HARISSA, LEBANON - A prominent Lebanese Christian leader says the month-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel was a major catastrophe for Lebanon.Samir Geagea was speaking Sunday at a rally attended by tens of thousands of his supporters in the town of Harissa, north of Beirut.
Geagea rejected Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s claim of victory in the […]

WASHINGTON - The United States is easing its ban against carrying liquids and gels onto planes at U.S. airports.A top official of the Transportation Security Administration, Kip Hawley, says that starting Tuesday, travelers will be allowed to take small amounts - 85 grams or less - of liquids, aerosols and gels into the passenger cabin.
He […]

BAGHDAD - (RFE/RL) — Muslims around the world have begun, or are preparing to observe, the holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims are meant to purify both their thoughts and actions.Ramadan, the period of fasting and reflection, is this year a time of worry for Muslims in Iraq.
Sunnis in Iraq and elsewhere across the […]

Donations Needed to Offset Cost of Best Friends Rescue of Four-footed Victims of Middle East War 
BEIRUT, Lebanon - “It’s 4 a.m. and all the animals have been loaded into the carriers and delivered to the airport safely,” reported Richard Crook, Best Friends Animal Society’s field commander in Beirut. Crook is managing the rescue effort for pets […]

GENEVA - The World Health Organization reports more than 17 million people a year die from heart disease and stroke, making it the world’s largest killer. To mark World Heart Day, health specialists are urging people to exercise, to eat healthy food, and to stop smoking to keep their hearts strong and stay alive. Statistics show […]

TOKYO - American beef is back in the Japanese market and slated to return to South Korea soon. But for America’s beef exporters, who lost two of their three largest markets in 2003 after a few cases of mad cow disease were discovered in the United States, it is going to be an uphill struggle […]

By:  Brian Duggan
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - Speed and looks may have less to do with what Americans will drive in the future than the fuel those vehicles use, top government and auto industry officials say.
Think ethanol and hydrogen. U.S. auto manufacturers plan to manufacture vehicles that will use these renewable, cleaner-burning fuels, possibly replacing […]

PRISTINA - At a ceremony Friday in Pristina, Kosovo took another step toward revitalizing the territory’s ruined economy.
The Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo (BPK) was transformed Friday into a central bank for the region. The move provides more independence and regulatory authority to Kosovo’s new banking system.
Many people in Kosovo lost large amounts of […]

BEIRUT - Lebanese troops have deployed along the Israeli border for the first time in decades, taking up positions vacated by the Israeli army.
Lebanese officials say several hundred soldiers, backed by U.N. peacekeepers, deployed Saturday in two areas on the border’s western sector - near the coastal town of Naqoura, also known as Ras Naqoura, […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies are reported to have concluded that the Iraq war has helped inspire a new generation of Islamic radicals, helping to fuel the threat of global terrorism.
The New York Times newspaper says the secret National Intelligence Estimate cites the invasion and occupation of Iraq as central to the creation of extremist […]

WHITE HOUSE - In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly this past week, President Bush spoke of a more hopeful world beyond terrorism, where voices of moderation are empowered and extremists are marginalized by a peaceful majority.
In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush repeated those themes, saying all nations, especially those in the Muslim […]

Farmers, lawmakers look toward future ag legislation 
By:  Josh Swartzlander
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., didn’t want to talk about the 2007 Farm Bill during a House Agriculture Committee hearing this week.
Instead, he wanted to talk about disaster relief for farmers and ranchers. “The barn’s burning down,” he said, “and we’re worried about […]

ST. LOUIS - A Cape Girardeau County man has been sentenced to 26 years in federal prison on felony child pornography charges, U.S. Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway of the Eastern District of Missouri announced today.
Terry Corbin, 57, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., was sentenced to 320 months in prison for transportation of child pornography and for […]

Police share anti-terrorism safety strategies with Congress 
By: Hannah Guillaume
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - Police officials from Miami, London and Ankara, Turkey, told a congressional committee Thursday some of the things they have done to prevent terrorist attacks.
At a hearing before the House subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack they shared the view that […]

Parents, industry need to protect kids at social networking Web sites 
By:  Josh Swartzlander
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
WASHINGTON - Social networking sites such as MySpace.com allow children to make friends and share common experiences they may not want to talk about with mom or dad.
The sites are also used by sexual predators to target vulnerable children.
A four-member […]

MANHATTAN, Kansas - Popeye may be strong to the finish because he eats his spinach, but following an E. coli outbreak nationwide traced to bagged spinach, it may be the spinach industry that is finished — at least financially. According to agricultural economists at Kansas State University, with the removal of all fresh spinach from […]

PRAGUE (RFE/RL) — A top Iranian reformist journalist, Isa Saharkhiz, has called on Iran’s journalists to use new ways to counter state crackdown on media. Saharkhiz, a number of whose publications have been closed, told Radio Farda that journalists should use such means as the Internet and satellite TV programs to get their message out.    
“In […]

By Phil Cooke
Special to ASSIST News ServiceSANTA MONICA, CA (ANS) – The Los Angeles Times recently reported on cell phone use in Korea that revealed remarkable information about where our digital culture may be heading. They discovered Korean teenagers make up to 90 cell phone calls a day, and social scientists are now beginning to […]

MOBILE, Ala. - Former Stapleton School Principal Steve Thomas entered a guilty plea today to a two-count indictment charging him with distribution and possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Deborah J. Rhodes of the Southern District of Alabama announced.
This case is the result of a cooperative effort between federal and local law enforcement. Thomas came […]

CINCINNATI  - A federal grand jury today indicted Cincinnati-based Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals and six individuals connected with the company, alleging that Berkeley and the individuals made millions of dollars over a five-year period through a fraud scheme that sent thousands of customers dietary supplements they did not order, charged customers’ credit cards without authorization, misrepresented their […]

WASHINGTON - The Department of Commerce today announced information from its recent department- wide reviews of missing, lost or stolen laptops and potential breaches of personal identity data. The department continues its review and is not aware of any data being improperly accessed or used. The information gathered from the reviews indicates that the Census Bureau […]

ATLANTA - September 22nd marks the 100th anniversary of an infamous 1906 race riot in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta, Georgia. Mobs of white men killed dozens of African-Americans during the 4-day rampage. The violence received worldwide newspaper attention at the time, but has now been largely forgotten. Still, many believe the legacy of […]

CAPITOL HILL - The Bush administration and Senate Republicans have reached a deal on legislation relating to how terrorism suspects are treated and tried by the United States.  
President Bush, traveling in Florida, praised the deal - which he said would preserve the Central Intelligence Agency’s program to question terror suspects and create military commissions to […]

Churches under scrutiny for politicking
By:  Josh Swartzlander
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire 
WASHINGTON - Churches have begun to turn up the heat in several states with close congressional and gubernatorial elections, encouraging their congregations to hit the polls come November.
Watchdog groups and the Internal Revenue Service are taking notice, hoping to discourage illegal politicking by tax exempt religious […]

WASHINGTON - A San Jose, Calif., executive of Samsung Semiconductor Inc. — the world’s largest manufacturer of a common computer component called dynamic random access memory or DRAM — has agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices, the Department of Justice announced.
The charged […]