The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.
The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
WASHINGTON: Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, wanted by authorities in Belize for his neighbour's murder, has been captured after weeks on the run, his blog said on Saturday.
"We have received an unconfirmed report that John McAfee has been captured at the border of Belize and Mexico," his official blog whoismcafee.com said.
The website, which McAfee launched to counter what he sees as erroneous claims by the media or authorities about him, said it would provide more information as it became available.
Police say they simply want to question the 67-year-old about the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, a Florida native who was found dead at his home last month in a pool of blood on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.
Faull, 52, was shot in the back of the head, according to a police report. There were no signs of a break-in, and a laptop and cell phone were missing.
McAfee has said he fears for his life and was fleeing authorities with whom he has been at odds ever since refusing to make a donation to a local politician's campaign.
In Belize, a source at the US embassy speaking privately said people close to McAfee, in the town of Carmelita, in the San Pedro area, had denied that he was captured. A police spokesman meanwhile said he had no information on a possible arrest.
- AFP/xq
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.
"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.
The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.
BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.
The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.
Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.
Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.
The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
“Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot
Published November 30, 2012
Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said.
"We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.
The victim was identified Kasandra Perkins, 22. Snapp said the couple had lived together and had a 3-month-old daughter.
A woman first alerted police this morning that her daughter had been shot by her boyfriend, who was a Kansas City Chiefs player, Snapp said. Police initially believed the woman was Perkins' mother, but later learned she was Belcher's mother, who lived with the couple to help care for their daughter and according to family members felt extremely close to Perkins.
It is believed Belcher drove to Arrowhead Stadium shortly after the shooting and police were called.
"When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot," Snapp said. "As officers pulled up, and began to park, that's when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life."
Snapp said the coaches told officers they didn't feel they were in any danger from Belcher.
"They said the player was actually thanking them for everything they'd done for him," he said. "They were just talking to him and he was thanking them and everything. That's when he walked away and shot himself."
Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and the league has told the Panthers to go ahead with their travel plans because the game will be played as scheduled.
In a statement posted on their website, the Chiefs said they are "cooperating with authorities in their investigation" and did not mention Belcher by name.
The 6-foot-2, 228-pound linebacker joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009, and had spent all four seasons of his career with the team. He has played every in game since joining the team.
Originally from West Babylon, N.Y., where he was a three-time all-America wrestler in addition to playing on the football team, Belcher went undrafted out of the University of Maine, where he started all 45 games in which he played.
Maine Head Football Coach Jack Cosgrove described Jovan as a "tremendous student-athlete."
"His move to the NFL was in keeping with his dreams," Cosgrove said in a statement released by the university today. "This is an indescribably horrible tragedy. At this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with Jovan, Kasandra and their families."
Belcher signed with the Chiefs as a rookie free agent, started 15 of 16 games his second season and last year started all 16 games as left inside linebacker.
Belcher expressed gratitude for his NFL career in an article posted on Nov. 21 on the Chiefs' website that has since been taken down.
"First and foremost, God. Family and friends just keeping me focused, coaches and just everyone," he said.
LONDON: A Facebook page set up to monitor paedophiles has been removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled Friday that it risked infringing the human rights of a convicted sex offender.
The man, who cannot be identified, started legal proceedings against the social networking site after discovering his photograph and threatening comments had been posted on the page.
High Court judge Bernard McCloskey ruled some content on the page amounted to prima facie harassment of the man, known only as XY.
The man had previously been given a six-year jail sentence for a string of child sex offences committed more than 20 years ago.
Judge McCloskey said: "Society has dealt with the plaintiff in accordance with the rule of law.
"He has been punished by incarceration and he is subject to substantial daily restrictions on his lifestyle."
The judge in his ruling gave Facebook 72 hours to take the original page down.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said: "We are considering our next steps in light of the court judgment and we have nothing further to add at this stage."
The page, called "Keeping our kids safe from predators", was no longer visible at 20:00GMT but a new page entitled "Keeping our kids safe from predators 2" had appeared, gaining over 2,400 likes in just a few hours.
It is not clear whether the creator of the new page is the same as the user that set up the original one.
However, the new page's administrator wrote in a posting at 15:30GMT: "Thats (sic) the first page gone :( sad day."
More than 5,000 people had liked the original page before its removal.
Some of the latest posts were written after the judge made his ruling.
Facebook is understood to have removed the man's photo and comments made about him but his legal team insisted that the page should be shut down.
- AFP/xq
Speaking at the 49th All-Member Convention organized by KEB Engineer's Association at JK grounds here on Friday, he said though the government has sanctioned 60,000 employees, there are 15,000 vacancies. "As many as 1,500 engineers' posts are vacant, which need to be filled at the earliest. KEB requires quality personnel," he said, and added: "Employees must be willing to work anywhere in the state, rather than sticking to a particular place."
In spite of implementing advanced technology, KEB has not been able to tackle certain situations, he said, adding that people continue to target it in cases of power failure and technical issues.
Speaking on power shortage in the state, Karnataka is passing through power shortage mainly due to sudden spurt in demand from the irrigation sector and reduction in power generation.
