tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67204860199211304682024-03-13T20:53:29.185-07:00News From Across The GlobeFrom My Desk to Yours... Your Source of News and InformationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-69487925514393840222014-02-04T20:21:00.002-08:002014-02-04T20:28:33.128-08:00Talking Peace Again<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vpnYaoDR_Bk/UvG9aWDwOfI/AAAAAAAACuE/60t88UPJ3w8/s1600/taliban.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vpnYaoDR_Bk/UvG9aWDwOfI/AAAAAAAACuE/60t88UPJ3w8/s1600/taliban.PNG" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
ONCE upon a time, four wise men met with recalcitrant TTP leaders. Impressed by the merit of their arguments, convincing mannerisms and generosity of the state to let bygones be bygones, the cruel resolve of hardened terrorists melted away and they suddenly saw the light.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
They returned to the fold of civilised society, swore allegiance to the Constitution and the state’s writ, surrendered their weapons, released hostages, repented of the killing of innocent civilians and agreed to work with community leaders and state officials to rebuild war-tattered Fata.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
In response the state announced an amnesty scheme for everyone who admitted past wrongdoing and repented. It amended Article 247 of the Constitution to mainstream Fata and extended rights enjoyed by ordinary Pakistanis to tribesmen as well. Its team of leaders, legal experts and scholars devised indigenous local government and criminal justice systems for Fata within the framework of the Constitution, Sharia and tribal riwaaj. Fata emerged as the Switzerland of the East and everyone lived happily ever after.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
If wishes were horses, peace talks with terrorists would produce happy endings. It has been said before and it needs to be said again: the predominant opposition to talks is not rooted in the belief that exterminating members of the TTP-led terror syndicate or revenge is a goal as desirable as peace. Notwithstanding the TTP’s savagery and the thousands of citizens lost to it, the argument for forgiveness over retributive justice would win any day if the probability of talks resulting in the surrender of terrorists — as opposed to the surrender of the state — was a reasonable one.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
Let’s quickly revisit our experience with militants and peace agreements. In 2004, the Shakai agreement was signed with Nek Mohammad in South Waziristan. The government was to release militants taken prisoner during the military operation and pay compensation for casualties and collateral damage. Nek Mohammad and his men were granted amnesty. In return, the militants agreed not to attack state property and personnel and to desist from participating in armed conflict in Afghanistan. There was no requirement to oust foreign militants or surrender heavy weapons.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
Within days the agreement blew up in the military’s face: Nek Mohammad reiterated allegiance to Al Qaeda and had to be taken out by a drone.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
In 2005, the Sararogha peace deal was signed with Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan. Baitullah agreed not to attack government functionaries and property or harbour foreign militants. In return he and his men were afforded amnesty for past actions. There was no prohibition on cross-border actions.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HCZh8_WVRso/UvG9tJT7yJI/AAAAAAAACuM/HFqbz4j8OSg/s1600/taliban+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HCZh8_WVRso/UvG9tJT7yJI/AAAAAAAACuM/HFqbz4j8OSg/s1600/taliban+2.PNG" height="170" width="320" /></a></div>
Abdullah Mehsud opted out of the agreement and Baitullah never really abided by it. Eventually, Baitullah was taken out by a drone attack in 2009 and Operation Rah-i-Nijat was carried out.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
In 2006, the 16-point Miramshah peace deal was signed in North Waziristan with Hafiz Gul Bahadur and others. There were to be no terrorist attacks in Pakistan, cross-border attacks in Afghanistan or attacks on state personnel and property. Foreigners were to be asked to remain peaceful or leave. The government agreed to halt the military operation, release militants, pay compensation for collateral damage and withdraw the army to the barracks. Some understanding with Hafiz Gul Bahadur has probably survived but North Waziristan is enemy territory today.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
In 2008, a peace deal was concluded in Khyber Agency with militants including Lashkar-i-Islam (Mangal Bagh) and Ansarul Islam (Qazi Mehbub). Militants agreed not to set up a parallel administration, initiate incursions into Peshawar, allow foreigners in the Bara area, attack government property, impede developmental work or brandish unauthorised weapons. The deal didn’t survive long and eventually a military operation (Sirat-i-Mustaqeem) was carried out. The 2008 deal with Faqir Hussain in Bajaur also didn’t last and was followed up by Operation Sher Dil.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
The year 2009 saw the infamous Swat agreement with Sufi Mohammad and the TTP’s current head Mullah Fazlullah. It was agreed that Sharia would be enforced (Nizam-i-Adl Regulations, 2009 were promulgated), militants would be released, no private militias would exist, foreign militants would surrender and barber shops and vaccination campaigns would not be attacked. The state agreed to withdraw the army. In response militants annexed Buner and Shangla and rejected democracy and the Constitution. Operation Rah-i-Haq had to be launched to reacquire Swat.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
What are the lessons? Peace talks failed each time not because of deficient skills of interlocutors or the talks’ agenda, but because of the fundamental clash between the interests of Pakistan and those of the militants. Militant leaders have no social or political prospects in a peaceful Fata. They are the new power elite within the tribal areas and across Pakistan (as patrons of the crime and terror-syndicate spread all over). It is a zero-sum game for them. Their power flows from the gun. If they put it down, they become irrelevant.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
Re-establishing preeminence of traditional tribal leadership won’t happen amicably. The power has not shifted from the maliks to the army but from maliks to the militants. The hands of the clock can’t simply be turned back. The state needs to help strengthen and rejuvenate traditional tribal structures in Fata but it can only be done through introduction of new instruments such as local government and criminal justice structures contrived in consultation with the tribes. Bringing North Waziristan back within the fold of Pakistan is only one part of an anti-terror policy. As we continue to rely on the miracle of talks succeeding, let’s not suspend work on its other vital components meant for all of Pakistan.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-right: 20px;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; color: #444444; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><a href="http://www.dawn.com/%C2%ADnews/%C2%AD1084592/%C2%ADtalking-%C2%ADpeace-%C2%ADagain" target="_blank">www.dawn.com/news/1084592/talking-peace-again</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-39573921383066815702012-06-20T11:18:00.000-07:002012-06-20T11:18:51.162-07:00Doctor who helped US in search for Osama Bin Laden jailed for 33 years<div id="article-body-blocks">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/5/23/1337799886383/Dr-Shakil-Afridi-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/5/23/1337799886383/Dr-Shakil-Afridi-008.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Osama bin Laden was tracked down with help from Dr Shakil Afridi, above,
who was arrested soon after US commandos raided al-Qaida leader's
compound in Abottabad. Photograph: Qazi Rauf/PA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
For some Americans the Pakistani doctor who worked on a
clandestine operation to track down one of the US's greatest enemies is a
hero who should be given citizenship. But for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pakistan" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Pakistan">Pakistan</a>'s
security agencies Dr Shakil Afridi, a 48-year-old physician who once
led campaigns to vaccinate children against polio on the Afghan
frontier, is a villain.<br />
On Wednesday a representative of the
country's main spy agency said Afridi had got what he deserved when he
was sentenced to 33 years in prison for conspiring against the state,
for his role in trying to help the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cia" title="More from guardian.co.uk on CIA">CIA</a> track <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/osamabinladen" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Osama bin Laden">Osama bin Laden</a> to his hideout in the garrison town of Abbottabad.<br />
The
verdict, passed under colonial-era legislation that denies defendants
the right to a lawyer, was handed down by an official from Khyber
Agency, one of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas, in consultation
with a council of elders. Afridi was also fined £2,221.<br />
The former
public health officer, who reportedly did not know who exactly the CIA
were trying to target, was arrested soon after the night-time raid on
the former <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/al-qaida" title="More from guardian.co.uk on al-Qaida">al-Qaida</a> leader's compound on 2 May last year.<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/11/cia-fake-vaccinations-osama-bin-ladens-dna" title="">As first revealed by The Guardian</a>,
in the weeks running up to the assault by US Navy Seals Afridi had been
running a bogus hepatitis B vaccination campaign for the CIA, a front
designed to collect blood samples in the hope of finding people who
matched the bin Laden family DNA.<br />
More than a year after the
killing of bin Laden he is the only person to have been arrested in
connection with an event which humiliated Pakistan's all-powerful
military establishment and severely undermined relations between the US
and Pakistan.<br />
An official inquiry into all aspects of the affair
appears more vexed by how US forces could have got in and out of
Pakistan without being detected than whether Bin Laden had a network of
helpers who are still at large.<br />
The conviction of Afridi came
despite public lobbying by senior Americans, including the US defence
secretary, Leon Panetta, who in January publicly said Afridi had "helped
provide intelligence that was very helpful with regard to this
operation".<br />
The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/23/doctor-bin-laden-cia-jail#" rel="msb" style="border-bottom: 3px double #0033FF; color: #0033ff; text-decoration: none;">support</a>
of Dana Rohrabacher, a controversial US Congressman who introduced
legislation calling for Afridi to be given US citizenship, was perhaps
less helpful. Rohrabacher is reviled by the Pakistani establishment for
his support for a nationalist movement in the southern province of
Baluchistan.<br />
"He was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan,"
Panetta said in January. "He was not in any way doing anything that
would have undermined Pakistan."<br />
But that did not wash with a
Pakistani intelligence official who compared Afridi to Jonathan Pollard,
a former US intelligence analyst who was imprisoned for spying on
behalf of Israel.<br />
"He was working for a spy agency of a third country, irrespective of the fact that country is an ally," said the official.<br />
On
Wednesday Pentagon press secretary George Little responded to
questioning about the verdict, saying: "Anyone who supported the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United States">United States</a> in finding Osama bin Laden was not working against Pakistan. They were working against al-Qaida."<br />
Lawyers
were puzzled by the decision to try Afridi under the Frontier Crimes
Regulation (FCR), a much criticised set of harsh rules designed by the
British in the 19th century to subjugate unruly tribes.<br />
Wajihuddin
Ahmed, a former supreme court judge, said the FCR did not cover
Abbottabad where the writ of regular Pakistani law runs. The authorities
may have wished to deal with the case in a "hush hush type of hearing".<br />
"Everyone
is entitled to be tried in an ordinary court and in ordinary way and I
cannot understand why they would do that if the offence – if it is an
offence at all – was committed in Abbottabad," he said.<br />
Although
Afridi has the right to appeal against the verdict to an official known
as the FCR Commissioner, his best hope may lie in a presidential pardon,
should relations between Pakistan and the US improve. That is not
likely in the near term given the fundamental disagreements between the
two countries over American use of drone attacks in the tribal areas and
Washington's refusal to formally apologise for the killing of 24
Pakistani soldiers in an incident on the Afghan border last September.<br />
The
announcement of Afridi's sentence came days after Barack Obama snubbed
Asif Ali Zardari by refusing to hold a formal bilateral meeting with the
Pakistani president at the Nato conference in Chicago.<br />
The
Americans are furious that Zardari's government has refused to lift a
six-month long ban on Nato supply trucks passing through Pakistani
territory.<br />
US and Pakistani officials give different accounts of
the importance of Afridi's work in determining bin Laden's whereabouts.
