SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A federal appeals court panel has ordered Illinois' former Republican governor, George Ryan, to report to prison Nov. 7 to begin serving a 6 ½ year sentence. Ryan, 73, who served one-term as governor from 1999 to 2003, was convicted on federal corruption charges in April 2006 after a six-month trial. He was accused of accepting cash, gifts and vacations from friends and lobbyists in return for state contracts. He and co-defendant ... [full story]

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- A woman charged with illegally videotaping a Florida circuit judge has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge after spending 83 days in jail.Julie Ann Domotor of Delray Beach, Fla., originally faced three felony charges for videotaping Circuit Judge Richard Wennet, her one-time lover, admiring a topless sunbather at Peanut Island, Fla,, then posting the video on YouTube.com, the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reported Thursday.Domotor, 41, pleaded no contest to a ... [full story]

BERLIN -- The Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany acknowledged its founding leadership contained members of ex-Nazi police forces.Jorg Zierke, chief of the Federal Criminal Police Office, known by its German abbreviation BKA, said at a conference examining the organizations Nazi history, “It is only through debate about our past that we can map out our future in a responsible way,” Deutsche Welle reported Thursday.The BKA previously obscured its Nazi past, stating at the organization's ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- A barrage of at least 13 rockets were fired into Israel's western Negev region Thursday but no injuries were reported, the Israeli military said.At least nine rockets fired from the Gaza Strip fell on open fields and the others caused minor structural damage, Ynetnews.com reported.Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees' Salah al-Din Brigades claimed responsibility for the attacks that terrified residents, the report said."It was one of the scariest days ... [full story]

TOGLIATTI, Russia, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- A suspect has been identified in a deadly bus bombing in the southern Russian city of Togliatti, Russian investigators said Thursday.Inspector Alexander Bastrykin said a man's apartment had been searched and bomb parts that "could have been used for the preparation of a homemade explosive device," had been found, the Novosti news agency reported.The blast on a city bus during Wednesday's morning rush hour killed eight people and injured ... [full story]

SYDNEY -- Australian police charged a Sydney man with murder after a retired man watering his lawn was attacked because of drought-imposed water restrictions.Todd Munter, 36, appeared in court Thursday on charges he attacked, punched and kicked Ken Proctor to the ground in a dispute over watering.Proctor was watering during a permitted time, The Telegraph of Australia reported. He was reportedly accosted by Munter and turned the hose on Munter, who punched him several times ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of a U.S. congressional oversight committee requested that the White House hand over documents withheld in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., called on the White House to release 600 pages of documents withheld in the investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee into contacts Abramoff, a former lobbyist, had with White House officials, The Washington Post reported Thursday.Waxman’s letter to White House ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- A rights group petitioned Israel's High Court on Thursday to stop the military from performing anthrax vaccine experiments on soldiers.Physicians for Human Rights filed one petition, while a second was filed by a group of soldiers seeking to be recognized as casualties of the experiments, Ynetnews.com reported.From 1999 to 2006, some 800 soldiers underwent vaccinations of a vaccine developed in the United States and the rights group claimed in their petition scientific errors ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used memos to subordinates to outline how to shape public opinion on the war in Iraq, the memos show.In the memos, which he called "snowflakes," Rumsfeld revealed his dislike for media criticism and his desire to reshape opinion regarding the war, The Washington Post, which obtained the internal documents, reported Thursday.The newspaper didn't say how it obtained the memos but did report they were marked "for official ... [full story]

BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb killed five Iraqis in Baghdad Thursday, a day after another bomb left two U.S. soldiers dead in Nineveh province.Kuwait's KUNA news agency said Thursday's blast also left nearly a dozen people injured in the capital's Al-Bonook district.The U.S. military said in a statement Thursday that the two G.I.s killed Wednesday were attached to Task Force Iron and had been riding in a vehicle that was struck by a roadside bomb. ... [full story]