Brittany Bowes is a public school teacher who has connected the tens of thousands of people protesting in Madison, expenditure three days at the Capitol to make her voice heard much to her family's disappointment.
"I saw the teachers and the local people, the firefighters, the police, all the people in support of people like me, and I was moved to tears," Bowes told AOL News in a telephone interview nowadays. "I have never been so motivated or supported in my entire life. I thought this is what I've be missing. It was hard to believe." That trip last week was so inspiring, Bowes explained, because her family is on the other side of the fence. They support Gov. Scott walker proposal in the direction of strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, and they encompass been arguing and sending e-mails to try to convince her that she's wrong.
Gunmen attacked Iraq's largest oil plant Saturday, killing a guard and detonating bombs that sparked a fire and forced the facility to push to down, officials said.
The assailants, carrying pistols fitted with silencers, penniless into the Beiji refinery around 3:30 a.m., attacked the guards and planted missiles near some production units for benzene and kerosene, said the spokesman in favor of Salahuddin province, Mohammed al-Asi. One guard was kill and another wounded, al-Asi said. By midmorning, firefighters were still trying to put out the blaze, said Iraqi Oil department spokesman Assem Jihad, adding that an investigation will be launched. "We hope that work will be resumed in a short period of time," Jihad told The connected Press, but did not give a date.
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Opposition forces that now control huge swaths of eastern Libya are calling for a fresh push today to oust Col. Moammar Gadhafi beginning the capital Tripoli and the few towns he still controls around it, as U.N. and NATO officials move quickly to hold emergency meetings on what the world can do to stop the North African country from dissolving further into deadly chaos.
In the wave of pro-democracy fervor that's swept North Africa in recent weeks, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali both lost power on Fridays -- and there are hopes today that Gadhafi could do the similar. In Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, chants possibly will be here in the streets: "Ben Ali of Tunisia fell on a Friday, Mubarak of Egypt fell on a Friday, Gadhafi will fall this Friday!"
The assaults aimed to push back a rebellion that have moved closer to Gadhafi bastion in the capital, Tripoli. The revolution has already broken away nearly the eastern half of Libya and unraveled parts of Gadhafi regime.
In the latest blow to the Libyan leader, a cousin who is one of his closest aides, Ahmed Gadhafi al-Dam, announce that he has defected to Egypt in protest against the regime's bloody crackdown against the uprising, denouncing what he called "grave violations to human rights and person and international laws."In the city of Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, an army component attacked a mosque where protesters had been camping inside and in a lot outside for several days, calling for Gadhafi ouster.
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he protests in Wisconsin over Republican efforts to breach the last major bastion of organized labor state and local governments are likely to reverberate in the 2012 election. But to whose advantage is anyone's guess.
Democrats say Gov. Scott Walker's bid to close his state's budget gap by gutting the power of the state's public employee unions, as well as similar efforts in more than a dozen states, have energized the party faithful, whose enthusiasm for President Barack Obama has waned from the heady and historic days of 2008.
At Least 65 Dead, More Than 100 Feared Trapped in Collapsed Buildings Two aftershocks have sent survivors scramble for safety in Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city, after a powerful earthquake shook the city last night, carnage at least 65 people and injuring dozens more. Rescue and recovery efforts are underway.
This giant rock has just fallen on the RSA building you can see it's crushed the building there and the cars," said a man on live TV. The earthquake caused 30 million tons of ice to fall from New Zealand's principal glacier, 120 miles from Christchurch. Twelve-foot-high waves swept up and down the lake for 30 minutes. The two aftershocks one magnitude 5.6 and another 5.5 shook Christchurch within hours of the initial 6.3 earthquake. The aftermath causes buildings to crumble, including the 130-year-old Christchurch Cathedral. Its spire toppled into the city rectangle.
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The bodies of slain protesters were absent on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their home as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush revolutionary demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.
Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in incriminate brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had absent the country. The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests in addition to bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors overseas and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country aligned with the wave of protests sweeping the region, which topple leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
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Stalemate Over Funding Could End up in a Repeat of 1995 Crisis that Set Back GOPWith Democrats and Republicans at a stalemate over how on the road to fund the government, there is a real threat that government agencies could be shut down for the first time in 15 years. The time limit is just two weeks away, and could affect countless thousands of Americans.
