Exclusive: FINRA beefs up policing of arbitrators

By Suzanne Barlyn

(Reuters) - Wall Street's industry-funded watchdog said it was beefing up oversight of its 6,500 securities arbitrators after one of them was criminally indicted and suspended from the practice of law but failed to properly disclose those legal run-ins.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's new policy comes after Reuters asked questions about the background of Demetrio Timban, a Medford, New Jersey-based arbitrator who has become a central figure in a lawsuit between Goldman Sachs Group Inc and a wealthy investor. "In light of your questions, we reexamined our paneling process and initiated this change," a FINRA spokeswoman said in an email.

Timban was indicted by the state of New Jersey for practicing law without a license, although charges were later dropped under a state program to deal with nonviolent offenses. He was also reprimanded by a Michigan regulator for the New Jersey incident and passing $18,000 in bad checks.

Timban said in an interview that he had closed his New Jersey office and the check-writing incident was "accidental," as a family member was supposed to wire funds to cover the check. But FINRA said it did not learn of the New Jersey indictment for five months and that Timban failed to tell it about the Michigan problems altogether, while he arbitrated the Goldman case.

Investors and the securities industry must use FINRA's arbitration system to resolve their legal disputes, such as battles over brokers' signing bonuses or investor claims of mistreatment. Timban's failure to meet his obligations to disclose his legal problems led to questions about how FINRA polices its arbitrators and the reliability of their decisions.

In response to questions from Reuters over the past few days, a FINRA spokeswoman said late on Thursday that the regulator has adopted a new policy of conducting annual background checks on its arbitrators and an additional review before appointing arbitrators to a case. Previously, FINRA checked its arbitrators only when they applied, and required them to self-report new information, such as any legal troubles.

While FINRA's new policy is in response to the Timban matter, there have been other instances in which arbitrators have failed to self-report information, the spokeswoman said.

"The integrity of our arbitrator roster is of utmost importance to FINRA," she said.

The new policy could help weed out problem arbitrators early on and lead to fewer lawsuits seeking to overturn awards.

The change is "really at the heart of the fairness of the process," said Phil Aidikoff, a lawyer in Beverly Hills, Calif. who represents investors.

Terry Weiss, a lawyer for Greenberg Traurig LLP in Atlanta who represents brokerages, said the new policy might unearth extreme problems in an arbitrator's past, but it would not solve everything. Arbitrators may still be sloppy about not disclosing other facts that can reveal bias against a party, said Weiss, who declined to comment on the Goldman case.

FINRA began background checks for all new arbitrator applicants in 2003, covering everything from employment verification to potential criminal run-ins.

In 2009, the regulator took on a year-long project to run checks on about 4,000 arbitrators in its pool who had not been checked because they were already serving as arbitrators when the new system came in.

The check did not reveal any negative information about Timban, the FINRA spokeswoman said.

She said the regulator had taken numerous other steps in recent years to enhance disclosure by arbitrators, including training materials and newsletters. FINRA also looks into parties' allegations about arbitrators that occur during a case and relies on parties' evaluations of arbitrators at the end of each case to detect problems.

Arbitrators do not have to be lawyers and are typically paid $200 per half-day session.

GOLDMAN CASE

Timban has become a central figure in a lawsuit filed by the family investment vehicle of Richard Caruso, who founded Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp in 1989. Goldman Sachs won the arbitration against the investment vehicle, Athena Venture Partners LP, which sought to recoup a $1.4 million loss.

Athena is claiming that Timban's legal troubles had an impact on its arbitration and is asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to throw out the FINRA ruling, according to a June 7 court filing.

Timban was acting as a "public arbitrator" - one who is not affiliated with the securities industry and is typically more consumer-friendly than an industry arbitrator, said Athena's attorney, David Moffitt, in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Athena was depending on him in that role.

Had Timban disclosed his situation, been removed and replaced with a different public arbitrator, the case could have turned out differently, Moffitt said. Instead he abandoned the case in the wake of his problems with his Michigan law license, Athena alleged. That left the two remaining arbitrators in the case to decide themselves, Athena said.

A FINRA spokeswoman, however, said that Timban participated in the decision and agreed with the other two arbitrators.

