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LOS ANGELES - It's been called "the skiddiest of all Skid Rows" — 50 square blocks of abandoned factories, burned-out storefronts, rundown hotels, dingy bars and seedy liquor stores, interspersed among hundreds of makeshift homes, most of them built with abandoned cardboard boxes and stolen shopping carts. Located an easy walk from City Hall, police headquarters and other downtown seats of power, this last stop for the destitute has been a fixture of Los Angeles for nearly a century. But with a burgeoning real estate market bringing luxury apartments and condos to the edge of Skid Row, city leaders are...

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2006 – The Defense Department has been working hard with Congress for the past several months and has reached some conclusions about how the fee system for military health care should be changed, a top DoD official said here yesterday. "It's universally agreed that there is a serious issue, a serious problem, with the growing health care costs within the Department of Defense, and the potential adverse impact that that might have to sustain our great health benefit," Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in an interview. DoD has had a...

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) — A chain of fitness centers has put up partitions in response to complaints by Muslim women about a lack of privacy while they work out. Fitness USA agreed to the changes at its Lincoln Park gym after meeting with a concerned Muslim member of the gym and Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Some Muslim members of the gym said they need to work out in single-sex rooms to meet Islam's standards of modesty. They said they joined Fitness USA because it accommodated this need. But the...

WASHINGTON - The Senate moved Wednesday to approve the first major change in lobbying and ethics rules in more than a decade, the latest effort by Congress to restore its plummeting reputation with voters before the fall elections. Under the bill expected to pass by a wide margin, senators would no longer be able to accept gifts or meals from lobbyists and lobbyists would be required to reveal more information about their contacts with lawmakers. But the bill, to the chagrin of many pushing for more fundamental change, does not ban privately funded travel. Nor would it establish a new...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Mar. 15, 2006) – The Army has revised its policy on tattoos in an effort to bolster recruitment of highly-qualified individuals who might otherwise have been excluded from joining. Tattoos are now permitted on the hands and back of the neck if they are not “extremist, indecent, sexist or racist.” Army Regulation 670-1, which was modified via a message released Jan. 25, also now specifies: “Any tattoo or brand anywhere on the head or face is prohibited except for permanent make-up.” For women, allowable make-up would be permanent eye-liner, eyebrows and makeup applied to fill in...

The first Slovakian engineers came into Iraq in August 2003; their primary duties are unexploded ordnance disposal and engineering work. CAMP ECHO, Iraq, March 2, 2006 — Slovakian engineer units working in Multinational Division Central-South held a change of command ceremony at Camp Echo, Ad-Diwaniyah, March 1. The 5th rotation of the Slovak Engineer Unit transferred authority to the 6th rotation composed of 100 troops. The handover ceremony was attended by authorities of the Slovakian Armed Forces, Multinational Division Central-South, senior national representatives and distinguished guests. The first Slovakian Engineers came into Iraq in August 2003 with Multinational Division Central-South....

WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania - Just to make sure there's no confusion about which team they are supporting in the Super Bowl XL, the mayor and council voted unanimously to change this city's name. Welcome to Steeler, Pennsylvania. The name change for the city of about 15,000 people south of Pittsburgh will last through Feb. 5, the day of the football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks in Detroit. "I know the folks in the state of Washington are rooting for the Seahawks, so we wanted to make sure everyone knows the city of Washington is fully in support...

Time changes modern human's face By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Our ancestors had more prominent features but lower foreheads Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years. Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors. Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations. The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking". Plague victimsThe team used radiographic films of skulls to record extensive measurements taken by a computer....

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2005 – Coalition forces today transferred command of northwest Iraq, and U.S. troops killed two terrorists Dec. 28, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported today. Command of northwest Iraq transferred from Task Force Freedom to Task Force Band of Brothers during a ceremony in Mosul. The transfer consolidates operational areas into a single multinational division under the command of Task Force Band of Brothers, military officials said. With its new command responsibilities, Task Force Band of Brothers includes the 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams from the 101st Airborne Division, 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams from the...

CAMP LIBERTY, IRAQ, District Of Columbia, Nov. 27, 2005 – The Army is instituting significant changes in how it trains and recruits soldiers, aiming to make U.S. troops more battle ready for the challenges in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, two of the Army's top noncommissioned officers said during recent visits to Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. The two command sergeants major, John Sparks of the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command, and Lonny Wright with Infantry Branch Command, spoke during separate mid-November meetings with solders from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. "We are enhancing the individual soldiers'...

