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WASHINGTON, June 15, 2006 – A bus bombing in Afghanistan killed several passengers this morning, and Operation Mountain Thrust continues in the southern portion of the country, military officials said. A bus exploded near the intersection of highways 1 and 4 in Kandahar City at about 8 a.m. today. The explosion, caused by a bomb on the bus, killed seven and injured 17. It was believed to be a deliberate attack against Afghan civilians. Afghan national security forces and coalition forces have responded by assisting with the evacuation of casualties to the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar City. "This is a...

GAZA CITY, GAZA Strip - An Israeli airstrike Thursday killed the top Hamas enforcer in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials and group members said. Israel has accused militant faction leader Jamal Abu Samhadana of spearheading rocket attacks on Israel and of the fatal 2003 bombing of a U.S. convoy in the Gaza Strip that killed three American security guards. Two other people were killed and seven were wounded in a strike on a Popular Resistance Committees training camp. The 43-year-old militant had been No. 2 on Israel's wanted list and had tried to avoid detection by moving stealthily, switching...

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2006 – In what was described as an accident during training, a U.S. unit fired an artillery shell June 2 that killed three Iraqi civilians, military officials in Iraq reported today. Officials also announced the capture yesterday of 19 terror suspects in eastern Baghdad. On June 2, a Task Force Band of Brothers unit fired an artillery round from a military base near Baqubah, Iraq, that landed in an inhabited area, officials said. The unit, from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, fired a 155 mm round from a Paladin self-propelled howitzer during training,...

SHANGHAI (AP) - Tropical Storm Chanchu swept into the East China Sea Friday leaving behind a path of destruction in southern China, where it killed at least 11 people and left 27 Vietnamese fishermen missing after their boats sank in Chinese waters. Chanchu, downgraded early Thursday from a typhoon, has killed at least 50 people in Asia, including 37 last weekend in the Philippines, where it destroyed thousands of homes. There were fears the death toll could rise dramatically. Chanchu hit China Thursday, flooding scores of homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 1 million people before weakening to...

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2006 – Terrorists killed 14 Iraqi citizens and injured at least six others in an attack today in western Baghdad. In other news, coalition forces raided a terrorist safe haven near Julaybah yesterday, killing three terrorists and detaining four suspects, officials in Iraq reported today. In today's attack, two vehicles packed with explosives detonated near a Camp Victory complex checkpoint. Initial reporting indicates that the terrorists blew themselves up in a parking lot east of the coalition forces' base. Their target wasn't the compound, bur rather, Iraqis congregated in a parking lot, officials said. Those injured were...

Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying ProbeBy DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter. The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers' role in the program. "We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, May 8, 2006 – A coalition air strike killed four enemy extremists and destroyed a truck and a cave complex today in the Bermel district of Afghanistan's Paktika province, military officials reported. Other insurgents may be buried in the rubble, officials said. Prior to the strike, a joint combat team of Afghan National Army and U.S. ground forces saw people loading a truck near the cave and determined they were moving rockets from a cave complex and that the activity was linked to recent rocket attacks on a nearby coalition base. Close-air support was used to...

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. airstrikes on a cave complex near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan on Monday killed four Taliban militants and destroyed a truck loaded with rockets, the U.S. military said. Military officials in Pakistan said that helicopters fired missiles into Pakistani territory, and officials opened an investigation into whether U.S. aircraft were involved. But Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman, said the strike was one or two miles inside the Afghan border and that no missiles landed inside Pakistan. A U.S. military statement said that coalition forces were in direct communication with Pakistani forces on the other...

Cattle ranchers in the Paradise Valley say shipping weights have declined since wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995. They say their cattle stay close to gates instead of grazing entire pastures. Wary animals tend to eat less than relaxed animals.

