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(CNN) – Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, is making it known he's not happy with President Obama's recent meddling in the state's 2010 gubernatorial race. "The whole thing to me was not presidential," Rangel told the New York Daily News over the weekend. "It wasn't good for the president, and it wasn't good for the governor." The comments came a week after the New York Times reported that administration officials had asked New York Rep. Gregory Meeks to convey to embattled Gov. David Paterson that Obama would prefer he not run for re-election next year.

The White House on Monday fired back after former Vice President Dick Cheney called the Obama administration's decision to open a probe into alleged CIA abuses an "outrageous political act." White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs broadly dismissed Cheney's comments on "FOX News Sunday" as typical and unfounded.

A Swedish newspaper provoked outrage in Israel and drew condemnation from Sweden's ambassador on Wednesday after it ran a story on transplant organ theft, a report an Israeli official branded anti-Semitic "hate porn". The editor of Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest daily newspaper, hit back hard, at both Israel and at the Swedish envoy for attacking his paper's coverage.

I'm in the midst of my first bout with sciatica and would enjoy hearing from any Freepers that have been through it and have some home remedy tips. A bit of background...I've suffered broken bones, had plates and screws and even a bone graft, but the pain from the sciatica matches any of that. It travels across my right buttock, down my thigh, encircles my knees and deadens my leg from the knee down. I can't lie on my back, sitting is difficult. Lying on my left side provides the best relief. The doctor prescribed prednisone for inflammation, tiazidine as...

It's Ilham Anas, an Indonesian magazine photographer who bears a striking resemblance to the president-elect. The 34-year-old is now collecting paychecks as an Obama look-alike. "At first my nose and eyes made me self-conscious, but now I think they are God's blessing," Ilham Anas told the Associated Press. Like Obama, Anas is of American and Kenyan descent. His new life as an Obama double started after the November 2008 election. "My colleagues played a practical joke on me -- they made me wear a suit, a tie, and took pictures of me posing as Obama," Anas told Reuters. ... Now,...

Republican John McCain boldly declared "Mac is Back" as he predicted victory in his election race with Democrat Barack Obama at a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The fired-up 72-year-old Arizona senator, who is trailing Senator Obama in polls, renewed his attacks on his opponent's patriotism and tax plans in a rally before several hundred supporters crammed into a school gymnasium. "I've been in a lot of campaigns, I know when momentum is there. We're going to win Pennsylvania, we're going to win this election," Senator McCain said. "I sense it, I feel it, I know it. "I...

(IsraelNN.com) The king of Bahrain, King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, called this week for the Jews who emigrated from the Gulf nation to return. Natan Aloof, one of the veteran immigrants to Israel from Bahrain, responds to the royal call. Last week, King Al-Khalifa and Bahraini Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa met in London with a group of expatriate Bahraini Jews who currently live in the United Kingdom. The meeting was highly unusual for an Arab monarch, although, in May of this year, King Al-Khalifa became the only Arab ruler to appoint a Jewish woman as an...

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OZARK, Mo. -- A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery. “We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith. Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before...

A spinal surgeon in Aurora, Colo., recently performed what's being called the first disc surgery in the United States using adult stem cells to help repair a man's injured lower back. "Stem cells have shown great promise over the past three years for treating back pain," Dr. Jeffrey Kleiner said. "In combination with the diskectomy, we hope to offer patients long-term relief from their back pain and to decrease their risk of needing additional surgeries." Adult stem cells have been injected into patients' backs and joints to promote tissue growth, but this is the first time stem cells have been...

Putting the clock back 10,000 years 02/02/2008 12:29:48 AM EST WESTERN DAILY PRESS Chock-full of famous Roman Baths, Celtic kings, Georgian crescents and Jane Austen, the history of Bath already ran to quite a weighty tome. But archaeologists admitted yesterday that two new chapters would have to be written after amazing discoveries made while a new sewer was being dug. At the very depths of the site of a new GBP350 million shopping centre in the heart of the ancient city, archaeologists found new evidence that extends the history of the city thousands of years further back. The archaeologists found...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – A Maryland-based group is out to show severely wounded servicemembers they’ve still got game through the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project. Jason Beakes holds a prosthetic leg for Army Sgt. Brandon Huff at the end of the day’s runs at Dickerson Whitewater Course, in Dickerson, Md., March 12, 2005. Beakes, a champion whitewater kayaker, volunteers with Team River Runner, teaching kayaking to disabled veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Photo by Neil Hermansdorfer  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The idea for the program is to … get these guys active as soon...

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2007 – For one Connecticut troop-support group, it’s all about giving back to those who sacrifice so much for their country and making sure servicemembers know those at home care. Servicemembers enjoy their Hawaiian luau compliments of Give2TheTroops. The organization sends care packages and letters to troops serving in combat zones around the world, and makes every effort to fulfill special requests, such as the luau. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In fulfilling its mission, “Give2TheTroops” works to support the physical, moral and spiritual well-being of servicemembers deployed to combat zones around the...

US President George W Bush said today a lot of tensions exist between the West and Russia and voiced scepticism about Russia's path to democracy under President Vladimir Putin. "My message to Vladimir Putin is there's a better way forward, and your interests lie in the West, and we ought to be working together in a collaborative way," Mr Bush said. Mr Putin came close to comparing the United States to the Third Reich recently and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to cool the harsh rhetoric in a visit to Moscow.

Ahmed Abdul-Azal (right), an Iraqi national policeman, pounds a new steel post into the ground for concertina wire around Checkpoint 34, an outpost on a major Iraqi highway known as Route Tampa, during reconstruction efforts Feb. 26 after the checkpoint was heavily damaged by a coordinated attack by terrorists two days before. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chris McCann CAMP STRIKER -- A savage attack on an Iraqi National Police checkpoint on the Iraqi highway known as Route Tampa that left eight policemen dead and wounded several others on Feb. 23 left scars on buildings and Iraqis alike, but did...

Any Radiologists online? Can you read an MRI?

Outback cracks under assault of the Big Dry Five years of drought have left Australian land parched and towns on the verge of economic ruin Phil Mercer in Sydney Sunday December 10, 2006 The Observer (UK) A farmer moves his sheep in search of food in drought-stricken New South Wales, Australia. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters Drought has plunged one of Australia's most famous outback towns to the brink of social and economic collapse. Bourke - heralded as the 'Real Gateway to the Outback' - faces oblivion. Five years of drought has left Bourke facing its worst crisis. Little wonder Australians are...

I may have a blown disk, my L5, sciatic nerve pain is phenominal.

Defying the age-old advice of parents and teachers, a new study shows that you're better off sitting back than sitting up. An Alberta researcher has found that while seated, with feet flat on the ground, leaning back to create a 135-degree angle between the thighs and trunk is much less straining on the spine and will not lead to the potentially chronic back pain associated with sitting in an upright position for extended periods of time. "Up until now it's always been, 'Mum knows best,' and so you sit up straight," said Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher in radiology and...

People with ruptured disks in their lower backs usually recover whether or not they have surgery, researchers are reporting today. The study, a large trial, found that surgery appeared to relieve pain more quickly but that most people recovered eventually and that there was no harm in waiting. And that, surgeons said, is likely to change medical practice. The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the only large and well-designed trial to compare surgery for sciatica with waiting. The study was controversial from the start, with many surgeons saying they knew that the operation worked...

Britain to US: we don't want Guantánamo nine back · Documents reveal secret talks in Washington· British residents have no right to return say officials Ian Cobain and Vikram Dodd Tuesday October 3, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The United States has offered to return nearly all British residents held at Guantánamo Bay after months of secret talks in Washington, the Guardian has learned. The British government has refused to accept the men, however, with senior officials saying they have no legal right to return. Documents obtained by the Guardian show US authorities are demanding that the detainees be kept under...

Austrian voters veer back to far-Right By Michael Leidig in Vienna (Filed: 02/10/2006) Austrian voters swung back to the far-Right in elections yesterday with the Freedom Party and a splinter group led by Jorg Haider, the populist hardliner, gaining more than 15 per cent of the vote. Chancellor Schussel: preliminary results looked to have swung to the far-Right and left his party in second place But in the preliminary results, the centre-Left Social Democrats looked to have just edged ahead of the conservative Chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel, and his OeVP party. A grand coalition between the two leading parties is a...

USC should forfeit the 2004 national crown after reports that Reggie Bush and his family appear to have accepted financial benefits from prospective agents. LOS ANGELES – The would-be agents who provided the house, the money for the tricked-out car, the luxury hotel rooms and the tens of thousands in cash used to roll right into the Southern California locker room after the game, right past security, to meet and greet the triumphant Trojans. The marketing agent who provided the cash allowance, the plane flights, the limo rides and the designer suits used to hang around Trojan practices, filed paperwork...

