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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A coalition of Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan declared an "indefinite" cease-fire Wednesday in fighting against security forces. The government said it was preparing for peace talks. A Pakistani army helicopter crashed in the same region, killing three generals and five other soldiers. The army said initial reports indicated a technical fault in the chopper and ruled out hostile fire as the cause. Maulvi Mohammed Umar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant umbrella group, said the cease-fire would cover the lawless, semiautonomous tribal belt that borders Afghanistan, and the restive region of Swat...

Look out, Hillary and Barack, here comes Mike. No, not Mike Huckabee (though he'd better watch out, too). Mike Bloomberg--Mayor Mike as millions of New Yorkers more or less affectionately call him. And this time it is for real. Folks close to New York City's twice-elected mayor suggest that he's made up his mind to end one of the city's long-running rumors and become an Independent candidate for president. The date of his announcement? Pencilled in for right after Super Tuesday--Feb. 5. By then Bloomberg would have a pretty good idea of just who would be lining up against his...

While the current administration, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, focus on the war on terror and the war in Iraq, a greater real-time threat to our way of life and the rule of law in the United States, is manifesting itself just down the road a bit from the White House and the Capitol building . In Prince William Country, Virginia, illegal aliens have just basically declared war on the county, law and order, and the very livelihood of innocent Americans. They have done so, and no one in Washington really seems to care. In the upside...

SAN DIEGO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the federal food and agriculture department Tuesday to declare San Diego County a disaster area because of the crippling freezes that plagued the state in January. A San Diego County report released Thursday stated that county growers lost almost $115 million in products -- a figure expected to climb -- when local temperatures sank to as low as 16 degrees inland in January. Avocado growers suffered the worst financial losses, at $38 million, the report said. Eric Lamoureux of California's Office of Emergency Services said Tuesday that 47 of California's 58 counties had...

Al-Zarqawi Said to Declare 'Fierce War' 13 minutes ago BAGHDAD, Iraq - A speaker purporting to be Iraq's most feared terror leader declared a "fierce war" on democracy and said in an audiotape posted Sunday on the Web that the Americans were using next weekend's Iraqi elections to install the Shiites in power. "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part...

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