Driver cited for wearing Google Glass in California

SAN DIEGO -- With every technological advance, society must answer certain questions.
One of those questions may have been answered Tuesday night on a busy freeway in San Diego County.

U.S. Embassy In Australia Promotes Anti Drone Movie

Do you want to see Dirty Wars, the movie exposing and criticizing U.S. drone policy and secret military operations around the world? If so, the American Embassy in Australia has got you covered with some free tickets.

German envoys seek U.S. answers in spy row

BERLIN: German envoys were due to hold talks with U.S. officials in Washington late Wednesday on rebuilding a “basis of trust” after alleged U.S. tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone in sweeping surveillance operations that have outraged Europe. 

Life now begins for men at the grand age of 54

LIFE does not begin at 40 for men any more, it now begins at 54.

NEW MAN: Hugh Laurie looks and sounds younger than his years [GETTY]

“With fatherhood being put off by so many, men are inevitably going to take longer to feel settled”

Surgeon Asim Shahmalak

Until then, they are busy overcoming their 20 biggest fears, says a survey.
It concludes they only feel settled 14 years after the traditional age.

Reasons for the delay are financial pressures and the trend towards late fatherhood.
Fear of never being able to afford their home tops a list of the 20 greatest insecurities for men.
Next comes losing their hair, being left on the shelf and unemployment, according to a poll of 1,000 men by hair transplant centre Crown Clinic in Manchester.

Surgeon Asim Shahmalak, from the Crown Clinic, said: “It’s not surprising that life doesn’t begin till 54. We are all living far longer and, with living costs spiralling and fatherhood being put off by so many, men are inevitably going to take longer to feel settled.”

Famous 54-year-olds include music boss Simon Cowell and actors Hugh Laurie and Kevin Spacey.

AMERICAN BEAUTY: Kevin Spacey with actress Charlize Theron
 

The rest of the top insecurities for men are:

5, Greying hair. 6, Double chin. 7, Man boobs. 8, Not being able to afford to retire. 9, Ill health. 10, Being overweight. 11, Loneliness. 12, Losing touch with friends. 13, Drinking too much. 14, Bad diet. 15, Impotence. 16, Divorce. 17, Fading libido. 18, Wearing glasses. 19, Poverty. 20, Bad teeth.

OLD DOG: Simon Cowell rules the roost at 54

profile wedding ceremony of the World's tallest man and his bride at HIGH-

HUGE: Sultan Kosen towers above his bride, left, before squeezing himself into their wedding car [PA]

Turkish farmer Sultan Kosen has married bride Merve Dibo in a HIGH-profile wedding.

The 8ft 3in giant towered over his 5ft 8in wife as they exchanged vows.
But Sultan - who suffers from a rare disorder caller pituitary gigantism - couldn't be happier.
"Now I will have my own family and private life," the 30-year-old said.

"How unfortunate I could not find a suitable girl of my own size.
"But in my fiancee I’ve found the person for me."

LOVE: Sultan couldn't be happier with Merve [PA] 
 

Sultan is also included in the Guinness Book of World Records for his giant hands (11ins) and feet (14ins).

His huge frame meant he had to have a specially-tailored wedding suit made for him.
But it was a TALL order for him to squeeze into the couple's wedding car, as they were driven away from the ceremony.

The Hirricane of the First Century: At least 500,000 homes, lives and properties lost

Girl, 17, killed by falling tree as she slept, man killed after tree falls on his car, and millions hit by transport chaos as trains are suspended, flights are cancelled and 500,000 are left without power

• At least 500,000 homes in southern England were without electricity after trees and high-winds down power cables 
• 17-year-old Bethany Freeman died today after a tree fell onto the static home she was sleeping in at Hever, Kent
• Man in his fifties also killed in Watford after his car was crushed during morning rush hour
• Dylan Alkins, 14, believed to have drowned yesterday after swimming with friends in waves off Newhaven, East Sussex
• David Cameron calls loss of life 'hugely regrettable' and pays tribute to work of the emergency services
• Roads in chaos as trees fall onto roads as high winds howl through the south of England and Wales
• Flash floods reported in Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex - Devon and Cornwall police report 122 incidents
• Amendments and cancellations on First Capital Connect, Southeastern, Greater Anglia and Stansted Express
• Also disruption on East Coast, c2c, First Great Western, Southern, Gatwick Express and South West Trains
• Ferries from Poole and Weymouth to Guernsey & Jersey cancelled and hovercrafts to Isle of Wight suspended
• 130 flights cancelled at London Heathrow Airport today but Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Bristol running as normal

Two people have been killed and at least one other is feared dead after Britain was battered by 100mph winds that ripped up trees and destroyed homes in a devastating ten hours.

Bethany Freeman, 17, died today after a tree fell onto her static home while she slept in Hever, Kent, and a man in his fifties was killed in Watford when his Peugeot 206 was crushed as he drove alone to work.

A 14-year-old boy, named locally as Dylan Alkins, is also feared dead after being swept out to sea in Newhaven, East Sussex yesterday afternoon.

Several others have been injured after they were hit by debris while one tree devastated three houses when it fell on a gas main and led to an explosion in Hounslow, west London, where two people are believed to be trapped in the rubble.

The St Jude's storm, the most dangerous for years, hit southern England with gusts of almost 100mph and left at least 500,000 homes without power after it struck at around 3am.

Millions of commuters have been left stranded and warned not to travel today unless it is essential, with at least 40 railway lines blocked, roads left impassable and hundreds of flights cancelled.

David Cameron has said the loss of life as a result of the bad weather is 'hugely regrettable'.

Scroll down for travel update and videos

The girl is believed to have been crushed when the tree fell on her while she lay in bed (pictured)

Police at the scene where a tree has fallen onto a car, reportedly killing the driver, on Lower High Street, Watford

Devastation: This home in Hounslow, west London, was destroyed by a gas explosion this morning after a tree fell on the property. Two people were caught in the rubble 

The Environment Agency has 19 flood warnings and 147 flood alerts in place and rough seas left two cross-Channel ferries carrying 450 passengers stranded outside Dover when the port had to be closed.

 

More...

• Two people feared missing in rubble and pensioner rushed to hospital after 'falling tree ruptured gas main causing massive explosion'
• Did he see it coming this time? Forecaster Michael Fish reveals a birch tree has fallen down in his garden
• The Great Storm of 1987: How the 'hurricane' claimed 18 lives, flattened 15million trees and caused damage costing £1.5billion

The Met Office said wind reached more than 99mph at the Needles on the Isle of Wight at 5am, but less exposed areas are also being buffeted by 70mph gusts.

THE HURRICANE-FORCE WINDS AND TORRENTIAL RAIN BATTERING UK

STRONGEST WINDS
1)    Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight – 99mph
2)    Langdon Bay, Kent – 82mph
3)    Isle of Portland, Dorset – 81mph
4)    Andrewsfield, Essex – 79mph
5)    Odiham, Hampshire – 78mph

MOST RAINFALL
1)    Otterbourne, Hampshire – 50mm
2)    Wychcroft, East Sussex – 45.4mm
3)    Cardiff – 44.8mm
4)    Hurn, Dorset – 42mm
5)    Wiggonholt, West Sussex – 37.2mm

The desperate mother of Bethany Free comforted her teenage daughter by talking to her as she lay trapped under a tree in a crushed caravan, according to an eyewitness.

