Obama and the "R" Word, Will He or Won't He?

The only mystery left in President Obama's "final stage" speech Wednesday on the future of health care is whether he will utter the "R" word.

The "R" word, at least as far as the health care debate is concerned, is reconciliation. Reconciliation is the procedural nom de guerre for the majority party's path around the Senate's 60-vote filibuster.

Senate Democrats would like to hear Obama say reconciliation, if for no other reason than to give the maneuver a presidential imprimatur.

"Yes, yes, yes," a senior Democratic congressional source told Fox when asked if Senate Democrats wanted Obama to invoke the "R" word.

Senate Democrats also believe such declaration from Obama would demystify the process and give them a degree of political cover. How? By allowing them to share with Obama the rationale for muscling health care through the chamber on simple-majority vote -- even though they studiously avoided that approach before Sen. Scott Brown's stunning upset victory in Massachusetts deprived them of their 60-vote majority.

House Democrats don't much care if Obama says the "R" word or not. They know the Senate is going to use reconciliation and, they say, so should anyone paying attention.

"Saying it doesn't make it any more or less real," a senior House Democrat said. "If you don't know the Senate is going to use reconciliation by now, you haven't been paying attention."

In fact, House Democrats are far more worried about what will happen in their chamber. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still has to corral enough votes to pass the Senate health care bill. If she can't, the reconciliation process stalls before it even starts.

"With reconciliation, things are easier for the Senate Democrats, it's on our side where things are still difficult," the House Democrat said. "I don't think people fully appreciate that."

In fact, there really is no mystery about all this.

Obama will not use the "R" word Wednesday, two White House officials told Fox.

"When in this entire year-long process have we ever benefited from talking about process," one White House official asked rhetorically. "Answer: Never."

The White House knows if Obama says "reconciliation" in Wednesday's speech that will become the headline. This will thrust Obama knee-deep into arcane Senate procedures and rules -- the last place White House officials want Obama to be.

The administration doesn't deny Obama is already in the reconciliation soup by inference -- it's his health care bill, after all. But they still see some distance between him and what's likely to be a contentious Senate tug-of-war over reconciliation.

Instead of talking about reconciliation, Obama will use Wednesday's speech to remind the nation about the stakes involved and about his recent efforts - outlined in a letter to congressional leaders today - to incorporate GOP ideas from last week's health care summit. Obama will also say his new found interest in Republican health care ideas proves he's willing to compromise. If the GOP won't respond in kind, Obama will imply the fault lies with a minority party incapable of deviating from its obstructionist ways.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Tuesday if Republicans don't play ball, then the process of reconciliation will be invoked. He also predicted Obama will at least indirectly suggest that's the likely - and possibly only - way forward.

"In accordance with the rules of the Senate, that's a possibility," Kaine said, referring to reconciliation, during an appearance on Fox's Studio B with Sheppard Smith." You'll hear the president talk about that."

As have other Democrats, Kaine portrayed reconciliation as a maneuver to allow the majority to prevail.

"Democrats have a majority for a reason," Kaine said. "The American public wanted them

to have a majority."

Kaine said he believes Republicans will reject Obama's most recent policy overtures.

"When they don't accept the olive branch, that signifies that the time for backing and forthing is done and it's time to vote," Kaine said. "Americans understand that. The American people elected this president to get results. They don't care about the inside baseball."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said process does matter and said Democrats are courting political disaster if they use what he called heavy-handed tactics to pass health reform by circumventing the filibuster.

"I wouldn't want to be a Democrat voting for this bill," Hatch told Fox. "And I don't believe they'll have enough votes to really pass it. However, if they can mutilate the rules in this body and they can utilize the reconciliation rule, they can let eight of their Senators go to vote against it, even though that would be about as phony as you could get. Then they could pass it with 51 votes. It would be one of most disastrous, stupid things you could possibly do."

More than 100 bodies recovered after massive landslides in Uganda

Fresh earth is exposed after massive landslides Monday night in Uganda.

Kampala, Uganda (CNN) -- At least 106 bodies had been recovered Tuesday after massive landslides wiped out several villages around Mount Elgon on the Uganda-Kenya border, an army spokesman and local aid officials said.

The army has joined the search for an estimated 245 people who are still missing and feared dead in eastern Uganda's Bududa district after Monday night's landslides, which were brought on by unusually heavy rain in the third week of the annual rainy season, according to State Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru.

Dozens of bodies were recovered from a hospital and church where people had run to seek shelter, officials said. The hospital and church were buried when torrents of mud swept down on them.

The final death toll is expected to be much higher, Ecweru said, after crews are able to navigate the vast region affected by the disaster and find more victims. And more rain is forecast for the area.

In the meantime, the bodies recovered will be buried in mass graves beginning Wednesday, he said.

Spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde of the Ugandan Red Cross Society said Tuesday that only two elderly women survived the disaster in one area.

"The villages of Nametsi, Namakansa and Kubewo in Nametsi parish have been wiped out" and six people died in the village of Bamuyaka in neighboring Bubita Sub County, Ntabadde added.

The URCS was providing water purification tablets to survivors to avoid outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Distribution of "nonfood items like tarpaulins, blankets, jerry cans, soap, saucepans, cups and plates is to commence late today to the now-homeless survivors," she said.

