Alexander Haig, the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, and White House Chief of Staff under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, died today at the age of 85. He was one of my favourite old school politicians.
He was certainly a very interesting character. A general who had fought in Korea and Vietnam, received multiple military awards; a supreme allied commander in Europe; a politician that in this time brought some colour and excitement to Washington …

Although day in Massachusetts will be over soon, I still take the chance and wish Republican Scott P. Brown best of luck in today’s election for the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.
It’s definitely not an easy task to win in such a Democratic stronghold as Massachusetts, but recent polls have indicated that Brown really has a strong chance. And, for the people of Massachusetts, it’s also a referendum on President Barack Obama and his policies.
I …

According to a recent poll, Republican candidate Scott P. Brown has a chance to win the Massachusetts Senate seat, left vacant by the late Ted Kennedy in the Democrat stronghold.
A poll by Public Policy Polling (PPP), a Democratic survey firm, shows that Brown has overtaken Democrat Martha Coakley, and holds a 48 per cent to 47 per cent lead as the 19th January special election approaches, NewsMax reports.
State Senator Brown leads 63-to-31% …

2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is joining Fox News as a regular commentator, the network announced.
The former Alaska Governor has signed a multi-year deal to offer her political commentary and analysis across all Fox News platforms, including Fox Business Channel, FoxNews.com and Fox News Radio. She will also participate in special event political programming for Fox Broadcasting.
Palin will also host periodic episodes of Fox News Channel’s “Real American Stories”, a series exploring inspirational …

US Senator John McCain, who might have cost himself presidency by praising his competitor Barack Obama during the campaign, has now changed his views for some reason – even he apparently starts to realise flaws in Obama’s presidency.
“President Obama is leading an extreme left-wing crusade to bankrupt America,” McCain says in one of the radio ads his campaign is airing, NewsMax reports. “I stand in his way every day. If I get a bruise or …

New Jersey’s state Senate defeated a bill to legalise gay marriage, leaving it unlikely the state will have a gay marriage law in the very near future, the New York Times reports.
The bill needed 21 votes to pass; only 14 senators approved the measure yesterday.
New Jersey offers civil unions that grant the legal rights of marriage to gay couples. Five states — Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont — allow gay marriage.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers are being trained as federal air marshals to ramp up security as the administration of US President Barack Obama try to prevent a repeat of the near-catastrophic attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, Fox News reports.
Obama ordered the US intelligence agencies to do a better job of recognising serious terror threats and sharing information with those who can disrupt a plot as quickly as …

We might think that it’s cold here in Britain where temperatures have been as low as -17°C, but that’s nothing compared to the winter in the US state of North Dakota, where temperatures sunk as low as -47°C.
According to the AP, the temperature plunged to -47°C in northern parts of North Dakota, -40°C in parts of South Dakota and -33°C in northeast Nebraska. Equally disturbing chills were expected overnight Friday.
In Iowa, snow was piled …

Terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will get his day in court Friday when he is to be arraigned on a six-count federal indictment that could bring him a life-plus prison sentence, Detroit Free Press reports.
The grand jury indictment, filed Wednesday in Detroit, charged the 23-year-old Nigerian national with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to destroy a Netherlands-to-Detroit jetliner with a homemade bomb sewn into his underwear as it prepared to land on …

Police in the US are searching for two teenage girls who are accused of robbing a bank in Cincinnati, USA Today reports.
The suspects, one believed to be 14 to 16 years old, the other 12 to 14, are accused of walking into 1st National Bank in this Cincinnati suburb Tuesday afternoon, giving the teller a note demanding money and leaving with a bag of cash,  Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Steve Barnett said. The girls …

Rapist Roman Polanski’s long-delayed criminal case is due to return to a Los Angeles court for a hearing, the Independent reports.
Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said Judge Peter Espinoza would convene a hearing on the film director’s rape case.
It is the first time the 32-year-old case will be back in court since a state appeal court last month rejected Polanski’s bid to have it dismissed.
Polanski was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl after plying her …

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recently told the Israeli consul in Los Angeles that President Barack Obama’s administration is fed up with both Israel and the “Palestinians”, Ha’aretz reports.
Emanuel met with Jacob Dayan, consul general of Israel in Los Angeles, about two weeks ago, after which Dayan briefed the Foreign Ministry. Emanuel told Dayan that the US is sick of the Israelis, who adopt suitable ideas months too late, when they are no …

US President Barack Obama said yesterday that intelligence had enough information to uncover the terrorist plot to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight, but failed to piece it all together before the suspect boarded a plane for Detroit armed with explosives, Fox News reports.
Obama said the suspect’s name should have been added to the no-fly list based on information available about him, adding that the Government will quickly make changes to ensure future attempts are thwarted.
“The …

MI5 gave the United States information about the Detroit plane bomber long before his attempted attack, the Daily Mail reports.
The name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was included in a dossier of people believed to have made attempts to deal with known extremists that was shared with American intelligence in 2008, a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. Abdulmultallab was listed as having tried to contact radical Islamists while studying in London but was not …

The United States lifted a 23-year ban on visitors infected with the HIV virus yesterday, The Times reports.
The ban was imposed in 1987 amid fears that HIV/AIDS could be spread by sharing lavatories or even coughing. It prompted health scientists to boycott America when holding conferences on the disease because of the 1989 detention of an HIV-positive Dutchman on his way to a meeting in San Francisco.
President Barack Obama, who completed a repeal process begun …

A man walked through a screening checkpoint exit into the secure side of a terminal at US Newark Liberty International Airport yesterday, and flights were grounded for hours and passengers had to be re-screened while air safety officials searched for him, Fox News reports.
Airline passengers were allowed to begin boarding their planes at one of America’s busiest airports about six hours after the man was seen bypassing security.
The man walked down an exit lane at …