Colombia firm makes armored clothes for kids

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian firm that makes bulletproof vests is now creating armored clothing for children.
Factory owner Miguel Caballero said he never thought about making protective clothes for kids until requests came in following the deadly attack on Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last month.
"After the tragedy in Connecticut, we started getting emails from customers asking for protected (clothing) because they were afraid to take their kids to school," Caballero said.
"We have received messages from all over the United States," seeking the protective gear, added Giovanni Cordero, the company's marketing director.
Products include child-sized armored vests, protective undershirts and backpacks with ballistic protection that can be used as shields.
The products are designed for children ages 8-16 years old and cost $150-$600 depending on the complexity of their construction. Each piece weighs 2-4 pounds.
"The products were created with the American market in mind, not for the Latino market," said Caballero. "All the designs and colors, everything is thought out with them in mind."
Caballero performed a test on a pink-and-yellow striped bulletproof backpack attached to a pale blue protective vest, firing a 9mm pistol and a machine gun to show it could withstand a barrage of bullets.
He said the backpack-vest combo and other protective gear have already been ordered by a U.S. distributor, although he would not identify it.
About 250 people work at Caballero's factory, which has been making armored vests for adults for more than 20 years. Colombia suffers from an internal conflict that has killed thousands of people over the last half-century.
Outside Colombia, the vests for adults are sold in some 20 countries, including Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico. They are also marketed in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the Dec. 14 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza, also shot and killed his mother inside their home before driving to the school and shooting his way inside. He committed suicide as police were closing in.
After the Newtown shooting, at least three American companies that were already making backpacks designed to shield children reported a spike in sales.
Massachusetts-based Bullet Blocker reported it was selling 50 to 100 bulletproof backpacks a day after the shooting, up from about 10 to 15 in an average week. The children's backpacks, which are designed to be used as shields, cost more than $200 each.
Most of the children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre were shot at close range and likely would not have been saved by armored backpacks. At any rate, children don't usually wear their backpacks at their desks or while walking around school.

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Chile: Couple dies defending home against Indians

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An elderly couple whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians in southern Chile were killed in an arson attack early Friday while trying to defend their home. The president quickly flew to the scene and announced new security measures, including the application of Chile's tough anti-terrorism law and the creation of a special police anti-terror unit backed by Chile's military.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which some Mapuche Indians repudiated Friday as senseless and abhorrent. But Chile's interior minister said pamphlets condemning police violence and demanding the return of Mapuche lands were left at the scene. The presidentially appointed governor of the remote southern region of Araucania, Andres Molina, called the attackers "savages."
"This attack affects the entire country and causes gigantic damage, for the pain and the delays that it means for thousands of families who want to live in peace," Pinera said. "This government is united in its effort to combat terrorism that affects the region. We will not hesitate to apply the full weight of the law."
"It should be completely clear," Pinera added, "that this fight is not against the Mapuche people. It's with a minority of violent terrorists who must be fought with everything the law allows."
Werner Luchsinger, 75, fired a weapon in self-defense, and struck a man from the nearby Mapuche community of Juan Quintrupil before his home burned to the ground, regional police chief Ivan Bezmalinovic said.
Luchsinger's wife Vivian McKay called relatives for help during the attack, but when they arrived just 15 minutes later the house was already in flames and she didn't answer her phone, according to the victim's cousin, Jorge Luchsinger.
The attack began Thursday night as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. The Indians scattered pamphlets related to the anniversary while on the Luchsinger property, Interior Minister Andres Chadwick said.
The victims' Lumahue ranch is just 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the spot where Catrileo was killed on Jan. 3, 2008.
Celestino Cordova Transito, 26, was detained near the scene early Friday. Police have him under arrest in a hospital in Temuco, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound in the neck, the chief said.
Gov. Molina said that Werner Luchsinger's gunshot, by enabling police to capture the wounded suspect, may help solve not only the couple's death but previous arson attacks as well.
"I want to thank Don Werner, because probably thanks to him we're closer to finding these savages who have done such damage to Araucania," he said.
Pinera also met briefly with the Luchsinger family as well as other local landowners next to the burned-out home, but Chile's El Mercurio said the meeting was cut short when some fled due to a false rumor that Mapuche activists were targeting their properties even as the president spoke. Other landowners shouted out in anger, asking for tougher security measures, and then briefly blocked the main highway in protest. Pinera's security detail then ushered him away, the newspaper reported.
Jorge Luchsinger said earlier Friday that masked Indians have repeatedly attacked his and other relatives' properties as well, despite the considerable police presence in the area. "It's obvious that the authorities are completely overwhelmed," he told radio Cooperativa.
Many of Chile's Mapuche activist groups were silent Friday about the murders, repeating instead their complaints about continuing police violence of the kind that killed Catrileo years ago.
But Venancio Conuepan, who described himself as a law student who comes from a long line of Mapuche leaders, wrote an editorial Friday condemning the violence, rejecting the idea that armed conflict can win their demands, and calling for the killers to be identified and tried in court. He said the vast majority of the Mapuche people agree with him.
"Enough of people using violence in the name of the Mapuche people. Our grandfathers never covered their faces. The Mapuche created parliaments, and always put dialogue first," wrote Conuepan on Radio BioBio's web site, titling his editorial, "Although you don't believe me, I'm Mapuche and I'm not a Terrorist."
The Luchsinger family has been among the most outspoken in defending the property rights of the region's landowners against ancestral land claims by the Mapuche. But Jorge said his cousin had taken a lower profile and refused police protection.
Lorena Fries, the director of Chile's official Human Rights Institute, warned Friday against cracking down using the anti-terror law, which allows for holding suspects in isolation without charges, using secret witnesses and other measures that have been discredited by Chile's courts in previous cases of Mapuche violence. Instead, she said Pinera should reach out to the Indians, and honor their demands for self-governance and the recovery of ancestral land. "Something has to be done so that everyone puts an end to the violence," she said.
The Mapuches' demands for land and autonomy date back centuries. They resisted Spanish and Chilean domination for more than 300 years before they were forced south to Araucania in 1881. Many of the 700,000 Mapuches who survive among Chile's 17 million people still live in Araucania. A small fraction have been rebelling for decades, destroying forestry equipment and torching trees. Governments on the left and right have sent in police while offering programs that fall far short of their demands.
The Luchsinger family also arrived in Araucania in the late 1800s, from Switzerland, and benefited from the government's colonization policies for decades thereafter, becoming one of the largest landowners in Chile's Patagonia region. Their forestry and ranching companies now occupy vast stretches of southern Chile, and impoverished Mapuches live on the margins of their properties.

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Chile: Couple dies defending home amid protests

