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Cuba's Communist government has declared Good Friday next week to be a public holiday following an appeal from Pope Benedict. The Pope made the request during his recent visit to the island. Good Friday is the day Catholics commemorate the death of Christ, and is a central part of Easter celebrations. It is the first time it has been recognised as a public holiday in Cuba since the 1960s, when religious holidays were abolished. President Raul Castro took the decision in light of the success of the Pope's "transcendental visit", the Cuban government said in a statement. The holiday will...

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas comptroller said Monday that the economic recovery is taking hold, producing higher than expected tax revenues and possibly resulting in a budget surplus in 2013. In a letter to the Legislature, state Comptroller Susan Combs said tax collections were on pace to produce a $1.6 billion budget surplus for the fiscal biennium ending in 2013. That means the state could earn $82.7 billion over the next two years, while the 2012-2013 budget is only $81.1 billion. That represents an 8.2 percent increase in state revenues over the 2010-2011 budget cycle.

"You've chosen to give me another four years as your governor," he told supporters from a stage at his Baton Rouge campaign headquarters less than an hour after polls closed. "We've got a lot more work to do over these next four years."

As the CWA picketing of Verizon continues it seems some of the union leadership is becoming more and more unhinged. Apparently one member of the union leadership went so far as to instruct his members, by way of publicly accessible telephone hotline, that it is now “open season” on “managers and scabs”. The thug went on to say that union members should “follow them” and “torture them, torture them with chants and noise”. (h/t Moon Bat Tracker) Th

Well, so much for that American ally. As the pro-American government continued to crumble in Yemen this week, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced yesterday that Abyan Province is now an Islamic Emirate. Yemeni anti-government protesters demonstrate in Sanaa. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s eventual fall or his replacement by a weaker leader would pose “a real problem” for US counter-terrorism work. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli) Women were told not to go outside except under necessary circumstances. Business Insider reported: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has declared Yemen’s Abyan province an “Islamic Emirate”...

BULLETIN: Dan Gainor of Business & Media Institute just broke the news about George Soros' immedate plans to reorganize central banking, globally. Gainor will be our guest on Gulag Night, this Monday 3/28, 10pm ET, 30 mins. Read the article here: "Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy." from Terresa Monroe-Hamilton’s NoisyRoom From: ihasa HotDog To our comrades at Media Matters… They are sharing their civility and love today by declaring war on Fox News. How very Stalin of them. Well, we have a request to our readers out there. As most of you know this site partners...

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has signed a decree declaring a Hamas-affiliated organization, the Palestinian Return Center in England, an illegal association in Israel. A report released by the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) on Monday explains that the Center is involved in initiating and organizing radical and violent activity against Israel in Europe, while de-legitimizing Israel's status as a nation. It was not immediately clear what ramifications the declaration will have on the ground, since the organization does not operate on Israeli territory. However, public statements by the Shin Bet are not everyday occurences, and the report could signal...

The Palestinian Authority’s rewriting of the Bible has reached a new peak or – low – with a “scientific study” claiming that Jews did not begin to claim a connection to the Western Wall (Kotel) until 500 years ago. The Western Wall, also known in pre-State times as the “Wailing Wall,” is the outer wall of the Second Temple compound and has been a symbol of the deepest connection between most of the Jewish world, both religious and secular, and Judaism for two thousand years following the destruction of the Second Temple. “Jews did not worship at the Wailing Wall...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Increasing pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that closes a $19 billion shortfall, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances on Wednesday. In the declaration, Schwarzenegger ordered three furlough days per month beginning in August for thousands of state employees to preserve the state's cash to pay the state's debt obligations and for essential services. California's budget is several weeks overdue and Schwarzenegger and top lawmakers are at impasse over how to balance the state's books.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday declared May Jewish American Heritage Month for 2010, calling it a time to honor "the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made to our nation." Obama said in a statement that the U.S. has always been both a haven and a home for Jewish Americans, including those who arrived in the country "before America's birth" and those "who sought refuge from the horrors of pogroms and the Holocaust."

WASHINGTON – Declaring "I don't quit,'" President Barack Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get jobless millions back to work and to stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering. Defiant despite stinging setbacks, he said he would fight on for ambitious overhauls of health care, energy and education. "Change has not come fast enough," Obama acknowledged Wednesday night before a politician-packed House chamber and a TV audience of millions. "As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be,...

US President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency.The White House said the president signed the proclamation concerning the 2009 H1N1 outbreak on Friday evening. It increases the ability of treatment facilities to handle a surge in H1N1 patients by easing the implementation of emergency plans. Last week US officials said swine flu activity was widespread in 46 states. More that 1,000 deaths have been linked to the virus. Health officials say the infections are already comparable to peak season flu levels. Vaccine warningUS officials said the president's declaration was similar to ones issued before hurricanes make landfall....

Obama's action allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help health care facilities enact emergency plans to deal with the pandemic. Those requirements are contained in Medicare, Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance programs, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rule.

President Obama signed a proclamation declaring the H1N1 influenza a national emergency, giving doctors and medical facilities greater leeway in responding to the flu pandemic. Obama signed the declaration late Friday, which the White House said allows medical treatment facilities to better handle a surge in flu patients by waiving federal requirements on a case-by-case basis. "The foundation of our national approach to the H1N1 flu has been preparedness at all levels -- personal, business, and government -- and this proclamation helps that effort by advancing our overall response capability," the White House said in a statement. In the proclamation,...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal emergency to address California's deficit and has ordered state offices closed three days a month to save cash. The Legislature will have 45 days to send him a plan to balance the state's budget, which ended the fiscal year with a $24.3 billion deficit. The shortfall is expected to grow by $7 billion because the Legislature did not enact several stopgap measures Tuesday. If lawmakers fail to act within the 45 days, they cannot adjourn or act on other bills until they solve the crisis.

In a presidential proclamation on the White House website, Barack Obama has lauded what he calls "the determination and dedication" of the LGBT movement by proclaiming June as "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."

LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of a tiny island in off Scotland declared its independence from the United Kingdom on Saturday, saying he wanted the territory, population one, to be a crown dependency like the Channel Islands. In a declaration on his Web site, Stuart Hill, who owns the 2.5 acre island of Forvik in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea, said he no longer recognised the authority of the government or the European Union, and cited a centuries-old royal marriage dowry deal as the basis for his claim. "Forvik owes no allegiance to any United Kingdom government, central...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's intelligence services are investigating an Islamist Web site that says it is establishing a branch of al Qaeda in Britain, BBC television reported on Tuesday. According to the report, security experts fear a posting on the site, www.alekhlaas.net, declaring "the creation of the al Qaeda organization in Britain" may be genuine. "You don't ignore this sort of thing," Pauline Neville-Jones, the former head of the British joint intelligence committee, told the program. "It may not be a threat from an existing cell... but it does represent a move in the propaganda game and the propaganda game...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has blacklisted as a "foreign terrorist organization" a Lebanese Islamist group blamed for major fighting at a refugee camp, the Associated Press has learned. The State Department is expected to announce the designation against al-Qaida-inspired Fatah al-Islam, which is suspected of having links with Syria, on Monday. The designation imposes financial and travel restrictions on the group and its members, officials said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the designation is not yet public. The officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed off on the decision to place the radical group on the...

<p>Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of Syria blasted the United States in remarks today about the conflict in Iraq, saying that his country wanted America to lose the war.</p> <p>"Syria has a national interest in the expulsion of the invaders from Iraq because the truth is that the U.S. administration has led its people to a catastrophic stage and put them in confrontation with the entire international community," Mr. Sharaa said while speaking to Parliament, praising the Iraqis' "courageous resistance."</p>

BEIJING - North Korea defiantly declared itself a nuclear power Monday at the start of the first full international arms talks since its atomic test and threatened to increase its arsenal if its demands were not met. Reiterating those demands in its opening speech, the North said the United Nations must lift the sanctions imposed on the communist nation for its Oct. 9 nuclear test. It also said the United States must remove the financial restrictions that led the North to break off the six-nation negotiations 13 months ago. The North also said it wants a reactor built for it...

