IMF chief says easy monetary policy should stay for now

By Daniel Bases and Steven C. Johnson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global growth is likely to remain tepid this year and central banks should keep their easy monetary policies in place, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

"Thanks to the actions of policymakers, the economic world no longer looks quite as dangerous as it did six months ago," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the Economic Club of New York.

But while there were signs that financial conditions are improving, Lagarde said those changes are not yet translating into improvements in the real economy.

"In present circumstances, it makes sense for monetary policy to do the heavy lifting in this recovery by remaining accommodative," Lagarde said ahead of meetings of global finance chiefs in Washington next week.

"We know that inflation expectations are well anchored today, giving central banks greater leeway to support growth," she added.

She said a three-speed recovery is underway, led by fast-growing emerging economies, followed by countries such the United States that are on the mend, and with the euro zone and Japan trailing.

In January, the IMF trimmed its 2013 forecast for global growth to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent, and projected a 4.1 percent expansion in 2014. It said the world economy grew 3.2 percent in 2012.

Lagarde said the exceptionally loose monetary policies of central banks in advanced economies is a concern for emerging economies, which fear a sudden reversal of the large capital flows that have flooded their economies in recent years as investors have sought higher yields.

"Right now, these risks appear under control," Lagarde said, but she urged emerging economies to boost their defenses to deal with the possible repercussions should central banks start to exit from quantitative easing.

The IMF chief welcomed the unprecedented burst of monetary stimulus announced by the Bank of Japan last week to revive the country's economy. She urged Japan to deliver a credible fiscal plan to lower its public debt, "which looks increasingly unsustainable".

"Japan needs a clear and credible plan to lower public debt over the medium term," Lagarde said. "It needs comprehensive structural reforms to shift the economy into higher gear."

Lagarde said the 'fiscal cliff' in the United States had been avoided, but that it is vital now for the Obama administration to put in place credible, medium-term plans to cut debt.

In Europe, Lagarde said monetary policy is "spinning its wheels" with low interest rates unable to translate into affordable credit for those who need it because of unfinished repairs to the banking sector.

"The priority must be to continue to clean up the banking system by recapitalizing, restructuring, or, where necessary, shutting down banks," Lagarde added.

The banking bailout in Cyprus, she reiterated, is not a template for future reforms. However, she said people, "whether investors or depositors need to know what the banking order is".

Cyprus received a 10 billion euro bailout from the euro zone and the IMF. However, the structure of the deal has injected a higher level of uncertainty into markets because it requires large depositors, many of them Russian, to share in the losses of the banking system.

"Cyprus was not a template, it doesn't set standards because it was not a standard itself. It was vastly different from many banks in the region," Lagarde said in response to a question.

In addition to banking reform, most European governments need to maintain tight fiscal policies to reduce debt levels, she said, but added that spending cuts need not be too severe too soon.

"We believe it is a question of pace," Lagarde said. "(Reforms) don't have to be brutal or abrupt or massively front-loaded. Those under financial pressure have to demonstrate the ability to do so but be mindful of the fabric of society."

The IMF's spring meeting will be held in Washington April 19-21.

(Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama; and Peter Galloway)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/imf-chief-sees-little-improvement-global-growth-2013-161922659--business.html

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The relationship between prenatal stress and obesity is confirmed in rats

Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Press Office
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

Stress during gestation causes a predisposition to the development of pathologies in adulthood

The intrauterine environment plays an important role in the health of the offspring. Now, experts from the University of Navarra affirm that the mother's stress, due to socio-economic or psycho-social causes, is associated with the development of pathologies related with obesity.

"The growing prevalence of obesity cannot be solely attributed to genetic factors or poor nutrition, but also to lifestyle and adverse environmental factors," as explained to SINC by Javier Campin, lead researcher of this new study. "The said environmental factors could have a bearing on epigenetic mechanisms, which are responsible for the control of genes beyond the genetic code itself".