Tess Peirce spoke to her daughter Bethany Freeman, 17, while firefighters and neighbours fought to free her but she died a short while later at the scene.

Neighbours Helen O'Connell and her partner Frederic Perdrix were at home next door to Tess's Barn in Lydens Lane, Hever, Kent, when Tess came round this morning urgently seeking help.

Helen said: 'She came round here wanting some help. She was absolutely distraught. She said she had come out of her caravan this morning and had found the other caravan with her daughter in it had been flattened by a huge fallen tree.

'Tess said she could hear Beth speaking. She wanted our help to get her out. All the neighbours came out to try and help.

'A farmer came round with his JCB truck to try and lift the tree off the crushed caravan.
'It was awful. We were trying to console Tess while they tried to get Beth out.

'I think Tess was trying to talk to Beth, trying to comfort her.

'There was no power because the electricity had gone off so we couldn't use any power tools. Neighbours were rallying to find a petrol run chainsaw which eventually someone did.

'But eventually they said Beth had died and there was nothing anyone could do for her.'

A 17-year-old girl died today after a tree fell onto the static home she was sleeping in at Hever, Kent

Emergency services were called to the scene in Hever, Edenbridge, but the girl is believed to have died from her injuries

The caravan was parked in a yard when a tree fell onto it during the storm - crushing it completely

Emergency services were called to Hever in Edenbridge at 7.18am following reports that the 17-year-old girl was seriously injured. But teams were unable to save her

Teams gather at the scene in Hever. Kent woke this morning to winds reaching topping 80mph and more than 100 trees felled 

Police Discovers Bomb Making Elements at Montreal Airport Package

Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

MONTREAL – Montreal police say a suspicious package found at an airport terminal Sunday contained everything needed to make a bomb except the actual explosives.

Spokesman Ian Lafreniere says what was found was not dangerous by itself, but police took no chances.

A 71-year-old man who had a ticket to fly out of Montreal was detained Sunday and is currently being questioned by police. No charges have been laid.

Lafreniere says police also searched an apartment in the residential area of LaSalle and seized some documents but have found “nothing obvious” so far.

The suspicious package was spotted at a security checkpoint in the U.S. departures area of Trudeau airport early Sunday morning.

Lafreniere says operations at the airport are running normally today.

man burn himself to death after being falsely accused of paedophilia by vigilantes

 
SHOCK: Bijan was burned to death after being falsely accused of paedophilia [SWNS]

Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, took photographs of local youths attacking his hanging baskets and intended to hand the film to police as evidence.

But someone saw him with the camera and told police that Bijan, who was registered disabled and couldn't work, had taken pictures of children.

Officers took him away for questioning, but as Bijan was taken from his council flat residents began chanting "paedo, paedo".

He was quizzed at a police station but officers soon realised he was using the images to catch local yobs.

Bijan was released from custody but rumours had begun circulating in the local community that he was a child abuser.

 
TRAGIC: The spot where Bijan's body was found burned [SWNS] [SWNS]

He was beaten unconscious by Lee James, 24, who with Stephen Norley, also 24, dragged his body into the street and set him on fire.

The pair will be sentenced for the brutal crime next month after entering guilty pleas at Bristol Crown Court.

Speaking after the hearing, Avon and Somerset Police spokesman Martin Dunscombe said Bijan was an innocent man.

He said: "Mr Ebrahimi was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence - breach of the peace - and after being interviewed he was released with no further action taken.

"We can categorically state he had not taken any indecent images and that nothing of concern had been found on his computer."

In a family statement his relatives said Bijan was a "loving and caring man" who lived for his garden.
They said: "Bijan was a quiet, disabled man whose only joys in life came from his horticultural interests and his cat.

"Bijan was a caring, loving and unselfish man. He was an excellent uncle and a warm, supportive brother."

Two missing after gas explosion destroys three houses

STORM: Two people are missing after an explosion in Hounslow [PA] [PA]

Three houses were destroyed following the sudden explosion in high winds shortly before 8am, which spewed roof tiles and debris more than 100 yards down the road.

An elderly woman was taken to hospital with serious injuries described by rescuers as “life-changing”.
Stunned neighbours were evacuated by scores of firefighters who rushed to the devastating scene in Hounslow, west London.

The occupants of one of the demolished terraced houses were unaccounted for.
Search and rescue teams with specialist sniffer dogs had been scrambled to look for them.
Matthew Burrows, a spokesman for London Fire Brigade, said: "There is one affected property that we have not been able to account for the people yet.

"We have had reports two people trapped but we don't know for certain yet."
Mr Burrows said efforts were ongoing to make the collapsed house safe enough for firefighters to search inside the old Victorian terraces.

There was 60 firefighters at the scene of the blast in Bath Road, which lies under the Heathrow airport flight path.

HUNT: Rescuers are searching for the two missing people [LNP] [LNP]

Structural engineers were lifted in a crane to view the scale of the destruction from above, as a large police cordon was manned.

Gas could still be smelled in the air and the road was scattered with black, shattered roof tiles which had blown up to 100ft away from the blast.

Mr Burrows said it was unclear whether the falling tree had caused the gas explosion or vice versa.
He said: "We have got a tree that's fallen down and we have got a gas leak but we are not sure what came first.

"At the minute, we are trying to confirm which way around things have happened."
Mr Burrows said the fire brigade was called at 7.45am to reports of a fire and explosion.
He said: "There were three properties completely destroyed, with a further fourth property suffering major structural damage.

"We had three people present themselves to us on arrival from those affected properties. One of those was removed to hospital by the London Ambulance Service. They were all understandably suffering from shock.

"Fire investigators are working with the police and the gas board to confirm the cause of the explosion."

China's SGAPPRFT Outlaws Foreign TV Programs

State media is reporting that the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has just issued rules that, beginning in January, will allow Chinese satellite TV stations to license just one foreign program each year.  Moreover, SGAPPRFT, as the sprawling bureaucracy is known, will prohibit the showing of foreign programs in prime time, 7:30 to 10:00 P.M.

The rules target domestic shows as well.  To “prevent duplication of similar programs,” SGAPPRFT is restricting the wildly popular talent TV broadcasts, like Voice of China, to one every three months.  Moreover, Beijing, and not the station, will select the show to be aired.

Furthermore, stations will be required to carry at least 30 minutes of documentaries made in China and 30 minutes of domestically produced children’s shows.  At least 30% of the programming will have to be news, culture, children’s entertainment, and sports. 

These new rules follow state-mandated cancellations, announced in late July, of talent shows.  The July actions came on the heels of regulations, released in February, limiting foreign television series to 50 episodes.  And who can forget last year’s prohibitions against “excessive entertainment”?

Of course, Chinese television executives are not happy about any of the restrictions, especially the latest.  Said an unnamed employee of a local station to Guangzhou’s Nandu Daily this month, “With the new policy, we have to fill seven and a half hours with educational programs.”

Beijing wants to increase the viewing of “morality-building” fare, but that hope is surely wishful thinking.  It is much more likely that viewers will desert television for computers and mobile devices, something already happening.  Moreover, it is almost certain that the Chinese public will increase its appetite for pirated DVDs—now one of the most popular ways to watch foreign TV—and illegal downloads.

