Rare stamp may be sealed in Florida ballot box

AP

An absentee ballot was mailed with what may have been a rare stamp worth as much as $200,000 -- the famous Inverted Jenny -- but the envelope is in a box that by law can't be opened.

Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom discovered the stamp while reviewing absentee ballots. There was no name on the envelope, so the vote didn't count.

What looked like a small stamp collection on one envelope caught Rodstrom's eye about 8 p.m. Tuesday. At least one was from 1936, Rodstrom said. Then he noticed one had an upside-down World War I-era airplane -- the hallmark of an Inverted Jenny.

"I was a stamp collector when I was little," Rodstrom told The Miami Herald. "I recognized it."

Rodstrom discussed the stamp with other members of the canvassing board, and a stamp-collecting Broward County sheriff's deputy overheard them talking about the possible Jenny.

He said the stamp would be very valuable if it was real. But it was too late.

"By that time we had already sealed the box. And once you seal the box, under the election law you can't unseal it," Broward County Court Judge Eric Beller said.

Elections officials will retain the ballot for 22 months, Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the Florida secretary of state's office, told The Associated Press. After that, any action is up to the county elections supervisor.

A telephone message left with Fred Bellis, the executive assistant to Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, was not immediately returned Saturday.

Snipes' spokeswoman, Mary Cooney, said the supervisor is too busy with balloting to focus on the stamp. Cooney said ballots and materials are usually destroyed after the 22-month holding period.

"She's (Snipes) not going to be able to take any time to even look at it until after the (ballot) certification on Monday," Cooney told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp Club, said an Inverted Jenny, if authentic, could be worth $200,000. But when the ballot was mailed the stamp was canceled, reducing its value. Guss estimated a canceled Jenny would likely sell for $20,000 to $100,000.

The 24-cent Jenny stamps were printed in 1918. Sheets were run through presses twice to process all the colors and on one pass, four went through backward. Inspectors caught the errors on three sheets and destroyed them, but somehow, a sheet of 100 stamps got through.

Stamp collectors have spent 88 years trying to find them all.

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Woman shot six times in head lives

AP

A Brazilian woman who was shot six times in the head after an altercation with her ex-husband was out of the hospital and talking to the media on Saturday.

"I know this was a miracle," 21-year-old housewife Patricia Goncalves Pereira told Globo TV. "Now I just want to extract the bullets and live my life."

Pereira was shot Friday in the small city of Monte Claros, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) north of Sao Paulo, after quarreling with her former husband, who was reportedly upset because she refused to get back together with him. She was also shot once in the hand.

Doctors could not explain why the .32-caliber bullets did not penetrate Pereira's skull and didn't even need to be extracted immediately.

"I can't explain how something like this happened," surgeon Adriano Teixeira said, adding that the bullets were lodged under the woman's scalp.

The ex-husband was still at large.

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Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse

ADAM ZAGORIN

A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo.

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.

Along with Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet, the other defendants in the case are Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; former deputy assisant attorney general John Yoo; General Counsel for the Department of Defense William James Haynes II; and David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Senior military officers named in the filing are General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top Army official in Iraq; Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo; senior Iraq commander, Major General Walter Wojdakowski; and Col. Thomas Pappas, the one-time head of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib.

Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides "universal jurisdiction" allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset. Rumsfeld's spokesman at the time, Lawrence DiRita, called the case a "a big, big problem." U.S. officials made clear the case could adversely impact U.S.-Germany relations, and Rumsfeld indicated he would not attend a major security conference in Munich, where he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, unless Germany disposed of the case. The day before the conference, a German prosecutor announced he would not pursue the matter, saying there was no indication that U.S. authorities and courts would not deal with allegations in the complaint.

In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld's resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor's reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.

"The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor's previous inaction no longer hold up.

Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are underway in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are underway in both Italy and Spain.

U.S. officials have long feared that legal proceedings against "war criminals" could be used to settle political scores. In 1998, for example, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military coup was supported by the Nixon administration — was arrested in the U.K. and held for 16 months in an extradition battle led by a Spanish magistrate seeking to charge him with war crimes. He was ultimately released and returned to Chile. More recently, a Belgian court tried to bring charges against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged crimes against Palestinians.

For its part, the Bush administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

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Today in history - Nov. 11

The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Nov. 11, the 315th day of 2006. There are 50 days left in the year. This is Veterans Day in the U.S., Remembrance Day in Canada.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I came to an end with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany.

On this date:

In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."

In 1778, Seneca Indians in central New York state killed more than 40 people in the Cherry Valley Massacre.

In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who'd led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.

In 1889, Washington became the 42nd state.

In 1921, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1942, during World War II, Germany completed its occupation of France.

In 1965, Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.

In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. aboard.

In 1981, stuntman Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago in nearly six hours.

In 2004, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died at a military hospital in Paris at age 75.

Ten years ago: Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who as a child was captured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photograph running naked down a Vietnamese highway while fleeing a napalm attack, laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The Army reported getting nearly 2,000 calls to a hot line set up after revelations of a sex scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

Five years ago: A Pakistani newspaper (Ausaf) published the second part of an interview in which Osama bin Laden was quoted as saying he had nothing to do with the anthrax attacks in the United States, and declared he would never allow himself to be captured. Two French radio reporters and a German magazine journalist were killed when they came under Taliban fire in Afghanistan. The World Trade Organization accepted Taiwan's membership, a day after approving rival China.

One year ago: President Bush strongly rebuked congressional critics of his Iraq war policy, accusing them of being "deeply irresponsible." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a surprise visit to Iraq, pressed for unity among the country's religious factions. Syrian-born Hollywood film producer Moustapha Akkad died from wounds sustained in the bombing of a Jordanian hotel two days earlier; he was 75. Modern management guru Peter F. Drucker died in Claremont, Calif., at age 95.

