Obama Seen As Biggest Failure Among Modern Presidents

There is new poll out from the Washington Examiner. This one is a bit different, though, from the types of polls we usually see. There were no questions about ObamaCare or whether respondents approve of Obama’s overall performance. Nope, this poll attempts to measure  historical significance. And this was not just about Obama but several other former presidents as well. There are some interesting findings.

This poll is really just for fun so I am not sure how much we should read into this. To be fair, when a sitting president is included in polls like this when there is so much anger about some of his current policies, the approval numbers tend to be lower than after he has finished his term. On the other hand, exactly how much they might improve remains to be seen. But for now, Obama is seen as more of a ‘failure’ than any of his modern predecessors.

Take a look at the graphic:

The poll rates every US President since 1900. Obama leads the pack with 37 percent calling his time in office a ‘failure.’ This is more than the 32 percent who considered George W Bush’s time in office as a failure, and much more than the 30 percent who saw Nixon as a failure. Among the other modern Presidents rated as a ‘failure’ only Jimmy Carter comes close with 22 percent. Those are certainly high numbers. But when you combine this number with those who said that he is a below average president, it means that almost a majority (47 percent) consider Obama to be at the very least an ineffectual leader.

Something else interesting involves looking at the other side of the graphic. It seems that 14 percent of those who responded to this survey considered Obama a ‘great’ president. While I am at a loss to understand or agree with that number, it places Obama in a tie with Dwight Eisenhower for the seventh in that category.

It would seem that people either love Obama or hate him. Or they at least have that reaction to his policies. If this poll is any indication, it would certainly look like Obama needs to do some work on improving his legacy. Then again, maybe he really doesn’t care. 

I seem to recall Obama saying he would rather be a one-term president and have all his agenda accomplished than win re-election but have troubles getting his policy initiatives through. He got two terms and he got ObamaCare pushed through. But in the end it looks like his ‘agenda’ is going to have far-reaching effects into the lives of everyday people and not for the better.

Personally I would expect Obama to rank near the top of similar polls in terms of being considered a ‘failure’. Hopefully in the future another president will be able to clean up the mess Obama has made of our healthcare system, not to the scandals he’s responsible for.

What do YOU think? Would you rank Obama as a ‘failure’? If not, where would you rate him?  Do you agree with the ratings of other past presidents?

U.S., Chinese warships narrowly avoid collision in South China Sea

A U.S. guided missile cruiser operating in international waters in the South China Sea was forced to take evasive action last week to avoid a collision with a Chinese warship maneuvering nearby, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Friday.

The incident came as the USS Cowpens was operating near China's only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and at a time of heightened tensions in the region following Beijing's declaration of an Air Defense Identification Zone farther north in the East China Sea, a U.S. defense official said.

Another Chinese warship maneuvered near the Cowpens in the incident on December 5, and the Cowpens was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision, the Pacific Fleet said in its statement.

"Eventually, effective bridge-to-bridge communications occurred between the U.S. and Chinese crews, and both vessels maneuvered to ensure safe passage," said the defense official.

The near miss was the most significant U.S.-China maritime incident in the South China Sea since 2009, said security expert Carl Thayer at the Australian Defense Force Academy.

Heightened tensions over China's military assertiveness have raised concerns that an minor incident in disputed maritime waters, the South China Sea and East China Sea, could quickly escalate. Both Japan and China lay claim to islands in the East China Sea and have scrambled aircraft in recent months over the disputed seas and conducted naval patrols.

China and several ASEAN nations have competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The U.S. has raised the latest incident at a "high level" with the Chinese government, according to a State Department official quoted by the U.S. military's Stars and Stripes newspaper.

In Beijing, the Chinese foreign and defense ministries have yet to respond to questions about the incident, while China's often-nationalistic on-line platforms were filling with debate about the near-miss.

One poster demanded the Chinese navy follow-up by blazing an "independent sea lane" to Hawaii.
Beijing routinely objects to U.S. military surveillance operations within its exclusive economic zone, while Washington insists the United States and other countries have the right to conduct routine operations in what it says are international waters.

The U.S. Navy said the Cowpens was conducting regular freedom-of-navigation operations when the incident occurred.

China deployed the Liaoning to the South China Sea just days after announcing a new air defense zone which covers air space around a group of tiny islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by Beijing as well.

Beijing declared the air zone late last month and demanded that aircraft flying through it provide flight plans and other information. The United States and its allies rejected the demand and have flown military aircraft into the zone.

The Chinese carrier, which has yet to be fully armed and is still being used as a training platform, was flanked by escort ships including two destroyers and two frigates.

Asked if the Chinese vessel was moving toward the Cowpens with aggressive intent, an official declined to speculate on the motivations of the Chinese crew.

"U.S. leaders have been clear about our commitment to develop a stable and continuous military-to-military relationship with China," the official said in the email.

"Whether it is a tactical at-sea encounter, or strategic dialogue, sustained and reliable communication mitigates the risk of mishaps, which is in the interest of both the U.S. and China," the official said in an email to Reuters.

Security expert Thayer said the incident was the most significant since five Chinese ships harassed a U.S. oceanographic research vessel, the USS Impeccable, in 2009, also in the South China Sea.
"There have been hints of other incidents that both sides have apparently kept quiet but not this time," he said.

"The U.S. is determined to stand by its rights in international waters and is clearly expecting China to act accordingly."

Mandela's body cheered at Qunu ahead of Sunday burial

(Reuters) - The body of Nelson Mandela arrived on Saturday at his ancestral home of Qunu in South Africa's Eastern Cape, where it was greeted by singing, dancing local residents ahead of the anti-apartheid leader's state funeral set for the following day.

As police and military helicopters buzzed overheard, the hearse carrying the remains of South Africa's first black president rolled with a police escort into the hamlet of scattered homes lying between green pastures.
Delighted residents broke into the South African national anthem as the cortege appeared on the road from Mthatha airport, 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg.

Cheering crowds had lined parts of the road to pay their respects as the black hearse passed.
Mandela, who died on December 5 aged 95, will be buried in his family homestead in Qunu on Sunday after a state funeral combining military pomp and traditional rites of Mandela's Xhosa abaThembu clan.

It will be attended by family members, national leaders and foreign guests including Britain's Prince Charles and U.S. civil rights activist Reverend Jessie Jackson.

Earlier, Mandela's body was flown with a fighter jet escort from Waterkloof airforce base in Pretoria, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) had bade a formal farewell to "Comrade Mandela", its most historic leader.

Mandela Makes Final Journey Home in SAfrica

On a final journey to his home village where he had wanted to spend his final days, the remains of Nelson Mandela were honored amid pomp and ceremony Saturday at an air base in South Africa's capital before being loaded onto a plane.

Meanwhile, at the airport near Mandela's simple village of Qunu in eastern South Africa, there was a buzz of activity, with military vehicles including SUVs and armored personnel carriers driving around as anticipation built over the coming-home of South Africa's most famous figure. Soldiers in full gear, male and female, were stationed on foot on either side of the road from the airport in Mthatha as cows grazed nearby. Some civilians were also already lining route, shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas.

Mandela had longed to spend his final months in his beloved rural village but instead he had spent them in a hospital in Pretoria and then in his home in Johannesburg where he had remained in critical condition, suffering from lung problems and other ailments, until his death.

There was a surprise announcement in the plans for Sunday's funeral in Mandela's home village of Qunu as retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu's family said he would not be attending because he had not received credentials as a clergyman.

"The Archbishop is not an accredited clergyperson for the event and thus will not be attending," Rev. Mpho Tutu, the archbishop's daughter, said in a statement. She is chief executive of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation.

A spokesman for Tutu refused to elaborate and said Tutu himself would not be commenting. Tutu, who like Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for resisting apartheid, has been an occasional critic of the current government.

