Friday, February 5, 2010

At least 25 dead in Karachi bomb blasts

Updated at: 1820 PST,  Friday, February 05, 2010

Karachi bomb blasts At least 25 people were killed and 100 other wounded on Friday after two bombs planted on motorcycles struck a bus at Shahra-e-Faisal and Jinnah Hospital in Karachi.

Women and children were among 12 people killed when a motorcyle packed with explosives rammed into a bus of mourners travelling on Shahra-e-Faisal to join a procession at the end of the holy month of Muharram.

A second bomb attack took place near the emergency ward at Jinnah Hospital, where the dead and wounded were being rushed, killed another 13 people.

Witnesses and officials said the bus was packed with mourners heading to a religious procession to mark the last day of Muharram in Karachi.

The attacks were carried out by suicide bombers on motorcycles, a bomb disposal official said.

"Both of the blasts are of the same nature. Both were suicide and both were on motorcycles," Munir Ahmad Sheikh, told Geo.

"In the first attack, the bomber hit the bus. In the second attack, the bomber sitting on a motorcycle exploded himself," he added.

Pink ’un cure for economic blues

The launch of a complete Financial Times archive comes at the perfect time for economists and researchers

Publisher Gale Cengage

Until now, researchers, financial historians, journalists and academics had to visit the British Library in London to access articles and features from past editions of the Financial Times. But now they can access the complete run of the prestigious newspaper online from their universities and departments. From February 2010, a total of 119 years of global business and economic news from the FT is available online, with the launch by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, of the Financial Times Historical Archive 1888-2006.
Nearly 800,000 pages of financial news and features, market listings and even cartoons and advertisements are viewable. Whatever the content, it is displayed in the context of the full page and the issue on the day it was published. The web resource comes at a time when institutions, government and academics are showing keener interest than usual in economic history to see how our predecessors handled economic crises in their day.
Seth Cayley, publisher for media history at Cengage, says: “While we were ready to launch the site in 2010, the current recession has doubled the value such focused financial information websites can provide. Interest in economic history had been in decline but now, even within universities, it is the most sought after course. This resource is a helpful tool in understanding the financial past and we are targeting universities, public libraries, government institutions and research communities services.”
According to Gale, the archive is the first online resource with a complete collection of every single FT ever published. Even the archives in FT.com, the newspaper’s own online resource, date back only to 2004, presents the articles in text format, is not cross-searchable and has not been indexed. Gale’s historic archive presents every article in its original page format, providing researchers with a context.
Boer war to 90s bust
Info pros will be able to access highlights of past decades, ranging from the Boer War and the fall of Communism to the rise of the car industry and its effect on regional and national economies, from the Wall Street Crash to the housing bubbles of the past few decades. Professionals can get insights into how Europe recovered from the world wars, the 1929 Crash, wartime financial history and even the recession of the 1990s.
The homepage contains essays such as a financial history of the last 120 years, scandals and debacles, real-estate boom and bust, and a brief history of the FT by historian David Kynaston. The essays offer a quick overview for researchers or students looking at a specific aspect of economic history.
The researcher can then move on to the newspaper archives. In addition to all the pages of all the newspapers, it offers such content as FT Weekend, FT magazines and supplements.
The archives are primarily divided into eight groups, including news and business, arts and leisure, editorials, cartoons, market news and even advertising. Each category can be filtered further; for instance, in the advertising, it is possible to select and search display ads or classifieds.
An extremely flexible view allows users to zoom in on the articles, and a full-page view offers highlighted columns. The pages are readable and the images sharp and clean, and a scrolling timeline along the bottom of the page picks out the highlights for each year. A basic Google-like search box lets users perform a broad range of search. The advanced search feature will narrow a search on the basis of dates, sections, keywords, authors, topics and so on. This segmentation allows fast retrieval and review of relevant articles.
Copyright protection
While users are allowed to save individual articles or pages and print them, a pop-up appears with every print command to warn of breach of copyright if information is used for commercial purposes or mass sharing.
Gale has digitised and indexed all the newspaper pages from its own microfilms dating back to the first FT newspaper. The pages were scanned into digitised formats with tag recognition and XML indexing.
The information is cross-searchable with Gales’ The Times and The Economist archives, creating an authoritative historical newspaper resource spanning three centuries. Cayley says that Gale will maintain a four-year gap to the present by adding one year’s newspaper data to the archive every year: “In 2011, we will add 2007’s newspapers and so on, so that it doesn’t remain stuck only until 2006.”
Mark Holland, EMEA publishing director for Gale Cengage Learning, says: “The archive will be welcomed as an essential primary source for all researchers, teachers and students working on international business, finance and politics, from the height of the Victorian era to the 21st century.”
Cayley adds: “If we were to make improvements, they would definitely be some Web 2.0 features. Just as our State Papers Online hosts interactive features, enabling users to make annotations and share notes and inputs with others would have boosted the appeal of the product far better.”
Cayley also candidly points out that the microfilms it scanned were black and white, so the pages themselves lack the FT’s distinctive salmon-pink livery. However, the website designers have used a salmon-pink background throughout the site and the same fonts, bringing users as close to the original paper version as possible.
Pricing starts from £2,000 for an annual subscription, and depends on size and type of institution. An outright purchase model with annual service charges is also available. Cengage hosts the site itself, so additional data or changes appear in real time and automatically whenever subscribers use it.

