2 Pakistan holds crisis talks after avalanche of attacks
by Sami Zubeiri, AFP
1 hr 15 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's army and political leaders laid their plans at crisis talks on Friday after a twin suicide bombing capped an avalanche of attacks that has killed over 170 people this month.
Pakistan's military chiefs and weak government have been floundering on the frontline of the US-led war on terror after an upsurge in a two-year campaign of suicide blasts and armed assaults by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
A woman suicide bomber on a motorbike and a car bomber unleashed fresh chaos Friday, detonating near a police investigations office in a garrison area of the northwestern city of Peshawar, heavily damaging the building, police said. |
3 Pakistan says militants threaten sovereignty of nation
by Sami Zubeiri, AFP
17 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan said Friday that militants threatened the sovereignty of the nation after a twin suicide bombing capped an avalanche of attacks killing more than 170 people this month.
At crisis talks on plotting a course of action, army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani gave a detailed briefing on the national security situation and challenges facing the nuclear-armed state.
"The political leadership assembled together noted that there already existed an across-the-board consensus in the country to root out extremism and militancy," a statement issued after the meeting said. |
4 UN rights council endorses damning Gaza report
by Hui Min Neo, AFP
47 mins ago
| GENEVA (AFP) - The UN Human Rights Council endorsed a report on Friday that accused Israel and the Palestinian hardliners Hamas of war crimes in the Gaza conflict, dealing a fresh diplomatic blow to the Jewish state.
While Israel had said such a move would be tantamount to "rewarding terror", the Palestinians welcomed the resolution which it said should be the trigger for follow-up action from the UN Security Council.
Some 25 of the council's 47 members, led by the Arab and African states, voted for the resolution. Six, including the United States, voted against while 16 others either abstained or did not vote. |
5 Nigeria rebels says 'oil war' resuming
by Aderogba Obisesan, AFP
1 hr 25 mins ago
| LAGOS (AFP) - A rebel group that has wreaked havoc in Nigeria's oil hub on Friday ended a 90-day ceasefire, warning the oil industry and military to brace for new and widened attacks.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has waged a three-year campaign for a bigger share of the oil wealth for the impoverished local population, said it will take up arms again after it shunned a government amnesty offer.
MEND's violent attacks have severely cut daily production in the world's eighth largest oil exporter -- by up to a third of pre-2006 levels. |
6 Half a century on, Asterix still holding out
by Celine Agniel and Dominique Chabrol, AFP
Fri Oct 16, 11:07 am ET
| ERQUY, France (AFP) - After 50 years Asterix and his village of indomitable Gauls are still gamely holding out against the Romans, while in the meantime they have become a global publishing phenomenon.
Despite their defiantly French character, the comic book adventures of the first century BC warrior have sold 325 million copies -- 200 million of them abroad -- and been translated into 107 languages and dialects.
The 20-year-old Asterix theme park outside Paris rivals even the same city's Disneyland as a tourist draw and a series of hit movies, including both live action and animated capers, have been worldwide hits. |
7 Afghan fraud probe 'trims Karzai's vote share'
by Shaun Tandon, Reuters
Fri Oct 16, 6:49 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - A fraud probe into Afghan elections has trimmed President Hamid Karzai's vote share to just 47 percent, a report said on Friday, while a senior aide conceded a second round could be in the offing.
The much-awaited tally by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission will trigger a run-off between Karzai and his nearest competitor, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, because Karzai's portion of the August 20 vote was lowered to below 50 percent, The Washington Post reported.
One official familiar with the tally, due to be finalized Friday, described the results as "stunning," the paper said. |
8 Suicide bomber kills 12 in Pakistan's Peshawar
By Alamgir Bitani, Reuters
1 hr 34 mins ago
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes and artillery pounded a Taliban stronghold Friday, as a suicide bomber killed 12 people in the city of Peshawar in the latest in a bloody wave of militant attacks.
In a show of unity in advance of an expected ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in their South Waziristan lair, government, military and political party leaders vowed to root out militancy and restore the writ of the state.
