World / Nation Briefs November 3, 2011
Oakland protest shuts down shipping port
OAKLAND, Calif. - Occupy Wall Street protesters have declared victory after shutting down evening operations at one of the nation's busiest shipping ports and begun leaving the area.
Organizers were telling demonstrators to head back to the downtown plaza across from City Hall, where the Oakland movement has been based for weeks and was the scene of intense clashes with authorities last week.
A voice over a bullhorn said "the night is not over, yet."
The nearly 5-hours protest at the Port of Oakland, the nation's fifth busiest shipping port, was intended to highlight a daylong "general strike" in the city, with complementary solidarity demonstrations across the nation.
The port demonstration was peaceful and police say there were no arrests at the scene.
U.S. may speed shift to advisory role
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is considering an early shift in the U.S. military role in Afghanistan from primarily combat to mainly advisory and training duties, even as it struggles to create the beginnings of a political settlement of the war, a senior U.S. official said late Wednesday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decisions had been made on speeding up a change in the military's mission, said that details of the possible new U.S. approach had not been settled and that other options may be under consideration.
If the faster transition from combat to primarily advising Afghan forces is adopted it would mean a reduction in American combat duties sooner than the administration had planned. But it would not mean an early end to the war, which began in October 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and became stalemated in the years before President Barack Obama took office.
The war has grown increasingly unpopular at home, and Obama is gearing up for a re-election campaign in which he is expected to emphasis his ending of the Iraq war this year and his efforts to wind down combat in Afghanistan by 2014.
In December 2009 Obama announced he was sending an additional 33,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to change the course of the war. The U.S. and its NATO partners agreed in Lisbon one year ago that coalition forces would complete their combat mission by Dec. 31, 2014, with the understanding that advising and training Afghan forces would gradually become a more dominant part of the mission, particularly after the U.S. completes the withdrawal of 33,000 "surge" troops by September 2012.
Third worker says Cain harassed her
WASHINGTON - A third woman considered filing a workplace complaint against Herman Cain over what she deemed aggressive and unwanted behavior when she and Cain, now a Republican presidential candidate, worked together during the late 1990s, the woman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the behavior included a private invitation to his corporate apartment.
The woman said he made sexually suggestive remarks or gestures about the same time that two co-workers had settled separate harassment complaints against Cain, who was then the head of the National Restaurant Association.
The woman was located and approached by the AP as part of its investigation into harassment complaints against Cain that were disclosed in recent days and have thrown his presidential campaign into turmoil. She spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying she feared losing her current job and the possibility of damage to her reputation.
Cain's campaign denied anew that he'd done anything wrong, decried a "smear campaign" as he is riding high in opinion polls and accused rival Rick Perry's operation of being behind the original stories.
Perry told the conservative RedState blog late Wednesday that his campaign "had absolutely nothing to do with it."
EU leaders heappressure on Greece
CANNES, France - European leaders drew a line in the sand for Greece on Wednesday, saying its referendum on a hard-won bailout deal will decide whether it stays in the eurozone - and vowing Athens will not get new aid until the result is in.
The acknowledgment that the vote - which will likely take place on Dec. 4 - could see Greece leaving the currency union is the first official admission that such an exit is possible and follows almost two years of pledges to the contrary.
The move to tie the vote to the fate of the euro is a huge gamble that could endanger the future of the currency union, the centerpiece of Europe's postwar unity, and potentially push the world economy into another recession.
- The Associated Press