Eeyores News and View

Putin may return to Kremlin in '09: report
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev could resign from his post in 2009 to pave the way for Vladimir Putin to return to the Kremlin, Vedomosti newspaper reported on Thursday, citing an unidentified source close to the Kremlin.
Medvedev Wednesday proposed increasing the presidential term to six years from four years, a step the newspaper said was part of a plan drawn up by Vladislav Surkov, who serves as Medvedev's first deputy chief of staff.
Under the plan, Medvedev could implement changes to the constitution and unpopular social reforms "so that Putin could return to the Kremlin for a longer period," the newspaper said.
"Under this scenario Medvedev could resign early citing changes to the constitution and then presidential elections could take place in 2009," the newspaper said, citing the unidentified source close to the Kremlinl.
The paper said Putin, who is currently prime minister, could then rule for two six year terms, so from 2009 to 2021. The paper cited Putin's spokesman as saying he saw no reason for Putin to return to power in 2009.
Investors, already jittery over the impact of the financial crisis on Russia's economic boom, are trying to work out who is really in charge of Russia, the biggest question for those seeking to ascertain political risk.
They are seeking any details on how the current set up -- with Medvedev as president and Putin as prime minister -- could change. During Medvedev's speech Wednesday the Russian stock market erased most of the gains it made earlier in the day.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081106/wl_nm/us_russia_medvedev_putin

Greed is a terrible thing
A homeowner and a builder who stumbled across a Depression-era fortune hidden in a bathroom wall have been forced to give most of it away after failing to decide how to split the money.
Bob Kitts was tearing the bathroom walls out of high school friend Amanda Reece's 83-year-old house in Cleveland, in the US state of Ohio, two years ago when he discovered two green metal security boxes suspended behind the medicine cabinet.
He opened them to find white envelopes addressed to 'P. Dunne News Agency' — and inside the envelopes were bills printed in the late 1920s.
"I ripped the corner off [an envelope], saw a 50 and got a little dizzy," he told Associated Press.
He told Reece about the find and they posed for photos with the money like lottery winners, but the mood soured when the pair failed to agree on how the money was to be split: Kitts wanted 40 percent of the $270,000 find but Reece would only give him 10 percent.
They couldn't come to a compromise and when a local paper reported on their argument, 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne — the wealthy businessman who stashed the money in a time of bank collapses and economic despair — claimed their share. (read the rest at)
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=663117

Glimpse into America's future?
Children in Burma: Money for molasses
Barbara L. Salisbury and Betsy Pisik, THE WASHINGTON TIMESSunday, November 9, 2008
MANDALAY, Burma As the sun breaks over the horizon on Mandalay Bay, a little boy with bulging ribs pulls on a pair of too-large shorts and grabs a plastic bowl.
A young mother collects 2,200 kyat (a little more than two U.S. dollars) for the molasses that her children have spent all day on the beach collecting. This money can make a big difference for the families who live along the water's edge next to the Mandalay Tourist Jetty. This money will help feed and clothe the entire family. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)
The child, who is 9 but looks younger, scampers with other boys and girls across the beach, scraping up puddles of molasses spilled onto the sand, salty wooden ramps and ship holds as cargo is loaded and unloaded at the busy Mandalay Bay Tourist Jetty.
The children will refill their bowls all day, racing back and forth between the heavy drums of sloshing molasses and their rickety homes to fill larger metal containers. When the sun is about to set and the day's molasses has been painstakingly collected from drippings, droppings and splashes, the little boy in the billowing red shorts finally will return home, possibly to supper.
His mother will lift the larger can onto her head, and walk to a collection center where it will be processed into brown sugar to make candy. The family's take for a day's labor: between 1,000 and 2,000 kyat - about $1 to $2.
Burma - or Myanmar, as it is now known - is achingly poor.
Although rich in natural gas, oil and sapphires, the Southeast Asian nation is among the least-developed countries on the continent. The annual U.N. Human Development Index rated Burma at 132 out of 177 - behind Laos and Cambodia but ahead of East Timor.
Most of the country's vast resources are controlled by the government, a repressive military regime that is isolated from the West and even its own people. But visitors, and there are a few, don't need statistics to tell them what kind of country Burma has become. So many people are living a hand-to-mouth existence with barely adequate food, clothing or shelter. Most of the little education, health care and sanitation available to the ordinary Burmese people is supplied or supplemented by the few relief agencies permitted to work by the military government. (the rest of the story is at)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/09/burma-sugar-babies-children-molasses/

Arrests of illegals surge in D.C., Va.
Funding, technology, agency cooperation cited
Timothy Warren (Contact)Saturday, November 8, 2008
In this file photo from 2001, Hispanic immigrants wait for work at CASA of Maryland in Silver Spring, Md. Authorities say arrests of illegal immigrants have increased about 50 percent over the past year in the District and Virginia. (United Press International)
Arrests of illegal immigrants have increased about 50 percent over the past year in the District and Virginia because of greater funding, improved technology and better communication with police departments and correctional facilities, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says.
During fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, more than 3,100 illegal immigrants were arrested in the District and Virginia, compared with 2,055 last year, ICE's Office of Detention and Removal Operations said Thursday. The increase follows a national trend. About 221,000 illegals were arrested nationally during the past fiscal year, compared with 164,000 in fiscal 2007, a 35 percent increase.
"We have spent time increasing enforcement efforts," said Deborah Achim, the Washington and Virginia field office director for the detention and removal office. "We have partnered up law enforcement efforts in Virginia and D.C. to put together an initiative that meets the need of their communities."
The greatest concentration of illegal-immigrant arrests occurred in Northern Virginia, where there is a large population of immigrants and arrests are higher overall. ICE did not provide specific numbers. The majority of illegals there entered through the Mexican border. Others entered the country legally, with a student visa for instance, and overstayed the terms of the visa or violated the terms by committing a felony.
The rise in arrests is primarily the result of an intensified effort to identify illegal aliens that have been taken into custody for separate crimes. Previously, labeling detainees as illegal immigrants required extensive checks that many local authorities could not make. ICE has since improved communications with local law enforcement, including the use of teleconferencing.
Two federal-local partnership initiatives, the Criminal Alien Program and the 287g program, have helped increase the Washington and Virginia field office's ability to locate and identify illegal immigrants arrested for other crimes.
Ms. Achim said she expects the trend to continue into next year as the agency gets more resources and local law enforcement continues to work in concert with ICE.
"I think we are going to find a similar increase next year," Ms. Achim said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we increase by 1,000, if not 1,500."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/08/arrests-of-illegals-surge-in-dc-va/