Taliban bomb kills nine including minister at Pakistan rally

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban Islamic militants bombed a political rally in Pakistan's northern city of Peshawar on Saturday, killing nine people including a provincial minister, officials said, the latest in a string of high-profile attacks.
The provincial minister for local government, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, died of his wounds at Lady Reading Hospital, the hospital's chief executive Arshad Javed said. Police official Ibrahim Khan said one policeman had been killed and several were among the 30 people injured.
Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attack and said the insurgency would continue to target the Awami National Party, the largest political party in the northerly Khyber Pakhtunkwa province.
The bombing follows last week's attack on Peshawar airport, when nine people including five attackers died in a car bomb, rocket and gun attack.
This week, nine polio vaccinators were shot dead in the southern city of Karachi and in and around Peshawar.
The Taliban says it was not responsible for those killings, although Taliban commanders have repeatedly condemned the polio vaccination drive as a plot to spy on or sterilise Muslims.
Army officials told Reuters recently that Hakimullah Mehsud, the official leader of the Pakistani Taliban, had lost the trust of his fighters and surrendered operational control to his deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman - a claim denied by the Taliban.
It is not clear if the uptick in violence is connected to turmoil within the leadership.

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Abducted German aid worker seen alive in video

BERLIN (AP) — A German aid worker abducted in Pakistan 11 months ago was seen alive in a video broadcast Saturday urging authorities to fully meet his captors' demands, warning that otherwise they could kill him within days.
The undated video — probably recorded under duress by his captors — was broadcast Saturday by Pakistan's Dunya TV. The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it "knows the case" and is aware of the video. A duty spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Aid organization German Agro Action declined to confirm whether the video indeed showed one of its two staffers abducted in the central Pakistan city of Multan in January. Spokeswoman Simone Pott only acknowledged "we know the video."
The aid worker, identifying himself in the video as 59-year-old Bernd Muehlenbeck, said he was captured by mujahedeen — a generic term for militant Islamic extremists — but didn't specify who they were or what their demands were.
In the message — whose content is likely to have been dictated by the captors — he said he was kidnapped "by mujahedeen because of the bad policies of the German government."
In January, gunmen seized the two foreign aid workers, Muehlenbeck and an Italian colleague, from just outside their office in Multan and bundled them into a car, according to Pakistan security officials. The men were working for a development project helping victims of the 2010 floods, the officials said.
Muehlenbeck did not name or explicitly mention his Italian colleague, but repeatedly used the plural when speaking about his situation.
He appealed to authorities not to attempt freeing them by force. "I would like to live and I would like to see back my family alive," he said, speaking in English with a slight German accent.
In the video lasting just less than a minute, Muehlenbeck is heard speaking calmly in front of a white wall, wearing glasses and a dark hoody.
He said he could be killed by his captors at any time. "We don't know when. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in three days."
Pakistan, a poor predominantly Muslim nation of about 180 million, is struggling to fend off an insurgency fueled by Islamic extremists, many of whom are believed to hide in the lawless provinces bordering Afghanistan.
Kidnappings for ransom are common in Pakistan. Islamist militants have also abducted people. Several aid workers have been targeted over the past years.
This week saw a gruesome series of deadly attacks on Pakistanis working on a polio vaccination campaign. Six of the aid workers gunned down were women, three of whom were teenagers. Two other workers were critically wounded.

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Will he or won't he? Italy awaits Monti's decision

