AP - President Bush pivoted to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute on Saturday, and got a far less glowing reception from his Egyptian host a key player in the long-running fight than he did in Israel earlier this week.
AP - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, met with the Iraqi prime minister Saturday during a surprise visit to Baghdad.
AP - Threats of assassination have derailed plans by Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to return home to campaign for the presidential runoff vote, a party spokesman said Saturday.
AP - A French navy ship carrying 1,000 tons of food idled near Myanmar's coast Saturday, awaiting permission from the uncooperative ruling military regime to dock in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.
AFP - Spanish police on Saturday announced the arrest of five hackers accused of attacking government websites in the United States, Asia and Latin America.
AP - Leaders of Lebanon's U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition met behind closed doors in Qatar on Saturday for the highest-level talks so far in the country's 18-month-long political crisis, which turned violent a week ago.
AP - Acrid smoke from charcoal-making blankets this Amazon logging town with the smell of business as usual. Less than three months ago, federal agents swooped in to close sawmills, confiscate wood and smash charcoal furnaces in a government crackdown on illegal logging.
AFP - Authorities in Zimbabwe have rejected opposition and international calls for additional election observers for the second round of presidential elections due on June 27, state media said on Saturday.
Reuters - Taliban militants freed a kidnapped
Pakistani envoy on Saturday, in what appeared to be part of a
prisoner swap involving the release of more than 40 Taliban,
according to senior Pakistani security official.
AFP - Australia's most wanted fugitive landed in Melbourne on a flight from Greece amid tight security on Saturday, more than two years after fleeing his homeland.
AP - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, met with the Iraqi prime minister Saturday during a surprise visit to Baghdad.
AFP - After starting out with radically opposing views, White House hopefuls Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama appear to be moving closer together on Iraq as the election draws nearer.
Reuters - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a key Democrat critic of President George Bush's
war policy in Iraq, landed in Baghdad on Saturday for talks
with U.S. and Iraqi officials, the U.S. embassy said.
AFP - Around 1,100 people have been arrested during the first four days of a government crackdown on Al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, the defence ministry said Saturday.
Time.com - Delivering services to Sadr City was helping the controversial Iraqi figure rebuild a political base - until the U.S. and Iraqi governments declared him off limits
AP - The British military acknowledged Friday that one of its planes carrying more than 60 people in Iraq was damaged by insurgent fire more than a year after it said there was no immediate indication of hostile action.
AP - As of Friday, May 16, 2008, at least 4,079 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
OneWorld.net - WASHINGTON, May 16 (OneWorld) - Antiwar veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan took their case to Capitol Hill Thursday, baring their souls with stories of killings of innocent civilians, torture, and wrongful detentions.
McClatchy Newspapers - BAGHDAD— Inside the heavily fortified Green Zone— where a towering wall rings about 1,300 acres of land to protect U.S. diplomats, contractors, Iraqi officials and soldiers— Ingo Sahlmann and Gaylene Scott sat down for a beer in the garden of their Green Zone home and office.
McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON— To hear retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez explain it, the mistakes of the Iraq war that happened while he was in command there weren't his fault. Not Abu Ghraib, not the birth of the insurgency, not the decision to let rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr survive.
AFP - Four Iranian embassy staff and their Iraqi driver were wounded when their convoy was shot at in the Iraqi capital, the embassy and Iraqi officials said on Friday.
Reuters - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,
leading an offensive against al Qaeda in the north, offered
cash and freedom from prosecution on Friday to fighters who
give up their weapons within 10 days.
AFP - The radical movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr voiced optimism on Friday that a truce with the Iraqi government will hold, but also called on the faithful to drive out occupying US forces.
AP - Obama assails McCain for 'naive, irresponsible' foreign policy, lays down challenge ... McCain courts NRA, 2nd Amendment devotees, makes a West Virginia gun shop visit ... Clinton launches ads in upcoming primary states, focuses on working-class issues in Oregon ... Democratic Party panel members show little interest in Clinton's call to seat disputed delegates ... Obama picks up endorsements from former Edwards delegate, California congressman.
AFP - Dozens of Iraqis gather in a dimly lit room to scan hundreds of pictures on computer screens -- disfigured images of burnt faces, blown up body parts, beheaded corpses.
AP - Republican John McCain declared for the first time Thursday he believes the Iraq war can be won by 2013, although he rejected suggestions that his talk of a timetable put him on the same side as Democrats clamoring for full-scale troop withdrawals.
