Lupe Lasano’s Dirty Gossip Burger

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (UPI) –

President Barack Obama said the United States has begun talks with other nations on possible sanctions against Iran in response to its nuclear development.

Speaking in Seoul at a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama also cautioned North Korea about is nuclear program.

There are reports Iran has rejected a proposal to allow another country to convert its stockpile of enriched uranium into fuel rods for nuclear energy production, The New York times reported.

We’ve seen indications that for internal political reasons or perhaps because they are stuck in some of their own rhetoric, they are unable to get to ‘yes,’ Obama said in Seoul Thursday. As a consequence, we have begun discussion with our international partners on sanctions against Iran, and will develop a number of potential steps we can take that will indicate our seriousness.

Obama announced he is sending his North Korean envoy to Pyon…

See the full post at Obama warns Iran, N. Korea on nukes

LEXINGTON, Mo., Nov. 18 (UPI) –

New charges were added Tuesday in the case of a Missouri man and his four sons who allegedly engaged in years of sexual abuse of children.

Burrell Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence and his sons appeared in court, the Blue Springs Examiner reported. Mohler and three of the younger men said they were still trying to find lawyers.

Prosecutors added new rape charges against all five, while Mohler was also charged with use of a child in a sexual performance.

Several women have come forward, saying when they were children they were forced into bizarre sex acts. The allegations include charges that girls as young as 5 were forced to participate in weddings to older men.

One woman has said she was held in a basement at a Mohler farm near Bates City, where she gave birth to two children, court documents indicated. She said the newborn babies were buried under the floor.

Mohler’s brother, Darrel, was arrested in Florida. Authorities…

See the full post at New charges in Mo. child sex case

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (UPI) –

U.S. President Barack Obama, concluding his China visit, met Wednesday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for talks on issues including trade.

It is my sincere hope that your current visit will lift the comprehensive and cooperative China-U.S. relations to a new level, Wen told Obama at their meeting, China Daily reported.

After his meeting with Wen, Obama planned to visit the Great Wall in the north suburb of Beijing before leaving for South Korea.

Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao held long talks Tuesday covering various issues. The two agreed to cooperate on climate change and on North Korea’s return to the six-nation talks on its denuclearization.

Obama, while describing Tibet as part of China, urged his hosts to resume talks with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Hu said his talks with Obama were on an equal footing and called for rejection of protectionism in all its manifestations.

Obama’s vis…

See the full post at Obama meets Premier Wen

WEST WHEATFIELD, Pa., Nov. 18 (UPI) –

Investigators said they were trying to identify the people who lit a cross on the front lawn of a white Pittsburgh-area couple with a black adopted son.

Joe and Mary Walbeck of West Wheatfield told WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh, the family was hurt by the cross-burning. Joe Walbeck said Shaquille Howard, 16, who has been part of their family for three years, had been accepted in the neighborhood and town.

The Walbecks discovered the 6-foot cross when they woke up Sunday morning.

Howard is a star on the football team at United High School. Joe Walbeck speculated the cross-burning might be connected to the team’s loss in a playoff game Saturday.

I was shocked of what happened, he said. I’ve never had anything happen like this before and it just ate me up that someone would do something like this.

The state police are investigating and said the perpetrators could be charged with ethnic intimidation if they are cau…

See the full post at Cross burned at home of mixed-race family

TOKYO, Nov. 17 (UPI) –

The U.S.-Japan dispute over relocating a U.S. Marine air station on Okinawa is not yet settled despite last week’s meeting between their leaders, officials say.

During his visit to Tokyo on his current Asian tour, U.S. President Barack Obama had cordial talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, but The Washington Post reported the two are not in agreement about the objective of a high-level working group they announced to work on the dispute over the future of the Futenma air station.

The air station on Okinawa Island has raised much concern among local residents because of aircraft noise, making it an irritant in U.S.-Japan bilateral relations.

The Post reported Obama noted the working group would focus only on implementing a 2006 agreement calling for the relocation of the air station within Okinawa. Obama administration officials later said the group will not be able to reopen or renegotiate the agreement.

