Children killed as 'monster truck' crashes into crowd

A “monster” truck, outfitted with tractor-sized wheels, has crashed into a crowd during a show in the Netherlands, killing two people and injuring at least a dozen.
Video footage of the incident (which veiwers may find distressing)shows the truck veering off course after driving over the top of a row of cars, then knocking down a guardrail and driving into a group of onlookers.
Dutch national broadcaster NOS says the mayor of the eastern city of Haaksbergen, Hans Gerritsen, reports that two children were killed in the incident and 15 people injured.

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White House intruder Omar Gonzalez, 42, had 800 rounds of ammunition, court told

White House Security Break Spurs Review

THE troubled Iraq war veteran who scaled the White House fence had a dangerous fixation on the president, stockpiling weapons and ammunition and carrying a map to the White House stuffed in a Bible during an earlier arrest, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. 

When he was arrested, Omar Jose Gonzalez had two hatchets, a machete and 800 rounds of ammunition in his car parked near the White House, said Assistant US Attorney David Mudd.
A judge granted the government’s request to hold Gonzalez, 42, for 10 days without bail.
He faces up to 10 years in prison.
“Mr Gonzalez’s preoccupation with the White House and accumulation of large amounts of ammunition in an apparently short period of time renders him a danger to the president,” Mudd said.
There was no indication he had a gun on Friday night, however, when he was arrested after evading the outer layer of security around the US presidential residence and making it inside carrying a folding knife with a 3.5-inch blade.
The Copperas Cove, Texas, man served two tours of duty in Iraq with the US Army.
Described as “homeless and penniless,” he was assigned a public defender who declined an opportunity to seek a psychiatric assessment of his client.
WHITE HOUSE INTRUDER: Watch how it unfolded

White House intruder

Family members said Gonzalez, an Army combat veteran, was wounded by an improvised bomb in Iraq and struggled with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after returning to Texas. He became increasingly paranoid, they said, hiding guns behind every door in the house and saying that people were watching him and trying to poison him.
Gonzalez complained bitterly about his treatment at the now-scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs, according to his family. They said his disability claim was stuck in a backlog for more than a year. Eventually he became homeless and lived in his 1996 Ford Bronco.
By this summer, according to authorities, Gonzalez had begun to focus on the White House and the president.
On July 19, a Virginia State Police trooper attempted to stop him for reckless driving in the Bronco. Gonzalez refused to pull over, police said, and led them on a 20-mile pursuit on Interstate 81 in southwest Virginia. He was arrested on felony charges of possession of a sawed-off shotgun and attempting to elude police.
Ten other weapons were found in his vehicle, including a sniper rifle and five handguns, Virginia police records show. Tucked inside a Bible was a map with a hand-drawn circle around the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria and “a line drawn to the White House,” authorities said.
Gonzalez was held in New River Regional Jail and released a week later on $5000 bail, according to a jail spokesman. He said records did not indicate who paid it. Police held the guns pending the outcome of the case, which is not yet resolved.
On August 25, Gonzalez was stopped again, this time by the Secret Service, while walking along the southern fence of the White House with a hatchet in his rear waistband. He gave agents permission to search his Bronco, where they found camping gear and two dogs, but no guns or ammunition, Mudd said. He was not charged.

Increased patrols ... Secret Service officers on the perimeter of the White House after the security breach. Source: AP

The latest incident happened a few minutes after US president Barack Obama and his daughters had left the White House by helicopter for a weekend at his official retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
Obama is “concerned” about the incident, officials said Monday. The US Secret Service is reviewing new security measures inside and outside the White House fence after the man made it all the way inside the presidential mansion on Friday before being tackled.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama had been repeatedly briefed on the massive security breach, and had expressed disquiet about the incident.
“His family lives in the White House, and so he is obviously concerned by the incident that occurred on Friday evening,” Mr Earnest said.
The agency’s chief, Julia Pierson, who launched an investigation into the security failure, also ordered increased patrols and surveillance around the fence line of the White House complex.
US media reported the Secret Service was considering setting up checkpoints for tourists and other visitors several blocks from the building, rather than on the grounds.
The fence jumper caused a rare evacuation of much of the staff and journalists on the White House grounds.
Less than 24 hours later, another security scare took place when Kevin Carr, 19, tried to enter the area with his car despite barricades.
After his arrest, Gonzalez told a Security Service agent “he was concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the president of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people”, according to an affidavit.

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Could Putin be in Obama's 'broad coalition' against ISIS?

Sometimes geography gets in the way of power politics. Just when you thought that Ukraine was miles away from Syria, bang -- you find out that they're actually bordering each other.

Confused? I bet you are. But here's the deal: the civil war in Ukraine, which most sensible people tend to classify these days as a direct stand-off between Russia and the U.S., is now having a direct impact on the conflict in Syria.

The so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) -- it's better to keep it in quotation marks and add "so-called," so as not to give these terrorists legitimacy -- has emerged as a force that has created a so-called caliphate and vows to spread its borders way beyond Syria and Iraq, where it is currently operating.

Alexander Nekrassov

Russia is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, while America and its allies are backing the anti-government rebels there -- some of whom have at some point developed into ISIS and started to get all sorts of crazy ideas.

