Reports: Yahoo exploring sale of Asian holdings (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? Yahoo appears to be getting closer to giving its frustrated shareholders something they've long wanted: a sale of the Internet company's holdings in China and Japan.

The prospect of Yahoo Inc. finally consummating a deal with China's Alibaba Group and Softbank Corp., the controlling owner of Yahoo Japan, emerged in online reports published Wednesday by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, both newspapers reported Yahoo is exploring a proposal valued at about $17 billion, or $14 per share. The price reflects Wall Street's belief that Yahoo's investments in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan have become the company's most valuable pieces. Yahoo's U.S. business has lost its luster as the company's website loses traffic and advertising revenue to Internet search leader Google Inc. and Facebook's social network.

Yahoo ended Wednesday with a market value of about $20 billion, based on its stock closing price of $15.99. The shares gained 88 cents, with most of the surge occurring after the reports of Yahoo's talks with its Asian partners.

If the deal comes together, Alibaba and Softbank would contribute cash and certain assets to newly formed entities. Yahoo would then surrender its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan and most of its holdings in Alibaba to gain control of new entities, according to the Times.

Yahoo would retain a 15 percent stake in privately held Alibaba, down from 42 percent as of Sept. 30, according to the company's most recent quarterly report.

The transaction would be designed to avoid a big tax bill ? a stumbling block in Yahoo's previous discussions to sell its Asian holdings.

Yahoo declined to comment Wednesday. Alibaba didn't respond to requests for comments.

The renewed talks among Yahoo, Alibaba and Softbank are the latest bit of boardroom intrigue that that has been unfolding since Yahoo abruptly fired Carol Bartz as CEO in early September after losing patience with her attempts to turn around the company during her 2 1/2 years on the job.

Since then, Yahoo's board has been mulling a variety of options that have included selling the Asian holdings, selling a 20 percent stake to buyout firms or even auctioning off the whole company.

The nine-director board has been leaning in different directions as it ruminates. Just a few weeks ago, it appeared the board was leaning toward selling a large stake to a group led by Silver Lake Partners for $16.60 per share or TPG Capital for $17.60 per share.

That idea didn't go over well with some of Yahoo's major shareholders, including hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, who has been threatening to overthrow the company's board.

Yahoo's board is scheduled to discuss the proposed divestiture of the company's Asian holdings in a Thursday meeting, according to the Times. The newspaper said the directors intend to decide whether to intensify negotiations that could last for a few more weeks.

If Yahoo decides to hold on to its Asian investments, Alibaba and Softbank could try to buy Yahoo in its entirety. That's something Alibaba CEO Jack Ma already has publicly said he would consider doing. There also have been reports the Asian companies have been working with buyout firms Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group to line up the financing to swallow Yahoo whole for about $25 billion, or $20 per share.

Should Yahoo decide to sell its Alibaba and Japan stakes, the shareholder reaction will probably hinge on the company's plans for the money raised in the deal. Analysts have said a special one-time dividend is one possibility.

Yahoo would also face another formidable challenge: finding a new CEO to run a company shorn of its most valuable assets as it battles steadily growing rivals in Google and Facebook. Tim Morse, Yahoo's chief financial officer, has been running the company on an interim basis since Bartz's ouster.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_yahoo_asian_holdings

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Grimm design? A fairy palace made of baby teeth

Catherine de Lange, contributor

(Image: Catherine de Lange/Bluecoat)

"Some people think it?s creepy at first," says artist Gina Czarnecki, standing next to a large translucent sculpture - a cross between a fairy castle and a cave full of stalactites - which is studded at intervals with little human teeth. This is one of her latest works, WASTED: Palaces, on display in a new exhibition of Czarnecki?s work at Liverpool?s Bluecoat exhibition space, which commissioned the piece.

Despite their initial revulsion, the attention of the mainstream media has convinced members of the public to get on board with the project, Czarnecki says. Back in April, CultureLab learned of her plans to ask children and parents to donate milk teeth to her, rather than the tooth fairy. Over the last few months she has collected hundreds and as more and more people donate, the palace will turn from shiny glass-like resin into a coral of tooth enamel.

Czarnecki is interested in what happens to our tissue once it leaves our bodies - who does it belong to, what information does it betray about us, and what scope does it have medically? She?s also interested in the use of such body parts in art, and the stark contrast between the ethical regulations concerning the use of tissue for scientific research and its use in artwork. Alongside the toothy palace, WASTED also includes an arm chair with a cushion made of human fat extracted during liposuction, and a mobile made of plaster casts of diseased bone.