The army has been stepping up its air and artillery attacks in recent days to soften up the militants' defenses while civilians have been fleeing. |
9 WITNESS: Pardon my bootleg: Navigating China's pirated waters
By Melanie Lee, Reuters
Fri Oct 16, 7:38 am ET
| SHANGHAI (Reuters) - I confess, my copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows franchise, was just that: a copy.
I picked it up at a shop in a subway station near my house for 20 yuan, or less than $3 -- about the price of a bowl of soupy pork noodles available across Shanghai.
I bought it this week on a story assignment that sent me into the city's notorious Xinyang market, where boxes of the software were tucked among racks of fake Ralph Polo T-shirts and Gucci bags, even though its official launch was a week away. |
Idiot.
10 In New Orleans, Obama fires back at critics
By Matt Spetalnick, Reuters
Fri Oct 16, 2:05 am ET
| NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama fired back on Thursday at critics who say he has few accomplishments of note in his nine months in office and declared he was just getting started.
In recent weeks, Obama has faced criticism both from liberals who want him to do more to advance causes such as gay rights, and conservatives who accuse him of taking too long to decide whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
A comedy skit on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" program a couple of weeks ago drew attention to the issue. An actor playing the president said, "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I've done so far, and that is: Nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it." |
Zip. Bupkiss. Except sellout his campaign promises and the people who voted for him.
11 Double bombing kills 13 at Pakistan police station
By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 37 mins ago
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Three suicide attackers, including a woman, attacked a police station in northwestern Pakistan, killing 13 people Friday while army airstrikes killed a dozen suspected militants in a Taliban stronghold ahead of an expected ground offensive.
The bombing in Peshawar city was the latest in a surge of terrorist attacks over the last 11 days that has killed more than 150 people and underscored the power of the Taliban, who have warned the army against launching any operation in the militants' base close to the Afghan border.
In Islamabad, the army chief met with the prime minister and other political leaders for talks that included plans for an offensive in South Waziristan. After the meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira vowed the country's leaders would "take all steps to eradicate terrorism and extremism from the country," but he refused to discuss military plans. |
12 Suicide bomber kills 15 at mosque in northern Iraq
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer
18 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber who hid among the Sunni congregation in a northern Iraqi mosque sprayed gunfire at Muslim worshippers Friday and then blew himself up, killing at least 15 people, including the imam leading prayers, officials said.
The brazen attack is the latest against Sunni clerics who have increasingly spoken out against al-Qaida in Iraq since U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June. The clerics and others fear militants could take advantage of the transition to step up the kind of sectarian attacks that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war two years ago.
The man who opened fire in the mosque in Tal Afar first shot the imam, Abdul-Satar Hassan, before turning his AK-47 assault rifle on worshippers, witnesses said. He detonated his explosives only after running out of ammunition. |
13 Bank of America loses $2.24B as loan losses rise
By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS, AP Business Writer
1 hr 48 mins ago
| CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. said Friday it lost more than $2.2 billion in the third quarter as loan losses kept rising, providing further evidence that consumers are still struggling to pay their bills.
The nation's second-largest bank said it wrote down loans on its books by almost $10 billion during the July-September period, up almost $1 billion from the second quarter. The bank also added $2.1 billion to its reserves to cover bad loans, bringing its provision for credit losses to $11.7 billion. The bank's total allowance for loan and lease losses now totals $35.83 billion.
Bank of America's results were aided by profit from its wealth management business, which includes the bank's Merrill Lynch division. While the acquisition of Merrill Lynch has brought widespread criticism and legal problems for Bank of America, the deal was paying off during the third quarter, when Merrill Lynch's revenue and profit more than doubled from a year ago. |
14 Wal-Mart and Amazon.com trade price cuts on books
By ASHLEY M. HEHER, AP Retail Writer
10 mins ago
| CHICAGO - Taking a page from its original playbook, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched a full-fledged price war with Amazon.com Inc. and a nation of book retailers, lowering prices on certain highly anticipated hardback titles to $9.
