PRETORIA, South Africa – Over and over, everything seemed to go against them.

A referee took away a win last week, and a linesman disallowed another goal Wednesday.

Now there was just 3 1/2 minutes left in their World Cup, just that much remaining until all the doubts about American soccer would rise again.

But then, in one of the most stunning turnarounds in World Cup history, Landon Donovan scored on a lightning fast counterattack 45 seconds into 4 minutes of injury time. With the most amazing late-game moment in American soccer, the United States beat Algeria 1-0 and reached the World Cup’s second round.

“This team embodies what the American spirit is about,” Donovan said. “We had a goal disallowed the other night, We had another good goal disallowed tonight. But we just keep going. And I think that’s what people admire so much about Americans. And I’m damn proud.”

Former President Bill Clinton lingered in the locker room for 45 minutes after the game to congratulate the players. When Donovan scored, raucous cheers erupted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and even in White House auditoriums in Washington, D.C., according to e-mails sent to U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati.

“That’s probably going to capture more people’s attention than if we won the game 3-0 and it was easy,” American goalkeeper Tim Howard said. “That emotion, that passion is what American sports fans thrive on.”

The United States won its first World Cup match in eight years and finished atop its first-round group for the first time since the original World Cup in 1930. With a quick turnaround, the Americans play Ghana on Saturday night in Rustenburg for a spot in the quarterfinals. Ghana won the final match of the opening round against the Americans to knock them out of the tournament in Germany four years ago.

Clint Dempsey appeared to score in the 21st minute off the rebound of Herculez Gomez’s shot. But the goal was called offside.

Dempsey’s 12-yard shot off Jozy Altidore’s cross clanked off the far post in the 57th minute, and when the rebound came back to Dempsey, he put the follow shot wide to the near side.

“You shake it out of your head and keep on fighting,” Dempsey said.

Knowing England was ahead of Slovenia at the half, the U.S. put in offensive substitutes, first Benny Feilhaber at the start of the second half, then Edson Buddle in the 64th and finally DaMarcus Beasley in the 81st.

“The second half wasn’t a soccer game — it was more like … a track meet. Back and forth, back and forth, both teams are so desperate,” Howard said.

Howard started the counter-attack that led to the goal when he knocked down an Algerian shot and rolled the ball to Donovan on the right flank. Donovan moved upfield and passed ahead to Jozy Altidore just inside the 18-yard box.

“Landon kind of knows me a little bit,” Howard said. “He breaks out when I get the ball and it’s kind of easy to find him.”

Altidore’s right-footed cross was flicked by Dempsey as he crashed into goalkeeper Rais Bolhi.

“I couldn’t chip it over the keeper, so I just tried to hit it under him — hit it hard,” Dempsey said.

As Dempsey tumbled over the goalkeeper, the ball rolled back out. In ran Donovan, who with a right-footed shot from 7 yards, slammed the ball into the lower left corner of the net 45 seconds into 4 minutes of injury time.

“The moment kind of slowed down for me. It was as much a reaction as anything,’ Donovan said. “I kind of hesitated. I didn’t know if he was going to play it across the goal or try to cut it back to me. Once he played it in front of the goal, I didn’t sprint, but I kept my run going and once it popped off then goalie, then I picked up a little to get there.”

After his U.S. record 44th international goal, Donovan joyously ran to the corner flag, sliding headfirst in a belly flop, and his teammates ran down the touchline to mob him.

“A lot of kisses. A little uncomfortable,” Donovan said. “It’s something I’ll have imbedded in my mind forever.”

When the game ended, Donovan kicked the final ball into the stands.

“Someone got a nice souvenir,” he said.

He was in tears and even 30 minutes later his eyes watered and voice cracked as he talked about the goal. The field long empty, American fans remained in the stands, still cheering, waving the Stars and Stripes and blowing vuvuzelas.

As a 20-year-old in 2002, Donovan scored two goals and became a star. But expectations became crushing in 2006, went he went scoreless and the U.S. was eliminated in the first round. With his fourth World Cup goal, Donovan tied Bert Patenaude (1930) as the American leader.

“I’ve been through a lot in the last four years,” Donovan said with tears in his eyes. “And I’m so glad it culminated this way. It makes me believe in good in the world. When you try to do things the right way, that’s good to see them get rewarded.”

The United States finished a World Cup game with a shutout for just the fifth time in 28 matches (7-16-5) and topped Group C with 5 points.

England (1-0-2), which beat Slovenia 1-0 moments earlier, also had five points but finished second because the U.S. scored four goals to two for the English. Slovenia (1-1-1) was third with four points, missing advancing because of Donovan’s heroics. Algeria (0-2-1) was last with one point.

The Desert Foxes were making their third World Cup appearance following first-round elimination in 1982 and 1986. Algeria was the fourth African team to exit the first World Cup on African soil, following Cameroon, Nigeria and host South Africa.

