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Hitting the campaign-cash trail again today, President Obama in Austin, Texas today opened up a string of attacks against the Republicans, painting them as a party that lacks seriousness and ideas due to only looking forward to the next election. “There has been a fundamental lack of seriousness on the other side,” Obama said to a crowd at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, “We've spent the last 20 months governing, they have spent the last 20 months politicking." The president – who has been out on the stump raising cash and throwing his support behind local candidates increasingly –...

In March 2009, President Obama called the AIG bonuses an "outrage."

Under the Senate Finance Committee bill, HHS Secretary Kathleen will determine the meaning of terms such as "physician services," "premium," "prescription drug coverage," "deductible," and "emergency room care.

The pranksters who impersonated U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials in a bogus news conference last week are getting smacked with a federal lawsuit in reply. Far from finding the stunt funny, the chamber is suing the group, called the Yes Men, for trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising. In a suit filed late Monday in U.S. District Court, the Chamber charges that four principal members of the group engaged in conduct that “is destructive of public discourse, and cannot be tolerated under the law.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for the Obama administration said on Friday it had no position on the legality of the former Bush administration's program to intercept Americans' e-mails and phone calls without a warrant. The lawyer spoke at a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing on a lawsuit in which 16 lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay detainees demanded the government release records of electronic surveillance they believe was conducted without a warrant concerning their clients' cases.

ngrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician held hostage for more than six years by guerrillas in the Colombian jungle, told CBC News in an exclusive interview that her captors despised her. "I was a politician. They hated politicians. I was a person with some education. They had none, so they thought I [had] a privileged social background and they hated me for that," Betancourt told the CBC's Mellissa Fung in an excerpt from an interview that will air on The National on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

WASHINGTON -- In a strongly worded message to Congress outlining its priorities for a military spending bill, the Obama administration today said it disapproved of including money for pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard. The Guardsmen are among those assigned to protect Alaska from the Japanese during World War II.

VENICE (Reuters) - Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion of U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore's latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premieres at the Venice film festival on Sunday. Blending his trademark humour with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.

Facing a barrage of questions Wednesday over the friendliness of the audience at President Obama's New Hampshire town hall meeting, the White House insisted that all questions were selected at random -- including one from an 11-year-old girl whose mother worked as an Obama organizer. Julia Hall of Malden, Mass., grabbed the microphone Tuesday during Obama's town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., and told the president she saw signs "outside saying mean things about reforming health care" as she walked into the building.

A poll released Sunday revealed that despite the massive amounts of aid directed toward Pakistan in this administration, Pakistanis peg the U.S. as a far greater threat than the Taliban and even archenemy India. The poll of more than 2,500 Pakistanis, conducted across rural and urban areas at the end of July by Gallup Pakistan for Al-Jazeera, found that 41 percent favored their government's military operation against the Taliban, while 22 percent claimed neutrality and 24 percent opposed.

The Senate can pass legislation overhauling the U.S. health-care system by August with some Republican support even with the “wacky” cost estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, Senator Charles Schumer said.

The Obama administration announced this week that some detainees captured and held abroad have been read Miranda rights to preserve evidence for a potential prosecution. Administration officials say the Bush administration did this as well in some instances relating to certain criminal cases. They would not offer specifics in any of the cases, whether under President Obama or President Bush

Paper Says It Has Unseen Video by Atta Sunday October 1, 2006 2:16 AM LONDON (AP) - A previously unseen video made by Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been obtained by Britain's The Sunday Times, the newspaper reported Saturday. In editions available late Saturday, the paper said it had been handed the so-called martyrdom video, but did not reveal the source of the tape. It reported that Atta was filmed reading a document marked in Arabic as a will as he sat beside fellow hijacker Ziad Jarrah - who seized control...

EU should run asylum policy, says Sarkozy By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 29/09/2006) National governments should surrender their powers to judge whether asylum seekers are genuine to a new "single European asylum office", Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to say today. The office would be staffed by officials on secondment from their countries, but would judge asylum applications according to EU rules. Mr Sarkozy, the French interior minister, is in Madrid for a summit of eight EU countries facing large flows of illegal migrants and asylum seekers. A copy of his speech to the summit was leaked to AFP, the...

CINCINNATI - Ohio's rules for primary elections make it too hard for minor parties to get on the ballot, a federal appeals court ruled. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said the primary requirements allow the Republican and Democratic parties to monopolize general elections. Ohio "is among the most restrictive, if not the most restrictive, state in granting minor parties access to the ballot," the ruling said. Parties automatically qualify for the primary ballot if their candidate for governor or president received at least 5 percent of the vote in the previous Ohio election. Any other party must...

Migrants changing Britain, says race chief By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor (Filed: 30/08/2006) Immigration to Britain today is fundamentally different from previous settlements because it is changing the composition of the nation, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality said last night. Trevor Phillips, who provoked controversy last year by challenging the concept of multiculturalism and saying that Britain was "sleepwalking to segregation", said the social significance of the current wave of immigration was being overlooked. More young people were arriving to compete for jobs with settled workers and a growing number of incomers were setting up their...

ANKARA, Turkey - The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday that it had forced two Syria-bound Iranian planes to land and be searched for rockets and other military equipment during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The newspaper Hurriyet reported Wednesday that Iranian planes were forced to land at Diyarbakir airport on July 27 and on Aug. 8 — but that no military equipment was found. Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Murat Ozcelik said those were not the only planes that were forced to land. "We inspect Iranian planes upon any suspicion that they may be carrying any weapons," Ozcelik said. He...

Israel Says It Has Captured Guerrillas Wednesday August 2, 2006 4:01 AM By HUSSEIN DAKROUB Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israel poured up to 10,000 armored troops into south Lebanon Tuesday, and separately dropped helicopter-borne commandos deep into the eastern Bekaa Valley where they raided a Hezbollah-run hospital and fought pitched battles with guerrillas, in a major escalation of the three-week-old war. After the raid on the ancient city of Baalbek ended, the Israeli military said it had captured some guerrillas and hit others. The military statement said all its soldiers returned unharmed to their base, but gave...

No need for witch doctors - I'm staying, says Mugabe By Peta Thornycroft in Harare (Filed: 17/07/2006) President Robert Mugabe has ridiculed followers for consulting witch doctors to choose his successor, dismissing the suggestion that he is going to step down. Robert Mugabe:cheers and laughter from the crowd Shaking his fist, Mr Mugabe, 82, told Zanu PF leaders and party elders at a weekend "consultative" rally in the country's capital, Harare, that they should not rely on witchcraft to choose Zimbabwe's next president. Mr Mugabe, who drew cheers and laughter from the crowd, told them: "The things we hear about...

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2006 – Anti-insurgent efforts in the Iraqi city of Ramadi are beginning to bear fruit, a senior U.S. military officer said today. "We're in a transition point in the fight for Ramadi. There's still a lot to do, but we're on the right track," Army Col. Sean B. MacFarland said from his headquarters in Ramadi during a satellite teleconference with Pentagon reporters. MacFarland is the commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. The 1st Brigade assists Iraqi soldiers and police in defeating insurgents within the unit's area of operations, he said. Ramadi is the...