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WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Barack Obama will talk “explicitly” about an exit strategy when he delivers a prime-time speech on Afghanistan on Tuesday night, officials said.
Although the speech is still in draft form, senior U.S. officials were quoted by the New York Times on Monday as saying that the president wanted to use the address not only to announce the immediate order to deploy roughly 30,000 more troops, but also to convey how he intends to turn the fight over to the Kabul government.”

“It’s accurate to say that he will be more explicit about both goals and time frame than has been the case before,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.
“He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down,” he added.

The officials said the time frame would not be tied to particular conditions on the ground nor would it be as firm as the current schedule for withdrawing troops in Iraq.

Officials of one allied nation who have been briefed on the speech said while Obama would describe how the American presence would be ratcheted back after the buildup, he would also make it clear that a significant U.S. presence in Afghanistan would remain for a long while.

Obama was also expected to describe commitments from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and specific benchmarks his government must meet: to crack down on corruption, deploy well-trained Afghan troops and police officers, and focus on development in one of the world’s poorest nations.

The president was expected to be far less specific about Pakistan, where Taliban leaders are commanding operations across the border against American forces, and where al-Qaida’s central leadership still lives.

The White House said last week that Obama would address the nation on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern time (0100 GMT Wednesday) from West Point military academy.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — The United States voiced Monday its expectation for reaching a replacement treaty for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia by the end of this year.
“What we’re saying now is that we’re hoping to get this draft agreement by the end of December,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

Under the 1991 START, which will expire on December 5, the United States and Russia would limit nuclear warheads to about 6,000 in each arsenal.

In their meetings in London and Moscow, President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedv have agreed on the significant reduction of the two countries’ nuclear warheads each possesses to 1,500 to 1,675 on 500 to 1,100 delivery systems over seven years.

Reports from the State Department said that Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller and Russian negotiator Anatoly Antonov have been in Geneva for working to resolve remaining differences in areas of offensive weapons level and missile defense issues.

MOSCOW, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) — Russia will back sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program if consensus is reached internationally, said a Russian unnamed diplomat source on Tuesday.
“If there is a consensus on sanctions, Russia will not remain in isolation,” said the source when commenting on Tehran’s plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities

CHICAGO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) — President and CEO of U.S. automaker General Motors Co. Fritz Henderson resigned Tuesday and his job was taken over on an interim basis by the company’s chairman, Ed Whitacre Jr..
At a hastily called press conference in the auto city of Detroit, Whitacre said he would be working out of the company’s headquarters on a daily basis until a new president and CEO is named. He took no questions at the press conference.

“We all agreed some changes needed to be made going forward,” said Whitacre, the former AT&T CEO who has clashed with Henderson on a number of fronts in recent weeks.

Whitacre was installed by the Treasury Department as the company’s chairman after GM’s bankruptcy reorganization.
GM made this decision and notified the U.S. Treasury Department which holds a 61-percent majority stake in GM.

“This decision was made by the board of directors alone. The administration was not involved in the decision,” the White House said.

Henderson, who was a college pitcher at the University of Michigan, joined GM in 1984 after attending Harvard Business School, and became CEO in April after the Obama administration forced out chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner.

Henderson held a number of positions, including head of its Brazil operations, Latin American unit. In 2002, he became president of GM Asia Pacific.

In 2004, Henderson was named head of GM Europe, followed by a promotion to CFO in June 2006. He had clashed with the board over the decision to sell the company’s European unit Opel and Vauxhall. The board rejected management’s proposal to sell the unit.

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ROATAN, Honduras – “The president’s been arrested already this morning,” hotel owner Jeff Kuken told my wife and me one Sunday morning in late June.

We had spent months planning a vacation across Honduras, but now Latin America’s first military coup in decades was unfolding on the third day of our trip. Not exactly part of our plans, and definitely not included in guidebooks that painted Honduras as the Next Big Destination for affordable eco-tourism.

“The military flew him out of the country at gunpoint,” said Kuken, a Boston native who owns Casa Calico on this beautiful island known for its scuba diving and snorkeling.

We wondered whether it would be possible to have fun and relax in a beautiful country going through political chaos. The answer turned out to be a resounding yes — with some changes in plans and a bit of luck.

