Cantor CEO: 'Off the fiscal cliff we go'

Part of complete coverage on

By Ramy Inocencio, for CNN

January 25, 2013 -- Updated 1453 GMT (2253 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• "U.S. fiscal cliff still coming" in form of failure to raise debt ceiling - Cantor Fitzgerald CEO


• More than 25% of CEOs feel world economy will get worse in 2013, says PwC survey


• U.S. House of Representatives passed short-term debt ceiling increase Jan. 23


• Lutnick: "Dumb lending" caused 2008 credit crisis

Hong Kong (CNN) -- The world thought the U.S. fiscal cliff deadline was December 31, but "the fiscal cliff is (still) coming", says Howard Lutnick, CEO of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

"You're going to watch the U.S. do crazy, crazy things this year," Lutnick told CNN's Richard Quest at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "The Republican Party that was elected to control Congress... (is) going to cross their arms and they are not going to raise the debt ceiling ultimately unless they get severe spending cuts, and the Obama administration is not going to give it to them."

If Congress fails to act, the U.S. and the world economy will have a "dreadful" 2013, Lutnick said.

Following this week's PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of global CEO confidence, Lutnick appears to be one of the more than 25% who think the world economy is more likely to deteriorate in 2013.

Despite Lutnick's concerns, on January 23 the Republican-controlled House of Representatives did pass a bill that would allow the U.S. Treasury to borrow new money through mid-May. President Barack Obama has said he would not oppose the proposal if it reaches his desk, although he prefers a long-term debt ceiling increase.

Lutnick adds that to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, regulators need to actually address issues that caused it.

"What caused the credit crisis was just dumb lending. When you lend money to people who can't pay you back, you go broke."

Looking ahead to 2013, Lutnick says the biggest risk to global growth is the U.S. hitting the debt ceiling -- whether in the short- or long-term.

"Off the fiscal cliff we go. We (the U.S.) are irrational and we are silly... we are dopey."

Part of complete coverage on

January 23, 2013 -- Updated 1308 GMT (2108 HKT)

Global policymakers, leading thinkers and key entrepreneurs are gathering in Davos. CNN brings you the latest news, views and musings live.

January 23, 2013 -- Updated 1040 GMT (1840 HKT)

As extreme weather events cost the global economy billions each year, the "neglected" risk of climate change seems to be rising to the top of the agenda, Andrew Steer writes.

January 23, 2013 -- Updated 1342 GMT (2142 HKT)

Economic empowerment offers a win-win scenario for Saudi Arabia and its women, Mounira Jamjoon writes.

January 23, 2013 -- Updated 1154 GMT (1954 HKT)

The recession in Europe is entering its fifth year and unemployment doesn't look like it will be returning to normal levels anytime soon.

January 22, 2013 -- Updated 1324 GMT (2124 HKT)

What has been made clear by current events and financial upheavals since 2008 is that the global economy has become truly that -- global.

The globe's greatest economic minds meet in Davos next week. With financial crises in the U.S. and Europe, CNN asks: What is your economic mood?

Many eurozone countries face dropping employment even as basic costs rise. But not everyone is suffering. Explore our interactive for more.

January 23, 2013 -- Updated 0551 GMT (1351 HKT)

In 2013, the greatest risk of conflict lies in the geopolitical struggle between Japan and China, according to Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group.

January 21, 2013 -- Updated 1502 GMT (2302 HKT)

CNN's Richard Quest explores the topic that will be on every delegate's lips at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year.

January 21, 2013 -- Updated 1500 GMT (2300 HKT)

It was January 25, 2011, when the brisk winds of change from Tahrir Square swept through the Swiss Alpine village of Davos.

January 21, 2013 -- Updated 1357 GMT (2157 HKT)

The world's political and business elite will converge on Europe's highest-altitude town for the annual talk-shop that is the World Economic Forum.

January 21, 2013 -- Updated 1458 GMT (2258 HKT)

On July 1, 2013 the 27-nation European Union will become 28. But is the Adriatic country ready to join Europe's elite club?

January 22, 2013 -- Updated 1133 GMT (1933 HKT)

The great Davos talking shop is now up and running, with delegates of all levels of importance, shapes and nationalities putting the world to rights.

