Friday, November 30, 2007

Gmail Promised To Give More Space

My personal Gmail account was running out of space before I did a massive clean up couple weeks ago, by deleting all emails with large attachments.
Well, now I’m expecting such problem will not occur again after this official news from Gmail blog. At the moment, Gmail storage is ever increasing as part of their “Infinity+1” storage plan. Now Gmail is going to speed up the counter and giving out more free storage as time passes by. In other words, it simply means you’ll be rewarded with more and more storage space in every second, every minute and everyday!
Hopefully, your Gmail account will not run out of space unless your rate of using the email storage is faster than the rate of Gmail increase their storage space.

CAD / Drafting Technology

this video and find out how to get trained for a great job in CAD / Drafting Technology.
Launch Video
Is CAD/ Drafting Right For You?
In a sense, CAD operators help build the world. They help create things as small as action figures, and as large as hundred-story skyscrapers. CAD operators turn designs into reality. Without them, a great idea but nothing more than, well, a great idea. Rome wasn’t built in a day. But had CAD existed then, maybe it could have been.
What Kind of Work Do We Prepare You To Do?
Enroll in our CAD / Drafting Technology program, and you'll learn to use CAD software to make drawings based on sketches done by engineers, surveyors, architects or scientists.
CAD drawings can be used to build everything from toys, toasters and spacecraft, to houses, office buildings, and oil pipelines.
What Does Our CAD / Drafting Technology Program Offer You?
The skills to perform manual drafting
The opportunity to learn computer-aided (AutoCAD) drafting
The knowledge to create drawings in 2-D and 3-D
Training in residential drafting/detailing, roadway drafting, light commercial drafting, structural and commercial detailing, and structural steel drawing
What Career Choices are Available to Graduates?
Upon graduation, you will be qualified to work as a Detailer, a Drafter or a CAD Operator in fields like:
Electronics
Manufacturing
Architectural Design
Construction
Government
Transportation
Communications
Public Utilities
Want to learn more about this program?
Get more detailed information about this program, like at what locations it’s offered and which courses you’ll take.




X-ray Technician (Limited Scope)

this video and find out how to get trained for a great job in X-ray Technology.
Launch Video
X-ray Vision Isn’t Just for Superheroes
The Limited Scope X-ray Technician is interested in the human body, and how injuries can prohibit it to function well. Helping people diagnose those injuries is part of their satisfaction.
Because they must adhere to specific procedures, they follow instructions well. They are also comfortable being alone with people in a confined setting.
What Kind of Work Do We Prepare You To Do?
As a Limited Scope X-ray Technician, you’ll possess the training and skills to x-ray the chest, hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, knee, foot or ankle.
Plus, our education will qualify you to perform electrocardiograms, venipuncture, routine laboratory tests, injections, urinalysis, electrocardiography and x-ray film processing.
What Does Our X-ray Technician (Limited Scope) Program Offer You?
Theory and practical application of anatomy and physiology
The fundamentals radiographic physics
Introduction to diseases and trauma that body systems
CPR certification
X-ray lab training with regard to positioning the chest, hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, knee, foot and ankle
The skills to perform venipuncture, injections, urinalysis, electrocardiography and x-ray film processing
An externship in a medical facility
What Career Choices are Available to Graduates?
Upon graduation, you will be eligible to take your state’s licensing examination.After passing this evaluation, will be qualified to work as a Limited Scope X-ray Technician in places like:
Physicians' Offices
Diagnostic Imaging Centers
Clinics
Want to learn more about this program?
Get more detailed information about this program, like at what locations it’s offered and which courses you’ll take.



Health Care Programs

Medical workers are in strong demand – train to become one.

Health Services is one of the biggest industries. In fact, in 2002, it employed almost 13 million people.
And it’s an industry with lots of job prospects. Between 2002 and 2012, over 3.5 million new workers are projected to be needed.
What's better than all that growth? The fact that we offer training in several different health care fields:



Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Q&A: Amazon lawyer on feds' subpoena for 24,000 customer records

Amazon.com won an important legal fight to preserve its customers' privacy by persuading a court to reject requests for 24,000 customer records made by federal prosecutors in Madison, Wis.
Documents in that case, in which the FBI and IRS are accusing an independent Amazon seller of skirting tax laws, came to light in the last week. But it's not the first time that police on a fishing expedition have demanded customer records from the Web's largest bookstore.
Read on for our excerpts from our conversation on Wednesday with David Zapolsky, Amazon.com's vice president for litigation. He said a few years ago that Amazon gets subpoenas "roughly once a quarter," and we asked him for some more information about how the process works.
It's important to note that the First Amendment gives online and offline bookstores a greater legal ability to resist law enforcement demands than say, banks or credit card companies enjoy. And Amazon is following the tradition of other booksellers, which have a tradition of--individually and through the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression--opposing requests from overzealous prosecutors.
In an important 2002 case, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that police could not serve a search warrant on Denver's Tattered Cover Book Store. Two years earlier, a judge denied the Drug Enforcement Administration's attempts to get sales records from a Borders bookstore as part of a grand jury investigation. And perhaps the most famous case came when independent counsel Kenneth Starr tried unsuccessfully to obtain Monica Lewinsky's purchase records from Kramerbooks, a popular neighborhood bookstore in Washington, D.C.
Here's the conversation:
Q: How often does Amazon.com receive requests for customer records?
We do get them from time to time. They come in relatively randomly, and they come from various orders, federal or state. We typically approach each one on a case by case basis.
Nine times out of ten, if what's being asked for involves the compelled disclosure of customer expressive choices... we'll explain our concerns to the government and they'll understand it and they'll withdraw their request or they'll modify it in a way that doesn't cause disclosure of that (information).
Q: Is it more common to see law enforcement withdraw the request or modify it?
It's hard to characterize. It depends on how badly they need the information and what the investigation is about. If they're looking for credit card fraud, for instance, all they really may be interested in is transaction amounts, there's no information about buyers or customers or anything. So if it's a different type of investigation, they may decide its just not worth pursuing the subpoena at all.
Q: How does the volume of records in this request compare to past requests you've received?
It's hard to generalize because each one of these things is a little bit different. This (the Madison, Wis. case) was unusual in that the sheer number of transactions was unusually large: 24,000 sales of individual books, music and a few videos, and that's a lot of sales. When they came back and asked us for all of the customer information associated with those sales, I was surprised.
Q: Can you share any details on past requests?
I never really talk about details of ones we're able to resolve informally. It doesn't make sense, and a lot of them are ongoing investigations.
This only became public after the investigation was concluded, it all played out last summer, only unsealed within last couple of days. (Editor's note: The indictment of former city official Robert D'Angelo on tax evasion, wire fraud, and money laundering charges became public last month. Prosecutors sent a grand jury subpoena to Amazon over the summer during the investigation that let to the subsequent indictment.)
There's only been a few times when we had to go to a court to make this point. (There was) one instance in South Carolina a few years ago that never resulted in any public filings because ultimately the prosecutor's case fell apart before we got to a decision on whether or not they could enforce the subpoena.
There was a case four to five years ago where some Cleveland prosecutors asked for some similar information. They were trying to get the Washington prosecutor to enforce a local subpoena and the local prosecutor ultimately agreed with us that that it didn't make sense.
This was certainly the first public decision that resulted from a challenge such as the one we made.
Q: What do you look at when these requests come in from law enforcement?
When the request for information could violate customer privacy or First Amendment rights, we scrutinize it closely. We talk with the government about it, and if we still can't feel comfortable...we'll just ask a court to make that decision.
What this court held and what we believe the law is, is a court needs to apply a higher standard before allowing the government to get...access to that information. We don't want to be the ones making that determination if there's any doubt at all.
We think this is a significant decision because it recognizes and adopts in the federal grand jury context a doctrine that has kind of been development over the past 10 years in the prior cases...The Kramerbooks case, which grew out of the special prosecutor's investigation of President Clinton and then the Tattered Cover bookstore case in Denver, Colorado, which resulted in a very fine Colorado Supreme Court opinion which goes through the history of this legal doctrine.
This is just an extension of a doctrine that has been kind of percolating for a while, and it's significant because it's a federal district court and it's a federal grand jury investigation...(It) continues the development of important protection for customers and for readers of books.
News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report.


