Kosovo Unveils Clinton Statue - NYTimes.com

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PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo's Albanian majority unveiled a statue of former U.S. president Bill Clinton on Sunday to thank him for saving them by stopping a wave of ethnic cleansing by Serbia.

As the U.S. President in 1999, Clinton launched NATO air strikes to halt the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbian troops.

Clinton's speech was interrupted several times by Kosovo Albanians wildly cheering his name and U.S.A., and waving U.S., Albanian and Kosovo flags.

"I am profoundly grateful that I had a chance to be a part of ending the horrible things that were happening to you 10 years ago giving you a chance to build a better future for yourself," Clinton told the crowd.

The crowd chanted Clinton's name when the former president started shaking hands with people along a boulevard named after him.

"I never expected ... anywhere someone will make such a big statue of me," Clinton said after his 3-metre (10 foot) statue was unveiled.

He urged Kosovars to build a multi-ethnic country with the minority Serbs and other minorities and said the United States would always help Kosovo's people.

"You have to build something good and we should help," he added.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia last year and was recognised by the United States and major European Union powers -- a total of 62 countries worldwide but not by its former ruler Serbia, Russia and China.

Grateful Kosovo Albanians also named a central street in central Pristina after former U.S. president George W. Bush.

Kosovo Albanians regard Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Clinton's state secretary Madeleine Albright as their saviours and have named their babies after them.

Ismail Neziri had travelled 60 km (37 miles) to see the president again after they met in a refugee camp in Macedonia where Neziri's family had fled to escape the forces of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Around 10,000 Albanians were killed as Serb forces moved to wipe out an ethnic Albanian guerrilla force and 800,000 were expelled to neighbouring Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.

"I was only eight years in a refugee camp in Macedonia when Clinton took me in his hands and today he is the same big and young man," said Neziri, 18, holding a U.S. flag.

"In 1996 everybody was speaking that Clinton is a good man and he will help us and then my father named me after him," said 13-year-old Klinton Krasniqi.

(Editing by Richard Williams)

How to prevent getting swine flu and what to do if you have it - washingtonpost.com

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Sunday, November 1, 2009

Andrew Pekosz, an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, answers questions about H1N1 swine flu.

How can I tell if I have swine flu? And does it matter if it's that flu or the seasonal one?

Virtually all the cases of influenza occurring at this time are caused by 2009 H1N1. While individuals with severe flu-like illness are being tested to determine for certain which virus is causing the disease, there is no need for most people to get tested.

How do I know if I or someone in my family should go to the hospital?

Some key symptoms to watch for include rapid but shallow breathing, difficulty in breathing and lethargy or extreme weakness. A complete list of symptoms can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/sick.htm#3.

What is the best source of information about the H1N1 virus?

There are couple of Web sites that provide good general information on the H1N1 virus; the one I like for information to the general public is http://www.flu.gov, but be sure to check with your state or county public health department.

Who should get vaccinated? What are the priority groups?

There are several priority groups being targeted for vaccination while the vaccine is in short supply. The complete list is at http://www.flu.gov/individualfamily/vaccination/vprioritygroups.html but includes pregnant women, health-care and emergency medical personnel, household contacts or caregivers of children under the age of 6 months, anyone between the ages of 6 months and 24 years of age, and people age 25 to 64 who have underlying medical conditions.

What's the difference between nasal spray and injection? Who should get what kind?

The nasal-spray vaccine is a weakened form of the virus that does not cause influenza but does generate a good immune response. The injectable vaccine is an inactivated or "killed" form of the virus which is injected into the muscle of your arm. The nasal spray is only available to healthy individuals age 2 to 49, while the injectable vaccine is available to a wider range of the population. More information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/general.htm.

If I can't get the vaccine right away, is it still worth getting it later?

Yes. . . . We are not certain how long the flu season will last, or if we will have several flu seasons or "waves" this year, so when vaccine becomes available, everyone should take advantage of it.

How quickly does the vaccination take effect? Is it possible to come down with the flu soon after getting vaccinated?

After three weeks, most people have an immune response that will protect them from infection with 2009 H1N1. The immune response begins to be detected seven to seven to 10 days after vaccination. The vaccines cannot cause the flu, but you certainly could catch influenza during the time after vaccination when your body hasn't developed a strong anti-influenza immune response.

Should everyone who comes down with the flu take Tamiflu or Relenza?

No. The CDC guidelines recommend that only individuals who are in high-risk groups should receive Tamiflu or Relenza at the first sign of symptoms. If you develop symptoms of severe influenza, then you should seek out medical treatment and begin to take Tamiflu and Relenza. For most people who will come down with the mild form of the disease, the use of Tamiflu or Relenza is not recommended in order to ensure enough of the drugs are available.

OnLove - Digital Love: Looking for love on virtual-reality Web sites - washingtonpost.com

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Uncertainty over election puts life in Kabul on hold - washingtonpost.com

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By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 1, 2009

KABUL -- Traffic in Afghanistan's congested capital is worse than ever this month, with carloads of religious pilgrims arriving from the provinces to take flights to Saudi Arabia for hajj, and wedding parties scheduled back-to-back in ornate halls to beat the approaching winter weather.

But beyond family and religious obligations, this is a capital on hold. Economic activities, from office-building projects to sidewalk shoeshines, are being held hostage to a messy and uncertain presidential election process that has dragged on since early August.

An electoral runoff has been scheduled for Nov. 7, but the crisis may deepen because the major challenger to President Hamid Karzai is threatening to pull out of the race on Sunday.

A solution can't come too soon for Abdul Manan, 38. He sells PVC pipe for residential and commercial construction -- or used to sell it before his business crashed to a halt two months ago.

