Biden’s gun task force met with all sides, but kept its eye on the target

Vice President Biden was curt, avoiding confrontation when he sat down with the National Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates. He looked across the table in his ornate conference room and asked the NRA official if his group could back a ban on assault weapons.

“No,” was James J. Baker’s reply.

There was little discussion, no real debate over whether a 1990s ban had worked. The two men simply moved on. Biden, leading a task force to study gun violence, was certain of the course of action President Obama would end up taking, and Baker was just as certain that the NRA would work to stop it.

In the 33 days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gun control rocketed through what one administration official called “a time warp,” transforming from an issue that was politically off-limits to one at the top of Obama’s agenda.

At the center of the transformation was the Biden-led task force. It held 22 meetings, most of them in the same week and many stretching past two hours, Biden furiously scribbling notes in a black leather-bound spiral notebook. The group collected ideas from 229 organizations — or, as Biden put it in a speech last week, “reviewing just about every idea that had been written up only to gather dust on the shelf of some agency.”

The vice president personally placed phone calls, too, including a 45-minute chat one night with the parents of a student who died at Sandy Hook.

“It was like watching an entire term of Senate hearings compressed into a week,” said one administration official who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “He was gently interrogating witnesses, following up, finding common ground, finding discrepancies.”

The outcome was never in doubt, however. From the outset, Obama made clear he would champion universal background checks for all gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

“I feel like to a certain extent they were checking the box, to say we’ve met with all the stakeholders and now we’re going to do what we’re going to do,” Baker, the NRA lobbyist, said of the task force.

Biden’s task force was less about determining which of the big-ticket items to recommend — it recommended them all — and more about involving each interest group in a process that could build a diverse coalition to lobby Congress.

A strategy took shape to undercut the NRA by appealing to its membership base through more friendly groups, such as evangelical pastors and sportsmen’s associations.

The representative of the hunters group Ducks Unlimited, for instance, presented Biden with a wooden duck decoy. In that meeting, Biden conceded that any push for universal background checks could include exceptions for gun transfers between family members.

“He wasn’t challenging their positions,” said an official. “He was looking for space between their positions and where we are — space where things can happen.”

The task force also provided Biden with his latest prominent role on a high-profile issue. Biden looks to be at the center of every big policy push of the second term, from taxes and debt to the war in Afghanistan. His performance will affect not only his ambitions for a possible third run at the presidency, but also Obama’s legacy. On guns, an issue Biden knows well, he plans to go out on the hustings to rally public support.

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Hundreds stranded as Scoot flights delayed

SINGAPORE: Hundreds of passengers were stranded after their flights on the budget airline Scoot were delayed.

Callers to the MediaCorp News hotline said flights from Singapore to Bangkok in Thailand and back, and flights from Singapore to Tianjin in China were affected.

One caller reported that more than 300 passengers were stuck at Changi Airport after their scheduled flight TZ88 to Tianjin did not take off.

A Scoot spokesperson said the issue arose when due to technical reasons, the airline was not able to accommodate 23 people booked on the Bangkok bound flight.

After unsuccessfully seeking volunteers, the last 23 passengers to check in were told that they could not board and would be given tickets on the next day's flight plus compensation - in accordance with the terms and conditions they accepted upon purchase of their tickets.

The spokesperson said regrettably the 23 passengers would not accept the offer.

A large group of their friends who were already in the boarding area then became disruptive and would not let the flight board.

Eventually, after a lengthy delay, 23 other passengers agreed to travel at a later date and the aircraft left for Bangkok.

The aircraft deployed to Bangkok, upon its return to Singapore, subsequently operates to Tianjin.

The spokesperson added that because of the delayed departure to Bangkok, its return to Singapore was also delayed and, hence, the Tianjin flight too.

Some passengers who had checked in for the Tianjin flight returned home, while others stayed in the airport and have been provided meal vouchers and refreshments.

Scoot said it sincerely regrets the disruption.

- CNA/ck

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Srinagar-Jammu highway reopens

SRINAGAR: As the weather improved across the state on Sunday, the Srinagar-Jammu highway was reopened for one-way traffic after three days, an official said.

"Traffic will move from Jammu to Srinagar on the highway today (Sunday). Drivers are advised to drive cautiously as slippery road conditions exist at places on the highway," said an official of the traffic department.

As reports of non-availability of electric power continued to pour in from different parts of the Kashmir Valley, engineers of the power development department (PDD) said they had restored 80 percent supplies till Saturday evening.

"Our men are still on the restoration job, but we have already restored 80 percent supply," said a PDD engineer.

The weather office said no rain or snow was expected in the Kashmir Valley during the next 24 hours although cloudy conditions would continue during this period.

Kashmir University officials who had postponed all exams till Jan 19 have said that it would be held as per the announced schedule from Monday.

Air India Sunday will be operating a flight from winter capital Jammu to Leh town for the stranded passengers of Ladakh region, an official said.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Algeria Hostage Crisis Over, One American Dead

After the Algerian military's final assault on terrorists holding hostages at a gas complex, the four-day hostage crisis is over, but apparently with additional loss of life among the foreign hostages.

One American, Fred Buttaccio of Texas, has been confirmed dead by the U.S. State Department. Two more U.S. hostages remain unaccounted for, with growing concern among U.S. officials that they did not survive.

But another American, Mark Cobb of Corpus Christi, Texas is now confirmed as safe. Sources close to his family say Cobb, who is a senior manager of the facility, is safe and reportedly sent a text message " I'm alive."

Inside Algerian Hostage Crisis, One American Dead Watch Video

American Hostages Escape From Algeria Terrorists Watch Video

In a statement, President Obama said, "Today, the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the families of all those who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack in Algeria. The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms. ... This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups in North Africa."

According to Algerian state media, 32 militants are dead and a total of 23 hostages perished during the four-day siege of the In Amenas facility in the Sahara. The Algerian Interior Ministry also says 107 foreign nationals who worked at the facility for BP and other firms were rescued or escaped from the al Qaeda-linked terrorists who took over the BP joint venture facility on Wednesday.

The Japanese government says it fears "very grave" news, with multiple casualties among the 10 Japanese citizens working at the In Amenas gas plant.

Five British nationals and one U.K. resident are either deceased or unaccounted for in the country, according to British Foreign Minister William Hague. Hague also said that the Algerians have reported that they are still trying to clear boobytraps from the site.

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Earl Smith is the man behind a military patch that President Obama prizes

AUSTIN — That February morning in 2008 found Barack Obama decidedly out of sorts.

He was locked in one battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination that showed no signs of ending — and another with a vicious cold that felt the same way.

As he rode the service elevator in the backway of a convention hotel here, the snowy-haired African American operating it turned suddenly. He held out a black-and-gold bit of fabric embroidered with a screaming eagle.

“Senator Obama, I have something I want to give you,” the man said. “I’ve carried this military patch with me every day for 40 years, and I want you to carry it, and it will keep you safe in your journey.” Obama tried to refuse, but the older man persisted.

Big endeavors can find their meaning in small moments.

Later that day, Obama and his aides discussed the encounter. The future president pulled the patch from his pocket, along with about a dozen other items people had pressed upon him.

“This is why I do this,” he said. “Because people have their hopes and dreams about what we can do together.”

Two American stories intersected that morning in that elevator. The more famous, of course, is the one that begins its next chapter on Monday, as the nation’s first black president takes the oath of office for a second term.

But the other story also tells a lot about where this country has been and how far it has come.

No one in Obama’s small party that day noticed the man’s name tag or, if anyone did, the fact that it said Earl Smith was quickly forgotten.

No one knew how much of Smith’s life had been woven into a patch that, over four decades, found its way from the shoulder of an Army private to the pocket of a future commander-in-chief.

It was the only shred of cloth he had saved from the uniform of a nightmarish year in Vietnam. Smith fired artillery with a brigade that suffered 10,041 casualties during the course of the war. The brigade’s soldiers received 13 Congressional Medals of Honor.

The patch was waiting among his possessions when Smith was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1977 after spending three years in prison for a crime he claimed was self-defense.

Smith kept it close as his lucky charm while he rebuilt his life and his reputation, starting with a job vacuuming hallways and changing sheets in an Atlanta Marriott. He carried it with him as he traveled halfway around the world again, to positions in hotels far from home, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Along the way, as he tended to travelers and made sure VIP gatherings went smoothly, he met three U.S. presidents.

His instincts told him Obama would make it four.

Like just about anyone else who was alive on Nov. 22, 1963, Smith can describe exactly where he was when he heard the horrific news: He was coming off a high school football practice field in his home town of San Benito, Tex.

Though not yet old enough to have voted for the man slain in Dallas, “I was devastated — a lot of us young people were — because John Kennedy was the young president,” recalled Smith, now 68.

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Koh Poh Koon has character, conviction & commitment: PM Lee

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said PAP candidate Dr Koh Poh Koon can make a contribution not just in Punggol East but nationally.

He said when Dr Koh is ready and judged ready, Mr Lee will be appointing him to a suitable political office. "I think he (Dr Poh) can make a contribution not just in Punggol East but broadly, nationally. When he is ready, and I judge that he is ready, and we are ready, I will be appointing him to a suitable political office," he said.

PM Lee said this in response to reporters' questions about whether Dr Koh was being primed for a bigger role, following a walkabout at Rivervale Plaza early Saturday morning.

Mr Lee however said Dr Koh's first priority is to fight and win the by-election, as well as the trust of the residents and to be a good member of Parliament (MP) in Punggol East.

Calling Dr Koh a man with a sense of social responsibility, Mr Lee added he's quite confident that he will make a good MP, as he thinks he has got the character, the conviction and the commitment. "I'm quite confident he will make a good MP, and I think he's got the character, he's got the conviction, and the commitment to do that."

Mr Lee also spoke about his visit to Rivervale Plaza, where upgrading works have been plagued by a series of delays since the contractor went bust.

He met stall owners and residents and highlighted visible problems such as clutter and exposed ceilings.

Mr Lee said: "It's in an untidy state now. I can understand residents being impatient, aggravated, and irritated by the inconvenience daily."

He added that a new contractor has been hired and work will be completed by the middle of this year.

- CNA/ck

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Indo-Pak LoC tension puts Gujarat farmers in a soup

AHMEDABAD: The heat on the Indo-Pak border has squashed tomato prices in Gujarat. Farmers in Kadi, about 40 km north of here, say if trade with the neighbouring nation does not normalize, they will land up in a... what else, tomato soup!

Prices of tomatoes in the wholesale markets in Ahmedabad have plummeted from around Rs 300/20 kg on Saturday to Rs 80/20 kg on Thursday. The corresponding fall in the retail market is only from Rs 20/kg to Rs 15/kg so far, as traders are holding on to stocks or diverting them elsewhere. During the four winter months, farmers in and around Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar usually produce about 5,000 tonnes of tomatoes. Of this, around 600 tonnes go to Punjab and most of it crosses over to Pakistan. On an average, 40 trucks laden with tomatoes leave Kadi every day for Punjab. The outflow from Kadi, which produces 600 tonnes of tomatoes, has come down to just 10 trucks a day, since the border dispute erupted last week. Asif Darbar, a trader from Kadi, said, "Traders from Punjab come to Kadi frequently to purchase tomatoes due to superior quality, but they have stopped coming." Punjabis have also gone missing from the Jamalpur agri-market in Ahmedabad.

But while tomato farmers are left red-faced with war-mongering on both sides, there is good news for consumers. "Export quality tomatoes are grown over 2,000 hectares in Gujarat and the local variety is popular as it is big in size," said DM Vaghela, deputy director, horticulture, Ahmedabad.

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Armstrong Tearful Over Telling Kids Truth

Lance Armstrong, 41, began to cry today as he described finding out his son Luke, 13, was publicly defending him from accusations that he doped during his cycling career.

Armstrong said that he knew, at that moment, that he would have to publicly admit to taking performance-enhancing drugs and having oxygen-boosting blood transfusions when competing in the Tour de France. He made those admissions to Oprah Winfrey in a two-part interview airing Thursday and tonight.

"When this all really started, I saw my son defending me, and saying, 'That's not true. What you're saying about my dad? That's not true,'" Armstrong said, tearing up during the second installment of his interview tonight. "And it almost goes to this question of, 'Why now?'

"That's when I knew I had to talk," Armstrong said. "He never asked me. He never said, 'Dad, is this true?' He trusted me."

He told Winfrey that he sat down with his children over the holidays to come clean about his drug use.

"I said, 'Listen, there's been a lot of questions about your dad, about my career and whether I doped or did not dope,'" he said he told them. "'I always denied that. I've always been ruthless and defiant about that, which is why you defended me, which makes it even sicker' I said, 'I want you to know that it's true.'"

He added that his mother was "a wreck" over the scandal.

Armstrong said that the lowest point in his fall from grace and the top of the cycling world came when his cancer charity, Livestrong, asked him to consider stepping down.

George Burns/Harpo Studios, Inc.

Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: How Honest Was He? Watch Video

Lance Armstrong-Winfrey Interview: Doping Confession Watch Video

After the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency alleged in October that Armstrong doped throughout his reign as Tour de France champion, Armstrong said, his major sponsors -- including Nike, Anheuser Busch and Trek -- called one by one to end their endorsement contracts with him.

"Everybody out," he said. "Still not the most humbling moment."

Then came the call from Livestrong, the charity he founded at age 25 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

"The story was getting out of control, which was my worst nightmare," he said. "I had this place in my mind that they would all leave. The one I didn't think would leave was the foundation.

"That was most humbling moment," he said.

Armstrong first stepped down as chairman of the board for the charity before being asked to end his association with the charity entirely. Livestrong is now run independently of Armstrong.

"I don't think it was 'We need you to step down,' but, 'We need you to consider stepping down for yourself,'" he said, recounting the call. "I had to think about that a lot. None of my kids, none of my friends have said, 'You're out,' and the foundation was like my sixth child. To make that decision, to step aside, that was big."

In Thursday's interview installment, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France admitted publicly for the first time that he doped throughout his career, confirming after months of angry denials the findings of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which stripped him of his titles in October.

He told Winfrey that he was taking the opportunity to confess to everything he had done wrong, including for years angrily denying claims that he had doped.

READ MORE: Armstrong Admits to Doping

WATCH: Armstrong's Many Denials Caught on Tape

READ MORE: 10 Scandalous Public Confessions

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Gun control debate may be driving higher sales

LAS VEGAS — The United States appears to be experiencing a rec­ord run on military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and some kinds of ammunition as buyers deluge stores in search of guns and bullets they fear will be banned by the Obama administration, according to firearms industry executives and market analysts.

Even allowing for spikes in gun sales that follow every mass killing in the United States and attendant political debates about gun control, industry executives said the surge seems unprecedented.

And it has emptied shelves of the kind of semiautomatic rifle that was used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month, the deaths that sparked President Obama’s proposal for tougher gun laws.

In some areas, a buyer walking into a gun store now will have to wait up to a year to buy a military-style assault weapon. The prices of available semiautomatics have doubled as buyers bid up the dwindling supply, and stocks of Glock handguns are also low.

“I think there has been a pretty dramatic uptick in demand within one month,” said Nima Samadi, who follows the gun industry for IBISWorld, a market research firm. “Certain locations are even running out of certain guns, and suppliers can’t fulfill demand.”

Samadi noted that 2012 was already a banner year for the gun industry, with projected 8.2 percent growth over 2011 — just as 2008, another presidential election year, saw a significant increase in gun sales.

The health and financial muscle of the gun industry was dramatically evident at the massive SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) show here, where an estimated 60,000 people gathered to see, handle and buy firearms and accessories displayed by more than 1,600 exhibitors over more than 12 miles of convention space.

“2012 was a year of unparalleled growth and success for the firearms industry and its law-abiding customers,” said Stephen L. Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, headquartered in Newtown.

Sanetti said that more than 73 percent of retailers surveyed by the gun manufacturers’ trade group had increased sales over the previous year, and that first-time buyers have increased to more than 25 percent of all customers.

“By late in 2012, retail firearm background checks had experienced 20 consecutive months of growth,” Sanetti said, indicating that gun stores were selling more weapons.

In December, the number of FBI background checks on prospective gun buyers increased in every state over November and over December 2011. In Virginia, checks jumped from 52,416 in November to 77,487 in December; in Maryland, from 17,048 to 19,172.

Nationally, there were 2,783,765 background checks last month, an increase of 38 percent over November, according to FBI statistics. That is the single highest month since 1998, the year the FBI launched the program as a requirement of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. On Dec. 21, the FBI processed 177,170 background checks, a single-day record.

These figures provide only a partial window into gun sales because they do not represent the number of firearms sold. A single background check can cover the purchase of multiple weapons, and private sales and transactions at gun shows do not require a background check. There is no federal data on total gun purchases in the United States.

At the Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, the effects of the debate are visible. “My shelves are bare,” said store manager Donel Dover, who said that he has run out of some kinds of semiautomatic weapons, and that the supply of .223-caliber and 5.56mm ammunition has dried up. “Some distributors have told us it will be six or seven months before they fill orders and that’s only going to get worse.”

Industry executives said the popularity of military-style assault weapons, called modern sporting rifles by manufacturers, stems partly from the wars of the past 20 years. Demand surged among veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Bushmaster, the weapon used in the Newtown shooting, is the civilian version of the M-16, first used in the Vietnam War. While military weapons are automatic, those for sale are semiautomatic.

One U.S. official cautioned that the industry’s rhetoric about gun sales can be self-serving. “If people think Twinkies are going out of business, they’re going to buy Twinkies,” said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

The National Rifle Association described Obama’s proposals to reduce gun violence as an effort to ban tens of millions of guns.

“The main goal of the gun banners in Congress is not to make schools safer, but to ban your guns and abolish every last sacred right you have under the Second Amendment . . . until they reduce your freedom to ashes,” the NRA said in its latest alert.

Finn reported from Washington. Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

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Some children outgrow autism: study

WASHINGTON: Some children diagnosed as autistic at a young age see their symptoms completely disappear when they get older, new research shows.

The small-scale study -- published in the "Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry" -- included 34 subjects who were diagnosed very early on with the disorder but who, by ages 18 to 21, no longer exhibited any signs of it.

Unlike when they were little, the subjects no longer showed deficits in speech, communication, recognizing faces or social interactions -- all hallmarks of autism.

"Although the diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time, the findings suggest that there is a very wide range of possible outcomes," said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Previous studies had already suggested it was possible for an autism diagnosis to disappear over time.

But this research looked deeper into the legitimacy of the phenomenon. The authors questioned whether the initial diagnosis had been accurate and whether the subjects had truly caught up to their peers.

In both cases, it turned out the answer was yes.

The researchers, led by Deborah Fein of the University of Connecticut, reviewed the original reports written when the children were diagnosed and had them examined by additional experts outside the research group.

The data was compared to groups of young adults whose diagnoses of autism and its milder sibling, high-functioning autism, persisted, and to a control group.

The analysis showed that, among the 34 subjects whose autism symptoms had abated, doctors had originally observed lower levels of social deficits than among the subjects with high-functioning autism.

But other symptoms, including language delays and repetitive behaviour, had been on par with the other group.

And the contemporary testing of the study subjects -- all of whom attended school in mainstream classrooms with no special services -- confirmed that the young adults no longer exhibited any deficits.

But the authors emphasised that the study offers no insight on what percentage of children with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, will grow out of their diagnosis.

"All children with ASD are capable of making progress with intensive therapy, but with our current state of knowledge most do not achieve the kind of optimal outcome that we are studying," said lead author Fein.

"Our hope is that further research will help us better understand the mechanisms of change so that each child can have the best possible life."

-AFP/fl

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MHA inquiry finds PCR response could have swifter in Nirbhaya case

NEW DELHI: An inquiry by the home ministry into allegations made by Nirbhaya's friend about the "tardy" response of Delhi Police in reaching her to hospital has found that the response time could indeed have been better.

The inquiry report by Veena Kumari Meena, a joint secretary in the home ministry, also said Dinesh Yadav, operator of the bus on which the gang rape took place, had been blatantly flouting norms by plying not only the rogue bus despite repeated challans, but was also running several other buses in his fleet without valid permits.

Sources in the government told TOI that Meena noted that though the PCRs responded to the distress call made on Nirbhaya's behalf within "reasonable" time and, as per PCR logs, left the spot within 15 minutes, this time could have been cut further had the police "reacted better" to the emergency.

Though exact details of the report are still awaited, sources hinted that the inquiry faulted Delhi Police for failing to immediately rush the victims to hospital despite the first PCR having reached the spot at 10.27 pm, by the police's own account. According to the Delhi Police, the control room received a call about the incident at 10.21 pm on December 16. PCR van Z-54 was assigned the call but another PCR, E-74, reached the spot on its own at 10.27 pm. Z-54 was there at 10.29 pm.

Z-54 finally left the spot with Nirbhaya and her friend at 10.39 pm, after arranging bed-sheets from a nearby hotel to cover them.

Nirbhaya's friend had, in an interview to a news channel, alleged that the PCRs which reached the spot wasted crucial time in arguing over jurisdiction and that the police were reluctant to shift an injured Nirbhaya to the PCR.

However, joint commissioner of police Vivek Gogia denied this, saying, "There was no issue over jurisdiction as PCR vans do not operate under police stations."

The inquiry was set up on January 7 to assess the alacrity of Delhi Police as well as the response of Safdarjung Hospital staff to the December 16 rape. Meena was asked to identify lapses and fix responsibility.

The terms of reference also included examining how the rogue bus continued to ply on Delhi roads despite being challaned several times, and to study the responsiveness of Dial 100 helpline.

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Opinion: Lance One of Many Tour de France Cheaters

Editor's note: England-based writer and photographer Roff Smith rides around 10,000 miles a year through the lanes of Sussex and Kent and writes a cycling blog at: www.my-bicycle-and-I.co.uk

And so, the television correspondent said to the former Tour de France champion, a man who had been lionised for years, feted as the greatest cyclist of his day, did you ever use drugs in the course of your career?

"Yes," came the reply. "Whenever it was necessary."

