McClatchy

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  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    Homepage
    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    Latest headlines
    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • Law enforcement remember their fallen

    Nation
    By Michael Doyle
    16 May 2012 | 7:32 am
    Captain Jennifer Horton, of the Fresno County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, stood erect in the near-shadow of the U.S. Capitol early Tuesday. Her hand covered her heart. Her eyes were straight ahead. Her law enforcement brethren, some 20,000 strong, stood all around as bagpipes cried out. Congress honors UC-Merced for anti-violence program Cardoza says he warned Atwater warden about prison conditions Slain Atwater correctional officer honored in D.C.

  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    World
    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • Rick Santorum's Texas GOP convention speech won't be public

    Politics
    Anna M. Tinsley
    16 May 2012 | 7:24 am
    Perhaps the biggest name featured at the Texas Republican Party's convention next month -- former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- will give a speech that is off-limits to the media and the public.
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    Homepage

  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • Rick Santorum's Texas GOP convention speech won't be public

    Anna M. Tinsley
    16 May 2012 | 7:24 am
    Perhaps the biggest name featured at the Texas Republican Party's convention next month -- former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- will give a speech that is off-limits to the media and the public.

  • Gay couples in N.C. continue 'We Do' protest against marriage amendment

    Celeste Smith
    16 May 2012 | 7:12 am
    Two women couples were denied requests for marriage licenses Tuesday in Charlotte as part of a statewide campaign to promote equal rights for same-sex couples. The futile requests – which the couples knew would be rejected – came one week after North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions.

  • Quietly, the Republican Party is embracing gays

    By Curtis Tate
    16 May 2012 | 1:39 am
    A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates – and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn’t always show it. Immigration, marriage laws leave same-sex couples in limbo Year shapes up to be big one for both sides of gay marriage battle Obama’s embrace of gay marriage makes it a big campaign issue Obama won’t say yea or nay on gay marriage, as pressure builds

  • Ron Paul still aims for delegates at state conventions to push GOP

    By William Douglas
    16 May 2012 | 1:10 am
    Rep. Ron Paul may have dropped off the presidential campaign trail, but he insisted Tuesday that he’s not entirely out of the race. Ron Paul effectively ending his presidential campaign After 42 years, Charles Rangel might lose primary Quietly, the Republican Party is embracing gays
 
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    Latest headlines

  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • Quietly, the Republican Party is embracing gays

    By Curtis Tate
    16 May 2012 | 5:00 am
    A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates – and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn’t always show it. Immigration, marriage laws leave same-sex couples in limbo Year shapes up to be big one for both sides of gay marriage battle Obama’s embrace of gay marriage makes it a big campaign issue Obama won’t say yea or nay on gay marriage, as pressure builds

  • Europe’s path uncertain as Hollande takes office in France, new elections set for Greece

    By Frederic Castel
    15 May 2012 | 7:20 pm
    The financially besieged European Union embarked on an uncertain path Tuesday, with a new president in France and a call for new elections in Greece, developments that are certain to change the way Europe handles its economic crisis. As Europe’s economic outlook darkens, U.S. risks grow Germany, with its economy booming, has little sympathy for Greece Experts: Euro was troubled from birth

  • Pakistan agrees to reopen NATO supply route to Afghanistan, but for a fee

    By Saeed Shah
    15 May 2012 | 6:29 pm
    The cost of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan is about to rise by $365 million annually under an agreement that would reopen a key NATO supply route through Pakistan that’s been closed for nearly six months. Osama bin Laden was angry, increasingly irrelevant in final years, letters show Kidnapped American, Warren Weinstein, pleads for his life in new video Key Afghanistan peace envoy, Mawlawi Arsala Rahmani, gunned down in Kabul Taliban attack follows Obama’s bid to close Afghanistan war

  • Boehner vows another showdown over debt and taxes

    By David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 5:25 pm
    House Speaker John Boehner set the stage Tuesday for another tense, partisan showdown over tax and spending policy later this year, as he vowed to insist on big spending cuts before he’ll agree to a new debt ceiling – much like last summer’s debt showdown debacle – and he also promised a vote before November’s elections on whether to prevent Bush-era tax cuts from expiring at year’s end, as scheduled. House budget fight frames party lines for elections' big issue Boeher: House to vote on tax cut extension before election,…
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    Nation

  • Law enforcement remember their fallen

    By Michael Doyle
    16 May 2012 | 7:32 am
    Captain Jennifer Horton, of the Fresno County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, stood erect in the near-shadow of the U.S. Capitol early Tuesday. Her hand covered her heart. Her eyes were straight ahead. Her law enforcement brethren, some 20,000 strong, stood all around as bagpipes cried out. Congress honors UC-Merced for anti-violence program Cardoza says he warned Atwater warden about prison conditions Slain Atwater correctional officer honored in D.C.

