From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Obama, 2 aides met with Blagojevich investigators
By NEDRA PICKLER and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press Writers
15 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama and two of his top aides met last week with federal investigators building a corruption case against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to swap Obama's Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job.
The interviews with Obama, along with incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and adviser Valerie Jarrett, were disclosed Tuesday in an internal report produced for Obama on contacts with Blagojevich. The report supported Obama's insistence last week that there had been no inappropriate contact with the governor's office by Obama or his staff.
Obama delayed releasing his report until U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's staff had completed the interviews with Obama and his two top aides, incoming White House attorney Greg Craig said in the review he wrote for Obama. |
2 NYPD: Madoff investor commits suicide in office
By ADAM GOLDMAN and TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writers
46 mins ago
NEW YORK – The founder of an investment fund that lost $1.4 billion with Bernard Madoff was discovered dead Tuesday after committing suicide at his Manhattan office, marking a grim turn in a scandal that has left investors around the world in financial ruin.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, was found sitting at his desk at about 8 a.m. with both wrists slashed, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A box cutter was found on the floor along with a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk. No suicide note was found.
De la Villehuchet was one of several fund managers to be hit hard in Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Investment funds that lost big to Madoff are also facing backlash and investor lawsuits for not protecting their clients from the alleged fraud. |
3 Iraqi parliament ousts speaker, OKs non-US troops
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 2 mins ago
BAGHDAD – Iraq's fractious parliament squeezed its abrasive speaker out of a job Tuesday and authorized non-U.S. foreign troops to stay in the country for another half-year, a pair of high-stakes moves in its final session of 2008.
The resignation of Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani capped a long-running power struggle with Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers and even members of his own party. Lawmakers applauded his announcement, quickly approved it, then passed a measure allowing Britain's 4,000 troops and several smaller contingents from other countries to stay through July.
"I do believe that I was faithful to doing good work," al-Mashhadani said in his address to the chamber where he often offended other lawmakers. "If I caused hurt to you, I ask your forgiveness." |
4 GM's oldest plant nears end of its days in Wis.
By DINESH RAMDE, AP Business Writer
54 mins ago
JANESVILLE, Wis. – As the last SUV rolled off the production line at General Motors' oldest plant here Tuesday, Karen Green promised herself she would keep her emotions in check.
The Janesville plant was built in 1918 for tractor production and converted to a Chevrolet plant in 1923. Green had worked on the assembly line for 14 years.
When plant and union officials began thanking workers for their years of service, however, she couldn't hold back the tears. |
5 European countries consider taking Gitmo detainees
By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago
LONDON – When the U.S. government asked years ago that countries take in detainees freed from the Guantanamo military prison, only tiny Albania answered the call.
The rest of Europe had long criticized the U.S. military detention center in Cuba and the Bush administration for opening it in January 2002 to hold so-called "enemy combatants" accused of having links to the al-Qaida terror network or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.
Now Europe appears to be open to helping, as President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison. Most Europeans held in Guantanamo have been returned to their home countries, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for proposals for transferring the remaining 250 or so detainees — amid concerns that some could be persecuted if sent back to their home nations. |
6 Zimbabwe faces bleak Christmas amid food crisis
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 14 mins ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe – At overflowing garbage dumps in Zimbabwe's capital, desperate vagrants pounced on trash bags and fought over chicken bones and scraps of discarded food. Sewage clogged streets and most shopkeepers didn't even bother with holiday decorations.
In crumbling, largely Christian Zimbabwe, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people, Christmas is just another day of suffering.
"There is nothing for us to celebrate. Christmas is a story of hunger," said Monica Rugare. "It is just another day of poverty, the way we are living today." |
7 Recession-proof Yankees keep on spending millions
By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer
1 hr 9 mins ago
NEW YORK – The big, bad Yankees are flexing their mighty checkbook, and the rest of baseball isn't happy.
While the recession has many teams cautious about spending, the Yankees remain in a Gilded Age, dropping more than $400 million on high-profile free agents, including an eight-year deal Tuesday with first baseman Mark Teixeira. The Mets have lavished big money, too, and other teams are jealous.
