22 wounded Libyan rebel fighters arrive in Mass.

A wounded Libyan fighter is helped off of a U.S. Air Force plane at Logan International Airport in Boston Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The fighters will be treated at Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore in Salem, Mass. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

A wounded Libyan fighter is helped off of a U.S. Air Force plane at Logan International Airport in Boston Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The fighters will be treated at Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore in Salem, Mass. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

A wounded Libyan fighter is taken of a U.S. Air Force plane at Logan International Airport in Boston Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. The fighters will be treated at Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore in Salem, Mass. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

A wounded Libyan is assisted as he prepares to board a U.S. military aircraft along with more than 20 others bound for the US for medical care in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. A U.S. military plane is flying more than 20 Libyans wounded in the country's eight-month civil war to the United States for treatment. Thousands have been wounded in the fight to topple Moammar Gadhafi, and Libya's new leaders say caring for them is a critical need. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)

A wounded Libyan lies on a stretcher as he is readied to be loaded onto a U.S. military aircraft along with more than 20 others bound for the US for medical care in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. A U.S. military plane is flying more than 20 Libyans wounded in the country's eight-month civil war to the United States for treatment. Thousands have been wounded in the fight to topple Moammar Gadhafi, and Libya's new leaders say caring for them is a critical need. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Kretz makes remarks in front of a U.S. military aircraft bound for the United States to transport more then 20 wounded Libyans for medical care in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. A U.S. military plane is flying more than 20 Libyans wounded in the country's eight-month civil war to the United States for treatment. Thousands have been wounded in the fight to topple Moammar Gadhafi, and Libya's new leaders say caring for them is a critical need. (AP Photo/Abdel Magid al-Fergany)

BOSTON (AP) ? Nearly two dozen former Libyan rebel fighters were carried in stretchers or limped and hobbled out of a U.S. Air Force medical evacuation jet in Massachusetts on Saturday at the end of a 13-hour flight for treatment of wounds sustained in the war that ousted slain longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The envoy of Libya's National Transitional Council said the 22 fighters are the first of an estimated 200 combatants who will be flown to the United States for treatment. But Mark Ward, senior adviser on Arab transitions for the U.S. Department of State, later said several European nations have offered to treat some fighters, and the number of those who could come to this country has not been determined.

The fighters were brought to the country following a request to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her trip to the Libyan capital of Tripoli last week, Ward said shortly before their flight landed at Boston's Logan International Airport in the midst of a wintry storm.

"The United States was very proud to help the Libyan people in eight months of struggle against Gadhafi and his regime," Ward said. "We know the struggle will now continue as they rebuild their country and, in particular, we wanted to help with some of the war wounded, some of those brave, young men that fought the regime's forces and brought it to its knees."

"Libya's new freedom has come at a price in human life and suffering. Just as the United States and the international community stood with the Libyan people during the revolution, we continue to work with them now to address urgent needs," Ward said.

The wounded fighters will be treated at the Spaulding Hospital for Continuing Medical Care North Shore in Salem, Mass., a long-term care facility.

An internationally established fund used by Libya's transitional government says it will pay the fighters' hospital bills.

The fighters were met at the airport by Ward and Ali Aujali, Libya's ambassador to the U.S. The combatants did not speak to reporters. Firefighters stationed at the airport, Massachusetts state troopers and Emergency Medical Services technicians immediately helped them get into ambulances that were waiting on the tarmac in the freezing rain.

Still, Ward said the former rebel fighters had mixed reaction on arrival in the United States.

"We were just on the plane with them ... they look very excited, but also a little bit apprehensive," Ward said. "Many of them have never been on an airplane before, this is a new country, it's very cold for them. ... Tripoli was warm when they left 13 hours ago, so this is going to be quite an experience for them, but also for the wonderful staff at Spaulding Hospital."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-29-Wounded%20Libyans-Boston/id-664b969da07f4c6a9f15ea2bc3e84655

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Liberia election chief resigns ahead of November 8 vote (Reuters)

MONROVIA (Reuters) ? The head of Liberia's election commission, who has been accused of bias by incumbent President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's challenger, has resigned, days ahead of a planned presidential run-off vote.

"I chose to step down for the sake of Liberia and so that (challenger Winston Tubman's) CDC (party) would not have an excuse not to participate in the run-off," National Election Commission (NEC) Chairman James Fromayan told Reuters Sunday.

Tubman last week threatened to withdraw from the November 8 run-off, the country's second post-war vote, unless there was a change of leadership at the election commission.

Fromayan, who has denied any wrong-doing, said he would be replaced by Elizabeth Nelson, his No.2, but he said he did not know it would be a permanent arrangement.

There was no immediate reaction from Tubman's camp.

Johnson-Sirleaf won 43.9 percent of the votes in the October 11 election while Tubman, her closest rival, won 32.7 percent.

Newly-named Nobel Peace laureate Johnson-Sirleaf is now strong favorite for the run-off having secured the backing of former rebel leader Prince Johnson, who came third in the poll with about 11.6 percent.

Last week, there was confusion over whether the CDC would take part in the second round of voting, with party officials issuing contradictory messages. Tubman has accused the election body of not taking his complaints seriously.

A row had also broken out over a letter, which was sent by the election commission and wrongly stated Tubman's running mate George Weah had won the majority of the votes in the first round.

The disputes had threatened to derail the country's first locally organized poll since its civil war. The vote will be seen as a bellwether of its progress since 14 years of on-and-off conflict ended in 2003.

The last poll was held in 2005 and foreign mining and oil firms are preparing to pour in billions of dollars to develop resources in the West African state.

(Reporting by Clair MacDougall; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111030/wl_nm/us_liberia_election

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Video: Pressure Mounts on MF Global

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US fugitive cites poor health in extradition fight (AP)

ALMOCAGEME, Portugal ? The wife of captured American fugitive George Wright said Friday her husband has a litany of health problems requiring treatment and should not be extradited to the United States to serve the rest of his time on a murder conviction after 41 years on the lam.

Maria do Rosario Valente said in an interview with The Associated Press at their home that Wright suffers from glaucoma, "very, very high" blood pressure caused by recent stress, and has complained of chest pains.

"We're having a bunch of tests done to see what's his current health condition," Valente said.

She also said he is a changed man who "regrets the choices he has made. If he could, he probably would have made different choices."

Wright, tall and slim with his head shaved bald, did not participate in the interview because of Portuguese court restrictions that prevent him from talking about the case. After it was over, he kissed her and made small talk about matters unrelated to his legal battle.

Wright's lawyer, Manuel Luis Ferreira, said he will include his client's health problems in legal arguments aimed at preventing him from being sent to the United States to serve the rest of a 15- to 30-year jail sentence for the 1962 killing of a New Jersey gas station worker.

"I didn't initially realize how bad off he was," Ferreira told the AP Friday. "Now that I've gotten to know him, I know his problems."

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney declined comment via email on what impact Wright's health could have on the extradition process, which could last months.

Wright, 68, was convicted of the murder of Walter Patterson in Wall Township, N.J. He escaped from the Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970 after serving more than seven years. The FBI says Wright also was part of a Black Liberation Army group that hijacked a U.S. plane from Detroit Metropolitan Airport to Algeria in 1972.

The rest of the group was arrested in France, but Wright made his way to Portugal, and met Valente in the late 1970s in Portugal. The two later moved to the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, where the country's then-Marxist leaders granted him asylum and a new identity.

Wright lived openly using his real name in Guinea-Bissau and even socialized with American diplomats, but one former ambassador who served in the country while Wright was there and other U.S. diplomats who knew Wright have told the AP they did not know about his past.

His wife worked for years as a freelance translator for the U.S. embassy in the country's capital, Bissau, and Wright was a logistics coordinator for a Belgian nonprofit development group until the couple moved back to Portugal in 1993.

Valente said her husband has become a more peaceful man since his days as a militant. She showed the AP photographs of paintings by Wright and art work at local buildings ? a skill which has allowed him to earn money in Portugal among other odd jobs he's done over the years.

She spoke to the AP in English in the kitchen of the home she has shared with Wright for almost since they left Guinea-Bissau, at the end of a cobblestone street in a pretty hamlet on the Atlantic coast near a stunning beach and about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

The FBI says it requested Wright's detention after providing fingerprints to Portuguese authorities that matched his contained in a national fingerprint database for all citizens and residents. He was initially jailed, but a judge allowed him to return home wearing an electronic tag that monitors his movements and would alert authorities if he ventures outside his house.

Neighbors describe Wright as a friendly, churchgoing family man. He has a grown daughter and son with Valente. Some assumed he was from Africa when he moved here.

