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Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Tuesday hailed House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in a rare show of bipartisan support for a congressional member on the other side of the political aisle. Blunt praised Hoyer following a Washington Post editorial about Hoyer deciding to step down from Democratic leadership in the House. “An editorial in today’s Washington Post referred to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer as a ‘beloved, admired giant on Capitol Hill.’ I couldn’t agree more,” Blunt said. “During the almost 10 years we served together as the Republican and Democratic Whips in the House, we often didn’t vote...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is greeting foreign diplomats at a White House reception, hailing a "new era of engagement in the world." Said the president: "We're doing together what none of us can achieve by ourselves." Scores of ambassadors and other foreign officials were invited to the East Room on Tuesday for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at an annual diplomatic corps reception.

President Barack Obama’s endorsement Friday night of building a mosque near Ground Zero has driven the establishment press corps to find nobility in pursuing conviction even in the face of public opposition, not something MSM journalists admired about the previous President, while suddenly becoming very concerned about protecting private property rights – all while hailing Obama’s “great global message.” “I thought the speech Friday night was a model of political courage, in the sense that he said what he believed knowing that it was going to cost him,”

Following the suggestion of his tone-deaf advance team, President Obama went from inside the White House to inside his armored car to inside the Interior Department today to celebrate the Great Outdoors. After a short drive, the Chicagoan spoke to a Great Outdoors Conference auditorium audience of about 500 including Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, a favorite urban butt of late-night comedians.

Ramallah - The Palestinian Authority on Saturday hailed the rare US condemnation of Israel over the Jewish state's plan to build more settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem. The PA "welcomes the statements from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Quartet condemning the Israeli government decision to build settlements in the eastern sector of Jerusalem," chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

The dwindling number of readers of The New York Times were treated Wednesday to a column by Thomas Friedman extolling China's "one-party autocracy," which, he told us, "is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people." China's leaders, he reported, are "boosting gasoline prices" and "overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power." All, of course, in the cause of reducing carbon emissions, which so many luminaries assure us are bound to produce global warming and environmental catastrophe.

US President Barack Obama has said after meeting his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts that they are united in the goal of defeating al-Qaeda. Speaking in Washington, Mr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies. He also pledged greater resources to help civilians in both countries and try to avoid civilian casualties. Dozens of civilians are thought to have died in US air strikes on Taleban targets in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she "deeply, deeply" regretted the deaths, adding that the US would work hard to avoid...

LONDON – Concluding his first international summit, President Barack Obama hailed agreements at the emergency meeting of world powers Thursday as a "turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery." ... He spoke shortly after G-20 leaders pledged an additional $1.1 trillion in financing to the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions and declared a crackdown on tax havens and hedge funds. The leaders announced the creation of a supervisory body to flag problems in the global financial system — but did not satisfy calls from the U.S. and others for new stimulus measures.

President Obama traveled to Columbus, Ohio, on Friday to hail the swearing-in of 25 new police officers who had been told after their training that the city did not have enough money to hire them. But the good news was overshadowed by the bad as the day brought word that another 651,000 jobs were lost last month and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent. That brings the total to 2.6 million jobs lost since Obama was elected and 4.4 million since the recession began. "I don't need to tell the people of this state what statistics like this mean,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed a 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan passed by Congress as "a major milestone" and promised to sign the bill into law shortly. ... "This is a major milestone on our road to recovery, and I want to thank the members of Congress who came together in common purpose to make it happen," Obama said in his weekly radio address. The Congress late Friday approved the package of tax cuts and fresh spending to salvage the broken US economy, with the Senate voting 60-38 to pass the measure after it cleared the...

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama hailed a rare Oval Office gathering of all U.S. presidents as extraordinary on Wednesday, while President George W. Bush wished him well and pledged that the office "transcends the individual." "I just want to thank the president for hosting us," the president-elect said, flanked by former President George H.W. Bush on one side and his son on the other. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, both smiling broadly, stood with them.

