2 Britain's Miliband in Russia to thaw ties
AFP
2 hrs 30 mins ago
| LONDON (AFP) - David Miliband was starting the first visit by a British foreign secretary to Russia for five years on Sunday, seeking to mend relations damaged by the poisoning in London of a Kremlin critic.
As Miliband embarked on his two-day visit, the British government said it could not "spare" him to be the European Union's foreign affairs chief amid growing speculation that he is in line for the new role.
Miliband's trip to Moscow coincides with the third anniversary of the poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, but Russia refuses to extradite the KGB agent-turned-lawmaker who is the chief suspect in the murder. |
3 Six Guantanamo Uighurs arrive in Palau: official
AFP
Sun Nov 1, 7:11 am ET
| KOROR, Palau (AFP) - Six Chinese Muslim Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay arrived in the Pacific island nation of Palau on Sunday, the latest step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison.
The men, held at the US naval base in Cuba for more than seven years despite being cleared of all charges, arrived here "to begin rebuilding their lives in freedom," New York-based lawyers for three of the former prisoners said.
They had been cleared by the previous George W. Bush administration after it decided to no longer treat them as "enemy combatants," the Justice Department said. |
4 A key figure in 2010 election: U.S. jobless rate
By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters
Sun Nov 1, 8:17 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The key number in next year's U.S. congressional election may be the unemployment rate, which last month hit a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.
The figure helps explains why creating jobs is a top priority in the Democratic-led Congress where lawmakers know their own jobs are at stake if they fail to deliver.
Democrats will get an early whiff of whether they are being blamed for the economy on Tuesday, when voters go to the polls to elect governors of New Jersey and Virginia and a congressman in a conservative-leaning New York district bordering Canada. |
5 White House: Afghan troop decision within weeks
By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer
57 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is still weeks away from deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, the White House said Sunday amid pressure from lawmakers to settle on a war strategy despite muddled politics and concerns of corruption in Kabul.
Top White House advisers said Obama's painstaking review, ongoing since early September, would not be hampered by Sunday's announcement from the top challenger in the Afghan presidential runoff election that he would withdraw from a race he was likely to lose.
"I expect the president will make a decision within weeks," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said. "As you know, he has gone through a very rigorous process because the goal here is not just to make an arithmetic judgment about the number of troops, but to make sure that we have the right strategy." |
6 A few elections, a few clues about our politics
By LIZ "Sprinkles" SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer
22 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama isn't on the ballot. Neither are all members of Congress, nor most governors.
But to varying degrees, the outcome of a few disparate elections Tuesday could provide clues about how people - particularly independents, who typically determine a winner - feel about their country, their president and the party in power one year after Democrats won the White House.
The results also could provide important lessons for Democrats and Republicans a year before the first major electoral test of Obama's strength: 2010, when there are 37 races for governor, at least 36 in the Senate and all 435 in the House. |
7 Afghan's Karzai effectively handed 2nd term
By HEIDI VOGT and ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writers
8 mins ago
| KABUL - President Hamid Karzai was effectively handed a second five-year term Sunday when his only challenger dropped out of the race, and the Obama administration said it was prepared to work with the man it has previously criticized to combat corruption and confront the Taliban insurgency.
President Barack Obama has been waiting for a new government in Kabul to announce whether he will send tens of thousands of new troops to Afghanistan. The war has intensified and October was the deadliest month of the eight-year war for U.S. forces.
Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah announced his decision to quit six days before the runoff election, after last-minute talks led by the U.S. and United Nations failed to produce a power-sharing agreement acceptable to Karzai, according to a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. |
8 Third party challenges in NJ, NY are warning sign
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 9:09 am ET
| NEW YORK - Third party candidates are shaking up two major races in elections Tuesday, and the success of those candidacies is a warning shot fired at both major parties by voters angry at government and disillusioned by politics as usual.
In New York's 23rd Congressional district, where longtime Republican Rep. John McHugh stepped down to be Army secretary, Dede Scozzafava, the candidate chosen by state GOP leaders to replace him, was forced out of the race by a surging Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman. High-profile national Republicans endorsed Hoffman, saying Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports abortion rights and gay marriage, had abandoned core GOP values.
In the New Jersey governor's race, independent Chris Daggett has gone from afterthought to player in a contest pitting the unpopular incumbent, Democrat Jon Corzine, against Republican Chris Christie. |
9 As jobs vanish, factory towns slow to see stimulus
By MATT APUZZO and JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writers
Sun Nov 1, 10:37 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Many communities hit hardest by job losses, those built around dying factories and mills, have been slowest to see relief from President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, underscoring how hard it is for Washington policymakers to create lasting work in areas that need it most.
The manufacturing industry has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs during the recession as plants have closed or scaled back. Places such as the southwest Missouri city of Lamar, tucked amid endless fields of winter wheat and soybeans, have seen the cornerstones of their economies disappear, leaving a gap that even billions in roadwork and government aid cannot fill.
Lamar began feeling the recession ahead of the rest of the country, when the furniture-maker O'Sullivan Industries closed its doors in mid-2007, immediately leaving 700 workers unemployed and turning its factory into a million-square-foot vacancy. |
10 Republican in NY House race suspends campaign
By VALERIE BAUMAN, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 9:20 am ET
| ALBANY, N.Y. - Fighting plunging support, Republican Dierdre Scozzafava has abruptly suspended her campaign in a special election for a U.S. House seat that has exposed a rift among national factions of the party.
Campaign spokesman Matt Burns said Scozzafava is essentially withdrawing from the race, although her name will remain on Tuesday's ballot. She thinks stepping aside is best for the party, he said.
"It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support," Scozzafava said in a written statement Saturday. "Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit." |
11 After all the fuss, public health plan covers few
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 7:35 am ET
| WASHINGTON - What's all the fuss about? After all the noise over Democrats' push for a government insurance plan to compete with private carriers, coverage numbers are finally in: Two percent.
That's the estimated share of Americans younger than 65 who'd sign up for the public option plan under the health care bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is steering toward House approval.
The underwhelming statistic is raising questions about whether the government plan will be the iron-fisted competitor that private insurers warn will shut them down or a niche operator that becomes a haven for patients with health insurance horror stories. |
12 Scorn for property taxes drives NJ governor's race
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 1:29 am ET
| PARAMUS, N.J. - It sounds like another New Jersey joke. Except it's not funny if you actually live here.
For the privilege of living in perhaps the nation's most-maligned state, New Jerseyans pay the highest property taxes in America.
That overriding issue - not President Barack Obama, health care or the economy - could cost Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine his job on Election Day. |
Spoken like a true Villager.
13 San Fran's latest battle royale: parking meters
By EVELYN NIEVES, Associated Press Writer
15 mins ago
| SAN FRANCISCO - This city's most popular neighborhoods are night owls, streets that come alive when the restaurants and pubs set the mood and light their candles. But try parking in these hot spots: no fun.
Now, in a move some cities have tried and others are considering in these hard times, San Francisco's transportation agency, anticipating a multi-million dollar deficit, is proposing a plan it says will help ease parking snafus. It wants to extend parking meter hours - up to midnight in the trendiest neighborhoods, and on Sundays everywhere.
Those who already find it hard to park on the streets in the day time are not happy. |
14 Obama community college proposal may not be enough
By DEANNA MARTIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 15 mins ago
| INDIANAPOLIS - Arthur Call commutes three hours roundtrip to his anatomy class at community college because similar courses on campuses closer to his Indianapolis home are packed this semester.
"Classes around the state were just full," says Call, a full-time student who takes the rest of his classes in Indianapolis. "Thank God it's only Tuesdays. I just have to drive there once a week."
President Barack Obama wants to invest some $12 billion in community colleges with the aim of seeing an additional 5 million students graduate by 2020. This goal comes while many schools are already bursting at the seams with droves of displaced workers hit by the recession competing with traditional students seeking an education bargain. |
15 House calls as cost-saver in health care reform?
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer
Sun Nov 1, 12:02 am ET
| RICHMOND, Va. - The doctor doesn't look like much of a crusader, bent over the frail frame of 90-year-old Alberta Scott.
He has a lavender stethoscope strung round his neck and some serious bedside manner at work on this stubborn nonagenarian who wants to be anywhere but where she is: in a nursing home bed, hoping to heal and get back home.
"Squeeze my hand," Dr. Peter Boling prods. "Squeeze my hand. Come on. Hard!" |
16 NY Senate leader Bruno, 80, faces corruption trial
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 31, 3:31 pm ET
| ALBANY, N.Y. - For more than a decade, state Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno was a top power broker in New York. The backslapping former boxer had more bounce in his step than aides half his age and was gruffly unapologetic over the millions in pork projects that he grabbed for his upstate district.
On Monday, he faces trial on charges that could tarnish his legacy, send him to prison and serve as a de facto indictment of Albany's oft-criticized political culture.
Now 80, but still with the impeccable suits, thick silver hair perfectly groomed, and a boxer's body still toned by pounding the punching bag, Bruno is taking on the fight with characteristic defiance. |
17 Analysis: With few options, US accepts Karzai
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
35 mins ago
| KABUL - President Hamid Karzai's leadership is weak, his government corrupt and nearly a third of the votes he won in the August election were thrown out as fakes.
But in the end, the Obama administration is sticking by the Afghan president - because it has few other good options.
Karzai is far from the strong and capable partner that Washington had hoped would emerge from the electoral process that it and Western allies had pushed for in Afghanistan. They hoped the elections would stabilize the country and bleed support from the Taliban. |
18 Israel nabs serial attacker of Arabs, leftist Jews
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 20 mins ago
| JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities have arrested a Jewish-American extremist suspected of carrying out a series of high-profile hate crimes, security officials said Sunday.
Police and Shin Bet security forces say Jack Teitel, a 37-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish West Bank settler, was behind the killing of two Arabs, the targeting of a peace activist and an attack on a breakaway Jewish sect over a period of 12 years.
Authorities originally suspected an extremist Jewish underground for some of the attacks. But acquaintances described Teitel, a father of four, as a lone wolf, and authorities say he acted alone. |
19 Kirkuk at the heart of Iraq election law deadlock
By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 16 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - Iraqi politicians are dueling with new hostility over the fate of Kirkuk, the oil-rich city that both self-ruled Kurds in the north and Iraq's central government want to control.
The dispute has caused a deadlock over an election law, threatening to delay Iraq's nationwide elections set for mid-January. Any vote setback could, in turn, disrupt American plans to withdraw troops from Iraq, scheduled to ramp up after the vote.
"The problem is that we are getting to a crisis," said Marina Ottoway, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They have been trying for over a year to reach a compromise on Kirkuk." |
20 South Sudan leader calls for southern secession
By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press WRiter
2 hrs 33 mins ago
| KHARTOUM, Sudan - The leader of southern Sudan called on his people to vote for secession in an upcoming referendum if they do not want to end up as second class citizens, as voter registration began Sunday for elections across the country.
Salva Kiir's first-ever call for the mostly Christian, oil-rich south to split off from the Muslim north could increase tension with the Arab-led northern government and further strain the fragile 2005 peace agreement that ended the more than two decade long north-south civil war and left more than 2 million dead.
The north-south war is separate from Sudan's other ongoing conflict, a rebellion in the arid western region of Darfur. |
21 Indian political awakening stirs Latin America
By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 11:24 am ET
| JESUS DE MACHACA, Bolivia - In Ecuador, the Shuar are blocking highways to defend their hunting grounds. In Chile, the Mapuche are occupying ranches to pressure for land, schools and clinics. In Bolivia, a new constitution gives the country's 36 indigenous peoples the right to self-rule.
All over Latin America, and especially in the Andes, a political awakening is emboldening Indians who have lived mostly as second-class citizens since the Spanish conquest.
Much of it is the result of better education and communication, especially as the Internet allows native leaders in far-flung villages to share ideas and strategies across international boundaries. |
22 Pakistan's capital now resembles besieged city
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 11:06 am ET
| ISLAMABAD - An onslaught of militant violence has transformed Pakistan's capital from a sleepy oasis to something of a city under siege, with its tree-lined streets barricaded, schools shuttered and jittery residents wondering when the next attack will come.