Mac Maharaj, a spokesman for the presidency, said Tutu is on the guest list and that he hopes Tutu will attend. He said he was surprised by the statement and was looking into it for possible solutions.

"This is not an event where you need credentials and I hope a solution can be found," Maharaj said. "He's an important person and I hope ways can be found for him to be there."

At a solemn ceremony at Waterkloof air base in Pretoria that was broadcast live on South African television, a multi-faith service and a musical tribute to Mandela were held. President Jacob Zuma praised Mandela in a detailed recounting of the struggle against racist white rule. He also described Mandela coming to 

Johannesburg from the countryside as a young man and bringing discipline and vision to the long and difficult anti-apartheid movement.

Zuma led the group in song after his speech.

The flag-draped coffin was accompanied by a military honor guard as it was slowly transferred onto a military plane for transport to the Eastern Cape.

Mandela's widow Graca Machel, wearing black, wept and wiped tears from under her glasses. Mandela's former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, looking stricken, was also there as well as Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African President Thabo Mbeki. Other members of the extended Mandela family also attended.

Mandela's favorite poem, "Invictus," was printed on the back of the program.

Mandela's casket is expected to arrive at Mthatha Saturday afternoon, greeted by a full military ceremony. Rituals will also be performed before a motorcade takes the casket from Mthatha to Qunu.

The public has been invited to view the cortege as it makes its way to Qunu. The body will be taken to the Mandela homestead, where more rituals will be performed.

A night vigil by the ANC is planned at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha on Saturday, with party leaders and government officials honoring Mandela on the eve of his burial.

The late president died in his Johannesburg home Dec. 5 at age 95.

His body lay in state for three days this week, drawing huge crowds of South Africans who mourned his death and celebrated his successful struggle against apartheid.

Many were disappointed when they could not view his remains because long lines and traffic problems meant that thousands had to be turned away without paying their final respects.

Afghan president says U.S. indulging in brinkmanship over security deal

(Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday shrugged off U.S. talk of a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan if he didn't sign a security agreement as brinkmanship and said he wouldn't back down on his conditions for the deal.

Karzai was in New Delhi in a burst of regional diplomacy as his ties with Washington have come under renewed strain over his refusal to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will shape U.S. military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 when most international troops will leave.

He told reporters that the United States would have to stop the practice of raiding Afghan homes and help restart a peace process with the Taliban as necessary conditions for the security pact.

"We do believe that the BSA is in the interest of Afghanistan and the Afghan people have given their approval. But we also believe that protection of Afghan homes and the launch of a peace process are absolute pre-requisites," he said.

If Karzai doesn't sign the deal, Washington says it will have to withdraw its entire force of some 44,500 troops by the end of 2014. Other NATO nations could follow suit leaving Afghan forces to fight the Taliban insurgency on their own.

The complete withdrawal, called the "zero option", would be similar to the pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq two years ago. Violence there is now at its highest level in at least five years, and more than 8,000 people have been killed this year, the United Nations says.

"I don't think America is thinking of the zero option , its brinkmanship they play with us, and even if they did, then come what may," the Afghan leader said.

U.S. officials have appeared exasperated by Karzai's stance on the security agreement, which they say is needed to help them plan a future mission that will assist Afghan forces fight militants and that will allow for future aid crucial for the impoverished nation.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, James Dobbins told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week that the delay in finalizing the deal - which U.S. officials had hoped Karzai would sign weeks ago - would impose "damages and costs" on Afghans.

But he added that the Obama administration was not on the verge of abandoning its effort to extend its troop presence in the country.

The security agreement would allow for the presence of nearly 15,000 U.S. and other NATO troops at nine locations around the country, Karzai said.

The agreement includes a provision allowing military raids on Afghan homes in exceptional circumstances - when an American life is directly under threat - but it would not take effect until 2015.

The issue is particularly sensitive among Afghans after a dozen years of war between Afghan and foreign forces and Taliban militants.

Karzai said he also wanted the United States to help him start an open and public peace process with the Taliban, rather than the secret diplomacy it had engaged in the past.
"Secret talks won't help. U.S. and Pakistan have enough influence over the Taliban to relaunch the peace process."

Karzai, who discussed the U.S. security deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has also held talks with the leaders of Iran and Pakistan this month.

5 soldiers killed in bomb attack in southern Thailand

BANGKOK -- At least five soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in a bomb attack in Thailand's restive south on Wednesday, police said.

According to the police, an explosive device buried in a local road in Kapoh district of Pattani Province was detonated by a mobile phone just as a military truck carrying 19 soldiers drove over it.

Four of the soldiers were killed at the scene while another succumbed to his injuries at hospital, the police said.

Among the 14 injured, two of them are in critical condition, according to the police.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat since a separatist insurgency broke out in 2004.

5 soldiers killed in bomb attack in southern Thailand

BANGKOK -- At least five soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in a bomb attack in Thailand's restive south on Wednesday, police said.

According to the police, an explosive device buried in a local road in Kapoh district of Pattani Province was detonated by a mobile phone just as a military truck carrying 19 soldiers drove over it.

Four of the soldiers were killed at the scene while another succumbed to his injuries at hospital, the police said.

Among the 14 injured, two of them are in critical condition, according to the police.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat since a separatist insurgency broke out in 2004.

U.S., Britain suspend aid to north Syria after Islamists seize weapons store

The rebel Free Syrian Army fighting President Bashar al-Assad said the U.S. and British moves were rushed and mistaken. "We hope our friends will rethink and wait for a few days when things will be clearer," FSA spokesman Louay Meqdad said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States was concerned about reports that Islamic Front forces had seized the buildings belonging to the Syrian Military Council, which is nominally in charge of the FSA.

"As a result of the situation ... the United States has suspended all further deliveries of non-lethal assistance into northern Syria," Earnest said, adding that humanitarian aid was not affected by the move.

The suspension underlines a crisis for the FSA leadership, which needs international backing to reinforce its credibility and to stop its fighters joining al Qaeda-backed Islamist militants who now dominate the war with Assad.

Fighters from the Islamic Front, which groups six major rebel brigades and which said last week it had quit the FSA, seized the headquarters of the Syrian Military Council and weapons warehouses at the Bab al-Hawa crossing on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey.

A U.S. official said FSA leader General Salim Idriss had fled into Turkey during the takeover of the warehouses, which contained trucks, food, medical packs and communication equipment including laptops and radios.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based anti-Assad monitoring group, said the Islamic Front had seized anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons from the SMC arms stores in fighting on Saturday.

The Islamic Front's battlefield success in capturing the stores could undermine SMC assurances to the United States that no supplies sent to their fighters would fall into the hands of Islamist brigades.

A U.S. embassy spokesman in Ankara said the situation was being investigated "to inventory the status of U.S. equipment and supplies provided to the SMC". Deliveries into southern Syria, through Jordan, would not be affected, he said.

Five rebel fighters were killed in the clashes at Bab al-Hawa, but it was not clear which side they were on.

REBELS PLAY DOWN INFIGHTING

American aid, including trucks, ambulances and ready meals, reaches Syria overland through Turkey.

U.S. officials said in the summer that they had developed a system of distribution using SMC operatives that would ensure the aid reached U.S.-allied groups. The United States has been concerned the non-lethal aid should not reach Islamists.

A senior U.S. administration official said the suspension should not be misinterpreted.

"This is absolutely not the beginning of the U.S. washing its hands. We will remain engaged in the humanitarian effort. We will remain engaged in the diplomatic effort," the official said, adding: "This doesn't represent a change in policy in our support for the moderate opposition."

He said the administration was looking for other ways to see how the support can be provided to ensure it does not fall into the hands of "extremists".

The British wanted the situation clarified after the clashes. "We have no plans to deliver any equipment while the situation remains so unclear. We will keep this under close review," a spokesman from the British embassy in Ankara said.

Turkey shut its side of the border crossing in Hatay province, customs sources told Reuters, citing a reported increase in clashes on the Syrian side. There was no immediate confirmation from Turkish officials.

