Obama to pledge Billions of Dollars in aid to back 'Arab Spring' in Middle East (Guardian, 19 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Guardian, UK", 19 May 2011
Barack Obama to back Middle East democracy with billions in aid

President pledges cash to support Egypt and Tunisia after criticism US has been too slow to support uprisings

By Ewen MacAskill in Washington

Barack Obama is to announce that the United States and the west will pour billions of dollars into the Middle East in support of Egypt, Tunisia and other countries embracing democracy, a move the White House portrayed as being on the scale of aid to former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Speaking in Washington, the president will attempt to reposition the US as a champion of the newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries.
It is his most important speech on the Middle East since Cairo in 2009, when he called for a new beginning in relations between the US and the Muslim world. The support for Obama in the Arab world in 2009 has since dropped sharply.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on suicide watch at New York prison (Aljazeera English, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Aljazeera English", 18 May 2011

IMF chief on suicide watch at New York prison

Dominique Strauss-Kahn placed on suicide watch following his arrest and detention on attempted rape charges.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has been placed on suicide watch following his arrest and detention on attempted rape charges.
Strauss-Kahn, who denies the charges, is expected to remain in New York's Rikers Island jail, known for gang violence, at least until his next court appearance on Friday, when lawyers may again request bail.
A law enforcement source said Strauss-Kahn was being watched as a precautionary measure.
A maid told New York police that Strauss-Kahn had tried to rape her in his hotel suite on 14 May and later picked him out at an identity parade.
A lawyer for the maid, a 32-year-old widow from Guinea with a 15-year-old daughter, said she had not been aware of Strauss-Kahn's identity until a day after the alleged attack.

Strauss-Kahn case raises issue of diplomat abuse in U.S. (Associated Press, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011
Strauss-Kahn case raises issue of diplomat abuse in U.S.

By Brian Grow

ATLANTA | Wed May 18, 2011 12:49pm EDT

(Reuters) - The case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is an extreme example of alleged sexual assault by an elite member of the international community. But the charges against him also shine a light on how diplomats and international officials have been accused of abusing maids or nannies in the United States, and have largely escaped prosecution.
Foreign diplomats have been the subject of at least 11 civil lawsuits and one criminal prosecution related to abuse of domestic workers in the last five years, according to a Reuters review of U.S. federal court records. The allegations range from slave-like work conditions to rape, and the vast majority of the diplomats in these cases avoided prison terms and financial penalties.
Strauss-Kahn, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, was charged on Sunday with sexually assaulting a hotel maid. He does not have full diplomatic immunity, but IMF rules grant him immunity limited to acts performed in his "official capacity." He was denied bail Monday and sent to jail in New York. He did not enter a plea, and his lawyer said he intends to plead not guilty.

US imposes sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad for Human Rights abuses (Associated Press, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011

US slaps sanctions on Syria's Assad for abuses

By MATTHEW LEE and BEN FELLER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States slapped sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and six senior Syrian officials for human rights abuses over their brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, for the first time personally penalizing the Syrian leader for actions of his security forces.

The White House announced the sanctions Wednesday, a day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on the uprisings throughout the Arab world with prominent mentions of Syria.

The Obama administration had pinned hopes on Assad, seen until recent months as a pragmatist and potential reformer who could buck Iranian influence and help broker an eventual Arab peace deal with Israel.

Assad's increasingly brutal crackdown left U.S. officials little choice but to abandon the effort to woo Assad, and to stop exempting him from the same sort of sanctions already applied to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.

CIA flew stealth drones into Pakistan to monitor bin Laden house (Washington Post, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Washington Post", 18 May 2011
CIA flew stealth drones into Pakistan to monitor bin Laden house
By Greg Miller
 The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said.

Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights over the compound for months before the May 2 assault in an effort to capture high-resolution video that satellites could not provide.

The aircraft allowed the CIA to glide undetected beyond the boundaries that Pakistan has long imposed on other U.S. drones, including the Predators and Reapers that routinely carry out strikes against militants near the border with Afghanistan.

Shuttle Endeavour arrives at space station (Associated Press, 18 Amay 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011

Shuttle Endeavour arrives at space station

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Endeavour and its six astronauts showed up at the International Space Station on Wednesday with the most expensive payload ever carried by a shuttle, a $2 billion magnetic device that scientists hope will unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.

The two orbiting crews will attach the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the space station Thursday.

Endeavour - making its final journey and the next-to-last flight of NASA's shuttle era - docked with the space station as the two vessels soared more than 200 miles above the planet, near Chile.

Commander Mark Kelly steered Endeavour in for the slightly early linkup. He is married to wounded Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who attended the shuttle launch Monday. Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 during an assassination attempt in Tucson.

French agape over treatment of jailed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Associated Press, 18 May 2011)

Courtesy: "Associated Press (AP)", 18 May 2011

French agape over treatment of jailed IMF chief

By ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS (AP) -- The trans-Atlantic gap separating the U.S. and French justice systems and moral codes is as wide as the ocean itself - appalling a nation witnessing the unraveling fortunes of a favorite son, jailed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Some of the charges leveled against Strauss-Kahn in the alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in New York do not exist in France. And if the case was being heard in France, the 62-year-old IMF chief might risk three to five years in prison instead of scores in the United States, a leading expert says.

Strauss-Kahn also likely wouldn't be sitting in a notorious jail right now on a suicide watch.

The photos of a potential French president - handcuffed, stooped, unshaven, tieless and whisked away to court before photographers - knocked the breath out of the French public.

The initial response was a collective "that would not happen here."