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US and Vietnamese officials have agreed a landmark study into the health effects of Agent Orange. The defoliant chemical was used by the US during the Vietnam War to clear jungles the Communist troops used as cover.The chemical has since been linked with cancers, birth defects and miscarriages, but this is the first time the two sides have agreed to look into the issue. According to CNN, the US Embassy in Hanoi said the investigation would focus on human health and the environmental effects of Agent Orange.The joint scientific conference could be held as soon as April next year. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pro-gun forces have won their latest congressional skirmish as the Senate endorsed President Bush's plan to eliminate a 2-year-old program that has helped local police buy firearms from the public. By a 65-33 vote, the Senate rejected on Thursday a proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to provide $15 million for Buyback America. The program was created by President Clinton, but the Bush administration pledged last month to eliminate it because of a lack of evidence that it was effective. "Crime goes up," Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Thursday. "We spend money. Great photo opportunity. But it ...

Just one Chandra report.Dan Rather has emerged as the leading candidate to land a blockbuster interview with Rep. Gary Condit - which could explain the CBS anchor's near-total silence on the Chandra Levy case, sources told The Post yesterday. Rather has moved to the front of the pack as a slew of networks and cable stations have been in competitive negotiations with officials from Condit's office for the summer's "must get" exclusive with the embattled California Democrat. Rather could have an in with Condit because he has mentioned the Chandra story only once on the air - last month, in ...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is threatening to shut off Uncle Sam's funding for Viagra - on the grounds it's sexist. Clinton yesterday blasted federal rules that let poor men get the little blue wonder pills on the government's dime as she made her case that more low-income women should have access to taxpayer-funded birth control. The former first lady said broaching the idea of cutting off the feds' bucks for Viagra might make men more seriously consider expanding the Medicaid program. "Or, I would argue . . . certain health-care services for the other gender ought to be ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Bill Brownell spent 10 years as a deputy sheriff, but he didn't strike his biggest blow as a crime fighter until he went into the beauty supply business. Distressed by the crime near his San Bernardino County store in the early 1970s, Brownell conceived WeTip Inc., a nonprofit organization that promised rewards for anonymous phone tips about vandalism, theft and drug dealing. The grass-roots concept touched a nerve, and WeTip developed into a national anti-crime crusade that has fielded more than 300,000 tips in nearly 30 years, including this week's tip that the remains of ...

I called in to the Doug McIntyre show this evening and briefly discussed free speech. The planned FReep of Bill Maher should be conducted with respect to free speech. We don't want to melt down the show ---- we want Doug back in a few weeks. 1. McIntyre was right, don't use subterfuge with the screener. 2. Don't scream at Maher. We have enough good issues that can put him in the corner and embarrass him. I take that back -- he is not capable of embarrassment. 3. Be prepared with facts but also be prepared for Maher to talk ...

CHILDREN would get better protection from paedophiles under measures to lower the age of consent for gay men to 16, Attorney-General Jim McGinty said yesterday. Mr McGinty announced sweeping changes in the Legislative Assembly to a raft of laws to end discrimination against gays and lesbians. The Government would restrict a defence that paedophiles could use in court, he said. Under the WA Criminal Code an accused can use the defence that he or she was of the reasonable belief that the child was older than 16. The planned change will prevent the defence being used when the accused is ...

As Congress debates "fixing" the Ponzi scheme we call Social Security, consider a few things: Congress established Social Security with a little-known loophole, allowing states and municipalities to exempt their public employees from Social Security. In 1981, two years before Congress closed the loophole, three counties in Texas opted out and set up their own privatized retirement system. The result? Since 1981, the counties' 5,000 public employees, while taxed at the same rate as Social Security, enjoyed an average return on an investment of 6.5 percent, compared to Social Security's 2.2 percent. England and Chile also set up privatization plans, ...

Strong Chinese Market Sparks Optimism Among U.S. Investors As Beijing prepares to enter the World Trade Organization and to host the 2008 summer Olympic Games, a new wave of China euphoria is sweeping across the U.S. foreign investment community. Although about half the corporate foreign direct investment in Asia goes to China, the mainland is just starting to attract the attention of portfolio managers and analysts, with some of the better-performing stocks in the world this year. Goldman Sachs issued a report last month predicting that H-shares, which are Chinese companies that trade in Hong Kong, will continue to outperform ...

WASHINGTON — The White House is preparing to defend a federal affirmative action policy at the heart of a politically charged case the Supreme Court will hear this fall, administration sources say. To the dismay of some conservatives, the Bush administration plans to file a legal brief by an Aug. 10 deadline backing a Department of Transportation program designed to help black and other minority highway contractors, the sources say. The case, arising from a challenge by a white contractor in Colorado, is the first big test for affirmative action in George W. Bush's presidency. The White House's apparent ...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 332 BILL TITLE: Bipartisan Patient Protection Act Yeas: R-226 D-5 Nays: R-0 D-202 NV: R-2 D-3 Democrats Yeas in all CAPS --- YEAS 226 --- Aderholt, Graham, Petri, Akin, Granger, Pickering, Armey, Graves, Pitts, Bachus, Green (WI), Platts, Baker, Greenwood, Pombo, Ballenger, Grucci, Portman, Barr, Gutknecht, Pryce (OH), Bartlett, Hansen, Putnam, Barton, Hart, Quinn, Bass, Hastert, Radanovich, Bereuter, Hastings (WA), Ramstad, Biggert, Hayes, Regula, Bilirakis, Hayworth, Rehberg, Blunt, Hefley, Reynolds, Boehlert, Herger, Riley, Boehner, Hilleary, Rogers (KY), Bonilla, Hobson, Rogers (MI), Bono, Hoekstra, Rohrabacher, Brady (TX), Horn, Ros-Lehtinen, Brown (SC), Hostettler, Roukema, Bryant, Houghton, ...

