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WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2005 – The secure environment in which Iraqis voted on a constitutional referendum Oct. 15 increased Iraqis' confidence in their security forces, a top official said. "I think the real success for the referendum security was the increased confidence it gave to the Iraqi security forces themselves and, through them, to the Iraqi people," British Royal Marine Maj. Gen. Jim Dutton, commander of Multinational Division Southeast, said in a news conference from Basra, Iraq, today. "That will be significant in the way in which the (security forces) are seen by the Iraqi people in the future." Dutton...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's budget has received a $1.2 billion boost from unexpected revenue since July 1, the start of the fiscal, according to the state Department of Finance. Revenue in September alone was $897 million over the projected estimate. State finance officials said Thursday that most of the unanticipated income probably was due to several one-time factors instead of any surge in the overall California economy. More than one-third of the unexpected income last month came from a jump in personal income taxes, which rose $376 million above estimates. Analysts said they suspect some of that additional income was...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Aug. 23, 2005) -- As if managing the Marine Aircraft Group 26 commanding officer’s budget wasn’t demanding enough, the Marines in the group’s fiscal office have been helping the local economy get back on its feet. While the group is deployed, the fiscal Marines have taken the role of purchasing agents to help the Marine Corps save money. For the last six months they have been accomplishing this and making a difference in the lives of Iraqi families who have businesses here. After being introduced to the local vendors, the MAG-26 Marines started working with them to...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - State tax collectors are unexpectedly busy across America, and many states have built strong reserves that exceed Wall Street's recommendations. Yet lawmakers and governors are worried. A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures says state budgets are in the best shape in five years, thanks to "robust" tax collections and tough budgeting. Collectively, the states have reserves of 7 percent, almost twice what they projected and well above the 5 percent cushion that Wall Street suggests. But the same report, released Wednesday at the legislative group's convention in Seattle, said the pressure to spend...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State senators Thursday approved a deal reached with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would boost tolls at least $1 on most Bay Area bridges to help pay for earthquake safety upgrades, including a new eastern span of the Bay Bridge. The agreement ended a dispute between the Republican governor and San Francisco area legislators over how to cover $3.6 billion in cost overruns, mainly from the Bay Bridge project. "With any luck at all, we'll never have this subject before us again," said Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, who negotiated the deal with Schwarzenegger. The bill...

Environmentalists are blaming US President George Bush and his friends in the energy industry for wrecking a G8 deal on global warming before he has even boarded the plane to the summit in Gleneagles. Coming from his usual critics, this is unlikely to trouble the president as he heads for the summit, but he faces growing pressure to give greater priority to the environment from one of his most loyal domestic constituencies: the religious right. Evangelical Christians form a crucial plank in Mr Bush's formidable political base (he is an evangelical himself) and care for the environment is becoming an...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his government maintained good relations with former President Clinton and told U.S. business leaders that he would do his best to improve ties with the Bush administration. Speaking to business representatives from the United States at a trade meeting in Caracas, Chavez said relations with Washington have been tense since Clinton left office more than four years ago. With the current administration, there hasn't "been the smallest possibility of dialogue," said Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy in the region. Chavez said he nonetheless...

PERRIS - Gov. Schwarzenegger hopes to increase the state education budget by 6 percent to $61.5 billion, the largest amount given to schools at any time in history, his staff said Wednesday during a visit to the Inland area. But some local educators say it won't be enough -- even if the Republican governor's budget is passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature. Schwarzenegger's representative, Scott Himelstein, met with an invited group of educators, school administrators and community leaders at Val Verde Union School District office in Perris to discuss the education budget. Himelstein will become deputy secretary of education and chief...

World - Reuters   North Korea to Boost 'Atomic Potential' - Tass 2 hours, 28 minutes ago MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea is to strengthen its "atomic potential" in response to Washington's hostile policies, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted the president of its parliament as saying Thursday. Tass, one of the few foreign news organizations with a reporter based in the communist state, said Kim Yong-nam in an address to the Supreme People's Assembly. "We will continue to expand our atomic forces as long as the United States conducts policies to isolate and suffocate (North Korea)," Tass quoted Kim...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's political watchdog agency overstepped its authority by limiting donations to campaign committees controlled by elected officials and candidates, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday, a decision that could blow the amount of money spent in an upcoming special election wide open. Judge Shelleyanne Chang's preliminary ruling said a committee raising money for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed initiatives for an expected special election this fall may raise unlimited amount of money from individual donors. If Chang, who will hear oral arguments in the case Thursday, maintains her ruling, political committees controlled by the governor...

