Hurricane Earl battered tiny islands across the northeastern Caribbean with heavy rain and roof-ripping winds Monday, rapidly intensifying into a major Category 4 storm on a path projected to menace the United States.
Already dangerous with sustained winds of 135 mph (215 kph), Earl is expected to gain more strength before potentially brushing the U.S. East Coast this week and bringing deadly rip currents.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned coastal residents from North Carolina to Maine to watch the storm closely.
“Any small shift in the track could dramatically alter …

Mrs Palin is not running for office, but her vice presidential candidacy in 2008 as an anti-abortion, mother-of-five from a conventional background has played a central role in persuading more women with similar outlooks to step into the limelight.
Often controversial, outspoken and resolutely Right-wing, Republican women are beginning to overhaul the image of the party.
After its heavy losses in 2008 to the Democrats, the Grand Old Party was written off as too male, too old and too out of touch.
Success at the polls in US Congressional elections on Nov 2 …

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama’s  controversial former pastor, accused people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim of catering to political enemies during a fiery speech Sunday in Arkansas.
In his sermon at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Wright criticized supporters of the Iraq war and defended former state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen for speaking out against it. Griffen serves as the church’s pastor.
Wright’s only reference to Obama came when he compared Griffen’s opponents to those who incorrectly think Obama is Muslim. The president, whose full name …

A policy intended to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant that only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t run for class reporter because she wasn’t the right race.
The rules sparked an outcry on blogs and other websites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed-race families. The NAACP called for a …

An American held captive for seven months in North Korea stepped off a plane in his hometown Friday, looking thin but joyful as he hugged the former president who had helped win his release and family and friends surrounded him in a group embrace.
Aijalon Gomes was accompanied by former President Jimmy Carter, who had flown to Pyongyang to negotiate his freedom. Gomes, who had been teaching English in South Korea, was imprisoned and sentenced to eight years’ hard labor for crossing into the North from China on Jan. 25 for …