Advice is back in fashion

The whys and wherefores regarding Skipton Building Society’s decision to raise its standard variable rate by 1.45 per cent to 4.95 per cent at the beginning of March have been well documented. Market conditions are tough and Skipton is not the only lender struggling to make cheap rates pay. But it is tough on borrowers, particularly in this case when they thought they had a cast-iron guarantee that the SVR would be no more than 3 per cent above base rate and are likely to have budgeted accordingly.
Skipton is not alone several building societies have raised their SVRs in the past few months, even though interest rates have been held at a historic low of 0.5 per cent. It is unlikely to be the last, with other lenders unable to continue to offer such cheap rates.
Borrowers have no need to panic but they must remain vigilant. Some commentators advised borrowers to switch to a fixed rate immediately but while a fix may be the right option for some, it will not be for all. Advice is vital and where better to go for it than an independent broker who can assess the situation from that particular client’s point of view?
The remortgaging market has all but disappeared in the past couple of years as borrowers consider SVRs to be the best place for their mortgage when they come to the end of a fixed or discounted rate. Remortgaging is now seen as being expensive because there might be a big arrangement fee to pay and unnecessary when variable rates are so cheap.
But are they really? With cheap SVRs under threat, a huge potential remortgage opportunity is starting to emerge. But to be fair, it has been there a while only many consumers have not realised it.
More than a quarter of SVRs are 5 per cent or higher not that great a deal when you consider some fixed-rate and tracker pricing at the moment, particularly for those with chunky amounts of equity in their homes.
According to Moneyfacts, there is such a wide variation in SVR among lenders that it equates to nearly £5,700 a year on a £150,000 homeloan and many homeowners have far bigger mortgages than that. While Lloyds, C&G and Nationwide may be charging 2.5 per cent, Chesham is charging 6.45 per cent and a number of the smaller societies also have fairly high rates just under 6 per cent.
The big problem is those homeowners who are forced to be on a high SVR because they do not have enough equity in their home to enable them to remortgage. Again, this is where advice is crucial, looking at ways to improve their equity stake to enable them to switch to another deal once they are in a position to do so.
Although we would argue that it never went out of fashion, advice is moving back into vogue. Brokers must ensure they are well placed to provide it.

Emma Watson debuts eco-friendly clothing line

Actress Emma Watson's desire for 
fashionable and eco-friendly clothing led to her first foray into 
fashion design.

Actress Emma Watson's desire for fashionable and eco-friendly clothing led to her first foray into fashion design.

Fresh off her modelling gigs with fashion powerhouses Chanel and Burberry, Emma Watson has now teamed up with eco-friendly clothing company People Tree for a Spring/Summer 2010 fashion line. This marks Watson's debut as a designer.
Watson tells Vogue UK, "It is hard to know what is good and what is bad on the high street and equally hard to find fashionable or youthful ethical clothing. So I decided to work with People Tree to put together a collection I could be proud of in terms of both ethics and design."
The fashionable Watson is getting rave reviews from People Tree founder Safia Minney, who told Vogue UK, "I am delighted that Emma decided to help People Tree show a new generation just how desirable, wearable and affordable Fair Trade fashion can be. Emma has utilized her love of fashion, great personal style and young perspective to help develop a range that will appeal to this new audience."
Check out Emma Watson's clothing line by People Tree at dose.ca/style

Michael Jackson's doctor to surrender in L.A.

