2 NATO, Britain stress Afghan handover plans
by Robin Millard, AFP
42 mins ago
| EDINBURGH (AFP) - The head of NATO said Tuesday he expected "substantially more forces" for Afghanistan to be pledged within weeks, but only to help speed up handing over security responsibility to Afghan forces.
His speech came after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered to host an international conference on Afghanistan in London in January, which he said could set a timeframe for a gradual security handover from 2010.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he expected an increase in international forces to be agreed "in a few weeks" but underlined that the ultimate goal was to move from a combat to a support role, starting next year. |
3 Britain plans Afghan handover conference
by Alice Ritchie, AFP
Tue Nov 17, 6:34 am ET
| LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered to host an international conference on Afghanistan in London, which he said could set a time-frame for a handover of security to Afghan forces from 2010.
In a speech here late Monday, Brown stressed that such a handover from international forces was a requirement for the withdrawal of Britain's 9,000 troops deployed to the country.
"I have offered London as a venue in the new year," Brown said in his annual speech to the Lord Mayor's Banquet. A pre-released version of the speech quoted him as offering to host a conference in January. |
4 US, China pledge cooperation on world issues
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
1 hr 47 mins ago
| BEIJING (AFP) - US President Barack Obama and China's Hu Jintao on Tuesday pledged to apply their joint political might to the world's toughest problems, but friction was evident on Tibet, economics and Iran.
In solemn talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the high point of Obama's debut visit to China, the leaders ploughed through an agenda packed with top world crises, reflecting China's rise as a key global player.
Hu vowed to work for "positive, cooperative and comprehensive" ties with Obama's administration, and the US leader, seeking to cement his early relationship with Beijing, adopted the same diplomatic formula word for word. Related article: Denmark lauds US, China support on climate talks |
5 Saint Laurent's last belongings sold as his dog looks on
by Claire Rosemberg, AFP
55 mins ago
| PARIS (AFP) - From pots and pans to antique chandeliers, the last belongings from the homes of Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge went on sale Tuesday, as the late fashion icon's bulldog sleepily looked on.
The celebrity bulldog, Moujik, joined scores of dealers and well-heeled seekers of YSL memorabilia for the four-day auction held in a Paris theatre just off the Champs Elysees boulevard.
"I'd like to have something that belonged to them in my home," said blonde Italian retiree Giuliana Giovannelli, hunting for something to distinguish her Parisian flat. "But nothing too expensive." |
6 NASA launches space shuttle Atlantis
by Jean-Louis Santini, AFP
Tue Nov 17, 8:07 am ET
| CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AFP) - NASA's Atlantis shuttle has blasted off with a haul of spare parts for the International Space Station and some microscopic worms that could explain muscle loss in space.
The shuttle and its six astronauts left Florida's Kennedy Space Center without a hitch for a 11-day voyage to deliver assorted gyroscopes, ammonia tanks and other equipment to the ISS.
"A perfect launch, right on time," said a spokesman for the US space agency as the crew reached orbit -- hurtling at a speed of more than 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) per hour. |
7 UN hunger summit slammed for falling short
by Gina Doggett, AFP
Mon Nov 16, 4:16 pm ET
| ROME (AFP) - A UN summit on world hunger drew fire on Monday, even from the head of the UN food agency, for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people.
While a final declaration -- rolled out on the first day of the three-day summit -- vowed "urgent action" to boost food security, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf lamented the absence of concrete targets.
"I am not satisfied with the fact that there is no commitment regarding the calendar, amounts and conditions" in the declaration, Diouf said. |
8 Ex-SS soldier charged over Nazi WWII massacre
by Simon Sturdee, AFP
2 hrs 4 mins ago
| BERLIN (AFP) - German prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 90-year-old former SS soldier with 58 counts of murder for the cold-blooded killings of Jewish forced labourers in the final weeks of World War II.
With Allied forces fast overrunning Germany, the man, named only as Adolf S., was accused of hatching a plot on March 28, 1945 with other SS and members of the Hitler Youth, to slaughter Jewish prisoners in their charge.
The next day, the accused and other SS took at least 57 labourers in several groups into woods near the small town of Deutsch Schuetzen in Hitler's native Austria near the present-day border with Hungary, prosecutors alleged. |
9 Kuwaiti firm charged with defrauding US military
AFP
Tue Nov 17, 3:17 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Kuwaiti firm with 8.5 billion dollars in contracts to supply food to US troops in the Middle East has been indicted for fraud, accused of taking elaborate measures to overbill the Pentagon.
