Wrestling officials hope a change in attire will help Olympic cause

LONDON (AP) — Kicked out of the Olympics and desperately trying to get back in, wrestling hopes a wardrobe change will wow those set to rule on the sport's fate.

The acting head of wrestling's governing body said Friday the federation is negotiating with manufacturers to produce a new singlet — the skimpy sleeveless T-shirt worn by competitors — that will reduce sweat and look different for Greco-Roman and freestyle events.

It's a sign of how far the sport is ready to go to regain its spot in the Olympics after being cut from the 2020 Games last month by the IOC executive board.

"I want to change the singlets to modernize them," acting FILA president Nenad Lalovic told The Associated Press. "Sweat is really a problem for the wrestlers. By the end of the match they cannot make grabs, especially for the Greco-Roman.

"Also that will help to distinguish immediately the Greco-Roman wrestler from the freestyle wrestler."

Currently, Olympic wrestlers in both disciplines wear either red or blue one-piece singlets.

Lalovic said FILA is also working on proposals to include women and active athletes on its decision-making body and make changes to competition formats and venues.

"We want to find something that will make our sport much more watchable and understandable," Lalovic said. "We want spectators who come to the wrestling hall for the first time to know the rules by the end of the day."

The changes, which would take effect in 2014, will be voted on at an extraordinary FILA congress in Moscow on May 18 — just 10 days before the IOC executive board meets in St. Petersburg, Russia, to discuss the program for the 2020 Games.

"We have to make changes to modernize our sport," the Serbian official said in a telephone interview after chairing a FILA meeting in Vevey, Switzerland. "We have to show that something has changed and that we can implement it."

As part of the campaign, FILA is planning a "World Wrestling Day" on May 24 with national bodies organizing wrestling exhibitions and other events to promote the sport.

FILA had originally planned to hold the congress in Turkey, but that was considered a possible conflict of interest because Istanbul is bidding for the 2020 Olympics.

"We have to be impartial," said Lalovic, who plans to run for the FILA presidency at the Moscow meeting.

Russia, a traditional wrestling powerhouse and homeland of the great Alexander Karelin, has been among the most active countries fighting for the sport's Olympic future. Lalovic said the Russian government will help organize and finance the congress.

Lalovic took over FILA on an interim basis after Raphael Martinetti resigned as president within days of the IOC decision to remove wrestling after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

He said he spoke to Martinetti this week and the Swiss official told him he would not be a candidate at the May meeting. Lalovic said he doesn't know if he will face any challengers or be unopposed to finish the presidential mandate until 2014.

At the IOC meeting in St. Petersburg, May 29-31, the board will hear presentations from wrestling and seven other sports competing for one spot on the 2020 program. Those sports include a combined baseball-softball bid, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding, and the martial arts of karate and wushu.

The board could select a short list of three sports to submit to the full IOC assembly, which will make the final decision at its session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September.

Lalovic met with federation leaders a day after talks with IOC President Jacques Rogge, who told him the sport will need to earn its place on the program.

"The other competitors started two years ago," Lalovic said. "We have to run fast and act fast. They have had much more time to prepare. But I think we have stronger arguments and I believe we will be ready to make our case."

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Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap

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Exclusive: Afghan officials met key Taliban figure in Pakistan

KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghan officials have held secret talks with the Taliban's former second in command who is in detention in Pakistan in a move which could help rekindle stalled peace talks with the insurgents, according to senior officials from both countries.

Afghan officials have often seen Pakistan as a reluctant partner in attempts to broker talks with the Taliban but its decision to grant access to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may signal Islamabad's willingness to play a more active role.

Rangin Spanta, the national security adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an architect of peace-building efforts, said an Afghan delegation had met Baradar in Pakistan two months ago.

Baradar has been in detention since he was captured in a joint operation by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agents in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.

"We have met Mullah Baradar," Spanta told Reuters in Kabul. "Our delegation has spoken to him to know his view on peace talks."

