LSE, TMX abort their merger, leaving both in play (Reuters)

TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) – The London Stock Exchange's C$3.6 billion ($3.7 billion) plan to buy its Toronto counterpart collapsed on Wednesday in the face of a competing bid led by Canadian banks, leaving the UK exchange itself vulnerable to takeover.

The failure, which follows Singapore Exchange Ltd.'s scuttled bid for Australia's ASX Ltd, is the latest sign of nationalist pride frustrating cross-border deals for highly symbolic capital markets.

The failed bid from LSE opens the door to a hostile C$3.8 billion offer for TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, from the Maple Group consortium. The consortium bid is a made-in-Canada alternative to a takeover that would have put a big domestic asset in foreign hands.

"This is a group of Canadians, businesses that came together and have asserted themselves," said Dwight Duncan, the province of Ontario's finance minister and an early opponent of the LSE deal.

In having to retreat from Canada, the LSE also draws attention to itself as a takeover target as exchanges consolidate to try to grow and broaden geographic reach, and to fight off rivals and new market entrants.

Nasdaq OMX Group, smarting from its own failure in the United States to buy New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Euronext, could be a contender for an alternative transatlantic combination with the LSE.

"While the failed deal probably puts an end to TMX's M&A ambitions, other exchange operators will likely continue to look for partners. This reinforces my belief that we should expect more mergers, not less," said Ed Ditmire, New York-based analyst for Macquarie Securities.

Nasdaq and LSE shares rose in late trade on Wednesday, indicating that speculation about a tie-up could be brewing.

"It would not surprise me to see Nasdaq and LSE talking," said Jamie Selway, New York-based market structure expert and managing director of strategy at Investment Technology Group.

The TMX deal's collapse is a black eye for LSE Chief Executive Xavier Rolet, who banked his reputation on sealing the deal.

Rolet was to have led a LSE-TMX exchange group, which would have been a heavyweight global player and No. 1 in listing energy and mining companies.

But the support he got from TMX's management and board wasn't enough to overcome opposition from within Canada's tight-knit banking sector.

Four of the country's biggest banks were the lead players in the bid from Maple, a consortium that also included pension funds and financial services firms. Canada's other two big banks were advisers to the LSE proposal.

NOT ENOUGH VOTES

In brief statements issued one day before a shareholder vote, the two exchanges said they realized from an early tally of proxy votes that TMX shareholders would not give them the two-thirds majority needed to approve their friendly deal.

TMX Group said it would now review opportunities, including the Maple offer.

"LSE and TMX were both in positions where they weren't quite big enough or diverse and fast-growing enough to control their own destiny," said Justin Schack, managing director of market structure analysis at New York-based agency brokerage Rosenblatt Securities.

"They did the best deal that they probably could. Now that that's not going to happen TMX has Maple to deal with, while LSE is out on its own again, and there aren't many partners out there where they could be the acquirer rather than the target."

Maple has offered C$3.8 billion for TMX, mostly in cash.

LSE's mostly stock offer was worth about C$49 a share.

It would have needed a green light from a government that last year vetoed a big international takeover as not being in Canada's best interests.

TMX shares touched a high of C$44.80 after the deal was scrapped before easing back to close at C$44.20. That's well below the Maple offer price of C$50 a share.

Maple wants to wrap Alpha, Canada's biggest alternative trading venue, and the CDS stock-trading clearing system into a post-takeover TMX. That would give it a market share of more than 80 percent and leave it facing antitrust concerns.

"Now we need to see what the Competition Bureau thinks of Maple. We also need to see if shareholders support Maple. I think they will, I don't see how they won't," said Alison Crosthwait, director of global trading strategy at Instinet.

"We're going back to more of a closely held, interested parties controlling the exchange."

Canada's independent Competition Bureau has bared its teeth lately on several fronts, getting a C$10 million payment from BCE Inc's Bell Canada unit for misleading advertising, and seeking to block a joint venture between Air Canada and United Continental.

