The pain at the pump is hitting local governments, too.Skyrocketinggas prices are adding to the pressure on spending plans being hammeredby the real estate slump. Officials are being forced to budget moremoney to keep tens of thousands of police cars,
The French people's disenchantment with President Nicolas Sarkozyand his government was confirmed last night as the ruling UMP sufferedsignificant losses in the final round of the local elections, just 10months after his triumph in last year's presidential election. Socialistsretained control
Where did they go? The Chinook salmon that swim upstreamto spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, havedisappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and mostdependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left
Intellpuke: This commentary was written by columnist MaxHastings and appeared in the Guardian edition for Monday, March 17,2008. His commentary follows:The Iraq war has shown how high is the pain threshold of the west.Five years after the 2003 invasion, the
The Baiji refinery, with its distillation towers rising against theHamrin Mountains, may be the most important industrial site in theSunni Arab-dominated regions of Iraq. On a good day, 500 tanker truckswill leave the refinery filled with fuel with a street
A bomb blast Saturday at an Italian restaurant popular with foreigners in Pakistan's capital killed at least one person and injured 11, including five U.S.Embassy workers, according to police and hospital officials.The explosion ripped through the back patio of Luna
Pope Benedict XVI issued one of his strongest appeals for peace in Iraqon Sunday, days after the body of the kidnapped Chaldean Catholicarchbishop was found near the northern city of Mosul.The pope also denounced the 5-year-long Iraq war, saying it
The Dalai Lama said Sunday that he would not instruct his followers inside Tibet tosurrender before Chinese authorities, and he described feelingâ helplessâ in preventing what he feared could be an imminent blood bath.â I do feel helpless,â he said
Emergency crews continued to search the wreckage of smashedbuildings on the East Side of Manhattan on Sunday, a day after agigantic crane toppled across a city block, killing at least fourpeople and injuring more than a dozen others. The collapse
Britain's climate change emissions may be 12% higher than officiallystated, according to a National Audit Office investigation which hasstrongly criticized the government for using two different carbonaccounting systems. There is "insufficient consistency andcoordination" in the government's approach, said the NAO.
Intellpuke: This editorial appeared in the New York Times edition for Monday, March 17, 2008. Nobody was greatly surprised last week when Stephen Johnson, theadministrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, proposed newlimits on smog-forming pollutants that were weaker than those
The deal, valued at $236 million, marks a stunning collapse for one of the world's largest investment banks.Banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Sunday that it would buystruggling brokerage Bear Stearns Cos., in a fire-sale deal clearlyaimed at stemming
Major Asian stock markets fell sharply in early trading on Monday aspessimism continued to spread despite the Fedâ ™s dramatic moves over theweekend, sending Tokyoâ ™s benchmark index to a three-year low. Themarkets responded negatively to the purchase of Bear
Sen. John McCain is well-known for scorching denunciations ofDemocrats, who he says would raise the "white flag of surrender" bycutting off funds for U.S. troops in Iraq.Yet 15 years ago, it was McCain himself who startled colleagues byproposing to cut
French voters have expressed their dissatisfaction with President Nicolas Sarkozy in local elections. Sarkozy's UMP party has lost control of more than 20 towns and cities, an indication of just how unhappy the French people are with his presidency so
Commuters in Berlin can breathe a sigh of relief -- the public transit system is more or less back to normal after 12 days of strikes. However, industrial action is set to continue.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become Israel's staunchest ally in Europe. This week, the country has pulled out all the stops to welcome the German leader. Back home, though, many wish Merkel would finally speak up about Israeli excesses in
A gang of unruly wild boars caused chaos and destruction in a German town. The town's residents alerted police, who cornered one of the beasts in a home improvement store.
World reaction to the apparently lethal military crackdown on protesting monks in Tibet has been largely at China's expense. But is an Olympic boycott the answer? German commentators on Monday say not yet -- though they have sharp advice for
