President Bush today blamed Congress for many of the nation's economic woes, charging that lawmakers have blocked his proposals for dealing with problems ranging from soaring gasoline prices to the increasing cost of food.

The mortgage industry, facing the prospect of tougher regulations for its central role in the housing crisis, has begun an intensive campaign to fight back. 

Bush pokes fun at his successors …..

Referring to Republican candidate John McCain's absence, he said: "He probably wanted to distance himself from me."  

The annual dinner dates back to 1924 and is attended by media personalities, celebrities and politicians.

As many historians have written, Europeans in the Middle Ages lived with an almost childlike emotional intensity. There were stark contrasts between daytime and darkness, between summer heat and winter cold, between misery and exuberance, and good and evil. Certain distinctions were less recognized, namely between the sacred and the profane. 

A vicar is to apply for a drinks licence so he can sell wine and beer at his small village church. 

The Reverend Geraint ap Iorwerth could be made licensee of St Peter ad Vincula Church in Pennal, near Machynlleth, close to the Powys-Gwynedd border. 

Mr Gates said that he and President Bush had settled on the four-star general for the post because he is best suited to oversee American operations, not just in Iraq but also in Afghanistan and other areas where the United States is engaged in “asymmetric” warfare, a euphemism for battling terrorists and non-uniformed combatants.

Even as American and Iraqi troops are fighting to establish control of the Sadr City section of this capital, the Iraqi government’s program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area’s wary residents.

The head of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, Professor David Flint, says the selection of the governance panel at the 2020 Summit was a gerrymander worthy of an African dictatorship. 

Professor Flint told a Sydney lunch celebrating the Queen's birthday that the governance panel that called for an Australian republic was stacked with pro-republican delegates. 

"President" Dick Cheney  - since our little boy Bush was being occupied by a dinner with a pope - attended the 2008 dinner for Radio and TV correspondents as a guest speaker.

Either he wrote his own gags or he had a team of army sergeants and neo-con neo-comics who wrote them for him, splurging on the bad taste like mouldy marmalade on toast.  

The effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the downturn in the U.S. economy have cascaded into Mexico, causing a sudden, precipitous drop in the flow of money sent home by Mexican immigrants and highlighting this country's dependence on its wealthier northern neighbour. 

Heavy security for torch in Delhi 

No exact times were given for the torch relay amid fears of protests. 

President George Bush today announced a new national goal to help tackle climate change: to stop the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. 

Bush, in a speech devoted to climate change, said power stations would need to reduce emission levels to well below previously projected targets. 

Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by George W Bush on 15 April 2008.  

Pope Benedict XVI has received an unprecedented presidential greeting from George W Bush after arriving for his first official visit to the US.