KABUL (Reuters) –
Afghanistan is repositioning forces to the south after complaints too few are involved in major U.S. and British offensives against the Taliban, officials said on Wednesday, even as clashes erupted in the north.

Afghan troops battled a group of Taliban fighters dug into a valley in northern Kunduz on Wednesday, Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said. He said fighters loyal to a wanted al Qaeda-linked Uzbek leader had entered the north recently.

With violence this year hitting its highest levels since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched assaults in the southern Taliban stronghold of Helmand this month.

The new offensives are the first major operations under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its militant Islamist allies and stabilize Afghanistan, which holds a presidential election on August 20.

The aim of the operations in Helmand is to clear the vast province of insurgents and hold the ground it wins, something overstretched NATO forces have so far been unable to do.

But the offensives underscored weaknesses in the Afghan security forces, with only about 650 fighting alongside some 4,000 U.S. Marines and a similar number of British troops in Helmand, which produces most of the opium that funds the Taliban-led insurgency.

Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson, commander of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, complained about a week after Operation Strike of the Sword began in Helmand that there were not enough Afghan troops involved. "You can do the math," he said.

He said many more were needed to build relations with local leaders, a major part of a new counter-insurgency strategy under General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and identify Taliban members hiding among residents.

Azimi blamed the media for complaints about the paucity of Afghan troops fighting in Helmand and said security forces were stretched to their limit combating insurgents across the country.

He said an extra battalion of about 700 troops was being sent to join the fight in Helmand. Afghanistan already has more than 5,000 troops in the province, he said.

"We are sending an extra battalion to Helmand, it is en route and, with its arrival, the number of Afghan forces will exceed 6,000 in Helmand," Azimi told a media conference.

ATTACKS CLIMB SHARPLY

Afghanistan's army totals about 95,000 troops, with the number to increase by about 5,000 by year's end.

The United States has about 58,000 troops in Afghanistan, with another 39,000 from NATO and other non-U.S. coalition members bringing the total of foreign forces to about 97,000.

Washington plans to increase its troop levels to 68,000 by year's end, more than double the 32,000 at the end of 2008.

Nicholson has said there were also problems with the quality of Afghan police units. Under Obama's new strategy, 4,000 more troops are also being sent to train Afghan security forces.

Violence has spiked across the country since the operations in Helmand began, with attacks against the military and civilians climbing sharply.

U.S. and British troops in Helmand and elsewhere have so far borne the brunt of the Taliban backlash. Record death tolls have prompted questions in London and Washington about strategies in Afghanistan and how long troops should remain.

In Berlin, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said about 300 German soldiers had joined a week-long offensive against the Taliban around Kunduz, their biggest operation to date, in a bid to improve security before the election.

Azimi said Afghan troops had besieged a group of insurgents entrenched in Char Dara, a valley in Kunduz, on Wednesday, part of wider operations against militants. He said 13 Taliban fighters and four soldiers had been killed.

Afghanistan's north has generally been regarded as more peaceful than the Taliban strongholds in the south and east but there has been a spate of attacks against foreign and Afghan forces in recent weeks.

Azimi said the increase in Taliban attacks in the north was partly in response to an agreement reached in Moscow this month to allow Washington to fly troops and supplies for Afghanistan across its territory, opening an important northern supply route.

It also followed the announcement a month ago of an escalation of operations by Pakistan's army against insurgents in the tribal areas of Waziristan, he said.

Azimi said fighters loyal to Tahir Yuldash and other insurgents had also moved into the north to disrupt the August presidential poll. Yuldash and his Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fighters were given shelter by the Taliban before 2001.

(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum in BERLIN; Editing by Paul Tait)

JACKSON, Miss. – The Salvation Army is struggling with dwindling donations across the country that will make it hard to give long-term assistance after a disaster, and a spokesman for the charity says "we have to hope and pray" this year's hurricane season is mild.
The organization will continue to provide the basics — food, water and shelter, said Maj. George Hood, the Salvation Army's national spokesman. But it isn't likely to offer more costly recovery aid, such as the $10,000 grants that were given to Hurricane Katrina victims to help them repair their homes. The religious charity also has given mortgage, rent and downpayment assistance to disaster victims in the past.
The Salvation Army's cost-cutting moves include plans to close two offices along the Hurricane-prone Gulf coast: one in Mississippi's Hancock County Aug. 28 and one in Metairie, La., in December. Both were Katrina recovery centers.
Hood said the moves were made by local divisions of the charity.
"The problem is the economy," Hood said, adding that the agency will still be able to offer basic services in a crisis. "If and when we have a hurricane, the Salvation Army will be there. We'll be mobilized."
Still, even last year, Hood said the organization was unable to offer as much sustained help in the aftermath of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike as in years past.
The charity usually raises $50 million to $75 million for a single hurricane relief effort, but last year, it raised only $13 million for the entire season, Hood said.
The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts a near-normal season, with a chance of four to seven hurricanes with up to three of them being major storms.
Lea Stokes, deputy director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said the Salvation Army's diminished resources could mean delays for families — and communities — struck by storms because it is one of the nation's biggest disaster relief organizations.
"Federal assistance does not completely replace everything you've lost in a disaster. It only helps you get back on your feet," Stokes said. "The majority of families who are disaster survivors are going to rely on the nonprofit organizations, such as the Salvation Army, to help them rebuild their lives."
Laura Tuggle of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services said Katrina victims got valuable assistance from the charity, which even helped people buy appliances and cleanup supplies and provided rent and moving expenses.
"That function is really critical. If that wasn't going to be around, that would be a major loss," she said.
In Mississippi's Hancock County, Brian Adam, director of the county's Emergency Management Agency said the loss of the local Salvation Army office would hurt the community's storm response efforts.
"Certainly during hurricane season, this is a big deal," Adam said.
Adam said the Salvation's Army presence in his emergency operating center during and after storms saves his responders from having to track down relief volunteers to get information about food and shelter needs in the community.
Some of the other major charities that respond to disasters say they're in solid shape going into hurricane season.
American Red Cross spokeswoman Laura Howe said her nonprofit has raised more than $90 million of a $100 million campaign.
"The economy has been tough, but we feel like we're in a really good place to provide strong and consistent disaster response this year," Howe said.

