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For someone who is neither a theologian nor a philosopher, I have spent an inordinate amount of my time on this earth pondering the weighty subjects of life and death and Heaven and Hell. Not resolving anything, you understand, just pondering. I listen with rapt attention to anyone else's thoughts and read just about anything I can find on the subjects. A few years back, I became enthralled with the accounts of people who had what were described as “after-life” or “near-death” experiences, people who were clinically dead but were brought back to life through the miracles of modern medicine....

Experiencing wildlife up close and personal is something best done in a zoo. However, nature doesn't always play by our rules, as was seen last week when a mountain lion attacked two people – one fatally – in an Orange County park. While mountain lion attacks are rare – only six fatal attacks in California in 114 years – wildlife experts say we may see more confrontations with all sorts of critters in the near future. "As we continue to move more and more into their space, the expectation is that these kinds of events with all kinds of animals...

<p>MANCHESTER, N.H. -- On the long campaign trail that leads to the White House, the first and potentially most important stop is a picturesque New England state that would fit into a corner of California. Politicians joke about New Hampshire and even jeer at it.</p>

<p>A number of the nation's leading AIDS experts, including the co-discoverer of the virus that causes the deadly disease, have sharply criticized the U.S. government for funding a $119 million study of a new AIDS vaccine that they argue is likely to fail.</p>

<p>The moon is a smorgasbord of useful resources that could be used to support a lunar base and even improve life on Earth, scientists say.</p> <p>President Bush announced Wednesday that he wants to establish a base on the moon as a stepping stone toward further human exploration of the cosmos. With its weaker gravitational pull to tug on spacecraft, the moon makes a better jumping-off place than Earth, he said.</p>

An attorney asked the Colorado Supreme Court today to throw out the murder conviction and life sentence for a woman found guilty in the 1997 slaying of a Denver police officer while she was in custody. Attorney Kathleen Lord told the state Supreme Court that Lisl Auman had no way of knowing her friend, Matthaeus Jaehnig, had guns in his car or that he would shoot Officer Bruce VanderJagt following a burglary and car chase. Auman was handcuffed in the back of a police car when the shooting occurred, but authorities said she played a key role in the burglary....

The U.S. Small Business Administration on Wednesday reopened the spigot on a popular loan program that was shut down last week because of a funding shortfall. But some lenders are worried that the temporary, short-term fix of the popular 7(a) loan program isn't enough to meet borrower demand. SBA officials said Wednesday that Congress had approved $470 million in lending authority for the 7(a) program, which guarantees loans for small businesses that do not qualify for traditional financing. The agency has been working without a budget and was relying on $3.3 billion in continuing funds expected to last until Jan....

WASHINGTON - If Gary Hart jumps into Colorado's Senate race this year, the former senator would be doing so only to "lay the groundwork" for a presidential run in 2008, incumbent Ben Nighthorse Campbell said Wednesday. "The presidential aspirations are still there," said Campbell, R-Ignacio. "I would think he might see it as a steppingstone again." Hart, expected to decide this week whether to run, declined, through a spokeswoman, to respond. Hart, a Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 1974 and served two terms. He ran for president in 1984 but lost the nomination to Vice President Walter Mondale....

The woman whose dogs mauled an Elbert County woman to death said she never expected the animals to hurt anyone. "I'm sorry," Jacqueline McCuen said Tuesday, nearly six weeks after three of her dogs killed Jennifer Brooke. "I can't say 'I'm sorry' enough. I want to know why this happened. I can't imagine what (Brooke's family) has been through. "I don't blame it on the breed. I don't blame it on their upbringing. I was a good owner." Brooke, 40, was attacked Nov. 30 while she fed her horses. The dogs also attacked Bjorn Osmunsen, 24, and Clifford "Lynn" Baker,...

A four-month-old boy was kidnapped at knifepoint today from his mother's Brighton apartment complex, police said. Brighton officers were searching for the mother's boyfriend in connection with the kidnapping. The boy, Eugene Arellano, is 25 inches long and weighs 15 pounds, with dark hair. He was wearing a Broncos shirt. Brighton Police Sgt. Paul White said the mother's boyfriend, who is not the child's father, was visiting the mother when the two got into an argument. The boyfriend then assaulted the mother, threatened her with a knife and took the baby, according to police. The suspect was identified by police...

