UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 (IPS) - As the United Nations commemorated its sixth annual 'U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation' Friday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon singled out the growing new ties among developing countries that go far beyond trade and investments: education, science, agriculture, medicine, health services and information technologies."Over the past 30 years, there has been an upsurge in South-South cooperation," he said. "The impact of development actors from the South continues to grow in spite of the global financial downturn, lending increased significance to the contributions of South-South cooperation to development," Ban added, pointing out some of the significant success stories.
A marathon negotiating session of nearly 13 hours on Friday clinched an agreement with Senator Ben Nelson ensuring federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions and providing extra Medicaid funds for his home state of Nebraska. Nelson, a strong abortion rights opponent, had been the elusive 60th vote for Democrats on the sweeping revamp, Obama's top legislative priority and the subject of intense political brawling for months. "Today is a major step forward for the American people," Obama told reporters at the White House. "After a nearly century-long struggle we are on the cusp of making healthcare reform a reality in the United States of America." Nelson's backing should secure victory for Democrats in the first of a series of crucial procedural votes scheduled to begin at 1 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Monday and possibly conclude with final passage on Christmas Eve.
A marathon negotiating session of nearly 13 hours on Friday clinched an agreement with Senator Ben Nelson ensuring federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions and providing extra Medicaid funds for his home state of Nebraska.
Nelson, a strong abortion rights opponent, had been the elusive 60th vote for Democrats on the sweeping revamp, Obama's top legislative priority and the subject of intense political brawling for months.
"Today is a major step forward for the American people," Obama told reporters at the White House. "After a nearly century-long struggle we are on the cusp of making healthcare reform a reality in the United States of America."
Nelson's backing should secure victory for Democrats in the first of a series of crucial procedural votes scheduled to begin at 1 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Monday and possibly conclude with final passage on Christmas Eve.
How Obama could have viewed this as a deseirable result baffles me. Yet it really does seem that, in giving away single payer and the pharma negotiations, this was all that was possible.
this is not a step toward universal health care, this is a poison pill to sour america on the idea for decades to come. keep to the Fen Causeway
Nigeria's main armed rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), has claimed responsibility for an attack on a pipeline on Saturday, ending a two-month truce with the government. The "warning strike [was] carried out by five boats involving 35 ... fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket-launchers and heavy calibre machine guns ... at about 0200Hrs today... on a major Shell/Chevron crude pipeline in southern Rivers State," a Mend email said. Shell did not immediately comment on the claim. The rebels blamed the government for suspending peace talks because of the ill health of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
The "warning strike [was] carried out by five boats involving 35 ... fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket-launchers and heavy
calibre machine guns ... at about 0200Hrs today... on a major Shell/Chevron crude pipeline in southern Rivers State," a Mend email said.
Shell did not immediately comment on the claim.
The rebels blamed the government for suspending peace talks because of the ill health of President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, has retained key technocrats in his nominations for a new cabinet that the US is counting on to deliver reforms in support of its expanded military effort against the Taliban.Mr Karzai sent his list to parliament for approval on Saturday, keeping Western favourites in the defence, interior, finance and agriculture portfolios and jettisoning two ministers tarnished by graft allegations. US strategists believe the outcome of a decision by Barack Obama, the US president, to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in a bid to break the Taliban will depend on a large extent on how far Mr Karzai's team can deliver better governance. Afghan politicians questioned, however, why key ministers should suddenly be any more capable of rolling back an insurgency that has managed to dominate a third of the country's provinces under their watch.
Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president, has retained key technocrats in his nominations for a new cabinet that the US is counting on to deliver reforms in support of its expanded military effort against the Taliban.
Mr Karzai sent his list to parliament for approval on Saturday, keeping Western favourites in the defence, interior, finance and agriculture portfolios and jettisoning two ministers tarnished by graft allegations.
US strategists believe the outcome of a decision by Barack Obama, the US president, to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in a bid to break the Taliban will depend on a large extent on how far Mr Karzai's team can deliver better governance.
Afghan politicians questioned, however, why key ministers should suddenly be any more capable of rolling back an insurgency that has managed to dominate a third of the country's provinces under their watch.
The weak accord with which the United Nations climate summit closed is a harbinger of world leaders' likely future failure in efforts to impose tougher sanctions against Iran, diplomats said Saturday. The historic climate talks ended Saturday after a 31-hour negotiating marathon, with delegates accepting a U.S.-brokered compromise that gives billions in climate aid to poor nations but does not require the world's major polluters to make deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. Following the end of the summit, diplomats said that China's flexing of its political muscles in its disputes with the United States at the conference should serve as a warning of what will happen when the Obama administration seeks to bring tougher sanctions against Iran for UN Security Council approval.
Christopher Flavelle, Pro Publica.com
Major details, like the number of detainees to be transferred there, remain unclear. A letter [2] (PDF) sent by administration officials to Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois referred only to a "limited number." Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said today that "fewer than 100" of the detainees "will be ultimately transferred out of Guantanamo."... The administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the detainees to be transferred to Illinois would include those facing trials in front of military commissions, which will be held at the prison. They said that detainees who are set to be transferred to third countries, meanwhile, will not be moved to Thomson first. Meanwhile, detainees set to face trial in civilian courts "will be transferred directly to that jurisdiction" -- apparently a reference to the detainees set to be tried in Manhattan [4] and perhaps Brooklyn [5]. Some of the detainees transferred to Thomson may never get a trial. The officials said the administration will need to convince Congress to pass legislation allowing so-called "untriable" detainees -- those that may face indefinite detention -- to be moved to the prison at Thomson. Under current law, detainees can be transferred to the United States only for the purposes of prosecution. Read more...
The administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the detainees to be transferred to Illinois would include those facing trials in front of military commissions, which will be held at the prison. They said that detainees who are set to be transferred to third countries, meanwhile, will not be moved to Thomson first. Meanwhile, detainees set to face trial in civilian courts "will be transferred directly to that jurisdiction" -- apparently a reference to the detainees set to be tried in Manhattan [4] and perhaps Brooklyn [5].
Some of the detainees transferred to Thomson may never get a trial. The officials said the administration will need to convince Congress to pass legislation allowing so-called "untriable" detainees -- those that may face indefinite detention -- to be moved to the prison at Thomson. Under current law, detainees can be transferred to the United States only for the purposes of prosecution.
Read more...
Possibly related news:
14 Dec 2009, CS Monitor.com 14 Dec 2009, CCR.org 2 Nov, 2009, AFP 22 May 2009, Pro Publica.org Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
