As Duch Trial Begins, Two US Women ‘Stand Witness’

When the trial began, from her home in a small, remote town in the US state of Michigan, a 67-year-old Cynthia Coleman tuned in to an Internet video stream of the proceedings, as Duch described his role as prison administrator. (02 July 2009)

By Brian Calvert and Men Kimseng
Original report from Washington
[Editor’s note: When it opened in March, the trial for Kaing Kek Iev, the infamous Khmer Rouge torture chief better known as Comrade Duch, returned the world’s attention to Cambodia and the horrors of the failed regime. In 1976, two American women helped care for a group of 114 Cambodians in the US who were determined to return to their home, now controlled by the Khmer Rouge. The two recently spoke with VOA Khmer to ensure the stories of those Cambodians, nearly all of whom perished, would not be forgotten. This is the first of a two-part series.]


When the trial began, from her home in a small, remote town in the US state of Michigan, Cynthia Coleman, a 67-year-old volunteer librarian, tuned in to an Internet video stream of the proceedings, as Duch described his role as prison administrator.

“And then one day I was watching it, and he was talking about Tuol Sleng, and he started saying that he was really just reporting to somebody else and was making himself sound like a pencil pusher, basically… I just looked at that face, and said, ‘I can’t stand one more minute of this weasel, and turned it off’,” Coleman recalled recently.

Such a vitriolic reaction might be expected from a Cambodian survivor of the regime. But Coleman had never even been to Cambodia, except for a brief trip the year before. In March 2008, she had traveled with another American to file as a witness for the UN-backed tribunal, to tell the story of 114 Cambodians who’d found themselves under her care in the United States 32 years earlier.

“Both of us felt strongly that we needed to stand witness,” said Coleman.

Save for that testimony and a small chapter Coleman wrote in book published in 1987, the story of the 114 Cambodians remains little known. They were a small group of expatriates who found themselves in the US when the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh and implemented Year Zero.

They all wanted to return, and ultimately all but two found their way back to their homeland. All of those who did return, 112 people, perished. The two survivors could not be reached for this story.

In 1976, Coleman was not a librarian. She was the director of a refugee project created by an organization called the Nationality Service Center. Her program was funded by the US State Department through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Her job was to provide support for the 114 Cambodians and to facilitate their return.

A second American woman, Mary Beach, then a fresh college graduate, worked for Coleman and lived with the Cambodians for weeks, then months, in the winter and spring of 1976, developing a deep bond with the families and finding herself devastated after they left.

Both women were deeply affected by their time with the Cambodians, and the grief they’ve borne for more than three decades underscores the scope of the Cambodian tragedy, demonstrating that its reach went well beyond Cambodia.

Coleman and Beach, whose testimonies are now filed at the tribunal, both agreed to share their stories with VOA Khmer. Through multiple phone interviews, they described their involvement with the Cambodians, the friendships that grew from it, and the interminable sadness that followed, as hope that their friends had survived eventually dwindled to nothing.

The Cambodians arrived late at night in the cold and the dark of winter, on Dec. 9, 1975. They came with bags, cases and trunks; men, women and children. They were housed at a local civic organization called the YMCA, in a dormitory of cramped rooms and a shared communal area.

It was Beach’s first job after college, one she had readily taken after searching for work as a French teacher and falling into a position with the Nationality Service Center. One of the first people she met was Capt. Keo Keam, who had already unpacked, settled in and even adjusted the lighting to give his room a homier feel. He was looking for a partner to play an English-language spelling game called Scrabble.

“And I thought, wow, most of these people are still in the midst of trying to get things to their room, and he’s already settled in and wants to play,” Beach recalled. “So I did play just a couple of rounds of Scrabble with him, and he beat me.”

Keo Keam was among 81 military personnel who had served Lon Nol’s US-backed government. They had been training in the US when their republic fell to the communists. Beach said at first she was young and afraid to be housed with military men of any nation, but the Cambodians soon changed her mind.

“They were just so polite, and so considerate, and so proper in everything that they did, that it was just not a problem at all,” she said.

Before long, Beach found herself immersed in Cambodian culture. She had but one friend in Philadelphia and one uncle in the suburbs. She spent days and nights at the YMCA, among the Cambodians. She ate with them, took them shopping, and continued to play Scrabble with Keo Keam, who had become a friend.

“I never beat Keo Keam, even once,” she said, fondly remembering their time together.

Despite these moments of levity, it was an uncertain time for all Cambodians. While many were undergoing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, others were settling into new lives, having escaped the war and the guerrillas.

Yuth Hean, a former captain in Lon Nol’s navy, came to study in the US in 1974. He said, like other Cambodians, he considered going home, but was told by a senior Khmer Rouge official, Chan Youran, to stay on till he finished his studies.

“In late 1975, Ieng Sary and his delegation came to New York. I met with Chan Youran and asked him if it was the right time for me to go back and help the country,” Yuth Hean told VOA Khmer by phone. He asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was a student at Virginia Tech, in Virginia, and he then told me to finish my study.”

This advice saved his life.

In the US, Khmer Rouge sympathizers recruited overseas Cambodians to return and rebuild the country.

Prom Saunora had come to the US study electrical engineering. He heard of the recruitment but decided not to return until he finished his studies. He also feared the motives of the communists.

“I asked those whom I knew not to go back yet and wait and see how the situation developed,” he told VOA Khmer. “I knew the communists very well, so there was no need to rush back. But most of those I knew who went back never returned.”

There were no such doubts among the 114 in Philadelphia. They were determined to go home and help their families.

“I think that everyone and everything they loved most in the world was in Cambodia, and that’s where they wanted to be, and it was worth it to them to take the risk… They didn’t quite believe something like this would be happening in Cambodia,” Beach recalled.

Eventually, the group decided to undertake its own communist purification, holding secret meetings, watching communist propaganda films, she said. They wanted to make themselves presentable to the Khmer Rouge cadre awaiting them, and they worried, much as their Khmer Rouge contemporaries would, that informers lurked among the group.

“In the general foyer there, they had a television, and sometimes I would watch television with them, but when they started having these meetings of course, they were closed meetings,” she said.

Meanwhile, Coleman set about taking care of her new wards. In her position, she too got to know the Cambodians, including the leader of the group, a man named Maj. Kim Pok Tung.

“He was a very funny guy, and he was making jokes about wearing his three new Philadelphia custom-made suits while working in the rice fields in Cambodia,” Coleman said. “He also had a wife and I believe three or four children, including a five-year-old son who had had polio and was disabled from the polio. And he told me… that he was going to go back home to see if he could find his son and protect him.”

The soldiers and the other Cambodians at first had no idea how they might return.

“The UN looked worldwide to see what government agency there might be outside of Cambodia that could advise these people; and the only place in the world that had any kind of a Cambodian Khmer Rouge mission outside of Cambodia was in Paris, in France,” Coleman said.

The UN contacted the Paris-based Khmer Rouge, which worked through the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea, or GRUNK, to facilitate the repatriation of the 114 as UN-protected refugees.

“At that point the United Nations was told that the government of Cambodia did not want any involvement by the United Nations or by the US government, that they the Khmer Rouge would deal directly with the repatriates,” Coleman said.

By February 1976, the first group was ready to go.

“They were told that when they did go back home, they would go for a couple of weeks to a re-education center, but then they would be reunited with their families out in the countryside where they could be with their family growing rice,” she said.

