Gas Explosion Levels Buildings Like 'Missile Strike'

A natural gas explosion in one of New England's biggest cities on Friday leveled a strip club with a boom heard for miles and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings but didn't kill anyone, authorities said.

Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers in the area because of an earlier gas leak and odor report were among the 18 people injured in the blast, authorities said.

"This is a miracle on Worthington Street that no one was killed," Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said at a press conference.

The explosion in Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston, blew out all windows in a three-block radius, leaving three buildings irreparably damaged and prompting emergency workers to evacuate a six-story apartment building that was buckling, police said.

Police Sgt. John Delaney marveled at the destruction at the blast's epicenter, where a multistory building housing a Scores Gentleman's Club, evacuated earlier because of the gas leak, was leveled.

"It looks like there was a missile strike here," he said.

The victims were taken to two hospitals in the city. None of their injuries was considered life-threatening, officials said. Those hurt were nine firefighters, two police officers, four Columbia Gas of Massachusetts workers, two civilians and another city employee.

Don Treeger, Springfield Republican/AP Photo

Firefighters responded to the scene at 4:20 p.m. and were investigating the gas leak when the blast happened about one hour later. The cause of the explosion hadn't been identified but was under investigation, they said.

Springfield, which has about 150,000 residents, is the largest city in western Massachusetts. It's known as the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, which is not in the vicinity of the blast.

The city has been rebuilding from damage it sustained in a June 2011 tornado.

The explosion happened in an area of downtown Springfield with commercial properties and residences. Area resident Wayne Davis, who lives about a block away from the destroyed strip club building, said he felt his apartment shake.

"I was laying down in bed, and I started feeling the building shaking and creaking," he said.

The Navy veteran said the boom from the explosion was louder than anything he'd ever heard, including the sound of a jet landing on an aircraft carrier.

The blast was so loud it was heard in several neighboring communities for miles around. Video from WWLP-TV showed the moment of the explosion, with smoke billowing into the air above the neighborhood.

Mayor Domenic Sarno said it was through "God's mercy" that nobody had been reported killed in the explosion.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the individuals that have been injured and the people who have been displaced," he said, adding that emergency shelter was being set up for those unable to go home.

An official of the gas company said there were no signs of any additional gas leaks in the area but crews would be monitoring the area closely over the next two days.

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Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this story.

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Gaza ceasefire holds but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held firm on Thursday with scenes of joy among the ruins in Gaza over what Palestinians hailed as a victory, and both sides saying their fingers were still on the trigger.

In the sudden calm, Palestinians who had been under Israeli bombs for eight days poured into Gaza streets for a celebratory rally, walking past wrecked houses and government buildings.

But as a precaution, schools stayed closed in southern Israel, where nerves were jangled by warning sirens - a false alarm, the army said - after a constant rain of rockets during the most serious Israeli-Palestinian fighting in four years.

Israel had launched its strikes last week with a declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its territory from Gaza, ruled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which denies Israel's right to exist. Hamas had responded with more rockets.

The truce brokered by Egypt's new Islamist leaders, working with the United States, headed off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.

It was the fruit of intensive diplomacy spurred by U.S. President Barack Obama, who sent his secretary of state to Cairo and backed her up with phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.

Mursi's role in cajoling his Islamist soulmates in Gaza into the U.S.-backed deal with Israel suggested that Washington can find ways to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood leader whom Egyptians elected after toppling former U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, a bulwark of American policy in the Middle East for 30 years.

Mursi, preoccupied with Egypt's economic crisis, cannot afford to tamper with a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, despite its unpopularity with Egyptians, and needs U.S. financial aid.

MORE DEATHS

Despite the quiet on the battlefield, the death toll from the Gaza conflict crept up on both sides.

The body of Mohammed al-Dalu, 25, was recovered from the rubble of a house where nine of his relatives - four children and five women - were killed by an Israeli bomb this week.

That raised to 163 the number of Palestinians killed, more than half of them civilians, including 37 children, during the Israeli onslaught, according to Gaza medical officials.

Nearly 1,400 rockets struck Israel, killing four civilians and two soldiers, including an officer who died on Thursday of wounds sustained the day before, the Israeli army said.

Israel dropped 1,000 times as much explosive on the Gaza Strip as landed on its soil, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

Municipal workers in Gaza began cleaning streets and removing the rubble of bombed buildings. Stores opened and people flocked to markets to buy food.

Jubilant crowds celebrated, with most people waving green Hamas flags but some carrying the yellow emblems of the rival Fatah group, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.

That marked a rare show of unity five years after Hamas, which won a Palestinian poll in 2006, forcibly wrested Gaza from Fatah, still dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel began ferrying tanks northwards, away from the border, on transporters. It plans to discharge gradually tens of thousands of reservists called up for a possible Gaza invasion.

But trust between Israel and Hamas remains in short supply and both said they might well have to fight again.

"The battle with the enemy has not ended yet," Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said at an event to mourn its acting military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari, whose killing by Israel on November 14 set off this round.

"HANDS ON TRIGGER"

The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said in Cairo his Islamist movement would respect the truce, but warned that if Israel violated it "our hands are on the trigger".

Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told Israelis a tougher approach might be required in the future.

Facing a national election in two months, he swiftly came under fire from opposition politicians who had rallied to his side during the fighting but now contend he emerged from the conflict with no real gains for Israel.

"You don't settle with terrorism, you defeat it. And unfortunately, a decisive victory has not been achieved and we did not recharge our deterrence," Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition Kadima party, wrote on his Facebook page.

In a speech, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, urged all Palestinian factions to respect the ceasefire and said his government and security services would monitor compliance.

According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.

The deal also provides for easing Israeli curbs on Gaza's residents, but the two sides disagreed on what this meant.

Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas won a Palestinian election in 2006, but Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings with Israel and Egypt.

Israel let dozens of trucks carry supplies into the Palestinian enclave during the fighting. Residents there have long complained that Israeli restrictions blight their economy.

Barak said Hamas, which declared November 22 a national holiday to mark its "victory", had suffered heavy military blows.

"A large part of the mid-range rockets were destroyed. Hamas managed to hit Israel's built-up areas with around a metric tone of explosives, and Gaza targets got around 1,000 metric tonnes," he said.

He dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas, saying: "The right to self-defense trumps any piece of paper."

He appeared to confirm, however, a Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier that the army says has prevented Hamas raids.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Reforms needed for China's growth: Li Keqiang

BEIJING : China's economic growth can only continue if the country reforms, said its expected next premier and newly-promoted Communist Party number two Li Keqiang, according to state media on Friday.

The ruling party's new leaders - who were installed after a key congress last week and will also assume top government posts in March - took charge in the face of slowing growth, rising popular discontent and calls for reform.

"Reform and opening (are) essential to allowing people to enjoy a better life," the China News Service quoted Li as saying while meeting officials overseeing 11 cities and provinces that are test-beds for reforms.

"If we don't do it, then we won't make mistakes, but will bear historic responsibility," he said on Wednesday, in some of his first remarks since moving up the hierarchy.

Li focused on social and economic - rather than political - development, singling out uneven growth and the rural-urban imbalance as problems, both of which have generated popular resentment.

Strict residency rules needed to be fixed, as did land management and the social service system, he said, without giving specific details.

China's leaders have repeatedly promised reforms.

Li also warned that economic growth was likely to slow from the double digits of past years to around seven per cent annually, but added that it would still be possible to achieve a "moderately prosperous" society by 2020.

Analysts say that as vice premier Li has been at the forefront of efforts to pursue more balanced development, although the record has been mixed.

Some say that with no broad power base, he may have trouble effecting major change in the face of the party's consensus-based leadership, vested interests and provinces bent on growth.

China's incoming leaders also face mounting pressure to tackle official corruption, highlighted by Xi Jinping when he took over as the new party chief last week.

- AFP/ms

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Murli Manohar Joshi, CAG must clear air on 2G allocation loss figure: Govt

NEW DELHI: A controversy has broken out after former Comptroller and Auditor General official R P Singh questioned CAG's estimates of presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh cror mentioned in the 2G spectrum audit report.

Former director general CAG's post and telecommunications, Singh, said that he was made to sign the 2G spectrum audit report by his seniors in CAG, despite disagreeing with it. Singh retired in September 2011.

The government, today, asked BJP leader and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Murli Manohar Joshi as well as the CAG to clarify their stance on the controversy.

"The issues raised by R P Singh, former DG, P&T, in CAG are very germane. What is extremely important is that in May 2010 when the draft report was prepared the loss was quantified at Rs 2,645 crore but in November 2010 when the report was presented in Parliament this loss jumped to Rs 1.76 lakh crore. How did this leap of faith take place?" information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters.

"Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi should clarify his stance on the controversy over the 2G spectrum losses mentioned in the draft report of the CAG," Manish Tewari said.

Giving twist to the allocation controversy, R P Singh had questioned the CAG's estimates of presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. "After completing the audit of Ministry of Telecom, which was under my direct charge, I prepared a draft audit report covering each and every aspect ... My report did not contain any loss figure," he had said yesterday.

Tewari asked who was responsible for increasing the presumptive loss figures and said this issue should be addressed by the CAG.

"The second question is about propriety. The PAC is supposed to independently exercise oversight over the reports of CAG. If what R P Singh has said is true about the CAG officials actually taking assistance of the PAC in the preparation of its report, does this not amount to a conflict of interest?" Tewari said.

He sought to know if this is a convention or a tradition which has been followed earlier and whether this was done officially or unofficially.

"These are questions that the PAC chairperson, Murli Manohar Joshi, for whom I have the utmost respect, needs to answer," the minister said.

BJP, however, denied these allegations and maintained that it has been proved that government suffered losses in the 2G spectrum allocation and that there was corruption in the deals.

BJP MP and party secretary Balbir Punj, said, "R P Singh's charges are meaningless. Two facts have been established in the 2G spectrum case. One that there was a huge loss to the government and secondly there was corruption in the allocations. Had there been no loss the licenses would not have been cancelled and A Raja would not have gone to jail."

NCP leader D P Tripathi maintained that constitutional bodies like the CAG should not be brought into a controversy. "If what R P Singh has said is true then the losses pointed out by CAG are too high."

Allegations by former auditor to malign CAG, PAC: Joshi

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi dismissed allegations by former auditor R P Singh that he tried to influence the outcome of the 2G report as an attempt to malign the institutions of CAG and PAC.

"R P Singh's allegations on 2G report are an attempt to malign Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and PAC by vested interests including the government," Joshi told reporters here.

Joshi said Singh had never raised the issue when he had appeared before PAC to explain the loss to the exchequer caused by the 2G spectrum allocation.

"I wonder why he is speaking today," he said.

"Singh had made a similar statement after his retirement. But when we questioned him he denied giving any interview. He was questioned on the issue by the Joint Parliamentary Committee as well but he failed to prove anything," Joshi said.

Joshi said it was impossible for the report to be written under pressure and Singh himself had written it.

On his fresh allegations, he said the former CAG officer has also not furnished any document to prove his claims.

"It (Singh's allegations) is an attempt by the government to cover up corruption by defaming these institutions (PAC and CAG) which are watchdogs of misappropriation of funds. It is part of that campaign," he said.

Joshi termed as "baseless" Singh's claims that CAG officials had met him at his residence on a gazetted holiday to help him prepare PAC's report on 2G spectrum allocation.

Asked about Congress demand for a probe into the allegations, the BJP leader said, "Congress can demand any absurd thing. It is their last attempt to cover up their misdeeds."

Law minister questions integrity of govt auditor

Law minister Ashwani Kumar questioned the integrity of the government auditor and demanded that truth behind the CAG's presumptive loss estimate of Rs 1.76 lakh crore be made public.

"Certainly some of the findings of the CAG have now become very doubtful. People are entitled to know what is the truth that has now come out," Kumar told reporters outside Parliament House.

