Tool Kit: Equipment for the Mayan Apocalypse, or a Lesser Emergency

We may have only a few hours to live. On Friday, the Mayan calendar will come to an end, leading some to predict that the world will spiral into chaos. It could be the end of days. Locusts could swarm the earth, destroying crops. Tornadoes the size of Florida could shred Europe. Thousand-foot waves could crash over Idaho. Zombies! Flesh-eating viruses, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together.

Or just maybe, as with every other predicted apocalypse before it, nothing will happen. We could just wake up on Friday, roll out of bed, grab our coffee and go to work. Another day in the life.

Either way, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. You’ll want to be prepared for the end. And if it’s not the end, these supplies will help you when the next subapocalyptic event happens: another hurricane, perhaps, or a blackout, earthquake, blizzard or typhoon.

Given that most of our lives are now hyperdependent on things that require power, you should stock up on batteries. Lots of them. Amazon sells packs of 20 or 48 AA or AAA batteries for as little as $10. Solar panels, or at least devices that incorporate them, are a must too. The WakaWaka solar lamp, $40, can provide up to 16 hours of light on a full charge.

Sometimes sunlight is in short supply. The Etón BoostTurbine 1000 is a power generator that can be hand-cranked to charge a cellphone or other gadgets. If you’re hiding from zombies in a basement and your iPad is about to die, just plug it in and crank the wheel, and you can finish that game of Angry Birds. Cranking for one minute will give your cellphone enough power for a 30-second call.

There is, of course, a chance that your phone will not work, so if you want to get around and communicate with people, be prepared to travel back in time. Before cellphones, there were these things called maps that were made of paper, or plastic. Be sure to have a few showing your local city and state highways. If the power is out, there might not be any Twitter or Facebook either — gasp! — so you’ll have to leave notes the old-fashioned way: with a pen and paper. Don’t forget tape. Duct tape or electrician’s tape has a multitude of uses.

You might want to pick up a pair of two-way radios too. The Motorola MH230R has an astounding range of 23 miles and can operate for up to 10 hours on a charge. These walkie-talkies can also pick up 11 weather channels from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

You will want some canned food: tuna, spaghetti, fruit, pinto beans, vegetables and some soups. (Buy a hand can opener, too, as your electric one needs electricity.) You can also order freeze-dried foods from a camping store. Don’t forget food for your lovable pets.

Studies show that humans can last a couple of weeks without food, but most people can last only three to five days without water.

If you have the money, invest in a Lifesaver Bottle, $230, which can filter out bacteria, chemicals and toxins from your water supply. A less expensive alternative is the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, $25, which is essentially a fancy straw that, it is claimed, removes 99.9 percent of waterborne parasites. Some people swear by tomato juice, which will quench your thirst while providing nutrition.

You will need a stove to warm up all of those wonderful canned foods. Jet Boil Sol Advanced Cooking Stoves, $100, are go-to items for campers these days. They have an all-in-one top from which you can both cook and eat. They also have a one-button starter, and are compact for easy storage. Get a few extra fuel canisters.

Cash is king in a catastrophe. In 2003, during the New York City blackout, I was caught in the subway when the power went out. When I finally emerged from the tunnels, escorted by the police, I realized I had only $14 in cash on me. Credit cards and A.T.M.’s were useless. Keep a wad of bills and change in your apocalypse kit.

In case you have to hit the road to flee a zombie invasion, grab some Mylar thermal blankets, $10 for a pack of 10. They look like tinfoil, but can actually hold in 90 percent of your body heat. There are also Hothands hand warmers, which can be purchased in packs of 40 for $20.

In the unlikely event of a nuclear emergency, it would be good to have some potassium iodide tablets, $8 for 14. These little pills can reduce the chance of thyroid damage.

You will be amazed how dark it can be at night without a dozen light bulbs glowing in your living room, so stock up on flashlights. You can get a couple that require batteries, but also have backups that don’t need them, even though these might not be quite as bright. Forever Flashlights ($30) can be shaken up and down to create power. They actually do work: shaking for seconds will generate up to five minutes of light.

If you think the world might take a while to wind down, you might want to invest in a generator. They start at around $300 and go up into the thousands. Don’t forget to pick up fuel to run it, though. And you might want to make sure your fire extinguisher is working, in case fireballs start falling from the sky or the toaster goes berserk.

