Joe Malseed saw the 18-inch reptile this week in the city's Fishtown neighborhood and snapped its photo before calling for help. He says the alligator was in a puddle and appeared to be emerging from a nearby sewer. He says it was docile until a man tried to get a closer look and it hissed.

Police took the reptile to the city's Animal Care & Control Team. The reptile has been named Allie-Gator.

The animal control team said Wednesday despite the name it hasn't determined the alligator's gender because, "Who's going to do that job?"

Allie-Gator will remain with the team until a permanent home is found.

Adrian Durham darted into oncoming traffic to get away, and in the end the would-be mugger didn't make off with anything. But the June 2 incident, which Durham described in a recent column, has served as a warning for the tens of thousands of foreign visitors expected to flood into Brazil for this week's Confederations Cup soccer tournament.

It's only the first of a series of high-profile events Rio's is gearing up to host, among them a papal visit in July, next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Security has long been a major problem in Brazil, where heavily armed drug lords control swaths of territory that are off-limits to law enforcement and where petty crime often turns fatal. As part of its Olympic bid, Brazil's government pledged to curb the violence, and major strides have been made in recent years, particularly in Rio, where the police are now present in more than 200 hillside "favela" slums.

But the country still has an alarmingly high murder rate, and knife- and gun-point muggings, carjackings and armed robberies continue to be facts of daily life. Rio alone has seen a spate of recent incidents, including the March gang rape of an American student aboard a public transit van and the shooting last Saturday of a Brazilian engineer who, because of faulty signs, took a wrong turn and drove into an unpacified favela.

Brazilian officials have brought in drones, thermal cameras and thousands of troops to patrol the six stadiums hosting Confederations Cup events. But experts say visitors like Durham will be immediately vulnerable once they venture away from secured areas, and in fact, may run even a greater risk than usual, with many police having been called off their regular street duties to patrol the stadiums' environs.

"Street lighting and police presence need to be stepped up dramatically before the World Cup and then the Olympics come here," Durham wrote in his column. "Attitudes need to change locals clearly just accept that crime happens and have no desire to tackle it."

Brazil's epidemic of everyday violence makes ensuring security at the upcoming mega-events doubly complicated: Not only must officials plan for threats such as terrorism that overshadow any event of global scale, they also have to keep a lid on day-to-day violence, which some observers predict could reach a fever pitch with the influx of an estimated 60,000 foreign tourists.

Officials said they've already deployed the most extensive security apparatus ever in Brazil for the Confederations Cup, a two-week tournament that's regarded as a dry run for next year's World Cup.

"We are strongly concerned with ensuring safety and security to all our athletes, tourists, heads of state and delegations," Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo told reporters on a conference call earlier this week. "Special attention is given to this matter particularly in light of prior tragedies" like the slaying of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the Boston Marathon bombings in April.

Some 45,000 personnel will be deployed in the tournament's six host cities, according to SESGE, the government agency created in 2011 to coordinate security at the mega-events. That means a hodgepodge of Brazilian law enforcement agencies, from federal and state police officers to municipal guards to highway patrol, will be patrolling key sites such as airports and stadium surroundings. Inside the venues, world soccer's governing body, FIFA, will rely on private guards.

According to SESGE, one guard will be assigned for every 50 spectators at the matches, which kick off on Saturday when Brazil plays Japan in the tournament's opening game in the capital, Brasilia. In addition to 3,500 military police officers, the security detail at Saturday's match will also include a battalion of riot police with two armored vehicles, a canine unit of sniffer dogs trained to detect drugs and explosives as well as eight sharpshooters, said Fabio Pizetta, the head of Brazilia's riot police division.

The crackdown will also make use of the latest technology, with stadium fly-overs by Air Force fighter jets and helicopters kitted out with surveillance equipment including high-resolution, night-vision and thermal cameras, SESGE has said. Nearby buses will receive the surveillance images and help coordinate any police response.

The police have also been purchasing unmanned drones, which they may deploy during Pope Francis' July 22-28 visit to Rio, as well as during the World Cup, media reports have suggested.

In total, the government is expected to invest around $550 million in public security for the Confederations Cup and the World Cup, according to SESGE.

Despite the investment, security experts' assessments of the Brazilian strategy remain mixed.

Joe Biundini, who heads the FAM International Group security firm, said he didn't anticipate any issues inside the stadiums but was worried about the potential terror threat posed by Brazil's porous, 15,700 kilometer-long land border. Although Brazil has never before been the target of an international terror attack, he said, the Boston Marathon bombings showed big sporting events are vulnerable.

"The borders aren't as secure as they could be. Right now, the door to Brazil is wide open," said Biundini, a Brazilian-born former U.S. Marine whose company has studied security risks in the Confederations Cup.

Biundini added that the terror threat could come from the notoriously crime ridden tri-border region where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet.

"There's real potential there for the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction" through the area, he said.

With public security forces concentrated around the stadiums, public transit hubs and other outlying areas could become more vulnerable to potential attacks, as well as to petty criminals, Biundini said.