  • Gay couples in N.C. continue 'We Do' protest against marriage amendment

    Celeste Smith
    16 May 2012 | 7:12 am
    Two women couples were denied requests for marriage licenses Tuesday in Charlotte as part of a statewide campaign to promote equal rights for same-sex couples. The futile requests – which the couples knew would be rejected – came one week after North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions.

  • Reports of O.J. Simpson's 'stroke-like symptoms' in prison untrue, spokesman says

    Diana Moskovitz
    16 May 2012 | 6:45 am
    O.J. Simpson is alive, well and a model inmate.

  • US 'national strategy' on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025

    By MELISSA HEALY
    15 May 2012 | 6:49 pm
    Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer's disease treatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025.

  • American Airlines welcomes pacts with 1 union as pilots continue case in court

    By Maria Recio
    15 May 2012 | 5:07 pm
    American Airlines got some welcome news from part of its workforce Tuesday as the Transport Workers Union announced that five of seven bargaining units had accepted management’s latest contract offer. American Airlines pilots ask bankruptcy judge to keep contracts intact Investors are looking at bankrupt American Airlines
 
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    World

  • Iconic Cuban cigar goes un-smoked at home

    By Maria Recio
    16 May 2012 | 2:31 pm
    The elderly cigar maker sits at a rustic table next to a tobacco field and a barn filled with hanging rows of aging tobacco and meticulously selects the brown leaves, rolling the most tender ones carefully for the center of the world’s most celebrated tobacco product: the Cuban cigar. In Cuba, international businesses abound - just not from the U.S. Pope Benedict will find a different Castro in charge in Cuba

  • US changes requirements for some Cuba trips

    Juan O. Tamayo
    16 May 2012 | 6:41 am
    The U.S. Treasury Department has tightened a few of its restrictions on trips to Cuba by non-Cuban Americans on so-called "people to people" visits, saying that the revisions will "help to deter abuses."

  • 2 killed in Colombia bombing that targeted former Interior minister

    Jim Wyss
    16 May 2012 | 6:41 am
    Colombian authorities were hunting for the culprits behind a brazen daytime bombing in the capital that killed at least two and left 39 wounded, including former Interior Minister Jose Londono.

  • Europe’s path uncertain as Hollande takes office in France, new elections set for Greece

    By Frederic Castel
    15 May 2012 | 7:20 pm
    The financially besieged European Union embarked on an uncertain path Tuesday, with a new president in France and a call for new elections in Greece, developments that are certain to change the way Europe handles its economic crisis. As Europe’s economic outlook darkens, U.S. risks grow Germany, with its economy booming, has little sympathy for Greece Experts: Euro was troubled from birth

  • Pakistan agrees to reopen NATO supply route to Afghanistan, but for a fee

    By Saeed Shah
    15 May 2012 | 6:29 pm
    The cost of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan is about to rise by $365 million annually under an agreement that would reopen a key NATO supply route through Pakistan that’s been closed for nearly six months. Osama bin Laden was angry, increasingly irrelevant in final years, letters show Kidnapped American, Warren Weinstein, pleads for his life in new video Key Afghanistan peace envoy, Mawlawi Arsala Rahmani, gunned down in Kabul Taliban attack follows Obama’s bid to close Afghanistan war
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    Politics

  • Rick Santorum's Texas GOP convention speech won't be public

    Anna M. Tinsley
    16 May 2012 | 7:24 am
    Perhaps the biggest name featured at the Texas Republican Party's convention next month -- former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- will give a speech that is off-limits to the media and the public.

  • Boehner vows another showdown over debt and taxes

    By David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 5:49 pm
    House Speaker John Boehner set the stage Tuesday for another tense, partisan showdown over tax and spending policy later this year, as he vowed to insist on big spending cuts before he’ll agree to a new debt ceiling – much like last summer’s debt showdown debacle – and he also promised a vote before November’s elections on whether to prevent Bush-era tax cuts from expiring at year’s end, as scheduled. House budget fight frames party lines for elections' big issue Boeher: House to vote on tax cut extension before election,…

  • Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng’s visa is ready, U.S. says

    By Curtis Tate
    15 May 2012 | 5:47 pm
    The State Department said Tuesday that documents to allow Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng to come to the U.S. had been completed, and Chen himself talked to lawmakers on Capitol Hill from his hospital room to describe the brutal treatment of his relatives by Chinese authorities. Case of Chen Guangcheng, blind legal activist, raises question of who really runs China Supporters of Chen Guangcheng say U.S. abandoned him by letting him leave embassy

  • Quietly, the Republican Party is embracing gays

    By Curtis Tate
    15 May 2012 | 3:21 pm
    A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates – and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn’t always show it. Immigration, marriage laws leave same-sex couples in limbo Year shapes up to be big one for both sides of gay marriage battle Obama’s embrace of gay marriage makes it a big campaign issue Obama won’t say yea or nay on gay marriage, as pressure builds

  • Kansas Gov. Brownback signs act allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense abortion drugs

    Brad Cooper
    15 May 2012 | 7:11 am
    Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a bill that will allow pharmacists to refuse to provide drugs they believe might cause an abortion.
 
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    Economy

  • Tepid job market still hurting recent college graduates

    Diane Stafford and John Ngirachu
    15 May 2012 | 9:19 am
    Nick Hintz, 27, earned bachelor's and master's degrees and has a job.

  • American Airlines pilots ask bankruptcy judge to keep contracts intact

    By Maria Recio
    14 May 2012 | 6:43 pm
    American Airlines’ pilots union pressed its case Monday before the U.S. bankruptcy court, asking the judge not to abrogate its contract with the carrier and laying out its offers to cut costs that American had rebuffed leading up to the court hearing. Fort Worth Star-Telegram report: Route to bankruptcy American Airlines asks bankruptcy judge to ditch union contracts American cites bleak finances in bankruptcy court

  • More private colleges offering tuition discounts

    By Tony Pugh
    14 May 2012 | 4:47 pm
    The cost of a college education continues to increase faster than inflation; a phenomenon that's roiling family budgets and spurring calls for action on Capitol Hill. But with a little digging, parents and students can find cost-cutting deals and programs that make the paper chase a lot more affordable. Mortgage servicers finally helping on some foreclosures, but problems remain States shake up adult education to help low-skilled workers FinAid.org National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Across America, public-sector job cuts take a heavy toll

  • Gas prices this summer won't be as high as feared

    Steve Everly
    14 May 2012 | 11:54 am
    Gasoline for your summer vacation isn’t going to be cheap, but it’s unlikely to be as expensive as once feared. The recent fall in gas prices has been fueled by a decline in oil prices of about $14 a barrel in the last several weeks.

  • IRS crackdown on foreign assets leading many to renounce U.S. citizenship

    Alfonso Chardy
    14 May 2012 | 6:58 am
    A growing number of U.S. citizens who live abroad and have bank accounts there are making a radical decision to avoid paying taxes: They’re giving up their U.S. citizenship. Last year, 1,780 Americans relinquished their citizenship to avoid disclosing foreign account information to the Internal Revenue Service.
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    White House

  • White House expands reach of sanctions on Syria, Iran

    By Kevin G. Hall
    1 May 2012 | 5:57 pm
    The Obama administration on Tuesday granted the Treasury Department authority to blacklist foreign nationals and companies that help Iran and Syria evade U.S. and international sanctions. Cruise-ship industry fighting EPA’s cleaner-fuel rule Treasury fact sheet on sanctions Obama arrives in Afghanistan to sign cooperation pact year after bin Laden raid, Pakistan still harboring U.S.’s biggest enemies

  • Obama rejects criticism that he’s politicizing bin Laden’s death

    By Lesley Clark
    30 Apr 2012 | 6:37 pm
    President Barack Obama on Monday rejected criticism of his handling of the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death – and questioned whether his Republican presidential challenger would have made the same decision to take out the al Qaida leader. Nabbing bin Laden boosts Obama, but maybe not for long After Osama bin Laden, al Qaida still a many-headed threat Obama's bin Laden coup has GOP at a loss for words

  • In North Carolina, Obama seeks to reassure college students

    By John Frank
    24 Apr 2012 | 7:11 am
    In his first stop on a two-day college tour, President Barack Obama tried to reassure the seniors venturing into a fragile job market that the American dream is still realistic.