"And how often was that?" came the follow-up question.

"Almost all the time!"

This is not a leak of a transcript from Oprah Winfrey's much anticipated tell-all with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, but instead was lifted from a decades-old interview with Fausto Coppi, the great Italian road cycling champion of the 1940s and 1950s.

To this day, though, Coppi is lauded as one of the gods of cycling, an icon of a distant and mythical golden age in the sport.

So is five-time Tour winner Jacques Anquetil (1957, 1961-64) who famously remarked that it was impossible "to ride the Tour on mineral water."

"You would have to be an imbecile or a crook to imagine that a professional cyclist who races for 235 days a year can hold the pace without stimulants," Anquetil said.

And then there's British cycling champion Tommy Simpson, who died of heart failure while trying to race up Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France, a victim of heat, stress, and a heady cocktail of amphetamines.

All are heroes today. If their performance-enhancing peccadillos are not forgotten, they have at least been glossed over in the popular imagination.

As the latest chapter of the sorry Lance Armstrong saga unfolds, it is worth looking at the history of cheating in the Tour de France to get a sense of perspective. This is not an attempt at rationalisation or justification for what Lance did. Far from it.

But the simple, unpalatable fact is that cheating, drugs, and dirty tricks have been part and parcel of the Tour de France nearly from its inception in 1903.

Cheating was so rife in the 1904 event that Henri Desgrange, the founder and organiser of the Tour, declared he would never run the race again. Not only was the overall winner, Maurice Garin, disqualified for taking the train over significant stretches of the course, but so were next three cyclists who placed, along with the winner of every single stage of the course.

Of the 27 cyclists who actually finished the 1904 race, 12 were disqualified and given bans ranging from one year to life. The race's eventual official winner, 19-year-old Henri Cornet, was not determined until four months after the event.

And so it went. Desgrange relented on his threat to scrub the Tour de France and the great race survived and prospered-as did the antics. Trains were hopped, taxis taken, nails scattered along the roads, partisan supporters enlisted to beat up rivals on late-night lonely stretches of the course, signposts tampered with, bicycles sabotaged, itching powder sprinkled in competitors' jerseys and shorts, food doctored, and inkwells smashed so riders yet to arrive couldn't sign the control documents to prove they'd taken the correct route.

And then of course there were the stimulants-brandy, strychnine, ether, whatever-anything to get a rider through the nightmarishly tough days and nights of racing along stages that were often over 200 miles long. In a way the race was tailor-made to encourage this sort of thing. Desgrange once famously said that his idea of a perfect Tour de France would be one that was so tough that only one rider finished.

Add to this the big prizes at a time when money was hard to come by, a Tour largely comprising young riders from impoverished backgrounds for whom bicycle racing was their one big chance to get ahead, and the passionate following cycling enjoyed, and you had the perfect recipe for a desperate, high stakes, win-at-all-costs mentality, especially given the generally tolerant views on alcohol and drugs in those days.

After World War II came the amphetamines. Devised to keep soldiers awake and aggressive through long hours of battle they were equally handy for bicycle racers competing in the world's longest and toughest race.

So what makes the Lance Armstrong story any different, his road to redemption any rougher? For one thing, none of the aforementioned riders were ever the point man for what the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has described in a thousand-page report as the most sophisticated, cynical, and far-reaching doping program the world of sport has ever seen-one whose secrecy and efficiency was maintained by ruthlessness, bullying, fear, and intimidation.

Somewhere along the line, the casualness of cheating in the past evolved into an almost Frankenstein sort of science in which cyclists, aided by creepy doctors and trainers, were receiving blood transfusions in hotel rooms and tinkering around with their bodies at the molecular level many months before they ever lined up for a race.

To be sure, Armstrong didn't invent all of this, any more than he invented original sin-nor was he acting alone. But with his success, money, intelligence, influence, and cohort of thousand-dollar-an-hour lawyers-and the way he used all this to prop up the Lance brand and the Lance machine at any cost-he became the poster boy and lightning rod for all that went wrong with cycling, his high profile eclipsing even the heads of the Union Cycliste Internationale, the global cycling union, who richly deserve their share of the blame.

It is not his PED popping that is the hard-to-forgive part of the Lance story. Armstrong cheated better than his peers, that's all.

What I find troubling is the bullying and calculated destruction of anyone who got in his way, raised a question, or cast a doubt. By all accounts Armstrong was absolutely vicious, vindictive as hell. Former U.S. Postal team masseuse Emma O'Reilly found herself being described publicly as a "prostitute" and an "alcoholic," and had her life put through a legal grinder when she spoke out about Armstrong's use of PEDs.

Journalists were sued, intimidated, and blacklisted from events, press conferences, and interviews if they so much as questioned the Lance miracle or well-greased machine that kept winning Le Tour.

Armstrong left a lot of wreckage behind him.

If he is genuinely sorry, if he truly repents for his past "indiscretions," one would think his first act would be to try to find some way of not only seeking forgiveness from those whom he brutally put down, but to do something meaningful to repair the damage he did to their lives and livelihoods.

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Lance Armstrong Admits to Doping

Lance Armstrong, formerly cycling's most decorated champion and considered one of America's greatest athletes, confessed to cheating for at least a decade, admitting on Thursday that he owed all seven of his Tour de France titles and the millions of dollars in endorsements that followed to his use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs.

After years of denying that he had taken banned drugs and received oxygen-boosting blood transfusions, and attacking his teammates and competitors who attempted to expose him, Armstrong came clean with Oprah Winfrey in an exclusive interview, admitting to using banned substances for years.

"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," he said. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said.

"I'm a flawed character, as I well know," Armstrong added. "All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."

In October, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a report in which 11 former Armstrong teammates exposed the system with which they and Armstrong received drugs with the knowledge of their coaches and help of team physicians.

George Burns/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc./AP Photo

Lance Armstrong Admits Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs Watch Video

Lance Armstrong's Oprah Confession: The Consequences Watch Video

Lance Armstrong's Many Denials Caught on Tape Watch Video

The U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," USADA said in its report.

As a result of USADA's findings, Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles. Soon, longtime sponsors including Nike began to abandon him, too.

READ MORE: Did Doping Cause Armstrong's Cancer?

Armstrong said he was driven to cheat by a "ruthless desire to win."

He told Winfrey that his competition "cocktail" consisted of EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone, and that he had previously used cortisone. He would not, however, give Winfrey the details of when, where and with whom he doped during seven winning Tours de France between 1999 and 2005.

He said he stopped doping following his 2005 Tour de France victory and did not use banned substances when he placed third in 2009 and entered the tour again in 2010.

"It was a mythic perfect story and it wasn't true," Armstrong said of his fairytale story of overcoming testicular cancer to become the most celebrated cyclist in history.

READ MORE: 10 Scandalous Public Confessions

PHOTOS: Olympic Doping Scandals: Past and Present

PHOTOS: Tour de France 2012

Armstrong would not name other members of his team who doped, but admitted that as the team's captain he set an example. He admitted he was "a bully" but said there "there was a never a directive" from him that his teammates had to use banned substances.

"At the time it did not feel wrong?" Winfrey asked.

"No," Armstrong said. "Scary."

"Did you feel bad about it?" she asked again.

"No," he said.

Armstrong said he thought taking the drugs was similar to filling his tires with air and bottle with water. He never thought of his actions as cheating, but "leveling the playing field" in a sport rife with doping.

