A non-UN sanctioned US drone attack has killed at least five people and wounded several others in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of South Waziristan, intelligence officials in the region say.

The five were killed on Sunday morning when a US drone aircraft fired two missiles at a vehicle in Azam Warsik, a militant hotbed on the Afghan border, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Meanwhile, locals said US predator drones were still hovering over the South and North Waziristan tribal regions.

The attack comes two days after two US drone attacks killed at least six people and wounded several others in North Waziristan Province near the border with Afghanistan.

The US frequently carries out such attacks on Pakistan's tribal areas. Attacks by unmanned American planes have left dozens of people dead in the volatile region over the past weeks.

Nearly 1,200 people were killed in 124 unauthorized US drone attacks in Pakistan in 2010.

Tel Aviv has moved to approve a plan to construct hundreds more illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

"The ministerial committee responsible for settlements had decided to build several hundred units at Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim, Ariel and Kyriat Sefer" in the West Back, announced the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Sunday statement, AFP reported.

The move would further complicate the stalled talks between Israeli and the Palestinian Authority officials.

Early this month, Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said that the illegal settlement construction in the occupied West bank has climbed sharply in the past five months.

The data, released by the bureau on Saturday, indicates that the Israeli regime started over 114 settlement units during the 10-month construction freeze Tel Aviv announced in November 2009.

The 114 units, the construction of which began during the so-called freeze have now been completed, as well as over 1,175 other units that started constructing before the partial moratorium, which excluded al-Quds (Jerusalem).

A fresh opinion poll shows that more than seven out of ten people in France are unhappy with President Nicolas Sarkozy's performance.

The survey carried out by the French Institute of Public Opinion showed only 29 percent of the poll respondents approved Sarkozy's actions, Reuters reported on Saturday.

This is his worst approval rating since he took office in 2007. Sixty nine percent of the respondents said they disapproved his policies.

However, the drop in Sarkozy's popularity is not a reason for the opposition to celebrate. Only 39 percent of the poll respondents thought that the opposition would have done a better job if it was in power.

The unemployment rate in France among youth aged 15 to 24 years reached 25 percent in the third quarter of 2010, well above the European average of 20 percent.

Ronald Reagan and his bodyguards did not realise he had been shot during his assassination attempt, according to a new audiotape, released 30 years after the incident.


The audio, from March, 1981, details the chaotic immediate aftermath of the shooting, when one of his bodyguards reassures others that "Rawhide is okay".

It was only after more minute that Special Agent Jerry Parr's initial message that another announced: "We want to go to the emergency room of George Washington."

When "Rawhide" - Reagan's code name - arrived at the hospital minutes later, doctors discovered that he had a bullet lodged in his lung, which had ricocheted off his car. He lost half his blood and required emergency surgery.

Neither the president nor his agents realised that he had been shot, and it appears that an agent's snap decision to take him to a hospital when he noticed that the US president was bleeding from the mouth, might have saved his life.

Mr Parr is heard shouting "let's hustle" as Mr Reagan's limousine suddenly changed course.

President Barack Obama will speak at the 126th annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on Saturday evening.

The white-tie event is an opportunity for journalists to poke fun at public figures and political themes of the day. .

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima's nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

The president left the White House Saturday afternoon for a short trip to Joint Andrews Base in Camp Springs, Md.

Body scanners used in airports have been subjected to re-testing after transportation officials discovered that erroneous recording of radiation levels were made by some personnel.

The move comes after the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday even allayed fears of the radiation risk from the controversial body scanners.

"The amount of radiation is approximately (the same as that received) as two minutes in the air," Napolitano told a Senate panel on Wednesday, citing independent studies to back her claim.

But a subsequent internal review of 15 airports over the last two years showed some discrepancies with radiation level data and the TSA ordered the machines to be tested again. On Friday, the agency said the issues found were "record-keeping errors."

The U.S. Treasury is depleting its cash at an accelerating pace, drawing down its cash balance by $81.6 billion in the just the first four days of March, leaving the federal government with only $108.9 billion on hand, according to the Daily Treasury Statement released Monday afternoon.

At the beginning of February , the Treasury had $349.1 billion in cash on hand, but spent that down by $158.5 billion during the month, ending February with only $190.6 billion on hand.

Were the government to continue to draw down its cash balance at the $20.4 billion-per-day rate that prevailed in the first four days of March, it would spend its way through its final $108.9 billion in little more than five days.

After an epic month of political struggle and three final hours of bitter debate, Republican lawmakers in the Assembly on Thursday gave Gov. Scott Walker his bill to repeal most collective bargaining by public employee unions.

Legislators voted 53-42 along largely partisan lines to pass the budget-repair proposal, but only after police carried demonstrators out of the Assembly antechamber.

But even with the battle won by Republicans, a wider war now remains for both sides, one expected to be fought in the courts and through recall efforts against 16 state senators.

All Democrats voted against the bill and were joined by four Republicans - Dean Kaufert of Neenah, Lee Nerison of Westby, Travis Tranel of Cuba City and Richard Spanbauer of Oshkosh. All other Republicans and the body's lone independent, Bob Ziegelbauer of Manitowoc, voted for the bill.

Walker hailed the vote.

"I applaud all members of the Assembly for showing up, debating the legislation and participating in democracy," he said in a statement. "Their action will save jobs, protect taxpayers, reform government and help balance the budget."

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said that the governor would sign the bill "as soon as possible."

Hundreds of rebel fighters have retreated from the strategic oil port of Ras Lanouf as Muammar Gaddafi's army pounds the town with artillery.

The rebels fled eastward in cars and pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.



One said government forces were raining rockets or tank shells on the city in what appeared to be preparation for a full-scale advance.

Shells fell near a city hospital and hit a series of residential buildings as Gaddafi's tanks moved further along Libya's main Mediterranean coastal road than they have been since the rebels seized most of the country's east.

An opposition fighter with a Kalashnikov rifle said he had fled the frontline outside Ras Lanouf.

NATO defence ministers met in Brussels today to discuss the escalating crisis. Britain had been pushing for a no-fly zone over Libya but after hours of talks, members concluded that the action would not be taken without a unanimous UN resolution.

However, the body resolved to increase the number of ships in the Mediterranean and to tighten up the arms embargo. Extra humanitarian assistance will also be offered.

The meeting came just hours after France became the first country to formally recognise the rebels' Interim Governing Council as Libya's legitimate government.

Paris said it planned to exchange ambassadors after President Nicolas Sarkozy met two representatives of the group based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

'It breaks the ice,' said Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman. 'We expect Italy to do it, and we expect England to do it.'

Germany said it froze billions in assets of the Libyan Central Bank and other state-run agencies. The U.S., UK, Switzerland, Austria and other countries have also frozen Gaddafi's assets.