"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.


That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.


Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.


Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.


Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.


"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."


The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.


Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.


Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .


But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.


Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.


During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.


MOM AND POP STILL WARY


Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.


This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.


Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.


"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.


Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.


He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.


Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.


On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.


Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.


Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.


Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.


(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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Peterson double winner of AP NFL awards


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Adrian Peterson called it a blessing in disguise.


Strange way to describe career-threatening major knee surgery.


The Minnesota Vikings' star came back better than ever, just missing Eric Dickerson's longstanding rushing record and closing out the season with two of the top NFL awards from The Associated Press: Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year.


As sort of an added bonus, he beat Peyton Manning for both of them Saturday night.


"My career could have easily been over, just like that," the sensational running back said. "Oh man. The things I've been through throughout my lifetime has made me mentally tough.


" I'm kind of speechless. This is amazing, " he said in accepting his awards, along with five others at the "2nd Annual NFL Honors" show on CBS saluting the NFL's best players, performances and plays from the 2012 season. The awards are based on balloting from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL.


Manning's own sensational recovery, from four neck surgeries, earned him Comeback Player honors.


"This injury was unlike any other," said the only four-time league MVP. "There really was no bar or standard, there were no notes to copy. We were coming up with a rehab plan as we went."


Before sitting out 2011, Manning had never missed a start in his first 13 seasons with Indianapolis. But he was released by the Colts last winter because of his neck issues, signed with Denver and guided the Broncos to the AFC's best record, 13-3.


"Certainly you have double variables of coming off injury, not playing for over year and joining a new team. That certainly added a lot to my plate, so it was hard to really know what to expect," Manning said. "I can't tell you how grateful and thankful I am. I can't tell you how happy I am to be playing the game of football we all love so much."


Also honored were:


—Washington's Robert Griffin III, who beat out a strong crop of quarterbacks for the top offensive rookie award.


— Houston end J.J. Watt, who took Defensive Player of the Year, getting 49 of 50 votes.


Bruce Arians, the first interim coach to win Coach of the Year after leading Indianapolis to a 9-3 record while head man Chuck Pagano was being treated for leukemia. Arians became Arizona's head coach last month.


—Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly, the league's leader in tackles with 164, who won the top defensive rookie award.


Peterson returned better than ever from the left knee surgery, rushing for 2,097 yards, 9 short of breaking Dickerson's record. He also sparked the Vikings' turnaround from 3-13 to 10-6 and a wild-card playoff berth.


He received 30 1-2 votes to 19 1-2 for Manning.


"I played my heart out, every opportunity I had," Peterson said. "The result of that is not what I wanted, which is being in the Super Bowl game. But I have a couple of good pieces of hardware to bring back and (put) in my statue area. So it feels good."


Was the knee injury the toughest thing he'd ever overcome?


"Losing my brother at 7, seeing him get hit by a car right in front of me, that was the toughest," he said. "But as far as injuries, yes."


New England QB Tom Brady was the last winner of MVP and Offensive Player in 2010.


"Trying to get two or three like Peyton, trying to get to your level," Peterson said of his first MVP award. "But I won't be there to accept it because I'll be winning with my coach, the most important award, the team award, the Super Bowl."


Dickerson predicted Peterson could get back to 2,000 yards.


"I hope he does have a chance to do it again," Dickerson said, adding with a laugh, "but do I want him to break it? No, I do not."


Wearing a burgundy and gold tie in honor of his Redskins, Griffin said his goal is to be ready for the season opener.


"It's truly a blessing to be up there — to be able to stand, first and foremost," said Griffin, who underwent knee surgery last month. He added that next season "you'll see a better Robert Griffin."


Arians moved up from offensive coordinator and helped Indianapolis make the playoffs at 10-6, making him an easy winner in the balloting.


"It's hard to put into words the feelings of this past year," he said. "This was kind of the cherry on the top, whipped cream and everything else you put on top."


Watt swatted the competition as Denver's Von Miller got the only other vote in the most lopsided balloting of all the awards.


"It sets the bar for me," Watt said. He led the NFL with 20 1-2 sacks and also blocked an astounding 16 passes. "I want to go out and do even better. I want to do even bigger things."


___


Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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Gas prices rising in Vermont






MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Gas prices are rising again in Vermont.


The website VermontGasPrices.com shows the lowest prices ranging from $ 3.45 in Brattleboro to $ 3.53 around the state.






Higher prices of $ 3.79 a gallon were found at stations in Williston, Vergennes, Bethel and Killington in the last two days.


The website shows that the average price per gallon has gone up 11 cents from $ 3.54 to $ 3.65 in the last month.


VermontGasPrices.com is a local website that allows visitors to post retail gasoline price online.


Energy News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Mike the gas man at large after gas garb scheme









Riverside police say an arrest this week derailed a sophisticated scheme of stealing gasoline by overriding the pump counter and filling 5-gallon jugs.

The investigation began Jan. 20 when a Riverside officer pulled into a 7-Eleven at 26th Street and Harlem Avenue, then saw a man hurriedly leave the store with a gasoline nozzle still in his vehicle, tearing off the hose as he drove away.

The officer reviewed video surveillance, at first to get a license plate number but discovering what appeared to be an involved ruse to steal fuel, according to a news release from the Riverside police.

The video showed one person pulling up to a pump and removing its housing, then disabling the electronic device that measures the amount of gasoline delivered and tally of dollars owed.

That person then drove off, and a second person pulled up to the overridden pump and began to fill the SUV's tank and 11 5-gallon professional grade water fountain bottles in the back, police said. The second person appeared to panic and fled when the officer drove into the lot, tearing off the pump's hose.

Suspecting a sophisticated scheme, Riverside police didn't immediately chase after the SUV but were able to track the license plate and discover that the registered owner was already due in court on a previous charge of retail theft of motor vehicle fuel.

On Friday, Riverside police attended Bridgeview Court and arrested Darius Williams, 35, of the 400 block of Irvine in Hillside, and according to officials he gave a full confession detailing the scheme.

The second suspect, a man known to Williams only as "Mike the gas man," was the brains behind disabling the pump counters, Williams said, and also took part in selling stolen gasoline from the water bottles at $10 for 5 gallons.

Police searched the SUV owned by Williams and found 10 5-gallon water bottles, a hose and pump used for siphoning gasoline, and other materials used for transporting fuel, police said.

For the Riverside incident, Williams -- who told police he also stayed on the 11700 block of South State Street in Chicago -- was charged with retail theft of motor vehicle fuel and criminal damage to property, police said, both misdemeanors because he had fled the scene after only taking about $73 worth of gas.

"The defendant in this case gave a full statement that he and another individual known as 'Mike the gas man' conceived this plan to steal gasoline and then sell it on the West Side of Chicago," Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said in the release.

"This is an example of excellent work done by the original responding officer as well as the follow-up investigation by detectives," Weitzel said. "They looked beyond the simple theft complaint and were able to build a case."

"Mike the gas man" remained at large Saturday night, police said.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking



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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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"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights.


That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January.


Late-stage bull markets are typically marked by an influx of small investors coming late to the party - such as when your waiter starts giving you stock tips. For that to happen you need a good story. The "great rotation," with its monumental tone, is the perfect narrative to make you feel like you're missing out.


Even if something approaching a "great rotation" has begun, it is not necessarily bullish for markets. Those who think they are coming early to the party may actually be arriving late.


Investors pumped $20.7 billion into stocks in the first four weeks of the year, the strongest four-week run since April 2000, according to Lipper. But that pales in comparison with the $410 billion yanked from those funds since the start of 2008.


"I'm not sure you want to take a couple of weeks and extrapolate it into whatever trend you want," said Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup. "We have had instances where equity flows have picked up in the last two, three, four years when markets have picked up. They've generally not been signals of a continuation of that trend."


The S&P 500 rose 5 percent in January, its best month since October 2011 and its best January since 1997, driving speculation that retail investors were flooding back into the stock market.


Heading into another busy week of earnings, the equity market is knocking on the door of all-time highs due to positive sentiment in stocks, and that can't be ignored entirely. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended the week about 4 percent from an all-time high touched in October 2007.


Next week will bring results from insurers Allstate and The Hartford , as well as from Walt Disney , Coca-Cola Enterprises and Visa .


But a comparison of flows in January, a seasonal strong month for the stock market, shows that this January, while strong, is not that unusual. In January 2011 investors moved $23.9 billion into stock funds and $28.6 billion in 2006, but neither foreshadowed massive inflows the rest of that year. Furthermore, in 2006 the market gained more than 13 percent while in 2011 it was flat.


Strong inflows in January can happen for a number of reasons. There were a lot of special dividends issued in December that need reinvesting, and some of the funds raised in December tax-selling also find their way back into the market.


During the height of the tech bubble in 2000, when retail investors were really embracing stocks, a staggering $42.7 billion flowed into equities in January of that year, double the amount that flowed in this January. That didn't end well, as stocks peaked in March of that year before dropping over the next two-plus years.


MOM AND POP STILL WARY


Arguing against a 'great rotation' is not necessarily a bearish argument against stocks. The stock market has done well since the crisis. Despite the huge outflows, the S&P 500 has risen more than 120 percent since March 2009 on a slowly improving economy and corporate earnings.


This earnings season, a majority of S&P 500 companies are beating earnings forecast. That's also the case for revenue, which is a departure from the previous two reporting periods where less than 50 percent of companies beat revenue expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.


Meanwhile, those on the front lines say mom and pop investors are still wary of equities after the financial crisis.


"A lot of people I talk to are very reluctant to make an emotional commitment to the stock market and regardless of income activity in January, I think that's still the case," said David Joy, chief market strategist at Columbia Management Advisors in Boston, where he helps oversee $571 billion.


Joy, speaking from a conference in Phoenix, says most of the people asking him about the "great rotation" are fund management industry insiders who are interested in the extra business a flood of stock investors would bring.


He also pointed out that flows into bond funds were positive in the month of January, hardly an indication of a rotation.


Citi's Levkovich also argues that bond investors are unlikely to give up a 30-year rally in bonds so quickly. He said stocks only began to see consistent outflows 26 months after the tech bubble burst in March 2000. By that reading it could be another year before a serious rotation begins.


On top of that, substantial flows continue to make their way into bonds, even if it isn't low-yielding government debt. January 2013 was the second best January on record for the issuance of U.S. high-grade debt, with $111.725 billion issued during the month, according to International Finance Review.


Bill Gross, who runs the $285 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, commented on Twitter on Thursday that "January flows at Pimco show few signs of bond/stock rotation," adding that cash and money markets may be the source of inflows into stocks.


Indeed, the evidence suggests some of the money that went into stock funds in January came from money markets after a period in December when investors, worried about the budget uncertainty in Washington, started parking money in late 2012.


Data from iMoneyNet shows investors placed $123 billion in money market funds in the last two months of the year. In two weeks in January investors withdrew $31.45 billion of that, the most since March 2012. But later in the month money actually started flowing back.


(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)



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NFL's Goodell aims to share blame on player safety


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to share the blame.


"Safety," he said at his annual Super Bowl news conference, "is all of our responsibilities."


Not surprisingly, given that thousands of former players are suing the league about its handling of concussions, the topics of player health and improved safety dominated Goodell's 45-minute session Friday. And he often sounded like someone seeking to point out that players or others are at fault for some of the sport's problems — and need to help fix them.


"I'll stand up. I'll be accountable. It's part of my responsibility. I'll do everything," Goodell said. "But the players have to do it. The coaches have to do it. Our officials have to do it. Our medical professionals have to do it."


Injuries from hits to the head or to the knees, Goodell noted, can result from improper tackling techniques used by players and taught by coaches. The NFL Players Association needs to allow testing for human growth hormone to go forward so it can finally start next season, which Goodell hopes will happen. He said prices for Super Bowl tickets have soared in part because fans re-sell them above face value.


And asked what he most rues about the New Orleans Saints bounty investigation — a particularly sensitive issue around these parts, of course — Goodell replied: "My biggest regret is that we aren't all recognizing that this is a collective responsibility to get (bounties) out of the game, to make the game safer. Clearly the team, the NFL, the coaching staffs, executives and players, we all share that responsibility. That's what I regret, that I wasn't able to make that point clearly enough with the union."


He addressed other subjects, such as a "new generation of the Rooney Rule" after none of 15 recently open coach or general manager jobs went to a minority candidate, meaning "we didn't have the outcomes we wanted"; using next year's Super Bowl in New Jersey as a test for future cold-weather, outdoor championship games; and saying he welcomed President Barack Obama's recent comments expressing concern about football's violence because "we want to make sure that people understand what we're doing to make our game safer."


Also:


— New Orleans will not get back the second-round draft pick Goodell stripped in his bounty ruling;


— Goodell would not give a time frame for when the NFL could hold a game in Mexico;


— next season's games in London — 49ers-Jaguars and Steelers-Vikings — are sellouts.


Goodell mentioned some upcoming changes, including the plan to add independent neurologists to sidelines to help with concussion care during games — something players have asked for and the league opposed until now.


"The No. 1 issue is: Take the head out of the game," Goodell said. "I think we've seen in the last several decades that players are using their head more than they had when you go back several decades."


