NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST March 13, 2007

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.

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Pew Research Center

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/427/which-governor-has-the-most-clout

Which Governor Has the Most Clout?
Massachusetts' Chief Executive Out-Powers His Peers in Alaska, Maryland, andNew Jersey -- Not to Mention New York and California

by Pamela M. Prah, Stateline.org Staff Writer
March 9, 2007

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick doesn't have the Hollywood celebrity ofCalifornia's Arnold Schwarzenegger or the high profile of New York's EliotSpitzer, but the newly elected Democrat bested both better-known colleaguesin a yet-to-be-published ranking of governors' powers.

Patrick also edged out his peers in Alaska, Maryland, New Jersey and WestVirginia in the latest power rankings of state chief executives byUniversity of North Carolina political science professor Thad L. Beyle.

Schwarzenegger (R), a former bodybuilder and actor, and Spitzer (D), whomade a name prosecuting unethical business practices on Wall Street, hadlarger-than-life reputations even before they landed in the governor'smansion, giving them political influence from the get-go. But othergovernors are helped -- or hurt -- by their own state constitutions and lawsthat influence how much power they wield.

In figuring out which governors have the most clout, Beyle, who has rankedthe governors since the 1980s, looks at tenure, budget authority,appointment and veto powers and whether the governor's party controls thelegislature

See the full rankings and read the report at stateline.org. -
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=187648



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-usa-politics-giuliani.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

March 12, 2007
Giuliani Wins Backing of Conservative Senator

By REUTERS
Filed at 3:03 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani,fighting to gain conservative support in the 2008 race, won the backing of aSouthern senator on Monday despite their disagreements on hot-button socialissues.

``It's very clear to me that he's not running for president to advance someliberal social agenda,'' U.S. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana said at a newsconference with the former New York City mayor.

Giuliani leads a crowded Republican presidential field in early opinionpolls, but the party's influential conservative wing has been suspicious ofhis past support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights.

Vitter, a conservative freshman senator, said he disagreed with Giuliani onthose issues but was won over by his ``strong unwavering leadership andsound judgment'' and by assurances he would not appoint ``activist'' federaljudges who created new law from the bench.

``I am absolutely convinced that Rudy will appoint the best judges out ofall the candidates,'' Vitter said.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-evangelicals-torture-statement.html?pagewanted=print

March 12, 2007
Evangelicals Slam Torture in War on Terrorism

By REUTERS
Filed at 2:26 p.m. ET

DALLAS (Reuters) - A major U.S. association of evangelical Christians hascondemned torture by the U.S. military and reaffirmed its commitment toenvironmental activism, positions that highlight broader splits in amovement associated with conservative causes.

``United States law and military doctrine has banned the resort to tortureor cruel and degrading treatment. Tragically, documented cases of tortureand inhumane and cruel behavior have occurred at various sites in the war onterror,'' the National Association of Evangelicals said in a statement.

``Current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue,'' said thestatement endorsed by the association's board of directors at its annualmeeting in Eden, Minnesota, over the weekend. It was the first big NAEmeeting since its former president Ted Haggard stepped down in November overa gay-sex scandal.

Evangelical Christians have been among the staunchest supporters of the U.S.war in Iraq and the broader war on terror and many rankle at criticism ofthe American military which they see as unpatriotic and even un-Christian.

But divisions have emerged among the 60 million U.S. evangelicals asprominent figures publicly embrace causes such as global warming that areusually associated with the left of America's political divide.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13attorneys.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, March 12 - The White House was deeply involved in the decisionlate last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had beencriticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.

Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalesto pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were notaggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. SenatorPete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians whocomplained directly to the president, according to an administration
official.

The president did not call for the removal of any specific United Statesattorneys, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. She said she had "noindication" that the president had been personally aware that a process wasalready under way to identify prosecutors who would be fired.

But Ms Perino disclosed that White House officials had consulted with theJustice Department in preparing the list of United States attorneys whowould be removed.

