Obama juggles Libya promises, realities

Washington (CNN) -- The domestic political stakes of America's military intervention in Libya grew Friday, with critics continuing to question the mission's organization, cost and consequences.
The Obama administration, meanwhile, worked to balance promises of a rapid U.S. transition to a supporting role with an apparent unwillingness among coalition partners to have NATO assume full control of the mission.
President Obama conducted a conference call and meeting with congressional leaders to provide an update on the conflict and attempt to address their concerns. Democrats appeared more satisfied than Republicans.
"The president gave a very clear, very strong presentation," said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Michigan. "He clearly answered the questions about the mission and planned schedule for the handoff of the principal responsibility for population protection to NATO and Arab countries."
But Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans "appreciated the update" but still believe "much more needs to be done by the administration to provide clarity, particularly to the American people, on the military objective in Libya, America's role, and how it is consistent with U.S. policy goals."
According to a White House statement, 21 senators and House members met with Obama and his national security team in the White House Situation Room.
NATO is preparing to take charge of the no-fly zone and arms embargo by the end of this weekend. The U.S. military, however, is still taking the lead -- at least for now -- on airstrikes intended to protect civilians.
U.S. officials have also made clear that they want to see strongman Moammar Gadhafi removed from power, a goal beyond the scope of the U.N. mandate.
Earlier in the day, Buck said the plan to give NATO an enhanced role "doesn't answer the questions" posed in a letter Boehner sent to Obama on Wednesday.
Among other things, Boehner asked Obama which U.S. allies would take the lead in enforcing of the no-fly zone. The speaker also asked whether there would be "clear lines of authority and responsibility and a chain of command."
In addition, Boehner asked whether the U.S. military would take on a larger role, if the coalition fell apart.
California GOP Rep. Buck McKeon, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Friday that he remains "skeptical of a military-led humanitarian mission that appears to be open-ended, generous with American resources, and could at some point be placed under a knotted international chain of command."
McKeon argued that there is a "mismatch" between U.N.-mandated civilian protection and the U.S. push to remove Gadhafi that could lead to a stalemate.
A veteran Democratic senator also questioned the wisdom of the U.S.'s role.
"I have very serious concerns about what this intervention means for our country in the coming weeks," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia. "Our military and our budget are stretched thin fighting two wars already, and I want to avoid getting into another conflict with unknown costs and consequences."
"We need to avoid deep military involvement in a third foreign country -- particularly in a country whose politics and society are largely unknown to us," Rockefeller added.
So far, U.S. forces have taken on the bulk of the Libyan mission, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. Of a total of 175 Tomahawk missiles fired, 168 were from the United States and seven from Great Britain, the only two countries to possess them, while U.S. planes have flown almost two-thirds of the sorties, and U.S. ships constitute more than two-thirds of the total involved.
The U.N. resolution authorizes the no-fly zone, enforcement of an arms ban, and other steps as necessary to protect Libyan civilians. The U.S.-led coalition has interpreted that to include airstrikes on Libyan ground forces threatening the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and other areas.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney promised Thursday that U.S. military forces will be shifting to a "support and assist" role in the international coalition within a matter of days. The United States is engaged in a "time-limited, scope-limited" action, he said.
A senior administration official asserted Thursday that details on the extent of NATO's mission were still being worked out.
The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of not being identified by name, said NATO ambassadors actually made two decisions Thursday. One was to take over command of the no-fly zone, and the other was a political decision to take responsibility for enforcing the full U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the military mission.
"That latter part, we are still completing the operational planning and expect to be completed by this weekend," the official said.
Thursday's agreement was reached in a conference call between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts from Britain, France and Turkey, according to the senior administration official and diplomatic officials who spoke on condition of not being identified by name.
NATO sources said a major sticking point involved the rules of engagement for coalition forces enforcing the U.N. resolution, with Turkey raising concerns over details.
When NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen finally emerged to announce an agreement, it was clear that questions over the rules of engagement remained unresolved.
Asked if the announcement revealed a split in NATO over the mission, Rasmussen said no. However, he also acknowledged that if unaltered, the agreement would mean the overall Libyan mission would have two parts, with NATO enforcing the no-fly zone and arms blockade, and the U.S.-led coalition that launched the mission handling other necessary civilian protection.
Rasmussen said non-NATO partners including Arab countries would participate.

Clinton said she will travel to London on Tuesday to attend an international meeting on Libya that will include NATO allies and Arab partners in the Libya mission.

Doctors operating without anesthesia in Misrata hospital

(CNN) -- For days, the wounded just kept coming to the 60-bed central hospital in Misrata, a city under siege from forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. But there were no empty beds, no electricity -- only generator power. No anesthesia or painkillers.
A doctor said 109 people have died in Misrata over the past week. Six were killed Thursday by Gadhafi's rooftop snipers -- unseen but too often precise. More than 1,300 others have been wounded since the protests erupted in the western city last month.
People flooded the hospital, wounded in war that has raged between the opposition and Gadhafi's forces. The strongman's tanks have been pounding the city and bombs fell Thursday near the hospital, the doctor said.
Residents reported a reprieve after coalition airstrikes targeted the Libyan military. But rooftop snipers kept taking aim. And the doctors kept doing their work.
They treated patients in corridors, and operated on them even without anesthesia.
They sent people with what the doctor called lesser injuries home to recuperate -- including people whose legs and arms were amputated.
"We don't have the space," he said, the weariness in his voice apparent even on a poor phone connection from Libya.
Snipers surrounded the hospital, he said. Thursday, patients were to a clinic. But the injured in the city could no longer seek help at the hospital. The snipers were shooting at the ambulances.
The coalition began airstrikes last Saturday and has been able to establish a no-fly zone that spans from east to west along Libya's coastline. But Gadhafi's forces are far from defeated.

They camped on the periphery of Misrata, trying to wrest it from opposition control, and leaving its people, including those at the central hospital, in a dire situation.

Gadhafi's aides in touch with U.S. but unclear on intentions

Washington (CNN) -- Members of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle are contacting other Arab states and the United States, but have been unclear about their intentions, senior U.S. officials said.
In an interview on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the prospect that Gadhafi and his inner circle were exploring their options, including seeking a way to leave Libya to escape a sustained bombing campaign by U.S.-led forces.
''We've heard about other people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world," Clinton told ABC News. She described the communications as the Libyans exploring options and asking "What do we do?" "How do we get out of this?" "What happens next?''
In the interview, Clinton cautioned that some of what U.S. intelligence was picking up was probably "game playing" and "theater" and that the Libyan leader was unpredictable.
Abdullah Sanussi, Gadhafi's close confidant and brother-in-law, has called the State Department almost daily, and Foreign Minister Musa Kusa has also reached out several times, senior U.S. officials told CNN.
Additionally, Arab allies have told U.S. officials they have been contacted by members of Gadhafi's inner circle.
However, the officials said that none of Gadhafi's inner circle has indicated Gadhafi was ready to leave, nor have any of them suggested they are ready to abandon Gadhafi.
"They are indeed reaching out, but it's not clear to what end," one senior official said. "It's not clear what's the purpose of all these calls."
There are "no serious indications" that Gadhafi might leave the country, a U.S. intelligence official told CNN. The official said Gadhafi is not going to give up power or walk away from Libya -- "he's all in."
On Wednesday, Clinton was more vague about Gadhafi's intentions, but she suggested the international campaign was putting pressure on the regime. She told reporters during an event at the State Department that, "Gadhafi has a decision to make, and the people around him each have decisions to make."
"It will be up to Gadhafi and his insiders to determine what their next steps are, but we would certainly encourage that they make the right decision and not only institute a real, comprehensive cease-fire but withdraw from the cities and end the military actions and prepare for a transition that does not include Col. Gadhafi," she said.
In Cairo, Egypt, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested there were "a number of possible outcomes" of how the Libyan story might end, but that it would be up to Libyans themselves, specifically mentioning those closest to the Libyan ruler.
"Whether there are major defections, further major defections within his own ruling circle, whether there are divisions within his family, there are a variety of possibilities, it seems to me," he said.
Gates suggested the political calculus inside Libya might change thanks to American and coalition airstrikes that have grounded his planes and destroyed some of his tanks and other heavy military equipment.

"A lot of people who were in opposition and who played a role in the early days have hunkered down and it may be the changed circumstances where he (Gadhafi) can't use his aircraft and where he is more challenged using his armor -- they may return to the fight." Gates said at a question-and-answer session in Cairo. "We just don't know that now."

Obama Could Face Legal Limits to Military Effort in Libya if Intervention Drags On

President Obama has entered something of a gray area by sending U.S. forces on a "humanitarian" mission in Libya, a conflict the administration won't describe as either war or peacekeeping. 

But regardless of what it's called, the president could soon run into serious political and congressional limitations. Not only is the decision to approve U.S. missile strikes on Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime proving politically difficult, but under the War Powers Resolution he must win congressional approval within 60 days or withdraw U.S. forces. 

Congress could also have its say long before that, should lawmakers decide to tie in the Libya issue to the ongoing debate over the budget. One Republican Senate aide predicted that lawmakers would demand a vote on Libya before agreeing to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. 

"The rubber will hit the road before the 60-day period," the aide told FoxNews.com, adding that the administration was entering uncharted territory with this kind of humanitarian mission. 

The Obama administration, which is looking to scale back the U.S. military's role soon and hand control to an international force, insists it's on solid legal footing. 

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said Tuesday that, while Congress did not authorize intervention, the White House has kept to the letter of U.S. law by keeping Congress in the loop -- with a briefing and a formal letter. 

"Our view is that a mission of this kind, which is time-limited, well defined and discreet, clearly falls within the president's constitutional authority," Rhodes said, citing former President Bill Clinton's intervention in Bosnia as precedent. 

Obama's letter to Congress on Monday, which cited the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone, pledged to seek "a rapid, but responsible, transition of operations" to carry out the U.N. objectives, "pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive." 

But both Obama and Rhodes said the administration was acting in compliance with the War Powers Resolution of 1973. That means the clock is ticking. Under that resolution, Congress has to either declare war or authorize military action within 60 days. In extreme circumstances, the president could extend that window to 90 days. 

"It's possible that the War Powers Act would eventually become relevant either 60 or 90 days from now," said John Samples, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government -- though he noted the law has never been tested. More likely, Samples said, is that Obama will seek congressional approval or withdraw forces well before that deadline. 

Samples said the United States is "obviously" engaged in a war, though Obama can't call it that because he would be constitutionally bound to seek a declaration from Congress. 

But some lawmakers are outraged, saying the president should be forthright about the nature of the conflict. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said the intervention is "an act of war" and accused the president of committing the U.S. military "in clear subversion" of the Constitution. 

Kucinich on Tuesday called for Congress to de-fund military operations in Libya, which he estimated costs between $30 million and $100 million a week. 

"While the administration assures us that that the U.S. will hand off its lead role to coalition partners within days, we have not been notified of long-term plans or goals following initial air strikes in the country," Kucinich wrote in a letter to colleagues. "The timeline the president gave to Congress was summarized with one word: 'limited.'" 

That's another big concern for some officials -- while the administration says the U.S.-led portion of the intervention will soon end, they're unclear on who will take the reins and what that operation will look like. European allies have been squabbling over whether NATO, or some other force, should take control, though a State Department official said Tuesday that the U.S. and France have since reached an agreement on a NATO-backed entity. 

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, questioned the logistics of having a "committee" handing out orders to a coalition that includes U.S. troops. 

"This decision to turn over command to foreigners really does have potentially major implications for our troops," Bolton said. 

U.S. policy allows for American troops to operate under partial control of a foreign commander. A directive issued by the Clinton administration in 1994 following the failed intervention in Somalia stated that with "multilateral peace operations," the U.S. president would never relinquish military command of U.S. forces but does have the authority to place them under "operational control" of a foreign commander in some circumstances. 

Though that document applied largely to U.N. operations, Gen. Wesley Clark at the time explained that the United States has "always had the ability" to put U.S. units under foreign control. 

That Clinton-era policy, though, specified that -- at least in "peace operations" -- the role of U.S. forces must be "tied to clear objectives" and have an "endpoint," something several lawmakers say the Obama administration has not defined in the case of Libya. 

Obama said Tuesday he's confident the United States can hand over control of the operation within days despite the squabbling in Europe. 

State Department spokesman Mark Toner, asked Tuesday about what comes next, seemed to suggest NATO would be the ideal leader. 

"We believe NATO has certain command-and-control capabilities as this coalition moves forward," Toner said, though he added it's "conceivable" some entity other than NATO could take the reins.

