Dubai Port Company to Divest Itself of American Holdings  —  The United Arab Emirates company that was attempting to take over management operations at six U.S. ports announced today that it will divest itself of all American interests.  —  The announcement appears to head off a major confrontation …

Faith Hill, Tim McGraw Blast 'Humiliating' Katrina Cleanup  —  Country Stars Lash Out in Anger Over Conditions in Storm-Ravaged States  —  March, 8, 2006 — Faith Hill and Tim McGraw — two stars who usually stay out of politics — blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort …

Report posits that Chris Matthews has accepted hefty speaking fees from conservative groups  —  A new report advanced to RAW STORY Thursday suggests that Chris Matthews, the star of the Sunday talk show circuit's Hardball, has accepted hefty speaking fees from an array of conservative trade associations.

Official Says Shiite Party Suppressed Body Count  —  BAGHDAD, March 8 — Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings …

Zarqawi Was Here  —  BIARA, IRAQ - The PUK's Minister of the Interior ordered 20 heavily armed Peshmerga soldiers to go with me to the borderland mountain village of Biara.  For years the village was occupied by Ansar Al Islam, the Kurdish-Arab-Persian branch of Al Qaeda in Northern Iraq.

Kos/Krempasky to Congress: Pass HR 1606  —  Markos and I have sent a letter to every Member of the House this morning - urging them to pass HR 1606 as soon as possible.  While there is a promising proposal from the Center for Democracy & Technology floating about - it's imperative …

Woman sues for alleged firing over talk show bumper sticker  —  VISTA —  A San Diego County woman is suing her former employer, accusing her manager of firing her on the spot when she saw the woman's car had a bumper sticker advertising a progressive talk radio station.

$25,000 to Lobby Group Is Tied to Access to Bush  —  WASHINGTON, March 9 — The chief of an Indian tribe represented by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff was admitted to a meeting with President Bush in 2001 days after the tribe paid a prominent conservative lobbying group $25,000 at Mr. Abramoff's direction …

Loaves and Wishes  —  Roger Petersen and Paul Staniland of MIT offer a three-point plan for averting an Iraqi civil war by diversifying the security forces.  In summary  —  * "First, Sunni veterans need to continue being brought back into the security forces."

World box office dipped 7.9 pct to 23 billion dollars last year : study  —  Hollywood movie ticket sales around the world dropped by 7.9 percent last year to 23 billion dollars, with the US box office accounting for nearly 40 percent of the haul, a study showed.