Public Warehousing Company (PWC) is accused of multiple charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with its contracts to supply food to US troops stationed in the Middle East.
The case is just one of a series of multi-million dollar fraud accusations leveled at US government contractors in Iraq, including allegations that Halliburton subsidiary KBR overcharged for oil and other supplies. |
10 Obama prods China on yuan but Hu silent
By Caren Bohan and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 7:53 am ET
| BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged a reluctant China to let its yuan currency rise in value at a summit where strains over trade between the two giants crept into proclamations of goodwill.
Standing beside Obama after their summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao avoided mentioning the yuan or the dollar.
Instead, Hu emphasized during a joint media appearance the need to avoid trade protectionism in a thinly veiled reference to China's irritation over new U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made tires, steel pipes and other products. |
11 New U.S. guidelines: routine mammograms start at 50
By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 7:38 am ET
| CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sweeping new U.S. breast cancer guidelines released on Monday recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, but several groups immediately rebelled against the recommendations.
The new guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential panel of independent experts, would sharply curtail the number of breast mammograms done in the United States, sparing women the worry of false alarms and the cost and trouble of extra tests.
U.S. cancer experts argued the altered schedule may mean more women will die from breast cancer. |
12 Guantanamo detainee move not security risk: officials
By Nancy Mayfield, Reuters
Mon Nov 16, 9:22 pm ET
| THOMSON, Illinois (Reuters) - Moving detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a largely unused prison in this hamlet would create much-needed jobs, said officials who toured the rural prison on Monday, dismissing widespread concern about risks to security from America's sworn enemies and their allies.
A proposal to have the U.S. Bureau of Prisons buy the 1,600-cell Thomson Correctional Center from the cash-strapped state of Illinois and use part of it to house some 100 foreign terrorism suspects has triggered a partisan political battle.
Republicans and some security experts have been harshly critical of the Obama administration's plans to bring the detainees into the United States for trial or incarceration, arguing they would compromise the nation's security and enjoy legal protections they do not deserve. |
13 NATO chief confident of big Afghan troop increase
By Adrian Croft, Reuters
2 hrs 34 mins ago
| EDINBURGH (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Tuesday he was confident the alliance would agree to increase substantially the number of troops battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama is weighing several options for boosting U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan as a debate rages in his administration over whether to persist with a counter-insurgency strategy or to narrow it to a counter-terrorism drive against al Qaeda.
"In a few weeks, I expect we will decide, in NATO, on the approach, and troop levels needed, to take our mission forward," Rasmussen told a meeting in Edinburgh of the NATO parliamentary assembly, which includes lawmakers from around the world. |
14 Had flu? You may have H1N1 protection
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 8:50 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who have had repeated flu infections -- or repeated flu vaccines -- may have some protection against the new pandemic swine influenza, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They found evidence that the human immune system can recognize bits of the new H1N1 virus that are similar to older, distantly related H1N1 strains.
"What we have found is that the swine flu has similarities to the seasonal flu, which appear to provide some level of pre-existing immunity. This suggests that it could make the disease less severe in the general population than originally feared," said Alessandro Sette, director of the Center for Infectious Disease at California's La Jolla Institute. |
15 Sarah Palin says presidency "not on my radar screen"
By Andrew Stern, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 8:57 am ET
| CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sarah Palin said a run for the White House in 2012 is "not on my radar screen right now" as the Republican carefully did not close the door to a possible candidacy in an interview that launched her big book tour.
Palin spoke to TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey as she began the roll-out to her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Palin made clear she wanted to concentrate on the 2010 congressional elections in which Republicans hope to make inroads into Democratic majorities in the U.S. Congress.
"I'm concentrating on 2010 and making sure that we have issues to tackle," Palin said in the interview taped last week and broadcast on Monday. "I don't know what I'm going to be doing in 2012. (Running for president is) not on my radar screen right now." |
16 Fed eyes dollar drop, but hews to low-rate pledge
By Kristina Cooke, Reuters
Mon Nov 16, 8:54 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a rare comment on the U.S. dollar's value, on Monday acknowledged the currency's slump was causing some prices to rise, but said other factors restraining inflation were winning the day.
