- Indian diplomat arrested, strip-searched: Does she have immunity?
CNN December 18, 2013
Arrest sparks diplomatic feud
(CNN) -- The arrest and strip-search of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, accused of visa fraud, has sparked questions about the complex, murky system of diplomatic immunity.
"There's a lot of subjectivity on this stuff," says CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Khobragade's lawyer, Daniel Arshack, says his client is entitled to diplomatic immunity and can't be prosecuted under U.S. law, CNN's Indian sister network IBN reported. But the State Department says Khobragade's consular immunity does not cover this kind of crime.
Now, Khobragade has been moved to India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations -- where, Indian officials say, she may get full diplomatic immunity.
The rules involved are laid out by the State Department in a guidance document for law enforcement and judicial authorities.
"Most of these privileges and immunities are not absolute, and law enforcement officers retain their fundamental responsibility to protect and police the orderly conduct of persons in the United States," the document states.
Members of consular posts, such as Khobragade at the time of her arrest, do not have the same level of immunity as those who work at diplomatic missions.
Consular officers have some immunity involving official acts, but their "personal inviolability" is "quite limited," the document says. They may be arrested and detained for alleged felonies, and may be prosecuted for misdemeanors. Their families have no immunity of any kind.
- A Lifelong Fight Against Trans Fats
The New York Times December 16, 2013
In 1957, a fledgling nutrition scientist at the University of Illinois persuaded a hospital to give him samples of arteries from patients who had died of heart attacks.
When he analyzed them, he made a startling discovery. Not surprisingly, the diseased arteries were filled with fat — but it was a specific kind of fat. The artificial fatty acids called trans fats, which come from the hydrogen-treated oils used in processed foods like margarine, had crowded out other types of fatty acids.
The scientist, Fred Kummerow, followed up with a study that found troubling amounts of artery-clogging plaque in pigs given a diet heavy in artificial fats. He became a pioneer of trans-fat research, one of the first scientists to assert a link between heart disease and processed foods.
It would be more than three decades before those findings were widely accepted — and five decades before the Food and Drug Administration decided that trans fats should be eliminated from the food supply, as it proposed in a rule issued last month.
Now, Dr. Kummerow (KOO-mer-ow) is still active at age 99, living a few blocks from the university, where he runs a small laboratory. And he continues to come to contrarian conclusions about fat and heart disease.
In the past two years, he has published four papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, two of them devoted to another major culprit he has singled out as responsible for atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries: an excess of polyunsaturated vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower — exactly the types of fats Americans have been urged to consume for the past several decades.
The problem, he says, is not LDL, the “bad cholesterol” widely considered to be the major cause of heart disease. What matters is whether the cholesterol and fat residing in those LDL particles have been oxidized. (Technically, LDL is not cholesterol, but particles containing cholesterol, along with fatty acids and protein.)
“Cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, except if it’s oxidized,” Dr. Kummerow said. Oxidation is a chemical process that happens widely in the body, contributing to aging and the development of degenerative and chronic diseases. Dr. Kummerow contends that the high temperatures used in commercial frying cause inherently unstable polyunsaturated oils to oxidize, and that these oxidized fatty acids become a destructive part of LDL particles. Even when not oxidized by frying, soybean and corn oils can oxidize inside the body.
If true, the hypothesis might explain why studies have found that half of all heart disease patients have normal or low levels of LDL.
“You can have fine levels of LDL and still be in trouble if a lot of that LDL is oxidized,” Dr. Kummerow said.
- Taper seen as positive for economy, bad omen for bonds
CNBC.com 18 Dec 2013
The surprise decision by the Federal Reserve to slow down its bond buying program was greeted by markets as a sign the economy is improving, a longer term bearish omen for bonds but a positive for stocks for now.
"I think there's a general consensus that ... what the Fed is finally signaling is that the economy is doing better," said Bob Doll, Nuveen Asset Management chief equity strategist. "In 2014, the economy will be a bit stronger and a bit better."
The Fed's move to "taper" its bond buying by $10 billion was expected by some market participants, but many had expected the Fed to wait for more data, in January or March.
Stocks initially sold off but recovered, with the Dow logging a triple digit gain. The 10-year yield initially rose to 2.92 percent but fell back to its earlier level of 2.84 percent. It then moved higher, to the 2.88 percent area.
"This is a bit of a relief trade," said CRT chief Treasury strategist David Ader. "I think it's incredibly significant that it came when we had tapering. The curve is doing very little on this."
Ader had expected a taper and said the bond market is showing the event was priced in. The Fed said it would cut its $85 billion monthly purchases of mortgage securities and Treasurys by $5 billion each starting in January.
"It's kind of a soft taper. Markets don't like uncertainty. They didn't know what the Fed was going to do," said John Canally, economist at market strategist at LPL Financial. "The Fed is agreeing with the market that the Fed can stand some tapering."
Canally said it's clear the Fed will taper the quantitative easing program in a measured way. The Fed also made clear it had not predetermined the course of asset purchases.
- JAPAN’S NEW DEFENSE STRATEGY
War on the Rocks December 18, 2013
Under Prime Minister Abe, Japan is turning a corner on its postwar identity and getting serious about defense.
Shinzo Abe’s new National Security Strategy, National Defense Program Guidelines, and bold five-year defense plan are the strongest signs yet that Japan wishes to finally end decades of self-imposed pacifism in order to rejoin other major powers. Prime Minister Abe is taking unmistakable but measured steps to move Japan from a reactive to a proactive foreign policy, and to transform the Self-Defense Force from a complementary force-in-being to a comprehensive, operational military.
Critics and rivals have sought to characterize the plans as evidence of Japanese “remilitarization” and a threat to regional stability. In reality, however, Japan is presenting clear, cogent and cost-effective responses to a number of pressing challenges.
The two key drivers of this policy shift are first, China’s reemergence and growing maritime assertiveness, and second, Japan’s fear of losing its postwar status as a top-tier nation. Other concerns, such as increasing tension on the Korean peninsula, as well as doubts about U.S. commitment and staying power, are also shaping the Abe administration’s strategic calculus. Because of what Tokyo describes as an increasingly severe security environment, Japan’s armed forces are preparing to go operational to deter China’s assertive encroachment and respond to a wide range of potential contingencies in and out of East Asia. As the just-released National Defense Program Guidelines note “While the probability of large-scale military conflicts between major countries presumably remains low, various security challenges…are becoming more tangible and acute.”
沒有留言:
張貼留言