"KEB is trying to cut losses in transmission and distribution (T&D). Unlike neighbouring states, Karnataka has not been equipped with latest machineries," he claimed.
At present, the state is unable to meet the demand, which would rise in the coming days. KEB is unable to generate sufficient capital too, Selva Kumar said.
!KEB Engineer's Association president V Venkatasivareddy said the Association has rejected Shunglu committee report on power distribution which speaks of franchise system. The report has said that franchise model is a preferred mode for reduction in T&D losses given the issues in the sector. The committee does not see meaningful reduction in T&D losses in the foreseeable future. "Franchise system gradually leads to privatization of the power sector," he said.
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.
Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.
The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
“Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot
Published November 30, 2012
Parents of children who have died or been injured while being manhandled, held down or locked up in America's public schools are fighting back.
Dozens have filed lawsuits and many are speaking out publicly to end what they say is an epidemic of harsh measures being used in schools to subdue unruly or aggressive children – many of whom suffer from autism or other disabilities. They are mothers like Sheila Foster, whose 16-year-old son died after being restrained, allegedly for refusing to leave the basketball court at his school in Yonkers, just outside New York City.
"I know I won't feel him hug me anymore, or say, 'I love you, mommy,'" a tearful Sheila Foster, Corey's mother, told ABC News. "Someone has to be held accountable for this because my son is dead. And this shouldn't happen anymore to another child, to another family."
WATCH 'Nightline': Students Hurt, Dying After Being Restrained
Foster has sued Leake & Watts, a special needs facility for students with behavioral and learning disabilities. The school has defended the actions of its staff, despite the tragic outcome. Surveillance video made public earlier this month shows the teenager playing basketball in the school gym alongside other students and staff members. Minutes later he is surrounded by school staff in a corner of the gym where it appears he is pushed against the wall and then restrained face down by four staff members. Nearly 45 minutes later he was removed from the gym on a stretcher.
Courtesy of the Foster Family
PHOTOS: Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School
"They circled him like thugs or a gang," said the family's lawyer Jacob Oresky in response to the surveillance video. "The staff members at Leake & Watts exercised a lot of force on Corey Foster and they killed him." An autopsy ruled Corey's death an accident, saying he suffered "cardiac arrest during an excited state while being subdued."
Steps taken in other schools to restrain misbehaving children, like the use of locked, padded cell-like rooms sometimes called "scream rooms," have also brought outcries. The mother of a seven-year-old boy in Phoenix, Arizona secretly videotaped the padded room in her son's school after he had been left there for the better part of a school day. She says she later learned he had been held in the room 17 times – though the school disputes that number, saying he was there three times.
"I was disgusted," said Leslie Noyes, the boy's mother. "There was one time that I know he was placed in the room a little after 10 a.m. He was there until the school day ended at 3:30 p.m. They brought him lunch in there. He ate it on the floor. He had urinated on the floor. They wouldn't let him out to use the bathroom."
Officials from the Deer Valley Unified School District said that, because of the pending lawsuit, they could not respond to questions about the case. But in general, spokeswoman Heidi Vega said, seclusion is "the last method of behavior management schools use with a student. Our staff is fully trained on non-violent crisis intervention and puts student safety first at all times. The safety of all students is important and remains a top priority."
In Kentucky, Sandra Baker said she was terrified when she showed up at school to find her son being restrained in what looked like a duffle bag. "Outside the room was the aide and [my son] was completely inside the bag, rolling around in it in the middle of the hallway with other kids around," she told ABC News. "I just kind of stopped and was stunned."
Baker brought her outrage to the local news media.
NEW YORK: US actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested for assault in New York Thursday, and also charged over a car crash in California, in a double legal blow which could in theory land her back to jail.
The perennially troubled 26-year-old, who is struggling to get her life back on the rails and remains on probation for a 2011 jewellery theft, was arrested in the early hours after a fight at a New York nightclub, police said.
"She was charged with assault" and ordered to appear at a later date, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokeswoman said, adding that the "Mean Girls" actress allegedly struck another woman.
In California, meanwhile, she was charged with three misdemeanours for allegedly lying to police about whether she was driving a Porsche that crashed into a truck on the Pacific Coast Highway in June.
Santa Monica police spokesman Richard Lewis said she was charged with wilfully resisting, obstructing or delaying a police officer, giving false information and reckless driving.
Lohan allegedly told officers that she was not driving the car at the time of the crash, but a police statement said "information was developed that Lohan was the driver of the Porsche when the accident occurred."
The Santa Monica charges carry potential jail terms of up to a year.
The latest charges could lead to jail time for Lohan for violating probation, after she pleaded no contest to stealing a necklace from a jewellery store near her home in Venice, west of Los Angeles, in January 2011.
Lohan - once a promising young starlet after earning plaudits for her roles in "The Parent Trap" and "Freaky Friday" as a child - has been trying to rebuild her life after a series of run-ins with the law.
Despite a widely praised performance in "Mean Girls" in her late teens, she has become more famous for drug problems that have led to several prison stays.
