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WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2009 – Coalition and Iraqi forces have sacrificed greatly to build security and develop a democratic process in Iraq, and after nearly seven years, the hard work is paying off, a senior commander in southeastern Baghdad told American Forces Press Service. An Iraqi army officer speaks with U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Shinners, left, and U.S. Army Capt. Dallas Cheatham, right, about the history of the Taq-i-kisra Arch and the area that surrounds it, Aug. 5, 2009. Shinners is the deputy commander for the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Cheatham is commander of the brigade’s...

Who pays for new fuels? Obama says: You will! By Patrick Bedard, Car and Driver June 2009 Remember last summer when crude oil was bumping its head on $147 a barrel and you were smoking your Visa card as each necessary gallon of regular zoomed skyward of four bucks? Talk about panic. Public opinion across the nation narrowed to a single uncertainty: Was this a disaster or a catastrophe? Detroit still says that it was last summer's spike in gas prices that finally pushed the Big Three over the financial cliff. Suddenly, the line for the high-profit rides was none...

If the tax forms you're filing this year show Uncle Sam entitled to any income tax, you increasingly stand alone. The income tax system is so bad, and increasingly reliant on a shrinking number of Americans to pay the nation's bills, that 40% of the country's households -- more than 44 million adults -- pay no income taxes at all. Not a penny. Think of it this way. After dropping off your tax forms at the Post Office, you find 100 people standing on the sidewalk. Forty of them will be excused from paying income taxes thanks to Congress. Twenty...

New Bern, N.C., native Sgt. Shawn Mackey, a health care specialist with Company C, 299th Forward Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, assesses the health of a 6-year-old Iraqi baby during a medical assistance mission in the village of Abidone inside the Bay Al Sabir High School of the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad. The event was to thank the community for its continued support of coalition and Iraqi security forces by offering health and dental care to the village's residents. CAMP LIBERTY -- Raad Rashed Abed Al Shibli, the sheik of Al Shibli of the Al...

All my life, I tried to be honest," said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. "Today is no different." But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: "I'm proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest." What he did started on Monday evening, when he picked up the woman at a hotel in midtown Manhattan and drove her to an apartment building several blocks away. She gave him $20 to pay the fare and asked for $9 back. Hours later, at about 10 p.m., three other passengers with luggage discovered the...

IF you find yourself in a room with 10 people this holiday season, eight of them will think the United States health-care system is riddled with problems... Today, 93 percent of Americans, according to Gratzer, have health insurance or can afford to purchase it. And as he points out, the other 7 percent receive plenty of care, as being uninsured is not the same as going without health care. There is also a serious paradox at the center of U.S. health care. Although the vast majority of us tell pollsters we want a different system, popular opposition kills any prospect...

8/15/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- A World War II bomber pilot was laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Aug 11. Retired Maj. Gen. Jack I. Posner was one of the last remaining bomber pilots from World War II. His burial site is in a direct line of sight of the new Air Force Memorial. The general's son, Col. John D. Posner, said that his father would have appreciated the view. The procession to General Posner's final resting spot included an Army caisson, the U.S. Air Force Band and Honor Guard, and family and friends. "My dad spent upwards of almost...

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales celebrated the birthday of Che Guevara Wednesday, the first time a top Bolivian leader has paid tribute to the revolutionary who was executed in the Andean nation four decades ago. Surrounded by Cuban and Venezuelan officials, Morales observed the 78th anniversary of Guevara's birth, using the occasion to praise his close allies President Fidel Castro of Cuba and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Guevara, an Argentine, launched an armed revolt in 1966 to bring communism to Bolivia after helping lead the 1959 Cuban Revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and thrust Castro into...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2006 – Flag Day, June 14, pays tribute to an emblem millions of Americans fight for every day. In 1777, America adopted the stars and stripes designed for the American flag. However, Flag Day traditions did not begin until 1885. It wasn't until President Truman passed an act in 1949 that Flag Day became nationally recognized. "From our nation's earliest days, 'Old Glory' has stood for America's strength, unity and liberty," President Bush said in a recent press release recognizing the upcoming holiday. "During Flag Day and National Flag Week, we honor this enduring American symbol...

