California health officials urge pregnant women with flu-like symptoms to seek prompt antiviral treatment

A new study by California health officials says pregnant women with flu-like symptoms should promptly undergo “aggressive antiviral treatment,” even if a preliminary test shows that the patient tests negative for the flu.

The study, published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine, is the latest urging physicians to consider prescribing antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to patients earlier, even in the absence of lab tests that confirm a flu diagnosis.

Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said antiviral treatment of hospitalized patients was “ suboptimal ,” with as many as one in four hospitalized patients with lab-confirmed H1N1 not receiving antiviral medication.

A preliminary flu test, which can be completed in minutes, has a high rate of error and can mistakenly lead doctors to believe a patient does not have the flu. Out of 153 women of child-bearing age who were tested and hospitalized with H1N1 virus between April and August in California, nearly 40% received an incorrect preliminary test result. Erroneous test results may cause doctors to delay prescribing antiviral drugs.

“They should not rely on rapid tests. We found the rapid tests were not very sensitive, and some doctors, when looking at the charts, actually delay treatment,” said Dr. Janice Louie, chief of the influenza and respiratory diseases section for the California Department of Public Health .

Louie recommended that clinicians consider prescribing antiviral drugs to ill pregnant women suspected of having the flu while they wait for the results of a more accurate test, which can take days. 

Delaying antiviral treatment to H1N1-infected pregnant women can have serious consequences.
The state's scientists have found that pregnant women who received antiviral drugs late — more than two days after the onset of illness — were four times as likely to require admission to the intensive care unit or die.

In some cases, researchers said the pregnant women did not immediately seek medical attention after falling ill; in other cases, doctors delayed prescribing antiviral drugs.

Out of data compiled from 102 pregnant and postpartum women hospitalized for H1N1 in California, eight died. None of those women received early antiviral treatment. In six of those cases, the preliminary rapid test gave an erroneous result.

One reason for the relative inaccuracy of the preliminary flu test is that it was developed for the seasonal flu virus, not H1N1, also known as the swine flu. “This is a new flu virus with different surface proteins. It's not surprising that it might not be as sensitive in detecting a new flu virus,” Louie said.

California's recommendation for quicker administration of antiviral drugs has been echoed by other health officials. 

In another report published by the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month, Dr. Tim Uyeki, a scientist with the CDC's influenza division, wrote that “antiviral treatment should be started as soon as possible for hospitalized patients with suspected 2009 H1N1 and not withheld, because a negative [rapid test result] does not exclude 2009 H1N1 virus infection. Nor should treatment be delayed” until results from the more accurate tests are available, he wrote.

According to California health officials, pregnant women comprised 10% of those patients who were hospitalized with, or died from, H1N1 flu in California between April and August. An earlier report said that pregnant women were hospitalized at about quadruple the rate of the general population.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/12/state-urges-pregnant-women-with-flulike-illness-to-seek-prompt-drug-treatment.html#more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Parents in 'balloon boy' hoax get jail time

Richard Heene is ordered to serve 30 days in jail and 60 days in a work-release program. His wife, Mayumi, gets 20 days in jail. At a later date, a call for $47,000 in restitution will be addressed.

by DeeDee Correll

December 24, 2009

Reporting from Fort Collins, Colo.

In a warning to other would-be reality television stars, a judge Wednesday sentenced the Colorado parents who claimed their 6-year-old son floated away in a balloon to spend time in jail for staging the hoax.

"All of this was designed to attract attention," 8th Judicial District Chief Judge Stephen J. Schapanski told Richard and Mayumi Heene of Fort Collins.

However, he said the couple wouldn't have to report to jail until after the holidays, a decision the judge said he was making for the sake of their three young sons.

Richard Heene, who tearfully apologized to the judge but did not speak to reporters as he and his wife scurried into the courtroom amid a thicket of cameras, was ordered to serve 90 days in custody -- 30 days in jail and 60 days in a work-release program. Under that program, he will be allowed to work during the day but must return to jail at night.

Mayumi Heene was sentenced to 20 days in jail, under terms similar to work release. They won't have to serve their sentences at the same time.

Richard Heene's attorney, David Lane, said that his client's sentence was appropriate, but called Mayumi Heene's sentence excessive and the result of a desire for vengeance.