Keo Keang was among the first to leave, as well as his friend, Hu Chheng Kuoy. Beach was too anxious to speak to Keo Keang about leaving, but the night before the group left, she found herself in the room of Hu Chheng Kuoy. It was not a joyful moment.

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” she told him, and as she recounted the story she paused to compose herself. He didn’t say farewell. “He just hugged me.”

Bit by bit, the other groups left for Paris, to be processed by the Khmer Rouge mission for their return to Democratic Kampuchea.

The last group to leave was in April 1976. Maj. Kim Pok Tung was among the last to leave.

“Like a captain of a ship, I think he was in the last group to go, and it was primarily the leadership of the group who left last,” Coleman said.

Coleman took the major to the bus station, where he would travel to New York, Paris and his fate.

“And they went from being extremely happy and jovial about finally moving and getting to Paris and eventually be able to get back home, to being kind of shy and nervous,” Coleman said.

“We hugged each other, and sniffed. I don’t if Cambodian men and women kiss, but they would sniff me, and I would do that back,” she said. “And we were hugging each other, and then he pulled his head and the top of his body back and looked at me with just a great big smile and said, ‘We’ll see what happens,’ and then he got on a bus.”

Jobs report rattles investors

he Irish drug maker sells a stake in the business and launches new partnerships with Johnson & Johnson. The New Brunswick, NJ-based J&J said it is also buying Elan's stake in an Alzheimer's disease treatment partnership with Wyeth ( WYE - news ...

Stocks slump after June employment report. Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all down over 2%.
By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street retreated Thursday, with the major market gauges all off at least 2%, as a worse-than-expected jobs report exacerbated fears that the recession could drag on longer than has been thought.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 175 points, or 2.1%, with 2 hours left in the session. The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost 21 points, or 2.3%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) fell 44 points, or 2.4%.


Employers cut 467,000 jobs from their payrolls in June, after cutting 322,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That made June the first month in four in which job losses rose from the previous month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 365,000 job losses.

The unemployment rate, generated by a separate survey, rose to 9.5% from 9.4%, short of forecasts for an increase to 9.6%.

"The report was terrible," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc."It's telling us that there is a lot more pain than people realize that we are going to have to get through before there can be a recovery."

On the move: Declines were broad based, with all 30 Dow stocks falling, led by oil components Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500). IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500) and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) were the other big losers.

Economically-sensitive trucking and railroad stocks plunged, dragging down the Dow Jones Transportation (DJT) average by over 3%.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers topped winners by over four to one on volume of 440 million shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers four to one on volume of 1.25 billion shares.

All financial markets are closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday.

Weak start to new quarter: Stocks climbed Wednesday on the first day of the third quarter as investors found some encouragement in the day's housing and manufacturing reports. But the advance lost steam Thursday, with the jobs report giving investors a reason to retreat after a strong second quarter.

In the April-through-June period, the S&P 500 gained 15.2%, its best quarter in more than a decade. The Dow rose 11% and the Nasdaq 20%. Both indexes posted their best quarters since the second of 2003. Stocks rallied on hopes that the economy was starting to stabilize after the six months of panic that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.

But lately, stocks have churned on concerns that the market got ahead of itself.
0:00 /1:36Unemployment's domino effect

Economic news: Normally a market mover, the weekly jobless claims report was overshadowed by the June payrolls report.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 614,000 last week from a revised 630,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported. Economists thought claims would fall to 615,000.

May factory orders rose 1.2%, the Commerce Department reported, versus forecasts for a rise of 0.9%. Factory orders rose a revised 0.5% in April.

U.S. employers cut more jobs

Employers cut more jobs in the United States in June, causing unemployment to rise to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent in May. The latest nationwide jobless rate is the highest since

Employers cut more jobs in the United States in June, causing unemployment to rise to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent in May.

The latest nationwide jobless rate is the highest since August 1983.

The U.S. Department of Labor says employers slashed 467,000 jobs last month. In May, the economy lost 322,000 jobs.

Factory payrolls fell by 136,000 in June after decreasing by 156,000 the prior month. Payrolls at builders fell by 79,000 jobs after declining by 48,000 in May.


Retail payrolls decreased by 21,000 employees. Financial firms reduced their payrolls by 27,000 jobs.

According to the department, the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week was in line with forecasts.

Initial jobless claims dropped by 16,000 to 614,000 in the week ended June 27.

The average workweek dipped to 33 hours in June from 33.1 hours in May. Workers’ average hourly wages held at $18.53 for the second straight month.

June unemployment rates for individual states are scheduled to be announced July 17.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate rose to 11.1 percent in May from 10.5 percent in April.

The unemployment rate in Mecklenburg County increased to 11 percent in May from 10.2 percent in April.

In South Carolina, unemployment reached a record high of 12.1 percent in May. South Carolina’s jobless rate in April was 11.4 percent.

2nd UPDATE: US Senate Health Proposal Carries Smaller Price Tag

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A Senate health-care proposal released Thursday would keep more people in employer-sponsored health plans and cost far less than an earlier version of the proposal that drew heavy criticism.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A Senate health-care proposal released Thursday would keep more people in employer-sponsored health plans and cost far less than an earlier version of the proposal that drew heavy criticism.

The new proposal, issued by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee after lengthy consultations with the Congressional Budget Office, would cost $611.4 billion over 10 years. The CBO analysis states that 21 million uninsured people would gain coverage under the proposal, but Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is leading committee Democrats on health-care matters, said the bill combined with Senate Finance Committee legislation would result in coverage of 97% of Americans.


The new analysis comes as welcome news to Democrats on the panel, after a June 15 review showed that an earlier draft of the legislation would cost $1 trillion over the 2010-2019 period and cover only 16 million more people than currently insured. There are an estimated 46 million uninsured in the U.S.

The vast difference in dollar figures results in large part from a section in the proposal that would slap penalties on employers who don't offer employee health benefits. Under the proposal, firms with 25 or more employees that don't offer coverage would face fees of $750-per-year for full-time workers and $375-per-year for part-time workers.

The employer mandate would keep more people in their employer-based coverage, instead of forcing a migration of workers to the individual health insurance market. Such a migration would be costly, because the legislation would provide subsidies for low and middle-income workers to purchase insurance on the individual market.

The penalties assessed to employers that don't provide coverage would be part of the tax code, according to a senior Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee staffer.

The price of the bill includes neither the cost of expanding eligibility for the low-income Medicaid program nor potential cost savings from new Medicare payment proposals - both of which fall under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee. Overall, the cost of the bill is expected to increase when melded with the Finance panel's legislation.

Scott Fidel, a Deutsche Bank managed-care research analyst, said in an investor note that the lower price tag "will likely receive attention in the headlines," but that "it is important to recognize that the costs of health reform using the HELP Committee approach combined with an expansion of Medicaid will likely be much higher."

Still, Dodd heralded the new numbers, which he said put the committee "on the brink of doing something that is absolutely critical."

"Given the numbers of a few weeks ago, people wondered whether or not we would arrive at the numbers that would allow people to stay, literally, in their employer-based plans," Dodd told reporters Thursday.

Dodd, who is leading health-care efforts on the Senate Health panel in replace of the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he expects the new legislative proposal to be approved in committee by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week.

The Senate Finance Committee is still in negotiations on its version of the bill, which overlaps with the Kennedy-Dodd legislation in many areas. The two panels are expected to meld their bills before the full Senate takes up health-care legislation - which Democrats hope will happen in July.