Cable escapes stricter FCC rules, for now

November 28, 2007 5:45 AM PST
Cable escapes stricter FCC rules, for now
Posted by Anne Broache
Cable's fierce lobbying over the threat of expanded government control paid off late Tuesday night, as federal regulators approved a watered-down proposal that does not immediately open up the possibility of new regulations.
Kevin Martin,FCC chairman
After a rocky day of closed-door negotiations, which delayed the scheduled 9:30 a.m. EST start time of the Federal Communications Commission's meeting by nearly 12 hours, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin caved to pressure from fellow commissioners over how to handle a contentious cable competition report.
That outcome could derail any future efforts by Martin to push through controversial new rules for cable operators--most notably, his longtime goal of requiring them to sell consumers packages of channels on an "a la carte" basis. (Consumer groups adore the idea, but the cable industry contends it'll only raise prices and reduce subscribers' choices.)
At issue at Tuesday's meeting was this year's iteration of an annual report to Congress in which the FCC attempts to quantify competition in the cable industry. An original version of this year's report found, based on a single data source, that the share of Americans who subscribe to cable has climbed to 71.4 percent. (The text of the final, approved report wasn't immediately released by the FCC.)
That's significant because, if that finding was adopted, it would have activated a section of federal law known as the 70/70 rule. That rule dictates that FCC can impose "any additional rules necessary to promote diversity of information sources" if it finds that cable systems that offer access to 36 or more channels are available to 70 percent of American households, and that 70 percent of those households actually subscribe to cable. That first prong has long been satisfied, but a firestorm of debate has surrounded whether the subscriber threshold has also been crossed.
The cable industry promptly attacked the 71.4 percent figure, which came from a study by trade publisher Warren Communication News, and continues to say it has numbers that show otherwise. Both Democratic and Republican members of Congress also cautioned against additional regulations in recent days, with some arguing that competition in the video market is robust, thanks in part to the growth of Internet-based content.
Martin continued to defend the data on Tuesday night, arguing the commission has used it for three previous reports because it's the only source that keeps tabs on subscribership to cable systems with 36 or more channels, as the law requires.
But, in an apparent concession to the cable industry, he agreed after much haggling in recent days to compromise and take a look at other data sources as well.
Cable operators--including telephone companies that offer video services--will be required to provide ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code data on the total number of homes and subscribers they have within 60 days, according to an FCC press release sent early Wednesday morning.
The cable industry was quick to applaud Martin's change of heart and the commissioners who balked at the original report. In a statement, National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow said he welcomed the opportunity to provide additional data, which he said "will confirm that the commission was correct in rejecting the 70/70 finding today."
To regulate or not to regulate?Cable's reprieve from regulations, however, may be only temporary. Both Martin and Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said they believe the new data will bolster the finding that the number of subscribers has surpassed the 70 percent threshold, therefore opening up the need for increased government intervention.
Additional numbers submitted to the FCC by public-interest groups and "at least one industry source" (which appears to be AT&T) back up those subscriber numbers, Copps said. "In light of these facts, I think that the most responsible course of action at this point is for the commission to act swiftly to compel the industry to open up its books to put this question to rest once and for all," he said Tuesday night, according to a written statement provided by the FCC.
Still, two other commissioners who fought Martin on the report, Democrat Jonathan Adelstein and Republican Robert McDowell, offered a blistering critique of the process. They suggested the chairman had attempted to rig the report's findings and to ignore valid data sources in order to support his own policy goals. In their written remarks, they also said they were also disturbed that, just two hours before the late-night meeting began, FCC staff shared the results of a 2006 FCC survey indicating that cable subscription rates had only reached 54 percent.
"We cannot cook the books to pursue a political agenda without dismantling our very institution," Adelstein said in prepared remarks Tuesday night. "We simply must act like the expert agency Congress intended, and not squander our precious legacy."
The fifth commissioner, Republican Deborah Taylor Tate, said she also believes a "broader universe of information sources" must be considered.


http://www.news.com

Google: Jolly green giant?

