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The Palestinians are ready to yield parts of the West Bank to Israel, if compensated with an equal amount of Israeli territory, the lead Palestinian negotiator said Wednesday, spelling out his positions in an interview with The Associated Press. Ahmed Qureia, a 71-year-old former prime minister, said saying the US-hosted Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, tentatively set for November 26, is a "very, very, very important opportunity." If it fails, he said, Israelis and Palestinians will perhaps suffer more than in the blood-soaked years following the unsuccessful Camp David summit in 2000. Israelis and Palestinians are slowly rebuilding trust,...

UNITED NATIONS - The science is clear and the time short, but the political will is lacking to confront global warming, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday. Ban Ki-moon said he hoped next Monday's "climate summit" here will help galvanize leaders to take action "before it is too late." Asked at a news conference about President Bush's planned separate meeting to discuss global-warming measures among a handful of countries later next week, the U.N. chief said Bush assured him it would be coordinated with the established U.N. process of negotiating climate treaty commitments among all nations. The Bush administration rejects treaty...

The Muslim Council of Britain has published an "information and guidance" document called Towards Greater Understanding -- Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools. As (Diana West) explains, "at the crux of the Muslim council's document is a call for special treatment of Britain's Muslim students that is so special as to reorient the entire British system according to Islamic law." Here are a few highlights: Muslim children shall be allotted prayer rooms, perhaps segregated by sex. Special arrangements shall be instituted so that Muslim students can wash themselves on a moments notice if their "state of purification"...

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations chief Kofi Annan demanded on Tuesday that the world body's human rights watchdog, meeting in special session on Sudan's Darfur, send a clear message that the "nightmare" of violence there had to stop. "The people in Darfur cannot afford to wait another day. The violence must stop. The killings and other gross violations of human rights must end," Annan said in a statement to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The Council, launched last June in a plan to make the U.N. more effective, must decide on what kind of mission of inquiry to send to...

Where are secret jails, the EU demands By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 08/09/2006) European politicians yesterday called on Washington to reveal the sites of the CIA's secret prisons after President George W Bush's admission that terrorist prisoners had been held in clandestine foreign jails. As Mr Bush hit the road to sell Wednesday's revelation of the "black sites" to the American public as a victory for his anti-terrorist policies, European politicians stepped up the pressure for further details. "The location of these prison camps must be made public," said Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler, a member of the European Parliament's committee investigating...

A congressional panel is calling for an investigation and hearing into reports that applicants for green cards, work visas and other immigration documents were not properly screened against the U.S. terrorist watch list. Employees at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., said they did not know that a simple key stroke would have allowed them to fully check the background of applicants against the terrorist database, according to the report first published by the Daily Bulletin this past week. That report was based on federal documents obtained by the newspaper and interviews with employees at the Missouri center....

WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country. Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected." "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi. The disclosure, reported in USA Today, could complicate Bush's bid...

VISTA, Calif. -- Deputies and police officers from all over San Diego County were sent to Vista on Monday night to disperse an unruly crowd at an immigration rally. The demonstration began peacefully as one of the many "Day Without Immigrants" demonstrations that took place around the county. But at about 8 p.m., some of the 800 to 1,200 protesters began throwing rocks and bottles at deputies, sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust said. Between 150 and 200 officers from police departments in Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, El Cajon, Escondido, La Mesa, National City, Oceanside and the California Highway Patrol formed riot...

NEW YORK — A civil liberties group accused police yesterday of lying about the circumstances surrounding the arrests of hundreds of protesters during the Republican National Convention. In a letter to police and prosecutors, the New York Civil Liberties Union demanded a review of cases brought against protesters arrested on Aug. 31, 2004, at demonstrations near the World Trade Center site and Union Square. “We are concerned that false police statements may have tainted hundreds of cases of people arrested at the two largest mass arrests during the convention,” wrote the group’s attorney, Christopher Dunn. City law officials have said...

Iran demands nuclear compensation Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists Iran has a right to run nuclear research Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the West should compensate Iran for its past suspension of nuclear research as a way of building trust. It comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is holding talks in Vienna that could pave the way to UN Security Council action against Iran. A foreign ministry spokesman said Iran was ready to compromise - but only if allowed to run some nuclear research. But the IAEA - and the US - say only a full suspension is acceptable. Western...

