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The survey found that extreme Islamist ideology has a profound influence on a significant minority of Muslims on campuses across the country. The findings will concern police chiefs, the security services and ministers, who are struggling with radicalisation among Muslim communities. The YouGov poll was conducted for the Right-wing think tank, the Centre for Social Cohesion, at 12 universities, including Imperial College and Kings College London. It also found: * 40 per cent support the introduction of sharia into British law for Muslims * a third back the notion of a worldwide Islamic caliphate (state) based on sharia law *...

Heading home from an overseas trip aimed at strengthening his foreign policy credentials, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he's not counting on an immediate political boost and thinks it's just as likely he'll experience a short-term dip in polls simply because he's been out of the country for nine days."The reason that I thought this trip was important was I am convinced that many of the issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad," Obama said, speaking outside 10 Downing Street after his private meeting with Prime Minister...

McCain Campaign on Barack Obama's Cancelled Troop VisitsContact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Va., July 26 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today, retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya issued the following statement on Barack Obama's cancelled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl:"The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next....

Today, retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya issued the following statement on Barack Obama’s cancelled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: “The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next. Several explanations were offered, none was convincing and each was at odds with the statements of American military...

At a morning press conference after a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, Barack Obama got caught up in the web of lies his campaign has spun about the cancellation of his planned visit to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Friday.Obama stated: "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule."Not true, Washington Post reported this morning: When Obama arrived in Germany on Thursday, a printed schedule said he would fly...

Seven bombs hit Ahmedabad, two killed Enlarge Photo By Rupam Jain Nair AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - At least seven small bombs exploded in Ahmedabad on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding 55, just a day after another set of blasts in the country's southern IT hub, officials said. On Friday, eight bombs exploded in quick succession in Bangalore, killing at least one person and wounding six others. Saturday's blasts were in the Ahmedabad's crowded old city dominated by its Muslim community. One was left in a metal tiffin box, used to carry food, another apparently left on a...

After meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, came before the microphones... SNIP But the Pentagon said that wasn't true, that Obama was more than welcome to come, it was just that he couldn't bring the media or campaign staff. So here's what Obama said about it all: "The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened," Obama said. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran has boosted the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges to up to 6,000, in an expansion of its nuclear drive that defies international calls for a freeze. "Today they (the West) have agreed that the existing 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges do not increase and that there is no problem if this number of centrifuges work," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state radio. Ahmadinejad said in April that Iran was working to install 6,000 more centrifuges at an underground hall in a plant at its nuclear facility in Natanz, where it already had 3,000...

Barack Obama's foreign tour loses him ground back home Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama denied yesterday that he was ignoring the concerns of ordinary Americans while he tours the world, amid signs that the adulation he is receiving abroad has alienated some US voters. After the Democratic presidential candidate holds meetings with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron in London today, the last leg of his nine-day international tour, he returns home to a general election campaign with new polls showing him in a tightening race against John McCain, the Republican candidate. Mr McCain and his surrogates have...

The Times Of London Columnist Gerald Baker reads his July 25th, 2008 column about Barack Obama, with photo montage. He Ventured Forth to Bring Light to the World (YouTube)

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

By John Poirier WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators took over two banks on Friday and sold them to Mutual of Omaha Bank, the sixth and seventh bank failures this year as financial institutions struggle with a housing bust and credit crunch. ADVERTISEMENT Two weeks after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp seized IndyMac Bancorp Inc (Other OTC:IDMC.PK - News), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it closed First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank NA of California. First National had total assets of $3.4 billion and $3 billion in deposits while First Heritage had assets of...

House Republican leaders are threatening to attempt to keep the chamber in session beyond next week if they do not get a vote on the energy package they introduced last week. In a memo circulated to the GOP caucus, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) implored his members to vote against adjournment for the August recess if the minority cannot secure a vote on offshore drilling or their “all of the above” energy plan. Since June, Democrats have used the suspension calendar to attempt to move their own energy bills, but have not been able to win enough Republican votes....

Republicans on Thursday filed a discharge petition to bring a gun bill to the House floor, putting pressure on conservative Democrats to buck their leadership on the issue. Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) filed the petition to bring to a vote a bill by Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) that would erase many of the District of Columbia’s gun laws. Sounder’s move is a follow-up to the recent Supreme Court ruling rejecting the District’s gun ban. The National Rifle Association plans to use House members’ willingness to sign the discharge petition in their scoring for this year’s election. Conservative Democrats who don't...