By CNET News.com Staff -->
Last modified:November 28, 2007, 11:26 AM PSTThe search and advertising company is a force to be reckoned with across the Web. Now it's looking to do the same in alternative energy (along with many others, large and small).
Google's energy push: Distraction, PR, or good business?People are wondering why Google's getting into renewable energy. The answer is simple: it believes in innovation. November 28, 2007
Google in energy: Imitator or innovator?In Google's renewable-energy initiative, there are new ideas, and some reruns. Is the eSolar investment more of a VC deal than a way to push the frontiers of science?November 28, 2007
MIT launches contest to fire up energy entrepreneursNeed $200,000 or so to launch your clean-energy business? MIT, the Department of Energy, and a utility company are waiting to hear from you. November 28, 2007
New method for making diesel fuel uses vegetable oilsA Portuguese oil company plans to announce it is building a 6,500-barrel-a-day plant to make diesel fuel from vegetable oils using a method akin to refining oil.The New York TimesNovember 28, 2007
Google to enter clean-energy businessSearch giant earmarks hundreds of millions of dollars with the goal of generating a gigawatt of clean energy that's cheaper than coal.November 27, 2007
HP invests big in solar and windHewlett-Packard buys into solar power in San Diego, but Google still retains bragging rights for largest corporate solar installation. November 27, 2007
Can baking soda curb global warming?A start-up in Texas says it can turn the carbon dioxide emitted by power plants into baking soda.Photos: Fumes turned baking sodaNovember 27, 2007
Venture to make algae fuel from coal plant emissionsCan carbon dioxide be used to make a fuel? Australian companies Linc Energy and Bio Clean Coal to grow algae for biomass or biodiesel.November 26, 2007



Saturday, November 24, 2007

Video: Getting in line for good deals

Shoppers around the nation set their alarms extra early to welcome Black Friday, the traditional start to the holiday shopping season. At electronic superstores like Circuit City, $299 laptops were among the first big items to sell out. As CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi found out, people didn't seem to mind waiting in hour-long lines to buy fancy TVs if it meant cashing in on super savings.
2 minutes 47 seconds
Nov 23, 2007 6:03:00 AM



Q&A: Microsoft aids upper-crust camera company

Posted by Stephen Shankland
PhaseOne Chief Executive Henrik Hakonsson is bridging a vast digital photography divide.

A medium-format camera with a Phase One digital back.
His company makes top-end image sensor housings called digital backs, each costing tens of thousands of dollars and attaching to high-end medium-format cameras with similarly high price tags. But he just signed a partnership with Microsoft, which gears its products for the broadest possible audience.
The Phase One product that brings these two worlds together is Capture One, software that helped pioneer the area of processing "raw" images taken directly from image sensors without any in-camera processing. The software exists chiefly for Phase One's high-end customers, but it also supports many mainstream cameras.
Through the partnership, terms of which were not disclosed, Microsoft will help Phase One tackle technical challenges of improving that software, Hakonsson said. And according to Josh Weisberg, Microsoft's director of digital imaging evangelism, Capture One will be able to handle files encoded with Microsoft's HD Photo format, which the company is advocating as a higher-quality replacement for the ubiquitous JPEG and is standardizing as JPEG XR.
Phase One, based in Copenhagen, was founded in 1993 and is owned by its 130 employees. On the hardware side, its top-end P45+ back uses a 39-megapixel sensor from Kodak. It sells two versions of Capture One, the $499 Pro and the $99 LE, but with the upcoming version 4, the LE version will simply be named Capture One 4.
I chatted with Hakonsson about his company's software, hardware, and Microsoft alliance earlier this month. Here's an edited transcript.

Phase One CEO Henrik Hakonsson(Credit: Phase One)
Q: Most people haven't heard of Phase One. Can you give us a thumbnail sketch? Hakonsson: Phase One is the world's leading digital camera back manufacturer. If you take a copy of Vogue magazine and look at the first 50 pages, approximately 80 percent of the images are shot with Phase One digital back and Capture One software. Our position in the market is the very top maybe 1 percent of the photo segment--shooters who work with the biggest clients and the most demanding photographic applications.
What's your sales volume for digital backs? The global market will exceed 10,000. Phase 1 has more than 50 percent of the market. Some of our digital back competitors are working to make less costly solutions. We try to target the most demanding photographers.


Sinking liner evacuated off Antarctica

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.




Monday, November 19, 2007

Steel prices boost ArcelorMittal

The world's largest steel firm, ArcelorMittal, has seen quarterly profits jump thanks to high steel prices and demand from new markets.
Net income hit $3bn (£1.44bn) for the three months to 30 September - a 36% rise on the same period a year earlier.
Despite the strong figure, the firm warned of lower sales in the fourth quarter in Europe and North America.
Mittal acquired Arcelor for 30bn euros in 2006, creating a firm with a 10% share of the world steel market.
Cost savings achieved since the merger reached $1.3bn in the third quarter and are expected to hit $1.4bn by the end of the year, the firm said.
Since the merger, ArcelorMittal has been expanding its reach through further acquisitions, most recently by announcing its purchase of Estonian steel firm Galvex.
Last week, mining giant BHP Billiton approached rival Rio Tinto with a takeover proposal that would create a company that controlled about 27% of the world market for iron ore.
Such a move is expected to lead to competition concerns from the steel industry. However, ArcelorMittal said its own investments in iron ore would help its position.
"We have effectively a better position than many other steel companies," an ArcelorMittal spokesman said.



Dubai eyes US investment bargains

An investment agency owned by the Dubai government says the US mortgage crisis has created a wealth of cheap American investment opportunities.
Omar bin Sulaiman, governor of DIFC Investments, told the Reuters news agency that the crisis had driven down the share prices of US firms.
He said that, as a result, DIFC was looking to invest in US oil and gas, telecom and real estate companies.
The comments could be controversial in some parts of Washington.
Last year fellow government-owned Dubai company, Dubai Ports World (DPW), was forced to sell off its newly-acquired US ports operations following strong opposition from US politicians.
DPW, which gained operations at six major US ports following its takeover of UK firm P&O, sold them to US insurance giant AIG after US politicians objected on security grounds.
"The challenge is how low do we look," said Mr bin Sulaiman.
"There are good assets in the US, good opportunities for acquisitions to be identified."
DIFC Investments bought a 2.2% stake in Deutsche Bank earlier this year for about 1.35bn euros ($2bn; £964m).



US defends its cotton subsidies

The US will reduce subsidies on its giant cotton industry, the deputy secretary of state has said - but only as long as the European Union does.
John Negroponte was defending ongonig subsidies on US cotton growers during a visit to Burkina Faso, in west Africa.
The country is Africa's leading cotton grower, although it produces just 6% of the amount of cotton the US does.
The region's small farmers complain that they must compete against highly mechanised, well-subsidised US rivals.
They say American subsidies also serve to depress prices on world markets.
Mr Negroponte met Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore after arriving from the Ivory Coast.
He defended his government's refusal to withdraw subsidies.
"We have clearly indicated that we are ready to reduce our farms subsidies on the condition that our European Union partners can equally make the same gesture so we can work together in this direction," he said, according to Reuters news agency.
He said the US had worked to promote cotton farming in Burkina Faso by providing aid funds to finance increased production and marketing.
"We have worked with certain parties, notably the farmers, to see how to arrange contacts with American operators to place Burkinabe cotton on the American market - particularly the very high quality cotton that you produce here," he added.
'Disappointed'
But critics accuse Washington of hypocrisy - of frequently demanding that other nations scrap protections for domestic industries under the banner of free trade, while only doing so on a selective basis itself.
The World Trade Organisation criticised Washington earlier this year, as it upheld a 2004 ruling in favour of Brazil, which had argued that US cotton subsidies were unfair.
The US said it had scrapped a number of payments and credits to farmers, but the WTO said they were insufficient to meet trade rules and it was "very disappointed".
During the tortuous six years of the Doha Round of trade talks, which now seem to be in deadlock, domestic opposition in the US to cuts in subsidies for cotton farmers has grown.
Lawmakers from the country's southern states have threatened to block any world trade deal that proposes major cuts to subsidies.
The US is the world's second producer of cotton after China, producing some 40% of cotton on world markets.



Sorting out the sub-prime problem

On 31 August, President George W Bush appeared in the White House Rose Garden to urge action to deal with a serious crisis in the US economy.
He was flanked by two of the most powerful players in the global economy: US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The sub-prime crisis - which is threatening millions of families in the US with eviction, has created turmoil in the financial markets, and lead to serious disruption to the US economy and housing market - had moved to the top of the political agenda.
Action was required, so the Fed intervened by providing massive short-term liquidity to preserve the banking system and cut interest rates twice, the first time by half a percentage point.
This was followed, perhaps belatedly, by new and tougher regulation of the mortgage industry, with new limits on sub-prime "balloon" mortgages, whose payments are fixed for 2 years and then rise sharply to a much higher variable rate.

Recent disturbances in the sub-prime mortgage industry are modest in relation to the size of our economy
President George W Bush
Bush moves to ease lending crisis
Both the Bush administration and the Democrats, which control both Houses of Congress, have been searching for bipartisan solutions that will solve the crisis and provide help to the millions of people - including many victims of predatory lending - now facing eviction.
But deep ideological divisions between the two sides - with the Democrats favouring much tighter regulation of the industry, and the Bush administration looking to private sector solutions - is hampering attempts to reach an early resolution of the problem.
And the two sides also disagree on how severe an impact the crisis will have on the US economy.
Stopping foreclosures
The most urgent problem is to help the millions of homeowners who were sold "balloon" sub-prime mortgages in the past two years, whose interest rates are now set to double, leading to evictions and repossessions - known as foreclosures in the US.
The Bush administration's point man on this issue, Treasury Under Secretary Robert Steel, says he focuses on this issue every day.
"Our role is to ensure that lenders and servicers are being flexible with regard to working with the borrowers," he says in an interview with BBC News.

Our role is to ensure that lenders and servicers are being flexible with regard to working with the borrowers
Robert Steel, US Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance
See the full interview with Robert Steel
The Treasury plan is to bring together lenders and borrowers to work out individual voluntary agreements to avoid foreclosure.
It has created a joint private-public task force, Operation Hope (Home owner protection effort), to encourage lenders to take a softer line, whilst also urging borrowers to tell lenders earlier when they run into financial difficulties.
Yet less than 1% of sub-prime mortgages are successfully renegotiated. Many housing aid agencies say it is impossible for lenders to individually renegotiate the "tidal wave" of troubled mortgages in time to stop foreclosures.

The Fed estimates that every three months, 450,000 families will face sharply higher mortgage rates over the next two years.
They have urged mortgage pools and mortgage servicers to "pursue loss mitigation strategies that preserve home ownership" and to contact borrowers before mortgages go up.
And they are urging a more uniform approach among the lenders on which borrowers will qualify for relief from foreclosure.
The most radical proposal has come from an unlikely source.
Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates bank deposits, has suggested a complete freeze on any interest rate increase on these "ballon" mortgages, as long as the mortgage-holder is not already in arrears on his payments.
But she has faced fierce criticism from the mortgage industry, which believes that this would create what economists describe as "moral hazard" - with people who bought more insecure mortgages getting better protection from eviction than people with ordinary mortgages - and thus encouraging people to get more risky mortgages in the future.
Reviving the mortgage markets
The sub-prime crisis has paralysed the mortgage-lending industry, as bondholders are loath to buy mortgage-backed securities unless they are guaranteed by the government.

US property crash hits economy
This has made much more difficult for individuals to get mortgages if they do not qualify for "prime" mortgages funded by the government-sponsored Freddie Mac and other mortgage agencies.
This includes well-off borrowers who want "jumbo mortgages" over $417,000 (£204,000), as well as borrowers with weak credit histories. In all, this includes about a third of all borrowers.
The Democrats, and Freddie Mac itself, say that a quick way to help ease the situation would be to temporarily expand the role of these agencies.
TYPES OF US MORTGAGES
Sub-prime: at a higher rate of interest for people with poor credit history and low income
Alt-A: at a higher rate of interest for people with poor credit history but better jobs
Jumbo: mortgages over $417,000 and not backed by government guarantee
Prime: mortgages under $417,000 backed by government guarantee with stricter loan conditions (also called 'conforming')
They want the government to raise the limit on the maximum size of the mortgages they can insure to $1m, and they want a big increase in the cap that limits the total amount they can provide to the mortgage-backed securities market.
But these agencies have had a troubled recent history, and have been recently put under tighter regulation to correct abuses.
The Bush administration is reluctant, therefore, to give them a bigger role in the mortgage market.
The commercial banks are also against any expansion of the their role, which they say would make the private label mortgage-backed securities market less attractive.
Regulating mortgage brokers
The debate over what long-term changes should be made in the mortgage regulatory system to eliminate the lending abuses of the past decade has proven quite difficult to resolve.

