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মঙ্গলবার, ২ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Russia going back to Afghanistan? Kremlin confirms it could happen

Almost a quarter century after Soviet troops left Afghanistan in defeat, Russia may return to the country by establishing "maintenance bases" for Russian-made military equipment after NATO winds down its operations there next year, defense ministry officials have confirmed.

"It is important to maintain the weapon systems and military equipment of the Afghan armed forces in a serviceable state," Sergei Koshelev, head of the Russian defense ministry's international cooperation department, told journalists late last week.

Moscow is extremely worried "that any escalation of the situation in Afghanistan after NATO troops pull out in 2014 could have a negative impact on the security of both Russia and other European nations," he added.

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

Russian experts insist that it's not an attempt to overcome Russia's own version of the "Vietnam syndrome" ? an agonized folk memory of the decade-long war in Afghanistan that arguably brought down the Soviet Union. Rather, they say the new engagement will be limited to commercial obligations, negotiated with NATO before it pulls most of its forces out, and will absolutely not involve any active military role.

"Someone has to help the Afghan people build a peaceful life. They've known nothing but weapons and war for so long," says Oleg Tikhonov, deputy head of the Injured Afghan War Veterans in Sverdlovsk region, western Siberia.

"But Russia must never repeat its past mistakes. There cannot again be any Russian troops in Afghanistan. After the past, it would be impossible to explain why Russian boys are dying there. You cannot do such things without the people's consent," he adds.

TWOFOLD GOALS

Analysts say that, first, there is an objective need to maintain and repair generations of Soviet and Russian-made military hardware that constitute the main weaponry used by the Afghan security forces. Over the past decade, rather than re-equip Afghan government troops with sophisticated Western-made arms, the US has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Russian weapons, including helicopters, from Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport to fill their needs.

Second, Russia wants to establish forward posts in Afghanistan because it is increasingly alarmed about a possible resurgence of the cross-border militant Islamist incursions that sowed chaos in the post-Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan during the turbulent 1990s. Production of narcotics has exploded under NATO's watch in Afghanistan, and much of it moves via criminal pipelines through former Soviet central Asia and Russia, feeding official corruption and the growth of mafia power throughout the region. Many Russians say they fear that the NATO withdrawal may soon leave them to face these challenges alone.

Over the past couple of years, Russia has become more active assisting the beleaguered NATO mission in Afghanistan, even granting the use of an important airbase in central Russia to help with resupply efforts. Russian leaders have repeatedly urged NATO not to leave in 2014, and to stay in Afghanistan until "the job is done."

But most Russian experts say they are now resigned to the US pulling the plug in 2014 and, in a pattern familiar from previous wars from Vietnam to Iraq, abandoning the region to its own devices.

"Look at Iraq. The US lost interest in it, and nobody cares if it's becoming engulfed in civil war," says Vadim Kozyulin, a researcher with the PIR Center, a leading Moscow security think tank.

"The same process may happen in Afghanistan, and could develop much more quickly. The US effort in Afghanistan is about to end. It's time for Russia to design a new effort, which means we have to take a share of responsibility on ourselves. We're already playing the role of political and military leader in central Asia.... Even though [President Vladimir] Putin previously said we won't send Russian specialists to Afghanistan, the Russian military now says we might create enterprises on Afghan territory to service military equipment. The situation is changing," he adds.

RUSSIA'S MILITARY-EQUIPMENT FOOTHOLD

The US has already purchased about 70 Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the Afghan army, at around $17 million apiece, and wants to buy 30 more ? an arrangement that's extremely controversial in the US.

"NATO buys Russian arms for the Afghan forces in part because they're very familiar with this equipment, and in part because they probably don't want to supply sophisticated Western arms that might wind up in the hands of the Taliban," says Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a leading Moscow foreign policy journal.

"As Russia tries to extend its economic presence, this edge in military equipment is about the only thing going for us. And it's guaranteed that Russia's own military-industrial lobbies will push hard for expanding it," he adds.

One of Mr. Putin's key policies is to knit together former Soviet lands in a new Eurasian Union that would be driven by economic synergies rather than political domination. As Russia pivots eastward, the resource-rich but politically unstable former Soviet republics of central Asia ? which abut Afghanistan ? are taking on a whole new significance.

Some experts say that stability in Afghanistan, with which the USSR maintained good relations for most of its history, will be key to Russia's ability to achieve its other goals in the region.

