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Ban to Gazans: We stand with you

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon entered the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday, where 1.5 million people have been under lockdown by Israel and Egypt for nearly three years.

Ban has repeatedly called for an end to the blockade, imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007.

In a visit to a Gaza City neighborhood badly damaged during IDF Operation Cast Lead, Ban promised residents appealing for an end to the blockade that "we stand with you."

He described Israel's recent opening of Gaza's borders to allow in window frames and other supplies to complete a 151-apartment UN housing project in southern Gaza as "a drop in a bucket of water" and promised to "ask the Israeli authorities to do more." Most of the 15,000 homes destroyed or damaged during IDF Operation Cast Lead in January last year have also not been repaired because of the blockade.

Hamas police lined the streets in areas Ban visited. They repeatedly prevented journalists from keeping up with the UN convoy, blocking roads and repeatedly raising their assault rifles in the direction of the journalists' cars.

Later Sunday, Noam and Aviva Schalit, the parents of IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who is held captive by Hamas, will meet with Ban.

The Schalits are set to travel to Geneva on Sunday to   cheap gucci shoes  address the UNHRC - the international body that appointed the Goldstone Commission and endorsed its report. The two will appeal to the UN for support in efforts to release their son from Hamas custody.

On Saturday night, Ban called for Schalit be released on humanitarian grounds and for Palestinian terrorists to stop firing rockets from Gaza into Israel.

After spending the day talking to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, Ban came to Jerusalem to have dinner with President Shimon Peres.

He recalled that he had met with Peres in Beit Hanassi in January 2009, “at a very critical period” of the conflict with Gaza.

His current visit, he said, also came at a critical juncture, and he was bringing a clear message from the meeting of the Quartet in Moscow on Friday that called for cessation of the settlement activity and illegal outposts.

While he knew Israel’s security problems, and always will be aware and open minded about them, he said, Ban stressed the need for Israel and the Palestinians to live as two states side-by-side in peace and security.

He called for an end to all violence and a calming of the current situation.

He also counseled both sides to refrain from actions that would undermine the outcome of the negotiations.

He concurred with Peres the negotiations should start immediately, and added that all issues should be settled within 24 months.

Ban expressed support for the efforts of the United States to simplify proximity talks and urged the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to take advantage of these negotiations.

He said that when meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad earlier in the day, he had encouraged him to engage in talks with Israel, and that he would do the same when he meets with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other Arab leaders in Libya.

He was optimistic that Israel and the Palestinians can be good partners in achieving peace, and stipulated that peace between the Arabs and Israel must be comprehensive.

He also declared support for the resumption of  discount gucci shoes   negotiations between Israel and Syria. “I’m here to say that peace is not just necessary and urgent but achievable,” he said.

Ban voiced appreciation for steps that Israel has taken to enable the UN to carry out humanitarian projects in Gaza, and said the blockade imposed by Israel could be lifted while still addressing Israel’s security concerns.

He also thanked the Israeli government and people for the quick action and support for the people of Haiti. He had met the Israelis engaged in humanitarian aid, he said, and described what they had done as “a wonderful example of global solidarity.”

In welcoming Ban, Peres called on Abbas to start negotiations straight away. “Let us not waste time,” he said. “Things have to move.”

Peres also urged that the UN take a stand on Schalit, saying that the fact that no outside medical staffer had been allowed to examine him in more than three years of captivity in Gaza was “unbelievable.”

Saying that “peace is possible,” Peres advised all those involved in efforts for peace to ignore pessimistic voices.

Earlier on Saturday, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin met with Ban in Jerusalem, the IDF said in a statement.

Yadlin briefed Ban about smuggling routes used by Iran to provide weapons to various terrorist groups in the Middle East. The UN chief also heard about the situation in southern Lebanon and Hizbullah’s violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, as well as about the Iranian nuclear project.

On Saturday morning, Ban said during a tour of the West Bank that Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land was illegal and must be stopped.

From a hilltop observation post on the outskirts of Ramallah, Ban got a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories.

The panorama included Givat Ze’ev, home to 11,000 Israelis who live in rows of red-roofed houses, and Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

Ban rejected Israel’s distinction between east Jerusalem and the West Bank, saying that both are occupied lands.

“The world has condemned Israel’s settlement   discount christian louboutin plans in east Jerusalem,” Ban said at a news conference after his brief tour. “Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped.”

The UN chief also expressed concern about what he said was a worsening humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

American took a twisted trail to terror

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The path that brought U.S. citizen David Coleman Headley to the point of pleading guilty to involvement in two international terrorism plots is complicated and twisted.

His life, in many ways, is far from the average American experience, but he's also very much a product of a typical American upbringing.

He's unusual fusion, a product of two worlds, a rare blending of East and West. And because of his unusual background, Headley, experts say, is one of the most unusual and important American-born terrorists.