Roger Conner, a national spokesman for Catholic Charities USA, said his group also expects it will be able to provide the same level of disaster relief as in years past.

In some areas of the country, the Salvation Army's iconic red kettles, usually seen during the holiday season, have made an early appearance. Twenty-one cities in 10 states including Iowa, New York and Ohio, are participating in the "Kettles in July" effort, though it's not a national campaign, said Jaime Joswick, a national spokeswoman for the charity. The goal is to help meet an increased need in services for people hit by the slumping economy.

Kevin Smith, the Salvation Army's disaster coordinator for the Florida Division, said the organization has made it through tight economic times before. "That does not stop us from responding to basic services."

Mark Jones, the spokesman for the Salvation Army in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, said there are still four offices on the Mississippi coast. He said the two offices that will close were opened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and that recovery effort is coming to an end.

"We're not ceasing the availability of social services. We're just relocating them as part of cost-cutting measures," Jones said, adding that clients could travel 20 to 30 miles to the Gulfport, Miss. office for service.

Hood said he's trying to stay optimistic.

"I thank God every day there hasn't been a tropical depression yet."

WASHINGTON – House Democrats put their divisions on display over the details and timing of health care legislation Tuesday despite fresh attempts by President Barack Obama to hasten a compromise on the issue that looms increasingly as a major test of his clout.
With a self-imposed deadline for action in jeopardy, the Democratic leadership juggled complaints from conservatives demanding additional cost savings, first-term lawmakers upset with proposed tax increases and objections from members of the rank-and-file opposed to allowing the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry.
"No one wants to tell the speaker that she's moving too fast and they damn sure don't want to tell the president," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a key committee chairman, told a fellow lawmaker as the two walked into a closed-door meeting. The remark was overheard by reporters.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed weeks ago that the House would vote by the end of July on legislation to meet two goals established by Obama months ago. The president wants legislation to extend health coverage to the tens of millions who now lack it, at the same time it restrains the growth in the cost of health care far into the future.
The president also has vowed that the legislation will not swell the deficit, although a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday that the pledge does not apply to an estimated $245 billion to increase fees for doctors serving Medicare patients over the next decade.
Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, said that was because the administration always assumed the money would be spent to avert a scheduled cut of 21 percent in doctor's fees.
At the White House, Obama and moderate and conservative Democrats verbally agreed on "some type of hybrid of a Medicare advisory council," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. Obama last week urged lawmakers to adopt something along those lines, saying it would slow the growth in the health care program for seniors.
In the Senate, a small group of bipartisan lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee met behind closed doors, pursuing an elusive agreement.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, described the process as a grinding one. "Basically, it's filling in the blank pages. There are about a thousand" of them, she said.
It was unclear when — or whether — the White House or Democratic leadership would intervene in hopes of expediting legislation that has yet to materialize despite months of negotiations led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
But increasingly, it appeared that the best Democrats could hope for this summer would be a vote in the full House by the end of the month, and some sort of agreement on a bipartisan plan in the Senate before lawmakers head home for their summer vacation.
Even that remained a difficult challenge, though.
"If we can get to consensus, we're going to move," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters. "If we can't get to consensus, we're going to continue to work on creating consensus."
At the White House, Obama clearly had Republicans in mind, not Democrats, when he demanded action.
"So I understand that some will try to delay action until the special interests can kill it while others will simply focus on scoring political points," the president said. "We've done that before. And we can choose to follow that playbook again, and then we'll never get over the goal line and will face an even greater crisis in the years to come."
He said that despite the controversy, months of debate have produced agreement on numerous health care issues, and he summoned lawmakers to complete the work.
"When we do pass this bill, history won't record the demands for endless delay or endless debates in the news cycle. It will record the hard work done by the members of Congress to pass the bill and the fact that the people who sent us here to Washington insisted upon change," he said.
Obama has spoken in public nearly every day for more than a week on the issue, some times more than once. At the same time Republicans have upped the political stakes.

On Monday, Michael Steele, the Republican chairman, likened Obama's proposals on health care to socialism, and said the chief executive wanted to conduct a "risky experiment" that will damage the nation's economy and force millions to lose the coverage they now have.

Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was quoted as telling fellow conservatives, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," a reference to the site of French Emperor Napoleon's defeat in 1815.

Given the struggle, the polls show slippage for Obama, although he remains popular.

Still, with details unsettled and Democrats in disagreement, the president is battling the impression if not the reality that his proposal is stalled.

He met at the White House during the day with so-called Blue Dogs, moderate and conservative Democrats whose call for additional cost savings has slowed work in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The panel is the only one of three that has yet to approve its portion of the legislation.

Separately, nearly two dozen first-term lawmakers have called for changes in tax increases in the legislation that would apply to individuals making more than $280,000 a year and couples over $350,000.

