2 EU president takes office as Lisbon Treaty enters force
by Paul Harrington, AFP
1 hr 55 mins ago
| BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU's first president Herman Van Rompuy and its new foreign affairs chief took office Tuesday as the Lisbon Treaty came into force, amid concerns at such low-profile leaders for the new Europe.
"Today EU citizens are heading into a new era," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose nation retains the old-style rotating European Union presidency until the end of the year.
"Today is the first day for a more efficient, more modern and more democratic EU, for all citizens," he added in a statement as the treaty, which had a long and difficult gestation, finally took effect. |
3 Antarctic melt to feed global sea rise
by Marlowe Hood, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 8:15 am ET
| PARIS (AFP) - Quickening ice loss in West Antarctica will likely contribute heavily to a projected sea level rise of up to 1.4 metres (4.5 feet) by 2100, according to a major scientific report released on Tuesday.
Scientists long held that most of Antarctica's continent-sized ice sheet was highly resistant to global warming, and that the more vulnerable West Antarctic ice block would remain intact for thousands of years to come.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- whose 2007 report is the scientific benchmark for the UN December 7-18 Copenhagen climate summit -- did not even factor melting ice sheets into its forecasts for rising seas. |
4 UAE markets plunge again on Dubai debt drama
by Ali Khalil and Andrew Newby, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 10:30 am ET
| DUBAI (AFP) - Emirati stock markets plunged for a second day on Tuesday after the Dubai government ruled out a guarantee for debt-ridden Dubai World and as the conglomerate unveiled a major restructuring plan.
The Dubai bourse closed 5.6 percent lower, swelling its total drop to 12.5 percent since local markets reopened on Monday, while the index in Abu Dhabi lost another 3.5 percent for an 11.6-percent plunge in just two days.
"Foreign portfolios are still pushing to exit the markets... Those who tried to pull out yesterday and did not manage to do so (because of a lack of buyers) are still trying today," said Al-Fajr Securities analyst Humam al-Shamaa. |
5 WTO states seek early 'green' deal ahead of climate summit
by Hui-Min Neo, AFP
1 hr 55 mins ago
| GENEVA (AFP) - A bid to free up trade in environmental goods and services gained new momentum Tuesday at a WTO meeting, with some nations calling for a deal ahead of a major climate summit in Copenhagen.
An early accord could also act as a much-needed stimulus for negotiations on a broader global trade pact that are currently stalled, said trade ministers gathered at a meeting of 153 WTO member states in Geneva.
"Some like-minded nations, including Japan, are considering conducting discussions with a view to achieving an early agreement to liberalise trade in environmental goods," Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima told the meeting. |
6 South Africa expands AIDS treatment for babies, mothers
by Godfrey Marawanyika, AFP
2 hrs 17 mins ago
| PRETORIA (AFP) - South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday unveiled a dramatic expansion in treatment for pregnant women and babies with HIV, sealing a turnaround in the AIDS fight in the world's worst-affected country.
Zuma said that all babies with HIV will receive treatment at public facilities from next April, while women will receive care earlier in their pregnancies in a bid to prevent transmission to newborns.
He also announced that he was preparing to take a HIV test himself, and urged the public to do the same. |
7 How Empress Josephine made Bordeaux fashionable
by Gersende Rambourg, AFP
2 hrs 34 mins ago
| PARIS (AFP) - There wasn't a single bottle of Bordeaux in King Louis XVI's cellar, but 30 years later Napoleon's Empress Josephine had amassed a vast collection of luxury Bordeaux wines, launching a fashion that put Latour and Margaux on high society tables.
In a new exhibit, "Josephine's Cellar: Wine at Malmaison during the Empire", at the National Museum Chateau de Malmaison just outside Paris, visitors catch a rare glimpse of what was served at the Empress's table, and the innovations in wine production and trade during Napoleon's rule.
The hand-written inventory of Josephine's 13,000-bottle collection reveals a surprising diversity, as sophisticated as the exotic menagerie and gardens she created at Malmaison, her last residence. |
8 Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets plunge on debt woes
by Ali Khalil, AFP
Mon Nov 30, 4:38 pm ET
| DUBAI (AFP) - Stock markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi plunged on Monday as a top finance official stoked fears the government is washing its hands of the Dubai World debt problem, saying it does not guarantee the firm.
However US stocks rebounded on news that the flagship Dubai World group will restructure some 26 billion dollars in debt of some of its companies, easing default fears.
Dubai's benchmark DFM Index closed down 7.3 percent from Wednesday, just before Dubai announced it wanted to freeze debt repayments by Dubai World for at least six months. |
9 Calls for end to discrimination on World AIDS Day
by Godfrey Marawanyika, AFP
2 hrs 48 mins ago
| PRETORIA (AFP) - Calls for an end to discrimination against sufferers rang out on World AIDS Day on Tuesday as South Africa -- the country worst affected by the pandemic -- rolled out a new plan to beat the virus.
With more than 33 million people round the world carrying the virus, China said the incidence among homosexuals was gaining pace while there were warnings in Europe that heterosexual contacts had become the chief transmission route.
And French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy lent her star power to the global campaign against AIDS, revealing how she witnessed first-hand the effect of the virus on the fashion industry and her brother. |
10 Holocaust survivors blast Demjanjuk charade
by Richard Carter, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 5:36 am ET
| MUNICH, Germany (AFP) - Holocaust survivors on Tuesday accused John Demjanjuk of faking the gravity of his illness to seek sympathy ahead of the first harrowing testimony on the killing of tens of thousands of Jews at the Sobibor death camp.
A lawyer for the alleged Nazi guard -- who faces charges of assisting in the gas chamber murder of 29,700 camp inmates -- in turn hit out at what he calls "double standards" in German justice by bringing action against a lowly soldier who did not give the orders.
Demjanjuk was pushed into his trial on Monday moaning in a wheelchair and later carried in on a stretcher. But at the end of the day he was seen laughing and joking. |
11 Philippines charges clan heir with 25 murders
AFP
Tue Dec 1, 3:18 am ET
| GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines (AFP) - Philippine prosecutors on Tuesday filed 25 counts of murder against a politician accused of leading an election-linked massacre of 57 people, officials said.
The charges against Andal Ampatuan Jnr were filed in a court in the southern city of Cotabato, which has jurisdiction over the remote farming area where the slaughter occurred last week, said prosecutor Edilberto Jamora.
However authorities said they were looking to have the case heard outside of the southern Philippines because witnesses were extremely worried about intimidation or other repercussions from the extremely powerful Ampatuan clan. |
12 Obama to speed troop deployment to Afghanistan
By Patricia Zengerle and Caren Bohan, Reuters
43 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over six months, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, accelerating the deployment in a bid to beat back the Taliban and bring a quicker end to a costly and unpopular eight-year war.
The deployments, which would take place faster than the 12- to 18-month rollout expected by the Pentagon, represent a major gamble by the president in the face of doubts among his fellow Democrats and popular uncertainty about the U.S. strategy.
Obama came to office vowing a greater focus on Afghanistan but has faced skepticism from some advisers about putting more U.S. lives and money on the line when the government in Kabul is widely seen as corrupt and inept. |
13 Dubai ruler plays up strength as Gulf markets fall
By Rachna Uppal and Jason Benham, Reuters
1 hr 33 mins ago
| DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf markets dropped again on Tuesday, taking little comfort from Dubai World's plan to restructure about $26 billion of debt and despite reassurances on economic resilience from the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Dubai stocks fell a further 5.6 percent and the Abu Dhabi bourse lost 3.6 percent on their second trading day since Dubai last week asked creditors of Dubai World and its property arm Nakheel for a six-month delay on debt repayments. Qatar's bourse was also more than 8 percent lower.
State-controlled Dubai World, which led the emirate's transformation into a regional hub for finance, investment and tourism, unveiled details late on Monday of the restructuring and which parts of its empire were affected. The process will focus on $26 billion of debt owed by its main property firms, Nakheel and Limitless. |
14 Senate opens work on healthcare bill
By Donna Smith and John Whitesides, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 9:29 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate began work on a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Monday, with senators on both sides pouncing on findings in a nonpartisan budget report on insurance premiums to bolster their arguments.
With the debate expected to last up to three weeks, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid warned senators they would work on weekends if necessary to hammer out compromises on issues like a government-run insurance plan, abortion coverage and holding down costs.
"The next few weeks will tell us a lot about whether senators are more committed to solving problems or creating them," Reid said. |
15 Most world leaders to attend U.N. climate summit
By John Acher and James Grubel, Reuters
2 hrs 25 mins ago
| COPENHAGEN/CANBERRA (Reuters) - Most world leaders plan to attend a climate summit in Copenhagen this month, boosting chances that a new U.N. deal to fight climate change will be reached, host Denmark said on Tuesday.
The number of leaders planning to come to the December 7-18 talks had risen to 98 out of the 192 members of the United Nations, Denmark said. The number was up from 65 in a first count after invitations were sent last month.
"It gives me a strong feeling that we are on the right track," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told a news conference. |
16 Obama ordering 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan
By JENNIFER LOVEN and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers
6 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is sending 30,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan on an accelerated timetable that will have the first Marines there as early as Christmas and all forces in place by summer. But he'll also declare Tuesday night that troops will start leaving in 19 months.
In a prime-time speech to the nation from West Point, N.Y., that ends a 92-day review, Obama will seek to sell his bigger, costlier plan for the 8-year-old stalemated war to a skeptical public in part by twinning it with some specifics about an exit strategy, said two senior administration officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the president had not yet laid out his plans.
Obama will tell the American people that U.S. troops will start leaving Afghanistan in July 2011, one official said. The official said Obama will not specify a date for the end of the war. |
17 US November auto sales struggle to gain ground
By TOM KRISHER and DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto Writers
30 mins ago
| DETROIT - U.S. auto sales struggled to gain ground in November and big improvements aren't expected until people stop worrying about losing their jobs.
Sales last month were mostly stable, but even higher incentives couldn't push the needle much beyond last November's dismal lows, when a credit freeze and the financial meltdown kept car buyers at home. Larger gains aren't expected until Americans see a notable improvement in the job market.
One strength was sales of fuel-efficient cars and crossovers, which are as roomy as SUVs but are built on lower car frames, bolstering fuel economy. |
18 NKorea revalues money, causing black market chaos
By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 55 mins ago
| SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea revalued its national currency for the first time in decades in a bid to fight inflation and flush out the black market money trade, reports said Tuesday - a move that sent residents of the communist state scrambling to convert hoarded money into foreign currencies.
North Korea revalued its currency at an exchange rate between old and new notes of 100 to 1, China's Xinhua news agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang. It cited a verbal notice Tuesday from North Korea's Foreign Ministry to foreign embassies in North Korea.
The exchange of old notes started Monday and will continue until Sunday, Xinhua reported. It said no reason was provided for the sudden change. |
19 Suspect in Philippine massacre charged with murder
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 8:30 am ET
| MANILA, Philippines - The heir of a powerful clan was charged Tuesday in connection with the Philippines' worst political massacre - an ambush in which 57 people, more than half journalists, were slaughtered.
Three witnesses, who escaped because their car was at the tail end of the election convoy that was attacked in a southern province Nov. 23 , said they saw Andal Ampatuan Jr. and about 100 gunmen, including police officers, stopping the cars, prosecutor Al Calica told The Associated Press.
Hours later, troops found bullet-riddled and hacked-up bodies near the highway sprawled in the grass and hastily buried with a backhoe in three mass graves. |
20 Huckabee clemency record revisted after shootings
By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 3:07 am ET
| LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee had a hand pardoning or commuting many more prisoners than his three immediate predecessors combined. Maurice Clemmons, the suspect in Sunday's slaying of four Seattle-area police officers, was among them.
For a politician considering another run for the White House, Clemmons could become Huckabee's Willie Horton.
"In a primary between a law-and-order Republican and him, I think it could definitely be a vulnerability," said Art English, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "It is very damaging when you have someone like that whose sentence was commuted. That's pretty high profile and very devastating and very tragic." |
21 'Mr. Hyphen' redefines image of Asian-American men
By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer
2 hrs 11 mins ago
| The six men on stage included a poet, a break dancer and a filmmaker. They pounded rhythms on the dhol drum, proclaimed "Vietnamese Men Are Lovers" or applied whipped cream to bare skin. They modeled sport coats and sleepwear and discussed their passion for community service.
Conspicuously absent from the "Mr. Hyphen" contest - a 3-year-old San Francisco Bay-area faux pageant aimed at redefining the image of Asian-American men, with the winner designating $1,000 to a charity of his choice - were computer experts, doctors, lawyers or dry cleaners.
There were, however, martial arts - with a twist. |
22 Trend in bridal gowns is to follow your heart
By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL, AP Fashion Writer
2 hrs 26 mins ago
| NEW YORK - Many brides positively know what their wedding gown will look like long before they meet their groom, and they're not going to let a little thing - OK, actually a huge thing - known as the economy dash their dream dress.
They are seeking out gowns with smaller price-tags, according to industry experts, but their expectations haven't shrunk accordingly.
What's a gown designer to do? |
23 Movement under way in California to ban divorce
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 8:10 am ET
| SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Til death do us part? The vow would really hold true in California if a Sacramento Web designer gets his way.