A Goldman spokeswoman said the arbitrators' ruling was correct and that Athena's claims were not proven in arbitration. "We will continue to defend ourselves in any venue if necessary," she said.

Timban said he fulfilled his obligations in the Goldman case and that Athena was "reaching for straws."

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn with additional reporting by Ashley Lau; Editing by Linda Stern, Paritosh Bansal and Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-finra-beefs-policing-arbitrators-050110767.html

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Obama Urges Congress to Pass Immigration Reform (ABC News)

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Weekly Ketchup: Robert Downey Jr. to Return as Tony Stark in Avengers 2 and 3

Here's a "very special" edition of the Weekly Ketchup, as Hollywood this week was assaulted by an onslaught of sequel news stories comparable to either the Kryptonians in Man of Steel or the zombies in World War Z (take your pick of timely film references). We've got superhero sequels (The Avengers 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2), science fiction sequels (Independence Day 2 and Terminator 5), comedy sequels (Bad Teacher 2 and Dumb and Dumber To), and even a sequel to Dolphin Tale. And next week, this column will even get a sequel.

---

This Week's Top Story

THE AVENGERS 2 AND 3 TO STILL HAVE A GENIUS, BILLIONAIRE, PLAYBOY, PHILANTHROPIST

Although the exact dollar amounts are being kept private, Robert Downey Jr. has struck a new deal with Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures. Some sources estimate that RDJ made something like $50 million from the success of The Avengers last year, and he will continue to reprise his role as Tony "Iron Man" Stark in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3, which will mean that he will have starred in two different Marvel trilogies. What the deal notably does not address is any possible Iron Man 4, but that title's absence could be interpreted as confirmation that Robert Downey Jr. is probably closer to the end of his Marvel run than the beginning. The necessity for these sorts of deals springs from RDJ's unique place as the star of Marvel Studios' first movie, before Marvel started using "nine movie contracts" for future stars like Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Samuel L. Jackson (made after his cameo at the end of Iron Man). The Avengers 2 is scheduled for release on May 1, 2015. There's no release date for The Avengers 3 yet, but as the (likely) final film of Marvel's Phase 3, the eventual release date might be something like May 4, 2018 (except... well, keep reading).

Fresh Developments This Week

#1 THIS WEEK IN THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2: SHAILENE WOODLEY OUT, RELEASE DATES FOR TASM 3 AND TASM 4

In addition to all of the various villains (Electro, Rhino, rumors of the Vulture, etc), one of the things that we thought we knew about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was that Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) would be playing Mary Jane Watson. Heck, we've seen images online of Woodley sporting red hair as MJ and everything. Well, things have changed. First, we heard this week that Woodley's role had been cut significantly to set up a bigger role in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. And then, that she had been cut out completely. Now, another young actress, Sarah Gadon (Cosmpolis) has joined the production just a few days later, leading to speculation that she is the new Mary Jane Watson instead (with the part about the role in this movie being a set up for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 still being true). While we're talking about actresses in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there was also this story involving Felicity Jones this week (which might be a spoiler, depending upon whether the eventual trailer gives it away anyway). And finally, following recent weeks in which release dates in the summers of 2016, 2017 and 2018 were starting to get nabbed, Sony Pictures followed suit by announcing The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 are now scheduled for June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018 respectively.

#2 VALHALLA RISING TO GET A SEQUEL... SET OVER A THOUSAND YEARS LATER IN JAPAN?

File this one under stories that probably make so little sense because there's something we're not quite aware of just yet. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has revealed that he has plans to reunite with Valhalla Rising star Mads Mikkelsen for a sequel to that movie about a viking called One-Eye in 1,000 AD traveling with a band of Christian Crusaders. So far, so good, but here's where things get weird: The plan for the sequel is to set and film it in Tokyo (which, just to be clear, wasn't called Tokyo a thousand years ago). When pressed on this confusing aspect of the sequel, Refn just said that the movie will be "about the future." Visions and such were an important theme in Valhalla Rising, so it's possible that's what will be going on in the sequel, or maybe One-Eye will really time travel. Or maybe it's all just part of a virtual reality experiment involving one of One-Eye's descendants.

