WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama cautiously accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday in Oslo , acknowledging the considerable controversy over his award because he's accomplished little on the world stage in less than a year on the job and has just called for sending 30,000 to 35,000 more U.S troops to war in Afghanistan . Given the stature of some past winners, and the ordeals face
One of the great challenges of our nation has been and will be to reconcile the racial tension of our past.The historical ramifications of slavery are still felt in the streets of West Baltimore, the country roads of the Mississippi Delta and corridors of the United States Congress.When our nation gathered up enough strength and courage to elect the first African-American president, in the words
The government has not revealed the full extent of cuts needed to pay off the UK's debts, experts have warned.Public spending is facing a £36bn squeeze from 2011 - with £15bn of the cuts needed yet to be identified, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.With health and education protected, the axe would fall on defence, housing, transport and higher education.The IFS also estimate
WASHINGTON – The U.S House of Representatives will combine legislation to increase the debt limit with a bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.The tactic greatly increases the legislation's chances of clearing Congress before the Treasury Department runs into the current limit of $12.1 trillion. We have already raised it in the House
BAGHDAD – U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Iraq Thursday to meet with Iraqi officials amid a wave of bombings that have claimed 127 lives and rattled the country's government.U.S military leaders who greeted Gates defended the Iraqi security forces' response to the attacks.A Thursday night meeting between Gates and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was canceled after al-Maliki was s
MPs who break expenses rules could lose their right to lucrative resettlement grants under planned new laws.MPs who stand down can get up to £65,000 in resettlement grants, often described as redundancy payments.The plan is one of a string of reforms recommended by Sir Christopher Kelly which the government says it will bring into law by the next election.It comes as the latest details of e
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt is to repay more than £9,500 after he was found to have breached expenses rules.The Standards and Privileges Committee criticised an arrangement under which the MP's agent stayed rent-free in his taxpayer subsidised home.But it concluded that neither the MP nor his local party had benefited financially from the situation.If the MP promptly repaid half