News For Saturday Oct 4, 2008 News For Saturday Oct 4, 2008

World World

World's heaviest man helps another obese man diet - Added 6 weeks ago

When critically obese, bedridden Jose Luis Garza pleaded for help in shedding a few hundred pounds, he landed the world's biggest weight watcher. Garza is getting diet advice from Manuel Uribe, a fellow Mexican who has...

Mexican police find 9 bodies dumped in Tijuana - Added 6 weeks ago

Police have found nine more bodies dumped around the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where nearly 50 people have been killed in a week of violence related to the drug trade. Five men were found asphyxiated in a car...

Chavez will swap gas-guzzlers for clean cars - Added 6 weeks ago

Give up your gas-guzzler and get a free car. That's President Hugo Chavez's offer to Venezuelans. Chavez says he plans to start a program next year that will give away cars running on less-polluting natural gas to...

6 villagers killed in clash at Mexico ruins - Added 6 weeks ago

Police clashed with hundreds of villagers who seized the entrance to a Mayan archaeological site and six protesters were killed, state officials said Saturday. Hundreds of villagers had occupied the entrance to the...

UK official: Taliban part of Afghan solution - Added 6 weeks ago

Decisive military victory in Afghanistan is impossible and the Taliban may well be part of a long-term solution for the country, the senior British commander in Afghanistan was quoted as saying Sunday. The Sunday Times...

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,177 - Added 6 weeks ago

As of Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008, at least 4,177 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

EU leaders make vows not plans in face of crisis - Added 6 weeks ago

Europe's four major powers vowed Saturday to do all they could to prevent Wall Street's turmoil from destabilizing their banking systems _ even as a $48 billion plan to save a German lender fell apart. But aside from...

UN nuclear meeting indirectly criticizes Israel - Added 6 weeks ago

A U.N. nuclear conference indirectly criticized Israel on Saturday for refusing to put its atomic program under international purview, but the Jewish state evaded a Muslim-led attempt to link it to nuclear proliferation...

Morales ups rhetoric against US anti-drug aid - Added 6 weeks ago

President Evo Morales said Saturday that Bolivia does not need U.S. help to control its coca crop, stepping up his anti-Washington rhetoric days after rejecting an American request to fly an anti-drug plane over the...

Elderly turtle pair fails to produce offspring - Added 6 weeks ago

She's around 80 years old. He's 100. Breathless scientists watched as the world's most endangered turtles successfully mated. But the attempt to breed the species' last known female with the last known male in China...

Report: NKorean leader watches soccer game - Added 7 weeks ago

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il watched a university soccer game, a state-run news agency said from Pyongyang on Saturday, reporting on the leader's first public appearance in nearly two months. Kim and other political...

Israel accuses NKorea of Mideast proliferation - Added 7 weeks ago

Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of covertly supplying at least half a dozen Mideast countries with nuclear technology or conventional arms. The allegation was made at an International Atomic Energy Agency...

Poland leaves Iraq but doesn't give up helping US - Added 7 weeks ago

Poland turned over control of an area south of Baghdad to American troops on Saturday, making it the latest in a string of countries to leave the dwindling U.S.-led coalition. But even as Polish troops head home from...

Austrian police: Man sets in-laws on fire - Added 7 weeks ago

A man killed his parents-in-law by setting them on fire with a homemade flame-thrower, Austrian police said Saturday. The 48-year-old man used a flame-thrower he had created from a propane gas container to set the...

Georgian coast guard to train aboard US warship - Added 7 weeks ago

Georgian coast guard personnel began a weeklong training program Saturday aboard a U.S. destroyer in the Black Sea, a Georgian official said. The training is likely to irritate Russia, which has criticized U.S. aid...

Al-Qaida: US economic crisis equals Muslim victory - Added 7 weeks ago

An American member of al-Qaida pointed to economic troubles in the United States as proof that "the enemies of Islam" face defeat, in an English-language video released Saturday. In a half hour video message,...