#3 DOLPHIN TALE 2 IS ANNOUNCED; THE WORLD COLLECTIVELY SHRUGS

People often forget that sequels aren't just for "genre" films; movies like Cocoon and Free Willy got them too. The reasoning might be that soggy movies are relatively cheap to produce, so when one is relatively successful, sure, why not make a sequel? And so, Warner Bros and Alcon Entertainment have announced a release date of September 19, 2014 for Dolphin Tale, the 2011 movie based on a true story about a dolphin with a prosthetic tail. That 3D movie was produced on a budget of $37 million, and grossed over $95 million globally. The sequel will tell another true story from the life of Winter, and will also involve a baby dolphin called Hope that was rescued in 2010. The cast of the original movie included Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr, Ashley Judd, and Kris Kristofferson, and Alcon Entertainment is now in negotiations with them to return for the sequel. Morgan Freeman is also in talks to costar in the drug mule action thriller Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson. This is one of the Fresh Developments this week mostly because the first Dolphin Tale earned a Certified Fresh Tomatometer score of 82%.

Rotten Ideas of the Week

#6 DUMB AND DUMBER TO GETS DUMPED, THEN UN-DUMPED, FOR 2014

Last week, Warner Bros announced that the studio was giving up on plans for a sequel to the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. The cited reasoning was that Warner Bros was still stinging from the box office failure of the similiarly budgeted The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which also featured Jim Carrey. The sequel, called Dumb and Dumber To, might have been expected to die after that. Instead, we can report a week later that Universal Pictures has announced plans to release the sequel in the summer of 2014. The rumored premise for the sequel involves a road trip to find one of the comedic duo's daughters because her kidney is needed for a transplant surgery. This is one of the week's Rotten Ideas because the fact that 20 years will have gone by since Dumb and Dumber came out might be a sign that the time for a sequel is long past.

#5 INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 GETS EXACTLY THE RELEASE DATE IN 2015 YOU WOULD EXPECT

The idea of a sequel to the alien invasion blockbuster Independence Day has been kicking around online since around July 5th, 1996. It's never seemed entirely "real," however, because 20th Century Fox never committed to an actual release date that one could circle on a calendar. Well, it's "real" now. The actual Independence Day in 2015 is on a Saturday, and so Independence Day 2 has been scheduled instead for Friday, July 3, 2015. Will Smith is not expected to return for the sequel, but Bill Pullman will be back as the ex-president in a story set many years later, with the new focus being on the next generation. And this is where we guess that one of them will be played by by either Jaden or Willow Smith. Independence Day 2 is also expected to end on a cliffhanger that leads to Independence Day 3. Planning prematurely for sequels to expensive would-be blockbusters is always a great idea. Like Dumb and Dumber To, this one is a Rotten Idea mostly because the "sell by" date is so far expired by now.

#4 CAMERON DIAZ EXPECTED TO RETURN FOR BAD TEACHER 2 -- WORSE TEACHER? BAD INSERT-OTHER-PROFESSION?

Tired of reading about sequels yet? Back in 2011, Bad Teacher was something of a surprise hit for an R-rated comedy, ending up at over $215 million in worldwide box office. And so, Sony Pictures has started development on a sequel to Bad Teacher, with Cameron Diaz and director Jake Kasdan both expected to return. Bad Teacher "earned" a Rotten score of 44% on the Tomatometer.

#3 THIS WEEK IN ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER NEWS: A TERMINATOR 5 RUMOR AND ARNOLD FIGHTS ZOMBIES?

Two different stories emerged this week involving Arnold Schwarzegger, and hey look, one of them is a sequel. It's also worth noting that this one is still just a rumor, too the gist of which is that Dwayne Johnson might be adding yet another franchise to his filmography by joining Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 5, which starts filming in January, 2014. If any of it is true, the rumor continues that the story might be set in the 1940s (???), and involve a heroic human figure (to be played by Schwarzenegger) who is basically the inspiration for the future cyborgs that look like him. Sure, why not. Arnold also signed on this week to take a lead role in Maggie, as a farmer whose family is besieged by a zombie invasion. This is the same Maggie that Chloe Grace Moretz was formerly in talks to costar in, but now, she's not. Score one for Hit-Girl.

