Hate your hair? Blame mom's diet, study says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- In a study that shows more than ever you are what you eat, scientists said on Friday they had changed the coat colors of baby mice simply by altering their mothers' diets.

The study shows that common nutrients can influence which genes turn on and off in a developing fetus, and help explain some of the factors that decide which genes "express" and which remain silent.

Writing in Friday's issue of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology, the scientists at Duke University Medical Center said they changed the color of baby mouse fur by feeding pregnant mice four supplements -- vitamin B12, folic acid, choline and betaine.

Mice given the four supplements gave birth to babies predominantly with brown coats. Pregnant mice not fed the supplements gave birth mostly to babies with yellow coats.

Careful study showed the extra nutrients turned down expression of a gene called Agouti, which affects fur color.

"We have long known that maternal nutrition profoundly impacts disease susceptibility in their offspring, but we never understood the cause-and-effect link," said Randy Jirtle, a professor of radiation oncology at Duke who directed the study.

"For the first time ever, we have shown precisely how nutritional supplementation to the mother can permanently alter gene expression in her offspring without altering the genes themselves," he said in a statement.


posted by Frodgie at 8:49 PM

 

Skinheads Attack Stockholm Gay Pride Parade

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A group of around 30 skinheads attacked marchers in a gay pride parade in Stockholm with stones and bottles on Saturday, police and a Reuters witness said.

A young man on the annual march promoting gay, lesbian and transsexual rights was injured in the head and taken to hospital. A police spokesman said his life was not in danger.

The assault took place just after the parade of 4,000 to 5,000 people had passed the Royal Palace in central Stockholm, unveiling a huge rainbow flag.

"A group of around 30 people jumped from behind a street corner and started beating the marchers and throwing bottles at them," said a Reuters cameraman at the scene.

He said the attackers carried banners reading, "Lock up pedophiles" and "Crush pedophiles," referring to a recent advertising campaign by a gay and lesbian rights group featuring pictures of young children.

The campaign, aiming to show that gay orientation can start at an early age, has drawn protests from a child protection group that said the sexual depiction of children could encourage pedophiles.

"We wanted to demonstrate against gay adoptions and against linking sexuality to children," said Marc Abramsson, a leader of the youth organization of the right-wing National Democrats, which had organized a demonstration against the gay parade.

He said about 200 anti-gay protesters had been demonstrating peacefully near the palace until the marchers threw bottles at them.


posted by Frodgie at 8:43 PM

 

Bremer warns of 'foreign terrorists' in Iraq

One GI killed in Saturday grenade attack

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq predicted Saturday that Saddam Hussein will be tracked down, but warned that the threat from "foreign terrorists" infiltrating the country would persist even after Saddam is captured and the remnants of his regime are hunted down.

L. Paul Bremer said tipsters are "coming forward in increasing numbers" to alert troops to criminals.

"In the most famous case, someone told us where to find Uday and Qusay," said Bremer, referring to Saddam's sons, killed July 22 in a firefight in Mosul. "Within hours they were dead."

Their bodies -- along with Qusay's 14-year-old son Mustafa -- were buried in Al Ouja, the tribal seat of their family, on the outskirts of Tikrit. (Full story)

The informant was paid $30 million for information leading to the brothers and he and his family were relocated safely to another country. Bremer said the ransom payment was made swiftly, an indication that the U.S. government is taking the process seriously.

"We are going to get Saddam too," Bremer said. "The only question is who is going to get $25 million and move to another country."


posted by Frodgie at 8:29 PM

 

Army Sends Teams to Probe Iraq Illness

WASHINGTON -- The Army is trying to figure out what is causing a rash of serious pneumonia cases, including two fatalities, among soldiers serving in Iraq.

A six-person team of specialists was en route to Iraq Friday to investigate 14 cases of pneumonia serious enough that the soldiers had to be put on ventilators to breathe and evacuated from the region, the Army Surgeon General's office said Friday.

Two soldiers died, nine recovered and three were still hospitalized as of Thursday, spokeswoman Lyn Kukral said.

The team on its way to Iraq includes infectious disease experts, laboratory officers and people who will take samples of soil, water and air.

So far, officials have identified no infectious agent common to all the cases. There is no evidence any of the cases were caused by exposure to chemical or biological weapons, environmental toxins or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), officials said.

A two-person team already has gone to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where most of the cases were treated after evacuation. The two teams also will review patient records and laboratory results and interview health care workers and patients, if possible, said a statement from the Army Surgeon General and U.S. Army Medical Command.

The teams will be looking for similarities among the cases, which so far have hit troops in geographically dispersed areas and from different units, said the Thursday statement. They also were spread over time, with two in March, three in April, two in May, three in June and four in July.


posted by Frodgie at 8:27 PM

 

Gay-union debate intensifies in churches

Many major religious groups are actively wrestling over unions and ordination of clergy.

As gay rights issues gather momentum, major religious groups are being forced to confront where they stand on the sensitive topics of same-sex unions and clergy - and are often taking widely varied approaches.

For some, homosexuality has become the most divisive issue since the ordination of women, and has threatened to split denominations in two.

With US and Canadian courts in the process of redefining homosexual rights, possibly to include marriage, churches now face not only what it means to include gay and lesbian believers as full participants but also how to respond to the potential redefinition of an institution most consider the bedrock of society.

Many have backed the passage, in 37 states and Congress, of "defense of marriage" acts, which define marriage as applying only to a man and a woman; but some clergy support the bid for equal marriage rights.

President Bush spoke out against same-sex marriage on Wednesday, saying further legal action might be needed beyond the defense acts, implying he might support a constitutional amendment.

The acts could eventually be challenged on the basis of the recent US Supreme Court decision upholding certain gay rights. The top court in Massachusetts will soon decide if prohibiting gay marriage is contrary to the state constitution. It would make it the first high court in the US to do so.


posted by Frodgie at 9:22 PM

 

The President Strikes Back

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight.

The president strikes back. That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

It was nice to see President Bush taking questions today. This was only his eighth press conference. Bill Clinton at this same point in his administration had given 33 formal press conferences. President Bush, the elder, a whopping 61.

Now to be fair, we have to cut the younger Bush some slack because he's had to deal with a very intense war on terror and the Iraq situation. But the president would be well served to speak as much as possible to the folks. That's because right now the majority of Americans say they will not vote for him again. Just 48 percent would vote for Mr. Bush today, according to a CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll.

