India Ink: Your Suggestions on Curbing Violence Against Women in India

The trial of five of the six suspects in the New Delhi gang rape case that has captured worldwide attention began on Tuesday, just as the Indian government moved to strengthen its sexual assault laws in response to public outrage.

Last week, we asked you to weigh in on what needs to be done to end the problem of sexual assault and violence against women in India, and you offered a wide range of solutions. Some readers suggested castration of child rapists. Others offered support for the death penalty in violent cases. One argued that women should change how they dress and that boys who reached a mature age should be encouraged to marry.

Overwhelmingly, your comments contended that change depended on reforming the police and the justice system and addressing deep-rooted cultural attitudes.

“While none can forget or forgive the perpetrators of such a heinous crime, we tend to forget that the reason for them to occur is a brutal and corrupt police force. A force that knows no accountability,” wrote Gautam Nellore Reddy from Bangalore, India.

The police should be treated as “an accessory to the crime if they don’t register a complaint” and as an accomplice if they suppress information, Mr. Reddy wrote.

In addition to holding the police accountable for how they handle – or fail to handle – cases of violence against women, as well as arguing the need for more female police officers, Vijayendra Kumar of Washington encouraged changes in India’s court system.

“It may be a good idea to have [a] special unit for handling all violence against women and the unit should be headed by a woman,” Mr. Kumar wrote. “It is also very necessary to establish courts dealing with women’s issues with a mandate that judgments be delivered in a time-bound manner.”

A number of readers, including Mr. Kumar, said that reforms in the police and judicial systems would only be partial fixes. To address the abuse and violence further, they responded, India needs a change in mind-set and attitudes.

“Fast-track courts, greater women police, a sensitized male police force, all these actions are merely applying Band-Aids to a broken leg,” wrote Dr. Shireen Hyrapiet of Oregon State University. “There exists a culture of the inferiority of women which cannot and will not change unless the government and people are on the same page and equally committed to bringing about change.”

Some also suggested bringing about such a change in attitudes through education, media and social practices.

Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, a photography professor at the University of Rhode Island, grew up in India and remembers facing sexism as a young person.

“I called those years ‘my angry young woman’ days,” she wrote in a comment to The Times, adding that India now needs a cultural shift of attitudes. “Expecting women to, for example, wear long overcoats is not a serious way to resolve the problem.”

In a project called “Bollywood Satirized,” Ms. Matthew uses digital technology to alter Indian movie posters and make a commentary on gender norms and traditional roles in Indian society. A poster labeled #DELHIRAPE she created in response to the recent case displays the headline “From the Director of ‘Out of Touch Politicians.’ ”

Others who responded to our question said they believed that cultural change could be brought about by focusing on the lessons Indian children learn at home as well as through improving their education about sexual assault in schools.

A reader who gave the name Swathi recommended that the Indian media put out public service announcements with male movie stars and athletes promoting the message, “Real men do not rape.”

Another reader, David Raney of Chapel Hill, N.C., presented a particularly creative idea. He said that Indian society should start practicing a new ritual based around respecting women. One day, he said, should be set aside each week to honor women and give them flowers to wear around their necks.

“This would at least be a physical ritual,” Mr. Raney wrote, because “in India, rituals create change.”

More reader responses on this topic can be found here. Please post your own ideas and opinions below.

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Migrant workers at Sochi Olympic sites face abuses

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — One year ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the roads in the Black Sea resort and its surrounding mountains are lined with migrants from Central Asia doing the grunt work that Russians find too low-paid and physically demanding.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are a key element in Russia's intense drive to build facilities for the 2014 Sochi Games. The event is viewed as the country's biggest construction project and a matter of national pride — for President Vladimir Putin, in particular.

But many migrants, whose pay typically provides for their entire families back home, complain that Russian contractors are cheating them and withholding their wages. Most of the foreign laborers speak poor Russian and many are afraid to assert their rights.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday released a report drawing a vivid picture of the routine abuse faced by Sochi migrant workers: underpayment, withheld wages and the absence of employment contracts. The report came out a day before Putin and Olympic officials mark the one-year countdown to the games with a spectacular ice show.

