U.S. President Barack Obama has deployed 100 U.S. troops to Central Africa to help forces that are fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army group – known for its campaign of rape and killing in the region, and its use of child soldiers. The president, in a letter to Congress, said he has authorized the deployment of a small force of combat-ready U.S. troops. Defense department officials say the first of about 100 troops arrived in Uganda this week. The rest will follow in the coming weeks, moving into areas of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo where the group operates. A department official says U.S. troops will remain as long as needed, perhaps several months. In his letter, President Obama said that although the troops will be combat-ready, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to regional forces fighting for the removal of Joseph Kony, who is the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Obama said the U.S. troops will not engage the L.R.A. directly, except in self-defense. Center for Strategic and International Studies Africa researcher Richard Downie explained why Kony is of concern to the United States. “Joseph Kony and his followers have committed egregious human-rights abuses in a large swathe of Africa for many, many years now. Really, I think the U.S. feels it has to act to tackle the L.R.A. because of the abuses it has committed. It does not pose a national security threat to the United States as such, but it feels impelled to act in this situation,” he said. The deployment is in line with President Obama’s public commitment to promote governance and human rights in Africa. The troops will primarily assist the Ugandan army, which has taken the lead in fighting the L.R.A. Downie says Uganda and other nations in the region have been unable to eradicate the group on their own and are eager for U.S. help. “Intelligence suggests that it is operating in perhaps two or three small groups in very remote areas, one of them in the far northeast of the Congo, another in the Central African Republic, and perhaps another one also in South Sudan. So this really explains why it is so difficult to eliminate this group because they are operating in a remote region, in very, very small groups,” said Downie. The Pentagon is not saying what types of units are being deployed. Officials say soldiers will work to safeguard civilians. The U.S. launched a similar support operation to try to combat the L.R.A. in 2008. That mission failed to capture Kony and other commanders. The operation came under criticism by human-rights advocates, who said the effort resulted in a campaign of revenge by L.R.A. fighters who killed hundreds of civilians in the months that followed.
democratic's tag archives
Brady Bunch mom got crabs in affair with NY mayor (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – This would have made an interesting episode of “The Brady Bunch.” Florence Henderson, the actress who played perky mom Carol Brady in the beloved family sitcom, says she once got crabs after a one-night-stand with career politician John Lindsay, who was the mayor of New York City at the time. Henderson, now 77, recounts in her upcoming memoir that she was cheating on her husband during the 1960s, and gave in to her better judgment when her married and unattractive friend put the moves on her over drinks at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “I was lonely. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. So, what did I do? I did it,” she writes in “Life is Not a Stage,” set for publication in September. Henderson went home later that night, and awoke to a grisly surprise the next day as she saw “little black things” crawling over her bed and body. An urgent call to a doctor took care of the problem, known medically as pubic lice, and Lindsay sent her flowers and a note of apology. “Guess I learned the hard way that crabs do not discriminate but cross over all socioeconomic strata,” Henderson writes. “He must have had quite the active life. What a way to put the kibosh on a relationship.” Lindsay, who died in 2000, was mayor of New York from 1966 to 1973. Before that, he was a U.S. congressman. He launched a brief bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. His wife of 51 years died in 2004. Henderson is probably best known for her work on “The Brady Bunch,” a comedy about a blended family that ran between 1969 and 1974 and remains popular worldwide. But the book devotes only a chapter to that part of her life, and she shoots down the oft-told story that she had an off-screen affair with Barry Williams, who played her eldest teen-aged stepson, Greg Brady. “Barry did have a serious crush on me, which I understood and helped him get past,” Henderson writes. “Let us just say that if he had entertained a roll in the hay with me, I would never have done it.” The two, separated in age by 20 years, remain good friends to this day, she adds. For the most part, the book focuses on Henderson’s childhood in an abusive home, her struggles with papal edicts about birth control, her Broadway stardom, and her second marriage to her therapist. Co-written with Joel Brokaw, it will be published by Hachette’s Center Street imprint on September 20. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook
Continue reading " Brady Bunch mom got crabs in affair with NY mayor (Reuters) "
Tags: actress, barry-williams, beverly, beverly-hills, center-street, democratic, Entertainment, flowers, grisly-surprise, henderson, life, lindsay, mayor, time, work