She has been given jail terms a number of times in recent years, but has avoided spells of more than a day or two behind bars either because of appeals or prison overcrowding.
In March, a Los Angeles judge ended Lohan's probation on a drink-driving charge after a long string of court appearances, and changed her sentence for the jewellery theft from formal to informal probation, ending in May 2014.
Judge Stephanie Sautner also told her to "stop the nightclubbing" and behave more maturely.
The LA City Attorney's Office said Thursday that prosecutors were awaiting paperwork from Santa Monica and New York before deciding if they will pursue Lohan for probation violation.
"We're just waiting for all the information," said its spokesman Frank Mateljan.
Lohan recently starred in "Liz and Dick," a television biopic about film legend Elizabeth Taylor and her stormy relationship with actor Richard Burton. The film has earned mixed reviews.
The respected Hollywood Reporter's critic called it "both an awful mess and an instant classic of unintentional hilarity", adding: "Lohan is woeful as Taylor from start to finish."
-AFP/fl
"Based on the information we have received from government sources, the white paper seems nothing but a whitewash ... We have all the details of the scam," senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde told the media.
Stating that the white paper does not seem to have addressed two key issues—financial irregularities and flawed policy decisions—Tawde said, "The BJP will bring out a 'black paper' on the scam during the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur."
Meanwhile, the newly formed Aam Aadmi Party has also prepared a "black paper" on the irrigation scam, reports PTI. On December 2, Arvind Kejriwal will release the document in Roha, Raigad district, the stronghold of Maharashtra irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare.
Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNL
Looking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).
Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.
The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand challenges"—igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory, according to the NIF website. Nuclear fusion—the merging of the nuclei of two atoms of, say, hydrogen—can result in a tremendous amount of excess energy. Nuclear fission, by contrast, involves the splitting of atoms.
This July, California-based NIF made history by combining 192 laser beams into a record-breaking laser shot that packed over 500 trillion watts of peak power-a thousand times more power than the entire United States uses at any given instant.
"This was a quantum leap for laser technology around the world," NIF director Ed Moses said in September. But some critics of the $5 billion project wonder why the laser has yet to ignite a fusion chain reaction after three-and-a-half years in operation. Supporters counter that such groundbreaking science simply can't be rushed.
(Related: "Fusion Power a Step Closer After Giant Laser Blast.")
—Brian Handwerk
Published November 29, 2012
Private First Class Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified and confidential military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, took the stand in a military court today to make his first public statements since his arrest in 2010.
Manning appeared confident and animated at a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade in Maryland as he described the mental breakdowns and extreme depression he suffered during his first year in detention, from cells in Iraq and Kuwait to the Marine base at Quantico in Virginia. Within weeks of his arrest, Manning said, he became convinced he was going to die in custody.
"I was just a mess. I was really starting to fall apart," the 24-year-old former Army intelligence analyst said. Manning said he didn't remember an incident while in Kuwait where he bashed his head into a wall or another where he fashioned a noose out of a bed sheet as his civilian attorney, David Coombs, said he had, but Manning did say he felt he was "going to die... [in] an animal cage."
"I certainly contemplated [suicide]. There's no means, even if the noose... there'd be nothing I could do with it. Nothing to hang it on. It felt... pointless," he said. Manning had been on suicide watch since late June 2010, a month after his initial arrest in Baghdad.
Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images
Manning faces 22 charges related to his alleged use of his access to government computers to download and pass along a trove of confidential government documents and videos to WikiLeaks, including the 2010 mass release of 250,000 State Department cables detailing years of private U.S. diplomatic interactions with the governments and citizens the world over. The unprecedented document dump became known as "Cablegate."
Earlier this month Coombs wrote on his blog that Manning was willing to plead guilty to some lesser offenses. On Thursday the military judge in the case said eight lesser charges could be reviewed by Manning's defense attorneys for a potential plea deal, but a response likely won't be determined until December.
The most serious charge Manning now faces, aiding the enemy, could bring a penalty of life in prison should he be found guilty.
Manning's defense has argued for all charges to be dropped, citing a perceived breach of Manning's right to speedy trial and his "unlawful pretrial punishment" while in custody at the Marine brig in Quantico.
But in today's hearing, Manning described his time in custody prior to his stay at Quantico as an ordeal of its own.
He recounted an incident in Baghdad when he fainted from the heat in his cell. Later in Kuwait, Manning said he was initially given phone privileges he used to call an aunt and friend in the United States, but that privilege was taken away a short time later.
After his alarming breakdown in June 2010, Manning told a mental health specialist that he really "didn't want to die, but [he] just wanted to get out of the cage," saying he believed his life had "just sunk."
Manning was given medication that improved his mood to the point that the young soldier felt he "started to flatten out" and resigned himself to "riding out" whatever was coming his way.
After he had been held in Kuwait, Manning said he was "elated" when he learned he was being transferred back to America. He had feared being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba or to a U.S. facility in Djibouti in Africa.
"I didn't think I was going to set foot on American soil for a long time," he said.
The choice of a successor to Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state has turned into an unexpectedly nasty political fight that could cost the White House valuable goodwill with Republicans.