FoxNews.com's Judson Berger contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/22/obama-face-legal-limits-libyan-intervention-drags/#ixzz1HPIqZN00

U.S. military considering mandatory evacuations in Yokosuka

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. military is considering the mandatory evacuation of thousands of American troops and their families in Japan out of concern over rising radiation levels, a senior defense official tells CNN.
The official, who did not want to be on the record talking about ongoing deliberations, says there are no discussions to evacuate all U.S. troops across the country. The talks have focused exclusively on U.S. troops in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, the official said. Yokosuka is home to America's largest naval base in Japan. The military is monitoring radiation levels on a constant basis.
As of Monday, the U.S. Navy had no more warships in port at the base. The aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which had been undergoing maintenance in Yokosuka, left port Monday in order to get away from the plume of radioactive particles that could blow over the base. Because it left port with a much smaller than normal crew, the George Washington will not take part in the Japanese relief effort.
The official said the talks originated with Pacific Command, the military authority that directly oversees U.S. troops in the region, but "discussions have since taken place here in Washington as well."
The official told CNN this is strictly a contingency plan, and could be accomplished "if they needed to do it in a hurry, with gray tails," or large military transport planes like a C-17.
CBS News first reported that the evacuation were being considered.
A second defense official at Pacific Command, who would not go on the record for the same reason, would only say they "are monitoring the situation, and will continue to do so and keep our families informed. Prudent planning always happens."
An official statement released by U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees all military operations in Asia, states that the only evacuations being performed now are under State Department guidelines, which calls for voluntary evacuations of military family members, paid for by the U.S. government.

A flight carrying 154 military family members left Japan Monday, flying into Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, according to Lt. Commander Bill Lewis, a spokesman for U.S. Northern Command. That followed a flight that departed Saturday with 230 people on board.

Survivor Found in Wrecked Home After Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami

The Japanese military Saturday uncovered a survivor in the rubble of his house in the aftermath of the country's massive earthquake and tsunami, but there are conflicting reports as to whether the man had remained in the house since the devastating earthquake and tsunami eight days ago.

Military search teams pulled a young man from a crushed house in Japan's disaster zone, NHK reported, but a news report later said he returned there a week after the quake and tsunami struck and that he was trapped only for one day.

The young man, found in the rubble in Kesennuma city, was too weak to talk and was immediately transferred to a nearby hospital, said a military official. The official, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media, had no other details.

Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, said the man was in his 20s. In a later report, Kyodo quoted his family as saying that he had been separated from them after the March 11 quake and had stayed in a shelter before returning home Friday.

A separate military official, who would also would not provide her name, said she could not confirm the Kyodo report and had no other details.

The National Police Agency raised the death toll Saturday, reporting that 7,197 people had died from the magnitude 9.0 quake-- exceeding the deaths from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Another 10,905 were reported missing, the police agency said.

Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short.

The Associated Press and NewsCore contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/18/survivor-wrecked-home-days-japans-earthquake-tsunami/#ixzz1H1USqpVk

Class Discussion Reflection

As of Wednesday, we had a class discussion and I thought it was very interesting, and also made me think of what school is like and how it should change. My peers had many good points on how school has changed and what can be done to make it better. One big point was teachers having tenure. I believe that teachers should earn tenure because, many teachers aren't so great, and don't really care about what students are learning. One thing that got my attention was the fact that we have it all here in the U.S., but don't take advantage of. This country is a place of freedom. As in other countries, they have to live by their educational system and don't really have a choice in what they want to do in life. Many would die to be in our shoes but, it's sad that we take things for granted and care more about what goes on out in the streets. Also, lots of money is being wasted in school books and things that aren't really of use. I think people learn better by being taught by the way teachers have learned it. Many teachers have ways in making learning easier, and fun to do. As one of my classmates said, when they were in elementary school, teachers would make up songs in order for students to learn faster and make stick with you through out life. I think this is true, and believe should be this way, also in middle school and high school.

House rejects resolution to pull U.S. forces from Afghanistan

By: CNN Congressional Producer Rachel Streitfeld

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The House Thursday decisively rejected a resolution directing the president to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan this year, but the vote also showed a deep divide in the president's own party on the war.

The final vote tally was 321 to 93, with 85 Democrats supporting the proposal.

The resolution to draw down all troops by the end of 2011, introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is not the congressman's first effort to end U.S. involvement in the war. But this year it gained more Democratic support, as many in the party voiced their deep concern with the costly and difficult struggle.
Eight Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure, some citing the need for fiscal discipline, others saying military energy should be directed at greater threats.
Several Democrats, who have spent weeks fending off Republican budget cuts, said their colleagues had overlooked the Afghanistan conflict. Kucinich appealed to conservatives on fiscal grounds during debate Thursday.
"If Congress is serious about being fiscally responsible and about cutting the federal budget by three figures, then cutting spending on the out-of-control, $100-billion-a-year war in Afghanistan must be a serious consideration," Kucinich exhorted fellow members.
"When you guys say 'deficit' and 'debt', we're going to say 'Afghanistan,'" said Rep. Bob Filner, D-California, gesturing towards his Republican colleagues.
Rep. John Duncan, R-Texas, agreed, and supported the proposal.
"There's nothing fiscally conservative about this war, and I think conservatives should be the people most horrified by this war," he said. "We turned the Department of Defense into the department of foreign aid."
Public support for the war is dismal, a fact acknowledged by members on both sides and one which military leaders sought to appease in hearings on Capitol Hill this week.
In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, described seeing progress since taking over operations in the country last June. Petraeus told lawmakers many regions are safer and Afghan troops and law enforcement are taking on a larger role in patrolling the country.
He added that the speedy drawdown advocated in the Kucinich bill would undermine U.S. national security interests.
"The Taliban and al Qaida obviously would trumpet this as a victory, as a success," he said. "Needless to say, it would completely undermine everything that our troops have fought so much for and sacrificed so much for."
The defense department expects to transition control of security for the country to Afghan forces by December 2014. Petraeus said he would likely recommend some combat forces be included in the drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July.
Republican Jason Chaffetz of Utah choked up on the House floor as he read aloud a list of his constituents who had died while serving in the conflict.
"As I've talked to each of their parents, they want those rules of engagement changed, and they want to end this war in Afghanistan - with victory," he said haltingly.
Chaffetz, who supported the bill, took on fellow Republicans like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, over the definition of victory in the conflict. Ros-Lehtinen charged "to withdraw from Afghanistan at this point, before we finish the job, is to pave the way for another 9/11."
"I reject the notion that bringing our troops home at some point - which I consider a victory - is somehow a pathway or paving a pathway to another 9/11," Chaffetz responded. "I think that's offensive. I think that's inaccurate."
The few GOP supporters of the bill were far outnumbered by Republicans who said withdrawal would be disastrous.
"I think my colleagues know that I'm very uncomfortable spending taxpayer dollars without a solid justification, and I match my fiscal conservative credentials with anybody in this body," said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. "But when it comes to national security and when it comes to the care and protection of our troops in harm's way, we must not be … penny wise and pound foolish."