January 21, 2013 -- Updated 1404 GMT (2204 HKT)

After five years in crisis the eurozone's new leader has emerged. With influence reaching from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Sea.

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Video sparks protest of Ultimate Fighting event

Women's advocacy groups in Chicago are urging the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization to prevent a fighter who appeared in a video that made light of rape from fighting Saturday at an event in the United Center.

Sharmili Majmudar, executive director of Rape Victim Advocates in Chicago, said she and other activists came out with a letter of opposition Thursday because Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, the man in the video, is about to fight on Chicago turf.

"It's kind of despicable that anyone would take so lightly the issue of sexual violence," Majmudar said. "This isn't Chicago. This is not something that's consistent with Chicago (values)."

Although UFC officials say they find the video tasteless, they suggest another motivation behind the letter and the news release that accompanied it, said Lawrence Epstein, UFC's chief operating officer.

The letter to the UFC, its sponsors and the Fox television network included an email address for Jen Suh, a research analyst for the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas. Its parent union is the national UNITE HERE organization.

Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III are the majority owners of Station Casinos LLC in Las Vegas, and the company has long been at odds with the Culinary Workers Union over the unionization of casino workers. The Fertittas also are the majority owners of the UFC.

"They think if you harass an employer enough, they'll say 'take my workers,'" Epstein said. Suh, when asked for comment, said the union's website contains a list of grievances against the company.

In October, the National Labor Relations Board held that Station Casinos violated federal labor law in 82 cases in its response to union-organizing efforts. But the union and the Fertittas are still a long way from settling their dispute.

The most recent news release on the Culinary Worker Union's website announces that the U.S. Marine Corps did not renew its sponsorship of UFC.

Jackson will "absolutely" fight Saturday, Epstein said. Although the UFC did not punish Jackson for the video, Epstein said its officials made it clear to Jackson and his manager that his behavior was inappropriate.

Also on Thursday, the UFC released a statement about its new code of conduct, which will include punishments such as fines and community service for fighters who violate the code. Matt Hughes, a former UFC fighter who made the organization's Hall of Fame, joined UFC as vice president of athlete development and government relations to help enforce the policy.

Epstein said Jackson's video was tasteless.

The video, with nearly 1,200 views on YouTube as of Thursday evening, shows Jackson instructing viewers on how to "pick up a gurl." Jackson suggests comfortable shoes, chloroform and zip ties. In the video, he stalks a woman in a parking garage and tries to grab her from behind. Before he has the chance, she elbows him in the gut and pulls a gun.

Jackson has said in other interviews that the video was an attempt at humor. He told Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting in October that he was trying to emulate comedian Dave Chapelle and that he put out the video to get kicked off the UFC roster.

The UFC and Jackson's relationship has been rocky for months. Jackson hasn't fought since February, in Japan, before the video appeared, a UFC spokesperson confirmed. The fight Saturday at the United Center is the last one of his current contract.

ehirst@tribune.com

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North Korea threatens war with South over U.N. sanctions

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened U.N. sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.

In a third straight day of fiery rhetoric, the North directed its verbal onslaught at its neighbor on Friday, saying: "'Sanctions' mean a war and a declaration of war against us."

The reclusive North has this week declared a boycott of all dialogue aimed at ending its nuclear program and vowed to conduct more rocket and nuclear tests after the U.N. Security Council censured it for a December long-range missile launch.

"If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the U.N. 'sanctions,' the DPRK will take strong physical counter-measures against it," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said, referring to the South.

The committee is the North's front for dealings with the South. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's December rocket launch on Tuesday and expanded existing U.N. sanctions.

On Thursday, the United States slapped economic sanctions on two North Korean bank officials and a Hong Kong trading company that it accused of supporting Pyongyang's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The company, Leader (Hong Kong) International Trading Ltd, was separately blacklisted by the United Nations on Wednesday.

Seoul has said it will look at whether there are any further sanctions that it can implement alongside the United States, but said the focus for now is to follow Security Council resolutions.

The resolution said the council "deplores the violations" by North Korea of its previous resolutions, which banned Pyongyang from conducting further ballistic missile and nuclear tests and from importing materials and technology for those programs. It does not impose new sanctions on Pyongyang.