The last time the federal government closed its door was in 1995, when then-President Bill Clinton and the Republican-majority Congress failed in the direction of come to a cooperation on the budget twice. "blackout: A Passport to Confusion," screamed headlines at the time. "Tourists, Hunters and Shopkeepers Feel the Impact."
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Libya's Moammar Gadhafi briefly plunge into crowds of his countrymen near Tripoli's Green Square last Friday, riding atop a truck bounded by supporters. It was likely an attempt to portray the hoards taking to the streets as his own backers, rather than revolutionary demonstrators, at the same time as is now overwhelmingly the case. He didn't speak publicly and hasn't be seen since then.
Just three days later, it's unlikely he'd stay alive crowd-surfing the larger, angrier crowds that have swept westward after claiming control of Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi, to the capital Tripoli today. Snipers opened fire on protesters trying in the direction of seize Green Square previous to sunrise, in addition to demonstrators broke into the offices of state-run TV channels. Violent crackdowns by plainclothes security forces have killed at least 233, according to Human Rights timepiece.
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Marc Ravalomanana said aviation authorities in Madagascar had written to South African Airways to say he was not welcome. Ravalomanana had be book on the carrier's regular Saturday journey to Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital. A day earlier, an airport official in Antananarivo, speaking on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to reporters, had told the AP that Ravalomanana would be banned.
The democratically selected Ravalomanana has been in South Africa since being oust in 2009 by Andry Rajoelina, a previous disc jockey turned Antananarivo mayor who was supported by the army. Rajoelina has been shunned by the international community and has so far rejected attempt by South Africa plus other neighbors to mediate a solution that would reinstate democracy.
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Wisconsin's Republican governor vowed on top of Friday to press ahead with legislation to curb the union bargaining rights of public employees as fraction of a deficit-cutting plan even as protests against the determine swelled.
Speaking at a news consultation on the fifth consecutive day of demonstrations against the proposal, Governor Scott Walker said the state is bankrupt and cannot pay its bills unless the plan is approved."I told the supporters what I would do to get Wisconsin working again," Walker said of his election in 2010. "We are going to do what it takes to get this budget on track." Republicans have majority in both the state Senate and the Assembly. In a bid to scuttle the suggestion, Senate Democrats fled the state on Thursday and Friday to deprive the committee of the needed quorum for a vote.
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Newly elected Republicans in state capitols launching strongest challenge to unions in decades Republicans who swept keen on power in state capitols this year with promises to cut spending and bolster the business climate now are beginning to escort in a new era of labor relations that could result in the largest reduction of power in decades for public member of staff unions.
But as massive public protest and legislative boycotts in Wisconsin this week have shown, the Republican charge can be fraught with risk and volatile turns as politicians try to transform campaign thoughts into action.
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A plan to increase production from Canada's last asbestos mine near this town named for the deadly mineral has beside yourself physicians and public health workers around the globe.
They say the fibers from chrysotile ore, also called white asbestos, are to blame for a worldwide death reckons in the millions. Many experts are especially upset that the plan calls for the carcinogenic mineral to be shipped to countries where it encounters little, if any, protective limitations on its use.Politicians, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats in Quebec insist that the chrysotile ore being mined at the moment 75 miles north of the Vermont border is perfectly safe, harmless to the miners and toward the workers and consumers who will handle it.
Protesters difficult sweeping political reforms from Bahrain's rulers held their ground Wednesday in an Egypt-style profession of the capital's landmark square, staging a third day of demonstrations that have brought unparalleled pressure in one of Washington's most strategic associates in the Gulf.
Security forces have pulled back sharply - apparently on orders to ease tensions - after clashes that left at least two people dead and dozens injured. Police helicopters, however, flew low over a major memorial service procession for one of the victims in which mourners called him a "willing victim" and pledged more protests in the desert island nation - home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
The Obama administration's campaign against a costly alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation fighter plane faces a critical vote in the GOP-controlled House, its fate to be decided by supplementary than 90 freshmen lawmakers who formerly haven't had to choose sides between two major defense companies.
