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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged increased support for Mexico in the fight against drug gangs. In Mexico as part of a high-level US delegation, she said more would be done to cut US demand for drugs and the flow of profits and guns into Mexico. The gangs "are fighting against both of our governments", she said, adding that a broader effort would aim to tackle social problems fuelling the trade. Discussions during the one-day visit are focusing on the Merida initiative, a $1.6bn US programme of aid aimed at fighting drug cartels. Mrs Clinton said: "This new...

<p>WILLIAMSBURG - State Sen. John H. Chichester told a receptive audience yesterday that Virginia must raise taxes as an investment in making the state's future "worthy of its past."</p> <p>Chichester, a Stafford County Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, received a standing ovation at the College of William and Mary after defending his budget proposal, which calls for tax increases of about $2.6 billion over two years.</p>

<p>At the midpoint of his four-year term, Gov. Mark R. Warner faces a 60-day legislative session that will likely determine the stamp he'll leave in state annals.</p> <p>The Democratic governor is pressing the largest tax increase in Virginia history.</p> <p>It would be no mean accomplishment for Warner to get tax-averse Republicans in the General Assembly to back his plan for balancing a state budget that's short more than $1 billion.</p>

<p>Gov. Mark R. Warner said he was forced to break his no-tax-increase pledge because he had been misinformed about the gravity of the state's budget mess during his candidacy.</p> <p>In effect, Warner said in an interview yesterday, he eventually chose to make good on the tax-overhaul pledge he made as a candidate in 2001 instead of the no-tax-increase vow.</p>

Republicans pushed a tardy $373 billion spending package through the House on Monday despite conservative objections that the measure had too many hometown projects and Democratic complaints that it would hurt workers. The 242-176 vote left the bill in the hands of the Senate, where its fate seemed uncertain. The GOP's narrow majority there may not be enough to overcome efforts by Democrats -- and perhaps some Republicans -- to try killing the measure when the Senate votes on it later this month or in January. The vast bill would finance most of the government's domestic programs, including 11 Cabinet-level...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing coalition has agreed to propose a new tax on individuals' profits from stock, real estate and investment fund holdings as it struggles to plug a hole in the budget and keep down the country's deficit, a senior aide to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Monday. The capital gains tax will be imposed at a rate of 15 percent, Olaf Scholz, the general secretary of Schroeder's Social Democrats, told ARD television. Under current rules, investors are exempt from tax on gains if their shares are held for at least a year. ``We have found a very moderate...