11 a.m. MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Adirisaq Khalid Ahmed was shining shoes in Mogadishu's labyrinthine marketplace when a soldier from the country's Islamic movement approached, asking him to join up.

12 p.m. SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking on just about every major interest group in California in his audacious effort to bring universal health care to the nation’s biggest state: unions, small business, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, conservatives.

WASHINGTON — The statistics tell a sorry tale about the public schools in America’s capital.

MADISON, Wis. — The Department of Veterans Affairs’ increasing use of religion in treating ailing veterans does not violate the separation of church and state, a federal judge has ruled.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Thomas Kelly embraces life, having survived two bouts with cancer. But when the end comes, the retired nurse is leaving nothing to chance.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Major Ndaba dons his wild cat skin hat, stands by his “lucky charm” baboon skeleton and poses for the cameras of visitors intent on experiencing a South Africa far removed from game reserves and glistening beaches.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House Thursday passed a bill bolstering embryonic stem cell research that advocates say shows promise for numerous medical cures.

ATLANTA — More than 1,500 toddlers and babies wound up in emergency rooms over a two-year period and three died because of bad reactions to cold or cough medicine, federal health officials reported Thursday.

LOS ANGELES — An environmental law group sued Southern California Gas Co. on Thursday, claiming cancer-causing chemicals were leaking from an underground reservoir and polluting groundwater in Playa del Rey.

WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans aren’t following the adage: Prevention is the best medicine.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s conservative President Felipe Calderon kicked off a health insurance program to cover all infants born under his administration on Monday, answering leftist critics that his government only looks after the rich.

ROME — Expired drugs, unlicensed nurses, stray cats and scuttling rats were among the horrors that emerged from police inspections of Italian hospitals that recommended possible investigations against more than 100 people, health officials said Thursday.

GUANTANAMO, Cuba  — Cindy Sheehan marched with the mothers of a Guantanamo prisoner, a New York firefighter killed on 9/11 and other peace activists Thursday to demand the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay be closed five years after the first terrorist suspects arrived.

WASHINGTON — Procrastination in society is getting worse and scientists are finally getting around to figuring out how and why. Too many tempting diversions are to blame, but more on that later.

WASHINGTON — Seventy percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq, according to a new poll that provides a devastatingly blunt response to President Bush’s plan to bolster military forces there.

SAN FRANCISCO — A mysterious San Francisco company has launched an equally mysterious product aimed at coffee drinkers seeking an extra boost. The company and the product share the same name — Meth Coffee.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq ran into a wall of criticism on Capitol Hill on Thursday as administration officials drew confrontational, sometimes mocking challenges from both Democrats and Republicans.

INDIANAPOLIS — A man shot and wounded four co-workers Thursday at a factory that employs disabled people, telling police he did it “over respect,” authorities said.