The volley of discounts, which began Thursday when the retailer listed prices for some upcoming hardcover releases such as Dean Koontz' "Breathless" and Stephen King's "Under the Dome" at $10, was answered with a similar price cut by Amazon, the largest online bookseller. Then the two competitors lowered the prices even further to $9.
Observers say the book discounts, the latest in a series of aggressive online maneuvers by the world's largest retailer, could position the company to do to the online marketplace what Walmart stores did to local merchants decades ago. |
15 Social Security freeze means seniors must scrimp
By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 8:09 am ET
| PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - If her check were bigger, 76-year-old Agnes Conti might be able to spring for a better cut of meat for her pot roast. She could afford to send her nine grandchildren more than $20 for their birthdays and Christmas. She'd be able to buy some nice new clothes, like she sees on QVC, not what she settles for at Walmart.
If only. The government has said the Social Security checks Conti and tens of millions of other seniors rely on as their primary source of income will not increase next year as consumer prices have fallen overall. And while the retired hospital clerk will get by, she'll be watching her spending even closer, knowing she can't expect the annual raise she's been accustomed to.
"We were good citizens all our lives. We went to work, we lived by the book, we weren't on welfare, we didn't ask the city for anything," Conti said while taking a break from crafts at a senior center here. "And what do we get?" |
16 STIMULUS WATCH: Stimulus boon for South, Southwest
By MATT APUZZO and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press Writers
Fri Oct 16, 10:39 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Businesses in the South and Southwest benefited most from the first federal contracts awarded under President Barack Obama's stimulus program, according to initial data released by a government oversight board. Military construction and environmental cleanup contributed to a boost of about 30,000 jobs.
The new job numbers - in line with expectations for such an early accounting - offer the first hard data on effects of the $787 billion stimulus program.
The figures, released Thursday, are based on jobs linked to less than $16 billion in federal contracts and represent just a sliver of the total stimulus package. But they also represent a milestone of sorts for an administration that promised unprecedented real-time data on whether the program was working. |
17 Giving babies Tylenol may blunt vaccines' effects
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
Fri Oct 16, 5:31 am ET
| Giving babies Tylenol to prevent fever when they get childhood vaccinations may backfire and make the shots a little less effective, surprising new research suggests.
It is the first major study to tie reduced immunity to the use of fever-lowering medicines. Although the effect was small and the vast majority of kids still got enough protection from vaccines, the results make "a compelling case" against routinely giving Tylenol right after vaccination, say doctors from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They wrote an editorial accompanying the study, published in Friday's issue of the British medical journal, Lancet. |
18 Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 4:50 am ET
| NEW ORLEANS - A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.
Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." |
Note: You are a racist.
19 Baucus: All Senate Dems will support health bill
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 2:18 am ET
| WASHINGTON - When it comes time to vote, every Democrat in the Senate - and perhaps more than one Republican - will support legislation overhauling the nation's health care system, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee predicted Thursday.
That assertion by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was a notable show of confidence coming in the midst of negotiations with Majority Leader Harry Reid and White House officials to finalize legislation that can satisfy liberal Democrats without alienating moderates - and get the 60 votes needed to advance in the 100-seat Senate.
Baucus told reporters that lawmakers have a moral obligation to repair the health care system to rein in costs and extend coverage to millions of the uninsured. |
So why are we selling out to Olympia Snowe, AHIP, PhARMA, and AHA?
20 Obama defends himself against New Orleans critics
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 34 mins ago
| NEW ORLEANS - Insisting he's "just getting started," President Barack Obama defended his administration Thursday against complaints from some residents of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast that federal help in recovering from the 2005 disasters hasn't improved much since he took office.
"We've got a long way to go but we've made progress," Obama told a town hall at the University of New Orleans. "We're working as hard as we can and as quickly as we can."
As a candidate, Obama criticized former President George W. Bush's response to Katrina, when the government showed up late and unprepared and the Federal Emergency Management Agency became the object of widespread scorn. |
"I expected as much from the Bush administration, but why are we still being nickeled and dimed in our recovery?" Yup. 4 hours and off to a big donor fundraiser. Changiness.