Four New York Times journalists reported missing in Libya

(CNN) -- Four journalists for The New York Times, including two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Shadid and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Lynsey Addario, are missing in Libya, the newspaper said Wednesday on its website.
Editors at the paper said they had last been in touch with the journalists Tuesday morning, U.S. Eastern time, according to the report. It said the newspaper received secondhand information that "members of its reporting team on the ground in the port city of Ajdabiya had been swept up by Libyan government forces."
However, the newspaper has been unable to confirm those reports, Executive Editor Bill Keller said on the newspaper's website.
"We have talked with officials of the Libyan government in Tripoli, and they tell us they are attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of our journalists," Keller said. "We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed."
A battle raged Wednesday in Ajdabiya between government troops and rebels.
Bob Christie, senior vice president for corporate communications at The New York Times Co., said Wednesday that the Libyan government told the newspaper it was unaware of the journalists' whereabouts.
"They've told us they have a lot of prisoners and that they're processing them" and suggested that the four could turn up in that process, Christie said.
Libyan government forces said Wednesday that they have no information about where the journalists may be and that, if they were picked up by the Libyan military, they would be returned to Tripoli.
The newspaper identified the journalists as Shadid, its bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon, and two-time Pulitzer winner for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban and rescued by British commandos in 2009; and Tyler Hicks and Addario, photographers who have covered the Middle East and Africa.
"Their families and their colleagues at The Times are anxiously seeking information about their situation, and praying that they are safe," Keller said.
Addario, a freelancer based in India, recently won a MacArthur Fellowship -- known as a "genius grant" -- for her photography around the world. In an e-mail Monday to CNN correspondent Ivan Watson, Addario called the Libya story "one of the most dangerous" of her career.
The e-mail said, "qaddafi's forces heading back east, and the rebels are surrendering along the way...so exhausted. this story has been one of the most dangerous i have ever covered. getting bombed from the air and by land."
Shadid was shot in the shoulder by the Israeli Army in Ramallah in spring 2002.
Farrell routinely reports from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Before joining The New York Times in 2007, he worked for the Times of London. In April 2004, he was kidnapped on assignment in Iraq.
Hicks, a staffer for the paper, is based in Istanbul and has served as an embed in Afghanistan.
In a 2004 interview with the StarNews of Wilmington, Delaware, Hicks described how he felt about his job: "Covering conflicts is a very rewarding experience because you can bring attention to global issues. When I'm working and a photograph appears in The New York Times, I always remind myself of who is seeing that photograph" and the number of people it may have reached, he said. "That is when I can go to bed at night and feel good about what I have done that day."

Hicks and Addario are both from Westport, Connecticut.

California student from Japan finds family alive on YouTube

Riverside, California (CNN) -- Akiko Kosaka, a student from Japan attending the University of California at Riverside, had lost all hope for her family in Minami Sanriku, the fishing village where more than half of the 17,000 residents are missing and feared dead in the aftermath of last week's tsunami.
For three days, she scoured the Internet. She received one e-mail that her youngest sister, Yukako, 13, was likely safe in her middle school's shelter. But what about her parents, paternal grandparents and older sister, who all lived under the same roof?
When the mayor was quoted in the media as saying he barely survived the tsunami, Kosaka thought the worst, because her father's pharmacy was located near the town hall.
"I didn't think they survived," Kosaka, 20, told CNN during a tearful interview Tuesday. "I cried for three days -- Friday, Saturday, Sunday."
Then she received word Sunday night from a friend in Japan of the existence of a 45-second YouTube video showing her family home as the only one standing amid the rubble. The video highlighted her older sister holding a sign to a TV news crew saying in Japanese "we are all safe."
Kosaka expressed relief upon hearing of the video, but became distraught after she couldn't find it online, despite staying up all night looking for it.
Then a contact through a Japanese social network e-mailed her the link Monday morning.
When seeing the video for the first time inside the home of her host family in Riverside, California, Kosaka's reaction surprised everyone in the household.
"I screamed, and my host parents woke up and they thought it was really bad," Kosaka said. "They asked what happened. And I said, 'They survived!'"
In the video, her 24-year-old sister, Shoko, is standing on the family home's balcony, off Kosaka's bedroom, and is asking the TV crew to pass along word to her sister in America that she's safe.
Now Kosaka is trying to respond by using the media and the Internet to inform her relatives she's aware of their message -- though she's still concerned about them in the obliterated coastal village, which media accounts liken to a ghost town.
Kosaka has yet to see her father, Katsumi; mother, Noriko; or paternal grandparents on any video -- or receive any word from them.
Though she speaks English, Kosaka extended a message to them, in Japanese, through a CNN news crew: "I saw your video and thank you very much for being alive, and thank you very much for being worried about me when you are in a tough situation. How are our grandparents? How are our parents?"
After asking about the family's pharmacy business, Kosaka ends her message with, "I look forward to seeing you guys again."
In the offices of the University of California at Riverside Extension program, where she began a yearlong study of English last September, Kosaka provided a personal narrative to the stark footage of her hometown street now in ruins.
Kosaka's family home is the only one left standing on a hill because her father reconstructed the two-story house with a basement five years ago, Kosaka said. The other houses in the neighborhood were aging, she said.
Kosaka expressed shock that the earthquake or the tsunami demolished the block because she thought the area would be safe on high ground, she said. Her family's house has a scenic view of the ocean, just a five-minute walk away, she said.
In the video, a news crew approaches the family house, and Kosaka's older sister is wearing a white helmet and holds up one sign saying, "Kosaka Family," and then another saying, "We are all safe."
At another point in the video, the older sister indicates she's holding up the signs to the camera crew "because my younger sister is in America. We are all okay."
When Kosaka heard of the video's existence, she thought to herself, "I couldn't believe it. It's a miracle," she said.
Since seeing the video, she watched it over and over again -- at least "50 or something" times within about 24 hours, she said, offering a wild guess.
As she reviewed the video again Tuesday morning, Kosaka was still incredulous.
"This is my house," she said, viewing the video on a university office computer. "When I saw this video, I was very shocked by it. I thought (the hillside community) was safe. There were houses next to my house, but they were destroyed. That means the tsunami came up to the house."
She was moved to see her sister shouting to the news crew from the balcony. "It makes me very happy," Kosaka said. "It's the only way to hear her voice."
Her sister's voice, though, struck Kosaka as "tired and depressed."
"Maybe she tries to stay strong for my family. So I'm very proud of her," Kosaka said.
She believes her parents are likely OK, but her grandfather, Yoshio, is 85 and grandmother, Soyoko, is 80.
"My grandparents are old, so I'm worried about their health," Kosaka said, adding no one in her hometown probably has water, and the winter weather is still cold, with snow.
She's also worried about the family pharmacy, where her father, 52, is a pharmacist and her mother assists. The family opened it 10 years ago.
"I think it was his dream," Kosaka added.
Since Kosaka saw the video, she has been sharing her story with classmates. "I cried in front of them too much," she said Tuesday.
The University of California at Riverside Extension is the continuing education branch of the university and has an enrollment of 4,000 students from 60 countries who participate in English-language study or certificate programs, said Bronwyn Jenkins-Deas, associate dean and head of international programs.
Of the 4,000 students, 109 of them are from Japan, and five of them had families affected by the quake or tsunami or both, Jenkins-Deas said.
It is only Kosaka, though, who has yet to have direct contact with her family, Jenkins-Deas said.

"The story is quite amazing," Jenkins-Deas added.

U.S. Rescue Teams Join Global Relief Effort in Japan

Elite search and rescue teams from Virginia and California are searching through rubble in northern Japan, hoping to find victims clinging to life four days after a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami swept away entire towns and their residents.

Hours after the historic earthquake rocked Japan Friday and a subsequent tsunami flooded coastal cities, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) deployed two urban search and rescue teams from California's Los Angeles County and Virginia's Fairfax County to Japan to assist with local relief efforts.

The 72-person rescue teams -- each equipped with six canines trained to detect live victims -- then traveled on Monday from Misawa Air Force Base in Japan's Honshu Island to Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture, where they established a combined base of operations with a United Kingdom search and rescue team, according to USAID officials.

On Tuesday, the teams began searching the central portion of Ofunato City, a seaport of roughly 41,000 where the wave surge extended approximately 10 blocks into the metropolitan area. The teams completed a technical search of roughly 2 square kilometers each, but did not detect any live victims, USAID spokeswoman Gina Jackson told FoxNews.com.

"The teams remain hopeful that they will make live rescues in the days to come," Jackson wrote in an e-mail.

According to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, both teams will be working under the direction of the Tokyo Fire Department. The Virginia-based team was last activated following last year's earthquake in Haiti, where it assisted in the rescue of 16 victims.

France, Britain and Germany have also provided assistance to the ongoing recovery efforts in Japan, where the death toll surpassed 3,000 on Tuesday, according to reports. As of Monday, Japan had accepted assistance from roughly 15 countries, including China, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and New Zealand.

USAID -- the primary federal agency that provides assistance to countries struck by natural disasters -- also provided a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), which includes members with nuclear expertise from the Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

USAID also provided an initial $100,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to assist with local relief efforts. A total of $740,600 has since been provided to Japan by USAID and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) as of Monday, federal officials said.

NRC officials announced on Monday that nine additional experts have been sent to Tokyo to provide extra assistance as requested by the Japanese government. The team from NRC's headquarters in Maryland will conduct all activities needed to understand the status of efforts to safely shut down the Japanese nuclear reactors.

The 11-member team is led by Charles Castro, deputy regional administrator of the NRC's Center of Construction Inspection, who has worked in the commercial nuclear power industry at three different nuclear power plants. He will provide a single point of contact for the U.S. ambassador on nuclear reactor issues.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Fire Department Engineer Jason Vasquez, who works with a German shepherd named Maverick, is one of two handlers from the unit who remained in Los Angeles should a disaster strike there. He told AOL News he's seen "some pretty gnarly stuff" during his career.

"We search night and day in buildings that might collapse at any minute [and] through these huge piles of concrete and metal that are extremely dangerous," Vasquez told AOL News. "For the handler, it's a pretty stressful situation being so far from home. But the dogs -- they don't know the difference between a block away and 2,000 miles away."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/15/rescue-teams-join-global-relief-effort-japan/#ixzz1GjfHewob

'Not business as usual' as Japan strives for normality

(CNN) -- Tokyo and other parts of Japan faced blackouts on Monday as the country tried to return to work and a sense of normality.
"It's definitely not business as usual," said Tokyo resident Mia Moore. The office of her law firm was open, but employees were told that turning up was optional.
"It didn't really feel safe going to an empty office," she said, citing the on-going tremors that continue to rattle the city every few hours.
"People want to stay with their families at this time to recover really. It's quite exhausting feeling so nervous all the time. I think people want to get back to normality as soon as they can."

Some shops were open, but food supplies, like bread and instant noodles, as well as bottled water were scarce, she said.

"We're used to tremors in Tokyo but these aftershocks are big," said Simon Lockett, another Tokyo resident. "We've had shocks that measure more than magnitude 6."
He said residents were already braced for shortages.
"In Tokyo, there's no bread, no water on the shelves," he said.
With the imperiled Fukushima nuclear plant offline, rotating power cuts were not ruled out for parts of Tokyo to ease the burden on a stretched power service.
Tokyo Electric Power said it was expecting a shortfall of around 25 percent capacity. Regions in the north and east of Tokyo were also considering blackouts.
The first blackout was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. local time, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.
The Japanese government urged people on Monday to save energy by only making essential journeys.
With the threat of sporadic power supplies and damage from the quake, the country's rail network is also struggling to resume services.
East Japan Railway, Japan's biggest rail company that connects Tokyo with the areas hardest hit by the quake and tsunami, has cancelled all of its high-speed Shinkansen trains.
In Tokyo many of the subway and commuter lines were running limited services.
As power cuts could affect water supplies, Tokyo residents were told by local authorities to prepare by filling up bathtubs and keeping a supply of boiled water.
Elsewhere in the country major manufacturers have closed many of their plants, some for compassionate reasons, others due to damage from Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake. Some companies had shut down operations in anticipation of the power cuts.
The country's three largest car makers -- Nissan, Honda and Toyota -- suspended production at most of their facilities, with Toyota announcing it would not resume manufacturing at any of its Japan-based facilities until after Wednesday.

There was one fatality at a Honda facility 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Tokyo after the earthquake hit on Friday and the company said the plant had also sustained damage. Electronics company Sony announced that the company has taken the decision to shut off power at all of its facilities on Monday.

Worker falls to his death at Kennedy Space Center, NASA says

(CNN) -- A space shuttle contract worker fell to his death Monday morning while working at the launch pad, preparing the space shuttle Endeavour for its final flight, according to a NASA official.
United Space Alliance, the prime contractor for the U.S. space shuttle program, said in a press release that the victim was one of its employees, James Vanover.
"He fell at the pad, and NASA emergency medical personnel responded but were unable to revive him," said Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman Candrea Thomas.
Vanover was a swing-arm engineer, United Space Alliance spokeswoman Kari Fluegel said. He supported work on the gaseous oxygen vent hood as well as the orbiter access arm, which is the passageway through which astronauts enter the space shuttle.
Relatives told CNN affiliate WKMG that Vanover had worked for 30 years at the Kennedy Space Center and had a new job lined up after he was to be laid off, along with many others affiliated with the space shuttle program, in the coming weeks.
Fluegel said the man's body was found on another level of Launch Pad 39A at the space hub in northeast Florida. NASA has not indicated what caused him to fall.
"The incident is under investigation," Thomas said. "As of right now, all work at the pad has been suspended for the day while we investigate what happened."
Allard Beutell, a NASA spokesman, told WKMG that "other than the fact it is a dangerous environment, there was nothing major, no hazardous operation taking place. It wasn't like they were fueling up the shuttle -- it was nothing like that."
Counseling and employee assistance are being provided to Kennedy Space Center workers, NASA said.
Virginia Barnes, the CEO of the United Space Alliance, offered her "heartfelt sympathy" to Vanover's family.
"Our focus right now is on providing support for his families and for his coworkers," she said in a press release.

Endeavour is scheduled to blast off on its final mission April 19.

Massive 7.9 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Japan

TOKYO -- Japan was struck by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake off its northeastern coast Friday, shaking buildings in Tokyo for several minutes and prompting a tsunami warning.

Japan's meteorological agency warned that a tsunami as high as 20 feet (6 meters) could strike the coast near Miyagi prefecture, closest to the epicenter. Smaller tsunamis of up to 50 centimeters reached some coastal communities, the agency said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a tsunami warning was in effect for Japan, Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas. A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and U.S. state of Hawaii.

The quake struck at 2:46 p.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the meteorological agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.

In downtown Tokyo, large buildings shook violently and workers poured into the street for safety. TV footage showed a large building on fire and bellowing smoke in the Odaiba district of Tokyo.

Footage on national broadcaster NHK from their Sendai office showed employees stumbling around and books and papers crashing from desks.

Police and coast guard officials said they were assessing possible damage from the quake.
Several quakes had hit the same region in recent days, including a 7.3 magnitude one on Wednesday.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/11/massive-7-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-japan/#ixzz1GGqbS1KI

Family helps Gadhafi stay in power

(CNN) -- The embattled Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, is one of those rare figures in the world who manages to not only seize power, but also hold onto it for decades. Despite the inevitable mythology that grows up around such figures, however, it is worth noting that he has not done it alone. He has had a large, if at times quarrelsome, family to help him hold onto the reins.
Gadhafi has nine grown children. One is the result of a short marriage to his first wife, seven are with his second wife, and one is adopted. They hold many positions of influence in Libya's security forces, military, telecommunications, and other industries, and plenty of Libya watchers believe Gadhafi uses them not only as agents of his will, but also his eyes and ears.
The most noted power player is Saif Al-Islam. He is the one who shows up relatively often in TV interviews. He is the second oldest son, the oldest from the second wife. He was educated at the London School of Economics. He speaks fluent English, is a fastidious dresser, and he paints. An exhibition of his work was displayed in Moscow.
More importantly, he has long been seen as a possible successor to his father. He has denied any such desire, but others were interested in the idea for quite some time because he was considered more modern in his thinking, even reform minded by many Libya watchers. But that was before his recent and very public vows to fight the protestors to the end.
Another possible successor to the family throne is Mutassim, and accordingly his relationship with Saif Al-Islam is believed to be tense. Mutassim once allegedly helped plot a coup against his father and had to flee the country when it failed. He was eventually forgiven and is now his father's national security adviser. Mutassim was involved in official talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 about improving U.S./Libyan relations.

Meet the Gadhafi family

Ayesha, who is 34, is the only daughter. In many photos she looks like a blond model, and she is believed to play the role of peacekeeper among the brothers. Yet she also toes a very tough political line. She has been a longtime, loud supporter of anti-government groups (except at home) including the IRA and the insurgents in Iraq. She was famously part of Saddam Hussein's defense team when he was tried and hanged. When The Telegraph asked her how she felt about Iraqis who say he slaughtered thousands of their countrymen, she replied, "You are bound to meet people who may be against your policies."
Hannibal Gadhafi is the headline maker. He has reportedly paid millions of dollars for private parties featuring big name entertainers including Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Usher. Several of the artists now say they have given the money back.
It's not just Hannibal's parties that make news. He has been implicated in a string of violent incidents in Europe. He was accused of beating his staff, although the charges were later dropped. He is married to a model, Aline Skaf, and he was also accused of beating her in a London hotel. She later said her broken nose was the result of an accident.
In a spectacular episode, Hannibal was stopped after driving his Ferrari 90 mph the wrong way on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. He invoked diplomatic immunity.
The sixth son, Khamis, is said to command a special forces unit known as the 32nd brigade, or the Khamis brigade, which protects the Gadhafi family. His troops have been involved in much of the heavy fighting throughout Libya.

Still, despite the various problems and reported clashes among these strong personalities, nothing seems to have driven the family members far enough apart to weaken their collective grip on power for all these years.

