Uneven growth rates in the United States, Europe, and Japan especially compared to China are setting up a dangerous situation in a competitive world dependent on oil.—Financial Sense

Impact of higher home loan rates could be felt far and wide across the United States -- soon.

India and China have shown very little concern on a total collapse of the US Dollar.—India Daily

Developing countries that have amassed large US dollar reserves face a growing threat of big losses from a sudden decline in the dollar, the World Bank warned on Wednesday. In its 2005 Global Development Finance Report, the bank identified the "gravest risk" for emerging markets as a deep and disorderly dollar decline that would create financial market volatility and push up interest rates.

U.S. officials "need to be alert" to China's growing influence in Latin America, especially the role its intelligence services are playing, a senior Pentagon policy-maker told a House panel yesterday, warns Rowan Scarborough.—Washington Times

Most of the public attention given to RFID has focused on the retail supply chain, especially Wal-Mart's 2005 mandate to its top 100 suppliers. But the U.S. Department of Defense is also mandating its use in 2005 -- not to merely 100, but to all of its 43,000 suppliers. Add to that the needs of the aerospace industry, particularly the two giant aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus, and the shape of a massive vertical RFID market emerges.

The U.S. Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says. The plan "has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The government projected on Thursday that gasoline prices would surge even higher in coming weeks and remain high through the summer, a forecast underscoring both the economic effect of the sharp rise in energy costs and growing political risks for President Bush.

A new political campaign is underway. It was launched this week. The White House seeks to pack the federal judiciary with ultra-conservative judges and justices.Toward this goal, Senate Republicans - now enjoying a 55-45 majority due to the 2004 election -- are campaigning to end filibustering of such nominations -John W.Dean/FindLaw

Lawyers for a Guantanamo Bay detainee ran into tough questioning Thursday from a federal appeals court that is being pressed by the Bush administration to allow military trials that don't afford foreign terror suspects the same legal protections as Americans. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a personal driver for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was to be the first detainee tried by a military commission.But his trial was halted just as it got under way in November by a federal judge who ruled the proceeding was unlawful

Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported.Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998 -Washington Post

While some committee sits around and decides which action to take that will cost the least politically, this country is being ruined by federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court.While Congress fiddles, our nation is being ripped apart.Never have I seen such a disconnect between Congress and the people as on this issue and the invasion by illegals coming across the borders in hordes -Devvy Kidd/WorldNetDaily

U.S. government health agencies are strengthening ties to airlines and aviation regulators to guard against the spread of infectious diseases or other deadly agents aboard commercial aircraft, federal officials said on Wednesday.The Homeland Security Department is also in the early phase of studying biological detection systems to protect airliners

Oil giant ChevronTexaco Corp. is looking to invest between $5 billion and $6 billion US in a heavy crude oil project in Venezuela's Orinoco tar belt this year, a company official said.Spain's Repsol YPF and Chevron announced last week plans for a joint project to refine extra-heavy crude from the tar belt in eastern Venezuela into synthetic crude.The fuel would then be transported through a new regional pipeline

Most of Iraq's legal apparatus was dismantled in the aftermath of the invasion that began in March 2003, and replaced by new decrees enacted by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).Many of these new laws were welcomed but some, critics argue, have set Iraq on an ideological course which its people will find hard to reverse, should they wish to -BBC

The U.S. Defense Department's plans to launch a rocket over the North Atlantic were postponed indefinitely Thursday amid concerns in Newfoundland that falling debris could hit offshore oil platforms.Exxon-Mobil Corp. informed federal officials that the boosters, which are typically jettisoned from the main rocket, posed a threat to its operations.As a result, federal Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan called U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney -Macleans CA

The mayor of Mexico City, the country's front-runner in next year's presidential elections, now faces criminal charges after the Congress voted Thursday evening to strip away his immunity from prosecution, paving the way for his removal from office -Christian Science Monitor

Officials say equation has shifted in event of a Taiwan crisis.--IHT.com

In what could be a crack in the housing market's sturdy foundation, the number of foreclosed homes put up for sale rose 50 percent between February and March, according to a new study by Foreclosure.com.

A federal privacy board on Wednesday appointed a prominent champion of government data-mining as its first chairman. The Department of Homeland Security's privacy board chose as its chairman Paul Rosenzweig, a conservative lawyer best known in technology circles for his defense of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project. Bowing to privacy concerns, Congress pulled the plug on the program two years ago.

In the closeted world of the Russian judiciary, Olga Kudeshkina and Aleksander Melikov make an unlikely pair of whistle-blowers…They are now leading a crusade against political pressure on judges from the Kremlin, which they say is destroying the last pillar of Russian democracy.—Times Online

A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police… Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."--WorldNetDaily