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A 41-year-old man drowned Wednesday after getting stuck in a storm sewer trying to retrieve a cell phone, police said. The man weighed more that 300 pounds and was wedged with his head and shoulders underwater in a vertical storm drain in front of his home, said police Lt. Tim Eirich. The man's identity was not released pending notification of relatives. Neighbor Chris Van Erem said he saw the man kneeling over the sewer before he fell in. Police said the man pulled the iron gate off trying to get the cell phone. Then, a child from the neighborhood ran...

The U.S. military executed a strike against a suspected Al Qaeda target from a Naval warship off the coast of Somalia Friday, a U.S. official confirmed to FOX News.

Sen. John McCain, who officially announced his bid for the 2008 White House Wednesday, stopped by "Good Morning America" to talk about his campaign and ended up defending himself about a joke. The Arizona Republican said that people upset by his comments about IEDs to Jon Stewart on Tuesday night's "Daily Show" should "lighten up." After being grilled by Stewart , McCain jokingly told him that he had a present for him -- an IED that he could place under his desk. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., was furious and publicly assailed McCain on the House floor. "Imagine a presidential candidate...

Ex-Miss America shoots thief's tires 82-year-old wielded snub-nosed .38: 'He was probably wetting his pants' Posted: April 20, 2007 2:18 p.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Venus Ramey (Photo: MissAmerica.org) Tough isn't a word necessarily associated with Miss America, but three thieves arrested after their truck tires were shot out by 82-year-old Venus Ramey might beg to differ. Ramey, who won the elite beauty crown in 1944, confronted one of the three robbers on her farm in Waynesburg, Ky., about 140 miles south of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. "He was probably wetting his pants," said Ramey, who balanced on her...

By Jim Loney MIAMI (Reuters) - Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday. The study, to be published on Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, found that climate model simulations show a "robust increase" in wind shear in the tropical Atlantic during the 21st century from global warming. Wind shear, a difference in wind speed or direction at different altitudes, tends to tear apart tropical cyclones, preventing nascent ones from growing and already-formed hurricanes from becoming the monster storms...

Breast implants saves woman after Hezbollah attack Tue Aug 15, 8:07 AM ET JERUSALEM (AFP) - One Israeli woman has received an unexpected boost from her breast implants during the Lebanon war -- the silicone embeds saved her life during a Hezbollah rocket attack, a doctor said. "This is an extraordinary case, but it's a fact that the silicone implants prevented her from a more serious and deeper wound," Jacky Govrin, of the hospital in Nahariya that treated the woman, told army radio Tuesday. "The young woman went through surgery two years ago to have a larger chest," he said....

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build inbackdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned." "One source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007."

Somali Muslims who fail to perform daily prayers will be killed in accordance with Koranic law under an edict issued by a leading cleric. The requirement for Muslims to pray five times a day under penalty of death appears to confirm the hard-line nature of the increasingly powerful Sharia courts in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia. "Sharia law orders the killing of any Muslim person...

The American army in Iraq suffered a fresh blow to its image today as it emerged that five soldiers were being investigated for allegedly raping a woman and then murdering her and three members of her family. The soldiers are accused of burning their alleged victim's body, according to sources quoted by the AP news agency. Major General James Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, has ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of the family of four in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, in March. "The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening. We’re...

Mr. Bill Keller, Managing Editor The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Dear Mr. Keller: The New York Times' decision to disclose the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, a robust and classified effort to map terrorist networks through the use of financial data, was irresponsible and harmful to the security of Americans and freedom-loving people worldwide. In choosing to expose this program, despite repeated pleas from high-level officials on both sides of the aisle, including myself, the Times undermined a highly successful counter-terrorism program and alerted terrorists to the methods and sources used to track their...

pdate: The Steelers have confirmed that Ben Roethlisberger was involved in a motorcycle accident on Monday, KDKA-TV reports. Update: Reports from the scene seem to indicate that the accident was serious. According to an eyewitness, Roethlisberger went over his handle bars and hit his head on the windshield of a car. He was not wearing a helmet. The eyewitness reports that Roethlisberger tried to get up, but was bleeding from the head. We'll update the situation as further details become available.

He died after ‘he mumbled something,’ military spokesman says WASHINGTON - A mortally wounded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, still alive after a U.S. airstrike on his hideout, mumbled briefly and attempted to “turn away off the stretcher” he had been placed on by Iraqi police, the U.S. military said Friday. U.S. officials had said Thursday in announcing the attack that Zarqawi was dead when U.S. troops arrived on the scene. Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, briefing military reporters at the Pentagon from his post in Baghdad, said he learned after getting briefings Friday that Zarqawi was alive when Iraqi police first arrived...

A former Marine who police say killed a woman that attacked him during a gang robbery attempt told reporters Tuesday he acted only to save his life. "My first instinct was to run," said former Cpl. Thomas Autry, 36. "Those kids were younger than me. They caught me and cornered me. It was about life preservation." "I'm sorry this whole thing happened. I hate this world has gotten to the point where it is predatory," said a shaken Autry. The pack of would-be robbers, including a 17-year-old woman, might have mistaken the tall, thin, waiter for an easy mark, said...

Former Senator and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, a courtly Texan who as the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 1988 famously told rival Dan Quayle he was "no Jack Kennedy," died Tuesday. He was 85.

LONDON - Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills McCartney, said Wednesday that they are separating after nearly four years of marriage, blaming intrusion from the media and insisting their split is amicable. Rumors of a rift between Mills McCartney and the singer's children — especially Stella McCartney — have circulated for years. Talk centered around the idea that Mills McCartney — who is nearly half his age — wanted to devote more time to campaigning against land mines and fur. "Having tried exceptionally hard to make our relationship work given the daily pressures surrounding us, it...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., of Charlotte and six other members of the Congressional Black Caucus were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy on Tuesday while protesting the killing and starvation that continues in that African country's Darfur region. "We will not tolerate genocide," said caucus chairman Watt. "We are saying to Sudan: `This has to stop.' " The protesters' plan was to get arrested, Watt told the Observer, and they alerted Capitol Police beforehand that they would block the embassy entrance. Watt said the group was advised to stay off the sidewalk -- the jurisdiction of the District of...

BOULDER, Colo. - An investigation of a professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi found serious cases of misconduct in his academic research, a University of Colorado spokesman said Tuesday. One member of the five-person investigative committee recommended that ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill be fired, and four recommended he be suspended, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said. Churchill has denied doing anything wrong. He said earlier Tuesday that he had yet to see the report. University officials had earlier determined Churchill could not be fired for his comments about the terrorist attacks, but they launched an inquiry...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), a potential anti-war candidate in the 2008 presidential field, urged fellow Democrats on Monday to show more backbone in challenging President Bush on Iraq. "We must get out of our political foxholes and be willing to clearly and specifically point out what a strategic error the Iraq invasion has been," Feingold, D-Wis., told a National Press Club audience. He said some Democrats in Congress gave in to "intimidation" by the Bush administration when they voted to authorize the war in 2002, and warned: "If we do not show both a practical...

"It's encouraging to see not just the number but the sales and receipts of black-owned businesses are growing at such a robust rate, confirming that these firms are among the fastest growing segments of our economy," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. Slated for release today, the report also shows a significant if not quite as dramatic increase in local black business ownership. It found 4,363 black-owned firms in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area as of 2002, up 38.8 percent from 3,142 in 1997. Revenue figures for the metro area, which includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties,...

U.S. to Contract Hong Kong Firm to Help Scan for Nuclear Materials Passing From Bahamas to U.S.WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of Americans' favorite beach destinations, the Bahamas, is getting a new U.S. arrival -- sophisticated equipment to detect radioactive materials in shipping cargo. But U.S. customs agents won't be on site to supervise the machine's use as a nuclear safeguard for the American shoreline that is just 65 miles away from Freeport. Under an unusual arrangement, a Hong Kong company will help operate the detector. The Bush administration says it is finalizing a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It...