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SHANKSVILLE, Pa., March 27, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today paid respects to the 40 passengers and crewmembers killed here when they struggled against terrorist hijackers and crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. He declared their heroic effort a turning point in the war on terror. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld lays a wreath at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., March 27. A memorial is being built to commemorate the victims who lost their lives overtaking a terrorist hijacked airplane and saving the plane from continuing its mission on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 24, 2006) -- “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror; I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do,” Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote. For one Marine, past experiences have developed him into a capable team leader. Drawing on what Marines he served under taught him, Lance Cpl. Jeffrey M. Roberts, a 21-year-old Destin, Fla., native, has become a team leader for...

NEW YORK - The government can decide what artwork is worthwhile without being accused of censorship as long as it is funding that art, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience Thursday at the Juilliard School. "The First Amendment has not repealed the ancient rule of life, that he who pays the piper calls the tune," Scalia said. The justice, who limited his discussion to art issues, said he wasn't suggesting that government stop funding the arts, but that if it does fund artwork, it is entitled to have a say in the content, just like when it runs...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. environment chief has a message for leaders of the world's major industrialized nations: scientists have shown that it pays to preserve forests, coastal waters and marshes. Klaus Toepfer made the case that investing in the environment will go a long way toward meeting U.N. goals to reduce poverty, supply clean drinking water and fight the spread of infectious diseases. "Our motto is environment for development," he said in an interview last week. The Group of Eight meets in Scotland on Wednesday and will address global warming and climate change — and Toepfer expressed hope that...

McDonald’s pays $10m damages Silicon Valley (PTI): Fast food giant McDonald’s will pay $10 million to 24 groups, including the International American Gita Society, as part of a settlement of lawsuits. McDonald’s has been charged with misleading Hindus and vegetarian consumers by “wrongly describing” its French fries, containing beef additive for flavouring, as vegetarian. McDonald’s recently informed the Gita society that it is among the groups receiving the settlement money, the US-based non-profit organisation’s spokesperson, Ramananda Prasad, said. “We are such a small organisation, and nobody supports us, the temples are busy with their own activities,” Prasad, who founded the...

Bigger breasts for free: Join the Army Reuters Posted online: Friday, July 23, 2004 at 1315 hours IST New York, July 23: The US Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime. The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the US military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. "Anyone wearing a uniform is...

US pays $10m for Hambali Hambali is being interrogated in US custody The United States has paid Thailand $10m for its part in the arrest of Indonesian terror-suspect Hambali. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the money had arrived and he would decide which police officers and other causes would share the reward. Hambali, who was arrested in August north of the Thai capital Bangkok, is now being interrogated by the US. He is thought to be a key figure in the Asian group Jemaah Islamiah, and its link with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda. The Thai prime minister said some...

Britain pays wages of thousands of demobbed Iraqi soldiers By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 18/06/2003) Britain is paying monthly wages to thousands of demobilised Iraqi soldiers, even though the army has been disbanded. The payments are part of Britain's hearts-and-minds campaign to avoid stirring up resentment against the occupation of Iraq. The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, last month announced the abolition of the army and intelligence services, leaving some 400,000 people out of a job. Earlier he decreed that senior members of the former ruling Ba'ath party would not be eligible for government posts. But in...