Politics

Bob Barr Announces Run For President

WASHINGTON -- Former US congressman Bob Barr on Monday announced plans to run for president on the Libertarian Party's ticket, in a move some analysts say could hurt Republican presumptive nominee John McCain. "My name is Bob Barr and I'm a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America," said the former Republican lawmaker, who played a key role in the congressional impeachment of former president Bill Clinton.
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Federal Spending At An All-Time High

Reuters Finance News
The US government posted a $US159.3 billion ($A169.52 billion) surplus in April, helped by the mid-month deadline for individuals meeting 2007 tax obligations, but it was down from the prior year's surplus, the Treasury Department reported on Monday. In April 2007, the surplus was $US177.7 billion ($A189.1 billion). In the first seven months of fiscal 2008, which ends on September 30, the government's budget deficit swelled by 88.4 per cent to $US152.2 billion ($A161.97 billion), from $US80.8 billion ($A85.98 billion) in the first seven months of fiscal 2007.
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Oil Profits Border On Obscene

This week, Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded company, announced first quarter profits of $11 billion on revenues of $117 billion. Thanks go to the rising price of oil, which has almost doubled in the past year, and to higher gasoline prices, which on average, rose about 30 per cent (in the United States) over the year. The irony is that Exxon-Mobil's announcement caused the value of its stock to fall some four per cent because it didn't live up to Wall Street's expectations.
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Survey: 1 in 10 Boomers Borrowing for Everyday Expenses

NEW YORK -- The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AARP. In the telephone survey of 1,002 adults 45 and older, nearly four in 10 said they had helped a child pay bills or expenses. Among retirees, one-third said they'd helped their children pay bills. Eight percent said they'd helped a parent pay bills or expenses. The survey's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Old Gas Pumps Can't Handle Ever-Rising Prices

REARDAN, Wash. -- Mom-and-pop service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can't register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials. The pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the American road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by.
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Gas Prices Knock Bicycle Sales, Repairs Into Higher Gear

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is good for business - if you run a bike shop. Commuters around the country are dusting off their old two-wheelers - or buying new ones - to cope with rising fuel prices, bicycle dealers say. About 18 million bicycles have been sold annually in the U.S. over the past few years, accounting for about $6 billion in annual sales, said Fred Clements, executive director the National Bicycle Dealers Association in Costa Mesa, Calif. The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week this week and Bike-to-Work Day on May 16. Nesper said he expects a record number of people will be pedaling this year. There's almost nowhere for the numbers to go but up: The group says less than one-half of 1 percent of Americans ride a bike to work.
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NATO 'Won't Tolerate Kosovo Violence'

PRISTINA -- No violence will be tolerated in Kosovo, a NATO commander for the peacekeeping troops in Kosovo says. General John Davoren, who is in command of the American sector of NATO-led peacekeeping troops, KFOR operation said the situation remains calm despite security concerns related to the upcoming Serbian elections in Kosovo and the border dispute between Kosovo and Macedonia.
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The Truth About Veteran Suicides

By Aaron Glantz / LewRockwell.com
Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas. These are statistics that most Americans don't know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.
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Mother and Child Killed by US Troops in Northern Iraq

BAGHDAD -- A woman, a child and two gunmen were killed by U.S. forces conducting a military operation targeting al Qaeda in northern Iraq, the military said on Sunday. It said U.S. forces fired on a car carrying suspected militants that refused to stop near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday. "Coalition forces fired three warning shots, but the driver refused to stop and one man made threatening movements from inside the vehicle," the military said in a statement.
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Saturday: 2 US Soldiers, 50 Iraqis Killed; 147 Iraqis Wounded

The Iraqi government and Mahdi army sources have apparently reached an agreement to suspend fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb; however, the U.S. military continued air strikes. At least 50 Iraqis were killed and 147 were injured in the latest attacks. Also, one American soldier died of non-combat injuries yesterday and a second soldier died in a vehicular accident in Anbar.
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Number of Disabled U.S. Veterans Rising

