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- Cal student protests continue following tuition hike
- Environmentalists try to block 12 new coal plants in Texas
- Romanian elections preview
- Anti-Piracy law unveiled in the UK
The health care bills long journey through the Senate will hit a milestone on Saturday. Senators will vote on a procedural motion that allows debate to begin. Its being called a test vote, since it will give Senate leaders a sense of the support they have for the bill. Three key centrist Democrats, and Independent Joe Lieberman, have agreed to vote yea on Saturday, leaving just one more maybe in Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
The healthcare discussion so far has raised many issues of concern. For some Senators, health care is a feminist issue. They hope Saturdays vote will address gender disparities in the current system. FSRN'S Tanya Snyder reports from Washington.
The official unemployment rate has passed 10 percent nationwide, and if you add in other jobless people, like time workers or those who have given up actively looking for work, the rate is more than 17 percent. The numbers have sent policy experts into panic mode. But for many communities and neighborhoods, unemployment has been above 10 percent for years. The unemployment rate for African Americans nationwide is close to 16 percent. For Latinos it is 13 percent. A deeper look at numbers is even more troubling. Five urban areas nationwide have an unemployment rate around 50 percent for black males - that's Buffalo, San Diego, Detroit, Pittsburg and Milwaukee, according to a report released in September from the University of Wisconsin's Center for Economic Development.
Federal economic stimulus dollars are trying to reverse that trend but groups are questioning whether enough attention is going to communities of color. On Thursday, members of the Congressional Black Caucus forced a postponement of the federal regulation reform because they said not enough is being done to stimulate jobs in communities they represent.
For a closer look, we go to Richmond, Virginia where the jobless rate for black males is around 40 percent.
Were joined by Claude Stevens, Chief Operating Officer with Boaz and Ruth, a community group that has had success in turning around a neighborhood there.
Texas Congressmember Ron Paul is celebrating after a House Committee approved his "Audit the Fed" bill - a provision to more closely scrutinize the Federal Reserve. Paul, an advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve, has been working on this issue for decades. He teamed up with Florida Democrat Alan Grayson on the provision. With a vote of 43 to 26, the House Financial Services Committee approved adding it to the financial reform package. Paul - also author of the book End the Fed, spoke Thursday before the vote:
This is what transparency is all about - who's benefitting and where are the trillions of dollars going. We're not talking about a couple hundred billion dollars. We're talking about a portfolio of trillions of dollars and there's very little that's known about it.
The Paul-Grayson amendment would allow for the first independent audit of the Federal Reserve since it was created almost a century ago. It would give the General Accountability Office wide latitude in reviewing and auditing the Federal Reserve, including the recent bank bailouts, how it sets interest rates and relationships with foreign central banks. Critics of the reserve say it's always operated in secret, and this provision will bring about much needed transparency. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and other critics say it could be destructive to the financial system and insist the Fed must maintain its independence.
BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories
Democracy Now!
World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk
Items belonging to King of Pop fetch prices far in excess of those predicted at New York auction
The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has turned out to be an auctioneers' dream celebrity as prices for Jacko memorabilia outstrip even those for items that belonged to Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe.
Thousands of bidders from around the world were attracted to the Jackson auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, where auctioneers were taken aback by the big prices paid for some of the late star's belongings.
The rhinestone-encrusted white glove worn by Jackson when he first Moonwalked in 1983 was sold for $350,000 (212,000) nine times the expected price.
The glove was one of 70 items, including a jacket, a fedora hat, lyrics, drawings, autographs and even a dental mould, which sold for $2m, well above pre-sale estimates of $120,000.
The jacket worn by Jackson on his 1989 Bad tour was sold for $225,000, while the fedora went for $22,000.
The most bizarre item was the upper dental mould used to fit the singer with animal fangs for his 1983 Thriller video. It sold for more than $10,000.
Jackson's glove is an iconic item, appearing in one of the world's most copied dance moves. It was also used by MTV this year in a Jackson tribute and promotional video for its video music awards.
The glove was bought by Hoffman Ma, a Hong Kong businessman, on behalf of a hotel in Macau, China, where it will go on display.
Celebrity auctions bring rich pickings. Earlier this year, Barbra Streisand auctioned more than 400 personal items, including dresses, wigs and a baby grand piano, to raise money for charity.