(Additional reporting by Claire Sibonney, Andrea Hopkins, Euan Rocha, Solarina Ho, Jonathan Spicer, Allison Martell and Trish Nixon; editing by Janet Guttsman and Peter Galloway)

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Egyptian men explain their relentless catcalls (The Christian Science Monitor)

Cairo – Mohammad Anter hands out flyers to evening crowds on a packed Cairo street, trying to catch the attention of any passerby – until one catches his.

“Hey, hot chic!” he yells. “You have beautiful eyes!” Mr. Anter is a computer science student and salesman at a small shop here; he is one of Cairo’s many casual harassers.

“We’re an Eastern culture, so it’s all right for me to yell out – when I’m attracted to someone, I do it,” he says, surrounded by fluorescent store lights and shoppers in every direction.

Anter is not alone: The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights found in a 2008 study that 83 percent of women are sexually harassed and roughly half of Egypt's women experience such treatment on a daily basis.

RELATED HarassMap: An effort to put sexual harassment on the map view Twitter and text

Many thought that men like Anter had changed during Egypt's uprising five months ago. When hundreds of thousands converged on Tahrir Square in a collective effort to oust President Hosni Mubarak, men and women stood side by side in unified protests with few instances of sexual harassment.

But while activists say the revolution was a step in the right direction, the popular demand for greater freedom has not necessarily brought a greater recognition of women's rights or reprieve from harassment.

"Just because Mubarak stepped down doesn’t make people anymore educated or aware of how to behave appropriately and respectfully,” says Amy Mowafi, editor of an Egyptian women’s magazine called Enigma.

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Activists are seeking to make people more aware, however, most recently with a June 20 Twitter campaign under the hashtag #endSH. Offline, Nazra for Feminist Studies is working on building a grassroots feminist movement. And in early June, an Egyptian women’s Charter was released with half a million signatures of people calling for women’s social and political representation and equal economic and legal rights.

Men blame delayed marriages, inappropriate clothingDown the street from Anter, a group of young men guarding their carts of colored T-shirts say they didn’t have time to think about hassling women during Egypt's 18-day uprising; they were concerned with political aims. Now they’re back to their monotonous jobs and catcalling is a way to pass the time and make casual jokes.

“It’s normal – people here really like to laugh, so it’s OK,” says one man.

“See that girl?” asks another man, Ahmed Mahfouz. He points to a woman with flowing black hair, wearing a short-sleeve shirt. “We’d yell out to her because she likes the attention. That’s why she dresses like that.”

But farther down the street Abdel Azim admits that it's not just the less conservatively dressed women who get unwanted attention.

“Usually we hassle the girls who dress inappropriately,” he says. “And veiled girls who are extremely beautiful – then we can’t help it.”

Anter says men wouldn’t harass women so much if they could get married younger, though activists denounce that as an unacceptable excuse. Local tradition requires that men have an average of 15,000 Egyptian pounds (about $2,500) before formally asking a woman’s hand in marriage. The 25-year-old, who works two jobs, has been unofficially engaged for more than two years. He still doesn’t have enough money to get married.

“Egyptians are conservative,” says Fatma Emam, a research associate at women’s rights organization Nazra, “so people don’t get involved in sexual relations until they are married. They find sexual harassment a way to express their sexual frustration.”

Mr. Azim says delayed marriage is one of the reasons for harassment, but explains that married men harass women too. He does it only when his wife isn’t looking.

Anter gets a disappointing phone callActivist and feminist Nawal El Sadaawy, who has fought for Egyptian women’s rights for decades, suggests that sexual harassment is part of a broader oppression of women in Egyptian society.

“We are oppressed by the patriarchal class system… . We are oppressed by power – military power, class oppression, and money," she says. "So we have to connect harassment to political and economic harassment.”

She says the toppling of Mubarak was the first step in effecting change for women.

But lasting change – whether political or social – will likely take many years. One draws parallels to an argument made by writer Frantz Fanon, who believed women's participation in the Algerian Revolution would change social relations forever. “And of course he was 100 percent wrong,” says Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “As soon as the war was over, things went exactly to the way they were.”

Back on one of downtown’s dusty streets, as the evening grew late, Anter's phone rang. “My fiancee just called and broke off our engagement,” he says, his eyes heavy. “Her family is tired of waiting.”

