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Dozens of people were wounded on Wednesday evening, including a baby girl, when a rocket fired from Gaza hit the Hutzot Shopping Center in Ashkelon. The rocket hit the top floor of the building. Several people were reportedly trapped in the rubble. The attack came as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush concluded their meeting in Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- The United States said Tuesday that reaching a Mideast peace agreement within the next eight months "might be improbable but it's not impossible," cautioning that no major breakthroughs are expected when President Bush arrives in Israel on Wednesday. Bush will attend ceremonies in Jerusalem marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state. He also will go to Saudi Arabia where he promises to press King Abdullah to increase oil production to ease soaring costs on consumers. Bush made a similar plea in January but it was ignored. The president's final stop will be...

WILLIAMS, Calif. (AP) -- Dipping its left wing, a canary-yellow biplane makes a sharp turn and dives over a flooded field, showering rice on the shallow water 15 feet below. It's aerial seeding season for rice farmers in California, which produces about 20 percent of the crop grown in the U.S. With the price of rice surging internationally, much of the medium-grain rice being planted between the Sutter Butte mountains and California's Coastal Range has already being sold, even though harvest still is months away. "It's nuts," said Pat Daddow, head of the California Rice Exchange, a platform where processors...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing increasingly desperate to see an Israeli-Palestinian Arab agreement signed before her president leaves office at the end of the year, reportedly used less than diplomatic language speaking to a reporter last Monday. Both sides “need to draw a map [showing their agreed-upon borders of Israel and “Palestine”] and get it done,” she said tersely, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post Friday.

Condi Rides Again   By P. David HornikFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, May 07, 2008 Here in Israel this week for her 16th visit in three years, Secretary of State Rice again attended to urgent business for the United States such as: has Israel been taking down checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank that have been a crucial element in its success in stopping suicide bombings for the last couple of years? Do Palestinians have comfort and freedom of movement? With Defense Minister Ehud Barak, backed by the entire Israeli defense establishment, insisting on the indispensability of the checkpoints, Americans will...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. will continue monitoring Israeli compliance with an April pledge to ease restrictions on Palestinian travel throughout the West Bank — a promise that Miss Rice indicated the Israelis had yet to fulfill. Miss Rice made her remarks to reporters on her plane while returning to Washington yesterday from a brief trip to Israel and the West Bank. "We really have to look more at qualitatively what is the effect," Miss Rice said. "That means that our monitors get out among the communities, talk to people who are trying to get agricultural products...

Condoleezza Rice urged Israel and the Palestinians to agree on borders as soon as possible. The U.S. secretary of state spoke Thursday on her way to London, where she was attending a meeting of the Quartet, the grouping of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, which guides the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. She said Israel's West Bank settlements were unhelpful to the process but said the clearest way out was to determine the borders of a Palestinian state – implicitly reaffirming President Bush's 2004 recognition of some settlements as remaining Israel's in a final-status deal. "Ultimately,...

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej piqued global interest this week when he suggested the formation of a rice cartel with other producers, a government spokesman said. Rice prices have tripled this year, reaching $1,000 a ton for 100 percent Grade B white rice. The idea came as his deputy and commerce minister proposed a rice producer summit that would include Thailand, Vietnam, India and China. Only India has so far voiced support; it is second to Thailand as the world's largest rice producer.The notion of a rice cartel comes amid skyrocketing food prices that have been...

WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Nobel Prize-winning symbol of hope for leading the fight against apartheid, is reported still on U.S. terrorist watch lists. His inclusion means Mandela must have special permission to enter the United States, USA Today said Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls it "embarrassing" and some members of Congress vow to fix it, hopefully by Mandela's 90th birthday on July 18. The same entry requirements apply to other members of South Africa's governing African National Congress, the once-banned anti-apartheid organization. In the 1970s and '80s the ANC was officially branded...