Recently, Presley memorabilia including locks of the star's hair allegedly from his 1958 army haircut and concert scarves sold for thousands of dollars in Chicago.
And the Bernie Madoff car boot sale will soon be upon us, with lots including a duck decoy belonging to the convicted fraudster going on sale.
But it's hard to believe that Tom Jones's strides or Leona Lewis's frocks would hold quite the same value. A
ny suggestions for pop memorabilia yet to come to auction that could bring in the dizzying sums raised by Jackson's auction?
Mohammad Ali Abtahi jailed for six years after being accused of fomenting unrest after disputed June election in Iran
A former vice president has been jailed for six years after being accused of fomenting unrest to overthrow the Iranian government, his lawyer said today.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi is the most senior reformer to be jailed following the disputed presidential election in June. Abtahi was vice president for parliamentary and legal affairs during the 1997-2005 presidency of Mohammad Khatami.
The lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said he planned to appeal against the verdict. He has 20 days to submit the appeal.
As news of the latest sentence emerged, the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, called on the government to stop intimidating people.
"The government should not intimidate people to change their path ... this movement will continue and we are ready to pay any price," Mousavi was quoted as saying on his Kaleme website.
Mousavi's remarks coincided with a gathering by moderates to commemorate the killing of a dissident nationalist couple, stabbed to death by "rogue" agents in 1998. The killing of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, who headed the illegal but tolerated Iran Nation party, and at least two other secularist figures, outraged Iranian society.
Iran's security forces have warned the opposition not to take part in demonstrations, in an attempt to avoid a revival of the protests that erupted after the presidential elections on 12 June in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secured a second term. The turmoil after the election was the worst in Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Authorities deny vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.
A key part of the government's strategy has been the mass trial of reformist political figures accused of supporting the post-election unrest and seeking to topple the regime through a "velvet revolution".
Abtahi's daughter Fatemeh Abtahi was quoted by Kaleme as saying that security agents searched her father's Tehran home in his presence yesterday, after which he was taken to a court where he was told about his sentence and then returned to jail.
Abtahi made televised confessions after his arrest in which he admitted provoking people to riot. His family and fellow reformers said the confessions were obtained under duress. Abtahi was a top adviser to pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who finished fourth in the presidential elections. Kaleme said his lawyer would seek his release on bail.
Iran's judiciary said last week that five people have been sentenced to death and 81 have received jail terms of up to 15 years in connection with protests and violence after the poll, but it did not give their names.
The head of a hardline political party, Mohammad Nabi Habibi, called yesterday for Mousavi to face trial for spreading the "big lie" of vote fraud. Any legal action against Mousavi, who came second in the election, could trigger new street protests by his backers.
Meanwhile Iran's military has said it will begin large-scale air defence drills today, with a cleric in the Revolutionary Guards warning that the Islamic Republic would fire missiles at "the heart of Tel Aviv" if attacked. The war games, due to last five days, are intended to help protect Iran's nuclear facilities, according to Iranian media.
The declaration came as a UN committee voted to approve a non-binding resolution condemning Iran for its crackdown on protesters following the presidential elections. The resolution also repeated annual criticism of Iran's human rights record, including the use of torture and an increasing execution rate.
Iran's UN ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee, dismissed the resolution as politically motivated.
Motion passed to allow debate to start as two wavering Democrats vote in favour
Barack Obama's healthcare reform bill cleared a crucial hurdle last night when the Democrats secured the 60 votes needed in the US Senate allowing debate to begin on 30 November.
Two Democratic senators whose support had been in doubt said they would back the move, which was one of President Obama's key election pledges. The measure is designed to extend health coverage to an estimated 31 million Americans who lack it and crack down on insurance industry practices that deny benefits.
In the first Senate test for President Obama's top domestic priority, Democrats in the 100-member chamber unanimously backed a procedural motion to open debate over the opposition of 39 Senate Republicans; one Republican did not vote.
Victory was assured earlier in the day when the last two Democrats holding out, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, said they would support the motion but would not commit to backing the final bill without changes.
A British security consultant who was paid 300,000 to assist efforts by Kate and Gerry McCann to find their daughter Madeleine is being sought by the FBI over an alleged 1.3m fraud.
A 500,000 contract given to Kevin Halligen's private detective agency, Oakley International, to help with the search for the missing child was terminated last year after a major benefactor of the McCanns expressed concerns about the quality of the firm's work.
However, Halligen is now wanted by the FBI following an indictment issued by US authorities in connection with allegations that he defrauded a London law firm of money that was supposed to be used to lobby for the release of two executives from the Dutch company Trafigura, arrested in the Ivory Coast.
He is accused of using the money to buy a mansion in Great Falls, Virginia, that sources close to the McCanns believe may also have been funded by money intended to be spent on efforts to find Madeleine.
Halligen, an Irishman living in the UK who presented himself in private security industry circles as a former intelligence operative, owes 100,000 to others who carried out work on the Madeleine case, the Sunday Times reported.
The McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: "Oakley International was contracted to help with the search for Madeleine. Due diligence was carried out at every stage and payment was only made for work properly carried out. It was only towards the end of the six-month contract that question marks were raised about delivery in some areas and the contract was terminated."
The McCanns did not contact the police about Halligen, who visited their home, but his behaviour aroused suspicions at an early stage among the couple and their advisers.
Oakley International secured the contract from the Find Madeleine Fund to monitor the phone hotline, sift through CCTV footage of possible sightings and carry out investigative work.
However, it was terminated after the British double-glazing millionaire Brian Kennedy, who has underwritten the fund's work, raised concerns. Documents reportedly show that Halligen's company was withdrawing large amounts of money for personal use.
In the Midwestern heartland, police are encountering a new social evil: trafficking, often involving women and children who are forced to work as prostitutes or unpaid labour; and the outcomes can be brutal.
Human trafficking has become a major issue in the Midwest heartland of America, causing some campaigners to dub it a modern form of slavery.
Figures from the State Department reveal that 17,500 people are trafficked into the US every year against their will or under false pretences, mainly to be used for sex or forced labour. Experts believe that, when cases of internal trafficking are added, the total number of victims could be up to five times larger. And increasing numbers of trafficked individuals are being transported thousands of miles from America's coasts and into heartland states such as Ohio and Michigan.
"It is not only a crime. It is an abomination," said Professor Mark Ensalaco, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, Ohio, who organised a recent conference on the issue. In Ohio a human trafficking commission has just been set up to study the problem, while in the northern Ohio city of Toledo a special FBI task force is tackling the issue. For many local law enforcement officials, it is a bewildering new world.
In one recent incident a 16-year-old Mexican girl was found to have been trafficked across the US border. Doctors noticed the heavily pregnant girl showed clear signs of physical abuse when she was brought into a hospital in Dayton to give birth. The police were called but the couple who had brought her had already fled. When the girl's story emerged, it became clear she had been kept against her will in the nearby city of Springfield and used for labour and sex. "I thought slavery ended a few centuries ago. But here it is alive and well," said Springfield's sheriff, Gene Kelly.
He emphasised the risks to the girl's baby after it had been born if the doctors had not been so alert: "Like the mother, the baby could have ended up a victim for years to come. Who knows? Future labour? Future person to traffic?"
Ohio anti-trafficking campaigner Phil Cenedella, founder of Combating Trafficking Anywhere, believes that the baby was destined to be sold off by her captors. "They would have put the kid on the black market. It is crazy that this is happening." Human trafficking defined as forcing someone against their will to work for no reward has been dubbed modern slavery. At the Dayton conference, it was discussed as a growing social problem, not in some far-off foreign land, but among the cornfields of Ohio.
"The problems are broader than we realised," said Ohio's attorney general, Richard Cordray. "What we want to do is find and disrupt these networks."
One of the country's leading anti-trafficking advocates is Theresa Flores, a former victim. Flores puts a different kind of face on human trafficking in America. She is white, middle-class and blond and looks the epitome of a suburban American woman. She grew up in a wealthy suburb of Detroit in Michigan and did well at school. Yet Flores tells a nightmarish story of two years being drugged, raped and sold for sex.
Flores, whose ordeal was turned into a book called The Sacred Bath: An American Teen's Story of Modern Day Slavery, was attacked and raped when she was 15. Her assailant used the threat of photographs he had taken during her rape to force her into having sex with strangers. She became the effective prisoner of a drugs gang that used her as a prostitute and kept her earnings, or gave her away free to gang members as a "reward". "People don't think that trafficking looks like me or that it can happen to someone who came from a nice neighbourhood. But it does. People need to see outside that box," said Flores.