Pelosi said on Monday she favored a change so the tax wouldn't take effect until income reached $500,000, a statement that cheered Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., one of the lawmakers who had expressed concern.

But Rangel told reporters that neither Pelosi nor the rank-and-file critics have spoken with him about the suggested change. "I support what we have put out. If anybody has a problem with it I'm anxious to listen to it," he added.

In a measure of the complexity of the task, Orszag said conservative Democrats had reacted favorably to proposals to create an independent commission to recommend future increases in health care provider payments under Medicare.

It is one of only a few proposals in circulation that officials say has the ability to restrain the skyrocketing growth of health care costs.

But accepting such a proposal would require lawmakers to surrender their current power to set fees, which they can adjust to favor constituents.

"I think that we always need to be reminded that members of Congress don't serve under presidents, they serve with presidents," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

___

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Erica Werner, Charles Babington and Ben Feller contributed to this story.

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Infant mortality is the death of an infant in the first year of life. Infant mortality can be subdivided into neonatal death, referring to deaths in the first 27 days of life, and post-neonatal death, referring to deaths after 28 days of life. Major causes of infant mortality include dehydration, infection, congenital malformation, and SIDS.

If all purchases are subject to the same tax rate, the tax rate itself is flat with higher income people paying more tax as they consume more. While the tax on spending as a percentage of gross income may be regressive, the effective tax rates can be progressive on consumption due to exemptions or rebates. If a sales tax is to be related to income, then the unspent income can be treated as tax-deferred (spending savings at a later point in time), at which time it is taxed. Sales taxes often exclude items or provide rebates in an effort to create progressive effects. In many locations, "necessary" items such as non-prepared food, clothing, or prescription drugs are exempt from sales tax to alleviate the burden on the poor.

Periodic review of procedures relating to Sales & Use Tax data gathering and retention so that proper supporting documentation, including exemption and resale certificates, are available in the event of a State audit.

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Iranians have been waiting weeks to hear from former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. At the height of the demonstrations on Tehran's streets, when hundreds of thousands of people called for a do-over of the June 12th presidential poll officially won by incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, many Iranians have wondered if Rafsanjani, one of the Islamic Republic's most powerful men and a leading supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, would mount a challenge to Ahmadinejad's main patron, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
So when word spread that Rafsanjani would deliver the keynote address at Friday prayers at Tehran University, one of the country's most high-profile platforms, many opposition supporters hoped that his speech would provide new impetus to the protest movement. Mousavi himself, rarely seen in public these days, attended the prayer service. Taking no chances, security forces deployed in force hours before the event, and authorities filled the prayer hall with government supporters. (See pictures of Iran's presidential elections and their turbulent aftermath.)
In the end, though, the speech was more conciliatory than confrontational. Rafsajani made several nods to opposition sentiment, acknowledging that the events of recent weeks constituted a "crisis" for the Islamic Republic. He also used strong terms to deplore the violence that broke out. But he praised the government's preparations for the election and said that they occurred in an atmosphere of "healthy competition" and "unprecedented freedom."
Crucially, he appeared to call for the opposition to back down in exchange for concessions from the government - the release of opposition prisoners and a relaxation of controls over the media. "My sisters and brothers we have to find a way of maintaining unity," he said. "For the protection of the state and our values, we have to seek to maintain our unity for future generations." This would be possible if the will of the people is respected, he said, but he made no mention of allegations of electoral fraud. Indeed, his call for unity in the face of outside threats even played into the government's narrative that the post-election unrest was not an expression of popular will, but the result of foreign agitation.
Though perhaps not the clarion call that the rank and file may have been hoping for, the notes of compromise struck by Rafsanjani made sense within the context of a power struggle at the apex of the Islamic Republic, according to Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, "The phase we're in now is one where the different sides are trying to determine the rules by which they'll continue their political conflict," he says. "Remember, these guys are all in the same boat to some extent, all invested in the regime's survival. And if they keep this fight going without any rules, they run the risk that the system could collapse and take them down with it. Both sides have an incentive to avoid that."
Rafsanaji's speech may even have been a smart move as far as his own career is concerned. "Rafsanjani very cleverly positioned himself as a unifying figure, emphasizing the need to bring everyone together," says Parsi. "That was an indirect attack on the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], who has been widely accused of abusing his position by being so partisan in backing the Ahmadinejad faction. When the Supreme Leader is incapable of bringing about unity within the system, then anyone else who is capable of achieving that will strengthen his position relative to the Supreme Leader." (See pictures of the lasting influence of Ayatullah Khomeini.)
But that may not be enough to satisfy those who keep risking their lives to confront the regime in street protests. Surprisingly large crowds of opposition supporters gathered outside Tehran University despite the heavy security presence Friday. Plainclothes officers harassed opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, who nevertheless managed to make it into the prayer hall, according to an account posted on an opposition news website by Karroubi's son. Eyewitnesses say that government supporters shouting "Death to America," were met by opposition protestors chanting "Death to Russia" and "Death to China" - two countries that have recognized Ahmadinejad's re-election. Before the speech, protestors called out to Rafsanjani using his midde name: "Hashemi, Hashemi, take back my vote. Hashemi, Hashemi, silence will make you a traitor" and "Honorable clerics, support, support."
But with powerful establishment clerics like Rafsanjani shying away from open confrontation with the Ahmadinejad government, the protest movement may need to look beyond clerical leadership. Rafsanjani himself didn't have any suggestions for how the opposition should continue its struggle, other than that it should obey they law. Mousavi advisors have talked about starting a new political party, but that would require government permission. Rank and file supports have been reduced to largely symbolic gestures like turning on hair dryers and irons during presidential speeches in order to trigger mass blackouts, or boycotting Siemens Nokia, which they accuse of having sold telecommunications monitoring equipment to the government. (Read Mousavi's interview with TIME's Joe Klein.)
Ahmedinejad, meantime, appears to be growing more emboldened. On Thursday he pushed back against suggestions by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that time is running out for Iran to sit down and negotiate with the U.S. over its nuclear development program. He demanded that the U.S. apologize for interfering in Iran's elections before talks can begin. "They talked nonsense," he said. "They were rude."
- With reporting by Nahid Siamdoust / Beirut and Tony Karon / New York
See pictures of Iran's presidential elections and their turbulent aftermath.
See the top 10 Ahmadinejad-isms.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com:The Comeback Cleric Iran's Turning Point: The Supreme Leader's Ominous Sermon Iran Update Ayatullah v. Ayatullah: Is Khamenei Vulnerable? Iran Update - Swampland.com

