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PROVIDENCE - A $10,000 reward has been offered for anyone who has information that leads to the arrest and conviction in an apparent fire bomb attack against an emissary for a Jewish group at Brown University. The Jewish Federation of Rhode Island, the Brown/Rhode Island School of Design Hillel Foundation, and the Anti-Defamation League announced the reward at a news conference Monday. Police said someone threw two Molotov cocktails at Yossi Knafo's off-campus apartment early Saturday morning. One exploded on the side of the building. The other failed to ignite. "A despicable act of violence which most of us in...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, March 20, 2008 – An Iraqi girl and her family, as well as soldiers here, are anxiously awaiting a decision from an organization in Los Angeles that will determine the fate of her eyesight. Army Capt. (Dr.) Angie M. Pruitt, 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, examines the eyes of 5-year-old Noor Taha Najee on March 14, 2008. Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, escorted Noor to the hospital for the exam and are assisting with the process of getting Noor surgery to correct...

"And it only took me 20 years to notice!"

An elderly man has killed himself by programming a robot to shoot him in the head after building the machine from plans downloaded from the internet. Francis Tovey, 81, who lived alone in Burleigh Heads on the Australian Gold Coast, was found dead in his driveway. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, he had been unhappy about the demands of relatives living elsewhere in Australia that he should move out of his home and into care. Notes left by Mr Tovey — who was born in England — revealed that he had scoured the internet for plans before constructing his...

NANGAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, March 20, 2008 – As part of their ongoing effort to enhance communication and cooperation, Afghan and Pakistani border security forces at Torkham Gate met Feb. 28 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade’s Special Troops Battalion commander to address security and communication issues and the upcoming opening of the Khyber Border Coordination Center. Paratroopers from the 173rd Special Troops Battalion and Afghan border police patrol the bridge between Afghanistan and Pakistan Feb. 28, 2008. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Preventing insurgent operations in the border area requires constant communication between the Afghan and...

President Clinton met today with Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations and assured him that the United States would consult with the Security Council before taking any military action against Iraq. At the same time, Mr. Clinton sought assurance that the United Nations would not put obstacles in the path of American policy, United Nations officials said. The President's remarks were a slight shift from an earlier Administration argument: that a Security Council resolution last week warning Iraq of serious consequences if it interfered with arms inspections gave the United States the authority it needed to use force....

Of all the claims in support of John McCain's bid for the White House, perhaps none is quite as grand as this. As he arrived in London today, the publishers of his new book insisted the Republican senator's family was descended from the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. For a veteran war hero staking his presidential campaign on military credentials, an ancestral link to a warrior who overcame the English to reclaim Scottish independence in 1314 has obvious appeal. But according to experts, the story may be no more than that. Asked by the Guardian to investigate McCain's past, genealogists...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 20, 2008 – Throughout Army Sgt. 1st Class Vincent Branchetti’s childhood, the Task Force 12 soldier loved to build forts with his two brothers. They would pretend they were soldiers in opposing armies, battling with each other to become the leader of a dangerous, yet familiar, territory known as their backyard. Army Sgt. 1st Class Vincent Branchetti, noncommissioned officer in charge of Task Force 12’s Air Defense Airspace Management Cell at Camp Taji, Iraq, keeps an observant eye on his surroundings at an Iraqi National Police training camp in 2006. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

Police watch as anti-war protesters dressed as detainees chain themselves across Market Street in San Francisco, on the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Anti-war protesters block traffic as they march down K Street in Washington March 19, 2008. Protesters to the war in Iraq perform a demonstration of waterboarding torture techniques in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 19, 2008. A lone protester tries to catch up with the main body of marchers as she carries a large marionette during an anti-war march on the fifth anniversary of the...

BAGHDAD — Following a tip, Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers rescued a kidnapped man in the northwestern part of the Rashid District of the Iraqi capital March 18. The tip led Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division to a building in Bayaa where they found a battered man locked in a room. He was taken to a Coalition Medical Facility for treatment. (Multi-National Division – Baghdad)

NASHVILLE - Former Lt. Gov. John Wilder announced minutes ago that he will not seek re-election to the state Senate seat he has held for 44 years. "I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, and I didn't know exactly what that was," Wilder said in a rambling speech on the Senate floor shortly before noon today. After long deliberations, he said, "I decided not to run for re-election" for the Somerville seat. Wilder compared service in the Senate to being a soldier. He closed his speech with this cryptic remark: "If I don't change my mind, that's...