21 Weighty topic: NJ candidate's girth is an issue
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 44 mins ago
| TRENTON, N.J. - There are weighty issues in New Jersey's tight race for governor - the highest property taxes in the nation, for one thing. And then there are issues of weight.
Republican challenger Chris Christie's Henry VIII-like girth has become a front-and-center topic of discussion ever since Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine ran a commercial claiming that Christie "threw his weight around" to get out of traffic violations.
The ad, first aired last month, showed a clip of a rotund Christie, his extra pounds rolling beneath his shirt, lumbering out of the back seat of an SUV. |
The perfect Beltway story. All horseshitrace he said she said about who's not being bi-partisan.
22 After year without, 1 family finds middle ground
By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 35 mins ago
| NEW YORK - Colin Beavan sat under the light of a single bulb, freaking out.
Along with his wife and young daughter, he had just spent a year trying to reduce their net environmental impact to almost zero. With a flip of a switch, they had cut their Manhattan apartment off from the electrical grid. They had stopped using anything disposable or buying anything new. In a city of skyscrapers, they had given up elevators. They went everywhere by bicycle, bought food directly from local farmers, had even sworn off toilet paper.
It had been a year of rules, a year in which nearly every aspect of their lives had been shaped by what they were not allowed to do. And now it was over. |
Yup. Environmentalists are tree hugging wackos.
23 Like feminism? Like wine? There's a club for that
By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 11:28 am ET
| SAN FRANCISCO - Quick, what pairs well with feminism, guns and The New York Times?
Apparently, wine. The California National Organization for Women, the National Rifle Association and the Times are just a few of a growing cadre of unlikely groups launching wine clubs as a way to raise cash and strengthen ties with supporters.
"It's a way that you can get out there and you can get your thoughts out there and you can support the causes that you care about," said Mona Lisa Wallace, a member of the board of California NOW, which recently launched its own Feminist Wine Club. |
The stupid is strong with this one.
24 'Mighty Mo' undergoing $18M preservation
By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 3:47 am ET
| HONOLULU - Mike Weidenbach has walked across the historic teakwood decks and through the metal hallways of the USS Missouri countless times in the past decade. But he recently realized how massive the aging battleship is from a new perspective - underneath.
"I touched the bottom of the ship," gushed Weidenbach, curator of the iconic World War II vessel that now serves as a memorial and museum.
The "Mighty Mo" - the last battleship built by the United States - is spending three months in dry dock at Pearl Harbor undergoing $18 million in maintenance and preservation. |
25 Water uncertainty frustrates busy Calif. farmers
By TRACIE CONE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 3:07 am ET
| FRESNO, Calif. - Farmers in the most prolific agricultural region in the country should be planting winter romaine lettuce and calculating spring cantaloupe acreage at this time of year.
Instead the romaine packing company left this year for the searing Sonoran Desert of Arizona, where there is more reliable water. And cantaloupe? Who knows whether there will be water to irrigate it.
"How bad does it have to get for people to take action?" farmer Jeremy Freitas asked a panel of state agricultural officials Wednesday, choking back tears. |
26 Feds deny protection for spotted seals near Alaska
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 15, 7:23 pm ET
| ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Spotted seals off Alaska's coast do not merit endangered species protection despite losses of Arctic sea ice from global warming, a federal agency announced Thursday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, however, will list as threatened a small population of spotted seals that live off the coasts of Russia and China.
Doug Mecum, acting administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service Alaska region, said spotted seals in two populations closest to Alaska exceed 200,000 animals. |
27 Report: Lawmakers to cut state budgets even deeper
By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 15, 4:36 pm ET
| BOSTON - In Massachusetts, freefalling tax revenue will mean no more dental and hospice care for legal immigrants. Maryland is closing a mental health center. And Illinois has $2.9 billion in unpaid bills.
As bad as state budget-cutting was during the past year, a report issued Thursday showed it's bound to be even worse in the coming months. Despite signs of improvement in the national economy, many states' finances are still dismal.
The relentless cutbacks have become so worrisome that advocates of disability programs conducted a weeklong sit-in in the lobby of the Massachusetts governor's office. |
Yup. That stimulus compromise sure is working out.