Within a few weeks of the president's comments to the attorney general, theJustice Department forced out seven prosecutors.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-evangelicals-torture-statement.html

March 12, 2007
Evangelicals Slam Torture in War on Terrorism

By REUTERS
Filed at 2:26 p.m. ET

DALLAS (Reuters) - A major U.S. association of evangelical Christians hascondemned torture by the U.S. military and reaffirmed its commitment toenvironmental activism, positions that highlight broader splits in amovement associated with conservative causes.

``United States law and military doctrine has banned the resort to tortureor cruel and degrading treatment. Tragically, documented cases of tortureand inhumane and cruel behavior have occurred at various sites in the war onterror,'' the National Association of Evangelicals said in a statement.

``Current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue,'' said thestatement endorsed by the association's board of directors at its annualmeeting in Eden, Minnesota, over the weekend. It was the first big NAEmeeting since its former president Ted Haggard stepped down in November overa gay-sex scandal.

Evangelical Christians have been among the staunchest supporters of the U.S.war in Iraq and the broader war on terror and many rankle at criticism ofthe American military which they see as unpatriotic and even un-Christian.

But divisions have emerged among the 60 million U.S. evangelicals asprominent figures publicly embrace causes such as global warming that areusually associated with the left of America's political divide.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13attorneys.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, March 12 - The White House was deeply involved in the decisionlate last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had beencriticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.

Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalesto pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were notaggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. SenatorPete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians whocomplained directly to the president, according to an administrationofficial.

The president did not call for the removal of any specific United Statesattorneys, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. She said she had "noindication" that the president had been personally aware that a process wasalready under way to identify prosecutors who would be fired.

But Ms Perino disclosed that White House officials had consulted with theJustice Department in preparing the list of United States attorneys whowould be removed.

Within a few weeks of the president's comments to the attorney general, theJustice Department forced out seven prosecutors.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/us/politics/13poll.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
G.O.P. Voters Voice Anxieties on Party's Fate
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE

After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their partyas divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidatesseeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, according to thelatest New York Times/CBS News poll.

In a survey that brought to life the party's anxieties about keeping theWhite House, Republicans said they were concerned that their party haddrifted from the principles of Ronald Reagan, its most popular figure of thepast 50 years.

Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control ofthe White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed aRepublican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought theopposing party would win the White House.

Even as Republican voters continued to support President Bush and the war inIraq, including the recent increase in the number of American troopsdeployed there, they said a candidate who backed Mr. Bush's war policieswould be at a decided disadvantage in 2008. And they suggested that theywere open to supporting a candidate who broke with the president on acrucial aspect of his Iraq strategy.

Asked what was more important to them in a nominee, a commitment to stay inIraq until the United States succeeds or flexibility about when to withdraw,58 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters said flexibilityversus 39 percent who said a commitment to stay. The three leadingRepublican candidates are strong supporters of the war and the increase inAmerican troops there.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13tue1.html?pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
Editorial
Wrong Turn on Sex Offenders

With little public discussion and no opposition to speak of, Gov. EliotSpitzer has made New York the latest state to travel down a murky legalroad, to a place where laws are made not in response to facts, but towishfulness and fear. It is a place where prisoners who finish theirsentences remain locked up for crimes they might commit, submitting topsychological treatment that nearly always fails and whose only sure outcomeis the open-ended spending of tens of millions of dollars a year.

This is the result of the Legislature's passing a bill last week calling forthe civil commitment of sex offenders. Nineteen other states have such laws,which are motivated by the public's intense revulsion at sexual crimes andfear of predatory offenders. Gov. George Pataki pushed for one for years,but never was able to get a bill past the Assembly. Then Mr. Spitzer triedand quickly got a different result, using the method he supposedly went toAlbany to abolish: hashing legislation out behind closed doors andpresenting it to the public as a done deal.

Mr. Spitzer says New York's system will be a model for the country. It hadbetter be, given that other states' experiences are so troubling. These werelaid out in a recent three-part series in The Times, which found that civilcommitment laws have led to post-prison warehouses, where offenders checkin, but don't check out.

About 2,700 men are being held involuntarily in civil commitment programsaround the country. The legal basis for their confinement, affirmed by theSupreme Court in 1997, is treatment for a mental abnormality. But no oneknows for sure if therapy works, and there are no studies of civilcommitment's effectiveness in preventing new crimes because so few offendershave been released from it.

There is, however, evidence that civil commitment can become a judicialfraud, with men being sent away on the psychological testimony ofuncertified nonexperts into programs compromised by their conflictingmandates of offering therapy and being lockups. They cost, on average, fourtimes more per inmate than prison, but almost never make an offender fit torejoin society.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13tue2.html?pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
Editorial
The Death of Geography?

A handshake can still trump a videoconference. The energy services giantHalliburton announced on Sunday that it will move its corporate headquartersand its chief executive, David Lesar, from the old boomtown of Houston(Texas) to the rising boomtown of Dubai (United Arab Emirates). The movesends the message that even in the new economy, some of the old rules stillapply, including that location matters.

Halliburton's name will forever be linked in many Americans' minds to itsformer chief executive, Vice President Dick Cheney, and a $16 billioncontract to support American military operations in Iraq, which has led oinvestigations into overbilling and the mishandling of taxpayer dollars.While Capitol Hill critics may not like the company, they don't want to seeits back either. Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee,called the move "an insult to the U.S. soldiers and taxpayers who paid thetab for their no-bid contracts and endured their overcharges for all theseyears."

The company will remain incorporated in Delaware, other executive officerswill stay put in Houston, and, the company insists, there will be no taxbenefits from its move. Halliburton - which is spinning off its embattledmilitary contracting subsidiary - says it wants to focus on energy. And asthe saying goes, it's going where the oil is.

That stands in conflict with the popular notion that the wired world hasmade geography irrelevant. But all the Blackberry devices and Internet phonecalls in the world can't make up for in-person interactions. That's not justfor old-economy companies like Halliburton either. Silicon Valley continuesto act as a leading incubator for high-tech start-ups. Once you have acritical mass of software engineers and venture capitalists attending thesame happy hours, a certain ferment takes place. News spreads fast inperson, not just on MySpace. As a result, a city with a strong concentrationof companies and a trained labor force - like New York in finance - canmaintain its position within an industry.

That's no argument for complacency by policy makers. It is easy to imagine,for instance, that Halliburton might not have deemed this particular movenecessary without the visa problems that visiting businesspeople have beenhaving, particularly those with Muslim-sounding names.



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The New York Times

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html

March 13, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist

How Do You Solve a Crisis Like Darfur?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

For anyone who thinks that "genocide" is absolutely the rock-bottompossibility, keep an eye on Darfur.

The area of crisis has already spread from an area the size of France to onethe size of Western Europe, encompassing Chad and Central African Republicwhile threatening to reignite the separate war between north and southSudan. And aid workers increasingly are finding themselves under attack, sothat humanitarian access is now lower than at any time since 2004.

Six weeks ago, I invited readers to send in their own suggestions for whatwe should do about Darfur, and the result was a deluge of proposals from allover the world.

The common thread was a far more muscular approach. Several readers
suggested that we should dispatch a private force - supplied by a military
contractor like Blackwater USA - to fight the janjaweed militia.

Many readers also recommended that we supply arms to Darfur refugees or
rebel groups. Some people suggested that we blockade Port Sudan, through
which Sudan exports oil.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/world/americas/13mexico.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
In Mexico, Bush Seeks to Bolster Uneasy Alliance
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

MÉRIDA, Mexico, March 12 - Just a few days before President Bush wasscheduled to land here on Monday for bilateral talks, the Mexican ForeignMinistry sent an angry diplomatic note to the United States.