Slideshow image
Dr. Conrad Murray arrives at his clinic in Houston, Nov. 23, 2009. (AP / Pat Sullivan)





Michael Jackson's personal physician will present himself at a Los Angeles courtroom Friday in an attempt to force prosecutors to lay a criminal complaint against him, so that he can begin the process of defending himself.
Dr. Conrad Murray fell under scrutiny in the aftermath of Jackson's death, after telling police that he gave the pop singer a powerful anesthetic and other sedatives that were blamed on his death.
Since then, Murray has stayed largely out of public view and his lawyers have said little about his actions.
The district attorney's office has yet to comment on when or if he will be charged.
But more than seven months after Jackson's untimely death, Murray's legal team now says enough time has passed for police to make their case -- one they believe will inevitably result in a criminal charge that is undeserved.
"We are going to be at the courthouse at 1:30 (p.m.) for his surrender," said Miranda Sevcik, spokeswoman for Murray's legal team. "We see no reason to perpetuate the arbitrary situation any longer."
It is not clear if Murray and his legal team will be able to force authorities to challenge the doctor in court, though his legal team insists their client is innocent and should begin defending himself.
"We know he's going to be charged with involuntary manslaughter and we are ready with a counterargument," Sevcik said. "He's not guilty -- that's our argument."
The pop singer's former lawyer, Brian Oxman, said it is doubtful that prosecutors will be swayed by the tactics being used by the doctor's legal team.
"It doesn't appear that the prosecutors want to charge him today, but he is going to be showing up in a courtroom demanding that he be arrested," he told CTV's Canada AM during an interview from Los Angeles on Friday morning.
"I don't think the prosecutors are going to buy it, they're going to move at their own pace as they see fit. They don't want to turn this into a circus," he added.
Oxman said the Jackson family is appalled at the idea of having Murray charged with involuntary manslaughter -- the likely charge to be laid against the doctor -- and supports a more serious charge being laid.
"We think that the conduct here on the part of the doctor was absolutely reckless," Oxman said.
"It raises to the level of just a reckless endangerment of life, a lack of care for human life."
Oxman said that the doctor was not properly equpped to be administering such heavy drugs to Jackson in a household setting.
"When Michael Jackson went into distress, the doctor didn't even know it," he said.
"This is reckless endangerment of human life, that raises to the level of second-degree murder."

Windows 7 Personalization

Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 7 has made a leap forward in many different areas when compared to Windows XP or Windows Vista. Among those are improvements in Windows 7 personalization and a new definition of themes in the OS.
Themes in previous operating systems could alter many visual aspects of the system including the taskbar, fonts and even the shell. Standard Windows 7 themes on the other hand have been limited by Microsoft to only change the color scheme, desktop backgrounds (wallpapers), screen savers and sounds.
A benefit of this approach is that it is possible to save and share themes without the need for patching system files first.
Windows 7 still supports themes that change those other aspects of the operating system as well but users are then forced to replace system files before they can do that.

Most of the basic options to personalize the theme are available in previous Windows operating systems as well with the notable exception of wallpapers. It was previously only possible to use one wallpaper on the computer system. Users who wanted to use more than one had to install a software program that would exchange the wallpaper in regular intervals.
Windows 7 comes with the option to use multiple wallpapers in a theme which can be automatically rotated.
Windows 7 comes with multiple basic themes that can be activated by right-clicking the computer desktop and selecting the personalize option.

Available are several Aero themes as well as basic and high contrast themes. Microsoft has created a personalization gallery that offers additional Windows 7 themes, desktop backgrounds and gadgets for download. Users can download all country specific themes from there for instance.
Personalization has improved in Windows 7 and Microsoft is regularly updating the personalization gallery with new themes and backgrounds.

Google teams up with National Security Agency to tackle cyber attacks

Internet groups fear alliance means US government could access personal information
Google sign in China
Workers clean and repair a sign showing the Google logo in front of the company's Beijing headquarters.

Google's decision to enlist the help of the National Security Agency in tackling cyber attacks has caused alarm among internet groups and bloggers, who fear that users' personal information could be accessed by the US government.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the internet giant had turned to the NSA, which conducts surveillance and codebreaking for the federal government, in the wake of a cyber attack it believes came from China.
The agency is responsible for securing the US administration's computer networks against similar breaches, and is said to be helping Google to understand and analyse the attacks.
Sources say that the agreement will not allow the NSA to view users' searches or access email accounts, but the deal has angered some members of the online community.
The Electronic Privacy Information Centre, a public research centre based in Washington, has filed a freedom of information request seeking details of the agency's relationship with Google.
"Google and NSA are entering into a secret agreement that could impact the privacy of millions of users of Google's products and services around the world," the centre's executive director Marc Rotenberg told the New York Times.
Sam Diaz, blogger and senior editor at ZDNet, a technology website, said he felt "squeamish" about the possibility of information sharing between Google and the government, and was sceptical about the NSA's ability to help protect the company's infrastructure.
"I mean no disrespect to my country or my government but I have to ask: Is Washington really the best choice if you're looking for help with something as serious as cyber security?" he wrote.
"After all, I wouldn't exactly place any Washington agency at the cutting edge when it comes to fighting what was referred to as one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks experts had ever seen."
Andrew Beal, writing in Marketing Pilgrim, said: "Big brother just partnered with big brother.
"While it's unlikely that Google's going to hand over any user information, I still don't like how close – and how quickly – Google is snuggling up with perhaps the scariest of all government agencies," he blogged.
Referring to the NSA's monitoring of the email and telephone calls of thousands of Americans after the 2001 terror attacks, Beal wrote: "This is the same agency that tapped your phones and emails without a warrant after 9/11. We're supposed to feel confident it won't take a poke around Google's sensitive data?"
Noah Shachtman, writer of Wired magazine's national security blog Danger Room, described the NSA as a "particularly untrustworthy partner".
"We all know that Google automatically reads our Gmail and scans our Google calendars and dives into our Google searches, all in an attempt to put the most relevant ads in front of us," he wrote.
"But we've tolerated the automated intrusions, because Google's products are so good, and we believed that the company was sincere in its 'don't be evil' mantra."
Shachtman said Google's pledge that its agreement with the NSA would not compromise user data was "hard to believe, given the NSA's track record of getting private enterprises to co-operate, and Google's willingness to take this first step."
The company said it was subject to a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" in December 2009, which it said originated from China. In January, Google said that it was no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service.