Iran must resolve nuclear dispute before US vote: Obama US White House hopeful Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should not wait for the new US president to be elected to resolve its dispute with the West over its nuclear programme.

Today President Bush participated in a private fundraiser for Congressional candidate Aaron Schock in Peoria, Illinois. The family of Tony Snow traveled with the President today on board Air Force One. Press Secretary Dana Perino: The President invited them to come on a trip with him if they ever wanted to and the family decided that they would like to, so they're on board. They got a tour of the plane and they're up with the President now, and they'll be coming with -- just coming along for the ride, for the event. And hopefully we'll be able to show...

She is known as a stickler for the truth, a disciplinarian and a fiercely hard worker. But, Michelle Obama insists, she is nothing special - she just grasped every opportunity that came her way. Rebecca Johnson meets the would-be First Lady More than a year before her husband was declared Democratic candidate, Michelle Obama was already hard at work on his behalf. The setting: the Chit-n-Chat coffee shop in Waukee, Iowa, population 9,213. Percentage of population that is white: 97.7. The subject: values. Hers and his. 'I married my husband,' she told the crowd, composed equally of reporters and supporters,...

Pope Benedict told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday that minority Christians in Iraq needed more protection but the Iraqi leader assured him that Christians were not being persecuted. Maliki, who met the pope for 20 minutes at the pontiff's summer residence south of Rome, invited the pontiff to visit Iraq, saying a trip there would help the process of peace and reconciliation. "We renewed our invitation for His Holiness to visit Iraq. He welcomed the invitation. And we hope that he will be making the visit as soon as he can," he told reporters in the palace after...

WASHINGTON — House Democrats failed Thursday in their efforts to force the Bush administration to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as Republicans stuck to their demands for a vote on an expansion of offshore drilling. Despite winning majority support, the measure to draw 70 million barrels of light crude oil from the reserve for sale in the commercial market did not receive the two-thirds support needed under special rules. The vote was 268 to 157, 16 short of the margin needed.Republicans held together to stall the measure, which Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican...

DEBRIS flew past passengers as air was sucked out of an ageing Melbourne-bound Qantas jumbo jet after a mid-air explosion ripped a gaping hole in its fuselage and plunged the plane into a 20,000ft emergency descent. Almost 350 mostly Australian travellers on QF30 from London heard an "almighty bang" yesterday morning and feared a mid-air collision as a rush of wind coursed through the cabin and oxygen masks fell from the ceiling of the Boeing 747-400. "There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," Melbourne...

PAGE ONE Voter Unease With Obama Lingers Despite His Lead Poll Finds Background, Experience Are Advantages for McCain WASHINGTON -- Midway through the election year, the presidential campaign looks less like a race between two candidates than a referendum on one of them -- Sen. Barack Obama.With the nominations of both parties effectively settled for more than a month, the key question in the contest isn't over any single issue being debated between the Democrats' Sen. Obama or the Republicans' Sen. John McCain. The focus has turned to the Democratic candidate himself: Can Americans get comfortable with the background...

One of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s election opponents is seeking state and federal investigations into the growing controversy surrounding his residency in Florida. Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber will hold a press conference at noon at the Broward County Governmental Center. Graber, who is running against Wexler in November, wants investigations into whether Wexler violated Florida and Maryland tax and voter registration law as well as whether he has improperly used congressional housing benefits. Wexler is Florida's only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman has admitted the only house he...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The court said the suit was premature because the EPA hadn't yet taken formal action to deny the...

If you believe as I do that the tax hikes proposed by Barack Obama and Democrats are bad for the country, then we are in good company. No less an authority than Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, a principal contributor to the creation of the euro, says that ending the Bush tax cuts — as proposed by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama — would cause "a big recession, a nosedive." In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mundell said, "the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates is to...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been rocked over the bad publicity Obama is getting over his perceived snub of wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.ABC News reports Obama staffers staged three separate briefings in just forty-five minutes on O-Force One as they flew from Berlin to Paris today.Yesterday, the Obama campaign put out two conflicting reasons for canceling the visit. One blamed the Pentagon, the other said Obama chose not to visit over concerns the stop would be seen as political.The Pentagon has responded to reporters queries saying that Obama was welcome to visit as a senator...

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked. "His face just went totally...

