This is the archive for July 2006
By Challiss McDonough, VOA News
Qana, Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike on the village of Qana has killed at least 54 people, more than half of them children, with other bodies believed buried in rubble. Israel says it was trying to attack Hezbollah, a group the State Department has designated a terrorist organization.
Posted by courier at 05:34 AM. Filed under: News
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By Ana Hontz Ward, VOA News
As the conflict in the Middle East heats up and the death toll continues to mount, world leaders are trying to end the crisis with diplomacy and dialogue. In an idyllic setting in the northeastern U.S. state of Maine, young people from the Middle East region are using the same approach, on a smaller scale.
Visit the Seeds of Peace homepage
David Good, Director of the India, Nepal and Sri Lanka Affairs Office, talks with a Seeds of Peace Camper during the session at the State Department. A special Internet forum has been set up for all Seeds of Peace alumni to continue dialogue with their new friends and gives them a chance to meet other Seeds. (State Dept.)
Posted by courier at 05:52 AM. Filed under: News
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By Steve Herman, VOA News
Tokyo
Japan is celebrating the return home of troops after two-and-a-half years in Iraq without a single casualty. The controversial mission was seen as a test of Japan's long policy of pacifism.
Posted by courier at 09:25 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
The head of Russia's state arms trading agency says Russia has signed contracts to sell Venezuela 24 jet fighter planes and 53 military helicopters.
Vladimir Putin, from
wikipedia
Posted by courier at 09:10 PM. Filed under: News
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By Marie McCullough
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
PHILADELPHIA _ Over the centuries, coffee has been cursed for making soldiers undependable, women infertile, peasants rebellious and worse.
Coffee each day may help keep the doctor awayWikipedia photo
Posted by courier at 03:22 AM. Filed under: News
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Courier staff report
Most New Haven Unified School District students who still haven't passed the California State High School Exit Exam and need to in order to get a 2006 diploma seem to have given up trying, but the few that decided to take one last crack at the high-stakes test had to endure sweltering temperatures in the Pavilion while taking the Language Arts portion of the test Tuesday morning.
Twenty-five of 150 eligible students chose to take the CAHSEE Tuesday
Posted by courier at 03:32 AM. Filed under: News
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Members of Class of 2006 who have so far failed to conquer the California High School Exit Exam will continue the struggle today in classrooms across the state, and also in a San Francisco courtroom.
California Department of Education table
Posted by courier at 01:38 AM. Filed under: News
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By Sonja Pace, VOA News
Jerusalem
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is in Israel for talks on how to end the conflict with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. The secretary's visit comes as the violence enters its second week amid continued cross-border attacks and ground fighting.
Secretary Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. State Dept photo.
Posted by courier at 05:49 PM. Filed under: News
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By Tom Hundley
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
PARIS _ For the eighth year in a row, an American rider led the pack into Paris to claim victory in the Tour de France. The only difference is that the rider was not Lance Armstrong, who retired after his 2005 victory.
Posted by courier at 06:53 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
Iraqi authorities say car bombs in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk killed 62 people Sunday.
Posted by courier at 05:56 AM. Filed under: News
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By Brian Bull
Phillips, Wisconsin
VOA News
In Australia, it's called the Yowie. In the Himalayas, natives speak of the Yeti. The Mapinguari roams the Amazon Basin. And in North America, tales persist of a giant, ape-like being known as Sasquatch, or Bigfoot. The mystique of this legend has endured for centuries, and a California-based group has just completed yet another leg of a cross-country expedition for the mysterious - and controversial - creature.
The legend of Bigfoot, allegedly pictured here in a photo from Northern California in the 1960s, is kept alive by this sign for a store in Wisconsin.
Posted by courier at 05:44 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
A U.S.-based human rights organization alleges that detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq were routinely subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, stress positions and other forms of abuse by American interrogators.
