Countrywide Financial, the nation?s largest mortgage lender, issued a pessimistic outlook of the housing market, helping to ignite a sell-off in the stock market.
In recent months, White House officials say, President Bush has spoken more frequently with the prime minister of Iraq than with just about any other foreign leader.
The roles of two of Gov. Eliot Spitzer?s top staff members in the internal effort to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno have drawn intense attention.
As President Bush continues to stress al Qaeda as the chief threat to Iraq's stability—a reprised effort to establish a link between al Qaeda in Iraq and the 9/11 attackers—U.S. military forces on the ground in Iraq are fighting a complex war in regions with vast networks of overlapping loyalties—and few foreign fighters. Most members of al Qaeda in Iraq, say commanders on the ground, are local Iraqi outcasts.
An apple-shaped body with a wide waistline will have anyone's doctor pushing an exercise regimen and healthier eating. Pear-shaped people, meanwhile, may get a break. That's because, as researchers are learning, all fat tissue is not equivalent in health terms?and a new test may help take aim at the worst of it. "It's not so much how much fat one has, it's really how fat is distributed," says Gerald Shulman, professor of internal medicine and cellular and molecular physiology at Yale University School of Medicine. Visceral fat, which accumulates in the belly and clings to the abdominal organs, appears to be more harmful than subcutaneous, superficial fat that's carried just beneath the skin around the thighs, hips, and backside.
AP - Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.
AP - Angry senators suggested a special prosecutor should investigate misconduct at the Justice Department, accusing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday of deceit on the prosecutor firings and President Bush's eavesdropping program.
AP - A top U.S. military commander said Tuesday he believes there are al-Qaida cells in the United States — or people working to create them — and the military needs to triple its response teams to counter a growing threat of attack.
The Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday said they were not given advance warning of star quarterback Michael Vick's indictment on charges related to dogfighting. Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the Falcons not to discipline Vick until an NFL review is completed.
Dr. Anna Pou, cleared Tuesday in a criminal probe into patient deaths during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, says she was falsely accused in a rush to judgment, while her lawyer said the doctor and her patients were "abandoned" by all levels of government.
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