Although our government did not ultimately shut down this week, President Obama has to begin to show leadership over the budget process. Frankly, our long-term fiscal problems are too serious for the president to take a hands-off approach going forward. It is my view that the president must learn a …

Editor’s note: The following column originaly appeared on ToddStarnes.com. Linda Barnette has issued marriage licenses in Grenada County, Mississippi for 24 years. On Tuesday, she resigned. “I choose to obey God rather than man,” Mrs. Barnette wrote in her one paragraph resignation letter to the Grenada County Board of Supervisors. …

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:46:34 +0000 – By Kathleen Troia “K.T. “McFarlandNational Security Expert It’s official. Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb. It has a long-range missile capable of delivering that bomb. Now all it needs is the blueprint, which is usually complicated, but not if you’re …

They say no good deed goes unpunished. Well, the Libyan rebels are now complaining that NATO isn’t doing enough to stop Qaddafi! I guess they expected us to topple Qaddafi and hand the country over to them; like we did when we toppled Saddam and tried handing Iraq over to …

Thursday, somebody brought down a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over the Ukraine/Russian border. We know it was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile, but we still don’t know whose finger was on the trigger. We no doubt will know shortly, since that …

ISTANBUL – Turkish news agencies say that authorities have arrested two Georgian citizens who tried to enter the Turkey with radioactive material, including cesium. State-run Anadolu Agency says a woman identified only as N.K., aged 43, and a man, I.A., 40, were arrested Friday at a border gate in northeastern …

BRUSSELS – The world may be a riskier place nowadays, but overall spending on defense among NATO’s member countries is expected to be lower this year than in 2014, the alliance said Monday. U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders last fall committed their countries to hike defense spending …

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan aviation official says the United States will continue to manage Afghan airspace and air-traffic control for another two-and-a-half months after its current contract expires at the end of June. The airspace has been managed by the U.S.-led international military coalition or foreign companies paid by …

MEXICO CITY – AT&T Inc. plans to invest about $3 billion to build up its recently acquired Iusacell mobile phone network in Mexico. Iusacell announced Thursday that the plan will extend voice and data services to cover about 100 million people in Mexico by 2018. AT&T spent about $4.4 billion …

LONDON – A local council has rejected plans to frack shale gas in northwestern England in a case closely watched as offering a precedent for exploration in Britain. County councilors in Lancashire, north of Manchester, rejected plans by the energy firm Cuadrilla, which wanted to undertake exploratory drilling at a …