AP - Being dead since 1940 hasn't kept Idaho U.S. Sen. William Borah from being inserted squarely into 2008 presidential politics after Democratic candidate Barack Obama took issue with President Bush's borrowing of a quote from Borah.
AP - As head of the deep-pocketed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commission, New York Sen. Charles Schumer hand-picked his party's nominee to take on Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, the last Republican standing on the West Coast. But apparently, Schumer forgot to inform the state's voters.
AP - Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle challenge to the Republican presidential contender on international relations in the general election campaign.
AP - Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech Friday to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.
Politico - WATERTOWN, S.D. - By most measures, the American public is not focused on Iraq. Polls show the economy is more prominent in the minds of voters, the media is spending less time covering the war and the presidential candidates are barely debating it.
AP - In President Bush's hint that Barack Obama wants to appease terrorists, Democrats heard troubling echoes of 2004, when Republicans portrayed John Kerry as irresolute and weak on national security.
AP - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she wasn't ceding Oregon or the nomination to opponent Barack Obama, who is heavily favored to collect another victory here next week as he comes closer to winning the Democratic nomination.
AP - L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election as Richmond's mayor, likely bringing his storied political career to a close.
AP - For all the money and competitive zeal of this year's presidential contest, Democrats and Republicans are having difficulty financing and organizing the independent groups that supplied so much outside muscle in recent presidential campaigns.
AP - Clinton tells Oregonians she won't give up, unveils 3 new ads ... McCain asks staff to disclose lobbying connections ... Huckabee quips about gun aimed at Obama in speech to NRA, later issues apology ...
Reuters - Republican presidential
candidate John McCain warned gun owners on Friday that his
Democratic opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would
threaten their right to bear arms, as he sought to rally
conservatives' support in the November election.
AP - Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and an early backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined a noisy rally for Barack Obama on Friday night, describing the Illinois senator as a "ripple of hope" who can win the White House.
Reuters - Former Republican presidential
contender Mike Huckabee, interrupted on Friday by a loud crash
as he spoke to the National Rifle Association, joked that the
noise was Democratic candidate Barack Obama falling off a chair
as he dodged a gun aimed at him.
AP - John McCain's campaign is asking staff members to disclose all previous lobbying ties following the resignation of two officials linked to a firm that worked for Myanmar's military junta.
AP - Courting his sometime critics within the gun lobby, John McCain told the National Rifle Association on Friday that Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton would both undermine the rights of gun owners.
Bloomberg - May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Republican John McCain told the
nation's biggest gun-owners group that the election of either
Democratic presidential candidate would imperil their right to
own firearms.
Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama
accused President George W. Bush on Friday of "fear-mongering"
for suggesting Democrats wanted to appease terrorists and vowed
to meet leaders of hostile nations like Iran if elected.
AP - The political fortunes of Democrats down South once were so bad that people openly joked even Jesus Christ would lose by a double-digit margin if he ran for office on the party's ticket.
AFP - Israeli forces launched an incursion into southern Gaza on Saturday, causing some damage, witnesses and the authorities in Rafah said. A second raid was also reported in the north.
AP - Leaders of Lebanon's U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition met behind closed doors in Qatar on Saturday for the highest-level talks so far in the country's 18-month-long political crisis, which turned violent a week ago.
AP - President Bush pivoted to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute on Saturday, and got a far less glowing reception from his Egyptian host a key player in the long-running fight than he did in Israel earlier this week.
Reuters - U.S. President George W.
Bush will try on Saturday to address the concerns of
Palestinian leaders looking for signs they will not be
neglected after he lavished praise on Israel earlier this week.
AFP - US President George W. Bush is flying to Egypt on Saturday where he will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and address the World Economic Forum on the Middle East.
AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to be questioned again soon by police in connection with a corruption investigation, media reports said on Saturday.
AP - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will visit four nations in the Middle East later this month to discuss foreign investment, the fight against terrorist financing and Iran.
AFP - The United States voiced support Friday for talks in Qatar aimed at ending Lebanon's sectarian clashes while hoping from afar that Hezbollah does not turn its military gains into political ones.
AP - Osama bin Laden vowed Friday to fight Israel for the liberation of the Palestinians, claiming their cause is at the heart of al-Qaida's holy war with the West.
AFP - US President George W. Bush pressed Saudi Arabia to raise oil output on Friday, but the world's biggest crude exporter said global supply is balanced with demand.