Wednesday's announcement does not affect humanitarian support because this is distributed through aid groups and the United Nations. The first U.N. relief airlift to Syria from neighboring Iraq will deliver food and winter supplies to the mostly Kurdish northeast over the next 10 days.

The 2-3/4 year conflict has killed more than 100,000 people, driven more than 2 million abroad as refugees and left many millions more dependent on aid.

Playing down the fighting between the Islamic Front and the FSA brigades as a "misunderstanding", the FSA's Meqdad said Idriss was talking to the front's leaders to try to resolve the confrontation.

Asked whether any FSA stock was missing Meqdad said: "Everything will be clear in the next hours, and we believe the Syrians are good people and we don't believe there was a problem. They are our brothers."

Infighting among Syrian rebels has weakened their efforts to bring down Assad in a conflict that began with peaceful protests against his rule in March 2011 and has descended into civil war.

"EXTREMISTS" THREATEN REBEL UNITY

"I ... want to underline that our support to the opposition remains undiminished," the British embassy spokesman said.

"We have been long-standing and strong supporters of General Idriss and the SMC. That remains the case. It is important that the SMC remains united in the face of attacks from the regime and from extremist groups.

"Otherwise this will be a setback for all Syrians who support a political solution and a democratic, pluralist future for their country."

Assad's army, backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group and Iraqi Shi'ite fighters, has made steady gains around Damascus and to the north of the capital, while rebel territory in the north has seen increasing cases of inter-rebel conflict.

Many activists who helped to organize protests against Assad have now fled abroad from rebel-held territory, fearing not Assad's security forces but hard-line Islamists they say are equally intolerant of dissent.

Prominent human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh was kidnapped in the rebel town of Douma, activists said on Tuesday. They said it was not clear who had seized the 36-year-old activist, who has documented human rights violations in Syria.

The family of two Spanish journalists said on Tuesday they have been held since September by fighters linked to al Qaeda.

Fifty-five journalists have been killed and 30 are still missing in Syria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, making the country the most dangerous place in the world for media workers.

The United States and Britain suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syria after Islamist fighters seized Western-backed rebel weapons warehouses, highlighting fears that supplies could end up in the wrong hands.

UN: Major Offensive Begins Vs. Other Congo Rebels

United Nations officials say a major offensive has begun against a Rwanda-linked rebel group in eastern Congo following last month's defeat of the M23 rebels.

The officials on Wednesday told the Security Council that defeating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, will be difficult because they live among the general population, increasing the risk of civilian deaths. The group was formed by extremist Hutus from neighboring Rwanda who took part in that country's 1994 genocide, then fled across the border.

But the officials sounded more optimistic about the troubled region than they have in a long time.

"Many areas are liberated," said the U.N. Special Representative in Congo, Martin Kobler. "You see it in the eyes of the population, and there is still some hesitancy, but there is a chance that this time the situation is irreversible."

The offensive against the FDLR began Nov. 27. Other, smaller armed groups also are the target, but some already are giving up their weapons with the defeat of the M23.

"Important progress was made this week," Kobler said, especially with the opening of a key route from the newly liberated town of Pinga toward the regional city of Goma. The road had been closed for two years, he said.

In Kinshasa, the commander of the U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, Lt. Gen. Carlos dos Santos Cruz, said the FDLR "has one last opportunity to turn themselves in, and if not we will remove them."

Kobler estimated the size of the FDLR forces at 1,500 to 1,800, but that's difficult to estimate as many live among the civilian population.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current Security Council president, called the defeat of the M23 a success but a fragile one. Last month, the M23 fled under pressure from the Congolese army, U.N. peacekeepers and a newly created U.N. special intervention brigade.

"When you look at where we were eight months ago, I'd say that's quite a feat," Araud said.

The U.N. officials also were optimistic about the launch of the first fleet of U.N. drones this month in the eastern Congo. The Security Council gave approval in January for the trial use of unarmed drones for intelligence gathering there. Five in all are being launched in the region.

Congolese Minister of Defense Luba Tambo has said the drones will play a critical role in helping patrol the porous border with Rwanda.

Congo, with a population of 66 million, has been ripped by conflict for nearly two decades. Armed groups have thrived in its mineral-rich forests, despite the presence of nearly 20,000 blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers.

UN: Major Offensive Begins Vs. Other Congo Rebels

United Nations officials say a major offensive has begun against a Rwanda-linked rebel group in eastern Congo following last month's defeat of the M23 rebels.

The officials on Wednesday told the Security Council that defeating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, will be difficult because they live among the general population, increasing the risk of civilian deaths. The group was formed by extremist Hutus from neighboring Rwanda who took part in that country's 1994 genocide, then fled across the border.

But the officials sounded more optimistic about the troubled region than they have in a long time.

"Many areas are liberated," said the U.N. Special Representative in Congo, Martin Kobler. "You see it in the eyes of the population, and there is still some hesitancy, but there is a chance that this time the situation is irreversible."

The offensive against the FDLR began Nov. 27. Other, smaller armed groups also are the target, but some already are giving up their weapons with the defeat of the M23.

"Important progress was made this week," Kobler said, especially with the opening of a key route from the newly liberated town of Pinga toward the regional city of Goma. The road had been closed for two years, he said.

In Kinshasa, the commander of the U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, Lt. Gen. Carlos dos Santos Cruz, said the FDLR "has one last opportunity to turn themselves in, and if not we will remove them."

Kobler estimated the size of the FDLR forces at 1,500 to 1,800, but that's difficult to estimate as many live among the civilian population.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current Security Council president, called the defeat of the M23 a success but a fragile one. Last month, the M23 fled under pressure from the Congolese army, U.N. peacekeepers and a newly created U.N. special intervention brigade.

"When you look at where we were eight months ago, I'd say that's quite a feat," Araud said.

The U.N. officials also were optimistic about the launch of the first fleet of U.N. drones this month in the eastern Congo. The Security Council gave approval in January for the trial use of unarmed drones for intelligence gathering there. Five in all are being launched in the region.

Congolese Minister of Defense Luba Tambo has said the drones will play a critical role in helping patrol the porous border with Rwanda.

Congo, with a population of 66 million, has been ripped by conflict for nearly two decades. Armed groups have thrived in its mineral-rich forests, despite the presence of nearly 20,000 blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers.

UN: Major Offensive Begins Vs. Other Congo Rebels

United Nations officials say a major offensive has begun against a Rwanda-linked rebel group in eastern Congo following last month's defeat of the M23 rebels.

The officials on Wednesday told the Security Council that defeating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, will be difficult because they live among the general population, increasing the risk of civilian deaths. The group was formed by extremist Hutus from neighboring Rwanda who took part in that country's 1994 genocide, then fled across the border.

But the officials sounded more optimistic about the troubled region than they have in a long time.

"Many areas are liberated," said the U.N. Special Representative in Congo, Martin Kobler. "You see it in the eyes of the population, and there is still some hesitancy, but there is a chance that this time the situation is irreversible."

The offensive against the FDLR began Nov. 27. Other, smaller armed groups also are the target, but some already are giving up their weapons with the defeat of the M23.

"Important progress was made this week," Kobler said, especially with the opening of a key route from the newly liberated town of Pinga toward the regional city of Goma. The road had been closed for two years, he said.

In Kinshasa, the commander of the U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, Lt. Gen. Carlos dos Santos Cruz, said the FDLR "has one last opportunity to turn themselves in, and if not we will remove them."

Kobler estimated the size of the FDLR forces at 1,500 to 1,800, but that's difficult to estimate as many live among the civilian population.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current Security Council president, called the defeat of the M23 a success but a fragile one. Last month, the M23 fled under pressure from the Congolese army, U.N. peacekeepers and a newly created U.N. special intervention brigade.

"When you look at where we were eight months ago, I'd say that's quite a feat," Araud said.

The U.N. officials also were optimistic about the launch of the first fleet of U.N. drones this month in the eastern Congo. The Security Council gave approval in January for the trial use of unarmed drones for intelligence gathering there. Five in all are being launched in the region.

Congolese Minister of Defense Luba Tambo has said the drones will play a critical role in helping patrol the porous border with Rwanda.

Congo, with a population of 66 million, has been ripped by conflict for nearly two decades. Armed groups have thrived in its mineral-rich forests, despite the presence of nearly 20,000 blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers.

Man Accused of Denying Ride Charged in Stranded Motorist's Hit-and-Run Death

Authorities say a motorist who got into a fight with people whose car had overturned is suspected of later running down and killing one of them in Colorado.

 The Corado State Patrol said Wednesday that 21-year-old Jesse Plouvier (PLOO'-vee-yay) of Florence is facing charges of vehicular homicide after the hit-and-run incident early Sunday near Florence.

The death came after a vehicle slid off the road and overturned. The three people inside flagged down passing motorists for assistance and said Plouvier refused to give them a ride and drove off.

Trooper Josh Lewis said the three people kept trying to get help until one was struck and killed.

Lewis said investigators identified Plouvier as the driver following a tip that led to a search of his home. It could not be immediately determined if he had a lawyer.

Bipartisan Budget Deal Ups Airline Ticket Prices

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal, reached Tuesday night, could help avert another government shutdown in Washington, but will airline passengers around the country have to pay for it?

By eliminating $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 puts an end to the sequester, but to make up for a portion of those savings, the budget deal includes an increase that more than doubles TSA security fees for airline travelers.

Prior to the budget deal, the president and CEO of the trade organization Airlines for America, Nicholas E. Calio, said in a statement, “Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it.”

Today, in a statement to ABC News, Katie Connell, a spokesperson for Airlines for America, reiterated Calio’s concerns. “We recognize the difficult decisions that led to a bipartisan effort to restore certainty to the budget process,” McConnell said. “As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy.”

The increase in fees comes from an increase to the aviation passenger security fee, also known as the “9-11 fee.”

Prior to Sept. 11, 2011, airlines were responsible for paying for and carrying out their own passenger and baggage security screening, but with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, passenger and baggage screening became centralized and government-operated.

In order to help pay for the new agency and heightened airport security procedures, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The TSA currently receives approximately $2 billion a year from this current law from air carrier and aviation passenger security fees, which cover 30% of the agency’s aviation security costs.

Initially, the aviation passenger security fee was established and currently remains at a charge of $2.50 per nonstop flight, and $5.00 for a flight that requires a connection.

The newly proposed budget act changes the fee structure, and more than doubles the fee for a one-way flight to $5.60, making a round-trip flight fee $11.20. The new fee does not include an increase for connecting flights.

According to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the higher fee will enable the TSA to offset approximately 43 percent of its security costs and eliminate the aviation infrastructure security fee charged to air carriers.

Calio also notes that increasing the TSA security fee “won’t improve airport security, but instead will negatively impact customers by driving up the cost of air travel. Congress should instead focus on improving the efficiency of TSA, which collected $2.3 billion in security taxes from airlines and their customers last year, more than double the amount collected in 2002.”

The budget deal requires that the heightened security fee be effectively changed by July 1, 2014.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan stands behind the proposed bipartisan budget deal. “I’m proud of this agreement,” said Ryan said in a statement announcing the budget agreement. ”It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Bipartisan Budget Deal Ups Airline Ticket Prices

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal, reached Tuesday night, could help avert another government shutdown in Washington, but will airline passengers around the country have to pay for it?

By eliminating $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 puts an end to the sequester, but to make up for a portion of those savings, the budget deal includes an increase that more than doubles TSA security fees for airline travelers.

Prior to the budget deal, the president and CEO of the trade organization Airlines for America, Nicholas E. Calio, said in a statement, “Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it.”

Today, in a statement to ABC News, Katie Connell, a spokesperson for Airlines for America, reiterated Calio’s concerns. “We recognize the difficult decisions that led to a bipartisan effort to restore certainty to the budget process,” McConnell said. “As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy.”

The increase in fees comes from an increase to the aviation passenger security fee, also known as the “9-11 fee.”

Prior to Sept. 11, 2011, airlines were responsible for paying for and carrying out their own passenger and baggage security screening, but with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, passenger and baggage screening became centralized and government-operated.

In order to help pay for the new agency and heightened airport security procedures, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The TSA currently receives approximately $2 billion a year from this current law from air carrier and aviation passenger security fees, which cover 30% of the agency’s aviation security costs.

Initially, the aviation passenger security fee was established and currently remains at a charge of $2.50 per nonstop flight, and $5.00 for a flight that requires a connection.

The newly proposed budget act changes the fee structure, and more than doubles the fee for a one-way flight to $5.60, making a round-trip flight fee $11.20. The new fee does not include an increase for connecting flights.

According to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the higher fee will enable the TSA to offset approximately 43 percent of its security costs and eliminate the aviation infrastructure security fee charged to air carriers.

Calio also notes that increasing the TSA security fee “won’t improve airport security, but instead will negatively impact customers by driving up the cost of air travel. Congress should instead focus on improving the efficiency of TSA, which collected $2.3 billion in security taxes from airlines and their customers last year, more than double the amount collected in 2002.”

The budget deal requires that the heightened security fee be effectively changed by July 1, 2014.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan stands behind the proposed bipartisan budget deal. “I’m proud of this agreement,” said Ryan said in a statement announcing the budget agreement. ”It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Bipartisan Budget Deal Ups Airline Ticket Prices

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal, reached Tuesday night, could help avert another government shutdown in Washington, but will airline passengers around the country have to pay for it?

By eliminating $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 puts an end to the sequester, but to make up for a portion of those savings, the budget deal includes an increase that more than doubles TSA security fees for airline travelers.

Prior to the budget deal, the president and CEO of the trade organization Airlines for America, Nicholas E. Calio, said in a statement, “Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it.”

Today, in a statement to ABC News, Katie Connell, a spokesperson for Airlines for America, reiterated Calio’s concerns. “We recognize the difficult decisions that led to a bipartisan effort to restore certainty to the budget process,” McConnell said. “As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy.”

The increase in fees comes from an increase to the aviation passenger security fee, also known as the “9-11 fee.”

Prior to Sept. 11, 2011, airlines were responsible for paying for and carrying out their own passenger and baggage security screening, but with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, passenger and baggage screening became centralized and government-operated.

In order to help pay for the new agency and heightened airport security procedures, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The TSA currently receives approximately $2 billion a year from this current law from air carrier and aviation passenger security fees, which cover 30% of the agency’s aviation security costs.

Initially, the aviation passenger security fee was established and currently remains at a charge of $2.50 per nonstop flight, and $5.00 for a flight that requires a connection.

The newly proposed budget act changes the fee structure, and more than doubles the fee for a one-way flight to $5.60, making a round-trip flight fee $11.20. The new fee does not include an increase for connecting flights.

According to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the higher fee will enable the TSA to offset approximately 43 percent of its security costs and eliminate the aviation infrastructure security fee charged to air carriers.

Calio also notes that increasing the TSA security fee “won’t improve airport security, but instead will negatively impact customers by driving up the cost of air travel. Congress should instead focus on improving the efficiency of TSA, which collected $2.3 billion in security taxes from airlines and their customers last year, more than double the amount collected in 2002.”

The budget deal requires that the heightened security fee be effectively changed by July 1, 2014.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan stands behind the proposed bipartisan budget deal. “I’m proud of this agreement,” said Ryan said in a statement announcing the budget agreement. ”It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Bipartisan Budget Deal Ups Airline Ticket Prices

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal, reached Tuesday night, could help avert another government shutdown in Washington, but will airline passengers around the country have to pay for it?

By eliminating $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 puts an end to the sequester, but to make up for a portion of those savings, the budget deal includes an increase that more than doubles TSA security fees for airline travelers.

Prior to the budget deal, the president and CEO of the trade organization Airlines for America, Nicholas E. Calio, said in a statement, “Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it.”

Today, in a statement to ABC News, Katie Connell, a spokesperson for Airlines for America, reiterated Calio’s concerns. “We recognize the difficult decisions that led to a bipartisan effort to restore certainty to the budget process,” McConnell said. “As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy.”

The increase in fees comes from an increase to the aviation passenger security fee, also known as the “9-11 fee.”

Prior to Sept. 11, 2011, airlines were responsible for paying for and carrying out their own passenger and baggage security screening, but with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, passenger and baggage screening became centralized and government-operated.

In order to help pay for the new agency and heightened airport security procedures, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The TSA currently receives approximately $2 billion a year from this current law from air carrier and aviation passenger security fees, which cover 30% of the agency’s aviation security costs.

Initially, the aviation passenger security fee was established and currently remains at a charge of $2.50 per nonstop flight, and $5.00 for a flight that requires a connection.

The newly proposed budget act changes the fee structure, and more than doubles the fee for a one-way flight to $5.60, making a round-trip flight fee $11.20. The new fee does not include an increase for connecting flights.

According to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the higher fee will enable the TSA to offset approximately 43 percent of its security costs and eliminate the aviation infrastructure security fee charged to air carriers.

Calio also notes that increasing the TSA security fee “won’t improve airport security, but instead will negatively impact customers by driving up the cost of air travel. Congress should instead focus on improving the efficiency of TSA, which collected $2.3 billion in security taxes from airlines and their customers last year, more than double the amount collected in 2002.”

The budget deal requires that the heightened security fee be effectively changed by July 1, 2014.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan stands behind the proposed bipartisan budget deal. “I’m proud of this agreement,” said Ryan said in a statement announcing the budget agreement. ”It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Bipartisan Budget Deal Ups Airline Ticket Prices

The Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget deal, reached Tuesday night, could help avert another government shutdown in Washington, but will airline passengers around the country have to pay for it?

By eliminating $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 puts an end to the sequester, but to make up for a portion of those savings, the budget deal includes an increase that more than doubles TSA security fees for airline travelers.

Prior to the budget deal, the president and CEO of the trade organization Airlines for America, Nicholas E. Calio, said in a statement, “Doubling the TSA passenger security tax would cost passengers more than $730 million annually, placing a huge additional tax on the traveling public, with no direct benefit to those who pay it.”

Today, in a statement to ABC News, Katie Connell, a spokesperson for Airlines for America, reiterated Calio’s concerns. “We recognize the difficult decisions that led to a bipartisan effort to restore certainty to the budget process,” McConnell said. “As we have said consistently, airlines and our customers are already overtaxed, and we are disappointed that fees on air travel were increased, and believe those higher taxes will impact demand, jobs and our economy.”

The increase in fees comes from an increase to the aviation passenger security fee, also known as the “9-11 fee.”

Prior to Sept. 11, 2011, airlines were responsible for paying for and carrying out their own passenger and baggage security screening, but with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, passenger and baggage screening became centralized and government-operated.

In order to help pay for the new agency and heightened airport security procedures, Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. The TSA currently receives approximately $2 billion a year from this current law from air carrier and aviation passenger security fees, which cover 30% of the agency’s aviation security costs.

Initially, the aviation passenger security fee was established and currently remains at a charge of $2.50 per nonstop flight, and $5.00 for a flight that requires a connection.

The newly proposed budget act changes the fee structure, and more than doubles the fee for a one-way flight to $5.60, making a round-trip flight fee $11.20. The new fee does not include an increase for connecting flights.

According to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the higher fee will enable the TSA to offset approximately 43 percent of its security costs and eliminate the aviation infrastructure security fee charged to air carriers.

Calio also notes that increasing the TSA security fee “won’t improve airport security, but instead will negatively impact customers by driving up the cost of air travel. Congress should instead focus on improving the efficiency of TSA, which collected $2.3 billion in security taxes from airlines and their customers last year, more than double the amount collected in 2002.”

The budget deal requires that the heightened security fee be effectively changed by July 1, 2014.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan stands behind the proposed bipartisan budget deal. “I’m proud of this agreement,” said Ryan said in a statement announcing the budget agreement. ”It reduces the deficit — without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

Senator’s Chief of Staff Investigated for Child Pornography

The chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has been placed on administrative leave due to allegations of child pornography, the senator said today.

Law enforcement agents are searching the home of Ryan Loskarn, the chief of staff in Alexander’s Washington, D.C., office, after child pornography allegations, Alexander said in a statement.

“I was just informed by the United States Senate legal counsel’s office that law enforcement agents are conducting a search of the personal residence of Ryan Loskarn,” Alexander said.

“I am stunned, surprised and disappointed by what I have learned. Based on this information, I immediately placed Mr. Loskarn on administrative leave without pay. The office is fully cooperating with the investigation,” Alexander added.

ABC affiliate WJLA reported that Loskarn was taken into custody at his home this morning.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the lead investigative agency in this case, said Lori McCallister, the U.S. Postal Inspector.

“All documents related to this law enforcement action are currently under seal, therefore no additional information will be provided at this time,” McCallister said in an e-mail.

Loskarn has worked on Capitol Hill for years, previously working in the offices of former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

Senator’s Chief of Staff Investigated for Child Pornography

The chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has been placed on administrative leave due to allegations of child pornography, the senator said today.

Law enforcement agents are searching the home of Ryan Loskarn, the chief of staff in Alexander’s Washington, D.C., office, after child pornography allegations, Alexander said in a statement.

“I was just informed by the United States Senate legal counsel’s office that law enforcement agents are conducting a search of the personal residence of Ryan Loskarn,” Alexander said.

“I am stunned, surprised and disappointed by what I have learned. Based on this information, I immediately placed Mr. Loskarn on administrative leave without pay. The office is fully cooperating with the investigation,” Alexander added.

ABC affiliate WJLA reported that Loskarn was taken into custody at his home this morning.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the lead investigative agency in this case, said Lori McCallister, the U.S. Postal Inspector.

“All documents related to this law enforcement action are currently under seal, therefore no additional information will be provided at this time,” McCallister said in an e-mail.

Loskarn has worked on Capitol Hill for years, previously working in the offices of former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

Death Toll Climbs as Storms Ravage US

After cold rain and winds lashed the Southwest and other parts of the country Friday, millions of residents hunkered down for icy conditions expected to last through the weekend as the cold snap was forecast to continue causing problems and trekking northeast.

Face-stinging sleet, thick snow and blustery winds led to slick road conditions, school closures, power outages and event cancellations as the wintry blast dropped temperatures to freezing and below from Texas to Ohio to Tennessee on Friday.

In California, four people died of hypothermia in the San Francisco Bay Area while the region was gripped by freezing temperatures.

France to launch military operation in CAR immediately: Hollande

(Reuters) - President Francois Hollande said a French-led military operation to protect civilians in the Central African Republic would be launched immediately following authorization from the U.N. Security Council.

"I have decided to act immediately, in other words, this evening," Hollande told journalists.
He added that the number of French troops present in the poor landlocked nation, currently 600, would be doubled as early as this evening thanks to reinforcements from neighboring states.

Nigeria: Borno Airforce Base Attack - Heads May Roll in Military Top Ranks

As the military picks the pieces from the deadly attack on the Air Force Base in Maiduguri and other military installations, indications have emerged that heads may roll if the alleged case of sabotage or negligence of duty is established over Monday's attack by Islamist insurgents, which left in its wake the near-total destruction of the air base and heavy casualty.

Terrorists suspected to be members of the outlawed Boko Haram had destroyed the 33 Artillery Barracks, burnt three aircraft and two helicopters among other military machinery, and razed down buildings. No fewer than 24 insurgents and two military men reportedly died in the incident.