Do cows and tennis balls boost global warming? February 21, 2005 Cows and sheep grazing in fields, joggers' shoes or even refrigerators could all be targeted under a new United Nations pact meant to rein in global warming. The Kyoto protocol, which came into force last week, is an attempt to put the brakes on a build-up of heat-trapping gases that many scientists fear will trigger more heat waves, droughts and floods and could raise global sea levels by almost a meter by 2100. And tennis balls may be an infinitesimal part of the problem. Kyoto focuses on cutting carbon...

PARIS (AP) - French lawmakers voted Wednesday to let workers stay on the job as many as 13 hours longer each week, a preliminary move that critics say will dismantle the nation's legally mandated 35-hour work week. In a first reading, the lower house of parliament voted 370-180 to approve a proposal allowing private sector employees to work up to 48 hours each week - the European Union limit. The measure now goes to the Senate for debate next month. President Jacques Chirac's conservatives, which are pushing for the changes, control both houses of parliament. Supporters say the reform would...

Insurgents in Iraq have been using more powerful makeshift bombs in the past two weeks, including a recent roadside attack that killed seven US troops in an armoured vehicle, a Pentagon military official has said. "We've noticed in the recent couple of weeks that the IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are all being built more powerfully, with more explosive effort in a smaller number of IEDs," Army Brigadier General David Rodriguez told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on Iraq. "That trend has occurred over the last two weeks," he added about the new tactic. "It is mainly in the Sunni triangle."...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) plans to give private industry a greater role in space and encourage new commercial markets, including for human space flight. In a policy statement released on Thursday, the White House said a big decline in the market for commercial launches had weakened the U.S. space-transportation industry. Major changes were needed in the government's role to ensure America's access to space and protect vital security and economic interests. "The U.S. government must capitalize on the entrepreneurial spirit of the U.S. private sector, which offers...opportunities to open new commercial markets, including public space...

Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when an American district court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing US$156 million.The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself, providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.First, it validates...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A team of U.S. Marines has arrived in this Red Sea port to assist in security at a U.S. Consulate that came under attack this week by Islamic militants, an American Embassy official said Thursday. The anti-terrorism security team arrived Wednesday, embassy spokeswoman Carol Kalin said. She provided no details, but such teams typically include 50 Marines and are expert in providing security and conducting raids in urban areas, Marine officials in the United States have said. The teams often are deployed in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. In Jiddah, they will reinforce the...

SAN FRANCISCO - Republican strategists who have been savoring the potential impact of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's involvement in several close legislative races must be puzzling over a number of his bill signings. The governor has endorsed and raised money for GOP candidates running for seats in marginal districts that are currently held by Democrats. And while no one believes that Republicans could wrest control of either the Assembly or Senate, even a switch of a few seats in either house could help boost the party's power in Sacramento. So why then did Schwarzenegger sign several bills authored by Democratic Sen....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve boosted a key short-term interest rate by one-quarter percentage point Tuesday, marking the third increase this year. It's part of a gradual process to wean the economy from extraordinarily low rates that are no longer viewed as necessary to keep the economy afloat. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his Federal Open Market Committee colleagues -- the group that sets interest-rate policy in the United States -- increased the target for the federal funds rate to 1.75 percent, from 1.50 percent. The funds rate is the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans...

Small class sizes in kindergarten through third grade are a big hit with parents and teachers alike. Some school districts need added security measures. And students don't want to give up electives such as art and music. But with the state facing an $8 billion to $10 billion budget deficit in the next year, at least half a dozen Silicon Valley school districts are asking residents to tax themselves in the November election to help their schools avoid drastic cuts that directly affect learning. The parcel tax initiatives range from $50 a parcel annually in the East Side Union High...

Japanese Leader Enjoys Boost in Support By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaped the political benefits Monday of his weekend summit in North Korea (news - web sites), enjoying a boost in ratings despite harsh criticism that he failed to win enough concessions from Pyongyang. Polls in two of Japan's top national newspapers showed substantial jumps in approval of Koizumi's Cabinet — strengthening the government less than two months before elections for the upper house of Parliament in July. The surveys also indicated strong support for the results of Koizumi's one-day summit with...