Hurricane Marie hovers far off Mexico's coast - Added 7 weeks ago

Hurricane Marie hovered far off Mexico's Pacific coast Saturday, barely moving on its northwestern path. A tropical depression off the Mexican resort city of Acapulco was forecast to strengthen into a tropical storm...

Italian troops deploy in crime-ridden town - Added 7 weeks ago

Italian troops manned checkpoints and checked vehicles as they deployed Saturday in a crime-ridden, mob-plagued southern area of the country where six Africans were gunned down last month. The 500 soldiers deployed in...

Developed countries push back vs. pirates - Added 7 weeks ago

Armed pirates aboard fast-moving skiffs have increasingly turned the shipping lanes off Somalia into a lucrative hunting grounds: commandeering vessels large and small and leaving the world's maritime powers frustrated...

Up from apartheid, Soweto millionaire a role model - Added 7 weeks ago

When Richard Maponya did well as a clothes salesman, his white boss could not promote him under the rules of apartheid. So the boss offered instead to sell Maponya damaged clothes for cheap. Maponya resold the clothes...

South Korea finds 4 more melamine-tainted products - Added 7 weeks ago

South Korea's food watchdog has ordered four more Chinese-made food products to be destroyed after they were found to contain the industrial chemical melamine. Melamine was found in Snickers Peanut Funsize and M&Ms...

Jewish 'modesty patrols' sow fear in Israel - Added 7 weeks ago

In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for...

Taiwan welcomes $6.5 billion US arms package - Added 7 weeks ago

Taiwan's president on Saturday welcomed a U.S. decision to sell the island up to $6.5 billion in advanced weaponry, while China warned the move would damage relations between Beijing and Washington. Chinese Assistant...

Chinese wins tightrope contest across Seoul river - Added 7 weeks ago

A professional tightrope walker from China zipped along a wire strung across the Han River in just under 11 minutes to win Seoul's second international high-wire championship, which concluded Saturday. Yakefujiang...

US: 4 failed Somali pirate attacks in 24 hours - Added 7 weeks ago

There have been four failed pirate attacks in the last 24 hours off the lawless Somali coast despite the presence of six American warships guarding a hijacked ship full of weapons, a U.S. navy spokeswoman said Saturday....

Tata supporters protest move of cheap car plant - Added 7 weeks ago

Hundreds of protesters rallied Saturday against Tata Motors' decision to shift production of the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, out of India's West Bengal state, calling the move a serious blow to the local...

Sri Lanka's civil war rages in the shadows - Added 7 weeks ago

There are no worshippers at Sri Lanka's holiest Christian shrine. The cherished statue of the Virgin Mary in the pale yellow church gazes out onto emptiness. The two villages nearby are abandoned. Everyone has fled for...

Miner rescued after 11 days in Philippine mine - Added 7 weeks ago

The last of 16 miners trapped in a flooded gold mine in the northern Philippines was rescued after 11 days _ and then arrested by police. George Baywong, a Mines and Geosciences Bureau officer who supervised the rescue...

Bomb explodes in Spain's Basque country - Added 7 weeks ago

A bomb exploded outside a court house in Spain's northern Basque region on Saturday, causing considerable damage but no injuries, regional police said. The detonation in the town of Tolosa was preceded by a telephone...

Suspected US missile strike kills 20 in Pakistan - Added 7 weeks ago

Militants on Saturday buried the bodies of Arab comrades who were among at least 20 people killed when suspected U.S. missiles hit a house near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said. The United States has...

US nuclear envoy holds N. Korea talks in Beijing - Added 7 weeks ago

The top U.S. nuclear envoy held talks with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Saturday, an embassy spokesman said, after a trip to North Korea failed to stop the communist regime from restoring its atomic facilities....

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Turkey's military says a Kurdish rebel attack has killed 15 of its soldiers. ...

US coalition kills 5 militants in Afghanistan - Added 7 weeks ago

The U.S. coalition says its forces have killed five militants in two operations targeting al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. The coalition says an operation in Ghazni province targeting a roadside...

Hurricane Marie drifts far off Mexico's coast - Added 7 weeks ago

Hurricane Marie formed off western Mexico and drifted through the Pacific Ocean on a path that forecasters said would keep it well away from land. Marie was centered 860 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja...