Rice: Hamas Serving as Iran's 'Proxy Warriors' April 30, 2008 AFP Palestinian Hamas militants are serving as the "proxy warriors" for an Iran bent on destroying Israel and destabilizing the Middle East, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here. In a speech Tuesday to the American Jewish Committee in Washington that underscored growing US concerns about Tehran, Rice mentioned Iran as not just a threat in the Palestinian territories, but also in Lebanon, Iraq and even in Afghanistan. Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said after talks with Rice on Monday that an Iran-led radical front in the Middle...

President Bush held a Press conference at the Rose Garden this morning President Bush met this afternoon with Ambassador Eide, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Afghanistan in the Oval Office Transcript President Bush discussed National Volunteer work in the East Room Secretary of State had a meeting in the trophy room of the State Department > Enoy your visit to Sanity Island

HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) - Vietnam banned rice speculation after a surge in buying over the weekend in southern Vietnam but said it had sufficient stocks for domestic consumption and exports. The ban is the latest sign of growing unease over food supplies around Asia, where some governments have been spooked by the possibility of a shortfall in staple rice and a three-fold price increase caused by export curbs by key suppliers including Vietnam, the world's number-two exporter. On Saturday, people rushed to supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest urban area, to buy the staple food as...

Reports about shortages of rice in the United States probably apply only to several imported varieties, and definitely not to the domestic supply of the popular grain. “Are we running out of rice? The answer is no,” said Dr. Mark Welch, Texas AgriLife Extension Service agricultural economist. This week’s news that two large box retailers in the United States were limiting customer purchases of rice was shocking in a nation where food shortages are rare. Retailers Sam’s Club and Costco reportedly limited bulk sales of some varieties of rice – all of which are imported from other countries – in...

War On Terror: Caving to Muslim pressure groups, the Bush administration has banned the term "jihadist" to define the enemy. Islamic terrorists will now be known as "violent extremists." Our war on radical Islam has been hamstrung by political correctness from the start. First, we couldn't call the campaign to strike back at al-Qaida a "crusade" because Muslims found it historically offensive. Then we couldn't define the enemy as "Islamic terrorists" because it insulted Islam — even though it accurately described the Muslims committing murder and mayhem in the name of Islam. To appease critics, we narrowed the terminology, confining...

MEDIA ADVISORY, April 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- The trial of Scooter Libbey proved one thing: Bush and Cheney were right -- along with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, John Kerry, and every other Democrat and responsible world leader. Saddam Hussein WAS indeed actively working to develop and build a nuclear bomb, and posed a threat of a nuclear holocaust against American famlies. An internal memo from the U.S. State Department was declassified at the insistence of Scooter Libbey's defense attorneys (against Foggy Bottom's wishes). The memo has been posted by the ASSOCIATED PRESS at -- http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan23/DX71.pdf And the memo is fully...

Despite bumper crops in Vietnam and India, export limits and bans have created a global shortage and driven up prices. At the Costco in San Francisco, rice is all the rage. Not long after the 10 a.m. opening on Apr. 24, the warehouse club was well on its way to selling out the day's supply of Thai jasmine rice. Within an hour, customers cleared three pallets loaded with 50-lb. bags of Super Lucky Elephant brand jasmine rice from Thailand. Real estate broker Mary Jane Galviso snapped up two bags—the limit imposed by this particular store. "This is very frightening," says...

World consumption of rice continues to rise and outpace production. The trend will continue in 2008, bringing with it a host of factors that will impact U.S. rice producers. Speaking at the recent Mid-South Farm and Gin Show in Memphis, Tenn., Carl Brothers, senior vice president of Riceland Foods, outlined the current status of the U.S. rice industry and gave a summary of key issues on the horizon. Global ending stocks finished in December 2007 at 72 million tons, an all-time low in supply/use comparison. “If we look at these low stock numbers and the demand we’re seeing around the...

Wal-Mart bans bulk sales of rice By Our Foreign Staff Last Updated: 2:42am BST 24/04/2008 The American supermarket chain Wal-Mart yesterday banned bulk sales of rice at its cash-and-carry businesses, as the global food shortage and soaring price of food began to make an impact in the largest consumer nation. The company's bulk supply division, Sam's Club, announced that it would sell a maximum of four bags of rice to each customer, after Costco, a rival chain, said it would place caps on some rice and flour sales in California. The limits were imposed after some customers, apparently alarmed by...

