Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/160755198?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, November 11, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Bernanke seeks to reassure vets in weak economy (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday tried to reassure U.S. soldiers, a group hit hard by high unemployment, that the Fed is working to strengthen the economy.
In a speech at a military base in El Paso, Texas, Bernanke told the soldiers and their families that the Fed is trying to lower unemployment. He talked about the Fed's policies of keeping short-term rates near zero and buying securities to try and lower longer-term rates, such as mortgages.
Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are returning home to find few jobs and limited prospects. The unemployment rate for veterans of those wars was 12.1 percent in October. That's up from 10.6 percent a year ago and well above the national average of 9 percent.
"I'm here because the men and women in military service, like all Americans, are profoundly affected by the economic challenges our nation has faced these past several years," Bernanke said during the speech at Fort Bliss, the country's largest Army base.
The town hall meeting was the latest in a series of public outreach efforts Bernanke has made to underscore the efforts the central bank is pursuing to help ordinary Americans cope with the Great Recession. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Bernanke has attended half a dozen informal gatherings in Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities.
Before the town hall meeting, Bernanke showed up at the base airport at 3 a.m. to greet a group of 250 returning soldiers from Iraq. It marked the first appearance by a Fed chairman at a military base in recent memory.
Fed officials say Bernanke chose the location because he wanted to highlight the base's successful financial literacy program.
It was also Bernanke first trip to Texas since Gov. Rick Perry warned that the Fed chairman would be treated "ugly" if he continued to pursue a policy of ever-lower interest rates. The Fed chairman has never responded to Perry's comments. But some Fed watchers say the trip was Bernanke's way of showing the Fed is independent.
Only one question during the hour-plus-long event touched on criticism of the Fed. One officer asked about Rep. Ron Paul's call to abolish the Fed. Paul, a congressman from Texas, is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
Bernanke said such a move would really not be feasible, but he didn't say why.
Most economists agree that the Fed serves a vital role. It controls inflation and limits unemployment by managing the size of the U.S. money supply.
Bernanke did note that when the country was on the gold standard, it faced more problems with inflation and financial crises than it does now.
Last week, the Fed downgraded its economic outlook for the next two years and said that it does not expect the unemployment rate to fall significantly through the end of next year.
President Barack Obama is pushing for tax credits of up to $5,600 to businesses that hire a veteran who has been unemployed for six months or more. Another tax credit would provide $9,600 for companies that hire an injured vet who has been unemployed that long.
The Senate approved the tax credits Thursday. The House could pass the legislation next week. The provisions were split out of Obama's $447 billion jobs plan in an effort to win approval for parts of the plan.
___
Associated Press Correspondent Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso contributed to this report.
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Three Election Issues that May Determine Who Takes the White House in 2012 (ContributorNetwork)
The honeymoon is over for President Barack Obama. Gallup numbers warn a generic GOP candidate currently beats the sitting president with 46 percent to 38 percent. Can the Democratic Party point to the issues and turn around this trend? Does the GOP have what it takes to capitalize on President Obama's perceived weaknesses and take a deciding lead in the 2012 election?
Federal Budget Concerns
A Nov. 4 Gallup poll highlights that swing state voters consider the federal budget and national debt to be among the most pressing issues. With a 16 percent point spread between the parties -- the advantage goes to the Republicans -- this is the most damaging issue for President Obama.
The last federal government surplus occurred under Democratic President Bill Clinton. The White House's historical financial documents show deficit spending increased during both terms of Republican George W. Bush and then again during President Obama's tenure. A quintessential example of presidential spending is the recent executive order releasing $527 million in grant monies for infrastructure spending.
Not surprisingly, GOP contenders succeed in painting the Democratic Party as the party of "tax and spend." Case in point is Herman Cain, who warns voters that "federal government spending is out of control." He believes to hold the answer: Modernization or elimination of "some of our entitlement programs." Cain further envisions cuts to every federal agency.
Unemployment Worries
Gallup's swing state voters cited unemployment as the second most important issue, with a much smaller point spread of 7 percent separating the parties. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the unemployment rate has fluctuated marginally between 9 percent and 9.2 percent from April to October 2011. Long-term unemployment - those out of work for at least 27 weeks - declined marginally to 5.9 million workers (of the total 13.9 million).
The president had drafted his contentious Jobs Act to turn things around; Republicans balked at the details. Calling this move "unacceptable" - as highlighted by ABC News - the Obama Administration attempted righteous blustering. This move fell flat in light of Democratic defections. Fox News shows that the real issue of the bill's failure had to do with the fact that "Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut" refused to go along.
GOP contenders are capitalizing on a divided Democratic Party and presenting their own plans for getting Americans back to work. Take Mitt Romney's "Believe in America" plan, which details how the candidate intends to combine corporate tax cuts with an easing of regulations to invigorate the business landscape.
Health Care Failures
The narrow margin of 1 percent stands between the GOP and the DNC when it comes to health care. Republicans "want you to die quickly if you get sick," Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida asserted in 2009. USA Today highlighted in this manner the contentious nature of debate over the health care bill. Fast forward to 2011, and ABC notes that the Affordable Care Act is gradually unraveling, with the latest cut being the Community Living Assistance Services and Support program.
GOP contender Rick Perry seizes the opportunity to offer Americans a way to return to a status quo of "employer-sponsored health plans." He intends to repeal "Obamacare."