Real estate agents like Suzie Savino are regulated by state laws
The problem is a fight between state and Federal regulators over who should have the main responsibility.
States that have now recognised the problem, for instance Ohio, are worried that the Federal government will opt for the lowest common denominator, and thus introduce standards that are lower than those they have now introduced.
The mortgage industry, on the other hand, would like a uniform national standard, so that it does not have to deal with a multitude of conflicting state regulations.
One compromise - crafted by Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee - would set a minimum Federal standard of good practice, but allow states to go further if they want.
And the House of Representatives has moved swiftly to pass Mr Frank's bill, which was only introduced in October.
It was approved on 15 November by a lopsided vote of 291 - 127, with many Republicans from Northern states hit by the sub-prime crisis breaking ranks to support the measure.
However, Republicans in both the Senate and the White House are warning that the bill goes too far in interfering with mortgage markets, and may make it harder for poor people to get loans in the future.
Restructuring the credit markets
One of the provisions of the bill that has been most strongly opposed by the mortgage industry gives home owners the right to sue the banks who securitised their loans if they did not carry out due diligence in checking that the loans were sold honestly.

Supporters say this is the only way to force the banks that no longer own the mortgages to check them properly, and point out that it limits the damages to the amount of the loan itself, and prevents lawsuits reaching the bondholders who own the mortgages.
Democrats like Maxine Waters, who represents South-Central Los Angeles, have warned the industry to expect even tougher regulation if they do not take more action to stop foreclosures.
But critics of regulation, such as the American Enterprise Institute, argue that any attempt to regulate the $6 trillion mortgage bond market will only have a chilling effect, limiting the availability of mortgages for ordinary people.
But even some conservatives say that the industry as currently structured creates too big a gap between the ultimate owners of mortgages - bondholders around the world - and the mortgage banks who originated the loans.

One proposal, from the former deputy chairman of the Fed, Roger Ferguson, and some European regulators, is to require banks who securitize mortgages to retain a partial equity stake in the loan, to encourage them to scrutinise more carefully whether the mortgages are sound.
There is also strong pressure to regulate the rating agencies, which gave these investments their seal of approval - and perhaps change the current system in which they are paid by the banks issuing the mortgage bonds, not the investors.
Bailing out investors
In the last big banking crisis in the US, when thousands of savings and loan banks went bankrupt after deregulation, the cost to the taxpayer was $150bn - $200bn.

With the Federal budget in deficit, no one at the moment wants to bail out either the banks or the investors who bought these complex and now largely worthless securities, or the borrowers who took out the loans.
Democrats argue that Wall Street should take some of the blame, and therefore financial pain, for the debacle.
Republicans argue that everyone must bear individual responsibility for their bad decisions, and any bail-out would merely encourage banks and individuals to do the same thing again.
However, as the crisis intensifies, and a wave of evictions sweeps America, it may be that tougher laws - and perhaps a compulsory freeze on "balloon" mortgage resets - emerge during the 2008 presidential election year.


On 31 August, President George W Bush appeared in the White House Rose Garden to urge action to deal with a serious crisis in the US economy.
He was flanked by two of the most powerful players in the global economy: US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The sub-prime crisis - which is threatening millions of families in the US with eviction, has created turmoil in the financial markets, and lead to serious disruption to the US economy and housing market - had moved to the top of the political agenda.
Action was required, so the Fed intervened by providing massive short-term liquidity to preserve the banking system and cut interest rates twice, the first time by half a percentage point.
This was followed, perhaps belatedly, by new and tougher regulation of the mortgage industry, with new limits on sub-prime "balloon" mortgages, whose payments are fixed for 2 years and then rise sharply to a much higher variable rate.

Recent disturbances in the sub-prime mortgage industry are modest in relation to the size of our economy
President George W Bush
Bush moves to ease lending crisis
Both the Bush administration and the Democrats, which control both Houses of Congress, have been searching for bipartisan solutions that will solve the crisis and provide help to the millions of people - including many victims of predatory lending - now facing eviction.
But deep ideological divisions between the two sides - with the Democrats favouring much tighter regulation of the industry, and the Bush administration looking to private sector solutions - is hampering attempts to reach an early resolution of the problem.
And the two sides also disagree on how severe an impact the crisis will have on the US economy.
Stopping foreclosures
The most urgent problem is to help the millions of homeowners who were sold "balloon" sub-prime mortgages in the past two years, whose interest rates are now set to double, leading to evictions and repossessions - known as foreclosures in the US.
The Bush administration's point man on this issue, Treasury Under Secretary Robert Steel, says he focuses on this issue every day.
"Our role is to ensure that lenders and servicers are being flexible with regard to working with the borrowers," he says in an interview with BBC News.

Our role is to ensure that lenders and servicers are being flexible with regard to working with the borrowers
Robert Steel, US Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance
See the full interview with Robert Steel
The Treasury plan is to bring together lenders and borrowers to work out individual voluntary agreements to avoid foreclosure.
It has created a joint private-public task force, Operation Hope (Home owner protection effort), to encourage lenders to take a softer line, whilst also urging borrowers to tell lenders earlier when they run into financial difficulties.
Yet less than 1% of sub-prime mortgages are successfully renegotiated. Many housing aid agencies say it is impossible for lenders to individually renegotiate the "tidal wave" of troubled mortgages in time to stop foreclosures.

The Fed estimates that every three months, 450,000 families will face sharply higher mortgage rates over the next two years.
They have urged mortgage pools and mortgage servicers to "pursue loss mitigation strategies that preserve home ownership" and to contact borrowers before mortgages go up.
And they are urging a more uniform approach among the lenders on which borrowers will qualify for relief from foreclosure.
The most radical proposal has come from an unlikely source.
Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates bank deposits, has suggested a complete freeze on any interest rate increase on these "ballon" mortgages, as long as the mortgage-holder is not already in arrears on his payments.
But she has faced fierce criticism from the mortgage industry, which believes that this would create what economists describe as "moral hazard" - with people who bought more insecure mortgages getting better protection from eviction than people with ordinary mortgages - and thus encouraging people to get more risky mortgages in the future.
Reviving the mortgage markets
The sub-prime crisis has paralysed the mortgage-lending industry, as bondholders are loath to buy mortgage-backed securities unless they are guaranteed by the government.

US property crash hits economy
This has made much more difficult for individuals to get mortgages if they do not qualify for "prime" mortgages funded by the government-sponsored Freddie Mac and other mortgage agencies.
This includes well-off borrowers who want "jumbo mortgages" over $417,000 (£204,000), as well as borrowers with weak credit histories. In all, this includes about a third of all borrowers.
The Democrats, and Freddie Mac itself, say that a quick way to help ease the situation would be to temporarily expand the role of these agencies.
TYPES OF US MORTGAGES
Sub-prime: at a higher rate of interest for people with poor credit history and low income
Alt-A: at a higher rate of interest for people with poor credit history but better jobs
Jumbo: mortgages over $417,000 and not backed by government guarantee
Prime: mortgages under $417,000 backed by government guarantee with stricter loan conditions (also called 'conforming')
They want the government to raise the limit on the maximum size of the mortgages they can insure to $1m, and they want a big increase in the cap that limits the total amount they can provide to the mortgage-backed securities market.
But these agencies have had a troubled recent history, and have been recently put under tighter regulation to correct abuses.
The Bush administration is reluctant, therefore, to give them a bigger role in the mortgage market.
The commercial banks are also against any expansion of the their role, which they say would make the private label mortgage-backed securities market less attractive.
Regulating mortgage brokers
The debate over what long-term changes should be made in the mortgage regulatory system to eliminate the lending abuses of the past decade has proven quite difficult to resolve.

Real estate agents like Suzie Savino are regulated by state laws
The problem is a fight between state and Federal regulators over who should have the main responsibility.
States that have now recognised the problem, for instance Ohio, are worried that the Federal government will opt for the lowest common denominator, and thus introduce standards that are lower than those they have now introduced.
The mortgage industry, on the other hand, would like a uniform national standard, so that it does not have to deal with a multitude of conflicting state regulations.
One compromise - crafted by Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee - would set a minimum Federal standard of good practice, but allow states to go further if they want.
And the House of Representatives has moved swiftly to pass Mr Frank's bill, which was only introduced in October.
It was approved on 15 November by a lopsided vote of 291 - 127, with many Republicans from Northern states hit by the sub-prime crisis breaking ranks to support the measure.
However, Republicans in both the Senate and the White House are warning that the bill goes too far in interfering with mortgage markets, and may make it harder for poor people to get loans in the future.
Restructuring the credit markets
One of the provisions of the bill that has been most strongly opposed by the mortgage industry gives home owners the right to sue the banks who securitised their loans if they did not carry out due diligence in checking that the loans were sold honestly.

Supporters say this is the only way to force the banks that no longer own the mortgages to check them properly, and point out that it limits the damages to the amount of the loan itself, and prevents lawsuits reaching the bondholders who own the mortgages.
Democrats like Maxine Waters, who represents South-Central Los Angeles, have warned the industry to expect even tougher regulation if they do not take more action to stop foreclosures.
But critics of regulation, such as the American Enterprise Institute, argue that any attempt to regulate the $6 trillion mortgage bond market will only have a chilling effect, limiting the availability of mortgages for ordinary people.
But even some conservatives say that the industry as currently structured creates too big a gap between the ultimate owners of mortgages - bondholders around the world - and the mortgage banks who originated the loans.

One proposal, from the former deputy chairman of the Fed, Roger Ferguson, and some European regulators, is to require banks who securitize mortgages to retain a partial equity stake in the loan, to encourage them to scrutinise more carefully whether the mortgages are sound.
There is also strong pressure to regulate the rating agencies, which gave these investments their seal of approval - and perhaps change the current system in which they are paid by the banks issuing the mortgage bonds, not the investors.
Bailing out investors
In the last big banking crisis in the US, when thousands of savings and loan banks went bankrupt after deregulation, the cost to the taxpayer was $150bn - $200bn.

With the Federal budget in deficit, no one at the moment wants to bail out either the banks or the investors who bought these complex and now largely worthless securities, or the borrowers who took out the loans.
Democrats argue that Wall Street should take some of the blame, and therefore financial pain, for the debacle.
Republicans argue that everyone must bear individual responsibility for their bad decisions, and any bail-out would merely encourage banks and individuals to do the same thing again.
However, as the crisis intensifies, and a wave of evictions sweeps America, it may be that tougher laws - and perhaps a compulsory freeze on "balloon" mortgage resets - emerge during the 2008 presidential election year.

The hands behind bread and pastries

How does it feel to be working while most people are sleeping? In the fourth of a series following those who drive Britain's 24-hour society through the small hours, we visit a bakery.
"I'm immune to the smell," declares Robert Ziola as we arrive at the industrial unit in Greenford in West London. It's hard to believe, as an overpowering aroma fills the evening air.

Rising early to make a crust
In pictures
But for Robert and his business partner Piotr Tomicki, it is the aroma that has accompanied their working lives for more than a decade.
The smell of fresh bread wafting out is deeply tantalising. But it does not evoke your typical British bloomer. Instead it has a distinct malt edge.
Instead it is rye bread - the signature product of Robert and Piotr's Village Bakery, which specialises in goods from their native Poland.
It's Friday night and the weekend is about to begin, but for the night team work has just started.
Production line
Six bakers in white outfits busy away in a room next to the main corridor.
It is here that dough is mixed, shaped, baked and transformed into hot loaves that will end up in shops all over the country.
Marcin Saldos and Rafal Sgraja, both in their mid-20s, deftly lift a tray of freshly rolled dough into the oven's top shelf. Heat blasts out of the oven, forcing Marcin to wince. He adjusts his cap and wipes his brow.
Behind them, Piotr Drobnik concentrates hard as he pours flour into a new dough mixture. A trace of flour misses his dark moustache, but settles on his chin.
And Adam Chatys, feeds dough into a machine like a helter-skelter which turns it into dollops.
The workers are focused and exchange few words, except to answer Robert in Polish, when he pops his head round the doorway.

Marin Pawlick mixes the ingredients to make the dough
"It is non-stop," says Robert proudly, wheeling a stack of shelves along the corridor, laden with rye and poppy seed bread that has just been sliced.
All the workers have to do night work and rotate between three eight-hour shifts.
Marins Pawlick, who came the UK with his family two years ago from Katowitz, looks baffled when asked whether working at night is hard.
Production is non-stop
Robert Ziola, founder, Village Bakery
"In Poland it was harder, the shifts were 12 hours and always at night," he says in Polish.
Despite the higher cost of living, the £6 hourly wage gives him a better life than he could get at home.
All the while chart music streams out of a small radio perched on a high shelf in a language none of them speaks - English.
Community
As the corridor fills up with bread , the scale of the output becomes apparent. It is called the Village Bakery, but there is nothing small about this business. Robert recalls the first day of production, on April 22 2004.
"On day one we made 70 loaves. Today we make 10,000, maybe 12,000 every day," he says, beckoning to show me the first oven he and Piotr shipped over for the task.
"It is East German and uses gas. Everyone wanted electricity so it was very cheap. It was perfect for us."
The investment has paid off - gas prices have since risen sharply. "And look," he says, opening one shelf. "Each level has a separate temperature."

