Billionaire investor George Soros said he believed the United States was already experiencing the pain of a double dip recession and that Republican opposition to Obama's fiscal stimulus plans was to blame for sluggish growth.

Asked by CNBC if he believed the US risks falling into a double-dip recession [cnbc explains] , Soror said: "I think we are in it already."

"We have a slowdown and basically a conflict about whether the rich ought to pay taxes to create jobs or not and there was a deal in the making which would have balanced the budget over the long term, but would have allowed short-term fiscal stimulus, which would have been the right policy," Soros said in an interview late Wednesday.

"That was rejected, it fell apart… so it will come to the electorate next year to decide what they want," he added.

The Taliban claims responsibility for the strike in the heart of the Afghan capital, saying 'heavy casualties' have been inflicted. The attack with rockets and automatic weapons appears to center on the well-fortified 'green zone,' where the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters of NATO forces are housed.

Insurgents staged a brazen attack Tuesday in the heart of the Afghan capital, firing rockets apparently aimed at the U.S. Embassy or the nearby headquarters of the NATO force.

Heavy explosions echoed near a central square, as terrified Afghans fled the sound of fighting. "Again, again!" said an elderly shopkeeper as he hastily rolled down the metal shutter protecting his carpet store and prepared to flee.

Insurgents appeared to have seized a tall building under construction as a staging ground for the attack with rockets and automatic weapons -- a tactic used previously in similar strikes elsewhere in the country. The targeted area is dense with diplomatic compounds

Stocks are falling at the opening of trading after more evidence pointed to a slowing global economy.

Germany's economy stalled last quarter, dragging down growth for Europe. In the U.S., reports painted a mixed picture of the economy: The housing market remains weak, but industrial production rose last month at its fastest pace of the year.

Economic worries overshadowed strong profit reports from blue-chip U.S. companies. They may also erase hopes that the market had finally calmed down since Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating less than two weeks ago.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 68 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11.415. The S&P 500 index is down 9, or 0.8 percent, to 1,195. The Nasdaq composite is down 24, or 1 percent, to 2,531.

Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples from the top secret stealth helicopter that U.S. special forces left behind when they killed Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times has learnt.

The action is the latest incident to underscore the increasingly complicated relationship and lack of trust between Islamabad and Washington following the raid.

"The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," said one person in intelligence circles, referring to the Pakistani spy agency. The Chinese engineers were allowed to survey the wreckage and take photographs of it, as well as take samples of the special "stealth" skin that allowed the American team to enter Pakistan undetected by radar, he said.

The August reading of consumer sentiment slumped to its worst level since 1980 — which means, of course, that it was worse than at any time during what’s been dubbed the Great Recession. There’s lots not to like, whether it’s the slumping stock market (shown in red), high unemployment, a putrid housing market, and the squabbling in Washington D.C. The Federal Reserve was clearly swayed: On Tuesday the central bank pledged to keep interest rates low for two years.

There are 9,450 fewer restaurants in the U.S. than there were last year, according to a report released Tuesday.

Of those, 8,650 were independent restaurants, which took their steepest dive since market research company The NPD Group began its tally in 2001.

Although chain restaurants stayed relatively stable, companies such as Koo Koo Roo began scaling back their presence in Southern California because of money troubles.

"A volatile economy, more frugal consumers and a lack of financial backing have made it a difficult business environment for independent restaurants," Greg Starzynski, director of product development -– food service for NPD, said in a statement.

The United States late Friday lost its triple-A debt rating from Standard & Poor’s for the first time in history, with the credit-rating agency saying the political system of the world’s top economy has become less stable and that budget cutting announced earlier this week didn’t go far enough.

The US is only a few years away from reaching the same debt levels that pushed Greece to the brink of ruin, former comptroller general and head of the Comeback America Initiative David Walker said.

As the ratio of its debt to gross national product eclipsed 100 percent and surged toward 150 percent, Greece has twice in the last two years nearly defaulted on its debt. Only successive bailout packages from the European Union and International Monetary Fund prevented catastrophe.