The note complained that United States Border Patrol agents had crossed theborder and ventured a couple of dozen feet into Mexico to put out a rapidlyspreading brush fire. "Even in emergency situations, the Mexican authoritiesmust be notified immediately, without exception," the note said.

The incident illustrates just how touchy relations have become between theUnited States and Mexico during Mr. Bush's presidency and hints at thedifficulty the American president faces as he tries on this state visit torevive what many Mexicans see as a moribund partnership.

In large measure, the relationship has stagnated in recent years as Mr. Bushhas failed to deliver on a promise of changing immigration laws to allowmore guest workers, while conservatives in his party have pushed throughtougher measures to control the border, among them a giant wall.

Anti-American sentiment runs high here, with more than half of 1,000 peoplesurveyed in a recent BBC poll saying they viewed the United States'influence in the world as mainly negative. The margin of sampling error wasplus or minus 3 percent.



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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/world/middleeast/13alcohol.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

March 13, 2007
For U.S. Troops at War, Liquor Is Spur to Crime
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER

In May 2004, Specialist Justin J. Lillis got drunk on what he called "hajjijuice," a clear Iraqi moonshine smuggled onto an Army base in Balad, Iraq,by civilian contractors, and began taking potshots with his M-16 servicerifle.

"He shot up some contractor's rental car," said Phil Cave, a lawyer forSpecialist Lillis, 24. "He hopped in a Humvee, drove around and shot up somemore things. He shot into a housing area" and at soldiers guarding the baseentrance.

Six months later, at an Army base near Baghdad, after a night of drinking anillegal stash of whiskey and gin, Specialist Chris Rolan of the ThirdBrigade, Third Infantry Division, pulled his 9mm service pistol on anothersoldier and shot him dead.

And in March 2006, in perhaps the most gruesome crime committed by Americantroops in Iraq, a group of 101st Airborne Division soldiers stationed inMahmudiya raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family afterdrinking several cans of locally made whiskey supplied by Iraqi Armysoldiers, military prosecutors said.

Alcohol, strictly forbidden by the American military in Iraq andAfghanistan, is involved in a growing number of crimes committed by troopsdeployed to those countries. Alcohol- and drug-related charges were involvedin more than a third of all Army criminal prosecutions of soldiers in thetwo war zones - 240 of the 665 cases resulting in convictions, according torecords obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Actrequest.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200974.html

Hagel's Waiting Game
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; Page A17

Why not Chuck Hagel? For that matter, why not Fred Thompson?

For Republicans, 2008 promises to be a disconcerting if exciting yearbecause for the first time since the 1964 Goldwater insurgency, the party isstruggling over its
philosophical direction. The old conservatism is in crisis, BushRepublicanism (of the son's variety but not the father's) is a taintedbrand, and no candidate has emerged as the Next New Thing that the partywants or needs.

That's why Hagel, the Nebraska senator and Iraq war critic, suggestedyesterday that he might seek the presidency. It's why Thompson, the actorand former senator from Tennessee, said on Fox News the day before that hewas "giving some thought" to joining the race. And who knows whether NewtGingrich will get in?

Hagel was onto something when he spoke of the country "experiencing apolitical reorientation, a redefining and moving toward a new politicalcenter of gravity" and of our current problems "overtaking the ideologicaldebates of the last three decades." And he hinted that he might seek theWhite House as an independent.

"This movement is bigger than both parties," he said, tantalizingly.

The Hagel Hint and the Thompson Tease are disturbing news for former NewYork mayor Rudy Giuliani, the front-runner in the polls. Giuliani's strengthis as the remainder candidate. He is drawing support from Republicans whocan't bring themselves to back the previous front-runner, Sen. John McCainof Arizona, or former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has a lot ofparty establishment support but hasn't made the sale because of too muchobvious flip-flopping.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200983_pf.html

The Moment for This Messenger?

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; A17

Regarding Barack Obama, it's useful to start with the whole what-is-hething. Not that there's any question in his mind. "I'm clear about my ownidentity," Obama said in an interview last week. "I do think that I'vebecome a receptacle for a lot of other people's issues that they need towork out. . . . I've been living with this stuff my whole life."

The reason to begin with the what-is-he issue is that it's a good handle ona key tenet of Obama's political philosophy. He is both an African Americanand the biracial son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother;both a product of the streets of Chicago, where he worked as a communityorganizer, and a son of the streets of Jakarta, where he played as a kid.Obama is the personification of "both-and."

He said his belief that American politics has seen enough "either-or" -- andthat he can shift the paradigm to "both-and" -- is what led him to undertake"the risks and difficulties and challenges and silliness of a modern
presidential campaign."

Thus, on the question of inner-city poverty and dysfunction, Obama proposesa suite of orthodox solutions -- early childhood education, after-school andmentoring programs, efforts to teach young parents how to be parents. But healso emphasizes personal responsibility: "The framework that tends to be setup in Washington -- which is either the problem is not enough money and notenough government programs, or the problem is a culture of poverty and notenough emphasis on traditional values -- presents a false choice."

That's the way Obama talks, by the way, in sinuous but precise sentencesthat practically diagram themselves as they go along.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100986_pf.html

A Self-Inflicted Wound
The U.S. is blocking the best and brightest immigrants.
Monday, March 12, 2007; A12

ONE OF the more self-defeating aspects of this nation's immigration policyis its insistence on denying work visas to thousands of the world's mostsought-after doctors, scientists, engineers and technical specialists,including those finishing their degrees at American universities.

Understandably, U.S. technological corporations, which, unlike Congress,live in the real world of innovation and cutthroat competition for skilledworkers, are furious that their own government's visa policies give foreignfirms a leg up. As Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., told a Senatecommittee last week, "America will find it infinitely more difficult tomaintain its technological leadership if it shuts out the very people whoare most able to help us compete."

That, unfortunately, is precisely the effect of current policy, which forthe past few years has limited the number of visas reserved for skilledworkers to 65,000 annually -- many fewer than American firms would like tohire. The immigration legislation passed by the Senate last year would haveincreased that number to 115,000, but the bill died in the House. As aresult, it is a certainty that thousands of highly trained workers, theirhopes of staying and working in America dashed, are now giving firms inEurope or Japan a competitive advantage in some of the world's mostcutting-edge industries.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201124_pf.html

Shun the Spotlight on U.S. Aid

By Karin von Hippel
Special to washingtonpost.com's Think TankTown
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; 12:00 AM

President Bush traveled to Latin America this week wrapped in the mantle ofsocial justice. Proffering a basket of new initiatives, from a visitinghospital ship to English language training for Latin American youth, he andother administration officials underscored U.S. aid to a region where tensof millions live in poverty. As the president put it, "I want to remindpeople throughout our neighborhood that America cares about them...And Iwant the American people to get credit for their generosity in Central andSouth America."

The administration should be applauded for focusing on issues like educationand healthcare that matter to Latin Americans. Yet if advancing socialjustice is truly the Bush administration's goal, then demanding credit forthe American taxpayer is the wrong way to achieve it. Paradoxically, themore attention the president draws to U.S. aid, the less grateful itsrecipients may feel, and the less effective our dollars may be in helpingLatin Americans climb the development ladder themselves.

Development assistance aims to promote recipients' self-reliance andautonomy -- equipping those in need with the ability to help themselves. Inreturn, most donors understandably hope their generosity will earn themgoodwill, and in the long term, create a more stable world for donor andbeneficiary alike.

Social science research suggests, however, that the process of aid deliverymay be crucial. Depending on how help is administered, assistance canactually lower the recipient's self-esteem and provoke negative attitudestoward the helper.