In a movement that seems ripped from the pages of Comedy Channel writers, John Marcotte wants to put a measure on the ballot next year to ban divorce in California.
The effort is meant to be a satirical statement after California voters outlawed gay marriage in 2008, largely on the argument that a ban is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage. If that's the case, then Marcotte reasons voters should have no problem banning divorce. |
24 Rabbis, heterosexuals join NJ gay marriage debate
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 5:00 am ET
| LAKEWOOD, N.J. - The leaders in the local large Orthodox Jewish community go to great lengths to keep out the outside world, discouraging nonbusiness use of the Internet and encouraging strict filters to keep the ungodly out when members must use the Web.
But last month, several rabbis and other elders did something astounding for them: They took a public stand on a political issue, declaring their opposition to same-sex marriage in the state.
"This really hurts us," said Rabbi Osher Lieberman, a key figure in the community in the suburbs about 30 miles east of Trenton. "To say (it's) immoral is not enough." |
25 Kennedy touts health care reform, sidesteps flap
By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 30, 9:12 pm ET
| PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rep. Patrick Kennedy used the language of faith Monday to rally support for expanding the nation's health insurance system in his first public appearance since escalating a public feud with Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop over health care and publicly financed abortion.
Kennedy, a Catholic, refused to address head-on his weekslong war of words with Bishop Thomas Tobin, the spiritual leader of the nation's most heavily Catholic state. The fracas escalated just over a week ago when it was revealed that Tobin asked Kennedy in early 2007 not to receive Holy Communion because of his support for abortion rights.
"In the final analysis, all of us are children of God, all of us have the spark of divinity," Kennedy told a Brown University audience during a panel discussion of the politics of health care reform. "And if any one of us is denied health care, it really is a threat to who we call ourselves as human beings." |
26 Catalina bison get birth control to keep numbers down
By Daniel B. Wood, The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Nov 30, 4:00 am ET
| Catalina Island, Calif. - Fourteen majestic, shaggy bison were brought to this windswept island southwest of Los Angeles for a film shoot in the 1920s. Left behind, they multiplied to 600 by the 1960s, causing havoc to delicate plants, rolling and tramping vegetation and other protective barriers that keep deer away from threatened ironwood trees.
Now, conservation authorities are experimenting with birth control methods to keep the herd on this 22-mile long island under control. It's an approach that some animal activists say should become the model for managing wild animal populations the world over.
The idea involves annual injections of a wildlife contraceptive called porcine zona pellucida (PZP). It can be used on populations ranging from feral cats to wild stallions and urban deer. |
27 Supreme Court decision lets Pentagon keep detainee photos secret
By Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor
Mon Nov 30, 4:00 am ET
| Washington - The US Supreme Court Monday vacated a federal appeals court ruling requiring disclosure of a cache of photos allegedly depicting abuse of US-held detainees overseas during the Bush administration.
The high court action removed a legal precedent that made it harder for the government to withhold certain documents from the public. The Obama administration had asked the court to take that action.
Citing a new law that allows the secretary of defense to exempt the photos from disclosure, the Supreme Court remanded the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case back to the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. |
28 AP Exclusive: Letters tell of Moscow prison ordeal
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press Writer
53 mins ago
| MOSCOW - The letters are neatly folded and written on soft white paper in a confident, elegant hand. They tell a story of horror in the bowels of the Russian prison system, a saga set against the backdrop of the world of multibillion-dollar investment funds in Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for a London-based fund that was once the biggest in Russia, wrote to his mother of wasting away from an agonizing illness without proper medical care in a crowded Moscow prison cell that reeked of sewage.
Just 11 days after the last letter reached her, Magnitsky died while awaiting trial on tax-evasion charges. He was 37. |
29 Nazi victims' families testify at Demjanjuk trial
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 12:56 pm ET
| MUNICH - Rudolf Salomon Cortissos sobbed as he told a Munich court about the letter his mother had written on May 17, 1943 - four days before she was gassed in the Nazis' Sobibor death camp with some 2,300 other Dutch Jews.
Cortissos testified on Tuesday, the second day in a German court for John Demjanjuk, the retired Ohio autoworker being tried on charges of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews in the Sobibor camp, including Cortissos' mother Emmy.
Sitting only feet away from Demjanjuk, Cortissos said he found her letter after his father died in 1959. |
30 Afghan official: US target for Afghan army too low
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 14 mins ago
| KABUL - A top Afghan military official said Tuesday that a key part of President Barack Obama's new war plan - accelerating the training of Afghan soldiers - does not go far enough to meet the country's defense needs.