The US has long maintained that policymakers were far from being
completely sure the terrorist leader was in the house when the raid was
launched.<br />
However, Pakistani officials recently told The Guardian
that although the nurses working for Afridi were not allowed to
vaccinate anyone they did succeed in getting a mobile phone number for
someone inside the bin Laden compound.<br />
The Pakistani sources say
that phone call allowed the CIA to make a voice match to bin Laden's
private courier, a man known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.<br />
All of the
17 health workers who assisted Afridi on the vaccination drive were
sacked in March after being officially criticised for acting "against
the national interest".<br />
<h2>
Aid under threat</h2>
Pakistan's aid
community is still reeling from Dr Shakil Afridi's clandestine
activities to pinpoint the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.<br />
In a
country in which well-meaning health workers can struggle to reach
conservative or conflict-torn areas where outsiders are unwelcome,
Afridi's work with the CIA has undermined their efforts.<br />
With his
band of 17 health workers, Afridi pretended to be running a hepatitis B
vaccination campaign. In fact they were only interested in collecting
DNA that might link people in Abbottabad with Bin Laden.<br />
There are fears that the exposure of the ruse has helped to link public health campaigns with foreign spies.<br />
That
is all the more unfortunate given Afridi's prior history working on
polio vaccination campaigns in Pakistan's restless tribal areas.<br />
Pakistan
is one of just three countries that have failed to eradicate the
disease that leaves children with withered legs. Despite polio
eradication being a government priority, as many as 200,000 children
were not vaccinated in the past two years.<br />
Save the Children has
been particularly badly affected by the saga. Afridi reportedly told
investigators from Pakistan's military intelligence agency that he was
originally introduced to the CIA by the aid organisation – a claim Save
the Children denies.<br />
The organisation has since faced a number of
problems, including staff being refused visas and the blocking of vital
medical supplies from coming into the country.<br />
The aid community
is so disconcerted by the affair that in March a coalition of 200
organisations wrote to David Petraeus, director of the CIA, protesting
about the use of a doctor to track down bin Laden.<br />
<strong>Jon Boone</strong><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-68991214570219303862012-06-03T01:11:00.002-07:002012-06-03T01:11:51.928-07:00US drones kill five militants in Pakistan<div class="yom-mod yom-art-content " id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_199">
<div class="bd" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_198">
<div class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_197">
<cite class="byline vcard" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_379">By <span class="fn" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_382">S.H. Khan</span> | <span class="provider org" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_384">AFP</span> </cite></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/t3DGZ23m7uY0kHOjWSx.Mg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzQ4O2NyPTE7Y3c9NTEyO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMzA7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1338699801478-1-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/t3DGZ23m7uY0kHOjWSx.Mg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzQ4O2NyPTE7Y3c9NTEyO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMzA7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1338699801478-1-0.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="first" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_197">
<cite class="byline vcard" id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_379"></cite> US drone strikes targeting a militant compound in <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1338702275_0">Pakistan</span>'s northwestern tribal area killed at least five insurgents on Sunday, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1338702275_1">security officials</span> said, the second attack in 24 hours.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_313">
Two US drones fired four missiles
at a house belonging to a militant commander in Wacha Dana town, 10
kilometres (six miles) west of Wana, the main town in the South
Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security
officials said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_204">
"At least five militants have died. The house has been badly destroyed," a <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_2">security official</span> told AFP, on condition of anonymity.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_316">
Two other security officials confirmed the strikes. One intelligence officer put the toll at six dead.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_210">
Sunday's attack in <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_8">South Waziristan</span> was the second in as many days and comes amid an upsurge in <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_5">drone</span> strikes in Pakistan since a NATO conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.</div>
Washington considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal
belt the main hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on
the West and in Afghanistan.<br />
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_322">
Pakistani-US relations went into freefall last year.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_212">
There were hit when a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistanis and dented further by an American raid that killed Al-Qaeda chief <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_6">Osama bin Laden</span> and by US air strikes in November that killed 24 <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_7">Pakistani soldiers</span>.</div>
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_206">
After the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_3">air strikes</span>, Pakistan shut its Afghan border to NATO supplies and ordered US staff out of an air base reportedly used as a hub for drones.</div>
Seven US drone strikes have been reported since May's Chicago summit,
which failed to secure a deal on resuming the supply lines.<br />
In March, Pakistan's parliament agreed to reset US relations on
condition that Washington apologise for the troops' deaths and end drone
attacks on its soil.<br />
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_208">
Pakistan has been incensed by <span class="yshortcuts cs4-ndcor" id="lw_1338702275_4">Washington</span>'s
refusal to apologise for the November air strikes and US officials have
so far rejected Pakistani proposals to charge several thousand dollars
for each alliance truck crossing the border.</div>
Islamabad, which is understood to have given its tacit approval for
attacks on Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in the past, has become
increasingly vocal in its opposition to the perceived violation of
national sovereignty.<br />
Despite Pakistani criticism US officials are believed to consider the
drone attacks too useful to stop them altogether. They have argued that
drone strikes are a valuable weapon in the war against Islamist
militants.<br />
According to an AFP tally, 45 US missile strikes were reported in
Pakistan's tribal belt in 2009, the year US President Barack Obama took
office, 101 in 2010 and 64 in 2011.<br />
<div id="yui_3_4_0_44_1338710886402_325">
The New America Foundation
think-tank in Washington says drone strikes have killed between 1,715
and 2,680 people in Pakistan in the past eight years.</div>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-42216181266590697122012-01-09T11:31:00.000-08:002012-01-09T11:31:03.963-08:00U.S. condemns reported Iran death sentence for former U.S. Marine<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 24px;">By </span><span class="fn" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/author/laura-rozen/" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">Laura Rozen</a></span><span style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 24px;"> | </span><span class="provider org" style="color: #7d7d7d; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">The Envoy</a></span>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The State Department said Monday that it was working to confirm Iranian state media reports that an Iran court had sentenced an American citizen, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, to death on charges of spying for the CIA.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"If true, we strongly condemn this verdict," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement Monday. "Allegations that Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA, are simply untrue."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati "has 20 days to appeal the court's decision," the Washington Post's Thomas Erdbrink<a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AiujpzY.7qYNQU79ODQsg8LyWed_;_ylu=X3oDMTFka3BkYnE0BG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNiMXB0MXNmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZTJhNDYxMTUtMDIwNC0zMTY1LWEzNzEtYTcxZTg2NmEzMjFkBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlZW52b3kEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=0/SIG=13vj2unou/EXP=1327345342/**http%3A//www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-court-sentences-american-to-death/2012/01/09/gIQA3T8GlP_story.html" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">reported</a> from Tehran.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati, 28, a former U.S. Marine Arabic language translator in Iraq, was born in Flagstaff, Arizona of Iranian descent and raised in Michigan. His family in Michigan, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/friend-says-detained-iranian-american-not-spy-211018667.html" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">former colleagues</a> and American officials say Hekmati never served in the CIA and was in Iran to visit his grandmother.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati's parents said they "are shocked and terrified" by the news, his mother Behnaz Hekmati<a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AmplUb.wnkIV16tR4ams05TyWed_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkNWJ1MDBuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNiMXB0MXNmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZTJhNDYxMTUtMDIwNC0zMTY1LWEzNzEtYTcxZTg2NmEzMjFkBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlZW52b3kEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=0/SIG=118bhoa2j/EXP=1327345342/**http%3A//freeamir.org/" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">wrote</a> at the website the family set up to advocate for Amir's release, <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Aq7bYjddRazD_pE22m8DFnXyWed_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkMmFzbGIwBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNiMXB0MXNmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZTJhNDYxMTUtMDIwNC0zMTY1LWEzNzEtYTcxZTg2NmEzMjFkBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlZW52b3kEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=0/SIG=118bhoa2j/EXP=1327345342/**http%3A//freeamir.org/" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">FreeAmir</a>. "We believe that this verdict is the result of a process that was neither transparent nor fair."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div class="yom-figure yom-fig-right" style="background-color: white; clear: both; float: right; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 11px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 310px;">
<img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-6462" height="276" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Dm7rsmDUFPCqRHI.VsCA7Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/theenvoy/AmirHekmatiColombiaSept2010Press_photo.png" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block;" title="Amir Hekmati on vacation in Colombia in 2010. (Courtesy of Hekmati family/Yahoo News)" width="310" /><div class="legend" style="color: #414141; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Amir Hekmati on vacation in Colombia in 2010. (Courtesy of Hekmati family/Yahoo News)</div>
</div>
<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">"Amir did not engage in any acts of spying, or 'fighting against God,' as the convicting Judge has claimed in his sentence," his mother's </span><a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=ApfoTaLKrvv8sM_sSCv5MxvyWed_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkcWhpdTZuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzUEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNiMXB0MXNmBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZTJhNDYxMTUtMDIwNC0zMTY1LWEzNzEtYTcxZTg2NmEzMjFkBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhlZW52b3kEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=0/SIG=118bhoa2j/EXP=1327345342/**http%3A//freeamir.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #5d4370; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;">press statement</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> continues. "A grave error has been committed, and we have authorized our legal representatives to make direct contact with the Iranian authorities to find a solution to this misunderstanding."</span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati had the permission of the Iranian interests section--the U.S.-based diplomatic outpost for the Islamic republic--in Washington D.C. to travel to Iran in August to visit his elderly grandmother, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/family-detained-iranian-american-shocked-false-spy-charges-233445931.html" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">his family has told Yahoo News</a>. After his arrest on August 29, Iranian officials initially urged the family to keep quiet in order to facilitate his release.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But in December, Iranian state media aired video of Hekmati allegedly confessing to having worked as a CIA agent--charges his family and friends vehemently deny and which they said appear to have been given under duress.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati joined the Marines in 2001 after graduating from high school. He was posted to Iraq after attending language school in Monterey, Calif. He left the Marines in 2005, and later worked for various companies, including based in Kansas for the government contractor BAE Systems from March until September 2010, Yahoo News previously reported.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span id="more-6461"></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_17_1326120270732249" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Former U.S. Marine Jared Bystrom <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/family-detained-iranian-american-shocked-false-spy-charges-233445931.html" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">told</a> Yahoo News Tuesday that Hekmati called him last year to propose launching a business together. Bystrom and Hekmati had been posted by the Marines to the defense language school in Monterey, California in 2001, where Hekmati studied Arabic.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Another friend and former colleague of Hekmati's, Chase Winter, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/friend-says-detained-iranian-american-not-spy-211018667.html" style="color: #5d4370; text-decoration: none;">told Yahoo News</a> last month that Hekmati had told him he was thinking of going back to school to get a business degree. Hekmati visited Winter in South America last September 2010 for a week's vacation, Winter said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hekmati's Facebook page until shortly after his Iran TV video "confession" last month featured photos of himself in various locales he had traveled and worked--hardly demonstrating the behavior of someone trying to conceal his activities, his associates note.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
American officials again called on Monday for the Iran government to give Swiss diplomats consular access to Hekmati, to allow him to meet with a lawyer, and to release him "without delay."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Securing the freedom and safety of this young man is the top concern of the U.S. government in this case," a U.S. official who requested anonymity said Monday. "Unfortunately, the Iranian government is not doing the right thing here. They have a track record of falsely accusing individuals of espionage for leverage."</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-68416067203941259622012-01-04T00:58:00.001-08:002012-01-04T01:00:01.658-08:00Iran threatens U.S. Navy as sanctions hit economy<img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/.GxapXDcO3x2cDlNvQQqgw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjY5O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMTQ7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-01-03T134622Z_3_BTRE8020RAN00_RTROPTP_2_IRAN-USA-CARRIER.JPG" /> <br />
<div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:8861387f-b4dd-4e17-b883-9ea13b5154b6" style="display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Iran" rel="tag">Iran</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/US" rel="tag">US</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/threat" rel="tag">threat</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/middle+east" rel="tag">middle east</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/oil" rel="tag">oil</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/sanctons" rel="tag">sanctons</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/embargo" rel="tag">embargo</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/war" rel="tag">war</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/afghanistan" rel="tag">afghanistan</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/cold+war" rel="tag">cold war</a></div>
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Tuesday to take action if the U.S. Navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf, Tehran's most aggressive statement yet after weeks of saber-rattling as new U.S. and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy. <br />
The United States dismissed the Iranian threat, saying it was proof that sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program were working. The Pentagon said it would keep sending carrier strike groups through the Gulf regardless. <br />
The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector in a serious way for the first time has hit Iran's rial currency, which reached a record low on Tuesday and has fallen by 40 percent against the dollar in the past month. <br />
Queues formed at Tehran banks and some currency exchange offices shut their doors as Iranians scrambled to buy dollars to protect their savings. World oil prices jumped more than 4 percent. <br />
Army chief Ataollah Salehi said the United States had moved an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf because of Iran's naval exercises, and Iran would take action if the ship returned. <br />
"Iran will not repeat its warning ... the enemy's carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf....we are not in the habit of warning more than once," he said. <br />
The Pentagon appeared to walk a delicate line, assuring more "regularly scheduled movements" of aircraft carrier strike groups into the Gulf, but stopping short of announcing any special activity in response to the Iranian threat. <br />
"The deployment of U.S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades," the Pentagon said. <br />
The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis leads a U.S. Navy task force in the region. It is now outside the Gulf in the Arabian Sea, providing air support for the war in Afghanistan, said Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich, spokeswoman for the 5th Fleet. <br />
The carrier left the Gulf on December 27 on a planned routine transit through the Strait of Hormuz, she said. <br />
Forty percent of the world's traded oil flows through that narrow straight - which Iran threatened last month to shut if sanctions halted its oil exports. <br />
Brent crude futures were up more than $4 in late Tuesday afternoon trade in London, pushing above $111 a barrel. <br />
Asked at the Pentagon whether there was any U.S. military plan to bolster its presence in the Gulf or test the Iranian threat, spokesman George Little said: "No one in this government seeks confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz." <br />
"It is important to lower the temperature," he said. <br />
Tehran's latest threat comes at a time when sanctions are having an impact on its economy, and the country faces political uncertainty with an election in March, its first since a 2009 vote that triggered countrywide demonstrations. <br />
The West has imposed the increasingly tight sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is strictly peaceful but Western countries believe aims to build an atomic bomb. <br />
After years of measures that had little impact, the new sanctions are the first that could have a serious effect on Iran's oil trade, which is 60 percent of its economy. <br />
Sanctions signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve would cut financial institutions that work with Iran's central bank off from the U.S. financial system, blocking the main path for Iran to receive payments for its crude. <br />
The EU is expected to impose new sanctions by the end of this month, possibly including a ban on oil imports and a freeze of central bank assets. <br />
Even Iran's top trading partner China - which has refused to back new global sanctions against Iran - is demanding discounts to buy Iranian oil as Tehran's options narrow. Beijing has cut its imports of Iranian crude by more than half for January. <br />
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the latest Iranian threat "reflects the fact that Iran is in a position of weakness." State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said it showed international pressure was "beginning to bite." <br />
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit his counterpart in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss Iran's nuclear program and developments in Iraq and Syria. <br />
THREATS <br />
Iran has responded to the tighter measures with belligerent rhetoric, spooking oil markets briefly when it announced last month it could prevent shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. <br />
It then held 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf, test firing missiles that could hit U.S. bases in the Middle East. Tuesday's apparent threat to take action against the U.S. Navy in international waters takes the rhetoric to a new level. <br />
Experts still say they do not expect Tehran to charge headlong into an act of war - the U.S. Navy is overwhelmingly more powerful than Iran's sea forces - but Iran is running out of diplomatic room to avert a confrontation. <br />
"I think we should be very worried because the diplomacy that should accompany this rise in tension seems to be lacking on both sides," said Richard Dalton, former British ambassador to Iran and now an associate fellow at Chatham House think tank. <br />
"I don't believe either side wants a war to start. I think the Iranians will be aware that if they block the Strait or attack a U.S. ship, they will be the losers. Nor do I think that the U.S. wants to use its military might other than as a means of pressure. However, in a state of heightened emotion on both sides, we are in a dangerous situation." <br />
Henry Wilkinson at Janusian Risk Advisory consultants said the threats might be a bid by Iran to remind countries contemplating sanctions of the cost of havoc on oil markets. <br />
"Such threats can cause market confidence in the global oil supply to wobble and can push up oil prices and shipping insurance prices. For the EU powers debating new sanctions, this could be quite a pinch in the current economic climate." <br />
The new U.S. sanctions law, if implemented fully, would make it impossible for many refineries to pay Iran for crude. It takes effect gradually and lets Obama grant waivers to prevent an oil price shock, so its precise impact is hard to gauge. <br />
The European Union is expected to consider new measures by the end of this month. The sanctions would halt purchase of Iranian oil by EU members such as crisis-hit Greece, which has relied on easy financing terms offered by Tehran to buy crude. <br />
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris wants new measures taken by January 30, when EU foreign ministers meet. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Berlin was in talks with other EU states on "qualitatively new sanctions." <br />
Greek government sources said that Athens, thought of as a possible veto-wielding holdout, was ready to support sanctions. One official told Reuters: "If the European Union decides to impose the sanctions, Greece will join them." <br />
Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said member states would discuss the issue this week in the hope of agreeing on new steps before the January 30 meeting. "The ball is still in the Iranians' court," he said. <br />
Iran has written to Ashton asking to restart talks over its nuclear program that collapsed a year ago. The EU says it does not want talks unless Iran is prepared to discuss serious steps, such as halting its enrichment of uranium. <br />
CHINA CUTS IRAN OIL IMPORTS <br />
Although China, India and other countries are unlikely to sign up to any oil embargo, tighter Western sanctions mean such customers will be able to insist on deeper discounts for Iranian oil, reducing Tehran's income. <br />
Beijing has already been driving a hard bargain. China, which bought 11 percent of its oil from Iran during the first 11 months of last year, has cut its January purchase by about 285,000 barrels per day, more than half of the close to 550,000 bpd that it bought through a 2011 contract. <br />
The impact of falling government income from oil sales can be felt on the streets in Iran in soaring prices for state subsidized goods and a collapse of the rial currency. <br />
"The rate is changing every second ... We are not taking in any rials to change to dollars or any other foreign currency," said Hamid Bakshi at an exchange office in central Tehran. <br />
The economic impact is being felt ahead of a nationwide parliamentary election on March 2, the first vote since a disputed 2009 presidential election that brought tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators into the streets. <br />
In a sign of political tension among Iran's elite, a court jailed the daughter of powerful former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Tuesday for "anti-state propaganda." <br />
Rafsanjani sided with reformists during the 2009 protests. Daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani went on trial last month on charges of "campaigning against the Islamic establishment." <br />
(Additional reporting by Hashem Kalantari in Tehran, Humeyra Pamuk in Dubai, Brian Love in Paris, Keith Weir and William Maclean in London; Angeliki Koutantou in Athens, Florence Tan in Singapore, Phil Stewart, Matt Spetalnick and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff and Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech and Matthew Jones)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-82012126995442440702011-12-11T04:15:00.000-08:002011-12-11T04:15:23.304-08:00News From Across The Globe: Analysis: Newt Gingrich survives first big night o...<a href="http://newwsit.blogspot.com/2011/12/analysis-newt-gingrich-survives-first.html?spref=bl">News From Across The Globe: Analysis: Newt Gingrich survives first big night o...</a>: In his first debate Saturday as the polling Republican frontrunner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bore the brunt of the attacks from ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-23418458102590352652011-12-11T04:03:00.001-08:002011-12-11T04:04:25.493-08:00Analysis: Newt Gingrich survives first big night of attacks<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In his first debate Saturday as the polling Republican frontrunner, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bore the brunt of the attacks from every contender on the stage on a host of issues. But after two hours of attacks in the forum, co-sponsored by Yahoo News, ABC News and the Des Moines Register, he appeared to escape relatively unscathed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Prompted at times by ABC News moderators Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, all five of the GOP contenders on stage took shots at Gingrich at some point. But a relaxed and confident Gingrich delivered responses that played out in a way to potentially strengthen his standing among Republicans in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucus.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Over the course of the night, Gingrich was challenged on his consulting for government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, his past support for a government mandate to buy health insurance, his three marriages, a comment he made calling Palestinians an "invented" people, and even a proposal he once floated to build a colony on the moon. But despite the barrage, Gingrich appeared to coast largely above the fray.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="324" src="http://d.yimg.com/nl/ynews/blog/player.html#vid=27550004&browseCarouselUI=hide" width="576"></iframe></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span id="more-25089"></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
After about 15 minutes of tame policy talk, Romney took the first shot when asked if he thought Gingrich was in the best position to defeat President Barack Obama in 2012.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Well, of course I don't agree with that," Romney said. "I think a lot of people don't agree with that." Romney went on to criticize Gingrich for spending most of his career in Washington, comparing it to his years in the private sector.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Let's be candid," Gingrich replied. "The only reasons you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"You'd have been a 17-year career politician by now if you'd won," he said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="324" src="http://d.yimg.com/nl/ynews/blog/player.html#vid=27550238&browseCarouselUI=hide" width="576"></iframe></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In what could have been the most devastating portion of the debate for Gingrich, a candidate now married to his third wife, the moderators asked whether someone who had cheated on a spouse could be trusted to run the country. Each candidate was given an opportunity to attack Gingrich on the issue before he could respond.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"If you cheat on your wife, you'll cheat on your business partners," Perry said. "I think that sends a very powerful message. . . . I think that issue of fidelity is important."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Trust is everything," added former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who said marriage infidelity should not disqualify a candidate.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
When they got to Romney, however, he declined to address Gingrich directly, but he emphasized his 42 years of marriage. Gingrich responded by saying that he has asked God for forgiveness and played up his own grandchildren but said that his past was fair game.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I think that's a very, very important issue and I think people have to render judgment," Gingrich said. "I'm delighted at the way people have been willing to look at who I am, to look at what my record has been."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="324" src="http://d.yimg.com/nl/ynews/blog/player.html#vid=27550374&browseCarouselUI=hide" width="576"></iframe></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Even though most of the criticism was aimed at Gingrich, Romney will likely suffer the most from the contest. During a brief argument with Rick Perry, Romney challenged the<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/video-mitt-romney-offers-rick-perry-10-000-042535442.html;_ylt=ArQtHpHBPtktde_eqcvOnKubCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkZWgzYnZwBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNjbWNjc3NoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNzI3MDVjZWUtYjI1ZC0zY2YyLWEyMGItNjQwYzk5MGM1OWQyBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;"> Texas governor to a $10,000 bet</a> that he never supported a national individual mandate to purchase health insurance in his book <em>No Apology</em>, as Perry accused. Expect to see that clip played repeatedly over the course of the campaign.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
If Saturday's Republican presidential debate was the weathervane that would signal whether the Republican primary race would go negative in the days before the first caucuses and primaries, we're in for quite the slog.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Since Republican support for businessman Herman Cain began to slide--he <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/herman-cain-suspends-presidential-campaign-184541824.html;_ylt=AhJxZ0KTCKAzRwnvvmghkSybCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkNWJ1MDBuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNjbWNjc3NoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNzI3MDVjZWUtYjI1ZC0zY2YyLWEyMGItNjQwYzk5MGM1OWQyBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">dropped out of the race last weekend</a>--Gingrich has replaced him as the the latest "anti-Mitt Romney" candidate. And based on the response from Romney's campaign this week, it is clear that Boston is taking Gingrich's rise seriously. Romney this week launched his very own blitzkrieg against Gingrich, deploying the many surrogates who have endorsed him to nail him at several angles. The campaign also <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mitt-romney-hits-newt-gingrich-criticizing-republican-budget-132709183.html;_ylt=AgrFJl2k4N5_2nOHnY93bG6bCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkMmFzbGIwBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNjbWNjc3NoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNzI3MDVjZWUtYjI1ZC0zY2YyLWEyMGItNjQwYzk5MGM1OWQyBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">released a bruising anti-Gingrich web video</a> that reminded voters of the time he criticized the entitlement reform plan put forth by Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and passed by the House GOP, calling it "right-wing social engineering."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Gingrich <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/newt-gingrich-dings-mitt-romney-running-left-teddy-201228395.html;_ylt=AgsgsBbr9dPkPzjfEtEz4wibCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkcWhpdTZuBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzUEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNjbWNjc3NoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNzI3MDVjZWUtYjI1ZC0zY2YyLWEyMGItNjQwYzk5MGM1OWQyBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">on Friday struck back</a>, accusing Romney of "running to the left of Teddy Kennedy" when he ran for Senate in 1994. In those comments, Gingrich suggested that Romney is a politician who is only a conservative when it's convenient, a criticism that has been ruthlessly lobbed at the former governor for years. Later that day, Gingrich's team in Iowa blasted Romney for launching the latest attacks on Gingrich, calling the effort "a load of crap."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"What we're seeing from Mitt Romney is desperation and panic and I think that's going to be very frustrating to people who want to move forward," said Gingrich Iowa co-chairwoman Linda Upmeyer. "They don't want to see $3 million of attack ads. It's a bad way to go and he ought to reconsider that tactic. Because Iowans, we're not stupid people and we understand a load of crap when we see it. That isn't what wins you caucuses or elections here in Iowa."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Gingrich <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/newt-gingrich-drug-laws-entitlements-campaigning-yahoo-news-152936251.html;_ylt=AixvRrsEj5qTQAhh2i5nPX.bCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTFkbmlnNzJjBG1pdANCbG9nIEJvZHkEcG9zAzYEc2VjA01lZGlhQmxvZ0JvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTNjbWNjc3NoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNzI3MDVjZWUtYjI1ZC0zY2YyLWEyMGItNjQwYzk5MGM1OWQyBHBzdGNhdANvcmlnaW5hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">told Yahoo News in a recent interview</a> that of all the lessons he had learned about himself while running for president of the United States, he was most surprised in his ability to resist the temptation to attack his fellow candidates. Throughout the campaign, Gingrich has made a point to deflect questions about other candidates, choosing to keep criticism narrowly focused on President Barack Obama or the media.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I may be more capable of calm discipline than I would have guessed," Gingrich said in a Yahoo News interview in November. "Watch the way in which I am methodically not getting engaged in a fight with my friends."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Source: <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/analysis-newt-gingrich-survives-first-big-night-attacks-040437489.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/analysis-newt-gingrich-survives-first-big-night-attacks-040437489.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-10988649005433473022011-10-16T10:42:00.000-07:002011-10-16T10:42:23.858-07:00Anti-Wall St. movement grows to dozens of cities<a href="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/eGgt_84nKsc5zsNv2HqJDw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjUyMztjcj0xO2N3PTE5MTc7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTI1MTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/81ac4aa541a9b217fb0e6a7067002773.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/eGgt_84nKsc5zsNv2HqJDw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjUyMztjcj0xO2N3PTE5MTc7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTI1MTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/81ac4aa541a9b217fb0e6a7067002773.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063298" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
NEW YORK (AP) — About 175 <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318780599_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">protesters</span> who were part of a growing anti-Wall Street sentiment were arrested in Chicago early Sunday when they refused to take down their tents and leave a city park when it closed, police said, after a day of protests in cities around the world where thousands gathered to rally against what they see as corporate greed.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063295" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The arrests were mostly peaceful and came as somewhat of a contrast to many demonstrators elsewhere, who have taken care to follow laws in order to continue protesting <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318780599_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Wall Street</span>'s role in the financial crisis and other grievances. Most of the marches were largely nonconfrontational, though dozens were arrested in <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318780599_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">New York</span> and elsewhere in the U.S. when police moved to contain overflowing crowds or keep them off private property. Two officers in New York were injured and had to be hospitalized.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063445" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
At least one protest grew violent. In Rome, rioters hijacked what had been a peaceful gathering and smashed windows, tore up sidewalks and torched vehicles. Repair costs were estimated at $1.4 million, the mayor said Sunday.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063447" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/SxYTFAN4hP.MPVSYe7N9jw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjA3OTtjcj0xO2N3PTMxMTk7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEyNztxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/664e86de30efac17fb0e6a7067002224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/SxYTFAN4hP.MPVSYe7N9jw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjA3OTtjcj0xO2N3PTMxMTk7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEyNztxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/664e86de30efac17fb0e6a7067002224.jpg" /></a>In Chicago, about 500 people had set up camp at the entrance to Grant Park on Saturday evening after a protest earlier in the day involving about 2,000, the Chicago Tribune reported. Police said they gave protesters repeated warnings after the park closed at 11 p.m. and began making arrests when they refused to leave.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063450" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Officers also asked protesters to take down their tents before beginning to cut them down to clear the area, police said. Protesters who were arrested would be released after background checks were done to make sure they didn't have any outstanding arrest warrants, police said. They could face fines for violating a municipal ordinance.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063453" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In New York, two dozen were arrested Saturday when demonstrators entered a Citibank branch and refused to leave, police said. They asked the branch to close until the protesters could be taken away.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063456" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Earlier, as many as 1,000 demonstrators also paraded to a Chase bank branch, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. A few went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn't stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Lily Paulina of Brooklyn said she was taking her money out because she was upset that JPMorgan Chase was making billions of dollars, while its customers struggled with bank fees and home foreclosures.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063459" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Chase bank is making tons of money off of everyone ... while people in the working class are fighting just to keep a living wage in their neighborhood," the 29-year-old United Auto Workers organizer said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063462" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Police told the marchers to stay on the sidewalk, and the demonstration seemed fairly orderly as it wound through downtown streets.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The day culminated in an event in the city's Times Square, where thousands of demonstrators mixed with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063465" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" protesters chanted from within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel the crowds away.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Sandra Fox, 69, of Baton Rouge, La., stood, confused, on 46th Street with a ticket for "Anything Goes" in her hand as riot police pushed a knot of about 200 shouting protesters toward her.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"It's horrible what they're doing," she said of the protesters. "These people need to go get jobs."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063468" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Sergio Jimenez, 25, said he quit his job in Texas to come to New York to protest. He participated in an anti-war march to mark the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were all based on lies," Jimenez said. "And if we're such an intelligent country, we should figure out other ways to respond to terror, instead of with terror."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063471" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Throughout the country — from several dozen people in Jackson, Miss., to some 2,000 each in Pittsburgh and Chicago — the protest gained momentum.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Nearly 1,500 gathered for a march past banks in downtown Orlando, Fla. Hundreds marched on a Key Bank branch in Anchorage and declared it should be foreclosed. In Arizona, reporters and protesters saw an estimated 40 people detained around midnight at a park in Phoenix.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In Colorado, about 1,000 people rallied in downtown Denver to support Occupy Wall Street and at least two dozen were arrested.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Rallies drew young and old, laborers and retirees. In Pittsburgh, marchers included parents with children in strollers. The peaceful crowd stretched for two or three blocks.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I see our members losing jobs. People are angry," said Janet Hill, 49, who works for the United Steelworkers, which she said hosted a sign-making event before the march.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063474" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Retired teacher Albert Siemsen said at a demonstration in Milwaukee that he'd grown angry watching school funding get cut at the same time banks and corporations gained more influence in government. The 81-year-old wants to see tighter Wall Street regulation.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Around him, protesters held signs reading: "Keep your corporate hands off my government," and "Mr. Obama, Tear Down That Wall Street."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063477" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In Canada, demonstrators gathered in cities across the country, with hundreds of people protesting in the heart of Toronto's financial district. Some protesters spent the night at parks in Toronto and other cities.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063480" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Overseas, tens of thousands nicknamed "the indignant" marched in cities across Europe, as the protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe. Protesters also turned out in Australia and Asia.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
