Medical costs for U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could range from $350 billion to $662 billion over the next 40 years, as soldiers survive injuries that would have killed them in past conflicts, according to a Harvard University study.Due to improvements in battlefield medicine and equipment, there are now about 16 "nonmortally wounded" soldiers for every death, far more than the 2.6 soldiers wounded per death in Vietnam, the study said, citing Department of Veterans' Affairs data.The author of the study, Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, presented her findings at an academic conference in January. They were released publicly by the university this week....
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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Editor - 00:05:00 02-03-07
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 Death Toll in Southern Philippines Tanker Explosion Rises From 27 to 50, Officials Say |
The death toll from a tanker explosion in the southern Philippines has risen from 27 to 50 after authorities accounted for the remains of more victims, officials said Saturday. At least 65 others were hospitalized, said provincial social welfare officer Conchita San Diego. Many of the victims were passengers of a minibus that was following the tanker truck or motorists who were slowed down by the traffic caused by the accident, San Diego said. The tanker truck was negotiating a downhill stretch of the highway in Tigbao town in Zamboanga del Sur province Friday when its brakes failed, causing it to slam into the side of the mountain before overturning and killing its driver, police said. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2846628
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Editor - 00:02:00 02-03-07
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| Factions clash despite Gaza truce |
Sporadic gun battles are continuing in Gaza between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions, despite a renewed truce. Clashes have broken out in two areas of Gaza City although reports say the fighting has been intermittent. Twenty-two people were killed and at least 200 wounded in 24 hours before the truce was revived on Friday. In Washington, the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the EU, the UN, the US and Russia - voiced "deep concern" about the levels of violence. The Quartet also supported a US push to revive the stalled peace process between the Palestinians and Israel. Tense time The BBC's Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, says residents of Gaza City woke up on Saturday to the sound of more gunfire. However, neither party launched major assaults during the night, he adds, and there remains a sense that the wider situation has improved. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6326801.stm
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Editor - 23:32:00 02-02-07
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| DoD to request $622.6 billion for 2008 |
The Pentagon is expected to send Congress a $622.6 billion defense budget for 2008. The sum includes $141.7 billion to continue fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The numbers were confirmed by a Pentagon official Feb. 2.The spending plan, to be delivered to lawmakers Feb. 5, is $6.2 billion more than the $616.4 billion the Pentagon is spending this year. But there are greater differences in the budget than those numbers alone suggest.Basic “peacetime” spending for 2008 is set at $481.4 billion, up from about $440 billion approved for 2007. Peacetime spending is how much it costs each year to keep the U.S. military going — pay and train troops, buy and maintain weapons, conduct exercises and deployments. War costs are extra.And there’s a substantial drop in war costs. The Pentagon wants $163.4 billion to fight the wars during 2007. The 2008 request is $21.7 billion less....
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/02/dfnbudget070202/
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Editor - 23:14:00 02-02-07
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| Bush Budget Hikes War Funding |
Keeping troops in Iraq for another year and a half will cost nearly a quarter-trillion dollars — about $800 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — under the budget President Bush will submit to Congress Monday. Bush will ask for $100 billion more for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior Pentagon official said Friday. Those requests come on top of about $344 billion spent for Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. At the same time, Bush's budget request will propose cost curbs on Medicare providers, a cap on subsidy payments to wealthier farmers and an increase to $4,600 in the maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students. Bush's proposal, totaling almost $3 trillion for the budget year starting Oct. 1,...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/02/national/w132010S83.DTL
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Editor - 23:12:00 02-02-07
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| Women, not men, choose spouses on island |
He was 14 when the girl entered his grass-covered hut and placed a plate of steaming fish in front of him. Like all men on this African isle, Carvadju Jose Nananghe knew exactly what it meant. Refusing was not an option. His heart pounding, he lifted the aromatic dish, prepared with an ancient recipe, to his lips, agreeing in one bite to marry the girl. "I had no feelings for her," said Nananghe, now 65. "Then when I ate this meal, it was like lightning. I wanted only her." In this archipelago of 50 islands off the western rim of Africa, it's women, not men, who choose. They make their proposals public by offering their grooms-to-be a dish of distinctively prepared fish, marinated in red palm oil. Once they have asked, men are powerless to say no. To have refused, explained Nananghe, remembering the day half a century ago, would have dishonored his family — and in any case, why would he want to choose his own wife?...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-02-ladies-choice_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 18:50:00 02-02-07
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