Under pressure over high energy prices, President Bush on Wednesday will propose tackling the root causes of the problem by encouraging new oil refineries be built at closed military bases and jumpstarting construction of new nuclear power plants.

Cash-strapped families risk losing their cars in the latest form of high-cost small lending spreading across America, according to a new report from the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Consumer Federation of America (CFA). Consumers who put their cars on the line to borrow a few hundred dollars for one month become trapped in a cycle of repeated loans with interest rates often around 300 percent.

The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that WMDs may have been moved there.--Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times

Although they have only 1 percent of the world's inhabitants, they hold a quarter of United States stocks and nearly a third of all the globe's assets.They're tax havens: 70 mostly tiny nations that offer no-tax or low-tax status to the wealthy so they can stash their money.Usually, the process is so secret that it draws little attention. But the sums - and lost tax revenues - are growing so large that the havens are getting new and unaccustomed scrutiny -Christian Science Monitor

With a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association at his side, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Tuesday intended to make it clear that people have a right to defend themselves on the street, meeting ``force with force'' without fear of being prosecuted.Case law and statutes dealing with the issue vary from state to state, but supporters said the measure brings Florida in line with a number of other states

A controversial civilian patrol group that has been monitoring the Mexican border for illegal immigrants is looking to expand its mission to the Canadian border, organizers said Tuesday.Minuteman Project leaders said their volunteers this month alerted federal authorities to more than 330 cases of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States over a 23-mile stretch of Arizona's southern border. Now they plan to extend their patrol along the rest of the border with Mexico and are helping to organize similar efforts in four states that neighbor Canada

U.S. House Republican leaders have decided to roll back a rule change that has left the ethics committee in a stalemate for weeks, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.Top House Republicans met on Tuesday to discuss restarting the committee and acknowledged that ethics disputes have taken a toll on the party's image, the newspaper said citing officials who participated in the talks

At the start, President George W. Bush was in-your-face brash, taking his Social Security sales pitch to Democratic senators' turf.But Bush's problem is that the more he talks about his idea for private accounts, the less the public seems to like it.The recent stock market dip hasn't helped Republicans either, analysts note -- highlighting the risks of putting the money into the market -NewsDay

India, the world’s largest democracy, will press its case for a permanent UN Security Council seat in top-level talks during a visit by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, officials said on Tuesday.India is among the main aspirants for a permanent seat, saying it deserves one in light of its billion-plus population and growing economic clout -Khaleej Times UA

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the Belarussian opposition in Vilnius and called Belarus the last dictatorship in Europe.Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that there would be "no color revolutions, cooked up and paid for by Western crooks," and flew off to meet President Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko's Belarus looks like the Soviet Union 40 years ago.It is the land of the almighty KGB where the president'sopponents disappear without a trace -Yulia Latynina/Moscow Times RU

Russia has demonstrated to Israeli experts that the missiles it will sell to Syria are not “man-portable” and will not upset the balance of power in the Middle East, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said here April 26, according to Interfax news agency -Defense News

The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said on Tuesday.The number of "significant" international terrorist attacks rose to about 650 last year from about 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides briefed on the numbers by State Department and intelligence officials on Monday

CONDEMNED as a traitor by hundreds of protesters as he left home, the Taiwanese opposition leader Lien Chan was given a hero’s welcome yesterday as he arrived in China on an historic visit.The last time a leader of the KMT stood on the soil of mainland China, the nationalists had just lost a bitter civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists, and were fleeing for their lives to the island of Taiwan -London Times UK

Venezuelan Minister of Information and Communication Andrés Izarra predicted that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will fail in her attempts at garnering Latin American support for isolating Venezuela during a five-day, four-country tour of the region.He emphasized that "we are no longer the backyard of the US," and assured that the Venezuelan government would be attentive to Rice's visit -Venezuelanalysis VE

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vowed on Tuesday to bolster democracies across Latin America by pushing governments to shore up their support with better health care and education for the poor.By twinning her pro-democracy message with a call for social programs, Rice sought to counter sentiment in the region that the U.S.-prescribed policies of free trade and fiscal discipline have done little for the one-in-four Latin Americans living in poverty. On her first stop of a four-nation Latin American tour, Rice's message was also meant to woo Latin Americans away from populism by co-opting the ideas of leaders in a region that has been tilting increasingly to the left