up in the past months remain in jail.The Arab observers kicked
off their one month mission in the violence-wracked country with a visit
on Tuesday to Homs -- the first time Syria has allowed outside
monitors to the city at the heart of the anti-government uprising.A local
official in Homs told The Associated Press that four observers were in
the city on Wednesday as well, touring various districts. He declined to
give his details and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.Syrian
TV said observers toured several trouble spots in Homs including the neighborhoods
of Bab Sbaa, Baba Amr, Inshaat and al-Muhajireen, adding they met with
residents there.Homs residents said anti-government protesters were preparing for a second day
of demonstrations, despite a massive security presence in the city."I can see
riot police with shields and batons on main streets and intersections, they
are everywhere," said one resident, speaking over the phone. He declined t
ores of oil deals, mostly with mid-sized companies. Baghdad considers all of
these deals illegal and has blacklisted the companies involved.The Kurds and Exxon
Mobil appear to be betting the Baghdad government will be forced to
acquiesce.They "are now in a position where they could essentially force Baghdad
to accept the status quo and the two separate regulatory systems that
exist in the country," said Riani.
r potential embarrassment for Gingrich, who is leading Romney in most national
polls for the GOP nomination.But with a week to go before the
first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, Gingrich has slipped to third place in that state
behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Romney. On other issues including climate
change and mortgage giant Freddie Mac, Gingrich has struggled to reconcile his
stance as a conservative with his long history of policy positions that
sometimes run counter to that.Gingrich's rise to the top of the field
has come in part from his bashing Romney for engineering a state
health care expansion that became a model for President Barack Obama's 2010
health law. "Your plan essentially is one more big-government, bureaucratic, high-cost system,"
Gingrich told Romney during an October debate in Las Vegas. He said
Romney was trying to solve Massachusetts' health care problems "from the top
down."R.C. Hammond, a spokesman for Gingrich, said the April 2006 essay sh
PHOENIX An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school
district's ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of
Arizona's public schools chief.Judge Lewis Kowal's ruling marked a defeat for the
Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by
Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal.Kowal's ruling, first reported by The Arizona
Daily Star, said the district's Mexican-American Studies program violated state law by
having one or more classes designed primarily for one ethnic group, promoting
racial resentment and advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating students as individuals.The
judge, who found grounds to withhold 10 percent of the district's monthly
state aid until it comes into compliance, said the law permits the
objective instruction about the oppression of people that may result in racial
resentment or ethnic solidarity."However, teaching oppression objectively is qu
APSeptember 11, 2011: Egyptian pro-Mubarak supporters flash his posters and a giant
poster showing field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, at center, outside police academy
court in Cairo, Egypt.CAIRO Egypt's ousted leader Hosni Mubarak was brought
back to a Cairo's courtroom on Wednesday for the resumption of his
trial after a three months' break.Mubarak has been charged with complicity in
the deaths of nearly 840 protesters in the crackdown against a popular
uprising, which forced him to step down on Feb. 11. He could
face the death penalty if convicted but so far most of the
testimonies, including from police officers, have distanced the former president from any
orders to shoot at the protesters.Egyptian TV showed footage of the 83-year-old
Mubarak, covered by a green blanket and lying on a hospital gurney
as he was brought from a helicopter and taken to an ambulance
for a short ride to the courthouse Wednesday .Mubarak has been under
arrest in a hospital
s dragging women protesters by the hair, stomping on them and stripping
one half-naked in the street during a fierce crackdown on activists."This is
a case for all the women of Egypt, not only mine," said
Samira Ibrahim, 25, who was arrested and then spoke out about her
treatment.Ibrahim filed two suits against the practice, one demanding it be banned
and another accusing an officer of sexual assault. She was the only
one to complain publicly about a practice that can bring shame upon
the victim in a conservative society.A small group of women gathered outside
the court building, holding banners. One said, "Women of Egypt are a
red line."The three-judge panel said in its ruling that the virginity tests
were "a violation of women's rights and an aggression against their dignity."The
ruling also said a member of the ruling military council admitted to
Amnesty International in June that the practice was carried out on female
detainees in March to protect the army