The fear shows how Taliban and al-Qaida-led insurgents based along the Afghan border have brought the war into Pakistan's political and diplomatic heart, something they hope will force the government to halt a new army offensive into their stronghold.
The unease has been heightened by the range of targets attacked despite a nationwide security clampdown. Suicide bombers hit the International Islamic University and a U.N. office in Islamabad; militants took officers hostage for 22 hours at army headquarters in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi; commando-style raids paralyzed the eastern city of Lahore; and bombs have ripped through markets in the northwest. |
23 Chile: Old soldiers ready to tell secrets of coup
By EVA VERGARA and MICHAEL WARREN, Associated Press Writers
Sun Nov 1, 8:41 am ET
| SANTIAGO, Chile - Hundreds of former military draftees are making a provocative offer to Chile's government: They will reveal details of crimes committed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship - but only if their safety is guaranteed.
The draftees fear that if they reveal where the bodies are buried, they will face prosecution by the courts or retaliation by the superiors who ordered them decades ago to torture and kill political prisoners.
The information they once promised to carry to their graves has become both a heavy psychological burden and a bargaining chip. By offering confessions, the former draftees hope to improve their chances of securing benefits from pensions to psychological treatment. |
24 Frustrated in Iraq, U.S. troops eye Afghan action
By Mohammed Abbas, Reuters
Sun Nov 1, 7:25 am ET
| KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Frustrated by their decreasing military role in Iraq as they hand over to Iraqi security forces, many U.S. soldiers are itching to join the war in Afghanistan.
When they get there, though, some are shocked by the escalating violence and relatively spartan conditions.
Bloodshed has fallen sharply in Iraq in the last two years, and the U.S. military is drawing down troops and equipment ahead of a full withdrawal by 2012. Many U.S. military resources are being shifted to Afghanistan, where the death toll among U.S.-led NATO forces has leaped in recent months. |
25 Honduran opposition leader key to ending conflict
By Javier Lopez and Sean Mattson, Reuters
35 mins ago
| TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The front-runner in Honduras' presidential race has become a key to resolving a four-month conflict between a president ousted in a coup and the de facto leader who replaced him.
Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo leads polls ahead of the November 29 election and his National Party is the biggest opposition force in Congress, which must decide whether ousted President Manuel Zelaya can return to serve his last months in office.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid and international recognition of the election contingent on Zelaya's return, the National Party is under pressure to support him, though its leaders say they are still studying options. |
26 Thai police arrest two people in stock rumor probe
Reuters
Sun Nov 1, 9:06 am ET
| BANGKOK (Reuters) - Police in Thailand arrested two people on Sunday on suspicion of spreading rumors about the health of the country's 81-year-old king that triggered a slide in stock prices, police said.
...
Teeranun Wipuchanin, a 43-year-old unemployed former stock trader arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, said she had translated a news story by U.S.-based financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP.
...
"I got it from Internet," she added. "Everybody on that day wanted to know what caused the market to fall. The stock market had already dropped and we did the translation in the evening." |
27 Ten killed as Iraq hit by new spate of bombings
by Ammar Karim, AFP
32 mins ago
| BAGHDAD (AFP) - A spate of violence across Iraq killed at least 10 people on Sunday, as officials said repairs to government offices struck by massive bombings last week will cost around 16 million dollars.
A UN special envoy, meanwhile, arrived in Baghdad to make a preliminary report on security in the Iraqi capital after the massive blasts and similar attacks in August killed a total of 250 people.
In Sunday's deadliest attack, five people were killed and 37 wounded when a bomb hidden in a cooler on the back of a bicycle exploded in the Shiite city of Mussayib in Babil province. |
28 Sudanese register for first vote in 24 years
by Guillaume Lavallee, AFP
Sun Nov 1, 9:01 am ET
| KHARTOUM (AFP) - Enthusiastic Sudanese began Sunday to register for their country's first presidential, legislative and regional elections in 24 years, with the authorities facing a tough logistical challenge.
Due to be held in April, the ballot comes at a crucial time for Sudan.
