Headlines

Politics

• McCain Calls For Summer Gas Tax Moratorium
• McCain Lays Out Economic Plan
• Bill Clinton: Older Voters Too Smart To Be Fooled Into Voting For Obama
• Senator Specter’s Hodgkin’s Disease Returns

US

• Senate Housing Bill Amounts To Wide-Scale Corporate Bailouts
• US Biofuel Policy Starving Poor, Leading To “Massacres”
• Pope Arrives To Unprecedented Welcome From Bush, Addresses Sex Scandal
• State Department May Force Diplomats To Serve In Iraq

International

• China Spinning Human Rights Criticisms As Nationalist Propaganda
• Plane Crash Into Dense Congo Market Kills Dozens
• Opposition: Mugabe Unleashing Orgy Of Violence
• Iraqi Army Company Goes AWOL In The Heat Of Battle
• Carter Embraces Hamas, Makes Drastic Break From US Policy
• Iran Threatens To “Eliminate Israel From The Scene Of The Universe”
• Mexican Drug-Smuggling Staging Point Immersed In Blood Bath

Business & Economics

• Wholesale Inflation Leaps
• Hedge Fund Managers Pocket Billions In 2007
• Merrill Lynch To Report Up To $8 Billion In Additional Mortgage-Related Writedowns

Video of the Day

The French “Spider Man” strikes again, this time climbing a tower in Hong Kong with no ropes or other safety gear. He says yesterday’s climb was to raise awareness of global warming.

Politics

McCain Calls For Summer Gas Tax Moratorium

“Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax and several tax cuts as the likely presidential nominee sought to stem the public’s pain from a troubled economy.” McCain’s comments came as oil hit a new record of $114 a barrel and gas is headed to a record average of $4 a gallon this summer, according to the Department of Energy.

McCain Lays Out Economic Plan

“Senator John McCain offered the broadest look yet at his economic policies in a speech on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, outlining a series of tax reductions and backing away from his pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term. There was a dash of populism, as Mr. McCain criticized executive pay and corporate wrongdoing. There was a strong supply-side bent, with Mr. McCain focusing on cutting corporate taxes and making permanent the Bush tax cuts that he once opposed. And there was a decidedly less hawkish note on deficits, as Mr. McCain called for spending cuts but did not mention balancing the federal budget.”

Bill Clinton: Older Voters Too Smart To Be Fooled Into Voting For Obama

“Older voters gravitate to Hillary Clinton because they’re too wise to be fooled by Barack Obama’s rhetoric, former president Bill Clinton told Pennsylvania voters today.”

Senator Specter’s Hodgkin’s Disease Returns

“Sen. Arlen Specter’s Hodgkin’s disease, which he battled in 2005, has recurred, but doctors said that its return was detected early and that Specter has an ‘excellent chance’ of once again achieving remission, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the senator’s office. Specter, 78, will continue to perform his Senate duties and conduct his campaign for re-election to a sixth term but will undergo 12 weeks of chemotherapy, the written statement said. Hodgkin’s disease is a cancer of the lymphatic system.”

US

Senate Housing Bill Amounts To Wide-Scale Corporate Bailouts

“The Senate proclaimed a fierce bipartisan resolve two weeks ago to help American homeowners in danger of foreclosure. But while a bill that senators approved last week would take modest steps toward that goal, it would also provide billions of dollars in tax breaks — for automakers, airlines, alternative energy producers and other struggling industries, as well as home builders. The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington.”

US Biofuel Policy Starving Poor, Leading To “Massacres”

“We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits. ‘The reality is that people are dying already,’ said Jacques Diouf, of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. ‘Naturally people won’t be sitting dying of starvation, they will react,’ he said. The UN says it takes 232kg of corn (over 500 lbs) to fill a 50-litre (13 gallon) car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted ‘massacres’ unless the biofuel policy is halted.”

Pope Arrives To Unprecedented Welcome From Bush, Addresses Sex Scandal

“Pope Benedict XVI arrived Tuesday in the United States to a presidential handshake and enthusiastic cheering, a warm welcome that followed the pontiff’s candid admission hours earlier that he is ‘deeply ashamed’ of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.” The Pope arrived to an unprecedented welcome from President Bush, who met the pontiff at the airport - an honor never granted by a US President - and is hosting a formal dinner for only the second Papal visit to the White House.

State Department May Force Diplomats To Serve In Iraq

“U.S. diplomats may be forced to serve in Iraq next year if enough qualified candidates do not apply for certain jobs, the State Department warned employees Tuesday. A similar threat to call up diplomats last year drew fire among foreign service officers. Many of them objected to being forced to work in a war zone, even though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iraq was the department’s priority.”