Even his eyes -- one blue and one brown -- reflect the double life he has lived almost since the day he was born.

Headley pleaded guilty Thursday to all 12 charges against him concerning the four-day siege on India's financial capital in 2008 that left more than 160 people dead and a planned attack in Denmark.

Headley, the son of an American mother and Pakistani father, was accused of extensive involvement in planning the devastating attacks on hotels in Mumbai, which the Indian government says were carried out by the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. At least six Americans were among the dead.

Video: Terror suspect pleads guilty
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Headley, 49, was indicted last October and charged by the U.S. government for conspiracy to murder and maim people in India and provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, but he has changed his plea as part of a deal with the government to cooperate with investigators and possibly to avoid the death penalty he might have received if convicted on some of the charges.

In the federal courtroom in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday, Headley told the judge that he did not dispute any of the 12 charges. By pleading guilty, he also gave up his right to appeal in the case.

He faced six counts of conspiracy to bomb locations in India and to murder and maim persons in India and Denmark, and six counts of aiding  cheap gucci shoes  and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India.

The indictment against him charged that Headley scouted targets in Mumbai for more than two years to set up the November 2008 attacks. He was also accused of planning a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper, which was never carried out. The newspaper became the target of Muslim fury in 2005 after it published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a manner offensive to Muslims.

Even family asks: Who is David Coleman Headley?

Now that he's admitted to conspiracy to murder and maim in the Mumbai attack, even members of his own family are wondering who David Headley really is.

"I was really shocked. And just didn't expect something like that. And I mean such a hands-on accusation," said William Headley, his uncle, reflecting on when he first learned of the government's accusations against his nephew. "It was like you had poured cold water inside my chest."

David Coleman Headley was born in Washington, D.C., but with a different name: at birth, he was given the Urdu name Daood Gilani.

He was the son of an eccentric, flamboyant and rebellious high society mother from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Serrill Headley; and a strict, formal Pakistani diplomat father, Sayed Salim Gilani. The couple met at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington but moved to Lahore, Pakistan, when their son was very young.

"He was the first baby I had anything to do with," his uncle William Headley said. "He was the first baby I ever touched or held or anything like that. And somewhere I have a photograph of me in my pajamas holding little Daood. ... He was a nice-looking little baby."

Fractious union of East and West

After only a few years, Daood's parents split, an early sign of the fractious union of East and West.

The separation left Daood straddled between his traditional Muslim father and his very Western, very American mother. For a time, his mother remained in Pakistan, but she eventually returned to Philadelphia, where she opened a popular bar called the Khyber Pass. The Khyber Pass is the name of the main passage between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Daood remained in Pakistan throughout much of his childhood, and as a teenager he was enrolled for several years at a prestigious and regimented Pakistani military academy, the Hasan Abdal Cadet College.

Nevertheless then his mother pulled him out of the school and brought him back to Philadelphia. There, the teen moved into his mother's apartment above the bar.

In 2006, Daood Gilani changed his name to David Coleman Headley, borrowing the family's American name, and even the middle name of William Headley's father, Coleman. The change was made, U.S. officials believe, to help Headley  discount gucci shoes  escape detection and travel more easily between the United States, India and Pakistan.

In an exclusive television interview with CNN in January, Headley's uncle described his disbelief in learning that his own nephew was connected in any way to the massacre in Mumbai -- disbelief that lingered until he began receiving letters from his nephew in his jail cell.

"To find an insider in my own family involved [in terrorism] -- you're not responsible for what your family does and yet you have such a close association with it, it's your blood."

Headley wrote to his uncle from jail, saying that despite his heritage, he was now 100 percent Muslim.

Headley's life has been full of twists and turns, from his dual heritage childhood -- being equally comfortable in Pakistan's Muslim circles and in Philadelphia's social scene -- to his marriage to a blond American beauty and subsequent divorce, after which he took a traditional Muslim wife.

Drug trafficking snare

In the 1990s, Headley became a major drug dealer and turned informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after being caught, according to his family. His involvement with the DEA may have been one of the factors that pushed him toward Islamic extremism.

In 1997, he was running a video shop in New York. On February 7 of that year, he was in a midtown hotel negotiating to bring a large load of heroin from the Middle East to New York City.

Nevertheless he had walked into a trap. The hotel roomed, on the ninth floor, was wired by the Feds. As Gilani tried to escape, he found himself surrounded by gun-toting DEA agents. It was a moment that became the ultimate turning point in his life, said his uncle.

"Daood said 'If I get free of this I'm going to commit myself to God,' " William Headley recounted. "So that is when, I would say, he became a serious Muslim."

What happened next is somewhat of a mystery. While his co-conspirator in the drug deal went to prison for 10 years, Headley was out within 15 months. His family believes the DEA was using him as their own informant, frequently sending him to Pakistan and Afghanistan to meet directly with heroin dealers.

