They dress in everything from miniskirts to medieval mantles. They do everything from classroom teaching to police work. One has a job with Cesar Chavez, another with Ralph Nader. There is a deputy attorney general and an Air Force lieutenant. They live in inner-city slums, in posh suburbs, on farms, even in the desert. They come singly, by the dozen and in battalions. They are the new American nuns who, in the decade since the Second Vatican Council first provided ...

ITEM: At a dinner party in New York's Westchester County, the dessert includes grapes. The hostess notices that her fellow suburbanites fall to with gusto; the guests from Manhattan unanimously abstain. ITEM: At St. Paul's, a fashionable New Hampshire prep school, grapes are the only part of the meal invariably left untouched. ITEM: In San Francisco, a Safeway official observes: "We have customers who come to the store for no other reason than to buy grapes. They'll load ...

Venezuelan authorities have captured two Colombian spies, says President Hugo Chavez, who also accuses the United States of being behind efforts to destabilize his leftist government.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Thursday demanded that his ministers of the interior and defense get to the bottom of how a jailed top rebel leader escaped in the northeastern city of Arauca, Colombia. Gustavo Anibal Giraldo Quinchia, also known by his alias, "Pablito," was freed Wednesday morning when a group of gunmen presumed to be rebels attacked a convoy transporting the prisoner to a court hearing. One guard was killed and another was injured in the incident. Giraldo is ...

A day after the Libyan and Iranian leaders lit up the U.N. General Assembly floor with sharp critiques, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fiery speaker in his own right, is next up on the world stage. Chavez, one of a long line of world leaders scheduled to address the assembly Thursday, is scheduled to be the first speaker in the assembly's afternoon session. The leftist and populist Venezuelan leader -- whose friendship with the Iranian regime and Cuba has spurred ...

A rare meeting of U.N. Security Council heads of state, led for the first time by a U.S. president, adopted a resolution Thursday focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. President Obama challenged the gathering, which included leaders of nuclear powers including Russia, China, Great Britain and France, to overcome cynicism against the goal of ridding the planet of nuclear arms. "We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding ...

Drawing on 2006 remarks in which he compared former U.S. President George Bush to the devil, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, speaking at the United Nations Thursday, said, "It doesn't smell like sulfur anymore." In a rambling speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez spoke highly of current President Obama, saying he is an "intelligent man" and comparing him to President John F. Kennedy. "I hope God will protect Obama from the bullets that killed Kennedy," he said. "I hope Obama ...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed a deeply personal side in an interview Thursday night, saying he loves Jesus Christ and would have liked to play Major League baseball in Yankee Stadium. He also expressed a fondness for American people and culture, saying he likes the movie actor Charles Bronson and the poet Walt Whitman. He loves to sing, he said, though he does not do it well. And Chavez had kind words for the U.S. security detail protecting him during ...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he was interested in working with Russia to develop a civilian nuclear power program. His statement at a televised political rally in Caracas, Venezuela, followed a trip to Russia, where he met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. "We certainly are interested in developing nuclear energy, for peaceful ends of course -- for medical purposes and to generate electricity," Chavez said, noting that Brazil and Argentina have such programs. ...

The United States fears recent weapons purchases by Venezuela could fuel an arms race in South America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday. "They outpace all other countries in South America and certainly raise the question as to whether there is going to be an arms race in the region," Clinton said about Venezuela's arms deals, after a meeting with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez. The Russian government Monday extended $2.2 billion in credit to Venezuela to finance arms purchases, ...