JERUSALEM - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants is possible this week.  Her comments came in Jerusalem, where Israeli officials said they had suspended air strikes in Lebanon for 48 hours, after more than 50 Lebanese civilians were killed in one such strike, Sunday.   
Wrapping up more than […]

Christians in Nigeria plan a 50 million people march
By By Paul Okwuobi – Corresponding Assistant to Dr. Herbert Eze
Special for ASSIST News ServiceLAGOS, NIGERIA (ANS) – December 26, is known as boxing day all over the world. But that date may no longer be known by Christians in Nigeria as boxing day, rather it will […]

International Action Called for in Support of Darfur
Millions Worldwide Asked to Mobilize and Help to End Genocide
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News ServiceWASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) – Thousands of Christians around the world are being called to observe the Global Day for Darfur on Sept. 17, 2006 and to participate in weeklong events leading up to […]

WHITE HOUSE - President Bush says America mourns the loss of life in the Lebanese village of Qana. The president says his goal is a sustained peace in the region.
President Bush says America sends its sympathies to the victims of the Qana bombing and all those who have suffered throughout this latest crisis in the […]

Bush, Blair urge U.N. resolution to end Middle East crisis
By Kim Last
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON – President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced support Friday for a United Nations resolution calling a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon, as well as the creation of a multinational force to stabilize southern Lebanon.
The president and prime […]

DENVER - The U.S. military is moving its airspace surveillance headquarters out of a Cold War-era bunker complex built inside a mountain in the western U.S. state of Colorado.
The North American Air Defense Command, known as NORAD, will move day-to-day operations to a typical office building on a nearby Air Force base.
Officials Friday said threats […]

JERUSALEM - Scheduled talks between Lebanese officials and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were canceled on Sunday following an Israeli air strike that killed at least 50 Lebanese civilians.  Israeli officials say they are in no rush to reach a cease-fire in Lebanon.
U.S. led diplomatic efforts to bring an end to more than two […]

ISLAMABAD - The NATO alliance faces a huge test in a bid to secure southern Afghanistan as it takes over security operations there. Violence, illegal drug production and political corruption are exploding throughout the region and experts warn Afghanistan’s march toward democracy could go fatally off track.NATO will take over military operations in six key […]

TOKYO - Japan is celebrating the return home of troops after two-and-a-half years in Iraq without a single casualty. The controversial mission was seen as a test of Japan’s long policy of pacifism.Japanese leaders gathered Saturday to formally welcome home the country’s first troops deployed to a combat zone since World War II.
Prime Minister Junichiro […]

TYRE - As Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon continues for a third week, the death toll on both sides of the border is climbing. There has been intense fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli troops, and Israeli airstrikes have continued to flatten the towns and villages of southern Lebanon. Israel has never claimed to be fighting […]

WASHINGTON - The top U.S. general in Iraq had hoped to be able to recommend what he called a “fairly significant” reduction in U.S. troops in the country this year. Instead, on Thursday Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the general’s request for 3,500 more troops. And that follows the general’s decision to call in a […]

Families applaud ‘Adam Walsh’ child protection law
By A.N. Hernández
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON – More than 100 relatives and friends of missing, exploited or murdered children gathered at the White House Thursday to watch President Bush sign the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
The law was named after Adam Walsh, 6, who was abducted from […]

Bush signs Voting Rights Act extension
By Nicholas Beadle
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON – President Bush promised a crowd of civil rights leaders Thursday that he would steadfastly enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as he signed a 25-year extension of the landmark legislation that enfranchised millions of minority voters.
But some black lawmakers said they were […]

WASHINGTON - The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) calls the passage of “The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006,” the toughest and most important piece of legislation in the past 25 years in helping to save children’s lives. This legislation (H.R. 4472) creates a national sex offender database and […]

WASHINGTON - Clarence Thomas Gartman, 35, and his brother-in-law, former Houston police officer Brent Alan McDowell, 37, were sentenced today in Dallas, announced Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher for the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper for the Northern District of Texas. The Honorable U.S. Senior District Judge Barefoot Sanders sentenced Gartman […]

MOBILE - Lawanda T. Williams, also known as Lawanda Johnson, was indicted today by a grand jury on federal FEMA fraud charges, U.S. Attorney Deborah J. Rhodes of the Southern District of Alabama announced today.
Williams, 32, of Jackson, Ala., was charged in a 66-count federal indictment with making false claims to the government, mail fraud, […]

BEIJING - China has reported progress in its fight against counterfeit and shoddy consumer products.  Officials, however, reject complaints that China is the world’s leading producer of counterfeit goods.  
Government inspectors say they have destroyed 3,500 tons of illegally imported meat products and captured nearly $240 million worth of counterfeit or shoddy goods so far this […]

MOSCOW - The head of Russia’s state arms trading agency says Russia has signed contracts to sell Venezuela 24 jet fighter planes and 53 military helicopters.
Details of the deal were not immediately clear. But the head of Russia’s arms export agency said the two countries have signed contracts for Venezuelan purchase of some $3 billion […]

WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials appeared before a Senate panel Thursday to outline efforts to prevent terrorists from smuggling nuclear weapons or material for such devices into the United States.
At a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, quoted statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency saying that 662 confirmed cases of […]

WASHINGTON - A key al-Qaida leader has called for revenge against Israel’s offensives in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. President Bush says he is not surprised. 
Al-Qaida’s second-in-command says the terrorist group will not remain silent while Israeli attacks “burn our brothers.”
In a taped message broadcast by the al-Jazerra television network, Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Muslims […]

Bush names former Minnesotan as new Peace Corps leader
Nominee was president of RBC Dain Rauscher
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service 
 
GREAT FALLS, MONTANA / WASHINGTON, D.C. (ANS) – President Bush on Tuesday nominated longtime Minnesotan and former RBC Dain Rauscher executive Ron Tschetter to serve as director of the Peace Corps. He would replace Gaddi […]

Unmanned Aircraft Give Military Added Capability
By Steven Donald Smith
American Forces Press Service
 

WASHINGTON – The instant feedback of information supplied by unmanned aerial vehicles is bringing immediate “value added” to U.S. military operations, the Joint Staff’s director for strategic plans and policy explained yesterday.”UAVs have become such an important tool for our decision makers — operational […]

MEXICO CITY - Corruption has been a problem in Latin America since colonial times. Citizens have been largely tolerant of petty corruption, such as small bribes to bureaucrats and police over minor disputes or offenses, but the stakes have been raised greatly in recent decades by the billions of dollars generated in the illicit drug […]

JERUSALEM - Israel stepped up air strikes and artillery fire against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon Thursday, one day after suffering heavy casualties in an ongoing battle for a strategic town in southern Lebanon. Israel’s security-cabinet is meeting Thursday and is expected to approve expanding Israel’s air offensive and ground attacks in Lebanon.  
Israeli warplanes struck targets […]

CAPITOL HILL - The Bush administration has endorsed legislation to change U.S. law to accommodate a controversial anti-terrorism surveillance program that some critics have called illegal.  A Senate hearing focused on the issue.
The wiretapping program allows for warrant-less eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails between people in the United States and suspected terrorists overseas. 
Critics […]