UNITED NATIONS - The lead investigator in the assassination of a top Lebanese politician acknowledged Friday that he deleted references from his report implicating two relatives of Syria's president, raising questions about whether the U.N. tried to soften the inquiry's findings. The report, which accused key Syrian and Lebanese security officials of orchestrating the Feb. 14 bombing that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 20 others, was nonetheless a stinging rebuke of Damascus' regime. The findings caused an uproar in the region and brought swift denials of involvement from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In an...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Oct. 12, 2005) -- When Raphael P. Ramos was growing up in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he had no father figure and no real direction, according to him. The only thing that got him away from the street life was his love of sports, participating in boxing and football as a young teenager and playing on the Ana Roque High School basketball team. After graduating in 2003, Ramos continued to work as a security guard for various local businesses and eventually found the path to his future career as a United States Marine. “I wanted...

HERE was a large turnout yesterday at the first ever open day in An Garda Síochána for ethnic minorities. People from a host of nationalities and minorities travelled to the Garda College in Templemore for a sample of a possible career in the force. Gardaí were very impressed by the level of interest and the number of inquiries from people from ethnic minorities regarding the new recruitment phase. The new campaign, adverts for which began appearing this week, is specifically aimed at attracting non-Irish members into the force. Justice Minister Michael McDowell received approval from the Cabinet at the beginning...

AL ASAD, IRAQ (Sept. 28, 2005) -- When duty in Iraq called twice in two years, they were ready and continued their steadfast support of the Iraqi people and their desire to live in freedom. The Moonlighters of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 764, Marine Aircraft Group 26, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, have recently finished their second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. HMM-764 is a reserve CH-46E Sea Knight squadron based out of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The Moonlighters will be returning to the United States after flying 3,800 mishap-free combat hours, transporting 14,918 passengers and hauling 26,972...

JACKSON, Miss. -- As the forced evacuation of New Orleans continues, Air Force helicopter crews here are flying fewer rescues and conducting more ferry missions from evacuee collection points. Though aircrews still have a high operations tempo and their helicopters are flying much more than usual, it is different from the first hectic days after Hurricane Katrina left a path of death and destruction along the Gulf Coast. “There was plenty of rescue work to go around then. You could fly over New Orleans and it was like a scene right out of a movie. There were helicopters everywhere,” said...

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Lawmakers endorsed a constitutional overhaul Tuesday that sharply restricts property rights and allows Zimbabwe's government to deny passports to its critics. Ruling party representatives erupted into cheering, singing and dancing after rallying 103 votes - more than the two-thirds required to pass the 22-clause Constitutional Amendment Bill. Just 29 of Parliament's 150 members opposed the legislation, which now goes to President Robert Mugabe to sign into law. Local and international lawyers have described the amendments as the greatest challenge yet to civil liberties in this increasingly autocratic country. But Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said they would...

Passport proposal a controversial security matter Bush administration reconsiders its plans By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer Traffic lines up on the Rainbow Bridge plaza for entry into the United States from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in Niagara Falls, N.Y. AP Photo/DON HEUPEL NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Millions of Americans like Kathy Currier could soon run into trouble returning home from Canada because they don't have passports. On a recent trip back across the border, Currier, 49, cleared security screening with her driver's license and birth certificate. But if she needs a passport in the future to get back into...

RENO, Nev. - A Reno scientist is among a team of researchers who will spend the next several weeks studying the icy Arctic Ocean to document historic climate changes. Glenn Berger, a research professor at the Desert Research Institute, and others set off Friday aboard the Healy, a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker. "There are more climate changes happening up there than anywhere else in the world," Berger said of the Arctic. "Models predict drastic changes up there by the middle of this century." Berger said his role in the project will be to help determine the history of climate changes...

The Army is undergoing its largest restructuring since World War II. This restructuring will transition the Army to a modular force capable of providing increased combat power by the Army's active duty forces by 30 percent and make available the Army's overall pool of warfighting forces by 60 percent. The total number of brigades will increase from 33 to 43. The goal for this larger pool of available forces is to enable the Army to generate forces in a rotational manner. At the current operational tempo, this modular force structure will allow Active Component Soldiers to spend at least two...

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a bill Tuesday to raise the homeland security secretary from last to eighth place in the presidential line of succession, just after the attorney general. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, passed without objection just before the chamber adjourned. The companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is pending before the Judiciary and Government Reform committees. If the bill also passes the House, the order of those in line to assume the presidency if President Bush is unable to serve would be: _Vice President Dick Cheney _House...