And stations will certainly eventually ignore SGAPPRFT’s restrictions, just as they have done in the past.  Beijing, after all, issued similar rules in 2011, and if they had been enforced, there would have been little need for the just-issued restrictions.  As long as the Chinese central government expects local stations to support themselves financially, program managers will find ways to air popular shows, whether Beijing declares them to be “legal” or not.

So SGAPPRFT—its name has gotten longer as it found new things to regulate—is playing a game in which it cannot win, at least in the long run.  And it may not be able to win in the short term either because the new prohibitions disadvantage almost everyone.  First, the revenues of local stations will suffer.  Second, the Communist Party will lose even more control over the media as viewers turn off their TVs. 

Third, the China market will shrink for foreign programs, literally overnight come January 1.  The SGAPPRFT rules, therefore, should be viewed as a trade issue.  The U.S., surprisingly, has little trade leverage to force Beijing to drop those restrictions. 

How can that be?  Beijing did not agree to open up its television market when it acceded to the World Trade Organization in December 2001.  Yet Washington, when becoming a signatory to the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services, committed to completely open its market to foreign television programming.  Therefore, to close that market to China, even in retaliation for SGAPPRFT’s blatantly discriminatory action, would subject the U.S. to WTO penalties.

Moreover, there is a more important consideration making retaliation against China inadvisable.  “Such a move would signal American fear of their influence, when we should be conveying an impression of self-confidence and a genuine belief in the freest marketplace of ideas, even if others don’t reciprocate,” Alan Tonelson, research fellow of the U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation, tells Forbes. 

Tonelson is right, but Washington must nonetheless find some other way to get American programming into China.  Time Warner TWX +0.28%’s CNN International, for instance, is widely available throughout the world, but in China it is found in only few locations, such as upscale hotels and apartment buildings for foreigners, so that it remains generally inaccessible to Chinese citizens.  If it could be assured of access, CNN would almost certainly produce a Chinese-language channel, which would be a sure-fire winner.  Increasing the network’s penetration in China should be high on Washington’s to-do list.

U.S. trade officials should always help American companies of course.  In this particular instance, there is also another—and a far bigger—interest at stake.  One of the most important reasons why Washington’s relations with Beijing have been rocky over the last several years is that state propaganda authorities relentlessly promoted anti-Americanism, much of it on television.

One of the best ways to help the Chinese people better understand the U.S. is to loosen the Party’s grip on TV.  China’s information-deprived citizens, once they become drenched in programming from the Food Network to Fox News, will be able to make up their own minds about America, instead of letting the Communist Party tell them what to think. 

China’s ruling organization is determined to keep control of discourse, however.  It knows it has no chance of imposing its views on the populace unless it closely regulates media content, which is why it now is removing foreign programming from television screens across China.  We should, therefore, be doing all we can to reverse the process, to get American programming—and news and ideas—into living rooms from one end of that great nation to the other. 

In the contest of ideas, free societies will always win.

Iranian lawmaker: P5+1 must recognize Iran's right to enrichment

World powers must recognize Iran's right to 20% uranium enrichment within the country, Deputy of National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament Mansour Haqiqatpour told the country's official IRNA news agency Saturday. According to the lawmaker, the Islamic Republic enriches uranium at the 20% level for medical purposes and to fuel Tehran's research reactor. Haqiqatpour told IRNA that the enrichment process manufactured medicines needed by some 850,000 Iranian patients.

Israel saved me

Reverend Mulinda from Uganda and his friend Majed El Shafie from Egypt both converted to Christianity from Islam, and paid a heavy price for sticking to their beliefs. Today they fight against anti-Semitism and advocate human rights and a love for Israel.

Amit Lewinthal

Rev. Omar Mulinda (left) and Majed El Shafie | Photo credit: Uri Lenz

These two men should never have met, but today they are close friends. They were born in two different countries at different ends of the world, but their life stories are very similar, and today, they both advocate a love for Israel.

'Israel will not accept any deal that allows Iran to enrich uranium'

In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ya'alon warns that Iran is still pushing forward toward nuclear weapons •Ya'alon says so far Syria is adhering to its commitments to dismantle chemical weapons.

Israel Hayom Staff

Defense Minister Bogie Ya'alon | Photo credit: Ziv Koren

Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon gave a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday, emphasizing Iran as Israel's top security priority. 

Adelson: U.S. Nuclear Strike on Iran Ahead of Negotiations imperative

 

 

Video from the blog Mondoweiss showed Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner who donates heavily to Republicans, speaking on Tuesday at Yeshiva University in New York.

Why sex is better in hotels -- and other confessions of a constant traveler

(CNN) -- Hotels have been a large part of my domestic life.

I met my husband, who travels constantly for work, in the lobby of a hotel -- the Chateau Marmont, in LA.

 Our first, second and third dates were all in hotels: the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur and the Gran Hotel de Milan in Italy.

Why dozens of ethnic Somalis in Scandinavia are embracing jihad

Among ethnic Somalis who have tried to carry out acts of terrorism in Scandinavia is Mohamed Geele, who first moved to Denmark in 1995 at the age of 12. Three years ago, he tried to murder Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist responsible in 2005 for a controversial depiction of the Prophet Mohammed. Police arrived minutes after Geele forced his way into Westergaard's house in Aarhus with an ax.

Why Saudi Arabia can't ban women from driving forever

Colombian accused of using her 12 daughters for Prostitution

(CNN) -- A mother of 14 in Colombia tried to make ends meet, police say, by pushing her daughters into "hell" and selling their virginity for a couple hundred dollars.

Are First Born Really Smarter?

Study that says first-borns are smarter leads to debate among parents

 I am a middle child, and I don't think my older sister would be too upset to hear me take issue with the latest study to find that first-born children do better in school than us kids who were born later. (Hint: I was the kid who loved school!)

But science is science, and this study, a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, follows several other studies that came to similar conclusions about the children who came first.

Obama: You do it too, and we can make some changes

Washington -- Under fire about disclosures of broad National Security Agency snooping on global leaders, President Barack Obama is offering a two-pronged response: You do it, too, and we'll make some changes.

Thousands of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have portrayed the vast reach of U.S. surveillance activities, keeping tabs not only on U.S. call data but also global Internet and e-mail traffic.

8 Ways To Identity Great Leadership

If you ever wonder why we’re in a crisis of leadership all you have to do is to watch and listen to those in positions of leadership. While there are clearly many aspects of leadership that must work together in harmony in order for leaders to be effective, everything breaks down when leaders don’t understand how to engage effectively.

Brazilian gang sent prostitutes to African countries

 

As many as 90 women per week were sent to Africa

Police in Brazil have broken up a gang of people traffickers, which was sending prostitutes to Angola and other parts of Africa.

Nigeria’s recent election to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council

Nigeria’s recent election to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council is a global recognition and endorsement of Nigeria’s remarkable commitment to the promotion of peace and stability in Africa and other parts of the world.

Democracy in Africa: Can it deliver?

Multiparty democracy swept across Africa in the early 1990s, as single-party states and authoritarian leaders bowed to pressure from outside and within. Activists hoped greater political freedoms and strong institutions would lead to more government accountability - and more effective development. But two decades later, is this the reality?

