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U.S. Links Charity to Chechen RebelsBy Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer The head of a U.S.-based Islamic charity who is suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden is in jail facing a grand jury investigation after the FBI showed he had lied about his support for Chechen rebels. Federal officials accused Enaam Arnaout, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen, and his Benevolence International Foundation of perjury last month for claiming they did not provide support to "people or organizations known to engage in violence, terrorist activities or military operations of any nature." Arnaout, 39, was arrested April 30. He had been under...

When reading the White House deficit commission's report, one gets the sense that authors Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles are tired of wrestling with 900-pound gorillas, of fiscal problems so Brobdingnagian that the wise course among America's political elite has been to pretend they do not exist. But the bipartisan pair cannot quite bring themselves to say what now needs saying: that for our sake, these gorillas must die. Simpson and Bowles offer several worthy ideas for attacking the debt and entitlement problems plaguing the United States. Acknowledging that "federal health care spending represents our single largest fiscal challenge over...

A bizarre report of Taliban insurgents training monkeys and baboons to shoot at U.S. and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan seems unrealistic at best, according to an expert. The story that appeared this month in the Chinese People's Daily suggested that insurgents used a reward-and-punishment system to train macaques and baboons to target soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms. The Taliban supposedly "taught monkeys how to use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars," the People's Daily wrote.

Birthday boy goes off his rocker 29nov04 IT was like any other fifth birthday party on a Sunday afternoon. The birthday boy scoffed his sweets - then got into a blue with his brother over toys. Melbourne Zoo star attraction Yakini turned five yesterday and the young western lowland gorilla received a plastic rocker to mark the occasion. But he wasn't about to share it with his brother, Ganyeka. It took a bit of gorilla warfare to sort it out, but Yakini was soon happily playing solo with his new toy. With his family looking on, including his 190kg dad...

Officer Darrell Shaw approached a bar on hip-hop music night with the gorilla on his grille, but he says it wasn't a racist act Patrons in the mostly African American crowd at Ringlers Pub's Mello Monday show last week found the action offensive and racist. Some used their cell phones to take photos of the police cruiser with the animal attached. "I think everyone was kind of shocked," said Clyde Fulkerson, Ringlers manager. "It's just another stupid incident. It's either a real ignorant, insensitive policeman or an insensitive, racist policeman." When Foxworth learned of the incident through media reports Saturday,...