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Russia Russia to beef up military capability in south, Black Sea fleet 19:06 | 05/ 03/ 2009 MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will enhance the defense capabilities of its troops deployed in the country's "southern region," including the Black Sea Fleet, a deputy defense minister said on Thursday. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said after thoroughly analyzing "the outcome of the South Ossetian conflict," the Defense Ministry had proposed an array of measures to strengthen its troops in the country's southern region, as well as the Black Sea Fleet. He said the Ground Forces would be provided with new multiple...

<p>Officials at the FBI's New York field office - the first line of defense in preventing another terrorist attack here - got so spooked by the threat of bad weather that they declared a "snow day" Monday.</p> <p>Millions of other New Yorkers with jobs unrelated to national security managed to trudge through the snow while the FBI stayed warm at home.</p>

LONDON (AFP) – Prince Charles has beaten off competition from US President Barack Obama to be named the world's best dressed man by Esquire magazine. "He is perfectly turned out in a double-breasted suit. Admirably, the prince keeps his wardrobe in appropriate style: we're told he has a room laid out like a tailor's shop," the men's magazine said.No... No... Nooooo!!! This can't be! Everyone knows Obama is the most handsome man/omnipotent being the world has ever known! How dare Esquire Magazine, how dare them... Oh, also, who gives a flying rat's butt who Esquire says is the best dressed...

Thank you for contacting me regarding your interest in the auto assistance bill that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives. I voted in support of this bill because I was not willing to punish tens of thousands of autoworkers for the mistakes and mismanagement of their CEO's and disregard the significant, wider economic fallout that would result from the failure of these companies. Although this legislation was not enacted into law, financial assistance was ultimately provided to GM and Chrysler in December, and these companies recently submitted their restructuring plans to the Treasury Department. I believe that working with...

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A spokesman for Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, Todd Jurkowski, confirms a Grayson quote floating around on some blogs: I’m sorry Limbaugh called for harsh sentences for drug addicts while he was a drug addict. I’m also sorry that he’s bent on seeing America fail. And I’m sorry that Limbaugh is one sorry excuse for a human being. Grayson, who had previously called Limbaugh a "has-been hypocrite loser," seems to have done himself one better.

There is a certain whiff of familiarity about the attacks on Rush Limbaugh and on energy companies emanating from the Obama White House these days. History tells us that dictators and those with an authoritarian bent need enemies to distract their public. Hitler had the Jews; Mugabe has the white farmers; and Chavez has various U.S. “devils”. I could list more, but you get the idea. We now have the spectacle of the President of the United States declaring war on a talk show host who has exercised his right of free speech to criticize some of his socialist plans,...

NEW YORK – A stunning 48 percent of the nation's homeowners who have a subprime, adjustable-rate mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure, and the rate for homeowners with all mortgage types hit a new record, new data Thursday showed. But that's not the worst of it. The reckless lending practices in states like Florida, California and Nevada that were the epicenter of the housing crisis are no longer driving up the nation's delinquency rate. Instead, the foreclosure crisis now is being fueled by a spike in defaults in states like Louisiana, New York, Georgia and Texas, where...

Shares of the embattled financial firm dip below $1 a share, as investors continue to have a dire outlook for the bank.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup logged another dismal milestone Thursday, as shares of the beleaguered bank slipped below $1 a share. The move, which may have seemed unthinkable just months ago, came as the broader market fell once again toward new 12-year lows due to worries about the health of the banking sector and the broader economy. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) shares were hovering at about 99 cents in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, 12% lower...

Bugs or no bugs, Mozilla will freeze the code to the much delayed Firefox 3.1 beta 3 by the end of day. The number of P1 blockers is now in the single digits but that doesn’t mean the release candidate is around the corner. During the weekly meeting today, developers said a number of stubborn Javascript problems and other issues remain in the code, prompting the decision to go for a fourth beta. Others suggested that a possible version number change (Firefox 3.5) may be in order to reflect the scope (and time investment) of the update. Beta 3 was...

BRUSSELS -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday proposed a high-level international conference on Afghanistan this month that would also include Iran, in the Obama administration's first specific overture to Tehran since taking office. "The United States proposes a ministerial-level conference on Afghanistan and the border regional challenge on March 31," Mrs. Clinton told NATO foreign ministers at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

Preaching God's word with an eye on national politics Pepperell vicar leads liberal think tank By Rich Barlow Globe Correspondent / March 5, 2009 One day about six years ago, the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale was testifying before Congress on behalf of abortion rights, basking among politicians who were interested to hear her views and happy to shake her hand. The next day, the Episcopal priest was back for a meeting at St. David's, her tiny Pepperell church, where a 2-year-old scaled her chair to perch on her head.

Cardinal Roger Mahony on Tuesday banned Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson from any Roman Catholic church, school or other facility in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. If this isn't piling on, I don't know what is. The blog has had plenty to say about Bishop Williamson but this is pretty darn ridiculous coming from Cardinal Mahony. In The Tidings, Mahony wrote: In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican's directives regarding the Holocaust. Later this year, I, Cardinal...

An article in the Forum for February is upon the subject of the much-talked-of change in our climate. The writer, Prof. Cleveland Abbe, says that the notion that it is possible for a climate to change is a modern one. Our ancestors lived in a region subject to but slight climatic changes, and on this account perhaps presumed that climate was absolutely unchangeable. In 1812 Culier published his "Discourse on the Revolutions of the Surface of the Globe and the Changes thereby Produced in the Animal Kingdom." This was at that day considered as contradicting ancient traditions and the evidences...

The Russian government is to outlaw criticism of Soviet military tactics during the Second World War in the latest example of its heavy-handed approach to dissent. The controversial plan comes after a television documentary exposed the scale of human losses during one of the conflict's bloodiest battles. The programme stirred deep emotions in a country that has traditionally glorified the heroic exploits of ordinary soldiers during the 'Great Patriotic War' but has often ignored the immense human cost behind the victory over Nazi Germany. As anger among veterans swelled, the government sensed an opportunity to capitalise on the public mood...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Supreme Court justices launched immediately into a round of questioning Thursday challenging the contention of gay marriage advocates that Proposition 8 was an improper revision of the state constitution.As lawyer Shannon Minter began a presentation challenging the measure banning gay marriage approved by voters in November, justices raised the possibility that the effect of the initiative was narrow, changing only the terminology of "marriage" and not the rights of same-sex couples."Relegating same-sex couples to domestic partnership does not provide them with everything but a word," Minter replied. "Proposition 8 changeas the basic nature of our government."...

An early review of press coverage relating to this morning's warning by General Motors that "there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern" shows no coverage of the reason why, despite $13.4 billion in taxpayer money (NOT counting bailout money going to GMAC), things have gotten so much worse so quickly. The reason is that sales in the two full months since the Bush-approved, Obama-cheered bailout took place have tanked: December 2008 (last [mostly] pre-bailout month) — down 31.2% January 2009 (first full bailout month) — down 48.9% February 2009 (second full bailout month...

Russia is working on anti-satellite weapons to match technologies developed by other nations and will speed up modernization of its nuclear forces, a deputy defense minister was quoted as saying Thursday.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FL -- John's Island, a luxurious waterfront community of more than 1300 properties, is taking its "exclusive" reputation to a new level. Starting February 1st, the John's Island Property Owners' Association launched a new policy requiring anyone who wants to trim hedges, clean houses, or do any kind of business in the neighborhood to "have a valid U.S. Driver's License or ID card." Workers are now asked to show proof of I.D. at the front gate to the development. They're given a copy of the new policy, written in both English and Spanish, which reads: "If you...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) said it could suffer "grave harm" if it is forced to reveal data about an estimated $3.6 billion of bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch & Co officials in the days before the bank acquired the brokerage. In a petition filed late Wednesday in a New York state court in Manhattan, the bank urged Justice Bernard Fried to reject New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's demand for the data, which the bank believes should be kept confidential. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America bought Merrill on January 1, shortly after the bonuses...