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KABUL (AFP) - Six foreign troops including a Polish national were slain in bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, the forces said, making it the deadliest day for international soldiers in the war-torn nation this year. Meanwhile, the Afghan army said five Afghan troopers and dozens of militants were killed in operations across the country in the last 24 hours. Four of the foreign troops serving in the US-led coalition were killed when insurgents attacked them with an improvised bomb and small arms fire just outside the strategic southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, the force said. "Four coalition service members...

About that 3 AM phone call to President Hillary... "Madam President? This is Agent Black from the First Gentleman's detail...sorry to bother you at 3 AM, ma'am, but your husband's down here at Scores getting private-room lap dances and he's insisting that he's never going back to the Whitehouse. He just won't listen to any of us. ... Sorry, ma'am, I didn't catch that question ... oh, is he high? Well, I wouldn't want to comment on that, ma'am, even though this is a secure line. You understand. ... Well, I suppose we could physically restrain him and carry him...

In his preface to the new 99-page report Dana Gioia, chairman of the endowment, described the data as “simple, consistent and alarming.” Among the findings is that although reading scores among elementary school students have been improving, scores are flat among middle school students and slightly declining among high school seniors. These trends are concurrent with a falloff in daily pleasure reading among young people as they progress from elementary to high school, a drop that appears to continue once they enter college. The data also showed that students who read for fun nearly every day performed better on reading...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's ruling Labour Party under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown is enjoying its biggest ratings lead since the divisive 2003 Iraq war, an opinion poll published Sunday said. Labour is ten points ahead of the main opposition Conservatives, taking it to heights of popularity not recorded by YouGov since November 2002, according to their poll for the Sunday Times. Many commentators say Iraq soured the final years of Tony Blair's premiership and, since taking over on June 27, Brown has seemed much cooler on the issue, appointing some anti-war ministers including former UN deputy secretary general Mark...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - At least 150 Palestinians fled a northern refugee camp Wednesday in anticipation of an assault by the Lebanese army battling Islamic militants holed up inside. Most of the refugees left with the help of the Palestinian Red Crescent, said Samar Kadi, an International Committee of the Red Cross communications officer. Those fleeing arrived on foot at the southern entrance of the Nahr el-Bared camp. They were searched by soldiers at a Lebanese army checkpoint and then climbed into vehicles sent by the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Lebanese army held many of them for interrogation, Kadi said. Witnesses...

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces killed scores of Taliban insurgents and detained five others in Afghanistan over the past two days, military officials said. During an operation today in the Andar district of Ghazni province, coalition forces detained five militants. Credible intelligence led the forces to two compounds where militant activity was allegedly occurring, military officials said. Troops found AK-47 assault rifles, combat vests and grenades while searching the compounds. They confiscated these items and destroyed the weapons a safe distance away. “Coalition forces will continue to root out militants whose activities threaten the peace and...

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2007 – Coalition forces nabbed more than 50 suspects and dismantled a bomb factory in Iraq over the past few days. During operations today, coalition forces northwest of Taji detained seven suspects with reported ties to foreign-fighter facilitation. In Ramadi, troops nabbed four other suspects with alleged ties to al Qaeda. Early this morning in Mosul, coalition forces captured a former paramilitary leader who allegedly is responsible for setting up al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Iraq and Syria, military officials said. Coalition forces discovered a large car-bomb factory during operations in northern Baghdad today. The...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2006 -- Coalition and Iraqi forces have detained scores of suspected terrorists, freed hostages and seized a major weapons cache in operations over the last few days, military officials reported. Soldiers from 4th “Eagle” Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and U.S. advisors from 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd “Commando” Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, detained 45 suspects during a combat operation yesterday in Lutufiyah, Iraq. The brigade-size operation, Operation Silver Eagle, targeted people implicated in various crimes, terrorist activities and murders, officials said. The Iraqi army is holding the suspects are for questioning....

EVERMAN, Texas — A high school principal has left her position two weeks after singling out black students' poor test scores over the school's intercom system. The Everman Independent School District announced Kathy Culbertson's departure in a Tuesday statement. It said her comments had overshadowed district achievements. During an address on the first day of classes at Everman High School, Culbertson said black students who failed math on the state's accountability test had caused the high school to be rated unacceptable. The remarks set off a racially charged debate at the suburban Fort Worth campus, which is about 59 percent...

Everman Principal Leaves Following Remarks EVERMAN – The Everman High School principal who highlighted black students’ poor math scores over the school intercom has stepped down. The decision was announced Tuesday afternoon after Superintendent Jeri Pfeifer met with faculty and school board members. A written statement released by the district said Kathy Culbertson’s comments on the first day of school have overshadowed other district achievements and put the high school at the center of attention for the last two weeks. “Neither the district nor Ms. Culbertson believes in the isolation of any student group or that students are solely to...

Scores dead as huge tsunami slams into Java By Marianne Kearney in Jakarta and Sebastien Berger (Filed: 18/07/2006) An undersea earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into the Indonesian island of Java yesterday, killing at least 86 people and flattening homes and beach huts in resorts and villages along its south coast. An Indonesian survivor searches for his relatives among 41 bodies at Pangandaran health centre in West Java Scores more people were missing last night and the toll was expected to rise after areas of the densely-populated shore were destroyed by waves several yards high. Thousands fled to higher ground...

Connecticut rule penalizes a coach if his/her team plays too well!

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – Servicemembers' children had a chance to shoot hoops with some of the nation's top basketball stars at the Pentagon Athletic Center today. USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski (right) presents a USA Basketball jersey to Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. during the "Hoops for Troops" program at the Pentagon Athletic Center April 6. Photo by Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. USA Basketball, the governing body for U.S. men's and women's basketball, came to the Pentagon to join the "America Supports...

March 13, 2006 BAQUBAH, Iraq (Army News Service, March 13, 2006) – More than 50 insurgents were apprehended and 37 weapons caches were seized during raids by Iraqi and U.S. troops throughout Central Iraq March 3-12. 20 insurgents detained in raid 20 suspects were detained and a huge cache was discovered when Iraqi army and Coalition forces conducted a joint raid on a suspected anti-Iraqi forces’ hideout in Baqubah, March 10. Soldiers from the 2nd and 4th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division working with Coalition troops captured the suspected AIF safehouse. The cache contained: • 15 155mm rounds...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2006 – Scores of Iraqis have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks in the Baghdad area over the last two days, military officials reported. Last night, three blasts reportedly exploded in various parts of the Sadr City neighborhood, killing 52 residents and wounding 78, according to Iraqi police reports. More than 10 military ambulances responded, along with Iraqi soldiers who assisted in assessing the situation, securing the area and transporting the wounded to medical treatment facilities. The soldiers also helped provide traffic control around the stricken area. "Iraqi security forces showed great compassion responding to this...

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - State and local wildlife experts are trying to figure out what led more than a thousand flounder, spot and pin fish to beach themselves at the Marine Corps' New River air base — and then swim away. They believe it may be related to a popular phenomenon known in coastal Alabama as "jubilee." The fish surfaced in shallow water Friday morning. They were lethargic, but alive. "It's kind of strange," said Mike Sanderford, New River Riverkeeper. "It's a bunch of fish up here, but they're not dead. They're almost docile." When he arrived, Sanderford said, the fish...

Scores of Sassanid seals discovered at Takht-e Soleiman Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- A team of archaeologists recently unearthed over 1300 clay seals in a storage room at the Sassanid site of Takht-e Soleiman in West Azarbaijan Province, the Persian service of the Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency reported on Sunday. “The seals will shed light on the administrative, legal, trade, and economic systems of the Sassanid dynasty,” the director of the archaeological team, Yusef Moradi, said. “In addition, the seals will be helpful in the identification of Sassanid era cities, most of which are still unidentified, because the...

IT'S happened again. Another innocent man who just wanted a few lap dances claims to have been victimized by an exclusive New York strip club, Scores. This time it's an executive from Missouri named Robert McCormick, who, treating himself and friends, ran up a $241,000 bill at Scores on his corporate American Express card two years ago. American Express is now suing him for refusing to pay up. Several other unhappy customers have also sued Scores over large bills.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Savvis Communications said on Monday it had placed its chief executive on unpaid leave and will launch an internal probe related to a credit card company lawsuit alleging he was two years late in paying $241,000 in charges at a Manhattan strip club. The telecommunications carrier said Robert McCormick was placed on unpaid leave effective Monday, pending the outcome of the investigation. Jack Finlayson, president and chief operating officer, has been appointed acting CEO. The lawsuit, brought by American Express against McCormick and Savvis last week, charges that the two were late in paying charges rung...

WASHINGTON - The United States' image is so tattered overseas two years after the Iraq invasion that China, which is ruled by a communist dictatorship, is viewed more favorably than the U.S. in many countries, an international poll found. The poor image persists even though the Bush administration has been promoting freedom and democracy throughout the world in recent months and has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in relief aid to Indian Ocean nations hit by the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami. "It's amazing when you see the European public rating the United States so poorly, especially in comparison with...