Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/181779944?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
NATO hopes for reopening of Pakistan supply route (AP)
KABUL, Afghanistan ? NATO hopes for a quick reopening of blocked supply routes through Pakistan because the 5-week closure is damaging the economies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, an alliance officer said Monday.
Pakistan shut the routes, which NATO uses to ship about 40 percent of the supplies for its forces in landlocked Afghanistan, after alliance airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani border troops in November.
The U.S. expressed regret over the deaths. The incident drove U.S.-Pakistani relations further into a tailspin, adding to Pakistani outrage over the U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in May and drone strikes that have killed civilians, all without informing Pakistan in advance.
Pakistan is a key ally in the fight against Islamic militants in neighboring Afghanistan.
Prominent al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban fighters have asked Pakistani militants to set aside differences and step up support for the battle against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban commanders said Monday that the request came during two meetings in Pakistan's tribal region in November and December. The did not disclose what their response was.
NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson said the military coalition has a stockpile of supplies that can keep operations in Afghanistan running at their current level even if routes through Pakistan remain closed.
Afghan merchants have complained that their imports have also been affected by the closure of NATO traffic. They say the resulting shortages have driven up prices of staples four, sugar, rice and other staples.
"We have reason to wish the reopening of the routes," Jacobson said. "We are aware that the present situation on the border has a negative effect on both economies."
The coalition has reduced its dependence on Pakistan over the last two years by developing alternate routes to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.
In a sign that NATO fears the closure might last longer than expected, it has been arranging for its equipment to be shipped back to Europe through the northern route. The alliance is in the process of drawing down its forces and helping the Afghan army and police prepare to take over responsibility for security by 2014, when it plans to end its combat role.
Jacobson and Afghan military spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the handover was proceeding well. This is despite repeated incidents in which Afghan soldiers have shot their foreign advisers.
On Thursday, an Afghan army soldier shot and killed two French Foreign Legionnaires, the latest in a series of attacks by members of Afghan security forces against their coalition partners. The shootings have raised fears of Taliban infiltration as NATO speeds up the training of Afghan security forces.
Jacobson said the incidents all had different causes and backgrounds and were not an indication of guerrilla activity within the Afghan army's ranks.
"We do not see a campaign or an orchestrated operation that leads to this kind of operation from the side of the insurgency." he said.
If the current phrase of transition is completed by next summer as planned, the Afghan army and police will be providing security to about half of the country's population. Nimroz province, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, will become the latest to start transitioning to Afghan control on Tuesday, officials said.
Also Monday, four Afghan civilians were killed in two explosions in eastern Logar province, official said.
The first took place in Puli Alim the capital city of Logar province and killed three civilians. Their vehicle drove over a land mine, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor.
In Baraki Barak district in the same province, a roadside bomb killed the driver of a passing car, he said.
___
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Ishtiaq Mahsud contributed to this report.
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Howard Stern calls fans on New Year's Eve
Richard Drew / AP
Howard Stern wished some fans a happy new year with a personal call.
By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Howard Stern fans who follow the radio host on Twitter had a chance to get up close and personal with the King of All Media on New Year's Eve.
Stern tweeted this message to his followers Saturday night: "Beth and I are drunk dialing. What's your phone number?"
Stern and wife Beth apparently followed through on that promise for the next few hours, at least according to Stern's Twitter feed, where he would tweet about who he spoke to. In numerous cases, he didn't reach the person, but tweeted that he left them a voicemail message.
One fan tweeted that he adopted his two cats because of advice from Stern, and Stern tweeted "Just called to hear about the cats. Got voicemail."
An equal opportunity pet lover, apparently, Stern also called two fans who mentioned their dogs, including one who said that he and his wife were staying home with a dog who'd just returned from the ICU.
?To another, Stern tweeted "sorry to interrupt the video games," and to another, he said "Drinking beer alone. What happened? You clammed up on me."
Some of the fans then reported on their calls via Twitter. The aforementioned video gamer wrote "Howard Stern just called me! This new year rules already!"
Another lucky fan tweeted after her call: "OMG! It was like the best thing ever! I started crying after we hung up!"
When he was finished, Stern tweeted "Just made my last call. Going to bed. Wishing everyone a happy new year. If u get a call after this...it's not me."
?Are you a Howard Stern fan? Tell us on Facebook.
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Monday, January 2, 2012
Press On: The California Exodus
By Gary Dickson
In a state of more than 37 million people, you wouldn't think that a loss of population would be a concern to anyone. In fact, some would probably consider it a blessing.
But, the reality is that when people stop migrating to a particular location, that has generally been a strong signal that something is wrong there, such as a lack of jobs or cost of living expenses that are out of whack.
Here in California, according to an article by Bill Watkins in New Geography, the state has been in a negative domestic migration mode at least since 1990. U.S. Census statistics indicate that 3,642,490 people have left California since 1990. Watkins stated, "If they were in one city, it would be the third largest city in America "
My father left Oklahoma as a teenager to move in with his sister and brother-in-law in Richmond , to work in the shipyard during World War II.
Back then thousands of people had left the dustbowl ravaged Midwest for jobs in California. It's interesting that today Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas all have a net-positive domestic migration number, while California is in the red.
The word, regarding California, is out in Mexico, too. Even illegal immigration numbers into the state have slowed. Those choosing to leave Mexico for the United States are choosing to settle in states other than California.
Since 2000 the immigrant population has been frozen at 27 percent of the population.
In 2010 California
reached a 100-year low in the percentage of its total population that had moved here from out-of-state or out-of-country of about 20 percent. It was the first time in more than 100 years that the majority of California residents were native-born.What is causing the migration reversal for California? Well, initially it was housing prices that were so far out-of-line with many other places around the country.