WASHINGTON -- Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America's vets shrinks. Despite the decline in total vets - as soldiers from World War II and Korea die - the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years, up from today's $29 billion, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans Affairs Department concedes the bill could be much higher.
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$50 Billion for New Planes, Gear in War-Funding Bill

The latest war-funding bill might pay for more than just the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. It could add billions of dollars' worth of the latest manned and robotic aircraft to American fleets, as well. Nearly a third of the $165.4 billion measure, $51.8 billion, would be "devoted to new weapon systems," Inside Defense reports.
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State Department Asks Congress To Keep Quiet About Details of Deal

Washington's civil nuclear deal with India is in such desperate straits that the State Department has imposed unusually strict conditions on the answers it provided to questions posed by members of Congress: Keep them secret. The State Department made the request, even though the answers are not classified, because officials fear that public disclosure would torpedo the deal, sources said. The agreement would give New Delhi access to U.S. nuclear technology for the first time since it conducted a nuclear test in 1974, but leftist parties in the coalition government remain skeptical and view it as a possible infringement on India's sovereignty.
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Memo Shows Frustration With Special Counsel

Last September, career investigators at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel opened a probe into whether partisan politics were a factor in the Justice Department's prosecution of former Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman on corruption charges in 2006. Siegelman, who narrowly lost his reelection bid in 2002 and intended to run again in 2006, has insistently alleged that Karl Rove, then a White House adviser, targeted him for prosecution to ensure he did not oust a Republican governor. But on Oct. 11, OSC chief Scott J. Bloch ordered the case file be closed immediately, saying that he had not authorized it, seven career employees wrote in an internal draft memo made public last week.
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Confusing Ballot Designs Still Plague Elections

The solution should have been a no-brainer, voting experts say. After all, it was a badly designed ballot that enflamed the 2000 election meltdown and introduced the vagaries of chads to the political lexicon - pregnant, hanging and otherwise. So it would seem that redesigning ballots to make them simpler should have been a high priority. But that hasn't been the case, voting experts say. Eight years after the fiasco in Florida's Palm Beach County, confusing ballots continue to stymie voters and plague elections in this primary season.
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Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.
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Sanhedrin Calls to Reject Christian 'Sects'

The Sanhedrin organization called Thursday to reject groups and individuals calling themselves Jewish who promote Christian belief as a part of Jewish identity. Individuals professing a belief in Christian theology have left the Jewish faith and become apostates, even if they continue to identify as Jewish, the group said. Such individuals should not be allowed to enlist in the IDF or participate in activities on behalf of the Jewish people or the Jewish state, they said, because their goal is usually to convince other Jews to accept the Christian faith.
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Church Attendance in Wales 'Plummeting'

CHURCH attendance in Wales could decline to less than a quarter of its current level according to an analysis of the country’s religious trends. New figures compiled after an analysis of membership of religious bodies have revealed the numbers attending church on a monthly basis could fall from 200,000 to fewer than 40,000 over the next four decades – that is less than the average attendance at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge football ground.
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Christian Group in Canada Appeals Human 'Rights' Ruling

A provincially funded Christian group is appealing part of a tribunal ruling that found it violated the rights of a worker who had to quit after revealing she was gay. Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal ordered Kitchener-based Christian Horizons to compensate Connie Heintz and to end a code-of-conduct agreement for its 2,500 employees. The tribunal ordered Christian Horizons to compensate the former worker, launch basic human rights training for all employees, and adopt anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies.
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Pastor's 13-Year-Old Daughter Gang-Raped in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter, the girl's father said. Pastor Motilal Das of United Bethany Church said that at around 3 a.m. on Friday (May 2) the villagers sexually assaulted his daughter, Elina Das, and left her unconscious in front of his house in an attempt to drive him and his Christian ministry out of Laksmipur village in Fulbaria sub-district, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital. Local residents have long been angry with him for his ministry and evangelism, he said, and he has received death threats.
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Christian Persecution in Iraq Continues to Escalate