President Goodluck Jonathan had held an emergency meeting with the Security Council where he expressed shock and disappointment with the service chiefs and ordered them to investigate and brief him on the factors responsible for the security breach in the ancient city despite the fact that the state was under emergency rule.
"President Jonathan is angry over the incident. He did not mince words while meeting with the Security
 Council immediately he got the report. He asked the NSA to summon the service chiefs to the State House and asked for the factors responsible for the dawn attack. The service chiefs suspect sabotage and they promised to unmask those responsible with a view to bringing them to book," a presidency source disclosed.
Corroborating the source, another security source, who expressed dismay over the incident, said since the creation of 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, relative peace had been established and normal activities were being restored to Maiduguri until the Monday attack and said those responsible for the lapses would be sanctioned.

"You know that it was the Joint Task Force (JTF) that was maintaining law and order until they were replaced after they had lost the track, as people began asking for their withdrawal. This led to the creation of 7 Division that now takes full charge for the implementation of the state of emergency in the area. And they have been doing well until the Monday attack. This is why we are suspecting sabotage.

"How come that these people were able to penetrate all these installations without being caught? What has become of intelligence gathering? Who was supposed to be where that was not there? Who failed to do his work as assigned? Was there any insider's support or a unilateral action of the terrorists? These are some of the questions we have been asking and we need to know the answers and the answers will go a long way in preventing a reoccurrence."

Yesterday morning, the chief of defence staff, Admiral Ola Ibrahim, ordered a fact-finding team to Maiduguri to investigate the incident, and our source said the team is expected back in Abuja either today or tomorrow.
During the press briefing for the commencement of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration yesterday, the supervising defence minister, Labaran Maku, corroborated our source about the fact-finding mission. He lamented the incident but disclosed that the military was on top of the situation.

During the question and answer session, the chief of defence staff declined speaking on the matter when the minister asked him if he had anything to add to what he had said. A top military officer later told our correspondent that "both the CDS and all the service chiefs are not happy with the attacks and those who are found culpable or negligence of duty would be made to face the music".

He recalled: "Those who had been indicted of sabotage or negligence of duty have been court marshalled and this would not be an exception. We were all hoping that the war against terrorism was over when this one happened."

LEADERSHIP also has it on good authority that the chief of air staff, Air Marshal Sabundu Alex Badeh, hurriedly left for Maiduguri early yesterday to assess the level of the attack. He was billed to travel with Admiral Ibrahim who had to wait behind in order to attend the press briefing with the supervising defence minister.

"The CAS (chief of air staff) had left for Maiduguri in the morning (of yesterday) to assess the destruction of the Air Force Base that was attacked. He was supposed to go with the CDS who had to wait in order to attend the press conference with the acting minister of defence at the National Defence College," a serving general told LEADERSHIP.

Attack on military: Borno reviews curfew, restores GSM network
Following the deadly attacks on military formations by the Boko Haram insurgents on Monday, the Borno State government and military authorities in the state have reviewed the 24-hour curfew imposed on the state to dusk-to-dawn restriction of movement.

This was announced after a three-hour closed-door security meeting Governor Kashim Shettima held with top security chiefs at the Government House, Maiduguri, yesterday afternoon.

The meeting, according to LEADERSHIP findings, has also approved that the GSM networks that had been grounded for six months now be restored.

Residents of Maiduguri had, even before the end of the meeting, begun to receive weak signals of various networks on their phones.

According to a statement signed by the secretary to the state government, "Borno State government in collaboration with security agencies has approved the review of the 24-hour curfew to commence from 7pm to 6am each day until further notice.

"All citizens are therefore enjoined to comply with the provisions of the curfew and cooperate with security personnel on duty.

"Vehicles on essential services such as ambulances, fire service, media personnel are exempted.
"Meanwhile, Borno State governor, Honourable Kashim Shettima, regrets all inconveniences caused to Borno citizens as a result of the curfew."

Maiduguri residents angry, disappointed
Residents of Maiduguri, the troubled capital of Borno State, have expressed their anger and disappointment with the military over the attack on three major security formations on Monday by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists, LEADERSHIP gathered.

The attack came at a time the city was coming back to normalcy. The security operatives had ruled out the possibility of the insurgents regrouping in such a large number to launch a massive attack.

The residents were disappointed over what they see as poor handling of security intelligence. They felt it was a failure not to pre-empt the attack that appeared to have been perfectly planned and executed by the terrorists.

"We are really disappointed with the army for allowing the Boko Haram attack them in such a devastating manner," said Aminu Balarabe, an automobile mechanic who lives near the attacked 79 Composite Group Base of the Nigeria Air Force. "We are now living in fear because Boko Haram has faulted the claims of the military that they are winning the war."

Balarabe said if the Boko Haram insurgents had targeted the civilian populace around the Air Force Base or the 33 Artillery Regiment, "thousands would have been killed by now. Despite that, a lot of people still died".
According to a top Borno government official who doesn't want to be named, the Monday attack was not a surprise. "A lot of locals have said they noticed strange movements of people around the outskirts of Maiduguri, especially the areas called Dalwa along the Damboa-Maiduguri road. If action had been taken, perhaps the attack would have been aborted," he said.

A local businessman, who simply identified himself as Mallam Yakubu and whose house is not far away from the 33 Artillery Regiment, wondered "how could the Boko Haram storm Maiduguri in such a large number, and attacked 33 Artillery for about an hour before marching straight to the Air Force Base to carry out a similar attack without anyone stopping them?"

"It means the military had been telling us lies that they had killed 50 and hundreds of Boko Haram, or destroyed their camps. If their claims of victory over Boko Haram is real, and the Boko Haram could still launch such a huge attack, then we are doomed in Maiduguri," he said.

LEADERSHIP observed renewed fears amongst residents who now worry for their lives with the renewed attack on the city.

"We thought it's over," Mrs Lami Aliyu, a school teacher, said. "But the Monday attack on soldiers, and not even civilians, shows that the military are not capable of tackling the situation as they claim. Now we have been thrown back to square one. What is the problem that they cannot solve once and for all. We have heard of Nigerian soldiers going on peacekeeping mission winning awards for gallantry, yet they cannot take care of their home problem; they allow it to grow so big."

Many residents said that the insurgents could have been noticed regrouping in villages not far away from Maiduguri, but nothing was done by the security to stop them.

APC condemns Maiduguri attack, seeks new strategy to curtail Boko Haram
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned Monday's deadly attack on military and other facilities in Maiduguri, saying it is shocked and saddened by the enormity of the attack as well as the deaths of innocent civilians.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the attacks on Nigerian Air Force planes and helicopters at the NAF base in the city was particularly disturbing, considering the hitherto effective use of aerial attacks against Boko Haram, which is widely believed to have carried out the attacks.

It said nothing in the world can justify such deadly attacks on the military and the collateral deaths and damage inflicted on civilians.

APC however called for a renewed strategy to combat the sect, which seems to retain the capacity to carry out such a massive attack in a major city, despite the successes which the military said it had recorded against it since the declaration of a state of emergency in three states in May.

The party said such a strategy must place a great emphasis on the gathering of intelligence through which such attacks can be nipped in the bud, adding that failure of intelligence, more than anything else, made Monday's attack possible.

It called for a probe into how hundreds of attackers could so easily infiltrate military facilities, which are believed to be highly secured.

"The probe must unravel why the security personnel in the city in general and the military installations in particular were apparently caught unawares by the attackers, who were reported by some newspapers to number as many as 500, riding in trucks and motorcycles.

"If military installations in a major city can be so easily overrun by a band of marauders, then, no one and no facilities are safe. That's why the government and the military must work hand in hand to unravel why such a massive attack on military installations was possible in the first instance," APC said.

Nigeria is not fighting a civil war- FG replies ICJ
The federal government yesterday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the northeast zone of the country does not qualify to be called a civil war since all the 36 states of the federation are supporting the military operation.
The minister of information and the supervising minister of defence, Mr Labaran Maku, made this assertion at a press briefing on the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration 2014. He unveiled the programme of events lined up for the occasion.

The ICJ recently described the military operation against terrorism as a civil war, and cited the loss of lives and property, the declaration of state of emergency on Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and the attendant consequences. But the minister said it would be a misnomer to use a different yardstick to describe the counter-terrorist insurgency in Nigeria.

He said: "The issue about ICJ defining the operations of Boko Haram and the terror attacks on our country as a civil war... I am not a lawyer, but I believe, at the appropriate time, the attorney general of the federation would be able to address the issue. But I can say, as a layman, that we are facing an attack on our country by terrorists and it would be amazing if a terror attack on a nation is defined as a civil war.

"When the terrorists attacked the US on September 11, 2001, it was not a civil war; it was an attack on a peaceful country by a group of terrorists for very evil objective. When Afghanistan has been under attacks by terrorist insurgents, it is not a civil war. In my opinion, when you talk of a civil war, if it is a civil war, which part of this country is fighting which? When we had the civil war from 1967 to 1970, you had a region of Nigeria that said we want to be independent of the rest of the country, but in this war, it is a war of terrorists against all Nigerians, particularly against those that live in the theatre of operations."

Speaking further, the minister explained the attack being carried out by the terrorists is against the people living in the areas where they are irrespective of their religions and ethnic groups.

"These terrorists have attacked Moslems, they have attacked Christians, they have attacked animists, they have attacked foreigners who passed through Nigeria. So it is not a civil war, in my opinion, as we have seen all over the world. It is a group of terrorists with international network that are deploying that network to attack innocent people across different countries. When they attacked a shop in Nairobi, the mall in Nairobi about a month ago, everybody that was in that shop, whether you came from Kenya or from any part of the world, became casualty.

"We are fighting a group of terrorists whose objective is clearly terror, which attacks people at random, which kills. They have attacked traditional rulers including the Emir of Kano, including the Shehu of Borno. So, if it is civil war, is it between them and who? Because the people that are even being attacked more are even the Moslems and the majority of the population where they live. So, these are terrorists. As I said, I am not a lawyer. I don't know the clear distinction but I believe clearly that what we are facing is a war in which a network of terrorists have chosen a part of our country to attack and the whole nation is behind our armed forces in dealing with the insurgents."

Speaking on the attack on Maiduguri on Monday, the minister lamented the terror unleashed on the civilians and some military and police installations which led to loss of lives. He disclosed that a fact-finding group had been dispatched from the Defence Headquarters to find out the details of the early morning attack. Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration begins

On the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration, Maku commended the military for the sacrifices "to end the reign of terror and other security challenges facing the country". He explained that, in remembering the fallen heroes from 1914 to date, "we also call to mind and appreciate their loved ones who are left behind, and who have indelible loving memories of the departed in their hearts. The Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration helps to reassure them that the nation is with them in paying respect to their departed relations".

"The celebration reinforces the fact that their death was not in vain. It also serves to encourage and appreciate service personnel for their invaluable sacrifice to their fatherland. The year 2014 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration affords us a unique opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices made in 100 years by our service personnel to achieve global peace and security," he said.

At the press briefing were the chief of defence staff, Admiral S Ola Ibrahim, the chief of army staff Lt. Gen. Azubuike Onyeabo Ihejirika, representatives of the chief of naval staff, chief of air staff, and the inspector general of police; the permanent secretary, Ministry of Defence, top serving and retired military personnel including the principal staff officers at the Defence Headquarters, army, navy and air force headquarters and directors from the Ministry of Defence.

Michelle Obama Unveils White House Christmas Decorations

Somalia: Militia Attack Mogadishu Intelligence Base, Explosions Reported in Gedo

Mogadishu — Armed militia believed to be Al Shabaab members attacked Intelligence base in Mogadishu's Huriwaa district as witnesses reported two landmine explosions in El-Waq town of Gedo region, Garowe Online reports.

The gunmen Tuesday night targeted Intelligence and National Security Agency (NISA) base with anti-aircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades according to officials and residents said Somali Government forces engaged in firefight that lasted for nearly 30 Minutes with the attackers.

Huriwaa Commissioner Omar Abdulle Jacfan told the media that armed militia estimated to be 10 attacked the forces.

"Nearly 10 men attacked Abdi-Wayel Cinema which is a base for intelligence officers. The government forces were later reinforced and they killed two assailants and captured two others," Jacfan said.
Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants target Somali government officials and important structures, making Mogadishu security situation extremely volatile.

Meanwhile, two landmine explosions left 3 people including Somali government soldiers and civilians dead and seven others wounded on Tuesday evening in El-Waq town of southern Somalia.
 
El-Waq district of Gedo region is located near Somalia-Kenya border and it has since been chronically unstable.

Shocking Study Confirms Men Love Looking at Boobs

Groundbreaking studies do exist. There’s Milgram’s obedience test. Pavlov’s  dogs. This new gem out of the Midwest, however, isn’t one of them.

Aptly titled “My eyes are up here,” lead researcher Sarah Gervais’ study found that men like looking at women’s large breasts. For extended periods of time. Although, in dudes’ defense, “women also seem to view other women as objects.”

A total of 29 women and 36 men outfitted in eye tracking gear were asked to look at pictures of models manipulated to have different body types. Both men and women looked at breasts and waists longer than faces. Furthermore, women with hourglass figures received more substantial stares and were rated as having better personalities. Because boobs.

The Secret of the Wonder Weapon That Israel Will Show Off to Obama

 No tour of Middle East conflict zones could be complete without a stop at Sderot, an Israeli town of 24,000 that stands uncomfortably close to the Gaza Strip. The rain of rockets out of the Palestinian enclave has made Sderot famous for two things: the thickness of its roofs (even bus stops have reinforced concrete tops); and the collection of crumpled missiles arrayed in racks behind the police station. As a visiting VIP in 2008, U.S. Senator Barack Obama dutifully inspected what the machine shops of Islamic Jihad and Hamas fashioned from lengths of pipe and scrap metal. Low-tech doesn’t begin to cover it.

It’s a long way up the Mediterranean coast from Sderot to Haifa, and even farther to the showroom of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., the weapons-development branch of Israel’s military-industrial complex. Hi-tech doesn’t begin to cover it. Rafael developed the first precision-guided munitions — the precursor to the American-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions that replaced “dumb bombs” — and scores of other battlefield innovations, from IED detectors to floating drones. But the company’s most acclaimed invention is the one now President Obama will inspect moments after arriving in Israel on Wednesday: Iron Dome. It is a missile-interception system that has performed what Israelis regard as a miracle, draining a good bit of the fear out of the wail of an air-raid siren. During the last Gaza conflict, which lasted a week in November, Iron Dome knocked out of the sky a reported 84% of the missiles it aimed at — that is, the ones headed toward population centers. The rockets headed for open space its computers simply let fall. Rafael executives are understandably proud of Iron Dome, which after a few months on the job is performing at the level of a system that’s had seven years to work out the kinks. But they appear even prouder of the unlikely philosophy behind it. To make the most-tested, if not the most effective antimissile system in military history, Israeli engineers took a page from the Gaza militants they aimed to frustrate. The secret to Iron Dome is that it’s cheap.

(MORE: Iron Dome’s Lessons for the U.S.)
Consider the problem of volume. Since 2005, Gaza militants have fired more than 4,000 of their homemade rockets into Israel. Most cost a few hundred dollars each. Interceptors typically cost a few hundred thousand. “The main question that everyone asks is, ‘You’re firing a very costly missile against something very cheap,’” says Joseph “Yossi” Horowitz, a retired air-force colonel who markets air-and-missile defense systems at Rafael. “So our main mission was to reduce the cost.”

