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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu failed to appear Wednesday for a bail hearing and a judge issued a new warrant for his arrest. Hsu forfeits the $2 million bail he posted last week. Hsu had been a fugitive in California for 15 years during which time he became a top donor to Democratic candidates, including presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Hsu pleaded no contest in 1991 to a felony count of grand theft, admitting he'd defrauded investors of $1 million in a bogus investment scam. Prosecutors say he was facing up to three...

Parents who conceal the fact that a child was conceived from donor sperm or eggs could face jail under rules proposed today. The information should be declared on birth certificates to ensure children learn the truth about their creation, says a powerful committee of MPs and peers. In a report which touches on a highly-sensitive ethical issue, they argue that it would give parents "the incentive to inform their child" at the time and in the manner of their own choosing. But because it is an offence to give false information on a birth certificate, anyone who refused could be...

Tancredo: Donation from Planned Parenthood physician reflects immigration stance Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo says he won't return a campaign donation from a medical doctor who has ties to Planned Parenthood. The Colorado congressman says the donation had nothing to do with abortion, but rather the physician's support of Tancredo's immigration policy. Recently the Sam Brownback campaign sent out an e-mail saying Tancredo accepted thousands of dollars in donations from Dr. John Tanton, the founder of the Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood Association. But Tancredo says Tanton's donation is related to the doctor's affiliation with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)....

A controversial Dutch reality TV show featuring a contest to win a kidney was a hoax, producers Endemol have admitted. The Big Donor Show was supposed to have featured a terminally-ill woman choosing a recipient for her kidneys. However, at the last minute the programme's producers, who also make Big Brother, revealed on air that the woman starring on the reality show was a healthy actress. But the contestants trying to win the kidneys are genuine and are still in need of organs. All knew the programme was a hoax before they agreed to participate. Programme makers Endemol said their...

The businessman, influential in Pakistani circles, also aided Boxer. WASHINGTON — A Pakistani immigrant who hosted fundraisers in Southern California for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is being sought by the FBI on charges that he funneled illegal contributions to Clinton's political action committee and Sen. Barbara Boxer's 2004 reelection campaign. Authorities say Northridge businessman Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, fled the country after an indictment accused him of engineering more than $50,000 in illegal donations to the Democratic committees. A business associate charged as a co-conspirator has entered a guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles next...

Now I'm thinking. When will we have our first famous "plastinized" celebrity? Will it be Michael Jackson albeit his missing nose? At least he wouldn't be frozen like a giant popsicle in a cryogenic chamber. What about Bill Clinton? Well, I believe he could become an instant hit given his history at the White House behind closed doors. I'm sure people will want to take a closer look at Bill Clinton's "plastinized" body and see what the big deal was about just like

Don't worry, the doctor told Brian Lykins' parents, as he prepared to use cartilage from a cadaver to fix their son's knee. A million people a year have operations that use tissue from donated dead bodies. The nation's largest tissue bank had supplied this cartilage. It was disinfected and perfectly safe, he assured them. But it wasn't. Four days after this routine, elective surgery, Lykins — a healthy, 23-year-old student from Minnesota — died of a raging infection. He died because the cartilage came from a corpse that had sat unrefrigerated for 19 hours — a corpse that had been...

Congressional candidate Pete McCloskey, running against Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy in Tuesday's GOP primary, is returning a $2,100 campaign donation he received from a man tied to al-Qaeda. The money was from M. Yaqub Mirza, a Pakistan native living in Virginia, who has been investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly helping to finance al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. Mirza's offices were raided by federal authorities in March 2002. McCloskey, a moderate former House member who has raised questions about Pombo's ethics, said he's never met Mirza but would return the money. "This is America, so you are presumed innocent...

WASHINGTON - Senator Clinton's likely Republican opponent in 2006 and a South Korean newspaper are raising questions about campaign donations the New York Democrat has received from a New York businessman who is involved in an organization that sets up cultural events in North Korea. The organization was founded by a man who later resigned as South Korea's ambassador to America after allegations emerged that he helped establish a "slush fund" for South Korean politicians. "Once again serious questions surround Senator Clinton's fund-raising operation," the Republican challenger in Mrs. Clinton's Senate re-election bid, a former mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer,...

