Free Republic

Should Sen. Hillary Clinton bow out of the presidential race?

See link for video -- John Boehner leads Republicans out of the House, protesting the Democrats not addressing FISA extension.

I spoke to one of my Thompson sources. He's still with his ailing mother. "He's just being a good son." He has not spoken to any other campaign or any other candidates, nor does he intend to at this time. He will not endorse, I am told by this source close to Thompson. I am also told, "he has no interest in a vice presidency or a cabinet position." At an "appropriate time" he will outline his plans for the near future. This source believes that the race has demonstrated that whatever happens from here on out, the GOP has...

TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGNS Mon Jan 07 2008 09:46:28 ET Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?! "She can't take multiple double-digit losses in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada," laments one top campaign insider. "If she gets too badly embarrassed, it will really harm her. She doesn't want the Clinton brand to be damaged with back-to-back-to-back defeats." Meanwhile, Democrat hopeful John Edwards has confided to senior staff that...

Tennessee Town Has Run Out of Water Published: 11/1/07, 6:46 PM EDT By GREG BLUESTEIN ORME, Tenn. (AP) - As twilight falls over this Tennessee town, Mayor Tony Reames drives up a dusty dirt road to the community's towering water tank and begins his nightly ritual in front of a rusty metal valve. With a twist of the wrist, he releases the tank's meager water supply, and suddenly this sleepy town is alive with activity. Washing machines whir, kitchen sinks fill and showers run. About three hours later, Reames will return and reverse the process, cutting off water to the...

Iraqi leader tells Bush: Get Gen Petraeus out By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:44am BST 28/07/2007 Stormy relationship: Nouri al-Maliki and Gen David Petraeus Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush. Although the call was rejected, aides to both men admit that Mr Maliki and Gen David Petraeus engage in frequent stand-up shouting matches, differing particularly over the US general's moves to arm Sunni tribesmen to fight al-Qa'eda. One...

July 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democratic Presidential Candidate and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is being treated in a Cleveland area hospital suffering from the severe effects of apparent food poisoning. Kucinich became ill late on Sunday night while traveling from Cleveland to Ft. Lauderdale, FL where he was scheduled to address the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) national convention on Monday morning. He was accompanied on the trip by his wife Elizabeth. Despite experiencing severe gastrointestinal symptoms consistent with food poisoning, he proceeded with his scheduled appearance at the ILA event. Immediately following his speech, he flew back home to Cleveland where...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007 – Anyone who watched the final episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” series understands what the Army is up against as it works to fill its ranks with high-quality recruits. When young Anthony Soprano Jr., “AJ” to his family and friends, expressed an interest in joining the Army, he met opposition from all corners. His girlfriend balked. His mother, Carmela, tried to dissuade him for fear he’s be deployed to Iraq. His father Tony, New Jersey’s mob boss, ultimately distracted him with a new BMW and an opportunity to make a movie. The story may be fictitious,...

Muslims Open A Window To Faith Forum Reaches Out To Ease Suspicions As The Faithful Face Mecca MICHAEL MCANDREWS, July 7, 2007 AMID HUNDREDS OF MUSLIMS during afternoon prayers on Saturday, Asim Abdelrahman, 6, keeps close to his father, Abdel Abdelrahman, during the annual meeting of the Islamic Circle of North America held at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The Abdelrahmans, who live in Princeton, N.J., joined about 15,000 other Muslims, mostly from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as about 100 non-Muslim guests invited to learn more about Islam.

The fate of the immigration bill comes down to Senate Republicans’ leader, Mitch McConnell........”The only thing that can save us now is if McConnell made an appeal to Republicans that this thing is out of control and we need to step back from it.......”said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. “He could do that....”..... Debate on the bill resumes today, and Republican leaders will have to decide quickly...........snipped from: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844535/posts Jam McConnell’s phone today. Be polite. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844535/posts#6 McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY) 361-A RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510 (202) 224-2541 mcconnell.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

MILWAUKEE- A thief found out the hard way that robbing a woman isn't the best way to capture her heart. Two men robbed a U-Haul store around 3 p.m. Sunday, taking an unspecified amount of cash, according the store's owner. But instead of fleeing, one man lingered and tried to strike up a conversation with the woman he had just robbed. "He stuck around and was trying to get the female employee's number," U-Haul general manager Patrick Sobocinski said. "She said he was just saying, 'Hey baby, you're pretty fine.'" According to Sobocinski, one robber went behind the counter, put...

Updated 2:15 a.m.: Former McHenry campaign worker indicted for voter fraud from 2004 election Kevin Ellis May 11, 2007 - 11:33PM A grassroots organizer in U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry’s 2004 bid for Congress faces a felony election fraud charge. A Gaston County grand jury indicted Michael Aaron Lay, 26, of Pioneer, Tenn., on May 7. Lay, who graduated with a law degree from the University of Tennessee on Friday, did not immediately return a phone message left with his father early Saturday. McHenry dismissed the charge against Lay as a political attack in a statement released by his office Friday...

I'll be out of No 10 within weeks, says Blair By George Jones and Brendan Carlin Last Updated: 1:56am BST 02/05/2007 Tony Blair promised yesterday that he would stand down as Prime Minister "in the next few weeks". The announcement was a late attempt to avert a large protest vote against Labour in tomorrow's mid-term elections. Tony Blair will announce his resignation date next Wednesday or Thursday He is planning to announce next Wednesday or Thursday that he is resigning as Labour leader. The decision should see Gordon Brown succeed him in Downing Street by July 2. Mr Blair used...

FORT HUACHUCA — The leadership of the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca will change on June 29, when Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast turns over the reins to Brig. Gen. John Custer. Fast, who has commanded the center and fort since March 16, 2005, has been named the deputy for the Army Capabilities Training Center at the Training and Doctrine Command headquarters at Fort Monroe, Va. Custer, who is on the list for promotion to major general, will be returning to the fort from his position as the director of intelligence for the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base,...

Outback cracks under assault of the Big Dry Five years of drought have left Australian land parched and towns on the verge of economic ruin Phil Mercer in Sydney Sunday December 10, 2006 The Observer (UK) A farmer moves his sheep in search of food in drought-stricken New South Wales, Australia. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters Drought has plunged one of Australia's most famous outback towns to the brink of social and economic collapse. Bourke - heralded as the 'Real Gateway to the Outback' - faces oblivion. Five years of drought has left Bourke facing its worst crisis. Little wonder Australians are...

A new dish is appearing on menus across the nation. Restaurateurs say they have little choice other than offer it, though it horrifies many customers. That item is the $40 entree. Until recently, such prices were the stuff of four-star, white-tablecloth meals, the kind that ended with a diamond ring on the petit four tray. But now entrees over $40 can be found in restaurants that are merely upscale, where diners wear jeans and tote children. In geographic terms, New York and Las Vegas have led the charge, and in culinary ones, luxury items like steak and lobster were first...

Moderate Muslims Urged to Speak Out Sunday October 1, 2006 2:16 AM By JAN M. OLSEN Associated Press Writer COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Moderate Muslims must take a stand against extremists, speakers said Saturday at a conference marking a year since the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons that led to violent demonstrations in Muslim countries. The 12 drawings, first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September, were reprinted in several European countries four months later, prompting angry mobs to attack Western embassies in countries including Lebanon, Iran and Indonesia. The cartoons, which included a drawing of the prophet with...

(Sept. 19) - Adopted two days after her first birthday, Sarah Culberson grew up the youngest daughter in a close-knit family from Morgantown, W.Va. She was surrounded by love in her home, but always wondered about her roots. Searching to unlock the secrets of her past, at age 22, Culberson began searching for her birth parents. She quickly learned that her mom had died a dozen years earlier from cancer. Culberson was crushed. A few years later, a private investigator helped her locate her birth father, along with an unbelievable surprise. Culberson wasn't an average suburban girl -- she was...