The Law minister said, "I think the conversation between the chairman of PAC and CAG without knowledge of other members of the PAC should be made public" and added there is "need to preserve the integrity" of Constitutional institutions like CAG.

The CAG report, which was tabled in Parliament in November 2010, had pegged the revenue loss to the exchequer on account of allocation of 2G spectrum in 2008 at 1.76 lakh crore raising a political storm.

The controversy over 2G spectrum allocation also led to cancellation to 122 licences by the Supreme Court.

RP Singh pawn in the hands of Govt: BJP

BJP today accused former CAG official R P Singh, who has questioned estimates of 2G allocation losses, of being a "pawn" in the hands of the government and termed his charges as part of a "sinister conspiracy".

"This public comment by retired CAG officer R P Singh is a very sinister conspiracy. He is a pawn in the hands of Congress and government to defame the CAG," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.

"He kept quiet for the whole one year. He presented the report on 2G before JPC, does not say anything. He appeared before PAC does not say anything," Prasad said.

About the allegation that the CAG official meeting PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi at the latter's residence, BJP leader said, "Meeting between the PAC chairman and CAG officer is a routine thing because they report to the PAC."

Attacking the government, Prasad said, "It is part of the pattern by the government. Their ministers have been attacking CAG and now this a fresh one. We completely condemn this. It is unfortunate and regrettable."

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Stores Work to Keep Black Friday Safe

With earlier-than-ever deals and 147 million people expected to hit the stores this holiday weekend, retailers such as Best Buy are taking extra steps to avoid the Black Friday shopper chaos -- and inevitable news stories -- of the past.

Best Buy officials said they've been prepping for the madness for days.

The retailer has created color-coded maps, moved merchandise around to ease congestion and held a dry run so that its employees can get practice.

"[We want to] get people in safely and out safely," said Jay Buchanan, a Best Buy employee. The goal is to get them "through the lines quick, fast and in a hurry so they can get what they need."

In Bloomington, Minn., the Mall of America extended its ban on young people younger than 16 shopping without an adult during the weekend evenings to Black Friday.

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images

At the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., security planned to place barricades at the mall entrance to control the crowds and officials planned to double the number of security officers.

In Los Angeles, the police were putting hundreds of extra officers on foot, on horseback and in the air to monitor shopping crowds.

"It seems like Black Friday's become bigger and bigger as the years have gone by," said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "What we've seen across the country are huge problems with crowds. They just forget about everyday courtesy and sometimes go nuts."

According to today's news reports, though, things were already getting out of hand.

When a south Sacramento, Calif., K-Mart opened its doors at 6 a.m. today, a shopper in a line of people that had formed nearly two hours earlier reportedly threatened to stab the people around him.

And at two K-Marts in Indianapolis, police officers were called in after fights broke out among shoppers trying to score vouchers for a 32-inch plasma TV going for less than $200.

"When you have large crowds of people, control is the most important thing," Steve Reed, a security officer at the Arden Fair Mall, told ABC News affiliate News 10. "You want them [customers] to be able to get in the mall without getting trampled and having issues of any kind happening to them. That's really important for us."

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Hamas-Israel ceasefire takes hold but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold on Thursday after eight days of conflict, although deep mistrust on both sides cast doubt on how long the Egyptian-sponsored deal can last.

Even after the ceasefire came into force late on Wednesday, a dozen rockets from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel, all in open areas, a police spokesman said. In Gaza, witnesses reported an explosion shortly after the truce took effect at 9 p.m (1900 GMT), but there were no casualties and the cause was unclear.

The deal prevented, at least for the moment, an Israeli ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave following bombing and rocket fire that killed five Israelis and 162 Gazans, including 37 children.

But trust was in short supply. The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said his Islamist movement would respect the truce if Israel did, but would respond to any violations. "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," he told a news conference in Cairo.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told his people a tougher approach might be required in the future.

Both sides quickly began offering differing interpretations of the ceasefire, brokered by Egypt's new Islamist government and backed by the United States, highlighting the many actual or potential areas of discord.

If the truce holds, it will give the 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that have unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

"Allahu akbar, (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in Gaza as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."

Fifteen minutes later, wild celebratory gunfire echoed across the darkened streets, which gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.

Meshaal thanked Egypt for mediating and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms. "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure".

Some Israelis staged protests against the deal, notably in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, where three people were killed by a Gaza rocket during the conflict, army radio said.

Netanyahu, already taking political flak from an Israeli opposition that had rallied to him during the Gaza fighting, said he was willing to give the truce a chance but held open the possibility of reopening the conflict.

"I know there are citizens expecting a more severe military action, and perhaps we shall need to do so," he said.

The rightist Israeli leader, who faces a parliamentary election in January, delivered a similar message earlier in a phone call with U.S. President Barack Obama, his office said.

"A PIECE OF PAPER"

According to a text of the ceasefire agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.

The deal also provides for easing Israeli restrictions on Gaza's residents, who live in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called an "open prison".

The text said procedures for implementing this would be "dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire".

Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas, which preaches the Jewish state's destruction, won a Palestinian election in 2006.

However, Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings. "The document stipulates the opening of the crossings, all the crossings, and not just Rafah," he said. Israel controls all of Gaza's crossings apart from the Rafah post with Egypt.

Interviewed on Israel's Army Radio, Defence Minister Ehud Barak dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas as "a piece of paper which I don't remember anyone going around with. There's no signature on it."

He appeared to confirm, however, a key Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the inside of the Gaza border that they have said prevents armed infiltration.

"If there are no attacks along the border ... then I tell you that there is no problem with them working the farmland on the perimeter up to the (boundary) fence," Barak said.

But should the Palestinians exploit such measures to breach the truce, Israel would be "free to act," he said, adding: "The right to self-defence trumps any piece of paper."

Hamas lost its top military commander to an Israeli strike in the conflict and suffered serious hits to its infrastructure and weaponry, but has emerged with its reputation both in the Arab world and at home stronger.

Israel can take comfort from the fact that it dealt painful blows to its enemy, from which Hamas will take many months to recover, and showed it can defend itself from a barrage of missiles.

"No one is under the illusion that this is going to be an everlasting ceasefire," said former Barak aide Michael Herzog.

"But there is a chance that it could hold for a significant period of time, if all goes well," he told Reuters.

Egypt, an important U.S. ally now under Islamist leadership, took center stage in diplomacy to halt the bloodshed. Cairo has walked a fine line between its sympathies for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to which President Mohamed Mursi belongs, and its need to preserve its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its ties with Washington, its main aid donor.

Announcing the agreement in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said mediation had "resulted in understandings to cease fire, restore calm and halt the bloodshed".

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, standing beside Amr, thanked Mursi for peace efforts that showed "responsibility, leadership" in the region.

"This is a critical moment for the region," Clinton said. "Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone for regional stability and peace."

Gaza erupted in a Middle East already shaken by last year's Arab revolts that toppled several veteran U.S.-backed leaders, including Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, and by a civil war in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting for survival.

In his call with Netanyahu, Obama repeated the U.S. commitment to Israel's security and promised to seek fresh funds for a joint missile defence programme, the White House said.

BUS BOMBING

The ceasefire was forged despite a bus-bomb explosion that wounded 15 Israelis in Tel Aviv earlier in the day and despite more Israeli air strikes that killed 10 Gazans. It was the first serious bombing in Israel's commercial capital since 2006.

In Amman, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged both sides to stick to their ceasefire pledges. "There may be challenges implementing this agreement," he said, urging "maximum restraint".

Israel, the United States and the European Union all classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. It seized the Gaza Strip from the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 in a brief but bloody war with his Fatah movement.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Allyn Fisher-Ilan Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Yasmine Saleh, Shaimaa Fayed and Tom Perry in Cairo, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Margaret Chadbourn in Washington; Writing by Alistair Lyon and David Stamp; Editing by Louise Ireland and David Brunnstrom)

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China-India ties will benefit Southeast Asia, says ESM Goh

SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said the region which stands to benefit most from a collaborative relationship between China and India is arguably Southeast Asia.