The expected vote Wednesday comes as the House enters its second day of debate on a $1.2 trillion spending bill that would wrap up the unfinished commerce lawmakers inherited after last year's give way of the budget procedure. That includes $1.03 trillion for agency operating budgets that need yearly approval by Congress and $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The aftershocks of last week's overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak continued to resound Monday, not no more than in Egypt but all the way across the Middle East to Iran. And it was the democratic challenge to Iran's leaders by means of crowds on Tehran's streets, reported to number tens of thousands, which the Obama Administration chose to emphasize. desk of State Hillary Clinton expressed U.S. support for the Iranian demonstrators.
Since bidding farewell to stalwart U.S. ally Mubarak last Friday, the Administration has insistently pressed the question of democracy in Iran - less so in other places, where challenges to long-standing U.S. allies such as Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Algeria's military-based regime and Bahrain's monarchy have also continued to gather steam. See TIME's complete coverage of Egypt.
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As the House prepares for debate today on the budget, Republicans are trying to cut off public funding for NPR and the community Broadcasting Service, which run such iconic programs as "Sesame Street" and "Morning Edition."
The House Republicans' budget would rescind any funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which funds these two organizations for the remainder of the year, and zero out millions in funds after that. This is not the first attempt by legislature to cut funding for what many Republicans see as liberal-leaning televise operations.
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Egypt's representative to the United States says Hosni Mubarak may be in "bad health," the first word on the 82-year-old oust president's health.
Speaking Monday on NBC's "Today" program, Sameh Shoukry said he had received information that Mubarak was "possibly in somewhat of bad health." He said he could not be more specific. Two Cairo journalists on Monday said Mubarak, forced to step down Friday after an daylight hours democracy uprising, was refusing to get medication, depressed and repeatedly passing out at his dwelling in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. There was no immediate confirmation of the reports.
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President Barack Obama is sending parliament a $3.73 trillion spending blueprint that pledges $1.1 trillion in deficit investments over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases.
Obama's new budget projects that the deficit for the current year will surge to an all-time high of $1.65 trillion. That reflects a sizable tax-cut agreement reach with Republicans in December. For 2012, the management sees the imbalance declining to $1.1 trillion, giving the country a documentation four straight years of $1 trillion-plus deficits.
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Egypt's military has thrown its weight at the back President Hosni Mubarak's decision not to resign but to transfer most of his powers to his vice president.
Friday's statement is likely to further enrage protesters who have marched to Mubarak's Cairo palace and other key cryptogram of the hated regime in a new push to force the president out. The statement the second in two days comes after a convention of the military's Supreme Council, led as a result of the defense minister. The military says it endorses Mubarak's plan for a peaceful transfer of power and free and fair presidential election later this year.
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A natural gas explosion in eastern Pennsylvania leveled two houses, spawned fires that burned for more than seven hours and provoked the evacuation of hundreds of people. At least six people were unaccounted for Thursday.
in the middle of them are two people whose two-story row house in a downtown residential neighborhood blew up about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, police Chief Roger MacClean said. The cause of the angry outburst be unclear.The fires inspired an entire row of homes, fire Chief Robert Scheirer supposed. The blaze was put out early Thursday, delayed by the difficulty of digging through packed layers of snow and ice to a ruptured underground gas line that was feeding the flames, Scheirer said.
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Here’s what Fed chief Ben Bernanke said to disbelieving Republicans at his appearance before the House financial plan Committee on Wednesday: No, it’s not yet time to take the punch bowl away from the party.
What this means is that the Federal put to one side thinks the economic recovery remains fragile. The Fed needs to keep up a maximum effort to get the economy moving even though some of its actions, if maintained too long, risk awaking an old foe, inflation. Inflation is establishment to show up in some developing nations such as Brazil, Bernanke acknowledged. But under surprised from panel chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, he said the jeopardy of that happening in the United States at the moment is minimal.
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Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday future that the US government infuse $53 billion into a national high-speed rail network. The announcement was meet immediately by deep skepticism from two House Republicans that could be crucial to the plan's accomplishment raising question about whether it can clear Capitol Hill.