"Russia is returning to Afghanistan. Indeed, according to some information, Russia is already doing that without waiting for the Americans to leave," says Anatoly Tsyganok, an analyst with the independent Center for Military Forecasting and a member of the Russian Defense Ministry's advisory public council.

"I think we should be investing right now. There are many proposals from the Afghan government on the table, including participation in geological surveys, developing oil production and water resources. There is an offer to build a metro in Kabul, and it is being considered in Moscow.... Consider that the Chinese are already very active. They are building roads in Taliban-held territory, using the Taliban for protection. We need to look ahead, and be practical about it," he says.

Gen. Makhut Garayev, president of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences and a former adviser to the pro-Soviet regime of Mohammad Najibullah in Afghanistan, says Russia needs to step cautiously in any return to Afghanistan.

"There has been a lot of harm done to Afghanistan, and many countries participated in doing it," General Garayev says.

"But Afghanistan needs to be restored. Several generations have known only war, weapons, and death. We have a history with that country, and not only a negative one. The USSR cooperated with Afghanistan since it had a king. There is a chance here to work creatively. Nobody's ever tried that before. We need to step carefully, but we should try," he says.

Chris Brown: 'I can't make everybody like me'

By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

Chris Brown is one of the more polarizing celebrities today: Ever since his conviction on felony assault charges in 2009 for attacking singer Rihanna, he's been on the downside of a lot of bad press and bad feelings from fans and critics alike. But in recent weeks, the R&B star has been mixing his promotional appearances for his new album "X" and single "Fine China" with a personal rehabilitation tour where he's opened up about the abuse and about the way he's changed since the incident. Brown sat down with TODAY's Matt Lauer on Monday to talk about the new music, and the new him.

"I've been humbled by the whole experience," he said. "From me losing everything, you know, to me having to regain public opinion or whatever it is -- but most importantly, you know, knowing that what I did was totally wrong and having to kind of deal with myself and kind of forgive myself in the same breath and being able to apologize to, you know, Rihanna and be that man that can be who is a man, you know?"

Still, Lauer noted that not all of Brown's behavior seems to indicate serious change, and he wondered what the singer thought of his continued skeptics. "I think everybody is entitled to their opinion. For me, it's just a learning process. You know, I have to just take it one day at a time. I can't make everybody like me ... it's about me being positive."

Lauer pointedly asked if Brown and Rihanna had reconciled as a couple, and Brown nodded: "Yeah, everything's good, we're fine." He also talked about how he had done 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling, to understand "Why did I do what I did?"

"I think it's just me proving myself once again," he said. "Knowing that what I did was wrong, and never doing it again. So as far as me and (Rihanna) are concerned, she knows my heart, and I know her heart. So I'm not really focused on the negative."

And in the end, he says, what's important to him is pleasing the important people in his life -- and not the critics. "For me, it's about proving myself to my fans," he said. "The only thing I can do is please my family, myself, and please her, you know, and my fans."

"X" is slated for release in August.

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Eye drops reduce signs of macular degeneration in mice

Targeting cholesterol in retina stops rogue blood vessel growth often seen in the vision disease

Targeting cholesterol in retina stops rogue blood vessel growth often seen in the vision disease

By Tina Hesman Saey

Web edition: April 2, 2013

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EYE VIEW

Yellow deposits called drusen clutter the retina of a patient with macular degeneration. A new study suggests cholesterol, a component of drusen, may bloat aging immune cells, keeping them from fighting off blood vessels that invade the eye in the later stages of the disease.

Credit: Courtesy of R. Apte

Cholesterol-lowering eye drops may one day help preserve sight in people with a common cause of age-related vision loss, a new study suggests.

In old mice, eye drops that stimulate cells to shed cholesterol rejuvenated immune cells to fight off blood vessels encroaching into the retina, a hallmark of advanced age-related macular degeneration. The finding suggests that cholesterol buildup in the eye helps promote the condition, a leading cause of vision loss in people 50 and older.

Macular degeneration comes in two forms, dry and wet. In the dry, early stage of the disease, cells in the center of the retina die, blurring vision. This stage is often characterized by yellow clumps of lipids, including cholesterol, in the retina. These deposits can be a warning sign that a person is at risk of developing the wet form of the disease, in which blood vessels invade the back of the eye and leak, killing retinal cells. Patients are left with a hole in the middle of their field of vision.