He said one tool the league can use to cut down on helmet-to-helmet hits is suspending players who keep doing it.


"We're going to have to continue to see discipline escalate, particularly on repeat offenders," Goodell said. "We're going to have to take them off the field. Suspension gets through to them."


The league will add "expanded physicals at the end of each season ... to review players from a physical, mental and life skills standpoint so that we can support them in a more comprehensive fashion," Goodell said.


With question after question about less-than-light matters, one reporter drew a chuckle from Goodell by asking how he's been treated this week in a city filled with supporters of the Saints who are angry about the way the club was punished for the bounty system the NFL said existed from 2009-11.


"My picture, as you point out, is in every restaurant. I had a float in the Mardi Gras parade. We got a voodoo doll," Goodell said.


But he added that he can "appreciate the passion" of the fans and, actually, "couldn't feel more welcome here."


___


Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich


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Sea Launch Rocket Fails During Liftoff, Satellite Lost






PARIS — A commercial Sea Launch rocket failed 40 seconds after liftoff from its floating launch platform in the Pacific Ocean on Friday (Feb. 1) destroying the Intelsat IS-27 telecommunications satellite and compromising Sea Launch’s long road to recovery from its previous failure in January 2007.


Now headquartered in Bern, Switzerland, and owned by an affiliate of Russia’s RSC Energia space-hardware manufacturer, Sea Launch AG had emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in October 2010 – a reorganization that was an indirect consequence of the 2007 failure – and returned to flight in September 2011. Friday’s launch failure occured just after the company’s Zenit 3SL rocket lifted off from its launch platform at 1:56 a.m. EST (0656 GMT).






With a new lease on life made possible by the backing of the world’s largest and third-largest commercial satellite fleet operators, Intelsat of Washington and Luxembourg, and Eutelsat of Paris, respectively, Sea Launch conducted five successful launches through December 2012 – three for Intelsat, two for Eutelsat.


Sea Launch had been preparing a relatively light manifest for 2013 as it replenished its stock of hardware for the Russian- and Ukrainian-built Zenit 3SL rocket it uses for operations. The company had planned to increase its launch rate, starting in 2014, to four commercial campaigns per year. [Amazing Rocket Launches of 2013 (Photos)]


The only customer whose launch may be affected by the Thursday rocket failure is Israel’s Spacecom satellite fleet operator, whose Amos 4 telecommunications satellite is scheduled for launch on a Land Launch rocket in July.


Land Launch uses the same Zenit 3 rocket configuration as Sea Launch, but operates from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch contract with Spacecom is not with Sea Launch, but with Space International Services (SIS) of Moscow, and is part of a contract signed for the 2008 launch of Spacecom’s Amos 3 satellite.


Intelsat’s IS-27, a Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems 702MP model weighing 6,215 kilograms at launch, was to have been operated from 55.5 degrees west longitude, where it would have replaced Intelsat’s Galaxy 11 and Intelsat 805 satellites. Intelsat said in a Feb. 1 statement that services from these satellites will continue as usual.


But IS-27 was more than a replacement of existing capacity. Its payload included a Ku-band beam over the North Atlantic sea and air routes that would have completed Intelsat’s Global Mobility project, featuring 10 beams on seven satellites allowing uninterrupted coverage for mobile maritime and air customers using Ku-band.


The satellite also carried a beam over the Andean nations and Mexico, and a beam over Brazil.


Intelsat is one of several satellite operators that are using L-, Ku- and Ka-band to develop a mobile satellite services business with maritime and aeronautical customers. Whether the IS-27 loss will affect the contracts Intelsat has signed for mobile satellite services was not immediately known. The company said in its Feb. 1 statement that it is “committed to working with customers to identify the most appropriate solutions for service continuity.”


IS-27 also carried a UHF-band payload that Intelsat had hoped to lease to the U.S. Defense Department. But as of the launch date, no customer for this payload, a frequency mainly used by military forces, had made itself known. Intelsat had added a similar payload to the IS-22 satellite, which is already in orbit, and had secured the Australian defense forces as a customer for the life of the satellite.


IS-27 was insured for about $ 400 million, meaning the world’s space-insurance underwriters are starting 2013 in the red. Satellite insurance rates have been low for the past several years as premiums have far exceeded claims, in part because most of the recent launch failures, until Sea Launch, had been carrying government satellites that did not take out insurance.


The Sea Launch failure is the latest in a series affecting Russian rockets. Russia’s heavy-lift Proton rocket, which through International Launch Services (ILS) of Reston, Va., competes with Sea Launch on the commercial market, in December suffered its third failure in 16 months.


Russia’s small Rockot launcher, which like Proton is built by Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, successfully launched three Russian military satellites in January but shut down before it could perform a planned de-orbit maneuver.


Failure-review boards are now in place for the Proton and Rockot issues. Sea Launch said it would immediately establish its own board of inquiry.


This story was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.


Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Space and Astronomy News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Hillary: Secretary of empowerment




Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.




STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • Donna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for president

  • She says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people

  • She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girls

  • Brazile: Clinton has fought for education and inclusion in politics for women and girls




Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking with Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.


(CNN) -- As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton steps down from her job Friday, many are assuming she will run for president. And she may. In fact, five of the first eight presidents first served their predecessors as secretary of state.


It hasn't happened in more than a century, though that may change should Clinton decide to run. After all, she has been a game changer her entire life.


But before we look ahead, I think we should appreciate what she's done as secretary of state; it's a high profile, high pressure job. You have to deal with the routine as if it is critical and with crisis as if it's routine. You have to manage egos, protocols, customs and Congress. You have to be rhetorical and blunt, diplomatic and direct.



CNN Contributor Donna Brazile

CNN Contributor Donna Brazile



As secretary of state you are dealing with heads of state and with we the people. And the president of the United States has to trust you -- implicitly.


On the road with Hillary Clinton


Of all Clinton's accomplishments -- and I will mention just a few -- this may be the most underappreciated. During the election, pundits were puzzled and amazed not only at how much energy former President Bill Clinton poured into Obama's campaign, but even more at how genuine and close the friendship was.


Obama was given a lot of well-deserved credit for reaching out to the Clintons by appointing then-Sen. Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state in the first place. But trust is a two-way street and has to be earned. We should not underestimate or forget how much Clinton did and how hard she worked. She deserved that trust, as she deserved to be in the war room when Osama bin Laden was killed.


By the way, is there any other leader in the last 50 years whom we routinely refer to by a first name, and do so more out of respect than familiarity? The last person I can think of was Ike -- the elder family member who we revere with affection. Hillary is Hillary.