When Maxine Boykin, 77, started receiving radiation treatments for breast cancer in December, the Bridgeport resident relied on her daughter to drive her to her appointments at St. Vincent's Medical Center. Had Boykin received traditional radiation, her daughter would have ferried her to appointments for roughly six weeks. But Boykin was eligible for a new kind of treatment, known as the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System. The procedure delivers radiation through a balloon-shaped catheter inserted into the cavity created by the removal of a breast tumor. For Boykin, one of the best things about MammoSite was that she only had to...

NEW HAVEN - A Bridgeport man admitted stealing $62,280 in Social Security benefits paid to his dead aunt over seven years. Ralph Bolling, 57, of Laurel Street, entered his guilty plea Wednesday during proceedings before Senior U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she sentences him April 2. Assistant U.S. Attorney Penny Collender told the judge Bolling failed to report his aunt's death to Social Security administrators or to Fleet Bank, where her check was sent. As a result, Social Security benefits continued to be deposited into the...

STRATFORD - Iraqi insurgents don't keep banker's hours. A group of American paratroopers making a nighttime desert raid against rebels somewhere outside Baghdad suddenly needs air support. Army Lt. Michael Athanasakis of Stratford said this is a classic battle example for U.S. helicopter pilots - with hours of quiet bracketing brief periods of intense danger. A quick reaction force of heavily armed Apache attack helicopters is sent to quell the threat. Helicopters have been the favored targets for Iraqi resistance forces, which have had some success shooting them down recently. If one hovers too long, it will assuredly be shot...

Any number of clichés apply well to the dilemma facing residents of Vieques, the Puerto Rican island formerly used by the U.S. Navy as a regional staging area and for bombing, bombardment and invasion exercises. "You never know what you've got until it's gone" is one. "Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it" is another. Viequens and many other Puerto Ricans, it seems, can't decide whether to be glad or sad the Navy is pulling out. "Everybody is thinking, ‘What's going to happen?'" office worker Jeannette Martes, who faces the loss of her job, told...

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi minister of disinformation better known to Americans as Baghdad Bob or Comical Ali, has a new job. He's the new anchor for the satellite news channel Abu Dhabi TV, based in United Arab Emirates. Baghdad Bob recently told Arab audiences he wasn't surprised that U.S. forces found Saddam Hussein but was shocked he gave up without a fight. "We all were expecting that Saddam would kill himself rather than be (caught). He said we would not surrender at all; rather, (the United States) could only take us as dead bodies." It was refreshing to...

JERUSALEM - Call it intifada without end. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is heating up again, but the violence appears unlikely to reach the levels of 2002, when Palestinian suicide bombers sometimes killed scores of Israelis in single attacks and when the Israeli military blasted through Palestinian towns and cities with tanks, helicopters, and bulldozers. The tactics are the same, just less intense. Wednesday, a Palestinian woman killed herself, three Israeli soldiers, and a private security guard at the border that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip. The night before, a Palestinian attacker shot to death an Israeli settler on a West...

The agency needs a new international role, says chief. FBI Director Robert Mueller says the United States is safer today than it was in 2001 and he does not think the American public would lose confidence in his agency if there were another terrorist attack in the US. The nation is safer due to anti-terrorism efforts in this country but also due to the "efforts in Afghanistan and the efforts of our counterparts overseas in detaining a number of persons," Mueller said at luncheon with reporters sponsored by the Monitor. He cited "the help of our counterparts, particularly in Pakistan."...

White wants law to prevent those with revoked licenses from buying a vehicle SPRINGFIELD - Secretary of State Jesse White said Wednesday that Illinois should not let dangerous motorists buy a car while their drivers licenses are revoked. "Common sense should dictate that someone whose driving privileges have been taken away should not be out shopping for a car," White said. He proposed legislation to prohibit drivers whose licenses have been suspended or revoked for drunken driving or reckless homicide from buying a vehicle. This restriction would only apply to suspensions coming from the most serious offenses: DUI convictions, refusing...

BEIJING -- It may look like Mission Control in Houston, but this space complex had been hidden from the world until Wednesday -- when U.S. officials got their first look at the command center that recently sent China's first manned flight into orbit and back. "Congratulations. You've had a great success," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Chinese space program officials during his 40-

Matthews admits to allegations of sex abuse, providing alcohol at daughter's party A 48-year-old Westminster man pleaded guilty today to charges of sexual abuse and providing alcohol to minors after admitting that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl at his daughter's sleepover party -- where he provided beer to her and other members of Westminster High School's girls basketball team. Nine of the girls were suspended from the school's basketball for the 2002-03 season. Asking for a chance to rebuild his life, Randall S.