President Barack Obama in a statement praised the bill, saying it "lowers costs, protects choice of doctors and plans and assures quality and affordable health care for Americans."

A summary of the public plan provided by the committee says the Health and Human Services secretary would negotiate rates for the new plan. The plan could pay doctors and hospitals rates below the average rate paid in local geographic areas, which could prompt protests from physicians' group. But the summary stressed that health care providers would not be forced to accept the public plan.

While Republicans on the Senate Health panel are unlikely to support the proposal unveiled Thursday, negotiators continue to try to hammer out a bipartisan compromise in the Senate Finance Committee.

Republicans and Democrats at the Finance panel have discussed proposals for health cooperatives that wouldn't be government-run - as the public plan in the proposal unveiled Thursday would - but there are concerns that the cooperative plan may not gain traction among liberal Democrats in the Senate.

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GENEVA, July 2 (Reuters) - A UN human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel's seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime ...

Seizure illegal, Gaza blockade "crime against humanity"-UN

* Israel's U.N. envoy rejects charges



By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, July 2 (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel's seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime against humanity".

Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.


Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel's "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".

Falk, an American expert on international law, said Israel's two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to "bare subsistence levels".

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.

"Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity," Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.

Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the U.N. investigator. "None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed."

"Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with 'illegal entry' to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel," Falk added.



ISRAEL ENVOY SAYS FALK "BIASED"

Israel's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was "known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements".

Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said. "Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel," he told Reuters.

Activists from the U.S.-based Free Gaza movement said that Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney were among those aboard.

Falk, who is Jewish, has had his own difficulties with Israeli authorities in trying to fulfil his independent mandate for the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Last December, he was detained and turned back from Israel, forcing him to abort a planned mission to Gaza -- a deportation denounced by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In a report last March, Falk said Israel's year-end military assault on the densely population coastal strip of 1.5 million appeared to constitute a grave war crime.

Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians [IDnL2307109].

A U.N. inquiry into alleged war crimes by both Israel and Hamas militants in the recent conflict held public hearings in Gaza this week and will also hear testimony in Geneva next week. It is led by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

US forces hunt for soldier believed to have been kidnapped by Taliban

US forces were today frantically hunting for one of its soldiers believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the first to be taken since America first began operations in the country in 2001.

The soldier, whose unit is based in eastern Paktika province, was not involved in the ongoing operation in the south of the country. He was found to be missing during a roster check on Tuesday morning and is believed to be held by a Taliban faction linked to a string of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Captain Elizabeth Mathias, said today: "We understand him to be have been captured by militant forces. We have all available resources out there looking for him and hopefully providing for his safe return."

She added: "We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's wellbeing."


But the Afghan police general Nabi Mullakheil disclosed the location of the kidnap as Mullakheil area in Paktika, where there is a US base.

The Pentagon has requested the help of Pakistan forces to seal the border. Pakistan officials have also asked villagers along the border to provide information if the soldier's captors pass through their area or asks for help.
It is highly unusual for the US military to disclose that one of its soldiers has been kidnapped, especially when operations are still underway to try to get him back.

Unconfirmed reports said the soldier had been based at a small combat outpost and had apparently gone off with three Afghan soldiers into a dangerous area.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujaheed, said he had no information about the soldier being held by a Taliban group. But another Taliban spokesman said he was being held by an insurgent faction linked to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a powerful figure based in Pakistan who controls large parts of Afghanistan along the border.

Haqqani has been blamed for a string of attacks including the suicide bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last year that killed more than 50.
Military commanders are desperate to prevent the soldier's captors taking him across the border into Pakistan where al-Qaida is still a presence in the border areas and in cities such as Peshawar.

The kidnap could provide the Taliban with a major media coup: while individual fatalites from Afghanistan or Iraq have become almost routine and are largely ignored by the US media, the fate of a single soldier in Taliban hands could attract enormous attention.

Previous high-profile kidnappings in Iraq, in which videos of abductees were posted on the internet, have had a big emotional impact on the US public. Those victims were mostly civilians and contractors, while individual soldiers were taken in Iraq were usually killed soon afterwards.

Previous overseas kidnapping of soldiers and civilians have had a huge resonance for Americans. One of the reasons for the still poor relationship between the US and Iran is the embassy hostage siege in Tehran after the 1979 revolution, when Americans across the country tying yellow ribbons to trees as a symbol of solidarity.

The soldier's family has been informed of his disappearance.

Judith Kipper, , director of the Middle East programme at the Institute of World Affairs,said she thought the US cared more about hostages than other countries: "The Iranian hostage siege was hideous but it was not a matter of national security, and look how revved up we got about that."

Horror story Michael Jackson wrote for kids HIS NIGHTMARE PLAY ABOUT CHILD-ABUSER AND SERIAL KILLER

TORMENTED Michael Jackson wrote a chilling horror story about a CHILD ABUSER and SERIAL KILLER starring HIS OWN KIDS.

The sickening tale - called Kids on Swings - is a nightmare vision of Prince Michael II and Jacko's daughter Paris falling into the clutches of a fiend who slaughters children with a 'sling blade'.

He stabs Prince, sending him into a coma as they try to escape his clutches.

The King of Pop penned the story when he visited the UK in 2006 - a year after he was acquitted of child abuse charges.

Click here for all Michael Jackson death and tribute stories

It gives a warped insight into the tormented mind of the entertainer who suffered repeated beatings at the hands of his own violent father Joe.

The story is written in a childlike scrawl in black and blue pens on the back of letters and pictures of an Irish Georgian Castle.
Screams


It was found among documents and memorabilia handed to the News of the World.

Written as a play, it tells how Paris, 11, and seven- year-old Prince Michael II are playing on swings until the boy becomes 'disinterested' and runs off.

Michael Jackson's nightmare play about child-abuser and serial killer.

"He runs to the brook skipping past rocks silhouetted against a crystal lake," Jacko wrote.

A pack of wild dogs then chase the pair as Paris screams for her 'DAD.'

In the next disturbing scene, the infants spot a man working in a field with a sling blade. "We see him working but we can't see his face," Jackson wrote.

The badly spelled story then takes a sinister turn as the identity of the fiend is revealed.

The character of Prince tells his sister: "He murdered his wife and no one ever sees his kids cause he keeps them tied to the bed like his wife, before he murdered her. He starves them FIRST then he murdered them, Paris."

His terrified sister admits to being scared before asking how he killed them. "He did it with a sling blade Paris," he adds. The 13-page story is believed to have been written while the eccentric entertainer was doped up on a cocktail of powerful narcotic pain killers.

The handwriting has been verified as Jackson's by top graphologist Erik Rees who has been observing the star's writing for 30 years and says it shows signs of a "split personality".

The tale was penned at a time when Jacko's behaviour became increasingly erratic and fears were raised for the safety of his three youngsters.

In the next scene Prince and Paris are in bed - too frightened to sleep. A twisted passage then describes how the monster got a facial scar.

"He starved a man for 2 weeks," it reads. "Just before killing him they had a fight. The guy he was trying to kill grabbed the knife to attack him. And he cut him over the eyes.

"He then got scared and ran into what they call the endless BLACK FOREST . . . he was never found again. Because they say there is no way out of the endless Black Forest."

The bizarre tale - which may have been read to Jacko's kids as a bedtime story - sees the two youngsters venture into the 'Black Forest' to visit the 'crazy man.'