NATIONAL CITY The mayor on Saturday declared this small city just a few miles from the Mexican border a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants. Mayor Nick Inzunza made the proclamation at City Hall as a few hundred supporters rallied on the sidewalk outside, said police Lt. Lanny Roark. Backers were met by a smaller group of anti-illegal immigration protesters, including members of the Minutemen civilian border patrol group, Roark said. The rallies were "loud and tumultuous" but peaceful, he said. There were no arrests. As a result of the declaration, city funds will not be used to enforce federal immigration laws....

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, marking five years since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Monday the war against terror is nothing less than "a struggle for civilization" and must be fought to the end. He said defeat would surrender the Middle East to radical dictators with nuclear weapons. "We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations," Bush said in remarks prepared for a prime-time address from the Oval Office. Two months before November elections, the president attempted to spell out in graphic terms the stakes he sees in the unpopular war in Iraq and the broader...

WASHINGTON – One of the architects of the Reagan Revolution is calling on fellow conservatives to withhold support of the Republican Party establishment – including most GOP incumbents in Congress this year. In "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause," Richard Viguerie, the man who invented the idea of using direct mail as a means of going over the heads of what he considered to be a biased establishment press, says it's time for radical action to save the Republican Party from itself. His plan includes the following actions, which would spell...

Speaking to the California Legislature, Mexican President Vicente Fox on Thursday applauded passage of a sweeping immigration reform bill by the U.S. Senate and said his country is willing to share in border control. "Mexico wants to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," Fox said in a 20-minute speech to a joint session of the state Senate and Assembly, marking his first official visit to California's Capitol in five years. "We are your partners in security against terrorism," Fox said. "We are your allies in the war on drugs and crime. We are your partners in...

LOS ANGELES - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in "Star Trek," came out as homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community. Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality. Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out. The...

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) - Concerned for the comfort and hygiene of its citizens, the Tanzanian government is warning the toiletry trade of legal action for producing or selling sub-standard toilet paper in the east African nation. The country's chief regulatory body, the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), says it will take manufacturers or distributors of toilet tissue to court if their products do not meet national requirements for softness, size or alkalinity. "It has come to our notice that there are firms manufacturing and selling sub-standard toilet paper," said Charles Ekelege, a senior TBS official, adding that sanitary concerns...

SACRAMENTO – In his strongest terms yet, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would call a special election this fall "no matter what," saying the magnitude of the changes he is seeking are almost certain to require voter approval. "We are going to call the special election no matter what. I can guarantee you that," Schwarzenegger said on KFBK-AM in Sacramento. " . . . I cannot think of a compromise that I can come up with that will make us happy because in order to change the budget one has to literally have the vote of the people. In order...

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez on Monday declared victory in a historic recall referendum on his rule, but his opponents vowed to challenge vote results they rejected as a "gigantic fraud." With 94 percent of electoral rolls counted, 58 percent of voters cast ballots against removing Chavez from office, said National Electoral Council President Francisco Carrasquero. Chavez, a populist ex-army officer who survived a coup two years ago, appeared on the balcony of his Miraflores presidential palace and led hundreds of supporters in singing the national anthem before dawn. "The Venezuelan people have spoken and the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Prisoners at a handful of facilities statewide will be triple-bunked in two-person cells under a recently declared state of emergency triggered by overcrowding in the state prison system, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The state Department of Corrections says 1,200 unexpected inmates, most of them destined for maximum-security facilities, are arriving from financially strapped counties that can't accommodate them in their jails, according to a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The emergency declaration took effect April 1 but was never made public. In it, prisoners at the low- security facilities of Avenal State Prison, Chuckawalla...