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US casualties cut by half as Baghdad tears itself apart By Aqeel Hussein and Gethin Chamberlain (Filed: 17/09/2006) The sectarian violence that has brought Iraq to the verge of civil war has had one unexpected benefit: a marked fall in the number of United States military casualties in Baghdad. American combat deaths in the capital are down 50 per cent on this time last year and some terrorists say the US has succeeded in deflecting attention from its own troops. American deaths are down 50pc "Now we are fighting each other," said one insurgent. "That is what the Americans wanted...

China hit by strongest typhoon for half a century · 1.5 million evacuated, state of emergency declared· Summer of damage for storm-devastated region Jonathan Watts in Beijing Friday August 11, 2006The Guardian (UK) The most powerful typhoon to strike China for half a century tore into one of the country's manufacturing heartlands yesterday, killing at least two people, injuring 80 and forcing the evacuation of 1.5 million residents. With winds of up to 135mph, typhoon Saomai hit the coastal town of Mazhan in Zhejiang province, dumping a torrent of rain on a region still recovering from earlier floods. A dozen...

BRITISH troops in Afghanistan are engaged in some of the most intense and prolonged fighting seen by the army for half a century, a senior commander said yesterday. Some UK troops will be withdrawn from parts of the lawless Helmand province to be replaced by soldiers from the Afghan army, Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said. "This sort of thing hasn't really happened so consistently, I don't think, since the Korean War or the Second World War," he said. "It happened for periods in the Falklands, obviously, and it happened for short periods in...

More than half of California's K-12 public education students enrolled in free or reduced-price meal programs last year, the first time that the majority of youngsters were approved for assistance, according to state and federal officials. California was one of a dozen states where the majority of students were certified for such programs, said Jean Daniel, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. In Contra Costa, almost a third of all students signed up for the federally subsidized lunch and breakfast programs, the third school year in a row the county has seen an increase in the percentage of students. Nearly...

CLEBURNE, Texas: A rail worker who lost his legs when a train ran over him used a mobile phone to report that he was trapped and had been "cut in two". Truman Duncan, 36, was in a critical condition yesterday after the accident on Sunday at the Gunderson Southwest rail yard in Cleburne. In a tape of the 911 call, Duncan tells the operator: "I need 911 ... I think I'm cut in two." The operator asks: "Someone got run over?" Duncan replies: "It was me. I guess I'm going into shock. Hurry up, ma'am, because I'm about to pass...

FORT HUACHUCA — Come July, Col. Jonathan Hunter doesn’t know if he will have even half the money he needs to run the garrison for the last three months of the current federal fiscal year. The garrison commander does know about $16 million is needed for July, August and September. “We’ll be lucky if we get half,” he said. The situation is so dire that temporary and term civil service employees in the garrison are being cut, civil service people are being offered voluntary early retirement, and vacant positions are not being filled. Term and temporary employees have no guarantee...

WASHINGTON - The government has no plans to move at least half of the 10,000 emergency housing trailers sitting empty in Hope, Ark., saying they may be needed for the 2006 hurricane season. The Federal Emergency Management Agency detailed its plan to keep the trailers at the Hope municipal airport in a letter to Sen. Tim Johnson (news, bio, voting record), D-S.D., who had asked that some of the trailers be used for American Indian housing. The letter did not mention Johnson's request, but FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said Friday that federal law says the trailers must be used for...

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 22, 2006 – Throughout the day here, a steady stream of visitors stopped by the "America Supports You" booth to write messages of support on post cards for U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Visitors to the "America Supports You" booth at the annual "Thunder Over Louisville" festival April 22 write messages of support for servicemembers on post cards that will be sent to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Photo by John D. Banusiewicz  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. America Supports You is a Defense Department program that spotlights what American people and the...

Dig finds long-term use at Hell's Half AcreSite was home to Indians at least 1,200 years ago By The Associated Press CASPER, Wyo. -- A preliminary report on an archaeological dig says Hell's Half Acre, west of Casper, was home to prehistoric American Indians at least 1,200 years ago, and perhaps as long as 8,000 years ago. John Albanese, chairman of the Natrona County Historic Preservation Society, told Natrona County commissioners on Thursday that archaeological evidence shows Indians were hunting bison at Hell's Half Acre between 1,200 and 3,000 years ago, and that some evidence appeared to be much older....

