Health Centers Find Opportunity in Brownfields

PHILADELPHIA — The community health center rising on a derelict corner here in West Philadelphia never would have broken ground if not for the asbestos inside the building that was demolished to make way for it. Because of the contamination, Spectrum Health Services received a $2 million federal cleanup grant, the first piece of a $14 million construction financing puzzle.

When complete, the 36,000-square-foot building will provide a new home for a health center that has been squeezed into a deteriorating strip mall nearby for decades. It will also be the latest in a nationwide trend to replace contaminated tracts in distressed neighborhoods with health centers, in essence taking a potential source of health problems for a community and turning it into a place for health care. In recent years, health care facilities have been built on cleaned-up sites in Florida, Colorado, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Oregon and California.

“These health care providers are getting good at it,” said Elizabeth Schilling, policy manager for Smart Growth America, an advocacy group. “They have internalized the idea that this is an opportunity for them.”

Because these sites are contaminated, many qualify for government tax credits and grants, providing health centers with vital seed money to build. Community health centers, by design, exist to serve populations in poor neighborhoods, where there also tend to be available but contaminated properties like old gas stations, repair shops and industrial sites.

In fact, many of the country’s 450,000 contaminated sites, known as brownfields, are in poor neighborhoods, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These tracts are disproportionately concentrated in poor communities because contaminated sites are more difficult to redevelop if property values are depressed. Banks are often reluctant to finance construction on a property that might require a costly cleanup.

“In communities where the real estate market isn’t working that well, you end up with a brownfield,” said Jody Kass, executive director of New Partners for Community Revitalization, a brownfield advocacy group.

“It’s a Catch-22,” said Phyllis B. Cater, chief executive of Spectrum Health Services. “The environmental issues are significant and yet there are scarce resources for communities to do the cleanup and remediation that’s required.”

But if the state or federal government provides the first piece of financing, other funders are more likely to fall into step.

Community health centers, in particular, are under pressure to grow. By 2015, the number of Americans who rely on community health centers for care is expected to double to 40 million from the 20 million who relied on the centers in 2010, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers. The Affordable Care Act allocated $11 billion to expand these centers. Of that, $1.5 billion was allotted to construction.

But finding a viable site is not always easy. It took Spectrum 15 years to find its new home on Haverford Avenue. The original building, an aging medical office, went up for auction in 2007 after the owner was arrested on a tax evasion charge. Spectrum bought the property for $650,000. Ms. Cater speculated that if Spectrum hadn’t bought the site, it most likely would have fallen into disrepair like the decaying row houses and the dilapidated bodega across the street that Spectrum hopes to redevelop eventually.

Spectrum currently occupies 10,000 square feet in a rundown strip mall four blocks away. The center is divided among three crowded spaces, so employees must walk outside to get from the medical offices to the billing department. The treatment rooms are dreary and cramped, with holes in the drywall and collapsing ceiling panels.

“I’ve seen better centers in rural Mississippi. This is not how you support a community,” Ms. Cater said.

When it opens next summer, the new, three-story center will have 34 exam rooms, eight dental rooms, a spacious community center and a full-service laboratory. It will also employ twice as many people as the current facility, adding 66 jobs to Spectrum’s payroll.

The 50-year-old building was in poor shape, but it was the presence of asbestos that allowed Spectrum to qualify for the critical first piece of financing: a $2 million brownfield redevelopment grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The organization also received an additional $2 million H.U.D. loan that was tied to the brownfield grant, a $1.7 million redevelopment grant from Pennsylvania and $3.45 million in other loans.

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Avon Products to Cut 1,500 Jobs and Leave 2 Markets

NEW YORK (AP) — Avon Products plans to cut about 1,500 jobs and exit two Asian markets, as the struggling beauty products seller starts on a broad restructuring plan in an effort to turn around results.

The job cuts amount to almost 4 percent of its workforce and mark one of the first major moves by CEO Sheri McCoy. McCoy was brought on in April to replace longtime CEO Andrea Jung at Avon, a direct seller of beauty products like Skin So Soft lotion and Mark cosmetics.

Avon said the job cuts span all regions and functions. The 1,500 cuts include 100 employees in Vietnam and South Korea, which Avon will exit entirely.

