Israel raids West Bank

Israel raids West Bank
NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers sealed off this city Sunday, placed its densely populated center under curfew and conducted house-to-house searches for Palestinian militants in the largest military operation in the West Bank in months. Israeli officials said the wide-scale raid was crucial to stopping future militant attacks against Israel, but Palestinian officials said the offensive threatened nascent efforts to restart the peace process. "We condemn this military incursion," said Saeb Erekat, aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "This will undermine the efforts that are being made to sustain the cease-fire with Israel."
Farrakhan preaches unity
DETROIT -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity Sunday during his final major speech, saying the world is at war because Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths are divided. The 73-year-old Farrakhan told the tens of thousands at Detroit's Ford Field that Jesus Christ and the prophet Muhammad would embrace each other with love if they were on the stage behind him. "Our lips are full of praise, but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim," he said. "That's why the world is in the shape that it's in." The fiery orator spoke for the first time since ceding leadership of the movement last year because of illness. The speech at the home of the National Football League's Detroit Lions capped the Nation's three-day convention in the city where it was founded in 1930. "My time is up," Farrakhan said in describing his exit from the leadership stage.
Saddam lawyer plans book
AMMAN, Jordan -- Saddam Hussein's former chief lawyer said Sunday he plans to publish a book in the coming year disclosing secret information about the executed Iraqi leader. Khalil al-Dulaimi, who served as Saddam's confidante and main legal counsel, said he would reprint up to 300 personal letters, poems and other miscellaneous works written by the deposed leader. Al-Dulaimi said his book would also "clear up some points about facts that haven't yet been announced." He would not say whether he had already started writing it. "I will write everything about the court, the Americans, and the way they used to treat him," al-Dulaimi said in a telephone interview.
Cervical cancer vaccine
BOSTON -- Every Massachusetts girl between the ages of 9 and 18 would be eligible to receive a free vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer under Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposal. However, the shots would not be mandatory, an aide to the governor said. Supporters of the vaccine against human papillomavirus, or HPV, say it will help fight a cancer that kills 3,700 American women each year. But proposals to require the vaccine have inflamed some conservatives who say it could encourage sexual activity in preteens and teens. Texas is the only state to make the vaccine mandatory for schoolgirls. Gov. Rick Perry bypassed the Legislature with an executive order, but lawmakers are considering overriding it. A group of families also has sued. A bill that would make the vaccine mandatory in Virginia is under consideration by the governor.
Iran-U.S. war of words
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she'll negotiate directly with Iran if it halts its nuclear program, but the Iranians claimed it's too late to put the brakes on its uranium enrichment research. With the U.N. Security Council preparing a slate of new economic sanctions to further isolate Tehran, Rice insisted Sunday the Iranians "need a stop button" on their nuke plans. "They need to stop enriching and reprocessing, and then we can sit down and talk about whatever is on Iran's mind," Rice said on "Fox News Sunday." Iranian radio, meanwhile, quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing the Bush administration of "bullying" Iran, saying U.S. officials were "concerned about the collapse of their hegemony and hollow power."
Wireless use on the rise
NEW YORK -- About one-third of Internet users in the U.S. have used a wireless connection to surf the Web or check e-mail, according to a survey released Sunday. The survey by the Pew Internet & amp; American Life Project showed that 34 percent of Internet users have gone online through Wi-Fi service or a cell phone network, including 27 percent who have logged on from somewhere other than their home or workplace. That's up from February 2004, when 22 percent of Internet users said they had gone online using a wireless device. Nineteen percent of Internet users now have a wireless network in their home. That number has nearly doubled since January 2005, when 10 percent said they had a home wireless network. The telephone survey of 798 Internet users was conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 30. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Combined dispatches