Czarnecki was surprised to discover that she and Imperial College stem cell scientist Sarah Rankin, with whom she collaborated on the project, were not required to seek approval from an ethics committee or the Human Tissue Authority to display the works, because the tissue was obtained from living people and there was no research element involved. All they needed was permission from those sending in their teeth.

Compared with something like umbilical cord donation for medical purposes, which is surrounded by beaurocratic red tape despite the massive life-saving potential, collecting and displaying tissue for an exhibition was child?s play, says Czarnecki. She hopes that her work will get people thinking about the ethical dilemmas surrounding tissue donation, especially that which is rich in stem cells such as teeth, because she says the future of the National Health Service depends on such public awareness.

Czarnecki is also interested in the contradictions within peoples attitudes to human and animal tissues. Some are prepared to eat junk food made with revolting pieces of animal meat, and are prepared to inject fat into their lips for aesthetic reasons, but are revulsed by the suggestion of sitting on a cushion made of human fat.

One of the most successful works in the exhibition is an interactive video titled Contagion. Visitors enter a dark room to come face with a circular target at the centre of a massive screen.? As they move around the room, smoke-like projections appear on the screen, tracking visitors? movements and spreading out towards other people. At the same time, an audio track and subtle background images convey modern war scenes.

The work builds a connection between the spread of infections and the spread of information. In particular, during an outbreak such as bird flu, how does the role of the media affect the way we behave, and the spread of information? During wartime (the sounds and images in this room are of US soldiers tracking and killing three Iraqis), how does mediation of the facts spread and mutate the truth?

"It?s about what we have been told is true. Where does the manipulation of media begin and end?" says Czarnecki. "The fear of pandemic is far more lethal than the pandemic itself," she adds, quoting Stephen Corbett, professor of public heath at the University of Sydney, Australia, who spoke at a related event last Sunday.

Czarnecki?s works are thought-provoking, if a little unnerving. I had expected Palaces to be a striking constuction seemingly built out of children?s teeth, so I was surprised to find that the palace?s enchanting frame, with just 600 teeth in place, is currently pretty bare, with patches of teeth growing out like unwanted calluses.? But, if Palaces wasn?t quite the star of the show I thought it would be, it still has time to get there.

The sculpture still has years of growth ahead of it as it tours the country, and as the donations accumulate Czarnecki plans to position the teeth in the natural crevices of the sculpture, preserving its organic form and giving it the feeling of a natural growth. It?s easy to imagine that as it grows in this manner, the fairy-tale sculpture will transform from a creepy scene to something altogether more magical.

The exhibition is free, and runs at the Bluecoat until 19th Feb 2012. Palaces will tour to the Science Museum, Imperial College and the Centre of the Cell, London in 2012, and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry in 2013. And, if you can bear to bypass the tooth fairy, you can donate your own baby teeth to the project.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1af27056/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cculturelab0C20A110C120Cgrimm0Edesign0Ea0Efairy0Epalace0Emade0Eof0Ebabies0Eteeth0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Expert: Pakistan Taliban are 'weak and divided'

ISLAMABAD?? Battered by Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone strikes, the once-formidable Pakistani Taliban has splintered into more than 100 smaller factions, weakened and is running short of cash, according to security officials, analysts and tribesmen from the insurgent heartland.

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The group, allied with al-Qaida and based in the northwest close to the Afghan border, has been behind much of the violence tearing apart Pakistan over the last 4 1/2 years.

Known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP, the Taliban want to oust the U.S.-backed government and install a hard-line Islamist regime. They also have international ambitions and trained the Pakistani-American who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York City's Times Square in 2010.

"Today, the command structure of the TTP is splintered, weak and divided and they are running out of money," said Mansur Mahsud, a senior researcher at the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Area) Research Center. "In the bigger picture, this helps the army and the government because the Taliban are now divided."

The first signs of cracks within the Pakistani Taliban appeared after its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a drone strike in August 2009, Mahsud said. Since then, the group has steadily deteriorated.

Local peace talks
Set up in 2007, the Pakistani Taliban is an umbrella organization created to represent roughly 40 insurgent groups in the tribal belt plus al-Qaida-linked groups headquartered in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

"In the different areas, leaders are making their own peace talks with the government," Mahsud added. "It could help the Pakistani government and military separate more leaders from the TTP and more foot soldiers from their commanders."