Authorities have promised to beef up personnel at airports by more than 75 percent during the Confederations Cup, but ground has yet to be broken on many planned renovations aimed at making the host cities' cramped, outdated airports safer and more comfortable.

"I think the plan they have in place is good on paper, but whether it actually works will depend on communication" between at least 12 different government agencies with roles in the security detail, Biundini said. "They'll certainly make lots of mistakes (during the Confederations Cup) but hopefully they'll learn from them for the World Cup."

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Train driver Martin Akersten says he and more than a dozen others at the Roslagsbanan line have started wearing skirts in the summer as a protest against the train company's uniform policy, which doesn't allow shorts.

The 30-year-old Akersten said Sunday the response from customers has been only positive.

Arriva, the company that runs the train line, hasn't stopped the drivers. Arriva spokesman Tomas Hedenius says the company wants its staff to look "nice and proper," but can't stop men from wearing "women's clothes" if that's what they want because it would be discrimination.

He didn't rule out a change of the company's uniform policy.

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Though the leaders are smiling in the above photo, there's reason to believe that there's plenty of tension between them. While Obama is staying at Sunnylands during the summit ("presumably in the canary yellow master bedroom where speakers pipe in the songs of the birds outdoors," The New York Times ), Xi decided to stay at a nearby Hyatt, where he was . While housing the Chinese delegation of over 200 people is great for the hotel, it seems a bit odd that Xi is giving Sunnylands the cold shoulder. Surely there's plenty of room for him in the 25,000 square foot home with 22 guest bedrooms? 

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Or maybe he's afraid of being spied on:

President Xi wont be staying at luxurious Sunnylands retreat because of eavesdropping worries instead he and his wife at nearby Hyatt

After , I can't really blame him.

A "crimes report has been filed," said Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report, which goes to the U.S. Justice Department, was filed by the super-secret NSA, he said.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Peter Cooney)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At first blush the two leading U.S. stock exchanges won a sweeping victory this week in a long-running legal battle over market data - the stock quotes, share prices and other trading information that are highly prized in the electronic marketplace.

But a ruling by the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit may also have opened the door for the Internet companies, brokers and others in the case to achieve a decade-old goal of cutting the fees the exchanges charge for the data.

The court ruled in a decision earlier this week it had no jurisdiction over a case brought by the NetCoalition of some 20 Internet companies, including Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, and the Securities Industry and Finance Markets Association, a 600-member lobby for brokers, bankers and asset managers.

The decision appeared to slam the door on the petitioners and remove a potential obstacle to efforts by the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market to offset sharp drops in revenue from stock transactions by boosting market data sales.

But the court did offer a path for Sifma and the NetCoalition group to mount a new battle, several people close to the case said.

The court indicated the Securities Exchange Act, which governs exchanges and their responsibilities as self-regulatory organizations, requires that the exchanges provide for the "equitable allocation" of reasonable fees, among other dues and charges.

The petitioners have argued the exchanges are effectively monopolies and competition is not sufficient to restrain prices.

"I intend to submit a ... petition," said Roger Blanc, a lawyer with Willkie Farr who represented the NetCoalition, the name by which the case is also called. "As soon as we can put it together, we'll be back before the circuit court."

The case is notable because of the importance of market data in an electronic market that relies on "signal processing," the analysis of data by high-speed computers, to trade.

Sifma and the NetCoalition had sought judicial review of the proprietary data both NYSE and Nasdaq sell after the Securities and Exchange Commission let stand almost all their filings for new schedules and higher prices for market data in recent years.

The petitioners challenged the SEC over more than a dozen filings, saying the fees were exorbitant and regulators had abdicated their duties to ensure data fees were "fee and reasonable," a loosely defined standard the agency must uphold.

Four of the complaints were combined before the appeals court, which has oversight of the SEC, and the two exchanges with the regulators provided a joint opinion in the case.

Market data has been a thorn in the side of the SEC for years, with regulators unable to resolve the issue despite a series of high-profile hearings and studies from 1999 to 2005.

A former senior SEC official said market data is highly contentious with no easy answer.

Although the appeals court said the Dodd-Frank act stripped it of jurisdiction in the case, the court left intact its August 2010 ruling that there must be evidence that competition is constraining the fees the exchanges charge for the data.

The court also said the exchanges cannot enforce fee rules that are inconsistent with the exchange act, and said fees need to be tied to "some type of cost-based" standard to guard against excessive profits.

The latter point could be a boon for the petitioners' cause. They have long contended the cost of producing the data is negligible and the exchanges charge far in excess of its cost.

"We are pleased that the court has affirmed our ability to provide high-quality data at reasonable rates to vendors who profit from reselling the data to their customers," a spokesman for the Nasdaq said. The NYSE declined to comment.

The NYSE and Nasdaq presented academic studies to bolster their position that competition exists for market data, and they have strongly resisted any cost analysis of their data.