Obama plans to dispatch 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan over six months - an accelerated timetable with a built-in endgame - that would have the first fresh Marines on the ground as early as Christmas, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama also will ask NATO allies to contribute 5,000 to 10,000 new troops to the separate international force in Afghanistan, diplomats said.
Obama's plan emphasizes stepped-up training for Afghan forces, a goal aimed at speeding the handover of the nation's security to Afghan security forces. |
31 UN slams 'discriminatory' Swiss minaret ban
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 1, 8:47 am ET
| GENEVA - The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image.
U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Sunday's referendum to outlaw the construction of minarets in Switzerland was the product of "anti-foreigner scare-mongering."
The criticism from Pillay, whose office is based in the Swiss city of Geneva, comes after an outcry from Muslim countries, Switzerland's European neighbors and human rights watchdogs since 57.5 percent of the Swiss population ratified the ban. |
32 Dubai tries to calm panic over new debt crisis
By BARBARA SURK and TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press Writers
2 hrs 27 mins ago
| DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai's ruler looked to calm panicky investors Tuesday with a message that all was well in the glitzy city-state after the largest government-owned company shook global markets by saying it needed to delay payments on its $60 billion in debt.
Dubai World, one of the government's chief investment arms, has stakes in holdings ranging from luxury retailer Barney's New York to a grandiose six-tower hotel-entertainment complex in Las Vegas. In its first statement since revealing its debt problems last Wednesday, the conglomerate said it had started negotiations with creditors on restructuring some of its debt.
Dubai is one of seven highly autonomous statelets that make up the United Arab Emirates and the UAE's two biggest markets tumbled for a second straight day. The Dubai Financial Market sank 5.61 percent on Tuesday after plunging 7.3 percent on Monday and neighboring Abu Dhabi's bourse closed down 3.57 percent following an 8 percent slide a day earlier. |
33 Italy may accept more Gitmo detainees
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 1 min ago
| ROME - Italy is considering taking in other prisoners from Guantanamo to help President Barack Obama close down the prison, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, a day after Italy accepted two former detainees.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised Obama at a White House meeting in June that Italy would accept three people as part of the U.S. administration's bid to close down Guantanamo.
Obama said last month that he would miss his January deadline to close the prison, partly because he cannot persuade other nations to take the detainees. |
34 Two freed from Guantanamo, sent to France, Hungary
By Estelle Shirbon, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 11:03 am ET
| PARIS (Reuters) - An Algerian man detained at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo in Cuba for almost eight years was transferred to France on Tuesday, the French Foreign Ministry said, a year after a U.S. court cleared him.
The U.S. Justice Department said later that another man, originally from the West Bank, had been released from Guantanamo and sent to Hungary. It did not identify him.
The transfers were part of a drive by U.S. President Barack Obama to close the widely criticized jail created by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to house terrorism suspects captured abroad. |
35 Court hears charges against Nazi camp suspect
By Madeline Chambers, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 12:14 pm ET
| MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Prosecutors accused John Demjanjuk on Tuesday of knowingly herding thousands of Jews to their deaths in the Nazi-run Sobibor extermination camp and standing by as victims screamed in fear.
Propped up under a white sheet on a mobile bed in a Munich court, the 89-year-old former U.S. carworker closed his eyes or stared into space as prosecutors charged him with helping to kill 27,900 Jews in what may be Germany's last major Nazi-era war crimes trial.
Demjanjuk, who denies a role in the Holocaust, has not said anything in the first two days of the trial and his family says he is too frail to be in court. |
36 Kosovo tells world court independence "irreversible"
By Aaron Gray-Block and Reed Stevenson, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 12:21 pm ET
| THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Kosovo told the world court on Tuesday that its 2008 declaration of independence was irreversible, arguing against Serbia's claims that the act was a "flagrant violation" of its territorial integrity.
At the start of U.N. hearings examining the legality of the move, Serbian ambassador to France Dusan Batakovic told a 15-judge panel he hoped for a ruling that would provide scope for talks with Kosovo that would prevent a full break from Serbia and contribute to "peace and stability."
"Kosovo is the historic cradle of Serbia and ... one of the essential pillars of its identity," Batakovic said. |
37 Bethlehem traders still waiting for Christmas cheer
By Erika Solomon, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 6:04 am ET
| BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - The lights are going up and carols are ringing from Manger Square, but Christmas cheer hasn't spread to all of Bethlehem's residents.