At the same time, Southeast Asia offers a prime location and multi-sectoral opportunities for China and India to work together, and with others.

Mr Goh was speaking at the International conference on South Asia organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS).

To mark the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations, a car rally will start on November 26 at Yogyakarta in Indonesia, and the entourage of 30 cars will be in Singapore on November 28.

Mr Goh said such an endeavour would probably have been unimaginable 20 years ago.

He added that at a time when the world is experiencing strong headwinds, China and India would want to focus on economic growth to lift the living standards of their people.

He urged Southeast Asian nations to continually explore and expand beyond existing areas of cooperation like through the recently launched Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Mr Goh said: "It is good that China and India have agreed to join RCEP as it would entrench their linkages to Southeast Asia, and to each other, by embedding them in a regional economic architecture that seeks to promote prosperity and stability. The RCEP and other initiatives such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will pave the way towards a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific."

- CNA/de

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BJP, CPI-M want vote on FDI in retail

NEW DELHI: Opposition parties, including the BJP and the CPI-M, pressed Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to allow their notices for a debate on foreign direct investment ( FDI) in retail on Thursday, the first day of Parliament's winter session.

The Speaker said their notices for a debate under Rule 184, which entails voting, were under consideration.

Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sushma Swaraj spoke from her seat and stressed that a debate on foreign investment in multi-brand retail should be allowed as the government had violated its earlier assurance of consulting parties over the issue. The Communist Party of India-Marxist raised slogans demanding a debate and a vote on the issue.

Differences with the government saw the Lok Sabha being adjourned repeatedly.

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Study finds mammograms lead to unneeded treatment

Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate.

Up to one-third of breast cancers, or 50,000 to 70,000 cases a year, don't need treatment, the study suggests.

It's the most detailed look yet at overtreatment of breast cancer, and it adds fresh evidence that screening is not as helpful as many women believe. Mammograms are still worthwhile, because they do catch some deadly cancers and save lives, doctors stress. And some of them disagree with conclusions the new study reached.

But it spotlights a reality that is tough for many Americans to accept: Some abnormalities that doctors call "cancer" are not a health threat or truly malignant. There is no good way to tell which ones are, so many women wind up getting treatments like surgery and chemotherapy that they don't really need.

Men have heard a similar message about PSA tests to screen for slow-growing prostate cancer, but it's relatively new to the debate over breast cancer screening.

"We're coming to learn that some cancers — many cancers, depending on the organ — weren't destined to cause death," said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Cancer Institute screening expert. However, "once a woman is diagnosed, it's hard to say treatment is not necessary."

He had no role in the study, which was led by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical School and Dr. Archie Bleyer of St. Charles Health System and Oregon Health & Science University. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer and cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Nearly 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Other countries screen less aggressively than the U.S. does. In Britain, for example, mammograms are usually offered only every three years and a recent review there found similar signs of overtreatment.

The dogma has been that screening finds cancer early, when it's most curable. But screening is only worthwhile if it finds cancers destined to cause death, and if treating them early improves survival versus treating when or if they cause symptoms.

Mammograms also are an imperfect screening tool — they often give false alarms, spurring biopsies and other tests that ultimately show no cancer was present. The new study looks at a different risk: Overdiagnosis, or finding cancer that is present but does not need treatment.

Researchers used federal surveys on mammography and cancer registry statistics from 1976 through 2008 to track how many cancers were found early, while still confined to the breast, versus later, when they had spread to lymph nodes or more widely.

The scientists assumed that the actual amount of disease — how many true cases exist — did not change or grew only a little during those three decades. Yet they found a big difference in the number and stage of cases discovered over time, as mammograms came into wide use.

Mammograms more than doubled the number of early-stage cancers detected — from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women. But late-stage cancers dropped just 8 percent, from 102 to 94 cases per 100,000 women.

The imbalance suggests a lot of overdiagnosis from mammograms, which now account for 60 percent of cases that are found, Bleyer said. If screening were working, there should be one less patient diagnosed with late-stage cancer for every additional patient whose cancer was found at an earlier stage, he explained.

