OCR Text |
Show Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 Page 2 World&NatiON Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com OarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemaiLusu.edu Celebs &People NEW YORK (AP) — Regis Philbin had successful hip replacement surgery Tuesday, and plans to return to his syndicated daytime talk show early next month. An e-mail from "Live! With Regis and Kelly" says: "Word from TANNER the hospital is i that everything went perfectly this morning during Regis' hip replacement surgery, and his doctor said that Regis couldn't be in better shape." The show says the typical recovery period is four to six weeks, and the 78-year-old Philbin expects to return soon after the first of the year, No other details were available. Philbin had triple heart bypass surgery in 2007. NewsBriefs Nurse says Mitchell faked symptoms SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A psychiatric nurse who observed the man charged with abducting Elizabeth Smart said Tuesday she believes he has faked psychiatric symptoms and behaviors to avoid prosecution and remain at a state hospital. Leslie Miles, a former employee of Utah State Hospital, testified during the second day of a competency hearing for Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell, 56, is charged in federal court with kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Mitchell was able to take care of himself and ask for things while in the hospital's forensic unit but refused to participate in any treatments or therapies, Miles said. "It was the refusal that was a big red flag that he was faking," said Miles, who worked at the hospital for 13 years and was the nursing supervisor of the forensic unit. "He wouldn't engage in any way to move himself along." LateNiteHumor David Letterman, Dec. 1Z 2008 — Top 10 Things Jim Carrey Will Always Say Yes To Presented ByJim Carrey. 10. Dressing up like an Iraqi and throwing a shoe at President Bush. 9. Watching YouTube video of guys getting hit in the nuts. 8. A fan asking for a hug — unless it's a dude. 7. Fresh ground pepper. 6. David Letterman's drunken requests to see me taking a bath. 5. People who ask me to say, "All-righty then!" That never gets old. 4. Sex with a big, fat roadside waitress. 3. Lucrative endorsement deals: Remember, you're not fully clean unless you're Zestfully clean. 2. The question, "Aren't you Jim Carrey, the funniest, sexiest, most talented man in all of Hollywood?" 1. Tub time with Larry King. Obama orders 30,000 troops to Afghanistan WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Declaring "our security is at stake," President Barack Obama ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into the long war in Afghanistan Tuesday night, nearly tripling the force he inherited as commander in chief. He promised an impatient public he would begin bringing units home in 18 months. The buildup to about 100,000 troops will begin almost immediately — the first Marines will be in place by Christmas — and will cost $30 billion for the first year alone. In a prime-time speech at the U.S. Military Academy, the president told the nation his new policy was designed to "bring this war to a successful conclusion," though he made no mention of defeating Taliban insurgents or capturing al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We must deny al-Qaida a safe haven," Obama said in spelling out U.S. military goals for a war that has dragged on for eight years. "We must reverse the Taliban's momentum.... And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government." The president said the additional forces would be deployed at "the fastest pace possible so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers." Their destination: "the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaida." "It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak," the president said. It marked the second time in his young presidency that Obama has added to the American force in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has recently made significant advances. When he became president last PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA speaks about the war in Afghanistan at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Tuesday, Dec. I. AP photo January, there were roughly 34,000 troops on the ground; there now are 71,000. After the speech, cadets in the audience — some of whom could end up in combat because of Obama's decision — climbed over chairs to shake hands with their commander in chief and take his picture. Obama's announcement drew less-wholehearted support from congressional Democrats. Many of them favor a quick withdrawal, but others have already proposed higher taxes to pay for the fighting. Republicans reacted warily, as well. Officials said Sen. John McCain, who was Obama's Republican opponent in last year's presidential campaign, told Obama at an early evening meeting attended by numerous lawmakers that declaring a timetable for a withdrawal would merely send the Taliban underground until the Americans began to leave. As a candidate, Obama called Afghanistan a war worth fighting, as opposed to Iraq, a conflict he opposed and has since begun easing out of. A new survey by the Gallup organization, released Tuesday, showed only 35 percent of Americans now approve of Obama's handling of the war; 55 percent disapprove. He made no direct reference to public opinion Tuesday night, although he seemed to touch on it when he said, "The American people are understandably focused on rebuilding our economy and putting people to work here at home." "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home," he said flatly. In eight years of war, 849 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighboring Uzbekistan, according to the Pentagon. In addition to beefing up the U.S. presence, Obama has asked NATO allies to commit between 5,000 and 10,000 additional troops. The war has even less support in Europe than in the United States, and the NATO allies and other countries currently have about 40,000 troops on the ground. He said he was counting on Afghanistan eventually taking over its own security, and he warned, "The days of providing a blank check are over." He said the United States would support Afghan ministries that combat corruption and "deliver for the people. We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable." As for neighboring Pakistan, the president said that country and the United States "share a common enemy" in Islamic terrorists. "We are in Afghanistan to prevent a cancer from once again spreading through that country. But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan. That is why we need a strategy that works on both sides of the border." The speech before an audience of cadets at the military academy ended a three-month review of the war, triggered by a request from the commanding general, Stanley McChrystal, for as many as 40,000 more troops. Without them, he warned, the U.S. risked failure. The speech was still under way when the general issued a statement from Kabul. "The Afghanistan-Pakistan review led by the president has provided me with a clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task," it said. McChrystal is expected to testify before congressional committees in the next several days. Obama referred to a deteriorating military environment, but said, "Afghanistan is not lost." The length of the presidential review drew mild rebukes from normally amiable NATO allies. There was sharper criticism from Republicans led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who said the president was dithering rather than deciding. Obama rebutted forcefully. "Let me be clear: There has never been an option before me that called for troop deployments before 2010, so there has been no delay or denial of resources necessary for the conduct of the war," he told his audience of more than 4,000 cadets seated in Eisenhower Hall. Most of the new forces will be combat troops. Military officials said the Army brigades were most likely to be sent from Fort Drum in New York and Fort Campbell in Kentucky; and Marines primarily from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Officials said the additional 30,000 troops included about 5,000 dedicated trainers, underscoring the president's emphasis on preparing Afghans to take over their own security. These aides said that by announcing a date for beginning a withdrawal, the president was not setting an end date for the war. South Africa to treat all HIV-positive babies PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS. President Jacob Zuma — once ridiculed for saying a shower could prevent AIDS — was cheered as he outlined the measures on World AIDS Day. The new policy marks a dramatic shift from former President Thabo Mbeki, whose health minister distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic and beet treatments. Those policies led to more than 300,000 premature deaths, a Harvard study concluded. The changes are in line with new guidelines issued a day earlier by the World Health Organization that call for HIV-infected pregnant women to be given drugs earlier and while breastfeeding. By treating all HIV-infected babies, survival rates should also improve for the youngest citizens in South Africa, one of only 12 countries where child mortality has worsened since 1990, in part due to AIDS. Zuma compared the fight against HIV, which infects one in 10 South Africans, to the decades-long struggle his party led against the apartheid government, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela in the country's first multiracial vote. "At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight," Zuma said. "That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit." In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that new infec- A CHILD PLAYS in a plastic playhouse at Cotland's, a well-known children's home that offers community-based and residential care facilities to sick and vulnerable children from surrounding neighbourhoods in Johannesburg, South Africa, in this photo taken Friday, Nov. 13. AP photo tions are outpacing the gains from treating people with the HIV virus. He said that more must be done urgently to reach the U.N. goal of providing universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. "That means countering any form of HIV-related stigma and discrimination," Ban said in a statement. "It means eliminating violence against women and girls. It means ensuring access to HIV information and services." Zuma was greeted with a standing ovation when he entered a Pretoria exhibition hall filled with several thousand people. In some ways, Zuma is an unlikely AIDS hero. As his Zulu tradition allows, he has three wives ,Ai experts say having multiple, concurrent partners heightens the risk of AIDS. And in 2006, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, he testified he took a shower after extramarital sex to lower the risk of AIDS. He was acquitted of rape. The one-time chairman of the country's national AIDS council may never live down the shower comment. But Zuma has won praise for appointing Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi as his health minister. AIDS activists say Motsoaledi trusts science and is willing to learn from past mistakes. South Africa, a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country. UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe, who took the podium shortly before Zuma, told the president: "What you do from this day forward will write, or rewrite, the story of AIDS across Africa." Zuma said in his speech broadcast across South Africa on state radio and television that the policy changes would take effect in April. They include treatment for all children under 1 year old, regardless of their level of CD4 cells, a measure of immune system health. Patients with both tuberculosis and HIV will get treatment if their CD4 count is 350 or less, compared to 200 now, which means treatment would start earlier. Pregnant women who are HIV-positive also would start treatment earlier. That is in line with the new WHO recommendations that doctors start HIV patients on drugs when their level of CD4 cells is about 350. The expanded treatment was expected to be free, as it is now, although Zuma did not confirm that. He said all health institutions, not just specialist centers, would provide counseling, testing and treatment. He also called on South Africans to get tested for HIV. But, contrary to speculation in recent days, he did not take an HIV test Tuesday. "I have taken HIV tests before and I know my status," he said. "I will do another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for your own tests." Kurt Firnhaber, who runs Right to Care, one of the largest private providers of AIDS treatment, counseling and testing in South Africa, said Zuma outlined "steps that aren't rhetoric — if they're implemented." He said the burden would now be on the government and foreign donors to find the money to meet Zuma's ambitious goals. On Tuesday, in response to a plea from Zuma, the United States announced it was giving South Africa $120 million over the next two years for AIDS treatment drugs. That is in addition to $560 million the U.S. has already pledged to give South Africa in 2010 for fighting AIDS. Mark Heywood, executive member of the Treatment Action Campaign, an independent group that has challenged the South African government on AIDS, said the Zuma speech marked a departure in thinking that would have a global impact. Heywood shared the stage with Zuma on Tuesday. |