The good news for Mr. Bush is that only 40 percent would vote for any Democratic candidate, so he'd still win handily.

There are three vital issues the president must confront in order to be re-elected. Number one, the economy. If it slips further, the president's popularity will also slip. Number two, and the most important issue, stopping Americans from being killed in Iraq. And number three, explaining the weapons of mass destruction embarrassment.

Talking Points believes, with any luck, the economy will improve and the Iraqi situation will get much better once Saddam Hussein is found. We must confess, however, we're confused about the WMDs. And Mr. Bush has an obligation to clear this up by the end of the year.

The Democrats are sensing weakness. And there are rumors Hillary Clinton and Al Gore will join the race. But there's one wild card that Mr. Bush has in his hand. Most Americans continue to like him and to have emotion invested in him. Only two presidents have had this advantage in my lifetime, JFK and Ronald Reagan.


posted by Frodgie at 9:18 PM

 

Woman Accuses Nun of Sexual Abuse

An attorney for Andrea Dessommes, who now lives in Australia, filed the suit Thursday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Of the 256 abuse cases that have been filed against the archdiocese since April 2002, Dessommes' is the first to accuse a nun of abuse.

The suit alleges that Sister Mary Helen Thieneman, a counselor at St. Margaret Mary School in Louisville, sexually abused Dessommes, a fourth-grader, in the 1974-75 academic year.

Sister Joye Gros, president of the community based in St. Catharine, said Thieneman "strongly denies" the alleged abuse.

Thieneman was reassigned to a hospital after Dessommes' father met with Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly in 1992 to discuss his daughter's alleged abuse.

Thieneman "has not been working with children of her own choice since then," Gros said.

The suit claims that the accusation against Thieneman would constitute a felony and that the archdiocese and Dominican order sisters failed to report the abuse to authorities, as required by state law.


posted by Frodgie at 9:15 PM

 

U.S. releases altered Saddam pictures

Deposed Iraqi leader's daughters talk about their father

(CNN) -- The United States released digitally altered pictures of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Friday that coalition forces are using in their efforts to track him down.

The U.S. military images -- which were posted on the U.S. Central Command Web site Friday -- show five versions of Saddam. One shows him with his dyed black hair and a full beard; another wearing a salt-and-pepper beard and a white headdress with black bands; two poses show him with what would probably be his natural hair color -- gray -- and a mustache; and another shows him with gray hair and no mustache.

Another set of images of the former Iraqi leader is being distributed only to members of Task Force 20 -- the elite military group charged with finding Saddam.

Those images, which have not been released to the public, are CIA-generated artist sketches that depict a more haggard Saddam. One shows him with long hair, and others show him with and without his trademark mustache.

U.S. officials said the military's enhanced photographs, as well as the CIA sketches, were developed as a result of several reported sightings of Saddam by Iraqis, some of whom are said to have described him as having long hair and a beard.

U.S. officials say that even if those sightings were legitimate, the former Iraqi leader might have again altered his appearance.


posted by Frodgie at 8:57 PM

 

Who killed California?

With Gov. Gray Davis facing recall, a budget $38 billion in deficit, and a bond rating dropped three notches by Standard & Poor's to near junk-bond status, the lowest of all 50 states, the Golden State is no more.

Who killed the goose that laid the golden eggs?

Certainly, Davis, who misled voters about the gravity of his budget crisis in 2002, and won re-election by demonizing his GOP rivals, deserves his 20 percent approval rating. But Gray Davis did not kill California.

The United States government did. For what killed California as the golden land was massive and unrestricted immigration from the Third World, an unrepelled invasion from Mexico, and a failure to protect the U.S. manufacturing base and the wages of America's workers.

During and after World War II, California became a bastion of our defense, aerospace, auto and TV industries. Hundreds of thousands were hired to become the highest-paid manufacturing workers on earth, giving California the world's highest standard of living. The average California wage once stood at 130 percent of the average U.S. wage.

In the 1970s and 1980s, however, Japan, a free rider on America's defense, began to engage in predatory trade, attacking and killing, one by one, U.S. industries and capturing U.S. markets with subsidized exports.


posted by Frodgie at 8:54 PM

 

'Saddam' Tape Forecasts Defeat Soon for U.S. Troops

DUBAI (Reuters) - A new audiotape purportedly from Saddam Hussein, broadcast on Friday, forecast that U.S. and British forces would soon be defeated by Iraqi resistance.

"Our belief is strong that God will grant us victory and we are confident that the moment for the foreign army to collapse is possible at any moment," said the tape aired by Al Jazeera satellite television. The voice sounded like Saddam's.

"It (defeat) is coming at any time because of the painful blows of the strugglers against the occupiers and the rejection of the occupation by our dignified people."

The United States is offering $25 million bounty for Saddam. It hopes finding him will help end a guerrilla campaign that has killed at least 52 U.S. troops, at an accelerating rate, since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1. The U.S. military blames Saddam loyalists for the attacks.

"We call on you sons and brothers to be disciplined and orderly so we won't be taken by surprise," the supposed voice of the former Iraqi president added. The speaker gave two different dates for the tape; July 27, 2003 and July 28 under the Islamic calendar.

The speaker conceded that some "low and undignified" Iraqis had collaborated with the U.S. forces, and he urged Iraqis to fight and drive U.S. forces from Iraq.


posted by Frodgie at 8:52 PM

 

Edwards is 4 months late on taxes

Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina Democrat and 2004 presidential hopeful, is four months delinquent in paying the property taxes on his Georgetown mansion and owes the cash-strapped District more than $11,000, city records show.
Mr. Edwards is worth somewhere between $12 million and $30 million after a successful career as a personal injury lawyer, according to his financial disclosure forms. He bought the eight-bedroom, 6,672-square-foot home in the tony neighborhood for $3.8 million in September.
In February, the city sent Mr. Edwards a tax bill for $9,562.46, which he was supposed to have paid by March 31, according to tax records. As of 3:30 p.m. yesterday, Mr. Edwards owed $11,092.46 with interest and penalties, according to the city's tax collection office.
Mr. Edwards' office was not aware of the unpaid taxes but at 7 p.m. yesterday issued the following response by e-mail after The Washington Times faxed a copy of the bill:
The senator and his wife, Elizabeth, "had not received a bill. As soon as they received one, they paid it," the statement says.
Mr. Edwards' delinquency came during a year in which the city faced a $323 million budget shortfall. The District was forced to cut funding for public education and a wide array of city services.
The senator's tax bill is among the city's largest for private homeowners.
"That's a lot of money," said Virginia Daisley, a spokeswoman for the city tax collection office.

posted by Frodgie at 3:20 PM

 

Beyond Gay Marriage

AFTER GAY MARRIAGE, what will become of marriage itself? Will same-sex matrimony extend marriage's stabilizing effects to homosexuals? Will gay marriage undermine family life? A lot is riding on the answers to these questions. But the media's reflexive labeling of doubts about gay marriage as homophobia has made it almost impossible to debate the social effects of this reform. Now with the Supreme Court's ringing affirmation of sexual liberty in Lawrence v. Texas, that debate is unavoidable.

Among the likeliest effects of gay marriage is to take us down a slippery slope to legalized polygamy and "polyamory" (group marriage). Marriage will be transformed into a variety of relationship contracts, linking two, three, or more individuals (however weakly and temporarily) in every conceivable combination of male and female. A scare scenario? Hardly. The bottom of this slope is visible from where we stand. Advocacy of legalized polygamy is growing. A network of grass-roots organizations seeking legal recognition for group marriage already exists. The cause of legalized group marriage is championed by a powerful faction of family law specialists. Influential legal bodies in both the United States and Canada have presented radical programs of marital reform. Some of these quasi-governmental proposals go so far as to suggest the abolition of marriage. The ideas behind this movement have already achieved surprising influence with a prominent American politician.

None of this is well known. Both the media and public spokesmen for the gay marriage movement treat the issue as an unproblematic advance for civil rights. True, a small number of relatively conservative gay spokesmen do consider the social effects of gay matrimony, insisting that they will be beneficent, that homosexual unions will become more stable. Yet another faction of gay rights advocates actually favors gay marriage as a step toward the abolition of marriage itself. This group agrees that there is a slippery slope, and wants to hasten the slide down.

To consider what comes after gay marriage is not to say that gay marriage itself poses no danger to the institution of marriage. Quite apart from the likelihood that it will usher in legalized polygamy and polyamory, gay marriage will almost certainly weaken the belief that monogamy lies at the heart of marriage. But to see why this is so, we will first need to reconnoiter the slippery slope.


posted by Frodgie at 8:53 AM

 

What Marriage Is For

GAY MARRIAGE is no longer a theoretical issue. Canada has it. Massachusetts is expected to get it any day. The Goodridge decision there could set off a legal, political, and cultural battle in the courts of 50 states and in the U.S. Congress. Every politician, every judge, every citizen has to decide: Does same-sex marriage matter? If so, how and why?

The timing could not be worse. Marriage is in crisis, as everyone knows: High rates of divorce and illegitimacy have eroded marriage norms and created millions of fatherless children, whole neighborhoods where lifelong marriage is no longer customary, driving up poverty, crime, teen pregnancy, welfare dependency, drug abuse, and mental and physical health problems. And yet, amid the broader negative trends, recent signs point to a modest but significant recovery.

Divorce rates appear to have declined a little from historic highs; illegitimacy rates, after doubling every decade from 1960 to 1990, appear to have leveled off, albeit at a high level (33 percent of American births are to unmarried women); teen pregnancy and sexual activity are down; the proportion of homemaking mothers is up; marital fertility appears to be on the rise. Research suggests that married adults are more committed to marital permanence than they were twenty years ago. A new generation of children of divorce appears on the brink of making a commitment to lifelong marriage. In 1977, 55 percent of American teenagers thought a divorce should be harder to get; in 2001, 75 percent did.

A new marriage movement--a distinctively American phenomenon--has been born. The scholarly consensus on the importance of marriage has broadened and deepened; it is now the conventional wisdom among child welfare organizations. As a Child Trends research brief summed up: "Research clearly demonstrates that family structure matters for children, and the family structure that helps children the most is a family headed by two biological parents in a low-conflict marriage. Children in single-parent families, children born to unmarried mothers, and children in stepfamilies or cohabiting relationships face higher risks of poor outcomes. . . . There is thus value for children in promoting strong, stable marriages between biological parents."


posted by Frodgie at 8:52 AM

 

The Terror Gamble

Betting on terrorism isn’t as crazy as it sounds.

Under DARPA's proposal, traders would, in effect, bet money on propositions about events in the Middle East. These prediction (or idea futures) markets would function a lot like the longstanding commodities markets that Wall Street firms and agribusiness have used to predict the prices of everything from frozen orange juice to silicon chips. Instead, of trading agricultural and industrial commodities, however, the market would allow the purchase and sale of contracts for futures predicting events ranging from the trivial (resignation of a cabinet minister) to earth shattering (nuclear war). A person believing, for example, that the government of Israel would fall by a certain date could purchase a contract that pays off when and if the event happens. A trader who believed that the same event wouldn't happen could sell the contract. When the price of such a contract rose in response to events (or, for no apparent reason at all) policymakers would know that something was going on. (A lot more information on how these markets would work is available here.)

North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan's had a typical response to the program, "Spending millions of dollars on some kind of fantasy-league terror game is absurd and, frankly, ought to make every American angry. What on Earth were they thinking?" Even deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, normally a sensible wonk, lashed out with anger when he found out about it. Critics of these prediction markets, however, are simply attacking something they don't understand: Such markets have a good track record, could help tremendously in protecting the nation from terror, and pose no moral quandaries that Americans don't already grapple with.

To begin with, there's a good reason to think that idea futures would work pretty well when it comes to predicting terrorist attacks. Consider the following existing prediction markets:

The play-money Hollywood Stock Exchange (run by bond-trading firm Cantor-Fitzgerald) is much more accurate than movie studio's own models in predicting movie's box office grosses and stars' career trajectories.
The now defunct play-money Foresight Exchange accurately predicted that the Y2K computer glitch wouldn't be a big deal as early as 1997.
The Iowa Electronic Markets, which take real-money bets on political candidates, frequently outperform polls when it comes to predicting election outcomes. Several months before the 2000 elections, even as Al Gore showed a significant lead in the polls, his stock and Bush's traded at the same levels in the markets.


posted by Frodgie at 8:49 AM

 

U.S. soldier killed near Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An American soldier was killed and two others wounded late Wednesday in a small-arms attack on a tactical operations center northeast of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said Thursday.

