Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalRare US Drone Strike Outside Pakistan's Tribal Region Kills 6 People
PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suspected U.S. drone carried out a rare missile strike in northwest Pakistan outside the country's remote tribal region Thursday, killing six people, including at least two Afghan militants, Pakistani police and security officials said.
The missiles hit an Islamic seminary in Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that was known to be visited by senior members of the Afghan Haqqani network, an ally of the Taliban and one of the most feared militant groups battling U.S troops in neighboring Afghanistan, the officials said. The two Afghan militants killed in the strike were from the Haqqani network.
It was one of the first drone attacks to occur outside Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border since the strikes began in the country in 2004 and could increase tension between Islamabad and Washington. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is considered a "settled area" of Pakistan, meaning it is generally more populated and developed than the tribal region.
It was also the first drone attack since the U.S. killed former Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Nov. 1 in a strike in the North Waziristan tribal area. Pakistani officials were outraged by the attack because they said it came a day before they planned to invite Mehsud to hold peace talks.
Police have arrived at the scene of the seminary which was struck by three missiles Thursday in the Tall area of Hangu, said local police officer Fareedullah, who goes by only one name. The six were badly burned, he said.
Another police officer, Zia Khan, said five Afghans were killed in the attack, including three students and two teachers.
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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/suspected-us-drone-strike-kills-6-pakistan
Unprovoked, Deadly 'Knockout Game' Attacks Spread As Youth Do It For 'Fun'
Source: CBS Newspath
The attacks are shocking and violent – and sometimes deadly -- but youth across the country are calling the unprovoked attacks a "game" that they are "playing."
The point of Knockout or One-Hitter-Quitter, as many youth call it, is to randomly select someone walking down the street and punch them in the face in the hopes of knocking them out with one hit.
"They think it's funny. They think it's amusing," said one person about kids who take part in Knockout. She was interviewed in a Youtube video that has gone viral.
One victim of an attack was unsuspecting 50-year-old teacher-- James Addlespurger -- who was hit when he was innocently walking toward a group of boys.
Read more: http://www.wbtw.com/story/24023247/deadly-knockout-game-attacks-spreading-as-kids-do-it-for-fun
Florida Tea Party Lawmaker Busted On Cocaine Charge Voted To Require Drug Tests For Food Stamp...
Florida Tea Party Lawmaker Busted On Cocaine Charge Voted To Require Drug Tests For Food Stamp RecipientsFreshman Tea Party Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) will appear in court on Wednesday to face charges of cocaine possession, Politico reported.
The 37-year-old former journalist could be fined up to $1,000 and faces a maximum of 180 days in jail if found guilty. He was arrested on Oct. 29 and charged on Tuesday.
The Republican lawmaker has cosponsored a bill that seeks to end mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, which often ensnare people who’ve been convicted of drug possession in lengthy prison terms, and he’s also been an outspoken critic of the war on drugs.
However, Radel voted in September to require SNAP recipients to undergo drug testing as a condition of their assistance.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/19/florida-tea-party-rep-charged-with-cocaine-possession/
Questions Raised By Recommendation That 33 Million Americans Take Anti-Cholesterol Drug
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, November 20, 2013 8:11 EST
New recommendations to expand the use of cholesterol-lowering medication to millions of adults to reduce heart attacks and strokes overestimated risks faced by that population, according to a study.
An updated clinical guide released by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) last week set new guidelines on who should take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins.
The report said some 33 million Americans should be prescribed the medication.
But two researchers from Harvard University’s medical school have concluded that the guidelines exaggerate the risks, recommending statins for too many people.
“It is possible that as many as 40–50 percent of the 33 million middle-aged Americans targeted by the new ACC/AHA guidelines for statin therapy do not actually have risk thresholds” that exceed the threshold suggested for treatment, researchers Paul Ridker and Nancy Cook said in the British medical journal The Lancet.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/20/questions-raised-by-recommendation-that-33-million-americans-take-anti-cholesterol-drug/
Blame Rich, Overeducated Elites as Our Society Frays
By Peter Turchin Nov 20, 2013 9:01 AM ET
Complex human societies, including our own, are fragile. They are held together by an invisible web of mutual trust and social cooperation. This web can fray easily, resulting in a wave of political instability, internal conflict and, sometimes, outright social collapse.
Analysis of past societies shows that these destabilizing historical trends develop slowly, last many decades, and are slow to subside. The Roman Empire, Imperial China and medieval and early-modern England and France suffered such cycles, to cite a few examples. In the U.S., the last long period of instability began in the 1850s and lasted through the Gilded Age and the “violent 1910s.”
We now see the same forces in the contemporary U.S. Of about 30 detailed indicators I developed for tracing these historical cycles (reflecting popular well-being, inequality, social cooperation and its inverse, polarization and conflict), almost all have been moving in the wrong direction in the last three decades.
The roots of the current American predicament go back to the 1970s, when wages of workers stopped keeping pace with their productivity. The two curves diverged: Productivity continued to rise, as wages stagnated. The “great divergence” between the fortunes of the top 1 percent and the other 99 percent is much discussed, yet its implications for long-term political disorder are underappreciated. Battles such as the recent government shutdown are only one manifestation of what is likely to be a decade-long period.
Wealth Disrupts
How does growing economic inequality lead to political instability? Partly this correlation reflects a direct, causal connection. High inequality is corrosive of social cooperation and willingness to compromise, and waning cooperation means more discord and political infighting. Perhaps more important, economic inequality is also a symptom of deeper social changes, which have gone largely unnoticed.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/blame-rich-overeducated-elites-as-our-society-frays.html
Retail Sales Tick Up Despite Shutdown
Source: McClatchy
WASHINGTON — Despite a partial shutdown of the federal government and uncertainty over Washington wrangling, retail sales improved slightly during October, a government report said Wednesday.
Retail sales improved by four-tenths of a percentage point during the month, the Commerce Department said. Excluding automobile sales, the improvement was a more modest two-tenths of a percentage point.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile dealerships, gas stations and materials supplies, improved by half a percentage point on top of a three-tenths of a percentage point gain in September.
Home furnishings and electronics sales drove the growth during the month, while spending on clothing and food and beverages fell during the month.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/20/209144/retail-sales-tick-up-despite-shutdown.html
Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Drop to Lowest in Four Months
Source: Bloomberg
By Ben Schenkel - Nov 20, 2013
Purchases of previously-owned U.S. homes fell in October to the lowest level in four months as limited supply and higher mortgage rates restrained momentum in the housing-market recovery.
Sales (ETSLTOTL) dropped 3.2 percent to a 5.12 million annual rate, the fewest since June, according to data released today by the National Association of Realtors in Washington. The median forecast of 76 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected a 5.14 million pace. The partial federal shutdown last month may have delayed some closings, the group also said.
Concern that fiscal gridlock in Washington will damage the economy combined with the increase in borrowing costs amid expectations Federal Reserve policy makers will soon dial back monetary stimulus have slowed the rebound in housing. Sustained payroll gains would help repair confidence and enable more Americans to buy real estate.
“The housing data has downshifted in recent months, presumably because of the pop in mortgage rates beginning in the spring,” Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies LLC in New York, said in an e-mailed note. “Low inventories may also be impeding sales.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-fell-in-october-to-four-month-low.html
Car Bombing Kills 11 Egyptian Soldiers in Sinai Peninsula
By Salma El Wardany - Nov 20, 2013
At least 11 Egyptian soldiers were killed when a car bomb hit their bus in the Sinai Peninsula, in the latest attack on security forces battling insurgents.
About 34 others were wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into one of two buses carrying off-duty soldiers, Mohamed Rady, a police officer at the North Sinai Security Directorate, said today by phone, citing preliminary investigations. The soldiers were traveling from the border town of Rafah to Cairo, he said.
Violence has surged in Egypt since the army deposed the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Mursi, on July 3. At least 25 members of the security forces were killed in an ambush in August, and gunmen have carried out near-daily attacks on checkpoints in the region since.
An Islamist militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, is suspected of carrying out the attack in retaliation for the killing of three of its leaders by security forces, state-run Ahram Gate reported, citing an unidentified security official.
The armed forces will continue to fight “sinister terrorism and eradicate the champions of darkness, sedition and extremism,” army spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Ali said on the military’s official Facebook page.
Two Fronts
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/car-bombing-kills-10-egyptian-soldiers-in-sinai-peninsula.html
Iran Nuclear Envoys Look to Deal as Netanyahu Goes to Moscow
By Jonathan Tirone - Nov 20, 2013
Negotiators gathering in Geneva to end the decade-long deadlock over Iran’s nuclear work are looking to seal an accord in the face of Israeli objections.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met privately and a plenary session will be held at 6:00 p.m. local time today in the Swiss city, according to an EU statement. Negotiations between Iran and senior diplomats from China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. are expected to run at least through Nov. 22, organizers said.
“The last round of nuclear talks with Iran showed that a diplomatic resolution is possible,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement from Berlin. “We can succeed at the Geneva talks beginning today to take important first steps.”
The accord under consideration would deliver Iran limited sanctions relief in exchange for a verified halt to some elements of its nuclear work. The initial deal would last six months, during which time negotiations would continue over a comprehensive accord intended to ensure that Iran won’t make a nuclear weapon. The Islamic republic denies it wants one.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a critic of the proposed agreement, flew to Moscow today for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Jewish state has said it may consider a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails to ensure that it can’t make nuclear weapons.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/iran-nuclear-envoys-look-to-deal-as-netanyahu-goes-to-moscow.html
Obama Intensifies CEO Outreach as Tea Party Draws Business Ire
By Julianna Goldman - Nov 20, 2013
During a meeting in the West Wing of the White House this month, President Barack Obama’s aides posed an unusual question to business leaders across the table: How can the administration help House Speaker John Boehner?
Obama’s interest in helping Boehner is part of a broader White House effort to enlist executives to support Republicans who are willing to deal with the administration. It’s also aimed at exposing divisions within the opposition party.
The White House session sought to coordinate efforts to pass immigration legislation, an achievement that would boost the electoral chances of some of Boehner’s Republicans even as it sparks opposition from Tea Party lawmakers.
As corporate America grows frustrated with Tea Party influence over Republican leaders, the president, who in his first term once derided “fat-cat bankers on Wall Street,” is now reaching out to chief executive officers for help on issues from the budget to immigration laws.
“The White House and Democratic leadership are certainly appealing to the business community’s disenchantment with the GOP,” said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, an association of leaders of companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/obama-intensifies-ceo-outreach-as-tea-party-draws-business-ire.html
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