Iranian president should be indicted during US visit, Romney says
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should not be allowed to address the UN General Assembly next week, but instead should be greeted "with an indictment under the Genocide Convention," Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said yesterday.
"The Iranian regime under President Ahmadinejad has spoken openly about wiping Israel off the map, has fueled Hezbollah's terror campaign in the region and around the world, and defied the world community in its pursuit of nuclear weapons - capabilities that make these threats even more ominous," Romney said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Romney often talks about the threat the United States faced from "radical jihadists," and he has staked out a hard-line position against Iran in particular.
In January, he called for economic sanctions against the nation "at least as severe" as those imposed on South Africa during its apartheid era, aiming to isolate the country and convince it to give up its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
Last September, while still governor of Massachusetts, Romney ordered all state agencies to refuse any assistance if requested when the former president of Iran visited Massachusetts. Romney said Mohammed Khatami oversaw torture and the murder of dissidents, as well as Iran's secret nuclear program, while in office from 1997 to 2005.
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Keyes to give it another go
WASHINGTON - Alan Keyes, a Republican whose two previous runs for president ended in failure, is making a third try for the White House.
The Maryland conservative announced on his website that he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Friday to make his candidacy official, joining a Republican field of nine candidates.
"There isn't a standout," Keyes said in an interview with radio talk show host Janet Parshall. "I'm like a lot of folks, who have just looked at it and been unmoved."
Keyes, who served in the State Department under President Reagan, made unsuccessful presidential runs in 1996 and 2000. He also has been a Senate candidate from Maryland, and, in 2004, he suffered a 43 percentage point loss to Democrat Barack Obama in the US Senate race in Illinois.
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Obama warns on greed
NEW YORK - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told Wall Street investors yesterday that several of them have been too focused on their own gain at the expense of struggling Americans.
He said a "what's good for me is good enough" mentality has crept into parts of the business world while working men and women toil longer hours and still struggle to pay for healthcare, tuition, and taxes.
"If we are honest, I think we must admit that those who have benefited from the new global marketplace - and that includes almost everyone in this room - have not always concerned themselves with the losers in this new economy," the senator from Illinois said at the NASDAQ Marketsite.
"The danger with this mentality isn't just that it offends our morals, it's that it endangers our markets," Obama said.
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Courting unions' support
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopefuls brandished their labor credentials yesterday before two of the nation's more powerful unions in a hunt for endorsements.
In Washington, Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut cast himself as the alternative to Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, telling union activists that he is the only pro-labor candidate who can actually win the presidency in 2008.
"I know I'm not as well known, I know I'm not as well-heeled," Dodd told a meeting of the Service Employees International Union. But "I know how to win elections."
The service employees' union endorsement would be a plum for any candidate. The organization bills itself as the nation's fastest growing union with more than 1.8 million members.
It is also a major player in campaign financing, having given more than $25 million to mostly Democratic candidates since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
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