This is an Open Thread: Open Carefully
USA
Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems
WASHINGTON – Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced the “good news” that the Army had met its recruiting goal for October, the first month in a five-year plan to add 65,000 new soldiers to the ranks by 2012.But Pentagon statistics show the Army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service.
In each fiscal year since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statisics show, the Army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.
GOP Comeback Climb Is Increasingly Steep
Vacancies Appear in Competitive AreasBy Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; Page A04Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott’s resignation announcement on Monday was the latest in a wave of retirements to hit congressional Republicans, making an already difficult 2008 electoral landscape even more complicated for the minority party.
Party officials insist that the retirements — 17 members of the House and six senators — are simply the result of individual decisions and not indicative of a broader negative sentiment within the party. “I don’t hear a drumbeat that ‘We’re not effective and I don’t like it here anymore,’ ” said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.).
Clinton the organized
By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 27, 2007
WASHINGTON — She always came prepared. From the first planning sessions for her husband’s victorious 1992 presidential run through the final 1994 White House meetings she chaired as the Clinton administration’s ill-fated healthcare initiative collapsed, Hillary Rodham Clinton was a force to be reckoned with as a decision-maker.
Her debut on the national stage in the early 1990s was a defining era for Clinton, a period when she emerged as Bill Clinton’s most influential campaign strategist and policy advisor.
Middle East
Iraqi police: US gunfire at bus kills 4
BAGHDAD – American troops fired on a minibus carrying bank employees to work Tuesday, killing as many as four passengers, Iraqi officials said. The U.S. military said two people were killed after the driver disregarded a warning shot and drove into an area limited to cars.The shooting took place in northern Baghdad’s Shaab neighborhood, known as a Shiite militia stronghold, as the driver was collecting employees to go to work at Rasheed bank, police said.
U.S. troops fired when the bus reached the U.S. roadblock and tried to drive through, killing four passengers – including three women, police and hospital officials said.
Seeking a Mideast Path, Bush Offers a Nudge
Nov. 26 – It might seem, after nearly seven years of deliberate detachment from Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, that President Bush has plunged into Middle Eastern diplomacy with Clintonesque energy.
He met with the Israel and Palestinian leaders at the White House on Monday and will do so again on Wednesday. On Tuesday, he will meet them at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., along with delegations from 46 countries and international organizations (including, after an arm-twisting by phone last week, Saudi Arabia).
Europe
Russia election chief says Putin won’t run again
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s top election official appeared to rule out the possibility of President Vladimir Putin exploiting a legal loophole to run for a third term, a Moscow radio station reported.Some politicians with Kremlin links say if Putin steps down before the end of his term and then runs in a presidential election next year, he would be able to dodge a constitutional ban on presidents serving three consecutive terms.
An election law prohibits a head of state from running in a snap election called as a result of that person leaving office early. But it does not spell out what happens if the president steps down after a scheduled election has already been called.
Further rioting in Paris suburbs
Youths have fought running battles with French police in a second night of violence in Paris suburbs, leaving more than 60 police officers injured.Five of the officers are said to be in a critical condition.
Rioting began in Villiers-le-Bel, on the northern edge of Paris, after two teenagers riding a motorbike died in a crash with a police car on Sunday.
Latin America
60 Ecuador miners trapped after blast
QUITO, Ecuador – Sixty miners were trapped overnight in an underground gold mine in southern Ecuador after an explosion there killed at least one person, officials said.Rescue efforts at the mine were suspended Monday night but operations were to resume Tuesday morning, according to Segundo Guillen, a firefighter from the nearby town of Machala.
Police subofficial Luis Castillo at Ponce Enriquez denied reports that more bodies had been recovered. He told the Associated Press telephone from the blast site that there was only one confirmed death but that rescue workers may find more “in the light of day.”
Four Killed In Protests Over Bolivian Constitution
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; Page A11BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 26 — Violent protests over an attempt to rewrite Bolivia’s constitution have led to the deaths of four people in recent days, throwing uncertainty on a project that President Evo Morales considers a cornerstone of his government.
Morales on Monday led a rally in La Paz of people who agree that a new political blueprint is needed to give the country’s indigenous majority more political power. At the same time, opponents seeking more autonomy from his government launched counterdemonstrations in the cities of Santa Cruz and Tarija.
Africa
Sudan questions British teacher over Islam insult
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese authorities began questioning a British teacher on Tuesday arrested for insulting Islam after her young students named a teddy bear Mohammad.Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old teacher at the Unity High School in Khartoum, was arrested on Sunday after complaints from parents.
“She has been transferred for questioning,” said one police official in the station where she was being held.
The official said a decision was possible on Tuesday from the investigating authorities as to whether charges would be brought against Gibbons.
Zuma surges ahead of Mbeki in battle for ANC leadership
By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg
Published: 27 November 2007President Thabo Mbeki’s bid to cling to power in South Africa is crumbling after his nemesis, Jacob Zuma, roared ahead in early voting by the ruling African National Congress provincial structures ahead of a national conference to choose a new ANC leadership.
Despite a cloud of corruption hanging over him, Mr Zuma won five provincial nominations against Mr Mbeki’s four in preliminary voting by ANC members.
Mr Zuma not only won the majority of provinces but did so with huge margins. In those provinces where he lost to Mr Mbeki, Mr Zuma was narrowly defeated. In his home province of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Zuma won 580 votes to Mr Mbeki’s nine. In Mr Mbeki’s home province of Eastern Cape, Mr Zuma attracted 322 votes against Mr Mbeki’s 502.
Asia
Myanmar sells $150 mln of gems at auction: official
YANGON (AFP) – Military-run Myanmar has sold precious stones worth 150 million dollars during this month’s gem auction, an official said Tuesday, despite calls for a boycott after its deadly crackdown on protests.Sales from the 13-day auction, which ended on Monday, were estimated at over 100 million euros (150 million dollars), said an official from state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE).
“It was successful,” said the MGE official, who declined to be named.
But estimated sales reached only half of the junta’s goal, as the military government initially said it hoped to sell some 5,500 lots of jade, gems and pearls, worth nearly 200 million euros (about 300 million dollars).
Beijing’s Environmental Plan Cites Need for Enforcement
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; Page A11BEIJING, Nov. 26 — The Chinese government released a long-delayed environmental protection plan Monday that promises added efforts to tackle the country’s increasingly foul air and water and for the first time emphasizes a need to reduce greenhouse gases, officials said.
The 11th Five-Year Plan to protect the environment, for 2005 to 2010, also pledges to make polluters pay for cleanup. The plan left unclear whether the government will force local officials and businesses to abide by its terms.