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Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Industry says Africa fastest growing mobile market (AP)
JOHANNESBURG ? Sure, 24-year-old Gertrude Kitongo cherishes a cell phone as a link to family and friends, from her grandmother in a Ugandan village to former schoolmates in Zimbabwe.
For Kitongo, her cell phone also serves as a radio, library, mini cinema, bank teller and more. The Kenyan-Ugandan who just finished marketing studies in South Africa is an urban, cosmopolitan, on-the-move face of cell phone users on the continent, where a report released Wednesday shows mobile penetration has reached 649 million connections, second only to Asia.
The report by the industry group GSMA, or Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, said Africa is the fastest growing mobile market. For each of the past five years, the number of subscribers across Africa has grown by almost 20 percent and is expected to reach 738 million by the end of next year.
In releasing its report, GSMA called on African governments to allocate more mobile broadband spectrum and cut taxes on mobile operators to further spur expansion. Citing studies by the World Bank and others, GSMA says that in developing countries, for every 10 percent increase in mobile penetration there is a 0.81 percent increase in GDP.
Africa has been described as the Silicon Valley of cell phones because of the innovative ways they are used on the continent. Cell phone networks have been set up to help health care workers in remote villages consult with doctors in cities. Researchers have used cell phone technology to track animals for wildlife studies. Africans use cell phones to make payments across borders.
"The mobile industry in Africa is booming and a catalyst for immense growth, but there is scope for far greater development," said Peter Lyons, a GSMA policy expert.
While GSMA said voice service dominates in Africa, use of data service is increasing steadily.
"I use my phone for everything," Kitongo said.
When she has a spare moment, whereever she is, Kitongo downloads and watches movies or catches up on her Oprah magazine subscription. She makes payments and checks her bank balance using her smart phone, and her bank sends her a text message, or SMS, when she receives a payment. Kitongo has a second, less high-tech phone she uses for its radio, and for her subscription to an east African mobile service that doesn't charge roaming fees in that region, making it cheaper for friends and family in Uganda and Kenya to call her.
If Kitongo uses the land line at her Johannesburg home at all, it's to order in a meal. If she uses her laptop, it's to hook its large screen to her phone for ease of reading Facebook messages. It's cheaper, she says, to explore the Internet using her phone than her computer modem. She also saves money by text and instant messaging instead of calling friends. She can sound like a saleswoman when discussing the airtime and other options open to her, including free messages if they are exchanged among others who use her brand of cell phone.
For all the convenience, Kitongo questions some of the profound changes mobile technology has brought to her life in just a few years. When friends get together for a coffee, she finds they're often distracted, paying more attention to their phones than to the people across the table.
When she was in high school, she said, boys used to write letters to ask her on dates. Now, she said, no one takes time to do more than dash off a few lines in abbreviated "SMS language."
"Now, people break up by SMS," she said.
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Dish Network's Q3 profits rise 30 percent, but subscriber base diminishes
The third fiscal quarter of this year saw the best of times and the worst of times for Dish Network. On the positive side of the ledger, the company saw net revenues grow by 12.3 percent since Q3 2010, reaching $3.6 billion. Profits, meanwhile, jumped by 30.3 percent over the year to $319 million, compared with the $245 million it raked in during the third quarter of 2010. Dish said the jump in revenues could be partially attributed to its acquisition of Blockbuster and the subsequent launch of Blockbuster Movie Pass, which the company hopes to expand and build upon going forward. The report wasn't entirely rosy, however, as Dish Network saw a net loss of about 111,000 subscribers during the quarter (about 20,000 more than analysts had predicted), bringing its total to approximately 14 million customers. By contrast, during the third quarter of last year, the company added about 327,000 users. But this decline didn't stop Dish from doling out a rare $2.00 per share dividend to investors, which may make its less savory results a bit easier on the stomach. Check out the full report, after the break. Continue reading Dish Network's Q3 profits rise 30 percent, but subscriber base diminishes
Dish Network's Q3 profits rise 30 percent, but subscriber base diminishes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Biden's Threats to Congress Are Empty (ContributorNetwork)
COMMENTARY | Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that Republicans have to pass the jobs bill and put Americans back to work or President Barack Obama will continue to find ways to do without their help.
Filling in for Obama during the weekly radio address, Biden said the president will continue to use his executive powers to create more jobs if Congress does not act, according to Associated Press. Obama already has used his powers to restructure student loans and rewrite certain provisions for home loan refinancing.
Biden's threat fell upon the deaf ears of a gridlocked Congress. Little is going to change there until next year's election. Republicans are not going to pass another stimulus bill or the jobs bill, and Democrats have twice watched the jobs bill fail in the Senate.
If the president possesses such vast powers to create jobs as Biden suggested, then the obvious question is: why has he waited until now to do so?
Manipulating federal regulations and loan repayment terms are administrative tasks. Federal agency directors should have taken those measures long ago to protect people prior to defaulting on their loans through no fault of their own. Why wait until a year before the election to this step?
Obama's re-election campaign needs an economic victory and, since Congress isn't going to cooperate by handing it one, it is hunting for any minute opportunity to claim a win. I suppose they can't be blamed -- Obama's approval rating, although improved slightly over October, is still in the basement, according to AFP, and that's not a good sign for an incumbent wanting another four years at the helm of the economy.
