OSLO, Norway (AP) — A Norwegian prosecutor said Thursday he is concerned that the confessed perpetrator of last month’s attacks that killed 77 people is declining to give information that could determine if he had accomplices. Read More

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — In the wake of Hurricane Tomas, cholera has reached the congested capital of Port-au-Prince, where as many as 73 people have come down with the potentially deadly infection.

Dehydration is one of its tell-tale signs. In a camp in Cabaret, just east of Port-au-Prince, children lie on cots as life-sustaining fluids are pumped intravenously into their bodies. Read More

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – For Mexicans living in the battleground between two of the country’s biggest drug gangs, the threat of even worse violence is rising as the Zetas try to grab the turf of the Gulf cartel’s dead kingpin.

“We’re all very afraid of what’s coming,” said Julio, a car wash worker in the city of Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville at the southern tip of Texas. “This was already a war zone and it is only going to get worse.” Read More

NEW YORK (AFP) – International scientists nudged back the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday clock Thursday, Read More

As a massive human tragedy unfolds in Haiti, relief organizations are soliciting credit-card donations through their hotlines and websites. About 97 percent of these donations will actually make it to the designated organizations — but the other 3 percent will be skimmed off by banks and credit card companies to cover their “transaction costs.”

Thanks to this hidden fee, American banks and credit card companies are making huge profits — somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million a year — off of people’s charitable donations, according to a Huffington Post analysis.

Those profits rise sharply after major disasters, when humanitarian relief organizations such as Oxfam and Operation USA take in more than 85 percent of their donations via credit card — and the credit card providers, with only a few exceptions, refuse to waive their fees.

Credit card companies have only been willing to waive their processing fee for charity once, Richard Walden, the CEO of Operation USA, tells the Huffington Post, and that was for the tsunami disaster of 2004.

“After the tsunami, we had thousands of donations, and American Express and I think one other company temporarily waived their fees. So if this thing ramps up, we’ll try to get in touch with these banks and see if they’ll waive the fee again for us.”

Bowing to enormous public pressure in the United Kingdom after the tsunami, British credit card companies have pledged to “waiv[e] interchange fees for all cross-charity and disaster or emergency appeals,” according to the UK Card Association website.

One notable exception to the rule in this country is Capital One bank. Through its “No Hassle Giving Site”, the bank waives transaction costs for holders of its Visa or MasterCard cards, so that 100 percent of people’s donations goes to their chosen charity.

“We are pleased to be able to donate these costs, and we believe this will generate customer loyalty and an enduring customer franchise,” said Pam Girardo, a spokesperson for Capital One.

Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research at Creditcards.com, says the hidden processing fees tacked onto all credit card donations cover far more than the transaction costs, allowing the issuing banks, as well as companies like Visa, MasterCard and American Express, to generate significant profits off of online charitable donations.

“They certainly profit off of these fees,” Woolsey said. “Charities are treated like any other merchant. The credit card company bleeds a few percentage points off each transaction; that’s central to their business model.”

Non-profits are reluctant to criticize the credit card companies that are providing them a crucial service because there is too much money at stake, and they have no lower-cost options because the four major credit card companies have a small monopoly on the industry.

Peter Larson, director of annual giving at the Washington Humane Society, said: “It’s unfortunate that a portion of our individual contributions are eaten up by processing fees, but that’s the nature of business. We have no choice but to use credit cards because without them, we would lose a great deal of money in donations.”

Some charities are able to negotiate a lower processing fee than regular merchants, whose rates can run as high as 5 percent. Habitat for Humanity reports that it pays about 2.15 percent of its donations to credit card processing companies, St. Jude’s pays about 2.5 percent, and all charitable organizations that qualify for American Express’s “Giving Express” program get a 2.25 percent processing rate. But even these fees are far greater than the marginal cost of the online transaction.

“I have no doubt that millions and millions of dollars are being made off of people’s donations, and it’s extremely inefficient and wasteful,” said Ken Berger, President and CEO of Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator. “It would be great if credit card companies could reduce their profit knowing its going to an organization with a mission to help people. They need to step up to the plate and take a lead role in voluntarily cutting their fees.”

Spokespersons for Visa and American Express declined to say whether they would consider waiving their fees for the Haiti disaster, or for all charitable donations. But Bill Strathmann, CEO of the online charity portal Network for Good, says they won’t: “The reason credit card companies don’t waive fees for charities is that they have so many corporate partners who drive high volume through their system. A company like Walmart could say, ‘Hey, you’re giving them a bettter rate? Last I looked I was passing billions of dollars through your company.’”

