DALLAS - A Dallas judge has blocked a suburb's ordinance that would have banned housing rentals to illegal immigrants beginning on Tuesday. Voters in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch passed the measure by 68 percent in a referendum May 12, but two lawsuits were filed in an effort to block it, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported. A suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education ... [full story]

Utah Victim One of Several Nationwide PORTLAND, Ore. - Joshua Kistler, 31, of Beaverton, Oregon, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ancer L. Haggerty to 293 months for producing child pornography, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher and United States Attorney Karin J. Immergut announced today. On December 14, 2006, Kistler pled guilty to a single-count indictment. A term of supervised release and restitution will be imposed at a later time. This case ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he won't strike a deal with his political rivals before the country's presidential election. Musharraf, whose popularity has suffered since his controversial firing of Pakistan's chief justice and clashes in Karachi this month left dozens of people dead, said in a TV interview that he has no plans for reconciliation with opposition leaders Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, The New York Times reported. "About their return before ... [full story]

MOSUL, Iraq - The biggest Iraqi insurgent attack in Mosul since October was an attempt to free hundreds of prison inmates, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said. Last Wednesday, several bombs exploded in the northern Iraq city, killing 10 Iraqi police officers, one Iraqi soldier and two civilians, a U.S. military source told CNN. Mosul police spokesman Gen. Saied al-Jabouri told CNN the attacks were apparently coordinated by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq ... [full story]

CALCUTTA, India - Politicians and scientists in India are working at doubling the country's uranium reserves within five years, a nuclear official said Tuesday in Calcutta. Speaking to reporters, Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar said the country's uranium nuclear fuel reserves are around 78,000 tons, but growth in power generation means it will need 100,000 tons in the near future, the Press Trust of India reported. He said the Bhaba Atomic Research ... [full story]

SHANGHAI - A 25-year-old sailor trapped for nearly 20 hours inside a sunken cargo ship in the East China Sea wasn't injured, a salvage official said Tuesday. Divers rescued Tao Ernian Monday night from a wreck near the Yangtze River estuary, Zhang Jianxin, a director with the East China Sea Salvage Bureau, told China's official Xinhua news agency. Tao was one of 11 sailors aboard a cargo ship loaded with 700 tons of stone that ... [full story]

Indictments charge defendants with fraudulently seeking disaster relief funds designated for Hurricane Katrina victims PORTLAND, Ore. - Fifteen Portland-area residents have been charged in connection with the fraudulent receipt of Hurricane Katrina disaster relief funds, announced Karin J. Immergut, the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury in Portland on April 25, 2007 and the last of the fifteen defendants appeared for arraignment on May ... [full story]

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - U.N. officials delivering aid to a Lebanese refugee camp where extremists have been fighting government troops waited to see if a cease-fire would hold. Thousands of Palestinian civilians are trapped inside the camp near Tripoli without power or water, and the U.N. supplies were still outside Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times reported. The Lebanese government said at least 60 people had been killed since the army and the extremist Fatah al-Islam ... [full story]

LONDON - Russian prosecutors said Tuesday the nation's constitution prevents the extradition of a Moscow man accused of poisoning a former Russian spy in London. Earlier Tuesday, British prosecutors said they would seek the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy to face murder charges in the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. "I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrey Lugovoy with the murder of Mr. ... [full story]

National & Statewide "Click It or Ticket" effort focuses on full-time use of proper restraints Oregonians are buckling up in record numbers: the state just moved up one notch for safety belt usage — to number three in the nation — at 94.1 percent. But that’s no reason to relax, according to Carla Levinski, Occupant Protection Program manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Now the focus shifts to part-time belt users and increasing the ... [full story]