World News: LATEST NEWS / MAY 11TH

SHALOM WORLD HEADLINES Headlines updated throughout each weekday morning. Final updates by 12 noon Eastern. (Links will open in a new window) Reuters: "Preliminary" talks held on U.S. military gay policy The Obama administration is holding "preliminary discussions" about changing the military's prohibition against openly gay service members, White House National Security Advisor James Jones said on Sunday. President Barack Obama pledged during the presidential campaign to change the policy. But the issue has been on the back-burner as the White House tackles other issues such as the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jones said he does not know if the policy, known as "don't ask, don't tell," will be overturned, and indicated a cautious approach. "We have a lot on our plate right now. It has to be teed up at the right time ... to do this the right way," Jones said on the ABC program "This Week." Asked if the policy will be overturned, Jones said, "I don't know. ... The president has said that he is in favor... Times: King Abdullah of Jordan's ultimatum: peace now or it's war next year America is putting the final touches to a hugely ambitious peace plan for the Middle East, aimed at ending more than 60 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, according to Jordan's King Abdullah, who is helping to bring the parties together. The Obama Administration is pushing for a comprehensive peace agreement that would include settling Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its territorial disputes with Syria and Lebanon, King Abdullah II told The Times. Failure to reach agreement at this critical juncture would draw the world into... Guardian: Obama to deliver speech to the Muslim world in Cairo JPost: Iran to procure Chinese defense system Haaretz: Israel has secret plan to thwart division of Jerusalem RT: "NATO's war games in Georgia openly support Saakashvili's shaky regime" – Putin WT: Pope cites his 'deep respect' for Islam AMMAN, Jordan | Pope Benedict XVI began his first trip to the Middle East on Friday, expressing his "deep respect" for Islam and his hope that the Catholic Church would be a force for peace in the region as he treaded carefully after past missteps with Muslims and Jews. The pope was given a red carpet welcome at the airport by Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania and praised the moderate Arab country as a leader in efforts to promote peace and dialogue between Christians and Muslims. An honor guard wearing traditional red- and... TG: Pope Benedict XVI issues plea for Middle East Christians GulfNews: Pope seeks Christian-Muslim reconciliation Times: Israel fears Jewish attack on 'Hitler Youth' Pope Fox: Gingrich Criticizes Notre Dame's Obama Invite USAToday: Keyes, 21 others arrested at anti-Obama protest DM: Revealed: The secret report that shows how the Nazis planned a Fourth Reich ... in the EU The paper is aged and fragile, the typewritten letters slowly fading. But US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128 is as chilling now as the day it was written in November 1944. The document, also known as the Red House Report, is a detailed account of a secret meeting at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. There, Nazi officials ordered an elite group of German industrialists to plan for Germany's post-war recovery, prepare for the Nazis' return to power and work for a 'strong German empire'. In other words: the Fourth Reich. CBC: Mulroney adviser tried to hide Air India bombing facts, memos suggest Documents released late Friday suggest a senior adviser in the Mulroney government wanted to keep key facts about the 1985 Air India bombing hidden. All 329 people on board Air India Flight 182 died when the plane crashed near Ireland on June 23, 1985. The inquiry into the bombing wrapped up more than a year ago and retired Supreme Court justice John Major is still writing his report. It is expected by next fall. The federal Department of Justice produced documents for the inquiry... LATimes: Memos shed light on CIA use of sleep deprivation Reporting from Washington -- As President Obama prepared last month to release secret memos on the CIA's use of severe interrogation methods, the White House fielded a flurry of last-minute appeals. One came from former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, who expressed disbelief that the administration was prepared to expose methods it might later decide it needed. "Are you telling me that