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NEW YORK (AP) - The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines apologized for disrespecting President Bush during a London concert in 2003. But now, she's taking it back. "I don't feel that way anymore," she told Time magazine for its issue hitting newsstands Monday. "I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever." As war in Iraq loomed, Maines told the London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas." The remarks led to death threats and a backlash from other country stars, including a high-profile spat with Toby Keith. It also stalled...

FORT HUACHUCA — One of the soldiers who returned from Kuwait Thursday was Spc. Carlos Smith, of the 269th Signal Company. While the majority of the returning 142 soldiers were members of the 69th Signal Company who spent most of a year in Iraq, Smith was stationed in Kuwait for six months during his second deployment. The troops were on a civilian airliner that first touched down on U.S. soil in Bangor, Maine. Unknown to Smith was that he was going to be honored by a group of greeters, local residents and veterans who have been welcoming military people back...

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – The police athletic leagues of Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie, Fla., have teamed with America Supports You member organization "Cell Phones for Soldiers" to help servicemembers and their families stay connected. America Supports You members Brittany Bergquist (left) and her brother, Robbie, recently spent three days aboard the USS Cape St. George at sea. They were invited by Capt. James Yohe (center) as a thank you for providing a calling card to each person aboard the ship. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The PALs create and fund programs for youngsters...

Pizza maker gets ready to quit the Iraq coalition By Oliver Poole in Nasariyah (Filed: 02/05/2006) The election of Romano Prodi as Italy's prime minister is not good news for Signore Ciano, a pizza maker flown to Iraq by the Italian military more than two years ago to ensure that its troops there ate in a style their mothers would approve of. Since he established his Neapolitan-style restaurant on a base near Nasariyah, it has served about 150 pizzas a day - a number that partly reflects its popularity with dozens of female American troops from an adjacent camp who...

4/28/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- A new weapon system in the Air Force arsenal takes Airmen out of the gun turret and into the safety of a fully up-armored Humvee. The 506th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron operates the only Common Remote Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS, in the Air Force inventory. As one of three security forces squadrons in Iraq with an outside-the-wire combat patrol mission, CROWS offers an additional capability for the unit. The CROWS sensor unit includes a daylight video camera, a thermal imager for night operations and a laser rangefinder. It is furnished with...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2006 – Community members welcomed a new playground for the children of the Al Shrooq primary and secondary school in Taji, Iraq, April 19. Iraqi children from the Al Shrooq primary and secondary school, in Taji, Iraq, help disperse gravel April 19 at the new playground donated by Iraqi and U.S. companies. Iraqi army and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers, along with children at the school, pitched in to help make the school a better place. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brent Hunt, USA   The playground was a result of hard work and determination by a combined...

BASE CAMP ADDER (ALI BASE), Iraq, April 20, 2006 — The Iraqi Army 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 10th Infantry Division conducted an official ribbon cutting ceremony March 26 at their new Army barracks in Thi Qar Province. The Iraqi Army move into their new quarters represents another major milestone in standing up Iraq’s independent self-defense force. The construction project was completed on March 20, at a cost of $9.9 million. The modern, self-contained complex for 800 Iraqi soldiers features perimeter security protection, sanitation, water, air conditioning and an electric generator system. Special facilities include weapons storage and a two-pump fuel...

LONDON: "Send me your health-care horror stories," reads the appeal. The stark request heads a letter published on his website this month from Michael Moore, the controversial filmmaker, asking for examples of people's bad experiences of hospitals, insurance companies and drug manufacturers. Moore, who is best known for his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, in which he took on the Bush Administration over the war in Iraq, is now targeting the health-care industry. Work on the film, Sicko, has been in progress since 2004 and it is expected to be premiered later this year. Already speculation about its content has put the...

FORT HUACHUCA — Although news reports indicate the Army is having a hard time enlisting first-time soldiers a recruiter in Pennsylvania got a two-for-one deal when Cassandra and Calista Walker joined together. When the 23-year-old twins walked into the recruiter’s office “His eyes bulged, I bet he earned a big bonus for us,” said Cassandra, the older of the two by five minutes. Calista said, “We didn’t know if the Army could handle the two of us. We were a package deal.” The younger twin, Calista, notes she is a half-inch taller than her sister, and then sheepishly adds sotto...

PHOENIX — There won’t be any National Guard troops in Southern Arizona — at least not yet. As vowed, Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a $10 million appropriation for the Guard because it ordered her to put the troops on the border. In a five-paragraph letter to legislators, Napolitano cited a state constitutional provision that makes her commander-in-chief of the Guard. “The Legislature has no constitutional or other authority to control when or how the Guard is deployed,” she said. But Napolitano insisted she remains interested in putting troops in Southern Arizona and promised that if lawmakers send her a bill...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gambino crime family scion John A. "Junior" Gotti dodged a legal bullet for the second time in eight months Friday when a federal jury deadlocked on racketeering charges against him, leading to a mistrial. U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin excused the jury after they said they were at an impasse despite less than two full days of deliberations. Prosecutors quickly said they intended to try Gotti, 42, for a third time.

