Departing Secretary of State Clinton's Legacy of Firsts

After 31 years of public service, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves the limelight behind.

On Friday, President Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to take her place as secretary of state, leaving Clinton to help him move in and then bow out.

Over the past three decades, Clinton has served her country in one way or another, a tenure that was full of firsts.

She was the only first lady to refuse the traditional cookie bake off and the first secretary of state to visit more than 100 countries. She served under the first black president and was the first first lady to have an office in the West Wing of the White House. Clinton was the first secretary of state to visit East Timor, and the first first lady to later win elective office. And long before she ever appeared on a ballot, Clinton was the first child born to Hugh and Dorothy Rodham.

Hillary Clinton Through the Years

Her departure from the State Department does not come as a surprise. For the past year, she has made clear her intentions to step down and said her goodbyes at outposts all over the world.

"It's important for me to step off this incredibly high wire I've been on," Clinton said after casting her ballot in November's presidential election, "to take stock of the rest of my life."

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Recently, she told ABC's Barbara Walters she's looking forward to taking a step back, "maybe do some reading and writing and speaking and teaching."

In October, she took the blame for State Department security failures that led to the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, in Benghazi, Libya. It was a move that signaled a willingness to put politics aside and embrace responsibility.

I take responsibility," Clinton said a month after the attack in an interview in Lima, Peru. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts.

"The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals," Clinton said, a clear attempt to absolve a president who was up for re-election of blame with little regard for her own popularity.

At the end of November, Clinton reflected on her accomplishments as secretary of state over the past four years in two wide-ranging speeches on foreign policy.

Her four years of work focused on advancing rights for women and religious minorities across the globe, helping to maintain the tenuous peace between Israelis and Palestinians, discouraging Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and, in her own words, "advancing a new approach to development that puts human dignity and self-sufficiency at the heart of our efforts."

Clinton reflected on her travels to more than 112 countries, calling it "shoe-leather diplomacy," and emphasizing the importance of being on the ground.

"I have found it highly ironic that, in today's world, when we can be anywhere virtually, more than ever people want us to show up, actually," she said at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. "Somebody said to me the other day, 'I look at your travel schedule.  Why Togo?  Why the Cook Islands?'  No secretary of state had ever been to Togo before.  Togo happens to be on the U.N. Security Council.  Going there, making the personal investment, has a real strategic purpose."

Though Clinton took political heat this year for her role in the Benghazi attack, her global colleagues joked and prodded her about a second presidential run at each increment of her long-term farewell. The popular Democrat continues to deny she'll run.

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Tax fight sends GOP into chaos

The main thing that has held Republicans together philosophically is the belief in holding down taxes. Not one of them in Congress has voted for a significant increase in more than two decades.

Now that very issue is tearing the GOP apart and making it an all-but-ungovernable majority for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead in the House.

Disarray is a word much overused in politics. But it barely begins to describe the current state of chaos and incoherence as Republicans come to terms with electoral defeat and try to regroup against a year-end deadline to avert a fiscal crisis.

The presidential election was fought in large measure over the question of whether some Americans should pay more in taxes. Republicans lost that argument with the voters, who polls show are strongly in favor of raising rates for the wealthy.

But a sizable contingent within the GOP doesn’t see it that way and is unwilling to declare defeat on a tenet that so defines them. Nor are they prepared to settle for getting the best deal they can, as a means of avoiding the tax hikes on virtually everyone else that would take effect if no deal is reached.

When Boehner tried to bend even a little, by proposing to raise rates on income over $1 million, his party humiliated him, forcing him Thursday night to abruptly cancel a vote on his “Plan B.”

“We had a number of our members who just really didn’t want to be perceived as having raised taxes,” Boehner said Friday. “That was the real issue.”

Whether and how the party can resolve the issue has implications going forward. It could determine Boehner’s viability — even his survival— as leader of the only part of the federal government controlled by the Republicans.

It also could set the terms of engagement for the battles that lie ahead, including such contentious ones as immigration and the fiscal 2013 spending bills, which are funded for only half the year and which expire March 31.

As things stand now, some worry that nothing short of a catastrophe could force a resolution.

“We have sunk to the lowest common denominator in order to get a deal — sheer panic,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean, a former aide to House and Senate leadership. “The reality of a stock market crash is probably the only way Washington will strike a deal. It is probably the only scenario that could likely force the speaker’s hand and allow for a deal driven by Democratic votes to pass the House.”

