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Man accused of posing as Dodger on field LOS ANGELES — A man faces criminal charges for allegedly stealing a uniform from Dodger Stadium and posing as one of the team's players. Ronald Higgins pleaded not guilty to several charges Friday, including burglary and trespassing. The 47-year-old Higgins was arrested Wednesday morning after a security guard found him walking on the field in a Dodgers uniform and holding a glove with two balls. Higgins allegedly identified himself as a Dodgers player, but the guard recognized him from an earlier incident and called police. Prosecutors say Higgins' clothes were later found...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

[Snip] Homeland Security Issues Warning on Sports Arenas As the spring sports season moves into high gear, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI today issued an assessment, called "Potential Threats to Popular Sports and Entertainment Venues," that said arenas and stadiums are attractive "potential targets during events." …..[Snip]   

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

Al Qaeda 'Re-Emerging' in Pakistan Sanctuaries The U.S. military said Tuesday it expected Al Qaeda to continue its "re-emergence" in sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas from where it supported attacks in Afghanistan. Sanctuary was provided to Al Qaeda and Taliban rebels after Islamabad signed a peace deal with militants in a desperate attempt to quell the unrest in its federally administered areas in September 2006, a U.S. military official said. The militants called off the deal in July this year after Pakistani security forces raided a radical mosque in Islamabad where rebels had massed. Dozens were killed in those...

As captains of mock trial teams at Carnegie Mellon University, Anand Shankar Durvasula and Sudeep Paul learned the inner workings of the courts. They'll soon put that knowledge to use firsthand after being arrested on charges of trying to sneak into Heinz Field early Sunday and triggering a warning to NFL officials. SNIP Police found a video camera and tripod inside a silver Lexus sports utility vehicle with New York plates and registered to Kumar Paul, 51, of Woodbury, N.Y. It was parked at Art Rooney Avenue at North Shore Drive. Two bomb dogs were used to check the SUV...

BREAKING ON CNN

(3/10/06) - With college basketball championships underway around the country, the FBI has warned stadium operators of a possible suicide bomb attack at sporting events. In a directive issued today, obtained by ABC News, the FBI says a posting on an extremist message board "advocated suicide attacks against sporting events as a cost-effective means of killing thousands of Americans." The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say they cannot confirm the credibility of the threat or whether the message is affiliated with al Qaeda. The FBI says the Internet posting said the suicide attacks would be justified because the...

Iran's hardliners go ballistic over stadium sex threat Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming under heavy fire at home -- and it's not because of the worsening international standoff over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. Last week the president revealed his seldom-seen softer side by ordering an end to a decades-old ban on women entering stadiums for major sporting events, including football matches. But this directive has not gone down well among religious right-wingers eager to maintain the male-female segregation ushered in by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Furthermore, some members of Iran's left are also sceptical. "It would have...

The Minnesota Twins swatted their biggest political hit in decades Wednesday when the Minnesota House endorsed a proposal to build a $522 million stadium for the team in downtown Minneapolis. The next stop for the stadium proposal is the Minnesota Senate, where it faces challenges but where Twins spokesman Jerry Bell said he has been assured there is ample support. The Senate Taxes Committee could begin its deliberations today.

FBI: No Credible Threat, but Be Vigilant Saturday March 11, 2006 3:01 AM By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI said Friday there is no specific, credible threat of a terror attack aimed at college basketball arenas or other sports stadiums, but acknowledged alerting law enforcement to a recent Internet posting discussing such attacks. The FBI and Homeland Security Department distributed an intelligence bulletin Friday to state and local law enforcement nationwide describing the online threat against sporting venues, said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in Washington. ``We have absolutely no credible intelligence or...

Plans to 'top' 9/11 strikes 23/12/2005 20:13  - (SA)   Related Articles Pullout 'will lead to attacks' US at risk for more attacks US had 'bomber' in their hands Why is Osama so quiet?    Rome - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday. The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2 700 people, Pisanu...

The mainstream U.S. media outlets have failed to report a major terrorist plot against the U.S. - because it would tend to support President Bush's use of NSA domestic surveillance, according to media watchdog groups. News of a planned attack masterminded by three Algerians operating out of Italy was widely reported outside the U.S., but went virtually unreported in the American media. Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S. Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and...

Games and circuses once were provided by government. How better to satiate the desire of the Roman masses than to entertain them in the Arena? Today, governments build stadiums to attract sports franchises for the same purpose. But the American masses seem to be tiring of transferring billions of dollars to billionaire team owners. New York City is beset with wealthy supplicants: Major League Baseball's Yankees and Mets, and the National Football League's Jets all want new stadiums. So do the NFL San Diego. The MLB St. Louis Cardinals did too, before the legislature rejected most of their requested public...

Gov. Rick Perry's ceremonial signing of the eminent domain bill Monday in Waco didn't get a positive reaction from his rival for his 2006 reelection, Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, or from Richmond resident and private property rights activist Jack Myska. Strayhorn accused Perry of grandstanding and said the bill is filled with loopholes, and Myska concurred. "I agree with her wholeheartedly," Myska said Tuesday morning, adding he has not yet read the bill thoroughly. Perry officially signed the law into effect on Sept. 1, but the ceremonial signing was postponed due to hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He said Monday...

