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Though the White House pressured Afghan President Hamid Karzai to accept a runoff election after allegations of fraud last August, now that Abdullah Abdullah has backed out, they want the runoff to stop. Abdullah was convinced not to call for a boycott to the runoff in his emotional resignation speech Sunday, which will preserve some stability in the region. Now that he’s bowed out, Western diplomats, including from the U.N., are attempting to dissuade President Karzai from holding the election by himself to avoid wasting money and loss of life. "There is a lot of pressure behind the scenes on Karzai not to go to a runoff," a senior Western diplomat said. "But he just doesn't want to accept a victory by default." Karzai has said he wants to go ahead with the vote, while the U.S. worries the largely symbolic election might trigger new Taliban attacks and do little to establish legitimacy for Karzai in the eyes of Afghanistan’s people. The White House had sought to portray Karzai’s willingness to engage in a runoff as a victory in itself for corrupt Afghan politics. Abdullah said he’s still open to a power-sharing deal with Karzai.
On Meet the Press this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the Obama administration’s moves on the economy, saying that growth and job creation were a higher priority than the Treasury’s ever-expanding deficit. “Right now we’re focused on getting growth back on track,” he said. “It could be a little choppy. It could be uneven. And it’s going to take awhile.” Though he acknowledges that “unemployment is worse than almost everybody expected,” Geithner attempted to focus on the positive, dodging questions about rising taxes and pointing to the troubled bank system as “dramatically more stable” than before the bailout, despite the failure of 115 banks so far this year. Geithner did not rule out the possible need for a second stimulus package, but said, “You’re not going to see real recovery until it’s led by the private sector, by businesses.”
Interrogation, intimidation, humiliation, spying, and manual labor are what awaits defectors from Scientology, reports The St. Petersburg Times in a fascinating investigation into the church’s inner workings. The article quotes interviews with several former high-ranking church officers and a husband and wife who tried to escape the grips of the controversial faith multiple times over nearly two decades. When members of the church of Scientology want to leave, they endure a process known as "routing out," a harrowing routine of manual labor and interrogations that can take up to months, according to former high-ranking Scientology officials. The other option, to "blow," or secretly escape, triggers a paranoid chase by church officials, wherein deserters are tracked down and coerced into returning when found. The obsessive nature of these searches began when current church leader David Miscavige took over for founder L. Ron Hubbard. Officials say Miscavige became concerned that former members would reveal secrets about the church. One member tried to escape by jumping into a truck only to be chased "for three hours, at speeds of up to 100 mph," according to one official. That member was eventually found and returned to the church.
The drama within the GOP is heating up. After resigning from New York's 23rd District special election race yesterday, Republican State Senator Dede Scozzafava has announced her endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens for the House seat. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York," Scozzafava said in a statement. The remaining Republican standing in the two-way race is Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, who has received backing from Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson. Political analysts and pollsters are scrambling to predict what this means for the 20 percent of voter support, Scozzafava—a moderate to liberal Republican—held. "When we try to parse the Scozzafava voters, they mostly look like a toss-up, with at most a sliver of extra support for Owens," said one political analyst. Democrats are capitalizing on the stir-up within the Republican Party to point out that it's stifling moderate voices and being "taken captive by its right wing."
Goldman Sachs sold more than $40 billion in securities backed by 200,000 risky home mortgages in 2006 and 2007, but the nation's premier investment bank never told buyers that it was secretly betting that U.S. housing prices would drop. Goldman's clandestine maneuvers enabled the bank to pass most of its potential losses onto others before mortgage defaults flooded the world economy. A McClatchy investigation out Sunday reveals that Goldman's failure to disclose deals may have violated securities laws. "The Securities & Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion," said one economist. "This is fraud and should be prosecuted." But another expert interviewed by the newspaper chain indicated that, depending upon what executives knew, the actions could have been legal.
Palestinians have accused the U.S. of further stymieing its peace talks with Israel, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed up Israel's right to continue settlement in the West Bank during a one-day visit on Saturday to the Middle East. Palestinians have imposed a freeze precondition for resuming negotiations that have been on hold since December. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has proposed limited building for settlement homes in the West Bank, told Palestinians to "get a grip" and drop the precondition. President Obama also backtracked on a previous call for a freeze, instead now encouraging "restraint" in the West Bank. "The negotiations are in a state of paralysis, and the result of Israel's intransigence and America's back-pedaling is that there is no hope of negotiations on the horizon," a Palestinian spokesperson said.