On Wednesday December 14 an event occurred which does not leave much space for doubts that the “gas blackmail” exercised by Russia has got nothing to do with the gas itself. The “Gasprom” stand with regard to the price of gas had undergone a miraculous change. The price that the Russian monopolist is demanding for its product has gone up from $160 per 1000 cubic meters to $230. This means that a fair price is absolutely out of the question if to consider the Russian motivation in this matter. Simply because prices for such a commodity never undergo rapid changes,...

So, any of you catch the hilarious op-ed in the NY Times today? The one where the author, upon hearing that Oprah has re-ignited her book club to include living authors again, basically begs to be on the show? Sounded familiar. Sadly familiar. This is me: "Please, Oprah! Pleeeeezzzzeee!" Yup. I've written to Oprah a few times. ... I've told her about following my heart to success. About putting my brother through school so he could follow his heart, too. About the sales of the book. The movie deal with Jlo and Laura Ziskin. The TV deal at Lifetime. About...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea demanded Tuesday that the United States give it a light water nuclear reactor before it rejoins the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ends its weapons program. The North's Foreign Ministry made the demand a day after it agreed at six-nation talks in Beijing to give up its arms efforts, rejoin the treaty, and accept inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. "We will return to the NPT and sign the safeguards agreement with the IAEA and comply with it immediately upon the U.S. provision of LWRs, a basis of confidence-building to us," the ministry...

Howard Dean has decried Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a right winger. John Kerry is demanding that the White House release Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ records in total. And Teddy Kennedy, well, Teddy continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth. If it were possible to hear “eyes roll” the sound would have thundered across the country with each one of these statements. Whether it is their manipulation of our nation’s sitcom attention span or the elite media’s bent agenda is irrelevant. The Democratic “sideshow barkers” are getting away with it. Recently, at one of his many anger-fests...

Brazil. The haughty touchy nation that lectures all other nations about the importance of not interfering in other nations' "internal affairs." Brazil sets the pace by ignoring and abetting the depredations of the Hugo Chavez regime of Venezuela right on their border and the savagery of The Monster At Their Door, none other than fidel castro a short yacht ride away. These two evil dictatorial scumbags have gotten a free pass from Brazil to violate as many human rights as they can manage, in castro's case, for more than 40 years. Not one peep out of Brazil. Total indifference. But...

Democrats said yesterday they will demand that the Bush administration hand over internal legal memorandums written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he was a government lawyer -- something the White House has refused to do in the past. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he broached the topic during a meeting yesterday with Judge Roberts, who replied that any decision about his writings as deputy solicitor general would be made by the White House. Republicans on Capitol Hill said the request is not likely to be granted. Demands for those same documents -- deemed...

"Estradification": In the spirit of confirmation battles spawning a new lexicon (e.g., "Borking") the Washington Times reports today [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050721-115711-9900r.htm] on what some Republicans are calling "Estradification"--requiring the Justice Department to turn over internal legal memoranda written by Roberts while he worked in the SG's office. The refusal by the White House to surrender these sorts of documents was the basis for the Estrada filibuster (hence the name) as well as the current Bolton stalemate. Regardless of the merits of the request, it seems highly unlikely that the White House will surrender these documents. The tone of the article suggests that...

Before President George W. Bush could grasp his next breath following his announcement of Justice John G. Roberts for the U.S. Supreme Court, Democrat Senators Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy stumbled to the minority party reaction podium for a quick precursor to the upcoming litmus test they have planned for the new nominee. They don’t even attempt to deny it anymore. “All questions are legitimate,” New York Democrat and Judiciary Committee member Charles E. Schumer said earlier this month. “What is your view on Roe vs. Wade? What is your view on gay marriage?” Schumer took great pains to be...

Demands Mount for Clintons to Acknowledge Intimidation, Rape 39 minutes ago (PRWEB) - New York, NY (PRWEB) June 3, 2005 -- Bill Clinton rose to the White House as a self-professed supporter of women"s rights, and his wife Senator Hillary Clinton promises to deliver a similar message in her campaign to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But the Clintons" commitment to women"s rights have been called into question by a shocking new book garnering worldwide attention that documents a pattern of disturbing attacks -- including rape -- against women. "It"s time for Bill and Hillary Clinton to both acknowledge and...

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr came out of hiding Monday for the first time since his fighters clashed with American forces in August, delivering a fiery speech demanding that coalition forces leave Iraq and that Saddam Hussein be punished. Al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose militia battled U.S. forces in Baghdad and Najaf last year, held a press conference in his father's home in this holy Shiite Muslim city, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Al-Sadr criticized the American-led occupation and called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. He also demanded punishment for Saddam, who...