Today's news (abstracts)

Ancient penguins waddled, swam in warm locales (C)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Penguins were waddling and swimming in warm locales tens of millions of years earlier than previously thought, according to scientists who described on Monday fossils of two previously unknown types found in Peru.

Cars, not war, may finally topple Afghan minarets (C)
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - They survived three decades of war but risk being toppled by road traffic -- the last five mediaeval minarets of Herat are being slowly shaken to dust.

Driver comes a cropper in police chase

The Making of an American Soldier: Why Young People Join the Military

AIDS Among U.S. Women Is on the Rise
Reported diagnoses of HIV-AIDS rose 17 percent among U.S. women from 2001 to 2005, and the virus is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34. Here's why and what we can do about it.

ALBANIA: Tourism Brings Environmental Challenge
TIRANA, Albania, Jun 25 (IPS) - It was not so long ago that Albania, a tiny nation of 3.1 million in the western Balkans remained off route for hundreds of thousands of tourists who rushed to the Adriatic coast for their summer vacations.