Which, of course, is not an ideal way to govern.

“The hard-core anti-tax conservatives in the GOP seem to believe that Barack Obama will be blamed if there is no agreement reached to avoid sequestration and the tax increases that are coming,” said Sheldon D. Pollack, a University of Delaware law and political science professor who has written a history of Republican anti-tax policy. “Calculated gamble? Or are they simply incapable of recognizing that they do not control the White House or the Senate, and hence do not have the ability to control the agenda? Sadly, I think it is the latter.”

Their intransigence alone is unlikely to sell the electorate on the Republican point of view on taxes.

“You have to make an argument. You have to go out there and engage. You can’t just simply assert a position,” said GOP pollster David Winston, who advises the House leadership. “Part of the dynamic for Boehner is that he’s trying to have the debate over economic policies that should have occurred during the election, and he also has to deal with this piece of legislation.”

As long as there has been a Republican Party, there has been at least a faction within it that has taken a hard-line stance on taxes, Pollack said. But it has not always had the upper hand.

Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, was also the first to put a national income tax into place, as a temporary means of funding the Civil War. Even then, House Ways and Means Chairman Thaddeus Stevens (now enjoying a return to popular consciousness as Tommy Lee Jones’s character in the movie “Lincoln”) denounced the idea of a graduated rate structure as a “strange way to punish men because they are rich.”

The 16th Amendment, which established the constitutionality of the federal income tax in 1913, was proposed by a Republican, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Nelson W. Aldrich. But it was decried by another one, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, as “confiscation of property under the guise of taxation” and “a pillage of a class.”

The divisions went on until the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, who ran as an advocate of tax-cutting supply-side economics.

In 1990, Newt Gingrich established himself as the de facto head of his party in the House, when he stood up to a president of his own party and led the opposition to George H.W. Bush’s tax increases.

Gingrich insisted in an interview Friday that the Republicans still have leverage, if they are willing to fight hard enough.

“They need a strategy, not just a way of getting through this week,” he said.

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Rent in Orchard Rd prime areas down 0.28% in Q4

SINGAPORE: Prime area rent for shopping malls and retailers in Orchard Road inched down 0.28 per cent this quarter, compared to the previous quarter.

In a report by Savills World Research, average monthly rent in prime areas in Orchard Road were S$35.1 per square foot in the fourth quarter.

This is a slight drop from the S$35.2 per square foot in Q3.

Analysts felt that this is due to adjustments in the market, as rent in the area were growing too fast previously.

Alan Cheong, director of Savills Research said the fall could be due to over-expecting the level of tourism in Singapore.

He said: "While (tourism) did increase, apparently the spending power did not quite live up to its expectation. Rent and performance in the Orchard Road belt will be dependent on tourism trade and on the state of the economy."

More retail spaces will also be available soon.

Recently, Plaza Singapura completed its expansion works, providing 80 more shops.

A larger scale development, Orchard Gateway, will provide 180,000 square feet of retail space next year.

Analysts also say that a gloomy economic outlook ahead could also see rent fall by up to 3 per cent, and if economic growth slows, people will spend less.

Retailers may then take a hit, in turn exerting a downward pressure on rent.

- CNA/xq

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Cold wave grips north India

NEW DELHI: Cold wave conditions gripped north India as mercury dipped in most parts of the region on Saturday, with Kashmir Valley shivering under sub-zero temperature.

In Delhi, the minimum temperature settled two notches below normal at 6.2 degrees Celsius, Met office said, predicting a foggy morning for tomorrow.

In Jammu and Kashmir, temperature remained below freezing point in most parts of the state, with the mercury in capital Srinagar recording minus 3.4 degrees Celsius.

Kargil also witnessed a dip in the night temperature, which settled at minus 14.4 degrees Celsius.

Pahalgam, which serves as the base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, was freezing at minus 8.0 degrees Celsius.

The famous ski resort of Gulmarg was the coldest place in the Valley yesterday with a minimum of minus 10.8 degrees Celsius, Met officials said.

In Punjab and Haryana, night temperatures continued to drop, with Narnaul in Haryana being the coldest place in the region at 3.5 degrees.

While Ludhiana with 5.8 degrees Celsius was coldest place in Punjab, Chandigarh recorded a night temperature of 6.9 degrees.