___</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318786841063483" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Associated Press writers Bob Seavey in Phoenix, Kevin Begos in Pittsburgh, Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Charmaine Noronha in Toronto, Jack Elliott Jr. in Jackson, Miss., and Colleen Long, David B. Caruso and AP Radio correspondent Martin Di Caro in New York contributed to this report.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-6002927143194042962011-10-13T13:00:00.000-07:002011-10-13T13:00:37.803-07:00Obama: Iran 'Will Pay a Price' for Assassination Plot<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508437" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="" id="lw_1318527741_1">President Barack Obama</span> said today that <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_0">Iran</span> will "pay a price" through sanctions and international pressure for its recent hostile behavior including the alleged Iran-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. in <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_6">Washington, D.C.</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508445" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Echoing previous statements by <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AoDVLkO6z.cnaBxk5.eSr2K1qHQA;_ylu=X3oDMTFqMDgxZXM0BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTJqOGltazVnBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDN2UwZTM4N2QtZmJiMS0zMzI4LWExZTgtZjAwZTFiYmQ0MzAzBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=0/SIG=13fnjvh91/EXP=1319745313/**http%3A//abcnews.go.com/Blotter/iran-dc-plot-vice-president-joe-biden-off/story%3Fid=14719055" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">top U.S. officials</a>, Obama said that when dealing with Iran, "We don't take any options off the table," but did not make any mention of possible military action in favor of pushing <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_4">harsh economic sanctions</span> and corralling international condemnation of Iran's alleged action.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508541" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We're going to continue... to mobilize the international community to make sure that Iran is further and further isolated and pays a price for this kind of behavior," Obama said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508544" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Obama declined to comment on whether he believed the highest levels of the <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_2">Iranian government</span> were aware or involved in the alleged plot, but said even if the Iranian president or supreme leader did not have "detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508547" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday the <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_3">DEA</span>and FBI had disrupted a plot "conceived, sponsored and... directed from Iran" to murder the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. in or outside a crowded Washington, D.C. restaurant which potentially would have been followed up by bombings of the Saudi Arabian and Israeli embassies. The U.S. said an Iranian-American, 56-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar of Corpus Christi, Texas, was working for elements of the Iranian government -- specifically Iran's elite military unit the Quds force -- when he attempted to hire hitmen from the feared Zetas Mexican drug cartel to carry out the hit, but Arbabsiar was unwittingly speaking to a DEA informant from the start.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508593" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<em id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508592" style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AjXeNrk7Yy1LoDRcqhNE3xq1qHQA;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaWd2Ymg3BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTJqOGltazVnBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDN2UwZTM4N2QtZmJiMS0zMzI4LWExZTgtZjAwZTFiYmQ0MzAzBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=0/SIG=13eak9nnu/EXP=1319745313/**http%3A//abcnews.go.com/Blotter/page/us-complaint-alleged-iran-directed-terror-plot-12108635" id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508591" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">READ: U.S. Complaint in Alleged Iran-Directed Terror Plot (PDF)</a></em></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday sanctions against five Iranians allegedly tied to the plot and additional sanctions Wednesday against an airline company allegedly linked to the Quds force. U.S. representatives began Wednesday meeting separately with members of the United Nations Security Council as part of the American government's effort to "unite world opinion" against Iran, in the <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Ans9oL9XHWPDcPU12LobrZ21qHQA;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaTNjbzlmBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTJqOGltazVnBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDN2UwZTM4N2QtZmJiMS0zMzI4LWExZTgtZjAwZTFiYmQ0MzAzBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=0/SIG=13fnjvh91/EXP=1319745313/**http%3A//abcnews.go.com/Blotter/iran-dc-plot-vice-president-joe-biden-off/story%3Fid=14719055" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">words of Vice President Joe Biden</a>.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508596" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
A lawyer for Arbabsiar has not returned requests for comment, but the man's wife, Martha Guerrero, said he was wrongly accused.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/P2mPERe6ZJy34zJspkmXcg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzYwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NjQwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMDc7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/gma/us.abcnews.go.com/lv_barack_obama_dm_111013_wmain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/P2mPERe6ZJy34zJspkmXcg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzYwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NjQwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMDc7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/gma/us.abcnews.go.com/lv_barack_obama_dm_111013_wmain.jpg" /></a></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508596" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508605" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I may not be living with him being separated, but I cannot for the life of me think that he would be capable of doing that," she told ABC News' Austin affiliate KVUE Tuesday, noting the two had been separated some time. "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure of that."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Iranian officials have strongly rejected the U.S. accusations, calling them a "fabrication." The head of the Iranian mission to the United Nations penned a letter Tuesday to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressing "outrage" at the allegations.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The U.S. allegation is, obviously, a politically-motivated move and a showcase of its long-standing animosity towards the Iranian nation," the letter says. "The Islamic Republic of Iran categorically and in the strongest terms condemns this shameful allegation by the United States authorities and deplores it as a well-thought evil plot in line with their anti-Iranian policy to divert attention from the current economic and social problems at home and the popular revolutions and protests against United States long supported dictatorial regimes abroad."</div>
<h3 style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Alleged Terror Plotter Claims He Was 'Directed By High-Ranking' Iranian Officials</h3>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when Arbabsiar unwittingly approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the <span class="" id="lw_1318527741_5">Saudi ambassador</span>, according to counter-terrorism officials.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Arbabsiar reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform," according to a person briefed on the details of the case.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Arbabsiar and a second man, Gohlam Shakuri, an Iranian official, were named in a five-count criminal complaint filed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in New York. They were charged with conspiracy to kill a foreign official and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, a bomb, among other counts. Shakuri is still at large in Iran, Holder said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Holder identified Shakuri as an Iran-based member of the Quds force.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, expressed "utter disregard for collateral damage" in the planned bomb attacks in Washington, according to officials.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The complaint describes a conversation in which Arbabsiar was allegedly directing the informant to kill the Saudi ambassador and said the assassination could take place at a restaurant. When the informant feigned concern about Americans who also eat at the restaurant, Arbabsiar said he preferred if bystanders weren't killed but, "Sometimes, you know, you have no choice, is that right?"</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
U.S. officials said Arbabsiar met twice in July with the DEA informant in the northern Mexico city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, and negotiated a $1.5 million payment for the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. As a down payment, officials said Arbabsiar wired two payments of $49,960 on Aug. 1 and Aug. 9 to an FBI undercover bank account after he had returned to Iran.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Officials said Arbabsiar flew from Iran through Frankfurt, Germany, to Mexico City Sept. 29 for a final planning session, but was refused entry to Mexico and later put on a plane to New York, where he was arrested.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Officials said Arbabsiar is now cooperating with prosecutors and federal agents in New York, where the case has been transferred.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script, the impact would've been very real and many lives would've been lost," FBI Director Robert Mueller said of the foiled plot.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318535736508619" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<em style="font-style: italic;">ABC News' Richard Esposito and Rym Momtaz contributed to this report.</em></div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-63071190613906761342011-10-10T10:54:00.000-07:002011-10-10T10:54:06.744-07:00Torture rife in Afghan detention facilities: U.N.<a href="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/5uqF.7sp5sfCCY.BJDpp1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzA1O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjk7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-10T145517Z_01_BTRE79915G700_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-AFGHANISTAN-DETENTIONS.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/5uqF.7sp5sfCCY.BJDpp1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzA1O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjk7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-10T145517Z_01_BTRE79915G700_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-AFGHANISTAN-DETENTIONS.JPG" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412302" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
KABUL (Reuters) - <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_5" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Afghanistan</span>'s <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">intelligence agency</span> and police force have been "systematically" torturing detainees including children at a number of jails, in breach of local and international laws, a <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">United Nations</span> report said Monday.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412307" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Scores of people told the U.N. that the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">National Directorate of Security</span> (<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">NDS</span>) and the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_6" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Afghan National Police</span> had physically or mentally abused them, using beatings, electrocution and toenail removal, according to the report.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412316" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But the head of the U.N. in Afghanistan, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_7" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Staffan de Mistura</span>, said that torture was neither institutional nor government policy, and praised the ministry and intelligence agency for allowing access to their prisons for research.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The Afghan government rejected many of the allegations, but conceded there may have been some abuse, and added that steps were being taken to prevent further problems.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412295" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Interviews with 379 pre-trial detainees and convicted prisoners were conducted at 47 different facilities by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318258571_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">UNAMA</span>) from October 2010 to August 2011.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The report said 324 of the detainees were accused of crimes related to the war.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412467" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
There was systematic torture found at five NDS "facilities," the report said, and "multiple, credible allegations" of torture at two others. There were also some allegations from 17 other facilities that the U.N. said it was still investigating.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Almost half of those interviewed were suspected insurgents, 20 percent were arrested while carrying explosives and 11 percent were failed suicide bombers.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412470" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
UNAMA said almost half of those it interviewed at NDS facilities experienced interrogation techniques that constituted torture. Of those in police facilities, more than a third of the 117 suspected insurgents or those believed to be assisting militants told UNAMA they had been subjected to torture or inhumane treatment.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Beyond physical mistreatment, which included sexual humiliation, many prisoners also said they had been held beyond the maximum duration allowed by law and denied family visits.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The United Nations said Afghanistan's difficult security situation did not justify any mistreatment.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
FALSE CLAIMS?</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412473" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The intelligence agency said in an official response that "reference has been made to some issues that are not in conformity with work principles of the NDS," and specifically rejected some allegations of mistreatment.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Torture methods such as electric shock, threat of rape, twisting of sexual organs etc. are methods that are absolutely non-existent in the NDS," an official government response said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The statement suggested some insurgent prisoners might be making false claims to discredit the government. However it also said several officials had recently been dismissed or suspended, and the agency was "keen for reform and improvement in the field of interrogation."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
UNAMA said it had designed its study to take into account concerns from the Afghan authorities that detainees might give false accounts to discredit security agencies and further insurgent propaganda.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The Interior Ministry accepted there were cases of poor treatment of detainees in police custody, but said they were in the minority and it was committed to punishing violators and ensuring police were trained to protect human rights.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"It is evident ... that the outcome of the report cannot be totally rejected/denied due to some existing problems," it said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412476" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The report follows a similar U.N. investigation into alleged torture that prompted NATO to halt transfers of prisoners to several southern Afghan jails in July.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Those findings raised questions about the capacity of Afghan security forces at a time when they are meant to be taking on greater security responsibilities ahead of a planned withdrawal of all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was made aware of UNAMA's findings last month and has since helped the Afghan government develop a six-stage plan to tackle torture, which included inspections, monitoring, training in human rights protection, and formal certification procedures.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412479" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Initiatives being implemented will help strengthen rule of law, continue to enhance government credibility, and limit the appeal of the insurgency," ISAF said in a statement.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318269160412482" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Daniel Magnowski)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-87630706113845222492011-10-07T13:50:00.000-07:002011-10-07T13:56:47.653-07:00Hong Kong student's Apple tribute is Internet hit<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/H_d2ahyF1s2lEM7inB_.Ww--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zODA7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1317969262155-1-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/H_d2ahyF1s2lEM7inB_.Ww--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zODA7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1317969262155-1-0.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
A <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_4">Hong Kong design</span> student said on Friday he was overwhelmed and felt "unreal" after his sombre logo in tribute to <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_6">Apple</span> founder<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_0">Steve Jobs</span> caused a <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_5">worldwide Internet</span> sensation.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The design, featuring Jobs's silhouette incorporated into the bite of a white Apple logo on a black background, has gone viral on the Internet since news of his death.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I feel so unreal," <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_2">Jonathan Mak</span>, a second year <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_3">graphic design student</span> at <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317979619_1">Hong Kong Polytechnic University</span>, told AFP, after he was inundated with tens of thousands of emails and messages on his Twitter account.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"You don't get to 180 thousands notes without feeling slightly insane," the 19-year-old posted on another microblogging site Tumblr Friday, referring to the messages he has received.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Mak said newspapers in the United States and Germany have contacted him about buying the copyright to use his logo and had received job offers.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I am flattered by the attention but I would like to focus on my study before taking on any full-time job," said the bespectacled student, adding that he was trying to cope with his new-found fame.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I'm quite busy now actually as I'm trying to finish a school project."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
When asked about whether he would be targeting commercial opportunities, Mak said he was considering contacting Apple on copyright issues because his design is based on Apple's own logo.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Some merchandisers have reportedly used his logo for commemorative memorabilia for Jobs such as t-shirts and caps that are being sold on the Internet.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I will consider using any proceeds I make from the copyright for cancer research, as suggested by some people to me on the Internet," he said. Jobs died at 56 of pancreatic cancer.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Mak said he first came up with the design after Jobs announced his resignation in late August, but the logo received little attention at the time.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The teenager said the Apple founder had inspired him in his design.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"He was a minimalist, which is the way I would like to emphasise in my design -- fewer elements but a powerful message."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Steve Jobs strongly believed in his own ideas and continued with his beliefs no matter how people criticised him. He was courageous," said Mak.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-35740930442938075432011-10-07T12:34:00.000-07:002011-10-07T12:34:55.175-07:00Thirty-two bodies found in Mexican Gulf state<a href="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CsH9.tOkB9z29NXBMpvASQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9Mjk5O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjc7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-07T135423Z_01_BTRE79612MU00_RTROPTP_2_MEXICO-VIOLENCE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CsH9.tOkB9z29NXBMpvASQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9Mjk5O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjc7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-07T135423Z_01_BTRE79612MU00_RTROPTP_2_MEXICO-VIOLENCE.JPG" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687302" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317996186_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">MEXICO CITY</span> (Reuters) - <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317996186_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Mexican security forces</span> have found 32 bodies at several locations around the eastern city of <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317996186_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Veracruz</span>, authorities said Thursday, barely two weeks after 35 corpses were dumped on a busy street in the Atlantic port.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687464" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Just two days after the Mexican government unveiled a plan to lay down the law in the state of the same name, police and marines found the bodies in three separate areas of the city, the Navy said in a statement.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687469" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The bodies were in homes around the port as the military conducted operations under the new "Safe Veracruz" program, the statement said. Twenty bodies were found in one house that was searched after a tip from naval intelligence.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687295" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