"Don't mess with America's emotions. That's why Mayumi has to go do 20 days in jail -- because everybody got fooled," he said.

On Oct. 15, the Heenes -- amateur storm-chasers who have appeared on the ABC show "Wife Swap" -- told authorities that their youngest son, Falcon, had sneaked into a helium balloon that lifted off accidentally from their backyard. Millions of people watched the journey of the balloon -- a silvery craft that resembled a giant tray of Jiffy Pop popcorn -- on live television.

People offered prayers for the boy's safe return, and flights in and out of Denver International Airport were rerouted. When the balloon landed in a field two hours later and was found to be empty, a search was launched for Falcon, who presumably had fallen to his death.

Falcon later appeared and said he'd been hiding in the Heenes' garage.

The hoax began to unravel the night of the incident when the family was interviewed on "Larry King Live." When asked why he had remained hidden for so long, the boy looked at his parents and said, "You had said that we did this for a show."

Last month, Richard Heene, 48, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of attempting to influence a public official. Mayumi Heene, 45, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to law enforcement.

In a letter to the judge, Richard Heene had pleaded for leniency for his wife, whom prosecutors agreed was less culpable. She also was the more cooperative of the two, confessing the plot to investigators.

On Wednesday morning, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrew Lewis asked the judge to impose a jail term for Richard Heene, calling it a necessary deterrent against "people who want their 30 seconds of fame."

"He wasted a lot of manpower and money, wanting to get himself some publicity," Lewis said. "For that, they do need to be punished."

He described Heene as deceitful and uncooperative throughout the investigation, pretending to fall asleep during a polygraph exam and trying to intervene when he learned his wife was talking with detectives.

Lane argued that a jail term would prevent Heene, a construction contractor, from providing for his family, adding that the couple already had suffered scorn and ridicule from the community.

But the judge appeared to agree with prosecutors, ordering the Heenes to serve short jail sentences and noting that he could have sentenced each of them to much lengthier incarcerations. "This, in simple terms, was an elaborate hoax," Schapanski said.

The judge also placed them on four years' probation and ordered them to write letters of apology to the community, as well as to perform at least 100 hours of community service each year.

Still unclear was how much the couple might be required to pay in restitution to the agencies that participated in the search. Prosecutors have estimated that the couple owes at least $47,000. A judge will consider that issue at a later date.

Schapanski also barred the couple from receiving any financial benefit, such as a book deal, in connection with the incident.

Summing up the balloon-boy saga, he said, "What this case is about is deception and exploitation -- exploitation of their children, exploitation of the media, exploitation of the emotions of people. And it was about money."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-balloon-boy24-2009dec24,0,1963983,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPINION

Nursing homes with razor wire

Are elderly prisoners really a threat to public safety?

by David Fathi

December 23, 2009

Sometime in the 1970s, the United States began a love affair with incarceration that continues to this day. After holding nearly steady for decades, our prison population began to climb as criminal justice policy took a sharply punitive turn, with the massive criminalization of drug use, "three strikes" laws and other harsh sentencing practices. More people were going to prison, and staying there longer. By 2005, the prison population was six times what it had been in 1975.

One little-known side effect of this population explosion has been a sharp increase in the number of elderly people behind bars. According to the Justice Department, in 1980 the United States had about 9,500 prisoners age 55 and older; by 2008, the number had increased tenfold, to 94,800. That same year, the number of prisoners 50 and older was just shy of 200,000 -- about the size of the entire U.S. prison population in the early 1970s.

People age 50 or 55 may seem a bit young to be classified as elderly. But because their lives have often been characterized by poverty, trauma and limited access to medical care and rehabilitative services, most prisoners are physiologically older than their chronological age would suggest, and more likely to have disabling medical conditions than the general population. One study cited by Ronald H. Aday in his 1994 article in Federal Probation concluded that the average prisoner over 50 has a physiological age 11.5 years older than his chronological age.

With 1 in 11 U.S. prisoners serving a life sentence -- in some states, the figure is 1 in 6 -- it's no surprise that the number of elderly prisoners is skyrocketing. In 2007, the New York Times profiled then-89-year-old Charles Friedgood, a New York state prisoner who had served more than 30 years of a life sentence for second-degree murder. Although he had terminal cancer and had undergone several operations, including a colostomy, he had been denied parole five times before being released in 2007. Friedgood at least had the opportunity to apply for parole; in some states, parole has been abolished, and a life sentence means exactly that.

