Iowa House makes campaign lies a crime

Iowa House makescampaign lies a crime
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Legislators voted Wednesday to make lying on the campaign trail a crime, and to crack down on increasingly popular "push polls" designed to slur rival candidates.
The House unanimously approved the measure to make "false information in political material" a crime and sent it to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved next month.
The measure would prohibit candidates from saying things about a rival that a candidate "knows to be untrue, deceptive, or misleading." Those convicted could be sentenced up to a year in jail, or fined $1,500.
The measure was written in response to the increasing popularity of "push polls" or phone calls not intended to sample public opinion, but designed to aid a candidate.
In those efforts, callers representing themselves as legitimate pollsters offer negative -- often outrageous -- information about a rival.
The measure approved Wednesday requires such callers to identify themselves, disclose who they are employed by and which candidate they are supporting, as well as to give information on how to contact the poll's sponsor.
Artillery shells hitKosovo border village
BLACE, Macedonia -- Shells slammed into a Kosovo village today just across the border from Macedonia as fighting intensified in an area where government forces and ethnic Albanian militants have been clashing, U.S. peacekeepers said.
Two civilians were killed and 10 others wounded in the assault on the village of Krivenik, just 1,200 yards inside the Kosovo border, said U.S. Maj. James Marshall, spokesman for U.S. forces in Kosovo. No peacekeepers were reported injured.
"Our focus right now is to get the civilians who are wounded treated as quickly as possible," Marshall said.
Helicopters thundered overhead. Ambulances were on the scene and medics were aiding the victims, helped by peacekeepers who hastily set up a field hospital. American soldiers were combing the village for other victims.
The attack came as NATO-led international peacekeepers stepped up their patrols along the border with Kosovo, near the area where Macedonian troops were skirmishing with the rebels in the rugged mountains.
Both the Macedonian army and the rebels denied that they were responsible for the Krivenik attack. Commander Sokoli, a regional rebel commander, said the insurgents lacked the military capability to strike the village from their positions in Macedonia.
Nuclear waste convoyarrives at dump site
GORLEBEN, Germany -- A shipment of nuclear waste reached a German dump today after a troubled railway trip from France that sparked massive environmental protests, leading to dozens of injuries and hundreds of arrests.
The shipment took three days to make the 375-mile trip from a reprocessing plant in western France, repeatedly delayed by protesters, including several who chained themselves to the tracks Tuesday.
But activists were apparently caught off-guard by the early morning departure of six trucks carrying the 60 tons of waste from the rail depot in the northern town of Dannenberg to the storage site in Gorleben.
Preceded by armored vehicles and a water cannon, the convoy inched along a road to the dump, completing the final 12-mile leg of the journey in about an hour, without incident. Helmeted police ran alongside.
Satanic highway?
ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Someone keeps stealing the road signs for Route 666 in Morris County. Could it be ... Satan?
County transportation officials don't think so. They believe the signs were stolen by tourists who want offbeat souvenirs and religious people offended by the number, which is associated with Satan in the Bible.
The officials are considering changing the name of the road.
"This thing has got me crazy," said Joseph Stuppiello, a supervisor in the county road department. "Every time we put one up, it doesn't last a day or two before it's stolen."
The problem started in the mid 1970s, when New Jersey officials ordered that all state roads have three digits. Most county governments simply added a "5" or a "6" to the existing road number. Thus Route 66 became Route 666.
"You know, that's the devil," Helen Matola, who lives along the highway, told The Star-Ledger of Newark in Wednesday's editions. "Don't you read the Bible? Six six six. Oh, that's a bad omen."