Rather than waste his time manufacturing small victories by executive order, I'd prefer Obama to engage congressional Republicans in a frank discussion about what they can agree upon. There are highway projects both parties want to see finished. Let's do them. There are energy programs both parties need. Let's start them. And, for a change, how about Obama staying in Washington to do the people's business rather than jetting all around the world? Send Biden instead.
Both parties are determined to deprive the other of any victory. Meanwhile, unemployed workers and their families suffer. Hopefully, voters will remember that when they hit the polls next year and send a clear message to all incumbents that it's time to change the way Washington does business.
Dan McGinnis is a freelance writer, published author and former newspaper publisher. He has been a candidate, campaign manager and press secretary for state and local political campaigns for more than 30 years.
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Monday, November 7, 2011
Boxer Joe Frazier Has Liver Cancer - Starpulse.com
Legendary boxer Joe Frazier is fighting for his life after he was diagnosed with liver cancer.
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The former World Heavyweight Champion, nicknamed Smokin' Joe, learned he was battling the deadly disease around four or five weeks ago and the 67 year old has been receiving treatment at a hospice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the past week.
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Confirming the news to the Associated Press, Frazier's manager Leslie Wolff says, "We have medical experts looking into all the options that are out there. There are very few. But that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking.
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"We appreciate every prayer we can get. I've got everybody praying for him. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope for a miracle."
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Frazier became the first man to beat Muhammad Ali when he knocked him down in the 1971 fight regularly referred to as the Fight of the Century.
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But he struggled in repeated performances against Ali and lost two other bouts against him, including the epic Thrilla in Manila fight in 1975.
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He earned the heavyweight title in 1970 and successfully defeated it four times, before losing the championship belt to George Foreman in 1973.
Source: http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2011/11/07/boxer_joe_frazier_has_liver_cancer
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Sunday, November 6, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Head of largest public employee union to step down
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The head of the nation's largest public employee union plans to step down, setting up a heated contest to guide a political powerhouse that has been among the biggest spenders in Democratic campaigns.
Gerald McEntee has guided the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees since 1981. An e-mail obtained by The Associated Press shows he's informed senior union officials of his plans.
McEntee's decision comes amid a titanic public employee union battle against efforts to curb its clout in state legislatures around the country.
It's not clear exactly when he will step down. If McEntee leaves before the union's 2012 convention, secretary-treasurer Lee Saunders would become interim president. But Saunders is expected to face a strong challenge from the union's New York leader, Danny Donohue.
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Rihanna cancels second Sweden show
Rock 'n' rollers
Singers, from left, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Ashanti, Natasha Bedingfield and Nicole Scherzinger perform on stage during the Conde Nast Media Group's Fifth Annual Fashion Rocks at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Sept. 5, 2008. (Stephen Lovekin?/?Getty Images) Back to slideshow navigationSource: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45145815/ns/today-entertainment/
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Friday, November 4, 2011
Republic Wireless Will Offer an Unbelievable $19 Unlimited Data/Voice/Text Plan [Dealzmodo]
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Thursday, November 3, 2011
Israel to speed up settlement building in West Bank (Reuters)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) ? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the accelerated construction of some 2,000 housing units in areas in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, an official statement said on Tuesday.
The statement came after Netanyahu called a special cabinet session to discuss the granting of full membership to the Palestinians by UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, a move opposed by Israel and the United States.
A senior government official said after the meeting that the cabinet had also decided to halt money transfers to the Palestinians Authority as a temporary measure until a final decision was made.
"You can't demand from the Israeli public to continue to show restraint when the Palestinian leadership continues to slam the door in their face," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The statement said the new building will be in "areas that in any future arrangement will remain in Israel's hands."
The official said 1,650 of the new tenders are for units in eastern parts of Jerusalem, and the rest are for Efrat and Maale Adumim, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In the absence of peace talks, which collapsed about a year ago in a dispute over settlement building, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations.
The Palestinians are looking to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War.
On Monday, UNESCO granted the Palestinians full membership. Israel called the move a "tragedy" that would hurt peace efforts, and the United States said as a result it would stop funding the organization.
Israel routinely transfers funds it collects from customs and other levies on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
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2 giraffes, other animals die in NJ zoo fire (AP)
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J. ? A fire has killed a mother giraffe, its 3-week-old calf and a collection of exotic birds at a New Jersey zoo where the owner's wife died in a fire months ago.
Animal Kingdom Zoo owner Burton Sipp says three dogs and four cats also perished in Sunday night's fire.
It's the second fire to strike the private zoo in central New Jersey's Springfield Township this year. Bridget Sipp was killed in April when a fire burned the couple's log cabin on the property. No animals were hurt then.
Burton Sipp says he flew home from Phoenix early Monday after hearing about this weekend's fire. He says the zoo's seven remaining giraffes are being moved to the Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park for now. He says he hopes to rebuild.
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Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Aol?s Patch Taps Ad Tech Startup PaperG To Boost Local Ad Sales In Over 100 Markets
Traditional publishers and fledgling digital publications alike are trying to find the best ways to monetize their content on the Web and take advantage of the benefits offered by hyperlocal content and the targeted advertising that (should) come with it. PaperG, an advertising technology startup founded in 2007, is trying to become that go-to solution for small and established online publishers that are looking for a quick and easy solution for their hyperlocal advertising needs. Today, the startup is announcing that it will be providing its local display advertising technology to AOL Inc.?s hyperlocal platform of sites, Patch.com. (Disclosure: TechCrunch is owned by Aol.) PaperG's technology will be released in over 100 of Patch's markets, enabling Patch sales teams access to PaperG's instant ad creation, management, and optimization tools for their litany of local advertisers.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/T0YrT4zctqM/
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Liberia election chief resigns ahead of November 8 vote (Reuters)
MONROVIA (Reuters) ? The head of Liberia's election commission, who has been accused of bias by incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's challenger, has resigned, days ahead of a planned presidential run-off vote.
