The case for starving and dehydrating Terri Schiavo to death was built on hypocrisy and deception. The culture of death revealed its face in the propaganda campaign for Terri Schiavo’s demise. Perhaps the most noteworthy fact of the entire ordeal, other than the killing of an innocent woman by starvation, was how thoroughly the American people were lied to throughout the entire affair.—The New American

Freddie Mac, the second-biggest U.S. mortgage buyer, said 2004 profit fell 42 percent as the value of financial contracts used to protect against swings in interest rates declined.—Bloomberg

"I haven't ruled it out and I haven't ruled it in," a relaxed-looking Giuliani said Thursday at a news conference to announce a venture with a big Texas law firm.--NewsMax

An accounting probe at AIG worries Wall Street, and involves some of America's richest men.--Christian Science Monitor

The latest intelligence-failure report to land on President Bush's desk raises serious questions about his policy of pre-emptive action against potential foes.How can he order such strikes if he doesn't have solid information?Findings by the special presidential commission could also complicate American efforts to mend fences with allies who opposed the Iraq war

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution today to prosecute Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court, after the United States reversed policy and agreed not to veto the document.Acting U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said the United States still "fundamentally objects" to the court but was determined to get something done on Sudan

North Korea has announced new preconditions for a resumption of stalled talks aimed at solving the controversy over its nuclear status.A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the process should now become a forum in which all participants discussed nuclear disarmament on an equal basis -BBC

A CANADIAN woman photographer who died in Iranian custody after taking pictures of a protest outside the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, was beaten, tortured and raped, an Iranian doctor who fled to Canada said yesterday.His account is the first by a medical official from Iran, and contradicts Iranian officials who said that Ms Kazemi fainted while in custody, hit her head on the ground and failed to regain consciousness -London Times UK

The head of a key European security organisation called on the ousted Kyrgyz President, Askar Akayev, to resign and urged the Central Asian nation's new leadership to avoid dangerous infighting before a new election.The current chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Mr. Akayev should cooperate with efforts to secure his resignation and that the ``cooperation should be effective and as short as possible,'' in order to ease persistent uncertainty in Kyrgyzstan -The Hindu IN

Navy Secretary Gordon R. England, whose efficient management skills and affable manner have made him a favorite of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's, emerged yesterday as President Bush's nominee to become deputy secretary of defense.England, 67, a former business executive, would succeed Paul D. Wolfowitz, who was approved yesterday as the next president of the World Bank -Washington Post

The report released yesterday contains a devastating portrayal of intelligence officers who often cannot be counted on to do their best without discomforting pressure from policymakers, and who are more concerned about preserving the status quo than with finding better ways to safeguard the nation."They are some of the government's most headstrong agencies," the commission wrote Bush -Washington Post

President Bush's record-low approval ratings are a result primarily of public dissatisfaction with his handling of domestic issues that loom larger than foreign policy in his second term.On issues such as immigration and controlling federal spending, Americans disapprove of the president's approach by margins of at least 20 percent, according to Gallup -Washington Times

Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified material from the National Archives, a misdemeanor, the Justice Department said Thursday.