Coming to the UK is an adventure
Adam Chatys, new recruit at the Village Bakery
In the past year the firm had added supermarket chain Morrisons to its clients, though it is represents a fraction of business - about 5%. The vast majority of customers remain specialty delis and shops.
The firm recently opened a new bakery in Manchester. "It is very modern," says Robert, beaming.
Prospects
Adam Chatys, who says he is 25 - but could easily pass for 18 - only started weeks before. He seems utterly unfazed about moving to a new country where he can't speak the language.
"It is an adventure" he says several times, while the dough tumbles out in round dollops, ready for baking.
And he seems equally unperturbed about the change to a big city from a small village in Poland. This is partly explained when he describes Greenford: "It is very Polish," he says.
From his village alone are two other employees at the Village Bakery.
For pastry chef Jan Kazmierczak, coming to the UK has been more than an adventure - it has been a life-line.
"I had my own bakery in Poland, but it went bankrupt," he says. "Getting work when you're over 40 is hard".
Natural
Seeing the bustling Village Bakery on a Friday night is proof of the strong demand from Poles for their own products. The rye flour - the most important ingredient - is imported from Poland.

English bread, especially in supermarkets, has many many preservatives
Robert Ziola, founder, Village Bakery
When asked the difference between Polish and British bread Robert looks up to find the right words, gesturing with his hands as if he is squeezing a fresh loaf.
"In England, he is soft," he says. "And he stays soft, for maybe a week. In Poland our bread, after one day he is hard."
But longer-lasting bread has its downside. English bread, especially in supermarkets, has "many, many preservatives," he adds.
"We use no preservatives. It is all 100% natural. Nothing except flour yeast, water and salt are used."
Along the corridor, two women sit in a narrow room side by side, sitting behind slicing machines as if they were typewriters. They feed loaf after loaf into the slicer, before packaging them.
A large stack of rich-looking "Napoleon cakes" - filled with strawberries and "totally natural" cream - is wheeled out. A van is being filled with supplies for distribution.
We leave while another batch of dough is beginning to rise. By morning hundreds of loaves will be cooked and packaged for breakfast tables across the UK.

Oil prices rise after Opec summit

Oil prices rose in Monday trading after leaders of producers' cartel Opec decided not to increase production at their latest meeting.
US light crude added 81 cents to $94.65 a barrel in late New York trade after hitting as high as $95.15.
Supply fears have pushed up the price of oil recently, sending US light crude to $98.62 at the start of November.
With the dollar weakening, investors have been placing their money in commodities as an alternative.
'Little effect'
Opec's decision not to increase supplies following its latest meeting came despite calls from US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
Even if the Opec ministers decide to raise output in early December... the winter season would essentially be over
Victor Shumenergy analyst
The 12-nation producers group next meets at the start of December in the United Arab Emirates.
Some analysts say that even if Opec decides to increase output next month, it will not have an effect on prices ahead of the key Christmas period in the US and other Western nations.
"Even if the Opec ministers decide to raise output in early December, that would likely become effective only in January so by the time the oil gets to the market, the winter season would essentially be over," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.
Dollar issue
Opec leaders have commented that an increase in oil production would do little to lower prices, as they blame the higher cost of oil on the weak dollar, the currency in which crude is priced.
The weaker dollar has been driving up oil prices as investors have been using the commodity as an alternative to holding dollars.
Oil prices have risen by 60% this year and some analysts say that $100-a-barrel oil is inevitable.
Adjusting for inflation, US light crude's record peak of $101.70 came in 1980 against a backdrop of war between Iraq and Iran.
Earlier, disagreements about whether to continue pricing oil in dollars surfaced at the Opec meeting when private discussions were accidentally broadcast live.
Venezuela and Iran, in particular, argued for a change in policy.


Global stocks fall on credit fear

Global stocks have slumped amid fears over the fallout of the credit crisis, after Goldman Sachs downgraded Citibank and forecast $15bn (£7.3bn) in losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 217.86 points, or 1.65%, to end at 12,958.93 - its lowest level in three months. The Nasdaq shed 1.33%.
London's FTSE lost 170.4 points at 6,120.8 - its biggest drop since the credit crisis peaked in August.
European stocks also fell more than 1% in both France and Germany.
The benchmark Frankfurt Dax shed 1.3% and the Paris Cac ended 1.7% lower.
"It is once again the financial sector that has led to the latest bout of nervousness," said Phillip Vorndran, strategist at Credit Suisse Asset Management.
'Aftershock'
Goldman Sachs recommended that investors in Citigroup sell their shares, prompting concerns that the impact from the credit crisis could be more dramatic than originally thought.
The negative outlook for banking giant Citigroup comes after the bank said it expected to see between $8bn and $11bn in writedowns in the fourth quarter.
"It's dreadful. There's been aftershock after aftershock from the credit crisis," said Brian Gendreau, strategist at ING Investment.
"A major bank downgrading another major financial institution to 'sell' - that's unusual," he added.
Citigroup dropped 5.9% by close of trade. Other finance firms to fall included Bank of America, down 3.5%
Worries about more losses to come were also stoked after reinsurance firm Swiss Re announced $1.07bn Swiss francs in writedowns.
Meanwhile in the UK, Northern Rock was the biggest faller, down 21.4% after the institution described bids for the firm as being "materially below" its share price.
Other finance firms to fall included Royal Bank of Scotland, down 5.3%, while Alliance & Leicester dropped 4.2%.
Wider impact
But it was not just finance firms that were hard hit on Monday.
Auto firms and airlines also saw their stocks decline, as fears over the slowing US housing sector fed into wider concerns about the state of the US economy.
GM saw its stock at its lowest for nearly 18 months, at $26.57, and fell 8.5%v overall to end at $26.79.
Delta Airlines dropped 4.8% and Continental Airlines shed 6%.