Those trips may also have put Headley in direct contact with Islamic terror groups who use the drug trade to finance their operations. It was while he may have first encountered Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, the Pakistani group that some say is now second only to al Qaeda in its global terrorist reach. The indictment showed that Headley had moved among senior figures in Lashkar -- including Ilyas Kashmiri, who's alleged to have had contacts with al Qaeda.

Headley case called unique

The Headley case is unique for many reasons, experts say.

"It reads like a spy novel more than your typical terrorism cases," said Frank Cilluffo, who heads the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute.

He says Headley was a sophisticated and valuable asset for any one in the terrorist world, because of his ability to move easily between the East and the West.

"This is someone who clearly lived in two different worlds and grew up in two different worlds and had awareness of both the United States -- having spent much of his adult life and later childhood life here -- as well as in Pakistan," said Cilluffo.

"Clearly, you have someone who was conflicted, even though he lived in both worlds. You get the sense that he never felt at home in either world, searching for his identity ... And we know how, unfortunately, it plays out," he added.

Headley's uncle stilled finds it hard to believe. He was shocked when CNN called to tell him that his nephew was pleading guilty.

The nephew he knew was not someone who  discount christian louboutin  could have been involved in a terrorist plot, William Headley said.

"We absolutely cannot imagine it," he said. "It's not at all consistent with anything we know at all."

Nigeria leader sacks cabinet

Nigeria's acting president has sacked his entire cabinet almost a month after parliament empowered him to run Africa's most populous country.

A terse statement released on Wednesday by Dora Akunyili, the information minister, said Goodluck Jonathan will soon announce a new cabinet.

"He did not give us any reason for the dissolution  cheap christian louboutin  of the cabinet. Permanent secretaries will take charge of the ministries from tomorrow," she said.

Jonathan became acting president on February 19 after Umaru Yar'Adua, Nigeria's president, spent more than three months on medical treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital for a heart condition.

Yar'Adua has since returned home but remains too ill to lead the country.

The dissolution of the cabinet does not automatically lead to elections, which are scheduled for 2011.

Asserting authority

But the powerful governors of Nigeria's 36 states, senior governing party officials and other lobby groups will now put forward nominees for new ministers.

Jonathan will decide a shortlist which will then be screened and approved by the Senate.

In depth Profiled: Umaru Yar'Adua
Profile: Goodluck Jonathan
Riz Khan: Nigeria's leadership crisis

The dissolution comes only weeks after the president sacked his national security adviser and demoted the former justice minister.

The dismissal of the security aide followed unrest near the central city of Jos in Plateau state the claimed hundreds of people.

On Wednesday at least 13 muslim massacred   cheap gucci shoes  people Fulani herdsmen near Jos and the attack, the latest in a series, targeted a Christian community.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said Jonathan's move is seen as an attempt to assert his presidential authority.

'Yar'adua appointees'

"The cabinet has been packed with a raft of appointees - appointees of Yar'Adua - and many people thought the acting president really hasn't been able to assert his authority or gain the credibility that's needed to lead Nigeria," she said.

"Many of the so-called Yar'Adua loyalists were in many of the key positions: in particular, the petroleum ministry, the finance ministry - basically the ministries where real money is.

"And Goodluck Jonathan has been under pressure from advisers to dissolve the cabinet in the manner he did ... And to begin to consolidate his position and put people into position whereby they would be not just loyal to him but loyal to the agenda that he's going to set.

Cabinet dissolution came as unrest continued near the city of Jos in Plateau state [AFP]
"And the period he has is between now and when the nexr election is going to be held."

Past precedent suggests the process of forming a new cabinet could be drawn out as rival interest groups, especially the governors, jockey for position.

Jonathan, from the southern Niger Delta, is unlikely to run in elections due by April next year because of an unwritten agreement that power rotates  discount gucci shoes  between the north and south.

Yar'Adua, who remains bed-ridden, is a Muslim from the north and his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, was a Christian from the south.

Jonathan's presidency has been controversial in Nigeria, with Yar'Adua's northern supporters saying they have been shortchanged since someone from the south has taken over the reins of the country before their leader completed his term.

The country had been plunged into a near constitutional crisis, with protests held in the capital demanding Yar'Adua's resignation while he was away for treatment.

Coup fears

Yar'Adua's supporters had also staged rallies in his support.

Fears of a coup have permeated the country, which has a long history of military dictators, but senior officials in the armed forces promised not to intervene and restricted troop movements.

Charles Dokubo, an analyst at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, said that security forces will likely stay away, even with Jonathan asserting more power.

"I think the Nigerian people have been so   discount christian louboutin  quiet and have been allowing things to unfold in an evolutionary manner," Dokubo told The Associated Press news agency.

Yar'adua supporters "might make noise about it, but I don't think it will lead to any other upheaval or anarchy in the country."

Nigeria leader sacks cabinet

Nigeria's acting president has sacked his entire cabinet almost a month after parliament empowered him to run Africa's most populous country.

A terse statement released on Wednesday by Dora Akunyili, the information minister, said Goodluck Jonathan will soon announce a new cabinet.

"He did not give us any reason for the dissolution  cheap christian louboutin  of the cabinet. Permanent secretaries will take charge of the ministries from tomorrow," she said.

Jonathan became acting president on February 19 after Umaru Yar'Adua, Nigeria's president, spent more than three months on medical treatment in a Saudi Arabian hospital for a heart condition.

Yar'Adua has since returned home but remains too ill to lead the country.

The dissolution of the cabinet does not automatically lead to elections, which are scheduled for 2011.

Asserting authority

But the powerful governors of Nigeria's 36 states, senior governing party officials and other lobby groups will now put forward nominees for new ministers.

Jonathan will decide a shortlist which will then be screened and approved by the Senate.

In depth Profiled: Umaru Yar'Adua
Profile: Goodluck Jonathan
Riz Khan: Nigeria's leadership crisis

The dissolution comes only weeks after the president sacked his national security adviser and demoted the former justice minister.

The dismissal of the security aide followed unrest near the central city of Jos in Plateau state the claimed hundreds of people.

On Wednesday at least 13 muslim massacred   cheap gucci shoes  people Fulani herdsmen near Jos and the attack, the latest in a series, targeted a Christian community.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said Jonathan's move is seen as an attempt to assert his presidential authority.

'Yar'adua appointees'

"The cabinet has been packed with a raft of appointees - appointees of Yar'Adua - and many people thought the acting president really hasn't been able to assert his authority or gain the credibility that's needed to lead Nigeria," she said.

"Many of the so-called Yar'Adua loyalists were in many of the key positions: in particular, the petroleum ministry, the finance ministry - basically the ministries where real money is.

"And Goodluck Jonathan has been under pressure from advisers to dissolve the cabinet in the manner he did ... And to begin to consolidate his position and put people into position whereby they would be not just loyal to him but loyal to the agenda that he's going to set.

Cabinet dissolution came as unrest continued near the city of Jos in Plateau state [AFP]
"And the period he has is between now and when the nexr election is going to be held."

Past precedent suggests the process of forming a new cabinet could be drawn out as rival interest groups, especially the governors, jockey for position.

Jonathan, from the southern Niger Delta, is unlikely to run in elections due by April next year because of an unwritten agreement that power rotates  discount gucci shoes  between the north and south.

Yar'Adua, who remains bed-ridden, is a Muslim from the north and his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, was a Christian from the south.

Jonathan's presidency has been controversial in Nigeria, with Yar'Adua's northern supporters saying they have been shortchanged since someone from the south has taken over the reins of the country before their leader completed his term.

The country had been plunged into a near constitutional crisis, with protests held in the capital demanding Yar'Adua's resignation while he was away for treatment.

Coup fears

Yar'Adua's supporters had also staged rallies in his support.

Fears of a coup have permeated the country, which has a long history of military dictators, but senior officials in the armed forces promised not to intervene and restricted troop movements.

Charles Dokubo, an analyst at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, said that security forces will likely stay away, even with Jonathan asserting more power.

"I think the Nigerian people have been so   discount christian louboutin  quiet and have been allowing things to unfold in an evolutionary manner," Dokubo told The Associated Press news agency.

Yar'adua supporters "might make noise about it, but I don't think it will lead to any other upheaval or anarchy in the country."

Budget Cut for Fence on U.S.-Mexico Border

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Citing a plague of “cost overruns and missed deadlines,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that she would cut millions of dollars intended for a high-tech “virtual fence” along the Mexican border that has produced little more than headaches for the federal government.

Ms. Napolitano said her department would divert about $50 million in federal stimulus money intended for the project to other technological needs on the border, including laptops, radios, thermal-imaging devices and cameras requested by border guards.

In addition, she said, no money will be spent on expanding the project beyond two areas in Arizona where it is being tested until the department completes a reassessment she ordered in January.

Ms. Napolitano’s announcement came two days before a scheduled Congressional hearing on the program. The House Homeland Security Committee is expected to receive the latest in a string of Government Accountability Office reports calling the program into question. That new report says tests designed to evaluate the system are flawed and mismanaged.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of   cheap gucci shoes  Mississippi and chair of the committee, questioned whether it time to pull the plug entirely.

“We still need to see about whether this virtual fence the department promised that and its contractor Boeing is something that is feasible,” he said Tuesday. “Or is it just a several-hundred-million-dollar waste of taxpayer money?”

