Snowboarder dies in avalanche at Tahoe-area resort

A 49-year-old California man died Monday after being buried in an avalanche while snowboarding at a Sierra ski resort, one of several avalanche-related emergencies in the Lake Tahoe area after recent storms dumped up to 3 feet of fresh snow.
Donner Ski Ranch, about 90 miles northeast of Sacramento, closed as rescue teams began their search.
The Nevada County Sheriff's Department identified the man as Steven Mark Anderson of Hirschdale, an unincorporated community outside Truckee, after notifying his brother.
The sheriff's department received a call about the missing man at noon Monday, nearly three hours after the avalanche. Deputy David Lade said it took that long for Anderson's friends to determine he was missing. The friends had not been skiing as a group, but rather went their own way in the morning, Lade said.
"They spent a lot of time trying to locate him," he said.
A search dog found the man's body about 1:30 p.m. under 2 to 3 feet of snow at the base of the avalanche. Lade said the wind had blown snow to depths to 7 feet or more where the man was snowboarding, which was inside the ski area's boundaries near the main lodge.
Anderson was believed to be the only person caught in the slide, Lade said.
Tahoe-area ski resorts received at least 3 feet of snow in a wind-whipped series of storms from Friday through Sunday, leading to perilous conditions even within ski area boundaries.
"With the extremely heavy snowfall we've gotten over the last three days and the conditions prior to that, it's prime avalanche conditions," Lade said.
Two neighboring ski resorts, Squaw Valley USA and Alpine Meadows, also reported dangerous avalanches. A veteran ski patroller at Alpine Meadows was taken Monday to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno after being buried in a slide that had been intentionally set with an explosive device.
"The charge triggered the avalanche, which broke much higher and wider on the slope than previously observed in past snow safety missions," the resort said in a statement.
The patroller, who had 28 years of experience at the resort, was uncovered within eight minutes. Resort spokeswoman Amelia Richmond said she could not release his condition, and the hospital did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The ski patrol team was doing avalanche control in Sherwood Bowl, which is within the boundaries on the back side of resort.
On Sunday, two skiers at Squaw Valley — a 39-year-old woman and 16-year-old boy — were treated for non-life threatening injuries after they were swept up in an avalanche, although neither had been buried.

Read More..

