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Oliver Stone defends film ‘South of the Border'Published: Sunday, January 30, 2011 1:22 PM PST **SNIP** “He's an honest man,” Stone said of Chavez on Thursday. “I sense no corruption in him.” But Stone has been accused of filming Chavez with a sympathetic lens, offering odd adulation to the Venezuelan leader, ignoring the president's worldwide reputation as a power-mad dictator and censorship bully. It's a sharp contrast to what Stone's heard of his past work-that biopics on Richard Nixon and George W. Bush were too harsh on the right wing. [Clarification: It was Stone who made the remark: Comparing Bush...

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since. After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further. In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South. That the...

A frustrated North Korea is lashing out again, this time with a deadly volley of artillery aimed at reminding rival South Korea — and the world — that it will not be ignored. The barrage of shots fired Tuesday at a South Korean island lying within sight of its shores did not come out of nowhere. For weeks, North Korea has been angling for credit for reaching out to the U.S. and South Korea, and has warned that the cool response would come at a cost. The destruction that set homes ablaze, sent civilians fleeing for underground shelters and killed...

North Korea threatens continued strikes on South Breaking News: President Lee meets in bunker; witness tells TV channel fire on island burning out of control By Agencies Smoke rises from South Korean Yeonpyeong Island after being hit by dozens of artillery shells fired by North Korea November 23, 2010. Several South Korean civilians and soldiers were wounded and many others were being evacuated to bunkers on Tuesday, a Seoul television reported. The island is located near the western maritime border between the two Koreas, 11 km (7 miles) from the North and about 115 km (71 miles) northwest of Seoul....

The White House is strongly condemning North Korea's artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. In a statement released before dawn Tuesday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs calls on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action." He says the United States is "firmly committed" to South Korea's defense, and to the "maintenance of regional peace and stability."

North Korea fired artillery barrages onto a South Korean island near their disputed border Tuesday, setting buildings alight and prompting South Korea to return fire and scramble fighter jets. At least one South Korean marine was killed and 13 wounded, the military said. The skirmish came amid high tension over North Korea's claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent. One South Korean marine was killed, three were seriously wounded and 10 slightly wounded, a Joint Chiefs...

(Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday fired dozens of artillery shells at a South Korean island, setting buildings on fire and prompting a return fire by the South, Seoul's military and media reports said.

PIERRE, S.D. (KTIV) - Saying "voters want change", South Dakota State senator-elect Eldon Nygaard, of Vermillion, has made a change, too. He's now a Republican. Nygaard served in the South Dakota House from 2006 to 2010 as a Democrat. But, in a statement, Nygaard said he believes he can better-serve his constituents in Pierre as a Republican. "I firmly believe that I can represent my District's needs in Pierre more effectively as a member of the Republican Party. My past four years in the House have been marked by a bi-partisan approach to working for my district and the people...

The white Southern Democrat...is sliding nearer to extinction. ...The carnage...was...brutal in the Deep South, where...one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. SNIP "Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat...," said Dave...Saunders, a campaign strategist... SNIP Democrats...lost at least 19 Southern House members and...senator Blanche Lincoln...the most conservative Democrats...four-term Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia and 10-term Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi couldn't withstand the wave. It also snared ...veterans...John Spratt of South Carolina,... 14-term chairman of the House Budget Committee, and 14-term Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia. When the...

Activists seek to oust GOP legislative leadersBy John O’Connor Updated: Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010 07:02 AM COLUMBIA - Conservative activists are stepping up their efforts to oust legislative leadership, launching a petition drive to replace the House speaker and change Senate rules for seniority-based chairmen. The effort raises questions about where Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley's allegiances lie -- with the insurgents with whom she is politically aligned or with legislative leadership with whom she has pledged to work? The focus of the conservative activists is House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and the State...

Desmond Tutu says by bringing int'l artists to perform, TA Opera House "advances Israel's fallacious claim to being a 'civilized democracy.'" Talkbacks (23) Cape Town's renowned opera troupe has rejected a call from retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to cancel a performance in Israel scheduled next month. The opera's managing director Michael Williams said in a statement Wednesday that the opera would not take a political position and cut cultural ties with Israel or the Palestinian territory. Tutu, who earned a Nobel Prize for his peaceful opposition to apartheid, urged Cape Town's renowned opera troupe not to tour Israel until...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—The Republican Party is poised in the coming election to remove the vestiges of Democratic control from state governments in the heart of the South. In Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, the GOP appears likely to win every state elected office as well as take or strengthen control over legislatures. Republican sweeps in these states would give the party control over the redrawing of congressional districts after the 2010 census, and enhance its ability to raise funds and campaign for Republican candidates in the 2012 races. White conservative voters in the South have been turning to the GOP...

The Republican Party is set to defeat Democrats in the upcoming state governments in the heart of the South and will completely dominate the election this time. It is expected that the Republicans will win in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and will win every state elected office. If the Republican manages to win these states, they would get the power to redraw the congressional districts after the 2010 census. It will allow the Republicans to raise more funds and launch aggressive campaign for the Republican candidates in the 2012 races. White conservative voters in the South are set...

Shortly after 10 o'clock on a crisp Saturday morning two weeks ago, 75 folks solemnly clutching small American flags and digital cameras assembled in a grove of young pines at a modest farm in the Zion community, tucked into in the soft hills west of downtown Rockingham. Their objective was to honor five forgotten Union soldiers who died in a skirmish only days before the end of the Civil War. Until now, the solders' remains have lain in hand-dug graves marked only by small piles of white stones for 145 years, their identities unknown. The event, sponsored by the Richmond...

The American flag, which Robert E. Lee had defended as a soldier, flew at half mast in Lexington, Virginia.

Sometimes these blasphemy death threats come from crankish jihadi sympathizers who’d never have the stones to actually do anything about it. And sometimes they don’t. The Virginia man who warned on a radical Islamic website that the creators of the cartoon series “South Park” will be targeted for death for their caricature of the Prophet Muhammad has been arrested on charges that he provided material support to the terrorist organization Al Shabab, federal officials said Wednesday. Zachary Adam Chesser, aka Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, admitted to federal agents that he attempted on two occasions to travel to Somalia to join Al...

When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a large part. Based in Senegal, Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly (previously featured here for his work in DR Congo) traveled to South Africa earlier this year and visited one of a growing number of squatter camps populated mostly by Afrikaners - white South Africans - to document their stories and help show that, despite the fact that impoverished blacks in the region far outnumber whites, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial. O'Reilly: "While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the...

"This is Gregg Hall, founder of True Reporting On Gulf Oil Spill - Please pass this page on to everyone you know who wants the most real and true information as it happens."

Video producer was on one of six vessels involved in raid PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Hamann said troops that landed on the boat he was on fired high-powered paintball guns and threw...

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 rattled the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu early Friday, briefly triggering a tsunami watch for the region, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck just after 4 a.m. local time and was centered 300 miles (485 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Port Vila, at a depth of 22 miles (36 kilometers). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, but canceled the alert about an hour later. The center's duty geophysicist...