Bush discusses 2008 foreign policy challenges
President Bush will be off to the Middle East early in the new year, and he says he has several objectives for the trip.
"One is to advance the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Secondly, is to continue to work with our Arab friends on reconciliation with Israel. And finally is to assure people in Middle East that we understand and will show a strong commitment to the security of the region."
The seven-stop tour of the region will include his first visits to Israel and the West Bank as president.
During his news conference, the president also spoke about his hopes for political progress in Iraq. He said all of his expectations have not been met, but added the legislative process is not always smooth, even in countries with centuries-old democracies like the United States.
"Are we satisfied with the progress in Baghdad? No. But to say nothing is happening is just simply not the case."
President Bush indicated people seem to be feeling better about their lives in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He said U.S., Afghan and NATO troops are on the offensive against Taliban militants in Afghanistan, noting a review of strategy options that is currently underway.
"It makes sense for us to constantly review our strategy in a variety of theaters. That is what good governance is."
The president praised the work of NATO units from across the alliance. He urged their governments to remain engaged.
"So our objective is to help people meet a mission that they are comfortable with achieving and convince them that this is going to take a while, it is going to take time for this democratic experiment in Afghanistan to work. And I believe it will."
The president talked about his meetings during 2007 with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other world leaders. And he looked ahead to his first contacts in 2008 with new players on the international stage.
He spoke specifically about Russia, which will elect a new president in a few months, replacing Vladimir Putin.
President Putin has been named Time magazine's 2007 'Person of the Year' for his efforts to impose stability and enhance Russia's stature as a world power.
President Bush said only time will tell whether the changes that got Vladimir Putin on the cover of Time magazine have really changed Russia for the better.
"I presume they put him on there because he was a consequential leader. And the fundamental question is consequential to what end? What will the country look like 10 years from now? My hope of course, is that Russia is a country which understands there needs to be checks and balances, free and fair elections and a vibrant press.
President Putin's likely successor is Dmitry Medvedev, who has already said he would like to see Vladmir Putin become prime minister.
WHO chief wants access to medicines for poor countries
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan says many sick people in developing countries die because they cannot afford medicine that can cure them. In some cases, she says resistance to diseases develops because they fail to be treated promptly and properly.
She blames much of this on the inability of the poor to get hold of the medicine and health care they need.
"I am fully committed to equitable access. People should not be denied access to life-saving and health-promoting interventions for unfair reasons. I am aware that the price of medicines and other products can be prohibitive, effectively blocking access to care. I have seen studies that show the limit, in dollars, to what people are able to pay to preserve even something as vital as their eyesight."
The WHO chief acknowledges the need for innovation in public health and drug research. Advocacy groups accuse pharmaceutical companies of failing to do the research needed on diseases that disproportionately affect the poor because there is little profit in it.
Dr. Chan draws a link between good health and the ability of families to work their way out of poverty.
"The challenge is to work on multiple fronts: to meet the immediate need for equitable access to quality, affordable medicines, while also working, at the same time, to stimulate innovation. The route to addressing these concerns passes through many other territories, including those where legal, economic, and trade issues have prominence. This is the reality."
The so-called WHO Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property was created last year in the wake of a WHO-commissioned report. It called for the pharmaceutical industry to slash the price of drugs sold in developing countries. Many drug companies say they have already done so.
The negotiations taking place are aimed at drawing up a plan of action and strategy for research and development that will be beneficial for poor countries. The final plan of action will be presented to the World Health Assembly in May.
Hillary likely to be focus of upcoming Democratic debate
Clinton heads into the debate leading in public opinion polls, but facing intensified criticism from her Democratic rivals.
Clinton has been on the defensive since the last Democratic debate two weeks ago. Clinton was asked about a plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants in New York. At first she seemed to support the idea, then backed away from it. Clinton's campaign now says she opposes the proposal, which was eventually dropped by New York's governor.
Clinton's rivals have also seized on public opinion surveys that suggest she is the most polarizing contender in the presidential race, liked and disliked by voters in roughly equal numbers.
The intensified attacks seem to have done little damage to Clinton in the polls. She leads nationally among Democrats and in the early primary state of New Hampshire. Clinton, Obama and Edwards are in a close race in Iowa, which kicks off the presidential selection process on January 3.
France grinds to halt over transportation strike
The streets of Paris lacked the usual hustle and bustle of a week day. There were plenty of cars on the streets, but no buses and virtually no metro service.
The walkout by transportation workers that began late Tuesday forced some would-be commuters, like marketing manager Benoit Aimet, to take one of the thousands of bicycles the city began renting this year.