The economizing would be across the board, but the biggest savings were realized by reducing the size of the missile’s eyes — by far the most expensive component. An interceptor missile locks onto its target by following directions from the radar in its nose cone, typically packed with radio-frequency sensors of extravagant unit cost. An interceptor carried by a fighter jet has to be very smart, because it’s expected to find a missile being fired in its direction before it’s even in sight, one that could come from any direction. The nose-cone radar of an AIM/AMRAAM has so many RFs, or radio-frequency nodes, that it runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But a homemade missile coming out of Gaza is simply ballistic: it goes up and comes down. Rafael realized its launch and trajectory can be detected by ground radar, which would then transmit that information to the Iron Dome interceptor launched into the area of the sky where it’s headed. Only when the two missiles come near one another does the interceptor’s own radar come alive, guiding it to the incoming Qassam or GRAD and colliding with its own nose — where the warhead is positioned — in midair. It’s a delicate business, what with each missile traveling at 700 m per second.

“I can bring the interceptor in an accurate way, near the target, which means I can use the radar, the ‘seeker’ for a very short time,” says Horowitz. The shorter the time, the fewer the RF sensors required. “Saves money,” he says. How much? “Two digits: from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several thousand dollars.”

(MORE: ‘Iron Dome’ Protects Israel From Gaza’s Missiles: Will That Embolden It to Strike Iran?)
The savings mount up. Most guided missiles are made of so-called exotic materials, complex polymers designed to prevent the rocket from expanding or contracting as it travels through different altitudes. Again, not necessary for Iron Dome, which ascends only a few thousand feet. “Here we did it with aluminum,” Horowitz says. “Went across the street. Got some pipe.”
The result is visible in this extraordinary YouTube video from a wedding in Beersheba, an Israeli city of 200,000. The incoming missiles are not visible in the night sky until the ascending Iron Dome interceptors find and destroy them — again and again and again. “We can do more, but in this video we do 12,” says Horowitz, a reserve colonel in the Israeli military’s air-defense section. “You are not looking for the best of the best. You are looking for some optimization.”
At about $50 million per battery — the launchers with 20 missiles each, ground radar and command-and-control center, led by an officer equipped with an abort button — Iron Dome still costs plenty, especially since Israel estimates it would need at least 13 of them to protect the entire country. It currently has five. But the U.S. Congress voted about $300 million to help close the gap, which is why the Israel Defense Forces will truck a battery to Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday to be photographed behind the American President.
That no previous antimissile system has performed so impressively might raise awkward questions about the norms of defense procurement in other nations. (For David’s Sling, the Israeli version of the Patriot 3, the U.S. intermediate-range interceptor that costs about $5 million per interceptor, Rafael is partnering with Raytheon, an American firm, and still aims do the job for one-quarter of the cost.) But for Israelis, the more pressing question is how to define success.

(MORE: Psychological Warfare with Missiles: Why Tel Aviv Matters)
Back to the Beersheba wedding. The revelry appears to carry on oblivious to the wail of air-raid sirens competing with the DJ (that song in the background is “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5). If Israelis no longer scramble to shelters, then Iron Dome really has changed the dynamic. It’s not yet at that point; schools still close when the rockets fly, and parents stay home from work. But Rafael’s head of research and development, who began work on Iron Dome even before the government thought to ask for it, tells TIME that its overarching accomplishment is that it can break the pernicious cycle of escalation that can lead to things like invasions. The batteries can liberate Israel’s elected leaders from the public pressure that comes with mass casualties. “The big success of Iron Dome is not how many missiles we intercept,” says Roni Potasman, the executive vice president for R&D. “The main success is what happened in the decisionmaking civilian population environment. The quiet time. Clausewitz used to say the mission of the military is to provide the time for the decisionmakers to decide. Now, if out of 500 missiles, 10 of them get by and cause casualties, a school or kindergarten, then this is a whole different story.”

The more stubborn problem is that, even though Iron Dome knocked down 400 of the rockets fired out of Gaza in the last round of fighting, Hamas acts as though it prevailed in the conflict. What’s more, polls show 80% of Palestinians think so too, while only 1 in 4 Israelis think their side prevailed. Israeli warplanes killed scores of senior militants and destroyed hundreds of missiles and launchers on the ground, including Fajr-5 from Iran. But Hamas and Islamic Jihad still launched their own version of the Fajr, dubbed the M-75, toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem — unsettling Israelis who had previously considered themselves out of range and had not heard an air-raid siren since the Gulf War.

“[Gaza militants] were hit badly, much more than four years ago, but still I think they perceive it as a success,” says Potasman. “This is the Middle East….one side is looking at this reality from one angle; the other side looks from a totally opposite angle. That’s why we cannot communicate with them on a regular, normal basis, because you see one reality, and you look at this and you say, ‘Hey, what else can we do, to kill them? I mean, to kill them softly?’ And they look at this and they say, ‘Hey, we were able to hit Beersheba and Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. So our understanding of the reality and their understanding of the reality is totally different. It’s not the same book.”

Cold, Cold War: Putin Talks Tough Over US Arctic Rivalry

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that U.S. military capabilities in the Arctic Circle leave his government little choice but to maintain a strong foothold in the frigid north, where tensions between the former Cold War adversaries in recent years have heated up as the polar ice thawed. 

During a meeting with students in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin was asked whether Russia and other countries might loosen their grip on Arctic territory for military exercises and exploitation of natural resources in favor of environmental preservation. 

The Russian leader replied that the United States hasn't slipped off the ice shelf and implied that his country's national defense priorities will continue to outweigh conservation efforts. 

"Experts know quite well that it takes U.S. missiles 15 to 16 minutes to reach Moscow from the Barents Sea," Putin said, according to the Associated Press. 

His comments came on the heels of a recent renewal of U.S. attention to the Arctic.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel laid out the Pentagon's revised Arctic Strategy at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia last month. 

The U.S. policy blueprint calls for "building trust through transparency about the intent of our military activities and participation in bilateral and multilateral exercises and other engagements that facilitate information-sharing." 

But the Russian president's statement suggested suspicion of American intentions in the region, and possible wariness that the U.S. is not being as forthcoming as it has pledged to be.

A Hagel aide said that Russia should adopt a cooperative policy. 

"The Department of Defense Arctic Strategy recognizes that changes in the Arctic landscape create an opportunity for nations to work together through coalitions of common interest," said Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog. "We will work together with Arctic nations to ensure that the region remains peaceful and free of conflict." 

Over the last several years both nations have increased their respective military presence in the Arctic, including U.S. naval and Russian air force operations. 

Putin's recent comments indicate uneasiness with U.S. military activity so close to Russian borders.

Putin's mistrust of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines' proximity to Russian borders is fueling Russia's professed need for a strong military presence in the Arctic, Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told ABC News. 

But Kristensen discounted the likelihood that Navy subs operating outside of the Barents Sea would have any real impact on any hypothetical use of U.S. nuclear power. 

"Such a launch is technically possible but U.S. missile subs are thought to operate further back in the Atlantic," Kristensen said. "Putin's use of such a scenario to keep Arctic territories is flawed because they would not prevent such a launch, which would most likely take place in international waters." 

With many experts saying that global warming is expediting the melting of the Arctic icecaps, newly created water routes have opened up a possible treasure trove of commercial wealth to northern nations in the form of oil, mineral, and natural gases. There has been competition among countries for Arctic usage rights since the 1950s, but the accelerated melting of Arctic glaciers in recent years has resulted in the resurgence of a Cold War-like scramble reminiscent of the United States-Russia moon landing rivalry. 

Both the United States and Russia have insisted that there will be no direct conflict between the two nations regarding the Arctic region. But Putin's worst-case missile scenario suggests indirect conflict over Arctic occupation reminiscent of a bygone competition. 

Kristensen called it "an unfortunate example of [Putin] thinking about geopolitical affairs in outdated Cold War terms.