Actress Penelope Cruz plays with her hair while being interviewed on the red carpet as she arrives for the gala screening of her new film 'Volver' during the 31st Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, September 8, 2006. The festival runs from September 7 until the 16. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters) Penelope Cruz says that when she finished six months of work on "Volver," the new movie directed by Spain's Pedro Almodovar, she was so wrapped up in her character that she faced an emotional crisis. "I couldn't leave the set. I didn't want to take my false ass off. There...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- When José Rojas went to pull a badly burned woman from a Pentagon window after Islamic extremists drove a commercial airliner headlong into the building, her skin came off in his hands. “I had to actually take my fingernails and dig into her flesh with her crying and screaming to get her out of the window,” Rojas said, describing his efforts to help the victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Rojas, 43, a police officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the successor of the Defense Protective Service, was...

MARSEILLE, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy appeared almost certain to lead the right into next year's presidential election, after a triumphant party congress which concluded Sunday in Marseille with a blistering attack on the "generation of May 1968". Speaking before 7,000 young members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy, 51, said modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work". "(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in...

Analysis: Iran Won't Back Down From U.N. Wednesday August 30, 2006 11:16 PM By LEE KEATH Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Iran isn't blinking in the face of Thursday's U.N. deadline for it to halt uranium enrichment or else finally face the possibility of sanctions the United States has sought for years. Tehran appears confident it can withstand any punishment - if it comes at all. There seems to be no question of Iran's bending to the U.N. demand. It was enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its facility in Natanz as recently as Tuesday, U.N. and...

By Sgt. 1st Class Joe Flores 4th Infantry DivisionCapt. Evan Jones, physician’s assistant, 4th Infantry Division, checks a local boy at a medical operation in Hor al-Bash on Sunday. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Joe Flores, 4th ID. CAMP TAJI -- Under the blazing Iraqi sun, Iraqi Army and Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers fought the heat to conduct a community health outreach for the people of Hor al-Bash on Sunday.Soldiers of the 9th Iraqi Army Division and the U.S.' 4th Infantry Division, with the help of medics from the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, joined together...

FORT HUACHUCA — Perhaps the saddest moment Roger Rodriquez remembers from his year tour with an infantry unit in Afghanistan is leading a memorial service for two soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device. “It was hardest for the (soldiers’) platoon. You know soldiers form friendships and when one of their group dies it’s emotional,” the captain chaplain said. Doing a memorial service around incidents in which soldiers are killed in action “is the most difficult thing to do,” the Baptist minister said. During his year in Afghanistan serving with soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii, five...

Bouncing back: Hurricane hero rebuilds his life in time for Katrina's birthday By Alec Russell (Filed: 18/08/2006) One of the few undisputed heroes of Hurricane Katrina, a one-time bouncer turned teacher, still lives in a trailer a year after he rescued survivors of the great storm. Chris Baker, a 38-year-old barrel of a man, borrowed his Uncle Jimmy's boat and, drawing on his training in the Coast Guard Reserve, joined the hunt for stranded fugitives. Left: A weary Chris Baker ferrying a police officer through flooded streets. Right: With his girlfriend Amy His stirring experiences allowed him to forget that...

by Staff Sgt. Ryan Hansen 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs 8/15/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- It may be surprising to hear that the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing has a Vietnam era Purple Heart recipient working at the wing. It is even more surprising to hear that the combat veteran is actually a C-130 Hercules deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. On the flight deck of aircraft 63-7865 is a plaque telling the story of one of the hardest working aircraft in the Air Force inventory. According to the certificate, on June 1, 1972, the aircraft was assigned to the 21st Tactical...

Start of banana farming in Africa pushed back 2000 years According to recent evidence from Uganda, the banana may have arrived on the African continent more than 4000 years ago, some 2000 years before the accepted introduction of the fruit on the continent. The finding was published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science (Vol. 33(1):102-113). The authors base their claim on banana phytoliths - distinctive microscopic silica bodies that accumulate in plant cells - which they found in sedimentary layers estimated to be 4000-4500 years old. Earlier findings in Cameroon of 2500 year-old banana phytoliths...

