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WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2007 – Iraqi citizens are helping coalition forces hunt down al Qaeda terrorists in a vast rural area south of Baghdad, a military commander said today. “As the summer went along, we started building the confidence of the people,” Army Lt. Col. Ken Adgie told online journalists and “bloggers” from Patrol Base Murray, which is situated beside the Tigris River in the mostly agricultural region of Arab Jabour. With its desolate location, rugged terrain, thick palm groves and almost-exclusively Sunni population, the region is a perfect breeding ground for terrorism, Adgie said. “There is no Iraqi army...

Country music star, Toby Keith, speaks on-air during an interview on Armed Forces Network Iraq’s Freedom Radio at the Combined Press Information Center Tuesday. Keith’s visit to Baghdad is part of his fifth United Service Organizations (USO) tour. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Carl N. Hudson, Combined Press Information Center. BAGHDAD — Country music star, Toby Keith, visited troops stationed in Baghdad Tuesday.Singing songs and playing guitar are a few things Keith, an Oklahoma native, does quite well. Visiting troops in combat is another activity he takes pride in.Keith’s visit to Baghdad is part of his fifth United Service Organizations...

FORT DIX, N.J. -- Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack the Army's Fort Dix and massacre scores of U.S. soldiers - a plot the FBI says was foiled when the men took a video of themselves firing assault weapons to a store to have the footage put onto a DVD. The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base. Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting them to any international terror organizations...

Federal Reserve policymakers aren't the only ones worried about price pressures. Hot demand for inflation-indexed bonds signals that the market sees inflation staying high even as the economy slows. The yield spread between Treasury bonds and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, has widened in recent weeks as inflation hovers stubbornly above the Federal Reserve's 1% to 2% comfort zone. TIPS spreads are seen as good proxies for long-term inflation expectations. Nevertheless, the 10-year Treasury yield was 246 basis points above the comparable TIPS yield. That's essentially at the highest levels since early September. "The spread on TIPS is widening versus...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – Tips that led to the discovery of a bomb-making factory in western Iraq demonstrate that the Iraqi people are fed up with terrorists operating in their midst and stepping forward to help remove them, military officials in Baghdad told reporters today. Officials from 3rd Brigade, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, briefed reporters about a search for weapons caches that ultimately led to the bomb factory Feb. 20 in Gharmah, about 10 miles east of Fallujah. Army Capt. Matt Gregory, commander of Company A, described the materials uncovered during the raid: blasting...

Coming to a Bad End: Lost chromosome tips linked to heart problems Nathan Seppa The prime risk factors for heart disease are well known—obesity, smoking, elevated cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Yet many people with these warning signs develop heart problems, while others don't. This observation indicates that yet-unrecognized factors must also influence risk. A new study finds that the sequence-repeating sections of DNA called telomeres, which protect the ends of chromosomes, might play a role. Middle-aged men with long telomeres are only half as likely to develop heart disease as are men of the same age with short telomeres,...

The summer I turned 6 years old, some of the neighborhood boys started bullying me. Back then, I owned a pair of cabbage patch kid roller-skates and my favorite activity was skating around the block singing nursery rhymes at the top of my lungs. One day, a few boys in the 8-10 range thought it would be pretty humorous to push me around and watch me flail. I tried to run from them, but I couldn’t skate faster than they could run. They taunted me for a while and then knocked me down. Angry, humiliated, and with two freshly skinned...

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of California waiters, hairstylists, bellhops and other workers who rely on tips to boost their incomes could see their wages slashed under federal legislation the U.S. Senate could take up by Friday. The House already passed HR 5790, a far-reaching bill that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in nine years, reinstate tax cuts for teachers and those who pay college tuition and reduce estate taxes for the richest of Americans. But Democrats are blasting a provision in the GOP-written bill that would require that tips be counted as part of...

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2006 – Tips from Iraqi citizens led coalition and Iraqi soldiers to foil a terrorist attack and find weapons caches in Baghdad yesterday, U.S. military officials in Iraq reported. A concerned Iraqi citizen's tip led Iraqi army soldiers to a shop south of Baghdad last night, where they found a munitions cache. Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, investigated the carpentry shop and seized 58 homemade bombs, three rocket-propelled-grenade boosters, and two improvised explosive devices attached to batteries. Iraqi soldiers also detained a suspected terrorist at the site and seven others suspected of...

