How safe are nanoparticles in food?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Andy Behar: Some foods contain tiny, engineered particles called nanomaterials


• Behar: Nanoparticles might pose health risks, since they have adversely affected mice


• He says not enough studies have adequately demonstrated the safety of nanoparticles


• Behar: With an emerging technology such as this, companies have to be careful

Editor's note: Andy Behar is the chief executive of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization that promotes corporate accountability.

(CNN) -- Some foods sold in supermarkets across America contain tiny, engineered particles called nanomaterials. Our organization decided to test doughnuts after learning that the titanium dioxide used as a coloring in the powdered sugar coating likely contained nano-sized particles.

The tests, conducted by an independent laboratory, found that both Dunkin' Donuts Powdered Cake Donuts and Hostess Donettes did indeed contain titanium dioxide nanoparticles. In response, a spokeswoman for Dunkin Donuts said the company was looking into the matter.

You must be wondering: What are nanomaterials? They are microscopic in size. "If a nanoparticle were the size of a football, a red blood cell would be the size of the field." Nanoparticles have been heralded as having the potential to revolutionize the food industry -- from enabling the production of creamy liquids that contain no fat, to enhancing flavors, improving supplement delivery, providing brighter colors, keeping food fresh longer, or indicating when it spoils.

Andy Behar

But there are a few problems.

One is that no one knows how many and which food products have them. Companies are not being forthcoming about whether they are using nanoparticles. To further complicate the issue, some companies may not even be aware that they are selling products containing them.

Many companies are reluctant or uninterested in discussing the issue, and concrete information has been difficult to obtain. The majority of food companies are not responsive in providing information about their specific uses, plans and policies toward nanoparticles. There is also no law in the United States that requires disclosure. In contrast, companies in the European Union are required to label foods containing nanoparticles.

The bigger issue with nanoparticles is that they might pose health risks, as they have been found to in tests on mice.

There are not nearly enough studies that can adequately demonstrate the safety of nanoparticles in food additives or packaging. Scientists are still investigating how the broad range of nanoparticles, with their myriad potential uses, would react in the body.

When ingested, nano-sized particles can pass into the blood and lymph, where they circulate through the body and reach in potentially sensitive sites such as bone marrow, lymph nodes, the spleen, the brain, the liver and the heart.

Our knowledge about how nanomaterial food additives react in the body and their health impact is still in its infancy. While efforts are under way to understand them better, much deeper scientific inquiry should occur before nanoparticles are sold in food and food-related products.

More companies and consumers need to be aware of the use of engineered nanomaterials in foods and the potential unknown risks of this technology. More food products like M&M's and Pop-Tarts should be tested as recent studies have identified them as likely to contain nanomaterials as well.

Fortunately, a few companies have become willing to take a public position on nanoparticles.

McDonald stated that it "does not currently support the use by suppliers of nano-engineered materials in the production of any of our food, packaging, and toys." Similarly, Kraft Foods said that it was not using nanotechnology.

Some of the largest food companies in the world, including YUM! Brands, PepsiCo, and Whole Foods, need to know more about nanomaterials and check with their supplies to see if they are using them.

Americans are becoming increasingly interested in what is in the food they're eating. No longer content with label information on daily allowances of vitamins and minerals, U.S. consumers are following the lead of their counterparts in many other countries by demanding more disclosure about where and how their food is grown and whether it is safe.

Even though communicating risks to consumers can be challenging, the public's perception of safety will be paramount in determining the acceptance of nanomaterials. This is especially true for an emerging food-products technology the safety of which even the FDA has acknowledged a lack of understanding.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andy Behar.

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Karzai summons top NATO commander in Afghanistan

KABUL: Afghan president Hamid Karzai has summoned the new commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan over an air strike that allegedly killed ten civilians, according to a statement issued Thursday.

General Joseph Dunford, who took over from General John Allen on Sunday, was called in "for explanations" to the Afghan presidential palace following the air strike in the insurgency-plagued Kunar province a day earlier.

"Pointing to a commitment Gen. Allen had previously made not to conduct any air strike or bombing in residential areas, President Karzai reminded that such incidents must strictly be avoided in future and any recurrence is not acceptable," the statement said.

US forces in Afghanistan confirmed the meeting, re-iterating that the forces had launched an investigation over the circumstances surrounding the incident.

General Dunford, as the commander of the US forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A), "expressed his personal condolences for any civilians who may have died or been injured as a result of the operation," their statement said.

