Balanced News Blog

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that his government is preparing for a possible U.S. invasion, and he warned that such “aggression” would send gasoline prices in the United States soaring.

President George W. Bush on Friday called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

NATO has agreed to send as many as 1,000 military engineers, medics and other troops to help with earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan.

A black professor calls for the extermination of all white people.

Indonesian police say they have seized a large quantity of explosives and bomb making material being smuggled from Malaysia.

A new case of bird flu has been detected in Romania, officials say.

Britain’s economic growth slowed to 0.4 percent in the third quarter because of weaker oil output, according to figures released Friday by the National Statistics Office – the fifth quarter in a row to show below-trend expansion.

Google earned $381 million, or $1.32 a share, in the third quarter, up more than sevenfold from its $52 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago. Last year’s results were depressed by a $201 million noncash charge related to settling a patent dispute with Yahoo.

The United Nations investigation into the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon is focusing on the powerful brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria as the main suspect, a diplomat with intimate knowledge of the inquiry said Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention restricted access on Thursday to samples of the 1918 pandemic flu virus taken from the frozen bodies and lung samples of victims, a standard precaution for such a dangerous virus.