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Mike Ginsberg, chairman of the 8th District Republican Committee for the Republican Party of Virginia: I know it looks like this area is for Obama by a mile, with all the yard signs and everything, but I wanted to make a few points to give you some reason for optimism. One of the jobs of our committee is to provide bumper stickers and signs to supporters. We can’t keep enough of these materials in stock. We get cleaned out of signs and stickers week after week at local farmers’ markets and local festivals and events. There is an enormous amount...

A true panoramic view of one part of the Italian Dolomites. Posted 1/3 size; click for full effect! If you go to the heading link, you can see the same image with labels of the names of the peaks, and a different panorama.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2007 – Ongoing Multinational Force Iraq operations against terrorists are focused in the country’s northern provinces, where al Qaeda activity is heavy, a U.S. military official said from Baghdad. Al Qaeda has gravitated north because they’ve been pushed out of Anbar province, in the west, and improved security has constrained their operations in Baghdad and areas south, Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, chief of strategy and plans for Multinational Force Iraq’s Strategic Communications Division, said in a conference call with online journalists and “bloggers” Dec. 19. Operation Iron Reaper, which began the last week of November, is...

Two women from Diyala province cut wire to assist in the assembly of transformers at a Diyala Electrical Industries factory which is located in Baqouba, Iraq, Oct. 22. Diyala Electric Industries, which has been operating at a limited capacity since 2003, now employs approximately 800 citizens from Baqouba and its surrounding villages. Photo by Sgt. Serena Hayden, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — North continues working with the Government of Iraq to rebuild the infrastructure and improve the quality of life for the people of Northern Iraq. Since assuming responsibility of northern Iraq in September...

Northern Rock customers withdraw £1bn By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 10:13pm BST 14/09/2007 About £1 billion was withdrawn by panicking Northern Rock customers on Friday, as fears for the bank's future sent shock waves through the City and caused its shares to crash. The company's phone lines were jammed for most of the day, its website crashed and the 72 branches were besieged by thousands of worried customers after it admitted having to ask the Bank of England for emergency funding. The scenes came as the financial turmoil that has engulfed the money markets in the past...

Northern Rock customers queue for cash as crisis hits high street By Emma Thelwell Last Updated: 3:01pm BST 14/09/2007 The credit crisis spilled onto Britain's high streets today as worried Northern Rock customers queued up to withdraw their savings. Their fears were prompted by the revelation this morning that Britain's fifth-biggest mortgage lender had to ask the Bank of England for emergency financial assistance. Tony Looch: 'I'm taking the lot out' Despite Northern Rock's assurances that there was no need for customers to panic, queues continued to build steadily at the London branches visited by the Daily Telegraph today. For...

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2007 – Now at full strength, the U.S. troop surge in Iraq is showing “definitive progress” and the number of forces serving in Iraq’s Multinational Division North could be halved by summer 2009, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon said today. A reduction of U.S. forces under the general’s command could begin as early as January 2008, he told Pentagon reporters via videoconference. Mixon, commander of both Multinational Division North and the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, is responsible for six Iraqi provinces in northern Iraq, including the city of Baqubah -- site of the ongoing...

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Reports that Turkey has massed a huge military force on its border with Iraq bolstered fears that an invasion targeting hideouts of Kurdish rebels could be imminent. But how deeply into Iraq is the Turkish army willing to go, how long would it stay and what kind of fallout could come from allies in Washington and other NATO partners? All these questions weigh on Turkey's leaders, who have enough on their hands without embarking on a foreign military adventure. Turkey is caught up in an internal rift between the Islamic-rooted government and the military-backed, secular establishment, less...

Huge storms sweep northern Europe Huge waves pound the port of Wimereux, northern France At least 25 people have been killed as violent storms lashed northern Europe, causing travel chaos across the region. Britain was the worst hit with nine people killed as rain and gusts of up to 99mph (159km/h) swept the country. Hurricane-force winds battering Germany have claimed at least seven lives. The other deaths were reported in France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. The severe weather has forced hundreds of flight, rail and ferry cancellations and prompted road and school closures. Meteorologists at London's Met Office...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 – One result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was the establishment of U.S. Northern Command to deal with threats aimed at the United States, the organization’s commander said here today. During an interview at the Pentagon’s Radio Day event, Navy Adm. Timothy Keating spoke his personal experiences during the attack and about his command. Keating, who is also the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, was the Navy’s director of operations in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. “I was in the operations update when the news hit of the first plane...

Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska Sid Perkins Genetic analysis of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age, a notion that scientists have debated for decades. ICE AGE SURVIVORS. White spruce trees, common in high-latitude North American forests today, endured in Alaska during the last ice age, a new genetic analysis suggests. Inset shows Alaskan and other sites (red dots) sampled in that study. iStockphoto; (inset) Anderson, et al. Picea glauca, the white spruce, is one of the most common...

Israel withdraws troops from northern Gaza (Filed: 08/07/2006) Israel has withdrawn its forces from most of the northern Gaza Strip, where fighting has left nearly 30 Palestinians dead. Column of Israeli tanks The Israeli army, which launched its offensive 11 days ago to free an abducted soldier, pulled out today from the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the Erez industrial zone, and three former Israeli settlements. Troops had seized the area earlier this week, creating a "buffer zone" aimed at deterring militants from firing rockets into the coastal city of Ashkelon. However, rocket fire has continued. An army...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, May 16, 2006 – When the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Iraqi Mechanized Division assumed 150 square kilometers of battlespace north of Baghdad yesterday, it was more than just a paperwork shuffle. "From the command and control perspective, they go from reporting to (the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry) to me," 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Commander U.S. Army Col. James Pasquarette said during an interview. "They now report straight into my headquarters, and I report to the 4th (Infantry Division)." But this arrangement is only temporary. In June, the 2nd Brigade's parent unit, the 9th Division, will...

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2006 – All the Iraqi security forces in northern Iraq are engaged in the fight against terrorism and are making progress toward leading operations early next year, the U.S. general in charge of operations in the area said today. U.S. forces in the northern provinces are focused on building an Iraqi security force capable of providing domestic order and denying safe haven to terrorists, Army Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Turner II, commander of Multinational Division North and the 101st Airborne Division, said in a news conference from Iraq. Four Iraqi army divisions operate in the north, consisting...

/26/2006 - FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AFPN) -- In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Airmen from the 332d Air Expeditionary Wing are using their construction expertise to help the U.S. and Iraqi governments and the U.S. Army. The 557th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron is deployed in support of the Army's 555th Combat Support Brigade (Maneuver Enhancement) here. Red Horse stands for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron Engineer. "Red Horse is a heavy construction outfit that directly supports combat air power worldwide," said Senior Master Sgt. Brian Richardson, Red Horse airfields manager. "They provide air component commanders...

"I fear that the government is refraining from sending IDF troops into Gaza to stop the Kassam rockets because it doesn't want to admit its mistake in withdrawing from Gaza in the first place." So said Prof. Moshe Arens today, speaking with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch. Prof. Arens served as Defense Minister in four different Israeli governments and Foreign Minister in one. Arens said that a military ground operation is necessary because the "IDF's artillery barrage on northern Gaza is totally futile, as the terrorists fire the rockets from densely populated areas while Israel shells empty areas." "The security establishment must...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2006 – The relative calm that has been seen in Iraq's northern provinces can be attributed to aggressive coalition and Iraqi leaders who understand the area and know how to diffuse problems before they happen, a U.S. commander in the area said today. "The presence of coalition forces, along with an increasingly competent and confident Iraqi army brigade and Iraqi police force inside Kirkuk, are keeping a lid on potential violence," Army Col. David R. Gray, commander of 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said in a satellite news conference from Iraq. Kirkuk province is an ethnically diverse...

ABOARD USS PELELIU IN THE NORTHERN PERSIAN GULF, April 13, 2006 – A multinational task force is hard at work here, seeking to preserve the free and secure use of the northern Persian Gulf by legitimate mariners and to prevent terrorists from transporting personnel, weapons or other illicit material by sea. Combined Task Force 58 includes naval forces from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, including U.S. Coast Guard, as well as Iraqi sailors and marines. U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Carl B. Jensen, who leads Expeditionary Strike Group 3, took command of the task force April 10....

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, March 24, 2006) – Iraqi army and Coalition Forces kicked off Operation Northern Lights March 22 to disrupt anti-Iraqi forces, and find and destroy terrorist caches in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad. The joint and combined operation began with 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, moving to blocking positions by ground before Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, air assaulted onto the objective to conduct a cordon and search. By late afternoon, Soldiers from the 3rd Bde., 6th Iraqi Army...

Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO The National Weather Service warned Sunday that a Northern California storm could cause flooding in portions of the Russian River and Napa River. The service issued flood warnings for the Napa River at St. Helena for late Sunday night or early Monday morning and for the Russian River at Healdsburg for Monday morning. The Napa River at St. Helena had risen to about 8 feet early Sunday afternoon, below the 19-foot flood level, said Jeff Kopps, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Monterey. The Russian River at Healdsburg had risen to about 3 feet,...