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Delegates at UN climate talks in Qatar have agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020, avoiding a major new setback. The deal, agreed by nearly 200 nations, keeps the protocol alive as the only legally binding plan for combating global warming. However, it only covers developed nations whose share of world greenhouse gas emissions is less than 15%. The US - a major polluter - has never ratified the original 1997 protocol. The agreement had been due to expire later this year.

(CNSNews.com) – Eleven years later, President Obama has quietly extended the national emergency declaration first issued by former President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. The declaration, which has to be reissued each year, invokes several war-time powers that give the president greater control of the military. Obama cited the continuing threat of a terrorist attack in justifying his decision to continue the now 11-year national emergency. “The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have...

Washington - President Obama launched a push to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class for just one year as he seeks to shift the election-year economic debate from the dismal jobs market to assertions that Republican rival Mitt Romney protects the rich. Obama, in an address from the White House, called on Congress to pass a one-year extension of tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 a year. (Snip) The Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire at the end of the year unless Congress votes to extend them. Economists worry that across-the-board tax increases, along with

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it will likely not raise interest rates until at least late 2014, much later than it had said previously, as it nurses a still-sluggish economic recovery. The Fed, after a two-day policy meeting, repeated its view that the economy faces "significant downside risks" but it offered little to suggest it was close to launching another round of bond-buying to prop up growth. It did say, however, that it would maintain a "highly accommodative" monetary policy stance. Economic conditions "are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at...

WASHINGTON – It's a good thing Sonia Sotomayor speaks Sotomayoran. After week upon week in which plenty of other people on the planet interpreted Sotomayor's past comments, the Supreme Court nominee at last got a chance to deconstruct her own words Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Fingers splayed, palms flat, hands bouncing up and then deliberately pressing down to the table, Sotomayor elaborated, clarified, expanded, retracted. She drew loopy circles on her paper; she ran rhetorical circles around her past words. "I didn't intend to suggest ..." she explained. "What I was speaking about ..." she offered. "As I...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House announced Wednesday that President George W. Bush extended for one year sanctions against Syria for what Washington says is its support for terrorism. The sanctions were imposed in May 2004, then extended in April 2006, "to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions of the government of Syria," Bush said in a statement addressed to the US Congress and made public by the White House. Those include actions "in supporting terrorism, maintaining its then-existing occupation of Lebanon, pursuing...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2007 – At least 4,000 National Guard citizen-soldiers may spend an extra four months in Iraq as part of the president’s troop increase announced yesterday. More than 4,000 troops of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division assemble in the shape of the “Red Bull” unit crest during a special formation at their farewell ceremony at Camp Shelby, Miss., March 16, 2006, before their deployment to Iraq. The unit was extended for up to 125 days Jan. 11, 2006, as part of President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq. U.S. Army photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

U.S. Army Sgt. Liam Vernon and his wife, Spc. Naomi Rodela, were reunited in Baghdad after Rodela volunteered to stay an extra year in Iraq to be with her spouse. Both soldiers work in Company B, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Talon Anderson U.S. Army Spc. Naomi Rodela Soldier extends service in Iraq to reunite with husband By U.S. Army 1st Lt. Talon Anderson Brigade Special Troops Battalion 1st Brigade Combat Team 10th Mountain Division CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, May 16, 2006 — How far would you go...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2006 – A national company's program offering free amusement park tickets to the nation's troops and their families has become so popular it will be extended another year. America Supports You corporate member Anheuser-Busch is offering free admission to its amusement parks for troops and their families. Pictured here, soldiers ride "SheiKra," a roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., during summer 2005. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Anheuser-Busch began the program, called "Here's to the Heroes," in February 2005. The company had planned to end it early this year, said...

