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A fight has broken out between the White House, its defenders and a conservative public watchdog group over first lady Michelle Obama's travel costs and how they are calculated. The dispute stems from a Judicial Watch release yesterday, reported by Whispers, that said the first lady's June goodwill mission to Africa cost $424,142 just for her Air Force C32A. Judicial Watch said it used Pentagon calculations to come up with the price to taxpayers, multiplying the hourly cost of $12,188 by the number of flight hours, 34.8. [Read: Michelle Obama's Africa Trip Cost More than $424,142.] The White House later...

So the debt limit debate has come to this: John McCain, who you may recall was the GOP’s 2008 standard bearer, is now openly accusing conservatives of actively misleading America with their completely unrealistic demands, which he labeled “deceiving” and “bizarro.” In a seminal moment in this debate, here’s some video of McCain on the Senate floor today, unleashing an angry tirade at conservatives who are still holding out for a balanced budget amendment as part of any compromise on the debt ceiling. McCain accused them of “deceiving” America into believing such a thing can pass the Senate:

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Sunday after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) into the air. Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way. Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines triggering frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Basin. The eruption...

SAIPAN, Northern Marianas – A volcanic eruption near the Pacific's Northern Mariana Islands shot clouds of ash and vapor nearly eight miles into the sky, federal scientists said. The eruption occurred early Saturday and appeared to come from an underwater volcano off Sarigan, a sparsely inhabited island about 100 miles north of the U.S. commonwealth's main island of Saipan. The Northern Marianas are about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii. USGS volcanologist Game McGimsey said Sunday that scientists are still trying to pinpoint the source but evidence is pointing to an underwater mountain. "People on the island (Sarigan) heard a loud...

The worry now is that the Eyjafjallajokull volcano may cause the Katla volcano to erupt. Scientists fear that a Katla eruption would be a much larger and much more dangerous eruption than Eyjafjallajokull was. The Katla volcano is sitting on a glacier that has much ice covering.

RENO, Nev. -- A fight broke out Thursday at a Reno, Nev., clinic giving shots for swine flu when someone reportedly tried to cut in line. Washoe County Health District spokeswoman Judy Davis says she didn't have any details of the incident, but it involved people in high-risk groups waiting for a chance to get the shot. A witness told the Reno Gazette-Journal that a man took a swing at a woman, then jumped on her and they fell to the ground. They left after a security guard stepped in and broke up the fight. Davis says 1,200 vaccines were...

QUITO, Ecuador - A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands has begun erupting and authorities are evaluating possible dangers to the island's famed plant and animal life, officials said Friday. Rangers and tour guides spotted lava flowing down the northeastern flank of the Cerro Azul volcano on the seahorse-shaped island of Isabela late Thursday, the Galapagos National Park said in a statement. Ecuador's Geophysics Institute said that satellite data and a flyover of the island by park officials showed a "small amount of ash" coming out of the volcano, located on the southwestern edge of the island. The...

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air on Wednesday, as officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes. Some 1,000 villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Roberto Rodriguez, director of Civil Defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force. "We've taken all of the precautions possible," President Rafael Correa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that a state of emergency already in place in the area will be extended for 60 days. Juan...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Sporadic gunfire erupted Thursday inside the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Islamic militants are holed up after refusing an ultimatum by Lebanon's defense minister to surrender or face a military onslaught. Lebanon's leader vowed to uproot the fighters. Insurgents from the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam militant group barricaded in the Palestinian refugee camp vowed not to give up and to fight any Lebanese assault. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in an address to the nation, said that his government would stamp out Fatah Islam. "We will work to root out and strike at terrorism, but we will embrace...

NEIVA, Colombia - Thousands of people were evacuated after a long-dormant volcano erupted late Tuesday and again early Wednesday, provoking avalanches and floods that swept away houses and bridges. The Nevado del Huila volcano's eruptions were its first on record since Colombia was colonized by the Spanish 500 years ago. There are about 10,000 people living in the area around the volcano, and about 3,500 had been evacuated, Luz Amanda Pulido, director of the national disaster office, told The Associated Press after flying over the volcano in southwest Colombia. There were no reports of deaths or injuries. The eruption sent...

