POMPANO BEACH, Fla. –– Two small planes collided over the Everglades Saturday, crashing into the swamp, and authorities said there were likely no survivors.

A Piper aircraft and another plane believed to be a Cessna crashed at about 3 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen >>>

     PM CERRO GRANDE PEAK, N.M. –– Wildland firefighters come here to the Southwest Fire Use Training Academy to learn not how to stop fires but how to start them, using prescribed burns to clean out overgrown forests and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfires.

The academy gets its students at a tim >>>

     LOS ANGELES –– Los Angeles police arrested a 21–year–old Loyola Marymount University student in connection with an online threat to shoot people on campus, officials said Saturday.

Police arrested Carlos Huerta, a senior at Loyola, for investigation of making criminal threats. Huerta was >>>

     JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –– A body pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed parking garage has been identified as a 26–year–old construction worker.

The body of Willie "L.B" Edwards III was found early Saturday, two days after the garage that had been under construction collap >>>

     ANCHORAGE, Alaska –– Searchers have found a body and wreckage from a medical helicopter missing since Monday, a spokesman for the rescue effort said.

The body of John Stumpff, 47, a flight nurse, was discovered Saturday on the north shore of Passage Canal near Whittier in Prince William Sound, said >>>

     ISABELLA TOWNSHIP, Mich. –– A car crashed into a train that was carrying mostly children to a visit with Santa Claus, killing two people in the car.

No one was injured among the 67 passengers on the "Santa Express" train, which was traveling from Mount Pleasant to Clare, about 16 miles awa >>>

     WASHINGTON –– The Justice Department and the CIA‘s internal watchdog announced Saturday a joint inquiry into the spy agency‘s destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists as the latest scandal to rock U.S. intelligence gathered steam.

The review will determine whe >>>

     By Jordan RobertsonAssociated PressSunday, December ', 2007; A20 SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 –– An Episcopal diocese in central California voted Saturday to split with the national denomination over disagreements about the role of gay men and lesbians in the church.

Clergy and lay members of the Episc >>>

     A06 Atrazine, the second most widely used weedkiller in the country, is showing up in some streams and rivers at levels high enough to potentially harm amphibians, fish and aquatic ecosystems, according to the findings of an extensive Environmental Protection Agency database that has not been made public.

The a >>>

     WASHINGTON –– GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he won‘t run from his statement 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated.

Huckabee acknowledged the prevailing scientific view then, and since, that the virus that causes AIDS is not spread through casual contact >>>

     By Mary FosterAssociated PressSunday, December ', 2007; A04 NEW ORLEANS –– The judge in the battery trial of one of the defendants known as the Jena Six said the records will remain closed, pending an appeal.

Rapides Parish District Judge Thomas M. Yeager has ordered all proceedings and records >>>

     MANCHESTER, N.H. –– New Hampshire has become the hot spot for action in the Republican presidential race, just like Iowa is for the Democrats.

GOP candidates Mitt Romney, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are battling hard for supremacy in New Hampshire, while Mike Huckabee is moving up in polls and lon >>>

     CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –– With erratic fuel gauges still a possible threat, NASA aimed for a Sunday launch of space shuttle Atlantis after senior managers signed off on a plan to tighten flight rules and shoot for a slim one–minute window.

Managers believe the extra precautions will keep Atlanti >>>

     Despite Glitch, Shuttle Stays on Launchpad CAPE CANAVERAL –– NASA has decided to proceed with the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday, using a plan presented by astronauts to limit the risks posed by an electronics glitch.

Atlantis is scheduled for a 3:21 p.m. launch from the Kennedy Spac >>>

     DES MOINES, Iowa –– Talk–show diva Oprah Winfrey said worry about the direction of her country and a personal belief in Barack Obama pushed her to make her first endorsement in a presidential campaign, invaluable support in a tight race for the Democratic nomination.

The weekend "Oprahpal >>>

     DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Thousands of fans of talk show host Oprah Winfrey or Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama –– it was hard to tell which –– filled an Iowa convention center on Saturday for the most–hyped event so far of the 2008 White House campaign.

Volunt >>>

     DES MOINES, Iowa –– Talk–show diva Oprah Winfrey said worry about the direction of her country and a personal belief in Barack Obama pushed her to make her first endorsement in a presidential campaign, invaluable support in a tight race for the Democratic nomination.