In the past year Christians in Iraq have faced increasing persecution, many are being killed and threatened and others are seeking refuge in other countries. As the persecution grows, many are taking notice. A recent Washington Post article shows relief organizations to Christians in Iraq consider the persecution as "ethnic cleansing." Ten churches have been bombed, two prominent clergyman have been murdered, and many worshippers have been targeted for practicing their religion. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, though Christians make up only 3 percent of the Iraqi population, they compromise almost half of those fleeing Iraq.
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Muslims 'will outnumber Christians in Britain by 2035'

By 2035, there will be about 1.96 million active Muslims in Britain, compared with 1.63 million church-going Christians, according to calculations by Christian Research, a think- tank. The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends. The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends.
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Veterans' Office Covering Up Soldier Suicides: US Lawmakers

WASHINGTON -- US lawmakers have accused the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of being out of control and of covering up the high suicide rate among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. "The VA healthcare system has been pushed to the edge in dealing with the mental health care needs of our veterans," Bob Filner, chairman of the House of Representatives' Committee of Veterans' Affairs, told a packed congressional hearing about the issue of suicides among veterans.
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43,000 Unfit For Combat Deployed Anyway

WASHINGTON -- More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show. This reliance on troops found medically "non-deployable" is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemembers to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say. "It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops," said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans For America. "They are repeatedly exposed to high-intensity combat with insufficient time at home to rest and heal before redeploying."
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McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers. Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.
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GOP voters still dissing John McCain

It's hard not to notice: In each of the last three Republican primaries, roughly a quarter of the vote went to someone other than John McCain. Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee got a combined 27 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania last month, long after the GOP nomination had been settled in McCain's favor. On Tuesday, Paul, Huckabee and Mitt Romney received a combined 23 percent in Indiana. Alan Keyes, Huckabee, Paul and "No Preference" took 26 percent in North Carolina. On the surface, it would seem that McCain, the party's presumptive nominee, still has some distance to go in winning over his party.
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Wesley Pruden: Broken Eggheads Make No Omelets

By Wesley Pruden / The Washington Times
The Democrats invented race-baiting, making it a staple of campaigning for nearly a century. (The Republicans gave us a civil war.) Now race politics is back, and this time everyone gets to play. With Hillary dead and gone without even a decent wake, most of the punditry is busy with the fatwa, decreeing beheading with a dull knife for anyone who says irreverent things about Barack Obama.
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New Chinese Ballistic Missile Submarine Deploys to Hainan Island

By Hans M. Kristensen
The Chinese navy has deployed a Jin-class (Type 094) ballistic missile submarine to a new base near Yulin on Hainan Island on the South China Sea, according to a satellite image obtained by FAS. The image shows the submarine moored at a pier close to a large sea-entrance to an underground facility.
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British Embassy Staff 'Offer Iraqis Money for Sex'

An Iraqi cleaner and two cooks claim that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists at the British Embassy in Baghdad. The middle-aged cleaner told The Times that a British contractor with KBR, the company hired to maintain the embassy’s premises, offered to double her daily pay if she would stay the night with him. When she refused, she said, her pay was cut and she was later dismissed. The Iraqis accuse the embassy of leaving the abuse unchallenged and failing adequately to respond to complaints against several British managers for KBR. The company was allowed to conduct its own inquiry, an arrangement criticised as a very serious conflict of interest.
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Pressure to Cut Costs, Troops Strains 'Surge'

By Jim Lobe / Antiwar.com
Growing impatience in Congress over the enormous costs being racked up by the Iraq war, as well as the Pentagon's belief that it needs more troops in Afghanistan to fight insurgents there, is putting the vaunted success of the George W. Bush administration's "surge" strategy to the test. Although the House of Representatives appears poised to approve an additional $163 billion Thursday for military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of the year, most observers believe that Congress will impose unprecedented conditions on Iraq-related spending.
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Bob Barr to Debate at Oxford University