More than 44,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317996186_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Felipe Calderon</span> launched a military campaign to crush Mexico's powerful drug cartels in late 2006.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The killings have damaged support for Calderon's ruling conservatives, who face a major struggle to hold onto power in presidential elections due next July.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Earlier Thursday, Calderon said there could be no turning back from the fight against the gangs.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Part of the problem is that we didn't fight (gangs) before like we should have done," he said in a speech.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687475" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
On September 20, 35 bodies were dumped in broad daylight in the Boca del Rio area of Veracruz. A vigilante-style group later claimed responsibility for the deaths.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687478" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Calling themselves the Zeta Killers, the group said it was targeting one of the most notorious of Mexico's drug gangs, which has stirred fears of paramilitary violence emerging.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Founded by renegade special forces soldiers, the Zetas have made a name for themselves as one of the bloodiest gangs in the country with countless slayings and kidnappings.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011962687492" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Editing by Will Dunham)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-51611949308212877082011-10-07T11:27:00.000-07:002011-10-07T11:27:07.055-07:00Karzai: Taliban can't move finger without Pakistan<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/vNrGFxwW9xU35ky5t34LHg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjYyMDtjcj0xO2N3PTM5OTM7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEyNTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/8bc00a406122b316fa0e6a706700e4e4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/vNrGFxwW9xU35ky5t34LHg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjYyMDtjcj0xO2N3PTM5OTM7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTEyNTtxPTg1O3c9MTkw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/8bc00a406122b316fa0e6a706700e4e4.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011922191295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
KABUL, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318007655_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Afghanistan</span> (AP) — As the war in Afghanistan hit the 10-year mark Friday, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318007655_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">President Hamid Karzai</span> claimed the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318007655_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Taliban</span> are being propped up by neighboring <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318007655_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Pakistan</span>, saying the militants can't lift a finger without the Pakistanis.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011922191454" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The war will only end when something is done to rout insurgents from their sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan, Karzai said in an interview with the BBC that aired on Friday, exactly 10 years after the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The invasion was aimed at toppling the hard-line Taliban regime and punishing it for giving safe harbor to al-Qaida, which orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Over the years, the U.S.-led coalition became mired in a battle against insurgents who have been weakened by international troops yet continue to plant bombs and stage suicide attacks and assassinations of top Afghan figures.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Definitely, the Taliban will not be able to move a finger without Pakistani support," Karzai said. "The fact is the Taliban were and are stationed, in terms of their political headquarters and operational headquarters, in Pakistan. We all know that. The Pakistanis know that. We know that."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Militant sanctuaries in Pakistan won't go away unless the government of Pakistan cooperates with Afghanistan and the international community finds an effective way to remove the hide-outs, he said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We're not saying this in a manner of accusation and reprimand," Karzai added, trying not to inflame already strained relations between the two nations. "We are saying this in a manner of a statement intended towards a solution of the problem."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011922191308" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan maintains it cut off ties to the Taliban and other militants following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, but Washington and <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1318007655_4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Kabul</span> say otherwise.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
President Barack Obama said Thursday that Pakistan was "hedging its bets" by maintaining ties to militant groups trying to undermine the Afghan government. Obama also acknowledged that the United States has not been able to persuade Pakistan that the U.S. goals of a stable Afghanistan pose no threat to Pakistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Just-retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen went further, recently calling the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani insurgent network a "veritable arm" of the Pakistani intelligence agency. Mullen also alleged that Pakistani intelligence supported militants who mounted a recent 20-hour rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in the capital, Kabul.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In the wide-ranging interview, Karzai candidly said the Afghan government and international allies have failed to provide security for the Afghan people. He also said that his government wants to talk to the Taliban, but doesn't know where to contact legitimate representatives of the insurgency.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading the government's U.S.-backed effort to talk peace with the Taliban, was killed Sept. 20 by an assassin who claimed to be an emissary from the Taliban. Upon meeting Rabbani, the killer detonated explosives he had tucked into his turban — a deadly blast that dealt a major setback to efforts to find a political resolution to the war.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The Afghan government with support from its international allies has been making peace overtures to the Taliban for years. But after Rabbani's death, Karzai shifted his policy, saying he was giving up trying to talk to alleged Taliban envoys. He said Pakistan holds the only key to making peace with insurgents and must do more to support reconciliation.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We have not said we will not talk to them (the Taliban)," Karzai said. "We've said we don't know who to talk to.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We're not dealing with an identifiable individual as a representative of the Taliban, or a place that we can knock on and say, 'Well, here we are. We want to talk to you.'"</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Until that place emerges — an address and a representative — we will not be able to talk to the Taliban because we don't know where to find them," he said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for Rabbani's death.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Asked what needs to be improved in Afghanistan, Karzai acknowledged, "We've done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners. What we should do is provide better and a more predictable environment of security to the Afghan citizens and in that, the international community and the Afghan government definitely have failed."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Violence continued Friday with attacks on at least three coalition posts in Paktika province near the Pakistan border.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives near the entrance to Combat Outpost Margah, which had also been hit with 22 rockets, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Combat Forward Operating Base Tillman was hit with a half-dozen rockets and Forward Operating Base Boris was struck with two.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
No deaths were reported among NATO service members.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Separately, the U.S.-led coalition said Friday that it is conducting an investigation to determine how a NATO service member died in southern Afghanistan. NATO did not disclose any other details about what led to the service member's death on Thursday.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
So far this year, 458 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan. The death is the fourth so far this month.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In the capital, former Afghan Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet went missing Thursday afternoon after he was attacked by two gunman, said Mohammad Zahir, the chief of criminal investigation for the Kabul police.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
___</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1318011922191477" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Associated Press Writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Matt Ford in Paktika contributed to this report.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-76945510025481718642011-10-06T11:17:00.001-07:002011-10-06T11:17:56.825-07:00Beating Butter: Denmark Imposes the World's First Fat Tax<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802311" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/6xQXVlAiHDOdIqWc5ArxhQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTUzNTtjcj0xO2N3PTI1MDA7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTM4NztxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/000_DV117310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/6xQXVlAiHDOdIqWc5ArxhQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTUzNTtjcj0xO2N3PTI1MDA7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTM4NztxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/000_DV117310.jpg" width="320" /></a>Are the Danish facing an era of dry toast? On Oct. 1, consumers in<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317888728_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Denmark</span> saw a sudden jump in the cost of many of their favorite bread-friendly products. The average price of a half-pound package of butter increased by 2.5 krone (or 45 U.S. cents). A pound of cheese rose from 34.5 krone ($6) to 36 krone ($6.50). And don't even think about lard. In a single day, the cost of a half-pound block of pork fat skyrocketed from 12 krone ($2.15) to 16 krone ($2.85) — a 35% increase. Thanks to a new fat tax, Danes are paying more for just about anything they might want to slather on a piece of bread.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802295" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Other countries have imposed tariffs on food and drink considered unhealthy, but Denmark is taking the "fax tax" appellation literally. In the name of reducing <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317888728_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">cardiovascular disease</span>, obesity, and diabetes, the law that went into effect on Saturday specifically targets saturated fats — the fats found most commonly in animal products like butter, cream, and meat. But few outside the government seem to think it's a good idea — or even a healthy one.<span class="see"><a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/20/bypassing-obesity-for-alcoholism-why-some-weight-loss-surgeries-increase-alcohol-risk/" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(Read: "Bypassing Obesity for Alcoholism: Why Some Weight-Loss Surgeries Increase Alcohol Risk.")</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The tax, the first of its kind in the world, imposes a 16 krone (roughly $3) hike per kilo of saturated fat on any food that contains more than 2.3%. Given current Danish consumption — they eat a lot of butter and sausage in Denmark — that should amount to somewhere around 82 million kilos (180 million lbs) of fat subject to the tax.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"At the political level there was a high degree of consensus for this law," says Tor Christensen, chief consultant for Denmark's Ministry of Taxation. "There was wide agreement about trying to improve the average Danish lifespan, about trying to improve the health of the Danish people." The tax was approved by nearly 90% of the Danish parliament. <span class="see"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/audioslide/0,32187,1966519,00.html" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(See pictures of obesity rehab.)</a></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802305" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
It's not the first time that the Danish government has taken to regulating less-than-healthy foodstuffs. Sugar has long been subject to higher tariffs, though in its original incarnation, the tax was intended to raise revenue rather than improve public health. In 2004, Denmark became the first country in the world to ban transfats — the solid fats commonly used in snack foods and industrially produced baked goods. Experts say that ban has played a significant role in reducing rates of <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317888728_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">cardiovascular disease</span> by over 30% in Denmark in the past several years.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
People within the food industry aren't happy about the tax, however. "It's very frustrating how this has been implemented," says Poul Pedersen, managing director of Thise Mejeri, an organic dairy cooperative based in northern Denmark. Its 83 farmers produce 2,500 tons of butter per year — and all of them are facing diminished revenues now that they've had to raise prices. "We don't know by how much yet because it's very complicated to figure out, but of course we expect sales to go down," Pedersen says.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The tax applies to all saturated fats equally, regardless of whether they are contained in a McDonald's hamburger or a quart of milk from grassfed cows. That provision has particularly incensed the country's dairy farmers, who bristle at a categorization of their products as unhealthy, and whose recommendations, says Pedersen, were ignored by the government. "Of course we want people to eat heathfully," he says. "And no one should be eating a kilo of butter per day. But we in the dairy industry know that we produce a good and healthy product when it's eaten in moderation." <span class="see"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2089995,00.html" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(Can FoodCorps get America to eat healthfully?)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Restaurants too will feel the pain of the increasing costs. Christian Puglisi, chef of Copenhagen's highly-regarded Relae, hasn't yet raised menu prices, but knows he'll have to once he has tallied his purveyors' new invoices. The bureaucracy worries him less, though, than the tax's impact on the organic farms with which he does most of his business. "Organic is already more expensive than industrially produced [food], and the tax will just make it more so," Puglisi says. "But organic producers can't absorb the price increase the way that industrial can, so fewer people are going to be willing to buy it."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="see"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,2040123,00.html" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">See five reasons to visit Copenhagen</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="see"><a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091136,00.html" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">See if the world's best chef can teach Danes the joy of hay</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Although Danes have historically shown themselves willing to accept higher taxes that they deem beneficial to society, Puglisi doesn't believe this one fits that criteria. "The government says it wants to make people healthier, but it's talking with two tongues. It's just going to push more people to buy cheaper industrially produced products, rather than good food. It's insanely stupid."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802308" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Even medical professionals doubt the salutary effects of the law. "You can't predict the health effect of a food by looking at a single nutrient in it," says Dr. Arne Astrup, professor of human nutrition at the University of Copenhagen. "Take cheese, as an example. It's high in saturated fat, but it also contains calcium and protein that seem to change the fat's effect on the body. You would think that people who ate a lot of cheese would have higher risks of <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317888728_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">cardiovascular disease</span>, but research has shown that's not the case." <span class="see"><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/30/denmark-institutes-first-ever-fat-tax/" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(See more on the fat tax in Denmark.)</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
With just under 10% of the population classified as obese, rates in Denmark are lower than Europe's 15% average, and fall significantly below the U.S.'s rate of 33.8%. Nevertheless, the average Danish lifespan of 79 years is lower than that of other Western European countries like Sweden (81.5 years), Spain (81.8 years) and France (80 years), a statistic that the departing center-right government (a center-left government took power on Oct. 3) hoped to improve with the tax.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
However, Dr. Astrup says the tax ministry that proposed the measure is working with outdated data. "They based their decision on a report written in 2001," he says. "In 2001 all the available evidence suggested that we could achieve significant benefits by cutting saturated fats. But it turns out that a lot of that benefit came from cutting transfats, not saturated ones."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Many in Denmark believe the government was motivated more by financial concerns than health ones. Dr. Astrup is one of them. "This fat tax didn't evolve from proposals by the nutrition council," he says. "It was created wholly within the Tax Ministry because they were 1 billion krone ($180 million) short. They didn't do it to cut down on cardiovascular disease, they did it to close a budget gap."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802314" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
If government estimates are correct (and the tax ministry itself admits that its predictions are rough), those 82 million kilos (180 million lbs) of taxable saturated fats should result in revenues of 1.3 billion krone ($233 million). Yet ministry advisor Christensen rejects the claim that the tax was motivated by the economic crisis and the government's need to generate new income. "Actually, the aim of this program of tax reform is to reduce taxes on labor, to reduce <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317888728_4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">income tax</span>," he says. "But the government has to find another source to make up the financing that it lost with those reductions. Instead of keeping income tax high, It decided to tax the unhealthy things."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802459" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Although public sentiment seems to be running against the tax, Christensen's reasoning has a fan in Sebastian Sejer, a 34-year-old graphic designer who lives outside of Copenhagen. "I know it's unpopular," Sejer says. "But I think it's a way to actually achieve something good while reducing the income tax. I work in advertising and I know that these small changes can make a difference in consumer behavior." <span class="see"><a href="http://swampland.time.com/2011/04/01/arizonas-flab-tax/" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(See more on Arizona's flab tax.)</a></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740802462" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Research on countries that have imposed cigarette and soda taxes largely indicates that he's right: increased prices do lead to at least moderately reduced consumption. But are dairy-loving Danes ready to give up their wholefat milk and cheese? Sejer's own behavior raises some doubts. He went shopping over the weekend, and ended up buying the same butter he always does. "I know it's a contradiction. But it's not going to affect what I eat."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-1731285155782157502011-10-06T11:12:00.001-07:002011-10-06T11:12:58.874-07:00Pakistan angered by Afghan allegations on Rabbani<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740680295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317912313_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Pakistan</span> urged <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317912313_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Afghanistan</span> on Thursday to act responsibly after Kabul accused Islamabad of masterminding the killing of the chief Afghan peace envoy.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740680305" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan angrily rejected allegations that its spy agency was behind the September 20 killing of <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317912313_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Burhanuddin Rabbani</span> by a suicide bomber who hid explosives in his turban and posed as a Taliban representative with a message of reconciliation.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"It is our expectation that everyone, especially those in position of authority in Afghanistan, will demonstrate requisite maturity and responsibility," Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told a news conference.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"This is no time for point-scoring, playing politics or grandstanding."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan has been on the defensive since the top U.S. military official accused its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of supporting a September 13 attack by the Taliban-allied Haqqani militant group on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740680447" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Afghans have long been suspicious of Pakistan's intentions in their country and question its promise to help bring peace.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Senior Afghan officials have accused the ISI of masterminding the assassination of Rabbani, a former Afghan president.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740680310" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317912313_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">President Hamid Karzai</span> has said there was a Pakistani link to the killing and investigators he appointed believe the assassin was Pakistani and the suicide bombing was plotted in Pakistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