Posted by courier at 06:54 AM. Filed under: News
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By Scott Stearns, VOA News
President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meet with senior Saudi diplomats today to discuss continuing violence between Israel and Hezbollah militants across the Lebanese border. Secretary Rice plans to then leave for the region for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Read the text of President Bush's weekly radio address
Hear Bush's address
President George W. Bush meets with U.S.military service personnel who have recently returned from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan to hear about their experiences Friday, July 21, 2006, at Tamale Fiesta Kitchen restaurant in Aurora, Colorado.
White House photo by Eric Draper
Posted by courier at 04:06 PM. Filed under: News
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Ta Mok, also known as the "Butcher", military commander of the Khmer Rouge regime which terrorised Cambodia in the 1970s, has died in a military hospital in Phnom Penh. He was facing trial for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the regime's rule.
Visit "Cambodia Log," a record of a tourist's visit to the vacant former homes of Ta Mok and genocidal Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
Mok
Posted by courier at 07:04 AM. Filed under: News
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By Sonja Pace, VOA News
Hezbollah fired rocket salvos into northern Israel Friday, including Haifa, where at least 19 people were injured. Israeli warplanes carried out more strikes across Lebanon while the army called up reserve units amid expectations that Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon are to be stepped up.
U.S. Marines help U.S. citizens as they wait to board a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, for a flight to Cyprus.DoD photo by Gunnery Sgt. James H. Frank, U.S. Marine Corps
Posted by courier at 09:01 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
U.S. Marines have landed on a beach near Beirut to help evacuate thousands of Americans caught up in the weeklong Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Carl Jensen, 2nd from right, Commander Task Force 59, helps U.S. citizens exit a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter in Cyprus, following their flight from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
(Department of Defense photo by Gunnery Sgt. James H. Frank, U.S. Marine Corps)
Posted by courier at 08:40 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation to ease limits on federally funded research using stem cells from human embryos. It is the first time Bush has rejected a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress.
President George W. Bush announces his veto of the stem cell research bill, his first presidential veto, to an East Room audience full of children born from frozen embryos July 19, 2006 at the White House in Washington, DC.
(Chuck Kennedy/MCT)
Posted by courier at 08:12 AM. Filed under: News
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By Keith Ervin
The Seattle Times (MCT)
SEATTLE _ The first time Ron Sims tried to set up a county office to study the effects of global warming, he was mocked.
King County Executive Ron Sims has been concerned about global warming for years in Seattle, Washington.
(Tom Reese/Seattle Times/MCT)
Posted by courier at 05:26 AM. Filed under: News
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By Rick LaPlante, New Haven Unified School District Public Information Officer
The Board of Education on Tuesday night discussed the criteria for
identifying the two schools it has decided to close, as the District
seeks to minimize the financial impact of declining enrollment by
reducing spending on facilities and operations in order to redirect
resources to teaching and learning.
Posted by courier at 03:26 PM. Filed under: News
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By Martin Merzer and Phil Long
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. _ Shuttle Discovery and its six astronauts returned safely to Earth Monday morning, ending a 13-day, high-altitude adventure with a flawless landing at the Kennedy Space Center.
Click the picture of the space shuttle landing on Monday to view NASA video of the landing.
Click here to view NASA TV, which provides live coverage of missions and other agency events as well as resources for news media, educators and students, and the general public.
Posted by courier at 07:52 AM. Filed under: News
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By Amy Sherman
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
MIAMI _ It's one of the most basic human traits: We care about others.
Even newborns may have empathy: They react to the distress of their peers by joining in their cries. As we get older we feel angry with others at times, but our inhibitions stop most of us from lashing out violently. One psychologist says there's no such thing as a person who is completely devoid of empathy.
Posted by courier at 06:03 AM. Filed under: News
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By Chad Bouchard, VOA News
Jakarta
At least 320 people are dead, hundreds are injured and nearly three thousand have been left homeless by the tsunami that battered the Indonesian island of Java Monday. Aid agencies are assessing damage from the powerful wave, which destroyed buildings and lives along a 160-kilometer stretch of the island's southwestern coast.