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Egyptian men explain their relentless catcalls (The Christian Science Monitor)

Cairo – Mohammad Anter hands out flyers to evening crowds on a packed Cairo street, trying to catch the attention of any passerby – until one catches his.

“Hey, hot chic!” he yells. “You have beautiful eyes!” Mr. Anter is a computer science student and salesman at a small shop here; he is one of Cairo’s many casual harassers.

“We’re an Eastern culture, so it’s all right for me to yell out – when I’m attracted to someone, I do it,” he says, surrounded by fluorescent store lights and shoppers in every direction.

Anter is not alone: The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights found in a 2008 study that 83 percent of women are sexually harassed and roughly half of Egypt's women experience such treatment on a daily basis.

RELATED HarassMap: An effort to put sexual harassment on the map view Twitter and text

Many thought that men like Anter had changed during Egypt's uprising five months ago. When hundreds of thousands converged on Tahrir Square in a collective effort to oust President Hosni Mubarak, men and women stood side by side in unified protests with few instances of sexual harassment.

But while activists say the revolution was a step in the right direction, the popular demand for greater freedom has not necessarily brought a greater recognition of women's rights or reprieve from harassment.

"Just because Mubarak stepped down doesn’t make people anymore educated or aware of how to behave appropriately and respectfully,” says Amy Mowafi, editor of an Egyptian women’s magazine called Enigma.

Sign up for the daily World Editor's Picks newsletter. Our best stories, in your inbox.

Activists are seeking to make people more aware, however, most recently with a June 20 Twitter campaign under the hashtag #endSH. Offline, Nazra for Feminist Studies is working on building a grassroots feminist movement. And in early June, an Egyptian women’s Charter was released with half a million signatures of people calling for women’s social and political representation and equal economic and legal rights.

Men blame delayed marriages, inappropriate clothingDown the street from Anter, a group of young men guarding their carts of colored T-shirts say they didn’t have time to think about hassling women during Egypt's 18-day uprising; they were concerned with political aims. Now they’re back to their monotonous jobs and catcalling is a way to pass the time and make casual jokes.

“It’s normal – people here really like to laugh, so it’s OK,” says one man.

“See that girl?” asks another man, Ahmed Mahfouz. He points to a woman with flowing black hair, wearing a short-sleeve shirt. “We’d yell out to her because she likes the attention. That’s why she dresses like that.”

But farther down the street Abdel Azim admits that it's not just the less conservatively dressed women who get unwanted attention.

“Usually we hassle the girls who dress inappropriately,” he says. “And veiled girls who are extremely beautiful – then we can’t help it.”

Anter says men wouldn’t harass women so much if they could get married younger, though activists denounce that as an unacceptable excuse. Local tradition requires that men have an average of 15,000 Egyptian pounds (about $2,500) before formally asking a woman’s hand in marriage. The 25-year-old, who works two jobs, has been unofficially engaged for more than two years. He still doesn’t have enough money to get married.

“Egyptians are conservative,” says Fatma Emam, a research associate at women’s rights organization Nazra, “so people don’t get involved in sexual relations until they are married. They find sexual harassment a way to express their sexual frustration.”

Mr. Azim says delayed marriage is one of the reasons for harassment, but explains that married men harass women too. He does it only when his wife isn’t looking.

Anter gets a disappointing phone callActivist and feminist Nawal El Sadaawy, who has fought for Egyptian women’s rights for decades, suggests that sexual harassment is part of a broader oppression of women in Egyptian society.

“We are oppressed by the patriarchal class system… . We are oppressed by power – military power, class oppression, and money," she says. "So we have to connect harassment to political and economic harassment.”

She says the toppling of Mubarak was the first step in effecting change for women.

But lasting change – whether political or social – will likely take many years. One draws parallels to an argument made by writer Frantz Fanon, who believed women's participation in the Algerian Revolution would change social relations forever. “And of course he was 100 percent wrong,” says Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. “As soon as the war was over, things went exactly to the way they were.”

Back on one of downtown’s dusty streets, as the evening grew late, Anter's phone rang. “My fiancee just called and broke off our engagement,” he says, his eyes heavy. “Her family is tired of waiting.”

