Posts Tagged ‘ Government ’

U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan are developing a strategy that would tolerate some corruption in the country but target the most corrosive abuses by more tightly regulating U.S. contracting procedures, according to senior defense officials. American officials here have not spoken publicly about countenancing potentially corrupt local power brokers. Such a stance would run...
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Britain and France could share their aircraft carrier capability in a dramatic co-operation pact designed to maintain military power while cutting costs, it has been reported. The Ministry of Defence described the report in The Times as “speculation” ahead of the outcome of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, expected next month. But a...
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A hero soldier who lost a leg in Afghanistan has been denied a disabled parking badge three times by council bosses. Lance Corporal Johno Lee has clocked up £800 in fines for parking in disabled bays in his home town of Newark, Nottinghamshire, on days when he uses a wheelchair or feels unable to...
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On each side of a towering West Texas stretch of the $2.4 billion border fence designed to block people from illegally entering the country, there are two metal footbridges, clear paths into the United States from Mexico. The footpaths that could easily guide illegal immigrants and smugglers across the Rio Grande without getting wet...
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At what point does an airport search step over the line? How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account? That’s the complaint leveled by Kathy Parker, a 43-year-old Elkton, Md., woman, who was flying out of Philadelphia International Airport...
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A teddy bear sent from England to Australia has been quarantined in case it was bringing diseases or exotic pests into the country. The soft brown Stoke City bear, complete with red jumper and matching red woolly hat, was sent as a new baby gift. But when Natalie told me she had received the...
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Japan prides itself on the world’s longest life expectancy but is struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic — revelations that hundreds of people listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven’t been heard from for decades. The mystery of the missing centenarians has captured the attention of this rapidly...
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As Americans puzzle over why the economic stimulus package enacted more than a year ago has failed to restore vigorous job growth, one explanation has emerged from new reports: A lot of the money is not yet out the door. Detroit is struggling with 14 percent unemployment, but as of June 30 the city...
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A bottled water ban? OK. No more regular Coke and Pepsi in government vending machines? All right, if we have to. But no more Happy Meals? That’s the ban that San Francisco is mulling over. Some city supervisors say the toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals unfairly lure children to eat unhealthy food. McDonald’s has...
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Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha, nine, will be greeted in Spain today by a billboard reading: “Welcome Obama family – Thank you for choosing Marbella”. Mrs Obama is due to pass the sign with her youngest daughter on their way to the Villa Padierna, a five-star golf and spa resort in the hills...
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