Tadamasa Goto, the rumored “Godfather” of the Yakuza, Japan’s 85,000-member mafia, jumped to the top of a liver transplant list at UCLA Medical Center under suspicious circumstances, reports CBS’s 60 Minutes. Despite Goto’s billion-dollar fortune, money could not buy him a new liver in Japan, where organ donations are taboo. The chief of immigration and customs at Tokyo’s U.S. Embassy says the “John Gotti of Japan,” as the richest and most violent mobster is known by U.S. law enforcement, should not have been allowed into the country, based on both his extensive criminal history and membership in a criminal organization. An expert writer and investigator on the Yakuza says Goto made a deal with the FBI, offering to inform on fellow Yakuza members in exchange for a special visa. Though the average waiting time for a liver in California is three years, Goto got one in just six weeks, despite the fact that he was reportedly No. 80 on the hospital’s waiting list. Three of his Yakuza associates also got liver transplants, costing them about $400,000 dollars each, all paid for in cash, CBS reports. Goto and another Yakuza reportedly each gave $100,000 to the UCLA transplant center, despite rules requiring extensive background checks on every patient.
Was the back and forth about the public option all in vain? Despite epic battles in Congress, a study from the Congressional Budget Office now shows that a trifling 2 percent of Americans under 65 would sign up for the public-option plan proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The compromises made in Congress may have scaled back the public-option component to the point where it is now an ineffective challenger to private insurance companies. "The concern was that the public option would destabilize the bulk of private insurance, but in fact what Congress has fashioned is very targeted," said one economist. The proposal as it stands now, according to the budget office, would attract a small number of less healthy enrollees looking for looser rules on access to specialists.
Despite international attention, officials in Washington met the recent shakeup in the Afghan elections with a shrug. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted Abdullah Abdullah's decision to drop out of the runoff race and quickly urged leaders there to resolve the election quickly. "It is now a matter for the Afghan authorities to decide on a way ahead that brings this electoral process to a conclusion in line with the Afghan constitution," Clinton said, a week after she and John Kerry and other influential American leaders lobbied for President Hamid Karzai to accept the runoff. Polls indicated that Abdullah would lose the runoff, and Clinton announced Sunday that Washington would support whomever the next Afghan president will be. The administration also promised that the fracas would not disturb the U.S. promise to send more troops to the area. Top adviser David Axelrod said that he expected President Obama to make a decision on whether to send approximately 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan "within weeks."
CIT Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday in an attempt to restructure its debt while keeping loans flowing to the thousands of small and midsize businesses it funds. It is the fifth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Billionaire investor and bondholder Carl Icahn will provide the century-old commercial lender with $1 billion in funds while the company restructures. CIT’s move will wipe out holders of its common and preferred stocks, meaning the government will most likely lose the $2.3 billion it pumped into the company last year before declining the lender more funds. Chief Executive Jeffrey Peek said that the bankruptcy “will allow CIT to continue to provide funding to our small-business and middle-market customers.” CIT had requested bondholders to exchange $30 billion in debt for new securities and equity, but the company's debt holder rejected the offer. The company hopes to emerge from bankruptcy within two months.
Can Obamamania save Jon Corzine's attempt to re-take New Jersey? The president made an appearance at two campaign rallies for the Democratic governor Sunday, trying to rally the mass of voters who contributed to his own presidential triumph. Obama has also appeared in Internet and television ads with Corzine, and the two are prominently featured on billboard ads together. The financially battered state has one of the highest property taxes in the nation, and Corzine has further inflamed voters by raising the sales tax, cutting funding to municipalities, and making union workers contribute to certain benefits for the first time. Corzine's campaign against Republican Chris Christie appeared to be on its death bed over the summer. He’s been able to claw himself back into the race with the help of three visits from Obama since July. The White House is eager for the Jersey win to counter Democrat Creigh Deeds’ expected defeat in the Virginia governor’s race.
Sony’s documentary on what was to be the late Michael Jackson’s comeback concert in London, both titled This Is It, moonwalked its way right to the top of this weekend’s box office. Earning an estimated $21.3 million domestically over the Halloween weekend, the film, directed by High School Musical’s Kenny Ortega, actually accumulated $32.5 million, thanks to its early opening on Wednesday at midnight. It was, however, expected to garner $40 million-plus during its extended five-day debut in theaters. Nevertheless, the worldwide box-office numbers of $101 million have prompted Sony to lengthen what was initially supposed to be a two-week-only release. This Is It will be available for an additional three weeks domestically and one to three weeks internationally. “It definitely played well here, but we knocked it out of the park worldwide,” said Sony distribution president Rory Bruer of the King of Pop’s final work. “The film really does give you a rare opportunity to see his genius at work."