PRETORIA, South Africa - Bolivia's leftist President-elect Evo Morales extended a conciliatory hand to the United States on Wednesday, saying he forgives past humiliations and welcomes dialogue even as he believes U.S. officials may be plotting against him. Bolivia's first elected Indian leader criticized Mexican President Vicente Fox, telling The Associated Press in an interview that Fox was hostile toward him and all indigenous peoples in the Americas, including those of Mexico. Morales said he believes claims by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the United States is plotting to overthrow Morales, but welcomes reports that U.S. officials are interested in...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2006 – A tribute program that provided free admission to Anheuser-Busch theme parks to more than 900,000 members of U.S. and coalition armed forces and their families has been extended through 2006, company officials announced. Anheuser-Busch launched "Here's to the Heroes" in February 2005 to acknowledge the service of military men and women and the sacrifices made by their families, officials said. "It is gratifying to all of us at Anheuser-Busch that so many members of our armed forces took advantage of this program and honored us with a visit," said Keith M. Kasen, chairman and president...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec.11, 2005) -- The life of Alton R. Gehringer is one of service. At home in Dolton, Mich., the 34-year-old would listen to the radio and hear the news of the war in Iraq while running radar in his police cruiser. Before coming to Iraq, he worked for the Plainwell Department of Public Safety in Michigan. Technically, he still works there in a firefighter, police and Emergency Medical Services job. His employers gave him a leave of absence to enlist in the United States Navy and serve his country. “It just didn’t seem right for me to...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 18, 2005) -- One country boy from Hilmar, Calif., ensures service members receive medical attention here, while on his third deployment since joining the Corps three years ago. Cpl. Daniel W. Phipps, ambulance driver, Battalion Aid Station, Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Force Service Support Group (FWD), works with Navy corpsmen to aid service members here. “I work with the CLB-8 BAS...[we] support all medical coverage on and off base for the unit,” he said. Like many Marines deployed here, the 21-year-old has a huge responsibility resting on his shoulders at a very young age. “I...

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Nineteen years of growing up around the capricious hurricanes of Pascagoula, Miss., kept a staff sergeant here relatively calm upon hearing the news that a surge in the Gulf of Mexico was on the way. But the reality of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath soon set in. Following the devastation and displacement of thousands of hapless victims since the Aug. 29 catastrophic event, Staff Sgt. Jamie Bosarge said she never felt more helpless trying to save her family from peril. With more than 4,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean separating the Airman from her family, Sergeant Bosarge...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A federal judge issued a third restraining order Friday that gives the U.N. oil-for-food probe another 2 1/2 weeks to work out a deal with a former investigator over the fate of thousands of documents he took with him when he quit. The order from a Washington judge, which expires June 14, again blocks Robert Parton from handing over the documents to two congressional committees that subpoenaed them after he quit the U.N.-backed Independent Inquiry Committee. Parton resigned from the probe in April, reportedly because he believed it ignored evidence critical of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan....

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblywoman Nicole Parra on Tuesday gave beleaguered Secretary of State Kevin Shelley two more days to decide whether to testify voluntarily before her audit committee about his handling of federal election funds. At the conclusion of a committee hearing late Monday night, Parra said she would seek a subpoena if Shelley had not agreed by noon Tuesday to appear before the committee's next hearing. Tuesday afternoon, she released an exchange of letters between herself and Shelley in which the secretary of state asked for more time to consult with his attorneys before responding. "As you might imagine, your...

In regard to "Court rules colleges may bar recruiters" [News, Nov. 30]: It seems that the military of this nation hasn't the right to recruit or inform on federally funded campuses, per the ruling of the third U.S. Court of Appeals. The court explained that educational institutions have a First Amendment right to keep military recruiters off their campuses to protest the Defense Department policy of excluding gays from military service. This decision relied on a 2000 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the Boy Scouts not allowing gays as scoutmasters. The last I heard, the Boy Scouts of...

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - NASA thinks its Mars rovers just might keep going and going and going. The space agency has funded another extension of their mission, for an additional six months, if they last. The latest funding came as NASA regained reliable contact with the rovers Spirit and Opportunity after a 12-day period in which Mars passed nearly behind the sun, Jet Propulsion Laboratory said The rovers, which have found evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet, landed on opposite sides of Mars in January and completed their primary, three-month missions on the surface in April. The...

<p>SACRAMENTO - With little apparent substance to support his optimism, Gov. Gray Davis said Tuesday that he believes progress has been made on the state's budget crisis and expressed hope an agreement could be reached by the end of next week.</p>