BERLIN - A former board member of the German National Democratic Party said the group is a neo-Nazi organization that hopes to set up a "Fourth Reich." Uwe Luthardt told the British newspaper The Telegraph that he joined because he wanted to do something for Germany but found that the NDP was more interested in "Greater Germany." He found that other party members were interested in seizing Silesia from Poland. Many of the members are ... [full story]

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Officials in Oregon said they are mulling their options to stop a beaver from flooding a body of water that shares his name, Beaverton Creek. Bruce Barbarasch, superintendent of the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District Natural Resources Division, said the beaver's dam in Beaverton's Center Street Park is causing the creek to overflow, putting nearby apartments in danger of flooding, KPTV, Portland, Ore., reported Wednesday. Parks and recreation officials said they ... [full story]

GOLDEN, British Columbia - Police should have acted at once when they learned an SOS was marked on a snowy Canadian mountainside where two skiers were lost, a spokesman said Thursday. Instead, police waited three more days, until a helicopter skiing company pilot saw a man waving his arms near another SOS, which was a mistake in judgment, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said. "There's an error on the part of the RCMP ... [full story]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - An international tribunal in the Netherlands acquitted former Serb President Milan Milutinovic of war crimes Thursday while convicting five others. The defendants, known collectively as the Kosovo Six, were charged with a campaign of deportation and killing aimed at the Albanian population in Kosovo in 1999. A former deputy prime minister, three top officers in the Yugoslav army and a senior police officer were convicted and received sentences of up to ... [full story]

TORONTO - Murder charges were dropped against two men allegedly videotaped killing a Toronto teenager hanging out with friends near a mall, a prosecutor said Thursday. Even though the surveillance video of 18-year-old Abdikarim Ahmed Abdikarim's killing was posted on YouTube by Toronto police hoping to draw leads, few people came forward to help police build a case, Joe Callaghn said. Owen Anthony Smith, 36, and Wendell Damian Cuff, 26, were not in court to ... [full story]

You can't spend rhetoric. Especially empty rhetoric. President Obama was eloquent trying to sell his economic stimulus program to the American public in Elkhart, Ind., and Fort Myers, Fla., last week. And one homeless woman he met eventually did find lodging — but since that hour, hundreds more families have lost their homes. Meanwhile, during congressional hearings last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner violated the first rule of public speaking: If you don't have anything ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: I have a big loss in NYSE Euronext (aka New York Stock Exchange) and I'm tempted to sell it to take a $4,000 loss. But I heard that John Thain could rejoin the company. When he took it over, the stock did real well, going as high as $84. I didn't sell because I liked Thain and because he told a friend of mine that it would go above $100 and then ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: How are U.S. government bonds rated on the world market? My broker says they are not rated "buy," but carry an "implied Triple-A rating" because of our ability to repay the debt. With that debt increasing, are U.S. Treasury bonds still comparable to a Triple-A Moody's or Standard and Poor's rating? If you could point one finger at one person who is responsible for this mess, who would it be? My broker ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: In July, when it was selling at $550 a share I asked you about Google. You said not to buy it. But I bought 50 shares at $492 anyway. Also against your advice, I bought 900 shares of Microsoft at $27. Both stocks closed lower than my purchase price on the day I bought them. I guess that was a bad omen, because I'm down nearly 20 points, or $10,000, on Google. ... [full story]

Dear Mr. Berko: My parents lost all their retirement nest egg of $1.8 million to Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme. But suing him would obviously be fruitless because he has no assets. I did read, however, that some investors are suing a bank that was custodian for much of Madoff's money called HSBC. (What do those initials stand for?) Even though HSBC was just a custodian, a lawyer we talked to said the bank failed to ... [full story]