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LE GRAND BORNAND, France (Reuters) - A ruthless Lance Armstrong refused to allow his rivals a consolation stage victory as he came from behind to outsprint German Andreas Kloeden in the last few meters of the 127-mile 17th stage of the Tour de France Thursday. Armstrong's fourth win in the five mountain stages of this year's Tour -- he finished second in the other one -- underlined his dominance over his closest rivals as he seeks an unprecedented sixth successive Tour victory. Germany's Jan Ullrich finished the stage third while Italian Ivan Basso, who beat Armstrong on the 12th stage,...

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Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek Well, the war in Iraq is over, the reconstruction seems to be going about as well as can be expected, and the economy is starting to come back. In short, it's a slow news day. So this would be a good time to clear the palate before another world crisis divides our attention. On then, to: Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek 10. Noisy doors. You can't walk three feet in a starship without some door whooshing or screeching at you. My office building has automatic sliding doors. They're dead...

AUGUSTA--It was a tough battle Saturday -- not between the golfers -- but between reporters and police officers over who had a larger presence at the protest just down the road from Augusta National Golf Club. After 10 months of threats, boycotts and countless media reports against the club's men-only policy, Martha Burk arrived with little more than two-dozen supporters and spent barely an hour before taking off in a Chevy Trail Blazer. Her numbers were drastically overshadowed by the 123 police officers, complete with more than 75 cruisers parked on site, not to mention a swarm of about 100...

Tanks on the bridge ... one took a shot. The lead tank looks like it has a PWO/MIA flag flying from it. Uh-OH - Zips in the wire

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Who is Syed Athar Abbas? And what was he doing with a $100,000 "fine particulate mixer" last summer? by David Tell 07/17/2002 10:00:00 AM David Tell, opinion editor BACK IN APRIL, having marinated myself in a decade's worth of published microbiology research and whatnot, I wrote a longish story for the Standard expressing near total bewilderment about the FBI's investigation of last fall's anthrax terrorism. Specifically, I couldn't understand why the Bureau seemed so strongly inclined to the view that its suspect was a lone American scientist--and so little inclined to take seriously the possibility that those mail-borne murders might...

A friend sent me these. I have no idea if they're valid, but if they are, we may all be needing them soon: A few handy Arabic phrases translated to English -- in case you're ever kidnapped by terrorists. AKBAR KHALI-KILI HAFTIR LOFTAN.= Thank you for showing me your marvelous gun. FEKR GABUL CARDAN DAVAT RAEH GUSH DIVAR.= I am delighted to accept your kind invitation to lie down on the floor with my arms above my head and my legs apart. SHOMAEH FIKR TAMOMEH GEH GOFTEK BANDE.= I agree with everything you have ever said or thought in your...

Salim Muwakkil. Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor at In These Times Published March 18, 2002 An ongoing source of frustration and anger for many Americans is the lack of support the war on terrorism has received abroad. Other nations are considerably less enthusiastic about our use of "daisy cutter" and "thermobaric" bombs than we think they should be. Why is that? One reason is their media. Stories alleging imperial and commercial motives for the war on terrorism are rife. Outside this country, there is a widespread belief that U.S. military deployments in Central Asia mostly are about oil. An...

American bombers strike a Taliban tank on the hill called Tota Khil, according to Northern Alliance troops. (CAROLYN COLE / Los Angeles Times) Oct. 25, 2001

Chicago Tribune | They'd make Osama an offer he can't refuse John Kass They'd make Osama an offer he can't refuse Published October 23, 2001 Osama bin Laden--or Sammy, if you prefer--must know by now he's a wanted man. If he didn't know, he should have read the headline in Monday's Tribune: "CIA gets OK to kill bin Laden." If he's still alive, Sammy could be hiding in Afghanistan, eating sardines in a cave, licking the moisture from stones, preparing his escape. Perhaps he could just slip on one of those burquas that Afghan women are forced to wear. ...

