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2 officers down, hand grenades and automatic gun fire 'many ambulances on route to watertown'? Anyone know what's going on? Cops retreating due to explosives on scene...

Afghan intelligence had told Islamabad nearly four years back that the most hunted al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was hiding in an area near Abbottabad, but nothing was done about it as the claim was rejected by then president Pervez Musharraf, a former top spy has said. Osama bin Laden was shot dea d by US commandos who stormed his hideout in Abbottabad city May 2. Afghanistan's former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told The Guardian newspaper in Kabul that the National Directorate of Security (NDS) sleuths had come to the conclusion as early as in 2004 that the world's...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Police stopped a motorist driving a car full of explosives in Connecticut late Tuesday, FOX 61 reported. Police said the car was carrying pipe bombs, rifles and a propane tank when they found it in New Haven at 11:30 p.m.

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker is objecting to getting a copy of the Koran from the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council. "I object to the use of the state Centennial Seal and the state Seal all in an effort to further their religion," state Representative Rex Duncan said Monday. Duncan also wrote his colleagues that he rejected the gift because "most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology."

Midtown Plaza will be remediated and demolished, and the site will be redeveloped as mixed-use urban space that will include a new corporate headquarters for PAETEC Communications. One of the largest telecommunication companies in the United States, PAETEC Communications plans to build a new 500,000 square foot, Class A facility on a portion of the Midtown property. The proposed PAETEC facility is anticipated to house 1,000 employees (including the 600 existing employees) and will be the new location for the company's corporate headquarters, data and other operations. Under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding, the City will acquire the...

Citing potential problems with terrorist attacks and higher insurance rates, Rochester area Republicans Tuesday condemned Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. At a meeting in the lobby of the Monroe County Office Building, Assemblyman Bill Reilich of Greece called the plan a "horrific situation." Under the changes, Spitzer made it possible for illegal immigrants to get a license if they have a valid foreign passport. Previously, wither a Social Security number or a letter from the Social Security Administration stating the applicant wasn't eligible for a Social Security number was required. "This is nothing...

Beginning this Memorial Day weekend, members of the auto industry are rolling out a comprehensive campaign to convince Americans to oppose proposed increases in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and to pressure their elected officials to vote down such proposals. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) has launched a website (www.drivecongress.com) that encourages citizens to compose messages of protest against “unrealistic fuel economy increases” to be hand-delivered to elected officials. AAM represents BMW, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen. The website allows users to insert statements provided by the AAM, such as “I value fuel...

Jockey Calvin Borel’s victory aboard James Tafel’s Street Sense in the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) was his first in the Run for the Roses, and now that special moment at Churchill Downs will take the Louisiana native to a White House state dinner in honor of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Borel’s agent, Jerry Hissam, said May 6 that White House social secretary Amy Zantzinger had invited Borel and his fiancé Lisa Funk to travel to Washington, D.C. May 7 for the dinner hosted by President George W. Bush and First Lady...

Was it a threat or not? In his second State of the City address, Mayor Robert Duffy said he will tie the city’s $119 million annual school aid to results. “I care about our children graduating from school and that should be and will be our funding criteria for our schools,” he said. Duffy honed in on the district’s 50 percent four-year graduation rate. The graduation rate in Rochester is worse than in Buffalo, which spends less money per pupil. “We have the worst graduation rate in the state and that has to change. Clearly money is not the issue...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed a $120.6 billion state budget Wednesday that he said will cut spending growth, increase school aid by $1.4 billion and provide $1.5 billion to cut local property taxes. The proposal would increase overall spending, including state and federal funds, by 6.3 percent over the current fiscal plan, projected to total $113.5 billion by the close of the fiscal year. The current budget increased spending by 8.8 percent over 2005-06. “I believe deeply in the proposals that are articulated in this budget, “ Spitzer told lawmakers in their briefing Wednesday, speaking without notes...