Republican opposition to presumptive front-runner Susan E. Rice did not fade after the election, as White House officials and her supporters had predicted. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, did not win any public GOP support after meeting with two Republican senators Wednesday, her second day of unusual face-to-face sessions intended to blunt critiques of her role in explaining the fatal Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the only path towards a Palestinian state was through direct negotiations, on the eve of a contentious United Nations vote.
"I have said many times that the path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," Clinton told reporters, reiterating US opposition to the Palestinian bid to upgrade its UN status.
"We have made very clear to the Palestinian leadership that we oppose Palestinian efforts to upgrade their status at the UN outside of the framework" of direct negotiations.
The top US diplomat warned that no matter what happened on Thursday at the United Nations "it will not produce the outcome" that everyone desires.
"The only way to get a lasting solution is to commence direct negotiations," Clinton stressed.
"And we need an environment conducive to that and we urged both parties to refrain from actions that might, in any way, make a return to meaningful negotiations that focus on getting to a resolution more difficult."
The United States earlier on Wednesday pressed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas not to seek elevated UN status, in a last-ditch bid to avert a damaging showdown at the United Nations.
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Middle East envoy David Hale met with Abbas at his hotel but failed to get the Palestinian leader to withdraw his resolution or make amendments, officials said.
US officials have reaffirmed that the United States will vote against the Palestinian motion if the vote goes ahead as planned on Thursday.
- AFP/xq
BANGALORE: The Congress led by Indira Gandhi fostered a generation of hero worship and dynasty politics after 1969. This inspired many others like Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who started off with noble intentions to fight against caste discriminations, to do the same and has led to a centralization of politics in present India, said Ramachandra Guha, on Wednesday.
He was speaking during the launch of his latest book, Patriots and Partisans.
The 54-year-old historian went on to add that Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the most charismatic leaders of Indian politics, has been slowly losing his popularity because of the Congress's dynastic politics.
"Sins of seven successive generations have been bestowed on Nehru," he said light-heartedly.
The highest paid non-fiction writer of the country also slammed the phenomenon called the 'Congress chamchagiri'. "I saw a long queue of Congress party members waiting outside Rahul Gandhi's house during his birthday, a couple of years ago, braving scorching sun. Nevertheless, Rahul didn't come out to greet them while the 100 kilogram cake they had brought for him disintegrated leaving a trail from the Congress general secretary's house till the Indira Gandhi circle," he said.
He said that scientific institutions in Delhi couldn't achieve the success of ones in other parts of the country as officials chosen in the capital-based institutions are often selected on the recommendation of politicians.
Guha went on to add that massacre of Muslims in Hyderabad during the annexation of the state by the Indian army happened before the constitution came into being in 1950, but it is sad that the perpetrators of 1984 Sikh massacre and 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat, which were initiated by Congress and BJP, respectively, haven't still been punished.
He slammed right and left wing politicians, saying that the citizens have allowed the Hindu rightists' claims to be truly patriots of the country because the left is often considered anti-patriotic because their fatherland has always been a different country - depending upon the prevalence of Marxists movements in these countries, like China, the USSR, Cuba and currently Venezuela - and also due to the high decibel levels and angry outbreaks of the saffron brigade.
"Violence unleashed by left ( Naxalites) and right (Hindu fundamentalists) is against democracy, liberalism, religious plularism and tolerance, the idea that our Constitution promotes. Citizens should protect the country from these extremisms," he said.
TOO EARLY
Guha had a word of advice for the Arvind Kejriwal-launched Aam Aadmi Party, saying that it's too early for them to participate in the 2014 general elections. "Their current economic policies are a bit naive," he added.
In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.
Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.
Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.
"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."
And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.
From Worm to Pill
But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.
De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."
Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.
Brave New Worm
Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.
De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.
"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."
Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.
More survivors of the factory fire in Bangladesh that killed more than 100 garment workers this weekend have told human rights and international labor groups they were actually locked in by security gates as the flames spread.
"The police and the fire department are confirming that the collapsible gates were locked on each floor," said Charles Kernighan, executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. "The fire department said they had to come in with bolt cutters to cut the locks."
The toll of the garment factory blaze now stands at 112, but Kernighan and others interviewed by ABC News said they believe the number may actually be much higher. The destruction inside made it difficult to identify bodies, and Kernighan said factory officials have yet to make public a list of the 1,500 workers believed to be working in the nine-story building at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, when the fire broke out in a first floor warehouse.
Kalpona Akter, a labor activist based in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, spoke with a number of survivors, who described a scene of horror as workers started to smell smoke, and then the power went out and they were thrown into darkness.
"Then they ran to the stairs and found it was already fire caught in the stairs," she said. "They broke one window in the east side of the factory and … they started to jump."
Akter said many groups of relatives worked together in the factory, and when the lights went out, many began to scream in search of their mothers and sisters and daughters. She said she also heard accounts of managers shutting the gates as alarms sounded to prevent workers from walking off the job, apparently thinking it was a false alarm.
