ATLANTA (AP) - Police say two children kidnapped from their home early this morning by their mother's ex-boyfriend have been found safe.
Clayton County Police Captain Tim Robinson says the children were found with a relative of the suspect in Greensboro, North Carolina. Robinson says he has no other immediate information.
RED LAKE, Minnesota (AP) -- As many as 14 people were injured and some reported killed in a shooting Monday at a Minnesota high school, authorities said.More news FBI: Some Dead in Minnesota School Shooting
In fact, as this New York Times op-chart makes clear, the truth is just the opposite. White and Hispanic soliders are overrepresented among military personnel killed in Iraq, whereas African American soldiers are underrepresented. (Blacks account for 18.6 percent of military personnel in Iraq, but account for only 10.9 percent of military personnel killed.) [Read Michelle's piece here
NEW YORK -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed to scrap the Human Rights Commission, expand the Security Council's responsibility to intervene in crisis, and adopt a universal definition of terrorism as part of a broad effort save the United Nations from irrelevancy.For those that don't like the Washinton Times Annan unveils plan to fix U.N.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops killed 24 insurgents and wounded seven in a battle on the outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday after the guerrillas attacked a U.S. position, the American military said.
The former American car maker John DeLorean has died aged 80.
DeLorean, whose car company at Dunmurry near Belfast collapsed, died in New Jersey on Saturday of complications after a recent stroke.
Keep it simple' is the key to the White House, failed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told members of his party from around the world last night.
One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the 'brain-dead' Republicans is that it has a 'tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail,' Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to the Toronto for two days.
FORT CARSON, Colo. - An Army captain accused of terrorizing an Iraqi town under his supervision was convicted Wednesday of assaulting Iraqis, but acquitted of charges stemming from an alleged assault of one of his own soldiers.
WASHINGTON, March 11 - Two Afghan prisoners who died in American custody in Afghanistan in December 2002 were chained to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained assaults that caused their deaths, according to Army criminal investigative reports that have not yet been made public.The Atlanta police admit there might have been some mistakes. You think -- they failed to find the car or the suspect at one of the first places they should have searched.
ATLANTA, March 18 (AP) - The city's embattled Police Department acknowledged Friday that it made mistakes just after the deadly courthouse rampage here a week ago, and the chief said the suspect had spent as much as 12 hours undetected outside a busy mall.Finally -- North Korea stays in the news!
The police chief, Richard J. Pennington, said he would oversee a full review of his department's response to the attacks. Among the issues to be studied, Chief Pennington said, will be communication problems among law enforcement agencies and their mistaken focus on searching for a carjacked vehicle that they believed the accused, Brian Nichols, was using to flee.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with the strongest proponent for dialogue with communist North Korea when she consults with South Korean officials on Sunday to try to kick start stalled nuclear talks.
With U.S. impatience over the six-country talks rising, Rice in Tokyo on Saturday urged North Korea to return to dialogue immediately. She also said the United States had no intention of invading North Korea.
North Korea has rejected further talks with the United States until Rice retracts her labeling of Pyongyang as "an outpost of tyranny" as proof that Washington regarded it as a dialogue partner and not the enemy in an imminent war.
HOMOSASSA, Fla. - The body of missing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was found early Saturday, a day after officials said a registered sex offender confessed to kidnapping and killing the girl.
Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Jessica's body was found during an overnight search in a densely wooded area, only about 150 yards away from the home the girl shared with her father and grandparents.
ALBANY, N.Y. - A top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) thinks fellow Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) 'ran what was basically an inconsistent campaign' for president last year, according to a published report.
Clinton and Kerry are considered potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
The Kerry campaign had 'a different message every two or three weeks,' Ann Lewis, director of communications for Clinton's political action committee, said in Friday's issue of the Forward, a Jewish weekly published in New York City.
A Thornton woman is suing the hospital where she had her daughter, claiming nurses got mixed up and brought her the wrong baby to breastfeed.
Lisa Johnson said it happened last October at North Suburban Medical Center.
Johnson's daughter, Emily, was born with light blonde hair. The new mother said she tried for 10 minutes to breastfeed a baby the nurses thought was hers and was wondering why the baby wouldn't latch on when she finally made a closer inspection.
"And then when the back of the cap was raised up, I could see there was brown hair, and I panicked and took the whole cap off," said Johnson.
"I immediately freaked out and screamed, 'This is not my baby,'" Johnson said. "Then they checked the bracelets and the nurse started to cry and said, 'Oh my God, I can't believe we did this, I'm so sorry."