Sign up for the daily World Editor's Picks newsletter. Our best stories, in your inbox.

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Vancouver Riots: Hockey Fans Stick It to Their Own City (Time.com)

Updated: June 16, 2011, 3 p.m. E.T.

The police in Vancouver did little at first when drunken and angry sports fans took to making sport of the streets of the city. It all started with the flipping of a car on Georgia Street inside one of the outdoor spectator zones set up to watch the seventh and deciding game of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. The voluble disappointment over the local team's 0-4 defeat at the hands of the American team had a cheeky undertone to it in the beginning, the crowd entertained by the flipping of the car, by the people who dance on top of the tumbled vehicle, friends tweeting friends about the incident, laughing. Then the glee turned nasty. Fires were lit in trash bins; garbage was hurled at the police. Violence begat violence. The angry fans took apart the blue fencing used to demarcate an alcohol-free zone, turning it into riot gear to use to push back against the shields of the police.

It was only 8 p.m. in British Columbia when the mayhem started. The sun was still shining, but black smoke was rising everywhere. More than a dozen cars were torched, including at least two police vehicles that had also been flipped. The fire deparment was unable to move in to extinguish the flames. Suddenly, lawlessness became the law, and countless mainly young fans chose to obey the new dictum. Crowds started doing more than just flipping cars and throwing debris at police: they smashed glass storefronts and looted stores, including the Bay department store, stealing everything from clothing to chairs to cosmetics. (See pictures of the hockey riots in Vancouver.)

More uniformed officers arrived on the scene, and then the first tear-gas canisters and flash grenades were launched to disorient and disperse the mobs. It was a tall order. The city had invited more than 100,000 fans to gather on the streets of Vancouver to watch the game on four giant screens on the closed-off streets. Precautions had been taken: more than 2,000 liquor pour-outs took place, and alcohol sales were prohibited before game time. But many of the fans still somehow got the fuel to ignite their already fiery passions over hockey. "We shut the liquor stores down and were patting down people," said Vancouver police chief constable Jim Chu on Thursday, "But it is clear the alcohol was at an extremely high level." He said that earlier on Wednesday, he and his officers had run into a group of 16-year-olds drinking heavily.

The Vancouver police department would need three hours and reinforcements to stop the mayhem. Police marched in full riot gear. Cops from around the region sent extra officers to help quell the madness. British Columbia solicitor general Shirley Bond took to the airwaves to urge people to leave downtown. "What is most disappointing and disturbing is that we have spectators who will not go home," she said. "We need them to leave the downtown, and they need to stop treating this as a spectator sport." (Vancouver's Stanley Cup Craze: Grown Men in Full-Body Spandex)

Blood sport. People were seen walking the street with bloodstained clothing. Hospitals reported treating stabbing victims as well as those affected by the tear gas. The streets were littered with debris, the air suffused with a pungent scent of trash fires, burning cars and tear gas. Rioters covered their faces with T-shirts and scarves both to protect their noses and eyes and to conceal their identities. Not all the fans in the street, of course, turned to crime. Many of the would-be partyers showed horror on their faces - some wandering aimlessly, unsure of whether to stay and watch the unfolding violence or to flee. Shooting video on their iPhones was no longer fun.

Chu speculated that some of the trouble may have been planned. "You don't burn a car unless you come to an event with incendiary devices," he said at a Thursday-morning press conference. He said the rioters appeared to be equipped with masks, goggles, gasoline, wrenches and fire extinguishers. Several police officers were treated for human bites.

The city of more than 600,000 people on Canada's Pacific coast was in shock. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson called the situation "embarrassing and shameful" and praised the Vancouver police and fire departments for doing an "exceptional job under challenging circumstances." Chu raised the question of parental and broader societal responsibility. "Where were your kids?" he asked. "How drunk were they?" In the Canucks' locker room, an already dejected Henrik Sedin, Vancouver's captain, had to explain why his team fell apart in the loss and then say what he thought of the city's falling apart too. "It's terrible," he said. "This city and province has a lot to be proud of. It's too bad." One thing to take solace in: the rioting this time lasted three hours less than when the local team lost the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 after another Game 7. The looting this time, however, was much more intense.

