Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273751859?client_source=feed&format=rss
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California teachers fund reviewing private equity gun investment
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus Capital Management LP, the private equity firm that controls Bushmaster Firearms International, in light of last week's school shooting in Connecticut.
With $155 billion in assets under management, CalSTRS is the largest teachers' fund and the second-largest pension fund in the United States, making it a powerful voice in the investment community that may influence others in reaction to the shooting.
"At this point our investment branch is examining the Cerberus investment to determine how best to move forward given the tragic events of last Friday in Newtown, Connecticut," Ricardo Duran, a spokesman for the public pension fund manager, said in an email.
CalSTRS had invested $751.4 million with Cerberus by the end of March 2012, according to its website. Cerberus owns Madison, North Carolina-based Freedom Group Inc, which includes Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle used by the shooter in the Newtown killings.
Spokespeople for Cerberus and Freedom Group did not respond to requests for comment.
CalSTRS has disclosed investments in three Cerberus funds that were raised between 2003 and 2008. It was not immediately clear which of the three funds Cerberus had used to invest in Freedom Group or how broad CalSTRS' review of its commitment to Cerberus was.
Investments in private equity, which involve fund managers buying, reorganizing and then selling companies in a bid to make a profit, are notoriously illiquid. A private equity fund usually has a ten-year lifespan and investors wishing to exit may have to find another party willing to buy their stake in the fund.
Cerberus acquired Bushmaster in 2006 and later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group, which reported net sales of $677.3 million for the nine months ending September 2012, up from $564.6 million in the corresponding period a year ago.
Founded in 1992 by Stephen Feinberg and William Richter, New York-based Cerberus has over $20 billion under management invested and shares its name with a mythical three-headed dog that in Greek mythology guards the entrance to the underworld.
Newtown's schools remained closed on Monday after a weekend of mourning that followed Adam Lanza's shooting spree on Friday that claimed 28 lives, including those of 20 young children, his mother's and his own.
Police said Lanza was armed with hundreds of bullets in high-capacity magazines of about 30 rounds each for the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and two handguns he carried into the school, and had a fourth weapon, a shotgun, in his car outside.
A growing number of U.S. lawmakers - including a leading pro-gun senator - called on Monday for a look at curbing assault weapons like the one used in a massacre at a Connecticut grade school, a sign that attitudes toward gun control laws could be shifting.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; editing by Gary Hill, Gary Crosse)
(This story corrects headline and paragraph 1, to investment, not investments, to make clear CalSTRS only addressed Cerberus investment; drops extraneous word "the," paragraph 1)
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NATO rejects Iranian accusations on missile deployment in Turkey
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general on Monday rejected charges by Iran's armed forces chief that the Western alliance was risking a world war with plans to put Patriot anti-missile systems near Turkey's border with Syria, saying the move was purely defensive.
NATO agreed this month to send Patriot missiles to Turkey to protect its ally against possible attack from neighboring Syria, where a 21-month-old civil war is raging. Turkey has harbored some Syrian rebels and refugees, and there have been episodes of gunfire from Syria hitting Turkish territory.
"I completely denounce these (Iranian) allegations. We have made clear right from the outset that the deployment of Patriots is a purely defensive measure," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference after talks with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. "We are there to defend and protect our ally Turkey. We have no offensive intentions whatsoever."
Rasmussen said he believed the only people who might be concerned about NATO's pending deployment of Patriot missiles were "actors that might have silly ideas to use their missile capabilities for offensive purposes.
"But I hope that the fact that we have deployed Patriot missiles in Turkey can act as an effective deterrent so that no one would even think about attacking Turkey," he said.
General Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran's army chief of staff, was quoted on Saturday as calling for NATO not to deploy the Patriots in Turkey, which also borders Iran.
"Each one of these Patriots is a black mark on the world map, and is meant to cause a world war," Firouzabadi said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. "They are making plans for a world war, and this is very dangerous for the future of humanity and for the future of Europe itself."
The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are sending a total of six Patriot batteries to Turkey but they are not expected to be operational for several more weeks.
(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nato-rejects-iranian-accusations-missile-deployment-turkey-150222074.html
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