As part of the 2006…

See the full post at Air station issue not settled

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 17 (UPI) –

A suicide bomb attack at a police checkpoint killed three people in the latest in a series of terror attacks in Pakistan’s Peshawar area, police said.

In Monday’s bombing at the Badbher police station outside Peshawar, the attacker blew up his explosives-laden vehicle, Dawn reported.

The explosion wounded at least 43 people and destroyed a mosque, several shops and houses and a section of the police station and a nearby college, the report said.

There had been a number of threats about an attack prior to the incident, officials said.

Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, and surrounding areas have been the target of a number of deadly militant attacks in retaliation for the monthlong military offensive against terror groups in neighboring South Waziristan trial area. The attacks have killed more than 300 people including civilians.

Police official Khurshid Khan told Dawn all of those killed Monday we…

See the full post at Suicide bombing kills three

MELBOURNE, Nov. 17 (UPI) –

Surgeons in Melbourne have separated conjoined twins in an operation that lasted more than 26 hours, Royal Children’s Hospital announced Tuesday.

Krishna and Trishna, orphans who were joined at the head when they were born in Bangladesh, were separated in a procedure that involved 16 surgeons and assistants and took two years to prepare, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Doctors had said there was just a 25 percent chance the surgery would be completely successful, ABC reported.

Chief of Surgery Leo Donnan said the twins will be kept under sedation for several days.

To see them as separate human beings is pretty special, he said. Getting to that point, when everyone has known these girls as one, with their individual personalities, to see them as separate human beings is a pretty amazing moment.

The twins were brought to Australia by the Children First Foundation, which issued a statement following the surgery saying…

See the full post at Conjoined twins separated in Australia

SHANGHAI, Nov. 16 (UPI) –

U.S. President Barack Obama began his engagements in China Monday amid expectations for a new chapter in bilateral relations, Chinese officials said.

Obama, making his first trip as president to the world’s third largest economy and a major military power, arrived in Shanghai Sunday night from Japan.

As his first trip to China since taking office in January 2009, Obama’s visit is an important event in bilateral ties and is of important significance to the development of the ties, China Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said ahead of the president’s arrival, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Standing at a new historical starting point, the Sino-U.S. relations face important opportunities for development.

His Monday engagements in Shanghai before leaving for Beijing included meeting with Shanghai mayor and other officials and holding a town hall-style meeting with about 300 youths.

Obama’s talks with President Hu Jintao…

See the full post at Obama begins China engagements

MIAMI, Nov. 16 (UPI) –

Both men and women respond in a more hostile way to a woman who violates sex-role expectations, U.S. researchers say.

Co-authors Blaine Fowers, professor at the University of Miami, and Alyssa Fowers, a student at Duke University, said even though both men and women participate in maintaining a gender hierarchy in U.S. society, sexism is a form of social hierarchy that is beneficial to men and detrimental to women.

The study, published in the journal of Sex Roles, also found women show a strong preference for benevolent sexism — portraying women as relatively weak, placing them on a pedestal of purity and suggesting they need protection and guidance — over hostile sexism, the derogatory portrayals of women.

The study also found:

– Men have similar scores on benevolent sexism and hostile sexism.

– Women are divided into two different subtypes, for the purpose of the study: Chaste, women who do not like casual flings and promisc…

See the full post at Both men and women maintain sexism

SACRAMENTO, Nov. 16 (UPI) –

State-ordered furloughs ordered at the California state medical board have resulted in a logjam of physician license applications, physicians say.

The California Medical Association has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court seeking to end state-ordered furloughs — caused by the state budget crisis. The suit says the furloughs have delayed the processing of applicants for medical licenses.

The lawsuit calls for the furloughs — which subject staff to three furlough days a month — to be halted immediately because the loss of 5,100 work hours monthly has kept doctors from working for months.

For example, Dr. Laura Howard, an ophthalmologist, applied for her medical license in May and was to have started work in Hanford, Calif., but she has not received her medical license as of mid-October.

Had my application been approved, I would not only be practicing already, but also generating income, Howard said in a statement…

See the full post at Calif. budget cuts keep M.D.s from work