Shaking with fear, the children peer through the window of his cottage before a spine-tingling scene in which he creeps up behind them.
Stabs

He stabs them as they try to escape his clutches and Prince has an asthma attack and stops breathing.

The monster then hunts them down in the forest before Prince apparently dies with his sister's head on his 'lifeless chest.'

In the final twist, the man carries Prince back to the cottage and holds hands with Paris. She is described as feeling 'safe and loved by him.'
Michael Jackson's nightmare play about child-abuser and serial killer.

The man "carrys Prince to his bed and puts the cover over the sick boy" before sitting in a chair and watching him. When her brother finally awakes from his coma, Paris calms the traumatised boy as she tells him the man "won't hurt you".

The bizarre closing lines read: "He pulls the Toys from his jacket. What was broken is now mended, Fixed Paris. He didn't steal our toys Prince he fixed them. KIDS are happy to see their fixed toys again.

"Man gets up, walks to the door right before he exits Prince says thank you they exchange smiles and we see him."

Children thought Jacko was playing a trick as he lay dying

ODD CHILDHOOD: Veiled Paris & Prince out with Daddy

By James Desborough, US Editor in Los Angeles,
TREMBLING with panic Jacko's little daughter Paris screamed: "Where's Daddy?" as a team of paramedics burst into their palatial Hollywood home on Thursday.

Her thick brown hair matted with tears, the 11-year-old clutched her brothers Prince Michael and Prince Michael II and together they cried for their father who was lying unconscious in the bedroom.

These were the chaotic moving scenes that faced emergency services when they raced into Jacko's £100,000-a-month rented pad in upmarket Carolwood Drive, Los Angeles.
The three children, who led sheltered lives as part of the King of Pop's entourage, were suddenly thrust into a nightmare their superstar dad would not survive.

Zombie

But, like every chapter in the troubled music legend's life, his final moments were riddled with macabre twists and turns. We can reveal:

* THE kids and Jacko's personal doctor Conrad Murray thought he was playing a practical joke by PRETENDING to be dead.
* JACKO morbidly told a close friend he wanted to "go out like Elvis".
* HE had REFUSED rehab for his addictions.
* THOSE drug habits DESTROYED his sleep patterns and turned him into an insomniac walking around like a zombie from his Thriller video.

Medics descended on Jackson's house at exactly 12.30pm, just nine minutes after the frantic 911 emergency call was made on Thursday.

A source in Jackson's staff told us: "An air of crisis swept through the house like a whirlwind.
The three children had been taken to another room by their nannies, but they thought their dad was just fooling around. He often played dead and would then jump up and surprise them, so they thought he was just having a bit of fun.

"But when they saw the emergency trucks arrive, that really shook them. There were paramedics running upstairs and ambulance sirens blaring. The kids were terrified and started crying and howling for their dad."

To save them the trauma of seeing their motionless father carried out of the house with an oxygen mask strapped to his face, the children were quickly hustled into the back of a waiting car by Jackson's sister La Toya and mum Katherine.

Paris, 12-year-old Prince and six-year-old Prince Michael II were then driven to the UCLA Medical Centre.

FAMILY MASQUERADE: Paris, Prince, Prince II and Jacko

On arrival at the hospital the kids were comforted by the family who handed them crayons and paper as a distraction and got them to draw their daddy 'Get well soon' pictures - even though he already lay dead in an operating theatre. At one point they hugged their older relatives and prayed for their father.

Speaking exclusively to the News of the World, Jackson's "spiritual advisor" Deepak Chopra said: "There were a lot of people there and the children were very distraught, screaming and crying."

After Jackson was pronounced dead at 2.26pm weeping relatives whisked the kids back to the Jackson family's main compound-style home in Encino.

It was only three short hours earlier that Jacko had been given the shot of Demerol - a powerful morphine-based painkiller he called his "health tonic" - that has been linked to his death. Chopra - who is also a well-respected medical doctor and Fellow of the American College of Physicians - confirmed to us the jab was administered.

He said: "It was the most inappropriate thing you could think of. To me it's very obvious that he was given a drug overdose."

Trouble

But we can reveal that Las Vegas-based cardiologist Conrad Murray, the personal physician who was by Jacko's side at the time of death, also thought his celebrity patient was just PLAYING dead.

"It was terrifically sad," said our inside source. "Murray told us he thought Michael was joking around, as he often did to entertain the kids. But this time, tragically, it was real. Murray tried to talk to Michael to rouse him but soon realised it was no joke. It suddenly dawned on him he was in deep trouble."

Shocked that his friend and patient was fighting for life, Murray then tried frantically to resuscitate him, yelling at him to wake up.

Our source added: "As he got louder he called out to other staff to help him. Others came in and saw Michael looking sickly white, collapsed on the bed. He was then dragged off the bed and another few attempts were made to resuscitate him.

"Murray looked close to tears and could barely speak. That's when the 911 call was made. But Murray suspected Michael was already dead.

"We were told that Michael had also been given a tranquilliser shot in the night and was pacing around the house frantically.

"He'd had a long day at his show rehearsals, which had ended after midnight. Weirdly the work left him completely wired - he was so exhausted he couldn't sleep.

"He couldn't sit down or stay still for a second and asked for a shot to calm his nerves.




"Lord alone knows how many sleeping pills he'd also popped to try and nod off. Michael was just on edge, a wreck and a complete mess. He complained that his heart and chest were pounding." Friend Chopra also revealed the star was in a morbid mindset before his death, adding: "He used to say to me he wanted to go out like Elvis, not like Marlon Brando. And I think on some subconscious level he had an inkling.

Abuse

"He might even have had what they call a death wish."

Elvis famously died aged 42 amid huge drama at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Brando died at 80 due to a string of medical problems. Jackson, who blew a whopping £10 million on medication, met Chopra in 1988 and the pair remained close until his death. The medic had been determined to help the star kick his addiction to drugs.

He revealed: "After the child abuse trial in 2005 Michael came and spent a week with me at my house.

"At one point he suddenly asked me for a prescription. He knew I was a physician and asked me for a narcotic. I said, 'What the heck do you want a narcotic for?' And it suddenly dawned on me he was ALREADY taking these and probably had a number of doctors giving him prescriptions."

Jacko told Chopra he took the painkillers for backache.

But the medic said: "He wasn't confronting his addictions, which is the big problem."

Chopra pleaded with Jackson to go into rehab but the singer brushed him off. "I was really desperate to help," added Chopra. "But you can't help somebody who goes into denial.

"I think that drug addiction was responsible for his death. It was THE thing that caused his cardiac arrest."

Thais Maintain Stance Over ‘Heritage’ Temple

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated his opposition to the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a Unesco World Heritage site Tuesday, despite a rejection of the UN agency that the temple be jointly managed.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated his opposition to the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a Unesco World Heritage site Tuesday, despite a rejection of the UN agency that the temple be jointly managed.

Abhisit rankled Phnom Penh last month when he suggested that Thailand and Cambodian both maintain the 11th-Century temple, which has become the center of a longstanding military face-off along contested border areas nearby.

Abhisit told Thai media on Tuesday he stood by his position and would not remove the heavily armed troops that have been entrenched along the northern border since July 2008.

Thailand “needs to reserve the right to maintain its opposition to the temple listing,” Abhisit was quoted as saying. He also said the Preah Vihear issue would not affect relations between the two nations in other areas of cooperation.