Former defense minister detained in Venezuela - Added 7 weeks ago

A former Venezuelan defense minister who has become a prominent critic of President Hugo Chavez was detained by military prosecutors on suspicion of mismanaging government funds during his command. Retired Gen. Raul...

Somalia deaths climb, insurgents reject aid groups - Added 7 weeks ago

Help for hundreds of thousands of Somalis is in jeopardy, two international aid groups said Friday after Islamic insurgents forced one to suspend some operations and threatened the other. The last two weeks have been...

UN envoy says Congo fighting could escalate - Added 7 weeks ago

The top U.N. envoy to Congo warned Friday that renewed fighting in eastern Congo has heightened ethnic tensions and could lead to the renewal of a wider conflict in central Africa. Alan Doss urged all militias in the...

Analysis: Stable Iraq could influence Mideast - Added 7 weeks ago

As violence in Iraq recedes, neighboring states are pondering how to deal with an unwieldy country that could re-emerge as a key player along with Saudi Arabia and Iran in one of the world's most strategic regions. The...

Nobel speculation centers on rights activists - Added 7 weeks ago

Human rights activists from China and Russia are considered front-runners to win the Nobel Peace Prize next week, while bettors are putting their money on an Italian, a Syrian or an Israeli for the literature award. ...

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,177 - Added 7 weeks ago

As of Friday, Oct. 3, 2008, at least 4,177 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians...

Fashion designers shiver as economic crisis hits - Added 7 weeks ago

In the cutthroat world of fashion, a designer can quickly lose rising star status _ a fact that Alessandra Facchinetti knows only too well. For the second time in her career, the 36-year-old designer on Friday faced...

Embassy bombing suspect at Gitmo to face life - Added 7 weeks ago

The Pentagon on Friday denied military prosecutors' request to seek the death penalty in the trial of a Guantanamo detainee charged in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania, according to military documents. ...

Canada leader: No need for US style government - Added 7 weeks ago

As Canada faces an economic slowdown, the country's prime minister said Friday that Canadians don't need a Parliament that acts like the U.S. Congress and panics like the U.S. Treasury Department. Prime Minister...

Haiti raises storm death toll to nearly 800 - Added 7 weeks ago

The official death toll from four storms that ravaged Haiti this summer has nearly doubled to some 800 people, authorities said Friday. Civil defense director Maria-Alta Jean Baptiste said in an interview with The...

Police work in Caribbean not always fun in the sun - Added 7 weeks ago

A lawsuit filed by Antigua's ousted police commissioner shows it's not always a tropical idyll when a veteran officer from Britain or Canada chooses to spend the twilight of his career working in the Caribbean. A...

Ukrainians deny giving wartime help to Georgia - Added 7 weeks ago

Ukrainian officials on Friday denied Russian accusations that Ukraine provided weapons to Georgia during the August war with Russia and that its military personnel operated some of the weapons during the conflict. ...

Poll: Mexico feels less secure amid drug crackdown - Added 7 weeks ago

More than 40 percent of Mexicans say they feel less secure since the start of a government crackdown on the drug trade, according to a poll published Friday. Only 25 percent of Mexicans polled say they feel safer since...

Death toll up to 33 in Algerian desert flood - Added 7 weeks ago

Hundreds of troops, engineers and social workers have converged on the desert town of Ghardaia to help with relief operations after a flash flood there killed 33, Algeria's Interior Ministry said Friday. Torrential...

Drink up: Rum rebate in bailout benefits islands - Added 7 weeks ago

The U.S. economy got a US$700 billion shot in the arm Friday _ and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands got a shot of assistance from rum. Tucked into the unprecedented rescue package passed by Congress was a...

Blast kills 7 Russian soldiers in South Ossetia - Added 7 weeks ago

A car exploded Friday, killing seven soldiers outside Russia's military headquarters in South Ossetia, and Russian authorities charged it was a terrorist bombing meant to wreck the tense cease-fire that ended their war...