"This year they just both went crazy," San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito said of New York's teams. "All these people are going East now. It's crazy." |
8 More declines for oil on latest batch of bad news
By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer
Tue Dec 23, 3:53 pm ET
Oil prices dipped below $38 a barrel Tuesday on fresh evidence of weakness in the U.S. housing market and a shrinking gross domestic product that suggests the recession may be worsening.
A report by the Commerce Department showed that sales of new homes fell in November to the slowest pace in nearly 18 years, while new home prices dropped by the biggest amount in eight months.
"The energy markets are reacting first and foremost to bad economic news, and it seems like they're almost waiting for something bad to occur," said oil analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. |
9 Economy declined 0.5 percent in third quarter
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Tue Dec 23, 3:14 pm ET
WASHINGTON – As the longest recession in a quarter century intensifies, analysts believe the small decline in economic activity in the third quarter has worsened significantly in the current fourth quarter.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, declined at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the July-September quarter. Corporate profits fell 1.2 percent.
Some economists believe the economy's decline in the October-December period could be as large as 6 percent. If so, that would be the worst quarterly drop since 1982. |
10 Dow falls for 5th straight session on grim data
By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer
2 hrs 3 mins ago
NEW YORK – Wall Street pulled back again Tuesday in muted trading ahead of the holiday, as another round of reports showed further deterioration in the housing market and broader economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished lower for the fifth straight day, falling 100 points.
Tuesday's gloomy data was hardly surprising to jaded investors. And trading volume has been light this week, which tends to skew the market's movements; many traders are on vacation for Christmas, and the market will close early, at 1 p.m. EST, on Wednesday. |
11 November existing home sales fall by 8.6 percent
By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer
Tue Dec 23, 3:01 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Sales of existing homes plunged far more than expected last month as buyers recoiled from October's financial wreckage on Wall Street. The median sales price fell by the largest amount on record.
The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday existing home sales fell 8.6 percent to an annual rate of 4.49 million in November, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.91 million in October.
Sales had been expected to fall to a pace of 4.9 million units. according to Thomson Reuters. |
12 5 immigrants face life behind bars for Army plot
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 11:02 am ET
CAMDEN, N.J. – Five Muslim immigrants face possible life prison terms after being convicted of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers in a case that supporters called entrapment and prosecutors said was a pre-emptive strike against terrorism.
The five men were convicted Monday in federal court of conspiring to kill military personnel but acquitted of attempted murder. Prosecutors acknowledged the defendants were probably months away from an attack at Fort Dix and did not necessarily have a specific plan.
The arrests in 2007 and subsequent trial tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages. Muslim leaders reacted with frustration after the verdict. |
13 NJ tries to end foreclosure-based renter evictions
By VICTOR EPSTEIN, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago
NEWARK, N.J. – James Aiken and his family will spend the holiday with relatives in northern New Jersey, but not by choice.
The Englewood family of four has been staying in Teaneck since they were allegedly forced out of their apartment in November by a landlord in financial difficulty.
The Aiken family is one of an estimated 20,000 families in New Jersey that may be affected by a landlord foreclosure this year. Renters cannot be evicted due to a landlord's foreclosure in the Garden State, which has some of the nation's strongest tenant protections. |
14 Biden says deal near on stimulus plan
By Richard Cowan, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 4:37 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The incoming Obama administration is nearing agreement with congressional Democrats on a huge emergency spending bill intended to jolt the weak U.S. economy and create 3 million jobs over two years, Vice President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
Asked whether an agreement on the shape of the stimulus bill would be reached by Christmas, Biden said: "I think we're getting awful close to that."
But he refused to divulge how much the measure would cost taxpayers once the team of President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20. |
15 Obama review clears staff in Blagojevich probe
Reuters
1 hr 13 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama's aides had no improper contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has been accused of seeking to sell Obama's Senate seat, a review by his office concluded Tuesday.
Blagojevich is at the center of a corruption investigation that has made national headlines and left Obama's transition team scrambling to distance the incoming president from the scandal-tarred governor.