CONCORD, N.H. — A man who has holed up with armed supporters in his fortress-like house for most of his tax evasion trial was found guilty Thursday, along with his wife, of engaging in an elaborate scheme to avoid paying federal income taxes for a decade. Ed Brown has said he will defend himself against capture if necessary; U.S. marshals said they have no plan of escalating the situation. A jury decided the Browns plotted to hide their income and avoid taxes on Elaine Brown's income of $1.9 million between 1996 and 2003. Over 10 years, they also used $215,890...

WASHINGTON — As the House prepared to impose new fees on oil and gas taken from federal waters, some Senate Democrats said Wednesday that royalty breaks for energy companies ought to be abandoned. House Democrats are confident they can approve an energy package Thursday which includes a conservation fee on oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico, seeks to recoup royalties lost because of a government error in drilling leases in the late 1990s, and rolls back several oil industry tax breaks. Part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's priority agenda for the first 100 hours of Democratic control of...

Senator John Sununu (R-NH) has just announced that his office is working on legislation that would prevent the FCC from creating specific technology mandates that have to be followed by consumer electronics manufacturers. What's his target? The broadcast flag. Television and movie studios have wanted a broadcast flag for years. The flag is a short analog or digital signal embedded into broadcasts that specifies what users can do with the content. It would most often be used to prevent any copying of broadcast material, but there's an obvious problem with the plan: it requires recording devices to pay attention to...

Kyle Clark (Clifton Springs, N.Y.) - It's the immigration issue played out in reverse. Upstate New York dairy farmers are heading to Mexico to better understand what drives their workers thousands of miles to find jobs in our neighborhood. Willow Bend Farm in Clifton Springs started 50 years ago with just one employee and a few cows. As the cattle grew into the thousands, the need for help grew, and in the 1990s the Mueller family turned to immigrant workers from Mexico for farm hands. Most migrants, who come and go each farm season, but permanent workers who stay year...

BATAM, Indonesia — Indonesian troops found detonators and 63 tons of explosive powder on a Chinese ship anchored off Batam island after it broke down in the Malacca Strait, a local police chief said.

Eliot L. Spitzer's campaign account bulges with money from the Big Apple and from growing regions of the country, such as Texas and Southern California, where his checks bear the names of Spielberg, Streisand and Reiner. Upstate New York has given him just 18 cents of every dollar. New York's sky-high campaign limits let a California filmmaker, billionaire or movie star give more to a like-minded candidate in New York than they can give to a hopeful in their own state, or to a federal candidate for that matter. In Spitzer they see a rising star who as governor can...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The State Liquor Authority is investigating whether alcohol was served to minors at a barbecue Eliot Spitzer's campaign for governor held for supporters at the state fair last week. The agency received complaints that alcohol was served to minors at the Aug. 31 event, said authority spokesman Bill Crowley. The authority was also investigating a potential violation of a law prohibiting unlimited alcohol offerings at public events, he told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Many of our students don't know what's it's like to work," said Lynn Lyford, vice president of the cooperative education program at Northeastern University. "(Co-op) not only gives students the experience, but it enhances what they learn in the classroom … They get evaluations, go to meetings. These students are considered employees of the employers' organizations." (A co-op) is not like your traditional intern where you get coffee and wash the boss' car," said former Northeastern student Christopher Beasley, 23, who landed a job with NASA after completing a co-op with the company. "You interview like it's a real job."

JERUSALEM — Police raided the official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents, officials said Tuesday. ... At least two women have accused Katsav of harassing them. He has denied wrongdoing.

Dear Friend, A small group of Southern lawmakers have derailed a House vote to renew expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the landmark law that has protected the right to vote for millions of Americans. They want to gut the act and make it easier to discriminate against minority voters. Not surprisingly, these lawmakers represent states with the worst records of continued voting discrimination. We can’t let a small group of lawmakers destroy 40 years of progress! Email your representative and tell him or her to renew the VRA now. Go to http://action.aclu.org/vra The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa...