Broke out. A new African Peace Keeping force is going to try to stop the violence there in that wartorn nation. For the first time in three years, congress has passed a bipartisan budget deal, the bill clearing the senate with 64 votes despite opposition from the tea party and conservatives in congress. The bill easing automatic spending cuts that would have taken place next year and making sure there are no government shutdowns for at least two years. Those are your headlines. Consider this is next. You can check us out 24 hours a day by going to aljazeera. Com. America faced with two International Incidents deeply personal in very different ways. First an indian diplomat jailed and strip searched because she may have lied to the u. S. Government and severely underpaid her house keeper. Consider this, how did a nanny salary dispute in danger u. S. Diplomats in india. President obama snubs russian president putin over the countries anti gay laws, but will the move backfire. The e. P. A. s top paid employee claims to be a spy and scams the agency out of 1 million. How did he get away with it for more than a decade . Why are americans skipping out on vacation when we know taking time off reduces major health risks . Welcome to consider this. We begin with the arrest a understand strip search of an indian diplomat in new york that has parked a diplomatic uproar. Indias deputy consul general was arrested last week for committing visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. The outrage in india stretches from the streets to the prime minister, mostly because she was subjected to cavity searches after her arrest. Indians have retaliated by removing security barriers surrounding the Indian Embassy in new delhi. Headlines there says india takes on uncle sam and bulldozer diplomacy. For more on the case, i am joined by legal contributor jami floyd, joining us here in our studio and by ambassador nancy soderburg. Jami, i want to start with you. The facts of this case are this deputy consul was paying her house keeper less than 600, even though she had gotten a visa for her saying she was going to pay her 4,500 a month. Those are the allegations. If that is the case, theres little doubt she commit add crime, so why is this going on . The real crime here is not so much in the failure to pay the adequate wage, although that is of course a crime, but the real crime is the visa fraud, lying about it is a felony, and shes charged with two crimes, lying on the visa to get the woman into the country. Right. And giving false information to the authorities. This carries a sentence of possibly 15 years. Now, probably, authorities wont ask for that stiff a penalty, but this is really quite a serious felony. Does it require a strip search . Does it require d. N. A. Tests, all that have business . Well, thats protocol, say u. S. Marshalls. It may seem like a paperwork offense, shouldnt require that kind of a protocol, but it does and they say she was not deserving of special treatment. In an email published in indian media, it was wrote ambassador, the u. S. Marshall service does say that the search is standard operating procedure, anybody getting arrested gets those searches. The u. S. Attorneys office says that she was not handcuffed. Why all of the outrage . Is this all about diplomatic immunity . Well, she is going to claim it, but a deputy consul does not have the right to hire slave you labor and lion the visa applications, so as weve just heard, shes in serious legal trouble. Whether her arrest justified a strip search apparently was not a savety search, the facts will come out, but i think the reason this is in the headlines is that the incident does have the possibility of disrupting u. S. Indian relations. This is a relationship that the u. S. Has worked hard on in the last decade to improve. Weve get a Strategic Dialogue going on there, trying to use them as a strategic counter weight to russia, iran, china, its one of our most important relationships, 1. 2 billion people, twice that by the middle of the century. Its one of our most important and delicate relations. An incident like this can just set things on fire overnight as were seeing. Secretary of state john kerry is trying to tamp it down. Everyone is trying to tamp it down. It will eventually get off of the headlines but for the next couple of months, its going to be a major issue in our diplomacy. The facts will emerge, but its going to set some tensions into a very important relationship. I want to get to more of that, but lets focus on the immunity issue. Her lawyer said she should get immunity. We hope that we wont ever have to and the actual charges in court, because we hope and expect that from a diplomatic level, this case will be resolved, but were confident that if we do have to address the charges, she will be completely vindicated. However does diplomatic immunity go . Not very. This is a lower level diplomat. Thats right. The immunity technically only he can tends to things shes doing within her diplomatic pro we say. She knows better than i, she was a consul so had consular immunity, extending to things she did in that capacity. The Indian Government has a bigger title, promoted her in the hopes that retroactively she will be given a broader immunity, but given the allegations now pending against her, thats not likely to be applied. The first and foremost defense, the better defense is i didnt do this. Im not guilty of the crimes alleged, rather than invoking immunity. The outrage, though, isnt a terrible overreaction by the Indian Government because of what theyve done, taking down the barricades at the u. S. Embass and playing with the safety of americans . Absolutely. My guess is going to oh be reversed very quickly. The idea that they would put our diplomats at risk over this incident where i think this woman was clearly in the wrong or they wouldnt be calling for diplomatic immunity, that needs to be reversed and is simply outrageous. I think what youre going to see here, she will be on a plane home quickly, lets get it resolved. We do have the authority to let her go, depending on what charges occur, she can come back to them. I think shell be moving home quickly and trying to put this, all sides of going to try to put this incident behind them. She does not have diplomatic immunity to lion a visa application or hire slave labor in this country. Its simply unacceptable. Theres no doubt that her guilty will emerge in my mind. Well wait until the facts emerge. Youll see outrage about this incident and cooler heads will prevail, well have our security replaced and shell be on a plane home will be the quick resolution to this. And very outrage about the real victim here, the nani. Secretary of state john kerry, lets talk about the diplomatic side, has sent his regrets for the incident, but the u. S. Is not backing down. The secretary understands very deeply the important of enforcing our laws and protecting victims and expects the laws will be followed by everyone here in our country. As a father of two daughters about the same age, the secretary emphasizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from india and in his conversation with National Security advisor, he expressed his regret and concern that we not allow this to hurt our close an vital relationship with i understand i cant. Ambassador, i think you were about to say he wasnt apologizing, expressing regret this has gotten to where it has gotten. The state department is making it very clear we are not apologizing. I think the facts on the strip search whether that was appropriate will emerge. On face value, it seems overkill for the circumstances, but i think the message here is follow our laws, dont hire slave labor in this country is the number one lesson. Number two, the indians are flat wrong to not try and protect their own diplomats here, which is my secretary of state john kerry is on the phone trying to tamp this down. I think what youll see is much more care given to the employees that the diplomats here are hiring here in the United States, and have better controls within their embassies of what they are really paying their employees. This is reminiscent of the strauss conn incident, the indicates fell apart. Diplomats have immunity, but it is not all encompassing. Appreciate you both joining us tonight. From india, we go to russia where the obamas delegation to the 2014 Winter Olympics in sochi is diplomacy in favor of diversity. The president that made it very clear he finds it offensive the anti lbgt stance in russia. We take strong to answer against that as well as Civil Society in russia. For more, im that joined by mark adomatus, a contributor at forbes and Kimberly Martin from columbia university. Its pleasure to have you both with us. Its a pleasure to be here. Mark, the Obama Administration has been under pressure to respond to russias tough laws against openly you gay citizens. He has done that, sending two openly gay athletes to sochi, Billie Jean King and kaitlyn kayhow. Billie jean queen tweeted president obama is toying home. He just snubbed president putin a few months ago by not going to a summit with him in moscow. This is a big statement. Yeah, and look, i think this is exactly the right statement to send. Kaitlyn was a classmate of mine in college. Shes a brilliant ambassador for the United States. Its great we are discussing a law that is unjustifiable. I wish we would be a little more consistent in the message that were inning, because unfortunately, russias treatment of lbgt citizens while bad is certainly not the worst that you encounter in the world by any means. Its been a rocky relationship, putin and obama just pretty much didnt get off on a good foot and it just seems like certainly at the beginning wasnt as bad but has gotten worse as time has gone on. How do you think he will respond . I think the media sometimes has a tendency to play up the disagreements and the bad parts of u. S. Russian relations, because it makes good news. In this case, hes not going to the olympics, not sending any member of the first family, no current cabinet members, its a big departure from the past. Since 1988, which is the last time the president didnt go to the olympics, but in line with what our allies in france and germany are doing. We need to keep in mind that things might be happening behind the scenes in terms of u. S. Economic relations that are moving in a positive direction. We have to keep things in balance and not only look at the scandals. How about this decision, though, about the delegation . Is there any way, mark, that you think it might backfire on the u. S. You . I find it hard to imagine. I think the russians understand how these things work. They are certainly not going to be happy about it, but these sorts of snubs are inevitable in the way our relations work with russia, so, you know, its obviously not something putin is going to be particularly excited about, as to how he would retall 80, i cant see it going any other direction. Kimberly, theres been this outrage abroad about putins policies, his poll numbers are not fantastic, they are at lows for him. According to the most recent poll, 61 have russians approve of the job is doing aband a lot of russians believe that the stance that hes taking on the Lbgt Community is correct. I think a Pew Research Poll found if he didnt 4 . Thats correct, but i think putin doesnt have to worry just about the russian public. He has to worry about possible disagreements within his advisory team. One interesting thing, some members of the Putin Administration are much more interested in having better economic relationles with the the outside world. They realize that some of putins poles are taking russia in the wrong direction economically, and that helps to explain why it is that putin is reaching out to this very conservative Cultural Community on lbgt. , for example on the Russian Orthodox church issues, because hes trying to keep these coalitions in balance and losing