Gun-control legislation: The difference between 1994 and today

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may be the most outspoken elected official advocating for enhanced gun safety laws, but the New York public servant who has hands-on experience in Washington getting such legislation passed is promoting the use of smart phones to hail cabs in Manhattan.

In a prior life, New York’s taxi and limousine commissioner, David Yassky, played a major role in writing the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which outlawed the production of certain types of weapons and limited the size of high capacity magazines. As chief counsel to then-Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the House crime subcommittee, Yassky had a front-row seat to the last major congressional deal on guns — in which a congressman’s eleventh-hour change of heart gave gun-control advocates a two-vote victory in the House, where Democrats were in the majority.

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S. Korea presidential rivals in final push for votes

SEOUL: The two rivals for South Korea's presidency made a final pitch to voters Tuesday -- the eve of an election that looks set to go down to the wire and could produce the country's first female leader.

The eventual winner of Wednesday's ballot will face numerous foreign and domestic challenges, including a pugnacious North Korea, a slowing economy and soaring welfare costs in one of the world's most rapidly-ageing societies.

Ruling conservative party candidate Park Geun-Hye is looking to make history as the first female president of a still male-dominated nation, and the first to be related to a former leader.

Park, 60, is the daughter of one of modern Korea's most polarising figures, the late dictator Park Chung-Hee who is both admired for dragging the country out of poverty and reviled for his ruthless suppression of dissent during 18 years of autocratic rule.

He was shot dead by his spy chief in 1979. Park's mother had been killed five years earlier by a pro-North Korea gunman aiming for her father.

Standing between Park and the presidential Blue House is the liberal Moon Jae-In from the main opposition party, a former human rights lawyer who was once jailed for protesting against the regime of Park's father.

The last permitted opinion polls showed that Moon had eroded the small but clear lead Park enjoyed for much of the campaign, leaving the result too close to call.

After locking in the support of their respective conservative and liberal bases, the two candidates have actively wooed crucial centrist voters, resulting in significant policy overlap.

Both have talked of "economic democratisation" -- a campaign buzzword about reducing the social disparities caused by rapid economic growth -- and promised to create new jobs and increase welfare spending.

Moon has been more aggressive in his proposals for reining in the power of the giant family-run conglomerates, or "chaebol" that dominate the economy and there are significant differences on North Korea.

While both have signalled a desire for greater engagement with Pyongyang, Park's approach is far more cautious than Moon's promise to resume aid without pre-conditions and seek an early summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Although South-North relations have not been a major campaign issue, the North's long-range rocket launch last week -- seen by critics as a disguised ballistic missile test -- was a reminder of the unpredictable threat from across the border.

In her final national pitch at a televised press conference Tuesday, the never-married Park promised a parental style of leadership that would steer the country through the challenges of the global economic crisis.

"I have no family to take care of and no children to pass wealth to. You, the people, are my family and your happiness is the reason that I stay in politics," Park said.

"Like a mother who dedicates her life to her family, I will become the president who takes care of the lives of each one of you.

"Please open a new era under the country's first female president with hope for change and reform," she said.

Moon was more combative at a similar event, slamming Park's ruling New Frontier Party as corrupt and incompetent.

"If you spare them punishment, past wrongs will be extended. We have to take up the cudgel and tomorrow is the very day to do so," Moon said, making a special appeal for a strong turnout.

Moon is popular with younger voters while Park's natural constituency is among older, more conservative Koreans, especially those who admired her father.

As older voters traditionally turn out in force, Moon's campaign has pushed hard to ensure his supporters do likewise.

"To abstain is to turn a blind eye to the past five years of wrongs," Moon said.

Both candidates had scheduled a last-day, multi-city campaign blitz on Tuesday.

Polling booths open early Wednesday at 6:00am (2100 GMT Tuesday) and close at 6:00pm.

- AFP/ck

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India lost $123 billion in black money in a decade

WASHINGTON: The Indian economy suffered $1.6 billion in illicit financial outflows in 2010, capping-off a decade in which it experienced black money losses of $123 billion, according to a new report.

India is ranked as the decade's 8th largest victim of illicit capital flight behind China, Mexico, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Philippines, and Nigeria, respectively in the report by Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.

Titled "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2001-2010," the report found that all developing and emerging economies suffered $858.8 billion in illicit outflows in 2010, just below the all-time high of $871.3 billion set in 2008-the year preceding the global financial crisis.

"While progress has been made in recent years, India continues to lose a large amount of wealth in illicit financial outflows," said GFI director Raymond Baker.

"Much focus has been paid in the media on recovering the Indian black money that has already been lost," he said suggesting policymakers should instead make curtailing the ongoing outflow of money priority number one.