Take a look at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Ready.gov Web site, which tells you how much water and food you will need for an emergency and offers a list of things you should always have at the ready. The agency recommends water canisters or sealed jugs so you do not have to drink from your bathtub.

Finally, don’t forget to have a camera fully charged and some extra batteries so you can document your particular angle on the apocalypse. This way, when society finally rebuilds itself, you’ll be able to post those awesome photos on Twitter and Facebook.

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Robert Bork, failed Supreme Court nominee, dies at age 85

Robert H. Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination in 1987 infuriated conservatives and politicized the confirmation process for the ensuing decades, died Wednesday at the age of 85. 

The former Yale law professor and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had a history of heart problems and had been in poor health for some time.

But Bork was a towering figure for an early generation of conservatives. In the 1960s and '70s, he argued that a liberal-dominated Supreme Court was abusing its power and remaking American life by ending prayers in public schools, by extending new rights to criminals, by ordering cross-town busing and by voiding the laws against abortion.

PHOTOS: Robert Bork | March 1, 1927 - Dec. 19, 2012

He was an influential legal advisor in the Nixon administration and served as a footnote to history in the Watergate scandal. When the embattled president ordered the firing of special counsel Archibald Cox, the attorney general and his deputy resigned in protest. Bork, who was in the No. 3 post as U.S. solicitor general, then carried out Nixon’s order.

But Bork’s biggest moment came during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. He left Yale and came to Washington when Reagan appointed him to the U.S. court of appeals in the District of Columbia. The job was seen as a steppingstone to the high court.

In 1986, Bork was passed over for a younger colleague when Reagan named Judge Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. A year later, Bork’s turn came when Justice Lewis Powell, the swing vote on the closely divided court, announced his retirement.

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2012

Democrats, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, launched an all-out attack on Bork’s nomination, saying he would set back the cause of civil rights, women’s rights and civil liberties.

The summer of 1987 saw campaign-style attacks on Bork’s reputation.  In televised hearings, the bearded, heavy-set professor tried to explain his views, but he won few converts. The Senate defeated his nomination by a 58-42 vote.

In his place, Reagan eventually chose Judge Anthony Kennedy, who was confirmed unanimously. The switch proved to have lasting consequences. Kennedy cast decisive votes to uphold Roe vs. Wade and to preserve the ban on school-sponsored prayers.

Bork stepped down from the bench a year after his defeat, but wrote several books renewing his criticism of liberalism. In the past year, he served as a chairman of Mitt Romney’s advisory committee on the judiciary and the courts.

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Benghazi Commission Practically Demands Pain Rays at Embassies

Want to stop the next riot at a U.S. embassy? The commission into the September assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has an unexpected suggestion: load them up with exotic, supposedly non-lethal weaponry. Not that the commission has much confidence in the security personnel who’d operate the controversial gear.

In its newly released report into the Benghazi disaster, an independent commission assembled by the State Department found that, among other security failures, “the lack of non-lethal crowd control options” at the consulate “precluded a more vigorous defense.” (.pdf) The September attack, in which Libyans assaulted the sparsely defended consulate with rockets, mortars, machine-gun fire and more, killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The commission doesn’t explicitly endorse any particular form of non-lethal defense of diplomatic installations. But the obvious options would be a laser flash that “dazzles” oncoming attackers, an ear-splitting sonic blaster … and a microwave-like pain ray that make targets feel like they’re being hit with the exhaust of a giant oven. The first two weapons have been used by U.S. military forces overseas in recent years. The third one was pulled from Afghanistan because it was considered too controversial.

The commission does not consider such weaponry a panacea. It does find that the State Department is behind the curve on exploring how those technologies, however. “There have been technological advancements in non-lethal deterrents,” it writes, “and the State Department should ensure it rapidly and routinely identifies and procures additional options for non-lethal deterrents in high risk, high threat posts and trains personnel on their use.”

The U.S. military has been experimenting with non-lethal crowd control systems for years. One of the marquee projects of its Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate is a millimeter-wave gun called the Active Denial System. Intended for the perimeter defense of a base, the truck-mounted weapon blasts angry mobs with 12 joules of focused energy per square centimeter. The blast doesn’t penetrate the skin, but — as I learned first-hand in March — it very rapidly creates an unbearable burning sensation, prompting anyone in its path to involuntarily move out of the way.

