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CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait — A square mile of Kuwaiti real estate is an American boomtown. In the American Old West there were a number of similar communities, such as the silver mining town of Tombstone. But while Tombstone depended on the precious metal for its economic well being, Camp Virginia’s source is the military. Surrounded by desert that has a few small bushes providing some glimpses of green the camp is an area where U.S. and some coalition forces come before going to or leaving Iraq. “Camp Virginia provides support for the troop units coming here,” Lt. Col. Matthew Hearon....

CAMPO – As the sun set, Roy Wood looked out of place patrolling a dirt road a few steps north of a rusty fence that separates the United States from Mexico. The clean-shaven English-as-a-second-language instructor wore a T-shirt tucked in clean blue jeans, a pistol strapped to a belt. Many of the hundreds who make up the self-appointed civilian patrols monitoring the border to deter smuggling of people and drugs are unemployed or underemployed ex-military men who have long resented Mexicans who come to the United States illegally and, in their view, compete for jobs, crowd hospitals and schools and...

Research team finds new evidence of Amazonian civilization (Kyodo) A joint Japanese-Bolivian research team has completed the first stage of a three-year investigation that aims to shed light on a little-known high culture that existed in the present-day Bolivian Amazon. The investigation, named "Project Mojos," is headed by Katsuyoshi Sanematsu, a professor of anthropology at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. In an interview Wednesday, Sanematsu, 56, told Kyodo News that the team, composed of four Japanese researchers and four Bolivian researchers, succeeded in finding hundreds of archaeological artifacts during a month long excavation that ended earlier this month. "It is very...

LONDON (AP) -- Aaron Balick expected to find a tiny mouse rustling behind the TV in his apartment. Instead, he found a venomous giant centipede that somehow hitched a ride from South America to Britain. "Thinking it was a mouse, I went to investigate the sound. The sound was coming from under some papers which I lifted, expecting to see the mouse scamper away," the 32-year-old psychotherapist said Wednesday. "Instead, when I lifted the papers, I saw this prehistoric looking animal skitter away behind a stack of books." He trapped the 9-inch-long creature between a stack of books and put...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A state report paints a bleak portrait of California's public school finances, finding that as many as 79 districts may not be able to pay their bills in two years. One-third of the state's 982 public school districts have tapped reserves to make ends meet, with 14 expecting to run out of money in the next two years, according to a report released Thursday. Another 65 districts reported a possibility that their expenses would outpace revenues within that time. Ten of the 79 most financially troubled schools are in Los Angeles County. "For the first time in...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jul 5 (OneWorld) - A vast majority of Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's stance on global warming, a new poll said Tuesday amid reports of a widening rift over climate change between the United States and its partners in the Group of Eight (G8) dominant countries. ''Going into the G8 Summit, nearly all Americans feel that the U.S. should not be a laggard, but should be ready to do as much as most other developed countries to reduce emissions that cause climate change,'' said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy...

Key finds in Temple Mount trash heap Jerusalem, Israel, Apr. 15 (UPI) -- Archaeologists sifting through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount have found rare artifacts dating to 3,000 years ago. The artifacts were found in the last five months in a city garbage dump used by Islamic officials six years ago when they built a mosque at an underground area of the Temple Mount, the Jerusalem Post said Friday.

Archaeologist finds 'oldest porn statue' Krysia Diver in Stuttgart Monday April 4, 2005 The Guardian (UK) Stone-age figurines depicting what could be the oldest pornographic scene in the world have been unearthed in Germany. Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be the 7,200-year-old remnants of a man having intercourse with a woman. The extraordinary find, at an archaeological dig in Saxony, shatters the belief that sex was a taboo subject in that era. Until now, the oldest representations of sexual scenes were frescos from about 2,000 years ago. Harald Stäuble of the Archaeological Institute of Saxony, based in Dresden,...

Jailed and held without bond in the nation's largest alleged personal tax-evasion scheme, telecom investor Walter Anderson says the federal government has got it all wrong. He isn't a tax cheat, he said Wednesday night in a conference room at the D.C. jail. He was going to use the money to change the world. To fight for arms control and human rights. To promote family planning and space exploration. He was going to give the money away, starting next year. (snip) Yesterday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay ordered Anderson held at the D.C. jail until a March 11 hearing. He...

A majority of Mexican migrants living and working in the United States would be willing to participate in a temporary-worker program, according to a recent nationwide survey, even many of those who say they would prefer to stay in the country indefinitely. The survey of 4,836 migrants was taken by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., with respondents surveyed as they applied at Mexican consulates in seven U.S. cities for consular identification cards, frequently used as ID by undocumented immigrants. While respondents were not asked about their immigration status, slightly more than half said they had no form of...

