WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force operates the "world's largest airline" and every $10-per-barrel increase in crude oil boosts its annual operating costs by $610 million, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said on Thursday.
The Air Force's bill for aviation fuel was about $6 billion in fiscal 2007, Wynne told a defense industry group. He declined to predict what the total would be for 2008.
U.S. crude oil futures soared to a record above $135 a barrel on Wednesday, more than double the price of one year ago.
"We are very concerned about the instability in oil prices because it wreaks havoc on how we manage our flying-hour program across the Air Force, just as it is wreaking havoc on the pricing statistics for an airline," Wynne said.
The jump in fuel prices has hammered the U.S. commercial airline industry, forcing seven small carriers to file for bankruptcy or to close their doors in the past five months.
The Air Force spent just over $6 billion on fuel costs in fiscal 2006, more than double its costs in fiscal 2001, before the start of the war in Afghanistan.
The Air Force, which has 19,000 pilots operating 5,700 aircraft and ...   more »

ETGAR LEFKOVIT-
Despite years of economic sanctions, Iran is winning the race to acquire nuclear weapons, posing an unprecedented threat to the future of the West, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor said Thursday.
"If we want to avoid the juncture of Iran with a bomb or bombing Iran than the world must act decisively in a much more serious way," Meridor told a group of Christian parliamentarians from around the world at a Capitol Hill conference organized by the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus.
Meridor said it was imperative for the West to unite against the nuclear intentions of the Islamic Republic, which he called the single greatest threat facing the world today, and stop looking for commercial gains at the expense of future stability in the world.
His comments come just weeks after Switzerland announced a huge gas deal with the Islamic Republic which has been criticized by both the US and Israel.
"So far, in the race between the world and Iran, Iran seems to be ahead and continues with its efforts to attain nuclear weapons," he said, adding that it was "criminal" not to learn the lessons of history, recalling that the lead-up to the Holocaust did ...   more »

HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
Leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told The Jerusalem Post that he would fully back Israel's peace talks with Syria and criticized efforts to block such engagement.
"I am encouraged that Israel and Syria have renewed peace talks and fully support Israel's efforts to advance peace with all its neighbors," he said in statement e-mailed to the Post. "I have consistently said that the United States must stand ready to help Israel achieve peace with its neighbors and should not block Israel from the negotiating table, nor force it to negotiate."
His statements emphatically welcoming Wednesday's surprise announcement of Israeli-Syrian talks contrasted with the reception offered by Bush administration officials, who provided a tepid response and noted the US was not involved in the ongoing indirect contacts, which are being brokered by Turkey.
The campaign of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain offered a reaction more in line with that of the current White House occupants, though emphasizing Israel's independence as Obama did.
"Senator McCain's view is that the sovereign government of Israel should be free to make its own decisions on how best to defend Israel and whether to engage in negotiations," said Randy Scheunemann, the campaign's ...   more »

China and Russia on Friday condemned the United States' plans to set up a missile defense system, which Washington says is crucial to protecting the security of it and its allies.
"Both sides believe that creating a global missile defense system, including deploying such systems in certain regions of the world, or plans for such cooperation, do not help support strategic balance and stability, and harm international efforts to control arms and the non-proliferation process," Russia and China said in a joint statement.
"It harms the strengthening of trust between states and regional stability. In this respect (the two sides) express their concern," it said.
The statement was signed in Beijing by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is on a trip to China.
Washington's plans to deploy parts of its missile shield in eastern Europe to counter possible rocket launches by "rogue" states like Iran have unnerved Moscow which sees the project as a threat to Russia's security.
Original Source
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State Department official is credited with saving thousands from Nazis
By Michael Jay Friedman
Washington – Hiram Bingham IV, a U.S. diplomat whose unselfish actions in saving Jews from the Nazi Holocaust cost him his diplomatic career, was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in a commemorative stamp unveiled May 24.
Bingham’s actions and bravery linked the lives of such disparate talents as painter Marc Chagall, political theorist Hannah Arendt, novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger and the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Otto Meyerhof with each other and with those of nearly 2,000 other individuals.
That link became clear in 1994 when Bingham’s son discovered a cache of documents, bound together with bailing wire and tape, in the back of a closet in his parents' Salem, Connecticut, home, six years after Hiram Bingham’s death. That find revealed to his 11 children how he had secretly, and against official policy, processed thousands of visas that enabled refugees from Hitler's Nazi regime to start new lives in America.
In June 2002, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented Bingham's children with a "Courageous Diplomat" award and praised Bingham's "constructive dissent."
Members of Congress, Bingham's children and grandchildren, and the children and grandchildren of men ...   more »