If you were to ask Diane Wilson, who has done 7 long-term fasts, "What do I need to do to fast?" her response would probably be, "Just Stop Eating!" But if that still leaves you with more questions on fasting, here are some "fast tips". How long am I supposed to fast? We ask anyone who wants to take part in the fast to dedicate at least 24 hours. Any additional days are great. And if you are interested in long-term fasting, we recommend 2 weeks or more. Where should I fast? You can join us in fasting in Washington,...

A tip for the hurricane season: Try to have some kind of a clue Dave Barry The 2006 hurricane season is here, and if you're a resident of Florida, you know what that means: It means you have the IQ of bean dip. If you had any working brain cells, by now you'd have moved to some less risky place, such as Iraq. This is especially true after last hurricane season, which was so bad that we went all the way through the alphabet of official names and had to refer to the last batch of hurricanes by making primitive...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2006 – It doesn't take much information for a determined identity thief to succeed, a certified financial planner with USAA Financial Planning Services told American Forces Press Service today. The identity theft issue is at the forefront for millions of veterans who learned this week that computer equipment containing their personal information was stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs Department analyst. A little personal information that can be easy to find on the Internet -- name, date of birth and address, for example -- can make stealing someone's identity relatively easy, June Walbert said....

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2006 – Based on tips, coalition forces located and killed six terrorists, detained three and destroyed a safe house and multiple weapons caches in Ramadi during a search May 17 for a wanted terrorist known as the "Prince of IEDs," military officials in Baghdad reported today. During a search in Ramadi May 17 for a wanted terrorist known as the "Prince of IEDs," coalition forces seized a civilian pickup truck filled with weapons, including machine guns, one rocket-propelled grenade launch tube, six RPG rounds, a suicide vest, an AK-47 assault rifle and a DSHKA heavy machine...

The FBI has established a Website to make it easier for the public to pass along tips on corrupt government officials, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday. More than 1,000 corrupt government employees have been convicted in the last two years as a result of FBI investigations, many of which begin with tips, Mueller said. While there are 2,200 federal, state and local public corruption cases pending, Mueller said even more went unreported out of indifference, fear of retribution or because witnesses were unsure what to do with the information. "There is a growing intolerance by the American people of...

Despite all the hoopla about the introduction of Windows Vista, the truth of the matter is that the new OS isn't due for at least another seven to nine months — and it will probably be even longer before most of us start adopting it. Meanwhile, we've still got to deal with Win XP. In order to make the waiting easier, we've decided to assemble the greatest tips in the history of Windows XP. Here you'll find the tips that give you the most bang for your buck; that are most useful in terms of security, functionality, and PC performance;...

Hello all,I am writing a rare vanity and I hope it is in the correct forum. I need some information as I am not too swift on business law. I hope some freepers can help me. I went this evening to Billy Jeans, a resturant here in Gastonia, NC. It seems they charged my visa debit card more than the tab was. We were a party of four and my tab was for $54.93 but my online statement shows they charged me $65.92.The receipt that I signed said $54.93. On the line where it says "Tip" I wrote "On Table"...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2006 – Two Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers were killed in separate incidents over the past two days, and five Iraqi patrols resulted in the detention of three suspected insurgents in Ramadi. West of the capital, a Multinational Division Baghdad soldier was killed by small-arms fire yesterday, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported. The other died Feb. 26 in central Baghdad. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of the family, and both incidents remain under investigation. On Feb. 25, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, conducted five security patrols leading to the...

It has recently been publicized that a 20 percent tip is now appropriate because servers are usually only guaranteed $2.13 an hour and the tips have to be split. Let me explain something. It is the customer's sole right to determine whether a tip is given, the amount and who will be the recipient of his tip. Such rights are not only guaranteed by our constitution they are clearly explained in the Code of Federal Regulations. Customers may tip any amount they choose. Instead of a higher tip being appropriate, what is now actually appropriate is for the public to...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 27, 2006) – A series of tips here enabled coalition forces of the Multi-National Division, Baghdad, to bust insurgent shooters and bombers, and led to several caches of weapons, explosives and ammunition. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment found a roadside improvised explosive device south of Baghdad Jan. 25. The bomb, comprised of three daisy-chained charges placed in oil barrels with 30 to 40 pounds of homemade explosives in each barrel, was destroyed by Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Later in the day Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment discovered a weapons cache of...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27, 2006 – Coalition and Iraqi forces captured several weapons caches and suspected terrorists in operations throughout Iraq over the past few days, officials reported. Members of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, and an explosive ordnance disposal unit found and performed a controlled detonation of a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Jan. 25, officials said. The bomb consisted of three "daisy-chained" - set up to explode one after the other -- charges in oil barrels with 30 to 40 pounds of homemade explosives in each barrel. Soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad's 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment,...