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SALTILLO, Mexico – Gabby and Ana are in love. So are Marco Antonio and Juan Carlos. Under a sweeping new law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions, they are planning to turn their love into a legal commitment. Legislators in the dusty northern border state of Coahuila have stunned Mexico by giving same-sex couples property and inheritance rights long reserved for married heterosexuals. It is a first for this predominantly Roman Catholic country, a measure so swift and so bold that it surprised even the gay community. All of a sudden, gay rights are on the national agenda. Since...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - U.S. contingency planning for military action against Iran's nuclear program goes beyond limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war against the country, a former U.S. intelligence analyst said on Friday. "I've seen some of the planning ... You're not talking about a surgical strike," said Wayne White, who was a top Middle East analyst for the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research until March 2005. "You're talking about a war against Iran" that likely would destabilize the Middle East for years, White told the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington think...

Darrell Brooks was busted in March 2007 for calling in a bomb threat to the $43-per-night Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada, ... He was put on probation after being convicted of conspiring to disturb the peace - a gross misdemeanor - and was banned from the casino for life.. His rap sheet also includes a conviction for statutory sexual seduction – the term for sex with a minor aged 16 or under in Nevada law - in January 2007.. Brooks was also charged with failing to inform the police of a change of address while a registered sex offender.....

Gruesome photographs of dead Iraqis, allegedly killed by US Marines in Haditha, will soon be made public. That is, if the leaks keep coming and the anti-war crowd has its way.The photos were given to the Washington Post by the enemy within. An unnamed "defense official". He or she gave the Post the entire Naval Criminal Investigation Service report into the incident at Haditha.On January 7, the Post published, Marines' Photos Provide Graphis Evidence in Haditha Probe. "Among the images," according to the article, "there is a young boy with a picture of a helicopter on his pajamas, slumped over,...

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - The two dozen FBI agents who swarmed Park City Mountain Resort weren't busting anybody Friday. They weren't even armed - unless you count the sharp ends of ski poles. With the temperature near zero, agents hit the slopes - some on challenging runs, others on bunny hills - in an unusual drive to publicize the FBI and perhaps attract a few recruits. Many skiers and Park City regulars were perplexed or even a bit unnerved. Some thought the whole effort was nutty. Jokes were flying about agents skiing on the public dime, but nobody seemed...

One night in January of 2007, American Special Operations commandos tracked a notorious adversary driving in a convoy from Iran into northern Iraq: Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander. But the Americans held their fire, and Soleimani slipped away into the darkness.

No matter where in the Body of Christ you happen to find yourself, every now and then your church's leadership will go Episcopalian on you: Terry McAuliffe, unapologetic defender of partial birth abortion, is about to be honored for his selfless devotion to and efforts on behalf of the Catholic Faith by being admitted to the Knights of Malta. Once again, those laboring in the trenches to uphold the Gospel are about to take a shiv between the shoulderblades. Once again, the unfaithful get front row seats while the laborers in the vineyard are told to shut up. This is...

OAXACA, Mexico — Gunmen shot dead a local leader of Mexico's largest leftist party in the southern state of Oaxaca where at least nine people were killed in political violence last year, police said today. Democratic Revolution Party official Fructuoso Pedro Garcia was shot with nine bullets in the main square of Santo Domingo Morelos, a seaside town about 150 miles south of Oaxaca's colonial state capital, said state police commander Alberto Guzman. The killing occurred last Wednesday, three days after Garcia announced he would run for mayor of Santo Domingo Morelos. Guzman said the killing appeared to be for...

U.S. slaps sanctions on Iranian bank over missile programs (Kyodo) _ The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has cut off Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah from access to the U.S. financial system for its alleged support for developing missiles. The sanctions, issued under a presidential executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, prohibit the bank's any transactions in the United States and freeze any assets it may have under U.S. jurisdiction. "Bank Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable...

Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill., died after he was wounded during a nighttime raid on an al-Qaeda-held village in southwestern Yemen on Saturday.

