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Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out yesterday at US lawmakers who have called on him to step down, and accused American forces of committing "big mistakes" in killing and detaining Iraqi civilians in the hunt for insurgents. Alerts The embattled leader has come under fire from an array of allies and adversaries who say he has failed to unite his Cabinet and put crucial laws and programs in place. Yesterday he drew fresh criticism from two influential congressional Republicans. Maliki aimed his angriest words at Democratic senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Carl Levin of Michigan. "There are American...

WASHINGTON - GOP Sen. John Warner, who wants U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq by Christmas, said Sunday he may support Democratic legislation ordering withdrawals if President Bush refuses to set a return timetable soon. "I'm going to have to evaluate it," Warner said. "I don't say that as a threat. I say that as an option we'll all have to consider." Warner, a former Navy Secretary and one-time chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is seen as someone who could influence the debate among senators who have grown increasingly uneasy about the unpopular war.

Man gets sick benefits for heavy metal addiction A Swedish heavy metal fan has had his musical preferences officially classified as a disability. The results of a psychological analysis enable the metal loverto supplement his income with state benefits. Roger Tullgren, 42, from Hässleholm in southern Sweden has just started working part time as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. Because heavy metal dominates so many aspects of his life, the Employment Service has agreed to pay part of Tullgren's salary. His new boss meanwhile has given him a special dispensation to play loud music at work. "I have been...

Amid the Right’s current romance with Senator Joe Lieberman who, admittedly, has lapses into integrity, we should remember that Lieberman is a man of highly compromised principles. Many conservative sites hail Lieberman for “getting it” regarding terrorism. One site highlights some of his remarks at AIPAC’s recent National Policy Conference:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A nurse returning home from work discovered an intruder in her home and strangled him during a struggle, police said. Susan Kuhnhausen, 51, ran to a neighbor's house Wednesday night to report the intruder, identified as Edward Dalton Haffey, 59, whose body was found by police. An autopsy by the Multnomah County medical examiner determined the cause of death to be strangulation, said Officer Catherine Kent, a spokeswoman for the Portland Police Bureau. Homicide detectives were investigating, Kent said.

Beautiful people not only seem to get richer, live longer and float through life with greater ease than the less visually blessed, they are also changing the face of the world. Researchers have established that very attractive people are 36 per cent more likely to have daughters than sons and that the world's females are becoming better-looking than men as a result. The report, from the London School of Economics, may provide an insight into the biological forces that lead the most striking people to produce first-born daughters. It postulates that differing "evolutionary strategies" lead parents to produce the sex...

In a surreal scene, police said a man purposely cut off one of his hands in a Springfield butcher shop Saturday evening. The grisly incident occurred in Super Halal Meat along the 7000 block of Spring Garden Drive, which bisects Brookfield Plaza, home to numerous Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern eateries and markets. "I'm still numb talking about it," said Vikas Sinsunwal, who saw the man after he severed his hand. Sinsunwal said he was outside his parents store, Niralla Sweets, when the man, announcing "I did this for Allah," approached his parents' shop lifting his bloody left arm into...

It is the No. 1 sports story of 2006—and I mean by far. A blockbuster. No other story even comes close. The Bus and the Steelers? No. Shaq and the Heat? No. Bonds blows by the Babe? No. Lefty gags at the 18th hole? No. A ski bum leaves the Olympics empty-handed? No. A Cub socks a White Sox? No. A French soccer guy butts an Italian guy? No. Trivial. Insignificant. I am talking about a big, big story here. Come on, you know which one I mean. It is the story that had so many of you e-mailing your...

Dixie Chicks Natalie Maines Jumps the Shark: Now Bashes Patriots -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jeff Freeland Jun 19, 2006 When the whole firestorm that surrounded the Dixie Chicks and specifically lead singer Natalie Maines emerged in 2003 I thought it was a bit blown out of proportion. Dixie Chicks Natalie Maines Jumps the Shark I completely disagreed with her off the cuff statement in London that she was "ashamed" of the president being from Texas - but as she was just an entertainer - I thought her reaction was a bit overdone. *** I am from Texas and live in Houston and...

PHILADELPHIA — Bistec con queso? Not at Geno's Steaks. An English-only ordering policy has thrust one of Philadelphia's best-known cheesesteak joints into the national immigration debate. Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno's -- which together with its chief rival, Pat's King of Steaks, forms the epicenter of an area described as "ground zero for cheesesteaks" -- has posted small signs telling customers, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH." Snip----- But the policy has "really upset a lot of a people," said Brad Baldia of Day Without An Immigrant, a coalition of immigrant groups. "For some people, I...

Conservative author Ann Coulter fired back at Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) for calling her "vicious [and] mean-spirited" towards a group of politically active 9/11 widows who blamed Pres. Bush for the deaths of their husbands and who campaigned for John Kerry in 2004. Coulter, while hosting a book signing in Long Island, told radio host Sean Hannity that Clinton should have a talk with her husband, Bill, if she's worried about people being mean to women.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A woman eating at a Burger King restaurant in the Netherlands found a live frog in her salad, the company confirmed Sunday. "What's happened is that one of our guests Thursday evening found a frog in her salad. She went to the manager and showed him the frog. He saw it was there and that's a fact," said spokeswoman Christine Frey. Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad quoted the customer, identified as 23-year-old Astrid Roek, as saying "it was a big black thing, a frog or a toad." She said she found the amphibian while halfway through her...

WINDHOEK, Namibia, April 13 (UPI) -- There were several reports Thursday that actress Angelina Jolie plans to give birth to her baby with Brad Pitt in the African nation of Namibia. The celebrity couple -- along with their adopted children Zahara and Maddox -- have been in Namibia for the past nine days, living near a beach under heavy security, the New York Post reported. The couple considered having the baby in France, Cambodia and Germany, but ultimately decided on Namibia, where Jolie filmed "Beyond Borders" in 2002. "It was important for them to have the baby in a place...

he New Testament story describes Jesus walking on water in the Sea of Galilee but according to a study led by Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof, it's more likely that he walked on an isolated patch of floating ice. The study points to a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions for development of a unique, localized freezing phenomenon that Nof and his co-authors call "springs ice." In what is now northern Israel, such ice could have formed on the cold freshwater surface of the Sea of Galilee -- known as Lake Kinneret by modern-day Israelis...

No difference between these Kansas' Baptists and other hate-filled jerks around the world. Folks, according to Yahoo News / AFP: FLUSHING, United States (AFP) - Five women sang and danced as they held up signs saying "thank God for dead soldiers" at the funeral of an army sergeant who was killed by an Iraqi bomb. For them, it was the perfect way to spread God's word: America was being punished for tolerating homosexuality. For the hundreds of flag waving bikers who came to this small town in Michigan Saturday to shield the soldier's family, it was disgusting. "That could be...

Koppel says no, Marash yes to Al Jazeera job But 'Nightline' colleague signs on By DAVID BAUDER, AP television writer Former "Nightline" correspondent Dave Marash has signed on to work at the planned Al-Jazeera International network, but his former boss -- Ted Koppel -- rejected its executives' overtures. Marash will be a Washington-based anchor and reporter for the English-language network, which plans to go on the air this spring. The Qatar-based network is an offshoot of Al-Jazeera, the influential Arabic network that has come under fire from the Bush administration. Former ABC "Nightline" anchor Koppel, who recently joined the Discovery...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A seal bit off a South African woman's nose after she tried to help it back into the sea, an official said Monday. Elsie van Tonder, 49, is expected to undergo surgery this week after being bitten on a beach near George, about 240 miles east of Cape Town Saturday. Her nose was found but could not be reattached to her face, local media reported. "The seal had been lying in the same spot since Friday, so the lady and a few other people were trying to take it back to the water," said Herman Oosthuizen, a...

Handguns •A longtime law that allows Texans to carry handguns while traveling, even without a concealed handgun license, is clarified. The new law says a person is "presumed to be traveling" if he or she is in a private vehicle, is not engaged in criminal activity, is not prohibited by any other law from possessing a firearm and is not a member of a criminal street gang.

Illegal Immigrants Win Arizona Ranch in Court By ANDREW POLLACK DOUGLAS, Ariz., Aug. 18 - Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico. Now, in a turnabout, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally....

A Fayette County tee-ball coach was arraigned on felony charges yesterday that he bribed a 7-year-old player to throw a baseball at a mentally disabled teammate's face to keep the boy out of a game. State police said Mark Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, offered his star player $25 on June 27 to hit an 8-year-old autistic child with a baseball because he wanted to win the game. "Just when you thought you had seen everything," said state Trooper Thomas B. Broadwater. Downs' lawyer, Thomas Shaffer, said his client denies the charges. "He has two children of his own," said...