Suspenders give a better line and eliminate the bulky belt line. Their tunic, tight-fitting waist- length t-shirt, is either tucked into their tights or worn out. If it is worn out then it should just cover the pelvic area (Penrod 14). This tunic is fitted to allow more freedom for the male dancer’s strong movements. By adding elastics to the side seams, it provides a more fitted look (Harrison 115).

The amount of make-up used on a dancer depends on the venue, lighting, and the distance of the audience. To enhance the dancer’s face and make it visible from a distance, the face’s bone structure should be emphasized, there should be a space between the eyebrows, and the eyes should stand out. The further away the audience is the bolder make-up required (Cooper 78).

Adult Costumes

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
Half-Blood Prince is the new king of the Harry Potter movies.

The franchise's sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, grossed an estimated $58.2 million yesterday, the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations reported.

The take is the biggest-ever opening day, by far, for the no-slouch Harry Potter series. Overall, the gross is Hollywood's fourth-highest single-day score ever, running behind only The Dark Knight, this summer's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Spider-Man 3.

Half-Blood Prince started off Wednesday with a Dark Knight-besting $22.2 million from midnight screenings.

··· THEY SAID WHAT? Get today's most commented stories now at www.eonline.com

Wind and solar power get a lot of attention when the future of energy comes up for discussion. But are there any plans to generate more power by building new nuclear plants?
Curiosity about nuclear power inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.
If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.
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Concerning the carbon dating of the supposed bones of St. Paul from a sarcophagus in Rome:
Since St. Paul was supposedly beheaded and there are bone fragments from his head thought to be in the church of St. John Lataran, are there any plans by the Vatican to do DNA testing on those fragments to see if they match up with the bones in the sarcophagus?
Michele Howard
Troy, N.Y.
___
At the moment, there are no plans to do any further tests on the material taken from the sarcophagus, according to Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, the archpriest of the basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, where the tomb lies.
But he added: "Perhaps something will follow."
Even if more tests are conducted, we'll only hear about the results from the pope himself. The results of the first tests were kept under pontifical secret, and not a word leaked until Benedict's surprise announcement on June 28 that the testing "seems to confirm" that the bones belong to the Apostle Paul.
The Vatican is keen to avoid another repeat of the decades-long and very public dispute over the remains of St. Peter, whose tomb, according to tradition, lies underneath St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
After Pope Pius XII ordered the grottoes under St. Peter's excavated in 1940, and a tomb found at the site was declared to be that of St. Peter.
Years later, Pope Paul VI declared that bones of an elderly man found at the site were those of Peter.
But the Vatican announcement at the time was met with deep skepticism, and one of the four original archaeologists involved, the Rev. Antonio Ferrua, later said he was "not convinced" that they were the saint's bones.
Nicole Winfield
Associated Press Writer

Rome

___

Has there been any talk of starting any new nuclear power plants?

Derek Rogers

Sacramento, Calif.

___

Yes, there certainly has been a lot of talk. But, as they say, what really talks is money.

Nuclear plants cost between $6 billion and $8 billion each, and that has proved a serious hurdle, even for the biggest utilities that badly need to build them.

In April, the first of a slew of next-generation reactors was put on hold in Missouri because of the $6 billion price tag.

Over the last two years, more than two dozen applications for new reactors have been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That may not sound like a lot, but to put it into context, there had been no such applications since 1979 — not coincidentally, the year of the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

To close the gap in cost, power companies are seeking $122 billion in loan guarantees from the Energy Department. Congress has approved only $18.5 billion.

Four companies were singled out recently by the Energy Department for loan guarantees. Those companies want to build nuclear power plants in Maryland, Texas, Georgia and South Carolina.

Utilities are under pressure to build, with demand for electricity expected to grow 21 percent by 2030.

The Nuclear Energy Institute expects as many as eight new nuclear reactors will be online by 2016.

Charles Sheehan

AP Energy Editor

New York

___

With the news that Kim Jong Il supposedly has pancreatic cancer, is there a chance Euna Lee and Laura Ling could be released if something should happen to him? Would his younger son be more inclined to release them if he took over?

Ryan Himel

Windsor, Calif.

___

Unfortunately, we know very little about the youngest son, Kim Jong Un, rumored to be in line to succeed his father as leader of North Korea, so it's hard to gauge how he might handle Washington's requests for the journalists' release.

