USA Update News

The United States, which lead a 2001 attack of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban, has about 100,000 troops in the country, and President Barack Obama is under stress to show results so he can begin a promised withdrawal this year.
"The Marine battalion could start arriving on the ground as early as mid January. The forces would mostly be deployed in the south, around Kandahar, where the U.S. has determined troops over the past several months." the paper said. It cited unidentified officials.
The Taliban are at their strongest since they were ousted form power, while operations against the insurgency have intensified since 2008. More than 700 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan last year, and civilian wounded were at record levels.
Obama said last month, that enough progress was being made in the operation to meet his pledge to start withdrawing U.S. troops by July and hand over security to Afghan forces by 2014.

In September 2009, the President announced that – for the first time in history – the White House would routinely release visitor records. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were created in May 2010. Today’s release also includes several visitor records created prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public during July 2010 pursuant to the White House voluntary disclosure policy. This release brings the grand total of records that this White House has released to over 600,000 records.

Small Business California is influence Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign two related bills creating a state health insurance exchange, the single most important component of healthcare improvement for small businesses.
The California government this week passed two landmark health insurance exchange bills, SB 900 and AB1602. This legislation will work to lay the base for California's Health Benefit Exchange. One of the bills establishes the governance of the exchange. It consists of an independent agency with a five person board. The second bill creates the policy that apply inside and outside the exchange. In California, 3 million small businesses will be eligible to purchase insurance through the exchange. This will create maximum competition, improve excellence, increase choice and lower costs.
"It will be the main vehicle for making healthcare reasonable and accessible for California's 3 million small businesses and their employees including 2 million self-employed entrepreneurs," said Scott Hauge, president of Small Business California.

One of the United States most discernible Muslim-Americans has taken sides in the debate on whether to build a 13-story community center and mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City. Lebanese-born, New York-raised Miss USA Rima Fakih said she is beside the plan.
Following President Obama’s remark in favor of the proposed mosque project last week, Fakih was asked her opinion on the hot national debate by a reporter for “Inside Edition.”
“I totally agree with President Obama with the declaration on constitutional rights of freedom of religion,” Fakih, 24, said from Las Vegas, where she is listed to represent the USA at the Miss Universe pageant tonight.
However, she added: “I also agree that it shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more worried with the tragedy than religion.”
In New York City, sides have been divided — with tempers infrequently flaring — over the future mosque and community center, which would be located just two blocks north of the site of the worst domestic horror attack in the nation’s history.
While New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and a selection of religious organizations have backed the mosque plan, President Obama weighing in on the issue has stirred the debate nationally.
A recent Time magazine poll showed 61 percent of those polled were against a mosque being erected near ground zero. The poll also in particular had 24 percent of respondents believing the president himself is Muslim.
While Miss USA Fakih disagrees with the president on the issue, she’s made it clear she is however a big Obama fan. She showed off a gold lame costume depicting the golden eagle on the presidential fasten that she plans to wear at the Miss Universe competition tonight.
“The imagery of this costume is a tribute to your work to bring peace to the world,” Fakih said in a promotional video for the Miss Universe pageant.
Fakih is believed to be the first Muslim to be crowned Miss USA after winning the pageant in May. She was born in Lebanon and migrated with her family to New York City when she was 8. When she twisted 18, the family relocated to the large Arab-American community in Dearborn, Mich.
Within days of winning Miss USA, Fakih lit a argument of her own when footage showing her claiming first place at a “Stripper 101” pole dancing contest in a Michigan nightclub in 2007 surface. Pageant officials took no corrective action against Fakih, however, and she continues to represent the U.S. as Miss USA.

From the opening, the Obama administration’s highest priority has been to rescue and rebuild the economy. Few areas were hit as hard as developed – not just in this downturn, but going back years. Investing in 21st century built-up has been a cornerstone of the President’s plan to rebuild the economy stronger than before. And in the past seven months, we have seen the strongest manufacturing job growth in more than a decade -- adding 183,000 jobs so far this year.

The trends are talented and the President wants to keep that way. That’s why today, he is signing a bill into law that will make it cheaper and easier for American manufacturers and workers to do what they do best: build great products and sell them around the world. When the mechanized Enhancement Act of 2010 becomes a law today, it will create more jobs, help American companies compete, and strengthen manufacturing as a key driver of our recovery.

As the end of combat operations in Iraq approaches, and the massive drawdown of troops continues, a photo of the President and his national security team meeting on Iraq in the Situation Room.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with the national security team on Iraq in the Situation Room of the White House, Aug. 11, 2010.

Before signing the Manufacturing Enhancement Act, the President took a step back to talk about his vision and commitment to American manufacturing. That commitment has helped manufacturing become one of the surprisingly bright spots of the economic recovery. A sector that lost 3,864,000 between 2000 and 2008 has turned around and gained 183,000 jobs so far this year

WASHINGTON - US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton said, on Thursday the United States and the United Arab Emirates will seize talks on BlackBerry use as she moved to ease a row over a UAE ban on key services.
'We are taking time to check with and analyse the full range of interests and issues at stake because we know that there is a legitimate security concern,' Mrs Clinton told reporters.
'But there is also a lawful right of free use and access. So I think we will be pursuing both technical and expert discussions as we go forward,' the chief US envoy said. The UAE, a Gulf business center, said on Sunday it will halt BlackBerry messenger, web browsing and email services that breach laws and raise security concerns. The delay would start on Oct 11 and last until a legal solution was reached.
The row centres on concerns that BlackBerry's encrypted services - which engage data being routed through secure servers in Canada where manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) is based - could be used by militants or criminals.