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The International Federation of Journalists has expelled the Israeli branch after refusing to allow it to pay the same reduced amount of dues levied on neighboring countries, such as Jordan. Chaim Shibi, an Israeli branch official and veteran Israeli journalist, charged that the action by the international body is the culmination of a long-standing anti-Israeli bias.

President Barack Obama optimistically opened a 47-nation nuclear summit Monday, boosted by Ukraine's announcement that it will give up its weapons-grade uranium. More sobering: Obama's counterterrorism chief pointedly warned that al-Qaida is vigorously pursuing material and expertise for a bomb.

Note Video included at article link. SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new global program to target what it calls “high wealth individuals,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Monday. “Through our new global high wealth operating unit we are taking a unified look at the entire web of business and economic entities controlled by high wealth individuals so we can better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance,” Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday. Shulman said the IRS is using “our robust and evolving enforcement program that ensures that everyone pays...

Former Gitmo detainee Moazzam Begg is a committed jihadist and unabashed supporter of the Taliban. (See this Weekly Standard essay by Tom Joscelyn, which collects other Begg links.) In the fashion of CAIR — a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood formed to support its causes, such as Hamas, in the camouflage of a "civil rights" organization — Begg shrewdly realized he could win fawning admirers and allies on the Left by posing as a human rights activist. So he formed a group in Britain, Cageprisoners, which claims to be a civil rights organization whle promoting the Islamist agenda — and...

CONFIRMED: South Korean Ship Goes Down, Gold Soaring Joe Weisenthal Mar. 26, 2010, 11:29 AM Update 2: According to YONHAP news agency, 104 sailors were on board and only 58 have been accounted for. Update: And now WSJ says a Korean ship went down near the border, probably due to a torpedo. Original post: Check out gold! Rumor going around has to do with hostilities between the Koreas. This comes the same day comments from North Korean media about Kim Jon Il wanting to drop a nuke on the west, so you can see why folks are jittery.[snip]

It is pertinent to note that the level of legislative restriction surrounding firearms ownership differs between the three countries. For example, Canada and New Zealand permit the ownership and use of the types of firearms that are banned in Australia. In addition, Canada, like Australia, mandates registration of all firearms whereas New Zealand, unlike Canada and Australia, does not require registration of all firearms. However, these differences do not appear to be reflected in the long-term declines in homicide rates, suggesting the need to consider other explanations for the trends.

There seems little doubt that the next big gun rights battle will be on the global front, thanks to efforts by anti-gun governments to not only disarm their citizens, but also lobby at the United Nations to compel the U.S. government to ratchet down on our gun rights. Well, good luck with that! There are an estimated 80-90 million gun owners in this country, and they own an estimated 200-250 million firearms. All of these guns that the gun control fanatics don’t want us to have; we’ve already got them. Events over the past decade have emphasized the need to...

The Obama administration promised increased transparency in government but has rolled back rules proposed by the Bush administration that expanded the financial disclosure statements required of labor unions and their leaders. Since President Obama took office, the Labor Department has rescinded or delayed three sets of rules proposed by the George W. Bush administration that would have required unions and their leaders to more specifically detail their finances, according to a review of records by The Washington Times. The rules were rolled back while the Obama administration was seeking more stringent regulation of corporate America, including banks, insurance companies, health...

Prosecutors on Tuesday interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders, including former air force and navy chiefs, over alleged plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a coup and topple the Islamic-rooted government. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/23/turkey-coup-commanders.html#ixzz0gd1zR6R6

A lot of investors I talk to are so discouraged by the mess the American economy is in that they're looking to put all their money overseas. Doesn't matter where. As long as it's not America. That's a real mistake. It's a form of myopia. Sure we've got problems. But because we all live here, we see those problems up close and personal. What we don't see is that right now everyone has problems. It's just that the problems in other economies seem smaller because they're farther away. So if you invest outside this country -- for no better reason...

On Sunday, Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, shared with the Times of London that Moazzam Begg, a former terrorist, inmate at Guantanamo Bay, and Britain's leading supporter of terrorism has strong ties with Amnesty International. In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic. Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the...

F for Failure: Economy, Bipartisanship, War on Terror, International RelationsAs Obama’s first year in office approaches, his long calendar of corruption and failure flutters its windblown leaves into the abyss of the past. Let us take a brief look back at the full unmitigated ugliness of the Sham in Chief’s first year in office… for a proper report card. The Economy Obama campaigned on promises to help create jobs and fix the economy. War on Terror On the war, Obama promised to use multilateralism to create a new alliance using soft power. Bipartisanship Obama promised a new era of bipartisanship...

Roubini: Latin America Will Have Killer Growth In 2010 Gus LubinDec. 21, 2009, 9:56 AM Although bearish for the U.S. economy, Nourel Roubini can't get enough of Latin America. To wit, he recently upgraded his growth outlook for Latin America in 2010 from 3.3 to 3.8. The economist explained this upgrade in an interview with the Americas Society: AS: What is behind this increasingly positive outlook for Latin America? Roubini: There are two things. One is that global economic and financial conditions are improving. There is a recovery of growth even if it’s going to be anemic. Commodity prices have...

Gun control proponents often claim that suicide rates are driven by firearms availability. For example, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence promotes the “guns cause suicide” hypothesis. They note that nearly 17,000 people kill themselves with firearms each year, concluding: Without stronger, sensible gun laws, thousands upon thousands of people will continue to die and be injured needlessly each year. The Brady Campaign fights for sensible gun laws to protect you, your family, and your community. If guns cause suicide, international organizations must have some data proving this claim. Or do they? The United Nations (UN) recently reaffirmed its...

Activists around the globe are staging thousands of demonstrations Saturday aimed at prodding the world's policymakers to cut carbon concentrations to below their current levels, at a time when many U.S. officials and experts are trying to dampen expectations for international climate talks that culminate in Copenhagen in December.

POLITICAL power is rarely ceded without good reason. So eyebrows were raised last week when the US Department of Commerce decided to relax its grip on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the naming system that ensures that when you type a web address, your browser knows where to go. In future, governments and other international organisations will be able to nominate staff to sit on one of ICANN's three newly created steering committees, something the DoC had resisted for years. "What it really means," says ICANN's chief executive Rod Beckstrom, "is that...

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF has changed its standing instructions for soldiers regarding opening fire at terrorists who throw firebombs, Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service reported. According to military sources, the new instructions are part of an attempt to “change the atmosphere” in Yehuda and Shomron (Judea and Samaria) and to make Arabs' lives easier. Fire bomb explodes near IDF soldiers, 2002 / Israel news photo: Flash 90 Whereas for decades, fire bombs have been treated as a lethal weapon and IDF soldiers were instructed to shoot to kill whoever throws them, the new instructions only permit soldiers to shoot at the fire...

House Minority Leader John Boehner introduced legislation Tuesday that would break all federal government ties with ACORN, and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder requesting an investigation by the Justice Department House Minority Leader John Boehner introduced legislation Tuesday that would break all federal government ties with ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. And Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., wrote Attorney General Eric Holder requesting an investigation by the Justice Department. He cited reports that ACORN may "have been engaged in illegal activity" by aiding and abetting tax evasion, prostitution, human trafficking, fraud and...

Here is but the latest act of submission to Islam by your State Department. A State Department cable has just been sent out with this announcement: The Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) has assembled a range of innovative and traditional tools to support Posts' outreach activities during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Here, in contrast, is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,...

HONG KONG — The World Trade Organization gave the United States a victory on Wednesday in its trade battle with China, ruling that Beijing had violated international rules by limiting imports of books, songs and movies.The W.T.O. panel decision in Geneva buttresses growing complaints from the United States and Europe that China is becoming increasingly nationalistic in its trade policies. It also offers some hope that China will remove its restrictions on media and reduce rampant piracy of intellectual property, though the country can appeal. But even if China changes its policy in light of the decision, Western companies could...