Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that militant Palestinians, not Israel, are to blame for deteriorating conditions in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, as the United States announced it intends to donate $555 million to the impoverished Palestinians next year. ...more

December 17, 2007

The international community is being asked today to take a very expensive leap of faith in approving a huge new injection of aid to the Palestinians. ...more

December 17, 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and demanding Tehran come clean about its nuclear program while offering talks to sweeten the deal. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran. ...more

December 9, 2007

A slight woman with thick-framed glasses and somewhat disheveled graying hair wore an orange jail jumpsuit Tuesday as she sat in federal court. ...more

November 28, 2007

TAMPA U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. McCoun III Deloris Jean Baines threatening president ...more

November 27, 2007

As a wall of pessimism begins to crack, where's the diplomacy? Watching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice making repeated trips to Israel to try to broker some kind of deal between Israelis and Palestinians, while Iraq remains politically unresolved, leaves me feeling like my house is burning down and the fire department has decided to stop along the way to get two cats out of a tree. ...more

November 27, 2007

Arab holdout Syria agreed Sunday to attend a Mideast peace conference called by President Bush to restart talks to resolve the six-decade conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, yet expectations for the summit remained low. The two sides came to Washington without agreeing on basic terms for their negotiations. ...more

November 26, 2007

Saudi Arabia and other key Arab nations Friday agreed to attend a U.S.-sponsored peace conference, a move that added credibility to Washington's attempt to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before President Bush leaves office. ...more

November 24, 2007

In a bit of last-minute diplomacy, President Bush called the leaders of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to discuss details of the U.S. peace conference set to begin in Annapolis, Md., next week, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the goal is to wrap up a peace deal to produce a Palestinian state by the time Bush leaves office. ...more

November 22, 2007

The American-sponsored Middle East peace conference expected by the end of the month looks to be thin on content, mostly serving as a stage to begin formal negotiations on a peace treaty between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. ...more

November 12, 2007