Latest Breaking News Headlines For Tuesday Dec 5, 2006

Latest Breaking News Headlines For Tuesday Dec 5, 2006

Barack Obama, who rewrote the book on presidential fundraising, amassed more than $745 million during his marathon campaign, more than twice the amount obtained by his rival, Republican John McCain. In his latest...

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday took the first step toward a run for governor, setting the stage for a contentious challenge in 2010 against fellow Republican Rick Perry, the longest-serving leader in state...

A quick finish to Minnesota's U.S. Senate race seemed unlikely Thursday when the city of Minneapolis was given an open-ended extension to locate ballots counted on Election Day that have since gone missing. About 130...

Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday took the first step toward a run for governor, setting the stage for a contentious challenge in 2010 against fellow Republican Rick Perry, the longest-serving leader in state...

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman is withdrawing 650 ballot challenges that his campaign lodged in the U.S. Senate recount. The incumbent's move Thursday surpasses one made by his opponent, Democrat Al Franken, who withdrew...

Still popular in Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he's interested in the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, and the field of possible candidates could quickly narrow to make way for the president's...

Gov. Sarah Palin has added to her financial disclosure forms two free trips that she took nearly two years ago but failed to report. Palin, who was Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, made the...

Democrat Al Franken withdrew 633 challenges to ballots Wednesday in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race in what could be a first step toward a quicker conclusion to the recount. Franken's attorney, Marc Elias, said many more...

Congressional leaders seized on grim new unemployment data on Friday to try to rally support for a rescue plan of up to $34 billion for automakers. But while lawmakers pondered a range of options, including a...

If troubled automakers and banks need government bailouts, why not give their customers federally financed vouchers to help cover car and mortgage payments _ so both consumers and companies could benefit from the money?...

The White House says it is "very concerned" about big job losses. After news Friday that the nation's unemployment rate jumped up, President Bush scheduled a statement about the alarming state of the economy. He was to...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a prosecutor to turn over abortion patients' medical records. The records are key evidence in a criminal case that prosecutor Phill Kline filed in October 2007 against a clinic...

A man in Massachusetts is appealing a $100 ticket he got for driving to a hospital in the breakdown lane of a gridlocked Boston highway while his wife was in labor. John Davis of Dracut says his wife Jennifer's...

President-elect Barack Obama wants to keep an outstanding commitment before Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes his secretary of state by calling on his donors to help her reduce her massive campaign debt before federal...

A top U.S officer says the military is beginning a massive building effort in Afghanistan to house the roughly 20,000 additional troops, including an undetermined increase in Marines, that are expected to begin pouring...

President Bush said Friday that the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than expected, but he defended the U.S.-led invasion, saying the world could not risk leaving Saddam Hussein's power unchecked. In a...

Witnesses say mortar shells have rained down on homes and a small market in Somalia's capital, killing 12 people and wounding 20. Local resident Abdi Wali says Friday's fighting started after an insurgent attack on an...

A German zoo says it has recovered two red pandas that escaped their enclosure by climbing bamboo stalks weighed down by snow. Opel Zoo spokeswoman Margarete Herrmann says the pandas escaped Thursday night from the zoo...

Representatives for Lufthansa, Austrian government sign deal giving German carrier large stake in Austrian Airlines. ...

A 105-year-old singer whose past as a singer in Nazi Germany has dogged his reputation for decades is back in the spotlight after telling a Dutch television show Adolf Hitler was a "good guy." The Dutch-born Johan...

A car bomb devastated a busy street in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more. Violence is spiraling in Pakistan's northwest just as the country faces...

Armed robbers _ some disguised as women _ snatched euro85 million ($108 million) worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from a Harry Winston boutique on a posh Paris avenue in one of the largest jewel...

Celebrity polar bear Knut turned two on Friday, serenaded by fans at the Berlin zoo as he demolished a birthday treat of fish and vegetables. Knut was hand-raised after his mother rejected him at birth. He rose to...

Israel's state prosecutor has decided to drop one criminal investigation into Ehud Olmert's role in the privatization of a bank, though the outgoing prime minister still faces other corruption investigations. ...

Brazil's inflation unexpectedly slowed in November, the government said Friday, rising at a rate lower than analysts had predicted. The IPCA consumer price index for Latin America's largest economy rose 0.36 percent in...

Bush says any auto bailout must ensure that taxpayer money given to companies is paid back. ...

Agriculture futures fell in midday trading Friday on the Chicago Board of Trade. Wheat for March delivery lost 9 cents to $4.770 a bushel, while March corn dropped 11.5 cents to $3.225 a bushel and March oats shed 8...

The worsening U.S. auto sales slump claimed another 2,000 workers Friday as General Motors Corp. announced layoffs at three more car factories. The company said it will cut shifts at car factories in Lordstown, Ohio;...

In a blow to South Africa's efforts to reduce reliance on cheap, polluting coal, the state electricity company said Friday it could not afford to build a planned new nuclear power plant. Eskom said it had ended the...

A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September as the source of housing market pressure shifted to the crumbling...

News of a rapidly weakening job sent stocks falling Friday as investors feared that the recession will be deeper and more prolonged than many have expected. The major indexes were all down more than 1 percent and the...

Stock intended to eventually earn taxpayers a profit as part of the Bush administration's massive bank bailout has lost a third of its value _ about $9 billion _ in barely one month, according to an Associated Press...

Anne Heche is having another baby. Heche's representative, Nicole Caruso, has confirmed that the actress is pregnant. The father is her boyfriend and former "Men in Trees" co-star James Tupper. Heche has a 6-year-old...

Boy George, the flamboyant former Culture Club front man, was convicted Friday of falsely imprisoning a male escort. Norwegian escort Audun Carlsen had alleged he was handcuffed to a wall hook at the singer's east...

A "Harry Potter" fan and Web site operator said Friday he's going ahead with publishing an encyclopedia after losing a lawsuit against the author of the massively popular book series. Steven Vander Ark said at a news...

Oprah Winfrey tops The Hollywood Reporter's Power 100 list, an annual ranking of the most influential women in the entertainment industry. The chairman of Harpo Inc. was selected "based on her dizzying array of...

Dead is the word when "The L Word" returns. Showtime's drama about a circle of lesbian friends and lovers is going to kill off one of its major characters on the premiere of its sixth _ and final _ season. The victim...

Paul Benedict, the actor who played the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the sitcom "The Jeffersons," has died. He was 70. Benedict was found dead Monday on Martha's Vineyard and his brother, Charles, said authorities...

CBS' Grammy nominations special wasn't a breakaway hit with viewers Wednesday night, but it didn't play off-key. The concert-and-announcements show attracted 7.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research....

Though M.I.A. has been hailed by critics since she made her debut in 2005, her fiery lyrics, which speak against corrupt political systems and talk of revolution and violence, have always ensured her a place far outside...

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--In 1914, Ernest Henry Shackleton led an expedition to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, but wound up shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. To rescue his team, Shackleton and a few of the...

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--At a time when an understanding of diversity has become essential in today's society, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary hosted "Intersect," a week-long event on the seminary's Mill...

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Four Southern Baptist Convention presidents were among the "Real Evangelism" speakers at a conference hosted by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.The conference, sponsored by evangelist...

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--Although it has been many years since Francis Schaeffer taught and shared his life with believers and seekers alike, his legacy of connecting the culture to Christ continues among a new...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--When James Walker hears of another person converted to faith in Christ after years of deception in a cult, he rejoices at the news. But if that new believer is eager to discard newsletters and...

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--For students and their families, the move to a seminary campus brings many new challenges. Seminary families often are faced with tighter finances, smaller living quarters and the stress of theological...

JOS, Nigeria (BP)--At least 12 Nigerian Baptists were killed and five Baptist churches burned during Thanksgiving weekend riots sparked by local election results in Jos, Nigeria.International Mission Board workers in...

Theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province Wednesday, in a long-developing rift over the Bible that erupted when Episcopalians...

The blockbuster asthma drug Advair does not appear to have an increased risk of serious complications seen with similar new medicines, federal health officials said Friday. But a less widely used medication, Serevent,...

When you're smiling, the whole world really does smile with you. A paper being published Friday in a British medical journal concludes that happiness is contagious _ and that people pass on their good cheer even to...

Many of the thousands of troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan are at risk of long-term health problems including depression and Alzheimer's-like dementia, but it's impossible to predict...

Measles deaths worldwide declined dramatically to about 200,000 a year, continuing a successful trend, global health authorities reported Thursday. From 2000 to 2007, annual measles deaths dropped 74 percent, largely...

Consumers should be wary of Web sites from clinics that offer stem cell treatments, says a study that found a lack of firm medical evidence to back up their claims. The Web sites in the study generally portrayed their...

British doctors conducted surgery to separate twins joined at the chest on Tuesday, hospital officials said. Stephen Cox, a spokesman for the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, said the decision to...

Doctors-in-training are still too exhausted, says a new report that calls on hospitals to let them have a nap. Regulations that capped the working hours of bleary-eyed young doctors came just five years ago, limiting...

Unique brain wave patterns, spotted for the first time in autistic children, may help explain why they have so much trouble communicating. Using an imaging helmet that resembles a big salon hair dryer, researchers...

Tough economic conditions could slow expansion at Google Inc.'s server farm in the North Carolina foothills, the company said in declining a sliver of a $260 million state incentive package. The Silicon Valley Internet...

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday tapped a former Yahoo search executive to lead its online push, adding to the intrigue surrounding a possible search partnership between the two rivals. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft named...

Economic meltdown and financial crisis are not phrases you want to hear as you ponder your holiday shopping. But it is possible to find tech-related gifts on a recession-minded budget, be they handy, entertaining or...

The first NFL game broadcast to theaters live in 3-D fumbled, then recovered Thursday night. Two satellite glitches blacked out the broadcast to theaters in Boston, New York and Los Angeles in the first half of the...

Seven Western states will face more water shortages in the years ahead as climate change exacerbates the strains drought and a growing population have put on the Colorado River, scientists say. "Clearly we're on a...

A once-high-flying Silicon Valley financier and former co-owner of the NHL's Nashville Predators was charged Thursday with fraud for allegedly bilking investors out of more than $100 million. Prosecutors filed a single...

If activist investor Carl Icahn is going to profit from his $1.8 billion bet on Yahoo Inc., the billionaire needs the struggling Internet company's stock to more than double in value. Icahn, who muscled his way on to...

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday tapped a former Yahoo search executive to lead its online push, adding to the intrigue surrounding a possible search partnership between the two rivals. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft named...

Lake-effect snow was expected in Michigan, Ohio and upstate New York on Friday. Some areas of Upper Michigan and New York's Syracuse area were to receive up to a foot of snow. Scattered flurries and snow showers were...

A cold front packing showers stretched from New England to the Gulf of Mexico early Thursday, while the Rockies were snowy and much of the rest of the West woke to a clear day. Cold air was pouring over the Great Lakes...

Rain, snow or a mix of both were forecast for the Great Lakes region, the upper Midwest, the Plains, the Rockies and the Mississippi Valley on Wednesday, while the East and West coasts were expected to be largely dry. ...

Two winter storm systems packing snow and strong winds were colliding over the Rocky Mountains early Tuesday, while the South and West Coast were forecast to stay dry and calm. The Rockies were to be hit with a one-two...

Wintry weather continued Monday across much of the Great Lakes and Northeast. Lake-effect snow blanketed much of Michigan, Indiana, northeastern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. In the Northeast, the system produced...

Wintry weather was expected across the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, and the Northeast on Monday. Lake-effect snow showers were forecast for the Great Lakes and the Northeast. Michigan, eastern Wisconsin, and northern...