Avon said in November that it would embark on a plan to save $400 million in three years, but the jobs cuts and market exits are the first details about the plan. The restructuring follows moves other consumer product makers have made this year to cut costs and exit businesses as they face an uncertain global economy.

"The decisions outlined today are necessary to stabilize the company and begin the process of returning Avon to sustainable growth," McCoy said in a statement late Tuesday.

The New York-based direct beauty products seller said it plans to focus on high-priority markets as part of the push to save $400 million. The initial steps are expected to be largely completed by the end of next year.

Citi Investment Research analyst Wendy Nicholson said the job cuts aren't surprising and she expects there will be more.

"New Avon management has said several times that they consider their overhead costs to be excessive, and that they are keenly focused on boosting the productivity of their selling, general and administrative spending," said Nicholson, who rates Avon "Buy," in a note to investors.

The exit from South Korea and Vietnam are also good moves, she said.

"While each of these markets are unprofitable and small, we like that Avon is making some hard choices about where to play," Nicholson said.

Avon has struggled this year to improve its performance after suffering through declining sales, a bribery investigation and other problems. In addition to hiring a new CEO, the company has tried to cut costs and focus on improving sales in international markets.

A growing number of consumer product makers are exiting businesses and cutting costs to deal with slowing growth in North America and China and the weak European economy.

Procter & Gamble announced a $10 billion cost cutting plan in February, including cutting more than 10 percent of its non manufacturing jobs. In November, Kimberly Clark said it is exiting its European diaper business, and Colgate said it will cut 6 percent of its workforce

Pre-tax costs related to Avon's moves are expected to total between $80 million and $90 million. Avon will take a charge of between $50 million and $60 million in the fourth quarter tied to the cost-cutting. It said initial steps will account for about 20 percent of its savings goal.

As of last Dec. 31, the company employed about 40,600 people including about 5,400 in the U.S. and 35,200 in other countries.

Last month, Avon reported an 81 percent drop in third-quarter net income, hurt by a stronger dollar and a hefty impairment charge. Its adjusted loss also fell short of Wall Street expectations. At that time, the company slashed its quarterly dividend to 6 cents from 23 cents.

Meanwhile, Avon still faces long-running bribery investigations. The problems began in 2008, when it started to investigate possible bribery in China related to travel, entertainment and other expenses, and soon widened the probe to other countries, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department getting involved.

In September, the SEC decided it wouldn't recommend any action against the company over whether Avon contacted analysts inappropriately during a separate bribery investigation. But Avon still faces wider probes about possible bribery in China and other countries.

Founded in 1886, Avon became a fixture in households across the United States as its legions of "Avon ladies" went door to door selling makeup to family, friends and acquaintances.

Today, the company markets to women in more than 100 countries via 6 million independent sellers.

Shares fell 14 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $14.33 Wednesday. Shares have ranged from a 52-week low of $13.70 in mid-November to a high of $23.58 in mid-April.

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Obama election tweet most repeated but Olympics tops on Twitter

(Reuters) – An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama — “Four more years” with a picture of him hugging his wife — was the most retweeted ever, but the U.S. election was topped by the Olympics as the most tweeted event this year.

Obama’s tweet was retweeted (repeated) more than 810,000 times, Twitter said as it published a list of the most tweeted events in 2012. (http://2012.twitter.com/)

“Within hours, that Tweet simultaneously became the most retweeted of 2012, and the most retweeted ever. In fact, retweets of that simple message came from people in more than 200 countries around the world,” Twitter spokeswoman Rachael Horwitz said.

Twitter users were busiest during the final vote count for the presidential elections, sending 327,452 tweets per minute on election night on their way to a tally of 31 million election tweets for the day.

The 2012 Olympic Games in London had the most overall tweets of any event, with 150 million sent over the 16 days.

Usain Bolt’s golden win in the 200 meters topped 80,000 tweets per minute but he did not achieve the highest Olympic peak on Twitter. That was seen during the closing ceremony when 115,000 tweets per minute were sent as 1990s British pop band the Spice Girls performed.

Syria, where a bloody civil war still plays out, was the most talked about country in 2012 but sports and pop culture dominated the tally of tweets.