The virtual fence is part of a multiyear, multibillion-dollar effort known as the Secure Border Initiative that was announced with fanfare by the Bush administration in November 2005. Besides increasing the number of guards and expanding a border wall, it promised a sophisticated system of cameras, sensors and radar that would zero in on people crossing the border with new speed and clarity and quickly guide agents to them.

By now, according to the original timeline, the system was supposed to be working along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Nevertheless shortly after Boeing was awarded the contract, red flags went up over its lack of oversight and potential for cost overruns.

Boeing said in a statement on Tuesday that it was “fully committed to deliver border-security technology that successfully helps” the department, but it declined to answer questions about it's handling of the project. About $1.1 billion has been spent on the virtual fence, with little to show for it beyond the two testing sites in the Arizona desert and a series of embarrassments, including radar that could not function properly in the rain and wind-blown trees mistaken for border crossers.

Those first, limited segments of the fence are now expected to be delivered to the government early next year, and the Government Accountability Office has estimated that it would take several years to cover the entire border with equivalent technology.

The department has said it was revamping  discount gucci shoes  the system to address the problems, though the Obama administration had already scaled back financing for it, to a request of $574 million for the fiscal year that begins in October from the current $800 million Congress has authorized.

The accountability office has previously said Boeing pushed forward with designing the system without consulting with the Border Patrol, whose agents would be the primary users.

It has released 14 critical reports that, taken together, point to a system that “was over-promised and under-delivered,” said Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues for the office.

The office’s latest report, to be released  cheap christian louboutin   Thursday, says the department and Boeing have not designed tests well enough to assess the program. In some cases, the tests appeared designed to achieve positive results instead of evaluate the system

Ten things you should know about Census 2010

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Census 2010 has only 10 questions, which should take about 10 minutes to fill out. Find out more about the census form headed your way

One of the biggest and oldest surveys in America will hit mailboxes this week, and its results will inform countless decisions, from how federal funds are divvied up to how advertisers analyze their target audiences.

It’s available in six languages, and anyone who doesn’t participate may be slapped with a fine, per federal law.

Say hello to Census 2010.

Every 10 years, the government sends out its questionnaire to track US population and determine how to apportion seats in the House of Representatives.

This year, the government lined up a savvy $130 million campaign – complete with Super Bowl and Winter Olympics ads, a census-sponsored NASCAR race car, and a nationwide road tour – to encourage people to mail back their census forms. If every household mails back its form (more than 120 million have been mailed out), the government could save $1.5 billion in follow-up visits.

To save the government – and yourself – some dough, read on for more tips and trivia about the 2010 Census.

• 10 questions in 10 minutes. One of the shortest census questionnaires in history, the 2010 Census has only 10 questions, which should take 10 minutes to fill out, according to the Census Bureau. Among the questions asked: whether a resident owns or rents, as well as information about each household member, including name, sex, age, race, and  cheap gucci shoes   relationship to the person filling out the form.

• To include or not to include? The census asks how many people live or sleep in a given household as of April 1. Respondents should include babies born on or, before April 1, 2010, as well as non-US citizens. College students who live away from home and military personnel should not be counted on household surveys. Divorced parents who share custody of a child should show where a child usually lives. Residents who need help filling out the form can do so at a questionnaire assistance center. Locations are available online.

• $400 billion and 435 seats in the US House of Representative. Census data determine how more than $400 billion in federal money is distributed, for everything from roads and schools to healthcare and child-care centers. It also determines how many lawmakers each state will have in the US House of Representatives.

• It’s in the Constitution. Article I, Section 2, to be exact. It specifies that congressional seats will be distributed proportionately among states by a census to be conducted every 10 years. Federal law penalizes those who don’t fill out a form ($100 fine) or who provide false information ($500 fine).

• Americans have been counted since 1790. The 2010 Census is the 23rd head count in US history. The first was conducted on Monday, Aug. 2, 1790. Population? 3.9 million. This year’s official Census Day is April 1. Expecting population? 309 million.

• Who’s filling it out – and who isn’t. The Census Bureau predicts that two thirds of US households will fill out and mail back the 2010 Census. Among those least likely to return forms are illegal immigrants, Hispanics, young adults, city dwellers, and residents displaced by foreclosures. Homeless people may not be lefts out, however: Census takers will canvass city streets in an attempt to include them.

• Which states get the most federal dollars? Rural   discount gucci shoes  areas and places with a large poor population tend to benefit most from an accurate census because the largest state program that relies on federal census statistics is Medicaid, the government healthcare program for low-income individuals. According to an analysis by the Brookings Institution, the places that received the most census-based federal dollars per capita were the District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, New York, and Massachusetts.