The weekend "Oprahpal >>>

     12:56 PM Prince William County police are searching for a 3'–year–old man in connection with a shooting in Woodbridge this morning that left three dead and two injured.

The suspect, Anastacio Sanchez–Miranda, was last seen driving a dark–colored, two–door Honda sedan, Virginia >>>

     PORTLAND, Ore. –– President Bush declared a federal disaster for 11 counties in the Pacific Northwest on Saturday, clearing the way for federal aid after severe storms ravaged parts of Oregon and Washington.

The declaration provides recovery assistance to five northwestern Oregon and six southwester >>>

     OMAHA, Neb. –– Visitations, wakes and vigils were set to begin Sunday for several victims of the deadliest mall shooting on record in the United States.

However, some people grieved Saturday at the Westroads Mall, where three days earlier eight people were fatally shot by a suicidal teenager.
>>>

     CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –– NASA called off Sunday‘s planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis after a gauge in a fuel tank failed for the second time in four days.

It was not immediately clear when NASA might try again to send Atlantis to the international space station. Senior managers planne >>>

     10:46 PM –– A trough of low pressure brought another day of wet weather to much of the West on Saturday, from rain in the Southwest to snow in the Great Basin and Rockies of Colorado.

Various winter storm warnings were in effect for much of the Great Basin and Southern Rockies as several inches of s >>>

     AM –– A wintry mix of weather was expected Sunday from the Four–Corners through southern New England.

Snow was forecast for a region extending from the Central Plains through the Great Lakes and into New England. Freezing rain was expected in parts of the Midwest and mid–Atlantic states. >>>

     DETROIT –– The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to drop the final charge against a former federal prosecutor acquitted of holding evidence from the defense in a major terrorism trial.

In documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the government asked that an obstruction of >>>

     AM SAN ANTONIO –– More than a year after Spc. Alejandro Albarran lost part of his right leg in an explosion in Iraq, he still hasn‘t decided whether he‘ll stay in the Army.

"Right now, I‘m leaning against it," said the 20–year–old infantryman, looking ahead wi >>>

     Sunday, December ', 2007; M02 For the past nine years, 42–year–old Chad Ver Steeg has co–owned the Pizza Ranch franchise in Pella, Iowa. And for those nine years, as with Pizza Ranches all across the state, he‘s welcomed candidates running for everything from city council to president of the >>>

     When state Rep. Bob Latta won the Nov. 7 Republican primary in Ohio‘s 5th District, most of the political world assumed he would be the district‘s next congressman.

After all, President Bush won the seat with 61 percent in 2004; Latta‘s father, Delbert, had held the seat for 30 years; and Repu >>>

     By Paul KaneWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, December ', 2007; A0' The White House yesterday threatened to veto a spending measure being assembled by congressional Democrats, declaring the $500 billion plan a "budget–busting bill," even though it would provide President Bush as much as $70 bil >>>

     PM WASHINGTON –– What, oh what, to give the leader of the free world?

From the looks of an official record of gifts to President Bush last year, it‘s clear the average pen set and card won‘t do.

Try an $11,000 Cartier Santos Dumont watch with an 18K white gold case, given to Bus >>>

     By Perry Bacon Jr.Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, December ', 2007; A1' Rising in the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee is coming under intense scrutiny from both his 2008 GOP rivals and critics of his tenure as governor of Arkansas, who have seized in recent days on >>>

     By Christopher LeeWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, December ', 2007; A03 An end–of–the year push in Congress to stave off a 10 percent cut in the fees Medicare pays doctors has revived political interest in another thorny issue: whether physicians should be able to own the hospitals they send their pa >>>

     WASHINGTON –– NBC reversed course Saturday and decided to air a conservative group‘s television ad thanking U.S. troops.

The ad, by the group Freedom‘s Watch, asks viewers to remember the troops during the holiday season. NBC had refused to air the ad because it guides viewers to the Fre >>>

     BAGHDAD –– Iraqi soldiers fired on a suicide car bomber as he sped toward their checkpoint in a northern oil hub Sunday, and two of the troops died when the vehicle exploded, police said.

The attack in Beiji came just a day after a suicide truck bomber disguising his payload as a construction delive >>>

     By Rama LakshmiWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, December ', 2007; A25 CHENNAI, India –– In a congested neighborhood full of trash heaps, cows and auto–rickshaws lives a budding star named Rose.

Her photographs are splashed across newspaper pages and magazine centerfolds. She speaks a >>>

     KANDAHAR, Afghanistan –– A NATO and Afghan operation to retake a Taliban–controlled town in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children, the Afghan Defense Ministry said Saturday.

In other violence in southern Afghanistan, a NATO soldier was killed and another >>>

     LISBON, Portugal –– Most African leaders have rejected European Union proposals for a free–trade deal that would replace colonial–era trading systems, Senegal‘s president said Sunday at a summit marred by disputes over Zimbabwe and Darfur.

The two–day meeting in Lisbon had be >>>

     BAGHDAD –– An Iraqi investigating magistrate on Sunday convened the first criminal hearing in the case of Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been held by the U.S. military without charges for nearly 20 months.

Hussein was present for most of the nearly seven–hour, closed&ndas >>>

     ORURO, Bolivia (Reuters) – The assembly rewriting Bolivia‘s basic law reconvened on Saturday night to vote article by article on a draft constitution that has caused a deep split and violent protests in the poor Andean country.

Among controversial reforms the assembly could approve this weekend are >>>

     LIMA, Peru, Dec. 8 –– The members of Bolivia‘s constitutional assembly reconvened Saturday evening to try to pass a draft of a controversial new charter that has thrown the country into crisis in recent weeks.

President Evo Morales‘s supporters in the assembly announced early Saturday th >>>

     MANCHESTER, England –– A woman whose husband is accused of faking his own death in an insurance scam was arrested Sunday on suspicion of fraud, police said.

Anne Darwin was arrested at Manchester‘s airport shortly after arriving from Atlanta, Ga., police said. She had been living in Panama but >>>

     ROSTOV–ON–DON, Russia –– An explosion on a bus killed two people and wounded four others in southern Russia on Sunday, officials said.

The blast occurred when a bus traveling from Pyatigorsk to Stavropol stopped at a bus station in the city of Nevinnomysk, about 1,050 miles south of Mosc >>>

     BEIJING –– Authorities have detained 33 people over a gas explosion at a coal mine that killed 105 people last week in China‘s second deadliest mining disaster this year, state media reported Sunday.

In another accident, 11 men trapped for five days in a collapsed iron and gold mine north of B >>>

     12:58 PM BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders are expected to agree this week that efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the Kosovo problem are exhausted, and offer to take responsibility for security and justice in the breakaway Serbian province.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday & >>>

     The United States must scrap the current structure of the State Department and radically reshape its foreign assistance, trade and diplomatic programs to create a super–size international affairs agency to meet overseas challenges, a majority in a congressionally mandated bipartisan commission will recommend tomor >>>

     BERLIN –– German embassies in Cairo and Moscow fired several employees after authorities discovered that at least 153 visas were issued to people based on forged documents, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The ministry discovered the cases during a regular inspection of embassy operations, a spok >>>

     By Joby Warrick and Dan EggenWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, December ', 2007; A01 In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, >>>

     A01 CRETEIL, France –– On a recent Friday, 200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop here for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first–floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny administrative office upstairs.

Outside the makeshift mosque, Karim Benaissa wat >>>

     By Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, December ', 2007; A27 MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 8 –– Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates argued forcefully at a Persian Gulf security conference Saturday that U.S. intelligence indicates Iran could restart its secret nuclear weapons program "at any tim >>>

     TEHRAN, Iran –– Iran has sent a formal protest note to Washington for allegedly spying on its nuclear activities, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday in the wake of the latest U.S. intelligence report on the country‘s weapons program.

The note was handed over to the Swiss Embassy >>>

     TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran signed a contract with China‘s Sinopec on Sunday for the development of Iran‘s huge Yadavaran oil field, the kind of energy deal the United States has been trying to prevent.

Sinopec group agreed in 2004 to take the lead in developing Yadavaran field and to buy 10 milli >>>

     TEHRAN, Iran –– Hundreds of Iranian students angry over a crackdown on activists protested Sunday at Tehran University, the second such demonstration in less than a week, witnesses and state radio said.