Most people can intuitively grasp this logic from their own experience.Think about times you received a gift you couldn't immediately repay --perhaps a family member financing your education, or a friend's daily visitsto the hospital when you were sick.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201299_pf.html

Halliburton Chief's Move to Dubai Evokes Warnings on Hill

By Steven Mufson and Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; A02

Ever since Erle P. Halliburton established the New Method Oil Well CementingCo. in Oklahoma in 1919, his name has been associated with Americancorporate know-how in the oilfield services business.

But over the weekend, the company now known as Halliburton announced thatits chief executive, Dave Lesar, would move to a new corporate headquartersin Dubai to focus on business in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.

The announcement sparked warnings from members of Congress, who suspectedthat the company once run by Vice President Cheney was trying to trim itstax bill and remove itself from the limelight here, where it has come underfire about the way it obtained and executed government contracts, especiallythose connected to troubled reconstruction projects in Iraq.

"The CEO of Halliburton has decided to leave this country to move hisoffices to Dubai because he says it is 'a great business center.' That is abizarre announcement," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who is a memberof the Senate Commerce Committee.

Dorgan, who said he would seek hearings on the move, added: "I want to know,is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Arethey trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are theytrying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid therestrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibitedcountries like Iran?"



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200359_pf.html

China Vows Action as Trade Gap Swells

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; D08

BEIJING, March 12 -- China reported a trade surplus in February of $23.76billion, a ninefold surge from the same period a year earlier and one of thehighest monthly totals ever. It came as top government officials reaffirmedpromises to take measures to reduce the widening gap.

The U.S. government for years has been concerned that artificial controls onthe Chinese currency, the yuan, make Chinese exports to the United Statescheaper while making U.S. exports to China more expensive.

China has resisted U.S. pressure to let the yuan fluctuate more, saying ifit is done too fast it may complicate China's ongoing transition to a marketeconomy. But Wednesday, just days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M.Paulson Jr. came to China to press financial-market reforms, Chineseofficials echoed some of his sentiments.

Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, said at a briefing that China wasworking toward a market-oriented financial system and would graduallyincrease the flexibility of the yuan, although he offered no details ortimetable.

Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said last week that "China's goal is not to seeka large trade surplus, but to achieve balance with its trading partners."



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201640_pf.html

Israeli Envoy Recalled Over Nude Exploit in El Salvador

Associated Press
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; A13

JERUSALEM, March 12 -- Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvadorafter he was found naked, bound and drunk, according to Israeli news mediareports confirmed Monday by a government spokeswoman.

The longtime diplomat, Tsuriel Raphael, has been removed from his post, andthe Foreign Ministry has begun searching for a replacement, said ministryspokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel.

Two weeks ago, police in El Salvador found Raphael in the yard of hisresidence, tied up, gagged with a ball and drunk, Israeli media reported. Hewas wearing sex bondage equipment, news reports said. After he was untied,Raphael told police he was the ambassador of Israel, the reports said.

Ben-Hillel said that the reports were accurate and that Raphael has beenrecalled, although he did not break any laws.

"We're talking about behavior that is unbecoming of a diplomat," she said.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201639_pf.html

Mugabe Foes Vow To Intensify Action

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; A13

JOHANNESBURG, March 12 -- Zimbabwe's opposition vowed Monday to continueratcheting up pressure on President Robert Mugabe, as their most prominentleader, Morgan Tsvangirai, sat in prison with serious head injuries thathave left him struggling to walk, talk or eat.

"The world can expect more intensified action following the brutalization of. . . the leadership," said Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, a senior official withTsvangirai's opposition party, speaking by telephone from Harare, thecapital. "This is not going to stop."

Tsvangirai was among dozens of opposition activists arrested Sunday at apolitical meeting in a township west of Harare. Police fatally shot oneactivist during the assault, and many others suffered beatings in jail cellswhere they were taken, opposition leaders said.

It was the most violent clash in years between Zimbabwe's resurgentopposition and the government of Mugabe, who has ruled the nation since theend of white supremacist rule in 1980.

Mugabe is seeking to stay in office despite a seven-year-long economiccollapse and rising political unrest. He announced plans over the weekend torun for the presidency again in 2008, apparently ending his campaign to havehis current term extended to 2010.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/454/v-print/story/38679.html

Posted on Mon, Mar. 12, 2007
Give immigration reform another try

Perhaps the stars have aligned for immigration reform this year. PresidentBush and Congressional leaders want a bipartisan solution. Americans wantreal fixes from Congress. A coalition of business, labor, immigration andreligious groups are lobbying Washington harder than ever. But someobstacles remain, namely a time crunch and anti-immigrant zealots who couldbe spoilers.

Out of the shadows

This is why President Bush and moderates of both parties should keep theireyes on the goal: To pass sensible legislation to bring 12 millionundocumented immigrants out of the shadows. That, in turn, should improvenational security and the economy.

Reform leaders Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, and John McCain, R-Ariz., willintroduce legislation this month. But the odds of passing constructiveimmigration reforms diminish as the 2008 election campaigns approach.

There is no doubt that the immigration system is broken. More-secure bordershave reduced the number of people crossing, but this also contributes tolabor shortages. And when the Department of Homeland Security targetsundocumented nannies and fry cooks, resources are diverted from terroristsand drug traffickers.

But immigration reforms must be realistic to be enforceable. The truth is,there is no good way to deport 12 million people, nor should we want toexpel workers critical to food production, healthcare and serviceindustries. The best way to reduce security and economic threats is toprovide a path to legalization for undocumented workers.

Such a plan was included in last year's McCain-Kennedy bill. It proposedthat immigrants pay fines, back taxes, pass security tests, work for years,learn English and get in line behind others waiting for permanent residency.This is not amnesty. It's a tough but achieveable process that encouragesundocumented workers to assimilate and contribute.



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Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/13/clinton_scores_a_hit?mode=PF

Clinton scores a hit
By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist | March 13, 2007

NASHUA, N.H.

HILLARY CLINTON was a "100 Club" hit.

At big party events like the annual fund-raising dinner Clinton addressed onSaturday night, the question is simple: Did the candidate leave the audienceimpressed or underwhelmed?

Those I talked to came away impressed -- and judging from the response shegot from the party establishment, that was clearly the overall verdict.

Here's what's interesting. Clinton did so with a speech that didn't have thecrowd popping out of their seats like political jacks in the box atadrenalin-pumping applause lines.

Instead of the sort of fire-breathing indictment an era ofhyper-partisanship rewards, the senator kept her tone conversational andeasured, focusing on working and middle-class Americans she said wereinvisible to the Bush White House and casting herself as a bipartisanproblem-solver.

Little that Hillary does comes without forethought, and the effect, asshrewd political handicapper Charlie Cook noted afterward, was to avoid thehot rhetoric that, when it comes from a woman, detractors are quick to labelstrident or shrill.



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Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-atheist13mar13,0,5297381,print.story

Congressman says he doesn't believe in God
Democrat Pete Stark of California is the highest-ranking elected official inthe U.S. to make such a public acknowledgement.

By Adam Schreck
Times Staff Writer
March 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - Cue the jokes about godless politicians and Bay Area liberals.

Secular groups Monday applauded a public acknowledgment by Rep. Pete Starkthat he does not believe in a supreme being, making the Fremont Democrat thefirst member of Congress - and the highest-ranking elected official in theU.S. - to publicly acknowledge not believing in God.

The American Humanist Assn. plans to take out an ad in the Washington Posttoday congratulating the congressman for his public stance and highlightingthe contributions of other prominent secular humanists, such as writersBarbara Ehrenreich and Kurt Vonnegut and actress Julia Sweeney.

Fred Edwords, a spokesman for the group, said non-theistic Americans oftenfaced discrimination for their views.

"So often throughout American history, people who are non-theistic or don'tbelieve in a supreme being can't get elected to public office or, if theyinform the public of their view, they don't get reelected," he said. "We'retrying to increase the acceptance of non-theists as every bit as American aseverybody else."


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