YUSUFIYAH – The sounds of car horns honking and chickens squawking were a soundtrack for prosperity at a market just south of Baghdad on July 13, where vendors displayed everything from clothing to ice and vegetables in this once insurgent-infested town. American, British and Iraqi forces fought pitched battles here in the fall of 2004, during a sweep of insurgents still loyal to Saddam's regime. Today, the market is full of faces looking forward to peaceful and uneventful days. “Before the American Army came to this area, it was full of insurgents and thieves and killers,” said Ali, who declined...

It's time India got angry and stopped all this 'bouncing back' nonsense By Amrit Dhillon in Bombay (Filed: 16/07/2006) A backlash against the authorities is taking hold in Bombay, five days after the bombings that killed 181 commuters and injured almost 900. There is a sense of anger and betrayal among those living in India's commercial capital that the state has failed to protect them from yet another terrorist attack. A Hindu demonstrator expresses his anger "Blood has become cheaper than water," said Atul Pataonde, a shopkeeper in the Bandra district. "These bombs keep happening but nothing changes." To many...

Britain hits back at Russia as G8 tension escalates By Graeme Wilson (Filed: 14/07/2006) Tensions between Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, over human rights and energy security surfaced yesterday as the Prime Minister prepared to fly out to this weekend's G8 summit in St Petersburg. Downing Street offered a robust response after Mr Putin criticised Anthony Brenton, Britain's ambassador to Moscow, for interfering in Russia's "internal" affairs by attending an opposition conference. Mr Putin criticised the ambassador for interfering in domestic affairs The Prime Minister's spokesman said that Mr Brenton had made clear he was not attempting...

FORT HUACHUCA — Lena Cowboy, her daughter Christina and grandson Ethan drove Wednesday from the northern Four Corners-area community of Kayenta to this part of Southern Arizona. The hours on the road were worth it. Her daughter, Staff Sgt. Lisa Cowboy, was returning from a year assignment in Iraq. Lisa also traveled by road from Fort Bliss, Texas, for the reunion. Sitting in the Eifler Gym, Lena waited for the buses carrying her daughter and 25 other returning soldiers to arrive. The two buses were escorted on post by American Legion Riders, a group of local motorcyclists. The arrival time...

Back from the DeadMARIE COCCO June 27, 2006 WASHINGTON -- The corpse will be revived. Plans to resuscitate President Bush's stone-cold proposal to turn Social Security from a guaranteed insurance program into a patchwork of private savings accounts already are in the works. All it will take, says Grover Norquist, conservative strategist extraordinaire, is the election of another five conservative Republican senators -- enough to surmount procedural roadblocks by Democrats or those tremulous Republican moderates who would try to preserve the nation's most successful and best-loved government program. ``I believe that when there are 60 Republican senators we will move...

Call to put whites back in charge of 'unhealthy' Aborigines By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney (Filed: 22/06/2006) A senior minister yesterday recommended installing white administrators in some of Australia's more troubled Aboriginal communities, re-igniting argument about a problem that has divided the country for decades. Tony Abbott, the health minister, said the 500,000-strong indigenous population was falling so far behind the mainstream community that only a return to the "paternalistic" government policies of the 1950s would save them. "Paternalism based on competence rather than race is unavoidable if these places are to be well run," he said. Mr Abbott's speech...

Andes people look back to the future Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 13/06/2006) The Aymara people in South America have a concept of time opposite to the rest of the us, so that the past lies ahead of them and the future behind, according to a study published yesterday. "Until now, all the studied cultures and languages of the world - from European and Polynesian to Chinese, Japanese, Bantu and so on - have not only characterised time with properties of space, but also have all mapped the future as if it were in front. "The Aymara case is the...

The White Sox-Cubs brawl that we enjoyed recently was certainly an interesting one. Two heated intra-city rivals coming to blows on the diamond, punches thrown, punches landed, fan bases invigorated, ejections and controversy — all the stuff of a great baseball scuffle. However, as engaging as it was it's not even close to being among the greatest of "basebrawls." So in honor of the recent North Side-South Side bloodlust, let's take a look at greatest baseball fights in history.

U.S. Troops Restore Base to Hand Back to Iraqis U.S. soldiers are restoring the main palace on Forward Operating Base Courage in preparation to hand it back over to the Iraqi people later this summer. By U.S. Army Spc. L.C. Campbell 138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MOSUL, Iraq, May 26, 2006 — U.S. soldiers assigned to the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team are restoring the main palace on Forward Operating Base Courage, Mosul, Iraq, in preparation to hand it back over to the Iraqi people later this summer. From squad automatic weapon gunners, to rifleman, to grenadiers, these soldiers...

Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly modern spine supported human ancestor Bruce Bower Bones from a spinal column discovered at a nearly 1.8-million-year-old site in central Asia support the controversial possibility that ancient human ancestors spoke to one another. WIDE OPEN. A recently discovered Homo erectus vertebra from central Asia (left) displays a larger spinal cord canal than does a corresponding bone (right) from a skeleton that had been found in Kenya. Meyer Excavations in 2005 at Dmanisi, Georgia, yielded five vertebrae from a Homo erectus individual, says anthropologist Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The finds occurred...

5/1/2006 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) -- In the wake of the attacks that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Defense implemented new initiatives to thwart future attacks on U.S. soil. These measures were called “threat conditions.” It wasn’t until 2004 that the Defense Department revamped threatcon procedures into what are now known as Force Protection Conditions, or FPCONs. The old threat conditions were just not specific enough, said an anti-terrorism official. “We needed these new measures to not only prevent attacks from foreign terrorists, but domestic ones as well. “These might not be the...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – Servicemembers seriously injured by improvised explosive devices during duty in the global war on terror are getting a unique opportunity to use their experience to combat and prevent future IED attacks. The Joint IED Defeat Organization here has entered into full partnership with the Operation Warfighter program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in an initiative to target, recruit and hire servicemembers, including many who have suffered serious injuries from IED attacks. Operation Warfighter is a nationwide program that places wounded servicemembers in positions within the federal government. Thanks to this partnership, these servicemembers can...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 1, 2006) -- Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric S. Duckworth might just be a glutton for punishment. Duckworth, a 28-year-old corpsman assigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment’s 3rd Civil Affairs Group detachment just can’t seem to get enough of the Marine Corps. He’s served an enlistment as a Marine engineer, returned to become a Fleet Marine Force corpsman with the Navy and is now back on duty in Iraq. He just shrugs it all off with a smile. “It’s a big tradition in my family to join the military,” said Duckworth, from Peoria, Ill....

BISBEE — To some, they are grass-roots citizen activists who are helping bring much-needed attention to the problem of border security. To others, they are vigilantes who fan the flames of xenophobia and intolerance. Either way, the Minuteman Project is back and ready to send 1,200 of its Civil Defense Corps volunteers into the Arizona desert for a month-long border vigilance campaign beginning today. “We’re going to get out there and do the same thing we’ve always done: observe, spot and report,” said Al Garza, the national executive director of the Minutemen and a resident of Huachuca City. “And we’re...

On March 24th, Ballot Access News reported that the New Mexico Secretary of State's office declared that the Libertarian Party of New Mexico's petition for party status has enough valid signatures. The New Mexico LP has been formally certified by the New Mexico secretary of state's office as an official party. The petition was originally submitted by the New Mexico LP to the state on November 28, 2005. Now that the Libertarian Party of New Mexico can run candidates under the Libertarian banner, they announced at their March convention to run three statewide candidates for U.S. senate, state treasurer, and...

USS NASSAU, At Sea (March 24, 2006) -- The flight line at Al Asad Air Base was a flurry of rotor blades and wrench-toting men and women while Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (Reinforced) was in Iraq. Night and day for months, these mechanics, avionics and air frame specialists and a myriad of other supporting personnel of HMM-261 (Rein) enabled the squadron’s 1,845 sorties of more than 3,000 combat flight hours. Even though those on the flight line rarely saw the direct benefits of their job, their hard work kept Marines throughout Iraq safe. “We delivered a lot of bullets...

Law lords back school over ban on Islamic gown By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor (Filed: 23/03/2006) A schoolgirl who was refused permission to wear a full-length Islamic gown in class was not deprived of the right to manifest her religion, five law lords ruled yesterday. The House of Lords allowed an appeal by Denbigh High School, in Luton, against a unanimous ruling by the Court of Appeal last March in favour of Shabina Begum, 17. Shabina Begum: 'Quite happy that it's all over' Lord Bingham said it would be "irresponsible" for any court to overrule the school's judgment "on a...

Chirac may back down over job law backlash By Colin Randall, in Paris (Filed: 20/03/2006) President Jacques Chirac was under pressure from the threat of a general strike over France's new employment law. Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets The unrest could force his prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, to perform a humiliating climb-down. Mr de Villepin has tried to ride out the storm whipped up by the legislation and ignore the huge demonstrations and fierce rioting it has provoked. But speculation was growing last night that the president was pushing him towards major concessions to end...