BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders are keeping up contacts with insurgent groups to convince them to join the political process, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Saturday."Some organizations that consider themselves as part of the national resistance have contacted us and expressed readiness to drop the arms and join the political process, and we have welcomed them," Talabani said.The Iraqi leader, speaking at a ceremony welcoming new ambassadors from Japan and the United States, also praised resolutions ... [full story]

NEW YORK - A new report by a United Nations committee finds that rich countries are spending billions of dollars to protect themselves from global warming.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change plans to release the report next week, The New York Times said. The committee found that the United States and European countries are investing in desalinization plants, flood barriers and other infrastructure.Poor countries in Africa and Asia that have comparatively less responsibility for greenhouse ... [full story]

AIX-EN-PROVENCE - A French nun says Pope John Paul II cured her Parkinson's disease two months after he died in 2005.At a news conference Friday in Aix-en-Provence, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre said that the Roman Catholic church would have to decide whether the pope's intercession was miraculous."I have been cured," she said. "My healing was the work of God through the intercession of Pope John Paul II."John Paul is on the fast track for sainthood. The ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi leaders are keeping up contacts with insurgent groups to convince them to join the political process, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Saturday."Some organizations that consider themselves as part of the national resistance have contacted us and expressed readiness to drop the arms and join the political process, and we have welcomed them," Talabani said.The Iraqi leader, speaking at a ceremony welcoming new ambassadors from Japan and the United States, also praised resolutions ... [full story]

Mar. 16 Reports: Patricia Ingor Straight, 27, was arrested on an unspecified outstanding warrant from Marion County. (300 SE 15th) Adam Nicholas Terrill, 18, was arrested for shoplifting from Target. (63535 Hwy. 97) Nicole Brisbine reported unauthorized use of her debit card in California. (NE 15th St.) Michael Roberts reported damage to his vehicle while parked at Farewell Bend Park. (1000 SW Reed Market Rd.) An abandoned vehicle was towed from 629 NE 10th St. ... [full story]

A Texas driver who sped at near 80-mph through a construction zone at the Sunriver Junction on Highway 97 and led officers on a five-mile chase toward Bend Friday night was ultimately arrested for drunk driving and other charges, Oregon State Police (OSP) reported. About 10:30 p.m., Trooper April Lang was working in the 45-mph construction zone when she clocked a 1983 Ford Escort speeding by at 79-mph, troopers wrote in an OSP news release. ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES - As New York City's top cop in the 1990s, William Bratton garnered national attention by turning city maps and paperbound police logs into a pioneering computerized crime-fighting system. Now Bratton is promoting a high-tech spin on another traditional tool in his current post atop the Los Angeles force. On Friday the chief unveiled a sleeker, souped-up alternative to the flashlights that most officers carry with them at all times. The traditional long, ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - Government officials said Friday there is no immediate prospect of transferring hundreds of accused terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay to military prisons near San Diego or elsewhere in the United States. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who opposes closing the U.S. base in Cuba, raised the issue Thursday when he released a list of 17 military prisons - including brigs at Camp Pendleton and Miramar - that he said House Democrats identified as "potential ... [full story]

TRENTON, N.J. - A longtime New Jersey state senator has been charged with using his political clout to get a no-show job at the state medical school. Federal prosecutors say Wayne Bryant -- one of the state's most powerful Democratic lawmakers -- was able to increase his expected state annual pension from $28,000 to more than $81,000 after he was put on the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey payroll. Michael Gallagher of Haddonfield, ... [full story]

Today, the Oregon State Senate overwhelmingly approved Senate Bill 118, commonly referred to as the “anti-price gouging bill.” Senate Bill 118, sponsored by Attorney General Hardy Myers, prohibits retailers and contractors from setting excessively high prices for certain essential goods and services in times of an emergency or abnormal market disruption. The Department of Justice receives numerous complaints at times of emergencies in which consumers have difficulty buying necessary items, such as electrical fans during ... [full story]