Air strikes have long been a source of friction between NATO forces, led by the US army, and Kabul.

A report by a United Nations committee last Friday said that hundreds of Afghan children have been killed by US military forces during air strikes in Afghanistan over the past five years.

The report by the Geneva-based Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) said the deaths were "due notably to reported lack of precautionary measures and indiscriminate use of force," but gave no precise statistics.

USFOR-A dismissed the committee's concerns as "categorically unfounded," explaining that NATO forces had reduced civilian casualties by 49 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011 and the number of children killed or wounded in air strikes had dropped by nearly 40 per cent in the same period.

- AFP/jc

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Mom of boy held in bunker is worried

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Phil McGraw speaks with mother of former Alabama child hostage


• She tells him she worried about trying to put him back on a school bus


• Ethan told her the Army killed the 'bad man'


• The 6-year-old tells his mom that 'My bus driver is dead'

(CNN) -- Jennifer Kirkland says she caught her 6-year-old son Ethan just staring at a school bus the other day.

He was mesmerized, his eyes locked on the yellow vehicle. He didn't say a thing, and she didn't know what to say to him.

The last time he was on a bus, he was sitting just behind the driver -- as he always did -- waiting for his stop so he could go home.

But the "bad man" got on, and killed the driver, his buddy Mr. Poland.

Appearing on the "Dr. Phil" show, Kirkland told Phil McGraw she was worried how her little boy was going to react the next time she tried to put him on the bus to school.

After being kidnapped, the recovery ahead

Ethan has been having a hard time sleeping, she told the psychologist turned syndicated daytime talk show host.

He thrashes his arms, tosses and turns and sometimes he calls out.

It has only been almost 10 days since the FBI sent a rescue team into the bunker in Midland City, Alabama, where Ethan was held hostage for nearly a week by Jimmy Lee Dykes.

His mother hasn't asked Ethan what happened when he was there.

"I have not talked to Ethan about it," she said in an interview aired Wednesday. "I don't know how to. As a mother I want him to know that I'm there if he needs to talk. I don't know how to respond because I have never been through this."

Inside the bunker: From storm shelter to boy's prison

Ethan has seen two people shot to death. Dykes shot bus driver Charles Poland several times before he carried Ethan, who had fainted, off the bus and into an underground bunker Dykes had built on his property.

Then the FBI killed Dykes when negotiations broke down and authorities felt they had to rescue the boy before Dykes, who had a handgun, did something rash.

"The Army came in and shot the bad man," Kirkland said Ethan told her.

Kirkland said she had hoped Dykes wouldn't be harmed.

"From the very beginning, I had already forgiven Mr. Dykes even though he had my child," she said. "I could not be angry through this. My job was to be the mother."

She thinks Dykes had a soft spot for Ethan because he has disabilities. Dykes took care of her boy as best he could, she said.

He even fried chicken for the boy.

Still, as the crisis continued, she worried that Dykes might be spooked by something her child did -- or that he had enough supplies to stay down there for months. She worried her boy would think she had abandoned him.

She asked authorities to let her speak to Dykes.

"That's my baby. He's my world. He's my everything," she said. "Everything I do I do for him. And I was afraid I wasn't going to get him back."

When she did get him back, he was in the hospital, putting stickers on everyone in sight.

"Hey, bug, I sure have missed you," she recounted.

"I missed you, too," he answered.

FBI: Bombs found in Alabama kidnapper's bunker

Now she worries that even though he seems like the same playful little boy, there is an emotional storm ahead.

McGraw told her to talk to Ethan about his feelings, not what happened to him in the bunker.

"Let that decay in his young mind," he said.

McGraw asked Ethan a few questions, but as 6-year-olds are apt to do, he answered most with a "Yes" or a "No."

But when the doctor asked him how he got to school, Ethan said, "On my bus, but my ..."

Then he walked over to his mother and as if telling a secret, whispered in her ear, "But my bus driver is dead."

Kirkland told McGraw that it was Poland who helped Ethan conquer his fear of descending the steep school bus steps. Poland would cheer Ethan on and one day when the child hesitated and the mother went to help, the driver said, "Let him do it."

Since then, Ethan has had no problem.

But now his cheerleader won't be there, and Kirkland is anguished about her boy.

"Mr. Poland put him behind him so he could keep a good eye on him," she said.

Ethan hasn't been back to school yet. He's been busy opening birthday presents and playing with his favorite toys. On Wednesday, he made a new friend in Gov. Robert Bentley.

