That they felt compelled to openly air such conclusions about a nominally close U.S. ally — for which the administration is proposing billions in new aid dollars — was a measure of the desperation that seems to have infected the Obama administration’s dealings with Pakistan’s weak civilian government and obtuse military leadership. In the months since the administration took office, as in the last months of the Bush administration, private cajoling of President Asif Ali Zardari and Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani to fight the Taliban has done little good. It’s not yet clear whether the public campaign will have more effect — but it is sure to get many in Washington stirred about what Ms. Clinton described as the “mortal threat” a Taliban regime armed with nuclear weapons could pose to the United States.

That threat is certainly real. The government’s decision to tolerate what amounts to Taliban control of the Swat Valley northwest of Islamabad has emboldened the extremists, who now are seeking to infiltrate neighboring districts even closer to the capital. The Pakistani army, untrained in counterinsurgency and rigidly focused on India, is reluctant to take on the militants; when it has tried to fight them in areas near the Afghan border, it has been mostly ineffective. Though the vast majority of Pakistanis oppose the Taliban’s fundamentalism, most also dislike Mr. Zardari’s government and suspect that operations against the insurgents serve U.S. interests more Pakistan’s.

The loud U.S. warnings did provoke the Zardari government and Gen. Kiyani to say that they would fight the Taliban if it continued to advance; the black-turbaned fighters subsequently withdrew from one district on Friday. Pakistani officials say that the public support needed for the military offensive Washington wants won’t be forthcoming unless Pakistanis believe that their government has tried all peaceful options. It is certainly the case that Pakistanis as well as their government must embrace the fight against the Taliban as their own, and not as a proxy war for the United States. It is also true that, apart from mounting missile strikes by remote-controlled aircraft, there is little the United States can do directly to defeat the Pakistani Taliban; the administration must try to work through the government and army.

But the United States has leverage: Without the billons flowing into Pakistan in direct U.S. aid as well as from other donors marshaled by Washington, Pakistan’s economy would collapse. Perhaps the dire U.S. warnings will galvanize the country’s political class into demanding action from the army and government — or replacing the latter. But shouts of ‘”fire” have risks: They can also cause panic, or go unheeded.

HAVANA – Fidel Castro wrote in an essay published yesterday that President Obama had “misinterpreted” his brother Raul’s seeming conciliatory remarks regarding the United States, and he bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on dollars that Cuban Americans send to the island.

His comments put into doubt the true meaning of his brother’s statements and raised questions about Cuba’s position on detente with the United States.

Although he surrendered the presidency to Raul in February 2008, Fidel Castro retains enormous influence and remains head of Cuba’s Communist Party.

Raul Castro touched off speculation last week that the United States and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw after nearly a half-century of chilly relations. He said his government would be willing to sit down with its U.S. counterparts and discuss “everything, everything, everything,” including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners.

Obama responded at the Summit of the Americas by saying Washington was seeking a new beginning with Cuba. But as he prepared to leave the summit Sunday, Obama also called on Cuba to release political prisoners and reduce taxes on remittances from the United States.

That appeared to enrage Fidel Castro, 82, who wrote that Obama “without a doubt misinterpreted Raul’s declarations.”

“When the president of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue,” Fidel Castro wrote.

“That shows his courage and confidence in the principles of the revolution,” he wrote.

The former president appeared to be throwing a dose of cold water on growing expectations for improved bilateral relations, suggesting Obama had no right to dare suggest that Cuba make even small concessions.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a different perspective while discussing Cuba policy yesterday with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She said that while Fidel Castro had “contradicted” his brother’s statements about Cuba’s willingness to discuss a whole range of issues, that showed “there is beginning to be a debate” in Cuba about how to move forward with U.S. relations.

Raul Castro, 77, has not clarified the confusion and is unlikely to, out of respect for his older brother.

Clinton said the Obama administration needs to be ready to engage with Cuba, even though its government is “very difficult to move.”

The different tones, if not policy positions, that the Castro brothers have clearly adopted could mean there is a division in Cuba’s collective communist leadership over whether detente is moving too fast. Or the leaders could be trying to create an appearance of friction that keeps Cuba in the news and may become a bargaining chip in any negotiations.

