September's national convention for Republicans won't be a bed of roses for Sen. John McCain. There's at least one impediment to keep him from his party's nomination — a probable fight over the platform.

At issue are his stances on such explosive issues as global warming, immigration, stem-cell research and campaign finance. The Washington Post reports that, "Virtually the entire platform will have to be rewritten to lessen the imprint" of President Bush, whose name appears on nearly every page."

Although McCain has yet to reveal how he plans to alter the strongly conservative platform, the Post reports that many conservatives fear he'll want the platform to reflect his own views that in many instances diverge from those of most conservatives.

McCain is "really out of step with the strong majority of his party," Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute told the Post. The Institute opposes McCain's positions on climate change.

GOP officials in the Republican National Committee, as well as those in McCain's campaign, told the Post they have much in common with conservatives. They say their conversations as they approach the convention suggest there will not be a nasty platform fight.

"We are confident that this process will produce a platform that all Republicans will enthusiastically support," said Joe Pounder, a spokesman for McCain. "Our party is united, and will continue to work together to elect John McCain in November."

The U.S. military has finished delivering 550 tons of yellowcake uranium — left over from the late Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons-making era — from Iraq to a uranium trading company in Canada, Pentagon officials confirmed to FOX News on Monday.

Cameco, which sells the natural uranium, also called "yellowcake," to electricity-producing utilities around the world, bought the uranium for an undisclosed price several weeks ago.

To assist in the sale, the U.S. military transported the uranium over the weekend to "ensure its safe transit," senior Pentagon officials said.

"The Department of Defense was responsible for the safe and secure transfer of materials from Iraq to the country of purchase," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "The cargo was transported by convoy from Tuwaitha nuclear research facility in Baghdad to a secure location in the Green Zone" and then loaded onto a C-17 and flown to an intermediate location via 37 sorties, he said.

Once at that intermediate location, which Whitman declined to reveal, the cargo was shipped to a third country where it was loaded onto a U.S.-flagged cargo ship. It was transported from there to Canada.

Tuwaitha is the facility that was bombed by Israel in 1981 and again by the U.S. during the 1991 Gulf War. It was a centerpiece of Hussein's nuclear weapons effort, and was looted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

ATLANTA — A strict new Georgia law is designed to keep sex offenders away from children by monitoring how close they live to schools, parks and other spots where kids gather -- and threatens them with strict penalties if they fail to register.

But what about the offenders who don't have an address?

Georgia's Supreme Court on Monday considered whether the law unfairly subjects homeless offenders to a life sentence if they fail register a home address.

The case involves William James Santos, a homeless man and convicted sex offender who was kicked out of a Gainesville homeless shelter in July 2006 and was arrested three months later on charges he failed to register with Georgia's sex offender list.

His lawyers say the law creates a guessing game for Santos and other homeless offenders because it bars them from giving a post office box or simply saying they are homeless.

They also argue that homeless offenders will become a prime target for the measure's tough criminal penalties, which call for a mandatory life in prison sentence for offenders who fail to register their address for a second time.

"These sex offenders, unfortunate enough to have no street address, are subject to life in prison," said Adam Levin, an attorney for Santos. "This gives Mr. Santos and every other sex offender with no address no other right but to fail to comply with the law."

Prosecutors warn that allowing offenders to mark themselves as homeless risks defeating the purpose of the measure. It could "invite sex offenders to not enter a lease, not purchase a property, to declare themselves homeless," said assistant district attorney Vanessa Sykes.

Sykes also contended the law can be interpreted to give the homeless some leeway to mark down a temporary address, such as a shelter.

NEW YORK — Oil prices tumbled nearly $4 a barrel Monday, erasing many of last week's record gains in a single session as concerns about potential supply disruptions eased.

Meanwhile, the average retail price for gasoline rose 1.9 cents last week to hit a record of $4.11 a gallon, the government said Monday.

The national price for regular, self-service gasoline is up $1.13 from a year ago, reflecting rising crude oil costs that reached a record above $145 a barrel last week, the federal Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of service stations.

