By Ginger Thompson, New York Times, January 14/15, 2011
....The administration had been expected to announce these measures months ago, but Congressional and administration officials said they were delayed because of White House concerns about their possible impact on the 2010 midterm elections.
There were also worries about the effect the move could have on the detention of a contractor for the United States Agency for International Development who was arrested in Cuba more than a year ago....
By William D. Hartung for Asia Times Online, January 13, 2011
Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation that receives one of every $14 doled out by the Pentagon, is shadowing you? No? Then you haven't been paying much attention. Put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it.
By Gregory Meyer and Javier Blas, Financial Times, January 12
The world has moved a step closer to a food price shock after the US government surprised traders by cutting stock forecasts for key crops, sending corn and soyabean prices to their highest level in 30 months.
....If all goes according to plan, the U.S. Treasury Department will exchange $49.1 billion of preferred shares for 1.655 billion new shares of AIG common stock on Friday. This will dilute current equity holders a lot. To prevent investors from dumping their shares, AIG said late last year that it would give them warrants.....
By Nicholas Blanford, Christian Science Monitor, January 12, 2010
Fearing the international indictment of some of its leaders for the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hezbollah ministers resigned Wednesday, causing the collapse of Lebanon's coalition government.
It happened shortly AFTER Obama met with Prime Minister Hariri at the White House:
By Ravi Somaiya and Alan Cowell, New York Times, January 11/12, 2011
LONDON — Lawyers for Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks antisecrecy group, said on Tuesday that they would oppose his extradition to Sweden because he might subsequently face “illegal rendition” to the United States, risking imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, or even the death penalty.
By Jennifer Bennett, Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2011
The city of Brisbane braces for major damage from flooding and the massive release of water from a dam. In the town of Toowoomba, 'a wall of water' takes a heavy toll.
By John Schwartz, New York Times, January 10/11, 2011
With judges looking ever more critically at home foreclosures, they are reaching beyond the bankers to heap some of their most scorching criticism on the lawyers. In numerous opinions, judges have accused lawyers of processing shoddy or even fabricated paperwork in foreclosure actions when representing the banks....
Can a regimen of no playdates, no TV, no sleepovers, no school plays, no computer games and hours of music practice create happy kids? And what happens when they fight back?
By Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris, Financial Times, January 9
Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, condemned as “barbaric terrorism” the killing of two French hostages in Niger on Saturday, after a rescue mission to release them from forces thought to be linked to al-Qaeda in the in the Islamic Maghreb failed....
By Daniel O'Neil of imunitedforhaiti.org @ Miami Herald blogs
....Nearly a year later and on the other side of the world, I saw what could be Haiti's future.
In October, I traveled to Indonesia with a World Bank study group to see how that country recovered after the post-Christmas 2004 tsunami....All stakeholders involved in Haiti can learn important lessons from the Indonesia's tsunami and earthquake recovery experiences. Here are my four takeaways from that success story....
