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<p>BOGOTA, Colombia -- Reputed drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa was flown to the United States last night to face prosecution, the highest-profile suspect extradited from Colombia in more than a decade, a senior U.S. official said.</p> <p>Ochoa, a former top leader of the notorious Medellin cartel, was escorted aboard a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane, which then took off for the United States.</p>

<p>Mexican President Vicente Fox yesterday called a Cold War-era Western Hemisphere defense alliance "obsolete and useless" and urged that it be replaced by a pact to deal with poverty, drugs and other problems.</p> <p>Mr. Fox said Mexico may withdraw from the 1947 Inter-American Reciprocal Defense Treaty, which was designed primarily to protect hemispheric nations against communism. He will decide about withdrawal within 60 days.</p>

<p>DURBAN, South Africa -- As the U.N. racism conference drew to a close, legions of victims' groups, ranging from the untouchables of India to the Turkish immigrants in Germany, fumed.</p> <p>Arab delegations had stolen the spotlight with a campaign to brand Israel as racist, relegating other causes and grievances to little more than footnotes.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A worse-than-expected unemployment report ignited another dizzying sell-off yesterday, sending the Dow Jones industrials tumbling more than 230 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 index to its lowest level in nearly three years.</p> <p>The Dow closed down 234.99, or 2.4 percent, at 9,605.85, its lowest close since April 4, but still 216 points above its weakest finish for the year.</p>

<p>PAGHMAN, Afghanistan -- Pakistan's military government has begun bulldozing the homes of Afghan refugees and forcing them back to a drought-stricken, war-torn homeland they fled years ago.</p> <p>In the past two months, more than 11,000 Afghan refugees have been forced out of the camps in northern Pakistan.</p>

Saturday, September 08, 2001 Elul 20, 5761 Israel Time: 10:36 (GMT+3) Last update - 09:33 08/09/2001 One Palestinian killed, another injured, in Gaza Strip explosion By Ha'aretz Service and Reuters A Palestinian security officer was killed and another Palestinian was seriously injured in an explosion early Saturday morning at an abandoned building in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported. According to the report, the two were known members of the Tanzim paramilitary and the blast was probably caused by an accident as they were preparing a bomb. A Palestinian gunman, who declined to ...

<p>DNA tests show a strand of hair from Jimmy Hoffa was found in a car driven by his "foster son," Charles "Chuckie" O'Brien, the day the embattled Teamsters union boss disappeared more than a quarter century ago, law enforcement authorities said yesterday.</p>

<p>The General Accounting Office yesterday said it is "preparing for possible litigation" against the White House for turning over "clearly inadequate" documentation of an energy task force's work.</p> <p>The White House refused to budge, saying there is no need to disclose the private deliberations of Vice President Richard B. Cheney, who headed the task force, and other participants in meetings about energy policy.</p>

<p>Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski stood on a balcony of a villager's home and watched as Macedonian government forces launched an offensive against the ethnic Albanian town of Ljuboten last month. National television spun the entire attack as part of a military effort to rid the town of "terrorists," and said he was present during the entire offensive. An investigation by Human Rights Watch found a different story: Grave abuses by government troops were actually aimed at civilians, and Mr. Boskovski was present during the worst of it. The actions outlined in the detailed report, released by the human rights group on Wednesday, highlight once again the mixed message that the Macedonian government is giving regarding its commitment to the peace process.</p>

<p>RIGGINS, Idaho -- As names for sports teams go, it's hard to imagine one that might be more offensive to American Indians than the Savages.</p> <p>That's the team name at Salmon River High School, just down the river from the Nez Perce Reservation. Yet there are no sit-ins, no demonstrations and no protests from tribal leaders.</p>

<p>In a judicious determination that will undoubtedly provide prompt and effective relief to both consumers and jittery stockholders, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it will no longer seek to break up Microsoft Corp., nor will it pursue additional proceedings on the software bundling issues addressed in the original complaint.</p>

<p>What is often ignored in the debate over Social Security reform and the financial problems it now faces is why the system has remained solvent for as long as it has. Let's be clear about this. Social Security, and its pay-as-you-go structure, has worked for as long as it has because of the taxes collected on women's wages.</p>

<p>San Ysidro, N.M., is a rural hamlet of just a couple of hundred people, at the edge of the Jemez Mountains about 40 miles northwest of Albuquerque.</p> <p>It has what sounds like a nightmarish problem: arsenic in its drinking water.</p>

Democratic leaders in California are recruiting candidates to run for Rep. Gary A. Condit's congressional seat amid plummeting poll numbers and growing expectations he will not seek re-election. Top Stories •&nbsp;Sisters act•&nbsp;GAO eyes lawsuit•&nbsp;CIA uncovers missile moves by China•&nbsp;Colombian drug lord handed over to U.S.•&nbsp;Pakistan razes homes to drive out Afghans•&nbsp;School defuses flap over 'Savages'•&nbsp;Bangkok cracking down on night life&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sandra Lucas, chairman of the Stanislaus County Democratic Central Committee, said she expects Mr. Condit to announce within weeks that he will not run for an eighth term.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"The positioning has already begun," she said. "I don't think he will run. I ...

<p>The Democrats have lost their hold on the American electorate, especially among the young and the poor, and have ceased to be a majority party, according to a study of voter participation in the 2000 elections.</p> <p>In a sharply critical analysis of the Democratic Party and its future, voter turnout specialist Curtis Gans himself a lifelong Democrat also said that the Democrats were "on the minority side of the cultural divide, in part, because of their advocacy of such things as gay rights, a woman's right to choose and gun control."</p>

<p>Congress is back in session and the six-year struggle over a patients' bill of rights is soon to heat up again.</p> <p>Expect the going to be contentious as usual. A House-Senate conference committee will be meeting to bridge differences in bills that are supported largely along partisan lines.</p>

<p>China supplied missile technology and related goods to Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and Libya, according to a CIA report made public yesterday.</p> <p>The CIA report to Congress also identified Russia and North Korea as major exporters of nuclear, chemical and biological weapon-related equipment and missile systems to rogue states and unstable regions of the world.</p>

Sacrificing our children &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com It was widely reported this week that the upcoming fall lineup of network television programming is going to be the raunchiest, vilest, most vulgar yet. According to the reports, all three major networks are planning to run television shows that push the standards of acceptable behavior to their lowest point ever. The reports say that expletives like the "s" word and the "f" word will be used. They also report that several shows will openly blaspheme God and mock Christianity. People who have previewed them say the new shows will turn our television sets into ...

Turning the tables on Durban By Yaffa daCosta &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com To me, the U.N. now stands for Unrepentant Nations, i.e., those nations that have not repented of their anti-Semitism and hatred against the Jews. The U.N. Conference on Racism became not only an attack on Jews, and the state of Israel, but it was also the biggest cover-up of racist crimes committed by radical Islamism against non-Moslems. Dr. Martin Luther King (of blessed memory) said it best: You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely "anti-Zionist." And I say, let the truth ring forth ...

The United States walked away from the United Nations Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa last week, which, along with the U.S. rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, demonstrates more political backbone than we've seen in a decade. Thank you, Mr. Bush! The walk-out brought immediate condemnation from the Islamic world and from most of the developing nations – and from Jesse Jackson, of course. Jackson claims that the United States is unwilling to face up to its responsibility to pay blacks today for the slavery in America's past. The Durban draft document included language to endorse reparations for ...