Flores said that her lowest point came when the gang took her to a seedy motel where she was raped by as many as two dozen men. She woke up alone, abused and with no clothes. "I was told I would die if I told anyone. It happened over and over for two years as I became a sex slave for those men," she said.
Anti-trafficking campaigners point out that cases in the US come in a wide variety of forms involving men, women and children. One major area is that of trafficked labour with people used for domestic work or, more commonly, for back-breaking labour in agricultural industries. But trafficking cases have also occurred in businesses such as restaurants, hair salons and beauty parlours. The overwhelming majority of the rest are sex cases, usually involving young women or children forced into prostitution. The methods used to keep people vary. They include confiscating the passports of those brought in from a foreign country or the threat of extreme violence. Other tactics are to threaten family members if a victim does not comply or, as in Flores's case, to use blackmail.
Trafficking represents a new challenge to law enforcement, especially in regions which have traditionally not thought of it as a major problem. That is especially true where it happens within an immigrant community. Languages are a problem as well as cultural issues and a natural fear that many immigrants some of them possibly illegal have of contacting the police.
Kelly believes that is the case in Springfield, a town that is almost the Midwestern archetype. It was once featured in a story in Newsweek magazine entitled "The American Dream". But its 65,000 citizens also face all the problems of a modern America in the grip of a deep recession: an immigration crisis and profoundly changing demographics. The town now hosts several prominent minority communities who make up more than a fifth of its population, including Russians, Chinese, Latinos and Somalis. "There are a lot of people who distrust law enforcement. We need to break down those barriers. Our officers need training, especially in languages," said Kelly. "If you can't speak to people, you can't reach them."
Some commentators and experts have accused victims' advocates and academics of overstating the problem, arguing the problem has been exaggerated and expressing scepticism at the notion that vast organised criminal networks are dealing in human beings for sex or labour. Law enforcement officers also acknowledge that the definitions of trafficking may need refining.
In North Carolina last week the mother of a five-year-old girl was charged with human trafficking after being accused of offering her daughter for sex. The child was later found dead. The crime was horrific, but the distinction between trafficking and simple, sadistic child abuse might not be immediately obvious.
"We have a problem with definition. It is not always straightforward and easy to explain," said Laura Clemmens, a government lawyer in Dayton. "The hard part is bringing it into the light. At the moment these crimes are clouded in secrecy."
</td></tr></table>A plan by right-wing legislators in Israel to commemorate the anniversary this month of the death of Meir Kahane, whose banned anti-Arab movement is classified as a terrorist organization, risks further damaging the prospects for talks between Israel and the Palestinians, US officials have warned. Jonathan Cook reports.
</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.
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GAZA - The military wing of Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday vowed to respond to a series of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Sunday morning in which around 10 Palestinians were wounded.
"The Israeli escalation will not be ignored and Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades will not fail to take actions," said Abu Obaida, a spokesman for the Hamas armed wing.
"We will defend ourselves with all means possible and we will counter any new offensives," Abu Obaida added in a statement sent to the press.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eked out 60 votes on a procedural motion to start the health care debate Saturday night - so there's no guarantee he can pass a bill on the merits.
And if he struggles, the reasons will be clear: deep divides among Democrats on a public insurance plan, abortion, tax hikes and cost-cutting. Liberals want the plan to be generous enough. Moderates fear a budget-buster. And everyone is trying to avoid angering seniors.
The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development - and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it - is further exacerbating America's already fractured relationship with much of the continent.
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders secured the last votes needed to move ahead on historic health care reform legislation, clearing the way for a Saturday night showdown on President Barack Obama's top domestic policy initiative.
In long-awaited speeches, two centrist Democratic senators said they would stand with their party and vote "yes" on the crucial test procedural vote despite deep reservations with parts of the 2,074-page bill to remake the U.S. health care system.
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Call it Freedom of Speech. A billboard recently erected in Wheat Ridge compares President Barack Obama to a terrorist and questions his U.S. citizenship.
The billboard, located at 4855 Miller Road, shows two cartoonish images of Obama wearing a Muslim turban and reads "PRESIDENT or JIHAD?"
It also says "BIRTH CERTIFICATE - PROVE IT!" alluding to the conspiracy theory which claims Barack Obama was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii, which would disqualify him for the office of President.
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