"Everything has stopped -- the investment from the donor countries, which affects government and private projects, which affects the big contractors and the small suppliers like me," Manan said as he watched TV in his warehouse, surrounded by piles of dusty white pipe. "Everyone says they are waiting to see what happens in the elections."

It is the same story in shops and offices across this crowded city of about 4 million. Until spring, Kabul was a rapidly if unevenly developing metropolis where muddy, unpaved streets were lined with new glass offices, supermarkets, mansions, neon-lighted wedding halls, and banks with ATMs.

Now, supermarket managers whose shelves once burst with imported goods say they are running out of canned peas from Europe and scrub brushes from China. Store owners have withheld new orders, and cargo-truck shipments via neighboring Pakistan have been suspended while a Taliban insurgency rages on both sides of the border.

Academics say some international conferences and foreign-funded research projects have been postponed or canceled until a new government is installed. Fewer visitors are coming from abroad, and more-affluent Afghans are starting to send their families and their capital overseas.

On the city streets, where veiled widows beg for handouts, small boys swing incense burners for alms and scavengers with donkey carts search through garbage heaps, the trickle-down effect is palpable.

"A lot of the wealthy people with nice shoes have left, because they're afraid there is going to be fighting over the elections," said Mohammed Bashir, 26, who has been shining shoes outside a mosque in Kabul's Shar-I-Nau district since he was a teenager. "I don't care who wins," he said. "I just want things to be secure and settled again."

The fear of political chaos has grown with each passing week. The presidential election, already delayed since May, was finally held Aug. 20 but was found invalid because of widespread fraud.

The crisis has set off a protracted dispute involving Karzai, his leading challenger, U.N. officials and Western governments. The country is in political limbo, and Afghans are worried that ethnic violence will tear the capital apart, especially if challenger Abdullah Abdullah pulls out of the contest.

Making matters worse, Taliban insurgents have targeted the election process. They rocketed polling stations and cut off voters' fingers during the first round; now they are attempting to sabotage the runoff, which some analysts say may be canceled at the last minute.

On Wednesday, a Taliban suicide squad stormed a Kabul guesthouse where more than 20 election workers were staying. The assault left 12 people dead and residents bracing for an escalation in urban warfare.

Diplomats, journalists and the Afghan political elite are obsessed with every nuance of the electoral drama. Rumors fly daily of secret meetings, deals and threats between the main political actors. But most people here have more personal worries, demands and hopes on their minds.

"Tomorrow is my wedding party, and it will happen to me only once in my life. Nothing could matter more," said Zarla, 18, a bride who was getting a facial massage in a noisy salon crowded with women, children, teacups and fashion magazines. "I'm going to vote because we need peace in our country, but right now I only want to look beautiful."

But even the wedding business is suffering from election jitters. Javed Hamid, who sells expensive satin and sequined gowns, said many families were opting to rent bridal dresses this season, in case they need the money for emergencies.

"People don't want to plan a lot of parties and have a good time, because there is too much tension over the elections and what the next government will be," Hamid said, standing in his shop next to a glass case full of rhinestone tiaras. "It is affecting everyone and everything."

One ritual has remained impervious to the political crisis. Over the next several weeks, more than 30,000 Afghans will travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to perform hajj. The trip is a highlight of any Muslim's life; it often requires saving money for years but is believed to reward pilgrims with health, prosperity and forgiveness of sins.

Every day, long lines of hajjis, mostly elderly men, form outside Kabul's vast Eid Gah mosque, lugging satchels and bundles. They have come from all across the country and paid up to $7,000 each for the trip. Policemen with loudspeakers call them one by one, and relatives crowd around with farewell hugs.

"Hajj is our religious duty and the most important thing in Islam. It is much more important than elections," said Qari Yacoub, an animal-skin trader from the city of Jalalabad who said he had saved for six years to afford the trip.

Among the crowd of waiting pilgrims and their families wandered ragged boys with wares to sell the travelers: cupcakes in plastic bags, bottles of water and packets of toilet paper.

Above the scene, on the pink-streaked urban horizon, stood the steel skeletons of several half-built offices -- begun months ago at a time of promise for democracy and development, but now, like the hopes of the nation, suspended in midair.

1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list - washingtonpost.com

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By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 1, 2009

Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.

During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week.

FBI officials cautioned that each nomination "does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously watchlisted person."

The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and 4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government's "no fly" list.

This information, and more about the FBI's wide-ranging effort against terrorists, came in answers from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to Senate Judiciary Committee members' questions. The answers were first made public last week in Steven Aftergood's Secrecy News.

Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), who has shown concern over some of the FBI's relatively new investigative techniques assessing possible terrorist, criminal or foreign intelligence activities, drew new information from the agency. Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI needed initial information that a person or group was engaged in wrongdoing before it could open a preliminary investigation.

Under current practice, no such information is needed. That led Feingold to ask how many "assessments" had been initiated and how many had led to investigations since new guidelines were put into effect in December 2008. The FBI said the answer was "sensitive" and would be provided only in classified form.

Feingold was given brief descriptions of the types of assessments that can be undertaken: The inquiries can be opened by individual agents "proactively," meaning on his or her own or in response to a lead about a threat. Other assessments are undertaken to identify or gather information about potential targets or terrorists, to gather information to aid intelligence gathering and related to matters of foreign intelligence interest.

Feingold pointed to a November 2008 Justice Department inspector general audit showing that in 2006, approximately 219,000 tips from the public led to the FBI's determination that there were 2,800 counterterrorism threats and suspicious incidents that year. "Regardless of the reporting source, FBI policy requires that each threat or suspicious incident should receive some level of review and assessment to determine the potential nexus to terrorism," the audit said.