“I think that Africa is on the right road,” coach Rabah Saadane said. “What we need in our national teams and squads is stability and a lot of discipline, and I think in a few years time, Africa will have among the best teams in the world.”

Dempsey needed four stitches to close a cut on his lip.

It was yet another late goal for the United States, which came from behind to tie England 1-1 in its opener, then rallied from a two-goal halftime deficit against Slovenia and would have won had Maurice Edu’s 85th-minute goal been allowed. In six of the final 10 qualifiers, the Americans gave up the first goals — but they bounced back to win three of those games and tie two others.

“That was a really special feeling,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “These guys put a lot into it, they never quit.

“We’re proud. We finished first in our group. Five points, didn’t lose a match. So we’re ready.”

Howard bounced up and down in elation after the game. Feilhaber took a water bottle and sprayed his teammates, and it felt as good as champagne.

“We’re not done yet,” Donovan said. “We believe, man. We’re alive, baby.”

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Ships from Miami steam into Jamaica’s main harbor loaded with TV sets and blue jeans. But some of the most popular U.S. imports never appear on the manifests: handguns, rifles and bullets that stoke one of the world’s highest murder rates.

The volume is much less than the flow of U.S. guns into Mexico that end up in the hands of drug cartels — Jamaican authorities recover fewer than 1,000 firearms a year. But of those whose origin can be traced, 80 percent come from the U.S., Jamaican law enforcement officials have said in interviews with The Associated Press.

And as the Obama administration cracks down on smuggling into Mexico, Jamaicans fear even more firearms will reach the gangs whose turf wars plague the island of 2.8 million people.

“It’s going to push a lot of that trade back toward the Caribbean like it was back in the ’80s,” said Vance Callender, an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

U.S. authorities are beginning to target the Jamaican gun-smuggling network as part of a broad effort to boost security in the Caribbean.

But they have a long way to go. Jamaican authorities have confiscated only 100 guns coming into ports in the last five years, along with 6,000 rounds of ammunition. That in turn is just a fraction of the 700 or so weapons confiscated on the streets each year.

Authorities know they’re only seeing “the tip of the iceberg,” said Mark Shields, Jamaica’s deputy police commissioner.

With arsenals to rival police firepower, the gangs are blamed for 90 percent of the homicides in Jamaica — 1,611 last year, about 10 times more than the U.S. rate, relative to population.

Unlike in Mexico, the vast majority of Jamaican guns seized are submitted for tracing. Jamaica and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives find most of the seized weapons come from three Florida counties — Orange, Dade and Broward — all with large Jamaican populations, according to Shields.

X-ray scanners were installed two years ago at Jamaican ports, but the gangs use bribery and intimidation to get their shipments past inspectors.

In April, a newly hired customs supervisor had his tires slashed and days later was shot at on his way home from work, authorities say. The man was known for his strict scrutiny of cargo coming into a gang-infiltrated warehouse on the Kingston wharf.

When the gangs apply pressure, “no one says no,” said Danville Walker, Jamaica’s commissioner of customs.

“It’s a massive problem,” said Leslie Green, a Jamaican assistant police commissioner. “There aren’t any checks or any controls on goods leaving the United States. Yet anything leaving here, we have to make sure it’s double-checked and tripled-checked for drugs.”

This complaint — that Americans care only what comes in, not what goes out — echoes that of Mexican authorities, who say cars going from the U.S. into Mexico aren’t searched for weapons or cash.

Now hundreds of agents are participating in a $95 million outbound inspection program, stopping suspicious-looking cars and trucks as they cross the border into Mexico. Authorities don’t know how many firearms get through, but more than 12,000 guns used in crimes in Mexico last year were sent to U.S. authorities for tracing, a number that grows as more agencies in Mexico are trained to submit traces.

The U.S. and Jamaica both prohibit the unlicensed transport of guns. But like Mexican smugglers, Jamaican ones depend on lax U.S. gun laws, corrupt customs inspectors and front men acting as buyers.

Florida gun laws make it relatively easy to buy a legal firearm, and much of the smuggling is done by family and friends, said Shields, the Jamaican police official.

The guns are concealed in container loads of blue plastic and cardboard barrels, the kind Jamaicans use to send household goods to their families on the island.

Some shipping companies advertise a no-questions-asked policy in soliciting customers, said Walker, the customs commissioner. He declined to single out individual companies.

In one of the few Jamaican gun-smuggling cases prosecuted in the U.S., Tawanna Banton, 36, of Florida was convicted of buying a Glock handgun later used in the gang killings of four island police officers. She said her Jamaican boyfriend arranged the purchase, and she was paid $15,000 to buy the handgun and a .50 caliber “Grizzly” rifle with a tripod mount, according to court documents.

She told ATF agents the guns were then hidden inside kitchen appliances and driven to Miami for shipment to Kingston.