There's a picture from the event where little Ethan is sitting underneath the governor's desk. The child is beaming.

"Ethan is a loving, forgiving child," Kirkland said. "He is easy to go up to a perfect stranger and say, 'Can I have a hug?'"

That was the boy who went into that bunker. She is concerned it's not the child who came out.

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Ex-San Diego mayor gambled away charity funds

SAN DIEGO Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor acknowledged Thursday in federal court that she misappropriated $2 million from her late husband's charitable foundation due to a gambling addiction in which she won more than $1 billion but lost even more over nearly a decade.

O'Connor made the acknowledgement in an agreement with the government to defer prosecution for two years while she attempts to repay the debt.

O'Connor was the Democratic leader of California's second-largest city from 1986 to 1992. The two-term mayor was elected San Diego's first female leader after eight years on the City Council. She was married to Robert O. Peterson, founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain.

Prosecutors said her gambling winnings amounted to more than $1 billion from 2000 to 2009 but she lost more than that.

Her defense attorney estimated the debt at $13 million.

O'Connor gambled in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, N.J., and San Diego.

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Cruise Passengers Celebrate as They Near Land

The 4,000 passengers and crew aboard the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship will disembark after dark tonight from the fetid cruiser dubbed "the poop deck" on social media, according to officials.

"It will come in. It will not stop," Alabama State Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons said at a news conference today. "We're going to do everything we can from our standpoint to ensure that this is as smooth as possible."

He estimated the ship would arrive between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. tonight.

Delighted passengers waved at media helicopters that flew out to film the ship and passenger Rob Mowlam told ABCNews.com by phone today that most of the passengers on board were "really upbeat and positive."

Nevertheless, when he gets off Mowlam said, "I will probably flush the toilet 10 times just because I can."

Mowlam, 37, got married on board the Triumph Friday and said he and his wife, Stephanie Stevenson, 27, haven't yet thought of redoing the honeymoon other than to say, "It won't be a cruise."

Lyons said that with powerless "dead ships" like the Triumph, it is usually safer to bring them in during daylight hours, but, "Once they make the initial effort to come into the channel, there's no turning back."

Click here for photos of the stranded ship at sea.

Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell/U.S. Coast Guard/AP Photo

Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship On Its Way to Port Watch Video

Carnival Cancels All Scheduled Voyages Aboard the Triumph Watch Video

Carnival Cruise Ship Making Its Way to Port Watch Video

"There are issues regarding coming into the ship channel and docking at night because the ship has no power and there's safety issues there," Richard Tillman of the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau told ABCNews.com.

When asked if the ship could be disembarked in the dark of night, Tillman said, "It is not advised. It would be very unusual."

Carnival Cruise Senior Vice President of Marketing Terri Thornton, however, insisted during a news conference at the port of Mobile today, "Our understanding is it will be alongside this evening."

Thornton denied the rumors that there was a fatality on the ship. He said that there was one illness early on, a dialysis patient, but that passenger was removed from the vessel and transferred to a medical facility.

The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting now and there are multiple generators on board. And customs officials will board the ship while it is being piloted to port to accelerate the embarkation, officials said.

After eight miserable days at sea, the ship's owners have increased the compensation for what some on board are calling the vacation from hell.

All 3,143 passengers aboard the 900 foot colossus, which stalled in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire early Sunday, were already being given a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for a another cruise. Carnival Cruise Lines is now boosting that offer to include another $500 per person. Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, announced the additional compensation Wednesday.

"We know it has been a longer journey back than we anticipated at the beginning of the week under very challenging circumstances," he said in a statement. "We are very sorry for what our guests have had to endure. Therefore, in addition to the full refund and future cruise credit already offered, we have decided to provide this additional compensation."

Carnival also said that it has canceled a dozen planned voyages for the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before an engine-room fire left it powerless in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Obama speech 'relied on amnesia'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Matt Welch: State of the Union featured content-free calls to action for action's sake


• He says governed might want to know what they've gotten in return for ballooning debt


• Didn't we try repairing infrastructure with the stimulus package? he asks


• Welch: Rand Paul spoke to those who think government should get out of way

Editor's note: Matt Welch is editor in chief of Reason and co-author of "The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America" (Public Affairs).

(CNN) -- The two most memorable lines of President Barack Obama's fourth State of the Union address were the ad-libbed: "Get it done" (which doesn't appear in the remarks as prepared), and the emotional "They deserve a vote," concerning victims of gun violence.

