The U.S. should remove visa limits to allow more skilled foreign citizens to work at U.S. companies if it wants to remain a leader in technology, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said today.

Microsoft is having a hard time finding skilled workers within the U.S., and the lack of H-1B visas for skilled workers is only making the situation worse, Gates said in a panel discussion at the Library of Congress.

"The whole idea of the H-1B visa thing is, 'Don't let too many smart people come into the country.' The whole thing doesn't make sense," Gates said.

Gates echoed the concerns of other business and education leaders who warn that the U.S. must improve science education and boost spending on research and development to avoid falling behind India, China and other countries that are rapidly gaining ground.

But Gates reserved his sharpest criticism for the visa caps, which he called "almost a case of a centrally controlled economy." Gates added, "If the demand is there, why have the regulation at all?"

Congress capped the number of nonimmigrant visas for skilled professionals at 65,000 in 2004 and 2005 in an effort to increase border security and ensure more jobs for homegrown tech workers.

That's a third of the 195,000 work visas issued annually during the high-tech boom years from 2001 to 2003.

The entire quota of H-1B visas was snapped up the first day of the fiscal year last October by U.S. employers anxious to recruit foreigners for jobs in medicine, engineering, education, research and programing, among other fields.

While increasing the number of H-1B visas is important, "we can't be so naive to believe that there is not a very serious border-security problem that we need to deal with," said Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), who heads the House Rules Committee.

Undersecretary of Commerce Phil Bond, a top Bush administration technology official, pointed out that the unemployment rate for engineers is above the national average.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that first-quarter earnings soared 44 percent from last year, due mainly to strong crude and natural gas prices. The company said it will boost its share repurchase rate by $1 billion in the second quarter.

Net income surged to $7.86 billion, or $1.22 per share, from $5.44 billion, or 83 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding a $460 million gain on the sale of Exxon's stake in China Petroleum and Chemical, the company earned $1.15 per share in the latest quarter.

Total revenue climbed to $82.05 billion from $67.60 billion last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for the company to post higher operating earnings of $1.20 per share in the latest quarter.

Exxon Mobil said earnings from drilling operations were a record $5.05 billion, an increase of $1.04 billion from the first quarter of 2004, reflecting continued strength in crude and natural gas prices. Earnings from refining and retail sales grew $139 million to $1.14 billion, with improved worldwide refining conditions partly offset by weaker marketing margins.

Shell (RD: news, chart, profile) (SC: news, chart, profile) said first-quarter net income rose 42% to $6.67 billion, with revenue up 26% to $72.2 billion.

On a cost of supplies basis, earnings rose 28% to $5.55 billion on higher fuel prices, strong LNG earnings and higher downstream earnings in Oil Products and Chemicals. That topped the $4.68 billion analyst forecast, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

P, the world's second-biggest publicly traded oil company, posted a 29 percent jump in first-quarter profit, helped by higher energy prices.

Net income rose to $5.49 billion, or 25.6 cents a share, excluding gains in the value of its oil inventories, BP said yesterday. Revenues rose 16 percent, to $79.8 billion, from a year earlier.

BP, which is second to the Exxon Mobil Corporation, is the first of the world's large oil companies to report earnings from the first quarter, when New York crude oil averaged $57.60 a barrel, natural gas prices rallied in the United States and Europe and gasoline prices surged.

Buffeted by rising energy prices and weakened consumer and business spending, the economy grew at an annual rate of just 3.1 percent in the first quarter. The slowest pace of expansion since in two years was evidence of a new "soft patch."

The latest reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Thursday, showed that consumers and businesses turned cautious in their spending in the January-to-March quarter, a key factor in the slower economic growth. High energy prices and rising borrowing costs are causing Americans to tighten their belts a bit.

The first-quarter's GDP figure, down from a 3.8 percent pace logged in the final quarter of 2004, represents the economy's most sluggish showing since the first quarter of 2003, when economic activity expanded at an even more mediocre 1.9 percent rate.

GDP, the broadest barometer of the economy's health, measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States.

On Wall Street, stocks slumped. The Dow Jones industrials were down 54 points and the Nasdaq was off 10 points in morning trading.

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In second report Thursday, the number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits rose last week as businesses coped with rising costs. New claims rose by 21,000 to 320,000, the Labor Department said.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And sometimes, according to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a cigar is an economic prop to a brutal totalitarian regime. Arguing against loosening sanctions against Cuba last year, DeLay warned that Fidel Castro "will take the money. Every dime that finds its way into Cuba first finds its way into Fidel Castro's blood-thirsty hands.... American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor."

DeLay has long been one of Congress' most vocal critics of what he calls Castro's "thugocracy," which is why some sharp-eyed TIME readers were surprised last week to see a photo of the Majority Leader smoking one of Cuba's best—a Hoyo de Monterrey double corona, which generally costs about $25 when purchased overseas and is not available in this country. The cigar's label clearly states that it was made in "Habana." The photo was taken in Jerusalem on July 28, 2003, during a meeting between DeLay and the Republican Jewish Coalition at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

As a 13-year-old Palm Beach County girl prepared this week to end a pregnancy she says she does not want, the Florida Department of Children and Families went to court to stop her from having the abortion.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the state's position Wednesday, saying DCF is overstepping its authority and violating the girl's constitutional rights.

The girl, identified only as L.G., lives in a shelter for abused and neglected teens and found out two weeks ago during a doctor's appointment that she is pregnant. Soon after, she told her DCF caseworker in Palm Beach County that she wanted an abortion.

The caseworker scheduled an appointment for the girl to have an abortion Tuesday and planned to drive her to the office, according to an appeal filed by the ACLU. On the same day, lawyers for DCF filed an emergency motion to stop L.G. from terminating her pregnancy.

In a hearing that day before Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez, the state argued that Florida law gives DCF authority to prevent L.G. from having an abortion. The state said the girl was not able to make an informed decision because of her age and immaturity, according to the appeal filed Wednesday by the ACLU.

Alvarez agreed to delay the abortion until the court could give L.G. a psychological evaluation to find out whether an abortion could cause her emotional harm. The judge also wanted the court to determine whether the girl would face medical risks in terminating the pregnancy or carrying the baby to term.

The ACLU and the Legal Aid Society appealed that decision Wednesday to the 4th District Court of Appeal, saying neither DCF nor the court had any right to interfere.

The U.S. Supreme Court's position that women have the right to choose an abortion overrides any state argument or law, ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon said.

"Whatever politically motivated, convoluted legal rationale they (DCF leaders) can come up with, they cannot ignore the constitutional rights of women as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court," Simon said.

DCF spokeswoman Marilyn Munoz said Wednesday that DCF is "acting in the best interest of the child." She cited a Florida state law that says DCF cannot permit an abortion without a judge's consent, but declined further comment.

A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush also declined comment.

Under Florida law, a 13-year-old can have an abortion without her parents knowing or agreeing. The legislature is considering a bill this session that would require parental notification, but not consent, for girls under the age of 16.

"Unwed pregnant minor or minor mother; consent to medical services for
minor or minor's child valid.--
"(1) An unwed pregnant minor may consent to the performance of
medical or surgical care or services relating to her pregnancy by a
hospital or clinic or by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or
chapter 459, and such consent is valid and binding as if she had
achieved her majority.
"(2) An unwed minor mother may consent to the performance of medical
or surgical care or services for her child by a hospital or clinic or
by a physician licensed under chapter 458 or chapter 459, and such
consent is valid and binding as if she had achieved her majority.
"(3) Nothing in this act shall affect the provisions of s. 390.0111."

Gay rights groups in Spain reacted with anger on Wednesday after a Roman Catholic cardinal compared obedience to the legalization of same-sex marriage to the process that led to the creation of Nazi death camps, Agence France-Presse reports. "If you give obedience to the law priority over obedience to your conscience, that leads to Auschwitz," Cardinal Ricard Maria Carles, former archbishop of Barcelona, told a Spanish television station.

Spanish deputies last week approved a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry and adopt children. The bill is expected to become law and would make Spain the third European country after the Netherlands and Belgium to do so. "The people who made Auschwitz were not criminals, but people who had been forced to, or thought they had a duty to, obey the laws of the Nazi government rather than their own conscience."

The Triangulo foundation, a Spanish gay rights group, said that comparison with the Holocaust was "repugnant" and called on the church to "stop sowing hatred against victims of discrimination and against victims of the Holocaust, among whom there were many homosexuals."

Another gay rights group, Cogam, said it was "incredible that the Catholic hierarchy should reach the point where it makes a link between the parliamentarians who voted for the [gay marriage bill] and Nazism" and attacked an "unacceptable interference by a foreign state in Spanish politics."

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has indicated he may reconsider his company's decision not to support a Washington State gay rights bill amid the growing firestorm inside and outside the company that exploded after the recent disclosure that Microsoft had changed its position on the bill.

In an interview with The Seattle Times on Monday, Mr. Gates, who rarely grants interviews and declined through a spokesman Tuesday to grant one to The New York Times, indicated that he was surprised by the backlash to the company's turnaround on the legislation. He also suggested that Microsoft, which had been known for decades as a corporate leader on gay rights and had supported the bill in previous years, might change course next year because of the controversy.

The bill was defeated by one vote in the State Senate last week. Microsoft had withdrawn its support, and critics said the company was under pressure from a prominent local evangelical minister who threatened a boycott of Microsoft products.

"We certainly have a lot of employees who sent us mail," Mr. Gates told The Seattle Times. "Next time it comes around that'll be a major factor for us to take into consideration."

President Bush drew laughs from his audience Tuesday when he asked whether the Galveston area still hosts "Splash Day."

The annual beach party that dates to the 1950s does live on _ but now as an unofficial gay and lesbian event.

In town to speak about Social Security, Bush told the crowd: "I want to thank the mayor for being here _ Lyda Ann Thomas greeted me coming in. I said, 'Do you still have Splash Day?'"

The crowd laughed. "You have to be a baby boomer to know what I'm talking about," Bush said. The crowd laughed again.

Splash Day once marked the end of school and the beginning of summertime fun. The city backed off from it many years ago when it turned a little too wild, says Christy Benson of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce. It later became a party day for gays and lesbians.

Drawing another round of laughter, Bush said: "I'm not saying whether I came or not on Splash Day. I'm just saying, 'Do you have Splash Day?'"

Wrapping up his investigation into Saddam Hussein's purported arsenal, the CIA's top weapons hunter in Iraq said his search for weapons of mass destruction "has been exhausted" without finding any.

Nor did he find any evidence that such weapons were shipped officially from Iraq to Syria to be hidden before the U.S. invasion, but he couldn't rule out some unofficial transfer of limited WMD-related materials.

He closed his effort with words of caution about potential future threats and careful assessment of this and other unanswered questions.

The Bush administration justified its 2003 invasion of Iraq as necessary to eliminate Hussein's purported stockpile of WMD.

"As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible," wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the report he issued last fall. "After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted."

In 92 pages posted online Monday evening, Duelfer provided a final look at an investigation that, at its peak, occupied more than 1,000 military and civilian translators, weapons specialists and other experts. His latest addenda conclude a roughly 1,500-page report released last fall.

Among warnings sprinkled throughout the new documents, one concludes that Saddam's programs created a pool of weapons experts, many of whom will be seeking work. While most will probably turn to the "benign civil sector," the danger remains that "hostile foreign governments, terrorists or insurgents may seek Iraqi expertise."

"Because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern," one addendum said.

Another addendum noted that military forces in Iraq may continue to find small numbers of degraded chemical weapons — most likely misplaced or improperly destroyed before 1991. In an insurgent's hands, "the use of a single even ineffectual chemical weapon would likely cause more terror than deadlier conventional explosives," the addendum said.

Half of all Americans, exactly 50%, now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Gallup Organization reported this morning.

"This is the highest percentage that Gallup has found on this measure since the question was first asked in late May 2003," the pollsters observed. "At that time, 31% said the administration deliberately misled Americans. This sentiment has gradually increased over time, to 39% in July 2003, 43% in January/February 2004, and 47% in October 2004."

Also, according to the latest poll, more than half of Americans, 54%, disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while 43% approve. In early February, Americans were more evenly divided on the way Bush was handling the situation in Iraq, with 50% approving and 48% disapproving.

Last week Gallup reported that 53% now believe that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was "not worth it." But Frank Newport, editor in chief at Gallup, recalled today that although a majority of the public began to think the Vietnam war was a mistake in the summer of 1968, the United States did not pull out of Vietnam for more than five years, after thousands of more American lives were lost.

Hello, Daily Kos-ers:
Tonight, my deepest fears regarding my pending testimony in the John Bolton nomination process have come true: Republicans have dredged up un unfortunate chapter of my life and, clearly, are about to announce it to the world. When you read this, you may decide either that I was stupid to step forward, or that I no longer deserve your trust. I want, however, to be the one to announce this to you all since you've been so unbelievably supportive.

When I was in college, 22 years ago, I plagiarized some columns while working for my college newspaper, and I was removed from staff. Months later, while working for another college newspaper, I wrote a review for a local play that tracked closely in format to another writer's review -- and, although it was not plagiarized, it made my editors, who had become aware of my recent past, very uncomfortable, and we mutually agreed that I would no longer submit stories to them.

As you can imagine, I'm deeply ashamed to be forced to revisit these events so publicly -- and, while I was under tremendous academic, financial and family pressure at the time, there is absolutely NO excuse for what I did so long ago. I knew it was wrong then, and I remain deeply ashamed and embarrassed.

I wish to stress that Amy, my friend who has been such a staunch supporter and has been keeping you posted on things happening with my pending testimony, was completely unaware of these events. There are some things you don't tell even your best friend.

As you judge me, please keep in mind that I was 21 years old when this happened. Today, at 42, I can state emphatically that I've worked hard my entire professional and personal life to put my incredibly poor decisions and actions behind me -- and I believe my professional and personal life since that time speaks for itself.