Posted by courier at 06:47 AM. Filed under: News
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Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Northwestern University began sending letters and e-mails Friday to about 17,000 student applicants whose personal information may have been stolen from the university's computer system.
Posted by courier at 08:47 AM. Filed under: News
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By Liu Enming, VOA News
Hillsdale, a town in southern Michigan with 9,000 residents, has lost many jobs to outsourcing. And that is what prompted teenager Michael Sessions to seek a new job -- as mayor. Going door-to-door and financing his campaign with $700 from his summer job, Sessions won the election last November by a margin of two votes.
Michael Sessions
Posted by courier at 05:07 AM. Filed under: News
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By Jim Teeple — VOA News
Israel's prime minister on Sunday threatened "far-reaching consequences" for a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Israeli city of Haifa that left at least eight people dead and more than 20 others wounded. The attack raised the death toll in Israel to more than 20, while more than 100 people have died in Lebanon in Israeli strikes.
Peace activists gathered in front of the Israeli Ministry of Defense to protest against the ongoing hostilities. (Photo — www.gush-shalom.org)
Posted by courier at 08:01 AM. Filed under: News
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By Shashank Bengali
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
KASSAB, Sudan _ Don't ask Ibrahim Rahma about the peace agreement for Darfur. Where he sits, in this camp where thousands displaced by the war in western Sudan now live in tumbledown wooden shacks, there is no peace.
Soldiers of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur, Sudan, in the rebel-held village of Hashaba. A split between rebel groups threatens a two-month-old peace agreement that international diplomats hoped would end the three-year war in Darfur, which has killed some 200,000 people. (Shashank Bengali/MCT)
Posted by courier at 05:31 AM. Filed under: News
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By Joseph Tartakoff
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
MIAMI _ Since the iPod debuted in 2001, Gregg Radell has used five of the music and video players. He lost one, another broke, a third ran out of storage space, and he decided to replace the fourth. Each time, he bought a newer model.
Gregg Radell, owner of PodSwap works on a pile of broken ipods at his shop in Miami-Dade, Florida. His company, which gets most of its business on the web, buys ipods as well as selling new and used ipods. (Tim Chapman/Miami Herald/MCT)
Posted by courier at 05:14 AM. Filed under: News
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By Cassandra Braun
Contra Costa Times (MCT)
By many measures Carlnell Walker was just beginning to hit his stride. The Richmond native was about to enter his senior year at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was impressing coaches with his tennis skills and charming people by his good nature.
Posted by courier at 10:12 AM. Filed under: News
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By Charles Osgood
Chicago Tribune (KRT)
The study of human anatomy can be gruesome, fascinating, repugnant, exciting and awe-inspiring. It begins for first-year medical students when they walk through the heavy double doors and find, on the stainless-steel autopsy table to which they've been assigned, a closed silver tank containing the body of a stranger.
Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632)
Posted by courier at 05:14 AM. Filed under: News
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By Mike O'Sullivan, VOA News
Los Angeles
Officials of a leading U.S. Hispanic organization say the mass demonstrations for immigrant rights held earlier this year are giving way to an effort to mobilize the vote among Hispanics. Officials of the National Council of La Raza will open a four-day meeting Saturday to discuss such issues as immigration reform, and look at ways to give Latinos a stronger voice in politics.
Spanish language DJs Edward "Piolin" Sotelo (left) and "El Cucuy" (right) stand beside La Raza president and CEO Janet Murguia (center)
Posted by courier at 05:32 AM. Filed under: News
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Seven bombs have exploded at various local railway stations in the city of Bombay, also called Mumbai, India between 6:24 pm and 6:35 pm IST (GMT 5:30).
Commuter trains in Bombay have been attacked by terrorists several times. This picture is from a March attack. Public domain photo from www.indymedia.org.
Posted by courier at 02:33 PM. Filed under: News
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By Pamela Yip
The Dallas Morning News
(MCT)
DALLAS _ There's no disputing that a college education is a great investment. College graduates can expect to make $1 million more over their lifetime than someone with just a high school diploma.