The latest attack came as U.S. senators prepared to question top officials in charge of the search for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction .

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1, 50 U.S. troops have died in hostile action in Iraq. A total of 248 U.S. troops have been killed since the Iraq war began in March. (Interactive: U.S. deaths)

U.S. forces continue to launch raids and patrols across Iraq in an effort to curb the deadly strikes, according to Central Command.

Central Command said Thursday that coalition forces conducted 44 raids and 1,011 day and 817 night patrols during the last 24 hours. It also said forces went on 136 day and 136 night patrols jointly with Iraqi police. Iraqi police conducted 16 day and nine night patrols, Central Command said.

posted by Frodgie at 8:45 AM

 

What our boys are doing....Click here

posted by Frodgie at 6:58 PM

 

The Last Bug Ever........Damn it

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Some Bugs are hard to kill. After a brief reprieve, the Volkswagen Beetle, the original version, faces extinction today. Volkswagen's plant in Mexico -- the only one in the world that still makes the old-style Beetle -- finishes one last gussied-up retro edition of the plucky, curvacious little car, ending the model's 70-year run.

The last "Ultima Edicion" Beetle rolls off the line.
More than 21.5 million of the cars have hit the world's roads in that time. The last 3,000 old Beetles were special, dubbed the "Ultima Edicion." That's Spanish for "Final Edition." Basically, they were the good old Beetle, only a bit fancier. They were made in the colors Aquarius Blue and Harvest Moon beige and sported chrome trim and mirrors, body-colored rims and whitewall tires.

The Ultima Edicion Beetles cost 84,000 Mexican pesos at dealer lots -- about $8,000 -- compared to 68,000 pesos for the regular version that stopped production on July 10, or about $6,500.

The beloved Bug
From Iceland to Malaysia, the original Beetle has attracted devoted fans like no other car. A redesigned, sleeker version called the New Beetle was launched in 1998, but at a price of $20,000 to $25,000 it is no longer a car for anyone with a few bucks.


posted by Frodgie at 4:31 PM

 

Bush wants marriage reserved for heterosexuals

'We ought to codify that'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush indicated Wednesday he opposes extending marriage rights to homosexuals, saying he believes marriage "is between a man and a woman."

Bush said it is "important for society to welcome each individual," but administration lawyers are looking for some way to legally limit marriage to heterosexuals.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or another," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. "And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

Earlier this month, Bush said a constitutional amendment to block gay marriages might not be necessary, although the proposal has the support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee.


posted by Frodgie at 2:57 PM

 

BBC 'proves' Nessie does not exist

I say it still exists!!

A BBC team says it has shown there is no such thing as the Loch Ness monster.
Using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to ensure that none of the loch was missed, the team surveyed the waters said to hide Scotland's legendary tourist attraction but found no trace of the monster.

Previous reported sightings of the beast led to speculation that it might be a plesiosaur, a marine reptile which died out with the dinosaurs.

The team was convinced that such an animal could have survived in the cold waters of Loch Ness, despite the normal preference of marine reptiles for sub-tropical waters.

Looking for the lungs

The researchers looked at the habits of modern marine reptiles, such as crocodiles and leatherback turtles, to try to work out how a plesiosaur might have behaved.

They hoped the instruments aboard their search boat would pick up the air in Nessie's lungs as it reflected a distorted signal back to the sonar sensors.

posted by Frodgie at 2:45 PM

 

Global Auto Makers Are Racing To Inject Diesel Into Mainstream

As they race to improve the fuel economy of thirsty American sport-utility vehicles, global auto makers are beginning to think their best bet isn't futuristic technologies such as fuel cells or hybrid gas-and-electric systems. It's a new clean version of the century-old dirty diesel.

Still associated in the U.S. with 18-wheelers rumbling along the interstate, diesel engines already are under the hoods of about 40% of the new cars sold in Europe and about half the heavy-duty pickup trucks sold in the U.S. That's because a new generation gets as much as 30% better fuel economy than comparable gasoline models while still producing noticeably more torque, the power that pulls a vehicle away from a stoplight or down a freeway ramp.

Diesels still cough out too much smog-causing pollution and cancer-causing soot to pass muster in large numbers under U.S. clean-air laws, already the toughest in the world and getting tougher. The auto industry hasn't had much incentive to spend the money to clean them up, because with fuel in the U.S. selling for less than fancy bottled water -- a result of the government's decision to keep fuel taxes low -- the average American hasn't been willing to pay extra for a fuel-efficient vehicle.

But now things are changing. Both Volkswagen AG and DaimlerChrysler AG say they'll start selling a small number of diesel-powered SUVs in the U.S. next year. Several other companies, including General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., also are working to develop diesel engines for their U.S. SUVs.


posted by Frodgie at 11:43 AM

 

U.S. Rejects Saudi Request to Declassify Report on 9/11

WASHINGTON – The United States won't declassify any part of a congressional intelligence report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist bombings.
Saudi Arabia had sought the action, which was turned down just hours before Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal was to appeal to President Bush in Washington.

Saudi Arabia wanted 28 redacted pages in the 900-page report released to clear up speculation they contained information linking Saudi Arabia to the terrorist attacks.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the decision not to release the information was made after consultations with senior intelligence officials.

"We cannot agree to that request at this time because of ongoing investigations and our national security interests," McClellan said.


Bush: 'It Doesn't Make Sense'

"There's an ongoing investigation into the 9/11 attacks, and we don't want to compromise that investigation," Bush told reporters after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and before meeting the Saudi foreign minister. "If people are being investigated, it doesn't make sense for us to let them know who they are.

"We have an ongoing war against al-Qaeda and terrorists, and the declassification of that part of a 900-page document would reveal sources and methods that will make it harder for us to win the war on terror."

Saudi Foreign Minister: 'Nothing to Hide'

Faisal said Tuesday afternoon after meeting with the president: "We have nothing to hide. And we do not seek, nor do we want to be, shielded."

Release of the classified pages would allow the Saudi government to clear up any allegations he said.


posted by Frodgie at 8:05 AM

 

Dems find hope in Bush polls

WASHINGTON — President Bush might seem poised for easy re-election, given his healthy 58% job-approval rating in the latest USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup polls.
But another number from the surveys conducted over the past two weekends is giving Democrats hope and Republicans heartburn. Asked who they're likely to vote for in 2004, 47% said Bush and 41% the Democratic nominee, whoever that turns out to be.

