Three years ago, the US Congress directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to publish information showing the ratio of a company’s Chief Executive Officer’s total pay and compensation to the pay and compensation of the average worker in the company. The SEC has yet to publish that information, but Bloomberg has collected and published the data (it is incomprehensible to me that the SEC has delayed for so long) and it is eye-opening. The top of the list is the J.C. Penney Co, whose CEO, Ronald Johnson, earned 1,795 times what the average worker at J.C. Penney earned. The really sad part is that Johnson was recently fired after the price of J.C. Penney stock dropped by almost 50% during his tenure.
President Obama has promised to renew his effort to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Over half of the 166 prisoners at the facility are engaged in a prolonged hunger strike, a fact that has been ignored by the American press. Apparently, President Obama became quite defensive when questioned about his inability to close the prison, an act he promised would be his first official act when elected in 2008. The prison should have been closed years ago–indeed, it should never have been opened at all. It has no place in the American legal system.
The fate of the Hazara Shia community in Pakistan receives only sporadic media attention, largely because the city of Quetta is considered too dangerous for Western reporters. But the Hazara are one of the most persecuted groups in the world. The Pakistani government has failed repeatedly to protect its citizens, and it seems unlikely that the upcoming election will change that dire situation.
World Politics News 
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