However, given his youth — he's 26 — and apparent political inexperience, it's likely Jong Un would have a tight circle of hand-picked military and political advisers giving him guidance should he take over as leader. Those advisers are likely to ensure he sticks to the party line established by his father, leader Kim Jong Il.

A South Korean newspaper, the Dong-a Ilbo, reported last month that Jong Un is already overseeing the case of the two American journalists, who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and "hostile acts." AP has not been able to verify the report.

Jean Lee

AP Chief of Bureau

Seoul, South Korea

___

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions(at)ap.org.

LOS ANGELES – Manny Ramirez was little help for Los Angeles in his first game at Dodger Stadium since his 50-game suspension ended as Wandy Rodriguez combined with four relievers on an eight-hitter in the Houston Astros' 3-0 victory Thursday night.
Back in Mannywood, Ramirez went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts while being welcomed with cheers, chants of his name and camera flashes that sparkled around the stadium.
Ramirez singled to lead off the eighth, but he was erased on a double play one batter later. In the ninth, Ramirez walked over to center fielder Matt Kemp and rested on one knee chatting with Kemp and right fielder Andre Ethier as reliever Scott Elbert warmed up.
There were plenty of empty seats among the announced crowd of 45,970 for Ramirez's return, which came after he rejoined the team at San Diego on July 3 for a nine-game road trip. Owners Frank and Jamie McCourt were out of town. Ramirez was suspended for violating baseball's drug policy.
There was one bit of bad news for the Astros. First baseman Lance Berkman left the game with a mild left calf strain and is day to day. He's leading the team in home runs and RBIs.
Rodriguez (9-6) gave up five hits in six innings, struck out six and walked two in winning his fifth in a row. The Astros have won the left-hander's last five starts and six of his last seven.
Jose Valverde, the fourth Astros reliever, earned his ninth save in 13 chances.
Humberto Quintero hit his first home run of the season on the first pitch from Randy Wolf (4-4) with two outs in the fifth inning.
The left-hander allowed five hits and three runs in six-plus innings, with six strikeouts and one walk against his former team.
Wolf retired 14 of the first 16 batters he faced before giving up the homer. He retired the next four batters before allowing three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs in the seventh. Guillermo Mota replaced him and allowed an RBI single to Kazuo Matsui on his fourth pitch, making it 2-0.
The Astros extended their lead to 3-0 on a double-play grounder by Quintero that scored Miguel Tejada.
Ethier hit into a bases-loaded double-play with Ramirez on deck in the fifth.
NOTES: Juan Pierre, who replaced Ramirez in left field during the slugger's suspension, got a standing ovation when he entered as a pinch hitter in the seventh. ... The Dodgers placed RHP Cory Wade on the 15-day DL and recalled INF Blake DeWitt from Triple A-Albuquerque. ... The Astros recalled LHP Wesley Wright from Triple A-Round Rock to fill the roster spot vacated when RHP Felipe Paulino was optioned to Round Rock on Sunday.

WASHINGTON — Throughout last year's presidential campaign and this year's debate over fixing the nation's health care system, lawmakers have delivered the same refrain: That the American people deserve the same kind of health care that members of Congress get.

In reality, the 435 members of the House of Representatives , the 100 members of the Senate , and President Barack Obama get a pretty sweet deal, better than most Americans.

"Do they have better health care? A little, anyway," said Steve Ellis , the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a government watchdog group. "They do get some things that other people don't: access to doctors; military medical facilities."

Obama and members of Congress are among the more than 8 million federal employees, retirees and dependents who get their insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the largest employer-sponsored health insurance program in the country.

Because of its size, the program offers federal workers dozens of health plans to choose from instead of the two or three that corporations and businesses typically offer their workers.

Like everyone else in the federal plan, what Obama and lawmakers pay depends on the level of coverage they choose. On average, the federal government pays 72 percent of the total premium.

"The federal employee plan is more generous than coverage most people have in the private sector," said Mark McClellan , a health care analyst at the Brookings Institution and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President George W. Bush .

"It's probably similar to coverage that people in large established corporations get, and better than what you get if you're in a small business. It's not the creme de la creme, but it's better than what most Americans are getting."

Lawmakers also receive perks beyond the federal care offerings. For an additional fee, they can receive routine health services from the Office of the Attending Physician , a fully staffed $2.5 million medical office located in the Capitol. It's primarily there to respond to emergency needs of lawmakers, staff, and visitors to the Capitol.

For a flat fee, lawmakers can also get medical treatment at military hospitals, including the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. , where presidents get their annual check-ups, and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington .

"I would like to have that," Ellis said. "Anyone who's had to call their (health care) provider to make an appointment, that perk would be good to have."

That's not likely to happen anytime soon. McClellan said it would cost nearly $2 trillion to get Americans up to congressional-level health care.

Obama also gets in-house medical attention through the White House medical unit, which has a team of military doctors, nurses, physician assistants, medics and administrators. The unit has examination rooms, medications and medical equipment in the White House .

"It's like a mini urgent-care center," Dr. E. Connie Mariano , former President Bill Clinton's White House physician, told CNN in 2004.

The president also takes his health care on the road with him aboard Air Force One. Obama travels with a White House physician, and the presidential jet is equipped with an operating table and operating room lights in case of an emergency.