"I chose to step down for the sake of Liberia and so that (challenger Winston Tubman's) CDC (party) would not have an excuse not to participate in the run-off," NEC Chairman James Fromayan told Reuters Sunday.
Tubman last week threatened to withdraw from the November 8 run-off, the country's second post-war vote, unless there was a change of leadership at the election commission. Fromayan has denied any wrong-doing.
(Reporting by Clair MacDougall; Writing by David Lewis)
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Boeing Leases Former Space Shuttle Facility at the Kennedy Space Center (ContributorNetwork)
In a deal that will help transform the Kennedy Space Center from a mainly government space launch complex to one that will also service commercial customers, NASA and Boeing have signed an agreement concerning the Orbital Processing Facility.
What is the agreement between Boeing and NASA?
Boeing has signed a 15 year lease for the Orbital Processing Facility (OPF-3) to manufacture and test its CST-100 spacecraft, which are being developed under NASA's commercial crew program to send astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. The deal will create 550 jobs at the Kennedy Space Center once commercial operations take place.
What is the Orbital Processing Facility?
The OPF, which is divided into three bays (OPF-1, OPF-2, and OPF-3) was used to process space shuttle orbiters. Almost immediately after an orbiter landed at the Kennedy Space Center, it would be towed to one of the bays at the OPF to remove fuel residues and previous payloads and to perform testing and refurbishing for the orbiter's next mission. OPF-3 will be converted for use by Boeing while the other two bays will be leased to other commercial customers.
What is the CST-100?
Boeing is developing a space capsule called the CST-100 under NASA's commercial crew program. The spacecraft will be capable of carrying up to seven astronauts or a mix of astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station or other destinations in low Earth orbit, such as the planned Bigelow private space station. The CST-100 will be capable of being launched on a variety of launch vehicles, including the Delta IV, the Atlas V, and the Falcon 9. The spacecraft will be capable of docking with the ISS within eight hours of launch. The time from undocking to landing will be about six hours. The CST-100 will be capable of landing on land, with a contingency water landing. The spacecraft can remain docked with the ISS up to 210 days.
Why is this deal important?
The deal furthers the goal, started during the Bush administration, but continued with a will by the Obama administration, of creating a commercial launch sector. With the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of Space Launch System launches at least six years away, adding commercial customers to the Kennedy Space Center is important to keep the space launch facility active and to create jobs and enhance the economy of south Florida, currently reeling from the end of the space shuttle program and by Obama's cancellation of the Constellation space exploration program.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times and The Weekly Standard.
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Monday, October 31, 2011
India shuts server linked to Duqu computer virus (Reuters)
REUTERS ? Indian authorities seized computer equipment from a data center in Mumbai as part of an investigation into the Duqu malicious software that some security experts warned could be the next big cyber threat.
Two workers at a web-hosting company called Web Werks told Reuters that officials from India's Department of Information Technology last week took several hard drives and other components from a server that security firm Symantec Corp told them was communicating with computers infected with Duqu.
News of Duqu first surfaced last week when Symantec said it had found a mysterious computer virus that contained code similar to Stuxnet, a piece of malware believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran's nuclear program.
Government and private investigators around the world are racing to unlock the secret of Duqu, with early analysis suggesting that it was developed by sophisticated hackers to help lay the groundwork for attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants, oil refineries and pipelines.
The equipment seized from Web Werks, a privately held company in Mumbai with about 200 employees, might hold valuable data to help investigators determine who built Duqu and how it can be used. But putting the pieces together is a long and difficult process, experts said.
"This one is challenging," said Marty Edwards, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team. "It's a very complex piece of software."
He declined to comment on the investigation by authorities in India, but said that his agency was working with counterparts in other countries to learn more about Duqu.
Two employees at Web Werks said officials from India's Department of Information Technology came to their office last week to take hard drives and other parts from a server.
They said they did not know how the malware got on to Web Werks' server. "We couldn't track down this customer," said one of the two employees, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their jobs.
An official in India's Department of Information Technology who investigates cyber attacks also declined to discuss the matter. "I am not able to comment on any investigations," said Gulshan Rai, director of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-In.
UNLOCKING THE SECRET
Stuxnet is malicious software designed to target widely used industrial control systems built by Germany's Siemens. It is believed to have crippled centrifuges that Iran uses to enrich uranium for what the United States and some European nations have charged is a covert nuclear weapons program.
Duqu appears to be more narrowly targeted than Stuxnet as researchers estimate the new trojan virus has infected at most dozens of machines so far. By comparison, Stuxnet spread much more quickly, popping up on thousands of computer systems.
Security firms including Dell Inc's SecureWorks, Intel Corp's McAfee, Kaspersky Lab and Symantec say they found Duqu victims in Europe, Iran, Sudan and the United States. They declined to provide their identities.
