Tongue-twisting ties between parrots and humans
Scientists around the world finally have the answer to one age-old question: "Polly want a cracker?" Well ... almost. More accurately, the question might be, "Can Polly really talk?"
Scientists around the world finally have the answer to one age-old question: "Polly want a cracker?" Well ... almost. More accurately, the question might be, "Can Polly really talk?"
BEIJING -- Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China as the country completed its first orderly transfer of power in the communist era Sunday with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top military post -- giving a new generation a freer hand to run the world's most populous nation. Jiang, whose term was to have run until 2007, resigned at a meeting of the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee that ended Sunday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A video posted Monday on a Web site showed the beheading of a man identified as American civil engineer Eugene Armstrong. The militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the slaying and said another hostage -- either an American or a Briton -- would be killed in 24 hours. The grisly decapitation was the latest killing in a particularly violent month in Iraq, with more than 300 people dead in insurgent attacks and U.S. military strikes over the past seven days.
UNITED NATIONS -- Poverty is "the most destructive weapon of mass destruction," Brazil's president said Monday as world leaders spotlighted the growing gap between rich and poor and the often devastating impact of globalization on millions of people trying to eke out a living. More than 50 heads of state and government, including Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Jacques Chirac of France, are in New York on the eve of the annual U.N.
LOS ANGELES -- "The Sopranos" became the first cable show to win the Emmy for best drama series Sunday and fellow HBO entry "Angels in America" received a record 11 awards as Fox's surprise comedy winner "Arrested Developed" proved a rare bright spot for broadcast TV.
WHEELING, W.Va. -- Hundreds of people evacuated their homes Sunday in parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania as rivers and small streams were swollen beyond their banks by the torrential rain dumped by remnants of Hurricane Ivan.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in Gaza City late Sunday, residents said, killing a senior Hamas militant leader. This was the latest Israeli attack in the territory it plans to leave next year.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Militants beheaded three hostages said to be Iraqi Kurd militiamen, showing their deaths in a video posted on a Web site Sunday and denouncing Kurdish political parties for cooperating with Americans in Iraq. In a separate incident, a group claimed to have kidnapped 18 members of the Iraqi National Guard, according to the Arabic station Al-Jazeera, which said the soldiers were threatened with death unless a detained Shiite leader is freed within 48 hours.
IU-Bloomington played host to the first-ever two-day India studies conference on the state of India Studies in the United States Wednesday and Thursday. The program was held in the Maple Room of the Indiana Memorial Union and saw some of the leading American and Indian academics and scholars.
LONDON -- Major U.S. allies on Thursday rejected a claim by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the war in Iraq was "illegal" because Washington and its coalition partners never got Security Council backing for the invasion.
From Associated Press reports The following are President George W. Bush's and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's responses to issue questions posed by The Associated Press.
GULF SHORES, Ala. -- Hurricane Ivan slammed into the Gulf Coast early Thursday with 130 mph winds, launching tornadoes, washing out a major bridge and hurling metal signs through the night. At least 18 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm, but officials said the toll and the damage could have been even worse.
JERUSALEM -- Israel will not follow the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan and could remain in much of the West Bank for an extended period after it withdraws from the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday.
WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee voted Wednesday to scuttle new rules that critics say would deny overtime pay to millions of workers, as Democrats won the latest round in their election-year bout with President George w. Bush over the issue. The 16-13 vote by the Republican-run Senate Appropriations Committee came less than a week after the GOP-led House embarrassed Bush by approving a similar measure.
A new, independent report card flunks America's colleges in a key subject for many students and parents: affordability. While noting progress in areas such as student preparation, the biennial study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education drops the country to an "F" in affordability from the "D" it received in the nonprofit group's report two years ago.
The following are President George W. Bush's and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's responses to issue questions posed by The Associated Press.
12 wounded, 16 dead after response to surge of violence
SALT LAKE CITY -- NASA scientists said Friday they have recovered some critical pieces of the Genesis space capsule intact and are optimistic the wreckage will yield valuable information about the origins of the solar system.
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Alyn Libman won a $15,000-a-year scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley with a resume that showed more than just Libman's athletic achievement and academic potential. It also showed years of ridicule, beatings and threats, along with Libman's decision to become a boy in 11th grade.
MOSCOW -- Responding to a series of deadly terror attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday moved to significantly strengthen the Kremlin's grip on power, with new measures that include the naming of regional governors and an overhaul of the electoral system.