In previous research, Rajendra Apte of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues showed that immune cells called macrophages are involved in macular degeneration. His team found that macrophages protect vision by halting blood vessels creeping into the eye. But the researchers also discovered that aging macrophages become bloated with cholesterol and can?t stop blood vessel invasion.

For the new study, published April 2 in Cell Metabolism, Apte?s team collected macrophages from young and old mice and people. Then the researchers counted the number of proteins that pump cholesterol, called ABC transporters, on the cells. Old macrophages had fewer pumps than young cells did. The old cells, particularly those with lower numbers of a cholesterol pump called ABCA1, couldn?t combat blood vessel growth as well as the young ones could.

The team traced the diminished cholesterol-pumping ability to a small piece of genetic material called a microRNA. The microRNA miR-33 builds up as cells age, the researchers discovered. Because this piece of RNA puts the brakes on production of the ABCA1 pump, the result is that macrophages can?t jettison cholesterol the way they once did.

Blocking miR-33 or using drugs that stimulate other cholesterol-shedding mechanisms could restore macrophages? ability to fend off blood vessel proliferation, Apte?s team found. Mice given injections of either the microRNA blocker or the drugs had fewer encroaching blood vessels in their eyes than placebo-treated animals did. And eye drops that stimulate cells in the eye to dump cholesterol ?worked as well as the injections, the researchers found. That could mean that doctors could treat just people?s eyes, potentially avoiding side effects that might accompany whole-body therapies.

Apte?s group has shown that cholesterol is a player, particularly in the ?wet? form of macular degeneration, says Anand Swaroop, a geneticist who studies eye diseases at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Md. But Swaroop doubts it is the underlying cause of the disease. Genetic studies indicate that how well cells dump cholesterol is just one of many factors that add up to produce macular degeneration, he says.

A treatment based on lowering cholesterol in the eye is still years and many tests of safety and efficacy away, Swaroop says, but adds that he?d be delighted if eye drops could stop the disease. Wet macular generation is often treated with monthly injections of drugs that inhibit blood vessel growth. ?When you?re 80 years old,? he says ?you don?t want to be pricked in the eye every month.?

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349307/title/Eye_drops_reduce_signs_of_macular_degeneration_in_mice

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সোমবার, ১ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Consumer Electronics Daily News: IEEE Computer Society to Host ...

The fourth annual Software Experts Summit, "Smart Data Science: Harnessing Data for Intelligent Decision-Making," will be held on?July 17?at Microsoft in?Redmond, Washington, and feature leading experts from around the world.

Sponsored by IEEE Computer Society and?IEEE Software?magazine,?the one-day SES13 will provide organizations with solid advice on making intelligent decisions about handling today's increasing volume and array of data.

"Companies and research institutes are facing a deluge of data--2.5 quintillion bytes per day, by IBM's estimate. In this environment, organizations need to learn to be smart about data?exploring analytics and new techniques to deal with the volume and diversity of data," said?Forrest Shull, a Division Director at Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering and editor in chief of?IEEE Software. "SES13 will give attendees exposure to the latest ideas and strategies on Smart Data Science from experts in both academia and private industry."

Registration is now open. The early-bird deadline is?June 1. To register, visit?www.computer.org/ses13.

Among the speakers from industry and academia will be?Ayse Bener?from?Ryerson University,?Wolfram Schulte?from Microsoft Research, Shull,?James Whittaker?from Microsoft, and?Paul Zikopoulos?from IBM. SES 2013 will take place at the Microsoft Conference Center, located on the main Microsoft Headquarters Campus in?Redmond.

The event will help organizations:

use even small sets of data to guide decision making due to inconsistent data structures,
analyze different types of data, such as text messages, multimedia presentations, and video streams,
effectively use technologies that create and manage data.

Source: http://www.cedailynews.com/2013/04/ieee-computer-society-to-host-fourth-annual-software-experts-summit-on-july-17.html

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AP IMPACT: Cartels dispatch agents deep inside US

In this Feb. 14, 2013 photo, Art Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission, left, announces that Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman, a drug kingpin in Mexico, has been named Chicago's Public Enemy No. 1, during a news conference in Chicago. Looking on is Jack Riley, right, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago and Peter Bensinger, former Administrator of the United States DEA. Ruthless drug cartels have long been the nation?s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, but in the past, their operatives rarely ventured beyond the border. A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

In this Dec. 11, 2012 file photo, Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago, points out local Mexican drug cartel problem areas on a map in the new interagency Strike Force office in Chicago. Looking on is DEA agent Vince Balbo. The ruthless syndicates have long been the nation?s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, but in the past, their operatives rarely ventured beyond the border. A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