Blagojevich, like Obama a Democrat, has denied any wrongdoing and refused to resign from his job. |
16 Retail group wants national sales tax holidays
Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 11:34 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. retail trade group asked President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday to add a series of temporary sales tax holidays to an economic stimulus package as a way to revive consumer spending.
The National Retail Federation called for three 10-day periods of sales tax-free shopping in March, July and October 2009, which it said would save consumers almost $20 billion, or $175 for the average family.
Under the NRF's proposal, the federal government would reimburse states for the lost tax revenue. State sales tax rates range from 2.9 percent to 7.25 percent, the group said. |
17 U.S. rebuffs China call for 17 Guantanamo suspects
Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 12:25 pm ET
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Tuesday it wants 17 Muslim Chinese terror suspects returned if the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is closed by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.
Obama has pledged to close the prison at the U.S. naval station in southeastern Cuba, which has come to symbolize aggressive detention practices that opened the United States to allegations of torture.
Although the U.S. military no longer considers the 17 Chinese Uighurs "enemy combatants," they have remained at Guantanamo because the United States has been unable to find a country willing to take them. |
18 U.S. seeks to ease India-Pakistan tension
By Kamran Haider and Bappa Majumdar, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 8:24 am ET
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer has sought to defuse tension between Pakistan and India while New Delhi asked Islamabad on Tuesday to avoid "war hysteria" and act to dismantle terrorist infrastructure.
India and the United States have blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for last month's attacks in Mumbai that killed 179 people and which have triggered a sharp rise in tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Pakistan on Monday on his second visit since the attacks and met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and the head of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, the U.S. embassy said. |
19 Taliban's Omar rejects reports of peace formula
By Sayed Salahuddin
Tue Dec 23, 3:07 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban's supreme leader rejected on Tuesday reports he had sent a letter to the Saudi king involving a formula for ending the war in Afghanistan and conditions for talks with the Afghan government.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, who carries a bounty of $10 million by the United States for his capture, also denied reports saying members of the Taliban's resurgent movement had held talks with pro-Afghan government officials on ending the conflict.
"The fact is that the Islamic Emirates has neither held any negotiations in Saudi Arabia or in the United Arab Emirates and neither anywhere else," the Taliban's Website quoted Omar as saying in a statement. |
20 Students march, gunman shoots police bus in Greece
Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 12:28 pm ET
ATHENS (Reuters) – Hundreds of anarchists marched through Athens on Tuesday hours after a gunman opened fire at a riot police bus, in a third week of anti-government protests since police shot dead a teenager.
Police said the unidentified gunman shot at the bus carrying 19 officers when it stopped at traffic lights outside a university campus in eastern Athens at around 5 a.m.
Two bullets hit the bus, bursting a tire, but no one was injured in the incident. A police official, who asked not to be identified, said the shots were believed to come from the campus and were fired from a military weapon. |
21 Coup attempt in Guinea after president dies
by Mouctar Bah, AFP
Tue Dec 23, 4:15 pm ET
CONAKRY (AFP) – The military in the west African state of Guinea launched a coup on Tuesday, hours after the death of strongman President Lansana Conte, but the government declared it was still in power.
The mineral-rich country was left in turmoil as the coup plotters said they had suspended the constitution and dissolved all state institutions, a claim the government denied.
"The institutions of the republic have shown themselves to be incapable of resolving the crises which have been confronting the country," Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, spokesman for the coup, announced on state radio. |
22 Report absolves Obama team in governor scandal
by Mira Oberman, AFP
2 hrs 1 min ago
CHICAGO (AFP) – An internal probe on Tuesday cleared Barack Obama and his transition team of any inappropriate contacts with the Illinois governor accused of plotting to sell off the president-elect's Senate seat.
The report said Obama's incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel did talk to accused Governor Rod Blagojevich about who might be a good pick for the seat, but there was no talk of any benefits linked to a particular choice.
The saga has been a distraction for Obama as he prepares to take office on January 20, tested his campaign offer of transparent leadership and focused attention on the often ugly Illinois political scene where he made his name. |
23 Gas exporting states agree Qatar-based 'gas OPEC'
by Anna Smolchenko, AFP
Tue Dec 23, 4:35 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – Gas exporting states on Tuesday finalised the creation of a new Qatar-based forum aimed at coordinating gas policy that consumer countries fear could become the gas equivalent of oil cartel OPEC.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned at the meeting of ministers from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Moscow that the "era of cheap gas" was over and that consumers would face higher prices in the future.
"A new organisation has been born today.... The charter has been agreed. The headquarters will be in Qatar," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said after the meeting. |
24 A surge of Special Forces for Afghanistan likely
By Gordon Lubold, The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Dec 23, 3:00 am ET
Washington – The Pentagon is likely to send up to 20 Special Forces teams to Afghanistan this spring, part of a new long-term strategy to boost the Afghan security forces' ability to counter the insurgency there themselves.
The "surge" of elite Special Forces units would represent a multiyear effort aimed at strengthening the Afghan National Army and police units that the US sees as key to building up Afghanistan's security independence, say defense officials who asked to remain anonymous because the controversial decision has not yet been announced. The US already plans to send thousands of additional conventional forces to Afghanistan sometime next year. But it is hamstrung by limited availability since so many of those forces are still in Iraq.
The deployment of the Green Berets, the independent, multifaceted force skilled at training indigenous forces, could fill critical gaps in Afghanistan almost immediately, defense officials say. |
25 Bush pushes Persian Gulf nuclear agreement
By Howard Lafranchi, The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Dec 23, 3:00 am ET
Washington – The Bush administration is quietly advancing a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), raising concerns in Congress and among nonproliferation experts about the deal's repercussions in a volatile region.
The deal to provide the small but strategically located country with the means to generate electricity through nuclear technology could be signed by President Bush before he leaves office, thus making the accord – similar to the much higherprofile nuclear pact the administration reached with India – part of his legacy.
But that would leave the incoming Obama administration with the task of taking the agreement to Congress, where objections over the UAE's close trade relations with Iran – and over the Emirates' history of serving as a transshipment point for sensitive materials – are already rising. |
26 Azerbaijan threatens to muzzle independent radio
By Jessica Powley Hayden, The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Dec 23, 3:00 am ET
Baku, Azerbaijan – Recent government threats to stop issuing broadcast licenses to foreign media, including the BBC and Voice of America, is further evidence of crumbling press freedom here and may reflect the country's shift away from Washington in favor of Russia, experts say.
Earlier this fall, government officials threatened to terminate the licenses of several prominent foreign broadcasters. Although these news organizations could continue to work in other mediums – including the Web, cable, and satellite – radio remains king of independent media in this tiny, oil-rich nation.
The decision would effectively silence foreign media, says Kenan Aliyev, director of Radio Liberty in Azerbaijan. "If we lose FM, we lose 95 percent of our audience." |
27 Good heavens: Vatican rehabilitating Galileo
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 2:45 pm ET
VATICAN CITY – Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero.
The Vatican is recasting the most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist Sunday, saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and "contemplate with gratitude the Lord's works." |
28 Interpol chief presses India to provide evidence
By JEAN H. LEE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 12:24 pm ET
NEW DELHI – Nearly a month after the Mumbai terror attacks, India has not provided the evidence needed for Interpol to help identify and apprehend the suspected masterminds, the chief of the global police agency said Tuesday.
Ronald Noble, speaking in Islamabad after a visit to New Delhi, said Pakistan has agreed to work with the agency to help investigate the attacks that killed 164 people in India's financial hub last month.
But he said India has provided no names or information that would allow police in other countries to check their databases, calling it "not acceptable" for New Delhi to provide those details to the media first. |
29 Passengers trapped on world's largest Ferris wheel
By ALEX KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 2:14 pm ET
SINGAPORE – Fire broke out in the control room of the world's largest Ferris wheel Tuesday, trapping 173 people hundreds of feet above the ground for hours and forcing rescuers to lower 10 passengers to safety by rope.
Two passengers were hospitalized with minor ailments.
During the six hour-ordeal, passengers were able to talk with officials via intercom and rescuers tethered to harnesses brought them sandwiches and soft drinks, said general manager Steven Yeo. |
30 Nobel official defends disputed China trips
By MALIN RISING and LOUISE NORDSTROM, Associated Press Writers
Tue Dec 23, 2:42 pm ET
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The head of the Nobel Foundation on Tuesday rejected criticism against all-expenses-paid trips that prize jurors made to China and said it was "normal" for them to accept such invitations.
Michael Sohlman, executive director of the foundation that manages the prestigious awards, told The Associated Press he welcomed a bribery investigation into the trips, adding he didn't see anything wrong with the visits.
"When you invite a lecturer it is normal to pay for travel and board," Sohlman said in a phone interview. "The Nobel Foundation cannot finance such trips." |
31 China sends pandas to Taiwan in charm offensive
By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 3:40 pm ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan – China sent two of its prized giant pandas to Taiwan Tuesday, the latest installment of a charm offensive aimed at persuading the island's people to embrace their Communist rival.
Millions of Taiwanese watched the televised arrival of Tuan Tuan, a male panda, and his female companion, Yuan Yuan, at Taipei airport. The pandas, the first to inhabit the island, are typically loaned in pairs with the hope they will mate.
The giant panda is unique to China and is regularly sent abroad as a sign of warm diplomatic relations or to mark breakthroughs in ties. For more than five decades, Beijing has used panda diplomacy to make friends and influence people in countries ranging from the United States to the former Soviet Union. |
32 New Russian missile fails a 5th test
By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 10:31 am ET
MOSCOW – Russia's new sea-based ballistic missile has failed in a test launch for the fifth time, signaling serious trouble with the highly advertised key future component of the nation's nuclear forces.
The Bulava "self-destructed and exploded in the air" after a launch from the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear submarine beneath surface of the White Sea, said Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo.
Russia has been making an aggressive effort in recent years to upgrade its missile forces after years of post-Soviet underfunding and a lack of testing. |
33 Documents offer look at big tobacco's Asia tactics
By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer
Tue Dec 23, 2:47 pm ET
BANGKOK, Thailand – Two of the world's largest tobacco companies, seeking to expand sales into Asia, worked to undermine anti-smoking policies in Thailand and China by infiltrating one research institute and funding another, researchers said Tuesday.
The allegations — highlighted in two separate studies — come as tobacco companies are aggressively marketing cigarettes in the developing world as lawsuits and anti-smoking laws hit revenues in the West.
"As the high income countries put more and more obstacles in the path of the cigarette companies, they have to look for new markets," said Edouard Tursan d'Espaignet, epidemiologist with the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative. |
34 In Guatemala, a steep, rutted road to peace
By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 2:44 pm ET
COCOP, Guatemala – Guatemala's government is hoping the steep, rutted road to Cocop is a path to lasting peace.
Abandoned for years, the repaired dirt roadway has restored access to an isolated valley that the army stormed in 1981, killing 79 people.
It may not seem like much, but the road represents a new level of war reparations: Government aid that tries to rebuild wartorn communities as a whole, rather than handing victims cash payments that often sow resentment among their former enemies. |
35 Russia accuses foreign nationals in Georgia war
By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 8:25 am ET
MOSCOW – Russian investigators on Tuesday charged that volunteers from the United States and a number of other countries fought on the side of Georgia in its war against Russia.
Russian news agencies reported that Aleksandr Bastrykin, chairman of an investigative committee with the Russian prosecutor's office, said the mercenaries included nationals of the U.S., Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Russian officials have previously accused the U.S. and Ukraine of sending servicemen to take part in the fighting in August — claims both countries have denied. |
36 Mugabe rejects US, British calls to step down
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 23, 6:07 am ET
HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Tuesday the U.S. and Britain are "stupid" to think he shouldn't be part of a unity government.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said over the weekend that Washington can no longer support a power-sharing proposal that leaves Mugabe president, and Britain's Africa minister backed the U.S. stance on Monday.