#2 THEY'RE HERE (AGAIN)... THE POLTERGEIST REMAKE GETS GREENLIT

This week wasn't just about sequels. Nope, one of the big stories was about an original idea. Well, an idea that was original back in 1982, anyway. MGM and Fox 2000 are teaming up for the remake of the 1982 ghost story Poltergeist, about a family whose new home in the suburbs is haunted by angry spirits. The director this time around will be Gil Kenan (City of Ember, Monster House). The screenplay was adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire, cowriter of Oz the Great and Powerful. Filming will start in September, 2013, and the remake will be released sometime in 2014.

#1 R.I.P. JAMES GANDOLFINI (1961-2013)

This column is 98% of the time just about movie development news. This week, however, we lost one of the greatest actors of our generation, which, in a way, does indeed directly impact movie development (in that there's one less quality actor that can be cast in future movies). Most people probably think of James Gandolfini as a TV actor (for obvious and justifiably defendable reasons) for his six seasons as Tony Sopranos on HBO's The Sopranos. However, Gandolfini also had a strong career as a movie actor, from his role as a hitman in True Romance (which reportedly led to him being cast in The Sopranos), two movies with Brad Pitt (The Mexican and Killing Them Softly, if you don't count Pitt's stoner cameo in True Romance), and as (an uncredited) Leon Panetta in Zero Dark Thirty. Here's six minutes of Tony Soprano watching Public Enemy. Few actors could ever pull off making us want to watch them watch a movie.

For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927712/news/1927712/

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Stocks extend slide as China heightens anxiety

NEW YORK (AP) ? For investors, there was no place to go on Thursday.

A day after the Federal Reserve roiled Wall Street when it said it could reduce its aggressive economic stimulus program later this year, financial markets around the world plunged. A slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and reports of a credit squeeze in the world's second-biggest economy heightened worries.

The global sell-off began in Asia and quickly spread to Europe and then the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average fell 353 points, wiping out six weeks of gains.

But the damage wasn't just in stocks. Bond prices fell, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.42 percent, its highest level since August 2011, although still low by historical standards. Oil and gold also slid.

"People are worried about higher interest rates," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners. "Higher rates have the ability to cut across all sectors of the economy."

The question now is whether the markets' moves on Thursday were an overreaction or a sign of more volatility to come. What is becoming clearer is that traders and investors are looking for a new equilibrium after a period of ultra-low rates, due to the Fed's bond-buying, which helped spawn one of the great bull markets of all time.

It doesn't mean the stock run-up is over. After all, the S&P 500 is still up 11.4 percent for the year and 135 percent since a recession low in March 2009. But it may suggest the start of a new phase in which the fortunes of the stock market are tied more closely to the fundamentals of the economy.

And that might not be a bad thing. The reason the Fed is pulling back on the bond-buying is because its forecast for the economy is getting brighter.

The job market is improving, corporations are making record profits and the housing market is recovering.

"People are overreacting a little bit," said Gene Goldman, head of research at Cetera Financial Group. "It goes back to the fundamentals, the economy is improving."

The Dow's drop Thursday ? which knocked the average down 2.3 percent to 14,758.32 ? was its biggest since November 2011. It comes just three weeks after the blue-chip index reached an all-time high of 15,409. The index has lost 560 points in the past two days, wiping out its gains from May and June

The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 40.74 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,588.19. It also reached a record high last month, peaking at 1,669. The Nasdaq composite fell 78.57 points, or 2.3 percent, to 3,364.63.

Small-company stocks fell more than the rest of the market Thursday, a sign that investors are aggressively reducing risk. The Russell 2000 index, which includes such stocks, slumped 25.98 points, or 2.6 percent, to 960.52. The index closed at a record high of 999.99 points Tuesday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.42 percent, from 2.35 percent Wednesday. The yield, which rises as the price of the note falls, surged 0.16 percentage point Wednesday after the Fed's comments. As recently as May 3, it was 1.63 percent.

A Fed policy statement and comments from Chairman Ben Bernanke started the selling in stocks and bonds Wednesday.

Bernanke said that the Fed expects to scale back its massive bond-buying program later this year and end it entirely by mid-2014 if the economy continues to improve.

The bank has been buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds, a program that has made borrowing cheap for consumers and business. It has also helped boost the stock market.

Alec Young, a global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, said investors weren't expecting Bernanke to say the program could end so quickly, and are adjusting their portfolios in anticipation of higher U.S. interest rates.

"What we're seeing is a pretty significant sea-change in investor strategy," Young said

For much of the year, the stock market rose with barely an interruption. The S&P 500 climbed for seven months straight from November 2012 through May. Investors, fearful of missing out on the rally, pounced on any dips and pushed markets to record highs. On Thursday, those opportunistic buyers were absent. Nobody wanted to stand in the way of the market's slide.

As investors sold stocks, they likely put the proceeds in cash "for fear the deterioration will continue," said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial.

The sharp increase in bond yields prompted investors to sell homebuilders, whose business could be hurt if the pace of home buying slows down. Those stocks fell Thursday even though the National Association of Realtors said U.S. sales of previously occupied homes last month topped 5 million at an annual rate for the first time in 3 ? years.

PulteGroup plunged $1.89, or 9.1 percent, to $18.87. D.R. Horton fell $2.13, also 9.1 percent, to $21.31.

Markets were also unnerved after manufacturing in China slowed at a faster pace this month as demand weakened. That added to concerns about growth in the world's second-largest economy. A monthly purchasing managers index from HSBC fell to a nine-month low of 48.3 in June. Numbers below 50 indicate a contraction.

A big jump in the overnight lending rate in China also unsettled investors, said Brad Reynolds, a financial advisor at LJPR. The rate measures how much banks charge each other to borrow short-term money. The People's Bank of China was forced to pump about 50 billion yuan, about $8 billion, into the Chinese financial system to alleviate the squeeze, Bloomberg News reported.

Before trading began Thursday on Wall Street, Japan's Nikkei index lost 1.7 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 3 percent while Germany's DAX dropped 3.3 percent.

In currency trading, the dollar rose to 97.34 Japanese yen from 96.54 yen. The euro fell against the dollar, to $1.3197 from $1.3274.

Gold plunged, leading a rout in commodity prices. Gold dropped $87.80, or 6.4 percent, to $1,286.20 an ounce. Silver fell $1.80, or 8.3 percent, to $19.823 an ounce. Both are at their lowest since September 2010.

Traders dumped gold and silver as their appeal as insurance against inflation and a weak dollar faded. Both became less of an issue after the Fed said it was contemplating an end to its bond-buying program.

Oil was swept up in the sell-off. Crude oil had its biggest one-day price drop since November. U.S. benchmark oil for July delivery sank $2.84, or 2.9 percent, to finish at $95.40 a barrel in New York. Gasoline futures fell more than 3 percent.

Some investors said the sell-off in stocks may be overdone. The Fed is considering easing back on its stimulus because the economy is improving. The central bank has upgraded its outlook for unemployment and economic growth.

The S&P 500 is still up 11.3 percent, for the year, not far from its full-year increase of 13.4 percent last year.

Among other stocks making big moves:

? GameStop, a video game store chain that sells new and used games, rose $2.41, or 6.3 percent, to $40.94 after Microsoft backpedaled and said that there will be no limitations on sharing games on its upcoming Xbox One gaming console.

? Rite Aid fell 23 cents, or 7.4 percent, to $2.88 after the nation's third-largest drugstore chain lowered its forecast for 2014 earnings

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-extend-slide-china-heightens-anxiety-231733300.html

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China skeptical of expanded US role in the Pacific

SINGAPORE (AP) ? A Chinese military leader on Saturday pointedly questioned the expanded U.S. role in the Pacific after the Pentagon chief said he hoped for better military ties between the two powers.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in a speech at a security conference in Singapore, also warned China about cyberattacks seemingly linked to Beijing.

He said the U.S. has expressed its concerns about "the growing threat of cyberintrusions, some of which appear to be tied to the Chinese government and military."

Other U.S. officials have publicly blamed China for computer-based attacks that steal data from the U.S. government and corporations, but Hagel's rebuke came in China's backyard and in front of a Chinese delegation.

