Obama: Don't Hold Middle-Class Tax Cuts Hostage

Dec 1, 2012 6:00am

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

President Obama is urging Congress to extend tax breaks for the middle class, saying it’s “unacceptable for some Republicans in Congress to hold middle class tax cuts hostage simply because they refuse to let tax rates go up on the wealthiest Americans.”

With the clock ticking toward the so-called “fiscal cliff,” Obama asked lawmakers in his weekly address to “begin by doing what we all agree on” and extend the middle class tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year.

Read: Cliff Dive: A Stalemate and a Scrooge Christmas

“With the issue behind us, we’ll have more time to work out a plan to bring down our deficits in a balanced way, including by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more, so we can still invest in the things that make our nation strong,” he said from a toy manufacturing facility in Hatfield, Pa., where he delivered a similar message to workers Friday.

The president has launched a public campaign to try and force Republicans to sign on to his position on the expiring Bush tax cuts, asking them to pass a Senate bill that would maintain low middle class tax rates while allowing them to go up on the top income earners.

“If we can just get a few House Republicans on board, I’ll sign this bill as soon as Congress sends it my way,” he said.

Read: Could Outgoing Republicans Hold Keys to ‘Fiscal Cliff’?

Earlier this week, the White House put forth a deficit reduction proposal to avert the looming tax increases and spending cuts set to kick in on Jan. 1, which included $1.6 trillion in tax increases over the next 10 years, $50 billion in new stimulus spending, $400 billion in unspecified Medicare cuts, and a measure to effectively end Congress’s ability to vote on the debt limit.  The offer, which closely mirrors the president’s previous deficit-reduction plans, lacked concessions to Republicans, including detailed spending cuts, and was strongly rejected.

Since then, as House Speaker John Boehner put it, negotiations between the White House and House Republicans have come to a “stalemate.”

SHOWS: World News

Read More..

US Senate approves new sanctions on Iran

WASHINGTON: The US Senate unanimously approved new economic sanctions Friday aimed at further crippling Iran's energy, shipping and port sectors, a year after Congress passed tough restrictions against Tehran.

The amendment, tacked on to a sweeping defense spending bill being debated by the chamber, passed 94-0 and should sail through the House of Representatives.

It was introduced by Senator Robert Menendez out of concern that Iran was pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons drive despite earlier sanctions that had been hailed as the toughest-ever against the Islamic republic.

"Yes, our sanctions are having a significant impact, but Iran continues their work to develop nuclear weapons," said Menendez, a Democrat.

He cited last week's report by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran continues to defy the United Nations and world community by refusing to slow uranium enrichment, denying access to inspectors and conducting live tests of conventional explosives that could be used to detonate a nuclear weapon.

"By passing these additional measures ending sales to and transactions with Iranian sectors that support proliferation -- energy, shipping, ship-building and port sectors as well as with anyone on our specially designed national list -- we will send a message to Iran that they can't just try to wait us out."

Building on the sanctions passed last year, the amendment would designate Iran's energy, port, shipping and ship-building sectors as "entities of proliferation" because they "support and fund Iran's proliferation activities."

Under the new rules, the United States would sanction anyone selling or supplying certain commodities to Iran -- including graphite, aluminum, steel, and some industrial software -- that are relevant to the country's ship-building and nuclear sectors.

Despite tough US and European sanctions, Tehran has been able to bypass certain restrictions by accepting payment in forms like gold for certain exports.

The Menendez amendment targets such circumventions by seeking to prevent Iran's central bank from receiving payment in precious metals.

The sanctions would also designate the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and its president as "human rights abusers" for airing forced televised confessions and show trials.

Senator John McCain offered his blunt assessment of the need for expanded sanctions to counter Iran's intentions.

"The screws need to be tightened," the Republican said on the Senate floor before the vote. "The centrifuges are still spinning in Tehran."

McCain said the new sanctions "can -- I emphasize can -- lead to a way to prevent a conflagration in the Middle East."

The far-reaching defense spending bill, when it passes, would have to be reconciled with the House version passed in July, but the sanctions amendment is safe, as the Republican-led House has been highly supportive of previous Menendez sanctions legislation against Iran.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

CBI chargesheets arms dealer Abhishek Verma, wife, firm & ex-IAF man in OS Act case

NEW DELHI: The CBI today chargesheeted arms dealer Abhishek Verma, his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neacsu, their company M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force for allegedly possessing secret defence documents and supplying them to foreign nationals in violation of the Official Secrets Act.

