Iran hedges on nuclear talks with six powers or U.S.

MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspects is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb, have been all but deadlocked for years, while Iran has continued to announce advances in the program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a suggestion on Saturday by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington was ready for direct talks with Iran if Tehran was serious about negotiations was a "step forward".

"We take these statements with positive consideration. I think this is a step forward but ... each time we have come and negotiated it was the other side unfortunately who did not heed ... its commitment," Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference where Biden made his overture a day earlier.

He also complained to Iran's English-language Press TV of "other contradictory signals", pointing to the rhetoric of "keeping all options on the table" used by U.S. officials to indicate they are willing to use force to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"This does not go along with this gesture (of talks) so we will have to wait a little bit longer and see if they are really faithful this time," Salehi said.

Iran is under a tightening web of sanctions. Israel has also hinted it may strike if diplomacy and international sanctions fail to curb Iran's nuclear drive.

In Washington, Army General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States has the capability to stop any Iranian effort to build nuclear weapons, but Iranian "intentions have to be influenced through other means."

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his comments on NBC's program "Meet the Press," speaking alongside outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Panetta said current U.S. intelligence indicated that Iranian leaders have not made a decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon.

"But every indication is they want to continue to increase their nuclear capability," he said. "And that's a concern. And that's what we're asking them to stop doing."

The new U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, has said he will give diplomacy every chance of solving the Iran standoff.

THE BEST CHANCE

With six-power talks making little progress, some experts say talks between Tehran and Washington could be the best chance, perhaps after Iran has elected a new president in June.

Negotiations between Iran and the six powers - Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany - have been deadlocked since a meeting last June.

EU officials have accused Iran of dragging its feet in weeks of haggling over the date and venue for new talks.

Salehi said he had "good news", having heard that the six powers would meet in Kazakhstan on February 25.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates the efforts of the six powers, confirmed that she had proposed talks in the week of February 25 but noted that Iran had not yet accepted.

Kazakhstan said it was ready to host the talks in either Astana or Almaty.

Salehi said Iran had "never pulled back" from the stuttering negotiations with the six powers. "We still are very hopeful. There are two packages, one package from Iran with five steps and the other package from the (six powers) with three steps."

Iran raised international concern last week by announcing plans to install and operate advanced uranium enrichment machines. The EU said the move, potentially shortening the path to weapons-grade material, could deepen doubts about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel's mission to stop its arch-enemy from acquiring nuclear weapons was "becoming more complex, since the Iranians are equipping themselves with cutting-edge centrifuges that shorten the time of (uranium) enrichment".

"We must not accept this process," said Netanyahu, who is trying to form a new government after winning an election last month. Israel is generally believed to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons.

(Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald and Stephen Brown in Munich, Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty, Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai and Jim Wolf in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Will Dunham)

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Hollande gets hero's welcome in a Mali fearful of future

BAMAKO: President Francois Hollande received a rapturous welcome in Mali on Saturday as he promised that France would stay as long as necessary to continue the fight against Islamist rebels in the country's north.

As troops worked to secure Kidal, the last bastion of radicals who occupied the vast desert north for 10 months before the French army's surprise intervention, Hollande told Malians it was time for Africans to take the lead but that France would not abandon them.

"Terrorism has been pushed back, it has been chased away, but it has not been defeated yet," said Hollande, whose decision to intervene in Mali three weeks ago won him accolades in the former French colony.

"France will stay by your side as long as necessary, as long as it takes for Africans themselves... to replace us," he told a large crowd in the capital, Bamako, at a monument commemorating Mali's independence from France.

Earlier, in the fabled city of Timbuktu, thousands gathered in the central square and danced to the beat of drums -- a forbidden activity during the extremists' occupation -- to welcome the French leader, with shouts of "Vive la France! Long Live Hollande!"

Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore thanked his counterpart for the French troops' "efficiency", which he said had allowed the north to be freed from "barbarity and obscurantism".