On Wednesday, Afghanistan's intelligence agency said it had thwarted a plot to assassinate Karzai after arresting a bodyguard and five people with links to the Haqqani network and al Qaeda.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The plotters, who included university students and a medical professor, had been trained to launch attacks in Kabul and had recruited one of Karzai's bodyguards to kill the president, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan is looking increasingly isolated since Karzai signed a wide-ranging agreement with its rival India this week.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The pact signals a formal tightening of links that may spark Pakistani concern that India is increasingly competing for leverage in Afghanistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan wants wide say in any peace settlement in Afghanistan. Analysts say Pakistan maintains ties with Afghan militants in a bid to counter India's growing influence there. Pakistan denies this.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Janjua did not express any alarm over Karzai's pact with India, but she suggested it could create more regional instability.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The most important thing that we would like to underscore is that within the context of any relationship, the fundamental principle of ensuring stability in the region must be taken into full account," she said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan has long feared a hostile India over its eastern border and a pro-India Afghanistan on its western border.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317924740680459" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Reporting by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Michael Georgy and Robert Birsel)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-60558158102511385792011-10-06T10:30:00.000-07:002011-10-06T10:30:49.929-07:00Where Steve Jobs Ranks Among the Greats<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/EFy7zCEcFnu9gmw9nCzE1g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjEzMDtjcj0xO2N3PTMwMDA7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQ0ODtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/2d7786fa7435c416fa0e6a706700ea73.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/EFy7zCEcFnu9gmw9nCzE1g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjEzMDtjcj0xO2N3PTMwMDA7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQ0ODtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/2d7786fa7435c416fa0e6a706700ea73.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
He was indisputably a titan of the digital era. But how does <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317904925_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Steve Jobs</span> stack up against the greatest business leaders in American history?</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926556" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
We won't really know for years, of course, since nobody's sure where technology will lead or what his company, Apple, may still achieve. But Steve Jobs was clearly a visionary who changed much about the way people use technology. His death from pancreatic cancer at just 56 feels like a national loss. And he's one of the few people in any field who can plausibly be compared with America's greatest innovators. So it doesn't seem too early to try.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
[See <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AvzHQ6ClOXYJ8fPV5dkAEEk6cOF_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqMDgxZXM0BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTMwbXFoNHQyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMDQ1ODNjNjEtYzAwMS0zNTQ3LWEyYzEtY2YxNGRkMzlkZThmBHBzdGNhdAN0ZWNofHdpcmVsZXNzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=0/SIG=13h22mua9/EXP=1319131619/**http%3A//www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2011/08/25/what-we-can-all-learn-from-steve-jobs" rel="nofollow" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">what we can all learn from Steve Jobs</a>.]</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Here's my methodology: Instead of measuring the amount of wealth created, I'm more interested in the impact that innovators have had on life in America, on how they improved living standards, advanced the nation's competitiveness and created opportunity for others. By that measure, Steve Jobs, for all his accomplishments, is up against a pantheon of epic overachievers.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Back in the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin, the quintessential American, helped form the ethos of the middle class--which he called "the middling people, the farmers, shopkeepers and tradesmen"--while serving as the conscience of the upstart nation through his publications, crafty diplomacy and deft political touch. Alexander Hamilton--who like Jobs, died young, at the age of 49--helped create the financial system that turned the United States from a banana republic into a stable nation global investors would be comfortable doing business with.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926559" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
During the Industrial Revolution, pioneers like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie helped the United States become one of the world's mightiest economies--one that overtook Europe in the production of vital new materials like oil and steel. By the late 1800s, Thomas Edison developed an electric-lighting system that literally turned darkness to light and ushered in sweeping second- and third-order changes, from the improvement of working conditions in factories everywhere to safer homes no longer lit by candles. Edison also found time to invent the phonograph, the movie projector, and many other things, including a key modification to Alexander Graham Bell's telephone that remained part of the basic design until the 1980s.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
[See <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AkvUXpkINic5_ghd41tiGV46cOF_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaWd2Ymg3BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTMwbXFoNHQyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMDQ1ODNjNjEtYzAwMS0zNTQ3LWEyYzEtY2YxNGRkMzlkZThmBHBzdGNhdAN0ZWNofHdpcmVsZXNzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=0/SIG=13fgdmqtq/EXP=1319131619/**http%3A//www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2011/10/04/why-the-era-of-free-stuff-is-ending" rel="nofollow" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">why the era of free stuff is ending</a>.]</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926308" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In the 20th century, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317904925_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Henry Ford</span> brought the gilded luxury of personal transportation to virtually everybody with his mass-produced cars, an innovation that shifted whole population centers from city to suburb. The Wright Brothers invented airplanes that would eventually move people from city to city--then from continent to continent--in hours, an order-of-magnitude change in the timeliness with which business could be conducted. Walt Disney invented new forms of entertainment for increasingly prosperous people with the newfound luxury of leisure time. Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart, brought everyday low prices to millions of shoppers. Ted Turner, who started CNN, broadcast his splashy cable news all day long, breaking the networks' monopoly on news and spawning an on-air information revolution.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926302" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
When <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317904925_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Steve Jobs</span> and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976, they set to work building a line of computers--culminating in the Macintosh--that would be the most intuitive machines of their kind. In a way, they introduced the middling people to the magic of digital processors the way Henry Ford introduced them to cars. The brash young Jobs left Apple in 1985, after a spat with the board over the company's direction. By his own later admission, he needed a strong dose of perspective.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
[See <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AnwFSyhwXnGil8IT42bssXc6cOF_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqaTNjbzlmBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTMwbXFoNHQyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMDQ1ODNjNjEtYzAwMS0zNTQ3LWEyYzEtY2YxNGRkMzlkZThmBHBzdGNhdAN0ZWNofHdpcmVsZXNzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=0/SIG=13mtn1g9t/EXP=1319131619/**http%3A//www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2011/09/20/why-netflix-is-smarter-than-its-customers-" rel="nofollow" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">why Netflix is smarter than its customers</a>.]</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926562" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Jobs did other things for 12 years, until returning to Apple as CEO in 1997. The company was floundering, after a string of misfires. Jobs straightened things out, then brought Apple to new heights with wonders like the iPod, iPhone and iPad, along with services like iTunes and Apple TV meant to complement the elegant devices. By the time Jobs retired as CEO earlier this year, Apple was more valuable than virtually any other technology company in the world, including Google, IBM and Microsoft.</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926586" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Jobs's death has touched Apple customers, and many others, in a heartfelt way that's unusual for a business leader--especially today. Encomiums have flowed from practically everybody with a blog or Twitter account. "He was our Thomas Edison and our Henry Ford, all in one brief life," wrote political commentator David Frum in his Twitter feed, summarizing the thoughts of many.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926583" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But was he? Edison and Ford devised innovations so profound they transformed whole societies and materially improved the lives of people who never even purchased a Ford or Edison product. Edison lit public places, while also providing electricity that helped heat them and power other machines. The automobiles that rolled off Ford's assembly lines swept putrid piles of horse manure off of urban streets and made cities more liveable. Edison and Ford, like other historical giants, created progress that could be measured every day in the humblest of homes, while also laying the foundation for entirely new industries.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
[See <a href="http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AjqA2XBW6HQLdjtuAyGCg3g6cOF_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqc2Fobm1zBG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTMwbXFoNHQyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMDQ1ODNjNjEtYzAwMS0zNTQ3LWEyYzEtY2YxNGRkMzlkZThmBHBzdGNhdAN0ZWNofHdpcmVsZXNzBHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=0/SIG=13gpjq1vq/EXP=1319131619/**http%3A//www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2011/07/20/4-lessons-from-the-demise-of-borders" rel="nofollow" style="color: #005790; text-decoration: none;">4 lessons from the demise of Border's</a>.]</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926305" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
If you're an Apple customer, chances are you feel that <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317904925_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Steve Jobs</span> has done something similar for you. Apple products are famous for their user-friendliness and their ability to enhance productivity, whether through third-party apps or ingenious features like the iMovie software that lets amateurs create videos with a professional look and feel. Perhaps more than anything, Apple customers simply enjoy using their products, which takes the drudgery out of scanning spreadsheets or speed-reading emails. Nobody really says that about a Blackberry or a Hewlett-Packard PC.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But many Apple products remain high-end indulgences for people with the money to spend on an enhanced digital experience. Yes, Steve Jobs has done the masses a service by showing his utilitarian competitors how to devise an artful user interface, which usually trickles down to cheaper generic devices once Apple has moved on to version 4 or 5. But Macs and iPhones and iPads remain too pricey for many mainstream consumers, who might read about the wonders of Apple gizmos the way they read about luxury cars or fancy dinners: Sounds nice, and I hope I can afford one some day. Meanwhile, you'd have to stretch to define a way in which Steve Jobs has materially improved society, enhanced public life or broadly shared his gifts with people who can't afford to be his customers. (Cue the outrage of Apple Nation.)</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Jobs was truly a brilliant designer, marketer and technologist--all in one. But it's worth keeping in mind that the digital revolution would have carried on without him. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, the founders of Intel, invented much of the circuitry that powered Jobs's devices over the years, along with many other computing machines. Bill Gates developed software that has powered far more computers than Apple ever built. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, have provided an Internet search service that's arguably more useful to more people--for free--than anything Apple has rolled out. Jobs helped make the first 30 years of the mass-computing era colorful and even fun. But it didn't take him to make it possible.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317922059926610" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
He did accomplish something, however, that's rare in the annals of business history: He made consumers fall in love with his ideas and his products, and even with him. Jobs wasn't a particularly likeable guy, by most accounts. He had a prickly demeanor and an I-know-better arrogance that would have been the downfall of a lesser visionary. Yet he leaves behind a vast army of Apple acolytes who may propel his ideas to heights beyond Jobs's own reach. In the firmament of business giants, Steve Jobs shines medium-hot, like the sun. But like a few other geniuses who die too young, his star may get brighter the longer he is gone.</div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-15586146977705735892011-10-03T13:55:00.000-07:002011-10-03T13:55:30.014-07:00Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites'<br />
<a href="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/WORLD/europe/09/05/europe.cia.rendition/story.thomas.hammarberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/WORLD/europe/09/05/europe.cia.rendition/story.thomas.hammarberg.jpg" /></a>Paris (CNN) -- The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe urged countries that have hosted secret CIA prisons to come clean Monday, as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches.<br />
Thomas Hammarberg said Poland, Romania and Lithuania were among at least seven countries that hosted "black sites" for "enhanced interrogation" during the "war on terror."<br />
"Darkness still enshrouds those who authorized and ran the black sites on European territories," he said. "The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated."<br />
CIA officials have acknowledged the rendition program, but refused to discuss details and denied violating any laws. Efforts to challenge the agency and get details about it in U.S. courts have been turned aside.<br />
Hammarberg's statement comes as documents seized from Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Libya shed light on the program of extraordinary rendition, or questioning of terror suspects in third-party countries where U.S. law does not apply.<br />
CNN saw a March 6, 2004, CIA letter to Libyan officials about Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former jihadist with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now a senior commander in the anti-Gadhafi forces.<br />
It concerned the Malaysian government's arrest of Abdullah al-Sadiq, Belhaj's nom de guerre for his rendition. A CIA officer said the man and his pregnant wife were being placed on a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to London via Bangkok and then onto Libya.<br />
"We are planning to arrange to take control of the pair in Bangkok and place them on our aircraft for a flight to your country," the officer wrote.<br />
Belhaj fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan, but left after their fall in 2001 and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004. After some questioning by the CIA, he was sent back to Libya and jailed.<br />
The Council of Europe's Hammarberg said the CIA had held "high-value detainees," including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in Poland, between 2002 and 2003.<br />
The Polish site closed and a new secret prison opened in Romania in 2003, Hammarberg charged, and existed for over two years. Lithuania also hosted two sites, he said.<br />
Polish prosecutors and Lithuanian lawmakers have investigated the phenomenon, but Romania has shown "little genuine will to uncover the whole truth," Hammarberg charged.<br />
"Effective investigations are imperative and long overdue," he said.<br />
Neither the CIA, Romania nor Lithuania immediately responded.<br />
Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would not comment while prosecutors in the country are still investigating.<br />
The Council of Europe is a 47-member group that promotes democracy and human rights on the continent.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-17981723477420473652011-10-03T13:17:00.000-07:002011-10-03T13:18:31.537-07:00Raymond Davis charged with third-degree assault in US over parking spot fight<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672912852492" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111002072715-raymond-davis-story-body.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111002072715-raymond-davis-story-body.jpg" /></a>Douglas County (US), Oct 3(<span class="" id="lw_1317661983_2">ANI</span>): <span class="" id="lw_1317661983_0">Raymond Davis</span>, the <span class="" id="lw_1317661983_1">Central Intelligence Agency</span> (CIA) contractor who was freed from a Pakistani prison after the United States paid 2.3 million dollars in <span class="" id="lw_1317661983_5">blood money</span>, has been charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct for allegedly fighting with another man over a parking spot in Colorado.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672912852505" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Davis was arrested outside an <span class="" id="lw_1317661983_3">Einstein Bros Bagels</span> at the Town Center at Highlands Ranch, at<span class="" id="lw_1317661983_4">Highlands Ranch Parkway</span> and South Broadway on Saturday.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
He was later released after posting a 1,750 dollars bond, the Express Tribune reports.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672912852623" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
It is reported that Davis and another man with him had been arguing with a third man about a parking spot when the verbal argument escalated into a physical altercation.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In the argument, Davis was the aggressor.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Earlier, on January 27, Davis had killed two reportedly armed men in Lahore.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Although the US government contended that he was protected by diplomatic immunity because of his employment with the US Consulate in Lahore, Davis was jailed and criminally charged by Pakistani authorities with double murder and the illegal possession of a firearm.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
A third Pakistani man was also killed "in a hit and run" when a car sped down the wrong side of the road on its way to aid Davis.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