"If ... the purpose of sending someone to jail is to rehabilitate them, then that job is done," Valente said.

The main argument from Wright's lawyer for him to stay in Portugal is his Portuguese citizenship ? and a law from the country that allows Portuguese convicted of crimes to serve their time at home.

The citizenship is based on his new identity as "Jose Luis Jorge dos Santos" from Guinea-Bissau, including fake names for his parents.

Armed with that, he married Valente in 1990, and used his new identity and the marriage to convince Portuguese authorities to give him citizenship.

Ann Patterson, daughter of the man killed in New Jersey, declined comment Friday on Wright's health problems but said she still wants him returned to serve his sentence.

"Our world has been turned upside down," said Patterson, 63. "We've now had to grieve for our father for the second time when we never should have had to the first time."

____

AP reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, N.J., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_re_eu/hijacker_fugitive_captured

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Video: Supercommittee Squabbles

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Richard (RJ) Eskow: Wanna See a Real Ass Kicking (Itself)? Read the Dems' "Super Committee" Proposal

If you've ever questioned whether the so-called "Super Committee" represents a breakdown in the democratic process, yesterday's proposal from the group's Democratic members should put your doubts to rest. The system's seriously broken when unelected super-legislators from both parties keep trying to top each other in proposing inhumane and unpopular programs.

The party of the donkey is about to give itself a real ass-kicking.

Representatives from the "party of the people" want to cut Medicare and Social Security, and they're looking for bragging rights on who'd cut government more in a time of need.

If the regular folks' party is trying to impose this much pain on the elderly, poor, and disabled, what's the rich people's party going to do: sacrifice babies in Times Square on live television?

Change That Shatters

As I read the proposal I kept asking myself: Who are they trying to impress? Certainly not the electorate, which overwhelmingly rejects the positions they're advocating. And certainly not the Republicans, since even these Dems aren't naive enough to think their proposal will be accepted. So who?

The "Super Dems" are proposing twice as much in deficit cuts as the Committee's mandated to find. That bit of pointless grandstanding reinforces conservative notions that government spending is evil and deficits are our most urgent problem.

It's straight out of the Bill Clinton playbook. But Clinton operated in a period of artificially pumped up, bubble-fueled prosperity. Americans hunger for better policies now. That hunger helped Democrats win the White House and both houses of Congress in 2008. (Seems so long ago, doesn't it?) The Democratic Party website still proudly proclaims the Party's slogan: "Change That Matters."

Change? These are the same Republican Lite policies Clinton ran on in 1992. But we're a sadder and wiser nation now. We've reaped the bitter fruits of economic inequality and endured a disastrous crash as a result of these bipartisan policies. We've moved on, but these Democrats haven't. They're still slavishly (if meekly) echoing the failed conservative ideas of the past.

Indecent Proposal

Their plan calls for $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings, half or which would come from benefit cuts for the seniors, disabled, and low-income people who rely on these programs. The higher out-of-pocket costs for these vulnerable populations would leave many of them with less to spend on necessities, taking billions out of the economy and creating even more economic stagnation. Not to mention the hardship and suffering ...

The other $200 billion would presumably be found by cutting provider reimbursements - which makes sense if done wisely, but which will only create shortages and access problems if done foolishly. (Wise or foolish: Bets, anyone?)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Democrats also support moving the government to a "chained CPI" cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) calculation for Social Security. That would shortchange everybody receiving benefits, including people already receiving them.

The current COLA is already a raw deal for seniors, disabled people, and the poor, and now these Dems want to double down on it. The chained-CPI would also raise taxes on people who aren't already in the highest tax bracket by accelerating "bracket creep."

So let's sum up what we've heard so far: Democrats want to cut Social Security and Medicare, and they also want to raise taxes on everybody but the rich. Enjoy your "change," America.

Gestures

In a nod to their base, the Democrats are also proposing $300 billion in stimulus spending. But reports were vague on the specifics, with the Journal reporting only that "aides familiar with the Democratic plan say it also called for as much as $300 billion in spending for programs to create jobs and spur economic growth."

The Super Dems also also say they want $1 trillion in new revenue, but they don't say where it should come from. That means some or all of it could be raised by reducing or eliminating provisions like employer health and mortgage interest deductions that help the struggling middle class.