Iran Nukes Deal: What if Ahmadinejad Is Serious?

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasília

Conventional wisdom on Iran's latest response to a deal over shipping out enriched uranium is that Tehran is simply maneuvering to dodge sanctions. After all, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comment Tuesday that Iran would have "no problem" shipping out some of its stockpile in exchange for reactor fuel comes months after he first welcomed the deal, and then demanded that it be renegotiated. And it coincides with the Obama Administration going to the mat to press for new sanctions against Iran. Still, even though Iran has long been adept at dividing international opinion and rolling back the red lines of its adversaries, there may be more to the latest indications out of Tehran than simply posturing. Ahmadinejad had initially crowed over the deal brokered last October, but was forced to backpedal by a firestorm of criticism of the agreement from Iran's entire, fractious political spectrum. Tehran's demand for changes was rejected by the U.S. and its allies, who insisted that the package could not be renegotiated — and with Iran declining to accept its terms, Western powers began to press for new sanctions. Some of Iran's key trade partners, however, demurred, and other players began discreetly negotiating in search of a compromise to break the deadlock.
Reports have suggested that Ahmadinejad's latest statements may reflect progress in efforts to broker a plan for Japan to act as the guarantor that Iran would receive the processed reactor fuel — on a four- to five-month time frame, according to Ahmadinejad's statement — in exchange for the uranium it ships out into Japanese custody. (Ahmadinejad's new time frame appears to be a compromise between the original proposal, which envisaged a one-year lag between Iran exporting its uranium and receiving fuel rods, and Iran's demand for a simultaneous exchange on its territory. But until Iran formally delivers a new proposal to the IAEA, the details of any new proposals will remain a matter of speculation.)
The Iranian President could, of course, be simply trying to throw a wedge into Washington's sanctions effort, playing for time by raising false hopes of a deal. The Administration is struggling to win U.N. endorsement for meaningful new measures, with China in particular pushing back hard (and the escalating diplomatic spat between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, the Dalai Lama and currency issues is unlikely to help persuade the Chinese to support new sanctions on Iran). Ahmadinejad could also be playing domestic politics, demonstrating his power to make deals with the West. 
But there could be a simpler explanation for Ahmadinejad's apparent desire to revive the reactor-fuel deal: the Tehran Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes, will run out of fuel this year, and it was Iran's attempts to buy new fuel that created the opening for the deal involving Iran sending its uranium abroad for reprocessing. Although Ahmadinejad likes to boast that if Iran can't acquire such fuel abroad, it will create it at home, that would take months or years of work, and the reconfiguring of Iran's centrifuges to produce a higher grade of enrichment would raise fears of the possibility of weaponization, and possibly calls for military action.
Still, as much as Iran needs the reactor fuel — and also needs to avoid any sanctions that would raise domestic economic hardship — Ahmadinejad also has to deal with suspicions among Iran's leaders that the deal was a trick that would deprive Iran of most of its hard-won uranium stockpile. That, of course, is a stated goal of the Western powers in pursuing the deal, because it would remove from Iran three-quarters of a stockpile that could, hypothetically, be reprocessed to create materiel for a single nuclear bomb. Replenishing that amount, at current rates of output, would take Iran the best part of a year, during which time Western powers hope to persuade Iran to end uranium enrichment altogether. But Iran has no intention of ending enrichment: the nuclear program is strongly backed by all major political factions in Tehran, and most of the international community accepts Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
Regardless of which version of the reactor-fuel deal, if any, is agreed on, the episode highlights the fact that it's unlikely to open the way to Iran accepting the broader Western demand that it cede its right to enrich uranium in exchange for various economic and political incentives. But if Iran makes a new offer on the reactor deal deemed reasonable by the likes of China and Russia, that could kill off prospects for further effective sanctions. And the dilemma would be deepened for Washington by the fact that Ahmadinejad clearly intends to profit politically from any deal at a moment when Obama is being urged by a growing chorus in Washington to throw in his lot with the embattled yet resilient opposition.
Still, the Western powers have more time to find a diplomatic solution than some of the more alarmist scenarios suggest. Testifying on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair emphasized that the U.S. intelligence community's assessment is that Iran has not yet decided whether to build nuclear weapons, but that it is developing capabilities that would give it the option to produce such weapons "should it choose to do so." He added: "We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons, although it would be technically capable of doing so in the next few years."
Nobody's sure what exactly Iran will propose, and the U.S. and its allies remain skeptical. But the fact that they're unable to dismiss Ahmadinejad's latest statements out of hand is a reminder that the diplomatic game remains in play, and Iran still holds some cards.

Toyota’s Chief Steps Forward to Apologize for Problems


Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, bowed at the start of a news conference in Nagoya, Japan, on Friday
NAGOYA, JAPAN — The president of Toyota apologized at a hastily arranged hers conference Friday night for the quality problems that led to the recall of more than nine million vehicles worldwide, and pledged the Japanese automaker would soon announce steps to address brake problems on the 2010 Prius.

Service technicians with a 2010 Toyota Prius in El Monte, Calif., on Thursday. Longo Toyota, the company’s largest dealership in the U.S., is keeping its service department open 24 hours a day to meet demand from customers after recent safety concerns.
Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota’s founder, spoke in his first formal remarks since the uproar enveloping his company, the world’s largest automaker, and took personal responsibility for the problems
“I deeply regret that I caused concern among so many people,” Mr. Toyoda said. “We will do our utmost to regain the trust of our customers.”
Asked whether Toyota had underestimated the situation, Mr. Toyoda said, “I believe what is happening now is a very big problem. We are in a crisis.”
Mr. Toyoda said the company would set up a committee to look at quality issues. With his comments, he became the second successive Toyota president to apologize for defects on the company’s cars — and the second to assemble a committee to address them.
In 2006, his predecessor, Katsuake Watanabe, shocked onlookers by bowing low at a news conference and vowing Toyota would improve its quality. But many of the cars involved in two recalls, one for sticking accelerator pedals, the other for floor mats that could become entangled in the pedals, went on sale after that effort.
One car now in question is the 2010 Prius, the newest version of Toyota’s most important car. The automaker said it is working on a solution to fix issues with the cars’ anti-lock brakes, which were redesigned along with the car. Toyota has sold just over 300,000 of the new Prius in Japan, the United States and Europe since it was introduced.
Company officials also are looking at two other hybrids with the same brake system, the Lexus HS250h and the Sai, a small hybrid sold only in Japan.
Mr. Toyoda is among the best-known executives in the industry, but he has been conspicuously absent from the limelight in recent weeks, even as his company struggled on three continents to contain the fallout of problems that have shaken its long held reputation for quality.
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda’s only public comments on the company’s mounting woes came in a brief interview with a Japanese broadcaster on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Toyota’s slowness in addressing its problems has been criticized by regulators in the United States and Japan. Earlier this week, the Transportation secretary Raymond LaHood spoke with Mr. Toyoda, after sending officials from Washington to Japan in December.
“Users are noticing defects and there have been accidents,” Japan’s transport minister, Seiji Maehara, told reporters Friday ahead of Mr. Toyoda’s briefing. “This leads me to believe Toyota has not put consumers first.”
Mr. Toyoda, who spoke in Japanese and English during the news conference, said that was not the case. “I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe,” he said.
He refused to answer a question about whether the company has ever withheld information related to safety concerns. “Toyota is committed to safety,” he said.
He added in broken English: “The people who drive Toyota, who cares about Toyota, I’m a little bit worried while they are driving, they feel little bit cautious. But believe me, Toyota’s car is safety but we will try to increase our product better.”