For Eshkobil Ashurov of Tajikistan, working in Sochi has been a boon and a bane. The 27-year-old steel-fitter has been able to send money home to his wife, children, parents and sisters in his impoverished homeland — but that's only when his employers actually pay him.

In December, he said, he walked off his previous job after going 40 days without pay. He said 40 of the 100 men in his work group also weren't paid and most of them left Sochi.

Ashurov found another construction job in the mountain area where the outdoor Olympic competitions will be held, but it's still a difficult life. He typically works 10 hours a day, seven days a week and earns about 30,000 rubles ($1,000 a month). He sends 27,000 rubles of that home, leaving him little to live on besides his employer-provided accommodation and food.

"We're here to work," he said in an interview. "You get back, spend some time at home and go back here to work."

Ashurov's situation is common, according to Semyon Simonov, who runs a two-man advocacy group for migrants in Sochi that provides free legal help. But it's hard to tell how many workers truly are affected.

Federal Migration Service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky recently said that out of 74,000 people involved in construction in Sochi, only 16,000 are foreigners.

But the actual figure of foreign laborers in Sochi is likely much higher. According to Simonov, who contrasted official statistics on work permits with data on foreigners registered in the area, about 50,000 people may be working in Sochi without work permits.

Simonov and Human Rights Watch list the withholding of wages, the failure to provide employment contracts and excessive working hours as the most common rights violations that migrants in Sochi face.

In the HRW report, researcher Jane Buchanan said millions will be watching the 2014 Games unaware that "many migrants toiled in exploitative, abusive conditions to build these shimmering facades and luxurious interiors." The rights group called on the International Olympic Committee to set up a working group to monitor and prevent the mistreatment of workers.

Olympstroi, the Russian state company responsible for building the Olympic venues, said in a statement it has carried out more than 1,300 work inspections since 2011 but has identified only five cases of "wage irregularities."

The IOC reiterated its "long-standing commitment" to follow up cases of mistreatment or abuse and said it has been in contact with Human Rights Watch. In a statement, the IOC said it brought the issue of migrant workers to the attention of the Sochi organizing committee and had received information on the topic from Olympstroi.

"We can confirm that Olympstroi has carried out more than 1,300 work inspections since 2011 and that a small number of cases regarding wage irregularities were identified and dealt with satisfactorily," the IOC said. "'We would continue to urge HRW to furnish us with the details of cases that allow us to deal with them on a case-by-case basis and to push for action when necessary.'"

Simonov said his group was collecting complaints and documenting rights abuses about the migrants.

"The most sensitive thing for them is when they don't get paid," he said. "They don't mind the miserable conditions they live in. They're willing to put up with this as long as they get paid."

Up in the mountains in the Krasnaya Polyana area where Ashurov works, 37-year-old Dilya Saipova from Kyrgyzstan was meeting with a potential employer, hoping for a better position than her odd jobs cleaning and working in a kitchen, which she said was strenuous and underpaid.

Local employers "can't pull these things off" with Russians, Saipova said, because "Russians have a law and they can assert their rights using that law."

Workers in Sochi "consistently" spoke about employers failing to pay full wages and in some cases failing to pay workers at all, the HRW report said.

The Olympic venues where workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported abuse are the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village and the media center in the coastal cluster. Simonov's group is working on a complaint concerning the media center filed by 20 Uzbek workers seeking back wages worth a total of 1 million rubles ($33,000) from a subcontractor.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi organizing committee, has denied any mistreatment of workers at Olympic sites.

"If there are some violations and people go to prosecutors — believe me in Russia the law is always on the side of laborers, not on the side of the employer," he said in an interview.

Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov also dismissed the claims of rights abuses in his city, saying that "conflicts like this are very few."

"If the violations of labor laws were widespread, the online community would be all over it. We don't see anything big in the Internet," he said.

Simonov meets with migrant workers at his one-room office in a dilapidated Sochi neighborhood overlooking the construction site of a new railway terminal. He believes that Sochi authorities and contractors do not realize how important the migrants are to the games.

"At the end of the day, it's only thanks to them that we're getting the Olympic venues built," he said. "No one else will be building them, where would you get so many workers from? Locals don't want these jobs."

Interviewed by Simonov, Ashurov smiles when he is asked if he would like to attend the opening of the 2014 Sochi Games, which run from Feb. 7-23.

"I don't know. I would rather go home and see my family," he said.

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Personal Health: Effective Addiction Treatment

Countless people addicted to drugs, alcohol or both have managed to get clean and stay clean with the help of organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or the thousands of residential and outpatient clinics devoted to treating addiction.

But if you have failed one or more times to achieve lasting sobriety after rehab, perhaps after spending tens of thousands of dollars, you’re not alone. And chances are, it’s not your fault.

Of the 23.5 million teenagers and adults addicted to alcohol or drugs, only about 1 in 10 gets treatment, which too often fails to keep them drug-free. Many of these programs fail to use proven methods to deal with the factors that underlie addiction and set off relapse.

According to recent examinations of treatment programs, most are rooted in outdated methods rather than newer approaches shown in scientific studies to be more effective in helping people achieve and maintain addiction-free lives. People typically do more research when shopping for a new car than when seeking treatment for addiction.

A groundbreaking report published last year by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concluded that “the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care.” The report added, “Only a small fraction of individuals receive interventions or treatment consistent with scientific knowledge about what works.”

The Columbia report found that most addiction treatment providers are not medical professionals and are not equipped with the knowledge, skills or credentials needed to provide the full range of evidence-based services, including medication and psychosocial therapy. The authors suggested that such insufficient care could be considered “a form of medical malpractice.”

The failings of many treatment programs — and the comprehensive therapies that have been scientifically validated but remain vastly underused — are described in an eye-opening new book, “Inside Rehab,” by Anne M. Fletcher, a science writer whose previous books include the highly acclaimed “Sober for Good.”

“There are exceptions, but of the many thousands of treatment programs out there, most use exactly the same kind of treatment you would have received in 1950, not modern scientific approaches,” A. Thomas McLellan, co-founder of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia, told Ms. Fletcher.

Ms. Fletcher’s book, replete with the experiences of treated addicts, offers myriad suggestions to help patients find addiction treatments with the highest probability of success.

Often, Ms. Fletcher found, low-cost, publicly funded clinics have better-qualified therapists and better outcomes than the high-end residential centers typically used by celebrities like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Indeed, their revolving-door experiences with treatment helped prompt Ms. Fletcher’s exhaustive exploration in the first place.

In an interview, Ms. Fletcher said she wanted to inform consumers “about science-based practices that should form the basis of addiction treatment” and explode some of the myths surrounding it.

One such myth is the belief that most addicts need to go to a rehab center.

“The truth is that most people recover (1) completely on their own, (2) by attending self-help groups, and/or (3) by seeing a counselor or therapist individually,” she wrote.

Contrary to the 30-day stint typical of inpatient rehab, “people with serious substance abuse disorders commonly require care for months or even years,” she wrote. “The short-term fix mentality partially explains why so many people go back to their old habits.”

Dr. Mark Willenbring, a former director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said in an interview, “You don’t treat a chronic illness for four weeks and then send the patient to a support group. People with a chronic form of addiction need multimodal treatment that is individualized and offered continuously or intermittently for as long as they need it.”

Dr. Willenbring now practices in St. Paul, where he is creating a clinic called Alltyr “to serve as a model to demonstrate what comprehensive 21st century treatment should look like.”

“While some people are helped by one intensive round of treatment, the majority of addicts continue to need services,” Dr. Willenbring said. He cited the case of a 43-year-old woman “who has been in and out of rehab 42 times” because she never got the full range of medical and support services she needed.

Dr. Willenbring is especially distressed about patients who are treated for opioid addiction, then relapse in part because they are not given maintenance therapy with the drug Suboxone.

“We have some pretty good drugs to help people with addiction problems, but doctors don’t know how to use them,” he said. “The 12-step community doesn’t want to use relapse-prevention medication because they view it as a crutch.”

Before committing to a treatment program, Ms. Fletcher urges prospective clients or their families to do their homework. The first step, she said, is to get an independent assessment of the need for treatment, as well as the kind of treatment needed, by an expert who is not affiliated with the program you are considering.

