Healthspan Blog

By Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two American journalists freed by North Korea tearfully reunited with their families in the United States on Wednesday while Washington tried to play down talk of a breakthrough with Pyongyang.

Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, reporters for an American cable television venture arrived at Burbank airport near Los Angles aboard a private jet with former President Bill Clinton, who secured their release after meeting over dinner with North Korea's reclusive and ailing leader, Kim Jong-il.

President Barack Obama said he was "extraordinarily relieved" at the women's return but insisted the way for North Korea to improve relations with the United States was to give up nuclear weapons and stop its belligerent behavior.

Clinton's dramatic visit was the first high-level U.S. contact with North Korea in nearly a decade.

Despite the mission's success, the drama underlined the fine line Washington treads to avoid rewarding Pyongyang after repeated military provocations while trying to coax it into giving up its ambitions of becoming a nuclear-weapons power.

Critics of North Korea, including Republican Senator John McCain, accused Kim of using Clinton's visit to enhance his position amid doubts about his health.

They urged the Obama administration not to sidestep six-nation negotiations by engaging in direct bilateral talks with North Korea on ending its nuclear weapons program, a move that worries U.S. allies South Korea and Japan.

North Korea quit the on-and-off negotiations last year and has since insisted it will only talk with Washington.

Ling thrust her arms in the air as the two beaming women descended from the plane to an emotional reunion with their families in an airport hangar. Lee hugged Hana, the 4-year-old daughter she had not seen for five months.

HARD LABOR

Ling said they both feared they could be taken to a hard labor camp when they were led instead on Tuesday to a location where Clinton was waiting for them.

"We knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. Now we stand here home and free," she told reporters.

The two journalists, who work for Current TV, co-founded by Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, were arrested on March 17 for illegally crossing into North Korea from China and had been reporting on the trafficking of women. They were both sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in June.

Clinton did not speak on arrival, but said in a statement that the women's families, Gore and the White House had asked him to undertake the humanitarian mission to Pyongyang.

The former president, who tried unsuccessfully to halt North Korea's nuclear arms program in the 1990s, spoke briefly with Obama by telephone and will brief national security officials on his meeting with Kim, the White House said.

North Korea painted the meeting between Clinton and Kim as high-level talks the North Korean leader will certainly use to boost his image at home.

In North Korean media photos, Kim was smiling and looked in reasonable health after speculation he was seriously ill. Some reports have said Kim may have suffered a stroke last year and is grooming his youngest son to succeed him.

"I think it'll be very interesting," said McCain. "He's the first Westerner to see Kim since his reported stroke and other problems. I think former President Clinton will have some interesting information."

'NO SWEETENERS'

North Korea's KCNA news agency said Kim issued a special pardon to the U.S. journalists enabling them to leave. It also reported that Clinton and Kim agreed their two countries should settle "pending issues" between them through dialogue.

The Obama administration insisted it had not offered any sweeteners to North Korea in its nuclear standoff with the West in return for its release of the journalists, although a senior U.S. official said Clinton did talk to North Korea's leadership about the "positive things that could flow" from freeing them.

"We were very clear that this was a humanitarian mission. President Clinton was going on behalf of the families," Obama said in an interview with MSNBC television.

"We have said to the North Koreans there's a path for improved relations and it involves them no longer developing nuclear weapons, not engaging in provocative behavior."

Clinton's wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said in Nairobi there was no connection between efforts to free the journalists and the thorny nuclear issue.

Critics of her husband's mission said Pyongyang had clearly linked the journalists' case to the nuclear issue by sending its top negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, to greet Clinton at the airport.

Analysts speculated that Clinton's meeting with Kim could open the way to direct nuclear disarmament talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Financial markets in Tokyo and Seoul largely ignored the women's release, although some South Korean traders said it added a more positive atmosphere to what had been a string of negative reports over the North in recent months.

