Holding the world in love

New York State
Spitzer Resigns, Citing Personal Failings
New York Times - 41 minutes ago
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, with his wife, Silda, announcing his resignation at his Manhattan office on Wednesday. By DANNY HAKIM and ANAHAD O'CONNOR Gov.
Eliot Spitzer Resigns as NY Governor Washington Post
Paterson expected to stick to Spitzer's agenda Newsday

I must have missed Senator David Vitter's comments on this. [snark]

United States - CENTCOM - Iran
Closer to War
Washington Post - 1 hour ago
By Dan Froomkin The abrupt resignation yesterday of the top US commander in the Middle East, Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon, has sparked a new round of speculation that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have some sort of plan in the works to ...
Video: Central Command Chief Fallon to Resign AssociatedPress
White House Denies Friction With Fallon The Associated Press [and I am the Queen of Romania]

La Casa Blanca niega que esté buscando una guerra con Irán
AFP - hace 15 minutos
WASHINGTON (AFP) — La Casa Blanca afirmó que "no hay nadie" dentro del gobierno estadounidense que impulse una guerra con Irán, un día después de que el jefe militar para Oriente Medio, el almirante William Fallon, renunciara a su cargo por sus ...

Tibet - China
Activists: Chinese Crackdown on Rights Worsens
Washington Post - 1 hour ago
By Jill Drew BEIJING, March 12 -- Human rights activists decried the US State Department decision to drop China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, saying that China's crackdown on dissent is getting worse, not better, ...
Tibetan exiles vow to march on Chinese border CNN International
Tibet monks protest detentions United Press International

Chinese troops use teargas to halt Tibet monks' second day of protest
Times Online - 4 hours ago
Thousands of Chinese paramilitary police and troops have been deployed across the Tibetan capital after hundreds of monks tried to stage a second protest in two days.
China shuts down Mount Everest after Tibet protesters target ... Daily Mail
China restricts Mount Everest ascents to clear the way for the ... International Herald Tribune

Palestine - Israel
Hamas Leader Sets Terms for Ceasefire With Israel
Voice of America - 3 hours ago
By VOA News The leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas has laid out conditions for a ceasefire with Israel. Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech Wednesday in the Gaza Strip that Israel must stop carrying out raids and assassinations in the territory.
Hamas lays out truce conditions BBC News
Hamas sets terms for ceasefire with Israel Reuters

Raid israélien en Cisjordanie: quatre Palestiniens tués
[Israeli raid in the West Bank: four Palestinians killed]
nouvelobs.com - Il y a 55 minutes
AP | 12.03.2008 | 18:03 Des soldats israéliens ont ouvert le feu sur une voiture mercredi en Cisjordanie, tuant quatre activistes palestiniens, ont annoncé des responsables des services de santé palestiniens. Dans une vidéo d'APTN, on peut voir des ...
Le Hamas pose ses conditions à un cessez-le-feu avec Israël Le Point
Israël et le Hamas nient s'être entendus sur une trêve malgré l ... AFP

Pakistan
Al Qaeda probed over Lahore blasts
CNN - 6 hours ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll from twin suicide blasts in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore grew to 28 Wednesday, as police opened an investigation into possible al Qaeda involvement in the attacks.
Pakistan buries victims of blasts BBC News
Police open probe into twin suicide attacks that killed 24 in Pakistan International Herald Tribune

United States - Venezuela
Bush sharpens criticism of Venezuela's Chavez
Reuters - 47 minutes ago
WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - US President George W. Bush sharpened his criticism of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, accusing him of a "disturbing pattern" of provocations and of squandering his country's oil wealth to foment ...
US lawmakers call for Venezuela to be on terror list International Herald Tribune
Bush hits Chavez over ties to rebels AFP

Not that Bush's cronies in the "ahl bidness" lacking clout with the Venezuelan oil industry would have anything to do with it....

Global Economy
TREASURIES-Bonds rise on doubts over Fed's liquidity move
Reuters - 1 hour ago
By Richard Leong NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - US Treasury debt prices rose on Wednesday on growing doubts the Federal Reserve's latest move to ease credit tightness goes far enough to jump-start a stalled global financial system.

Health - Infectious Disease
Health Buzz: STDs and Teens and Other Medical News
U.S. News & World Report - 2 hours ago
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control suggests 3 million teenage girls in the United States, or 1 in 4, have at least one sexually transmitted disease.

Iraq
Iraq Violence Sees Spike
The Associated Press - 6 hours ago
BAGHDAD (AP) - Violence appeared to be on the rise in Iraq after a day that saw at least 42 people die - numbers that cast doubt on the easing of sectarian violence following a surge of US forces to the country last year.
Dozens Killed Across Iraq The Associated Press
Dozens dead as Iraq violence up Detroit Free Press

Equatorial Guinea
Mann 'confesses' to African coup
BBC News - 8 hours ago
Briton Simon Mann, who is in prison awaiting trial for plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has confessed involvement in the conspiracy.
Mark Thatcher 'was part of Guinea coup plot' Times Online

British mercenary Simon Mann, who is in prison awaiting trial for plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has confessed to involvement.
He said he was not the "main man" behind plans to overthrow the West African nation's government in 2004.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, the ex-SAS officer also alleged Sir Mark Thatcher was "part of the team".

Channel 4 overturned a ban on the interview, which Mann's lawyers claimed may have been given "under duress".

Mann's lawyer Anthony Kerman had argued, on behalf of his family, that he may have been forced to take part by prison authorities.

Bolivia
La CNE de Bolivia pide respaldo de organismos internacionales ante ...
Terra España - hace 1 hora
La Corte Nacional Electoral (CNE) de Bolivia envió cartas a las asociaciones electorales internacionales de América Latina y El Caribe para pedir su respaldo porque 'está siendo asediada' en medio del conflicto político que vive el país. ...
Bolivia: Evo Morales acepta aplazar los referendos para facilitar ... Infolatam
Morales y opositores necesitan recuperar confianza y mediadores ... Univisión

WWI Veterans - France
La mort du dernier poilu
France Info - Il y a 9 minutes
Le dossier de la rédaction est consacré ce soir à Lazare Ponticelli...-Le dernier Poilu de la première guerre mondiale est mort aujourd’hui... Il avait 110 ans... Qui était ce dernier combattant de la Grande guerre qui disparaît aujourd’hui ? ...
Lazare Ponticelli, le dernier Poilu de France, est mort La Croix
Le dernier poilu de la "der des ders", Lazare Ponticelli, est mort AFP

Note: "poilu" (hairy) is a nickname given to French soldiers in WWI.

Algeria - Austrian hostages
Le GSPC traqué pour retrouver les otages autrichiens
Liberté-Algérie - Il y a 20 heures
Depuis la revendication, avant-hier soir, par Al-Qaïda au pays du Maghreb du rapt des 2 touristes autrichiens, un important dispositif sécuritaire, impliquant les IVe et VIe Régions militaires s’est renforcé. Toute la région englobant les wilayas de ...
Tunisie: un parti d'opposition dénonce l'enlèvement des deux ... nouvelobs.com
Maghreb. Inquiétude pour deux otages Autrichiens LaDépêche.fr

Mediterranean Union (Who knew? You heard it here first.)
L'Union pour la Méditerranée au coeur du Conseil européen de Bruxelles
La Tribune.fr - Publié depuis 1 heure

Angela Merkel et Nicolas Sarkozy doivent présenter jeudi soir à leurs partenaires de l'Union européenne, réunis en Conseil à Bruxelles, le projet d'Union pour la Méditerranée (UPM) issu d'un compromis entre Paris et Berlin.

Face aux réticences allemandes, la France a dû revoir sérieusement à la baisse ses ambitions, au point que certains diplomates européens ne voient plus guère ce qui différencie ce qu'ils ont ironiquement surnommé "Club Med" du "processus de Barcelone" lancé en 1995.

Conformément à l'accord conclu entre la chancelière allemande et le président français à Hanovre, le projet a été retouché pour faire en sorte que toute l'Union européenne -et pas seulement les Etats riverains de la Méditerranée- y soit associée, comme le demandait Angela Merkel.

Union/Méditerranée: des réticences Le Figaro
Paris transmet aux Vingt-Sept un compromis franco-allemand sur l ... Le Monde


Spirit of integrity, you drive us into the desert to search out our truth. Give us clarity to know what is right, and courage to reject what is strategic; that we may abandon the false innocense of failing to choose at all, but may follow the purposes of Jesus Christ. Amen.
--Janet Morley

--the BB