In a different vein, the FBI was asked why it is losing new recruits as special agents and support personnel at a time when terrorist investigations are increasing. The FBI responded that failed polygraph tests rather than other factors, such as the length of time for getting security clearances, are the main reason recruits are ending their efforts to join the bureau. In the past year, polygraphs were the cause of roughly 40 percent of special-agent applicants dropping out, the records showed.

Karzai Rival Steps Aside but Challenges Electoral Fraud - NYTimes.com

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By CARLOTTA GALL and ALISSA RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s last presidential challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, stepped aside on Sunday, leaving the field clear for President Hamid Karzai to serve another five-year term but challenging the legitimacy of the government in an emotional speech before thousands of opposition supporters here.

Mr. Abdullah said he was quitting to protest the behavior of the government and the Independent Election Commission, which, he said, were planning even more extensive fraud in the scheduled runoff vote on Nov. 7 than in the badly tainted first round in August. He also said he took into account the dangerous security situation in the country and the risks voters and the security forces faced in holding a runoff election.

“I hoped there would be a better process,” he said. “But it is final. I will not participate in the Nov. 7 elections.”

Mr. Abdullah made it clear he was not seeking confrontation with Mr. Karzai’s government: he did not call for protests or a nationwide boycott of the election process, and he said he would not tell his supporters they should not vote.

Still, his withdrawal immediately called into question how the Afghan democratic process could proceed at all. Even though Mr. Karzai’s aides insisted that the Nov. 7 vote would go on, American and other Western officials said they would push for a legal decision to make Mr. Karzai president rather than holding a new vote with just one candidate in a country actively engaged in a war with Taliban and Qaeda militants.

Obama administration officials on Sunday rallied around Mr. Karzai, saying that Mr. Abdullah’s actions were in line with the Afghan constitution and that a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan was moving forward with the matter of Mr. Karzai’s re-election now essentially settled.

“The president wanted an election that proceeded in the constitutional way, a runoff was called, and Abdullah exercised his rights as a candidate,” said David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior adviser, on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

Mr. Axelrod added that polling suggested that Mr. Abdullah “would have been defeated anyway.”

Mr. Axelrod and another close Obama adviser, Valerie Jarrett, both said Sunday that a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan was still weeks away. And they pointedly noted that the chief American goal now in Afghanistan was to make sure Al Qaeda would not re-establish bases in Afghanistan, omitting any discussion of political and economic stability in Afghanistan itself.

Whether Mr. Karzai will be accepted as a legitimate leader will largely depend on his conduct in the coming days and weeks, one Western official in Afghanistan said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the political nature of the remarks. Western leaders will be looking to his choice of cabinet for his willingness to reach out to his opponents across the ethnic and factional divisions, but also his selection of competent ministers who will tackle corruption and weak government, the official said.

“He can try and rehabilitate himself by actions that he means business, or he can continue as he has and see the international support slowly drain away,” the official said.

Mr. Abdullah’s supporters, who traveled from all over the country to hear his decision in Kabul, were unanimous in calling Mr. Karzai an illegitimate leader.

“Look at the government. No one feels governance in the whole country,” said Azizullah Wasefi, who served as a provincial governor under Mr. Karzai but supported Mr. Abdullah for president.

Yet the decision was clearly a hard one for Mr. Adbullah. He choked up at the moment of announcing it before his supporters and had to pause to drink water before speaking.

“It did not come easily,” he told the crowd, which began cheering at his announcement. He said people had died in the cause of establishing a democracy and a transparent electoral system had been one of the main aims of the last eight years since the Taliban was ousted.

Mr. Abdullah clearly signaled that he was positioning himself as a future player in Afghan politics. In a news briefing later at his home, he said:

“I did it with a lot of pain, but at the same time with a lot of hopes towards the future. Because this will not be the end of anything, this will be a new beginning.”

He continued: “Hopefully democracy will survive in this country, and I can assure our people that I will be at the service of the people and will promote the ideas of reform and change for the betterment of the lives of the people of Afghanistan.”

Mr. Abdullah has been under intense pressure from Western officials to avoid confrontation and end a two-month dispute over the election results.

The head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kay Eide, who unsuccessfully attempted to broker an agreement between Mr. Karzai and Mr. Abdullah at a meeting on Wednesday, praised Mr. Abdullah as showing a statesmanlike and dignified manner, and he called for a legal and timely end to the electoral process.

That call was echoed by other Western officials in Afghanistan, some of whom said that it was most likely that the Independent Election Commission or Supreme Court would declare Mr. Karzai the winner in coming days.

In a radio interview after Mr. Abdullah’s announcement, Mr. Karzai said he still believed the runoff vote would go forward. “I hope that the election will be held so our people can choose their president,” he said, but he added that he would respect any decision made by the election commission.

Mr. Abdullah’s supporters were mostly subdued after the announcement. But most of those interviewed said they supported the decision to withdraw in view of the joint threats of repeated government fraud and insecurity.

Still, some Afghans from the more stable areas of the country where his support base has been strong said they thought he could have won a second round. “The people want Dr. Abdullah!” said Habibullah Azimi, 19, a student from Ghor Province.

“This was a black and bitter decision, but we swallowed this bitter decision in the interest of future generations,” said Faizullah Mojadeddi, a member of Parliament from Logar Province just south of Kabul. “They want a democratic process, not a fraudulent one. Few people would vote if Mr. Karzai went ahead with the election,” he added.

Some warned that the general situation in the country would further deteriorate under another term with Mr. Karzai as president. “There will be more misery in Afghanistan,” said Najibullah Majidi, 37, a farmer from northwestern Afghanistan.

