A man seldom makes the same mistake twice.

Generally, it’s three times or more.

HAVANA (AP) – Think you’re obsessed with President Barack Obama and the many challenges he faces at home and abroad?

Well, you’re not alone.

Fidel Castro appears to have a fascination with the American leader that would make Obama Girl jealous, writing obsessively not only about his politics, but of his youth and vigor.

And unlike with past American heads-of-state — he slammed President George W. Bush as a genocidal drunk — Castro seems to genuinely like the fresh face in Washington.

Since handing over the Cuban presidency to his brother in February 2008, the 83-year-old has continued to publish his thoughts in essays called “Reflections of Comrade Fidel,” which are dutifully printed in state media and read repeatedly on government-controlled radio and television.

THE TELEGRAPH: UK–Lord Smith of Finsbury believes that implementing individual carbon allowances for every person will be the most effective way of meeting the targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

It would involve people being issued with a unique number which they would hand over when purchasing products that contribute to their carbon footprint, such as fuel, airline tickets and electricity.

Like with a bank account, a statement would be sent out each month to help people keep track of what they are using.

If their “carbon account” hits zero, they would have to pay to get more credits.

Those who are frugal with their carbon usage will be able to sell their unused credits and make a profit.

Lord Smith will call for the scheme to be part of a “Green New Deal” to be introduced within 20 years when he addresses the agency’s annual conference on Monday.

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in September by the most in a decade, reflecting rising demand for imported oil and automobiles as the economy rebounded from the worst recession since the 1930s.

The gap grew a larger-than-anticipated 18 percent to $36.5 billion, the highest level since January, from a revised $30.8 billion in August, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Imports surged by the most in 16 years, swamping a gain in exports.

This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family living in its downtown castle. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference for a superior.

overestimated the number of doctors in the U.S. Where we once thought there were 840,000 doctors, the total is now estimated to be only 760,000. The proposed $400 billion cut in Medicare raises the probability that more and more of those doctors who do practice will refuse to accept Medicare patients, aggravating the doctor shortage among the elderly, the population that needs them the most. As Obama’s program moves through Congress, despite the fierce opposition of a majority of American voters in virtually all the polls, it becomes clear that those moderates who vote for it will face harsh retribution at the polls from their outraged constituents. A kind of suicide-pact mentality is gripping the Democratic majorities in Congress, akin to that which came over it when Congress passed President Bill Clinton’s tax package in 1993. This disregard for the will of the marginal voter may make sense for those who come from safe districts, but it makes none for those who come from swing districts. For them, suicidal conduct leads to political demise.

WASHINGTON TIMES: Former President George W. Bush, outlining plans for a new public policy institute, on Thursday said America must fight the temptation to allow the federal government to take control of the private sector, declaring that too much government intervention will squelch economic recovery and expansion.

With the Obama administration establishing far-reaching controls in the auto, real estate and financial sectors, Mr. Bush said that “the role of government is not to create wealth, but to create the conditions that allow entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive.”

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (UPI) — Middle-aged women with high levels of the amino acid homocysteine are twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease later, Swedish researchers found. Thesis author Dr. Dimitri Zylberstein, of Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said the discovery could lead to a new and simple way of determining who is at risk for Alzheimer’s long before there are any signs of the illness. Zylberstein used data from the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg, which was started at the end of the 1960s when nearly 1,500 women age 38-60 were examined, asked questions about their health and had blood samples taken. Nearly all of the samples have now been analyzed and compared with information on who went on to suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia much later. “Alzheimer’s disease was more than twice as common among the women with the highest levels of homocysteine than among those with the lowest, and the risk for any

kind of dementia was 70 percent higher,” Zylberstein said in a statement. The researchers do not yet know whether it is the homocysteine itself that damages the brain, or whether there is some other underlying factor that both increases levels of the homocysteine and causes dementia. Elevated homocysteine levels have been linked to certain vitamin deficiencies — B12 and folate.

“To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.”