under all conditions of threat, you will never... TG: Is Tony Blair saint or sinner in memoirs of No 10 friar? John Blake, the publisher who has won the rights to Father Michael Seed's book, informs Mandrake that the memoirs will have the intriguing title Saints and Sinners and will come out in July. "It's warts and all," he tells me. "It's an honest account of his personal memories. Of course, people from Alan Clark to the Pope to the Blairs and the Archbishop of Canterbury will be in it. It is an honest and gentle insight into people as they really are. He always sees the best in people." Blake, who made a fortune from publishing the memoirs of the glamour... DM: GCSE pupils 'brainwashed to support the MMR vaccine' TG: New spy book names Engelbert Broda as KGB atomic spy in Britain P Based on secret KGB documents, it names Engelbert Broda, an Austrian physicist and secret communist sympathiser, as a mole who worked at Britain's Cavendish nuclear laboratory. Codenamed "Eric" by his Russian handlers, he is believed to have passed thousands of pages of top secret documents about British and American atomic research to Moscow, and was regarded as... WSJ: Fed Sees Up to $599 Billion in Bank Losses The federal government projected that 19 of the nation's biggest banks could suffer losses of up to $599 billion through the end of next year if the economy performs worse than expected and ordered 10 of them to raise a combined $74.6 billion in capital to cushion themselves. The much-anticipated stress-test results unleashed a scramble by the weakest banks to find money and a push by the strongest ones to escape the government shadow of taxpayer-funded rescues. The Federal Reserve's worst-case estimates of banks' total losses and capital... WSJ: Banks Won Concessions on Tests MW: Regulators seize Washington-based Westsound Bank Reuters: Friedman defends NY Fed role FoxBus: A Fed Loan Survey Isn't as Positive as First Reported TG: Barack Obama's rich supporters fear his tax plans show he's a class warrior Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Mr Obama during the election, backing him over the Republican candidate John McCain as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy. But it is now dawning on many among them that Mr Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America - and that they were more than just election rhetoric. A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: "I'm appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric... Fox: Obama to Propose More Taxes From Estates, Firms to Fund Health Care Reform TG: China overtakes the US as Brazil's largest trading partner CNBC: Geithner: US to Give GMAC Substantial Support TG: Allen Stanford was 'US government informer' A Panorama investigation has suggested that Sir Allen was shielded from an earlier inquiry into his activities because he co-operated with a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) attempt to track money laundering by Latin American drug cartels. US officials closed down his banking activities in February, alleging a vast fraud centred on his Antigua-based offshore bank. FP: Venezuela sells Stanford bank unit for US$111-million Guardian: Bank of England braced for third wave of financial crisis The Bank of England is concerned that the UK's banking system is heading for a third wave of crisis that could snuff out fragile signs of recovery in the economy. On Thursday the Bank surprised the City by announcing that it would pump an extra £50bn of new money into the economy despite recent stockmarket rallies. Now the Guardian has learned that this increase in quantitative easing was driven by fears in Threadneedle Street that the credit crunch is still sucking the life out of the British economy and the banking sector remains in deep trouble. Guardian: G20 police 'used undercover men to incite crowds' An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds. Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards. Brake, who along with... TG: Enjoy the rally while it lasts - but expect to take a sucker punch Bear market rallies can be explosive. Japan had four violent spikes during its Lost Decade (33pc, 55pc, 44pc, and 79pc). Wall Street had seven during the Great Depression, lasting 40 days on average. The spring of 1931 was a corker. James Montier at Société Générale said that even hard-bitten bears are starting to throw in the towel, suspecting that we really are on the cusp of new boom. That is a tell-tale sign. Prolonged suckers' rallies tend to be especially vicious as they force everyone back into the market before cruelly dashing them on the... HattiesburgAmer: Economy won't dampen Osteen's message of prosperity Considering that he is fast becoming the most popular preacher in the country, Joel Osteen doesn't act or sound like a preacher at all. He has no seminary training and can hardly talk about any religion other than his own brand of creamy, fat-free Christianity (all the hope, none of the sin). He prefers telling endearing domestic stories about himself and his 21st-century friends and relatives to rehashing the dusty tales of Scripture. When he... Chron: Dodie Osteen reigns as Lakewood's 'Queen Mother' NewSci: Solar cycle will be weakest since 1928, forecasters say The sun's new solar cycle, which is thought to have begun in December 2008, will be the weakest since 1928. That is the nearly unanimous prediction of a panel of international experts, some of whom maintain that the sun will be more active than normal. But even a mildly active sun could still generate its fair share of extreme storms that could knock out power grids and space satellites. Solar activity waxes and wanes every 11 years. Cycles can vary widely in intensity, and there is no foolproof way to predict how the sun will behave in any given... SFGate: Warning: Sunspot cycle beginning to rise News.au: Strong quake off Ecuador coast A STRONG earthquake measuring 6.1 hit an area off the coast of the South American nation of Ecuador, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the US government reported. The tremor, which occurred at 7:16 pm local time Saturday (0116 GMT Sunday), was located in the Pacific Ocean 599 kilometres west of the port city of Portoviejo, according to the US Geological Survey. The reading was... Guardian: US has more swine flu cases than any other country, WHO says The US has more confirmed cases of swine flu than any other country, the World Health Organisation said as health officials announced the country's third death from the disease today. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2,254 confirmed cases across the US, and the deputy director for science and public health, Anne Schuchat, warned that the total could be an underestimate. "Today there are almost 3,000... Times: Breakthrough in search for swine flu jab WP: Mexicans Blame Industrial Hog Farms For years, farmers in the communities that dot this arid valley complained about the effects of the industrial pig farms that had multiplied near their fields. The overpowering stench gave them headaches and drove them from their homes. Packs of wild dogs feasted on discarded pig carcasses and occasionally turned on their children and pets. There were fears that vast... PBP: Swine flu source traced to birds and people; don't blame pigs CNN: W.R. Grace acquitted in Montana asbestos case A jury Friday acquitted W.R. Grace & Company and three of its former executives of having knowingly exposed mine workers and residents of Libby, Montana, to asbestos. "We at Grace are gratified by today's verdict and thank the men and women of the jury who were open to hearing the facts," said Fred Festa, chairman, president and CEO of the company in a written statement. "We always believed that... CNS: Abortion Provider Launches Mother's Day Fundraiser The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of one of the largest abortion providers in the United States, launched a campaign last week aimed at raising funds by soliciting Mother's Day donations in conjunction with renowned children's book author Judy Blume. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is the advocacy division of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Mother's Day is Sunday,.. Gazette: Right to Life activists guilty of trespassing at Focus TG: African tribe populated rest of the world Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world. Genetic analysis of modern day human populations in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America have revealed that they are all descended from these common ancestors. It is thought that changes in the climate between 90,000 and 70,000 years ago caused sea levels to drop... DM: The last ever pictures of Marilyn Monroe, taken the weekend before she died It is the face that enraptured the world and here, Marilyn Monroe lights up the camera as she larks around on a weekend with friends. Relaxed and playful, the superstar looks stunning as she partied with fellow icon Frank Sinatra and jazz pianist Buddy Greco in August 1962. But