Wednesday Morning Headlines

Updated 10:55 am

Latest Headlines from the United States

Obama’s Transition Team Restricts Lobbyists’ Role
By HELENE COOPER and JEFF ZELENY, NYTimes

Key Points:

• "President-elect Barack Obama will bar lobbyists from helping to pay the costs of his transition to power or working for it in any area in which they have represented clients in the last year, his transition team said Tuesday."
• "But the new rules do seem to leave some wiggle room. Aides to Mr. Obama, who declared during the campaign that lobbyists would not “find a job in my White House,” said the guidelines allowed for lobbyists to work on the transition in areas where they have not done any lobbying."
• "Mr. Podesta said he expected the transition to employ some 450 people and have a budget of about $12 million. Of that amount, $5.2 million will be paid by the government, with the remaining $6.8 million coming from private sources, he said. Contributions will be limited to $5,000, he said, and the transition will not accept money from political action committees."
• "While aides to Mr. Obama say they are keenly aware that a lavish celebration might not be well received given the faltering economy, they indicate that the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s inauguration and the expectations of high turnout all but guarantee that the occasion, on Jan. 20, will be a huge one."

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AIG Execs Hold Another Luxury Retreat
Democracy Now!

And executives at the government-rescued insurance giant AIG have been caught holding another secretive gathering at a luxury resort. Using hidden cameras, local ABC News reporters filmed AIG execs poolside at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. AIG has admitted to asking the hotel to ensure there were no AIG signs and to instruct staff not to mention its presence. It’s at least the second known resort getaway for AIG brass since their government rescue. In September, company executives held a week-long, nearly half-a-million-dollar retreat at a luxury resort just days after receiving an initial $85 billion in taxpayer money. On Monday, the Bush administration said it would give AIG an additional $40 billion, bringing its taxpayer tab to $150 billion so far.

Source: Democracy Now!

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Latest Headlines from the Middle East

Nasrallah: Israeli hands that attack Lebanon will be severed
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

Key Points:

• "Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday accused Israel of operating multiple spy networks in Lebanon"
• "In his address, Nasrallah urged Arab nations to ban Israel's President Shimon Peres from an upcoming interfaith summit, sponsored by the United Nations, to be held in at the New York UN headquarters."

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Abbas says Israel has proposed Jerusalem concessions in the past
By DPA, Haaretz

Key Points:

• "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that during peace talks over the past year, Israel had proposed concessions to him regarding Jerusalem, but he rejected them because they were partial."
• "Israel has consistently insisted in recent months that the sides had not yet touched on the issue of Jerusalem, although it had agreed 'in principle' to include it in the negotiations."
• "Abbas strongly attacked the Islamic movement Hamas, at one point calling them 'traitors.'"
  
• "Tens of thousands of Fatah supporters flocked to the Ramallah compound, which contains Arafat's mausoleum and tomb, since the early hours of Tuesday, carrying yellow Fatah flags and portraits of their late leader."
  

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Media blackout? International journalists report being barred from entering, exiting Gaza
Bethleham/Gaza - Ma'an News Agency

Key Points:

• "Israel has limited food and fuel shipments into Gaza, and now appears to be preventing journalists from entering and even leaving the area."
• "Security officer for UNRWA Andrew Pollock said that there had indeed been some fluxuation in the number of journalists allowed in and out of Gaza"
• "Israeli journalists have been barred from Gaza for over two years."

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Biden told not to change Iran policy
PressTV

Key Points:

• "Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has warned the US vice president-elect against changing the Bush White House policies toward Iran."
• "Earlier on Thursday, Livni had said that dialogue with Tehran would be 'interpreted as weakness' for the Obama-Biden administration, urging the continuation of the Bush carrot-and-stick approach toward Iran."
• "Senator Obama, in his first post-election press conference on Friday, said 'Iran's development of a nuclear weapon' was unacceptable, calling for international efforts to mount pressure on the country."

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Latest Headlines from Latin America

Vladimir Putin receives Cuban foreign minister
Granma International

Key Points:

• "Putin expressed his pleasure at being able to host a representative of the Cuban people in Moscow."
• "The official visit by the Cuban diplomat comes a few days after the visit to Havana of Igor Sechin, Russian deputy prime minister, who had meetings with senior government authorities with a view to developing relations between the two countries."