Duqu -- so named because it creates files with "DQ" in the prefix -- was designed to steal secrets from the computers it infects, researchers said, such as design documents from makers of highly sophisticated valves, motors, pipes and switches.
Experts suspect that information is being gathered for use in developing future cyber weapons that would target the control systems of critical infrastructure.
The hackers behind Duqu are unknown, but their sophistication suggests they are backed by a government, researchers say.
"A cyber saboteur should understand the engineering specifications of every component that could be targeted for destruction in an operation," said John Bumgarner, chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.
That is exactly what the authors of Stuxnet did when they built that cyber weapon, said Bumgarner, who is writing a paper on the development of Stuxnet.
"They studied the technical details of gas centrifuges and figured out how they could be destroyed," he said.
Such cyber reconnaissance missions are examples of an increasingly common phenomenon known as "blended" attacks, where elite hackers infiltrate one target to facilitate access to another.
Hackers who infiltrated Nasdaq's computer systems last year installed malware that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies.
In March, hackers stole digital security keys from EMC Corp's RSA Security division that they later used to breach the networks of defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.
Researchers said they are still trying to figure out what the next phase of Duqu attacks might be.
"We are a little bit behind in the game," said Don Jackson, a director of the Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit. "Knowing what these guys are doing, they are probably a step ahead."
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in New York, Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Mumbai; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
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Reports: Prosecutions going up for war zone crime
In this Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 handout photo, flatbed trucks carrying U.S. military vehicles and other cargo are lined up and ready for departure from Iraq on Contingency Operating Base Adder, south of Baghdad, Iraq. President Barack Obama announced Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 that the U.S. has abandoned plans to keep a substantial force in Iraq and that all service members will be home by Dec. 31. (AP Photo/Spc. Anthony T Zane, U.S. Army, HO)
In this Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 handout photo, flatbed trucks carrying U.S. military vehicles and other cargo are lined up and ready for departure from Iraq on Contingency Operating Base Adder, south of Baghdad, Iraq. President Barack Obama announced Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 that the U.S. has abandoned plans to keep a substantial force in Iraq and that all service members will be home by Dec. 31. (AP Photo/Spc. Anthony T Zane, U.S. Army, HO)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Marine in Iraq sent home $43,000 in stolen cash by hiding it in a footlocker among American flags. A soldier shipped thousands more concealed in a toy stuffed animal, and an embassy employee tricked the State Department into wiring $240,000 into his foreign bank account.
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, the number of people indicted and convicted by the U.S. for bribery, theft and other reconstruction-related crimes in both countries is rapidly rising, according to two government reports released Sunday.
"This is a boom industry for us," Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, or SIGIR, said in an interview.
"Investigators and auditors had a productive quarter," said a report on the theft of Afghanistan aid by Steven Trent, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR. The report covered August through October.
In the last 13 months U.S. investigators in Iraq secured the indictments of 22 people for alleged aid-related offenses, bringing to 69 the total since the SIGIR office was created in 2004. Convictions stand at 57. Several hundred more suspects are under scrutiny in 102 open investigations and those numbers are expected to climb.
The rise in caseloads derives partly from spinoff investigations, where suspects facing prosecution lead investigators to other suspects, said Jon Novak, SIGIR's assistant inspector general for investigations.
"More and more people are ratting out their associates," he said, turning in conspirators who helped launder money after it was stolen, others who were aware of it and others implicated in the crimes.
As investigators gain experience, they're received better information from a growing network of sources in Iraq, said Dan Willkens, Novak's deputy. Development of an automated data-mining system for investigations has helped, he said, as did a decision two years ago to speed prosecutions by hiring three former assistant U.S. attorneys and detailing them to the Department of Justice.
At the inspector general's office for Afghan reconstruction, created in 2008, officials report only nine indictments and seven convictions so far. They say they're trying to ramp up after years of upheaval and charges the office was mismanaged. Trent was named acting inspector general after his predecessor left in August and is the third person to hold the job.
Still, Trent reported that during the last quarter a SIGAR-initiated investigation netted the largest bribery case in Afghanistan's 10-year war. Former army reserve captain Sidharth "Tony" Handa of Charlotte, North Carolina, was convicted, sentenced to prison and fined for soliciting $1.3 million in bribes from contractors working on reconstruction projects.
Most crimes uncovered by U.S. investigators in the two war zones include bribery, kickbacks and theft, inspired in part by the deep and pervasive cultures of corruption indigenous to the countries themselves.
Among some of the cases listed in the reports were those of:
Gunnery Sgt. Eric Hamilton, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in what prosecutors say was a scheme to help Iraqi contractors steal 70 generators that were meant to supply electricity for fellow Marines. He sent some of their payments home in a footlocker and had other money wired, the report said.
Several U.S. government employees, who received kickbacks for steering contracts to local conspirators and providing inside information to people competing for contracts. A former army sergeant, who was not identified, is charged with pocketing more than $12,000 in cash that a contractor never picked up after the money was allegedly stolen by another army sergeant and mailed to California inside a stuffed animal.
Jordanian national and U.S. embassy employee Osama Esam Saleem Ayesh, who was convicted in April for stealing nearly $240,000 intended to cover shipping and customs charges the State Department incurs when it moves household goods of its employees. The money wound up in Ayesh's bank in Jordan.
Money stolen from reconstruction projects also has been shipped off of U.S. battlefields tucked into letters home and stuffed in a military vest. Tens of thousands of dollars were once sewn into a Santa Claus suit.
Prosecutors have retrieved some of the money. More than $83 million will be returned to the U.S. from Iraq cases completed in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, bringing the total recovered over the last seven years to nearly $155 million, Bowen's office said.
As well as stolen cash, the total includes court-ordered restitution, fines and proceeds from the sale of merchandise seized from those convicted, including Rolex watches, luxury cars, plasma TVs and houses.
SIGAR prosecutions recovered $51 million over the past year, Trent's report said.
But the amount recovered is believed to be a tiny fraction of what's been stolen in the two war zones, a figure that will probably never be known for certain. Far more money is believed to have been lost through waste and abuse that resulted from poor management and the often-questioned U.S. strategy of trying to rebuild nations that are still at war.
The U.S. has committed $62 billion to rebuilding Iraq and $72 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
The independent Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated in August that at least $31 billion has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that the total could be as high as $60 billion. It studied not just reconstruction spending, but $206 billion for the logistical support of coalition forces and the performance of security functions.
The commission found that from 10 to 20 percent of the $206 billion in spending was wasted, while fraud accounted for the loss of another 5 to 9 percent.
Bowen called the cost of fraud "egregious."
"This is open crime occurring in a war zone," he said. "And the purpose of a lot of these expenditures is to win hearts and minds. Obviously we lose hearts and minds" when local populations see foreigners steal money meant to help rebuild their country.
SIGIR and SIGAR are only two of the U.S. government offices looking into fraud, waste and abuse. Others include State Department inspectors and Army criminal investigators.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Woman teacher who had sex with students may not appeal (Reuters)
CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) ? A female teacher convicted of having sex with five male high school students and sentenced to four years in prison is unlikely to appeal, her attorney said on Friday.
"After speaking with her family, I think it is unlikely," said Charles M. Rittgers, one of the attorneys who represented Stacy Schuler, a 33-year-old former gym teacher.
The woman was convicted on Thursday of 16 felony counts of sexual battery and three misdemeanor counts of providing alcohol to minors when she was a teacher at Mason High School in a suburb of Cincinnati.
Rittgers said she will be sent to the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, Ohio and may be eligible for parole in as little as six months.
Five male students testified that they had partied at Schuler's residence where they smoked marijuana and drank alcoholic drinks. Her defense team decided for a bench trial, where the judge decides the verdict, as opposed to a jury trial.
During the trial, Schuler's attorneys argued she was legally insane and that medication she was taking caused her to act irrationally.
The victims were 16 and 17-year-old boys. The age of consent in Ohio is 16 years, but teachers are barred from having sex with their students. So Schuler was convicted of sexual battery even though the victims had reached the age of consent.
(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Appeals court overturns key Cape Wind clearance (AP)
BOSTON ? A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the Federal Aviation Administration's ruling that Cape Wind's turbines present no danger for local air traffic.
The decision could further delay construction of the wind farm first proposed a decade ago.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the FAA misread its own rules when assessing Cape Wind, which aims to be the nation's first offshore wind farm.
The court said the FAA did not adequately determine whether Cape Wind's 130 turbines ? each 440-feet tall ? would pose a danger to pilots relying on sight rather than the plane's instruments.
The court vacated the government's "no hazard" finding and sent the case back to the FAA, agreeing with plaintiffs that "the FAA did misread its regulations."
The project has faced relentless opposition since it was first proposed in 2001 for Nantucket Sound, off Massachusetts. Critics say its power would be too costly and the wind farm will spoil beautiful vistas, while posing environmental and navigational threats.
The court ruling came in an appeal of the FAA finding by the town of Barnstable and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. The decision could mean further delays for the $2.6 billion project.
FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the agency was reviewing the court decision. He said the FAA does not know yet whether it will have to start over its review of Cape Wind.
Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound suggested the decision could sink the project. She said a significant delay could make it impossible for Cape Wind to attract needed investors, "a key step toward Cape Wind's ultimate failure."
A lawyer for Barnstable, Eric Pilsk, said the FAA took 2 1/2 years to return a new finding in a similar case in Nevada that his firm handled.
But Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said the ruling won't affect the project schedule, which calls for producing power by 2014. He said the project needed a renewed hazard determination from FAA within coming months anyway. The suit is just another delay tactic by project critics, he added.
"The FAA has reviewed Cape Wind for eight years and repeatedly determined that Cape Wind did not pose a hazard to air navigation," he said. "The essence of today's court ruling is that the FAA needs to better explain its Determination of No Hazard ruling."
Bill Short, a consultant working the renewable energy industry, said the ruling was a blow to Cape Wind, but the project can likely withstand any delay because it already has a buyer for half its power under very favorable terms.
"(It's like) driving down the road and you've hit one hellacious, enormous pothole and it has given you a flat tire. That's what this is like (for Cape Wind)," he said. "As opposed to you're driving down the road and your car goes into a sinkhole and you don't come out."
Cape Wind backers say the costs for the project are worth the numerous benefits, including kicking off a new clean energy industry, while lowering carbon emissions and reducing dependence on foreign oil.
Last year, Cape Wind sold half its projected power output to the utility National Grid, after the project became the first U.S. offshore wind farm to win a lease from the U.S. Department of the Interior. But it has struggled to find a buyer for the other half of its electricity. Without one, it likely can't attract financing to fully build out the project. It could move ahead with a smaller project, but that would raise the price of its power and make it less economical to build.