Elizabeth Stanton (1815-1902) US reformer

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY - YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR. IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY - YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY. IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER - YOU GET SHOT. IF YOU CROSS THE TURKEY BORDER ILLEGALLY - YOU SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN PRISON! BUT, IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY - YOU GET: -A DRIVERS LICENSE -A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD -WELFARE

-FOOD STAMPS - AND, FREE HEALTH CARE Oh well, sure. That makes perfect sense.

The secret password to get across the border is “Vote Democrat”.

“Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.”

Florence Nightingale, English Nursing Pioneer (1820-1910)

NEW YORK DAILEY NEWS: More city kids are graduating from high school, but that doesn’t mean they can do college math.

Basic algebra involving fractions and decimals stumped a group of City University of New York freshmen - suggesting city schools aren’t preparing them, a CUNY report shows.

“These results are shocking,” said City College Prof. Stanley Ocken, who co-wrote the report on CUNY kids’ skills. “They show that a disturbing proportion of New York City high school graduates lack basic skills.”

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese government spokesman said Barack Obama should be especially sympathetic to China’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence, as a black president who lauded Abraham Lincoln for helping abolish slavery…

China is sure to condemn such a meeting, and spokesman Qin underscored — and possibly intensified — the political temperature of the issue by citing Obama’s background and admiration for President Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the secession of the southern states and sought to abolish slavery, which Qin likened to Tibetan society under the Dalai Lama…

BREITBART: Current Media, a cable television company co-founded by former US vice president Al Gore, announced Wednesday that it is cutting 80 jobs as part of a reorganization.

The layoffs, which will leave Current with some 300 employees worldwide, come seven months after the San Francisco-based startup shelved plans for a 100-million-dollar initial public offering, citing market conditions.

VIENNA (AP) — Iran’s recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that is a year away from completion after fitful construction that first started seven years ago, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The diplomats also said that a recent inspection of the facility near the holy city of Qom by the International Atomic Energy Agency has reinforced suspicions that it could have been planned as part of a secret military nuclear program. Iran says it wants to enrich only to make atomic fuel but the West fears it could retool its program to churn out fissile warhead material.

One of the diplomats — a senior official from a European nation — says the hall is too small to be able to house the tens of thousands of centrifuges needed for peaceful industrial nuclear enrichment but the right size for the few thousand advanced machines that could generate the amount of weapons grade uranium needed for a military nuclear program.

“Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.”

Will Rogers (1879-1935) US actor, humorist

The Jerusalem Post

WASHINGTON POST: …Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said Sunday that he was concerned “this increased speculation” about Hasan’s evolving political and religious views “could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.” Casey is right to worry about the lunatics and bigots who now will think of all Muslims in the

military as potential enemies. But it only feeds such paranoia to ignore alarm bells that an unstable individual, Muslim or not, is about to blow.

BOSTON GLOBE: While Massachusetts recipients of federal stimulus money collectively report 12,374 jobs saved or created, a Globe review shows that number is wildly exaggerated. Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started.

The Globe’s finding is based on the federal government’s just-released accounts of stimulus spending at the end of October. It lists the nearly $4 billion in stimulus awards made to an array of Massachusetts government agencies, universities, hospitals,

private businesses, and nonprofit organizations, and notes how many jobs each created or saved.

But in interviews with recipients, the Globe found that several openly acknowledged creating far fewer jobs than they have been credited for.

One of the largest reported jobs figures comes from Bridgewater State College, which is listed as using $77,181 in stimulus money for 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. But Bridgewater State spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the college made a mistake and the actual number of new jobs was “almost nothing.’’ Bridgewater has submitted a correction, but it is not yet reflected in the report.

In other cases, federal money that recipients already receive annually - subsidies for affordable housing, for example - was reclassified this year as stimulus spending, and the existing jobs already supported by those programs were credited to stimulus spending. Some of these recipients said they did not even know the money they were getting was classified as stimulus funds until September, when federal officials told them they had to file reports.

“There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.”

