Many in Congress are counting on border walls todiscourage illegal immigration and dope smuggling from Mexico. Here inDel Rio, Texas, authorities are using prison walls instead. The ever-expanding Val Verde County jail is filled with would-beyardmen and maids, immigrants awaiting
The Supreme Court said Tuesday that a major anti-age bias law protectsfederal employees who faced retaliation after complaining aboutdiscrimination.The court ruled 6-3 that a U.S. Postal Service employee may pursue her lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.The law
Dr. Yue Jin, a kind-faced man in a blue lab coat, is the nation'sbulwark against a devastating new plant disease. He's the only federalscientist whose main mission is protecting the $17 billion U.S. wheatcrop from annihilation.His budget's being cut -
San Joaquin Valley congressmen know how to harvest serious cash from the region's agribusiness leaders. It comes with the territory, so to speak.Whilenone of the Valley's House members face a serious challenge, all havebeen diligently stockpiling their campaign war chests.
A New York businessman Tuesday said that he gave Israeli PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert $150,000 in cash, checks and loans to financeoverseas trips, posh New York hotel rooms and struggling politicalcampaigns. In a rare public deposition before athree-judge panel, Morris Talansky
A majority of Americans believe that wounded troopsdon't receive high quality medical care in military and Veteran'sAdministration hospitals, according to a new Harvard School of PublicHealth poll. Military families share that view, the pollfound, and are slightly more pessimistic than
Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday that it hasuncovered evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children at the handsof peacekeepers and international aid workers in war zones and disasterareas.The report said more than half the children
Pentagon figures show 40,000 U.S. troops have been diagnosed withpost-traumatic stress disorder since 2003. But officials believe manymore are keeping their illness secret.Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker says officials have no reliablefigures on how many troops have PTSD or how
Soaring gas prices and weakening job prospects left shoppersgloomier about the economy in May, sending a key barometer of consumersentiment to its lowest level in almost 16 years.The NewYork-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer ConfidenceIndex dropped to 57.2,
At age 16, all Morsal Obeidi wanted was to live the way other girls in Germany do. She paid dearly: Obeidi's brother stabbed her 20 times. Her murder has sparked a renewed debate in Germany about the failure of many
Chancellor Angela Merkel's government will limp on to the next general election in 2009 but is too divided to rule the country effectively, write commentators. The latest coalition row heralds a future alliance between the Social Democrats and the Left
A number of countries want the oil that might lie beneath the floor of the Arctic Ocean. Five of them are meeting this week to establish some ground rules for the land grab.
America's foreign policy is changing. After watching the neoconservatives lead the US into war, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are both interested in returning to diplomacy. Even Bush's pistol is back in the holster.
The world watched in shock as a wave of xenophobic violence engulfed South Africa, leaving more than 50 dead and tens of thousands displaced. Now the people of South Africa are asking the victims for forgiveness -- and accusing the
One of the world's last surviving World War I veterans has died in Germany aged 107. Franz Künstler fought in the Austro-Hungarian army in 1918. He was the oldest man living in Germany.
German red tape and a lack of will on the part of officialdom is putting some Muslim women in a very dangerous position. Instead of protecting them from the threat of honor killings, some of the bureaucracy actually increases the
