By Steven Bodzin
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela shipped 1.29 million barrels a day of oil and refined products to the U.S. and Virgin Islands in March, the least since a strike in the South American country ended in 2003, as Asia bought more crude and fuel oil.
Venezuela, which last year was the fourth-biggest provider of crude to the mainland U.S., has fallen to fifth place behind Nigeria this year, according to a monthly report released today by the U.S. Department of Energy. The drop coincided with Venezuela boosting supply to China to 250,000 barrels a day and sending at least 2 million barrels to India that month.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is seeking to diversify markets in order to reduce dependence on the U.S. The country plans to ship an average 400,000 barrels a day of crude to China this year, Asdrubal Chavez, a board member of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said in an interview at a May 9 ceremony in Caracas.
Venezuelan shipments of crude to the U.S. excluding the Virgin Islands fell by 178,000 barrels a day, or 17 percent, to 858,000 barrels a day, compared with March 2007, the Energy Department said. ...   more »

  Clerics have told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stick to more worldly issues after he was quoted as saying the "hidden imam" of Shiite Islam was directing Iran.
Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shiite Islam, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
But in a speech to theology students broadcast by state television on Monday, Ahmadinejad went further than ever before in emphasising his belief that the Mahdi is playing a critical role in Iran's day-to-day politics.
"The Imam Mahdi is in charge of the world and we see his hand directing all the affairs of the country," he said in the speech, which appears to date from last month but has only now been broadcast.
"We must solve Iran's internal problems as quickly as possible. Time is lacking. A movement has started for us to occupy ourselves with our global responsibilities, which are arriving with great speed."
Two leading clerics retorted that Ahmadinejad would be better off concentrating on Iran's social problems -- most notably its double-digit inflation -- than indulging in ...   more »

By Martin Beckford,
Britons are unhappy because they are in spiritual poverty, not because they are materially poor, according to a group of MPs.
A report by a cross-party group of Christian MPs says the country is wallowing in misery despite increasing wealth and emphasis on happiness in schools.
Their study states: "One impetus behind this project was our sense that there is a strong feeling of disaffection among the inhabitants of these islands. It seemed to us that our national sense of wellbeing is at a low ebb; people are wanting something more out of life.
"Given all the advances of recent years, we seek to understand why a sense of human wellbeing – happiness if you like – is not more widespread."
They claim society lacks a sense of well-being because of a loss of faith in God and religion.
They point to the large number of self-help books on happiness available in bookshops, and research which claims people are no happier than 50 years ago despite increased personal wealth.
The authors claim people are pursuing money at the expense of relationships, the environment and respect for each other
The report continues: "Our solutions do not involve yet ...   more »

'Law seen as logical step in carving up family rights'
By Bob Unruh
A German couple already being threatened with jail time because they have been homeschooling their children say their nation has taken a turn for the worse, with a new federal law that gives family courts the authority to take custody of children "as soon as there is a suspicion of child abuse," which is how that nation's courts have defined homeschooling.
"The new law is seen as a logical step in carving up family rights after a federal court had decided that homeschooling was an abuse of custody," said a letter from Jurgen Dudek to officials with the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association, an international advocacy organization in support of homeschooling.
It was about a year ago when WND reported a prosecutor in the German state of Hesse was seeking three-month prison terms for the Jurgen Dudek and his wife, Rosemarie, the parents of six children, even after they already had paid a series of fines.
Officials with Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschool advocacy group, said the prosecutor, unsatisfied with the fines, wanted 90-day terms in custody for the parents. 
The latest letter from the family described ...   more »

A Muslim high school student's intolerance for a service dog needed by a student teacher with a disability has reportedly prompted the student teacher to abandon the last 10 hours of his scheduled assignment at Technical High School in St. Cloud, Minn.
The St. Cloud Times online said the situation developed with student teacher Tyler Hurd, 23, of Mahtomedi, who hopes to teach special education.
He's a student at St. Cloud State University, and was assigned to Technical High School in the St. Cloud district for his 50 hours of student teaching, and took with him his service dog, Emmitt.
The newspaper said Hurd needs a service dog because of a childhood injury that leaves him with seizures, sometimes happening as often as weekly. The black lab is trained to protect Hurd when he has a seizure.
The school district told the newspaper it wasn't really a threat.
"I think it was a misunderstanding where we didn't really prepare either side for possible implications," Julia Espe, curriculum director for the public schools, said.
Hurd, however, reported a student threatened to kill his dog. He said the threat came from a Somali student who is Muslim. Minnesota has a large Somali ...   more »