Being in prison is hard on anyone, but the elderly face special dangers, particularly if they are ill or disabled. Some have complex medical and mental health needs that prisons are ill-equipped to handle. Many prisons are not accessible to persons with mobility impairments; for them, bathing, using the toilet or even getting in and out of their cells can be a difficult, dangerous challenge. And older prisoners are more likely to be robbed, assaulted or otherwise victimized.

Some states have so many elderly prisoners that they have built special facilities to house them. Several years ago I visited the Ahtanum View Corrections Center, Washington state's prison for the elderly. Everywhere I looked were aged, frail, disabled people, some of whom could barely move without assistance. The prison's webpage helpfully points out that a volunteer clergy team is available to assist prisoners with "end-of-life issues."

The main justification for incarceration is to protect public safety. But it's hard to see the public safety rationale for keeping so many elderly people in prison.

It's even harder to understand the economic justification. Incarceration is expensive -- about $24,000 per year for the average prisoner, according to a 2008 Pew Center on the States report. Keeping someone over 55 locked up costs about three times as much. Given that criminal behavior drops off dramatically with advancing age, this is a major investment for very little return.

As the United States faces its worst fiscal crisis in decades, many states are taking a hard look at their prisons, which consume a large and increasing portion of state budgets. As part of this long overdue re-examination, lawmakers should ask whether so many elderly people really need to be in prison and whether the state should be in the business of operating nursing homes with razor wire.

David Fathi is director of the U.S. division at Human Rights Watch.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fathi24-2009dec24,0,2325042,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDITORIAL

Helping Homeboy

Father Greg Boyle's Homeboy Industries is renowned for helping troubled young people. But, as always, it's a question of money.

December 23, 2009

Kids and young adults in trouble often come to the attention of Los Angeles County or city agencies, which try to set them straight if they can, punish them if they must, and help them if they are able. The help often comes in the form of a referral to a place that will offer peer counseling, find jobs, remove tattoos or help in the search for a purpose in life. And that place, far more often than not, is Homeboy Industries, founded and overseen by Father Greg Boyle. Homeboy and Boyle have become internationally famous for their efforts to turn around former gang members, and in a city in which fame and fortune usually go together, it's easy to forget that Homeboy is run on a shoestring.

That shoestring came close to breaking this year, in part because of the economy, but also in part because of Homeboy's success. Government agencies send people in need of help, but rarely do they send funding. And those services that have done so much for so many people trying to leave or avoid gang life aren't cheap.

So how does a nonprofit organization of, by and for youth stay in business? A bake sale? Homeboy does it, on a fairly sophisticated scale, with Homeboy Bakery and Homegirl Cafe at Alameda and Bruno near Chinatown. How about a carwash? Homeboy does that too -- with a virtual carwash, at http://www.homeboy-industries.org/. You can go online and make a donation. Your car may not get any cleaner, but your city will be better for it.

Homeboy and the people it serves need your help. Boyle says the organization's moneymaking businesses are close to turning a corner and becoming sufficient to support the invaluable services that Homeboy counselors and friends have been offering for more than 20 years. But first it has to get to the corner.

The Times rarely uses this space to call on Angelenos to donate money, but we don't shy away when the need is great and the cause is just. Earl

ier this year, we asked philanthropists to open their wallets for the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had run down its endowment in the course of becoming a city treasure. But if MOCA deserves support -- and it does -- how much more, then, should the city get behind Homeboy, an organization that steers youths away from gangs and crime, and toward help and hope?

Call the virtual carwash charity if you must, but in fact a donation to Homeboy is an investment in Los Angeles that keeps its streets more humane and its future intact. And if that's too much in these difficult times, remember, you've got to eat. You may as well do it at Homegirl. And by the way -- they cater.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-boyle24-2009dec24,0,6275595,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Washington Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suspect held in Va. post office standoff

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WYTHEVILLE, Va. | A daylong standoff at a small-town Virginia post office ended peacefully Wednesday with three hostages set free and a disabled suspect surrendering to police in a wheelchair.

Warren "Gator" Taylor of Sullivan County, Tenn., was being questioned and authorities do not yet have a motive, state police Sgt. Michael Conroy said.

The standoff began at about 2:30 p.m. when shots were fired in the freestanding, one-story brick post office in the mountain town of Wytheville in western Virginia. No one was injured, and at least two of the hostages were able to call family or friends.

It ended about 8 hours later without the dozens of SWAT members armed with automatic weapons having to fire a shot.

"We're just grateful it ended peacefully," Conroy said. "This is just the best outcome we could hope for."

Police in the town of about 8,500 in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains told the Wytheville Enterprise that the suspect had what appeared to be plastic explosives strapped to his chest.

However, although police found weapons, they located no explosives on Taylor or his wheelchair, Conroy said. Authorities were searching the building and Taylor's truck also, he said. He confirmed that several shots were fired inside the downtown post office, but did not reveal what type of weapons were used.

FBI negotiators had been talking with Taylor throughout the evening, and a state trooper delivered food to the door, which was picked up by one of the hostages. Originally, the town mayor said five hostages were taken. Later, he said some of the people thought missing had been accounted for, but he wasn't sure how many remained.

After hours and hours of little activity on a night that was growing colder, at about 11 p.m., authorities using a bullhorn told the suspect: "Come out with your hands up."

Soon after, one by one, the hostages walked down about 20 steps in front of the building with their hands up. As the three came closer to police, they lifted their shirts to show they had no weapons.

Taylor, who Conroy said has an artificial leg, came out last, wheeling down a ramp from the building. A bomb-sniffing robot went up to him, examined him and he also lifted his shirt. Taylor, a heavy-set man wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, then got out of the wheelchair under his own power and lay down face-first on the cold concrete.

He got back up and was taken away in a police vehicle.

"It proves it can happen anywhere at anytime," Mayor Trent Crewe said. "Why he picked here, I don't know."

Conroy said little was known about Taylor, not even his age. He did not know if Taylor had a military background.

The suspect made no demands other than to ask for a pizza, said Pete Rendina, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Carlton Austin said his daughter, postal worker Margie Austin, was among the hostages. She managed to call a family friend around 4:30 p.m. and said she was fine.

Niki Oliver told the Enterprise that her brother, Jimmy Oliver, was one of the hostages and had been able to phone family members.

"We love you," she yelled to him as his mother was speaking to him on the phone.

She said her brother went to the post office to mail a Christmas gift to his son.

Postal worker Walt Korndoerfer said he was in the building when he heard shots and a co-worker ran past. He called police and then ran himself.

His wife, Christine Korndoerfer, said he called around 3:30 p.m. to tell her he had gotten out safely.

"My husband is not one to get upset," she said. "When he called, I don't think I've ever heard him so upset."

Jim Daniels, 62, a retired coal miner stood at the police tape with wife, June, watching as the situation unfolded.

"This is horrible and right before Christmas," he said.

The traditional-looking American town was decked out for Christmas and the downtown was crowded with shoppers when the hostage standoff began. But police advised store workers and those in other nearby buildings to leave as authorities cordoned off a three-block area surrounding the post office and snipers stood at the ready on some roof tops.

June Daniels could only shake her head as she watched the SWAT members in flak jackets, guns at the ready.

"I can only imagine what their families are going through," she said of the hostages. "The fear. It's just not right. Why in the world would anyone do this?"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/24/two-leave-va-post-office-held-gunman//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yemen still wedded to child marriages

by Heather Murdock

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

SAN'A, Yemen | Thirteen-year-old Sally al-Sabahi stood outside the courthouse earlier this month fiddling with her smudged, half-polished nails. She was hoping to get a divorce, but her husband did not show up.

When Sally was 11, her father married her to 23-year-old Nabil al-Mushahi, a cousin. Since the wedding, she has run away from her husband's home three times.

"I was afraid of him since the first day," she said in her parents' tiny, windowless, stone home after the failed court date. "I don't want to get married again until after I am dead."

Sally said she wants a divorce because her husband beat, berated and regularly attempted to rape her. When asked whether he succeeded in the sexual assaults, her long eyelashes lowered toward the floor against her black veil, and she picked at the faded orange and green sheet she was sitting on. She did not answer.

Arranged marriages for girls as young as 9 are common in many parts of Yemen. About half the women in the country are married before they are 18, according to Ahmed al-Quareshi, the head of the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.

