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AL ASAD, Iraq, Aug. 25, 2006 -- When two sisters from Jefferson, Ga., walked into a Marine Corps recruiting station and decided to join, they had no idea the entire experience of a four-year enlistment would be spent together. Cpls. Leenorta and Renorta Washington are electrical equipment repair specialists with the Utilities Platoon of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and have not been separated once since leaving home for recruit training. “We joined the Delayed Entry Program on the same day,” said Renorta. “We worked to get into the...

Man didn't ask to be like Mike, so he's suing Court - Allen Ray Heckard says his resemblance to Michael Jordan is distressing, and he wants the star and Phil Knight to pay Related Documents (PDF): 1 Saturday, July 08, 2006 HOLLY DANKS HILLSBORO -- Michael Jordan made a bushel of money shooting baskets and pitching Nike products. Allen Ray Heckard, a 51-year-old Northeast Portland man, says he has been told he looks like Jordan. Now he wants some of that fortune for the pain and suffering of having a famous face. Heckard, an airport shuttle driver and auto detailer...

Diet Linked to Twin Births Over the last 30 years, the number of twin births has nearly trebled. This rise seems to have followed the introduction of in vitro fertilization and a preference for having children later in life. But in the mid-1990s, doctors began limiting the number of embryos transferred in the course of in vitro fertilization and still the proportion of twin births rose. Now new research seems to show that bovine growth hormone in the food supply may be responsible. Using data obtained from mothers by way of questionnaire, physician Gary Steinman of the Long Island Jewish...

Minneapolis-St. Paul is a "cosmopolitan gem," according to a new ranking by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. Granted, "the winter weather isn't for wusses," Kiplinger's June issue reports, but the seven-county Twin Cities area has so many good things to brag about: cost of living and housing, quality health care, low crime rate, education, quality of life, cultural amenities, the economy and transportation. St. Paul doesn't get short shrift either in the write-up: The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are mentioned, among other pluses. Minneapolis is described as "progressive and hip, with a Midwestern sensibility."...

Take a walk on the Upper East Side or stop in a TriBeCa park and you may think you're seeing double - that's because the birth rate of twins in those neighborhoods is more than double the city average. With the rising popularity of medical treatments for infertility, the rate of twin births in New York City has reached 3.8%, but from Kips Bay to Yorkville and from Battery Park to about 59th Street on the West Side of Manhattan, the incidence is closer to 8%, according to an analysis by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for...

Terror cells 'plotted devastating twin attack in Australia' By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 09/11/2005) Chilling details of an alleged plot by Islamist radicals to carry out a "catastrophic" terrorist attack in Australia emerged yesterday. Police arrested 17 suspects during dawn raids involving 450 heavily armed policemen backed by helicopters. Authorities alleged that the suspects were members of a terrorist cell committed to "violent jihad" on Australian soil. A bomb disposal officer had to check a suspect package at the Sydney arrest scene Among those detained was a trainee electrician allegedly impatient to carry out a suicide bombing in retaliation...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - The leading candidate for mayor of San Antonio admitted on Thursday using his twin brother as a stand-in at a civic event without telling anyone it was not him.

An 18-year-old woman accused of pretending to be twin 12-year-old boys and simultaneously dating two adolescent girls will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine her competency to stand trial in San Mateo County Superior Court. Lakesia Michelle Mason pleaded not guilty in March to 13 counts of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14 for her alleged relationships with a 13-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl. She denied the special allegations of substantial sexual conduct with a child under the age of 14 and allegations that the offenses were committed in more than one jurisdiction and that...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Twin Towers 'key suspect' breaks cover to email wife in Germany By Massoud Ansari in Karachi and Tony Paterson in Berlin (Filed: 25/07/2004) A key September 11 suspect who disappeared eight days before the attacks on the World Trade Centre has broken his cover by emailing his wife in Germany, prompting Pakistani police to renew their hunt for him. Said Bahaji, 29, a German of Moroccan origin who is alleged to have been the link between the Hamburg al-Qaeda cell - which masterminded the attacks - and Osama bin Laden, is believed to have been hiding in Pakistan and Afghanistan...

