WASHINGTON — During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a “new era of responsibility.” What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2

France: About That EU Promise To Shun Hamas... MR, Sept. 8, 2006: In pathetically trying to justify why the EU is not a terrorist-appeasing hotbed of moral sanctimony... Ambassador De Bernardin talked up the hardline stance that the EU has taken toward Hamas: "He boasted that it was in 2003, when Italy held the rotating EU presidency, that Hamas was listed as a terror organization by the block. "As you know when it comes to Hamas, Italy and the European countries are very firm in maintaining

A Leamington man has fallen prey to international scam artists who strung him along for more than a year with the promise of millions in cash, but ultimately bilked him and his family of $150,000.