Robin Fasano , 33, recently returned from a 12-day trip to Iraq co-sponsored by Global Exchange and CodePink, two peace and social justice organizations. Before moving to Tucson two years ago, Fasano lived in New York City and Massachusetts, where she worked in publishing and public relations. What led to your decision to go to Iraq? I believe it’s important to witness what’s happening in Iraq and raise awareness about the situation. The United States can often have an insular view of events outside our borders. It’s too easy to get complacent about what’s happening elsewhere. Where did you go in Iraq? We stayed in the heart of Baghdad, close to the main square, and traveled mostly in Baghdad and its outlying areas. What did you do there? We spoke with and visited a wide range of people, both Iraqis and Americans. We spoke to Songul Chapouk, one of three women on the governing council, and with women’s organizations working with displaced women. We met with the Baghdad Museum’s director. We spoke with the Iraqi police chief and colonel, and an American police officer sent to set up an internal-affairs office in conjunction […]
WASHINGTON – Amid mounting frustration over taxation and banking problems, small but growing numbers of overseas Americans are taking the weighty step of renouncing their citizenship. ‘What we have seen is a substantial change in mentality among the overseas community in the past two years, said Jackie Bugnion, director of American Citizens Abroad, an advocacy group based in Geneva. ‘Before, no one would dare mention to other Americans that they were even thinking of renouncing their U.S. nationality. Now, it is an openly discussed issue. The Federal Register, the government publication that records such decisions, shows that 502 expatriates gave up their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status in the last quarter of 2009. That is a tiny portion of the 5.2 million Americans estimated by the State Department to be living abroad. Still, 502 was the largest quarterly figure in years, more than twice the total for all of 2008, and it looms larger, given how agonizing the decision can be. There were 235 renunciations in 2008 and 743 last year. Waiting periods to meet with consular officers to formalize renunciations have grown. Anecdotally, frustrations over tax and banking questions, not political considerations, appear to […]
TALLINN, Estonia – Fearful of losing public support for the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. and NATO on Friday agreed to start transferring control of the country back to its leaders by year’s end but acknowledged that achieving stability will take decades. If successful, the transition plan approved by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and representatives of the 27 other NATO countries would enable President Barack Obama to meet his target date of July 2011 for starting to bring American troops home. The stakes are high. If the plan fails, public support in Europe, the U.S. and among Afghans themselves could further erode or even collapse. Much depends not only on improved NATO military performance but also on political reconciliation between the Taliban and Afghan’s central government. The allies must quickly improve the training and performance of the Afghan army and police, and strengthen Afghan institutions weakened by decades of conflict. Clinton on Friday offered an optimistic assessment of the approach, which NATO hopes Afghan President Hamid Karzai will endorse in July at an international conference in Kabul. Once approved, NATO would officially implement the plan at a summit, possibly in conjunction with […]
An Iraqi court has ordered a partial recount of votes cast in the March 7 parliamentary elections, which could erase the lead of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, shown after speaking to the press in Baghdad last week. Allawi says he won’t acknowledge results of the recount unless it is extended to other areas of the country. Nearly two months after the vote, Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary election is still up in the air. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s electoral bloc got two more seats than that of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But just as that result was to be confirmed, an Iraqi judge last week ordered a recount in Baghdad — which could erase Allawi’s lead. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Ayad Allawi has threatened to reject the court’s decision, throwing the formation of Iraq’s government even further into doubt. Allawi is an avuncular 65-year-old medical doctor whose smile is often compared to that of TV gangster Tony Soprano. In 1971, he left Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party for exile in London — a separation later confirmed when a man, presumed to be an Iraqi agent, attacked Allawi with an axe, nearly killing him. […]
SINGAPORE — Scientists have discovered a fast-moving deep ocean current with the volume of 40 Amazon Rivers near Antarctica that will help researchers monitor the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans. A team of Australian and Japanese scientists, in a study published in Sunday’s issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, found that the current is a key part of a global ocean circulation pattern that helps control the planet’s climate. Scientists had previously detected evidence of the current but had no data on it. ‘We didn’t know if it was a significant part of the circulation or not and this shows clearly that it is,’ one of the authors, Steve Rintoul, told Reuters. Rintoul, of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, said it proved to be the fastest deep ocean current yet found, with an average speed of 20 cm (7.9 inches) a second. It was also found to carry more than 12 million cubic meters a second of very cold, salty water from Antarctica. ‘At these depths, below three kilometers (two miles) from the surface, these are the strongest recorded speeds we’ve seen so far, which was really […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