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Uncle of young Newtown shooting victim turning tragedy into action

On Dec. 14, Alexis Haller was on the phone working on a legal brief for the Vatican when his mother texted him to say that there had been a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. His nephew was missing.

Haller, a litigator in Washington state, monitored the news and felt his stomach drop when reports emerged that an entire classroom of children had been killed. Confirmation of the worst came later that day. His nephew, Noah Pozner, 6, had been shot 11 times at close range with a semiautomatic weapon, making him the youngest of the 26 people slain that day at the school.

One month later, Haller found himself in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, the soft-spoken 39-year-old with rimless glasses and exhausted eyes sat in the front row of an auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as the president and vice president announced new gun-control measures. Haller had crafted and forwarded several proposals to prevent future gun violence that were shaped by his experience as a lawyer for the Holy See. He also had publicly criticized the administration for what he considered an initial failure to reach out to victims and their families. In a political environment in which victims are often used as backdrops for a photo opportunity, Haller decided to use his awful status as an opportunity for advocacy.

“The thing my whole family on my sister’s side latched on to right away was we have to make something positive come out of it,” he said.

Before heading to the office building on Wednesday morning, Haller grabbed a pair of socks off the wall of clothier Jos. A. Bank. He had flown in late the night before, and the airline had lost his luggage in Burbank, Calif. An aide to Vice President Biden had offered to lend the visiting lawyer her husband’s blazer, but Haller preferred to shop for his own clothes. While sifting through suits and ties (“My nephew’s favorite color was blue”), he talked about his family’s “nightmare” month.

On the night of the shooting, Haller arrived in Connecticut to help lighten the logistical load for his sister, coordinating with a state trooper assigned to meet the family’s needs and establishing a Web site to collect donations to pay for counseling and education for Noah’s siblings, including his twin sister. He received an expression of support from the Holy See, met President Obama at Sandy Hook (“He was devastated”) and eulogized Noah at his funeral (“He would have become a great man”). When Haller’s wife, an active blogger, learned that a fake account had been set up in Noah’s name, the Princeton- and Stanford-educated Haller decried the scam on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” The FBI thanked him, Haller said, for preventing more fraudulent activity.

Haller returned to Seattle on Dec. 28 to meet a deadline on the Vatican brief, but made time to talk to school-safety experts and read the Secret Service report on the shootings at Columbine High School. As he pored over research, he kept finding incidences of “leakage,” a term describing when a person intentionally or unintentionally reveals clues that may signal an impending violent act.

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Japan Dreamliners must remain grounded: govt

TOKYO: All Boeing Dreamliners operating in Japan must remain grounded until their batteries are confirmed to be safe, the government said Thursday, following a similar order in the US.

"Following the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration) decision, Boeing 787s will not be allowed to fly until their battery safety is assured," said Hiroshi Kajiyama, Japan's vice transport minister, adding that a formal order would be issued later Thursday.

The comments come after a probable battery leak emerged as the focus of the investigation into the forced emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Dreamliner in Japan on Wednesday.

They also come after the FAA ordered that 787 Dreamliners in the United States stop flying until a fire risk linked to their lithium-ion batteries was resolved, dealing a huge blow to Boeing and its next-generation aircraft.

Lithium-ion batteries of different specifications are widely used in consumer electronics such as laptops and mobile phones.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and rival ANA -- which together operate half the world's Dreamliners -- voluntarily grounded their fleets after the ANA flight made an emergency landing in southwestern Japan.

India's transport safety agency said on Wednesday it was also launching a probe of the fuel-efficient Dreamliner.

Kajiyama on Thursday said officials investigating the safety scare "reported that there are problems in the battery" and other parts of the plane.

"Just by observing with the naked eye, the battery showed abnormalities, but electricity-linked equipment is complex so we need more investigation," he said.

Electrolyte leaks and burn marks have been found on the battery's metal casing, ANA said, with officials from the Japan Transport Safety Board working on the principle that it overheated, Kyodo News reported.

"Liquid leaked through the room floor to the inside of the outer wall of the aircraft," the agency quoted investigator Hideyo Kosugi as saying.

Japan's Transport Minister Akihiro Ota earlier described the emergency landing as a "serious incident that could have led to a serious accident".

Embattled Boeing on Wednesday backed its Dreamliner, considered an aviation milestone for its use of lightweight carbon fibre materials and advanced electronics systems.

"We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity," Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement.

"We will be taking every necessary step in the coming days to assure our customers and the travelling public of the 787's safety and to return the airplanes to service."

Boeing, whose shares make up part of the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, tumbled 3.4 percent on Wednesday.

The FAA order means 30 of the world's 50 Dreamliners have been grounded, with the two Japanese carriers operating almost half the world's fleet.

United Airlines, the world's biggest airline, is currently the only US airline operating the 787, with six aircraft in service.

Speaking after the FAA announcement, an ANA spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires: "We'll examine the information we've gotten so far and exchange information further as necessary and will attempt to take appropriate steps as soon as possible."

The carrier, which together with JAL has invested billions of dollars in the Dreamliner with a combined order totalling 111 aircraft, "has not made any" decisions over future use of the aircraft, she added.

A spokesman for JAL said it was too early to comment on the FAA decision but added that "we will continue to collect information".

In Tokyo trading on Thursday, ANA shares were down 0.54 percent to 181 yen by the midday break while Japan Airlines was off 0.27 percent at 3,665 yen.

- AFP/al

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Hina Rabbani Khar proposes foreign minister-level talk to defuse tension along LoC

NEW DELHI: Stating that continued tension along the LoC is not in the interest of peace and stability in the region, Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar has offered to discuss the issue at the lever of the foreign ministers. In what appeared to be a climb-down after her "warm-mongering" remark against Indian leaders, Khar also said that Pakistan and India are both important countries of South Asia and that it is imperative that they demonstrate "requisite responsibility for ensuring peace by addressing all concerns through dialogue".

"Instead of issuing belligerent statements by the military and political leaders from across the border and ratcheting up tension, it is advisable for the two countries to discuss all concerns related to Line of Control (LoC) with a view to reinforcing respect for the ceasefire, may be at the level of the Foreign Ministers to sort out things," said Khar in a late night statement.

Khar said Pakistan has invested hugely in the dialogue process and has worked energetically to keep the dialogue process moving forward in a sustained and constructive manner. "Pakistan has gone out of the way to build constructive relationship with India," she said.

"Rhetoric and ratcheting up of tensions is certainly counter-productive. We are saddened and disappointed at the continued negative statements emanating from India both from the media as well as certain Indian leaders. For its part, Pakistan has observed a measured and deliberate self-restraint in our public statements on India. This has been done keeping in view the interest of peace in the region," she added.

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6 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You

Photograph by AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

The planet keeps getting hotter, new data showed this week. Especially in America, where 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded, by far. Every few years, the U.S. federal government engages hundreds of experts to assess the impacts of climate change, now and in the future.

From agriculture (pictured) to infrastructure to how humans consume energy, the National Climate Assessment Development Advisory Committee spotlights how a warming world may bring widespread disruption.

Farmers will see declines in some crops, while others will reap increased yields.

Won't more atmospheric carbon mean longer growing seasons? Not quite. Over the next several decades, the yield of virtually every crop in California's fertile Central Valley, from corn to wheat to rice and cotton, will drop by up to 30 percent, researchers expect. (Read about "The Carbon Bathtub" in National Geographic magazine.)

Lackluster pollination, driven by declines in bees due partly to the changing climate, is one reason. Government scientists also expect the warmer climate to shorten the length of the frosting season necessary for many crops to grow in the spring.