North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles in launch tests in May and exploded a nuclear device on May 25, resulting in tougher U.N. sanctions that it has ignored.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Paul Eckert, Ross Colvin and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Jack Kim in Seoul, Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo, Sue Pleming in Nairobi; Writing by Anthony Boadle and Christopher Wilson; Editing by David Storey and Peter Cooney)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should fund itself directly from industry fees to be able to invest more in technology and personnel, Chairman Mary Schapiro told the Financial Times on Wednesday.

Unlike other U.S. banking regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and the Federal Reserve, the SEC cannot use the fees it receives without Congressional approval.

"Self-funding has been discussed over the years but I think it may now well be the moment," Schapiro said quoted by the Financial Times. "Some stability in funding would be an enormous benefit because it would help us with long-term planning in such areas as technology and staffing."

The SEC is expected to collect $1.3 billion in 2009, but has been authorized by the Congress to spend $960 million, the Financial Times said.

Next year, the regulator is seen collecting $1.5 billion in fees, but the government has asked for a budget of $1.03 billion, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Juan Lagorio; editing by Carol Bishopric)

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two more Republicans broke ranks on Wednesday and backed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who seemed virtually certain of winning Senate approval as the first Hispanic on the highest U.S. court.

A vote by the 100-member and Democratic-led Senate was expected as early as Thursday, with the swearing-in shortly afterward.

Republican Senators Judd Gregg and Kit Bond announced their support during a second day of debate in the Senate on President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nominee.

Their support raised to eight the number of Republican senators who have said they plan to vote for the 55-year-old federal appeals court judge out of a total of 40 Republicans in the Senate.

"Her views and decisions, although strongly stated, are certainly not out of the mainstream of American jurisprudence or political thought," Gregg said.

"I will be proud for her, the community she represents and the 'American Dream' she shows possible," said Bond.

Sotomayor rose from poverty to be educated at the finest U.S. universities and went on to a distinguished law career. A federal judge for the past 17 years, she would be the first Hispanic and only the third woman ever on the Supreme Court, established in 1789.

Based on private head counts and public declarations, Senate aides predicted Sotomayor would win approval comfortably, with between 60 and 70 votes.

She would replace David Souter, who retired from the high court this year, but is not expected to change the balance on the bench. Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years has often issued 5-4 ruling in favor of conservatives.

Sotomayor is viewed by supporters as a moderate who rules strictly by the law. Critics see her as a liberal who allows personal feelings to influence her decisions.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales under the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" auto incentive topped 180,000 with Toyota Motor Corp overtaking Ford Motor Co with the top-selling vehicle, officials said on Wednesday.

Separately, a Senate vote on a $2 billion proposal to extend the "clunker" initiative will likely slip to Friday due to slow negotiations on procedural matters, congressional aides and lobbyists said.

Senate Democratic leaders said they had the votes to clear any Republican hurdles and give the bill, passed by the House of Representatives last week, final congressional approval.

"There's a significant majority that wants to move forward with this legislation," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor.

The White House supports the extension.

Transportation Department figures show federal reimbursements under the program, which offers rebates of up to $4,500 when consumers trade in older cars for new more fuel efficient ones, totaled $775.2 million.

The consumer response since dealers began offering "clunker" rebates in July has been overwhelming, government and industry officials say.

They expect sales already confirmed by the government and those completed by dealers but not yet through the regulatory pipeline will come close to exhausting the incentive's $1 billion budget.

More than 80 percent of vehicles traded-in were light trucks, including sport utilities, pickups and vans, while 59 percent of the new vehicles purchased were passenger cars, which as a class are more fuel efficient.

Toyota's Corolla sedan overtook the Ford Focus as the best-selling vehicle in the "clunker" program. Toyota had two other passenger cars, the Prius hybrid and the Camry, in the top five. The Honda Motor Co Civic was No. 3.

Vehicles made by U.S. manufacturers accounted for all of the top 10 traded-in vehicles, which is to be expected since rebate terms require the older model get no more than 18 miles per gallon in most cases.