They were charge sheeted under section 3 of the OSA (for passing sensitive information) and also for criminal conspiracy and theft from a place for custody of property under the Indian Penal Code.

"From the investigation conducted in the case so far, it has come on record that Verma and Anca first came in contact with C Edmond Allen and persuaded him to do business through them. For this purpose they incorporated M/s Ganton Ltd, USA. It was an independent identity," the CBI said in the charge sheet filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Parkash.

"During period from 2009-11, they also got incorporated other companies namely M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and M/s Sig Sauer India Ltd. Verma and Anca and their associates in a clandestine manner and after hatching well planned conspiracy, obtained possession of these documents (secret documents) for any purpose prejudicial to safety and interest of India.

"They also communicated these documents and information to the persons who were neither authorised to receive them in any capacity nor Verma or Anca were having any kind of concern/ connection with the same," the charge sheet said.

The CBI also said the secret documents also contained a scanned copy of handwritten notes pertaining to revenue procurements of IAF and that was when Rao was called to join the investigation and his specimen handwriting was taken.

Read More..

Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNL

Looking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).

Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.

The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand challenges"—igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory, according to the NIF website. Nuclear fusion—the merging of the nuclei of two atoms of, say, hydrogen—can result in a tremendous amount of excess energy. Nuclear fission, by contrast, involves the splitting of atoms.

This July, California-based NIF made history by combining 192 laser beams into a record-breaking laser shot that packed over 500 trillion watts of peak power-a thousand times more power than the entire United States uses at any given instant.

"This was a quantum leap for laser technology around the world," NIF director Ed Moses said in September. But some critics of the $5 billion project wonder why the laser has yet to ignite a fusion chain reaction after three-and-a-half years in operation. Supporters counter that such groundbreaking science simply can't be rushed.

(Related: "Fusion Power a Step Closer After Giant Laser Blast.")

—Brian Handwerk

Published November 29, 2012

Read More..

Fiscal Cliff Creeps Closer With Few Signs of Optimism

"Absurd" -- that's the word one top Republican Hill aide used to describe the plan that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner presented to GOP leaders yesterday to avoid the fiscal cliff.

And an aide to House Speaker Boehner described the White House's offer as "completely unrealistic" and "a break with reality."

Meanwhile, a top Democratic insider complained to ABC's Jonathan Karl that "the Republicans have taken to screaming at us."

Sources familiar with the phone call Wednesday night between Speaker Boehner and President Obama -- which lasted 30 minutes -- told Karl it was as "unproductive" and "blunt." One source said the president did most of the taking, explaining why he will insist that tax rates go up.

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com

"No substantive progress has been made over the last two weeks," said House Speaker John Boehner at a press conference yesterday. "It's time for the president and Congressional Democrats to tell the American people what spending cuts they're really willing to make."

With few signs of optimism in Washington and just 33 days before the end-of-the-year fiscal cliff deadline, President Obama is taking his show on the road.

ABC's Mary Bruce notes that the president is bypassing the wrangling between both sides and traveling to Hatfield, Pa. today where he will tour a toy manufacturing facility and speak to workers there.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File

Mitt Romney, President Obama's Private Lunch at the White House Watch Video

Boehner on Fiscal Cliff: 'White House Has to Get Serious' Watch Video

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Deadline: Americans Voice Concerns Watch Video

According to the White House, "the President will continue making the case for action by visiting a business that depends on middle class consumers during the holiday season, and could be impacted if taxes go up on 98 percent of Americans at the end of the year."