Behind Obama was pop star Justin Bieber. His tweet, “RIP Avalanna. i love you” sent when a six-year-old fan died from a rare form of brain cancer, was retweeted more than 220,000 times.

Third most repeated in 2012 was a profanity-laced tweet from Green Bay Packers NFL player TJ Lang, when he blasted a controversial call by a substitute referee officiating during a referee dispute. That was retweeted 98,000 times.

This was the third year running that the microblogging site published its top Twitter trends, offering a barometer to assess the biggest events in social media.

Superstorm Sandy, which slammed the densely populated U.S. East Coast in late October, killing more than 100 people, flooding wide areas and knocking out power for millions, attracted more than 20 million tweets between October 27 and November 1.

European football made the list of top tweets when Spain’s Juan Mata scored as his side downed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final — sparking 267,200 tweets a minute.

News of pop star Whitney Houston‘s death in February generated more than 10 million tweets, peaking at 73,662 per minute.

Romantic comedy “Think Like a Man” was the most tweeted movie this year, topping “The Hunger Games”, “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Rapper Rick Ross who notched his fourth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart this year, was the most talked about music artist.

(Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Female Factor: Hillary Dominates 2016 Chatter in Washington

NEW YORK — Even before President Barack Obama’s Election Day victory last month, one name kept popping up in political circles, cable news programs, blogs, opinion columns and newspaper articles: Hillary Clinton — Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Speculation about Mrs. Clinton’s presidential prospects is feeding political talk in Washington’s power centers, in global capitals, and among American women and progressives of all genders.

But the Hillary boom is not a U.S. phenomenon alone.

Women around the world are likely to see a Clinton presidency as a major breakthrough. Globally, women’s status has improved since 2008, when Mrs. Clinton sought the Democratic nomination.

“It is very hard to overstate the impact that a Hillary Clinton presidency would have in fundamentally altering expectations for women around the world,” said Steven Clemons, an expert on international affairs and senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

Sure, we have superimportant female leaders like Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. But none of them has Mrs. Clinton’s stature.

“Her winning the presidency would be seismic,” said Mr. Clemons, who is also the Washington editor at large of The Atlantic, “and could trigger a global tsunami that would dislodge and upend the male-dominating social, political and economic structures around the world.”

Clearly, Mrs. Clinton’s election would “have monumental impact,” Laura A. Liswood, the secretary general of the Council of Women World Leaders, a policy program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said by telephone from Washington.

Mrs. Clinton is already a global figure, Ms. Liswood said. “She has already brought a gender perspective to world affairs. With the presidency, she becomes even bigger,” Ms. Liswood noted.

As president, Mrs. Clinton could hit a 9 on the 1-to-10 scale in domestic policy, Ms. Liswood suggested. “She’s already a 9 on the gender scale.” That puts her ahead, in Ms. Liswood’s view, of Margaret Thatcher, who was certainly a major force on domestic and international policy but did not have a sizable impact on women’s advancement.

What’s more, Ms. Liswood says, Mrs. Clinton, as secretary of state, has built a reservoir of trust with a number of world leaders. “In addition, she’s gained the trust of a number of senators from both parties, which is really important to be a successful leader.”

Other female executives with global experience emphasize the need for women at the top.

Beth A. Brooke, the global vice chairwoman for public policy at Ernst & Young, said in an e-mail, “Secretary Clinton is one of the world’s greatest leaders on the issue of empowering women. Having her in the U.S. presidency would be inspiring to women from all reaches of the world.” She pointed at the need for more women in all types of leadership positions to give more balance to the diversity of perspectives facing some global economic challenges.

“Women in top leadership — be it the U.S. presidency or on boards or at the helm of multiglobal corporations — is critical,” said Deborah M. Soon, senior vice president for global strategy at Catalyst, a nonpartisan and nonprofit international organization centered on women in business.

All this talk may be irresistible to a woman who has devoted her life and career to solving tough social and international issues, who has set the pace for the advancement of women and children around the world, who has traveled farther and more widely than any previous secretary of state (just under 1 million miles, or more than 1.5 million kilometers, since 2009).

After more than 30 years in the public arena, how could she turn her back on the opportunity to crack the ceiling she sought to smash in 2008? How can she refuse the chance to finally break through and do even bigger things as president of the United States?

Mr. Clemons put it this way: “Her tenure at the State Department has been marked by bringing nontraditional issues like women’s rights, water, poverty, disease and more into classic national security discussions. Her presidency would consolidate serious treatment of these issues and make them a core part of American diplomacy and development.”

Publicly she wards off such talk, saying in Ireland on Friday, “I’m right now too focused on what I’m doing to complete all the work we have ahead of us before I do step down.”

Political experts and pundits alike say that she will run. “Every Democrat I know says, ‘God, I hope she runs. We don’t need a primary,”’ the former Bill Clinton campaign strategist James Carville said on Sunday on the public affairs program “This Week,” on ABC.

A former Republican presidential candidate and House speaker, Newt Gingrich of Georgia, didn’t mince words on “Meet the Press,” on NBC. A contest against Hillary Clinton, he said, would be like the Super Bowl. “The Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level,” he said.

It is nearly impossible to believe that after all that, she will not reach up one more time. Her tenure at State is ending, but this is hardly the finish line of Mrs. Clinton’s public life. On the contrary, she has new heights to scale, ascending to unquestioned leader of the world’s women, and galvanizing them.

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Tagliabue overturns Goodell on Saints suspensions

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In a sharp rebuke to his successor's handling of the NFL's bounty investigation, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue overturned the suspensions of four current and former New Orleans Saints players in a case that has preoccupied the league for almost a year.

Tagliabue, who was appointed by Commissioner Roger Goodell to handle the appeals, still found that three of the players engaged in conduct detrimental to the league. He said they participated in a performance pool that rewarded key plays — including bone-jarring hits — that could merit fines. But he stressed that the team's coaches were very much involved.

The entire case, he said, "has been contaminated by the coaches and others in the Saints' organization."

The team's "coaches and managers led a deliberate, unprecedented and effective effort to obstruct the NFL's investigation," the ruling said.

Tagliabue oversaw a second round of player appeals to the league in connection with the cash-for-hits program run by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams from 2009-2011. The players initially opposed his appointment.

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma had been given a full-season suspension, while defensive end Will Smith, Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita and free agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove each received shorter suspensions.

Tagliabue cleared Fujita of conduct detrimental to the league.

"I affirm Commissioner Goodell's factual findings as to the four players. I conclude that Hargrove, Smith and Vilma — but not Fujita — engaged in 'conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game of professional football,'" the ruling said.

"However, for the reasons set forth in this decision, I now vacate all discipline to be imposed upon these players. Although I vacate all suspensions, I fully considered but ultimately rejected reducing the suspensions to fines of varying degrees for Hargrove, Smith and Vilma. My affirmation of Commissioner Goodell's findings could certainly justify the issuance of fines. However ... this entire case has been contaminated by the coaches and others in the Saints organization," it said.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees offered his thoughts on Twitter: "Congratulations to our players for having the suspensions vacated. Unfortunately, there are some things that can never be taken back."

None of the players sat out any games because of suspensions. They have been allowed to play while appeals are pending, though Fujita is on injured reserve and Hargrove is not with a team.

Shortly before the regular season, the initial suspensions were thrown out by an appeals panel created by the league's collective bargaining agreement. Goodell then reissued them, with some changes, and now those have been dismissed.

Now, with the player suspensions overturned, the end could be near for a nearly 10-month dispute over how the NFL handled an investigation that covered three seasons and gathered about 50,000 pages of documents.

"We respect Mr. Tagliabue's decision, which underscores the due process afforded players in NFL disciplinary matters," the NFL said in a statement.

"The decisions have made clear that the Saints operated a bounty program in violation of league rules for three years, that the program endangered player safety, and that the commissioner has the authority under the (NFL's collective bargaining agreement) to impose discipline for those actions as conduct detrimental to the league. Strong action was taken in this matter to protect player safety and ensure that bounties would be eliminated from football."

Meanwhile, the players have challenged the NFL's handling of the entire process in federal court, but U.S District Judge Ginger Berrigan had been waiting for the latest round of appeals to play out before deciding whether to get involved.

NFL investigators found that Vilma and Smith were ring leaders of a cash-for-hits program that rewarded injurious tackles labeled as "cart-offs" and "knockouts." The NFL also concluded that Hargrove lied to NFL investigators to help cover up the program.

Goodell also suspended Williams indefinitely, while banning Saints head coach Sean Payton for a full season.

Tagliabue's ruling comes after a new round of hearings that for the first time allowed Vilma's attorneys and the NFL Players Association, which represents the other three players, to cross-examine key NFL witnesses. Those witnesses included Williams and former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo, who was fired after the 2009 season and whose email to the league, accusing the Saints of being "a dirty organization," jump-started the probe.

"We believe that when a fair due process takes place, a fair outcome is the result," the players' union said in a statement. "We are pleased that Paul Tagliabue, as the appointed hearings officer, agreed with the NFL Players Association that previously issued discipline was inappropriate in the matter of the alleged New Orleans Saints bounty program.

"Vacating all discipline affirms the players' unwavering position that all allegations the League made about their alleged 'intent-to-injure' were utterly and completely false.

"We are happy for our members."

A statement released on Vilma's behalf said the linebacker is "relieved and gratified that Jonathan no longer needs to worry about facing an unjustified suspension.

"On the other hand, Commissioner Tagliabue's rationalization of Commissioner Goodell's actions does nothing to rectify the harm done by the baseless allegations lodged against Jonathan. Jonathan has a right and every intention to pursue proving what really occurred and we look forward to returning to a public forum where the true facts can see the light of day."

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Global Update: Hand-Held Device Locates Hot Spots of Lead Contamination

Using a hand-held scanner to map hot spots where the soil is full of lead could protect children in mining towns against brain damage, scientists at Columbia University concluded in a new study.

Touched to the ground, the device, an X-ray fluorescence scanner, can measure the soil’s lead content in less than a minute, said Alexander van Geen, a geochemist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and an author of the study, which is in the current issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The “XRF guns,” which are often used by scrap-metal sorters, cost between $15,000 and $40,000.

His team tested the scanners in Cerro de Pasco, Peru, a town in the high Andes with mines dating back 1,400 years. Samples as close as 100 yards apart showed widely variable lead levels, so it is possible to find and mark off the areas most dangerous to young children, who get fine lead dust on their hands while playing and then put their fingers in their mouths.

“People assume the contamination is everywhere, and it’s not,” Dr. van Geen said. “It could be in one backyard and not in another.” Or, he said, in an untested playground, schoolyard, or any place where children gather.

The technology could be useful anywhere families live close to mines or smelters, which is common in Latin America and Africa, he said. Lead is a byproduct not just of lead mines, but of mining for gold, silver, copper and other metals.

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DealBook: Hedge Funds Stride the Stage of World Affairs

ARGENTINA’S president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was re-elected with a huge margin last year, leaving her political opponents fractured and demoralized. But in recent months, she has found herself locked in battle with a determined adversary who may outmaneuver her.

Her opponent is not a participant in Argentina’s domestic political scene. Rather, he is Paul Singer, a soft-spoken New York hedge fund manager. Through one of his funds, Mr. Singer is fighting in United States courts to press Argentina to pay up on some defaulted bonds. Mrs. Kirchner has refused.

Mr. Singer may be deploying arcane legal strategies thousands of miles from Argentina, but his tactics are dominating the nation’s political discourse. “This has been on the front page every day in Argentina,” said Maria Victoria Murillo, a professor of political science and international affairs at Columbia University.

In other words, a hedge fund has become an important political player in a democracy of 41 million people.

With the right idea at the right time, and with the requisite financial firepower, hedge fund investors can exert significant political and economic influence. That may even prompt political scientists and economists to consider analyzing hedge funds the way they do trade unions and political parties.

The ability of hedge funds to act as decisive change agents dates to one momentous trade: George Soros’s bet against the British pound in 1992.

At the time, the British government had tied the value of the pound to that of other European currencies. Many people contended that the pound’s exchange rate was too high in this arrangement and was weighing on the British economy.

