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(Reuters) - If President Barack Obama is not yet convinced that his international star power has faded, his next round of transatlantic summitry should clear up any lingering doubts. Coming off a marathon Asia trip where Obama often found himself rebuffed by fellow world leaders, he will head to Europe this week where the agenda will be clouded by a growing divide over economic strategy and a sense of neglect among traditional U.S. allies.His challenge is to reassure European partners that, despite political weakness at home and embarrassing setbacks abroad, he remains committed to better cooperation on issues ranging from...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2007 – Taliban attacks have picked up this year, but the Afghanistan-based insurgent group is nonetheless growing weaker, the senior U.S. military officer told a congressional committee today. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen told U.S. House Armed Services Committee members that earlier this year he’d predicted a resurgence of Taliban attacks. However, Mullen acknowledged, he was only partially correct. “Though the Taliban has grown bolder in recent months, particularly in the south and the west, they’ve lost a significant number of their leadership and failed to fully reassert themselves, reverting...

About 100 homes were being evacuated Wednesday morning as a small earthen dam in Calaveras County weakened by an overnight thunderstorm threatened to break. Showers and thunderstorms dumped up to four inches of rain over the past 24 hours around the La Contenta golf course near Valley Springs, said Angus Barkhuff, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. A 12-foot-high dam at the golf course was weakened by the storms and crews from the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department began evacuating nearby homes threatened by the dam overnight. If the dam fails, water will drain into a smaller pond...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger enters 2006 in a politically weakened position few could have imagined when he took office a little more than two years ago, the result of a disastrous shift to the right in a state dominated by Democrats and independents. Facing re-election, the Republican governor has begun a swift transformation since November, when California voters rejected all four of his "year of reform" measures. The proposals included a spending cap, redistricting changes and restrictions on fundraising by public employee unions that Democrats had railed against. "A move back to the center is essential," said Gary...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2005 – Members of the deposed Taliban, who had hosted and supported Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Afghanistan, are seeking to harass and stop coalition reconstruction efforts across the country, a senior U.S. military operations officer there reported Aug. 4. The Taliban are "losing their legitimacy" in the eyes of Afghan citizens because of myriad coalition reconstruction projects, like road building, water purification, well digging, and school- and hospital-refurbishing, conducted across Afghanistan, Army Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, deputy commanding general of operations and intelligence for Combined Joint Task Force 76, told reporters at a...

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(CNSNews.com) - The firestorm of liberal rage that scorched Sen. Trent Lott's political career nearly two weeks ago also has ignited criticism of at least four Republicans regarded as successors to the Senate Majority Leader. But some observers say a "weakened" and "responsive" Lott is more valuable to Democrats than any GOP replacement would be. People for the American Way (PFAW) issued a report Tuesday comparing the civil rights voting records of Republican senators Bill Frist (Tenn.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Don Nickles (Okla.), and Rick Santorum (Pa.) to that of Trent Lott. PFAW selected the four GOP senators because...