“Karzai has not won and if the international community does not prosecute the thief, what will happen?” asked Abdul Majid, 75, a tribal elder from a district of Mr. Karzai’s home province, Kandahar, where he said no one could vote because of Taliban threats. “This fire will spread,” he warned.

Against a backdrop of bargaining and diplomatic activity, Mr. Karzai stayed silent publicly. Only last month, Mr. Karzai succumbed to pressure from American and other Western officials, agreeing to accept the verdict of a United Nations-backed commission that put his vote total at under 50 percent.

To the horror of American officials here, Mr. Karzai had strongly considered overriding the Election Complaint Commission, a United Nations-backed body that found that nearly a million ballots had been forged for Mr. Karzai, and declaring himself the winner. Mr. Karzai still held a commanding lead over Mr. Abdullah — 48 to 27 percent — but the commission had pulled the president below 50 percent. That made a runoff necessary.

Only the forceful intervention of Senator John Kerry, who was visiting in Kabul, averted a full-blown political crisis.

But Mr. Abdullah concluded that without major changes to the election system, a second round would be as fraudulent as the first. His demands included the firing of the chief of the Independent Electoral Commission, which collected and counted the ballots, and the closing of hundreds of suspected “ghost” polling centers — fictional voting sites that were instrumental in allowing Mr. Karzai’s supporters to manufacture fake ballots. Mr. Karzai refused.

Those close to Mr. Karzai said there was a simple explanation for Mr. Abdullah’s withdrawal. Muhammad Ismail Yoon, a university professor close to Mr. Karzai, said Mr. Abdullah knew that if he went through with a second round, the Afghans would desert him. “No one invests in a loser in Afghanistan,” he said.

Joseph Berger contributed reporting from New York.

BBC - Guantanamo Uighurs sent to Palau

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Six Chinese Uighur prisoners from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to the Pacific island nation of Palau, officials say.

Lawyers for three of them said they had "arrived to freedom" early on Sunday.

Palau agreed in June to take up to a dozen Uighurs who were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan but not later classified as "enemy combatants".

China wants them to be returned there, but the US says it cannot repatriate them due to the risk of mistreatment.

Beijing has frequently cracked down on Uighur dissidents, who it accuses of seeking an independent homeland in the western province of Xinjiang.

Four other Uighur detainees were resettled in Bermuda earlier this year, and another five went to Albania in 2006.

'Safe from oppression'

A law firm representing three of the six Uighurs released from Guantanamo on Saturday confirmed that they had arrived safely at their new home in the main town of Koror.

“ The men are happy at long last to be free ”
Eric Tirschwell Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel

"These men want nothing more than to live peaceful, productive lives in a free, democratic nation safe from oppression by the Chinese," Eric Tirschwell of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel told the Associated Press.

"Thanks to Palau, which has graciously offered them a temporary home, they now have that chance," he added.

Mr Tirschwell said the men had already begun learning English and looked forward to become productive members of the community.

The men will live in a three-storey building which is a five-minute walk from Koror's only mosque, one of two on the island.

The President of Palau, Johnson Toribiong, told the BBC that the Uighers would be given a temporary home for as long as two years.

"Initially, they will be attending a crash course in the English language and of our culture and history for a couple of months. We'll interview them to find out about their skills, and then try to place them where they'll be gainfully employed," he said.

Palau has a Muslim population of about 500, mostly migrant workers from Bangladesh. Many face being deported due to lapsed work permits.

In addition to the six Uighurs who arrived on Sunday, the island nation has offered to take six of the seven others still being held at Guantanamo. One did not receive an invitation because of concerns about his mental health.

The American defence department decided last year that the Uighur detainees were not enemy combatants, but they were refused the right to settle in the US. China has demanded that the men be extradited but the US says they would face persecution.

Palau, a former US trust territory, is an archipelago of eight main islands plus more than 250 islets that is best known for diving and tourism and is located some 800km (500 miles) east of the Philippines.

The tiny nation has retained close ties with Washington since independence in 1994 when it signed a Compact of Free Association with the US. It relies heavily on the US for aid and defence, and does not have diplomatic relations with China.

The latest departures from Guantanamo occurred after the US Supreme Court, rejecting the government's position, said it would hear an appeal by the Uighurs, who have argued that they should be released onto US soil.

There are now 215 detainees remaining at the prison camp, which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by 22 January.

Afghan Minority Savors Its Pivotal Role in Runoff - WSJ.com

The Hazaras, After Centuries of Discrimination and Religious Persecution, May Be Decisive Bloc in Determining Next President

By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

KABUL -- Afghanistan's Hazara minority is enjoying a historic turnabout after centuries of oppression: It has become the kingmaker in the country's Nov. 7 presidential runoff.

The maverick Hazara candidate, Ramazan Bashardost, garnered 10.5% of the votes in August's first round, placing third after President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. The runoff between Mr. Karzai and Dr. Abdullah that will decide the next president now hinges, to a great extent, on Bashardost's largely Hazara supporters. Mr. Bashardost has endorsed neither contender.

"The Hazara vote is crucial: Whoever they support will become the winner," says Ali Akbar Kazemi, head of Eqtedar-e-Melli, a predominantly Hazara party backing Dr. Abdullah.

In the World of the Hazara

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Adam Ferguson/VII Mentor Program for The Wall Street Journal

A Hazara woman and her child left Kabul's Jafaria Mosque Friday.

• More photos and interactive graphics

While the Hazaras account for only one-tenth of Afghanistan's population, their voting power is much greater because central Afghanistan's Hazara heartland is almost untouched by the Taliban insurgency that kept voters at home in many other parts of the country. In August, the Hazaras accounted for an estimated one-quarter of ballots cast.