Johnson demanded to talk to the other baby's mother, Tasaya Reilly.
"I wanted to make sure what they were telling me was the truth," she said.
This little girl was given to the wrong woman, her mother says.
Reilly said the hospital staff told her right away that her baby went to the wrong room but only for 2 to 5 minutes.
[...]
Johnson and her husband are suing the hospital, claiming it was negligence. They are asking for unspecified damages. Johnson said she's been traumatized by the event, has been unable to work and has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome.
The night before his Army unit was to meet to fly to Iraq, Pvt. Brandon Hughey, 19, simply left. He drove all night from Texas to Indiana, and on from there, with help from a Vietnam veteran he had met on the Internet, to disappear in Canada.Un-volunteer my...! (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)
In Georgia, Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, whose family ties to military service stretch back to the American Revolution, filed for conscientious-objector status and learned that he will face a court-martial in May for failing to report to his unit when it left for a second stint in Iraq.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A deal between Iraq's Shi'ites and Kurds on the shape of the government should be reached by the time the new parliament next meets on March 25 or 26, a Kurdish leader said on Friday.
Jalal Talabani, who is expected to be Iraq's next president, was quoted as telling CNN in an interview that the names of the proposed president, prime minister and parliament speaker would be agreed ahead of the next parliament meeting.
He said Iraq's new constitution, which should be written by August, would be based on the interim agreement that contains provisions for a federal and secular Iraq -- main points which Iraq's northern Kurds wanted safeguarded.
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded Thursday that Syria withdraw all its troops from Lebanon before Lebanese parliamentary elections in April and May, marking the first time he has set a specific timetable for Damascus.
SIXTH OF OCTOBER CITY, Egypt - Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest cease-fire promise ever and a victory for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. But they warned Thursday the truce would collapse if Israel does not hold its own fire and release Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the announcement as a “positive first step,” though he insisted that for greater progress to take place “terrorist organizations cannot continue to exist as armed groups.” A top aide to Sharon, Ranaan Gissin, said Israel would continue to refrain from military action so long as Palestinians do not attack Israelis.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army expects to begin cutting troop levels in Iraq later this year, a move that would reduce the level of American forces there to below 138,000, an Army general said on Thursday.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush urged members of Congress Wednesday to consult their constituents and help him seek a 'permanent fix' for Social Security, but said that he will not be the first to advance a long-range plan because he thinks 'the first bill on the hill always is dead on arrival.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said: 'The high cost of gasoline illustrates that our nation is too dependent on foreign oil. I believe that we can access this vital energy supply in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.'Here is the rebuttal from the same article:
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said gasoline prices are going up 25 cents a gallon and nearly 60 percent of U.S. oil supply comes from overseas.
'It makes no sense to ignore a new source of American oil that should produce as much oil as Texas already produces each year,' he said.
Kate Prevost of U.S. PIRG's Southeastern office in Atlanta said the group concluded from a U.S. Geological Survey study in 1998 that there may be only a one-year supply of economically recoverable oil in the targeted 2,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Notice that may is the key word in the rebuttal! Now we should not drill the 2,000 acres, which is less then .0015 of the overall 1.5 million acres in question -- based on the fact it may not produce; what if it does? Now here is something for the environmentalist, what if it does not? Wouldn't this reinforce any arguments they may have for future drilling sites? Now me personally if I was battling for the environmentalist and I knew that this would not produce I would say go ahead what is a .0015 sacrifice for the overall good; giving us a bigger stick to fight with...but are they that confident in their science?
"It's not going to be enough to make a dent in our dependence on foreign oil," she said.
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday appeared to back track from his proposal of withdrawing troops from Iraq starting from September, saying the date was only his hope and could be changed.
Berlusconi, one of U.S. President George W. Bush's most vocal supporters, shocked friend and foe on Tuesday when he said Italy would start pulling out its troops in September, adding he was in talks with Britain's Tony Blair about a total exit.
"There's never been a fixed date," Berlusconi said.
"It was only my hope ... If it is not possible, it is not possible. The solution should be agreed with the allies."
LOS ANGELES - The jury in the Robert Blake (search) murder trial has found the 'Baretta' actor not guilty of the 2001 murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley (search).
Jurors also acquitted Blake of one charge that Blake solicited murder, but deadlocked on a second solicitation charge. The jury voted 11-1 in favor of acquittal and the judge dismissed the count.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush conceded Wednesday that private accounts do not address the projected problems with Social Security, but he defended his approach and said he wanted more input from Congress on overhauling the troubled system.
WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush.
The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year’s budget.
The action, assuming Congress agrees on a budget, clears the way for approving drilling in the refuge later this year, drilling supporters said.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - A California judge said on Wednesday that he agreed with the jury's death penalty sentence against Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son in a case that attracted nationwide attention.
The judge was to formally sentence Peterson later on Wednesday.
Police in Yemen have clashed with demonstrators on a second day of protest over a proposed sales tax rise.
In Taiz, about 250 kilometres south of the capital, Sanaa, as many as nine people are reported to have been injured and another 10 detained.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confirmed that he intends to begin withdrawing Italian troops from Iraq as soon as possible.[...]
The Italian media has speculated that the announcement was aimed at a domestic rather than international audience, ahead of Italy's general election.
Italy is to begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in September 2005, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said.
He told Rai state television the pullout would take place 'in agreement with our allies'.
Italy has 3,000 troops in Iraq - the fourth largest foreign contingent.
DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers union waved a white flag Monday in its parking skirmish with neighboring reservists, but the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines are not accepting surrender.
WASHINGTON -- More Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction and fewer think it's going wrong than at any time since the U.S. invasion two years ago, according to a new poll.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a victory for gay rights groups, a California Superior Court judge ruled on Monday that the state's voter-approved ban on homosexual marriage is unconstitutional.The judge mentioned there was no "rational", reason to prohibit -- well in that case is there a "rational" reason to condone it? What is rational?
Both advocates and opponents of gay marriage said the decision was just one step in what will likely be a long legal battle that may continue for years"
ATLANTA - For hours, Ashley Smith gently talked to the armed suspect in Atlanta's courthouse slayings, turning from hostage to confidant as they discussed God, family, pancakes and the massive manhunt going on outside her apartment.
'I believe God brought him to my door,' Smith said Sunday, only hours after her 911 call ended a manhunt for Brian Nichols, who is accused of shooting four people since Friday.
Over the course of the night, Nichols untied Smith, and some of the fear lessened as they talked. Nichols told Smith he felt like 'he was already dead,' but Smith urged him to consider the fact that he was still alive a 'miracle.'
The annual report by a press watchdog that is affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said that 36 percent of stories about Bush were negative compared to 12 percent about Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.Wait just a minute -- While Reuters' above article is accurate; the media proves that once again they are half-right by providing this inaccurate story.
NEW YORK Mar 13, 2005 - A study of news coverage of the war in Iraq fails to support a conclusion that events were portrayed either negatively or positively most of the time.Maybe, as I mentioned here, the United States population is not exposed to the positive stories.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at nearly 2,200 stories on television, newspapers and Web sites and found that most of them couldn't be categorized either way.
Rome, March 11 - 'I want the government to investigate on what happened', said Giuliana Sgrena, in an interview with Spanish TV broadcast by Sky TG24, her first ever since she was freed. 'The government is looking at various accounts of the facts', she said, 'but my account coincides with the one provided by the car driver, who also survived. We demand concrete answers on what really happened. Obviously an inquiry commission will be set up. I do have faith in them. What happened was just terrible. Our questions need to be addressed. And not only by the Italian government, but by Mr Bush himself."
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran described progress on nuclear talks with Europe as unsatisfactory and too slow, with Tehran's chief negotiator warning Sunday that it soon may walk away from the discussion.
Iran has made such threats before, accusing Europe of wasting time and not making proposals that conform to the Iranian bottom line -that it will develop peaceful nuclear technology. Europe seeks to ensure it does not use the technology to build bombs.
BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 12, 2005 -- Ukraine withdrew 150 servicemen from Iraq on Saturday, beginning a gradual pullout, as Shiite and Kurdish politicians refined plans to form a coalition government that officials said includes an agreement not to turn the country into an Islamic state.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day after the United States agreed not to block Iran's application to join the World Trade Organization, Iran's leader has said his country is ready to temporarily suspend its uranium enrichment program.Then the Bad
President Mohammad Khatami insisted, however, that Iran has a right to nuclear technology.
"We have accepted postponing the activities of uranium enrichment in a voluntary way and only temporarily, even though we have no obligation. We are doing this for moral reasons," he said through an interpreter while visiting Caracas, Venezuela.
TEHRAN, Iran - Neither threats nor incentives will alter Iran's pursuit of its nuclear program, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said yesterday, defying new moves by the European Union and the United States to ensure Tehran never develops a nuclear bomb.I am sure President Bush will be blamed -- like the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart the "left" loves to believe President Bush has this kind of power -- guess it eases the fact their guy lost the election.