FROM THE SPEAKER'S OFFICE: Boehner's office gives six reasons why the Obama administration's fiscal cliff offer won't fly:

"1) Twice the Taxes: It's absolutely true that the President ran on a tax plan of raising the top two rates. That's what Americans heard from him. That yields about $800 billion in new tax revenue. He just asked for twice that. 2) Not Even the Votes in His Own Party: The Senate was barely able to pass a bill with $800 billion in new tax revenue a few months ago (51 votes). There is no chance there are votes in the Senate for anything close to $1.6 trillion. 3) Unbalanced: The President also ran on a so-called balanced approach. Apparently his idea of balance is four times as much revenue as spending cuts. 4) No Net Spending Cuts: The spending cuts they are offering (which come later) are wiped out by all the new goodies he's also requesting. (stimulus, UI, payroll, housing, etc). 5) Debt Limit Pipe Dream: Permanently doing away with the debt limit? Come on. Guess what - the debt limit is actually very popular. Raising it to infinity is not. 6) We're Far From Opening Bids: Even as an "opening bid," this offer would be ludicrous. But we're way past that. We had about seven weeks to resolve this. Three of those weeks are gone, and this is what he comes with?"

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: White House spokesman Josh Earnest: "Right now, the only thing preventing us from reaching a deal that averts the fiscal cliff and avoids a tax hike on 98 percent of Americans is the refusal of Congressional Republicans to ask the very wealthiest individuals to pay higher tax rates. The President has already signed into law over $1 trillion in spending cuts and we remain willing to do tough things to compromise, and it's time for Republicans in Washington to join the chorus of other voices -- from the business community to middle class Americans across the country -- who support a balanced approach that asks more from the wealthiest Americans."

Read More..

IAEA chief calls for "urgent" Iran diplomacy

VIENNA: The head of the UN atomic agency called Thursday for diplomatic "urgency" in the Iranian nuclear standoff, even as Tehran signalled its continued defiance of UN Security Council demands to suspend key activities.

"All countries, and the IAEA, are willing to find a diplomatic solution. If there is political will we can reach agreement," said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano.

"There is an opportunity to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue diplomatically. Now is the time for all of us to work with a sense of urgency and seize the opportunity for a diplomatic solution," he said.

With Iran feeling the pinch from sanctions and US President Barack Obama freed from the constraints of a lengthy re-election campaign, conditions appear favourable to make progress in the long-running crisis.

The P5+1 powers -- the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- held a meeting in Brussels last week and said afterwards they want talks with Iran "as soon as possible." This may happen as early as December.

But it is far from clear whether the P5+1 will want to sweeten an offer, made in talks in May and June, that for Tehran stopped short of offering sufficient sanctions relief.

Signals coming out of Iran meanwhile indicate that Tehran is not any readier to abandon its most sensitive nuclear activities, most notably uranium enrichment.

Iran's nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, who alleged in September that the IAEA had been infiltrated by saboteurs and "terrorists", said Wednesday Iran would continue "with force" to expand its activities.

This was in spite of four rounds of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, which in combination with additional Western restrictions began to cause real problems for the Iranian economy this year.

Abbasi Davani also said Iran would "soon test" its new heavy water nuclear reactor at Arak, which Western nations fear could produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Parallel diplomatic efforts between the IAEA and Iran, focused on what the agency calls "overall, credible" evidence of past weapons research work, are meanwhile set to resume on December 13 in Tehran.

Amano said Thursday that after several rounds of fruitless talks this year, including his visit to Tehran in May, he did not want another instance of "going around in circles."

His comments came as the IAEA's board of governors met in Vienna for a session dominated, as usual, by Iran's nuclear programme.

The IAEA's latest report on November 16 said Iran was ready to double production at its Fordo facility, a key site dug into a mountain, enriching uranium to purities of 20 percent, close to the level needed for bomb.

The IAEA also said that Fordo's final machinery had been installed but was not yet ready to be put into operation. Once it is, Iran will be able to triple its current monthly output of 20-percent enriched uranium to some 45 kilos (100 pounds).

Israel's "red line" for military action is thought to be when Iran has produced around 250 kilos. That would be enough, if further enriched -- although such a move would be quickly detected by the IAEA -- for one nuclear weapon.

Supporting however Iran's argument that its programme is for peaceful means is the IAEA's finding that of the around 230 kilos of enriched uranium produced so far, 95 kilos have been converted for use as fuel for a reactor producing nuclear medicines.

The rate of conversion has however slowed dramatically, indicating possible technical problems, and once Fordo is fully up and running, Iran will be producing far more material than its civilian facilities need, experts say.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Heavy snowfall in higher reaches of Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: The higher reaches of the mountains in Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand today received the season's first heavy snowfall even as icy winds swept the plains.

