Jennifer Welker // Current

Freedom To Serve - Gay in the Military

Mary Verne was discharged from the Army for being a Lesbian. This is her story.

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War Torn

Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home. Most... more

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McCain video: still against gay marriage

Sen. John McCain interview with Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen, who recently announced that she plans to take advantage of the California... more

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Illegal alcohol kills 87 Indians

Poisonous illegal alcohol has killed at least 87 people in two southern Indian states since the weekend, police say. ... more

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Web sites help find best gas prices

AAA's FuelGaugeReport.com — Web site tracks the daily national average price of unleaded gasoline GasBuddy.com... more

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Ugandan rebels taken 130 kids

A Ugandan rebel group has abducted 130 children in recent weeks, a senior military official said Tuesday. "According to... more

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France to push UN for decriminalization of gays

The French government will press the United Nations to pressure countries to abolish bans on homosexuality the country's... more

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Cutting carbon is the only thing that matters

The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals. Preserving wild spaces, cleaning up the oceans, protecting... more

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Teens used human skull as bong

Three teenagers were arrested after two of them told police they dug up a secluded grave north of Houston, removed the skull from... more

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Hezbollah gunmen take Beirut neighborhoods

Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized control of key parts of Beirut from Sunni rivals loyal to the U.S.-backed government Friday, in a... more

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Facebook sets bullying, predator safeguards

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking website, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users... more

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Make Fuel at Home With Portable DIY Refinery

People were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it moonshine. With gas prices going through the roof... more

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Irregular sleeping linked to obesity, smoking

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new... more

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How to survive a nuclear blast

It may seem like a fear rooted in Cold War paranoia, but with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sniffing around the... more

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Ex-Guantanamo prisoner ID'd as Iraq bomber

A Kuwaiti who had been imprisoned in Guantanamo for more than 3 1/2 years carried out a recent suicide attack in Iraq, the U.S.... more

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Death toll in Burma could hit 100,000

Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S.... more

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Saddam Scared of Getting AIDS from US Troops

Saddam Hussein feared catching AIDS or other diseases during his U.S.-supervised captivity, a leading Arab newspaper said in publishing excerpts of his prison writings.

The London-based Al-Hayat said the comments came in portions of Saddam's prison dairies that it obtained from U.S. authorities. The U.S. military confirmed some of the late Iraqi leader's writings had been released.

When Saddam found out his U.S. military guards were also using his laundry line to dry clothes, he wrote that he demanded they stop, according to the excerpts.

"I explained to them that they are young and they could have young people's diseases," Saddam wrote. "My main concern was to not catch a venereal disease, an HIV disease, in this place." He said some soldiers ignored his request.

A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Matthew Morgan, declined to describe the writings as a formal diary, but said the former Iraqi president produced thousands of pages of writing while in custody.

"The select material that has been previously released was viewed here by Arabic speakers and reported on accordingly," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Saddam was captured by American soldiers on Dec. 13, 2003, just over eight months after his regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion. An Iraqi tribunal convicted him of crimes against humanity and he was hanged at the end of 2006.

In the excerpts, Saddam also described having an intimate conversation with his American doctor about women and said his English gradually improved by talking to his captors.

"I was speaking it using my hands and signs if I could not find the exact word," he wrote. "But our language (Arabic) is more beautiful and deeper."

Saddam also wrote how hard it was to have to ask for things, such as once when he requested a flower.

"It was a serious sacrifice from me to ask for the first time in my life," he wrote.

Al-Hayat also published excerpts from what it described as poetry written by Saddam in his prison.

In April 2004, the world had the first glimpses of Saddam's cell when two newspapers printed pictures of him emerging from the bathroom in his underwear after washing clothes. The Sun in London and the New York Post said the pictures were provided by U.S. military sources to "undermine the Iraqi rebellion."Saddam Hussein feared catching AIDS or other diseases during his U.S.-supervised captivity, a leading Arab newspaper said in... more