Banton pleaded guilty to making false statements to the gun dealer in 2006 and served a month in prison.

Besides coming in on freighters, authorities say, guns are stolen or purchased from crooked police or in “guns-for-ganja” deals by fishermen, who bring homegrown marijuana to nearby Haiti and return with pistols, revolvers and submachine guns — many of them believed to be from the U.S. as well.

Callender’s ICE unit began investigations in Jamaica last year with a focus on guns. He said agents in Miami and New York have been working to “interject themselves” into the shipping networks. Indictments are imminent in two or three cases involving suspected Jamaican traffickers inside the U.S., he said, without elaborating.

Then there’s the $45 million Caribbean Basin Security Initiative on regional security, announced by U.S. President Barack Obama in April, which is designed to help the islands counter any spillover of violence from Mexico.

Meanwhile, at the ports, Jamaican customs officials are training more spotters to patrol the warehouses, including five in Kingston who process an average of 10 shipping containers daily.

But inspectors feel the odds are still stacked against them.

“The guys we’re up against, they have time, they have money, and they are very resourceful,” said Andrew Lamb, a supervisor with Jamaica customs’ Contraband Enforcement Team. “They’re pretty good at what they do.”

President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs’ daily briefing with reporters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to lessen Cubans’ dependence on the Castro regime, hoping that will lead them to demand progress on political freedoms, the official said. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives in Cuba.

Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them in advance of his attendance this weekend at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

“There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans,” Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami, the heart of the U.S. Cuban-American community. “It’s time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It’s time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime.”

Other steps taken Monday include expanding the things allowed in gift parcels being sent to Cuba, such as clothes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing gear and other personal necessities.

The administration also will begin issuing licenses to allow telecommunications and other companies to provide cell and television services to people on the island, and to allow family members to pay for relatives on Cuba to get those services, the official said.

Last May, former President George W. Bush announced a new policy that people living in the United States could include cell phones in gift parcels sent to Cubans. At the time, Bush aides said that U.S. residents could pay for the cell service attached to phones they send.
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However, though American cell phones with service contracts from the U.S. work on some parts of the island, service is not always reliable and depends on the phones’ specifications.

Sending money to senior government officials and Communist Party members remains prohibited under Obama’s new policy. Restrictions imposed by the Bush administration had limited Cuban travel by Americans to just two weeks every three years. Visits also were confined to immediate family members.

Also in that Miami speech nearly a year ago, Obama promised to depart from what he said had been the path of previous politicians on Cuba policy _ “they come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington, and nothing changes in Cuba.”

“Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy,” he said then. “This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century _ of elections that are anything but free or fair; of dissidents locked away in dark prison cells for the crime of speaking the truth. I won’t stand for this injustice, you won’t stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba.”

He also promised to engage in direct diplomacy with Cuba, “without preconditions” but with “careful preparation” and “a clear agenda.”

Some lawmakers, backed by business and farm groups seeing new opportunities in Cuba, are advocating wider revisions in the trade and travel bans imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959.

But the official said that Obama is keeping the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place, arguing that that policy provides leverage to pressure the regime to free all political prisoners as one step toward normalized relations with the U.S.

There has been a lot of drama going on in Mexico between rival drug cartels and government officials. Police men and other anti-drug and kidnapping officials are getting killed at an alarming rate compounded with the regular casualties from a drug war.

The Mexican president has blamed US “corruption” for hampering his nation’s efforts to combat violent drug cartels.

Felipe Calderon also told the AFP news agency that the main cause of Mexico’s drug gang problems was “having the world’s biggest consumer [of drugs] next to us”.

“Drug trafficking in the United States is fuelled by the phenomenon of corruption on the part of the American authorities,” he said on Wednesday.

The Mexican president launched a massive assault on drug cartels after entering office in late 2006 but the cartels have responded with campaigns of violence and intimidation that left 6,000 dead in 2008 alone and around 1,000 in 2009 so far.

Read the Whole Report

Watch a Video on US Responsibility for Drug Casualties

The Obama administration on Friday made an emergency contribution of more than $20 million for urgent relief efforts in the Gaza Strip, a day after the United Nations launched a flash appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel’s three-week military operation there.

The State Department said President Barack Obama had authorized the use of $20.3 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for humanitarian assistance to the 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza.

The money will go to U.N. agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which are distributing emergency food assistance, providing medical care and temporary shelter, creating temporary employment and restoring access to electricity and potable water, the department said in a statement.

The Israeli offensive killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, Palestinian officials say. The assault was launched to halt years of Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel.

Both the New York Times and Salon have been looking into the role the USA has into Israel’s military and the Gaza war. Despite the fact that we are in a recession, we are still spending a large amount of money to fund Israel and their war.

Read Salon’s Repot On US Involvement With Israeli Military