Hundreds of Chechens forced to flee Russian town as restaurant brawl erupts into race riot · Xenophobic groups use fight to urge ethnic attacks· Minorities targeted in internet campaign Tom Parfitt in Moscow Tuesday September 5, 2006 The Guardian UK Several hundred Chechens and dark-skinned people from the Caucasus have been forced to flee a town in north-west Russia after a brawl in a restaurant prompted a race riot at the weekend. The exodus of minorities from Kondopoga in the Karelia region near the border with Finland follows events on Saturday when a mob rampaged through the town and burned...

QUITO, Ecuador - Thousands of Ecuadorean villagers have fled their homes on the slopes of the Tungurahua volcano since it began erupting lava and toxic gases, authorities said Saturday. No injuries have been reported, but some 3,700 people have abandoned their homes in half a dozen hamlets since Friday, the Civil Defense said. "There have been no victims, but all the vegetation has died and we have lost cattle," said Juan Salazar, mayor of Penipe County, which includes two villages where 300 families have been forced to evacuate. In May, the volcano, located 85 miles south of the capital of...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Rescuers dug through volcanic debris Thursday to reach two people trapped when Indonesia's most volatile volcano erupted, nearly enveloping a village with a searing gas cloud and forcing thousands of residents to flee. The eruption Wednesday came just a day after officials lowered the alert level and people returned to the homes around Mount Merapi. "The situation is ... life-threatening," said Yousana Siagian, head of the government's Vulcanology and Disaster Mitigation Center, after the alert level for Mount Merapi was raised to its highest status again and it dumped thick ash on scores of houses. On...

MORONI (AFP) - A volcano overlooking the town of Moroni in the Comoros island group off East Africa started to erupt, creating a red cloud over its crater. But there was no immediate danger, said local police, who set up a special team to keep the situation under observation. "The eruption is confined to the crater and there is no lava flow," said an officer. But he warned: "There was no tremor before the eruption, and this is a cause for concern." The volcano, called Karthala, is 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Moroni, the Comoros capital situated on Grand Comoro,...

Hamas Victory Rally Erupts Into Shootout 57 minutes ago Palestinians chant Islamic slogans, as they participate in a Hamas movement rally in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, Saturday Jan. 29, 2005. The Islamic group won an overwhelming victory in local elections in 10 Gaza towns, in a setback for the Fatah Party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The Hamas victory reflected widespread support in Gaza for the movement, which provides welfare, schools and kindergartens to the impoverished residents of the territory. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) JERUSALEM - A political rally by the militant Palestinian group Hamas turned violent Saturday, as...

Visa row erupts over trapped cavers The plight of five British military cavers and their guide trapped in a partly flooded Mexican cavern has erupted into a diplomatic controversy after the Britons apparently entered Mexico without permits or proper visas.President Vicente Fox ordered a letter of protest sent to the British government and demanded an explanation, as the Britons fumbled to explain the ill-fated expedition that left half their team trapped in the Alpazat caverns in central Puebla state. "I have instructed the Minister of Foreign Relations to take immediate action and file a note of protest, and demand a...

Debate erupts anew: Did Thera's explosion doom Minoan Crete? William J. Broad Thursday, October 23, 2003 For decades, scholars have debated whether the eruption of the Thera volcano in the Aegean more than 3,000 years ago brought about the mysterious collapse of Minoan civilization at the peak of its glory. The volcanic isle (whose remnants are known as Santorini) lay just 110 kilometers from Minoan Crete, so it seemed quite reasonable that its fury could have accounted for the fall of that celebrated people. . This idea suffered a blow in 1987 when Danish scientists studying cores from the Greenland...

Airport shuts as volcano erupts Ecuador's Reventador volcano erupted today, spewing a cloud of hot ash into the air and forcing the closure of the airport and a highway near the capital. The white ash fell like snow throughout Quito. The 11,775 feet volcano is 59 miles northeast of the capital on the eastern slope of the Andes. The eruption also threatened the Trans-Ecuadorian oil pipeline that runs close to the area. The bulk of Ecuador's oil is shipped through the pipeline from the main sites in the Amazon to the Pacific Port of Balao. "It was a very important...