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- Army Corps of Engineers blamed for Katrina flooding
- Local Community Radio Act passed out of Senate Committee
- African albinos hunted for witchdoctor cures
- Indian sugarcane workers protest price fixing
- Russia outlaws capital punishment
In Washington today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled health care legislation. The bill would cost $849 billion over the next decade but supporters it will be completely paid for. It is also projected to save $127 billion from the federal deficit. Reid's proposal would cover 31 million people and it includes a public option. But the bill still has a long way to go before it reaches the president's desk. FSRNs Leigh Ann Caldwell has more.
In South Korea today, President Barrack Obama wrapped up his four-nation tour of Asia by meeting with President Lee Myung-Bak and visiting with US troops at Osan Air Base. While Obama and Lee discussed nuclear negotiations with North Korea during a press conference, some South Koreans wanted Obama to address a different issue: why their nation is once again sending troops to Afghanistan. FSRN's Jason Strother has the story from Seoul.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated to a second term today, stating he would battle corruption and drug trafficking that runs rampant in the country. He also made promises about the countrys military effort against the Taliban setting goals that encouraged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in Kabul for the event.
"I was very pleased to hear today when President Karzai said that he hopes that within three years, the Afghan security forces will have the lead in important areas and within five years -- which is an ambitious goal, but he stated it -- the Afghan security forces would have the lead throughout the country."
Karzais reelection came amid controversy and widespread voter fraud, but a run off vote was cancelled after his primary opponent dropped out of the race.
The inauguration comes as President Obama is weighing options in the country, including an increase in US troops.
As policy is debated in the capitols, the people of Afghanistan are rarely heard in the debate. A new report that draws on the work of NGOs and development groups working on the ground in Afghanistan documents those voices. It's called "The Cost of War: Afghan Experiences of Conflict 1978 - 2009" and it was written by Oxfam International and Afghan NGOs.
To discuss the report's findings, we're joined by Shannon Scribner, a senior policy advisor with Oxfam International.
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World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
Lady Ashton is apparently a perfectly personable woman, but she was only chosen because she ticked the right boxes
If someone held the patent for the word "nice" they would make a fortune today: the only thing anyone can find to say about Lady Ashton is that she's nice. Sometimes she's just nice, other times she's nice in comparison to Lord Mandelson, her predecessor as EU trade commissioner. She also has nice people skills, and is nice to work with. Perhaps a fashion journalist will cast her eye over her soon and pronounce her dress sense nice; but maybe not. Or maybe one of those "EU diplomats" who are the constant source of all knowledge in Brussels will be so kind as to say she has nice handwriting or something equally patronising. And that is just part of the problem.
Cathy Ashton was chosen because she is from the right political family, from a state that needed to get a big portfolio but not in finance or trade since it is not trusted on either any more, and because she is a woman. One the whole the dire politicians who made the decision couldn't care less about women or indeed anything else, given the appalling way in which this appointment process was handled and its ridiculous results but they have a new problem in their life: the European parliament.
That democratically elected chamber, which they have habitually ignored, has struck again: demanding some form of say, rather than just allowing pure horse-trading to prevail. This came as a shock to the political leaders of the EU this summer, when they nodded through Jos Manuel Barroso for a second term as European commission president over yet another dinner, only to find the parliament demanded he produce full proposals for his next tenure, and undergo even a semblance of an interview before just being rubber-stamped through. Brussels and the capitals were in commotion over this state of affairs, but nonetheless Barroso had to do it, meeting with all political groups, campaigning to get voted in, and eventually succeeding.
But then, just when the leaders thought everything was safe, the parliament struck again: demanding gender balance in the incoming commission with a threat of vetoing it all (the parliament cannot reject a single commissioner; it can only accept or veto the entire college). A series of quiet meetings suggested they could well be serious which is where the foreign minister job came in: it is double-hatted, being a combination of the council high representative position (currently held by Javier Solana) and the external relations commissioner, in addition to being a vice-president of the commission. As a commissioner, the new incumbent would have to be interviewed by parliament, and if not found acceptable not only would the new commission be vetoed, but the new internationally touted EU foreign minister would have to be replaced.
