Insider attack kills 3 Americans in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A man in an Afghan army uniform turned his weapon on American trainers working with him in the country's east on Saturday, killing three of them, while an attacker with a grenade killed an Italian soldier in the west, officials said.

The shooting in Paktika province was the latest in a string of so-called "insider attacks" in which Afghan forces open fire on their own comrades or international troops. The incidents threaten to shake the confidence and trust of the two sides as the 2014 withdrawal of most of the international forces approaches.

An argument between the Afghan soldier and his trainers appeared to have led to Saturday's shooting on an Afghan National Army base in Paktika's Kher Qot district, according to a statement from the provincial governor's office. The international military coalition in Afghanistan said two American service members and one U.S. civilian died. It had initially identified them as three U.S. military personnel.

The angry Afghan soldier opened fire during the argument, killing the three foreign trainers and wounding three others, according to the governor's statement. The foreigners returned fire and killed the Afghan soldier, who had no known connection to the insurgency.

So far this year, there have been five insider attacks on foreign forces, with a total of eight troops and one U.S. contractor killed. However, the number of such attacks has eased after soaring last year ? in 2012, there were at least 29 insider attacks, killing 62 international troops.

Afghan security forces also are targets of such attacks. Last month, two recently rehired Afghan police opened fire on their commander at a checkpoint in a remote district in the country's south, killing him and six of his men.

The Taliban insurgents claim most of the insider attacks, saying they have infiltrated Afghan security forces or persuaded soldiers and police to join their side. However, the international coalition has said many of them are sparked by personal disputes.

In the western province of Farah, meanwhile, an Italian soldier was killed and three others wounded in a grenade attack on their armored vehicle in western Afghanistan.

The Italian Defense Ministry said the attack in Farah province came as the Italian soldiers were returning to their base from training Afghan security forces.

The Italian convoy of three armored vehicle apparently had been slowed by traffic near an intersection when an attacker ran up and threw an explosive device into the lead vehicle, the ministry said. It added that the three wounded soldiers' injuries were not life-threatening.

The Taliban quickly took responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claiming that the attacker was an 11-year-old boy.

But Farah province provincial government spokesman Abdul Rahman Zhawandai says an adult man was seen throwing a grenade, then escaping by blending into the crowd at a nearby vegetable market.

Saturday's deaths brought to 16 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month. On Thursday, seven Georgian soldiers died in a truck bombing at their base in the south.

Taliban insurgents have launched intense attacks across the country as Afghan forces take over most security responsibility ahead of most foreign troops' withdrawal next year, more than a decade after the American-led invasion to oust the Taliban regime for sheltering al-Qaida's leadership after the Islamic extremist group launched the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Countries in the NATO alliance met in Brussels this week to lay out a new plan for shifting into a training and assistance role, but they did not agree on how many noncombat troops it will maintain in Afghanistan after 2014.

There are now about 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including 66,000 from the United States. Most of the pullout is set for this winter.

The remaining smaller force is expected to be mostly American advisers. However, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Saturday during a surprise visit to Kabul that the German government is thinking about leaving behind 600-800 troops after 2014.

"The departure of our troops from Afghanistan will happen as planned but at the same time we will not forget about Afghanistan in the years after 2014," Westerwelle said, adding, "We will engage with them in a different way."

___

Rahim Faiez in Kabul and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insider-attack-kills-3-americans-afghanistan-140801810.html

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Authorities arrest Texas actress in ricin case

DALLAS (AP) ? A pregnant Texas actress who told FBI agents her husband had sent ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been arrested for orchestrating the scheme herself, a law enforcement official said Friday.

It was not immediately clear what charges would be filed against Shannon Guess Richardson of New Boston, Texas, a mother of five who has played bit roles in television shows. She was arrested around noon Friday, said Davilyn Walston, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in the eastern district of Texas.

Walston declined further comment, saying she wasn't in position to provide details. The FBI in Dallas declined immediate comment.

FBI agents wearing hazardous material suits were seen going in and out of her house Wednesday in New Boston, about 150 miles northeast of Dallas near the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders. Officials have said the search was initiated after Richardson contacted the FBI and implicated her husband, Nathaniel Richardson.

An attorney for Shannon Richardson, 36, couldn't immediately be found.

John Delk, who represents Nathaniel Richardson, told the AP on Thursday that his client had filed for divorce and may have been set up by his wife. He said his client was cooperating with authorities investigating the letters, which were sent last month to Bloomberg, his Washington gun-control group and the White House threatening violence against gun-control advocates.

"There are a lot of factors I'm aware of that indicate (Nathaniel Richardson) was set up in this deal by her," Delk said.

Delk said his client, a 33-year-old Army veteran, came to him to discuss a potential divorce a year ago and finally hired him on May 6, weeks before the ricin incident came to light. Delk didn't immediately return messages Friday following the arrest.

Bloomberg issued a statement Friday thanking local and federal law enforcement agencies "for their outstanding work in apprehending a suspect," saying they worked collaboratively from the outset "and will continue to do so as the investigation continues."

Shannon Richardson's resume on the Internet movie database IMDb said she has had small television roles in "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Walking Dead." She had a minor role in the movie "The Blind Side" and appeared in an Avis commercial, according to the resume.

Delk said the Richardsons were expecting their first child in October. Shannon Richardson also has five children ranging in age from 4 to 19 from other relationships, four of whom had been living with the couple in the New Boston home, the attorney said.

The FBI is investigating at least three cases over the past two months in which ricin was mailed to Obama and other public figures. Ricin has been sent to officials sporadically over the years, but experts say that there seems to be a recent uptick and that copycat attacks ? made possible by the relative ease of extracting the poison ? may be the reason.

If inhaled, ricin can cause respiratory failure, among other symptoms. If swallowed, it can shut down the liver and other organs, resulting in death. The amount of ricin that can fit on the head of a pin is said to be enough to kill an adult if properly prepared. No antidote is available, though researchers are trying to develop one.

___

Adam Goldman reported from Washington, D.C.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-texas-actress-arrested-ricin-case-192540169.html

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Source: http://elarazaman013.blogspot.com/2013/06/russian-language-map-ebook-ethelfrith.html

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Income Investing Strategy With A Margin For Error - Seeking Alpha

Many investors must be wondering how high the market can go, is it to late to buy, and should I sit and wait for a lower point of entry. There is a great battle going on, between the economic reality felt on Main Street, and the bullishness espoused by those on Wall Street. In some regard, this fear of missing the rally may be forcing money into the market at a topping point in the short term. On the other hand, the economic realities facing those on Main Street could shortly find their way to Wall Street, bringing with it a sharp market correction. An investing strategy that I find useful in a market like the one seen today, is to be fully invested for the market to continue to rally if you have that sense of bullishness, but implement a strategy that would allow you to capitalize on a market correction if it were to materialize. One of the most smartest ways to be fully invested in a market such as the one seen today is to own dividend paying stocks that will generate income regardless of short term gyrations in the stock price. Building on that approach, you can fully invest in these dividend stocks through a two part strategy that consists of capturing the dividend yield and generating additional income through another type of trade.

I like to think of this approach as my 50/50 strategy when investing in dividend yielding stocks. Out of the total I desire to invest in a certain company, I would allocate 50% of the capital to purchasing common stock, and the remaining 50% would be allocated to selling put options. This strategy provides multiple benefits to managing risk in my portfolio. First, I am fully invested in the market with the opportunity for capital appreciation and generating dividend income, as well as income from the premium earned from selling the put options. Second, I am also hedging my investment against a downward move, with the put option portion of the trade. In this instance, it is easier to use a real world example to describe how this trade would work. Using AT&T (T) as an example, I could buy the stock outright at between $35.80 a share as of the closing price on 6/5/13. I would commit 50% of my desired investment to the common stock, and regardless of what the stock does, I would be capturing an ~5% annualized dividend yield at the current stock and dividend levels. For the other 50% of my desired investment, I would sell the January 2014 $33 put options, collecting $1.36 in premium. This equates to a yield of 4.1% on this portion of my investment over 8 months. Annualized, this would equate to roughly a 6.1% yield. By entering into the agreement to sell the put option as described above, I am effectively committing to buy additional AT&T stock at $33 a share as of January 2014. If the stock is above that price when the options expire in January 2014, I keep the $1.36 in option premium. If the stock is below that price, the 50% of my investment that I used to secure the put options would be used to purchase AT&T stock at $33 a share, regardless of how far below $33 a share the stock might be trading.

This type of approach to investing is rather simplistic in nature, providing the opportunity to commit 100% of the capital you desire to invest in a position while giving up some potential upside in order to hedge against a decline in the market. The table below shows a hypothetical investment in AT&T using the outline provided above, and showing the results after 8 months of a 0% share price decline, a 10% share price increase, and a 10% share decline:

(click to enlarge)

Note that $99,500 was used as the investment amount, allowing for a round number of options to be sold under the 50/50 strategy. Also, the results shown above are using an 8 month time horizon as that is the amount of time prior to the option expiration. This is also why the dividend payment is only 3/4 of an annual AT&T dividend.

You will see that, in a scenario where the share price does not increase or decrease, the outcome from both scenarios is roughly equal, with the 50/50 scenario just slightly yielding a higher return. In the scenario where the share price increases 10%, being fully invested in the common stock as expected yields a higher return. In the scenario where the share price decreases 10%, the loss experienced under the 50/50 scenario is significantly less than if 100% of the capital had been allocated to purchase common stock. I realize that taxes, commissions, and dividend reinvestment opportunities are not accounted for in the analysis above. However from a directional standpoint, the overall outcome of each scenario would see an immaterial impact when accounting for those items.

Does this type of investment strategy have a place in your dividend portfolio? That depends on your risk appetite to some extent. If your completely bullish on the market and your desired investment, then choosing the 50/50 strategy limits your upside. If you're focused on capital preservation, desire to be invested in the market, but have concerns about a correction, this strategy could complement your portfolio allowing for market upside while limiting losses on the downside.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. (More...)

Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1486931-income-investing-strategy-with-a-margin-for-error?source=feed

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