US defence secretary cancels plans for joint conference with Hamid Karzai hours after comments, citing security reasons

Strained US-Afghan ties have suffered a fresh blow after newly appointed US defence secretary Chuck Hagel cancelled plans for his first joint news conference with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the second reminder of serious tensions in a brief visit to Afghanistan.

US officials cited security concerns, but the decision came just hours after the Afghan leader accused America of colluding with the Taliban to keep foreign troops on Afghan soil. Afghan officials said the presidential palace, where the men planned to meet the press, was totally safe.

"It doesn't make any sense," said one Afghan official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to discuss the sensitive issue. "It was supposed to take place at the palace, we don't see any security problems there."

US officials said the decision was taken because security concerns were raised, and only after consultations with the Afghan government.

A progressive group has demanded the head of the California Republican Assembly resign from her position due to a controversial comment she made about rape.

In a press release issued Sunday, the Courage Campaign said it planned to deliver about 30,000 signatures calling for the resignation of Celeste Greig to the California Republican Party Headquarters in Burbank on Monday. The signatures were collected on MoveOn.org's petition website SignOn.

"Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, but not to their own facts," the petition stated. "Rapes cause pregnancy. Celeste Greig (and other factually challenged politicians) need to resign from their high profile political positions so policy can be made based on science, not ideology."

Foreign Office investigates claims by Ansaru rebels, while Italian government is quoted as saying hostages are dead

The Foreign Office is investigating claims by a Nigerian Islamist group that it has killed seven kidnapped foreign construction workers, one whom is understood to be British.

The hostages were taken on 16 February while working for Lebanese construction company Setraco in Jama'are, a town about 125 miles north of Bauchi, where militant Islamists have launched numerous attacks. Ansaru, a splinter group independent from Boko Haram, the main terrorist group in northern Nigeria, claimed responsibility.

The FCO said it was "aware of reports of the death of a British national in Nigeria" but declined to comment further, urging the media not to speculate because of the "extremely sensitive" situation.

Italy's foreign ministry has said it believes the group of hostages are dead, according to an Italian news agency.

The progressive 'empathy gap', a strain of liberal authoritarianism, and a distortion of Holder's letter are invoked to defend Obama

Comencing immediately upon the 9/11 attack, the US government under two successive administrations has spent 12 straight years inventing and implementing new theories of government power in the name of Terrorism. Literally every year since 9/11 has ushered in increased authorities of exactly the type Americans are inculcated to believe only exist in those Other, Non-Free societies: ubiquitous surveillance, impenetrable secrecy, and the power to imprison and even kill without charges or due process. Even as the 9/11 attack recedes into the distant past, the US government still finds ways continuously to increase its powers in the name of Terrorism while virtually never relinquishing any of the power it acquires. So inexorable has this process been that the Obama administration has already exercised the power to target even its own citizens for execution far from any battlefield, and the process has now arrived at its inevitable destination: does this due-process-free execution power extend to US soil as well?

All of this has taken place with very little public backlash: especially over the last four years. Worse, it has prompted almost no institutional resistance from the structures designed to check executive abuses: courts, the media, and Congress. Last week's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director by GOP Sen. Rand Paul was one of the first - and, from the perspective of media attention, easily among the most effective -Congressional efforts to dramatize and oppose just how radical these Terrorism-justified powers have become. For the first time since the 9/11 attack, even lowly cable news shows were forced - by the Paul filibuster - to extensively discuss the government's extremist theories of power and to debate the need for checks and limits.

All of this put Democrats - who spent eight years flamboyantly pretending to be champions of due process and opponents of mass secrecy and executive power abuses - in a very uncomfortable position. The politician who took such a unique stand in defense of these principles was not merely a Republican but a leading member of its dreaded Tea Party wing, while the actor most responsible for the extremist theories of power being protested was their own beloved leader and his political party.

It is impossible to calculate the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church. In truth, the church itself likely could not answer that question, even if it wished to.

Its investments and spending are kept secret. Its real estate and art have not been properly evaluated, since the church would never sell them.

There is no doubt, however, that between the church's priceless art, land, gold and investments across the globe, it is one of the wealthiest institutions on Earth.

Since 313 A.D., when Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire, its power has been in near-constant growth.

The church was able to acquire land, most notably the Papal States surrounding Rome, convert pagan temples and claim relics for itself. Over 300 years, it became one of Europe's largest landowners.

For the next thousand years, tithes and tributes flowed in from all over Europe. Non-Christians and even fellow Christians were killed and their property confiscated. For example, the Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople in the early 13th century brought it gold, money and jewels.

But by the beginning of the 20th century, the church had faced several hundred years of turbulence. Protestantism had claimed many of its members. The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century outlawed the church and though Napoleon allowed it to return, his relationship with various popes was stormy.

Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Sen. Rand Paul,R-Ky., to confirm that President Obama does not have the authority to kill an American on U.S. soil in a non-combat situation, Obama's spokesman announced today.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney quoted from the letter that Holder sent to Paul today. "Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on an American soil?" Holder wrote, per Carney. "The answer is no."

President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela's presidential guard said late Wednesday.

"He couldn't speak but he said it with his lips ... 'I don't want to die. Please don't let me die,' because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country," Gen. Jose Ornella told The Associated Press.

The general said he spent the last two years with Chavez, including his final moments, as Venezuela's president of 14 years battled an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region.

Ornella spoke to the AP outside the military academy where Chavez's body lay in state. He said Chavez's cancer was very advanced when death came but gave no details.

dems ? Do U have any thoughts on Obama's transition from a progressive academic humanist 2 a regressive corporate warlord?

-
John Cusack (@johncusack) March 06, 2013

Actor John Cusack has been a consistent critic of unmanned drones no matter who occupies the Oval Office, and while thousands are tweeting today that they #StandWithRand as the senator demands answers on the Obama administration's drone policy, Cusack is wondering where the progressive Democrats are standing.

For gods sake where are democrats ?? "@democracynow: Rand Paul: Obama Admin Response Drones "More Than Frightening" owl.li/itdHI"

- John Cusack (@johncusack) March 6, 2013

Good question"@cenkuygur: Up to 8 Senators now joining the Rand Paul #filibuster. Where are the so-called progressive Democratic senators?"

- John Cusack (@johncusack) March 6, 2013

on holder claiming right to kill even his own citizens..and I remember Ambrose (cont) tl.gd/l81o75

- John Cusack (@johncusack) March 6, 2013

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer called Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) filibuster of the John Brennan nomination for CIA director Wednesday a "stroke of political genius."

Appearing on Fox News's Special Report, Krauthammer also said, "This will be a moment that people will say has launched him as a national figure."

Hoping to begin rebuilding bridges frayed by years of neglect and abuse, President Obama last night bought dinner for a dozen Republican Senators as the two sides broke bread to try to begin reaching an accommodation on the budget and other issues.

Senators are not used to skimping on meals, and the dinner must have set the president - who paid out of his own pocket - back a pretty penny. Or more like some Susan Anthony dollars.

The outing at Washington's posh Jefferson Hotel could easily have cost a grand or two, especially if it was held at the Jefferson's exquisite Plume restaurant, which has a prix fixe menu costing $85, before you start including booze, which senators like to include.