[...]
Asefi rejected Washington's move. "Lifting some restrictions against Iran will not stop Iran from pursuing its rights," Asefi was quoted as saying.
The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was wounded by American fire last Friday soon after being released by kidnappers in Baghdad, has said that she does not think that the Americans were trying to kill her. 'I never said that they wanted to kill me"
ROME - US authorities in Iraq were kept in the dark about an Italian operation to free a kidnapped journalist which ended in debacle with an intelligence officer killed by GIs, an Italian general was quoted Saturday as saying.
[...]
Mario Marioli, a deputy commander of the US-led coalition troops in Iraq, was quoted by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica as saying: "I asked Calipari if I should inform our American allies of the hostage-freeing operation, but his reply was that under no circumstances was the ally to be informed."
ATLANTA - After a two-day massive manhunt in Atlanta, Ga., suspected courthouse triple slayer Brian Nichols (search) is in police custody, The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told FOX News on Saturday.
Taiwanese women forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese during World War II are campaigning for Japan to take legal responsibility for the crime.
They are hoping to collect a million signatures for a petition they, and other victims across Asia, intend to present to the UN in April.
[...]
They sought an official apology from the Japanese.
The high court in Tokyo rejected their demand on the basis that the claims were filed many years after the abuse occurred.
Now the women are working with other victims - in Korea, the Philippines, China, Indonesia and the Netherlands - to bring the issue to the attention of the UN.
"Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction.(Hit Tip: Betsy's Page)
Rolf Ekeus, the Swede who led the UN's efforts to track down the weapons from 1991 to 1997, said that the offer came from Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister and deputy."
"Gen Marioli's testimony is crucial because he is the man who was keeping the US forces informed of the car's arrival before the fatal shooting, in which a US patrol killed the secret service agent and injured Ms Sgrena and a second officer.
Gen Marioli's version, as reported by the papers, also contradicts a reconstruction by the Italian government and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said the US military had been advised that Ms Sgrena was on board the car. "
ROME — U.S. forces in Iraq were only partially informed about last week's Italian intelligence mission to release a hostage, which ended with a shooting on the road to Baghdad airport and the death of secret service agent Nicola Calipari, Italian newspapers said Friday.
While U.S. authorities were informed of the presence of Calipari and a colleague, they did not know that the mission was aimed at freeing journalist Giuliana Sgrena, Italian dailies La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera reported. Sgrena hade been kidnapped in Baghdad on Feb. 4.
[...]
Both newspapers cited a report by Maj. Gen. Mario Marioli, an Italian who is the coalition forces' second-in-command. The report has been given to Rome prosecutors investigating the killing.
According to the newspapers, Marioli informed U.S. officials that Calipari and the other Italian officer were there, but not that the mission was aimed at releasing Sgrena. The lack of full information was possibly due to known U.S. opposition to Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers, Italian media have suggested.
However, the papers had conflicting versions over how much Marioli knew: Corriere said he knew that Calipari was working to have the hostage released, La Repubblica said he didn't.
A senior research scientist from Harvard says abstinence and faithfulness are more effective than condoms to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Dr. Edward Green of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies is the author of Rethinking AIDS Prevention (Praeger, 2003). He says he wrote the book after the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) dismissed his study of effective AIDS prevention program, and instead hired another researcher, one who favored condoms, to conduct another investigation."
[...]
Nearly two years ago, Green testified before the U.S. Senate's African Subcommittee about the effectiveness of Uganda's ABC approach. He observed that, in little more than a decade, it had helped bring about a steep decline in the African nation's HIV/AIDS infection rates: they had dropped from 21 percent to 6 percent since 1991.
In his 2003 Senate testimony, Green noted, "Many of us in the AIDS and public health communities didn't believe abstinence and faithfulness were realistic goals. It now seems we were wrong."
Two retired New York City police detectives, onetime partners who had long been suspected of ties to organized crime, were charged by federal prosecutors yesterday with taking part in eight murders on behalf of the Mafia - most while one or both were still active members of the police force.
The charges, detailed in an indictment unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, were among the most startling allegations of police corruption in memory. In one case, in 1990, prosecutors said the detectives, driving an unmarked police car, pulled over a Mafia captain on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and shot him to death for a rival mob figure. In another, in 1986, they flashed their badges and kidnapped a mobster, threw him in the trunk of their car and delivered him to a rival, who tortured and killed him. "
ATLANTA, Ga. — A man facing rape charges grabbed a deputy's gun and shot four people at the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta, killing a well-respected judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy and leading authorities on a citywide manhunt.