Nigeria:Bokohara militants raid northern city of Damaturu

Suspected Boko Haram militants have engaged security forces in a lengthy gun battle and raided a hospital in the northern Nigerian city of Damaturu.

It was a "big, audacious attack" and that assailants stole drugs from the hospital and drove off in ambulances.
Meanwhile, the military said it had killed 74 suspected Boko Haram militants in a raid in Borno state. Resident said.

7.1-magnitude earthquake rocks Japan, triggers tsunami warning for region

An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 struck early Saturday off Japan's east coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and Japan's emergency agencies issued a tsunami advisory for the region that includes the crippled Fukushima nuclear site.

Tsunamis of up to 15 inches were reported at four areas along the coast, but the advisory was lifted less than two hours after the quake.

There were no immediate reports of damage on land. Japanese television images of harbors showed calm waters. The quake hit at 2:10 a.m. Tokyo time about 170 miles off Fukushima, and it was felt in Tokyo, some 300 miles away.

"It was fairly big, and rattled quite a bit, but nothing fell to the floor or broke. We've had quakes of this magnitude before," Satoshi Mizuno, an official with the Fukushima prefectural government's disaster management department, told The Associated Press by phone. "Luckily, the quake's center was very far off the coast."

Mizuno said the operator of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said no damage or abnormalities have been found so far. The plant was severely damaged in a 2011 earthquake and tsunami and has been shaken by a series of more minor tremors since then.

Mizuno also confirmed that several plant workers near the coast preparing for a typhoon were ordered to evacuate to higher ground.

Japan's meteorological agency issued a 3-foot tsunami advisory for a long stretch of Japan's northeastern coast. The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not post warnings for the rest of the Pacific.

The agency reported tsunamis of 40 centimeters in Kuji city in Iwate prefecture and Soma city in Fukushima, as well as a 20-centimeter tsunami at Ofunato city in Iwate prefecture and a 30-centimeter tsunami at Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture.

All but two of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors have been offline since a March 2011 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns and massive radiation leaks at the Fukushima plant, about 160 miles northeast of Tokyo. About 19,000 people were killed in the disaster.

A string of mishaps this year at the Fukushima plant has raised international concerns about the operator's ability to tackle the continuing crisis.

‘We’re Here to Kill Americans’: Benghazi Witness Reveals Terrorists’ Chilling Objective

A British security officer hired to train Libyan guards at the U.S. compound in Benghazi is saying publicly for the first time what the terrorists’ chilling objective was in last year’s deadly attacks.

“They said, ‘We’re here to kill Americans, not Libyans,’” recalled “Morgan Jones,” a pseudonym to protect his safety, in a new “60 Minutes” interview set to air Sunday.

Jones — who said he was annoyed the State Department had prohibited his guards from carrying guns — got a call from one of his men after the attack began.

“I could hear gunshots, and I — and he said, ‘There’s men coming into the mission,’” said Jones, who was living nearby. “His voice, he was — he was scared. You could tell he was really scared, and he was running. I could tell he was running.”

Jones said his mind went directly to his American friends, the State Department agents pinned down inside the compound, CBS News reported. Incredibly, one of them incredibly answered his phone in the midst of the attack.

“I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘We’re getting attacked.’ And I said, ‘How many?’ And he said, ‘They’re all over the compound,’” Jones said. “And — I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. And I said, ‘Well, just keep fighting. I’m on my way.’”

Then Morgan got the word — the terrorists weren’t there for his Libyan guards.

“They said, ‘We’re here to kill Americans, not Libyans,’ so they’d give them a good beating, pistol-whip them, beat them with their rifles and let them go,” Jones told “60 Minutes.”

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack on the mission and a nearby annex. An independent investigation of Benghazi found the mission security was grossly inadequate and requests for additional security weren’t approved at State Department headquarters, CBS News said.

Is America gradually becoming a slow-growth

The drama of the past three weeks has revealed a vein of despair and rage among conservatives. I share their feelings about what is happening to the country, even as I believe their tactics have made things worse (only temporarily, one hopes).

Is America gradually becoming a slow-growth, high-unemployment, sclerotic, bureaucratically top-heavy nation like France, Italy and Great Britain? Yes. Was the nation already stumbling under the weight of unsustainable promises made in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and government pensions before Obama added another entitlement? Yes. Is the U.S. receding as a world power in favor of Russia and China? Yes. Is the federal government encouraging dependency through prolonged unemployment, welfare and food stamp benefits? Yes, yes, yes.

So take a stand over Obamacare, show how strongly you feel, shut it down? Republicans (there is no "Republican establishment," despite the fulminations of the direct-mail and talk radio types) followed that script. Sen. Ted Cruz and others argued that the reason Obamacare still stands is Republicans have been too timid to resist it. They promised that drawing a line on defunding the law would lead to victory as Senate Democrats folded and pressured Obama to do the same. How did that work out? Is Sen. Cruz now a member of the "surrender caucus" because he did not contest the deal to end the disastrous shutdown?

It's dull to recite the details, but Republicans are demonstrably worse off than they would have been by passing a "clean" continuing resolution Sept. 30. That would have maintained sequestration-level spending until Nov. 15 and would have preserved the debt ceiling deadline as leverage for other items — such as forcing the executive and Congress to live with Obamacare sans subsidies, eliminating the medical device tax or delaying the individual mandate. As it is, Republicans have been forced into surrender on nearly everything and are viewed more unfavorably than ever because of the strategic blunder of the people crying "no surrender!"
According to polls, Americans are already convinced that Republicans are more principled than Democrats. A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that the only category in which Republicans were viewed more favorably than Democrats was in having "strong principles." Sixty-three percent agreed that the phrase accurately described Republicans, whereas 57 percent said the same about the Democrats. Republicans have conveyed their philosophy to voters. What they haven't done is convince them that their policies will improve the average voter's life. Only 45 percent of respondents agreed that Republicans "look out for the country's future," whereas 51 percent said as much for the Democrats.

Among younger voters, expressing alarm about socialism is probably counterproductive. Chalk it up to liberal control of K-12 education, the increasing number of college graduates among the electorate or Jon Stewart, but among the 18-29 set, the word "socialism" is viewed positively by 49 percent, versus only 46 percent who have a positive view of capitalism.

Conservatives are fond of citing polls suggesting that self-described conservatives outnumber self-described liberals 2 to 1. There's probably less there than meets the eye. The Pew poll, for example, found that 62 percent of Americans had a positive view of the word "conservative," versus only 50 percent for the word "liberal." But 67 percent had a positive response to the word "progressive."

My own sense is that most Americans give very little thought to political principles or ideologies. I wish they were all Hayekians, but they're not. When they enter the voting booth, they're asking: Will the streets be safer, taxes be lower, schools be better, jobs be more plentiful? Will the nation be stable or thrown into disorder?

Successful conservative candidates stress the real-world consequences of liberal versus conservative policies. Ideally, if Republicans had been able to field a candidate not inhibited by his own record of endorsing something like Obamacare in Massachusetts (though the comparison was overdone), they might have been better able to convince voters that re-electing Barack Obama meant higher health insurance premiums, more dropped coverage and bureaucratic incompetence.

Going forward, Republicans should be assembling clips of Obama promising that his health reform would not add "one dime" to the deficit, would bring down premiums by an average of $2,500 and would solve the problem of the uninsured.

The disillusioned will have new reasons to listen. They even may be willing to give "progressivism" a failing grade.

Obama's legacy legislation itself could be in peril

The pots and pans are clanging for the ouster of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the Obamacare website rollout takes on the aspect of that of the Edsel.

Yet, though it is a website that has America laughing, Obama's legacy legislation itself could, in its entirety, be in peril. As ex-pilot George W. Bush used to say, this thing looks like a five-spiral crash.
Republicans are clamoring for Sebelius's firing.

Herewith, a dissent. Why not leave her right where she is?
After all, Sebelius's continuance testifies more eloquently than any attack ad just how far Obama's beliefs about government and political philosophy are beyond the Middle American mainstream.

In most great U.S. corporations, if an executive had three years to roll out the product on which the company's future might depend, and delivered this debacle, he would be gone. Panic would ensue.

Emergency meetings of the board would be held to determine if more heads should roll and who should be brought in to save the company.

Outside of government, people routinely pay for their mistakes. Inside, there is often no penalty, no price, no punishment for failure.

To Obama, a mess that has members of his own party calling for suspending Obamacare for a year is just the result of "glitches."

Still good enough for government work.
Here in D.C., many live outside the laws that rule the rest of America. Average salaries are higher and benefits superior to the private sector. Job security is greater. In-grade promotions and pay hikes are routine. And that ruthless meritocratic principle — success brings promotions, failure leads to demotions and departure — is suspended.

While no startup company, symphony orchestra, chess cub or hockey team would, a priori, insist that every racial and ethnic group, gender and sexual preference be represented at birth, such nonsense is serious business here.

Here in D.C., affirmative action comes first, before excellence, diversity before efficiency.
How else did Obama himself soar from Hawaii's "Choom Gang" through Columbia, Harvard and Harvard Law? By busting his chops for years in the library?

Sebelius remains at her post despite manifest incompetence for reasons both ideological and political. She is a pro-choice Catholic, a feminist, an early Obamaite, a crony of the president, an apparatchik of the Party of Government. She is a queen in Obamaland.

Like many of his generation, Obama himself is a skilled verbalist. He talks and reads teleprompter well. As for executive, managerial and operational skills, however, upon what ground would he stand to dismiss Sebelius?

He was himself clueless as to the extent and severity of the problems in his signature legislation. Two weeks after the Benghazi massacre, he was still parroting the Susan Rice line about anti-Islamic videos, which the CIA knew within hours had had nothing to do with the murder of Ambassador Stevens.

Obama had no idea for three years his IRS might be slow-walking Tea Party applications for tax exemptions. He wasn't in the loop about Eric Holder's phone taps on Fox News or the Associated Press.
Nobody told him. The president has not been more deeply implicated in the scandals since re-election because he could credibly say, "How was I supposed to know what was going on?"

Today, more than ever, America's private and public sectors run on separate rails by different rules. Liberal Democrats own the public sector. Washington, D.C., where the federal and the local government provide the lion's share of the jobs, has never once gone Republican.

In 2008, D.C. went for Obama 93-6. The town belongs to the regime. Yet, when Washington needs something vital done, the city bypasses its stagnant bureaucracy and goes outside — to private enterprise and private contractors.

Yet, though millions of Americans outside government do the jobs that government needs done and is manifestly incompetent to do, the state remains a virtual object of worship.

The left see the state as the people, the nation, incarnate. To them, it is us. In the secularized society in which we live, government is now, to many, not only next to God. Government is God.

Again, Republicans might do well to get out of the way so the people can see the clay feet and start to laugh at the buffoons, the God that failed.

Even the Obama-worshipers in the media seem stunned by the depth and breadth of incompetence exposed.
In World War II, FDR brought together the men who made things in America, dollar-a-year industrialists who swiftly took charge and met his immediate demand for 50,000 planes and 1,600 ships.

They built the most awesome military machine the world had ever seen, arming 12 million Americans, Russia and England as well, and smashing two mighty empires on opposite sides of the world.

And these men did it in about as long a time as it took Barack Obama's regime, captained by Kathleen Sebelius, to flunk a test to create a website. There is something deeply wrong with our republic.

Multiple victims and possible fatalities in California shooting-mayor

A shooting in Ridgecrest, California, has left "multiple victims" and possible fatalities, although the incident is over, the city's mayor said.

"The incident has been neutralized, we have multiple victims and possible fatalities," said Ridgecrest Mayor Dan Clark in a brief telephone interview.

New River Monster Discovered in Brazil

For more than 200 years, skeptics have been announcing the end of the great age of species discovery—and the end, in particular, for finding anything really big. But giant species somehow just keep showing up.
Now scientists are reporting the discovery of a river monster, Arapaima leptosoma, in Brazil’s Amazonas State. It’s a new species, described from a single specimen measuring 33 inches from head to tail, in a genus that can grow to almost 10 feet and weigh up to 440 pounds.

Arapaima, also commonly known as pirarucu, is a genus of air-breathing fish that inhabit creeks and backwaters in and around the Amazon basin. They live by crushing other fish between their large bony tongue and the roof of the mouth. People prize them both for their tasty flesh and for their handsome scales, which tourists (including this writer) used to carry home incorporated in handsome necklaces and other folk art. But these huge fish are now badly overharvested, in part because it’s so easy to harpoon them when they come to surface to breathe. Arapaima gigas, for example, is listed as endangered under the Conventional on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

The only known specimen of the new species, Arapaima leptosoma, turned up not in the wild, but at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, a research facility in Manaus. A collector originally caught it in 2001, at the confluence of the Solimões and Purus rivers 200 miles west of the city. Until recently, though, everyone assumed it was simply another Arapaima gigas, because scientists said that was the only species in the genus. But then Donald Stewart arrived in Manaus for a closer look—and soon realized he was seeing something entirely new.

Writing in the journal Copeia, Stewart named the species leptosome from the Greek word meaning “slender body.” He says it is distinctively different not just in color pattern, but in such features as the shape of sensory cavities on the head and the presence of a sheath that covers part of the dorsal fin. Leptosoma is the first new Arapaima in 144 years. But Stewart, who teaches in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York in Syracuse, has lately been turning all of Arapaima classification upside down.

Earlier this year in Copeia, Stewart made the case that four species in the genus originally described in the early 19th century and later merged into a single species were in fact all valid. Meanwhile, Arapaima gigas, might just be a great big taxonomic mistake—or extinct. “Araipaima gigas is supposed to be everywhere,” Stewart said in an interview, “and it’s actually nowhere.” He has collected at two sites in the Amazon and a third in Guyana, using a 500-foot-long net pulled by 10 men—without finding gigas anywhere. Even the fish displayed under that name in the U.S. National Aquarium does not fit the description, he said.

“Everybody for 160 years had been saying there’s only one kind of Arapaima,” he said. “But we know now there are various species, including some not previously recognized.” In an email, he added that the basic work of describing new species stopped with an influential but incorrect 1868 publication. Since then the science has remained stuck “in a 19th-century time warp,” he wrote. His two recent papers, he promised, “are really the tip of the iceberg for 10-foot giants that await discovery and description.”

Getting the taxonomy right matters for the simple reason that you cannot protect species if you don’t know what they are. “Failure to recognize that there are multiple species has consequences that are far-reaching,”

Stewart said. “For example, there is a growing aquaculture industry for Arapaima, so they are being moved about and stocked in ponds for rearing.” That could mean moving fish of one Arapaima species into the habitat of another. “Eventually pond-reared fishes escape and, once freed, the ecological effects are irreversible. A species that is endangered in its native habitat may become an invasive species in another habitat. The bottom line is that we shouldn't be moving these large, predatory fishes around until the species and their natural distributions are better known.”

These big, strange-looking creatures have been swimming in the waters of the Amazon for tens of millions of years. So far, no one really knows what it is we are now in danger of throwing away.

The Political Battles Ahead for the 113th Congress

The government has re-opened, default has been averted and Congress has skipped town. The dust seems to have settled in Washington for the time being — but it won’t be very long before it gets kicked up again, as a new round of political battles take shape in the capital. Here’s a look at five political battles looming for the remainder of the year and carrying into 2014.

BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS: The most imminent battle in Congress is the one we just lived through — the fight to fund the government for the 2014 fiscal year. The Reid-McConnell bill funded the government through January 15th and extended the debt ceiling through February 7, which puts the next potential fiscal showdown just three months down the road.

The deal passed earlier this week required the House and Senate to appoint budget negotiators, tasked with coming to an agreement by December 13th (although it should be noted that if they miss that deadline, nothing happens) and top negotiators from both chambers. Rep. Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray have already met to begin the discussions. Expectations for these negotiations are low — there is no talk of a grand bargain agreement, just the hope that the two sides will reach a deal to fund the government through the year.

IMMIGRATION REFORM: In a speech on Thursday, President Obama called on Congress to fix the  country’s “broken” immigration system, arguing that immigration reform could and should “get done by the end of this year.” Although reforming the country’s immigration system has been a stated priority for both Republicans and Democrats this year, the issue stalled in the House of Representatives several months back and has taken a backseat recently against the backdrop of foreign and domestic crises. The two parties’ remain far apart on the issue, and asking for a compromise on immigration reform and a budget agreement before the end of the year is a very tall order.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: Republicans may have lost this most recent battle against so-called “Obama care” aka the Affordable Care Act (along with a couple of other ACA related battles in the past), but the party is waging a war to which it is clearly very committed. And there may be new ammunition in said war. The rollout of the state and federally run insurance exchanges- a key part of the ACA- has not gone smoothly. The website set up for individuals to register has had a series of technical problems, and a congressional hearing on the rollout of said website has already been set up in the House of Representatives for next week, further proof that this fight is not going away anytime soon.

PRIMARY CHALLENGES: The shutdown debacle fired up people across the political spectrum, including the tea party. Tea party-affiliated outside spending groups, including the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, made their opposition to the Reid-McConnell bill known ahead of the vote, and Republicans up for re-election in deep red states who voted for the bill are likely to find themselves on tea party target lists. One example, shortly after the government re-opened, the Senate Conservatives Fund  endorsed Senator Mitch McConnell’s primary challenger in Kentucky, Matt Bevin.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES? The math is not on Democrats side where the battle for control of the House is concerned, despite Republicans appearing to take the brunt of the blame for the shutdown. Democrats need a net gain of 17 seats to win back the majority, and there simply aren’t that many swing districts where pick-up opportunities present themselves. Plus, historically midterms tend to favor the party that’s not in control in the White House. Nevertheless, Democrats are energized and the public is enraged — a combination likely to fuel big funds and good recruits for the Dems, which will in turn fuel a continued speculation about the possibility.

GOP and another shutdown in three months?

The agreement that passed Congress on Wednesday extends spending through Jan. 15, and raises the debt limit through early February. But the hard-fought negotiations did little to soften the deep chasm between Democrats and Republicans on the question of government spending.

So will the nation be subjected to another shutdown? There’s a strong case as to why it won’t, but the prospect of another fiscal impasse remains a distinct possibility.

The case against another shutdown
 Indeed, the fundamentals in Washington will remain the same between now and January: Barack Obama will still be the president, Republicans will still control the House of Representatives and Democrats will remain the majority in the Senate.

(Due to a special election in New Jersey on Wednesday, Democrats will actually add a vote in the Senate, as Democrat Cory Booker replaces placeholder Sen. Jeff Chiesa, a Republican.)
But some Republicans are now speaking out against the hard-lined tactics favored by conservatives, which contributed to the shutdown.

“I would also like to point out that we learned a lesson last time – we forgot it,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday on MSNBC, referring to the hit the GOP took after the government shutdowns of the mid-1990s. “I am very confident that we won’t go through this exercise again, at these expiration dates that are coming up.”

Vice President Biden thanks federal employees of the EPA who are returning to work after a government shutdown.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., more forcefully ruled out the possibility of a January shutdown in an interview with The Hill newspaper published on Thursday.

“I think we have fully now acquainted our new members with what a losing strategy that is,” he said of the prospects of another government closure.

On CNN late Wednesday, Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., said that more pragmatic members of the House GOP would “become much more vocal and not be taken for granted.”

"Newsflash, Democrats control the Senate. Newsflash, Democrats control the White House," he said. "Neither party is going to get everything they want. So the sooner that both parties recognize that the sooner we can work together we can advance the ball."

In short, a growing number of Republicans won’t want to re-fight the last few weeks’ battles after having fought the shutdown and debt limit battles to the bitter end. The GOP extracted virtually no concessions from Obama and have only dismal approval ratings to show for it.

It's tough to imagine Republicans suddenly gaining an advantage over Obama in the next few months that would allow them to score victories that eluded them this time around.

Moreover, leaders in both parties are now vowing a change in tone – though their proclamations ring somewhat hollow, given the numerous instances in the past year alone when Democrats and Republicans have vowed to set aside their differences.

One group that assure success in the coming months is the set of bipartisan budget negotiators who will now convene a formal “conference” process of sorting out the differences between Democratic and Republican spending plans. Those negotiators had breakfast Thursday, and, if their talks succeed, it would moot January’s deadline entirely.

“We want to look for ways to find common ground, to get a budget agreement,” said House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., after the meeting.
Ryan opposed the deal that reopened the government and extended the debt limit.

Why you should fear another shutdownRepublicans didn’t emerge from this fight feeling particularly great about what they’d achieved, and Obama’s words on Thursday accusing Republicans of damaging the economy by creating “manufactured crises” hardly eased his relationship with the GOP.

Congressional Republicans still deeply distrust the president and share few of his policy goals. Moreover, the GOP exists in constant fear of reprisal from its conservative wing, which is quick to accuse party leadership of apostasy at the first sign of concession to the president.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen talks about the state of budget negotiations and says, "we need to have everything on the table as part of the discussion."

Many conservatives in Congress seemed emboldened to some extent by the fight of the past few weeks, even though they achieved few of their goals. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called the House GOP’s repeated efforts to repeal Obamacare an “incredible victory” for the conservative movement.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to hew to his caucus’s rightward flank also bought him some degree of credibility among conservatives who had threatened to depose him just this January, too. Following a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., lauded Boehner for the “wonderful job” he’d done holding together Republicans throughout the crisis.
 
Armed with newfound cachet among conservative House Republicans, Boehner might have more leeway to drive a more strategic goal against Obama before the next shutdown deadline. That is, he could use the prospect of a shutdown as leverage again, but with a more attainable conservative goal as an outcome.