Afghan officials have publicly been demanding access to Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander until he was captured, but Spanta's revelation shows preliminary contact has already been made.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, also said that Pakistan had granted Afghan officials access to Baradar.

"They had access at the required and appropriate level," Malik told Reuters.

"We are fully cooperating with Afghanistan and whatever they are asking for the peace process, for developing peace in Afghanistan. We are giving every kind of help."

Pakistan is seen as crucial to stability in Afghanistan as most foreign combat troops look to leave the country in 2014, given close political and economic ties and because militant sanctuaries straddle the mountainous border.

Baradar was the main day-to-day commander responsible for leading the Taliban campaign against U.S. and NATO troops, plotting suicide bombings and other attacks.

He was the right-hand man to reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who gave him the nickname Baradar (brother), providing him with great influence and prestige in Taliban circles.

CRITICAL TO RECONCILIATION?

Afghan officials hope Baradar could play a key role in any negotiations to end the war, acting as a go-between with Taliban leaders including Omar.

Afghan and U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged little success in efforts to re-start peace talks, which the Taliban suspended after accusing U.S. officials of failing to honor confidence-building promises.

That setback refocused attention on nascent efforts by the Afghan government to open its own channels with insurgent intermediaries, despite the fact the Taliban publicly say they will not talk to what they deem an illegitimate "puppet" government.

Karzai, at a recent donors' meeting in Japan, also appealed to Germany to act as a go-between to revive talks, in a second track to contacts with Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

A Western official said Pakistan's decision to grant access to Baradar would bolster hopes of greater collaboration between the two countries, but the Afghan government would only be fully satisfied if Baradar was repatriated to Kabul.

"It's a step in the right direction, but there's still a number of steps to go," the official said.

Although Afghan officials may be pinning hopes on Baradar, it is unclear what influence he may have over a complex insurgency after spending years in detention.

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed last month to resume regular talks on Afghanistan's peace process, with the new Pakistani prime minister promising to help arrange meetings between Afghan and Taliban representatives.

Afghanistan is known to want access to Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or council, named after the Pakistani city where they are believed to be based.

Kabul believes they would be the decision-makers in any substantive negotiations aimed at ending a war in its eleventh year.

Pakistan has consistently denied giving sanctuary to insurgents and says no Taliban leaders are in Quetta.

The Afghan government has established some contacts with the Taliban, who have made a strong comeback after being toppled in 2001, but there are no signs that full-fledged peace talks will happen any time soon.

U.S. diplomats have also been seeking to broaden exploratory talks that began clandestinely in Germany in late 2010 after the Taliban offered to open a representative office in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, prompting demands for inclusion from Kabul.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Green in Islamabad and Rob Taylor in KABUL; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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2 Somalia sport officials among 10 killed in blast

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An explosion Wednesday at a ceremony at Somalia's national theater killed at least 10 people including two top sports officials in an attack by an Islamist group on a site that symbolized the city's attempt to rise from two decades of war.

The explosion at the newly reopened theater happened as Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali was standing at the podium to deliver a speech. The prime minister was unharmed, said Abdirahman Omar Osman, the government spokesman. The president of Somalia's Olympic committee and the president of its soccer federation were killed, according to Shafici Mohyadin, the federation's secretary.

The blast shattered a tentative peace that descended on Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after fighters belonging to the Islamist group al-Shabab were pushed out last August by government and African Union troops.

The government said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack, but al-Shabab, using its official Twitter feed to claim responsbility for the attack, said explosives had been planted in the theater before the event.

Sports leagues have blossomed and seaside restaurants have been setting up shop, marking a long-awaited a revival of the seaside capital.

Wednesday's ceremony — two weeks after the theater reopened — was held to mark the first anniversary of the start of a national TV station. The blast cut chairs in half, filled the room with smoke and splattered blood across the walls.