<p>PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Scientists working on NASA's twin rover mission to Mars said Friday they are settling in for the long haul, as they ready to dispatch the six-wheeled robots on extended treks that could stretch into the late summer.</p>

SALT LAKE CITY - The woman charged with killing one of her twins by refusing a Caesarean section was convicted of child endangerment in Pittsburgh nearly four years ago, a newspaper reported Saturday. The 2000 conviction of Melissa Rowland stemmed from a supermarket incident in which she punched her daughter several times in the face after the toddler picked up a candy bar and began eating it, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Witnesses said Rowland screamed, "You ate the candy bar and now I can't buy my cigarettes." An Allegheny County, Pa., court sentenced Rowland to five years probation for simple...

One human chimera came to light when a 52-year-old woman demanded an explanation from doctors after tests showed that two of her three grown-up sons were biologically unrelated to her.Although the woman, "Jane", conceived them naturally with her husband, tests to see if she could donate a kidney suggested that somehow she had given birth to somebody else's children.A study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr Margot Kruskall, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that Jane is a chimera, a mixture of two individuals - non-identical twin sisters - whose cells intermingled...

Twin girls, 14, convicted of terror charges A Moroccan juvenile court has convicted 14-year-old twin Moroccan girls on terrorism-related charges and sentenced them to five years in prison. The girls were accused of planning to blow up the alcohol aisle in a supermarket in Rabat, the capital. They confessed their plot to a Muslim religious leader, hoping for his blessing. He turned them in. The twins, who by law can be identified only by their first names, Imane and Sanae, were convicted for "attempted murder and attempted sabotage in relation to a terrorist enterprise." "They are innocent, they are children,"...

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and what followed: Q: How many people died and where? A: At the World Trade Center: 2,645 died on the ground; 87 passengers and crew members died aboard American Airlines Flight 11; 60 passengers and crew members died aboard United Airlines Flight 175. Ten hijackers (five on each plane) also died. At the Pentagon: 125 died in the building; 59 passengers and crew members died aboard American Airlines Flight 77. Five hijackers also died aboard the plane. In Shanksville, Pa.: 40 passengers and crew members died...

The leaseholder of the World Trade Center site is fighting his insurers in a New York appeals court over how much money he can claim after the attack of 11 September 2001. Larry Silverstein says the two aircraft that hijackers flew into the Twin Towers, killing thousands and flattening the iconic buildings, amount to two separate attacks. That would give him $7bn (£4.4bn) instead of the $3.5bn which his insurers - led by Swiss Re and Tavelers Property Casualty Corp - say he is due for what they believe constitutes a single attack. A lower court has already ruled that...

Author's "Truth" More Fancy Than Fact Pablo Wegesend Recently, filmmaker and political satirist Michael Moore has been getting some publicity. His most recent book "Stupid White Men" has been on the New York Times bestseller list for a while and his latest film "Bowling for Columbine" has received great applause at the Cannes Film Festival recently. His earlier works include his book "Downsize This", films "Roger and Me" and "The Big One," and the canceled TV show "TV Nation." Some of you may not be familiar with Moore's work. Michael Moore isn't a mainstream star, but he is a...

Mystery wreck discovered in the Baltic Sea UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 10/8/2002 3:06 PM STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Royal Swedish Navy said Tuesday it has discovered an underwater mystery shipwreck with skulls littering its centuries-old wooden decks. The sailing ship, which marine archaeologists think is more than 200 years old, was found standing upright on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The reason for why it sank is so far an enigma, because its hull and masts remain perfectly intact. "We don't have any clues whatsoever right now on what made...

Lightning strike risk after Twin Towers fall September 03 2002 at 09:11PM New York - Scientists fear lightning will become more dangerous in lower Manhattan without the World Trade Centre, which absorbed lightning with its 120m antenna, a news report said. The 110-storey twin towers, destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11 last year, were the tallest buildings in New York City and one tower was topped by a broadcast antenna. Lightning regularly struck the antenna and was discharged to the ground. - Sapa-DPA

Published TuesdayJune 4, 2002Lapses before Pearl Harbor echoed in buildup to Sept. 11   WASHINGTON (AP) - They said authorities lacked the imagination to foresee the surprise attack. They said vital intelligence never made it to those who might have saved the day. So many clues. Never the right conclusions. When members of Congress' intelligence committees begin joint hearings today to explore why the government did not prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, they will bump into history. In 1946, another House-Senate panel delivered its report on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor five years earlier. It found overlooked intelligence, bosses...