It's not surprising that we feel we know her. She has been part of our public life for more than 20 years. She's been a model of dignity, diplomacy, empathy and toughness. She also has done something no other secretary of state has done -- including the two women who preceded her in the Cabinet post.


Rothkopf: President Hillary Clinton? If she wants it



Hillary has transformed our understanding -- no, our definition -- of foreign affairs. Diplomacy is no longer just the skill of managing relations with other countries. The big issues -- war and peace, terror, economic stability, etc. -- remain, and she has handled them with firmness and authority, with poise and confidence, and with good will, when appropriate.


But it is not the praise of diplomats or dictators that will be her legacy. She dealt with plenipotentiaries, but her focus was on people. Foreign affairs isn't just about treaties, she taught us, it's about the suffering and aspirations of those affected by the treaties, made or unmade.








Most of all, diplomacy should refocus attention on the powerless.


Of course, Hillary wasn't the first secretary of state to advocate for human rights or use the post to raise awareness of abuses or negotiate humanitarian relief or pressure oppressors. But she was the first to focus on empowerment, particularly of women and girls.


She created the first Office of Global Women's Issues. That office fought to highlight the plight of women around the world. Rape of women has been a weapon of war for centuries. Though civilized countries condemn it, the fight against it has in a sense only really begun.


Ghitis: Hillary Clinton's global legacy on gay rights


The office has worked to hold governments accountable for the systematic oppression of girls and women and fought for their education in emerging countries. As Hillary said when the office was established: "When the Security Council passed Resolution 1325, we tried to make a very clear statement, that women are still largely shut out of the negotiations that seek to end conflicts, even though women and children are the primary victims of 21st century conflict."


Hillary also included the United States in the Trafficking in Person report. Human Trafficking, a form of modern, mainly sexual, slavery, victimizes mostly women and girls. The annual report reviews the state of global efforts to eliminate the practice. "We believe it is important to keep the spotlight on ourselves," she said. "Human trafficking is not someone else's problem. Involuntary servitude is not something we can ignore or hope doesn't exist in our own communities."


She also created the office of Global Partnerships. And there is much more.


She has held her own in palaces and held the hands of hungry children in mud-hut villages, pursuing an agenda that empowers women, children, the poor and helpless.


We shouldn't have been surprised. Her book "It Takes a Village" focused on the impact that those outside the family have, for better or worse, on a child's well-being.


As secretary of state, she did all she could to make sure our impact as a nation would be for the better.


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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.






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Dart on releasing murder convict: 'We let people down, no mistake'

A convicted murderer from Indiana is on the loose because of some bad paperwork in Cook County. (WGN - Chicago)









Convicted murderer Steven Robbins was arrested late Friday in Kankakee, two days after he was mistakenly released from the Cook County Jail after being brought to Chicago to dispose of an old case against him, according to the Cook County sheriff's office.


Robbins, 44, who was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana, was apprehended "without incident" at about 10:55 p.m. in the 400 block of Frasier Avenue in Kankakee, according to Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. 


 Bilecki said Dart was on the scene and helped assist in the arrest. 








 Authorities tracked Robbins through interviews with family and friends who helped provide his location, according to the sheriff's office. 


Earlier, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart took responsibility for mistakenly letting Robbins walk out of County Jail after a local charge against him was dismissed.


“We let people down, no mistake about it,” Dart said in an interview at sheriff’s offices in Maywood. “Our office did not operate the way it should have, clearly.”


The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and Cook County Crimestoppers raised $12,000 as a reward for information leading to Robbins’ capture, he said.


Dart said his office is still looking at where and how the system broke down to allow Robbins’ mistaken release from the jail,  but he said that officials at the  jail had no paperwork showing he was serving time in an Indiana prison for murder.


Like other indigent people, Robbins was outfitted with clothing from Goodwill – a long-sleeve brown shirt and brown pants – before being released out the front entrance, Dart said. He also likely was given bus fare.


Dart said the sheriff’s office uses an archaic system – entirely paper-driven – in handling the movement of an average of about 1,500 inmates every day. Some are entering the jail after their arrest and others are being bused to courthouses around the county for court appearances.


The sheriff said the warrant for Robbins’ arrest should have been quashed by prosecutors when armed violence charges were dismissed against him in 2007. In addition, he said prosecutors signed off on the sheriff’s office traveling to Indiana to pick up Robbins at the prison in Michigan City and bring him back on the outstanding warrant.


“We were able to get an extradition warrant on a case that didn’t exist,” Dart said. “That’s the first problem.”


Earlier, documents reviewed by the Tribune showed that paperwork filled out by Cook County sheriff’s officers this week made it clear that Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana and was to be returned to authorities there after being brought to Chicago to dispose of an old case against him.

“Please be advised that this subject is in our custody under the temporary custody provision of the interstate agreement on detainers,” a sheriff’s order accompanying Robbins’ paperwork read. The order noted Robbins’ murder conviction and 60-year sentence and then stated he “must be returned to the custody of Indiana DOC.”

In addition, Judge Rickey Jones, assigned to the Leighton Criminal Court Building, ordered the Illinois case dismissed on Wednesday and wrote on paperwork that Robbins was to be released for “this case only,” the records show.
 
Yet Robbins was allowed to walk free out of the Cook County Jail Wednesday evening after his court appearance. Authorities today were reviewing the paperwork in Robbins’ file to see how the mistake was made and who was responsible, sources told the Tribune.


Also under investigation was why Robbins – whose 1992 charges of armed violence and drug possession had been dismissed by prosecutors nearly six years ago – was even brought to Chicago in the first place.

Robbins spent the night in the Cook County Jail on Tuesday to attend a court date Wednesday on a warrant issued when he skipped bail in his 1992 case, Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for the Cook County sheriff’s office, said on Thursday.


Cook County authorities picked up Robbins on Tuesday at a prison in Michigan City, Ind., explaining he needed to answer to pending charges in Chicago, said Doug Garrison, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Corrections. The requisite paperwork spelled out the terms of his release and return, Garrison said.


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Suicide bomber kills guard at U.S. embassy in Turkey


ANKARA (Reuters) - A far-leftist suicide bomber killed a Turkish security guard at the U.S. embassy in Ankara on Friday, officials said, blowing open an entrance and sending debris flying through the air.


The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body after entering an embassy gatehouse. The blast could be heard a mile away. A lower leg and other human remains lay on the street.


Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the bomber was a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left group which is virulently anti-U.S. and anti-NATO and is listed as a terrorist organisation by Washington.


The White House said the suicide attack was an "act of terror" but that the motivation was unclear. U.S. officials said 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. There was no claim of responsibility.


