Suicide blast in Peshawar kills police superintendent

—Reuters Photo
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 PESHAWAR: A suicide attack on Thursday killed a senior Pakistani police officer and wounded his bodyguard in the northwestern city of Peshawar, troubled by a new wave of violence, police said.


“Police Superintendent Kalam Khan died in the blast and his driver and a guard were injured,” police officer Tahir Ayub said.


 “The bomber came on foot and detonated explosives strapped to his body near Khan’s jeep,” bomb disposal squad chief Hukum Khan said.


 “We have found the bomber’s head,” he added.


 The incident took place on a road under construction in Peshawar’s Pishta Khara neighbourhood that meant Khan’s car had to drive slowly, police said.


 Khan had been on his way to work in the suburban town of Badaber, where a suicide attack killed 15 people at a funeral on Sunday.


 It lies close to Bara town, a stronghold of local warlord Mangal Bagh, who is linked to Islamist militants.


 Peshawar has a population of 2.5 million people and has long been on the frontline of violence blamed on an insurgency led by Taliban militants opposed to Islamabad’s alliance with the United States.


 Islamist militants have killed more than 4,900 people across Pakistan since government troops raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.

FACEBOOK TO CHARGE USERS!

BREAKING - Facebook has announced a host of new changes to its design and new plan – charging users! 

Mark Zuckerberg announced a host of new changes to Facebook. He did not, however, comment on the fact that he was closing Facebook down next year.

 WWN’s J.B. Smitts broke the story that Facebook was shutting down on March 15th, 2012. Maybe this helped Zuckerberg come up with his new plan?

 Pressure from angry users has been too much and Facebook is looking at an alternative, something that will persuade Mark Zuckerberg to keep the site alive: his social media platform is going to start charging users! 

According to sources outside the company, Facebook is planning a subscription-based service with monthly fees starting at $0.99 for a basic “friendship” which allows for the posting of text and just one profile picture. This fee will increase, depending on the number of friends you have, the messages posted and sent, and the pictures/videos/ games put on a user’s page. The monthly fee will be capped at $50.00 per month at the high-end.

 Bottom line: the more you will pay.

 Reports are that all existing content has been “grandfathered” and will not be disrupted – though Facebook has decided to share this data with government agencies, including the FBI , the CIA and Michael Moore. 

Goldman Sachs, which had been planning to raise $1.5 billion in financing before they learned that Mark Zuckerberg wanted to shutter the site, is thrilled at the prospect of Facebook converting to a pay service. 

“The addition of this substantial revenue windfall makes Facebook all that more attractive as an investment,” said Tom Wotozowski, Senior Vice President of Goldman Sachs. “This will make it the largest corporation on the planet, in the history of the planet.

” Industry watchers estimate that the new fee-based program will generate well in excess of $20 billion in new revenue for the company – based on the most conservative assumptions of usage and the proposed tiered fee structure.

 These estimates, of course, account for the fact that millions of users may quit Facebook in response to the imposition of fees. “I’m not going to pay for Facebook! It’s like paying for air. It’s not right,” said longtime Facebook junkie, Jessica Samsille. “Screw them, I’m going back to MySpace,” said Bo Chan.

 No matter. Facebook executives are excited at the prospect of charging users. “We’re going to make money hand over fist,” said Facebook CEO Cindy Shooman. “I think converting to a pay service is something that will make Mark want to keep the site going. And I’ll finally get to buy an island in the Mediterranean.”

 March 15th, 2012 is Facebook Day. The site will either shut down, or start charging users for its service.

Beware the ides of March…

 [Reporting by Floyd Collins on WWN's Financial News desk] use Facebook, the more you will pay.

Health Care Reform

After decades of failed attempts by a string of Democratic presidents and a year of bitter partisan combat, President Obama signed legislation on March 23, 2010 to overhaul the nation’s health care system and guarantee access to medical insurance for tens of millions of Americans.

 The health care law seeks to extend insurance to more than 30 million people, primarily by expanding Medicaid and providing federal subsidies to help lower- and middle-income Americans buy private coverage. It will create insurance exchanges for those buying individual policies and prohibit insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions. To reduce the soaring cost of Medicare, it creates a panel of experts to limit government reimbursement to only those treatments shown to be effective, and creates incentives for providers to “bundle’' services rather than charge by individual procedure

. The law will cost the government about $938 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which has also estimated that it will reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over a decade.