Apple's iPhone releases in the U.S. have been met with seemingly interminable waits and fanfare. But on Friday, when the iPhone debuted in China, there wasn’t even a wait to buy the phones at the flagship Apple store in Beijing. The phones had yet to sell out as of Sunday evening, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple and Unicom, the state-owned and authorized carrier of the iPhone, are charging $730 to $1,020 for the sleek piece of mobile technology, which doesn't even come with Wi-Fi service because of restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. The price may put the iPhone at a disadvantage in a country where unauthorized iPhones are a regular on the gray market. An estimated 2 million users already own one, and at a fraction of the cost. Apple and China Unicom declined to provide sales figures.
Winter came early for Beijing Sunday, as snow descended on the Chinese city and temperatures dropped to 29 degrees Fahrenheit. The government was behind the unexpected weather. The meteorological department, which routinely injects silver iodide into the clouds to release precipitation, was trying to counter the country’s widespread drought in its northern region. The rainmakers succeeded in producing 17 million tons of snow for the city. It was the earliest snowfall for Beijing in the past 10 years.
While most people were recovering from Halloween Sunday morning, Meb Keflezighi became the first American runner to win the New York City Marathon since 1982, when Alberto Salazar came in first place. Keflezighi, who was born in Eritrea but later became a U.S. citizen, finished the race in 2:09:05 minutes, beating his competition—Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya—by 41 seconds. Cheruiyot is a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon and was looking to take home the prize from New York this time. Keflezighi earned a silver medal in the Athens Olympics but had previously never won a major marathon. He came through the finish line pointing at the “U.S.A.” letters on his jersey, and began crying after the race was done, saying, “U.S.A. gave me all the opportunity in the world, education, sports, lifestyle. This is so special to me.”
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's decision to withdraw from the governor's race in California has left the state's Democratic voters with slim options. Sure, there's a competitive race in the GOP field, but for the 7 million declared Democrats in the liberal state, the most attractive candidate is Attorney General Jerry Brown, and he hasn't even declared his candidacy yet. Why are there so few Democrats eager to run for the position? "It's a thankless job right now," one strategist told the Los Angeles Times. "It's not just making California into whatever your vision is. It's really trying to just hang on in a horrible economic situation where all your choices are terrible choices."
As if being a movie star isn’t enough of a status symbol for a teenager, Dakota Fanning has now been named her high school’s homecoming queen. The actress, who appears in the upcoming Twilight sequel New Moon, is also a cheerleader when she’s off the set. Fanning showed off her athletic prowess at her school this weekend, doing flips and being tossed in the air in front of the crowd at a football game for her upscale North Hollywood high school. Later in the night, the 15-year-old walked down a red carpet with a football player and the duo was named king and queen. What could the blonde prodigy possibly conquer next?
ABC is giving television viewers one more thing to be paranoid about: alien invasions. The network is bringing back ‘80s sci-fi classic V, about aliens coming to Earth, in a new series, airing the first four episodes beginning this Tuesday. With a number of “knockout performances” from the cast and a “tantalizing array of plots,” Variety gave the show a thumbs up, describing it as “a strange amalgam of post-Sept. 11 paranoia and science-fiction soap opera.” At the end of the day, a good alien story never gets old—and with Lost leaving the airwaves after just one more season, the network needs a hit series to keep viewers puzzling over plot points and coming back for more.
President Obama and Michelle Obama hosted 2,000 kids at the White House Saturday for Halloween and passed out a mix of M&Ms and dried fruit to the hordes of trick-or-treaters. While the first lady dressed in a demure Catwoman costume—wearing furry cat ears and a leopard-print top—the president went without a costume and his spokesman Robert Gibbs dressed as Darth Vader. The event was the first White House Halloween for first kids Sasha and Malia, but the White House refused to tell reporters what the two wore.
Six Chinese Muslims who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay arrived Sunday in Palau, the tiny Pacific island, where they have been permanently resettled, according to the Associated Press. "These men want nothing more than to live peaceful, productive lives in a free, democratic nation safe from oppression by the Chinese," a lawyer said. "Thanks to Palau, which has graciously offered them a temporary home, they now have that chance." The Pentagon determined that the men, part of the minority group known as Uighurs, were not "enemy combatants." Four others were moved to Bermuda this year, causing controversy on that island.