But Monday, light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $3.92, or about 2.7%, to settle at $141.37 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract sank as low as $139.50, or $5.79 below Thursday's settlement price.

Traders drove prices sharply higher at the end of last week as they bet that conflict with Iran or some other event could cut supplies, and they didn't want to get caught unprepared over the long Independence Day weekend, analysts said. There was no floor trade Friday in the U.S. because of the July Fourth holiday.

As concerns about supply disruptions subsided, many traders on Monday sold off contracts they had bought as insurance last week.

"We got through the holiday without any major news," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. "No news is good news, or in this case, no news is bearish news."

After the last few weeks' run-up, however, analysts were skeptical that the drop signaled the start of a long-term decline. Prices set records in each of the previous six sessions.

"We're just moving into a new and higher trading range" of about $140 to $146 a barrel, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "We'll probably consolidate there for a week or two ... then probably push back into new record territory."

US forces killed 20 Taliban fighters during airstrikes in Nangarhar province today in the latest in a series of attacks along the Pakistani border. 

The US military targeted “a large group of militants” with “precision airstrikes” in the mountains of the Deh Bala district in Nangarhar, a press release from Combined Joint Task Force – 101 reported. Intelligence report indicated the Taliban were operating in the area. Geo TV reported 20 Taliban were killed in the attack.

Nangarhar is home to Tora Bora, the location of the last major battle of US and Afghan allies aginst the Taliban and al Qaeda in the winter of 2002. Osama bin Laden and numerous senior al Qaeda leaders slipped the cordon and escaped into Pakistan.

Did you know John Kerry was in Vietnam?

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Kerry says Republican John McCain doesn't have the judgment to be president.

If that's the case, then it's probably a good thing McCain rejected overtures from Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, to form a bipartisan ticket and run with Kerry as his candidate for vice president.

Kerry had no kind words for his Senate colleague Sunday, accusing McCain of poor decision-making on everything from backing tax cuts for the wealthy to making support for continuing the U.S. military presence in Iraq the centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

"John McCain … has proven that he has been wrong about every judgment he's made about the war. Wrong about the Iraqis paying for the reconstruction, wrong about whether or not the oil would pay for it, wrong about Sunni and Shia violence through the years, wrong about the willingness of the Iraqis to stand up for themselves," Kerry, who supports Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"If you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove," the Massachusetts senator added, echoing an Obama campaign talking point.

Kerry later said the McCain of 2008 isn't the McCain he courted in 2004.

"John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting. It is not the John McCain as the senator who defined himself, quote, as a maverick, though questionable," Kerry said. "This is want-to-be president John McCain. The result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about."

McCain adviser Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said McCain was the one who stood up to the administration and urged President Bush to send more U.S. troops to Iraq to help control violence. Obama did not support the addition of troops.

Violence in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level in more than four years as a result of the 2007 buildup of forces.

Iran has resumed work on constructing highly sophisticated equipment that nuclear experts say is primarily used for building atomic weapons, according to the latest intelligence reports received by Western diplomats.

The work is aimed at developing the blueprint provided by Dr AQ Khan, the "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, who sold Iran details of how to build atom bombs in the early 1990s.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which has overall responsibility for the country's nuclear programme, has set up several civilian companies to work on the programme whose activities are being deliberately concealed from the United Nations nuclear inspection teams.

The companies, based on the outskirts of Tehran, are working on constructing components for the advanced P2 gas centrifuge, which can enrich uranium to weapons grade two to three times faster than conventional P1 centrifuges.

Iran's controversial nuclear enrichment programme at Natanz, which Tehran insists is designed to produce fuel for nuclear power, runs on P1 centrifuges. But Iranian nuclear scientists recently conducted successful tests on a prototype P2 centrifuge at Natanz, and the Revolutionary Guard has now set up a network of companies to build components for the advanced centrifuges.

This has raised concerns among Western experts that Iran is continuing work on its nuclear weapons programme, despite Tehran’s protestations that its intentions are peaceful.

“If Iran’s nuclear intentions were peaceful there would be no need for it to undertake this work in secret,” said an official familiar with the intelligence reports.

