Daily News Digest

The lastest news on Iraq, Republican campaign, Democratic campaign, Mental health parity, Budget, Immigration, Jobs for single Moms, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Andes, Kenya, Iran, and Rehabilitating Luther.

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Republican campaign. It's Official: Party and President Back McCain "Senator John McCain of Arizona was greeted as the new standard-bearer of a Republican Party he has sometimes battled, winning the endorsement of a president he has feuded with in the past and the embrace - and financial help - of the Republican National Committee." McCain gets Bush's blessing "Eight years ago, their bitter rivalry came to a head in South Carolina when George W. Bush put an end to John McCain's presidential bid. Now they are standing side by side," John McCain counts Bush at his side, but how close? "McCain will face a serious challenge in deciding how much to campaign with the deeply unpopular president at a time when skittish voters are demanding change."

Democratic campaign. Results Refocus Democratic Campaign "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island reinvigorated her once-shaky presidential candidacy and reshaped her debate with Sen. Barack Obama, but those successes yielded only a modest gain in the battle for delegates," As race tightens, the tone toughens "With a protracted delegate fight now likely to drag well into the spring, the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination took on a decidedly tougher tone as Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton traded heightened charges of experience inflation and questions about integrity." Debate swirls as Clinton softens Florida, Michigan stand "Democratic members of Congress from Florida and Michigan met Wednesday evening in search for a solution to the thorny issue of what to do about both states' delegates"

Mental health parity. House Approves Bill on Mental Health Parity"After more than a decade of struggle, the House passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses. ... The House bill is named for Senator Paul Wellstone, the Minnesota Democrat killed in a plane crash in 2002. He had a brother with severe mental illness. The main sponsor of the Senate bill, Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, has a daughter with schizophrenia."

Budget. Democrats Promise Budget Surpluses "House Democrats awarded initial approval of an election-year budget blueprint that would produce sizable surpluses by 2012 by allowing President Bush's tax cuts to expire as scheduled."

Immigration. Cost of keeping illegals out takes toll "Elected officials in the two dozen counties along the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas say the cost of apprehending, arresting and convicting illegal immigrants is crippling their courts and the region's entire criminal justice system." DHS Strains As Goals, Mandates Go Unmet "Stumping for President Bush's ill-fated immigration overhaul in 2006, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed that his department would wrest "operational control" of the nation's borders away from human and drug traffickers within five years."

Jobs for single Moms. A New Job Track for Single Mothers in Wyoming "Here in a state with the highest gap in the nation between a woman's wage and a man's, and a divorce rate 30 percent above the national average, some women are finding a new way to storm the economic barricades."

Iraq . No Need for Lawmakers' Approval of Iraq Pact, U.S. Reasserts "The Bush administration advanced a new argument for why it does not require congressional approval to strike a long-term security agreement with Iraq, stating that Congress had already endorsed such an initiative through its 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein." Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore "Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven." Iraqi Christians cling to last, waning refuges "The Christians who fled sectarian persecution that followed the US invasion in 2003 are now battling to hold onto one of their final refuges."

Israel-Palestine. Abbas Agrees to Resume Peace Talks With Israel; Monitoring Group to Meet "Under heavy U.S. pressure, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he intended to restart peace negotiations that he had suspended earlier this week in anger over Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip that killed many civilians." Palestinian Authority and Israel will resume peace talks, Rice says "With help from an Egyptian cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership to resume peace talks with Israel." Rice says peace negotiations will resume "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but without pressing for a cease-fire that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged to halt the violence that derailed negotiations earlier this week." Gaza humanitarian crisis worst in 40 years "Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has created the worst humanitarian crisis since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, aid and rights groups said."

Andes . Regional Bloc Criticizes Colombia Raid in Ecuador "The Organization of American States approved a resolution declaring the Colombian military raid into Ecuador a violation of sovereignty, in a move aimed at easing a diplomatic crisis in the Andes." Diplomats Closer To Ending Crisis In Latin America "As Venezuelan troops took up positions on Colombia's border, diplomats at the Organization of American States moved closer to resolving a crisis that ignited when Colombia launched a strike against Marxist rebels just inside Ecuador." Colombia crisis appears to be easing "Even as relations remained tense between Colombia and Venezuela, there were signs that the Andean region's most serious crisis in recent years might be easing." State Dept.: U.S. will examine captured rebel hard drives "Meanwhile, the U.S.'s top-ranking diplomat for Latin America told a House committee that Colombia has promised soon to share the hard drives from the captured computers with the United States."

Kenya . Kenya MPs urged to back agreement "Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki urges MPs to pass into law a power-sharing deal aimed at ending weeks of violence." Kenya set to revamp constitution "In a speech to legislators, Mwai Kibaki, the country's president, urged them to set aside partisanship and enshrine into law a pact to end the post-election crisis."

Iran . Iran's Religious Conservatives Are Expected to Solidify Power at Polls "With eight days before Iran's parliamentary elections, there is little doubt that religious conservatives will tighten their grip on power, pushing aside some of the veteran politicians who helped found the Islamic Republic 29 years ago." UK fears Iran still working on nuclear weapon "The British government said that Tehran could still be developing a nuclear weapon, and called into question a key American intelligence finding that work on building an Iranian bomb had stopped in 2003."

Rehabilitating Luther. That Martin Luther? He wasn't so bad, says Pope "Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices. Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians - known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis - at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence."