Taliban Widen Afghan Attacks From Base in Pakistan
By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: September 23, 2009
WASHINGTON – Senior Taliban leaders, showing a surprising level of sophistication and organization, are using their sanctuary in Pakistan to stoke a widening campaign of violence in northern and western Afghanistan, senior American military and intelligence officials say.
The Taliban’s expansion into parts of Afghanistan that it once had little influence over comes as the Obama administration is struggling to settle on a new military strategy for Afghanistan, and as the White House renews its efforts to get Pakistan’s government to be more aggressive about killing or capturing Taliban leaders inside Pakistan.
Trial HIV vaccine cuts infection
An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say.
The BBC Thursday, 24 September 2009
The vaccine – a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines – was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial.
Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.
It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off.
The study was carried out by the US army and the Thai government over seven years on volunteers – all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 – in some of Thailand’s most badly-affected regions.
USA
Community Colleges Leave The Lights On a Lot Longer
NVCC and Other Campuses Add Hours, Options to Meet Influx
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 24, 2009
The biology labs at Northern Virginia Community College increasingly resemble Las Vegas casinos, at least in one respect: Inside the bright, windowless rooms, there’s no telling whether it is day or night.Students rotate in and out from 6:30 a.m. until 10:10 p.m., peering through microscopes and dissecting frogs at hours more commonly associated with channel-surfing, dog-walking and sleep.
Mandate minus price controls may increase healthcare costs
With lawmakers reluctant to limit what insurers may charge, there’s little to slow soaring premiums. Coupled with millions of new customers, that adds up to higher costs for taxpayers and consumers.
By Noam N. Levey and James Oliphant
September 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington – In the drive to bring health coverage to almost every American, lawmakers have largely rejected restrictions on how much insurers can charge, sparking fears that consumers will continue to face the skyrocketing premium increases of recent years.The legislators’ reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, an unprecedented mandate — long sought by insurance companies — that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry’s product, effectively creating a captive market.
“We are about to force at least 30 million people into an insurance market where the sharks are circling,” said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat who served as the state’s insurance commissioner for eight years. “Without effective protections, they will be eaten alive.
Middle East
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s renewed attack on Israel hastens walkout
Ewen MacAskill in New York
The Guardian, Thursday 24 September 2009
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced a series of walkouts at the United Nations general assembly last night after launching a renewed attack on Israel, which he accused of genocide, barbarism and racism.Within minutes of his criticism of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, delegations from various countries began to rise from their seats and noisily left the chamber. Many other countries had left before he even began, partly because it was the evening and partly in protest over his brutal crackdown on the Iranian opposition after June’s election and partly over comments last week again questioning whether the Holocaust had taken place.
Russia says it will join sanctions against Iran
From The Times
September 24, 2009
Catherine Philp in New York
President Obama’s biggest foreign policy gamble appeared to pay off last night as Russia opened the door to punishing new sanctions on Iran to halt its nuclear programme.Emerging from his first meeting with Mr Obama since the Eastern Europe missile shield was scrapped, President Medvedev of Russia conceded that “in some cases, sanctions are inevitable”.
Mr Obama went into the meeting, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, ready to press Russia to support sanctions if Iran refused to address concerns about its nuclear activities. He emerged saying that Mr Medvedev had agreed that “serious additional sanctions” must be considered if diplomatic efforts fail.
Asia
India’s first space mission finds water on moon
Two other studies back findings from Chandrayaan-1
An Indian space mission claims to have found water on the moon, raising hopes that a manned base could be established there within the next two decades.It has been widely believed that the moon was dry, but data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission allegedly found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.
What’s more, water appears to still be forming, advancing the possibility that human life could be sustained there. Scientists hope that astronauts could one day not only drink the water but extract oxygen from it to breathe and hydrogen to use as fuel.
Robert Fisk: Mangling everything in its path, Typhoon Sarah blows in to Asia
Our writer is there to witness the carnage as Alaska’s former mom-in-chief touches down in Hong Kong
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre, unbelievable. Sarah Palin was all of that in Hong Kong yesterday. And more. Dressed in a cutesy virgin-white blouse and black skirt with the infamous bee-hive hairdo, she was a blessing to every predicting spectator.“There’ll be one or two self-deprecating remarks, a reference to healthcare, taxation, out-of-control spending and a poorly told joke,” my investor companion muttered when the lady walked on to the stage of the Hyatt conference room. All he forgot was the bit about Islamic terror. Alas, she did not fail us. “No recording, no photography, no video tapes, no mobile phones,” they kept shouting over the public address system. And you could see why.
Europe
Metal detector man finds massive Anglo-Saxon hoard
By Danielle Dwyer, Press Association
Thursday, 24 September 2009
A 55-year-old metal detectorist unearthed the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, archaeologists said today.The staggering discovery, on private farmland in Staffordshire, will redefine perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England, experts predict.
Terry Herbert, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, came across the hoard as he searched a field near his home with his trusty 14-year-old detector.
Experts said the collection of more than 1,500 pieces – which will be officially classified by a coroner as treasure today – is unparalleled in size and may have belonged to Saxon royalty.
The hoard, believed to date back to the Seventh Century, contains around 5kg of Gold and 2.5kg of silver, far bigger than previous finds – including the Sutton Hoo burial site.
It may take more than a year to value the collection and, given its scale, the financial worth of the hoard cannot be estimated.
Protests ignored as Europe’s tallest skyscraper gets green light in St Petersburg
From The Times
September 24, 2009
Tony Halpin in Moscow
A plan to build Europe’s tallest skyscraper in the historic city of St Petersburg was approved yesterday despite warnings that it threatened the city’s status as a world heritage site.Valentina Matviyenko, the Governor of St Petersburg, gave the go-ahead to the Russian energy giant Gazprom to build the Okhta Centre, ignoring opposition from residents and from Unesco, the United Nations cultural watchdog.
At 403 metres (1,300ft), the spiralling glass spike will be four times the maximum height of 100 metres permitted by planning rules in the Tsarist-era capital, an edict intended to preserve the architectural plan of Peter the Great.
Latin America
Latin America breaks ranks in US war on drugs
Many countries in the region – most recently Mexico – have decriminalized small amounts of drugs for personal use. The moves have followed decisions by left-leaning governments to limit cooperation with the US in recent years.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the September 23, 2009 edition
MEXICO CITY – Four decades ago, President Richard Nixon turned a phrase that would become an unquestioned keystone of US policy: the “war on drugs.”Since then, Latin America has agreed, usually in exchange for US aid, to the rules of the game: an aggressive stance toward coca eradication and against narcotics trafficking.
Now, it seems, countries are beginning to back down from the punitive status quo and embracing the decriminalization of illicit drugs for personal use.
To be sure, Washington still finds many on its side. Many of Latin America’s politicians, nonprofits, and citizens are questioning the merits of decriminalization, and all countries still strictly forbid the legalized production, transport, and sale of illicit drugs.
But many in the region are now defying the long-established American mindset, even in countries that staunchly align with its security goals. That includes Mexico, where small amounts of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana for personal use were decriminalized just last month.