"It was a cowardly act and that will not deter the government from performing its national duties," Osman said. "The prime minister will energize the government to eliminate the terrorists out of the country."

Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said at least 10 people were killed and dozens wounded. He said the wounded included the country's national planning minister.

"The blast happened as musicians were singing and spectators were clapping for them," said Salah Jimale, who was in attendance at the theater but received only light scratches. "Huge smoke made the whole scene go dark. People screamed and soldiers suddenly started opening fire at the gate. Some wounded people escaped and ran away."

Shoes and blood-splattered mobile phones lay on the floor. A man wounded in the head and chest tried to sit up but suddenly collapsed and died as a reporter looked on.

The International Olympic Committee issued a statement saying it was "shocked to hear of the terrorist attack that took the lives of the President of the Somali Olympic Committee Aden Yabarow Wiish and Somali Football Federation chief Said Mohamed Nur today in Mogadishu."

"Both men were engaged in improving the lives of Somalian people through sport and we strongly condemn such an act of barbarism. Our thoughts are with the Somalian sporting community who lost two great leaders and with the families of the victims," the IOC said.

The months of relative peace allowed sports leagues, restaurants and even a little night life to flourish. Despite those advances, al-Shabab has continued to carry out suicide and roadside bomb attacks, sometimes with devastating effect. Last October militants detonated a truck loaded with fuel drums at a government ministry gate, killing more than 100 people.

The revival of sports in Mogadishu is an important part of the city's recent transformation. Women — who lived under harsh rules when al-Shabab held sway — can watch sports and even play. Al-Shabab defectors have put down their guns and are participating in sports leagues.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said he knew both sports leaders who died Wednesday personally and they would be "sorely missed."

African Football Confederation president Issa Hayatou sent condolences to the families of those killed "in this terrible blast."

"It is another black day for African football. It's a tragedy as Somali football lost a great leader ... who was actively committed to football development despite very challenging conditions."

After Wednesday's blast, nervous soldiers outside the theater fired into the air to disperse shocked crowds gathered around the theater.

An old woman in tears ran toward a policeman after Wednesday's blast, saying: "My son was in there."

The policeman stopped her. She sat down and cried, but later ran into the theater, where she learned her son had died.

At the hospital, ambulance brought in the wounded, including a parliamentarian. Nurses led stumbling patients into surgical rooms.

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NYC officials: 1 dead, 4 hurt in crane accident

NEW YORK (AP) — A crane that came off its base and crashed to the ground at a Manhattan construction site killed one worker and injured four others.

The worker who died was identified by police as 30-year-old Michael Simmermeyer of Burlington, N.J.

Officials say he was pronounced dead after the accident at the site of the No. 7 subway line extension. One other person was hospitalized in serious condition. Three other people were treated for minor injuries.

Jack Sullivan, deputy chief for the FDNY EMS, said it was possible one of the workers had been struck by the crane's boom. The crane operator and someone who worked with him were among those who were injured.

The cause of the collapse is under investigation.

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Delaware officials wrestle over mortgage deal (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Delaware stands to leave up to $40 million in homeowner relief on the table, if it does not join a multi-state mortgage settlement, according to a letter from the state's banking commissioner seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

In a sign of internal strife as holdout states decide whether to join the settlement, Delaware banking commissioner has come out in support of the deal, while the state's attorney general remains on the sidelines, for now.

Delaware homeowners would receive some $32 million in relief, and the state would receive $8 million to provide housing counseling and foreclosure prevention services, according to the letter.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who is the son of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, has said he has been opposed to the settlement as it is drafted, and wants to make sure he can preserve his lawsuit against MERS, the banks' mortgage electronic registry, which he filed last year.

MERS is not a party to the settlement, but the proposed deal is expected in part to resolve claims against the banks for their use of MERS.

In a statement provided to Reuters on Tuesday, Biden's office said he "continues to consider the terms of the settlement and advocate for improvements that address his concerns."