AP - Obama assails McCain for 'naive, irresponsible' foreign policy, lays down challenge ... McCain courts NRA, 2nd Amendment devotees, makes a West Virginia gun shop visit ... Clinton launches ads in upcoming primary states, focuses on working-class issues in Oregon ... Democratic Party panel members show little interest in Clinton's call to seat disputed delegates ... Obama picks up endorsements from former Edwards delegate, California congressman.
Reuters - Democratic presidential
front-runner Barack Obama said on Friday President George W.
Bush's "failed policies" had strengthened U.S. enemies like
Iran and Hamas.
AP - Assailants detonated a bomb outside a Christian school before dawn Friday, causing no injuries but further alarming the territory's tiny Christian community.
AP - Democrats accused Sen. John McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain Republican nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
AFP - Facing dismally low approval ratings at home, US President George W. Bush basked for three days in near-adulation as he joined Israel's 60th anniversary festivities.
AFP - As George W Bush left Israel on Friday, with only months to go as US president, he appeared confident his legacy there and in the wider Middle East would be a positive one.
Reuters - Israel ruled out all debate on
letting Palestinian refugees return in any peace deal, as U.S.
President George W. Bush ended a visit on Friday that left
Arabs dismayed by his outspoken support for Israel's "chosen
people."
AFP - The White House announced major new cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia on Friday as US President George W. Bush made his second visit to the oil superpower this year.
AFP - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden slammed Western leaders for taking part in Israel's 60th birthday celebrations and vowed that Muslims would fight and not give up "one inch of Palestine," in an audio message Friday.
AP - Being dead since 1940 hasn't kept Idaho U.S. Sen. William Borah from being inserted squarely into 2008 presidential politics after Democratic candidate Barack Obama took issue with President Bush's borrowing of a quote from Borah.
AP - As head of the deep-pocketed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commission, New York Sen. Charles Schumer hand-picked his party's nominee to take on Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, the last Republican standing on the West Coast. But apparently, Schumer forgot to inform the state's voters.
AP - Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle challenge to the Republican presidential contender on international relations in the general election campaign.
AP - Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech Friday to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.
Politico - PORTLAND, Ore. - Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is increasingly aiming its punches not at her frontrunning opponent Barack Obama, but at the media.
AP - In President Bush's hint that Barack Obama wants to appease terrorists, Democrats heard troubling echoes of 2004, when Republicans portrayed John Kerry as irresolute and weak on national security.
Reuters - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a key Democrat critic of President George Bush's
war policy in Iraq, landed in Baghdad on Saturday for talks
with U.S. and Iraqi officials, the U.S. embassy said.
AP - Russia's new president has promised the kind of democratic change that Washington advocated during predecessor Vladimir Putin's tenure. At the same time, all the candidates to succeed President Bush have promised a break from a foreign policy that Moscow has bitterly criticized.
AP - A man who wrote hundreds of hateful letters to black and mixed race men seen with white women apparently was motivated by a girlfriend who left him for a black man, the FBI said Friday.
Reuters - Political differences loomed over a summit
of European and Latin American leaders in Peru on Friday,
threatening to undermine their efforts to fight poverty and
global warming.
AP - A former Bethlehem woman will serve up to 23 months in prison for having her 7-year-old son dress as a Cub Scout to collect money for a nonexistent cause.
AP - Authorities said an 8-year-old Pontiac boy took a stolen car on a joy ride and caused a three-vehicle crash. Pontiac police said the boy sneaked out of his house Wednesday night and found an empty and running car in his neighborhood.
Reuters - The models are strutting past and the
celebrities are carefully eyeing the collections, but it's not
at every fashion show that you see prison guards by the
catwalk.
Reuters - Aliens from outer space have been
visiting Britain for years and UFO sightings doubled after the
film Close Encounters was released in 1977, according to secret
files collating reports by members of the public.
Reuters - The advertising watchdog has banned a
poster for a teenage TV drama series that featured a
dishevelled, semi-naked young woman sitting on a bed,
surrounded by couples apparently taking part in an orgy.
Reuters - Monks in Austria hailed
a "miracle" on Friday as they released an album of Gregorian
chants under the same record label as Amy Winehouse and Eminem.
Reuters - A cat chasing a mouse in Tirana's main
power station caused a 72-hour blackout across parts of the
Albanian capital, the electricity company said on Friday.
AP - Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.
Reuters - Aliens from outer space have been
visiting Britain for years and UFO sightings doubled after the
film Close Encounters was released in 1977, according to secret
files collating reports by members of the public.
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