The suspect, identified as 34-year-old Brian Nichols and described as a balding black male, carjacked a series of vehicles following the 9 a.m. EST shooting. Nichols, 34, is described as a balding black male, 6'1" and weighing 200 pounds, of medium complexion. He was being held on rape charges stemming from an incident in August last year.
A core group of influential evangelical leaders has put its considerable political power behind a cause that has barely registered on the evangelical agenda, fighting global warming.The love affair will last until the next debate over homosexual marriage or abortion...
These church leaders, scientists, writers and heads of international aid agencies argue that global warming is an urgent threat, a cause of poverty and a Christian issue because the Bible mandates stewardship of God's creation. [Story here]
NEW YORK — When Nobel Prize-winning physicist Charles Hard Townes was a professor at Columbia University during the 1950s, a colleague, Willis Lamb, asked him if God ever helps him in the lab. Dr. Townes gave the question some thought. "Well," he recalls telling Lamb. "I think so."Further, I would submit there are many Christian scientist that prove the validity of the Bible constantly -- not to mention many scientist that have set out to prove "there is no god" only to become convinced that God does in fact exists.
[...]
But even in these often discordant worlds, Townes has found little difficulty in reconciling his Christian faith with the empiricism of scientific inquiry.
"I don't think that science is complete at all," says the 89-year-old physicist. "We don't understand everything and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies. We just have to accept that we don't understand."
Within the great unknowns of the universe, Townes argues there is ample room for faith in God and His presence in human experience.
Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville said he would issue a warrant for Jackson's arrest and Jackson would lose the $3 million bail that has kept the accused child molester free after he failed to appear in court on Thursday, apparently because of severe back problems.
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon's pro-Syria parliamentary majority has nominated former Prime Minister Omar Karami -- who resigned nine days ago in the face of anti-Syria demonstrations -- to resume his post.
The decision was announced Wednesday after consultations between with President Emile Lahoud and lawmakers.
Lahoud is expected to make the official appointment Thursday, political sources said.
Karami's resigned on February 28 following huge mass demonstrations in Beirut against his government. Those protests prompted a huge rally Tuesday in support of Syria presence in Lebanon.
The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI said they were investigating the incident.
The information accessed included names, addresses, Social Security and driver's license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information.
MILWAUKEE (AP) - A judge threw out a high school student's lawsuit against mandatory summer homework, saying he and his father should have done a little more studying themselves before bringing the case.I repeat my previous advice "don't take the class since it is and "honor" and voluntary".
Students in the Whitnall High School math course - honors pre-calculus - were supposed to do three assignments by certain dates over the summer. Peer Larson, 17, and his father, Bruce, had filed suit in Circuit Court, arguing that homework should not be required after the 180-day academic year is over.
The scandal is not that an anti-war propagandist has accused the U.S. of targeting journalists. That's par for the course. (Yes, hello again, Eason Jordan.)
The scandal is not that mainstream media sympathizers are blaming our military and dredging up every last shooting accident along the treacherous routes to Baghdad Airport. Again, no surprise here.
The scandal is that Italy -- our reputed ally in the global War on Terror -- negotiated with Sgrena's Islamist kidnappers and may have forked over a massive ransom to cutthroats for Sgrena's release.
Where is the uproar over this Islamist insurgency subsidy plan?
Iraqi politician Younadem Kana told Belgian state TV that he had "non-official" information that Italy paid the terrorists $1 million in tribute. The Washington Times, citing the Italian newspaper La Stampa, pinned the ransom figure at $6 million. Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the Italian government forked over between $10 million and $13.4 million to free Sgrena [Read here]
QAIM, Iraq — Police said Wednesday they found 35 bodies in two different places in Iraq (search), some shot to death, the others beheaded.
Twenty of the corpses were found late Tuesday near Rumana, a village about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the western city of Qaim (search), near the Syrian border, police Capt. Muzahim al-Karbouli said.
[...]
A separate discovery was made Tuesday south of Baghdad in Latifiya, where 15 headless bodies were found by Iraqi troops.
The decapitated corpses were found inside an abandoned base of the former Iraqi army, Defense Ministry Capt. Sabah Yassin said. The bodies included 10 men, three women and two children.