Now comes a different type of police work for Vancouver. Officers videotaped the rioting while it was in progress. London Drugs, a shop damaged in the looting, said its security cameras had "sharp, clean images of the 200-plus rioters that ransacked the store." Meanwhile, thousands of spectators snapped photos and posted videos from the pockets of disturbance downtown. The Vancouver police has a process for allowing the public to share - even anonymously - images from the riots, inviting people to send everything to robbery@vpd.ca. "The response from the public wanting to help the police identify the individuals involved in [Wednesday] night's criminal activity has been overwhelming," says Vancouver constable Lindsey Houghton. "We are grateful for everyone's help." Social media may help bring antisocial behavior to justice.

Vancouver Minute: The Hockey Team Wears Heels

Stanley Cup Finals, Game 1: One Bite, One Goal

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Vancouver Riots: Hockey Fans Stick It to Their Own City (Time.com)

Updated: June 16, 2011, 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time

The police in Vancouver did little at first, when drunken and angry sports fans took to making sport of the streets of the city. It all started with the flipping of a car on Georgia Street, inside one of the outdoor spectator zones set up to watch the seventh and deciding game of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. The voluble disappointment over the local team's 0-4 defeat at the hands of the American team had a cheeky undertone to it in the beginning, the crowd entertained by the flipping of the car, by the people who dance on top of the tumbled vehicle, friends tweeting friends about the incident, laughing. Then the glee turned nasty. Fires were lit in trash bins; garbage was hurled at the police. Violence begat violence. The angry fans took apart the blue fences demarcate an alcohol-free zone, turning it into their own riot gear to use to push back against the shields of the police.

It was only 8 p.m. in British Columbia when the mayhem started. The sun was still shining but black smoke was rising everywhere. More than a dozen cars were torched, including at least two police vehicles that had also been flipped. The fire deparment was unable to move in to extinguish the flames. Suddenly, lawlessness became the law and countless, mainly young fans chose to obey the new dictum. Crowds started doing more than just flipping cars and throwing debris at police: they smashed glass storefronts and looted stores, including The Bay department store, stealing everything from clothing to chairs to cosmetics. (See photos of the hockey riots in Vancouver.)

More uniformed officers arrived on the scene; and then the first tear gas cannisters and flash-bang grenades were launched to disorient and disperse the mobs. It was a tall order. The city had invited more than 100,000 fans to gather on the streets of Vancouver to watch the game on four giant screens on the closed-off streets. Precautions had been taken: more than 2,000 liquor pour-outs took place and alcohol sales were prohibited prior to game time. But many of the fans still somehow got the fuel to ignite their already fiery passions over hockey. "We shut the liquor stores down and were pattin down people," said Vancouver Police Chief Constable Jim Chu on Thursday, "But it is clear the alcohol was at an extremely high level." He said that, already earlier on Wednesday, he and his officers had run into a group of 16-year olds drinking heavily.

The Vancouver Police Department would need three hours and reinforcements to stop the mayhem. Police marched in full riot gear. Cops from around the region sent extra offers to help quell the madness. British Columbia Solicitor General Shirley Bond took to the airwaves to urge people to leave downtown. "What is most disappointing and disturbing is that we have spectators who will not go home," she said. "We need them to leave the downtown and they need to stop treating this as a spectator sport."

(Vancouver's Stanley Cup Craze: Grown Men in Full-Body Spandex)

Blood sport. People were seen walking the street with bloodstained clothing. Hospitals reported treating stabbing victims as well as those affected by the police tear gas. The streets were littered with debris; the air suffused with the unexpungeable mix of trash smoke, burning cars and tear gas. Rioters covered their faces with t-shirts and scarves, both to protect their noses and eyes and to conceal their identities. Not all the fans in the street, of course, turned to crime. Many of the would-be partiers exhibited horror on their faces, some wandering aimlessly, unsure of whether to stay and watch the unfolding violence or to flee. Taking video on their iPhones was no longer fun.

