Southern Africa pledges 4,000-strong force for eastern Congo

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Southern African nations pledged on Saturday to provide 4,000 troops for a neutral force to be deployed in eastern Congo where rebels have waged an eight month-long rebellion, the South African Development Community (SADC) said.

The regional bloc also urged the United Nations to strengthen the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force that was forced to give up defending the city of Goma last month when Congolese troops fled from advancing M23 rebels.

"This summit strongly condemned the M23 and all its attacks on the civilian population ... as well as its abuses of human rights," said Tomaz Salomao, reading a communique at the end of a summit in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

Under the arrangement, Tanzania will send a battalion of soldiers and the SADC bloc will "activate" a standby brigade of about 3,000 soldiers by mid-December.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, however, said the standby brigade's deployment would be conditional on member-states coming up with both the troops and funding.

The idea of a neutral force, which will cost an estimated $100 million, was first mooted several months ago but disagreement over where the troops should be drawn from has hindered its formation.

There has been a lull in the fighting in Congo's eastern borderlands after the rebels pulled out of Goma earlier this month, a move they said Congolese President Joseph Kabila had demanded for peace talks to proceed.

Kabila and South African President Jacob Zuma were among the six heads of state at the summit.

The rebels, widely believed to be supported by Rwanda, pose the biggest threat to Kabila in years. Rwanda strongly denies any involvement in the latest cycle of violence in Congo's mineral-rich border region.

The ease at which M23 marched into Goma was seen as a major embarrassment for the U.N. MONUSCO peacekeeping force.

The force said its helicopters had fired hundreds of rockets at the rebels but was powerless to beat them back once the Congolese army abandoned its positions.

FOCUS ON TALKS

Tanzania's government spokesman, Assah Mwambene, said SADC wanted a more robust mandate for MONUSCO.

"SADC member states want the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission ... to be changed from the traditional peacekeeping role to peace enforcement activities to enable it to engage M23 rebels militarily if the need arises," Mwambene told Reuters.

Amani Kabasha, a spokesman for M23's political arm, told Reuters the rebels had no problem with a SADC-led force.

"But we think the major focus should be put on the negotiations in Kampala, not on the neutral force. It's peace talks that will resolve our problems with Kabila, not this neutral force," Kabasha said from Bunagana in Congo.

M23 is led by members of a previous rebel movement who were brought into the Congolese army and then mutinied eight months ago, accusing the government of violating the deal. However, they are now demanding wider political reform, claiming broad popular support.

A rebel delegation is due to meet with a team from the Kinshasa government, perhaps as early as tomorrow, in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Kabasha said. Those talks, though, are expected to deal only with a framework for later negotiations.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/southern-africa-pledges-4-000-strong-force-eastern-082830270.html

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Obama, Boehner meet to discuss 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Sunday at the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations over the impending "fiscal cliff," the first meeting between just the two leaders since Election Day.

Spokesmen for both Obama and Boehner said they agreed to not release details of the conversation, but emphasized that the lines of communication remain open.

The meeting comes as the White House and Congress try to break an impasse over finding a way to stop a combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to kick in at the beginning of next year.

Obama met in November with Boehner, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The president spoke by telephone with Reid and in person with Pelosi on Friday.

Obama has been pushing higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans as one way to reduce the deficit ? a position Boehner and other House Republicans have been steadfastly against. Republicans are demanding steeper cuts in costly government entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

One GOP senator said Sunday that Senate Republicans would probably agree to higher tax rates on the wealthiest Americans if it meant getting a chance to overhaul entitlement programs.

The comments by Bob Corker of Tennessee ? a fiscal conservative who has been gaining stature in the Senate as a pragmatic deal broker ? puts new pressure on Boehner and other Republican leaders to rethink their long-held assertion that even the very rich shouldn't see their rates go up next year. GOP leaders have argued that the revenue gained by hiking the top two tax rates would be trivial to the deficit, and that any tax hike hurts job creation.

But Corker said insisting on that red line ? especially since Obama won re-election after campaigning on raising tax rates on the wealthy ? might not be wise.

"There is a growing group of folks looking at this and realizing that we don't have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year end," Corker told "Fox News Sunday."

If Republicans agree to Obama's plan to increase rates on the top 2 percent of Americans, Corker added, "the focus then shifts to entitlements and maybe it puts us in a place where we actually can do something that really saves the nation."

Besides getting tax hikes through the Republican-dominated House, Corker's proposal faces another hurdle: Democrats haven't been receptive to GOP proposals on the entitlement programs. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Sunday was skeptical about proposals to increase the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67. He said he doesn't see Congress addressing the complicated issue of Medicare overhaul in the three weeks remaining before the end of the year.

"I just don't think we can do it in a matter of days here before the end of the year," Durbin said. "We need to address that in a thoughtful way through the committee structure after the first of the year."

And hard-line fiscal conservatives in the House are holding fast to their position.

"No Republican wants to vote for a rate tax increase," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Republican Conference.

Added Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.: "I'm not sure there is support for the rate hikes. There is support for revenue by cleaning up the code."

Still, at least one House Republican has said there is another way. Rep. Tom Cole, of Oklahoma, has said Obama and Boehner should agree not to raise tax rates on the majority of Americans and negotiate the rates for top earners later. Cole said Sunday that most House Republicans would vote for that approach because it doesn't include a rate hike.

"You know, it's not waving a white flag to recognize political reality," Cole said.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., already has said he could support higher tax rates on upper incomes as part of a comprehensive plan to cut the federal deficit.

When asked Sunday what it would take to sign on to a tax rate increase, Coburn echoed Corker's comments by responding, "Significant entitlement reform." He quickly added, however, that he has estimated that such a tax rate increase would only affect about 7 percent of the deficit.

"Will I accept a tax increase as a part of a deal to actually solve our problems? Yes," Coburn said. "But the president's negotiating with the wrong people. He needs to be negotiating with our bondholders in China, because if we don't put a credible plan on the discussion, ultimately, we all lose."

Obama's plan would raise $1.6 trillion in revenue over 10 years, partly by letting decade-old tax cuts on the country's highest earners expire at the end of the year. He would continue those Bush-era tax cuts for everyone except individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples making above $250,000. The highest rates on top-paid Americans would rise from 33 percent and 35 percent to 36 percent and 39.6 percent.

Boehner has offered $800 billion in new revenues to be raised by reducing or eliminating unspecified tax breaks on upper-income people. The Republican plan would cut spending by $1.4 trillion, including by trimming annual increases in Social Security payments and raising the eligibility age for Medicare.

Hensarling and Coburn spoke on ABC's "This Week." Blackburn and Cole spoke on CNN's "State of the Union." Durbin spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-boehner-meet-discuss-fiscal-cliff-211622669--finance.html

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Hope and fear in gay marriage cases at high court

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Gay marriage supporters see 41 reasons to fret over the Supreme Court's decision to take up the case of California's ban on same-sex unions.

While nine states allow same-sex partners to marry, or will soon, 41 states do not. Of those, 30 have written gay marriage bans into their state constitutions.

That fact is worrisome to those who firmly believe there is a constitutional right to marry, regardless of sexual orientation, but who also know that the Supreme Court does not often get too far ahead of the country on hot-button social issues.

"Mindful of history, I can't help but be concerned," said Mary Bonauto, director of the Civil Rights Project at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders and a leader in the state-by-state push for marriage equality.

Bonauto was speaking before the court decided on Friday to take up cases on California's constitutional ban on gay marriage and a federal law that denies to gay Americans who are legally married the favorable tax treatment and a range of health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

In 2008, California voters approved the ban, Proposition 8, after the state Supreme Court ruled that gay Californians could marry. Since then, a federal appeals court struck down the constitutional provision, but did not authorize the resumption of same-sex marriages pending appeal.

Bonauto identified three earlier seminal rulings that once and for all outlawed state-backed discrimination, and observed that in each case the number of states that still had the discrimination on the books was far smaller.

Thirteen states still had laws against sodomy when the court said in 2003 that states have no right to intrude on the private, personal conduct of people, regardless of sexual orientation.

Interracial marriage still was illegal in 16 states in 1967 before the high court outlawed race-based state marriage bans.

In 1954, when the court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 17 states had formally segregated school systems.

Cornell University law professor Michael Dorf said those cases illustrate a widespread misperception about the justices.

"There is a commonly held but inaccurate view that the Supreme Court does is to impose its views on the country. It very rarely does that. Much more frequently, it will take a view that is either a majority in some place or a majority of elite opinion, and speed up acceptance," said Dorf, who was a Supreme Court law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The forces that mounted the legal challenge to Proposition 8 have said all along that the right to marry is so fundamental that it should not depend on success at the ballot box or the votes of state legislatures. Washington lawyer Theodore Olson, representing gay Californians who wish to marry, said he will argue that there is a "fundamental constitutional right to marry for all citizens."

But are there five justices, a majority of the court, willing to endorse that argument?

The fear among gay marriage proponents is that the court will refuse to declare that states can no longer define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, because to do so might provoke a backlash in public opinion and undermine acceptance of its authority.

A high court loss for gay marriage advocates would prevent same-sex marriages in the nation's largest state. It would not affect the District of Columbia and the nine states ? Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington ? where gay couples can or soon will be able to marry.

But it could push back the day that many in the gay rights movement, looking at strong support for gay marriage among younger Americans, see as inevitable: the Supreme Court's endorsement of full marriage equality nationwide.

Commenting after the court's action, Bonauto said she believes the court can uphold an appeals court ruling that struck down Proposition 8 in a way that applies to California only and "leave to a later day questions about broader bans on committed same-sex couples marrying."

Opponents of gay marriage look to another court case, Roe v. Wade, that they say should serve as a cautionary tale. In 1973, the court voted 7-2 to declare that the Constitution protects a woman's right to an abortion.

"Should the Supreme Court decide to overturn the marriage laws of 41 states, the ruling would become even more divisive than the court's infamous Roe v. Wade decision," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. "Marriage, unlike abortion laws in the 1970s, has been incorporated into the state constitutions of 30 states. Voters in these states will not accept an activist court redefining our most fundamental social institution."

To a degree, Perkins and Bonauto get some support from one of the nine people with a say in the matter, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In February, Ginsburg questioned the timing of the abortion decision and suggested it may have contributed to the ongoing bitter debate about abortion.

"It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg said at Columbia University.

At the time of Roe v. Wade, abortion was legal on request in four states, allowed under limited circumstances in about 16 others, and outlawed under nearly all circumstances in the other states, including Texas, where the Roe case originated.

The court could have put off dealing with abortion while the state-by-state process evolved, she said. Or her predecessors could have struck down just the Texas law, which allowed abortions only to save a mother's life, without declaring a right to privacy that legalized the procedure nationwide, Ginsburg said.

"The court made a decision that made every abortion law in the country invalid, even the most liberal," Ginsburg said. "We'll never know whether I'm right or wrong ... things might have turned out differently if the court had been more restrained."

___

Follow Sherman on Twitter at www.twitter.com/shermancourt

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hope-fear-gay-marriage-cases-high-court-130423431--politics.html

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Cherry blink Christmas cookies

Crunchy cereal cookies topped with festive red and green maraschino cherries are a retro Christmas treat.

By Kendra Nordin,?Kitchen Report / December 8, 2012

Cherry Blinks are a cheerful Christmas cookie made with cereal, nuts, and topped with maraschino or candied cherries.

Kitchen Report

Enlarge

In the middle of the rush to get ready for the holidays, my friend Rebecca stopped by my apartment armed with two shopping bags full of ingredients. As I wrapped presents she worked on these Cherry Blinks for her colleagues at the private school on Beacon Hill where she teaches.

Skip to next paragraph Kendra Nordin

Staff editor

Kendra Nordin is a staff editor and writer for the weekly print edition of the Monitor. She also produces Stir It Up!, a recipe blog for CSMonitor.com.

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Cherry Blinks aren't a part of my Christmas memory index, but they do bring to mind Christmases of times past when our family Christmas tree was festooned with wildly blinking colored lights. (I'm partial to the calmer, classic white lights now.) The unnaturally bright red and green of the maraschino cherry toppers fit right in with all that sparkles and glows this season.

When I finally stretched out in a chair my cat Cricket climbed into my lap and started purring loudly as if to say, ?Stay here for awhile,? as the apartment filled with the warmth of baking cookies.

Faster than a wink of an eye, Rebecca handed me a mug of peppermint tea and a plate of warm Cherry Blinks. She changed things up a bit from the traditional recipe, using pecans and dried dates. Crunchy and sweet with their festive cherries, these would make a delicious addition to any Christmas cookie platter.

Cherry Blinks

1-3/4? cups cereal (Wheaties, Special K, or cornflakes)

?1/2? cup sugar

1/3? cup shortening

1? tablespoon plus 1-1/2 teaspoons milk

1? teaspoon vanilla

1? egg

1? cup all-purpose flour

1/2? teaspoon baking powder

1/4? teaspoon baking soda

1/4? teaspoon salt

1/2? cup dried dates, chopped

1/2? cup chopped pecans

About 36 candied or maraschino cherries (red and green)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Crush cereal; set aside.

In large bowl, mix sugar, shortening, milk, vanilla and egg. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in dates and pecans.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into crushed cereal; roll gently until completely coated. Place cookies about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press cherry into each cookie.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or just until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/qPWLwePocpQ/Cherry-blink-Christmas-cookies

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Drug tests anger B.C. miners' union

The giant Teck Mining Company has begun conducting random drug tests on workers at its southeast B.C. mines ? a move the miners' union calls outrageous and a violation of rights.

The testing began at five mines in the Elk Valley this week as some workers among the 3,500 coal miners and contractors were randomly selected and asked to urinate into a cup.

It's all about safety, Teck spokesman Nic Milligan said.

?We believe it is a deterrent, and if an employee tests positive, it is not a firing offense. That employee has the opportunity to go for treatment,? Milligan said.

Milligan said dozens of job applicants go through the same process and test positive for drugs every year.

Union incensed

The miners' union is incensed about the tests, calling them an illegal trampling of employee rights.

?I think it's humiliating, degrading and demeaning and I think it's a violation of workers' privacy,? said Alex Hanson, president of United Steelworkers Local 9346.

?It completely obliterates the trust of the employee-employer relationship.?

Hanson said the union will take the issue to the Supreme Court to try to have the testing stopped.

Milligan said the company has taken the employees? rights into account in carrying out the program.

?We take privacy rights seriously, but we think the random program creates a reasonable balance between privacy and the safety of all our workers.?

With files from the CBC's Bob Keating

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/12/07/bc-drug-tests-miners-teck.html?cmp=rss

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