For the authors, the fast pace which characterizes society produces an increase in stress rates within the population, and this rise, in parallel with the rates of obesity, makes an analysis of the interaction necessary between these two factors which do not only affect adult age groups.

The objective of the work, which was published in the magazine 'Stress', was to determine the effect on adult rats of moderate chronic stress during the final week's embryonic development on the phenotypical, biochemical and hormonal changes.

To do this the researchers studied two groups of rats, with and without stress, and examined in the offspring any alterations in the expression of genes related with obesity and the metabolism of glucocorticoids in the white adipose tissue.

"The general conclusion we obtained was that an adverse situation during intrauterine development could lead to animals, due to the ingestion of a hyper-calorific diet, experiencing a greater increase in body fat and biochemical, hormonal and genetic alterations," underlined Campin.

In addition the authors insisted that these changes at adult age induced by the ingestion of a diet rich in fat and sugars provoked obesity and other associated conditions, such as insulin resistance, the result of which is the development of type-2 diabetes.

Pregnancy in the 21st Century

"These days many women continue with their hectic lives during pregnancy almost up to the birth, without noticing the stress they may be under," the researcher indicated.

The experts allege that stress, which during the normal life of a woman may not affect health, could be altering the development of the baby and leading to a predisposition towards the development of pathologies during adulthood, possibly due to epigenetic modification. Every year, problems relating to obesity are responsible for over 2.8 million deaths throughout the world.

"A healthy life during the pregnancy does not only consist of a good diet, with a good provision of vitamins and minerals, but also in living a quiet life, without stress," Campin concluded.

###

References:

L. Paternain, A.L. de la garza, M.A. Batlle, F.I. Milagro, J.A. Martnez & J. Campin. "Prenatal stress increases the obesogenic effects of a high-fat-sucrose diet in adult rats in a sex-specific manner". Stress, 16(2): 220232, marzo de 2013.

Paternain L, Batlle MA, De la Garza AL, Milagro FI, Martnez JA, Campin J. "Transcriptomic and epigenetic changes in the hypothalamus are involved in an increased susceptibility to a high-fat-sucrose diet in prenatally stressed female rats". Neuroendocrinology. 2012; 96(3):249-60.

Contact:

Javier Campin
Dpto. Ciencias de la Alimentacin y Fisiologa
Universidad de Navarra
Tel: +34 948 425600 Ext. 6554
E-mail: jcampion@unav.es
CIBER Fisiopatologa de la Obesidad y Nutricin (CIBEROBN)

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 9-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Press Office
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

Stress during gestation causes a predisposition to the development of pathologies in adulthood

The intrauterine environment plays an important role in the health of the offspring. Now, experts from the University of Navarra affirm that the mother's stress, due to socio-economic or psycho-social causes, is associated with the development of pathologies related with obesity.

"The growing prevalence of obesity cannot be solely attributed to genetic factors or poor nutrition, but also to lifestyle and adverse environmental factors," as explained to SINC by Javier Campin, lead researcher of this new study. "The said environmental factors could have a bearing on epigenetic mechanisms, which are responsible for the control of genes beyond the genetic code itself".

For the authors, the fast pace which characterizes society produces an increase in stress rates within the population, and this rise, in parallel with the rates of obesity, makes an analysis of the interaction necessary between these two factors which do not only affect adult age groups.

The objective of the work, which was published in the magazine 'Stress', was to determine the effect on adult rats of moderate chronic stress during the final week's embryonic development on the phenotypical, biochemical and hormonal changes.

To do this the researchers studied two groups of rats, with and without stress, and examined in the offspring any alterations in the expression of genes related with obesity and the metabolism of glucocorticoids in the white adipose tissue.

"The general conclusion we obtained was that an adverse situation during intrauterine development could lead to animals, due to the ingestion of a hyper-calorific diet, experiencing a greater increase in body fat and biochemical, hormonal and genetic alterations," underlined Campin.