Today's Birthdays: Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is 84. Dancer-choreographer Nicholas Royce is 81. Comedian Jonathan Winters is 81. Jazz singer-musician Mose Allison is 79. Author Carlos Fuentes is 78. Country singer Narvel Felts is 68. Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., is 66. Rock singer-musician Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge) is 61. Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is 55. Pop singer-musician Paul Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 54. Rock singer-musician Andy Partridge (XTC) is 53. Singer Marshall Crenshaw is 53. Rock singer Dave Alvin is 51. Rock musician Ian Craig Marsh (Human League; Heaven 17) is 50. Actor Stanley Tucci is 46. Actress Demi Moore is 44. Actress Calista Flockhart is 42. Actor Philip McKeon is 42. Rock musician Scott Mercado is 42. TV personality Carson Kressley is 37. Actor David DeLuise is 35. Actor Adam Beach is 34. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 32.

Thought for Today: "When you make your peace with authority, you become authority." — Jim Morrison, American rock singer (1943-1971).

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Top 10 Point-and-Shoot Cameras

Easy to use, point-and-shoot cameras are a great choice for the casual photographer. Ratings and rankings can change due to pricing and technology changes, so check back frequently for the latest info.

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Today in history - Nov. 10

The Associated Press

Today is Friday, Nov. 10, the 314th day of 2006. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

On this date:

In 1871, journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found Scottish missionary David Livingstone, who had not been heard from for years, near Lake Tanganyika in central Africa.

In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention, in Minneapolis.

In 1928, Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

In 1938, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on her CBS radio program, which aired Thursdays.

In 1954, the Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated by President Eisenhower in Arlington, Va.

In 1969, the children's educational program "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS.

In 1975, the ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior.

In 1976, the Utah Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for convicted murderer Gary Gilmore to be executed, according to his wishes. (The sentence was carried out in January 1977.)

In 1982, Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died at age 75.

In 1986, Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari, two Frenchmen who had been held hostage in Lebanon, were released.

Ten years ago: A bomb ripped through a crowd of mourners in a Moscow cemetery, killing 14 people and wounding nearly 50. The Bosnian Serbs' new military commander (Major General Pero Colic), was sworn in, a day after General Ratko Mladic, a war crimes suspect, was dismissed.

Five years ago: President Bush, in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, warned that all nations were possible targets of terrorism and urged them to join with the United States in a campaign to prevent more attacks. The World Trade Organization formally approved China's membership. Algeria found itself caught in a fierce 36-hour storm that killed an estimated 886 people. Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his conservative government won a third term in national elections. Author Ken Kesey died in Eugene, Ore., at age 66.

One year ago: A suicide bomber killed some three dozen people at a Baghdad restaurant frequented by police. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former finance minister of Liberia, claimed victory in the country's presidential election. Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League Cy Young Award.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Russell Johnson is 82. Film composer Ennio Morricone is 78. Actor Roy Scheider is 74. Blues singer Bobby Rush is 72. Actor Albert Hall is 69. Lyricist Tim Rice is 62. Actress Alaina Reed-Hall is 60. Rock singer-musician Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 59. Actress-dancer Ann Reinking is 57. Actor Jack Scalia is 55. Movie director Roland Emmerich is 51. Actor Matt Craven is 50. Actor-comedian Sinbad is 50. Actress Mackenzie Phillips is 47. Author Neil Gaiman is 46. Actor Michael Jai White is 42. Country singer Chris Cagle is 38. Actor-comedian Tracy Morgan is 38. Actress Ellen Pompeo ("Grey's Anatomy") is 37. Rapper-producer Warren G is 36. Rock singer-musician Jim Adkins (Jimmy Eat World) is 31. Actress Brittany Murphy is 29. Rapper Eve is 28. Rock musician Chris Jannou (Silverchair) is 27. Actor Bryan Neal is 26. Actress Heather Matarazzo is 24. Country singer Miranda Lambert is 23. Actor Josh Peck is 20.

Thought for Today: "It is a stupidity second to none, to busy oneself with the correction of the world." — Moliere, French dramatist (1622-1673).

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Ortega's Victory: Another Administration Blunder?

TIM PADGETT

Washington's public efforts to stop Nicaraguans from electing the Sandinista leader prompted a backlash against yanquiinterference.

The U.S. Congress wasn't the only place the Bush Administration suffered electoral embarrassment this week. In Nicaragua, cold-war bogeyman Daniel Ortega — whose Marxist Sandinista government had been an obsession of the Reagan Administration — was elected president again on Sunday despite frantic U.S. lobbying for his defeat. By most accounts, the yanqui politicking — which included a threat to cut off U.S. aid to impoverished Nicaragua if Ortega won — backfired miserably, actually helping boost the Sandinista leader to his first-round victory. That such U.S. pressure tends to work in favor of its opponents is a lesson Washington seems woefully unable to learn in a post-Cold War Latin America whose electorates have unexpectedly turned leftward in recent years.

The election of Ortega — who won with 38% of the vote, about 8 points ahead of his U.S.-backed opponent, conservative banker Eduardo Montealegre — is no doubt a concern. After he and Sandinista guerrillas toppled Nicaragua's brutal dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, in 1979, Ortega led an authoritarian, Soviet-backed regime that wrecked the economy and fought a civil war with U.S.-backed contra rebels that killed some 50,000 people. Ortega was finally ousted in a 1990 election, and for the past 16 years, during which he twice failed to recapture the presidency, he seemed little more than a relic of the communist era.