Maj. Gen. Yao Yunzhu, director of the Center for China-America Defense Relations at the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science, challenged Hagel to better explain America's intentions for its military buildup across the region.

"Thank you for mentioning China several times," she said in the question-and-answer session after Hagel's speech.

She said the Obama administration's new focus on the Pacific has been widely interpreted as an "attempt to counter China's rising influence and to offset the increasing military capabilities of the Chinese PLA. However, China is not convinced."

She asked Hagel how he can assure China that the increased U.S. deployments to the region are part of an effort to build a more positive relationship with Beijing.

"That's really the whole point behind closer military-to-military relationships," Hagel responded. "We don't want miscalculations and misunderstandings and misinterpretations. And the only way you do that is you talk to each other."

The U.S. welcomes a strong and emerging China that takes on responsibilities for security in the region, Hagel said, adding that the countries have to be inclusive and direct with each other. "I think we've made continued progress," he said. "And we'll make more progress."

These matters, and the overall U.S.-China relationship, will be on the agenda for President Barack Obama's meeting next week in California with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It will be their first meeting since Obama's re-election and Xi's promotion to Communist Party chief.

U.S. defense officials said Hagel also broadly raised the issue of cybersecurity in a brief and informal meeting with Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo, PLA deputy chief, on Friday evening.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the content of the meeting, said Hagel mentioned plans for the formation of a cyberworking group.

In his speech, Hagel said the U.S. is determined to work closely with China and others to establish appropriate standards for behavior in cyberspace.

The U.S. also is looking to China for help in resolving problems with North Korea, which has raised tensions with a series of rocket launches, an underground nuclear test and threats of nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies.

Hagel spoke of the need for "a continuous and respectful dialogue" and said the U.S. and China must build trust in order to avoid military miscalculations.

Much of the speech, however, was designed as a follow-up to last year's gathering, when then-U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta first detailed what has been called the U.S. military's new pivot to the Pacific.

Hagel assured Asian nations that despite sharp budget cuts, the Pentagon will continue to shift troops, ships and aircraft to the Pacific region.

Where Panetta had laid out promises, Hagel was able to point to results. U.S. Marines have been sent to Darwin, Australia, while a U.S. combat ship has arrived in Singapore and plans are unfolding for U.S. Army units to rotate in and out of the region.

Hagel suggested that the Pentagon's five-year budget plan continues to anticipate additional F-22 Raptor fighter jets and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the region, along with a fourth fast-attack submarine deployed to Guam.

He provided a glimpse into the broad review he ordered to determine whether budget cuts will force the U.S. military strategy to change, a year after Panetta unveiled it.

International leaders have been watching the deliberations in Washington closely to see what the roughly $487 billion in automatic spending cuts over the next 10 years will mean to America's commitment's abroad.

Already the military services have curtailed flight and combat training for many units, grounded some Air Force squadrons and delayed or canceled some ship deployments.

The Pentagon also has said it will furlough about 680,000 civilian employees for up to 11 days through the end of the fiscal year.

The initial report on the strategy review was due to Hagel on Friday, and while he said the outcome is not final, it should reflect the rise of Asia.

"For the region, this means I can assure you that coming out of this review, the United States will continue to implement the rebalance and prioritize our posture, activities and investments in Asia-Pacific," he said.

The Asia-Pacific, Hagel said, is at the epicenter of historic changes around the world and the U.S. is committed to strengthening its military, economic and diplomatic partnerships with nations across the region.

As part of that he noted that the U.S. will set aside $100 million to expand its military exercises in the region.

Just finishing his third month as Pentagon Chief, Hagel used the speech to introduce himself on a more personal level to the audience. For many he is a familiar face. He was one of the founders of the conference in 2002, and as a U.S. senator, was a speaker at the first three gatherings.

He talked about his long ties to the region, including his father's service in World War II flying B-25 bombers in the South Pacific, and his own service in Vietnam with his brother. Hagel was wounded and twice received the Purple Heart.

