Saab AT4 portable anti-tank missile. This is one of Saab’s anti-missile systems. The one sold to Saudi Arabia, Bill 2 is heavier. The Swedish defense contractor Saab sells advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia. This writes the daily newspaper Dagens Industri today. Saab does not want to comment on the issue. A secret affair since 2002 The Swedish Agency for Non-Proliferation and Export Controls (ISP)... 

Bruno Rodriguez Cuba is offering a series of small but specific steps the administration of President Barack Obama can take to soften the United States’ 48-year-old trade embargo, including expanding flights and establishing ferry service between both countries and dropping bank bans that keep U.S. credit cards from working on the island. The 19 suggestions are a new – and perhaps conciliatory... 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday there is “no justification” for extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, firing the latest salvo in a brewing battle over taxes. The leading Democrat and Republican in the House dug in their heels on Thursday, but it will likely be the Senate that acts first on the tax legislation. Senate Democrats may bring up the measure the week of... 

The last major U.S. factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs will soon be closing. When it does, the remaining 200 workers at the Winchester, Va., plant, about 70 miles west of Washington, D.C., will lose their jobs, marking a small, sad exit for a product that began with Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s. The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in... 

Poverty has a far greater influence on the performance of white British pupils at school than any other ethnic group, according to research published today. Figures show a 31 percentage point gap between rich and poor white British pupils obtaining five A* to C grade passes at GCSE compared with just five percentage points for Chinese pupils and seven percentage points for Bangladeshi youngsters. The... 

The Bundesbank said it will ask German President Christian Wulff to dismiss board member Thilo Sarrazin after his remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews damaged the central bank’s reputation. The board decided unanimously to apply to the President for Sarrazin’s dismissal, the Frankfurt-based Bundesbank said in an e-mailed statement today. It stripped Sarrazin of his responsibilities at the... 

Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007. Benefits have been extended by Congress eight times beyond the basic 26-week program. Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand. More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state... 

Silicon Valley leans Democratic. Based on comments made by one of the Valley’s biggest hitters, that may be changing. Intel CEO Paul Otellini got a lot off his chest at the Aspen Forum last night–with most of his frustration directed at the business-stifling policies of the Obama administration and the decline and fall of American competitiveness. Here are some key quotes reported by CNET’s... 

A worker walks through the nearly-complete waste water treatment site in Fallujah, Iraq, 40 miles west of Baghdad. The system is almost finished - at a cost of more than three times the original estimate and four years past the initial deadline A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water... 

Current federal budget trends are capable of destroying this country. There is an instinctive conclusion among the American public that President Obama’s stimulus package has failed to create a sustained recovery. Unemployment has increased, not declined; consumers have retrenched; housing starts have crashed along with mortgage applications; and there is a fear that a double-dip recession may... 

Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament. Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income... 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.3 trillion this year. An astronomical figure, to be sure, but that’s lower than was projected in March. It’s also less than last year’s record $1.41 trillion deficit, which was close to 10% of GDP. And, that’s the good news. As the deficit grows so does the national debt, which is currently more than... 

This file photo shows members of a group called 'The Other 95 Percent' hold a rally to thank US President Barack Obama for their middle class tax cuts as a counter-protest to anti-tax groups rallying on the National Mall in Washington April 15, 2010. The American middle class is on the verge of disappearing, while the United States, itself, is in danger of becoming a third world country, a... 

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (r.) and the National Urban League's Marc Morial watch as PIMCO's Bill Gross speaks during the Obama administration's Conference on the Future of Housing Finance in the Cash Room of the Treasury Building in Washington, Tuesday. The Obama administration turned its focus on what to do with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Obama administration... 

Global youth unemployment has hit a record high following the financial crisis and is likely to get worse later this year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Thursday. The report from the ILO says 81 million out of 630 million 15-24 year olds where unemployed at the end of 2009, some 7.8 million more than at the end of 2007. Thursday marks the first day of the UN International Youth...