Dockworkers at Northwest ports reject pact offer

 Dockworkers at four U.S. Pacific Northwest ports moved closer to a possible labor clash with grain shippers on Monday, as parties in a larger, separate dispute at 15 East and Gulf coast ports agreed to mediation ahead of strike deadline set for December 30.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced nearly 3,000 of its members had voted to reject a contract proposal that management called its "last, best and final" offer.
The proposed contract covers six of the nine grain terminals operating in Puget Sound and along the Columbia River that account for more than a quarter of all U.S. grain exports and nearly half of U.S. wheat exports.
The stalemate in contract talks in Oregon and Washington state and management's failure to win approval of its offer, fueled speculation that grain shippers might impose a lockout of union members in a bid to keep terminals operating with replacement workers.
The ILWU has not asked its members to authorize a strike, nor has it set a strike deadline or made mention of a walkout. The union urged the shippers to return to the bargaining table.
Talks have foundered over numerous work-rule changes sought by the companies to improve efficiency, but opposed by the ILWU as onerous give-backs ultimately designed to break the union.
The Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association, which represents the shipping companies and the grain terminals they own, said in response to rejection of their contract offer that employers were "reviewing their options."
The ILWU has said the shippers have hired a Delaware-based company that specializes in providing security and replacement workers in labor disputes.
The U.S. Coast Guard said last week it was preparing to establish buffer zones to keep union-related protests from interfering with navigation around two of the ports seen as most likely to be caught up in waterborne labor unrest.
The possibility of a labor showdown in the Northwest is just the latest in a series of union disputes to hit U.S. ports.
The U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are bracing for a strike threatened for December 30 by nearly 15,000 union dockworkers unless shippers extend their contract.
Major sticking points to a settlement there include the future of so-called "container royalties" earned by union members based on tons of cargo moved through a port, and eight-hour workdays guaranteed under the current contract.
In a potential breakthrough on Monday, the U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said the agency had called a meeting of the two sides in the East Coast dispute and both parties had agreed to attend.
Two days of federally mediated talks in the Northwest dockworkers dispute earlier this month failed to produce an accord. A counter offer presented by the union was rejected by management on December 17.
Only weeks ago, harbor clerks and union longshoremen staged an eight-day walkout in Southern California at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, idling much of the nation's busiest cargo-shipping complex.
SHIPPERS SEEK WORK-RULE CHANGES
In the Northwest, the ILWU has accused management of bargaining in bad faith, citing 750 changes it said the companies were seeking to impose on labor contract terms that have stood for more than 80 years.
The shippers said the dispute centers on proposed work rule changes aimed at making their terminals more competitive, such as allowing fewer employees to load ships, allowing elevator workers to assist in ship loading and greater management discretion in hiring and staffing decisions.
"Regardless of the outcome, they (the companies) remain committed to operating" the terminals, the Grain Handlers Association said in its statement.
Votes management's latest offer were cast Friday and Saturday by union members in Portland, Oregon, and in Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver, Washington. According to the final tally announced on Monday, 93.8 percent of those voting disapproved the proposal, as recommended by union leaders.
SWITCHING FROM BARGES TO TRAINS?
Waterfront labor strife in the Northwest would compound an existing slowdown in U.S. grain exports caused by the low water on the Mississippi River by making it harder for shippers to meet expectations set by the U.S. Agriculture Department, said Bob Utterback, of Utterback Marketing Services, a brokerage for farmers.
Pendleton Grain Growers, for example, the largest cooperative grain dealer in Oregon, will likely overhaul its shipping plans to send more wheat, corn and soybeans to ports via railroad instead of barges, said Jason Middleton, director of grain operations for the cooperative.
Such a switch could slow shipments, most of which normally are sent up the Columbia River en route to Asia.
Utterback said the soybean market already is on edge over weakening demand following recent cancellations of purchases by China, a top importer. Other grain dealers said they saw little effect on prices absent a prolonged labor clash, lasting at least two or three weeks.
The old contract for dockworkers at the six terminals expired on September 30, but under terms that remain in effect for the time being, regular work shifts for ILUW members ended at 3 p.m. local time Monday, and union workers have the day off on Tuesday for the Christmas holiday.
The shipping companies say they are seeking the same workplace rules and terms the union had agreed to after lengthy and contentious labor talks with EGT, an exporter that opened a new terminal last year in Longview, Washington.

Read More..

Insiders steal a march in leak prone Asian markets

When South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co announced last month it had overstated the fuel efficiency levels on around one million of its cars in the United States and Canada some investors were left fuming more than others.
Some had already sold their shares before the announcement on November 2. The stock fell 4 percent on November 1 with about 2.2 million shares changing hands, the highest trading volume of the year at that point.
"This smells pretty bad," said Robert Boxwell, director of consulting firm Opera Advisors in Kuala Lumpur who has studied insider dealing patterns.
"It would have fallen into our suspect trading category," he added.
Boxwell spots suspect trading by looking at how much the volume diverges from the average level in the days before a market moving announcement. In the Hyundai instance, the volume was more than five standard deviations, a measure of variation, away from the daily average of 598,741 shares over the past year.
A Hyundai spokeswoman declined to comment.
Research from the Capital Markets Co-operative Research Centre (CMCRC), an academic centre in Sydney that studies financial market efficiency, found that 26 percent of price-sensitive announcements in Asia Pacific markets showed signs of leakage in the first quarter of this year, the most recent period for which data was available.
That compared with 13 percent in North American markets.
The CMCRC says it looks for suspected information leaks by examining abnormal price moves and trading volumes ahead of price-sensitive announcements.
Investors say one reason for leaks in Asia has been low enforcement rates for insider trading and breaches of disclosure rules. Enforcement in some markets is virtually non-existent.
There are also misconceptions about whether trading on non-public information is a crime.
"The idea that insider trading is wrong rather than smart is only being ingrained in the current generation of Asian players, not the older generation who are often still in the driving seat," said Peter Douglas, founder of GFIA, a hedge fund consultancy in Singapore.
LOSS OF CONFIDENCE
Japan's largest investment bank Nomura Holdings was embarrassed this year after regulatory investigations found it leaked information to clients ahead of three public share offerings.
Nomura has acknowledged that its employees leaked information on three share issues it underwrote in 2010. In June, it published the results of an internal investigation that found breaches of basic investment banking safeguards against leaking confidential information and announced a raft of measures to prevent recurrence.
The bank was also fined 200 million yen ($2.37 million) by the Tokyo Stock Exchange and 300 million yen by the Japan Securities Dealers Association.
Such leaks hurt companies' share prices in the long run because investors put in less money if they feel they are not on a level playing field.
"It is very damaging. You may not know how much money you've lost but if there is not confidence that the regulators are prosecuting and enforcing the rules on this then it undermines investor confidence and liquidity," said Jamie Allen, secretary general of the Asian Corporate Governance Association.
The issue isn't being ignored. Many Asian markets such as Hong Kong and China have tightened their rules on insider trading over the past decade.
Indeed some investors feel that while leaks and insider dealing are unfair, regulators in the region have more serious issues they should be tackling.
"I would like to see the regulators spend more resources on investigating and prosecuting fraud against listed companies, which severely damages shareholder value," said David Webb, a corporate governance activist in Hong Kong, arguing insider dealing as less of an impact on a company's long-term share price.
HTC AND APPLE
A week after Hyundai's announcement about its problems in the United States, there was an unexpected move on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Shares in smartphone maker HTC Corp jumped almost seven percent on Friday, November 9, hitting the daily upper trading limit. On Sunday came the surprise announcement that the company was ending its long-running patent dispute with Apple Inc , a move seen as a positive for the stock.
The Taiwan bourse announced it was investigating the trading patterns to see if there was a possible leak.
When asked for comment, HTC referred back to a November 13 statement in which the company said it had kept the Apple settlement process confidential and has strict controls on insider trading.
Michael Lin, a spokesman for the Taiwan Exchange, told Reuters on Friday that the bourse is still working with the regulator on the case.
'ENORMOUS LOSSES'
Michael Aitken, who oversees research at the CMCRC, said many other Asian markets lack tough enough rules to force information to be released as efficiently and timely as possible, a primary reason for the prevalence of leaks.
"Poor regulation hampers enforcement efforts," he said pointing out that few markets have the "continuous disclosure" rules used in Australia which require listed companies to release material information as soon as possible.
In Korea, when Hyundai shares started to fall, rumours began swirling that news about a problem with some of its cars was on its way, but investors say it took the company too long to disclose what exactly was happening.
"Hyundai at that time did not confirm the rumours. We suffered enormous losses because of this," said one fund manager, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
An official from Korea Exchange declined to comment on whether it was investigating this case, saying only that the exchange looks carefully into possible cases of insider trading.
Across Asia, regulators concede that many company executives and insiders still do not appreciate that leaking or trading on material, non-public information is an offence.
"People don't even know they are engaging in insider trading, for example if their friends are talking about it on the golf course," said Tong Daochi director-general for international affairs at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, during a regulation conference last month.
"We try to tell society, what are the criminal issues, what are the insider trading issues? For example we have held 27 press conferences to tell the public what kind of activities are involved in insider trading and to let people know that this is an active crime." ($1 = 84.2600 Japanese yen) ($1 = 0.6147 British pounds)

Read More..

Nokia to get payments in patent deal with RIM

Struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has settled its patent dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in return for payments, as it tries to exploit its trove of technology patents to boost its finances.
Terms of the agreement were confidential, but Nokia said on Friday it included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.
Nokia is one of the industry's top patent holders, having invested 45 billion euros ($60 billion) in mobile research and development over the past two decades.
It has been trying to make use of that legacy to ensure its survival, amid a fall in sales as well as cash. The Finnish firm is battling to recover lost ground in the lucrative smartphone market to the likes of Apple and Samsung.
The agreement with RIM settles all existing patent litigation between the two companies, Nokia said, adding similar disputes with HTC Corp and ViewSonic still stood.
"This agreement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market," said Paul Melin, Nokia's chief intellectual property officer.
Nokia has earned around 500 million euros a year from patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony.
Some analysts have said it could earn hundreds of millions more if it can negotiate with more companies successfully.
Analysts estimated its June 2011 settlement with Apple was worth hundreds of millions of euros.
($1 = 0.7555 euros)

Read More..

