TO KILL THE MESSENGER

Web attacks on the Mastercard site have disrupted payments. The site is among several targeted by the Anonymous group of hackers, who have pledged to pursue firms that have withdrawn services from Wikileaks.

Mastercard, which stopped processing payments to the whistle-blowing site, said the attack had had “no impact” on people’s ability to use their cards.

But the BBC has been contacted by a payment firm that said its customers had “a complete loss of service”.

In particular, it said that an authentication service for online payments known as Mastercard’s SecureCode, had been disrupted. Other readers have also said that they have had problems with online payments. The scale of the problems is still unclear.

Mastercard has not responded to the claims.

It said in a statement that it was making “significant progress” in restoring full service to its website. “Our core processing capabilities have not been compromised and cardholder account data has not been placed at risk,” it said.

“While we have seen limited interruption in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use their cards for secure transactions globally.”

Other firms that have distanced themselves from the site have also been hit in the recent spate of attacks including the Swiss bank, PostFinance, which closed the account of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

For rolling news outlets Wikileaks has been a dream come true with thousands of US embassy cables dribbling out titbits of sensitive information and providing new headlines on a daily and even hourly basis.

But for the US government, the revelations are less welcome. The site has become its bete noire and after making its displeasure clear, US firms that have dealings with it have been quick to turn their backs.

The troubles began for Wikileaks when Amazon which hosted its servers in the US, withdrew services saying the site was breaking its terms and conditions. They continued when EveryDNS, the domain name firm which allowed the Wikileaks.org address to be translated into an IP address, withdrew services.

TIME TO LEAVE

US military vehicles leave the country through Kuwait

The last US combat brigade in Iraq has left the country, seven years after the US-led invasion.

The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, began crossing by land into Kuwait in the early hours of Thursday, a military spokesman said.

Some 50,000 US troops will remain until the end of 2011 to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests.

A further 6,000 support troops will be in Iraq until the end of the month, when US combat operations will end.
‘Long-term commitment’

Stryker Brigade’s personnel drove out of Iraq in a convoy of armoured vehicles.

“The last one crossed [into Kuwait] at around 0600 (0300 GMT) this morning,” Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom said.

The US military restricted journalists embedded with the brigade from reporting on its movements until they were almost at the border.

After crossing the border, US troops told journalists of their relief at leaving Iraq.

“It’s just a whole bunch of stress just off my shoulders, but it feels good to be in Kuwait, about to head home,” Troy Danahy said.

“Best part of getting back to Kuwait? One, I know no one else will get hurt, and two, I’m going home,” Timothy Berrenar said.
‘Significant step’

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US involvement in Iraq was far from over, but that it would be less intrusive and more civilian focused.

“We are ending the war… but we are not ending our work in Iraq. We have a long-term commitment to Iraq,” he told MSNBC.

IT'S IN OUR HANDS

Census 2010 teams were invited to a thank you lunch at Palace Station on 21st August ‘10, as gesture of Mission Accomplished after having all the teams worked really hard to created awareness for Census 2010 and its benefits for our state.

One of the teams was Southern Nevada Asian Pacific Coalition for Census 2010 (SNAP-CC) is a collaboration of Asians and Pacific Island leaders, community organizations, businesses and advocates whose aim is to facilitate a Complete Count of their community.

Together it represents a multitude of Asian and Pacific Islander businesses, communities, and organizations including the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), Asian Pacific Labor Alliance (APALA), Las Vegas Asian Chamber of Commerce, Hawaiian Civic Club, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), National Federation of Filipino Americans and Associations (NaFFAA), UNLV Rebel R.O.A.R. (Raising Our Asian Rights) and many more organizations/clubs and ethnic affiliations.

Founded by its members Vilma Gorre and Betty Atkins, and other very active community leaders including Duy Nguyen, Bessie Lee-Oh, to address the need of community to participate in the upcoming 2010 Census.

The core mobilized itself due to a sense of duty and concern on the full representation of the community, particularly those who are hard to reach and will present as a challenge to count.  Their primary goal was to partner with the Census in the Complete Count and mobilize their efforts to provide Questions and Answer Centers(QAC) and Language Assistance Centers (LAC) with the various community leaders and organizations who will be solicited to coalesce with SNAP-CC in its drive for a Complete Count of the APIA community.

Salve Vargas Spensko-Edelman, Partnership Specialists for the Native Hawaiians, Asians and Pacific Islanders was invited to meet with SNAP-CC to provide resource information and secure the partnership form required.

SNAP-CC meets regularly and engaged other members of the community to reach their goal in meeting the APIA Complete Count.  They established committees and events to ensure that these goals were met including an Asian Unity Fest to bring the ethnically diverse community to an awareness on the importance of participating in the census.

It is time now for all to come together and build a consensus to bring the benefits to hurting families on the main street in these tough economic time. Thank you for getting involved.

HOMELAND SECURITY INVOLVED

President Barack Obama has said “every single available resource” of government will be deployed to help contain the Gulf Coast oil leak. Up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day may be now be leaking into the water after last week’s explosion on a BP-operated rig, which then sank.

Oil is expected to start washing ashore in the coming hours. The US government has designated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as an “incident of national significance”.

This allows it to draw on resources from across the country to deal with the leak. A state of emergency has been declared in the state of Louisiana, whose coastline is the most threatened by the spill.

President Obama has dispatched high-level administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to the area. He has also ordered environmental agency officials to inspect all offshore oil rigs and platforms to make sure they adhere to US safety codes.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said: “While BP is ultimately responsible for funding the cost of response and clean-up operations, my administration will continue to use every single available resource at our disposal, including potentially the Department of Defence, to address the incident.

“And I have ordered the Secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security, as well as Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire US government is doing everything possible, not just to respond to this incident, but also to determine its cause.”

The US Coast Guard said earlier that up to 5,000 barrels of oil a day – five times the previous estimate – might now be leaking into the water. BP’s chief operating officer of exploration and production, Doug Suttles, said the company was using remote operative vehicles (ROVs) to try to find out how much oil was leaking into the sea.

FINAL VICTORY OR ANOTHER BATTLE?

Claiming a historic triumph that could define his presidency, a jubilant Barack Obama signed a massive, nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul on Tuesday that will for the first time cement insurance coverage as the right of every U.S. citizen and begin to reshape the way virtually all Americans receive and pay for treatment.

After more than a year of hyperpartisan struggle — and numerous near-death moments for the measure — Obama declared “a new season in America” as he sealed a victory denied to a line of presidents stretching back more than half a century. Democratic lawmakers cheered him on, giving the White House signing ceremony a rally-like atmosphere as they shouted and snapped photos with pocket cameras or cell phones.

Democrats have hailed the approval of legislation extending healthcare to an additional 32 million Americans as a historic advance in social justice. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi said it was comparable to the establishment of Medicare and Social Security.

The bill was passed in the House on Sunday evening by just seven votes. Republicans have vowed to continue to challenge it, saying it is too expensive and promotes big government. Senator John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, warned that outside the capital “the American people are very angry”. “They don’t like it, and we’re going to repeal this,” he told ABC News.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill as early as Tuesday, after which it will go to the Senate where Democrats hope it will be passed by a simple majority under budget reconciliation. The House approved the bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve by 219 votes to 212, with 34 Democrats joining Republicans in voting against it.

Victory was assured only hours before voting started, when the president agreed to a deal with conservative Democrats to reiterate in an executive order that money provided by the bill could not be used for abortions. Democrats were jubilant after the vote, with House Majority Whip Representative James Clyburn describing it as “Civil Rights Act of the 21st Century”.

JOBS, A TOP PRIORITY

Obama urged lawmakers in Wednesday night’s State of the Union address not to abandon the effort on what was once his top domestic priority. But his enthusiastic words provided no specific prescription for moving forward, leaving lawmakers little better off than before.

President Barack Obama voiced determination Thursday to change the tone of Washington politics and urged Republicans to get “off the sidelines” and help fix health care and other problems.

Stopping on his way out of a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla., Obama hammered again on his State of the Union message — insisting that voters and politicians needed to “start thinking of each other as Americans first.”

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were in Florida to announce $8 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail projects nationwide — part of his push to combine spending on infrastructure with job creation.