That's not a commanding lead, and it puts Bush's support below 50%, a threshold that traditionally divides safe incumbents from those who are vulnerable. "It's a sign that this thing's not done," political analyst Charles Cook says.

Among recent presidents, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan didn't show any significant difference between job approval and re-election support, which is one reason job approval is seen as a reliable shorthand for a president's political standing. At this point in his first term, Clinton's job approval was 49%, his re-election support 46%. For Reagan, both were 44%.

But in this way, as in others, Bush is following in his father's footsteps. At this point, the elder Bush's job-approval rating was 74% in the wake of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but his re-election support was nearly 20 points lower, at 55%.

Why the disparity?


posted by Frodgie at 8:04 AM

 

Court's opinion on gay rights reflects trends

WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court struck down laws banning sex between homosexuals last month, a dismayed Justice Antonin Scalia warned that the court was siding with gay men and lesbians in a "culture war." He accused the majority of flouting public opinion and of opening the door to legal gay marriages.
But the court's 6-3 vote to invalidate state anti-sodomy laws reflected a nation where polls indicate that most people now believe that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be allowed. Legal analysts across the ideological spectrum agree that the court's decision in Lawrence vs. Texas also appears to mirror a growing public acceptance of homosexuals.

Polls indicate that most Americans continue to oppose legalizing gay marriages. But in the three weeks since the court's ruling cited a right of privacy for homosexuals, it has become clear that many American institutions are ready, in various ways, to express support for gay men and lesbians:

• A week after the June 26 ruling, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer and a mainstay of rural and suburban America, said it would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

• On July 6, The Dallas Morning News began running advertising notices of same-sex unions with its wedding announcements.

• Two days later, The Boston Globe editorialized in favor of gay marriage and compared state laws against it to those that once banned marriage between whites and blacks. "It may be difficult to imagine a time when interracial marriage was considered an abomination by much of society," the newspaper said, "... just as some day it will be hard to imagine that gay couples were once ostracized simply for trying to form stable families."


posted by Frodgie at 8:02 AM

 

'Noose' tightens around Saddam

WASHINGTON — U.S. forces are closing in on Saddam Hussein and will allow circumstances to dictate whether he is taken alive or killed, State Department and Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
Intelligence officials, meanwhile, cited field reports that Saddam is traveling in disguise with a handful of bodyguards. The CIA was analyzing a new audiotape attributed to the former president. A voice on it refers to the deaths of his two elder sons in a firefight last week.

"I mourn to you the deaths of Uday and Qusay and those who struggled with them," the voice says in Arabic. "America will be defeated."

The Al-Arabiya satellite channel broadcast the tape shortly after U.S. forces captured key figures loyal to Saddam, including one of his most trusted bodyguards. "I think most people feel that the noose is tightening pretty regularly around the neck of Saddam Hussein," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told CNN. Both Armitage and a U.S. commander in Iraq said U.S. forces had missed Saddam by hours in a recent raid. The deposed leader's capture is seen as critical to the U.S. mission of restoring order in Iraq and establishing an autonomous government there.

U.S. forces expect Saddam to put up a fight, and several Pentagon officials said they would prefer Saddam be killed rather than captured to avoid a protracted, complicated war crimes tribunal. At the Pentagon, Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saddam would seal his own fate if he decided to resist capture.

"The commander on the ground makes a decision on whether it is capture or kill," Schwartz said. "In many cases, it's difficult to take them alive."

Two U.S. intelligence officials cited reports from human sources and technical means indicating that Saddam had changed his appearance, including shaving his trademark mustache and growing a beard. They said intelligence analysts estimate he may be moving in Iraq with as few as two bodyguards, a stash of cash and automatic and shoulder-fired weapons.

Tips from Iraqis have alleged that Saddam is staying in old bunkers and the homes of friends and relatives.


posted by Frodgie at 8:00 AM

 

Ideology and the Courts

My liberal friend explains why the Bush nominees must not be confirmed.

The observer I write of is a liberal, even though he is very bright and has been extensively educated (Yale, Rhodes Scholar, Supreme Court clerk). What brought him to utter despair was the nomination a fortnight ago of Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. What is wrong here, in his view, is the following:

— The D.C. Circuit is the second most influential court in the United States. Its decisions are often if not themselves dispositive, waystations to the Supreme Court on constitutional issues. An ill-advised nomination to a relatively obscure court of appeals is less damaging, potentially, than a nomination to this court.

— Ms. Brown's deliberative qualifications are inconspicuous. She sits now on the California Supreme Court, where she has done nothing of note. Before that she was Legal Affairs Secretary to Governor Pete Wilson. There she exercised administrative responsibilities and served as legal liaison between the governor's office and the executive departments. Before that, she practiced law, specializing in transportation and housing.

— She has ruled against affirmative action and against abortion rights.

— Ms. Brown is an African-American. She would be the third woman appointed to the Supreme Court, if she traveled from the D.C. Court upstairs, that being the implicit logic in her nomination. To filibuster against a black woman would test the mettle of the hardiest liberal, leaving us with a journey undertaken which would land an(other) ideologue on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Now the point the critic here makes is sophisticated. He uses the term "ideologue" as pejorative. And in this, in the judgment of many conservatives, he is correct. The late scholar and author Russell Kirk scorned the ideologue, as did the political philosopher Eric Voegelin. For them, as for many other conservatives, the "ideologue" refuses to sway from his adamantine course by taking into account experience and reason. By such rigidity, if shown in assessing judicial questions, he becomes something of an automaton, and the court becomes a sorting house of conflicting automatons, and the judicial spirit atrophies.

Now the argument against ideologues is raised at a moment in the Supreme Court's history in which the term "judicial activism" is invoked often to cloak sheer ideological orthodoxy. The most illuminating example here is abortion.
posted by Frodgie at 7:58 AM

 

Tight neckties linked to glaucoma risk

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Men should think twice about how tight they wear a necktie because it could increase their chances of developing glaucoma, a group of serious eye diseases.

Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology on Tuesday showed that a tight necktie raises blood pressure in the eye, which is a leading risk factor in the illness that can lead to damage to the optic nerve and loss of vision.

"A tight necktie increases IOP (intraocular pressure) in both normal subjects and glaucoma patients and could affect the diagnosis and management of glaucoma," said Dr. Robert Ritch of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in the United States.