Chief Constable Chu speculated that some of the trouble may have been pre-planned. "You don't burn a car unless you come to an event with incendiary devices," he said at a Thursday morning press conference. He said the rioters appeared to be equipped with masks, goggles, gasoline, wrenches and fire-extinguishers. Several police officers were treated for human bites.

The city of more than 600,000 people on Canada's Pacific coast was in shock. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson called the situation "embarrassing and shameful" and praised the Vancouver police and fire departments for doing an "exceptional job under challenging circumstances." Chu raised the question of parental and broader societal responsibility. "Where were your kids?" he asked. "How drunk were they?" Inside the Canucks' locker-room an already dejected Henrik Sedin, Vancouver's captain, had to explain why his team fell apart in the loss and then say what he thought of the city falling apart too. "It's terrible," he said. "This city and province has a lot to be proud of. It's too bad." One thing to take solace over: the rioting this time lasted three hours less than those in 1994 when the local team lost the Stanley Cup finals after another Game 7. The looting this time, however, was much more intense.

Now comes a different type of police work for Vancouver. Officers had videotaped the rioting while it was in progress. London Drugs, a shop damaged in the looting, said its security cameras had "sharp clean images of the 200-plus rioters that ransacked the store." Meanwhile, thousands of spectators both snapped photos and posted video from out of the pockets of disturbances in Vancouver's downtown. Now, the Vancouver Police has its own process for allowing the public to share - even anonymously - images from the riots, inviting people to send everything to robbery@vpd.ca. "The response from the public wanting to help the police identify the individuals involved in [Wednesday] night's criminal activity has been overwhelming," says Vancouver Constable Lindsey Houghton. "We are grateful for everyone's help." Social Media may help bring anti-social behavior to justice.

Vancouver Minute: The Hockey Team Wears Heels

Stanley Cup Finals, Game 1: One Bite, One Goal

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With Maoists Refusing To Turn Over Their Arms, Nepal Totters On The Edge Of Political Crisis (Time.com)

By FREDERIC KOLLER / LE TEMPS / WORLDCRUNCH FrEdEric Koller / Le Temps / Worldcrunch – Sat Jun 4, 11:05 am ET

This post is in partnership with Worldcrunch, a new global news site that translates stories of note in foreign languages into English. The article below was originally published in Le Temps.

KATHMANDU - Welcome to the capital city of a state on the verge of bankruptcy. The roads are crumbling. There isn't enough street lighting. Power gets cut regularly, and trade has been dismal for years. Regular strikes and protest movements don't help much either, which scare off potential tourists from the Himalayan paradise.

Nepal represents the main crossing point between two of the most dynamic economies in the world, China and India. But it is also one of the planet's poorest countries, still very much dependent on international aid. (See more about missing people in Nepal.)

The economic stagnation can largely be blamed on endemic political gridlock that has long afflicted Nepal. A potential breakthrough came just last week when the country's three major political parties did manage to cobble together an 11th-hour agreement to save the current Constituent Assembly. Still, the situation remains highly unstable. The agreement extends the life of the Assembly by three months - and what happens after remains to be seen. After three years of vain attempts to conclude a peace process and to draft a democratic Constitution, local observers are skeptical about whether the three major parties will ultimately be able to reach a deal. "We are sitting on top of a volcano," says Yubaraj Ghimire, a political analyst.

From the outside, the situation looks quite confusing, to say the least. Between 1995 and 2005 Nepal was embroiled in a lengthy civil war pitting government forces against Maoist rebels. Soon after the war ended, the country's monarchy fell, though the main political party, composed of ex-Maoist rebels, continued to struggle with ideologically-fueled internal divisions. (See pictures inside Nepal's Maoist camps.)

Five years have gone by since a peace agreement between the government and the Maoists was signed under the aegis of India. Nonetheless, there are still some fundamental political disputes to be addressed, among them the demobilization and disarming of more than 19,000 Maoist soldiers.

"In 2006, the Maoists and the opposition parties committed themselves to set up a truth and reconciliation commission, to hold an inquiry on human rights violations committed during the Civil war, to enable displaced people to return home, and to get to the bottom of the numerous missing-person cases. But nothing has been done," says Ghimire.