"...Sweet Sixteen events have exploded in size and popularity at the same time that the Hispanic tradition of the Quinceañera, a party thrown for a girl of 15 to mark her transition into womanhood, is receiving more attention. Though both events are more secular than Bat Mitzvahs, they bear a similar social function to the Jewish tradition. The host and her family -- rather than a committee of ladies-who-lunch -- make the decisions about attendees, decor and entertainment. As a result, the party may be an expression the family's status and wealth -- rather than a rite of passage for...

North Korea 'determined to carry out underground test' By Sergey Soukhorukov in Pyongyang (Filed: 10/09/2006) Russian diplomats believe it is now "highly probable" that North Korea will officially join the nuclear club by carrying out its first underground test of an atomic device. Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is said to have made clear his intention to explode a device during recent talks with Russian and Chinese officials in Pyongyang. Although he was pressed to resume six-party talks over his nuclear programme, the Russians concluded that he was serious in his desire to demonstrate that his scientists have...

Hospital superbug 'out of control' as child MRSA cases rise to 150 By Beezy Marsh, Health Correspondent (Filed: 10/09/2006) Nearly 150 babies and children last year suffered potentially fatal blood infections after contracting the MRSA superbug in NHS hospitals, Government research reveals. The figure is double that of previous estimates, raising concerns that MRSA is tightening its grip on the very young and that poor hospital hygiene is allowing the superbug to spread. Children with MRSA in their blood require emergency hospital treatment to prevent blood poisoning and toxic shock, which can quickly lead to organ failure and death. Premature...

Contact: Neil Schoenherr nschoenherr@wustl.edu 314-935-5235 Washington University in St. Louis Modern humans, not Neandertals, may be evolution's 'odd man out'Looking incorrectly at Neandertals Could it be that in the great evolutionary "family tree," it is we Modern Humans, not the brow-ridged, large-nosed Neandertals, who are the odd uncle out? New research published in the August, 2006 journal Current Anthropology by Neandertal and early modern human expert, Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that rather than the standard straight line from chimps to early humans to us with Neandertals off on a side graph, it's...

Sudan orders African troops out of Darfur By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 04/09/2006) Sudan's regime sought to remove the only international military presence in Darfur yesterday when it demanded the withdrawal of all African Union troops from the war-torn region. The AU, an alliance of all 53 African countries, has 5,000 troops and 2,000 civilian staff in Darfur. Crippled by incompetence and lack of resources, the mission has largely failed to protect the population.But it has recorded numerous attacks on civilian targets mounted by Sudanese government forces and their allies from the notorious Janjaweed militia. Violence, starvation and disease...

Residents of the Ghazaliya neighborhood of Baghdad wait in line for medical treatment conducted by Iraqi doctors of the 6th Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, Iraqi National Guard, with Coalition doctors providing support. Department of Defense photo by Navy Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Brett Cote, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.BAGHDAD -- Nearly 200 residents participated in Operation Ghazaliya Aid, receiving medical treatment for a variety of ailments.Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, along with Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National...

Jubilant Iraqi looters strip military base after British forces pull out By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 26/08/2006) Thousands of jubilant Iraqis looted the British military base in Amarah yesterday, only a day after the Army pulled out of the camp. Everything from doors and window frames to corrugated roofing and metal pipes was pillaged from Camp Abu Naji, previously Britain's only permanent base in Maysan province. Witnesses said that thieves filled up lorries with their gains. When one was asked what he was doing, he answered: "This is war loot." The British decision to hand over the camp to...