"The suicide bomber was ripped apart and one or two citizens from the special security team passed away," said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.


"This event shows that we need to fight together everywhere in the world against these terrorist elements," he said.


In New York, the U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the attack as a heinous act.


Turkish media reports identified the bomber as DHKP-C member Ecevit Sanli, who was involved in attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul in 1997.


KEY ALLY


Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism and has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the conflict in neighboring Syria.


Around 400 U.S. soldiers have arrived in Turkey over the past few weeks to operate Patriot anti-missile batteries meant to defend against any spillover of Syria's civil war, part of a NATO deployment due to be fully operational in the coming days.


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 launched rockets at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in 1992, according to the U.S. State Department.


Deemed a terrorist organisation by both the United States and Turkey, the DHKP-C has been blamed for suicide attacks in the past, including one in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square.


The group, formed in 1978, has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.


The 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.


"HUGE EXPLOSION"


U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone emerged through the main gate of the embassy shortly after the explosion to address reporters, flanked by a security detail as a Turkish police helicopter hovered overhead.


"We're very sad of course that we lost one of our Turkish guards at the gate," Ricciardone said, describing the victim as a "hero" and thanking Turkish authorities for a prompt response.


U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the attack on the checkpoint on the perimeter of the embassy and said several U.S. and Turkish staff were injured by debris.


"The level of security protection at our facility in Ankara ensured that there were not significantly more deaths and injuries than there could have been," she told reporters.


It was the second attack 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 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.


The attack in Benghazi, blamed on al Qaeda-affiliated militants, sparked a political furore in Washington over accusations that U.S. missions were not adequately safeguarded.


A well-known Turkish journalist, Didem Tuncay, who was on her way in to the embassy to meet Ricciardone when the attack took place, was in a critical condition in hospital.


"It was a huge explosion. I was sitting in my shop when it happened. I saw what looked like a body part on the ground," said travel agent Kamiyar Barnos, whose shop window was shattered around 100 meters away from the blast.


CALL FOR VIGILANCE


The U.S. consulate in Istanbul warned its citizens to be vigilant and to avoid large gatherings, while the British mission in Istanbul called on British businesses to tighten security after what it called a "suspected terrorist attack".


In 2008, Turkish gunmen with suspected links to al Qaeda, opened fire on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, killing three Turkish policemen. The gunmen died in the subsequent firefight.


The most serious bombings in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when car bombs shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Part of the HSBC Bank headquarters was destroyed and the British consulate was damaged in two more explosions that killed 32 people less than a week later. Authorities said those attacks bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.


(Additional reporting by Daren Butler and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul, Mohammed Arshad and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Stephen Powell and Sandra Maler)



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Asian shares retreat after China PMI, U.S. payrolls eyed

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares wiped earlier gains on Friday as a tepid Chinese manufacturing report dented sentiment, leaving investors on tenterhooks ahead of U.S. nonfarm payroll data due at 1330 GMT.


China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) eased to 50.4 in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday, missing market expectations for a rise and underscoring the fragility of the recovery from the economy's weakest year since 1999.


But a separate private survey showed that growth in China's giant manufacturing sector hit a two-year high in January as domestic demand strengthened, underlining hopes the nation's economic recovery is slowly gaining momentum.


"It seems new orders for exports have declined even when new orders overall rose, suggesting that infrastructure spending and other investment to spur domestic demand is needed to keep (China's) economy growing," said Naohiro Niimura, a partner at research and consulting firm Market Risk Advisory.


"But it's not going to change the view about the Chinese economy recovering. The official data was just neither good nor bad."


The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> slipped 0.2 percent from the morning's 0.2 percent gain.


Australian shares <.axjo> were up 0.6 percent, little changed from before the data came out, drawing support from major mining stocks which gained on a jump in iron ore prices.


But the resources-linked Australian dollar fell 0.2 percent to session lows around $1.040.


With Chinese data news done for the day, investors turned to the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which is forecast to show a rise of 160,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to remain steady at 7.8 percent.


U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday on caution ahead of the jobs report, but the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> posted its best monthly gain since October 2011 with a 5.1 percent rise and the best January showing since 1997.


Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average <.n225> outperformed its Asian peers with a 0.2 percent rise, supported by the yen's decline earlier to fresh lows against major currencies.<.t/>


The dollar steadied around 91.75 yen, having earlier risen as high as 91.87, a level not seen since June 2010. The euro touched 125.05, its highest since May 2010. In January alone, the common currency surged nearly 9 percent on the yen, while the dollar was up more than 5 percent.


Oil and copper prices were higher and the euro remained bid against the dollar, reflecting that jitters was not spreading beyond Asian equities as sentiment has recently been underpinned by falling stress in the euro zone and generally improved data globally.


The euro added 0.3 percent to $1.3613 to the dollar, after earlier reaching a fresh 14-month high of $1.3624. The common currency's strength has pushed the dollar index to a one-month low of 79.107 <.dxy> on Friday.


"The euro revival looks set to continue for some time, as investors return to euro zone bond markets, content with the combination of the European Central Bank backstop for sovereign risk and low inflation danger due to lack of economic growth. The dollar bloc looks to be a key loser in the portfolio reallocation back into EUR," Westpac bank said in a note.


U.S. crude futures inched up 0.1 percent to $97.56 a barrel while Brent rose 0.3 percent to $115.90.


London copper added 0.5 percent to $8,203 a tonne.


Earlier, a private survey showed South Korea's manufacturing sector activity marginally shrank in January after a small rise in December but new export orders grew for the first time in eight months.


Manufacturing purchasing managers' indexes from the United States and the euro zone, as well as the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index, are also due later in the session.


(Editing by Eric Meijer)



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White House Praises Wind Industry’s 2012 Milestones






The White House praised the milestones of the American wind industry this week, following the release of the American Wind Energy Association‘s Fourth Quarter Market Report, and attributed the industry’s success to President Barack Obama‘s efforts to support renewable energy. Here are the details.


* According to the American Wind Energy Association’s report , 2012 was the strongest year ever for the U.S. wind energy industry, with 8,380 MW installed during the fourth quarter alone.






* There are now more than 45,100 wind turbines installed across the U.S., the report stated, 6,743 installed by 25 different manufacturers in one year’s time.


* According to the report, Texas led the way in new installations with 1,826 MW, followed by California, Kansas, Oklahoma and Illinois.


* At least 60 owners brought wind energy projects online in the fourth quarter of 2012, and more than 105 owners brought projects online throughout the whole year.


* Wind energy represented 42 percent of all new generating capacity in the U.S., the report stated.