Aside from yields, climate change will also affect food processing, storage, and transportation—industries that require an increasing amount of expensive water and energy as global demand rises—leading to higher food prices.

—Daniel Stone

Published January 16, 2013

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FAA Grounds Boeing 787 Dreamliners

The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the grounding of Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets until their U.S. operator proves that batteries on the planes are safe.

United is the only U.S. carrier flying the Boeing 787s, which have been touted as the planes of the future. However, several operated by overseas airlines have run into recent trouble, the latest because of a feared battery fire on a 787 today in Japan.

The FAA's so-called emergency airworthiness directive is a blow to Boeing, from the same government agency that only days ago at a news conference touted the Dreamliner as "safe." Even Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood went so far as to say he would have no issue flying on the plane.

Now, United will need to prove to the FAA that there is no battery fire risk on its six Dreamliners. An emergency airworthiness directive is one that requires an operator to fix or address any problem before flying again.

"Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe and in compliance," the FAA said in a statement today. "The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible."

United Airlines responded tonight with a statement: "United will immediately comply with the airworthiness directive and will work closely with the FAA and Boeing on the technical review as we work toward restoring 787 service. We will begin reaccommodating customers on alternate aircraft."

787 Dreamliner Grounded, Passengers Forced to Evacuate Watch Video

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Deemed Safe Despite Mishaps Watch Video

Jim McNerney, Boeing's chairman, president and CEO, expressed regret about any scheduling disruptions in a written statement, adding that Boeing was "confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity."

"The safety of passengers and crew members who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority," McNerney said. "Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible. The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities. We will make available the entire resources of The Boeing Company to assist."

There are some 50 Dreamliners flying in the world, mostly for Japanese airlines, but also for Polish and Chilean carriers.

Overseas operators are not directly affected by the FAA's emergency airworthiness directive -- but Japanese authorities grounded all of their 787s overnight after All Nippon Airways (ANA) said a battery warning light and a burning smell were detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing a Dreamliner, on a domestic flight, to land at Takamatsu Airport in Japan.

The plane landed safely about 45 minutes after it took off and all 128 passengers and eight crew members had to evacuate using the emergency chutes. Two people sustained minor injuries on their way down the chute, Osamu Shinobe, ANA senior executive vice president, told a news conference in Tokyo.

ANA and its rival, Japan Airlines (JAL), subsequently grounded their Dreamliner fleets. ANA operates 17 Dreamliner planes, while JAL has seven in service.

Both airlines said the Dreamliner fleet would remain grounded at least through Thursday.

ANA said the battery in question during today's incident was the same lithium-ion type battery that caught fire on board a JAL Dreamliner in Boston last week. Inspectors found liquid leaking from the battery today, and said it was "discolored."

Japan's transport ministry categorized the problem as a "serious incident" that could have led to an accident.

Even more shaken up than the passengers on the Japanese flight may be the reputation of America's largest plane manufacturer, Boeing.

Since the 787 -- with a body mostly made of carbon fiber -- was introduced, it's had one small problem after another. But the nagging battery issue, which caused an onboard fire at Boston's Logan Airport last week, was serious enough for the FAA to ground the plane.

"It's a rough couple weeks for Boeing and ANA," said John Hansman, an MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "I think clearly in the short term this type of bad press has been tough for Boeing. I think in the long haul, this is a good airplane. It's in a good market."

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Several 'slight injuries' in Dreamliner evacuation: police

TOKYO: Several people were slightly injured during the evacuation of an All Nippon Airways Dreamliner that made an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday, police said.

"We have reports that several people were slightly injured," said a spokesman at Kagawa police, which covers the Takamatsu area in western Japan.

"We heard they sustained injuries -- minor ones such as scratches -- when they were getting out of the plane," he said.

Broadcaster NHK quoted a passenger saying he had feared the plane was going to crash as it flew over Japan's fourth largest island of Shikoku.

"I smelled something strange when the plane was going into a cruising altitude after take-off," he told the broadcaster. "I didn't see smoke."

"The plane then started descending rapidly and I thought 'this could crash'. I was surprised as there was an announcement that it was making an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport."

- AFP/ck

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Pak FM Hina Rabbani Khar says India is 'war-mongering', maintains no beheading took place

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar went on a strident diplomatic offensive in the US on Tuesday, accusing India of "war-mongering" and embarking on a "narrative of hostility," while presenting her country as a paragon of peace and amity in the context of border tensions between the two countries.

"I thought war-mongering was a thing of yesteryears and we had put it behind us," the foreign minister of a country that is recognized as having initiated three wars against India said at an Asia Society talk, artfully glossing over her country's well-chronicled record of hostilities to change status-quo. Pakistan, she said, was "deeply disappointed" with statements coming from the highest levels of the Indian government, but it would not give up on its "deep abiding commitment to pursue peace with India."

"I am happy we are not responding in kind either by word or by action," Khar added, speaking of the reaction (or non-reaction) in Pakistan, where national attention is focused on the shadow war between the feeble civilian government, an assertive judiciary, and the domestically powerful military. "We should not close the door. The dialogue should be uninterrupted and uninterruptible. That is what mature countries do."

Khar was ostensibly responding to the familiar story-line evident in a New York Times headline that cited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing Pakistan of restarting hostilities in Kashmir and amid reports of New Delhi once again considering downgrading ties. Singh is widely praised in the US for pursuing a peace agenda with Pakistan despite what even American interlocutors say is the country's unremitting use of terrorism as a state policy.

While her talk — and her earlier interview on the Charlie Rose show — was mainly centered on the domestic turmoil in Pakistan, Khar used the platforms to glibly portray Pakistan's civilian government as being committed to peace with India, although the country is widely seen to be run by its jihadist military whose chief has articulated ceaseless hostility toward India, insisting he sees it as Pakistan's principle enemy.

But Khar relentlessly beat the peace drum before a mainly western audience in New York City, insisting Pakistan was the one pressing for amity and it was India that was upping the ante. "We don't take political mileage through hostile narrative," she said, suggesting that the border spat had become fodder for domestic politics in India. "The doors to dialogue should remain open rather us speaking through public and the media."

While platitudes flowed thick and fast from the foreign minister of a country seen across the world as sponsoring terrorism against its neighbors, she also brushed aside charges relating to the beheading of an Indian soldier, saying Pakistan had "looked intensely" and "found no evidence of an incident like this."

"There is no question of anyone every authorizing any beheading. It goes against our commitment to the peace process," she said. Besides, she added, there were mechanisms and processes to look into such charges. Khar also skirted a question about whether the alleged beheading indicated the Pakistani military had been infiltrated by Taliban and al-Qaida elements for whom beheading so-called infidels and kaffirs is a trademark.

Between the homilies, there was some disingenuous dissembling about the actions Pakistan had supposedly taken "at great political risk" to normalize trade, although the ground reality is that Islamabad has again reneged on a signed commitment on this matter. Instead, Khar accused India of going back on recent visa agreements.

Some of the mendacity was called out by the audience during searching questions about the Pakistani military establishment's ties to Osama bin Laden and the Haqqani terrorist group. Backed into a corner by a question about her army chief Pervez Ashfaq Kayani describing the Haqqani group as a "strategic asset," Khar bailed out of it by saying, "that is not his view now." And even though Pakistan has done little to rewrite the national curriculum of hate that sees anyone other than Muslims (and lately only Sunnis) as "infidels" and "kafirs" leading to large scale murder of minorities, Khar insisted on presenting Pakistan as epitome of moderation.

