Obama to nominate Chuck Hagel for defense secretary

President Obama plans to nominate former senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and Vietnam veteran, to be secretary of defense on Monday, according to a person close to the process and a senior administration official.

The White House informed the Hagel camp over the weekend that Obama intends to announce the nomination at the White House on Monday.

The two people with knowledge of the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the nomination before Obama does, said key members of Congress were being being notified Sunday afternoon about the decision.

Hagel would add a well-known Republican to the president’s second-term Cabinet at a time when Obama, after a bitter presidential campaign, is looking to better bridge the partisan divide.

But Hagel’s expected nomination has drawn sharp criticism in recent weeks, particularly from Republicans who have questioned his commitment to Israel’s security.

The choice sets up a nomination fight Obama appeared unwilling to have over his preferred pick for secretary of state, Susan Rice, who pulled out of consideration for that job last month amid Republican complaints over her role in explaining the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

In an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Hagel’s selection “an in-your-face nomination.”

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Hagel’s record would be given a fair shake in the Senate if he is nominated. McConnell stopped short of saying whether he was prepared to support or oppose his former colleague.

“He’s certainly been outspoken in foreign policy and defense over the years,” McConnell said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “The question we’ll be answering if he’s the nominee is: Do his views make sense for that particular job? I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee. And he will be.”

The Hagel announcement will begin what White House officials have said will probably be a busy week of announcements regarding who will fill out Obama’s second-term Cabinet and senior staff.

The president returned from a curtailed holiday in Hawaii on Sunday and will begin making a series of final personnel decisions delayed by the year-end negotiations with Congress over taxes and spending cuts.

Concerning the opposition that has arisen on the Hill before Hagel’s formal nomination, a senior administration official said Sunday that the White House expects Democrats to support the choice, as well as many Republicans who served with Hagel.

“Having a name floated and having one officially put forward are two different things,” the official said.

Hagel, who twice received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in Vietnam, served in the U.S. Senate for two terms ending in 2009.

He was an outspoken and often-independent voice as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, breaking with many in his party to sharply criticize the management of the Iraq war after he initially supported the invasion.

Read More..

Obama set to nominate Hagel as defence secretary

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is poised to nominate Chuck Hagel as his new defence secretary on Monday, but Republicans are signalling a fierce confirmation fight even though he is one of their own.

Obama has decided he wants the 66-year-old former Republican senator to succeed Leon Panetta at the Pentagon and will make his announcement on Monday, an administration source told AFP, confirming US media reports.

Obama is also expected to announce who he has chosen to replace David Petraeus at the helm of the CIA, with acting director Michael Morell and counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan seen as the frontrunners, CNN said.

Despite the fact that Hagel is a fellow Republican, party heavyweights scenting blood in bitterly-divided Washington have accused him of hostility toward Israel and naivety on Iran, auguring a tough nomination process ahead.

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, praised Hagel when he left his Nebraska seat in 2009 for his "clear voice and stature on national security and foreign policy," but his tone was markedly different on Sunday.

"He ought to be given a fair hearing like any other nominee, and he will be," McConnell told ABC. "I'm going to wait and see how the hearings go and whether Chuck's views square with the job he would be nominated to do."

But over on CNN, leading Republican Senator Lindsey Graham did not shy away from a full-frontal attack, saying Hagel would be "the most antagonistic defence secretary towards the state of Israel in our nation's history.

"Not only has he said you should directly negotiate with Iran, sanctions won't work, that Israel must negotiate with Hamas, an organisation, terrorist group, that lobs thousands of rockets into Israel.

"He also was one of 12 senators who refused to sign a letter to the European Union trying to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation," Graham said.

Hagel would be an "in-your-face" and "incredibly controversial choice" by Obama that would probably represent a "bridge too far" for him and a lot of other Republicans, he said, before adding that the hearings would provide the expected nominee with a chance to "set some of this straight."

Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is known for a fiercely independent streak and a tendency to speak bluntly. Some Republicans have never forgiven him for his outspoken criticism of ex-president George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war.

If confirmed by the Senate as Pentagon chief, Hagel will have to manage major cuts to military spending while wrapping up the US war effort in Afghanistan and preparing for worst-case scenarios in Iran or Syria.

Administration appointments are often tense affairs in the United States as the confirmation hearings provide senators with opportunities to turn away unwanted candidates or score cheap political points, or both.

