A glass of milk a day could benefit your brain

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
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Contact: Keriann Kwalik
kkwalik@webershandwick.com
312-988-2293
Weber Shandwick Worldwide

New research finds milk drinkers scored better on memory and brain function tests

Pouring at least one glass of milk each day could not only boost your intake of much-needed key nutrients, but it could also positively impact your brain and mental performance, according to a recent study in the International Dairy Journal.1 Researchers found that adults with higher intakes of milk and milk products scored significantly higher on memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little to no milk. Milk drinkers were five times less likely to "fail" the test, compared to non milk drinkers.

Researchers at the University of Maine put more than 900 men and women ages 23 to 98 through a series of brain tests including visual-spatial, verbal and working memory tests and tracked the milk consumption habits of the participants. In the series of eight different measures of mental performance, regardless of age and through all tests, those who drank at least one glass of milk each day had an advantage. The highest scores for all eight outcomes were observed for those with the highest intakes of milk and milk products compared to those with low and infrequent milk intakes. The benefits persisted even after controlling for other factors that can affect brain health, including cardiovascular health and other lifestyle and diet factors. In fact, milk drinkers tended to have healthier diets overall, but there was something about milk intake specifically that offered the brain health advantage, according to the researchers.

In addition to the many established health benefits of milk from bone health to cardiovascular health, the potential to stave off mental decline may represent a novel benefit with great potential to impact the aging population. While more research is needed, the scientists suggest some of milk's nutrients may have a direct effect on brain function and that "easily implemented lifestyle changes that individuals can make present an opportunity to slow or prevent neuropsychological dysfunction."

New and emerging brain health benefits are just one more reason to start each day with lowfat or fat free milk. Whether in a latte, in a smoothie, on your favorite cereal, or straight from the glass, milk at breakfast can be a key part of a healthy breakfast that help sets you up for a successful day. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend three glasses of lowfat or fat free milk daily for adults and each 8-ounce glass contains nine essential nutrients Americans need, including calcium and vitamin D.

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About the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign

The Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), Washington, D.C., is funded by the nation's milk processors, who are committed to increasing fluid milk consumption. The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, through MilkPEP, runs the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign, a multi-faceted campaign designed to educate consumers about the health benefits of milk. For more information, go to www.whymilk.com. Deutsch, A Lowe and Partners Company, is the creative agency for the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign.

1Crichton GE, Elias MF, Dore GA, Robbins MA. Relation between dairy food intake and cognitive function: The Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study. International Dairy Journal. 2012; 22:15-23.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Keriann Kwalik
kkwalik@webershandwick.com
312-988-2293
Weber Shandwick Worldwide

New research finds milk drinkers scored better on memory and brain function tests

Pouring at least one glass of milk each day could not only boost your intake of much-needed key nutrients, but it could also positively impact your brain and mental performance, according to a recent study in the International Dairy Journal.1 Researchers found that adults with higher intakes of milk and milk products scored significantly higher on memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little to no milk. Milk drinkers were five times less likely to "fail" the test, compared to non milk drinkers.

Researchers at the University of Maine put more than 900 men and women ages 23 to 98 through a series of brain tests including visual-spatial, verbal and working memory tests and tracked the milk consumption habits of the participants. In the series of eight different measures of mental performance, regardless of age and through all tests, those who drank at least one glass of milk each day had an advantage. The highest scores for all eight outcomes were observed for those with the highest intakes of milk and milk products compared to those with low and infrequent milk intakes. The benefits persisted even after controlling for other factors that can affect brain health, including cardiovascular health and other lifestyle and diet factors. In fact, milk drinkers tended to have healthier diets overall, but there was something about milk intake specifically that offered the brain health advantage, according to the researchers.

In addition to the many established health benefits of milk from bone health to cardiovascular health, the potential to stave off mental decline may represent a novel benefit with great potential to impact the aging population. While more research is needed, the scientists suggest some of milk's nutrients may have a direct effect on brain function and that "easily implemented lifestyle changes that individuals can make present an opportunity to slow or prevent neuropsychological dysfunction."

New and emerging brain health benefits are just one more reason to start each day with lowfat or fat free milk. Whether in a latte, in a smoothie, on your favorite cereal, or straight from the glass, milk at breakfast can be a key part of a healthy breakfast that help sets you up for a successful day. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend three glasses of lowfat or fat free milk daily for adults and each 8-ounce glass contains nine essential nutrients Americans need, including calcium and vitamin D.

###

About the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign

The Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), Washington, D.C., is funded by the nation's milk processors, who are committed to increasing fluid milk consumption. The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, through MilkPEP, runs the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign, a multi-faceted campaign designed to educate consumers about the health benefits of milk. For more information, go to www.whymilk.com. Deutsch, A Lowe and Partners Company, is the creative agency for the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign.

1Crichton GE, Elias MF, Dore GA, Robbins MA. Relation between dairy food intake and cognitive function: The Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study. International Dairy Journal. 2012; 22:15-23.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/wsw-ago012712.php

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Legal Schnauzer: A Reporter Goes Undercover to Expose the Debt ...

America consists of two kinds of people--those who have heard from debt collectors and those who probably will hear from debt collectors.

In a nation of easy credit, most Americans are just a few late payments away from entering the murky netherworld of collection companies, outfits with names like NCO, Mann Bracken, LVNV, and Asset Acceptance. Never heard of those? If you have a credit card, you probably will someday.

When collection phone calls start coming--often accompanied by unlawful threats, misrepresentations, and other forms of deceit--most Americans have no idea what they are getting into. I know because I used to be one of those clueless Americans.

I had to educate myself about the sharks that swim in the churning, poorly regulated waters of the debt-collection business. But you won't have to do that if you make author Fred Williams your friend.

Williams, probably the foremost debt-collection journalist in the country, has written a book that is indispensable for consumers who want to be prepared when the collection calls start coming. It's called
Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices: Know Your Rights and Protect Yourself From Threats, Lies, and Intimidation (FT Press, 2011).

That's an unwieldy title, and it doesn't do Williams' book justice. The FT in FT Press stands for Financial Times, and the publisher is an imprint of Pearson Prentice Hall. The book apparently was marketed as a specialty book, in the personal finance genre.

Fight Back is about as close as you will find to a "one-stop shop" for information about dealing with debt collectors--and as such, it is a personal-finance book. But it's much more than that. Williams, a former reporter for The Buffalo News, went underground to work for three months at a debt-collection agency in 2008. That experience produced an articled titled "Confessions of a Debt Collector," at Kiplinger.

Fight Back is the book-length account of Williams' time as a debt collector. He now lives in Virginia and comes across as a true reporter, a guy who deals in solid information. He has a no-frills, behind-the-scenes style that conjures up a non-fiction version of John Grisham. You get the sense that this is a writer who has been there, who knows his subject intimately. Fight Back, at its best, reads like a Grisham novel--except that the bad guys are managers in a debt-collection agency, not partners in a law firm.

The law, however, plays a leading role in Fight Back. Specifically, it's a single law, called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). It's supposed to govern the actions of debt collectors and keep them from behaving in an abusive fashion. Williams shows, through 194 crisply written pages, that the FDCPA is pathetically weak and does almost nothing to protect consumers.

That's why consumers have to be prepared to protect themselves. And Fight Back is filled with practical suggestions for doing just that.

How badly is the FDCPA failing? Consider this from Williams:

Debt collectors caused more than 300,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission in the past five years, more than any other industry that the agency regulates. The rate of complaints is exploding, having more than tripled since 2003. The number-one complaint is that collectors are demanding money that people do not even owe, even grabbing it from their bank accounts. As the industry casts its net wider and wider--making an estimated one billion contacts with consumers per year--a growing number of people say they are being shaken down by telephone bullies.

My wife and I know what that is like. I've written extensively about our battles with debt collectors and their disregard for federal law and the rights of consumers. We even have tape-recorded evidence of collectors from the Birmingham firm Ingram & Associates repeatedly violating the FDCPA?while trying to collect a debt I allegedly owed to American Express. The local firm, headed by a lawyer named Angie Ingram, was hired to collect the debt by a large Pennsylvania outfit called NCO. Multiple parties in our federal lawsuit admitted this, but we have recordings of Ingram representatives repeatedly saying they had been hired by American Express to sue me--that Angie Ingram was American Express' lawyer. This is both a grotesque violation of the FDCPA--which prohibits any false or deceiving statements to alleged debtors--and it also represents fraud under Alabama state law.Has our tape-recorded evidence, which is indisputable, been helpful in our lawsuit against Ingram and NCO? Not exactly. Much more is coming soon on our case and the lengths to which federal judges (and lawyers who defend the industry) will go to keep the high-dollar, debt-collection express rolling. But for now, we will focus on the broad picture--and Fred Williams shows clearly that it isn't pretty. About his three months as a collector, Williams writes:

As it turned out, the job tested more than the ability of a legally compliant collector to remain employed. On a day-to-day level, the job also tested my standards for reasonable and humane conduct. Living by the golden rule is not entirely congruent with the task of browbeating strangers who have fallen on hard times--especially ones whose lives have become a tragedy.

What's the environment like at a typical collection outfit?

Call centers are like factories used to be in this Rust Belt area--places where practically anyone can show up and get a job. But these jobs are easier to get than they are to keep. Of the four female trainees present at the start, one fails to return after the midmorning break, marking the first of what will be many abrupt exits from our group.

Williams isn't writing about a problem that affects only those on the fringes of American society; it affects us all:

The average home has three open credit-card accounts. Nearly half of all Americans carry a balance on their cards, with the average household's balance being over $7,000.

That means millions of Americans are just one job loss, health problem, or lawsuit away from a financial upheaval--and the debt-collection calls that come with it.

One of our goals is to help educate consumers about issues that many are likely to face someday. We will return to Fight Back, and Fred Williams, for assistance.

Here is an interview with Williams on CNBC:

Source: http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2012/01/reporter-goes-undercover-to-expose-debt.html

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Gingrich says GOP rival Romney has adopted 'a basic policy of carpet bombing his opponent' (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192933118?client_source=feed&format=rss

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IMF leads global push for euro zone to boost firewall (Reuters)

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) ? International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde led a global push on Saturday for the euro zone to boost its financial firewall, saying "if it is big enough it will not get used."

Lagarde, supported by the British finance minister, George Osborne, said the IMF could boost its support for the euro zone but pressed its leaders to act first. Some attendees at the Davos Forum still doubted the viability of the currency union.

Countries beyond the 17-country bloc want to see its members stump up more money before they commit additional resources to the IMF, which this month requested an additional 500 billion euros ($650 billion) in funding.

"Now is the time - there has been a lot of pressure building in order to see a solution come about," Lagarde told a Forum panel discussion on the economic outlook from which euro zone leaders - most notably Germany - were conspicuously absent.

"It is critical that the euro zone members develop a clear, simple firewall that can operate both to limit the contagion and to provide this sort of act of trust in the euro zone, so that the financing needs of that zone can actually be met," she said.

Lagarde's comments rounded out a crescendo of calls at the Davos Forum for the euro zone to boost its financial defenses. The annual five-day conference began with German Chancellor Angela Merkel deflecting pressure to do so.

In a carefully worded keynote address, Merkel suggested doubling or even tripling the size of the fund may convince markets for a time, but warned that if Germany made a promise that could not be kept, "then Europe is really vulnerable."

On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed Europe to make a "bigger commitment" to boosting its firewall.