When questions finally turned to the ongoing domestic turmoil in Pakistan, she dismissed the cleric Tahir-ul Qadri as a troublemaker who was making "preposterous demands" for which he could be arrested. When asked about corruption in Pakistan, her response was to point out there was corruption in all countries, particularly in India where there had been many scams.

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Mars Rover Finds Intriguing New Evidence of Water

The first drill sample ever collected on Mars will come from a rockbed shot through with unexpected veins of what appears to be the mineral gypsum.

Delighted members of the Curiosity science team announced Tuesday that the rover was now in a virtual "candy store" of scientific targets—the lowest point of Gale crater, called Yellowknife Bay, is filled with many different materials that could have been created only in the presence of water. (Related: "Mars Has 'Oceans' of Water Inside?")

Project scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said during a press conference that the drill area has turned out "to be jackpot unit. Every place we drive exposes fractures and vein fills."

Mission scientists initially decided to visit the depression, a third of a mile from Curiosity's landing site, on a brief detour before heading to the large mountain at the middle of Gale Crater. But because of the richness of their recent finds, Grotzinger said it may be some months before they begin their trek to Mount Sharp.

The drilling, expected to start this month, will dig five holes about two inches (five centimeters) into bedrock the size of a throw rug and then feed the powder created to the rover's two chemistry labs for analysis.

The drill is the most complex device on the rover and is the last instrument to be used. Project Manager Richard Cook, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that operating it posed the biggest mechanical challenge since Curiosity's high-drama landing. (Watch video of Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

A Watery Past?

That now-desiccated Mars once had a significant amount of surface water is now generally accepted, but every new discovery of when and where water was present is considered highly significant. The presence of surface water in its many possible forms—as a running stream, as a still lake, as ground water soaked into the Martian soil—all add to an increased possibility that the planet was once habitable. (Watch a video about searching for life on Mars.)

And each piece of evidence supporting the presence of water brings the Curiosity mission closer to its formal goal—which is to determine whether Mars was once capable of supporting life.

Curiosity scientists have already concluded that a briskly moving river or stream once flowed near the Gale landing site.

The discovery of the mineral-filled veins within Yellowknife Bay rock fractures adds to the picture because those minerals can be deposited only in watery, underground conditions.

The Curiosity team has also examined Yellowknife Bay for sedimentary rocks with the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).  Scientists have found sandstone with grains up to about the size of a peppercorn, including one shaped like a flower bud that appears to gleam. Other nearby rocks are siltstone, with grains finer than powdered sugar. These are quite different from the pebbles and conglomerate rocks found in the landing area, but all these rocks are evidence of a watery past. (Related: "A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?")

One of the primary reasons Curiosity scientists selected Gale crater as a landing site was because satellite images indicated that water-formed minerals were present near the base of Mount Sharp. Grotzinger said that the minerals' presence so close to the landing site, and some five miles from the mountain, is both a surprise and an opportunity.

The current site in Yellowknife Bay is so promising, Grotzinger said, that he would have been "thrilled" to find similar formations at the mission's prime destination at the base of Mount Sharp.  Now the mission can look forward to the surprises to come at the mountain base while already having struck gold.

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Sandy Aid Clears Huge Hurdle in Congress

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Seventy-nine days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Northeast, the House of Representatives voted this evening to approve about $50 billion of additional relief for the region pounded by the storm.

The measure passed 241-180, mostly behind Democratic support, winning 49 votes from Republicans and 192 votes from Democrats. Just one Democrat opposed the legislation, while 179 Republicans voted against it.

The base bill, known as the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Act, included about $17 billion to fund immediate and critical needs for Sandy victims and their communities. An amendment offered by New Jersey Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen to provide an additional $33 billion for disaster relief also passed, bringing the total amount of relief closer to the Obama administration’s emergency supplemental request, which called for $60.4 billion in total relief.

The Senate still must approve the legislation before President Obama can sign it into law.

An amendment offered by South Carolina Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney to require all funding in the disaster package to be offset fell well short of the votes required to change the bill, 162-258.

Democrats and Republicans from the storm-ravaged region shared a common frustration over members who opposed to the relief package.

“To use this funding as a political pawn in a game over the role of government and budgetary debates is shameful,” New York Democratic Rep. Elliot Engel wrote in a statement shortly after the vote. “The first order of business for the federal government is to protect our citizens, and helping them recover from the tragedy of a natural disaster is one of those times.”

“I am pleased that the House of Representatives has finally passed legislation to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy,” Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., stated after the vote. “I am hopeful that the Senate will quickly debate and pass this bipartisan legislation so that families in New Jersey and New York will not have to continue to wait for the aid they need.”

The governors of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, the three states  hit hardest by the storm, had all angrily criticized Republicans in the House for deciding not to vote on an aid package passed by the Senate in December, but after the measure’s passage tonight issued a joint statement thanking the House.

“We are grateful to those members of Congress who today pulled together in a unified, bipartisan coalition to assist millions of their fellow Americans in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut at their greatest time of need,” Gov. Chris Christie, N.J.; Gov. Andrew Cuomo, N.Y.; and Gov. Dannel Molloy, Conn., wrote in the statement.

“The tradition of Congress being there and providing support for Americans during times of crisis, no matter where they live across this great country, lives on in today’s vote in the House of Representatives,” they wrote. “We anticipate smooth passage when this package moves back to the Senate for final approval and for this long-awaited relief to finally make its way to our residents.”

Nevertheless, there were still many lawmakers who opposed the package because they felt it contained non-emergency spending.

“The final version passed here tonight includes billions in pork and unrelated spending that we cannot afford while Americans are struggling to make ends meet,” Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., wrote in a statement. “Hurricane Sandy victims need a simple, responsible aid package, and nothing more.  Our nation is facing a debt crisis: it’s time for Washington to stop using important bills to fund its own political projects.”

Congress has already approved $9.7 billion for flood insurance on Jan. 4. The House also passed a separate bill without opposition Monday evening, the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, to speed up and streamline federal disaster recovery programs.

After the House voted Jan. 1 on the “fiscal cliff” deal, House Speaker John Boehner decided not to vote on any relief during the 112^th Congress. Republicans and Democrats from the region revolted until Boehner held a private meeting with angry Republican members, during which he promised to make Sandy relief a priority in the 113^th Congress.

The legislation was opposed by numerous leading conservative interest groups, including Heritage Action, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Club for Growth, which all warned Republicans not to support the measure.

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On inaugural eve, Obama’s most virulent foes want the celebration stopped

Eldon Bell, a retired Air Force officer and physician, is making no plans to see Barack Obama’s second inauguration, in part because Bell considers the president arrogant and dishonest, but more so because Bell is not yet persuaded that the swearing-in will occur at all.

“Whether I watch depends on who’s being inaugurated,” says Bell, 78. “If it’s this guy, probably not, because I don’t pay much attention to illegitimate things.”

At this late date, Bell and his fellow believers in the notion that Obama was born overseas or is otherwise ineligible to be president still expect some court somewhere to buy into one of their theories. After more than 100 court cases, no judge has.

Even after Obama convincingly won reelection despite four years of low popularity ratings, a sluggish economy and a highly motivated opposition, advocates of various counterfactual theories about the president — he’s a foreigner, he’s a Marxist, he’s a Muslim — say they’re sticking to their fight.

“This inauguration is a mistake and those who permit it to happen will have to live with their own consciences,” says Bell, a former Washingtonian who retired to South Dakota.