“It’s a game of political strategy,” said Elizardo Sanchez, the island’s leading rights activist and head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

Fidel Castro, in his essay, defended Cuba’s right to levy a 10 percent fee on every U.S. dollar sent to relatives on the island by Cuban Americans, saying that if the money arriving from abroad “is in dollars, all the more reason we should do it because it is the currency of the country that blockades us.”

All top Cuban leaders routinely call the 47-year-old trade embargo against their country a blockade.

“Not all Cubans have family members overseas that send remittances,” Fidel Castro wrote. He said Cuba used the revenue from fees on exchanging dollars to provide free health care, education and subsidized food to its population.

Fidel Castro has previously expressed admiration for Obama, but he blasted the new U.S. president in the essay for showing signs of “superficiality” and called on him to wait no longer before lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

“We are living in a new era. Changes are unavoidable,” he wrote. “Leaders just pass through; peoples prevail.”

Still, some Cubans were irritated yesterday by his insistence that Obama misinterpreted Raul Castro’s sentiments.

Wilfredo O’Farril, 59, a construction worker, said: “I’m not afraid to say it. We are a people without a future.” Fidel Castro “first says one thing, then says another. We’ve been this way for 50 years.” By: Will Weissert (AP)

She just told him the truth: she thinks it’s wrong!

She said, “I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there.”

Good for her!

If Perez Hilton don’t like her answer, he  shouldn’t have freaking asked. It ain’t like it was a gay pageant. But now he ans the gay mafia are hating on her because she won’t pretend that she thinks two perverts getting married is the same as a man and woman getting married!

No offence to the homo-humpers but a guy sticking his dick or tongue up another guy’s arse ‘ole ain’t normal and they wasn’t born that way. They choose to be perverts just like some sick freaks choose to be peados, tyrannies and goat molesters. Don’t think a man should be able to marry a donkey either!

Less than four years later, the do-it-yourself social network site with a $500 million valuation has reached another major milestone — 1,000,000 Ning networks.

On their way to 1,000,000 social networks, Ning’s come along way from their early days, when they experimented with three distinct sites that let you build your own YouTube, Flickr, or MySpace. We’ve since seen these services rolled into the core product that now allows for video, photos, and groups to harmoniously coexist in one place.

Being at the forefront of the social web, Ning has also seen a myriad of direct competitors who’ve done little to throw the social network hub off its way to the top of the social food chain. Sites like Me.com (which no longer exists; the domain is now home to Mobile Me), Big Tent, and BricaBox (shutdown in summer of 2008) did their best to copy Ning’s style, but pretty much failed at replicating Ning’s success and popularity.

Now at 1,000,000 networks strong, you’re bound to find an active social group on any topic, cause, or event that strikes your fancy. Some examples include the very popular Twitter Moms group with upwards of 13,000 members, the This is 50 fully branded social hub for 50 Cent’s 400,000 adoring fans, and Ning’s MuggleSpace, where 15,000 plus Harry Potter fans gather together.

Chambers began her career in 1970 as a model for Ivory Snow soap, and starred two years later in the porn classic “Behind the Green Door.”

“She was a really nice girl,” said actor Ron Jeremy, who co-starred with Chambers in adult films starting in the 1970s.

Chambers’ death was a “total shock,” Jeremy said, because they had been scheduled to sign a contract Monday to perform together in an off-Broadway “tongue-in-cheek” re-enactment of the porn classic “Deep Throat.”

“What’s strange is that she was at a stage where she was totally happy and totally content with her life,” Jeremy said. “Her life was falling together, and she was doing really well.”

A family member found Chambers, 56, in the mobile home where she lived in the Canyon Country area and called police Sunday evening, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitemore said.

The death appeared to be from natural causes, although toxicology tests have not been completed, Whitemore said.

The coroner’s investigation has not been completed, and no cause of death has been determined, according to a spokesman with the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office.

Although her career was mostly in X-rated films, Chambers’ fame was boosted by the irony that her face had graced the Ivory Snow box, a soap advertised as “99 and 44/100 percent pure.”

Chambers eventually co-starred with all of the best-known porn actors of the 1970s and 1980s, Jeremy said.

“Throughout our marriage and separation we have always strived to maintain the privacy and integrity of our family and will continue to do so,” the Gibsons said in a joint statement released to Access on Monday.

Robyn signed the divorce papers on Thursday and filed the papers on Monday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split.

However, Access has learned the couple has actually been separated for nearly three years.

Mel and Robyn were married in 1980 after meeting in Australia in 1977.

The couple has seven children – the oldest, Hannah, was born in 1980 and the youngest, Thomas, born in 1999, is the only minor.

In the divorce papers obtained by Access Hollywood, Robyn is seeking joint physical and legal custody of Thomas. She is also requesting the court grant her spousal support from the actor.

Robyn is also requesting ownership of “miscellaneous jewelry.”

Robyn has hired Laura Wasser, who has handled other high-profile divorces for celebrities including Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears.

Access has also learned that Mel and Robyn did not have a prenuptial agreement.

According to an article in the December 1, 2008 issue of the National Enquirer, Gibson has a reported net worth of approximately $900 million.

Mel, who spent Easter weekend at his home in Malibu, recently wrapped production on his latest film, “Edge of Darkness,” a murder conspiracy thriller due in theaters in 2010.

And on Monday afternoon, Mel, who is being represented by attorney Robert S. Kaufman, filed his response to the divorce filing.

In his response filing, Mel is also asking a court to grant their divorce and lists their date of separation as August 26, 2006, a date just one month after he was arrested for DUI in Malibu and was accused of using anti-Semitic language at the arresting officer.

Mel also cited irreconcilable differences for the split.
He also is asking for joint legal and physical custody of their minor son, Thomas Rufus.

The actor has also asked that the court terminate its ability to award spousal support to either Robyn or himself.

Mel’s lawyer previously represented Michael Douglas and Rupert Murdoch in their divorce cases, according to Entrepreneur magazine.

That’s the Washington mystery du jour.

The identity of the first puppy — the one that the Washington press corps has been yelping about for months, the one President Obama has seemed to delight in dropping hints about — leaked out yesterday. This despite White House efforts to delay the news until the big debut planned for Tuesday afternoon.

The little guy is a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog given to the Obama girls as a gift by that Portuguese water dog-lovin’ senator himself, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The girls named it Bo — and let it be noted that you learned that here first. Malia and Sasha chose the name, because their cousins have a cat named Bo and because first lady Michelle Obama’s father was nicknamed Diddley, a source said. (Get it? Bo . . . Diddley?)

Bo’s a handsome little guy. Well suited for formal occasions at the White House, he’s got tuxedo-black fur, with a white chest, white paws and a rakish white goatee.

A really big story
Clearly, the identity of the dog was information too big to contain. A mysterious Web site called http://firstdogcharlie.com published a picture of a Portie yesterday morning, complete with a Q and A with the dog, which it said was originally named Charlie. The celebrity gossip Web site http://TMZ.comlinked to the picture. So much for the big White House unveiling.

For an Obama team that ran a famously tight-knit press operation during last year’s presidential election campaign, it was a sign of how tough it can be to keep a leash on information in Washington.

It’s not for lack of trying, though. Bo’s story starts sometime around the Ides of March. Word on the street was that the White House was going to plant a vegetable garden. Health gurus had been pushing the Obamas to plant seedlings for months, hoping it would set a good example for children everywhere.

A Washington Post food reporter was making calls, probing, pushing. But the White House was mum. Word filtered out that the exclusive had been promised to the New York Times. But the White House offered The Post, the newspaper that cracked Watergate, a mollifier: A puppy exclusive.

These kinds of arrangements get made all the time in Washington. For a while, the puppy deal seemed to be holding up. Sure, reporters here and there nipped at the story. There were hints that the puppy was a gift. There were reports that the Kennedys were involved — but the senator’s press people professed no knowledge.

Photograph surfaces
But then came yesterday morning. The FirstDogCharlie site included a photograph of a Portuguese water dog that looked exactly like the dog in a White House photograph — right down to the multicolored lei. (FirstDogCharlie was registered anonymously on Friday on the Web site http://godaddy.com. Will its creators surface to take credit?)

The White House dismissed the Web site picture as “bogus.” Both photos are reproduced here; you decide.  By: Manuel Roig-Franzia