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

States moving to expand long-term care insurance

Health care ad audit: 'Health Care Reform Testimonials'

Obama campaign vow of public debate on health care fading

It's hard to say how much health care overhaul might cost

For more McClatchy politics coverage visit Planet Washington

Dog Tags

Molecular systematics indicate that the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) descends from one or more populations of wild wolves (Canis lupus). As reflected in the nomenclature, dogs are descended from the wolf and are able to interbreed with wolves.

The skin of domestic dogs tends to be thicker than that of wolves, with some Inuit tribes favouring the former for use as clothing due to its greater resistance to wear and tear in harsh weather. Unlike wolves, but like coyotes, domestic dogs have sweat glands on their paw pads. The paws of a dog are half the size of those of a wolf, and their tails tend to curl upwards, another trait not found in wolves.

JERUSALEM – Ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police using horses and water cannon in Jerusalem Thursday in the third day of rioting over the arrest of a mentally ill Hasidic woman who authorities say was starving her child.
The clashes are the latest sign of increasing tensions between authorities, who allege the woman starved her 3-year-old son over a period of several years, and the insular ultra-Orthodox community that often resents outside interference in its affairs. The child is currently hospitalized.
Media reports say the woman is believed to be suffering from a condition known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition in which a person deliberately makes another sick. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that was a possibility that police were examining.
Tensions between authorities and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up a third of Jerusalem's residents, have been high in recent months since voters replaced an ultra-Orthodox mayor with a secular candidate in a November election.
In recent weeks, ultra-Orthodox Jews and authorities have clashed repeatedly over the Jerusalem mayor's plan to open a municipal parking lot on the Sabbath. Ultra-Orthodox Jews oppose the idea because driving is forbidden on the Sabbath, saying the move would violate the city's religious status quo.
In the wake of this week's disturbances, City Hall has cut off municipal services to some ultra-Orthodox areas, saying it can't guarantee the safety of its workers.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Thursday that 28 protesters were arrested overnight and one officer was lightly wounded. The protesters burned dozens of trash cans and garbage was strewn across city streets.
Police used horses and a water cannon to control the protests. On Thursday, protesters demonstrated outside the hospital where the 3-year-old is being treated. The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a photograph of the emaciated child and reported that his weight was currently 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The woman, who has not been named, is in police custody. Authorities say they have video footage showing her disconnecting him repeatedly from a feeding tube at the hospital.
The woman claims the child is sick and that she is not responsible for his condition, a position accepted by many of those protesting her arrest.

WASHINGTON, Jul 15 (OneWorld.net) - Most women in Burkina Faso spend
their days growing food for
their families, but they cannot own the land they cultivate. In this
diary from the field, the president of an international development
organization explores the lives of women farmers in the impoverished West African
nation.

What's the Story?

"For most women in Burkina Faso, where approximately half of the
population lives below the poverty line, life is a daily struggle," writes Ritu Sharma, president and co-founder of Women Thrive Worldwide, a group advocating for U.S. policies that benefit women living in poverty.

Last month, Sharma and several colleagues spent a week in Burkina Faso meeting with local women's groups,
women farmers, government officials, and other development
organizations. She learned about the lives of women farmers and asked
what local governments and outside assistance programs can do to
empower them.

What would you do with additional income if you had it? Sharma asked Burkinabe women farmers, who work non-stop -- at home and in the fields -- from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. "They told me [Sharma] that they would first buy some land as a group so they are
not always worried about losing it to men in the community, or
discouraged from improving it (because it could be taken away from them
at any moment). Next, they said, they would dig communal wells, so they
could access better water and avoid the hours of travel that take away
from time farming or caring for their children."

In reality, though, bringing in extra income is a considerable struggle for poor women in Burkina Faso. Discrimination, tradition, and legal loopholes hold them back from owning, investing in, and reaping greater profits from the land they cultivate. (See excerpts from Sharma's diary below.)

Hunger and Poverty in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world with over 70 percent of the population living on less than $2 a day. Out of the 179 countries on the 2008 United Nations (UN) Human Development Index, it's ranked 173.

Burkinabes depend almost entirely on agriculture -- 80 percent of the
population survives on subsistence rain-fed farming. However, irregular rainfall, floods, and drought have contributed to severe food shortages and price hikes, which in 2008 led to food riots in the capital and other cities. Poor food security has also impacted maternal and child mortality rates, which remain high in the country much due to widespread malnutrition. Over 35 percent of children under five and one-fifth of new mothers were malnourished in 2007.

Government programs provide land, seed, and fertilizer to help farmers cope. But, notes Sharma, "the [state's] emphasis is on growing agribusiness, not empowering the rural women who are the backbone of the economy."

For more background on development and human rights in Burkina Faso, see OneWorld.net's Burkina Faso country guide.

Investing in Women Is Key

As in Burkina Faso, women in developing countries around the world account for more than half of the agricultural labor force. In Africa, they grow 80 percent of staple crops and in Southeast Asia they constitute 90 percent of rice growers, notes a report from the UN Population Fund. While women produce over half of the world's food, they own only one percent of its land.

According to the Center for Development and Population Activities, which works to improve the lives of women and girls around the world, research shows that when we invest in women, there is an "important multiplier effect," because women are most likely to share economic gains with their family and community. One World Bank study found that focusing on the education and leadership of women in Africa can increase agricultural productivity by over 20 percent.

"When you empower a woman, you empower a family. When you empower a woman, you change the world," said UN chief Ban Ki-moon earlier this month on World Population Day, as reported by the reproductive health news service PLANetWIRE.org.

G8 Commits Boost to Agriculture Worldwide

International leaders announced at the close of the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy last week that they will commit $20 billion to strengthening agriculture and addressing food shortages in developing countries, reports the news agency SciDev.net.

"There is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty," said the G8 leaders in a joint statement. "Food security is closely connected with economic growth and social progress as well as with political stability and peace."

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization greeted the pledge as an "encouraging policy shift to help the poor and hungry." Some organizations, however, view it as an "old fashioned" way of tackling food issues.

"Just returning spending on research and development to where it was a couple of decades ago is not going to do the job if the thinking behind the research also returns to where it was 20 years ago," warned Emile Frison, director general of Bioversity International. "Only improved agriculture can do that." In particular, maintains the international research institute, intensifying production alone is not enough, particularly on the African continent, where staple crops, landscapes, soil types, cultures, and weather patterns vary widely.

This piece was compiled by Brittany Schell.

Women Feed the World: Ritu's Diary from Burkina Faso

From: Women Thrive Worldwide

6/18/09

This week, Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, is in Burkina Faso trying to answer the question: is agriculture working for women and mothers in Africa? Read Ritu's diary from the field.

For most women in Burkina Faso, where approximately half of the population lives below the poverty line, life is a daily struggle. Typically living in rural areas, most women have little access to ongoing education or potable water. Yet because they are the majority of farmers and are responsible for child care, Burkinabe women spend much of their day performing field work, growing food and crops for their families. However, despite this often grueling work, most Burkinabe women are not allowed to own the very land they farm, because customary law excludes women from land ownership, preventing them from investing in the tools, irrigation, and seeds that would make their families better fed and their children better off.

Learn more about women's role in agriculture

This week, Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, is in Ghana and Burkina Faso, trying to learn about what life is like for women farmers, what their governments are doing to empower them, and what U.S. assistance programs can do to help. Accompanied by a team of Women Thrive staff, Ritu is meeting with local women's organizations, such as our advocacy partner, Coordinator Coalition Burkinabe pour Le Droit du la Femmes (CBDF), a coalition of 15 women's associations that educates Burkinabe women and helps them advocate for better economic rights. She is also meeting with individual women farmers, Burkina Faso government officials, and U.S. development agencies working in the country. Read more about Ritu.

Below are Ritu's updates from her trip.

Day 1 - Ritu Arrives in Ghana

Read the entry at Women Thrive Worldwide.

Day 2 - Ritu Arrives in Burkina Faso

Going from Accra, Ghana to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is like going from Miami to Waco, Texas in a day. Same continent, so so different. Ouagadougou, or "Ouaga," as residents call it, is smaller, drier, and much, much poorer.

Our partners from CBDF greeted us at the airport. We are very much looking forward to spending the week with them, traveling around the country and meeting with women in the rural villages they work with. I'm sure I'll have many stories to tell you about them over the next few days.

The hotel is very modest, but does has A/C and wireless, and I think sleeping under a mosquito net is incredibly romantic, but that's probably because, unlike so many, I don't have to do it everyday.

The impacts of extreme poverty can be seen even in the comfort of our hotel, at the table next to us at dinner. Two, possibly French, men, engaged in business or perhaps development work, were sitting with a very pretty Burkinabe girl, probably not over 15. They treated her to dinner, showed her a movie on their laptop, and then took her back to their room. As a mother of two, the scene made me sick to my stomach. Our colleagues from CBDF says it's a big problem, so much so that many hotels have trainers come and talk to the girls about how to, at the very least, keep themselves safe from STDs and AIDS. It will be good to get out of the hotel and start our work tomorrow.

More tomorrow with pictures. Good night.

Day 3 - The Farms

Catalina (Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships), Toni (Women
Thrive's African Partnerships Manager) and I all agreed that today was
about as good as it gets in life. We visited two women's farming
associations.  The first we initially met up with under a tree in a
semi-urban area, the second in a small compound owned by the
government, but used by the women's cooperative.

A typical plot of land

The women we talked to described a typical day for themselves: They wake up at 4 AM to clean their houses, fetch water (often walking miles to get it), and prepare their children for school. Then they head to small plots of land they farm (but not necessarily own) to tend to their crops. After several hours working in the sun (the average daily temperature is about 100 degrees), they return home to meet their children, who have returned from school, and prepare the midday meal.

Next they return to the plots or to another task to earn income. Several hours of work later, they return home again to prepare another meal for their children, if there is food available. And if they didn't get a turn at the community well in the morning, they return back to their plots to carry water, two watering cans at a time, to their crops. Finally, after a day of literally non-stop work, they go to bed at 10 PM. I truly cannot imagine raising my two children while working such a long, grueling schedule in such extreme heat.

One group of farmers had received a little bit of help from the Burkina government, and they were MUCH better off than the other cooperative (less than a mile away) that had received none. It never ceases to upset me that we can't get a little aid to EVERY group like this. If I can fly to Burkina Faso and get in a truck and visit this group, how can it possibly be so hard for the U.S. government to deliver such a small amount of assistance to local groups that are such great investments for reducing poverty throughout their entire community? CBDF has a network of over 15 women's cooperatives and I believe they'd make a great conduit for getting assistance to the right women. It seems pretty straightforward to me, and yet, it rarely happens.

What would they do with the extra income if they had it? I asked. They told me that they would first buy some land as a group so they are not always worried about losing it to men in the community, or discouraged from improving it (because it could be taken away from them at any moment). Next, they said, they would dig communal wells, so they could access better water and avoid the hours of travel that take away from time farming or caring for their children.

