Politics

In a unanimous 95-0 vote Thursday, the United States Senate passed a bill that would forbid employers and health insurance companies from discriminating against someone based on information learned through genetic testing. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, described by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy as "the first major new civil rights bill of the new century," will now be sent back to the House of Representatives, where it could be approved as early as next week. President George W. Bush, who would have to sign the bill for it

Hillary Clinton, one of the two remaining contenders for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States has won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. With 99.51% of districts reporting, Clinton received 1,238,232 votes (54.6%) and Obama got 1,030,703 (45.4%). This translates to an estimated 84 delegates for Clinton and 74 for Obama. Additionally, Pennsylvania has 29 unpledged "superdelegates". Despite her win, she still lags behind frontrunner Barack Obama in the number of delegates. Neither candidate has the needed number of del

John McCain, the leading Republican presidential candidate, today launched a campaign tour across parts of the United States. One of the first places he visited was Arlington County, Virginia, where he made a speech on a variety of issues. "I've been left recently in the unfamiliar position of facing no opposition within my own party," said McCain at the beginning of the speech. " As you might recall, it was a different story last year, when I could claim the unqualified support of Cindy and my mother -- and Mom was starting to keep her option

Some results from the recount of the Zimbabwe election have been released. Both the Movement for Democratic Change and the ruling Zanu-PF party have retained one seat. A representative Zanu-PF commented on the seat they retained. "We are happy to retain the seat and we believe the same will happen in all the constituencies where recounting is taking place," they said. Zimbabwe election officials begun to recount 23 out of 210 constituencies' ballots after president Mugabe's Zanu-PF party accused the opposition party, the MDC, of bribing elect

United States presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Iran against an attack on Israel; "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," the former First Lady said. Clinton was speaking in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America television program. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," Clinton said. "That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perha

Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper, US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón met yesterday at the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit, held this year in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first meeting was between Bush and Calderón. Afterwards, Bush noted that they "had a very long and very good discussion on a variety of issues. U.S. and Mexican relations are very important." Bush congratulated Calderón. "I want to congratulate you and thank you for your strong leadership," he said. "We talked ab

Officials in Georgia have alleged that a Russian fighter jet shot down a Georgian spy plane on Sunday. Colonel David Nairashvili of Georgia's air force told Associated Press that the spy plane recorded video of a Russian fighter before it was downed. According to the foreign ministry of Russia, Abkhaz rebels shot down the Georgian spy plane with anti-aircraft weapons. The statement said that President Vladimir Putin expressed "bewilderment" that Georgian sent a spy plane into that area, which it said was in violation of a 1994 cease-fire agree

David Miliband, the British foreign secretary today said that "the constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe continues as President Mugabe persists in his ambition to steal the election." Miliband noted in his statement that "it is over three weeks since the elections were held but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is yet to announce the Presidential results." "More worryingly President Mugabe and his ZANU(PF) party have unleashed a campaign of violence against those ordinary Zimbabweans, sixty percent of them, who in spite of everything voted agains

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Baghdad's Green Zone for a previously unannounced visit to Iraq. Yesterday Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened an "open war" against the current Iraqi government unless they stopped their operations against his Mahdi Army. In response to this, a US-Iraqi coalition clashed with his forces in Baghdad and to the south. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has also threatened to ban al-Sadr and his supporters from political life if they continue to use militias. Miss Rice hopes t

Early Friday, former United States President Jimmy Carter continued his nine-day tour in the Middle East, meeting with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria despite criticism from both the US and Israel. After more than four hours of talks, leading Hamas figure Mohammed Nazzal told reporters, "Carter suggested a truce and that Hamas should stop its rockets against Israel." He added, "We support a truce, but Israel should support it too." A second round of talks were to commence later Friday where they would discuss the release of captur

Ten people have been arrested over a school fire in Uganda over possible negligence on their parts. The news comes as the death toll in the fire reaches 20 schoolgirls. Earlier reports also say two adults died, but later sources make no mention of this. Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said the matron of the dormitory that caught fire and the guards at the Budo girl's school were arrested, but provided no details of their alleged role in the April 14 disaster. However, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni previously commented that there are "s

The Chinese arms ship An Yue Jiang, bound for Zimbabwe, which was expelled from Durban Port in South Africa yesterday evening by the city's high court, is now said to be heading for Angola. Paulo Zucula, Mozambique's Transport and Communications Minister, who has been following the ship's controversial journey, believes that the An Yue Jiang is now heading for Luanda, capital city of Angola. "We know that it registered its next destination as Luanda because here we wouldn't allow it into Mozambican waters without prior arrangements", he told R