In June 2008, Iran's Morality Police began a new phase in their campaign against Western-style clothing and hairstyles. Women are being arrested if their headscarves do not fully cover their hair or their clothes show their figures too clearly. Following photos are from the enforcement of the morality laws in the capital city Tehran.

From The Long War Journal

 

Kabul was rocked with a major attack on Monday. A suicide car bomber hit the outside wall of the Indian embassy in a crowded neighborhood in Kabul on Monday, killing 41 people and wounding more than 140. The attack is the largest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The massive explosion occurred at 8:35 AM, during the morning rush hour when the streets were packed. The Afghan Interior Ministry is located just down the street from the Indian Embassy. Scores of wounded sprawled throughout the streets in the wake of the devastating bombing. "We are walking on rubble," a senior embassy official told DNA India. "The embassy has been blown up badly, the outer structures," he said on condition of anonymity.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Officials say a suicide bomber killed seven people in an attack in the center of the Afghan capital.

The bomb went off in a car during Monday morning rush hour on a busy street in Kabul near the Indian Embassy, which sits across the street from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry.

Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry, says five people were killed at the scene.

Sayed Qabir, the chief of a Kabul hospital, says his staff have treated eight people wounded in the blast, but two had died.

While Afghanistan has seen increasing violence in recent months, the capital has been largely spared from random bomb attacks that Taliban militants use in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled car outside the Indian embassy in the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, causing several casualties, the interior ministry said.
 
"It was a suicide car bomb in front of the Indian embassy. There are casualties but at this time a don't have a figure," ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

An Afghan man at the scene told AFP it appeared that the bomber blew up just outside the gate of the embassy, which is near the interior ministry.

About four cars were destroyed and flesh was scattered across the area, but it was not clear if it was from the bomber or casualties, he said.

At least nine wounded were evacuated and ambulances sent to the area, an employee of the city's ambulance services told AFP on condition of anonymity. It was not yet known if there were any dead, he said.

The explosion just after 8:30am sent plumes of brown smoke into the air and was heard across the central city.

Kabul has in recent years been hit by a series bomb attacks, including suicide attacks, blamed on Islamic rebels -- mainly the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Witnesses say a bomb has exploded close to Afghanistan's Interior Ministry in central Kabul. 

The blast happened during the morning rush hour Monday on a busy street in the city center. Ambulances were ferrying the injured from the scene.

It is not immediately known whether anybody was killed.

While Afghanistan has seen increasing violence in recent months, the capital has been largely spared from random bomb attacks that Taliban militants use in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority is hoping Sen. Barack Obama wins the presidential election in November and expects Obama to immediately set out to create a Palestinian state once he takes office, a top PA official said.

"We would like to see Obama elected. If he is elected, an agreement about the foundation of a Palestinian state (would be) reached," PA Planning Minister Samir Abdullah told reporters in Tokyo this weekend.

Abdullah, who is the former head of the Palestinian Communist Party, said the PA expects Obama to win in November. He said once the Illinois senator takes office, "he will immediately study the Palestinian cause and will try to push it forward."

"Obama promised he will not wait until the last period of his office to relaunch negotiations ... he will begin doing this since his first day in office unlike President Bush, who waited until his last period of power."

Abdullah's remarks were published yesterday in the Firas Press Network, a Palestinian news website identified with PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization.

 

Abdullah is not the only Palestinian official to recently express support for Obama.

In a headline-making interview, Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' chief political adviser in the Gaza Strip, told WND and WABC Radio in April he "hopes" Obama becomes president.

"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," said Yousef.

"I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse. ... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principal. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance," Yousef said, speaking from Gaza.

Obama has repeatedly condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization that should be isolated until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel.

Obama questioned over ties to Palestinian activist
Obama has been assailed over his stated commitment to Israel, although he has repeatedly insisted during interviews he is a strong supporter of the Jewish state.

At a recent event in a Boca Raton, Fla., synagogue, participants in a panel discussion quizzed Obama about his relationship with Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, a pro-Palestinian activist and harsh critic of Israel who has been described as a friend of the senator.

Obama replied: "You mentioned Rashid Khalidi, who's a professor at Columbia. I do know him, because I taught at the University of Chicago. And he is Palestinian. And I do know him, and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."

 

A military attack to halt Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon may be too dangerous. Alternatives to an airstrike are being floated, but can they be effective? One thing, at least, should be abundantly clear: The West's current diplomatic strategy — offering endless incentives to Iran, hoping it will change its behavior — is little more than an exercise in self-delusion.

Western diplomats reportedly are "disappointed" at Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's written response over the weekend to the most recent incentive package that the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, offered to Iran. Disappointed? The Iranian response should have been foreseeable to anyone who's been paying attention.

Reading Mr. Solana's package of benefits, Israel's Ephraim Sneh told me, "I thought it was being offered to Sweden or Norway," not a terrorist regime that has thumbed its nose at U.N. Security Council resolutions. But the mullahs will react to the new generous package as they always have, he predicted last week.

"Iran will fool the West to buy time, and the West will allow itself to be fooled," Mr. Sneh, a former deputy defense minister, said.

Sure enough, European diplomats swore that they could detect "new language" in statements from Iranian officials such as Mr. Mottaki and Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Their statements were vague enough to raise hopes for a breakthrough. But then the nonanswer came in writing: The mullahs made it clear that they have no intention whatsoever of suspending their enrichment of uranium, as the Security Council has demanded. Instead, they offered more negotiations.

Surprised? Was any other outcome possible?

"I don't think there's any question that Barack Obama should change his plan in Iraq,” Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said early last week, setting a trap. "He is now clinging to a very ideological commitment."

After Obama’s remarks last Thursday signaling that he might change (or “refine,” as Obama has put it) his timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, Cantor sprung that trap, saying Sunday that the Democratic candidate “is a great politician, but he’s a politician who's caught between a rock and a hard place, politically."

It’s no wonder that Obama, who has referred to “the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," wants to talk about Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos,” Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said on a conference call last Monday responding to a report that Al Qaeda had reconstituted a safe haven inside Pakistan. “We have five times as many troops in Iraq as we do in Afghanistan, yet John McCain wants to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely.”

In June, at least 27 American soldiers died in Afghanistan compared with at least 29 in Iraq, according to the Associated Press, and troop deaths including international forces in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq for the first time.

Voters, however, have remained more concerned with the war in Iraq than with a broader war on terror.


According to a June 15 ABC News/Washington Post poll, the war in Iraq is still the top issue for 19 percent of voters — more than any other issue, but down significantly from previous years — while only 4 percent identified terrorism and national security as their top concern. (The war in Iraq itself, however, remains deeply unpopular, with just 30 percent of adults favoring it, and 68 percent opposing it in a CNN poll conducted in late June.)

A CNN poll released last week showed voters’ concerns about terrorism at a post-Sept. 11 low, and a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll conducted in mid-March asking which of a list of potential threats voters were most concerned with showed the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan as next to last.

In Iraq, the surge in troop levels — which McCain was an early advocate for and Obama opposed and initially denied was accomplishing much before later softening his tone — has been accompanied by a dramatic drop in the number of American and Iraqi casualties. McCain deemed his opponent’s opposition to the surge a failure in judgment, and Republicans hope that they’ve framed the issue so that Obama can’t acknowledge much progress in Iraq without backing away from his plan to withdraw almost all American troops within 16 months.

In part to avoid that lose-lose formulation, Obama has reemphasized his foreign policy that hinges on defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The whole reason why Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq in 2002, as he said back then, is that he said it would be a dangerous diversion from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the people who hit us on 9/11," Rice said in a Wednesday interview with Politico. "And it has exactly the effect that he predicted and feared.”

Later this summer, he’ll visit both Iraq and Afghanistan, in part to keep the two countries interlocked in the minds of voters and reporters.

“I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed,” Obama said Thursday, the day before the Fourth of July weekend, when voters tend to be more concerned with backyard barbecues than world affairs, in remarks many took to be a shift in his timetable to withdraw troops. “And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”