"$123 billion is a massive amount of money for the Indian economy to lose," said Dev Kar, GFI lead economist and co-author of the report with GFI economist Sarah Freitas.

"It has very real consequences for Indian citizens. This is more than $100 billion dollars which could have been used to invest in education, healthcare, and upgrade the nation's infrastructure," he said.

A Nov 2010 GFI report, "The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008," found that the Indian economy lost $462 billion to illicit financial outflows from 1948 through 2008.

Authored by Kar, the report measured India's underground economy as 50 percent of GDP, with cumulative illicit outflows accounting for an increasing share of the total underground economy.

The new GFI study also estimates the developing world lost a total of $5.86 trillion to illicit outflows over the decade spanning 2001 through 2010.

The $858.8 billion of illicit outflows lost to all developing countries in 2010 is a significant uptick from 2009, which saw developing nations lose $776.0 billion.

GFI advocated that world leaders increase the transparency in the international financial system as a means to curtail the illicit flow of money highlighted by Kar and Freitas' research.

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee

On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)

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Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.

His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral but was not a member of the family.

Noah's family had been scheduled to greet the public before the funeral service began at 1 p.m. at the Abraham L. Green & Son Funeral Home in Fairfield, Conn. The burial was to follow at the B'nai Israel Cemetery in Monroe, Conn. Those present said they were in awe at the composure of Noah's mother.

Rabbi Edgar Gluck, who attended the service, said the first person to speak was Noah's mother, who told mourners that her son's ambition when he grew up was to be either a director of a plant that makes tacos -- because that was his favorite food -- or to be a doctor.

Outside the funeral home, a small memorial lay with a sign reading: "Our hearts are with you, Noah." A red rose was also left behind along with two teddy bears with white flowers and a blue toy car with a note saying "Noah, rest in peace."

CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video

The funeral home was adorned with white balloons as members of the surrounding communities came also to pay their respects, which included a rabbi from Bridgeport. More than a dozen police officers were at the front of the funeral home, and an ambulance was on standby at a gas station at the corner.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. and Sen.-Elect Chris Murphy and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, all of Connecticut, were in attendance, the Connecticut Post reported.

Noah was an inquisitive boy who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically, The Associated Press reported. His twin sister, Arielle, was one of the students who survived when her teacher hid her class in the bathroom during the attack.

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

The twins celebrated their sixth birthday last month. Noah's uncle Alexis Haller told the AP that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak. He called his twin sister his best friend.

"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said.

The funeral for Jack Pinto, 6, was also held today, at the Honan Funeral Home in Newtown. He was to be buried at Newtown Village Cemetery.

Jack's family said he loved football, skiing, wrestling and reading, and he also loved his school. Friends from his wrestling team attended his funeral today in their uniforms. One mourner said the message during the service was: "You're secure now. The worst is over."

Family members say they are not dwelling on his death, but instead on the gift of his life that they will cherish.

The family released a statement, saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."

"He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life," the statement said. "Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."

Jack and Noah were two of 20 children killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 20-year-old Adam Lanza sprayed two first-grade classrooms with bullets that also killed six adults.

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Obama in Newtown, Conn.: ‘You’re not alone in your grief’ over school massacre

NEWTOWN, Conn. — President Obama offered words of solace to a heartbroken and inconsolable community Sunday, meeting with loved ones of the dead from Sandy Hook Elementary School and lamenting at a nationally televised memorial service that the United States has failed in its duty “to keep our children, all of them,” safe from harm.

“Whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide,” Obama vowed, addressing a grief-stricken audience of hundreds in the auditorium of the town’s high school. Many more listeners crowded near speakers in the school’s gym, while others huddled outside in a cold drizzle, holding candles and weeping at times.

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Incoming Japan PM pledges no compromise on islands

TOKYO - Incoming Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe came out fighting Monday after his sweeping election victory, saying there can be no compromise on the sovereignty of islands at the centre of a dispute with China.

Abe, whose conservative Liberal Democratic Party secured a comfortable win in national polls Sunday, acknowledged Japan's relationship with China was important but stuck to the hard line he pushed throughout the campaign.

"The Senkaku islands are Japan's inherent territory," he told a press conference, referring to an archipelago Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

"Japan owns and controls the islands... under international law. There is no room for negotiation on this point".

But he also struck a slightly more conciliatory note, saying he wanted to "deepen dialogue" with China.

"We need to have wisdom not to turn political issues into economic issues," he said.

Abe's large electoral margin boosted hopes for the country's problem-plagued economy, with investors pushing stocks up as the painfully high yen eased.