Hollande was offered a young camel draped in a French flag as he toured the city.

"The women of Timbuktu will thank Francois Hollande forever," said 53-year-old Fanta Diarra Toure.

"We must tell him that he has cut down the tree but still has to tear up its roots."

Hollande and Traore toured Timbuktu's 700-year-old mud mosque of Djingareyber and the Ahmed Baba library for ancient manuscripts.

As they visited the site of two ancient saints' tombs that the extremists tore down with pickaxes in July, considering them idolatrous, Hollande told the mosque's imam: "There's a real desire to annihilate. There's nothing left."

"We're going to rebuild them, Mr President," said Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, which is trying to assess the scale of the damage to Mali's ancient heritage -- particularly in Timbuktu, a caravan town at the edge of the Sahara that rose to fame in the 14th century as a gold and salt trading hub.

After Hollande's visit, Mali's national football team pulled off a win against Africa Cup of Nations hosts South Africa to go through to the continental championship semi-final, their best performance since 1972 and another welcome boost to national pride amid the crisis.

Traore congratulated the team on national television, and jubilant crowds took to the streets in Bamako despite a state of emergency in place since January 12.

"This victory... is going to help Mali find peace again," said Mamadou Traore in the capital's Same neighbourhood as his children jumped with excitement.

Reprisal attacks

With the rebels ousted from all major towns but Kidal in the northeast, France is keen to hand over to nearly 8,000 African troops slowly being deployed, which the United Nations is considering turning into a formal UN peacekeeping force.

But there are warnings Mali will need long-term help and fears the Islamists will now wage a guerrilla campaign from the sparsely populated north.

The joy of citizens throwing off the yoke of brutal Islamist rule, under which they were denied music and television and threatened with whipping, amputation of limbs and even execution, has been accompanied by a grim backlash against light-skinned citizens seen as supporters of the extremists.

Rights groups have reported summary executions by both the Malian army and the Islamists.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that Malian troops had shot at least 13 suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare and dumped them into wells.

Mali's military was routed at the hands of rebel groups in the north, whose members are mostly light-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs, before the French army came to its aid.

With fears of reprisal attacks high, many Arabs and Tuaregs have fled.

In all, the crisis has caused some 377,000 people to flee their homes, including 150,000 who have sought refuge across Mali's borders, according to the United Nations.

Hollande called on all troops in Mali to show "exemplary" conduct and respect human rights -- an appeal echoed interim president Traore, who promised to lead a national reconciliation process and repeated that he wants to hold elections by July 31.

The French-led intervention has met little resistance, with many of the Islamists believed to have slipped into the desert hills around Kidal -- likely taking seven French hostages with them, officials say.

While largely supported by the French public, the operation has not yet paid domestic political dividends for Hollande, failing to reverse a steep slide in his approval ratings as the economy struggles.

US Vice President Joe Biden praised the French intervention Saturday.

"That's why the United States applauds and stands with France and other partners in Mali, and why we are providing intelligence support, transportation for the French and African troops and refuelling capability for French aircraft," he told top military brass at a security conference in Munich.

-AFP/ac

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MBAs, doctors, engineers surrender soul to service and prayers

* Even a Macintosh Pro often finds it difficult to catch up with Vidhi Desai, 30, its owner and user. An archetypal south-Mumbaiite, she is rich, aggressive, super-confident, loud and questioning. An alumna of JB Petit School and HR College, Vidhi went on to do a double major in international politics and philosophy from Penn State University. The poor little rich kid never had to wait for anything she fancied; her father, a diamond businessman, gave her the liberty to soak in the sights and sounds of the material world. Defying conformity was the elixir of her life, till her guru made her realize that what she saw as freedom was merely slavery to her own moods and conditioning. Heeding to the highest calling of her heart, Vidhi signed up at his school to train to be a nun.