Another non-lethal option: sonic blasters like the Long-Range Acoustic Device or the Inferno, which cause, in the words of Danger Room co-founder Sharon Weinberger, “the most unbearable, gut-wrenching noise I’ve ever heard in my life.” The Long-Range Acoustic Device, for instance, fires sound waves at a 300-meter distance, and has been used against pirates; a related Israeli weapon, called the Scream, was put to work in 2009 to literally nauseate protesters.

But the commission’s brief plaudit for less-lethal weaponry doesn’t consider some of the very real drawbacks of these systems, both technical and, er, diplomatic. The commission notes that the Benghazi attack happened too quickly for the U.S. military to respond to. That would also be too fast for the Active Denial System, which needs a 16-hour boot-up time if the energy-intensive device isn’t constantly running. It also doesn’t work as well in dusty, rainy, snowy or other poor-weather conditions.

Then there are the diplomatic problems with the weapons. The Active Denial System was recalled from Afghanistan after a brief deployment in 2010 out of fear that the Taliban would effectively portray it as a sterilization device. Mounting one of these on the walls of an embassy would not exactly send the message that the U.S. is eager to work with the locals on matters of mutual interest.

But the Benghazi commission also provides little confidence in the security officers who’d have to operate and oversee the non-lethal weapons. The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security comes across in the commission’s report as barely able to manage the resources that it already has. Not only did the Benghazi consulate depend on a “poorly skilled” Libyan militia and unarmed guards from the Blue Mountain security firm, the commission found the Diplomatic Security bureau needs to “upgrade surveillance cameras at high risk, high threat posts for greater resolution, nighttime visibility, and monitoring capability beyond post”; create an “action plan” about what to do about “the use of fire as a weapon against diplomatic facilities”; and “revisit [its] high-threat training with respect to active internal defense and fire survival.”

That makes it sound like the Bureau of Diplomatic Security is under-prepared at the basics of protecting diplomatic outposts. And it’s not the first time the directorate has come in for criticism. A 2007 State Department inquiry found that the bureau exercised inadequate oversight of its private security force in Iraq, owing to under-staffing and meager budgets. (That’s something Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is asking Congress to correct.) In Afghanistan, Diplomatic Security contracted out for embassy guards that couldn’t speak English, despite repeated warnings from embassy personnel that such a move jeopardized an effective response to a crisis.

Veterans of the bureau describe a hidebound bureaucracy insulated from accountability, especially as it had always succeeded at its core job of keeping diplomats alive. Until Benghazi.

“The [Diplomatic Security] Bureau showed a lack of proactive senior leadership with respect to Benghazi,” the commission writes, “failing to ensure that the priority security needs of a high risk, high threat post were met.” The commission, however, stops short at recommending anyone inside the bureau be fired over Benghazi, punting on that suggestion to “future” studies. But the report appears to have prompted the resignations of top Diplomatic Security officials, including Amb. Eric Boswell. Not exactly the people you’d want manning your acoustic cannons and heat rays.

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A Minute With: Jessica Chastain on “Zero Dark Thirty”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jessica Chastain carries the weight of starring in one of the year’s most anticipated films, “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the decade-long hunt and eventual killing of Osama bin Laden.

Critics say Chastain pulls it off seamlessly as “Maya,” based on a real-life CIA agent who played a major role in tracking down bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan.

As the film opens in limited U.S. release on Wednesday, Chastain, who is tipped as a likely best actress Oscar nominee for the role, talked to Reuters about playing a character she could not meet and why the film is an important look at America’s role in a dark war.

Q. What did you think when you saw this film finished?

A. “It is a tough one for me to watch, because there is so much responsibility with playing this woman. I find her to be incredible. And I didn’t want to change her story or make her a Hollywood version, with a lot of makeup. I didn’t want to trivialize what she did … I want her to like it, but I don’t know if she will ever see it.”

Q. How did you play someone you had never met?

A. “There was three months of working with (screenplay writer) Mark Boal, doing research, reading lists and talking to people. And then anything I could not solve through research, like what is her favorite candy – ’cause when we are all overseas we have something we do when we are homesick – I had to answer that question myself.”

Q. Boal hasn’t gone into too much detail about her?

A. “We have to protect her because she is an undercover CIA operative, still working.”

Q. What else did you know about her?

A. “When we finished the movie, when the Navy Seal book ‘No Easy Day’ came out. I raced to go read it, because I was like, ‘I need to know if my character is in the book!’ And they talk about Jen, the young CIA girl. Well, everything matched up. She was the only one that said 100 percent ‘he is there.’… They talked about how she had been on it close to a decade and they were only on it for 40 minutes. They said she was crying on the airplane afterwards.”