While showing he was not indifferent to the dollar's slide, Bernanke said tight credit and a weak job market would weigh on the economy's recovery, and he repeated the Fed's pledge to keep interest rates exceptionally low for "an extended period."
"We are attentive to implications of changes in the value of the dollar and will continue to formulate policy to guard against risks to our dual mandate to foster both maximum employment and price stability," he told the Economic Club of New York. |
17 Factory production dips; wholesale inflation muted
By JEANNINE AVERSA and CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writers
1 hr 31 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - Factory production declined in October, signaling that consumers and businesses remain cautious in their spending and suggesting a sluggish economic recovery.
At the same time, the weak economy is keeping inflation in check. Wholesale prices rose less than expected last month.
Factory production represents the biggest portion of industrial output. Overall, industrial production rose 0.1 percent last month, less than economists had expected. The only bright spot in the Federal Reserve's report Tuesday was activity at electric and gas utilities. |
18 Obama, Hu vow cooperation but produce few deals
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 33 mins ago
| BEIJING - President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised a determined, joint effort to tackle climate change, nuclear disarmament and other global troubles yet emerged from their first full-blown summit Tuesday with scant progress beyond goodwill.
After two hours of talks and a separate meeting over dinner the night before, the presidents spoke of moving beyond the divisiveness over human rights, trade and military tensions that have bedeviled relations in past decades.
"The major challenges of the 21st century, from climate change to nuclear proliferation to economic recovery, are challenges that touch both our nations, and challenges that neither of our nations can solve by acting alone," Obama said, standing with the Chinese leader in the Great Hall of the People. |
19 Palin talks politics, family ahead of book release
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
1 hr 35 mins ago
| NEW YORK - Sarah Palin wouldn't reveal her political plans for 2012 in an interview with Barbara Walters, but when asked whether she'd play a major role replied that "if people will have me, I will."
The former Republican vice presidential candidate said that election isn't even on her radar screen.
"My ambition, if you will, my desire is to help our country in whatever role that may be, and I cannot predict what that will be, what doors will be open in the year 2012," she told Walters. |
20 AP POLL: Tax the rich to pay for health bill
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 10:33 am ET
| WASHINGTON - When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich.
That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the U.S. medical system, which passed earlier this month and would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.
The poll, conducted by Stanford University with the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, found participants sour on other ways of paying for the health overhaul that is being considered in Congress, including taxing insurers on high-value coverage packages derided by President Barack Obama and Democrats as "Cadillac plans." |
21 Dems, Republicans at odds over BofA, Merrill deal
By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer
1 hr 19 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - A senior House Democrat said Tuesday the government didn't force Bank of America to take over Merrill Lynch, but Republicans charged that a committee inquiry was covering up the role of an Obama administration official.
"The government did not elbow its way into this transaction," said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns. The New York Democrat said June testimony by Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and documents obtained by the panel show it was the bank that forced the merger.
But the committee's ranking Republican, Darrell Issa of California, said the panel's work "has become an apparent cover-up of the continuing activities of the Obama administration," especially of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. |
22 Twitter to overhaul user list seen as partisan
By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 16, 9:07 pm ET
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Social-networking site Twitter plans to end a service that links prominent message posters with new users, a service that was criticized in California because of perceived unfairness toward GOP gubernatorial candidates.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said Monday the San Francisco-based company will overhaul its "suggested users" list, which links Twitter users with a pool of about 500 celebrities, sports figures and politicians they might want to follow.
"That list will be going away," Stone said at a conference in Malaysia. "In its stead will be something that is more programmatically chosen, something that actually delivers more relevant suggestions." |
23 AP IMPACT: Tobacco execs quickly find tax loophole
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers
Tue Nov 17, 10:47 am ET
| WASHINGTON - With a simple marketing twist, tobacco companies are avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxes by exploiting a loophole in President Barack Obama's child health law.
Obama and Congress increased taxes on tobacco products earlier this year to pay for expanded children's health insurance, but tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes saw a disproportionate leap, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound. Some predicted the tax would kill the roll-your-own industry, which had offered a cheaper alternative to packaged cigarettes.