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sam's Club warehouse division said on Wednesday it is limiting sales of several types of rice, the latest sign that fears of a rice shortage are rippling around the world. Sam's Club, the No. 2 U.S. warehouse club operator, is limiting sales of the 20-pound (9 kg), bulk bags of rice to four bags per customer per visit, and is working with suppliers to ensure the products remain in stock.

Rice shortage threatens Asia By HARI SUD April 22, 2008A child plants rice in south Luzon, Philippines. The country is one of many in Asia that fears a rice shortage if current trends continue. (UPI/SNP Photo/Junichi Fukushima) TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, Three billion people in Asia are the rice guzzlers of the world and they are facing a supply shortage. Production at about 420 million tons a year has been static for the past four years. In this period about 100 million additional mouths have been added, which are putting a dent in the supply-demand chain. Prices of rice have shot...

“A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official.” -- Robert Spencer Without intelligent use of the word "Jihad," a word both accurate and useful (these qualities do not always coincide), a word that demands to be explained, and in that explanation -- the same kind of explanation that the word "dhimmi" calls for, Infidels will be forced to learn certain home truths about the meaning, and menace, of Islam. By banning use of the word...

GLENN: From Radio City in Midtown Manhattan, hello, you sick twisted freak. Welcome to the program. Third most listened to show in all of America. My name is Glenn Beck. Here's the headline. "Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World." It's from the New York Sun today. Mountain View, California is the dateline. Many parts of America long considered to be the breadbasket of the world are now confronted phenomenon food rationing. Major retailers in New York and areas of New England and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply....

NEW YORK — The Sam's Club warehouse division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Wednesday it is limiting sales of Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rices "due to recent supply and demand trends." The news came just a day after Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse club operator, said it had seen increased demand for items like rice and flour as customers, worried about global food shortages, stock up. Sam's Club said it is limiting sales of the rices to four bags per customer per visit, and it is working with suppliers to ensure the products remain in stock....

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Since January, the price of rice has jumped more than 100 percent around the world, and this means Bay Area stores are now changing policies for their customers. A 20 pound bag of basmati rice at Costco sold for $8.99 just two months ago. Today it’s nearly doubled at $15.99. A spokesman for Costco Mountain View says some customers are hoarding rice by buying a membership, and then trying to buy 30 or 40 bags of the grain. This has lead store officials to put limits on the amount of rice one person can buy, based...

KUWAIT CITY (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday the Bush administration explicitly warned former President Jimmy Carter against meeting with members of Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip and which is regarded by the U.S. as a terror group. Rice, attending a regional meeting on Iraq's security and future, contradicted Carter's assertions that he never got a clear signal from the State Department. Rice told reporters that the U.S. thought the visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas. "I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice...

KUWAIT CITY — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration explicitly warned former President Carter against meeting with members of Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip and which is regarded by the U.S. as a terror group.

The global food crisis is a monetary phenomenon, an unintended consequence of America's attempt to inflate its way out of a market failure. There are long-term reasons for food prices to rise, but the unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from the weakness of the American dollar. Washington's economic misery now threatens to become a geopolitical catastrophe. Months ago, I offered that China, Russia and other cash-rich nations held the antidote to the incipient credit crisis: "If the US wants to remain the magnet for world capital flows it became during the 1990s, it will have...

BAGHDAD - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the Iraqi government Sunday for government-led assaults on radical militias, as the top U.S. diplomat made a surprise visit to Baghdad in a show of support for the country's leaders. Rice's brief heavily guarded stop was not announced in advance, in keeping with security precautions adopted by all top U.S. officials who remain targets of the anti-American insurgents five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein.Rice met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his Kurdish president and other top officials. She was also honoring Americans killed...