Since it is Assad's troops who are actually doing the fighting on the ground against ISIS and since it so happens that this new menace is now the number one target of America, it follows that Ukraine is very close to Syria when it comes to international power-play.

This week, out of the blue, the already-disbanded Ukrainian parliament voted to provide special status for Donetsk and Lugansk -- the two rebellious regions in eastern Ukraine -- offering them autonomy for three years and allowing them to hold their own elections for their local authorities, in addition to offering an amnesty for people who have not been directly involved in fighting Ukrainian government troops.

Initially this was received with caution in Moscow -- especially given what has been going on for the past nine months in Ukraine -- but if that is not a signal from Barack Obama that he is ready to play ball with Russia, then I don't know what is.

The view in Moscow is that the Obama Administration is telling the Kremlin that it needs help in dealing with ISIS. But as it can't just say it publicly, it is using Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to do the honors.

Obama: No ground troops to combat ISIS

Peshmerga battle ISIS with aid from above

De Gucht: Russia not pleased with pact

American troops arrive in Ukraine

I am told that the initial reaction in the Kremlin to Obama's plan to fight ISIS was not exactly a kind one. The suspicion was that Washington, together with its allies, was planning to use the campaign against ISIS in Syria to dispose of Assad through the back door, so to speak. An anti-terrorist operation targeted at ISIS "gets out of control" and all sorts of wrong targets get hit, like, say, Syrian army positions. One thing leads to another and, lo and behold, we have Assad going down the route of Colonel Gadhafi, and Syria descends into the same kind of chaos that is now gripping Libya. But after the "border" between Ukraine and Syria emerged all of a sudden, that attitude is changing.

But the broad anti-ISIS coalition that Obama is hoping to build is not exactly shaping up as planned. Turkey is openly hesitant to get involved, and the Saudis are not exactly over the moon with the whole concept. So Obama's best bet to get the ball rolling, as it is now seen from Moscow, would be to discreetly work with Russia. Although it may be tempting for Washington to overthrow Assad, such a move could backfire on the White House, giving ISIS a boost instead of a kick and turning those pesky U.S. midterm elections into a total nightmare for the Democrats. (Incidentally, Russian experts believe that Obama will lose the Senate and will being to resemble a late-term Bill Clinton, who improved his golf swing dramatically in his last years in office.) So it made sense for Washington to wave the white flag -- albeit a very small one -- at the expense of the Ukrainian regime in Kiev, in order to signal to the Kremlin that it is time to do some business together.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has his own plan for Syria. Sergey Lavrov, his top diplomat, has made a point of stressing the point that without the Syrian regime on board, any attempt to defeat ISIS won't work. A similar scenario to the one that had been used to prevent the U.S. bombing Syria last year is shaping up nicely in Moscow. Russia will ask the U.S. to cooperate with Assad in the battle against ISIS, without the Syrian President having to fear that he might be bumped off along the way. The hawks in Washington might not like this script, but hey, stranger things have happened in power politics in the past.

What will Putin ask for in return for helping to defeat ISIS? That's the question that is probably being mulled over in the White House as you read this. Well, it just so happens that sorting out the mess in eastern Ukraine is Putin's personal project -- just like Syria was last year. He will want some sort of guarantee that Kiev will stick to the new deal about the special status of Donetsk and Lugansk which should help calm things down in the eastern provinces, at least until next spring. That would be a deal that the Kremlin would consider worthwhile.

But the funniest thing of all is that the "broad coalition" Obama proposed may never see the light of day -- and at that point, the only countries that will actually be able to help the U.S. fight ISIS would be Iraq, Iran, Syria and Russia, with the latter mostly providing the weaponry to the Syrians. Which is not really all that surprising if you consider how closely Ukraine and Syria are intertwined.

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Jordan Finds Energy Sources in Unlikely Places

When the oil gusher lottery came to the Middle East, Jordan seemed to have drawn a losing ticket. And now that some of the neighbors it depended on for fuel supplies, like Iraq and Egypt, have convulsed with political or sectarian strife, Jordan is frantically looking for other sources — and finding them in unexpected places.This month, Jordan, a crucial yet energy-poor Western ally, announced a landmark 15-year deal to import vast amounts of natural gas from Israel. The plan, worth $15 billion, would make Israel Jordan’s largest gas supplier,according to the Israeli business daily Globes. It represents a remarkable economic tie for two countries with a history of tension, and reflects just how badly Jordan needs energy.

It is “potentially an enormous deal, but one that makes Jordan partially dependent on Israel, which is politically very problematic for Jordan in both domestic and regional politics,” Curtis Ryan, an expert on Jordanian politics at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, said in an email.

Plenty of uncertainties remain in the Israeli deal, and further approvals are needed from both countries. For the agreement to succeed, the pipeline route must be secure and the political leadership in Jordan must remain stable, said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis. Already, the deal has infuriated some members of the Jordanian Parliament, although power largely resides with the king.

The plan, Dr. Ryan said, is “a difficult political sell in Jordanian politics under any circumstances — but especially right now,” in the wake of Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Israel once shared Jordan’s position as an energy-poor nation (the joke in Israel was that Moses led his people to one of the few places in the region without oil). But with the discovery in 2010 of a vast offshore natural gas field, Israel has been looking for export opportunities.