Two bankers who attended meetings with Geithner at the Forum said on Friday the United States was looking for the euro zone to roughly double the size of its firewall to 1.5 trillion euros. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Treasury.

Osborne said the currency bloc must beef up its firewall before other countries increase their funding to the IMF.

"I think the euro zone leaders understand that," said Osborne, the only European minister on Saturday's panel discussion on the global economic outlook in 2012.

"There are not going to be further contributions from G20 countries, Britain included, unless we see the color of their money," he added, calling for the euro zone "to provide a significant increase in available resources."

MORE OPTIMISM...FOR SOME

Japanese Economics Minister Motohisa Furukawa echoed Osborne's comments, saying: "Without the firm action of Europe, I don't think the developing countries like China or others are willing to pay more money for the IMF."

On condition that the euro zone boosts its own defenses, he said Japan and other countries were willing to additional support via the IMF.

Lagarde said, however, that if the international lender's resources were boosted sufficiently, this would raise confidence to such a degree that they would not be needed.

"If it is big enough, it will not get used. And the same applies to the euro firewall for that matter," she added.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking to the Forum by video link from Tokyo, said Japan was working with South Korea and India to reduce the risk of the euro zone crisis spreading to Asia.

"Japan stands ready to support the euro zone as much as possible," he added.

Mexico's central bank chief, Agustin Carstens, said on Friday he believed a consensus was building on boosting the IMF's resources to help European countries and others that might need aid from the global lender.

There has been a palpable sense of hope at the Davos Forum that the euro zone is pulling back from the brink of catastrophe, though business leaders are equally worried that Europe's woes will hold back a global recovery.

Osborne saw some signs of optimism.

"People have commented on the mood of this conference being quite somber but having been here for a couple of days people have also pointed out that actually people are slightly more optimistic at the end of the week than the beginning," he said.

However, Davos 2011 also ended on upbeat note about the euro zone and a feeling that worst of the crisis was over - only for the situation to deteriorate and financial markets to turn their fire on Italy, the bloc's third biggest economy.

"The euro zone is a slow-motion train wreck," said economist Nouriel Roubini, made famous by predictions of the 2008-09 global banking crisis.

He expected Greece, and possibly Portugal, to exit the bloc within the next 12 months and believed there is a 50 percent chance of the bloc breaking up completely in the next 3-5 years.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, said no matter how strong the euro zone's firewall is, the market will look at the nature of the economies it is protecting.

"If it is protecting insolvent economies...no matter how strong the firewall is, it won't survive," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/bs_nm/us_davos_economy_lagarde

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Y Combinator Names Seasoned Entrepreneur Geoff Ralston As Its Newest Partner

Y Combinator has just announced the newest partner to join the prestigious firm: Geoff Ralston. Ralston's previous credentials include founding Four11, which was acquired by Yahoo back in 1997 for $96 million and served as the foundation for Yahoo Mail. Ralston spent eight years at Yahoo, eventually becoming Yahoo's Chief Product Officer. Several years after leaving Yahoo he was named CEO of Lala, before it was acquired by Apple in 2009. Most recently he cofounded?Imagine K12, a tech incubator for education-related startups, which presented at TechCrunch Disrupt SF (you can find the incubator's first batch of companies here).?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TUFPdW6UGjI/

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Sudan sells seized South Sudan crude at deep discount: sources (Reuters)

SINGAPORE (Reuters) ? Sudan has sold at least one cargo of crude seized from South Sudan at millions of dollars discount and is offering more, industry sources said, as Khartoum looks to recover oil revenue from its former civil war foe.

A bitter row has escalated between the two over the value of the transit fee landlocked South Sudan should pay for oil pumped north by pipeline through its northern neighbor and exported from Port Sudan.

South Sudan is shutting down production in protest after Khartoum blocked exports and seized some of the oil as compensation. South Sudan's President Salva Kiir accused Khartoum of having "looted" revenues amounting to roughly $815 million from crude cargoes.

The seized crude was loaded onto three tankers from January 13-20, South Sudan's justice ministry said.

Sudan sold one of those cargoes, a 600,000 barrel shipment loaded on the vessel Ratna Shradha, to a North Asian trader. The final price of the sale was unclear, but one trader said that the cargo was sold at a discount as steep as $14 a barrel. That would indicate an $8.4 million discount for the whole cargo versus the last official price charged by the South.

"This is crude from the South sold by the North at a $14 discount to the South's last selling price," a Middle East-based crude trader said.

The tanker is heading to Singapore, another source said.

The last time South Sudan sold Nile Blend cargoes, it did so at a premium of $2.50-$3.00 a barrel to the benchmark Indonesian Crude Price, traders said. This would indicate that Sudan has sold the cargo at a discount of around $11 a barrel to the Indonesian price.

Sudan has also loaded two other cargoes of seized Dar Blend crude, but it is not immediately clear if they have sold those. Khartoum had offered these cargoes last week at a discount to official South Sudan prices, traders said. One of them is headed to the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, they added.

The South last sold seven cargoes of Dar Blend at discounts between $5 and $11 a barrel to dated Brent. Sudan offered the cargoes at a discount of $15-$16, another source said.

OFFGUARD

Buyers of South Sudan oil were caught offguard when Khartoum started blocking exports in late December.

In addition to the three, at least seven tankers are still waiting at the port to lift December and January cargoes, raking up demurrage costs of $20,000-$22,000 per day, traders and shipbrokers said. Buyers include PetroChina, Glencore, Vitol, Trafigura and Arcadia, they said.

"There was no reason given. They just held back sailing," a second trader with a Western firm said, adding that demurrage costs and the uncertainty were a "nightmare."

South Sudan pledged to fully shut its output of 275,000 barrels per day (bpd) in two weeks, a move that could also cut off supplies to equity holders China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Malaysia's Petronas and India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp.