Espousing the Shiite sect of Islam in a predominantly Sunni country, the Hazaras -- who appear strikingly different from other Afghans because of their Mongol features -- have long been subjected to discrimination and worse. Thousands of Hazaras were massacred by Afghan kings in the late 19th century. In the late 1990s, the Taliban -- who consider the Shiites to be heretics -- carried out another round of slaughter.

"The Hazaras are the most deprived people in the whole country," Dr. Abdullah said in an interview, pledging to develop the impoverished Hazara districts if he wins the planned runoff.

(Earlier this week, Dr. Abdullah threatened to boycott the Nov. 7 vote unless Mr. Karzai dismissed election officials who Dr. Abdullah says were involved in fraud in the first round. Mr. Karzai declined to do so. Dr. Abdullah is expected to clarify his intentions over the weekend.)

Recent interviews with dozens of Hazaras of different ages and from all walks of life indicate that winning the Hazaras' support will be a challenge for Dr. Abdullah. Many of those who voted for Mr. Bashardost in the first round say they will either back Mr. Karzai in the runoff or stay home. Such behavior is likely to translate into a victory for Mr. Karzai -- who gained a significant part of the Hazara vote in the first round.

Mr. Karzai, a member of Afghanistan's biggest ethnic community, the Pashtuns, has long courted the Hazaras. He appointed a Hazara as one of his two vice presidents and named Hazaras to key government jobs. He also fulfilled a series of Hazara demands, giving official state recognition to Shiite Islamic jurisprudence and carving out a separate Hazara-majority province, Daykundi, from the Pashtun-dominated Uruzgan. Hazara leaders expect Mr. Karzai to create additional Hazara-majority provinces from parts of the provinces of Ghazni and Wardak, which adjoin the Hazara heartland.

"The vast majority of the Hazaras will vote for Karzai in the runoff. I wouldn't call his presidency a golden age, but he has certainly done a lot of good things for the Hazaras," says parliamentarian Mohammed Mohaqeq, a Hazara and a former warlord who placed third in the 2004 presidential elections, with 11.4% of the vote. Mr. Mohaqeq endorsed Mr. Karzai in the current race, saying "our community's leaders have told their people to vote for Karzai, and the people will follow their leaders."

After the fall of the Soviet-installed regime in 1992, Mr. Mohaqeq's Hazara militia vied for control of Kabul with the mainly ethnic Tajik forces of Ahmad Shah Masood, reducing much of the city to rubble. Dr. Abdullah was Mr. Masood's key aide at the time -- a fact still remembered in Kabul's Hazara neighborhoods, where ruins of once-stately buildings provide a daily reminder of the ethnic clashes.

"We had a really hard time during the civil war. Our homes were shelled every day and walking even 100 meters was impossible," says Amin Mohammed, a 60-year-old Hazara baker in Kabul's Chendawal neighborhood who voted for Mr. Bashardost in the first round and plans to vote for Mr. Karzai in the runoff.

In a nearby tea parlor, one among two dozen Hazara men expressed support for Dr. Abdullah; the rest praised Mr. Karzai. "Karzai treats all ethnicities -- Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara -- the same. When he came to power, he brought an end to discrimination," said the parlor's owner, 70-year-old Ali Ehsan Agha Jan.

Even Dr. Abdullah's backers among the Hazaras recognize the improvements in their community's status under Mr. Karzai. "It's true that Karzai has done many things for the Hazaras. But it doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to his mistakes," said Mr. Kazemi, the Eqtedar-e-Melli party chief who is backing Dr. Abdullah. The Hazaras, he said, should cast their ballots "putting the national interest ahead of the ethnic one."

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com

Secret Mission Rescues Yemen's Jews - WSJ.com

By MIRIAM JORDAN

AFP/Getty Images

UNDER SIEGE: The State Department has resettled about 60 Yemeni Jews in the U.S. since July amid rising violence; more are expected to arrive. Here, the father of Moshe Nahari, who was killed in December, with his daughters outside a court in Yemen following a hearing in the murder case.

MONSEY, N.Y. -- In his new suburban American home, Shaker Yakub, a Yemeni Jew, folded a large scarf in half, wrapped it around his head and tucked in his spiraling side curls. "This is how I passed for a Muslim," said the 59-year-old father of seven, improvising a turban that hid his black skullcap.

The ploy enabled Mr. Yakub and half a dozen members of his family to slip undetected out of their native town of Raida, Yemen, and travel to the capital 50 miles to the south. There, they met U.S. State Department officials conducting a clandestine operation to bring some of Yemen's last remaining Jews to America to escape rising anti-Semitic violence in his country.

In all, about 60 Yemeni Jews have resettled in the U.S. since July; officials say another 100 could still come. There were an estimated 350 in Yemen before the operation began. Some of the remainder may go to Israel and some will stay behind, most in a government enclave.

Clandestine Resettlement

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Reuven Schwartz

Moshe Nahari, who was murdered in December 2008 (left), and Said Ben Yisrael, whose house was firebombed (second from left), danced at a wedding celebration in Raida, Yemen in 2007.

• More photos and interactive graphics

The secret evacuation of the Yemeni Jews -- considered by historians to be one of the oldest of the Jewish diaspora communities -- is a sign of America's growing concern about this Arabian Peninsula land of 23 million.

The operation followed a year of mounting harassment, and was plotted with Jewish relief groups while Washington was signaling alarm about Yemen. In July, Gen. David Petraeus was dispatched to Yemen to encourage President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be more aggressive against al-Qaeda terrorists in the country. Last month, President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to President Saleh that Yemen's security is vital to the region and the U.S.