In addition the authors insisted that these changes at adult age induced by the ingestion of a diet rich in fat and sugars provoked obesity and other associated conditions, such as insulin resistance, the result of which is the development of type-2 diabetes.

Pregnancy in the 21st Century

"These days many women continue with their hectic lives during pregnancy almost up to the birth, without noticing the stress they may be under," the researcher indicated.

The experts allege that stress, which during the normal life of a woman may not affect health, could be altering the development of the baby and leading to a predisposition towards the development of pathologies during adulthood, possibly due to epigenetic modification. Every year, problems relating to obesity are responsible for over 2.8 million deaths throughout the world.

"A healthy life during the pregnancy does not only consist of a good diet, with a good provision of vitamins and minerals, but also in living a quiet life, without stress," Campin concluded.

###

References:

L. Paternain, A.L. de la garza, M.A. Batlle, F.I. Milagro, J.A. Martnez & J. Campin. "Prenatal stress increases the obesogenic effects of a high-fat-sucrose diet in adult rats in a sex-specific manner". Stress, 16(2): 220232, marzo de 2013.

Paternain L, Batlle MA, De la Garza AL, Milagro FI, Martnez JA, Campin J. "Transcriptomic and epigenetic changes in the hypothalamus are involved in an increased susceptibility to a high-fat-sucrose diet in prenatally stressed female rats". Neuroendocrinology. 2012; 96(3):249-60.

Contact:

Javier Campin
Dpto. Ciencias de la Alimentacin y Fisiologa
Universidad de Navarra
Tel: +34 948 425600 Ext. 6554
E-mail: jcampion@unav.es
CIBER Fisiopatologa de la Obesidad y Nutricin (CIBEROBN)

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/f-sf-trb040913.php

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Egypt's Christian pope blasts Islamist president

CAIRO (AP) ? The leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church on Tuesday blasted the country's Islamist president over his handling of the recent deadly sectarian violence, including an attack on the main cathedral in Cairo.

The remarks by Pope Tawadros II underscore rising Muslim-Christian tensions in Egypt. They were Tawadros' first direct criticism of President Mohammed Morsi since he was enthroned in November as the spiritual leader of Egypt's Orthodox Christians. They are also likely to fuel the political turmoil roiling the country for the two years since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Tawadros also warned that the state of Egypt was "collapsing" and described Sunday's attack on the St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo, which serves as the Coptic papal seat, as "breaching all the red lines."

Tawadros said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the cathedral, "but in reality he did not."

Asked to explain Morsi's attitude, Tawadros, who spoke in a telephone interview to a political talk show aired on the private ONTV network, said it "comes under the category of negligence and poor assessment of events."

On Sunday, an angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, leaving two people dead. One of the two was identified as a Christian.

The attack followed a funeral service for four Christians killed in sectarian clashes in a town north of Cairo early the day before. A fifth person, a Muslim, was also killed. It was the deadliest sectarian violence since Morsi came to office nine months ago as the country's first freely elected president.

Tawadros also criticized the president over his decision on Monday to revive a state body mandated to promote equality between Egyptians regardless of their religious and ethnic background. Morsi's decision was in response to the sectarian violence.

"Enough already of formations, committees and groups and whatever else," Tawadros said.

"We want action not words and, let me say this, there are many names and committees but there is no action on the ground," he added.

Morsi has strongly condemned the recent violence and said that he considered any attack on the cathedral to be an attack on him personally. He also ordered an investigation into the violence.

"Should we wait for instructions to start an investigation when something happens?" Tawadros said in response to Morsi's order. "Egypt's laws must be adequate to deal with the situation. This is a society that is collapsing. Society is collapsing every day."

The office of Morsi's assistant for foreign relations issued a statement shortly after the pope's remarks, saying that the "Egyptian presidency would like to affirm its full rejection of violence in all its forms, and under any pretext, and affirms that all Egyptians are citizens who should enjoy all rights and are equal before the law."