Former Congressman Bob Barr has been invited to speak at the Oxford Union at the University of Oxford, the world’s most prestigious debating forum. Several U.S. Presidents have spoken at Oxford, including former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon. The topic of the debate will be "This House Believes that 1984 has Arrived." Barr will discuss topics for which he is well-known in the United States, such as privacy, surveillance, and government power.
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Ralph Nader to Protest Industry Influence of NHTSA

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Nader/Gonzalez presidential campaign announced that it will protest the auto industry’s takeover of the federal auto safety agency, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), that Ralph Nader was instrumental in creating in 1966. The protest will take place in front of the NHTSA in Washington, DC on Thursday May 8, 2008 at 12 noon. Ralph Nader plans to attend the protest.
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Gas Prices Jump 3 Cents Overnight

Gas prices jumped nearly 3 cents overnight to a new national record of nearly $3.65 a gallon Thursday, while oil prices paused from their own climb to record highs and succumbed to mild profit-taking. At the pump, the average price of a gallon of regular gas nationwide rose 2.7 cents to a record $3.645, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices also rose, adding 0.9 cent to match a record national average of $4.251 a gallon.
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Oil Nears $123 on Drop in Diesel, Heating Oil Supplies

NEW YORK -- Oil futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market's upward momentum looked past the government's report of an increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose for the first time since last week. Light, sweet crude for June delivery hit a new trading record of $123.93 in after-hours activity on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling up $1.69 at a record close of $123.53 a barrel.
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Housing Market: Still No Bottom

NEW YORK -- An industry group said Wednesday that pending U.S. home sales dropped to a new low in March, signaling the housing slump has yet to bottom out even as the spring sell season gets under way. The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell to 83.0 from a downwardly revised February reading of 83.8, the index's previous low. The index stood at 103.9 in March 2007.
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IMF Sells Gold Reserves

The International Monetary Fund has approved the sale of 403.3 tonnes of IMF gold reserves, in a financial overhaul which is hoped to boost its coffers. Governors from 176 of the Fund's 185 member countries cast votes to sell the gold, in order to create an endowment to helps provide a steadier source of income to the international organisation. The new income and expenditure framework is expected to cover a 400 million-dollar shortfall projected in the medium term.
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We are Confident the Bull Market in Gold is Not Over

By Bill Bonner / The Daily Reckoning
Gold rose $3 yesterday...climbing back towards $900. Many gold investors are worried that the end of the Fed's rate cuts also means the end of gold's bull market - at least for the near term. We don't think so. Rate cuts, more loans, rebate checks, money supply increases - it all adds up to higher rates of inflation. And there's no Paul Volcker on the horizon to stop it.
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Fed is Trying to Keep the Money and Credit Moving

Commodities, Food, Oil and Gold
By Bill Bonner / The Daily Reckoning
This morning, oil is over $120...and the price of gold is pushing back up to $875. That's good news, say the headlines. Oil is up because people think the United States will avoid a recession. "Oil tops $120 a barrel as U.S. optimism rises," says a headline in the Financial Times. And many think the Hillary/McCain summer gas tax holiday concept may be implemented - which would encourage people to use more gasoline!
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Bilderberg Target of $200 Oil Nears

Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet
A report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecasts that oil prices will reach $150 to $200 dollars a barrel within 2 years, a figure in line with the ultra-elite Bilderberg’s plans to squeeze the middle class and lower the living standards of westerners. "Crude oil may rise to between $150 and $200 a barrel within two years as growth in supply fails to keep pace with increased demand from developing nations, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Arjun N. Murti said in a report," according to Bloomberg News.
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Frustrated Owners Try to Unload Their Guzzlers

Americans are turning away from the boxy, four-wheel-drive vehicles that have for years dominated the nation's highways. Sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks - symbols of Americans' obsession with horsepower, size, and status - are falling out of favor as consumers rich and poor encounter sticker shock at the pump, paying upward of $80 to fill gas tanks. The sale of new SUVs and pickup trucks has dropped precipitously in recent months amid soaring gas prices and a weakening economy: SUV sales for the month of April alone fell 32.3 percent from a year earlier and small car sales rose 18.6 percent.
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Fannie Mae Reports $2.2 Billion Loss

Fannie Mae reported losses of $2.2 billion in the first quarter and the nation's largest buyer of home loans said Tuesday it would cut its dividend and raise $6 billion in new capital, with expectations that the housing slump will persist into next year. Home prices fell faster in the first quarter than Fannie Mae had expected, the government-sponsored company said, and it will open a $4 billion share offering immediately, with the remainder being offered in the "very near future."
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Related:
Fannie Mae Taps Investors for $6B
and Cuts Dividend After $2.2B Loss
Fannie Mae, the US government-backed financial business charged with propping up the mortgage market, told its shareholders they would have to accept lower dividends and a smaller say in the company as it steps in to ease the credit crisis. The company raised $6bn in new funding, diluting existing shareholders, and cut the dividend pay-out after posting an unexpectedly large $2.2bn loss in the past three months. Rising defaults by homeowners and losses on mortgage derivatives were among the reasons for the red ink, and the financial results raised concerns about Fannie Mae's ability to act as a prop to the housing market.

Medvedev Sworn In as New Russian President

MOSCOW -- Russia's Vladimir Putin was to be confirmed Thursday as prime minister, a day after his aide Dmitry Medvedev became president in a power shift that raises questions over who will really be in charge. There was no doubt that Putin, 55, would win parliamentary backing: his United Russia party alone controls more than two thirds of seats. Putin's move to the premiership after eight years as president completed a carefully choreographed scheme in which his trusted protege Medvedev, 42, was inaugurated president on Wednesday.
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Related:
Medvedev sworn in as Russia's president, but will he rule?
MOSCOW -- With the swearing in of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's president, the Kremlin leadership now mirrors one of its most potent symbols — the double-headed eagle. Standing next to the new president during a ceremony Wednesday in a gilded Kremlin hall was his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, the man who nurtured Medvedev's rise to power and who will now be his prime minister. The world waits to see whether the two can jointly rule this sprawling country, or whether, like the Byzantine crest, they will gaze in opposite directions.

Ethiopian Troops Killing Somalis 'Like Goats'

A leading human rights group on Tuesday accused Ethiopian troops in Somalia of killing civilians and committing atrocities, including slitting people's throats, gouging out eyes and gang-raping women. In a new report, Amnesty International detailed chilling witness accounts of indiscriminate killings in the Horn of Africa country and called on the international community to stop the bloodshed. Ethiopia's government said the report was unbalanced and "categorically wrong." Somalia's shaky transitional government invited Ethiopian forces into the country to help it battle Islamic insurgents. Somalia has been torn apart by years of violence between the militias of rival clan warlords. The rights group said it obtained scores of reports of killings by Ethiopian troops that Somalis have described as "slaughtering like goats." In one case, "a young child's throat was slit by Ethiopian soldiers in front of the child's mother," the report says.
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Security of F-35 Jet Secrets Questioned

The technology going into the U.S. military's newest fighter plane may have been compromised by unauthorized access to facilities and computers that belong to BAE Systems, one the aircraft's builders, according to a report from the Pentagon's inspector general made public. The report did not identify specific leaks, but it said "incomplete" Pentagon oversight may have increased "the risk of unintended or deliberate release of information to foreign competitors."
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John Hagee: Deviant Theology, Dangerous Foreign Policy

By John Taylor / Online Journal
Pastor John Hagee gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: "The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad." Worse, Hagee wants to jump start what he sees as the inevitable battle between Israel and the US and an alliance of the Islamic states and Russia: "The United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West." Hagee’s bizarre interpretation of the Bible sees war with Iran as a “biblically prophesized End Time confrontation . . . which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming."
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Pentagon Targeted Iran for Regime Change after 9/11

WASHINGTON -- Three weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of not only removing the Saddam Hussein regime by force but overturning the regime in Iran, as well as in Syria and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted extensively in then Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of the Iraq war decisions.
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John Bolton: US Should Bomb Iranian Camps