A third trader said buyers could declare force majeure if they still cannot lift the oil 30 days from the date of loading.

"Force majeure is the last resort if the cargo has not been loaded 30 days after the scheduled loading date. As long as the ship has not loaded the oil," the trader said.

"It will be complicated to declare force majeure if the oil is already on board. How are you going to discharge the oil back into the shore tanks?"

South Sudan became independent in July under a 2005 peace agreement with Khartoum that ended decades of civil war but both sides have failed to agree how to untangle their oil industries.

(Additional reporting by Yaw Yan Chong and Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO Editing by Manash Goswami and Simon Webb)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_sudan_oil_dispute

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Director of Finance (Los Angeles, California)

OPPORTUNITY:
Green Dot is embarking on an ambitious five-year plan to nearly double in size, doing so in a way that will enable us to have 10 times the impact on education in Los Angeles. By doing so, we will extend our work as a leading change agent in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), taking on the most difficult challenges in education reform: turning around existing failed schools and promoting reform and reinvention of the school district.

The Director of Finance has the opportunity to ignite and make possible the achievement of our five-year vision. To realize the envisioned impact on reform, we must successfully create and execute our financial strategy as well as manage our day-to-day finances. The Director of Finance will be responsible for creating a pathway to sustainability as well as actionable, timely and accurate financial statements.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
?Working with the CFO, create and manage organization-wide financial strategy
?Develop a deep understanding of the California and national education funding models to assess organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
?Refine and present 5 year strategic planning model to key stakeholders including senior executives and board of directors
?Develop and execute tools that highlight monthly, quarterly and annual financial performance and actionable items for schools and departments
?Develop forecasting tools and manage financial projections
?Present current-state and financial projections to key stakeholders
?Manage a small team in a fast growing organization
?Working with the CFO and Controller, set department wide goals and objectives
?Transform current processes to improve efficiency, accuracy and overall ease of use

COMPENSATION:
Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience within a range $100k - $115K. We also offer a comprehensive benefits plan as well as the opportunity to impact a growing, mission-driven organization that is committed to the success of Los Angeles students.

Source: http://www.bridgestar.org/MyCareerCenter/PositionDetails.aspx?jobId=10531

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Nuclear Waste Panel Urges ?Consent Based? Approach

[unable to retrieve full-text content]With local cooperation, a commission on nuclear waste said, the government might avoid the kind of conflicts that led to the cancellation of plans to create a vast repository at Yucca Mountain.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e796546b9fc38789b412c1ca3742ca28

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Video: Australian cabinet minister?s surprising speech

In a feisty speech attacking an opposition leader one official quoted from the movie ?The American President.? NBC?s Brian Williams reports.

>>> a cabinet minister in australia got angry and gave a speech attacking the opposition leader , a man named tony abbott . you would hear it and be forgiven thinking that's the way politicians should talk, the way they did in the movies. it's a speech that is a favorite of political junkies from snchl the american president " starring michael douglas .

>> in australia we have serious challenges to solve.

>> we have serious problems to solve. we need serious people to solve them.

>> unfortunately, tony abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything.

>> bob rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it.

>> for now, this is being blamed on a speech writer . the words from aaron sorkin as acted by michael douglas .

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46139566/

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This Indiana Jones Ring Is Worth Way More Than Any Golden Idol [Wtf]

How do you propose to the ultimate Indy fan? Not with snakes or crystal skulls, that's for sure. You pop the question with the snap of a whip. Or at least a whip ring. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CXJUDWIx1v4/this-indiana-jones-ring-is-worth-way-more-than-any-golden-idol

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Russia lashes out at new EU sanctions on Iran (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia's Foreign Ministry is criticizing the new European Union sanctions against Iran, saying they are a severe mistake likely to worsen tensions.

In a statement Monday, the ministry questions how the new sanctions could be seen as helping find a resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

The ministry said, "It's apparent that in this case there is open pressure and diktat, aimed at 'punishing' Iran for uncooperative behavior. This is a deeply mistaken policy, as we have told our European partners more than once. Under pressure of this sort, Iran will not make any concessions or any corrections to its policies."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_iran

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Video: $30B Worth of Advice

Nigel Emmett, JPMorgan Asset Management, discusses how to invest in Europe despite continued volatility and uncertainty.

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AP Exclusive: US talks to Afghan insurgent group (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of an insurgent movement led by a former Afghan prime minister who has been branded a terrorist by Washington, a relative of the rebel leader says.

Dr. Ghairat Baheer, a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Gul-bu-DEEN HEK-mah-tyar), told The Associated Press this week that he had met separately with David Petraeus, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan and now CIA director, and had face-to-face discussions earlier this month with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, currently the top commander in the country.

Baheer, who was released in 2008 after six years in U.S. detention at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, described his talks with U.S. officials as nascent and exploratory. Yet, Baheer says the discussions show that the U.S. knows that in addition to getting the blessing of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar ? a bitter rival of Hekmatyar even though both are fighting international troops ? any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers primarily in the north and east.

Hizb-i-Islami, which means Islamic party, has had ties to al-Qaida but in 2010 floated a 15-point peace plan during informal meetings with the Afghan government in Kabul. At the time, however, U.S. officials refused to see the party's delegation.

"Hizb-i-Islami is a reality that no one can ignore," Baheer said during an interview last week at his spacious home in a posh suburb of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. "For a while, the United States and the Kabul government tried not to give so much importance to Hizb-i-Islami, but now they have come to the conclusion that they cannot make it without Hizb-i-Islami."

In Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden would not confirm that such meetings took place but said the U.S. was maintaining "a range of contacts in support of an Afghan-led reconciliation process."

On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he also had met recently with Hizb-i-Islami representatives. Baheer said he attended those meetings but added that the party considers the Afghan government corrupt and lacking legitimacy.