After more than three decades in United States prisons — a term punctuated by a brief escape and recapture — a 62-year-old Croatian independence fighter was returned to his native country on Thursday, having served his time for a 1976 hijacking and a bombing that killed a police officer. The fighter, Zvonko Busic, led a group that planted a bomb at Grand Central Terminal that later exploded, killing a city police officer, Brian J. Murray. Mr. Busic left the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., boarded a plane in Chicago and touched down in Zagreb about 2:20 p.m. on...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's advice to reporters who don't get his energy agenda: Check your hearing. Reid, D-Nev., may look like a mild-mannered man, but when he's backed into a corner, this former boxer comes out swinging. On Thursday, the object of his ire was the Fourth Estate as he lashed at reporters quizzing him over stalled Democratic energy proposals. At a "pen and pad" — a more casual, off-camera chat with reporters — Reid attacked and scolded correspondents in attendance, telling them he's "really disappointed" in how they have been writing his energy plans, which include a bill...

Are reporters in the business of reporting facts or rumor? Andrea Mitchell, for one, has no problem sending along "scuttlebutt" that if true would be deeply damaging to John McCain. Barack Obama's cancellation of plans to visit injured military members at bases in Germany has drawn considerable attention and criticism. On today's Morning Joe, Mitchell passed along a rumor that McCain used his Pentagon connections to sabotage the Obama visit. View video here.

Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, handed a two-page letter riddled with typing errors - and mysteriously titled the "None Paper" - to diplomats from the world's six leading powers in Geneva last weekend. For the first time, America had sent the State Department's third highest-ranking official, William Burns, to join the talks. Mr Jalili had been expected to give Iran's formal response to last month's offer of technical and economic help if Tehran stopped enriching uranium. Instead, he only bemused his interlocutors. "His discourse was rambling. He had a lot to say about Iranian history...

LONDON (AFP) — The United States risks starting a new Cold War by proposing to build a missile shield in central and eastern Europe, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said in comments published here Wednesday. Washington claims that the anti-missile system for Poland and the Czech Republic is aimed exclusively at countering the threat from so-called "rogue states" like Iran, but Gorbachev said those assertions could not be trusted. Instead he said the military build-up -- plus the eastward expansion of NATO into Russia's traditional sphere of influence -- was aimed at containing a resurgent Russia, where Dmitry Medvedev is...

Cuba silent on Russian bomber report: Fidel Castro 24 Jul 2008 01:30:02 GMT Source: Reuters HAVANA, July 23 (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday said Cuba does not have to explain or "ask forgiveness" about a report out of Russia this week that Russia might use its Cold War ally Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers. He did not address whether the report was true or false, and Cuban officials have made no comment. "Raul did very well keeping a dignified silence," Castro wrote, referring to his brother, President Raul Castro, in a column...

MOSUL, IRAQ: The Battle for Mosul over the past several years has worked as a microcosm for the larger Iraqi conflict, with Coalition and Iraqi forces successfully imposing its will only after Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups held large parts of the city and region for long periods. Control over the city of 1.9 million people and the surrounding Ninewa province have been lost to Coalition and government forces twice since 2003. Only a successful security operation in May has brought attacks to their lowest recorded levels since the conflict began. Operation “Lion’s Roar” in May involved 5,000 Coalition...

As Barack Obama travels abroad, Americans seem to think most members of the media are in line with his message, according to the latest FOX News poll. Nearly 7/10 Americans (67%) say they believe most in the media want Obama to win the November election - while a scant 11 percent think the media are pulling for John McCain. ... When asked to rate the objectivity of media coverage of the campaigns, Americans feel Obama gets more of a positive spin by a better than 7-to-1 margin...

The Obama campaign has issued a new statement blaming the Pentagon for Obama's controversial decision to scrap visits to U.S. troops and Rammstein Landstuhl military bases in Germany on Friday.Der Spiegel initially reported this morning that Obama had cancelled the visits without reason. Then as word spread through the political world after the story was first posted at Free Republic, Obama's campaign issued a statement saying Obama thought it would be "inappropriate" to visit the troops while on a campaign trip.After the McCain campaign issued a statement upbraiding Obama for snubbing the troops saying that it is never inappropriate to...

Today the President to made remarks on the freedom agenda at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. He also met with the National and State Future Farmers of America officers at the White House. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2871 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the 15th ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat meetings on Thursday July 24, 2008 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. She then flew to Perth Australia for a 2 day visit to that country.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, blasted the Bush administration today for conducting what Democrats described as harsh and punitive immigration raids, calling special attention to a raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa last May where nearly 400 illegal workers, mainly Guatemalans, were arrested in the largest worksite immigration raid in U.S. history. Lofgren, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's immigration panel, said at a hearing on the raid that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounded up workers at the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, and then they were "herded into a cattle arena and prodded down...

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Chicago’s gun laws have been challenged in federal court since the Supreme Court’s decision on the D.C. ban. But, City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges has told two City Council committees she’s confident Chicago’s law will stand. Georges tells Aldermen the Supreme Court’s decision on Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban shouldn’t apply to Chicago, because previous Supreme Court rulings have said Second Amendment "right to bear arms" doesn’t apply to local governments, like Cities. She says D.C. is a federal jurisdiction. And Georges is confident that, and other arguments, will prevail, at least in the lower courts. But, she...

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., had previously told Meet the Press that "the reason Obama didn't hold a hearing on NATO, I chair the committee. Every one of those committee hearings are held at full committee." But today Biden decided to take his defense of Obama one step further, writing to DeMint that there have been plenty of hearings on European Affairs, they've just been held at the "full committee level." ~snip But Biden's letter brought attention to the fact that Obama did not attend two of those three hearings -- and for the third, on March...

Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure our freedom. We are an independent bunch and -- pardon me, Senator Obama -- fiercely but not bitterly so. We are proud to have our own things to do with as we choose to, as free people of the freest nation in the history of the world. We also walk around on top of oil: yes it’s far beneath us, but it’s there. And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our independence is...

CITY PRAYER POLICY UPHELD Fredericksburg Free Lance - Star Fredericksburg Virginia http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07242008/397448 Date published: 7/24/2008 BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE Fredericksburg City Council can keep Jesus Christ out of its prayers. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the city's right to start its meetings with nonsectarian prayers. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sat on the three-judge panel hearing the case and wrote the opinion. "She didn't feel my rights were being violated, but my rights are definitely being violated," said City Councilman Hashmel Turner, who filed the case. "It removed an opportunity for me to pray...

John McCain is winning a paltry 23 percent of the Hispanic vote compared with 66 percent for Barack Obama, according to a large poll released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center. While Obama’s lead among Hispanics is not drastically ahead of where Democratic nominee John Kerry stood in the summer of 2004, McCain trails President Bush’s standing at this point four years ago. At that time, Pew found that Hispanics broke 62 percent for Kerry and 32 percent for Bush. Exit polls later found that Bush earned the support of about four in 10 Latino voters. That difference — from...

Iran has signalled it will no longer co-operate with International Atomic Energy Agency experts investigating for signs of nuclear weapons programmes, confirming that the probe - launched a year ago with great expectations - was at a dead end. Coming from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the announcement compounded international scepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers to suspend activities that can produce the fissile core of warheads. Besides demanding a stop to uranium enrichment - which can create both fuel and the nuclear missile payloads - the international...

SAN FRANCISCO — The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday called on Mayor Gavin Newsom to allow the federal agency full access to information about local inmates, saying the city should rescind its policy that prohibits ICE agents from reviewing jail logs and records. A letter sent to Newsom from ICE director Julie Myers urging more access to inmate records was the latest flare-up following accusations that a San Francisco policy to shield undocumented immigrants also caused the city to shelter felons charged with serious crimes. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff for San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey,...

House rejects bill to sell oil from reserve Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:09pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected legislation on Thursday to sell 70 million of barrels of light, sweet crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and replace it with heavy, sour crude. The bill would have required the sale of 10 percent of the emergency stockpile's holdings, or 70 million barrels, on the open market over six months. Proceeds from the sales would have been used to buy an equivalent amount of heavy crude, which is cheaper. The White House had threatened to veto...

With less than six months to go before he would be sworn in as the nation’s 44th president, Sen. Barack Obama has directed his aides to begin planning for the transition. "Barack is well aware of the complexity and the organizational challenge involved in the transition process and he has tasked s small group to begin thinking through the process,” a senior campaign adviser said. “Barack has made his expectations clear about what he wants from such a process, how he wants it to move forward, and the establishment and execution of his timeline is proceeding apace.” Last month, the...

Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House. Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The...

Russia will supply to Iran advanced anti-aircraft systems by the end of 2008 or early 2009, Reuters reported with reference to a source with Israel's Ministry of Defense. According to the source, Russia will supply advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran. The delivery of first consignment has been slated for September, but deploying and making the systems operable will take from six to 12 months...

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. “We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of...

Russia said on Thursday it opposed any artificial deadlines being issued to Iran to force it to respond to incentives from world powers on suspending its nuclear activities. But it also warned Tehran against dragging out the process. Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs. The Islamic Republic says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.