Latest floating "foot" turns out to be a hoax: Authorities revealed Thursday that the sixth foot to wash up on the shores of British Columbia is not human. Someone used a skeletal animal foot and lower leg surrounded by seaweed to stuff a sneaker and appear to be a severed human foot.

Full story: CNN.com

Teen girls reportedly make pregnancy pact: This pact is at least partly responsible for the sudden increase in pregnancies at Gloucester High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Normally there are four pregnancies at the school per year and this past school year there were 17 girls pregnant. Suspicions were roused when more girls reacted negatively to not being pregnant or gave high fives when they learned they were expecting.

Full story: CNN.com

A wide-open battle for power in Darfur: Five years have passed since the government led violence against civilians began and now it has taken a dramatic turn.

Groups of militia, warlords, rebels and everybody with an AK-47 are fighting for money, land and trucks in an effort to gain power. The original goal of liberating the Darfurians has almost been forgotten.

Full story: MSNBC.com

After pledging not to gamble, Barkley to play poker for charity: About a month after vowing not to gamble, Charles Barkley is headed back to Las Vegas for a good cause. He will play in the "Ante Up for Africa" event in the 2008 World Series of Poker on July 2. All proceeds will be used for aid in the Darfur crisis.

Full story: ESPN.com

Zimbabwe: Harare mayor's wife 'bludgeoned to death': Abigail Chiroto was found in a mortuary near her home after being kidnapped and beaten to death. Her face was almost unrecognizable. Four other activists against President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party were also killed. Chiroto's four-year-old son was kidnapped with his mother, but was released unharmed.

Full story: CNN.com

Iowa flooding could be man's fault, experts say: Kamyar Enshayan, a college professor and Cedar Falls City Council member, thinks that the drastically altered landscape is to blame. Streams have been straightened out or rerouted, wetlands and flood plains have been filled in and the tall grasses have been replaced with plowed fields. All of these changes have left nature little choice about where excess water can go.

Full story: MSNBC.com

Amnesty seeks 'missing' Tibetans: Amnesty International says that more than 1,000 Tibetans who were detained during protests in March are unaccounted for. The demonstrations against the Chinese government disrupted the Olympic torch relay, which is now supposed to enter Tibetan areas. Amnesty officials hope that this leg of the relay will illuminate the plight of the Tibetans.

Full story: BBC.com

Haney: Tiger predicted U.S. Open victory despite two leg fractures: Woods told his doctor that he would play in and win the U.S. Open two weeks before the event, Tiger Woods' swing coach, Hank Haney, said Wednesday. Woods reportedly said this just after the doctor recommended three weeks of crutches and three more weeks of inactivity. Woods suffered the stress fractures from rehabilitation after his last knee surgery.

Full story: ESPN.com

By Al Gore

So the chatty Cathys on the Internet are poo-pooing my endorsement of Obama. Listen up, Blogosphere, I made you and I can destroy you! How'd ya like it if I stuck my carbon footprint up your ass?

Listen, people, this was a tough decision. I had to ask, “Who’s better for the environment?” Obama, with his native roots, knows how to worship nature like a good pagan. But I hear that Hillary’s pant suits are soy-based and tailored to spontaneously bio-degrade with a teaspoon of crocodile tears.

Furthermore, I was impressed with Obama’s proposal to gather the world’s grandmothers and knit a net of hope around the polar ice cap. However, Hillary’s response gave me pause. She pointed out that rising temperatures would burn right through hope, and after eight years in the White House, she knows all about smoking poles (and cracking down on Hummers).

In the end, I was torn between Obama’s ghetto groove and Hillary’s ghetto booty. So, I went with Obama in order to acquire a cabinet position in line with my qualifications and goals: Secretary of Bringing in Da Funk.

News Groper features more than 50 parody blogs by politicians, celebrities, business tycoons, and foreign despots.

Israel calls for Lebanese peace talks: Israel and Gaza's Hamas leaders have agreed to a truce that begins Thursday morning at 6 a.m. and is set to last for six months. Peace talks are planned, but for any truce to be successful for the Israelis, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Gaza militants in June 2006, would have to be released.

Full story: CNN.com

Bush to urge lifting of ban on offshore drilling: White House press secretary Dana Perino reported Tuesday that President Bush is set to ask Congress today to lift the ban on new offshore drilling. It is an effort to increase domestic oil supply for the U.S., but opponents are worried that aquatic ecosystems will be destroyed.

Full story: MSNBC.com

Woman soldier among Afghan dead: A female soldier was the first female UK soldier to die in Afghanistan. She was in a military vehicle that was caught in an explosion and three other soldiers died. Nine UK soldiers have died in the past 10 days.

Full story: BBC.com

Walker remains hospitalized Tuesday after robbery, beating: Javon Walker, Oakland Raiders' wide receiver, suffered a concussion and facial injuries after being robbed on a Las Vegas street early Monday morning. The thief got away with $3,000 in cash as well as $100,000 in jewelry.

Full story: ESPN.com

Today, Rhino Records is releasing an album by the formerly multi-platinum-titanium-zirconium-mega-hotshit band Chicago, recorded in 1993. The big news is that there are apparently a lot of people who are excited to get their hands on new Chicago material from 15 years ago. What are these people thinking? Do we really need a reprise of trite "soft rock" ballads punctuated by cheesy, simplistic horn riffs? You know what I mean -- the kind of music Chicago made a fortune from. Unless you're a rock history buff, or you're as old as, well, me, you may find this hard to believe, but when their first album was released, the band was considered a new and exciting, avant-garde-ish group of rock innovators. They were so hip, Jimi Hendrix asked them to open for him on tour in 1969. I saw a show from that tour in what is now Cricket Arena, and sure enough, the hot new band from Chicago was hell on wheels, all wild, atonal guitar improvisations matched by sharp, complex horn arrangements and lefty politics. Nobody had seen anything like it before. After two albums, though, as an old friend succinctly and pithily phrased it, "they went to shit," churning out watered-down dreck that turned Chicago into a bad, albeit multi-platinum-titanium, etc., musical joke. The irony today is that the "new" album, Stone of Sisyphus, is ostensibly a return to a sound more reminiscent of the band's early work. If that's true, I guess that's good. But there's also such a thing as being a day late and a dollar short, or in this case, about, ohh, 38 years late.

Police: Father believed to have beaten tot: The man who was shot and killed by police in order to stop him from beating a small child has been identified and is possibly the child's father. Sergio Casian Aguilar stopped his truck on the side of a rural highway and several motorists witnessed him punching, kicking and stomping the small boy to death. The boy was so unrecognizable that DNA tests will have to confirm his identity.

Full story: CNN.com

AmeriCorps helps river town take a stand: Volunteers with AmeriCorps have responded to Clarksville, Mo. to help the small town prepare for the storm runoff from flooded Northern states. AmeriCorps was created in 1993 by President Clinton as a national service program that helps with domestic problems from literacy to disaster relief.

Full story: MSNBC.com

Health officials continue salmonella probe: More than 200 people in 23 states have become sick from tomatoes that were tainted with salmonella. The investigation into the cause is underway with a cluster of nine cases from a single source being the best lead so far. The best news for tomato lovers: the FDA has released a list of areas where eating tomatoes is safe again.

Full story: CNN.com

A Torrey story: Woods's win was greatest U.S. Open ever: After 91 holes that included an 18-hole playoff and a sudden death hole, Tiger Woods won his third U.S. Open. Rocco Mediate gave Woods a run for his money in Mediate's attempt to be the oldest player to win the U.S. Open. Both had injuries to combat and awesome shots to tie them up on the 18th hole two days in a row.

Full story: ESPN.com