As exasperated appeals for an obstructionist Congress to get off its duff, the exhortations provided emotional catnip for Democrats. For the rest of us, however, they were sobering reminders of what governing liberalism has deteriorated into: content-free calls to take action for action's sake.

Consumers of national governance are within their rights to ask just what we've gotten in return for ballooning the cost of the stuff since 2000. The answer may lie in not just what the president said, but what he has assumed we've already forgotten.

Matt Welch

"Let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next 20 years," said the president, who promised a "Recovery Through Retrofit" three years ago. "The American people deserve a tax code that ... lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that create jobs right here in America," said the man who before he took office vowed to, uh, give "tax breaks to companies that are investing here in the United States."

That "aging infrastructure badly in need of repair"? Well, what happened to the $50 billion from the stimulus package dedicated to precisely that task, or the $50 billion plan 18 months later? Making college "more affordable"? That has been the motivation for continuous ratcheting of government involvement in higher education, which has -- surprise! -- coincided with a several-decade increase in tuition costs and student loan debt.

Greene: In 2013, democracy talks back

Do-something politics works when Americans have amnesia, or are reacting to headline-making tragedies, or when they just want free stuff. But this irresistible force is butting up against the immovable object of a have-nothing U.S. Treasury. Debt service costs will soon overtake defense spending, and baby boomer entitlements are about to transform the federal government into a check-writing program for senior citizens.

Americans know by now that Obama can't possibly believe his own promises that his policies won't "increase our deficit by a single dime," not only because of his poor track record with that particular vow, but because he spends the rest of his time talking about all the various things the government needs to "invest" to create "broad-based growth." It's a conflict at the basic level of vision with those of us who think prosperity is mostly a private-sector affair that is on balance imperiled, not improved, by the exertions of a deficit-spending government.

Opinion: Obama dares Congress to get the job done

Thankfully, and quite unlike during the 2012 presidential campaign, the competing vision was voiced Tuesday night. Not necessarily by a dehydrated but game Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union address, but by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who did the honors online for the tea party.

"The path we are on is not sustainable," Paul said, directly. "All that we are, all that we wish to be, is now threatened by the notion that you can have something for nothing, that you can have your cake and eat it, too, that you can spend a trillion dollars every year that you don't have."

Paul dinged Republicans as well as Democrats, targeted military spending as well as entitlements, and spent a good 30 seconds giving a more full-throated defense of wartime civil liberties than the allegedly anti-war candidate Obama ever did.

Most importantly, he laid out a truly alternative vision that speaks directly to the growing number of Americans who feel like the federal government has failed as the engine of economic growth, and needs urgently to take a back seat before it does more harm.

Rothkopf: This time, a president in full

"What America needs," Paul said, "is not Robin Hood, but Adam Smith." As Obamanomics continues underperforming through a second term, it will be fascinating to see whether Ron Paul's kid can get more people to agree.

Follow us on Twitter: @CNNOpinion.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Matt Welch.

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Tennis: Azarenka rides Gulf breeze past Oprandi in opener

DOHA: Victoria Azarenka's bid to hold on to her Qatar Open title, and the world number one ranking, began with victory over herself, a treacherous wind, world number 62 and Romina Oprandi on Wednesday.

Azarenka's 6-2, 6-3 success was encouraging both in the way she responded to being within a point of losing the first three games in irritating conditions and for her maturing sense of adaptability.

There were moments when the 23-year-old resorted to cursing and racket swishing, but Azarenka's frustration never got out of control and her grip on the match increased as her mind imposed its focus.

With Serena Williams' fitness still the subject of speculation, and with Maria Sharapova needing both Williams and Azarenka to falter if she is to regain the pinnacle, the top-seeded Belarussian could yet hang on to the top spot.

"It was a little bit of a slow start, and I had to adjust," Azarenka said.

"I couldn't go for my shots, and I had to be a bit more patient. She (Oprandi) is tricky and plays so many different balls that you don't know what to expect. I had to focus more and move my feet more."

The title-holder also took satisfaction from her ratio of successful moves to the net, winning 15 of her 20 attempts in what is not an area of special strength for her.

"It's something I want to improve. I am solid from the baseline, so I tried to change it up a bit," she said. "I had a lot of opportunities to do that today."

It was Azarenka's first match since retaining her Australian Open title in Melbourne three weeks ago, and underlined her better physical condition than Williams.

The Wimbledon and US Open champion's strapped up ankle will be tested again on Thursday by a last-16 clash against Urszula Radwanska, the younger of the two Polish sisters.