Residents in north-eastern Australia have battened down and are preparing for the onslaught of Cyclone Ingrid, which, despite weakening, remains potentially the worst storm to threaten the region in 30 years.
While the cyclone has been downgraded from a category five to a severe category four storm, Queensland residents are preparing for the worst.
The Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane said Ingrid is moving towards the coast, near Cape Melville, at eight kilometres an hour, and is expected to make landfall overnight near the small community of Coen.
"Although Ingrid has continued to weaken a little, the cyclone still poses a serious threat to far north Queensland with a very destructive core and the potential to generate a dangerous storm tide," the Bureau of Meteorology said.
The storm is packing winds of up to 250 kilometres an hour near its centre. [Read stroy here]
The US military in Iraq has begun an investigation into the shooting incident last week that killed Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari.
US Brig Gen Peter Vangjel has been appointed to lead the inquiry, expected to take up to four weeks to complete.
The US-led coalition command added in a statement that Italian officials had been invited to take part. [Read story here]
LONDON Mar 8, 2005 — President Bush's nomination of a tough-talking conservative as ambassador to the United Nations set off ripples of worry in some of America's allies Tuesday.
Critics who had hoped Bush would tend more carefully to ties with overseas friends in his second term feared the selection of John R. Bolton called into question the president's intention to do so.
NEW YORK — The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.
Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Around 500 Kuwaiti activists, mostly women, have demonstrated outside parliament to demand female suffrage amidst tensions in the Gulf Arab state over a government drive to grant women political rights.
"Women's rights now," chanted the crowd, which included women dressed in abayas, or traditional long black cloaks. Some of the demonstrators at Monday's protest wore veils over their faces.
The president of the University of Colorado submitted her resignation today amid allegations that the school's athletic department had used sex and alcohol as recruiting tools for its football program.
Elizabeth Hoffman, the president, told the university's board of regents this morning that she is stepping down effective June 30.
"It has become clear to me that, amid the serious matters the University of Colorado now confronts, my role as the leader of the university has become an issue," she wrote in a letter to the board. "It appears to me it is in the university's best interest that I remove the issue of my future from the debate so that nothing inhibits C.U.'s ability to successfully create the bright future it so deserves."
Ms. Hoffman has headed the state's largest public university system for five years. Her resignation comes as the university grapples with the issue of the athletic scandal and also as it awaits the results of a special chancellor's investigation to determine what action to take, if any, against a professor who referred to the victims of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 as "little Eichmanns." [Read the story here]
VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. and Austrian lawyers have filed a lawsuit demanding Thailand, U.S. forecasters and the French Accor group answer accusations they failed in a duty to warn populations hit by December's Tsunami disaster, a lawyer said Monday.
The lawsuit was filed Friday at a New York district court on behalf of tsunami victims by lawyers including U.S. attorney Edward Fagan, internationally renowned for 1990s lawsuits against Swiss banks over Holocaust-era accounts. It demanded an account of their actions on Dec. 26.
[...]
The lawsuit suggests the Thai government and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates a Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, failed to issue the requisite warnings.
ROME -- Italian agents likely withheld information from U.S. counterparts about a cash-for-freedom deal with gunmen holding an Italian hostage for fear that Americans might block the trade, Italian news reports said yesterday.
The decision by operatives of Italy's SISMI military intelligence service to keep the CIA in the dark about the deal for the release of reporter Giuliana Sgrena, might have "short-circuited" communications with U.S. forces controlling the road from Baghdad to the city's airport, the newspaper La Stampa said.
That would help explain why American troops opened fire on a car whisking the released hostage to a waiting airplane, wounding Miss Sgrena and killing the Italian intelligence operative who had just negotiated her release.
[...]
"Italian intelligence decided to free Sgrena paying a sum to the kidnappers without informing American colleagues in Iraq who, if they had known about this, would have had to oppose it, to have impeded the operation," sources said.
"If this was the case, it could explain why American intelligence had not informed the American military commands about the operation and thus the patrol did not expect the car with the Italians."
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria vowed a complete and swift two-phased withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon but President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday Damascus would still play a role in the tiny neighbor it has dominated for 30 years.
Lebanese greeted Assad's announcement with screams of delight in central Beirut, while opposition figures in Lebanon and European leaders cautiously described the move as a positive start.
So, anyway, I'd forgotten about all this. Bush won the election despite the al-Qaqaa drumbeat from Kerry and his surrogates in and out of the press.Nice to see someone remember the "story of the year and you can read about it here.