The Japanese government has ordered the company to investigate the brakes on the Prius, as has the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety regulators in Washington said Thursday that they would open an investigation into the car’s brakes. Toyota said it would “fully cooperate” with the regulators’ investigation.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Prius braking problem would probably not be serious enough to prompt a recall, said David Champion, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, a nonprofit publication in the United States.
But given the amount of negative attention surrounding Toyota, and with two committees of the House of Representatives scheduling hearings this month about the recalls, the carmaker needs to show that it is doing everything it can to alleviate fears about its vehicles, Mr. Champion said. 
“Toyota’s taking a huge hit at the moment in terms of their brand image,” Mr. Champion said before Toyota’s news conference Friday. “Their brand image has been built on the safety and reliability of their cars.”
In opening the investigation into the Prius, the U.S. safety agency said it had received 124 complaints about the brakes on the 2010 Prius.
By Thursday afternoon, its database listed about 300 complaints on that issue. Eight of them involved crashes — mostly into the rear of another car at a low speed — and two of the drivers said they had injured their necks.
“It corrects itself almost immediately, but there is that second when it feels like it isn’t going to stop,” one complainant wrote.
“It is terrifying and needs to be looked into,” another wrote.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor said Thursday that there was a problem with the brakes of the hybrid version of the Ford Fusion. Ford said customers could receive a free software update, but it did not begin a formal recall.
Ford said the problem in its hybrid Fusion was caused by the car’s unnecessarily switching between its conventional brakes and the regenerative brakes, which absorb energy while braking to charge the battery. The Prius also uses regenerative braking.
“While the vehicles maintain full braking capability, customers may initially perceive the condition as loss of brakes,” Ford said in a statement. The government’s complaint database lists one report, from May 2009, of brake failure in a hybrid Fusion. Ford announced the software upgrade Thursday after a Consumer Reports test driver experienced the problem and notified the company.
Toyota said the problem it found in the Prius was unrelated to the recall in January of eight other models, totaling about 4.5 million vehicles, for accelerator pedals that could stick, and the recall in November of 5.5 million vehicles with accelerator pedals that could become trapped by the floor mat. Priuses from the 2004 through 2009 model years are included in the floor mat recall, and some Toyota models are covered by both recalls.
Repairs for the sticky accelerator pedal recall began Thursday at many dealerships in the United States after they received shipments of the necessary parts. At Page Toyota in Southfield, Michigan, workers were completing each repair in 20 to 25 minutes, the service manager, Dave Davis, said.
Toyota has said that worn pedals can become difficult to operate or become stuck partly depressed. Its remedy involves installing a small rectangular steel shim into the pedal assembly. The shim comes in seven thicknesses, ranging from 0.056 inch to 0.116 inch, or 1.4 millimeter to 2.9 millimeters, Mr. Davis said. Workers at the dealership remove the pedal assembly, take measurements to determine the proper thickness, install the shim, reattach the pedal and take the car on a two-mile, or three-kilometer, test drive, he said.
“I’ve got enough parts to take us through a couple days, fixing 40 to 50 a day, and we’re supposed to be getting the same shipment every day,” Mr. Davis said. “It’s going to be chaotic, but we’re doing the best we can. If I have customers until 9 o’clock at night, that’s how late I’ll stay open.”
The dealership hopes to gradually repair new vehicles on its lot after hours. Toyota halted sales of eight models on Jan. 25 until it could develop a solution. Production at North American factories, which was suspended during the past week, is scheduled to resume Monday, using redesigned pedals.

Peace with Syria still in Israel's sights

It might be wishful thinking, but some in Israel believe the time is ripe to push for a deal with Damascus
Avigdor Lieberman
Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was slapped down for suggesting Syria would never get back the Golan Heights. Photograph: Ferenc Isza/AFP/Getty Images
It is hardly news that Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's rightwing foreign minister, is a bruiser who does not mince his words. But he still managed to provoke anger and dismay at home when he warned Syria's President Bashar al-Assad this week that he would see his regime collapse if he dared to attack the Jewish state.
Lieberman was accused of "playing with fire" and "fanning the flames" after Assad – no slouch either when it comes to raising the regional temperature – claimed Israel was pushing the Middle East to a new war. "Assad should know that if he attacks, he will not only lose the war," the Moldovan-born former nightclub bouncer told businessmen. "Neither he nor his family will remain in power."
Verbal spats between Damascus and Jerusalem are part of the landscape of the Middle East. Syria and Israel are at odds over Lebanon and Iran but they have not fought a fully fledged conflict since 1973 when Assad's father, Hafez, joined Egypt's Anwar Sadat in launching that year's October war. The Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, is still a heavily fortified frontline. But it has been a quiet one for 36 years.
Lieberman's most damaging remark was not the suggestion of forced regime change but the idea that Syria had better forget about ever getting back the Golan – contradicting the official Israeli government position that it will trade territory for peace. Even Binyamin Netanyahu, the country's most rightwing prime minster ever, was moved to clarify that he remains willing to talk to Damascus "without preconditions". Motormouth Lieberman was slapped down and forced to agree.
It shouldn't really be so difficult to reach agreement: these bitter enemies negotiated on and off for nine years, starting at the Madrid conference in 1991 and ending in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 2000, just before Hafez al-Assad died. Syria's canny foreign minister, Walid al-Muallim, has said that 85% of the problems, including crucial security arrangements, were solved in negotiations with four Israeli leaders from Yitzhak Rabin to Ehud Barak. Turkey mediated four more rounds of inconclusive talks in 2008.
This latest row has erupted at a time when there is speculation – no more than wishful thinking, say some – that in the absence of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians (US-run "proximity" talks, with state department diplomats shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah, would be a poor substitute) – the time has come for a serious effort to revive the Syrian "track".
This is a familiar pattern in the endless quest for an Arab-Israeli breakthrough: if peace with the Palestinians is stuck, or simply too difficult, then why not try to strike a deal with Damascus? Barak, now the Labour party leader and defence minister, thinks this is the right approach. So does Israel's defence and intelligence establishment, which believes peace with Syria could drive a wedge between Damascus and Tehran – seen as a far more dangerous enemy – and would justify surrendering the Golan and its 20,000 Israeli settlers.
Another part of Israel's calculation/aspiration is that Assad would shed, or at least weaken, his support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamists who control Gaza and challenge Mahmoud Abbas's western-backed Palestinian Authority – Israel's putative partner for peace. "The mere fact of Israel-Syria negotiations would hurt Hamas, thereby strengthening Abbas," argues the Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher.
The snag with that theory is that it is hard to imagine Assad signing a peace treaty with Israel as long as is there is no overall settlement of the Palestinian question.
Another part of the problem is different expectations. Israel has always hoped that peace with Syria would mean full "normalisation" of their bilateral relations, as it did – on paper at least – with Egypt back in 1979. But Assad is not Sadat, desperate to find favour with the Americans at almost any price.
"You start with a peace treaty in order to achieve peace," the Syrian leader told the American journalist Seymour Hersh recently. "If they say you can have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot expect me to give them the peace they expect … You start with the land; you do not start with peace."
Still, Israeli opinion-formers are urging a new attempt to woo Assad – and hope Barack Obama will try harder. The imminent arrival of a new US ambassador in Damascus after a five-year absence could certainly help.
"It may be that at the end of the day, the Syrians, too, will turn their backs on us, but every day that goes by without an effort to reach peace with Syria is a day marked by criminal negligence," commented the Ha'aretz writer Arie Shavit. "There is no certainty at all that peace is in the offing. But if it is, it is to be found not in Ramallah but in Damascus."

Taliban Reject "Deal" With West

KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban have said they will not enter into any "deal" with the Afghan government or the West to bring peace to Afghanistan, and their fighters will continue to die to achieve a victory they say is around the corner.
At a conference in London last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai invited the Taliban to a peace council and set out plans to lure fighters down from the hills in return for cash and jobs.
But in a statement posted on the Islamists' website (alemarah.info/english) on Thursday, the Taliban vowed to "collude" with no one.
The statement made no specific reference to Karzai's proposed talks. The Taliban had initially told Reuters they would decide "soon" on whether to take part in talks.
The Islamists have repeatedly rejected previous offers of talks before all foreign troops are withdrawn.
"During the past eight years, the Islamic Emirate has not shown any willingness to reach collusion with any party as regards the Jihad, the country and the people, national and Islamic interest," the Taliban said.
"Now, it is not ready to have any illegitimate, valueless deal about the victory, which is near at hand."
The statement was entitled "The impracticable decision of the London conference" and addressed to the meeting's "conveners and donors."
MAKING PEACE WITH THE TALIBAN
The luring away of militant foot-soldiers is referred to by the West as reintegration while efforts to make peace with Taliban leaders is being called reconciliation.
Afghanistan's allies are backing the efforts to start talks with the Taliban and donors have promised hundreds of millions of dollars for a fund to pay fighters to come in from the cold.
Western countries, eying an exit from an eight-year-old war they no longer believe has a purely military solution, are more amenable than ever to a role for rehabilitated Taliban.
On Wednesday, British armed forces minister Bill Rammell said about 20 percent of the Taliban were "hardcore, ideological jihadists," while 80 percent had joined largely to make a living, suggesting these fighters could be won over.
But at a time when fighters are tightening their hold over much of the country and inflicting record losses on foreign troops, analysts doubt guerrillas would agree to lay down their arms. Similar past programmes have lured away only a trickle of fighters.
The Taliban, meanwhile, vowed to continue their fight.
"The invading Americans and all their invading allies should understand the objective of the mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate is more lofty and exalted than that the rulers of the White House could imagine," the statement said.
"These sacrificing mujahideen believe that the obtainment of this lofty goal is only possible through laying down their lives."

Taiwanese military orders German helicopters

Purchase of up to 20 search-and-rescue helicopters could fray already strained European ties with China
Taiwan's US-made F-16 fighter jet
Taiwan's US-made F-16 fighter jets release flares during war games. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images
Taiwan's military will buy up to 20 helicopters from a German manufacturer, it was confirmed today, days after Beijing lashed out at a multibillion-dollar US arms deal with the island.
China has yet to respond to news of the agreement, thought to be the first European sale to Taiwan's armed forces since the early 90s.
Taiwan's defence ministry spokesman Martin Yu said the island would buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters. The $111m contract with Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, is for three helicopters, with an option to buy up to 17 more.
The move could fray Sino-European ties, already under strain over trade and currency issues. Yesterday China filed a complaint to the World Trade Organisation over the EU's anti-dumping tariffs on shoes.
The arms deal could also affect Beijing's relations with Taipei, which have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on a platform of improving ties two years ago.
However, others believe that China could remain silent or issue only a muted response if it is satisfied that the helicopters are not for military tasks.
"If it's for a pure civic purpose that would be no problem, but if it belongs to the defence ministry then I think it could be," said Jin Canrong, professor of international studies at Renmin University.
The Taiwanese defence ministry said it was not an arms order and the EC-225 is a civilian model. But the Taiwanese armed forces have bought non-military helicopters in the past and customised them with equipment suited to military models.
Jing Huang, an expert on Asian security and visiting fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said China's response was likely to depend on the exact nature of the order.
"I would be surprised if China makes a big fuss and if Eurocopter had not considered China's interests in its sales to Taiwan," he added, pointing out that the mainland was a much bigger client.
"China may think it's better not to fight on two fronts [given its anger at the US deal]. It's also talking with ­Europeans about lifting the arms embargo. So I believe it will be more constrained; it doesn't make sense to make a fuss before the deal is even finalised."
Defense News, which first reported the sale, said the contract would be signed within a few days.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions on the helicopter sale. Calls to the Taiwan Affairs Office rang unanswered.
China hit back unusually hard following last week's announcement of the US's $6.4bn arms package, which includes Patriot missiles, naval minesweepers and Black Hawk helicopters. It warned of plans to impose sanctions on US firms that sell weapons to Taiwan and said it was "unavoidable" that co-operation on wider issues would be affected.

13 dead as Pakistan bus, hospital bombed

Posted 1 hour 34 minutes ago

Pakistan bus blast
Pakistani volunteers search a damaged bus ripped apart by a motorcycle bomb attack. (AFP: Asif Hassan)
A hospital in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi treating victims of an earlier bus bombing that killed 12 people was itself rocked by an explosion that killed at least one person, a provincial cabinet minister said.
A suspected suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 12 Shiite Muslims on a crowded bus in Pakistan's biggest city, and hours later a second bomb exploded at a hospital treating those injured in the bus blast.
"I have information that people were killed and injured in the second bomb blast. One body is lying there on the spot and some 10 people were injured," Saghir Ahmad, health minister for Sindh province, told private television channel ARY.
"We have started the rescue work," he added.
A doctor confirmed the second blast.
"An explosion occurred at the Jinnah hospital near the emergency ward, where the bodies and injured were being taken," said Doctor Mushtaq Ahmad.
"I heard a large blast. People are running all over the place. Casualties are feared," he added.
Earlier, senior police officer Ghulam Nabi said of the initial bombing: "Initial reports suggest a bus carrying Shiites was hit by a motorbike laden with explosives."
"We have 12 dead and up to 40 wounded. Some of the wounded are in critical condition," said Kaleem Sheikh, senior doctor at Karachi's main hospital.
The bus attack had all the trademarks of a Taliban operation.
The bomb was planted on a motorcycle that rammed into a bus.
"It was an IED (improvised-explosive device) in a motorcycle, which rammed into a bus. Several people have been injured," city police chief Waseem Ahmad told reporters.
Dozens of enraged Shiites gathered at the scene of the blast and some scuffled with police.
"A motorcyclist exploded near a bus ahead of us. We took off and rescued wounded," local Zafar Abbas said.
"It's cruel. They are not Muslims. They are not human. The government is responsible because it has failed to provide us security and control terrorists."
The Pakistani Taliban have carried out waves of bombings at crowded markets and army and police facilities, killing hundreds of people since October in a bid to topple the pro-American government of unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari.
Karachi has been largely free of Islamist violence over the past couple of years, but a bomb at a minority Shiite Muslim procession in late December fuelled concern that the militants were expanding their fight to the city.
Sustained violence in Karachi, which has recently witnessed heightened political tension, could further dampen investor confidence in the sluggish economy.
On Wednesday the Al Qaeda-backed Taliban claimed responsibility for a high-profile bomb attack that killed three US Special Operations soldiers near a girls' school in north-west Pakistan, and threatened more attacks on Americans.
The violence along the major street is bound to raise more questions about the effectiveness of security crackdowns on Al Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgents at a time when Washington wants Pakistan to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.