Unyielding opposition from Graham and two other top Republicans, senators Kelly Ayotte and John McCain, last month derailed the ambition of US envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice to become the next secretary of state.

Rice, a longtime member of Obama's inner circle, had been a favourite to succeed Hillary Clinton as the nation's top diplomat.

But her role as administration defender over the attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya in Benghazi on September 11 drew her into a furious row with Republicans keen to dent Obama after his re-election victory.

Rice folded her bid on December 13 and asked Obama not to pick her. A week later the president nominated Senator John Kerry, who is expected to face little Republican resistance, not least because his Senate seat in Massachusetts will now be up for grabs.

Seen as having come off second-best against Obama in the New Year fight over the "fiscal cliff," after being forced to agree to tax hikes on the richest Americans, Republicans appear to be girding for another fight.

However, it is unusual for presidential nominees for cabinet posts to be voted down by the Senate, and Obama's Democrats currently hold the potentially decisive majority in the upper house.

Should Republicans choose to use an obstructive tactic known as the filibuster to prevent the matter from being brought to a vote, Obama would only need to woo a handful of their number to see his nominee confirmed.

- AFP/jc

Read More..

J&K police do a U-turn after blaming Army for encounter

SRINAGAR: According to the Chinese calender, 2013 is the year of the snake, denoting peace and prosperity. In Kashmir, though, the new year has dawned with the Indian Army and the J&K police spitting venom at each other. As the latest border clashes show, the peace and camaraderie spoken about in Delhi and Islamabad hasn't made much of a change in the attempts to send in militants from POK. But the skirmishes between the men in olive and khaki, even if not bloody, are just as intense.

The December 27 encounter in Pulwama that resulted in five civilians being shot and wounded during the firefight between the Army and Lashkar-e-Taiba militants is just the latest flashpoint. Even though it was a joint operation between the police and the Army, both parties came out with different versions of what happened.

The Army was vehement that its men had not fired at protesters, that occurred when an injured major was being evacuated. The police, on the other hand, blamed the Army and filed an FIR against the troops. For a few days, as some of the injured protesters were in hospital, both 15 Corps and Police HQ were monitoring their health hourly. The improvement in their health had a direct impact on the police's assaults on the Army. Five days later, the issue has vanished.

Enraged Army men point this out as yet another instance of Kashmir Police's political games. They say that the entire issue was blamed on the Army so as to insulate the government from public anger in case a protester died. To buttress their case, the Army says the Pulwama encounter nailed just one such police lie.

On July 28 last year, four tourists from Maharashtra were killed in a militant attack on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. The police brass had then claimed that the deaths were caused by an LPG cylinder blast. Five months later, the police did a u-turn, accepting that one of the militants killed in Pulwama was responsible for a grenade attack that killed the tourists.

"We had to save the tourist season, so we lied," said a senior police officer.

At the heart of this bickering is a personality clash between the new man in charge of 15 Corps, Lt-Gen OP Singh, and the police top brass. Considered a soldier's soldier by his men, Lt-Gen Singh has been unable to build a working relationship with his police counterparts. Security meetings are fraught with each side accusing the other of mishandling situations.

For almost all of 2012, both sides have bickered over exactly how many militants have come into Kashmir. Even today, there's no consensus, but the Army has accused the police of downplaying the scale of militant ingress to please the National Conference. The unmasking of police sources within militant groups as double agents last summer is often quoted by the Army as proof of the police being at sea when it comes to intelligence.

So deep is the distrust that after a police tip-off led encounter carried out by the Army a few months ago, the corps commander ordered an internal inquiry to assess whether the men killed were indeed militants.

Part of the problem is the stark difference in the style of functioning of Lt-Gen Singh and his predecessor Lt-Gen Hasnain. In Kashmir, the latter's reputation as a "politically savvy" commander is often compared unfavourably with the man in charge. Lt Gen Singh's attempts to engage with the local media, including holding an iftaar dinner, have been seen as PR disasters.

The police brass, too, are vocal on how easy it was when Lt-Gen Hasnain was in charge - statements that do little to endear them to the current Army set up. All this is disturbing because 2013 is a crucial year in Kashmir. If this year is as calm as the past two years, then, in the words of a political commentator, "Omar Abdullah will be the most successful CM since 1987."