Most Americans have moved on from earlier dalliances with denials of the president’s biography. National opinion polls have shown increases over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who agree that Obama was born in the United States and that he is a Christian. But a persistent minority — between a tenth and a fifth in most polls — still believe he is Muslim, foreign-born or a socialist.

Those voters tend to be vehement opponents of Obama, and on Inauguration Day, they will not be at the party — and they’re still searching for ways to have the president declared illegitimate.

“Let’s face it, this is a man very deep into an ideology that is not American,” says the Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey minister and antiabortion activist who says black and white voters alike returned Obama to office “to feel better about ourselves and get the guilt of racism off us.”

Childress says it’s 50-50 that Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya: “But what I really care about is do we have the same values? Do you believe in the sanctity of life? Do you believe in marriage as being between man and woman? And this president does not.”

Just because the election is over doesn’t mean the confrontations of the first term will end, Childress says. In addition to the fiscal battles on Capitol Hill, the minister says, social issues will keep Obama opponents fired up, starting with next month’s antiabortion rally on the Mall and continuing with court and political battles over same-sex marriage.

“There will never be more contentiousness than in the next two years,” he says. “I told my congregation: Just strap yourselves down, it’s going to be nasty.”

Those who monitor anti-Obama movements say the inauguration will do nothing to quiet the rapids. “The rhetoric since the election has actually gotten more vicious,” says Kevin Davidson, better known as “Dr. Conspiracy,” his handle on his Web site, Obama Conspiracy Theories, which keeps tabs on those who declare Obama’s presidency illegitimate.

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Tilted jack-up rig in Jurong Shipyard restored

SINGAPORE: Jurong Shipyard has restored and floated the jack-up rig that tilted in 2012 to its original upright position.

Eighty-nine workers were injured in the incident at the shipyard on 3 December.

Sembcorp Marine said on Tuesday that with the rig now back to its upright position, Jurong Shipyard and the authorities will focus on investigations into what caused it to tilt.

Repairs and restoration work will start when the stop-work is lifted.

The three-legged rig was scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2013 but this has been rescheduled.

The rig is expected to be delivered by the end of third quarter of 2013.

Sembcorp Marine said the repairs and change in the delivery date are not expected to have any material impact on its net tangible assets and earnings per share for the year ending 31 December 2013.

- CNA/ck

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National Conference may induct Congress MLAs in J&K Cabinet

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah can expand and reshuffle his ministry on Tuesday following a prod from AICC president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday evening. Congress leaders like Saifuddin Soz have been asking for more representation from their party in the Omar-led National Conference coalition government.

Abdullah had dropped two Congress ministers, G A Saroori and Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, on charges of corruption. Saroori, a Congress MLA from Kishtwar, was charged for an impersonation fraud in the medical entrance test that his daughter gave and Peerzada was accused of helping his step-son copy in Class X exams. They were exonerated by the CBI and a state-level investigation team.

Sonia asked for the inclusion of more Congress legislators in the J&K House. State governor NN Vohra rushed to Jammu from New Delhi to make arrangements for the oath ceremony of new ministers at 4pm on Tuesday. Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad had briefed Sonia about the unrest in the Congress camp after berths meant for them were not filled.

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"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms

Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.

While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.

Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its ability to "parachute" from tree to tree thanks to special aerodynamic adaptations, such as webbed feet, Rowley said. (Also see "'Vampire Flying Frog' Found; Tadpoles Have Black Fangs.")

Rowley dubbed the new species Helen's flying frog, in honor of her mother, Helen Rowley, "who has steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs," according to a statement.

The newfound species—there are 80 types of flying frogs—is also "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad."

"Females even have flappy skin on their forearms to glide," added Rowley, who has received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) "The females are larger and heavier than males, so the little extra flaps probably don't make much of a difference," she said.

As Rowley wrote on her blog, "At first it may seem strange that such a fantastic and obvious frog could escape discovery until now—less than 100 kilometers [60 miles] from an urban centre with over nine million people."

Yet these tree dwellers can easily escape notice—they spend most of their time in the canopy, she said.

Flying Frog On the Edge

Even so, Helen's flying frog won't be able to hide from development near Ho Chi Minh City, which may encroach on its existing habitats.

So far, only five individuals have been found in two patches of lowland forest hemmed in by rice paddies in southern Vietnam, Rowley said. The animals can probably tolerate a little bit of disturbance as long as they have large trees and temporary pools, she added.

But lowland forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, mostly because they're so accessible to people, and thus chosen for logging and development. (Get the facts on deforestation.)

"While Helen's flying frog has only just been discovered by biologists," Rowley wrote, "unfortunately this species, like many others, is under great threat from ongoing habitat loss and degradation."

The new flying frog study was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Herpetology.

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Armstrong Admits Doping in Tour, Sources Say

Lance Armstrong today admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, sources told ABC News.

A goverment source tells ABC News that Armstrong is now talking with authorities about paying back some of the US Postal Service money from sponsoring his team. He is also talking to authorities about confessing and naming names, giving up others involved in illegal doping. This could result in a reduction of his lifetime ban, according to the source, if Armstrong provides substantial and meaningful information.

Armstrong made the admission in what sources describe as an emotional interview with Winfrey to air on "Oprah's Next Chapter" on Jan. 17.

The 90-minute interview at his home in Austin, Texas, was Armstrong's first since officials stripped him of his world cycling titles in response to doping allegations.

Word of Armstrong's admission comes after a Livestrong official said that Armstrong apologized today to the foundation's staff ahead of his interview.

The disgraced cyclist gathered with about 100 Livestrong Foundation staffers at their Austin headquarters for a meeting that included social workers who deal directly with patients as part of the group's mission to support cancer victims.

Armstrong's "sincere and heartfelt apology" generated lots of tears, spokeswoman Katherine McLane said, adding that he "took responsibility" for the trouble he has caused the foundation.

Riccardo S. Savi/Getty Images|Ray Tamarra/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong Stripped of Tour de France Titles Watch Video

Lance Armstrong Doping Charges: Secret Tapes Watch Video

McLane declined to say whether Armstrong's comments included an admission of doping, just that the cyclist wanted the staff to hear from him in person rather than rely on second-hand accounts.

Armstrong then took questions from the staff.

Armstrong's story has never changed. In front of cameras, microphones, fans, sponsors, cancer survivors -- even under oath -- Lance Armstrong hasn't just denied ever using performance enhancing drugs, he has done so in an indignant, even threatening way.

Armstrong, 41, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in October 2012, after allegations that he benefited from years of systematic doping, using banned substances and receiving illicit blood transfusions.

"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union, said at a news conference in Switzerland announcing the decision. "This is a landmark day for cycling."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a 200-page report Oct. 10 after a wide-scale investigation into Armstrong's alleged use of performance-enhancing substances.

Armstrong won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.

According to a source, speaking to ABC News, a representative of Armstrong's once offered to make a donation estimated around $250,000 to the agency, as "60 Minutes Sports" on Showtime first reported.

Lance Armstrong's attorney Tim Herman denied it. "No truth to that story," Herman said. "First Lance heard of it was today. He never made any such contribution or suggestion."

Armstrong, who himself recovered from testicular cancer, created the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now known as the LIVESTRONG Foundation) to help people with cancer cope, as well as foster a community for cancer awareness. Armstrong resigned late last year as chairman of the LIVESTRONG Foundation, which raised millions of dollars in the fight against cancer.

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