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A veteran California senator recently forced to resign as chair of a powerful military committee for abusing the position to enrich herself has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. At a pep rally in Washington this week, longtime Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein enthusiastically announced that her good friend Hillary would shatter a great barrier to become the nation's first female president. A former San Francisco mayor, Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and she is one of California's most powerful and popular politicians as well as one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth of...

Tens of thousands of French schools and universities have received copies of a Turkish book refuting Darwin's theory of evolution and describing it as "the true source of terrorism." The education ministry said Friday that it had warned school and university directors that the textbook is not in line with the recognized curriculum and that they should disregard it. Entitled "The Atlas of Creation," the 770-page book by Turkish author Harun Yahya quotes several passages from the Koran and asserts that "human beings did not evolve (from another species) but were indeed created." "We believe that there are lots of...

Jacko is shocko at his associate's gay porno BY MICHELLE CARUSO DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF SANTA MONICA, Calif. - A wide-eyed Michael Jackson testified he "was shocked" when he saw a video of his ex-associate actively directing a gay porn film, according to videotaped deposition shown in court yesterday. The no-show singer's ghostly image was projected on a 4-foot-by-4-foot screen in the trial of a $1.5 million breach-ofcontact suit filed by his former video producer Marc Schaffel in Santa Monica Superior Court. In the sworn testimony, which was taped in London's Dorchester Hotel on Sept. 23, 2005, and...

July 3, 2006 -- Sen. John McCain yesterday joined the chorus of critics who say The New York Times was wrong to out a top-secret terror money-tracking program, and he called for prosecuting the leakers. "Tracking the money is always a vital tool, and members of Congress were kept informed and agreed to this program," McCain (R-Ariz.) told ABC's "This Week." "So, no, I don't think [the Times] should have published it." McCain also challenged the Times' claim that it didn't reveal any real secrets, saying, "If The New York Times thinks the story was inconsequential, the legitimate question is:...

BELGRADE (Reuters) - More than 30 war crimes suspects from the former Yugoslavia in custody in The Hague on Tuesday signed a tribute to Slobodan Milosevic, widely seen as the architect of the wars that ravaged the region in the 1990s. According to Serb custom, friends and relatives of the deceased publish newspaper advertisements with brief eulogies and a picture. The Milosevic ad in several Belgrade dailies was signed by ethnic Serb indictees from Serbia and Bosnia, but also by Macedonian Ljube Boskovski and Croat General Ante Gotovina, who crushed a Milosevic-backed Serb rebellion in Croatia. They bade "a last...

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will soon visit North Korea as preparations intensify for what could be a crucial round of six-country talks on reining in Pyongyang's nuclear program, current and former U.S. officials said on Thursday. Richardson, a Democrat who served as energy secretary and U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton and is mentioned as a possible contender for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, is expected to make the trip "very soon," a former official told Reuters. The trip has been under discussion for some time and has privately drawn mixed reactions from U.S....

Today's New York Post lists the top 20 talkers in New York based on average numbers of listeners listening at any given moment. Franken beats Savage. 1) Howard Stern WXRK/6-10 a.m. 237,000 2) Rush Limbaugh WABC/12-3 p.m. 139,000 3) Curtis & Kuby (tie) WABC/6-10 a.m. 106,200 3) Mike & Mad Dog (tie) WFAN/1-6 p.m. 106,200 5) Sean Hannity WABC/3-6 p.m. 103,700 6) John Gambling WABC/10-noon 102,400 7) Don Imus WFAN/6-10 a.m. 96,800 8) Ed Walsh WOR/6-9 a.m. 92,200 9) Bob Grant WOR/4-6 p.m. 87,000 10) Joan Hamburg WOR/9-11 a.m. 83,800 11) Mark Levin WABC/6-8 p.m. 74,300 12) Bill O'Reilly WOR/2-4...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Despite a lengthy record as a violent sexual predator of children, Joseph Edward Duncan III was always able to make friends who paid his bills and lobbied for his early release from prison, The Spokesman-Review reported Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Duncan, 42, is jailed without bail on charges he beat three people to death in a scheme to kidnap two children for the purposes of sexual gratification. .... "He is open, honest and eager to move on with his life," one such supporter, David Woelfert of Lynnwood, Wash., wrote to parole officials in 1993. "He is no threat...