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An elderly couple whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians in southern Chile were killed in an arson attack early Friday while trying to defend their home. The president quickly flew to the scene and announced new security measures, including the application of Chile's tough anti-terrorism law and the creation of a special police anti-terror unit backed by Chile's military.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which some Mapuche Indians repudiated Friday as senseless and abhorrent. But Chile's interior minister said pamphlets condemning police violence and demanding the return of Mapuche lands were left at the scene. The presidentially appointed governor of the remote southern region of Araucania, Andres Molina, called the attackers "savages."
"This attack affects the entire country and causes gigantic damage, for the pain and the delays that it means for thousands of families who want to live in peace," Pinera said. "This government is united in its effort to combat terrorism that affects the region. We will not hesitate to apply the full weight of the law."
"It should be completely clear," Pinera added, "that this fight is not against the Mapuche people. It's with a minority of violent terrorists who must be fought with everything the law allows."
Werner Luchsinger, 75, fired a weapon in self-defense, and struck a man from the nearby Mapuche community of Juan Quintrupil before his home burned to the ground, regional police chief Ivan Bezmalinovic said.
Luchsinger's wife Vivian McKay called relatives for help during the attack, but when they arrived just 15 minutes later the house was already in flames and she didn't answer her phone, according to the victim's cousin, Jorge Luchsinger.
The attack began Thursday night as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. The Indians scattered pamphlets related to the anniversary while on the Luchsinger property, Interior Minister Andres Chadwick said.
The victims' Lumahue ranch is just 16 miles (25 kilometers) from the spot where Catrileo was killed on Jan. 3, 2008.
Celestino Cordova Transito, 26, was detained near the scene early Friday. Police have him under arrest in a hospital in Temuco, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound in the neck, the chief said.
Gov. Molina said that Werner Luchsinger's gunshot, by enabling police to capture the wounded suspect, may help solve not only the couple's death but previous arson attacks as well.
"I want to thank Don Werner, because probably thanks to him we're closer to finding these savages who have done such damage to Araucania," he said.
Pinera also met briefly with the Luchsinger family as well as other local landowners next to the burned-out home, but Chile's El Mercurio said the meeting was cut short when some fled due to a false rumor that Mapuche activists were targeting their properties even as the president spoke. Other landowners shouted out in anger, asking for tougher security measures, and then briefly blocked the main highway in protest.
Jorge Luchsinger said earlier Friday that masked Indians have repeatedly attacked his and other relatives' properties as well, despite the considerable police presence in the area. "It's obvious that the authorities are completely overwhelmed," he told radio Cooperativa.
Many of Chile's Mapuche activist groups were silent Friday about the murders, repeating instead their complaints about continuing police violence of the kind that killed Catrileo years ago.
But Venancio Conuepan, who described himself as a law student who comes from a long line of Mapuche leaders, wrote an editorial Friday condemning the violence, rejecting the idea that armed conflict can win their demands, and calling for the killers to be identified and tried in court. He said the vast majority of the Mapuche people agree with him.
"Enough of people using violence in the name of the Mapuche people. Our grandfathers never covered their faces. The Mapuche created parliaments, and always put dialogue first," wrote Conuepan on Radio BioBio's web site, titling his editorial, "Although you don't believe me, I'm Mapuche and I'm not a Terrorist."
The Luchsinger family has been among the most outspoken in defending the property rights of the region's landowners against ancestral land claims by the Mapuche. But Jorge said his cousin had taken a lower profile and refused police protection.
Lorena Fries, the director of Chile's official Human Rights Institute, warned Friday against cracking down using the anti-terror law, which allows for holding suspects in isolation without charges, using secret witnesses and other measures that have been discredited by Chile's courts in previous cases of Mapuche violence. Instead, she said Pinera should reach out to the Indians, and honor their demands for self-governance and the recovery of ancestral land. "Something has to be done so that everyone puts an end to the violence," she said.
The Mapuches' demands for land and autonomy date back centuries. They resisted Spanish and Chilean domination for more than 300 years before they were forced south to Araucania in 1881. Many of the 700,000 Mapuches who survive among Chile's 17 million people still live in Araucania. A small fraction have been rebelling for decades, destroying forestry equipment and torching trees. Governments on the left and right have sent in police while offering programs that fall far short of their demands.
The Luchsinger family also arrived in Araucania in the late 1800s, from Switzerland, and benefited from the government's colonization policies for decades thereafter, becoming one of the largest landowners in Chile's Patagonia region. Their forestry and ranching companies now occupy vast stretches of southern Chile, and impoverished Mapuches live on the margins of their properties.

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Wall St Week Ahead - 'Cliff' concerns give way to earnings focus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff" worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week.
Financial results, which begin after the market closes on Tuesday with aluminum company Alcoa , are expected to be only slightly better than the third-quarter's lackluster results. As a warning sign, analyst current estimates are down sharply from what they were in October.
That could set stocks up for more volatility following a week of sharp gains that put the Standard & Poor's 500 index on Friday at the highest close since December 31, 2007. The index also registered its biggest weekly percentage gain in more than a year.
Based on a Reuters analysis, Europe ranks among the chief concerns cited by companies that warned on fourth-quarter results. Uncertainty about the region and its weak economic outlook were cited by more than half of the 25 largest S&P 500 companies that issued warnings.
In the most recent earnings conference calls, macroeconomic worries were cited by 10 companies while the U.S. "fiscal cliff" was cited by at least nine as reasons for their earnings warnings.
"The number of things that could go wrong isn't so high, but the magnitude of how wrong they could go is what's worrisome," said Kurt Winters, senior portfolio manager for Whitebox Mutual Funds in Minneapolis.
Negative-to-positive guidance by S&P 500 companies for the fourth quarter was 3.6 to 1, the second worst since the third quarter of 2001, according to Thomson Reuters data.
U.S. lawmakers narrowly averted the "fiscal cliff" by coming to a last-minute agreement on a bill to avoid steep tax hikes this weeks -- driving the rally in stocks -- but the battle over further spending cuts is expected to resume in two months.
Investors also have seen a revival of worries about Europe's sovereign debt problems, with Moody's in November downgrading France's credit rating and debt crises looming for Spain and other countries.
"You have a recession in Europe as a base case. Europe is still the biggest trading partner with a lot of U.S. companies, and it's still a big chunk of global capital spending," said Adam Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Among companies citing worries about Europe was eBay , whose chief financial officer, Bob Swan, spoke of "macro pressures from Europe" in the company's October earnings conference call.
REVENUE WORRIES
One of the biggest worries voiced about earnings has been whether companies will be able to continue to boost profit growth despite relatively weak revenue growth.
S&P 500 revenue fell 0.8 percent in the third quarter for the first decline since the third quarter of 2009, Thomson Reuters data showed. Earnings growth for the quarter was a paltry 0.1 percent after briefly dipping into negative territory.
On top of that, just 40 percent of S&P 500 companies beat revenue expectations in the third quarter, while 64.2 percent beat earnings estimates, the Thomson Reuters data showed.
For the fourth quarter, estimates are slightly better but are well off estimates for the quarter from just a few months earlier. S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen 2.8 percent while revenue is expected to have gone up 1.9 percent.
Back in October, earnings growth for the fourth quarter was forecast up 9.9 percent.
In spite of the cautious outlooks, some analysts still see a good chance for earnings beats this reporting period.
"The thinking is you need top line growth for earnings to continue to expand, and we've seen the market defy that," said Mike Jackson, founder of Denver-based investment firm T3 Equity Labs.
Based on his analysis, energy, industrials and consumer discretionary are the S&P sectors most likely to beat earnings expectations in the upcoming season, while consumer staples, materials and utilities are the least likely to beat, Jackson said.
Sounding a positive note on Friday, drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co said it expects profit in 2013 to increase by more than Wall Street had been forecasting, primarily due to cost controls and improved productivity.

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Wall Street economists see Fed's Treasury buying ending in 2013: Reuters poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions expect the Federal Reserve in 2013 to end the program with which it bought Treasury debt in an effort to stimulate the economy, according to a Reuters poll on Friday.
Economists at nine of 16 primary dealers -- the large financial institutions that do business directly with the Fed -- said they expect the current Fed program of buying $45 billion per month of Treasuries to end in 2013.
Of the nine, eight said the central bank would quit the program in the fourth quarter or the end of the year. One forecast the end of the program in June.
Six of 15 economists at primary dealers said the Treasury purchase program would close in 2014, while one said it would continue through to the first half of 2016.
Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, released on Thursday, showed "several" top officials expected to slow or stop the so-called quantitative easing program "well before" the end of the year. That news surprised some on Wall Street and prompted a drop in stocks and bonds, and a rise in the dollar.
"It is hard to be as confident of the purchases continuing at the same pace, because we had originally thought they were going to last through the fourth quarter of 2014, but now it is not as clear that is going to be the case," said Tom Simons, money market economist with Jefferies & Co. in New York.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy panel this year, said on Friday the Fed could be in a position to halt its asset purchases this year if the U.S. economy improves.
The Fed this week began buying longer-dated Treasuries in an open-ended stimulus program that replaced its "Operation Twist" stimulus, under which it was selling shorter-dated Treasuries and using the proceeds to buy longer-dated U.S. government debt. Twist expired at the end of December, with analysts noting the central bank had few shorter-dated Treasuries left to sell.
The central bank is already buying about $40 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities in an effort to prop up the economy.
The median of forecasts from 13 primary dealers was for the Fed to buy a total of $540 billion of Treasuries under the current stimulus program. Estimates ranged from $270 billion to $1 trillion.
Nine of 16 primary dealers said the U.S. unemployment rate would fall to 6.5 percent in 2015, while six said it would dip to that level in 2014 and one said it would happen in 2016.
The Fed at the conclusion of its December policy meeting said it expects to hold interest rates at the current level of zero to 0.25 percent at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent and inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than 2.5 percent.
Previously, the Fed had said it expects to hold rates near zero at least through mid-2015.
The Reuters poll was conducted on Friday after the government reported the pace of hiring by U.S. employers eased slightly in December, while the unemployment rate held steady from November at 7.8 percent.
"In the context of the Fed's now explicit unemployment rate target, (Friday's payrolls data) at the margin theoretically extends the timing of the first tightening," said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
"That said, at the current six month pace in monthly payroll gains and labor force growth, the unemployment rate would still hit 6.5 percent by June 2014 - much sooner than the Fed's prior mid-2015 launch point," he said.
There are 21 U.S. primary dealers. Not all of the dealers responded to the Reuters poll.

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Fed's policy "thresholds" plan surprised dealers: poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Very few Wall Street economists expected the U.S. Federal Reserve to adopt policy thresholds at its last meeting, results from a New York Fed poll of primary dealers showed on Friday, highlighting how surprising was the decision.
The 20 dealers, who have access to the central bank's discount window, were polled before the Fed's December 11-12 policy meeting. At the meeting the Fed ultimately decided to tie low interest rates to specific unemployment and inflation levels, or "thresholds."
Dealers gave only a 10 percent chance that the Fed would adopt such thresholds at the December meeting, and respective 20 percent and 30 percent chances at the following two policy meetings, according to the median poll response.
Under the thresholds plan, the Fed will keep its federal funds rate near zero until the unemployment rate drops to 6.5 percent, from 7.8 percent now - unless the inflation outlook edges up to 2.5 percent.
Asked how much in bonds they expected the Fed to purchase, the dealers polled were generally correct in predicting $45 billion in Treasuries and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
One year out, the dealers said they expected Fed purchases of $35 billion in Treasuries and still $40 billion in MBS, based on the median of poll responses.
That prediction may have recently changed.
Minutes from the December meeting, released on Thursday, showed "several" Fed policymakers expected to slow or stop the so-called quantitative easing program, dubbed QE3, "well before" the end of the year - news that prompted a drop in stocks and bonds, and a rise in the dollar.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York unveiled the poll results on Friday.

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UK backs Lucentis for new use after Novartis cuts price

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's healthcare cost watchdog has given its backing to eye drug Lucentis to treat diabetes-related problems after Swiss drugmaker Novartis offered it at a discount to the National Health Service.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in a reversal of an earlier decision, said on Friday Lucentis should now be available for patients with diabetic macular oedema (DMO).
Lucentis is already approved by NICE to treat wet age-related macular degeneration.
In November 2011, NICE said it could not recommend Lucentis, known generically as ranibizumab, as an effective use of NHS resources for DMO. On Friday, it said a fresh approach from Novartis had prompted a review of that decision.
Novartis has offered a new Patient Access Scheme, which would make Lucentis available at an undisclosed discounted, NICE said, and submitted new analyses showing the drug's superior relative effect in a sub-group of people with DMO.
As a result, NICE was now "pleased to recommend ranibizumab as a treatment option for some people with visual impairment caused by diabetic macular oedema," Carole Longson, NICE's health technology evaluation centre director, said.
NICE said the agreement with Novartis was confidential, and did not say how deep the discount would be or give a reference price for Lucentis. The list price for Lucentis is 742.17 pounds ($1,200) per injection.
The drug is designed to be given monthly and continued until vision is stable over three consecutive assessments.
Novartis said NICE's decision was an important and long-awaited step forward in improving care for people with DMO, adding an estimated 25,000 people with the condition could soon be eligible for Lucentis treatment.
NICE's recommendation is draft guidance and open to appeal before a final recommendation is issued to the NHS in February.

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