Q: In light of the Korean conflict that we have right now after the North Korean nuclear and missile tests, how many countries does the United States have troops in at the present time?
A: The United States had 295,003 military personnel deployed in more than 150 countries at the end of 2007, according to U.S. Department of Defense statistics on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 statistical abstract.
A total of 1.08 million service people were based within the United States and its territories. Among those based in foreign countries, there were 57,080 troops in Germany; 32,803 in Japan; 27,014 in South Korea; 9,925 in the United Kingdom; 9,855 in Italy; 1,286 in Spain; and 1,594 in Turkey.
At that time, there were 218,500 military personnel in Iraq and 25,240 in Afghanistan. In May, the number of U.S. forces in Iraq had dropped to 134,000, according to an estimate by Gen. Ray Odierno, commander in Iraq, in a military briefing, according to The New York Times.
With President Obama sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, there will be 53,000 in that country by the end of summer.Obama has announced that most American troops will be out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, with 35,000 to 50,000 remaining to advise Iraqi forces. All U.S. forces are to be out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011, according to the president's plans.
Q: My husband is a General Motors retiree. We have heard nothing about how the salaried employees are being handled. What happens to the pension plan that he is a part of?
A: General Motors pensions appear to be safe despite the auto company's filing for bankruptcy June 1.
The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. issued this statement: "Although General Motors Corp. has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, its two defined benefit pension plans remain ongoing under GM's sponsorship. Both plans, one for hourly workers and one for salaried employees, continue to be insured by the PBGC, which guarantees benefits up to limits set by law.
"Stakeholders in the bankruptcy, including GM, the United Auto Workers and the U.S. government, have stated their intent to maintain the plans under the sponsorship of a new corporate entity to be formed from the sale of GM's productive assets. The PBGC will work with all parties to achieve that outcome, which would be in the best interests of GM's more than 670,000 pension plan participants and the pension insurance program."
However, GM said that it was working to reduce some retiree benefits for salaried workers, including life insurance and health care coverage.
For information, call 1-800-489-4646 or see the PBGC Web site, www.pbgc.gov.
Q: Whatever happened to singer Johnny Rivers from the 1960s?
A: If they've never heard anything else by Johnny Rivers, most people can at least hum along with one of his biggest hits, "Secret Agent Man."
His one No. 1 hit, "Poor Side of Town," came in 1966, the high point of a career that saw him sell 30 million records.
Born John Henry Ramistella in New York and raised in Baton Rouge, La., Rivers, 66, began performing as a teen and cut his first record in 1958.
He continued to chart hits into the 1970s, and he's still touring, according to his Web site, with a new album called "Shadows on the Moon."
Q: President Barack Obama pronounces Pakistan "PAHK-i-stahn." I then would assume that this pronunciation is the proper one. How does he pronounce Niger? I have heard different ways and want to know the proper one.
A: Obama's pronunciation of Pakistan is more like that of those who live there than the common American rendering, which rhymes the first syllable with "back."
As for Niger, it's a French-speaking country, and the French pronounce it nee-ZHAIR (rhymes with "Pierre"). But in English, it is commonly pronounced NY-jer, and according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, that's acceptable.
After all, we've never adopted the French pronunciation of Paris (PAH-ree). As for how Obama pronounces it, the subject has yet to come up.
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