Q. During filming, were you ever worried about your safety, that the film might be misconstrued?

A. “As an actor you always worry about that. Because you think, maybe someone will see a film and they won’t understand the difference between acting and reality. The good thing is, what (director Kathryn Bigelow) and Mark have done, is that they have not made a propaganda film. They tried to make it as authentic as possible and respectful of the actual historical event as they could. That includes showing the intense interrogation techniques that were used. The end of the film – it’s not a lot of fist pumping and saying, ‘Here is our journey over 10 years and it was so difficult and we finally did it.’ It ends actually on a very different note.”

Q. Can you elaborate on that?

A. “Well, for me the whole thing is about the arc of this woman. She shows up in the beginning and she is wearing her best suit. She thinks she knows what she is in for, and she is completely out of her element. But over the 10 years, this woman, who has been trained to be unemotional and analytically precise … we see her struggling to keep it contained for 10 years and as she descends down the rabbit hole of the world she is in.

“So finally at the end when she is asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ there is no way to answer that question. … She has no idea where she belongs, now that this is done. But not only does it speak in terms of that, but the movie ends with that question – where do you want to go? Where do we go now as a country? Where do we go as a society? It is not a movie that ends with an answer, and I find that powerful.”

Q. How did you cope with filming the torture scenes?

A. “We filmed in a real Jordanian prison, in the middle of nowhere. The environment wasn’t great, especially as a woman.

“They had a lot of trust between the actors, nothing was dangerous or unsafe. There was a lot of discussion to make sure that we weren’t doing something that was going to be salacious. They just wanted it to be accurate.

“I know I am playing a character who has trained to be unemotional. But I have spent my entire life allowing myself to be emotional, and allowing myself to feel everything. … There was actually one day that we were doing a scene, and I said, ‘I am sorry’ and I just had to walk away, and I just started crying … it was a very intense experience.”

Q. You are a top chance for Oscar nomination. Would that be more or less rewarding for this role?

A. “Because she is still an active member of the CIA and undercover, she can’t take credit for what she’s done. … And by making this film, it is my idea as a way of thanking her. It would be very emotional because of that.”

Q. You compare your character to getting lost down a CIA rabbit hole. What about your own dizzying rise as an actress?

A. “That’s a good question. I do think that next year I need to go somewhere for a month and be in a room by myself and be like, ‘Ok, what now Jessica?’ But I am nowhere near where she was at the end of this mission.”

(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant and Doina Chiacu)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Irish Government Set to Allow Abortion in Rare Cases

DUBLIN — The Irish government said Tuesday that it was preparing to allow abortion under limited circumstances in an effort to comply with demands by the European Court of Human Rights to clarify the country’s legal position on the issue.

Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

A vigil was held in Dublin on Monday in memory of Dr. Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist who died after being denied an abortion.

The proposed legislative and regulatory changes would allow abortion only in cases where there is a real and substantial risk to a woman’s life — as distinct from her health.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortion was permissible when risk was present, but the government never passed a law to that effect.

Addressing Parliament after the announcement, Prime Minister Enda Kenny was at pains to emphasize that the proposals would allow abortion only in certain cases. He added that the threat of suicide could be among them.

The abortion debate has convulsed Ireland for decades, but calls for change reached a crescendo after the death of Dr. Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, in October. Dr. Halappanavar arrived at a Galway hospital in severe pain and was found to be miscarrying. Her fetus had a heartbeat, making termination of the pregnancy illegal under Irish law. She died of septicemia a week after admission.

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A search for normality as Newtown schools reopen after massacre

The Newtown tragedy was in the minds of many as schools opened as usual across the country. Lee Woodruff met with a group of teachers in Westchester County, N.Y., about getting back to work after a difficult weekend.

By Tina Susman and Michael Muskal

December 18, 2012, 9:31 a.m.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Amid increased security, schools reopened here on Tuesday as this town searched for a road back to normality after last week’s massacre at a local elementary school.

Funerals for the 20 first-graders and six adults killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School will continue throughout the week. Two children were buried on Monday amid the cold and rain and two more funerals are scheduled for Tuesday.