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Communist revolutionary

FINANCIAL TIMES: The first thing Barack Obama did late on Saturday night following the passage of the healthcare bill in the House of Representatives was to phone the heads of three industry lobby groups to thank them for their support. Not included on the list was the largest insurance lobby group, American Health Insurance Plans, which doggedly continues to oppose Democratic reform efforts. …

The final vote, which included a lone Republican in favour and 39 Democrats against, was achieved after a last-minute amendment that ruled out public funding for healthcare plans that offer coverage for abortion. That concession – and Mr. Obama’s personal appeal for Democratic unity in a visit to Capitol Hill on Saturday – enabled a sufficiently large bunch of wavering conservative Democrats to put their support behind the $1,200bn 10-year reform effort.

FINANCIAL TIMES: China on Friday accused the US of protectionist and biased trade policies less than a week before president Barack Obama’s first visit to Beijing.

In a stinging rebuke to Washington, China’s commerce ministry promised to take measures to protect its domestic industry after the US slapped anti-dumping duties on $2.6bn of Chinese steel pipe imports. The duties are part of a growing roster of trade conflicts between the two countries, despite a high-level meeting last week in China aimed at reducing tensions.

“China resolutely opposes such protectionist practices and will take steps to protect the interests of our domestic industries,” Yao Jian, ministry spokesman, said on its website.

“The US should give objective consideration to the fact that the fundamental problem of the US industries in question is the fall of demand brought about by the financial crisis.”

At the meeting last week, China agreed to allow US imports of pork and to relax restrictions on importing wind power components. However, Paulo Soares, head of the Chinese operations of Suzlon, the Indian wind power group, said the new rules would make little difference. “The big companies already have installed manufacturing operations and established supply chains, so it is not going to change anything,” he said.

SACRAMENTO BEE: Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found.

California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas – and in 44 other states.

In a required state report to the federal government, the university system said the $268.5 million it received in stimulus funding through October allowed it to retain 26,156 employees.

That total represents more than half of CSU’s statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars.

“This is not really a real number of people,” CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said. “It’s like a budget number.”

POLITICO: Talk about bad timing.

As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.

Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.

CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.

All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worth’s greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

Janet Napolitano says her agency is working with groups across the United States to try to deflect any backlash against American Muslims following Thursday’s rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who reportedly expressed growing dismay over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, Americans can fend for themselves as far as Homeland Security is concerned. She is moving another 350 Border Patrol agents from the Mexican border to the Canadian border this year.

It’s like being in an old Twilight Zone episode! All you have to do is listen to Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and Gates - they are TELLING you what to believe - it is just when you get your eyes off THEM that you get confused because facts don’t line up.

It is standard sociopathic stuff, they have made up a reality - i.e. there are millions of jobs which have been created and there are millions of jobs which have been saved, you can spend $10 for every $1 you have and an election which was a major loss for their party was really a great success. You just have to remember to believe and you won’t have trouble understanding! Thanx Diane

WASHINGTON (AP)– Senate Democrats have blocked a GOP attempt to require next year’s census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen.

The proposal by Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter was aimed at excluding immigrants from the population totals that are used to figure the number of congressional representatives for each state. Critics said Vitter’s plan would discourage immigrants from responding to the census and would be hugely expensive. They also said that it’s long been settled law that the apportionment of congressional seats is determined by the number of people living in each state, regardless of whether they are citizens. A separate survey already collects the data.

The plan fell after a 60-39 procedural vote made it ineligible for attachment to a bill funding the census.

FOX NEWS: WASHINGTON - You’re afraid your cancer is back, and a health insurance company just turned you down.

Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems.

Wait a minute…You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify.

“If you are a cancer patient and have cancer now, you can’t wait six months to go into a plan because your condition can go from bad to death,” said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society.

Now, concerns are being raised about the design of the high-risk pools. In addition to the six-month wait, there’s a more fundamental issue — whether $5 billion set aside for the three-year program is enough.

Obama credits his Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for the risk-pools idea. But when the GOP candidate proposed it in 2008, the estimated cost was $7 billion to $10 billion a year.

“If you are somebody with cancer or a heart condition who needs immediate coverage and immediate treatment, that’s not very helpful,” said Karen Pollitz, a Georgetown University health policy professor.