Abhisit’s remarks follow the rejection of his proposal to Unesco last week and talks between the two governments to diffuse increased tensions and even more military build-ups along the border.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Tuesday Abhisit’s remarks were a pretext meant to appease the Thai populace.

Thailand has undergone serious political shake-ups in the past year, with protesters forcing the ouster of one administration and replacing it with Abhisit’s.

“His statement is only to deceive the citizens of Thailand, and legally it has no meaning,” Khieu Kanharith said.

Flu Cases Rise to Six, Including a Cambodian

The number of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has climbed to six, with the announcement of a Cambodian and Philippine national infected with the flu.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
he number of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has climbed to six, with the announcement of a Cambodian and Philippine national infected with the flu.


The two cases, found Thursday, follow the discovery of the virus, sometimes called swine flu, in four visiting American students last week.

None of the infected is in danger of succumbing to the disease, which has killed as many an estimated 263 people worldwide and is now considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, health officials said Monday.

“We are controlling the six positive [cases], including a 19-year-old Cambodian woman,” said Sok Touch, director of the Ministry of Health’s communicable disease department. “They are not in danger now. The four American students are out of the hospital, but the Filipino is still in the hospital in Siem Reap.”

Mike O’Leary, Cambodia director for the World Health Organization, said last week Cambodia had not yet reached a level of alert.

Mekong Dolphin in Danger

Only between 64 and 74 Irrawady dolphins remain in the river between Cambodia and Laos, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced Wednesday.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
Only between 64 and 74 Irrawady dolphins remain in the river between Cambodia and Laos, the World Wide Fund for Nature announced Wednesday.

Pollution from DDT, mercury and other toxins have led to a sharp decline in the rare species, with as many as 88 individuals dying since 2003, according to a recent report.


“These pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and so the source of this pollution may involve several countries through which the Mekong River flows”, said Verné Dove, report author and veterinarian with WWF Cambodia.

The organization is investigating the source of the contaminants, he said.

According to the international institution, high levels of mercury were found in some of the dead dolphins. Mercury, suspected to be from gold mining activities, directly affects the immune system, making the animals more susceptible to infectious disease.

WWF is working to conserve the species in Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Touch Sean Tana, secretary of state for the Council of Ministers and head of Cambodia's Commission to Conserve Mekong River Dolphins and Develop Ecotourism, denied the findings.

“Ninety-nine percent of the dolphins die because they are trapped in nets,” he said, denying that DDT and mercury were responsible.

“They want to cook their eggs, but they burn down our house,” he said of the WWF, adding that according to his estimates, 150 to 160 of the dolphins live in the Mekong between Cambodia and Laos.

Korean Securities Firm Ready for Bourse

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Origial report from Phnom Penh
Tong Yang Securities is the only company that has so far opened for business in anticipation of a stock exchange that officials hope to have up and running by the end of the year.

“We came to Cambodia with a long-term perspective,” the company’s chief representative, Han Kyung Tae, told VOA Khmer. “We are ready to start our business.”



Tong Yang, a financial service provider in South Korea that set up here in 2006, hopes to offer security brokerage, stock deposits, subscription and sale of securities, merger and acquisition brokerage, bond issuance and discretionary investments.

“We are right now working with a couple of state-owned companies and a couple of private companies who might be listed on the stock exchange,” Han said.

Cambodia has said it will have its exchange up and running in December 2009, despite the global downturn and with the aid of South Korea.

Han said his company had been waiting for an official license to extend its business roles, such as broker and dealer, and to establish a private equity fund.

In South Korea, Tong Yang charges from 3 percent to 5 percent of the capital it earns trading bonds or shares. Han said he was not sure what commission the company will take in Cambodia.

Stock trading partly depends on security firms or investment banks. It also requires economic stability, a system of laws and strong companies listed on the exchange.

Vietnam’s stock exchange was established with only a few companies, Han said. But a decade later, more than 400 companies were listed. After 20 years, China’s stock market lists 4,000 companies.

In Cambodia, meanwhile, securities experts have estimated around 40 companies will be listed, while their earning potential remains to be seen.

“It depends on competition, the size of business,” Han said. “If competition becomes tougher in the investment banking business in Cambodia, which has a small size of economy, we will face difficulties in pursuing profit.”

Han also warned that if smaller securities firms are approved, the bigger ones will not enter Cambodia’s market.

Sam Ganty, a member of the government’s Securities and Exchange Commission, has said that bigger investment banks have more influence than smaller ones.

They might be stronger, have more experts, and a network of potential investors, he recently told VOA Khmer.

SEC President Minh Ban Kosal said that so far 10 securities firms are waiting to apply for business licenses.

The commission will carefully select the firms with minimum capital fit to its national economy, he said, adding that firms will be able to apply for licenses starting in August.

US Launches Massive Offensive in Afghanistan

US Marines move in formation through farm fields after landing by helicopter in overnight air assault near Taliban stronghold of Nawa, Helmand province, 2 Jul 2009

By VOA News
About 4,000 U.S. Marines descended on Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan Thursday, launching the first major operation under U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy to stabilize the country.

The U.S. troops and about 650 Afghan troops and police pushed into the lower Helmand River valley, the heart of the Taliban insurgency, during the pre-dawn hours.



Some troops rolled into designated towns and villages in armored convoys while others descended from helicopters.

The U.S. military says the troops' mission is to flush out insurgents and maintain security ahead of presidential elections on August 20.

Pakistan's army says it has deployed troops along the border to intercept militants fleeing the U.S.-led offensive called "Operation Khanjar" or "Strike of the Sword."

Separately Thursday, a U.S. military officials said insurgents captured a U.S. soldier in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. No other details were released.

Commenting the new offensive in southern Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said troops will build outposts and live among the people in poppy producing region.

Afghanistan's southern Helmand province is the main producer of Afghan opium, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's supply. U.S. officials say the opium trade in Afghanistan provides part of the Taliban's funding.

The U.S.-led offensive is the largest and fastest-moving operation under Mr. Obama's revamped strategy in Afghanistan

Flu Cases Rise to Six, Including a Cambodian

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh



The number of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has climbed to six, with the announcement of a Cambodian and Philippine national infected with the flu.

The two cases, found Thursday, follow the discovery of the virus, sometimes called swine flu, in four visiting American students last week.


None of the infected is in danger of succumbing to the disease, which has killed as many an estimated 263 people worldwide and is now considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization, health officials said Monday.

“We are controlling the six positive [cases], including a 19-year-old Cambodian woman,” said Sok Touch, director of the Ministry of Health’s communicable disease department. “They are not in danger now. The four American students are out of the hospital, but the Filipino is still in the hospital in Siem Reap.”

Mike O’Leary, Cambodia director for the World Health Organization, said last week Cambodia had not yet reached a level of alert

Rocket Truck Explodes Near Hun Sen’s Home

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
A truck full of rockets exploded at a military facility near the home of Prime Minister Hun Sen Sunday, injuring at least two of the premier’s bodyguards, officials said.

The office of the prime minister issued a statement saying a driver of the truck and an assistant had been hurt in a series of blasts near the residence, in Kandal district outside Phnom Penh, and an investigation into its cause was underway.


Gen. Hing Bunheang, chief of Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, told VOA Khmer Monday mechanic had accidentally lit a fire, which ignited the rockets and damaged a total of five vehicles.

Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Hun Sen, confirmed the explosion had occurred and said the cause of the blast came from within the compound.

The explosion, which occurred around 7:30 pm, frightened nearby residents.

One woman who asked not to be named said she heard the blast and thought at first it had come from a truck tire, but then subsequent explosions continued for 20 minutes. Her father warned her they were rocket explosions.

“Some people brought their motorcycles and cars inside their homes and closed the doors, because they were afraid of the rockets,” said the woman, who lives 3 kilometers from the facility.

At that distance, military police and police blocked National Road 21, allowing only emergency vehicles to pass. An ambulance, fire trucks and a demining truck from the Cambodian Mine Action Committee were seen driving toward the site.

California in 'fiscal emergency'

The governor of California has declared a fiscal emergency in the US state to address a budget deficit of some $24.3bn (£14.5bn).

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also ordered many state offices to close for three days each month until June 2010, with staff unpaid for those days.

California has been one of the US states hardest hit by the recession.

The moves comes after state legislators missed a 1 July deadline to approve a budget for the coming financial year.

State Controller John Chiang has said the failure to meet the deadline means the state deficit will increase by up to $6.5bn by September.

Mr Chiang told the BBC that many vulnerable people had been put in harm's way by the state's failure to agree the budget and to provide "essential dollars to help these people pay their rent, to put food on the table or to pay their utility bill".


He had earlier warned that drastic measures would have to be taken to conserve cash, including delaying payments to companies working for the state and to those relying on benefits and grants.

Under the emergency measures, some state offices will be closed on the first, second and third Friday of every month until June 2010, with staff not paid for those days.

Mr Schwarzenegger said in a statement that although the legislature had failed to remedy the budget problems, "solving the entire deficit" remained his "first and only priority".

"I will not rest until we get it done. I will not be a part of pushing this crisis down the road - the road stops here," he said.

The White House said it was closely monitoring the situation in the state.

'Still proud'
On Tuesday, the Californian Senate failed to agree on Democratic proposals to shave $3.3bn from education and other programmes as a stopgap measure to address the shortfall.

Democrats believe cuts should not slash vital social programmes while Republicans argued that much deeper spending cuts were needed to balance the budget.

Republicans and Mr Schwarzenegger have also ruled out tax increases.

California struggles to balance its budget every year, but this year has been particularly difficult.

And the size of the Californian economy - it is the world's eighth largest economy and generates nearly 13% of US gross domestic product - means what happens there matters for the rest of the country.

But Mr Schwarzenegger said that despite the crisis, he was proud of California, saying 30 more states were also yet to agree a budget.

For many states, 30 June heralded the end of the fiscal year, but several were facing crucial decisions to balance the books as the deadline neared.

Many of the states are legally required to have a balanced budget, which can mean cutting services and firing workers.

UPDATE 1-OAS to deliver ultimatum to Honduras: Insulza

ASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - Members of the Organization of American States have decided to give the interim government in Honduras 72 hours to reinstate democracy or face possible suspension, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said on Wednesday.

"Basically the decision is to condemn, very clearly, the military coup" that ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday, Insulza told reporters after hours of talks at the OAS headquarters.

He said the resolution being finished would demand Zelaya's immediate reinstatement as Honduran president and charge himself, Insulza, with taking the "diplomatic and political steps necessary" to try and restore democracy in Honduras.


"If within 72 hours the reinstatement doesn't happen, the assembly ... will meet again to suspend Honduras," Insulza said. He said the 72 hours would expire sometime on Saturday.

Zelaya vowed on Tuesday to return to Honduras flanked by foreign leaders to serve out his term, defying a warning from the government that ousted him that he faces immediate arrest.

Addressing the United Nations before traveling to Washington to meet OAS leaders, Zelaya said the Argentine and Ecuadorean presidents and the U.N. General Assembly and OAS chiefs would accompany him back to Honduras on Thursday.

Insulza told reporters that he was willing to go to Honduras with Zelaya if Zelaya wished it. But the OAS chief said he did not plan to meet members of a delegation that the interim Honduran government said it was sending to Washington on Wednesday.

The OAS began a special session late on Tuesday that continued into Wednesday to debate its role in the Honduran situation. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Bomb blast kills 33 as Iraqis take charge of security

1 day ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi forces were in control of towns and cities nationwide after the pullout of US troops six years after the invasion, but a bloody car bombing underscored the tough challenge ahead.

US President Barack Obama, who opposed the 2003 war ordered by his predecessor George W. Bush, hailed the US withdrawal as an "important milestone" but warned of difficult days of bloodshed and violence ahead.

The landmark day was marred by a bomb attack on a popular market in Kirkuk, an oil hub which has long been riven by ethnic tensions, which left 33 people dead and 92 wounded including women and children.


"The explosion occurred at a very busy time. I only saw fire and my stall was thrown over. I saw traders on fire in their shops and there were dead and wounded people on the ground," said Aras Omar Ghaffour, a 28-year-old vegetable stallholder.

Iraq marked the American pullback with a national holiday six years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein but sparked an insurgency and sectarian bloodshed that left tens of thousands dead.

American troops were to have quit built-up areas by midnight (2100 GMT), ahead of a complete pullout ordered by Obama by the end of 2011.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took on critics of Iraq's army and police, saying they were up to the task of taking over from the Americans.

"It is an offence to the Iraqis. The people who said that the foreign troops would never withdraw and would keep permanent bases in our country were giving a green light to the terrorists to kill civilians," he said.

The US military said four soldiers died from combat-related injuries on Monday, taking to 4,321 the number of American troops killed since the invasion.

"Make no mistake, there will be difficult days ahead. We know that the violence in Iraq will continue; we see that already in the senseless bombing in Kirkuk earlier today," Obama said at the White House.

"This is an important step forward, as a sovereign and united Iraq continues to take control of its own destiny," he said, adding that Iraqi leaders now had to make "hard choices" to resolve political issues and bolster security.

"Today's transition is further proof that those who have tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war are on the wrong side of history."

Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to oversee the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation.

Maliki had warned earlier this month that insurgent groups and militias were likely to step up attacks in the run-up to June 30 in a bid to undermine confidence in Iraq's own security forces, despite an overall fall in violence.

The deadliest attack this year occurred near Kirkuk on June 20 when 72 people were killed.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he expects "sporadic attacks" as Al-Qaeda fighters "increase the level of violence to try to pretend that they forced us out of the cities" and show weakness in the Iraqi forces.

The top US commander General Ray Odierno told US reporters in a video briefing from Baghdad that he believed Iraq was now better off "not having a dictator such as Saddam Hussein.

"They are now going to be able to see that they can move ahead and the people of Iraq will have a say in their government."

But he declined to say how many US troops would be left in urban centres, saying that figure "will be different every single day," adding that the remaining US troops would be acting as trainers and advisers.

Tuesday's pullback was part of a security agreement signed in November setting the terms for a continued US military presence in Iraq, where there are currently about 133,000 American troops.

Across Baghdad, tanks and armoured vehicles manned by Iraqi soldiers and police and decorated with artificial flowers, flags and banners passed through the city, as nationalistic songs and popular music played.

The Status of Forces Agreement, which set the pullback deadline, says US commanders must now seek Iraqi permission to conduct operations, but their troops retain a unilateral right to "legitimate self-defence."

Most Want Health Reform But Fear Its Side Effects

majority of Americans see government action as critical to controlling runaway health-care costs, but there is broad public anxiety about the potential impact of reform legislation and conflicting views about the types of fixes being proposed on Capitol Hill, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Most respondents are "very concerned" that health-care reform would lead to higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices, a bigger deficit, diminished insurance coverage and more government bureaucracy. About six in 10 are at least somewhat worried about all of these factors, underscoring the challenges for lawmakers as they attempt to restructure the nation's $2.3 trillion health-care system.


Part of the reason so many are nervous about future changes is a fear they may lose what they currently have. More than eight in 10 said they are satisfied with the quality of care they now receive and relatively content with their own current expenses, and worry about future rising costs cuts across party lines and is amplified in the weak economy.

President Obama, in a news conference yesterday, sought to leverage that apprehension.

"Premiums have been doubling every nine years, going up three times faster than wages," he said. "So the notion that somehow we can just keep on doing what we're doing, and that's okay, that's just not true."
Debra Matherne, a 43-year-old lawyer in Pennsylvania, agreed, saying she is contemplating leaving a job she loves because health insurance premiums for her family have jumped to $2,000 a month.

"That's just a crazy figure," she said.

The midday news conference was part of an orchestrated attempt by the White House to draw public attention to the need for landmark health legislation. Earlier in the day, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released a report documenting the growing financial burden that medical bills are placing on families.

On Wednesday, Obama will host a health-care meeting with a bipartisan group of governors and later participate in a televised town hall session dedicated to the issue.

Obama also used yesterday's news conference to rebut criticism of one of the more contentious ideas being considered: creation of a government-sponsored health insurance program that would compete with private firms.

Insurers and many Republicans warn that the "public option" included in bills filed in the House and Senate "would dismantle employer-based coverage, significantly increase costs" and add to the federal deficit.

"If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?" Obama said. "That's not logical."
After months of cordial relations between the industry and the White House, Obama's comments were the sharpest to date and come at a time when there is widespread debate and confusion over what the public wants. One of the reasons is the complexity of the issue, something not easily captured in a poll question.
Survey questions that equate the public option approach with the popular, patient-friendly Medicare system tend to get high approval, as do ones that emphasize the prospect of more choices. But when framed with an explicit counterargument, the idea receives a more tepid response. In the new Post-ABC poll, 62 percent support the general concept, but when respondents were told that meant some insurers would go out of business, support dropped sharply, to 37 percent.

Support for an "individual mandate," requiring every American to carry health insurance, ranges from 44 percent to 70 percent depending on the specific provisions.

"The president needs to understand that this is about patients and preserving their options," said Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a key player in bipartisan negotiations in the Senate. "Losing their health insurance is not the kind of change Americans were hoping for."

Even as Obama and the insurers ratcheted up the tenor of the discussion, both sides made clear there is still plenty of room for compromise.
"We are still early in this process, so we have not drawn lines in the sand," Obama said.

Karen Ignagni, head of America's Health Insurance Plans, said that she sensed an opening in the president's enthusiasm to create a government-sponsored plan modeled after the private-market plans from which federal workers choose.

In the poll, 58 percent said they see government reform as necessary to stall skyrocketing costs and expand coverage for the uninsured, while 39 percent said they fear any federal action would do more harm than good. The numbers split sharply along partisan and ideological lines: Ninety-two percent of liberal Democrats said they see government intervention as essential, compared with 19 percent of conservative Republicans.

Beyond general backing for governmental action, a few specific provisions under consideration on Capitol Hill receive significant levels of public support, including higher taxes on households with incomes above $250,000, a limit on medical malpractice amounts and, under certain conditions, a law requiring all Americans to carry health insurance. A large majority, 70 percent, opposes a new federal tax on employer-paid health insurance benefits that exceed $17,000 a year.

Majority support for certain new government action, however, does not come with high hopes: Half of all Americans said they think the quality of their health care will stay about the same if the system changes, and 31 percent expect it to deteriorate.

"We're spending a lot and not necessarily getting the bang for our buck," Philip Arms, 58, of Northwest Washington, said in a follow-up interview. Despite his desire for reform, "I'm not necessarily convinced it won't make things worse."

The poll was conducted by telephone June 18 to 21, among a national random sample of 1,001 adults; results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

Time frame set for Ahmadinejad's inaugural

The state-owned Press TV channel's website reports that Iran's president will be sworn in between July 26 and Aug. 19. Iran's Guardian Council says it found no 'major' irregularities in his election.
Reporting from Tehran -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in to his second term before the end of August after Iran's Guardian Council today ruled out the possibility of nullifying a disputed election, saying it could find no evidence of any "major" irregularities, according to the state-owned English-language Press TV satellite news channel.


"Fortunately, in the recent presidential election, we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election," said Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai, the council's spokesman, according to the report. "Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place."
He said most of the irregularities alleged by the defeated reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi occurred before the election, which he suggested were outside the scope of the Guardian Council's authority.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place between July 26 and Aug. 19, according to a report posted on Press TV's website.

Mousavi sent the council a lengthy letter last week detailing election-day irregularities as well as alleged abuses of power by Ahmadinejad before the vote. Kadkhodai did not address Mousavi's allegation that ballot boxes were taken to military bases at one point on election day, where they were beyond the view of poll observers.

The rejection of a new vote came as Britain announced that it was expelling two Iranian diplomats after Tehran ordered out two of its embassy staff members in Iran. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the British House of Commons that Iran took the "unjustified step" over allegations that he called "absolutely without foundation," the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Iranian authorities have blamed the West for stirring up protests. In public statements and television broadcasts, they have particularly targeted Britain, which launched the popular BBC Persian-language news channel this year.

Following threats and the expulsion of the BBC Tehran bureau chief, the British Embassy ordered the families of its expatriate staff out of the country Monday.

"CNN and the BBC have set up a psychological war room," Hasan Qashqavi, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told reporters at a news conference broadcast on state television.

"As for BBC Persian and the VOA [Voice of America], their case is obvious," he said. "Their objectives are, A, to weaken national solidarity and, B, to threaten Iran's territorial integrity and divide Iran. This is the approved agenda that was promulgated to the VOA and BBC Persian, after their budgets were approved by the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress."

Authorities, meanwhile, stepped up their crackdown on protesters. Officials announced plans to set up a special court and warned that anyone who encouraged more demonstrations -- including Mousavi -- is subject to arrest.

In some of its sternest remarks yet, the Revolutionary Guard announced that anyone who continued to confront the security forces "will be considered a threat" to the system, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"The guardians of the Islamic Revolution and the courageous Basiji," a pro-government militia, "are determined to act strongly to return peace and tranquillity to society . . . and to clean the country of these plotters and hooligans," said the statement, according to the agency.

Despite the warnings, Mousavi called on his supporters Monday to gather their strength and continue peaceful protests, sharpening his conflict with the government.

"The protest against vote-rigging and untruth is your right," he said in a statement carried on a news website affiliated with his presidential campaign. "In your protest keep avoiding violence and be like kind, brokenhearted parents to poorly behaving children in the law enforcement forces."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the protesters to halt their marches and ridiculed the vote-fraud allegations as he stood strongly behind Ahmadinejad in his Friday prayer sermon.

But the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed directly or indirectly by Khamenei, had earlier indicated that the vote count was indeed problematic. An initial probe showed that the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of registered voters in 50 locales, a discrepancy affecting 3 million votes or more.

Chatham House, a British think tank, published a study over the weekend in which it found irregularities by comparing Iranian presidential voting in 2009 and 2005 against the 2006 census published by the official Statistical Center of Iran. The report finds that two conservative provinces reported turnouts of more than 100% and that in a third of all provinces, this year's official results would have meant Ahmadinejad won not only all the conservative voters from 2005, but also the centrist voters from then and all new voters -- as well as 44% of reformist voters.