The one-time premier has vowed to put the moribund economy back on track after years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

Topping his agenda was a promise to pressure the Bank of Japan into more aggressive easing policies aimed at kick-starting growth as the world's third-largest economy slips into recession.

All eyes will be on the bank's policy meeting this week to see whether the central bankers move in line with Abe's wishes.

Investors are increasingly betting on some action from the central bank, with the yen tumbling against the dollar and euro on Monday while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock index surged 0.94 per cent by the close.

Voters on Sunday dumped Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda three years after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised a change from more than half a century of almost unbroken LDP rule. The result cost Noda his party leadership.

The rout was completed by news that the LDP and its junior coalition party New Komeito had secured a large enough majority in the lower house to overrule the upper chamber.

"Control of two-thirds of lower house seats would alleviate concerns about divided control of the Diet's two chambers," brokerage giant Nomura said in a note.

"It is also likely to fuel expectations, particularly among foreign investors, of more expeditious policymaking."

Fukushima operator TEPCO was a big winner on Monday, with its shares rocketing 33 per cent, at the head of a charge by energy firms as investors cheered the likely end to a nascent move to snuff out atomic power.

Anti-nuclear sentiment has run high in Japan since last year's Fukushima atomic crisis, with opinion polls showing a majority of voters want to phase out nuclear power.

But the mood failed to translate into success for parties pushing for an atomic exit.

Analysts, however, say the LDP's victory came by default -- with voters disenchanted by the DPJ after three years of flip-flops, policy missteps and diplomatic drift, but having little faith in any of the alternatives.

With turnout at a record low and voters complaining of no real choice, even Abe acknowledged the result was not a ringing endorsement.

"I think this result means a 'no' to the political confusion of the DPJ. People will be strictly watching if the LDP will be able to live up to expectations."

Abe's offer to boost spending on infrastructure was standard fare from the LDP playbook but chimed with voters in the northeast, where the devastation of the March 2011 tsunami is still evident.

His win stoked speculation that whoever is appointed to replace BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa next year will favour a more aggressive easing stance.

"Foreign investors are likely to remain bullish, betting that Mr. Abe will fulfil his promises to turn on the fiscal taps," Kenichi Kubo, senior fund manager at Tokio Marine Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.

He is likely to "pressure the Bank of Japan into much more aggressive asset purchases to pull Japan out of recession and prolonged deflation".

However, Credit Agricole said in a note that "it is not obvious that coalition parties will be as welcoming" to Abe's aggressive policies.

- CNA/ck

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Parliament disrupted over quota bill, Muslim reservation

NEW DELHI: Both Houses of Parliament were disrupted on Monday as Samajwadi Party (SP) members voiced their protest over the bill on reservations in government job promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and implementation of the Sachar Committee report on minorities.

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha vote on the controversial quota bill, SP member Ram Gopal Yadav in the Upper House called for implementation of the Sachar Committee report which recommended reservation for Muslims.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari asked him to raise the issue during zero hour and let the question hour run smoothly.

But SP's Naresh Aggarwal asked its members to gather near the chairman's podium, following which the chair adjourned the house for half-an-hour.

Similar scenes were visible in the Lok Sabha, where SP led by its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav raised the issue of reservation in government job promotions.

SP members rushed towards the speaker's podium, raising slogans against the bill and disrupting question hour.

Speaker Meira Kumar appealed for peace and told the SP it would be given time to raise the matter during zero hour.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath also tried to pacify SP members but the protests continued. Finally, the speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 p.m. and then till noon.

While the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been pressing the government to pass the bill, the SP has issued veiled threats saying it could reconsider its outside support to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) if the bill is passed.

Parliament has been disrupted frequently over the issue since the winter session started on November 22.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Obama: Nation Faces 'Hard Questions' After Shooting

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would do everything in his power to "engage" a dialogue with Americans, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, because "we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change."

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama: 'Newtown You Are Not Alone' Watch Video

Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting: Remembering the Victims Watch Video

The president was not specific about what he thought would be necessary and did not even use the word "gun" in his remarks, but his speech was widely perceived as prelude to a call for more regulations and restrictions on the availability of firearms.

The grieving small town hosted the memorial service this evening as the the nation pieces together the circumstances that led to a gunman taking 26 lives Friday at the community's Sandy Hook Elementary School, most first graders.

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside your body all of the time, walking around," he said, speaking of the joys and fears of raising children.

"So it comes as a shock at a certain point when you realize no matter how much you love these kids you can't do it by yourself," he continued. "That this job of protecting kids and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, with the help of a community, and the help of a nation."

CLICK HERE for Full Coverage of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook

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