When the housing bubble burst one would have thought that would have caused people to run toward California, due to the housing bargains, but by then the jobs had all gone away.
So, a lack of jobs became the other major cause for people to move elsewhere and for people elsewhere not to come here.
Another factor is how business owners view their opportunity to successfully conduct business in California , or not.
A recent survey by Small Business California, a San Francisco-based business advocacy group, indicated that one out of five California small-business owners don't plan to be in California in three years.
Some of the comments provided by business owners included, "We will go where we can operate profitably.", "The way things are going we'll have to move out of state just to survive." and "If I am (still in business in 2014), it will be in another state. The business and regulatory climate in CA is too oppressive."
With all that is great about California , there are some obvious problems that have to be fixed if the 20-year run of negative migration is ended.
Response to last week's column
Last week I wrote about coincidences and asked readers to send me their own. I heard about some amazing coincidences from a number of readers, but the one that took the prize was from Fawn Meade.
She wrote about how several remarkable coincidences fell into place to save her husband Claude's life a couple of years ago. Claude became very sick while Fawn was visiting relatives in Southern California, Claude became ill with what they thought was the flu.
His flu-like symptoms turned out to be a gangrenous gall bladder. Fawn concluded her story with the statement that, "Well, one more day and I would have lost my husband. One more day if I hadn't come home a day early as I did due to the Swine Flu scare, one more day if Dr. Andrus hadn't called to bring him in now rather than the next day, one more day if that silver-haired doctor had not come in."
Fawn will receive three free months of the Record-Bee for sharing the winning story. If anyone would like to read her entire story, let me know. I will e-mail it to you.
Gary Dickson is the publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. Email him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
Source: http://www.record-bee.com/ci_19647756?source=rss_viewed
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Canadian Robbed In Mexico: Two Police Officers Fired Over $22 Heist
ACAPULCO, Mexico - There are media reports in Mexico that two police officers accused of robbing a Canadian tourist in Acapulco have been fired.
The Mexican newspaper Universal quotes police director Miguel ?ngel Hern?ndez Albarr?n as saying the tourist filed a complaint that he was robbed on Wednesday.
The amount of money involved was 300 pesos, which works out to about 22 Canadian dollars.
Hern?ndez Albarran says the money was returned and the tourist has returned home -- it's not know where in Canada the person was from.
Universal also is reporting that six other public officials are under investigation for possible extortion.
Hern?ndez Albarr?n told the newspaper says members of the public are being urged to contact authorities if they are aware of any wrongdoing or have been victimized.
He says Mayor Manuel A?orve Ba?os has indicated he will not tolerate this kind of behaviour from any public official.
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Partial results: Congo legislative races close
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) ? Three Cabinet ministers allied to the president have lost their parliament seats, according to partial results from Congo's legislative elections that show the ruling party taking losses but still in the lead.
If the trend holds and the opposition makes substantial gains, it could change the political landscape of Congo, which effectively has been under one-man rule since its independence from Belgium in 1960, with a rubber-stamp parliament in recent years.
Congo's electoral commission also announced Wednesday night that it has restarted the suspended count of legislative ballots in the absence of U.S. and British observers who are supposed to help ensure transparency.
That could further fuel the cases being taken to the commission over the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative balloting that was marred by violence and fraud. Fourteen electoral officers have been arrested for alleged fraud and manipulation of vote counts, the electoral commission said Wednesday.
Incumbent Joseph Kabila was declared the winner by the country's Supreme Court and inaugurated last week despite the fraud condemned by the international community. Observers have said it is not clear who won the vote in this mineral-rich country impoverished by decades of dictatorship and civil war.
Human rights and civil society groups have condemned the international community for not doing more to uphold Congo's young democracy. The European Union has threatened to halt aid if there is no improvement in the counting of the legislative ballots, leading Kabila to invite the U.S. and British experts.
Congolese security forces have shot at and detained people attempting to protest Kabila's re-election. Human Rights Watch said last week that at least 24 people have been killed in such attacks to quell dissent.
The New York-based group said many more may have been killed since security forces appear to be quickly removing bodies to cover up the scale of the killings.
Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi also has declared himself the winner of the presidential election and attempted to hold his own inauguration at a Kinshasa stadium before being stopped by security forces.
Tshisekedi's party said Tuesday that seven more of its supporters were killed by security forces on Friday and 540 detained to prevent the opposition leader holding his inauguration. Tshisekedi later held a ceremony in the back yard of his home.
Police chief Gen. Charles Bisengimana said no one was killed Friday and that police fired only tear gas.
The November elections were the first contested by Tshisekedi, a veteran 79-year-old politician who had opposed Congo's dictatorship since the 1980s and who boycotted the 2006 ballot that was the first democratic election in nearly half a century. That left a bunch of former warlords as the front-runners.
Then, Tshisekedi also urged his supporters not to register to vote, a decision that still haunts the party since parliament seats were allocated according to the number of registered voters, so Tshisekedi strongholds are represented by fewer legislators.
The partial and provisional results announced Wednesday include only 101 of the 500 parliament seats, and none of the major cities in the country that sprawls across Central Africa and covers an area larger than Western Europe. The results have been compiled from only 40 of the 1,469 counting centers. Some 19,000 candidates stood for election.
They gave the presidential party 23 seats to 14 for Tshisekedi's party, with the rest going to small parties.
In the current parliament, Kabila's party holds 111 seats but a coalition of parties supporting him holds another 220. Opposition parties have 170 seats, a third of them belonging to the party of Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former warlord and deputy president who awaits charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague.
___
Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Johannesburg.
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