 It was the largest single legislative achievement of Mr. Obama’s first two years in office, and the most controversial. Not a single Republican voted for the final version, and Republicans across the country campaigned on a promise to repeal the bill. In January 2011, shortly after they took control of the House, Republicans voted 245 to 189 in favor of repeal, in what both sides agreed was largely a symbolic act, given Democratic control of the Senate and White House.

Prince Harry completes first major tour for queen

LONDON (AP) -- Say goodbye to the party prince; say hello to the queen's secret weapon.


That's how royal watchers have seen Prince Harry's first major diplomatic tour - a 10-day jaunt to the Caribbean and South America to represent his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II as part of celebrations marking her Diamond Jubilee.


The trip offered Harry, 27, a first step onto the international stage in a role that will become increasingly common as a younger generation of royals step to the fore.

The official part of the trip, which also included a business-boosting visit to Brazil, ended Sunday with a charity polo match after which Harry gave an exuberant thumbs up after he was kissed on the cheek by a brunette model. On Monday, he set out for Brazil's interior to study its ecosystems as part of a private project conducted by the charitable foundation he runs with his brother, Prince William.


Press reports emphasized that Harry had been a hit with locals and made good on his vow to make his grandmother proud.


Robert Lacey, author of several books about the queen, said Harry's successful trip reflects his new maturity.


"He's grown into this role in the last few years, in part because of his military career," Lacey said "There were concerns because of some mishaps over the years that Harry would be the troublesome one in the family, but he's really doing remarkably well."


As a younger man and teenager, Harry raised eyebrows with his fondness for partying and - most notoriously - when he wore Nazi gear to a costume party and was photographed wearing a swastika armband.


Lacey said Harry's British military training, and that of his elder brother, Prince William, has greatly impressed the public.


"People can see that Harry's not getting special treatment, that he has to pass helicopter exams and work really hard," said Lacey. "The same is true for William. It's extraordinarily important to how people see the young princes."


Throughout Harry's trip, the British press was filled with photos of him playing beach volleyball and rugby in Rio, sprinting with Olympics hero Usain Bolt in Jamaica and dancing in the streets with locals in Belize, even enjoying a shot of local rum at the festivities.


The tone of the coverage was swooning - set by a British TV reporter who said she couldn't believe that Harry was still single.


But it wasn't all sand and surf. Harry also met with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller - a sensitive visit given her vocal opposition to maintaining the queen's traditional role as Jamaica's head of state - and in the middle of his tour the prince had to deal publicly with the death of six fellow British servicemen in Afghanistan.


Harry defused potential tension with the prime minister with a warm hug, and canceled plans to abseil a building in Jamaica out of respect for the fallen soldiers.


Other senior royals, including William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, plan similar overseas trips to mark the queen's Jubilee.


The 85-year-old queen and her husband, Prince Philip, 90, will tour the United Kingdom for Jubilee festivities but do not plan to travel overseas.

Somali woman shines in military training program

IBANDA, Uganda (AP) -- A military instructor clad in fatigues and boots who barks out orders to men half her age has become the unlikely star of a European Union program to train thousands of Somali troops.


Nearly 98 percent of the trainees in the six-month class being held in a remote Ugandan village are men, but it is 40-year-old Fatuma Hassan Noor, who returned for advanced training, who often gets mentioned in discussions of what the program can be proud of after its mandate expires in December.


Western governments are injecting millions of dollars into a program that they hope will contribute to the stabilization of Somalia, and officials stationed here hope dedicated students like Noor, when they finally return home, can prove that the money was not wasted.


Col. Michael Beary, an Irish officer who is in charge of the training mission, said he is not sending soldiers back to Somalia to defeat the militant group al-Shabab. Beary said he is instead trying to create disciplined soldiers who will return home with "a different attitude."


The 608 Somali soldiers in the current class are being trained on good citizenship, women's rights and how to stop gender-based violence, as well as weapons training, first aid, mine detection and communication during battle.


The 60 trainers in the village of Ibanda come from 12 European countries. The program has already trained 1,800 Somalis since 2010. The trainers say the mission is a small but vital contribution toward the creation of a professional army.