Pope reappoints senior Vatican staff
VATICAN CITY, April 21 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI has reappointed senior Vatican officials to their posts in a signal that he sees his papacy as a continuation of his predecessor's.
The BBC said that Cardinal Angelo Sodano resumes his position as secretary of state, the pope's chief lieutenant. At 77, Sodano is two years past the normal retirement age.
There is one open position, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the pope's job as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The BBC mentions two likely candidates, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. Before the election, Schoenborn was widely reported to be a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.
The new pontiff is to be formally installed on Saturday.
Brazil grants asylum to Gutierrez
QUITO, Ecuador, April 21 (UPI) -- Brazil has granted asylum to former Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutierrez, O Globo TV reported Thursday.
Brazil's foreign ministry said in a statement later Thursday that a Brazilian Air Force plane would pick up Gutierrez, who has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Quito, his wife and two daughters and bring them first to the western city of Rio Branco, then on to the capital, Brasilia.
Ecuador's Congress ousted its president Wednesday night amid widespread demonstrations across the country.
Lawmakers voted unanimously to replace Gutierrez with Vice President Alfredo Palacio, who reportedly then took the oath of office. The South American country has now deposed three presidents since 1997.
Demonstrators called on Gutierrez to resign over the firings of the Supreme Court. Gutierrez dismissed the justices in December, alleging they were biased against him and favored the opposition Social Christians.
He also was criticized for not doing enough to end political corruption and improve Ecuador's sagging economy.
Senate approves $81b in Iraq funding
WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate approved an $81 billion bill Thursday funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under debate for two weeks, the measure must still be rectified with a competing $81.4 billion House measure that contains controversial immigration reform provisions that the Senate refused to include in its bill.
The measures also differ over how much money should got to military needs, the major crux of the bill, or other spending on foreign assistance and other areas, including for a new U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
When completed, the measure would be the fifth emergency-spending bill approved by lawmakers since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to provide money for U.S. operations in the two predominately Muslim nations.
The continued requests for funding outside of the normal annual appropriations process has received increasing criticism on Capitol Hill from both Democrats and Republicans concerned about the massive federal budget deficit.
GOP governors consider tax hikes
DENVER, April 21 (UPI) -- Republican governors in states like Colorado, Indiana and Nevada are reconsidering their standard anti-tax stance in the face of budget crunches.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens supports a plan to ease restrictions on how the state can collect revenue, the Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday, while former Bush administration budget director Mitch Daniels proposed new taxes about a week after becoming governor of Indiana.
Some observers said this deviance from a standard Republican ideal may just be necessary in the current budget climate. Meanwhile, opponents said the push for new taxes marks the governors' lack of ideological sincerity, and some conservatives said the flip may have long-term consequences, the paper said.
"The fiscal straitjackets a lot of states have been in have the tendency to show the true colors of governors," said Stephen Slivinski, a budget analyst for the conservative Cato Institute.
"Those Republican governors who raised taxes or tried to raise them will never move up in national office," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Negroponte approved as intel czar
WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate approved the nomination Thursday of John Negroponte to be the nation's first national intelligence director.
Approved with only two dissenting votes, Negroponte will fill a demanding position overseeing a new agency created by last winter's national intelligence reform law.
The former U.S. ambassador will be charged with overhauling the nation's intelligence structure, overseeing and coordinating the country's 15 spy agencies and running a clearing house for their collected data.
Just how the new agency will function remains up in the air as it is still under development.
The Senate also confirmed, by voice vote, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency, to be Mr. Negroponte's top deputy.