Yemen was overshadowed in recent years by bigger trouble spots such as Afghanistan. But it has re-emerged on Washington's radar as a potential source of regional instability and a haven for terrorists.

The impoverished nation is struggling with a Shiite revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and growing militancy among al-Qaeda sympathizers, raising concern about the government's ability to control its territory. Analysts believe al-Qaeda operatives are making alliances with local tribes that could enable it to establish a stronghold in Yemen, as it did in Afghanistan prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The State Department took something of a risk in removing the Yemenis to the U.S., as it might be criticized for favoritism at a time when refugees elsewhere are clamoring for haven. The U.S. calculated the operation would serve both a humanitarian and a geopolitical purpose. In addition to rescuing a group threatened because of its religion, Washington was seeking to prevent an international embarrassment for an embattled Arab ally.

President Saleh has been trying to protect the Jews, but his inability to quell the rebellion in the country's north made it less likely he could do so, prompting the U.S. to step in. The alternative -- risking broader attacks on the Jews -- could well have undermined the Obama administration's efforts to rally support for President Saleh in the U.S. and abroad.

"If we had not done anything, we feared there would be bloodshed," says Gregg Rickman, former State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

Mr. Yakub says the operation saved his family from intimidation that had made life in Yemen unbearable. Violence toward the country's small remaining Jewish community began to intensify last year, when one of its most prominent members was gunned down outside his house. But the mission also hastens the demise of one of the oldest remaining Jewish communities in the Arab world.

Jews are believed to have reached what is now Yemen more than 2,500 years ago as traders for King Solomon. They survived -- and at times thrived -- over centuries of change, including the spread of Islam across the Arabian Peninsula.

"They were one of the oldest exiled groups out of Israel," says Hayim Tawil, a Yeshiva University professor who is an expert on Yemeni Jewry. "This is the end of the Jewish Diaspora of Yemen. That's it."

Centuries of near total isolation make Yemeni Jews a living link with the ancient world.

Many can recite passages of the Torah by heart and read Hebrew, but can't read their native tongue of Arabic. They live in stone houses, often without running water or electricity. One Yemeni woman showed up at the airport expecting to board her flight with a live chicken.

Through the centuries, the Jews earned a living as merchants, craftsmen and silversmiths known for designing djanbias, traditional daggers that only Muslims are allowed to carry. Jewish musical compositions became part of Yemeni culture, played at Muslim weddings and festivals.

"Yemeni Jews have always been a part of Yemeni society and have lived side by side in peace with their Muslim brothers and sisters," said a spokeswoman for the Embassy of Yemen in Washington.

In 1947, on the eve of the birth of the state of Israel, protests in the port city of Aden resulted in the death of dozens of Jews and the destruction of their homes and shops. In 1949 and 1950 about 49,000 people -- the majority of Yemen's Jewish community -- were airlifted to Israel in "Operation Magic Carpet."

About 2,000 Jews stayed in Yemen. Some trickled out until 1962, when civil war erupted. After that, they were stuck there. "For three decades, there were no telephone calls, no letters, no traveling overseas. The fact there were Jews in Yemen was barely known outside Israel," says Prof. Tawil.

After alienating the West by backing Iraq during the first Gulf War, Yemen sought a rapprochement with Washington. In 1991, it declared freedom of travel for Jews. An effort led by Prof. Tawil and brokered by the U.S. government culminated in the departure of about 1,200 Jews, mainly to Israel, in the early 1990s. Arthur Hughes, American ambassador to Yemen at the time, recalls that those who chose to remain insisted: "This is where we have been for centuries, we are okay; we're not going anywhere."

The few hundred Jews who stayed behind were concentrated in two enclaves: Saada, a remote area in Yemen's northern highlands, and Raida to the south.

In 2004, unrest erupted in Saada. The government says at least 50,000 people have been displaced by fighting between its troops and the Houthis, a Shiite rebel group.

Animosity against Jews intensified. Notes nailed to the homes of Jews accused them of working for Israel and corrupting Muslim morals. "Jews were specifically targeted by Houthi rebels," says a spokeswoman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington.

In January 2007, Houthi leaders threatened Jewish families in Saada. "We warn you to leave the area immediately... [W]e give you a period of 10 days, or you will regret it," read a letter signed by a Houthi representative cited in a Reuters article.

Virtually the entire Jewish community in the area, about 60 people, fled to the capital. Since then, they have been receiving food stipends and cash assistance from the government while living in state-owned apartments in a guarded enclave, says the Yemeni embassy in Washington.

President Saleh, a Shiite, has been eager to demonstrate goodwill toward the Jews. On the Passover holiday, he invited TV crews to videotape families in the government complex as they feasted on lamb he had ordered.

Raida became the last redoubt of Yemeni Jews, who continued to lead a simple life there alongside Muslims.

Ancient stone homes dot the town. Electricity is erratic; oil lamps are common. Water arrives via truck. Most homes lack a TV or a refrigerator. The cell phone is the only common modern device. Some families receive financial aid from Hasidic Jewish groups in Brooklyn and London, which has enabled them to buy cars.

Typically, the Jewish men are blacksmiths, shoe repairmen or carpenters. They sometimes barter, trading milk and cow dung for grass to feed their livestock. In public, the men stand out for their long side curls, customarily worn by observant Jewish men. Jewish women, who often marry by 16, rarely leave home. When they do, like Muslim women, only their eyes are exposed.

For fun, children play with pebbles and chase family chickens around the house. At Jewish religious schools, they sit at wooden tables to study Torah and Hebrew. They aren't taught subjects like science, or to read and write in Arabic, Yemen's official language.

