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Homosexual Lutheran clergy who are in sexual relationships will be able to serve as pastors, the largest U.S. Lutheran body said on Saturday. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in "faithful committed same-gender relationships." The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431. "The Church ... has just said 'Do not do punishments'," said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. "That is huge." The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as...

Three motorcycle riders are hospitalized in stable condition after a run-in with a bear in St. Johns County. State troopers say the bear ran in front of the bikers Sunday on I-95 near State Road 207. The animal was killed when the motorcycles slammed into it.

NEW YORK - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday switched his party status from Republican to unaffiliated, a stunning move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race. The billionaire former CEO, who was a lifelong Democrat before he switched to the GOP for his first mayoral run, said the change in voter registration does not mean he is running for president. "Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our...

NEW ORLEANS - Supporters of a Democratic congressman charged with bribery and money laundering harkened to their civil rights days on Wednesday as they denounced the allegations against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson. The group, including ministers and the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, alleged the 16-count corruption indictment was the work of a Republican White House and Justice Department scheming to target black Democratic leaders and shift attention from legal troubles of Republican congressmen. "When it's all over, Bill Jefferson will stand up like Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. He will stand up in the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A treasure hunt for genes has found that up to three-quarters of people of European descent have DNA that raises their risk for heart disease -- and these genes are close to a stretch of DNA linked to diabetes. The findings, made by two independent groups of researchers, may help explain why so many people have heart disease even if they do not have clear risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol or high blood pressure. And they could lead to a test to predict the risk of heart disease, the biggest cause of death across the...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The state House and Senate approved separate resolutions apologizing for slavery Tuesday — one day after Confederate Memorial Day, an official state holiday. "An apology goes a long way," said Sen. Hank Sanders, a Democrat from Selma who sponsored his chamber's resolution. "Some of us can't begin to heal until we have an apology. Some of us can't move into reconciliation until we have an apology." Neither resolution will become official unless approved by the other chamber and signed by the governor. The House passed its resolution with an unrecorded voice vote; the Senate's vote was 22-7....

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian scientist called Wednesday for an end to the age-old tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributed to global warming. Professor Roger Short said people could instead choose to help the environment after death by being buried in a cardboard box under a tree. The decomposing bodies would provide the tree with nutrients, and the tree would convert carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen for decades, he said. "The important thing is, what a shame to be cremated when you go up in a big bubble of carbon dioxide," Short told AFP. "Why waste all that carbon...

It is a stats page. Go Gators!

Police colluded with loyalists behind several murders in north Belfast, a report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland is to confirm. Nuala O'Loan's report will say UVF members in the area committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch. The report will also say some Special Branch officers protected the killers and ensured they were not caught. NI Secretary Peter Hain said it "shone a torch into a very dark corner". The report, to be published on Monday, will call for a number of murder investigations to be re-opened. But it is unlikely that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military published a new counterinsurgency manual on Friday that draws on lessons from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and stresses that troops must be able to do more than just fight. U.S. forces battling insurgencies must be ready every day "to be greeted with a hand grenade or a handshake, and to respond appropriately to each," the U.S. Army and Marine Corps said in a joint statement to launch the manual. The document is the U.S. military's first new doctrine on fighting insurgencies in some 20 years, although an interim manual was published two...

SAN FRANCISCO - Environmentalists sued the Bush administration Tuesday for failing to produce a report on global warming's impact on the country's environment, economy and public health. The plaintiffs claim the government must complete such a report every four years under the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The plaintiffs say the last report was due in November 2004. The lawsuit seeks to compel the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to issue the national assessment, which should contain the most recent scientific data on global warming and projections for its future impacts. Without the report, decision makers and the public...

Physicist Hawking to star in movie: report Sat Oct 14, 6:31 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Acclaimed British physicist Stephen Hawking will reportedly trade in scientific journals for the big screen by starring in a movie. The film, "Beyond the Horizon," aims to explain some of the complicated theories backed by Hawking and his fellow physicists, including the idea that space has up to 11 dimensions and the cause of the big bang. The 64-year-old Hawking, famous for his 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time," will also narrate a soundtrack which explains cosmological concepts. "Beyond the Horizon" centres...

LAKELAND, Fla. - A man who had been pulled over for a traffic violation shot two sheriff's deputies Thursday, killing one of them and prompting an intensive manhunt that forced a lockdown at three schools, officials said. Authorities told residents to lock themselves in their homes as officers swarmed the rural area. The gunman remained at large. The shooter was first approached during a traffic stop for speeding, officials said. The deputy became suspicious of the man's ID, and the suspect bolted into thick brush. That deputy and another who arrived seconds later with a police dog chased the suspect....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday formally approved rebuilding plans for the site of the World Trade Center destroyed in the September 11, 2001, attacks. The deal with developer Larry Silverstein, approved at the authority's monthly board meeting, gave the developer four and a half years and an additional one-year grace period to complete the building of Towers 2, 3 and 4 on the site, or lose his lease. In addition, the Port Authority agreed to pay Silverstein $300,00O a day if it failed to prepare the site for rebuilding by...

Jacko is shocko at his associate's gay porno BY MICHELLE CARUSO DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF SANTA MONICA, Calif. - A wide-eyed Michael Jackson testified he "was shocked" when he saw a video of his ex-associate actively directing a gay porn film, according to videotaped deposition shown in court yesterday. The no-show singer's ghostly image was projected on a 4-foot-by-4-foot screen in the trial of a $1.5 million breach-ofcontact suit filed by his former video producer Marc Schaffel in Santa Monica Superior Court. In the sworn testimony, which was taped in London's Dorchester Hotel on Sept. 23, 2005, and...

Video of the Denver FAM expose. The legacy of Quinn's corruption lives on... http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/9325657/detail.html

NEW ORLEANS - The city's embattled police department will have another internal investigation to face after a swarm of converging officers gunned down a man brandishing a knife. A police spokesman said the officers who fired on the man Monday will be reassigned pending the outcome of the probe, but he defended their response, saying at least one officer's life was in danger just prior to the barrage of gunfire. "You have a subject who's lunging at them with a knife... swinging wildly at them and they're fearing for their life," said Officer David Adams, a police spokesman. "They had...

MIAMI - City commissioners decided to raise Mayor Manny Diaz's salary by 54 percent in a last-minute vote that was not listed on the meeting agenda. Commissioner Johnny Winton said he proposed the hike from $97,000 to $150,000 on Thursday because, among other things, Diaz was easily elected to a second term last month. "Manny's done the most remarkable job of any mayor that we can go back and think of," Winton said. Winton introduced the salary hike at the end of the meeting as a "pocket item" — a term for a last-minute, typically time-sensitive city action that is...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - A lesbian couple who entered into the nation's first same-sex civil union are splitting up amid allegations of violent behavior. Carolyn Conrad, 35, asked a court in October to end her relationship with Kathleen Peterson, 46. Conrad also obtained a restraining order Wednesday against her partner, saying Peterson punched a hole in the wall during an argument and threatened to harm a friend. "All I want to say is that the civil union was a big source of pride for me, and now it's not," Peterson said. The two had been together for five years when they...

UNITED NATIONS - The African leader some call a hero and others a destructive despot suggests people in his country aren't hungry, they just can't eat their favorite food. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his people are "very, very happy" though aid agencies report 4 million of 11.6 million face famine. "You describe it as if we have a whole cemetery," Mugabe said of a reporter's description of the southern African nation's dire straits, blaming "continuous years of drought." The problem is reliance on corn, he said during Friday's interview, "but...