Ritch and his colleagues tested IOP of 20 healthy men and 20 who suffered from glaucoma while they were wearing an open-neck shirt, before putting on a tight necktie and three minutes after loosening it.

Their results showed that 60 percent of the men with glaucoma and 70 percent of the healthy volunteers had an increased eye pressure after wearing a tight necktie.


posted by Frodgie at 7:54 AM

 

Officials: Suicide airliner hijackings possible

Aren't they always?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security is warning that Islamic extremists might be plotting suicide airliner hijackings to be carried out before the end of the summer, with possible targets including sites in Britain, Italy, Australia or the eastern United States.

"As of mid-June, Islamic extremists may have been planning suicide hijackings to be executed by the end of Summer 2003," according to the document obtained Tuesday by CNN.

"The plan may involve the use of five-man teams, each of which would attempt to seize control of a commercial aircraft either shortly after takeoff or shortly before landing at a chosen airport."

Such a plan would preclude the need for hijackers to take flight training, the document says.

The one-page warning, sent to U.S. airlines and others Saturday, contains words of warning and skepticism, saying some of the intelligence the government has received raises "questions about the viability of the plot."

Homeland Security sources said the credibility of the information is still being evaluated. One government official termed it "dubious."

Intelligence leading to the advisory was developed during the past several weeks and is based, at least in part, on information obtained by interrogating high-level al Qaeda detainees, according to a senior intelligence official.


posted by Frodgie at 7:53 AM

 

Destruction of ozone layer is slowing after worldwide ban on CFC release

WASHINGTON - The rate at which ozone is being destroyed in the upper stratosphere is slowing, and the levels of ozone-destroying chlorine in that layer of the atmosphere have peaked and are going down -- the first clear evidence that a worldwide reduction in chlorofluorocarbon pollution is having the desired effect, according to a new study.
"This is the beginning of a recovery of the ozone layer," said Professor Michael Newchurch of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the scientist who led the ozone trend-analysis research team. "We had a monumental problem of global scale that we have started to solve."

Using data from three NASA satellites and three international ground stations, the team found that ozone depletion in the upper stratosphere -- the layer of the atmosphere between 35 and 45 kilometers [22-28 miles] above the ground -- has slowed since 1997. "We are extremely pleased to have the highly calibrated, long term satellite and ground-based data records necessary to observe these small, but important changes in the ozone layer," said Newchurch. The results of this work have been accepted for publication in the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.

Ozone is a damaging pollutant in the lower atmosphere near the ground, but in the stratosphere, it shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet solar radiation. Almost 30 years ago, scientists Mario Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland, and Paul Crutzen showed that chlorine released into the stratosphere from chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), chemicals used as refrigerants and aerosol propellants, was destroying the protective ozone layer. This discovery led to an international ban on CFC-based products and to the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the three scientists.

"There have been several amendments to that ban, each of which tightened restrictions on CFCs and other halogenated hydrocarbons," said Newchurch, an associate professor of atmospheric science at UAH. "We are now at the point where the restrictions are tight enough to result in measured turnaround of CFC amounts at the surface. Now, we can say that what we're doing is working, and we should continue the ban.

"We're not gaining ozone, we're just losing it less quickly. But the trend line is flattening. And the amount of chlorine in that layer of the stratosphere has not yet peaked, but has slowed down significantly, so we should start to see some ozone improvement in the coming years," he said.


posted by Frodgie at 7:50 AM

 

Teachers call for webcams in class

This is probably the greatest idea ever. These kids are usually lying brats.
Cameras linked to the internet should be installed in every classroom so parents can see whether their children are misbehaving in school.

Teachers who unveiled the plan today said they believed it could be the key to improving discipline, and involving parents in their children's education.

But critics say images downloaded from the cameras could be accessed by paedophiles.



posted by Frodgie at 12:39 PM

 

WWII airmen buried in Germany

FOUR Australian and two British airmen shot down on a bombing mission over Berlin almost 60 years ago were given a full military burial today in Germany, an Australian defence spokesman said.

Australia's airforce chief Air Marshal Angus Houston unveiled a plaque and memorial stone to the crew at an army shooting range near Oranienburg, north of Berlin, where their plane went down, Captain Steve Huckstepp said.

The ceremony was attended by 11 relatives who had flown from Australia and four who had come from Britain.

"It was very moving. We did it to try to give a full picture of what happened and what has happened in recent years to bring closure for the relatives," Huckstepp said.

Flight Lieutenant Ivan Durston was at the controls of the Royal Australian Air Force Lancaster ED 867 when it was shot down during a bombing run on the German capital on January 29, 1944.


posted by Frodgie at 9:46 AM

 

As for the Wife ...

Fresh details are beginning to emerge about the whereabouts of Saddam's wives and daughters

Uday and Qusay Hussein are accounted for, but what about Saddam's other close relatives? It's hard to say. A butler who worked for the Iraqi leader until the regime fell says Saddam's first wife Sajida and the couple's daughters—Raghad, Rana and Hala—fled to Syria after the war started but were deported back to Iraq. Another butler, who served Uday, says the women made their way to Mosul, where Uday and Qusay died, and remain there—presumably with at least some of their combined seven children—protected by a tribal chief.

posted by Frodgie at 9:45 AM

 

HIV cases climb among gay, bisexual men

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- The number of gay and bisexual men diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, climbed for the third consecutive year in the United States in 2002, fueling fears the disease might be poised for a major comeback in this vulnerable group.

Overall AIDS diagnoses rose 2.2 percent to 42,136 last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said on Monday at the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta.

"These findings suggest that the dramatic progress against AIDS following the introduction of highly active antiretroviral treatment in the 1990s is beginning to plateau," Dr. Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, told a news conference.

Some 850,000 to 950,000 Americans have the AIDS virus. The disease killed 16,371 people across the nation last year, about 6 percent fewer than in 2001, according to the CDC.

Although U.S. health officials have been preaching HIV prevention to all Americans, they have become particularly concerned in recent years by an apparent resurgence of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in gay and bisexual males.

HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men surged 7.1 percent last year, according to data collected by the CDC from 25 states that have long-standing HIV reporting. New diagnoses in this group have increased 17.7 percent since 1999, while remaining stable in other high-risk communities.


posted by Frodgie at 8:32 AM

 

Vatican issues guide against gay 'marriage'

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican, alarmed by growing legal acceptance of homosexual "marriage," is issuing instructions to bishops and Catholic politicians in an effort to halt the trend.
The instructions, which call on politicians to oppose extending rights granted to traditional couples, are in a document prepared by the church's guardian of orthodoxy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The document — "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons" — will be released Thursday, the Vatican said.
Pope John Paul II and top Vatican officials have been speaking out for months against legislative proposals to legalize same-sex "marriages" in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
In January, the pope approved guidelines for Catholic politicians that said church opposition to abortion, euthanasia and same-sex "marriage" was not up for debate.
It said laws safeguarding marriage between man and woman must be promoted and that "in no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such."
But legal acceptance is growing.
Two Canadian provinces — Ontario and British Columbia — have legalized homosexual "marriage" under recent court rulings. The move has attracted homosexuals from the United States.

posted by Frodgie at 8:28 AM

 

U.S. troops capture Saddam bodyguard, two associates

As "one of Saddam's lifelong bodyguards," Adnan Abdullah Abid al-Musslit was believed to have detailed knowledge of the former president's hiding places, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who led the raid. He said documents taken from the home and information obtained from the men would be useful in the hunt for Saddam.

"Every guy we get tightens the noose," said Russell, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 22nd Infantry Regiment. "Every photo and every document connects the dots."

The stocky bodyguard struggled to break free as soldiers arrested him, and they had to wrestle him to the ground and drag him down the stairs, Russell said.

"Were we surprised? He's a bodyguard. That's why we went in with our steely knives and oily guns," Russell said. "If everything else had failed and we just got that one guy, we would be happy."

But the series of pre-dawn raids in the heart of the deposed dictator's hometown nabbed a total of 12 people, including Daher Ziana, the former head of security in Tikrit, and Rafa Idham Ibrahim al-Hassan, a leader of the Saddam Fedayeen militia.

The raids began at 4 a.m. when soldiers fired three shotgun blasts into the locks of the house where bodyguard al-Musslit was living with his family.

posted by Frodgie at 8:26 AM

 

Bad-News Networks

NBC confirms the report, but immediately bashes the U.S. military for using "such heavy firepower to take down a few lightly armed men." Interesting. Quickly fed up, I flip over to ABC where reporters insist that the operation was a failure because the military didn't take the diplomatic route and bring them out alive. Rolling my eyes and looking for another angle, I switch to CBS where I'm excited to see one of their reporters LIVE from Baghdad. Now, we're getting somewhere — some local perspective. The journalist reports on the gunfire in Baghdad following the raid, and wonders if it was a result of anger or jublilation. He decides that "some of it was most certainly" in "anger."

Really? Did he take a poll? As I recall, gunfire (obviously when not aimed at another person) in Mideast culture is normally a sign of celebration. As odd as that may sound to us Americans, Middle Easterners even tend to shoot off a few rounds at weddings. Or, maybe, that too is a sign of anger. But I digress.

So, I sit back and think: Are we forgetting about the big picture? This a very pivotal moment in history for the Iraqi people. Since their liberation day on April 9th, this is the greatest triumph we've seen in the last four months. Shouldn't someone be saying that?


posted by Frodgie at 8:22 AM

 

Poll shows backlash on gay issues

WASHINGTON — Americans have become significantly less accepting of homosexuality since a Supreme Court decision that was hailed as clearing the way for new gay civil rights, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll has found. After several years of growing tolerance, the survey shows a return to a level of more traditional attitudes last seen in the mid-1990s.
Asked whether same-sex relations between consenting adults should be legal, 48% said yes; 46% said no. Before this month, support hadn't been that low since 1996. (Related item: See poll numbers)

In early May, support for legal relations reached a high of 60%-35%.

The shift in attitudes occurs as gay issues have been in the news. In recent weeks, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law, a Canadian court decision allowed gay couples to marry in Ontario, and Wal-Mart expanded anti-discrimination protection to gay workers.


posted by Frodgie at 8:21 AM

 

Gay High School, WTF? Let's have a Racist high school too then.

Another article

July 28, 2003 -- EXCLUSIVE
The city is opening a full-fledged high school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students - the first of its kind in the nation, The Post has learned.
Operating for two decades as a small alternative program with just two classrooms, the new Harvey Milk HS officially opens as a stand-alone public school with 100 students in September.

The school, located at 2 Astor Place, is undergoing a $3.2 million in city-funded renovations approved by the old Board of Education in June of last year. It will eventually take in 170 students by September 2004, more than tripling last year's enrollment.

The Hetrick-Martin Institute - the gay-rights youth-advocacy group that manages and helps finance the school in conjunction with the Department of Education - has hired the school's first principal.

In the past, Harvey Milk HS - named after the slain gay San Francisco politician - was assigned an "off-site" supervisor who also oversaw several other schools.

"This school will be a model for the country and possibly the world," Principal William Salzman said in an interview at the facility that will boast a new science lab, 60 laptop and desktop computers donated by IBM, additional classrooms and a new cafeteria.

Salzman, a former Wall Street executive, was most recently assistant principal of guidance and business information technology at Brooklyn's Automotive HS.


posted by Frodgie at 10:32 AM

 

Bob Hope dead at 100

(CNN) -- Bob Hope, whose quick wit, daring personality and ski-sloped nose identified him as an icon of 20th-century entertainment, has died. He was 100.

Known as "Mr. Entertainment" or "the King of Comedy," Hope appeared in more than 75 films, starred in more than 475 TV programs and 1,000-plus radio programs. He also toured tirelessly for the U.S. armed forces.

He was one of the last of the great entertainers whose career took off in the first half of the 20th century and who continued to reach new generations of fans by the end of it.

Born Leslie Townes Hope on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England, Hope was the fifth of seven sons of William Henry Hope and Avis Townes Hope.

After his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was 4, Hope got his first taste of show business in 1915 when he won a Charlie Chaplin imitation contest.

He took to vaudeville by the 1920s -- and started using the stage name "Bob" in 1928, dropping Leslie. His first Broadway performances came in the 1933 musical "Roberta."


posted by Frodgie at 9:46 AM

 

A study in appeasement

Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister who agreed to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, is known to history as an appeaser. Munich, where his infamous conference with Hitler was held, has become an international synonym for craven appeasement.