unbeknown to the bombshell actress, these would be the last... Wired: Darpa: Heat + Energy = Brains. Now Make Us Some. The U.S. military's premiere research agency is already trying to use math to predict human behavior and neuroscience to replicate a primate's brain. The next step: Lean on the study of energy and heat to create an entirely new theory for how intelligence actually works. The idea behind Darpa's latest venture, called "Physical Intelligence" (PI) is to prove, mathematically, that the human mind is nothing more than parts and energy. In other words,.. DM: Amazon's new supersize eReader touted as future of the printed word Piles of newspapers littering public transport could soon be a thing of the past thanks to the latest electronic reader from Amazon. The Kindle DX has a 9.7inch screen - almost four inches bigger than the original Kindle and is thinner than a glossy magazine. Its makers designed it for students and newspaper readers and have touted it as the future of the...   Has Obama cut off information to Israel?.... Lack of communication 'not normal practice' President Obama went to Istanbul's Blue Mosque during his visit to Turkey, where he said the United States "is not and never will be at war with Islam." (By Charles Dharapak -- Associated Press)     Thursday, May 07, 2009 08:46:11 PM EDT In this week's 'Koenig's Eye View from the White House' - May 8 - Israel being pressured, Middle East chaos, UN Flag over Jerusalem's Old City? Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 01:04:07 PM EDT 'News Alerts' by email - William Koenig Monday, May 10, 2004 06:54:32 PM EDT Koenig's Eye View from the White House - Mail/Fax Form Back To Top Featured News Monday, May 11, 2009 08:04:34 AM EDT Barak: Mubarak A Stabilizing Element - Ynet Monday, May 11, 2009 07:07:50 AM EDT 'Obama peace plan: Muslim world must recognize Israel' - Haaretz Monday, May 11, 2009 07:03:46 AM EDT Russia to host UN talks to revive Mideast peace - Ynet Monday, May 11, 2009 07:02:30 AM EDT PA says in charge of pope's east J'lem visit - Ynet Monday, May 11, 2009 06:59:53 AM EDT Jordan: Peace now or war next year - Ynet Monday, May 11, 2009 06:58:25 AM EDT US: Iran boosts need for two states - Jerusalem Post Monday, May 11, 2009 06:57:07 AM EDT 'Netanyahu-Obama meeting crucial to ME' - Jerusalem Post Monday, May 11, 2009 06:55:18 AM EDT Israel: Pontiff calls for regional peace, vows to fight anti- Semitism - J'lem Post Sunday, May 10, 2009 04:55:37 PM EDT General Jones: 2-state solution can mitigate Iran threat - Ynet Back To Top Latest News Monday, May 11, 2009 07:37:36 AM EDT Putin: Russia to discuss missile defense, strategic offensive arms with US - Both interconnected - TASS Monday, May 11, 2009 07:29:49 AM EDT Fuel traders put faith in UAE as fourth trading hub - Khaleej Times Monday, May 11, 2009 07:25:29 AM EDT Germany agrees to accelerate Afghan security training - Deutsche Welle Monday, May 11, 2009 07:23:49 AM EDT Deadly Storms Rip Through Midwest, South - States Brace For More - CNN Monday, May 11, 2009 07:21:19 AM EDT More companies freeze pensions - USA Today Monday, May 11, 2009 07:17:59 AM EDT Health Groups Offer $2 Trillion in Cost Savings - Fox Monday, May 11, 2009 06:53:34 AM EDT Al Qaeda's Global Base Is Pakistan, Says Petraeus - WSJ Sunday, May 10, 2009 08:03:00 PM EDT Karzai Warns Civilian Casualties Driving Wedge Between U.S., Afghanistan - Fox Sunday, May 10, 2009 08:00:40 PM EDT Floods ease in Brazil, but 300,000-plus homeless - Jerusalem Post Sunday, May 10, 2009 09:25:44 AM EDT Pope urges Middle East Christians to persevere - 20,000 attend open-air Mass in Jordan - MSNBC Saturday, May 09, 2009 08:17:31 PM EDT Pope seeks Christian-Muslim reconciliation - Gulf News Saturday, May 09, 2009 08:13:59 PM EDT Pakistani troops destroy Taleban headquarters in Swat - Khaleej Times Back To Top White House News Saturday, May 09, 2009 11:29:06 AM EDT Geithner: Time to review U.S. central bank governance - Reuters Saturday, May 09, 2009 07:07:41 AM EDT Obama Makes Push For Credit Card Legislation - USA Today Friday, May 08, 2009 03:41:22 PM EDT Archbishop Slams Obama Appearance at Notre Dame, Administration's Abortion Policies - Fox Back To Top Israel News Saturday, May 09, 2009 06:51:52 AM EDT Pope: Catholic Church and Jews share an 'inseparable bond' - Jerusalem Post Thursday, May 07, 2009 07:08:35 AM EDT Gaza militants fire mortar, anti-tank missile at IDF troops - Haaretz Wednesday, May 06, 2009 11:50:48 AM EDT Palestinians: Settlers cut down our olive trees - Ynet