Violent extremists calling fighters to Somalia

In Somalia's enduring chaos, militant groups have for years come and gone. Today's most powerful -- Al Shabaab -- are much more menacing, say those in Mogadishu.
In Arabic, Al Shabaab means 'the youth', but it is too far-reaching to be just a rabble of youngsters. It controls much of central and southern Somalia and large parts of the capital Mogadishu.
And after years of pledging allegiance to al Qaeda, Al Shabaab formalized the relationship in February. Since then, the Somali government says there's been an influx of foreign fighters.
"With regard to the fighting that's going on in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and in Yemen, some people are looking for a place to hide and Somalia is a good candidate for that," said Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who leads the weak, U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Ahmed was once a senior, moderate figure in the Union of Islamic Courts -- an alliance that included Al Shabaab and which held power in Somalia for six months in 2006 before being overthrown by Ethiopian forces.
The Ethiopians remained until early 2009 when the TFG took tentative control, clinging to a small part of Mogadishu, and protected by African Union (AU) peacekeepers mainly from Uganda and Burundi.
A quiet figure, President Ahmed sits in his office at the palace grounds while government troops outside fire warning shots to prevent people from venturing too close.

"We used to estimate the number of foreign fighters to be between 800 and 1,200 but that number seems to have been growing," he said.
Al Shabaab has reached out to Somalis living in the West, radicalizing young Muslims via the Internet and encouraging them to move back to the country to join the Jihad.
In November 2009, eight Somali-American men from the U.S. state of Minnesota were charged with offenses including attending Al Shabaab terrorist training camps and fighting for the group. In August 2009 two Somalis were arrested in Melbourne, Australia, for allegedly planning a suicide attack on a military facility.
And a naturalized-American suicide bomber, who blew himself up killing 29 people in October 2008, was born in Somalia.
Although the suicide attack took place in Northern Somalia, there is a growing debate as to whether those Somalis living in the West who are recruited by Al Shabaab may return to the U.S., Canada or Europe to stage attacks.
"[Somalia is] a place to hide and a place to fight, not only with the West but with anybody who disagrees with them," said the president. "They go from place to place but their objectives don't change, they fight people of all persuasions."
This is commonly noted by Somalis who talk about Al Shabaab -- they not only violently oppose the West, but also other Somalis who don't support their war.
"If you are not with them, you are against them," said one official at Mogadishu Airport when asked to describe the group's outlook.
Many Somalis live in fear of even appearing to dissent from the group's orders.
At the African Union base they opened the military hospital to the public in response to the lack of medical facilities in the city. When they run out of drugs and instead issue prescriptions, even the desperately ill throw them away, knowing the risks of being caught with such evidence of "collusion."
In February, the group banned the U.N. World Food Program, even though millions rely on food aid for survival.
Music and radio stations have been banned as well as school bells, which were recently declared too Christian by Al Shabaab and their allies.
Stories of the brutal nature of their control over the city's streets make their way through the hospital staff and into the A.U. camp.
Tales of dismemberment, bodies being chopped up and sent back to families, routine executions, even people being skinned alive emanate from neighborhoods closed off to the international community or any form of governance.
Leaning over the wall of a lookout post at the notorious Kilometer Four junction, one soldier points to a minaret. "That's the Red Mosque," he says. "That's where they chop people up."
Such a fate is often promised to Major Ba-Ho Ku, the Ugandan spokesman for the peacekeepers.
Callers to his cell phone promise death and dismemberment. He dismisses the group as misguided and accuses them of making the lives of ordinary Somalis horrific.
"It's so sad," he says, hanging up on another sinister voice. "They don't know what they are doing. They are just killing their own people."
It is estimated that around half the population of Mogadishu have fled to refugee camps.
Those left behind are caught in an increasingly deadly form of urban warfare. Senior A.U. military figures say the signs of al Qaeda's hand in the fighting are visible through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, and suicide bombings.
Most of the fighting goes on between the local TFG forces, weak and underfunded, and Al Shabaab.
At the A.U.'s hospital the morning after a skirmish in town, TFG soldiers lie of stretchers, thin and bleeding. Colonel Dr James Kiyengo, a surgeon, leans over one soldier injured by an IED.
"This kind of injury has increased," he says. "Earlier on the soldiers could move out of the camp and come back, and when the Ethiopians withdrew there was a vacuum that was filled.
"I think the insurgents came closer, and into the city, such that we found that these injuries increased. Earlier on there were no IEDs, not as common as it is now."
A major offensive against Al Shabaab to retake large areas of the city has been rumored for months. Military leaders in Mogadishu play down the reports, saying the move against Al Shabaab will happen gradually.
Last month the New York Times reported that the U.S. had become so concerned with the group's activities across Somalia and in Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, that they were giving direct military support to the TFG. This was strongly denied in Washington.
"The United States does not plan, does not direct, and does not coordinate the military operations of the TFG, and we have not and will not be providing direct support for any potential military offensives," Johnnie Carson, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, told reporters. "Further, we are not providing nor paying for military advisors for the TFG. There is no desire to Americanize the conflict in Somalia."
The dull whir of a nightly drone circling Mogadishu's skies however only adds to speculation amongst locals.
"The American's gather intelligence," one official whispered. "But they don't share it with the Somali government."