Posted by courier at 05:40 AM. Filed under: News
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By George Dwyer, VOA News
U.S. federal prosecutors have charged three people, including a former employee, in connection with an alleged plot to steal trade secrets from the Coca-Cola Company, and sell the information to Coke's chief rival, PepsiCo.
Coke supplies soft drinks to James Logan High School
Posted by courier at 06:37 AM. Filed under: News
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By VOA News
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is warning that U.S. efforts to tighten border security could harm relations between the two neighbors, and hand terrorists a victory.
President George W. Bush meets with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the Oval Office Thursday. White House photo by Paul Morse
Posted by courier at 09:44 AM. Filed under: News
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By Nick Colberg
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
NASA and the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation announced the formation of a program that will bring students from minority institutions throughout the country to study alongside researchers and scientists at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View.
YAV-8B Aircraft arrival at NASA Ames Research Center
(NASA Ames Research Center (NASA-ARC) photo)
Posted by courier at 07:12 AM. Filed under: News
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By Greg Flakus, VOA NEWS
After all but a few of the votes had been counted and the final nationwide tally showed him around half a percentage point ahead, Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party came before cheering supporters.
Mexican presidential candidate Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party (PAN), waves to supporters. (Diego Giudice/MCT)
Posted by courier at 02:43 PM. Filed under: News
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By Kurt Achin, VOA News
North Korean media proudly proclaimed the seven missile launches Wednesday a success.
Posted by courier at 06:47 AM. Filed under: News
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VOA News
The environmental group Worldwide Fund for Nature is warning that illegal fishing is driving the bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic to extinction.
A Bluefin tuna caught in a trap in Stintino, Italy - NOAA Photo
Posted by courier at 05:58 AM. Filed under: News
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The Space Shuttle Discovery is in orbit after a picture-perfect launch
Tuesday, the first-ever shuttle mission to lift off on America's Independence Day holiday.
View video of the launch of STS-121, free from NASA
Space Shuttle Discovery kicks off the Fourth of July fireworks with its own fiery display as it rockets into the blue sky, spewing foam and smoke over the ground, on mission STS-121
Posted by courier at 06:39 PM. Filed under: News
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By Adam Phillips, VOA News
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Those words, written by a 33 year-old activist named Thomas Jefferson and published by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776, are but a few the significant phrases in America's Declaration of Independence. Barnard College history professor Herbert Sloan reminds us that it was neither a declaration of war nor even the beginning of American independence from the British crown.
Click the picture to see a video report from VOA News.
Posted by courier at 06:59 AM. Filed under: News
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By Jay Root and Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
MEXICO CITY _ The two leading candidates in the most contentious presidential race in modern Mexican history each declared victory late Sunday after exit polls and a government "quick count" showed the contest was too close to call.
Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), announces his victory in the Mexico presidential elections in Mexico City, Mexico, Sunday, July 2, 2006. Obardor claimed he had defeated his opponent, National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderon, by almost 500,000 votes. (Heriberto Rodriguez/MCT)
Posted by courier at 07:56 AM. Filed under: News
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Asteroid 2004 XP14, a half-mile wide chunk of hard rock travelling at 40'000 miles an hour, will miss the Earth by a few hundred thousand miles, Monday.
Asteroid 2004 XP14 will come close to hitting Earth today.
Posted by courier at 06:26 AM. Filed under: News
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By Gretel C. Kovach and Michael E. Young
The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
DALLAS _ When a high school senior delivered marijuana-laced muffins to a group of hungry teachers last month, sending 19 people to the hospital, teenage logic stumbled into the path of a society short on tolerance.
Posted by courier at 06:23 AM. Filed under: News
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Logan summer school students finished their first week back at school Friday, trying to earn credits toward graduation.
Members of the James Logan Forensic team are sharpening their skills for next year during the summer session.
Posted by courier at 04:29 AM. Filed under: News
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