The Yemeni parliament has been debating for almost a year a law that would make 17 the minimum age for marriage, but the measure is fiercely contested and has been blocked by hard-line religious leaders.

"It's a part of their social structure," Mr. al-Quareshi said. "It's a tradition to allow marriage at an early age."

Early marriages are especially common in the countryside, where more than 70 percent of Yemen's 22 million people live, said Shada Nasser, a lawyer and children's rights advocate. Rural mothers, often illiterate and former child brides themselves, don't consider bucking the system, she said.

The young brides, robbed of childhood and education, grow up afraid of their husbands and resenting their children.

"They had dreams," Ms. Nasser said, "But early marriage broke those dreams."

As Yemen - the poorest country in the Arab world - seems to grow poorer every year, the child-bride population is growing fast, according to Ms. Nasser. Parents look for husbands for their little girls so they will have fewer mouths to feed.

Money paid by husbands to their brides' families is also an important source of income. Almost half of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day, according to the United Nations.

Before marriage, many future husbands promise the girls' families that they will not have sex with their brides until the girls are mature, which is generally considered to be about 15 years old. About 10 percent to 20 percent of the new husbands break that promise, according to Ms. Nasser.

It is not just poor families that marry their daughters before puberty, according to Naseem ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF. "It cuts across social and economic variations," he said.

Sometimes, he said, children are married to strengthen tribal relationships.

The early marriages often have dire consequences.

Women who give birth before they are 18 are almost eight times as likely to die in labor than those who give birth in their 20s, Mr. ur-Rehman said. In some parts of Yemen, women are about 60 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the United States.

Fawziya Youssef was 12 when she died in early September, according to Mr. al-Quareshi. Fawziya and her husband, 26, had been married for only a year.

Fawziya died of severe bleeding while delivering a stillborn baby after three days of painful labor. Her parents, however, do not think she died because she was married too young, said Mr. al-Quareshi. In their village in the Hoedeida governorate, it is the custom to marry girls before they are 13.

Fawziya's parents are heartbroken, but have no recourse.

"There are no laws saying that this is a crime," Mr. al-Quareshi said.

In February, a bill that would set a minimum marriage age was put to a vote in parliament. It passed 17 to 13, according to Fouad Dahabahi, a legislator. But before the president could sign it, it was blocked. A prominent sheik and several other Muslim religious leaders had objected, saying it contradicted Islamic law, which allows girls to be married at age 9.

Although most members of parliament disagreed with the sheik privately, according to Mr. Dahabahi they were worried about appearing un-Islamic. They sent the bill to be re-examined by committees on health, the constitution, Islamic law and human rights.

Mr. Dahabahi said he supported the bill because when he was 19, he was married to a 13-year-old girl named Intisar.

Soon after they were married, she became pregnant. She got very sick, and her frail health and misery haunted the family for years. "She was a child when she was a mother," he said.

The bill, he said, is also delayed because parliament members prefer not to argue publicly about such a controversial issue. And, as in many bodies in the Yemeni government, parliament has trouble getting things done because it is in session only five months a year.

Other lawmakers said they oppose the law because setting a specific age for marriage is an unnecessary bow to Western culture.

"Why do we have follow [Western] traditions?" asked parliament member Mohammad al-Hamzi. "God created the girl, and knows when she is ready."

Mr. al-Hamzi said that girls who marry before puberty should not, and normally do not, have sex with their husbands. But, he added, "If something bad happens to her, she has the right to go to the judge and ask for a divorce, like Nujood."

Last year, 10-year-old Nujood Ali went to court alone to seek freedom from an abusive husband. She sued for divorce against her father's will. She won because a sympathetic judge believed that her husband had raped her.

Nujood's case made news around the world and inspired parliament to consider a minimum legal age for marriage. But when she tried to register for school, Nujood was initially refused because she had been exposed to sex. The teacher said she could taint the other children, according to Ms. Nasser, who also represented Nujood.

When Nujood heard about Sally's bid for freedom, she pledged to give her $500 out of royalties from a biography being published about her. That is half the money Sally will need to repay her husband if she is granted a divorce.

Even though the judge believed that Nujood had been raped, she still had to give her ex-husband $200.

To get a divorce, Sally must produce written proof and a witness to the abuse.

A few weeks ago, during an Islamic holiday, Mr. al-Mushahi came to Sally's family home. The roof of the house is a blue plastic tarp, and household water is lugged inside in dirty yellow jerrycans. Sally said she wanted to stay with her family. Her parents begged her to go back to her husband.

For three days, Sally refused to eat, and threatened to kill herself. Her parents relented, and told Mr. al-Mushahi it was over.

"As I told you before, I tried to convince her, but she doesn't want you anymore," Sally's father, Mubkhoot Ahmed, barked into his cell phone at his son-in-law after he failed to appear in court.

Mr. Ahmed blamed himself for marrying off his daughter too young and for believing that Mr. al-Mushahi would not touch her before she was ready.

Sally said that when she was 11, she knew nothing about marriage, but agreed to the match because she would be lavished with gifts for the first time in her life. Her father supports his wife and five children by selling ground chili powder in the market. Sometimes he makes $2.50 a day. Sometimes he makes nothing.

"I was thinking only about jewelry and clothes," said Sally, slapping her hands together.

Her father said he was afraid that Mr. al-Mushahi would be embarrassed that Sally abandoned him, and try to take his daughter by force.

In a country with little government control outside the capital, he said he is prepared to protect his family the old-fashioned way.

"I have only weapons to protect myself," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/24/yemen-still-wedded-to-child-marriages//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bin Laden's daughter takes Saudi refuge

by Salah Nasrawi

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO | A daughter of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has taken refuge in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after eluding guards who have held her and five brothers under house arrest for eight years, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said the 17-year-old daughter, Eman, slipped away from guards and fled to the Saudi Embassy nearly a month ago. The embassy's charge d'affaires, Fouad al-Qassas, confirmed to the paper that she has been at the mission for 25 days and that there were diplomatic efforts with the Iranians to get her out of the country.

It has long been believed that Iran has held in custody a number of bin Laden's children since they fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 - most notably Saad and Hamza bin Laden, who are thought to have held positions in al Qaeda.

This year, U.S. officials said Saad bin Laden may have been killed by a U.S. air strike in Pakistan, where they said he may have fled after being freed from Iran, but they could not confirm the information.

But Omar bin Laden, another son who lives abroad, told the Asharq al-Awsat that Eman told relatives in a call from the Saudi Embassy that 29-year-old Saad and four other brothers were still being held in Iran.

Attempts by the Associated Press to reach Omar were not immediately returned, and there was no comment from Iranian or Saudi officials.

Another bin Laden son, Abdullah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, told the Arab TV news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired this week that Eman telephoned him after she eluded guards who were taking her on a shopping trip in Tehran.

Osama bin Laden reportedly has 19 children by several wives. He took at least one of his wives and their children with him to Afghanistan in the late 1990s after he was thrown out of his previous refuge, Sudan. The family members, including the group that tried to escape through Iran, fled when the U.S.-led war erupted.

Omar bin Laden told Asharq al-Awsat that the family had not known for certain the fate of the siblings who fled through Iran until Eman's escape.

"Until four weeks ago, we did not know where they were," said the 28-year-old who is married to a British woman and has lived in Egypt and the Persian Gulf region. He said eight other bin Laden children live in Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Most of the al Qaeda leader's children, such as Omar, live as legitimate businessmen. The extended bin Laden family, one of the wealthiest in Saudi Arabia, disowned Osama in 1994 when Saudi Arabia stripped him of his citizenship because of his militant activities. Osama bin Laden's billionaire father, Mohammed, who died in 1967, had more than 50 children and founded the Binladen Group, a construction conglomerate that gets many major building contracts in the kingdom.

Omar bin Laden said he spoke by telephone in recent weeks with his 25-year-old brother, Othman, who is among the six siblings being held in Iran. Othman bin Laden said Iranian authorities detained the group after they crossed the border from Afghanistan in 2001 and have been holding them under guard in a housing complex in Tehran, Omar told Asharq al-Awsat.

