Greek worries take shine off equity gains

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Renewed worries about Greece’s stand-off with its international creditors took some of the shine off a positive session for European and US stocks, as the International Monetary Fund said there had been no progress in narrowing its differences with Athens.
The dollar also drifted back from the day’s highs, in spite of further signs that the US economy was bouncing back from its weak first-quarter showing, while the recent rise in government bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic went into reverse.

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By midday in New York, the S&P 500 equity benchmark was up less than 0.2 per cent at 2,108, having struck 2,115 half an hour into the session.
The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 index ended with a gain of 0.6 per cent after earlier rising 1.3 per cent.
The IMF said technical discussions over a “cash-for-reforms” deal with Greece had ended and it was withdrawing its team of negotiators, amid “major differences” in “most key areas”.
Furthermore, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, abandoned his neutral stance and said it was time for “decisions, not negotiations”, and that the Greek government had to be “a little more realistic”.
The hardline stance stood in stark contrast to an earlier mood of optimism that a deal could be reached that helped drive Athens’ main stock index up by 8.2 per cent, its biggest gain in more than three months.
The yield on Greek debt due in 2017 fell 153 basis points to 24.69 per cent, according to Bloomberg data.

Hagel defends record at confirmation hearing

 

Braced for a potentially bruising confirmation hearing Thursday, secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel defended his record and testified that if confirmed, he would ensure U.S. policy is “worthy of our troops and their families and the sacrifices we ask them to make.”

 In a prepared statement submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee in advance of the hearing, Hagel provided a detailed rebuttal to criticism that he has faced in recent weeks, including allegations that he is too dovish on Iran, foolhardy on nuclear containment and eager to slash defense spending.

North Korea set for new nuclear, rocket tests aimed at striking the United States

 

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s top governing body warned Thursday that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of UN punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.

The National Defense Commission, headed by the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, denounced Tuesday’s UN Security Council resolution condemning North Korea’s long-range rocket launch in December as a banned missile activity and expanding sanctions against the regime. The commission reaffirmed in its declaration that the launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, but also clearly indicated the country’s rocket launches have a military purpose: to strike and attack the United States.

While experts say North Korea doesn’t have the capability to hit the U.S. with its missiles, recent tests and rhetoric indicate the country is feverishly working toward that goal.

The commission pledged to keep launching satellites and rockets and to conduct a nuclear test as part of a “new phase” of combat with the United States, which it blames for leading the UN bid to punish Pyongyang. It said a nuclear test was part of “upcoming” action but did not say exactly when or where it would take place.

“We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the commission said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,” the commission said.

It was a rare declaration by the powerful commission once led by late leader Kim Jong-il and now commanded by his son. The statement made clear Kim Jong-un’s commitment to continue developing the country’s nuclear and missile programs in defiance of the Security Council, even at risk of further international isolation.

North Korea’s allusion to a “higher level” nuclear test most likely refers to a device made from highly enriched uranium, which is easier to miniaturize than the plutonium bombs it tested in 2006 and 2009, said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. Experts say the North Koreans must conduct further tests of its atomic devices and master the technique for making them smaller before they can be mounted as nuclear warheads onto long-range missiles.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate response to Thursday’s statement. Shortly before the commission issued its declaration, U.S. envoy on North Korea Glyn Davies urged Pyongyang not to explode an atomic device.

“Whether North Korea tests or not, it’s up to North Korea. We hope they don’t do it. We call on them not to do it,” he told reporters in Seoul after meeting with South Korean officials. “It will be a mistake and a missed opportunity if they were to do it.”

Davies was in Seoul on a trip that includes his stops in China and Japan for talks on how to move forward on North Korea relations.

South Korea’s top official on relations with the North said Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development is a “cataclysm for the Korean people,” and poses a fundamental threat to regional and world peace. “The North Korean behavior is very disappointing,” Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said in a lecture in Seoul, according to his office.

North Korea claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defence against the United States, its Korean War foe.

The bitter three-year war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953, and left the Korean Peninsula divided by the world’s most heavily fortified demilitarized zone. The U.S. leads the U.N.
Command that governs the truce and stations more than 28,000 troops in ally South Korea, a presence that North Korea cites as a key reason for its drive to build nuclear weapons.

For years, North Korea’s neighbors had been negotiating with Pyongyang on providing aid in return for disarmament. North Korea walked away from those talks in 2009 and on Wednesday reiterated that disarmament talks were out of the question.

North Korea is estimated to have stored up enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the North’s Nyongbyon nuclear complex in 2010.

In 2009, Pyongyang declared that it would begin enriching uranium, which would give North Korea a second way to make atomic weapons.

North Korea carried out underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, both times just weeks after being punished with UN sanctions for launching long-range rockets.

In October, an unidentified spokesman at the National Defense Commission claimed that the U.S. mainland was within missile range. And at a military parade last April, North Korea showed off what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Verma committee rejects chemical castration, death for rapists

New Delhi: Making far reaching recommendations, the Justice Verma Committee on Wednesday favoured comprehensive amendments to criminal laws seeking minimum 20 years imprisonment for gang rape and life term for rape and murder but refrained from prescribing death penalty.

However, the three-member Committee headed by former Chief Justice JS Verma, which was constituted in the wake of the nationwide outrage over the December 16 gang rape of a girl in Delhi, is not in favour of reducing the age of juveniles under the law.

Nor did the Committee favour chemical castration of rapists saying the Constitution of India does not permit mutilation of a human body.

In its 630-page report to the government submitted today, the Committee has suggested amendment of criminal laws to provide for higher punishment to rapists, including those belonging to police and public servants. 

 New offences have been created and stiffer punishment has been suggested for those committing rape and leaving the victim in a vegetative state. They include disrobing a woman, voyeurism, stalking and trafficking.

Sexual misconduct also includes intentional touching, spoken words and gestures made as advances.

The present law provides for punishment of rapists imprisonment ranging from seven years to life in jail. For the first time, the minimum punishment is sought to be raised to 20 years in some cases.

The panel's view on juvenile's age assumed significance in the context of strong demands for lowering the age from 18 to 16 against the backdrop of the allegation that one of the six accused is said to be a juvenile. 

 The Committee, comprising a former High Court Chief Justice Leila Seth and jurist Gopal Subramanium, also traversed various areas in a bid to check crimes against women seeking disqualification of MPs and MLAs charged with heinous crimes like rape, measures to check khap panchayats and trial of personnel of security forces under ordinary criminal laws and not under AFSPA.

Addressing a press conference, Justice Verma came down heavily on Union Home Secretary R K Singh for praising Delhi Police Commissioner after the Delhi gang rape instead of coming out with an apology.

It also attacked police for the lathicharge on young demonstrators in the capital last month which it said had scarred democracy.

Releasing the report, Justice Verma told a news conference that the Committee has not suggested death penalty for rapist because there was overwhelming suggestions from the women organisations against it, a point that was received with thunderous applause from activists at the media interaction.

The Committee did not recommend death penalty for rape because it was a "regressive step" and it "may not have a deterrent effect".

"We have not recommended death penalty as we had overwhelming suggestions against it. The women groups unanimously were against death penalty and that is why we thought that is a strong reason to respect that view particularly in view of the modern trend also," Justice Verma said.

Even while it recommended amendments to various laws and enhancement of punishment, the panel concluded that existing laws if faithfully and efficiently implemented by credible law enforcement agencies or sufficient to protect the safety and dignity of people particularly of women and punish offenders. 

 "This is not to suggest that the necessary improvements in law, keeping in mind modern times, should not be enacted at the earliest," it said.

The Committee also said speedy justice was necessary for right to life with dignity and recommended that systemic changes could reduce burden of arrears in courts. The judge strength can be increased in phases while retired eminent retired judges could be appointed on adhoc basis.
Among the amendments proposed is a change in Section 100 of the IPC dealing with right of private defence which extends to causing death.


Taking note of the brutality committed in the Delhi gang rape incident, the Committee suggested replacement of Section 375 defining rape by defining specific unnatural acts.

Intentional touching will constitute the offence of sexual assault for which punishment will be a maximum of five years rigorous imprisonment or fine or both.

Use of words, gestures which create an unwelcome threat of sexual nature or advance would invite a maximum punishment of one year imprisonment or fine or both.

Causing grievous hurt through use of acid on women shall also be punished with rigorous imprisonment for not less than 10 years but could go upto life.

Hillary Clinton on Benghazi: "I do feel responsible"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013. 

Testifying before Congress for the first time since the September 11 attacks in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today took responsibility for the failures that led to those deaths, citing a "personal" commitment to improving diplomatic security abroad. But even while conceding ongoing "deficiencies and inadequacies" within the State Department, Clinton defended her own actions and those of her staff with regard to their response to the violence, and outlined the numerous steps she says have already been implemented to prevent future similar occurrences.

Clinton, growing emotional at times during the course of her testimony, cited the inherent risk of taking an active diplomatic role in the global arena -- particularly in a moment in which "Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region." She lamented the loss of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other three Americans who died in the September attacks, and spoke tearfully of having "stood next to President Obama as the Marines [who] carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews."

"I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters," she said. "And the wives left alone to raise their children."

Multiple shots reportedly fired at Lone Star College in Houston Read more

DEVELOPING: Lone Star College, located in north Houston, was put on lock down Tuesday after reports of several people being shot and injured on campus, MyFoxHouston.com reported.
Early reports indicated that there were two gunmen. One gunman is believed to be in police custody and the other is on the run.
Paramedics are on the scene and are treating several victims. Students could be seen being led out of the sprawling campus with their hands on their heads. At least person being put into an ambulance.  Police SWAT teams were searching the campus.
An emergency alert was sent to students advising them and faculty to take immediate shelter and not to enter the campus until later notified. Other local schools were also placed on lock down.
The community college is a two-year school with about 28,000 students. The school is located just outside the George H.W. Bush International Airport.

NFL reviewing Tom Brady's slide

Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed said that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has reached out to him to apologize for making contact with him on a slide late in the first half of the AFC Championship Game. The NFL said Tuesday that the incident was under review for possible discipline.

SportsNation:A Fine For Brady?

Tom Brady's slide into Ed Reed in the AFC Championship Game is being investigated by the NFL. Was the play dirty?

"I told him -- you know, we talked," Reed told WJZ-FM in Baltimore. "We talked actually not too long ago, we talked on the phone. He actually reached out to me, texted me. I tried to text him back, but the message exploded after 12 seconds, so I had to call him ... and he's just apologized and what not. But I told him, 'You know, it's good, man.'"
During the final minute of the first half, Brady slid to the ground to end an impromptu run. The quarterback had one leg raised a few feet off the ground and it hit Reed, who emerged from the play without injury.
Reed said that at the time of the incident, he did not say anything to Brady. League spokesman Greg Aiello said Tuesday that "any play of that nature is routinely reviewed."
"For the most part, I didn't say anything to him when he said something to me at the game," he said. "... He was going, 'You want to play like that, let's go.' But no, Brady's a great competitor and I love going against him and I know where his heart is at for this game. It was all good."

Ravens safety Bernard Pollard makes a fair point, but don't expect Tom Brady to be fined for his questionable slide, writes Jamison Hensley.

The nine-time Pro Bowl safety added that he has respect for Brady.
"I know he's a great player," he said. "I respect Brady and his game for all it stands for, and I know he's not a dirty player. And emotions get going in the game."
Ravens safety Bernard Pollard has publicly complained and asserted the quarterback deserves to be fined by the NFL, which levies fines on defensive players for helmet-to-helmet hits.
Pollard said Monday, "If you want to keep this going in the right direction, everyone should be penalized for their actions."
He said Brady "knew what he was doing. It has to go both ways. Hopefully the NFL will do something about it. If they don't, that's fine. If they do, then that's fine."