That explains why the Nepalese Congress, the main opposition party, refused until the very last moment to extend the life of the Assembly, which they accuse of playing into the Maoists' hands.

"This extension is a victory for the Maoists. They have refused to surrender their weapons and to demobilize their army [the People's Liberation Army]," says Narayan Wagle, editor-in-chief of the localNagarik daily.

The Nepalese Congress did obtain one major concession: the promised departure of current Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khamal, a member of the unified Maxist-Leninist party, Nepal's largest communist party. (Is Nepal's Peace Process Destined to Fail?)

"Unlike the Maoists, the Nepalese Congress renounced Marxist-Leninist ideology 20 years ago and now they are advocating reforming socialism. But the party is split into two groups: on the one hand there are the liberal democrats and on the other hand, the former guardsmen who are ready to compromise with the Maoists," says Wagle.

The Maoists are also internally divided - between two vice presidents. One defends the idea of a people's republic based on the Chinese model, while the other is sympathetic to the idea of a parliamentary democracy. "Prachanda [his full name is Puspa Kamal Dahal], the Maoist party chairman, often changes his mind. One day, he backs one of his two vice-presidents, the day after, he backs the other one. Things are very unclear," Wagle says.

People's Liberation Army soldiers, who are now state employees, do not want to surrender their weapons without first obtaining guarantees that some of them will be able to join the national armed forces.

The Maoists are widely viewed as hindering the peace process and the establishment of a parliamentary republic. Yet they remain very popular with young people and in rural areas, where Hindu temples are often adorned with communist flags. (Read "With an Eye to India and Tibet, China Courts Nepal.")

"The majority of the Nepalese population is very young. And young people want things to change rapidly," says Wagle. "Some of them see the Maoists as the party that will bring positive changes, that has established a republic and that defends the idea of a federal state, the poor and the trade unions. The opposition parties, in contrast, don't have charismatic leaders."

The Maoists' refusal to surrender their weapons is not the only thing hindering negotiations. Ethnic and language divisions are a stumbling block as well. The Nepalese population is divided into approximately 100 different ethnic groups.

Nepalese people practicing Hinduism are the country's largest ethnic group, but they are divided into various castes. Last Saturday, in front of the palace where political negotiators were meeting, members of the the small Hindu-affiliated party Rastriya Prajatantra were quick to demand the abolition of the Constituent Assembly.

"We want a constitutional monarchy that will defend the Hindu identity. The King embodies Nepal's unity. The Maoists want Nepal to become like China," says Rastriya Prajatantra party member Krish-na Hari Mainali. The three-month extension for the Constituent Assembly gives all sides in the national debate a bit more wiggle room, though solving the deeper impasse will be a much trickier puzzle.

"The only lasting solution will be to form a coalition government that will include the main political parties, and to offer the position of prime minister to the Maoists in order to reassure them," he says.

Also from Worldcrunch:

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Read "Nepal: The Man Who Would Be King, Again."

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Couch-potato kids could be risking their hearts

Young children who spend too much time watching TV or playing computer games have narrower eye arteries than kids who are more physically active, new Australian research reports.

By Brand X Pictures

Kids who spent more than an hour in daily outside activity had wider vessels, on average, than those spending less than half an hour outside.

By Brand X Pictures

Kids who spent more than an hour in daily outside activity had wider vessels, on average, than those spending less than half an hour outside.

Narrower arteries are a marker of future cardiovascular risk, and the narrower the vessels, the higher the risk, the experts said.

"Changes to the retinal vessels give a good idea of what is going on in the rest of the body, particularly the heart," said Dr. Bamini Gopinath, a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney, who conducted the research. "In adults, we've found that narrower retinal arteries signal increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease."

Gopinath and her colleagues evaluated 1,492 six-year-olds in Sydney, tracking the hours they spent in both physical activity and sedentary pursuits.

The researchers took digital photos of the vasculature in the back of each child's eye and calculated the average vessel width.

Overall, the kids spent a daily average of 1.9 hours of screen time and 36 minutes of physical activity. But those kids who spent more than an hour in daily outside activity had wider vessels, on average, than those spending less than half an hour outside.