• Which states might get cheated? In 2000, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and North Carolina each had below-average mail participation rates. Since then, they’ve also seen higher rates of foreclosures and rapid growth of Hispanics and blacks – groups that are less likely to return their forms. If responses are low this year, these states could be cheated of federal dollars and congressional seats. If not, they stand to gain at least one House seat each.

• Census 2010 by the numbers: 360 million, 29 miles, 11.6 million pounds. That is the total number of questionnaires printed (360 million), how high they would stand stacked in a pile (29 miles high – more than five times higher than Mt. Everest), and the collective weight of the paper that the questionnaires were printed on (11.6 million pounds). If stretched end to end, the questionnaires would circle the globe three times.

• $0.42 versus $56. This is how much it costs the   discount christian louboutin  government if residents mail back their census form (42 cents each), compared with the estimated cost of obtaining a household’s census response in person if a household fails to mail back the form.

Ten things you should know about Census 2010

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Census 2010 has only 10 questions, which should take about 10 minutes to fill out. Find out more about the census form headed your way

One of the biggest and oldest surveys in America will hit mailboxes this week, and its results will inform countless decisions, from how federal funds are divvied up to how advertisers analyze their target audiences.

It’s available in six languages, and anyone who doesn’t participate may be slapped with a fine, per federal law.

Say hello to Census 2010.

Every 10 years, the government sends out its questionnaire to track US population and determine how to apportion seats in the House of Representatives.

This year, the government lined up a savvy $130 million campaign – complete with Super Bowl and Winter Olympics ads, a census-sponsored NASCAR race car, and a nationwide road tour – to encourage people to mail back their census forms. If every household mails back its form (more than 120 million have been mailed out), the government could save $1.5 billion in follow-up visits.

To save the government – and yourself – some dough, read on for more tips and trivia about the 2010 Census.

• 10 questions in 10 minutes. One of the shortest census questionnaires in history, the 2010 Census has only 10 questions, which should take 10 minutes to fill out, according to the Census Bureau. Among the questions asked: whether a resident owns or rents, as well as information about each household member, including name, sex, age, race, and  cheap gucci shoes   relationship to the person filling out the form.

• To include or not to include? The census asks how many people live or sleep in a given household as of April 1. Respondents should include babies born on or, before April 1, 2010, as well as non-US citizens. College students who live away from home and military personnel should not be counted on household surveys. Divorced parents who share custody of a child should show where a child usually lives. Residents who need help filling out the form can do so at a questionnaire assistance center. Locations are available online.

• $400 billion and 435 seats in the US House of Representative. Census data determine how more than $400 billion in federal money is distributed, for everything from roads and schools to healthcare and child-care centers. It also determines how many lawmakers each state will have in the US House of Representatives.

• It’s in the Constitution. Article I, Section 2, to be exact. It specifies that congressional seats will be distributed proportionately among states by a census to be conducted every 10 years. Federal law penalizes those who don’t fill out a form ($100 fine) or who provide false information ($500 fine).

• Americans have been counted since 1790. The 2010 Census is the 23rd head count in US history. The first was conducted on Monday, Aug. 2, 1790. Population? 3.9 million. This year’s official Census Day is April 1. Expecting population? 309 million.

• Who’s filling it out – and who isn’t. The Census Bureau predicts that two thirds of US households will fill out and mail back the 2010 Census. Among those least likely to return forms are illegal immigrants, Hispanics, young adults, city dwellers, and residents displaced by foreclosures. Homeless people may not be lefts out, however: Census takers will canvass city streets in an attempt to include them.

• Which states get the most federal dollars? Rural   discount gucci shoes  areas and places with a large poor population tend to benefit most from an accurate census because the largest state program that relies on federal census statistics is Medicaid, the government healthcare program for low-income individuals. According to an analysis by the Brookings Institution, the places that received the most census-based federal dollars per capita were the District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, New York, and Massachusetts.

• Which states might get cheated? In 2000, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and North Carolina each had below-average mail participation rates. Since then, they’ve also seen higher rates of foreclosures and rapid growth of Hispanics and blacks – groups that are less likely to return their forms. If responses are low this year, these states could be cheated of federal dollars and congressional seats. If not, they stand to gain at least one House seat each.

• Census 2010 by the numbers: 360 million, 29 miles, 11.6 million pounds. That is the total number of questionnaires printed (360 million), how high they would stand stacked in a pile (29 miles high – more than five times higher than Mt. Everest), and the collective weight of the paper that the questionnaires were printed on (11.6 million pounds). If stretched end to end, the questionnaires would circle the globe three times.

• $0.42 versus $56. This is how much it costs the   discount christian louboutin  government if residents mail back their census form (42 cents each), compared with the estimated cost of obtaining a household’s census response in person if a household fails to mail back the form.

Red shirts up pressure on Thai PM

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Thousands of anti-government protesters in Thailand have begun rallying outside on a military base on the outskirts of Bangkok as they step up pressure on the country's prime minister to stand down and call fresh elections.