But the state's banking commissioner, Robert Glen, in a letter dated Monday, said he would support the nationwide deal because it provides "immediate, substantial relief to struggling homeowners nationwide and in Delaware."

It is unclear if Delaware would still get some relief even if Biden does not sign on. Glen said in his letter that not all of the benefits would be available to Delaware in the absence of the attorney general's agreement.

State attorneys general faced a Monday deadline to report whether they planned to support the settlement. State banking commissioners, too, had to report their position to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors by February 6.

Late on Monday Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the settlement negotiations on behalf of the states, said more than 40 states agreed to join the deal, though the rest, including Delaware, remain holdouts.

States - including Delaware, California and New York - and several activist groups have criticized the terms of the proposed deal as too lenient toward the banks.

Under a settlement that state and federal officials have spent more than one year negotiating with top U.S. banks, the banks would resolve civil government claims about improper foreclosures and abuses in originating and servicing mortgage loans.

In exchange, the banks - Bank of America (BAC.N), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Citigroup (C.N) and Ally Financial Inc - would pay up to $25 billion, much in the form of cutting mortgage debt for distressed homeowners.

The banks would provide $17 billion in loan modifications for delinquent borrowers; $3 billion in refinancing for homeowners who are current on their payments but unable to refinance because they owe more than their homes are worth; and around $1.5 billion in direct payments of up to $2,000 each to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure, according to Glen's letter.

Participating states will also receive a total of $2.5 billion for housing programs.

In his letter Glen said: "I recognize and respect that our Attorney General has expressed his concern with the agreement. However, I am not aware of an alternative plan that will render better or more immediate results for Delaware."

Glen and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting By Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C. and Rick Rothacker in Charlotte N.C.; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Insight: Top Justice officials connected to mortgage banks (Reuters)

By Scot J. Paltrow Scot J. Paltrow – Fri Jan 20, 9:31 am ET

(Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.

The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.

Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.

Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.

The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.

In recent weeks the Justice Department has come under renewed pressure from members of Congress, state and local officials and homeowners' lawyers to open a wide-ranging criminal investigation of mortgage servicers, the biggest of which have been Covington clients. So far Justice officials haven't responded publicly to any of the requests.

While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm's clients included the four largest U.S. banks - Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co - as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers.

DEFENDER OF FREDDIE

Servicers perform routine mortgage maintenance tasks, including filing foreclosures, on behalf of mortgage owners, usually groups of investors who bought mortgage-backed securities.

Covington represented Freddie Mac, one of the nation's biggest issuers of mortgage backed securities, in enforcement investigations by federal financial regulators.

A particular concern by those pressing for an investigation is Covington's involvement with Virginia-based MERS Corp, which runs a vast computerized registry of mortgages. Little known before the mortgage crisis hit, MERS, which stands for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, has been at the center of complaints about false or erroneous mortgage documents.

Court records show that Covington, in the late 1990s, provided legal opinion letters needed to create MERS on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and several other large banks. It was meant to speed up registration and transfers of mortgages. By 2010, MERS claimed to own about half of all mortgages in the U.S. -- roughly 60 million loans.

But evidence in numerous state and federal court cases around the country has shown that MERS authorized thousands of bank employees to sign their names as MERS officials. The banks allegedly drew up fake mortgage assignments, making it appear falsely that they had standing to file foreclosures, and then had their own employees sign the documents as MERS "vice presidents" or "assistant secretaries."

Covington in 2004 also wrote a crucial opinion letter commissioned by MERS, providing legal justification for its electronic registry. MERS spokeswoman Karmela Lejarde declined to comment on Covington legal work done for MERS.

It isn't known to what extent if any Covington has continued to represent the banks and other mortgage firms since Holder and Breuer left. Covington declined to respond to questions from Reuters. A Covington spokeswoman said the firm had no comment.

