Kristin Schlaud brimmed with pride when she became the first in her blue-collar family to make it to college. But three years after law school, she is completely broke, saddled with almost a quarter-million dollar debt. Schlaud didn't buy a house she could not afford or run up her credit cards. She owes for her education. As the cost of higher education is skyrocketing, so is the debt carried by young Americans. An increasing number of college students are turning to private loans -- one of the riskiest ways to pay for schooling, according to an education organization that compared them to credit-card debt. Private student loans carry variable interest rates that are higher for those least able to afford them, up to 18 percent in 2008, according to The Project on Student Debt. A new report by the group found that the proportion of all undergraduates who took out such loans increased significantly from 5 percent in 2003-04 to 14 percent in 2007-08. The unfortunate aspect to student debt, the report said, is that nearly two-thirds of those who borrowed privately did not take full advantage of what it called safer and more affordable federal loans. These days, the phone rings with greater frequency, but it's always a bank calling to collect. But Schlaud has nothing to give them. The government bailed out the big three auto companies, she said. "Why not us?" In the meantime, she is considering going to nursing school in the hopes of finding a job. But to do that, she would have to take out yet another loan.

Former American vice-president Dick Cheney has questioned President Barack Obama's trustworthiness on national security after the US Justice Department announced a probe into alleged CIA prisoner abuse. Mr Cheney took aim at the investigation and at Mr Obama's decision to create a new team of elite interrogators to grill suspected terrorists under White House supervision....Attorney-General Eric Holder announced on Monday he had picked Assistant US Attorney John Durham, a career prosecutor, to investigate whether CIA officers and contractors violated US law when trying to break terror suspects held overseas. The probe will cover interrogators who went beyond boundaries set under former president George W.Bush, when top administration lawyers approved harsh interrogations techniques previously outlawed as torture......Mr Obama also ordered changes in future interrogations, bringing in other agencies besides the CIA under the direction of the FBI and supervised by his own national security adviser. The Administration pledged questioning would be controlled by the Army Field Manual, with strict rules on tactics, and said the White House would keep its hands off the professional investigators doing the work.

The elections in Afghanistan are turning out to be a game changer for the war. It was not evident until the last few weeks before the elections that the Taliban would seriously try to undermine the process. In fact, they more or less acquiesced in the voter registration that took place during winter time. Some claim that individual sympathisers with the Taliban even registered themselves. But then again: what is and what is not a Taliban? The Battle of the Elections is not yet over. In fact, it is likely to rage for the next few weeks and could indeed mark the beginning of the war's eulogy. As Havana Marking commented in the Observer on Sunday, it became clear to her that "whatever the outcome, whatever events unfolded, the UN, the EU, the US, and the west in general, would declare the day an unmitigated success". These institutions and their spokespeople are well on their way down this exact path but they would be wise to pause. They are gambling not only with the lives of Afghans but with fondly held western values and also with what used to be an effective (western) political weapon in the geopolitics of the world. To most people, democracy means the process of one person one vote, and the due counting of votes cast should determine who is in and who is out of power. Elections are not yet seen by the wider public as mere rituals, nor should they be....... to throw away the values of democracy to find a way to continue convincing your own western public that the Afghan war is worth fighting, funding and dying for, is very close to being a criminal offence. There is a lot at stake now both for the Afghans and for the west.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said progress is being made towards restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. His comments came after talks in London with George Mitchell, the Obama administration's Middle East envoy, which both described as "very productive".... However, Israel has resisted calls from Barack Obama, the US president, to freeze settlement building on occupied Palestinian land. Mitchell has been pressing Israel to halt construction as a confidence-building gesture to the Palestinians. According to some media reports he was expected to offer Netanyahu a tougher US line on Iran's nuclear programme in return for Israel partially freezing settlement building....Alastair Crooke, a Middle East analyst who has worked with Mitchell, told Al Jazeera: "I'm sure that Mitchell doesn't want to get stuck in this single issue for the next month, because the Americans have a deadline. "They are really keen to get progress on the Palestinian issue before they leave Iraq in the interests of Israeli security." ...Settlements in the West Bank, which Palestinians want for a future state, are home to 300,000 Israelis, and around 2.5million Palestinians. Obama has said he opposes all settlement construction, while Abbas has staunchly refused to reopen peace talks until Netanyahu halts all settlement activity.....Speaking in London at his meeting with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, he had also said that any peace talks with the Palestinians would have to cover the issue of a "demilitarised Palestine", as well as illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

he head of Britain's top banking watchdog supports the idea of new global taxes on financial transactions, warning that a "swollen" financial sector paying excessive salaries has grown too big for society. Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, says the debate on bankers' bonuses has become a "populist diversion" and that more drastic measures may be needed to cut the financial sector down to size.

Argentina's Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that it was unconstitutional to punish an adult for possessing and consuming marijuana if it did not endanger others. In a unanimous ruling, the court struck down criminal penalties for using drugs "in private." The court said public officials needed to fight illegal trafficking of narcotics while adopting methods to treat drug use as a health issue.

There was, though, a stunning transformation. Nujood went from being a victim and child bride to a portrait of courage and triumph. Her inspirational story was told and re-told around the world, but at home all was not well. In the fall of 2008 Nujood was recognized as Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year, alongside some of the world's most impressive women. She even attended the ceremony in New York and was applauded by women from Hillary Clinton to Nicole Kidman. There is a tell-all book which is to be published in more than 20 languages, and the author says Nujood will receive a good portion of the royalties. Nujood's strength was celebrated by complete strangers. But what did all the fame do for the one person it was meant to transform?... "There is no change at all since going on television. I hoped there was someone to help us, but we didn't find anyone to help us. It hasn't changed a thing. They said they were going to help me and no one has helped me. I wish I had never spoken to the media," ....Nujood's father and husband were arrested until the divorce hearing, and Nujood was put in the care of Nasser. Indeed, it seems the judge had heard enough of the abuse to agree with Nujood that she should get her divorce. But based on the principles of Shariah law, her husband was compensated, not prosecuted. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200 -- a huge amount in a country where the United Nations Development Programme says 15.7 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day....To get her divorce, Nujood showed a character and strength not easily expressed by women in Yemen, let alone a 10-year-old child bride.