In Uttar Pradesh, biting cold, coupled with dense fog, threw life out of gear and claimed life of one person in Hamirpur district.

The mercury nose-dived by several notches to settle below normal in most places, with the Bareilly and Meerut divisions recording the sharpest decline.

While Najibabad remained the coldest place in the state with 3.4 degrees Celsius, temperature fell in other places of the state including capital Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra and Mathura districts.

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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'Cliff' Deniers Put Faith in No Deal

Not everyone thinks the "fiscal cliff" is so bad.

If the Dec. 31 deadline passes, income taxes will go up and across-the-board spending cuts will hit government programs. But while most of the political world frets as if a major disaster is looming, others have treated it more like the Y2K bug: a fiscal canard ginning up a lot of unnecessary panic.

The cliff is a "fantasy," former House speaker Newt Gingrich told a sold-out crowd at the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley, Calif., a week before Election Day.

"It is an excuse to panic," Gingrich said. "It is a device to get all of us running down the road so we accept whatever Obama wants, because otherwise we will have failed the fiscal cliff, and how can you be a patriot if you don't do what the fiscal cliff requires?"

Fiscal Cliff 'Plan B' Is Dead: Now What?

The former speaker wanted Republicans to stop negotiating with President Obama, for fear of giving too much away. "Back out of all of this negotiating with Obama," Gingrich publicly advised House Republicans. "The president is overwhelmingly dominant in the news media" but, at the opposite end of the political spectrum, liberals have said the same thing for a similar reason.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

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While the "cliff" would mean higher taxes on the middle class, it would also mean higher taxes on the wealthy, a chief demand for liberals. Automatic budget cuts would hit defense programs, which liberals have wanted to cut anyway, but not the Medicare and Social Security entitlements that Democrats and progressives want so badly to protect.

Boehner Pulls 'Plan B' Amid GOP Disarray

Van Jones, the environmental activist and resigned White House green jobs "czar," sought to quiet the "fiscal cliff" alarms Election Night on CNN. "The problem with the label 'the cliff' is that it creates a mindset that there is nothing worse that this set of cuts, and there are things that are worse," Jones said.

"We cannot be in a situation where we get bullied or stampeded into putting in a deal that's even worse than what the fiscal cliff is about."

Jones later wrote on his blog that the "fiscal cliff" is actually a "fiscal bluff": "The so-called fiscal cliff is actually a fiscal bluff --- a made-up crisis to make us think our government is out of money and time. Congress continues to drag its feet over raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, despite the top 1% earning 23% of the nation's income, and insists on calling for cuts to vital programs instead of reining in massive subsidies ($100 billion in 2011 alone) to major corporations that already make billions in profits.

"America isn't broke --- it's being robbed.
Gingrich and Jones started the conversation, but as the deadline creeps closer, others are finishing it."

To some, the "fiscal cliff" offers a clearer upside.

"Democratic and progressive leverage goes immensely up if we get past the beginning of the year," Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee told ABC News. "Once they have to proactively lower taxes on the rich, it makes it harder and harder to move that number up and makes it easier and easier to force votes or demand votes on policies that clearly benefit the middle class."

Green says liberals will get what they want immediately, if the Dec. 31 deadline passes without a deal.

"We really want to get past the first of the year so that we have that leverage in the bag," Green told ABC. "It will also show that the fiscal cliff was a mess. If we get into 2013, the really good stuff happens right away, and the really big cuts are a 10-year phasing."

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ASEAN will continue to push for open skies agreement with India: PM Lee

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the issue of an open skies agreement between ASEAN and India is something which Singapore will continue to push for.

Speaking to the Singapore media at the end of his visit to New Delhi for the ASEAN-India commemorative summit, Mr Lee said passenger traffic keeps on growing, and hence the need for more capacity.

"I keep on making the point to them that if you want to engage Asia, if you want to engage ASEAN, this is really one of the easiest ways you can help to make it happen because if you open up the links, then the businessmen will travel, the tourists will travel, the business opportunities will be identified, more investments will come.

"I think the business people are quite persuaded but I think it's a subject we need to keep on pushing because some of the incumbent players, they prefer a slower pace. I hope there will be progress. The Singapore-India path we are discussing how to improve the air services agreement. The ASEAN-India air services agreement is something they have not started talking about, but we hope that they will begin soon," he shared.