Azarenka's last-16 match is against Christina McHale, the world number 44 from the United States.

A repeat on Saturday of her semi-final last year with Agnieszka Radwanska, the world number four, looks very possible, though she cannot hold on to the top ranking if Williams is still surviving at that stage.

Radwanska, whose intelligent, well-controlled game seems well suited to the conditions, earlier reached the last 16 with comfortable win, by 6-3, 6-2 over Anastasia Rodionova, a qualifier from Australia.

She next plays Ana Ivanovic, the former world number one from Serbia.

At least Williams can be sure that her conqueror at the Australian Open will not be troubling her again in this tournament.

Sloane Stephens, playing her first event as a top 20 player, led by a set and 5-3 but could not get past Klara Zakopalova, the world number 24 from the Czech Republic, losing 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5).

The American also served for the match at 6-5 in the final set, and then fought back from 1-5 down in the tie-break to 5-5, but still narrowly missed her chance of tackling another big name.

Zakopalova will instead take on Sharapova.

Two other seeds were beaten, Marion Bartoli, the number nine from France, and Roberta Vinci, the number 15 from Italy, bringing the total of casualties to five so far.

An ailing Bartoli lost 6-4, 6-4 to Svetlana Kuznetsova, the former French and US Open champion who is looking livelier than last year.

Another former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, also reached the last 16.

The athletic Dane also made a tenacious escape from 3-6 down in a first set tie-break, saving four set points altogether before beating Sorana Cirstea, the world number 31 from Romania by 7-6 (9/7), 6-0.

Wozniacki next plays Mona Barthel, the German who on Tuesday upset her fifth-seeded compatriot, Angelique Kerber.

- AFP/jc

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Video: Syria's youngest talk about life in war zone

The impact of war on Syria's youngest residents is depicted in a striking video released Wednesday by Global Post. A correspondent, identified only as " Maya," spoke with kids in a Syrian children's shelter about their experiences growing up in a war zone.

The sound of explosions can be heard in the background as the footage opens to a room filled with young people.

"When the shelling starts we don't hear the explosions as much, so we feel safer," says 14-year-old Mariam. "But when the shelling is heavy we feel only God can protect us."

Between images of the children playing--with hula hoops, computer games and, in one case, a bullet--the young subjects give their personal accounts of war. They speak candidly, and without tears, about witnessing brutal massacres, the deaths of classmates and dreaming about bombs.

Turkieh, an 8-year-old with bouncy curls and a bright pink sweater, is calm as she recounts the loss of her mother.

"My mum went to buy bread and was coming back when the sniper shot her," she says.

The United Nations say close to 70,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict started.

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Dorner Hid Just Steps From Command Center

Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop who authorities believe died in a fiery standoff with police Tuesday night, was apparently holed up in a snow-covered cabin in the California mountains just steps from where police had set up a command post and held press conferences during a five-day manhunt.

The charred remains of a body believed to be Dorner was removed from another cabin, high in the San Bernadino Mountains near Big Bear, Calif., the site of Dorner's last stand. Cornered inside the mountain cabin, the suspect shot at cops, killing one deputy and wounding another, before the building was consumed by flames.

Police are working to officially identify the body, but "have reason to believe that it is him," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman.

The manhunt for Dorner, 33, one of the biggest in recent memory, led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, but it ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.

Residents of the area were relieved today that after a week of heightened police presence and fear that Dorner was likely dead.

"I'm glad no one else can get hurt and they caught him. I'm happy they caught the bad guy," said Ashley King, a waitress in the nearby town of Angelus Oaks, Calif.

Hundreds of cops scoured the mountains near Big Bear, a resort area in Southern California, since last Thursday using bloodhounds and thermal-imaging technology mounted to helicopters, in the search for Dorner. The former police officer and Navy marksman was being hunted as the suspect who had killed a cop and cop's daughter and had issued a "manifesto" declaring he was bent on revenge and pledged to kill dozens of LAPD cops and their family members.

Carjacking Victim Says Christopher Dorner Was Dressed for Damage Watch Video

Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Inside the Shootout Watch Video

Chris Dorner Manhunt: Fugitive Ex-Cop in Shootout With Police Watch Video

But it now appears that Dorner never left the area, and may have hid out in an unoccupied cabin just steps from where cops had set up a command center.

It was at the cabin Tuesday morning where two women arrived to find a man matching Dorner's description inside. He took the women hostage, tying them up and stealing their car. At 12:20 p.m. PT, one of the woman broke free and called police.

