Source: Fox 12 Boise -- Read Full Story

The rain-swollen Mississippi River is still rising in Louisiana but officials expect the state's levees will hold. The Army Corps of Engineers is closely watching levees, amid forecasts that the river will crest in New Orleans at 17 feet sometime next week. The levees are designed to contain at least 20 feet of water. The corps could decide by Tuesday whether to open a spillway about 30 miles north of New Orleans. The spillway acts as a safety valve to ease stress on the levees. It was last opened in 1997, the last time river level forecasts were this high.

Source: Reuters -- Read Full Story

Two Indonesian youths have died from bird flu, a health ministry official said on Monday, taking the confirmed death toll in the country worst affected by the virus to 107. A 15-year-old boy from Subang, in West Java, died on Wednesday in an area where chickens had died, said Nyoman Kandun, director general of communicable disease control at the ministry. An 11-year-old girl from Bekasi, east of Jakarta, who died on Friday also tested positive for the virus, the official said.

Source: New York Times -- Read Full Story

As many as 20 mortar shells were fired at the heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday, one of the fiercest and most sustained attacks on the area in the last year. The shelling sent thick plumes of dark gray smoke over central Baghdad and ignited a spectacular fire on the banks of the Tigris River, ushering in a day of violence that claimed the lives of at least 58 lraqis around the country and added to the sense that insurgent and sectarian violence have been on the rise in recent weeks.

Source: The Detroit News -- Read Full Story

DENVER -- With Drew Neitzel in foul trouble and struggling, Michigan State needed help.

Chris Allen, in his first NCAA Tournament appearance, came through with a 12-point performance in Thursday's 72-61 victory over Temple.

Durrell Summers also contributed eight points (2-for-2 shooting, 4-for-4 free throws).

Not bad for two freshmen coming off the bench.

Their 20 points were nearly twice as many as their combined average of 10.8.

"We didn't want to talk about the (mile-high) altitude," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "But we thought if we could keep some pressure on them, wear them down a little bit, keep playing some guys, that would work to our advantage."

It did because the freshmen were up to the challenge.

Source: CNN -- Read Full Story

A female suicide bomber apparently targeting Shiite worshippers killed at least 40 people and wounded at least 65 in Karbala on Monday, according to an Interior Ministry official. The incident occurred one-half mile from the Imam Hussein shrine of Karbala. Karbala is a Shiite holy city, and the Imam Hussein shrine is one of Shiite Islam's holiest locations. The shrine marks the burial spot of Hussein bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, who was killed in battle nearby in 680. No more information was immediately available about the blast southwest of the capital city, Baghdad.

Source: World Net Daily -- Read Full Story

In February 2004, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, sent a fund-raising letter with the "alarming news" that "right-wing politicians" had passed a law stopping doctors from stabbing half-born babies in the neck with scissors, suctioning out their brains and crushing their skulls.

Michelle called partial-birth abortion "a legitimate medical procedure," and wouldn't supporters please pay $150 to attend a luncheon for her husband, who would fight against "cynical ploy[s]" to stop it?

But that's not why Obama's opponent Alan Keyes said Jesus Christ wouldn't vote for him.

Obama recalled Keyes' statement in a recent USA Today opinion piece but omitted his reasoning.

I know his reasoning, because I was there.

As a nurse at an Illinois hospital in 1999, I discovered babies were being aborted alive and shelved to die in soiled utility rooms. I discovered infanticide.

Legislation was presented on the federal level and in various states called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. It stated all live-born babies were guaranteed the same constitutional right to equal protection, whether or not they were wanted.

BAIPA sailed through the U.S. Senate by unanimous vote. Even Sens. Clinton, Kennedy and Kerry agreed a mother's right to "choose" stopped at her baby's delivery.

Source: Catholic News Agency -- Read Full Story

Kremlis, Mar 14, 2008 / 10:23 am (CNA).- Thousands of mourners gathered in the Christian village of Kremlis, Iraq today to bury Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, whose body was discovered yesterday.

The funeral procession included a throng of thousands who cried and wailed as the archbishop’s coffin was carried on the shoulders of about ten men. Security was very tight with a large number of soldiers as well as armored vehicles patrolling the village center.

Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly, who is the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, wept as he led the funeral Mass for the archbishop and called on Christians not to seek revenge for their shepherd’s death.

According to Agence France-Presse Cardinal Delly told the mourners that, "The people of the church should be self-restrained and patient." The funeral was held at Mar Aada church in Kremlis, about 22 miles east of Mosul.

Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped on February 29 by militants who killed the three aides accompanying him in his car.  The extremists demanded exorbitant sums of money for releasing the archbishop as well as an exchange of prisoners held by the United States military.

On Thursday, after asking to speak to Archbishop Rahho, church authorities were told that he was dead and given detailed instructions where they could find his body.

An autopsy revealed that the prelate had been dead for five days before his body was recovered. It has not yet been announced whether Rahho died from natural causes or was killed -- there were no bullet wounds to his body, according to AFP.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad and the American military are blaming Al-Qaeda for the archbishop's death.

Source: The Tidings -- Read Full Story

Although nearly three-quarters of American Catholics say they are somewhat or very familiar with church teachings on marriage, many mistakenly believe that a non-Catholic spouse must promise to raise the couple's children as Catholic and that church teaching accepts divorce in cases of marital infidelity. Those were among the results of a nationwide survey commissioned in April 2007 by the U.S. bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family Life on U.S. Catholic attitudes and practices regarding marriage. The survey was carried out in June 2007 by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University via the Internet polling firm Knowledge Networks and was made public Feb. 11. "This is the first time that such a varied and comprehensive body of data about Catholic patterns in marriage has been collected and analyzed," said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky.

Source: ABC News -- Read Full Story

Asian markets plunged Wednesday on growing speculation the U.S. economy a vital export market is sliding into a recession that could lead to a global slowdown. Investors dumped stocks after an overnight sell-off on Wall Street and on news that Citigroup Inc. had lost nearly $10 billion in the fourth quarter as it wrote down mountains of bad mortgage assets the latest fallout from the credit crisis. Weak U.S. retail sales figures added to the gloom. "American financial mismanagement has brought us to this economic meltdown," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. "Asian stock markets are all suffering; nobody has escaped."

Source: CNET News.com -- Read Full Story

If you don't want to lose your spare lithium batteries for your camera, notebook or cell phone, you might want to pack carefully for your next flight. New rules from the Transportation and Security Administration that take effect on January 1 ban travelers from carrying loose lithium batteries in checked baggage. Passengers are allowed to pack two spare batteries in their carry-on bag, as long as they're in clear plastic baggies.