The protesters, known as the reds shirts, have set a deadline of noon on Monday for Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign or face what they say will be crippling mass demonstrations in the capital.

Amid the escalating protests Abhisit has ordered tens of thousands of soldiers and police onto the streets of Bangkok and moved his government to the 11th Infantry Regiment headquarters outside Bangkok.

Nevertheless he has showed he has no plans to dissolve parliament.

"We will march over there, brothers and sisters. We will go to the infantry to get an answer from Abhisit himself," said Nattawut Saikua, a leader of the red shirt protesters known formally as the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).

"With this many people on the streets, I don't see how he still thinks he has any legitimacy."

Bangkok rally

Thousands of red shirt demonstrators began  cheap gucci shoes   gathering in Bangkok on Friday, with around 150,000 attending a huge rally in the city on Sunday.

In depth

Q&A: Thaksin and the Red Shirts
Thailand: Warring Colours
Profile: Thaksin Shinawatra
Video: 'Red Shirts' swarm Bangkok

Most red shirts are supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup.

They believe the current government, led by Abhisit, did not take power legitimately and is propped up by segments of Thailand's traditional ruling class who were threatened by Thaksin's popularity, especially among the poor.

Many of the protesters travelled to Bangkok from Thailand's poor, rural northern and eastern provinces – areas where support for Thaksin has traditionally been strongest.

So far the protests have been peaceful and UDD leaders have pledged they will remain that way.

Nevertheless Monday's threat to step up disruption if Abhisit resists calls to stand down could spark anger by paralysing traffic-choked streets all over Bangkok.

Abhisit himself has warned the public not to be complacent about the potential for violence.

Tense

In his weekly television address on Sunday, the Thai prime minister showed immediate elections were unlikely, citing the tense political climate and his government's parliamentary majority.

Several main roads near government offices were blocked off either by protesters' pick-up trucks and motorcycles, or cordoned off by police and soldiers.

"We have to see how the situation develops but I reaffirm that we will act reasonably and appropriately"

Suthep Thaugsuban,
Thai deputy PM

Authorities have deployed 50,000 police, soldiers and other security personnel across the city, with thousands more placed on alert at barracks across the city.

An army spokesman said security had been beefed up with hundreds of extra troops at the infantry base where Abhisit and other key ministers along with the country's top brass were staying during the protests.

Suthep Thaugsuban, the Thai deputy prime minister in charge of the country's security, said the protesters would be permitted to approach the base but added that it was too early to say if emergency rule would be invoked to crackdown on the rally.

"Protesters can circle the barracks but they must not obstruct traffic or intrude into the barracks or they will be arrested," Suthep told reporters.

"We have to see how the situation develops but I reaffirm that we will act reasonably and appropriately."

'Victim of bullies'

Last April, mass protests by the red shirts led to violent clashes on the streets of Bangkok with at least two people killed and 120 injured in the capital's worst unrest in almost two decades.

Thailand's Red Shirts
Supporters of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in bloodless coup in 2006

Formally known as the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD)

Formed in 2008 as a counter to the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy, also known as the Yellow Shirts

Members are mainly rural workers from   discount gucci shoes outside Bangkok, especially in the rural north and northeast, but also has support from students and other political activists

Group accuses the military and Thai elite of undermining democracy

Red shirt leaders say the violence was stirred up by gangs of hired pro-government thugs.

The Red Shirts are loyal to Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is living abroad, mostly in Dubai, to escape a jail term for corruption.

Last month Thailand's supreme court confiscated $1.4bn of his assets after ruling the money had been obtained through abuse of power when he was prime minister.

In an address to supporters on Sunday night he urged them to keep up the fight those in the Thai elite he says are destroying the country's democracy.

"This is none-person issue, we all fight for justice. I am the victim of bullies among the elites," Thaksin told the rally in a 50-minute video message.

"To solve problems related to democracy, equality and justice, the ruling elites won't be able to do that because they don't have the conscience. The people will have to do it."

Thailand has been in constant political turmoil   discount christian louboutin  since early 2006, when anti-Thaksin demonstrations began following his ouster in a military coup.

The Red Shirts have held several rallies since Abhisit came to power in December 2008, after a court decision removed Thaksin's allies from government

Disclosure of public business helps all

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Whether it is examining public employee overtime records or expense vouchers or reviewing the specifics of publicly bid contracts or legislators' gifts from lobbyists typically seeking favor, where taxpayers dollars and public policy are at stake, there is a compelling case for full disclosure by way of records or meetings open and accessible to the public.

Sunshine Week was started in Florida, but that's not how it derived its name.

The kind of sunshine referred to in designating this special week, which this year runs March 14-20, has less to do with growing oranges or tanning on the beach than with shining the light of public disclosure and scrutiny on how the public's business is conducted.

The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors  cheap gucci shoes   launched a public awareness campaign called Sunshine Sunday in response to that state's legislators creating scores of exemptions to block public access to what had clearly been public records.

The successful Sunshine Sunday effort in Florida turned up both the heat and light on legislators, bringing about what the state's newspaper association estimates was the defeat of some 300 exemptions to open government laws. That is a victory not for the news media alone, which makes a business of poring over those records, but for citizens whose business is being conducted and whose hard-earned dollars are being spent.

The Freedom of Information Committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors took up the challenge and launched Sunshine Week in March 2005. Newspapers across Indiana, Ohio and the nation have been at the forefront in fighting this cherished public interest battle.

This is some of what we had to say in 2005, that inaugural year for Sunshine Week, and it's what we believe still.

* *

If you have not run out and completed last-minute shopping for Sunshine Week, which begins today, do not fret.

Sunshine Week is not something you pop in  discount gucci shoes  an oven and gather with friends or family around the table to enjoy. It is not found under the tree, or by going door-to-door.

It is something that can and should be celebrated by everybody, regardless of race, creed, gender, age or religious affiliation.

Though not uniquely American, the citizens of this great nation have embraced and elevated it with a determination arguably unparalleled in the world.

Sunshine Week, quite simply, is intended to remind us public records are the property of the public and the business of government is the business of all of us.

* *

Through this week we will present editorial  discount christian louboutin   comment, columns and cartoons celebrating this special week in the ongoing fight for government openness and access, recognizing that an informed citizenry remains the best check government excess and abuse.

We encourage your comments and tributes on the topic.

Senators give Obama a bipartisan plan on immigration

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Reporting from Washington - A pair of influential senators presented President Obama with a three-page blueprint for a bipartisan agreement to overhaul the nation's immigration system, but the politics threatened proposal's viability surrounding the healthcare debate.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in a 45-minute meeting Thursday in the Oval Office, also asked for Obama's help in cheap gucci shoes   rounding up enough Republican votes to pass an immigration bill this year.

Although details of their blueprint were not released, Graham said the elements included tougher border security, a program to admit temporary immigrant workers and a biometric Social Security card that would prevent people here illegally from getting jobs.

Graham also said the proposal included "a rational plan to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States." He did not elaborate on what the plan would be. Nevertheless in a recent interview, he suggested that onerous measures were unrealistic.

"We're not going to mass-deport people and put them in jail, nor should we," Graham said. "But we need a system so they don't get an advantage over others for citizenship."

In a statement after the Obama meeting, Graham predicted that their effort would collapse if Senate Democrats proceeded with a strategy to pass a healthcare bill through a simple majority vote -- a process known as "reconciliation." Senate leaders say they are committed to do just that.

"I expressed, in no uncertain terms, my belief that immigration reform could come to a halt for the year if healthcare reconciliation goes forward," said Graham, who portrayed the document handed to Obama as "a work in progress."

Graham added: "For more than a year, healthcare has sucked most of the energy out of the room. Using reconciliation to push healthcare through will make it much harder for Congress to come together on a topic as important as immigration."

In their own statements, Obama and Schumer sounded more upbeat.

The president said: "Today I met with Sens. Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system. I look forward to review their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find common sense answers for one of our most vexing problems."

Immigration has gotten scant attention of late. Obama had initially promised to address the issue in his first year, but the deadline slipped as he struggled to pass a healthcare bill. Latino voters, who were a crucial piece of Obama's winning coalition in the 2008 campaign, have grown impatient. Some advocates of an immigration overhaul warn that  discount gucci shoes   Latino voters will stay home in the November mid-term elections if the issue is delayed again.

In an attempt to defuse the anger, Obama met with a group of 14 immigration advocates in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, hours before his meeting with the two senators.

Afterward, some of the guests described the atmosphere in the room as tense. They said they told Obama the families were being severed by widespread deportations. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the U.S. deported 388,000 illegal immigrants, according to the Department of Homeland Security -- up from 369,000 the year before.

"I don't think the president liked hearing that the immigration system is tearing apart families. Nevertheless that's our reality," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, who attended the meeting.

Obama agreed to have them meet with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss deportation policies, the White House said.

Even without the healthcare obstacle, passing an immigration bill would be difficult. Schumer has been trying to line up additional Republican co-sponsors in hopes of broadening the bill's bipartisan support. None have signed up.

Those who attended the meeting said that Obama committed to help find Republican votes. Nevertheless he also conceded that in a polarized Senate, that was a difficult mission.

"He was very frank about the challenge of   discount christian louboutin  moving this or anything else in the U.S. Congress," said John Wilhelm, president of the labor union Unite Here.

Peter.nicholas@