Karzai's announcement appeared intended to bolster his position as the key player in the search for peace. The U.S. repeatedly has said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai has complained that his government has not been directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives and plans for setting up a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Baheer said his meeting with Petraeus, whom he described as a "very humble, polite person," was marked by a few rounds of verbal sparring with each boasting a battlefield strength that the other dismissed as exaggerated.

"There was a psychological war in these first meetings," he said.

Baheer said Crocker and Allen tried to persuade Hizb-i-Islami to become part of Afghanistan's political network, accept the Afghan security forces and embrace the nation's current constitution. He said Hizb-i-Islami was ready to accept the security forces and the constitution, but wants a multiparty commission established to review and revise the charter.

"We are willing to make compromises," said Baheer. "We already have said we will accept the Afghan army and the police."

He said Hizb-i-Islami envisioned a multiparty government in postwar Afghanistan. At the same time, the group wants all U.S. and NATO forces, including military trainers, to leave Afghanistan, he said.

"The presence of any foreign forces will be not acceptable to us under any cover," he said. "Daily, there is another American killing of civilians. The longer they stay, the more they are hated by the Afghan people."

Overtures to Hekmatyar's group show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. The U.S. formally declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in 2003 because of alleged links to al-Qaida and froze all assets which he may have in the United States.

Hekmatyar, who is in his mid-60s, was among the major recipients of U.S. aid during the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s. He and other anti-Soviet commanders swept into Kabul in 1992 and ousted the pro-Soviet government, only to turn against one another in a bitter and bloody power struggle that destroyed vast sections of the Afghan capital and killed an estimated 50,000 civilians before the Taliban seized the city.

A bitter rival of Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar fled to Iran and remained there until the Taliban were ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. He declared war on foreign troops in his country and rebuilt his military forces, which by 2008 had become a major threat to the U.S.-led coalition.

Contacts with Hekmatyar's group as well as parallel efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have taken on new urgency following the NATO decision to withdraw foreign combat forces, transfer security responsibility to the Afghans by the end of 2014 and bring an end to the unpopular war, which is increasingly seen as a drain on the financially strapped Western countries that provide most of the troops.

On Sunday, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, completed two days of meetings about the peace process with Karzai and other Afghan officials. Grossman, who was to travel to Qatar on Monday, urged the Taliban to issue a "clear statement" against international terrorism and affirm their commitment to the peace process "to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan."

U.S. officials also have reached out to the Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network to test its interest in peace talks. Haqqani fighters, the second largest insurgent group after the Taliban, have been blamed for most of the high-profile attacks in the heart of the Afghan capital.

___

Kathy Gannon is AP special regional correspondent covering Pakistan and Afghanistan. She can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/kathygannon

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Kimberly Dozier and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_talks

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Brutus 2.0 electric bike appears with moody paint job, helmet and goggles not included

Electric bikes just got a cool new poster boy. This deceptively battery-powered bike is a sequel, matching the five-speed transmission found on the original, but now gifted with a shadowy new look and some appealing chrome licks. The Brutus 2.0 also plumps for a lithium battery over the lead battery of earlier models. A chain setup replaces the belt of its predecessor, which presumably helps it power through 0-60 in just under five seconds. Top speeds remain as dark and mysterious as the bike's paint job, but the maker promises that the 500 pound beast will easily blast past the 100 mph mark, with a range of over 100 miles per charge. The electric bike is still being worked on, but until we hear more on a retail-ready model, you can gawp at the moody non-moped in action right after the break.

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Congress puts anti-piracy bills on ice (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Lawmakers on Friday indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation that pits Hollywood against Silicon Valley, two days after major Internet companies staged an online protest by blacking out parts of prominent websites.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid postponed a showdown vote in his chamber on the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA for short, that had been scheduled for January 24.

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, until there is wider agreement on the legislation.

"It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products," Smith said in a statement.

The bills are aimed at curbing access to overseas websites that traffic in pirated content and counterfeit products, such as movies and music. But support for the legislation has eroded in recent days because of fears that legitimate websites could end up in legal jeopardy.

The entertainment industry wants legislation to protect its movies and music from counterfeiters, but technology companies are concerned the laws would undermine Internet freedoms, be difficult to enforce and encourage frivolous lawsuits.

On Wednesday protests blanketed the Internet, turning Wikipedia and other popular websites dark for 24 hours. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others protested the proposed legislation but did not shut down.

In a brief statement, Reid said there was no reason why concerns about the legislation cannot be resolved. He offered no new date for the vote.

Reid's action comes a day after a senior Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure lacked the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the 100-member Senate.

A handful of senators who had co-sponsored the legislation dropped their support after Wednesday's protests started.

Reid expressed hope on Friday that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who has been shepherding the bill through Congress, could help resolve differences in the legislation.

"I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks," Reid said.

Leahy said in a statement that he was committed to addressing online piracy and hoped other members of Congress would work with him to get a bill signed into law this year.

"But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," he said.

"Criminals who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided it was not even worth debating how to stop the overseas criminals from draining our economy," Leahy said.

(Reporting By Thomas Ferraro and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Bill Trott, Dave Zimmerman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120120/wr_nm/us_usa_congress_internet

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Jonathan Agin: Cancer One, War Less Than One

President Nixon declared a war on cancer on Dec. 23, 1971. The war on cancer is arguably being lost on a daily basis. My daughter Alexis Agin, just two weeks shy of her fifth birthday, became yet another name etched on the proverbial wall of names who laid down their life in this war. Sure, some battles may have been won, but the war rages on, worse than ever, all these years after the initial battle cry. Unfortunately, some in the medical profession are estimating that cancer deaths may in fact double in less than 20 years. Does this sound like we are winning? During Alexis' long battle, we saw behind the curtain of Oz that is the manner in which we fight this disease. I became convinced that we are losing the war because we are not properly equipping our soldiers.