  • In Mexico, Biden shoots down talk of drug legalization

    Tim Johnson
    5 Mar 2012 | 6:06 pm
    Vice President Joseph Biden said Monday that "there is no possibility" that Washington would heed a growing call by some Latin American presidents to move toward drug legalization. Tim Johnson's blog, 'Mexico Unmasked'

  • Religious leaders continue to protest Obama administration's contraception ruling

    Franco Ordoñez
    16 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pm
    Religious leaders of different faiths stoked the national debate over contraception Thursday, converging on Capitol Hill and charging the Obama administration with attempting to violate their religious freedoms.
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    Congress

  • Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng’s visa is ready, U.S. says

    By Curtis Tate
    15 May 2012 | 5:47 pm
    The State Department said Tuesday that documents to allow Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng to come to the U.S. had been completed, and Chen himself talked to lawmakers on Capitol Hill from his hospital room to describe the brutal treatment of his relatives by Chinese authorities. Case of Chen Guangcheng, blind legal activist, raises question of who really runs China Supporters of Chen Guangcheng say U.S. abandoned him by letting him leave embassy

  • Intern finds way to help deaf from Capitol Hill

    By David Goldstein
    14 May 2012 | 3:49 pm
    Members of Congress might wait years before accomplishing something of lasting value, if they’re even lucky enough to do that. Kansas School for the Deaf on the budget chopping block Capitol Hill intern a long way from Fresno roots watch

  • Stationery from Sen. Marco Rubio found in Missouri store

    Dave Helling
    14 May 2012 | 7:20 am
    Kansas City lawyer Dale Ingram found a bargain — and a mystery. Earlier this month, Ingram was shopping at Cargo Largo, a discount store in Independence offering salvaged merchandise such as clothing, home goods and, in Ingram’s case, office supplies.

  • House budget fight frames partisan lines for elections' big issue

    By David Lightman
    10 May 2012 | 5:47 pm
    After hours of sharp, partisan debate Thursday that’s likely to be echoed around the nation this election year, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved, with no Democratic support, a federal budget plan that would slash popular domestic programs while sparing defense. Experts: Obama and GOP duck the big budget issues Obama budget projects $1.3 trillion deficit this year Sen. Richard Lugar's defeat bodes badly for compromise, centrism

  • Cuban-American lawmakers want to meet with IKEA officials

    Juan O. Tamayo
    9 May 2012 | 6:30 am
    The six Cuban-Americans in the Congress on Tuesday demanded "an urgent meeting" with the head of IKEA in North America to discuss whether the company used Cuban prison labor to make some of its furniture in the 1980s.
 
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    Washington

  • US changes requirements for some Cuba trips

    Juan O. Tamayo
    16 May 2012 | 6:41 am
    The U.S. Treasury Department has tightened a few of its restrictions on trips to Cuba by non-Cuban Americans on so-called "people to people" visits, saying that the revisions will "help to deter abuses."

  • Boehner vows another showdown over debt and taxes

    By David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 5:25 pm
    House Speaker John Boehner set the stage Tuesday for another tense, partisan showdown over tax and spending policy later this year, as he vowed to insist on big spending cuts before he’ll agree to a new debt ceiling – much like last summer’s debt showdown debacle – and he also promised a vote before November’s elections on whether to prevent Bush-era tax cuts from expiring at year’s end, as scheduled. House budget fight frames party lines for elections' big issue Boeher: House to vote on tax cut extension before election,…

  • Law enforcement remember their fallen

    By Michael Doyle
    15 May 2012 | 4:09 pm
    Captain Jennifer Horton, of the Fresno County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, stood erect in the near-shadow of the U.S. Capitol early Tuesday. Her hand covered her heart. Her eyes were straight ahead. Her law enforcement brethren, some 20,000 strong, stood all around as bagpipes cried out. Congress honors UC-Merced for anti-violence program Cardoza says he warned Atwater warden about prison conditions Slain Atwater correctional officer honored in D.C.

  • Same-sex partners of employees increasingly get health benefits

    By Julie Appleby
    14 May 2012 | 2:57 pm
    President Obama’s stand last week in favor of same-sex marriage has no legal effect on employers’ decisions on whether to offer benefits to workers’ domestic partners, but some advocates believe it could reinforce a decade-long trend toward coverage.

  • Some Bay of Pigs history to remain secret

    Mimi Whitefield
    14 May 2012 | 7:06 am
    A federal judge has ruled that the last volume in a CIA history of the Bay of Pigs invasion that was written more than 30 years ago and 51 years after the ill-fated Cuban mission should remain secret.
 
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    Planet Washington

  • Reid: JP Morgan should head to Vegas "because it's just a gamble"

    David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 3:15 pm
    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is always trying to promote his state, though this time, he was being sarcastic. "I would suggest that JPMorgan take their business to Las Vegas, because it's just a gamble," he said of the embattled banking firm. After all, Reid said, "It's one of those things that's clear that they were betting like you would do at the craps table in Las Vegas and they bet the wrong way." Reid, speaking at a news conference, got serious about the financial services firm that's suffered heavy losses. "They…

  • Vulcain cricket watches and a JP Morgan checking account

    Lesley Clark
    15 May 2012 | 2:35 pm
    President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden released their 2011 financial disclosure reports today with a few interesting items, including Biden's $800 gift of a Vulcain Cricket watch from a Keijo Paajanen in Finland.  Obama reported holding between $500,000 and $1 million in a JP Morgan Chase checking account. The company famously lost $2 billion in investments and Obama in an interview that aired Tuesday called it "one of the best managed banks there is. Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we've got, and they still lost $2 billion and…

  • President Obama: Not mad at Biden for speaking his mind

    Lesley Clark
    15 May 2012 | 11:53 am
    President Barack Obama acknowledged in an interview on The View today that he had thought of announcing his support for gay marriage on the show -- until he was pre-empted by Vice President Joe Biden. "It was a possibility," said Obama, who ended up making the news in a hastily-arranged interview last week. "It was. We had been discussing it for a few weeks, and we thought what are formats where we could talk about it not just as a policy issue, but as a personal issue. And all of you came to mind." But Obama said he was fine with Biden's pre-emptive…

  • Boehner: House to vote on tax cut extension before election, then consider big changes

    David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 10:54 am
    House Speaker John Boehner vowed Tuesday the House of Representatives will vote to extend the Bush-era tax cuts--due to expire at the end of this year--before the Nov. 6 election. "Any sudden tax hike would hurt our economy, so this fall – before the election – the House of Representatives will vote to stop the largest tax increase in American history," Boehner, R-Ohio, said in remarks prepared for delivery later Tuesday. Boehner will address the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's 2012 fiscal summit. The vote, almost sure to pass the GOP-run house, "will give Congress time…

  • Ron Paul campaign looks ahead, hopes for influence at convention

    David Lightman
    15 May 2012 | 10:13 am
    Ron Paul's presidential campaign is not over, his chief strategist said in a memo Tuesday. But he's also conceding that Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee. "Dr. Paul is NOT ending his campaign," wrote Jesse Benton to the Texas Republican congressman's supporters, and is "in this race all the way to the Republican National Convention...." Paul is the last major Republican to effectively end his nomination bid. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum dropped out previously. The Paul campaign said it will…
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    Suits & Sentences

  • Iran and Syria liable for $332 million in terror judgment

    Mike Doyle
    14 May 2012 | 1:53 pm
    #Iran and #Syria must pay $332 million to a family ravaged by a 2006 terrorist bombing, a federal judge ruled Monday. The decision is the latest by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in a series of similar cases filed by survivors and surviving family members, under the state-sponsored terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. All told, the bill for Iran is now easily over $1 billion. This latest judgment arises out of the April 17, 2006 suicide bombing attack at the Rosh Ha’ir restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel. The explosion killed eleven people and wounded dozens of…

  • CIA's secret Bay of Pigs volume to remain cloaked

    Mike Doyle
    10 May 2012 | 10:26 am
    #FOIA can't touch a #secret #CIA history of the Bay of Pigs debacle, a judge ruled Thursday. In a 13-page ruling that's a blow to historians and right-to-know advocates, U.S. District Judge Glady Kessler rejected the bid by the National Security Archive for  Volume V of the Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation.  Former CIA historian Dr. Jack B. Pfeiffer compiled the history in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The intrepid folks at the National Security Archive filed requests for the multi-volume history in 2005. Last year, the CIA provided three volumes, but not…

  • KBR wins Iraq war contract claim

    Mike Doyle
    8 May 2012 | 8:26 am
    The first #Iraq war #contract case tried in the federal #court of claims has resulted in an $11.8 million judgment for Kellog Brown & Root Services. This, of course, is by no means the end of war contracting litigation. The United States, after all, is suing KBR in a separate action for some $100 million in allegedly false claims made for its lucrative Iraq War work. Still, in a 97-page decision, originally filed under seal in late April, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has awarded the judgment for KBR's logistics work during the early years of the Iraq War and subsequent United…

  • Army court reverses double-bind conviction

    Mike Doyle
    7 May 2012 | 8:11 am
    An #Army #appeals court has reversed a troubled soldier's conviction, on at least some charges, in a case that revealed a little Catch-22 in action. Or, maybe it's better described as a classic double-bind: you're trapped, whatever you do. Consider these circumstances: Army Private Andrew L. Gean was referred by his commanding officer to see a psychiatrist, who was to evaluate the young man. The psychiatrist directed Mr. Gean to tell her about threats he supposedly made. Mr. Gean told her. He was then charged with, and ultimately convicted of communicating those very threats. The…

  • Gitmo detention ruling unsealed in Alsabri case

    Mike Doyle
    3 May 2012 | 12:33 pm
    An #appellate #court ruling rejecting a #Gitmo detainee's habeas corpus petition has now been unsealed, with no apparent redactions. In a 22-page opinion dated April 27 but released publicly Thursday, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the arguments of Mashour Abdullah Muqbel Alsabri. The Yemeni native had reportedly fought with the Taliban before being seized in Pakistan and conveyed to Guantanamo Bay. The appellate court states: "Alsabri concedes that, at some point before traveling to Afghanistan, he stayed for approximately two weeks at a…
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    Inside South America

  • Chavez's prolonged absence causing jitters in Venezuela

    Jim Wyss
    23 Apr 2012 | 8:31 am
    UPDATE: Chavez broke more than a week and a half of silence yesterday and called in from Havana. He said he could be back in Venezuela as soon as Thursday. Anytime Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez stays out of the limelight for a few days the rumors begin flying. In Cuba receiving radiation therapy for an undisclosed form of cancer, Chavez hasn't made one of his usual TV or radio appearances in more than five days. Here's an AP story about it. While his Twitter account is being updated, the rumors on social networks and the web have him in critical condition. His lieutenants have…

  • Which heads of state are flying commercial to the Summit of the Americas?

    Jim Wyss
    12 Apr 2012 | 12:19 pm
    Of the 33 heads of state traveling to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas only four are flying commercial. Here’s the list provided by the summit press office: Kamla Persad of Trinidad and Tobago and Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica will be flying COPA. Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica and Deputy Prime Minister T. Brent Symonette of the Bahamas will be arriving on Avianca. The presidents of Belize, Granada, Barbados, Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St Vincent are all hitching a ride on the same Colombian Air Force flight. The remaining 22 heads of state will be arriving in style, on…

  • Venezuela: losing homes in the name of housing

    Jim Wyss
    2 Apr 2012 | 6:47 am
    CARACAS Like many Venezuelans, Calogero Alotto was sympathetic to the estimated 30,000 families left homeless by flooding during 2010 and 2011. When government officials told him they needed his small parking lot and mechanic shop to build housing for the refugees, he accepted it as a patriotic duty. But 15 months later, the housing has yet to materialize and Alotto is still waiting to get paid. “I worked for 42 hard years to build my business and it didn’t count for anything,” said Alotto, 57. “I’ve been left without property and without a job. I’ve had to sell two trucks just to…

  • Deadly education: literacy courses blamed for rebel commander deaths in Colombia

    Jim Wyss
    30 Mar 2012 | 10:12 am
    The 13 Colombian guerrilla commanders who were killed in a bombing earlier this week had gathered  in the community of El Silencio to receive literacy courses, a rebel defector told El Tiempo newspaper. Monday’s bombing raid killed 38 members of Colombia’s Armed Revolutionary Forces, or FARC, including six commanders, three sub-commanders and four group leaders. The government has hailed the raid as the most devastating blow to the FARC's command structure in the five-decade history of the rebel band. In a hospital-room interview, FARC member “Gilberto Castro” told the…

  • Getting shot on the job. Does my health insurance cover this?

    Jim Wyss
    6 Mar 2012 | 10:06 am
    Miguel Caballero has shot more than 200 people including his wife, a British police officer, his lawyer (four times) and most of his employees. As Colombia’s largest maker of fashionable flak jackets and bullet-resistant clothing, Caballero habitually puts his products to the test on his factory floor. Read the full story here and watch the video by Juan Cortes of Caballero gunning down a recent visitor.
 
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    Inside Iraq

  • Nearly 40 killed and more than 190 wounded in attacks as political crisis deepens

    Sahar IIS
    20 Apr 2012 | 4:10 pm
        At least 39 people were killed and more than 190 others were wounded in seemingly coordinated attacks that included 24 explosions and some small arms fire that hit mixed and mostly Sunni provinces, Thursday, in the midst of a deepening political crisis that threatens to undo the fragile balance of the political process in the country.     In Baghdad, seven parked car bombs, three roadside bombs and one suicide car bomb killed 18 people and wounded 96 others, said security and medical sources. Four of the explosions hit Taji, a northern…

  • First Kuwaiti Flight to Iraq After More Than 20 Years

    Sahar IIS
    17 Apr 2012 | 1:26 pm
      The first Kuwaiti flight to Iraq in more than twenty years landed in Najaf Airport today. But why in the southern, holy city of Najaf and not in Baghdad? Officials said that trips to Baghdad will be the next step, withought mentioning details. After the significant role Kuwait played in the occupation of Iraq in 2003, one would have thought that its relations with the new Iraqi leaders would have been "chummy" - At least that's what many Iraqis thought. But the truth of the matter is that relations between Iraq and Kuwait are still "strained". Kuwait made a…

  • Will Top Sunni Official Return?

    Sahar IIS
    3 Apr 2012 | 12:22 pm
      Just a few days after the U.S. military oficially departed Iraq last December, PM Nouri al Maliki accused top Sunni official, VP Tariq al Hashimi of leading death squads and killing Iraqi officials and civilians during the sectarian strife. In a press conference Maliki said that he had a criminal file on Hashimi that he had been sitting on for three years, and was now ready to prosecute him. For the objective observer, the timing of this announcement was telling. Most Iraqis believe that much of the violence was - and still is political. And that many politicians and officials on the…

  • It Is Not Our Parliament

    Laith
    24 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am
    On Thursday, Feb 23, a huge wave of attacks with car bombs swept Iraq led to the death of more than 60 people and wounding over 200. As usual, Iraqi president and the high rank officials including the speaker of the Iraqi parliament condemned the explosions, members of his parliamentary bloc (Iraqia bloc) blamed the government for the security violation and the speaker of the bloc demanded the government led by Nouri al-Maliki to resign if it can not control the security situation. on the other hand, a lawmaker from the Prime Minister bloc blamed Tariq…

  • Big Day in My Neighborhood

    Laith
    6 Feb 2012 | 2:02 pm
    Last Saturday was a big day in our street because it witnessed one of the important changes in the life of all the families in the street. Mohammed, the owner of the private generator had to move his generator to another location after he got a warning from the owner of the land where he used to put his generator. The landlady told him that he can’t any more use her land. The work started since 8 a.m. Members of the families who subscribe came to the location and started detaching their cables. It’s not easy to detach a cable that passes over many houses and electricity poles. The length…
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