Mr Lee concluded his trip to New Delhi with a visit to the Red Fort and he had the opportunity to meet the Singaporean team which took part in the ASEAN-India Car Rally.

The Prime Minister was encouraged by their participation, and it was also an opportunity for him to hear first-hand their experiences in driving 8,000 kilometres and through several states in ASEAN, before reaching New Delhi.

- CNA/ck

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Rail attendant lodges FIR against UP minister Azam Khan

LUCKNOW: Dirty linen in air-conditioned coaches of Indian Railways is something which many passengers have experienced and complained about. But, senior Samajwadi Party leader and cabinet minister Mohd Azam Khan could be an exception. Khan allegedly slapped and pinched the coach attendant for not making a 'perfect' bedding for him. And, later the minister denied the allegation.

As per records, Khan boarded the Amritsar Howrah Express (train number 13005) on Tuesday afternoon from Charbagh Railway station to reach his native place Rampur. He reportedly found that the linen provided to him in his first class AC cabin was not made neatly. Though he didn't react initially, he called the attendant about five minutes before the train was to stop at Rampur. "He told me that I do not know how to set a bedding properly. And before I could say anything, he started uttering foul words. I tried to defend myself, he slapped me and pinched me while locking into the coupe. He told me that he would let me go only if I would hold my ears and do sit-ups 50 times. I was following the order helplessly when the train reached Rampur. The minister got down, leaving me absolutely numb," said the victim, Nirmal Murmu - a technical III staff with the Eastern Railway.

TOI spoke to the attendant when the train was on its way back to Howrah (train number 13006) on Thursday morning. The train stopped at Charbagh at around 10.35 am and departed for the next station at 10.50 am. Nirmal stated that before he could think of reporting the matter to the authorities on Tuesday, the train departed. "I decided to not to let the matter go like this. At around 2.30 pm on December 19, I lodged an FIR with the government railway police at Amritsar station," he said adding that he has seen people complaining about lack of facilities but the way in which the minister behaved with him was uncalled for.

Nirmal is working with the Eastern Railway since 2001 and presently holds the designation of technical-III staff. He belongs to Hooghly district of West Bengal and says that he has never faced such a 'torture'. "In 12 years of my service, I have seen many passengers getting annoyed over lack of facilities. But not even once, I have seen anyone getting down to this level. I feel that I was tortured for no reason," he told TOI.

When asked to comment, Mohd Azam Khan said, "Mujhe nahi yaad ki aisa kuch hua tha." (I do not remember if something of this sort happened). TOI informed the minister that the attendant has named him in his complaint, which has been duly received by the police officials, he said, "Koi aur hoga mere naam ka." (It could be someone else with my name). Victim Murmu continued to plead his case. "It is not for the first time that the minister was travelling. I recognise him and people who travel with him. He is usually accompanied by a gunner. The person was surely Mohd Azam Khan," asserted Murmu.

It may be noted that the seat allotted against the PNR number (660-9767668) mentioned in Murmu's complaint was in the name of Azam Khan. The seats were allotted against VIP quota. Incidentally, this is not for the first time that the SP leader has sparked off a controversy. "Stories of his argument with the railway staff are not new," said KP Singh, coach mechanic who has been witness to the incident.

However, some railway officials believe that the quota for public representatives is often misused. "We have seen that the same MP or MLA travels to different destinations on the same day, which is practically impossible," said an officer, requesting anonymity. Meanwhile, the incident has shattered Murmu's self-respect and he has decided to raise the matter with his employees' union in Kolkata.

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

With shiny evergreen leaves and bright red berries, holly trees are a naturally festive decoration seen throughout the Christmas season.

They're famously sharp. But not all holly leaves are prickly, even on the same tree. And scientists now think they know how the plants are able to make sharper leaves, seemingly at will. (Watch a video about how Christmas trees are made.)

A new study published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society suggests leaf variations on a single tree are the combined result of animals browsing on them and the trees' swift molecular response to that sort of environmental pressure.

Carlos Herrera of the National Research Council of Spain led the study in southeastern Spain. He and his team investigated the European holly tree, Ilex aquifolium. Hollies, like other plants, can make different types of leaves at the same time. This is called heterophylly. Out of the 40 holly trees they studied, 39 trees displayed different kinds of leaves, both prickly and smooth.