ROME (AP) — Italy's president dissolved parliament Saturday, setting the stage for general elections in February and leaving only one lingering question from Premier Mario Monti's 13-month term trying to fix Italy's troubled finances: whether he will run.
Monti will announce his decision Sunday, ending weeks of speculation and jockeying that have dominated Italy's political discourse and preoccupied much of Europe, which is eager to see Monti's financial reforms continue in the continent's third-largest economy.
With polls showing a Monti-led list would only garner about 15 percent of the vote, all signs indicated he would refrain from campaigning or even allowing his name to be used on a political ticket grouping a handful of small centrist parties.
"Monti leaning towards a 'no'," the Turin daily La Stampa headlined Sunday. "Monti pulls back on running," Corriere della Sera said on its front page.
Whether he might endorse a centrist movement is another matter.
"It's clear that Monti's candidacy would give authority to our political platform, but we'll respect his choices, whatever they may be," said Pier Ferdinando Casini, one of the centrist leaders who have been actively courting Monti in recent weeks.
Monti resigned Friday after ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's party withdrew its support from his technical government, forcing a crisis that brought a premature and chaotic end to the legislature's five-year term.
Monti was tapped by Italy's president to lead the country in late November 2011 after Berlusconi was forced to resign, having lost the confidence of international markets in his ability to save the country from a Greek-style debt crisis.
The respected economist and former European Union commissioner won back a degree of international credibility for the country through a series of tax hikes and fiscal reforms that were deeply unpopular at home. Italy's borrowing rates have come down significantly, thanks also to the European Central Bank's bond-buying program.
Monti's resignation set in motion a series of procedures that culminated with President Giorgio Napolitano signing a decree Saturday to dissolve parliament.
Polls indicate the center-left Democratic Party will win the vote, with the upstart populist movement of comic Bepe Grillo coming in second and Berlusconi's People of Freedom party coming in third.
Berlusconi's party has been in disarray ever since he resigned, with defections of top party leaders and chaos over whether the billionaire media mogul will run himself. He has flip-flopped several times about his intentions, with his latest that he would run but would step aside if Monti runs.
Berlusconi's party has also been discredited by a series of party funding scandals that have seen dozens of local politicians placed under investigation for allegedly misusing public funds for personal use. He also was convicted of tax fraud in October and is on trial on charges he paid for sex with an underage woman. He has denied the charges and is appealing the conviction. He also recently announced he was dating a woman nearly 50 years his junior.

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Reports: Rolling Stones guitarist Wood ties knot

LONDON (AP) — Two British newspapers say Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has married his fiancee Sally Humphreys at a ceremony at London's Dorchester Hotel.
The Sun and the Daily Mirror carried photographs of the 65-year-old rocker with a pale boutonniere and a dark blue suit, and his 34-year-old bride in a traditional white gown and a clutch of matching white flowers.
The Sun quoted Wood as saying "I'm feeling great" as he and his bride kissed and posed for pictures outside the exclusive hotel in London's upscale Mayfair district.
The newspapers said the guests included singer Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster as well as ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell.
A call and an email to Wood's U.S.-based agent weren't immediately returned Saturday.

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Deep emotions run beneath Russia's adoption ban