* According to the report, the 60 GW of total U.S. wind power capacity now in place provides the electricity generation equivalent to 14 nuclear power plants or 52 coal plants and avoids the consumption of 36.6 billion gallons of water annually.


* The wind energy industry represents $ 120 billion of investment, the report stated and there are currently utility scale wind installations in 39 states and Puerto Rico.


* The White House reported that the wind capacity is now enough to power the rough equivalent of all the homes in Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio combined.


* Renewable generation from wind, solar and geothermal sources has doubled in the United States since 2008, the White House stated.


* “This is what we can achieve when we commit ourselves to smart and effective policies that promote clean energy technologies, create jobs, and grow our economy,” read the White House statement. “That’s why, in addition to making the largest investments in clean energy in American history, President Obama fought for — and secured — an extension of the Production Tax Credit.”


* The White House went on to state that Obama refused to let the Production Tax Credit expire and land “a punishing blow to the domestic wind industry resulting in layoffs for tens of thousands of American workers.”


Energy News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Why is U.S. waiting on gun laws?






STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • LZ Granderson: Tragic shootings take place in Alabama, Chicago, Phoenix

  • One takes the life of a 15-year-old days after she performed in Inauguration

  • He says things were supposed to change after the horror of Newtown

  • Granderson: And yet we wait for things like universal background checks for guns




Editor's note: Watch the "Anderson Cooper 360° Town Hall: Guns Under Fire" at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on CNN. LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs.


(CNN) -- On Tuesday, a man identified by authorities as Jimmy Lee Dykes boarded a school bus as it stopped to drop off children and demanded two students. Police say that when the bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, refused, Dykes -- who was arrested last month, accused of shooting at neighbors in a dispute over a speed bump -- shot Poland four times, killing him. As I'm writing this, he is in a standoff with police, who say he's holding someone's 5-year-old boy hostage in his underground doomsday bunker.


Also on Tuesday, 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was gunned down in Chicago, allegedly by someone who thought she and her friends were members of a rival gang. It was raining, and the teens were standing underneath a shelter in a park. A park that is about a mile north of the home of President Obama's home. And just a little over a week ago, Pendleton was a participant in Obama's inauguration festivities as a member of the King College Prep band.



LZ Granderson

LZ Granderson



That's just one day in the life of America. ... I wonder what tomorrow will bring.


A Pew Research Center poll found that 85% of Americans back a universal background check to limit the ability of convicted felons and the mentally ill to get a gun -- and yet we wait.


On Wednesday, the NFL announced that the Super Bowl pregame show will feature a performance of "America the Beautiful" by 26 students and faculty members from Sandy Hook Elementary School.



The Sandy Hook massacre was supposed to change things, change us. And yet we wait.


Even while the NFL announced its gesture, a gunman whom police identified as 70-year-old Arthur Harmon went inside a Phoenix office building and shot three people, one fatally.


And yet we continue to wait -- hoping tomorrow doesn't bring more senseless shootings, more gunned-down babies, more pleas for change.


Pendleton deserves more.


The victims of Newtown deserve more.


With so much blood flowing through our streets, the issue of gun control should not belong to red states or blue ones. It should be wedded to the idea that we deserve more. But as long as cowardly politicians continue to have their sense of morality held hostage by the National Rifle Association, we will continue to wait, even as more loved ones are violently taken from us.


You know, John Adams said there was nothing he dreaded more than "a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leadership, and concerting measures in opposition to each other."


And Thomas Jefferson once said he "never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself."


I wonder how many more days will pass, how many more lives will be lost, before the people who claim to love our forefathers so much actually take heed of some of the words they said.


And yet we wait.


Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.


Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.


The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.



Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.




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Convicted murderer mistakenly released from Cook County Jail









An Indiana man convicted of murder has been on the loose since Wednesday night after Cook County Jail officials mistakenly released him, authorities said.

The sheriff's office confirmed that Steven Robbins, 44, was released after appearing in Cook County court on armed violence and drug charges, and the charges were dismissed.

But the office didn't alert the public that Robbins, who was convicted of a 2002 fatal shooting a Kentucky man, was on the loose until Thursday evening.

Robbins spent the night in the Cook County Jail on Tuesday to attend a court date Wednesday on a warrant for a 1992 criminal case, in which he was charged with armed violence — committing a felony while using a gun, said Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

After attending the court hearing, Robbins was released at 7 p.m. Wednesday because there was no indication in his jail paperwork that he was ordered to remain in custody, Bilecki said. Robbins left through the jail's main entrance.

On Thursday, the Cook County fugitive warrant unit called the jail to make arrangements to send Robbins back to an Indiana prison. Jail staff realized that Robbins was gone.

The sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, were notified.

Authorities didn't want Robbins to immediately know that they were on to him, which is why the public wasn't told right away, Bilecki said.

"We were trying to hit all the spots where we thought he might be before he became aware that we were looking for him," he said.

A warrant for Robbins has been issued in Illinois and Indiana.

In a telephone interview, Robbins' ex-wife, Nicole Robbins, who divorced him in 2008, said she hadn't spoken with or heard from him in a year and a half.

"He was mistakenly released? I haven't heard from him," she said. "I don't know where he is."

Steven Robbins was serving time in Indiana State Prison when he was brought to Cook County to appear on the warrant.

In 2002, Robbins was arrested at a Day's Inn in Merrillville, Ind., according to an archived story in the Merrillville Post-Tribune. He was convicted of shooting Richard Melton, 24, with whom he'd gotten into a fight at a party. Robbins shot Melton on Mother's Day, authorities said.

He was sentenced in 2004 to 60 years in prison for murder and carrying a handgun without a license, according to Indiana Department of Correction documents. He was eligible for parole in 2029. Robbins has relatives in Gary and Bloomington, according to the archived story.

Robbins was described as black, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 190 pounds, with a tattoo on the right side of his neck that reads "Nicole." Anyone with information on Robbins' whereabouts is asked to call 708-865-4915.

The Cook County charges had actually been dropped in 2007, but Robbins was still required to appear in court in Illinois to answer for the warrant on those charges, court records show.

Tribune reporters David Heinzmann and Jeremy Gorner contributed.

ehirst@tribune.com



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Explosion at Mexican oil giant Pemex headquarters kills 25


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A powerful explosion rocked the Mexico City headquarters of state-owned oil giant Pemex on Thursday, killing at least 25 people, injuring more than 100 and trapping others inside.


The mid-afternoon blast shattered the lower floors of the downtown tower, throwing debris into the streets and sending frightened workers running outside.


A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said preliminary findings suggested the blast was caused by a gas boiler exploding in a Pemex building next to the tower. But the cause was still being investigated, the official added.


The explosion was the latest in a series of safety problems to hit Mexico's national oil monopoly.


Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said the blast killed at least 25 people, up from a previous count of 14, and injured 100. Dozens of employees were believed to be still trapped inside, and rescue workers said the death toll at the Pemex skyscraper could keep rising.


Mauricio Parra, a paramedic at the scene, said he believed at least 20 people had died and that 100 could be trapped at the offices of Pemex, a national institution that President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration has pledged to reform this year.


Police quickly cordoned off the building, and television images showed the explosion caused major damage to the ground floor and blew out windows on the lower floors of the tower.


"You could feel it all through the building," said Mario Guzman, a Pemex worker who was on the 10th floor of the building, which is more than 50 floors high.


First mistaking the blast for an earthquake, Guzman, who said he escaped after running down the stairs, feared the building would collapse on top of him and his colleagues, "and that we would end up like a sandwich."


Several witnesses said the blast came from the neighboring Pemex building. Pemex said initially the tower was evacuated due to a problem with its electricity supply. It then said there had been an explosion, but did not say what caused it.


Earlier in the evening, Pena Nieto, who took office in December, went to the scene of the blast and said it would be thoroughly investigated. He vowed to apply "the force of the law" if anyone was found to be responsible for it.


Mexican news network Milenio said security officials after the explosion carried out a precautionary search of Congress for explosive devices, but found nothing.


Helicopters buzzed around the building and lines of fire trucks sped to the entrance, while emergency workers ferried injured people through wreckage strewn on the street.


Search-and-rescue dogs were sent into the skyscraper, a Mexico City landmark that sports a distinctive "hat" on top. Pemex published a list of 105 workers who were being treated for injuries in hospitals.


DEADLY ACCIDENTS


Some families of people working in the tower were impatient for news about missing relatives.


Gloria Garcia, 53, herself a Pemex worker who was not in the building during the explosion, came to see if she could track down her son, who worked in one of the floors hit.


"I'm calling his phone and he's not answering," Garcia said, weeping as she called repeatedly on her phone. "Nobody knows anything. They won't let me through. I want to see my son whatever state he's in."


Pemex has experienced a number of deadly accidents in recent years and lesser safety problems have been a regular occurrence. In September, 30 people died after an explosion at a Pemex natural gas facility in northern Mexico.


More than 300 were killed when a Pemex natural gas plant on the outskirts of Mexico City exploded in 1984.


Eight years later, about 200 people were killed and 1,500 injured after a series of underground gas explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico's second biggest city. An official investigation found Pemex was partly to blame.


Alberto Islas, a security analyst at consultancy Risk Evaluation, said the explosion at the Pemex offices was another blot against the company's safety record.


"We've seen this time and again at Pemex. They don't have a well-integrated policy," Islas said, noting it would probably take several hours before investigators would be able to determine the cause of the explosion.


Pemex, a symbol of Mexican self-sufficiency since the oil industry was nationalized in 1938, has been held back by inefficiency and corruption and by the burden it shoulders of providing about a third of federal tax revenues.


Pena Nieto has pledged to open up the company to more private investment to improve its performance.


(Additional reporting by Krista Hughes, Cyntia Barrera, Gabriel Stargardter and Liz Diaz; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Kieran Murray and Peter Cooney)



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Asian shares off highs, Fed's stance underpins markets

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares took a breather from recent rallies on Thursday though sentiment was underpinned by the U.S. Federal Reserve's pledge to retain its stimulus policy and on signs of stabilization in the euro zone.


Positive economic reports from Asia failed to lift markets as investors continued to assess regional earnings results and ahead of key data such as China's official manufacturing PMI and U.S. monthly nonfarm payrolls on Friday.


The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.4 percent after rising 1.3 percent over the past two sessions to nearly an 18-month high. The index was set for a monthly gain of about 2.4 percent.


Australian shares <.axjo> eased 0.4 percent, taking a breather from their 10-day winning streak, the longest in more than nine years, which hoisted local shares to 21-month highs.


"Certainly 2013 has started with an air of optimism. U.S. politicians show some willingness to deal with problems, no fresh issues have emerged in Europe and the Chinese economy is exhibiting firmer growth. Volatility has receded with investors keen to put cash to work in other asset classes," said Craig James, a strategist at CommSec in Sydney.


Southeast Asian stock markets were generally softer but remained near their highs. The Philippines <.psi> hit a record high for the third day running on Wednesday and Thailand's <.seti> market surged to a more than 18-year high on Wednesday.


The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept in place its monthly $85 billion bond-buying stimulus plan, arguing the support was needed to lower unemployment.


Underscoring the Fed's cautious view, data on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter. Still, a lot of that weakness came from a plunge in defense spending, suggesting the underlying fundamentals were not as bad as the headline figures indicated.


In Asia, the data on Thursday provided cause for optimism. Taiwan raised its economic growth forecast for 2013, after the fourth quarter expanded faster than expected and posted its best growth in five quarters on improved demand for the island's electronics exports and stronger consumption.


"Taiwan's economic growth will be better this year as Europe's outlook is becoming positive, it will have a bigger rebound as an export-oriented economy," said Scott Chen, economist at Sinopac Commercial Bank in Taipei.


The Philippines said on Thursday its economy grew 1.5 percent in the December quarter from the previous three months, better than market forecasts.


YEN OFF LOWS


Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock average <.n225> shed 0.6 percent after soaring 2.3 percent to a 33-month high the day before, taking its cue from the yen firming from fresh lows hit on Wednesday. <.t/>


"It's too early to take profit," a trader at a foreign bank said. "People should look for names which are still undervalued, still haven't moved (in line with the rally in the Nikkei) and could outperform."


Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's approach of revitalizing Japan's economy through an aggressive mix of fiscal steps and monetary easing is expected to keep the yen on a weakening path.


The dollar eased 0.3 percent to 90.81 yen after reaching 91.41 yen on Wednesday, its highest since June 2010. The euro also fell 0.3 percent to 123.24 yen, after hitting 123.87 on Wednesday, its peak since May 2010.


Japan's December factory output rose at the fastest pace in a year and a half and firms expect further gains, raising hopes that stabilizing global demand and exports will help pull the economy from its slump.


EUROPE IMPROVING


The euro held near a 14-month high of $1.3588 scaled on Wednesday.


Reports from the euro zone on Wednesday underscored views that the debt crisis-hit region may be overcoming the worst, with economic sentiment improving more than expected across all sectors in January and a gauge for the phase of the business cycle also rising this month.


"The rise in the EUR is a sign of the success of the European Central Bank on the credit front, which matters far more than a short term rise in EUR/USD. Money is flowing into Europe and from North back to the South or from ECB funding to money market funding," Sebastien Galy, strategist at Societe Generale, said in a note to clients.