Check on the credentials of the program’s personnel, who should have “at least a master’s degree,” Ms. Fletcher said. If the therapist is a physician, he or she should be certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.

Does the facility’s approach to treatment fit with your beliefs and values? If a 12-step program like A.A. is not right for you, don’t choose it just because it’s the best known approach.

Meet with the therapist who will treat you and ask what your treatment plan will be. “It should be more than movies, lectures or three-hour classes three times a week,” Ms. Fletcher said. “You should be treated by a licensed addiction counselor who will see you one-on-one. Treatment should be individualized. One size does not fit all.”

Find out if you will receive therapy for any underlying condition, like depression, or a social problem that could sabotage recovery. The National Institute on Drug Abuse states in its Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment, “To be effective, treatment must address the individual’s drug abuse and any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems.”

Look for programs using research-validated techniques, like cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps addicts recognize what prompts them to use drugs or alcohol, and learn to redirect their thoughts and reactions away from the abused substance.

Other validated treatment methods include Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or Craft, an approach developed by Robert J. Meyers and described in his book, “Get Your Loved One Sober,” with co-author Brenda L. Wolfe. It helps addicts adopt a lifestyle more rewarding than one filled with drugs and alcohol.

This is the first of two articles on addiction treatment.

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After Posting Lower Profit, Glaxo to Cut Costs

LONDON (Reuters) — GlaxoSmithKline plans to cut costs in its struggling European drugs division and promised investors a return to growth this year, after failing to deliver a hoped-for recovery in sales and profits in 2012.

The company, Britain’s biggest drug maker, said Wednesday that a new program to restructure European operations, drug manufacturing and research would save at least £1 billion (about $1.6 billion) annually by 2016, with related charges of £1.5 billion.

After putting a number of major drug patent losses behind it, Glaxo had originally banked on pulling out of its trough in 2012. In the event, sales were held back by larger-than-expected drug price cuts in austerity-hit Europe.

The company reported that its net profit fell 35 percent, to £839 million (about $1.35 billion), from £1.28 billion in the fourth quarter a year earlier. Sales in the quarter fell 3 percent, to £6.80 billion. Excluding onetime items, Glaxo said it earned 32.6 pence a share, up 4 percent.

Analysts had forecast sales of £6.88 billion and earnings of 31.3 pence a share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Glaxo’s chief executive, Andrew P. Witty, hopes to do better this year. He predicted on Wednesday that earnings per share, after stripping out some items, would grow by 3 to 4 percent at constant exchange rates in 2013, with sales rising about 1 percent. “2013 should be the first in a series of growth years for G.S.K.,” Mr. Witty told reporters.

Still, the forecast increase in sales and earnings this year was less than some analysts had hoped. A Deutsche Bank analyst, Mark Clark, also noted Glaxo gave a cautious outlook for profit margins, since these are expected to improve only “over the medium term.”

Europe has been a weak point for many drug makers, but Glaxo’s portfolio has been particularly hard hit by government budget cuts. As a result, Mr. Witty said he was taking action to ”reduce costs, improve efficiencies and reallocate resources.”

The action in Europe will involve some job cuts, but he declined to go into details.

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The Lede Blog: Ahmadinejad Attacked With Shoe in Cairo

Last Updated, 5:44 p.m. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo, which started with an affectionate welcome on Tuesday from Egypt’s new Islamist president, turned less pleasant as the day wore on. First, Mr. Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, was lectured by a senior Sunni Muslim cleric and then was nearly struck with a shoe by a man furious at Iran’s support for the Syrian government.

A correspondent for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency captured the unsuccessful shoe attack on video and reported that the bearded man who tried to strike Mr. Ahmadinejad was a Syrian who shouted, “You killed our brothers!”

Video from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency of a man hurling a shoe at Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Cairo on Tuesday.

According to the Turkish news agency’s report, the man “was immediately detained” after hitting Mr. Ahmadinejad’s bodyguards with his shoe at Cairo’s al-Hussein mosque.

While striking someone with the sole of one’s shoe is a common sign of disrespect in Arab countries, the insult spread to other parts of the world after an Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, nearly hit President George W. Bush with both of his shoes at a news conference in Baghdad in 2008.