You usually can judge Vladimir Putin’s dislike of a reporter's question by the intensity of his expression. Such was the case this week at his annual news conference, when he greeted with a hard scowl the subject of pending Russian legislation that would ban Americans from adopting orphaned children. Mr. Putin unleashed invective on the fact that consular representatives aren’t allowed to visit adopted Russian children in the United States.
“I believe that is unacceptable. Do you think this is normal? How can it be normal when you are humiliated? Do you like it? Are you a sadomasochist or something? They shouldn’t humiliate our country,” he told reporters in Moscow.
As is often the case in Russia, there is the issue of what is going on versus what is really going on. And as is often the case in Russia, it’s complicated.
Recommended: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.
There is very little doubt as to the goal of the legislation, which passed its third and final reading in the lower house of parliament Friday and must still be signed by Putin. The bill is named after Dima Yakovlev, the toddler who died of heat stroke in 2007 after his adopted father forgot him in a locked car in Virginia for nine hours. The father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Dima, whose adopted name was Chase. His acquittal in 2008 sparked banner newspaper headlines, incendiary TV news reports, and howls of outrage in Russia.
Lawmakers in the State Duma made it clear that today's legislation is a direct response to the US “Magnitsky Act,” a law designed to sanction a particular group of Russian officials connected to the death of a whistle-blowing lawyer in a Moscow prison.
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In other words, a law designed to punish people tied to a lawyer’s prison death has been answered with a law to prevent people from adopting orphaned children, many of whom have have developmental or other disabilities and will otherwise end up living much of their lives in orphanages that often resemble state mental hospitals of a bygone era.
Adoption is a searingly emotional issue for Russians, and one easily manipulated by the Kremlin. The institution of adoption is relatively uncommon in Russia, for cultural and other reasons. And judging by headlines in the Moscow tabloids, and the rhetoric of some state lawmakers, you’d think that Americans adopt Russian children to eat them.
Bolstering those who are suspicious of adoption is a smattering of abuse cases in Russian orphanages that have seized the public attention. In one notorious case, a nurse in a southern Russian children’s home was accused of taping pacifiers to the mouths of children to keep them from crying. And cases like that of Dima and of Artyem Savelyev, whose adoptive American mother sent the then-7-year-old boy home to Russia with a "to whom it may concern" note of rejection in 2010, give Russians fair reason for pause over foreign adoptions.
But for many Russians, the adoption of children by foreigners is a polite way of saying “foreigners are purchasing our children for export.” Some 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, and Russia trails only China and Ethiopia in popularity for Americans seeking to adopt foreign children, according to the US State Department.
Many also see it as ironic that Russia is being sanctioned for human rights violations by a country whose policies over the past decade have seared “Guantanamo” into the English language lexicon – an irony that Putin, who like many Russians has a nose for hypocrisy, clearly relished in pointing out.
“Not only are those prisoners detained without charge, they walk around shackled, like in the Middle Ages. They’ve legalized torture in their own country. Can you imagine if we had anything like this here? They would have eaten us alive a long time ago,” he said.
But regardless of the moralities involved, the fact of the matter is that there will be clear winners and losers from this ordeal.
The winners will be the middlemen, the orphanage directors, the bureaucrats, and the administrators all of whose signatures or stamps, essential to the adoption process, can yield a lucrative stream under-the-table revenues – revenues from well-meaning, would-be foreign parents with the means to pay thousands of dollars for the right to adopt a Russian orphan.
And the losers will be orphaned children who remain institutionalized. That was the point of US Ambassador Michael McFaul’s statement released Friday after the Duma vote: “The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to others issues in our bilateral relationship.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a man not known for pulling his punches when it comes to US policy, has voiced his doubts, suggesting that more moderate voices might stop the bill's passage. Perhaps Putin, having made his point with his press conference performance and with the performance of the malleable State Duma, will relax his rhetoric and soften the bill to open the door to foreign adoptions again, thus portraying himself as doing the best for the children.

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HeroClix, a Fun App using Comic Book Characters, was Recently Featured on the AppWatch Segment of NewsWatch

NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “HeroClix”, a new app using comic book characters from popular franchises. The segment aired as part of “AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
NewsWatch, a nationwide television show, recently aired a news segment about “HeroClix”, a new app using comic book characters from popular franchises. The segment aired as part of "AppWatch”, a weekly review of the top apps in the marketplace.
To get started, download the HeroClix TabApp application for free in the Apple App Store. Then unlock new comic stories and missions with each super hero figure. Unlock over 15 maps and follow along the unique storyline of each character while battling known villains. Users can challenge themselves to take out enemies at three separate difficulty levels and achieve the ultimate 3 star rating for each.
Figurines are available across multiple franchises, including Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Marvel figurines include comic book characters Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man. Each character has a different storyline that pops up when you place them on the screen. The marvel edition has over 30 villains and 18 different maps that users can play through.
The game has a live action, arcade style of play that is fun for anyone, ages 14+. Unlock special maps and comic scenarios with each figure. Users can take out a swarm of villains with the tap or swipe of a finger as you move on to more challenging levels. Haven’t picked up a figure yet? You can still play HeroClix TabApp by selecting the "Don’t Have A Figure" option from the main menu to play the demo.
HeroClix TabApp is currently available for iOS devices and is compatible with the iPad 2 and newer, as well as the iPad mini. If you don’t have an iPad, HeroClix plans to announce they will be creating an Android compatible version soon. To download the app and begin playing, go to HeroClixTabApp.com or visit your itunes store and search for HeroClix TabApp. The app is currently free on the iTunes Store and figurines can be purchased through the HeroClix website.
NewsWatch is a weekly 30-minute consumer oriented television show that airs on the ION Network Thursday mornings at 5:30am across the nation. NewsWatch regularly features top travel destinations, health tips, technology products, medical breakthroughs and entertainment news on the show. A recent addition to NewsWatch, AppWatch is a weekly segment that provides viewers app reviews and game reviews of the latest and hottest apps and games out on the market for iOS and Android devices. The show airs in 180 markets nationwide as well as all of the top 20 broadcast markets in the country, and is the preferred choice for Satellite Media Tour and Video News Release Distribution.

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Hands-Free Lighting Device Designed by ASF Lightware Solutions Now Offered by Rehabmart.com

It is an LED light that is worn around the neck and offers a wider and brighter light than a typical clip-on book light. The hands-free design is perfect for wheelchair or walker users, and helps to keep hands free for tasks like quilting, knitting, changing diapers and other various forms of work and hobbies.

Elberton, GA (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Rehabmart.com, an online e-commerce company that sells rehabilitation and medical supplies, has joined into a distribution partnership with ASF Lightware Solutions to offer their hands-free Beam N Read® Lights to a wider consumer marketplace. Headquartered in Merrick, New York, ASF Lightware Solutions was founded by inventor Arthur Friedman who has been awarded 18 patents for his inventions and designs, including the Beam N Read® light. Friedman himself needed a better portable light solution and was disappointed with the available market choices, so he created his own. Both Friedman and his company's co-founder and CKO (Chief Knitting Officer), wife Cynthia Freeman, use the Beam N Read® light in their daily lives.
The Beam N Read® Hands Free Lights are specifically designed for personal light wherever the user might need it, that won't disturb others in the same vicinity. It is an LED light that is worn around the neck and offers a wider and brighter light than a typical clip-on book light. The hands-free design is perfect for wheelchair or walker users, and helps to keep hands free for tasks like quilting, knitting, changing diapers and other various forms of work and hobbies. It is very compatible with books, newspapers, magazines, eReaders and as a Kindle reading light. The range of uses for the Beam N Read® is practically limitless and include utilization for reading, needlework, fine detail artwork and hobbies, camping, travel, emergencies and to help senior citizens with age-related disabilities and adults and children with special needs. The extra long battery life provides useful emergency light during a power outage as well.
Accessories to customize the Beam N Read® vary by model and include night vision filters that help to prevent night blindness and reduce the risk of eyestrain. Recommended for anyone who works in the dark, the Beam N Read® Hands-Free Night Vision Light is perfect for campers and hunters, and for healthcare professionals or caregivers who need to administer to a patient in the dark. “We are proud to introduce these amazing Hands-Free Beam N Read® Lights from ASF Lightware Solutions to more consumers,” said Hulet Smith, OTR/L, MBA and CEO of Rehabmart. “This personal light offers unsurpassed quality, functionality and versatility, enhancing sight for all users. Use it for reading, writing, drawing, painting, all forms of needlework and sewing, crafts and hobbies, traveling and camping, night work, emergencies, and just for seeing a whole lot better whenever and wherever you need to! Testimonials abound for this helpful device and we are so pleased to be able to offer this simple, but profound life enhancement to our customers at Rehabmart.com.”
About Rehabmart.com:
As an Occupational Therapist, the founder of Rehabmart, Hulet Smith, has the breadth of knowledge and experience necessary to match the needs of his customers with the very latest innovative products in the field of medical supplies and rehabilitation equipment. As a parent of special needs children, he has a personal interest in finding the best products to improve the lives of those who are disabled and medically challenged. Rehabmart.com is committed to provide superior customer service, competitive pricing and exceptional product offerings.

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Appconomy Announces Launch of its Jinjin Marketplace in China; Completes Series A Round for $16 Million Total

Appconomy, Inc., developer of the Appconomy Commerce Cloud platform and mobile apps, announced today the launch of its JinjinTM mobile marketplace in China.