Modern-day slavery: A problem that can't be ignored

You know that moment when you read something, and then immediately have to re-read it because you cannot believe it is true? That happened to me when I read that the levels of slavery and people trafficking today are greater than at any point in history.
Surely that cannot be right?
Obviously there is no precise figure, but the International Labor Organization and respected abolitionists like Kevin Bales and Siddharth Kara put the global number of slaves at between 10-30 million worldwide. At a minimum, 10 million.
Driving the global people trading business is ruthless greed, vast returns on investment and crucially, government ineffectiveness. The same as most criminal enterprises.
And the numbers involved are extraordinary.
The United Nations estimates the total market value of human trafficking at 32 billion U.S. dollars. In Europe, criminals are pocketing around $2.5 billion per year through sexual exploitation and forced labor.
But let’s remember the commodity here is not drugs or contraband; it is human beings. And usually the most vulnerable in society.
Those unable to defend themselves, those who innocently trust the intentions of others, those who can easily be made to disappear.
The cruelty and inhumanity of those who would profit from such a crime is truly shocking.
In previous centuries, when slaves were captured and traded each had a significant market value. Although their ill-treatment was often horrific, the reality was that it made economic sense to keep a slave alive and functioning, to protect what was usually a significant investment, made with a view to long term.
That is not so today. Many girls and women, who are trafficked, particularly for the sex trade, are done so with a view to high rate of return over a relatively short period of time. Then they are switched from the steady supply of replacements.
And what do you suppose happens to those who are seen to have maxed out their usefulness?
Often addicted to drugs they have been forced to take, almost certainly in the country illegally, with no support, and with no record that they ever existed.
A bad outcome is more or less assured.
It is also difficult to see any hope for the people who trade in people. They have reconciled themselves to the awful crimes that they commit, and are unlikely to stop because others tell them to.
No, to stop this shameful trade takes the will of governments.
First in the countries where people are either abducted or forced into labor.
These are often nations that are facing many problems, with tough economies, poor infrastructure, and sporadic and ineffective forces of law and order. People in rural and remote regions are often the targets, people who can be easily misled, or just kidnapped, with next to no chance of the crime ever being properly investigated.
For local and national governments it is just one more of a series of pressing problems they must face. The international community has a role to play in forcing it higher up each of these countries to-do lists.
This is not a problem that can be ignored.
CNN will go to the places where the people traffickers ensnare their victims.
And we will follow the routes through to markets where they get the best return on their haul.
And these destination countries are often not those struggling with the basics of civil government and policing.
No, they are established western societies, throughout Europe and in the U.S.
Have you noticed when there are raids on the brothels in these countries, that when the police do a sweep of the red light areas, so many of those arrested appear to come from thousands of miles away? How did they get there?
Is the so-called massage parlor operating in your neighborhood, sometimes brazenly touting the services of teenage Asian girls, really journey’s end for a wretched trip that began continents away?
This is a story which truly touches many parts of the world.
The current rates of return ensure that the people trafficking business will continue to grow, unless there is a concerted effort and will to stop it, by governments around the world.
The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime reports that human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world – now tied with arms smuggling and trailing only the illicit drug trade. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says human trafficking crosses cultures and continents.
CNN will use the full range of our international resources to track and champion this story. We will be in the countries where people are abducted, traded and passed into the hands of the smugglers. We will follow the routes as people are ruthlessly moved to areas where they can generate the highest return on investment.
And we will be at the end of the line where men, women and boys and girls are over-worked, raped and abused, and when no longer of value, discarded.
It is a story which is shocking and tough.
But there are also many examples of great courage and inspiration. Of people who have made a stand, of groups who at great personal risk have taken the fight to the criminals. And of individuals who have found freedom, and have not let their experience break them.
We want to highlight these important victories, these triumphs of human spirit.
There are many fine groups and individuals doing outstanding work to help trafficking victims.
Organizations like Anti-Slavery International, Free the Slaves, International Justice Mission, ECPAT, Not For Sale and Polaris Project have fearless team members at the frontlines, risking their lives in lawless lands, to help those most vulnerable.
Celebrities like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Ricky Martin, Anil Kapoor, Emmanuel Jal and Peter Gabriel are also dedicating their voices to the growing call for justice around the world.
CNN will be proud to work with many of them as we put our resources behind this project throughout 2011.
Because human trafficking is a shameful trade that must be stopped.

U.S. Gas Prices Leap Another 4 Cents

NEW YORK -- The surge in oil prices continues to drive retail gasoline prices higher in the U.S.

Pump prices jumped another 4 cents Thursday to a new national average of $3.43 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline has climbed more than 29 cents per gallon since the uprising in Libya began in the middle of February, costing Americans an extra $108 million per day to buy the same amount of fuel.

Meanwhile, forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi continued to battle for control of the country with mutinous army units and other rebels. Libya, which sits on the most reserves in Africa and is a major exporter to Europe, continues to produce oil, though experts say it's unclear how much will eventually make it to international ports.

The fighting, combined with international sanctions, could keep companies from doing business with Libya. Refineries in Europe are finding other sources of crude.

Oil traders say they've mostly priced in the loss of Libyan production. The so-called "fear premium" could rise further if similar pro-reform movements escalate in neighboring countries such as Algeria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. But on Thursday prices dropped from two-year highs set earlier in the week.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate for April delivery gave up 50 cents at $101.73 per barrel in morning trading on the Nymex.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil fell 2 cents to $3.0383 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 3 cents at $2.9981 per gallon. Natural gas gave up 2 cents at $3.796 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell $1.69 to $114.66 per barrel.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/03/gas-prices-leap-4-cents/#ixzz1FbiMEFii

Obama: No Arming of U.S. Agents in Mexico

President Obama on Thursday appeared to reject the idea of arming U.S. agents in Mexico, saying after a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon that the two governments will look at other ways to protect American officials in the wake of a fatal shooting last month. 

"There are laws in place in Mexico that say that our agents should not be armed," Obama said, describing the U.S. role south of the border as an "advisory" one. "We do not carry out law enforcement activities inside of Mexico."

The president's statement answers speculation about how far the administration would go in reforming safety measures in response to the killing three weeks ago of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico. The shooting death raised questions in the U.S. about Mexico's ability to control violence but U.S. officials earlier wouldn't say whether Obama would press the Mexican leader to allow U.S. agents to be armed. 

Coming out of the meeting Thursday afternoon, both presidents stressed that U.S. agents cannot be armed. Obama said he was nevertheless concerned about the safety of agents and that they would examine "procedures and protocols" for how to better protect them. 

Calderon said Mexican officials are "deeply analyzing alternatives." 

President Obama, accompanied by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, makes an opening statement during their joint news conference March 3 in the White House.

Obama, signaling the two presidents discussed the killing, thanked the Mexican government Thursday for its cooperation in the investigation and vowed that the United States would be a "full partner" in fighting the drug cartels. 

"Whether they live in Texas or Tijuana, our people have a right to be safe in their communities," Obama said. 

Shortly before the meeting, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also told a House committee that the administration would seek to extradite the suspects in the case so they can be prosecuted in the United States. 

Several suspects have been arrested in the killing of Zapata, and Mexican authorities say one has confessed. Napolitano declined to discuss reported statements from suspects being held in Mexico that the Feb. 15 killing was a case of mistaken identity 

Despite the ongoing concerns about the ICE agent killing, the president was able to announce a breakthrough in a longstanding trucking dispute between the two countries. 

Obama, speaking at a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart, announced that the countries had "finally found a clear path" to resolving the trucking dispute, saying the proposal would lift tariffs on U.S. goods, expand U.S. exports and create jobs. 

The plan would open up U.S. highways to Mexican trucks, removing a long-standing roadblock to improved relations between the North American allies. An Obama administration official said the two leaders have agreed to a phased-in plan that would authorize both Mexican and U.S. long-haul carriers to engage in cross-border operations, provided that the Mexican trucks meet U.S. safety standards. Both countries were given this authority under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, but the U.S. has refused to allow Mexican trucks access amid concerns over their ability to meet America's stringent safety and environmental standards. 

At the press briefing Thursday, Obama also re-emphasized his commitment to pursuing comprehensive immigration reform, something that has eluded him so far. 

The contentious debate over immigration dominated Calderon's visit to the White House in May, shortly after Arizona passed a law that makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and requires police to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're illegal. Mexico's government strongly opposes the law, and the Mexican Senate this week urged Calderon to again vehemently make their opposition known to Obama. 

