Headlines

Politics

• Clinton: Pennsylvania Shows “The Tide Is Turning” In Race Against Obama (Video)
  
• Clinton Raises $10 Million In 24 Hours After Big Pennsylvania Win (Video)
• Obama: I Have Trouble Connecting With Older Voters
• ABC News: Dems’ Bitter Path to the Bitter End
• McCain To Democrats: Take Your Time On The Nomination, Please

US

• Crop Producers Ask Government To Limit Speculators’ Influence On Food Prices
• Wal-Mart Rations Rice Purchases
• CNN Said To Be Making Room For Katie Couric In Larry King’s Spot

International

• Diplomats Walk Out Of Security Council Meeting After Libya Compares Israel To Nazis
• Gen. Petraeus Tapped To Head Central Command, Overseeing Iraq And Afghanistan (Video)
  
• Hamas: Carter Visit Did Nothing
• Iran To Discuss, Explain Discovered Nuclear Weaponization Plans (Video)
• Bush Administration To Release Video Showing N. Koreans In Syrian Nuclear Facility
• China Coal Stockpiles Down To 12 Days
• Russia Sets De Facto Official Religion, Excludes Others
• Zimbabwe Government Floats Power-Sharing As Solution To Election Controversy (Video)
• Chavez Cements Food Security Fund Between Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, And Cuba

Business & Economics

• Toyota Overtakes GM In Sales
• Apple Profit Soars 36%
• Delta, Northwest Together Lose $10 Billion In First Quarter

Video of the Day

An 18 year-old Florida man was arrested after police discovered a tape in which he made his senile grandmother wear a ski mask, point a 22-caliber handgun at the camera, and say things such as, “This is for all the pigs.”

Politics

Clinton: Pennsylvania Shows “The Tide Is Turning” In Race Against Obama (Video)

“Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday seized on her decisive victory over Senator Barack Obama in Pennsylvania to proclaim ‘the tide is turning’ in the Democratic nominating fight, arguing that her performance on Tuesday proved she was best suited to take on Senator John McCain in the fall because of her capacity to carry key swing states. ‘I won the states that we have to win — Ohio, now Pennsylvania,’ she said on CNN in one of six appearances on morning news shows Wednesday. ‘It’s very hard to imagine a Democrat getting to the White House without winning those states.’ Clinton won the Pennsylvania popular vote, 55 percent to 45 percent, giving her a critical boost as the she heads into the next nominating contests in North Carolina and Indiana in 13 days. Polls suggest that Obama is better positioned in those states than he was in Pennsylvania.”

Clinton Raises $10 Million In 24 Hours After Big Pennsylvania Win (Video)

“Sen. Hillary Clinton rode the momentum of her Pennsylvania win into Indiana on Wednesday, with her campaign saying it is on pace to raise $10 million in 24 hours. Clinton reported raising $20 million in all of March, according to campaign finance reports filed last weekend. Sen. Barack Obama raised more than twice as much last month, taking in $41 million for his campaign.”

Obama: I Have Trouble Connecting With Older Voters

“Barack Obama said Wednesday he has a problem appealing to senior voters. Assessing his loss in Pennsylvania, the Illinois senator said Tuesday’s primary result was not primarily due to how working class Democrats voted — a voting bloc that has long supported Clinton over Obama — then with the decisions of older voters.”

ABC News: Dems’ Bitter Path to the Bitter End

“On the heels of a decisive win in the Pennsylvania primary Tuesday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York let her party know she is willing to stay in the race until the bitter end. But in an already long and increasingly negative campaign, bitterness is the last thing Democratic voters are looking for, leaving many to wonder what effects a protracted and bloody race will have on the party and the eventual nominee’s chances in the November general election. Trailing Sen. Barack Obama in delegates and popular votes, Clinton’s only hope for the nomination is to secure the support of superdelegates, the party activists and insiders who can give her the 2,025 total delegates required to win the nomination.”

McCain To Democrats: Take Your Time On The Nomination, Please

“Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign is content to let Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fight on. The prospect for an even longer Democratic battle resulted from Clinton’s defeat of Obama in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, meaning the contest is likely to last at least another two weeks until May 6, when North Carolina and Indiana vote. As top McCain adviser Mark Salter said, Democrats should ‘take their time — don’t rush.’”

US

Crop Producers Ask Government To Limit Speculators’ Influence On Food Prices

“Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher. Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas. Their pleas did not find a sympathetic audience at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where regulators said high prices are mostly the result of soaring world demand for grains combined with high fuel prices and drought-induced shortages in many countries.”

Wal-Mart Rations Rice Purchases

“Top retailer Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club unit said Wednesday it is limiting the amount of rice individual shoppers could buy at one time, as rice prices hit new records around the world.”

CNN Said To Be Making Room For Katie Couric In Larry King’s Spot

CNN is reportedly maneuvering to make available Larry King’s 9pm time slot to Katie Couric, should she leave the CBS Nightly News anchor desk, as she is expected to do after the Presidential Inauguration next January.