Iran, under pressure from the West for its pursuit of advanced nuclear technology and support of Arab militant groups opposed to Israel, continues to reel from days of protests that culminated in chaotic fighting Saturday between security forces and demonstrators.

The fighting came after Khamenei ordered demonstrators off the streets in a prayer sermon interpreted as a call to semiofficial pro-government vigilantes to crack down on the rallies.

9 fatalities confirmed in D.C. Metro train crash

WASHINGTON -- Nine fatalities have been confirmed in the worst accident in the history of Washington's Metro subway system, authorities said Tuesday morning.

The updated casualty count came after rescue workers toiled through the night and into daylight this morning near the D.C.-Maryland line, where a Metro train rear-ended a stopped train during Monday evening's rush hour.
A spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which operates Metro, confirmed shortly after 10:30 a.m. that the death toll had reached nine. Among the dead was the operator of the train that crashed into the stopped train. Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., had been a Metro train operator since 2007. Identities of the remaining victims have not been released.


The victims included seven women and two men, according to Candace Smith, a Metro spokeswoman. Smith said aournd 11:15 a.m. that recovery operations have concluded; five bodies were recovered Monday and four more on Tuesday, she said.

Earlier, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said that two people remain in critical condition at local hospitals. A total of 76 people were treated at local hospitals. A third injured passenger has been upgraded from critical condition, the mayor said at a morning news conference not far from the crash site.

Although the D.C. Fire Department has worked throughout the night, the scene is still being processed as a rescue effort, Fenty said.

A heavy crane was brought in during the night to assist with the rescue operations. The first car of the train that rammed into the stopped train was as much as 75 percent compressed in the accident, according to D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin.

Debbie Hersman, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the crash-worthiness of subway train cars has been a concern of the NTSB for some time.

Hersman, recently nominated by President Barack Obama to head the board, said at the news conference that the federal government had made crash-worthiness recommendations to make sure that train operators and passengers are protected as much as possible.

Obama expected to tackle Iran, health care in news conference

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With his young administration suddenly facing a series of stiff head winds in foreign and domestic policy, President Obama will try to recapture political momentum Tuesday with a midday news conference tackling a range of contentious issues.
he president is expected to address questions being raised about his approach to the crackdown in Iran and North Korea's recent missile tests. Closer to home, he is likely to use the occasion to take on congressional critics of his health care plan as well as to discuss broader economic concerns.

Obama's news conference will air on CNN and CNN.com at 12:30 p.m. ET.

The No. 1 issue may be Obama's Iran policy, which has received intense scrutiny in recent days amid growing concerns over Tehran's violent crackdown on street protests.

The Iranian demonstrators believe the country's June 12 presidential election was a sham. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that Obama "continues to have concerns and questions ... about how that election was conducted."


Obama has called on Iran to stop violent and unjust steps that stifle free speech, but some Republicans have criticized him for not siding more strongly with the demonstrators.

Gibbs said Monday that Obama's statements have been intended to prevent Iranian leaders from claiming that the protests were a U.S.-backed attempt to bring down the regime.
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"This isn't about a foreign policy that makes us feel good," Gibbs said. "This isn't about a statement that makes us feel good or sound good on television."

On the domestic front, overhauling health care remains a top presidential priority, but the initial proposals to reach Congress last week received a rocky reception.

The Congressional Budget Office determined that either of two similar bills by Senate Democrats would cost more than $1 trillion, which was significantly higher than expected.

Republican opponents immediately slammed the measures, and the Senate Finance Committee delayed scheduled hearings on one of the bills. Hearings by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the other measure began amid intense partisan bickering, with hundreds of amendments proposed by Republican opponents.

At issue is how best to reduce the cost and increase the reach of the health care system, which officials say is draining personal, corporate and government budgets while leaving 46 million Americans without health insurance.

Obama has warned that a failure to act soon will bring far worse economic difficulties than the costs of plans under discussion. He has further raised the political stakes by saying he expects to sign a comprehensive reform bill this year.

The president tried to demonstrate new momentum for his approach Monday by showcasing a decision by the nation's pharmaceutical industry to agree to a deal cutting drug costs for elderly Americans.

Obama called the agreement an example of the kind of compromise required for successful national health care reform.

The deal "marks a major step forward, but it will only be meaningful if we complete the journey," Obama said.

"I have to repeat and revive an old saying we had from the campaign: Yes, we can. We are going to get this done."

Both parties in Congress agree on the need to slow the increase in health care costs while ensuring that all Americans can get health insurance, but they differ sharply on how to proceed.

The biggest sticking point so far: Democrats generally favor a government-funded "public option" to compete with private insurers. Republicans are adamant that such a step will lead to a government takeover of health care, which they oppose.

Republicans also accuse Obama and Democrats of trying to rush through what they say is flawed legislation in 2009 before the politics of midterm elections in 2010 and the 2012 presidential race.

Adding to the charged health care debate are indications of increased public anxiety over the growing federal deficit.

Obama, who signed a $787 billion stimulus bill this year, has said that short-term deficit spending is necessary to boost the sagging economy.

A June 12-15 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, however, showed that 58 percent of adult Americans believe the president and Congress should be more concerned with deficit reduction than economic growth.

Obama administration complains to WTO about China

China's being unfair to U.S. steel producers by restricting access to raw materials, the U.S. says. The complaint is the first to be filed after Obama promised aggressive action in his campaign.
Reporting from Washington -- The Obama administration today demonstrated its intent to be tougher on major global trading partners, filing a complaint against China for restricting access to raw materials important for U.S. producers of steel, aluminum and chemicals.



The request to the World Trade Organization to begin dispute resolution talks is the first trade complaint by the administration after President Obama promised more aggressive action on such issues during the campaign. It accuses China of placing unfair export restraints on nine materials that it is a major producer of, including coke, a key component to making steel.
The restrictions have driven up the prices of those materials for U.S. manufacturers while reducing the costs to Chinese companies, said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

"China's policies on these raw materials seem to be a giant thumb on the scale in favor of Chinese producers. It's our job to make sure we remove that thumb from that scale," Kirk said at a news conference. "Today's action is proof of our commitment to level the playing field in this area."

The European Union also filed a WTO complaint against China today on the same issue.

Kirk said the U.S. decided to act after talks with China during the past two years over the issue failed to lead to the removal of the export restrictions.

Those talks were largely conducted by the Bush administration, which had opted against filing a formal complaint with the WTO, which governs global trade among nation's who are members. Since China joined the WTO about 10 years ago, the United States has filed 7 cases against the country. China has filed four cases against the United States during that time.

Kirk said that ensuring countries do not impose unfair trade practices is crucial as the United States tries to emerge from the severe recession.

"Now more than ever trade is essential to keeping America's economy afloat," Kirk said.

As an example of the impact of China's trade practices on the materials, Kirk cited coke, which is a key component to producing steel. In 2008, China was the world's leading producer, with 336 million metric tons. But export duties the reached 40% limited annual exports to 12 million metric tons, he said. The restrictions meant that the world price for coke in August of 2008 was $740 per metric ton while in China it was only $472 per metric ton.

China has said WTO rules allow it to place the restrictions on the materials, which also include zinc, magnesium and yellow phosphorous, because they are exhaustible natural resources of the country.