We ended the day with a surprise: we were invited by our partners to attend the second day of a Burkinabe wedding. The clothes, the drums, and the dancing were all very different from weddings back home, but the feeling of the excitement and giddiness in the crowd was exactly the same.

Day 4 - Owning Land

Burkina Faso residents call themselves Burkinabe (bur-KEY-nah-bay). The last two days here I have felt like a Burkina-bee.

One of our goals for this trip was to learn more about the challenges women farmers face in trying to provide for their families. Another goal was to assess to what extent their government was addressing these challenges. We have met with 16 different officials in 10 different agencies. At each meeting we collect a little information and then sprinkle it on the next meeting, like a bumblebee collecting pollen in a garden, filling different agencies and local groups in on what the others are doing. It seems to me that someone needs to be here full time just connecting all these different players to make everyone more effective.

Me watering vegetables on one of CBDF's farms

Another thing that has become painfully clear is how insidious discrimation against the poor, especially poor women, is. Women Thrive's ultimate goal in Burkina Faso is to see the poorest women farmers, who cultivate plots about the size of an average American garage, reap some of the benefits of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) new Burkina Faso agriculture programs (the MCC is a U.S. economic development organization that works with poor countries to help them grow their economies. In 2004, Women Thrive played an instrumental role in helping the MCC create a cutting-edge gender policy. Read More.). But this is going to require serious diligence in making sure they don't get cut out at every step of the way. Take the issue of land ownership, for example:

Burkina
is working on a new land law to give people ownership of government or
community held lands, as ownership is often a pre-requisite to getting
a loan to buy more fertilizer or seeds. The land will be distributed
based on current use--if a business is currently farming 1000 hectares
of land, they'll get a big piece, if a women is currently farming a
small plot of land, she'll get a very small piece.  In other words, if
you're a small subsistence farmer you're going to stay a small
subsistence farmer.  The emphasis is on growing agribusiness, not
empowering the rural women who are the backbone of the economy. However,
even if the program were designed to benefit rural households, it
wouldn’t reach most women, who are the majority of small farmers. Even
if a farmer has access to a small piece of land, it can only be titled
to the "head of household", which, as you can probably guess, is rarely
the woman.The Ministry of Agriculture told us they would register land
to women if she is the head of her household, but in this culture, no
woman is going to claim that title and risk retribution from her
husband and community.  Even if her husband is dead, the head of her
household becomes his brother.  Joint titles are an option, but many
men here have multiple wives, making joint titling next to impossible.

Compounding the problem is the fact that in order to own land you have
to legally exist, which requires having a birth certificate or another
official goverment ID, documents most rural women don't have.

The result of all this? Women cannot control, improve, or generate
additional income from the very land they work on day in and day out.
This virtually guarantees that rural women and children will stay poor.

This is discrimination, plain and simple.  If you're poor, tough luck.
If you're a poor woman, well then, we really can't help you.  If I can
figure out these "loopholes" in the land reform process in about 5
minutes, my guess is that pretty much every government official can
too.  Catalina gives them the benefit of the doubt, saying that they
aren’t aware of household dynamics.  I find that highly unlikely.

So, it looks like we'll be working in Burkina for a while, supporting
our local partners to straighten out this myriad of loopholes.  Poor
women really do need "lobbyists" looking out for their interests.
Everyone else has one and it shows.

Day 5 - Fertilizer That Feeds

Yesterday we drove about hour outside of Ouaga to the villages of Droaogo. When we first arrived at Droaogo we met the mayor, from whom we were required to ask permission to visit one of CBDF's women's agricultural associations. He gave his consent and said he was very excited to have guests from the United States come so far to visit his villages.

The meeting with the association was excellent. We met with about forty women under a huge tree where they described their rice farming, the size of their plots, and their typical days in great detail. Of the 87 community plots that were prepared for rice, 32 have been granted to women, one of which is held by the women's association itself. Not bad.

They women talked a great deal about the fertilizers that they are able to buy when they do receive credit. They told us that, after using it on their crops, they pray like crazy that their yields are enough to pay back the loan AND earn a little extra income. They explained that one of the biggest barriers they face in trying to grow more and better crops (and thus earn more income) is that they simply do not have the resources to improve their land and farming techniques. For example, they have no machine to manually de-husk the rice, so they are forced to boil it, dry it, pound it and finally sift it, an extremely labor-intensive process for such meager profits. Most of the women also have kitchen gardens on which they grow greens for their families' meals.

The association does try to save the income they earn from their plot to collectively invest in better farming tools. When we asked what they are saving the association's money for right now, the response was quick and clear: a rice mill and a new fertilizer that is rumored to simultaneously enriches the soil, improves the yield, and kills insects. This, they said, would improve their ability to feed their families by leaps and bounds.

In discussing their worries about providing for their children, one of the villagers said something I will never forget: "We are poor, but we are not jealous. We have happiness and god in our hearts. And we know that we can make our lives better."

Tomorrow is filled with planning meetings and then I begin the journey home to Washington (D.C.).

My next journal will come from Honduras, where I will attempt to live on a dollar a day, the amount of money that 1 billion people around the world struggle to survive on everyday. That should be pretty interesting, eye-opening or traumatizing, I'm not sure which.

A bientot (see you soon).

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Mousepad

A mousepad (sometimes mouse pad, mousemat, or mouse mat), is a surface for enhancing the usability of a computer mouse.

A variety of mousepads exist with many different textured surfaces to fit various different types of mouse technologies. Vinyl board cover, because of its tackiness, was a popular mousepad surface around 1980.[citation needed]