Associated Press video of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad in 2008.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ahmadinejad was apparently harangued during his meeting with Grand Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning. According to a statement released by Al-Azhar, Mr. Ahmadinejad was criticized for Iran’s role in what the cleric called the “spread of Shiism in Sunni lands.” The Sunni cleric also pressed the Shiite president to “not interfere in the affairs of Gulf states,” like Bahrain, where Iran is accused of lending support to protests against the ruling Sunni monarchy.

At a news conference after that meeting, Agence France-Press reported that Mr. Ahmadinejad “listened with noticeable unease” as another senior cleric complained about the disrespect shown to the Prophet Muhammad’s companions by “some Shiites.” Sunnis and Shiites disagree about whether the prophet’s companions or relatives were his rightful successors.

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World Peace suspended, Howard out for Lakers

NEW YORK (AP) — Forward Metta World Peace has been suspended for one game because he hit Detroit's Brandon Knight in the face, and the Los Angeles Lakers also will be without Dwight Howard again when they face the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday.

World Peace grabbed Knight around the neck and struck him in the jaw with the knuckles of his mostly open hand on Sunday with 1:43 left in the first half of the Lakers' 98-97 win over the Pistons.

Howard missed that game with a sore right shoulder that remains painful. He says he will miss his third straight game.

Pau Gasol will start at center in Howard's place, and the Lakers will have to move someone into World Peace's starting forward spot.

The former Ron Artest was also suspended seven games in April after an elbow to the head of Oklahoma City's James Harden. He is notorious for his 86-game suspension in 2004 for his role in the brawl with Pistons fans in Detroit.

World Peace also served a seven-game suspension in 2007 for his no-contest plea on a domestic violence charge.

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Well: Warning Too Late for Some Babies

Six weeks after Jack Mahoney was born prematurely on Feb. 3, 2011, the neonatal staff at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., noticed that his heart rate slowed slightly when he ate. They figured he was having difficulty feeding, and they added a thickener to help.

When Jack was discharged, his parents were given the thickener, SimplyThick, to mix into his formula. Two weeks later, Jack was back in the hospital, with a swollen belly and in inconsolable pain. By then, most of his small intestine had stopped working. He died soon after, at 66 days old.

A month later, the Food and Drug Administration issued a caution that SimplyThick should not be fed to premature infants because it may cause necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, a life-threatening condition that damages intestinal tissue.

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Catherine Saint Louis speaks about using SimplyThick in premature infants.

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Experts do not know how the product may be linked to the condition, but Jack is not the only child to die after receiving SimplyThick. An F.D.A. investigation of 84 cases, published in The Journal of Pediatrics in 2012, found a “distinct illness pattern” in 22 instances that suggested a possible link between SimplyThick and NEC. Seven deaths were cited; 14 infants required surgery.

Last September, after more adverse events were reported, the F.D.A. warned that the thickener should not be given to any infants. But the fact that SimplyThick was widely used at all in neonatal intensive care units has spawned a spate of lawsuits and raised questions about regulatory oversight of food additives for infants.

SimplyThick is made from xanthan gum, a widely-used food additive on the F.D.A.’s list of substances “generally recognized as safe.” SimplyThick is classified as a food and the F.D.A. did not assess it for safety.

John Holahan, president of SimplyThick, which is based in St. Louis, acknowledged that the company marketed the product to speech language pathologists who in turn recommended it to infants. The patent touted its effectiveness in breast milk.

However, Mr. Holahan said, “There was no need to conduct studies, as the use of thickeners overall was already well established. In addition, the safety of xanthan gum was already well established.”

Since 2001, SimplyThick has been widely used by adults with swallowing difficulties. A liquid thickened to about the consistency of honey allows the drinker more time to close his airway and prevent aspiration.

Doctors in newborn intensive care units often ask non-physician colleagues like speech pathologists to determine whether an infant has a swallowing problem. And those auxiliary feeding specialists often recommended SimplyThick for neonates with swallowing troubles or acid reflux.

The thickener became popular because it was easy to mix, could be used with breast milk, and maintained its consistency, unlike alternatives like rice cereal.

