Free Republic

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has overtaken US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the world's most powerful woman, according to a Forbes Magazine list published today. This time last year, Germany's first female chancellor was riding high in opinion polls as leader of the then-opposition conservative Christian Union but did not even feature in the ranks of Forbes's top 100 most powerful women. And besides Chinese Vice President Wu Yi, who slid one place this year to number three, the rest of the top 10 are business executives, topped by the chief executive-designate of PepsiCo, Indian born and educated Indra...

HONOLULU - Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii's state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned. The news shook the world of Rep. Blake Oshiro, who found out the designation was no longer official from Joel Itomura, a 6-year-old fish-loving son of a friend and constituent. "I was really surprised," said Oshiro, who has drawn up a bill that would make humuhumunukunukuapuaa _ also known as the rectangular triggerfish or "humuhumu" for short _ the official state fish for the islands. The stubby-nosed, brightly striped and slightly aggressive little fish...

Few senators, past or present, have made their presence felt as often as former Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, the first black woman ever elected to the Senate who now wants to become the nation's first black - and female - president. After one term on Capitol Hill, the 55-year-old Moseley-Braun was dethroned amid charges of campaign-finance irregularities and an unsanctioned visit to Africa. (After one door closed for the defeated lawmaker, another soon opened, as President Clinton named her ambassador to New Zealand.) Now the former senator from Illinois has informed the Democratic National Committee that she intends to return...