Put away the celebratory party hats: Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said that the U.S. recession is “nowhere near” an end despite the fact that the economy's third-quarter growth increased by a rate of 3.5 percent. Stiglitz, who is the former chief economist at the World Bank, told an audience in Shanghai that those numbers were inflated by the Obama administration's stimulus spending and would be "miserable" otherwise. The economist's gloomy forecast included the prediction that unemployment numbers would increase, saying “Growth won’t be fast enough to bring down the unemployment rate.”
The health-care debate has centered on Washington but its implementation will happen everywhere else. Where you live will have a great deal to do with the shape of the health care that is available to you, says a new report in the Washington Post. In whatever form the new health-care reform arrives, state officials will have numerous decisions to make. "The fact is that state programs are going to look different," said one policy expert. Central to this problem is the promise of a "trigger," which is supported by Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, allowing a public-option to exist only in states where private insurers have failed to offer policies that are broadly affordable.
It’s two down and two to go for the New York Yankees, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday night with a combination of focused pitching from Andy Pettitte and big swings from Nick Swisher, after rain delayed the game for 80 minutes. Armed with a lead going into the final innings, the team’s closers were able to the keep the Phillies at bay and took a 2-1 Series lead. The World Series continues Sunday night with a well-rested CC Sabathia taking the mound against Joe Blanton in Philadelphia.
Prominent Republicans are worried that what happened to Dede Scozzafava could happen to candidates throughout the country. Scozzafava was the moderate Republican who dropped out of the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional seat Saturday, facing pressure from a more conservative candidate. “This makes life more complicated from the standpoint of this: If we get into a cycle where every time one side loses, they run a third-party candidate, we’ll make Pelosi Speaker for life and guarantee Obama’s reelection,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. A local party chairman called the move a “detriment to democracy.” The move serves as a sign of encouragement for conservative members of the party who are aiming to drag Republicans to the right.
The runoff election planned for Nov. 7 in Afghanistan was thrown into turmoil Sunday when President Hamid Karzai’s challenger said he was pulling out of the vote in an emotional speech. Abdullah stopped short of calling for a boycott of next Saturday's election. Some analysts think that Abdullah is trying to win a last-minute power-sharing deal with Karzai. "We don't want to boycott, but Mr. Karzai has not accepted any conditions, so he left us with no other choice," one member of Abdullah's political team told The Washington Post. "There is no guarantee that a second round would be free and fair. It would only create more problems than it solves." A canceled or marred election could throw the nation into chaos at a time when the Obama administration is deciding whether to send more troops to the area. Hillary Clinton downplayed a possible boycott, saying the elections would still be legitimate even if Karzai were the only candidate. It’s unclear if Karzai will still participate in the runoff, if the race will be postponed until the spring when there’s a viable challenger, or if the vote will be canceled and Karzai declared president.
Hillary Clinton urged Palestine and Israel to restart peace talks on Saturday, calling Israel’s concessions on the West Bank “unprecedented.” Palestinians say they won’t talk peace until Israel has entirely stopped settlement on the West Bank, a precondition the Obama administration has also called for. Now, the language has changed from a "freeze" on development to a "restraint." "I want to see both sides as soon as possible begin in negotiations," the secretary of State said in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Both President Obama and I are committed to a comprehensive peace agreement." Palestine rebuffed the request for talks, pointing to the West Bank and Israel’s recent suppression of disturbances at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The U.S. Coast Guard has called off the search for the nine missing people involved in a midair military aircraft collision, now deeming it a recovery mission. Officials say they no longer believe any of the military personnel could have survived the crash between one Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter over the Pacific Ocean on Thursday. There were seven crew members aboard the Sacramento-based Coast Guard HC-130 and two pilots aboard the Camp Pendleton-based AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter when they collided off the coast of San Diego. After scouring a 644-square-mile area for over 63 hours, Commander Joseph Castillo said, “Due to the wreckage we’ve found, the nature of the collision, and the length of time since the crash, we’ve reached the conclusion that survival is no longer viable.” Families of those presumed dead were notified Saturday night. Navy salvage ships will now turn their focus on finding the wreckage and recovering the missing crew members’ bodies, a process Captain Thomas Farris expects will continue for at least a week.
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