The United States is trying to win friends there by funding such projects as cleaning up trash and digging wells and by hiring militia members to do the work. The National Retail Federation estimates 62% of Americans will buy valentines this year, making it the third-most popular holiday for greeting cards after Christmas and Father’s [...]

We do see their opponents, to a greater or lesser extent, as obstacles to the changes we ultimately want to see take place.”It’s not readily apparent why the mayor and union would be at such loggerheads. After you have puckered up, take a deep breath and let it out so that air escapes when you [...]

WASHINGTON Pregnant women coached through their first delivery do not fare much better than those who just do what feels natural, according to a study released Friday.Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas found that women who were told to push 10 seconds for every contraction gave birth 13 [...]

The new course, which is obviously fast and firm, consists of a type of Bermuda grass that is also used at Del Mar.A much-troubled fifth in her lone loss on the Santa Anita grass Jan. Closed Sundays and Mondays.*A subject as big as all outdoorsWith his barrel chest, thick hands and broad, earthy face, Australian [...]

Campbell to being an accessory to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family He was sentenced to 27 months in prison.Pfc Bryan L. Soft music plays in the background of a new TV ad campaign as it urges viewers to use payday loans only for [...]

Gordon’s music is urban-edged, often grating post-Minimalism. Frank Orecchio, an iron contractor, constructed a three-bedroom wood-planked house next to it after buying the adjoining lot. There it was in a tiny bottle — the mystery elixir that would make him hot, hot, hot. As the hours ticked by and the crowd swelled, trouble began, Gretna [...]

arm of Germany’s DaimlerChrysler — has slashed product development spending to $6 billion this year, down nearly 30% since 2000.As budgets ratchet down, “it makes sense to go where the expertise is and to buy proven components instead of spending a lot of money reinventing the wheel,” said Dan Gorrell, vice president of Strategic Vision, [...]

These didn’t scratch wood floors at room temperature but did became hard as nails after a few minutes in a freezer.The absence of snow in L.A.-area mountains last week prevented ideal testing conditions, and a spin on the ice at the Pasadena Ice Skating Center proved an unsuitable testing ground.After 30 minutes on the ice, [...]

Norsk Hydro, an Oslo-based petroleum and aluminum producer, said Monday that it had agreed to buy Houston-based oil and natural gas company Spinnaker Exploration Co. Barnum came back as a New Age entrepreneur, he would be right at home in this hokey attempt to mass-produce enlightenment.The Nomadic Museum, adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier, closed [...]

No wonder public support for the war is plummeting and finger-to-the-wind politicians are heading for the exits: All the headlines out of Iraq recently have been about the rebels’ reign of terror. “I told him I didn’t have any drugs, that I had two boys and my business.”The deputy took his flashlight and used it [...]