When tolling up all the US debts, including huge unfunded liabilities to Social Security and Medicare, the US is on dangerous ground, Walker said in a CNBC interview.

"We are less than three years away from where Greece had its debt crisis as to where they were from debt to GDP," he said.

The US Treasury said Monday that it will step up borrowing after the debt ceiling is raised, expected this week if a highly contentious legislation crafted over the weekend clears Congress.

In its quarterly funding plans, the Treasury said it expected to issue $331 billion in net debt in the July-September quarter, up from $190 billion in the previous period.

But the third-quarter forecast was $74 billion lower than originally forecast in May.

During October-December, the Treasury will borrow another $285 billion, it said. The projections assume it will have a cash balance of $100 billion at year-end.

The forecast came as Democratic and Republican Party leaders in Congress both strained to get rank-and-file support for a bill on spending cuts that would also raise the country's statutory $14.3 trillion borrowing ceiling, allowing the government to continue to meet its spending commitments.

One might think that the recent drama over the debt ceiling involves one side wanting to increase or maintain spending with the other side wanting to drastically cut spending, but that is far from the truth. In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.

No plan under serious consideration cuts spending in the way you and I think about it. Instead, the "cuts" being discussed are illusory, and are not cuts from current amounts being spent, but cuts in projected spending increases. This is akin to a family "saving" $100,000 in expenses by deciding not to buy a Lamborghini, and instead getting a fully loaded Mercedes, when really their budget dictates that they need to stick with their perfectly serviceable Honda. But this is the type of math Washington uses to mask the incriminating truth about their unrepentant plundering of the American people.

The bill to increase the federal debt limit that has been put before Congress today would increase that limit by up to $2.4 trillion, which would be the largest increase in the debt limit in U.S. history by a margin of half a trillion dollars, according to records published by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service.

In fact, according to records published by the Congressional Research Service, if the current bill is passed and the debt limit is increased by $2.4 trillion, the two largest debt-limit increases in U.S. history would come in back-to-back years, both during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Up until now, the largest increase in the debt limit was the $1.9 trillion increase passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on Feb. 12, 2010. That law increased the debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.

Two Chinese fighter jets crossed an unofficial dividing line in the Taiwan Strait late last month in pursuit of a US spy aircraft, according to defence sources in Taipei and Beijing.

The incident marked the first time in more than a decade that Chinese military aircraft have entered Taiwan’s side of the 180km-wide strait. According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, two Chinese Su-27 fighter jets briefly crossed the so-called “middle line” on June 29.

Confirmation of the close encounter comes as the US and China are trying to cool tensions in the South China Sea and safeguard a recent improvement in bilateral military relations.

Taipei, whose relations with Beijing have also been on the mend, moved to downplay the incident. “This was not between Taiwan and China, but between China and the US,” said a senior Taiwanese defence official. “The Chinese crossed the line to repel a perceived intrusion by a US reconnaissance aircraft.”

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday that President Barack Obama “would be impeached” if the nation falls into default.

“STOP talking about default,” he wrote on Twitter. “The 1st dime of each $1 of revenue services debt. Obama would be impeached if he blocked debt payments. C C & B!”

King is among the House Republicans who voted for the so-called “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan that would introduce a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. The Senate last week dismissed the House bill.

King isn’t the first Republican to suggest that Obama should be impeached over the debt crisis.

Efforts to avert a shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration failed Friday amid a disagreement over a $16.5 million cut in subsidies to 13 rural communities, ensuring that nearly 4,000 people will be temporarily out of work and federal airline ticket taxes will be suspended.

Lawmakers were unable to resolve a partisan dispute over an extension of the agency's operating authority, which expired at midnight Friday.

The subsidy cut was included by Republicans in a House bill extending operating authority for the FAA, which has a $16 billion budget. Senate Democrats refused to accept the House bill with the cuts, and Republican senators refused to accept a Democratic bill without it. Lawmakers then adjourned for the weekend.

