Airstrike hits Gaza home and kills 8

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel's air force fired a missile at ahouse in Gaza City late Sunday, killing at least eight people,residents and hospital officials said. The strike followed adecision to step up attacks against Islamic militants in response torocket fire from Gaza.

Israeli air attacks on militant targets earlier in the day killedanother three Palestinians.

The attack on the house was the deadliest airstrike since Israelstarted reprisals Tuesday for the rocket barrages.

The house belonged to Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, who was notat home. He was one of the Hamas representatives in cease-fire talkswith Fatah and was attending an Egyptian-sponsored …

Airstrike hits Gaza home and kills 8

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel's air force fired a missile at ahouse in Gaza City late Sunday, killing at least eight people,residents and hospital officials said. The strike followed adecision to step up attacks against Islamic militants in response torocket fire from Gaza.

Israeli air attacks on militant targets earlier in the day killedanother three Palestinians.

The attack on the house was the deadliest airstrike since Israelstarted reprisals Tuesday for the rocket barrages.

The house belonged to Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, who was notat home. He was one of the Hamas representatives in cease-fire talkswith Fatah and was attending an Egyptian-sponsored …

The Other Woman

by Eric Jerome Dickey

Dutton, May 2003

$23.95, ISBN-0-525-94724-8

Dickey is back and as dicey as ever in his eighth book. It is a steamy, lascivious and realistically chilling novel about how the extracurricular bedroom antics of a contemporary power couple leads to heartache and heartbreak.

After being told that her husband, Charles, is having an affair, the protagonist in The Other Woman, nicknamed Freckles, eventually drifts into one herself. Oddly, the tryst is with the husband of Jessica, the woman who is sleeping with Charles. This plot leads to complexities that make the book nearly impossible to put down.

Dickey is hands-down one of the best …

Necessity to preserve dominance of law - President Barzani.

DUHUK / Aswat al-Iraq: Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani stressed, from town ofZakho, the necessity to preserve the dominance of law, pointing that the investigations are going on in the last 2-day events.

In a speech before Zakho citizens, he confirmed that "no one or part is permitted to incite the people to commit violent actions inKurdistan."

President Barzani, who arrived in Zakho this morning, confirmed that the investigations are underway.

Sources in the town said that the visit was expected to counter the tense situation there, following last Friday action to …

NFL toughens policy; League makes penalties more harsh for steroids.(Sports)

Byline: Associated Press

NEW YORK - The NFL is going deeper into the wallets of players who get caught using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

After four months of sometimes intense negotiations, the league and union announced Wednesday more extensive testing for performance-enhancing drugs and the addition of the blood-boosting substance EPO to its list of banned substances.

The union also agreed that players suspended after testing positive will, for the first time, forfeit a portion of their signing bonuses in addition to the salary they will lose during their time away. That is significant because the signing bonuses often are the …

POLICE TO REVIEW OPTIONS UNION TALKS STALLED OVER DENTAL PLAN.(Local)

Byline: Gary Sheffer Staff writer

Unionized police officers will meet again Monday

to decide what course to take in their contract standoff with the city.

James Tuffey, president of the Albany Police Officers Union, said the city stood by a dental plan offer Friday that is at the crux of the breakdown in contract talks.

"The city - through its negotiator - told us to take it or leave it," Tuffey said. "They're trying to provoke us. They're putting out a challenge to us and we'll just have to see what happens Monday."

Tuffey said he did not know if the union would take any job action but said it was ready to do "whatever was …

Romania loses a dozen property restitution lawsuits in European human rights court

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Romania in a dozen lawsuits relating to the restitution of property confiscated by the Communist regime, the government said Saturday.

Eleven cases related to the unlawful sale or misappropriation of property, depriving the original owners of the property or of material compensation, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. A further case referred to an owner who was prevented from renting his property _ nationalized under communism _ to tenants at a market rent.

Huge amounts of real estate, including houses, private factories, churches and lands were nationalized in 1948 after the communists came to …

Hometown comic Griffin completes a tour of Zanies

You can't go home again, they say. But you sure can visit everyonce and a while.

And Chicago-born Los Angeles-based comic Anthony Griffin will becompleting his "Zanies '91" tour as headliner this weekend at theoriginal Zanies, 1548 N. Wells. He recently worked the St. Charlesand Mount Prospect rooms, and now returns to the site of some of hisearlier triumphs.

A little more than a year ago, Griffin, buoyed by local successand some strong showings in comedy contests (he won a national onesponsored by a liquor company), moved to the land of the pink Lakershats. The relocation reflects a trend in the Witty City: Chicagocomics heading West to be discovered by the …