"The presidency further stresses that it will not allow any attempts to divide the nation, incite sedition, or drive a wedge among Egyptians under any pretense and that it is doing all it can to realize the sovereignty of law and hold the assailants accountable," the statement added.

Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 90 million people. Copts have complained for decades of discrimination and issues such as the building of houses of worship or inter-religious love stories often ignite Muslim-Christian violence.

But attacks against Christians have increased since Mubarak's 2011 ouster, including more attacks on churches and at times forced evictions of entire Christian communities from small towns and villages.

With Islamists politically empowered since the overthrow of Mubarak's regime, Christians have become increasingly worried about their freedom of worship and belief.

During Sunday's funeral service at the St. Mark Cathedral, mourners chanted against Morsi, calling on him to step down. Witnesses say a street brawl broke out when Coptic activists tried to stop traffic to stage an anti-government march.

A mob, described by witnesses as residents of the area, pelted the Christians with rocks and firebombs and fired birdshot at them, forcing them back into the cathedral complex. The mob outside and the Christians barricaded inside then exchanged rocks and firebombs for hours into the night Sunday.

Many of the Christians denounced what they called a lack of protection for the service. When police did arrive in greater numbers, they fired tear gas and gas canisters landed inside church grounds, causing panic among women and children, while people outside the church cheered.

Some firebombs thrown from near the church landed at a nearby gas station, while witnesses said some in the church lobbed firebombs at the crowd outside.

Police said they have arrested four implicated in the violence, but didn't provide details. Tawadros was not in the cathedral at the time of the siege.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-christian-pope-blasts-islamist-president-093908770.html

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Stocks edge higher ahead of earnings season

Stocks closed higher on?Wall?Street Monday?as traders turned their focus to US corporate earnings reports. Better-than-expected earnings reports from Alcoa helped push stocks higher.

By Steve Rothwell,?AP Markets Writer / April 8, 2013

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange Monday. Optimism that it will be a good year for company profits drove stocks higher Monday.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Enlarge

Stocks?ended modestly higher Monday, shrugging off an early decline, as investors waited to see whether big U.S. companies would deliver on expectations of strong earnings in 2013.

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Alcoa became the first major U.S. company to report earnings late Monday, and the results were mostly good. Aluminum maker's income was higher than analysts were expecting, but its revenue fell slightly short of expectations. Later this week the pace picks up with reports from Bed Bath & Beyond, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.

A big factor driving the Standard & Poor's 500 up 9.6 percent this year has been optimism that it will be a good year for company profits. While the expectations for the first quarter are relatively modest, many investors are expecting to see more of a pickup in earnings later in the year.

"We need to see some earnings growth here to justify the big gains we've seen in the first quarter," said Ryan Detrick, a senior technical analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Earnings for companies in the S&P 500 index are expected to rise by 0.7 percent from the first quarter of last year, but that growth is expected to accelerate sharply to 13 percent in the final three-month period of the year, according to data from S&P Capital IQ.

On Monday the Dow Jones industrial average rose 48.23 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 14,613.48. The index started the day lower and fell as much as 67 points during morning trading. Alcoa's gain of 1.8 percent was one of the biggest in the Dow. It rose 15 cents to $8.39. The?stock?was off seven cents in after-hours trading.

The S&P 500 index closed up 9.79 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,563.07.

The Dow and S&P have struggled for direction over the past three weeks. The S&P 500 has alternated between gains and losses every day as investors take advantage of any weakness to add to their holdings.

Telecommunications?stocks?fell 0.5 percent and health care?stocks?inched up just 0.2 percent, lagging the rest of the market. The two industry groups have performed well this year as investors sought out less risky?stocksthat pay good dividends. Health care companies are up almost 16 percent, making them the best performers in the S&P 500.

Lufkin Industries, an oilfield equipment maker, surged $24.03, or 38 percent, to $87.96 after General Electric Co. agreed to buy the company for $3 billion. GE wants to bolster its oil and gas operations. Its?stock?rose 19 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $23.12.