Mr. Soros’s fund wagered that the government would ultimately have to let the pound fall in value, prompting the fund to sell billions of pounds and buy other European currencies. The selling pressure was too much for the British government, and the pound left the currency arrangement. The day it dropped out was known as Black Wednesday.

When the dust settled, some politicians saw Mr. Soros’s actions in a positive light. They said the pound’s exit allowed the British economy to flourish.

The impact of Mr. Soros’s trades may have been even more far-reaching. Britain’s departure from the arrangement influenced its decision not to join the European single currency, according to Norman Lamont, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.

“After Black Wednesday, it was politically impossible for any government, Conservative or Labour, to join the euro,” Mr. Lamont wrote last year in The Daily Telegraph.

After the success of his pound wager, Mr. Soros’s fund focused on Asian currencies. They were vulnerable because, like the pound, their value was fixed in a way that could create unsustainable economic imbalances. The bets by Mr. Soros and others forced some countries to abandon the rigid approach to managing currencies, said Sebastian Mallaby, author of “More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite.”

Since then, developing nations have mostly avoided fixed currency arrangements, a choice that has generally served their economies well. “The upshot was that emerging markets broadly adopted flexible exchange-rate regimes,” Mr. Mallaby said.

Hedge funds never make bets as a selfless way to free nations from suffocating currency regimes. And those regimes might have collapsed anyway. But the hedge funds probably hastened their demise, leading to relief sooner rather than later.

Hedge fund actions also contributed to a landmark legislative change in the United States a decade ago.

Kynikos Associates and other hedge funds had doubts about Enron’s books and were betting that its shares would decline. Eventually, fraud was exposed, and Enron, an energy trading company, went bankrupt in 2001.

The company’s collapse, with the crash of other fraudulent businesses, helped create the political climate for an overhaul of how companies report their financial condition. A result was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

It is possible, even likely, that something like Sarbanes-Oxley would have developed anyway. But the hedge funds’ ability to pick up on the fraud played an important role in shaming the main players. Auditors, regulators and banks largely missed Enron’s skulduggery, underscoring the need for big changes.

“I can’t think of one major financial fraud in the United States in the last 10 years that was uncovered by a major brokerage house analyst or an outside accounting firm,” James S. Chanos, founder of Kynikos, said in testimony before Congress soon after Enron’s collapse.

Hedge funds also played an early role in the housing bust, which affected millions of people and led to deep societal changes. Managers like Michael Burry of Scion Capital and John Paulson saw the shakiness of the housing market well before regulators, politicians and banks did.

While house prices would have collapsed without hedge funds, the funds helped lead to the crash. In particular, their bearish housing bets helped convince Wall Street, a critical part of the mortgage machine, that the good times were ending.

As early as 2005, Mr. Burry pestered investment banks for ways of betting against housing, according to “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” by Michael Lewis. Eventually, the banks provided the financial instruments that allowed Mr. Burry to place the bearish trades. Soon, firms like Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were betting heavily against housing in a similar way.

Once the establishment started to turn against subprime mortgages, the game was up. Again, hedge funds helped end a bubble earlier and clear out excesses. Again, their prescience shamed those who should have seen the trouble brewing, fueling the postcrisis overhaul.

But funds’ efforts are often frustrated, and their antagonistic actions can backfire. For example, Mr. Singer’s lawsuits may actually be making Mrs. Kirchner more popular, some specialists in Argentine politics said. “This is a beautiful thing for her,” said Ms. Murillo, the Columbia professor. “It’s a unifying cause.” Hedge funds may now think twice before taking on a government in the same way.

Also, some markets are so big that funds may struggle to gain sway, especially if other investors do not share their theories.

J. Kyle Bass, managing partner of Hayman Capital Management, is outspokenly gloomy about Japan, saying its government debt levels may soon become overwhelming. But he says his fund is not a meaningful catalyst. “I am a very small asset manager,” he said. “When there’s a quadrillion yen of debt outstanding, it’s nonsense to think I can have an influence.”

Now, hedge funds can also be outgunned by government entities aiming to shore up markets.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the world’s central banks have shown a willingness to print trillions of dollars to support financial assets. This makes it much harder for some bearish bets to work. Hedge funds betting on the collapse of the euro have had a hard time since the European Central Bank stepped up its support in September, agreeing to buy government bonds of stressed countries.

