Social Security's financial health worsens
WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Social Security is sliding to insolvency at an increasing rate and Medicare is stable but ultimately untenable, Social Security and Medicare trustees said.
"Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare," the trustees wrote in a "Message to the Public."
"If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare," the message said.
The Social Security trust fund, which is expected to provide assistance to more than 45 million people this year, will be unable to fulfill its obligations in 2033, three years earlier than projected last year, if trends continue, the trustees said in their annual assessment.
After that, incoming Social Security tax revenue "would be sufficient to pay only about three-quarters of scheduled benefits through 2086," the trustees said.
To pay the balance, Congress would have to either increase taxes or reduce benefits, analysts say.
House, DOJ probe Walmart bribery scandal
WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- Two top House Democrats announced probes into claims Walmart's Mexican subsidiary paid more than $24 million in bribes to speed permits for new-store openings.
The announcement by Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., came as The Washington Post reported the U.S. Justice Department was conducting a criminal probe of Walmart in the allegations of systemic bribery.
Shares of Walmart Stores Inc. fell nearly 5 percent, or about $10 billion in market value, on the New York Stock Exchange Monday. Shares of Walmart de Mexico SAB de CV, known colloquially as Walmex, tumbled 12 percent on the Mexican Stock Exchange.
The New York Times reported Sunday Walmart internal investigators found credible evidence Walmart de Mexico paid the bribes to support expansion in Mexico, where one in five of the retailer's stores are located.
The idea was to build hundreds of new stores so fast that rivals, against which Walmex competes fiercely, would not have time to react, former Walmex Chief Executive Officer Eduardo Castro-Wright told the Times.
Post-cease-fire violence reported in Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria, April 24 (UPI) -- Opposition activists reported post-cease-fire fighting Tuesday, saying Syrian forces struck Homs and Hama Tuesday, and tank artillery and mortar fire hit Douma.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an intelligence officer was assassinated Tuesday morning in Damascus, CNN reported.
Activist organizations said government forces assaulted Homs and Hama just days after U.N. monitors left the cities.
Meanwhile U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who developed a six-point peace plan, is expected to brief the U.N. Security Council Tuesday. While only a few U.N. observers are in Syria now, the Security Council recently authorized sending as many as 300 monitors for 90 days.
"It is our hope that the deployment of observers will help to stop the killing and consolidate the calm," said B. Lynn Pascoe, U.N. undersecretary general for political affairs. "The objective, however, is clearly not to freeze the situation but to create the conditions for a serious and credible political process."
Witnesses testify about Breivik's bomb
OSLO, Norway, April 24 (UPI) -- A guard testified on the destruction he saw when a bomb blew up a Norway government building in Oslo during the trial of confessed mass killer Anders Breivik.
Tor Inge Kristoffersen, a government security employee, said Tuesday he was in the building's basement when a colleague called him about an illegally parked van, the British publication The Daily Telegraph reported. When he investigated, he saw on close circuit television the van and then a man dressed as a guard leaving the building.
Kristoffersen said as he zoomed in on the van's license plates, the bomb exploded.
"I was about to send [a] message to find out more," he testified. "Suddenly half of the camera view disappeared, a combination of the blast smoke and the blast itself, then water began to pour out."
"I saw dead people outside and terrible destruction," he said.
Breivik admitted to detonating a bomb outside a government building in Oslo last July, killing eight people, then driving to Utoya Island near the capital and killing 69 people in a shooting spree. He pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges arising from his attacks, claiming self-defense. Breivik previously admitted his actions but claimed they were justified because he was waging war against multi-culturalism and what he said was a Muslim invasion of Europe.
Secret Service prostitution scandal widens
WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) -- The number of U.S. military members suspected of official misconduct in a Colombian prostitution scandal has risen to 12, a Defense Department official said.
The official told CNN another military member has admitted to leadership he was involved in misconduct "of some kind" while in Colombia for a summit attended by President Barack Obama.
U.S. military personnel were in the Colombian resort city of Cartagena to provide the president with secure communications for his visit.
To date, 12 Secret Service members and 12 military members are under investigation in the prostitution scandal that occurred before Obama arrived for the Summit of the Americas April 13.
Six Secret Service members have left their jobs and one employee has been cleared of serious misconduct but will face administrative action, the Secret Service said. Five other Secret Service employees have been placed on administrative leave.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said security clearances were suspended for all U.S. military personnel involved in the incident.