Treasury unveils new $100 bill

Benjamin Franklin gets a facelift as the Treasury Department unveils a new $100 bill Wednesday, the first remake of the denomination since 1996.
The new design for the $100 note made its debut during a 10:30 a.m. ceremony at the Department of the Treasury's Cash Room attended by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
"The $100 note is the highest value denomination of U.S. currency in general circulation, and it circulates broadly around the world," according to a statement from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The denomination is popular when large amounts of cash need to be carried internationally.
Anti-counterfeiting measures are the main reason the United States has been making changes in currency.
The currency changes started in 1996 with the $100 bill, followed by a new $20 bill in 2003. The $50 bill got an overhaul in 2004, and the $10 was redesigned in 2006. The $5 bill was upgraded in 2008.
Watch CNNMoney video: Meet the new Benjamin
Security features added to the paper help people to spot bogus bills. They include watermarks and an embedded security thread.

Black farmers call on Congress to pay racial bias settlement

African-American farmers hoping for government settlement money in a racial bias case met with lawmakers Wednesday and called on Congress to come up with a way to fund the $1 billion deal.
A March 31 deadline to appropriate the funds has passed, and farmers now may withdraw from the settlement and pursue independent litigation against the government. Congress now has a target date of the end of May to come up with a plan.
"We spend a billion dollars on a jet to go bomb somebody. We're talking about a billion dollars to help feed our country, and I just don't see why Congress and the president can't go ahead and find [the funds]. It is an emergency," said Gary Grant, with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
Litigation known as the Pigford Case established a longstanding pattern of discrimination at the U.S. Agriculture Department against African-American farmers who had applied for farm loans and support from federal programs.
Under the terms of an involved process overseen by a federal judge and dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias. In addition, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said those farmers may pursue a claim for actual damages from the bias and potentially receive up to $250,000.
Ralph Paige, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, said Wednesday that he believed that Congress was "very close" to coming up with a way to pay the settlement, which covers as many as 80,000 African-American farmers.
"These farmers have suffered much, much too long, and it's time that this thing get behind us. We can settle Pigford once and for all and send a clear message to the country that we are on the right track as a nation," Paige said at news conference.
"We're talking about much more than the money. We are talking about remedying past discrimination," Paige said.
Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, said there is a "total commitment" from President Obama and the majority party in the House and Senate to make sure the settlement is taken care of. Butterfield represents his state's First Congressional District, which is home to Timothy Pigford, who filed the class-action lawsuit more than a decade ago.
Butterfield said lawmakers need to work out how to pay for the settlement under the PAYGO rule, meaning Congress must balance any increased spending with equal savings elsewhere. The other option would be to designate the settlement as an emergency, which would be exempt from PAYGO.
Lawmakers are looking for an appropriate piece of legislation in which to include the settlement to avoid adding to the deficit, Butterfield said.
"If we cannot find the appropriate vehicle, then I would certainly support declaring this settlement as a national emergency and adding it to the next supplemental that may be on the House floor," he said.
Farmers have until May 31 to withdraw from the pending class-action settlement and pursue an independent claim against the government if they feel their chances would be better for a payout. If they choose to stay in the class, they will wait as a group to apply for the promised monetary damages.
Vilsack has said there's no question the damages are due for African-American farmers. In a statement last week, he said, "I have met with and talked to key stakeholders and members of Congress reiterating the administration's ongoing efforts to close this chapter in the history of the department."

Brazil, India pressure China on currency

China is facing growing pressure from other developing countries to begin appreciating its currency, providing unexpected allies for the US in the diplomatic tussle over Beijing's exchange rate policy.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank heads from the Group of 20 countries which starts on Thursday in Washington, Indian and Brazilian central bank presidents have made the most forceful statements yet by their countries about case for a stronger Chinese currency.
While most of the public pressure on China has come from the US, the comments underline that a number of developing economies feel that China's dollar peg has imposed costs on their economies.
CNN readers weigh in on U.S.-China currency flap
Henrique Meirelles, head of the Brazilian central bank, said that a stronger Chinese currency was "absolutely critical for the equilibrium of the world economy". He said there were "some distortions in world markets, one of them is a lack of growth and another is China".
Duvvuri Subbarao, governor of the Reserve Bank of India said that an undervalued renminbi was creating problems for countries, including India.
"If China revalues the yuan, it will have a positive impact on our external sector," Mr Subbarao said. "If some countries manage their exchange rate and keep them artificially low, the burden of adjustment falls on some countries that do not manage their exchange rate so actively."
How much more would you spend on Chinese goods?

Lee Hsien Loong, prime minister of Singapore, added his country's voice to the debate last week, saying it was "in China's own interests" with the financial crisis over to have a more flexible exchange rate.
Some in China have fended off US pressure for a stronger currency, describing it as a distraction from the real causes of the financial crisis. However, criticism from developing countries is not so easy to bat away. "If the rich and emerging economies are united in asking China to revalue, it would be harder to dismiss the request as an example of superpower arrogance," said Sebastian Mallaby at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The increase in criticism of China comes at a time of relative calm between Beijing and Washington over the issue, with many US officials and analysts assuming China has already decided to abandon its peg with the dollar over coming months.
The impact of China's currency policy on other developing countries is not clear-cut, however. Although a number have seen their currencies appreciate sharply over the past year, putting pressure on their exports and exposing them to fiercer competition from China, the economic recovery in China has also provided a boost, especially for its neighbours in Asia as well as commodity-producing countries such as Brazil

The Wall Street 'bailout' that isn't

When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decided last week to portray the Democratic version of financial regulation as a Wall Street "bailout," it seemed like a brilliant, albeit cynical, political move.
What do the voters hate even more than Wall Street? Bailouts. What's the perfect way to combine their antagonism for big banks with their distaste for taxpayer-funded bailouts? Accuse the Democrats of bailing out the banks. Perfect.
A good political move in theory, only it didn't work. First, the outcry was over a "bailout" that wasn't. Granted, there is some money in the bill -- $50 billion -- but it's provided by the banks, not the taxpayers. And it's not there to bail out banks, it's to help the sick ones die properly without creating a panic. "Paying for the funeral" is the way Treasury sources describe it.
Republicans complain it would "open the door" to future taxpayer-funded bailouts. Really? "The notion is wrong," said Elizabeth Warren, who runs congressional oversight of bank bailouts. "At the end of what McConnell calls a bailout, the company is dead."
And get this: When the GOP leadership hatched this idea, it found more than a handful of Republicans -- and not just the usual moderate suspects -- who actually want to vote for financial reform. In fact, the difference between Wall Street reform and, say, health care reform, is that "there truly is a group of us who will hold our side's feet to the fire" to get a bill, one Senate Republican told me.
So when McConnell got all his Republicans to sign a measure to force more negotiations before bringing the bill to the floor, some were with him with a strong caveat: They would not threaten to filibuster a bill they think the country needs. Period.
And then there's the presidential X-factor: With health care, President Obama didn't actively engage until late in the game. This time, though, lesson learned: The president is out there. "This one's easier," senior White House adviser David Axelrod tells me. "Our goal is to be as aggressive as possible." Hence a trip Thursday to the lion's den on Wall Street where he's not going to make nice.
And one more thing. He's not going to let Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid write this bill. Been there, done that.
So have the Republicans. And it worked once, on health care, which is still not popular with the American people. But financial reform is different. Voters want it done. In most cases, the supply of government exceeds the demand for it. In fact, a slew of recent polls show that only about 20 percent of the people trust the government to do the right thing. But even so, a majority of folks actually want the government to intervene to fix Wall Street's excesses.
In other words, the banks are so out of control that even the inept government needs to step in and do something.
So it's no surprise that, after some public chest-thumping, the sides are reported to be back at the negotiating table. Truth is, they never left. Serious senators concerned with reform had always been working on it -- but quietly, for months. The GOP leadership takes credit for moving the process along. They may have lit a fire, that's true, but under the Democrats, who were not about to cave.
Negotiate, yes. But kill the bill? Not a chance.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Gloria Borger.

