Use of the painkiller Vioxx poses the risk of hundreds to thousands of additional heart attacks in older men, a Food and Drug Administration whistleblower told a panel reviewing the safety of painkillers on Thursday.

President Bush on Thursday named John Negroponte as America's first national intelligence director, congressional sources said Thursday.

What to do about Syria is "rapidly climbing up the agenda" of a meeting on Monday between President Bush and Chirac, said a senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity. "We're on the same page. . . The entire international community wants to see something happen." he administration is exploring three baskets of measures -- under the Syrian Accountability Act, under the USA Patriot Act and by executive order, U.S. officials said this week.

Shiite bloc gets assembly majority.

South Korean Ambassador to China Kim Ha-joong said Thursday that Beijing has more influence over Pyongyang than people think, since 70-80 percent of overseas goods used in North Korea are imported through China.

A huge turnout at Wednesday's funeral in Beirut is one sign of growing anti-Syrian sentiment.

Rev. Randy Steele, a 32-year-old pastor from Mount Vernon, Illinois, was quizzed by FBI agents after the Bureau received a complaint from an anonymous informant.

Neither Syria nor Iran are strong militarily, but together they have a considerable ability to deepen the mayhem in Iraq.

The Pentagon is spending $130 billion on a program to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers' lives. The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defense budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over $500 billion in five years' time.

Although scientists continue work on simulating nuclear bomb tests by computer, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Tuesday that the Nevada Test Site's ability to resume actual underground warhead detonations must be enhanced.

Under the guise of a provision to create jobs, the US Congress passed a revision to the tax code allowing an 85 percent reduction in taxes on foreign earnings of many of the country’s largest corporations. The reduction applies to profits made and held by overseas subsidiaries. Instead of requiring the companies to pay the standard 35 percent top corporate tax rate on these earnings, the rate on such earnings "repatriated" to the US parent will go down to a mere 5.25 percent for one year.

A new credit card aimed at millions of low-income families is to charge interest at up to 70% - the highest ever charged by a credit card company. The typical interest rate on the new Vanquis card will be 49.9%, but for some customers the company judge as high risk, it will be 69.5%.

While the White House claims this is about "terrorism", there are suspicions in the region that American involvement is also part of an overall US plan to ring China with military bases and regimes friendly, or at least beholden, to Washington.These countries (U.S., India, and Great Britain)have intervened in Nepal's civil war for reasons having to do with their own internal affairs, foreign policy strategies and political ideologies, not because any of them are overly concerned with the welfare of the Nepalese -Conn Hallinan/Asia Times

It was as if I'd seen it before. It was like history repeating itself, but his time I was there to witness what I'd only read about.I had a distinct advantage over the other investigators.I had spent four years immersed in an investigation into the Kennedy assassination, resulting in my book "Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza." Now, as one of the assigned investigators of the Oklahoma City bombing, I began to witness a series of events transpire that so closely matched the events in Dallas that it was chilling -Craig Roberts/NewsWithViews

Five federal government officials, including three from the CIA, have removed several documents from the archival papers of the late Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson housed at the University of Washington.Last week the federal document security team spent three days in the special collections division of the UW Suzzallo-Allen library -Everett Herald

An influential tri-national panel has considered a raft of bold proposals for an integrated North America, including a continental customs union, single passport and contiguous security perimeter. According to a confidential internal summary from the first of three meetings of the Task Force on the Future of North America, discussions also broached the possibility of lifting trade exemptions on cultural goods and Canadian water exports -Toronto Star CA

About 350 Palestinian former fugitives will be integrated into the Palestinian Authority security forces in the near future as part of an agreement reached between PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and leaders of Palestinian militant factions, The Jerusalem Post reported.The militiamen, who are on Israel's list of wanted terrorists, belong to various terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad -israelinsider IL

Russia said on Wednesday it wanted to supply Syria with advanced missile systems, a move certain to anger the United States which accuses Syria of having links to terrorism.Russia had long denied reports it wanted to sell missiles to Syria, its Cold War-era ally. The United States and Israel have urged Moscow to drop any such plans, saying Russian arms supplies would only strengthen militants in the Middle East

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld testified before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday along with Gen. Richard Meyers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and under secretaries of defense David Chu and Tina Jonas. Here is a transcript -Washington Post

Alan Greenspan hinted at further rises in US interest rates yesterday, claiming that the current 2.5pc target "remains fairly low by historic standards".The market read his comments, given at the Federal Reserve chairman's twice-yearly testimony to the Senate banking committee, as a indication that the Fed was poised for at least two further quarter-point moves at its next two meetings -Telegraph UK

Taking Baghdad to Beirut may be read for what the denomination implies: the destabilization of Iraq - a key Washington neo-conservative objective - exported to the wider Middle East.What many had feared - the "Lebanonization" of Iraq, bringing back the tragic memories of the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 -might be forced, with this assassination, to happen in reverse: the Iraqification of Lebanon -Pepe Escobar/Asia Times

A report by the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute says China has eclipsed the world's richest economy in consumption of four of the five basic foods, energy and industrial commodities. The reports says China's rapid growth means it is taking the main share of grain, meat, coal and steel.

The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency has warned that China's military modernization is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait and increasing the threat to US forces in the region.