John Bolton, America's EX-ambassador to the United Nations, has called for US air strikes on Iranian camps where insurgents are trained for war in Iraq. Mr Bolton said that striking Iran would represent a major step towards victory in Iraq. While he acknowledged that the risk of a hostile Iranian response harming American’s overseas interests existed, he said the damage inflicted by Tehran would be "far higher" if Washington took no action.
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New Muslim Weapon Penetrates Pricey Vehicle, Kills 2 GIs

WASHINGTON -- The deaths of two U.S. soldiers in western Baghdad last week have sparked concerns that Iraqi insurgents have developed a new weapon capable of striking what the U.S. military considers its most explosive-resistant vehicle. The soldiers were riding in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protective vehicle, known as an MRAP, when an explosion sent a blast of super-heated metal through the MRAP's armor and into the vehicle, killing them both.
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7,000 More Troops to Afghanistan

The US is drawing up plans to send 7,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taleban and al-Qaeda, at a time when Nato countries appear unwilling to contribute further forces. The increase is being considered by the Pentagon after President Bush returned from a Nato summit in Romania last month disappointed by few pledges of extra troops by his European allies.
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Exclusive: Saudi Crown Prince Sultan is dying

DEBKA -- Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, America's staunchest ally in the royal house, Minister of Defense and head of the Sudairi branch of princes, is dying of cancer at his villa in Geneva, Switzerland. His brother, interior minister Prince Nayef, is standing by in Riyadh expecting to succeed him. And he will not have too long to wait before he reaches the throne. Prince Nayef, the would-be king, who is roughly 75 years of age – a mere spring chicken on the Saudi royal geriatric scale – has managed to push his way to the front of the race for the throne despite his unpopularity. A scion of the Sudairi branch of the royal family, he is disliked for his bad temper, cantankerousness, hidebound opinions and close ties with the most extremist clerical circles.
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Grand Jury Documents on Nuke Weapons Plant Probe Stay Secret

DENVER -- A judge has refused to make public some sworn statements by former grand jurors alleging that prosecutors committed misconduct during an investigation into possible environmental crimes at the old Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch released several documents and motions from the 1989 case Monday but not the sworn statements or a list of alleged misconduct. Some former members of the grand jury have alleged the Justice Department broke the law during the probe and cut a deal with plant's operator, Rockwell International, for an $18.5 million fine. Prosecutors have denied misconduct.
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Special Counsel's Office Raided Amid Obstruction Probe

WASHINGTON -- Federal agents raided the office and home of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch on Tuesday while investigating whether the nation's top protector of whistle-blowers destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff. Computers and documents were seized during the raid on the special counsel's downtown office, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry. At least 20 agents were still on the scene as of mid-afternoon Tuesday. Bloch's home, in a Virginia suburb of Washington, also was raided, the officials said.
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Oil Hits $123! Energy Department Raises Oil and Gasoline Price Forecasts

NEW YORK -- Oil futures blasted to a new record near $123 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks. A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday's buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say. The Energy Department raised its oil and gasoline price forecasts.
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Big Government Responsible for High Gas Prices

Rep. Ron Paul, MD. / News Wire Service
In the past few months, American workers, consumers, and businesses have experienced a sudden and dramatic rise in gasoline prices. In some parts of the country, gasoline costs as much as $4 per gallon. Some politicians claim that the way to reduce gas prices is by expanding the government’s power to regulate prices and control the supply of gasoline. For example, the House of Representatives has even passed legislation subjecting gas stations owners to criminal penalties if they charge more than a federal bureaucrat deems appropriate. Proponents of these measures must have forgotten the 1970s, when government controls on the oil industry resulted in gas lines and shortages. It was only after President Reagan lifted federal price controls that the gas lines disappeared. Instead of imposing further restraints on the market, Congress should consider reforming the federal policies that raise gas prices.
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Yankee GO Home! U.S. base is No Longer Welcome in Ecuador