Story: 'Enough is enough': Grieving Pakistan questions its role in US war on terror

The two biggest factors hammering away at the Taliban's unity are U.S. drone strikes and Pakistani army operations in the tribal region.

Turf wars have flared as militants fleeing the Pakistani military operations have moved into territory controlled by other militants, sometimes sparking clashes between groups. And as leaders have been killed either by drones or the Pakistani army, lieutenants have fought among themselves over who will replace them.

"The disintegration ... has accelerated with the Pakistan military operation in South Waziristan and the drone attacks by the United States in North Waziristan," Mahsud said, referring to the two tribal agencies that are the heartland of the Pakistani Taliban.

Video: US-Pakistan relations strained following airstrike (on this page)

Another factor is the divide-and-conquer strategy Pakistan's military has long employed in its dealings with militants.

Commanders have broken away from the TTP and set up their own factions, weakening the organization. Battles have broken out among the breakaway factions, and in one particularly remote tribal region the TTP was thrown out.

These growing signs of fissures among the disparate groups that make up the Pakistani Taliban indicate the military's strategy could be paying off.

Suicide attacks declining
That would explain the mixed signals this month coming out of the tribal belt, where some militants are mulling the idea of peace talks with the government, others are offering to stop fighting and still others are disavowing both peace and a cease-fire.

It might also explain a steady decline in suicide attacks in Pakistan, according to the privately run Pak Institute for Peace Studies.

The U.S. is eager to see some benefits in neighboring Afghanistan, where its troops have come under attack from militants based across the border in Pakistan. NATO forces in Afghanistan are trying to break the back of the Afghan insurgency before the end of the U.S.-led coalition's combat mission in 2014.

Pakistan releases 1st pics of attacked border posts

There is no evidence so far that fissures within the militant structure in Pakistan are helping NATO and U.S. forces.

The deadly Haqqani network, which has bases both in Pakistan and Afghanistan and is affiliated with al-Qaida, is one of the most lethal threats to coalition troops. It has long found safe haven in Pakistan's tribal belt and has used the Pakistani Taliban as a source of recruits. Senior U.S. officials say the Haqqanis also receive support from Pakistan's army and intelligence agency, a charge Islamabad denies.

Analysts predict that over time, however, the internecine feuding in the Pakistani Taliban will take a toll on militants fighting in Afghanistan, making it increasingly difficult for them to find recruits and restricting territory available to them.

Pakistan's military has rebuffed appeals from Washington to take on all of the insurgent groups in the tribal region, saying it has neither the men nor the weapons to do so. Instead, Islamabad has pushed its divide-and-conquer approach, which is gaining some traction in the United States, according to two Western officials in the region.

The officials say the success of this approach will be measured in Washington by its ability to curb Haqqani network attacks in Afghanistan. The officials requested to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly.

U.S.-Pakistan relations difficult
Cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan suffered a serious setback a week ago when NATO aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border posts. The Nov. 26 incident seems certain to blunt any prospect of Pakistan taking direct steps to curb the Haqqani network, analysts say.

In the wake of the attack, intelligence sharing has stopped, military-to-military contact has been suspended, routes supplying non-lethal goods to NATO in Afghanistan have been shut, and Pakistan has withdrawn its offer to bring Taliban and representatives of the Haqqani network to the negotiating table.

Pakistan also announced it will boycott next month's conference in Bonn, Germany, to find ways to stabilize Afghanistan.

There is no independent figure on how many Taliban fighters operate in the tribal regions, but it is estimated to be in the thousands. There are upward of 130 groups in the area, Mahsud said, some of them small, violent offshoots of larger groups.

They have varying loyalties to a handful of key commanders like Hakimullah Mehsud, the current leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

Popular support dwindled for Mehsud after his group was driven out of South Waziristan by the military and relocated to North Waziristan, according to tribesmen in the area. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from militants.

The Pakistani army has brokered agreements with some Taliban factions, according to a senior Pakistani security official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic. But there are no peace talks under way with Mehsud, who has declared war on the state of Pakistan, the official said.

A brash and heavy-handed insurgent, Mehsud has killed former allies, defied orders from the Haqqani network's chief and developed close links with criminal gangs who kidnap, extort and exploit the local population.

He also has made enemies of former lieutenants in other parts of the tribal region, like neighboring Kurram Agency, where a deputy, Fazl Saeed Haqqani, split with Mehsud three months ago and formed his own Islami-Tehrik-e-Taliban group.

In yet another tribal region of Orakzai, where Mehsud once held sway, members of feuding groups are now killing one another.

The Associated Press.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45540777/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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