Shanghai, China (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
The Jinjin marketplace launched in two of China’s most strategic markets, Beijing and Shanghai, the nation’s capital and the country’s largest city, respectively. Appconomy also announced that it had raised an additional $6 million in venture financing to complete its Series A round, for a final total of more than $16 million, to continue the rapid introduction of the Jinjin marketplace app and its mobile solutions across China’s retail industry.
The Jinjin marketplace features dozens of popular Chinese and global retail brands, with hundreds of locations in Beijing and Shanghai. Merchants include popular food & beverage chains Golden Phoenix Bakeries, Burger King, Pepper Lunch, among many others, as well as a variety of high-end health, beauty, and other goods & services merchants. For consumers, the Jinjin marketplace offers a ground-breaking mobile loyalty and rewards program in China. It is available immediately from the Jinjin website (http://www.jinjinapp.com) and popular Chinese Android app stores, e.g., HiAPK, Wandoujia, and Gfan, and will be available within days in iTunes for iOS users.
“We strongly believe that the launch of the Jinjin marketplace represents a unique milestone in the reinvention of the retail and dining experience for Chinese consumers and merchants,” said Brian Magierski, President and CEO of Appconomy. “Following our announcement early last month of the Jinjin Retail Solution at the China Retail Industry Convention, which we’ve begun the process of piloting for large retailers, Appconomy now offers the only comprehensive, mobile solution, serving both big and small box retailers. Through our Jinjin marketplace, commerce platform, and mobile apps, we enable retailers, in both their physical and online stores, with capabilities like smart shopping list management, in-store geo-fencing technology for precise product location, customizable notifications, discounts, rewards, and loyalty programs.”
“With the launch of the Jinjin marketplace, we are excited to accelerate our market penetration with multiple Chinese national and global brands, in multiple markets,” said Steve Papermaster, Chairman of Appconomy’s Board of Directors. “As we prepare for a next major phase of growth and related financing activity, we are pleased with both the strong interest by current investors to complete our Series A by exercising their rights and the new investors that are participating in the Appconomy opportunity to create value by joining in the round.”

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JelliJar – New Online Specialty Food Marketplace in Beta Release

JelliJar is pleased to announce that its online food marketplace is accessible to select food producers and customers. The full site will launch in the first week of January 2013.

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
JelliJar is pleased to announce that its online food marketplace is accessible to select food producers and customers. The full site will launch in the first week of January 2013.
JelliJar is a marketplace where all types of food products can be discovered and purchased. The marketplace allows small producers that make products in small batches or have dedicated production facilities to be discovered by consumers with discerning tastes.
Small Food Producers, Chefs, Restaurants and Specialty Food Retailers can:

1. List their products, story, recipes, photos, videos, and contact details;

2. List retail locations where their products are sold (Shop Local);

3. Enable ecommerce transactions through PayPal;

4. Have customers subscribe to products;

5. Participate in Tasting Box subscriptions; and

6. Social Media Integration with Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter.
To learn more about JelliJar, please visit: http://www.jellijar.com
About JelliJar:
JelliJar is an online marketplace dedicated to providing food lovers with the ability to discover food that caters to their taste preferences. Its focus is on providing users with the ability to make informed choices when shopping for food for in the following categories: Gourmet and Artisan, Specialty Diets and International Cuisines.
Consumers will be provided with many resources to discover hidden treasures from the following types of producers: Small Food Producers, Independent Restaurants, Chefs and Independent Retailers.

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The sale of the NYSE and the death of stocks

T

o the general public, it's quite a "shocker," says David Weidner at MarketWatch. IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), an upstart derivatives exchange, based in Atlanta, is buying NYSE Euronext, the company that owns the iconic, 220-year-old New York Stock Exchange, in a deal worth more than $8 billion. To long-time market professionals, however, this merger merely confirms something they've known for quite some time. They've been witnessing the slow death of stocks — as the lord of the marketplace — for years, as new regulations and decimalization of trades once done using rounder fractions "effectively squeezed the margins — and the potential for graft — out of the system." Initial public offerings offered healthy profits, but even those have dried up recently, leaving the NYSE and other exchanges "searching the globe for a merger partner," hoping they could buy their way to growth. But the lucrative futures and options exchanges that seemed like natural buyers of the stock exchanges turned up their noses, asking, "Why would we need them?"

There was an exception. The newcomer to the derivatives party, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) needed something to vault it into the conversation — even though it not only had profits, but market share and a valuation to rival any exchange in the world.

For all of its lackluster financial cosmetics, the NYSE is still the Big Board. It is the venue where the great corporations of the world are listed. The announced deal will have some opportunities for technology sharing and other efficiencies, but mostly its an $8.2 billion deal for a brand.

