assess the scale of the mental health needs from the recent conflict, as the impact of trauma takes time to emerge.

Living in a tent makes it harder for children to regain a sense of normality


But human beings' ability to deal with stress is "quite remarkable", he says, and the majority of people do not need specialist treatment.

"What people really need are the basic things in life," he says, such as reliable food supplies, a secure place to live and prospects for work. This should "absolutely" be the priority, he says.

But as Ms Hamam traipses away past the rows of tents, while children in flip-flops clamour at her to bring them shoes, she says that for the Awersha children, the conditions will make recovery harder.

"Before the war, they had their routine - come home, watch TV, write their homework, but in the tent it's very difficult."

"It will take too much time for them to recover," she says shaking her head sadly.

Analysis: Attack puts sport in terror gunsights


The media are in place, thousands of fans watching and major stars present. It's not hard to see why sport makes a tempting target for terrorists and, say security experts, Tuesday's attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team could set the two worlds on a new collision course.

One of eight Palestinian terrorists behind the Munich Olympic killings of Israeli athletes.

At least seven people -- six police officers and a driver of a van carrying umpires -- were killed when a gang of 12 gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore that also left eight players and their coach injured.

The attack is not the first involving Pakistan's cricket world, a fact that reflects both the volatility of a country caught in the crossfire of an international terror conflict and also the game's prominence in South Asia, where passions for cricket regularly enter politics.

In 2002 a suicide bomb blast outside the New Zealand cricket team's hotel in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi left players unhurt but killed 11 French Navy experts, two Pakistanis and the team's physiotherapist.

The wider sports world has weathered more direct attacks, most notably the Munich Olympics of 1972 when 11 Israeli team members were held hostage then murdered by Arab militants demanding the release of various prisoners.

And in 1996, the Olympics were again targeted, this time by Eric Rudolph, a suspected member of an anti-abortion white supremacist sect, who detonated explosives killing two people and injuring 120 others in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ahead of the 2008 Games in Beijing, China deployed a massive security presence saying it had foiled a terrorist hijacking plot and warning it faced further threat in its Muslim-majority northwest -- although it did not produce evidence to back its claims.

The British government has already earmarked $840 million for policing and security for the 2012 London Games, with officials at pains to reassure over safety in a city where 52 people died in July 2005 terrorist attacks on its transit network.

But though the Olympics may be surrounded by a ring of steel, the many hundreds of events across the world that make up the annual sporting calendar represent much softer targets, and says security analyst Will Geddes, the potential for further attack is real.Geddes, CEO of International Corporate Protection, says the fallout from Tuesday's incident will be watched with interest by terror groups looking for new ways of getting their message across with the greatest possible impact.

He told CNN that, unlike events such as Munich, which related to the already widely-publicized Israeli-Palestinian conflict, modern media coverage of sports events has the potential to put the spotlight on lesser-known radicals seeking to maximize exposure.

"These days in international terrorism small groups that want to get their agenda across to the widest audience are continually innovating in terms of the target and how to ensure they get the most publicity with as much embarrassment as possible for the country involved," he told CNN.

Says Geddes, although it remains unclear who is behind Tuesday's attack, it may already be viewed as a success by its perpetrators in terms of the global headlines it has garnered and the damage it has caused to Pakistan's reputation.

Such a result would be an attractive prospect to groups such as militants seeking to reignite conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir that has dogged Indian-Pakistani relations for decades -- and also disrupted sporting ties between the two nations.
"We can't rule out the possibility that this will happen again in the future. It has generated massive, massive publicity and bad press for the Pakistan government and it throws a question mark over future events and whether anyone will feel safe touring there."