28 Fresh Pakistan attacks underscore reach of Taliban
By Issam Ahmed, The Christian Science Monitor
Thu Oct 15, 5:00 am ET
| Islamabad, Pakistan - A series of deadly attacks apparently aimed at testing the resolve of Pakistan's security forces ahead of a planned offensive against militants in South Waziristan left more than 30 dead on Thursday.
Two of the targets had been attacked before, underscoring the reach of the Taliban, which claimed responsibility, and the failure of security forces to secure high-profile locations.
While the onslaught of attacks in urban areas may deepen Pakistanis' sense of insecurity, it could also strengthen their support for the Army to fight the Taliban. |
29 Iraqi-Syrian crisis deepens; Baghdad looks to UN for help
By Jane Arraf, The Christian Science Monitor
Wed Oct 14, 5:00 am ET
| Baghdad - The crisis between two of the Middle East's most powerful countries deepened Wednesday as Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said talks with Syria over suicide truck bomb attacks had failed and the United Nations would appoint a special envoy to investigate the violence.
"After four meetings the government realized that these meetings are pointless and they have not produced any ... tangible results or any movement," said Mr. Zebari, speaking from a Foreign Ministry still being rebuilt after two tons of explosives were detonated outside the building on Aug. 19.
Zebari said Wednesday he had just been informed that several senior officials were being put forward as candidates within the UN to respond to Iraq's request for a formal investigation into the attacks on the Foreign and Finance ministries. Almost 100 people were killed and 800 wounded in the twin attacks - the first to strike at the heart of the Iraqi state. |
30 Abdullah would bring new style in Afghanistan
By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer
15 mins ago
| KABUL - He could bring a fresh face to the pinnacle of Afghan politics for the first time in eight years, replacing a discredited president grappling with corruption, a flourishing narcotics trade and a Taliban insurgency growing more powerful by the day.
The 49-year-old Abdullah Abdullah, a trained ophthalmologist, is a sophisticated intellectual and a skilled diplomat. But he's "less of a natural politician" than incumbent Hamid Karzai, said James Dobbins, who served as President George W. Bush's first envoy to Afghanistan.
Karzai was chosen to lead Afghanistan's first post-Taliban government in 2001 "because he was a conciliator, somebody who could get along with a wide range of factions and not antagonize them," Dobbins said. |
31 Zimbabwe PM boycotts unity government
By CHENGETAI ZVAUYA, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 12:25 pm ET
| HARARE, Zimbabwe - Citing the "persecution" of a top aide, Zimbabwe's prime minister abandoned - at least temporarily - shared rule with President Robert Mugabe, marking a setback to the country's struggle to emerge from political gridlock, economic collapse and international isolation and sanctions.
Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters Friday his party members would not attend Cabinet meetings or engage in other executive work with Mugabe's party. His erstwhile governing partners said good riddance, even though both sides need the coalition.
"Until confidence has been restored we can't continue to pretend that everything is well," Tsvangirai said, referring to a trial scheduled to begin Monday against Roy Bennett, the prime minister's nominee for deputy agriculture minister who is charged with weapons violations. The charges are linked to long-discredited allegations that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change plotted Mugabe's violent overthrow. |
32 EU officials warn of disappearing cod
By RAF CASERT, Associated Press Writer
23 mins ago
| BRUSSELS - Cod is slipping closer to disappearing from key European fishing grounds, officials warned Friday, saying that only steep catch cuts will prevent the disappearance of a species prized for centuries for its flaky white flesh.
The European Union's executive body called for sharp cuts in the amount of cod fisherman can catch next year - up to 25 percent in some areas. The European Commission said recent studies showed cod catches in some areas are far outstripping the rate of reproduction.
Scientists estimated that in the 1970s there were more than 250,000 tons of cod in fishing grounds in the North Sea, eastern English Channel and Scandinavia's Skagerrak strait. In recent years, however, stocks have dropped to 50,000 tons. |
33 Cold War: Moscow's mayor in a flurry over snowfall
By BEN JUDAH, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 55 mins ago
| MOSCOW - Moscow's mercurial mayor, famous for seeding clouds to prevent rain during parades, is escalating his war on weather with plans to slash this year's snowfall by one-fifth in the Russian capital.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's office will marshal the Russian air force and air defense systems to intercept advancing storm fronts and hit them with dry ice and silver iodine particles, city officials reportedly said this week.