In many ways, it looks as if central banks will be able to dictate market prices for a long time, which might deter hedge funds from trying to upset the apple cart. After all, central banks can effectively print money to protect the prices of assets singled out by funds.

But Mr. Bass said he was not convinced that central banks could maintain their support indefinitely. “They are not allowing natural forces to react in the marketplace,” he said. “No one’s willing to say, ‘Maybe central banks can’t fix it.’ ”

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

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Gunmen Assassinate Afghan Women’s Affairs Official

KABUL, Afghanistan — The acting head of women’s affairs in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan was shot to death in broad daylight on Monday as she was traveling to work.

Khalid Khan/Associated Press

A funeral for Najia Sediqi, the acting head of women’s affairs in Laghman Province, who was killed by gunmen on Monday.

Aref Karimi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Relatives carried the body of Hajji Musa Rasoli, the police chief of Nimroz Province who was killed in a roadside bomb attack on Monday. 

It was the second time in less than six months that the person holding that post has been assassinated. In the latest attack, two assailants on a motorcycle gunned down Najia Sediqi, the acting head, as she was getting into a rickshaw in Mehtar Lam, the provincial capital, according to Ahmad Gul Baidar, the head of administrative affairs for the women’s department.

In July, Ms. Sediqi’s predecessor, Hanifa Safi, was killed when an improvised bomb exploded under her car — an attack attributed to the Taliban but never fully investigated. Before that attack, Ms. Safi had been threatened because she had protected a young girl who married someone she loved rather than an older man to whom she had been promised.

Provincial women’s affairs departments are the local divisions of the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul. Those who head the local departments are very visible in their communities. Many families, especially in the traditional Pashtun heartland in the south and east of the country, are distrustful of empowering women, and the department heads face community censure, threats and, as in the case of Ms. Sediqi and Ms. Safi, even assassination.

Zufenon Safi, who represents Laghman in Parliament, believes that both killings were carried out by the Taliban, who have gathered strength in the province. Elders and other local people say security has deteriorated in the area, whose control was turned over to the Afghan government by coalition forces last summer.

“Targeting important government officials is part of the Taliban strategy to undermine the government’s and the foreign forces’ efforts in the country,” Ms. Safi said, referring to the international coalition.

She said the Taliban singles out women in government posts because they know that killing them will garner more publicity.

“There is only one reason behind killing women: to prevent women from working in the government,” Ms. Safi added. “We should expect more similar assassinations in the upcoming weeks and months because they have threatened every female civil servant, including members of the provincial council and teachers.”

Another official was killed on Monday. The official, Hajji Musa Rasoli, the provincial police chief in Nimroz, in southwestern Afghanistan, was driving back to his office from a visit with his family in Herat Province when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. He died en route to a hospital.

An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

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Redskins coach Shanahan says RG3 has mild sprain

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said Monday that Robert Griffin III has a mild sprain of a ligament in the right knee and hasn't been ruled out for the upcoming game against the Cleveland Browns.

Shanahan said the injury is a Grade 1 sprain of the lateral collateral ligament on the outside of the knee, caused when the rookie quarterback was hit at the end of a scramble late in regulation in the Redskins' 31-28 overtime win Sunday over the Baltimore Ravens.

Shanahan says Griffin has mild swelling and is receiving treatment multiple times a day.

"He's definitely not ruled out for the Cleveland game," Shanahan said.

The LCL is one of four ligaments in the knee. A Grade 1 sprain typically means the ligament is stretched or has some minor tears.

The most severe knee injury usually associated with sports is a season-ending torn ACL, the anterior cruciate ligament. Griffin tore the ACL in his right knee while playing for Baylor in 2009, but Shanahan said Griffin's reconstructed ACL "looks great" and that there's "no problem there."

Fellow rookie Kirk Cousins will start if Griffin can't. Cousins threw a touchdown pass with 29 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and ran in the game-tying 2-point conversion after Griffin was hurt.

"Both of them will have a game plan," Shanahan said. "And obviously Robert can do some things in the running game that Kirk can't."

The Redskins (7-6) have won four straight and trail the New York Giants by one game in the NFC East.

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

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