SIERRA VISTA — Seized with sorrow as she said goodbye to her four small children, Army Sgt. Alberta Cole resorted to a time-honored trick employed by parents everywhere. "The kids said, 'Mommy, you're crying.' And I said 'No, my eyes are just watering,' " said Cole, a 30-year-old single mom who left for Iraq on Tuesday, her youngest child's first birthday. Hundreds of loved ones waved and wept as members of Fort Huachuca's 86th Signal Battalion boarded a plane bound for Baghdad. Cole is one of 340 Southern Arizona soldiers scheduled to spend a year overseas. A neighbor is watching...

Shops run out of money as Zimbabwe changes currency By Peta Thornycroft in Harare (Filed: 22/08/2006) Crowds filled Zimbabwe's banks and shops yesterday as they rushed to meet a deadline to acquire new currency after the government cancelled the old one. Three noughts have been struck off the new notes in an effort to reduce the huge volume of cash required for the simplest transaction in a land where annual inflation runs at almost 1,000 per cent. People had to hand in old notes by yesterday's deadline. But the task was complicated by an official regulation banning anyone from possessing...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Over the past two and a half years, about 500 severely wounded servicemembers and their families have enjoyed 5,000 free dinners out on the town thanks to Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien. “Some of them have come to multiple dinners because some of them are here for years,” Koster said Aug. 18, as he looked over the 60 or so guests dining on the rooftop of The Exchange restaurant here. About 20 servicemembers, many in wheelchairs and prosthetics, family members and other guests dined overlooking a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol, and the Washington...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Aug. 10, 2006 -- Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, conducted Operation River Falcon July 25-27 in and around the town of Sayifiyah. “The goal was to set conditions in the area in support of future projects and more kinetic operations,” said Capt. Colin Brooks, commander, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. Sayifiyah had once been a “French Riviera”-type region for Sunnis, who were given preferential treatment under the Sadam regime, Brooks said.  Located southeast of Baghdad on the Tigris River, the small area, which...

Stressed out and anxious in Beirut By Hugh Sykes BBC News, Beirut For many in Beirut the bombing feels like collective punishment People keep asking me, "Do you know when it will stop?" I shrug my shoulders, and say: "Your guess is as good as mine." Then they ask: "But Beirut - will they bomb Beirut again?" "What would be the point?" I reply. Then they bombed Beirut again. Dozens of displaced children living in a school in a quiet neighbourhood near the city centre heard terrifying loud bangs in the middle of the night. Four massive thumps one night,...

Scientists to stake out world's hurricane nursery 14:26 27 July 2006 NewScientist.com news service Jeff Hecht A map of 2004 hurricane paths shows the point where each storm was recognised as a tropical depression. Almost all major hurricanes begin as low pressure wavefronts coming off the African coast (Image: US National Hurricane Center) Scientists will spend the peak of the North Atlantic hurricane season focusing a fleet of satellites, a dedicated research aircraft, and ground-based radars on belts of thunderstorms and low pressure moving westwards from the tropical African coast. The aim is to find out why and how about...

'A second shot rang out. Both men were dead. Now I could never be known as Frank Sinatra's daughter' By Douglas Thompson (Filed: 23/07/2006)Page 1 of 9In February 1947, Frank Sinatra, cooler than his eyes were blue, flew into Havana to perform for an audience not only tougher than his usual crowd, but far deadlier. The engagement would change Sinatra's life, and do much to shape, in the years that followed, the world's idea of who he was. The Cuban interlude, a darkly Runyonesque affair, rich in sex and menace, would have an equally lasting effect on a woman who,...

Convoy of fear driven out by war machine By Tim Butcher, in Tyre, southern Lebanon (Filed: 21/07/2006) It was the terrified faces of the children pressed against the car windows yesterday looking up for Israeli aircraft that showed this was no ordinary seaside drive. Thousands of Lebanese fled in fear up the country's Mediterranean coast road, pathetically waving white towels and pieces of clothing as if that could protect them from the force of the Israeli war machine. A family flee their village in southern Lebanon Bumping past craters ripped deep into the road by Israeli bombs, the stream of...

THE NEW WORLD DISORDER Foreign ownership of U.S. airlines? Bush ready to defy Congress' ban despite pilots' fears of another Dubai ports deal The Department of Transportation, acting under President Bush's orders, is preparing to issue an administrative ruling that would open U.S. airlines up to foreign ownership, despite specific prohibitions and warnings from Congress, as well as predictions by pilots that another Dubai ports controversy is in the offing. The proposed ruling puts the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA – the largest airline pilot union in the world representing 61,000 pilots who fly for 40 U.S. and Canadian...

Palestinian PM is defiant as Gaza runs out of water By Harry de Quetteville in Gaza (Filed: 01/07/2006) The Palestinian prime minister emerged from hiding yesterday, vowing to defy Israeli military pressure which has left the Gaza Strip facing a humanitarian crisis. Ismail Haniya: 'No concessions' to the barrage Ismail Haniya, who has already survived one Israeli assassination attempt, has been under cover since a 19-year-old Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinian militants on Sunday. Israeli public television reported yesterday that Cpl Gilad Shalit was alive and had been treated by a Palestinian doctor for his injuries. But until he...

Stone-age tools dug out of ‘tiger hole’ G.S. MUDUR The ‘tiger hole’ that turned out to be a cave shelter; implements found by archaeologists. Telegraph pictures New Delhi, June 12: An assortment of stone-age tools buried in a cave in the western coastal district of Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri has provided the first evidence of a cave shelter of human ancestors on India’s coastline. What local village folk had shunned as a “tiger hole”, archaeologists from the Deccan College and Postgraduate Research Institute in Pune have shown was a shelter that preserved relics of ancient craftsmanship. “The shape and features of the...

WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders worked to strip embattled Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) of his committee assignment on Thursday after the Louisiana lawmaker rebuffed repeated calls to step aside pending completion of a federal bribery investigation. Jefferson, at the center of an increasingly complicated legal and political controversy with racial overtones, insisted he would not go quietly. "I can guarantee" he will not voluntarily step aside, said Melanie Roussell, his spokeswoman. The congressman has not been indicted and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. He is a member of the Ways and Means Committee, with authority over taxes, Medicare, trade,...

World watches in silence as Azerbaijan wipes out Armenian cultureWestern governments have failed to condemn the destruction of a unique medieval cemetery by Azerbaijani soldiers By Lucian Harris | Posted 25 May 2006 Armenia says the Christian cemetery of Jugha, dating from the ninth to 16th centuries, has been completely destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers. LONDON. A delegation of European members of Parliament was last month refused access to Djulfa, in the Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan, to investigate reports that an ancient Armenian Christian cemetery has been destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers. The delegation of ten MEPs from the commission on EU-Armenia...

U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Kevin Kumpf American College Musicians Reach Out to Iraqi Military Band By Norris JonesGulf Region Central DistrictUS Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 25, 2006 — The Iraqi army’s military band located north of Baghdad in Taji is hearing a symphony of support from musicians throughout America thanks to the efforts of a U.S. Navy sailor. Chief Petty Officer Kevin Kumpf said shortly after arriving in Taji he received a personal appeal from Iraqi Base Commander Col. Alaa about specific equipment needs his military band had. Kumpf, non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the U.S. Army...

WASHINGTON - A prominent congressional opponent of sweeping immigration legislation conceded Friday the measure is likely to pass next week, adding "The Senate should be ashamed of itself." At the same time, Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., predicted that without significant changes, no final compromise would emerge from House-Senate negotiations this year. Sessions indicated little chance of a filibuster, a tactic that would require supporters to amass 60 votes to prevail. The Alabama Republican made his remarks at the end of a week of maneuvering on the Senate floor that left the fundamental provisions of the legislation...

Neandertals take out their small blades Bruce Bower From San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Paleoanthropology Society and Society for American Archaeology meeting Excavations of Neandertal artifacts at two caves in northern Spain have yielded an unexpected discovery—a trove of thin, double-edged stone blades that researchers usually regard as the work of Stone Age people who lived much later. In 2005, Federico Bernaldo de Quiros of the University of Léon in Spain and his coworkers unearthed small stone blades, which they called bladelets, lying amid larger, characteristic Neandertal stone implements in a cave called El Castillo. All the finds came...

Mobs cheer British deaths as Basra slips out of control By Oliver Poole, Iraq Correspondent (Filed: 08/05/2006) It took the soldiers from 1 Bn Light Infantry all the night and most of yesterday to remove the wreckage of the Lynx helicopter that came down in Basra at the weekend, killing five British servicemen on board. As they used heavy lifting equipment to separate twisted metal from the debris of a house that the aircraft had crashed into, military experts were trying to establish whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure or hostile fire. British officers believe the most likely...

Two million Darfur refugees face food ration cut as aid cash runs out By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 29/04/2006) The suffering of at least two million refugees in Darfur worsened still further yesterday when the United Nations said their food rations will be halved. The UN's World Food Programme explained that a 50 per cent cut was necessary because donors had failed to provide enough money. Over two million refugees in Darfur depend on the WFP "This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made," said James Morris, director of the WFP. "Haven't the people of Darfur...

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...

Taking out a killer asteroid – with a tame one 17:38 26 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. A potentially deadly asteroid is heading for Earth, and scientists mount a mission to intercept it – using another asteroid. But that is exactly what two French researchers propose in a plan to capture and "park" a small asteroid near the Earth for just such emergencies. But a second group of researchers says shooting a spacecraft into the asteroid would be simpler and more effective. Other experts warn that both plans risk having fragments of...

Sarkozy reaches out to far-right voters · If you dislike France then go, says interior minister· Poll puts Le Pen in third place in presidential vote Kim Willsher in Paris Monday April 24, 2006 The Guardian (UK) France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been accused of pandering to the extreme right in his campaign to become president by telling those who do not like the country that they can get out. Speaking this weekend to 2,500 members of his ruling right-of-centre UMP party, he appeared to use the language of France's anti-immigrant parties - a move that won applause. "If...

Stones Play Mainland China for First TimeBy CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 36 minutes ago Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, left, performs with Cui Jian, China's best known rocker, in the 8,000-seat Shanghai Grand Stage in Shanghai, China, Saturday April 8, 2006. Cui, whose songs were anthems for student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, described the show as a 'milestone' for him and for all rock fans in China. The Rolling Stones were performing for the first time in mainland China, after an earlier scheduled performance was cancelled in 2003 due to the SARS crisis....

Prescribing of hyperactivity drugs is out of control 31 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Peter Aldhous Rise in ADHA?THE figures are mind-boggling. Nearly 4 million Americans, most of them children and young adults, are being prescribed amphetamine-like stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Up to a million more may be taking the drugs illegally. Now, amid reports of rare but serious side effects, leading researchers and doctors are calling for a review of the way ADHD is dealt with. Many prescriptions are being written by family doctors with little expertise in diagnosing ADHD, raising doubts about how many...

BISBEE — As Congress has taken up the issue of immigration reform, the Mexican government of President Vicente Fox has been anything but a disinterested bystander. When the House of Representatives approved a bill in December that would have built 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and made it a felony to reside illegally in the U.S., Fox denounced the measure as shameful. His foreign minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, went further and called it stupid and underhanded. After thousands of marchers took to the streets of U.S. cities last week to protest the pending immigration legislation, Fox’s spokesman,...

Palace of Homer's hero rises out of the myths From John Carr in Athens ARCHAEOLOGISTS claim to have unearthed the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax, the warrior-king who according to Homer’s Iliad was one of the most revered fighters in the Trojan War. Classicists hailed the discovery, made on a small Greek island, as evidence that the myths recounted by Homer in his epic poem were based on historical fact. The ruins include a large palace, measuring about 750sq m (8,000sq ft), and believed to have been at least four storeys high with more than thirty rooms. Yannos...