"This stupid and foolish thinking" ignores that only Zimbabweans can make such a decision, Mugabe said at a funeral for a retired army general who had fought British rule in Zimbabwe. |
37 Germany arrests Rwanda genocide suspect
Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 12:14 pm ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – German police in the city of Frankfurt arrested a 51-year-old Rwandan man suspected of involvement in genocide, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
The Hutu, identified only as O.R., was mayor of an area in northern Rwanda and is suspected of taking part in the mass killings of Tutsis in 1994.
In particular, he is suspected of involvement in a massacre in Nyarubuye in April 1994 in which several thousand Tutsis were killed, the prosecutors said in a statement. |
38 Argentine court to investigate ex-president Kirchner
Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 4:14 pm ET
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An Argentine court will investigate former President Nestor Kirchner, the husband and predecessor of President Cristina Fernandez, over possible irregularities in government contracts, court officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
Kirchner and Planning Minister Julio De Vido, a member of Fernandez's cabinet who served under Kirchner from 2003 to 2007, were accused by opposition leader Elisa Carrio of conspiracy to abuse their public posts.
Carrio took evidence compiled by legislators from her Civic Coalition party to the courts, where federal judge Julian Ercolini agreed to launch a probe into several Kirchner-era public works contracts, gambling concessions and Argentina's ties to political ally Venezuela, among other matters. |
39 Somali Islamists must be part of peace deal: report
By Wangui Kanina, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 2:09 pm ET
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somalia's government and the international community must deal with Islamists to avoid a security crisis when Ethiopian troops withdraw later this month, a think-tank said on Tuesday.
Ethiopia has provided military support for Somalia's weak, Western-backed transitional government since December 2006 but has been the target of near daily attacks by an Islamist insurgency that controls most of the country's south.
More then 10,000 civilians have been killed during the two-year insurgency, a million people uprooted and a third of the population need emergency aid in a humanitarian crisis that has been described as one of the worst in the world. |
40 Kosovo threatens to ban products from Serbia
By Fatos Bytyci, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 10:41 am ET
MERDARE, Kosovo (Reuters) – Kosovo threatened on Tuesday to ban products coming from Serbia if Belgrade does not reverse its policy of blocking goods that carry a customs stamp from its former province.
Since early December, Serbia has refused to allow in products with labels reading "Customs of Kosovo" because Serbia does not recognize Kosovo institutions and still considers it part of its territory. Kosovo declared independence in February.
"If this continues we will introduce the same measures as Serbia," Kosovo's Trade Minister Lutfi Zharku told Reuters on Tuesday. "I am afraid that we may be in the situation to stop trade of all goods coming from Serbia, as an ultimate measure." |
41 Russia demands changed mandate for OSCE in Georgia
By Aydar Buribaev, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 9:00 am ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe can only patrol in Georgia next year if their mandate is changed to take account of Moscow's concerns, Russia's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
The OSCE said on Monday it would start shutting down its mission in Georgia on January 1 after Russia refused to extend the existing mandate because of a dispute over the status of South Ossetia, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Georgia.
"The mandate cannot function, either in the practical or the legal sense," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. |
42 Up to 6,000 child soldiers recruited in Darfur: U.N.
By Andrew Heavens, Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 4:55 am ET
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Up to 6,000 child soldiers, some as young as 11, have been recruited by rebels and government forces in Sudan's Darfur conflict, the United Nations said.
Youngsters have repeatedly been seen carrying weapons, even though Sudanese law and international agreements banned the use of children in conflicts, the head of the U.N. children's fund (UNICEF) in Sudan Ted Chaiban told reporters late on Monday.
Chaiban said UNICEF had evidence that all of Darfur's main rebel groups used children, including the powerful Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur. |
43 Sarkozy cuts corruption sentence for right-wing politician
AFP
Tue Dec 23, 3:00 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday granted a partial amnesty to a right-wing politician jailed for taking multi-million-dollar kickbacks for public contracts in the 1990s.