Aid battle for Bangladesh victims

Rescue and relief teams have reached most of the remote areas of Bangladesh affected by one of the worst cyclones in recent years, officials say.
But the situation on the ground remains grim, with untold numbers of desperate survivors still short of the most basic necessities of food and drinking water.
Cyclone Sidr has killed more than 3,000 people and millions are now homeless.
The country's interim leader Fakhruddin Ahmed has visited some of the worst-hit areas, as foreign aid pledges pour in.
The Bangladeshi minister in charge of disaster management, Tapan Chowdhury, told the BBC that his administration had received offers of $140m (£70m) worth of international emergency aid.
The government has now been able to make food drops to places which were not reachable immediately after the cyclone, he said.
Basic necessities
Cyclone Sidr, which struck late on Thursday, brought winds of up to 240km/h (150mph) and a tidal surge of several metres.
It brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.
We have no food, we are trying to survive with eating whatever is edible that we can lay our hands on
Survivor
Aid shortfall
'The worst storm of our lives'
In pictures: Storm aftermath
Some 500,000 homes have been destroyed, and 845,000 households have been affected, according to the British Red Cross.
Bangladesh's Red Crescent society says up to 10,000 may have died.
Tens of thousands of survivors are now struggling for basic necessities like tents, rice, medicines and drinking water.
Mr Chowdhury says the government is working to provide shelter and help with rebuilding, as well as setting up a programme to re-stock the country's farms with seeds and fertiliser.
But the BBC's Mark Dummet in Bangladesh says many remote communities along the south-western coast say they have not yet received any help.
Coastal Bangladesh is a maze of waterways, creeks, islands and sandbanks and the only way to get help to the hundreds of thousands of survivors of the massive storm is by boat.
The BBC's Alastair Lawson, who is also in the country, says some survivors have not been able to eat since the storm struck, and that he has witnessed villagers fighting over rice.
One survivor told the BBC: "We have no food, we are trying to survive with eating whatever is edible that we can lay our hands on.
'Quick reaction'
Among major donors is Saudi Arabia, which has pledged $100m in aid. The UK is sending $5m and the US will provide $2m in aid, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced.
A spokesman for the UN World Food Programme in Bangladesh, which is overseeing the aid operation, said agencies had reacted "quickly and swiftly".

Satellite map of affected area, and the path of Cyclone Sidr
Enlarge Map
The government has denied suggestions that it is not up to the relief task.
Its early-warning system is being credited with saving many lives, but the damage to property and crops has been massive.
Officials say that in many areas 95% of rice which was awaiting harvest has been destroyed, and shrimp farms and other crops were simply washed away.
Cyclone Sidr comes just a few months after floods devastated the north of the country.
Southern Bangladesh is hit every year by cyclones and floods, but Cyclone Sidr is the most destructive storm to hit the country in more than a decade.
Another storm in 1991 left some 143,000 dead.

U.S. Hopes to Recruit Pakistani Tribes Against Al Qaeda

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — A new and classified American military proposal outlines an intensified effort to enlist tribal leaders in the frontier areas of Pakistan in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a broader effort to bolster Pakistani forces against an expanding militancy, American military officials said.
If adopted, the proposal would join elements of a shift in strategy that would also be likely to expand the presence of American military trainers in Pakistan, directly finance a separate tribal paramilitary force that until now has proved largely ineffective and pay militias that agreed to fight Al Qaeda and foreign extremists, officials said. The United States now has only about 50 troops in Pakistan, a Pentagon spokesman said, a force that could grow by dozens under the new approach.
The proposal is modeled in part on a similar effort by American forces in Anbar Province in Iraq that has been hailed as a great success in fighting foreign insurgents there. But it raises the question of whether such partnerships, to be forged in this case by Pakistani troops backed by the United States, can be made without a significant American military presence in Pakistan. And it is unclear whether enough support can be found among the tribes, some of which are working with Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Altogether, the broader strategic move toward more local support is being accelerated because of concern about instability in Pakistan and the weakness of the Pakistani government, as well as fears that extremists with havens in the tribal areas could escalate their attacks on allied troops in Afghanistan. Just in recent weeks, Islamic militants sympathetic to Al Qaeda and the Taliban have already extended their reach beyond the frontier areas into more settled areas, most notably the mountainous region of Swat.
[The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, recommended late Sunday that the Election Commission call for parliamentary elections on Jan. 8, but he did not say whether emergency rule would be revoked beforehand, Reuters reported early Monday.
“Inshallah, the general elections in the country would be held on Jan. 8,” the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted Musharraf as saying late Sunday.]
The tribal proposal, a strategy paper prepared by staff members of the United States Special Operations Command, has been circulated to counterterrorism experts but has not yet been formally approved by the command’s headquarters in Tampa, Fla. Some other elements of the campaign have been approved in principle by the Americans and Pakistanis and await financing, like $350 million over several years to help train and equip the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force that has about 85,000 members and is recruited from border tribes.
Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration has used billions of dollars of aid and heavy political pressure to encourage Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, to carry out more aggressive military operations against militants in the tribal areas. But the sporadic military campaigns Pakistan has conducted there have had little success, resulting instead in heavy losses among Pakistani Army units and anger among local residents who have for decades been mostly independent from Islamabad’s control.
American officials acknowledge those failures, but say that the renewed emphasis on recruiting allies among the tribal militias and investing more heavily in the Frontier Corps reflect the depth of American concern about the need to address Islamic extremism in Pakistan. The new counterinsurgency campaign is also a vivid example of the American military’s asserting a bigger role in a part of Pakistan that the Central Intelligence Agency has overseen almost exclusively since Sept. 11.
Small numbers of United States military personnel have served as advisers to the Pakistani Army in the tribal areas, giving planning advice and helping to integrate American intelligence, said one senior American officer with long service in the region.
Historically, American Special Forces have gone into foreign countries to work with local militaries to improve the security of those countries in ways that help American interests. Under this new approach, the number of advisers would increase, officials said.
American officials said these security improvements complemented a package of assistance from the Agency for International Development and the State Department for the seven districts of the tribal areas that amounted to $750 million over five years, and would involve work in education, health and other sectors. The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is also assisting the Frontier Corps with financing for counternarcotics work.
Some details of the security improvements have been reported by The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. But the classified proposal to enlist tribal leaders is new.