House Transportation commission Chair Rep. John Mica (R) of Florida said previous administration grants to high-speed rail projects were a failure, producing "snail speed trains on the method to nowhere." He called Amtrak a "Soviet-style train system" and said it "hijacked" nearly all the administration's rail projects. in the meantime, Railroads Subcommittee Chair representative. Bill Shuster (R) of Pennsylvania said Mr. Biden's plan was "insanity," adding: "Rail projects that be not economically sound will not 'win the future' " coopting the slogan President Obama coined in his State of the Union address.
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Egyptian disagreement groups defiant over VP's warning that protests must end Egypt's protesters and opposition group be infuriated Wednesday by a warning from Vice President Omar Suleiman that if their interest group doesn't enter negotiations, a "coup" possibly will take place causing greater chaos, as a mass demonstration in a central Cairo square entered its 16th day.
Suleiman's sharply worded word of warning cast a shadow over his efforts, backed by the United States, to put together negotiations with the antagonism over democratic reforms. The protester fear the regime will manipulate the meeting and conduct only superficial reforms, so they insist they will only enter substantive negotiations following President Hosni
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President Hosni Mubarak set up a committee Tuesday to recommend constitutional amendment to relax presidential eligibility rules and impose term limits seeking to meet longtime popular demands as a standoff with protester seeking his ouster enters its third week.
Mubarak's decrees were announced on state television by Vice President Omar Suleiman, who also said that Mubarak will set awake a separate committee to monitor the implementation of all projected reforms. The two committees will start working right away, he said.The government has promised more than a few concessions since the uprising began on Jan. 25 but has refused the protesters' main command that Mubarak step down immediately instead of staying on all the way through September elections.
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More than four years after leaving community life, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld continues to believe the war in Iraq was significance the effort, and has no apologies for his administrative in leading the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer, Rumsfeld concedes that "it's possible" that decisions on how numerous troops to send into Iraq marked the biggest mistake of the war."In a war, many things cost lives," Rumsfeld told Sawyer. Pressed on the fact that President Bush has on paper that cutting troop levels in Iraq was "the most important failure in the implementation of the war," Rumsfeld called that "interesting."
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The Egyptian government pledged Monday to examine official corruption and election fraud but thousands of protesters swear not to move from the heart of downtown Cairo until leader Hosni Mubarak steps down.
After two weeks of instability that hard-pressed the most populous Arab nation to the edge of anarchy, the crisis appear to be settling into at least temporary stasis.A series of government concession have left the protesters dissatisfied but the scene has remained calm, with Tahrir four-sided figure resembling a carnival more than the rock-strewn battlefield of recent days.
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Obama and McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential contender, met privately for half an hour Wednesday hours of daylight in the Oval Office, the outcome of outreach between the two after the Arizona shooting spree that dangerously wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords last month.
"We talked about a wide diversity of issues," McCain said later. "Obviously we talked about colonization, we talked about Egypt, we talked about fiscal issues."Aides to both men said the discussion centered on areas anywhere they have shared goals, an indication of relocation by both the president and the senator in the aftermath of the 2010 midterm elections
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Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo's innermost square on horses and camels brandishing whip while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appear to be an orchestrated assault alongside protesters trying to topple Egypt's leader of 30 years. Three people died and 600 were injured.
The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleash a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their extraordinary 9-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badge they said were wrested from their attackers. Some administration workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.
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Tom Brady tore up the NFL with his precision transitory and dynamic guidance of the New England Patriots' offense.
That was in 2007, when he ran away with The connected Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. Ditto for 2010.Brady won the reputation Tuesday for the second time in four seasons. The record-setting quarterback, who had a string of 355 passes without being intercept, received 21 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. He easily hammer Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick, who got 11 votes.
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Crowds Gathered for Largest protest Yet Demand Mubarak's in need of attention Removal President Obama today told embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that relinquishing power was the correct decision, but the transition to a new government "must begin now."
The remarks were a straight response to Mubarak's announcement that he would not seek another term in office when elections are held in September. Though the White House had carefully avoided a firm position on the protests in Egypt for the first several days of demonstration, today it the president stated openly that he supports a new regime in Egypt.
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