Authorities in Bangladesh announced three arrests, all supervisors from the factory, whom the police accused of negligence in their handling of the incident.
A journalist who attended the police press conference told ABC News the three men were arrested "because they did not perform their duty" and prevented workers from escaping from the factory, instead of helping them get out.
Also Wednesday, there were new reports that clothing found in the burned-out remains included large quantities of sweat shirts with labels for Disney, the parent company of ABC News. Like Wal-Mart and Sears, Disney said today it had no idea the Tazreen Fashions Limited factory was not supposed to be making its clothes.
"None of our licensees have been permitted to manufacture Disney-branded products in this facility for at least the last 12 months," a Disney statement read.
As with Disney, other retailers continue to question how their products could be found in a factory they did not know they had hired. Li & Fung, a Hong Kong supplier that works with several large brands, confirmed it was producing clothes in the factory for a Sean Combs label, ENYCE. But in a statement to ABC News Wednesday, Li & Fung said it had not brought clothes to the factory for any other client, including Sears, Disney and Wal-Mart.
Asked why it hired a factory that had been cited by at least one auditor for having safety problems, Li & Fung said it was investigating that question.
"As this tragic event is still under official investigation by the authorities, and since Li & Fung will conduct our own investigation, it would be premature to comment on our prior assessment of the factory's compliance," the statement said.
Labor rights groups said the American clothing companies have an obligation to know where their clothing is being manufactured.
"They have the power to make demands on the factory owners, they don't do it though," Kernighan said. "Because they want to keep cutting the prices, and cutting the prices, and cutting the prices."
Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.
When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.
Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.
LOS ANGELES: Perennially troubled US actor Charlie Sheen said Tuesday that hit TV series "Two and a Half Men," on which he starred for years, is "cursed," after one of its stars called the show "filth".
Sheen, who was sacked from the comedy show last year following his own public meltdown, was speaking as the show's producers remained tight-lipped about how they will deal with the outburst by actor Angus T. Jones.
"With Angus's Hale-Bopp-like meltdown, it is radically clear to me that the show is cursed," Sheen told celebrity bible People magazine, referring to the fiery comet.
Nineteen-year-old Jones, who reportedly earns $350,000 an episode playing the character Jake in the show now starring Ashton Kutcher, attacked the program after apparently undergoing a religious revelation.
"If you watch 'Two and a Half Men,' please stop watching 'Two and a Half Men.' I'm on 'Two and a Half Men,' and I don't want to be on it," he said in a video posted by the Forerunner Christian Church on YouTube.
"Please stop watching it; stop filling your head with filth. Please," he said in the video.
Jones signed up for a new one-year contract in May for the show -- from which Sheen was sacked after he gave a series of increasingly erratic and explosive interviews about the show's producer, Chuck Lorre.
Sheen -- who portrayed hedonistic jingle writer Charlie Harper -- was replaced by Kutcher on the top-rated comedy series, which has been a hit since it was launched in 2003.
The show's makers have so far declined to comment publicly on the young actor's outburst.
Paul McGuire, a spokesman for Warner Bros, which produces the show along with CBS, said on Monday: "We are not commenting on the comments made by Angus T. Jones."
- AFP/ck
KOLKATA: With the Congress likely to garner a majority in Parliament over the FDI issue, the Trinamool Congress is yet to carve out its strategy in Parliament, in case Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar allows the debate under rule 184.
Trinamool leaders have left it to Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to decide whether the party will stage a walkout along with parties such as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party or record their dissent during voting with the BJP and the Left.
"We still believe that no-confidence motion is the only way to remove this minority government and stop this unethical political charade being played out. Even now this can be done.
Only one MP is required to move this motion. It doesn't matter which political party it is. Let those, who're so vocal on price rise, FDI in retail and removal of subsidy cap on domestic LPG, come forward and vote on it. If one is convinced that these are anti-people policies, what stops them from nudging the government out of power. Why resort to rules to save them?" said Trinamool all India general secretary Mukul Roy.
Roy was more keen on nailing down Left Front chairman Biman Bose's recent argument that the Left didn't support the Trinamool's no-confidence notice because parties reluctant to bring down the government would vote against the government if the debate is allowed under rule 184. Roy, however, didn't want to foretell the party's strategy in the fast changing situation.
While Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray held that the party will fight FDI tooth and nail, senior party MP Sultan Ahmed said, "Whether to vote or not will be decided later by the Trinamool parliamentary party and the party supremo Mamata Banerjee, let the Speaker decide it first. The government will never agree to a discussion under rule 184 without majority. Our leader in the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandopadhyay, has already cleared our stand on the matter. There is nothing more to add to it." Domestic compulsion is also weighing heavily on Trinamool Congress before it is seen aligning with CPM and BJP.
Left parties, on the other hand, have dumped the number game getting a whiff that the Congress might gather the numbers. Asked whether the CPM is heading towards a situation similar to the confidence debate on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, CPM Rajya Sabha MP Shyamal Chakrabarty said: "Not at all. We have been trying to forge the broadest possible unity against FDI entry in multi-brand retail. I am confident that we will be achieving our target to a great extent. The Trinamool's no confidence move would have given the government a leeway to continue with their anti-people policies on all fronts for a period of six months instead," Chakrabarty said.