DENILIQUIN, Australia: Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped." The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to satisfy the daily needs of 20 million people. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December. Ten thousand miles separate the mill's...

Condi Tips Her Hand by Emanuel A. Winston Holding back military resupply is an old trick. Fortunately, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Department of State team have gone a bit too far and exposed their hand. 'Coincidentally,' just after Rice’s team left, it was revealed that America will hold back military resupply to Israel 'until Israel needs it.' This would ostensibly save Israel billions of dollars in storage costs for equipment and weapons 'it may never use.' Holding back military resupply is an old State Department tactic, used best by Henry Kissinger in the 1973 Yom Kippur War,...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had advised former President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria next week, saying it went against U.S. policy of isolating the militant group. Carter plans to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during a nine-day trip due to start on Sunday but gave no details of specific meetings. "This is a study mission and our purpose is not to negotiate but to support and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East," the Carter Center said in...

The only true ethnic Macedonians are Greeks. Slavs who speak a Bulgarian dialect where told by the Communists that they were the ethnic kin of ancient Macednionans in the Cold War attempt to steal Greek land and create a warm water port for Stalin. I don't how the USA can justify once being against the creation of these fake Slavs called 'Macedonians' and now the USA supports them. That is why America is hated - she is not hated for her freedoms but for her tendency to be a 'two-faced' nation in diplomacy. To say one thing and do another....

...Condoleezza Rice described herself as "mildly pro-choice." ...(T)here is nothing "mild" about having your arms and legs ripped off your body in that "choice" we call abortion. ...Washington Times correspondent Bill Sammon pressed Rice, "But it sounds like you do not wish to change the laws that now allow (abortion). ..." Rice responded, "Well, I don't spend my entire life thinking about these issues. … What I do think is that we should not have the federal government in a position where it is forcing its views on one side or the other." ...Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, summarized...

Shocking results from a WNBC/Marist Poll of New York voters out today - John McCain would defeat Barack Obama in a General Election matchup, and he only trails New York Senator Hillary Clinton by 2 points! Here are the numbers: 48% John McCain 46% Barack Obama 48% Hillary Clinton 46% John McCain There's more! In a total "kick-in-the-teeth" to the Dems notion of Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama being a "dream" ticket, it appears a John McCain/Condi Rice ticket would be even "dreamier," at least in New York! A McCain/Rice Ticket would defeat either an Obama/Clinton or a Clinton/Obama ticket in New...

More 34% 6236 Less 66% 11967 Total Votes: 18203

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says repeatedly she does not "do politics" but her name keeps popping up as a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate. Rice's spokesman tried yet again on Monday to quash reports that Rice wants the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket but blogs and political Web sites are still buzzing. "I don't know how many ways she can say no," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack of reports that Rice is actively campaigning to join the Arizona senator's ticket. "She has got to finish up her...

Today President Bush signed H.R. 1593, the Second Chance Act of 2007. He met with Senior Minister Goh of Singapore at the WH. He and first lady Laura Bush participated in a commemorative tree planting ceremony on the North Lawn of the White House. Members of President Bush's Cabinet took part in a news conference regarding the president's proposal for a free trade agreement with Colombia in the White House briefing room in Washington. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee hearing on fiscal 2009 State...

Published: 04.09.08, 23:20 / Israel News US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to travel to the Middle East this month to build support among Arab countries for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and to lobby Iraq's neighbors for help in stabilizing Iraq. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says Rice will meet April 22 with foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan in Bahrain. He says she plans to discuss Middle East peace talks as well as Iraq. (AP)

I have done three searches and have found no discussion of this. Surely there have been some 'leaks' or 'trial balloons floated'.

In recent weeks the IDF has been collecting hundreds of military-issued weapons in the Binyamin region in the West Bank, including weapons that were in the possession of IDF officers. According to reports Tuesday, the only people who were given leave to keep their weapons were rapid response teams and those charged with maintaining security in the settlements. "This is a severe blow to the security of those driving on roads in the territories, especially following the removal of roadblocks and the delivery of weapons to the Palestinian Authority," a reserve officer who lives in the West Bank told Israel...