In its ruling Friday, the court said the FAA made its initial finding of "no hazard" after inadequate analysis, basing it solely on the fact Cape Wind's turbines aren't 500 feet tall ? the threshold for when turbines become a concern to pilots flying primarily by sight, not instruments, under "visual flight rules."
The court said the FAA's handbook indicates the turbine height is just one possible factor the FAA must consider, including how Cape Wind would affect pilots flying by visual flight rules.
It said there were hundreds of such flights in the area over a three-month span and cited testimony from some local pilots worried about colliding with the turbines in the frequently foggy and rough weather over Nantucket Sound.
"The FAA might ultimately find the risk of these dangers to be modest," the ruling read, "but we cannot meaningfully review any such prediction because the FAA cut the process short in reliance on a misreading of its handbook and, thus, as far as we can tell, never calculated the risks in the first place."
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With Viacom?s purchase of Bellator, the future looks bright
Media conglomerate Viacom, the company that owns both Spike TV and MTV, has jumped into the MMA game with the purchase of Bellator Fighting championships. USA Today reports that Viacom now has a majority stake in Bellator, and their fights will start airing on Spike in 2013, moving from MTV2.
Spike had a longtime relationship with the UFC, beginning with "The Ultimate Fighter" in 2005. That will end this December when the 14th season of "The Ultimate Fighter" comes to a close, and the UFC jumps to Fox networks. Spike will have rights to the UFC library until the end of 2012. When that agreement ends, Spike will have Bellator and its tournament-based fights in place.
Bellator began airing preliminary fights on Spike's website earlier this year, and CEO Bjorn Rebney told Cagewriter in a previous interview that he was excited to work with Spike because they already understand MMA.
"We're a great position in that our deal is with MTV networks, so it's that larger corporate umbrella. They control Spike, MTV, MTV2. You never know what the future will bring. The foreseeable future will be what it is, which is MTV2 and Spike.com for the prelims, but Spike is better than anyone in this space. They get it better than anyone."
This is nothing but good news for fans. It ensures that Bellator will be viable for years to come, giving fans more choices for MMA. With the UFC on Fox networks and Bellator with Viacom, there will be a greater volume of fights. Though the move to Spike is more than a year away, it will also give fans the option to watch in HD, a choice that doesn't exist with MTV2.
Other popular stories on Yahoo! Sports:
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Friday, October 28, 2011
PBS airing Steve Jobs documentary on Nov 2, with new interview (Digital Trends)
Steve Jobs may be dead at the age of 56, but as with most world-movers there?s always more to learn about him. PBS announced it will be airing an hour-long documentary next month on Apple?s creative co-founder. The documentary is titled Steve Jobs?One Last Thing, and will explore the major influences that made Jobs? who he was. A never-before-broadcast interview from 1994 is also promised.
One Last Thing, airing Wednesday November 2, and beginning at 10 p.m. ET (check local listings), will be taking an ?unflinching look at Job?s difficult, controlling, and offers unique insights into what made him tick,? says PBS. To do so, the documentary will employ many interviews with figures you all may be familiar with from Walter Isaacson?s instant best-selling biography on the Apple Computer innovator
The interview list includes Bill Fernandez, who connected Jobs with Wozniak as well as Robert Palladino who?s calligraphy classes at Reed College inspired Jobs with the design for the Mac. Others interviewed for the program Apples? other co-founder, Ronald Wayne, Ross Perot, columnist Walt Mossberg, mouse designer Dean Hovey and even Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am.
Along with these peripheral interviews, PBS promises a new interview with the man himself where Jobs talks about his driving life lesson.
?You tend to get told that the world is the way it is, but life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact; and that is that everything around that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you,? Jobs says in the 1994 interview. ?Once you learn that, you?ll never be the same again.?
The documentary?s title is taken from Jobs famous catchphrase used to spring surprise products during presentations. The Discovery Channel aired its own documentary on Jobs earlier this months hosted by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters. There?s also a movie about the Apple co-founder, with rights secured by Sony and possibly scripted by The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin.
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
China sends envoy to Syria amid pressure to reform (AP)
BEIJING ? China said Tuesday that it was sending an envoy to Syria after blocking a U.N. resolution earlier this month that threatened sanctions, and reiterated that it wants a political solution to the country's ongoing crisis.
Wu Sike, China's special envoy on the Middle East, will visit Syria and Egypt from Wednesday through Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said.
The uprising in Syria has proven remarkably resilient even though the government has tried relentlessly to crush the revolt. The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed in the government crackdown on the protests, and international pressure has been building for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday that Beijing wants all parties in Syria to resolve the crisis peacefully.
"We believe the Syrian government should deliver on its reform pledges, respond to the people's appeals and that all parties should, in a constructive manner, actively participate in the political process," Jiang said in a regular briefing.
China and Russia vetoed the already watered-down Security Council resolution criticizing the Syrian government for suppressing protests because they objected to language that left open the possibility of sanctions against Syria.
The opposition movement driving Syria's 7-month-old uprising has mostly focused on peaceful demonstrations, although recently there have been reports of protesters taking up arms to defend themselves against military attacks. There have also been increasing reports of defections from the military, highlighting a trend that has raised fears that Syria may be sliding toward civil war.