Within the security community, though, there is marked nervousness. Increased infiltration, elections in 2014 and the looming faceoff with Islamist Syed Ali Shah Geelani over implementing Supreme Court orders on the Amarnath yatra are factors that make for a combustible mix.

Read More..

GOP Leader McConnell: 'Tax Issue Is Finished'

Jan 6, 2013 10:19am

ABC News

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., Sunday said he will not accept any new revenue in future deals with congressional Democrats and President Obama.

“The tax issue is finished.  Over. Completed,” McConnell told me on “This Week.” “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and that’s our spending addiction.

“We didn’t have this problem because we weren’t taxing enough,” McConnell added.

He blamed Obama and Democrats for waiting to resolve budget issues until the last minute.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell HERE.

“Why we end up in these last-minute discussions is beyond me. We need to function,” McConnell said. “I mean, the House of Representatives, for example, passed a budget every year.  They’ve passed appropriation bills.

“The Senate Democratic majority and the president seem to like these last-minute deals.”

McConnell said that the biggest issue facing the country in the next year is the deficit and spending. And he predicted that the issue would occupy the congressional agenda in the first three months of the year, overtaking Obama’s other priorities, including gun control.

“But the biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March.  None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

On the expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as the secretary of Defense by Obama, McConnell said he would evaluate Hagel’s past statements before determining whether he could support his nomination in the Senate.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things that Chuck has said over the years and review that, and in terms of his qualifications to lead our nation’s military,” McConnell said. “The question we will be answering if he’s the nominee, is do his views make sense for that particular job?  I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee, and he will be.”

McConnell, who in 2008 praised Hagel for his clear voice and stature on foreign policy and national security, now says he will reserve judgment on his possible nomination until after a Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he added.

Like “This Week” on Facebook here. You can also follow the show on Twitter here.

SHOWS: This Week

Read More..

Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

');

---

 $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_saleprice_t +'';
} else {
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
}
html += '

';

$("#ecom_43331 ul.ecommerce_all_img").append(html);




o.totItems++;

}// end for loop
} // end if data.response.numFound != 0

if(o.totItems != o.maxItems){
if(o.defaultItems.length > 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage && !o.searchComplete){
o.doSearchPage();
} else if(!o.searchComplete) {
o.byID = false;
o.doSearch();
}
}// end if
}// end parseResults function

o.trim = function(str) {
return str.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');
}

o.doSearchPage = function(){
o.byID = false;

var tempSearch = window.location.search;
var searchTerms ="default";
var temp;

if( tempSearch.substr(0,7) == "?search"){
temp = tempSearch.substr(7).split("&");
searchTerms = temp[0];
} else {
temp = tempSearch.split("&");
for(var j=0;j 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage){
o.doSearchPage();
} else {
o.doSearch();
}

}// end init function

}// end ecommerce object

var store_43331 = new ecommerce_43331();





store_43331.init();

Read More..

White House weighs broad gun-control agenda in wake of Newtown shootings

The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation’s gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration’s discussions.

A working group led by Vice President Biden is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthen mental health checks, and stiffen penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors, the sources said.

To sell such changes, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association that one source said could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers for measures that would benefit their businesses. White House aides have also been in regular contact with advisers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I), an outspoken gun-control advocate who could emerge as a powerful surrogate for the Obama administration’s agenda.

The Biden group, formed last month after the massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults, plans to submit a package of recommendations to President Obama this month. Once his proposals are set, Obama plans to lead a public-relations offensive to generate popular support.

“They are very clearly committed to looking at this issue comprehensively,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who has been involved in the discussions. The proposals under consideration, he added, are “a deeper exploration than just the assault-weapons ban.”

The gun-control push is just one part of an ambitious political agenda that Obama has pledged to pursue after his decisive reelection victory in November, including comprehensive immigration reform, climate-change legislation and long-term deficit reduction. Obama also faces a reshuffling of his Cabinet and a looming debate over the nation’s debt ceiling that will compete for his time and attention in the coming months.

In addition to potential legislative proposals, Biden’s group has expanded its focus to include measures that would not need congressional approval and could be quickly implemented by executive action, according to interest-group leaders who have discussed options with Biden and key Cabinet secretaries. Possibilities include changes to federal mental-health programs and modernization of gun-tracking efforts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Simply coming up with one or two aspects of it really falls short of the magnitude of the gun issue in the country,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

Wexler was among a dozen law enforcement leaders who met with Biden and other administration leaders in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. The Dec. 20 summit, which stretched an hour beyond an allotted one hour, included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Read More..