"I am from Laumiere in eastern Paris and I wanted to go the the south," said Aimet. "So I took the bicycle to the Place de Clichy and I hoped to get a tube or a bus. But there was no bus. No tube. Nothing. So unfortunately, I am back home."
Aimet does not support the strikers. But he criticizes the conservative government of President Nicolas Sarkozy for pushing through reforms too quickly, notably on special pension benefits some workers enjoy.
The nearby metro was virtually deserted. Nobody at the ticket counter, and an announcement saying the line was not functioning because of the strike. That left Canadian Genevieve Lies and her friends to head for the Eiffel Tower on foot, a two-hour walk.
LIes, who teaches English in Paris, says she is not sure what the strike is all about. But she believes French transportation workers already have pretty good benefits.
"What is not good is that everyone else has to suffer while they are fighting for what they want. It forces us to be out of our jobs," said LIes. "I am not working for three days, and I am paid by the hour, because of them."
Polls show the majority of French do not support the strike. The government and unions were meeting Wednesday to reach a compromise.
But against Mr. Sarkozy's reforms is growing. Besides the transportation workers, students have shut down a dozen universities against separate reform legislation. Teachers, civil servants, magistrates and court clerks are also expected to go on strike later this month.
Bush talks on global climate__ change
In a bid to rally support for his proposal, President Bush brought together officials from most of the world's largest polluters to set goals for reducing greenhouse gases.
The two-day conference at the U.S. State Department is designed to improve cooperation with private industry on new technologies and set strategies for beyond 2012, when the current Kyoto protocol on climate change expires.
More than 160 nations ratified that agreement. But not the United States because President Bush says Kyoto would have hurt the U.S. economy and does not include emissions from developing nations.
Mr. Bush told the conference Friday that the United States takes the issue of climate change seriously, and will do its part to cooperate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
"By working together, we will set wise and effective policies. That is what I am interested in: effective policies. I want to get the job done. We have identified a problem. Let us go solve it together."
More than a dozen nations responsible for four-fifths of the world's pollution took part in the conference, including the United States, China, and India. Those three governments oppose mandatory controls on carbon dioxide sought by most European countries and the United Nations.
While America shares U.N. goals to address climate change, President Bush says individual countries must be free to strike their own balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
"Each nation will design its own separate strategies for making progress toward achieving this long-term goal," he said. "These strategies will reflect each country's different energy resources, different stages of development, and different economic needs."
The meeting in Washington followed one held Monday in New York, hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which President Bush did not attend. The U.N. chief says the nature and magnitude of climate change means no nation can address the challenge on its own.
"This is precisely the kind of global challenge that the United Nations is best suited to address. Indeed, I am gratified by the universal recognition that the United Nations climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating global action. At the same time, I share the dismay of many at the slow progress of these negotiations."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Washington conference is meant to support the next round of U.N. talks on climate change in Indonesia in December.
President Bush proposed an international fund to pay for research into clean-energy technologies and to help developing nations harness those technologies to reduce emissions.
Analysts pessimistic about US__ housing market outlook
The mortgage finance specialist at the Wells Fargo Bank in Minneapolis, Scott Anderson, says the crisis in the housing sector is getting worse. He told a National Association of Home Builders conference home prices will continue to fall. "We're going to see major declines in home prices, the likes we haven't seen since the great depression in this country over the next year. We're just starting on that process for the declines."
Earlier Wednesday the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of previously owned homes fell eight percent in September, a decline twice as steep as had been predicted. Anderson of Wells Fargo Bank says that downward trend will continue. "Home sales are still plunging in markets where underwriting standards were lax, risk-taking was high, and home prices to income ratios were even higher. Florida and Nevada are seeing the most rapid declines, about 50 percent in a year."
America's real estate and home loan market has been in decline for many months. During the sharp run-up in home prices that continued until 2005, mortgage lenders relaxed standards and promoted low interest loans to permit buyers to afford homes whose prices had dramatically risen.
In many cases, buyers did not understand that the low variable interest rates would eventually rise to higher levels, greatly increasing their monthly payments. That is the part of the reason that home loan delinquencies and foreclosures are on the rise.
Frank Nothalf is chief economist at Freddy Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. "Just between the first six months of 2006 to the first six months of 2007, the number of sub-prime loans entering foreclosure doubled nationwide. And in some markets it was substantially higher," he said.
Subprime loans are loans extended to higher-risk debtors.
Alarmed at the prospect of so many people losing their homes, Congress is preparing legislation to address the problem.
The Federal Reserve, which had been raising interest rates between 2003 and 2005, cut rates last month. But mortgage interest rates remain more or less unchanged and with credit markets in turmoil it is now increasingly difficult to obtain a fixed rate mortgage loan.