While calm has returned to the Biblical birthplace of Jesus, scene of heavy fighting during the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in the early years of this decade, big-spending foreign tourists have mostly not, say the shopkeepers and restaurant owners who depend on them for their livelihood.
Last year, the West Bank town enjoyed its first tourism boom since the Intifada. About 1.5 million people visited Bethlehem in 2008, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. |
38 Sudan youth seek once-in-a-lifetime change
By Opheera McDoom, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 11:06 am ET
| KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Discontented young Sudanese are campaigning for change in what will be for many the first multi-party elections in their lifetime, urging the opposition to unite against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
"We're fed up!" read thousands of bright orange leaflets appearing all over the capital, in defiance of a long-standing ban on anti-government papers by the government which took power in a coup more than 20 years ago.
Groups of young Sudanese, forming on the Internet and on the streets, are calling on the splintered opposition to unite at all levels of the elections, presidential and parliamentary, against the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). |
39 Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies
By Suadad al-Salhy, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 4:57 am ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The guns are gradually falling silent in Iraq as a fragile stability takes hold, turning the spotlight on a stealthier killer likely to stalk Iraqis for years to come.
Incidences of cancer, deformed babies and other health problems have risen sharply, Iraqi officials say, and many suspect contamination from weapons used in years of war and accompanying unchecked pollution as a cause.
"We have seen new kinds of cancer that were not recorded in Iraq before war in 2003, types of fibrous (soft tissue) cancer and bone cancer. These refer clearly to radiation as a cause," said Jawad al-Ali, an oncologist in Iraq's second city of Basra. |
40 Serbia assails Kosovo at UN court
by Lorne Cook, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 12:51 pm ET
| THE HAGUE (AFP) - Serbia accused Kosovo Tuesday of threatening international order by declaring independence last year, but Pristina told a top UN court that the horrors of the Milosevic-era make the move irreversible.
At the International Court of Justice, Belgrade argued that Kosovo broke away illegally and must return to the negotiating table, while Pristina said any about face could seriously destabilise the volatile Balkans.
The head of the Serbian delegation, Dusan Batakovic, said the unilateral move in February 2008 was "but an attempt to put an end to the international regime put in place for Kosovo by the UN Security Council." |
41 Sri Lanka allows Tamils to leave war camps
by T. Vivekarasa, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 12:23 pm ET
| VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan civilians held in state-run camps following the island's ethnic conflict were allowed to walk free Tuesday, ending their internationally-condemned detention.
Men, women and children were given their first opportunity to leave the northern Manik Farm complex since their incarceration over seven months ago.
But many of them, their homes and villages destroyed in the country's long ethnic war, were expected to continue living in the camps. |
42 Japan's Amano takes helm at UN atomic watchdog
by Simon Morgan, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 12:09 pm ET
| VIENNA (AFP) - Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano took the helm on Tuesday of the UN atomic watchdog, pledging a steady hand to steer the agency through the storm surrounding Iran's nuclear drive.
"This is the first day as director general of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for me," the 62-year-old told reporters as he arrived for his first staff meeting on a cold, rainy day in the Austrian capital.
"As you can see, it is raining," Amano said. "But the situation surrounding the agency is stormy now. We have a lot of difficult issues and challenges, but I would like to do my best." |
43 Fears grow over dangers of Swiss minaret vote
by Peter Capella, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 12:03 pm ET
| GENEVA (AFP) - The Swiss foreign minister warned on Tuesday that a decision by voters in Switzerland to ban new mosque minarets could endanger security, amid stark warnings about a broader threat of extremism.
Opponents of the ban in Switzerland vowed to press ahead with legal challenges, while Turkey and the UN human rights chief delivered sharp rebukes over a broader and growing trend of European intolerance that they believe the vote revealed.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey also acknowledged that Muslims in Switzerland now faced a restriction on their freedom to exert their religion, in the first overt expression of government concern since Sunday's referendum. |
44 UN court begins Kosovo independence hearing
by Lorne Cook, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 8:44 am ET
| THE HAGUE (AFP) - Serbia accused Kosovo on Tuesday of threatening international order by declaring independence, as a top UN court began hearings into the breakaway territory that has divided international opinion.
Serbian experts argued at the International Court of Justice that the move by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority would set a dangerous precedent, and claimed that negotiations had not run their course.
The head of the Serbian delegation, Dusan Batakovic, said the unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 was "but an attempt to put an end to the international regime put in place for Kosovo by the UN Security Council." |
45 Obama to unveil new Afghan strategy
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 8:10 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Barack Obama on Tuesday makes a globally awaited address on his new Afghan war plan and big troop surge strategy, shouldering the most perilous burden yet of a presidency defined by crises.