Sandy Hook remained closed, however, and will likely be shuttered for months as authorities continue their investigation into the shooting spree by Adam Lanza, 20, who killed himself after invading the school, opening fire on students and staff and then turning a gun on himself.

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Photos: Massacre at elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

Who they were: Connecticut school shooting victims

Full coverage: Connecticut school shooting

Transcript and video: Obama's speech

Timeline: Deadliest U.S. mass shootings

The weapons Lanza used were legally owned by his mother, Nancy, who was the first of the 28 people who died from bullets that morning.

Yellow school buses rumbled along roads Tuesday morning, some still dotted with makeshift memorials to those who were slain. Children laden with book bags waited outside their homes for the buses.

 PHOTOS: Shooting at Connecticut school

But it was clear this would not be a normal day for them despite teachers' efforts and the stepped-up presence oflawenforcement. Staffers met on Monday with psychologists and other specialists to hear how to handle their own grief and children's questions.

“It's important to try to make things feel normal for her,” a mother who would give only her first name -- Barbara -- said, explaining why she decided to have her 8-year-old daughter head back to classes.

 FULL COVERAGE: Shooting at Connecticut school

Barbara, who was driving her daughter to school, said she knew not all parents would be comfortable letting their kids go into the schools, even with extra security. “I'll be a lot more anxious than usual,” she admitted.

Newtown police Lt. George Sinko said sending children back to school is a personal choice and parents would have to make their own decisions.

“I can't imagine what it must be like being a parent with a child that young, putting them on a school bus,” Sinko said.

In addition to trying to reassure parents, the increased police presence helped keep the media from the schools. Police have also said they will severely prosecute anyone perpetrating hoaxes, such as two telephone calls saying there were bombs on the grounds of a local church, St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.

Police have been told to act aggressively, as they did in nearby Ridgefield on Monday where they shut down schools amid reports of a suspicious man at the train station. After investigating, police told reporters there was no threat.

In addition to the investigation at Ridgefield, about 20 miles from Newtown, there have been reports across the country of closures by anxious officials. Two schools were locked down in South Burlington, Vt., and a high school in Windham, N.H., was briefly locked down. Neither case involved any threat.

Two more children will be buried on Tuesday and both funerals will be held at St. Rose, which has been a center of grief counseling and community support. Services will be held for 6-year-olds Jessica Rekos and James Mattioli.

Jessica was avid about horses and had asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat this year, according to her family. “Jessica loved everything about horses,” her parents, Rich and Krista Rekos, said in a statement. “She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses and writing stories about horses.”

James was described by his relatives as a “numbers guy” who loved math.

On Monday, two funeral homes were filled with mourners for Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6. Pozner had a Jewish service and Pinto a Christian one.

Noah Pozner’s twin, Arielle, survived the rampage because she was assigned a different classroom.

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Islamic Extremists Rescue NBC Reporter Held in Syria

When Americans encounter jihadi groups in warzones, it can often mean captivity or even execution. Except in Syria, where they just rescued NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent from a days-long ordeal.

Six days ago, Richard Engel and his production team were captured while traveling in northwest Syria with a rebel group when they were taken captive by forces loyal to dictator Bashar Assad. One of the rebels was killed on sight by the 15 loyalist gunmen, and the American crew was subject to death threats and what Engel described as “psychological torture.” But the loyalist plan was to orchestrate an exchange of prisoners with the rebels. Until they ran into a leading Syrian jihadist group.

While Engel and his team were blindfolded and shoved into the back of a truck, the loyalists unwittingly stopped at a checkpoint run by Ahrar al-Sham. As Engel recounted on the Today Show Tuesday, fighters for the jihadist group confronted the loyalists and a firefight broke out, killing two of the loyalists. Ahrar al-Sham let Engel and his producers leave Syria unharmed, and posted the above video of the NBC team to its YouTube channel.

The U.S. is supposed to be in an epic global struggle with Islamic extremism. But the Arab revolutions of the past two years have shuffled the deck. Like with Libya in 2011, the U.S.’ sometimes-reluctant call for the ouster of regional dictators has put Washington effectively on the same side as some of the jihadist groups it fears will take power. In Syria, the U.S. is especially wary of the jihadi fighters, many of whom are believed to be veterans of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Securing Engel’s freedom is a particularly unexpected turn for Ahrar al-Sham, which the Associated Press describes as “Islamic fundamentalist brigade home to many foreign jihadis.” A recently revamped rebel command structure excluded the group, along with the al-Qaida-aligned Jabhat al-Nusra, seemingly to secure Western backing. Such groups are given to criticizing the U.S. — not for intervening in Syria, but for not intervening enough in Syria, and being prissy about the company it keeps.