But Byron York, my colleague at National Review, didn't forget. He wondered, whatever happened to The Biggest Story on Earth? The answer, it turns out, is nothing. The Times has not run a single story about the al-Qaqaa story since November 1. Nada, bupkis, zilch.
[...]
If the story was accurate, it should be important enough to follow up. If it wasn't, we should be told that.
There's also another news angle that might have been worth investigating. As Times columnist William Safire and Cliff May, a former Times reporter and contributor to National Review Online, have suggested, the whole al-Qaqaa story might have been orchestrated by Mohammed el-Baradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in order to influence the American presidential election. The Bush White House dislikes Baradei, and reportedly the feelings are mutual (largely because the White House wouldn't support Baradei's bid for another term as the head of the IAEA). According to the Wall Street Journal, Baradei triggered the process which resulted in the al-Qaqaa story getting leaked to the Times and CBS News.
BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss authorities said Friday they have detained five Islamic extremists suspected of using the Internet to show the killing of hostages — which reportedly included the beheading of an American — and to give bomb-making instructions.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A couple’s plans for a birthday party for their former pet chimpanzee turned tragic when two other chimps at an animal sanctuary escaped from their cage and attacked. The man was critically injured with massive wounds to his face, body and limbs, and the attacking animals were shot dead.Video below.
What do you think?
"We must never lose sight of the need to have an education system ... that's capable of keeping this country competitive by adjusting to the workplace as it really is," Bush said at Anne Arundel Community College. "I have come to herald success."
Bush has proposed doubling the number of Americans who get job-training help from the government, as a way to restore lost jobs. He aims to do that in part by consolidating federal job-training programs, but is also striving for broader change. [Whole story here]
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - With U.S. deaths in Iraq topping 1,500, the commanding general of allied troops in Baghdad said Thursday he expects casualties will soon decline because of bomb-detecting technology and emboldened Iraqi informants.I am sure this is also a "field test" for the department of homeland security!
"My expectation, not just a hope, is that over the coming months we'll see the number of casualties go down," Maj. Gen. William G. Webster said in a teleconference from Baghdad. "Now, I'm knocking on wood at the same time, because the enemy gets a vote in this."
The initial estimate of 3.1 percent GDP growth for last year’s fourth quarter was revised upward to 3.8 percent. Business investment was revised higher to 18 percent from 14.9 percent. Included in this, the rise in non-high-tech business investment outstripped high-tech investment (by 15.2 percent to 13.7 percent, both at annual rates) for the first time since 1994. Private-sector domestic output -- what Economics 101 students might remember as consumption plus investment (or C+I) -- came in at an outsized 5.5 percent growth.What is a good liberal to do -- idea stop hoping for gloom and doom so you can have a good day -- kind of selfish don't you think.
So what did the New York Times do with this upbeat economic story? It buried it. Rather than place the news on the front page of the business section, the Times editors shoved it on page B4. Instead of carrying a senior reporter’s byline, the copy came from Reuters News Service. [Read here]
During President Bush's State of the Union Address, CNN was soundly beaten by Fox, and even lost the key 25-54 demographic to third-place MSNBC.
In contrast, Fox News was the only news network on cable to see viewership increases in February, as it outpaced all other cable news companies combined for the sixth straight month.
"FNC averaged 1.57 million viewers in primetime, up 18 percent from the same period last year, while CNN fell 21 percent to 637,000 viewers from the same time period," Variety stated. [Read story here]
WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd description of Adolf Hitler's rise to power was meant as a warning to heed the past and not as a comparison to Republicans, a spokesman for the West Virginia Democrat says.
Wise's official biography on WREG's Web site has changed in recent weeks. At the time of his interview with Marsh, his bio said, "My work is dedicated to the service of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" and included his favorite Bible verses.In other reports the station's manager claims that an e-mail being posted on one of Mr. Wise's peer's blogs was the reason for the suspension -- however; if this is the case why would the manager make this statement.
The bio now contains no references to his religion.
Walter said it is a longstanding general rule that the station is not a forum for a reporter's personal beliefs: "We have a policy of our reporters being neutral as it relates to political, social or religious points of view. We're in the business of reporting news from an informative standpoint."It is worth noting that the statement Mr. Wise made in the posted e-mail in question was basically the same statement made "on air" February 11, 2004 explaining he felt compelled to be "bold" in his faith.
The UN has warned peacekeeping forces operating under its banner to obey strict rules on sexual conduct.