But a decade after communism's collapse, Latin American voters began to express their anger at the failure of Washington-backed capitalist reforms and free trade agreements to narrow the epic gap between rich and poor in the region. That backlash has helped Ortega, 60, who insists his politics are more moderate today — he is widely viewed as more of a cynical opportunist than a radical Marxist — to take advantage of a divisive feud inside Montealegre's Liberal Constitutionalist Party that ended up splitting its vote this year. As Ortega's poll numbers climbed, the Bush Administration went into panic mode, publicly campaigning against him as it decried equally unabashed efforts by Venezuela's left-wing anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez, to boost Ortega. Roger Noriega, who until last year was Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, wrote that an Ortega presidency would "invigorate the axis of leftist proto-dictators led by" Chavez. Familiar Cold Warriors like former U.S. Army Colonel Oliver North, a cynosure of the Contra war, started showing up in Managua to denounce the Sandinista leader. And U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez even warned recently that the Administration might suspend its almost $200 million in aid to Nicaragua if Ortega won.

The aid threat was reminiscent of a similar one made by then-U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha in 2002 regarding left-wing presidential candidate and Chavez acolyte Evo Morales. In Bolivia, the perception of imperious yanqui meddling helped turn Morales into a front-runner who was eventually elected President last year. Gutierrez did much the same for Ortega, says Ortega's running mate, Jaime Morales, a former Contra leader whose house had been confiscated by Ortega in the 1980s (Ortega has since paid him for the home) but who has reconciled and allied with Ortega. "I don't blame the U.S. for all of Nicaragua's problems as many do," says Morales. "But the U.S. and President Bush and his officials still seem to be in a Cold War hangover. They need to realize the Cold War has ended."

The Bush Administration did seem to get it this past summer during Mexico's presidential election. It kept quiet about its support of conservative candidate Felipe Calderon, while his leftist opponent, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, allowed himself to be painted as a Chavez clone. The result was a narrow Calderon victory. This week, perhaps chastened by the result in Nicaragua, the Administration backed off its aid threats and instead swallowed the fact that one of America's most reviled Cold War nemeses is now a democratically elected head of state. "We congratulate the Nicaraguan people," a State Department spokesman said, "for conducting peaceful elections and demonstrating their commitment to democracy."

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Racism and Harold Ford

His loss in the Tennessee Senate race taught a bad lesson. Quite simply, if he were white, he would have won.

For almost a day now, I've been stewing over Harold Ford. I wasn't particularly rooting for him, given that I agree with only about 30% of anything I've ever heard him say. I also question the house logic that a Ford victory would have represented some sort of great achievement for African-Americans. Even if he won, the sun would still come up; we'd still have to deal with dumb bosses, intractable kids and spouses who talk past us. So I was apathetic about a Ford victory. But it's hard to take him losing like this. I'm skeptical of anyone who pins their misfortune exclusively on the color of their skin. But in Harold Ford's case, the awful truth is simple: if he were white, he would have won.

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Can the Republicans Recapture the Spirit of '94?

PERRY BACON JR.

The battle for leadership of the new minority party in Congress reflects the soul-searching going on after an election drubbing.

After taking a drubbing in this week's congressional elections, the G.O.P. has a plan: rediscovering the Spirit of 1994, the year when the Republicans pulled off their own historic retaking of Congress.

With House Speaker Dennis Hastert deciding to leave his post after the party's defeat, a fierce campaign is already under way for top slots in the House G.O.P. leadership for next year. The candidates have a lot in common — and not just because most of them are middle-aged white men. Nearly every member vying for party power in the new Congress is offering the same description of what ails Republicans and how it can be remedied. It goes something like this: "After 1994, we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government. In recent years, our majority voted to expand the federal government's role in education, entitlements and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt."

Those are the words of Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman who heads a group of the most conservative G.O.P. members, called the Republican Study Group, and is running to be the top Republican leader in the House. But John Boehner, the Ohio rep and current number two under Hastert who is running against Pence for that post, says he's the man to help Republicans restore the principles they embraced in 1994, since he was one of the authors of the original Contract with America. Joe Barton, a Texas member who currently is chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is also considering the top job. Meanwhile John Shadegg, the Arizona congressman who wants the No. 2 job, Minority Whip, is playing up his reform credentials, noting he was elected in the famous freshman class of 1994 that won back the House for Republicans.

The closed-door leadership elections, scheduled for next Friday, will give a clue as to how badly the G.O.P. thinks it needs to reform itself. Boehner took over his post only in February after replacing the scandal-plagued former Majority Leader, Tom DeLay. So much of the spending many House conservatives hated, such as the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill that President Bush pushed them to approve, happened before Boehner was in the leadership. And Boehner is famous for having never asked for any wasteful pork-barrel projects for his own district, a stance many fiscal conservatives like. Missouri congressman Roy Blunt, who will face Shadegg in the race for Minority Whip, will have a more difficult task running a campaign as a change agent, since he's been in the House leadership for several years; in fact, he lost the race for majority whip to Boehner earlier this year primarily because he was viewed as a member of the old guard. Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, another member of the current G.O.P. leadership, is running for conference chairman and will face Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn and Florida's Adam Putnam.

A win by Pence, 47, for the top job would suggest a dramatic shift for House Republicans. While he would seek to move the G.O.P. back to the roots of the 1994 movement, he actually comes from a new generation of House Republicans, elected since 2000, who have never served in the minority. And the former conservative talk show host, who calls himself as "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order," is closer to the conservative Christians who play a big role in G.O.P. politics than most of the current leadership. At the same time, he's been willing to look for compromises on some key issues, attempting earlier this year to fashion an immigration bill that would create a work visa program for illegal immigrants, which many conservatives thought didn't constitute "amnesty," the label they tagged to the Senate Republicans' guest worker bill.

While he's a polite, affable man, Pence has also been a bomb-thrower in much of his time in the House, leading his conservative members in calling for cuts in Medicaid and other programs that some moderate Republicans think could be electoral suicide. Of course, he and other like-minded Republicans will be able to argue, the G.O.P. could hardly do much worse than it did in this week's election.

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Racism and Harold Ford

TA-NEHISI COATES

His loss in the Tennessee Senate race taught a bad lesson. Quite simply, if he were white, he would have won.