Ahrar al-Sham might give Westerners pause. But Danger Room pal Matt Fanning, a Fort Worth-based IT consultant who closely tracks Syrian rebel groups, says the jihadist organization is one of the most effective and the most media-savvy of the rebel coalition. Their weapons of choice include roadside bombs and car bombs, tactics that “clearly came from Iraq,” Fanning says.

Ahrar al-Sham is also one of the most prolific Syrian jihadi groups on YouTube. Ahrar al-Sham takes video cameras along on raids — to capture giant explosions for upload — and doesn’t mind displaying maps of its operations against Assad’s forces. “Sham also releases probably three to five videos a day where Nusra is good for about one to three a week,” Fanning says.

But Ahrar al-Sham’s ideology is no less extreme. It’s issued religious edicts against the ruling Alawite minority and has been criticized for rounding up Shias as hostages. “I agree with al-Qaida on certain things and disagree on others,” one Ahrar al-Sham fighter, a veteran of al-Qaida in Iraq, told The New York Times in July. His nuanced view of suicide bombing: OK against government troops, not OK against civilians.

As BuzzFeed recounts, NBC worked hard to keep reporters from mentioning Engel’s captivity, for fear that publicity might jeopardize his safety. That’s no idle concern: The Committee to Protect Journalists says Syria is “by far the deadliest country” for reporters, with 28 “killed in combat or targeted for murder” in 2012 by the various warring factions. Engel and his team are some of the lucky ones — and unexpectedly lucky that they ran into one of Syria’s leading jihadist organizations.

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HBO making “Game of Thrones”-themed beer

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Winter is coming – and so is a new line of beers based on HBO‘s fantasy drama “Game of Thrones.” Presumably, all will boast a full, robust head, perhaps resting on top of a spike.

HBO is teaming with Cooperstown, N.Y. brewery Ommegang for a line of brews centered around the series, the New York Times reports. The first beer, Iron Throne Blonde Ale, is slated to go on sale in March, in time for the March 31 premiere of the show’s third season.

It sounds like the perfect libation for watching the premiere from the comfort of your $ 30,000 Iron Throne replica.

A second “GoT”-themed beer will go on sale in fall 2013, with two more varieties expected to go on sale in conjunction with new seasons of the series.

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Attackers in Pakistan Kill Anti-Polio Workers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Five Pakistani women and a man were killed on Tuesday in separate attacks on health workers participating in a national drive to eradicate polio from Pakistan.

Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

The bodies of two female workers with an anti-polio drive lay in the morgue at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi on Tuesday.

Athar Hussain/Reuters

Family members mourned the death of Nasima Bibi, a female worker with an anti-polio drive campaign in Pakistan, who was shot by gunmen on Tuesday.

The attacks forced health officials to temporarily suspend a large polio vaccination drive in Karachi, the country’s most populous city, where the disease has been making a worrisome comeback in recent years.

Saghir Ahmed, the health minister for southern Sindh Province, said he had ordered the 24,000 aid workers taking part in the campaign in Karachi to immediately stop work. It was not clear when they would resume.

The shooting represented a brutal setback to polio immunization efforts in Pakistan, one of just three countries in the world where the disease remains endemic. Pakistan accounted for 198 new cases last year — the highest rate in the world, followed by Afghanistan and Nigeria.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Taliban insurgents have repeatedly vowed to target anti-polio workers, accusing them of being spies.

In the tribal areas along the Afghan border, Taliban leaders have issued religious edicts declaring that the United States runs a spy network under the guise of vaccination programs.

That perception was strengthened after the American commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in June 2011, when it emerged that the Central Intelligence Agency had paid a Pakistani doctor to run a vaccination program in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was hiding, in a bid to obtain DNA evidence from his family.

Pakistani authorities arrested the doctor, Shakil Afridi, shortly after the American raid, and he has been sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Despite the negative perceptions, the government has pressed ahead with a large polio vaccination campaign, usually conducted in three-day spurts involving tens of thousands of health workers who administer medicine to children under 5.

The shootings on Tuesday came on the second day of the latest drive, which has now been called off in Karachi. After an attack on a United Nations doctor from Ghana in Karachi last July, officials were braced for some sort of militant resistance. But the extent and scale of the attacks Tuesday caught the government by surprise.