UN deputy head Louise Frechette said soldiers would be punished if they had sex with minors or prostitutes or if they traded sex for aid or favours. [Story here]
WASHINGTON - A survey of mostly undocumented Mexican immigrants found that a majority want to stay in the country permanently, but many more would be interested in signing up for temporary work permits even if it requires them to eventually return to Mexico.
"I want to reach out to people who are worried about values," Dean said. "We are going to embrace pro-life Democrats because pro-life Democrats care about kids after they're born, not just before they're born."Oh no - was this a slip or did he just admit that a baby is a baby [Webster's "an extremely young child"] - maybe Dean to is going through an "Extreme Makeover" like Hillary but I doubt it… Read the story here.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea demanded Wednesday that the United States apologize for designating the communist state as an "outpost of tyranny" and it threatened to resume long-range missile tests.
However, the North also held out the possibility of returning to nuclear disarmament talks if Washington agrees to coexist with the communist country.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen in Baghdad shot and killed a judge working for the Iraqi special tribunal set up to try Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants, Interior Ministry officials said on Wednesday
LOS ANGELES - A British Airways jet continued on an 11-hour flight to London after losing one of its four engines shortly after taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, officials said.You can read the story here and see the video here.
Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men.RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman released this statement:
But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler's dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that "Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved intact." And he succeeded.
Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.
And that is what the nuclear option seeks to do to Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate.
Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany in discussing the duty of U.S. Senators to advise and provide consent on judicial nominees is reprehensible and beyond the pale. While members of the Senate are free to agree and disagree on the issues, this poisonous rhetoric only serves to illustrate the desperation and weakness of Senator Byrd's positionSenator Byrd also invoked Hollywood by saying "In 1939, one of the most famous American movies of all time, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," hit the box office". Well Senator Byrd the filibuster was originally designed to work like "Mr. Smith's" stand in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- which is no longer the case best described by Mr. Limbaugh:
The filibuster used to mean that you had to go to the floor and you had to stand there and you had to talk the whole time you were filibustering. It could be on anything. You could debate this. You know who holds the record for the longest filibuster without going to the bathroom? Strom Thurmond. I forget how many hours but it's like 16 or 18 hours he stood on the Senate floor and filibustered something without breaking. You can't break it.
But that's not a filibuster anymore. All somebody wants to filibuster has to do is say, "Hey, guess what? I'm filibustering yew," and, bam! Debate stops, and it needs 60 votes to stop it. There are no filibusters anymore.
African American Republicans in the state are calling for the resignation of Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean for comments they say are racially insensitive.
Mississippi Republican Executive Committee member Charles Evers said Dean should apologize and step down.
[...]
Evers stood among eight black Republican party members, making his comments at the Capitol Rotunda.
He said The former Democratic presidential candidate owes an apology to not only blacks but to America as well.
Charles evers said, "Ask the Democratic party do the same thing to Dean that Republicans and other Democrats did to Senator Lott. Ask him to step down, because he's the wrong man for the position." [Read more here]
Syrian opposition figures Tuesday hailed the fall of the Damascus-backed government in Beirut under the weight of mass street protests as a possible catalyst for democratic change in their own country.Let's hope it remains peaceful! (Hat tip: Instapundit.com)
[...]
"A Syrian withdrawal is inevitable. History is on the move and nobody can halt its progress," said Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay. He said Lebanon was now playing the role of "engine for change" in the region.
"I welcome this promising democratic change which will have a contagious effect on the Syrian hinterland and be of benefit for the Syrian and Lebanese peoples," said Amiralay.
"You've got to reject Michael Moore and the MoveOn crowd," DLC CEO Al From said in an interview about how the Democratic Party should rebuild after 2004. From argued that the anti-war Moore and MoveOn have hurt the party on national security, the issue which he says the party needs to make "central to our cause." Rank-and-file Democrats "are more like us than MoveOn," which From called a group of "elites, people who sit in their basements all the time and play on their computers." [Story here](Hat tip: David Limbaugh)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters waving Lebanese flags returned to central Beirut Tuesday to demand Syria leave Lebanon as the United States and France offered to help the country hold free elections.
LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates will be awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth Wednesday for his outstanding contribution to enterprise.
Gates, the world's wealthiest man, will receive the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
He will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honor that dates back to 1917, although monarchs have been creating knights for hundreds of years.
BERKELEY, Calif. - Berkeley students aren't getting written homework assignments because teachers are refusing to grade work on their own time after two years with no pay raise.
So far, a black history event had to be canceled and parents had to staff a middle-school science fair because teachers are sticking strictly to the hours they're contracted to work
