WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Speaker Newt Gingrich recommended French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a model for Republicans and suggests he is the American Sarkozy. In an interview with The New Yorker, Gingrich told writer Jeffrey Goldberg that Sarkozy managed to become "the clear advocate of fundamental change" even though he had been in the Cabinet of an unpopular president who had been in office for 12 years. Sarkozy ran against President Jacques Chirac, suggesting that ... [full story]

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's leftist government accused a leading TV station of calling for the assassination of President Hugo Chavez, El Universal reported Tuesday. Globovision TV was said to be openly calling for the death of Chavez when it aired the 1981 assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II accompanied by the phrase, "This doesn't end here." The accusation against Globovision follows the decision by Venezuela to shut down an opposition TV station and replace ... [full story]

COCOA BEACH, Fla. - Lifeguards closed part of Cocoa Beach because of dangerous riptides that resulted in 200 rescues in a three-hour period. Brevard County Ocean Lifeguard assistant chief Jeff Scarbozi told WKMG-TV that there were 200 rescues at Shepard Park beach between noon and 3 p.m. Saturday. Lifeguards closed the beach on Monday. The riptides, which are fed by heavy surf breaking holes in sandbars, resulted in dozens of rescues and a few nervous ... [full story]

BALTIMORE - The first black elected to represent Maryland in the U.S. Congress, Parren J. Mitchell, has died in a Baltimore hospital at the age of 85. Family members said he died of complications of pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center after living at a nursing home for several years after suffering a series of strokes, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday. Mitchell was elected in 1970 to the first of his eight terms in Congress, ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - Marines who are 18 can be thrown into the very teeth of it. They face death in battle. They make life-and-death decisions in split seconds. But here's a simple choice they can't make: "Miller or Bud?" If Marines are younger than 21, they can't go to a bar and order a cold one. They are not happy about it, if an informal poll of nearly a dozen underage Marines in Oceanside is ... [full story]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Japanese delegation at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, says it won't try to stop Eskimo bowhead whaling anymore. The annual meeting began Monday with delegates from about 80 countries hearing from IWC scientists the existing quota of 75 bowheads for Alaska's North Slope and St. Lawrence Island Eskimos was sustainable, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday. They estimated bowhead numbers at more than 10,800, and growing steadily. Every ... [full story]

DALLAS - An 8-month-old girl was the only survivor of an apparent murder-suicide west of Dallas on Tuesday that left three girls and their mother dead. The sister of the woman called police when she went to check on the family after her sister didn't show up for work near Hudson Oaks, Texas, KXAS-TV, Dallas, reported. The unidentified 23-year-old woman and her four daughters were all found hanging by strips of cloth in a closet ... [full story]

A 38-year old resident of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation was sentenced to three concurrent 36-month terms in prison for the sexual abuse of three women that occurred over a three-year period.  According to the US Attorney’s Office, District of Oregon, the man had sexual contact with and photographed the women while they were drunk and unconscious. Leon Tenorio was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Garr M. King for the abuse which occurred ... [full story]

Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) recently announced that Ochoco Health Systems has been awarded a $608,333 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to establish a new health clinic in La Pine, Oregon. Congressman Walden strongly supported Ochoco's efforts to secure the grant from DHHS' Health Center Program and wrote to the Department on Ochoco's behalf in December. Walden has supported a number of Ochoco projects over the years, including the recently-opened ... [full story]

BRUNSWICK, Ga. - U.S. President George Bush Tuesday commiserated with those affected by the Georgia and Florida wildfires, visiting a fire station in Brunswick, Ga. Bush, accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend, as well as Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., also participated in a simulated border-crossing exercise. Bush said wildfires had destroyed "a lot of good country" and said he fears the only way to ... [full story]