For almost a day now, I've been stewing over Harold Ford. I wasn't particularly rooting for him, given that I agree with only about 30% of anything I've ever heard him say. I also question the house logic that a Ford victory would have represented some sort of great achievement for African-Americans. Even if he won, the sun would still come up; we'd still have to deal with dumb bosses, intractable kids and spouses who talk past us. So I was apathetic about a Ford victory. But it's hard to take him losing like this. I'm skeptical of anyone who pins their misfortune exclusively on the color of their skin. But in Harold Ford's case, the awful truth is simple: if he were white, he would have won.

When I first saw the infamous "Harold, call me" ad, I perhaps gave too much credit to the electorate. Ford had opened a small lead at the time, and I dismissed the pundits who argued that the polls were overestimating the willingness of white voters to endorse a black candidate. The ad's obvious appeal to racist stereotypes won't make a dent, I thought.

Ford's loss doesn't mean that we're back in 1956. But to lose over the ancient fear of miscegenation is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the GOP's attempts to woo blacks across the country. This was the year when President Bush addressed the NAACP, Ken Mehlman made very big appeals to African-Americans, and Republicans fielded a dazzling array of black candidates. But all of them, with the exception of Michael Steele, lost by large margins. Steele came close to beating his Democratic opponent in the Maryland Senate race, Ben Cardin, but black voters still went for Cardin by a three to one margin, according to the Washington Post. It's not that African-Americans necessarily reject a Republican agenda, but that they suspect Republicans have no qualms about appealing to the lower instincts of bigots. And the Ford race proved them right.

Ford wasn't above appealing to lower instincts himself. His campaign had no problem deploying the vague rhetoric of family, in hopes of demonstrating that a Democrat could be staunch in discriminating against gays. Ultimately Ford's hope was to build a rainbow coalition, one that would unite rednecks and the ghetto in mutual homophobia. If I lived in Tennessee, I couldn't have voted for either Ford or his opponent, Bob Corker. That doesn't make the style of Ford's defeat any less disappointing. But at least it makes it poetic.

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How Rumsfeld's Resignation Is Playing in Iraq

APARISIM GHOSH

News of the Defense Secretary's departure had relatively little impact on most Iraqis. But they're looking to the Democrats' victory to help speed a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

If Rumsfeld was an ogre for the anti-war movement in the West, in Iraq he was never anything like a bogeyman. Only a few Western-educated politicians really understand the role of a U.S. Secretary of Defense, and what power it commands. Rumsfeld's persona — that dismissive arrogance that so infuriated his critics at home — was usually lost in translation on Arabic-language TV.

To most Iraqis, this is Bush's war, and Rumsfeld is just some guy who implemented the President's ideas. In three and a half years here, I have seldom heard Rumsfeld's name mentioned in conversations with Iraqis, whether politicians or ordinary folks. Even insurgent leaders rarely invoke his name: Rumsfeld is occasionally named in their statements and videos, but never in conversation. (Condi Rice, perhaps because she is a woman, comes up more often.) In a society long used to dictatorship, the notion that an American official other than President Bush can wield considerable power simply doesn't compute.

So while there's a certain amount of schadenfreude over his exit, the notion that Iraqis are celebrating the end of "the man responsible for Abu Ghraib" (as some Western media reports are suggesting) is vastly overstated.

There is more interest, however, in the results of the midterm elections. On Thursday, Iraqi TV stations extensively reported the Democrats' victories in the House and Senate, but scarcely mentioned Rumsfeld. Among Iraqis in the Green Zone — which is to say the political "sophisticates" — Rumsfeld's departure, taken together with the Democrats' capture of the House and Senate, can mean only one thing: a quicker withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"In America, they can use terms like 'changing course' and 'new strategy,' but in Iraq the only thing of interest is how long the American soldiers remain," says a Western diplomat in Baghdad. "The received wisdom here has been that if the Republicans lose, the withdrawal will be speeded up. (Rumsfeld's departure) only confirms that suspicion."

Whether a speedier withdrawal is a good thing or bad thing depends on whether you live in the Green Zone or in the Red Zone. In the Baghdad street, almost anybody you speak with wants the U.S. forces out — yesterday. Over and over again, opinion polls have shown that the majority of Iraqis, across the sectarian and ethnic categories, see the U.S. presence as a part of the problem rather than part of the solution. But Iraqi leaders take the more realistic view that the U.S. presence, although irksome, is necessary.

So a speedier withdrawal would be bad news for people in the Green Zone. Some see the Dems' victory and Rumsfeld's exit as the latest in a long line of bad omens, which include the creation of the Baker committee and the ever louder drumbeat of gotta-change-strategy rhetoric emanating from Washington in recent months. "There are changes coming (in America's Iraq strategy)," says Zuhair Humadi, a former general-secretary of the Iraqi cabinet of ministers. "Rumsfeld leaving is the first step."

The Iraqi government is making the usual polite noises about Rumsfeld's exit and the Democrats' victory being "an internal matter for the Bush administration." But it, too, is trying to put a positive gloss on this week's events. Bassam Ridah, an advisor to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told TIME: "We're not going to make a big deal of (Rumsfeld's departure). We're going to hope that his replacement benefits us. We're hoping the change will mean better execution of the plan to train Iraqi security forces to take charge of the security situation."

Others are more blunt. "If the U.S. withdraws, Iran takes over - it is as simple as that," says Dr. Mehdi al-Hafed, a prominent MP from former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular block and one of Iraq's most respected politicians. "The Americans have to ask themselves if such an outcome is acceptable to them."

The U.S. military brass in Baghdad have not yet responded to requests for comment. But a senior European commander in the Coalition forces told TIME he didn't expect a sudden change in course. "Even if there is a change of strategy, it will probably take six months to execute," he said. " This is a very big machine, and it takes time to change."

The European commander contended that, rather than the Pentagon or the White House, the main driver of a change in military strategy will be the Democratic Congress, which will have control of the purse-strings. "At the end of the day, all strategy is based on the money available," he said. "And if the Congress slows the spending on Iraq, that would force us to change things on the ground."