Obama also used his first State of the Union speech Wednesday to push nervous Democrats to forge ahead on health care, despite voters’ worries and opposition from newly strengthened Republicans.

On Thursday, he turned emphatically toward Republicans and implored cooperation.

“Our political dialogue in this country has always been messy and noisy,” Obama told the crowd at the University of Tampa.

“We’re all Americans. We all should anticipate that the other person, even if they disagree with us, has the best of intentions. We don’t have to call them names. We don’t have to demonize them.”

Hanging over the Obama agenda and wobbly support among Democrats were fears fueled by events such as last week’s stunning GOP victory in the Massachusetts Senate race.

That setback may have cost Democrats their filibuster-proof Senate majority, Obama said, but “we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills.”

Vice President Joe Biden, appearing in an interview Thursday morning on NBC’s “Today” show, described Obama as upset with the way his program has been handled in Congress.

“One of the things that’s most frustrating to him,” Biden said, “is the obstructionist ways of the United States Senate, on the part of the Republicans, requiring 60 votes, a supermajority, for virtually every single, solitary initiative we’ve had. Now that we have 59 votes, it’s time for everybody to start taking responsibility.”

HELP IS SLOW TO REACH PEOPLE

More than 2,000 US marines are set to join 1,000 US troops on the ground in Haiti, as aid efforts gather pace almost a week after the earthquake. Their arrival comes amid reports of violence and looting and as UN and US forces pushed back an angry crowd at the airport gates with batons.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said he would recommend the UN Security Council boost police and troop numbers by 3,500. People have been continuing to flee the capital and many are seeking US visas.

The delivery of aid to victims of Haiti’s earthquake is still being slowed by bottlenecks, aid workers say.

UN and Oxfam staff are finally bringing food and water to some parts of the capital Port-au-Prince, but the airport remains clogged with loaded planes. Many survivors of Tuesday’s quake have become desperate as they wait for aid, and many are trying to leave the city.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has arrived in Haiti, said it was the worst humanitarian crisis for decades. Mr Ban is expected to visit the ruins of the UN mission, where several staff including Special Representative Hedi Annabi were killed, and meet President Rene Preval.

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months, while some two million people are thought to need emergency relief. Meanwhile first reports from the epicentre of the earthquake suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital.

West of Port-au-Prince, there is a scene of “apocalyptic”, with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed. But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled three people alive from the rubble on Sunday. Twelve others were rescued on Saturday, the UN said.

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting.

The US Southern Command’s Lt-Gen Ken Keen said that while streets were largely calm there had been an increase in violence. “We are going to have to address the situation of security,” he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

“We’ve had incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces.” AFP news agency quoted one of its photographers as saying police had opened fire on looters in a Port-au-Prince market, killing at least one of them.

TO HELP: Authorities caution people to beware of online scammers:-

• American Red Cross: The American Red Cross has pledged an initial $200,000 to assist communities impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, and is prepared to take further action as local responders assess the situation.

• The U.S. Dept of State’s Web site suggests texting 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts. As of Friday morning, Americans have “texted” more than $8 million for Haiti relief.

• With former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at his side at the White House on Saturday, President Obama said his predecessors will lead a humanitarian mission for Haiti’s earthquake victims that will reach beyond government efforts and tap the generosity of the public.

“Americans have always come together at times of international crises,” Obama said. “Responding to disaster must be the work of all of us.”

The two former presidents are heading the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund to help raise money for Haitians. The fund’s Web site is www.clintonbushhaitifund.org.

TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

Back in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. signaled his shift from a solely civil rights focus to add the all-important issue of economic justice — noting the material distress afflicting whites as well as nonwhites. He did this by writing the Foreword to a major document, “A Freedom Budget for All Americans.”

It was the work of economist Leon Keyserling (chair of the Council of Economic Advisory under Pres. Truman) and Bayard Rustin, the legendary civil rights and non-violent resistance activist best known for his role as organizer-in-chief of the 1963 March on Washington, then Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, named to honor the equally legendary head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and who served as the Institute’s President.

The Freedom Budget’s seven basic objectives were:
1. To provide full employment for all who are willing and able to work, including those who need education or training to make them willing and able.
2. To assure decent and adequate wages to all who work.
3. To assure a decent living standard to those who cannot or should not work.
4. To wipe out slum ghettos and provide decent homes for all Americans.
5. To provide decent medical care and adequate educational opportunities to all Americans, at a cost they can afford.
6. To purify our air and water and develop our transportation and natural resources on a scale suitable to our growing needs.
7. To unite sustained full employment with sustained full production and high economic growth.

The Freedom Budget proposed an outlay of $185 billion in 10 years — which “sounds like a great deal of money, and it is a great deal of money.” But it presumed, indeed called for, an expansion of the nation’s economy, leading to increased federal revenues. And of course, even adjusting for 2009 dollars, that sum is dwarfed by what we now spend in bail-out and war funding. The document reported that 34 million Americans were then living in poverty, 28 million others “just on the edge… Almost one-third of our nation lives in poverty or want.”

Some 40 million of our fellow countrymen -women and -children today live in poverty, according to the obsolete government measure that understates the problem. The new administration and all of us would do well to look to and emulate this half-century-old model: A Freedom Budget for All Americans.

Yes, we can….

BILL PASSED IN SENATE

In an epic struggle settled at dawn, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed health care legislation Thursday, a triumph for President Barack Obama that clears the way for compromise talks with the House on a bill to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and rein in the insurance industry.

The vote was 60-39, strictly along party lines, one day after Democrats succeeded in crushing a filibuster by Republicans eager — yet unable — to inflict a year-end political defeat on the White House.

At the White House, Obama called the vote historic, and said because of it, “we are incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country. Our challenge now is to finish the job.”

Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said they would, by early in the new year. Even before they held a celebratory news conference, Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement pledging, “We will soon produce a final bill that is founded on the core principles of health insurance reform: affordability for the middle class, security for our seniors, responsibility to our children by reducing the deficit, and accountability for the insurance industry.”

The House passed its bill in November, and officials said it was likely to be February before the two sides can sort out their differences over issues as diverse as government’s role in a remade health care system, coverage for abortion and federal subsidies for lower and middle-income families who would be required to purchase insurance.

Senate Republican attacked the bill to the end, and citing public opinion polls, said they would use it as an issue in the 2010 congressional elections. “This debate was supposed to produce a bill that reformed health care in America. Instead, we’re left with party-line votes in the middle of the night, a couple of sweetheart deals to get it over the finish line, and a public that’s outraged,” said the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The Senate vote unfolded as the sun rose over the Capitol on the day before Christmas, and marked the culmination of a battle that lasted months and included failed bipartisan negotiations, a last-minute flurry of Democratic dealmaking to lock in 60 votes and a highly partisan debate that held lawmakers in session a near-record 25 consecutive days.

Beginning in 2014, the Senate bill would establish insurance exchanges where consumers could shop for private coverage sold under federal guidelines. Most Americans would be required to purchase insurance or face penalties, and hundreds of billions of dollars in federal subsidies would be available to families up to incomes of about $88,000 a year. Insurance companies would be banned from denying benefits or charging higher fees on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. That provision would take effect in 2013 in the House version.

FOR SECURITY AND RE-BUILDING

President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan but warned America would begin to withdraw its military forces by 2011.

Soldiers will be deployed as quickly as possible, bringing US troop strength in the country to more than 100,000. World security was at stake, Mr Obama said, calling for more allied troops. The mission in Afghanistan, he added, was to defeat al-Qaeda, reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny them the ability to overthrow the government.

Mr Obama reached his deployment decision after more than three months of deliberations and 10 top-level meetings with advisers. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, welcomed the speech, saying he had been given “a clear military mission” and the necessary resources.

Some 32,000 other foreign troops are serving in Afghanistan but Nato allies have been cautious about further contributions. Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged members to do more. He told reporters on Wednesday that 5,000 extra troops would be sent in 2010, and “probably” a few thousand in addition.

The Afghan government said it supported the new US strategy. Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that with international help Afghanistan’s armed forces would be able to start taking responsibility for security in 18 months.