There are other reports of landslides hitting several communities in the neighboring districts of Sironko and Bukwa -- also located on the slopes and at the foot of Mount Elgon -- where at least 1,000 people have been affected and their homes destroyed, but the extent of the damage there is not yet known, Ntabadde said.

Flooding has destroyed several roads and many bridges have been washed away in at least seven districts less than 31 miles (50 kilometers) from the mountain. They include the Butaleja, Budaka, Palisa, Tororo, Mbale and Manafwa districts.

In Butaleja, more than 6,000 households in four subcounties were affected by the flooding, and the area's only two primary schools were washed away, Ntabadde said.

Mount Elgon, the second-highest mountain in Uganda, is an extinct volcano and has five distinct peaks ranging from 13,000 to 14,000 feet high, according to a Ugandan tourist Web site. It is located about 217 miles (350 kilometers) east of the capital, Kampala.

The landslides came when rivers on the mountain overflowed with heavy rains, but deforestation, farming and other human activity on its slopes also contributed to the problem.

By: CNN International.

Etched ostrich eggs illustrate human sophistication

By Jonathan Amos

Inscribed ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism by modern humans, scientists say.

The etched shells from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Western Cape have been dated to about 60,000 years ago.

Details are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, who have investigated the material since 1999, argue that the markings are almost certainly a form of messaging - of graphic communication.

"The motif is two parallel lines, which we suppose were circular, but we do not have a complete refit of the eggs," explained Dr Pierre-Jean Texier from the University of Bordeaux, Talence, France.

The lines are crossed at right angles or oblique angles by hatching. By the repetition of this motif, early humans were trying to communicate something. Perhaps they were trying to express the identity of the individual or the group," he told BBC News.

Symbolic thought - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution, and sets our species apart from the rest of the animal world.

Understanding when and where this behaviour first emerged is a key quest for scientists studying human origins.

Arguably the earliest examples of conceptual thought are the pieces of shell jewellery discovered at Skhul Cave in Israel and from Oued Djebbana in Algeria. These artefacts are 90,000-100,000 years old.

Shell beading from 75,000 years ago is also found at Blombos Cave in South Africa, as well as a number of ochre blocks that have engravings not dissimilar to those at Diepkloof.

Etched ochre blocks from Blombos

However, the significance of the Diepkloof finds may lie in their number, which proves such markings could not have been simple doodlings.

"What is extraordinary at Diepkloof is that we have close to 300 pieces of such engravings, which is why we are speaking of a system of symbolic representation," Dr Texier said.

The team, which includes Dr Guillaume Porraz from the University of Tubingen, tried themselves to recreate the markings using pieces of flint.

"Ostrich egg shells are quite hard. Doing such engravings is not so easy. You have to pass through the outer layer to get through the middle layer," Dr Texier explained.

The team's experiments also suggest that the colouration of the fragments is natural and not the result of the application of pigments.

The group was able to reproduce similar hues by baking pieces of shell near a fire.

Early humans pierced and strung shells together as jewellery

Professor Chris Stringer, of London's Natural History Museum, said the find was important.

"Here we've got something that we can compare with later material that clearly does have important signalling value in the populations," he told BBC News.

"It's a very nice link between the Middle Stone Age, the later Stone Age and even recent population in South Africa. One question now is whether this is a special site, or as we excavate more sites will we find this material is more widespread?"

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Police submit charges against five Americans

The students, in their 20s and from the US state of Virginia, were detained in December in the town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, and accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting attacks.

They have not been formally charged, but police on Tuesday submitted a charge sheet in an anti-terrorist court in Sargodha, said defence lawyer Hassan Dastagir.

“The court received the challan (charge sheet) which carries charges of criminal conspiracy, having the intention to go to Pakistan's neighbouring countries to topple the government and involvement in fund raising for terrorist acts,” he told Reuters.

The court is expected to formally charge the five at the next hearing on March 10, he said.

The case has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet to evade tighter international security measures and plan attacks.

The five, who earlier told the court they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help, face life imprisonment if convicted, Dastagir said.

Police have said the men - two of them of Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one of Eritrean origin - wanted to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban to fight Afghan and Western forces.

Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani militants who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan, a front-line state in the US-led war against militancy.

The five have accused the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them. Pakistani authorities deny the accusations of mistreatment.

Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants and is under pressure from the United States to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan by cracking down on militants' cross-border attacks on US-led troops.

by: Dawn News Pakistan.

Permission of weddings

All the men of the Province of Punjab, Pakistan were very happy when they hear that one female Member of Provincial Assembly announced that she gives permission to her husband to get married second time for the sake of kindness. She will not be jealous, and all the men should be permitted by their wives to get marry as it is permitted in the religion of Islam.

Furthermore, the opposition of the assembly opposed this proposal very hard and demand the speaker to condemn her. But when the MPA, Punjab came across to the media, she was very fresh, and insist that she is still on that point and she doesn't have any embarrassment. If it is permitted in the religion of Islam and as a muslim it is not prohibited then it must not be banned in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Although, Pakistan is an Islamic state, but there is still the old british laws, and all the law are not imposed as per islamic rules.

by: Syed Asim Ali.