"I showed them a multiplication table and I don't think they had ever seen one," says Stefan Kirschner, a New York University graduate student who visited Raida in August 2008 and says he sat in a few classes.

In September 2008, militants detonated a car bomb outside the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital of Sanaa, killing 16 people. The attack raised fresh concern about Muslim extremism and the government's stability.

Then, on Dec. 11, a lone gunman shot dead Moshe Nahari, a father of nine and well-known figure in Raida's Jewish community. Abdul-Aziz al-Abdi, a retired Air Force pilot, pumped several bullets into Mr. Nahari after the Hebrew teacher dismissed his demands that he convert to Islam. In June, the shooter was sentenced to death.

Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip later in December sparked protests in Yemen. Jewish men and children in Raida were heckled, beaten and pelted with rocks. A grenade was hurled at the house of Said Ben Yisrael, who led one of three makeshift synagogues in Raida, and landed in the courtyard of his two-story home.

From the safety of his new home in suburban New York, Mr. Yakub recounted his last months in Yemen. Rocks shattered the windows of his house and car. Except for emergencies and provisions, Jews began to avoid leaving home. When they did, Mr. Yakub and other Jews took to disguising themselves as Muslims.

"This was no way to live," he said, seated at the head of a long table surrounded by his wife and children.

Salem Suleiman, who also arrived recently in New York, bears scars from rocks that hit his head. "They throw stones at us. They curse us. They want to kill us," he said. "I didn't leave my house for two months."

New York had a community of about 2,000 Yemeni Jews. Yair Yaish, who heads the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, says he was barraged with "desperate calls from the community here saying we have to do something to get our families out."

The U.S. Ambassador to Yemen urged Yemeni ministers to facilitate the departure. After initial reluctance -- the government preferred to give the Jews safe haven in the capital city -- Yemen agreed to issue exit permits and passports.

"It was the embassy's view, and the Department concurred, that because of their vulnerability, we should consider them for resettlement," says a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

Jewish Federations of North America raised $750,000 to help the effort. Orthodox groups also pledged to pitch in. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was tasked with their resettlement.

Word reached Jews in Raida that there was an American plan afoot to rescue them.

The first applicants signed up at the U.S. Embassy in January. To avoid attracting attention, families convoyed to Sanaa in taxis at dawn.

Later they traveled to a hotel for interviews with U.S. officials. To establish a case for refugee status, they had to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution. For many of the women, it was the first time speaking with anyone outside the home.

As news spread of their imminent departure, many families reported trouble selling property. Potential buyers offered low prices or refused to bid, thinking they could get the property free after it was deserted.

"All they have is this little house worth $15,000," says Yochi Sabari, a Jew from Raida who lives in New York and has relatives in Yemen. "They can't leave until they sell it."

About three weeks before their travel date, the U.S. embassy contacted the first four families cleared for travel. On July 7, their 17 members traveled to the airport in Sanaa and boarded a Frankfurt-bound flight.

When the Yemenis landed in New York the next day, Jewish organization officials there to greet them spotted several women cloaked in black robes, only their eyes exposed.

"The Jewish women were the ones in burqas," says Gideon Aronoff, president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He says he was "initially shocked."

Several families missed the two flights offered to them by the U.S. and, therefore, forfeited their chance to move here. Family members say they are having trouble disposing of assets. An undisclosed number of people have reached Israel, including the family of Mr. Ben Yisrael, whose home was the target of a grenade, and the family of Mr. Nahari, who was slain in December 2008. In the U.S., the Yemeni refugees are being settled in Monsey, a suburban enclave of ultraorthodox Jews, lined with strip malls that sell black coats and wide-rimmed hats worn by Hasidic men.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society's network established a Monsey office, where case managers arrange housing and disburse food stamps, cash and other refugee benefits to the Yemeni arrivals. Many of the adults, caseworkers say, aren't yet capable of budgeting, following a schedule or sitting still in a structured classroom to learn English.

On a recent morning, Mr. Suleiman, a 36-year-old father of three, retrieved an alarm clock that he received with his furnished apartment.

"I still don't know how to use this," he said. "The children have been playing with it."

Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com

White House Visitor Log Lists Stars and C.E.O.’s - NYTimes.com

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By JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday released a partial roster of visitors in the first six months of President Obama’s term, a disclosure that shows business executives, labor leaders, lobbyists and a sprinkling of celebrities were cleared into the White House for meetings, events or tours.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, visited the Oval Office on March 25. Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, dined in the White House Mess Hall on Feb. 19. Oprah Winfrey arrived two days earlier for an appointment in the residence of the executive mansion.

Among the White House guests was a boldface-names list of chief executives, including Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup Inc., Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Rex W. Tillerson of the Exxon Mobil Corporation, David J. O’Reilly of the Chevron Corporation and Jeffrey R. Immelt of the General Electric Company The men, who met with Mr. Obama, his advisers or both, were among nearly 500 entries in logs from Jan. 20 to July 31.

The White House released the names late Friday in a disclosure that officials said was without precedent by previous administrations. The names on the White House Web site were in response to requests about specific people by watchdog groups or news organizations. By December, the White House intends to regularly release names of visitors in three-month increments.

The most frequent visitor included in the narrow sample was Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union and Mr. Obama’s top ally in the labor movement. Mr. Stern visited the White House 22 times, sometimes for health care or other public events in the East Room, other times for meetings with the president or aides like Rahm Emanuel, Peter R. Orszag or Ronald A. Klain.

The visit tally underscores the clout that S.E.I.U. and Mr. Stern enjoy in this White House, something that has generated consternation at times among business groups and envy among rival unions. By contrast, Richard L. Trumka, the new president of the AFL-CIO, visited seven times in the same period.

Maurice R. Greenberg, a former chief executive of American International Group Inc., which received a $182.3 billion federal bailout, visited three times.

John D. Podesta, who oversaw the transition operation for Mr. Obama, visited the president and his top advisers 17 times in the six months after Inauguration Day. His brother and sister-in-law, Tony and Heather Podesta, both high-profile Washington lobbyists, made a total of eight visits to the White House complex.

Other visitors included Gary D. Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, who was a major contributor to Mr. Obama’s campaign. Several lobbyists from financial industry trade groups also came to the White House, including Edward L. Yingling of the American Bankers Association, Timothy Ryan of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable.

While the list can be searched on the White House Web site, the visits can raise as many questions as they answer. On many of the entries, the purpose of the visit is unclear. Still, it offers a glimpse into the workings of the administration that has not been previously available.

In addition to Ms. Winfrey, a small sampling of Hollywood visitors included Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who met with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Feb. 23. The White House offered no commentary about the list, except to clarify that visitors by the names of William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright were not the same two men who stirred controversy for Mr. Obama in his campaign.

“The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House,” said Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform. “Nevertheless, we were asked for those names and so we have included records for those individuals who were here and share the same names.”

Peter Baker and David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting.

China Is Trying the Tibetan Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen for Subversion - NYTimes.com

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By ANDREW JACOBS

CHONGQING, China — A self-taught filmmaker who spent five months interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule is facing charges of state subversion after the footage was smuggled abroad and distributed on the Internet and at film festivals around the world.

The filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, who has been detained since March 2008, just weeks after deadly rioting broke out in Tibet, managed to sneak a letter out of jail last month saying that his trial had begun.

“There is no good news I can share with you,” he wrote in the letter, which was provided by a cousin in Switzerland. “It is unclear what the sentence will be.”

As President Obama prepares for his first trip to China next month, rights advocates are clamoring for his attention in hopes that he will raise the plight of individuals like Mr. Wangchen or broach such thorny topics as free speech, democracy and greater religious freedom.

With hundreds of lawyers, dissidents and journalists serving time in Chinese prisons, human rights organizations are busy lobbying the White House, members of Congress and the news media. In some ways, the pressure has only intensified since Mr. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, raising expectations for him to carry the torch of human rights.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said Mr. Obama had an obligation to press Mr. Wangchen’s case and the cause of Tibetan autonomy in general, given his decision not to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this month.

That move, which some viewed as a concession to China, angered critics already displeased with what they say was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failure to press human rights during a visit to China in February.

“Beijing is emboldened by such moves,” Ms. Tethong said. “They see a weakness in the U.S. government, and they’re going to exploit it. This idea that you’ll gain more through some backroom secret strategy does not work.”

Until now, the case of Mr. Wangchen, 35, has received little attention abroad. Uneducated and plainspoken, he was an itinerant businessman until October 2007, when he bought a small video camera and began traveling the Tibetan plateau interviewing monks, yak herders and students about their lives.

Tsetring Gyaljong, a cousin who helped him make the documentary, said that Mr. Wangchen’s political awareness was sharpened nearly a decade ago, when he witnessed a demonstration in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, that was quickly broken up by public security officers.

“He saw how it was dissolved in two or three minutes and how everyone was taken away,” said Mr. Gyaljong, speaking from Switzerland, where he has lived in exile since escaping from Tibet. “There were no pictures, no testimonies, and he felt like the world should know that Tibetans, despite the Chinese portrayals, are not a happy people.”

Out of 40 hours of footage and 108 interviews came “Leaving Fear Behind,” a 25-minute documentary that is an unadorned indictment of the Chinese government. Although given the choice to conceal their identities, most of his subjects spoke uncloaked and freely expressed their disdain for the Han Chinese migrants who are flooding the region and their love for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since 1959.

In his own comments at the start of the film, Mr. Wangchen said the approach of the 2008 Olympics had compelled him to record the feelings of Tibetans, many of whom were less than enthusiastic about the decision to hold the Games in Beijing.

“We have no independence or freedom, so Tibetans have no reason to celebrate,” said one young woman standing by a road. “The Chinese have independence and freedom, so this is something they can celebrate.”

On March 10, 2008, Mr. Wangchen traveled to Xi’an in central China to hand over the tapes to Dechen Pemba, a British citizen who ferried them out of the country. That same day, a protest in Lhasa turned into a rampage that left at least 18 people dead, most of them Han Chinese.

On March 26, Mr. Wangchen and Golog Jigme, a Buddhist monk who helped him make the film, were arrested. Mr. Jigme was subsequently released.

“It really is a remarkable coincidence,” Ms. Pemba said.

Mr. Wangchen’s family hired a lawyer, but the authorities barred him from court last July, leaving Mr. Wangchen with a public defender.

Before he was forced to drop the case, the lawyer, Li Dunyong, said Mr. Wangchen had told him that he was tortured and that he had contracted hepatitis B while in custody. Since then, he has been held incommunicado. Officials at the Xining Intermediate Court in Qinghai Province, where Mr. Wangchen is being held, would not comment on his case.

Mr. Wangchen seemed acutely aware that his project could get him in trouble. Just before he began filming, he sent his wife and their four children to India, where they live along with his elderly parents.

In an interview from Dharamsala, where she works as a baker, Mr. Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso, said she feared she might not see him again for many, many years.

“As a wife, I’m very sad to be without the person I love so much,” she said. “But if I can separate out that sadness, I feel proud because he made a courageous decision to give a voice to people who don’t have one.”