The "clunker" group included five light truck models made by Ford. The list also included three Jeep and Dodge brands made by Chrysler and two GM Chevy models.

Increasing gas mileage and lowering tailpipe emissions are key goals of the program, which is mainly aimed at boosting U.S. sales overall and helping General Motors Co and Chrysler Group recover from bankruptcy.

New vehicles sold under the program average 25.3 miles per gallon while those traded-in got 18.5 mpg.

(Reporting by John Crawley and Thomas Ferraro; editing by Carol Bishopric)

By Paul Tait

KABUL (Reuters) - Almost half of Afghanistan is at a high risk of attack by the Taliban and other insurgents or is under "enemy control," a secret Afghan government map shows, painting a dire security picture before presidential elections.

The threat assessment map, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, shows 133 of Afghanistan's 356 districts are regarded as high-risk areas with at least 13 under "enemy control."

The map, which bears the logos of Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and the army as well as the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, was produced in April 2009, before a dramatic escalation of violence ahead of the August 20 ballot.

The Interior Ministry was not immediately available for comment despite several telephone calls and emails on Wednesday.

The map shows virtually the entire south of the country under extreme risk of attack, a vast swathe stretching from Farah in the west through Helmand province in the south and east toward provinces such as Paktia and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border.

The Taliban have vowed to disrupt the poll and have called on Afghans to boycott the vote. Their traditional strongholds have been in the south and east but their influence has steadily spread to the west and north, even to the outskirts of Kabul. It shows at-risk areas on three sides of the capital.

In a dramatic attack demonstrating their new reach, Islamist insurgents fired up to nine rockets into the capital early on Tuesday, the first attack of its kind in several years.

Attacks across the country this year had already reached their worst level since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001 and escalated further after thousands of U.S. Marines launched a new offensive in Helmand last month.

The offensive, and a similar British thrust in Helmand, were the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its Islamist allies and stabilize Afghanistan.

For a link to the map, click here

CRUCIAL TEST

Escalating violence threatens to overshadow the ballot, which in turn is seen as a crucial test of Obama's new strategy and of Kabul's ability to stage a credible and legitimate ballot.

"The Afghan National Security Forces and the International Security Assistance Force are ready to secure the upcoming elections and we expect that no major security incident will take place during the elections," said Ministry of Defense spokesman General Zaher Azimy.

The United Nations confirmed the map's authenticity but said it had merely played an oversight role, helping with graphics.

"The map is an Afghan government map," said U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique in Kabul. "It's certainly not for us to speak publicly on it or comment on it or define it," he said.

The map, entitled ANSF Provincial/District Threat Assessment, 23 April 2009, provides some of the first concrete evidence of poor security that may threaten voter turnout in Afghanistan's southern Pashtun belt, President Hamid Karzai's power base.

Potentially poor turnout in the south is one of the biggest threats to Karzai's chances of re-election. He is the clear front-runner in a slowly diminishing field of 35 challengers.

A poor turnout in the south would increase the likelihood of a second round run-off if no candidate gets more than 50 percent in the first round of voting, election observers say.

That would in turn open the chance for one of Karzai's main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah or ex-finance minister Ashraf Ghani, to build a coalition to take on Karzai, who has ruled since 2001 and won the first direct vote in 2004.

The ANSF threat map also appears to back up fears first expressed by think-tank the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) that much more of Afghanistan was under threat than the government and foreign forces had acknowledged.

It said last December the Taliban held a significant presence in 72 percent of Afghanistan by the end of 2008, a dramatic increase on the previous year. Their research was based on one or more reported attacks in an area a week.

NATO and the Afghan government, however, rejected the ICOS report, formerly known as the Senlis Council, saying the Taliban were only present in the south and east.

(Additional reporting by Golnar Motevalli and Jonathon Burch in KABUL; Editing by Bill Tarrant)