Later, he traveled to Asia as the co-founder of a cellular telephone company and then, as a Republican senator from Nebraska, he served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"What I took away from all these experiences," Hagel said, "was a firm belief that the arc of the 21st century would be shaped by events here in Asia."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-skeptical-expanded-us-role-pacific-130540243.html

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Upmarket Pakistan district votes again as Imran Khan decries killing

By Katharine Houreld and Syed Raza Hassan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - An upmarket constituency of Pakistan's violence-plagued city of Karachi voted again under tight security on Sunday, a day after gunmen killed a senior politician from a reformist party in the district and a week after general elections.

It was not immediately clear who killed Zara Shahid Hussain, a leading member of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) party of former cricket star Imran Khan.

Imran blamed the killing on the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) party, which has a stranglehold on the city. MQM leaders denied responsibility, condemned the killing and demanded a retraction from Imran.

The attack in the upscale Defence area, the family neighborhood of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, capped a bloody election campaign in which around 150 people were killed nationwide.

Last Saturday's elections handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

But results from a handful of constituencies across the country are still uncertain amid accusations of vote-rigging. There is re-polling in a few others where security issues prevented voting.

Last week's election gave the MQM 18 of 19 national assembly seats in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city. The constituency, known blandly as NA-250, where Sunday's re-poll is taking place is thought to be a stronghold of the PTI.

The re-vote took place at 43 of 180 polling stations. The MQM, which wanted re-polling of the whole constituency, boycotted the vote.

Whatever the result, Sharif's national landslide win is assured. But as Pakistan's financial center, Karachi generates around half of government revenues and stability in the city is key to stability of the whole country.

For the first time, each ballot box was guarded by a ranger and a soldier inside and outside the booths to ensure security and no violence had been reported by early afternoon.

CONTROVERSIAL PARTY

Police said that two gunmen shot Hussain on Saturday outside her home in Defence.

"Her death has sent shockwaves across the rank and file of the party," Khan said in a statement.

"I hold (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts," Imran, recovering in hospital from a fall during campaigning, added in a tweet.

"I also hold the British government responsible as I had warned them about British citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats."

Altaf Hussain is accused of murder in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies.

In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. British police are investigating whether or not it constituted a hate speech.

The MQM, a secular party, is locked in a battle with various rival contenders for influence in Karachi, including Pakistan's Taliban movement, which has sought to gain a foothold in various districts on the outskirts of the city in recent years.

Imran's election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party to Pakistan's third largest.

Karachi, the nuclear-armed country's key port, is home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a combination of political killings, attacks by the Pakistan Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.

(Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/upmarket-pakistan-district-votes-again-imran-khan-decries-062119635.html

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Sunday afternoons talking about Enlightened Society | Shambhala ...

May 03

Friday

Northeastern States

Sunday afternoons talking about Enlightened Society

Post a Comment May 3, 2013 ? 4:32 pm | Permalink |

It all comes down to arranging radishes, really. There have now been five gatherings in our center parlor, five unstructured Sunday afternoons, discussing Enlightened Society. As the open invitation says ?What is it? Is it possible? Who cares?? Each time we meet there are some of the same people, and some different people, sometimes five people, sometimes 10. The discussion evolves freely, from personal stories to workplace and social situations. Some of us are Shambhalians, some have received the lung ? the Enlightened Society Treatise ? some are going to, some not.

And the radishes? A local farmer, just getting into his hectic Spring season, told us about a helper who insisted on arranging radishes to his own ideas instead of following instructions. The helper?s been instructed maybe seven times on how the farmer wants these done. So now what? Like the song ?50 Ways to Leave Your Lover? there are probably 50 ways to deal with the radish situation. Each will have some result and some residual emotional fallout over time for both farmer and helper! Society in a microcosm.

Everyone who comes either already knows how to listen, or soon picks up that it?s an important part of the gathering. Like songbirds, we each have our own refrain, buried in the general discussion. When you listen you hear again and again from one person the underlying song of how to belong, from another, how to be patient. From another how to have wisdom, another how to be brave. It feels like we are working on a jigsaw puzzle, helping each other put in the pieces. The picture we?re making is of Enlightened Society. And it looks a lot like radishes.

From: White River News Magazine

Source: http://shambhalatimes.org/2013/05/03/sunday-afternoons-talking-about-enlightened-society/

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