Feature Neal Pollack One Against the Taliban One Against the Taliban Enough time has now passed so I’m no longer ashamed to admit that at the last moment of the old ways, I was sitting at my desk in my Brooklyn loft, preparing to write an article about the rise in popularity of the Latin Grammys. At At 8:50 a.m., the phone rang. It was a fashion editor with whom I’d slept two nights earlier. "You’d better go up on your roof," she said, "and bring a notebook." We all know what the next four hours were like, and my ...

AMERICA RULES We'll Run This Planet As We Please And if you don't like it, go back where we came from. BY P.J. O'ROURKE Saturday, August 25, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT Are Americans pursuing a misguided course of unilateralism? Are we failing to cooperate and coordinate with other countries in matters such as the Kyoto climate treaty, missile defense, and peace processes in the Middle East, the Balkans and elsewhere? Are we telling foreigners to go pound sand? But we are foreigners. Every person in America came from, or is descended from someone who came from, somewhere else, even if ...

Chicago Tribune | News - Columnists - John Kass March 12, 2001 Critics, who are usually so urgently politically correct on other matters, just love mob boss Tony Soprano. He's the character on the popular TV show "The Sopranos," which allows the critical class, and the rest of us, to flirt with Outfit violence from the safety of our TV rooms. Imagine if Soprano-loving critics and fans accidentally ran into real mobsters, say in a warehouse on Lumber Street along the Chicago River, alone, in the late afternoon. People who applaud the "cutting edge" qualities of "The Sopranos" might ...

Bush's tax plan matter of principle Commentary Bush's tax plan matter of principle February 26, 2001 That George W. Bush just can't take a hint. Every time the Washington press corps gets a chance, it asks him about backing away from his tax cut program. Many of the Beltway's loudest pundits chime in that it can't be passed. Democratic leaders try to demonize it as a "giveaway" to the rich. But the president ignores all this advice and tells the American people about the benefits of his plan. The latest example of the naysayers jumping on Bush came during ...

Chicago Tribune | Opinion -- A BETTER GOAL THAN REPARATIONS Charles E. Sanford February 19, 2001 CHICAGO -- I am a black American who disagrees with Salim Muwakkil's position regarding reparations for slavery ("Reparations Part II: The movement's next step," Commentary, Feb. 12). In particular, I am opposed to his notion that obtaining reparations is "the next step in the movement for black civil rights." If this were true, then, at best, black America would be waiting 25, 50 or 100 years to take that next step. And, because there is no guarantee that black Americans will ever receive reparations, ...

Chicago Tribune | Opinion -- BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO February 18, 2001 George W. Bush campaigned as a unifier, but it is Bill Clinton who has done the job. Republicans and a growing number of Democrats are angry, disappointed, even close to an emotional frenzy over the way Clinton fled the White House, with scribbled pardons and presidential teacups flying out the back of his moving van. Four weeks later, millions of Americans can't escape their obsession with the man and his maneuvers. Something more visceral, more intimate than politics binds many Americans to this ex-president. Yes, Clinton ...

Yahoo - Morgan Stanley exec who arranged Clinton speech resigns Finance Home - Yahoo! - HelpPaid Bonzi Advertisement - Click Here![ Latest Headlines | Market Overview | News Alerts ] Related QuotesMWD74.55-1.77delayed 20 mins - disclaimerFriday February 16, 2:11 pm Eastern TimeMorgan Stanley exec who arranged Clinton speech resigns (UPDATE: Recast, updates with details)NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE:MWD - news) executive whose invitation to former President Clinton to speak at a conference created a furor among some of the Wall Street firm's clients is quitting.``I'm retiring; my decision has nothing to ...

MUGGER - Russ Smith Splish, Splash: Everyone Needs a Bath When The New York Times doles out guarded praise for President Bush, editorializing that his White House is displaying "a mature insistence on order" and that, unlike Mr. I’ll-Take-Manhattan-for-a-Ride, Bush "takes the presidency seriously," there’s not much I can add. Why spoil the party? The Times’ Feb. 11 editorial, "Between Two Eras," was remarkable for its condemnation of Bill Clinton, leaving the obvious question of why the paper’s editors were dead-drunk asleep these past eight years. The edit continued: "All that said, we think Mr. Bush’s desire to simply close ...