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A trio of additional healthcare projects of the Obama Administration are slated to be administered by a handful of private-sector vendors at a cost of nearly $1 billion—initiatives that contractors will carry out in Africa, Asia/Middle East and the Latin America/Caribbean regions.

Africa receives about $11 billion a year in foreign aid from America, and an equal amount in loans from the World Bank. In spite of this largesse, or perhaps because of it, Africa remains the world's least developed region. In this time of fiscal crisis in the United States, as evidenced by Standard and Poor's downgrade on Monday of Washington's credit-worthiness, it is imperative that Congress reduce spending and borrowing. Aid to Africa is one place to start. George Ayittey, a Ghanian economist and a professor of economics at American University, offers persuasive reasons in a paper he gave earlier...

WASHINGTON — Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was relieved of command in Afghanistan after a magazine profile quoted his subordinates as disparaging senior civilian leaders, has been invited back to public service by the Obama administration to help oversee a high-profile initiative in support of military families, White House officials said Sunday.

Pakistan: 92 per cent of USAID projects go to US NGOs By Umar Cheema (The NEWS) ISLAMABAD: Over 92 percent of the US aid money granted in previous years is being spent through the American NGOs resulting in the return of a fair portion of the financial assistance back to the donor country. The News investigation found that of the projects run through $1.05 billion assistance, the government agencies were granted an amount of $29.68 million (2.78% of the total amount), UN bodies received $50.80 million (4.8%) and US NGOs bagged projects of $960 million (92.30%). This coincides with Ambassador...

Post news of Recovery and Relief in Japan....and ways to help.....HERE Here is previous thread.... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2691038/posts?page=20#20

In order to keep people appraised of the RELIEF and RECOVERY efforts going on in Japan, and also to focus on the NEEDS they have, this thread is posted.

I think it would be good to separate the Nuclear Reactor news from the RESCUE operation in Japan....that's the purpose of this thread. Please add links you find.

Sacramento, California - The Assembly Higher Education Committee approved two bills on Tuesday allowing college students who are in the state illegally to receive financial aid. Dubbed the California Dream Act, AB130 allows illegal immigrants to receive privately funded college scholarships, and AB131 allows them to receive taxpayer-funded financial aid such as Cal Grants. Currently, illegal students who spend at least three years in California high schools pay only the in-state tuition rate — a significant cost savings over legal citizens from other states who are attending California colleges. That benefit was provided by AB540, which passed in 2001.

To Japanese and Japan-based Freepers: What's the best, quickest way of getting aid to people on the ground directly -- via local groups, religious instutitons, etc. I'd rather not give it to an international bureaucracy like the Red Cross (Japanese website was confusing), other NGO's or government. This is being posted Front/Breaking because I imagine a lot of other Freepers want this info and, let's face it, it's an emergency over there and these people need quick, effective help as soon as they can get it. I've seen too many stories of waste, corruption and abuse (Haiti, Katrina, etc.) and...

Recently Texas Republican Congressman Ted Poe reintroduced an idea whose time might have finally come. He addressed Congress asking that we review the Foreign Aid we are sending to countries around the world with the purpose of cutting most of it. Referring to the many countries with their hands out looking for Foreign Aid, Poe asked a very direct question, “Why do we need to pay them to hate us?” Poe’s fact filled, but brief, speech contained some compelling points. We are giving Foreign Aid money, our tax money, to 150 of the 192 countries of the world. Some of...

 That's us dishing-out an allowance to  over 78% of the nations in existence... Thanks US taxpayers- but most of them still hate you anyway. And if you feel like a chump- you should: we'll be paying for this dubious investement (+interest) ad infinitum: America doesn't have any money to be giving-away in the first place, all discretionary federal spending is in-effect borrowed these days... [video of Rep Ted Poe (R-Tx)  on foreign aid and where it goes -here-] Maybe for a start we could cut-off, say, Moscow or Beijing... or so you'd think! The interactive foreign aid map linked below tells all......

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has proposed to Congress a $3.1 billion in financial assistance to Pakistan for the year 2012. This is part of the administration's ongoing effort towards its continued funding for operations and assistance in key regions of the world -- Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of this as many as $1.9 billion in assistance has been proposed to promote a secure, stable, democratic and prosperous Pakistan with a focus on energy, economic growth, agriculture, the delivery of health and education services, and strengthening the Government of Pakistan's capacity to govern effectively and accountably. $1.5 billion of this...

WASHINGTON: Despite being in the throes of a crippling political and economic crisis and almost entirely dependent on handouts from the United States and multilateral aid, Pakistan is poking a finger in the international community's eye. Days after it was revealed that Islamabad has doubled its nuclear weapons' inventory in the past decade, American experts have discovered that it has begun building a fourth plutonium-producing reactor to produce even more nuclear bombs to add to the 100-plus it already has. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) announced on Wednesday that it has obtained commercial satellite imagery from...

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake reaching a magnitude of 7.0 rocked Haiti. Over the next two weeks, 52 aftershocks measuring a magnitude of 4.5 or greater had added to the devastation. The city of Port-au-Prince was littered with rubble and death as impromptu tent cities sprang up everywhere. By July, an estimated $1.3 billion in funds had been raised by U.S. relief organizations. Charity is one of the most selfless, noble activities in which a person can participate; however, good intentions do not always beget good results. A year later the bodies are gone. The tent cities have upgraded...

Israel should give up US military aid It would be wise for Israel to take the initiative, before Tea Party Republicans make a move. 19 January 11 15:06, Ran Dagoni, Washington The time has come to bid goodbye to the military aid that the US extends to Israel, that generous package (currently worth $3 billion) that enables the Israeli taxpayer to share the cost of procuring equipment for the IDF with the US taxpayer. Israel should itself initiate the process of detachment from the Washington breast. It should be done gradually, on terms that will enable Israel to wean itself...

Delay comes as a result of Obama's difficulties in pushing next year's budget through Congress due to Republican opposition. American aid to Israel for developing and buying additional Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries might be delayed for at least a few months due to President Barack Obama's difficulties in pushing next year's budget through Congress. The delay will mean a long wait before the weapons can be bought from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. In May, the House of Representatives approved Obama's decision to grant $205 million in special aid to Israel to buy the additional batteries and intercept missiles. Israel has...

Terror organization faces unprecedented crisis, according to Israeli intelligence assessments, stirring tension with its Iranian patrons. Iran has cut the annual budget it provides Hizbullah by over 40 percent, stirring an unprecedented crisis within the Lebanese Shi’ite guerrilla organization. This comes, according to recent Israeli intelligence assessments, just weeks before a United Nations tribunal is expected to accuse Hizbullah of assassinating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) – More than half of the 1.4 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration's flagship foreclosure-prevention program have fallen out.</p> <p>A separate report Thursday showed that the number of Americans at risk of foreclosure improved slightly over the summer. The Mortgage Bankers Association said that about 9.1 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the July-September quarter. That was down from 9.9 percen6t in the April-June quarter and compared to a record high of more than 10 percent in the January-March quarter.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C -- A Channel 2 Action News investigation found that the State Department is sending millions of dollars to save mosques overseas. This investment has received criticism as the United States makes an effort to slash nearly $4 trillion in government spending.

WASHINGTON: As it announced a whopping $2.29 billion in new military aid to Pakistan despite India's concerns in this regard, the United States has said its ties with Islamabad do not come at the expense of India and vice-versa. "This is a subject (India's concerns about US military assistance to Pakistan) that comes up in all of our discussions with high-level Indian officials. It comes up in all of our discussions with high-level Pakistani officials," US State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters when asked about New Delhi's concerns on the issue. "We continue to provide the same message...