Chamberlain's defenders argue that he had no real choice. The British were unprepared for war and could not stop Hitler's seizure of the Sudetenland in any event. Moreover, the Sudetenlanders were a Germanic people who had never lived under Prague rule until 1919, should never have been ceded to the Czechs at Versailles and would vote 90 to 10 to join the Reich anyway.

Chamberlain simply did not think Prague's rule of a dissident Sudetenland was worth fighting a European war like the 1914-1918 struggle, in which 750,000 of Britain's bravest had perished.

Thus did appeasement come to be the mortal sin of politics. Which brings us to the NAACP. At its Miami convention, Chairman Julian Bond said of the Republicans that they appeal to "the dark underside of American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality." They "practice racial division."

"Their idea of equal rights," Bond sneered, "is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side." And when 2004 comes around, "the no-show National Guardsman and his draft-dodging vice president will lose by 3 million votes."

Rough stuff from the chairman of what is supposed to be the most respected civil-rights organization in America. Did the GOP respond with Churchillian blasts from the White House, Congress and party headquarters? If so, I missed them.

Nor is this the first time Bond used such insults. When Bush formed his Cabinet, Bond said he had drawn on "the Taliban wing of American politics, appeased the wretched appetite of the extreme right wing and chose ... officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection."


posted by Frodgie at 8:18 AM

 

U.S. launches new system to track spread of AIDS

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- Amid signs that the battle against AIDS may be waning in the United States, federal health officials Sunday unveiled a new tracking system that they say will more accurately measure the spread of the virus that causes the deadly disease.

The new surveillance strategy, which was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the opening day of the 2003 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, was prompted by a need for more precise data on HIV infections, according to agency officials.

Since the AIDS virus first surfaced in 1981, estimates of new HIV cases have been based on the predictable length of time -- usually 10 years -- that elapsed between an initial infection and the onset of AIDS symptoms.

But the development of antiretroviral drugs has slowed the progression of AIDS and made it more difficult to predict when a person contracted HIV. An estimated 40,000 new HIV infections occur in the nation each year, according to the CDC.

The cornerstone of the new tracking system is a blood test that can supposedly determine whether an HIV infection occurred in the previous six months. The test is run only after an initial HIV test is positive.


posted by Frodgie at 8:15 AM

 

Witnesses: 2 U.S. soldiers die in grenade attack

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A grenade attack on a U.S. patrol in central Baghdad on Monday killed two American soldiers and wounded a third, eyewitnesses told CNN.

U.S. military officials had no comment but said they were investigating the report.

Five American soldiers died in attacks over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a U.S. official told CNN that the military believes it has deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein "on the run," that he is in the Tikrit area and changing his location every two to four hours.

U.S. forces on Sunday raided three farmhouses in Tikrit, Saddam's ancestral hometown, where officials said intelligence indicated Saddam's security chief -- or possibly the deposed dictator himself -- had been recently. No one was taken into custody.

The U.S. official told CNN the raids were based on "very reliable" intelligence that Saddam likely had been at the farms before the raids.

posted by Frodgie at 8:14 AM

 

In Paris, It's Vive le Lance

PARIS, July 27 -- Lance Armstrong, the Texan known as much for surviving cancer as for being a superstar athlete, overcame two crashes, a dangerous near-miss, and an array of determined opponents to become only the second man, and the first American, to claim five successive Tour de France victories in the event's 100-year history.

Armstrong's victory today, by a margin of only 61 seconds after more than 83 hours of racing across 2,128 miles, was his toughest of the five and capped what emerged as the most dramatic and unpredictable Tour in recent memory, with the champion not determined until the penultimate stage Saturday.

Before the race began July 5 in Paris, there were fears of terrorism and concern about possible hostile reaction in France to a defending American champion during a time of transatlantic tension because of the war in Iraq. But in the end, the only drama came from the race itself.

"It's incredible to win again," Armstrong said.

Speaking in French to local television, he said shortly after his victory, "I'm very happy because I'm finished and I'm very tired."

Only Miguel Indurain, a Spanish Basque rider, has also won five straight Tours, dominating the race from 1991 to '95. Armstrong became only the fifth rider to win the Tour five times; Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil, and Belgian Eddy Merckx each claimed five titles in non-consecutive years.

Armstrong, competing in his ninth Tour at age 31, rode safely with the peloton today onto the sun-splashed and flag-bedecked Champs-Elysees, Paris's grandest and best-known boulevard, and took his place among the pantheon of cycling greats, winning with a combination of tenacity, talent and, this year, luck and the ability to outlast his opponents.


posted by Frodgie at 8:11 AM

 

Body Identified As Baylor Player Dennehy

WACO, Texas - Medical examiners on Sunday identified a body found in chest-high weeds near Waco as that of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy, who had been missing since June 19.


posted by Frodgie at 8:09 AM

 

U.S. Hunts for Saddam Around Tigris River

TIKRIT, Iraq - American forces focused their hunt for Saddam Hussein around his Tigris River hometown and reported a near-miss Sunday in a raid to capture his new chief of security - and perhaps the ousted dictator himself. A U.S. soldier was killed south of Baghdad, the latest death in a spike of guerrilla attacks.

Troops of the 4th Infantry Division, acting on tips from informants, hit three farms in the Tikrit region in a pre-dawn attack but learned their specific target - the security chief - had left the area the day before.

"We missed him by 24 hours," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who led the operation that was witnessed by an Associated Press reporter.

The raid was prompted by Thursday's capture in Tikrit of a group of men believed to include as many as 10 Saddam bodyguards. Soldiers learned from them that Saddam's new security chief - and possibly the dictator himself - were staying at one of the farms, Russell said.

Hundreds of soldiers, backed by Bradley fighting vehicles, surrounded the farms as Apache attack helicopters hovered above. No shots were fired as about 25 men emerged from the houses peacefully. They were detained briefly and released later Sunday.

"The noose is tightening around these guys," said Col. James C. Hickey, a brigade commander. "They're running out of places to hide, and it's becoming difficult for them to move because we're everywhere. Any day now we're going to knock on their door, or kick in their door, and they know it."

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited 4th Infantry commanders in Tikrit on Sunday and later told reporters in Baghdad that Saddam "was too busy trying to save his own skin" to lead the insurgency against American forces.

"He is so busy surviving he is having no impact on the security situation here," Myers said. "It's a big country, but we'll find him."


posted by Frodgie at 8:08 AM