As if that weren't already humiliating enough for the Big Board, says Felix Salmon at Reuters, "stock trading is a complete afterthought in this deal" for ICE. "The real reason that ICE wants the company is Liffe, NYSE Euronext's London-based financial derivatives subsidiary." Derivatives exchanges, you see, are few. They compete only with each other, so they make money hand over fist. "There are lots of stock exchanges," so they compete fiercely with each other, "and none of them make much money."

You can almost hear ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher rolling his eyes and wondering why on earth he needs to hang on to what at this point is little more than a heavily-guarded tourist attraction... [But] it's actually a good thing that stock trading has become a low-margin, low-value business: that's what's meant to happen when you have lots of competition. Think of it as one of the few areas of the financial-services sector where capitalism works as advertised. 

This deal, once unthinkable, really does underscore "what a dog the stock trading business has become," say Zachary M. Seward and Matt Phillips at Quartz. There's just no denying it. But if all this gloom is driving down the value of stocks in everybody's eyes, maybe equities markets will soon be so undervalued that they'll bounce back.

If we were contrarians, all of this Death of Equities talk — reminiscent of the 1979 Businessweek cover that nearly nailed the bottom of the markets before surges of the 1980s and 1990s — might get us a little more interested in the markets.

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Senator jokes that Boehner's 'Plan B' shows progress finally being made on women's issues

WASHINGTON - A Democratic senator joked Thursday that with House Speaker John Boehner embracing "Plan B," women's issues are progressing in Congress.
Washington Democrat Patty Murray told reporters that she "got really excited" when she heard Boehner talking about Plan B.
But then, she kidded, she learned it didn't signify progress for women after all.
Boehner had a backup plan for his fight over the "fiscal cliff" with President Barack Obama and dubbed it Plan B. House GOP leaders abruptly cancelled a vote on the measure Thursday night after they failed to round up enough votes for it to pass.
The "fiscal cliff" refers to huge tax increases and spending cuts that take effect in early January unless lawmakers can head them off.
Plan B is also the name of a contraceptive pill that some conservatives oppose because it can be used after unprotected intercourse.

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Malala asks Pakistan not to rename college in her honour to avert militant attacks on students

MINGORA, Pakistan - An official says Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, has urged Pakistan to reverse a decision to rename a college in her honour to avert militant attacks on students.
The 15-year-old who became a symbol of youth resistance to the Taliban made the request after students broke into the school, tore down Malala's pictures and boycotted classes in her home town of Mingora. They say renaming the college endangers their lives.
Senior government official Kamran Rehman said Friday Malala called him from London, where she is being treated for critical wounds from the attack on Oct. 9. The Taliban said it targeted her for promoting education for secular girls.
Malala's case won worldwide recognition for the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan.

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Former Singapore banker arrested in U.S. over Olympus fraud

