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KABUL (AP) - Bombs and bullets killed seven American troops throughout Afghanistan Monday, officials said, as thousands of U.S. Marines continued with their massive anti-Taliban offensive in the south. A suicide car bomber also blew himself up outside the gate of the main NATO base in the region, killing two civilians and wounding 14 other people. In an effort to protect Afghans, American troops also recently received new guidelines limiting use of airstrikes in order to minimize civilian casualties that threaten local support of foreign forces' presence.

After Al Franken is sworn in to the U.S. Senate this week, the nation will be watching to see how the former entertainer performs in a theater where cooperation trumps controversy and wise politicians survive wiseguys. Preparing for his new role, one of the first people Franken sought out was Tamara Luzzatto, chief of staff for Hillary Clinton when she was in the Senate. "A number of people have told me to study the Hillary model of being a senator," Franken said after they met last February. "Put your head down and do the work." Franken appears determined to establish...

Local leaders are welcoming Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell as the state's new governor, saying he should be good for the capital city and the state. "Sean has been a friend of Juneau for some time," said Sen. Dennis Egan, who has known Parnell for many years. A former Republican legislator from Anchorage, Parnell was co-chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee for part of the time Egan served as Juneau's mayor in the 1990s. Parnell represented Anchorage but never joined in the anti-Juneau sentiments expressed by some others from Anchorage and the Mat-Su, Egan said. "He was never that way...

Armed Nigerian militants are holding six members of an oil tanker's crew, including the Russian captain, hostage, the tanker's managers say. A statement from EMS Ship Management said the Sichem Peace was boarded by armed men about 20 nautical miles from Escravos, Nigeria. The gunmen forced six crew members to come ashore with them, the BBC reported Monday The company said the ship was then released and its remaining 13 crew members sailed it further offshore. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, issued a communique claiming it was holding the men, whom it identified as...

Judicial Sleight of Hand by: Brittany Fortier, July 06, 2009 Judge David Hamilton of the Southern District of Indiana, who has been nominated by the Obama administration to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, proposes to bring an even more activist approach to the federal judiciary. For example, in A Woman’s Choice v. Newman, Hamilton issued an injunction against an Indiana law requiring abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion and requiring an 18-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., points out. He called Hamilton’s ruling “questionable,” while the Seventh Circuit...

HARARE: Zimbabwe's state media reported Monday that President Robert Mugabe described the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs as ``an idiot'' after an acrimonious meeting between the two at an African summit in Libya. The state Herald newspaper carried the remarks after a briefing Mugabe gave to Zimbabwean reporters at the end of last week's summit of the continentwide African Union. US Embassy officials in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, where Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson is visiting, would not comment on the remarks. According to the Herald paper, Mugabe said nothing came out of those talks. ``You wouldn't...

Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as governor of Alaska so that she could, “advance in another direction,” was a brilliant political move. She senses, or sees, or grasps what few in politics understand today. Americans are tired of the same old, same old — be it Republican, Democratic, or even Green Party (See California’s recent special election results). The sound of thundering hoofs coming over the hill is apparent to any real student of political history. However, it seems that only an unlikely moose hunter like Palin has put her ear to the ground to listen. The rumblings are not...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) made a joke about "restless leg syndrome" on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" this morning. Waxman was schooled when a man suffering from the disorder called in and told the Congresmann how he got it.

MOSCOW: The United States and Russia on Monday agreed to revive a joint commission that investigates the fate of prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action, the White House said. In an exchange of diplomatic notes, Washington and Moscow agreed a framework for the US-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, the White House said in a statement as President Barack Obama arrived for a summit in Moscow. "This exchange restores in full the important work of the Joint Commission and demonstrates the unwavering commitment both our countries have toward our servicemen and women," it said. It was not immediately clear...