John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sent shivers through the 191-member organization and the international community. All were stunned at the choice of a man whose unilateralist and unrealistic attitudes toward international issues have made the world a less safe place.

John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations sent shivers through the 191-member organization and the international community. All were stunned at the choice of a man whose unilateralist and unrealistic attitudes toward international issues have made the world a less safe place. His nomination appeared more appalling since the Bush administration had previously announced it planned to repair its image, which had suffered greatly due to the scandal-hit invasion of Iraq launched under the guidance of hawks like Bolton and other officials who Nelson Mandela once called the dinosaurs surrounding Bush.

U.S. inquires into Wecht's activities Friday, March 25, 2005 By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Federal authorities are investigating Dr. Cyril H. Wecht's activities as Allegheny County coroner, Wecht's attorney said yesterday. -snip- Last month it was disclosed that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. had launched a criminal investigation of Wecht. The probe concerns $5,000 paid to Wecht by a law firm representing a man killed in 2002 in a scuffle with police in Mount Oliver. -snip- "There is evidence that the coroner is using his public office for personal, pecuniary gain," Zappala said last month. -snip-...

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (news - web sites)'s anti-fraud office said Thursday it has found no evidence to back accusations that some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in EU aid to the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) was diverted to fund terrorist attacks or siphoned off by corrupt officials. But the independent European Anti-Fraud Office said its investigators found it was necessary to keep including financial safeguards in aid packages to the Palestinians to avoid funds being diverted. "The possibility of misuse of the Palestinian Authority's budget and other resources cannot be excluded due to...

Federal authorities in Louisiana have charged the brother-in-law of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy of committing millions in bank fraud. A bill of information filed Wednesday in New Orleans federal court claims Raymond Reggie, 43, of New Orleans submitted fake documents to get a loan from Hibernia National Bank in December 2000. In the bill of information, federal authorities said Reggie “submitted fictitious documents purporting to be a contract” between his company, Media Direct, and the U.S. Census Bureau. A separate bill of information also filed Wednesday in Baton Rouge federal court charges him with a check-kiting scheme in which he...

Four years ago George W. Bush used to call him "the shadow" and promised a fresh start by pledging to "uphold the honor and dignity" of the presidency. He even joked to late-night TV's David Letterman that one of his top 10 priorities in the White House would be to give the Oval Office "one heck of a scrubbing." But when President Bush welcomed Bill Clinton into that same office last week, those barbs were ancient history. After Clinton remarked how much he liked the new Oval Office rug, Bush encouraged him to praise his interior designer-Laura. (He did.) Over...

The Venezuelan president has decreed that the public administration will switch over to use open source software over the next two years... Read full article

Milosevic sends condolences over Yasser Arafat's death BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal, has sent a letter of condolences to the Palestinians over the death of Yasser Arafat, the former president's aides said Friday. The pro-Milosevic group called Sloboda (Freedom), which is aiding the their leader's defense before the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, gave no other details about the letter. The group only said it was addressed to the Palestinian people and leadership. Milosevic was charged for genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the Balkan wars...

Why McCain Defends Kerry Joseph Farah Why would John McCain characterize the SWIFT Boat vets commercial about John Kerry as "dishonest and dishonorable"? Why would he ask President Bush to denounce it? Why would he say something similar was "pulled" on him when he seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2000? Americans are supposed to respect Sen. John McCain because he is a war hero. But is he? And why is he so determined to defend John Kerry's dishonorable activities during and after the Vietnam War? Now let me begin by saying McCain suffered greatly during his five years of...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico recalled its ambassador from Cuba and will expel Cuba's ambassador after officials concluded the communist-run government interfered in Mexico internal affairs, Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez announced Sunday. The diplomatic furor came as relations soured over Mexico's supporting a U.N. rebuke of Cuba's human rights record. A day earlier, in his annual May Day speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro denounced Mexico over the vote and said it had lost the ability to act independently. Derbez said the respective ambassadors have 48 hours to leave their posts. The decision stops short of severing diplomatic ties but...

<p>Juanita Kratochvil is quick to point out that she was raised with six brothers, and among her own brood of five children, three are boys. That means she spent most of her life helping to care for critters, big and small.</p>