In January, the Treasury slapped financial sanctions on Saad bin Laden and three other al Qaeda figures for suspected terror activities. At the time, Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said it was thought that Saad had left Iran and was likely in Pakistan.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/24/bin-ladens-daughter-takes-saudi-refuge//print/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDITORIAL

A Christmas Armistice

Written in the trenches by Pvt. Frederick W. Heath, 1914

The night closed in early - the ghostly shadows that haunt the trenches came to keep us company as we stood to arms. Under a pale moon, one could just see the grave-like rise of ground which marked the German trenches 200 yards away. Fires in the English lines had died down, and only the squelch of the sodden boots in the slushy mud, the whispered orders of the officers and the NCOs, and the moan of the wind broke the silence of the night. The soldiers' Christmas Eve had come at last, and it was hardly the time or place to feel grateful for it.

Memory in her shrine kept us in a trance of saddened silence. Back somewhere in England, the fires were burning in cosy rooms; in fancy I heard laughter and the thousand melodies of reunion on Christmas Eve. With overcoat thick with wet mud, hands cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against the side of the trench, and, looking through my loophole, fixed weary eyes on the German trenches. Thoughts surged madly in my mind; but they had no sequence, no cohesion. Mostly they were of home as I had known it through the years that had brought me to this. I asked myself why I was in the trenches in misery at all, when I might have been in England warm and prosperous. ...

Still looking and dreaming, my eyes caught a flare in the darkness. A light in the enemy's trenches was so rare at that hour that I passed a message down the line. I had hardly spoken when light after light sprang up along the German front. Then quite near our dug-outs, so near as to make me start and clutch my rifle, I heard a voice. There was no mistaking that voice with its guttural ring. With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: "English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas!"

Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices: "Come out, English soldier; come out here to us." For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other's throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity - war's most amazing paradox.

The night wore on to dawn - a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired, except for down on our right, where the French artillery were at work.

Came the dawn, pencilling the sky with grey and pink. Under the early light we saw our foes moving recklessly about on top of their trenches. Here, indeed, was courage; no seeking the security of the shelter but a brazen invitation to us to shoot and kill with deadly certainty. But did we shoot? Not likely! We stood up ourselves and called benisons on the Germans. Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.

Still cautious we hung back. Not so the others. They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their heads, asking us to do the same. Not for long could such an appeal be resisted - beside, was not the courage up to now all on one side? Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans. Out went the hands and tightened in the grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest foes friends.

Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease. We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged all manner of things. We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them for German ones. We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany. But the gift of gifts was Christmas pudding. The sight of it made the Germans' eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and at the first bite of it they were our friends forever. Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.

And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice. We could not help remembering that we were enemies, even though we had shaken hands. We dare not advance too near their trenches lest we saw too much, nor could the Germans come beyond the barbed wire which lay before ours. After we had chatted, we turned back to our respective trenches for breakfast.

All through the day no shot was fired, and all we did was talk to each other and make confessions which, perhaps, were truer at that curious moment than in the normal times of war. How far this unofficial truce extended along the lines I do not know, but I do know that what I have written here applies to the [specific location censored out] on our side and the 158th German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.

As I finish this short and scrappy description of a strangely human event, we are pouring rapid fire into the German trenches, and they are returning the compliment just as fiercely. Screeching through the air above us are the shattering shells of rival batteries of artillery. So we are back once more to the ordeal of fire.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/24/a-christmas-armistice/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Wall Street Journal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All Is Not Calm Over Decorations

The Arkansas state Capitol got a new holiday decoration this year: A plywood kiosk that marks the winter solstice and recommends books such as "The God Delusion" and "Atheist Manifesto."

The booth, erected last week under a federal court order, joins more-traditional Christmas decorations at the Capitol in Little Rock, including life-size cutouts of snowmen and an intricately carved wooden Nativity scene.

For the past two years, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers has sought permission to put up a "Box of Knowledge" on the Capitol lawn. "We didn't feel very included in the holiday spirit," said Tod Billings, the Freethinkers' president.

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, who is in charge of the Capitol grounds, denied the application last year, saying he couldn't tell what the box would look like.

This year, the Freethinkers submitted pictures of the kiosk -- draped in garlands for a festive touch -- and Mr. Daniels again denied it, saying "it did not fit in with our holiday theme," according to his spokeswoman, Natasha Naragon.

The Freethinkers went to federal court and on Dec. 14, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright ordered the state to permit the Box of Knowledge to go up. If a private group -- The Foundation to Preserve and Promote the Nativity -- was allowed to set up a creche honoring the birth of Christ, the judge said, the Freethinkers also had the right to decorate the Capitol lawn.

Now that the box is up, though, some Christians are feeling less than merry.

"It's like my coming to a wedding reception, setting off a smoke bomb and saying, 'It's free expression! It's my right!'" said Jerry Cox, who directs the Family Council, a conservative Christian advocacy group with offices two blocks from the Capitol.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious displays, such as Nativity scenes, are acceptable on public land as long as they are balanced by secular symbols of the season. (Christmas trees and Santa are considered secular.)

Once a local government permits one group to display its holiday message, that space is considered a public forum; other groups must be allowed to have their say as well.

In recent years, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Madison, Wis., has used the public-forum rule to crash civic Christmas displays with deliberately provocative signs declaring, "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

The goal: To offend the faithful, in hopes that they will come to understand that a creche is equally offensive to nonbelievers.

"If you just put up a sign that says, 'Jolly Winter Solstice!' they don't get it," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation's co-president. "We have to be a little more hard-hitting."

In part because of the group's efforts, a free expression free-for-all broke out in the rotunda of Washington's Capitol in Olympia last year, complete with signs honoring the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" and condemning Santa. The state ended up banning all private displays from the rotunda.

In Delray Beach, Fla., the giant Hanukkah menorah that has been on display in the past didn't materialize this year. When some Jewish residents asked why, the city said it didn't want to put up any religious symbols. In a successful effort to force its return, Jewish residents called for an eight-day boycott of local stores and threatened to put up billboards proclaiming: "Welcome to Delray. Hanukkah has been canceled."

In Little Rock, meanwhile, Freethinkers say they are glad to have both their box and the creche on the Capitol lawn. Susan Heffington, a vice president of the Freethinkers society, said, "That nativity scene is a wonderful example of Ozark folk art."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126161471097003539.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mexico Arrests Tie Family's Killing to Violent Gang

Two of those arrested transported money to pay the hit men, who are still at large, Rafael Gonzalez, the attorney general of Tabasco state, where the killings took place, said Wednesday. He said two other people arrested, including one woman, acted as lookouts on the street where the killings took place.

Last week, Mr. Beltrán Leyva died during an assault by navy special forces on a luxury apartment tower in a central Mexican city. He was the highest-ranking drug lord to be killed or captured by Mexico in years. Also killed in the gun battle was 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo, who was hailed as a national hero by the military and President Felipe Calderón and was buried Monday with full military honors.

Just hours after his burial, hit men burst into his family's home and killed his mother, aunt and two siblings. A third sibling remains in critical condition.

Mr. Gonzalez said the killing was carried out by a drug gang called the Zetas, formed by deserters from an elite Mexican army unit who went to work as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, which controls trafficking along the Mexican Gulf Coast south of Texas.

The Zetas have since grown into a drug-trafficking organization notorious as Mexico's cruelest. The group is said to have pioneered, among other things, the tactic of beheading victims to intimidate rival drug gangs, the government and ordinary citizens. It has branched out into other kidnappings and extortion, Mexican officials say.

Until now, the Zetas have stopped short of killing family members of soldiers or policemen who fight them in the country's war on drugs. Analysts worry it could signal the growing use of terror tactics to pressure the government to back off.

Mexico, a leading supplier of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin to the U.S., likely has the world's most powerful illicit drug cartels. Mr. Calderon has staked his presidency on a high-profile assault on drug gangs, sending 45,000 army troops to several parts of the country in a bid to stop the growing power of cartels and slow a wave of drug-related violence that has killed around 15,000 people in the past three years.

The death of the navy sailor's family will raise pressure on the government to better protect those on the front line of the drug war as well as their families.

This year, drug gangs murdered 12 federal police officers and dumped their bodies alongside a highway in western Michoacan state in retaliation for the arrest of a drug trafficker in the La Familia cartel. The head of customs for Mexico's Gulf port of Veracruz disappeared in what officials say was likely retaliation by the Zetas for his unit's role in helping to seize various shipments of illegal drugs.

For much of the past three decades, Mexico and Washington have tried to curtail the trade by going after drug kingpins like the late Mr. Beltrán Leyva. But as the drug lord's death shows, drug-trafficking organizations usually survive their leader's death. Already, Mexican officials are guessing who will replace Mr. Beltrán Leyva in the cartel that carries his name.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126161995760803619.html#printMode

.