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BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S.-led forces locked in a struggle with a resilient Sunni Arab insurgency. The news came after a senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said his country's security forces had seized al Qaeda in Iraq documents giving key information about the militant group's network and the whereabouts of its leaders. "We believe this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda in Iraq," national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told a televised news...

DUBLIN, Ireland, March 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two Ukraininan doctors, Vadym Lazaryev and Vladymyr Ishchenko, have been seeking asylum in Ireland since 2004, after they were forced to flee their country for exposing appalling human rights abuses of women and unborn children in the Ukraine. The doctors were part of a group working to uncover a macabre system of medical trafficking in the bodies of unborn babies, European Life Network reported today. Doctors were deceiving women into aborting their babies for false "medical" reasons, and then selling the bodies of the children. The children would be aborted live, and...

WATSONVILLE — Jason Hendrix, the soldier whose buried remains have been the subject of a long and bitter custody battle between divorced parents, will stay in Tulsa, Okla. A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge's ruling on Tuesday put a close to one of the most unusual civil cases to stem from the Iraq War. Renee Amick, Hendrix's mother, failed to prove in court that she had an "overriding public purpose" for exhuming her son's remains, Judge Robert Yonts wrote in a 12-page ruling. And her tearful testimony in court a month ago "appeared forced and contrived. The tears were...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cindy Sheehan, the military mother who made her son's death in Iraq a rallying point for the anti-war movement, plans to tie herself to the White House fence to protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq. "I'm going to go to Washington, D.C. and I'm going to give a speech at the White House, and after I do, I'm going to tie myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to bring our troops home," Sheehan said in a telephone interview last week as the milestone approached. "And I'll probably get...

WHAT THE BRITISH ARE READING ABOUT US THIS TODAY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From a friend in London: this is from The Sun, the UK's largest newspaper, on saturday, Sept 10 2005, in a column by Jeremy Clarkson. I quote this verbatim (it's not up on their website, so i'm typing it in) "Hollywood has taught America that the military can solve anything. It's full of chisel-jawed heroes who never leave a man on the field and never fail to get the job done. So they'd have New Orleans sorted out in a jiffy. Unfortunately, on the street you've got some...

THE US military is to bar journalists and photographers from documenting the recovery of bodies left on the streets of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. Lieutenant-General Russel Honore, the commander of the relief operation, said on Friday that while the military had allowed reporters covering the catastrophe free rein, it was now slamming the door shut out of respect for the possibly thousands of victims and their families. "We've had total access to everything we've done — the good, the bad and the ugly — but that operation (the recovery of corpses) will be conducted with dignity and respect for...

Anderson Cooper announced on CNN that a restraining order (1st Amendment) has been issued allowing reporters to meddle in the search for dead bodies.

The star of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate's "A Superhero for Choice" cartoon, who gleefully blows up nonthreatening pro-lifers, is based on a real-life person: Dian J. Harrison, the president and CEO of that Planned Parenthood chapter. You may already know Harrison—or, as she's known in the cartoon, "Dianysis"—from her response to Monty Patterson, whose 18-year-old daughter, Holly Patterson, died after a Planned Parenthood Golden Gate branch gave her the abortion drug RU-486. According to the Web site San Francisco Faith, "After Holly's death on September 17 [2003], Dian Harrison of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, the affiliate that runs the Hayward...

Planned Parenthood superhero terminates Christian protesters. Also drowns promoter of abstinence in animated video pushing 'safe is sexy' message. An online animated video sponsored by Planned Parenthood's San Francisco-area branch features a superhero character drowning an abstinence promoter in a trash can and blasting into oblivion several pro-life picketers protesting in front of one of the organization's facilities. The eight-minute "Superhero for Choice," posted on the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate website, has a bespectacled black woman in San Francisco morphing into a red-suited flying enforcer, bent on making the world safe for the organization's values. Viewers see three teenagers talking...

The law requires that any resident of the Nutmeg State with an estate of more than $2 million pay a death tax of up to 16%--merely for the privilege of dying in Connecticut. The legislators in Hartford hope that the tax will raise $150 million in revenue each year--money that will come in only if the legislators in Hartford are also planning to build a Berlin Wall around the state. Otherwise, expect a stampede of retirees and family businesses out of Connecticut into the many states without a death tax, such as Florida, which has a constitutional prohibition against estate...