WhatsApp goes free for iPhone for a limited time

Popular cross-platform texting app WhatsApp reduced its iPhone app from $0.99 to free on Thursday. The app now delivers 10 billion messages per day, which is no surprise considering how consumers are choosing to use app-based messengers instead of paying for texting. WhatsApp is so popular, Facebook (FB) is reportedly interested in acquiring it. While it’s true the Android version of WhatsApp is also available for free, that version requires a yearly  $0.99 fee after the initial year. Still, WhatsApp’s advantage over Apple’s (AAPL) built-in iMessage is that it works across multiple mobile platforms. At zero dollars, WhatsApp is a no-brainer download if you don’t already have it on iPhone.

Read More..

HTC brushes off Microsoft’s earlier rejection, will reportedly make Windows RT tablets after all

Microsoft (MSFT) may have barred HTC (2498) from participating in the first wave of Windows RT tablets, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the company from gearing up for the next wave. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that HTC “is working on a 12-inch device and a 7-inch version” of a Windows RT tablet “that can also make phone calls.” The planned seven-inch tablet, which will be unveiled alongside the 12-inch tablet some time in 2013, will be the first small Windows RT tablet to hit the market and go head-to-head with other popular small tablets such as the Google (GOOG) Nexus 7 and the iPad mini.

Read More..

RIM shares fall at the open after earnings

 Research In Motion Ltd fell in early trading on Friday following the BlackBerry maker's Thursday earnings announcement, when the company outlined plans to change the way it charges for services.
RIM, pushing to revive its fortunes with the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 devices next month, surprised investors when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model, a move that could put the high-margin business under pressure.
Shares fell 16.0 percent to $11.86 in early trading on the Nasdaq. Toronto-listed shares fell 15.8 percent to C$11.74.

Read More..

South Korea's president-elect promises 'new era of change'

South Korea’s President-elect Park Geun-hye signaled today the tough policy toward North Korea that she’s likely to pursue when she embarks on her five-year term as president in February.
She began the day after winning the presidential election by visiting the national cemetery, bowing before the grave of her father, Park Chung-hee, the long-ruling dictator who was assassinated by his intelligence chief in 1979.
“I will open up a new era of change and reform,” she scrawled in the visitor’s book, but soon she left no doubt she would mingle calls for inter-Korean dialogue with a firm stance against compromise.
Recommended: How well do you know global Christmas traditions? Take the quiz
North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket last week “showed how grave the security reality really is,” she said at her party headquarters after the visit to the cemetery. Yes, she says she wants to open talks with North Korea – but she also vowed to keep her “promise of a new era of strong national security.” Similarly, while calling for peace and reconciliation in Northeast Asia, she placed priority on dealing with the “security reality.”
Though Ms. Park is not as hardline as outgoing President Lee Myung-bak, in the view of analysts, she is still not going to revert to the Sunshine policy of reconciliation espoused by two Korean presidents before Mr. Lee’s election five years ago.
Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now
“At the very least, South Korea will not funnel funds to support weapons programs with which North Korea will threaten the country that defends South Korea,” says Lee Sung-yoon, professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in Boston, Mass.
That’s a reference to the hundreds of thousands of tons of food and fertilizer that South Korea shipped annually to North Korea during the era of the Sunshine policy. Moon Jae-in, Park’s liberal foe in Wednesday’s election, had promised to resume the shipments.
“She is under no illusions about Pyongyang,” says Nicholas Eberstadt at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. If she “can expound and implement a coherent policy for reducing the North Korean threat” while advancing the cause of Korean unification, “that would be a great service to her countrymen and to the world.”
Firmness under North Korean threats is seen as essential. “In principle she will be tough on North Korea,” says Cho Gab-je, a conservative editor who often comments on policy issues. “She will have some flexibility on policy,” he says,” but she will not follow the line of the Sunshine policy.”
THE NORTH KOREA CHALLENGE
At the same time, North Korea is expected to challenge her, militarily and rhetorically. “They usually try to test a new president,” says Choi Jin-wook, a senior official at the Korea Institute of National Unification. “They might make provocations before or after her inauguration.”
Many observers, including Mr. Choi, believe that North Korea fired its long-range missile last week as a deliberate attempt to intimidate voters into supporting Moon Jae-in as a candiate less likely to provoke a war. “People when they vote always think about North Korea,” he says.
But, instead of hurting Park, says Mr. Choi, North Korea accomplished “just the opposite, they helped Park.” The logic here is that voters, particularly the conservative older generation, cast their ballots for her as the most likely candidate to defend South Korea in a crisis.
Then too, Park is assumed to have quite a sophisticated understanding of North Korea. She is one of the few top-ranked conservative politicians who has been to Pyongyang.
“She is the first South Korean president who has already been to North Korea and met with Kim Jong-il ,” observes Victor Cha, a Georgetown University professor who directed Asia affairs at the National Security Council during the presidency of George W. Bush. “She will have a more rational view on inter-Korean relations.”
In that spirit, says Mr. Cha, she will not be “blindly obsessed with a summit” as were the two liberal presidents from 1998 to 2008. Both President Kim Dae-jung and President Roh Moo-hyun went to Pyongyang for summits with Kim Jong-il that produced promising statements but did not end confrontation.
OTHER MAJOR ISSUES FOR SOUTH KOREA
While problems with North Korea dominate concerns here, however, Park has more to worry about when it comes to the stagnating economy, the rising gap between rich and poor Koreans, and the anger of young people unable to find jobs.
Park also faces a regional problem – the hostility of the Cholla region of southwestern Korea. Moon Jae-in won 90 percent of the votes there.
“She has talked about unifying the country so it would not surprise me if she pulled Cholla people into her cabinet – a sort of team of rivals,” says Cha.
Indeed, many analysts say that Park’s first priority will not be North Korea but reforming an economy in which the conglomerates increased their grip over Korean life substantially under President Lee.
“In terms of economic growth his policies have failed,” says Jang Ha-sung, a business professor at Korea University who has often criticized the conglomerates, known as chaebol. “He represented the so-called trickle down effect. He depended on the old model that was heavily dependent on the chaebol.”
The historical irony is that Korea’s conglomerates owe their success in large measure to the policies of Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, often credited with fostering Korea’s booming growth during his 18 years and 5 months as president.
Park, however, has promised “economic democratization” – with more opportunity for individual entrepreneurs and enterprises.
“Public opinion calls for some reform of the chaebol,” says Cho Gap-je. ”In a crisis, he observes, “creating jobs is the first priority.”

Read More..

