MAGNA, Utah (AP) -- A group of six is behind bars after police say they bound their 41-year-old roommate's feet with tape, stapled his lips shut, and spent the night torturing him with a small power tool in their Utah home near Salt Lake City. Police believe the suspects were suspicious about their new roommate, who told authorities he'd moved into the house in Magna a week and a half earlier and had agreed to remodel the basement in exchange for rent. "One of the suspect's claims over the last several weeks different people have pulled a gun on him in the street," Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal said. "They believe (the victim) was responsible for it." Hoyal says six men and women held the ... Continue reading →

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MADRID — Teachers and students at all levels of Spain's education system went on strike Tuesday to protest wide-ranging government spending cuts, chanting and erecting makeshift tombs at university campuses to symbolize what they claim will be the death of the country's schooling system. Union officials said it was too early to estimate how many teachers had stayed away from work. All but three of Spain's 17 regions took part. Spain's government is pushing through painful austerity measures to heal public finances, which risk being overwhelmed by the costs of helping a troubled banking sector. Investors fear Spain might eventually need a bailout like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The impact of the budget cuts has been brutal, however. Unemployment has swelled to nearly 25 percent, ... Continue reading →

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION Austrian minister calls Israel's hawkish foreign minister 'unbearable' By: The Associated Press Posted: 5:51 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) VIENNA - Austria's defence minister has called Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman "unbearable" because of his insistence on hawkish policies regarding the Mideast peace process and Iran. Sunday newspaper Die Presse quoted Norbert Darabos as saying that Israel's government is using "external enemies such as Iran or the Palestinians to divert attention from domestic social problems." The centre-left politician is also quoted as saying that Lieberman "is unbearable as a member of the Israeli government." Lieberman's office declined to comment on Darabos' remarks. Darabos told the paper that Israel's recent government shakeup that led to the inclusion of the ... Continue reading →

NEW YORK (AP) -- A prominent retired psychiatrist is apologizing to the gay community for a decade-old study that concluded some gay people can go straight through what's called reparative therapy. Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, formerly of Columbia University, now says he no longer believes his work showed that. For the study, Spitzer had interviewed 200 people who'd claimed some degree of change. The "fatal flaw" is that there is no way to judge the credibility of their accounts, Spitzer says in a letter he submitted last month to a journal that published his work in 2003. The work made headlines when he presented it at a 2001 meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. One reason for the attention was that Spitzer had played a ... Continue reading →

Hollywood star Will Smith slapped a male Ukrainian television channel reporter who tried to kiss him before the Moscow premiere of the film "Men in Black III." (May 19) Continue reading →

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- About 70 Christian youths in the Philippines have chanted "Stop the Lady Gaga concerts" at a rally calling for the singer's shows in Manila next week to be canceled. Members of a group called Biblemode Youth Philippines said Friday that they are offended by Lady Gaga's music and videos, in particular her song "Judas," which they say mocks Jesus Christ. Protest leader and former Philippine Congressman Ben Abante says his group plans to file a case against Lady Gaga and concert organizers if she sings "Judas" at her Manila gigs Monday and Tuesday. Former Manila Mayor Jose Atienza says the singer and organizers can be punished for offending race or religion. Lady Gaga scrapped an Indonesia concert following protests there from ... Continue reading →

LONDON (AP) -- British officials have given their word: "We won't read your emails." But experts say the government's proposed new surveillance program will gather so much data that spooks won't have to read your messages to guess what you're up to. The U.K. Home Office stresses it won't be reading the content of every Britons' communications, saying the data it seeks "is NOT the content of any communication." It is, however, looking for information about who's sending the message and to whom, where it's sent from and other details, including a message's length and its format. The proposal, unveiled last week as part of the government's annual legislative program, is just a draft bill, so it could be modified or scrapped. But if passed ... Continue reading →