On March 16, Davis was released after the families of the two killed men were paid 2.4 million dollars in diyya (a form of monetary compensation or blood money).</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672912852632" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Judges then acquitted him on all charges and Davis immediately departed Pakistan. (ANI)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-52503582871587172032011-10-03T13:08:00.000-07:002011-10-03T13:08:55.253-07:00Amanda Knox cleared of murdering British roommate<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4ouF2YZclKXuw6nMCX4TSw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9Mjk1O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjU7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-03T171056Z_01_BTRE7920X8L00_RTROPTP_2_ITALY-KNOX.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4ouF2YZclKXuw6nMCX4TSw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9Mjk1O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMjU7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-03T171056Z_01_BTRE7920X8L00_RTROPTP_2_ITALY-KNOX.JPG" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672439660295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317671950_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">PERUGIA, Italy</span> (Reuters) - An <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317671950_4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Italian court</span> cleared 24 year-old American <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317671950_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Amanda Knox</span> and her former boyfriend of murdering British student <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317671950_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Meredith Kercher</span> in 2007 and set them free on Monday after nearly four years in prison for a crime they always denied committing.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672439660304" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Seattle native Knox and Italian computer student, <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317671950_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Raffaele Sollecito</span>, had appealed against a 2009 verdict that found them guilty of murdering 21-year-old Meredith Kercher during what prosecutors said was a sexual assault four years ago.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672439660415" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The court quashed a 26-year jail sentence against Knox, and a 25-year sentence against Sollecito, after independent forensic investigators sharply criticized police scientific evidence, saying it was unreliable.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317672439660418" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Reporting by Deepa Babington)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-74129204416990418152011-10-03T12:17:00.000-07:002011-10-03T12:18:37.292-07:00Scientist wins Nobel for medicine days after death<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JjaRPz2C1PY0h_2Ulz8J6A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MTk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-03T155244Z_01_NYK501_RTRIDSP_3_NOBEL-MEDICINE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JjaRPz2C1PY0h_2Ulz8J6A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MTk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-10-03T155244Z_01_NYK501_RTRIDSP_3_NOBEL-MEDICINE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055305" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A pioneering researcher was awarded the<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Nobel Prize</span> in medicine Monday, three days after dying of<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_6" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">pancreatic cancer</span> without ever knowing he was about to be honored for his <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">immune system</span> work that he had used to try to prolong his own life.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055295" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_5" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Nobel committee</span> said it was unaware that Canadian-born cell biologist <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Ralph Steinman</span> had already died when it awarded the prize to him, American <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_7" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Bruce Beutler</span> and French scientist Jules Hoffmann.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055310" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Since the committee is only supposed to consider living scientists, the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_4" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Nobel Foundation</span> held an emergency meeting Monday and said the decision on the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) prize will remain unchanged.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055319" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The Nobel Prize to Ralph Steinman was made in good faith, based on the assumption that the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_8" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Nobel laureate</span> was alive," the foundation said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055302" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Steinman, 68, died Sept. 30, according to <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317667473_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Rockefeller University</span> in New York. He underwent therapy based on his discovery of the immune system's dendritic cells, for which he won the prize, the university said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four years ago, and his life was extended using a dendritic-cell based immunotherapy of his own design," the university said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Beutler and Hoffmann were cited for their discoveries in the 1990s of receptor proteins that can recognize bacteria and other microorganisms as they enter the body, and activate the first line of defense in the immune system, known as innate immunity.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Nobel committee members said the work by the three is being used to develop better vaccines, and in the long run could also help treatment of diseases linked to abnormalities in the immune system, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and chronic inflammatory diseases.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The work could also help efforts to make the immune system fight cancerous tumors, the committee said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
No vaccines are on the market yet, but Nobel committee member Goran Hansson told The Associated Press that vaccines against hepatitis are in the pipeline.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055521" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I am very touched. I'm thinking of all the people who worked with me, who gave everything," Hoffmann said by telephone to a news conference in Paris. "I wasn't sure this domain merited a Nobel."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Beutler said he woke up in the middle of the night, glanced at his cellphone and realized he had a new email message.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"And, I squinted at it and I saw that the title line was 'Nobel Prize,' so I thought I should give close attention to that," Beutler said in an interview posted on the Nobel website. "And, I opened it and it was from Goran Hansson, and it said that I had won the Nobel Prize, and so I was thrilled."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Still, he was a "little disbelieving" until he checked his laptop, "and in a few minutes I saw my name there and so I knew it was real."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Since 1974, the Nobel statutes don't allow posthumous awards unless a laureate dies after the announcement but before the Dec. 10 award ceremony. That happened in 1996 when economics winner William Vickrey died a few days after the announcement.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Before the statutes were changed in 1974 two Nobel Prizes were given posthumously. In 1961, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize less than a month after he died in a plane crash during a peace mission to Congo. Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt won the Nobel in literature in 1931, although he had died in March of that year.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The Nobel Foundation thus believes that what has occurred is more reminiscent of the example in the statutes concerning a person who has been named as a Nobel Laureate and has died before the actual Nobel Prize Award Ceremony," the foundation said following its meeting.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Nobel officials said the situation was unprecedented, and that Steinman's survivors would receive his share of the prize money. It wasn't immediately clear who would represent him at the ceremony in Stockholm.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Nobel Foundation chairman Lars Heikensten, who started his job in June, said he was stunned when he found out that Steinman was dead.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"My first thought was: 'Wow, this is a remarkable thing to happen now that I'm involved in this for the first time. How do we handle this now?'" he told AP.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hansson said the medicine committee didn't know Steinman was dead when it chose him.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"It is incredibly sad news," he said. "We can only regret that he didn't have the chance to receive the news he had won the Nobel Prize. Our thoughts are now with his family."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Beutler, 53, holds dual appointments at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and as professor of genetics and immunology at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. He will become a full-time faculty member at UT Southwestern on Dec. 1.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hoffmann, 70, headed a research laboratory in Strasbourg, France, between 1974 and 2009 and served as president of the French National Academy of Sciences between 2007-08.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Steinman had been head of Rockefeller University's Center for Immunology and Immune Diseases.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"We are all so touched that our father's many years of hard work are being recognized with a Nobel Prize," Steinman's daughter, Alexis Steinman, said in the Rockefeller University statement. "He devoted his life to his work and his family, and he would be truly honored."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Hoffmann's discovery came in 1996 during research on how fruit flies fight infections. Two years later, Beutler's research on mice showed that fruit flies and mammals activate innate immunity in similar ways when attacked by germs.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Steinman's discovery dates back to 1973, when he found a new cell type, the dendritic cell, which has a unique capacity to activate T-cells. Those cells have a key role in adaptive immunity, when antibodies and killer cells fight infections. They also develop a memory that helps the immune system mobilize its defenses next time it comes under a similar attack.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055524" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The medicine award kicked off a week of Nobel Prize announcements, and will be followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The winners of the economics award will be announced on Oct. 10.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The coveted prizes were established by wealthy Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel — the inventor of dynamite — except for the economics award, which was created by Sweden's central bank in 1968 in Nobel's memory. The prizes are always handed out on Dec. 10, on the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Last year's medicine award went to British professor Robert Edwards for fertility research that led to the first test tube baby.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
___</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317669289055556" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Associated Press writer Malin Rising contributed to this report.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-29456934406876100602011-10-01T13:21:00.001-07:002011-10-01T13:21:46.169-07:00Anti-terrorism success may not help Obama in 2012<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama may have a string of counterterrorism successes and earned high marks from the public on foreign policy, but neither is likely to help him hold the White House. <p>For his administration, this re-election reality is a frustrating bottom line. <p>When the first-term senator won the presidency, questions lingered about his readiness to handle national security matters. Yet Obamahas received wide praise for operations that have killed terrorist leaders, most notably Osama bin Laden in May, and Anwar al-Awlaki on Friday. <p>Al-Awlaki, an American citizen targeted in the U.S. drone attack, was deemed by the administration as having a "significant operational role" in terrorist plots. They included two nearly catastrophic attacks on U.S.-bound planes, an airliner on Christmas 2009 and cargo planes last year. <p>Obama also can claim credit for aiding Libyan rebels in ousting Moammar Gadhafi, for supporting other democratic uprisings in the Arab world, for drawing down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for negotiating a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. <p>But barring unforeseen events, the nation's stubbornly high unemployment rate and turmoil in the financial markets mean people are far more likely to vote next November with the economy foremost in their minds, not the president's record on foreign policy and terrorism. <p>That's bad news for the administration because people give Obama far higher approval ratings on terrorism than on his handling of the economy. <p>In fact, Obama's approval rating on terrorism was higher than on any other issue, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in late August. It showed that 60 percent of those surveyed approved of his handling of terrorism. Just 36 percent approved of his handling of the economy, an all-time low for Obama. <p>Obama's overall approval rating also fell to an all-time low in the poll, 46 percent. <p>The re-election picture gets even gloomier given that 92 percent of those questioned said the economy was an extremely or very important issue. By comparison, 73 percent put the same emphasis on terrorism, but even they're divided over whether Obama should be re-elected. <p>It's also unclear whether the killing of al-Awlaki will bring Obama any new political support. The fiery American-born cleric had a hand in several high-profile terror attempts on the U.S., but his name is hardly as familiar to most Americans as bin Laden. <p>Obama's orders for U.S. special forces to kill bin Laden during a raid on his Pakistani compound did give the president's approval rating a bump. But it proved fleeting, further evidence of the secondary role of terrorism for voters. <p>"It's not 2004," said Rick Nelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This isn't the primary issue facing the United States. The primary issue is the economy and jobs. That issue is going to overshadow anything we do overseas." <p>The joint CIA-U.S. military airstrike that targeted al-Awlaki and killed a second American citizen wasn't without controversy. <p>The attack apparently was the first time a U.S. citizen was tracked and executed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so, raising questions about the reach of presidents' powers. <p>Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a GOP presidential contender, called it an "assassination" and said Americans should not casually accept such violence against U.S. citizens, even those with strong ties to terrorism <p>But most other top Republicans running for Obama's job saw little downside in praising the president for his role. <p>Texas Gov. Rick Perry congratulated Obama, along with the military and intelligence agencies, for "aggressive anti-terror policies." Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney commended the president for his efforts to keep Americans safe and said al-Awlaki's death was a "major victory" in the terrorism fight. <p>With the first nominating contests about three months away, foreign policy and terrorism have been virtually absent from the Republican race. When the issues have arisen, most GOP contenders have tried to portray the president as a weak leader. It's a sentiment they hope taps into voters' frustration with the economy. <p>Bruce Jones, an expert on transnational threats, said Obama's success against terrorist leaders may help counter that GOP strategy. <p>"At the very least, it takes away from the critics the idea that he can't lead, that he doesn't understand those kinds of issues," said Jones, also a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. <p>Beyond the counterterrorism efforts, Obama aides say they believe the president will get credit come Election Day for his foreign policy achievements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, as well as for his support of other democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world. They say the president has boosted U.S. standing in the world, making it easier to get international backing for his policies, rather than having to go it alone. <p>But there is some concern among Obama backers that the one foreign policy issue most likely to find a place in the 2012 campaign is one that has achieved little success: securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians. <p>Republicans and some Jewish voters paint him as anti-Israel, while much of the world disagrees with his opposition to Palestinian efforts to seek statehood recognition at the United Nations. <p>___ <p>Associated Press writer Phillip Elliott and news survey specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report. <p>___ <p>Associated Press writer Julie Pace can be reached at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-15084433232056508512011-10-01T13:20:00.001-07:002011-10-01T13:20:37.197-07:00US general sees end to Libya mission<p>AP Exclusive</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The military mission in Libya is largely complete and NATO's involvement could begin to wrap up as soon as this coming week after allied leaders meet in Brussels, according to the top U.S. commander for Africa. <p>Army Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, told The Associated Press that American military leaders are expected to give NATO ministers their assessment of the situation during meetings late in the week. <p>NATO could decide to end the mission even though ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi is still at large and his forces are still entrenched in strongholds such as Sirte and Bani Walid. <p>NATO's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, agreed on Sept. 21 to extend the mission over the oil-rich North African nation for another 90 days, but officials have said the decision would be reviewed periodically. <p>Ham said that the National Transitional Council and its forces should be in "reasonable control" of population centers before the end of the NATO mission, dubbed Unified Protector. And he said they are close to that now. <p>When NATO makes its decision, Ham said he believes there would be a seamless transition of control over the air and maritime operations to U.S. Africa Command. And, at least initially, some of the military surveillance coverage would remain in place. <p>"We don't want to go from what's there now to zero overnight," Ham said. "There will be some missions that will need to be sustained for some period of time, if for no other reason than to offer assurances to the interim government for things like border security, until such time that they are ready to do all that themselves." <p>U.S. intelligence and surveillance assets, such as drones, will likely stay in the region also to keep watch over weapons caches, to prevent the proliferation of weapons from Libya into neighboring countries. <p>But Ham said air strikes would likely end, unless specifically requested by the Libyan transitional government. <p>NATO took over command of the mission in March, after it was initially led by the U.S. in the early days of the bombing campaign. The mission was designed to enforce a U.N. resolution allowing the imposition of a no-fly zone and military action to protect Libyan civilians. <p>The aggressive bombing runs that battered Gadhafi forces, weapons, air control, and other key targets, gave the revolutionary forces the time and breathing room to organize and begin to push into regime strongholds. A key turning point came about a month ago when the fighters were able to seize the capital, Tripoli, effectively ending Gadhafi's rule. <p>Now, the National Transitional Council has taken over the leadership of the nation and is promising to set up its new interim government, even as it continues to fight forces still loyal to the fugitive leader. <p>Ham said NATO need not wait until Gadhafi is found and forced out of the country before ending the Libyan mission. <p>"The fact that he is still at large some place is really more a matter for the Libyans than it is for anybody else," said Ham, adding that President Barack Obama and other leaders made it clear that the object of the mission was about protecting the people, not killing Gadhafi. <p>The goal now, said Ham, is for the U.S. to eventually establish a normal, military-to-military relationship with Libya, including embassy staff and discussions about what security assistance the Libyans might want from America. He said he doesn't see a major U.S. role in training or other military assistance, because other Arab nations are better suited for that. <p>He added that the U.S. may be able to help re-establish Libya's Coast Guard and maritime domain. <p>Any U.S. military footprint in the country would remain small — probably less than two dozen troops at the embassy to work as staff and perform security. <p>___ <p>Online: <p>U.S. Africa Command: http://www.africom.mil/</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-89073298755954037602011-10-01T13:18:00.001-07:002011-10-01T13:18:44.277-07:00Afghan president says talks with Taliban useless<p>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who for years pushed for reconciliation with the Taliban, now says attempts to negotiate with the insurgent movement are futile and efforts at dialogue should focus instead on neighboring Pakistan. <p>Karzai explained in a videotaped speech released by his office Saturday that he changed his views about trying to talk to the Taliban after a suicide bomber, claiming to be a peace emissary sent by the insurgents, killed former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani at his home on Sept. 20. Rabbani was leading Karzai's effort to broker peace with the Taliban. <p>"Their messengers are coming and killing. ... So with whom should we make peace?" Karzai said Friday to a gathering of the nation's top religious leaders that was videotaped. <p>"I cannot find Mullah Mohammad Omar," Karzai