By STAN LEHMAN
Associated Press Writer

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Millions of people packed the streets of Sao Paulo for what organizers said was the world’s largest gay pride parade, dancing and waving rainbow flags in a carnival-like atmosphere to condemn homophobia, racism and sexism.

At least 3 million people filled the canyonlike Paulista Avenue, organizers said, surpassing last year’s count of 2.5 million. The larger count was confirmed by a police spokesman who is not authorized to be quoted by name under department rules.

“This is the biggest parade on the planet,” Tourism Minister Marta Suplicy said. “Our city is showing, once again, its respect for diversity.”

In comparison, recent gay pride parades in New York and San Francisco have drawn tens of thousands of people, and world gay pride day celebrations in Berlin in 2004 attracted between 200,000 and 500,000 participants.

Parade organizer Nelson Matias Pereira said this year’s participants are appealing for a “world where racism, sexism and homophobia, in all their forms, no longer exist.”

Trucks blasting disco and electronic music rolled through the streets, followed by marchers carrying banners with slogans such as “Dignity for All,” and “All Forms of Love Bring Us Closer to God.”

More at the AP

from United Press International

FONTAINEBLEAU, France, June 10 (UPI) — A gold-encrusted sword wielded by Napoleon more than 200 years ago has gone under the hammer at the Fontainebleau, France, castle he used as a retreat.

The sword, believed to be the last of Napoleon’s swords in private hands, has been passed down by his descendants for generations, the BBC reported Sunday. Currently, it is owned by eight.

Auctioneers said the Egyptian-inspired decorated blade could go for millions of dollars by the time the bidding ends.

The French general is said to have carried the sword into battle at Marengo in June 1800 when he launched an attack to drive Austrian forces from Italy and seal a victory for France. After the battle, Napoleon gave the sword to his brother as a wedding gift and it has been passed down among his descendants since.

France declared the sword a national treasure in 1978. If it is sold to a foreign buyer, the buyer must have an address in France and keep it in the country for six months a year, the BBC reported.

Public Wants More Coverage of Darfur

News about an Atlanta man infected with a dangerous form of tuberculosis drew a large audience last week. The saga of the man’s illness and his travels abroad was the second most closely followed news story of the week - trailing only the situation in Iraq. Nearly a quarter of the public (24%) paid very close attention to the tuberculosis story and 23% said it was the story they followed most closely. Public interest was fed by intense media coverage of the story. It was the most heavily covered news story of the week, comprising 12% of the national newshole.

Interest in news about the infected man and his travels did not reach the level of the SARS outbreak of 2003. In May of that year, 39% of the public was paying very close attention to news about SARS, though by June that number had fallen to 28%. Older Americans and those living in the Northeast and South are among the most interested in news about the TB saga. In addition, women are more likely than men to list this as the story they were following most closely last week.

Interest in the situation in Iraq remained high last week. Three-in-ten Americans followed events in Iraq very closely and 25% said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. The public continues to pay closer attention to events in Iraq than to the Iraq policy debate: 20% followed the policy debate very closely and 7% listed it as their top story. The news media split its Iraq coverage last week among events on the ground (7%) and the impact of the war at home (4%), including coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s decision to put her anti-war efforts on hold, and the Iraq policy debate (4%).

These findings are based on the most recent installment of the weekly News Interst Index, an ongoing project of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The index, building on the Center’s longstanding research into public attentiveness to major news stories, examines news interest as it relates to the news media’s agenda. The weekly survey is conducted in conjunction with The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index, which monitors the news reported by major newspaper, television, radio and online news outlets on an ongoing basis.

read more at The PEW RESEARCH CENTER

By The Associated Press

As of Sunday, June 10, 2007, at least 3,505 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,864 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The Associated Press count is 14 higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 150 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 20; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Korea, one death each.

___

The latest deaths reported by the military:

• A soldier was killed Sunday in southern Baghdad.

• A U.S. airman was killed Sunday in a roadside bombing in southern Iraq.

___

The latest identifications reported by the military:

• No identifications reported.

___

On the Net:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

by Laurent Lozano
from AFP

TIRANA (AFP) - US President George W. Bush Sunday pushed for the speedy independence of Kosovo from Serbia, despite Russia’s vehement opposition, as he staged a landmark visit to Albania.

Bush, the first US leader to visit Albania — the penultimate leg of his European tour — said the days of “endless dialogue” on Albanian-majority Kosovo were over and signaled that Washington’s patience was wearing thin.

“We need to get moving and the end result is independence,” Bush said at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha in the capital Tirana.

“If not, we’re going to have to move. Independence is the goal,” he said, adding that he had asked the Albanian prime minister to “work with the leaders in Kosovo to maintain calm during these final stages of Kosovo’s final status process.”

It was the latest issue to heighten tensions between Washington and Moscow, which vehemently opposes independence for the breakaway Serbian province.

Ties between the United States and Russia have already cooled over Washington’s plan to set up a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe which Russia says could fuel a new arms race on the continent.

Bush, the first US leader to visit Albania, said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would work hard to secure a resolution palatable to the UN Security Council, including veto-carrying Russia.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

Sade
“Smooth Operator”

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
from YAHOO! NEWS

MAHMOUDIYA, Iraq - An apparent suicide car bomber took aim at a U.S. convoy carrying demolition experts on Sunday, collapsing a major highway overpass south of Baghdad and trapping American soldiers in the rubble.

The vehicle detonated beside a support pillar, bringing down an Army checkpoint and a tent that had been on the collapsing span, dubbed “Checkpoint 20″ by the U.S. military. The overpass, one of two crossing over Iraq’s main north’south highway in the region, appeared to be closed to all but military traffic at the time.

A U.S. Army quick reaction force and the staff of Armor Group International, a private security firm that was in charge of the passing convoy, worked for some 45 minutes to pull trapped men from the rubble about six miles east of Mahmoudiya.

There appeared to be several casualties, including an Iraqi interpreter who was wounded, according to Donald Campbell, an official with the security firm who was at the scene.

The attack, which was witnessed by an Associated Press reporter and a photographer who were in the approaching convoy, occurred in the triangle of death, so called for frequent Sunni insurgent attacks.

On May 12, three U.S. soldiers were captured in an ambush near Mahmoudiya that left five other soldiers, including an Iraqi dead. An al-Qaida front group the Islamic State of Iraq issued a video last week claiming the three missing troops had been killed, but the U.S. military said it would not accept that and was continuing with its search.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

Tim Russert interviewing Helen Thomas
But Helen, I think the White House press corp is still asleep at the wheel!

Tricare = Try to Get Care

WASHINGTON (AP) - Soldiers returning from war are finding it more difficult to get mental health treatment because military insurance is cutting payments to therapists, on top of already low reimbursement rates and a tangle of red tape.

Wait lists now extend for months to see a military doctor and it can takes weeks to find a private therapist willing to take on members of the military. The challenge appears great in rural areas, where many National Guard and Reserve troops and their families live.

To avoid the hassles of Tricare, the military health insurance program, one frustrated therapist opted to provide an hour of therapy time a week to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans for free. Barbara Romberg, a clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C., area, has started a group that encourages other therapists to do the same.

“They’re not going to pay me much in terms of my regular rate anyway,” Romberg said. “So I’m actually feeling positive that I’ve given, rather than feeling frustrated for what I’m going through to get payment.”

Joyce Lindsey, 46, of Troutdale, Ore., sought grief counseling after her husband died in Afghanistan last December. The therapist recommended by her physician would not take Tricare. Lindsey eventually found one on a provider list, but the process took two months.

“It was kind of frustrating,” Lindsey said. “I thought, ‘Am I ever going to find someone to take this?’”

Roughly one-third of returning soldiers seek out mental health counseling in their first year home. They are among the 9.1 million people covered by Tricare, a number that grew by more than 1 million since 2001.

Tricare’s psychological health benefit is “hindered by fragmented rules and policies, inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement,” the Defense Department’s mental health task force said last month after reviewing the military’s psychological care system.

More at Breitbart.com

I’ll keep saying it……thank you oh so friggin much Connecticut!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran’s involvement in Iraq.

“I think we’ve got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq,” Lieberman said. “And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.”

The U.S. accuses Iran of fostering terrorism and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions have brought about international reproach.

Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000 who now represents Connecticut as an independent, spoke of Iranians’ role in the continued violence in Iraq.

“By some estimates, they have killed as many as 200 American soldiers,” he said. “Well, we can tell them we want them to stop that. But if there’s any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can’t just talk to them.

“If they don’t play by the rules, we’ve got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they’re doing.”

More at Breitbart.com