A former member of the European Parliament and French regional governor, who is also currently standing trial over a major arms-to-Angola scandal, Jean-Charles Marchiani was handed two jail sentences of three years and 18 months in 2005.
The 65-year-old was jailed in May after losing a final appeal, and is serving both sentences simultaneously in a Paris prison. |
44 Australian gov't, opposition refuse to say sorry to wronged doctor
AFP
18 mins ago
SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's government and opposition Wednesday refused to apologise to an Indian doctor wrongly charged over a British terrorist plot, as news media flayed the handling of the badly-bungled case.
Doctor Mohamed Haneef has demanded an apology for being mistakenly arrested, detained and charged over a failed July 2007 plot to detonate bombs in London and Glasgow, while his lawyers say he will seek substantial compensation.
An official report released Tuesday found that Australian authorities wrongfully arrested and held Haneef, now living in the Middle East, as they ignored evidence and botched the high-profile investigation. |
45 Bangladesh on high alert ahead of polls
by Shafiq Alam, AFP
28 mins ago
DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh has imposed the tightest security clampdown ever seen in the country as it prepares for polls on Monday that will restore democracy after two years of emergency government.
Some 50,000 military personnel and 6,000 of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force have been deployed nationwide to prevent pre-election violence and combat the threat of attacks by Islamic militants.
"We are fully prepared to make the polls the most peaceful ever," RAB director general Hasan Mahmud Khandaker said. "The campaigns have largely been violence-free and we hope the voting will be peaceful." |
46 What are 'combat troops'? Answer may affect Iraq withdrawal
By Adam Ashton and Laith Hammoudi, McClatchy Newspapers
Tue Dec 23, 6:01 pm ET
BAGHDAD — All U.S. forces will leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011 , but how that withdrawal will happen is still being negotiated by Iraqi and American officials, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Tuesday.
"Every plan that I'm running has us out here by 2011, period. I have no other option," Gen. Ray Odierno said. "We have a plan that if we see things getting better, we will leave faster," he said.
As of Jan. 1 , U.S. military operations are to be governed by a new security agreement that gives significantly more authority to Iraq . It replaces an expiring United Nations mandate that had given the U.S. wide latitude to act independently in Iraq. |
47 Baghdad's silent movie theaters reflect cultural darkness in Iraq
By Jenan Hussein, McClatchy Newspapers
Tue Dec 23, 3:41 pm ET
BAGHDAD — Husham al Kanani practically grew up in a Baghdad movie theater, watching films at the cinema his father managed.
Kanani relives that time only in brief moments. He walks into the few remaining Baghdad movie theaters, buys a ticket and imagines the nonstop showings when the city's cinema scene thrived.
He leaves before the film on the screen gets his attention. |
48 The Pope's Christmas Condemnation of Transsexuals
By JEFF ISRAELY / ROME, Time Magazine
Tue Dec 23, 1:00 pm ET
"The celebration of the birth of the Lord is at our doorstep ..." Thus began Pope Benedict XVI in his annual pre-Christmas address to top Vatican officials. But rather than a pro forma holiday wish of good tidings, the pontiff delivered his latest heavy-hitting discourse on everything from ecology to ecumenism, with carefully chosen citations from past Popes and even Friedrich Nietzsche. The topic that most grabbed press attention came about halfway through the 30-minute long address: transsexuals. |
49 Pakistan-India Tensions Mount Over Mumbai Terror
By OMAR WARAICH / ISLAMABAD, Time Magazine
Tue Dec 23, 1:00 pm ET
Nearly a month since the Mumbai terror attacks that killed 163 people, India and Pakistan remain locked in a war of words, and cross-border tensions are rising. New Delhi is growing increasingly frustrated over what it sees as Pakistan's failure to act more decisively against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group blamed for the attacks, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), its affiliate charity. But Islamabad bristles at such criticism, noting that it has cracked down on JuD in line with a U.N. Security Council designation of the group as a terrorist organization, and arguing that unless India provides credible evidence to prosecute particular invididuals, Pakistan's hands are tied. |