So a woman it had to be. And since the EPP the centre-right parliamentary grouping demanded the council president's slot, it had to be from the centre left. And a Brit. To this the council added its own requirements: no-one with any international profile (clearly redundant for an international affairs post), or with any experience in large organisations (even more redundant given the new incumbent needs to build a new bureaucracy from scratch). Throw it all in the blender and voila! Out comes nice Lady Ashton.
The foreign minister position has always been the more serious of the two jobs. It was only because Tony Blair wanted to be called president and knew he would then be out of office and so put it about he was interested that the "top job" became at all glamorous. Without his bid it would not have occurred to anyone the job was remotely interesting, and a relatively unknown broker may be the right person for it. But the foreign minister is a position that has the prestige of the council with the money and clout of the commission. Even if everyone assumes an unknown will either botch or do no harm in it, the job will involve a huge amount of influence around the world, and therefore upon all of us in the EU. If you sit on a budget of billions, and control a staff with delegations all around the world, you make a difference even if you do not intend to. You do not just appoint any old British female from the centre-left for a job that even she was surprised to get.
So for what it's worth, a democratically elected chamber did intervene, a bit, but that does nothing for the reality we are faced with: two appointees who are perfectly nice. And an EU that not only will not have a bigger imprint upon the world, but cannot look the world in the eye, especially not the developing world: for all its cant about transparency and demanding democracy and insisting upon accountability in those poor benighted states that are not as enlightened as Europe, it has done a series of dirty deals to appoint not elect or even select two senior officials.
Or rather, to be fair, it is the political leaders who have done the deed, but once again will allow the European, and world, public to blame "the EU", that amorphous nasty body in Brussels that rules us all. For what it's worth, many in that body are having a bad day today: appalled as us all by this dastardly triumph of the narrow, tactical and incompetent body that dares calls itself the leadership of the EU.
Cathy Ashton's meteoric rise has surprised many, but not those who know her best
When Cathy Ashton arrived in Brussels at short notice just over a year ago she had to attend to some urgent business: removing traces of her predecessor, Peter Mandelson.
In her first act Ashton took down a large painting of a bare-breasted woman and a sailor by the Scottish artist John Bellany which had dominated Mandelson's office high up in the European commission's Berlaymont headquarters.
"Cathy really didn't like walking into her office to be confronted by a large pair of breasts, however artistic they may be," a friend said.
This small act was typical of Ashton, 56, who is described by friends as straightforward, practical and a natural homemaker. Unlike Mandelson, who became a major figure throughout the EU and something of a catch on the Brussels dinner and cocktail party circuit, Ashton maintains a lower profile and is often spotted gossiping with friends in the corners of parties.
"Cathy spreads calm," her friend the former Europe minister Denis MacShane said. "She is oil on troubled water. She is practical, businesslike and liked by everybody. I have never heard a nasty word said about her. That is rare in politics."
Friends say Ashton is grounded because she has never forgotten her Lancashire roots. Her title Lady Ashton of Upholland is a tribute to the small town where she grew up. "Cathy is a thoroughgoing Lancashire lass who is a product of north-west social democracy," MacShane said.
Ashton's rise to one of the biggest offices in Europe she will rank only behind Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel as one of the world's most powerful women as the EU's high representative for foreign affairs has astonished friends. In the space of 13 months she has been catapulted from a relatively junior position in the British cabinet, as leader of the House of Lords, to represent foreign policy on behalf of half a billion EU citizens. "Cathy is a bit surprised and so is everyone else," her former boss Charles Clarke said.
Critics, while agreeing that Ashton is personable, say she will be woefully out of her depth, not least because she has never been elected to any office. "Cathy just got lucky," one Whitehall source said. "The appointment of her and Herman Van Rompuy [as European Council president] were a complete disgrace. They are no more than garden gnomes."
Ashton appeared surprised by her appointment on Thursday night, but she told Radio 4's Today programme : "Over the next few months and years I aim to show that I am the best person for the job. I hope that my particular set of skills will show that in the end I am the best choice."
Friends say she will grow into the role, as she did when was appointed to the House of Lords in 1999 and slowly rose up the ministerial ranks. Clarke, who was her boss as education secretary and who worked with her in his time as home secretary when she was a minister in the old Department for Constitutional Affairs, is full of praise. "I have seen Cathy in action. I have great respect for her. She is excellent at building good relations with people and a good negotiator," he said.