Incessant rains made way for heavy snowfall in Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamnotri, Auli and Harsil in Garhwal and Dharchula and Munsyari in Kumaon.

Rains lashed Dehradun in the afternoon making the day temperature drop sharply from yesterday's 24 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius, the MeT department said.

The minimum temperature recorded in the capital today was 7.6 degrees Celsius, a notch below yesterday's 8.6, it said.

Read More..

Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."

And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.

From Worm to Pill

But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.

De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."

Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.

Brave New Worm

Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.

De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.

"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."

Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.

Read More..

Death at School: Parents Protest Dangerous Discipline for Autistic, Disabled Kids

Thousands of autistic and disabled schoolchildren have been injured and dozens have died after being restrained by poorly trained teachers and school aides who tried to subdue them using at times unduly harsh techniques, an ABC News investigation has found.

With no agreed upon national standards for how teachers can restrain an unruly child, school officials around the country have been employing a wide array of methods that range from sitting on children, to handcuffing them, even jolting them with an electric shock at one specialized school. Some have locked children in padded rooms for hours at a time. One Kentucky teacher's aide is alleged to have stuffed 9-year-old Christopher Baker, who is autistic and was swinging a chair around him, into a draw-string duffle bag.

"When I got to the end of the hall and saw the bag, I stood there like, 'Hmmm, what in the world?'" the boy's mother, Sandra Baker, recalled in an interview with ABC News. She had arrived at the school to find her son wriggling inside the "sensory bag." "It was really heartbreaking to walk up and see him in that."

New York Police Officer Gives Boots to Homeless Man Watch Video

Good Samaritans Save Pregnant Woman in Flipped Car Watch Video

Earlier this year, Sheila Foster's son Corey, 16, was the latest child to die at school, when staff members at a special needs facility in Yonkers, New York held him face down for allegedly refusing to get off the basketball court. Sheila Foster said witnesses later informed her that Corey told the staffers he couldn't breathe, but they allegedly persisted, reportedly telling him, "If you can talk, you can breathe." The school said this account is not substantiated.

PHOTOS: Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

In an interview that will air on "Nightline" Thursday, Sheila Foster said she watches the time-lapse security video of her son nearly every day, hoping for a different ending. "Every time just looking at these pictures, I know I won't feel him hug me anymore, or say, 'I love you mommy,'" she said. "That was the last time he was alive and I want to see that."

How to safely handle an out-of-control student has been a longstanding issue for parents whose children attend special schools for those with autism or with behavioral or developmental problems. But experts told ABC News it has become increasingly vexing for officials in traditional public schools as they have sought to accommodate children with special needs. Many of the schools provide little or no training to teachers and staff for how to intervene when the student misbehaves. That has left teachers and school administrators to find their own solutions, at times with terrible outcomes.

Read More..

Germany eyes September 22 for election

BERLIN: Germany will likely hold a federal election on September 22 next year, a government source told AFP on Wednesday, after the majority of the country's 16 states agreed on that date.

The interior ministry would inform the political parties of the states' choice next week, the source added. The official date must be cleared by German President Joachim Gauck after a decision in cabinet.

The Die Zeit weekly said the parties and cabinet were likely to agree on Sunday, September 22.

The election will pit conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, named by Forbes magazine as the world's most powerful woman for six of the past seven years, against former finance minister Peer Steinbrueck from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

A poll for Stern Magazine and RTL television on Wednesday put Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, at 37 percent and the SPD at 26 percent.

Merkel's current coalition partners, the business-friendly Free Democrats that propelled her to power in 2009, have plunged in the polls and are now at four percent, not enough to win parliamentary seats.

The ecologist Greens, with 16 percent, are the preferred coalition partners of the SPD.

Other parties in the running are the far-left Linke (eight percent in the Stern/RTL poll) and the upstart Pirate Party, campaigning for Internet freedom, with four percent.

The most likely outcome is a third term for Merkel at the head of a CDU-led coalition, but her partner is less clear.

One option is a "Grand Coalition" of CDU and SPD, similar to that which governed Europe's top economy from 2005 to 2009.

Other possibilities include an SPD-Green coalition or even, much less likely, an alliance between the CDU and the Greens.

-AFP/ac

Read More..