A Polk County deputy received apparently minor injuries when his patrol vehicle left Highway 18, rolled over, hit a power pole and ended up in the front yard of a home in a single-vehicle crash early Wednesday morning. According to a news release issued by the Polk County, Oregon Sheriff’s Office, Deputy David Black crashed near Fort Hill in the enhanced patrol area of Grand Ronde about 1:40 a.m., November 14. Preliminary investigation shows that ... [full story]

A 20-year-old California bike-rider was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after the bicycle apparently hit a car head-on in Milwaukie, Oregon, police reported. Milwaukie Police officers were called to SE McLoughlin and SE 22nd St. about 5:15 p.m., November 13 to the report of a vehicle vs. bicycle crash. Preliminary investigation determined that the bicyclist, Gabriel Lee King, 20, of Arcadia, California, was bicycling with another person and was traveling north on ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The parties of two former Pakistan prime ministers may come together as pressure mounts on President Pervez Musharraf to resign.Benazir Bhutto, who had been expected to conclude a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, is now under house arrest for planning to lead a march against Musharraf's emergency decree. She has joined others in calling for Musharraf's resignation and ruled out any deal with the general.Bhutto and her Pakistan People's Party are now ready ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan rejected a demand from the Commonwealth group of countries that it lift emergency rule and restore the constitution, saying it is unable to do so.The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, meeting in London, had set Nov. 22 as the date for the government of President Pervez Musharraf to end the emergency he imposed Nov. 3 or face suspension from the 53-member group, which is made up of Britain and mostly independent countries ... [full story]

GENEVA, Switzerland - Members of the Convention on Conventional Weapons ended a week of discussion on cluster bombs Tuesday without any plan to ban them.In the end, the group voted to resume discussions next year to develop a proposal, Human Rights Watch said."The Convention on Conventional Weapons has failed again to deliver any move toward addressing cluster munitions," said Steve Goose, director of the rights group's arms division. "Any country serious about dealing with the ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi civilians were killed by a bomb blast in central Baghdad Wednesday that officials said was intended to hit a U.S. military convoy.Three other civilians were injured and a car reduced to scrap in the blast, Kuwait's KUNA news agency reported.The explosion occurred near the city's so-called Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament, U.S. and other diplomatic missions, CNN said.In the northern city of Kirkuk, Alsumaria said insurgents targeted police, with ... [full story]

PHILADELPHIA -- Two Philadelphia police officers were shot and wounded Tuesday night as they attempted to break down the door of a suspected crack house.Both officers were treated at hospitals and released within a few hours.Police said seven people in the house were arrested after a three-hour siege, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.The wounded officers were the fifth and sixth in the city to be shot in two months, including Officer Chuck Cassidy, who was mortally ... [full story]

SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. Internet search engine giant Yahoo! reportedly has settled a lawsuit concerning imprisoned Chinese dissidents.The lawsuit, settled in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, was filed by families of the dissidents, alleging they were jailed because Yahoo! had cooperated with Chinese authorities, CNN reported citing court documents. The settlement's terms were not made public.The CNN report said the lawsuit was filed by the wife of a dissident sentenced by the Chinese Communist ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The aggregate costs of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will reach $1.6 trillion in the next 13 months, a U.S. congressional committee reported.The Democratic-led Joint Economic Committee made the estimate Tuesday, which said that figure would likely double by 2017, CNN reported.For a family of four, the committee estimated the cost would be nearly $21,000 through 2008, which Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized to reporters."We of the baby boom generation and ... [full story]

VIENNA - One of the critical documents on Iran's nuclear program the U.N. atomic watchdog wanted for the past two years has been handed over in Vienna.Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Iran had been able to view the scientific paper on how to cast uranium into nuclear warhead cores in Iran, but were not allowed to have copies for detailed scrutiny, a New York Times correspondent reported.European sources who asked not to ... [full story]