By Michael Kavanagh, Franz Wild and Jonathan Ferziger, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, online Dec. 6, 2012 ( Jan. 2012 issue)
Israeli investor Dan Gertler, a personal friend of Congo President Joseph Kabila, earns billions by secretly buying mining assets at bargain prices from the poorest country on earth.
By Erik Wasson, On The Money blog @ The Hill, Nov. 28, 2012
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Northeastern lawmakers are seeking $80 billion from Congress to pay for damage caused by Superstorm Sandy — a demand that could wreak havoc on negotiations for a deal on the deficit.
Bloomberg (I) traveled to the Capitol on Wednesday to press lawmakers to approve the $80 billion supplemental appropriations bill — without offsets and with new levels of flexibility — to aid the recovery of New York and New Jersey.
Despite some engaging guest performances including the much-reported reunions with former bandmates Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor, the core quartet didn't hit top speed until the show's second half. When they did, they were untouchable.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post, Nov. 26, 2012
The White House warned Monday that the average family will pay $2,200 more in taxes next year if Congress does not freeze tax rates for the middle class, publishing a new report as part of President Obama’s campaign to extend tax cuts for most Americans while allowing taxes on the wealthiest to rise.
Jerusalem: A new Israeli air shield against rockets more powerful than those intercepted by Iron Dome in the Gaza conflict passed its first field test last week after being rushed through development, officials said on Sunday.
They said that David's Sling, billed as Israel's answer to the longer-range missiles of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Syria, shot down a target rocket in a secret November 20 desert trial that coincided with fierce shelling exchanges between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan --A Taliban bombing killed at least six people and wounded 90 others at a Shiite religious procession in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, police said, as the minority Muslim sect observes the annual Ashura holiday.
By Steven Morris, Leo Hickman and Matthew Weaver, guardian.co.uk, 25 Nov 2012
More than 800 homes and business premises were contending with flooding on Sunday night after more rain caused havoc across a swath of Britain, forcing the government to defend the work it has done to protect at-risk areas.
By Soni Daniel, Kingsley Omonobi, Emman Ovuakporie & Luka Binniyat, Vanguard, 26 Nov 2012
Kaduna — Over 11 persons were feared dead, yesterday and several others seriously injured when a suicide bomber rammed into the Saint Andrews Protestant Church, inside the Army Cantonment, Jaji, in Kaduna.
A military spokesman told the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC that two vehicles were driven into the barracks in Jaji in what he described as "surprising and an embarrassment" [....]
WASHINGTON — Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures, according to two administration officials.
By Phillip Inman and Josephine Moulds, The Guardian, 22 Nov. 2012
Strong manufacturing figures from China and the US fuelled speculation that a long slowdown in global output is rapidly coming to an end. Commodity prices jumped and stock markets lifted after China's manufacturing sector expanded for the first time in 13 months in November.
By Chris Stephen in Tripoli, guardian.co.uk, 21 November 2012
The Libyan security chief who led an anti-militia crackdown in the wake of the killing of the country's US ambassador has been assassinated in Benghazi, raising questions about the government's ability to impose the rule of law.
Bay Karin Laub, Associated Press, Nov. 20, 2012, (WITH GRAPHIC PHOTOS)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel in a large Gaza City intersection Tuesday, witnesses said. An Associated Press reporter saw a mob surrounding five of the bloodied corpses shortly after the killing.
Some in the crowd stomped and spit on the bodies. A sixth corpse was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the streets as people screamed, "Spy! Spy!"
By Robert J. Lopez, LA Now @ latimes.com, Nov. 19, 2012
Four men with ties to Southern California have been charged with plotting to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban to commit "violent jihad" and target Americans, the FBI said Monday night.
One of the men, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, allegedly traveled in July to Afghanistan, where he arranged for terrorist training to be conducted with Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Riverside.
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, Nov. 17, 2012
Then-defense secretary Robert M. Gates stopped bagging his leaves when he moved into a small Washington military enclave in 2007. His next-door neighbor was Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, who had a chef, a personal valet and — not lost on Gates — troops to tend his property.
By Jakob Schiller, Wired.com, Nov. 16, 2012, WITH SLIDESHOW
A symptom of the war in Afghanistan is that the images traveling west from the country are often bleak. That has an unintentional distancing effect for audiences, says photographer Jonathan Saruk. He worries that after seeing so many pictures of Afghan drug addicts, jihadists and amputees that people in the United States might be unable to relate to Afghans as people any more.