Four shot dead near scene of US cinema massacre

LOS ANGELES: A gunman killed three people before police shot him dead on Saturday in a shooting at a house in the Colorado town of Aurora, scene of a massacre at a cinema last year, police said.

A statement from the Aurora police department said a woman had escaped from the home and raised the alarm. When officers arrived, the man had barricaded himself inside with the corpses of his three victims.

"The male was given multiple commands to come out of the house both on the phone and from a bullhorn outside. He did not comply," the statement said.

"He was behaving very irrationally throughout the incident and often hanging up on the negotiators," it added, describing how a SWAT team of armed specialist officers had approached the building shielded by an armoured van.

"Upon doing so, the suspect fired multiple rounds striking the vehicle but not injuring any officers. Officers did not return fire. Over the next hour, gas was introduced and more commands were given to the suspect," it said.

"Shortly before 9:00 am, the suspect appeared in a second story window and engaged officers again with gunfire. Officers returned fire, striking the suspect," the statement added.

Entering the property, the team found the shooter dead, along with two other men and a woman. They have not identified the victims and an investigation has been launched.

Aurora made global headlines in July 2012 after a horrific shooting at a movie theatre that left 12 people dead and 58 others wounded during the first midnight screening of the latest Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises."

The Aurora cinema shooting revived America's perennial gun control debate, a dispute that only intensified last month when a gunman attacked a Connecticut elementary school, killing 20 young children and six staff members.

- AFP/de

Read More..

2013 to be lucky for weekend holidayers

NEW DELHI: For those planning weekend getaways, 2013 will prove particularly bountiful. And of all the months, August is the best bet — it has a three-day weekend, a five-day weekend and an extra day off.

In all, the year has five extended weekends. Five gazetted holidays — Eid-un-Nabi, Good Friday, Valmiki Jayanti, Id-ul-Fitr and Ram Navmi — fall on a Friday. If you are lucky, there might be seven more extended weekends in store as Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti, Dusshera, Chhat Puja, Onam, Pongal Bihu and Ganesh Chaturthi, all restricted holidays, fall on either Fridays or Mondays.

There is also the possibility of two five day-weekends if one can manage a day off in the middle of the week. Holi is on March 27 which is a Wednesday while Good Friday is two days later. Bakr-Id falls on October 16, which is a Wednesday, followed by Valmiki Jayanti. In both cases, if one were to take the Thursdays off, it would result in an easy five-day break.

Also, three gazetted holidays fall on Thursdays. If one can take the subsequent Fridays off, it makes for three more four day-weekends.

August to have most extended weekends

For those planning weekend getaways, 2013 will prove a particularly bountiful year. And of all the months, August is the best bet — it has a three-day weekend, a five-day weekend and an extra day off.

There is a flip side, though. Of the 18 gazetted holidays, five fall in weekends. That might take the sheen off Dusshera and Diwali this time around. The list starts with Republic Day, which falls on a Saturday and is followed by Buddha Purnima on May 25. Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 17 is the last of the holidays lost to the weekend.

There is no escaping manic Monday this year either with not a single gazetted holiday falling on the first day of the week.

The entirely relentless working months are February, June, July and September, without a single gazetted holiday. June is without any restricted holiday. May, with its only gazetted holiday Buddha Purnima falling on the 25th, has lost it to the weekend.

However, the extended weekends are spread out equally. In the first half of the year, January, March and April each have extended weekends. In the second half, while August hogs the limelight, October and November also have long weekends.

Read More..

City Answers Gang-Rape Cover-Up Allegations

As Steubenville, Ohio, prepares for the high-profile rape trial of two high school football players, officials, battling allegations of a cover-up, announced the creation of a new website today to debunk rumors and create what they said would be a transparent resource for the community.

"This site is not designed to be a forum for how the Juvenile Court ought to rule in this matter," the website, called Steubenville Facts, said.

A timeline of the case, beginning with the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at a party on Aug. 11-12, 2012, is posted on the site. Summaries of Ohio law relating to the case and facts about the local police force including statistics on how many graduated from Steubenville schools, is included.