“It was word of mouth, then neonatologists got used to using it. It became adopted,” said Dr. Steven Abrams, a neonatologist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “At any given time, several babies in our nursery — and in any neonatal unit — would be on it.”

But in early 2011, Dr. Benson Silverman, the director of the F.D.A.’s infant formula section, was alerted to an online forum where doctors had reported 15 cases of NEC among infants given SimplyThick. The agency issued its first warning about its use in babies that May. “We can only do something with the information we are provided with,” he said. “If information is not provided, how would we know?”

Most infants who took SimplyThick did not fall ill, and NEC is not uncommon in premature infants. But most who develop NEC do so while still in the hospital. Some premature infants given SimplyThick developed NEC later than usual, a few after they went home, a pattern the F.D.A. found unusually worrisome.

Even now it is not known how the thickener might have contributed to the infant deaths. One possibility is that xanthan gum itself is not suitable for the fragile digestive systems of newborns. The intestines of premature babies are “much more likely to have bacterial overgrowth” than adults’, said Dr. Jeffrey Pietz, the chief of newborn medicine at Children’s Hospital Central California in Madera.

“You try not to put anything in a baby’s intestine that’s not natural.” If you do, he added, “you’ve got to have a good reason.”

A second possibility is that batches of the thickener were contaminated with harmful bacteria. In late May 2011, the F.D.A. inspected the plants that make SimplyThick and found violations at one in Stone Mountain, Ga., including a failure to “thermally process” the product to destroy bacteria of a “public health significance.”

The company, Thermo Pac, voluntarily withdrew certain batches. But it appears some children may have ingested potentially contaminated batches.

The parents of Jaden Santos, a preemie who died of NEC while on SimplyThick, still have unused packets of recalled lots, according to their lawyer, Joe Taraska.

The authors of the F.D.A. report theorized that the infants’ intestinal membranes could have been damaged by bacteria breaking down the xanthan gum into too many toxic byproducts.

Dr. Qing Yang, a neonatologist at Wake Forest University, is a co-author of a case series in the Journal of Perinatology about three premature infants who took SimplyThick, developed NEC and were treated. The paper speculates that NEC was “most likely caused by the stimulation of the immature gut by xanthan gum.”

Dr. Yang said she only belatedly realized “there’s a lack of data” on xanthan gum’s use in preemies. “The lesson I learned is not to be totally dependent on the speech pathologist.”

Julie Mueller’s daughter Addison was born full-term and given SimplyThick after a swallow test showed she was at risk of choking. It was recommended by a speech pathologist at the hospital.

Less than a month later, Addison was dead with multiple holes in her small intestine. “It was a nightmare,” said Ms. Mueller, who has filed a lawsuit against SimplyThick. “I was astounded how a hospital and manufacturer was gearing this toward newborns when they never had to prove it would be safe for them. Basically we just did a research trial for the manufacturer.”

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Bucks Blog: Many Relying on Home Equity for Retirement

Even though the housing market has not recovered, nearly half of older working Americans expect to use equity in their homes to help finance their retirement, a new survey finds.

Roughly 47 percent of employed Americans ages 50 to 70 said they were relying on equity in their homes, the Retirement Check-In survey from Ameriprise Financial found. The finding is surprising, an accompanying report notes, because housing values in many parts of the country remain below the level they were before the recession. Also, 37 percent of homeowners say they’re not on track to pay off their mortgage before they retire.

More people said they were relying on home equity now compared with before the recession, the report finds. When participants were asked whether, before the downturn, they had expected to rely on home equity to help pay for their retirement, just 39 percent said yes.

While the reason for that shift isn’t entirely clear, the report says it is plausible that the loss in value of other investments during the recession may have been so steep that many older workers feel they have no other alternative, even if their homes are worth less than they used to be.

“My hypothesis is that people didn’t think they were going to need to tap into equity because they thought they would have sufficient assets,” said Suzanna de Baca, vice president of wealth strategies at Ameriprise Financial. “Now, despite the fact they have reduced home equity, the shortfall between what they’ve saved and what they need is greater.”