support among the people who recognize that russias economy is not in the shape it was a couple of years ago. A lot of the issues with popularity is that the economy is not doing so well. An amnesty bill he supports passed this week will set free the two jailed members of the punk band pussy riot. Weve covered that story here and ending the prosecution of 30 green peace crew members. Do you think thats a move by putin to defuse some of the International Criticism about his human rights crackdown in advance of the olympics . Id like to point out people think that its going to lead to the release. None of them have been released yet. While its possible that this amnesty will in reality lead to the release of the pussy riot members and green peace crew, i tend to take a wait and see approach when it comes to the russian government. It certainly wouldnt surprise me if they go flee, but id like to actually see them leave jail, because there is ambiguity in the way the law was written as to exactly who is eligible. Another issue for putin is whats happened in ukraine, it used to be part of the soviet union, ukraine was trying to get closer to the european community, now putin has gone in and offered 15 billion in aid to ukraine. Hes a shrewd negotiator. He is trying to again create a sense of hostility between russia and the west. That is not getting at all the issues involved, because this is obviously just a shortTerm Solution for the next 18 months for ukraine to get the ukrainian president through the upcoming releases. Its not long Term Solution for the economic problems and not a Good Opportunity to extend money to bail out a country without a good credit rating. I think it aggravates the tension. This isnt dependent on any conditions, either an increase or freeze in benefits, pensions, scholarships or spending. Putin not giving any concessions at all suddenly grants them again. Do you think this is all about the olympics . The ukraine thing, i think frankly has to do with how spooked the leadership was. On first glance if what he says is true doesnt make sense. Putin is a very canny guy, never in the habit of giving something away for nothing. I find it very hard to believe that the russians would extend this level of support without getting any kind of con as he ises in return. Its possible just that the russian government is very concerned about the possible consequences if ukraine signs the e. U. Association agreement and that theyre determined to avoid that whatever the casts and as is possible, the russians did get something in return or some kind of vague promise, not talking about it publicly now. Appreciate you both joining us tonight. Coming up, Ben Bernankes term ended wednesday and he did not go out quietly. Our associate media producer is tracking the top stories on the web. A favorite past time credited for improving the vocabulary of americans turns 100 this week. Ill tell you more coming up. What do you think . Join the conversation on twitter and on our facebook and google plus pages. Night with the combatants in their training base. Better than bernankes era is ending with a big bang. The stock markets soared to record levels despite the announcement the central bank was going to taper its economic stimulus next months. Shortly after the rediscretion, the short dropped short term interest that rates to close to zero and began buying hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds as part of an easing program meant to fight the recession. Those fed purchases reached 85 billion a month. Thanks to an improving economy, that will be cut back in january. What does that change mean for all of us . For more, im joined from westchester pennsylvania by chief economist at moody analyst particulars, marg, great to have you with us. Thank you. Any surprise with the fed decision to roll back its Stimulus Campaign . I was surprised by the fact that they effectively lowered the threshold for the Unemployment Rate. They have a 6. 5 Unemployment Rate for raising Interest Rates in the language with the statement they released with their decision, they effectively lowered that threshold and effectively adopted a floor under inflation. When you add it all up, it was actually quite dubbish decision that provided anything net stimulus to the economy. Thats what surprised me, that they were at dubbish as they were. In laymans terms, that means the likelihood of Interest Rates going up anytime soon was pretty much diminished by what they said today. Yeah, exactly. I mean, they had been saying all along that theyre not going to raise Interest Rates for a long, long time. They effectively made that a a stronger statement today, that they really mean theyre not going to be raise in Interest Rates for a very long, long time and they did it so strongly that look what happened to the stock market, it took off and thats the reason why. The stock market dropped last summer when ben bernanke suggested the fed might do what its doing now, but the markets surged. Is that because of that dubbish stance that youre talking about . Yeah, i think its in part because of the dubbish stance, a big part of it is that. Also, i think stock investors are coming to the realization that the economy actually is on sounder ground and kicking into a higher gear, that were going to see stronger growth going forward. Thats good for earnings and stock prices. Do you think this 10 billion rollback and the money that the ted has been pump i go into the economy, thats not too big of a deal and do you think that people expected that would happen . Yeah, i dont think its that big a deal. There was a lot of debate discussion among economists and investors about when they would exactly tart this process, you know, some people thought today, some people thought in january, some in march. But in general, everyone expect would the fed to begin this process in the next few months and end their bondbuying program by sometime in the summerfall of 2014, so none of that changed as a result