MANTA, Ecuador -- Mayor Jorge Zambrano pulled up to the Manta City Hall in his black Ford Explorer, expecting to find a rally in support of the American military outpost that runs drug-surveillance flights from this gritty port city. He left an hour later behind a wall of riot shields and a cloud of Mace, as police fended off banner-waving protesters who crashed the event in March. There is 18 months left on its contract and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has vowed not to renew the base's contract beyond its November 2009 expiration. And politicians drafting a new constitution have proposed banning the base or any other foreign military presence in the country.
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Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Says U.S. to Be at Israel's Side for 1000 Years

Ayatollah: Iran won't stop nuke program -- Iran's top leader said his country would not bend to international pressure and give up its nuclear program, according to state television. Meanwhile, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that he hopes the time does not arrive when the US decides to discontinue sanctions against Iran and instead tries to solve the nuclear standoff militarily. Concerning the Syrian nuclear faculty reportedly bombed by Israel and which the CIA said was being built with North Korean help, Mullen called the situation "troubling." He went on to say that the US has "has been at Israel's side for all of 60 years, it will be for the next 60 years, 100 years and 1,000 years.
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Gas Prices Jump 15 Cents in Past Two Weeks

ATLANTA -- After a two-week climb in gasoline prices, there appeared to be some short-term moderation Monday - but another run at the record high set last week seems likely, two surveys indicated. The average price of gasoline jumped 15 cents over the past two weeks to a national average of $3.62 per gallon of self-serve regular, according to the biweekly Lundberg Survey released Sunday. The rise continued at virtually the same rate as the previous two weeks, when the average price went up 16 cents per gallon.
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Top U.S. Officer Says Would Prefer No War on Iran

JERUSALEM -- U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq would make it difficult to mount any attack on Iran, the Pentagon's top officer said in remarks broadcast on Monday, adding that he would prefer to avoid a new regional war. "I actually am very hopeful that we don't get into a position where we have to get into a conflict," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Israel's Channel Ten television when asked if he might recommend that U.S. forces strike Iranian nuclear facilities preemptively. Washington is leading efforts to curb Iran's nuclear plans through U.N. Security Council sanctions, but has also hinted that war could be a last resort for denying Tehran -- which insists it seeks atomic energy only -- the means to make a bomb.
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Bush Appointee to S.E.C. Announces His Departure

WASHINGTON -- Paul S. Atkins, one of three Republican members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said on Monday that he would leave the agency after his term ends next month. Mr. Atkins, widely considered the most conservative member of the S.E.C. in recent years with the strongest free-market bent, was appointed by President Bush in July 2002 at the height of a series of corporate accounting scandals. At the time, he was a partner at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and had worked at the S.E.C. on the staffs of two former chairmen.
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Justice Official Who Oversees Cases On Corruption, Fraud Is Quitting

Alice S. Fisher, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, said that she will leave government service at the end of the month after nearly three years overseeing major public corruption and corporate fraud cases. Her departure leaves the Justice Department even more short-staffed. Fisher is one of only four remaining division chiefs who have navigated the Senate confirmation process. Among the ongoing investigations Fisher has been overseeing are cases involving members of Congress and executives at mortgage companies caught up in the credit debacle.
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Switzerland's Largest Bank to Cut 5,500 Jobs After First-Quarter Loss

PARIS -- UBS, the largest Swiss bank, said Tuesday that it expected to cut about 5,500 jobs, including 2,600 in its investment banking unit, as it announced a first-quarter loss of about $10.9 billion. The bank, which has been the hardest hit of all European financial institutions in the credit crisis that began last year, reported a first-quarter loss of 11.5 billion Swiss francs. That was in line with its previous estimates, but it represented a sharp turn from a net profit of 3.0 billion francs in the first quarter 2007.
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Oil Passes $120 a Barrel on Supply Threats, Dollar

NEW YORK -- Oil futures surged to a new record over $120 a barrel Monday, raising concerns about higher prices for gasoline and goods and services throughout the economy. Retail gas prices fell more than a cent over the weekend, but oil's advance increased the likelihood that pump prices would resume their climb. Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light, sweet crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated slightly to settle up $3.65 at a record $119.97.
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