US, France agree on cease-fire draft; UNSC vote at 1 am  —  France and the United States reached a deal Friday on a final draft resolution that would authorize the deployment of 15,000 UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon to support a Lebanese force as it takes control of the region and Israel withdraws.

'Green Helmet' helps rescue the wounded  —  TYRE, Lebanon - After hours of digging in the blistering heat, Salam Daher emerged from the wreckage with the body of a 9-month-old baby, a blue pacifier still pinned to its nightshirt.  —  He held the infant up and, click, an Associated Press …

New York, 11 August 2006 - Secretary-General's statement to the Security Council on the adoption of a resolution on Lebanon  —  I welcome wholeheartedly the resolution you are about to adopt, and I am greatly relieved that it provides for a full and immediate cessation of hostilities.

Increasingly, Bush Escapes the Media Pack  —  GREEN BAY, Wis. — On one of the scariest days yet in the five-year battle with terrorists, President Bush prepared to make a speech to reassure the American people.  But the White House press corps was 1,000 miles away in Texas.

Bleeding-heart ignoramuses  —  A few weeks back it was my birthday, and my equally non-Jewish journalist friend Chas Newkey-Burden took his life in his hands and presented me with a cuddly toy.  Now, normally I feel that people who bother with cuddly toys over the age of eight are either mad …

Harris aide serving theft term  —  A close friend and aide to Katherine Harris is serving a sentence for having stolen money from his former employers.  —  mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com  —  Before he became U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris' travel aide, Bruce Carlton Jordan journeyed across …

The West 100  —  Our list of the most powerful people in Southern California  —  1. Donald Bren  —  Chairman, Irvine Co.; 74, Newport Beach  —  Simply put, Orange County looks like Orange County—much of it uniformly manicured and catering to the high life and high tech—because of the influence of one man.

Local Links to Terrorist Arrests  —  The Washington County Sheriffs Department in Ohio has arrested two men for their involvement in what police say could be aiding terrorists, and one man linked to them could have been doing the same in Taylor County.  —  This is a story you'll read about Only on 12 News.

Lamont aide to apologize for comment  —  WATERBURY, Conn. - Democrat Ned Lamont's campaign manager said he would apologize to the mayor of Waterbury for describing the city that backed his opponent, Sen. Joe Lieberman, as a place "where the forces of slime meet the forces of evil."

Americans will die for liberty  —  As we took off from London for New York a few days ago, our three over-excited children asked if there was any chance of the plane being blown up.  I explained that the likelihood of that happening was virtually zero, and wondered how we were going to maintain …