The president faces an international arrest warrant for alleged crimes in the troubled western region of Darfur and tensions remain between the Khartoum government and the semi-autonomous, mostly Christian south, despite a peace deal struck in 2005 to end a 22-year civil war. |
29 Fearing fraud, challenger may quit Afghan presidential runoff
By Hal Bernton and Hashim Shukoor, McClatchy Newspapers
Sat Oct 31, 5:59 pm ET
| KABUL, Afghanistan -Challenger Abdullah Abdullah and Afghan President Hamid Karzai failed Saturday to agree on conditions for their Nov. 7 presidential runoff, setting the stage for Abdullah to drop out of the race, senior aides to Abdullah said.
Abdullah had demanded that Karzai take steps to avoid even greater fraud in votes for him in the runoff than in the discredited Aug. 20 first round, and threatened to withdraw unless they reached agreement, the aides said. Abdullah is now expected to announce his decision Sunday.
"He definitely won't participate if this (agreement) doesn't happen," said a top Abdullah campaign official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
30 Colorado county copes with methane mystery
By JUDITH KOHLER, Associated Press Writer
58 mins ago
| WALSENBURG, Colo. - Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.
The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.
Two years later, Walsenburg and surrounding Huerfano County are still waiting, its residents caught in a collision between two of the West's vital resources: Water and natural gas. |
31 Defections, court fights test Scientology
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer
1 hr 5 mins ago
| The Church of Scientology is going through a difficult season.
Over the course of two days last week, a French court convicted the church of fraud and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis' resignation from the church over a litany of concerns was aired publicly. On one hand, it was just another bad press week for the embattled institution founded in 1953 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.
But for former Scientologists and scholars of the movement, the setbacks pose a greater challenge coming on the heels of defections of top-level Scientologists who lifted a veil of secrecy on the organization and alleged a culture of violence and control under Hubbard's successor, David Miscavige. |
32 Internet believers: Pastors open online churches
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer
1 hr 8 mins ago
| Church volunteers greet visitors entering the lobby. The worship band begins its set and a pastor offers to pray privately with anyone during the service.
When the sermon is done, it's time for communion, and the pastor guides attendees through the ritual. Later, worshippers exchange Facebook and e-mail addresses so they can stay in touch.
There is nothing remarkable about this encounter, which is replicated countless times each weekend at churches around the world. It's all happening online. |
33 Madoff documents reveal incredulous, unfocused SEC
By Jonathan Stempel and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters
Sun Nov 1, 9:00 am ET
| NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. securities investigators raised repeated concern over how Bernard Madoff could be running an honest business, but never followed through on the many red flags they uncovered.
Hundreds of documents released on Friday by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's portray an agency at times skeptical or dismissive of evidence that the now imprisoned mastermind of the world's largest Ponzi scheme was up to no good.
At other times, it appeared the agency knew that goings-on at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC were improper but never followed through on their discoveries or on the allegations of chief whistleblower Harry Markopolos. |
34 Abdullah exit won't affect U.S. strategy: officials
By Caren Bohan, Reuters
2 hrs 1 min ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials said on Sunday that Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah's decision to quit an election run-off would not complicate President Barack Obama's deliberations on the war strategy.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear the Obama administration would work with Afghan President Hamid Karzai should he remain the leader of the next government as seems likely.
"It is now a matter for the Afghan authorities to decide on a way ahead that brings this electoral process to a conclusion in line with the Afghan constitution," Clinton said in a statement e-mailed to reporters while she was traveling in Morocco. |
35 Obama praised on economy, but unemployment remains
by Rob Lever, AFP
Sun Nov 1, 7:24 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Elected a year ago on a pledge to rescue a sinking economy, President Barack Obama is credited with helping avert a depression, but now faces a growing unemployment crisis that could torpedo both the recovery and his political fortunes.
Economists say the Obama administration's swift action along with a barrage of measures from the Federal Reserve allowed the world's biggest economy to avert deeper problems.
But the jobless nature of the recovery is proving more difficult to address and threatens to undermine progress in lifting the economy out of recession, say analysts. |
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