Spot gold hovered near its one-week high of $1,683.39 an ounce reached on Wednesday.


U.S. crude futures steadied around $97.93 a barrel and Brent crude was up 0.2 percent to $115.09.


(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in Tokyo and Miranda Maxwell in Melbourne; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Shri Navaratnam)



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Brees wants to bury bounty probe, help New Orleans


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Drew Brees wore gray sneakers to his first full day of Super Bowl-related appearances — a wise move for an ambassador of a city who had to walk briskly from end to end of a sprawling convention center to make all of his scheduled stops.


Not only was the Saints' star quarterback a man on the move, but also ready to move on from the bitterness of the bounty scandal, which may have undermined his team's chances of playing for a title on its home field.


"We're professionals and we've moved past that in the sense that there's nothing that can be done other than, 'Let's move on and let's find a way to be better next year inspite of it,'" Brees said. "It would be easy to sit here and be angry, but it is what it is."


Coming off a 13-3 campaign in 2011 and a narrow loss to San Francisco in that season's playoffs, the Saints went into the offseason figuring they would be contenders again this season.


Then came the NFL's probe of the Saints' cash-for-hits program and numerous sanctions, the most severe of which was the full-season suspension of coach Sean Payton. New Orleans went 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008, and now the team practicing at the Saints' suburban training center is the NFC champion 49ers.


Throughout the community, displeasure with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's handling of the matter has been on display for months, from T-shirts reading "Free Payton" (he is now reinstated) to signs in bars and eateries showing Goodell's photo and reading: "Do not serve this man."


During the season, Brees offered his own criticism of what he thought was a faulty investigation and overly heavy-handed disciplinary process. But when the topic came up Wednesday, Brees said it was time to "put this thing to bed."


"We've said what needed to be said," Brees said. "Sean's back, all the pieces are in place, and now it's time for us to put ourselves in a position to make a run."


Brees has been one of New Orleans' most prominent public faces and leading promoters since he arrived in the Big Easy in 2006, when much of the area was still in a state of devastation from Hurricane Katrina's August 2005 landfall. Now his team is the official host of the Super Bowl, and Brees is once again stepping up to highlight his adopted hometown's resurgence as it hosts the Super Bowl for the first time since 2002 — also the first time since Katrina.


He also sought to stamp out the notion that there is some kind of undercurrent of tension between his club, its fans and all of the high-ranking NFL executives in town for the league's biggest single event.


"I know the city is going to be a great host regardless," Brees said. "The city wants to put their best foot forward, they want everybody to have a great experience. I don't like the fact that we've got the NFC team practicing in our facility, but we're going to be gracious hosts and hope that it pays us back in the future."


Brees' stops Wednesday included a talk with area high school kids about the importance of managing one's money. He even revealed that he graduated Purdue with an unpaid $2,000 mobile phone bill, and later regretted it when it damaged his credit score and pushed up the interest rate he had to pay on the first house he bought in San Diego, shortly after being drafted by the Chargers in 2001.


Later, he hosted a news conference in which his foundation donated $1 million to businesses teaming up with charities in the metro area. He also made several radio appearances and lent his support to an event hosted by former Saints special teams standout Steve Gleason, who has the debilitating and incurable neuro-muscular disease ALS.


As an organization, the Saints' approach has mirrored that of their quarterback. Owner Tom Benson spoke at an NFL event promoting the importance of children doing more physical activity on Wednesday. He has invited Goodell to the team party in New Orleans' City Park on Thursday night, and he will attend Goodell's main media event Friday and has even invited the commissioner to watch the game from his suite in the Superdome.


"We're making this the best Super Bowl ever and what that means is we're going to get another Super Bowl to come back in a few years," said Benson with a nod to the city's intent to bid on the 2018 Super Bowl. "We've rolled out the red carpet for everybody."


Frank Supovitz, the NFL's vice president for events, called the Saints "outstanding hosts."


"We've been working on the Super Bowl together with the Saints the last three years. ... The level of partnership has never wavered for a moment," he said. "The NFL and Super Bowl have had a long and deep relationship with the city and with the team and one of the pleasures of my career has been working with the team on the reopening of the dome (after Katrina). We've been very, very close partners with the city and the team and I don't expect that to change."


Dennis Lauscha, who serves as the president of both the Saints and NBA's Hornets — which Benson bought last spring — scoffed at the idea that any animosity lingered between the Saints and the league.


"What we're absolutely concerned about is making sure we put on the best possible show and make a great bid on the next one. We want to put our best foot forward," Lauscha said. "No question we wanted to be the first team to host and play on our own field in the same year. We had an unbelievable experience down in Miami when we won the Super Bowl and we kept on saying how great it would be if we could do that back in New Orleans for our fans, so there is a bit of disappointment in that, but look, we're looking forward to next year and winning the Super Bowl in New York."


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13 Pygmy Elephants Found Dead in Malaysia






Malaysian authorities have a possible elephant murder mystery on their hands after three more pygmy elephants reportedly were found dead on the island of Borneo Wednesday (Jan. 30).


The grim discovery brings the death toll to 13 this month, and according to the AP, authorities are investigating suspicions that the diminutive elephants were poisoned.






Also called Bornean elephants, these creatures are the most endangered subspecies of Asian elephant. While other male Asian elephants can grow up to 9.8 feet (3 meters), male Bornean elephants grow to less than 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) and they have bigger ears and rounder bellies, according to the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF).


Researchers initially believed the babyish-looking mammals were the descendents of captive elephants brought to the island a few centuries ago. Other evidence, however, suggests that the pygmy elephants are a genetically distinct subspecies that arrived thousands of years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch by way of a land bridge. There are thought to be just 1,200 of them in Borneo today, mostly concentrated in Sabah, the Malaysian state at the northeastern corner of the island. [Gallery: The Pygmy Elephants of Borneo]


Though it’s still unclear who or what might be responsible for the recent spate of elephant deaths, WWF officials noted that the population has been increasingly threatened by habitat fragmentation, and all the corpses reportedly have been found in areas where forests are being transformed into plantations within the Gunung Rara reserve in Sabah. 


“Conversions result in fragmentation of the forests, which in turn results in loss of natural habitat for elephant herds, thus forcing them to find alternative food and space, putting humans and wildlife in direct conflict,” environmentalist Dato’ Dr Dionysius S K Sharma, executive director of the WWF’s Malaysia division, said in a statement. “All conversion approvals need to be reviewed by the Sabah Forestry Department and assessed not purely from commercial, but the endangered species and landscape ecology perspectives.”


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