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WASHINGTON (AP) — After a year of relative peace in Washington's budget battles, President Barack Obama will lay out a $4 trillion budget on Monday that needles Republicans with proposals for higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses to pay for education, public works projects and child care. The plan, expected to be dismissed by GOP lawmakers now running Capitol Hill, rolls out as the deficit is dropping and Obama's poll numbers inch higher. Though Republicans will march ahead on their own, they ultimately must come to terms with Obama, whose signature is needed on anything that is going to...

Washington (CNN)White House officials pressured Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to increase the pace of detainee transfers from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, the outgoing secretary acknowledged to CNN's Barbara Starr in an interview Friday. "Not everyone at the White House has agreed with me," said Hagel of his methodology for deciding on detainee releases. Disagreements between Hagel and officials in the President's inner circle have been widely reported during his short tenure as secretary of defense. But in his interview with CNN, Hagel spoke with uncharacteristic candor about friction related to the prisoner release. "We've had a lot...

An ISIS chemical weapons expert was killed in an airstrike on Saturday near Mosul, Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Friday. Abu Malik worked in a chemical weapons production facility under Saddam Hussein before joining al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, Central Command said. He then joined ISIS, allowing the terrorist group to make use of his experience in chemical weapons capabilities, according to Central Command. "His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL's (ISIS') ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people," the statement said. The...

So, tell me again why our President is threatening to veto any new sanctions against Iran? Why our Marxist leaders are insisting that Iran has a right to nuclear power, which in reality is nuclear warfare capability? Are we on the wrong side, suicidal or both? Obama is knowingly releasing the worst of the worst from Gitmo to go back and actively command and assist these terrorists. This isn’t some far off battle that doesn’t affect us. Iran’s missiles can now reach the United States! And it isn’t just them – it’s Russia and China too. They are literally salivating...

US lawmakers propose PM move speech to joint session of Congress until after Israel election on March 17.WASHINGTON – Democrats in the House of Representatives are suggesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postpone his speech to a joint session of Congress until after the Israeli election on March 17. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said it was “not appropriate” for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to invite Netanyahu without first notifying the White House – a move that angered the Obama administration.Netanyahu is expected to advocate for a different policy on Iran that the president has thus far pursued. “Such...

One thousand of the 36,000 illegal immigrant criminals the government released in 2013 have gone on to commit other crimes, including child sex abuse, hit-and-run and child cruelty, according to new data released Friday evening by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley. The information, which the Homeland Security Department provided to Mr. Grassley, details all 1,000 convictions including dozens of drunk-driving convictions, drug offenses and weapons convictions. But the more serious crimes include domestic abuse, carjacking and aggravated assault. One of the illegal immigrants, identified as No. 960, was subsequently convicted of inflicting injury on a domestic partner; child...

"Eight former U.S. national security practitioners — the two of us, plus former U.S. representative to NATO Ivo Daalder, former undersecretary of defense Michèle Flournoy, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, former deputy undersecretary of defense Jan Lodal, former NATO European commander James Stavridis and former U.S. European Command deputy commander Charles Wald — come together issuing following recommendations for immediate action. (releasing Monday report: “Preserving Ukraine’s Independence, Resisting Russian Aggression: What the United States and NATO Must Do.”) First, White House and Congress must commit serious money to Ukraine’s defense: $1 billion in military assistance this fiscal year,...

Mitt Romney announced Friday he will not run for president in 2016, after briefly flirting with a third White House run -- a decision that only slightly narrows the crowded field of potential Republican candidates. "After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it's best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee," Romney told donors on a conference call Friday morning. The announcement comes after the 2012 GOP nominee, who repeatedly denied interest in another campaign, surprised donors earlier this month by telling them he was considering it. Since...

