Pentagon Seeks Authority to Train and Equip Foreign Militaries

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged Congress on Tuesday to grant the Pentagon permanent authority to train and equip foreign militaries, a task previously administered by the State Department, and to raise the annual budget for the effort to $750 million, a 250 percent increase.Mr. Gates said that rapidly building up the armed [...]

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[Source: War On You -

Credit-Card Companies Put Tighter Squeeze on Cardholders

Credit cards are deeming more consumers risky, resulting in higher rates and lower limits.

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Under the same wing

Delta and Northwest are to merge

SEEING a well-matched couple finally getting together is one of life?s pleasures. And so the news late on Monday April 14th that a rumoured partnership between Delta and Northwest, America?s third- and fifth-largest airlines respectively, is out in the open should be reason to celebrate. Months of speculation that something was in the air ended when Delta announced it had agreed to buy Northwest in an all-share deal worth some $3.6 billion. They will create America?s biggest domestic carrier and could prove to be the spark that lights the flame for others of America?s six big airlines.

America?s airlines have enjoyed a reasonably happy time alone of late. In the past few years business has recovered after the dark period following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Business and leisure flyers have climbed back on to planes, and airlines have returned to reasonable profitability. But that recovery is fragile: a looming recession and high oil prices make the future look uncertain. In the past few weeks four smaller airlines have declared bankruptcy, in part because of high fuel costs. ...

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Protecting Yourself From Aggressive Collectors

As delinquencies rise, collectors are putting the pressure on consumers.

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Who wants to trade?

Politicians won't discuss trade on merit

DISCUSS a trade deal, and you might think that the main issues would be whether it is good for the American economy. But few debates on public policy ever reach this level of purposefulness. And in America, talking trade in an election year is no exception. Recent manoeuvres show how politicians are reluctant to talk about trade on its own merits.

George Bush?s administration signed a trade agreement with Colombia in 2006. But last week, under the auspices of Nancy Pelosi, the party?s leader in the House of Representatives, an arcane rule was invoked to prevent the bill from moving closer to ratification. Susan Schwab, America?s Trade Representative, called the move ?pure, partisan politics? in an interview on Sunday April 13th. ...

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The pope in America

Pope Benedict begins his tour

THREE years ago, in the final weeks of Pope John Paul II's papacy, the Vatican's diplomatic service took great care to distance the Catholic Church from American foreign policy, in order to protect Christians in mainly Muslim lands from being tarred with the same brush as the Bush administration. But as his successor Pope Benedict XVI arrives on Tuesday April 15th for a five-day trip to the United States, the gap between the Vatican and America seems to have narrowed a great deal.

The Vatican fear that Middle Eastern Christians would pay a high price for the perceived misdeeds of American policy seems to have been fully justified. The small Christian minority in Iraq has suffered terribly from that country's internal mayhem; only a few weeks ago a Catholic bishop in northern Iraq, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was kidnapped and killed. But the perceived resurgence of militant Islam in many parts of the world seems to have pushed the Vatican's theological conservatives and America's political conservatives closer together. ...

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