ARLINGTON, Va., April 4, 2006 – Caspar W. Weinberger's definition of happiness was "service to a noble cause," current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said here today at the former defense secretary's funeral. Weinberger died in Maine on March 28 at 88. He was buried today at Arlington National Cemetery. Weinberger served as defense secretary under President Ronald Reagan and as secretary of health, education and welfare under President Gerald Ford. Rumsfeld, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, and former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff retired Army Gen. Colin Powell delivered eulogies. Weinberger presided over the largest...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (March 31, 2006) -- General Robert Magnus, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, visited Naval Medical Center San Diego March 22, for a look into the health and welfare of local injured Marines. The general took time from meetings with the commanding officer of NMCSD and Navy Medicine West to spend lunch with injured Marines and Navy corpsmen who assist them aboard NMCSD. “You all represent an awesome team, a tremendous asset, and I have to thank you all for what you do. Semper Fi,” said Gen. Magnus. Between the entrée and dessert, Gen....

SHANKSVILLE, Pa., March 27, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today paid respects to the 40 passengers and crewmembers killed here when they struggled against terrorist hijackers and crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. He declared their heroic effort a turning point in the war on terror. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld lays a wreath at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., March 27. A memorial is being built to commemorate the victims who lost their lives overtaking a terrorist hijacked airplane and saving the plane from continuing its mission on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 24, 2006) -- “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror; I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do,” Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote. For one Marine, past experiences have developed him into a capable team leader. Drawing on what Marines he served under taught him, Lance Cpl. Jeffrey M. Roberts, a 21-year-old Destin, Fla., native, has become a team leader for...

NEW YORK - The government can decide what artwork is worthwhile without being accused of censorship as long as it is funding that art, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience Thursday at the Juilliard School. "The First Amendment has not repealed the ancient rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Scalia said. The justice, who limited his discussion to art issues, said he wasn't suggesting that government stop funding the arts, but that if it does fund artwork, it is entitled to have a say in the content, just like when it runs...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. environment chief has a message for leaders of the world's major industrialized nations: scientists have shown that it pays to preserve forests, coastal waters and marshes. Klaus Toepfer made the case that investing in the environment will go a long way toward meeting U.N. goals to reduce poverty, supply clean drinking water and fight the spread of infectious diseases. "Our motto is environment for development," he said in an interview last week. The Group of Eight meets in Scotland on Wednesday and will address global warming and climate change — and Toepfer expressed hope that...

McDonald’s pays $10m damages Silicon Valley (PTI): Fast food giant McDonald’s will pay $10 million to 24 groups, including the International American Gita Society, as part of a settlement of lawsuits. McDonald’s has been charged with misleading Hindus and vegetarian consumers by “wrongly describing” its French fries, containing beef additive for flavouring, as vegetarian. McDonald’s recently informed the Gita society that it is among the groups receiving the settlement money, the US-based non-profit organisation’s spokesperson, Ramananda Prasad, said. “We are such a small organisation, and nobody supports us, the temples are busy with their own activities,” Prasad, who founded the...

Bigger breasts for free: Join the Army Reuters Posted online: Friday, July 23, 2004 at 1315 hours IST New York, July 23: The US Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime. The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the US military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. "Anyone wearing a uniform is...

US pays $10m for Hambali Hambali is being interrogated in US custody The United States has paid Thailand $10m for its part in the arrest of Indonesian terror-suspect Hambali. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the money had arrived and he would decide which police officers and other causes would share the reward. Hambali, who was arrested in August north of the Thai capital Bangkok, is now being interrogated by the US. He is thought to be a key figure in the Asian group Jemaah Islamiah, and its link with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda. The Thai prime minister said some...

Britain pays wages of thousands of demobbed Iraqi soldiers By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 18/06/2003) Britain is paying monthly wages to thousands of demobilised Iraqi soldiers, even though the army has been disbanded. The payments are part of Britain's hearts-and-minds campaign to avoid stirring up resentment against the occupation of Iraq. The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, last month announced the abolition of the army and intelligence services, leaving some 400,000 people out of a job. Earlier he decreed that senior members of the former ruling Ba'ath party would not be eligible for government posts. But in...