Al-Qaida in Yemen offers bounty on US ambassador

Yahya Arhab / EPA, file

The Yemen branch of al-Qaida has put out a bounty on U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, shown earlier this month at a military conference in Sanaa.

By Rania El Gamal, Reuters

The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaida has offered a bounty for anyone who kills the U.S. ambassador to Yemen or an American soldier in the impoverished Arab state, a group that monitors Islamist websites said.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said it was offering 3 kilograms (more than 105 ounces) of gold for the killing of Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, the U.S. ambassador based in Sanaa, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said, citing an audio released by militants.


AQAP also offered to pay 5 million rials ($23,350) to anyone who kills any American soldier in Yemen, it said.

Citing the audio, SITE said the offer was put out as being valid for six months and was made "to encourage our Muslim Ummah (nation), and to expand the circle of the jihad (holy war) by the masses."

Suspected al-Qaida attack kills 26

AQAP, made up mostly of militants from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, is regarded by the United States as the most dangerous branch of the network founded by Osama bin Laden.

In September, AQAP urged Muslims to step up protests and kill U.S. diplomats in Muslim countries over a film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, which it said was another chapter in the "crusader wars" against Islam.

The film provoked an outcry among Muslims, who deem any depiction of the Prophet as blasphemous and triggered violent attacks on embassies in countries in Asia and the Middle East.

Four U.S. officials, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed in the aftermath. The Pentagon said it had sent a platoon of Marines to Yemen after demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa.

A U.S. ally, Yemen is struggling against challenges on many fronts since mass protests forced veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February after decades in power.

Key al-Qaida figure killed

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government is trying to re-establish order and unify the army.

Washington, which has pursued a campaign of assassination by drone and missile against suspected al-Qaida members, backed a military offensive in May to recapture areas of Abyan province. But militants have struck back with a series of bombings and killings.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/31/16265283-al-qaida-in-yemen-offers-bounty-on-us-ambassador?lite

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Survivor: Bus crash like dream of 'world ending'

Workmen move the bus which plummeted 200 feet down an embankment in rural Eastern Oregon Sunday, killing nine and sending multiple to hospitals, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Survivors of the bus crash said Monday some passengers were thrown from the tour bus through broken windows after the vehicle skidded out of control, smashed through a guardrail and went down. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)

Workmen move the bus which plummeted 200 feet down an embankment in rural Eastern Oregon Sunday, killing nine and sending multiple to hospitals, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Survivors of the bus crash said Monday some passengers were thrown from the tour bus through broken windows after the vehicle skidded out of control, smashed through a guardrail and went down. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)

A piece of heavy equipment strains to move a bus which plummeted 200 feet down an embankment in rural Eastern Oregon Sunday, killing nine and sending multiple to hospitals, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Survivors of the bus crash said Monday some passengers were thrown from the tour bus through broken windows after the vehicle skidded out of control, smashed through a guardrail and went down. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)

Jaemin Seo, 23, a Korean student from Vancouver, B.C., speaks Monday Dec. 31, 2012, in Pendleton, Ore., about waking up to people screaming and then being thrown from a bus that crashed in rural Eastern Oregon, Sunday. The crash killed nine and sent multiple people, including Seo, to hospitals. He was injured in his arm and leg. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)

A guardrail where a bus overran and plummeted 200 feet down an embankment in rural Eastern Oregon Sunday, killing nine and sending multiple to hospitals, remains mangled Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. Survivors of the bus crash said Monday some passengers were thrown from the tour bus through broken windows after the vehicle skidded out of control, smashed through a guardrail and went down. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)

(AP) ? Investigators in Oregon are trying to piece together the final moments before a tour bus carrying 48 people careened down the side of a steep hillside, ejecting some of the passengers and killing nine.

Police said Monday they still weren't sure how fast the bus was travelling before the crash on a partly icy highway in a rural mountain pass east of Pendleton. The bus was carrying tourists, many of them Koreans, on the final leg of a nine-day tour of the western United States.

It could take a month or more to determine whether the driver, a 54-year-old man from Vancouver, British Columbia, is at fault and whether he'll face charges, Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said Sunday.

The bus was traveling westbound in the left lane of Interstate 84 when it hit a concrete barrier, veered across both westbound lanes and plunged through the guardrail and 200 feet down the embankment, Hastings said. The National Transportation Safety Board said the bus rolled at least once.

When the tour bus came to a rest, terrified passengers looked for their loved ones.

"People screamed and yelled," said Jaemin Seo, a 23-year-old student from Suwon, South Korea studying in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Some mothers screamed to find their son or daughter."

