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In testimony to the Senate on May 10, 2006, Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), spoke glowingly about the communications network being established for the system tasked with protecting the U.S. mainland against an intercontinental ballistic missile attack. According to Obering, "The global command and control foundation that we've established is unmatched in the world." But the Defense Department's own Office of Inspector General (IG) would probably disagree. Just three months before Obering's boasts, the IG took the defense system's command and control network to task. The ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) system is an...

SEATTLE – Around 7:30 p.m. Monday, KING 5 News' phones started to ring as viewers reported seeing a ball of flames shooting across the skies of Western Washington. The calls came in mostly from Pierce and Kitsap counties. Michael Witig and his wife were out barbecuing when they saw something streaking through the sky. They kept rolling as the fiery tail grew behind the mystery object. KING 5 News contacted the Air Force, FAA, National Weather Service and other local authorities, but could not immediately find an explanation for what streaked across the sky and what was caught on tape.

FILMS made today pale against cinema classics of the past because they are so lacking in dialogue, character and plot, Sir Michael Caine told The Times yesterday. The Oscar-winning star has lost count of the number of times he has seen films such as Casablanca, On the Waterfront and The Third Man, which he never tires of watching. Which is more, he said, than can be said for today’s “banal” films: “I can’t think of one I could see again,” he said. Casablanca has so many memorable lines that audiences can quote, he said, citing the moment when Humphrey Bogart,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Iraqi architect on Tuesday said he was forced to change his t-shirt before boarding a flight in New York because the shirt had "We will not be silent" written on it in Arabic and English. ADVERTISEMENT Raed Jarrar wrote on his Internet blog (http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com) that he was required to change out of the shirt prior to boarding a JetBlue flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to California this month because officials told him people were offended by the shirt. In an interview with New York Public Radio on Tuesday, Jarrar said, "I grew...

John Mark Karr will not be charged with the death of JonBenet Ramsey, but will be held in the Boulder County jail awaiting extradition to California, where he will face charges of possessing child pornography, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said this afternoon. "California wanted him," Pelle said. Prosecutors decided against charging Karr in the killing of the child beauty queen because his DNA does not match the DNA found in the girl's underwear. Authorities notified Karr earlier today that he might not be charged in Boulder, but he didn’t get the official word until he was transferred to the...

KENTON, Ohio (AP) -- It was intended to be a prank: steal a decoy deer, place it on a country road and watch as motorists swerved to avoid it. It ended with two teenagers suffering serious injuries when their car hit the decoy and rolled into a ditch. When a judge ruled this week that two boys -- both high school football players -- can complete the football season before they serve 60-day sentences at a juvenile detention center, it caused a division in this northwest Ohio city. On one side are those who say allowing Dailyn Campbell, a 16-year-old...

WHEELING — The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia will monitor the handling of illegal immigrant detention cases by several law enforcement agencies, including the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department, officials for the organization said Tuesday. Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne, who has been outspoken about detention of illegal immigrants, said Tuesday he recently responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Charleston-based ACLU for information on a variety of issues related to immigration status determination. West Virginia ACLU Executive Director Andrew Schneider said the organization was “very concerned” about the actions of the Wheeling-based law enforcement agency....

The Syrian embassy said it was offering "safe haven" to Americans and other citizens wishing to flee Lebanon, where nearly 200 civilians have been killed during a massive Israeli military bombardment. "Now, while thousands of United States citizens are stranded in Lebanon attempting to flee the ongoing massacre there, Syria has opened its borders to US citizens as well as citizens of other nationalities," the embassy said in a statement. "In Syria, US and citizens of other nations find a safe haven from the barbaric and atrocious acts of the Israeli army in Lebanon," it said, adding that already a...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah says his group is ready for "open war" with Israel.

Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq By Christopher Catherwood Sunday, July 09, 2006 Modern Iraq is a complex country with three disparate groups - Sunni Muslim Kurds, Sunni Muslim Arabs and Shiite Muslims - being forced to live together. The creation of an artificial monarchy in Iraq, with a single ruler, unwittingly produced a Middle Eastern powder keg. Christopher Catherwood's book, published by Carroll & Graff Publishers last year, examines the factors that led to the creation of this unwieldy state. These same events later led to the 1958 military coup against the Iraqi Hashemite government, which had...

Just heard on Fox, no details yet from them

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing's heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China's capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies on Thursday, Xinhua said. The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to "alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality," Xinhua said. Though unusual in...

(CNSNews.com) - The management of The Los Angeles Times said a musical promotion for Paramount Pictures' upcoming movie, "Mission: Impossible III" was designed to turn the "everyday news rack experience" into an "extraordinary mission." But the stunt created a real mission for federal law enforcement officers who had to evacuate patients and staff at an area veterans' medical facility last week. The plan was to conceal digital audio players in 4,500 randomly selected newspaper boxes around Los Angeles and Ventura County. When newspaper buyers opened the racks, the six inch long, two-and-a-half inch wide red plastic boxes -- connected to...

In an appearance today on "Imus in the Morning," Andy Rooney quickly turned down the temperature in the CBS newsroom. Don Imus: "So what do you think of these changes at CBS News?" Andy Rooney: "I’m not enthusiastic about it. I think everybody likes Katie Couric, I mean how can you not like Katie Couric. But, I don’t know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she’s coming here."

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- A renown U.S. scientist says he is limited by the Bush administration as to who he can talk with and what he can say because of Bush`s political strategies. James Hansen, chief of NASA`s top institute studying the climate, told Scott Pelley of the CBS program 60 Minutes government officials are attempting to rewrite science. Hansen says global warming is accelerating because of human actions, specifically the burning of fossil fuels that emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Hansen told CBS he believes humans have approximately...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" on Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its suspect nuclear program.

(HAL) By Katherine Hunt SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co. (HAL) , said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal...

VOICES FROM THE PAST: In an unusual move, the White House has invited all living secretaries of defense and state to White House on Thurs. for discussion with Bush about Iraq policy... Developing...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) A tally of mail-in votes shows Mayor James E. West has been recalled from office over allegations he used his office computer to woo young gay men over the Internet.

PRSA/Harris Interactive survey compares views of consumers, execs and congressional staffers NEW YORK and ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to Americans' reliance upon news, what's "new and hot" is not the choice for many consumers, business executives and Washington insiders, according to the findings of a groundbreaking survey developed jointly by Harris Interactive(R) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Foundation. The national survey, titled Executive, Congressional and Consumer Attitudes Toward Media, Marketing and the Public Relations Profession, compares attitudes and opinions about media, marketing and public relations among American adult consumers, Fortune 1000 executives,...