Brigadier General Larry Nicholson demonstrated the more open approach he wants to see among the new US troops sent to southern Afghanistan by going shopping for melons. Nicholson, commander of the 4,000 Marines deployed on Thursday in the mainly Taliban-held Helmand River valley, headed to Garmsir district centre to visit a bazaar selling fruit, vegetables and meat. The day after launching Operation Khanjar -- intended to establish international and Afghan government control in the region -- he was keen to show how the Marines must interact with locals to defeat ...

Two US legal firms announced Friday that they have filed a class action suit against a London-based insurer on behalf of the Mexican victims of fraudulent financier Allen Stanford. The lawsuit was filed by the Strasburger & Price and Castillo Snyder law firms before a court in Houston and targets Willis Group Holdings -- an insurer headquartered in London, with offices around the world. Also named in the suit are the Willis office in Colorado, insurance company Bowen, Miclette & Britt, and two unidentified individuals. The suit accuses Willis Group ...

  The openly gay minister who survived a challenge to his appointment by religious conservatives in the Church of Scotland will take his post Friday and address his new congregation Sunday, the BBC reported.

Reverend Scott Rennie's appointment as minister of Queen's Cross church in January sparked a loud protest from religious conservatives who mounted a petition drive to remove him. The campaign to unseat the gay minister went so far as to liken ...