A U.S. drone was shot down while flying over a nuclear facility in Iran, according to reports in the Iranian media.

Iran's Fars news agency reported that lawmaker Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, had confirmed the unmanned spy plane was flying near the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province when it was brought down by Revolutionary Guard soldiers.

It did not say when the alleged incident happened.

Dafsari told Fars that the drone was trying to gather information about the nuclear facility for the CIA.

Fars also said Iranian military officials had claimed to have shot down "several enemy drones" in January.

The political left is pressing the White House and Congress to inflict a wave of Pentagon budget cuts not seen since the post-Cold War 1990s.

Liberals are citing the debt crisis and troop drawdowns from Iraq and Afghanistan to argue that now is the time for the Defense Department to shed people, missions and weapons after a decade of doubling arms spending after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The proposals, including one from the Center for America Progress, go well beyond President Obama’s call in April for $400 billion in defense cuts over 12 years. The center — run by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to President Clinton — wants that much in reductions over the next three years and $1 trillion from what had been projected increases over the next decade.

Some House Democrats, led by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, also have called for $1 trillion in cuts.

The sound of a nation healing is the quiet prick of a needle through nylon fabric, the whisper of red, white or blue thread tightening into a stitch.

Less than two months from the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, D.C. residents, politicians and visiting friends and families affected by the terrorist attacks relieved a little bit more of the pain Thursday by adding stitches to the National 9/11 Flag when it arrived on Capitol Hill as part of a cross-country tour.

“Our goal is to make the flag whole again,” said Jeff Parness, chairman of New York Says Thank You Foundation, the project sponsor. “This is not telling a story about what happened on 9/11, but what happened on 9/12. We’re stitching together our histories. That’s what America is all about.”

The flag continued to fly for about a month across from where the World Trade Center towers fell, and was supposed to be buried in 2008 along with several others ravaged by a tornado in Greensburg, Kan.

China and the United States remain starkly different on military issues and have a long way to go toward building a trusting relationship, the top U.S. military officer said Friday after a bumpy visit to Beijing.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he believed his talks with Chinese military leaders were "productive and generally positive." But he added that efforts to create a working military-to-military relationship are still young and so far fraught with difficulties.

"There is a long way to go," he said in a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, where he is wrapping up his Asian tour. "Differences between us are still stark."

Mullen's visit to China was the first of its kind in four years. It was intended to build on efforts to increase communications and exchanges between the two in hopes of easing growing tensions over China's growing military might and economic clout in the region.

A U.S. default isn't a matter of "if" but "when," David Murrin, chief investment officer at Emergent Asset Management, told CNBC.

"It's inevitable that the U.S. will default—it's essentially an empire which is overextended and in decline—and that its financial system will go with it," he said.

The question is: Does the U.S. default when it is forced to by the outside world, probably the Chinese, or does it take the option to default on its own terms in such a way that it may have a strategic advantage, Murrin said.

Republicans and Democrats are currently locked in a debate on how to cut the U.S. budget deficit, and on whether the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling should be raised. Both parties need to come to a consensus by Aug. 2, otherwise the country will be in a state of technical default.

Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the country fell to 16% in July, the lowest in more than two years. Satisfaction approached this level in December 2010, when it descended to 17%, but it has not registered as low as 16% since February 2009 -- President Barack Obama's first full month in office -- when it was 15%.

The United States is spending too much on its military in light of its recent economic troubles, China’s top general said Monday while playing down his country’s own military capabilities.

The chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, Chen Bingde, told reporters he thought the U.S. should cut back on defense spending for the sake of its taxpayers. He was speaking during a joint news conference in which he traded barbs with visiting U.S. counterpart Adm. Mike Mullen.

“I know the U.S. is still recovering from the financial crisis,” Chen said. “Under such circumstances, it is still spending a lot of money on its military and isn’t that placing too much pressure on the taxpayers?

A tide of trash from tsunami-ravaged Japan is drifting across the Pacific Ocean and should reach California’s shores in three years or less, computer models show.

Marine researchers expect the flotsam will wash up in bits and pieces, not in the huge rafts of debris that formed off Japan’s coast shortly after the March disaster that started with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Much of the material will sink or get pulled into the vast, swirling gyre of garbage in the mid-Pacific, but some buoyant pieces — particularly plastics — should make it from coastline to coastline given the prevailing eastward currents.

The debris’ journey from Japan to San Diego will cover about 5,500 miles.

It’s an intriguing prospect for beachgoers who comb the sand for trinkets or oddities from far-off lands — say fishing buoys, household objects or the proverbial message in a bottle. It’s also a reminder of Mother Nature’s unpredictable fury and a testing ground for scientific models of ocean movements.

The average monthly casualty rate for U.S. military forces serving in Afghanistan has increased 5-fold since President Barack Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009.

1,540 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan since Oct. 7,2001, when U.S. forces began action in that country to oust the Taliban regime that had been harboring al Qaeda and to track down and capture or kill al Qaeda terrorists.

During the Bush presidency, which ended on Jan. 20, 2009 with the inauguration of President Obama, U.S. troops were present in Afghanistan for 87.4 months and suffered 570 casualties—a rate of 6.5 deaths per month.

NBC / Golf Channel censor 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance during the 2011 US Open intro video.

President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Afghanistan and the United States are engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, even as insurgents stormed a police station near the presidential palace, killing nine people.

The brazen attack in the heart of Kabul's government district provided a sharp counterpoint to Karzai's announcement that the U.S. and Afghan government are in talks with the Taliban, the first official confirmation of such discussions. The violence also underscored the difficulty facing any possible negotiated settlement to the decade-long war.

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

The news comes as the Federal Reserve considers whether the economy has regained enough strength to stand on its own and as unemployment remains at a still-elevated 9.1 percent, throwing into question whether the recovery is real.

"The sharp fall in house prices in the first quarter provided further confirmation that this housing crash has been larger and faster than the one during the Great Depression," Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, wrote in research for clients.

According to Case-Shiller, which provides the most closely followed housing industry data, prices dropped 1.9 percent in the first quarter,

When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco's Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

Much of the public focus is on the nation's public debt, which is $14.3 trillion. But that doesn't include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to $50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

A Chinese ratings house has accused the United States of defaulting on its massive debt, state media said Friday, a day after Beijing urged Washington to put its fiscal house in order.

"In our opinion, the United States has already been defaulting," Guan Jianzhong, president of Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., the only Chinese agency that gives sovereign ratings, was quoted by the Global Times saying.
Washington had already defaulted on its loans by allowing the dollar to weaken against other currencies -- eroding the wealth of creditors including China, Guan said.

Guan did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

The US government will run out of room to spend more on August 2 unless Congress bumps up the borrowing limit beyond $14.29 trillion -- but Republicans are refusing to support such a move until a deficit cutting deal is reached.

Microsoft Corp suffered a defeat on Thursday when the Supreme Court upheld a record $290 million jury verdict against the software giant for infringing a small Canadian company's patent.

The justices unanimously agreed with a U.S. appeals court ruling that went against the world's largest software company in its legal battle with Toronto-based i4i.

The high court refused to adopt Microsoft's lower standard to replace the long-standing requirement that a defendant in a patent infringement case prove by clear and convincing evidence that a plaintiff's patent is invalid.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft had argued that a lower standard of proof involving a "preponderance of the evidence" would make some "bad" patents easier to invalidate while promoting innovation and competition.

The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials.

The acceleration of the American campaign in recent weeks comes amid a violent conflict in Yemen that has left the government in Sana, a United States ally, struggling to cling to power. Yemeni troops that had been battling militants linked to Al Qaeda in the south have been pulled back to the capital, and American officials see the strikes as one of the few options to keep the militants from consolidating power.
On Friday, American jets killed Abu Ali al-Harithi, a midlevel Qaeda operative

Cancer medicines desperately needed by sick children and adults are in short supply, undermining the ability of U.S. doctors to administer treatments, top oncologists warned this week.

Many drugs are scarce because there is no incentive for drugmakers to manufacture low-cost generics, which have slim profit margins for pharmaceutical companies. Doctors do not expect that equation to change any time soon, making them scramble to find acceptable alternatives, or to ration or delay treatment when they cannot.

Generic chemotherapy drugs are in particularly tight supply at the nation's hospitals, including mainstay cancer treatments such as cisplatin, doxorubicin, cytarabine and leucovorin.

America clocked up a record last week. The latest drop in house prices meant that the cost of real estate has fallen by 33% since the peak – even bigger than the 31% slide seen when John Steinbeck was writing The Grapes of Wrath.

Unemployment has not returned to Great Depression levels but at 9.1% of the workforce it is still at levels that will have nerves jangling in the White House. The last president to be re-elected with unemployment above 7.2% was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The US is a country with serious problems. Getting on for one in six depend on government food stamps to ensure they have enough to eat. The budget, which was in surplus little more than a decade ago, now has a deficit of Greek-style proportions. There is policy paralysis in Washington.

The Environmental Protection Agency has given at least $1,285,535 in grants to China to promote environmental research in the country.

In all, the EPA issued six grants that went to China, most of which pertained to researching methane in Chinese coal mines and reducing carbon emissions in China, a communist dictatorship long criticized by human rights groups. Two of those grants were awarded during the Bush administration; four were awarded during the Obama administration.

The Chinese military accused the U.S. on Friday of launching a global "Internet war" to bring down Arab and other governments, redirecting the spotlight away from allegations of major online attacks on Western targets originating in China.

The accusations Friday by Chinese military academy scholars, and their urging of tougher policing of the Internet, followed allegations this week that computer hackers in China had compromised the personal Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including government officials, military personnel and political activists.

Google traced the origin of the attacks to the city of Jinan that is home to a military vocational school whose computers were linked to a more sophisticated assault on Google's systems 17 months ago. China has denied responsibility for the two attacks.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws inside the country, has released more than 8,000 illegal aliens convicted of crimes onto the streets of the United States since fiscal 2009, according to ICE data released by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R.-Texas).

Citing these statistics, Smith has introduced legislation that would allow Homeland Security’s ICE to keep criminal illegal aliens in custody longer than the current six-month period established by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say.

The Defense Department, which runs its own worldwide eavesdropping, spying and code-cracking systems, says more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations have been trying to break into U.S. networks.

Some of the perpetrators "already have the capacity to disrupt" U.S. information infrastructure, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who is leading remedial efforts, wrote last fall in the journal Foreign Affairs.

Joel Brenner, the National Counterintelligence executive from 2006 to 2009, said most if not all of the big defense contractors' networks had been pierced.

"This has been happening since the late '90s," he told Reuters Tuesday. He identified the main threats as coming from Russia, China and Iran.

The Defense Department announced 8 new U.S. casualties in Afghanistan over the Memorial Day weekend, bringing the total number of U.S. casualties in the almost-decade-long war in that country to 1,503.

Twenty-eight U.S. service personnel have died in Afghanistan in May. These heroes hailed from all regions of America, calling 17 states and Puerto Rico their homes.

933 of the 1,503 U.S. casualties over the course of the Afghanistan war have come since President Barack Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009. That equals 62 percent of the total.

U.S. Army medic Sgt. Jaime Adame hauled open the door and lunged from the helicopter into a cloud of dirt and confusion.

He could hear bursts of incoming fire above the thumping rotor blades. Somewhere in the billowing red smoke that marked the landing zone and the choking dust whipped up by the medevac chopper was a cluster of Marines pinned down by heavy fire, and one of them was bleeding badly.

The problem for Adame was that he did not know where.