Seems that when George W. Bush was president there was periodic main stream media reporting about the ever-increasing national debt. Somewhere, perhaps New York City, there was a large sign that continually updated the national debt. Now that Obama is raking up more debt than ever we don't hear or see anything about it. What happened to that sign?

Australians at risk of bush fires will getting alerts from the government via their Facebook and Twitter social networking accounts, officials say. In the wake of devastating bushfires in the state of Victoria that killed 173 people in February, the state government is determined to put more emphasis on early warning efforts, and Facebook and Twitter have been deemed a good fit for that, the BBC reported Monday. Victorian Premier John Brumby praised the Internet alert idea, saying, "We'll be providing more information to the community, like Twitter and Facebook -- alternative means of communication to get the information out...

RUMORS WRONG: Agent rebuts circulating allegations cited by Anchorage blogger. The FBI is taking the unusual step of declaring that Gov. Sarah Palin is not under investigation, as Palin herself left for Western Alaska and communicated to the world through her Twitter account. "We are not investigating her," FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said on Sunday. "Normally we don't confirm or deny those kind of allegations out there, but by not doing so it just casts her in a very bad light. There is just no truth to those rumors out there in the blogosphere." Palin has ignored requests for an...

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said that Republicans would work with President Obama on a second stimulus bill, as long as it's like the tax cut-heavy package the GOP proposed earlier. Cantor told reporters Monday that Obama made a mistake by pushing through a $787 billion stimulus bill in February that had too much government spending. With the economy still scuffling and unemployment approaching 10 percent, Cantor said that Republicans could back new stimulus legislation that focuses on help for small businesses. "We stand ready and willing to work with the president to produce a bill that will actually...

One of the features that iPod Touch users have been requesting from Apple is a camera. According to reports, they may be getting their wish. While attributing its information only to a "sources in Asia," TechCrunch claims that Apple has placed an order for camera modules destined for the next version of the iPod Touch. The size of the order, according to TechCrunch, is "massive." MacRumors is taking the camera information a step further, claiming that both the iPod Touch and iPod Nano will receive cameras when they are updated. New case designs, purportedly for the iPods, show a hole...

Sarah does the right thing, but the chattering claases in the DC beltway(and some on FR) can't see the forest from their chardonnay

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a preliminary agreement Monday to reduce the world's two largest nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third, to the lowest levels of any U.S.-Russia accord, and counter what Obama called "a sense of drift" in the countries' relations. "We must lead by example, and that's what we are doing here today," Obama declared in Kremlin hall glittering in gold. "We resolve to reset U.S.-Russian relations so that we can cooperate more effectively in areas of common interest." The document signed by the two leaders at a Moscow summit, Obama's first...

US President Barack Obama made his first mistake in Russia even before he arrived last night. His attempt to cast Vladimir Putin as yesterday's man and to drive a wedge between the Russian Prime Minister and President Dmitry Medvedev demonstrates a misreading of relations in the Kremlin. Medvedev is in office but not in power and whether he becomes President in more than name depends on Putin's support and intentions. Medvedev may represent a more accommodating face of Russia but this is only because Putin wants him to. Obama declared on Friday: "I think that it's important that even as...

Barack Obama began the first week of June with a series of interviews on the eve of his journey to Cairo to deliver his address to the “Muslim world.” In all of them, he spoke of the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the central importance of resolving it as part of his aim of beginning anew with the Arab and Muslim nations that have grown so disenchanted with the United States.

Pool Photographer/Getty Images The keys to Michael Jackson's kingdom have just been ripped from his mother's hands. Over the objections of Katherine Jackson, a Los Angeles probate judge today ruled that Michael Jackson's 2002 will is indeed valid and that, per the King of Pop's wishes, attorney John Branca and veteran music executive John McClain are executors of his estate. Lawyers for Jackson's mother wanted Judge Mitchell Beckloff to delay the decision. One of her lawyers, John Schreiber, argued that "there is concern over handing over the keys to the kingdom so quickly." Her attorneys also suggested that because McClain...