<p>DIRTY TRICKS FEAR AFTER STATE DEPT. FIRES TWO FOR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO BARACK OBAMA'S PERSONAL PASSPORT FILE... MORE... WASHINGTON TIMES SET TO SPLASH THE DEVELOPMENT, NEWSROOM SOURCES TELL DRUDGE REPORT... MORE...</p>

WASHINGTON: The United States has told Israel repeatedly that Arab-American Palestinians must be treated as American citizens at border crossings or anywhere else, the State Department said on Thursday. Still, said spokesman Sean McCormack, "It's a continuing issue. It's a continuing problem." McCormack's comments were in response to question about a letter that Arab-American community leader James Zogby sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that complained of the problem as "an issue for many decades" for Arab-Americans. McCormack said the response had not been drafted to Zogby's request for a meeting on the subject. Then he said: "As for...

Supporters of Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama insist he's said enough about his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose rabidly anti-American ravings have been a 24-hour-news staple since last week. The senator has expressed firmly his disagreement with the worst of the Rev. Wright's utterances, describing him as "like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." So what's Sen. Obama supposed to do now? His renunciations of the most unpatriotic and racist examples of the Rev. Wright's sermons have been unambiguous. When does an expression of disagreement degenerate into a parody? Make...

AUSTIN — Texas is seeking bids for a video camera network on the Mexican border, similar to an earlier state pilot program that allowed the public to help spot illegal activity on the Internet. Gov. Rick Perry's emergency management division calls it a "virtual border neighborhood watch" designed to help crack down on drug running, human trafficking and other crime along the 1,200-mile border between the state and Mexico. A request for private companies to submit bids was posted March 7 by the Texas Department of Public Safety on behalf of the governor's division. Proposals are due April 7. "The...

BAGHDAD — The Special Olympics Torch Run kicked off March 15 with Coalition forces in Tikrit running a 5K race that will culminate with runners in Honolulu May 22. Soldiers from the 728th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade and Multi National Division – North sponsored the first-ever run at Contingency Operating Base Speicher. The run is in honor of the “Troy Barboza Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics” that has been held for 21 years on the Islands of Hawaii. “These are great American Soldiers doing something for a great cause,” said Lt. Col. Brian Bisacre, commander,...

Obama condemns Wright’s “incendiary rhetoric,” but says he can’t “disown” the man. What is it about this Democratic presidential candidate that attracts the likes of Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, and The New Black Panther Party? Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards once famously quipped, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” After being caught in bed with a live racist-/America-hater, Senator Barack Obama did rhetorical hand-stands to explain away the liaison. Obama delivered his 5,000-word rationalization (“A More Perfect Union”) in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The...

UPDATE 3:20 p.m.: The protest group Re-Create 68 has announced it will force police to intervene at Civic Center park on the Sunday before the start of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, because the city just awarded a permit for the park on that day to be used by the city's convention host committee. The blind lottery awarded the permit for Civic Center on Aug. 24 to Jenny Anderson, who is helping the host committee stage more than 40 parties for delegations. R-68 plans to start an anti-war march of, it says, 50,000 people at Civic Center and march to...

COMBAT OUTPOST CAHILL — A 30-day surge to bring improved security, governance and economics to Salman Pak concluded Saturday. The 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, focused its collective efforts on the completion of many projects and missions during Operation Marne Grand Slam, a 3rd Infantry Division initiative to improve and restore the Salman Pak nahia. While continuing to conduct full-spectrum operations in and around Salman Pak, the 1-15 Inf. Regt. moved its headquarters to the south, closer to the city. Simultaneously, the 13th Georgian Light Infantry Battalion established their headquarters at COP Cleary, and began operations in al Wehida. Leaders...

Associated Press - 11:53 AM ET CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden is accusing the pope of helping in a "new crusade" against Islam. In his latest audio message, bin Laden says Pope Benedict played a "large, lengthy role" in an effort against Islam that included cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in Europe. Bin Laden warned of a "severe" reaction to the cartoons, though he didn't mention a specific action. The cartoons have been seen by Muslims as insulting. And the pope raised widespread anger in 2006 with a speech in which he cited a medieval...