Adame had dropped into "hot L-Zs" before but this one was especially thick with commotion. Every second of indecision mattered, so he just ran, knowing any direction was dangerous. Only then did the cloud clear enough to bring into view the blurred outline of several Marines' boots peeking out of the vehicle they were taking cover under.

"The fear I have never lost," said Adame, who's from Los Angeles. "It's absolutely risky ... and it will definitely get a lot more dangerous."

na Puente was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care. She underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a child in 1989 and a third in 1998, each paid for by the state. But when Pue

Guadalupe Rosales-Gonzalez, 48, of Distrito Federal Mexico is charged with illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported, prosecutors said.

At least 75 per cent of respondents would increase fines for employers who hire illegal immigrants, require police to report illegal immigrants to federal government, and make it a crime to hire illegal immigrants.

There is a growing sense of outrage in Kalispell Montana after a Mexican flag was erected in front of a U.S. flag 200 feet up a huge tower that belongs to the oldest radio station in America - KGEZ. Before the incident, station owner John Stokes said that

I applaud presidential candidate Tom Tancredo of Colorado. His actions and his loyalty to our country do not need translation. On Dec. 9 all Republican presidential candidates, save Tom Tancredo, will clumsily pander both to non-English-speaking couch pot

A crackdown on illegal immigrants south of the border has caused a ripple effect in Peel Region, as taxpayers have so far doled out more than $70,000 in accommodation bills for people claiming refugee status in Canada.

A congressional advisory panel says in a report to be released Thursday morning that Chinese spying in America represents the greatest threat to U.S. technology and recommended lawmakers consider financing counterintelligence efforts meant to stop China f

The Bush administration offered praise Monday for a U.S. Senate committee endorsement of the Law of the Sea, a pact Ottawa has called on Washington to ratify. One World Government coming soon.

The number of inadmissible aliens who managed to enter through official ports of entry in 2006 was not disclosed in Monday's report from the Government Accountability Office. However, a source who has seen a full version of the report, in which those stat

A convicted murderer who was deported earlier this year after serving more than two decades in prison was arrested Tuesday after trying to come back into the country. Juan Crisantos-Ramos, 46, a Mexican citizen, was taken in to custody at the Dennis DeCon

According to a new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), How Many Illegal Aliens?, the illegal immigrant population of the United States now exceeds 13 million. In 2000, the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service e

Mexican illegal immigrants have taken advantage of the California wildfires, looting and stealing from evacuated homes and victim shelters and entering the country through vulnerable border crossings abandoned by U.S. agents forced out by flames. More tha

A bill that would have given the children of illegal immigrants a chance to become U.S. citizens by attending college or serving in the U.S. military was blocked in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. A 52-44 vote on a motion to begin debate on the bill fell ei

Put this down as a classic case of bureaucratic stu pidity: The Department of Homeland Security's use of Chinese-made steel pipe in constructing the 854-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants. A spokesman for U.S. Customs a

Government prosecutors argue Zapeta broke the law by failing to report the cash and by evading taxes. They have dropped an earlier theory that he might be laundering money.

The San Pedro River is a thin, quiet stream as it cuts north across the U.S.-Mexico border about 3 miles south of this Arizona town. Tucked out of sight from the rest of the border by towering cottonwood trees that line its banks, this spot's only sounds

Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in more than a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west - to Mexico - in a convoluted route that avoids the U.S. Coast Guard. U.S. officials say the spike

Illegal immigrants who are victims of violent crimes in the U.S. can now apply for special visas, seven years after Congress offered protection against deportation to those who cooperate with law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Serv

Drug-gang violence that plagues Mexico is worsening and could spill over into the United States, according to a new report by a consultant on Gov. Rick Perry's Texas Border Security Council. While Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed as many as

Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers engaged in an armed standoff with nearly 30 American law enforcement officials on the southern U.S. border, according to Texas police and the FBI. At a spot more than 200 yards inside the U.S., Mexican Army troops s