One friend said that Ashton's critics were making a grave error. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who became friends with Ashton when she covered the human rights brief at the DCA, said: "People underestimate Cathy at their peril. She is not a great big bruiser. She is a persuader and a charmer. That is the secret of her success." Chakrabarti said Ashton was genuinely committed to human rights and progressive values which she regards as important because her new job encompasses foreign policy and security. This dates back to her work at CND in the late 1970s. "Cathy was vice-chair of CND. She was subject to intrusive surveillance by MI5. She has natural empathy with human rights."
It has been a hectic 48 hours for Ashton, her husband, the psephologist Peter Kellner, their son and daughter and her stepson and two stepdaughters. But she can comfort herself with one thought. When her name emerged on Thursday night, the Elyse Palace telephoned senior European commission officials to check that she speaks the "language of Molire". A positive response was sent back to Paris, allowing her to clear the final hurdle.
Investment bank under fire again as investors protest at record bonuses of $717,000 each
Goldman Sachs has had to defend itself from angry taxpayers, regulators, the government and now its own shareholders.
Some of the US investment bank's largest investors are furious about the New York-based firm paying record bonuses to its staff bonuses are estimated to be $717,000 (435,000) each for 2009, the biggest payout in the firm's 140 years.
Investors claim that now profits are back, rewards should go first to shareholders because they suffered the cost of the credit crunch more than anybody else.
"Most of the losses were for equity shareholders," said a fund manager at a large investment firm. "If they had cared about the preservation of equity value, the crisis wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it was. It would be in everybody's interest, the taxpayer and of banks themselves, if management's interests were more aligned with shareholders."
Critics claim that banks' high-paying bonus culture encouraged a short-term vision that pushed institutions into over-lending and taking more risks than they could afford. In October last year, Goldman Sachs received $10bn from the US government to shore up its books the bank was one of nine recipients of federal aid. Goldman, which repaid the money earlier this year, is still benefiting from government assistance as it can borrow funds direct from the Federal Reserve.
But after the collapse of rivals such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, Goldman's earnings, as well as those of other banks, have soared to record highs, helped by booming stock, credit and commodity markets.
Goldman has earmarked about $16.7bn so far this year for its staff bonus pool - or 47% of net revenues, along the lines of a 2000-2008 average of 46.7%, according to the firm. That compares with 66% at Merrill Lynch, 47% at Morgan Stanley and 41% at JP Morgan one of the banks least affected by the crisis.
"Our investors have consistently told us that they expect the firm to set compensation at a level which produces attractive returns to shareholders while maintaining the strength of our franchise, which is the basis for generating returns for the long term," Goldman Sachs said.
Investors, however, complain that bankers' high bonuses did not save Lehman or Bear Stearns. "They were paid a lot and they didn't create value for shareholders," the fund manager said.
Banks often find they are not challenged by their investors when deciding pay structures if shareholders do not agree with management policies they just sell the stock, instead of instigating change. Only two investors hold more than 5% of Goldman Sachs shares, according to Bloomberg data. "Investors are a dispersed group, the only thing to do to solve this is to get the regulator involved," the fund manager said.
Financial authorities in Britain and Europe are pushing for new regulations to cap bankers' pay.
Some investors, however, say banks should pay its staff as much as possible to retain them. "We want firms to make as much profit as possible, what they have to pay their employees is appropriate," said a fund manager at a hedge fund that holds a stake in Goldman. Another hedge fund manager said that the partially nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland had "lost credibility as an employer" as they cannot pay bonuses following the government's intervention in the bank.
Goldman's chairman, Lloyd Blankfein, publicly apologised this week for the role of his bank in the credit crunch. The bank also said it would donate $500m (or 3% of what it has set aside to pay its employees this year) to help thousands of small businesses recover from the recession.
Peruvian police arrest suspects who allegedly drained their victims and sold liquid as an anti-wrinkle treatment
A Peruvian gang that allegedly killed people and drained fat from their corpses for use in cosmetics may have been inspired by a grisly Andean legend.
Hilari Cudea Simon, the alleged ringleader, linked the crimes to tales of demonic assassins, known as Pishtacos, who purportedly waylaid victims in pre-Colombian times, police said.
Peru reacted with revulsion and horror to reports that scores of peasants may have been butchered by the gang, which was said to have operated in Hunuco, a rural province dotted with Inca temples between the jungle and Andean peaks.
Colonel Jorge Mejia, chief of Peru's anti-kidnapping police, said Cudea and three other suspects were in custody and that another seven gang members were being hunted.
The jailed men have confessed to killing five people, but police suspect the number of victims is far higher, with 60 people reported missing in Hunuco this year alone. Two of the suspects were arrested at a bus station in the capital, Lima, carrying bottles of liquid fat which they claimed were worth up to 36,000 a gallon.
At a news conference police displayed two bottles of fat, which laboratory tests confirmed were human. "The fat was extracted from the thorax and thighs," said Eusebio Felix Murga, chief of police of Dirincri district. Police also showed a photo of the rotting head of a 27-year-old male victim discovered last month in a coca-growing valley.
Police said they received a tip four months ago about a trade in human fat, which exported the amber liquid to Europe as anti-wrinkle cream. In addition to the alleged ringleader the suspects were named as Segundo Castillejos Agero, Marcos Veramendi Princpe and Enadina Estela Claudio. They have been charged with homicide, criminal conspiracy, illegal firearms possession and drug trafficking.
The alleged plot has evoked comparisons to Patrick Sskind's novel Perfume in which a killer distills the essence of his victims into a jar. Others compare it to the film Fight Club in which a character played by Brad Pitt steals bags of human fat from a liposuction clinic to make soap.
The gang have been nicknamed the Pishtacos after the ruthless assassins of indigenous Quechua legend who ambushed solitary victims and drained their fat as an offering to gods to make the land fertile. Another version depicts them as cannibal bandits who ate the skin and sold the fat. The stories date back to before the European conquest.
The suspects allegedly would sever victims' heads, arms and legs, remove organs and suspend torsos from hooks above candles, which warmed the flesh as the fat dripped into tubs below. Members claimed other gangs were engaged in similar killings.
Medical experts said human fat had cosmetic applications to keep skin supple, but were sceptical about an international black market. "It doesn't make any sense, because in most countries we can get fat so readily and in such amounts from people who are willing to donate," Adam Katz, a professor of plastic surgery at the University of Virginia medical school, told the Associated Press.
Peruvians expressed shock that grisly Andean legends they heard from their grandparents could turn out to have a modern twist. "It's really incredible that killers like this could exist today," said one contributor to the newspaper Peru21.
Rioting sparked by Algeria victory spreads to Egypt
Fans attack embassies in wave of tit-for-tat reprisals
Parts of Cairo are under police lockdown amid some of the worst football violence ever seen in the region.
More than a thousand security personnel deployed to protect the Algerian embassy and other key locations came under attack from angry protesters after Egypt's contentious defeat to Algeria in a World Cup playoff match on Wednesday. Egypt recalled its envoy to Algiers and condemned the Algerian government for failing to prevent the destruction of Egyptian offices. The secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, appealed for calm on both sides.
Reports said 39 policemen were injured in rioting that left shopfronts smashed in the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek, an island in the Nile home mainly to expatriates, wealthy Egyptians and foreign embassies.
Alaa Mubarak, the son of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, did nothing to dampen hostilities when he demanded that Egypt take a "tough stance" with Algeria. "When you insult my dignity ... I will beat you on the head," he told a TV news programme.
Trouble first flared last week in the run up to a highly anticipated match between two of north Africa's biggest football nations. After an increasingly bitter war of words in the media Egypt won the game 2-0, setting up a playoff in Sudan to decide which country would go through to next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.
Off-the-field controversies intensified the aggression ahead of the playoff, including allegations from the Algerian team that it was pelted with stones on arrival in Cairo an incident Fifa is now investigating and erroneous reports in the Algerian press of an Algerian fan being killed in Egypt.
Egyptian targets in Algiers were besieged by demonstrators who destroyed the offices of Egypt's main airline, prompting several large Egyptian businesses with offices in the country to announce they were withdrawing their staff for security reasons.
Matters intensified after Egypt lost the playoff game in Sudan by a single goal, with local reports claiming that Egyptian fans were left running for their lives in Khartoum following assaults by the celebrating Algeria supporters.
A diplomatic spat broke out when an Egyptian plane sent to rescue citizens trapped in Algeria was refused permission to land and the Algerian authorities slapped a $600m tax bill on Orascom, an Egyptian telecommunications company that operates there.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said it had summoned Algeria's ambassador to Cairo to make clear Egypt's "outrage" and "denunciation". The Egyptian Football Federation has threatened to withdraw from international football as a result of the "weapons, knives, swords and flares" allegedly used to attack Egyptians as they left the stadium in Khartoum.
The attacks on the Algerian embassy in Cairo mark a new low point in relations between the two countries, who were historical allies in the battle against European colonialism. Local media reported that firebombs were thrown at the embassy compound during the night, though this has not been confirmed.
"Our government are not doing enough," said Islam al-Hussein, a 23-year-old customer service manager who was walking the streets near the embassy with a sign that read "Algeria shall pay for what they did". He criticised the violence directed at the embassy but insisted: "I need an apology from Algeria, nothing less is sufficient for our people."
Others were more forthright. "We should treat Algeria like any country that has declared war on us," Amr Higazi, a university student, told AFP.
</td></tr></table>On 15 November at 8:30am, a number of young men went as usual to the land near Gaza's northern border with Israel planning to catch birds. Amjad Hassanain, 27, was among the bird-catchers hunting near the border fence when Israeli soldiers began shooting. Eva Bartlett reports for The Electronic Intifada.
</td></tr></table>When I first learned that the New York Mets were hosting a fundraiser for the nonprofit Hebron Fund in support of the Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, I honestly assumed it was a joke, albeit a poor one. When I realized this was an actual, planned event, I still found it almost impossible to believe. This is because, even aside from the devastating impact of settlement expansion on the prospects for peace in the region, I have had the misfortune to see the fruits of the Hebron Fund's labors. Aaron Levitt comments for The Electronic Intifada.
</td></tr></table>My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness bills itself as "A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century." To better understand Adina Hoffman's biography of the Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali, however, consider it: "A Palestinian Century in a Poet's Life." But this syntactical slip doesn't discredit Hoffman's work. By deftly stacking shattered recollections atop dusty stones of history Hoffman has built a literary landmark -- not only is My Happiness the first English-language biography of a Palestinian writer, it offers an evocative biography of pre-1948 Palestine. Mya Guarnieri reviews for The Electronic Intifada.
</td></tr></table>From a rumor, to a rising murmur, the proposal floated by the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Ramallah leadership to declare Palestinian statehood unilaterally has suddenly hit center stage. It's no exaggeration to propose that this idea, although well-meant by some, raises the clearest danger to the Palestinian national movement in its entire history, threatening to wall Palestinian aspirations into a political cul-de-sac from which it may never emerge. Virginia Tilley comments for The Electronic Intifada.
</td></tr></table>Beyond the demolitions in its suburbs and the frequent, violent clashes around the al-Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem is the scene of a quieter shame. Southeast of the holy city live the Jahalin Bedouin, a community that has been repeatedly displaced and transferred, now enduring unimaginable poverty beside Jerusalem's largest garbage dump. Kieron Monks reports.
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Prof Edward Wilson, an ecologist who has been described as "Darwin's natural heir" and hailed by novelist Ian McEwan as an "intellectual hero" and "inspirational&
Forty years ago today, black-and-white photographs of slaughtered women, children and old men in a Vietnamese village shocked the world -- or that portion of the world willing to believe American soldiers could gun down unarmed peasants and leave them to die in streets and ditches.
The Plain Dealer, in an international exclusive, was the first news outlet to publish the images of what infamously became known as the My Lai massacre, which had taken place on March 16, 1968.
After emerging out of nowhere over the summer as a seemingly potent and growing political force, the tea party movement has become embroiled in internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money and is at risk of losing its momentum.
The allegations have sparked a parliamentary inquiry after President Dalia Grybauskaite said she harboured "indirect suspicions" that such a facility existed.
According to unnamed former intelligence operatives quoted by ABC News, the CIA built the secret jail in 2004 and used it for more than a year, flying in at least eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan.
Nuclear facilities and power plants are contaminating local Canadian food and water with radioactive waste that increases risks of cancer and birth defects, says a new report to be released today.
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