Teaching EuthanasiaBy Patrick J.Reilly The intense battle to prevent Terri Schiavo's husband from removing her feeding tube was horrible enough. To think that some American Catholic universities—and their ethics, theology, law, and medical professors—bear some responsibility for Schiavo's  slow death is almost too much to imagine. Yet prior to Schiavo's death, professors from top Catholic universities helped convince the courts and the public that removing her feeding tube was acceptable and consistent with Catholic teaching—even while the Vatican said it was euthanasia. Several professors sought to publicly undermine Pope John Paul II's clear statements on the moral obligation to feed and hydrate...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- A legislative committee has killed a bill aimed at removing mercury fillings from cadavers before they are cremated. Lawmakers expressed discomfort at the thought of owners of crematoriums and funeral homes being forced to pry teeth from the mouths of the dead. But supporters urged the Natural Resources Committee to look at the benefits of eliminating an in-state source of mercury pollution from the environment. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Scott Cowger, D-Hallowell, said Maine's five crematoriums emit about 40 pounds of toxic mercury each year. He suggested that the state require either the installation of costly...

I know I'm not supposed to do this but you just won't belive this thread.OK DU... Pull up a chair, get the snacks and drinks of your choice

A Democratic senator is delaying the nomination of Michael Chertoff as Homeland Security secretary to protest the Justice Department's refusal to provide a secret FBI memo on terror suspect interrogations. Chertoff is still expected to win Senate approval when lawmakers vote on his nomination Tuesday. But Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., warned Thursday that the document denial thwarts congressional oversight. "We should make the point during this nomination that we're being denied a document that may relate to the nomination itself," said Levin, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The memo _ and the ensuing delay _...

MOGADISHU, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Somali militiamen, allied with Islamic clerics who rule by sharia law, have dug up hundreds of skeletons from an Italian colonial-era cemetery and thrown them in the trash, sparking anger in the Italian and Somali capitals. The motive for the mass exhumation by gunmen allied with the clerics who rule northern Mogadishu remained unclear on Friday. Witnesses said hundreds of corpses were dug up over the past five days and thrown away at a dump near Mogadishu's airport, which drew a strongly worded protest from Rome. "The profanation of a silent and historical place, sacred...

While the world responds to calls for help in the wake of Asia's tsunami disaster, authorities say looting of victims is now taking place, with some accusations involving a rescue team. According to the Nation newspaper in Thailand, rescue workers, or people disguised as rescue workers, have been stealing from those who drowned, as well as area shops. Police in Phuket "have received complaints that a supposed rescue worker stole [$77,000 worth of jewelry] from a safe, while a man spotted another man trying to haul away his four-wheel-drive sports utility vehicle," the paper stated. The owner of Mother Gems...

To all good people of countries other than the US- WE are now officially a rogue nation- please don’t blame the citizens of the US as we have been taken over by Nazis. Trust us, we are more frightened than you. There is no possible way that Bush is the most popular president ever. There is no way that he won this election. It is a lie, supported by fraudulent elections and corrupt government officials. There is no popular support for Bush, only Bush freepers on the net paid for by homeland security to convince other nations and naive US...

You all took turns laughing because I am an extreme left, but I laugh at you because you people proved me right. You delete remarks for no other reason but you don't like the thoughts expressed, (though mine was left for assument) inactivate my account, and preach free speech for all. My words weren't for the purpose of starting a war, only to say, "hey, what do you think about this?" I didn't get one intellgent arugment. Name calling yes, insults yes, nothing thought provoking. So you cane prove me right yet again, and delete this post and inactivate my...

Exactly why are you retards happy that this Cokehead chimp is back? Do Conservatives like escalating budget deficits? I guess so. Do Conservatives like pointless wars initiated by lies? I guess so. You really must love outsourced jobs and a crappy economy. You are probably too stupid to realize how the country is now screwed. To hell with all of you.

Following is the full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape sent to Aljazeera. In the interests of authenticity, the content of the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited. Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed: Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and...