To that end, Democrats eagerly circulated comments by Louisiana Rep. John Fleming to the New York Times, where he described the January deadline as “round two” for Republicans.
“See, we’re going to start this all over again,” Fleming said.

The president’s actions: 'poison the well' for immigration reform

Prospects for a comprehensive immigration reform bill remain cloudy after a bruising shutdown fight for Republicans that left hard feelings in Washington even as activists continue to push their cause.

“The president’s actions and attitude over the past couple of weeks have certainly poisoned the well and made it harder to work together on any issue,” said a GOP leadership aide asked about the chances of major immigration legislation making it to the White House.

Republican leaders say they remain committed to fixing the nation’s broken immigration system. But, as the dust settles from the shutdown mess, both sides say that the time isn’t exactly optimal for a Kumbaya moment.

Now that the government shutdown is over, how will leaders on Capitol Hill approach immigration reform? USA Today's Alan Gomez discusses.

 
“There will definitely have to be a cooling off period,” said Marshall Fitz, the director of immigration policy for the progressive Center for American Progress. Republicans hold "a sense of, ‘Yes, we lost, but we won’t back down,'” he said. "It certainly feels like the fever has not broken.”

The ink wasn’t even dry on the bill to end the debt impasse Wednesday night before the president revived the issue of immigration reform as a top domestic priority.

“Let's not leave this problem to keep festering for another year or two years or three years,” President Barack Obama said, even as House Republicans prepared to swallow a debt bill that contained almost no concessions from Democrats. “This can and should get done by the end of this year.”

That would mean cooperation across the aisle – and between both chambers of Congress – in the fewer than 25 remaining legislative days before lawmakers leave town for the holidays.

The comprehensive immigration reform effort stalled over the summer after the Senate passed sweeping legislation to overhaul border security, require employer verification of workers’ status and create a lengthy path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. House Republicans declined to put that bill on the floor of the lower chamber, instead working on smaller pieces of immigration legislation.

The logic for some supporters of reform is that – if House Speaker John Boehner put the Senate-passed immigration reform bill on the House floor, it would pass with a bipartisan majority, similar to Wednesday’s margin on the must-do debt limit bill.

In an interview with Univision, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he hopes the shutdown fight means the end of Boehner's refusal to bring legislation to the floor that doesn't have the support of the majority of Republicans.

"If immigration were brought to the floor tomorrow it would pass overwhelming in the House of Representatives, overwhelmingly," Reid said. "The American people want it, it would reduce the debt by a trillion dollars. It’s long overdue."

But there's no indication that scenario is more likely now than it was for the months when Boehner insisted he would stick with the House’s “step-by-step” process instead. Despite warnings that the GOP may be doing permanent damage to its brand by failing to take action on a comprehensive bill, there’s little appetite among many House Republicans to take up another controversial issue that would require legislative diplomacy with Democrats, who they say negotiated in “bad faith” on the debt crisis.

The House has instead been working on smaller pieces of immigration legislation designed to strengthen border security, create a guest worker program and require employment verification. Another proposal being worked on by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., would allow some children who were brought the United States illegally as children to obtain legal status.


But many House members are concerned that even piecemeal legislation that passes the lower chamber would lead to a “conference” with the Senate bill that would inject Democratic principles: chief among them being a path to citizenship – or at least legalization -- for most of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.  That’s something many conservatives decry as “amnesty” that’s unfair to legal immigrants.

Even some Republican backers of a comprehensive reform effort say that passing anything that requires negotiation with Democrats is a bad idea.

“For us to go to a negotiation, to the negotiating table with President Obama after what he has done over the last two and a half weeks, I think would be probably a very big mistake,” Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Id., told the Huffington Post this week.  Labrador, who was once a member of a bipartisan House group seeking middle ground on immigration, said that passing even small immigration bills in the House is now “not worth doing.”

Without those conversations – or even bills to meld together at all – Democrats would be left without their most important must-have in a bill to solve the sweeping issues of undocumented immigration.

“We’re not going to have an immigration reform bill this year, or next year, that doesn’t deal with the 11 million,” Fitz predicted.  “People are hungering for a solution. These piecemeal measures may step in the right direction for some, but they’re clearly not going to solve the whole problem.”

In the Univision interview, Reid made clear that he's not willing to accept anything less than a solution on citizenship, either.

"I will never agree to anything that doesn’t have a pathway to citizenship," he said.

Corruption often reign unchecked: Peace Keeping forces the solution?

 

Peacekeeping forces are deployed to challenging environments where patronage networks and corruption often reign unchecked. Plagued by decades of conflict and weak governance, post-conflict environments such as Haiti, Guinea-Bissau and Kosovo are often fertile breeding ground for organised crime.

Yet, there is very little anti-corruption guidance on offer to peacekeepers. There is no U.N. peacekeeping policy specifically focused on corruption.

Peacekeeping mandates very rarely mention corruption, and peacekeeping training centres currently do not include specific guidance on how to address corruption. This has alarming implications for the success of missions and for the rights and security of civilians that peacekeeping forces are deployed to protect.

There is a sense among peacekeeping and foreign policy professionals that because corruption is difficult, it is better to adapt and to cope with it, rather than to recognise it more formally and address it. There are many cases in which turning a blind eye to corrupt practices has threatened the success of a mission.

While peacekeeping missions are expected to behave with integrity themselves, there have been a number of cases where they directly contributed to increased corruption levels, either by the misdeeds of a few individuals or a failure to understand the consequences of turning a blind eye.

A report that Transparency International UK’s Defence and Security Programme is releasing next week, “Corruption and peacekeeping: Strengthening peacekeeping and the UN”, will identify 28 specific corruption risks that can plague a peacekeeping mission and make concrete recommendations to reduce corruption in peacekeeping.

While tackling corruption early on may increase the complexity of the early stages of a mission, it will pay dividends in terms of subsequent institution building and stability. Above all, reducing corruption in peacekeeping missions will mitigate the risks it poses to civilians.

With the increasing number and complexity of peacekeeping missions, their annual cost has risen considerably in recent years: the current budget has more than doubled since 2004 when it was only $2.8 billion.

Analysts believe that peacekeeping operations will continue to increase in the future. Indeed, some will go so far as to say that peacekeeping will be “the flagship-endeavour” of the U.N., representing the organisation as a whole.

Peacekeeping is about protecting citizens and bringing stability. But when corruption gets in the way, it does nothing but the opposite, perpetuating conflict and increasing corruption.
It is only by understanding and preventing corruption early on that the “peace” in peacekeeping can become real.

A goal to end hunger

Tied to the World Food Prize Foundation’s 2013 Borlaug Dialogue, the Skoll World Forum is featuring several keynote speakers writing at the nexus of three subjects central to the global challenges we face in the 21st century: biotechnology, sustainability, and climate volatility. The 2013 Borlaug Dialogue took place October 16-18 in Des Moines, Iowa. View the full series here.
 
World Food Prize laureate David Beckmann is one of the foremost U.S. advocates for hungry and poor people. He has been president of Bread for the World since 1991, leading large-scale and successful campaigns to strengthen U.S. political commitment to overcome hunger and poverty in the country and around the world.

We are at a point in history where we can end hunger in our time. We have the ability to carry out Christ’s mission of feeding all of our brothers and sisters. Eliminating hunger by 2030 will require increased efforts by grassroots activists, individual citizens, and policy makers to pressure the U.S. government and Congress to set a goal and enact policies to end hunger once and for all.

Americans acknowledge that hunger is a real, solvable issue. A recent survey indicated that 37 percent of Americans think the U.S. government is doing too little to end hunger in developing countries around the world. Grassroots activists are raising awareness and need to continue to do so. They have to continue to reach younger generations in order to break our leaders’ uncaring attitude towards ending hunger.

Individuals currently help in a variety of ways. They donate to their local food pantries, churches, and direct service charities to help alleviate hunger in their communities. This is important work, but in order to root out hunger, we must change the policies and structures that allow hunger to persist. This is where committed grassroots activists must continue to pressure their representatives in Congress to enact policies that will end hunger for the next hundred years and beyond. At the same time, they must protect existing anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs that are being targeted by extremely conservative members of Congress.

The  bulk of the burden of ending hunger falls on the shoulders of government. Only one in 24 bags of food assistance comes from charitable organizations; federal nutrition programs provide the rest. The government has resources that charities and churches just cannot match – neither can meet the needs of all those who, because of massive budget cuts, suffer.

Setting a goal to end hunger is the key.  This is nothing new; we have done it before.
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty is the best example.  It was an initiative that 50 years ago created Social Security, Food Stamp Program, Work Study Program, Head Start, Medicaid, and Medicare, among other programs.  In the decade following Johnson’s declaration of the War on Poverty, the national poverty rate dropped from 19 percent to roughly 11 percent.  This decline in poverty was a result of the government making poverty a priority, setting specific goals to eradicate poverty, and then enacting programs to address poverty.

Sadly, the government no longer prioritizes the eradication of hunger and poverty and, in fact, has put millions of poor and hungry people around the world at risk due to the government shutdown and budget cuts that disproportionately target hungry and poor people. The disruption and climate of uncertainty is putting the brakes on our economy.

Over the past three years, efforts to reduce the federal deficit have overshadowed the vulnerable people who are most in need of assistance – those whom Jesus calls “the least of these.” The most conservative wing of the House of Representatives has uncompromisingly pushed for deep and disproportionate cuts to programs that help poor and hungry people.  Members of congress must commit to work together and with the president to set a goal and enact a sensible plan to end hunger.

Only when grassroots activists, individuals, and government start working together toward the goal of ending hunger will we truly help our brothers and sisters. We strongly affirm the government’s responsibility concerning poor and hungry people. The Bible teaches that civil authority comes from God—and God calls for protection of poor and vulnerable people. Assuring government’s obligation to advance the common good, ensure fairness, and defend the most vulnerable is good religion and good politics.

Grassroots activists are doing their part, individuals are doing their part, and it is now government’s turn to do its part by setting a goal to end hunger. We must tell our leaders that balancing the budget on poor and hungry people is distasteful and careless. Job creation and food security will ensure a stable economy. Only then can we make sure that the next hundred years is a century filled with fruit and plenty, and not hunger and poverty.

President Barack Obama has limited ability to achieve his policy goals through legislation

Despite his win last week in a debt ceiling standoff with Republicans, President Barack Obama has limited ability to achieve his policy goals through legislation, which could result in increased use of executive powers, administration officials and Democratic strategists said.

The 16-day partial government shutdown highlighted Obama's challenges in basic governing. Although he refused to concede to Republicans in exchange for reopening the government and raising the U.S. borrowing limit, he could not block the emergence of what he called a "manufactured" crisis.

The president would now like to seize momentum to push forward three legislative priorities: the farm bill, immigration reform and a more lasting budget deal.

But his chances of progress on those issues, particularly immigration reform, depend on convincing embittered Republicans to work with a White House many of them detest. That leaves Obama more or less at the same strategic juncture he encountered before the shutdown began.

"His only play is to just keep being consistent about trying to find ways for bipartisan cooperation on the things that need congressional action and then try to continue what he's been doing for years now ... and that's looking for ways to move the ball through executive action," a senior White House official told Reuters.
"In that sense, nothing has changed in our approach except that we and the whole town had to burn however many weeks on this detour - which is a shame."

Already this year, Obama has relied on executive actions to enact climate change and gun control policies that had weak congressional support. He could use the same authority to bypass lawmakers on other regulatory questions.

But that strategy has limits. Some of the administration's climate rules are being challenged at the Supreme Court, and Obama still needs Congress to enact the major reforms that his advisers hope will define his legacy.

"Obama did himself no favors when it comes to his own policy priorities," said an aide to John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives.

"His refusal to negotiate in good faith makes it difficult for our members to work with him on other big priorities. Immigration reform, already a huge task, looks even tougher."

The error-filled rollout of Obama's signature healthcare program hurts his ability to focus on other domestic policy goals as well. Republicans plan to hammer the administration in coming weeks over flaws that have prevented people from signing up for health insurance through new exchanges.

House Republican efforts to delay or defund the healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare, triggered the partial government shutdown.


BUILDING COALITIONS
Lawmakers' votes on Wednesday to prevent the United States from going into default showed a narrow pathway to finding bipartisan support.

The Democratic-led Senate passed the measure to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling on an 81-18 vote, while the Republican-controlled House passed it 285-144.

That vote tally - 87 House Republicans supported the bill - combined with rock-solid unity among Democratic lawmakers, gives Obama's allies hope he can build other coalitions.

"I will look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done," the president said on Thursday. "And there's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly, despite our differences, without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis."

The first test of whether lawmakers can avert another crisis comes as a bipartisan panel considers a plan, due by Dec. 13, to reduce the deficit. Under the compromise forged last week, the government would be funded through Jan. 15 and the debt ceiling lifted through Feb. 7.

That tight time frame does not allow much room for the president's other policy priorities to gain traction.
Democrats believe, however, that Obama's bargaining hand may be strengthened by the thrashing Republicans took in opinion polls over their handling of the shutdown.

"This shutdown re-emphasized the overwhelming public demand for compromise and negotiation. And that may open up a window," said Ben LaBolt, Obama's 2012 campaign spokesman and a former White House aide.

"There's no doubt that some Republican members (of Congress) are going to oppose policies just because the president's for it. But the hand of those members was significantly weakened."

If he does have an upper hand, Obama is likely to apply it to immigration reform. The White House had hoped to have a bill concluded by the end of the summer. A Senate version passed with bipartisan support earlier this year but has languished in the Republican-controlled House.

"It will be hard to move anything forward, unless the Republicans find the political pain of obstructionism too much to bear," said Doug Hattaway, a Democratic strategist and an adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

"That may be the case with immigration - they'll face pressure from business and Latinos to advance immigration reform," he said.

A White House official said Obama's options for using executive action to advance immigration reform were largely exhausted. Last year, his administration relaxed deportation rules for children who came to the United States illegally with their parents. The move helped boost his support among Hispanics, a key voting bloc, in last November's election.

If a package of immigration measures does not move soon, Democrats hope the results will show up in Republican defeats in next year's congressional elections. If Democrats regain control of the House, the way could be smoothed for comprehensive immigration reform in the second half of Obama's final term.