The finding is typical of a “perplexing disparity” between Americans’ emotional outlook for retirement and the reality they face, the report said.

For instance, nearly three-quarters indicated that their dream retirement included taking “really nice vacations.” Yet, when asked if they would be able to afford the essentials in retirement, fewer than half said they felt “extremely” or “very” confident. And just 38 percent said they were confident they could afford the extras they had been anticipating in retirement, like traveling and hobbies.

The telephone survey included 1,000 employed Americans age 50 to 70, with investable assets of at least $100,000 (including employer-based retirement plans, but not real estate) and who are planning to retire at some point. Koski Research conducted the survey on behalf of Ameriprise Financial from Oct. 31 and Nov. 14, 2012. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

What role does home equity play in your retirement plans?

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The Lede Blog: Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Girl Shot by Taliban Militants, Speaks in New Videos

Last Updated, 4:54 p.m. Speaking on camera for the first time since she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban last year, the young activist Malala Yousafzai began with the words, “Today you can see that I’m alive.” The 15-year-old, who was shot in the head as she left school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley four months ago, promised that she would continue to be an outspoken advocate of the right for “every girl, every child, to be educated.”

In the brief statement, the young advocate attributed her survival to the prayers of her supporters and urged them to contribute to a fund established in her name to further the cause of education for girls. “Because of these prayers, God has given me this new life,” Ms. Yousafzai said. “And this is a second life; this is a new life. And I want to serve, I want to serve the people.”

A video statement from Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants.

The English-language statement was recorded just before Ms. Yousafzai underwent surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, over the weekend to repair damage to her skull caused by the bullet fired into her head at point-blank range in October.

On Monday, the hospital released more video of the young patient, speaking to one of her doctors after the five-hour operation to reconstruct her skull and implant a device to restore hearing to her left ear.

Video of Malala Yousafzai speaking to a doctor in Birmingham, England after an operation on Saturday.

“I’m feeling alright and I’m happy that the operations, both the operations, were successful,” she told Dr. Mav Manji, a critical care specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Asked about the future, she said, “My mission is the same, to help people, and I will do that.” She also expressed her gratitude to the doctors in Pakistan and Britain who cared for her. “God gave me a new life,” she said, “because of the prayers of people and because of the talent of doctors.”

At a news conference on Monday, Dr. Anwen White, the neurosurgeon who led the reconstructive surgery, and Dr. Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, explained that the titanium cranioplasty, which involved repairing the missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate, “went very well.” (Video of the news conference was posted online by Britain’s Channel 4 News and the hospital uploaded images of the surgery in progress to YouTube.)

An update posted on the hospital’s Web site explained that, after the skull surgery, “Malala then had a cochlear implant fitted – a small, complex electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is to restore hearing to her left ear after she was left deaf in that ear by the bullet.”

As Fatima Manji of Britain’s Channel 4 News reports, the activist also recorded statements in Urdu and Pashto, languages spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Urdu version, Ms. Manji notes, the girl said, “I would be willing to sacrifice myself again.”

#Malala has released her first public statement on camera #c4news http://t.co/2ZJKCwCO

— Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) 4 Feb 13

In her Urdu statement #Malala says she is willing to “sacrifice herself again” so that all children can get an education. #c4news

— Fatima Manji (@fatimamanji) 4 Feb 13

The video statement was produced for the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington “that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders,” which will administer the new “Malala Fund,” in cooperation with the young activist and her family.

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Second-generation iPad mini could pack a display with 324 pixels per inch

Apple (AAPL) may be about to make up for delivering a disappointingly low resolution for its first-generation iPad mini display. BrightWire reports that supply chain sources have told Chinese website My Drivers that the next-generation iPad mini will indeed feature a 7.9-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, or 324 pixels per inch. For comparison, consider that the original iPad mini delivered a resolution of just 163 pixels per inch, less than both the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle Fire HD and the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7, which both featured displays with resolutions of 216 pixels per inch. BrightWire’s report also backs up earlier rumors we’ve heard about Apple choosing AU Optronics to make an HD Retina display for its next-generation iPad mini.

[More from BGR: iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak now available for download, compatible with iPhone 5 and iPad mini]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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