* The change, for him, was dramatic: the neon clothes that he proudly wore gave way to colourless white robes. Nemi Avlani, who slept only after four every morning after a good night of partying, now wakes up at that hour to meditate. An unassuming life in the ashram, simple food and satsangs, he realized, were a bigger high than avant-garde music and bright lights under the disco ball. He decided to renovate his life and renounce the world and all its comforts, familial and material.

Under the mentorship of 46-year-old Rakeshbhai Jhaveri, or Bapaji as he is called, bright young Indian men and women from across the world are signing up — to live a minimalistic life, to give up the comforts they earlier soaked themselves in, to take the vow of celibacy, to shed the excesses they lived in and worked for. To become atmarpits. He has derived the term from atma (soul) and arpit (surrender). Men and women give up all colour as they are admitted to his training school, which though not conventional does follow tradition, says Rakeshbhai, who is himself not a monk. Of late, the school has been opening to not just followers in India, but across the world.

"Two years into the atmarpit deeksha (renunciation), I feel my life has changed," says Vidhi, who like other atmarpits dons a white kurta-pyjama, a jodhpuri jacket and a bead necklace. "It has given me an immediate sense of simplicity, a strong sense of focus. I understand the power of silence, the strength of introspection and I enjoy understanding and studying religious texts."

Atmarpits have turned their face from the garden of earthly delights. They have chosen to lead a life of sadhana (spiritual pursuit) and seva (selfless service). Under the direction of their guru, they progress towards their goal of complete renunciation. They have reached the fourth 'paushad' pratima (fourth level of preparatory monastic practices) out of 11 pratimas for shravaks, or lay worshippers, on their journey to becoming monks.

Under conventional practice, initiation into monkhood comes after immense training. The initiates (not atmarpits) live with monks in temples and the preparatory phase can last anywhere from six months to 10 years, says Babulal Jain, a veritable fount of information on Jainism.

What is dramatically different in the case of atmarpits is the profile of the 72 who have renounced worldly pleasures: most are postgraduates, including medical doctors, engineers and MBAs; many never went to a derasar (Jain temple) or attended sermons given by monks. They are getting drawn back into the fold of Jainism after meeting Bapaji. His satsangs end in a revelry of dance; at times, the audience leaves in tears: it's as if he has pulled them out of chaos, out of turmoil, out of a storm called life. "I have simply cut the path into small pieces," Rakeshbhai says. "I have not done anything great. You are hungry and you have ordered a big pizza. How do you eat it? You slice it. That's what I have done. I have cut the path into small pieces. I have done nothing great."

Though Rakeshbhai is not a monk, he lives like one: always wrapped in a white linen cloth, observing the essential vows of celibacy, aparigraha (non-attachment), ahimsa (non-violence), truth and achaurya (non-stealing) that monks follow to attain liberation. But he travels the world (Jain monks cannot travel by vehicles and have to walk barefoot from one place to another) to set up satsang centres. He, with his atmarpits, is headquartered at his ashram at Dharampur, a village in southern Gujarat; when in Mumbai, he resides with his family at the tony Prithvi Apartments on Altamount Road. "I have consciously left to the last stage of renunciation some things, like travelling around. Because once I take that step, I cannot fulfill my mission of spreading the religion and setting up satsang centres around the world. Once that is over, setting up the centres, because the process is never over, I will take the last step."

A bigger plan will then unfold. "With me, everybody (atmarpits) will take the last set of vows. But by not taking the last set of vows it does not mean it is not monkhood. Because one has decided to surrender oneself to this mission and there is a transformation in thinking. Just the last set of vows remains to be taken. And why will I eventually take them? Because I don't want to be considered a reformist; I want to follow the Jain tradition."

His followers, whose count runs into thousands, support his call. Those who are not atmarpits but attend his sermons, dress in solid white at his lectures at a large congregation hall in central Dadar.