But then, why expend a lot of effort on a proposal you know is doomed from the start and which you don't intend to fight for? If that sounds too cynical, rest assured: We'd love to be proven wrong, and the Democrats on the Super Committee can prove us wrong with a word. That word is "no." If the Super Committee Dems announce that they'll say "no" to any plan that doesn't include stimulus funds, we'll gladly provide a full refund on the cynicism.

With interest.

A Smart Plan

What would an intelligent plan look like? It would be designed around three simple principles:

Arbitrary deficit reduction targets are meaningless and foolish. Why are we having a debate about whether to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion or $3 trillion? We don't know how big our economy will become in the coming years. We don't know how much money will be coming in, or how much we'll need to spend.

The best way to ensure a healthy Federal budget is to ensure a healthy national economy. When more people have jobs, the economy improves. And when the economy improves, more people have jobs. So we should be talking about jobs, jobs, jobs: As the economy grows through government investment, more people will have them. People with jobs pay taxes, so the government's bottom line will improve.

Government needs to learn a fundamental business principle: Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

No plan should take effect until we've achieved normal employment levels. Many of these proposals have been given start dates in coming years. But no plan to cut spending, especially spending that directly or indirectly affects employment, should take effect until overall employment returns to normal levels.

Now for a word from the party's sponsors: the voters who put them in office.

Reminder

When the Democrats were swept into office in 2008, here's what their platform said about Social Security: "We will fulfill our obligation to strengthen Social Security and to make sure that it provides guaranteed benefits Americans can count on, now and in future."

And here's what it said about Medicare: "We will protect and strengthen Medicare by cutting costs, protecting seniors from fraud, and fixing Medicare's prescription drug program."

Thought the Super Dems might want to tape this to the refrigerator or something before the next Committee meeting.

Ass-Kicking Time

It's like a Zen koan: What is the sound of one ass kicking itself? These proposals aren't just destructive. They're self-destructive. Pick a poll, any poll, and you'll see how unpopular these ideas are. Overwhelming majorities of Americans - including a majority of Republicans - oppose cutting Social Security or Medicare to fix the deficits. And strong majorities want higher taxes on the wealthy, a topic which the Super Dems are waffling about.

It's a political kamikaze stunt for Dems to adopt the GOP's "less government" theme. Ask yourself: If you want some government-cutting done, are you going to hire a Democrat or a Republican? If you want to fire government workers, are you going to hire Mitt Romney - who has a long track record of firing people - or Barack Obama? Every minute spent bragging that "we'll cut more" is a minute spent convincing people to vote for your opponent.

The President's repeating the mistakes he made during the healthcare and financial reform debates, and he's turning negotiations over to the same failed crowd. He's considered the leader of his party, but once again he's letting the party lead him instead. And when it's all over the GOP will run the same play it used last year, positioning itself as the party that defended Medicare. These Dems are helping them do it.

Which brings us back to the question: Who are they trying to impress? The big-money donors who have pivoted back to the GOP, but will still throw them a few bucks now and then? Billionaire Pete Peterson and the other foundations and think tank benefactors who might them sinecures after they retire? Their fellow inhabitants of a warped Washington culture that views Grandma-sacrifice as a totemic act of courage?

Stop them before they triangulate again

Maybe all of the above. But their self-preservation rests on getting re-elected. Do they expect a grateful nation will rush to the polls next year saying, "They didn't cut government enough, but at least they tried"? Twenty-four million Americans are un- or under-employed, and they all have family, friends, and neighbors. That's a lot of voters to convince that their misery is less important than who chose a bigger deficit-cutting number.

They Super Committee, the President, and other Democratic leaders need to get the message from voters, loud and clear. Maybe public pressure can save them from their self-inflicted impending doom. As Smokey the Bear might say, only you can prevent ass-kickings.

Any proposal they present will be defeated. They know that. So why do they keep offering watered down right-wing plans like this one? Why don't they start offering bold, courageous alternatives to the conservative economic madness that's failing in Europe and here at home?

People admire someone who goes down fighting, but they want to go down equivocating - or surrendering. In the end, they'll just go down. And if they aren't stopped they'll take the rest of their party with them. Strange. They know they can't succeed legislatively, yet they keep putting themselves on record as favoring destructive and unpopular policies.

It's sad but true: These guys don't even know how to fail right.

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Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/wanna-see-an-ass-kicking_b_1063022.html

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