According to Strathmann, whose company partners with Capital One to encourage cost-free donating, legislators may have to take the issue into their own hands.

“I’ve always wanted to take this to Capitol Hill,” said Strathmann. “There was legislation that made charitable donations tax-deductible, and there’s going to have to be similar legislation that either subsidizes those credit card fees for non-profits or bars the fees altogether. There’s got to be a better model for encouraging donations.”

Right now, the government’s only role is to actually subsidize the credit-card skim; charitable donations are 100 percent tax deductible, even when only, say, 97 percent of the donation goes to charity.

Without a legislative solution, the only option for charities is to petition banks to voluntarily waive their fees.

“We don’t want a corporate contribution from the other side of American Express, we want them to say to legitimate NGOs that they’re waiving the bank fee,” said Walden. “It’s probably a good week to ask, because they’re about to give out their bonuses.”

Watch the news video clip here . Witnesses have described their horror at seeing a tourist being eaten by a “gigantic” shark in South Africa’s most popular holiday destination.

Lloyd Skinner was pulled under the surf and dragged out to sea by the shark, believed to be a great white, off Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town. His diving goggles and a dark patch of blood were all that remained in the water. Read More

Michelle Obama takes London! The dresses, the jewels, AND what she wore to meet the Queen. (Anyone noticed how dwarf-like the Queen looked in between these two skyscrappers? Cute!) Read More

President John F. Kennedy once quipped that he was merely “the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”
This week, Barack Obama might find out how he felt.
The first couple’s trip to Europe Tuesday takes Michelle Obama to a land that likes her husband but seems positively fascinated by her.

The British press in particular has followed Michelle Obama’s every move breathlessly, from her dresses to the “kitchen garden” behind the White House. One London paper tracked down her high-school prom date. Another asked plaintively, “Why Doesn’t the UK Have a Michelle Obama?”

So while the president has to juggle the politics, Michelle Obama’s job is in some ways more subtle and just as complicated. France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was judged recently on her curtsy before the Queen, and back in the day, Jackie O.’s outfits and her command of the French language were closely scrutinized.
“Her every ensemble will be front page news and endlessly interpreted and decoded,” said Patricia McDonald, a London-based editor for the Michelle Obama fashion blog, www.mrs-o.org. “Will she break out a new wardrobe, or in deference to the economy, recycle her greatest hits?”

Michelle Obama’s official schedule says she will accompany the president to many of his events – they both will have tea with Queen Elizabeth II, for instance – but she’ll have some solo outings as well. She’ll visit an all-girls school in London where the population is mostly minority and the second language is English — an echo of her work in Washington, DC.

Sarah Brown, Britain’s first lady, will give Michelle Obama a tour of a health facility in London Wednesday and will take her and other spouses on a tour in London Thursday during the G-20 economic summit.
In France, Obama will join NATO spouses in visiting a hospital and a cathedral. And at all of these events, she’ll stand next to some of the world’s most high-profile political spouses— including Bruni-Sarkozy, the Italian-born ex-supermodel who is an admirer of the self-described girl from the Chicago’s South Side.
“She looks like she’s a great, strong, intelligent woman,” Bruni-Sarkozy said in one recent interview. “I must say that she doesn’t look like she [needs] advice … I think it would probably be better for me to be getting advice from her.”
Aides say Michelle Obama is aware of the moment and she has been reading up on her fellow members of the first ladies’ club ahead of the trip.

But her first stride across the global stage is about more than merely sightseeing with other first ladies. The first spouses also will have a chance to talk to each other about their various projects and how they see their roles in their respective countries — Bruni-Sarkozy, for instance, has an interest in shedding light on HIV/AIDS.
And for all the attention that will be paid to the arrival of America’s first black president, there is also a deep fascination with his wife – her humble roots, her Ivy League education, her groundbreaking role and her ability to juggle being first lady and raising two daughters out of the spotlight.

Some Europeans even seem puzzled by the complex mix of expectations placed on Michelle Obama in America. While her sleeveless-in-winter look caused a bit of a stir here—seen as immodest by some and fashion forward by others—across the pond, many observers just didn’t understand the fuss.
“In the U.S., Michelle is the locus for a nation’s attitudes about femininity, motherhood, feminism and sexuality,” McDonald said. “In Europe, she carries less symbolic significance. Her willingness to experiment are all traits European fashionistas admire — and if the occasional misstep is the result of taking a few risks, c’est la vie.”
Michelle Obama’s aides also insist that she is there in a support role to her husband. Yet if history is any guide, first ladies can overshadow their spouses, and the comparisons to Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1961 trip to Paris seem sure to abound, much like some are fond of comparing Michelle O. to Jackie O.