Video - 4:33 minutes at link. (CNSNews.com) – Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Thursday that President Barack Obama’s executive action plan for illegal immigrants was unconstitutional and therefore Congress must not confirm Obama’s attorney general nominee who is committed to executing that “illegal and unconstitutional” policy. “So, why would we want to confirm someone who's going to continue to execute an unlawful, unconstitutional policy?” Sessions told CNSNews.com. At the Capitol on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Sessions if “illegal aliens have a right work in the U.S.,” he said, he said, “the law says they don’t, and it explicitly says an employer...

Top Pentagon officials and a Denis Kucinich do distrusted Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, they opened their own dialogue with the Libyan regime. Their communications with the Gadhafi regime was an effort to avoid war. Tapes of conversations between them and the Gadhafi regime were found in Tripoli. The authenticity of the tapes have been verified by the participants on the tapes reveal confidential conversations with Gadhafi’s son and another top official in Libya. The tapes have been reviewed by the Washington Times. The tapes show that in unfiltered conversations with top Libyan leaders, that criticisms of Hillary were...

Al Jazeera’s New York and Washington, D.C. journalists have reportedly received strict orders from Qatari management: please do not use the words “terrorist,” “militant,” “Islamist,” “jihad” and “extremist” in your reporting.

Washington (CNN)The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity from his current location in Qatar, CNN has learned exclusively. The development has led to an ongoing debate inside the administration about whether there is a new threat from this man, and potentially the other four. This is the first known suggestion that any of the detainees involved in the exchange may be trying to engage again in militant activity. It comes...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline, defying a presidential veto threat and setting up the first of many battles with the White House over energy and the environment. The 62-36 vote advanced a top priority of the newly empowered GOP, and marked the first time the Senate passed a bill authorizing the pipeline, despite numerous attempts to force President Barack Obama's hand on the issue. Nine Democrats joined with 53 Republicans to back the measure.

When the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria set terms for the release of a Jordanian fighter pilot captured when his plane was disabled over Syria, it was only marginally shocking that Jordan signaled it was willing to negotiate with ISIS fighters. That decision had some shock value not only because it is generally rare to see Western coalition partners negotiate with groups they admit to be terrorist organizations, but because the prisoner ISIS demanded in exchange was involved in one of the worst terrorist attacks in that countryÂ’s history. No sooner had bilateral negotiations between the Hashemite Kingdom...

Less than three weeks after President Barack Obama announced the loosening of a 52-year-old embargo with Cuba, a group of 18 people from Boulder traveled to the island nation. While spending American dollars on a beach getaway in Cuba is still illegal, the United States government has relaxed travel restrictions over the years so that American citizens can take "people to people" tours, which must be education-based and led by a Cuban government-approved tour agency.

AMMAN/TOKYO - An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist being held by Islamic State militants said a Jordanian air force pilot also captured by the group would be killed unless an Iraqi female prisoner in Jordan was released by sunset on Thursday. The message appeared to postpone a previous deadline set on Tuesday in which the journalist, Kenji Goto, said he would be killed within 24 hours if the Iraqi was not freed. The latest audio recording, which could not be verified by Reuters, was posted on YouTube early on Thursday. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a...

How is it possible that a president can win re-election by a relatively comfortable margin while receiving fewer raw votes than his first election? Enter Mitt Romney. A simple data comparison is very telling. That comparison is the Romney raw vote vs. all votes for congressional Republicans in a given state. Crunching the numbers, Romney significantly underperformed the Republican congressional vote totals in multiple states. In North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin -- all presidential swing states -- Mitt Romney underperformed the total raw votes cast for all Republican congressional candidates by an average of 3 percent. That means that...

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica—Cuban President Raúl Castro demanded Wednesday that the U.S. return the base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. Mr. Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense.” Mr. Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in...

During Wednesday afternoon’s White House press conference, ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl cornered Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz over why the administration does not consider the Taliban to be a “terrorist” organization. In light of a possible Jordanian prisoner swap with ISIS forces, Karl asked Schultz how that government’s actions differ from the United States’ 2014 release of Gitmo prisoners to the Taliban in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. When the spokesman suggested the Taliban is just an “armed insurgency,” and not a “terrorist organization” like ISIS, Karl pounced: “You don’t think the Taliban’s a terrorist group?” In the clip...

Russia has suspended work in the PACE for a year following the adoption of a resolution depriving the Russian delegation of its voting rights in the organization until the April session. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Wednesday a resolution depriving the Russian delegation of its voting rights in the organization until at least the April session. The resolution stresses that the revision of the decision and other sanctions against Russia could be held during opening meetings of the April session if Moscow demonstrates substantial progress in meeting the PACE demands over Russia's alleged role...

Up to 10,000 Syrian refugees, most of them Muslims, will be resettled in cities throughout the U.S. in 2015, with that figure expected to surge to near 75,000 over the next five years. While some of the planned destinations for these refugees are starting to leak out, the big question is: where will they be going? The U.S. State Department does not announce where it plans to send foreign refugees for resettlement within the United States, although the locations do eventually show up in a government database some weeks after they arrive in their host cities. Word of their anticipated...

President Barack Obama continues to speak out against mass incarceration, the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread. Obama's comments came today during his YouTube interviews with YouTube bloggers, Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green. Some Obama nuggets from today's interview include this on marijuana: "What you're seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they're experimenting with legal marijuana," the president said in response to a question from host Hank Green. "The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that...

SHEAR YASHUV, Israel (AP) — A missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy on Wednesday, an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed six Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month.

WASHINGTON — President Obama, facing angry reprisals from parents and from lawmakers of both parties, will drop his proposal to effectively end popular college savings accounts known as 529s, but will keep an expanded tuition tax credit at the center of his college access plan, the White House said Tuesday. The decision came just hours after House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio demanded the proposal be withdrawn from the president’s budget, due out Monday, “for the sake of middle-class families.” But the call for the White House to relent also came from top Democrats, including Representatives Nancy Pelosi of...

AUSTIN – A state judge on Tuesday refused to throw out an indictment accusing former Gov. Rick Perry of abusing his veto authority to try to force out a local prosecutor. Perry, who is actively eyeing another presidential bid, was indicted last summer. The charges stem from his 2013 threat to veto funding for a public corruption unit overseen by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigned after a drunken-driving arrest. Lehmberg stayed in office after serving jail time, and Perry axed the funding. The Republican said that Lehmberg, a Democrat, had lost the public’s confidence. A grand...

Unless there is any doubt, the vast majority of Democrats value partisan support for a failed president over support for our own national security and for that of Israel. Hence, they want to delay once again a vote on the Menendez-Kirk bill imposing sanctions on Iran unless it agrees to an acceptable final deal. The bill was introduced more than a year ago. The timing just isn’t right, you see. Will it ever be? A letter by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) signed onto by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.),...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's official IRNA news agency is reporting the country has sent a warning to Israel through the United States over the recent killing of an Iranian general in an alleged Israeli airstrike. The Tuesday report quotes Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying, "We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act." He added, "The Zionist regime has crossed our red lines." Iranian Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was killed along with six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in a Jan. 18 airstrike in the Syrian-controlled part of the disputed...

An Islamic Tribunal using Sharia law in Texas has been confirmed by Breitbart Texas. The tribunal is operating as a non-profit organization in Dallas. One of the attorneys for the tribunal said participation and acceptance of the tribunal’s decisions are “voluntary.” Breitbart Texas spoke with one of the “judges,” Dr. Taher El-badawi. He said the tribunal operates under Sharia law as a form of “non-binding dispute resolution.” El-badawi said their organization is “a tribunal, not arbitration.” A tribunal is defined by Meriam-Webster’s Dictionary as “a court or forum of justice.” The four Islamic attorneys call themselves “judges” not “arbitrators.” El-badawi...

At least two rockets launched from Syria struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Tuesday and Israel responded with artillery fire, the Israeli military said. The fire comes after an airstrike last week in Syria attributed to Israel that killed six members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and an Iranian general. Israel has braced for a response to that strike, beefing up its air defenses and increasing surveillance along its northern frontier. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the fire "appeared to be intentional." He declined to comment on whether the fire may have been connected to the...

Jubilant Kurdish fighters ousted Islamic State militants from the key Syrian border town of Kobani on Monday after a four-month battle – a significant victory for both the Kurds and the U.S.-led coalition.

The new Greek government has plenty of challenges ahead of it: A towering debt, chronic unemployment and relations with the rest of Europe. But it also has an urgent security problem. Greece has become an unwitting crossroads -- both for jihadists trying to reach Iraq and Syria from Europe, and for fighters returning home from the Middle East.

On Monday’s broadcast of “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel, retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer of the London Center for Policy Research revealed to host Bill O’Reilly that sources tell him U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face charges for desertion. Bergdahl was held captive by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan from June 2009 until his release in May 2014, which was part of a prisoner exchange for five Taliban members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Caroline Glick picked up on one article the Israeli left-wing paper Ha’aretz didn’t bother translating into English that details Obama’s involvement in the upcoming Israeli elections. A summary of the article is provided by IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis): Haaretz reporter Roi Arad revealed in an article in the Hebrew edition today [January 26] that the foreign funded organization, “One Voice”, is bankrolling the V-2015 campaign to defeat Binyamin Netanyahu’s national camp in the March 2015 Knesset Elections. One indication of the generous financing is that it has now flown in a team of five American campaign experts (including...

Russian-Backed Separatist Commander Givi Tortures Ukrainian POWs 16:07 (GMT) An extremely graphic video was uploaded January 22 to YouTube showing Givi, commander of the Somalia Battalion of the Russian-backed separatist forces of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republics" (DNR). Givi, a commander who has been popularized in hundreds of Russian state TV broadcasts and "Novorossiya" YouTube channels, is shown beating, threatening and screaming at Ukrainian POWs evidently arrested after the fall of the Donetsk Airport to separatists on January 21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gJ46pVLMo Open News Room's Donie O'Sullivan noted that bald man seen in the line-up of POWs and clearly at 4.12 in...

Greek radicals sought on Monday to redraw the political map of Europe, forming a coalition government of left and right, united only by their desire to defy the European financial establishment and shrug off the constraints of austerity. The coalition, led by 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, was expected to dispatch its new finance minister to Brussels in the next few days to seek a fundamental renegotiation of Greece’s economic bailout package, vowing that “the end of humiliation has come”. Tsipras and his Syriza party have promised to replace the austerity programmes imposed by Greece’s international creditors with policies aimed at helping...

The far-left Syriza party, the winner of Greece's election, has formed an anti-austerity coalition with a right-wing party, the Greek Independents. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has taken the oath of office as the new prime minister. He has vowed to renegotiate Greece's bailout, worth 240 bn euros (179 bn pounds, $268 bn). European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker congratulated Mr. Tsipras while reminding him of the challenge of "ensuring fiscal responsibility.".......... With nearly all of the votes counted in Sunday's poll, Syriza looks set to have 149 seats, just two short of an absolute majority. The Greek Independents are projected to...

Voting in Sunday's much-watched Greek elections has ended, and exit polls suggest that the far-left Syriza party has captured nearly 40 percent of the vote. While this may not be enough to ensure a parliamentary majority in Greece's electoral system, it's now clear that Alexis Tsipras, a fiery 40-year-old once considered too radical for national politics, will lead the next Greek government. Tsipras has promised to end Greece's "austerity program," a series of spending cuts and tax hikes designed to reduce the country's enormous bailout debt, which equals 175 percent of its GDP. Freed from this burden, Tsipras argues, the...

Rivlin is in New York to address the official Holocaust commemorations of the United Nations. His schedule includes meetings with African-American leaders and others. According to unsourced Israeli media reports, the White House invited Rivlin to a summit meeting with Obama in Washington. Israeli media outlets, including Channel 10 and the Ynet news site, have suggested the White House invitation was meant to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not invited to meet with Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry during his stay in Washington to address both houses of Congress in early March. Netanyahu was invited to...

With Republicans in Congress split over the best approach to Obama's executive amnesty - and with many establishment Republicans splitting form grassroots Republicans on the issue of illegal immigration more generally - it's clear that immigration will be a hot-button primary issue in 2016. ... So where do the potential candidates stand? Here's a rundown: ...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Members of the North Carolina Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America showed up at Harris Teeter on Providence Road in Charlotte on Saturday. They cut up their Harris Teeter loyalty cards and handed the destroyed cards to management.

Exit polls suggest a historic victory for the anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece's closely fought general election. One poll suggested Syriza took 35.5% of the votes, and the other suggested it took 39.5%, well ahead of ruling New Democracy party on 23%-27%. It is unclear whether Syriza has enough votes to govern the country alone. Syriza's Alexis Tsipras has pledged to renegotiate Greece's debt arrangement with international creditors....

On Saturday, the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses officially got underway with Congressman Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit.With a list of speakers as distinguished as you’ll see at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), most of the people who have spent at least five minutes thinking about being the 2016 Republican presidential nominee were there. With the exception of Jeb Bush (conservatives are not his crowd), Bobby Jindal (he was hosting a spiritual revival event in Louisiana), Marco Rubio (“Gang of 8� amnesty and Mr. King don’t necessarily mix), Rand Paul (he’s on a passive-aggressive kick at the moment), and Mitt...

DES MOINES, Iowa — In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News backstage at the Iowa Freedom Summit, potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) detailed the pathway to victory for Republicans in 2016—and he explained a new phrase he started using in his speech minutes earlier. Cruz introduced a new major theme, the “Miracle of America,” in his speech to the thousands of Iowans gathered at the event hosted by Citizens United and Rep. Steve King (R-IA).“What I want to talk to you about today is reigniting the Miracle of America,” Cruz said in his speech in the Hoyt...

Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is adding a veteran GOP strategist and Iowa expert to his political team as the Wisconsin Republican considers a possible 2016 presidential bid. The addition of David Polyansky gives Walker's team a big dose of Iowa experience. The strategist helped engineer former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's win in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and also served as deputy campaign manager for former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the 2011 Iowa straw poll.

At the moment, this is AP Breaking News.

On your list of worst nightmares, where does suddenly-plunging elevator rank?If not number one, at least in the top five, right?For Greta Van Susteren, that bad dream suddenly became reality as the car abruptly dropped four floors with no warning at all, then left her and several others trapped between levels with no way out. Lasting 10 frightening minutes, they were finally able to pry the doors open and crawl out.Incidentally, if a lift is headed uncontrollably to the bottom, the best possible way to survive is to lie flat on the floor.The incident happened in Hanoi as the Fox...

Washington - The United States and Iraq have started preparing for an offensive by summer to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was taken by Islamic State (ISIS) militants last June, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Preparations include selecting and training military units for the planned assault and cutting supply lines to ISIS fighters, General Lloyd Austin, head of the US military's Central Command, told the Journal. Mosul is the largest city in a self-declared ISIS caliphate straddling the border between northern Iraq and eastern Syria. A senior Iraqi official told Reuters in November that Mosul was...

On a usually happy and even triumphant day, pro-life leaders found themselves angry at a vote in the U.S. House that never happened. Much of the talk today at the annual March for Life, that likely brought close to 500,000 mostly young people to Washington DC, was about how House leaders canned a bill that would have banned abortion after the 20th week of gestation, the point at which an unborn child is said to feel pain. Much of the anger was directed at Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, who, as reported by Breitbart News, organized a group...

This week marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of the “massacre of the Reaganites” by newly elected President George H.W. Bush that effectively ended the prospect of institutionalizing Reaganism as the governing principle of the Republican Party and America. We call it the “massacre of the Reaganites” because, in a well-thought-out and carefully crafted purge, on Inauguration Day 1989 practically every conservative who remained in government at the end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, and certainly any conservative of any political consequence, was fired or forced to resign from their post in the federal government. Even those who had worked tirelessly...