Risks of Afghan War Shift From Soldiers to Contractors
By ROD NORDLAND
This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.
American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted – and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.
Younger Castro steers Cuba to a new revolution
Oil, foreign investment, free enterprise, and golf courses are on their way
Sunday 12 February 2012
Fifty years ago this month, the United States began the embargo on Cuba which continues to this day. But the country against which it was aimed is rapidly becoming a very different one to the alleged communist menace just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Under Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, it is in the throes of a second Cuban revolution.
For a sign of the change which is turning life on their island on its head, the people of Havana have only to peer into the night at the northern horizon
Greece’s date with destiny
Natalie Weeks, Maria Petrakis and Marcus Bensasson
February 12, 2012The Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos, has won cabinet approval for deeper budget cuts needed to secure a second package of international aid, preparing the way for a parliamentary vote in his race to prevent financial collapse.
The 287-page document was approved unanimously, an official said.
The backing means parliament will probably vote today on budget measures equal to 7 per cent of gross domestic product over the next three years and a debt swap to cut €100 billion ($124 billion) off more than €200 billion of privately-held debt.
Southern African foreign ministers discuss AU deadlock
Southern African foreign ministers met on Saturday to discuss the recent deadlocked polls for a new African Union (AU) head and to chart the regional bloc’s strategy for the next vote.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting was called at short notice after last month’s AU vote failed to secure victory for its candidate, former South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
“Our agenda is going to be very short, we don’t have many things to discuss but we have some very important things to debate,” Angola’s Foreign Minister Rebelo Pinto Chikoti said in his opening remarks.
Syria unrest: Arab League to meet in Cairo for talks
Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Sunday to decide their next move after a resolution on Syria failed in the UN Security Council last week.
The BBC 12 February 2012
Officials say the ministers could discuss a joint observer mission with the UN and recognition of the main opposition group.
Syrian government forces have continued to bombard Homs and entered the town of Zabadani on Saturday.
Activists say at least 35 people died, while a general was killed in Damascus.
Brig-Gen Dr Isa al-Kholi, the head of a Syrian military hospital, was shot dead by members of an “armed terrorist group” as he left his home in the north of the city, the state news agency said.
Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba’s wealth
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba derived her fabled treasures
Dalya Alberge
The Observer, Sunday 12 February 2012A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.
Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.
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