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BOSTON: Mitt Romney values his family, and when it comes to his presidential campaign, his family members are providing value for him. His wife of 38 years, his five strapping sons and his photogenic daughters-in-law don't just back the former Massachusetts governor's candidacy, they are giving it a lift in ways both subtle and overt. Tagg Romney, his eldest son, quit his marketing job with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is working full-time at campaign headquarters. Brother Josh is taking leave this summer from real estate development in Salt Lake City to drive a recreational vehicle to all 99 counties...

PARIS (Reuters) - Rivals accused right-wing presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy of cosying up to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen on Friday in a cynical electoral tactic. Socialist Segolene Royal said the former interior minister was negotiating a secret pact with Le Pen's National Front, after a close Sarkozy aide called for a measure of proportional representation in June National Assembly elections. The National Front says the current voting system is a scandal because it excludes from parliament a party whose candidate won almost 17 percent of the 2002 presidential vote. All mainstream parties except Sarkozy's ruling UMP have called for...

Rival militants clash in Pakistan The Waziristan area is a militant stronghold Up to 30 people have been killed in fighting between al-Qaeda militants and local pro-Taleban tribesmen in north-west Pakistan, the military says. Heavy shelling has raged since Monday near Wana in the South Waziristan tribal area close to Afghanistan. The BBC has confirmed only seven deaths, including two school children caught in the cross-fire. The tribal areas are home to hundreds of foreign militants who fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Fractious militants They are supported by local tribesmen, who also have close ties to the...

HAMPSTEAD, N.H. - Mitt Romney suggested last week that he and his fellow Republican presidential contenders would avoid the "rancor" that flared between Democrats after one of Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record)'s fundraisers questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton's honesty. This week, with polls showing him running third, the former Massachusetts governor took sharper aim at his leading rivals, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. McCain, Romney told New Hampshire voters on Thursday, was devising an immigration policy that was the "wrong course" for the nation. And Giuliani's positions on abortion,...

The foreign ministers of India, Russia and China were meeting Wednesday in the Indian capital in a bid to strengthen relations and to explore cooperation on issues such as counterterrorism and energy security, Indian officials said. The meeting between India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing is part of efforts by the three countries to forge a trilateral forum to work more closely on regional security issues, the officials said. "This will be the second stand-alone meeting of its kind," said Navtej Sarna, external affairs ministry spokesman. The foreign ministers...

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Leaders of the Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs that emerged triumphant in this month's Iraqi election agreed on Tuesday to push ahead with efforts to bring Sunni and other parties into a grand coalition government. The visit of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim of the Shi'ite Islamist Alliance to the Kurdish capital Arbil opened a series of planned meetings among rival factions intended to ease friction over election results which Sunni and secular parties say have been rigged and to begin building a consensus administration. "We agreed on the principle of forming a government involving all the parties with a...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State Controller Steve Westly, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, called Thursday for his potential rivals in next year's election to release 10 years worth of tax returns. He said voters deserve at least that much disclosure. Westly made millions as a top executive and shareholder in the online auction house eBay. He told reporters during a news conference that he released 10 years of tax records months ago, while Treasurer Phil Angelides, also running for the Democratic nomination, has not. Westly also noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not released tax records to the same extent. Westly's records...

The NHL is Starting Over, trying to recapture what makes hockey great. In a five-part series, ESPN.com remembers what made it that way in the first place, hockey's players, rivalries, teams, games and enforcers. The recipe for a great rivalry includes a measure of time, a healthy dose of hatred and more than a little blood. If you can throw in some politics, slights (real or perceived), and some shared geography, so much the better. They're the kinds of confrontations which make fans and players alike pore over the NHL schedule, looking for the nights when those teams clash. They're...

Stalled in the polls and running out of time, Mayor James Hahn on Thursday launched the first TV attack ad of the mayoral campaign, tarring his main rivals as "Sacramento politicians" who pocketed cash from Enron Corp. while steering California toward an energy crisis. The 30-second spot marked the start of a scalding advertising fight that is expected to intensify until Tuesday's election. City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, one of the targets of Hahn's ad, responded within hours with a TV commercial that zeroed in on an ongoing corruption investigation at City Hall and asked, "Can we really trust Jim Hahn?"...