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer NORTH COUNTY ---- Marine Corps officials confirmed Friday that Lt. Gen. James Mattis has called for an investigation into who leaked documents recently from a massive investigation of the 2005 deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq. An attorney representing one of eight Camp Pendleton Marines charged in connection with the incident said Friday it was essential Mattis order the probe given the notoriety caused by a Jan. 6 Washington Post article. The newspaper cited interviews with eyewitnesses who allege four of the Marines had gunned down five men. "A lot of...

HAVANA(Reuters)-Philip Agee, a former CIA spy who exposed its undercover operations in Latin America in a 1975 book, died in Havana, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said on Wednesday.Agee, 72, died on Monday night, the newspaper said, calling him a "loyal friend of Cuba and staunch defender of the people's struggle for a better world.".His widow, German ballet dancer Giselle Roberge, told friends he had been in hospital since December 15 and did not survive surgery for perforated ulcers.Agee worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 12 years in Washington, Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico. He resigned in 1968 in...

Like some secretive, sinister army they march on their target. With only eyes visible behind black burkhas, scores of women wielding bamboo poles descend on a police checkpoint in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad. Backed by armed male students, they snatched weapons and took four officials hostage, triggering a gun battle that left at least nine people dead and 140 wounded. As the bullets flew, many of the women took to rooftops to shout anti- Government slogans. Students set fire to two government offices and torched dozens of cars outside. There were even loudspeaker calls for suicide attacks on the...

<p>WASHINGTON - An order from President Bush authorized a series of U.S. raids against Iranians in Iraq as part of a broad military offensive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.</p> <p>Bush issued the order several months ago, Rice told The New York Times as she prepared to visit the Middle East. She said the president acted "after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity" among Iranians in Iraq "and increasing lethality in what they were producing."</p>

Tehran, 17 Jan. (AKI) - One of the five Iranians arrested last week by the US army in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil is wanted in Austria in connection with the assassination of Kurdish leader Andol Rahman Ghassemlu in 1989. Mahommad Jaafari Sharoudi was one of five Iranian officials detained last week in the Kurdish-controlled city on charges of being connected to a faction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Pasdaran, that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq. Abdol Rahman Ghassemlu, the historic leader of Iranian Kurds, was killed in an apartment in the outskirts of the Austrian capital...

Former WH communications director attacks GOP as intolerant over Ground Zero mosque ### Former White House communications director Anita Dunn on Tuesday launched a furious attack against Republicans who have criticized President Obama’s remarks on the Ground Zero mosque, labeling the GOP as the party of intolerance. “The Republican party as solidifying its reputation for intolerance in this year, for almost any kind of difference in American society, is going down a very dangerous long term road,” Dunn said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “They might see some short term things although I think the American people are better than that,”...

I ended the war in Iraq” is now a standard claim by President Obama. He makes the assertion in every debate and public appearance. The claim is wrong. It’s phony, and it’s made by a politician who tried relentlessly to block America’s most successful strategic operation of the war: the “surge.” On Feb. 5, 2007, and a few weeks later on Feb. 17, Sen. Obama voted against the surge. Among military analysts and historians, the surge of 20,000 additional troops into Iraq during the spring of 2007 is credited with reducing attacks on American troops and sectarian violence by 70...

TEHRAN, Iran — Five Iranian officials who were held in Iraq for more than two years by U.S. forces on suspicion of aiding local Shiite militants returned to Iran Sunday, where the Iranian foreign minister hailed their return as a victory for Iran. The five diplomats flew to Tehran from Iraq on Sunday and were met at the airport by a cheering crowd of onlookers who carried the men on their shoulders and put garlands of flowers around their necks. Iran's Foreign Minster Manouchehr Mottaki in a news conference with the men that was carried by Iran's Press-TV minutes after...

U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan (L) hugs Zohra Zewahi, mother of the Guantanamo detainee Omar Deghayes, during a news conference in Havana January 9, 2007. Sheehan and other activists are in Cuba and plan to march to the gates of the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba on January 11, to demand the closure of the base. Read the details about Omar Deghayes and his family at Sweetness & Light...

Congressman told FBI he asked for -- and got -- free home upgrades ### Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Gutierrez's comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase. "I walked in with my wife -- as any other consumer could have -- and purchased the unit at the listed price, with no considerations," the Northwest Side congressman said then,...