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BUNIA, Congo — She's known in the community as a "one-dollar U.N. girl." At night, she sleeps on the cracked pavement outside a storefront. In the mornings, she sashays through the dusty streets, clutching a frayed parasol against the blinding sun. Yvette and her friends are also called kidogo usharatis, Swahili for small prostitutes. They loiter outside the camps of U.N. peacekeepers, hoping to sell their bodies for a mug of milk, a cold soda or — best of all — a single dollar. .....Yvette's story is not uncommon. The United Nations is investigating 150 instances in which 50 peacekeeping...

TORONTO -- Opposition parties introduced a no-confidence motion Thursday that is expected to topple Prime Minister Paul Martin's government and force a parliamentary election campaign during the Christmas holidays. Canada's three opposition party leaders said their members would vote in Parliament on Monday to bring down Martin's minority government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation because of a corruption scandal. Opposition leaders forced the no-confidence vote after Martin rejected their demands to dissolve Parliament in January and hold early elections in February. The widely expected move followed a frantic week in Ottawa,...

ELYRIA -- Former Lorain County commissioner and attorney Michael Ross was arrested yesterday for charges of bribery and corruption while he was in office, as well as allegations he defrauded legal clients. Ross, who now lives in Marietta, Ga., turned himself in to the Lorain County Sheriff's Office after being served yesterday with a Nov. 10 indictment for two counts of theft, seven counts of unlawful interest in a public contract and bribery. Along with the current indictments, Ross was indicted in April 2004 for non-support of dependent. He was not served with that indictment until yesterday, because he has...

Thanksgiving: Thanking God for That Dead, Liberal Church By Matt Friedeman November 21, 2005 (AgapePress) - I thank God for that dead, liberal church. It was theologically and spiritually frustrating then, it is theologically and spiritually frustrating now, and in all likelihood it will be theologically and spiritually frustrating in the future. But that dead, liberal church, with pastor after pastor who was theologically and spiritually disappointing, did this for me: provided a Sunday school class that helped save my dad (and thereafter, my mother); taught me the Apostle's Creed; familiarized me with the awesome hymns of the faith; exposed...

A top editor at the Amsterdam News was arrested on embezzlement charges after the paper's publisher accused him of thievery.........Jamal Watson, executive editor....was arrested Friday and charged with grand larceny........ .......the paper's publisher, Elinor Tatum, did not return a call for comment. But her father—and the former publisher—Wilbert Tatum, defended Watson. "The man hasn't been convicted of anything," the elder Tatum said. "I think he's [a] good [editor]." Watson made headlines in 2001, after a curious incident as a reporter at The Boston Globe. Watson resigned from the paper ........According to the police report, Watson confessed to taking (a reporter's)...

CONTRARY to expectations that he would be giving some prominent people sleepless nights, it would be a more religious, more media-shy Mark Jimenez who will be coming home on Tuesday after nearly two years in a US federal prison, friends said yesterday. "He would like to devote his time to God's words," one of the friends told the Inquirer. But that doesn't mean Jimenez would be all forgiving, the friend indicated. Except Nani "He has said he has already forgiven all those who have crossed him, except Nani," he said, referring to former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez whom Jimenez...

(snip) Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former U.N. ambassador, who holds the title of "ambassador for life," was Annan's senior advisor for European issues when he took $156,000 from Baghdad after deciding to go into business "on my own behalf" — though he now says he regrets having done so. (snip) And news of Merimee's dramatic admission comes as Annan issued a new report on the world body's proposed headquarters renovation in which the cost has soared more that 50 percent — from an initial $1.2 billion to nearly $2 billion, with no end in sight (snip) As the scandal draws closer...

PITTSBURGH -- A remarkable story unfolded in this community this month, with implications far deeper than even the brave principals in the event realized. It was the successful "girlcott" of offensive Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts mounted by a group of young women who showed more character, more intelligence and ultimately more ingenuity than the apparel manufacturer. These protesters, part of the Women's & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania, took their indignation to the public, and before a week was out they took it nationally. It's important to remember that this is not your father's Abercrombie, which created the sort of...

A CBS producer who led the network's coverage of the recent Michael Jackson trial has been marketing a brand of wine under the label "Jesus Juice," complete with a logo of a Christ figure sporting a Jacksonesque red glove, fedora hat, white socks, and penny loafers NewsBusters.org has learned that Bruce Rheins, a high-level producer for such shows as the "CBS Evening News", and his wife, Dawn Westlake, began preparations for their marketing campaign while the Jackson case was still in court, registering a U.S. trademark for the words "Jesus Juice" in January of 2004, days after word got out...

A Zimbabwean minister has said that many of those given land since 2000 know little about farming and this has led to shortages....In a secretly filmed report for the BBC villagers said they had been eating one meal of porridge a day since May. A woman said her two children had died after eating poisionous roots because they were so hungry....

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In a scathing final report documenting massive corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, investigators accused more than 2,200 companies and prominent politicians of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to bilk the humanitarian operation of US$1.8 billion (¤1.5 billion). The 623-page document exposed the global scope of a scam that allegedly involved such name-brand companies as DaimlerChrysler and Siemens AG, as well as a former French U.N. ambassador, a firebrand British politician and the president of Italy's Lombardi region. It meticulously detailed how the US$64 billion (¤52.76 billion) program became a cash cow for Saddam and more...

Last Sunday, former FBI director Louis Freeh told 60 Minutes viewers that he believes President Bill Clinton in essence sold out the family members of the American victims who died in the terrorist attack against Saudi Arabia's Khobar Towers. According to Freeh, during Clinton's talks with Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Clinton was more interested in soliciting contributions for the Clinton Library project than in seeking justice. But apparently Clinton isn't the only one in his former administration who profited from decisions that placed self-interest ahead of national security. It seems as if no day is complete without some Al...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour got a hug. Gov. Kathleen Blanco was lucky to get a hello. The friction between state and federal officials has been brewing for the past few days and bubbled to the surface with President Bush's visit to Baton Rouge on Monday. In fact, Blanco did not learn Bush was coming to Louisiana for the second time in three days until informed by an Advocate reporter late Sunday night. The news prompted Blanco to scrap her plans to visit Houston on Monday with former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, her spokeswoman, Denise Bottcher, said....

THE Volcker inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal called for a significant overhaul of the UN yesterday as it prepared to reveal details of “serious instances of illicit, unethical and corrupt behaviour” at the world body. The three-member committee, led by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, released the preface to a 1,000-page report that is to be presented today to the UN Security Council. “The main conclusions are unambiguous,” the panel declared. “The organisation requires stronger executive leadership, thoroughgoing administrative reform and more reliable controls and auditing.” The five-page preface contained no details of the investigation...

I just caught an interview on CNN of Aaron Broussard, a Democrat who is the President of Jefferson Parish, Lousiana. The essence of his rant was that the federal government in general and FEMA in particular are "covering their butts" by concealing the number of dead. At one point Broussard said, verbatim, that FEMA was trying to hide the fact that they had "murdered" thousands of people through their bureaucratic incompetence. This is how the Democrats will try to exploit this tragedy. A couple sidenotes: given his claim that there was an astronomical number of dead, the CNN interviewer asked...

Judge Recommends Fine for Former Broward Elections Chief The Associated Press Published: Aug 31, 2005 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - An administrative judge recommended that the state fine former Broward County elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant $2,000 because of the botched 2002 primary. Judge Claude Arrington in Tallahassee ruled that Oliphant willfully neglected her duty because dozens of polls did not open on time and closed early in Broward County on the 2002 gubernatorial primary. The state Elections Commission had proposed a $55,000 fine, but Arrington said that was too harsh since she has lost her job and faces financial problems,...

A conservative minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says he and other ELCA pastors are disturbed by the denomination's approval of a new, more gender-neutral hymnal. At its Churchwide Assembly in early August, the ELCA okayed a plan to update the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship by eliminating the "Father" terminology and male pronouns used in reference to God. The hymnal overhaul will include other gender-neutralizing and diversity-affirming changes to traditional Lutheran worship lyrics and liturgies as well. For example, in the Lutheran Creed, God and Jesus will now be referred to as "Holy Eternal Majesty" and "Holy...

The Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club has been duped out of a reported $875,000 meant for poor children and elderly Alzheimer's patients. Evan Montvel-Cohen, the former chairman of the much-hyped liberal radio network Air America, is at the center of the erupting scandal. Air America radio host Al Franken, punctuating his discussion with nervous laughter, called Cohen a "crook" on his show last week and confessed to his left-wing audience that "I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul."

Ex-President Bill Clinton said Monday that he had to assure world leaders that there was nothing seriously wrong with America after the Congress impeached him in 1998. "During that time, a lot of world leaders would ask, 'What is going on? Is this serious?'" he told New York magazine. "I kept assuring them that nothing bad had happened to America," he recalled, "but that we periodically went through spasms." Interviewed while traveling in Africa, the ex-president claimed, "Africans saw [my impeachment] for exactly what it was: an abuse of power." "They got it here," he insisted. The magazine noted that...

A Chattanooga lobbyist has pleaded guilty on federal bribery charges saying he delivered kickbacks to two lawmakers. Charles Love is one of two lobbyists accused of delivering bribes from undercover agents to Senator Ward Crutchfield and Rep. Chris Newton in a sting coined "Tennessee Waltz". Both lawmakers are being charged with bribery and extortion. Prosecutors say Love took money to lawmakers on behalf of E-cycle, which was a fake company the F-B-I set up. Love is the second defendant to plead guilty in the case. Barry Myers told a judge he passed FBI bribes to Sen. Kathryn Bowers and Former...