The British government has come under intense pressure over its response to the crisis in Libya as ministers prepared to dispatch a team of military officers to advise rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi's forces and the RAF stepped up air strikes. Nato commanders said the alliance was extending Nato's targets in Libya to include small satellite communications systems and telephone exchanges in strikes described by defence officials as marking a clear "shift" in targeting policy. MPs expressed deep...

Source: AFP By Lachlan Carmichael (AFP) – 2 hours ago WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday she expects Iran will "pull some stunt in the next couple of days" as a UN vote on tough sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program looms. Asked what she expects in the runup to a UN Security Council vote on sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear program, Clinton said "I expect Iran to pull some stunt in the next couple of days." Iran has in the past taken s...

By Akiva Eldar The strife between Israel and the United States concerns something far bigger than the proximity talks with the Palestinians. As far as President Barack Obama and his senior advisers are concerned, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame for nothing less than damaging the standing of the U.S.in the Middle East and the Muslim world. Just as Netanyahu received his standing ovation at the AIPAC conference, Obama and his advisers were ruminating over an altogether different co...

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies The United States would find it difficult not to join an Israeli air strike in the event that Jerusalem decides to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, a former top-ranking U.S. Air Force officer told participants at a conference this weekend organized by a Washington think tank. Charles F. Wald, former deputy commander of United States European Command, said a military strike on Iran could set back the Islamic Republic's alleged nuclear weap...

GENEVA (Reuters) - A lack of accountability for war crimes committed in the Middle East has reached "crisis point," undermining any hope for peace in the region, a United Nations human rights investigator charged on Tuesday. Richard Goldstone, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor who led a U.N. inquiry into the Gaza conflict, called on Israeli and Hamas authorities to conduct open and credible investigations into atrocities during their December-January war in the strip. "A culture of impunity ...

Source: Associated Press Tuesday, September 29, 2009 (09-29) 10:20 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Israel's defense minister won't rule out a military strike on Iran after the discovery of a secret Iranian nuclear facility. Ehud Barak says severe sanctions must be imposed on Iran following the revelations of the clandestine uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. He said in a statement released Tuesday that Israel is keeping all of its options on the table, suggesting a military strike...

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Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's surprising and defiant decision to appoint a replacement for Barack Obama in the Senate seat could lead to a racially-charged showdown in Washington. On one side, Obama, who will become the country's first black president, has said former state Attorney General Roland Burris, the first black to win a statewide office in Illinois, shouldn't be seated because of the corruption case against Blagojevich. On the other side, members of the Congressional Black Caucus a...

By Dirk Kurbjuweit Trust capitalism and shun government interference we were told. But irresponsible bankers saw a chance to get rich quick and went for it. Their failure has become ours -- and the promise of a common good has evaporated along with faith in democratic capitalism. --CLIP-- Poker for the Politicians; Blackjack for the Journalists At the same time, Economics Minister Michael Glos is conferring with the heads of German companies. Here as well everyone is deadly serious, solemn an...

(10-02) 05:30 PDT Des Moines, Iowa (AP) -- So close and yet so far. It's a frustration being felt by Americans who thought the finish line to their working life was almost in sight. The financial crisis that toppled major Wall Street banks and snarled credit markets around the world has also taken a toll on nest eggs, forcing people to rethink when — and even if — their savings will allow them to retire. More than half of people surveyed in an Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday said...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some unusually blunt remarks from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about Russia. Speaking at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, Rice delivered a scathing attack on Russia's leadership. She accused Moscow of plunging a proud nation into global irrelevance by pursuing misguided and paranoid policies. Rice derided Russian leaders for invading Georgia, and the Kremlin's broader pursuit of what she called self-isolating policies. She set out a series of dire warnings about...

Source: US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT Sep. 08, 2008 10:09 a.m. The Big Three Detroit automakers have begun lobbying Congress for up to $50 billion in loans that would help them adjust to a market that demands more fuel-efficient vehicles. But the automakers insist the loans would not amount to a government bailout of the struggling auto industry. The AP explains, "With Congress returning this coming week from its summer break, the industry plans an aggressive lobbying campaign for the low-intere...

The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that the U.S. is "more communist than China right now" but its brand of socialism is meant only for the rich, investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC Europe on Monday. "America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it's just bailing out financial institutions," Rogers said. Stock markets jumped after the U.S. government's decision to launch wha...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approached the crisis in Georgia coolly and efficiently, prompting admiration even from some American observers. But Moscow's brutal strike against Georgian President Saakashvili has divided the Western world, with the split running straight through the European Union. Russia's rebirth begins at 5 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, in a musty, inconspicuous room in the small Chechen city of Gudermes, on the highway between the capital Grozny and the coastline of the Ca...

By Marc Perelman The Bush administration’s recent diplomatic overtures toward Iran have unleashed a torrent of criticism from neoconservatives and have fueled concerns in Israel that Washington is shelving the option of using military force against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. After months of rejecting the possibility of negotiating with Iran until it suspends nuclear enrichment, the administration sent a high-level envoy July 20 to European-led talks with Iranian diplomats on the nuclear issu...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has offered to award Russia lucrative arms contracts if the Kremlin curtails cooperation with Iran, a Russian newspaper said on Tuesday, but Moscow denied the offer was tied to relations with Tehran. Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks on Monday that included the signing of a landmark deal on military cooperation. A Russian government spokesman denied the deal was linked to Ir...

Last year, and earlier this year, sovereign wealth funds were flocking to make investments in banks needing capital. But now, many have lost a bundle on those deals and are not inclined to be burned again. Private investment capital that could be going to shore up balance sheets is being diverted to hard assets like the Chrysler building, which just attracted an $800 million investment from Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Warren Buffett has yet to ride to the rescue, having learned his lesson fr...

MOSCOW, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday called all countries to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and ensure the "full-scale and effective operation" of the international regime. "Russia has systematically complied with its NPT liabilities and confirmed its strong and invariable support for that treaty," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We are for making the NPT universal, and we are calling on all countries that have not done this yea...

July 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening market stability. The Treasury chief also proposed potentially requiring the White House to sign off on using taxpayer funds to aid a financial company. In a speech in London, Paulson identified a legal gap that leaves unspecified how to deal with failures of companies that don't take deposits, such as investment banks. Paulson's proposals aim t...

The meeting at the home of Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was not supposed to be public. The man invited into Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem was Aviam Sela, architect of Operation Opera in 1981, when Israel launched a long-range strike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. Regarded as a brilliant aviation tactician, in particular in the field of in-flight refuelling, Olmert's office tried to play down the meeting. But the rumours in Israel's defence establishment were already fly...

The US Congress has approved a 170 million dollar increase in security assistance to Israel as part of its new 10-year, 30 billion dollar defense aid commitment to the Jewish state. The money for Israel was part of a larger supplemental spending bill that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation gained final approval in a 92-6 Senate vote late Thursday. America's pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, welcomed the congression...

Hanoi - Of all the tales of wartime courage peppering John McCain's presidential campaign trail, there is one example of selfless heroism that stands out. Only in this story, the hero is not McCain but a humble Vietnamese peasant. On October 26, 1967, Mai Van On ran from the safety of a bomb shelter in Hanoi at the height of an air raid and swam out into the lake where Lieutenant Commander McCain was drowning, tangled in his parachute cord after ejecting when his Skyhawk bomber was hit by a mi...

Humiliation for Mr. Dollar: Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, faces a general investigation by the International Monetary Fund. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power. By Gabor Steingart in Washington The United States Federal Reserve Bank, or Fed, seems as much a part of America as Coca-Cola or Pizza Hut. But at least one difference has become apparent in recent days. While the pizza chain and soft-drink maker are likely to expand their scope of ...

Iran is the target of a relentless propaganda campaign to depict it as a lawless, terrorist state fanatically trying to produce an atomic bomb. This is big time BS meant to prime the pump for a brutal attack on yet another sovereign state. Meanwhile, Russia is saying, "Where's the beef?" :::::::: The Israeli and the United States Governments, both with powerful nuclear arsenals and self-righteous pretensions to have the right to attack anyone anywhere over perceived threats to "National Securi...

Military analysts say the Islamic Republic would strike back in unconventional ways – targeting American interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Istanbul, Turkey - Pressure is building on Iran. This week Europe agreed to new sanctions and President Bush again suggested something more serious – possible military strikes – if the Islamic Republic doesn't bend to the will of the international community on its nuclear program. But inc...

When the U.S. Senate voted last September on whether to restore habeas corpus protections for those detained by the United States, the senators who would emerge as the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees for president parted company. Illinois Democrat Barack Obama joined Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold in embracing the basic constitutional principle that individuals who are detained by the U.S. government have a right to challenge their detention -- no matter where they are held. Arizo...

WASHINGTON, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - The U.S. secretary of state has said that while Russia has proved a valuable partner on certain issues over the past eight years, Washington is disappointed by the way the country has developed. In a lengthy article published in the Foreign Affairs journal, covering various areas of American foreign policy, Condoleezza Rice singled out Russia and China as countries that have risen in power and influence, while failing to fulfill their growing responsibilitie...

I know I'm breaking TPM rules by using my space to link to another Cafe piece. (Link)/ But I have to do it. Everybody needs to read Todd Gitlin's report about the cheerleading conference on war with Iran that is taking place in Israel. The whole war party is there, even President Bush. Upon landing in Israel, Bush said he had a gift for Olmert and Peres but he could not reveal what it is for security reasons. But I can tell you. I think it is a promise that either the US will attack Iran so...