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Bolivia asks US to extradite ex-president
By Dan Keane, AP

Key Points:

• "Bolivian officials said Tuesday they have formally asked the United States to extradite former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who ordered a military crackdown on 2003 riots in which at least 60 people died."
• "The 2,700-page request charging the exiled leader with "genocide" was delivered Monday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Consuelo Ponce told The Associated Press."
• "The ex-president's lawyers say the extradition attempt is no more than political harassment by leftist President Evo Morales."
• "Chances that the extradition will be granted are slim. U.S.-Bolivia relations have soured dramatically in recent months."

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Monday Morning Headlines

U.S. Provides More Aid to Big Insurer

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, NYTimes

Key Points:

• "The revised bailout came as A.I.G. reported a loss Monday of $24.47 billion, or $9.05 a share in the third quarter, after a profit of $3.09 billion, or $1.19 a share, a year ago."
• "When the restructured deal is complete, taxpayers will have invested and lent a total of $150 billion to A.I.G., the most the government has ever directed to a single private enterprise. It is a stark reversal of the government’s assurance that its earlier moves had stemmed the bleeding at A.I.G.."
• "The new deal makes the government a long-term investor in A.I.G., something that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had said he hoped to avoid."
• "Finally, the government will invest another $22.5 billion in A.I.G. to help the company buy residential mortgage-backed securities that it also insured, and similarly place them into another entity off the company’s balance sheet. A.I.G. will put up $1 billion itself."

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US Admits to Killing 37 Afghans in Attack on Wedding

In Afghanistan, the US has admitted to killing thirty-seven civilians and wounding dozens more in a military attack last week. The victims were bombed as they attended a wedding party outside the city of Kandahar. The Pentagon says the US bombed the area after coming under fire from nearby militants. It was the Pentagon’s quickest admission of a mass killing of Afghan civilians to date. It took nearly two months before the US admitted killing up to ninety civilians in a similar attack in August.

Source: Democracy Now!

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Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI,NYTimes

Key Points:

• "[M]ilitary raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush"
• "Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations."
• "The 2004 order was a step in the evolution of how the American government sought to kill or capture Qaeda terrorists around the world. It was issued after the Bush administration had already granted America’s intelligence agencies sweeping power to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in overseas prisons and to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and electronic communications."
• "The Pentagon has exercised its authority frequently, dispatching commandos to countries including Pakistan and Somalia. Details of a few of these strikes have previously been reported."
• "Administration officials said that Mr. Bush’s approval had paved the way for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to sign an order — separate from the 2004 order — that specifically directed the military to plan a series of operations, in cooperation with the C.I.A., on the Qaeda network and other militant groups linked to it in Pakistan."

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Israeli soldier beats Palestinian laborers with rock; three in hospital with multiple fractures
Ma'an News Agency

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Olmert: To honor Rabin, Israel must cede land

Haaretz Newspaper

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US Consul General expresses condolences over loss of Darwish

From the Ma'an News Agency:

Jerusalem – Ma'an – US Consul General Jacob Walles sent his condolences to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the death of Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away on Saturday in the United States following open heart surgery.

Ma'an received a copy of the letter in Arabic.

The letter reads: “I console you for the loss of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish whose death affected every Palestinian. He was always respected for his eloquence, and his poems communicated Palestinians’ grief and hopes to whole world. He dedicated his life to the Palestinian people and to the establishment of Palestinian state along with bringing peace to the region. I do realize that Palestinians lost a significant 'leader' with this death."

He added: “Darwish’s words will accompany us through our journey to remind us of our future hopes. We lost a dear friend but still we have his inspiration left. I hope you accept my condolence and I’m sad for your loss”.

With reverence,
Jacob Walles
US Consul General

Source: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=31218

Obama Flops Again?

After retracting what he said at the AIPAC conference back on June 6 regarding East Jerusalem, Obama once again says Jerusalem will not be the Palestinian capital:

Bethlehem – Ma'an - US democratic candidate Barak Obama said during a press conference on Wednesday in Sderot, a city in the south of Israel, that he does not support the idea of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.

Obama made it clear that Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and that he would not see the city divided. He added that this position needed to be fixed through negotiations with the Palestinians.

Recent years have seen Obama's position on Israel/Palestine shift dramatically towards the Israeli side. He previously stated that the issue of Jerusalem should be on the table of any peace negotiation, but after criticism of his 'naïve' stance, Obama dropped this position.

The press conference was held with Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, who said, "Israel and the USA have a common understanding of what must happen in the region."

Earlier Obama met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, where he said that he would work hard to continue the peace process.

Obama stressed that if he takes office this fall he will not "start from zero" with the Palestinian peace process. Rather, he said, "we will continue peace process efforts." He also expressed the desire to show Palestinians that there was good reason to hope for a resolution.

Source: Ma'an News Agency: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30771