Johnson & Johnson logged the biggest percentage decline on the 30-member Dow Jones industrial average, dropping 93 cents to $81.11. Analysts at JPMorgan cut their rating on the?stock?to "neutral," saying it has risen too far, too fast. Johnson & Johnson is up 16 percent this year.

Stocks?fell Friday after the government reported a slowdown in hiring that was far worse than economists had expected. The report capped a bad week: The S&P 500 logged its biggest weekly decline of the year as signs emerged that U.S. growth is starting to cool.

In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index rose 18.39 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,222.25.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.75 percent from 1.71 percent late Friday. It went as 1.69 percent Friday, its lowest level of the year. The benchmark rate has fallen from a recent high of 2.06 percent reached March 11 as demand for low-risk assets increases.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/i0v9N9mzZJU/Stocks-edge-higher-ahead-of-earnings-season

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Remains of The Day: Facebook Home Raises Privacy Concerns

Facebook addresses user concern over Facebook home, a Feedly update fixes the RSS reader's login bug, and Microsoft may unveil the next Xbox in May.

• Answering Your Questions on Home and Privacy Like most things Facebook does, it's forthcoming Home Screen/Android Launcher Facebook Home has been met with much concern over how private the new application would be. Today Facebook responded, reassuring users that the app can be turned off/uninstalled and, like other Facebook apps, collects information on how you interact with it. Due to it's nature as a home/lock screen replacement, this means that while the type of information Facebook Home gleans from you isn't very different, the quantity of information could potentially be much higher. A very janky, pre-release version of Facebook Home leaked earlier this morning, but seems to have since been taken offline. [Facebook Newsroom]
• 14.0.477 ? An Update of Feedly Desktop Focused on Performance and Quality Feedly, your favorite Google Reader alternative, released an update today for Chrome/Safari/Firefox browsers. The changes include a fix for a bug that required users to re-login when the server was under a high load, increased width and sharing options in title only view, and faster load times. [Feedly]
• Microsoft Planning Xbox Event for May Rumors say that Microsoft is planning to unveil the next Xbox, codenamed Durango, at an event on May 21st. [The Verge]

Photo by photastic (Shutterstock), a2bb5s (Shutterstock), and Feng Yu (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/gKOikaE9J2U/remains-of-the-day-facebook-home-raises-privacy-concerns

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Immunotherapy showed promising antileukemia activity in pediatric patients

Apr. 6, 2013 ? Researchers using patients' own immune cells in an immunotherapy approach called "anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy," achieved responses in children whose acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) had returned after a bone marrow transplant, according to preliminary results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10.

"Anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy using patients' own immune cells is a completely new way of treating childhood cancer," said Daniel W. Lee, M.D., assistant clinical investigator in the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. "It is not chemotherapy; therefore, it has a different side effect profile -- we hope better tolerated. In the limited number of post-transplant patients we have treated so far, we're getting acceptable toxicities, and we're not seeing graft-versus-host disease."

More than 95 percent of children initially diagnosed with ALL achieve remission, but a significant number of them relapse, according to Lee. Once they relapse, the prognosis is poor, with ALL accounting for the most deaths from cancer among children.

Other research teams are testing anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in children with ALL that has returned after a bone marrow transplant, according to Lee. However, whether they are using immune cells from the transplant donor, or collecting and preparing the patient's cells, the process is lengthy.

"Often these children with relapsed ALL don't have that kind of time to wait," Lee said. "We wanted something that could be done in a more timely manner. We decided to collect the immune cells, which are called T cells, directly from the patients, even though they'd had bone marrow transplants."

The first three patients in the phase I trial had undergone a previous bone marrow transplant, although the trial is also open to patients who have never had a transplant. One patient had B-cell lymphoma and the other two had ALL.