This 2009 photo provided by the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department in Lawrenceville, Ga., shows reputed cartel operative Socorro Hernandez-Rodriguez after his arrest in a suburb of Atlanta. Hernandez-Rodriguez was later convicted of sweeping drug trafficking charges. Prosecutors said he was a high-ranking figure in the La Familia cartel, sent to the U.S. to run a drug cell. His defense lawyers denied he was a major figure in the cartel. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Gwinnett County Sheriff?s Department)

This photo dated in 2007 from federal court documents provided by attorneys for Jose Gonzales-Zavala shows Gonzales-Zavala with two of his children allegedly taken in Mexico. Prosecutors say Gonzales-Zavala was a member of the La Familia cartel, based in southwestern Mexico, and dispatched to the Chicago area to oversee one of the cartel's lucrative trafficking cells. His defense team entered the photograph into evidence during the sentence stage of his case in arguing for leniency. In 2011, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a federal judge in Chicago. (AP Photo/Attorneys for Jose Gonzales-Zavala)

FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2009 file photo, weapons and drugs seized in special joint operation conducted with the Drug Enforecement Administration against the La Familia drug cartel based out of Michoacan, Mexico and operating in San Bernardino and surrounding counties, are on display at a news conference at sheriff's headquarters in San Bernardino, Calif. Drug cartels have long been the nation?s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, but in the past, their operatives rarely ventured beyond the border. A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States ? an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.

If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels' move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.

Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation's No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.

But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.

"It's probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime," said Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office.

The cartel threat looms so large that one of Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins ? a man who has never set foot in Chicago ? was recently named the city's Public Enemy No. 1, the same notorious label once assigned to Al Capone.

The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-government agency that tracks crime trends in the region, said it considers Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman even more menacing than Capone because Guzman leads the deadly Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in Chicago and in many cities across the U.S.

Years ago, Mexico faced the same problem ? of then-nascent cartels expanding their power ? "and didn't nip the problem in the bud," said Jack Killorin, head of an anti-trafficking program in Atlanta for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "And see where they are now."

Riley sounds a similar alarm: "People think, 'The border's 1,700 miles away. This isn't our problem.' Well, it is. These days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border."

Border states from Texas to California have long grappled with a cartel presence. But cases involving cartel members have now emerged in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and rural North Carolina. Suspects have also surfaced in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.

Mexican drug cartels "are taking over our neighborhoods," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane warned a legislative committee in February. State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan disputed her claim, saying cartels are primarily drug suppliers, not the ones trafficking drugs on the ground.

For years, cartels were more inclined to make deals in Mexico with American traffickers, who would then handle transportation to and distribution within major cities, said Art Bilek, a former organized crime investigator who is now executive vice president of the crime commission.

As their organizations grew more sophisticated, the cartels began scheming to keep more profits for themselves. So leaders sought to cut out middlemen and assume more direct control, pushing aside American traffickers, he said.

Beginning two or three years ago, authorities noticed that cartels were putting "deputies on the ground here," Bilek said. "Chicago became such a massive market ... it was critical that they had firm control."

To help fight the syndicates, Chicago recently opened a first-of-its-kind facility at a secret location where 70 federal agents work side-by-side with police and prosecutors. Their primary focus is the point of contact between suburban-based cartel operatives and city street gangs who act as retail salesmen. That is when both sides are most vulnerable to detection, when they are most likely to meet in the open or use cellphones that can be wiretapped.

Others are skeptical about claims cartels are expanding their presence, saying law-enforcement agencies are prone to exaggerating threats to justify bigger budgets.

David Shirk, of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute, said there is a dearth of reliable intelligence that cartels are dispatching operatives from Mexico on a large scale.

"We know astonishingly little about the structure and dynamics of cartels north of the border," Shirk said. "We need to be very cautious about the assumptions we make."

Statistics from the DEA suggest a heightened cartel presence in more U.S. cities. In 2008, around 230 American communities reported some level of cartel presence. That number climbed to more than 1,200 in 2011, the most recent year for which information is available, though the increase is partly due to better reporting.

Federal agents and local police say they have become more adept at identifying cartel members or operatives using wiretapped conversations, informants or confessions. Hundreds of court documents reviewed by the AP appear to support those statements.

"This is the first time we've been seeing it ? cartels who have their operatives actually sent here," said Richard Pearson, a lieutenant with the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, which arrested four alleged operatives of the Zetas cartel in November in the suburb of Okolona.

People who live on the tree-lined street where authorities seized more than 2,400 pounds of marijuana and more than $1 million in cash were shocked to learn their low-key neighbors were accused of working for one of Mexico's most violent drug syndicates, Pearson said.

One of the best documented cases is Jose Gonzalez-Zavala, who was dispatched to the U.S. by the La Familia cartel, according to court filings.

In 2008, the former taxi driver and father of five moved into a spacious home at 1416 Brookfield Drive in a middle-class neighborhood of Joliet, southwest of Chicago. From there, court papers indicate, he oversaw wholesale shipments of cocaine in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Wiretap transcripts reveal he called an unidentified cartel boss in Mexico almost every day, displaying the deference any midlevel executive might show to someone higher up the corporate ladder. Once he stammered as he explained that one customer would not pay a debt until after a trip.

"No," snaps the boss. "What we need is for him to pay."

The same cartel assigned Jorge Guadalupe Ayala-German to guard a Chicago-area stash house for $300 a week, plus a promised $35,000 lump-sum payment once he returned to Mexico after a year or two, according to court documents.

Ayala-German brought his wife and child to help give the house the appearance of an ordinary family residence. But he was arrested before he could return home and pleaded guilty to multiple trafficking charges. He will be sentenced later this year.

Socorro Hernandez-Rodriguez was convicted in 2011 of heading a massive drug operation in suburban Atlanta's Gwinnett County. The chief prosecutor said he and his associates were high-ranking figures in the La Familia cartel ? an allegation defense lawyers denied.

And at the end of February outside Columbus, Ohio, authorities arrested 34-year-old Isaac Eli Perez Neri, who allegedly told investigators he was a debt collector for the Sinaloa cartel.

An Atlanta attorney who has represented reputed cartel members says authorities sometimes overstate the threat such men pose.

"Often, you have a kid whose first time leaving Mexico is sleeping on a mattress at a stash house playing Game Boy, eating Burger King, just checking drugs or money in and out," said Bruce Harvey. "Then he's arrested and gets a gargantuan sentence. It's sad."

Typically, cartel operatives are not U.S. citizens and make no attempt to acquire visas, choosing instead to sneak across the border. They are so accustomed to slipping back and forth between the two countries that they regularly return home for family weddings and holidays, Riley said.

Because cartels accumulate houses full of cash, they run the constant risk associates will skim off the top. That points to the main reason cartels prefer their own people: Trust is hard to come by in their cutthroat world. There's also a fear factor. Cartels can exert more control on their operatives than on middlemen, often by threatening to torture or kill loved ones back home.

Danny Porter, chief prosecutor in Gwinnett County, Ga., said he has tried to entice dozens of suspected cartel members to cooperate with American authorities. Nearly all declined. Some laughed in his face.

"They say, 'We are more scared of them (the cartels) than we are of you. We talk and they'll boil our family in acid,'" Porter said. "Their families are essentially hostages."

Citing the safety of his own family, Gonzalez-Zavala declined to cooperate with authorities in exchange for years being shaved off his 40-year sentence.

In other cases, cartel brass send their own family members to the U.S.

"They're sometimes married or related to people in the cartels," Porter said. "They don't hire casual labor." So meticulous have cartels become that some even have operatives fill out job applications before being dispatched to the U.S., Riley added.

In Mexico, the cartels are known for a staggering number of killings ? more than 50,000, according to one tally. Beheadings are sometimes a signature.

So far, cartels don't appear to be directly responsible for large numbers of slayings in the United States, though the Texas Department of Public Safety reported 22 killings and five kidnappings in Texas at the hands of Mexican cartels from 2010 through mid- 2011.

Still, police worry that increased cartel activity could fuel heightened violence.

In Chicago, the police commander who oversees narcotics investigations, James O'Grady, said street-gang disputes over turf account for most of the city's uptick in murders last year, when slayings topped 500 for the first time since 2008. Although the cartels aren't dictating the territorial wars, they are the source of drugs.

Riley's assessment is stark: He argues that the cartels should be seen as an underlying cause of Chicago's disturbingly high murder rate.

"They are the puppeteers," he said. "Maybe the shooter didn't know and maybe the victim didn't know that. But if you follow it down the line, the cartels are ultimately responsible."

___

Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-01-Cartels-Coming%20to%20America/id-c5632c7893744bd1931ed864dc864b32

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