The idea is to reduce the amount of snow that clogs Moscow's frigid streets and costs the city millions to manage. |
Read on for the unintended but predictable consequences.
34 Some poor nations succeeding in fighting hunger
By RAPHAEL TENTHANI and TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writers
Fri Oct 16, 5:48 am ET
| BLANTYRE, Malawi - Government fertilizer has made the difference between hunger and plenty for Rodrick Jesitala, a farmer and father of three in southern Malawi.
Thanks to fertilizer he couldn't afford without government help, Jesitala harvested enough corn to feed his family this year. A report released Friday praised Malawi's program, saying governments simply making agriculture a top priority and offering financial and other incentives to small farmers have seen some poor countries quickly move from importing food to producing surpluses.
In its report, ActionAid International ranked Malawi among the top five successful developing nations, with Brazil taking the lead, for cutting child malnutrition by 73 percent in six years. |
35 Bomb kills four US soldiers in Afghanistan
AFP
1 hr 9 mins ago
| KABUL (AFP) - NATO said Friday a roadside bomb had killed four US soldiers in Afghanistan, as pressure mounted for President Barack Obama to order thousands more soldiers into an escalating eight-year war.
"Two US service members were killed and two died of wounds sustained in a single improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan October 15," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
No further details were immediately available but thousands of US troops are fighting in southern Afghanistan as part of a push to quell a resurgent Taliban in what is their spiritual heartland. |
36 Russia jails two on espionage charges
by Anna Malpas, AFP
2 hrs 51 mins ago
| MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia has handed long jail terms to a Serbian man and a Russian soldier in two separate cases involving charges of espionage for the United States and Georgia, officials said Friday.
The Serbian man, named as Aleksandar Georgijevic by the Federal Security Service (FSB, successor to the KGB), was convicted of attempting to commit treason.
The FSB statement said that in 1998 Georgijevic gathered information classified as a state secret on Russia's Arena, Blokada, Khrizantema-C and Iskander military hardware and R-500 rockets. |
37 Police to quiz family over 'balloon boy' hoax suspicions
by Jeanie Stokes, AFP
Fri Oct 16, 12:23 pm ET
| DENVER, Colorado (AFP) - The family in Colorado's runaway balloon saga will be quizzed by detectives after a comment from the boy at the center of the drama fueled suspicions of a hoax, police said Friday.
Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said police were convinced that the event that gripped US media on Thursday was legitimate, but officers would seek clarification of remarks made by six-year-old Falcon Heene.
"Clearly with the statements last night we hope to re-interview the family and explore that possibility (a hoax) to try to get to the bottom of this and resolve it one way or another," Alderden said. |
38 French nationals told to leave Guinea
AFP
Fri Oct 16, 11:39 am ET
| CONAKRY (AFP) - France told its nationals on Friday to leave Guinea as observers said tension was mounting with west African heads of state mulling sanctions against the junta after a bloody crackdown on the opposition.
France on Friday told its estimated 2,500 nationals to leave the former French colony in west Africa, because the security situation in Conakry had badly deteriorated following a September 28 crackdown on an opposition rally in the capital. The United Nations says more than 150 people were killed.
"We strongly advise against travel to Guinea, and French nationals present in the country are advised to leave," said a travel advisory on the foreign ministry website. |
39 Botswana votes in 10th democratic poll
by Fran Blandy, AFP
Fri Oct 16, 7:52 am ET
| GABORONE (AFP) - Botswana voted on Friday in parliamentary elections widely expected to return President Ian Khama's ruling party to power in the diamond-rich nation seen as Africa's most successful democracy.