"Instead, we're diagnosing a lot of something else — not cancer" in that early stage, Bleyer said. "And the worst cancer is still going on, just like it always was."

Researchers also looked at death rates for breast cancer, which declined 28 percent during that time in women 40 and older — the group targeted for screening. Mortality dropped even more — 41 percent — in women under 40, who presumably were not getting mammograms.

"We are left to conclude, as others have, that the good news in breast cancer — decreasing mortality — must largely be the result of improved treatment, not screening," the authors write.

The study was paid for by the study authors' universities.

"This study is important because what it really highlights is that the biology of the cancer is what we need to understand" in order to know which ones to treat and how, said Dr. Julia A. Smith, director of breast cancer screening at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Doctors already are debating whether DCIS, a type of early tumor confined to a milk duct, should even be called cancer, she said.

Another expert, Dr. Linda Vahdat, director of the breast cancer research program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the study's leaders made many assumptions to reach a conclusion about overdiagnosis that "may or may not be correct."

"I don't think it will change how we view screening mammography," she said.

A government-appointed task force that gives screening advice calls for mammograms every other year starting at age 50 and stopping at 75. The American Cancer Society recommends them every year starting at age 40.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the cancer society's deputy chief medical officer, said the study should not be taken as "a referendum on mammography," and noted that other high-quality studies have affirmed its value. Still, he said overdiagnosis is a problem, and it's not possible to tell an individual woman whether her cancer needs treated.

"Our technology has brought us to the place where we can find a lot of cancer. Our science has to bring us to the point where we can define what treatment people really need," he said.

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Online:

Study: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809

Screening advice: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Egypt's Morsi Wins US, Israeli Gratitude

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is being credited with brokering the cease-fire today between Israel and Hamas, but the international gratitude and praise he is gettting could come with a political price at home.

Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama heaped praise on the Egyptian president. Obama called his Egyptian counterpart today to thank him for his efforts in the negotiations, and Clinton expressed her gratitude personally in the press conference announcing the deal.

"I want to thank President Morsi for his personal leadership to de-escalate the situation in Gaza and end the violence," said Clinton. "This is a critical moment for the region. Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace."

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In the last week Egypt emerged as the third and maybe the most pivotal party in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Both Obama and Clinton made multiple calls to Morsi, understanding the long-term diplomatic consequences for America's historically strongest Arab ally in the Middle East, an ally that receives billions of dollars in aid annually.

Khaed Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

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The latest crisis was considered a crucial moment for Morsi. Both the U.S. and Israel for years had come to trust and depend on former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's right hand man, Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman. He brokered the initial peace deal between Hamas and Israel and was respected by both sides. Suleiman lost power when Mubarak stepped down and died in July.

Under Morsi, Egypt, whose new governing Muslim Brotherhood party has a relationship with Hamas, also must maintain its peace treaty with Israel to keep diplomatic relations with the United States. But Morsi has a different mandate. As the first democratically-elected president, he is accountable to the people of Egypt, and must walk a fine line between meeting his constituents wants' and maintaining Egypt's diplomatic needs.

Throughout the crisis Morsi and Egyptian officials have spouted harsh rhetoric against Israel, calling the Jewish state the aggressors in the conflict and declaring that the Palestinians have the right to self-defense.

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Behind the scenes, however, Morsi has received high marks by his Israeli counterparts with Israeli President Shimon Peres calling the Egyptian president a "nice surprise" at the height of the talks on Tuesday.

Those familiar with how the cease-fire was eventually brokered credit the Egyptians, and say this was an Egyptian achievement, announced in Egypt.

But the fact that the announcement was made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, allowed Morsi some political cover from the negative swelling of Egyptian opinion over this deal.

While the U.S., Israel and Hamas may be happy about the deal, there has been significant backlash from Egyptian citizens who claim that despite the election and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood background, he is no different than Mubarak, a puppet of the West. There are reports of calls for national protests this Friday.

There are also Egyptians who claim the president they elected cares more about the Palestinians than the many domestic problems Egyptians are facing.

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