First, there is the way the government manages the care and access to treatment of those diagnosed. Imagine being sat down in a small, cramped dark room next to a nursing station. Your 27-month-old daughter sitting right across the hall. The previous night was a sleepless one on a narrow bench next to your daughter's metal hospital crib. You are told that your child has cancer and that she has six months, maybe a year to live. Sent back to your child's room with no other information, you know nothing about the world of pediatric cancer. You have no idea about the limitations on access to drugs that may help your child. The red tape, paperwork, institutional review boards (IRB), and the Federal Drug Administration. Although these are all theoretically established to protect the patient, it becomes patently obvious that they hinder your child's chances of survival in many respects. Patients given terminal diagnoses are often not allowed to try the most novel therapies under the guise that the government is trying to protect the patient from harm. Yet, these individuals have no hope, no possibility of beating the odds and are told they are going to die. Instead, these soldiers are left to lose their personal battles.

Then you have the cancer hospitals. When it became obvious that Alexis' tumor was progressing in the wrong direction, we scoured the Internet, spoke with her doctors, overturned as many rocks as we could, and ultimately decided that the most promising treatment was located at Memorial Sloane Kettering (MSK) in NYC. This was the only location where this therapy was offered. Each week we traveled from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Each week, Alexis obtained an infusion of a drug called Temsirolimus. She also received an oral chemotherapy with the infusion, which we were able to give her at home. Despite the hardships on Alexis, our jobs, our family, I often wondered why we had to travel each and every week for a drug already approved by the FDA. The reason we had to travel and could not administer this treatment regimen here in Washington, D.C. was simple; the FDA and the IRB of MSK. This trial regimen was only approved at MSK. Interestingly, Temsirolimus was being administered at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. as part of another trial. Thus, there was plenty of experience with this drug locally. Consequently, if you wanted your child to participate in this trial, you traveled on a weekly basis regardless of hardship, despite the readily available nature of the drugs. For us, we were lucky that we lived within reasonable proximity to MSK. For parents unable to do so, despite the potential promising nature of the treatment, their child was unable to receive the drugs in this combination.

It is this set of obstacles that tie parents' hands and keep this war un-winnable. It is for this reason that participation in clinical trials is declining. Several publications in the spring and summer of 2011 highlighted this fact. The red tape and impediments placed before patients hinders the ability to recruit and fill slots. It makes for a difficult system for the average parent and patient to navigate. Physicians do not have the time to educate parents on this system. With respect to Phase I clinical trials, there are rotating enrollments. Thus, timing is everything. If a slot is not open for your child at the time they are eligible, they may ultimately lose the chance to be placed on that trial.

Finally, for pediatric cancer patients, the fact that a new pediatric-specific cancer drug has not been approved in the last 20-plus years is indicative of the mentality of how we approach pediatric and childhood cancer in this country. There are little to no incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop new pediatric drugs. The Orphan Drug Act, Public Law 97-414, as amended, may hopefully change this equation. It has yet to be seen whether this system of incentivizing drug manufacturers to release drugs targeting orphan diseases, such as the one that claimed Alexis, will have any impact. Pediatric and childhood cancer is not a profit center for the large pharmaceutical companies. Bald children do not sell or generate profits.

Regulation is necessary in order to maintain control and standards. Regulation does protect those who require protection. That being said, those who are given a death sentence should be afforded all opportunities and access to any treatment that is feasible. And if that means taking a calculated risk, then so be it.

To sum it up, I firmly believe we need to shift the paradigm and try a different approach, lest we continue to let children die. The FDA and the institutional review boards, rather than being impediments to patients gaining access to potentially life-saving drugs, must become a partner with patients. Regulatory impediments before parents must be eased. This paradigm is shifting slightly. Thanks to so many parents who are on the front lines, change has already happened, unfortunately not fast enough. As long as the government remains embroiled in partisan fighting with an eye on issues that do not surround life and death, the war on cancer will continue to claim more victims. This simply is unacceptable.

?

Follow Jonathan Agin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@jonathanagin

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-agin/cancer-1-war-less-than-1_b_1219490.html

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Iomega Mac Companion (3TB)

Do you have the Apple logo burned into your retinas? Then the Iomega Mac Companion (3TB) is the external hard drive for you. Designed for the Mac desktop (or large-screen display) user who needs more storage, the $369.99 (list) Mac Companion is iOS-device friendly and has a powered USB port that will help reduce workstation clutter. If you have a space-constrained cube environment and can put up with a couple of usage quirks, this could be the backup-storage drive you're looking for.

Design and Features
The Mac Companion is a trapezoidal, wedge-shaped device intended to sit out of the way on that bit of exposed metal stand beneath your iMac or Apple display. It's a neat bit of design that riffs on the competition using the Mac aesthetic: a silvery aluminum outer shell, and black plastic panels on the back and top (a semi-opaque Iomega logo blends nicely into the latter). On the front of the Man Companion is a series of four LEDs, telling you at a glance whether the drive is empty (four white LEDs), half full (two white LEDs), or 90 percent full (one red LED). The right side has a Kensington security port, plus a high-power USB port that will charge an iPad faster than the USB ports on your Mac. (Note: Using the USB port to sync requires plugging the included USB cable into your Mac?more on that later.) The left side of the drive is blank, but there's plenty of action on the back: There are no extra-fast USB 3.0 ports to be found, but there are a USB Type B port to connect to your Mac, two regular USB 2.0 ports acting as a USB hub, and two FireWire 800 ports.