Dorner crashed that car and hijacked a pickup truck as officials from the state Fish and Game Department pursued him.

"I saw some movement in the trees and it was Christopher Dorner and he came out onto the road, out of the snow, and he was dressed in all camouflage and had a big assault, sniper-type rifle and he had a vest on, like a ballistics vest," Rick Heltebrake, the pickup's driver, told ABC News.

"He was dressed up to do some damage it looked like. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog with you,'" Heltebrake said.

Dorner then took off into the woods on foot, where sheriff's deputies pursued him to a rental cabin in which he barricaded himself and began firing.

Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy received non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Some local television stations broadcast police scanner traffic of the firefight, punctuated by the sound of automatic gunfire.

"It was horrifying to listen to that firefight and to hear those words. 'Officer down' is the most gut-wrenching experience that you can have as a police officer," said LAPD spokesman Lt. Andrew Neiman.

Over the course of the next five hours, heavily armed SWAT teams with tank-like vehicles surrounded the cabin, even firing tear gas inside, but never entered the building.

Cops said they heard a single gunshot go off from inside the cabin just as they began to see smoke and fire. Later they heard the sound of more gunshots, the sound of ammunition being ignited by the heat of the blaze, law enforcement officials said.

Dorner is accused of killing four people, including the deputy shot on Tuesday. Last Thursday he allegedly gunned down Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was laid to rest today.

Crain's shooting and the discovery of an online manifesto pledging to kill dozens of cops launched the dragnet.

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Was euro ever 'about to collapse'?

By Ramy Inocencio, for CNN

February 12, 2013 -- Updated 0948 GMT (1748 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Former European Central Bank chief says euro was never going to collapse


• In 2012, critics predicted at least partial breakup of 17-member eurozone


• Euro plunged to 25-month low against U.S. dollar in July 2012


• Currency war fears prevail in run-up to G20 finance ministers meeting this week

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Less than six months ago, eurozone watchers had been predicting the breakup of the 17-member bloc of nations as the euro plunged to a 25-month low against the U.S. dollar last July.

Even as recently as November, Warren Buffett, the famed CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said of the eurozone's future that "it's hard to tell exactly how it comes out."

But since then, the euro has appreciated nearly 11% as its member countries battled to contain sovereign debt crises, rising unemployment and social unrest. The euro now stands at a 13-month high against the greenback.

And flying in the face of last year's critics, former European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet told CNN's Nina dos Santos that the euro "was never about to collapse" and that its viability as a currency is solid.

"The euro as a currency has never been put in question," asserted Trichet, while at the same time admitting the euro area's financial stability and credit worthiness had been tested.

As for the euro, he said it "is certainly reliable and credible."

Yet, the euro's gains over the past seven months is a mixed blessing. Arguments have long-existed for and against a stronger currency. Appreciation means investors are more confident in the euro but eurozone exports become more expensive when sold overseas; devaluation makes the bloc's exports more competitive globally, which many eurozone officials would prefer.

But if the world's major economies devalued their currencies to make exports more competitive and to spur their economies to growth again, it would be chaos, says Trichet.

"If the reasoning is the same in all constituencies you have nothing but...a 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policy which is a recipe for catastrophe."

That catastrophe could take the form of an all-out currency war. And this week, the world's leading banks called on the G20 group of richest nations to avoid such an outcome.

"We believe major central banks should focus on enhancing their cooperation...to guide market expectations and thus help avoid a disorderly interest rate adjustment process and undue exchange rate volatility," the Institute of International Finance wrote in a letter to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is chairing the G20 finance minister's meeting later this week.

But with the eurozone in recession for the second time in four years, the desire to devalue the euro may be strong. The European Central Bank in December cut its 2013 growth forecast, with a best-case growth rate scenario of only 0.3%.

"It is no time for complacency," warned Trichet who added that the central banks of the United States, Japan and Europe as well as their private sectors should get their "house(s) in order."

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December 12, 2012 -- Updated 1114 GMT (1914 HKT)

In a historic fine, HSBC will pay out a record $1.92 billion to U.S. authorities to settle money laundering accusations.

December 6, 2012 -- Updated 0655 GMT (1455 HKT)

While China has become the world's second largest economy, doing business in China is now perceived to be more corrupt, according to Transparency International.

January 8, 2013 -- Updated 1501 GMT (2301 HKT)

You had better be logical and forceful when writing your resume. Your expertise and practical experience should stand out, if you want to get back resume filters.

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