AP Exclusive: Drones patrol nearly half of US-Mexico border in shift targeting remote areas
The U.S. government now patrols nearly half the Mexican border by drones alone in a largely unheralded shift to control desolate stretches where there are no agents, camera towers, ground sensors or fences, and it plans to expand the strategy to the Canadian border.
It represents a significant departure from a decades-old approach that emphasizes boots on the ground and fences. Since 2000, the number of Border Patrol agents on the 1,954-mile border more than doubled to surpass 18,000 and fencing multiplied nine times to 700 miles.
Under the new approach, Predator Bs sweep remote mountains, canyons and rivers with a high-resolution video camera and return within three days for another video in the same spot, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the effort on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public.
The two videos are then overlaid for analysts who use sophisticated software to identify tiny changes — perhaps the tracks of a farmer or cows, perhaps those of immigrants who entered the country illegally or a drug-laden Hummer, they said.
About 92 percent of drone missions have shown no change in terrain, but the others raised enough questions to dispatch agents to determine if someone got away, sometimes by helicopter because the area is so remote. The agents look for any sign of human activity — footprints, broken twigs, trash.
Immigration, Landrieu gambit on Keystone pipeline top first day of Congress' lame duck session
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A political gambit by an endangered Senate Democrat broke loose long-stalled legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline as the lame-duck Congress returned to a Capitol where results of last week's GOP blowout are still sinking in.
The move by Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu came as some conservatives were spoiling to drag must-pass spending bills into their battle with President Barack Obama over his planned executive action on immigration, raising at least the possibility of a government shutdown next month or next year.
Landrieu is an underdog to win a fourth term in a runoff next month with GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy. She's a supporter of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline but was unable to win a vote on it, which has been a flash point in her race. Cassidy's version recently passed the House and GOP leaders immediately scheduled another vote on it for Thursday.
The Keystone XL issue was an unexpected addition to a lame-duck agenda focused on keeping the government running past a Dec. 11 deadline.
Preventing a government shutdown is a top priority of GOP leaders like House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. McConnell said the other big items for the lame-duck Congress are renewing expired tax breaks for businesses and individuals, more money to fight Ebola and renewing Obama's authority to arm and train opposition to Islamic State militants in Syria, which expires next month.
European Space Agency releases 1st picture from comet surface; lander 'very healthy'
The European Space Agency has released the first picture taken by its Philae probe on the surface of a comet.
Philae became the first spacecraft to land on a comet when it touched down Wednesday on the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The photo released Thursday shows a rocky surface with one of the lander's three feet.
Harpoons meant to anchor the lander to the surface failed to work properly, causing Philae to bounce twice.
But ESA says the lander is stable. Gerhard Schwehm, a scientist on the Rosetta mission, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it may still be possible to fire the harpoons but in any case the lander is "very healthy."
For Obama, Myanmar's stalled reforms jeopardize a potential major foreign policy achievement
For President Barack Obama, Myanmar's stalled progress on promised political and economic reforms is jeopardizing what was to be a crowning achievement for his foreign policy legacy.
Obama arrived in Myanmar's capital of Naypyitaw on Wednesday amid persistent questions about whether the government would follow through on its pledges — and whether the U.S. had made too many overtures to the long-isolated country too soon. Myanmar won wide sanctions relief from Obama after its sudden and unexpected shift from a half-century of military rule, but there's little certainty about the country's future.
"Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began," Obama said in an interview with Myanmar's "The Irrawaddy" magazine. "In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward."
White House officials say Obama has always been realistic about the challenges ahead for Myanmar, a country that in many cases lacks the infrastructure and capacity to enact the reforms its leaders have outlined. But critics of the administration's policy say the U.S. gave up its leverage too quickly by rewarding the government for promises rather than results.
"With so many avenues for pressure lost, it can indeed seem like the U.S. doesn't have a lot of cards left to play," said John Sifton, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Informal border patrols on Turkish-Syrian border highlight complex Turkish stance on IS, Kurds
Their collars pulled up against the evening cold, a group of men and women peer through binoculars, scanning the fields along a barbed wire fence. A few kilometers (miles) away across the Turkish border, black smoke rises from the besieged Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani, the dull thud of mortars carrying across on the breeze.
They are some of the hundreds of volunteers, predominantly Kurdish Turks, who have traveled from villages, towns and cities across southeastern Turkey and even from Istanbul, to keep watch on the border. They are on the lookout for potential fighters of the extremist Islamic State group attempting to cross into Kobani, besieged since mid-September by IS and defended by Kurdish Syrian fighters known as the People's Protection Units.
"To be honest, we don't trust (the Turkish border guards), because we have seen many occasions that the Turkish government has loosened its borders for ISIS fighters, weapons and logistical support to cross," said Ibrahim Binici, a Kurdish lawmaker for the left-wing HDP party, which put out a call in September for the volunteers.
It's a claim Turkey vehemently rejects. But the deep distrust of Turkish authorities in the border area reflects Turkey's complicated attitude toward the Islamic extremists who captured swaths of Iraq and Syria, and its strained relations with its own Kurdish population.