"We found that kids who spent more than one-and-a-half hours (in screen time) were more likely to have adverse effects on the retinal vessels," Gopinath said.

The narrowing associated with each hour of screen time was similar to the amount associated with a rise of 10 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) in systolic blood pressure (the top number) in kids, the researchers found.

So, how much physical activity is enough?

"It's hard to say based on the findings from this study, but we believe that the data shows that replacing one hour a day of screen time with physical activity could help in minimizing the unfavorable influence on the retinal vessels," Gopinath said.

The research looks at the effects of sedentary activity in a new way, according to Dr. Audina Berrocal, a pediatric retinal specialist at the University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

"When you look at the retina, it's an indicator of what is going on in your body," she said. "The health of the retinal vessels reflects overall cardiovascular health."

Berrocal stressed that parents should know it's not the TV or computer time affecting the retinal vessels, "it is the lack of exercise." And that lack of exercise often gets worse as screen time climbs.

"In reality what they are saying is, if you don't exercise, it is going to affect your vessels even as a child," she said.

While the research looks at cardiovascular risk in a new way, the message is an established one, Berrocal added. "What I think it tells you is what every parent knows. The more your child is outside moving and doing exercise, the healthier that child will be."

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USA and other countries need to re-tool their science programs

Nature

The April 21, 2011edition of the British science journal Nature includes a look at the Ph.D. process.

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The April 21, 2011edition of the British science journal Nature includes a look at the Ph.D. process.

According to the multipart series in the journal Nature, the world is awash in Ph.D.s, most of them being awarded after years of study and tens of thousands of dollars to scholars who will never find work in academia, the traditional goal for Doctors of Philosophy.

"In some countries, including the United States and Japan, people who have trained at great length and expense to be researchers confront a dwindling number of academic jobs and an industrial sector unable to take up the slack," the cover article says.

Of people who received Ph.D.s in the biological sciences five to six years ago, only 13% have tenure-track positions leading to a professorship, says Paula Stephan, who studies the economics of science at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

All together, 10% are working part time or out of the labor force entirely, 33% are in academic positions that don't lead to a professorship positions, 22% are in industry and 20% are at community colleges or working in government or non-profit jobs, she says.

That 33% of Ph.D.s in non tenure-track positions is especially troubling, she says. It used to be that "post-docs," post doctoral research positions in a professor's lab, were a steppingstone to one's own lab and professorship. But now one-third of Ph.D.s are permanently stuck "basically working as research assistants." They have no job security and salaries start at $39,000 a year. "That's appalling: You could get that with a bachelor of science degree," Stephan says.

It's not necessarily the education that needs to change, but how the endpoint is presented, says Maresi Nerad, director of the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Even the way anything but being a professor is termed is a problem, she says. People refer to "alternative careers," which just screams "It's not the real thing, the real thing is becoming a professor,' " she says. The presumption is that if they don't become a professor, "something isn't right with them." But that track hasn't really existed for the majority for a long time.

In fact, her studies have found that about half of the science Ph.D.s end up working outside of academia in industry, government or at not-for-profits, and they're very happy and actually make more money and have more autonomy.

The glut tracks back to predictions in the 1980s that an impending wave of professor retirements and rising college enrollment would require a hoard of new Ph.D.s. This didn't prove to be true, but Ph.D.-track students flooded universities and then couldn't find jobs.

One reason the overproduction of Ph.D.s hasn't been dealt with is the economic incentives built into Ph.D. programs in science. Universities rely on graduate students and post-docs, Stephan says. "There are tremendous incentives for academic departments to grow their Ph.D. programs because it's a cheap, temporary workforce."

The future for Ph.D.s isn't all grim

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Fox News Poll: Voters Say They’re Getting a Bad Deal for Their Tax Dollars

FoxNews.com

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As the tax filing deadline approaches, most American voters feel they are getting a bad deal for their money. In addition, more voters think their tax dollars are spent less carefully these days than think they are spent just as carefully, or with more care than they were before.

A Fox News poll released Thursday asked voters to consider all the things the government does and all the services used that are paid for with taxpayer dollars, and found 60 percent feel they are getting a

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