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"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success." But critics objected to the language of one of the lesson plans, for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 6, that suggested that students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president." Another assignment for students after hearing the speech was to discuss...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger drew immediate criticism Thursday for declaring that the state's Board of Chiropractic Examiners should represent chiropractors despite the panel's mission statement of protecting the public. The Republican governor made the remark as he tried to distance himself from his own chiropractic appointees, including two of his earliest bodybuilding friends, after the board took questionable actions last week that consumer advocates say favor the chiropractic industry. "They run their board by themselves, independent of us," Schwarzenegger said after touring the San Joaquin County jail in French Camp to promote his prison plan. "We don't give them directions. What...

China irked by topless women's health ad Tue Jun 13, 12:45 AM ET A Chinese TV presenter issued a public apology after posing topless with two other women in hospital advertisements for women's health, the Beijing News said on Tuesday. Chen Dan, a presenter on Changsha TV's "Women's channel" in the southeastern province of Hunan, drew fire from Internet chat-rooms and station bosses after her "Clever Girls Love Themselves More" advertisement appeared at bus stops and on billboards in Hunan's capital, Changsha. Chen, who was suspended from presenting duties said it was a "public interest advertisement", the Beijing News said....

When will conservatives stop causing "furors" to erupt? First, it was Mel Gibson tossing about his anti-semitic hate-filled speech in the "Passion of the Christ". Now, George Bush, is sending hundreds of million of Americans reeling with insensitive images of the World Trade Center "accident". Well, I suppose those sentences would make sense to me if I were a liberal; instead, they draw for me a conclusion about how the press perceives all things conservative, that they must cause a "furor". Have you noticed, in the past two months, how many times the press has used the word "furor" to...

Tuesday March 2, 05:30 AM Arab 'Marriage' TV Show Ends After Sparking Furor DUBAI (Reuters) - The first Arab reality TV show ended on Monday after three months of controversy over its format -- parading women before suitors in a luxury apartment for 24 hours a day. Critics damned the ground-breaking dating show Al Hawa Sawa (On Air Together) as too liberal, but fans writing on Internet diary sites said it supported traditional values of limited contact before marriage. Suitors could view the girls 24 hours a day and contact them before a possible meeting in the flat to propose...

<p>He joined the Iranian Air Force before the country's 1979 revolution and served through a bloody eight-year war against Iraq, rising to the rank of captain.</p> <p>But he wasn't comfortable with the policies of Iran's post-revolution government and sought political asylum in Canada. There, the new Canadian citizen spent several years in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he and his family converted from Islam to Christianity.</p>