One witness, Mehdi Arabshahi, said the campus protest lasted more than two hours as dozens of stu >>>

     TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iraqi officials have proposed holding the next round of talks between the United States and Iran to discuss security in Iraq in January and Tehran is studying the idea, Iran‘s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Officials from the two foes, at odds over who is to blame for violence i >>>

     BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed the Iraqi police chief of a predominantly Shi‘ite province south of Baghdad on Sunday just hours after U.S. military commanders had publicly praised his efforts to secure his region.

The attack on Major–General Qais al–Mamouri‘s convoy fol >>>

     JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel‘s deputy prime minister responded on Sunday to U.S. criticism of plans to build homes on occupied land in the Jerusalem area by saying parts of the city must be given to the Palestinians to avoid losing U.S. support.

But Haim Ramon told Israeli radio that Israel would no >>>

     KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian police halted an annual human–rights march on Sunday, arresting at least four people and drawing widespread criticism for being intolerant of dissent.

Some 60 people, including a dozen lawyers, carried banners and leaflets in defiance of both official warnings and >>>

     STOCKHOLM, Sweden –– One of Liza Minelli‘s crew members was detained by police in Stockholm late Saturday on suspicion of beating up a photographer who was filming the U.S. singer‘s performance, police said.

Minelli, 61, was performing in Sweden as part of the big gala event "A Clas >>>

     SEOUL, South Korea –– South Korea plans to send 5,010 tons of steel to North Korea next week as part of an aid–for–disarmament deal, an official said Sunday, as a deadline for Pyongyang to declare all its nuclear programs and disable its facilities loomed.

The shipment is part of an aid >>>

     DHAKA (Reuters) – At least one person was killed and about 50 workers were injured when the roof of a 22–storey building collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, police and witnesses said on Sunday.

Several other workers were trapped inside the building, which was being demolished, when it collap >>>

     ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif now wants his party to take part in a January general election after failing to clinch a boycott pact with his rival Benazir Bhutto, party aides said on Sunday.

Sharif had hoped that fellow opposition leader Bhutto would join an alliance o >>>

     A25 LONDON, Dec. 8 –– British police filed fraud charges Saturday against a man who was declared dead after he disappeared on a canoeing trip in 2002 but last week walked into a police station claiming amnesia.

Police in Cleveland, in northern England, charged John Darwin, 57, with making false stat >>>

     December ', 2007; A25 As 12,000 people gathered in Bali this week to begin framing a global response to Earth‘s warming climate, efforts to close a deal that would slow destruction of tropical forests appear to be the best prospect for a concrete achievement from the historic assemblage.

But the defor >>>

     MOSCOW –– On Friday, parts of the Russian media speculated that Vladimir Putin would become the first president of a new Russia–Belarus union state.

The evidence: Putin will meet this week with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and a long–discussed but never realized merger of the >>>

     LONDON –– A former aide to the Saudi ambassador to Britain has settled a court dispute over a lavish expenses bill that included a BMW, ivory tusks and two karaoke machines, the men said in a statement Saturday.

Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, ambassador to Britain and Ireland and a nephew of Saudi King >>>

     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –– Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif‘s opposition party decided Sunday to run in next month‘s parliamentary elections, a move that may encourage other members of Pakistan‘s largest opposition coalition to participate.

Sharif had threatened to boycott the vote, >>>

     VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Sunday urged Catholics to rediscover the religious significance of Christmas, saying the holiday should not be dominated by materialism.

The Pope‘s words at his Sunday blessing to crowds in a rainy St Peter‘s Square marked the second consecutive day th >>>

     MALLIPO BEACH, South Korea –– Thousands of people used shovels and buckets Sunday to clean up a devastating oil spill at a scenic beach in South Korea‘s western coast, some battling headaches and nausea from the stench.

About 7,500 volunteers, civil servants and members of the coast guard, pol >>>

     BAGHDAD, Dec. 8 –– A suicide bomber driving an explosives–laden truck attacked a police station north of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a week of bombings that have left 80 people dead.

The truck was allowed through the main gate of the complex in the town of Baiji after the driver told gu >>>

     ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –– A suicide bomber rammed an explosives–laden car into a police outpost Sunday, killing eight people in an area where the military has been battling Islamic militants loyal to a fugitive cleric, an official said.