If you love cities, this is a week to rejoice. Now that the stadium planned for New York's West Side is dead, no one can fantasize anymore about the Olympics coming to New York. If the city had gotten the 2012 Games, its leaders would have basked for seven years in Olympic photo opportunities, and mayors across America would have watched enviously. They would have succumbed further to what I think of as the Circus Maximus syndrome. The victims of this urban-planning syndrome believe, like some Roman emperors, that a leader's prime civic responsibility is to build entertainment palaces for...

Janice Renee Knight enters Federal court in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005. Knight is a co-defendent charged with conspiracy in the fraud trail of Philadelphia's former treasurer Corey Kemp. Prosecutors say Knight was the mistress of the late Ron White, a lawyer, political fund-raiser and friend of Mayor John Street, who died in November. Prosecutors said White gave money and gifts to Kemp in an attempt to influence which financial services companies the city hired. Knight owned a printing company that investigators said received a series of contracts at White's direction. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek) PHILADELPHIA Feb 23, 2005 —...

Does Cablevision’s waging such an expensive, messy Fight against the Jets’ West Side stadium make good business sense? The battle between mayor bloomberg and Cablevision CEO James Dolan over the West Side stadium for the Jets has grown nasty, personal, and expensive. According to the latest figures, which run only through October 25, more than $11 million has been spent on ads by both sides, with Cablevision’s accounting for $8.5 million. And the ad war has just escalated since then. But beyond a couple of endlessly repeated cost estimates, numbers on the business impact of the proposal have been scarce....

December 23, 2004 Republican Plans Challenge to Bloomberg in Primary By MICHAEL SLACKMAN teve Shaw was once the president of his co-op board, the only elected office he said he had ever held, and now he wants to be mayor of New York City.Mr. Shaw, 30, an investment banker with a Canadian firm in Midtown Manhattan, is planning to run in a Republican primary against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.Mr. Shaw is young, a relative newcomer to the city, having moved here eight years ago, and is low on campaign money, but he does have a Web site, a few thousand...

Although the A's say they're pursuing a new home in Oakland, San Jose's city council this week took the first steps toward acquiring property that could be used for a baseball stadium. Meeting behind closed doors, the city council agreed to attempt to buy the former Del Monte cannery on Auzerais Avenue west of downtown as part of a land deal that would also involve selling an alternative property downtown to the home builder that controls the cannery site.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The glut of taxpayer-financed sports facilities constructed throughout the 1990s did more than drain local coffers -- it dinged federal taxpayers as well. A report published in The Washington Post on Monday noted that, thanks to a loophole in the Internal Revenue Code, backers of local sports facilities have issued more than $6.3 billion in bonds that are exempt from federal taxes. The cost to the Treasury: as much as $500 million a year. "The advantage of tax-exempt bonds is that they allow cities, counties, stadium authorities and other public entities...

<p>Only 12 years ago, Memphis, Tenn., opened a $69 million arena, the Pyramid, that was supposed to satisfy generations of sports fans and invigorate the downtown district.</p> <p>Developers said it would attract a music hall of fame, a Hard Rock Cafe and a steady supply of visitors who would ride to the top of the arena, 321 feet above the banks of the Mississippi. The building would provide 19,000 seats for basketball and even more for stage shows. City boosters called the Pyramid "the ninth wonder of the world."</p>

<p>PHILADELPHIA -- Mike DiMuzio puts together jigsaw puzzles to relax in his spare time.</p> <p>Funny, because he has also put one together at work for 31 years.</p> <p>Last week he put that work puzzle together for the final time, toiling through the night in the rain with about 100 people and eight forklifts helping him on a 14-hour job that stretched into three days. Today, 65,000 fans will look at the puzzle and scream, and millionaires will tackle each other on it.</p>

ST. LOUIS - The FBI has issued a "very vague" alert warning that people with ties to terrorist groups are downloading images of U.S. stadiums from the Internet, an agency official said Wednesday. The intelligence bulletin was sent in recent days to law-enforcement agencies nationwide. "There's no specific threat," said Bill Eubanks, head of the FBI's St. Louis office. "They just simply accessed the Web site." Images downloaded from www.worldstadiums.com. included the Edward Jones Dome, home to the NFL's St. Louis Rams, and Indianapolis' RCA Dome, he said. The FBI said it has contacted authorities in both places about security...

ST. LOUIS (AP) - The FBI has issued a "very vague" alert warning that people with ties to terrorist groups are downloading images of U.S. stadiums from the Internet, an agency official said Wednesday. The intelligence bulletin was sent in recent days to law-enforcement agencies nationwide. "There's no specific threat," said Bill Eubanks, head of the FBI's St. Louis office. "They just simply accessed the Web site." Images downloaded from www.worldstadiums.com. included the Edward Jones Dome, home to the NFL's St. Louis Rams, and Indianapolis' RCA Dome, he said. The FBI said it has contacted authorities in both places about...

<p>Assets of bankrupt Wilhelm & Kruse Inc., a fabricator that supplied the steel for PNC Park, have been acquired by a group of Fayette County businessmen who plan to resurrect barge-building operations at the former Hillman Barge Co. site in Brownsville.</p>