Over 70 disabled Bosnians, many in wheelchairs, occupied the parliament building on Thursday and refused to leave until Bosnia ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They set up camp in one of assembly halls yesterday, which is the International Day of Disabled People. Many of the disabled are victims of the 1992-1995 war. Their main complaint is that the support payments they get from the state are too low and inconsistent. The head of Bosnia's disability association said, "We want a state-level law on disabled persons, and an end to discrimination between war invalids, civilian war victims, and individuals with hereditary disability." Parliamentary deputies said the U.N. convention could not be addressed until Monday at the earliest. (Full Story)
At a Q&A session with Russian citizens, someone asked Putin if he would run again for president in 2010. He said, "I will think about it." (Full Story)
No one saw this coming...Talk about a huge shock...
The Supreme Court in Burma says it may allow Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader, to appeal against her extended detention. She was initially put under house arrest in 1990 after her party, The National League for Democracy, won the general election. Suu Kyi would have taken the role of Prime Minister. Instead, the military junta said the election results were nullified and they refused to hand over power. She was then put under house arrest. She's been under house arrest for more than 14 of the past 20 years. Earlier this year, she was sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest as a result of an American who swam to her lakeside home. She was charged with harboring him, which violated her house arrest. The court said they would hear the case on December 21. "Serving the additional time of her sentence would keep Ms. Suu Kyi in detention during Burma's first election in two decades, scheduled for next year." (Full Story)
Call me a pessimist, but the military rulers have kept her under house arrest for more than 14 years and they keep finding ways to extend her house arrest once her sentence term is coming up...and then you expect me to believe that they're going to release her and let her be free during an election (though I doubt it will be a fair election)? They might let her appeal (and try to act like they're being fair), but I'm skeptical that they'll let her free. I feel this a hollow gesture.
The Senate approved an amendment (proposed by Barbara Mikulski, D-MD) to the health care reform bill that requires insurers to cover preventive health screenings for women (like mammograms and pap tests) free of charge. In other words, insurance co-pays and deductibles for preventive health screenings will be eliminated. Ms. Mikulski said these services would include screenings for breast, cervical, ovarian, and lung cancer; heart disease; diabetes; as well as postpartum depression and domestic violence. "The underlying bill would eliminate deductibles and co-payments for many preventive services for men, women, and children. But Ms. Mikulski said it did not adequately address the 'unique needs' of women", and that's why she proposed the amendment.
The amendment passed 61-39. They needed 60 votes. Three Republicans voted in favor (Olympia Snowe [who also was a co-sponsor of the amendment] and Susan Collins of Maine and David Vitter of Louisiana). Two Democrats voted against the amendment (Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin). Feingold voted against it because he said the Senate should have found a way to pay for the costs of the proposal. Nelson voted against the bill because, huge shock, he said the amendment should have explicitly excluded abortion from the definition of preventive care. (Full Story)
As for all the other Republicans that voted against the amendment...seriously, you voted against free mammograms and pap tests?! Why don't you just punch your daughters in the uterus.
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