In India, a Hindu nationalist rebuilds image with Muslim votes

The Hindu nationalist leader of the western state of Gujarat, known for his alleged role in the 2002 riots in which 1,000 Muslims were killed, won his fourth consecutive term as chief minister in a landslide on Thursday. The victory puts the controversial figure on track to be a strong contender for prime minister of India in 2014.
Despite the controversy surrounding Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he played a critical role in putting Gujarat on a path of consistent economic growth. His win also marks a major defeat for the Congress party, which came in a distant second with 61 seats in the general assembly, compared with his Bharatiya Janta Party(BJP)'s 118.
Mr. Modi stands out for many as a viable leader because of his recent record of good governance, development, and economic growth, coupled with the Indian Congress’s failure to effectively manage the country.
“It’s the vacuum of leadership that has India desiring a really strong leader who can take action and take this country forward,” says pollster Yahswant Deshmukh. “That’s why even a polarizing figure like Modi is being talked about and looked upon to give that kind of leadership.”
Recommended: How well do you know global Christmas traditions? Take the quiz
The BJP's victory is "a message to everyone that development and good governance triumph over divide and rule politics," Modi posted on his Twitter feed.
Modi’s image is still marred by the bloody Gujarat riots, which put the city on edge and raised minority tensions in the Hindu majority state. Many politicians within his own party refuse to work with him, fearing he will taint their image. In 2005, the US State Department even denied him a visa.
But for a growing number of the more than 60 million people living in Gujarat, Modi’s record during his decade as chief minster has created a number of believers in his vision for the state – including Muslims.
Roughly 25 percent who cast their ballots for the BJP this election were Muslim, says Mr. Deshmukh, who polled more than 78,000 voters, including 7,000 Muslims as they exited voting booths across the state. That’s up from just 3 percent in 2007. While the majority of Muslims still vote for the Congress party, a growing number of young educated Muslims are opting for the BJP, says Deshmukh. They believe Modi is the most viable option for sustained growth and career opportunities in the state.
What’s not clear is how Modi’s success in Gujarat will translate to the rest of the country. Another question is whether he will be able to snag other minority voters, usually picked up by the Congress party.
Given Muslims' low literacy rates, low rate of employment in government jobs, and lagging per capita income across India, Sufi Saint Mehbubali Baba Saheb says life for the minority religious group is much better under Modi’s rule. A volunteer with the BJP, he points out that since the Gujarat riots, there has been no communal violence in the state. Some 10 percent of Muslims have government jobs and their per capita income is the highest in the country.
But not everyone is convinced.
Despite Gujarat having the third-highest growth rate in the country, 40 percent of children are still malnourished, and hundreds of thousands of Muslims live in slums because they can’t find affordable housing.
“Modi has very little to offer to India’s villages, to its agriculture sector and to the very large constituencies that make up Indian politics,” says political analyst Ashish Nandy, adding that Modi’s constituency is the middle class. “While the middle class may make up a significant portion of the country, over two-thirds of the Indian population does not fall in that category. I think that will be more his undoing than being [known as] a master of inciting a blood bath.”
While Modi may have a long road ahead in his bid to be the next prime minister, Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says his success in these elections is a springboard into national politics and may force the US to rethink how it handles its official relationship with him.
“It would certainly be seen as awkward if US politicians were not at least cordial to Modi,” says Mr. Vaishnav. “You might not see a major change right away, but behind close doors, it’s very likely the US will start making steps to warm relations.”

Read More..

Estela de Carlotto hunts for Argentina's grandchildren 'stolen' decades ago

Estela de Carlotto isn't like most grandmothers. Instead of easing herself into retirement and enjoying the slower pace of life it affords, she remains a dogged workaholic.
Every weekday she rises early without fail in order to make the 70-mile round trip from her hometown of La Plata to an office in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires.
"I had other ideas about what I'd be doing with my life, such as being with my children," she says, smiling. "I'm an elderly person who has had four children, and I now have 13 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. So I thought I'd be spending time with them. But life gave me another direction."
Recommended: 6 styles of parenting from around the globe
Since 1989 that direction has involved being a "professional" grandmother: As president of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo), she is the most visible face of one of South America's largest human rights organizations.
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times, the Abuelas group has members whose lives read like the pages of a horror novel. Born out of the atrocities committed during the country's last military dictatorship (1976-83) – which was backed by the United States – the group comprises mothers whose daughters and daughters-in-law were abducted and killed by the military regime for their leftist views.
But the armed forces had a perverse rationale. Women who were pregnant were kept alive until they gave birth. Their newly born children were then forcibly adopted by other families and given false identities: The military's aim was to ensure that they didn't grow up with the same political orientation as their murdered mothers.
The Abuelas are still searching for some 500 "stolen babies" – their grandchildren – who have grown up unaware of who they are (so far, 107 children, now adults, have been "returned" to their biological families thanks to DNA testing).
Of all the South American nations that lived through a dictatorship, Argentina is the only country that had a systematic plan involving the abduction of babies.
Ms. Carlotto's own daughter Laura was kidnapped in 1977 and killed in 1978 after she'd given birth to a son in captivity named Guido, after his grandfather. The body of Carlotto's daughter was returned to her by the armed forces, one of the few bodies returned to parents.
Despite more than 30 years of searching, Carlotto has never found her grandson. So what stops her from admitting defeat and making herself comfortable in her favorite armchair?
"Strength is love, you see," Carlotto answers. "They [the military] killed my daughter. I won't forget her, and I want truth and justice. I'm looking for a grandchild, too, which is also motivated by love, so there's no way I can stop doing what I'm doing."
The Abuelas president meets me at the group's central Buenos Aires headquarters. She enters the interview room with slow, considered steps. But when she sits down and fixes her gaze, her sharpness and determination are undeniable.
Carlotto, who used to be headmistress at a school, says she feels comfortable in her role and all that it entails, from having to deal with the emotional fallout of a nieto (grandchild) who has come to the Abuelas with doubts about his or her identity to meeting heads of states or being invited to functions by human rights groups around the world.
She also recognizes that what she does isn't for everyone. Other grandmothers have either found their grandchildren or want to take a back seat role. Or they simply don't have the energy that Carlotto continues to show. (Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, calls her a "tireless, committed, and persistent fighter for human rights, and the struggle's most emblematic voice.")
"There aren't any more grandmothers that want to do the work that I do because I dedicate 24 hours a day to it," she says. "There were grandmothers that didn't want to become president or couldn't because of work commitments. I was able to retire because of my husband's work. So I had the time but also the character – I have a leadership personality."
Carlotto's teaching career has clearly helped in her work. Both she and the rest of the Abuelas have had to help nurture and then rebuild a polarized Argentine society licking its wounds from years of horrific crimes after the return to democracy in 1983.
The Abuelas president admits that "we've done a lot of teaching" over the years. Her organization tirelessly campaigned against laws from the 1980s and '90s that pardoned most of the dictatorship's henchmen (the laws were repealed in 2003). It also set up a DNA bank (the world's first) in 1987 to help find missing grandchildren, and it continues to take an active role in ongoing human rights trials against former military officials.
Carlotto talks with utter poise. Wearing her trademark pearl earrings, she comes across as an eloquent and elegant señora, forced by her circumstances to relive a terrible past.
"Estela has an utterly sweet character," says Guillermo Perez Roisinblit, one of the 107 grandchildren (now an adult) who have discovered their real identities through Abuelas. "And all this despite the troubles she's had to deal with in her life, including the kidnap and murder of her daughter Laura and the nearly 34-year search for her grandson Guido.
"Yet despite all this, she still wants to help other grandmothers with the same spiritedness as ever, and without succumbing to hatred, resentment, or a desire for revenge."
Being a public figure isn't always easy, Carlotto says, but the warmth that people show her in the street helps her keep going. Sometimes people want to have their photo taken with her, she adds, as if she were a film star (in fact, her life was made into a movie last year, "Verdades verdaderas," or "Real Truths," directed by Nicolás Gil Lavedra).
Despite the affection that a large part of Argentine society feels toward her and the Abuelas, there are still people who want to silence her bold voice, especially those with links to the dictatorship. On Sept. 20, 2002, in the early hours of the morning, Carlotto was home alone in her house in La Plata when it was peppered with gunshots fired from a speeding car. She was unharmed, but the attempted murder now means she has a policeman at her door 24 hours a day, and she travels with bodyguards.
"Look, I'm not afraid," Carlotto says defiantly, "firstly because the worst has already happened to me: My daughter was killed. And secondly because the bullets they tried to fire at me are the same that killed my daughter. The same people didn't fire them but they showed the same murderous mind-set."
Times are changing, however. The nature of the Abuelas organization is different now, she says. A father and a grandchild are now involved in the day-to-day running of it. It's the latter and his fellow "brothers and sisters," as she refers to them, who will continue the search until all 500 are found, she says.
Recommended: 6 styles of parenting from around the globe
In October, Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo celebrated its 35th anniversary with speeches, laughter, and music at a Buenos Aires theater. The group has come a long way since those perilous first few years when its members were unsure of what they were doing and where it would lead – and when showing any sort of defiance of military rule was a highly dangerous activity.
"Sadness is something we'll have buried deep within us forever," Carlotto says, "but we're able to appreciate our achievements. Every grandchild that we find is giving freedom to someone who was living as a slave, so that they can recover their rights, their identity, their history, and their family.

Read More..