The Nasdaq's chief financial officer has been telling analysts that market data is an "extremely high-margin" business. Revenue from the U.S. sale of proprietary data at the Nasdaq has expanded at a compound annual growth rate of about 10.8 percent since 2007, a period in which data usage has exploded.

The emphasis on market data as a profit center is misplaced, according to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt. The exchanges are trying to staunch their hemorrhaging and charging for data is purely a short-term solution to a long-term problem, he said.

A good portion of market data is public and should not be proprietary as the exchanges see it, Pitt said in an interview before the court's ruling this week. Allowing data to be available only for those who can afford it will create hard-to-justify market dislocations, he warned.

"The question is when you've allowed people to treat market data as proprietary for so long, how do you justify making a shift and what accommodations do you make?" Pitt said.

The case is NetCoalition and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association v Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit; No. 10-1421.

(Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.89 percent. That's below the previous record of 3.91 percent reached three weeks ago.

Records for mortgage rates date back to the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 3.16 percent. That's down from a record 3.21 percent three weeks ago.

Mortgage rates are lower because they track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which fell below 2 percent. They could fall even lower this year if the Fed launches another round of bond purchases, as some economists expect.

Average fixed mortgage rates hovered around 4 percent at the end of 2011. Yet many Americans either can't take advantage of the rates or have already done so.

High unemployment and scant wage gains have made it harder for many people to qualify for loans. Many don't want to sink money into a home that they fear could lose value over the next few years.

Mortgage applications have fallen slightly on a seasonally adjusted basis over the past four weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said that until hiring picks up and unemployment drops significantly, the impact of lower mortgage rates will remain muted.

Previously occupied homes are selling just slightly ahead of 2010's dismal pace. New-home sales in 2011 will likely be the worst year on records going back half a century.

Builders hope that the low rates could boost sales next year. Low mortgage rates were cited as a key reason the National Association of Home Builders survey of builder sentiment rose in December to its highest level in more than a year.

But so far, they have had little impact on the depressed housing market.

To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average rates don't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for the 30-year loan fell to 0.7 from 0.8; the average on the 15-year fixed mortgage was unchanged at 0.8.

For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate declined to 2.82 percent from 2.86 percent. The average on the one-year adjustable loan fell to 2.76 percent from 2.80 percent.

The average fee on the five-year adjustable loan rose was unchanged at 0.7; the average on the one-year adjustable-rate loan was unchanged at 0.6.

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There aren't many charitable ways to interpret the New York City mayor's comments, made on a radio show on WOR today, as . He took issue with the idea of legalizing marijuana for three reasons.

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The Post:

"There's no medical. This is one of the great hoaxes of all time."

Saying something is one of the great hoaxes of all time is, in itself, a bold claim. We are a civilization that has yielded afrom the Loch Ness Monster to Bernie Madoff. If it were the case that marijuana held no medical benefit, it would perhaps be a hoax, but of questionable scale.

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And it would involve the complicity ofandand , all of whom suggest that there's validity to the idea of marijuana having a medicinal use.

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A Bloomberg staffer "clarified" to the Post reporter that the mayor meant that recreational users might acquire pot reserved for medical purposes. Which is a weird definition of "hoax," but we'll go with it.

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Bloomberg then said this: "The bottom line is, I'm told marijuana is much stronger today than it was 20, 30 years ago. … That's one problem."

It's not exactly clear how that's a problem? This isn't like alcohol, in which there's a demonstrable downside to drinking too much. Yes, a big glass of beer will have a very different effect than a big glass of Everclear. But that is not demonstrably the case with pot. Perhaps Bloomberg is worried stoned people might eat .

Bloomberg's third argument was perhaps the weirdest.

This is not exactly how drug dealing, particularly of marijuana, works. There are a lot of drugs with much higher profit margins than marijuana. It may very well be the case the marijuana dealers will explore other high-profit criminal activity in lieu of selling weed if it is legalized, but those dealers could be selling "something worse" right now if they really wanted to. A lot of weed dealers, I am told from reliable sources who are not me, do so casually. Many of them aren't trying to feed their families. They're trying to offset the cost of smoking weed.

Bloomberg's comments, head-slappingly goofy as they were, are a little less funny when one considers that he is the mayor of city that relishes busting people for marijuana possession. Just yesterday,how, with Bloomberg's blessing, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has turned the pot bust into something of an art form.

The problem grew particularly bad in conjunction with the NYPD's enthusiasm for stop-and-frisks, random searches of pedestrians — nearly all of them— that Bloomberg credits with reducing the city's crime rate. But the data suggests that arrests for misdemeanor drug crimes increased in tandem with the number of stop-and-frisks. This is part of the reasonin the first place: To curtail arrests from the Bloomberg NYPD's still-enthusiastic stop-and-frisk program.

A final note, just as a bit of a garnish on the ridiculousness of Bloomberg's comments. When , the not-yet-mayor admitted that he used to smoke weed, saying, "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." Presumably only because it wasn't very strong and it kept his dealer's kids fed. And almost certainly he would now agree that he should have been arrested for possessing it.