Immigrants from India continue to make up the fastest growing undocumented population in the United States, according to a recently released report by the Department of Homeland Security. The number of undocumented immigrants from India increased by 125 p

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the illegal immigration of Mexicans to the U.S. can't be stopped because of the strong demand for inexpensive labor there. ``It's impossible to stop that by decree. It's impossible to try to stop that with a fence,''

Just two in 10 say the government is doing enough to keep illegal immigrants out of the country; on the other, most, 58 percent, favor a path to citizenship for those here now -- a program giving illegal immigrants the right to legal status if they pay a

The Bush administration increased more than fivefold today the number of Near East and South Asian refugees the U.S. can admit as it seeks to accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees during the next 12 months. Overall, Mr. Bush said that up to 80,000 refugees from ar

The Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country. The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labo

Uncle Sam, occupied by the possibility of would-be terrorists among illegal aliens crossing its borders from Mexico, is now looking at Canada. A recent U.S. government report says it would be easy to smuggle dangerous materials into the United States.

A Chinese company with ties to Beijing's military and past links to Saddam Hussein's army in Iraq and the Taliban will gain access to U.S. defense-network technology under a proposed merger, Pentagon officials say.

"Do you really know your enemy? This racist professor in UCLA knows exactly what he is talking about. Listen half way through and note the South American Countries he mentions. All leftist, all nine our enemies and all nine receiving U S tax dollars. Whil

Ohio Representative and 2008 presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich indicated his support for promoting Spanish as a second official language of the United States in last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Miami. In front of an overwhelmingly His

It took a few days, but the flag of the United States of America once again is proudly waving at the entrance of Chasewood North condominium complex in Jupiter. Over the weekend, someone cut the ropes of the flagpole, stole the Stars and Stripes and repla

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, stepping into a brewing battle between federal and state health officials over emergency medical care for illegal immigrants, called a new federal directive to limit coverage “morally and clinically and legally wrong” yesterday and

Establishing public-private partnerships that give away control of U.S. infrastructure to foreigners is like playing the casino game "Texas hold'em," a top Texas Department of Transportation official told the EuroMoney conference meeting yesterday in the

Nearly seven years after Congress passed a law authorizing visas for illegal immigrant crime victims, authorities announced Wednesday that the visas would finally be made available. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidelines for the new v

As Peru gets closer to establishing a free trade pact with the U.S., Mexico has shown greater interest in working with Peru to export to the U.S. while revitalizing economic and commercial exchange with Peru. During the APEC forum held in Sydney, Australi

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Three Mexican minors detained in California on suspicion of smuggling drugs stole a U.S. Border Patrol car while still wearing handcuffs and drove it back across the border to Mexico. Police in the Mexican border city of Mexicali said

MEXICO CITY - In the wake of yet another failed attempt at U.S. immigration reform, governors from along the border meet this week as pressure builds for states to take the lead on immigration and security issues. Mexican President Felipe Calderón, U.S.

The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated nationwide in July, posting the steepest drop in 16 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. Home prices have fallen by more every month since the beginning of the year.

With yet another example of 'black is now white', 'good is now bad and bad is good', 'apples are oranges' and 'terrorists are to be supported while groups protecting the US will be shunned', leftist Columbia University President Lee Bollinger is standing

At the beginning of September, Channel 5 News revealed a shocking story in Roma, Texas. As their cameras chronicled, each morning dozens of Mexican kids are crossing the border from Mexico into the Texas border town of Roma to attend an American school, f

Nearly 10,000 people from countries designated as sponsors of terrorism have entered the United States under an immigration diversity program with relatively few restrictions, a report released on Friday said.

Some tense moments at the Pharr International Bridge on Wednesday, when a Mexican military vehicle somehow ended up on the U.S. side of the bridge. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman tells NEWSCHANNEL 5 three armed soldiers in uniform became d

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection; misrepresentation and concealment of facts Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers, or (2) el