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The Man Who'll Replace Rummy

MICHAEL DUFFY

Bob Gates is a Bush family hand from way back. But he'll need all his skills, and lucky stones too, as he takes on the second-hardest job in Washington.

The last time presumptive Pentagon boss Robert M. Gates faced Senate confirmation — for CIA director in 1991— he put a small good luck charm in his pocket. It was a smooth, white, oblong stone he'd picked up while hiking in Washington state's Olympic range. Gates put it in his pocket to remind him during the tough confirmation hearings that there was life after Washington if his nomination went down to defeat.

Gates is likely to be confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense and he would bring to the job intimate knowledge of the White House, the Congress, the CIA and military intelligence. But he might want to dig the stone out of his belongings just in case.

Traditionally, the job of Defense Secretary goes to a person who sets a tone and policy atop the national defense structure while a deputy actually runs the building day to day. Rumsfeld tried to do both. Gates would fit the traditional pattern if he is confirmed.

The Kansas-born Gates is a Bush family hand from way back. He served Bush's father as deputy national security adviser and later as CIA director. He was a rare hardliner in the Bush 41 White House, famously suspicious of Mikhail Gorbachev and closer ideologically to then-Defense boss Dick Cheney than to Colin Powell and James Baker.

But Gates was chiefly a lifetime CIA officer, who rose quickly through the agency's Russia and Soviet ranks during the 1970s and 1980s. He was marked for higher office by Reagan CIA Director William Casey but was slowed in his rise by minor involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s, when Gates was Casey's Deputy director at the agency. That misstep cost him the chance to replace Casey during the Reagan years; Bush's father named him CIA director a few years later after the Iran-contra smoke cleared.

During Gates' second CIA confirmation hearings he was charged with cooking intelligence by CIA insiders and making it more favorable to White House policy makers; Gates rebutted the charges sufficiently to get confirmed. Many Democrats voted against him nonetheless.

After leaving government, Gates wrote a book entitled From The Shadows and became president of Texas A & M University, the home of the George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library. Recently, he was named a member of the James Baker-Lee Hamilton commission on Iraq.

Gates is an affable, soft-spoken man who can tell a good story and has a generous sense of humor. He'll need all those skills and more to run a Pentagon amid a war that few believe the U.S. is winning.

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How Rumsfeld's Resignation Is Playing in Iraq

News of the Defense Secretary's departure had relatively little impact on most Iraqis. But they're looking to the Democrats' victory to help speed a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

If Rumsfeld was an ogre for the anti-war movement in the West, in Iraq he was never anything like a bogeyman. Only a few Western-educated politicians really understand the role of a U.S. Secretary of Defense, and what power it commands. Rumsfeld's persona — that dismissive arrogance that so infuriated his critics at home — was usually lost in translation on Arabic-language TV.

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Rumsfeld's Departure Is a Mixed Blessing for Rice

ROMESH RATNESAR

The Secretary of State and the Defense Secretary were often at cross purposes. Finally rid of her nemesis, however, Secretary Rice is left to clean up on her own.

Three and a half years ago, as the U.S. prepared for war with Iraq, Condoleezza Rice went to President Bush with a complaint: Donald Rumsfeld wouldn't return her calls. At the time, Rumsfeld was the Administration's swaggering alpha male, a global celebrity whom even Bush called a "matinee idol"; Rice was the overwhelmed National Security Adviser, struggling to make herself heard above the din of colliding war-cabinet egos. "I know you won't talk to Condi," Bush told Rumsfeld, according to Bob Woodward's book State of Denial. "But you've got to talk to her."

That exchange provided hints of the feuds to come. Though both maintained the appearance of collegiality, Rice and Rumsfeld loathed each other. Throughout Woodward's book they are depicted squabbling over everything from how to handle detainees at Guantanamo Bay to whether the U.S. should guard oil pipelines in Iraq. As the war dragged on, their roles were reversed: By the end of the book it is Rumsfeld who is left to doodle in his notebook while Rice briefs reporters during a joint appearance in Baghdad. "Don's Don," Rice says, when Frank Miller, a top aide, calls Rumsfeld a bully. "We'll deal with it."

Now she has. Rumsfeld's departure means Rice has outlasted nearly all of her principal rivals within the Bush Administration; among current officials, only Vice President Dick Cheney can match Rice's influence over the President and his foreign policy. But every silver lining has a cloud. Having bemoaned, circumvented and ultimately usurped Rumsfeld's control over the U.S.'s failing Iraq policy, Rice is now the one responsible for figuring out how to clean it up.

She hasn't done much so far. In her early months as Secretary of State, Rice would sidestep questions about Iraq by stating that the presence of 150,000 troops on the ground meant it was mostly the Pentagon's problem. But that argument has become less persuasive as the violence has continued and all military options — short of a massive increase in U.S. troops — have proven ineffective in dealing with the insurgency. By now, even Bush's dog Barney knows that extricating ourselves from Iraq will require cutting some ugly political deals with an assortment of rogues, who might be willing to help stabilize Iraq in return for a piece of the country's future: Sunni Baathist rebels and Shi'ite Islamists, Iranian spooks and Arab strongmen. That, at least, is one option currently under consideration by the Iraq Study Group, the panel headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, whom Rice prodded Bush to appoint in part to clip Rumsfeld's wings.

But as America's top diplomat and the President's most trusted lieutenant, Rice can't simply stay on the sidelines. The Iraq situation demands an immediate, high-profile, region-wide push for an acceptable political settlement, followed by a U.S. withdrawal. But that won't be possible until Rice accepts that her legacy will hinge not on spreading democracy or stopping genocide or facing down Iran, but on whether she can limit the damage to U.S. power and prestige caused by the Adminstration's misadventure in Iraq. In her two years as Secretary of State, Rice's achievements have consisted mostly of projecting a more conciliatory U.S. image to the world and outflanking her rivals at home. She has pushed Bush to abandon talk of regime change and pursue diplomacy with Iran and North Korea. But those successes have more to do with process than with substance. And they have done nothing to resolve the question of whether Rice is truly willing to risk failure, and her reputation, in a concerted effort to get the U.S. out of a messy, misbegotten war. Rice no longer has to worry about whether Rumsfeld will return her calls. Now she has to come up with the answers on her own.

