page contents LASCOP: February 2011
Powered by Blogger.
Monday, 7 February 2011

Ohio (AP) — Two men angry over a dispute at an Ohio fraternity house party left the gathering and returned early Sunday, spraying bullets into a crowd and killing a Youngstown State University student who was trying to separate two groups, authorities said. Eleven other people were injured, including a 17-year-old with a critical head wound.

The men were arrested and charged later Sunday with aggravated murder, shooting into a house and 11 counts of felonious assault, Youngstown police Chief Jimmy Hughes said. The suspects are in their early 20s and from the Youngstown area, but Hughes withheld their names pending further investigation.

"These guys were in the location for a little while before the shooting occurred," he said. "Something happened that they became unhappy. They had some type of altercation."

The shooting occurred at a two-story brick house in a neighborhood of once-elegant homes, many of which are now boarded up. The house party had been bustling with 50 or more people early Sunday, Hughes said.

"Somebody just got shot!" a caller tells a dispatcher on a recording of the 911 call.

The Mahoning County coroner's office identified the dead student as 25-year-old Jamail E...He was shot once in the head and multiple times in his hips and legs; an autopsy is planned Monday, said Dr. Joseph Ohr, a forensic pathologist with the coroner's office.

Capt. Rod Foley said Johnson apparently was trying to separate two groups when he was shot.

"(Johnson) was just an excellent, excellent young man, and our loss runs deep," said Christopher Cooper, a legal officer for Omega Psi Phi fraternity. The senior had recently traveled to North Carolina for a fraternity program emphasizing manhood and scholarship, Cooper said.

Johnson's fraternity brothers were trying to decide whether to return to the house, he said. They were "very solemn, very alarmed, very hurt," Cooper said.

The 11 people who were injured ranged in age from 17 to 31...Two were hit in the abdomen, and the most seriously hurt was the 17-year-old who was shot near one ear.

They were taken to nearby St...Eight of them had been treated and released by afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Tina Creighton said. She said she could not release the conditions of the other three.

The university said six of the injured were students.

Members of the university-sanctioned Omega Psi Phi fraternity lived at the house, YSU spokesman Ron Cole said.

Omega Psi Phi doesn't own the house, Cooper said.

A neighbor, Rodger Brown, 54, said the house and an adjacent home with Greek lettering indicating a fraternity often have parties on Friday and Saturday nights but had caused no problems in the neighborhood.

"It's a nice, quiet neighborhood," he said.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich planned to meet Monday in Youngstown with YSU president Cynthia Anderson and Mayor Jay Williams to discuss the shootings.

"This is one of those days that every university president across the country, as well as many other officials, always dread," Anderson said at a news conference on campus.

Anderson said she had been assured by police that there was no threat to the urban campus in northeast Ohio near the Pennsylvania border. The university has about 15,000 students with alumni including former Kansas Jayhawks football coach Mark Mangino and fashion designer Nanette Lepore.

___

Associated Press writers Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.


View the original article here

Pakistan’s capital market moved both ways during the week ending Friday last as external factors including the economy and politics remained uncertain while promising corporate performance lured foreign investors that too failed to improve volumes.


Analysts described the volume of trade at 170 million shares in a day as the highest in last nine months. It clearly indicated the market moving with alarmingly squeezed volumes during the last year or so since turnover less than even 200 million shares has turned to be the highest in the market that had traded 500 million shares in a day in good old times.


Market opened the week under review with continuation of the bearish sentiment lingering on from the preceding week. Foreign players that had remained constant buyers in Pakistan also corrected their portfolios leading to nearly a percentile’s fall in the indexed value of the local bourses during the week that was.


Pundits were of the view that the Egypt crisis and global markets with a weak posture had forced the foreign fund managers to square their positions in the Pakistani stocks. Thus stocks continued shedding but the market’s positive undertone resisted and Karachi Stock Exchange’s predominant benchmark called the KSE-100 index managed to clip losses as compared to the preceding session. Still the country’s mother bourse’s barometer fell by three quarters a percentile on Tuesday last.