From left to right, Polish Maj. Gen. Edward Gruszka, commander of the Multinational Division Central-South, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, and Polish Maj. Gen. Piotr Czerwinski, former commander of Multinational Division Central- South, salute the guidon during a change-of-command ceremony at Camp Echo in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Feb. 4, 2006. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jason T. Bailey Central-South Division Gets New Commander The key priority of Multinational-Division Central-South staff will be cooperation with the 8th Iraqi Army Division for the training and development its combat capabilities. By Multinational Force-Iraq CAMP ECHO,...

Weather gets even weirder By Philip Eden (Filed: 21/01/2006) On the face of it, the catalogue of extraordinary weather events culled from around the world during the last year suggests that the global climate is in turmoil. But do a clutch of catastrophes and a ragbag of records represent anything unusual? Moscow: A man ventures out as temperatures reach minus 30 Climatologists look for evidence of underlying change and are particularly interested in events which are clearly outside previous experience. We should remember that we live in a world where natural disasters can be brought to our television screens as...

Bird flu battle gets $1.9 billion boost 18:22 18 January 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi The pledge comes from an international meeting in Beijing, China to secure funds for fighting the spread of avian influenza, which experts fear could turn into a human pandemic form. “The success of the Beijing meeting is a great step forward and has shown that the international community has understood how crucial it is to control avian influenza at source in birds,” says Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, France. The majority of the pledged money...

The Palestinian film "Paradise Now," which explores the lives of a pair of suicide bombers and just won the Golden Globe for best foreign film, got two thumbs down Tuesday in this tough West Bank city where it was filmed. Although the film which snared the Golden Globe in Los Angeles on Monday has never been screened in Nablus, residents here said the clips they saw on satellite television portrayed the bombers as godless and less than heroic. "This movie doesn't help the Palestinian cause," said an armed Palestinian militant who would not give his name because he's on the...

Chef gets Bronze Star for convoy rescue Chief Warrant Officer 3 David J. Longstaff, manager of the U.S. Army culinary team, has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor for rescuing five Soldiers pinned down in an ambush. Longstaff was serving as Division Support Command food service technician for the 1st Armored Division, when he went on a procurement mission in the Al Rasheed district of Baghdad on Aug. 7, 2003. It was early afternoon with temperatures reaching 113 degrees fahrenheit. During his first five months in Iraq, Longstaff had participated in more than 150 convoys into Baghdad. This...

W. Douglas Pritchard just wanted to send a book as a Christmas gift for a friend serving in Iraq. Now, it looks as if Pritchard could be helping to send potentially hundreds of books to service personnel in Iraq in the coming months, with the support of a Central Tucson bookstore. The project, tentatively dubbed the "Tucson Book Caravan," began to germinate a few weeks ago when Pritchard asked his friend Mark Ballis what he could send as a gift to Ballis' son, 19-year-old Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Morgan Ballis, who is serving in Ramadi. Pritchard, 66, a retired University...

Holland gets its sunken treasure back By David Keys, Age Correspondent, London December 13, 2005 Ingots lost at sea 266 years ago have been recovered from a wreck in the English Channel. The DUTCH Government has started taking possession of tens of thousands of dollars worth of silver bullion that it last saw 266 years ago. The silver had been on a Dutch East India Co. ship that vanished in a storm in the English Channel in 1739. Although wreckage was found at the time on Britain's south coast, nobody knew precisely where it had sunk. The disaster meant that...

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - A woman who used a butcher knife to beat a Jehovah's Witness who knocked on her door on Christmas Day was sentenced to three months in jail. Cathy Infusino, 52, was also ordered Thursday to spend three months in a work program and serve three years of probation. She pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon. Infusino was paranoid and was being harassed by neighbors at the time of the attack, said her lawyer LeRue Grim. "She wasn't mentally well enough to understand the situation," Grim said. "She thought someone was trying to harm...

Capitol Tree Gets Christmas Moniker Back Friday December 9, 2005 12:46 AM By ELIZABETH WHITE Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Lighting up the chilly night with a resolute flick of a switch, House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Thursday night illuminated this year's Capitol Christmas - not ``holiday'' - Tree, reinstating its religious title for the first time in years. Known as the Capitol Holiday Tree since the 1990s, the Engelmann spruce towering over the Capitol's West Lawn became a symbol of the Republican-led Congress's resolve on the matter of holiday wishes. The issue touched the White House when some...