Aid airdrops to Syria’s besieged are called too dangerous + MORE Jan 22nd

As images and reports of starvation in besieged Syrian communities drew an international outcry and two rare aid convoys this month, an urgent question arose: Why not drop food and other needed supplies by air?
Humanitarian access is a key issue as the United Nations tries to get Syrian parties to peace talks tentatively set for Monday. And it’s the focus of a pledging conference on Feb. 4 in London, with the leaders of countries including Germany and Iran expected to attend.
Almost five years after Syria’s civil war began, the U.N. says more than 393,000 people are besieged. Food aid reached less than 1 per cent of them last year. About 181,000 are besieged by Syria’s government.
Aid airdrops in Syria are possible to do, the U.S. Air Force secretary noted last week. “If we’re asked to do it, we have the assets, we have the people, we know how to do airdrops,” Deborah Lee James told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Russia, the Syrian government’s strongest ally, this month announced airdrops to the city of Deir el-Zour, where government-held areas are blockaded by Islamic State militants and an estimated 200,000 people are besieged…

General Electric topped Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter and reaffirmed its target for 2016, but shares fell in Friday trading as the company’s industrial revenue declined.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempt Friday to attract more foreign investment to Canada comes as the government struggles to get a handle on exactly what foreigners own in the country’s crucial oil and gas sector.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show the Finance Department only has a rough estimate on foreign ownership in the energy sector — a key destination for investment from abroad.
The February 2015 briefing note addressed to deputy finance minister Paul Rochon says it’s likely between 40 and 50 per cent of the sector is owned by foreign investors.
Statistics Canada says foreign capital accounts for about half of all direct investment in Canada and the figure has climbed in recent years — including an increase of 5.8 per cent from 2013 to 2014.
Trudeau has been using the global stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to try and reel in more foreign investment to help Canada’s limping economy.
Foreign investment has at times been a contentious issue in Canada and the former Conservative government wrestled for years to find a policy mix that would make everyone happy…

When you’re in the Retirement Risk Zone, as I am, the last thing you want is to watch decades of savings go down the drain in a bear market. With most markets already down 20% around the world, you could argue the damage has already been done but there are a sufficient number of pessimists out there who warn the worst case could be down still further, for a peak-to-trough decline of as much as 50%, as occurred in 2007-2008.
Capital preservation is the name of the game when you’re near or at retirement. Recall that finance professor Moshe Milevsky’s definition of the Retirement Risk Zone is the five years before and five years following your projected retirement date. I’m nearing 63 and am semi-retired so take bear markets seriously. A bear market at this stage can seriously undermine one’s future plans.
With the caveat that timing the market is next to impossible, I can describe what I’m doing personally. Much of what follows I owe to my own financial advisor, who does not wish to be identified in this article…

His plan would hurt investors—but, hey, at least it would pay for free college.