Bullish sentiment emerged on midweek session chiefly banking on the unchanged monetary policy and the central bank’s foresight of two to three per cent economic growth during the ongoing financial year despite worst impact of floods and war on terror. But the bears maintained their sway throughout the first three sessions of the week that was. On Wednesday last the bulls and bears came neck and neck, however, negative sentiment managed to last till the brokers called it a day. The KSE-100 index booked another loss though only that of a quarter percentile.


Last couple of sessions appeared to be the bullish reaction. Market bettered by a percentile and nearly half a percentile on Thursday and Friday respectively. Analysts were of the view that the foreigners renewed their interest in Pakistan’s banking sector eventually to reverse the 4-day bearish spell. Bullish spree continued till Friday, the last working session of the week under review but not with that force as it had experienced during the preceding session.


According to analysts, foreign fund managers were maintaining their constant presence in the domestic stock trade as they were not getting such an attractive business anywhere in the region. Pakistani stocks have been offering better return to the foreign players as compared to other emerging markets. Secondly, they find more predictability in Pakistani market for it being too small as compared to other emerging markets.


Economic uncertainties like the fate of International Monetary Fund’s Stand-By Agreement (SBA), delays in introduction of much-awaited leverage product, rumors about the withdrawal of deemed duty for refineries, and growing fiscal deficit were to nourish bears on bourses. At the same time corporate performances promising handsome periodical payouts, hopes pinned to the Monday (today) meeting of the Karachi Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on the leverage product, and government’s drive to cut down the size of the cabinet were taken as positive factors by the stock market players.


According to insiders, the Finance Ministry as well as the Law Ministry had already cleared the draft of the leverage product while the SECP was reluctant to go ahead with it. The corporate watchdog was incapacitated having only two commissioners including the Chairman as against the law’s requirement to have minimum of five commissioners at the SECP.


It is pertinent to mention here that the market has been declining to discount its strength due to the prevalent political uncertainty in addition to the scary law and order situation, especially in Karachi the home of the mother bourse besides being financial capital of the country. Therefore, pundits opined that the market would continue moving clearly according to the internal as well as external economic factors least bothering about the political developments and untoward security occurrences.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Take it straight from the horse's mouth.


Filipino-American Carlo Echano urged the Philippine government on Wednesday to act fast in lifting the travel ban to Afghanistan because of the immense job opportunities in the country.


A member of the Filipinos in Afghanistan organization, Echano said that working inside the military bases of the US was safer than walking in the slums of Tondo, Manila or the long highway, EDSA.


Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kabul asked the Malacanang to lift the deployment ban of OFWs who want to venture in Afghanistan.


About 80 percent of Filipinos work in US facilities in Afghanistan, according to Echano. Attacks on US bases are fewer than those in Iraq. Missile attacks "do not even make it over the perimeter fence."


The Fil-Am worker also said that the US is building at least 20 more camps in the country. His company alone--among the 70 firms that employ OFWs--was hiring 7,000 workers this year.


Echano confidently said in a press conference in Manila, "I think it's very safe. I mean, it's probably more dangerous to cross EDSA than being in Afghanistan or being in any of the slum areas in Manila or being in Mindanao. That's more dangerous than being in Afghanistan."


The Filipinos are said to be worried because the Philippine government's travel ban makes it difficult for foreign companies to hire Filipinos and other nationals are being hired.


OFWs in US bases in Afghanistan receive tax-free incomes. The jobs vary from white to blue collars. A laundrywoman could earn $2,000 per month; a driver $5,000; and a supervisor $15,000. They also have $50,000-insurance policy, a requirement of the US law.


He said, "So, all the income that you make, you can send home. There is no tax. Everything is take home … So, it would be a very big impact on their family situation here in the Philippines if they lose their jobs."


Filipino professionals are also working in the country such as in the fields of administration, finance, dining facilities. Others are working as carpenters, electricians, or site managers.


Many of these workers were hired from Middle Eastern countries and even from the Philippines.


He also mentioned having complete recreational facilities inside the bases. There are KFC and Friday's outlets.


Asked why he is working in Afghanistan when he is already an American citizen, Echano said that there are slim chances for him to get a job in the US. There are more opportunities in Afghanistan.


Author's note: This report is another example of the Press' incomplete and biased journalistic practice. Like in the previous years, the media have shaped a bad image of these countries for reasons we don't know.