Which of these should you use for data? If you want speed, you obviously want to use the FireWire. But if you want to use the three USB ports as a USB hub, you'll need to hook up the USB cable to the Mac Companion. Both can't be used at the same time, however. If you connect via FireWire, the USB port on the right-hand side works as a 1000mA charge-only port. If you use USB to connect the drive, the USB ports in the hub start working, including the charge/sync port on the right side of the drive, but only at a 500mA current level. It's confusing, particularly for the novice user who assumes that all included cables must be connected. Doing that causes you to risk data corruption, if the drive even shows up in the Finder at all. You'd better hope your Mac user is somewhat savvy before setting up the Mac Companion.

Considering the port situation, the most useful configuration for a power user would probably be connecting a FireWire 800 cable for data, a USB cable for sync, and a separate USB cable to the right-side USB port for charging an iPad or other iOS device (but alas, this won't work). The power user therefore is stuck with FireWire 800 for data, and the right side USB connector acting as a charge-only port. For novice and mobile users who hate plugging and unplugging cables, the best connection is the single USB cable, so the USB hub works (along with the right-hand charge port). Just note that the USB connection is slower than FireWire for file transfers (see the "Performance" section).

The Mac Companion comes formatted for HFS+, so it will work well with Time Machine out of the box. You can also download several backup and Internet security apps from Iomega's website. The drive comes with a three-year warranty, which is pretty good for a consumer-class hard drive.

Performance
The Mac Companion is a 7,200rpm desktop-class drive, and delivers average performance for its class. It took 42 seconds to transfer our standard 1.22GB test folder over USB 2.0 and 30 seconds over FireWire 800. Contrast this with the Western Digital My Passport Studio (1TB) ($179.99 list, 4 stars), which took 44 seconds with USB 2.0 and 31 seconds with FireWire 800. The former Editors' Choice Iomega eGo BlackBelt Mac Edition ($199.99 list, 4 stars) was a smidge faster (35 seconds with USB 2.0, 22 seconds with FireWire 800). Likewise, the Mac Companion was decent on the AJA System test for throughput: 37MBps read and 30MBps write on USB 2.0, and 50MBps read and 38MBps write on FireWire 800. The My Passport Studio was the fastest among these three, the eGo Blackbelt was the slowest. What does this mean? The Iomega Mac Companion will serve you well, whether you use the drive for storage, backup, or work (as a scratch disk or temporary storage).

Compared with pocket drives like the My Passport Studio and eGo Blackbelt, the Iomega Mac Companion (3TB) outclasses both in dollar per GB, as the Mac Companion is a desktop drive with a less expensive drive mechanism. Our current desktop Editors' Choice is the ioSafe SoloPRO desktop drive ($249.99 list, 4.5 stars), which is much larger but retains its title thanks to ruggedization and an included data recovery service plan. The Iomega Mac Companion certainly lives up to its name?a companion drive for the desktop-bound Mac user?earns our recommendation.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Buffalo MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0 with several other hard drive side by side.

More hard drive reviews:
??? Iomega Mac Companion (3TB)
??? LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt (240GB SSD)
??? Seagate Momentus XT (750GB)
??? LaCie Rugged Mini (500GB)
??? ioSafe Rugged Portable SSD (120GB)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/lNDLPkPGdHc/0,2817,2398863,00.asp

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Gingrich cancels campaign event, poor attendance

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) ? Newt Gingrich has cancelled a campaign appearance in South Carolina because of poor attendance.

The Republican presidential candidate was scheduled to speak to the Southern Republican Leadership on Friday. But a campaign spokesman told reporters that he would no longer be appearing due to poor attendance.

There were just a few dozen people in the audience at the College of Charleston's arena, where the event was taking place. The conference has suffered from low attendance all week but Gingrich rival Rick Santorum went ahead and addressed the group on Thursday.

Gingrich's spokesman said skipping the stop would give the former House speaker more time at his next scheduled event, a tour of a children's hospital.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-20-Gingrich/id-0004fc947c9f4ca499c6f90422cf9a7b

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Jay-Z Makes Post-Baby Appearance At 40/40 Reopening

Ashanti, Spike Lee, Irv Gotti and more of Hov's high-profile friends toast the new dad at renovated NYC club.
By Rob Markman

Jay-Z at the 40/40 Club Reopening
Photo: FilmMagic

<P><b>NEW YORK</b> &#8212; <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/jay_z/artist.jhtml">Jay-Z</a> has a lot to celebrate. A little over a week ago, he and wife <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/knowles_beyonce/artist.jhtml">Beyonc&#233;</a> welcomed daughter <a href="/news/articles/1676906/beyonce-jay-z-baby-born-ivy-blue.jhtml">Blue Ivy Carter</a> into the world, and on Wednesday night, big poppa Hov had a bit of business to attend to at the reopening of his 40/40 Club. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:726477" width="240" height="211"></div><p> The stars came out and walked the red carpet before entering the redesigned sports bar. Jay's buddies Warren Buffet, Spike Lee, Steve Stoute, Kevin Liles and New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia all attended. "Hov always has big parties, so I'm definitely looking forward to going inside and mingling and jingling," Ashanti said. "We here at the reopening of the 40/40; we about to have a couple of drinks, a lot of beautiful women, New York City, the new joint &#8212; you already know," Wale said excitedly. Jigga's 40/40 closed last summer to undergo renovations and is now back with an updated look. While everyone was excited about the new club, baby Blue Ivy was a hot topic on the carpet. Ashanti couldn't be happier for the new parents, but when asked if she had caught a bit of baby fever herself, the "Foolish" singer made it clear that she isn't ready to be a mother just yet. "Oh no, boo-boo, no baby over here. I say it enough in my records," she said with a boisterous laugh. </p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:724136.id:1676907" width="240" height="211"></div><p> Music mogul and record producer Irv Gotti, who has three kids of his own, told MTV News that he shared some fatherly advice with his friend Jay-Z, but he wouldn't reveal any of it. "I'll keep that between me and Hov," Irv said. Then at that very moment, Jay breezed past the carpet trying to dodge reporters and flashing lights, but he did stop to give his old friend some love. After he and Gotti slapped each other five, Jay made a beeline for the 40/40 doors to get the party started.</p>

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Related Photos

• Jay-Z's 40/40 Club Reopens

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• Jay-Z
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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677515/jay-z-40-40-club-reopening.jhtml

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Video: Race sets GOP debate on fire

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Peace Corps pullout a new blow to Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) ? The U.S. government's decision to pull out all its Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras for safety reasons is yet another blow to a nation still battered by a coup and recently labeled the world's most deadly country.

Neither U.S. nor Honduran officials have said what specifically prompted them to withdraw the 158 Peace Corps volunteers, which the U.S. State Department said was one of the largest missions in the world last year.

It is the first time Peace Corps missions have been withdrawn from Central America since civil wars swept the region in the 1970s and 1980s. The Corps closed operations in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1991 and in El Salvador from 1980 to 1993 for safety and security reasons, but has since returned to both countries.

But the wave of violence and drug cartel-related crime hitting the Central American country had affected volunteers working on HIV prevention, water sanitation and youth projects, President Porfirio Lobo acknowledged.

Monday's pullout also comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reconsider sending police and military aid to Honduras as a response to human rights abuses.

"It's a welcome step toward the United States recognizing that they have a disastrous situation in Honduras," said Dana Frank, a University of California Santa Cruz history professor who has researched and traveled in Honduras.

The decision to pull out the entire delegation came after a Peace Corps volunteer was robbed and raped near the village of Duyure in southern Honduras on Jan. 24, 2011. Three men were found guilty of rape and robbery in that case, according to an employee of the regional court in the southern city of Choluteca who was not authorized to be quoted by name. Sentencing is scheduled for February; the three men face up to 26 years in prison. The volunteer was apparently assaulted while hiking in a remote area.

On Dec. 3, a female Peace Corps volunteer was shot in the leg during an armed robbery aboard a bus in the violence-torn city of San Pedro Sula.

Hugo Velasquez, a spokesman for the country's National Police, said 27-year-old Lauren Robert was wounded along with two other people. One of the three alleged robbers was killed by a bus passenger, Velasquez said. The daily La Prensa said Robert is from Texas.

Most areas of San Pedro Sula, like other especially violent parts of Honduras, had been declared "banned or highly discouraged for volunteers," according to the June 2011 edition of the Corps' "Welcome Book." Also banned were "all beaches at night" and a large part of the country's Atlantic coast.

The U.S. also announced it was suspended training for new volunteers in El Salvador and Guatemala, though they kept open the possibility of sending new teams of volunteers once a review of security conditions is finished. El Salvador has 113 volunteers, and there are 215 in Guatemala, where the head of the Peace Corps pledged the program would continue.

The three countries make up the so-called northern triangle of Central America, a region plagued by drug trafficking and gang violence. El Salvador has the second highest homicide rate with 66 killings per 100,000 inhabitants, the U.N. has said.

Numerous non-governmental aid groups work in the region and the Peace Corps decision has raised concerns that they could also be affected.

"This is not a good moment for Honduran NGOs," said Oscar Anibal Puerto, director of the Honduran Institute for Rural Development, which works on school construction and water projects, often with Spanish financing and sometimes in informal cooperation with Peace Corps volunteers.

He said financing from Spain has begun to dry up because of that country's debt crisis, and while the Peace Corps withdrawal "has not significantly affected us," he said he worried it could set an example for other donor countries to pull out.

But Puerto said he could understand the U.S. decision.

"Their concerns are justified, until the security situation in Honduras improves," he said. "Human values have been lost. Crime is the order of the day."

Honduras joins Kazakhstan and Niger as countries that have recently had their volunteers pulled out. The Kazakhstan decision followed reports of sexual assaults against volunteers. The Niger decision came after the kidnapping and murder of two French citizens claimed by an al-Qaida affiliate.

A U.N. report, released in October 2011, said Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world with 6,200 killings, or 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010.

"Violence affects all Hondurans. It wouldn't be surprising if Peace Corps members, too," said Jose Rolando Bu, president of a group that represents non-governmental agencies.

Between June 2010 and June 2011, nine U.S. citizens were killed in Honduras, most in San Pedro Sula or northern coastal areas.

The Peace Corps had sent volunteers to Honduras since 1962, and around 1982 it was the largest mission in the world, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. sent more people to help after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The volunteers in Honduras had been working on projects focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, water sanitation and youth development. It was not clear what effect their departure would have on those efforts; no other aid agency immediately announced any pullout based on security concerns.

Peace Corps volunteer Claire Krebs, an engineer from Houston, Texas, described her work in the mid-sized city of Choluteca on the Peace Corps Journals blog site. Krebs wrote that she surveyed, planned and designed water systems for rural Honduran villages, which involved visits to rural areas in the country's somewhat more tranquil southern region, where there were few apparent security problems.

Krebs was training Hondurans to do the work she was doing, but it was unclear if they could yet replace her.

Berman said in the Nov. 28, 2011, letter to Clinton that he worried that some murders in Honduras appeared to be politically motivated because high-profile victims included people related to or investigating abuses by police and security forces, or to the June 28, 2009, ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. The coup lead to the temporary diplomatic isolation of Honduras.

On Tuesday, a Honduran lawyer who had reported torture and human rights violations by police officers was killed by gunmen, authorities said.

Three men stormed into the office of Ricardo Rosales, 42, shot him dead and escaped, said Hector Turcios, the police chief of Tela, a city 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of the capital.

Rosales had told local press that officers had tortured jail inmates in his city.

__________

Adriana Gomez Licon reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-18-LT-Honduras-Peace-Corps/id-d57917c3f3734f958fe0fc6bdf2591bd

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