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DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The National Council of La Raza spends most of its time protecting and advancing the rights of Latinos through advocacy and community work. But as it wraps up its convention downtown, it has found itself defending its name. That's because activists who oppose illegal immigration are saying in e-mails, during street protests and through the media that “La Raza” means “The Race,” and have been calling the organization a hate group. The accusations have prompted soul-searching among NCLR supporters as to what the name actually means and stands for. Most say the situation is the result...

WASHINGTON: John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is fending off charges that he pushed the U.S. Air Force into a faulty $35 billion deal for midair refueling planes. Democrats weighed in after the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, found last week that the air force had made "significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition" between Boeing and a combination of Northrop Grumman and European Aerospace & Defense Systems, or EADS, which was awarded the contract. The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of "mimicking" EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus,...

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

HILLSBORO, Oregon (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton found herself on the defensive over a top aide's meeting with Colombia on a trade deal, as she and rival Barack Obama courted voters on Saturday in Western states. Mark Penn, chief campaign strategist to the New York senator, has apologized for meeting with Colombia's U.S. ambassador in his separate role as a lobbyist hired by the South American country to win congressional approval of the trade deal with the United States. But the issue poses problems for Clinton for political reasons as well as diplomatic ones as she vies with...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Its most virulent critics have dubbed it "Terror High," and 12 U.S. senators and a federal commission want to shut it down. The teachers, administrators and some 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County have heard the allegations for years — after the Sept. 11 attacks and then a few years later when a class valedictorian admitted he had joined al-Qaida. Now the school is on the defensive again, with a report issued last month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom saying the academy should be closed, pending a review of its...

SINGAPORE (AFP) - China's military build-up is purely defensive, the deputy chief of the world's biggest standing army said Saturday, amid US concerns over Beijing's intentions. "Strategically, we adhere to self-defence and would win only by striking after the enemy has struck," Lieutenant General Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), told an international defence forum in Singapore. "China shall never fire the first shot. Such an approach is consistent with the ancient Chinese thought to use caution before getting into a war, use force only for a just cause, put people first...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (May 4, 2006) -- A line of tracers and a corkscrewing missile flash up from the ground a thousand feet below a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, which immediately takes evasive action. Trailing bright sparkles of light emit from its aft sections, as a gout of flame spits from its side-door machine gun. Saving the helicopter from enemy fire are the flying skills of its pilots, the deadly aim of its enlisted crew and an electronic countermeasure flare system. The job of maintaining the M2 .50-caliber machine guns and flares that are instrumental in the helicopter's survival belongs...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Mar. 12, 2006) -- Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment performed a multi-faceted mission near Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, March 12, as they carried out weapons cache sweeps, investigated possible improvised explosive devices and conducted route clearance operations during the daylong operation. Along the way, the Illinois-based National Guard unit took time to interact with the locals, stopping in local villages around the base. The soldiers’ primary mission is to provide base security for the Marines and sailors of the forward-deployed 1st Marine Logistics Group. The 4,200 joint-service members of 1st MLG are part of the 25,000...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2005 – When Seattle Seahawk's defensive end Bryce Fisher isn't staring down an opponent across the line of scrimmage, he's standing in defense of freedom. Fisher, a native of Renton, Wash., recently took the oath of office as a captain in the Washington Air National Guard, where he now serves as a public affairs officer. Fisher graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1999, and the Buffalo Bills drafted him in the seventh round of the National Football League draft the same year. Because of his unique situation, an agreement he reached with the Air Force led...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2005 – Iraqi and American forces in Baghdad and Tikrit have launched a series of operations this past week that have thwarted terrorist activities and disrupted terrorist cells in these two key cities, officials say. In a Nov. 15 cordon-and-search operation, a platoon from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Iraqi Army Brigade nabbed five members of a terrorist who had been planning an attack on the Italian Embassy in Baghdad. The Iraqi soldiers also seized two vehicles, which the terrorists had planned to use in the attack. Also on Nov. 15, U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat...