Trinamool leaders, on the other hand, believe that a debate under rule 184, will give Trinamool an opportunity to expose the Opposition "double-speak." "Biman Bose had argued if the government survived our no-confidence motion, they will get a parliamentary mandate to introduce FDI in retail. So if a vote under rule 184 does take place and the government wins it, would it be any different? The CM had made it clear that we believed in moving a no-confidence for it wasn't a half-measure. What is happening now only vindicates her belief," a Trinamool MP said.
Photograph courtesy Conservation India
A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.
Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.
"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.
"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")
According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.
Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.
"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."
(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")
Published November 27, 2012
Tampa socialite Jill Kelley is fighting back. Today, sources close to the woman who was caught in the media crossfire during the David Petraeus sex scandal have released new letters aimed at reclaiming her reputation.
In one, Kelley's attorney goes after a New York businessman who claimed Kelley was using her connections to Petraeus to broker a deal with the South Korean government.
"It is impossible to overlook your attempt to get your '15 minutes of fame,'" attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to Adam Victor, the president and CEO of TransGas Development Systems. "…You have the right to do that to yourself, but you do not have the right to defame our client.
"This letter is notice to you that statements you have made are false and defamatory and are intended to portray Ms. Kelley in a false light," the letter continued.
Victor has claimed that Kelley asked for $80 million in commissions to arrange a deal between Victor and the South Korean government. Kelley was an honorary consul for the Republic of South Korean.
"While it is certainly true that Ms. Kelley communicated with you about a potential business deal, it has nothing to do with General Petraeus or other military," Lowell wrote Victor.
The dealings between Jill Kelley and Adam Victor were detailed in a series of emails between the two made public earlier this month. The emails appeared to confirm the New York businessman's claim that Kelley wanted a huge fee for brokering a transaction with the South Korean government.
But in his letter to Victor, Lowell denies that Kelley wanted anything close to $80 million, and says the full chain of emails reveal that "it was you (Victor) who were trying to capitalize on her contacts, and not the other way around."
Kelley and Victor were introduced at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August by Kelley's friend, Tampa real estate developer Don Phillips. In an interview with ABC News, Phillips said he suggested that Kelley and Victor should meet because Kelley could help Victor land a deal for a coal gasification plant in South Korea.
Phillips claimed that Kelley said that Victor tried to "proposition" her "almost immediately," and said he had to cajole her into flying to New York for a second meeting with Victor.
After she met with Victor in New York, Phillips said, Kelley reported that she was no longer interested in pursuing the deal. According to Phillips, she said, "As a result of my personal investigations and business intelligence this is just not going anywhere, Don, and you just don't want to associate with this guy."
Victor, who denies propositioning Kelley, claimed she continued pushing for the deal after their meeting in New York. But sources close to Kelley say that telephone voice messages Victor left for Kelley reveal that he was the one who continued to seek Kelley's involvement, even after the Petraeus affair came to light.
Victor also claims that Kelley told him Petraeus arranged for her to be named honorary consul, and that she could use her connections with high-level Korean officials to help land the coal plant deal.
None of the emails that Victor showed to ABC News mention Petraeus. Kelley's friend Don Phillips told ABC News that Kelley has not "in any way tried to profit" from her relationship with Petraeus.
It seemed like a pretty neat idea when rocker Andrew W.K. posted on his Web site last week that the State Department was sending him as a cultural ambassador to Bahrain to help folks in that deeply unsettled country.
Just Monday, the government used tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators and street battles flared, the Associated Press reported.
LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow's long-awaited movie about the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden is generating Academy Awards buzz, even before its release next month.
The director, who won Academy Awards in 2010 for Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker", had extensive access to classified material in the making of "Zero Dark Thirty", a process that began long before bin Laden's death in May 2011.
The movie centres on a female CIA analyst - played by Jessica Chastain - credited as a key force in the hunt for the Al Qaeda chief, killed by US Navy SEALs in an audacious dead-of-night raid on his hiding place in Pakistan.
"'Zero Dark Thirty' could well be the most impressive film Bigelow has made, as well as possibly her most personal," commented the Hollywood Reporter, after initial screenings of the movie.
"The film's power steadily and relentlessly builds over its long course, to a point that is terrifically imposing and unshakable," it added.
Variety said the movie was "far more ambitious than 'The Hurt Locker', yet nowhere near so tripwire-tense", hailing it for "rejecting nearly every cliché one might expect from a Hollywood treatment of the subject."
The Los Angeles Times said "Zero Dark Thirty" - military-speak for half past midnight, when the bin Laden raid was scheduled for - entered its Oscar best picture league table at number five.
Entertainment Weekly tipped it as a possible nominee for best film, best director, best screenplay and best leading actress for Chastain, who was Oscar nominated for her supporting role in last year's civil rights drama "The Help".