In recent years, a number of left-wing economists have argued that inequality per se is harmful to many people's health. That is, the mere fact that some people are gaining income and wealth is harmful to others, even if the latter's income has not fallen or has risen more slowly. This argument is being used to justify income and wealth redistribution policies even when it results in slower economic growth or less national wealth. Most economists have long believed that one's absolute level of income or wealth is the key to well-being, not his relative position. For example, suppose there ...

WASHINGTON -- U.S.-China relations face another potential jolt: the possibility that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian could visit Washington for a speech. National Press Club President Richard Ryan, a senior Washington correspondent at The Detroit News, said Wednesday that Chen has accepted his invitation to be a guest speaker. ''I would be most happy and honored to accept your invitation,'' Chen wrote in a letter Ryan received Friday. Chen wrote that he would have his representatives in Washington set a date. Ryan's invitation suggested that Chen appear in September or October. The State Department had no comment on the matter. It ...

There's one thing you know that California teachers are great at: complaining. Give them a bonus, and they call it a "bribe." This year, California is giving teachers at more than 4,800 schools bonuses for improving scores in the nationally normed basic skills Stanford 9 test. After all their complaints about being underpaid, you'd think teachers would welcome checks of $591. No doubt most teachers are keeping their bonuses -- as they should. They earned them. The California Teachers Association, however, opposes the bonuses. Some teachers at Piedmont's Wildwood Elementary say they'll pass their bonuses to educational charities because the ...

BEIJING, Aug 2 (AFP) - A 33-year-old man arrested in China for refusing to abandon his beliefs in the banned Falungong spiritual group has died after being tortured, a rights group said Thursday. Li Changjun, a masters degree graduate, was detained on May 16 after police caught him downloading and printing Falungong material from the Internet, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Li was working at the land tax bureau of Wuhan city in central China's Hubei province at the time of his arrest. He had been detained many times in the past for defying ...

HotlineScoop.com | Friday, July 27, 2001 Take This 'Yob' And Shove It By Tom Dalton ince he began his campaign for the White House last year, George W. Bush has repeatedly made one thing clear to the press: He, and sometimes his wife, are fair game. His kids, however, aren't. And while the Bush twins' drinking incidents a few months ago certainly gave the media pause to consider whether their behavior warranted coverage, most reporters were respectful of the president's wishes. This week, however, a particular Windy City Jackass crossed the line by using an utterly false report from ...

Southern Baptists ending talks with Catholic Church The Neverending Story (The Christian Chronicles) - Threads 1-70 Thread 71 Thread 72 Thread 73 Thread 74 Thread 75 Thread 76 Thread 77 Thread 78 Thread 79 Thread 80 Thread 81 Thread 82 Thread 83 Thread 84 Thread 85 Thread 86 Thread 87 Thread 88 Thread 89 Thread 90 Thread 91 Thread 92 Thread 93 Thread 94 Thread 95 Thread 96 Thread 97 The Neverending Story (The Christian Chronicles) - Thread 98

HotlineScoop.com | Thursday, August 2, 2001 So Many Bills Of Rights, So Little Time By Chuck Todd his battle over legislating HMOs was elevated for one simple reason -- the issue had a great slogan. Who wouldn't agree that they were for a "patients' bill of rights"? And because of the success of said slogan, it now seems no piece of legislation isn't important until its been given the "bill of rights" treatment. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott all but admitted it in the Washington Times the other day when talking about a new tort reform that's since been ...

BEIJING The story has a familiar ring: a convicted killer was executed with a bullet to the head, and his body rushed away in a van. That day, a hospital bought the corpse and transplanted the kidneys into waiting patients. Such claims of unauthorized organ-harvesting from Chinese prisoners are common among human rights groups and pro-democracy advocates. But this macabre tale is extraordinary because it came from a state newspaper -- directly contradicting official claims that such transplants don't take place, and that most organs for transplant are donated. However, the story has apparently cost the newspaper reporter his job. ...

WASHINGTON — President Bush starts his summer vacation this weekend savoring surprise victories on his energy plan and a patients' bill of rights that suggest he has regained some of the equilibrium he lost when Democrats took control of the Senate two months ago. But after summer comes the chill of fall. When he returns from a month-long vacation at his ranch, he'll face a new batch of challenges that will test his ability to get things done in a divided Congress. When Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords decided in May to leave the GOP and become an independent, shifting the ...