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq (Nov. 15, 2005) -- It’s the middle of the day at Camp Gannon, Iraq, a small forward operating base on the Syrian border, when mortar rounds begin raining down on the small outpost. In the nearby city of Husaybah, an insurgent is at the window of the top story of a three-story building, calmly placing rounds into a mortar tube, lobbing them at a Marine base. Those observing him would later comment on his apparent comfort while attacking the Marines. He fires a round, calmly fetches another one, fires it and repeats the process. There are...

WALNUT CREEK — For the first and likely only time in the government-revamp special election campaign, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was directly grilled by voters Monday night and often wound up on the defensive, insisting he hasn't "bitten off too much." The governor — who demanded to speak separately from his Democratic and union foes repeatedly touted his uphill battle for four voter-qualified initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot as a "fight for the people" and dismissed accusations they are "power grabs." Schwarzenegger said he was seeking to "fix a broken system" while preserving the "balance of power." "They (lawmakers)...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Sept. 28, 2005) -- Army soldiers have been getting defensive around Marines in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, but only for a good cause. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 109th Infantry (Mechanized) took over force protection operations in and around Al Asad, Iraq, in August. The Scranton, Pa., Army National Guard unit assumed responsibilities for interior and convoy security from the Provisional Security Battalion Marines of 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion. “It has been an interesting deployment so far,” said Army Staff Sgt. Brian Hagy, a squad leader and Lexington, Ky., native. “This...

Don't be defensive about being British citizens, cleric tells moderate Muslims By Duncan Gardham (Filed: 25/07/2005) Moderate Muslims meeting in central London yesterday were told they must learn more about British culture while outside National Front extremists organised a flag waving demonstration. More than 200 NF supporters proclaimed "Britain for the British" while a similar number of police prevented them from approaching the mosque in Regent's Park the moderate Swiss Muslim Dr Tariq Ramadan addressed the meeting. Controversy surrounded Dr Ramadan's visit after it was revealed he was denied entry to the US after his visa was withdrawn. However Dr...

Ronald Honeycutt didn't hesitate. The Pizza Hut driver had just finished dropping off a delivery when a man holding a gun approached him. Honeycutt wasn't about to become another robbery statistic. He grabbed the 9 mm handgun he always carries in his belt and shot the man more than 10 times, killing him. Honeycutt faced no criminal charges, because prosecutors decided that he acted in self-defense. But the 39-year-old did lose his job: Carrying a gun violated Pizza Hut's no-weapons rule. "It's not fair," says Honeycutt of Carmel, Ind., who has found another pizza-delivery job and continues to carry a...

'NUISANCE' NUANCE: KERRY'S TERROR PROBLEM October 16, 2004 --     Regarding Dick Morris' column, a bee sting is a nuisance ("'Nuisance' Nonsense," Opinion, Oct. 12). A toothache is a nuisance. A hangover is a nuisance. Liberals are a nuisance. But terrorism is not a nuisance. God help us if John Kerry is elected. Ray Monahan Howell, N.J.     I don't see how anyone can consider terrorism a nuisance, as Kerry evidently does. The Khobar Towers, the USS Cole bombing, the first World Trade Center bombing and all the other attacks were great tragedies, not nuisances. What does...

McGreevey On The Defensive Governor Writes Op-Ed For USA Today Aug 17, 2004 6:30 am US/Eastern NEW YORK (AP) Gov. James E. McGreevey, speaking out for the first time since disclosing his homosexuality and an extramarital affair with a man, defended his record as governor and the effective date of his resignation in an op-ed piece that appears on USA Today's Web site. McGreevey refers only generally to the reason for his resignation, calling it personal and a decision that was not easy "but one that was in the best interests of my family and the state that I humbly...

News sources continue to call the action in Israel an "Israeli offensive." Do you feel Israel's actions are chiefly defensive or offensive? Click for poll