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Prison for Asian sex slave gang

Six men who made up a human trafficking gang that forced Malaysian women to work as prostitutes in the UK have been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The men, of Malaysian or Vietnamese nationality, were handed the jail terms at Southwark crown court after pleading guilty to trafficking women into UK for purposes of sexual exploitation and controlling prostitution for gain.

The gang coerced women into leaving the south-east Asian country with false promises of the prospect of legitimate jobs in the hotel and services industry, with one women even believing she was visiting London on a sightseeing trip.

Upon arriving in Britain their passports and return tickets were seized by a member of the gang, who then forced the women to work in one of their brothels to pay off the debt of the plane tickets.

This week's sentencing brings an end to a five-month operation by the Metropolitan police's clubs and vice unit, which successfully brought down two brothels managed by the trafficking ring, one in London and the other in Birmingham.

Thanh Hue Thi, 44, a cook living at an unnamed north London hotel, was handed a seven and a half year jail sentence after pleading guilty to both trafficking and controlling prostitution, while 50-year-old Kenny Low, a chef from Denham Street, central London, was given a five and a half year spell behind bars for the same offences.

Kwok Leong Hoh, 26, Hay Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham; Choon Fong Loh, 64, Hyde Park Road, central London; and Leng Wah Loh, 40, Holliday Street, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, were all sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to gaining from prostitution.

The sixth man sentenced, 21-year-old student Godfrey Wong from Rough Hill Drive, Rowley Regis, Birmingham, was handed a 12-month sentence for the same offence.

Following the Met's raids upon the brothels on May 10th of this year, 21 women were rescued, although officers estimate that hundreds of women had been abused in this way before returning home to Malaysia.

Women in either of the brothels in Hyde Park Street; and Hay Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham were forced to work for 12 hours starting at 18:00 GMT everyday and were not allowed outside when not accompanied by a member of the gang.

Police estimate that the six gang members made more than £2 million a year from the brothels, which helped them to lead a "lavish lifestyle", including the shared used of an upmarket property in St Johns Wood, central London.

Speaking after sentencing today, Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson said: "The women that we were able to rescue were only the tip of the iceberg. This criminal gang trafficked hundreds of Malaysian women into the UK many of whom will have believed they were going to work in legitimate professions but found themselves forced and coerced into working in brothels.

"Rather than leaving the UK with the money they had hoped to earn they have returned home abused and mentally scarred."

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Nine women arrested for alleged involvement in prostitution

Nina Muslim

Nine Filipinas have been arrested for alleged involvement in prostitution, following a police complaint filed by Philippine authorities on behalf of three women, who had been tricked into prostitution.

The Philippine Consulate General said the nine, most of them believed to be prostitutes, were arrested at their villa in Rigga on October 30.

Rafael Palencia, assistance to nationals officer at the Philippine Consulate General in Dubai, told Gulf News that the police acted on a complaint filed by the consulate and three women, who had come to the consulate seeking help after escaping their pimps on October 20.

"We are fed up with these pimps and requested the police to take action. Credit should go to the police for their quick action," he said.

"This is a breakthrough and will serve as warning that we will coordinate with authorities."

The consulate has received more than 30 cases since it opened its doors last year.

Palencia said this was the first time the consulate directly informed the police on prostitution cases involving their citizens.

He said the consulate did not take direct action previously. Some of the victims were reluctant to press charges or were "willing victims".

He said consulate officials would discuss the arrests and whether to pursue their own charges against the women if and when they were deported to the Philippines.

The Philippines have stringent anti-human trafficking laws, with penalties ranging from a lengthy jail sentence to death depending on the severity of the charges.

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Two Indian women escape after being forced into prostitution in Dubai

Two Indian women, who were allegedly forced into prostitution in Sharjah, have escaped from the clutches of their captors.

The women, aged 31 and 32, made their getaway yesterday from a flat where they were locked up, and have been brought to the Indian consulate in Dubai. They had come to the UAE on September 10 after being offered jobs as cleaners by an agent in Kerala.

One of them was quoted by gulf news as saying that they were forced to work for long hours.

"I have three children back home and I came here to work as a cleaner. I have not been paid at all. I am also scared ... What if I have contracted some disease," she said.

The woman said the news of her father's death forced her to revolt against the 'agents'. When they refused to entertain any more men, they were both locked up in the flat as punishment.

"For the first couple of the days the agents' men came with food, but later their visits stopped. Left alone, we planned our escape. We came across a screwdriver... Slowly we unscrewed the lock and got out of the flat early in the morning," said the woman.

K A Mathews, president of the Indian Association Sharjah, said he was in touch with the department of Non-Resident Indian Affairs in Kerala as well as the Indian Minister for Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi and had given details about the two women.

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Today in history - Nov. 9

The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2006. There are 52 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 9, 1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as a series of power failures lasting up to 13.5 hours left 30 million people in seven states and two Canadian provinces without electricity.

On this date:

In 1872, fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boston.

In 1918, it was announced that Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.

In 1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization (later Congress of Industrial Organizations).

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."

In 1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.

In 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash.

In 1967, a Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a successful test flight.

In 1976, the U.N. General Assembly approved 10 resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as "illegitimate."

In 1986, Israel revealed it was holding Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who'd vanished after providing information to a British newspaper about Israel's nuclear weapons program. (Vanunu was convicted of treason and served 18 years in prison.)

In 1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.

Ten years ago: President Clinton used his weekly radio address to condemn the decision of the nation's distillers to end their voluntary ban on airing hard-liquor ads, calling it "simply irresponsible." Evander Holyfield upset Mike Tyson to win the WBA heavyweight title in an 11-round fight in Las Vegas.

Five years ago: The northern alliance proclaimed victory over the Taliban in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the most significant prize in northern Afghanistan.

One year ago: Three suicide bombers carried out nearly simultaneous attacks on three U.S.-based hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing 60 victims, and wounding hundreds. Oil executives testified before Congress that their huge profits were justified, but got a skeptical reaction from lawmakers. Carolina's Erik Cole became the first player in NHL history to be awarded two penalty shots in one game. (Cole scored on the first, helping the Hurricanes defeat Buffalo 5-3.)

Today's Birthdays: Sportscaster Charlie Jones is 76. Baseball executive Whitey Herzog is 75. Former Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., is 70. Singer Mary Travers is 70. Actor Charlie Robinson ("Night Court") is 61. Movie director Bille August is 58. Actor Robert David Hall ("CSI") is 58. Actor Lou Ferrigno is 54. Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 47. Rock musician Dee Plakas (L7) is 46. Rapper Pepa (Salt-N-Pepa) is 37. Rapper Scarface (Geto Boys) is 37. Blues singer Susan Tedeschi is 36. Actor Eric Dane is 34. Singer Nick Lachey (98 Degrees) is 33. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 28.

Thought for Today: "Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it." — Robert Frost, American poet (1874-1963).

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How to Stage a Coup, American-Style

Libertarian activists are moving to a state where they'll have maximum clout.

If Ron Helwig can join the revolution, then so can you. All you have to do is believe, as Helwig does, that the government has gone way too far in regulating your personal life, taxing your income and invading your privacy. And, of course, you have to move to New Hampshire.

That's exactly what the affable computer programmer from Minnesota did this year. He's a new member of the Free State Project, a group of like-minded libertarians from around the U.S. whose goal is to come together in the tiny New England state in sufficient numbers to create a libertarian showroom for the rest of the country.

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How to Stage a Coup, American-Style

NATHAN THORNBURGH

Libertarian activists are moving to a state where they'll have maximum clout.

If Ron Helwig can join the revolution, then so can you. All you have to do is believe, as Helwig does, that the government has gone way too far in regulating your personal life, taxing your income and invading your privacy. And, of course, you have to move to New Hampshire.

That's exactly what the affable computer programmer from Minnesota did this year. He's a new member of the Free State Project, a group of like-minded libertarians from around the U.S. whose goal is to come together in the tiny New England state in sufficient numbers to create a libertarian showroom for the rest of the country.

The Free State idea was the brainchild five years ago of Jason Sorens, then a grad student in political science at Yale. Card-carrying libertarians make up just under 1% of voters around the country, a number that has made them achingly irrelevant in national politics. Sorens argued in online forums and later at political events that if 20,000 libertarians would move to the same small state, they would no longer be in the electoral wilderness. They could finally make a difference and show the rest of America what real liberty looks like--the kind where you don't have to wear seat belts or register your guns and nobody passes laws about what the neighbors can do in their bedroom.

By 2003 thousands had agreed in principle to make the move once a total of 20,000 had signed on. They settled on New Hampshire as their destination. The state's motto, after all, is LIVE FREE OR DIE, and its low taxes and high regard for minding your own damn business proved irresistible. Republican officials were delighted. "Come on up," Craig Benson, the Governor at the time, told them. "We'd love to have you."

At a recent Free State Project meet-and-greet in Deerfield thrown by Helwig and his two housemates, also Minnesotan émigrés, it was clear that 20,000 is an ambitious goal. No more than a few dozen movement members from around the state showed up for the beer and pizza. In all, fewer than 200 have moved to New Hampshire in the past three years. "Getting libertarians to do anything together is like herding cats," groused a partygoer.

It would be wrong to write off the Free Staters entirely, though. Those who have moved have been putting on a display of rambunctious, representative democracy. Some prefer civil disobedience and street demonstrations: one was recently arrested at a local IRS office handing out pamphlets that said, "Hitler had a revenue service too." Although the Free State Project doesn't endorse political candidates, some members have been making competitive runs for local office, including some staunch home-schooling advocates who have been elected to local school boards. With one state legislator for every 3,000 or so citizens (the best ratio of any state), New Hampshire has a proud tradition of hyper-representative government, but as in the rest of the country, many of its citizens are apathetic about politics. By simply showing up and speaking out at public meetings, the Free Staters are filling the participatory void. They helped block a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants and joined forces with elements of the two main parties to pressure the statehouse to vote down a pilot program for a national ID card.

If the Republican establishment was expecting the movement to deliver loyal conservative voters, the libertarians--who want to lift controls on both guns and narcotics--are proving more complicated creatures. Cathleen Converse used to be a by-the-book conservative in South Carolina. But she says that the free-spending, prying Bush Administration sped up her defection from the G.O.P. and eventually brought her husband and her to the Free State Project. "As Republicans showed their true colors," she says, "we had to choose the side of liberty." She adds, "Back home, most of the people thought we were crazy. But here, when you talk about real freedom, people actually nod their heads."

Moving to New Hampshire has given Helwig a new faith in politics. "Democracy isn't really ruled by the majority," he says. "It's ruled by the vocal minority." With more Free Staters driving their U-Hauls north each month, the vocal minority may slowly be growing a little louder.

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Britney and K-Fed: Fun While It Lasted

The pregnancies, the reality show, the parenting lessons - their marriage is over, but we'll always have the memories.

Kevin Federline, A.K.A. Mr. Britney Spears, is exiting stage left. And... cue applause. After two years of Cheeto-fueled, paparazzi-dogged, chronically underdressed wedlock, Spears has filed for divorce from her background dancer/rapper husband, citing "irreconcilable differences."