Starbucks profit soars as customers come back

There may not be a Starbucks on every corner any more, but Americans are finding their way back into the upscale coffee retailer's stores.
Starbucks' profit surged in the quarter ended March 28, topping Wall Street forecasts and prompting the coffee retailer to boost its forecast for 2010.

The world's largest coffee chain reported earnings of $217.3 million, or 28 cents per share. Stripping out restructuring charges, Starbucks posted an adjusted profit of 29 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their forecast, were looking for earnings of 25 cents per share.
Sales jumped 9% to $2.5 billion, beating analysts' expectations of $2.4 billion.
Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500)' shares rose nearly 2% on the news in aftermarket trading, after rising 0.5% during regular hours.
Over the past two years, Starbucks cut costs by closing hundreds of stores, trimming its workforce, overhauling its food menu and adjusting drink prices. The changes finally took hold last quarter, when the company reported a profit that quadrupled its earnings from a year earlier.
Since then, Starbucks has teamed up with Burger King to serve Seattle's Best Coffee and announced it will pay out dividends to shareholders for the first time ever beginning Friday.
Same-store sales, which measure sales at stores open at least a year and are a key gauge of customer traffic, climbed 7% in both the United States and international markets.
U.S. growth was driven by a 5% rise in spending and a 3% uptick in traffic, marking the first increase in more than three years. "An important milestone" for the company, said chief financial officer Troy Alstead.
"Clearly, customers are opening up their wallets and coming back to the brand," said Bart Glenn, analyst at D.A. Davidson.
With business reinvigorated in the United States, Alstead said Starbucks' "best days lie ahead of us." He expects the lion's share of growth for the company to be in opening more stores overseas, with China being the largest market.
0:00 /2:07Starbucks steams into China
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Starbucks raised its outlook and said it expects to earn between $1.19 and $1.22 per share for the full year. In its last forecast, the company said it expected to earn up to $1.09 per share in 2010.
The company also said it is on track to open 100 stores in the United States and 200 in international markets this year, as announced last fall.

Obama to push for tougher financial rules for Wall Street

President Obama is expected to call on Wall Street to join him in his efforts to reform the financial sector in a visit to Manhattan Thursday.
The address at Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science & Art will take place just blocks from the heart of Wall Street.
Likely provisions of any reform legislation would include making banks and financial firms strengthen their capital cushions, as well as creating a new process for taking down giant failing companies and preventing future Wall Street bailouts.
Other topics for reform would include creating a new consumer financial protection regulator and keeping an eye on the kind of complex financial dealings that led to the crisis.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke weighed in on one of those issues last week.

During a congressional hearing, when asked whether a consumer financial regulator should be able to act independently of existing regulators, Bernanke said that unchecked independence could adversely impact credit availability for consumers.
Once back in Washington, the president is expected to ask congressional leaders for bipartisan support on a reform bill.
On Wednesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted 13-8 in favor of a bill, which would impose regulations on the complex system of Wall Street trades known as derivatives.
Watch how derivatives work
Senate leaders now will look at merging the measure with a financial regulations reform bill already passed by the Senate Banking Committee that is headed for debate by the full chamber.
The House passed a regulatory overhaul in December.
The White House has started some preliminary discussions on Capitol Hill, with Obama meeting with congressional leaders last week in the administration's push for regulatory overhaul.
"All of us recognize that we cannot have a circumstance in which a meltdown in the financial sector once again puts the entire economy in peril," Obama said. "I'm absolutely confident that we can work out an effective bipartisan package that assures that we never have too big to fail again."