Seo said he was awakened by screaming and was ejected from a broken window as the bus careened down the hill. He suffered a broken ankle, a gash in his arm and shallow scratches across his face.

Police have not released the names of the nine people who died. The survivors ranged in age from 7 to 74.

The passengers were supposed to arrive Sunday night in Canada, where their journey began. Instead, they were taken by ambulance and aircraft to 10 hospitals across three states.

Amid the chaos, authorities struggled to identify some victims or locate their relatives, many of them living half a world away in South Korea. At least one survivor, a man in his early 20s, had yet to be identified.

The crash occurred near a spot on the interstate called Deadman Pass, at the top of a steep, seven-mile descent from the Blue Mountains. Though there were icy spots where the crash occurred, that was nothing unusual for this time of year, said Tom Strandberg, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

He said a sanding truck had applied sand a few hours earlier and was behind the bus making another run when the crash occurred. The sand truck driver was among the first at the scene.

Berlyn Sanderson, 22, of Surrey, British Columbia, said she also was thrown from the bus.

"It's kind of like one of those dreams you have of the world ending," Sanderson told reporters.

Rescuers faced the challenge of bringing survivors 200 feet up a steep cliff, Pendleton Fire Chief Gary Woodson said. They descended the hill and used ropes and baskets to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather.

Some survivors were carried on backboards by six or eight rescuers. Others were hoisted in baskets, and an all-terrain vehicle arrived toward the end of the operation, Woodson said.

The NTSB said two investigators were expected to arrive at the crash site. They will look into why the bus left the road, the condition of the road at the time, the condition of the guardrail, the actions of the driver, and the operations of the company that owns the bus, the agency said.

Yoo Byung Woo, a 25-year-old survivor, said it was snowing and foggy at the time. She told the Oregonian newspaper that one passenger was frightened and asked if they could take another route. Some passengers were dozing when the driver slammed on the brakes.

Yoo said rocks smashed through windows after the bus crashed through the guardrail and rolled down.

Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo Tour & Travel in Vancouver, B.C. A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in the past two years.

A spokesman for the NTSB, Peter Knudson, said seatbelts aren't required on such buses. "We have been concerned about this for some time," Knudson said.

The Red Cross has been offering food, clothing and hotel arrangements for survivors as they are released from the hospital.

Jake Contor, a Pendleton resident who speaks Korean and helped translate for the Red Cross, said he had spoken with several survivors.

"The stories have been fairly consistent: braking, swerving, sliding on the ice, hitting the guardrail, then sliding down the embankment," Contor said.

He said the passengers told him the bus left Boise, Idaho, on Sunday morning and was supposed to arrive in Vancouver that night. The survivors who spoke to Contor were seated at the back of the bus and said it appeared that the front and center of the coach sustained the most damage.

The interstate links Boise and Portland through the Blue Mountains and the Columbia Gorge.

___

AP correspondent Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-01-Tour%20Bus%20Crash/id-2be4fbddb9944f39bdb5e49d5d3b88f9

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FDA approves 1st new tuberculosis drug in 40 years

FILE - This July 19, 2002 file photo shows the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer, File)

FILE - This July 19, 2002 file photo shows the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.

The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. However, the agency cautioned that the drug carries risks of potentially deadly heart problems and should be prescribed carefully by doctors.

Roughly one-third of the world's population is estimated to be infected with the bacteria causing tuberculosis. The disease is rare in the U.S., but kills about 1.4 million people a year worldwide. Of those, about 150,000 succumb to the increasingly common drug-resistant forms of the disease. About 60 percent of all cases are concentrated in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Sirturo, known chemically as bedaquiline, is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. That's a form of the disease that cannot be treated with at least two of the four primary antibiotics used for tuberculosis.

The standard drugs used to fight the disease were developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

"The antibiotics used to treat it have been around for at least 40 years and so the bacterium has become more and more resistant to what we have," said Chrispin Kambili, global medical affairs leader for J&J's Janssen division.

The drug carries a boxed warning indicating that it can interfere with the heart's electrical activity, potentially leading to fatal heart rhythms.

"Sirturo provides much-needed treatment for patients who have don't have other therapeutic options available," said Edward Cox, director of the FDA's antibacterial drugs office. "However, because the drug also carries some significant risks, doctors should make sure they use it appropriately and only in patients who don't have other treatment options."

Nine patients taking Sirturo died in company testing compared with two patients taking a placebo. Five of the deaths in the Sirturo group seemed to be related to tuberculosis, but no explanation was apparent for the remaining four.

Despite the deaths, the FDA approved the drug under its accelerated approval program, which allows the agency to clear innovative drugs based on promising preliminary results.

Last week, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized that approach, noting the drug's outstanding safety issues.

"The fact that bedaquiline is part of a new class of drug means that an increased level of scrutiny should be required for its approval," the group states. "But the FDA had not yet answered concerns related to unexplained increases in toxicity and death in patients getting the drug."

The FDA said it approved the drug based on two mid-stage studies enrolling 440 patients taking Sirturo. Both studies were designed to measure how long it takes patients to be free of tuberculosis.

Results from the first trial showed most patients taking Sirturo plus older drugs were cured after 83 days, compared with 125 days for those taking a placebo plus older drugs. The second study showed most Sirturo patients were cured after 57 days.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-31-FDA%20Approval-Tuberculosis/id-9aacd160703243699718f6784ed6ea81

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Gov. Scott, GOP Leaders To Address Healthcare Reforms In 2013 ...

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) ? The new year will bring challenges to Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leaders as they as they try to figure out how to move forward with a long-awaited overhaul of the Medicaid system and how to carry out the federal Affordable Care Act.

The Scott administration wants to require almost all Medicaid beneficiaries statewide to enroll in managed-care plans, an effort that has drawn opposition from Democratic lawmakers and some patient advocates. Meanwhile, after waging a legal and political battle, Scott and his GOP colleagues face the reality that the Affordable Care Act ? better known as Obamacare ? is here to stay.

Lawmakers in 2011 approved the Medicaid overhaul, but it requires approval from the federal government. State Medicaid director Justin Senior told lawmakers this month that he expects a decision from federal officials in February about the first part of the overhaul.

That part would lead to managed-care enrollment for seniors who need long-term care. If approved by federal officials, those changes would start taking effect by Oct. 1. Broadly, the idea is that HMOs and other types of managed-care plans could provide services that would allow seniors to stay in their homes and communities instead of having to live in costly nursing facilities.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration has been seeking approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for more than a year and also has started the contracting process for managed-care plans that want to take part in the long-term care system. The state would be split into 11 regions, with a limited number of plans receiving contracts in each region.

Senior said much of the state?s negotiations with federal officials have focused on safeguards to make sure that the program would be based on providing services in people?s homes and communities and would not be a ?nursing home light? system.

The state also is seeking approval to require the broader Medicaid population, such as low-income women and children, to enroll in managed-care plans. Those changes would start to take effect by October 2014, though Senior said the state has focused first on getting approval for the long-term care portion of the overhaul.

?As we get that approval, I think our guns will turn, if you will, onto the (proposal dealing with the broader Medicaid population), and we will really start to negotiate with the federal government to get to the best possible product there as well and do it in a timely fashion,? Senior told the House Health & Human Services Committee.

Supporters of the overhaul contend that it will help hold down costs in the Medicaid program and better coordinate care for beneficiaries. Medicaid serves more than 3.2 million people in Florida, and is expected to spend about $20.8 billion this fiscal year.

But critics of the overhaul have long raised concerns that for-profit HMOs will scrimp on care for the beneficiaries. Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood, pointedly asked Senior about whether the state will have enough oversight of the managed-care organizations.

?I don?t hear from you that there is a beefing up in these programs to oversee these managed-care companies who could easily be diverting that money to the wrong purposes,? Schwartz said.

Senior said AHCA is aware it will have to be a ?watchdog? over managed-care organizations, looking at such things as the health plans? finances and medical data. But while Schwartz is concerned about the overhaul, other state officials want to get federal approval of what are known as ?waivers? and move forward quickly with the changes.

?I?m very concerned about the length of time it?s taken us to get the waiver,? said Rep. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican who has long been involved in health issues.

As AHCA works to get approval, lawmakers this spring also will debate whether the state should play an active role in carrying out the Affordable Care Act.

Scott and Republican legislative leaders largely refused over the past two years to move forward with the law, which President Obama and congressional Democrats approved in 2010. But after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June and Obama?s re-election in November, it became clear that the Affordable Care Act will not be tossed out or repealed.

The House and Senate have formed select committees that will study issues such as whether the state should create what is known as a health-insurance exchange, which is a key part of the law?s attempt to expand coverage to millions of more Americans. Also, the committees will study issues such as a potential expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Florida.

Scott, whose opposition to the Affordable Care Act helped propel his political career, is scheduled to meet Jan. 7 with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

He and other Republican leaders say they need more information about issues such as the insurance exchanges, which are designed to be online marketplaces where people can shop for coverage. Depending on income levels, many people will be able to receive subsidies to buy the coverage.