More than 10 years had passed from those college events when I had my brutal, ugly and unfortunate contact with Mr. Bolton. In that decade, I worked professionally as a copyeditor, a business writer, and a business analyst for major publications. I also worked as a senior planning analyst for a major airport project -- and, thereafter, I accepted a one-year posting with Black Manafort Stone & Kelly to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. There, as you know, I met Mr. Bolton.

I want to tell you all this story, first and personally, before the Bush camp works its special brand of magic -- and I would deeply appreciate your help in posting this letter as many places as you can in advance of my testimony. Even as I write this, the Bush team is working overtime to destroy my life and business, telling and retelling the things I'm writing here. I just received a phone call from a Christian newspaper reporter.

I know they'll tell you that my pending statement to the Senate cannot be trusted because I did some stupid things as a 20-year-old kid two decades ago -- even as they try to tell you that Mr. Bolton's bahavior toward me in Moscow and Kyrgyzstan 11 years ago just doesn't matter. They'll try to make my actions of two decades ago the story -- setting aside the forgiveness Mr. Bush grants himself about his own history of questionable behavior by stating, "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."

As of tonight, it's clear that I've truly risked everything to tell you -- and the U.S. Senate -- about Mr. Bolton. I've already told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee counsel about this episode in my life, and I remain committed to to going through with my testimony tomorrow. They still want to depose me.

Since Amy first posted my letter, you may have read that former colleagues have stepped forward to verify its contents to the Senate regarding Mr. Bolton -- and other, similar tales of his abuse appear to be surfacing daily. The fact that they're working so hard to discredit me tells me they know that I'm right.

That's my story. If you can still offer it, I would appreciate your continued support. I would appreciate your empathy. I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I try to rebuild my life and my business.

Perhaps most important, I would also appreciate your sharing my story, as quickly as possible, with anybody you can. Please help me get this out there first.

Sincerely,

Melody Townsel

In a show of support, President Bush will give embattled House of Representatives Republican leader Tom DeLay an Air Force One ride to Washington from Texas on Tuesday, a White House spokesman said.

DeLay is under fire over allegations that he violated ethics rules by allowing lobbyists to pay for some of his overseas travel, including a May 2000 trip to Britain that included golf at the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland.

The Texas Republican has accused Democrats and the media of conducting a witch hunt, and the White House has called him a friend of Bush and said Bush appreciates the work he is doing as the No. 2 Republican in the House.

DeLay is to attend with Bush an event in Galveston, Texas, on Tuesday about the president's proposals to overhaul Social Security and then will ride back to Washington with him aboard Air Force One, the spokesman said on Monday.

Karl Rove rejected a compromise with Senate Democrats Monday on long-stalled nominations for the federal judiciary and strongly defended President Bush's choice of John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations.

In an hour-long interview with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters and editors, Rove, deputy White House chief of staff, dismissed suggestions from Democrats that they might drop threats to use filibusters to prevent votes on Bush's judicial nominees if the president would withdraw a few of the most controversial names.

On May 29, 2004, a station wagon that Iraqi insurgents had packed with C-4 explosives blew up on a highway in Ramadi, killing four American marines who died for lack of a few inches of steel.

The four were returning to camp in an unarmored Humvee that their unit had rigged with scrap metal, but the makeshift shields rose only as high as their shoulders, photographs of the Humvee show, and the shrapnel from the bomb shot over the top.

"The steel was not high enough," said Staff Sgt. Jose S. Valerio, their motor transport chief, who along with the unit's commanding officers said the men would have lived had their vehicle been properly armored. "Most of the shrapnel wounds were to their heads."

Among those killed were Rafael Reynosa, a 28-year-old lance corporal from Santa Ana, Calif., whose wife was expecting twins, and Cody S. Calavan, a 19-year-old private first class from Lake Stevens, Wash., who had the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fidelis, tattooed across his back.

They were not the only losses for Company E during its six-month stint last year in Ramadi. In all, more than one-third of the unit's 185 troops were killed or wounded, the highest casualty rate of any company in the war, Marine Corps officials say.

In returning home, the leaders and Marine infantrymen have chosen to break an institutional code of silence and tell their story, one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of armor, but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered their efforts in battle, destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some of their fiercest warriors.

The Bush administration issued guidelines yesterday advising physicians and hospitals that under a 2002 law they are obligated to care for fetuses "born alive" naturally or in the process of an abortion, and medical providers could face penalties for withholding treatment.

The law, signed by President Bush nearly three years ago, conferred legal rights on fetuses "at any stage of development." It specifies that a fetus that is breathing, has a beating heart, a pulsating umbilical cord or muscle movement should be considered alive and entitled to protection under federal emergency medical laws and child abuse statutes.

[snip]

"The 2002 law and today's actions by the agency were both badly needed, because there are those in our society who have convinced themselves that some newborn infants -- particularly those born alive during abortions, or with handicaps -- are not really legal persons," said Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee.