AFP — The US Department of Defense plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to terror or nuclear attacks and emergencies, The Washington Post said Monday. Citing Pentagon officials, the newspaper said the plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces. The first 4,700-strong…

Read More

KABUL (AFP) — A suicide attack near a German diplomatic convoy in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul left three Afghan civilians dead Sunday as 20 other people, most of them insurgents, were reported killed in other unrest. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suicide bomb, the second in Kabul…

Read More

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hillary Clinton may have fallen short in her quest to become America’s first woman president, but she will have a unique opportunity to carve her name on global history books as secretary of state. The feisty former first lady will face monumental challenges overseas, including the ongoing…

Read More

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas amid persistent violence around the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The move followed a pledge by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during talks with Abbas on November 17,…

Read More

WARSAW (AFP) — Poland on Sunday adopted an economic package for 2009-2010 valued at 24 billion euros (30 billion dollars) to help weather the global financial crisis, as it revised downwards its growth forecast. “It is a stabilisation and development programme, because Poland is a country that is still developing,”…

Read More

TOKYO (AFP) — Japan is to allow imports of whale meat from Iceland for the first time since 1991, a report said Sunday. Nations across the world are signed up to an agreement not to hunt whales for commercial purposes but Japan said it was not breaking the accord and…

Read More

A California pastor told his parishioners to attend confessional if they had voted for President-elect Barack Obama because of his stance on abortion, the McClatchy Tribune reported. The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, Calif., said voting for a pro-choice candidate amounted to a punishable…

Read More

The members of President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet will be “much less ideological” than those in the Bush administration, a former Bush strategist said Sunday. Speaking with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Matthew Dowd said Obama chose many people who he has frequently disagreed with in the past, not least of which is…

Read More

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Former US president Bill Clinton has agreed to disclose the names of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation so his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton to become secretary of state, The New York Times reported Sunday. The move is part of an agreement with President-elect Barack Obama…

Read More

Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Fox’s Chris Wallace that he would “win again” in Georgia’s runoff election. Chambliss appeared on Fox News Sunday. “If voters turnout in the same ratios and same numbers we’ll win again,” Chambliss said. Projections suggest that black voters will only make up 23 percent of the…

Read More