Five civilians _ including two children _ and three policeme >>>

     KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan and NATO–led forces have captured two senior Taliban leaders during an offensive to retake the insurgents‘ most important stronghold in Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Musa Qala, in the southern province of Helmand, is symbolic for both sides in the c >>>

     CARACAS, Venezuela –– President Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come Saturday and dismissed Western accusations that former Soviet republic‘s leader is a dictator.

Concluding his first visit to Venezuela, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko promised to h >>>

     HANOI, Vietnam –– Several hundred Vietnamese staged a rare public demonstration Sunday to protest China‘s effort to claim control of two disputed island chains in the South China Sea.

The demonstrators, mostly university students, gathered near the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and chanted "Do >>>

     2:27 AM LISBON (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged European and African leaders on Saturday to confront human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, putting the country‘s president Robert Mugabe in the spotlight at an EU–Africa summit.

Her comments brought to the surface simmering disag >>>

     Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week‘s End Anglo File Hanukkah del.icio.us Digg It! new Business in Brief Salaries in education 22% below average Advertisement The average gross monthly wage in education for the third quarter was only NIS 6,073, or 22.5 percent below the average wage for all Israelis of NIS 7,835. T >>>

     By Daniel Shmiel Tags: Toyota, hybrid cars, Israel At the end of a year that saw the Nobel Peace Prize go to an environmentalist, it is interesting to see that reducing air pollution has become a fashion in the Israeli car market.

Figures for hybrid vehicles in the first 11 months show a big rise in their popul >>>

     By Irit Rosenblum Israel‘s soccer fields do not meet international standards, and it is impossible to host tournaments with foreign teams here, said Gavri Levy, the former head of the Football Association. Hespoke Thursday at a conference on tourism and sport sponsored by the Israel Hotels Association (IHA) at the >>>

     By Efrat Neuman Tags: media, ethics, Israel Journalism may be an important and respected profession, but it is not necessarily appropriate for honest, decent people. That is more or less the conclusion of a study conducted by the University of Haifa on the state of the media in Israel.

The study was presented a >>>

     By Moti Bassok The new two–shekel coin will enter circulation today.

The Bank of Israel will distribute it through commercial banks, hoping to reduce its costs for issuing money and make paying cash for small purchases more efficient by reducing the number of coins needed.

Advertisement A survey >>>

     By Avi Bar–Eli Tags: Siemens, overcrowding, trains Bad news for train passengers: The new rail cars ordered by Israel Railways are now expected to be delayed once again and may not arrive before June 2008.

Germany‘s Siemens won the tender to supply the rail carriages, and Israel Railways is consider >>>

     By Uzi Benziman Tags: secular, emigration On June 8, 1'67, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces entered Government House in Jerusalem and began emptying it of items left by United Nations observers who had fled the IDF‘s battles with the Arab Legion. The soldiers whooped with joy as they worked; the Israelis >>>

     By Gideon Levy Tags: war crimes, U.K., Shin Bet Avi Dichter will not be going to London. The Israeli dream of taking in year–end sales, the new production of Othello or the sights of Oxford Street vanished before the public security minister‘s very eyes. The Foreign Ministry advised Dichter not to participat >>>

     By Donniel Hartman Tags: Jewish, Israel, Christian If the peace process has any goal, it is to create here, between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, two national entities. It is to forego any fantasy of a single binational state and to make room for two independent nations each with its own aspirations – that cov >>>

     By Haaretz Editorial Tags: Journalists, ICIU Journalists Tsur Shezaf, Ron Ben–Yishai and Lisa Goldman each went to either Lebanon or Syria to report for the Israeli media. For this routine action, each recently was questioned by the International Crimes Investigations Unit of the Israel Police. "We don‘ >>>

     By Zvi Bar‘el Tags: Hamas, Iran, Israel The anger against the American intelligence report is understandable. After all, the threat remains. Even if Iran is not nuclear at the moment, it is still a state with a proven arsenal of ballistic missiles that threatens Israel and the entire region. The regime controlling >>>

     By Avi Issacharoff The Israel Defense Forces on Friday killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip and wounded another, Palestinian sources reported. Meanwhile, the London–based Arabic daily Al–Quds Al–Arabi reported yesterday that Hamas is seeking a truce with Israel.