Because Jordan has neighbors — which also include Saudi Arabia and Iraq — that are awash in oil or natural gas, a conspiracy theory of sorts has developed that Jordan is hiding its oil, according to Zu’bi Al-Zu’bi, dean of the business school at the University of Jordan.

Jordan imports about 95 percent of its energy, according to Dr. Al-Zu’bi and other experts. In recent years, its natural gas imports had come mostly from Egypt (before that, Jordan had relied heavily on cheap oil from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq). Repeated attacks on the Egyptian pipeline following the 2011 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprisings forced Jordan to look for alternatives.

The pipeline attacks were “devastating for Jordan’s economy,” Dr. Ryan said. The nation “was already in an economic downturn and deeply in debt, and the constant sabotage of the pipeline effectively turned off Jordan’s supply dozens of times.”

Compounding the challenge, the country’s population has soared, in part because of refugees from Syria, Iraq and other nations. International institutions have leaned on Jordan to cut energy subsidies even as the costs of reliable sources of energy have risen. The Jordanian government has increased energy prices for consumers, but that is never a popular move.

Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

Jordan’s electricity is now generated mostly from a mix of Saudi oil and Egyptian gas, Dr. Al-Zu’bi said. Jordan is “in a very vulnerable situation,” he added, likening it to Lebanon, another relatively energy-poor country, which is trying to import liquefied natural gas.

As it tries to rapidly diversify its energy mix, Jordan hopes — controversially— to build its first nuclear power plant, which could draw from a reserve of underground uranium ore close to the Israeli border. Jordan is also looking at renewable sources like solar energy, an abundant resource in the desert nation.

“Jordan would be well placed to make great use of both solar and wind power, but needs the internal push and the external support to make that really happen,” Dr. Ryan said Jordan has set a target of getting 7 percent of its energy from renewable sources by next year, and 10 percent by 2020, and international groups are eager for the nation to push ahead. Last week, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approved a $30 million loan to support an energy-efficient system for heating and cooling buildings at a commercial center in Amman, the Jordanian capital. Last year, the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, led a project to obtain $221 million in financing for the construction of Jordan’s first privately owned wind farm.

It also turns out that the conspiracy theorists are right, and that Jordan has been hiding its oil: Shale rock containing vast quantities of oil underlies much of the country, but extracting it is likely to be technologically challenging and expensive. Nevertheless, Jordan wants in the coming years to build a power plant that runs on shale oil And Jordan will always be looking for new suppliers. This month, it held talks with Cyprus about importing gas Jordan’s predicament shows the importance for a country not to be “over reliant on a particular type of energy source,” Dr. Ryan said. Given the region’s volatility, he added, countries should also avoid being “over reliant on any one country as a supplier.”

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United State increased non-immigrant visa application fees

NEW YORK: United State increased non-immigrant visa application fees in various categories from $400 to $2,350. 

But the US government decreased visa fees in some categories also to attract investors and businessmen. 

Foreign Ministry of the country said that the fee increased due to rising costs for providing visa services the new fees, which was charged worldwide, were based on a recent assessment of service costs. 

Sources said that the fee for K or Fiance (e) visas, a non-immigrant visa category processed by the Immigrant Visa Unit, will increase from $240 to $265.

Changes in new immigrant visa processing fees include:

- Immediate relative and family preference applications: $230 to $325

- Employment-based applications: $405 to $345

- Other immigrant visa applications: $220 to $205

- Determining returning resident status: $275 to $180

- Waiver of two-year residency requirement: $215 to $120

- Affidavit of support review, when reviewed domestically: $88 to $120.

Besides, the fee for E visas for treaty-traders and treaty-investors was fixed at $250 which was $270. 

All non immigrant visa applicants’ fees will be effected from September 12

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Thakmona re Thakmona "Kayes" 6, 2013 10:26 AM

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Israel says Gaza operation could expand; France says 'war can be avoided'

Gaza ground war could be imminent

Near the Israel-Gaza border (CNN) -- Israel is prepared to significantly escalate its military operation against Palestinian militants in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

The comments come on the heels of reports that the Israel Defense Forces have widened the scope of their effort to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, targeting Palestinian media organizations, government buildings and the homes of Hamas officials in Gaza.

"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the (other) terrorist organizations, and IDF is prepared for a significant expansion of its operations," Netanyahu told reporters shortly before the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Saeb Erakat, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told CNN that Netanyahu should learn "a lesson" that "there will be never be a security without peace."

Photos: Violence flares between Palestinians, Israelis

Missile hits Israel during CNN live shot

Israeli family talks about Gaza rockets

Netanyahu is "waging a campaign of attacks and bombardment and military attacks against Gaza," and may launch a land invasion, Erakat said. "He wants to kill 1000, 1500, 2000 Palestinians. Where would this put us?"

Erakat part of the Fatah faction in the West Bank added. "We have one aim now: to ensure we stop the attacks against Gaza, to ensure to sustain the calm, mutual comprehensive calm. That's all what we want."

The United States and several European countries have put the brunt of the blame for the current crisis on Hamas, saying Israel has a right to protect itself. Arab and Muslim nations, meanwhile, have accused Israel of being the aggressor.

Rocket attacks into Israel were the "precipitating event" for the fighting under way now, U.S. President Barack Obama said during a stop in Thailand Sunday. "We are actively working with all the parties in the region to see if we can end those missiles being fired without further escalation of violence in the region."

Over the last four days, militants in Gaza have fired 846 rockets at Israel -- 302 of which were intercepted by Israe's Iron Dome defense system, according to the IDF. Nearly 100 rockets fired from Gaza over the same time frame crashed back into the strip.

"Hamas fires from civilian areas and hits its own people," the IDF said in a Twitter post Sunday.

U.S. fears Israel-Hamas conflict escalates to ground invasion

Over the weekend, Netanyahu said he spoke with a number of leaders, including Obama.

"In my talks with leaders, I emphasize the effort Israel is making to avoid hitting civilians, and this at a time when Hamas and other terrorist organizations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel," the prime minister said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in Jerusalem Sunday meeting with Netanyahu, tweeted a simple message: "War can be avoided. War must be avoided." The ministry said he was hoping to "work out a cease-fire with all parties involved."

An Arab League delegation plans to visit Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

Since Israel launched its offensive on Wednesday against what it says are "terrorist sites" in response to persistent rocket attacks that have plagued portion of southern Israel for months, 57 Palestinians have been killed, according to a spokesman for the ministry of health in Gaza. They include 15 children, seven women, and five elderly people, the spokesman said. More than 560 people were injured, he said.

The spokesman did not say how many militants have been killed.

A Palestinian girl and a man were killed Sunday in an airstrike that targeted the town of al-Shati in western Gaza, Hamas-run al-Aqsa TV reported.

Six Palestinian journalists were injured Sunday when Israeli warplanes targeted two buildings that housed Palestinian and Hamas news organizations as well as a handful of international news outlets, according to Palestinian government and media reports. The IDF released a video along with a message saying it showed the "surgical" targeting of Hamas communication operations on the roof of a media building in Gaza, and that only the antenna atop the building was struck.

"If Hamas commanders in Gaza can communicate with each other, then they can attack us," the IDF said in one of its several Twitter posts on the issue. "This is the capability that we targeted ... We did not target any other floors." The IDF also urged reporters to "stay away from Hamas positions and operatives."

Nour Odeh, a Palestinian government spokeswoman in the West Bank, said the attack on the two buildings "is an assault on the freedom of the press and an attempt to prohibit journalists from conveying to the outside world what is exactly happening in the Gaza strip and the extent to which Israel is violating international law and international humanitarian law in this besieged part of the occupied Palestinian territory."

Israeli troops mass on Gaza border

24 hours in Gaza

Blasts interrupt interview in Gaza

Map: Israel

In Israel, rocket attacks from Gaza in recent days have killed at least three people and wounded 68, including a number of soldiers along the Israel-Gaza border, the Israel Defense Forces said.

"A short while ago, a rocket fired from Gaza hit the Israeli town of Ofakim, directly hitting a car," the IDF said Sunday on Twitter, adding that there were reports of injuries.

One woman in the Israeli city of Ashkelon was in her home when a rocket hit her carport.

As clean-up crews worked to remove debris from around the house, another air siren sounded.

While many Israelis who have lived under rocket attacks from Gaza for years developed a routine for running to take cover, the latest violence is paralyzing.

A marina in Ashkelon, which is usually busy with people enjoying the outdoors, has largely emptied out as families keep their children indoors.

Leaders across the world have called on Israeli and Palestinian governing bodies to show restraint, fearing at a minimum a possible repeat of Israel's 2008 invasion that left at least 1,400 people dead.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, said discussions were underway about how to bring about a cease-fire.

"But there are no guarantees at the moment," Morsy said Saturday in Cairo, where he met with Hamas officials and other Arab diplomats.

Morsy did not go into details of the effort, though an Egyptian military official told CNN the nation's intelligence chief, Mohammed Shehata, was spearheading talks with Hamas and Israel.

Shehata contacted Israel and requested it "calm down" the situation, said the military official, a general, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

It is not known what, if anything, Israel said in response to the request.

Hamas, however, put conditions on cease-fire talks. Israel must cease its attacks and lift its blockade of Gaza in exchange "for stopping the rockets" targeting Israeli cities, according to a report by the Palestinian Information Center, a Hamas-run media outlet.

Israel is unlikely to consider such a request as it sees the blockade as vital to its national security.

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti told CNN Sunday that, "We are very worried about three things: the Israeli preparation for a big ground operation, second that Israel is bombarding journalists and trying to silence the media from reporting what is happening in Gaza, and third the Israeli attacks on the West Bank against non-violent protesters."

The Israeli government has called up 75,000 reservists, while it simultaneously deployed 30,000 troops to the Gaza border, the IDF said.

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Lieberman: FBI Should Have Notified Congress About Petraeus Investigation

Chet Susslin

Gen. David Petraeus testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said he is not satisfied with the FBI withholding information about the investigation into former CIA Director David Petraeus.
“I still have questions about that,” he said on Fox News Sunday, continuing, “I understand why they would keep an FBI investigation confidential from everybody until they saw there was a crime, but this suddenly involves two of our highest-ranking generals, Petraeus and [Gen. John] Allen.”
Because it involved those two officials, Lieberman said he believes that someone in the Obama administration should have known about the investigation.
“I still have an inclination to believe that somebody should have notified the White House of that early in the investigation,” he said.

