OBAMA TO REVERSE FOREIGN FAMILY-PLANNING RULE: EXISTING POLICY BANS U.S. FUNDS FOR GROUPS THAT PROMOTE OR PERFORM ABORTION: President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortions, officials told The Associated Press on Friday. The move, long expected in the Democratic president's first week in office, will be welcomed by liberals and criticized by abortion rights foes.
OBAMA URGES ISRAEL TO OPEN GAZA BORDERS: President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to open its borders with Gaza. The plea came in a speech that signaled the new US administrations shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantnamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians in the wake of this months Gaza war. OBAMA PRESS AIDE GETS BASHED IN DEBUT: The White House press operation got off to a fumbling and stumbling start Thursday, with the day's opening briefers insisting on being identified only as "senior administration officials," followed swiftly by the new president's spokesman accidently outing one of the secret aides less than two minutes into his first White House briefing. Although President Obama swept into office pledging transparency and a new air of openness, the press hammered spokesman Robert Gibbs for nearly an hour over a slate of perceived secretive slights that have piled up quickly for the new administration. It wasn't pretty. DROUGHT SPURS CALIF. FARMERS TO SLASH PLANTING: 'IT'S UGLY,' ONE GROWER SAYS AS TOMATO, MELON AND ALMOND CROPS FACE HIT: Some of the nation's largest farms plan to cut back on planting this spring over concerns that federal water supplies will dry up as officials deal with the drought plaguing California. Farmers in the Central Valley said Thursday they would forego planting thousands of acres of water-thirsty canning tomatoes and already have started slashing acreage for lettuce and melons. DAVE PICKS GILLIBRAND AS MANY DEMS HOWL: Gov. Paterson, defying the liberal wing of his Democratic Party, has chosen little-known, NRA-backed, upstate Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as New York's junior senator, it was learned last night. NASTY CAROLINE WAR: A source close to Gov. Paterson dragged Caroline Kennedy through the mud yesterday, saying the governor never planned to pick her for the Senate because she was "mired" in issues over taxes, her nanny - and, possibly, her marriage. The governor's version of events contrasted starkly with what sources close to Kennedy told The Post just hours earlier about the circumstances surrounding her withdrawal from consideration to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton - and with a statement from Paterson hours later. Former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to cancel the excommunication of four traditionalist Roman Catholic bishops, including one who believes that the Holocaust never happened and the gas chambers were a myth. The Prussian Pontiff has already signed the decree lifting the excommunication of the four bishops, members of the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X, according to well-sourced reports that appeared in the Italian press yesterday. One of the bishops, Richard Williamson (pictured above), an English former Anglican and graduate of Winchester and Cambridge, gave an interview to Swedish TV this week in which he said: There were no gas chambers. Some church critics feel such a controversy makes a welcome change from priestly child molestation. And the Gaza issue won't go away. An Al Qaeda leader has singled out Britain as the target for terrorist attacks in retaliation for Israels offensive in Gaza. In the first specific call for attacks against the UK this year, Abu Yahya al-Libi has called on the terror networks followers to rise up like angered lions and declared : It is high time that this criminal country, I mean Britain, paid the price of its history. Speaking on a video posted on an Islamist website, the Libyan-born Al Qaeda recruiter continued: There is no child who dies in Palestine without this being the outcome of the country that handed Palestine to the Jews in Britain. COMMENTARY By MARK STEYN: In Western Europe the cost of living is extraordinarily high. Whenever I read about the large number of Italians in early middle age still living with mom and dad, I'm reminded of a Benny Hill sketch in which he and his dolly are bikers and can't get public housing. The BBC interviewer says, Why don' you move back in with your parents then he grunts and says we would but they've moved back in with theirs. That gets closer to the nub of the matter. It's not just a question of tax breaks and affordable housing. The chief characteristic of our age is differed adulthood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7WaKOvirvQ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WebTV Dawgs/Dittos" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/WebTV-Pals -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