The poll is the most challenging yet to Khama's ruling Botswana Democratic Party, in power since independence in 1966, which has been wracked by bitter factionalism amid dissatisfaction over his leadership style.Profile: President Ian Khama
While some critics at home lament his authoritarian style, the tough-talking president is popular abroad, most notably for breaking ranks with regional leaders to criticise President Robert Mugabe in neighbouring Zimbabwe. |
40 Aussie PM unmoved by boat refugees' hunger strike
AFP
Fri Oct 16, 7:15 am ET
| SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday refused to be swayed by hundreds of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who declared a hunger strike after their boat was stopped in Indonesia en route to Australia.
Rudd said the 255 migrants, many of whom are refusing to leave the boat until they are granted refugee status in a third country, would have to be processed through normal channels by UN in Indonesia.
That process could take months or years, but Rudd said any compromise would encourage people smugglers who profit from the trade in desperate migrants. |
41 Pakistan declares guerrilla war under way by Taliban, dozens die
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Oct 15, 5:51 pm ET
| LAHORE, Pakistan -- The bloody battle of wills between the Pakistani government and Islamic extremists continued with five terrorist attacks on Thursday that claimed at least 38 lives and was timed, officials said, ahead of a planned military offensive against Taliban guerrillas in their stronghold along the Afghan border.
The latest violence, including three simultaneous assaults in the eastern city of Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province heartland, jolted a country already reeling from a spate of attacks that started last week.
The onslaught appears to be aimed at breaking the country's resolve before it can launch a U.S.-backed operation in the lawless South Wazirstan region, the center of Pakistani extremism that's part of the Taliban -controlled tribal area that lies on the border with Afghanistan and is refuge for al Qaida . |
42 Families of Beirut Marines fear they've been forgotten
By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Oct 15, 7:04 pm ET
| WASHINGTON -- For a quarter-century, Lt. Col. Howard Gerlach thought the explosion had blown him out the window of his second floor office. Then last year, at a reunion to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 23, 1983 , bombing of the Marine headquarters at the Beirut airport , he met his rescuer.
Gerlach had been found trapped between the pancaked second and third floors. He remembers nothing about the immediate aftermath of the blast, which broke his neck and left him partially paralyzed. "You sure look a lot better now than the last time I saw you," his colleague told him.
Cleta Wells , of Mariposa, Calif. , lost her husband, 1st Sgt. Tandy Walker Wells in the Beirut bombing, which killed 241 U.S. servicemen and was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. citizens before 9/11. Her grandson, Michael Steven Pohle Jr. , born eight days before the attack, was killed in the April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. |
43 U.S. lacks enough troops for 'low-risk' Afghan option
By Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
Thu Oct 15, 7:33 pm ET
| WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military can send only about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the next three months without putting excessive strains on the Army and Marine Corps , but the top Afghanistan commander has said he needs more than twice that number to have the best chance of success, military and administration officials told McClatchy .
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has said that even if it sent 30,000 additional troops, the U.S. would risk failure in Afghanistan under the current strategy. His resourcing plan offers President Barack Obama three options based on the estimated risk, said two U.S. military officials, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly and because the proposal remains classified.
The low risk option, which McChrystal has said offers the best chance to contain the Taliban -led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan , calls for 80,000 additional U.S. troops, while his medium risk option puts the number at 40,000 to 45,000, the officials said. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
44 Sheriff: No indication balloon ordeal was hoax
By P. SOLOMON BANDA and IVAN MORENO, Associated Press Writers
1 min ago
| FORT COLLINS, Colo. - A Colorado official said Friday there's no indication a family was carrying out a hoax when they reported their 6-year-old son was in a helium balloon that floated away from their home, causing a frenzied rescue effort before the child was found hiding in the garage.
"We believe at this time that it was a real event. Certainly people are free to speculate," Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said. He added that if the episode "turns out to be a hoax, we will seek restitution by whatever means we have available."
Falcon Heene vanished Thursday around the time his family's homemade helium balloon floated away from their home, setting off a frantic search as authorities scoured the plains of northern Colorado for the youngster. |
45 Near Katrina bull's eye, town hopes for rebound
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 16, 11:51 am ET
| JACKSON, Miss. - On the morning the Walmart reopened this week in Pass Christian, rain canceled a small parade Mayor Chipper McDermott had planned, so folks stood inside the store and handed out gaudy Mardi Gras beads instead of throwing them from a float.
