http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081224/ts_alt_afp/usfinancefraudwieselfoundation

How terribly sad, that the Elie Wiesel Fund was wiped out by Bernie.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost more than 15 million dollars — nearly all of its assets — in the alleged fraud scheme run by Wall Street baron Bernard Madoff, the fund said Wednesday.

“We are writing to inform you that the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity had 15.2 million dollars under management with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities,” said the foundation, which aims to combat anti-Semitism, on its website.

“This represented substantially all of the Foundation’s assets,” it said.

“We are deeply saddened and distressed that we, along with many others, have been the victims of what may be one of the largest investment frauds in history.”

The statement added that the foundation “remains committed to carrying on the lifelong work of our founder, Elie Wiesel. We shall not be deterred from our mission to combat indifference, intolerance, and injustice around the world.”

Wiesel, 80, a Nobel laureate and prolific author who survived the Holocaust, created the foundation some 20 years ago to foster international dialogue and youth programs to teach tolerance.

He is among dozens of wealthy Jews to have lost substantial amounts of money in Madoff’s scheme.

Prosecutors say Madoff confessed to losing upwards of 50 billion dollars over years of running a pyramid scheme, where new investors were secretly fleeced to pay returns to earlier investors.

The 70-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market and a mainstay of the powerful American Jewish community is currently free on bail of 10 million dollars as police continue their probe.

Obama says he won’t be smoking in White House – Yahoo! News

Holy shit.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama failed to give a straight answer when asked on a U.S. talkshow on Sunday whether he had managed to quit smoking.

In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, Obama has been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.

Appearing on NBC’s "Meet the Press" program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC’s Barbara Walters.

 

Not that it matters one way or the other, but the fact that this was not covered in any part of the mainstream press is amazing! Not that it changes anything, but you would think somewhere somehow it would have been mentioned.

Ironically Hillary’s smoking ban makes it impossible for him to smoke in the White House. Question, does he have to exit the White House grounds? Is there  a special presidential smoking area?

Ah the humor.