Huge military and diplomatic stakes, a grave warning by the US commander that the war could be lost, and his own increasingly vulnerable political position demand a bravura Obama performance after months of deliberations.
In the televised address at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Wednesday), Obama is expected to announce deployments of up to 35,000 more troops to battle the resurgent Taliban, Al-Qaeda and to secure Afghan cities, along with more civilian aid. |
46 As Obama adds troops to Afghanistan, Iraq challenges aren't over
By Warren P. Strobel, McClatchy Newspapers
Mon Nov 30, 6:01 pm ET
| KIRKUK, Iraq _While President Barack Obama prepares to announce that he's sending tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan , his problems in Iraq are far from over.
Military casualties have plummeted and sectarian violence has ebbed in Iraq , but the country's power struggles among Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs and between Arabs and Kurds are unfinished. The question is whether it will turn violent again.
The combatants appear to be repositioning themselves in anticipation of the planned U.S. combat troop withdrawal next year. Iraq's neighbors - Iran , Turkey , Syria and others - could try to fill the vacuum, politicians and analysts warn. |
47 Obama faces steep challenges in new Afghan policy
By Steven Thomma and Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
Mon Nov 30, 7:00 pm ET
| WASHINGTON - With eight years of blood and treasure already spent and perhaps his presidency hanging in the balance, President Barack Obama will tell the world Tuesday how he'll escalate the war in Afghanistan - and how he hopes his risky decision will lead finally to a path home for U.S. forces.
The stakes of his decision - ordered into effect at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Oval Office - are enormous, and the challenges of making it work are daunting. He'll speak at 8 p.m. EST Tuesday from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Perhaps his toughest task will be balancing his plan to send 30,000 to 35,000 more American troops with talk of new benchmarks for success and the strong signal that U.S. troops will turn over Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces and get out. |
48 In Taliban stronghold, U.S. medics win friends for Marines
By Jay Price, McClatchy Newspapers
1 hr 18 mins ago
| FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan - In the middle of a foot patrol Saturday through what may be the most dangerous part of the most dangerous province in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, Staff Sgt. John Nickerson peered through the scope of his assault rifle at a group of Afghan men who were rolling a wheelbarrow toward him.
Suddenly, he had to switch gears to the gentler form of counterinsurgency.
"Hold," Nickerson said into his hand-held radio, lowering his gun. "We've got some men with a kid in a wheelbarrow trying to get our attention. Where's Doc at?" |
49 Dubai's Woes a Blow to Ambitious Ruler Sheik Mohammed
By SCOTT MACLEOD, Time Magazine
Tue Dec 1, 8:50 am ET
| A few years ago, an adviser went to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum with a plan for a tall office building. "Only 90 stories?" the ruler of Dubai asked. The aide was sent back to the drawing board, with instructions to design the highest structure not just in Dubai, not just in the Middle East, but in the world. When the Burj Dubai has its grand opening in January, it will be an 818-meter monument to the visionary autocrat who dreamed the Dubai dream - and, as it turns out, a conspicuous symbol of the hyper-ambition that now threatens the emirate with financial ruin. |
50 Demjanjuk on Trial: The Last Nazi War-Crimes Defendant
By TRISTANA MOORE / MUNICH, Time Magazine
Tue Dec 1, 8:50 am ET
| More than 60 years after the end of World War II, an 89-year-old retired auto worker from Ohio went on trial in Germany on Monday in what many are calling the country's last Nazi war-crimes proceeding. That's not the only reason the world is watching the trial closely: John Demjanjuk is also No. 1 on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted war criminals, accused of being an accessory to the deaths of at least 27,900 people. Then there's the added drama of his health - Demjanjuk's family insists he's too old and sick to stand trial, claiming he's suffering from a range of ailments. He was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair on Monday morning, his mouth slightly agape and apparently struggling for breath. During the afternoon hearing, he was brought in lying on a gurney. When he started writhing and complaining of pain, he was taken outside for an injection. |
51 Peru's Murderous Fat-Stealing Gang: Crime or Cover-Up?
By LUCIEN CHAUVIN / LIMA, Time Magazine
Tue Dec 1, 10:20 am ET
| Much of the world was shocked and titillated by news of alleged fat-stealing murderers in the Peruvian jungle. But the story may have a much more sinister underbelly. Could the allegation of homicidal liposuction possibly be a smokescreen to distract attention from other crimes, including, some local journalists say, the existence of a death squad that may be operating within the country's national police? |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
52 Va. instructors: Yoga regulations unconstitutional
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
14 mins ago
| ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The state of Virginia wants to make sure that if you learn to be a yoga instructor, the people who teach you the Half Moon, the Sleeping Vishnu and the Upward Facing Dog poses know what they're doing.
But three yoga instructors filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Virginia regulators, claiming that the state's plan to license yoga teacher-training programs is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.
"It's just daft. It's just a ridiculous idea," said Suzanne Leitner-Wise, one of the plaintiffs and a yoga instructor who has provided training to U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. "It's the students who determine whether you're a competent teacher," not the state. |
53 Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer
By STEVEN R. HURST and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writers
29 mins ago
| WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is dispatching 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, accelerating a risky and expensive war buildup, even as he assures the nation that U.S. forces will begin coming home in July 2011. The first new Marines will join the fight by Christmas.
The escalation - to be completed by next summer - is designed to reverse significant Taliban advances since Obama took office 10 months ago and to fast-track the training of Afghan soldiers and police toward the goal of hastening an eventual U.S. pullout. The size and speed of the troop increase will put a heavy strain on the military, which still maintains a force of more than 100,000 in Iraq and already has 68,000 in Afghanistan.
Obama's Tuesday evening speech to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., to be broadcast nationally, ends three months of exacting deliberations that won praise from supporters and criticism from opponents. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Obama was "dithering," too inexperienced to make a decision on the troop buildup requested in September by commanding Gen. Stanley McChrystal. |
54 Health officials to review disaster plan
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters
Tue Dec 1, 1:16 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stung by the continuing struggle to make a vaccine against the swine flu pandemic, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Tuesday her department would review its approach to disaster preparedness.
The goal, Sebelius said, will be streamlined regulations that will speed the approval of new technologies that are promoted through government contracts with private companies.
The administration of President Barack Obama has been worried that H1N1 flu would be the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina -- the 2005 disaster that flooded New Orleans, left much of the city still devastated and was seen as a failure of his predecessor George W. Bush's presidency. |
55 Holiday shoppers carefully treat themselves
By Jessica Wohl, Reuters
Mon Nov 30, 4:15 pm ET
| CHICAGO (Reuters) - Call it the season of self-gifting.
Women shoppers freshened up their own wardrobes over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend after more than a year of frugality, but did so cautiously.
"Even when they're buying for themselves they are still looking out for value, and so they're still not spending as much as they used to," said Eric Beder, a retail analyst with a focus on specialty apparel and apparel manufacturers at Brean Murray, Carret & Co. |
56 Chrysler sales tumble in mixed November for automakers
AFP
Tue Dec 1, 2:32 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Chrysler suffered another big drop in US auto sales in November as its Detroit rivals reported mixed results, according to data released Tuesday.
Chrysler said its November sales of cars and other light vehicles slid 25 percent compared with a year earlier to 63,560.
The new Chrysler -- an alliance with Italy's Fiat, which took a stake in the number-three US automaker under a government-backed bankruptcy reorganization -- said its market share likely increased from a month earlier to 8.4 percent. |
57 Vegas prepares for mammoth 8.5 billion dollar estate
by Steve Friess, AFP
Tue Dec 1, 11:59 am ET
| LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Dubai World may be teetering on the brink but one of the firm's key investment projects will roar to life in Las Vegas this week as a glittering 8.5-billion-dollar development is unveiled.
Even by the over-the-top standards that have made Sin City famous, the 18-million-square-foot CityCenter complex of hotels, condos and shops opening in the Nevada gambling capital is unprecedented.
CityCenter, the most expensive privately funded construction project in American history, begins a staged launch to the public this week as the non-gaming 57-story Vdara condo-hotel, the stately 47-story Mandarin Oriental and the gargantuan Crystals shopping center bows ahead of the December 16 grand opening of the 4,004-room casino-resort Aria. |
58 Equity swap allows AIG to cut 25 billion dollars in Fed debt
AFP
Tue Dec 1, 11:08 am ET
| NEW YORK (AFP) - Bailed-out US insurance giant AIG said Tuesday it had given an equity stake in two subsidiaries to the Federal Reserve in a move to cut its debt to the central bank by 25 billion dollars.
American International Group said it had transferred ownership to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York parts of two international subsidiaries: American Life Insurance Company (ALICO) and American International Assurance Company (AIA).
The action reduces AIG's outstanding principal balance to the Fed to 17 billion dollars, excluding interest and fees. |
As Atrios points out, this is basically a $25 Billion theft. |