The two-and-a-half-hour long docudrama follows the CIA analyst over her decade-long quest to track down bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
It includes graphic torture scenes, including depictions of waterboarding and sexual humiliation, used to obtain information from detainees which ultimately help pinpoint bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
"I wish that it wasn't a part of history, but it is and was," Bigelow was cited as saying after a weekend screening in Los Angeles, adding that the torture scenes were the most difficult for her to film.
The film's screenplay was written by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, who also worked with Bigelow on "The Hurt Locker", which starred Jeremy Renner as a soldier defusing bombs in war-scarred Iraq.
"Zero Dark Thirty" opens in limited release in the United States from December 19, qualifying it for next February's Academy Awards show even though its general release is not until January.
-AFP/fl
"Diesel is not as polluting as it is made out to be. How can you tax a technology that is very clean and more fuel efficient?" said Vishnu Mathur, DG of industry lobby group, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. While diesel is not a big polluter, there are other industries that need to be checked into, he said, adding, "What about power producers, the industry and gensets?" P Balendran, VP at General Motors India, also countered the stand that diesel is more polluting. "It is energy saving and is more fuel efficient than petrol," he said.
Mayank Parek, COO at Maruti Suzuki, said that while pollution levels certainly need to be controlled, taxing diesel cars is not an answer. "It is not only cars that pollute. In fact, their contribution to pollution is very low when compared to other industries."
Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot
The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.
Taken from the New Forest Observatory in the United Kingdom, the image shows how the nebula's horse head is part of a larger cloud of dust. Situated about 1,500 light-years away, the Horsehead Nebula is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against another, brighter nebula, according to NASA.
(See "'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")
Published November 26, 2012
Photograph by Jeremy La Zelle, My Shot
Green curtains of aurora stretch over the sky in the Alaska Arctic in a picture submitted to National Geographic's My Shot on November 17.
"The constantly changing kaleidoscope of colors are reminiscent of a fireworks display—but without sound," photographer Jeremy La Zelle wrote with his submission.
"All we hear is the quiet peaceful sounds of a freezing Alaska night."
(See "Aurora Pictures: Best Fall Photos of Northern Lights.")
Published November 26, 2012
Image courtesy Caltech/NASA
NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this picture after moving 83 feet (25 meters) eastward on November 18—the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission to study whether life once existed on Mars.
The view shows Yellowknife Bay, part of the Glenelg area of the Gale Crater, which is located near the base of a three-mile-high (five-kilometer-high) mountain rich with layered sediment deposits laid down over hundreds of millions of years.
(Read more about the Gale Crater.)
Published November 26, 2012
Image courtesy ESA
The sands of the Sahara appear like golden brush strokes around the Tibesti Mountains in a March 2012 satellite image recently released by the European Space Agency.
Located in Chad and Libya, the mountains' highest peak is Emi Koussi-pictured above as a circular structure in the lower-right portion of the dark area.
Lava flows can be seen extending from the westernmost volcano, Toussidé.
(See volcano pictures.)
Published November 26, 2012
Photograph by Quang Nguyen Luong and F. Motte, Herschel SPIRE/ESA
Published November 26, 2012
Nov 26, 2012 5:48pm
Image credit: Johner/Getty Images
ABC News’ Ben Maas reports:
It has long been known that grapefruit juice can pose dangerous — and even deadly — risks when taken along with certain medications. Now, experts warn the list of medications that can result in these interactions is longer than many may have believed.
Check below to see whether your medication appears on the list.
In a new report released Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers at the University of Western Ontario said that while 17 drugs were identified in 2008 as having the potential to cause serious problems when taken with grapefruit, this number has now grown to 43.
“The frequency of these reactions may be small, but the risks are not worth it, especially for drugs which could cause sudden death,” said lead study author David Bailey, a professor of pharmacology and one of the first to report the interactions between grapefruit juice and certain medications 20 years ago. “Physicians need to know that this affects a number of new drugs and apply this information to their practice and patients.”
So how does a common breakfast fruit cause these problems? Grapefruits contain chemicals called furanocoumarins that interfere with how your body breaks down drugs before they enter the bloodstream. By preventing this normal breakdown of a drug, these chemicals in grapefruit can effectively cause a drug overdose and more severe side-effects.
Among the side effects sometimes seen with grapefruit-induced overdoses are heart rhythm problems, kidney failure, muscle breakdown, difficulty with breathing and blood clots. Atorvastatin — commonly known by the brand name Lipitor and taken by millions of Americans — is one of the drugs that have been linked to serious cases of drug toxicity when combined with grapefruit products. Other common heart medications — including verapamil and amiodarone — have also led to serious interactions when consumed with grapefruit or grapefruit juice.
While there have been many reported cases of serious side effects attributable to this problem, the total number of Americans who have been affected is not known.
As little as one grapefruit or one 8-ounce glass of grapefruit juice can cause an effect that may last more than 24 hours. Other fruits including Seville oranges, limes, and pomelos can have the same effect, although sweet orange varieties do not produce this interaction.
“People know that drugs react with drugs, but fewer are aware of drug-food interactions,” said Professor Paul Doering of the University of Florida Pharmacy Department. “Health professionals need to learn as much as they can about this. Undetected there are very serious adverse effects.”