They might as well have been tossing dollars into the town treasury, and McDermott knows it.
Recovery from Hurricane Katrina has been slow in Pass Christian (kriss-chee-ANN'), a picturesque coastal town once filled with antique shops, artists' galleries and century-old homes. Katrina's surge caused massive structural damage to the community and sucked away much of the local tax base when it struck Aug. 29, 2005. |
46 Judge sees novel aspects in N.Y. Cuomo pension probe
By Joan Gralla, Reuters
53 mins ago
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York criminal court judge on Friday said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's fraud charges against a central figure in the pension kickback case partly rested on a "novel" use of the state securities law.
New York's 1920s securities law, called the Martin Act, gives the state attorney general broad powers over financial fraud.
But Judge Lewis Bart Stone, in a courtroom conference with the prosecuting and defense attorneys, said that Henry Morris, who has been charged with taking millions of dollars of illegal fees, did not work for the state. |
47 Many Mexican migrants stay put in U.S. despite crisis
By Patrick Rucker, Reuters
2 hrs 9 mins ago
| MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican workers in the United States have lost jobs and faced a crackdown on illegal immigration but are not heading home in droves despite the worst recession in decades, officials and researchers say.
There is no record of those leaving the United States by land but anecdotal reports suggest some families have packed their belongings into trucks and crossed back into Mexico as construction, food and as farm jobs have evaporated.
A record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived and worked in the United States in 2008, more than half of them illegally, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center. |
48 Inspectors urged repairs for key U.S.-Canada bridge
By Bernie Woodall, Reuters
Thu Oct 15, 6:36 pm ET
| DETROIT (Reuters) - An 80-year-old vehicular bridge that handles a fourth of U.S.-Canada trade has needed major repairs, including steps to shore up its main cables and deck, according to a 2007 safety report released on Thursday.
The once-secret report provided the first glimpse into the safety of the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing in North America. It was made public after a court battle to block its release and amid a debate on both sides of the border on plans to build an alternative span.
The engineering report commissioned by The Detroit International Bridge company, the privately held firm that owns the bridge, concluded that the suspension span was in "fair" condition and safe for vehicle traffic. |
49 Joel Salatin, America's farming heavyweight
by Virginie Montet and Caroline Groussain, AFP
Fri Oct 16, 3:40 am ET
| SWOOPE, Virginia (AFP) - A diehard activist for some, a pioneer for others, Joel Salatin is fighting against America's genetically-modified foods and for local subsistence farming.
Leading his crusade from the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this anti-globalization messenger who dubs himself a "Christian Libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer" has become the face of healthy eating and agriculture.
"The desire from consumers to eat this kind of food is exploding," Salatin said at his 500-acre (200-hectare) farm in Swoope, Virginia. |
50 Tougher US warning says China not manipulating yuan
by P. Parameswaran, AFP
Thu Oct 15, 10:59 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States toughened its warning on China for "lack of flexibility" of its yuan currency and for rapidly building up its foreign reserves, but stopped short of branding Beijing a currency manipulator.
"Both the rigidity of the renminbi and the reacceleration of reserve accumulation are serious concerns which should be corrected to help ensure a stronger, more balanced global economy," the US Treasury said.
The Treasury's statement came in its semiannual report to Congress under a law requiring it to determine whether any foreign economy manipulates its currency against the US dollar. |
51 Will Democrats Make Health Insurers Pay for Attacks?
By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/ WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Fri Oct 16, 9:30 am ET
| After health insurers came out swinging earlier this week with a report deeply critical of the health-reform bills making their way through Congress, it was clear that they were no longer even pretending to support such an ambitious overhaul. The question was how strongly Democrats would fire back at their longtime nemeses, and whether the explosive rift would hurt or help the chances of reform becoming a reality. Within hours there were already indications that insurers' attacks could backfire, and on Thursday Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi left little doubt that Democrats are not only feeling more confident about reform, but are ready to make insurers pay for their sudden shift. |
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