THE HILL: Medicare’s chief actuary told The Hill on Thursday that it is unclear if he will have a cost estimate of the House healthcare reform bill before a scheduled vote this weekend. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has put the cost of the measure at $894 billion over 10 years, noting that it would reduce the deficit by $30 billion over the same time period. Republicans believe the price tag of the bill is much higher.

But it doesn’t sound like Rick Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will deliver his cost estimate before Saturday’s vote.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the speaker will not allow the final language of the health care to be posted online for 72 hours before bringing the bill to a vote on the House floor, despite her September 24 statement that she was “absolutely” committed to doing so.

House members are still negotiating important issues in the bill–whether it will provide taxpayer-funding for abortions, for example. Pelosi is pushing for a Saturday House vote, and a number of big changes will be introduced, likely less than 24 hours before the vote takes place (if in fact it does). The Rules Committee hasn’t yet released its resolution, or rule, that must be passed before the bill can move from committee to the floor. The rule will set the terms of debate and determine what amendments are in order.

GUARDIAN, U.K.–The UN’s nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a “two-point implosion” device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as “breathtaking” and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

The agency has also asked Iran to explain evidence that a Russian weapons expert helped Iranian technicians to master synchronised high-explosive detonations.

FOX NEWS: Republicans host a rally against Democrats’ health care reform, calling on those who attend to track down their elected representatives in Congress and put pressure on them to think twice about voting for the more than $1 trillion health care overhaul.

As a crowd of protesters shouted “kill the bill,” House Republicans on Thursday rallied opposition against the Democrats’ health care legislation, even as President Obama touted two major endorsements from doctors and seniors groups.

ABC NEWS: It is protest day, for the Left and the Right, on Capitol Hill.

First out of the gate - 9 Protesters backing a universal health care system briefly occupied Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office this morning.

Protesters were arrested, one by one, and dragged out of his office amid chants of “Everyone in and no-one out, universal healthcare now!” and “Represent Connecticut, not AETNA!”

The whole affair, from occupation to final arrest, lasted 40 minutes.

Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent, has said he will join Republicans to filibuster a Democratic health bill if it contains a public health insurance option to operate alongside the private insurance market.

CAIRO (AP)— Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tense exchanges with Pakistani civilians and Arab diplomats over a harrowing week of foreign stops exposed the confining limits of her office.

On her most ambitious and contentious overseas trip as secretary of state, Clinton had to resort to damage control after she appeared to mangle the Obama administration’s message on frozen Mideast peace talks.

“In reference to the quote from today’s news letter, I have to put in my two

cents worth even at the risk of being the unpopular voice.

Personally, I think it is great that they limit people to having three animals.

If you feel you have to have more than that then you pay for it. I wish the

local cities, especially Scottsdale, would limit the number of cats a household

can have and require that they be confined or leashed just like a dog.” …

“There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.”

Walter Cronkite, American News Anchor (1916-2009)

“From our perspective, we won last night,”

Nancy Pelosi, Mouth of the House

…Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page government takeover of health care does just that. On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

“Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.” ————————- “I am not a… leader. I don’t want you to follow me or anything else. If you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of the… wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could, because if I could lead you in, someone else could lead you out.” ————————- “I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.” ————————

“I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.” ————————- “The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.” ————————- “Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.” ————————- “When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong.”

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Undeterred by Republican election triumphs in Virginia and New Jersey, Democratic leaders put the U.S. House on a path to vote as early as Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of health-care policy in four decades.

The election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia won’t affect how the House proceeds on legislation to extend insurance to 36 million people and create a government- run program to compete with private insurers, lawmakers said.

MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - A year after his historic election, President Barack Obama sought to remind Americans on Wednesday the biggest problems he is grappling with — from the economy to the war in Afghanistan — are the legacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

With his approval ratings down from once-lofty levels and Tuesday’s Democratic election losses raising questions about his political clout, Obama held no special ceremony to mark the anniversary of his election as America’s first black president.

He instead traveled to Wisconsin to appear before a friendly audience in a school gymnasium and promote education as a pillar of his economic recovery efforts.

Obama was elected on a promise of sweeping change after eight years under Bush, but many Americans are increasingly expressing impatience that his pledge has yet to bear fruit.

Fourteen years before the Titanic sailed on an April day in 1912 on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, a novel titled “Futility” was published about an unsinkable and glamorous Atlantic liner, the largest in the world.

Like the Titanic, the fictional vessel was triple-screw and could make 24-25 knots; at 800 feet, it was a little shorter than the Titanic, but at 70,000 tons, its displacement was 4,000 tons greater.

Like the Titanic’s, its passenger list was the crème de la crème and there were not enough lifeboats on board. On a cold April night, the fictional “unsinkable” vessel strikes an iceberg and glides to the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of this liner, in the story by Morgan Robertson, was “The Titan.”

____________________________________________________________

“If the Obama administration can’t run the epidemiological equivalent of a two-car funeral, how can the government do an adequate job of managing the nation’s healthcare system? “

Dick Morris, former Clinton campaign manager and pundit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers who tell workers to stay home when they are sick will have to give them paid time off for up to five days under new federal legislation proposed on Tuesday.

The emergency law would cover pandemic H1N1 flu or any other infectious disease, said California Representative George Miller, a Democrat who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee and who introduced the bill.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care. The news media swoons in admiration — one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: “Why don’t you show some respect?!” The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader’s origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: “Embracing change is never easy.” So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait — did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who’s come here to eat us?

Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it’s also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president’s supporters and delight his detractors.

FINANCIAL TIMES: China’s air force chief has called military competition in space “inevitable”, a departure from Beijing’s past insistence that it is not pursuing space programmes for military purposes.

The remarks by General Xu Qiliang, head of the People’s Liberation Army air force, published in several state media, are a reminder of another area of potential future rivalry between the US and China. In addition, they indicate increased competition within China’s military.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea claimed Tuesday that it has successfully weaponized more plutonium for atomic bombs, a day after warning Washington to agree quickly to direct talks or face the prospect of a growing North Korean nuclear arsenal.

The announcement underlined Pyongyang’s impatience over securing one-on-one talks with Washington, as well as the difficulties in dealing with a regime that resorts to threats and provocations to get what it wants.

FINANCIAL TIMES: Gold prices on Tuesday surged to an all-time high after India’s central bank bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal, swapping dollars for bullion as the country’s finance minister warned the economies of the US and Europe had “collapsed”.

India’s decision to exchange $6.7bn for gold equivalent to 8 per cent of world annual mine production sent the strongest signal yet that Asian countries were moving away from the US currency.

“This is a landmark trade,” said Jonathan Spall a director at Barclays Capital and a gold specialist. “Central banks are conservative institutions and India’s move is a sign for other central banks and sovereign wealth funds that were contemplating buying gold.”

New Delhi’s acquisition came months after China revealed it had almost doubled its gold reserves in the past six years.

Traders and mining executives tipped China, Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds as candidates to snap up the rest of the gold the IMF plans to sell.

JERUSALEM — (AP) Hamas militants in Gaza have successfully test-fired an Iranian rocket able to reach Israel’s largest urban center, the country’s military intelligence chief said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee that the rocket could fly 37 miles (60 kilometers), and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.

Until now, rockets fired from Gaza have reached up to 25 miles (40 kilometers), putting one-eighth of Israel’s population within rocket range.

SPHERE: WASHINGTON (Nov. 3) — It was billed as a “major speech” following up President Obama’s promise last June in Cairo of a “new beginning” with the Muslim world. As soon as it ended, though, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was embarking on a hastily arranged detour to Cairo to salve Arab anger over her comments over the weekend.

Arab officials who hailed Obama in June for speaking of the Palestinians’ “daily humiliations” under occupation said Clinton’s words echoed those by previous U.S. administrations that sided with Israel. On Monday, she read a statement reiterating that “the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”

JERUSULEM POST: Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag.

Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah.

More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers.

A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board.