For consumers, the best advice may be to ask a doctor or pharmacist when they are prescribed a new drug whether there are foods or other medicines that they should avoid.
A-C
Alfentanil (oral)
Amiodarone
Apixaban
Atorvastatin
Buspirone
Clopidogrel
Crizotinib
Cyclosporine
D-F
Darifenacin
Dasatinib
Dextromethorphan
Domperidone
Dronedarone
Eplerenone
Erlotinib
Erythromycin
Everolimus
Felodipine
Fentanyl (oral)
Fesoterodine
H-P
Halofantrine
Ketamine (oral)
Latatinib
Lovastatin
Lurasidone
Maraviroc
Nifedipine
Nilotinib
Oxycodone
P-Z
Pazopanib
Pimozide
Primaquine
Quinine
Quetiapine
Quinidine
Rilpivirine
Rivaroxaban
Silodosin
Simvastatin
Sirolimus
Solifenacin
Sunitinib
Tacrolimus
Tamsulosin
Ticagrelor
Triazolam
Vandetanib
Venurafenib
Verapamil
Ziprasidone
For the first time in decades, a bipartisan consensus has emerged in Washington to raise taxes. But negotiators working to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” remain far apart on crucial details, including how taxes should go up and who should pay more.
Neither side gave ground in an opening round of staff-level talks last week at the Capitol. As President Obama and congressional leaders prepare for a second face-to-face meeting as soon as this week, the divide over taxes presents the biggest obstacle to replacing the heap of abrupt tax hikes and spending cuts, set to hit in January, with a less-traumatic debt-reduction plan.
BRUSSELS: Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels Monday for the third time in two weeks for talks on unlocking the next slice of aid to debt-crippled Greece, which is in danger of running out of money.
Greece has been waiting since June for a loan instalment of 31.2 billion euros (US$40 billion), part of a 130-billion-euro financial assistance package initially granted early this year.
By the end of the year, Athens is also due to receive two more aid payments, worth 5.0 and 8.3 billion euros, in exchange for which it has pledged to implement a series of unpopular austerity measures.
"For once, it would seem, Greece can take none of the blame," said Carsten Brzeski, an analyst at ING bank.
The Greek government, led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pushed through a fresh wave of deeply unpopular cuts through parliament earlier this month.
The Eurogroup statement issued after failed talks last Wednesday acknowledged that Greece had done everything that had been asked of it.
Samaras made much the same point in a statement issued hours after Wednesday's failed talks ended, in which his mounting frustration was clear.
"Greece did what it had to do, and what it had pledged to do," he wrote in a statement last Wednesday.
"Whatever technical difficulties in finding a technical solution do not justify any negligence or delay."
Eurogroup ministers exchanged ideas over the weekend in an effort to clear the way to an agreement Monday.
On Sunday, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici insisted that the eurozone was very close to agreement on the issue, echoing remarks he made just after last week's meeting broke up.
"I think that in effect we are very close to a solution," he told BFM Television. "I don't know if there will be an agreement tomorrow, I know it is possible and I want one."
Failing this time around would be "irresponsible" he added, "given the efforts everyone has made".
He provided few details about how a deal could be reached, but said it could involve a combination of decreases in interest earned by lenders and profits made by central banks on Greek debt.
As well as the eurozone finance ministers, also in attendance will be International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank.
The IMF and the ECB, with the European Union, make up the troika of creditors that have insisted on it adopting the controversial austerity plan.
They have decided to give Greece an extra two years, until 2016 in other words, to balance its books. But that means Greece's international creditors would have to find another 32.6 billion euros to cover the cost of granting this two-year respite.
The meeting also needs to agree on the timetable regarding bringing down the country's massive debt levels. Lagarde wants Greece to get its debt down to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020. Head of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker would rather put that deadline back to 2022.
The simplest solution would be for the creditors to agree to write off some of the Greek debt, and indeed a "haircut" was raised as a possiblity in German press reports Sunday.
The banks swallowed this bitter pill at the beginning of the year, and the IMF has urged the ECB to accept this solution, but both the central bank and Germany have so far held out against it.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel knows such a move would be unlikely to go down well with the voters.
"I'm against this debt write-off and I want to find another solution," she said Friday.
But she nevertheless remained upbeat. "I have high hopes that we can resolve the question of the tranches of aid to Greece" at Monday's meeting, she said, while acknowledging that there is still work to be done.
One source close to the talks said that progress had been made during Saturday's round of telephone consultations.
Ministers agreed to cut interest rates on loans which Athens had already signed up to, though they have yet to agree on the revised rates, said the source.
They -- and the ECB -- have also agreed to lend Greece at least some of the gains they have made on the Greek bonds they hold.
And they agreed in principle on a buyout of Greek debt using the eurozone bailout fund, said the source.
It remains to be seen however, if the IMF will go along with this: the problem is that these measures would not bring Greek debt back to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020, as Lagarde wants.
But according to one Greek ministerial source, the IMF might finally agree to move on this point, settling for a figure equal to 124 per cent of GDP.
- AFP/ck
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