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Obama: Republican attacks on Susan Rice 'outrageous'

'If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me'

 

 

US President Obama has lambasted top Republicans for attacking the diplomat tipped as a possible replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Republicans said UN Ambassador Susan Rice should not be promoted, citing her response to September's deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya.
Mr Obama said the attacks on Ms Rice were "outrageous" and challenged her critics to "go after me" instead.
Republicans called for a committee to investigate the Libya attack.
In the wake of the 11 September assault on the US mission in Benghazi, Ms Rice framed it as a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic film made in the US.
'Cover-up' The Obama administration later blamed the attack on al-Qaeda-linked militants, adding that the earlier account was based on the best information available at the time.

“Start Quote

When they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me”

President Barack Obama

Sen John McCain vowed on Wednesday to block any move to appoint Ms Rice to replace Mrs Clinton as America's top diplomat.

He introduced a Senate resolution calling for the establishment of a special committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, which left four Americans dead, including the US ambassador.
"This administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engaged in a cover-up," he said on the Senate floor.
Lindsey Graham, another Republican senator, said he did not trust Ms Rice and called for "Watergate-style" hearings into the Libya incident.
In his first White House news conference since last week's election, President Obama said: "If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me.
"But when they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me."
"To besmirch her reputation, is outrageous," he added.
Nomination showdown Shortly after Mr Obama's remarks, Sen Graham showed no sign of backing down.

Susan Rice would be the second female African-American secretary of state

"Mr President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi," he said in a statement.
"I think you failed as commander in chief before, during and after the attack."
Mr Obama would not be drawn during Wednesday's news conference on possible cabinet appointments.
But the president insisted he would nominate Ms Rice if she was the best choice to lead the Department of State. Mrs Clinton plans to return to private life.
Wednesday's political showdown raised the prospect of a prolonged nomination for Ms Rice, who would be the second female African-American secretary of state, if she is picked by Mr Obama.
Another name mentioned for the post is Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, who would be expected to breeze through a Capitol Hill confirmation hearing.
But picking Sen Kerry would create another headache for Mr Obama's Democrats - fending off a Republican challenge for his open Senate seat in Massachusetts.
During his news conference, Mr Obama also said he was not aware of any leak of classified information by former CIA Director David Petraeus, who quit last Friday because of an extramarital affair.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said Gen Petraeus would testify about the Benghazi attack in a closed-door hearing on Friday.

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BBC crisis: Lord McAlpine 'anger' over abuse claim

Lord McAlpine said he would have told Newsnight that the allegations were "complete rubbish"

A former senior Tory has told of his anger after a BBC Newsnight report led to him being wrongly implicated in child abuse allegations.

Lord McAlpine told BBC Radio 4's The World at One he should have been contacted beforehand.
He said about being wrongly under suspicion: "You just think there's something wrong with the world."
Some of those involved in deciding to run the report on care homes in north Wales face disciplinary measures.
'Extremely bad' Lord McAlpine told The World at One: "Of course they [the BBC] should have called me and I would have told them exactly what they learnt later on."
He continued: "That it was complete rubbish and that I'd only ever been to Wrexham once in my life. They could have saved themselves a lot of agonising and money, actually, if they'd just made that telephone call."

Abuse inquiries

• Operation Yewtree: Scotland Yard criminal investigation into claims that Jimmy Savile sexually abused young people
• BBC investigation into management failures over the dropping of a Newsnight report into the Savile allegations
• BBC investigation into culture and practices during Savile's career and current policies
• BBC investigation into handling of past sexual harassment claims
• Department of Health investigation into Savile's appointment to Broadmoor "taskforce" and his activities at Broadmoor, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary
• Director of Public Prosecutions review into decisions not to prosecute Savile in 2009
• North Wales abuse inquiry by National Crime Agency head into abuse claims from 70s and 80s, fresh claims, and police handling of the claims
• Mrs Justice Macur appointed by PM to review the 2000 Waterhouse review which looked into the north Wales abuse
• BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie into what happened with the Newsnight investigation into north Wales abuse claims

The peer was asked about London Mayor Boris Johnson's comment that to call someone a paedophile was to "consign them to the lowest circle of hell - and while they're still alive".

He replied: "Absolutely. I think it describes pretty much what happened to me in the first few days of this event.
"It gets into your bones. It gets into, it makes you angry. And that's extremely bad for you to be angry. And it gets into your soul and you just think there's something wrong with the world."
Lord McAlpine's solicitor Andrew Reid said he was hopeful an agreement would be reached with the BBC on Thursday - but that his client was aware that any payment would ultimately come from licence fee payers.
Acting director general Tim Davie took charge of the BBC following the resignation of George Entwistle in the wake of the Newsnight broadcast.
Mr Davie has vowed to "get a grip of the situation".
An inquiry into the Newsnight broadcast - conducted by Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland - has identified "unacceptable" failings and said basic journalistic checks were not completed.
A summary of the findings has been released by the corporation, which said the full report would be issued after the completion of disciplinary proceedings.
It added that "there was a different understanding by the key parties about where the responsibility lay for the final editorial sign off for the story on the day".
The head of BBC Northern Ireland, Peter Johnston, said he had a role in the decision-making of the Newsnight report but was not considering his position.
A BBC spokesman confirmed Mr Johnston's involvement "in decisions about the BBC Newsnight report".
Three Conservative MPs called for funding to be withdrawn from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) which was involved in the Newsnight investigation into the historical north Wales child abuse allegations.
Chain of command Mr Entwistle resigned after eight weeks as BBC director general, following the Newsnight report.
The BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell, have been asked to "step aside" pending an internal review into the way abuse claims about Jimmy Savile were handled.
The corporation said it found that neither Ms Boaden nor her deputy Mr Mitchell "had anything at all to do with the failed Newsnight investigation into Lord McAlpine".
But they were in the chain of command at the time Newsnight dropped an earlier investigation into abuse claims against former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.
They have removed themselves from making decisions on some areas of BBC News output while a separate inquiry, chaired by former head of Sky News Nick Pollard, is held into that decision.
The BBC said once the Pollard Review reported, Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell "expect to then return to their positions".