An 18-year-old Singaporean student committed suicide last month because he was convinced his penis was too small, a report said on Wednesday. State Coroner Tan Boon Heng said the case highlighted the importance of sex education in schools and recommended the details be forwarded to the education ministry, the Straits Times reported. The teenager, who was not named, jumped from a building on March 3. A suicide note explained why, an investigation to determine the cause of death said. "He said it was not due to the stress of his examination, but it was more about his physical development... He...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Wednesday as worshippers left a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people and injuring 32, police said. The blast occurred near the Huwaider mosque in a village near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

Avian flu kills swan in Scotland By Anil Dawar (Filed: 06/04/2006) A wild swan has been found dead from avian flu in Scotland. Preliminary tests found "highly pathogenic H5 avian flu" in a sample from the bird, the Scottish Executive said. The bird was found near the coast in an emaciated condition, about nine miles from St Andrews, in Fife. A two-mile exclusion zone was set up around Cellardyke while scientists continued to examine the bird to discover if it was carrying the H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be fatal to humans. Poultry farmers and bird owners in...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, April 1, 2006 – A suicide car bomber attacked a combined Afghan and coalition convoy in the Maiwand district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province around noon today, slightly injuring one Afghan soldier and flattening a truck tire, military officials reported. Preliminary coalition reports indicate the attack caused no civilian injuries or deaths. The attacker was killed when the car he was driving exploded near the convoy. "The cooperation between Afghan authorities and the coalition across southern Afghanistan will not be disrupted or broken by these acts of senseless violence," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Fraser, commander of...

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2006 – An MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle engaged three insurgents in the process of planting a homemade bomb along a road near Balad Air Base, Iraq, yesterday evening and launched an AGM-114 Hellfire missile against the group. The Predator monitored the three terrorists for about a half hour while they used a pick ax to dig a hole in the road, placed an explosive round in the hole, and strung wires from the hole to a ditch on the side of the road. When it was clear the individuals were placing a bomb, the Predator launched...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2006 – A vehicle bomb killed five Iraqis today, and Iraqi and U.S. soldiers have continued to arrest suspected terrorists and find weapons, military officials reported. Two Iraqi adults and three children were killed in Hillah when a minivan, which had been used as a taxi, exploded. The minivan was traveling in the southern district of Hillah when it reportedly was stopped. An unidentified man left the vehicle, entered a red sedan, and drove away. Moments later, the minivan exploded. The minivan's occupants suffered minor injuries and were taken to the Hillah medical treatment facility, officials said....

Baghdad mortar barrage kills 16 Doura district has often been attacked by insurgents A barrage of mortar attacks in southern Baghdad has killed at least 16 Iraqis and injured more than 40. A police source told the BBC that a total of eight mortars had been fired into the mainly Shia area of Doura. The attacks come after days of sectarian tensions that have left at least 165 dead since Wednesday. Political and militia leaders say they have made progress in talks to curb the violence that was sparked by the bombing of a major Shia shrine. However, an explosion...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs and gunfire killed about 60 people as another daytime curfew Saturday failed to halt violence that has claimed nearly 200 lives since the destruction of a Shiite shrine set off a wave of retribution against Sunnis and pushed Iraq toward civil war. In an unusual round of telephone diplomacy, President Bush spoke with seven leaders of Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political parties in a bid to defuse the sectarian crisis unleashed by the bombing of the Shiites' Askariya shrine in Samarra. Bush "encouraged them to continue to work together to thwart the efforts of the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government. At least 111 people were believed killed in two days of rage unleashed by Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad. The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked around the country, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2006 – An improvised explosive device killed 21 Iraqi civilians today in Baghdad, and two Iraqis were killed and 11 were wounded in separate attacks, military officials in Iraq reported. Terrorists detonated the IED at 5:30 p.m. in Abu Dshair in the Doura district of Baghdad. Another 25 Iraqis were wounded in the attack. Iraqi police and soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad responded to the scene of the attack. Elsewhere, two Iraqi Public Order Brigade officers were killed and two were wounded today when a terrorist detonated a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad. One Iraqi civilian was...

confirmed killed by wolves... the confirmed kills varied from the reported animal deaths and values, which came to 40 animals valued at roughly $40,000. He cautioned people not to draw conclusions about the confirmed numbers, because unconfirmed kills are often those in which the livestock is discovered too late to actually identify, by tracks, tooth marks or other means, the actual cause of death. Their agency is part of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though they often are mistaken for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the...