Several lawyers for homeowners have said that even if Holder and Breuer haven't violated any ethics rules, their ties to Covington create an impression of bias toward the firms' clients, especially in the absence of any prosecutions by the Justice Department.

O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer who trains other attorneys to represent homeowners in bankruptcy court foreclosure actions, said he attributes the Justice Department's reluctance to prosecute the banks or their executives to the Obama White House's view that it might harm the economy.

But he said that the background of Holder and Breuer at Covington -- and their failure to act on foreclosure fraud or publicly recuse themselves -- "doesn't pass the smell test."

Federal ethics regulations generally require new government officials to recuse themselves for one year from involvement in matters involving clients they personally had represented at their former law firms.

President Obama imposed additional restrictions on appointees that essentially extended the ban to two years. For Holder, that ban would have expired in February 2011, and in April for Breuer. Rules also require officials to avoid creating the appearance of a conflict.

Schmaler, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that "The Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General Breuer have conformed with all financial, legal and ethical obligations under law as well as additional ethical standards set by the Obama Administration."

She said they "routinely consult" the department's ethics officials for guidance. Without offering specifics, Schmaler said they "have recused themselves from matters as required by the law."

Senior government officials often move to big Washington law firms, and lawyers from those firms often move into government posts. But records show that in recent years the traffic between the Justice Department and Covington & Burling has been particularly heavy. In 2010, Holder's deputy chief of staff, John Garland, returned to Covington, as did Steven Fagell, who was Breuer's deputy chief of staff in the criminal division.

The firm has on its web site a page listing its attorneys who are former federal government officials. Covington lists 22 from the Justice Department, and 12 from U.S. Attorneys offices, the Justice Department's local federal prosecutors' offices around the country.

As Reuters reported in 2011, public records show large numbers of mortgage promissory notes with apparently forged endorsements that were submitted as evidence to courts.

There also is evidence of almost routine manufacturing of false mortgage assignments, documents that transfer ownership of mortgages between banks or to groups of investors. In foreclosure actions in courts mortgage assignments are required to show that a bank has the legal right to foreclose.

In an interview in late 2011, Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written about foreclosure practices said, "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history."

Holder has resisted calls for a criminal investigation since October 2010, when evidence of widespread "robo-signing" first surfaced. That involved mortgage servicer employees falsely signing and swearing to massive numbers of affidavits and other foreclosure documents that they had never read or checked for accuracy.

Recent calls for a wide-ranging criminal investigation of the mortgage servicing industry have come from members of Congress, including Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., state officials, and county clerks. In recent months clerks from around the country have examined mortgage and foreclosure records filed with them and reported finding high percentages of apparently fraudulent documents.

On Wednesday, John O'Brien Jr., register of deeds in Salem, Mass., announced that he had sent 31,897 allegedly fraudulent foreclosure-related documents to Holder. O'Brien said he asked for a criminal investigation of servicers and their law firms that had filed the documents because they "show a pattern of fraud," forgery and false notarizations.

(Reporting By Scot J. Paltrow, editing by Blake Morrison)

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Officials, banks to tackle mortgage refinancing plan: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Officials and big banks are working on a plan that would make refinancing available to some borrowers whose houses are worth less than their loans, so long as they are current on mortgage payments, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Such borrowers typically are not able to refinance because they lack equity in their homes. The plan would apply only to mortgages owned by the banks, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Federal officials have been trying to broker a settlement with the five largest mortgage servicers - Ally Financial Inc, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co -- the Journal said.

It is not clear how many borrowers would qualify for help, the paper added.

Officials are pushing for a plan in a bid to break a legal impasse with big banks over alleged foreclosure abuses and ease problems in the housing market, the paper said.

Discussions are still fluid and any final outcome is uncertain. Talks between government officials and the banks are expected to continue this week, the newspaper said.

JPMorgan declined to comment to Reuters on the Journal report. Reuters could not immediately reach the other four lenders for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)

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