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2/9/2006 - KORAT ROYAL THAI AIR BASE, Thailand (AFPN) -- Cope Tiger ‘06, an annual multi-lateral exercise involving the U.S., Thailand and Singapore, began Feb. 7. More than 1,300 people, including 300 U.S. servicemembers and 1,000 servicemembers from Thailand and Singapore, are participating in the exercise that involves aviation and ground units. The exercise is designed to hone flying skills and foster international cooperation among the three countries. A-10 Thunderbolt II operators and maintainers from Osan Air Base, South Korea, have deployed for the exercise. “For a unit that doesn’t normally deploy (this) is a great opportunity,” said Lt. Col....

NEW YORK - It's usually easy to tell where a person stands in the culture wars, but whose side is someone on when his Christmas decor is a blood-spattered Santa Claus holding a severed head? Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets. No one answered the family's door to explain on Tuesday, but...

MOSCOW - A scathing report on corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program for Saddam Hussein's Iraq drew widespread denials, terse dismissals and protestations of innocence Friday, but also pledges to investigate from some of the 2,200 companies cited and countries with citizens named. Russian officials angrily alleged that documents accusing companies and officials in that country were fake, and the head of the nation's electricity monopoly called for the report's writers to be punished. But in a rare partial admission, Sweden's Volvo AB acknowledged making payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities but said it did not consider that bribery....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - With state Senate hearings scheduled to analyze a struggling procurement program, a Sacramento-based auto dealer accused the Department of General Services Monday of improperly awarding a $21 million police car contract. An attorney representing Downtown Ford, which is filing a formal protest, said state officials violated their own bid policies in giving the contract last month to a rival dealer after Downtown Ford won an initial auction to sell the state up to 1,000 police cars. The protest comes as lawmakers and other officials are paying more attention to the state's "strategic sourcing" program, which has delivered...

New Western Whitehouse + this bonus picture

WASHINGTON - Anti-abortion conservatives on Tuesday protested the possible elevation of Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) to Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman just as the Pennsylvania senator was trying to convince his Republican colleagues that he would be a strong advocate for President Bush (news - web sites)'s judicial nominees. More than a dozen protesters gathered outside a Senate office building where Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., keeps his offices, carrying signs saying "Bork Specter", "Sen. Frist: Stop Judicial Activism" and "Senator Frist: Listen to We the People." Robert Bork was a conservative jurist...

NEW ORLEANS - In 48 hours, Rep. Rodney Alexander (news, bio, voting record) went from Democrat to Republican, friend to foe — or foe to friend, depending on your political persuasion. Democrats reacted to the news by calling the first-term congressman a turncoat and a coward. They must now gain another seat, 12 in all, to win back the House this fall. The count today: Democrats 205, Republicans 229. A new ally, on the other hand, rang him up Friday to say congratulations. President Bush (news - web sites), according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, welcomed Alexander to the...

<p>Voters, not worried that he may split the vote, stand by principles rather than desire to win.</p> <p>CORONA DEL MAR – Tom McClintock found a roomful of true believers at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club on Saturday – voters so dedicated to the causes of the Republican recall candidate that they brush aside concerns that he'll split the vote with fellow Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger and allow Democrat Cruz Bustamante to win.</p>

8} HILLARY_PKG -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < p>the junior senator met with plattsburgh business people, residents and and air base developers under one of the recently renovated hangers. she has worked to bring in new companies like NATEC that makes shell casings for ammunition. ((Sen. Hillary Clinton / (D) : we now have to concentrate... in the future. )) about half of the flight line facilities have been leased to commercial users since the base closed seven years ago. ((Jack LaDuke / WCAXTV : about 100 people showed up to see the senator)) farmers like joe geroux of plattsburgh praised the senator for...