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Woman could break Chinese political glass ceiling

In a moment between two influential female leaders, Hilary Clinton and Liu Yandong shake hands in a meeting in May 2010.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- A record number of American women will hold U.S. Senate seats after Tuesday's election. In China, there is speculation over whether a woman will also make history by ascending to its top political core.

No woman has ever held a post in the elite nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo that governs China. Thousands of senior Chinese officials gathered in Beijing this week and at the end of the conference next week, a new set of leaders will be unveiled.

Some observers consider Liu Yandong a possible contender for the exclusive ruling committee. Liu is the lone female member of the Politburo, a 24-member body atop the Chinese Communist Party. If promoted to the standing committee, Liu would make a crack in the political glass ceiling.

Even with the historic prospect of a woman joining the most powerful Chinese political entity, some are skeptical of the overall progress for Chinese women in power.

Hear the voices of China's workers

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Chen as a defender of women's rights

Economist: Excited about China's future

"I think women's participation in politics in China remains largely symbolic due to complicated social, cultural, and political factors," said Xi Chen, assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Liu is the daughter of Liu Ruilong, the former vice minister of agriculture. She is also said to have strong family ties with former Chinese President Jiang Zemin as well as President Hu Jintao. She is part of the "princeling class," the sons or daughters of revolutionary veterans who now number among the nation's elite.

"If Liu Yandong is appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, it would be a milestone for female political representation in China and an indication that the Chinese government is ready to place a woman in a position of genuine power," said Leta Hong Fincher, doctoral candidate at Tsinghua University, who examines gender issues in China. "But that move alone would not necessarily lead to an improvement in the overall status of women."

If chosen for the committee, Liu will most likely take the position of the "propaganda tsar," according to Hoover Institution, which is based at Stanford University. The group described Liu as "liberal minded."

Chinese data show that women lag in political representation. Only 2.2% of working women were in charge of the state offices, party organizations and other enterprises or institutions, according to the Third 's Social Status, a national survey released last year.

During the presentation of these survey results, officials from the All-China Women's Federation, a women's advancement organization affiliated with the government, was asked why the Chinese leadership lacked women.

Song Xiuyan, the vice-chairman of the federation said the Communist Party of China and the government places "great importance to empower women's issues, which our Constitution has clearly put forward the basic principle of 'gender equality.'"

The Women's Studies Institute of China, which is sponsored by the All-China Women's Federation, declined multiple requests for comment.

"The relatively small number of female politicians in China is a topic criticized by Western media," reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency in March.

The news agency stated: "However, the ratio of female national lawmakers stands at 22%, compared with only 17% in the United States."

Girl power in China

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Woman at the heart of 'China's Google'

Who is Xi Jinping?

China ranks 63rd in the world by percentage of women serving in a legislative house, compared with U.S. at 80th, according to July data compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of parliaments.

That ranking may be out-of-date after the U.S. elections this week. Female candidates made huge gains and stand to occupy a record 20 seats out of the 100 in the U.S. Senate.

Women in China have made important strides in recent years. Chinese women receive an average of 8.8 years of education compared with 2.7 years in 2000, according to the national survey.

And studies find that women are outperforming men in universities, said Fincher of Tsinghua University.

But their education does not translate to economic and political power.

"You see that in the workplace, there's a lot of systemic gender discrimination in the workplace, there's discrimination in hiring and promotion," Fincher said. "There has also been a lot of evidence that the gender income gap has widened, especially in the very recent years."

Statistically, women's average annual income was 67.3 % of men's in urban areas and 56% in rural areas which reflected a decrease compared with the wage gap in 1990, according to the 2010 national survey.

There are exceptions as some women have achieved the pinnacle of financial success. In the Huron Report's list of the world's top female billionaires, 18 out of 28 came from China.

"Of course China is the most populous country in the world," Fincher said. "Of course you're going to have individual women who are incredibly successful. That doesn't say anything about the status of the vast majority of women."

For Chinese workers, gender-targeted job ads stipulate the age, height and desired physical attributes of female applicants, according to studies on the topic.

And the recent survey results suggest that more people believe that Chinese women should focus on family, rather than getting involved in public life or careers.

In the national survey, 62% of men and 55% of women agreed with this statement: "Men should mainly focus on career and women should be family oriented."

The number of people who agreed with that statement increased by 7.7% and 4.4% for men and women, respectively, in the past 12 years compared with their views in 2000 -- signaling "a resurgence of traditional beliefs about gender roles," Fincher said.

Gender issues are sensitive in China, especially in a country dogged by a history of preference for males and sex-selective abortion that has resulted in a lopsided population. Male births outpaced female births 118 to 110, according to Xinhua.

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A father seeks peace in a place of war

Robert Stokely: My son didn't die in vain

(CNN) -- Robert Stokely fired up his computer and began a journey to a place an ocean and continent away, to a land of parched earth and dusty brush not far from the banks of the Euphrates.

Yusufiya.

It is the Iraqi town where Robert's son Mike was killed on a hot August night in 2005. A place that haunted him.

Robert showed me his Google Earth mapping ritual the first time I met him in his office in suburban Atlanta.

It was almost a year after Mike's death, and he was tortured by the thought that he might die without ever seeing where his son fell.

Sgt. Michael Stokely was killed in Iraq in August, 2005.

Now, when I meet him for lunch at a sports bar more than six years later, it is as though a great weight has been lifted.

The sorrow of losing a child, unimaginable to many of us, never withers.

Robert still wears Mike's dog tag around his neck and occasionally sleeps in his son's bedroom, frozen in time with Mike's Green Day CDs and military memorabilia.

On a shelf in the room sits a round clock that Robert bought for $4.98. He stopped it at 2:20 a.m., the time of Mike's death, and in black marker scribbled the date: August 16.

Robert still does the things that made his grief so visible to me in the aftermath of Mike's death. But Robert's voice is steadier now. He can finish most of his sentences without tears.

I know that it is because of that place -- Yusufiya.

Visible grief

In 2005, I was a newspaper reporter embedded with Mike's National Guard brigade, the 48th Infantry.

His unit, Troop E of the 108th Cavalry Regiment, slept in a rat-infested potato factory in Yusufiya and patrolled the restive town and its outskirts, never knowing who was friend or foe.

The insurgency was raging in Iraq, and Yusufiya lay in a part of the country that gained notoriety as the Triangle of Death as more and more American soldiers lost their lives on bomb-laden roads.

That's how Mike was killed. He stepped out of his Humvee during a night operation, and a bomb sent shrapnel slicing through his body.

I wrote about Mike's memorial ceremony at a forward operating base not far from where he died. His friends occupied rows of folding metal chairs set up in front of a pair of Mike's desert boots. His dog tags hung from an upended rifle.

Robert read that story. And we began a conversation, first through e-mail, and later in person, when I returned from Iraq.

It struck me from the beginning how open he was; few parents of soldiers I'd met were so grittily honest.

We order bowls of vegetable soup and after small talk, I decide to ask him why he chose to be so public with his sorrow.

"I would rather tell the story as it is than have people fill in the blanks," he says.

There's another reason, too, why Robert has been so forthcoming.

"I want people who killed my son to know they failed in their mission," he says. "They wanted to leave us as the walking dead, shells of people. I'm not going to let them have that."

Photos: Historic portraits of war

On the first anniversary of Mike's death, his father had shared so many memories.

Robert was a single dad for a while. Mike came to live with him some of the time in suburban Atlanta.

I learned he was born prematurely and weighed only 4 pounds, 2 ounces. That he grew up with a scar on his chest where a tube was inserted to save his life when his left lung collapsed.

After Mike died, Robert looked at the autopsy reports. He realized his son's left lung had collapsed again.

Robert listened over and over to the last voice mail Mike left on his cell phone. He couldn't bear to close Mike's bank account, even though it held only $29.

He put me in his Ford Escape and took me to all the places in Atlanta that meant something to him as a father.

To the first apartment they shared after Robert and Mike's mom divorced. To the cemetery at Corinth Christian Church in the town of Loganville, where Mike is buried. I remember how he bought 12 gallons of water from a nearby convenience store for the grass around the headstone.

I ask him if he still visits the grave once a month. He tells me he does; that he keeps a watering can, hedge clippers and a bottle of Windex in his car in case of impromptu visits.

"I can't do anything else for Mike other than keep his grave up," he says.

I don't know what to say as silence makes the moment awkward. We both look down at our soup.

Then, he volunteers: "I know some people think I'm over the top."

I know that he's a father in pain.

I think of what he told me six years ago: He couldn't rest until he stood in the very spot where his son took his last breath.

He was like any other person who felt a need to see the place where a loved one died. Only this was not the scene of a car accident along a lonely Georgia highway. It was a place far away -- one of war.

The journey of his dreams

Robert bookmarked the spot where Mike died on Google Earth. Every day, he studied the images of green and taupe parcels of flat land.

He'd always been fascinated by geography. GPS, his family called him, because he memorized maps and never lost his way, even in an unfamiliar town.

He figured out that Yusufiya is about the same latitude as Sharpsburg, the town south of Atlanta that he calls home.

Robert Stokely always wears his son's dog tag around his neck. It's one way that he honors Mike.

Even before Mike died, Robert sat on his front porch at night, listened to crickets and gazed at the moon. He found solace in knowing that it was the same moon Mike saw only eight hours earlier.

Robert is the Coweta County solicitor and well connected in his community. He launched a scholarship foundation in Mike's name and spoke at veterans' events. He lobbied to have a highway honoring his son and invited me to the inauguration. I still have a plastic replica of the green road sign announcing "Sgt. Michael Stokely Memorial Highway" in my house.

But with every year, his yearning to see Iraq intensified.

He wrote about his desire in blogs pounded out on his computer on sleepless nights.

"It is important to me to go to the place where my son fell the night he died, kneel, and touch the soil and breathe the air," he wrote.

"Maybe, just maybe, I might even be able to do it even as the moon over Yusufiya rises."

Eventually, the people who run the nonprofit service group Soldiers' Angels saw the blog. They, in turn, contacted James Reese, a retired Delta Force officer who co-owns the security firm TigerSwan, to see if he could escort Robert to Yusufiya.

Reese wanted badly to help a father find his peace. But to take him to a war zone? Reese knew the risks were huge, but in the end, he agreed.

On Halloween night a year ago, Robert boarded a Delta flight at the Atlanta airport. He had never been aboard a plane as big as a Boeing 777 or traveled so far.

Veterans save a war hero's grave

He carried with him a marble plaque bearing Mike's name, date of birth and date of death. It also bore a Bible verse: "Thy sun shall not set, nor thy moon wane. The Lord almighty is your everlasting light."

Robert worried about placing the plaque on Muslim soil. He didn't want to offend anyone. But, he thought, it was small enough and it would be OK if he put it off the side of the road.

Robert took his seat and looked out the window. The moon wasn't as bright as the night Mike died, but Robert saw its glow. As the engines roared and the jet began its sprint down the runway, Robert began to cry.

"I'm coming, Mike," he whispered.

Almost there

Robert flew to Dubai and Amman and then to Baghdad. TigerSwan put him up at the firm's villa.

A few days later, he put on a helmet and a bulletproof vest and climbed clumsily into an armored Toyota Land Cruiser. Robert pauses his story to tell me that Mike -- always one for humor -- might have laughed at the sight of his dad's awkwardness.

I feel silly after I tell Robert that Mike would have been proud that his aging father had the fortitude to travel all that way. Of course, he knows.

Robert made sure his flak jacket vest bore his son's nametag. The Army only uses last names. "Stokely," it said.

Robert with Mike at Fort Stewart before Mike's National Guard unit left for Iraq in the summer of 2005.

One of Mike's friends had ripped it off his uniform when he died and held onto it for the rest of his yearlong tour. He'd given it to Robert when the grieving father met his son's unit at Fort Stewart.

That was the only piece of Mike's military uniform Robert had ever worn. Sometimes, he wore Mike's old polo shirts. But he had always told me he didn't deserve to wear anything that represented Mike's service.

As TigerSwan's convoy of five vehicles made its way south on the main highway from Baghdad, Robert sat calmly in the back seat of the Land Cruiser, a pocket-sized, camouflage-covered Bible in his hands. Inside, he shuddered.

TigerSwan personnel were on high alert after reports of violence that morning during a Shiite pilgrimage. They had intelligence that a suicide bomber was in the area.

Robert's convoy started running into Iraqi checkpoints. Soon, they had been diverted off their route. Robert had studied the maps and grid coordinates so many times that he knew exactly where they were: a mile and half away from the potato factory.

"Are we at about the 30-grid mark? We should be six, seven, eight miles to the east of Yusufiya," Robert said.

The security team marveled at Robert's knowledge of every road, every alley. He was determined to help get them to Yusufiya.

But after being turned away several times, TigerSwan's Reese felt it was too dangerous to go in. They would have to give up. They would have to return to Baghdad.

Overseas burial grounds honor America's fallen

Robert felt sick to his stomach. He was dry-heaving, so heartbroken that tears began flowing down his face.

He eyed the tree line and thought for a moment that he would gently open the car door and make a mad dash.

But he didn't. He had promised his family there would be no more tragedy.

He shakes his head as he finishes his story. "I was so close."

Making peace

I ask Robert how he lives with the thought that he missed the chance to see the place that haunted him. Is it worse that he tried and didn't make it?

He tells me he might have regrets except for what happened next in his journey to Iraq.

He met an Iraqi man who'd lost his son and nephew in a bombing. A trip across Baghdad was fraught with danger for him and his family.

That Iraqi father, Robert says, wants the same things in life that he does. But the Iraqi man's days are far more daunting.

At the Baghdad airport, Robert felt lucky to be going home to a safe place.

"I remember thinking that when we buried Mike, our war was over. But that father? He lives in uncertainty every day."

It was eerie hearing Robert's words. It's exactly how I had felt on my trips to Iraq. That word, uncertainty, had appeared in so many of my stories. I could not imagine how wretched it would be to live with that feeling all the time, to not know whether you'd survive a trip to the market and back.

I tell Robert that he looks more at ease now. He pauses and takes another sip of his water.

"I talk too much, you know," he says, smiling.

He still looks at the map. He still gazes upward at the moon. But he assures me he can go through an entire day now without thinking about Yusufiya.

It used to be a place on the map where Robert's son died. Now he thinks of it as a place that people call home.

The very first time I interviewed Robert, he told me that after his son was killed, he was no longer afraid to die. I realize now, after all these years, he is no longer afraid to live.

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