Teenager finds sperm donor dad on internet Ian Sample, science correspondent Thursday November 3, 2005 The Guardian (UK) Using nothing more than a swab of saliva and the internet, a 15-year-old boy has tracked down his anonymous sperm donor father, according to details released today. By sending a swab taken from the inside of his cheek for genetic testing, the teenager was able to use genealogy websites to trace his father by looking for men with a matching Y-chromosome, which is passed down the male line. The genetic detective work has major implications for men who have donated sperm under...

TOLEDO, Ohio - A coin dealer and major GOP donor at the center of a scandal in Ohio state government was charged Thursday with illegally funneling $45,400 in contributions to President Bush's re-election bid. Tom Noe was accused in a federal indictment of giving money directly or indirectly to 24 friends and associates, who then made the campaign contributions in their own names. In that way, he skirted the $2,000 limit on individual contributions, prosecutors said. "It's one of the most blatant and excessive finance schemes we have encountered," said Noel Hillman, section chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's...

EUREKA -- Rob Arkley has apparently given more to help pass Proposition 75 than any other single individual in the state of California. According to the California secretary of state’s website, Arkley heads up a long list of big donors supporting Proposition 75 with a total of $302,000 given to groups supporting its passage. The contributions came in two different contributions, one for $250,001 in September and another for $52,000 made earlier in August. Arkley did not return a call for comment by deadline. But an employee for Security National, owned by Arkley, called the Times-Standard and said his boss...

Just a headline, presently.

Anonymous Donor Thanks America for His Rescue The Associated Press Published: Sep 7, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - The anonymous donor turned up at a U.S. diplomatic office and presented an envelope with 1,000 euros (about $800) for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. It was a way of repaying a debt to the United States for being liberated by American soldiers from a concentration camp and treated more than 60 years ago, Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Wednesday in relating the incident. The donor was 90 years old, but that is all McCormack would say by way of identification. "This...

Eager to show the US that Israel cares, Jerusalem is offering the US a field hospital, forensic experts and even organized prayer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, diplomatic officials said Sunday. According to the officials, Jerusalem is still waiting for a response from Washington whether it has need for an IDF field hospital to be set up in areas hit by the Hurricane, or whether the US can use Israeli forensic specialists expert in identifying bodies. Israel experts, according to officials in Jerusalem, gained valuable experience identifying flood victims during January's tsunami when a team of experts was sent...

SACRAMENTO - Less than two months after giving $10,000 to an initiative campaign committee tied to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a well-connected private prison company was tentatively awarded a $20 million contract by the state of California to operate a San Joaquin Valley correctional facility. Altogether over the past two years, GEO Group has donated $68,000 to various Schwarzenegger committees, according to campaign reports. Officials with the state prison system insist there is no tie between the donations and the contract, which is part of a broader strategy to use less-expensive private beds to relieve severe overcrowding in the 33 state-run...

LOS ANGELES - George Lopez underwent a kidney transplant with an organ donated by his wife, a publicist for the actor-comedian said Monday. George and Ann Lopez "are resting comfortably in their Los Angeles home and are both expected to make a full recovery," according to a statement from spokeswoman Marleah Leslie. The operation occurred last week at an undisclosed hospital in Los Angeles, said another spokeswoman, Ann Gurrola. Lopez, star of the ABC comedy "George Lopez," had a genetic condition that caused kidney deterioration, the release said. Further information on the condition was unavailable, Gurrola said. Filming on his...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - On the eve of hearings into a troubled state purchasing contract, legislative investigators said Tuesday they want to know more about how an inexperienced Virginia-based firm got hired after its only competitor was disqualified and the company gave $25,000 to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political campaigns. Last June, the Schwarzenegger administration hired CGI-AMS to help the state cut its near-$5 billion annual purchasing bill. But so far, the company has failed to deliver on its goal of trimming $96 million in spending this fiscal year. Questions surrounding how the contract was awarded, the company's lack of...

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire’s Student Senate will consider adopting a resolution tomorrow that would challenge the federal government’s policy of banning sexually active gay men from donating blood. Sponsored by student Sen. Nicholas Christiansen, a 19-year-old sophomore, and the student senate’s Community Change Council, the resolution wants the Food and Drug Administration and the American Red Cross to become, in its words, “aware of our strong opposition to the policy that bans sexually active homosexual males from ever donating blood, and that the students are dedicated to equal treatment and opportunity for all people, regardless of sexual...