The case gained national attention last week when hacking collective Anonymous leaked a video of Steubenville high school athletes mocking the 16-year-old female victim and making crude references to the alleged rape.

Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain/AP Photo

"It's disgusting, and I've had people calling, numerous people call here, upset, they have seen it, one woman, two women were crying, because of what they witnessed," Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. "It really is disgusting to watch that video."

Anonymous has called for more arrests, however Steubenville Police have said their hands are tied.

"Steubenville Police investigators are caring humans who recoil and are repulsed by many of the things they observe during an investigation," the website said, addressing the video. "Like detectives in every part of America and the world, they are often frustrated when they emotionally want to hold people accountable for certain detestable behavior but realize that there is no statute that allows a criminal charge to be made."

Occupy Steubenville, a grassroots group, estimated 1,300 people attended a rally today outside the Jefferson County Courthouse, where rape victims and their loved ones gathered to share their stories.

The father of a teenage rape victim was met with applause when he shared his outrage.

"I've tried to show my girl that not all men are like this, but only a despicable few," he said. "And their mothers that ignore the truth that they gave birth to a monster."

Authorities investigated the case and charged two Steubenville high school athletes on Aug. 22, 2012.

The teenagers face trial on Feb. 13, 2013 in juvenile court before a visiting judge.

Attorneys for the boys have denied charges in court.

Read More..

Congress approves US$9.7b aid for storm Sandy victims

WASHINGTON: The US Congress finally approved emergency disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy on Friday, but only after a delay that sparked East Coast Republican outrage against their own party leadership.

The House voted 354-67 to provide the Federal Emergency Management Agency with US$9.7 billion to pay the flood insurance claims of thousands of victims of the killer October storm that devastated coastal communities.

The legislation, just a wedge of a much larger package sought by the White House, then breezed through the Senate by voice vote, and goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

"We should not have parades down the street because this bill has passed," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who has spearheaded efforts to speed up congressional approval for aid.

"The major work of helping the victims of Sandy is still ahead of us. The bad news is that we had to even go through this dog and pony show in the first place."

The Senate had approved a comprehensive US$60.4 billion Sandy aid package last week, but Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who was stung by fractious negotiations over the deal to avert the fiscal cliff crisis, refused to bring it to the floor.

The delay enraged Democrats and Republicans alike in the New York and New Jersey delegations.

Friday's bill boosts borrowing authority for the depleted National Flood Insurance Program, which is meant to cover the roughly 120,000 Sandy-related claims filed to date.

FEMA has said the program would have run dry next week without additional funds.

Even as Boehner has since vowed to bring the remaining US$51 billion of the package to a vote on January 15, bitter debate is likely to continue, and Schumer expressed worry about the package's future.

"To be a bride and left at the altar once is bad enough. To be left twice would be unconscionable," he said.

Republican congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey told the House that the bill was "the first step of what we need to do to rebuild lives."

"It's been 70 days and many have been living in misery and heartache," he said.

Several lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, pointed to the swift action by Congress to fund relief efforts in the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Katrina.

"We were there within days," Reid said of the 2005 disaster that ravaged the Gulf Coast. "It's too bad that it's taken so long" for Sandy.

Boehner had scrambled to tamp down fury over the delay on aid to victims of the storm, which killed 120 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and businesses in New York, New Jersey and neighbouring northeastern states.

Obama had joined New Jersey's outspoken Republican Governor Chris Christie in leading the charge against Boehner's delay, which Christie described as "absolutely disgraceful."

The outrage quickly gained the national spotlight, and Boehner wasted little time announcing the two-part vote.

"This is not a handout, this is not something we're looking for as a favour," Republican congressman Peter King of New York, who had lashed out at Boehner when he learned of the delay, told the House.

"What we're asking for is to be treated the same as victims (from) other natural disaster victims have been treated."

Some Republicans including Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, a hurricane-prone state which has received billions in federal disaster aid, voted against the Sandy bill in the Senate, claiming it was stuffed with "pork" -- funding for projects or elements unrelated to Sandy relief.

Darrell Issa, the powerful Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, continued in that vein Friday, saying "we need to get the pork out" and pointing to funding in the Senate bill that went to programs in Alaska, clear across the country from the Sandy disaster zone.

Issa expressed hope the new legislation would be a "clean bill" focused exclusively on Sandy relief.

- AFP/jc

Read More..