Federal Court Finds DNC Chair Howard Dean’s Judicial Appointees Guilty (PRWEB) February 26, 2005 -- In a 1997 Vermont Press Bureau article, Howard Dean expressed his desire to appoint judges that were not so concerned about the Bill of Rights -- or in Howard Dean lingo “legal technicalities”. Howard kept his aim true. Within two months of his proclamation, he appointed Nancy Corsones and Patricia Zimmerman to the Vermont bench. Shortly afterward, Vermont prosecutors set their sites on a local activist. Judge Corsones chose to advance justice in Vermont by violating the activist’s rights against double jeopardy, his right to...

Polls finds majority believe country is ready for a women president February 22, 2005 2:55 PM The Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. A clear majority of Americans believes the nation is ready for a woman in the Oval Office. A new poll finds more than six in ten believe the country is ready for a female president. The poll by the Siena College Research Institute, which was sponsored by Hearst newspapers, gives new ammunition to people who believe Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should run for president. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they would vote for a woman for president and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a government-approved program used by five Western states to improve their air quality and visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. Siding with an industry coalition, the court said the states' program was based on Environmental Protection Agency methods that the court, ruling in a case three years ago, had found to be "inconsistent with the Clean Air Act." Friday's decision deals with efforts by Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming to cut sulfur dioxide pollution that contributes to regional haze, particularly at the Grand Canyon. Mike Leavitt, now...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 · Last updated 8:04 a.m. PT Tribes appeal Kennewick Man ruling, seek role in future finds THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KENNEWICK, Wash. -- Indian tribes that failed to block the scientific examination of the 9,400-year-old remains known as Kennewick Man are appealing a court ruling in hopes of gaining a role in future discoveries. The appeal of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was brought Monday by the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Nation, which claim Kennewick Man as an aboriginal ancestor. "It's a fundamental...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Silicon Valley men are likely to be fatter and less conscious of what they eat than their female counterparts, according to a survey to be released Friday. At least three out of five men in Santa Clara County are considered overweight or obese, compared with two out of five women, according to a telephone survey of 2,645 residents. Obesity rates were even greater for Hispanic and African-American men. Despite the extra pounds that men are packing, researchers found that they're much less likely to diet - or even to try to maintain their current weight...

LOS ANGELES - In a stroke of luck, the NASA (news - web sites) rover Opportunity has discovered a basketball-size metal meteorite sitting on the surface of Mars, the mission's main scientist said Tuesday. Opportunity came upon the meteorite last week while it was taking a look at a spacecraft shell that was jettisoned before landing after protecting the rover during its plunge through the martian atmosphere. Tests performed during the weekend confirm it is a nickel-iron meteorite, said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University scientist who is the principal investigator for NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers mission. "I didn't see this...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst warned Wednesday that while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $111.7 billion budget plan solves next year's problem, the state still faces big deficits in the future because spending remains out of balance with tax income. But Analyst Elizabeth Hill also advised against Schwarzenegger's proposed long term solution to the problem - a constitutional amendment that would trigger accross-the-board cuts when revenues fail to meet spending obligations. Hill said the measure, which Schwarzenegger wants to put before voters in a special election this year, would put even more spending "on cruise control" while undermining the Legislature's...

2004: Top finds on Bolivian highlandsFinnish scientists discovered the most significant relics of antiquity in recent Bolivian history. In the excavations on Pariti Island in Lake Titicaca, in the highlands of Bolivia, the historical-archaeological research team of the University of Helsinki discovered a ritual offering site with well-preserved pieces of ceramics. The find adds substantially to what is known about the Tiwanaku culture, which flourished before the Incas and for which the island was probably an important religious site. “The dig contained approximately 300 kilograms of deliberately broken ritual ceramics, which, according to radiocarbon dating, have been buried sometime between...

Washington - Dirty Harry had it right. Brain scans show revenge really might make your day. Planning revenge sparks enough satisfaction to motivate getting even ---and the amount of satisfaction actually predicts who will go to greater lengths to do so, report Swiss researchers who monitored people's brain activity during an elaborate game of double-cross. This may not sound too surprising. Just consider the old saying, "Revenge is sweet." (snip) The new study chips "yet another sliver from the national model of economic man," said Stanford University psychologist Brian Knutson, who reviewed the Swiss research. "Instead of cold, calculated reason,...

SACRAMENTO - With Election Day little more than six weeks away, the Schwarzenegger administration Friday rebuffed a request from California's top elections official to release nearly $25 million in federal funding until it gets more assurances that the money will be spent properly. ---snip--- Friday's rejection comes as new documents released by the secretary of state show that Shelley's office provided lax oversight of voter-outreach consultants at the center of a state investigation. Scrutiny of Shelley's handling of federal Help America Vote Act money was first sparked by reports in the Mercury News that the San Francisco Democrat had used...