immigration bill clears first tests
WASHINGTON — The bipartisan coalition behind a contentious overhaul of immigration laws stuck together on a critical early series of test votes Thursday, turning back challenges from conservative critics as the Senate Judiciary Committee refined legislation to secure the nation’s borders and offer eventual citizenship to millions living illegally in the United States. In a [...]
Obama backs Planned Parenthood in political fight
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he said are efforts by states to turn women’s health back to the 1950s, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide, and singled out the GOP-governed states of North Dakota and Mississippi for criticism. “When politicians try to turn Planned [...]
Gun-control legislation in blow to Obama
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan plan to expand background checks for gun buyers, dealing a crippling blow to President Barack Obama’s campaign to curb gun violence after the Newtown school massacre. Despite emotional pleas from families of victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings and broad public support nationwide, the plan to extend background [...]
Goal of nuclear-free NKorea tests US, China ties
BEIJING — Bound by threats from North Korea, the U.S. and China agreed Saturday to rid the bellicose nation of nuclear weapons in a test of whether the world powers can shelve years of rivalry and discord, and unite in fostering global stability. Beyond this latest attempt to restrain North Korea, the burgeoning nuclear crisis [...]
Portugal PM holds urgent budget talks after court ruling
Portugal’s PM has criticized the top court’s ruling that parts of the 2013 budget are unconstitutional, and has held urgent talks with the president. PM Pedro Passos Coelho held an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Saturday and said the Constitutional Court had made meeting commitments to international lenders difficult. The court had rejected four out of [...]
Conn. gun law seen as model for Congress, states
HARTFORD, Conn. — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law sweeping new restrictions on weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines Thursday in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, a bipartisan deal that gun control proponents hope will spark action in Washington and state legislatures across the country. Just four months ago, the governor [...]
France’s President Hollande fights tax scandal
A financial scandal is threatening French President Francois Hollande, after it emerged that his former Socialist Party treasurer invested in two Cayman Islands offshore companies. Jean-Jacques Augier, who managed Mr Hollande’s campaign funds, told the daily Le Monde that there was “nothing illegal” in his tax haven affairs. Meanwhile, ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac has been [...]
Can GOP win without Hispanics? Look at Arizona
PHOENIX — On the political map of the Southwest, Arizona stands out. Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico are independent-minded states that once leaned Republican but are trending Democratic, partly because of increasing numbers of Hispanic voters alienated from the GOP by its tough stance on illegal immigration. California, a GOP bastion for decades, is now [...]
Serbia-Kosovo talks fail to reach accord in Brussels
EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo have broken up without a deal. Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said he had not been able to reach agreement with his Kosovo counterpart, Hashim Thaci, on normalising ties. An EU official said talks in Brussels had attempted to resolve the status of Serb-dominated northern Kosovo. Kosovo unilaterally declared [...]
Senate group resolves key issues on immigration reform
With U.S. business and labor now in agreement, a bipartisan group of senators has resolved all major issues in a pending deal to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and aims to unveil it after Congress reconvenes in the second week of April, key lawmakers said on Sunday. The lawmakers said that while there was no [...]