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Singapore banker was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday and accused of helping "liquidate" hundreds of millions of dollars in an accounting fraud at Olympus Corp , one of the biggest corporate scandals in Japan's history.
Chan Ming Fon, a one-time bank vice president, is the latest former executive and the first from outside of Japan to become ensnared in the $1.7 billion accounting cover-up at the camera and medical equipment maker.
The company has admitted it used improper accounting to conceal massive investment losses under a scheme that began in the 1990s.
Court papers in the United States said Chan was paid $10 million by Olympus or entities controlled by Olympus for his role in the fraud. The case against Chan was filed in a federal court in New York.
"The defendant had a direct role in the secret liquidation of hundreds of millions of dollars of Olympus investments. He then waged a six-year campaign to conceal that misdeed by lying, certifying to auditors that the investments still existed years after liquidation," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos.
Olympus declined to comment.
Chan's arrest comes after three former Olympus executives pleaded guilty in September to charges related to the fraud.
Chan, a Taiwan national, was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations this week, U.S. authorities said. He is being held in custody ahead of a scheduled appearance in a federal court in Los Angeles on Friday.
The former banker at Commerzbank and Societe Generale in Singapore is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
Commerzbank and Societe Generale could not be reached for comment.
Chan, 50, is currently listed as a director of three Singapore companies, GIT Capital, GIT Consulting and SJ New Energy.
OLYMPUS STRUGGLE
The accounting fraud at 93-year-old Olympus was exposed in October 2011 by chief executive Michael Woodford, who was fired after he questioned dubious deals that were later found to have been used to hide losses.
The three former executives who pleaded guilty had been identified by an investigative panel, commissioned by Olympus, as the main suspects in the fraud seeking to delay the reckoning from risky investments made in the late-1980s bubble economy.
Former chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada said they inflated the company's net worth in financial statements for five fiscal years to March 2011. They are awaiting sentencing.
Revelations of the huge accounting fraud have revived calls for more outside scrutiny of its boardrooms but have failed to trigger sweeping corporate governance reforms similar to those introduced a decade ago in the wake of U.S. scandals such as at Enron.
Forced to re-issue several years of financial statements, Olympus has been left financially weakened, and it booked a loss of $581 million in the year to March 31. Its shareholder equity to total assets has dipped as low as 2.2 percent, well below the 20 percent level regarded as a minimum for stability.
The liquidity crunch has prompted it to accept $592.49 million from Sony Corp in return for an 11.46 percent stake and an agreement to set up a joint venture to develop medical equipment. The two companies on Friday said that plans to establish that company had been delayed as they wait regulatory approval overseas.
Olympus shares in Tokyo dipped 1.4 percent on Friday compared with a 0.8 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei 225 index.
TRAIL OF INTRIGUE
Chan's family in Singapore could not be reached for comment on Friday. A neighbor, who described the family as "avid piano players," said they kept to themselves. Nobody answered the door at GIT Capital's office in downtown Singapore.
An investigative panel report, commissioned by Olympus last year, mentioned a banker but used only the name Chan. It said the banker was an outside collaborator who first met Olympus executives Yamada and Mori in 1998.
At the time "Chan" was working at Commerzbank in Singapore, but resigned in 2000, it said. After leaving Societe Generale in 2004, the report said Chan formed his own company where he continued to work for former Olympus executives.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York said Chan was a former bank vice president, without naming the firm.
It said that from 1995-2004 he was employed as an executive at two financial institutions, and his primary responsibilities at one of them was to service accounts maintained by Olympus and entities that Olympus controlled.
The complaint said that in 2005 Chan established an entity in the Cayman Islands called SG Bond Plus Fund.
Until about 2010, Chan submitted false and misleading documents to Olympus's outside auditor regarding hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets purportedly maintained by Chan at SG Bond for the benefit of Olympus, it said.
Chan had actually transferred the assets to a British Virgin Island-based entity controlled by Olympus, the complaint said. ($1 = 84.3900 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting Rachel Armstrong and Saeed Azhar in Singapore; Tim Kelly and Nathan Layne in Tokyo; Editing by Gary Hill and Jeremy Laurence)

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Congresswoman broke ethics rules, House panel says

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A seven-term U.S. congresswoman from Nevada, Shelley Berkley, violated ethics rules by using her office to try to help her husband's medical practice but had no "corrupt intent" in doing so, the U.S. House Ethics Committee said on Thursday.
The committee said no further action was needed against the Democratic member of the House of Representatives. It had launched a probe in July into allegations Berkley may have been improperly involved in a bid to help save a hospital program linked to her husband's business.
Berkley's husband, Larry Lehrner, is a kidney specialist who owns a string of dialysis facilities and had a contract with the transplant unit at University Medical Center in Las Vegas when it was threatened with closure.
Nevada Republicans asserted in their initial complaint to Congress that Berkley would have directly benefited financially from her involvement in the 2008 case due to her husband's links to the hospital's kidney center.
Berkley, who failed in November to unseat Nevada Republican Dean Heller from his U.S. Senate seat in a narrow race, has said her effort to help keep the center open when it was facing federal action that could have resulted in its closure was not motivated by a potential financial interest.
She said she did nothing wrong.
A House Ethics panel agreed that her work to help the transplant center did not constitute a violation, but said that it was a mistake for her office to assist her husband's dialysis business in getting payment reimbursements.
"Representative Berkley had a legitimate concern, raised at the time that these issues were ongoing, that failures on the part of government insurers to reimburse providers in a timely fashion might result in the providers opting not to see patients insured by those programs," the Ethics Committee said in a statement.
It added that Berkley testified credibly that she had not helped her husband to obtain future benefits, and that the level of assistance her office provided him was not unusual compared to that given to other doctors.
But the panel ruled that she was mistaken when she determined her course of action was proper, although her lack of "any corrupt intent" mitigates the severity of the violations.
Heller, who had been a member of the House at the time, also joined in the Nevada delegation's efforts to keep the government from closing the kidney unit.