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Britney and K-Fed: Fun While It Lasted

REBECCA WINTERS KEEGAN

The pregnancies, the reality show, the parenting lessons - their marriage is over, but we'll always have the memories.

Kevin Federline, A.K.A. Mr. Britney Spears, is exiting stage left. And... cue applause. After two years of Cheeto-fueled, paparazzi-dogged, chronically underdressed wedlock, Spears has filed for divorce from her background dancer/rapper husband, citing "irreconcilable differences."

Court papers filed Nov. 7 in Los Angeles list the date of the couple's separation as Nov. 6. Spears, 24, hardly seemed despondent on that day, showing off a newly slim figure and chic blonde bob during a surprise appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in New York City. Federline, 28, was also in town, promoting his debut album, Playing With Fire, and surprisingly reflective single, America's Most Hated. Spears has requested custody of the couple's two sons, one-year old Sean Preston and two-month old Jayden James, with visitation rights for Federline. The couple signed a pre-nuptial agreement (thanks, Mama Spears!), and so divvying up the singer's bubble-gum-pop millions should not be an issue.

The pairing of the midriff-baring star and white-undershirt-and-stubble-clad dancer began in 2004 with all the hallmarks of a relationship meant to last just until Federline's first album release party. Spears and K-Fed, as he was dubbed, started dating months after she annulled a quickie Las Vegas wedding to childhood friend Jason Alexander and before Federline's ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson gave birth to his second child. At Spears and Federline's September 2004 wedding, the groom gave his attendants white tracksuits with the word "Pimp" written on the back, and revelers dined on chicken wings. The newlyweds shared home videos of their courtship on a reality show, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. Spears talked in often icky detail about her sex life to reporters and was frequently photographed barefoot in public. Before long, she was pregnant, too.

The young mom soon grew tired of the media attention, however, when it seemed to focus on her parenting ineptitude — driving with baby on lap, tripping with child in hand — and her husband's single-guy-style partying. Federline seemed to spend more time on apparently unproductive pursuits, like hanging out in Las Vegas, serving as the celebrity advocate for the preservation of the penny and challenging the occasional rival to a nightclub dance-off. In an interview with Dateline in June, belly full with her second child, Spears told Matt Lauer, "I feel like I'm a target." When asked if she thought people were rooting against her marriage, the weepy mother said, "If they are that's sad. I think everybody should be 'pro love.'"

Pro love or no, Spears will be joining a growing group of powerful celebrity women who have recently split from their less successful husbands, including Reese Witherspoon (from Ryan Phillippe) and Hilary Swank (from Chad Lowe). Federline, meanwhile, has plans to write an autobiography. Something tells us the last chapter will be the one worth reading.

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Time's Invention Of The Year 2006

Traveling First Class

A sexy hybrid, a solar powered catamaran and a submarine for two are a few new ways to get around land or sea

Home Sweet Home

A floating bed, a manpowered snow plow and a gadget to find those gloves (or anything else) you misplace

The Future of Food

A kinder way to kill a lobster and other gastronomic marvels that will change the way you cook - and eat

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Today in history - Nov. 8

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 8, the 312th day of 2006. There are 53 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

On this date:

In 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a college exclusively for women, opened in South Hadley, Mass.

In 1889, Montana became the 41st state.

In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.

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Today in history - Nov. 8

The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 8, the 312th day of 2006. There are 53 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler launched his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

On this date:

In 1837, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a college exclusively for women, opened in South Hadley, Mass.

In 1889, Montana became the 41st state.

In 1932, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover for the presidency.

In 1933, President Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.

In 1942, Operation Torch began during World War II as U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa.

In 1960, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the presidency.

In 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California.

In 1966, Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first black to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.

In 1986, former Soviet official Vyacheslav M. Molotov, whose name became attached to the incendiary bottle bomb known as a "Molotov Cocktail," died at age 96.

In 1988, Vice President George Bush won the presidential election, defeating Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

Ten years ago: Three days after his re-election, President Clinton said at a news conference that there always are "a lot of hard feelings" after elections, but he urged Republicans to put aside politically charged investigations and work with him to balance the budget and enact campaign finance reform.

Five years ago: In a prime-time address, President Bush called on Americans to defy acts of terror by strengthening their communities, comforting their neighbors and remaining vigilant in the face of further threats. U.S. jets struck Taliban targets across northern Afghanistan and fierce fighting was reported around the Taliban-held city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Tropical Storm Lingling continued to batter the Philippines; the storm left more than 200 dead.

One year ago: French President Jacques Chirac declared a 12-day state of emergency to halt France's worst civil unrest in nearly four decades. Gunmen assassinated a second lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial in Baghdad. At Campbell County Comprehensive High School in Tennessee, Assistant Principal Kent Bruce was shot and killed and two other administrators seriously wounded; a student, Kenneth Bartley, has been charged. Bartolo Colon won the American League Cy Young Award.

Today's Birthdays: Actress June Havoc is 94. Actor Norman Lloyd is 92. Jazz singer Chris Connor is 79. Singer Patti Page is 79. CBS newsman Morley Safer is 75. Singer-actress Bonnie Bramlett is 62. Singer Bonnie Raitt is 57. TV personality Mary Hart is 56. Playboy Enterprises chairman and chief executive Christie Hefner is 54. Actress Alfre Woodard is 53. Singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones is 52. Rock musician Porl Thompson (The Cure) is 49. Singer-actor Leif Garrett is 45. Actress Courtney Thorne-Smith is 39. Actress Parker Posey is 38. Rock musician Jimmy Chaney is 37. Actress Roxana Zal is 37. Singer Diana King is 36. Actress Gretchen Mol is 33. Actress Tara Reid is 31. Actress Azura Skye is 25. Actor Chris Rankin is 23. TV personality Jack Osbourne ("The Osbournes") is 21.

Thought for Today: "There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book." — Carson McCullers, American author (1917-1967).

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