Some of the Uprooted Won't Go Home Again By Richard Morin and Lisa Rein Friday, September 16, 2005; HOUSTON, Sept. 15 -- Fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters here said they will move back home, while two-thirds of those who want to relocate planned to settle permanently in the Houston area, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The wide-ranging poll found that these survivors of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath remain physically and emotionally battered but unbroken. They praised...

SAN DIEGO -- A half-smoked marijuana cigarette was used to link a man to the slaying of a San Diego woman 17 years ago, NBC 7/39 reported Monday Mark Elder, 47, was arrested in Florida Friday after a police officer noticed that Elder matched a description sent out on a nationwide alert. The alert was issued after DNA from the 1988 San Diego murder case was matched to two rape cases in Florida. Saliva from Elder's joint was tested at a lab in San Diego. It matched DNA found at the scene the apartment where Janet Moore, 27, was killed...

UNITED NATIONS - Half the 4,500 companies that took part in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges and are being given a chance to respond to the accusations, two top investigators told The Associated Press. The U.N.-backed probe is expected to release a major report in early September on the $64 billion operation and a final report in October on the companies involved in the purchase of Iraqi oil or sale of humanitarian goods under the program, the investigators said. "We will report on the management and the corruption," former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul...

Almost half of the Jewish families in Gaza are willing to relocate to the Nitzan and north Ashkelon area, a senior official in the Construction and Housing Ministry told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. As many as 300 more families will be slipped into the cluster housing option of the Nitzanim plan, despite Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's announcement last week that it had been closed, the official said. It would bring to 750 the number of families willing to relocate out of some 1,600 families. The source said that since Sharon's announcement, settler leaders have been meeting secretly with ministry...

Iraqis Capture Saddam's Half Brother 29 minutes ago By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces captured Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, Saddam Hussein's half brother and former adviser who was suspected of financing insurgents from Syria after U.S. troops ousted the former dictator, the government said Sunday. In a statement, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office said the arrest "shows the determination of the Iraqi government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment."...

WASHINGTON – Within a decade, the government will be footing the bill for nearly half the nation's medical costs, its share propelled higher by the new Medicare drug program, administration economists estimated Wednesday. At the same time, total health spending – both private and government – will take an ever-larger portion of America's economic output, said the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The rise in federal payments raises "some really, really big issues" about a government budget in which other programs already are being squeezed out, said Urban Institute tax analyst Eugene Steuerle. The projections were...

Pope AFB Loses Nearly Half Of C-130 Fleet To Grounding Delegation Hopes To Update Fleet POSTED: 8:09 am EST February 15, 2005 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Nearly half of the aging C-130 airplanes at Pope Air Force Base have been grounded because of safety concerns, military officials said. Col. Darren W. McDew, 43rd Airlift Wing commander, said Monday 14 of the 31 four-propeller C-130 Hercules have at Pope are prevented from flying. The planes are used for missions as diverse as dropping Fort Bragg paratroopers on training exercises and hauling cargo around the Persian Gulf. Some members of the North Carolina...

Just a Day Shy of the Start of Winter. COLD BLAST HITS WASHINGTON DC AND HALF OF THE NATION. WIND CHILL MAP

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Kerry's speech tells half of story By Jerry Zremski News Washington correspondent Jerry Zremski analyzes and fact-checks what was said during Thursday's prime-time television coverage of the Democratic National Convention. By CONVENTION WATCH 7/31/2004 WASHINGTON - In accepting the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. John F. Kerry was eloquent, passionate and presidential - and guilty of grave sins of omission. He didn't explain his position on Iraq. He vowed to cut the deficit without explaining how. And Kerry's 5,310-word speech included only 73 words about his 19-year Senate career. That's what pundits noted Friday when asked to square Kerry's speech...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An extraordinarily high percentage of California public safety workers retire with special disability retirement benefits, qualifying them for half their last annual salary for life, tax-free. Two out of three retirees in the California Highway Patrol receive the medical pensions, as do nearly half of retirees from local police and fire departments. Among recipients are a state nurse who suffers anxiety about sick people; a prison guard who hurt his knee carrying a large coffeepot upstairs; and a Department of Motor Vehicles investigator who qualified for two consecutive disability pensions, both for the same heart condition, found...