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EM ASIA FX-US budget impasse dents Asia FX; rupiah hit

One-mth dollar/rupiah NDFs highest since Sept 2009
* Sing dlr, Philippine peso down on U.S. dlr-short covering
* Philippine c.bank deputy governor says peso to stay firm
(Adds text, updates prices)
By Jongwoo Cheon
SEOUL, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Most emerging Asian currencies
slid on Friday as deepening uncertainty over a U.S. budget deal
prompted investors to reduce risky assets after a Republican
attempt to avert the U.S. "fiscal cliff" failed.
The Indonesian rupiah slid, with dollar/rupiah
non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) at their highest in more than
three years.
The Singapore dollar and the Philippine peso
eased as investors covered short positions in the
U.S. dollar.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner abandoned a tax bill
designed to prevent the fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts
and tax increases set to start Jan. 1, denting other risky
assets including Asian stocks and the euro.
"Fiscal cliff worries are likely to keep investors away from
Asian currencies for a few days more, although markets may be
less sensitive to these issues because of the year-end effect,"
said a European bank dealer in Singapore.
Most emerging Asian currencies have seen inflows as monetary
policy easing by major central banks caused investors to seek
higher-yielding units with stronger economic and fiscal
fundamentals.
But regional units' upside is capped as the U.S. economy,
Asia's main exports market, may fall substantially if the
fiscal tussle is not resolved, or at least put off.
RUPIAH
One-month dollar/rupiah NDFs rose 0.5 percent to 9,845,
their highest since September 2009.
A break above 9,800 in the NDFs triggered faresh round of
buying from speculators and hedge-related purchases, dealers
said.
The central bank was noticed selling dollars at 9,670 they
added.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR
The Singapore dollar slid as worries over the fiscal cliff
prompted investors to cover short U.S. dollar positions,
although the city-state's currency took heart from corporate
demand.
PHILIPPINE PESO
The Philippine peso eased as investors squared bullish
positions with the country's financial markets closed until
Tuesday.
But the central bank Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said
the Philippine currency is likely to stay firm next year.
Capital inflows on a possible credit rating upgrade will
give Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas a greater challenge in terms of
keeping the peso stable, he said.
"Without the BSP's participation in the forex market, the
peso could have been firmer. But we really have to allow
fundamentals to determine the peso dollar rate, and that's what
happened in the first nine or 10 months of 2012, even up to the
end of November," he said.
CURRENCIES VS U.S. DOLLAR
Change on the day at 0705 GMT
Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move
Japan yen 83.93 84.37 +0.52
Sing dlr 1.2206 1.2183 -0.19
Taiwan dlr 29.050 29.120 +0.24
Korean won 1074.20 1074.70 +0.05
Baht 30.62 30.62 +0.00
Peso 41.14 41.07 -0.16
Rupiah 9685.00 9645.00 -0.41
Rupee 55.17 54.85 -0.59
Ringgit 3.0610 3.0550 -0.20
Yuan 6.2295 6.2302 +0.01
Change so far in 2012
Currency Latest bid End prev year Pct Move
Japan yen 83.93 76.92 -8.35
Sing dlr 1.2206 1.2969 +6.25
Taiwan dlr 29.050 30.290 +4.27
Korean won 1074.20 1151.80 +7.22
Baht 30.62 31.55 +3.04
Peso 41.14 43.84 +6.58
Rupiah 9685.00 9060.00 -6.45
Rupee 55.17 53.08 -3.79
Ringgit 3.0610 3.1685 +3.51
Yuan 6.2295 6.2940 +1.04
(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco in MANILA and IFR
Markets' Catherine Tan; Editing by Eric Meijer)

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