The researchers collected T cells from the patients and modified them in the laboratory so that they would attach to a protein expressed by the leukemia cells, called CD19, and attack the cancers. The number of modified T cells, now called anti-CD19 CAR T cells, was expanded in the laboratory before they were returned to the patients.

The results so far indicate that this approach is a feasible and active treatment for pediatric patients with ALL, even those who relapse after a bone marrow transplant, according to Lee. One patient had a complete response and a second had a transient complete response, with minimal residual disease remaining. The lone lymphoma patient did not respond.

Cell expansion was robust. "We were able to get very good expansion -- on average about 60-fold expansion of these cells during the 11-day culture period," Lee said. "And we were able to insert the receptor, the anti-CD19 CAR, into those T cells with good efficiency."

One patient did not produce a sufficient number of cells, which was likely related to recent intensive chemotherapy and resultant low T-cell count, according to Lee. Despite this, the few cells the patient did receive expanded dramatically and the patient temporarily achieved remission.

Lee and colleagues continue to test this approach in patients whose disease has returned after, or is refractory to, standard treatments whether or not they have had a bone marrow transplant.

"We think that the children who have never had a transplant might experience different toxicities," said Lee. "Our first patient enrolled in this arm of the trial had never achieved disease remission after her initial diagnosis of ALL despite intensive chemotherapy. Strikingly, anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy resulted in the complete clearance of any detectable leukemia in this patient, and we were able to send her back to her primary oncologists for a bone marrow transplant."

Lee's research was partially funded by the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

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China warns against "troublemaking" on Korean Peninsula

By Ron Popeski and Andrew Roche, Reuters

BEIJING/SEOUL ? China on Sunday warned against "troublemaking" on its doorstep, in an apparent rebuke to North Korea.

The North, led by 30-year-old Kim Jong-un, has been issuing vitriolic threats of war against the United States and U.S.-backed South Korea since the United Nations imposed sanctions in response to its third nuclear weapon test in February.

---

North Korean officials told diplomats late last week to consider leaving Pyongyang because of the tension, but embassies appeared to view the appeal as more rhetoric and staff have stayed put.

North Korea continues to voice aggressive warnings toward the U.S. and South Korea, leaving both countries concerned over what may come next from North Korea. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.

China, North Korea's sole financial and diplomatic backer, has shown growing irritation with Pyongyang's warnings of nuclear war.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing a forum on the southern island of Hainan, did not name North Korea but said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".

Stability in Asia, he said, "faces new challenges, as hot spot issues keep emerging and both traditional and non-traditional security threats exist".

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed similar frustration in a statement late on Saturday, relating a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We oppose provocative words and actions from any party in the region and do not allow trouble making on China's doorstep," Wang said, according to a ministry statement on its website.

On Sunday, the ministry expressed "grave concern" at rising tension and said China had asked North Korea to "ensure the safety of Chinese diplomats in North Korea, in accordance with the Vienna Convention and international laws and norms".

China's embassy, it said, was "understood" to be operating normally in Pyongyang.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, addressing the Hainan forum, said avoiding conflict on the peninsula was vital. "There, any aggression is a threat to the interests of every country in the region," she said.

British Foreign Minister William Hague said North Korea's nuclear ambitions had to be taken seriously.

Interviewed by Sky News, he said the international response "should also be very clear, very united and calm at all times because it's important not to feed that frenetic rhetoric that we've seen over the last few weeks".

Switzerland's Foreign Ministry offered to mediate, saying it was "always willing to help find a solution, if this is the wish of the parties, such as hosting meetings between them".

Kim, the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea, is thought to have spent several years in Switzerland being educated under a pseudonym. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong-il, who confronted South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.

Additional reporting by Koh Gui Qing in Hainan and Phil Stewart in Washington

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a6f1daa/l/0Lworldblog0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A70C171678150Echina0Ewarns0Eagainst0Etroublemaking0Eon0Ekorean0Epeninsula0Dlite/story01.htm

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