Five holly leaves from the same tree.

Photographs by Emmanuel Lattes, Alamy

Some trees looked like they had been browsed upon by wild goats and deer. On those trees, the lower 8 feet (2.5 meters) had more prickly leaves, while higher up the leaves tended to be smooth. Scientists wanted to figure out how the holly trees could make the change in leaf shape so quickly.

All of the leaves on a tree are genetic twins and share exactly the same DNA sequence. By looking in the DNA for traces of a chemical process called methylation, which modifies DNA but doesn't alter the organism's genetic sequence, the team could determine whether leaf variation was a response to environmental or genetic changes. They found a relationship between recent browsing by animals, the growth of prickly leaves, and methylation.

"In holly, what we found is that the DNA of prickly leaves was significantly less methylated than prickless leaves, and from this we inferred that methylation changes are ultimately responsible for leaf shape changes," Herrera said. "The novelty of our study is that we show that these well-known changes in leaf type are associated with differences in DNA methylation patterns, that is, epigenetic changes that do not depend on variation in the sequence of DNA."

"Heterophylly is an obvious feature of a well-known species, and this has been ascribed to browsing. However, until now, no one has been able to come up with a mechanism for how this occurs," said Mike Fay, chief editor of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society and head of genetics at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. "With this new study, we are now one major step forward towards understanding how."

Epigenetic changes take place independently of variation in the genetic DNA sequence. (Read more about epigenetics in National Geographic magazine's "A Thing or Two About Twins.")

"This has clear and important implications for plant conservation," Herrera said. In natural populations that have their genetic variation depleted by habitat loss, the ability to respond quickly, without waiting for slower DNA changes, could help organisms survive accelerated environmental change. The plants' adaptability, he says, is an "optimistic note" amidst so many conservation concerns. (Related: "Wild Holly, Mistletoe, Spread With Warmer Winters.")

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NRA to Speak on Stopping Newtown Repeat

For the past week, leadership at the National Rifle Association has largely stayed away from the media, but this morning the group may weigh in on how to keep a deadly shooting massacre like last week's at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school from happening again.

The NRA will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., just before 11 a.m.

Its leadership has held off on interviews this week after refusing to appear on Sunday morning public affairs shows this past weekend.

The group came under pressure after Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six adults before shooting himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last Friday.

"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting," the group said in a press release Tuesday. "The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."

NRA News anchor Ginny Simone said Thursday that in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, membership surged "with an average of 8,000 new members a day."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the NRA is partially to blame for the tragedy.

"We're not trying to take away your right to advance the interests of gun owners, hunters, people who want to protect themselves," Bloomberg told "Nightline" anchor Cynthia McFadden in an interview Thursday. "But that's not an absolute right to encourage behavior which causes things like Connecticut. In fact, Connecticut is because of some of their actions."

Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP Photo

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The guns used in the attack were legally purchased and owned by the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, who Adam Lanza shot to death before his assault on the school.

In the aftermath of the shooting, many, including Bloomberg, have called for stricter regulations on the type of weapons used in this and other instances of mass gun violence this year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she intends to introduce a bill banning assault weapons on the first day of next year's Congress -- a step the president said he supports.

President Obama announced Wednesday that Vice President Joe Biden will head a task force of leaders from across the country that will evaluate the best solutions to reduce gun violence in the United States.

Obama said he will "use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, of which Mayor Bloomberg is co-chair, released a letter to President Obama signed by more than 750 mayors calling on him to produce a plan to "make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns."

The letter asked for mandatory background checks for gun buyers, a ban on high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines, and a designation of gun trafficking as a federal crime.

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos looked at whether strict gun control laws like those that have worked for the United Kingdom and Japan could work for the U.S. on "Good Morning America" Thursday.

Others have argued that, rather than banning guns, the government should be arming teachers and administrators in schools so that they can defend students in the event of another school shooting.

While Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a measure that would have let guns into schools on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell praised the idea.

Speaking on the NRA's daily news program Tuesday, Dave Koppel of the Independence Institute said the teachers at Sandy Hook should have had weapons.

"We'd certainly be talking about fewer innocent people and children dead," Koppel said.

While a national debate over the necessary solutions to prevent a tragedy of this nature from ever happening again wages on, Connecticut residents will have to wait "several months" before the final Connecticut State Police report on the Newtown shootings is complete.

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