CAIRO - As Jews are observing Passover, Egypt's chief archaeologist says there's no scientific evidence God parted the Red Sea to allow them to escape a pharaoh's army.Known to Jews as the exodus from the desert and finding the Promised Land, the parting of the waters is seen as symbolic by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist who has scoured the territory, a Washington Post reporter wrote. Passover selebrates the flight from Egypt."Really, it's a ... [full story]

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland - The annual Canadian seal hunt was off to a weak start with just two boats of 40 eligible working the waters of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.Fisheries Department spokesman Phil Jenkins said the first of three stages of the hunt opened Monday, but warm weather has created poor ice conditions that has decimated the number of baby seals, who need solid ice as they can't swim for the first few ... [full story]

LIMA - The president of Peru has ordered airstrikes to be carried out on landing strips and drug laboratories hidden in the Amazon jungle.President Alan Garcia said leaders of the drug trafficking trade must be stopped or else the country could face a drug-fueled insurgency similar to that in neighboring Columbia, the BBC reported Tuesday.Garcia said at the end of a two-week suspension in efforts to eradicate illegal coca plants negotiated by the country's agriculture ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The young Internet campaigners that support the presidential campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama were there before he entered the race.Ben Stanfield, 26, started DraftObama.org in October, wrapping in other pro-Obama Web sites such as "Independents for Obama" as his popular Web blog grew, the Washington Times reported. "Students for Barack Obama" started on the Internet community-building site Facebook.com and had 31,000 members in January."We have 66,787 members right now, and we're following ... [full story]

NORTH BAY, Ontario - Dead fish washed up on the shores of a northern Ontario river Tuesday where a train derailment resulted in a spill of 40,000 gallons of sulfuric acid.Provincial environment crews were on the scene of Friday's derailment of an Ontario Northland train about 130 miles of North Bay, dumping dry lime into the Blanche River to try to neutralize the acid, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported.Farmers in the area were told not ... [full story]

COLUMBUS - Police in Ohio captured an inmate who allegedly stole a guard's gun and uniform at a hospital and held a woman hostage at an accountant's office. Billy Jack Fitzmorris Police said Billy Jack Fitzmorris, 34, escaped from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday after threatening a prison guard with a prison-made knife and taking his gun and uniform, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. He then allegedly robbed two banks before taking a woman ... [full story]

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The next several months will tell us just how well the Republican-controlled Legislature will get along with Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. If you're a betting person, go with the horse named "NotVeryWell." From now until July 1, politicians will be dickering over the state budget which Strickland rolled out on March 15 or 20, depending on what side of the political aisle you're on. The parties can't even agree on that. ... [full story]

SAN FRANCISCO - The city of San Francisco and 22 same-sex couples are asking the California Supreme Court to overturn the state's gay marriage ban.The plaintiffs filed briefs Monday arguing that the marriage law imposes second-class status on gay men and lesbians, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday."The marriage exclusion tells lesbians and gay men that they are less worthy than child abusers, or sex offenders, or convicts in prison for murder," lawyers for City ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - A lawyer for former Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes told a judge Monday "there is no way" his client will plead guilty to charges stemming from the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery scandal. The lawyer, Mark Geragos, also said he planned to seek dismissal of the case because he has reason to believe former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam may have leaked secret grand jury documents to the media. During a hearing Monday, Assistant ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is running low on funds for the war in Iraq, and U.S. President George Bush on Tuesday urged Congress to get a funding bill assembled."If Congress fails to pass a bill that I can sign by mid-April, the Army will be forced to consider cutting back on equipment, equipment repair and quality of life initiatives for our Guard and Reserve forces," Bush said in a statement opening a news conference in ... [full story]