Florida has already missed a deadline for states that plan to operate exchanges starting in January 2014. That means, at least initially, the federal government will run an exchange in the state.

But lawmakers during the spring session will look at the possibility of operating an exchange in the future or entering into a partnership with the federal government.

The House and Senate also will discuss a series of other issues stemming from the Affordable Care Act, including whether to expand Medicaid eligibility to offer coverage to more people. The federal government would pay for the eligibility expansion from 2014 to 2016, with the state gradually picking up some of the costs after that.

In grappling with the Affordable Care Act, Scott and Republican lawmakers likely will face pressure from conservatives to avoid taking part in an exchange and the Medicaid expansion. That political pressure was evident early this month when a meeting of the Senate select committee turned raucous after a group of activists pleaded with lawmakers to not carry out the law.

But Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat who is vice chairwoman of the select committee, said the state has to abide by the law and pointed out that Florida has one of the largest uninsured populations in the country.

?I think that needs to be reckoned with, and we need to adjust our attitudes so we make sure that everybody has health insurance and a health care policy that?s affordable and accessible,? Sobel said.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Source: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/12/30/gov-scott-gop-leaders-to-address-healthcare-overhaul-in-2013/

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India rape charges fail to quell protests

A young woman who died after being gang-raped and beaten on a bus in India's capital was cremated Sunday amid an outpouring of anger and grief by millions across the country demanding greater protection for women from sexual violence.

The cremation took place during a private ceremony in New Delhi soon after the woman's body arrived in the capital on a special Air India flight from Singapore, where she died at a hospital Saturday after being sent for medical treatment.

The tragedy has forced India to confront the reality that sexually assaulted women are often blamed for the crime, forcing them to keep quiet and discouraging them from going to authorities for fear of exposing their families to ridicule. Police often refuse to accept complaints from rape victims, and the rare prosecutions that reach courts can drag on for years.

Security was tight, with no access to the public or media at the crematorium.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, were at the airport to receive the body and meet family members of the victim who were on the flight.

Hours after the victim died early Saturday, Indian police charged six men who had been arrested in connection with the attack with murder, adding to accusations that they beat and gang-raped the woman on a New Delhi bus on Dec. 16.

New Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the six suspects face the death penalty if convicted, in a case that has triggered protests across India and raised questions about lax attitudes by police toward sexual crimes.

After 10 days at a hospital in New Delhi, the victim, who has not been identified, was taken Thursday to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital, which specializes in multi-organ transplants, but her condition worsened, with her vital signs deteriorating.

Following her death, thousands of Indians lit candles, held prayer meetings and marched through various cities and towns, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, on Saturday night to express their grief and demand stronger protection for women and the death penalty for rape, which is now punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment.

But even as thousands mourned the rape victim's death and in a sign of how pervasive such crimes are, police in West Bengal state were investigating another suspected gang-rape and death.

In the latest case, the family of a woman said she and her husband were attacked by six men as they returned home after working at a brick factory.

They dragged the woman into a nearby farm after pouring acid into her husband's mouth, the family said.

The woman was found dead with multiple injuries, said police officer Bhaskar Mukherjee, adding he was waiting for an autopsy report.

No charges have been laid. Another police officer, Sugata Sen, said four men had been detained for questioning.

The alleged attack is similar to the Dec. 16 case, where the woman and a male friend, who also has not been identified, were on a bus after watching a film when they were attacked by six men who raped her. The men beat the couple and inserted an iron rod into the woman's body, resulting in severe organ damage. Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, according to police.

Protesters push against police barrier

Dozens of protesters tried to break through a police cordon Sunday and march to the parliament building in the Indian capital, but were pushed back. The protesters, belonging to the student wing of main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, shouted anti-government slogans as they marched.

Hundreds of policemen have sealed off the high-security area, where the seat of India's government is located, in anticipation of more protests. The area is home to parliament, the president's palace, the prime minister's office and several ministries.

Gandhi assured the protesters in a statement that the rape victim's death "deepens our determination to battle the pervasive, the shameful social attitudes and mindset that allow men to rape and molest women and girls with such an impunity."

Attitudes by Indians toward rape are so entrenched that even politicians and opinion makers have often suggested that women should not go out at night or wear clothes that might be seen as provocative.

Meanwhile, a United Nations statement said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "offers his sincerest condolences" to the victim's family and "utterly condemns this brutal crime."

"Violence against women must never be accepted, never excused, never tolerated," the statement said. "Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected."

Ban urged the Indian government to take steps to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice, and to "strengthen critical services for rape victims," it said.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/30/india-gang-rape-protest.html

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