California air quality chief Mary Nichols and state Energy Commissioner James Boyd have joined environmental groups in touting a new report that holds California up as a national leader in clean energy policy. They're calling on California's congressional delegation to follow the state's lead in pushing similar energy-saving initiatives as Congress is poised to vote on a federal energy bill. "The next step is for federal policy to match what states are doing," said Nichols, the California Air Resources Board chairwoman appointed by .. Schwarzenegger. The report by clean energy advocacy group Environment America lauds the Golden State for mandating...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2007 – President Bush praised contributions made by military support groups and veterans organizations at a morning gathering on the White House’s South Lawn today. “I want to thank the service organizations and those who have come together to support our families and our troops,” said Bush, who was accompanied by first lady Laura Bush and a group of senior administration officials that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Veterans Affairs Secretary R. James Nicholson, Army Secretary Pete Geren, Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright. The Veterans...

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has won ringing praise after his emotional farewell to the ruling party, including from former US president Bill Clinton, who hailed his "stunning" record. But commentators agreed Wednesday that while Blair's Labour party has managed mostly to paper over its cracks during this week's annual conference, only the coming months will decide the fate of his successor and the party's future. Clinton -- often compared to Blair as a charismatic leader of "Third Way" politics -- paid fulsome tribute to Blair's leadership when he took the stage as the star of the...

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden praised slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the "lion of holy war" in a new videotape posted on the Internet on Friday. The 19-minute message shows an old still photo of bin Laden in a split-screen next to images of al-Zarqawi taken from a previous video. A voice resembling bin Laden's narrates a tribute to the Jordanian-born militant, who was killed in a June 7 airstrike northeast of Baghdad. "Our Islamic nation was surprised to find its knight, the lion of jihad (holy war), the man of determination and will, Abu...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The killing of Abu Musab al- Zarqawi is a "new beginning" for Iraq, the interior minister said on Friday, as authorities enforced a traffic ban in an apparent effort to prevent al Qaeda reprisal attacks. The Interior Ministry said the ban in Baghdad and in the volatile town of Baquba, near where U.S. warplanes killed Zarqawi on Wednesday, would be in effect from 11 a.m. (0700 GMT) until 3 p.m., when most Iraqis go to mosques for Friday prayers. Suicide car bombers sent by Zarqawi have targeted Shi'ite mosques in the past as part of a campaign...

Pacific cult hails second coming of its wealthy US messiah By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 17/04/2006) Followers of a South Pacific cult, who worship a mythical Second World War American serviceman they hope will one day return bearing riches, believe that their prayers have been answered. For 60 years, the bizarre John Frum movement on Tanna, in the Vanuatu archipelago, has believed that the great wealth or "cargo" that the United States military brought to their island home in wartime will one day miraculously return. They worship a messiah-like figure, John (or Jon) Frum, thought to be a combination...

Hamas hails 'breakthrough' visit Mr Meshaal (left) of Hamas met Russian religious leaders Members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas have called their visit to Moscow an "important breakthrough" amid US attempts to isolate the group. One delegate, Mohammed Nazzal, said the US was trying to put Hamas under "political siege" following its victory in the Palestinian election last month. He said the group looked forward to "good relations" with Russia. The delegation has met religious and political leaders on the second day of its trip. "We consider this visit to be a very important breakthrough," Mr Nazzal told the...

NEW YORK - Republican National Convention co-stars Laura Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) commended President Bush (news - web sites) to the country Tuesday night for four more years, hailing him as a man of strength and compassion. "You can count on him, especially in a crisis," said the first lady. "He's a man of perseverance. He's a man of inner strength. He is a leader who doesn't flinch, doesn't waver, does not back down," the Austrian-born California governor said, blending high praise for the president with an appeal to recent immigrants to give the GOP a...

From the moment he - somewhat surprisingly - offered himself as California's governor nearly a year ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised that he would close the state's chronic budget deficit without new taxes or major damage to vital services by taking a realistic, tough-minded approach. "The public doesn't care about figures," he said early in his campaign. "They have heard figures for the last five years. Figures and drafts and percentages. And all kinds of things. What the people want to hear is, are you willing to make the changes? Are you tough enough to go in there and provide...