President Bush travels to Europe in February -- stopping first in the old continent's pint-sized capital city. Why Brussels, instead of London or Paris or Warsaw? Not for the chocolate. A small but increasingly prominent cluster of foreign-policy thinkers -- call them bipolarists -- believe they know the answer: Whether Bush likes it or not, there are two superpowers in the world, and the other is Europe. Unlike communism, the E.U. seems to represent not an enemy of liberal capitalism, but a new and possibly improved version of it. In 2002, Charles A. Kupchan, a professor of international relations at...

Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has raised at least $11,000 for a legal-defense fund in response to investigations of "pay-to-play" contracting in his administration -- a sign, his opponents said, that the mayor is deeply worried about the joint local and federal probes. Hahn established the fund on Nov. 18 without fanfare and raised $1,000 each from 11 donors through Dec. 31, according to City Ethics Commission records. In creating the fund, Hahn is tapping many of the same donors who have contributed to a separate legal-defense account to pay a $53,523 fine over violations in his 2001 mayoral campaign....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Having backed the loser over a fellow Democrat the last time, the county Democratic Party is pondering again which way to throw its support in the March 8 mayoral election primary. Although Los Angeles elections are nonpartisan, the endorsement brings financial support from the party as well as symbolic weight in a heavily Democratic city. But it is no guarantee of success, as the 2001 election showed when the party's anointed candidate, former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, lost in a runoff to City Attorney James Hahn. The current primary pits Hahn, now the mayor, against...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Battling for re-election, Mayor Jim Hahn will appear for the second time with his four major rivals Tuesday in a debate that will focus on air quality and other environmental issues facing the city. The first face-off on Dec. 2 turned into a roundtable on allegations of corruption in the Hahn administration, while the mayor promoted his record on public safety and declared, "I've always been about honesty." Tuesday's taped debate, sponsored by the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, could provide a respite for Hahn from questions about suspect fund-raising and other accusations of ethical...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The four major candidates seeking to oust Mayor James Hahn depicted his administration Thursday as paralyzed by ethical conflicts and lapses, and alleged he stood by while campaign contributions and favoritism opened the doors to City Hall. Hahn largely avoided addressing ongoing investigations that have placed a cloud over his administration, but argued in an hour-long debate that he was leading the city toward a brighter, safer future. Voters "know who Jim Hahn is. I've always been about honesty," Hahn responded. In making the case against giving Hahn another four-year term, his rivals argued that new...

John F. Kerry returns to the Senate today basking in his national profile, but once again laboring in the long shadow cast by fellow Bay State Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Political insiders will be scrutinizing the delicate post-election political dance unfolding between Kennedy and Kerry with great interest. The pair are friendly rivals, but their staffers have clashed in the past as their divergent ambitions collided. Kennedy was miffed when Kerry profusely thanked his campaign staffers but failed to mention him during the Faneuil Hall concession speech, sources said. Some Kerry insiders, meanwhile, have privately grumbled about Kennedy's failure to...

The French government plans to merge Airbus parent company EADS with defence company Thales to create a new European giant to rival US Boeing, it was reported today. Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy would not comment on the report in Les Echos of an impending government-backed takeover of Thales by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, his spokesman said.

WASHINGTON - Former presidents, one-time rivals, military veterans and family members will help tell the story of Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) as he prepares to accept his party's presidential nomination at the national convention in late July. "We will use those four days in Boston to introduce to America John Kerry and John Edwards (news - web sites), talking about their backgrounds and their strengths," Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday. The opening night of the July 26-29 convention will feature former Presidents Carter and Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites). Ron...

<p>He's come to the wrong place with the wrong plan.</p> <p>"We're all scratching our heads over why the president would attempt to use the 'Aspen' fire as a political stage for his Healthy Forests Initiative," said Brian Segee of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.</p>

Lieberman's attack on anti-war rivals shows deep divide within Democrats By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 29 July 2003 The deep divisions on Iraq among the Democratic presidential contenders burst into the open yesterday when the senator Joseph Lieberman, a strong supporter of the conflict, accused his more critical rivals "of not knowing a just war when they see it". Mr Lieberman said the Bush administration had failed to draw up adequate plans for the aftermath of the war and had not moved quickly enough to secure Saddam Hussein's suspected illegal weapons facilities. But his most significant words were aimed at...

<p>Recall elections notwithstanding, chalk one up for Attorney General Bill Lockyer in early psychological skirmishing over a possible 2006 gubernatorial race.</p> <p>Lockyer's lawyers two weeks ago won a legal case against megadeveloper Angelo Tsakopoulos. The Sacramento developer is a key financial backer of state Treasurer Phil Angelides, thought to be Lockyer's chief rival for the 2006 Democratic nomination.</p>