Rakeshbhai completed his master's in philosophy and later pursued his doctoral studies to earn a PhD from the University of Mumbai. Between 1985 and 1990, he observed absolute silence. He has studied Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shankaracharya, Vedanta, Christianity, Islam and Judaism. He uses all that wisdom in his sermons and moves smoothly between religions. "I see truth in everything. Hence I am a true Jain. I don't feel like labelling anything. It's all different levels of truth. Nothing else."

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

___

Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Body of Missing Mom Reportedly Found in Turkey

The body of an American woman who went missing while on a solo trip to Turkey has been pulled from a bay in Istanbul, and nine people have been held for questioning, according to local media.

Sarai Sierra, 33, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board a flight home to New York City.

The state-run Andolu Agency reported that residents found a woman's body today near the ruins of some ancient city walls in a low-income district, and police identified the body as Sierra.

Rep. Michael Grimm, R-NY, who with his staff had been assisting the Sierra family in the search, said he was "deeply saddened" to hear the news of her death.

"I urge Turkish officials to move quickly to identify whomever is responsible for her tragic death and ensure that any guilty parties are punished to the fullest extent of the law," he said in a statement.

Courtesy Sarai Sierra's family

Footage Shows Missing New York Mom in Turkish Mall Watch Video

NYC Woman Goes Missing While Traveling In Turkey Watch Video

New York Mother Goes Missing on Turkish Vacation Watch Video

The New York City mother, who has two young boys, traveled to Turkey alone on Jan. 7 after a friend had to cancel. Sierra, who is an avid photographer with a popular Instagram stream, planned to document her dream vacation with her camera.

"It was her first time outside of the United States, and every day while she was there she pretty much kept in contact with us, letting us know what she was up to, where she was going, whether it be through texting or whether it be through video chat, she was touching base with us," Steven Sierra told ABC News before he departed for Istanbul last Sunday to aid in the search.

Steven Sierra has been in the country, meeting with U.S. officials and local authorities, as they searched for his wife.

On Friday, Turkish authorities detained a man who had spoken with Sierra online before her disappearance. The identity of the man and the details of his arrest were not disclosed, The Associated Press reported.

The family said it is completely out of character for the happily married mother, who met her husband in church youth group, to disappear.

She took two side trips, to Amsterdam and Munich, before returning to Turkey, but kept in contact with her family the entire time, a family friend told ABC News.

Further investigation revealed she had left her passport, clothes, phone chargers and medical cards in her room at a hostel in Beyoglu, Turkey.

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Turkey says tests confirm leftist bombed U.S. embassy

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A member of a Turkish leftist group that accuses Washington of using Turkey as its "slave" carried out a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy, the Ankara governor's office cited DNA tests as showing on Saturday.

Ecevit Sanli, a member of the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), blew himself up in a perimeter gatehouse on Friday as he tried to enter the embassy, also killing a Turkish security guard.

The DHKP-C, virulently anti-American and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, claimed responsibility in a statement on the internet in which it said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was a U.S. "puppet".

"Murderer America! You will not run away from people's rage," the statement on "The People's Cry" website said, next to a picture of Sanli wearing a black beret and military-style clothes and with an explosives belt around his waist.

It warned Erdogan that he too was a target.

Turkey is an important U.S. ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism. Leftist groups including the DHKP-C strongly oppose what they see as imperialist U.S. influence over their nation.

DNA tests confirmed that Sanli was the bomber, the Ankara governor's office said. It said he had fled Turkey a decade ago and was wanted by the authorities.

Born in 1973 in the Black Sea port city of Ordu, Sanli was jailed in 1997 for attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul, but his sentence was deferred after he fell sick during a hunger strike. He was never re-jailed.

Condemned to life in prison in 2002, he fled the country a year later, officials said. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said he had re-entered Turkey using false documents.

Erdogan, who said hours after the attack that the DHKP-C were responsible, met his interior and foreign ministers as well as the head of the army and state security service in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss the bombing.

Three people were detained in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with the attack, state broadcaster TRT said.

The White House condemned the bombing as an "act of terror", while the U.N. Security Council described it as a heinous act. U.S. officials said on Friday the DHKP-C were the main suspects but did not exclude other possibilities.

Islamist radicals, extreme left-wing groups, ultra-nationalists and Kurdish militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

SYRIA

The DHKP-C statement called on Washington to remove Patriot missiles, due to go operational on Monday as part of a NATO defense system, from Turkish soil.

The missiles are being deployed alongside systems from Germany and the Netherlands to guard Turkey, a NATO member, against a spillover of the war in neighboring Syria.

"Our action is for the independence of our country, which has become a new slave of America," the statement said.

Turkey has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the civil war in Syria and has become one of President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, a stance groups such as the DHKP-C view as submission to an imperialist agenda.

"Organizations of the sectarian sort like the DHKP-C have been gaining ground as a result of circumstances surrounding the Syrian civil war," security analyst Nihat Ali Ozcan wrote in a column in Turkey's Daily News.

The Ankara attack was the second on a U.S. mission in four months. On September 11, 2012, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three American personnel were killed in an Islamist militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The DHKP-C was responsible for the assassination of two U.S. military contractors in the early 1990s in protest against the first Gulf War, and it fired rockets at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in 1992, according to the U.S. State Department.

It has been blamed for previous suicide attacks, including one in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.

Friday's attack may have come in retaliation for an operation against the DHKP-C last month in which Turkish police detained 85 people. A court subsequently remanded 38 of them in custody over links to the group.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Football: Fergie surprised by Beckham's PSG move

LONDON: Alex Ferguson admits he was surprised to see his former Manchester United star David Beckham sign for Paris St Germain.

Beckham had been looking for a new club since leaving LA Galaxy in November and snubbed interest from several Premier League clubs and other lucrative offers from around the world to join the French outfit on transfer deadline day.

Ferguson didn't think Beckham would come back to the Premier League as the boyhood United fan had previously said he could never play for another English club.

But the United manager was still shocked to see the 37-year-old former England captain unveiled by PSG on Thursday.

"I was surprised. I didn't see that," Ferguson told MUTV. "I didn't think he would join an English club.

"He always said he wouldn't after his career with United and he was true to his word. But I don't think anyone saw PSG coming."

While Beckham completed his high-profile move, English football was engaged in a typically frenzied finish to the January transfer window and Ferguson had no intention of being drawn into the mad scramble for new players.

"It is an absolute shambles," he said.

Referring to television coverage of the final hours of the window, which features reporters standing outside the training grounds and stadiums of all Premier League clubs, Ferguson said: "There is a young reporter being mobbed by 30 kids. It is humiliation. I am sure all the managers are glad it is all over."

- AFP/jc

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High corruption risk in defence purchases by India: Study

NEW DELHI: India is among the countries that suffer from "high corruption risk" in defence purchases, one of the most elaborate global assessments of corruption in the high spending sector has concluded.

According to the report, 'Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index 2013' by Transparency International UK, 36% of the countries assessed by the index was found to have high corruption risk. India and China are among those countries.

The band in which India figures exhibits "strong systems in some areas and very poor systems in others", the report said. Positives of most of these countries including India are payment systems and personnel receiving pay in a timely manner, absence of ghost soldiers etc.

The report said that most of the countries in the band did not disclose the level of expenditure dedicated to secret spending, and did not audit these secret budgets. In China, the concentration of power created corruption risk, the report said.

"It is comprehensive, with each country analysed across 77 detailed questions on all aspects of a defence ministry and armed force's integrity-building and anti-corruption systems. It covers 82 countries, from the major arms producing countries through to fragile nations. It provides detailed analyses for each country that describe the mechanisms they have in place to prevent corruption in this sector, and how they could be strengthened. This provides nations with a wealth of material on which to base improvement," said Mark Pyman, director, Defence and Security Programme at Transparency International UK.

The report said that only two countries, Australia and Germany, had high levels of transparency, and strong, institutionalized activity to address corruption risk. "This unexpectedly small number of countries shows that defence anti-corruption measures are still in their infancy. This holds true even among the many OECD countries that are among the 82 nations analysed, which generally have strong government institutions and rule of law," the report said.

About 30% of the countries had generally high or moderate transparency, with some activity to address corruption risks, but with shortcomings. The rest of the nations had poor results, with 57 of the 82 countries, or 69%, scoring in the bottom three bands — D, E and F. India figures in the D band.

The bottom three bands include 20 of the 30 largest arms importers in the world assessed, and 16 of the largest 30 arms exporters assessed. "This disappointing result shows that defence risk in most countries is poorly controlled, with correspondingly high vulnerability to corruption," the report said.

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Healthier schools: Goodbye candy and greasy snacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Goodbye candy bars and sugary cookies. Hello baked chips and diet sodas.

The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful, a change that would ban the sale of almost all candy, high-calorie sports drinks and greasy foods on campus.

Under new rules the Department of Agriculture proposed Friday, school vending machines would start selling water, lower-calorie sports drinks, diet sodas and baked chips instead. Lunchrooms that now sell fatty "a la carte" items like mozzarella sticks and nachos would have to switch to healthier pizzas, low-fat hamburgers, fruit cups and yogurt.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have made improvements in their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunch rooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. And food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has not been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools, and 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says surveys done by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Hillary Clinton Says Goodbye...Until 2016?

Feb 1, 2013 6:48pm

Image Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

After four years, nearly a million miles traveled and 112 countries visited, Hillary Clinton stepped down as the 67th secretary of state on Friday. But even on this, her final day as America’s top diplomat, she could not escape the questions about what she’ll do four years from now.

Many of the 1,000 employees who gathered to see her off expressed hope that this was not the end of her political career.

“2016! 2016!” the crowd chanted as   Clinton waved and drove away. “We’ll Miss You!”

Right before her departure, Clinton gave the traditional farewell speech to staff on the steps of the State Department’s historic C street lobby. In a roughly 10 minute, often reflective speech she called the 70,000 State Department employees part of “a huge extended family.”

“I cannot fully express how grateful I am to those with whom I have spent many hours here in Washington, around the world and in airplanes,” she said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Clinton’s trademark sense of humor was on display, even as she grew emotional  speaking about how much the State Department had  meant to her over the last four years.

PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton Through the Years

“I am very proud to have been secretary of state. I will miss you. I will probably be dialing ops just to talk,” she joked to a cheering and laughing crowd. “I will wonder what you all are doing, because I know that because of your efforts day after day, we are making a real difference.”

But  Clinton also was somber when discussing the danger diplomats and foreign service officers face all over the world, using Thursday’s suicide bombing attack against the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, in which a Turkish guard was killed, as an example.

“We live in very complex and even dangerous times, as we saw again just today at our embassy in Ankara, where we were attacked and lost one of our foreign service nationals, and others injured,” said Clinton “But I spoke with the ambassador and the team there. I spoke with my Turkish counterpart. And I told them how much we valued their commitment and their sacrifice.”

Clinton was flanked by trusted deputies, Bill Burns and Tom Nides, whom she gave warm hugs to at the end of the speech. With a huge “Thank You” sign behind her she walked a rope line after finishing her speech, greeting the hordes of employees who wanted to shake her hand and say goodbye before she walked out of the State Department as secretary of state for the last time.

“It’s been quite a challenging week saying goodbye to so many people and knowing that I will not have the opportunity to continue being part of this amazing team,” Clinton said. “But I am so grateful that we’ve had a chance to contribute in each of our ways to making our country and our world stronger, safer, fairer and better.”

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