Arms Deliveries To Syrian Rebels Delayed

Star witness to stay mum for House hearing on IRS Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 3:09 am, Wednesday, May 22, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee taking Congress' latest look at the Internal Revenue Service's mistreatment of tea party groups will apparently have to do so without input from the star witness. Lerner triggered the recent IRS uproar at a legal conference nearly two weeks ago, when she revealed that the agency had subjected tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to extra scrutiny during parts of the 2010 and 2012 election seasons. Staff of the Oversight Committee questioned Lerner and other IRS officials last year after receiving complaints from Ohio tea party groups that they were being mistreated by the IRS, said Meghan Snyder, spokesman for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a member of the committee. Lerner's revelation and apology at the May 10 legal conference came in response to a question that IRS officials later acknowledged they had planted with an audience member. George's report found that in June 2011, Lerner discovered that her unit was searching for organizations with words like "tea party" or "patriots" in their applications and subjecting them to tougher questions. [] with President Barack Obama demanding that IRS officials be held accountable for the problem, Acting Commissioner Steven Miller and another top agency official have announced their departures in recent days and many lawmakers believe more heads should roll.

Japan watchdog: Nuclear plant sits on top of fault TOKYO (AP) — Japan's nuclear watchdog has endorsed a panel's conclusion that a seismic fault running underneath an atomic plant in western Japan is active, making the plant's restart virtually impossible. The case is a crucial test for the watchdog to prove whether it can resist industry pressure just as Japan's pro-nuclear government moves to restart reactors suspended since the tsunami-caused 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Japan approves joining int'l child abduction pact The convention seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made by the courts of a country of abducted children's original residence and that the rights of access of both parents are protected.

Afghan students protest women's rights decree KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hard-line Islamist students are protesting in the Afghan capital demanding the repeal of a presidential decree for women's rights that they say is un-Islamic. More than 200 male students protested in front of Kabul University on Wednesday against the decree, which includes a ban on child marriage and forced marriage, makes domestic violence a crime and says rape victims cannot be prosecuted for adultery.

Weak yen a help for Japan, but headache elsewhere Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 2:45 am, Wednesday, May 22, 2013 TOKYO (AP) — A steady decline in the yen is proving a godsend for exporters such as Toyota and has won solid support from Japan's main trading partners, who are betting the impact on their own currencies will be offset by gains from a recovery in the world's third-largest economy. Whether it's intended or not, countries across Asia are seeing their own currencies pushed higher, as their financial markets are flooded with cash pumped out by the Bank of Japan to help double the country's monetary base and hit a 2 percent inflation target. [] Australia's "billabong bonds" as its government debt is dubbed, have replaced Japan's government bonds as a safe haven for global investors, now that the Bank of Japan is soaking up 70 percent of Tokyo's bond sales via banks and other institutions. Australia's central bank recently cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a record low 2.75 percent, seeking to boost growth and counter the "unprecedented whack," as Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan reportedly put it, from the strengthening Australian dollar. The long-term danger, he says, is in allowing debt to build up in financial markets that, after cleaning up the mess of the Asian financial crisis, until recently were far stronger than those in the wealthy western countries. [] double-digit gains in share prices in many regional markets, where price-to-earnings ratios used to judge value are veering higher, are another worrisome sign, said Rajiv Biswas, an economist with IHS in Singapore. While automakers and to a lesser extent electronics makers are enjoying higher profits, energy intensive steel mills and utilities are struggling with surging costs, in yen terms, for fuel and other key commodities. Since utility rates and prices of basic necessities, such as noodles, flour and oil are also rising, while wages have improved only modestly, for only some workers, the impact on demand for imports from the rest of Asia remains unclear.