International

Diplomats Walk Out Of Security Council Meeting After Libya Compares Israel To Nazis

“The US, Britain, France and other members have walked out of a closed meeting of the UN Security Council after Libya compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps in World War II. Diplomats said France’s UN ambassador walked out, followed by his Western colleagues, after the Libyan envoy made the remarks during a debate on Gaza. Council members were meeting privately on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of issuing a compromise press statement that would have highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza while also contributing positively to efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.”

Middle East

Gen. Petraeus Tapped To Head Central Command, Overseeing Iraq And Afghanistan (Video)

“Under a plan announced at the Pentagon on Wednesday, the two commanders most closely associated with President Bush’s current strategy in Iraq would be elevated into new posts with responsibilities extending into the next administration over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gen. David H. Petraeus would take charge of all military affairs across the Middle East and Central Asia, and would be succeeded as the senior commander in Iraq by Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who returned to Washington in February after serving 15 months as General Petraeus’s deputy. Asked whether the planned nominations by Mr. Bush were a sign that American policy was to ’stay the course’ in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that the security gains that had been achieved under General Petraeus’s command meant that ’staying that course is not a bad idea.’”

Hamas: Carter Visit Did Nothing

“Last week’s meeting between former US president Jimmy Carter and the exiled leader of Hamas militants did not produce any results, Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said here Wednesday. ‘President Carter came to the region thinking he could achieve something. Unfortunately president Carter left without anything concrete,’ he told a conference in the Spanish capital.”

Iran To Discuss, Explain Discovered Nuclear Weaponization Plans (Video)

“Iran has agreed to answer contentions stemming from American and other intelligence reports that it studied how to design nuclear weapons, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday. Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency’s director general, called the gesture a ‘milestone.’ Iran previously denied the reports but declined to address them in detail. Resolving whether Iran secretly tried to ‘weaponize’ nuclear materials is central to the agency’s ability to complete an inquiry into Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has refused to suspend work on enriching uranium for nuclear fuel. Iran says the work is for peaceful energy purposes, but the United States and other nations say it is a quest to develop nuclear weapons. The agreement ‘is a certain milestone, and hopefully by the end of May we’ll be in position to get the explanation and clarification from Iran as to these alleged studies,’ Dr. ElBaradei said during a visit to Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.”

Asia

Bush Administration To Release Video Showing N. Koreans In Syrian Nuclear Facility

“A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today. The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington. Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods.”

China Coal Stockpiles Down To 12 Days

“China only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm bells over the nation’s most important source of energy. In certain parts of China, such as densely populated Hebei province in the north, reserves are down to less than a week, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the China Electricity Regulatory Commission. China counts on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy consumption.”

Europe

Russia Sets De Facto Official Religion, Excludes Others

“There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, [the] region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin. Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers.”

Africa

Zimbabwe Government Floats Power-Sharing As Solution To Election Controversy (Video)

“As Zimbabwe’s political impasse drags into its fourth week, talk of a power-sharing deal between the governing party and the opposition came to the fore Wednesday, though both sides indicated they were unprepared for the compromises that would be required. Zimbabwe, led for 28 years by Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, has been mired in political uncertainty since its disputed elections last month. The government has refused to announce who won the presidential race, though independent monitors say Mr. Mugabe trailed the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and may have lost outright. Still, the governing party has repeatedly argued that neither Mr. Mugabe nor Mr. Tsvangirai won a majority, and insists that it is preparing for a runoff.”

Americas

Chavez Cements Food Security Fund Between Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, And Cuba

“Leaders from four Latin American countries have set up a $100m food security fund for staples such as rice, beans and corn in a bid to offset rising food prices that have sparked global protests. The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as Cuba’s vice-president also promised joint agricultural programmes. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said the fund was an ‘urgent geopolitical issue’. ‘This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model,’ he said at the Alternative for the People of Our America (ALBA) summit in Caracas.”

Business & Economics

Toyota Overtakes GM In Sales

“Toyota took the global sales lead from General Motors in the first quarter, capitalizing on growth in China and Europe as GM saw its North American sales drag down gains in other markets. Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it sold 2.41 million vehicles in the January-March period, compared with General Motors Corp.’s 2.25 million, prompting one industry analyst to predict that 2008 would be the year Toyota unseats GM in global sales.”

Apple Profit Soars 36%

“Apple Inc.’s fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 36 percent on blistering sales of Macintosh computers — and beat Wall Street estimates — but its stock dipped on a lower-than-expected profit forecast. The Mac and iPod maker is believed to be especially vulnerable to slowing consumer spending in the United States because of its stronger presence here than overseas and because many of its products carry a premium price tag. Those fears have contributed to a 20 percent decline in Apple’s stock price since the start of the year.”

Delta, Northwest Together Lose $10 Billion In First Quarter

“Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation’s third-largest carrier, said Wednesday its loss widened in the first quarter to a whopping $6.39 billion because of soaring fuel prices and the steep decline in the company’s market value. Northwest Airlines, which will be acquired by Delta to create the world’s largest airline, reported a $4.1 billion loss in the first quarter. Delta’s results badly missed Wall Street expectations, despite a 12 percent increase in sales.”