said, referring to the Taliban's one-eyed leader. "Where is he? I cannot find the Taliban council. Where is it? <p>"I don't have any other answer except to say that the other side for this negotiation is Pakistan," Karzai said. <p>Most of the Taliban leadership is thought to be living in Pakistan, and its governing council — known as the Quetta Shura — is based in the southern Pakistani city of the same name. It has long been believed that the Pakistani government has sheltered and influenced the group. <p>Afghanistan said Saturday it had evidence that Rabbani's assassination was planned by Talibanfigures living in Quetta. <p>Afghan Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi went even further, telling Afghan lawmakers Saturday that Pakistan's intelligence service, known as the ISI, was involved in Rabbani's killing — an allegation that Pakistan has denied. "Without any doubt, ISI, is involved in this," Mohammadi said. <p>Last week, U.S. officials leveled accusations of their own, saying Pakistan's spy agency assisted the Haqqani network — a militant group allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban — in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan. It was the most serious allegation yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10-year war. <p>The Pakistan-based Haqqani network has been described as the top security threat in Afghanistan. <p>NATO said Saturday it captured Haji Mali Khan, a senior Haqqani leader inside Afghanistan, describing his arrest as a "significant milestone" in disrupting the terror group's operations. <p>The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters last month. <p>The United States and other members of the international community have in the past accused Pakistan of allowing the Taliban, and the Haqqanis in particular, to maintain safe havens in the country's tribal areas along the Afghan border — particularly in North Waziristan. <p>An Afghan government statement issued earlier in the past week said Pakistan had failed to take steps to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries. It added that if Pakistan's intelligence service is using the Taliban against Afghanistan, then the Afghan government needs to have negotiations with Pakistan, "not the Taliban." <p>Khan, the Haqqani leader being held by NATO, was seized Tuesday during an operation in eastern Paktia province's Jani Khel district, which borders Pakistan, the alliance said. <p>It was the most significant capture of a Haqqani leader in Afghanistan, and could dent the group's ability to operate along the porous border with Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. <p>Shortly after NATO's announcement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied in a message to Afghan media that Khan had been arrested but provided no evidence that he was free. <p>NATO described Khan as an uncle of Siraj and Badruddin Haqqani, two sons of the network's aging leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani. <p>"He was one of the highest ranking members of the Haqqani network and a revered elder of the Haqqani clan," NATO said of Khan. <p>During the operation Tuesday, Khan surrendered without resistance and NATO forces also arrested his deputy and bodyguard, along with a number of other insurgents, the alliance said. <p>"The Haqqani network and its safe havens remain a top priority for Afghan and coalition forces," NATO concluded. <p>The NATO statement said security forces have conducted more than 500 operations so far in 2011 in an effort to disrupt the Haqqani network leadership, resulting in the deaths of 20 operatives and the capture of nearly 300 insurgent leaders and 1,300 suspected Haqqani insurgents. <p>In a related development, Afghanistan's intelligence service said Saturday it has given Pakistan hard evidence that Rabbani's assassination was planned in the southern outskirts of Quetta where key Taliban leaders are based. <p>The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for killing Rabbani. <p>Lutifullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, provided the first details about where the assassination was allegedly planned at a news conference. <p>"The place where Professor Rabbani's killing was planned is a town called Satellite near Quetta, Pakistan," Mashal told reporters. "The key person involved in the assassination of Rabbani has been arrested and he has provided lots of strong evidence about where and how it was planned. We have given all that evidence to the Pakistan embassy." <p>The Afghan intelligence documents handed over to Pakistan's embassy in Kabul include the address, photographs and a layout of a house in Satellite, Mashal said. He said the Pakistanis also have been provided with the names of individuals who discussed Rabbani's assassination at the house in Satellite. <p>Satellite Town is an upscale residential area very close to the city center and it is known to residents that Afghan Taliban live there. <p>Mashal would not disclose the identity of the person in custody, saying only that he was a second-tier figure within the Taliban hierarchy. <p>He said additional details would be released soon by a commission set up to investigate Rabbani's death. <p>Asked what Afghanistan expected Pakistan to do with the information, Mashal referred the question to the Afghan Foreign Ministry and the commission. <p>"This is all concrete evidence that nobody can ignore," he said. <p>___ <p>Deb Riechmann and Patrick Quinn contributed to this report from Kabul. <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:190e0a31-ec6f-4de4-8bb7-95c5288396af" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/afghanistan" rel="tag">afghanistan</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Taliban" rel="tag">Taliban</a></div> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-65339909718215337722011-09-29T11:14:00.000-07:002011-09-29T11:15:34.064-07:00Pakistan warns against U.S. attack on militants<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JW4MK2qR_ao4yl0oql12EA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzA2O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMzA7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-09-29T175845Z_01_BTRE78S0YSN00_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-PAKISTAN-USA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/JW4MK2qR_ao4yl0oql12EA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzA2O2NyPTE7Y3c9NDUwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMzA7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-09-29T175845Z_01_BTRE78S0YSN00_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-PAKISTAN-USA.JPG" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317319920231295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. military action against insurgents in<span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317319331_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Pakistan</span> would be unacceptable and the country's army would be capable of responding, intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha told a meeting of political leaders in Islamabad, according to media reports.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317319920231418" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Express News TV cited Pasha as saying an "American attack on Pakistan in the name of (fighting) extremism is not acceptable."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
However, several television news reports said Pasha had also told an all-party meeting to discuss the crisis in ties between Washington and Islamabad that Pakistan would not allow the situation to get to a "point of no return."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan has long faced U.S. demands to attack militants on its side of the border with Afghanistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But the pressure has escalated since the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, accused Pakistan last week of supporting an attack by the militant Haqqani network on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Support is growing in the U.S. Congress for expanding American military action in Pakistan beyond drone strikes against militants, said Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican voice on foreign policy and military affairs.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Islamabad is reluctant to go after the Haqqanis -- even though the United States provides billions of dollars in aid -- saying its troops are stretched fighting Taliban insurgents.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan says it has sacrificed more lives than any of the countries that joined the "war on terror" after the September 11 attacks by Islamist militants on the United States in 2001.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan's military faced withering public criticism after a surprise U.S. raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad in May.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
A similar U.S. operation against militants in North Waziristan on the Afghan border, where American officials say the Haqqanis are based, would be another humiliation for the powerful army.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Graham said in an interview with Reuters that U.S. lawmakers might support military options beyond drone strikes that have been going on for years inside Pakistani territory.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Those options may include using U.S. bomber planes within Pakistan, said, adding that he did not advocate sending U.S. ground troops into the country.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"I would say when it comes to defending American troops, you don't want to limit yourself," Graham said. "This is not a boots-on-the-ground engagement -- I'm not talking about that, but we have a lot of assets beyond drones."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Graham said U.S. lawmakers would think about stepping up the military pressure. "If people believe it's gotten to the point that is the only way really to protect our interests, I think there would be a lot of support," he said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
REVIEWING AID</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan was designated a major non-Nato ally by the United States for its support of coalition military operations in Afghanistan after 9/11.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
But their relationship has been dogged by mistrust. Although</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
regarded as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, Pakistan is often seen from Washington as an unreliable partner.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Following U.S. accusations that some in the Pakistani government have aided anti-U.S. militants, Congress is re-evaluating its 2009 promise to triple non-military aid to Pakistan to a total of $7.5 billion over five years.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
That aid came on top of billions in security assistance provided since 2001, which Washington is also rethinking.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317319920231421" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Any unilateral U.S. military action to go after the Haqqanis would deepen anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, which is already running high over U.S. drone strikes and other issues, reducing the space for the government and army to collaborate with Washington.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The Haqqani network is allied with Afghanistan's Taliban and is believed to have close links to al Qaeda. It fights U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan. The group's leader says it is no longer based in North Waziristan and feels secure operating in Afghanistan after making battlefield gains.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317319920231446" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Augustine Anthony in Islamabad, Mirwais Harooni in Kabul and Missy Ryan and Susan Cornwall in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by John Chalmers)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720486019921130468.post-2274686420565687332011-09-28T13:50:00.000-07:002011-09-28T14:00:00.271-07:00Analysis: Pakistan's double-game: treachery or strategy?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370295" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317217753_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Washington</span> has just about had it with <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317217753_0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Pakistan</span>.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370431" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Turns out they are disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the United States," fumed Republican Representative Ted Poe last week. "We pay them to hate us. Now we pay them to bomb us. Let's not pay them at all."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370434" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
For many in America, Islamabad has been nothing short of perfidious since joining a strategic alliance with Washington 10 years ago: selectively cooperating in the war on extremist violence and taking billions of dollars in aid to do the job, while all the time sheltering and supporting Islamist militant groups that fight NATO troops in Afghanistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan has angrily denied the charges, but if its critics are right, what could the explanation be for such duplicity? What strategic agendas might be hidden behind this puzzling statecraft?</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The answer is that Pakistan wants to guarantee for itself a stake in Afghanistan's political future.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370437" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
It knows that, as U.S. forces gradually withdraw from Afghanistan, ethnic groups will be competing for ascendancy there and other regional powers - from India to China and Iran - will be jostling for a foot in the door.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370300" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Islamabad's support for the <span class="yshortcuts cs4-visible" id="lw_1317217753_1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #366388; cursor: pointer;">Taliban</span> movement in the 1990s gives it an outsized influence among Afghanistan's Pashtuns, who make up about 42 percent of the total population and who maintain close ties with their Pakistani fellow tribesmen.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In particular, Pakistan's powerful military is determined there should be no vacuum in Afghanistan that could be filled by its arch-foe, India.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370442" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
INDIA FOCUS</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistan has fought three wars with its neighbor since the bloody partition of the subcontinent that led to the creation of the country in 1947, and mutual suspicion still hobbles relations between the two nuclear-armed powers today.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370445" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"They still think India is their primary policy," said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general and prominent political analyst. "India is always in the back of their minds."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370448" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani - unprompted - complained that Washington's failure to deal even-handedly with New Delhi and Islamabad was a source of regional instability.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Aqil Shah, a South Asia security expert at the Harvard Society of Fellows, said Islamabad's worst-case scenario would be an Afghanistan controlled or dominated by groups with ties to India, such as the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance, which it fears would pursue activities hostile to Pakistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Ideally, the military would like Afghanistan to become a relatively stable satellite dominated by Islamist Pashtuns," Shah wrote in a Foreign Affairs article this week.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Although Pakistan, an Islamic state, officially abandoned support for the predominantly Pashtun Taliban after the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, elements of the military never made the doctrinal shift.</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Few doubt that the shadowy intelligence directorate, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has maintained links to the Taliban that emerged from its support for the Afghan mujahideen during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370503" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Until recently, there appeared to be a grudging acceptance from Washington that this was the inevitable status quo.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370500" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
That was until it emerged in May that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - who was killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs raid - had been hiding out in a Pakistani garrison town just two hours up the road from Islamabad, by some accounts for up to five years.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Relations between Pakistan and the United States have been stormy ever since, culminating in a tirade by the outgoing U.S. joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, last week.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370506" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Mullen described the Haqqani network, the most feared faction among Taliban militants in Afghanistan, as a "veritable arm" of the ISI and accused Islamabad of providing support for the group's September 13 attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The reaction in Islamabad has been one of stunned outrage.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370509" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Washington has not gone public with evidence to back its accusation, and Pakistani officials say that contacts with the Haqqani group do not amount to actual support.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
However, Imran Khan, a Pakistani cricketer-turned-populist-politician, said this week that it was too much to expect that old friends could have become enemies overnight.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
He told Reuters that, instead of demanding that Pakistan attack the Haqqanis in the mountainous border region of North Waziristan, the United States should use Islamabad's leverage with the group to bring the Afghan Taliban into negotiations.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370512" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Haqqani could be your ticket to getting them on the negotiating table, which at the moment they are refusing," Khan said. "So I think that is a much saner policy than to ask Pakistan to try to take them on."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
REGIONAL GAME</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370515" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The big risk for the United States in berating Islamabad is that it will exacerbate anti-American sentiment, which already runs deep in Pakistan, and perhaps embolden it further.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370518" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
C. Raja Mohan, senior fellow at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research, said Pakistan was probably gambling that the United States' economic crisis and upcoming presidential elections would distract Washington.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The real game is unfolding on the ground with the Americans. The Pakistan army is betting that the United States does not have too many choices and more broadly that the U.S. is on the decline, he said.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
It is also becoming clear that as Pakistan's relations with Washington deteriorate, it can fall back into the arms of its "all-weather friend," China, the energy-hungry giant that is the biggest investor in Afghanistan's nascent resources sector.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370521" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Pakistani officials heaped praise on Beijing this week as a Chinese minister visited Islamabad. Among them was army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably the country's most powerful man, who spoke of China's "unwavering support."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370524" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
In addition, Pakistan has extended a cordial hand to Iran, which also shares a border with Afghanistan.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Teheran has been mostly opposed to the Taliban, which is dominated by Sunni Muslims while Iran is predominantly Shi'ite. But Iran's anti-Americanism is more deep-seated.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370527" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"My reading is the Iranians want to see the Americans go," said Raja Mohan, the Indian analyst. "They have a problem with the Taliban, but any American retreat will suit them. Iran in the short term is looking at the Americans being humiliated."</div>
<div style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
ARMY CALLS THE SHOTS</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370530" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
The supremacy of the military in Pakistan means that Washington has little to gain little from wagging its finger about ties with the Taliban at the civilian government, which is regularly lashed for its incompetence and corruption.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370533" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"The state has become so soft and powerless it can't make any difference," said Masood, the Pakistani retired general. "Any change will have to come from the military."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370543" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
Daniel Markey, a senior fellow for South Asia at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, said the problem lies with a security establishment that continues to believe that arming and working - actively and passively - with militant groups serves its purposes.</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370536" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
"Until ... soul-searching takes place within the Pakistani military and the ISI, you're not likely to see an end to these U.S. demands, and a real shift in terms of the relationship," Markey said in an online discussion this week. "This is the most significant shift that has to take place."</div>
<div id="yui_3_3_0_1_1317242841370540" style="margin-top: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)</div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0