The United States had wanted to punish North Korea for the rocket launch with a Security Council resolution that imposed entirely new sanctions against Pyongyang, but Beijing rejected that option. China agreed to U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang after North Korea's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

NUCLEAR TEST WORRY

North Korea's rhetoric this week amounted to some of the angriest outbursts against the outside world coming under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, who took over after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011.

On Thursday, the North said it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test, directing its ire at the United States, a country it called its "sworn enemy".

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the comments were worrying.

"We are very concerned with North Korea's continuing provocative behavior," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

"We are fully prepared ... to deal with any kind of provocation from the North Koreans. But I hope in the end that they determine that it is better to make a choice to become part of the international family."

North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

South Korea and others who have been closely observing activities at the North's known nuclear test grounds believe Pyongyang is technically ready to go ahead with its third atomic test and awaiting the political decision of its leader.

The North's committee also declared on Friday that a landmark agreement it signed with the South in 1992 on eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula was invalid, repeating its long-standing accusation that Seoul was colluding with Washington.

The foreign ministry of China, the North's sole remaining major diplomatic and economic benefactor, repeated its call for calm on the Korean peninsula at its daily briefing on Friday.

"The current situation on the Korea peninsula is complicated and sensitive," spokesman Hong Lei said.

"We hope all relevant parties can see the big picture, maintain calm and restraint, further maintain contact and dialogue, and improve relations, while not taking actions to further complicate and escalate the situation," Hong said.

But unusually prickly comments in Chinese state media on Friday hinted at Beijing's exasperation.

"It seems that North Korea does not appreciate China's efforts," said the Global Times in an editorial, a sister publication of the official People's Daily.

"Just let North Korea be 'angry' ... China hopes for a stable peninsula, but it's not the end of the world if there's trouble there. This should be the baseline of China's position."

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; editing by Jeremy Laurence and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Wall Street opens lower after Apple results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened lower on Thursday, a day after Apple Inc reported revenue that missed expectations, tanking the stock and weighing on technology shares.

As the most valuable U.S. company and a heavy weight in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx>, a decline in Apple shares has an outsized impact on the broader market. Apple dropped 10.5 percent to $459.84 in early trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 21.73 points, or 0.16 percent, at 13,801.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.16 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,492.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 24.98 points, or 0.79 percent, at 3,128.69.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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No. 1 Duke routed by No. 25 Miami 90-63

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — With a steady din coming from the sea of orange behind the visitors' basket, No. 1 Duke had a tough time making a shot.

The Blue Devils went more than 8 minutes without a field goal in the first half Wednesday night, and a sellout became a blowout for No. 25 Miami, which delighted a boisterous crowd with a 90-63 victory.

The defeat was the third-worst ever for a No. 1 team. The last time Duke lost a regular-season game by a bigger margin was in January 1984.

"It wasn't demoralizing; they played better," Blue Devils guard Rasheed Sulaimon said. "I believe we have them on the schedule again."

"We expected them to be terrific, and we have to match terrific, and then you have a terrific game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "What you had was a terrific win for them, but not a terrific game. We didn't hold our end of the bargain."

Miami (14-3, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) beat a No. 1 team for the first time, taking control with a stunning 25-1 run midway through the opening half. The Blue Devils missed 13 consecutive shots despite numerous good looks, while four Hurricanes hit 3-pointers during the run that transformed a 14-13 deficit into a 38-15 lead.

Duke (16-2, 3-2) fell to 0-2 when playing on an opponent's court. The Blue Devils' other loss came at North Carolina State, a defeat that cost them the No. 1 ranking.

They regained the top spot this week but seemed rattled by the capacity crowd, only the 10th in 10 years at Miami's on-campus arena. Students began lining up for seats outside the arena almost 24 hours before tipoff, a rarity for the attendance-challenged Hurricanes.

"I don't know how you can sit outside for a basketball game for that long," Miami guard Durand Scott said. "That made me want to win for them even more."

The Hurricanes, who are alone atop the league standings, won their sixth consecutive game. They beat Duke for the second straight time — but only the fourth time in the 19-game series.

Miami had been 0-6 against No. 1 teams. Coach Jim Larranaga also beat a No. 1 team for the first time.

"This is a great memory," Larranaga said.

Scott scored a season-high 25 points for the Hurricanes, and Kenny Kadji added a season-high 22. Shane Larkin had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Durham, N.C. native Julian Gamble had 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Miami senior center Reggie Johnson came off the bench in his first action since being sidelined with a broken left thumb Dec. 18. He had two points and five rebounds in 16 minutes.

The Hurricanes, ranked this week for the first time in three years, improved to 8-0 at home.

Seth Curry, Tyler Thornton and Quinn Cook went a combined 1 for 29 for the Blue Devils, who shot a season-low 30 percent. Sulaimon led them with 16 points.

Duke went 4 for 23 from 3-point range, while Miami went 9 for 19 and shot 57 percent overall.

"Especially in the first couple of minutes, we got a lot of great shots," Blue Devils forward Mason Plumlee said. "You're going to miss some, but you have to keep shooting. The biggest mistake you can make is questioning your shot because you're missing open shots."

Kadji made two 3s during the Hurricanes' first-half spurt, then capped it with a three-point play. Duke shot 22 percent in the first half, including two for 11 on 3-pointers, and trailed 42-19 at halftime.

There was no letup by the Hurricanes to start the second half. They scored the first seven points for a shocking 49-19 lead, and punctuated the drubbing with five dunks in the final 10 minutes.

"Some teams come out in the second half flat and think they have the game won," Larkin said, "but we stayed with it with the same energy in the second half. We played great the whole game."

A Duke mistake — one in a long series — early in the second half had Krzyzewski red-faced and on the court, screaming at his team. But he couldn't inspire a turnaround.

"Over-rated," fans chanted with 3 minutes left. When the game ended, they poured onto the court and mobbed their team.

"The crowd I'm sure helped them some," Krzyzewski said. "But they didn't need much help."

Back in North Carolina, fans of the Tar Heels savored the loss by their rivals. When the final score of the Duke game was posted on the video board at the North Carolina-Georgia Tech game, students chanted, "Go to hell, Duke!"

___

AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary in Chapel Hill, N.C., contributed to this report.

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NASA’s Opportunity Rover Begins Year 10 on Mars

The older, smaller cousin of NASA‘s huge Mars rover Curiosity is quietly celebrating a big milestone today (Jan. 24) — nine years on the surface of the Red Planet.

NASA‘s Opportunity rover landed on Mars the night of Jan. 24, 2004 PST (just after midnight EST on Jan. 25), three weeks after its twin, Spirit, touched down. Spirit stopped operating in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong, helping scientists better understand the Red Planet’s wetter, warmer past.

“No one could’ve imagined how good the exploration and scientific discovery would be for this vehicle, looking from the perspective of nine years ago,” said John Callas, Opportunity‘s project manager at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “It’s been a phenomenal accomplishment.”

The headline-stealing Curiosity rover, for its part, touched down on Aug. 5, 2012, marking the next step in Mars exploration. The car-size Curiosity weighs about 1 ton — five times more than either Spirit or Opportunity.

Long-lived rovers

Spirit and Opportunity were originally supposed to spend three months searching for evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet. The golf-cart-size robots found plenty of such signs at their separate landing sites, showing that Mars was not always the cold and arid planet we know today. [Most Amazing Discoveries by Spirit and Opportunity]

For example, in 2007 Spirit uncovered an ancient hydrothermal system in Gusev Crater, suggesting that two key ingredients for life as we know it — liquid water and an energy source — were both present in some parts of Mars long ago.

And Opportunity is currently inspecting clay deposits along the rim of Mars’ huge Endeavour Crater. Clays form in relatively neutral (as opposed to acidic or basic) water, so the area may once have been capable of supporting primitive microbial life, researchers say.

“This is our first glimpse ever at conditions on ancient Mars that clearly show us a chemistry that would’ve been suitable for life at the Opportunity site,” Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, said of the discovery at a conference last month.

The rovers rolled far beyond their 90-day warranties. Spirit finally stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, after getting mired in soft sand and failing to maneuver into a position that would allow it to slant its solar panels toward the sun over the 2009-2010 Martian winter. NASA declared the rover dead in 2011.

But Opportunity keeps chugging along. It has put 22.03 miles (35.46 kilometers) on its odometer since landing on Mars — just 1 mile (1.6 km) off the all-time record for most ground covered on the surface of another world. The Soviet Union’s unmanned Lunokhod 2 rover holds that mark, traveling 23 miles (37 km) on the moon back in 1973.

The great engineering that allowed Spirit and Opportunity to keep roving for so long is a big part of the six-wheeled robots’ legacy, mission team members say.

“These are magnificently designed machines,” Callas told SPACE.com. “We really have greatly expanded the exploration envelope by having a vehicle that can not only last so long but stay in very good health over that time, such that we can continue exploring.”

Still in good health

While Opportunity is showing signs of its advanced age, such as an arthritic robotic arm, the rover remains in good shape overall.

“Its health right now is miraculously good,” Callas said.

Still, the rover team is treating every day as a gift at this point, knowing that Opportunity could conk out at pretty much any time. Indeed, the sun will rise one day without a message from Opportunity, and its handlers will have to face the rover’s death and the end of an amazing mission.

“It’s going to be hard; it’ll be the end of a great era,” Callas said. “But we’ll have to remember that we’ve had such a good run.”

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+. 

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Neanderthal cloning? Pure fantasy

A display of a reconstruction of a Neanderthal man and boy at the Museum for Prehistory in Eyzies-de-Tayac, France.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Arthur Caplan: It would be unethical to try and clone a Neanderthal baby


• Caplan: Downsides include a good chance of producing a baby that is seriously deformed


• He says the future belongs to what we can do to genetically engineer and control microbes


• Caplan: Microbes can make clean fuel, suck up carbon dioxide, clean fat out of arteries

Editor's note: Arthur Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty professor and director of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center.

(CNN) -- So now we know -- there won't be a Neanderthal moving into your neighborhood.

Despite a lot of frenzied attention to the intentionally provocative suggestion by a renowned Harvard scientist that new genetic technology makes it possible to splice together a complete set of Neanderthal genes, find an adventurous surrogate mother and use cloning to gin up a Neanderthal baby -- it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Nor should it. But there are plenty of other things in the works involving genetic engineering that do merit serious ethical discussion at the national and international levels.

Arthur Caplan

Some thought that the Harvard scientist, George Church, was getting ready to put out an ad seeking volunteer surrogate moms to bear a 35,000-year-old, long-extinct Neanderthal baby. Church had to walk his comments back and note that he was just speculating, not incubating.

Still cloning carries so much mystery and Hollywood glamour thanks to movies such as "Jurassic Park," "The Boys From Brazil" and "Never Let Me Go" that a two-day eruption of the pros and cons of making Neanderthals ensued. That was not necessary. It would be unethical to try and clone a Neanderthal baby.

Why? Because there is no obvious reason to do so. There is no pressing need or remarkable benefit to undertaking such a project. At best it might shed some light on the biology and behavior of a distant ancestor. At worst it would be nothing more than the ultimate reality television show exploitation: An "Octomom"-like surrogate raises a caveman child -- tune in next week to see what her new boyfriend thinks when she tells him that there is a tiny addition in her life and he carries a small club and a tiny piece of flint to sleep with him.

The downsides of trying to clone a Neanderthal include a good chance of killing it, producing a baby that is seriously deformed, producing a baby that lacks immunity to infectious diseases and foods that we have gotten used to, an inability to know what environment to create to permit the child to flourish and a complete lack of understanding of what sort of behavior is "normal" or "appropriate" for such a long-extinct cousin hominid of ours.

When weighed against the risks and the harm that most likely would be done, it would take a mighty big guarantee of benefit to justify this cloning experiment. I am willing to venture that the possible benefit will never, ever reach the point where this list of horrible likely downsides could be overcome.

Even justifying trying to resurrect a woolly mammoth, or a mastodon, or the dodo bird or any other extinct animal gets ethically thorny. How many failures would be acceptable to get one viable mastodon? Where would the animal live? What would we feed it? Who would protect it from poachers, gawkers and treasure hunters? It is not so simple to take a long dead species, make enough of them so they don't die of isolation and lack of social stimulation and then find an environment that is close enough and safe enough compared with that which they once roamed.

In any event the most interesting aspects of genetic engineering do not involve making humans or Neanderthals or mammoths. They involve ginning up microbes to do things that we really need doing such as making clean fuel, sucking up carbon dioxide, cleaning fat out of our arteries, giving us a lot more immunity to nasty bacteria and viruses and helping us make plastics and chemicals more efficiently and cheaply.

In trying to make these kinds of microbes, you can kill all you want without fear of ethical condemnation. And if the new bug does not like the environment in which it has to exist to live well, that will be just too darn bad.

The ethical challenge of this kind of synthetic biology is that it can be used by bad guys for bad purposes. Biological weapons can be ginned up and microbes created that only infect people with certain genes that commonly associate with racial or ethnic groups.

Rather than worry about what will happen to real estate values should a new crop of "Flintstones" move in down the street, our public officials, religious groups and ethicists need to get serious about how much regulation the genetic engineering of microbes needs, how can we detect what terrorists might try to use, what sort of controls do we need to prevent accidents and who is going to pay if a bug turns out to cause more harm than good.

We love to think that the key to tomorrow lies in what humanity can be designed or empowered to do. Thus, the fascination with human cloning. In reality, at least for a long time to come, the future belongs to what we can do to design and control microbes. That is admittedly duller, but it is far better to follow a story that is true than one such as Neanderthal cloning that is pure, speculative fantasy.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Arthur Caplan.

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Sentencing today for Chicago man in Mumbai terror attack

A man convicted in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai will be sentenced in Chicago Thursday. ( WGN - Chicago)

By Annie Sweeney




Tribune reporter

7:56 a.m. CST, January 24, 2013

David Coleman Headley, an admitted terrorist with links to al-Qaida who helped plot the 2008 massacre in Mumbai, is scheduled to be sentenced today at Chicago’s federal courthouse.

Headley, 52,  who is to be sentenced amid heightened security measures in U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber’s courtroom, faces up to life in prison. He pleaded guilty to scouting out sites to be targeted in the terrorist attack that killed more than 160 people – including six Americans -- in India’s largest city. He also admitted playing a similar role in an aborted plot to storm a Danish newspaper and behead staffers in retaliation for printing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

Federal prosecutors have cited Headley’s extraordinary cooperation for seeking a sentence of 30 to 35 years in prison.

Headley, who agreed to cooperate on the day of his arrest at O’Hare International Airport as he prepared to fly overseas, detailed the inner-workings of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terror organization that planned the Mumbai attacks. His information led to charges against seven terrorist figures, including his childhood friend from a Pakistani school, Tahawwur Rana, a former Chicago businessman.

Headley was the key witness at the trial of Rana, who was convicted of aiding the Denmark plot and providing support to Lashkar.  Judge Leinenweber sentenced him  last week to 14 years in prison, about half what prosecutors sought.

Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani descent,  came to the United States at age 17 and was twice convicted of drug smuggling in the late 1980s. He later agreed to work as an informant for the DEA. Headley also revealed during testimony  at Rana’s trial that there was an overlap between his work for the DEA and his early days with Lashkar.

Headley became involved with Lashkar, a radical group that opposes Indian rule in divided Kashmir, around 2000, attending training camps between 2002 and 2005. He had moved to Chicago by 2009 and reconnected with Rana.

Though embraced by Rana’s family, Headley lived a very different life that included multiple wives and apparently indoctrinating even his children with his ideologies. His 5-year-old son once dropped to the ground in a Chicago park and pretended to fire a weapon after a soccer coach yelled "shoot, shoot!" to him during a game, Headley testified at Rana’s trial.

asweeney@tribune.com

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North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

North Korea is not believed to have the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States, although its December launch showed it had the capacity to deliver a rocket that could travel 10,000 km (6,200 miles), potentially putting San Francisco in range, according to an intelligence assessment by South Korea.

"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un, who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.

Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition, with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.

China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.

"We hope the relevant party can remain calm and act and speak in a cautious and prudent way and not take any steps which may further worsen the situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.

North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.

"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.

"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.

U.S. URGES NO TEST

Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.

"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."

The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.

North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons

North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.

According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.

North Korea has not yet mastered the technology needed to make a nuclear warhead small enough for an intercontinental missile, most observers say, and needs to develop the capacity to shield any warhead from re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.

The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father, Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.

The older Kim died in December 2011.

"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ron Popeski)

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Wall Street edges up at open as tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks edged higher at the open on Wednesday, with technology stocks among the best performers after earnings from Google and IBM .

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 44.78 points, or 0.33 percent, to 13,756.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 0.81 point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,493.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 12.16 points, or 0.39 percent, to 3,155.34.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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