The country's reluctance to join a U.S.-led international coalition action against IS in Syria and Iraq, mainly through airstrikes, has frustrated Turkey's American and European allies. Ankara, however, insists the priority should be the unseating of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose 2011 crackdown on protesters sparked an uprising that soon spun into a vicious civil war.
US banking giant backed, underwrote, promoted Chinese company dogged by financial questions
U.S. banking giant Morgan Stanley helped a Chinese company, Tianhe Chemicals, sell $654 million in stock in a June public offering. But The Associated Press identified significant discrepancies in publicly accessible financial records and statements Tianhe made to investors.
Such discrepancies highlight Morgan Stanley's roles shepherding then promoting then defending Tianhe — which one of its investment funds partially owns — before and after the chemical company became a major international stock offering. If Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and its fellow underwriters, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS AG, failed adequately to vet Tianhe, the banks could be subject to reputational and legal concerns.
The controversy surrounding Tianhe (pronounced TYEN'-huh) carries special significance as China's financial markets are opening to the world and increasingly becoming part of U.S. stock portfolios largely through pension and mutual funds. Investors unable to conduct their own, on-the-ground research of Chinese companies rely on investment banks like Morgan Stanley to act as gatekeepers, preventing problematic companies from listing.
Tianhe Chemicals Group Ltd. manufactures lubricants and sophisticated chemicals used to fight fires and toughen touchscreens. The AP began its review of the company after allegations arose about the firm from a shadowy investment research group tied to people betting against Tianhe's stock. The group said the company had vastly overstated the size and profitability of its business.
Tianhe rejected the claims, and Morgan Stanley said it stands "resolutely behind Tiahne's world-class management team," but Tianhe's shares have fallen 39 percent since then.
How nation's health care overhaul affected 4 people in first year of marketplace changes
More than 7 million people have signed up for private health insurance under the system introduced last year for those who were uninsured or had policies considered substandard.
What happened to them since has varied greatly.
Many have been happy with their new insurance, according to polls. Others are encountering a variety of snags — high premiums, telephone runarounds or difficulty getting care. Together their experiences provide a glimpse of how the largest social program launched since Medicare has worked out for the people involved.
With lessons learned, the program enters its second year with enrollment beginning Saturday.
California provides example on climate change programs, cost of reducing global warming
As the U.S. and China — the world's top two polluting nations — turn to implementing new rules aimed at curbing climate change, the countries can look to the most populous U.S. state as an example of the costs and challenges of fighting global warming.
California already has imposed some of the world's toughest air quality standards as it moves aggressively to lower emissions.
The state's cap-and-trade program, launched nearly three years ago, offers one of the few real-world laboratories on how to reduce carbon emissions. The state has opted to impose extra costs on businesses that emit pollutants.
Next year, the program will be expanded to include companies that produce gasoline and other fuels, prompting predictions that consumers will see a spike in prices to cover the costs.
Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has been unapologetic about the program, saying there needs to be a completely new way of thinking if the world is going to curb carbon emissions.
G-20 leaders converge on Australian city once derided as seedy over-sized county town
The annual G-20 summit is descending on the capital of Australia's sunshine state with a promise to anoint it as a truly global city. But some inhabitants of Brisbane, once pilloried by Australians as a faintly seedy oversized country town, would prefer if world leaders had continued to pass them by.
For the boosters of Queensland state, playing host to top officials from the 20 biggest industrialized and developing economies is a long overdue acknowledgement they don't live in subtropical backwater. Small businesses, however, are struggling against the disruptions of road closures and an over-the-top security response.
"I have not heard one local person in favor of it. Not one," said Ron Wedlake who owns a kiosk across the street from the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center which is at the heart of the biggest gathering of world leaders that Australia has hosted.
The first of the steel and acrylic glass barriers began appearing in the streets surrounding the convention center and some hotels a week before the summit, which starts Saturday. While the barriers did not block access to Wedlake's business, the shutting of the local train station had deprived him of his commuting customers by Monday. He wondered if he would bother staying open for the rest of the week.
"They talk about the long term benefits, but I can't see a long term benefit for the likes of a small business like me," he said.
FIFA corruption probe clears Russia, Qatar as World Cup hosts 4 years after long-tainted vote
Russia and Qatar were cleared Thursday by a FIFA judge of corruption in their winning bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert formally ended a probe into the bidding contests, almost four years after the vote by the governing body's scandal-tainted executive committee. No proof was found of bribes or voting pacts.
"The evaluation of the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups bidding process is closed for the FIFA Ethics Committee," the German judge wrote in a statement released by FIFA.
The 2022 World Cup will finally, it seems, be played in Qatar — though exactly when is still unclear as FIFA seeks an alternative to the desert heat in June and July.
"FIFA welcomes the fact that a degree of closure has been reached," the governing body said Thursday in a statement. "As such, FIFA looks forward to continuing the preparations for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, which are already well underway."