We spent the day of the coup at Gumbalimba Park, where we took a zipline from tree to tree down the side of a mountain and onto a picturesque beach. We spotted iguanas that looked like small alligators and learned about cashew trees. We visited the park’s bird and monkey sanctuary, carrying both on our shoulders and feeding them with the help of their trainers.

Back at our room that afternoon, we watched on state television as Congress defended the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya and swore in the new president, Roberto Micheletti. Micheletti wasted no time imposing a 9 p.m. curfew that would last for the rest of our trip.

On Roatan, an island reachable by a 75-minute ferry ride from the mainland, there were few signs of unrest. We had the white sand beaches largely to ourselves, sipped pina coladas at beachside bars, and treated ourselves to delicious local foods like shrimp coconut soup and fried plantains. We enjoyed fresh Honduran coffee.

We snorkeled in one of the world’s largest barrier reefs, seeing all kinds of exotic fish. No need for a guided tour: the best snorkeling is very close to shore. One tip for travelers: it might be worth bringing your own mask and fins because the quality of rentals can be suspect. We did not scuba dive, but Roatan is a popular place for Americans and Europeans to do so.

With the U.S. Department of State advising against nonessential travel, we decided to cancel trips we had planned across the mainland.

(That advisory has since been softened; State now advises travelers to “exercise caution” but avoid the capital, Tegucigalpa. While the country’s political crisis continues, with the presidential election set for Nov. 29, bus and airline services and daily life are largely back to normal.)

We had planned to visit the Mayan ruins and coffee plantations in Copan Ruinas in the western part of the country and beautiful Lago Yojoa in central Honduras, where we had expected to stay at a bed-and-breakfast that is also the country’s one and only microbrewery.

NEW YORK – Models of the Obama White House, the Obama home in Chicago and the house Michelle Obama grew up in are on display at holiday train shows at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington.

Holiday train shows are also held in other gardens around the country, with each show featuring trains running past miniature versions of local landmark buildings. Other locations for the holiday train shows include the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati.

The trains are garden-scale models, which are about 1/25th the size of real trains. But the most spectacular aspect of these shows is that the model buildings are created entirely from plant material — seeds, bark, pods, stems and the like — by designer Joe Busse and his Kentucky-based company, Applied Imagination.

For example, the front of the replica of the Obamas’ Kenwood home in the Chicago Botanic Garden exhibit is layered with white pine bark and catalpa beans. Tiny flower pots made out of burr oak caps and acorns are set on front steps made from palm stems and sea grape leaves. The front porch is made of honeysuckle, eucalyptus leaves, okra seeds, and magnolia and lotus pod stems. The bricks in Michelle Obama’s childhood home are pine tree bark and the dormers are crafted out of redbud seed pods.

In addition to the Obama home replicas, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Wonderland Express show includes more than 80 other miniatures of Chicago landmarks like Navy Pier, Soldier Field, Millennium Park and the Shedd Aquarium. Wonderland Express is open Nov. 27-Jan. 3, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., (closing at 3 p.m. on Dec. 3 and Dec. 24, and closed all day Dec. 25). Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for children 3-12, and free on Tuesdays through Dec. 23.

At the U.S. Botanic Garden, a model of the White House used in past holiday shows was modified this year to add the White House vegetable garden and a swing set used by the Obama girls. Also new to the Washington garden show is a replica of the National Museum of the American Indian. The sizes of the buildings, which include many other Washington landmarks, range from 7 feet across for the U.S. Capitol to 2 feet across for the Jefferson Memorial.

In the U.S. Botanic Garden’s main train exhibit, trains run through miniature depictions of stories and characters from children’s literature, from “The Owl and the Pussycat” to Cinderella.

The U.S. Botanic Garden show runs Nov. 26-Jan. 10. The garden conservatory is free and open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December).

The New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show features a model of the original Pennsylvania Station, a McKim, Mead and White building that was demolished in 1964. Its destruction is still mourned by preservationists, and is often cited as having helped inspire the modern-day movement to save historic and architecturally significant buildings. The show also includes miniatures of the original Yankee stadium, Hudson River mansions and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Todd Forrest, vice president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden, said the show typically attracts 160,000 visitors. It started in 1991 with a dozen buildings, now has more than 140 structures, and has become a tradition for many families.