In the attacks in Karachi, three teams of health volunteers were targeted in poor neighborhoods: Landhi, Orangi and Baldia Town.

Two female aid workers were killed in an attack in Landhi, according to local news reports. In Orangi, unknown gunmen opened fire on a health team, killing one woman and a male volunteer. Another female worker was killed in nearby Baldia Town.

The Karachi neighborhoods where aid workers were targeted Tuesday are being used as safe havens by militants, who have escaped American drone strikes in North and South Waziristan tribal regions, according to police officials. Security forces regularly conduct search operations in these neighborhoods.

In the northwestern city of Peshawar, gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on two sisters who had volunteered to help administer polio drops, killing one.

The attacks on polio workers followed a bold Taliban assault on a major Pakistan Air Force base in Peshawar over the weekend that killed at least 15 people and a militant bomb attack in a nearby tribal village on Monday that killed another 19.

For Pakistan’s beleaguered progressives, the attack on female health workers was another sign of how the country’s extremist fringe would stoop to attack the vulnerable and minorities.

“Ahmadis, Shias, Hazaras, Christians, child activists, doctors, anti-polio workers — who’s next on the target list, Pakistan?” asked Mira Hashmi, a lecturer in film studies at the Lahore School of Economics, in a post on Twitter.

Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Karachi

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Renault to Build Assembly Plant in Algeria

PARIS — Renault will sign a deal with Algeria on Wednesday to build an assembly plant near the city of Oran, giving the French automaker wider access to one of the world’s hottest car markets and a chance to further diversify beyond Europe.

The company will sign the pact, three years in the making, on the first day of a state visit by the French president, François Hollande, a Renault spokeswoman, Rochelle Chimenes, said Tuesday.

That will pave the way for the construction of a factory to build Renault and Dacia cars to serve a market that grew 50 percent in the year through October.

Mr. Hollande is embarking on a two-day visit to smooth France’s tricky relations with Algeria, a petroleum-rich country with about 37 million people. Algeria, administered as a French department in North Africa during the colonial era, won its independence in 1962 after a bloody war. France is nonetheless Algeria’s largest trading partner.

Mr. Hollande, accompanied by a legion of French government and business leaders, is scheduled to meet with his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and to address a joint session of the country’s Parliament.

Algeria, which is the second-largest car market in Africa, after South Africa, is eager to reduce its dependence on the petroleum sector, which accounts for about one-third of its economy.

But restrictions on foreign investment that were enacted after the financial crisis and a failure to modernize the banking system continue to hold back the country’s economic development, according to the U.S. State Department.

Oliver Masetti, an economist at Deutsche Bank, estimates that, depending on oil prices, the Algerian economy will grow up to 2.6 percent this year and as much as 3.4 percent in 2013 — a modest increase by developing world standards.

Renault controls about 27 percent of the Algerian market, and its sales have soared about 57 percent there this year. Its Clio supermini car is the country’s best-selling model.

In Morocco, Renault opened a factory this year in Tangier to make cars for export to European and Mediterranean markets.

Renault is better diversified globally than its ailing French rival, PSA Peugeot Citroën, thanks in part to its alliance with Nissan Motor.

But it is looking for growth outside the European Union, which is gripped by recession and faces the possibility that austerity measures will mean years of stagnation.

La Tribune, a French financial daily, reported Tuesday that Mr. Hollande would raise with his hosts the possibility that the Algerian government dip into its $200 billion of foreign reserves to take a stake in Peugeot, which is undergoing a painful restructuring to stay afloat. Any such request would probably fall on deaf ears, the newspaper cited an unidentified Algerian official as saying.

Cécile Damide, a spokeswoman for Peugeot, declined to comment.

Sales of new cars in the 27-nation European Union fell 7.6 percent in the first 11 months of 2012 from a year earlier, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Sales declined in every major market except Britain, bringing absolute sales to a level last seen in 1993.

The Algerian government will hold 51 percent of the new factory, with Renault owning the rest, the French daily newspaper Le Figaro reported Tuesday, without identifying its source.

The company declined to comment on the details, but such an arrangement would be consistent with the standard foreign investment contract in Algeria. Le Figaro also said the plant would begin operation in 2014 with annual production of about 25,000 vehicles, which could grow to 75,000.

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