But tobacco companies quickly adapted. The Associated Press found that as soon as the tax was on the books, companies all but shut down their roll-your-own brands and reinvented them under a less-restricted, less-taxed category: pipe tobacco. It's still destined to be rolled and smoked, but it's taxed at barely a tenth the rate, $2.83 per pound. |
24 Business foes of health care revamp ramp up effort
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 6:53 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Business foes of health care overhaul legislation are outspending supporters at a rate of 2-to-1 for TV ads as they grow increasingly nervous over a final bill.
Led by the giant U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opponents of the Democratic health care drive have spent $24 million on TV commercials over the past month to $12 million spent by labor unions and other backers. That's an abrupt reversal from the vast spending advantage supporters enjoyed most of this year, according to Evan Tracey, president of Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads.
More than half the opposition spending has been by the chamber. With the House narrowly approving its health overhaul on Nov. 7 and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., drafting his measure behind closed doors, the outpouring of cash underscores how crunch time has arrived for business and other groups trying to shape or scuttle the legislation. |
25 Lingering effects of Baghdad blasts on Iraqis
By BARBARA SURK, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 6:50 am ET
| BAGHDAD - Sadiya Khadem Rashid just needed a stamp. One stamp from Baghdad's city hall so she could receive $850 in compensation given to displaced Iraqis who return home. But before she could get there, the building was blown up.
Recent bombings that hit government buildings in downtown Baghdad killed more than 250 people and wounded hundreds more. The blasts also had a wider effect: slowing down the government services Iraqis use on a daily basis.
The bureaucratic snarl adds to the blow that the attacks inflicted on public confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ahead of national elections in January. Infuriated Iraqis have wondered how the blasts could happen in what was supposed to be one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods. |
26 SPIN METER: Did Obama grovel?
By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 10:53 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Some conservative commentators seized on President Barack Obama's deep bow to Japan's Emperor Akihito over the weekend, accusing the U.S. commander in chief of groveling before a foreign leader.
So did he?
While it may have been an awkward moment, it wasn't without precedent. And it appeared to be well within protocol guidelines that the State Department issues for foreign service officers working in other countries. |
27 New mammogram advice raises questions, concerns
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer
Tue Nov 17, 8:30 am ET
| NEW YORK - For many women, getting a mammogram is already one of life's more stressful experiences.
Now, women in their 40s have the added anxiety of trying to figure out if they should even be getting one at all.
A government task force said Monday that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50 - a stunning reversal and a break with the American Cancer Society's long-standing position. What's more, the panel said breast self-exams do no good, and women shouldn't be taught to do them. |
28 Security threats inside and out for 9/11 trial
By DEVLIN BARRETT and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writers
Mon Nov 16, 9:32 pm ET
| NEW YORK - Hot sauce and a comb were all an al-Qaida suspect in New York needed to nearly kill one of his guards nine years ago. The bloody episode suggests that security worries in bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects to trial here could be just as big inside the courthouse as outside.
Already, the U.S. marshals are promising the highest security possible - an acknowledgement of how dangerous terrorism suspects have been in the past.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the 2001 attacks, and four accused henchmen would be brought from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to New York to face a civilian federal trial. |
29 Iran says UN watchdog has cleared nuclear program
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 9:46 am ET
| TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's nuclear envoy denied Tuesday that the U.N. inspectors' tour of its recently revealed uranium enrichment site has turned up any evidence that the Islamic republic is seeking nuclear weapons.
While the International Atomic Energy Agency report offered no estimate of the facility's capacity, analysts familiar with the agency's work said it appeared to be capable of producing enough material for a warhead but too little for a civilian reactor.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, however, said Tuesday that the IAEA's report proved the country's program was peaceful and that Iran was cooperating with the agency's inspectors. |
30 Pats' Belichick defends decision to go for it
By HOWARD ULMAN, AP Sports Writer
Mon Nov 16, 9:31 pm ET
| FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Bill Belichick defended his decision to go for it on fourth down as criticism mounted Monday of the call that led to the New England Patriots stunning loss. The coach hailed as one of the NFL's best was a target of columnists, talk radio callers and two of his former players. Why, they all wondered, did he gamble with a six-point lead and just over two minutes to go against the Indianapolis Colts?
The gamble failed and the Patriots lost 35-34 after leading by 17 points in the fourth quarter Sunday night.
"The same thing I said after the game," Belichick said at his regular Monday news conference. "I thought it was our best chance to win. I thought we needed to make that one play and then we could basically run out the clock. We weren't able to make it." |
Some people will defend any decision, no matter how objectively stupid, just based on who makes it.
31 Poll: Sometimes it isn't easy being green
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
8 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - Sometimes it's easier to think green than be green.
A survey released Tuesday suggests people have largely embraced recycling bottles and cans, and are inclined to turn down thermostats to save energy. But it also indicated that some paths toward a greener Earth aren't as easily taken - or turned into action.
The telephone poll, conducted for The Associated Press and NBC Universal, tries to gauge attitudes about the environment. It found that 60 percent of those surveyed felt either a "great deal" or "a lot" of personal responsibility to protect the environment, while 37 percent rarely, if ever, even thought about the impact of their actions on the Earth's health. |
32 City trying to make sense of brutal gang rape
By TERRY COLLINS and EVELYN NIEVES, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 9 mins ago
| RICHMOND, Calif. - Not far from the pulsating music and dancing of the high school homecoming, young men were drinking in a dimly-lit courtyard out of sight of chaperones.
A friend invited a 16-year-old girl to join them, and she started drinking hard liquor, too. Soon another group of young men came over.
The ingredients for tragedy all were present, experts say. A bunch of men. A vulnerable young woman. Alcohol. |
33 In WA, old mining town elects a Muslim mayor
By MANUEL VALDES, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 52 mins ago
| GRANITE FALLS, Wash. - Granite Falls residents are suspicious of any newcomers, let alone a Muslim native of Pakistan who moved to this rugged, blue-collar mining town to open his own bar.
But 54-year-old Haroon Saleem has thrived, winning over the town with hard work and an easy smile. He has become so popular that, on Nov. 3, he won the mayor's job in a landslide, getting 61 percent of the more than 800 votes cast - a result that residents say would have been inconceivable not long ago.
"In the old Granite Falls, there were no minorities. It was a rough, rough, logging town. Any outsider, whether a minority or somebody from Everett, was the same. It was very difficult to be accepted in this town," said Sharon Ashton, a close confidant of Saleem. |
34 Alaskans eager for Sarah Palin book release
By RACHEL D'ORO, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 53 mins ago
| ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sarah Palin's book is highly anticipated in her home state - but she's no Harry Potter.
David Cheezem, co-owner of Fireside Books in Palmer, said people have been calling to make sure they'll be able to get the former GOP vice presidential candidate's memoir, "Going Rogue." He's opening early with coffee and doughnuts to celebrate the Tuesday release.
"I'm excited about the event," he said. "Am I as excited as I was for Harry Potter? No. That was huge." |
35 File shows FBI watched writer Terkel for decades
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 16, 9:02 pm ET
| CHICAGO - Long before the FBI identified him as a suspected communist and spent decades watching him and talking to confidential informants about him, late Chicago author Studs Terkel came to the agency for a job.
That's just one of the revelations - and maybe the most surprising one - contained in a thick FBI file that the NYCity News Service posted on its Web site over the weekend after obtaining it under a Freedom of Information Act request.
The release of the file marks the most extensive look into Terkel's work and activities as viewed by federal authorities, particularly by the FBI when it was headed by J. Edgar Hoover. |
36 Men file abuse suits against Mormons, Boy Scouts
By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 16, 8:05 pm ET
| SAN FRANCISCO - The Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America were named as defendants in lawsuits Monday claiming childhood sexual abuse by youth leaders decades ago.
Alleged victims filed suits against both organizations in San Francisco and Seattle, and against the church alone in Portland, Ore.
The plaintiffs are all represented by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who has brought similar suits against the church and the Boy Scouts in the past. |
37 Ill. town would rather get Gitmo prisoners
By DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 16, 7:15 pm ET
| THOMSON, Ill. - Some folks in this dying Mississippi River town would rather take their chances with suspected terrorists in their backyard than watch their neighbors continue to move away in despair over the lack of jobs.
News that the federal government may buy the nearly empty Thomson Correctional Center and use the maximum-security state prison to house Guantanamo Bay detainees has given people in Thomson hope that things might be about to turn around in this woeful town of 450.
"This town is slowly but surely dying off, and I mean that literally because the people that are retired are dying off and there's no young people coming back in to take their place. There's nothing here to draw them," said Richard Groharing, a 68-year-old retired Florida corrections officer who was born in Thomson, a farming community about 150 miles west of Chicago. |
38 Green card seekers won't have to get HPV vaccine
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 16, 5:53 pm ET
| DALLAS - Immigrant girls and women will no longer have to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus to get their green cards.
Starting Dec. 14, the HPV, or human papillomavirus vaccine will no longer be on the list of immunizations female immigrants ages 11 to 26 must receive before becoming legal permanent residents.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the change on Friday. The CDC said it will require immunizations for which there is a public health need either at the time the person immigrates or changes their status to green card holder. |
39 Colts vs Patriots 2009: Pass the smelling salts - to Belichick, too
By Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Nov 16, 4:00 am ET
| By midnight, former Patriot turned broadcaster Rodney Harrison - a man so ferocious he was once voted the NFL's dirtiest player - was marshalling all his strength to keep from weeping like a child on the air. Boston talk radio hosts were yelling at one another as though on the verge of blows. And across New England, disbelief rose like a mushroom cloud.
Somehow, improbably, unbelievably, the New England Patriots had lost to the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night, 35-34.
Over 12 games between Patriots and Colts since 2001 - a series of games rightly deemed the Rivalry of the Decade - there has been none as outlandish as this. In fact, Steve Sabol and his NFL Films crew would be hard pressed to find many equals among his reels of football history for the title of Most Dramatic and Mind-Boggling Turn of Events to End a Game of Football. |
As I said above. I mean, if even The Christian Science Monitor picks up on it...
40 Denmark seeks specific pledges at climate talks
By JAN M. OLSEN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 12:57 pm ET
| COPENHAGEN - Denmark's premier indicated Tuesday he expected the United States to bring specific pledges to cut greenhouse gases to next month's climate change conference.
Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said President Barack Obama supported his proposal for a sweeping political deal in Copenhagen covering all essential elements, including commitments by industrial countries to reduce carbon emissions and to provide funds for less developed countries to fight the effects of global warming.
"Also the American president endorsed our approach, implying that all developed countries will need to bring strong reduction targets to the negotiating table in Copenhagen," Loekke Rasmussen told top negotiators from 44 key countries preparing for the U.N. conference in the Danish capital. |
41 Iran sentences 5 to death in postelection turmoil
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
50 mins ago
| TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has sentenced five defendants to death in a mass trial of opposition figures accused of fomenting the unrest that followed the disputed June presidential election, state television reported Tuesday.
The five apparently include three death sentences announced last month. None of the five have been identified by Iranian authorities.
Iran began the mass trial in August of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what Iran's clerical rulers have depicted as a foreign-backed plot to oust them from power. |
42 AP Interview: Brazil miniskirt woman soaks up fame
By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 3 mins ago
| SAO PAULO - Brushing back freshly dyed blond hair as she posed for pictures, the Brazilian woman whose short pink dress got her kicked out of college said Tuesday she's enjoying her newfound fame, but wants go back to school - with a security guard.
Just the day before, 20-year-old Geisy Arruda took her first trip on an airplane so she could relive her experience in a comedy skit on one of Brazil's most popular television shows.
Star-struck business executives on the flight to Rio de Janeiro asked if she really was Geisy, then used their cell phones to snap pictures of themselves with her. |
43 90-year-old charged in Germany for Nazi-era crimes
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 1 min ago
| BERLIN - A former SS sergeant who worked unnoticed for decades as a train-station manager was charged with 58 counts of murder Tuesday after a student doing undergraduate research uncovered his alleged involvement in a massacre of Jewish forced laborers.
University of Vienna student Andreas Forster was working on a project about the slaying in a forest near the Austrian village of Deutsch Schuetzen when he stumbled across Adolf Storms' name in witness testimony.
Forster then obtained files from federal archives in Berlin that enabled him to link the former sergeant to the massacre, his professor Walter Manoschek told The Associated Press. |
44 Afghanistan slips in corruption index despite aid
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 10:17 am ET
| BERLIN - Afghanistan has slipped three places to become the world's second most-corrupt country despite billions in aid meant to bolster the government against a rising insurgency, according to an annual survey of perceived levels of corruption.
Only lawless Somalia, whose weak U.N.-backed government controls just a few blocks of the capital, was perceived as more corrupt than Afghanistan in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Iraq saw some improvement, rising to 176 of 180 countries, up two places up from last year. Singapore, Denmark and New Zealand were seen as the least corrupt countries in the list based on surveys of businesses and experts. |
45 Czechs celebrate fall of communism 20 years ago
By KAREL JANICEK, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 15 mins ago
| PRAGUE - Thousands marched through the Czech capital Tuesday in commemoration of a student protest 20 years ago that grew into the human tidal wave sweeping away the communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia.
Today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are European Union and NATO members. While the world recession has left its mark, their economies are among the strongest of the continent's former communist nations, and their democracies among the most resilient. Pragmatic Czechs in particular have moved into the European mainstream, with most citizens spending little time on any normal day looking back on their Velvet Revolution.
But Tuesday was no normal day for the several thousand Czechs gathered to relive the hours that led to their nation's democratic triumph. |
46 Kurdish, Sunni demands may derail Iraqi elections
By RYAN LUCAS, Associated Press Writer
37 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - Iraq's Kurds threatened Tuesday to boycott national elections, days after the country's Sunni vice president threatened to veto the newly passed election law needed to hold the January vote.
Barely a week after the long-delayed legislation was passed, the hard-fought deal appears to be hitting a major roadblock, threatening to derail the country's nationwide parliamentary elections and possibly slow U.S. plans to withdraw combat troops from Iraq.
The Kurds and Sunnis are unsatisfied with the allocation of seats in the next parliament, and are demanding more spots for their respective constituencies. |
47 France: GDP stays, happiness too hard to pin down
By EMMA VANDORE, AP Business Writer
Tue Nov 17, 11:23 am ET
| PARIS - Gross domestic product - that traditional way of measuring economic growth - has won out over a new happiness index in France.
The head of France's statistics office dashed hopes Tuesday that a report commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy could lead to a new, less-profit focused measure of economic growth.
Insee chief Jean-Philippe Cotis said he has no plans to stop monitoring GDP, and although his agency plans new quality of life studies, it was too early to say how his statistical toolbox should be adapted to take that into account. |
48 Afghans say attack in east shows Taliban strength
By AMIR SHAH and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writers
2 hrs 27 mins ago
| KABUL - A rocket attack apparently targeting French forces that killed ordinary Afghans raised concerns Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan about international troops' ability to secure a volatile valley despite a major offensive.
Monday's assault in Tagab missed the shura - a traditional meeting called by French officers to explain their operation to local elders_ but hit a crowded market area. Fourteen Afghan civilians were killed and dozens more wounded, said Afghan Gen. Paikan Zamaray.
A day earlier, French and Afghan forces launched a major offensive in the Tagab valley, but the assault underscored how difficult it is for troops to protect civilians and combat insurgent violence, especially because an increased military presence can draw more violence. |
49 Mexico Indian remains returned from NY for burial
By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 17, 2:10 am ET
| MEXICO CITY - Northern Mexico's Yaqui Indians buried their lost warriors after a two-year effort to rescue the remains from New York's American Museum of Natural History, where the victims of one of North America's last Indian massacres lay in storage for more than a century.
The burial Monday capped an unprecedented joint effort by U.S. and Mexican Indian tribes to press both governments to bring justice and closure to a 1902 massacre by Mexican federal troops that killed about 150 Yaqui men, women and children.
"They would not be at peace with their souls and conscience until they got their people back to their land," said Jose Antonio Pompa of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. |
50 Soldiers' mutiny raises concern in Israel
By Jeffrey Heller, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 7:58 am ET
| JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced concern on Tuesday over a mutiny by pro-settler soldiers that raised fears of more rebellion in the ranks in any future land-for-peace moves with the Palestinians.
"Our security and existence depend on the Israel Defense Forces," Netanyahu told reporters. "If you promote disobedience, you will bring about the downfall of the state. There is no place for disobedience."
In an incident on Monday played down by the military as an aberration and described by some political commentators as a crossing of a red line, a handful of soldiers protested against the partial dismantling of a settler-outpost in the West Bank. |
51 Spain: Teen Masturbation Sex Ed Workshops Spark Outrage
By LISA ABEND / MADRID, Time Magazine
Tue Nov 17, 8:30 am ET
| Between gay marriage, decriminalized abortion and all that pornography on TV, you'd think that the Spanish would be impossible to shock. After all, theirs is a country that in the past couple of decades has not merely evolved from its conservative, Catholic past but has rushed dramatically away from it. But teen masturbation workshops funded with public money? Turns out some Spaniards may not be quite ready for that. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
52 Warrant: Mo. sex abuse case could include slayings
By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER, Associated Press Writer
32 mins ago
| LEXINGTON, Mo. - Prosecutors in western Missouri filed 15 additional sex charges against a family already accused of sexually abusing children as a newly released search warrant claims some of the suspects forced their victims to help kill and bury a man in 1988.