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, said in a statement Thursday that his group remains "committed" to comprehensive immigration reform, despite the failure last year to pass a bill providing some illegal immigrant students and military members a pathway to legalized status. "Despite this impasse, the CHC remains committed to our stated goal of passing comprehensive immigration reform and will continue to work to find a bipartisan solution to one of our nation's most untenable problems," Gonzalez said. 

Obama and Calderon were also expected to discuss U.S. aid to help support Mexico in the drug war, something Obama touched on at the press briefing. A senior administration official said the U.S. plans to speed up implementation of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, with $900 million to be doled out by the end of the year. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to preview the announcement. 

The announcement comes as the State Department issued a report praising Mexico's government for increased drug seizures and better efforts to combat narcotics trafficking and money laundering. But it said Mexican production of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines was rapidly rising, and that cartels were becoming even more dangerous through use of sniper rifles, grenades and increasingly military tactics. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/03/napolitano-calls-extradition-ice-agent-killing-ahead-calderon-meeting/#ixzz1FbdpZlm6

9/11 firefighter dies of cancer linked to toxic dust

New York (CNN) -- Firefighter Randy Wiebicke who, like so many New York City firefighters, toiled in and around ground zero in the months after 9/11, died Wednesday following a nearly three-year battle with multiple myeloma, an aggressive and fatal blood cancer.
Wiebicke underwent an experimental stem cell transplant procedure last summer, when his cancer was in remission. But just two months after the transplant, he developed viral infections that, ultimately, his weakening body could no longer fight.
Wiebicke's wife, Madeline, said Randy was "a man who lived his life in the spirit of what being a firefighter meant to him. When others were in danger, running out of a burning building, he was there to run in," she wrote in an e-mail. "He lived his life beautifully, in a way that inspired everyone around him. Having Randy around not only made you want to be a better person, but it showed you how to get there," she wrote.
Hundreds of firefighters and other ground zero workers have died of cancer in the years following the attack on the World Trade Center, according to New York state health officials. So far, however, doctors have been reluctant to link those cancers to 9/11, saying that most cancers take longer than nine years to develop.
But a 2009 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggested a link between the type of cancer Wiebicke had and exposure to the toxic dust at ground zero. "We found a predominance of multiple myeloma in younger folks than we would have expected," said Dr. Jacqueline Moline, the study's author.
Moline is the former director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program at Mount Sinai Hospital. She said doctors monitoring the health of first responders are paying close attention to blood cancers, since they usually develop in a shorter time frame than other cancers.
"Those are the things that all of us in the World Trade Center programs have been focusing on and we're working to see if there are patterns," she said. "We know that it looks like people (with multiple myeloma) might be affected at an earlier age."
Typically, multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that affects blood plasma cells in the bone marrow, affects people over age 70. "So seeing folks in their 30s and 40s with myeloma was striking to us," Moline said. Randy Wiebicke was diagnosed with the cancer when he was 52.
Though it will take many more years of study to prove a link between ground zero and cancer, Moline said her gut tells her that "we are going to find that myeloma is in some fashion involved with the World Trade Center."
Wiebicke, who was stationed at a firehouse just blocks away from the twin towers, was not scheduled to work on the morning of 9/11, but raced to get there following the attack. In an interview last summer, Wiebicke told CNN's Deborah Feyerick that he rushed into the city with the mistaken notion that he would be rescuing people.
"I started getting equipment together, you know ropes and things, and I stopped at the local firehouse and got stretchers and went down and went right to the site and there was hardly anybody," he said, tearing up as he spoke. "It was just silent. Nothing, nothing, nobody alive."
Madeline Wiebicke said her husband came home after three days working in "the pit" with his gear covered in soot and ash. In the months that followed, she reminded him in an interview, "every time you drove to work and would come home you'd have a coating of dust on your car."
He soon developed the respiratory problems that came to be known as the "world trade center cough." But after retiring in 2002, the cough faded and Wiebicke looked forward to spending time on home projects, like building a new chicken coop in the backyard. "I thought I was bulletproof," he said last summer, while sitting near that almost-completed coop.
In the summer of 2008, he began feeling sick and, in what he described as "hitting a brick wall," his kidneys began to fail. "It was like somebody shut a switch on my whole digestive system and, you know, it felt horrible."
The kidney failure was only a symptom of a larger problem, however. A blood test proved what doctors suspected, that the source of the kidney problems was multiple myeloma.
The Wiebickes said that many of the doctors they saw believed the cancer was related to his work at ground zero.
"When I told them I was a fireman they, you know, immediately put two and two together and suspected that it had something to do with, you know, 9/11" Wiebicke said.
After dialysis helped his kidneys recover, it was time to attack the cancer, and in February 2009 he underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
By last summer, Wiebicke's doctor told him that he was in remission. But the good news was tempered with a harsh reality. The Wiebickes were told that Randy's cancer was very aggressive and would come back sooner rather than later.
It was with that understanding that Wiebicke decided to undergo an experimental type of stem cell transplant in August that has been shown in clinical trials to lead to a much longer remission.
Dr. Guenther Koehne from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center pioneered the procedure. He explained that traditional stem cell transplants for multiple myeloma frequently had poor outcomes. In the experimental procedure, officially called a "t-cell depleted allogeneic bone marrow transplant," the immune cells or "t-cells" are removed from the bone marrow stem cells before being transplanted in the patient, reducing the chances of the graft vs. host disease that is often fatal.
Koehne said while he couldn't promise Wiebicke the procedure would be a cure, his hope was "to achieve a long-lasting duration of a remission with the best quality of life."
Watching her husband fight through his illness brought Madeline Wiebicke back to the days after 9/11.
"I just thought that it was over with," she said in the interview last summer. "You know, we went through six months of crying and funerals and I thought it was over. I didn't expect to have to go through it all again."

In addition to his wife, Randy Wiebicke leaves behind a son and two daughters. Services are scheduled for Monday.

Libya Prepares for More Violence

Increasingly violent clashes in Libya between armed anti-government rebels and forces loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi threaten to escalate into a civil war, as the two sides battle for control of towns near the capital in the 15th day of fighting.

The intensified combat comes as a revolutionary council in Libya reportedly debates whether to ask the United Nations to execute airstrikes against pro-Qaddafi forces. The council aims to distinguish between help from the U.N. and foreign intervention, which the rebel forces oppose, according to the New York Times.

Anti-government protesters have garnered broad support from their homegrown opposition movements and fear foreign aid could work against them.

The Obama administration knows the Libyan opposition wants to be seen as “doing this by themselves on behalf of the Libyan people – that there not be outside intervention by an external force,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday.

Despite rebels’ efforts to ward off foreign aid, the international community stepped up moves Tuesday to isolate Qaddafi.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/01/libya-risk-civil-war-international-community-aims-isolate-muammar-al-qaddafi/#ixzz1FQCapBWx