The United States has pulled its ambassador out of Syria, arguing that his support for anti-Assad activists put him in grave danger. Syria responded quickly Monday, ordering home its envoy from Washington.
China and Russia have also been urging the chief U.N. nuclear inspector to scrap or delay U.S.-backed plans to reveal intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear arms experiments, in a bluntly worded confidential document obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Asked about the Chinese-Russian diplomatic note to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, Jiang would only say that China believes in resolving the dispute through dialogue.
"We hope the IAEA can uphold the just and objective position, bring into full play their professional advantage, engage in contact and interaction with Iran and play a constructive role for solving the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means," Jiang said.
___
Associated Press writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna.
___
Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gillianwong
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U.S. Health Officials Back HPV Vaccine for Boys (HealthDay)
TUESDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health authorities on Tuesday recommended that young males be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cervical cancers, as well as anal cancer and some cancers of the throat and mouth.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday morning that its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has approved "recommendations for routine vaccination of males 11 or 12 years old with three doses of HPV4 (vaccine)" to shield against the virus.
At this point the recommendation is limited to Gardasil, made by Merck. Another HPV vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, is not yet included in the advisory.
"The vaccination could begin as young as age 9, and boys and young men 13 to 21 years of age who hadn't received the vaccine should also be vaccinated," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the U.S. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said in an afternoon press briefing.
The current level of use of the HPV vaccine among girls is "disappointing," Schuchat noted, and since the virus is passed via sexual conduct, "there is the potential that vaccinating boys will reduce the spread of HPV from males to females and reduce some of the HPV burden women suffer from."
An HPV vaccine has been available since 2006, but until now the CDC had only recommended inoculation for females between the ages of 9 and 26 to limit their risk of cervical cancer.
According to Schuchat, the new recommendations were based on the effectiveness of the vaccine in males. She noted that while the numbers of cervical cancers has been decreasing, head and neck cancer and anal cancers -- which affect both genders -- have been on the rise.
One expert agreed with the CDC panel that vaccinating boys should help prevent cancers in both genders.
"In a perfect world, immunization of all girls might be the most cost-effective way of preventing HPV disease in women," said Dr. Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Research Center at The Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York City. "However, since we do not live in a perfect world, a very strong argument can be made for immunizing boys in order to prevent genital warts in males and the prevalence of HPV-related cancers in both boys and girls. The increasing awareness of the role HPV plays in other diseases, such as head and neck cancers and, possibly, heart disease, would be yet another reason to consider universal immunization."
Vaccination against HPV is pricey, with the three-shot series for the Gardasil vaccine typically costing about $390.
The vaccine has been controversial with some parents who contend it could encourage young women and men to engage in sexual relations at an early age.
HPV is widespread among men. An international study published in March in The Lancet found that half of all adult males in the United States may be infected with the virus.
More than 40 strains of HPV exist, and all are passed along by skin-to-skin contact, usually during sexual relations, according to the CDC.
The most well-known strain of HPV causes genital warts. But other strains show no obvious symptoms and clear up on their own with no medical treatment, Dr. Jean Bonhomme, an assistant professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, told HealthDay.
"Because it normally causes no symptoms, men and women can get it and pass it on without even knowing they have it," Bonhomme said.
Since the virus spreads through skin contact, normal protections that prevent the spread of disease through body fluids won't work, Bonhomme said.
"Diseases like herpes and HPV cannot be completely prevented by condoms because they are both spread by contact with skin," Bonhomme said. "If the virus comes into contact with the scrotum or thighs, you can still be infected."
Men don't have the screening tools for HPV-related cancers that are available to women. A Pap test can detect cervical cancer in women, Bonhomme said, but there's no comparable test for penile or anal cancer in men. As a result, many men don't realize they have these cancers until they begin showing late-stage symptoms.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the HPV vaccine Gardasil for use in women in 2006. Three years later, the FDA approved a second HPV vaccine, Cervarix. Vaccination is recommended for 11- and 12-year-old girls and for young women ages 13 through 26 who have not yet been vaccinated.
"The idea is to vaccinate before they become sexually active," said Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer programs for the American Cancer Society. "Afterward, it's much less effective."
Saslow and Bonhomme, who is also president of the National Black Men's Health Network, said that beyond the direct health risks, there are other compelling reasons to extend HPV vaccinations to males.
For one thing, it would be simpler to vaccinate everyone than to have separate guidelines for boys and girls, Saslow said. There's also an argument for gender equity, in that only women are being vaccinated for a disease that affects both sexes, she added.
Another strong argument in favor of male HPV vaccination, Bonhomme said, is that by only immunizing half the population, health officials are not attacking the problem with full force.
"Where are women getting the virus from?" he asked. "If you don't vaccinate the guys, then you aren't helping the women."
HPV has been shown to increase a man's chances of contracting penile and anal cancer, particularly for gay males. Men who have sex with men are about 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer than straight men, according to the CDC.
About 1 percent of sexually active men in the United States have genital warts at any particular time, according to the CDC. Annually, about 800 U.S. men contract HPV-related penile cancer and about 1,100 men get HPV-related anal cancer.
"These are relatively rare cancers," said Saslow. "However, for men who have sex with other men, their risk is significantly higher than the general population."
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston reported Monday that HPV may increase a woman's chances for heart disease, even if she doesn't have any recognized cardiovascular risk factors.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on HPV.
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