The new rape and sodomy charges stem from 1984 to 1989 and accuse Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence, of rape, sodomy and use of a child in a sexual performance. His four sons, Jared Leroy Mohler, 48, of Columbia; Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City; and David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa, were charged with rape.
The original complaint, which has allegations that date from 1988 to 1995, includes charges of forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance. |
53 Army helps vets with 'invisible wounds' find jobs
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago
| SAN ANTONIO - Richard Martin keeps a rearview mirror on his desk to prevent co-workers from startling him in his cubicle. The walls are papered with sticky notes to help him remember things, and he wears noise-canceling headphones to keep his easily distracted mind focused.
Martin, an Army veteran who was nearly blown up on three occasions in Iraq, once feared that post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury would keep him from holding down a civilian job, despite years of corporate experience and an MBA.
"Here I am with this background and I'm having problems with my memory," said Martin, a 48-year-old engineer and former National Guard major who now works for Northrop Grumman, helping to devise ways to thwart remote-detonated bombs. |
54 Study: New device boosts heart failure survival
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
1 hr 12 mins ago
| ORLANDO, Fla. - For the first time, a miniature heart pump shows the potential to become a widely used, permanent treatment for many older people with severe heart failure. But can we afford it?
In a study of 200 patients, the new device increased by four times the number who survived at least two years compared with an older pump that had drawbacks limiting its use, doctors reported Tuesday.
However, the HeartMate II costs $80,000 plus $45,000 or so for the surgery and the hospital stay necessary to implant it. |
55 Tax credit to steady, not rescue, shaky U.S. housing
By Lynn Adler, Reuters
36 mins ago
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Don't expect the expanded home buyer tax credit to be a permanent cure for the U.S. housing market. It won't.
Take the spike in mortgage demand created by the tax credit this summer. It was followed by a plunge as the incentive was set to expire, showing how housing's recovery is tethered to government aid.
As the economy emerges from a recession triggered by the housing market crisis, increasing home sales is viewed as essential. Housing and related business account for about 20 percent of the economy, and more sales means more spending on everything from dishwashers to energy-efficient windows. |
56 Nearly 15,000 Americans admit offshore tax cheating
By Kim Dixon, Reuters
50 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 14,700 rich Americans, worried about a stepped-up U.S. crackdown on offshore tax cheats, have turned themselves in under the government's amnesty program.
The Internal Revenue Service amnesty program, which ended in October, offered reduced penalties for voluntarily disclosing previously undeclared foreign holdings. It is part of a broader effort by the United States and other authorities to crack down on tax evasion.
Of the nearly 15,000 newly disclosed accounts, many involved bank accounts in Switzerland and Europe, but assets were hidden in more than 70 countries. |
57 New Thoratec heart pump beats older model in study
By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot, Reuters
Tue Nov 17, 9:26 am ET
| ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Advanced heart failure patients who received Thoratec Corp's new pump awaiting U.S. approval as an alternative to heart transplants lived longer and fared far better than those getting the company's older HeartMate XVE device, researchers said on Tuesday.
After one year, 68 percent of patients with the new pump were still alive, compared with 55 percent in the other group. After two years, the survival advantage was more than double at 58 percent vs. 24 percent.
Some investors had been hoping for a two-year survival rate of 60 percent or more. Their disappointment may have weighed on Thoratec shares, which fell 1 percent in premarket trading. |
58 Palin drops strong White House hint
by Sebastian Smith, AFP
30 mins ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) - Sarah Palin dropped a heavy hint Tuesday that she might seek to run for the White House in 2012 as champion of America's Republican right.
Speaking to ABC television's Barbara Walters, the former running mate in John McCain's failed 2008 presidential bid gave every appearance of releasing a trial balloon.
"That certainly isn't on my radar screen right now, but when you consider some of the ordinary-turning-into-extraordinary events that have happened in my life, I am not one to predict what will happen in a few years," she said. |
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