Bush asked not to commute Marion Jones' sentence
(AP)
AP - The new leader at USA Track and Field sent a letter to President Bush asking him to deny Marion Jones' request to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.
Man finds second long python in Maine in a week
(AP)
AP - A man is having trouble sleeping since he found a python snake about 9 feet long under the engine of his pickup truck. Harley Burgess's shocking discovery Saturday is the second of its kind in less than a week in Maine.
Food rise has Bolivia's coca farmers planting rice
(AP)
AP - Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine's raw ingredient.
Getting lease for oil drilling is just the start
(AP)
AP - The national debate over opening more offshore areas to oil and gas exploration has begged the question: Just what are the companies doing with the tens of millions of acres they're already leasing from the federal government?
Rebels clash in SW Pakistan; 36 killed: officials
(Reuters)
Reuters - At least 36 people were killed
in clashes between security forces and militants in a part of
southwest Pakistan where nationalist rebels have fought a
low-level insurgency for years, paramilitary officials said on
Monday.
Giant rig carves new tunnel beneath NYC's streets
(AP)
AP - A huge, granite-eating machine that spent the past eight months chewing a mile-long tunnel beneath a busy Manhattan office district is getting a rest, of sorts, after completing its journey to Grand Central Terminal.
Clinton vows to fight "insulting" abortion plan
(Reuters)
Reuters - A Bush administration plan to define
several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a
"gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces tough
opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
Midnight stampede to 'The Dark Knight' sets record
(AP)
AP - Nothing dark about Batman's first night at the box office. "The Dark Knight" lit up cash registers during its midnight debut, stealing away with a record $18.5 million from 3,040 theaters, distributor Warner Bros. said Friday.
USATODAY.com - To old-school civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama talks down to blacks and curries favor with white voters when he stresses personal responsibility in the African American community.
Police pose as pedestrians to nab errant drivers
(AP)
AP - So why did officer Grace Delgado try to cross the road? To remind motorists that they must stop whenever someone steps off the curb into a crosswalk.
Fed acts to stamp out deceptive mortgage practices
(Reuters)
Reuters - The Federal Reserve Board on Monday
approved new rules to ban misleading and deceptive practices in
mortgage lending, including prepayment penalties for many
subprime loans.
AP - Three of Russia's oil projects, which all have foreign participation, failed to achieve oil production targets in 2007, Russia's Audit Chamber said Monday.
World's oldest blogger signs off singing aged 108
(Reuters)
Reuters - An Australian woman renowned as the
world's oldest blogger has died at the age of 108, with her
last posting talking about her ailing health but also how she
still sings a happy song every day.
Olympic swimmer Shanteau has testicular cancer
(AP)
AP - When Eric Shanteau touched the wall second at the U.S. Olympic trials, he was overcome by the joy of reaching a lifelong goal. The celebration didn't last long.
Woman's hospital floor death blamed on blood clots
(AP)
AP - A woman who died unnoticed on a hospital floor in a scene recorded by security cameras was killed by blood clots caused by a long period of physical inactivity, according to the city's medical examiner.
Hospital error blamed for more infant overdoses
(AP)
AP - The case of 14 babies who received accidental overdoses while in intensive care has raised new questions about how a common blood-thinning medication could be given to infants repeatedly in the wrong dosage.
Measles outbreak hits 127 people in 15 states
(Reuters)
Reuters - The biggest U.S. outbreak of measles
since 1997 has sickened 127 people in 15 states, most of whom
were not vaccinated against the highly contagious viral
illness, federal health officials said on Wednesday.
Female inmates doing time on Calif. fire lines
(AP)
AP - Tracey Johnson wields a chain saw, tosses branches and rakes brush under the punishing sun and a heavy pack as smoke from a raging wildfire looms over the mountains nearby.
SPACE.com - Saturn's
rings and moons turned out wilder than any scientist could have imagined, but
unknowns remain as the Cassini spacecraft concludes its primary mission and embarks
on a new one.
Toyota to add solar panels to some Prius hybrids
(Reuters)
Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar
panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodeling, responding
to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices,
a source briefed on the matter said on Monday.
AFP - Bangladeshi bio-marine experts have released 25,000 endangered baby turtles into the sea in the past two months as part of a state-run captivity breeding programme, an environmental official said Friday.