Kennedy had a few built-in advantages, of course – she charmed Charles de Gaulle with her style and impeccable French, and her French maiden name and schooling at the Sorbonne didn’t hurt—but her turn in Paris proved that little things matter.
Notably, Bruni-Sarkozy, who had been fodder for British tabs for her racy, rock-and-roll past, was able to sway public opinion in her simple visit with the Queen.
“She was so elegant in her Chanel and the way she did her curtsy in front of the Queen, she was elegant,” Renaud Girard, a foreign editor with Le Figaro said. “She was so modest. The British public
loved it. They became mad with her and she became instantly a new Jackie.”
The comparisons are inevitable, as are the questions – will Obama stick with American designs, or go international? What does one wear to have tea with the Queen? And what will she wear to stand next to Bruni-Sarkozy, dubbed the “Chanel gazelle?”
Brown, Britain’s first lady, was quite candid after her meeting with Bruni-Sarkozy that it’s all a bit intimidating.
“Well, I didn’t stand a chance, did I?” Brown confessed in one interview. “I mean, I was standing next to a supermodel. I thought that whatever I wore didn’t matter. With all due respect to myself, I knew that day I couldn’t win.”
But at least some in France think their First Family could take a few lessons from Michelle Obama.
“She has shown that she has a good sense of communication and PR, like being photographed at a charity place,” said Marie Colmant, a French television commentator. “When she was doing that, our French first lady and the president were in Mexico at a luxury villa. She has a good perception of the temperature of the American people. She gets it.”

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PRAGUE (AFP) – The fall of the Czech Republic’s centre-right government cast new doubts Wednesday on the future of the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty and overshadowed the country’s EU presidency. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek rushed back to Prague from the European parliament after seeking to reassure EU members his political battle would have “no impact” on the Czech Republic’s six month leadership of the bloc. But there are also questions however about an accord with the United States to station part of a missile defence shield in the Czech Republic.

Topolanek’s coalition, comprising his right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS), the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Greens, narrowly lost a no-confidence vote in parliament late Tuesday. Four rebel MPs voted with the opposition Social Democrats and Communists. Topolanek will officially resign to President Vaclav Klaus, his political rival, after a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the prime minister’s spokesman said. But it was not known whether immediate elections would be called in a bid to end uncertainty which leaves fallout across Europe and adds to instability in the region after Hungary’s prime minister announced last Saturday that he would resign.

“We have a case where the Social Democrats are obstructing the Czech Republic. It’s a problem seen many times in the course of this presidency. But don’t be concerned, the situation will have no impact on the (EU) presidency,” Topolanek told the European parliament in Strasbourg. He immediately left for Prague, leaving behind Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra, who admitted in a speech that the crisis “complicates” ratification of the EU’s reforming Lisbon Treaty. European governments fear that snap elections may only harden Czech attitudes against to the treaty.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was “worried” by the collapse of the Topolanek government which he said had “damaged” the EU presidency. “What has happened in Czech Republic again hurts any certainty that we will get the Lisbon treaty,” Kouchner added in Paris. Ireland and the Czech Republic are the final two countries still to ratify the Lisbon Treaty which aims to reform EU institutions. The Czech lower house has ratified the treaty, but there is uncertainty over a Senate vote due next month. “It is not going to be easy,” said Vondra.

Ireland’s voters rejected the treaty in a referendum but will be asked to vote again this year. The Czech newspaper Lidovne Noviny said “the failure of the Libson Treaty is very likely” after the government collapse. The Czech constitution is vague on the political options and observers are divided on whether Topolanek can remain in power until the end of the EU presidency on June 30. All agree however that the real winner is the eurosceptic president, Klaus, who will have the final say on who forms the next government.

“He can do what he wants, the constitution does not tie his hands,” said poltical analyst Bohumil Dolezal of Charles University. “We all know his positions on Europe,” Kouchner said of Klaus. Klaus himself played down the event. “The fall of the government is not something unknown or catastrophic in a constitutional system that works,” he said.  The shock collapse also cast doubt over the anti-missile shield accord with the United States.  Faced with growing public hostility, the Czech-US accord was recently withdrawn from a parliamentary vote over government fears of a defeat.

The US administration’s fresh policy of dialogue with Russia and Iran has also fuelled doubts over the future of the antimissile programme.