Sources said Bajat Abu Da >>>

     By Yoav Stern It was hard for an audience to be more excited than the one at the Hadash convention on Friday. After more than three hours of speeches in a hot and crowded auditorium, the penultimate speaker was Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinians, who gave a moving imitation of Arafat.

Then came >>>

     By Or Kashti Liat Peleg, a first–grade teacher at Katznelson School, in Givatayim, writes "Grandfather read Danny a story" (in Hebrew) on the blackboard and calls a group of students to the front of the room. After seating them on a bench, she asks them to split the words into syllables, and then to move >>>

     By Tamara Traubmann and Ran Reznick The Israeli doctor involved in a recent international study that has found a link between cellular phones and cancer says she believes cell–phone use should be limited among children. Dr. Sigal Sadetzki, who heads the Israeli group in the study, which was conducted in 16 countri >>>

     By Assaf Uni BERLIN – What began as another scandal concerning illegal campaign contributions to the British Labour Party has become in recent days a tangled matter that is arousing conspiracy theories regarding a "Jewish plot" in the United Kingdom, and the role of the pro–Israel lobby there. Davi >>>

     By News Agencies U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended Israel‘s reputed nuclear program yesterday, saying Israel did not seek to destroy its neighbors or support terrorism, unlike Iran.

Asked at the Manama Dialogue conference whether he thought Israel‘s nuclear program posed a threat to the r >>>

     By The Associated Press KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A NATO and Afghan operation to retake a Taliban–controlled town in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children, the Afghan Defense Ministry said yesterday.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months a >>>

     Treasury, professors hope to narrow gaps Advertisement Treasury and union officials will meet again today in hopes of narrowing the gap between the two sides and bringing the senior university faculty members‘ strike to a close. Today‘s talks, like those of last Thursday, will focus on ways to prevent salary >>>

     By Anshel Pfeffer Radio Maryja, the influential nationalist Polish conglomerate that operates radio and television stations, a daily newspaper and a Web site, is trying to rid itself of the anti–Semitic image that has dogged it in recent years.

A letter from one of the heads of the media empire claims Rad >>>

     By Yuval Yoaz "Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy," author Sami Michael, president of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said on the release of the organization‘s annual report. The publication coincides with Human Rights Week, which >>>

     By Barak Ravid and Jonathan Lis U.S.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the plan to build 307 new housing units in Jerusalem‘s Har Homa neighborhood beyond the Green Line does not help the peace process.

"I‘ve made clear that we‘re in a time when the goal is to build maximum c >>>

     By Or Kashti The chairman of the Secondary School Teachers Association (SSTA), Ran Erez, said yesterday he could not prevent teachers from not honoring court–issued back–to–work orders.

"I cannot stop humiliated teachers from not going back to work in the schools," he said.

>>>

     By Shahar Ilan Last month Anna Jagnos–Paliashkon, 80, petitioned the High Court of Justice to protect what is left of her family. Jagnos, a Holocaust survivor, immigrated to Israel five years ago with her family from the Ukrainian city of Simferopol.

Her husband is in a geriatric hospital. Her daughter di >>>

     By Shmuel Rosner Tags: NIE, Iran WASHINGTON – Observers from the right and left have told Haaretz that the report released a week ago on Iran halting its nuclear program will have no impact on U.S. public opinion or its effect will erode.

Some said deficiencies in the National Intelligence Estimate will b >>>

     Europe, Africa seek new relationship at summit Advertisement Leaders from Europe and Africa, at odds for years over issues such as human rights and post–colonial grievances, set out their case yesterday for an unprecedented political and economic partnership between their continents.

Almost all the leader >>>

     Sunday December ', 2007 6:46 AM By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press Writer COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – Soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged mortar and gunfire in northern Sri Lanka, leaving 16 rebels dead, the military said Sunday.

Soldiers repelled a rebel mortar attack Saturday, killing 10 >>>

     Sunday December ', 2007 10:31 AM By SINAN SALAHEDDIN Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraqi soldiers fired on a suicide car bomber as he sped toward their checkpoint in a northern oil hub Sunday, and two of the troops died when the vehicle exploded, police said.

The attack in Beiji came just a d >>>