Oh please oh please oh please. I know it's undignified to beg, but please let John McCain pick Condoleezza Rice as his running mate. I know that this campaign has already bestowed an embarrassment of riches upon those of us who are paid to watch and listen. With its vivid, compelling characters, its abrupt reversals of fortune and its ever-rising stakes, the presidential contest has been the best reality show on television. It seems almost greedy to hope for yet another infusion of star power so late in the season.

ABCNews’ Mary Bruce Reports: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is actively courting the Vice Presidential nomination, according to Republican Strategist Dan Senor. “Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,” Senor said this morning on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” According to Senor, Rice has been cozying up to the Republican elite. “There's this ritual in Washington, the Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders, about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types,” Senor explained. “They all typically get briefings from political conservative...

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF, on orders from the Olmert government, removed 10 manned checkpoints in the Binyamin region and Samaria Thursday evening. The roadblocks were taken down near Ramallah, Shechem, Tal Karem and Kalkilya. Officials explained that the roadblocks were removed as part of a series of “goodwill gestures” to the Palestinian Authority. Ostensibly under US pressure, Israel recently agreed to remove dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks in Judea and Samaria in order to make travel easier for local Arabs. In return, the PA said it would try to stop terrorism. Daily attacks continue on roads in Judea and Samaria –...

Rice to Blame for Attempted Attack Against Jews?; Iranian Defectors Provide Crucial Intel Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for WorldNetDaily.com, reports that Israeli defense officials are fuming over the removal of a series of Israeli anti-terror roadblocks which was carried out under heavy pressure from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Also, investigative reporter Ken Timmerman reports that Iranian intelligence and security operatives know they have an address in the West should they be seeking to defect from the Islamic Republic. (http://kentimmerman.com)

On WLS-AM radio in Chicago, the Don Wade and Roma show played audio of TV segment where Condi Rice's physical shape was discussed and they said she can do 40 push-ups. Anyone have this video? Seems Condi is realy pushing herself for the VP slot.

Checkpoint Condi   By P. David HornikFrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, April 03, 2008 A new Hamas TV production for Palestinian children shows a puppet stabbing President Bush to death after telling him the White House has been turned into a mosque. The Palestinians elected Hamas as their leadership by a wide margin in January 2006, and in a poll two weeks ago a majority of Palestinians said they would vote for current Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for president if there were new Palestinian elections. After the massacre at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem on March 6, Bush called Israeli...

"America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Washington Times in an interview last week. Rice added that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations." As the first African American woman to serve as secretary of state, Rice is living proof of a new America where race is not an obstacle to garnering a leadership role in the most rarefied circles of government. Yet her remarks come as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama is dealing with a controversy concerning his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, that is likely to...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Mideast peace talks are "moving in the right direction" although she warned Israel that it should stop new settlement activities that could upset progress. Rice's comments came after she held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a three-day Mideast mission with the goal of achieving an agreement before President Bush leaves office next January. Earlier Monday, Rice met separately with both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Israel and said that she was impressed by the seriousness of their work. "I think it's all moving in the right...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice believes that a framework for an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians could be reached by the planned May 14 visit to Israel of US President George W. Bush, Channel 1 diplomatic correspondent Ayala Hasson reported Sunday. Rice expressed this hope to a top Israeli leader Sunday when she met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayed. Rice's high expectations will put further pressure on the two sides, who were already meeting frequently in an effort to meet the November 4 deadline that Prime Minister...

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli diplomatic sources said Sunday that the American delegation was very surprised at the extent of Israeli concessions to the Fatah-controlled "Palestinian Authority" (PA) announced by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. However, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quick to say that they were not enough, and vowed to monitor Israel's execution of its promises. The latest Israeli concessions to the PA in Judea and Samaria include permission for construction of two new Arab neighborhoods in the Ramallah area, with a total of 5,000 to 8,000 housing units. In addition, about 50 dirt roadblocks in Samaria will be removed, thus...