International

Asia

China Spinning Human Rights Criticisms As Nationalist Propaganda

Instead of addressing the international criticism over its atrocious human rights record leading up to the summer Olympics, China is instead stoking nationalist fervor with state media propaganda. “Earlier this week, the state Xinhua news agency called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ‘disgusting.’ And on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu lambasted a CNN commentator, Jack Cafferty, for his ‘vicious’ commentary on China. ‘We solemnly request that CNN, and Cafferty himself, take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people,’ Jiang said at a news briefing.”

Africa

Plane Crash Into Dense Congo Market Kills Dozens

A plane crashed into a densely populated marketplace shortly after takeoff in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 18 passengers and possibly as many as 60 people on the ground, while the remaining 66 passengers and crew were reported to have survived.

Opposition: Mugabe Unleashing Orgy Of Violence

“A senior opposition leader accused Zimbabwe’s ruling party Tuesday of unleashing an ‘orgy of violence’ across the country in the wake of a disputed presidential election. Tendai Biti, the Movement for Democratic Change’s secretary general, told CNN that two of his party’s supporters had been killed and more than 200 injured. He blamed youth militias from the party of President Robert Mugabe and said they were roaming the country burning homes and killing livestock.” Mugabe has been delaying the release of the elections he is widely believed to have lost over two weeks ago and seen making moves that suggest he is going to try hanging on to power using any means necessary.

Middle East

Iraqi Army Company Goes AWOL In The Heat Of Battle

“A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias. The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing. This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.”

Carter Embraces Hamas, Makes Drastic Break From US Policy

“Former President Carter angered Israel’s government Tuesday by embracing a Hamas politician during a visit to the West Bank, ignoring Israeli and U.S. designation of the Islamic militants as a terror group. Israel accused Carter, the broker of the first Arab-Israeli peace accord, of ‘dignifying’ extremists. But Carter vowed to meet Hamas’ supreme leader this week in Syria. Carter, a Nobel Peace laureate, also laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat’s grave, another break with U.S. policy during a private peace mission to the Middle East that includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria - where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement has its headquarters.” Israel has shunned Carter on his trip, refusing even to provide him with security as is normally provided to visiting dignitaries of Carter’s stature.

Iran Threatens To “Eliminate Israel From The Scene Of The Universe”

“Iran will eliminate Israel if it attacks the Islamic Republic, Iran’s deputy army chief warned Tuesday in words conjuring up Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats to wipe Israel off the map. ‘Should Israel take any action against Iran, we will eliminate Israel from the scene of the universe,’ Gen. Muhammad Reza Ashtiani said in Teheran on Tuesday. Ashtiani’s statement followed [Israeli] Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s comment last week warning Iran that any attack on Israel would result in the ‘destruction of the Iranian nation.’” In reality, Iran is heavily outmatched by Israel, but they would be able to launch a prolonged war of terror tactics.

Americas

Mexican Drug-Smuggling Staging Point Immersed In Blood Bath

The war on drugs has taken a particularly brutal and lethal turn in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a drug-smuggling staging point just over the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. So far this year, over 200 people have been killed in drug-related incidents, eight police officers have been assassinated, and three more are missing.

Business & Economics

Wholesale Inflation Leaps

“Inflation at the wholesale level soared in March at nearly triple the rate that had been forecast as energy prices kept rising and food costs posted a much bigger jump than anticipated. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that wholesale prices rose by 1.1 percent last month, the largest increase since a 2.6 percent rise last November. The November gain in the Producer Price Index was the biggest one-month jump in 33 years.”

Hedge Fund Managers Pocket Billions In 2007

“Hedge fund managers, those masters of a secretive, sometimes volatile financial universe, are making money on a scale that once seemed unimaginable, even in Wall Street’s rarefied realms. One manager, John Paulson, made $3.7 billion last year. He reaped that bounty, probably the richest in Wall Street history, by betting against certain mortgages and complex financial products that held them. Mr. Paulson, the founder of Paulson & Company, was not the only big winner. The hedge fund managers James H. Simons and George Soros each earned almost $3 billion last year, according to an annual ranking of top hedge fund earners by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine, which comes out Wednesday.”

Merrill Lynch To Report Up To $8 Billion In Additional Mortgage-Related Writedowns

“Some 10 months after the mortgage hurricane made landfall, Merrill Lynch & Co. is still trying to dig out. On Thursday Merrill will report $6 billion to $8 billion in new write-downs, according to a person familiar with the matter. The latest would bring its total since October to more than $30 billion and mean that Merrill reports a third straight quarterly net loss, the longest losing streak in its 94-year history”